#i also tend to reblog my own posts quite often

[lenievi]

if you're new here (and maybe started to follow me because of SNW), I tend to rewatch random TOS episodes quite often (it hasn't been happening for a while because I've been distracted, but I guess I always come back...) and I usually end up spamming when I do that, and it's typically Kirk related these days... (well for a year and a half tbh) and I do talk a lot about Kirk as a character, which includes the relationships with women in his life

I ship Kirk/McCoy and Spock/McCoy (I do not ship the one not listed).

It might not look like it, but my favourite character is actually McCoy. Kirk just... happened. And SNW has unfortunately given me more fodder...

I'm very canon oriented when talking about the show, but I'm not really stuck on one random line. (That's a lie, I'm very stuck on "And you haven't come to see us in four years, either." because everyone keeps ignoring it and thinks that Spock hasn't seen his father for 18 years by Journey to Babel... anyway lol)

I also absolutely love Sarek, so if you hate him, and I get into my Sarek moods, your time here might not be pleasant lol

anyway, enjoy your stay :D

[morelikeravenbore]

✨Sebastian Sallow fluff alphabet

My personal headcanons based on the way I imagine and write Sebastian in How to Make a Villain.

This template is from this post by snowluvs and is definitely worth a read and a reblog! I loooove reading Sebastian headcanons so feel free to write your own, too!

🌶️ Find my Sebastian Sallow spicy alphabet here.

A - Attractive - what do they find attractive about their partner?

We all know that Sebastian has a bit of a savior complex, so he's attracted to a partner who trusts him with their vulnerability by letting him protect them, care for them and fuss over them. However, he also likes a challenge, so someone with a bit of backbone to go with their vulnerability would really pique his interest. It doesn't matter what form that backbone takes, be it academically-focused, impressive duelling prowess, or just someone whose not afraid to call him out when he's acting out of line, Sebastian is undeniably attracted to that spark.

Read on 👇

B - Body - what is their favourite part of their partner’s body?

Given that he craves deep and genuine emotional connection with a partner, he's very drawn to the face: stroking your cheeks, kissing the corners of your mouth, your eyelids, your brows. He finds any excuse to touch your face, whether it be brushing your hair back behind your ear or tenderly wiping food or smudges from your chin with his thumbs. When being intimate, he holds your face between his hands, pressing his forehead to yours, never breaking eye contact.

C - Cuddle - how do they like to cuddle?

Sebastian is a squasher. He needs to feel physically close to you and will often forget this own size and strength in his desperation to hold you closer, closer, closer. He hugs you so tightly you can't breathe, or else lays his entire body weight on top of you when you're lying down together or sharing a bed. You often have to remind him to back up a little lest he squeeze the life outta you with his love.

D - Dates - what does their ideal date look like?

Sebastian is spontaneous and impulsive, but beneath all that bravado and charm, he is also quite afraid of rejection, so he might not always straight out "ask" you on a date. Rather, you might find yourself accidentally having dinner together at the Three Broomsticks, or huddled for hours in a cozy bookshop he "stumbled upon" at random. Sebastian considers any time spent alone with you a date, and would later tease you about how many "dates" you've already been on without ever being asked.

E - Equal - are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Generally speaking, Sebastian has a hard time relinquishing control to another. Given his history, he is used to taking charge, solving problems on his own and shouldering the burdens of everyone he cares about — and it goes without saying that he can be incredibly stubborn about accepting help or support, even when he genuinely needs it. However, this does tend to lead to mental and physical overwhelm; decisions become impossible, his body aches with exhaustion, and sometimes the boy just needs you to baby him — while still giving him the illusion that he has everything under control ;)

F - Fight - would they find it easy to forgive their partner? how are they fighting?

My personal headcanon that Sebastian is a Virgo sun, Aries rising. His Aries means he's reactive and oftentimes at the mercy of his more intense emotions (such as anger, jealousy — being ruled by Mars). He doesn't always communicate in a healthy way, he lashes out, snaps, or jumps to wild conclusions that don't make any sense. However, being a Virgo sun means he's ultimately a caregiver with a deep need to fix things and look after you, so he's very quick to apologise and make things right again.

G - Gifts - how do they feel about gift giving? what are their habits when it comes to this?

His gifts are either very practical (something you'll use every day), or something very sentimental (something that once belonged to his mother).

When it comes to receiving gifts, he doesn't believe he deserves them, so giving him something uselful like an interesting book, a set of quills, or a planner is the best way to spoil him without making him uncomfortable. However, if you gift him something sentimental, or something you made especially for him, he'll treasure it for the rest of his life.

H - Holding Hands - when / how do they like to hold hands?

If this boy can hold your hand, he will hold your hand, and if he can't hold your hand, he'll play with your fingers, trace the lines of your palms, brush his pinky against yours. You're his anchor, and your hands are the easiest part to hold on to.

I - Injury - how would they act if their partner got hurt?

Given his history with his parents and his twin, he is completely overbearing any time you're sick or injured. He'll fuss, worry, devise a strict recovery regime, won't allow you to lift and finger, and make you stay in bed long after you're well again. He'll research cures, studies, information about whatever it is that ails you, and will likely tell you all about it in great detail. This is where that lovely backbone of yours will come in handy, because you'll definitely have to sit him down and tell him to relax.

J - Jealousy - do they get jealous easily? how do they deal with it?

For all his wonderful strengths, Sebastian suffers from insecurities born from a lifetime of losing those he loves. His jealousy stems not from your actions, but from a deep-seated fear that you're eventually going to realise that he's as rotten as he believes himself to be and leave him. He can be a bit much, but communication is key.

K - Kisses - how do they like to kiss their partner?

Sebastian loves to kiss your face aaaall over, but once he gets started, he finds it hard to stop. Boy is a kisser, and he can get messy.

L - Love Language - what’s their love language?

Acts of Service and physical affection. Being useful gives him a sense of purpose, and touching gives him a sense of peace, so expect to be well looked after and loved. When receiving love, he responds just as strongly to physical affection, as well as words of affirmation. Tell him he's appreciated and that he's done a good job, and he'll be yours forever.

M - Mornings - how are mornings spent with them?

If you manage to get him into bed before he falls asleep where ever he's been reading or studying, it's a hard job rousing him again. He likes to cuddle, and you'll usually wake up half squashed under his body or tangled up in his arms and legs. He speaks in grunts and groans rather than words, and has super adorable bed hair. He's also usually very hungry in the mornings, so the promise of breakfast will be the motivation for finally getting him up.

N - Nights - how are nights spent with them?

Sebastian loves staying up late and doesn't need much sleep to function. His brain is always running a million miles a minute, so winding down takes him quite a while. He tells you he does his best work at night when the rest of the world is asleep.

O - Open - when would they start revealing things about themselves? how would they do it?

Typically Slytherin, he's evasive about himself and prefers to know everything about you before he opens up. Further to that, theres a lot of pain in Sebastian's heart that he won't share with anyone unless he trusts them completely. But, as Slytherins go, once he does trust you, he'll trust you unconditionally; his secrets will become yours, and yours his, and nothing short of death or betrayal will ever break that bond.

P - PDA - how comfortable are they with pda?

He's a real cheeky little smart arse about it. He loves you so much that he wants everyone to know about. He'll pick you up and spin you around as a standard greeting, sit you in his lap, kiss you midway through a sentence. Sebastian doesn't do things by halves, and the same goes for being in love.

Q - Quirk - what is a random ability that helps the relationship?

His optimism, his adventurous spirit and unquenchable thirst for knowledge means there's never a dull moment in your relationship. Above all else, Sebastian likes to have fun, and your life together will be full of it.

R - Romance - how romantic are they? cliche or creative?

There is nothing conventional or cliche about Sebastian Sallow. In fact, he thrives on being just the opposite. He probably courted you by acting like he was your boyfriend until suddenly he just was, there was likely never any conversation about being official, and the first time he said he loved you was probably in the middle of a heated argument or else said in a way that implied it was already common knowledge to you. But despite his quirks, Sebastian is hopelessly, singularly and passionately devoted to you — just don't expect any grand or sappy gestures of love.

