#hopefully i'm not stepping into discourse

[rayless-reblogs]

Goldstone Wood and the Oddness of Christian Fantasy

Princess Varvare in a kingdom of roses

I want to share some illustrations inspired by the Tales of Goldstone Wood series by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. It's a Christian fantasy series that I really like. Give me a moment to talk about that – unless you absolutely love Christian fantasy, all Christian fantasies, in which case, maybe skip this.

I spent a chunk of the early 2000s defending fantasy as a genre to a variety of Christians I ran across – not the majority, but still a variety of them – both in my head and to their faces. The preacher who said, from the pulpit, that Harry Potter was Satanic. Writers explaining why JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis were (of course) okay, but all other fantasy novels were suspect. Websites that dissected the occult symbolism you never realized was buried in fantasy media. My friend who frowned at me in concern and said she wouldn't want to have to explain to God why she read “that kind of thing” when she met him after death.

This is Rosie (and her goat Beana, who talks.) I love Rosie utterly, she tries so hard and she feels things so much. The next image is a spoiler, showing her unveiled.

I think that's partially why I'm interested in the genre of Christian fantasy, this attempt to make these two things fit. For me, the fusion often doesn't work. Either writers mix theology and fantasy in a weird confusing way. (Wait, you just had your heroine marry an angel. Do you actually think that happens? Which parts of this actually reflect your belief system?) Or they play things extremely safe and traditional. (Oh boy, another story about a young farm boy who's going to go on a quest and fight the Satan figure and become a hero while his girlfriend does... something peaceful off-screen.) Or they try to be another Lewis in the belief that since Lewis and John Bunyan did it, allegory is an acceptable vehicle for fantasy, and let's be really obvious about the symbolism. (I bet this demon symbolizes evil.) I read Christian fantasy, but it's partially optimistic curiosity, it's partially pessimistic irony, and I haven't found many that I'd recommend.

Rosie unveiled.

But I do like Tales of Goldstone Wood, at least what I've read so far (still missing a few of the installments). I like it enough that I would recommend it to a Christian who wants to read fantasy, or a fantasy reader who doesn't mind Christian themes. Anne Elisabeth Stengl often approaches the Christian elements indirectly, from less obvious angles, so you don't have all the heavy-handed symbols you see in the Lewis and Tolkien knockoffs. She has many, many interesting female characters and a lot of humor. Her series also builds, adding complexity to the world and characters with each installment, many of the characters showing up in multiple books.

Varvare and the unicorn. This unnamed unicorn is one of my favorite elements of the third book – beautiful but dangerous and eldritch. Corrupted – but not exactly evil.

Stengl's also not afraid to get weird and fey with her fantasy elements, at times reminding me strongly of things like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, and no end of Celtic and European folklore. Her magical characters are unpredictable, merry, fearsome, and unabashedly over the top. Her heroes have depth, flaws to go with their heroism, and never become morally perfect even after their conversions – unlike in so much Christian fiction. Much of Christian fantasy bears the thumbprint of CS Lewis; in Stengl's case, though her writing shows clear nods to Lewis (and not just his Narnia books), she isn't trying to replicate him. These aren't books that Lewis would have written.

Daylily and Lionheart. If the series has a protagonist, it's probably Lionheart there on the right. He seems to be doomed to keep showing up in different story arcs, and he's always interesting.

I recommend you begin with the first one, Heartless. Though Heartless is the least ambitious/unique entry – it's straightforward and, of all of the books, the most directly allegorical. (I bet this guy's the Jesus figure. Yep, yep he is.) But it lays the foundation for the world and establishes many of the central characters, including my favorite Eanrin, the blind cat-shapeshifting bard-knight with the heroism of a knight, the selfishness of a cat, and endless flair. Stengl does explore Christian themes, but at the same time she clearly wants to create beautiful language, memorable characters, and engrossing stories. The stories and characters don't feel secondary to the message.

Eanrin, I like him a lot. He also shows up in almost every book, at least the main books, sometimes pre-injury, sometimes post-.

My favorite book is Starflower, the fourth, because of its courageous heroine (who grows into the librarian-knight Imraldera we see in other books), its twisted echoes of “Beauty and the Beast�� and Till We Have Faces, and its focus on, who else, Eanrin in his younger years, before he's really gotten that whole hero thing worked out.

Imraldera. (She's looking at Eanrin.) The series is allegedly over, but I feel like there are still some narrative threads hanging, including with Imraldera here. My hope is that the author returns to the series someday.

As with any recommendation, this isn't a blanket recommendation; you may find things in here you don't like. I don't sign off on every element as perfect. But Christian fantasy is a small genre, it's a weird genre, in my opinion it's often a clumsy genre. Goldstone Wood is proof that it can produce interesting, original material – stuff not merely “good for a Christian fantasy”, but just a good series, period.

[dafpork]

dafpork is like a modern day speakeasy to me because everyone comes in like it’s forbidden but since it’s the modern day it’s perfectly normal. Little secret club

LMAO YES!!! THIS IS A REALLY GOOD ANALOGY.. AND SEE IT'S SO FUNNY because i'm like I DON'T WANT IT TO BE FORBIDDEN... i'm such an accidental hypocrite in that regard because i'm like "i want more people to talk about them i want people to be loud and proud it makes me sad to hear that people might have been initially embarrassed to ship them there's so much to love :(((( anyway here's my SHITTY ART of these people i HATE i'm so EMBARRASSED thanks for putting up with me in my SHAME CORNER UGH i'm so EMBARRASSED they're so EMBARRASSING i SUCK they SUCK it all SUCKS" LOL and i do mean it in a joking manner... mostly... but i'm kind of now at the point where i'm like. Okay well you're going to have to put in some more legwork if you want people to talk about them. (but, again, just the fact that people talk about and support them enough is so great! it's so weird and wonderful to me that people are calling it on dafpork on platforms other than this one, people who may not know i exist... it's cool hearing a term you and your friend came up with in a private discord be used, it shows how much growth there HAS been since there really used to be nothing!)

a dafpork speakeasy sounds so cool though oh my god can you imagine Porky and Daffy themed cocktails...............

COME JOIN US AT THE DAFPORK SPEAKEASY. which, you are not supposed to advertise that a speakeasy is a speakeasy. but it's subversive. like Daffy. or something. this is your sign to play pig and duck with us. yes you

[kafkaesquefemme]

Watch JoJo Siwa go conservative next lol

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

First, let me apologise for making people worry. I appreciate all those who reached out and I'm sorry that I couldn't get back to you all.

