#i know i haven't been active on here but i haven't read a ton recently so sorry

[mystic-kitten-writer]

Update :)

It's funny how it's been such a long time since I've posted here, yet it still feels like home—hello, loves~!

It goes without saying that I owe an explanation as to why I disappeared from the face of the Earth for so long.

The last time I was able to truly connect with you was when my family and I caught Covid (great times, let me tell you) - after that, I totally disappeared, and as much as I would love to say it was for good and positive reasons, to be very blunt and straight to the point, it wasn't.

For those sensitive to the topics of illness and mental health, skip to the image of a giant cat for the good news!

Once again, as everyone knows, my whole family got COVID-19. While my Mom, Dad, and I weren't too hot, we were functioning. But my husband was really struggling. And when weeks passed, and his health started to get worse and worse, we realized that this was something more than just COVID-19.

My husband is hesitant to provide full details about what occurred, primarily because it's still a recent event and something he's currently grappling with. Still, my husband went from being a healthy, physically active person to being bedridden.

It was a really hard time for everyone because my husband is like the sun. All smiles and outgoing - to suddenly unable to eat or hold down food, needing help with showering and to be very blunt, depressed and suicidal because he lost everything due to this sickness.

Unfortunately, cancer runs in his family, and while he got tested multiple times and came back negative (yay!), he is still not out of the dark. He has done numerous surgeries in hopes of getting better (his most recent this January), and at this time, his last resort is getting a colostomy bag. He is currently undergoing some experimental treatments because doctors don't want to do the surgery based on his age.

It goes without saying why I haven't been posting and updating anything. There's been a lot going on, and I want to be on his side as much as possible.

But there is some good news!

I am mainly posting this message because he has improved greatly these past few weeks and is now in a much better physical and mental state. Seeing him get his feet back on the ground has given me the confidence to resume writing.

I have never stopped writing, but I have stopped publicly posting my writing mainly because I didn't have the time to sit down and properly edit.

My friends behind the scenes have been real stars. They have kept me going and encouraged me to keep writing.

I aim to post small works and drabbles until I feel confident enough to finish my biggest baby, Limerence.

To all those messages saying you missed Yue and Zuko, they're back - sorry, not sorry.

Thank you to everyone who has written messages to me. Trust me when I say I read them all, and I truly appreciate them. It meant a lot to get them and read them when I was not active because there were a few dark moments during my time away with everything going on, and honestly, it made me really happy. While I could never express my thanks in enough words, please know I greatly valued it.

I wanted to keep this short and sweet, but as we know, I am not known for short things (I try I swear askdjahjhksdj)😅

Thank you, and I wish everyone a fabulous day with tons of hugs and kisses.

I can't wait to write to you all soon~ ❤️

[yukipri]

So I've been trying out the new Star Wars Hunters game that came out on Mobile & Switch recently!

I haven't played many brawling type games like this so I wasn't expecting much, but I've actually been really enjoying it so far! I've probably put too many hours into playing (especially since I was super sick around launch and didn't have much else I could do), and I hit max level 50 and Kyber in ranked a while ago... (yeah, playing too much, I know...)

Thought I'd share my initial thoughts though, since I've put in the time!

Note: Some folks have apparently been playing the beta version for a while, but I've only started playing since the public release.

Stuff I like about it so far:

-The really creative and fun SW universe characters is the best part. A blind Miraluka sniper? (Diago) An Ugnaught driving a Droideka? (Slingshot) Literally two Jawas in a trench coat??? (Utooni) They're fun and have great personality, you can read their blurbs here. I like how they're all voiced and also all have their own theme songs (which are honestly heckin catchy)!

-Controls are very intuitive. Again, I am not much of a gamer and have very little experience with these kinds of games, but I picked it up quick. I play on my iPhone and it's great.

-The graphics are GORGEOUS. It looks beautiful, everything moves stunningly smoothly. Honestly it's hard to believe this is a ftp game.

-So far it's very much ftp friendly! Most of the money locked stuff are just cosmetics, and even then there are tons of free ones. One of the characters, Aran Tal, is currently behind a not-too-expensive paywall, but he'll apparently be available for free soon as well.