S - Security - how protective are they?

Sebastian is so overprotective that it borders on being overbearing. Truth is, he's terrified of losing you, the one person he loves more than any other, and is prone to bouts of severe anxiety about your health, your commitment to him, and your general safety. His inability to relax is a point of contention in your relationship, and one that you both need to continually work on overcoming together. Communication is key, even when Sebastian jumps to conclusions and assumes the worst. He's not perfect, but he's trying.

T - Talking - what do they like to talk about?

Being a highly intelligent Slytherin means Sebastian loves getting deep. Nothing excites him more than discussing magical ethics, or taboo subjects like the Dark Arts or the use of the Dementors kiss against prisoners. He's unafraid to argue his point and loves a lively debate, but he has mental capacity to respect all viewpoints — even if they conflict with his own. He yearns to understand the inner workings of the mind and takes great pleasure in trying to understand opinions and perspectives that differ to his own. Any subject that expands or challenges his understanding of the world is taken on with great enthusiasm.

U - Understanding - how well do they know their partner?

He's a fast learner, very observant, and madly in love with you (obviously), so he knows basically everything about you. But sometimes he likes to think he knows you better than you know yourself. He needs to be reminded every so often that you are capable of looking after yourself, and that he doesn't need to solve every little problem on his own without being asked.

V - Vaunt - what are they proud of? do they like to show their partner off?

Aside from his intelligence, his quick wit and his sense of humour, he is most proud of his innate optimism, which (thanks to your help) has remained in tact despite all the tragedies and hardships he's endured in his comparatively short life. But more than that, he's proud to have you by his side: the embodiment of goodness and love that he never believed he deserved.

His egotistical side enjoys showing you off — you are, after all, the most attractive person he's ever seen, and having you by his side gives his confidence a little boost — but he can become a bit possessive or jealous if he's feeling insecure.

W - Whole - would they feel incomplete without their partner?

Abandonment issues and childhood trauma means Sebastian holds his loved ones very, very dear to his heart. Without you, he'd still be the driven, intelligent and ambitious Sallow he was born to be, but he'd likely lose the motivation to reach his full potential. Having lost every important person in his life, his desire to better himself after all his past mistakes is soley inspired by you.

X - XOXO - are they affectionate?

Physical affection is both how he expresses love and how he feels love; physical touch grounds him in reality and reminds him that you are safe and near. Smooth back his hair, tenderly touch his face, or play with his fingers and watch how fast he melts.

Y - Yearning - how well do they cope when they’re separated from their partner?

Since you are his home, he feels incomplete and off-kilter when he's away from you. And though he tries to honour your individuality, if you're apart for too long, he'll start to have intrusive thoughts about every bad thing that might happen if he's not there to protect you. Needless to say, when you are finally reunited, he greets as you if several decades have kept you apart — like a big, needy puppy.

Z - Zzz - what are some sleeping habits of theirs?

This boys sleeping habits are a nightmare, precisely because he has a lot of them. In fact, he actively avoids sleep, preferring to stay up reading or researching until he's tired enough to fall into an immediate slumber. Usually, you'll find him slumped over on a table or still snoring on the couch, still fully clothed, but if you do happen to get him into bed, he can't sleep without some part of his body touching yours.

[sunnyrealist]

Let's Talk about Sebastian's Parents

I recently needed to write about Mr. and Mrs. Sallow for my fanfic, and because there is very little information out there, I had to invent a lot of backstory as to who they were and what life was like for the Sallow family prior to their deaths.

I'm so curious to know what headcanons others in the fandom have created about them. It would be interesting if some of us had similar thoughts. If you're willing, would you share your own ideas via comment or reblog? Thanks!

I threw in a little preview above of one of my many commissions from @giselsann-opencommissions that I've been sitting on for quite some time. I don't usually post them until I get to the plot points they depict. This one is close enough - I'll show the entire thing real soon.

Before I get to my headcanons, this is what Hogwarts Legacy: The Official Game Guide has to say about Sebastian's parents (see last paragraph):

Here is the background I created for my fic:

Their names were Samuel and Selina (Ware) Sallow. Their family and friends called them Sam and Lina.

They were both pureblood and the same age.

They met at Hogwarts. Sam was in Slytherin, and Lina was in Ravenclaw.

When they were students, they were academic rivals - not "enemies," per se, but they were not exactly friends until they were assigned as partners for a project in Potions during their seventh year. They realized how similar they were and fell in love.

They got married very quickly after graduation but didn't have Anne and Sebastian until they were older (around 30).

The two of them eventually became teachers at Hogwarts. Sam taught Magical Theory (predecessor to Professor Fig), and Lina taught Defense Against the Dark Arts (predecessor to Professor Hecat). They were experts in their fields.

They moved to Aranshire when they became professors. I believe they lived in the spider house in Hogwarts Legacy (there's actually evidence to back this up). It was FILLED with books to the point that it was practically a library.

The cellar was their workspace, and the twins knew that when their parents were down there that they were not to be disturbed unless there was an emergency.

Both of the Sallows were incredibly studious and conducted a lot of research in their spare time. They sometimes teamed up to study particular subjects, such as defensive magical theory and love as a form of magic in its purest form. They didn't view Dark magic as inherently evil, just as everyday magic is not always perfectly good.

Mr. and Mrs. Sallow were quite lovey-dovey. Sebastian remembers them reading in front of the fireplace, engrossed in their own books, but always holding hands or touching. He also remembers being grossed out as a little boy by how often they would kiss.

Neither of them had big families, and just about all of their family members had passed by the time the twins were born. Solomon Sallow was their only living relative at the time of their deaths.

They took the twins to Hogwarts often during summer breaks, so they had a head start on learning the lay of the land and the school's curriculum. Sam and Lina had them read some of their textbooks prior to their first year so that they could get the most out of their education.

They wanted the twins to be well-rounded, so they taught them multiple languages. Lina considered music a language and taught them how to play piano. She also would sing them a song every night when she put them to bed.

Lina was exceptionally gentle, despite her interest in magical combat, Dark magic, Dark creatures, etc. She tended to coddle and fuss over the children. Every year on their birthday, she would bake a spice cake with vanilla icing. She was proficient in both Muggle and magical healing. Her nicknames for Sebastian and Anne were "little prince" and "little princess" - "the little twin rulers."

As far as looks, Sebastian takes after Lina, who had curly auburn hair and freckles. While Anne got a few of Lina's freckles, her hair is similar to Sam's.

Sam loved to give the twins sweets behind their mother's back. He had a distinct laugh and enjoyed reading stories aloud and "doing the voices." He taught the kids how to play Quidditch; he had once been a beater. When he traveled for his studies and would come home with unique artifacts and new information, he would share all of it with the twins in plain language, never talking down to them. I see Sam as an Atticus Finch kind of father.

Christmas was a simple affair. They'd have Uncle Solomon over for dinner, and he would leave pretty quickly after dessert (he and Sam were not close and disagreements were frequent). The twins were always gifted two items: a new book and something particularly interesting, useful, or coveted.

They liked animals and had an Old English Sheepdog named Endy (short for Endymion).

Again, I would love to hear your headcanons. Are yours similar or completely different from mine? Sound off in the comments or reblog! I love discussions like this.

[lunarphoria]

☽ introduction post ☾

This is just gonna be a little introduction since i started to be a little more active on here and i want to try to keep my account as clear & organized as possible!