I have been through a very rough spiral. It was building for months, and I am still not fully okay.

For those who want context, it's under the cut.

I bought a house in May. It's expensive. I wasn't ready financially or in many ways for that step, but my partner convinced me. I told him as much but I was not heard. Alas, I have a mortgage, full time work, astudent loan, and an ongoing school program to contend with. It hasn't been easy and it caught up to me.

At the same time, a person who traumatised me and I have no way of fully extricating from my life, has moved closer. To keep the peace, I have to associate with him to a degree and he pretends that nothing ever happened. To him, it was nothing.

In June, I moved. It was hard and fast paced. I did most of the paperwork etc for the whole process and obv helped with the physical transition as well. I was responsible for deadlines and checklists for not just myself but my partner.

I was plugging holes in a sinking boat.

At the same time, I had obligations to my family. Every weekend if I wasn't dealing with the house and all that goes into it, I was running around to babysit or see family or whathave you.

In July, I pinched a nerve behind my tailbone. I missed a week of work bc my injury but it took longer for my to recover. I am still feeling it today. It was more than physical, but emotional.

I also got three periods that month. Hormonal can't begin to explain how fucked up I've been.

On top of all that, there are underlying issues associated with other trauma and discontent. I'm realising that I have been loyal and tolerant to the point of my own detriment.

I don't want to hurt people how I've been hurt, so I don't speak up. When people tell me something about myself, I let all the doubts planted in my mind from years of abuse convince me that they're right. I can admit my faults but often times I will think that proof of one flaw means everything about me is rotten.

People forget about me or just don't care. Both or either. They don't put the same effort in that I do. I find it hard to connect because years of disregard and neglect have told me that the other side just won't care.

But I'm not just hurt, I'm angry. I'm seeking therapy and trying to figure this out.

It all boiled over after my last post. Nothing I do is enough. For anyone. Not even when it's a hobby. I was frustrated bc the place I use for escape just made me feel like less than.

Obviously, I don't mean everyone or even the majority. I appreciate the discourse and fun and everything here! There are so many awesome people to interact with and I have missed you all, however, my headspace was bad. Very bad. I had thoughts I haven't dealt with in years.

I put my nose down and just went to work. I didn't wanna talk to anyone. I didn't wanna be in the world.

I did some reading, eventually some non-fandom writing, and sometimes, I just stayed alive.

I don't know if I'm really okay but I'm trying.

To those who have been so patient and supportive, you deserve everything. To those who are silent supporters, you do too. And even to those people who send me the most vile hate, you deserve to lift yourself out of the dark space you're stuck in. Hopefully, I can, too.

[imaginespazzi]

niviiiiii where you at my love??? need your game recap and your crashout over ur wifey being back on the court!!

48 hours later, and now that I can remember the game for more than just Azzi because really that's all I could think about on the actual day, I do have actual game thoughts:

Thank god I had that cloud of happiness about Azzi coming back because if I didn't, I think that game might have actually killed my soul because quite frankly, I didn't think that game was great by any stretch. And listen I love my alums, I love seeing them, love their support etc. etc. but please for the love of god, they can never come to a game against a real opponent and they needa stay so far away from the team during March/April.

The one thing I did enjoy: SARAH FUCKING STRONG. She was just so good and she really just does everything on the court at such a high level. AND THE THREES ARE FALLING! Like everyone should be really scared because Sarah is the real fucking deal.

Thank god Paige lowkey had a good second half because if she'd kept playing the way the she did that first half, the discourse would've been unbearable and I wouldn't have even stepped into defend her like girlie was doing her best *not* to beat the allegation from ND last year. But as always, when she wasn't contributing scoring wise, Paige did everything else. Grandpa should've let her get that double-double.

I like that Ice seems to be becoming consistent with what she does

Thank god for KC in the first half! That's that veteran experience bleeding through where despite the rims apparently being closed for UConn, she found a way. Hopefully that translates to a higher ranked opponent.

We need more from Ash but I do like that she's being aggressive

JANA GIRL LAYUPS!! Please for the love of god truly nothing irritates me more and I'm assuming by the looks he was giving her, Geno's gonna get on her ass about it.

KK continues to give us that spark off the bench but she's still making some freshman mistakes.

Speaking of sparks, Morgan has a definitive impact that won't show up on the box score, but you see it when she steps on the floor every game.

Allie baby I fear you're gonna have to wait your turn and that might not be till next year

AND FINALLY AZZI FUDD!! Man I was just so happy to see my girl so happy to play and she could've score 0 points and I would've felt like she'd scored 50. Gonna add another anon here because I think they captured it pretty well:

Like obviously she didn't do anything otherwordly but immediately you can tell she's moving well and the fact that she was willing to make shot after missing is a great read on her new mentality. AND THE DEFENSE. I remember Azzi saying that's what she took most pride in, in HS, so if we can get that defensive minded Azzi + her shots start falling, well...Geno might faint out of love for her lol.

Overall with opponents like this, it's all about how you beat them and we didn't do it particularly beautifully but like I've been saying, this is a young team and it's early days. I think the Bahama's will be a great test for them and especially if they get Ole Miss, I think we're gonna learn a lot.

[velvetvexations]

Recently I made a survey for two cis allies - both women, one involved in discourse, one very much not, for contrast - to get a look at their perspective. This is nowhere near scientific, but hopefully it works as a small look at how the cis people in our camp view and relate to us.

Thank you and so much love to the participants. <3 You are vitally necessary.

Questions and answers the cut!

Do you know anyone IRL who’s trans? Co-workers, friends, family?

No, live somewhere more small and rural, so the chance of meeting any queer people, much less ones open about it, is slim.

I knew one trans girl in middle school, and I have a cousin who's a trans woman.

Have you ever considered being trans, or had any adjacent unusual feelings about your own gender?

I have, but I've ultimately arrived at "I don't know, I don't care, whatever". Maybe somewhere agender-adjacent, if I'd have to put a word to it? I ultimately don't consider myself trans, though.

No. I very strongly identify as a cis woman.

Are you a fan of any trans content creators?

I don't think so? I don't consider myself a fan of a lot of content creators in general.

Yes, I'm pretty sure.

Do you feel you think often about trans people’s struggles?

Yes.

I try to think about and participate in activism in a lot of different areas that don't directly affect me, so yes, sometimes.

Would you consider yourself knowledgeable about trans issues?

More than the average cis person, at least.

Not really, but I think that's mainly because I never want to feel like I'm overstepping, since I'm a cis woman.

