#desultory typing

[kirbyoctournament]

Hello again all! After the riveting finale of last year's tournament, we've spent a few months collecting a selection of fun stats into our final 2024 Tournament Review!

From which participant had the most propaganda posted, to the total number of votes cast across the event, to which canon Kirby species was most represented, we hope you'll enjoy this send-off for the 2024 tourney!!

. · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ . . · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ .

★ POLLS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF VOTES a selection of the highest performing polls that attracted the most public attention

Mama D vs J: 848 votes

★ Dawn vs Starry Dee: 749 votes ★ Fylass vs Clark: 741 votes ★ Astro vs Noir Fontaine vs Techie: 592 votes ★ Sir Meteor vs Life: 554 votes

★ CHARACTERS WITH THE MOST PROPAGANDA characters who had the most propaganda posts for them, either from their own creator or from other artists

Fecto Flora 155 posts

★ Valfrey 112 posts ★ Sir Uther 108 posts ★ Noir Fontaine 98 posts ★ Dotty 95 posts

After applications closed at the end of April, the tournament ran from May 10th, 2024 to October 28th, 2024, just a few days shy of six months! During this time...

★ 143 competitors joined the tournament and made friends ★ 1,813 Propaganda posts were made by the community supporting those competitors, and reblogged to the @kirbyoctournament blog ★ 202 polls were made pitting your favorites against each other ★ across those polls, 43,165 votes were cast ★ and of all these, winners starstruck dee and Rope MF received 1179 votes and 699 votes respectively over the course of the event

★ RANDOM STATS

★ 36% (52) of entered OCs were of the "orb" species, with 33 of those taking up the mantle of "knight" specifically. far and away the most represented species ★ Waddle dees were the next most common entrant, with 17 OCs. ★ Ripple Fairies were the least showcased non common-enemy/custom species type, with only a single representative! ★ Of all OC names, "S" was the most common initial at 16 OCs, a statistic we do feel is influenced by the frequency of "sir" before names. Removing those, it was the letter "A", with 13. ★ The least successful initial was the letter "J", with all but one of their 4 representatives (75%) falling in the first round.

★ PROPAGANDA WITH THE MOST CHARACTERS INCLUDED most tournament characters included in a single piece (or single series) of propaganda

★ Tournament OCs Part One and Part Two by @ivynajspyder with a total of 60 competitors

★ 55 competitors Havent You Noticed I'm A Star? by @giantchasm ★ 29 competitors and 2 non competitors (total 31 characters) Congrats To Fecto Flora! by @ceoofmetagala ★ And an honorable mention with 13 competitors and 15 non competitors (total 28 characters), Stargate Commemorative Piece, by @moonverc3x

During the tournament, creators and fans of all kinds arrived to showcase their best skills in support of their own ocs, their friends, and even brand new favorite characters they had found. While it's of course impossible to pick just one stand out piece -and we strongly recommend you check our full propaganda tag to see many more of these incredible works- here are some notable and unique highlights suggested by the Kirby OC Tourney community!

★ Propaganda Hijack; Music cover by @boa35 ★ Vote Dotty; by @cauliarty ★ Vote Flora; by @metagalacafe ★ Valfrey icon; by @gethoce ★ Friendly Talk; by @sacrificecage

★ Dont Stop Rope MF Now; Animated music video by @mint-termsandconditions ★ Just another Astral; by @aseuki ★ Tea Time; by @quanblovk ★ Nighty Knight Mod; by @windstriker427 ★ Tournament armours; by @rosiegardenlove

★ Havent You Noticed I'm A Star; Animated music video by @giantchasm ★ Motifs and Symbols; by @kirbybecomesastarwarrior ★ Surprise propaganda; by @poppybros-jr ★ Go Life!; by @shippyo ★ Not In The Lead; by @hnm-tech-support

★ Noir's Field Trip; Masterpost of art, comics and asks by @desultory-novice ★ Space battle; by @pinkestmenace ★ Only In Passing; by @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me ★ Wolfbell's Illustrated Roleplays; by @zombiecicada ★ Not Over yet; by @a-stardusted-sky

. · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ . . · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ .

And with this, we officially conclude the 2024 Kirby OC Tournament event!

Over the next few days we will reblog a few final propaganda posts we received notifications for since October. We also have a new pinned post with an FAQ regarding the tournament and when things may be picked up next!

Thank you for coming along on the ride with us, for sharing your creativity and supporting OCs, and for helping us to make this into a wonderful and enriching community event!

See you around!

[etirabys]

watched an episode of black sails containing a sex scene so desultory that as a pervert I was disgusted. where is the care. the sensuality. the actress took a perfectly good repressed priest type character who was YEARNIMG FOR HER, body slammed him against a wall, and started rotating on his dick. escalating from clothed to piv in literally like 15 seconds, with all the eroticism of a bottom quartile thoughtfulness teenage boy. this is anti sex propaganda. this is why the zoomers won't fuck

[calmmyfears]

hiii, i was tagged by @surrender2022 💕 thank you for still tagging me even though i still haven't done the last one you tagged me in 🥰

Last song? Vertigo by Griff

fav colour? pink + yellow + green (soft tones)

Last tv show? Buffy the vampire slayer

Last movie? Lyla

Last book? can't remember :(

Fav flavor? warm apples & cinnamon

Tea or cofee? COFFEEEE

Relationship status? lost all hope on ever having any type of relationship

Last thing i googled: a second hand thrift shop i'm thinking of donating clothes to

Looking forward to: seeing my cat, Toulouse, by the end of this week!