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- 🌙 my name is Phoebe ^^

- 🌙 my pronouns are she✦her✦hers

- 🌙 i'm an aroace sapphic

- 🌙 i'm a teenage girl from europe , specifically germany ( so please excuse any minor spelling mistakes :') )

- 🌙 i'm a hellenic polytheist ( I'm still pretty new to the practice & keen on learning! )

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- જ⁀➴ devoted to :

- 🌒 lady selene ; my matron , titaness , goddess & personification of the moon 🌘 ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆𓆩☾𓆪

- 🦌 lady artemis ; goddess of virginity, the hunt & the wilderness 🪶 ⁀➴ 𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𓆱

- જ⁀➴ worshipping :

- 🕊️ lady aphrodite ; goddess of love , beauty & pleasure 🐚 ・❥・° ᡣ𐭩 . ° .𓆩♡𓆪

- 🗡️ lord ares ; god of war , courage & civil order 🛡️ ␥•—⟪=====> ⛏ ⛉

- ☀️ lord helios ; titan , god & personification of the sun ☀️ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☀︎｡ ⋆｡

- 🌅 lady eos ; titaness , goddess & personification of the dawn 🌄 ❀.• *₊°。❀°。

( note : as a hellenic polytheist I worship & honor the entirety of the hellenic pantheon, these are just the ones i mention the most <33 )

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- 🌙 on this account, i mainly want to share my experiences with hellenic polytheism , share my art and get to know other people ! ( Little heads up , some of my art will include artistic, non sexual nudity, but I'll always give a warning in case someone is uncomfortable with it ^^)

- 🌙 my dms are always open in case anyone would like to chat ! i do struggle with communication quite a bit but i promise i'll try my absolute best !

- 🌙 i'd really appreciate the use of tone indicators , as I often have trouble deciphering the authenticity of statements and how serious they are meant to be taken. Please be patient with me <3

- 🌙 i also have an account on cara & instagram , both are @ lunarphoria :3

(by the way , don't be confused, you can still see my old signature ( @ lunardewdrops ) in my art posts , I tend to change my username from time to time )

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-જ⁀➴ my interests :

- 🌙 paintings , sculptures & art

- 🌙 books & poetry

- 🌙 greco-roman mythology & classical religion

- 🌙 nature & wildlife

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- જ⁀➴ my personal tags :

- # ☾ ⋆*･ﾟphoebe's art 🌙 ➛ i use this one for my own art

- # ☾ ⋆*･ﾟphoebe's thoughts 🌌 ➛ i use this one for when i want to share my thoughts or experiences

- # ☾ ⋆*･ﾟphoebe's WIPs 🌛 ➛ i use this one for unfinished art, colored sketches and/or work that's still in process

- # ☾ ⋆*･ﾟphoebe's asks ☀️ ➛ i use this one for my replies to asks I get

- # ☾ ⋆*･ﾟphoebe's art inspiration 🌕 ➛ I use this one for reblogs of art I like and find inspiring

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- જ⁀➴ DNI :

- 🌙 This should go without saying, but my blog is no place for hatred or bigotry of any kind. This includes Homophobia & Transphobia , Racism , Misogyny & all of the usual DNI criteria.

- 🌙 Please also refrain from overly sexual behavior, jokes ect . It makes me extremely uncomfortable and is triggering to me , same with depictions & descriptions of violence in any way .

- 🌙 this is a religious blog !! I don't want nor tolerate any disrespectful behavior towards my deities , especially from people who see Greek Mythology as just a silly little fandom. Please be kind and respectful towards my religion :)

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i'd say that's about it for now ! thank you so much for reading my little introduction post ! i'm really excited to learn & connect more with the gods , befriend new people & take you with me on my journey ♡ khaire !

( divider made by me ! ♡ )

[cardboardheartss]

CARDBOARDHEARTSS D1 Chart Analysis

I actually have been wanting to do this for a while actually so here we go!

My blog is a Bharani Nakshatra, as I had mentioned in the past these natives are known to just pop out of nowhere and make their place in whichever area or part of their life they are in. I guess this could correlate with my blog because I came out of nowhere with my PAC readings and Tarot games. No introduction or backstory, just straight to business.

My blog's ascendant is in Rohini (Taurus), and my blog probably aesthetically pleasing. Taurus is an earth sign and the theme of my blog is Brown, which is an Earthy color. When it comes to photos I post, I ALWAYS make sure the artist or whoever the post has a decent picture.

5H Part of Fortune Uttara Phalungi and Ketu in Chitra (Virgo), I could say I am a bit creative in my blog but that only comes to when I’m creating Paid reading posters. This tarot blog is also one of my very few hobbies and genuine interests as well and my blog is based on readings on creative people like musicians and some actors.

8H Purva Ashadha Mercury and Mars, Mula Venus (Sagittarius). Well… majority of my followers are most definitely not from my home country hence the Sagittarius Mercury. The 8H represents the occult, astrology, etc, and that is what my blog is based on. I often times also share some paranormal experiences and spiritual cleansing situations etc.

9H Uttara Ashadha Sun, Pluto, and Vertex (Capricorn), this blog is quite formal in the way of certain topics I post and do not post to. Since the 9H represents foreign travel, as I had mentioned before, my blog is based on readings on celebrities and 99.9% of them are also not from my home country.

10H Shatabhisha Saturn (Aquarius), it did in fact take me a while to open this blog. I had to mentally prep myself for the amount of energy and work it’d take. From my perception of this Saturn being here also means that I enjoy being on the “low” on here, meaning exclusively staying on Tumblr and not focusing too much on the amount of overall Notes I have. I am honestly only here to share my insight and have fun!😚

11H Revati Rahu and Chiron, 11H represents communities, and I am genuinely grateful to be surrounded by so many fellow tarot readers and we all have the opportunity to share our own opinions and thoughts on readings. I enjoy doing exchanges with you all!!

On the downside, I’ve had numerous hate comments and reblogs from the beginning, and that is because of the Chiron placement.

12H Aswini Jupiter, Bharani Moon, and Uranus (Aries). At times, I do tend to show my raw emotions ONLY when I’m triggered but apart from that I do show my gratitude to my followers. Overall these placements, do reflect because I rarely post about “private things,” in this sense, I’m talking about TMI’s.

Thank you for reading!!

[qibilette]

HI apologies for just rbing a bunch of your posts, but I saw your tags about rewriting of the Seawing Royal Family & specifically Tsunami & Corals relationship, I’d love to hear your rewrite thoughts on that if you’d open to share. ! ! !!

howdy! please don't apologize, it always makes my day when people reblog my stuff & leave such kind notes!!! tysm :]

and yesss i love the seawing royals!!! in my rewrite, tsunami has the most family focus out of any prophecy dragonet. i removed clay's sibs from the first book, so the lost heir is the first time any of them meet family members! i have a lot of thoughts about them so this is going under a readmore LOL

when tsunami first meets her mom, it really does feel like coming home. they're both incredibly happy to be reunited and coral showers her with tons of special treatment. at this point, tsunami sees coral as sweet and powerful and fun to be around - she's the mother that the guardians never were, and that tsunami has been wanting her entire childhood.

the first crack in this view is when tsunami gets to know her many brothers. coral insists they aren't "as important" as tsu, because they can't take the throne - tsu doesn't really like this, but she grew up with unhealthy parental figures, so she can't quite put it into words. parents always have favorites, that's just how it is, right? she also feels some sort of way about anemone being kept on a literal leash (and how anemone is often told she needs to be "like tsunami"), but again, she believes coral's defense that she does everything for her chicks' safety. tsunami wants to trust her mom; she wants to believe that coral is good and kind, and that she's everything tsunami didn't have growing up.

there's also a moment in here where tsunami visits the royal hatchery and coral tells her about orca. coral remembers orca as a perfect daughter who just snapped one day. coral compares tsunami to her, in a bittersweet way... also, all throughout the lost heir coral tends to treat tsunami like a child, insisting she be More Formal but also laughing when she messes up social norms & insisting she's Just Fine How She Is. tsunami is clearly her favorite kid, but tsunami also doesn't feel totally enough, like her youth under the mountain left coral disappointed in her.

what really cements tsunami's doubts is when coral pulls out a hatchery guard's teeth for failing to protect the eggs (the egg of auklet's clutchmate is smashed). tsunami is horrified - this is the kind of baseless violence she saw (and hoped to leave) in the sky kingdom. coral says it's only fair, though, and says that tsunami will have to make "tough decisions" too when she's queen.