-The skins for the characters are fun and creative! Imara Vex has one that looks like Durge, and Zaina has one that kinda gives me adult Omega vibes. The store has an active rotation of skins that you can buy with either irl money or in game currency, and apparently old event skins eventually end up in the circulation too. Here are just a couple of my favorites:

-I love the locations! Each one is very Star Wars vibes and has lots of cool lil in-universe elements, like pod racers going through Mos Espa (they can run you over). The time period is New Republic era, so everything is relatively plausible for that time period in universe.

-There's a bunch of different game types, so you don't get bored, and they each have different challenges, and different characters who shine in them. It's unfortunately a bit addicting.

-The events aren't too grindy or tedious (so far).

-I really appreciate the different modes you can play on! The main two modes are casual and ranked, so it's possible to play low stakes and just level up your characters in casual, or try to challenge yourself more in ranked. I appreciate how the limited time events that sometimes throw you into random characters you might not be experienced with are never ranked, so it's okay to suck. Character leveling is the same in both casual and ranked. And I appreciate the Training mode too, where you can try out all of the characters so you're never in a "wtf does this do" in a PVP environment. I get so anxious during PVP if I don't know what I'm doing.

Stuff I hope they improve on:

-Playing with people + party invites are kind of a pain. The invites disappear really quickly, so it's really hard to time it so you can actually play with your friends. It's also hard to know whether the party is going to be playing ranked or casual, and if ranked you can't see the ranks of the folks in your party before agreeing to join, which is a little nerve wracking.

-This is less a complaint, and more just general frustration, but ranking up is pretty tedious near the top, which is to be expected I suppose. Through Aurodium, it was generous because you earn so many more points when you win than when you lose, but in Kyber, you win/lose the same amount. You are judged by your team score, so losses bring down everyone's rank, and it feels like you have to take three steps back for every one. Kyber players are comparatively more competent, but I've been in some...unfortunate matchups before. (As of writing this, I'm in Kyber III, but I've been bouncing between Beskar II~Kyber II for the past two weeks...will I ever make it to Kyber I cries)

-I think they started with a decent batch of characters, and I know this game just came out of beta and the team said they'll be expanding on them! So this isn't really a complaint either. But in the future, I hope they add more female characters (currently only 4 female characters out of 13 total, which feels a little skewed), as well as more support characters, who always feel lacking.

I'd love a few more "popular" iconic Star Wars species to have characters in support. Maybe a Togruta apothecary? A Nautolan water medic? A Pantoran doctor? And personally, I'd love a super buff Twi'lek lady as a tank! Either way, lots of possibilities to look forward to, especially given how much I love the characters so far!

So far, I've been playing on my iPhone and it works pretty smoothly, though I've heard of some Switch users having trouble with lagging/connecting. I think I've only been booted out once, and even when I'm forced to pop out of the app for a moment (last night, I got an Amber alert that paused my screen), I was able to continue playing with barely any pause, which is honesty impressive. I've heard controls are easier on Switch, but I think I've been doing okay on mobile.

Have you tried this game out??

Here's the launch trailer if you're interested, it's Pretty:

And a self plug!

Feel free to add me, I'm Akaz!

I main Skora (Rodian support) and prefer to play her in ranked, but also have Aran Tal (Mando, he's my baby boi), Sentinel (Stormtrooper tank), and Diago (Miraluka sniper) also at max level. Working on leveling up the others in casual mode!

I'm very happy to play casual mode with anyone! (and I play casual mode a lot to level up my less-used characters, and recommend spending some time there for new folks before diving into ranked)

I'm also happy to play ranked!

(but be warned, you'll kinda want to know what you're doing, or they will slaughter you in Kyber)

I might type up a follow up review giving my thoughts on each individual character and maybe some general tips idk

[angels-heap]

I would love any advice you have for protecting yourself against covid in a work environment where no one else cares, because I’m in the same boat.

