#dubious advice

[whumpshaped]

AMBAC Lore — Humans, and how to stay human

table of contents:

humans' place in the ecosystem

hunters

police

spotting a vampire

what if the vampire spotted you?

blood loss and aftercare

back home

tw unreality, mind control, dubious advice, definitely suggestive nsfw, dubcon biting, second person pov and you're absolutely the whumpee, stalking mention, it's all light-hearted though enjoy

so... humans.

humans' place in the ecosystem

it might be a bit of a hard pill to swallow, but with the first vampire appearing, humans lost their place on top of the pecking order. constantly looking over your shoulder, flinching away from cats in shadows... it's a difficult existence, sometimes. but don't fall victim to the promise of a better life after death! just because you now have to fear your blood and mind being stolen, that doesn't mean life can't be enjoyed!

humans can still do many things, like work day jobs and hand their salary over to the vampire who enthralled them, eat nutritious food to support their body and produce better blood, possibly even get so entangled as to willingly give their life and join their master in immortality– what?

hunters

so, about ways to stay human. hunters aren't really your best bet... i mean, have you ever even seen one in real life? sometimes there's one or two, travelling alone or with another fool, trying to exact revenge or free an enthralled family member... but they rarely ever protect ordinary people, do they? nor are they very successful in clearing out entire vampire dens. not when the vampires of any respectable city will come together in a joint effort to toy with the poor things.

i'd recommend staying away from them altogether. those cross-waving, crossbow-shooting demons will sooner take out your eye than an actual vampire. and you don't want to get mixed up with them, god forbid! if a vampire saw you talking to them, they might just grab you for a chat afterwards to tell you all about why that was a decision they disapprove of. you don't want that, do you?

police

as for the police, well... i'd recommend spending your time better than to try and file a case with them about vampires. they know the pecking order. they're not hunters. sure, they say they're launching a new hunter-training program for the new recruits, but are they really? how many of the officers do you think are enthralled? the one saying that might've been.

plus, they know very well how enticing a bloodbag from the police force is. it's cheap bribe for a vampire, one no officer could refuse, and everybody knows that. they already have a target on their backs, so why would they go looking for trouble?

well, if you decide to file the case anyway, prepare for it to be thrown out. don't say i didn't warn you.

spotting a vampire

now that we've got the useless things out of the way, let's start with the actual guide. first and foremost, you need to learn to spot a vampire. you might think you know exactly how to do that; vampires are so visibly different, whatever could go wrong?

you. you could go so, so wrong. do you really trust your little human eyes? your little human ears? your little human mind? you'd be silly to. how many vampires have you spotted so far? yeah, think on that for a moment. they're there, i promise you — but you just don't know how to look for them, leading you to believe you're safe until there's a pair of fangs in your neck.

so... how do you see through the charm? how do you snap out of enthrallment? how do you spot something perfectly camouflaged? how do you keep yourself safe from something you could never see coming, something that will convince you that you do want those mesmerising, sharp fangs in your pretty neck, sinking deep and making you feel so, so good–

uh, we're working on it. it'll be in the next edition. i'm sure you can figure out something until then, to hold you over!

what if the vampire spotted you?

well, lucky you!

i mean–

you're in a dark alley, and you're suddenly cornered by an eerie presence. or a comforting one, depending on how they feel that day. one way or the other, you realise that a vampire had set their sights on you — too late.

you have a couple options, if... you know, you're not too charmed and enthralled out of your mind to say anything but 'yes, master, i'd love for you to drink'. you can either say yes on your own, or, well... try to say no, i guess?

at this point you're probably pinned against a wall, not entirely against your will, and really, there's little you can actually do. but you can always hope and pray that the vampire who got you isn't feeling that peckish! maybe they could let you go and get another human a bit later, right? unless it's close to dawn, in which case — why are you even out? are you trying to become a last minute snack?

blood loss and aftercare

so... that didn't work out in your favour, did it? i suppose it kind of did, in a way. i'm sure you enjoyed yourself. but now it's time to take care of yourself, so grab that just-in-case-vampire-pick-me-up bar of chocolate you have in your bag, and wash it down with some sweet, sugary tea.