tsunami meets with her brothers afterwards but it doesnt really help, because they just share more of coral's flaws. after this she goes back to the surface and finds the rest of the prophecy dragonets & fills them in on everything that's been going on. they understand immediately and she finds more comfort in them than she ever has in the sea kingdom.

this is a major realization for tsunami! coral is not a perfect mother, and there was never a dream family waiting for her in the sea kingdom... but that's okay, because she already has her family: the other dragonets.

so overall, tsunami does love her mom, but she's also very aware of coral's flaws and how she hurt her other children. coral treats tsunami better than anybody else but also tends to baby her, as if she's catching up on lost time or doesn't see tsu as her own person. its hard to summarize their relationship but i hope you like the block of text anyway!

o superman by laurie anderson is THE coral + tsunami song, by the way

[ducktoonsfanart]

Ducktales, Quack Pack and Dragon Ball - Scrooge, Fethry, Dugan, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck with Master Roshi, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Krillin and Oolong - Duckverse and Dragon Ball Crossover - Tribute to Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball - My version

Even though I'm late, and to make it easier for you to refer to your crossover, I'll post one drawing each so you know what it's about.

Yes, and in honor of Akira Toriyama, in honor of one of my favorite manga and anime even though the action takes place in China and certainly dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the creation of the best Disney duck, Donald Duck. I drew three separate drawings of the crossover Duckverse and Dragon Ball characters and combined the various Duckverse and Dragon Ball variants into one. I wanted to add more, but not all characters would fit, so I’ll post it separately another time. I mean especially the villains.

Akira Toriyama was born on the same day as me, April 5th, but in a different year, which is 1955 in Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan, and he started his career in 1978 working for a Japanese magazine and later published the manga Dr. Slump continues to write and draw the Dragon Boy manga after 1983, so that from November 1984 he writes, draws and publishes the famous Dragon Ball, which will later become very popular and even the most popular in the world. He was particularly inspired by Osamu Tezuka, who created Astro Boy and is the father of manga. In 1986, the Dragon Ball series began airing and it would become one of the best anime I could enjoy. Yes, it will come out through various series like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, etc. Unfortunately, Akira Toriyama left us on March 1, 2024, and many were affected by this, including me that this happened. Thank you for everything, good man that you have done for all of us! Rest in peace, amen!

This drawing I drew shows other male characters and boys with other Dragon Ball characters, like Ducktales and Dragon Ball. Scrooge McDuck is with Master Roshi (I don’t have to say why), Fethry Duck is with Krillin, Dugan Duck (Fethry’s nephew) is with Oolong Pig, Huey Duck is with Gohan (Goku’s older son), Dewey Duck is with Trunks (Vegeta and Bulma’s son) and Louie Duck is with Goten (Goku’s younger son). Scrooge McDuck is similar to Master Roshi because he is like an advisor, and who influenced Goku and Donald the most, and they are quite comical and love women, Huey is similar to Gohan because he is the oldest, and they are often both rebellious, Dewey is similar to Trunks because he tends to stand out and be alone, but also because of the similarity of his hairstyle, Louie is like Goten because he is the youngest, but prefers sports and they have a good heart, Fethry is like Krillin because they are clumsy and are often with Goku, that is, with Donald and Dugan is similar to Oolong because they are smaller in stature, although both have a strange energy. I definitely drew them wearing Dragon Ball clothes (as in the previous drawing) since they are in China practicing martial arts.

Yes, I combined from the comics Donald Duck, Duck Avenger (PKNA), Double Duck, Darkwing Duck, Three Caballeros and Quack Pack into one along with various Dragon Ball variants in my own way and drew them to wear the same clothes as in Dragon Ball. I hope you like this idea and this crossover. Feel free to like and reblog this and if you support this idea feel free to say so, just don’t use my same ideas without mentioning me. Thank you! Also, happy 90th birthday to Donald Duck as well as 40th birthday to Dragon Ball and Goku himself! I hope you like this drawing and this idea!

[beatingdrumspouringwine]

Communication with the Gods

This is related to this post that I reblogged a few nights ago, which talked about how vocal folks on the internet can be about talking to the Gods, and also how this can sometimes be a little misleading. After reblogging it, I started to think about my own interactions and relationship with the Gods, and how they too don't often fit the internet's view of Godly interactions, and figured that I would share a bit about my own practice to show that face-to-face talking with Gods isn't necessarily the only way one can commune with Them.

To start off, I'll say that when I was first dipping my toes into Hellenic Polytheism, I was with groups that were very vocal about the Gods always talking to them. It was the kind of thing where they would be talking about having full-fledged conversations, or tea parties with the Gods, which caused me to put a lot of pressure on myself to experience the same. It definitely took a while after all that to have a relatively normal relationship with my Gods. As of right now, the vast majority of the time that I pray to the Gods, I feel and hear nothing. Maybe I'll have a sense of inner peace, but I think that comes from within more than anything else. Something about the rhythms in the way the prayers are spoken is soothing to me.

Hermes tends to take a very subtle approach in His interactions with me. Sometimes I know He's there only because I hit more green lights than I was expecting, or a car ride went smoother than the traffic would allow. Sometimes I find coins laying on the ground, heads-up, after a particularly successful trip, or after a desperate prayer to Him; or I find items that have been lost for a while, sitting in a very conspicuous place. Hermes isn't subtle, but He also isn't very obvious. It's almost as if He moves when my back is turned, and when I turn around again, there's a very faint sense that maybe someone was there.

Dionysos, meanwhile, has been a bit more There for me. Sometimes, there's a heavier presence to Him being around, almost as if a person is standing in the space with me. Other times, I won't feel a presence, but rather an intense emotion, that I usually can't quite place. For me, it feels like something akin to the type of madness shown in the Bacchae, although I'm fully aware of my state, if that makes sense. Rarely, I've felt His hands around mine when I pray, although it's more of a pressure than the physical feeling of hands (it's all about vibes!).

The few times I've had an experience that was a deeper communication, they were relatively abstract. One time, it came as a sudden rush of realization on a cruise ship that the Gods love us (that will be another post, lol). A few times, it's been strangely intense dreams, in which I wake up from them and have a strong feeling that it meant something, one of which led me to create this blog. And the One Singular time I have ever heard a God (Dionysos) speak directly to me, it was only one sentence, while I was trying to take a nap, and I was able to feel His presence for a while afterwards.

Anyways, this has come as a bit of a ramble, but I think the overall point that my ADHD-addled mind is trying to make is that the Gods communicate in many different ways, and not all of them are direct God-to-human talking. It's more like subtle communications that say "I'm here, I've never left you." There's something to be said, and I think this idea stretches across multiple religions, about just being still and quiet with your Gods, and the Gods being there in that silence. If we really think about it, animals have only been able to hear for about 275 million years. That's almost no time compared to the age of Earth (4 billion years), and the universe (13 billion years), and the Gods were around even before that. They lived for so long in the silence, and They are there with you in the silence as well. <3

[vywella]

✦⭒ HELLO and WELCOME to my blog! ⭒✦

I'm Vywella but you can go with anything derived from that name to address me. I post my silly art here, mostly fandom stuff but might as well just spam my ocs whenever I feel like it. Original content, reblogs only to support my fellow artists :3

CONTENT WARNING: 16+

I curse sometimes, draw partial nudity and overall suggestive content. If you're under that age follow me at your own risk.

