#hopefully this wasn't all too spoilery!

[abyssalzones]

reading thru ur posts about the BoB is like. making me SLIGHTLY less afraid to read it. i have it but havent cracked it open amd im very interested to see your full review though! At the same time im sooooo Fully Afraid of seeing stupid takes from the fandom abt the book 🥹 ppl do not know how to act

yeah -_- I'm glad it's made you less afraid, because I found it to personally be a very cathartic read after enduring the brunt of it (which I will elaborate on... soon...) and I would love for more likeminded Gravity Falls fans to read it as well so I can see what they think. And... yeah, that's largely because, likewise, I don't trust a good chunk of the takes from people I'm seeing right now. I dipped into the tag for about 15 seconds and had to leave.

I suppose most of all I just don't understand how we all read the same book if I'm seeing so many people reducing the core message of the story to... shipping fuel? and I've seen people acknowledge that it's supposed to read that way, and to some extent I actually do agree!- but in the sense that ford and bill's relationship is, uh, unquestionably abusive. not "toxic", but like, maybe one of the realest depictions of what it's like being manipulated and living with the shame of intimate partner abuse that I've... ever seen. You could totally counter that statement by saying I haven't seen enough TV shows or whatever but I don't know, it meant a lot to me.

So I'm right there with you, basically. It's very odd and alarming how people approach these things when it is literally the most cut and dry shit ever and then go "but it's canonnn" when you get kind of weirded out about how their immediate instinct is to draw them being cutesy together without any deeper thought. It just reads as very tasteless.

[physics-of-one-piece]

I absolutely cannot wait for “I’ll build castles for you, my love”!!! I’m now a sucker for possessive soft, brought to his knees for you Doflamingo. I’m so excited to see how you write the full fic since I’m so in love with the little snippets you’ve written so far! Sending lots of love and writing inspo your way!!! ❤️❤️

Aaaa, I'm excited too, anon! Thank you so much for this lovely message, for sending the inspo my way, and I am sending you all the love! ❤️❤️

I took a bit of a break from writing I'll build castles for you, my love since I went all out and wrote like 15k overall in like a week or two and I've been writing what I call Red Suit Doffy Fic which is set sorta in the same setting, except Doffy manages to get Reader right away before the marines come pick her up so...

I just used it as an excuse because my jaw was on the floor when I saw North Blue Doffy wearing his red suit on Minion Island. Just... On the floor. God, he looks so ✨FINE✨ 😩

Possessive, soft, brought down on his knees for you Doflamingo is def my favourite Doffy to write. He has his soft moments, but he is def also an absolute gaslighting asshole. I always try to keep Doffy... Well, Doffy. For, I'll build castles for you, my love by having that last remaining bit of you as family via your connection to Rosinante, he clings to you a... A lot. He doesn't show you at first, but oh boy, the more times he visits, the more times he sees you, he just... There is a flutter in his chest that gets stronger and stronger with every visit. You're his, your baby with Rosinante might as well be his, too. Forget Rosi. Doflamingo's the better brother - he is the one who walked out of Minion Island alive, after all, and he wouldn't have done that if he wasn't better, now would he?

I think the most fun (read terrifying) thing has been just writing that Celestial Dragon Thought Process™ Doflamingo has, and after rewatching Ep 733 where he explains his view of people to Luffy, seeing on how he treats "humans" depending on his fondness/feelings for them is interesting. And also, Celestial Dragon Traditions which are FUCKED UP. They're 800 years old, so there will be some fucked up practices they consider normal which Doflamingo sticks with - such as the head of the CD family having a right to marry his dead sibling's spouse and taking his family as his own! Isn't that neat? 😊 It's totally normal for Doffy to fantasize about marrying you. Totally normal for him!

Okay, I am now obliged to share a snippet from I'll build castles for you, my love bcs your message made me so happy, thank you for sending it, anon. Lemme just skim and see sth non-spoilery (hopefully)...

***

“Nothing would stop me from coming back to you,” growled Doflamingo, his forehead creased in a frown, his smile gone; he wasn't playing around anymore. “There could be an army of ten thousand in my way, and I’d still come back to you!”

You froze. Your hand went limp in Doflamingo’s massive grip. He was crowding your space, infringing upon your personal bubble without a thought for your comfort, invasive. His tanned hand clutched yours, dwarfing it.

“Why can’t you get that?” he demanded, his face intimately, terrifyingly close to yours. 

***

I need everyone to know Doffy SPEEDRUNS the Grand Line and gets his warlord title a MONTH after Rosi's death in this fic so he can be there for Reader during her pregnancy. You thought Luffy's crew did a great speedrun? Nah, the Donquixote Pirates invented the Grand Line Speedrun.

Thank you for the kind message, anon. Sending all the love to you ❤️

[onionjulius]

Alright so, ER rewatch is happening, but I'm swamped with work and so I'll have to wait for episode posts. For now, an initial inventory of my remembrance of the main characters/my opinion of them:

Love: Carol Hathaway, Mark Greene, Susan Lewis, Kerry Weaver, Abby Lockhart, Luka Kovač

Really like: John Carter, Doug Ross, Peter Benton, Elizabeth Corday, Lucy Knight, Jing-Mei Chen, Greg Pratt

Like: Jeanie Boulet*, Cleo Finch, Michael Gallant

Unlikeable but not devoid of complexity: Robert Romano, Dave Malucci

I remember your existence: Neela Rasgotra, Anna Del Amico

I don't remember your existence: Sam Taggert, Ray Barnett, Archie Morris, Tony Gates, Simon Brenner, Cate Banfield

*Jeanie's on the cusp between Like and Really like.

I'll be curious to see if my opinions change much watching this show 15-30 years after it initially aired. No doubt there will be cringe "Oh wow that aged poorly" moments, but hopefully also some that hold up well. It'll also be interesting to watch a pre-Prestige TV critical hit post-Prestige TV (and yeah, nostalgic, I'm getting quite nostalgic in my old age). And I'm wondering how my impressions of the characters will hold up in a close watch; I think I'm much more analytical now, and I'm pretty sure my opinions reflect the characters at their best without necessarily accounting for them at their worst. Although maybe that's not a bad thing as long as it's consistent.