Current obsession: my last obsession was Severance, haven't found a new one yet!

i'm tagging @desultory-suggestions @littlepoetess @littlevnavy @stillwritingpagez @loversmore @anarchistabsol @borzoi-gf @neverbeforeandneversince @chiara-swiftiedreamer13 💞

[yandere-yearnings]

do u have any writing tips dar??? Ur stories are immaculate

nonnie?? that's so sweet of you to say, thank you😭🩷 in general, a lot comes to mind bc there's so many different components to writing (i.e dialogue, characterisation, structure,, even mindset!!) so if you want to hear abt anything specific pls lmk🥺 for now tho, i've summarised a few across the subject that i think are helpful, and they will be below the cut bc i'm shit at explaining things, so i ended up writing a lot hhh

i also wanna point out that these are just things that i've personally made note of over the years from my own experiences + being friends w/ other writers, but that doesn't mean they will apply to everyone!! more than anything, i always believe that you shouldn't let other ppl dictate how you do and enjoy things, so if smth works for you and you like it, there's nothing wrong w/ that even if it contradicts an opinion you got from some rando on the internet (a.k.a. me😔💔)

Know your game

I'd like to say that in writing, there's a vein of liberty that isn't echoed in very many other creative fields; a lot of the times you can go in blind, and still make something of it because the nature of fiction is liquid — if you can imagine it, it can work. So to say, I find that nine times out of ten, room for improvement doesn't necessarily lie in the content of someone's writing, and more so its execution.

You could play a desultory game of chess without knowing all the rules, but if you wanted it to be your best match, you'd have to be aware of every move you could make, no? What you do from there then becomes a matter of choice, and choice is a landmark divider between doing something and being good at doing something. There's a difference in omissions due to lacking the technical knowledge, and omissions made because you are aware they are optimal.

Knowledge on the fundamentals of literature will always serve you, and that isn't to say you have to study all forms and contexts, but if you want to write a story, for example, it will always help to know the common elements of one. Grammar, punctuation, structure — brushing up on those things will build your toolkit, and once you've got that, you have the self-autonomy to decide what to use from it. My three favourite writers only use commas and full stops, and their works are, on all levels, spectacular. Still, if you asked them how to use a semi-colon, they'd be able to tell you.

Appreciating the basics will also tie into your creative exploration as a writer, which is a cornerstone in developing your distinctive writing style. I doubt a person in any type of craft hasn't heard a variation of know the rules before you break them, so studying until you do, inside out, remains beneficial to both new and old writers alike.

2. Have a starting point

This tip is fairly applicable to a range of different types of writing, and how one would practice it depends strongly on individual preference and styles of working. Some people like to plan things out thoroughly whilst others, including myself, like to dive in headfirst, and there's nothing wrong with either approach. The commonality between both types of writer is that regardless, they will have at least a vague idea of where to start from — a scene that they've bullet-pointed prior, a lyric that resonated with them, a mental image, an emotion or even just a single word that everything branches from. What all these details achieve is writing that has motion, because you have something of substance to piggyback you to an end point (the establishment of which is also important, but I will not be covering in this post).

3. Decide a structure

Again, this can be done both comprehensively or as simply as just having the thought to adhere to a certain method. As you gain more experience as a writer, you'll begin to understand what works best for you and create a system of your own, but starting out, there are a number of templates that have already been established by writers that you can follow, and find by researching. What matters most is that by using one — whichever it may be — you're turning your text into a story.

As an example, I'll detail two that I use regularly, in their simplest forms for the sake of brevity:

A linear narrative moves from point A to point B, and from point B to point C, etc. and all subsequent points build on the previous ones until your goal is reached. It's a system that works well for shorter pieces because it has a definite structure, like a length of spine and its individual vertebrae (and although we're talking about writing here, I think Newton's Third Law of Motion sums it up very well: every action has a reaction.)

A coalescing narrative considers all points as separate elements that may or may not always interact, but all contribute to the end point to different extremes. It's a useful template for creating depth in a piece, but due to its complexity, is better applied to longer projects.

They are visualised respectively below.

4. Iterate

If you think of your first draft as a block of clay, everything you do to it will equate to it being moulded and shaped, and if you think of your first draft as a skeleton, everything you do to it will equate to flesh being put on the bones. If you want your piece to be the best it can be, there's a sort of detachment you must have from it, where you won't have the fear of changing it until it is in the image of what you have intended. Write and rewrite, add things, take them away, make a separate copy for every edit if that makes it easier for you, but keep working it until you are happy.