Basically no DNI just please don't be a jerk that's all I'm asking

✧˖° Fandom info

I tend to switch my interests quite often so yeah… Sticking to Honkai: Star Rail and Wuthering Waves atm (gacha games are going to be my downfall)

Might as well post minor stuff related to these:

Dark Souls

Elden Ring

Baldur's Gate

Hollow Knight

Death Stranding

(probably will expand in the future)

✧˖° Ask rules:

Feel free to ask anything related to my favourite fandoms/headcanons/pairings/etc. Personal stuff is allowed as long as you follow basic decency rules

I do fandom requests! Just drop me a character and I can draw them for ya, but no promises

In general, send me whatever you wish to know. I'm open to any interactions by I tend to keep my boundaries with strangers, no offence

Also a quick notice: I might update this info any time don't be surprised

Kudos to everyone who read the whole post you are amazing I hope you'll stick around YAY

[mina-ribbonheart]

Introduction!

Hello hello!

My name is Mina Ribbonheart. Where I'm from doesn't really matter, just know that if you go looking for it you won't find anything but a void. My pronouns are they/it, or occasionally she/her.

I am a scientist and a tinkerer -- I originally studied mythicals, particularly the artifacts they occasionally leave behind, and how those artifacts might be harnessed. I haven't been able to continue that research for quite some time now, but the progress I made was quite significant, and did save my life at one point.

I am also a sylveon- or, well, a hybrid. I'm pretty much what people would describe as an "anthro", though I tend to just call myself a sylveon for convince' sake.

Overall, I tend to enjoy anything that involves folklore, metaphysics, legendaries/mythicals, electronics, engineering, computers, or pretty much any other nerdy thing you can think of. If you can see someone wearing a labcoat of some variety doing it, I'm probably interested in it to some extent!

I have two pokemon of my own. The first is a Zorua named Vinegar -- my mother gave him to me, and she told me she named him for how mean and sour he acts towards everyone. Except me, apparently, because this bastard is the most cuddly Zorua I have ever met, but *only* for me.

The second 'mon is a Porygon-Z named Debug. They were originally a working 'mon I got to help me debug some lab equipment, but we ended up bonding after a while, and I've ended up modding 'em to hell and back by now. That thing could probably break through almost any firewall or security system you can think of that isn't being actively guarded by other Porygon.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy your time here! I don't know how often I'll be posting, but we'll see.

(OOC info under the cut)

(Right! Hello! The author behind this blog is @gracien-system, and because this is a sideblog, we follow from there, and we'll send asks through there if you have anons off.

Anyways, we use parenthesis for OOC and italics for actions [when applicable], but otherwise everything should be context-dependent.

Pelipper Mail is enabled, Pelipper unmail and Malice are disabled. Musharna Mail and Malice are both enabled. Magic anons are enabled on a case-by-case basis, if we don't want it to happen, we'll either post it with an OOC note voiding it, or just delete it.

This blog is likely to cover themes of loneliness, isolation, death, and other similarly heavy topics from time to time. We are *NOT* good at consistently tagging stuff, but we will try to tag posts that deal with stuff like that with #serious-moments.

If/when important lore posts or the like happen, we'll see if we can find a way to link them here or in a reblog, just for ease of access to information and the like.

Oh yeah, one more thing! The mod is an adult, and Mina is in her early 20s.)

[abarbaricyalp]

do you have any advice for a new writer trying to post on ao3 I want my stories to be noticed (also thanks for not leaving -- so many writers are gone now)

*Looks at my recent hits counts* I'm not sure I'm the best reference for this 😅

I think there are two aspects to getting engagement on fan works:

1: There is the actual work you put into posting your fics. This includes tags, cross posting, and self promotion.

Tags: Make sure you are tagging what is relevant to your fic. AO3 doesn't run on an algorithm, so the way people find your fics is primarily through searches. There is an excellent post on tumblr somewhere that discusses how to accurately tag your work, and I highly suggest starting there! (Post here) Also when tagging, I would suggest considering what YOU would search if you were looking for a fic like this. Quite often, I've found that the tag I was looking for isn't on AO3 yet. Don't be afraid to type in the specific trope or AU you are writing. Look at other tags to get a feel for the structure of the tag, but other than that, have fun.

Also, it may seem counterintuitive, but don't over-tag, by which I mean tagging a bunch of tropes or characters or ships that aren't in your story. It's a fast way to have people disregard your fic instantly, or even mute your name on AO3. Especially in smaller fandoms, I totally get the desire to tag a bigger ship, but it just makes more trouble for you in the long run.

Similarly, on tumblr, keep tags tight. I tend to only tag ship, character (name and superhero name), show/ movie, franchise, and the challenge I'm answering if I am. I know other people tag the actors of the characters. I don't because I know when I go into an actor's tag, I don't want to see fic (of their characters or them either) but that's entirely up to you. But don't tag characters or shows etc that have nothing to do with your fic. This is just courtesy in fandom spaces.

Cross-posting: I admit, I can be kind of bad about cross-posting, but I do find that it helps drive engagement when I do buckle down and get it done. Cross-posting is publishing or promoting a fic on multiple platforms. For instance, I use AO3 AND tumblr. On tumblr fic posts,I link to the AO3 (if there is one, I'm pretty bad about publishing shorter things on here only) And when I publish the fic on AO3, I'm supposed to be linking back to my tumblr. This helps more people see your fic and it grows your community when people are able to follow you on various platforms and spread your fic and kudos around. If you have fan accounts elsewhere and you're comfortable with it, feel free to promote there as well. Also check any discord or group servers you may be on for rules about promoting or channels meant exactly for that.

Self-promoting: this is pretty similar to the above. Because AO3 doesn't have an algorithm, it's kind of up to you to keep interest alive in your fics, especially if you want eyes on it for the first several days afterwards. I know it feels embarrassing to reblog your own fic posts all the time, but it's impossible to tell who may have seen or not seen that you posted a new fic. I don't have any set times for this, personally. I try to catch what I consider active times on tumblr, but that's entirely subjective. It's just trial and error, really. Secondly, don't be embarrassed to recommend your own fics (I'm kind of bad at this) If someone is looking for recs on a specific trope or AU and you know you have just the fic, tell them! Unfortunately, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader when it comes to your own art because no one knows and loves it as much as you do. It feels awkward and I know I get embarrassed if people aren't reccing my fics on their own, but you really are your biggest advocate. Fandom is kind of a popularity contest sometimes 🤷‍♀️ Hype your own self up

2: Now that the technical stuff is done, let's move on to the community aspect of fic posting. (This is not really what you asked for, but i think it's more important sometimes than the actual tags and AO3 procedures) Curating a community and making friends is HUGE as far as readership goes. Especially in smaller fandoms (I assume this is about Sambucky fics/fandom) community is everything. Being a name people recognize and trust is important to regular readership.

Building community: don't be afraid to interact with other writers on this platform or others! The Sambucky fandom has this delightful habit of playfully creating headcanons and ficlets based off of text posts. The Daily Sambucky Fluff Diary project is so much fun and so interactive. I have honestly never been in such a fun, supportive group as the sambucky writers on tumblr. I highly suggest playing in this sandbox and getting familiar with other writers. We hype each other up all the time.

Understanding the rules of play: this is kind of an addendum, but the sambucky fandom is rightfully protective over Sam and his portrayal in fics, as well as Bucky. Reading fics, community interaction posts, and even the rules laid out in various challenges (like the bingos that are hosted at various times) will really help you get a sense of how to respectfully tell stories with Sam and Bucky without being racist, ableist, or disregarding to these characters. Quite often Sam (and Bucky, and especially Sambucky) is only there to prop up other characters. This is something the fandom will (again, rightfully) push back on and avoid. I highly suggest looking at the rules that are laid out in the Sambucky Library's bingo rounds to get an idea of the sandbox rules.

Engagement: the sambucky fandom is small, so we don't really have big organized events like Bangs or Reverse Bangs. However, we do have lots of fun, smaller challenges, namely the bingos! There is also Samtember, the Anniversary Challenge (I don't think that's what we called it) and various prompt week challenges, including an AU week (and we like birthdays here). I highly suggest following @ sambuckylibrary to keep apprised of challenges and prompts. Filling out these prompts when you can and want is a great way to break into the fandom and get engagement with your fics. They are all very low stakes and the reward is new fics, friends, and interaction!