More character recollections, some quite spoilery:

Mark's death slew me. It was so protracted too, he was suffering so much and his family was fraying at the seams and I just remember him trying so hard to handle things the best he could with that understated irony of his and just feeling so terribly for him. There was that thing with the guy in the elevator that he just let die, I don't remember what became of that ...

I love so much that Mark is really just Some Guy trying to do his job well while having normal Some Guy things like a wife and kids and basketball breaks. He's smart, decisive, dedicated, compassionate, a good teacher, and truly a deserving leader.

I know that Jeanie had at least one great story, which of course is the HIV story. I'm actually struggling to recall much before that, so that'll be fun.

I just ... I remember having such complex reactions to Kerry, and all these years later that has registered in my memory as love. I love Kerry, warts and all. You could feel so bad for her while simultaneously hate what she was saying or doing, and I do think she learned things over time. She was an outsider, a party pooper, ambitious and career-driven, a disabled lesbian, oil to Doug Ross' water. She was not easy to love, and so I loved her. Also, she was ER Mom. Love you, Mom!

I also loved Kim/Kerry. They felt so real and human and not simply an "issues" story. I find myself not recalling much of her relationship afterward, so looking forward to seeing if it is a worthy follow-up.

I loved Mark/Susan. They were such easy friends, so natural and believable together, so bright and breezy and (mostly) supportive and wonderful. I think they would have made a fine endgame, it was so easy to want good things for each of them, and what an unforgettable, lovely and bittersweet moment when she left Chicago on that train.

For all that though, I liked Mark with Elizabeth. It's true there wasn't the same will-they-won't they (and I remember feeling like her thing with Peter ended rather abruptly) but their domesticity was very sweet and she was a kick-ass character, strong and funny.

Romano was ... Problematic ... but his bond of some sort with Elizabeth was probably the best thing about his character.

I remember feeling that Peter was shafted, but that said he did last 8 years and I remember some good stories with his mother and sister, work vs parenthood, the custody battle, and of course (of course) his evolving dynamic with Carter.

Seriously though. Benton/Carter.

And on the topic of BroTPs: Mark/Doug!

There's something about the two most ambitious characters being Peter, a black man, and Kerry, a woman, that I kinda love.

Upon reflection, it seems to me that at least some of my affinity for Susan and Abby have to do with their family stories--particularly, having to deal with flawed family members, walking the line between loving and enabling, battling the desire to hope because of the need to protect against disappointment. It's ... interesting? ... because I don't have any deadbeat family members or family members who refuse to take responsibility for their illnesses, but something about how they use sarcasm to deal with life resonates with me, even though Susan in my head was a sunny character while Abby was a little black raincloud.

I loved Abby. Abby was a hot mess, a human disaster, a trashfire. Abby was strong, but also a coward. Abby was full of contradictions, Abby mistook self-abnegation for independence, Abby was only happy when it rained. Abby was hard to love, and so I loved her.

There was something about Abby/Luka that I found compulsively watchable. Something probably having to do with being really messed up and dysfunctional and full of maladaptive habits, but nevertheless wanting love like any other human being. There was a brooding intensity and understatedness to them that I remember just eating up. I was an undercover emo kid, what can I say.

That said, there was a phase in which he was truly insufferable (which I know was them taking a page out of the Doug Ross book ... but he isn't Doug Ross, even though he was brought on as a direct replacement). I'm curious if, on my rewatch, it will feel like an organic arc given how sweet, patient, gentlemanly and sensitive I recall him being at the start. Oh tragic little meow meow.

The final scene between Carol and Luka is so etched in my brain. "Because I'm still in love with him. I've been in love with him since I was 23 years old. He's everything to me. I feel complete when I'm with him and I feel empty when we're apart. He's the father of my children, and he's my soulmate." Yes, Doug was a manbaby and yes I was so hurt on Carol's behalf that he left her for Seattle, but really Doug/Carol were the Truth. You bought their connection so thoroughly and George Clooney's chemistry with Juliana Margulies was critical to that.

I remember thinking that Peter/Cleo's chemistry was nothing in particular to write home about (you know, not bad, but not special) ... but hell if they weren't beautiful together. Michael Michelle was just so stunning.

I really thought that they were heading for a lot of yummy Carter-denying-his-feelings-for-med-student-Lucy angst, which I was so there for. But I can't deny that what ended up happening (you know ...) was unforgettable television.

On that note, Carter was never the same after That. There's such a sad lost innocence about his character, given how earnest and caring and even hapless he was at the start. That's not necessarily a bad direction to go, narratively speaking, but one would hope for some eventual hard-won optimism for him all the same.

And yeah, at some point ER became darker and soapier, but I honestly have good memories of a few of those years, before becoming bored.

Like, another scene seared into my brain is Maggie Wyczenski turning on a dime and going postal right in the middle of the ER, screaming "I'm leaving! I'm leaving! I'm leaving! Iiii'm leaving!" and "You're my daughter you bitch!". God did Sally Field earn that Emmy or did she earn that Emmy. I wouldn't want to have missed out on that story, for all that it was such a downer.

Apparently Sam, Ray, Archie, and Tony came on more or less when Neela did, but she's the only one I remember. How'd that happen? Though I can't say I remember her stories, so there is that.

I remember watching with my sophomore year roommate the night that Romano freaking lost his arm to a helicopter. It was crazy. And I really thought it couldn't get any crazier, but then, as you know ...

The look of the show really changed from beginning to end, which, given that it lasted fifteen years, is probably to be expected. But I remember most the constantly moving camera in so many of the medical emergency scenes, and I hope that doesn't go away.

Mark's daughter and Peter's son were impossibly cute. Impossibly cute. So so cute. So so so so so cute.

Speaking of Chicago in the 90s, goddamn do y'all remember how incredible the Bulls were? I don't know why I'm putting that in this post, but I guess I am.

Carter/Jing Mei were such great friends, they never stopped being competitive with each other but they nevertheless grew up together and I love that the show never hooked them up.

I don't recall quite why but I feel like Doug and his dad were reminiscent of Riker and his dad from Star Trek. I don't know.

Okay yeah that's all for now.

[brightsstar]

Happy second anniversary to the Regretful Eclipse AU!

I know i've said this before, but this au is the most worked on au i've ever made. As slow as it's been lately, i still have a lot of passion for the project and i am glad a lot of people have enjoyed it too. It's part of why i haven't quit yet.