Iteration doesn't just apply to drafts — chapters, paragraphs, sentences and even singular words can be given the same treatment. When you pick up the habit, the process becomes second-nature and you'll find that the first lines you put down are the ones that make it into the final piece, and that is in light of sorting through the renditions unconsciously. Additionally, you don't have to do things in one sitting; sometimes taking a break and coming back to your writing with a fresh outlook is valuable.

5. Analyse and apply

One piece of advice I always see given when someone asks how to improve their writing is to read more, and though it is — at its core — a tip worth acknowledging, it always comes across as unserviceable to me. There is nothing that reading will change for you if you are not actively practicing the things you learn, or even actively learning to begin with. So to address it as a matter of semantics, I feel it's best put as studying the writing of others, as opposed to reading.

If you have a favourite author, go over their works twice — once as a reader to identify what you like about them, and then again as a writer to identify why you like those things. To put it into context, if I read something and decided that I enjoyed how clear and easy to understand it was, I'd do a second pass to figure out the attributing qualities. Perhaps it's the use of punctuation, chosen sentence forms or even the simplicity of words used. My first tip of knowing different literary fundamentals is complementary here, because it makes the analysis and application of isolated features that much more smooth, and also means you'd be able to adapt them into your own style instead of just copying the other writer, which is what you want to avoid.

(Some writers I personally recommend studying are @ozzgin, @monstersholygrail, @aayakashii and @urprettylildoe for readability and clarity in execution, @moyazaika, @carnivorousyandeere and @purerae for characterisation and dialogue, @suiana and @unhappy-last-resort for engaging plots and concepts, and @sabotsen and @lirational for word choice.)

[shabbytigers]

AI prompting: what’s the deal and how fast is it changing?

as someone not particularly against AI on principle the reason i still haven’t dipped a toe in (and at this point that puts me behind; i’m starting to have anxiety about it) is the same reason i’m bad at delegating work to other humans. if it’s enough of a pita to write a good prompt it’s easier to just work on the question myself. i’m not patient, i don’t enjoy unpacking what to me is the obvious, i want to skip to the interesting part, pedagogy is already one of the parts of work i dislike most. it’s also one of the parts i would be most interested in enlisting a robot to help me with but you see the problem

not sure what i’m asking. i did a little desultory looking for resources on prompting and i have a couple of bookmarks, so i think i just have to dive in and read up till this feels a bit more like a routine task and less like a whole new extra hard problem that i have to solve before i can attack the hard problem i actually have

sigh. i’d welcome a 101 resource recommendation if it’s

(1) ~kinda up to date: moving target, obv, my sense is that Claude is about right for starters. the new chinese one is apparently oversubscribed as is the o1 and counting generation. i’m mostly trying to avoid an older gpt focus (and keep it free or cheap tbh)

(2) pitched for intelligent laypeople who are aggressive learners, not the dumb end of normie

this isn’t rocket science, and acquiring adequate working fluency in a technical area fast is one of my core job skills. if i want to get up to speed on a new-to-me disease area, i don’t start with patient resources, but with reviews and guidelines written by the thought leaders for working clinicians. this is a bit out of my wheelhouse, so i would def look at the equivalent of patient resources, but i’d prefer the sort of thing written for rare disease patients to the sort of thing written for type 2 diabetes patients? lolsob do you get me. patchy executive function haver trying not to die of boredom here bc i will literally just wander away and do something else

tl;dr how do i talk to claude

[technicianlearner]

Kirbtober 2023 Day 30: Wish/Dark

When Bandana was younger, he was Dedede's 'Santa's Little Helper' type of guy. Dedede would make Bandana go interview others to see what the children want, and Dedede (usually alongside Meta Knight or Mayor Len) would figure out how to give them to kids and pretend there's Santa delivering them. However, one time, when he was 10, he tried to ask Kirby about what he wishes - he usually just want food or some trinkets, but Kirby was particularly a bit, uh, 'strange', let's just say... ...and that was the day Bandana realized, that Kirby's definitely an orphan.

Prompts by @paintpanic and @peachsupremeart Fused list compiled by @desultory-novice (click here for the list!)

The dark part is just the fact that Kirby doesn't have parents. And the background's dark. Haha. Funny.

Anyways you have heard of fatherless Susie but now may I present you fatherless Kirby or more like parentless Kirby hahaha. I would have drawn Marx for this AU, but my brain just can't do much with Marx at the moment (I'm so sorry bro I won't design characters unless I need them for something major) so uh.

Don't worry, the two are and will still friends. Bandana did need some time to recover from the fact that his young role model and basically the guy who his king also trains is an orphan, though. He's very worried of the puffball's well-being.

By the way, the long blurry version below:

[suzyq31]

21. most memorable comment/review? ❤️❤️

I've honestly been so lucky with some regular lovely reviewers. It's hard to pick, but one that really made me tear up (in a good way), was this one (sorry it's long, also putting under the cut as it has spoilers for Maybe Tomorrow)

A wonderful conclusion to an outstanding fic.