I would also suggest joining a discord server, if that is something you're interested in. (I personally am not in any, but that's because I don't like making new accounts on things, not because I don't want to be part of the fun) This is a great place to interact with other fans, promote your fics, get new recs, and generally reap the fun of fandom in a more condensed space, rather than the entirety of AO3 or tumblr.

One last thing to keep in mind: you've already pointed out that fan fic/art/engagement is decreased in our fandom. This will be reflected in your hits/kudos/comments, especially if you're coming from a bigger fandom. Don't let this discourage you. In fact, I really suggest not looking at stats as much as possible. The wealth of engagement in this fandom will be seen in your relationships and interactions with other fans, not in skyrocketing numbers. Allegedly, Cap4 and Thunderbolts come out in 2025 and our guys look to have an episode in the next season of What-If, but without new content, interest will lag and numerical engagement with it. Just keep this in mind as you begin/ continue your journey into the fandom.

That's a lot of words to say: tag properly, make friends, and have fun ❤️🤍💙❤️🩶🖤🪽🐺

[thewritingcoroner]

I done got frustrated

My desire to keep my opinions to myself managed to last most of the day. New record tbh.

So like I wrote this big long rant a couple of weeks ago and decided against sharing it while I was still frustrated. But I do feel like maybe there is a larger discussion to be had! I think it's important that we as a writeblr community really take a look at why so many of us are getting so frustrated so often and how we as a community and as individuals can work towards an actually community vs a corner of social media. @blind-the-winds did an excellent job of explaining some of what I'm seeing as well in relation to why a lot of positivity and support posts and such ring hollow to so many of us. I wanted to bring a slightly different perspective to things coming from a marketing/social media marketing background. Under the cut out of respect for everyone's dashboards lol

This is going to get INCREDIBLY LONG. So I have a read more here. Behold, the bitchfest.

So this started today when I was chatting with an irl friend and expressing my frustrations about writeblr in general as a community. And what I've recognized now is this: writeblr isn't really much of a community, and it is very rare to find other creators and writers who are willing to treat you (the hypothetical writer) as another human being with a love for the same craft they do. Those people who do treat you like people are some of the loveliest people I've found on the internet, but they are hard to find.

Now, to be clear, I don't think the problem is completely writeblr's fault, nor do I believe it is any one or two or five hundred individual's fault. The problem comes from a number of different sources, and my friend did a great job of helping me see the problem from a number of different perspectives.

The problem being this: it is impossible to get engagement on posts that feature original long-form writing, and it is exceedingly difficult to effectively foster meaningful connections with other writers.

Some disclaimers: it's not impossible, and the people who successfully receive engagement on their long-form writing tend to be the people who are the exceptions proving the rule. Also, by "engagement" I mean any interaction that serves to both consume the content and spread the content. "Original" writing refers to writing that is not fandom related, and "long-form" means 1k words or more.

Do you think 1k words is a little short for "long-form" writing? Me too. I'll get to that.

I'll start my explanation here with what catalyzed these revelations in my little head. Over night, I got quite a few new followers, all directly coming from a post that got mildly popular here on writeblr. So, I looked at what other posts of mine have been popular, and I started to notice a trend.

My most popular posts tend to fit into one of three categories: memes, tag games, and boost posts/recommendations. Memes tend to be popular because they're funny and easy to spread, and as long as they fit the theme, they don't ruin a blog's aesthetic. Tag games get more interaction because I am directly tagging people to see the post. But the popularity for those posts tend to stop at the half dozen to a dozen people tagged in each given post (the person or people tagging me, and the several people I tag to continue the game). The last category is most interesting to me, the boost posts and recommendations.

Here's the thing, I only boost or rec other writers and blogs if I have invested interest and care into the person behind the blog and their content. AKA, I only really boost friends and writers I admire/like their content. It's great to see that those posts get popular with people outside my circle, but out of those three categories, none of them feature my own content.

Why is that?

It seems like every day I see a new post with a few thousand notes at least complaining about a lack of interaction on writeblr and the importance of reblogs and blah blah I rarely stop to read those let alone spread them. And a few dots connected, I think.

If my content isn't getting interaction, and your content isn't getting interaction, then what is? And I think the answer is this: memes, advice, and boosts.

Memes and advice are self-explanatory. But boosts are interesting because you will see everyone hop on to rec other people or more frequently market themselves, but they stop there. And I see my greatest influx of interaction and new followers when I boost other people's works or blogs.

My conclusion is that many people are using writeblr as a hustle and not a community. In a community we engage with each other, talk to each other, enjoy each other's company. And I've found many mutuals to be very lovely people who I do enjoy and who I love to engage with and who I like to genuinely call my friends. I like a lot of yall for different reasons too! Some of you are great hype buddies, some of yall are all about that accountability buddy system, and I really love when I get to have intellectual conversations about the craft and different concepts with different members of writeblr too.

But largely, I find that a lot of people who engage once with my blog, usually on those boost posts, or who ask for engagement more frequently than when frustration strikes, tend to be the people who think of writeblr as a hustle. They see that I (and many other writers) will boost and rec our friends, and jump on that bandwagon, but instead of putting in the effort to get to know us and our work, they say what needs to be said, hop on trends, and avoid any genuine connection.

So what gives?

It's not the individual writers, I think. It's the nature of social media, marketing, and the medium.

Listen, I work in marketing, and long-form writing is a dying art that is very difficult to market. I genuinely think the concept of "tldr" really ruined a lot of people's ability to engage with longer form writing. Whether that be nonfiction opinion posts or actual fiction. Tumblr is one of the only places I can think of where long-form writing is a feasible medium to post at all, let alone gain a following for.

Think about it: instagram is best suited for images, videos, and short-form aestheticized poetry. Twitter has a character limit that requires long threads of individual tweets or images to get your message across. Pitch events are well-suited for twitter because your pitch by definition needs to be short. But sharing actual summaries, snippets, or excerpts? Not really possible. Tiktok is for videos, which as we know can be utilized, but is not the most efficient method of marketing written word. Ao3 is an archive with an excellent tagging system, but to get readers, outside marketing is required. Facebook requires a real name, and isn't really well suited for content creation either. Wattpad, Royal Road, and others are great for posting actual works, but they don't necessarily have well-functioning tag systems that help the author find their audience. That really just leaves Tumblr. Pillowfort is also an option, though it's still so in the beginning phase of development that it's pretty difficult to get started there.

It's well known in marketing that images and videos catch attention and long paragraphs of text (AKA what most prose looks like) tend to be scrolled past. The very nature of the long-form writing medium is against most marketing techniques. Marketing long-form writing needs to look different from any other medium.

All that being said: the culture of social media engagement has shifted, and this is a conversation that fandom has been having and I think has actually been doing well discussing the different facets of how the culture has shifted. Fandom (and content creation in general) is seen as a commodity to be consumed. Consumers want to see the content, maybe save it for later, and then move on to the next piece. This is easily done with visual mediums, but writing mediums are especially vulnerable to this culture shift because it does require so much time and energy to consume, let alone engage.

Creators don't see their work as a commodity to be consumed, but it is now. When consumers view a piece of visual media, they view the image (consume it) and then move to the next, some will spread it to others by engaging with the picture through reblogs or sending the post to someone else. But most often, there will be a "like" to tell the creator good job, and then scroll to the next. This is harder to do with written media unless one has the time and energy to read the piece. There's the extra step of critical thought.

To put it a different way, the market is flooded with content and creators. With so much to choose from, the consumer now does not have to participate in the community to ensure continued creation. There will be another creator tomorrow. The consumer no longer feels connected to a community of their interests, it is simply being sold to them.

So back to writeblr, this is where I am at a crossroads. I am tired of creating content to be consumed, I want community. But also, I have nowhere else to turn. I can either completely withdraw from what sliver of community I have found, or I can keep trucking along, create my stuff, play the games we play, chat with the people I do like and do care about, and hope that I don't get too frustrated one day and leave for good.

[charmwasjess]

3, 6 and 17 for the ask game!!