This year i wanted to do something more special than i did last year. I wasn't able to finish all of them, but i always had this idea of making book covers, in a sense for each story, or at least pieces for the stories, portraying the main events for each. I planned to make 3 but only finished 2 of them.

First though, the Discord is reopened for a week, and the Regretful Eclipse AU series is all public now, and hopefully it can stay that way. Here are the links to both.

Discord

Ao3 series

And here are the pieces i managed to finish.

Blood In The Dark was also supposed to get one, but i didn't get it finished in time. Maybe later on. I do wish i had a better idea for Rising Eclipse's here, but i don't hate it. And i put a lot of time into Star Trail's, though it isn't done yet, still. Nothing too spoilery in it, at least.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with my little stories and leaving comments, and interacting with me. I never expected this to reach as many people as it has, but i am so happy it has, and i want it to reach more. Which is why i unlocked all the stories in the series. It's not all my works ever, but all the works in, or related to the RE AU are unlocked (including Living Under A tyRant, though it is not in the RE Series) i hope to enjoy this au to the very end, and share its' story. Thank you to everyone who has stuck around this long and i hope the story reaches many more to come. Love you all, and happy second anniversary to the RE AU!

[the-eeveekins]

Saw Gundam SEED Freedom in theaters last night! My spoiler free verdict?

It's good, I loved it. It's definitely got problems here and there, but the finale was great. I was having so much fun during the final battle that it helps smooth out a lot of the rough edges. Once it stops taking itself too seriously and just has fun the movie turns into an absolute blast! It's pretty much pure SEED, from the melodrama to the ridiculous battles. Shinn & Lunamaria got some much needed justice after all these years, and the battles were great, especially the warship combat!

Really my only significant complaint coming out of the movie was all the weird fanservice and sexual harassment bits. The bedroom scene wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I could have done without the weird camera angles on Lacus and Shinn accidentally groping yet another girl. I know it's SEED and Fukuda, but that could have stayed in the early 2000s.

If you hated SEED before, I don't think this is going to change your mind on the series. But if you enjoyed either of SEED or Destiny, I think you'll enjoy the movie.

SPOILERY THOUGHTS BELOW!

Ah man, that moment where the Mighty Strike Freedom is formed and fucking Meteor drops was the hypest shit, brought a tear to my eye. What an awesome final battle, from Murrue's moment in the Millennium, Shinn absolutely stunting on the Black Knight Squad and the Mighty Strike Freedom vs. Cal-re.A.

Agnes was an...interesting character. I don't dislike her but I feel like the format didn't do her any favors either. So glad that Luna nailed that shot on the nuke and had her moments, especially after 2 decades of awful aim jokes. And YES, Shiho Hahnenfuss! I enjoyed every second of her very brief screentime. She even got an audible gasp this time! Maybe 20 years from now she'll actually get a line of dialogue 😂 Hopefully by then they'll finally run out of Destroy Gundams and someone will finally PROPERLY dismantle Requiem.

Anyway Shinn, my child, I love you, but you are a fucking dumbass for that stunt you pulled with Luna. You're lucky you only got slapped.

[skuppo]

hi hi!! i’m not sure if this is THE skuppo from AO3 but this is me shooting my shot anyways 😮‍💨

BUT my question to you: is hawks gonna start catching feels for suzu?!?!

i think i saw a previous comment that you made a few chapter ago saying that he might??? but idk!! i can’t remember 😭 that would absolutely drive dabi BALLSTIC (i can’t wait to see him implode with jealousy LOL) and i honestly love hawks so much that i hope this is the case 🥸 because to me, hawks and dabi are literally the same people but different fonts LMFAOOOO

orrrrr bakugo or todoroki start catching feelings for her?!?! she’s literally their age!! (and a lot of us are speculating that she might attend UA 👀)

ahhh okok i’m sorry for asking so many questions 😭 i know you don’t want to spoil anything but i love hearing your rants and miss you!!! ok byeeee 🩷

IT IS ME! Hi, hello! 👋👋💖💖 ON TO THE (SORT OF SPOILERY BUT PROLLY WAY MORE BLUE-BALLSY) ANSERRRRR:

(Man tho, imagine if it wasn't me, and there were just two people named Skuppo out and about losing their respective shits over the Dabbster and somehow we had not met or did not know about each other! Glad to see AU-Tumblrverse!me still has good taste… the good taste being just liking Dabi LOL 😌)

ALSO LOL 😭😭 THESE QUESTIONS ARE SO SPOILERIFIC AHHH 😭 I feel like I'm already really prone to spoiling a lot in my comments, though LORD KNOWS I TRY TO KEEP SOME AIR OF MYSTERY GOING ON, but I just get so dumb kinds of excited to talk about my silly headcanons for my story!

WHICH I AM HAVING THAT ISSUE NOWWWWW. I don't wanna spoil anything, BUUUUT, I will give a hint: having grown up playing a lot of dating sims/games with dating sim elements, I've always been partial to the LOVE ASTERISK, which is something my best friend and I jokingly came up with (tho I'm sure someone else invented it before us!) Imagine the typical love triangle, where two people like one person, or sometimes it's like a chain… or whatever…

Soooooo, by contrast a love asterisk is like, all the different parts of the asterisk come and meet in the middle because EVERYONE likes the person in the middle to some degree or another! I've always loved stories like that! 🤡

Not that I'm gonna get… TOO out of hand… I hope!! I guess that's really subjective! 😭💀 BUT, hopefully that helps answer your question at least a little vaguely!

A lot of people have made some very correct guesses on things, though! (Also Hawks is absolutely like the third most important character to the story, so he has a loooot of weight to him. And, I mentioned this in my comments, so it's fair to mention now: Bakugou does show back up! I did NOT mention this in my comments, but I will ALSO say this: Shouto does, too!

AAAAAND, aside from the love asterisk thing, I ALSO LOVE VERY JEALOUS POSSESSIVE LUNATICS. Which is how I'm writing Dabi, LOL. Bro gonna be losing his miiiiiind 😭 he deserves it (and worse) but I also love him, so I feel bad for him… but what is writing if not to make all our faves sufferrrrrrrr 😌

Thanks for hitting me up, though! Getting tumblr asks is kind of exciting LOL 🥹🥹👹💖

[mwritesc]

I appear to be the first anon. Wether that's good or bad I'll leave up to you to decide!