In what ways do you feel the plight of trans people is similar to the suffering of cis women under the patriarchy? How is it different?

Both trans people and cis women (and a lot of cis men, really) suffer from being forced into a box. You have to be this way, and you do not get any say. If you aren't, you're either broken and shouldnt have agency (for your own good), or a threat. People will dish out violence and try to remove your rights to force you into that box, and punish you for stepping outside of it. I think these issues are heavily linked, and while the specifics of what each demographic faces is different (nevermind intersections), i believe the overall problem is the same; what society wants you to be, and how they want you to be it.

I think it's similar in that trans people are discriminated against and we cis women are also discriminated against, like, on a systemic level. The specifics are different, though.

Do you feel that you've ever contributed to transphobia in society?

Yeah. Especially when i was younger, and haven't examined any of it yet. Growing up in a transphobic society inevitably left me with some stuff to work out, and I've done my best to do so, and i will continue to. That's the important part, i think.

Not that I know of, and I would feel really bad if I thought I had accidentally.

Do you believe trans women or trans men have “male privilege”? 

No, that's a really loaded term. Individual trans people may get some advantages in certain settings depending on how they're perceived, but I don't think any of them can really be considered to get any gendered form of privilege, considering their gender is directly what makes them marginalized. Hiding your identity in order to not be mistreated isn't a privilege, it's a result of being oppressed.

I don't think so. This isn't an issue where I feel comfortable speaking as I said. Not that I know of, though.

Do you think things have gotten better or worse for trans people in the last ten years?

Besides the... recent pushback, as a whole, yes.

I think it's a mixture of both, but that's just my outside perspective.

Are you optimistic about where the struggle for trans rights is headed?

I refuse to be anything but. No matter what happens, there will always be trans people, and there will always be allies, and we'll continue fighting. There's simply no other option.

Once again, it's hard to tell as an outsider. Things seem mixed.

How would you react to a trans person being transphobic in your presence? Forex: misgendering someone they dislike.

Just correct them/express my disapproval as i would if they were cis, really? Transphobia is transphobia.

I would feel uncomfortable. Since I'm cis, I don't know if I would feel comfortable saying something, though.

Do you have any message you’d like to give as an ally?

Don't let anyone convince you you're alone in this, and that cis people are all against you. We're here, we love you, and we'll continue to fight for you. Please, don't give up. The world is a better place for having you in it.

Yeah, just that if there's anything I can ever do to support people I would love to!

[violetasteracademic]

Vi are you back!? We've missed you so much! Thank you for blessing us with Elriel smut, queen!

Hi lovely anon! Well ... as far as Elriel smut, I never left, my dear! I've put out some of my proudest work on AO3 since stepping away from Tumblr (honestly, my most recent ACOTF chapter might be my favorite thing I have ever written and I have been living my best life with Velaris Memorial Hospital. And I've finally made my foray into one shots!) I've been posting very consistently and am very excited to see where I land for my 1 year AO3/baby's first fandom anniversary at the end of the month!

Am I back on Tumblr?? Sadly, until the ACOTAR fandom is a little more disco and a little less discourse, it's really not my style. I understand there was quite a mass exodus this month from the latest drama, but my personal exodus was a long time ago on an average day because even the basic daily dramas are just not something I enjoy partaking in and witnessing. And artists, writers, creators, and theorists have been quietly leaving this fandom because of the state of it for years.

I respect that the ACOTAR fandom, especially if you are very invested in the next book, is very locked into the shipwar. And if not the shipwar, it's all these little pro IC versus anti IC factions, or bat boys versus Vanserra's, or sisters versus sisters factions, and they are *all* very vicious and unkind to each other. Even without something extremely major happening, most days my feed was filled with trolls being given attention, rude memes about the other side, screenshots of people throwing around insults, finger pointing, ect. I don't think that energy is going to shift any time soon, and everyone has gotta do what they gotta do. But it's not the most inspirational or enjoyable place to feed creativity, and since I've expanded my fandom experience to much more creatively active ones like BG3 and Arcane, I've learned it doesn't actually have to be this way. This is just the way the ACOTAR fandom is. For better or for worse, I'm not sure it will ever change, because it's what a lot of people are looking for and they are gaining whatever it is they need from the environment.

That being said, Azriel and Elain are my blorbos. I wouldn't change a thing about that. I'll probably be writing about my little loves fucking and falling in love a million different ways for years to come, and have been having even more Feysand and Nessian ideas lately! So I'll keep carving out the space that is safe and enjoyable for me while trying to quiet the rest of the noise.

I do think I'll stop by whenever I have a new work that needs a cute lil banner, an announcement, and update to the master list 🥹 especially because a lot of people seem to enjoy getting their fic news on Tumblr! But I've gotta rock the post and ghost for my wellbeing.

I know this is disappointing to some. Especially those of you who have sent me anons expressing your sadness with the state of the fandom, and how exhausting it is. I see you and am hugging you. It's a bummer to come to this space looking for a safe space to connect and find your people and feel like you don't fit in! Honestly, the main reason I'm even responding is because of that. I hope you feel a little less alone. Many, many creatives in the ACOTAR space don't last. I am merely but one of them. And I think I can safely say it's never only one thing that causes people to step away, there's only the straw that breaks the camels back.

Anywho, hope this wasn't too preachy. Im not trying to change anyone's minds or tell them how to behave. I just got a few anons like this and figured it wouldn't hurt to clarify where I'm at with the ACOTAR fandom and hopefully reach anyone who has been feeling similar or alone!

I'm literally just a girl trying to survive an uncontrolled descent into fascism and live in an increasingly unlivable world. But making my favorite characters smash in the garden brings me joy, as I hope it will continue to bring all of you on the hard days!