It is with some trepidation that I have to pay you the compliment that it's obvious you are somewhat outside of what I've come to expect of most fanfiction writers. It is not meant to be insulting, but most of them are just so very young. Contrast that with the absolutely masterful way you have pulled on heartstrings and breathed life into the pages here, and every word shows you to be someone who has genuinely lived.

Your characters are some of the most realistic and intriguing depictions in the HP fandom I have ever seen. The careful picking and choosing of your phrasing and which details are given suggest so much beneath the surface, without falling into the trap of overexplaining everything. Ron as the genuine friend that is allowed to have sadness over his own what ifs without letting it jeopradize his friendship. Andromeda - despite her brief appearance - being characterised through the eyes of others and having the reader's introduction to her be so *right* as the wizened and grandmotherly type that is nonetheless sharp and present.

Finally, the true standout performance, are the children. I am a father to a six year old girl, and I can confidently say that in reading millions of words of fanfiction last year, you are by far the most accurate when it comes to depicting the behaviors and thoughts of children around that age. The raw love, the way their bodies and minds work in good and bad moments, the chaos and attention.

Finally, your descriptions of atmosphere (simply beautiful prose, outstanding command of pacing and balacing exposition and dialoge, not to mention the quality of said dialogue) and the thoughtful angles in the reflections of your characters were superb. The not-quite-dead scene, which I somewhat dreaded as soon as I recognized it (it *is* remarkable how that type of scene just seems to invite terrible writing) was Siriusly wonderful, adding a depth and comfort that feels entirely at home with the relationship this version of Harry would have had with him. The way most dialogues seem to be lifted out of actual conversation rather than two robots reading lines, with all the non sequiturs, banter, and desultory nonsense that actual humans that know each other well base most of their conversations on.

Selfishly, I am somewhat disappointed this is the end of (this part of-) Maybe Tomorrow. Please accept my warmest wishes for the new year, and sincere gratitude for sharing your work with us. I cannot wait to spend more time in the gardens of your creation.

[bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue]

✨️, 🐰, 🧡 , 🐸!

I’m so sorry, I thought I responded to this earlier but apparently Tumblr deleted my draft and never posted it—I promise I haven’t been ignoring you!

Let’s try this again—responding to your ask game questions, Take 2:

✨ Do you have any nicknames?

Not a ton—“Maya” is a hard name to shorten or nickname. (And yes, I’ve heard “Maya-Papaya” approximately ten million times.) My family has many nicknames for me, though—I won’t share all of them here because they’re personal, but one that I like is “Princess Moonbeam,” which my mom usually calls me when she’s telling or texting me good night in the late, late hours when I typically tend to stay up.

I’ve also been called “Maya the Water-Chugger” by my friends (that one should be pretty self-explanatory—hydrate or diedrate!), “Machine-Gun Maya” by a middle school teacher (because I type so fast it sounds like a machine gun firing), and “Carl Sagan Jr.” by a DIFFERENT middle school teacher (that one should also be pretty self-explanatory—I was a little astronomy nerd.)

🐰 What do you think says the most about a person?

My very generalized answer is: how they treat others—if they show them respect or understanding, or not.

🧡 A color you can’t stand?

I tend to like most colors, but really bright, saturated ones like magenta (hex code #FF00FF), bright green (#00FF00), or bright blue (#0000FF) tend to hurt my eyes and I don’t really like their use in digital art. My favorite colors are anything in the purple-pink-red range, so I like magenta in theory—just maybe a slightly less eye-searingly bright shade of it, please?

🐸 Describe your aesthetic.

Do…do I even have one? My fashion sense is basically “the first T-shirt and leggings I pull from my closet every day” (usually with a desultory attempt at color-coordination, and maybe matching earrings if I have the time and motivation). And what T-shirts and leggings I own are dictated less by a sense of personal style than by what A) doesn’t cost a ton, B) is comfortable (I’ve worn the same bunch of leggings since 9th grade because they’re some of the only pants whose texture doesn’t bother me), and C) has things I like on it.

I guess in terms of personal style/aesthetic, I like colorful things more than…not-colorful things? Instead of muted or monochrome palettes, I like bright colors (as long as they’re not TOO eye-searingly bright, as mentioned above), especially anything in the pink-purple-red range. A lot of things, although not all, in my dorm room fit this color palette.

But honestly, if my clothing or decor has Spike Spiegel on it, then I’m happy.

[~💖 Ask Game 💖~]

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Desultory

by AllThingsRepeat Jason doesn’t patrol. Doesn’t eat. Doesn’t call. But Dick shows up anyway. And, eventually, so does Bruce.   What It Means Desultory is a formal word used to describe something that lacks a plan or purpose, or that occurs without regularity. It can also describe something unconnected to a main subject, or something that is disappointing in progress, performance, or quality. // After graduation, I moved from job to job in a more or less desultory manner before finding work I liked. // The team failed to cohere over the course of the season, stumbling to a desultory fifth place finish. Words: 207, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 15 of Word of the Day Fandoms: DCU, Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures (Webcomic) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: Gen Characters: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Headaches & Migraines, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Hurt Jason Todd, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Good Older Sibling Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Hurt/Comfort, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort via https://ift.tt/LD52tIH

[theurbanologist]

Listen, I don’t think tragedies should be commemorated.