I am very much looking forward to this, and yes, I will admit in no small part because of it not only being inspired by Greek Mythology, but as well as Aphrodite being an RO.

This may just be the first time someone has decided to have Aphrodite in their story in this way, and while I could ask for some facts about her, I will leave that to others.

Instead I'd very much like to know if you've drawn on any inspirations to help you with your version of her? Or will it be more of a case of going with the flow?

Looking forward to seeing what you create!

Hey, thanks for this lovely ask! Firstly, I'm really glad you like the concept I'm trying to achieve with Cyprus, it's always nice to find that your passion for an idea is shared by others.

Secondly, I really love this question, and I'll try to answer best I can without getting too spoilery haha.

Aphrodite is one of the most important characters to the story. Her birth is the catalyst that sets everything in motion. And yet, we tend to know very little of her true personality, especially in the mythological retellings I've used as reference. She is reduced to words like vain and jealous and beautiful. This gave me a ton of creative liberty, and I've honestly been very anxious to do her character justice.

For inspiration, I've taken the approach of taking certain small ideas from characters and sort of sticking them to a board of Aphrodites overall character.

One of these characters was Beth Harmon, particularly the development of her character throughout the show. She starts off as this very timid, quiet girl who has been thrown into an unfamiliar situation she isn't ready for. Most of the time she's left observing, trying to get her footing on her own without realising she has others rooting for her. Later into the show she realises her own power, and develops her own sense of confidence and wit despite remaining relatively mysterious. All of this development is physically characterised by the distinct change of her style. Basically all that was said here can apply to Aphrodite.

Obviously this exempts some parts of Beths personality. For instance, Aphrodite shows a lot more youth all throughout her development, not just at the beginning.

On a less serious note, I do take some inspiration from Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Her character takes from the more comedic side, but I find the discrediting of the classic blonde stereotype speaks with how I want to discredit similar stereotypes surrounding Aphrodite. She's not just jealous and vain, or at least she wasn't born that way.

Hopefully that answers your question, and again, thanks for the ask!

[thingswhatareawesome]

1.6 thoughts, spoilery

i liked the trl continuation, it was a fun little mystery, and i like how spooky and creepy the abandoned space station areas were. kind of did that ambiance even better than the heliobi event areas. the critter stuff was v cute, and i liked it didn't take long to do, just a couple evenings for me. fairly simple but still fun.

rm is a fucking mad scientist. just fascinating how helpful and nice she's seemed, and how she's so calm, serene, graceful--but also obsessed and really WEIRD. not just wanting to create life, but an eminator of the swarm jfc what NO. good lord. also, the whole not giving a shit about her creations if they're not geniuses is uh, a tiny bit on the eugenics side so yeah.

constrasting her with ratio is interesting. he's arrogant, smarmy, cheesy, but is sort of an opposite in not wanting genius to be deified. yeah he hates dealing with stupid people, but it seems more like his attitude about it is to educate and spread knowledge, and so a non-genius can just do for themselves without needing geniuses. i wasn't expecting to like him super much esp with potential connections to ipc, but honestly he amuses me and rm scares the hell out of me now. so much for the so helpful person from the sim u.

have tried and cleared gold and gears I and II, attempted III twice only to fail on last boss both times (once messing with prop path, then using guide recommended remembrance). close the first time, super close the second time but a small mistake avalanched. went back to II, figure i need to do get clears using certain dice at that rank anyway, and i obv need to get more points for the track that buffs stats and such. have tried a mix of teams with fire mc and luocha--with combos of argenti, dhil, and jing yuan, then today with a recommended team of the first two and jl and dhil. when i'm ready to try III again i'll do that team then with abundance path instead, per the same guide.

idk this makes a little more sense than how swarm was presented? but once i get the erudition path i think i'll be able to go back and make sense of swarm better. i think it might feel easier in comparison maybe too. but yeah once i get clears on III idk if i'll go on to IV. definitely won't ever be bothering with V. my goal is really just the erudition path, not to be completionist, even with the rewards

(doesn't help i'm already v tired of this new sim u anyway, i don't like *having* to grind normal sim u every week as it is, at least it's not got 'finish in x turns' stuff like fh, but it still stresses me out a lot. and my brain does NOT do well with do x grind thing over and over and over and over x1000 when it takes a long time. grind calyxes? fine, takes minutes i'm done. sim u grinding taking what like 45m to an hour is like...god that sucks. esp if i try to do multiples. it's SO goddamned much time. i need to be able to do things in short bursts, or to have a long grind be like on you do it a couple times a week. not over and over every evening for who knows how long. ugh. gonna be hard to keep myself doing it but i want to actually get the path this time.)

put some work in on building blade, but it might go slower bc esp with g and g i need to finish caelus' main fire trace at the least if not all, maybe alternate him and blade main and stats for at least some variety on crimson calyx farming. hopefully i get done with that by the time ratio shows up @__@ looks like hanya and xueyi will be waiting a bit.

[bugieeeee]

Yeah I have to watch the vod too I'm so bad at not getting distracted and forgetting what I was doing lol

And yeah the sheer amount of content from qsmp is definitely why it's taken me so long to get to but I've been teaching myself crochet so I just finished foolishs 11 hour vod from day two while working on different crochet and art projects (I don't know why I keep choosing foolish povs they're all 8+ hours long and I don't need to be doing that) alias is on Disney plus but I don't have that anymore so I've been rewatching on super legitimate sites it's about this girl (played by Jennifer gardner who I love) and she's a spy and she's trying to balance that and college and her fiance who thinks she works at a bank so she tells him she's a spy and they literally kill him and she looses all faith in her employers only to find out they aren't actually part of the government but have been lying to her and everyone else (this is all in the first episode so hopefully it wasn't too spoilery)

And omg I've been wanting to watch good omens I might watch it with my sister soon

hi hannah !!

i am once AGAIN missing wilbur soot streams and decided to bother you now that i dont have anything else to do before work . i am STILL having a writers block and i am STILL feeling uninspired im so aaaa

if you perhaps have any tips on cool media and stuff i could get into i would be Overjoyed i feel like i Need to join a new fandom soon or i will explode

anyways Have Wilbur Doodle

i cannot draw at all so unfortunately a stick figure is the best i can do

Hi Lou!!