[deathdetermineslife]

how do you manage to get any followers or friends in the selfshipping community? is it just luck?

for months i’ve been trying to interact with others and follow people, engaging with stuff like ask games and hosting reblog games, but when i try to share any artwork or i reblog an ask game myself, its radio silence. like even in small discords i get ignored so bad

i don’t say this at all to be guilt tripping /gen, it’s genuine curiosity at how this stuff even works. like am i doing something wrong or is the community just like this?

here is my comprehensive and lame guide on How To Get Selfship Followers

step 1 - posting

so a lot of my posts are either kinda general or fun. folks I will not lie to you. these are all stupid shit that come to my mind on a day to day basis. for example, today, I thought, "man I'm such a loser I'm not in college like all my friends r" and then I was like "omg wait. i could make a post out of this" so I did that.

you also kinda gotta be conistent. so i try to post at least *something* everyday. even if its a reblog, tho, I don't reblog a lot of things other than ask games.

another thing with posting is that i do try to make a lot of community based content. so idk if yall remember but in the beginning of my account, I did the "things you can do if you have xyz f/o". i did like,,, I think almost 100 of those ?????? it was a lot. then I started making templates and I made some ask games and ofc I post a lot of general like,,, imagine stuff. oh also polls. people seem to enjoy polls.

step 2 - be positive

this is the big thing. as most of yall (hopefully) know, I do not fw proshippers !! but I don't talk about discourse unless its directly brought up. not only this, I put a big focus on just,,, being nice idk. like id like to think I'm a pretty down to earth person.

if you make a template and people tag you in it, say something nice! reply to peoples art, send in asks, things like that. i try to do my part in being nice. i also just like hearing about peoples selfships.

when people post promos and have the little "rb to be moots", reblog! when you come across someone having a bad day, maybe they made a vent or something, reply with a simple "I hope you feel better <3" or "your f/o loves you <3". things like that, ya know?

step 3 - have fun

genuinely. i post as much as i do because I like it. i didn't go into this thinking "oh... yea... I'm gonna get selfship famous..." like no I just wanna ramble somewhere bc none of my close irls r selfshippers.

you wont get popular or get followers because you grind out posts. literally one of my biggest posts on this account I wrote while I was half asleep one night and wanted to test out queuing on my account.

and in that regard, it is partially luck. i don't control what posts people do and don't like. sometimes I write up imagines and no one sees them. sometimes I write up a post saying "lol go kiss your fake boyfriend ooo smoochie smoochie" and that does numbers

step 4 - interaction

im only in two servers. one server (which was the first public server I think I ever joined ???? i could be wrong tho,,, bad memory blehg) that I don't own and then my own 18+ server. i don't think being in servers does anything,,, considering I'm only in one that isn't mine. i think its more like ,,, sticking to one or two places ?? like just being consistently in an area you're comfortable in.

i guess you gotta just find the right people ??? and like I mentioned, be friendly, but ya know. also I guess tags too? idk if you look at any of my regular posts I have 8 million tags on them. idk if that actually does anything or not because its kinda hit or miss sometimes.

i was gonna say something else but i forgot. see look listen I dunno how I got here but this is what I do ,,,, effectively nothing. also with the being kind thing, maybe this is how I am bc I'm pagan but I think that if you expect kindness back you wont get anything. sometimes its just nice to be nice. eventually you gain a reputation for being a nice person. you kinda have to not want that tho? like I don't see myself as particularly like ,,, super kind ,,,??? i just do what feels right.

step 5 - uhhhh idk im just rambling now

i guess i also went into this kinda like. damn sometimes this community is a cesspool of absolute meanie pants. i don't wanna be a Meanie Pants and just post my thoughts and the things I think about. i guess how I see it too is, I kinda like ? idk I think all these things anyways why not post them? kinda feels like a waste not to.

also ive been told my posts are pretty recognizable bc of how I format them ? my dividers and such. also tagging all of my imagines and stuff with my 🥀📜 emojis. i guess that helps too? because that's how I recognize certain accounts. "like oh there's them I recognize their dividers and their tags".

also you kinda gotta like,,, not let hate get to you. like have fun with it? i know that's hard, but, that's what you gotta do. when I get printer ink (bc. a hoe does NOT like buying printer ink) im printing out that fucking 8 mile long hate message I got sent. but also that's just the kinda person I am. like people being a dick and stealing my posts and telling me to swallow a glock 9mm doesn't upset me, im more like,, confused more than anything because never in my life have I ever sent hate to anyone. also I have had this "I do not care because you're some loser on the internet and you being an ass wipe is no where near as bad as the shit people have done to me irl" attitude.

TLDR; i dont think youre doing anything wrong because I don't exactly know what I'm doing right. i just... do... and sometimes, "just doing" is enough. maybe its luck, maybe I've been blessed by the tumblr algorithm and I've somehow figured it out, or maybe the community is just genuinely that bad and they pick favorites. maybe its all of the above! who knows. i try not to worry about it. i think at the end of the day, as long as you're having fun posting about your f/os and selfshipping, that's what matters.

alright thats all see ya. if you have any more questions feel free to ask however I fear I cannot answer them </3

[spewagepipe]

On Performer-GM vs. Player-GM

After some analysis and introspection both of my own blog and the discourse I've seen elsewhere, I think I've identified a valuable schism not just in how people design and play RPGs, but in how they fundamentally understand what an RPG is – or more specifically, what a "Game Master" is.

It appears to me that this difference in understanding is leading to a lot of miscommunication, so I want to try to present my findings here as neutrally as I can in the hopes of enabling folks on either side of that schism to avoid talking straight past one another.

I'm calling the first perspective the "Game-Master-as-Performer".

I give it this name because it views an RPG (or more specifically, the campaign) as a kind of show or performance that is being created and presented by the GM. To be clear: I don't mean this in the sense that GMs (or players) are expected to do voices and acting – the "show" can be totally mechanical and flavourless and still exist within this philosophy. Nor do I mean that the GM is necessarily pre-writing the story and the players are just along for the ride – the "show" can often be highly interactive and improvisational (compare it to, say, an improv comic doing crowd work).

What I mean, instead, is that a Performer-GM is seen as a kind of auteur – their job is to create a game for their players (whether in real time or using prepared materials) by whatever means they have available. The novice Performer-GM is regarded like a novice painter might be: their first works are bound to be crude and clumsy because they haven't mastered proper technique yet. The Performer-GM is expected to learn from these awkward first steps, improve their methods and adopt additional techniques garnered from a combination of practice, experimentation, and studying the "works" of other GMs – be it through YouTube videos, personal mentorship, or game rulebooks.

Indeed, a vital feature of the Performer-GM perspective is the idea that systems, mechanics, and other game procedures are treated like "tools in one's toolbox" – to be learned and incorporated into one's personal style in the same way that the developing painter might incorporate chiaroscuro, point perspective, or caricature. The Performer-GM, in their growing mastery of the medium, decides if and when to employ any given tool in the pursuit of the artistic experience they are trying to deliver to their audience. Implicitly, they also therefore ignore the tools that they deem would distract from those aesthetic goals.

I'm calling the second perspective the "Game-Master-as-Player".