THANKS ANT THIS WAS SO FUN! :D And I'm still very much accepting writer asks if anyone else wants to send me one, or reblog the list and I'll send you something. <3

3 How do you feel about your current WIP

You know, I'm definitely in that phase of writing Rabbit Heart where I'm too close to it to tell if it's successful in what I'm trying to do, but I'm having a lot of fun with the fic, so that's probably a good indicator!

Dooku and Rael are a BLAST. It's also been eye-opening to write Dooku this young, unsure of himself, with so much to prove. Meanwhile, Rael is feeling just as clueless and lost, but it's coming out in totally different ways, with him trying to push Dooku into giving him the reaction he's dreading.

And then - Dooku and Sifo-Dyas. They're circling each other, boys in newly men-shaped bodies, still playing out the dysfunctional dynamic from their backwards-ass childhood with Lene Kostana. I have written a half dozen iterations of Sifo-Dyas quietly gayly pining for an oblivious Dooku, and this fic I wanted to do differently: I wanted Dooku to fall in love with his friend in real time. Dooku being the initiator, even if it seems clear Sifo-Dyas has loved him forever before this. And that's fun and weird, because I write Dooku as someone not always very in touch with himself in matters of the heart, so he's flailing a little bit, trying to understand why suddenly things have changed, trying to frame his feelings around what has happened to Sifo-Dyas in the larger plot and his reaction to it.

6 the word that appears the most in your current draft

Hah, unsurprisingly, "Dooku" followed by "Sifo-Dyas" and "Rael." Most everything else was articles.

17 talk about my writing and editing process

WILL I EVER :D My favorite!!!!

While I don't typically finish stories before I post them, I do tend to prewrite quite a lot before I feel comfortable starting to post any part of it. I write a lot more than I ever post, including whole scenes or alternate endings or different POV characters for a certain plot point than I end up going with. (And lets be honest, sex scenes, I write a TON more sex than I post because of garden variety horniness.) So I gush out all this content and then I have to decide what goes in, what gets scrapped, what gets saved and recycled for later.

I spend a lot of time rereading and narrowing down the content throughout the writing. But when I have the shape of a chapter that I'm pretty much ready to post, I pour myself a big glass of wine and get out my ruthless choppers. I KNOW I overwrite, so this is an important part of my process. I take out the third, unnecessary adjective that of course I've included. I try to kill any darlings that aren't serving the plot. I try to rein in my runaway adverbs, which are fine to use, but I like to have about twenty more of them than I need. I cut the rambling anecdote my characters love to think back on.

I take a hard look at my characters to make sure they feel true to my interpretation of their core qualities. This is usually the part where I fix Sifo-Dyas's lines, since he's often my problem child there. For example, recently in this stage, I changed his "I'm afraid of being left behind" to "I won't be left behind," which is more in line with one of my tenants of writing Sifo-Dyas: that he is defiant and dynamic about facing his own limitations, not ever static or despairing. (Where as Dooku, god love him, can absolutely be a brooder.)

[creekfiend]

Re: my tags on the plurality post I just reblogged. I realize this may not be well known information so. Here is the You're Wrong About ep about "multiple personality disorder"

There is a very good transcript available on that page if you are not able to listen to the podcast.

The tl;dr is that the entire phenomenon of "MPD" as we conceptualize it popularly is extraordinarily closely linked to both the phenomena of "repressed childhood abuse memories" and, necessarily, the satanic panic. There is this idea of like, certain types of abuse which somehow cause the "self" to "shatter" in some objective way that can itself be used as concrete evidence OF that abuse... and that's pretty much from 1 book in the 70s that became a huge cultural phenomenon. There's a citation in the podcast transcript here for a book which picks that apart called Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan where you can learn more about that specific case. It's also worth mentioning that the "MPD as a result of childhood abuse/repressed memories of childhood abuse" thing actually became a significant issue in legal matters where psychologists were coercing people into inventing repressed abuse memories in order to provide "evidence" to incarcerate people. It was a whole thing.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript that I like:

Sarah: Yeah. And immediately, it becomes just a cultural phenomenon. The author gets bushels of letters, almost all of them from American women and girls. And a lot of them write about feeling like they don't have multiple personality disorder, but they feel like they have all these different selves and different people they are at different times. And it's like, yeah, because being a woman in 1973 means that you in a very obvious way, sociologically are being torn between all of these positions in society. It's like, you want to be a good daughter, but you want to have sex and you want to maybe have a job or stay home and iron a little, I don't know.  Mike: And probably a lot of unaddressed traumas too. I mean, probably a lot of the people had seen terrible things and we're still dealing with the trauma of it. And this gave them somewhat of a voice to their trauma or a lens through which to view their trauma that, you know, something happened to you that day and I'm still dealing with it because it's not like in 1973, society was great at being like, let's listen to people who say that they have trauma.

So like, none of this is to say that DID "isn't real" or that any way of framing having a lot of conflicting parts of oneself or different internal selves or whatever is bad or not useful. It is self evidently very useful for many people.

However. Our cultural understanding of what it means to have "other personalities" specifically AS A RESULT OF TRAUMA, as like, this objective THING that takes place inside your brain when something is DONE to you... is like a VERY culturally specific concept.

And obviously DID/plural/system stuff is often quite distinct from "MPD" style framing of multiple selves. Specifically the psychologist obsession with MPD often revolves around the "solving" or integration of selves, whereas plural/system people I know tend to decry that. Theres many other differences also. HOWEVER I think that learning about the history of how this has been framed and who invented a lot of the commonly accepted "facts" about it is like... really important. In terms of being able to control your own experience of conceptualizing your internal state. Regardless of what framing and models you find to be useful or true. Like... as people whose brains are constantly being pathologized and moralized we should ABSOLUTELY know about & be concerned about patterns of psychological abuse which may play into concepts we have of how our brains work. You know?

And because people are not good at taking posts like this in good faith: I know that people describing having multiple selves has been a thing in many places over many time periods, I think the experience of having more than one 'self' is real (I mean what is a self anyway, per my last reblog, right) and I have friends who are plural/systems/etc. I myself absolutely feel that I have many facets to my "self" which I do often find it helpful to conceptualize as discrete entities when I'm working through stuff. I don't personally find the framing of plurality or systemhood useful *for my self* but you know if you read this blog that means nothing in terms of whether I think it's useful or real for other people.

I just.

As a psych abuse survivor I really want us to be intentional and precise about these things and make sure we have all the information we need to make sure we aren't reinforcing some really narsty shit that's been used to hurt a lot of people.

And also to be like, whose word am I taking for this? What rules do I think this phenomenon follows and why do I think that has to be true? Like it is one thing to put words to an experience or a framework, right, and it is another to go "well the system blog I read says that one self has to be fronting at a given time so now I have to figure out which of my selves is doing that" or whatever like... with ALL frameworks for internal experiences ("diagnoses" lol) I think it's important to be like, am I taxonomizing this by describing how it is for me, or am I trying to sort my experiences into these boxes as described by someone else? And like, the latter is not good for people in general I don't think. And of course in any group or community you will get people who are prescriptive about who belongs in what categories and how your experience has to look in order to belong there or use whatever terminology. And that's not true. You can use whatever frameworks you want and if they don't fit later you can modify or discard them!

Wow I hope this is coherent. Anyway going to go ahead and make this puppy unrebloggable because lmao but I am happy to talk about it with people so please feel free to leave replies or asks as long as no one is yelling at me and accusing me of like, denying experiences. Because I am extremely not doing that. Ty

[bonefall]

Do you have any thoughts on other warrior cat rewrites? Do you enjoy them or read them? And also how do you feel about some rewrites genderbending characters (more specifically Firestar. I like the genderbent Firestar rewrites quite a lot, I've read two which were extremely well written and had this... Incredibly mature vibe to them.)

I think people should change the character's genders more often. (Mob boss voice) TRANS 'EM, BOYS.