Funny enough while answering this he is streaming right now. Writers block definitely sucks but as far as cool media I'm currently trying to start qsmp because I just finished the 150+ part sims letsplay Ive been slowly Watching. But I literally always tell people to watch alias it's about spies and the characters are all just so... other than that I've just been watching so much YouTube. And I LOVE the wilbur doodle he tuning him Godamn guitar very silly

[loladiamond01]

Lol, thanks to Louise, @notjustabooksims, for dragging me out the hole I’ve been hiding in. I did think I was safe from tags in there. Jk, Louise, love ya!

We all have them. Little bits of our stories that exist only in our heads. Things we know but never seem to find a way to share for whatever reason. Or maybe you’ve mentioned it in passing but haven’t gotten a chance to explain. Either way, here’s your opportunity to spill!

Copy and paste this into a new post and then tell us five (5!) little bits of trivia about your story. It can be about the characters, plot, you name it. Then tag a few storytelling friends and keep the game going!

It’s funny really, because I’ve been asked something like this in an award tag on WP twice, and answered this for most of my earlier gens. For gen 1 and 2 here, 3 and 4 there. So, now I guess I shall pick gen. 6. We’re skipping Hailey, sorry, lol.

1. I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times, but here’s the story behind Brittany and her mom: so, I actually created a pretty woman with black skin in CAS and mixed her genes with Darryll’s (that is, Shari’s father) a couple of times. So, I got a few not-so-good-looking lasses, and then what has evolved into Britt (whose skintone couldn’t be further in color from her mother’s, which irritated me a bit, because Sim’s genetics). Well, then I, for some reason, decided to delete the mother Sim (because I thought she didn’t matter anyway), and so it made sense for her to be revealed to be dead later in the story, and tied in well with the plot and why Britt was the right person to support Ron when he was grieving? Idk, I’m cruel.

2. When I first described generaion 6 as teenagers, so Shari, Ron and Becca, a good friend of mine mentioned how sure she was that Shari and Ron would wind up together. This irked me that I was going to be so obvious, and at that moment I decided to center the story around them not getting to ever be happy together. That’s my stupid personality for ya.

3. In the initial version of the story, Shari was not going to ever leave. She and Ron were meant to cheat with each other until the very end, but obviously this was not a good option. Why on earth could I ever deem Britt to be dumb enough not to suspect anything, or never to confront Ron about the whole thing, of that I have no idea. It was probably because in my initial notes Britt was referred to as “Ron’s wife”, and I had no idea yet of the Sim that would get to be the cheated on woman. Well, definitely didn’t think she’d be as likeable, and that I would love her character.

4. Of course, I changed the flow of the story with making Shari leave, and this had impact on the ending. So, I thought why not share the first two versions that won’t happen, since I guess it’s not spoilery any more. The first and too obvious one was that Shari would slowly start distancing herself from Ron, and Britt, who has been suspecting something was going on for quite some time, upon eavesdropping Ron’s conversation with Shari over the phone, would issue an ultimatum: either he goes to see Shari now and consequently loses her and Bindie, or stays. Ron doesn’t give it a second thought and chooses Shari, to which Britt desperately tries to make him rethink that, but Ron leaves anyway. When he meets up with Shari, she’s in tears and tells him that she’s pregnant, and she’s pretty sure that’s his child. Ron is overjoyed and wants to bail with her, but Shari is not having it, saying she loves John and it’s him that’s her husband, etc, etc. When Ron comes home, Britt is packing her things, he tries to get her back, of course, but she obviously refuses, as he’s had his chance. Consequentely, he loses both Shari and Britt plus his daughter who hates him for what he’s done to Britt.

5. The 2nd version was one that I quickly cooked up after making Shari leave. It still centered around Shari, but this one was again too obvious. In this version, John dies in a car accident, and Shari contacts Ron crying and mentions something about the twins. Ron, upon hearing about them, immediately decides to come visit her, believing these to be his children she hasn’t told him about. Of course, by doing that, he breaks the promise given to Britt. When he visits her, he finds out these are John’s kids, and that Shari only wanted to seek comfort in him, but is ever as frightened to have a relationship with him, and, just as in the first version, she pushes him away.

Currently, we are at version #3, and it’s really nothing like the first two in that it doesn’t center around Shari anymore; though, she’s kind of involved. But well, not getting too much on the spoilery side anymore...

[exilethegame]

first… love the game! between all the details and the approach to how choices are reflected in-game, especially the part where marcelle comments on whether or not MC changed... so satisfying from a gameplay perspective.. feeling very *chefs kiss* about ur writing! i was doing some code-diving, and was curious about two things -- first, the existence of achievements 3-5 (An Eye for an Eye, Pity, Respect) -- just confirming that they aren't implemented in the game yet..? and also about the sabir_g variable and how it seems to be a counter… 👀 I Am Looking... i guess tl;dr: this wasn't really phrased as a question, but am generally curious if there's anything you can share about these things right now, or if its too spoilery--obviously, nw, feel free to disregard this ask if it is! as a last super self-indulgent note, my main playthrough is as a stoic, once-aggressive werewolf commander and. finding it really funny have him also utterly infatuated with sabir -- just, vethna and amilia know him as generally impassive until the end of ch 4 where they see him immediately go to sabir and its just -- who the fuck is that. thats not-that's not the commander. what happened to his personal space bubble?? huh??? in any case: good luck on your exams!

I'm glad you've noticed all that stuff! I definitely love flavor text in games because it really makes the world feel more alive to me, so I def like taking the time to add in all those little comments and things. None of it's spoilery, but can definitely say with the new patch and future chapters looking through the startup file will have a lot of spoilery things that might ruin some future surprises.

None of the achievements are currently implemented. I think they were a while ago, but I removed them since I was planning on editing the beginning sequence (and never did... I'm putting it off now until after Chapter 5.) The achievements are earned after Chapter One ends from Nikke's POV and depends on how you acted during the war-- it's how the twins plan to kill you.

I think Eye for an Eye was if you were cruel or enjoyed the war, Pity was if you hated participating in the war but didn't try to actively fight it, and Respect was if you tried to end the war. In the first the twins want to make MC's death painful, in the second they want to make it quick, and in the third they're sort of excited to just battle someone like MC.