you packed those before leaving the house at night, right? of course you did. i'm sure you're also well-hydrated, since that makes the blood flow easier, and it makes everything nicer for your master–

well, i suppose that's not a requirement.

try not to fall on your way home. you can try to alert other humans around you, but that vampire is probably long gone anyway, so there's really no point. as for asking for help, please refer back to sections 2 and 3 about hunters and the police.

do make sure the vampire closed your wounds and you're not actively bleeding. that's important. if you are bleeding, put a bandaid on it while it stops! if it bruises really badly, you might want to ice it.

back home

you look at yourself in the mirror, admiring the twin wounds on your neck and the deep purple bruise around it. you wonder whether your master liked the blood; whether they followed you home just to see where you live, just to have the option to visit. whether they wanted more. whether they would come knocking.

you're not alone! it's just the lingering effect of the enthrallment, don't even worry about it. but if the vampire does come knocking, remember M.I.N.E.: My home Is Not for you to Enter (unless you ask nicely in which case i might seriously consider it because really that bite was something i can barely put into words and i've been thinking about it ever since so if you really wanted to enter i could invite you in i'm just making sure you know it's not an obligation or anything!)

remember, they can't draw an invitation from you by enthrallment! so make sure to speak up on your own! i mean–

but really. being human does have its perks. how else would you feed your master?

[aerposts]

aka the first part of this video (s/o @schmoyoho - happy 10 yrs!)

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Remembered that one time Michel fell in love with someone just because their Personas were married, so I hurried to make this.

Behold, the Greco-Roman Pantheon.

Ok, the point of this is that Metis would be Lisa's gay awakening.

I pity the Persona User who awakens to Zeus/Jupiter. They will have to walk on eggshells around a good portion of the other Users.

[vimbry]

john flansburgh barely keeping up a moral celebrity public front is so funny. someone's like "aw I wish I could go to a show but they're 21+ :(" and he goes "fake ID", someone asks if their music is available for download and he's like "they might be giants torrent...." you can't say these things. it's hilarious

[chrysanthemumgames]

Could you share a little more about your writing process? Do you outline? I’m struggling with keeping the amount of choices down in my game but also keeping it customizable

I may not be the best person to ask about this, as I'm honestly still quite an amateur, but I'll share some of what I do, and maybe it'll help.

I do think some amount of outlining is pretty necessary for writing an interactive fiction. Flying by the seat of your pants (that is, just writing until you're done, then going back to rewrite everything into coherence) isn't really sustainable practice for a (long) choice game. You really want to know at least where all the major branches of your game are going, and where they can meet back up again.

Those meeting places are called chokepoints, and they're vital.

For example, in Chapter Four of FoA, the player has three different routes of investigation they can take. They can go talk to Lethe and try to help heal her, they can go into the city to see if the spirits know anything, or they can go to the riverbank to try and pinpoint the source and nature of whatever is ailing the river Lethe. This results in three distinct scenes, each with their own choices, and if I'd wanted to, all of them could have further branched in some big way that would affect the plot, and so on, and so forth.

The thing is, that's not really doable. There needs to be some place the branches meet up again so the story can continue, at least as early in the game as Chapter Four! In this example, it was literally a meeting where everyone talked about their findings, but of course it doesn't have to be. The point is, it brought the branches back together again and allowed the story to continue. You should probably at least have a sense of when the bigger branches are going to occur, and what's going to bring them together again. That alone will help you control the number of choices and branches you offer. If you know they all have to eventually get the player to the clock tower at midnight or something, then you know how to steer things within each branch.

My outlines tend to be a little more detailed than that. I start with a beat chart for the game (or, in the case of BotL, a beat chart for each subplot, because it's basically several subplots stacked together wearing a trenchcoat), and from there I put them in the right order and make a beat chart for the whole thing.