Maybe there is a sense of collective healing when we all gather together to think about those events that have changed us a a city, as a nation, as a neighborhood, or even as just a group of friends.

So I guess it is odd that at 4:34AM on April 18th, 2025 I found myself at 3rd and Kearney in downtown San Francisco looking for Lotta’s Fountain——still very much dark and pre-coffee—-a most difficult hour of the day.

I had read in the San Francisco Chronicle the day before that “hardy souls” were invited to the 119th Commemoration of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The A5 article also mentioned that along with a short program, there would be a moment of silence to remember the earthquake’s start at or around 5:12AM.

I am a hardy soul and with the additional promise of “area dignitaries” and such, it felt like this was my moment—-don’t I always encourage people to seek out the unique on their travels?

I do, I do, I do, so I know I had to turn up for this special program.

Maneuvering through a veritable battalion of firefighters surrounding Lotta’s Fountain, I found myself next to an even more formidable group, aka the local TV and radio media—-eight camera people and at least four radio folks.

The crowd’s mood seemed cheery, which is even more unusual given the early hour of the morning or at the last flicker of nighttime, depending on your attitude. A woman passed through the crowd with a petition related to street closures (she knew her audience) and the MC for the event, Bob Sarlatte, made a few biting remarks to get us all warmed up——no earthquake jokes, PLEASE BOB.

Bob had an easy patter and his voice had the inflections one associates with a radio DJ of the Old School——you’d let him chaperone your daughter to a church dance, but he might spend half the time chatting up attractive moms.

Damn, his voice is familiar, I thought——where do I know him from?

Never Max mind, there are local celebrities to look out for and wait—-is that a rare 1936 AutoLine Miniature Fire Engine pulling up near the fountain? Yes, it is. The fire engine pulls up to the curb like a friend asking for a few bucks. It joins the 400 other fire vehicles parked within 500 feet of this merry gathering.

There are others of note in the crowd——a group that does historical portrayals of the 1906 earthquake, several retired fire chiefs, and a woman wearing silver pants that give off the type of shimmer that Donna Summer would appreciate.

Bob Sarlatte steps up to the mic and makes a few desultory remarks about the weather (“You never know what the weather will be like in SF”) and the programs begins with his dramatic narration delineating the events of that fateful April day 119 years ago.

I was listening to Bob but I was also thinking about, man—-I have never read a book about the actual quake. I should go over to City Lights Books later and pick up a book that will address this gaping hole in my—-

“Let’s observe a moment of silence for those we lost”

Thank goodness Bob, we needed that moment of silence.

That moment of silence lets us know that it is 5;12am.

The rest of the brief program features San Francisco Mayor Daniel Laurie (related to Levi Strauss, yes that one), some mid-level government official talking about earthquake preparedness, and former Mayor Willie Brown wearing a beautiful red coat.

The last speaker was the woman with the silver pants——aha! Turns out that she is the head of the office of emergency preparedness——“I had to wear silver to get your attention!”, she informs us.

The end of the program features a rousing rendition of “San Francisco” and just like that, the 1906 earthquake has been commemorated.

As folks disperse, I stand by Bob one last time just to see if I can place his voice.

I close my eyes and listen.

That’s it——he is the wedding night MC announcer in “So I Married An Axe Murderer”—-one of my favorite movies.

I walk up Geary Street looking for coffee, post event——no such luck as there’s nothing open yet.

[auntie-browning]

“What’s not at the other side that not great enough to risk everything. A home so sublime to the eye of the beholder, corrupted as it may be. It is still the home I yearn for. By the rivers of Babylon…there I sat and wept…when I remember of lost Zion…”

It was wise for her to take the lead for a while, for the look of pain was all too great to dare show. Words alone could never properly convey the desultory anguish she feels of her home robbed from her. She knew that the allusions would fly well past the people of this realm. Yet, the all too relatable sapience of her words helped convey what she needed to as did the lack of tears for her grief. Anguish to drawn for her to lament over anymore.

They would continue to their brisk trek, leaving the sphere of influence of the last lord gradually. Soon they will be upon lands where no laws could effectively be enforced and as such, brigands would follow soon after.  Browning prepared by readying her weapon before hand on her hip. A dagger by the size of the scabbard sheathing its blade. The weapon type wasn’t so much what was interesting as much as it was its construction. Brass handguard that individually wrapped every finger with groves slip into as well as some metal protrusion opposite position of the blade. Extensively crude in design although masterfully made to be the invention of some armature blacksmith.  Another extrinsic appearance of her being.