Heartstar is a girl in BB

I don't even really think it NEEDS to be like me changing Heartstar, in an attempt to make ShadowClan's leadership more balanced. I just think it's fun and cool. Change those genders man.

But anyway!

I actually don't really read a lot of other AUs and rewrites, especially not these days since I run my own. I just see whatever passes through my dash, whatever my mutuals reblog and such. I'm more likely to revisit canon itself.

I do love other rewriters though, I think what they do is super cool and I was inspired in the first place to do what I do because of random various people and analysis posts.

Analysis especially is what I tend to consume from the fandom though, these days. I like hearing people's takes on various characters, especially the obscure little background guys. It's a genuinely charming quirk of this fandom that every little random namedrop is beloved by someone.

[canmom]

to (specific person) - I can't reblog yr post about game accessibility and you won't see any replies since I'm shadowbanned, so I'm posting on main, hope you see this on your dash ^^'

re: this post

so.... I think AAA studios actually care a lot more than you might think about tutorialisation and getting non-gamers up to speed on the conventions of games. they're targeting a much broader audience than most indies after all, and they have more resources to dedicate to playtesting and writing tutorials, as well as implementing accessibility options in general (look at the examples of 'best practices' for many categories). over the last decade, games have gotten much much better at creating tutorials that feel less intrusive, and teach how to play more effectively.

of course, whether they do, and how they go about it, depends a lot on the genre of game and the company in question. but if anything, a very common complaint among gamers is that modern AAA games are 'too handholdy' and don't give you space to work out how to play on your own. that isn't necessarily the same as being accessible without existing 'game literacy', but I think it is a big concern for at least certain types of AAA game.

anyway, the real question - at this point the indie dev scene is so big and diverse that it's hard to generalise. a boomer shooter and a narrative Bitsy game are both 'indie games' but they're targeting completely different people and trying to communicate completely different things.

I think Jackie's comment is right that many genres of indie games tend to be aimed at a self-selecting target audience of people who are already fans of that genre, and therefore often dispense with trying to explain it. that said, there are some indie games that really do put a priority on getting a player up to speed with a genre.

fighting games are notoriously opaque to beginners, but Them's Fighting Herds has a really good interactive tutorial on relatively advanced fighting game concepts such as frame advantage, way better than a lot of big-studio fighting games with minimal tutorials. I have yet to play it, but Neon White is widely praised as a game that gradually eases you into speedrunning.

for me as a game dev at a small VR studio, we end up talking a lot about how to make the basic interactions understandable, because interacting with VR games is a lot less standardised than interacting with flat screen games. it's also a medium where a lot of players are kids or don't play a lot of games. this is something you really gotta keep in mind when making games, because game devs tend to get into the business because they're very passionate about games, which means we have no idea what is unintuitive to most people.

an experience that was quite eye-opening to me was watching my dad try to play Portal many years ago.

on the face of it, you might think Portal would be a great first game. Portal is a game that is around 50% tutorial described as puzzles - it gradually eases you into the mechanics of how portals work and how to use them. the first few levels teach you to carry boxes, walk through portals, then they give you the ability to place just one portal, they teach you how to fling, how to redirect energy balls, etc. after you solve a puzzle, GLaDOS will usually say something funny, and this may be used to reinforce the 'lesson' of the level. the first half of the game teaches you the palette of mechanics, then the second half of the game assembles them into challenges.

but what Portal doesn't teach you is how to navigate a 3D environment using an FPS character controller. it assumes you know that, and briefly flashing the controls on the screen is enough. and for many players who are used to FPSes, this is second nature. but for my dad, the puzzle mechanics weren't the problem - simply moving around was confusing to him. he never got very far with Portal for this reason. my dad is someone who's played a lot of strategy games and adventure games back in the day, but almost no 3D games.

the tricky thing is always working out how much to assume your audience knows, what should be explained outright, and what should be set up as a puzzle to solve. people tend to find 'unnecessary' tutorials patronising, unless they're wrapped in enough humour. the game design side of youtube definitely talks about tutorials and teaching game concepts now and again, for example Adam Millard attempting to categorise the different ways games can communicate information and their relative advantages. I think it's definitely something we could stand to talk more about though, and a lot of that depends on listening to people who want to get into games but run into barriers that are invisible from this side ^^

oddly, difficult games like Dark Souls can actually be... better than you'd expect for non-gamers, because the reason they're 'difficult' is that everyone had to learn how to play them. Dark Souls is a very obtuse game which explicitly explains very little and expects you to learn to play through trial and error. however, that means someone who has played very few action games can learn Dark Souls with a comparable amount of difficulty to someone who's played other games, but not necessarily Soulslike games.

you may be interested in youtuber Razbuten's 'gaming for a non-gamer' series in which he observes his wife play through various games and what she finds unintuitive. naturally she does learn quite a lot about how games work over the course of the series.

the comments about Dark Souls in the previous paragraph are inspired by the video where she plays Elden Ring (a later game by the same developer) and ends up getting a pretty solid handle on how Soulslike games work. although I'm sure 'male gamer gets his wife to play games for a Youtube video' probably sounds pretty... ehhh, he genuinely brings a pretty thoughtful analytic perspective on the 'language' of games and how it's communicated, and I could imagine that would be interesting to hear about ^^

for my own part, I used to be pretty hopeless at action games. and I got better by playing a bunch of action games of broadly increasing difficulty. the first time I played Dark Souls, I really struggled - the hard bosses would take me hours to beat. but I liked the genre so I played lots of others like Demon's Souls, DS2, Bloodborne, DS3, Sekiro, Elden Ring alongside its cousins like Hollow Knight, and without really noticing it, I got way better at this type of game. When I came back to Dark Souls again a few years later I could breeze through challenges that were overwhelming struggles the first time.

humans are very plastic and very good at adapting to things. the constantly advancing skill frontier is a complicated problem for games. there's a fascinating video by Folding Ideas on how the way people play World of Warcraft has evolved, with an interesting anecdote how when they released WoW Classic, bosses that had been brutally difficult were blasted through in days because the way people played the game had become so hyper-optimised in the intervening years...

one problem resulting from this is that this leaves new players in the dust, and makes the game increasingly inaccessible. this is particularly acute in PVP multiplayer games - try to play a modern competitive FPS and you'll have a miserable time where you constantly die without really knowing why.

even in single player - a game aimed at satisfying experienced players in a genre is going to be a brick wall to people who haven't climbed that ladder already. a game that's still accessible to new players could end up being trivial to experienced players, who will then trash the game. but by trying to challenge the experienced players, you can increasingly paint yourself into a corner. (see a lot of complaints about the design of Elden Ring bosses from experienced Soulslike players.)

some games do manage to thread the needle though! Final Fantasy XIV very gradually (almost painfully slowly) introduces its core mechanics over the course of the very long game, and its 'roulette' system provides decent incentives for experienced players to regularly return to old content, so it's possible to find groups for almost anything. endgame FFXIV raids are fascinatingly intricate dances requiring all sorts of esoteric knowledge, but there are many gradations on the way up to that which will get you comfortable and are satisfying to play on their own. there's no obligation to play at the highest level to experience the story, but the option is there for the people who want it.

as far as CrossCode - I'd be curious about what your experience has been, what's been a sticking point, maybe I can think of some games that are an easier introduction to that type of mechanic!

if I wanted to position it relative to other games, I'd probably call CrossCode a 'Zelda-like isometric action/puzzle game'. it's leaning on the aesthetic of the last generation of 2D isometric games, like Chrono Trigger or Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, but it plays a lot faster like a modern action game (I think it has an iframe dodge, but it's been a while). CrossCode as I recall has a reasonable tutorial on its controls (shooting discs and stuff like that) but I could imagine going from that to stringing up long combos and quickly moving between groups of enemies, or navigating the large multi-screen areas, could be quite a jump.

but yeah I wanna help haha. I do genuinely love games, and I want to make games that don't necessarily assume you're intimately familiar with the last 10+ years of the medium lol.