A 'beat chart' here is just a list of the big things that happen like 'PC meets Iasion' or 'Trial of Pirithous and Theseus.' Once you have a really general outline like that, you can stop outlining if you want. You have a roadmap, and if you're more of an improvisor, that should still be enough to help you steer yourself towards the necessary chokepoints. If you prefer to plan more, like me, you can break your outline into chunks and add levels of detail. I will do a chapter-by-chapter outline with a list of scenes for each, and then when I come to the specific chapter I will actually outline the scenes with code before writing my way through them. Sometimes all at once, sometimes in the form of outline, scene, outline, scene.

Finding the process that works for you is a big part of succeeding at finishing an IF, I think. Yours might not (probably won't) be the same as mine; the important thing is that it keeps you moving forward (and not just laterally, into more and more branches). Branches are great, but you have to prune them back sometimes for the healthiest plant. IF. You get what I mean, I hope.

[laundrybiscuits]

(soulmates AU: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

“You never told me your folks were soulmates," he says out of the blue. He'd meant to wait until it came up naturally or something, but they're just standing in awkward silence outside what the kids insist on calling the M&M house, waiting for the stupid dragon game to wrap up on the Munson side. He doesn't even know he's going to say it until it's already out there, sitting between them. 

Nancy says "Fuck," very quietly. Steve can't remember if she used to swear so much. He thinks not, but also, she was sixteen the last time he really felt like he knew her.

Steve’s tenth grade geometry teacher once told them: think about railroad tracks. That’s what parallel means, that there are two lines that never get closer together or farther away. No matter how long the railroad tracks get, there’s always exactly the same amount of space between them.

Now Steve thinks maybe that’s bullshit, that you can’t keep going separate from someone else and stay the same distance apart. If you’re not together, if you don’t cling as hard as you can, then the distance between you is going to grow faster and faster until you can’t even see the other person. 

He thinks maybe he doesn’t know Nancy at all anymore. 

Nancy smooths down her skirt in a nervous gesture he doesn’t recognize. “You’ve met my parents, Steve. Did you really think that’s what I want?”

It’s the kind of question where he knows the right answer from the way she’s saying it, but he doesn’t know why. Yeah, he’s met Ted and Karen. He always thought they seemed happy enough. They’ve got three kids, so they have to be happy, right? 

But he’s starting to think that Nancy—the new Nancy, how she is now—might not want to be happy. Or at least that it might not be the most important thing to her, compared to everything else she always talked about. Now that he’s thinking about it for real, he can’t really see her stepping into her mom’s shoes, never really doing anything but chasing after kids and power-walking around the mall. 

Shit, is he the Ted Wheeler in this scenario? Not that there’s anything wrong with Ted, but—wow, okay, he’s starting to understand Nancy’s reaction. 

He hasn’t said anything for a little while, and Nancy sighs. “Steve, I’m sorry, I can’t…”

“It’s fine, Nance,” he says. He even thinks he means it, this time. 

———

“Do you think she’s going to get a cover-up, like Eddie?”

Robin squints at him. “I think she’s the only one who can answer that.”

“Sure, okay, but I can’t ask her because I’ve decided I’m not gonna bring this shit up around her anymore. It’s called tact, Robin.”

“Fuck off, I’m a million times more tactful than you could ever be.” She chucks a roll of NEW RELEASE stickers at him, which he dodges with a little spin, just to show off.

“Are you kidding me? Who was it that got out of a parking ticket last week just by talking to the cop?”

“Uh, who was it that expertly finessed us both jobs at Family Video just by talking to Keith?”

“You gotta stop bringing that up,” Steve groans. “That was like a whole year ago. Get some new material, Buckley.”

“Get us a new job, Harrington! One that pays more than this shit!”

“Nah, I’m gonna be a trophy husband to some rich old lady. That’s my new plan, now that I’m totally unattached.” It comes out pretty steady, he thinks.

She sidles up to him, awkward in the way she gets sometimes, and bumps their shoulders together. “Hey, you know you could totally find someone else, right? It doesn’t have to be…” She trails off, gesturing helplessly.

He tips his head back and stares at the ceiling. The fluorescent lights leave blurry ghosts on his eyelids when he blinks. 

Robin Buckley is the best friend he’ll ever have and does sometimes actually know what tact is, so she just tips her head against his shoulder and stares at the ceiling with him in silence until the next customer comes in. 