That really, really sucks, friend. As I said, I don't have all the answers, but here's what I've learned over the last few years and what's worked for me and my inner circle so far. Note that much of this advice will be US-centric because that's what I know best.

First, some light reading: This Covid Safety 101 flyer/infographic includes a ton of helpful info, and I've had some success using it as a conversation starter in my workplace. TL;DR: COVID is airborne, it's a SARS virus, its effects can be devastating, and your risk of Long COVID increases with each infection. We should all be taking steps to contract COVID as few times as possible and spread it as little as possible, with or without the support we should be getting from our public health institutions.

As for practical suggestions, many of them unfortunately cost a non-inconsequential amount of money because we live in a capitalist hellscape, but here are some things you can try, roughly ordered from least to most expensive.

Awareness: COVID is airborne!

A lot of folks, including people in the medical field (!!!) seem hesitant to believe/accept that COVID is airborne, even though this has been understood by researchers since fairly early on in the pandemic. Since most lingering "infection prevention" protocols focus on things like handwashing, disinfecting surfaces, and keeping a six foot distance from other people (all good for public health, but not particularly helpful for COVID), you'll need to gauge your own safety and comfort when around others.

As a general rule, if you're close enough to someone that you could smell their vape or cigarette smoke if they were engaging in such an activity, you're probably close enough catch COVID from them. Also, like smoke, COVID can linger in the air for a while after someone leaves a room. Adjust your habits accordingly and keep your mask on as much as possible (see below).

CPC Mouthwash and Nasal Sprays

I haven't had time to do a ton of research on these options, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt, but it sounds like there's some research coming out that suggests certain nasal sprays and mouthwashes containing CPC (Cetylpyridinium Chloride) may help neutralize viruses or block them from entering your body (or, at the very least, they may help reduce your viral load). I've been using Crest Pro-Health Clinical Rinse mouthwash before and after interacting with people for the last few months; I don't know how much of a role it's played in keeping me safe, but it might be helping, and even if it's not, it was cheap and my breath is always minty fresh. Here's some more info about nasal sprays, since I don't know enough about them to make any specific recommendations.

Testing

Keep a few rapid antigen tests on hand, if you can, but know their limits as a diagnostic or preventive measure, especially as new variants continue to evolve. My current understanding is that many new variants won't show up on a home test until day 3-4 of symptoms. What this means for you is:

Testing when you're completely asymptomatic and don't have any known recent exposures is probably not the best use of your resources.

If you have any unusual symptoms that might indicate illness, stay home (or wear a high quality mask, if you must interact with others). A negative test doesn't necessarily mean you're in the clear, and if you're sick, you can transmit COVID for several days before you test positive.

Swabbing your mouth and throat in addition to your nose (in that order, obviously) may increase the sensitivity of home tests.

Any sign of a positive test line counts as a positive! If the test line is very, very faint, that still counts.

If you feel sick, but your first test comes back negative, try again in a few days and keep testing periodically until you feel better and are no longer testing positive.

Vaccines

They're not perfect, and they won't get us out of this mess on their own, but if you have access to vaccines, get them. Any vaccine is better than no vaccine, but FWIW, I personally opted to get Novavax this year, after learning that it was the jab of choice for many COVID safety advocates and researchers. Pros of Novavax, specifically, include lower risk of side effects, possibly more durable immunity, and it's not an mRNA vaccine (great option for the vaccine skeptics in your life). But in the end, get whatever you can get.

Masks

If you're not already wearing an N95 respirator or similar, such as KN95, FFP2, KF94, etc., anytime you're indoors (or outdoors in a crowd), now's the time to start. One-way masking isn't perfect, but it's a lot more effective than no-way masking. As someone with a fairly petite face, I've had a hell of a time finding N95 masks that fit me. Through my many expensive mistakes, I have learned:

Avoid buying masks on Amazon, if at all possible. There are a lot of fakes out there.

If most masks fit you comfortably and you're comfortable wearing masks with headstraps (which tend to have a better seal than earloop masks), the 3M Aura is fantastic.