As for Sabir_g, it stands for Sabir guilt! MC can choose to make Sabir feel guilty for failing their trial amongst other things. That variable keeps track of it as MC continues to guilt trip Sabir, it will influence their relationship and Sabir's mentality... as to how it will, that depends on what MC's relationship was/is with him. An MC who hates Sabir won't influence him the same way an MC who is dating him is.

And my hope is to add even more flavor text and choices in Chapters 1 - 5 once I port everything to Twine and edit it! So hopefully there might even be some in-game comments for if MC acts different with their RO than they do in general... amongst other things (who knows!).

[pharawee]

hi i was wondering if u knew what’s the kinnporsche storyline in the novel? i wanna have like a rough idea of what to expect 😅😅

Hi! 😊

So the novel is kind of long, especially with all of the VegasPete extra chapters. The official English translation comes in four parts with around 500 pages each (going by the first book, which has recently been released on MEB). There used to be several unofficial translations that made it to around chapter 37 plus some of the extra chapters and that's what I've read (though I've since bought the official version too since it's done really well). Unfortunately they've since been taken down, presumably because there's now an official translation.

Anyway, sorry for rambling... it's just that the story is really long and kind of difficult to summarise. But judging from the first ep the show stays very close to the book so far. It's mainly about Kinn and Porsche, their (uh, kind of toxic, not always initially consensual but I guess in the end very passionate?) relationship, and the betrayal of Kinn's mafia family.

Vegas and Pete are a side pairing (they're more like secondary characters in the book but appear in their own special chapters) and their story is really, really ridiculously dark. I'm pretty sure they're going to tone that down because we're talking about rape and torture here. I'm actually really hopeful, though, because imo they took great care in the first ep to do away with all of the questionable bits from the book so far (like, originally Kinn had Jom beaten up and Yok's bar demolished, had Porsche fired and bought his house). I guess we'll see. It's rated 18+ for a reason, I suppose.

As for Chay and Kim (Kinn's younger brother), their relationship is more or less only mentioned in the books (unless there's special chapters I haven't read yet) - probably because Chay is still a high school student. I'm pretty sure they'll give them more screen time in the show and hopefully it's going to be really sweet. It can't all be dark and toxic, right? 🥴

Oh right, I almost forgot. There's also Kinn's university friends Time and Te (they're a couple), and Porsche's university friend Tem. They kind of have a cheating storyline going on but it's only alluded to in the book. Personally, I could do without that but, eh, we'll see.

Anyway, I hope that helps a bit? And wasn't too spoilery? If you have any more questions I'm happy to help. 😊

[apinchofm]

ADOW Season 3

Things I loved about season 3 *Spoilers!*

Do not read if you have not finished or watched season 3, this is terribly spoilery.

First of all - scenery, aesthetics and the soundtrack!

Diana and Matthew, Teresa and Matthew were brilliant!

Phoebe and Diana being amazing historians. In the book, the process of tracking down the book of life seems one-sided, but here the journey is fleshed out a bit more and it makes more sense when they're shown to be friends.

Agatha being an amazing politician and leader! That scene with Timothy was heartbreaking and amazing.

Fernando and Gallowglass and Sarah - honestly Fernando was one of my favourite parts of the season. Oliver was just amazing!

Miriam and Chris' hunt for blood rage being fleshed out! They made such a great team and just were amazing.

Miriam, again, playing such a huge role. In the books, it feels as if they sideline the fact she's Matthew's oldest friend, but it was really shown and Aiysha was phenomenal!

Phoebe and Marcus' relationship being fleshed out - they had so many sweet moments in this where they showed concern for each other, love. The book made it seem almost automatic. The small argument they have about him wanting her safe was so heartwrenching and sweet. Adelle and Ed were just fantastic!

Peter's Baldwin was fantastic! Whilst Trystan was able to show the more warrior side to Baldwin, Peter was able to depict him as a world-weary soldier and leader, clinging to everything Philippe taught him. He and Matthew were shown to be brothers, in that 'I'm the only one who can kill you, type of way' and it was amazing. Peter and Matthew really shone!

Matthew being called out for his hypocrisy by Marcus and more importantly, Marcus' children! It always felt like in the books, it was very much 'woe is me, look at how this bad thing I did affect me!", but in this, we see it from Marcus' perspective - his anger, hurt at secrets being kept, distrust of Jack that has to be slowly overcome.

I love that Marcus was really shown to lead in the family and his realisation that Matthew has never been perfect. He really became a Sieur de Clermont and It was really great to see. As much as I love parts of Matthew, he is a shit father to Marcus, like top tier terrible lol.

I also love that Ransome wasn't demonised as he sort of is in the books!

That Sarah killed Knox! The best part was watching Knox have his breakdown, the funniest thing ever!

What I would've liked (But we know with restrictions, it couldn't be done or they didn't have time.)

Some more of the developing relationships between some key characters - needed Phoebe and Miriam being sassier towards Matthew, I loved those small moments in the book where he just gets roasted for his bigotry towards humans.

Benjamin interacting with the rest of the de Clermonts and their allies as in the book, I feel like it would've added more tension to it all. His storyline felt really underwhelming than in the book.

Whilst Jack was sweet and Toby was great, I found myself not caring too much. IDK?

The sisters!! I was really looking forward to the intro of Philippe's fearsome daughters. Hopefully in a spin-off? or Time's Convert.

Overall, a great end to a great trilogy and here's hoping Time's Convert gets made into a show!

[tarysande]

Hi, Tara! I hope you're having a wonderful day!

For the director's commentary: when you say 'where you THINK you see' the story going, does that mean AHoD hasn't been plotted out completely? Or that the end is planned, but how you're getting there isn't? Or something else entirely? (Maybe this is more of a general writing question instead of something AHoD-specific, lol.)

Hopefully that's not too spoiler-y! Regardless, it's really awesome to hear your look back at Grace Notes has been pleasant! AHoD (and all of Grace Notes in general) has been one of my favorite fics for years, finished or not. Like, in the top five, easily!