“Truthfully hon, one of the first lessons you learn about life and existence is that it’s an inherently corrupting force. From the first time you learn to play one side against another for some benefit; he who fears corruption fears life. The best one can do in that regard is to play it to what benefit you believe in. I care not for either of these faceless monarchs on some higher caste that inherently makes them look down upon beings like us. No, one only can take what one can gain from their needs. That being my freedom from the former. I’ll make sure they keep their word at the very least…”

Truth be told, explaining it like that made quite a bit of sense to him. Having your skills perverted and commodified to a point that trying to sell them to the highest bidder would only enraged your closest source of income. And even then, the person with whom you'd do business with seeking to starve you out of a living because of the need to monopolize that skill is...sad, to be honest.

But for the other's sponsorship fee to be so low that the best she could get out of it was a mere hiring cost for some 'No-named' adventurer said quite a bit. He seemed to have little love for either side of this affair, but he could sympathize with Browning's plight. Both her need for exodus...and her need for an end. "I can't help but wonder what could be waiting for you on the other side that requires you to risk everything to reach it. But I hardly see a reason to remain where you were either. It seems both lords are none too keen on sympathizing with the worker.

Which could also be read wrong and it's more of Browning's own need for research funding than some truly dastardly plot to keep her broke and unhappy. Clearly the underlying theme of the story was that all of this was a means to an end.

"But it's likely not my station to care too much about it. As long as you know what you're doing, our contract stands. You can expect my support."

[seastarved]

I’ve been journaling quite a bit recently and experimenting with painting. It’s been kind of really fun!

Because it’s really really hard for me to get over my inner perfectionist to even start a thing that I know I’m gonna suck at, I’ve never actually committed to something this long. But I got through one month and painted a couple of things that I feel like look okay for a beginner?

The best part was sort of trying to let go of trying to make art that was someone else’s or comparing it to someone else. Like, I ended up painting the jasmine flowers that grow outside my house, a photo I took from a window of a plane a few years ago, abstract florals based on a bouquet that Julia bought, just greenery that grows around me, stuff like that?

It’s all stuff from my actual life so it feels more genuine for one but also I can’t really tell myself I’m wrong or doing something incorrectly lol

It’s my life in pictures and it’s my sort of growing into a creative outlet and yeah idk, it’s been wonderful and I just wanted to share.

Okbye

[resiliencewithin]

I’m grateful

to @desultory-suggestions for crafting a wonderful mental heath/positivity/kindness/recovery type blog 💛

to @kittymattress for their recent gratitude regarding therapy. It’s always wonderful to see people doing the work and having it pay off. 

Daily Gratitude

May 7, 2025

What are you grateful for today?

Welcome to my gratitude support group! All are welcome to be a part of the gratitude crew. Re-blog, write a note or send an ask as often as makes sense for you (just once, every day, twice a year, a few times a month— doesn’t matter!)

I tag parts of the crew almost every day. If you’d like to be on the tag list let me know.

All posts will be tagged ‘resiliencewithin’s daily gratitude group’.

Prompt (if you want): Pay gratitude forward. Tag someone and tell them why you’re grateful for them. Encourage them to do the same (with no pressure of course!)

[nymphoatic]

band pin | edward nashton x reader

summery: edward goes to the new local grocery store after over hearing some of his co-workers talk about a cute worker there.

gender neutral reader!

warnings: mention of cheating(not by edward or reader) and just eddie being a nervous wreck.

Gothom on a tuesday night was bleak. Small sidewalks dripped with grey atmosphere. Corner stores closed early due to everyone being too out of it to bother going in. It wasn’t a hard thing to know it was quiet in the loudest way possible. That’s why edward is always goes out during then.

He goes grocery shopping, gets coffee, maybe every treats himself to a new knick knack he found on his way out of the store. It’s the most gentle he’s ever seen this parasitic city be. And more importantly that’s when you would work your late shifts and a small grocery store 5 blocks away from him.

The first day he saw you was, no surprise, a Tuesday. He wanted crackers for his night snacks he always makes. Usually he goes to the large chain grocery store like everyone else but it was already 12:27am and he didn’t want to wait until the next day. But he really wanted his crackers.

He heard Bert and Arin from work talk about this new local store with the basics. Arin said something about “a hot babe with the coolest band button on their apron” but Arin was cheating on his wife with three other women so Edward didn’t want to consider anything he said.

20 minutes after thinking of his easedropping session and getting that info, he made up his mind. Go to the store, get what he needs, leave, and come back to work through the night. And maybe see if it’s true that there’s a cute individual there. But that’s it. No more, no less.

By the time he walked through the desultory streets of Gothom he arrived at his destination. Small corner market. Cute. He opened the door and felt a chill of freezers and the smell of baked goods and produce all at once. There were 4 or 5 rows full of wants and needs for an everyday pantry or fridge. and at the center of it, a built in table with a register, a computer, and various pens and paper scattered.

And a lovely being writing on the paper. They were bent over comfortably, he assumed they had no chair, with their head in their hand. Edward couldn’t think. Out of so many toxic, loud, gross people on TV he sees, he couldn’t be attracted to them. He couldn’t imagine himself laughing with them with a coffee in hand, let alone have intimate moments with him. But them. The comely darling he’s seeing right now? He’s imagining his entire life with them right now.