WellBefore sells masks in a variety of styles, sizes, and colors for affordable-ish prices. If you have a more petite face and have found that blue surgical masks and most N95s are huge on you, try their small or child sized masks.

BreatheTeq makes great masks in 4 sizes, and they sell a sample sizing kit for $7 + shipping to help you avoid wasting money.

Masks with headstraps generally form a better seal than masks with ear loops, but the most effective mask is one that you can/will actually wear semi-comfortably. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. I've been wearing earloop masks for 3.5 years and have made it through multiple known exposures unscathed.

If you can afford to keep a few extra masks on hand to offer to colleages who have to be in your space, people who are coughing in public, or people who seem to be trying but they're still wearing inadequate surgical or cloth masks, do so. More often than not, people will take and wear them when offered!

Air Filtration

If we lived in a society that believed in public health and safety over profits, we'd have spent the last 3 years improving air filtration in public spaces. Alas, most places did not do this, so your next best options are as follows:

Open windows and prop doors whenever you can! Your goal is to keep fresh air moving through your space and minimize the amount of air that will be "re-breathed" by multiple people.

Build a Corsi-Rosenthal box with furnace filters and a box fan. Pros: Fairly cheap and easy to do; Cons: Boxes are large and can be loud. Some sites also provide instructions and/or sell kits to make smaller, more portable C-R boxes out of desktop computer fans.

Buy a HEPA air purifier (or 2, or 3), or try to get your workplace to shell out for one. While many brands sell small, portable purifiers that are around the size of a lunchbox, I would personally recommend that you buy the largest one you can afford. The smaller ones are probably better than nothing, but you really want a more room-scale solution, if possible. I've had good experiences with Medify Air and Coway air purifiers, but I'm sure there are other great brands out there as well.

If you buy an air purifier, you want one with a HEPA filter and without an ionizer, as ionizers aren't as helpful as the advertising would lead you to believe and they can pose health risks (ozone exposure, etc.).

Measuring Air Quality

If you can afford it, buy an Aranet 4 CO2 monitor. Yes, they're expensive, but I haven't heard of any cheaper products that compare in terms of accuracy or portability. (And they do occasionally go on sale on Amazon.) The Aranet 4 measures the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air around you. This reading is a great proxy for how much COVID might be in the air, and it can help you identify which areas of your home or workplace are the safest, and which ones would benefit the most from fresh air, an air purifier, or other safety measures.

[titanrpg]

how i learned ttrpg design, part 3

you can check out part 1 here and part 2 here

as always, this is about my personal experience learning ttrpg design, and i claim no particular expertise or authority on what constitutes "good" game design

3

so far, i've discussed the games i drew on for the start of my ttrpg education. now let's talk about how to improve (when you need to/if you want to). now, i'll say i don't think "improving" is a great way to think about it. i prefer to think about it as "how to be aware of the tools you need to accomplish your design goals"

for some people, the three games i've discussed are plenty for them to get started. these people tend to like experimenting for themselves and then doing more research when they need help. (i fall in this category.) other people may want to read more before starting in earnest. this is also a smart way to go. (obviously you can go overboard with researching so much that you never actually start, but we are far from that place here.) either way, at some point you'll need more information than you currently have.

how do you find the wisdom you seek? the best answer is simply asking for help from people you look up to/trust. but i've never been good at asking for help, so uhhh this post exists

quick story time. i recently visited maryland to go to my partner's sibling's wedding. in a local comic shop's manga section, i saw this book. i was like, oh fun, it's a manga about kids playing a goblin slayer ttrpg.

but then, when i opened the book...

mechanics!!

it's a TTRPG!! i don't know anything about goblin slayer, but now i'm combing through this book for cool tech. of note so far: at the end of every round of combat, each player has to make an attrition check. fail that, and your fatigue score goes up. at 4 fatigue, you fall unconscious. at 5, you die. punishes long fights and incentivizes players to find alternate solutions. it uses only d6s. and there are sections of fiction illustrated with beautiful manga art. these choices feel old school to me, but it came out in 2019. now i'm really excited. i'll get to see what japanese osr is like!