———

“You can never, ever tell Steve this.” Nancy’s voice is just barely audible from the front step, and Steve freezes. He snatches his hand back from where he’d been reaching for the doorbell.

“Cross my heart, et cetera, Wheeler.” Eddie sounds lazy, like he doesn’t even care.

“It’s crazy, but I used to feel really—happy. About the soulmark. I mean, it’s every girl’s dream, right? The cutest guy in school with her name on his wrist.”

“Can’t say I relate.” 

Nancy lets out a strangled laugh and Steve silently shuffles as close as he dares, shutting his eyes like that’ll help him hear better or something.

“I know, Eddie, that’s why I’m…I don’t know what changed. I don’t know why that stopped being enough for me. I second-guess myself all the freaking time now, and I hate that! I remember the way it felt when it turned out Steve was actually really sweet, and sometimes I just want to—to crawl back inside that feeling, except it’s not real. I know it’s not real.”

“You sure about that? Doth the lady not protest too much?”

“I’m sure.”

She hadn’t even hesitated. Steve’s nails are cutting into his palms. He feels dizzy with how quick she’d answered; how calm she’d sounded. 

It hits him, then, that it’s actually over, like for real. Maybe he really is an idiot, because it’s been years, and he thought he’d already known that. Turns out there’d been a stupid little corner of hope in him after all.

He tunes back in to hear Eddie say, “Okay, okay, you don’t gotta convince me, Wheeler. If you end up deciding to, y’know, take the plunge…yeah, I can hook you up. But no rush, okay?”

Steve turns around and walks down the drive, all the way around the corner to where he’s parked. Dustin’s stretched all the way across the seats, head poking out of the driver’s side window, squinting in the afternoon sun.

“Is Eddie coming to the arcade with us?” Dustin yells.

“He’s busy, leave him alone,” says Steve.

[fooligandan]

i keep thinking abt how holhorse and xigbart are possibly a distantly related species on a similar branch of evolution (american; has a gun; displays of cowardace)

[batsplat]

your posts are as illuminating as always thank u for ur work... i was watching route 46 route 93 from 2021 recently and sete showed up in that (as in, they gave vale an ipad and made him watch a video of sete lmao) and i thought of you.. i loved that even in that vale is still.. agitated about qatar... ends the segment with "if i had to give sete some advice... it's better if he hadn't done it." about qatar lmfao

omgggg I love this soooo much..... I haven't been able to watch that documentary so I'm immediately incorporating this into all my lore about them... like yes!! see!! he's STILL not over it, he can joke and laugh in the press and pretend this whole thing of 'oh I've actually made up with all my rivals With One Notable Exception' but he hasn't!! certainly not with sete, because that's valentino's whole deal - okay it's one thing to have a rival who kinda annoys him, but a friend who crossed him? oh it's over

this randomly reminded me, there's a bit of the mugello 2006 race commentary I find fascinating (in between all the bits where they were talking about how if sete beat valentino at his beloved mugello then it'd be the 'greatest day of his life' and 'better than any christmas present' which is very funny to me) (obviously he did not beat valentino):

I'm sorry that's a BONKERS level of feuding, like apart from valencia 2015 and cota 2018 even valentino and marc managed to sit next to each other - and even there it was dorna who were like 'yeah no we can't do this lads' not them.... the commentators didn't even mention a specific precipitating event, they just hated each other that much. "they didn't feel comfortable around each other" okay?? what does that MEAN. why are you even letting them decide this. is this not a little silly. remember these men used to go on holidays together!!