“Hi. I need crackers. That’s all. Just…the crackers.” he wanted to make eye contact he really did, but he feels like if he looked at them for more than 10 seconds, he’d implode.

“Oh! Okay those are in that row.” the store was small enough the where they could point to it. Edward looked and pinpointed the ones he needed and simply walked to them. No thank you. No nothing. He could feel their eyes and their ineffable confusion. All that was heard was the ringing in Edwards ears due to embarrassment and the massive crush he had on the cashier who probably has a partner with a house under both of their names. He picked up the crackers and brought them to the table in front of them.

“Just these i assume?” they said, taking the box and scanning it.

“Yes. Yeah…” he felt his head moving on its own and it was soon met with their eyes. The difference in red on his face to theirs was shocking.

“Okay! It’s three forty seven” they spoke calmly, typing in something on the screen in front of them.

“It’s that late? It-It was just twelve am…” their eyebrows raised slightly. Was it something he said?

“No like…the total. That’s how much they cost.” everything went white with embarrassment. His hand dashed to his pocket for his wallet.

“Right! You’re right.” he gave them a folded five dollar bill. “P-Please keep that change. For tips.” they took the money and looked at him with a warm face.

“Thank you! I appreciate it.” Edward didn’t want to say you’re welcome because that would mean leaving them. What if he never sees them again? What if tonight was the night they quit and move away? Thousands of awful thoughts paranoid his mind about never again saying hello to them. “It’s late. Can i ask why you’re getting a snack in the middle of the night?” they said with a slight chuckle. Edward felt every part of him tense with the sound of a small laugh.

“I uh, i work late and i just need to uh…get out. Take my mind off of it before continuing. You know?” Wait did he talk too long? He thinks he’s blowing it, loosing all chance of even being in a room with them.

“Sometimes it’s needed. But be careful walking around at this time of night” they worried for him? How sweet, Edward thought.

“Yeah…i’m careful. I’ve lived here for so long i know my way around.” he feels the need to get this over with before he embarrasses himself. It’s only a matter of time to him. He reaches and grabs the box, pulling it to him. “I-I never got you name…if it’s possible for me to know.” the person leans against the table, looking at him with brows raised once again.

“(Name).” as they speak they slightly hold up their name tag to him. Oh gosh they always had their name on their apron.

“Ah! I see…there it is, it’s always been there. That’s a pretty name. A pretty…” he became preoccupied when he say he they were looking at him. Right at him. Curious. Almost adoringly. “..for a p-pretty creature.” they stayed quiet and Edwards knew he messed up. He turned around, avoiding their eyes.

“I didn’t get your name. Can i know?” he spins around quickly, his mind attracting himself to the voice. They’re head is cocked to the side and a slight smile.

“Edward! I’m um…Edward.” they smiled to the name and they mumbled it to themselves.

“I’ll see you another night, Edward.” they said and Ed felt weak. They want to see him again? Seriously?

“Yeah! Yeah i’ll be back soon. T-Thank you. Bye..” he raised his hand to wave his goodbye before looking at their name tag.

And the pin next to it.

A band pin.

Holy crap Arin was right.

[anisaanisa]

Kagome’s time between worlds. Drabble collection for @inukag-week 2023 ☆ Chapter 6/7 – Courting: Kagome tries her best. Tags: Hojo the Aloof / Bad Date Blues Word Count: 600 (Hexadrabble) 《 Previous〡Next 》

No matter how she framed it, Kagome Higurashi would go down as the worst date in Tokyo.

Japan. The World. Possibly, the entirety of Earth’s history.

The relief of reaching the top of the shrine steps was short-lived as she trudged onward, and recants tagged along to torment her like the sandals pinching her toes. The house was dimmed to match her mood, and she entered, tucking her shoes and bag away. She followed the light leaking from the living room and peeked in to find her mother asleep in front of the TV.

She’d know instantly it hadn’t gone well. Even worse, she’d know that fell to Kagome, and the tiny restaurant that rubbed their shoulders highlighted every glaring reason why they – this – would never work.

Why no one would likely ever work.

Responsibility for the date that was desultory at best was hers, though the chances of her keeping a straight face when she imagined a man bursting through the wall to save the day and cart her away were as slim as the chances of it happening.

Nothing went wrong. It just wasn’t right.

Guilt lingered as she climbed the stairs. She’d be happy, taken care of. She wouldn’t have a single thing to complain about.

But that was the problem; she didn’t want it easy.

Hojo, on paper, was a catch. He’d be the type of man to appreciate her cooking, who wouldn’t spoil a meal with instant ramen, the type who wouldn’t steal fish from someone's pond. The kiss of death rang its bell over shared teppanyaki when she grasped, horrifyingly, that she’d rather the taste of haphazardly hunted pigeon to any organic, hand-fed anything, or the sour taste of questionable broth over expensive, remedial tea leaves.

Her room was lit, waiting for her like the pyjamas on her bed, and she sat on its edge to remove her makeup. Someone that wasn’t Hojo could appear tomorrow and sweep her off her feet, but she’d already been swept, and the people she held fast to knew too.