to me, this pursuit of ttrpg tech feels like discovering an ancient library and searching through old tomes for the power i seek. and there's an online version of this that anyone can dig through for ttrpg tech: osr blogs

old school renaissance/revival, or "osr," as far as i understand it, is a ttrpg genre/design paradigm, typically along the lines of old school d&d. i'm not the best person to explain this, but the way i think about this school of design is it tends to prioritize player skill over character skill. it's the difference between solving a puzzle and rolling to solve a puzzle. because of this, they often make really cool mechanics for challenging players that don't just amount to "roll a 20, do the thing." they also tend to share their thoughts on traditional blogs.

here's an amazing, meticulously catalogued library of keystone OSR posts

by marcia b., @/traversefantasy on twitter, who has an OSR blog of her own using marxist and freudian frameworks for analysis

rise up comus

by josh mcCroo, who's working on a game called his majesty the worm. pretty sure i don't have to say anything else

permanent cranial damage

by ava islam, whose assertion that "Armour Class and Hit Points are the same thing" blew my mind when i was starting out

goblin's henchman

which is where I found the hex flower tech that i adapted for HEXFALL's main mechanic

and one non-OSR blog, that of jay dragon

yes i am a possum creek fangirl. this blog is bananas good. if you haven't read up on playground theory, oh boy you're in for a treat

final takeaway: you never know where you'll find new tools and ideas!

obviously credit people and don't use what's not yours. but have fun and share cool tech with others when you find it!

hope this was helpful <3

p.s. another place that apparently used to have a ton of ttrpg activity was google+. every so often i hear whispers of digital libraries filled with all sorts of salvaged g+ ttrpg treasures. never seen an invite link with my own eyes though. if you hear anything, let me know, will ya?

[senashenta]

My Unplanned Hiatus

I don't know if anyone on here still cares about me and my work or not, but I've been on an unplanned hiatus for practically forever and I'm just getting ready to come back (ish) so I thought I'd explain what's going on with me, at least a little.

Basically: I'm seriously mentally ill. I'm bi-polar. I'm depressed. I'm suicidal. Until recently I couldn't focus on anything but the blackness I was living in. I was recently diagnosed as ADHD as well, which wasn't surprising but like. Come on. It explains a lot about how my brain works (or doesn't work, as the case may be.) It turned out to be a good thing, though, because the ADHD meds change my brain so much that they're actually making me less depressed. Still passively suicidal, though. Passively. But things are looking up, and now that I'm on the new meds I'm also becoming productive with my writing again. I also recently got glasses, which means I can read and do my hobbies (jewelry making, painting, just crafting in general) again, which will help with my mental health. Progress.

I've been posting here a little bit lately, mostly pics of my cats that I thought were worth sharing, but hopefully I can get more active again.

About my writing: I'm currently 85 pages into a 10-page Supernatural fic. My very first Supernatural fic, even though I've been a fan since day one, episode one. My first Destiel fic too. A lot of firsts. But I'm having fun. Here's hoping it gets a good response when it drops.

I currently have the next chapters of both Chemistry and Marked open in Word to work on once I'm done my SPN monstrosity, so I haven't completely given up on my Hijack stuff just yet.

I want to write more stuff in The Witcher universe, but I don't know if I'll get around to it any time soon. My writing never really caught on in The Witcher fandom, despite my best efforts, so the motivation isn't as strong there as it is in other fandoms.

I have a SHIT TON of new Valdemar stuff to write/work on, as well as older fics that I want to finally complete, so that's coming down the line as well. Eventually.

I think that's all the big ones. Anyway. So that's the basic run-down. Direct your questions to my inbox. To any of you who are actually still around, thanks! Hopefully I'll catch you soon!