thing is I do understand why valentino has mostly shut up about this rivalry when he's not being shown sete's face on an ipad, but also he is giving up on insane bragging rights. I do think the most horrifying aspect of sete's fall beyond the literal 'no more race wins for you buddy' is the kind of... god, he never got revenge! nothing! every time they got close to each other after jerez 05 it was always 'oh sete wants revenge so badly' and he never got it! idk about sete gibernau but I'd be FUMING, even the thought makes me shudder. valentino detonated that entire relationship and sete never even finished ahead of him for the rest of 2004 and 2005. in 2006, he technically did so twice with two valentino dnf's, but was himself in ninth and eighth - when they both finished a race he was not ahead of valentino once after qatar 2004. can you imagine losing that rivalry that badly? no wonder he couldn't bear to see valentino's face for a while there

anyway the fact that valentino's going 'oho he shouldn't have done that!!' about qatar in 2021 and sete's going on three hour long podcast interviews to air his jerez grievances in 2023 does make it kinda funny they were posing together for photos together in 2009 to pretend like war was over. like you people did not mean this come on

[onecopyoneyearinadvance]

Chillicothe Independent, Volume 6, Number 38, 24 June 1882

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Hi! This is anon from the other day who was asking about outlining! First of all, thanks so much for your input! It was really helpful and I finally have an ok outline- at least in my opinion! Just wondering if you have anymore advice on outling in general- My fics going to be a longer one- looking at average novel length here for everything I want to shove in it. Have a good day! :D

Hello, dear anon! I am always happy to give advice (though the quality of it may be lacking, as I speak from personal experience rather than professional study).

If you're looking for some more advice (writing wise), I would suggest making sure that you don't spend too much time obsessing over any one chapter, especially as you're just starting out on such a long project. Not that you can't edit, but I've seen so many new writers (how new are you at writing? That may change my future advice, if you ask for it) edit and edit and edit their first chapters without ever moving onto the second because they're trying to get it perfect. I'm on a writing exchange platform on Reddit (Writers Helping Writers), and I had one kid send me his first chapter no more than seven times to review the different versions, because he couldn't get down the details of how he wanted that inciting scene to go. It's been like 3? months, and he just sent me an eighth version the other day, and I had to tell him that I wasn't gonna give (the same) feedback on the chapter anymore XD

Especially if you're going to be doing a long fic, new things you'll want to add to different sections will pop up as you go. You just have to accommodate for ideas as they come up rather than try to preemptively pin them all down, and I'm saying this as the person known as being super super detailed with crazy outlines, apparently. You have to be a bit flexible--the story will take you places that you didn't expect to go, and you'll have to go back and fix details and revise many many times.

Specifically for outlining, however, I am a very visual person, so I have drawings, diagrams, and I also have a corkboard with all my chapter "sections" on sticky notes, with string connecting big subplots (I've actually taken these all down right now, and the only one's up are concluded subplots XD Arc 2 is a mess rn). You'll just have to play around and see what works for you, when it comes to that. Have you seen the train station model for subplots? I'm not sure if that's exactly what it's called, because googling it gets nothing, but when I started writing years and years ago there was one for the Hunger Games going around XD Basically, deciding which subplots will be advanced in which scenes, and tracking them through the story that similar to a system of subway rails, with each chapter being a stop that only some of the trains (subplots) will stop at. It gives you the opportunity to visually make sure that you give each the amount of screentime they deserve and also remember to give them a satisfying conclusion that's going in the same direction, to extend the metaphor, as the main plot.

It's great that you have an outline already, as that'll cut down on those revisions that I mentioned earlier a lot! And you're going for NOVEL LENGTH? Wow, good luck, and as I said before, please message me when you get around to posting that! Feel free to message me if you need anything, whether that be talking through plot points or my specific processes for anything.

You have a good day yourself, my dear writing anon!

[marazhaibrainrot]

Agonizer smut

*raises hand* yes, I do think RT should modify the agonizer into a very mean toy and destroy marazhai's hole with it, until he's falling apart at the seams, until coming over and over helplessly and rutting into air and destroying the sheets with his claws and trying to claw you but it's a good thing you tied him down

[earlgreytea68]

okay so i have fallen headfirst back into fob w smfs and having that album drop coinciding w finally being in a place where I can just! buy tickets!! and see them on tour!! And i did and it was AMAZING

part of falling back into this has been lurking on fob/peterick blogs again the way I did back in HS, and yours brings me so much joy! what a lovely community you’ve cultivated here, and i adore your fics sm as well—I’m systematically working my way through each one

so a lot of love your way <3 i do need a bit of a second opinion though—I’ve been working myself up over trying to figure out if I can see them again while they’re touring for smfs. There’s a part of me that worries that this might be the last album—the same part that was the most upset when they were touring for MANIA and i couldn’t make that show. SO i would love to hear if you’ve got any thoughts re whether my fears hold any water—or if you think I should chill out, enjoy the ride of keeping up w this tour, and be secure in the fact that our boys aren’t going anywhere any time soon

Hello! First of all, yay, welcome back, and thank you so much for all of your kind words!