I give it this name because it views an RPG as a kind of asymmetrical tabletop game, in which the GM is also a player – but one who is following a different set of rules from the other players. If you're not familiar with the concept of asymmetrical games, the (hopefully familiar) example to use as an analogy is Simon Says. In order to play Simon Says, one of the players has to be "Simon" – that player has to follow a different set of rules from the others, much like the GM follows a different set of rules from the other players of an RPG.

The vital feature of the Player-GM perspective is that the game system (in the sense of the Baker-Care-Boss Principle) is seen as the responsibility of the game's designer, and not as a responsibility of the GM. That is, the RPG designer decides the aesthetic goals of a particular game, and then, through a combination of their own artistic expertise and extensive play-testing, the designer identifies a system (rules, procedures, mechanics, et cetera) that achieves those aesthetic goals with some reliability.

The Player-GM's job, once the designer has completed that task, is to simply use the system as the designer has instructed them to use it – in the exact same way that they would if they were any other player sitting down to any other sort of tabletop game.

The major distinction between these two perspectives, if you will, is the question of who is responsible for the game system? Both perspectives agree that whoever is in charge of the system is clearly the principal "artist" of the game, the auteur who has the greatest ability to guide the game towards some certain aesthetic vision. But the GM-as-Performer crowd says that person is the GM, and the GM-as-Player crowd says that person is the game designer.

From what I have seen, however, neither crowd is particularly aware of the other's frame of reference – more on that next time.

[liesmyth]

anon! I see you! same for the other anon I got 3 weeks ago and left on read — I was trying to decide how to phrase this.

I'm not publishing these in full because I'd rather talk about cool fandom theories I like instead of singling out specific takes I don't agree with.

The one thing I really feel like saying publicly re: TLT fandom discourse is that I think we could all benefit from, like, taking a step back from invoking Tamsyn when it comes to discussing theories or interpretations. I think the tone of the discourse and the fandom as a whole would be a lot healthier if we just agreed that we're getting a lil' bit silly with it, which is 100% what Tamsyn wanted when she started writing, anyway.

There are many fandom posts that EYE would find very compelling if they were presented as "This is a cool idea I had and the lenses through which I choose to engage with this story and these characters..." but often take the tone of "This is CLEARLY what the author means to do, listen up..." — with the implications that people who see things differently are getting a bad grade in lockedtomb reading, and then it stops being fun and it starts getting pretty hostile pretty quick.

I think a lot about Tamsyn's quote "I am writing for my younger self and it would be disgusting of me to try to teach her anything." That's the spirit in which I think it's most fun to engage with her writing. She's an excellent author and her books have a lot going on and many angles you can look at... but they aren't flawless, and she can't have accounted for all the theories the fandom is coming up with. I think we should stop trying to look at these books as though they are That Serious, and give ourselves more credit that maybe we're coming up with stuff the creator never considered, and that doesn't mean your stuff is less valid, but it does mean you shouldn't flex on other fans because you see it and they don't. From everything we know about Tamsyn, she'd probably be the first to say "It's not that deep, unless you want it to be."

For comparison, I've been in ASOIAF fandom for 15 years and we haven't had new material for almost as long and silly theories and renewed interpretations are flourishing every month, and nobody gives a fig about what GRRM was really trying to say because maybe the author's intention isn't the ultimate value of a work, and the author is dead anyway.

IDK. I think we should all get a little sillier with it. I've been guilty of some Not Silly in the past, though hopefully not much, but ultimately I'm here to have fun and so are most people. Especially since TLT is still ongoing, and many interpretations WILL get debunked, we're probably just better off now putting less stock on authorial backing to avoid disappointment later on, and to have more fun as a fandom during the #alectopause.

ANYWAY my askbox is always open specifically to get silly with it. I haven't hornyposted about lyctor sex in a while

[silentsialia]

Bustamante getting the same thing as Pulling was due to having incredible management and more sponsors, she paid for her seat out of pocket, unlike Abbi. The same happened with FRECA and Marta García this year. She was partnered with Doriane Pin, whose management and Mercedes worked wonders, allowing her to race in both F1 Academy and FRECA at the same time, which you can imagine was quite pricey. Overall, Bustamante is an exception. She should be doing a full year of F4. Her results this year were disappointing, but she’s still moving up the ladder. She’s marketable and she's becoming more and more of a pay driver as we speak... I'm not saying she doesn't deserve to move up at all, but it is disappointing how many teams choose marketability over talent when it comes to F1A girls. I guess we’ll see how both she and Pulling perform next year.

I want to preface this by saying that I understand why people don't like Bianca. Her liking those tweets about Lance was childish and fucked up. I don't think her liking those tweets should be career-ending. Granted when I was 18 I wasn't liking ableist tweets about someone who's in a career position that I'm aspiring to achieve. But hopefully she has learned from the fan backlash to not do something like that again.

So that I've gotten that out of the way, I am actually happy for her to be moving up in the feeder series ladder. I hope she is able to be competitive in GB3, as it will be good for women in motorsports. No she's not the most ideal person to be at the forefront but she has sponsors who will pay for her seats, and that's the important thing. She did win races in her rookie F1A season so her time in the series wasn't a complete bust. If she does well in GB3, maybe more teams will take chances and fund more women as it shows they can be competitive at that level.

As for the marketability vs talent discourse, I change my opinion literally everyday on it. Doriane is getting a lot of promotion and she's talented so things are working out for her. On the other hand we have talented people like Maya Weug who rarely gets promoted despite having better racecraft than most of the grid. I do think F1A socials have stepped it up this year in getting more of the drivers involved in their media. But it's still not enough because F1 Academy is still considered an afterthought for most of the F1 paddock. My suggestion would be to have the F1 drivers interact more with F1A. Some teams like RedBull and Mercedes have been doing it, but it would be nice if all 10 teams did. Like did we see Abbi Pulling interact with Esteban or Pierre much? Not really! But I'm thinking if we saw F1A more integrated with the paddock we would have more eyes on them

[xecutivecucumber]

Executive Cucumber's (sorta) thoughts about the Bad Batch 03×10 & 03x11!

Spoilers under the cut

All right guys, I'm not doing my full list of thoughts. These episodes were really, really emotional for me for many reasons and I do not have the emotional energy to do my usual dives. I'm stepping away from the fandom in general for this week. Honestly, for my mental health, I just do not need to be around Fandom discourse right now. I've already left the pertinent subreddits and hopefully I'll survive.

But my brief thoughts!

So, I majored in the Humanities in college. I saw and read a lot of amazing art. But there was a category of art that I like to call, 'this was beautiful and poignant and life changing, but I never want to consume it again.'