Also, uh, please cut this next bit if you want if you reply to the above, because this is maybe kind of sappy and/or really weird? I found AHoD back when there were only 50-ish chapters, which led me to your blog here, and that was kind of a jumping-off point for me in terms of finding people who could relate to things I didn't have words for or felt I couldn't share with people around me at the time, years and years ago--asexuality/demisexuality, burnout, ADHD, depression, and other mental health related struggles, and, like, caring enough about my own writing to hone it instead of treating it as a self-indulgent hobby? It was just really heartening for awkward-teenage-girl-me in a small town to log onto tumblr and see an older, successful woman dealing with the kinds of things I was, and just--existing, I suppose. Like, proof I'd be alright and wasn't alone.

In short, thanks for being you, I guess? And I hope things keep going well for you in all you do! Have a great day!

Gosh, thank you for the lovely message! I'm so glad you found your way here, and that it encouraged you (from one demi, ADHD, sometimes-depressed, sometimes-burned-out writer making it through to another!). I know that, for me, the feeling of not being alone has always been such a huge part of what makes tumblr home. A bit like you, I had older fandom women I looked up to (and who helped me) when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I'm still in touch with most of them! And someday, you'll be that person to a new generation of teenagers trying to figure themselves out. It's kind of magical.

Now, as for your AHOD/writing question: It's not too spoilery. I'm definitely of the plantser school of writing—throw down the seeds and wait to see what comes up, keeping my fingers crossed that the seeds in the packets are what they say they are. It's a bit ironic, really, since so much of my work as an editor is about weeding the gardens of other writers. I'm really good at it!

But it's harder to weed one's own WIP because sometimes weird plants start sprouting and you can't just pull them up; you have to adapt to them. They're already in the garden, and people want to see what becomes of them because they have no idea that I, the gardener, did not entirely anticipate all the flowers they see. My job is to make it seem like those weeds were intentional!

For AHOD, specifically, I've always known certain emotional beats/character growth moments I want to hit. I knew I wanted to tie up a lot of the loose ends I found unsatisfactory with the game's ending. I knew I wanted to dig into the things I'd devised that made my Shepard's backstory unique, like her time with the Callahans, her relationship with her parents, and the strengths and weaknesses of her psychology as I envisioned it.

I always knew I wanted to explore What Comes After War. There's a quote that's been hanging on my wall for a long time: "In war, many things are acceptable. You kill and there seem to be no consequences. But there are consequences—they just come after." (Vitka Kempner-Kovner)

I've always been obsessed with the consequences that come after action.

On the surface, it's a video game. Killing bad guys is part of the mechanics. But BioWare did such a good job of giving me people to care about that I wanted to ... help them recover, but without pulling any punches. I wanted to make their sacrifices and suffering and losses count, if that makes sense, because ... isn't that what we all want? Even if our pain isn't on the scale of Reaper invasions and intergalactic war, there's something universal about facing the lowest lows and somehow still clinging to hope long enough that the hope turns into the first steps of recovery, of rebirth, of growth.

So, tl;dr: Even though I think I know where the plot is headed, I remain open to the possibility that the specifics will change, because they usually do—for the better. Trying to herd the characters in my head onto a specific path only ever backfires on me.

Plus, getting to discover the details along the way makes ye olde ADHD braine happy!

[ask-tay-relic]

Here’s a hopefully fun question for you! Have your OCs changed over time? If so, how/in what way(s)? And if it’s not a spoiler, what would you say the biggest changes have been?

Oh that is a super fun question!

If you're talking from the inception of their designs, they all were quite different! These are the things that were changed that aren't spoilerly - but really nothing that changed really is spoilery :O <3 Thank you for asking though!!

Going through them one by one;;;

I had the designs for the characters and the story layout since about season 2 of the show with a refinement of the end of the story done by S3? I think?;;

Mourn 1.0! Nothing really changed except for small details and a better refinement of his personality --- And of course my own ability to actually draw him lol. Originally just placeholder name of 'Hunter' for his value in the story, at least on a surface level, he's actually chilled out more as I defined how to best express his personality. So he hasn't changed much, but my ability to show what and who he is has improved!

For Tay;

This is the first time I drew Tay properly and is what I use as my icon :D - His original colors were much more garish and yellows when I first did drawing and my colorblindness effected it, so it took some adjustments to get them to what I intended. - His personality etc didn't change at all ;; BUT YOU CAN TELL MY ABILITY TO DRAW WINGS IMPROVED LOL

I also took more time into the details of his design too \o/ like his horn and fluff!

-----

the two that DID change however was Frae and Astheny! :D

This was Frae! Her original design redrawn (like 2 years ago) at least as I don't have the original things! A ton about her character changed as it didn't help or work with the story - and in fact part of it got in the way far too much. I ended up giving almost all of these attributes to a different character (Who you all don't know yet!) I ended up brightening her colors cause that's who she was, and then made her more as she was supposed to be. And funny enough, the character I gave her traits too, went through some changes as well, but overall are both unique and seperate characters! Her brace was something that fixed a few things, and then as I developed who she was, fit with her as a character and her background that was already set. -- In a long series of years of character changes shortened to a paragraph lol

AND THEN THE LARGEST DIFFERENCE. Our big boy Astheny was uh yeah he used to be a dragon! There was nothing 'Wrong' with his design, but it just really really didn't fit for what I needed so then I just kept the colors and redesigned him to be a more pony type creature - which ended up being a Gemsbok mix. I still really love the design I made for him, but I doubt if I were to use it for something else, that I would keep the personality cause it wasn't a nice one to see or interact with :( . Really Astheny 1.0 [Which I was calling Goliath at the time] is it's own unique character lol There was that much difference.

[unsettledink]

I am just.

I am very cranky about tags right now so there is just a bunch of ranting about the new tag limit under the cut. Feel free to completely ignore my meltdown. I'll get over it eventually.

I went to go update my tags now that we've hit the sex for real, because I didn't want to falsely lure people in with all these smut tags when there was not even a one kiss yet, and wouldn't be for about 200k. But hey, I'd like current readers to have a better idea what they're getting into!

I took my original list of tags (around 150ish) and worked to whittle it down – I lost some of my favorite tags in the process, but I tried to focus on things that either

a) are a huge component of the story in a way that's non specific and pervasive

b) are a large part of the fic but restricted to one area

c) something I personally would want to search for or avoid and that happens in more than one chapter

And then I went back through and removed things that were more specific under a larger umbrella. No, I probably don't need five different tags when I can just put come play, but it still hurts because I'll be honest, I have searched specifically for each of those tags and had to resort to the umbrella tag, full of things I did not want. And those are tags I wouldn't have put if it wasn't for that fact that, once the sex gets going, they happen a LOT. Like, I really hope you aren't grossed out by come play cause Peter is 110% there for it, RIP Quentin.