It was in the way her mother tried to hide sad smiles when she thought Kagome wasn’t looking. In the tired, wistful sighs her grandfather made when rifling through artefacts he could never hope to lift. In the way her brother stopped mentioning his hero, all because he’d grown up, and understood her tight-lipped smiles weren’t as cheery as she’d hoped.

With more time between them than they’d had together, Kagome had never been able to shake it. She was in love with Inuyasha, had been since she was fifteen, and always would be.

She threw the blackened cotton ball in the trash. Sometimes, she wondered if that was really her. If she could strike anything with a single arrow by believing herself capable of it so fiercely. If she was the girl the jewel feared most in this world – in any world.

Inuyasha refused to believe she’d been born for any cycle, and he’d been right; she was here, living and breathing in a world devoid of never-ending battle.

She smiled at the cards she’d made for her friends for graduation, stacked on the nightstand so she wouldn’t forget them, and laughed quietly to herself when she thought yes, that had been her, and she could do anything she put her mind to, even if that was fighting tooth and nail to graduate and make her family proud.

She glanced towards the window; she could trust the moonlight to keep her safe.

Kagome reached out, and for the first time in years, she turned the light off.

Fin

Read it on AO3 ▶

[willidleaway]

so like @desultory-novice​ I’ve been thinking a bit about the voice clips that you can hear in the new remix of the final boss track. the exact parameters are a little lost to me but in Audacity I attempted the following on the original track:

Vocal Reduction and Isolation, Isolate Vocals. Leave the frequency band at the default settings (120-9000 Hz), and set the strength to somewhere around 1.5 and 2. (Too high and Audacity just returns silence!)

Filter Curve EQ with this curve:

and then the only change is to turn the volume back up to max out at -3 dB with Normalise.

this doesn’t work amazingly, unfortunately—the orchestral samples mix hard with the vocal samples so isolating the vocals would probably take a lot of manual artisanal spectral suppression. but! this processing is enough to make things a little less distracting, and I’ve compiled a set of three samples from the resulting output where I think I can particularly clearly hear things:

kaa—bi ... (this was taken from ~04:25)

i ... iroha ... (taken from ~05:00)

ma ke ... fu ... kaa ... bi ... (taken from ~06:30)

(oh, also, these timestamps are for the full track, to avoid confusion.)

and this leads me to my conspiracy theory. keep those audible syllables in your head as you read on. i-ro-ha ... ma-ke-fu ...

if you go look at the Star Allies OST website, there’s a sound staff roundtable discussion (kindly translated previously by Kai), where they discuss how Void Termina’s voice was created (Kai’s translations in square brackets):

（熊崎）そうですね、4人の声です。ゲーム内のボイスではおなじみの安藤さん、比較的若い声の小笠原さん、それから女性の声も欲しかったので『みんなで！カービィハンターズＺ』ディレクターの東藤さん。そして私。4人の演技、声が混ざった鳴き声をやってみよう、���て。[Kumazaki: Yes, it was the voices of four people. You, Mr. Ando, being a regular with in-game voice clips, Mr. Ogasawara with his comparatively younger voice, as well as Mrs. Todo, the director of “Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, because we wanted a woman’s voice, too. And me. We wanted to try out a cry made by mixing voice lines from the four of us.]

（安藤）そういえば何て言ってたか、覚えてないなあ。[Ando: By the way, what did we say? I can’t remember.]

（熊崎）「イロハニホヘト、カービィ〜」です。[Kumazaki: It was "Irohanihoheto, Kirby”.]

（安藤）あー、そうか。[Ando: Oh, right.]

（熊崎）全員同じ言葉で、「イロハニホヘト、カービィ〜……」みたいに発して別々に録りました。私が言ったら安藤さんが、「あ、それでいく」って言ったんですよ（笑）。[Kumazaki: We each uttered those same words, “Irohanihoheto, Kirby…”, all recording seperately. When I told you, you said “Oh, we’re going with that”. (laughs)]

hmm. let’s go look at Iroha (emphasis mine):

いろはにほへと ちりぬるを わかよたれそ つねならむ うゐのおくやま けふこえて あさきゆめみし ゑひもせす

some of these look familiar? here, a romaji transliteration (again, emphasis mine):

Iro fa nifofeto Tirinuru wo Wa ka yo tare so Tune naramu Uwi no okuyama Kefu koyete Asaki yume misi Wefi mo sesu

so my conspiracy theory is ... it’s Iroha again. the Iroha is basically a ‘the quick brown fox jumps’-type pangram, and while it has actual literary meaning, it’s often used to simply iterate through all the kana. I think Ando went to record himself reading the Iroha and saying ‘Kirby’ once in a while, and then shuffled the different segments around, and that constitutes most of the discernible vocal samples that aren’t crying or screaming. I say it’s a conspiracy theory because I haven’t gone through all of the vocal samples, so there could be something extra hiding in there (and of course I could be mishearing some things).

and if it holds up? not terribly exciting, I know, but still interesting from a development standpoint!