These episodes fall under this category. They were art, and they were excruciating.

I also am still firmly in camp 'CX-2 is Tech.' Because it actively makes The Point of No Return less tragic if it is not him. Part of the reason I was sobbing during it was that it was TECH who was being so cruel, destroying the home he'd nearly had, destroying HIS ship, nearly killing his brothers.

And it's Tech, who gave Omega her first comm, who loves her, who would die to keep her safe, who takes her comm and takes her back to Tantiss.

Plus, who the heck else says 'domicile?'

(On the plus side, he gets his revenge on Cid)

My heart is broken for Omega. I hate that she has to make this choice. I KNEW she was going to sacrifice herself. If anyone says 'the Empire did nothing wrong' to me, even as a joke, they're losing a finger.

I dread how the rest of the Batch are going to confront each other about this. Crosshair was also the only one who would let her do this. In a positive way.

...I loved seeing Phee.

I wish I had more to say about Identity Crisis, but I spent that episode trying to overcome my disappointment that it wasn't about Tech. It was still an exceptional episode, regardless of my expectations.

But I do want to say, Cad Bane takes a lot of kid jobs. What's up with that? Weirdo.

Anyway, happy birthday to me! I get: Omega getting taken and Tech destroying everything he loves. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.

[andreal831]

I understand you have your favorite characters and preferred ships, but you don't need to tear down characters and ships you dislike to uplift the ones you do like. People can like their Klaus ships, just the same way you like your Elijah ships. And it's even to create fantasy ships for fanfic purposes. Fanfic isn't real anyway, so it's not that serious. It's all just in good fun. And as for your point about Klaus and Genevieve, it's okay for Klaus to have some fun too and for women to be interested in him too. Klaus and Genevieve were both consenting adults, it wasn't even a serious relationship, so I don't see the problem with it. You make it sound as if women who show interest in Klaus and not Elijah are any lessee than those who are interested in Elijah. Not everything revolves around Elijah, not everyone had to be pining over him only. He's not the only one allowed to have sexy time. I'm just saying.

I say this with all due respect, if my post about my least favorite ships upset you, you may need to take a step back from fandoms or just tumblr specifically.

When we are in fandoms, it's important to protect our own peace, so block tags you don't want to see or avoid reading posts that may trigger you. I was specifically asked what my least favorite ships are. I tagged it correctly and emphasized it was my opinion multiple times. It doesn't need to affect you or your opinions/favorites. If you disagree, that's absolutely fine. It does not impact my opinions, just like my opinions shouldn't impact you. Fandoms are fun and we can have great discourse but this response isn't it.

I'm not sure if you are a regular follower and just having a rough day and this set you off or if you are new and went through my blog, either way, you've read my posts and know that I always answer truthfully and try to stay as consistently as possible. Yes, I have biases and welcome people to call me out on them. However, I don't believe that's what's happening here. But I'll still address your concerns.

First, I never tore down any characters in that post. Rather I addressed why I didn't like the ships. Critiquing a character/ships is not the same as tearing them down. Art is meant to be critiqued. Second, I did not use that post to uplift any of my ships I like. I personally think you should be able to like characters/ships without having to discuss others. I often avoid talking about characters/ships I don't like because it brings discourse like this and I don't prefer it. But again, I answered an ask. I also never said you can't like a Klaus ship. Klamille is a top 5 ship for me. But I won't apologize for not liking his other, more abusive ships. You can like them all you want, but just because you do, it doesn't mean I need to. Yes, Klaus and Genevieve are consenting adults, I never claimed they weren't. That is the least of their problems. The problem lies in the fact that she was plotting against his family, specifically plotting to murder his unborn child. Especially considering Klaus has always made Rebekah feel bad for her choice in men when he is actively inviting their enemy into their home.

And finally, I get you were upset by my post but this idea that I don't like these ships because they don't revolve around Elijah is a little absurd. I even mention an Elijah ship I don't like. There are actually several that I've discussed. I don't like this idea that every character has to be obsessed with one character. It doesn't make sense for the specific characters and makes a boring story. Again, Cami is one of my top favorite women in the show which negates a lot of the points you made.

I'm sorry you go so upset by that post. Tumblr should be a fun place where you engage with material that makes the fandoms exciting. If you have any more concerns, I welcome you to reach out. Hopefully in a less hostile tone next time.

Hope you have a great new year!

[meleebites]

LAST EDITED: JUNE 15TH

!! INTRO POST !!

Hello. I am Kannon, but you may know me as Tank. Both names work!

I am an 18-year-old Canadian writer, artist, student ruler and full-time selfshipper (with a lovely real girlfriend too!). I am an aroflux bisexual (fem lean) guy and I use He/Him pronouns (I'm that heteronormative trans man your friends warned you about). I'm also a tiger and a dragon, which is hopefully at least kinda cool.

My Smash mains (in order of consistency) are King Dedede, Bowser & Incineroar.

I am currently 1 month on T.

Most of my art is traditional. I usually won't post any art I have that I know won't get notes. Find all of my art and OCs on my Toyhouse (private because of harassment).

BOUNDARIES, WARNINGS, FICTIONKIN AND FICTIONAL OTHER LIST BELOW THE CUT.

My blog is not intended for those under 16, and I often post or reblog content that is sexual in nature. I do not post or reblog porn. If you find my difficulty controlling sexual urges obnoxious or gross, I do not care so just block me. I plan on possibly making a seperate blog for more explicit sexual content at some point later on. My content also may contain violence (implied or explicit), mild gore, and most other things you'd see on a list of content warnings. I do not intend to romanticize, promote or glorify toxic or illegal behaviours. Reblog ≠ support of OP.

I am white, perisex and able-bodied. Please let me know if I accidentally say something that could come across as racist, intersexist or ableist. I never want to hurt anyone but in case I accidentally say the wrong thing (for example, a harmful word/term that I don't know is harmful), please don't hesitate to inform me for future reference!

I am against transmisandry/transandrophobia deniers, radqueers, xenosatanists, loli/shota, incest, romanticized toxic/abusive relationships, adult x minor, J.K. Rowling supporters and Vivziepop supporters, and I block freely. I will also block any suspected bots who follow me or message me. Do not involve me in system discourse for now, I'm very confused.

If you call yourself proship/comship, I will assume you romanticize/glorify/woobify abuse, noncon/dubcon, incest, and/or pedophilia in fiction, which does affect reality. Step far away from me if you get off to the idea of any of that stuff, I don't care if it's "not hurting anyone", it's still fucking weird.