I know that there were a ton of rumors this was going to be their last album and they were going to call it quits after this, but having heard the album and watched them promote it and then seeing this tour they're putting on...it seems so unlikely to me???? They just don't act like a band who's done, who doesn't have anything more to say. Like, when Patrick talks about Fall Out Boy he's so very clear that it's, like, necessary for him to have, that it's the art and creativity that he does because of how much he loves it, not a job, and it would seem weird for him to talk that way, so vocally, if there was any inkling in his head that this would be the last time he would have it, you know?

And Pete has been the less vocal one this cycle, and we know he was the one who was reluctant to do another album and undertake another tour, but he has seldom seen so genuinely happy as he has during this tour, he seems to be loving every second of it.

And Joe came back and also seems delighted to be back.

Idk, I do not get the feeling of a band with any intention of winding down. They feel completely reinvigorated and reinspired and ready to go. It would not at all surprise me if they're already writing the next one, we know Patrick and Pete like to write while on tour. And I think they've really enjoyed being out of contract and having total control back, I really think it has opened up the horizons of what they want to and can do. Plus their fanbase has turned out for them loyally and so I don't think they are getting any kind of message that they're not wanted or needed anymore.

So Idk, I think in my heart of hearts there will be another album and another tour eventually someday.

All of that said, there will probably be people who will disagree with this life advice, and please always do what's best for you and your financial situation and life situation, but also: life is short, and uncertain. I didn't get into Fall Out Boy until the Mania tour was just wrapping up, and they announced they were going to play a random festival in Cincinnati and I agonized over going and finally decided to do it and I have to be frank, that weekend in Cincinnati was one of the best weekends of my life, I think about all the time how wonderful it was, the show was incredible, and it was the last concert I saw before the pandemic hit and I spent all of that time just being so incredibly grateful that I'd gone to that Cincinnati concert because otherwise I would have regretted it forever.

If you are in the incredibly lucky and privileged position to be able to afford to do something that you really want to do, and doing so will not bankrupt you or send you into a debt crisis or harm previous commitments you need to keep or, etc., etc., like, if the only argument you can come up with against doing something is "Idk, would this be ridiculous????," Idk, I think I'd err on the side of doing the thing. That's not just advice for Fall Out Boy concerts. You get to do this life thing once, and it goes by so much faster than you can possibly anticipate. If something's going to bring you joy, that's pretty precious. Take it where you can get it.

[isthemadnesscombatcute]

people should stop breeding trickys its unethical.

agreed in some cases ...it really depwnds!! here is a good guide on healthy vs unhealthy trickys. if you are getting tricky from somewhere and the tricky looks like any picture on the right.....STOP! AND THINK!

[chrysanthemumgames]

Hi! I just wanted to say I have been obsessed with FoA for like…. A week straight now. Thank you for feeding my Greek god obsession. I particularly love Alekto as someone who is also HoA, her route makes me so happy.

I just wanted to ask if you had any advice for folks also trying to write CoG/HG stories? Particularly with adding inclusivity and character traits. Seeing myself (autistic) as my actual character was so…. Cozy? Welcoming? And for it to not be treated like an issue was amazing too. Thanks for all your hard work, I’m looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you, anon!

I don't think I'm any great expert at writing inclusively. For me, it's something I choose to do early in the process, which comes with a lot of research, even of things that apply to me. I think an important thing to remember is that no one character is ever going to be able to represent the entire spectrum of any group's experience, and that's okay.