[thechaoticreader]

Popular Books I Read and HATED

*Disclaimer: If you like any of these books, slay! I'm happy for you! These are just my own consumer choices, and imo negative book reviews are just as helpful as positive ones!*

This list is not long because I don't actively dislike many books that I read, and I have a very good sense of what I will and will not like, but there are some I had to read/were misled into reading so here we go:

1. Tender Is The Flesh

by Agustina Bazterrica

My rant review is above if you want more details but recently I've seen a few videos that articulate my feelings in a way that I couldn't before so im going to add a few reasons here that were not included in the original post:

It gave very Qanon and general antisemitic vibes: i.e blatant conspiracy made up by the "wealthy liberal elites" to encourage cannibalism for their own enjoyment (I know she's Argentinian however that doesn't mean im not allowed to get the ick from it)

Purposefully inaccurate depictions of meat industry and disrespect for farmers (context: im a vegetarian from farm country with a roommate who works in the cattle industry - Angus beef if you're curious - so im very familiar with the process and cannot say in good conscious that it is all bad -> just support local farmers <3)

world building makes little sense

COWS DO NOT EQUATE TO HUMANS NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO !!!!!!!!

the "disease" doesn't make sense (even if its made up who would believe it)

No themes were treated with the depth nor nuance they require (capitalism, feminism, veganism etc.)

I think thats all I haven't covered but this is the only book I have ever read where my hatred of it continues to grow with each day. I went out of my way and deleted it from my reader and get annoyed every time I see it. And for the record (because yes i'm salty) I didn't hate it because it was too disturbing, in fact I've read and loved worse and ive been an avid horror reader since I was (admittedly too) young. I hate it because there wasn't a well done story underneath the gore. I'll say it loudly for the people in the back GORY HORROR BOOKS STILL DESERVE A GOOD/INTERESTING STORY, especially if you want to try to put complex themes in it. If you cannot write a deep story but you're good at and enjoy gore, write yourself a lil 100 page splatter punk and we can all have a good time <3

Unlike with Tender Is The Flesh I don't have a ton of thought out critical reasons for the rest of these soooooo I'm going to give my highly subjective reasons -> I totally understand why some like them <3

2. The Handmaids Tale

by Margaret Atwood

hated the writing style

It didn't keep my attention

disliked the ending so much I actually threw it across the room <3

3. The Hobbit

by J.R.R Tolkien

hated the writing style

male centered fantasy is not my vibe

my ADHD cannot handle long incredibly descriptive sections in books -> I physically fell asleep multiple times while reading this book

honestly even with the movie I fall asleep every time

0/10 book I want to read

10/10 bedtime story

4. Lord of The Flies

by William Golding

hated the writing style

hated most of the characters (and not in a slay anti-hero way)

was forced to read it in high school and it single handedly sent me into a 4 year reading slump... I missed so many good books because of this and will forever hold a grudge

5. Romeo & Juliet

By William Shakespeare

I'm too jaded and gay to enjoy this -> every single character is so painfully stupid

tbh im just bitter that his (imo) better plays get less love than this one, its way over hyped

but I will give it points for boring me so much that I wrote my first fanfic (Romeo x Mercutio if you're curious ... no its not posted anywhere and it never will be <3)

sidenote -> Shakespeare plays I love incl:

Hamlet (duh im a depressed emo gay on Tumblr)

Macbeth (also duh, witches and female manipulator... need I say more)

Othello (a slow burn for the true crime girlies)

Measure for Measure (absolutely underrated, please please please look into this play -> I saw a production of it and it was incredible)

[loganthrives]

Just going where the hyperfixations take me I guess

Hey y'all, sorry its been a while. Wanted to do a lil personal update post. Under the cut to spare your dash in case you don't want to read my nonsense:

You might've noticed that I've really pulled back on social media lately. Tumblr is the only platform that I check even semi-regularly anymore, and the last two months its been not even a thought in my head to check it for the most part. Like, I went from checking it 2-3 times daily to not checking it for a week or more at a time, and not even noticing the change myself until recently.

This hiatus has only been semi-intentional - on the one hand, I am very easily emotionally impacted by the horrors of the world (ADHD emotional hyperarousal and justice sensitivity), and so I needed to take a biiig step back for my own mental health so I wouldn't go down yet another depressive spiral. That's had some mixed results for me, because obviously I can't just bury my head in the sand to pretend that the horrors are going to go away on their own, and I can't easily stop myself from caring about them either.