I support contradictory queer identities. It's not up to you to determine how someone else wants to identify.

Keep me and my content as far away from AI as possible. I'll talk about that one Undertale mod where the dialogue is all AI-generated but that's mostly it. Do not let my shit even NEAR AI.

My main fictional others (and selfship emoji combos), all romantic, are...

☆ Asgore Dreemurr (Undertale)- 💥🌻 Since March 1st, 2024, NONSHARING. My primary fictional other and my sweet buttercup. It is my duty to protect him from anyone who hates him or claims to love him as much as or more than I do. You will always be safe with me, honeybunches. ♡

☆ Rolf (Animal Crossing)- 💥❄️ Since December 19th, 2023, nonsharing

☆ Tabi (Friday Night Funkin' VS Ex)- 💥🦴 Since approximately July 2nd, 2021, nonsharing

☆ Death (Puss In Boots: The Last Wish)- 💥🪦 Since approximately March 20th, 2023, nonsharing. We're on and off, but I still kiss them.

☆ Fluttershy (My Little Pony)- 💥🦋 Since April 26th, 2025, selective sharing

☆ Rarity (My Little Pony)- 💥💎 Since April 26th, 2025, sharing

☆ Queen Chrysalis (My Little Pony)- 💥🐛 Since April 26th, 2025, selective sharing

☆ Inspekta (Great God Grove)- Emoji combo not here, since May 8th, 2025, sharing

Dupes of my nonsharing fictional others will be blocked on sight. Familial or platonic selfshippers are free to interact as I do not see that as being a double. Please send in an ask if you want to be added to my selfship taglist!

I love being messaged, asked questions or sent fictional other love letters— so don't be shy to send me a little something! I don't bite unless you ask for it, and I'll probably send you something back :}

My highest fictionkins are...

☆ Blixer / Fresh / Boss (Just Shapes & Beats)

☆ Bowser (Mario series)

☆ RetroSpecter / Zerktro / Metro (RetroSpecter- the characters, not the person)

☆ Incineroar (Pokémon)

Please be wary of these. If you thirst for or are a kin double of me (any of these characters, minus Incineroar as we are a species), I will block you. Again, familial or platonic selfshippers are free to interact.

TAG GUIDE:

☆ Kan speaks: Casual posts

☆ Kan answers: Responding to asks (always open)

☆ Kan creates: Art

☆ Kan kneads: Interest posting

☆ Kan roars: Announcements / things I find important

☆ Kan vents: Venty / ranty things

[dizzythegreat]

Keeper of the Lost Cities meta: a hopefully-not-too-critical analysis

Starting off by saying that this whole thing is a just little too pretentious and a just little too fueled by irritation so don't take everything I say as fact! I'm just kind of ranting about things that I feel like most people are annoyed with (?) please share your thoughts with me! I think it's important for discourse like this to happen to keep fandoms alive!! non-Keeper mutuals feel free to DISREGARD!

First of all Keeper has such a special place in my heart, I started reading the series when I was 12 and I'm 16 now, so I really did kind of grow up with the books. I LOVED the series as a kid and hyperfixated on it for a really long time. As the series progresses and as I read it from a different lens, I'm seeing all of the flaws so much more clearly, so this whole rant basically stems from realizing something so special to me is flawed media and wanting to get my thoughts somewhere. All of this comes from a loving place! I'm just putting down my top few issues with the series and my opinions on a lot of different elements <3

DISCLAIMER I'm doing a reread but I'm only on book 1 and my memory is shit. Any false information is literally not my fault leave me alone

1. Length, redundancy, and predictability

This one really starts in Flashback #7 for me. It will always, always evade me why that book contains ~300 straight pages of Sophitz fluff and fucking around in the healing center. I know that a lot of people enjoyed those parts, which is totally valid! Shipping is a cornerstone of this series! But for me it felt so pointless and fan servicey, idk. And this is maybe my biggest problem with the books: they drag. We're at 9 and a half books now, each spanning like 500-800 pages, and the plot drags and drags and drags. I don't know if Shannon's publisher makes her fill a certain number of pages or what, but I feel like at least 100 pages of bullshit could be cut from each book and nothing would change. They start to almost follow a formula: 200 or so pages of figuring out the Neverseen's plan of the hour, another 200-ish to plan how to defeat them, and then finally we learn that the Neverseen is actually always one step ahead and the crew gets crushed oh my god tragic!! It worked as a subversion of expectations the first couple times but by now I feel like most people could basically just predict what's going to happen in any given book. Sometimes I wonder got left on the cutting room floor because it feels like SM wrote a first draft, barely trimmed it down, and published just that. The plot spins in circles, the protagonists are confused yet again, I am pulling my hair out in chunks.

It's a huge turn-off to a lot of new readers seeing these super thick books, and it's even a turn-off to me when I do rereads because surprise surprise, I don't actually really give a fuck if Fitz likes Sophie back, or at least not enough to read 300 pages on it per book. If the books were more concise, not only would that fix a lot of the plot and character development issues, it would also make them way more digestible because to be honest with you I probably couldn't remember half of what happens in most of them.

2. Sophie...

I think this is a very polarizing opinion but I just kind of don't like Sophie as a main character? I honestly think she's fallen victim to becoming a Mary Sue and not even in a "wehhh powerful woman make me mad" type way! It's just that Sophie at her fullest power is undeniably the most powerful elf in a battle, so to counteract this, Shannon has to keep finding ways for the Neverseen to take away Sophie's power. Whether through the whole "she can only inflict everyone at once" thing or breaking every bone in her hand or creating forcefields or literally fucking anything to stop this kid with five million superpowers, they have to find a way to effectively tie her down so the battles seem somewhat realistic. This then creates a weird pattern where every battle goes one of two ways: Neverseen finds a way to effectively debilitate Sophie and all her friends, or she just goes fucking sicko mode and destroys everyone. You just can't have a main character who's this much ahead of everyone else in terms of raw power.

For me, I think the biggest issue with Sophie is she's not relatable to the average reader. The age demographic for Keeper is preteens and teens. How many 13 year olds are the most powerful, unstoppable person in their friend group, in which three hot guys are head-over-heels in love with them, living in very comfortable conditions, with like five hundred friends? If you were that fucking baller at 13 then go fuck yourself that's super cool for you! But the core pillars of Sophie's life, disregarding the all the magical stuff (which obviously requires some suspension of disbelief) are simply not relatable or recognizable to the average reader. So how are we as readers supposed to feel connected to Sophie's life and situation if we never have (and let's face it, never will) experience anything close to the more realistically human parts of her life?