Alekto, for example, is HoH, which as you're well aware is not the same thing as being Deaf, but she also was hearing at one point in her life, and became HoH as the result of a traumatic event rather than an accident or because of another health condition or any of the other ways people might lose hearing. All of these specific things, of course, aren't going to be universal.

But that's kind of the key. I think when you're making a character who is, for example, Deaf or Autistic or asexual, you're never going to be able to encompass every possible facet of what belonging to that group of people could be like. It's always too broad a spectrum. What you can do is pick a "slice" of that spectrum: a set of specific symptoms, background factors, attitudes and beliefs, or whatever applies, that hang together and can all belong to a single person. Then write that slice as genuinely and well as you can.

Do your research. In the case of disability especially, don't just look at medical information. Find resources made by people who actually have the disability in question.

You'll make mistakes. Sometimes, they're real mistakes, and you should thank the person who let you know and fix them. Sometimes, people will just be displeased with you because your particular slice isn't the one they wanted to see. Resist the temptation to try and be all things to all people, as they say.

Above all, don't forget that your character is still a character. Round them out, so they have traits that have something to do with their Deafness or Autism or whatever, and also traits that don't. It's okay and perfectly accurate for e.g. a disability to affect the way someone lives their life. They absolutely do that. But they aren't by any stretch all-encompassing, so don't forget to give that character the same attention in creation you'd give your others.

[zytes]

recently spent some time in a storm drain underneath a Trader Joe’s - a thriving location for enjoyers of renegade art and freeform discourse; expressed through one of humanity’s most beloved and most ancient activities: writing on the walls of a cave. and let me say, this was one of the cleanest storm drains I’ve ever been in; a single mangled shopping cart was the only item that we noticed apart from the art. it’s probably about a half-mile stretch that’s centered around a full sized, 6 panel yellow-submarine mural beneath a manhole — also includes bad opinions and phallic imagery occasionally; which, when written out, sounds like the description of a regular art gallery.

more pics otw, mostly abstract. tried to get a sense of the feeling down there without capturing anything directly — part of the fun of visiting a location like this is seeing the art, but if I were to show that art outside of its immediate context, it kinda loses the magic. spoils the adventure. so, in order to preserve the magic - and thus maintain the element that most often draws people into dungeons to experience art for themselves - all I can offer is an approximation. my friends, you have outgrown the need to merely touch grass. you must hop a fence and descend into the pits if you want to sate the thrill.

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

Hellooooo you’re like one of my favorite whump blogs ever and I wanted to ask a question if it’s okay!

I’ve had a whump blog for almost 3 years, but I’ve only posted like 2 pieces of writing. I want to write more whump, because I enjoy it, but…I’m scared. I’m really scared I’ll do something wrong, or not tag properly, or write something offensive/inappropriate without knowing it. I’m scared that even if I do research on a sensitive topic and try to depict it respectfully, I’ll still get something wrong. I’m also worried people who don’t like whump will start to attack me for writing it if I start posting more of my work, which is really holding me back.

Have you had/have these fears about whump before? And if so, how did you push past them to write whump and post it anyway? Sorry if this question is inappropriate or uncomfortable…I’m just looking for a little advice.

Hello friend!

I’m sorry you’ve got that anxiety. I understand it as I’ve definitely felt that before as well. My best advice is to try your best, be open to *constructive* help, and be understanding.

Tag the things you can think of! Use the common ones you see around. Don’t use the TikTok word exchange. Know not every trigger can be TW’d.

If you post something insensitive and someone sends you an anon message it’s really not the end of the world. The issues tend to arise when someone is rude about being corrected or consistently does it in a way that feels on purpose.

Lots of people are hurt. They are hurt and tired and because it effects them they see it more often. They already know it’s there, they deal with it all the time. If you do get someone snapping at you, I’m sorry. I try to understand where they’re coming from, but I also know where you’re coming from. Do I still literally shake when I get corrected about anything? Yes for a while after too lol.

Not all feedback is helpful feedback. Find sensitivity readers! Lots of writers are more than happy to help!

I’ve written out pieces and not posted them. I’ve posted pieces and then taken them down. It’s a growing and learning process.

Also other writers let us know if there’s anything you’d like to add!