I ended up with about 110, which isn't great but it'll do, and more like 100 once I take away the spoilery ones I'm waiting to add.

I spent entirely too long typing them in the way I wanted them to look and organizing them, and then -

I fucking forgot about the new tag limit – I knew it was a thing at some point, but didn't realize it had happened and didn't realize it was only 75 and didn't realize that it counts fandom, character, and pairing tags within that.

So suddenly I've got a warning that I have get rid of 42 tags, and I can't even edit the ones already there because it was grandfathered in.

Considering that I had already massively cut down on the tags I wanted to use and now have to figure out what more to cut, this is going to take some thinking. I may do some weird tagging that combined things so at least they can be read and hopefully correctly synced with parent tags, but I hate that because I want to tag things in part for people searching for those specific things. I may add a block of tags in the notes, but that's really difficult to search accurately. I may throw something up on tumblr, I don't know. I dislike all of those options.

Funnily enough, I've never needed more than maybe a dozen or so tags? But for fuck's sake, this sucker is mostly like going to be a solid 800k, allowing me less than one tag per 100k is not fun. It'd be one thing if this was a simple, straightforward, non kinky fic. But it's really not. It's complex and messy and there's a lot of plot and emotional stuff before you even get into the sex, which is kinky in specific ways that I want to tag for, both as warning and enticement.

And reading reading a bajillion comments on the news post that are mostly

a) yay everyone is so tired of tags good job AO3 you should have made the limit smaller

b) this really sucks if you're a long fic or smut writer

c) well you're just bad at tagging aren't you. Stop abusing the system by tagging every character that breathes and you'd be fine. Besides tags are just for warnings, not searching or enticement, and we couldn't possibly consider giving more words more tags - won't someone think of the poor podfics (that you never care about the rest of the time lol) who would be hurt like you are currently being hurt?

(Which is nonsensical because it's not like anyone is suggestion that 'oh you only used ten words? Sorry, you may have tag and one tag only!'.)

And I'm seriously cranky, because you know what? I have two fandoms tagged, and seven characters. All of which will feature significantly in this fic. I'm not abusing those areas, so what do I delete now?

No, tell me. What do I delete? Bye Ned and MJ, you're taking up space, but hey I guess anyone that clicked on this for you wouldn't have been happy, so whatever, I don't need to hint that this fic does not set Peter's friends aside completely for the relationship.

The sex tags? I already reduced oral sex by five things, just leaving rimming and bj's, but I guess I should only put oral sex instead, because that's what people search for, right? Never mind that that's a useless tag that won't help filter anything, and that both bj's and rimming hold a special significance within the fic, as weird as that may sound from the outside.

Maybe I should drop a bunch of my trauma healing tags, except one of the most important factors of this fic is exploring how both Peter and Quentin heal or have failed to heal from their assorted varied traumas and how those affect them throughout, so yes, I do feel like nightmares and ptsd and grief are all significantly different things that I want to make note of!

I guess I can just cut all my... mood/vibe tags, because... Idk, they're too general or specific to be useful for searches, and probably not would draw people in? But when I'm reading, those give me a much better sense of how the author thinks of the fic and whether I might get easily annoyed or not.

And no, I really don't use tumblr style random chatty tags for the most part, because that's what author's notes are for. But a few have their place and author's notes don't show on the page when I'm browsing. It's like... I read the book flap (summary) and now I want to flip it over and see the blurbs from other authors?

I feel like this really misunderstands how a lot of people use tags? They're fucking searchable, so if I want only the fics under one small weird obscure tag, I can click on that and get them! I don't have to fuck around with search terms and exclude this, reword that, refine refuss redo, I can just click on the goddamn tag. Which people might not bother to tag with anymore, because of limits.

No, listing the tags in the summary and using the search within results is not acceptable, because I cannot tell you how many times I've searched for a work knowing something from the summary, and not been able to find it until I start flipping through whatever tag I was originally browsing when I found it, even if exactly what I searched for was in the summary!

Tags are meant for warnings and the main AO3 warnings cover most stuff? Are you fucking kidding me? Were you not around for the endless wanking over using 'warning' vs 'contains' before just 'tags' was a thing?

I don't use tags for warnings 90% of the time, because I seldom warn! There's an 'author chooses not to use archive warnings' on most of my fics for a reason! And I'm using tags to find readers, because a lot of people have found my fics not because they desperately want, say, Tony/Quentin, but because they wanted come inflation or slapping kink or hand feeding or what have you. Eliminating those sorts of tags helps no one!

As a reader, I care so little about those warnings that I have them default hidden – I want the content tags that tell me if I might like the vibes of this fic beyond what the summary might tell me. A fic with a promising summary can be instantly ruined for me by, say, daddy kink, but if that's tagged, even with the intent of getting the attention of people who like it, I can nope out before my eyes have to see those words. And if I'm in the mood for one specific weird unpopular kink, I can just click the tag and explore stuff in other fandoms I wouldn't have ever even found.

And I get that this is primarily because of some stupid fic that everyone was seeing all the time and a couple of assholes, but if that was such a problem, why couldn't there be a hard code to hide tags (oh wait there is?? in addition to add-on scripts and skins that do the same thing??).

But hey, why deal with the problem makers when you can punish everyone? Gosh am I back at a job with an incompetent manager again?

Last time I complained about a change I was told AO3 is an ARCHIVE for AUTHORS, not a library for readers, so too bad, our priority is making the authors feel safe, which, fair enough, that was the original mission. Yet now it's 'you can't have as many tags as you want because the readers shouldn't have to scroll that much!'? Nice mixed message there.

I hate all of my options and have a serious case of crankies over getting 70 tags for a plot and kink heavy 600k+ fic, and I really just... don't know what I want to do. Aside from throw a little fit and then get over it, I guess.

(If by any chance you made it this far and want to offer an opinion or help decide which tags aren't important, I've got them all listed with why I want them over here. I don't know, maybe there are things I think are important that no one reading cares about or would have been enticed by!)