3. Character development (and the lack thereof)

Say what you will but to me the character development is so pale and arguably just doesn't exist. It feels like everyone has become so one-dimensional, so predictable, and so limp. Sophie has it the worst because we read from her POV, so all of her quirks and thoughts become really fucking annoying to read over and over again. For example, The whole oblivious "omg does Dex like me? does Keefe like me? DO I LIKE FITZ???" thing was cute when she was 12 back in book one but by now I am genuinely tearing my hair out when I have to read "Sophie blushed" every two pages. The whole "I'm a freak and nothing I do ever works and all is hopeless" thing was easy to feel sympathy for the first few times, but by now it's just kind of... exhausting? It feels like the naïve, oblivious Sophie from book 1 is exactly the same person as Stellarlune Sophie, no matter how many hideouts SM makes her burn down to prove she's ruthless or something. At this point, I feel like Sophie's choices throughout the series end up either being really predictable or wildly out of left field.

Every character other than Fitz, Keefe, and Sophie (and you could make a case for the three of them too) have become a shadow of themselves and they all get at most two conversations worth of pagetime. This can be attributed to a lot of things that I don't feel like talking about so here they are in point form: excessive focus on the main "love triangle", overloaded cast of protagonists, too much emphasis on A) furthering the plot and B) Sophie's inner thoughts instead of character relationships and found family. I think the books have lost sight of the original love, trust, and bond created by the five mains, and those super interesting dynamics between the different sets of friends that were so abundant in the first few installements have become few and far between. When I was a kid, I loved the books for the warm friendships and soft moments between Sophie and Dex, and now we're lucky if they even really talk to each other if not to push the plot. Biana barely exists, Marella and Linh show up every once in a while to be gay as fuck and then leave, Stina turned nice and then immediately went back to being a bitch because SM, for some reason, un-did all her redemption, and everyone else fucks around until they're plot-relevant. Where's the squad where's the crew where's the homoerotic undertones?!

4. Miscellaneous whining

Fitz's character is wildly inconsistent imo. I love you Sophie but I'm going to consistently get mad at you over irrelevant things and ice you out even though you need my support! Your boyfriend is for the streets girl

Fuck this whole half-book thing I'm sorry. Understandably, things have slowed down now that SM has two kids and I'm really truly happy for her and I'm glad she's taking time out of her work for herself and her family. But when she keeps releasing these weird novellas every year as some kind of "solution", it really just seems like a cop-out or a cash grab. I wish we could tell Shannon that we don't necessarily need a 700+ page novel to consider it a book! I personally would love if book 10 was more concise!! Let's just get this plot moving a bit!!

Sophie burning Gisela's book BURNS MY BLOOD. SM just had no fucking idea what she wanted that book to say + it would probably end the series too quick so she got Sophie to burn the most crucial piece of information they could have ever used under pretense of "refusing to follow Gisela's trap" or whatever OH MY GOD

Sooo many dropped plot lines/plot holes there is no way this shit is being resolved in the next 1 and a half books. See you all in 2034 for book 13.125

Sokeefe endgame was great but so predictable. Half the reason most people read this series is for the will-they-won't-they thing with Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe (justice for Dex!), and I think it was executed very badly. You could predict that Sophie and Fitz would burn out, you could predict that she would end up with Keefe, there was net 0 suspense by the time Fitz made his 500th dick move. I know I just complained about things being stretched out for so long but this one could have done with some taking it slow without making it obvious what was going to happen

Can Marella and Linh just kiss already

Anyways this all comes from a place of loving frustration. Oh Keeper my love, look what has become of you. Ultimately, SM started a fantasy series without knowing the ending, and it's spun out of control, but what can you do? I appreciate the series for what it is, I wish it was better, but I'll always love it. Through all my bitching and moaning I'm still rereading it to this day so who's really winning here? Please rb and comment and dm I love discussing Keeper!!! If you think I'm an idiot tell me!!! If you agree with me tell me!!! Don't be a dick!! Thanks for making it this far! Don't forget to like and subscribe and smash that bell

[marveliciousfanace]

miss reading your fics on ao3 - i check your page daily to see if you’ve posted anything. just found your blog after furiously searching for you to make sure i wasn’t missing anything. hope you’re doing okay!!

Getting this message meant a lot to me, so I apologize for the delay in answering - I don't check my tumblr often, for health reasons, which is also why I'm still working on answering the backlog of comments on my fics. It truly astounds me sometimes that there are people who don't just read my work, but like it enough to check my page for updates or track down my tumblr, and it's very humbling. It's been a very difficult six months for me, for real-world political reasons and overlapping mental health reasons, and it's been very frustrating for me personally that I haven't been able to write in that time.

That being said, I will have a fic to post in the near future, though if you're one of my D20 readers, you may not be happy to hear it, since I'm taking a break from D20 fic. I've made many jokes about mismag season 2's potential to kill me, but in actuality during that time period I did feel a lot of pressure (almost entirely self-imposed) about the uncertainty with canon. I've been in some very negative fandom spaces before, and among other things, as a k'kelmp primary shipper, some of the rising discourse I was seeing as samvan became increasingly canon made me very anxious about what the responses might be if I kept posting. Again, this was self-imposed, and frankly a little silly, as I am also a samvan shipper (and other assorted variations of pilotcule) but it made trying to engage with my D20 fic (both mismag specifically and D20 as a whole, as well as the other fandom fics I was attempting to work on at the time, which were collateral by proxy) very stressful for me at a time when I had very little energy to write.

I would like to go back to my D20 fic eventually when I'm feeling more stable about it - I have many concepts I'd still like to explore, not to mention a FH wip I'd hate to abandon - but in the meantime, I do have a Codywan fic I'll be posting on May 4th, because a few concerned friends stepped in and lovingly dunked me in Star Wars brainrot recently, and I tripped face-first into loving the saddest man in the galaxy and his clone boyfriend brother-in-arms. I have a few fics I'm working on for them right now, and it's very good to be writing again, slow as it's been. If you're one of my readers who has followed me across fandoms, hopefully you'll enjoy it. If you're a consumer purely of my D20 work (or whichever else of my fandoms you may be coming to me from), know that I deeply appreciate you asking after me, and I am okay (as okay as any of us can be in these times). Hopefully I will have something more your speed before long.

In short (a thing I am woefully incapable of accomplishing lol): thank you for this message, anon, it truly means a lot.