Just to be absolutely abundantly clear on my position, I still care about Palestine and want to see it freed from violence and restored. Black lives still matter and will always matter. Free Sudan and free the Congo.

I just... Being vocal about the problems of the world takes a lot more out of me than I myself often realize, and sometimes I need to/am forced to hibernate and rest my voice for a bit. Because I can be loud, and I can be belligerent and unforgiving as fuck when it comes to actual human rights abuses and literal genocide, but I am only one mentally ill and disabled queer person in Canada. I can only do so much and my voice can only go so far.

And, yeah, I know about the US election results. I've been posting a shitton of hopefully helpful links and resources to cure ballots, get your passports in order, and other support and resources for my American friends. I am also looking into asylum in Canada and how that works, and how it might potentially be extended to American expats in the future. I've already got one person I'm inviting to live with me as soon as they can get themself up here, but I might have to do more work and research before I can open my doors for more.

It hurts me on a very deep level that my impact is so sharply limited. I don't even have money I can donate anymore - all my roommates have left and I still haven't gotten this house renovated and ready for sale, so it feels like every month I'm walking on thin ice to make my bills work and still somehow feed myself. Part of me wonders whether I shouldn't just post rooms for rent again but then I definitely can't do the renovation work that needs to be done because it involves tearing out the main bathroom. Can't rent to people legally if I can't give them access to a shower or a tub. I feel stuck and unable to progress.

So, while I've been hibernating on my activism, I've been distracting myself with work and with Final Fantasy 14. I accidentally built a whole community where we do stuff together almost nightly, and its been a very inviting and fun distraction from everything. I honestly enjoy it probably a bit too much, and I'm actually getting to do the endgame stuff and content that I never got to do with any of my previous FCs, either because they were busy doing other stuff like running clubs and venues or because they were hyper toxic and constantly talked down to me about how bad they felt I was at the game. I was never bad at the game I just needed someone who had the patience to help me learn and not look down on me for every little mistake I made, and so I went and found a couple of someones who could do that for me, and now I'm basically running this shit myself.

I haven't been doing a ton of writing, though I've been thinking about my FF14 fic more than anything. Apologies again for anyone who was looking forward to more updates to my Undertale fics, and for all the writing I've promised and failed to deliver on 🥺 I stopped posting updates to Tumblr about my fic because I think most people aren't super into named WoL self-insert fics, but I still post the updates to my Discord.

If you made it this far and for some reason want to hang out with me, here's a link for my old Not Your Doll discord - https://discord.gg/G2QSa3c7wH . Its still active once in a blue moon and I post my fic updates to it, along with my activism rants and any links/things I want to share to either make you smile or laugh, or important info I think should be shared. It is also a mental health/vent space for those who need it.

If you'd like to hang out with me in FF14, my homeworld is Dynamis Rafflesia and I have the Thrives FC <THRVS>, feel free to message me ingame (character name is Logan Thrives) or submit an app to my small FC if you'd like to join up. I'm going to try and run consistent treasure map parties every other Saturday once mogtomes are over for characters who are level 60+ and have at least completed Heavensward. There is an FC Discord as well where I do all my events and things but its not exclusive to FC members and many friends have joined it. I'll give that link out privately to anyone who plays and is interested in joining my community.

Thanks for reading all my nonsense and for still sticking around and supporting me, even though I've been so inactive and quiet. I can't make any promised I know I'm not going to keep, but I do hope to return to writing and to being more active on here at some point. I do genuinely miss it.

Have a Nora pic for making it this far:

My baby girl will be ten years old in January 💜

[davidmariottecomics]

New Job, Boom!

Hey friends, 

Going to be a short one this week, but I definitely didn't want to let it pass without saying a little something. If you haven't heard otherwise yet, I'm now working at BOOM! Studios! Once I can say more, I'm sure I will, but it's early, things aren't really announced beyond that, and there are other matters to turn your attention to. 

Announcements: It's the Global General Strike for Palestine! For the next week, people all over the world are striking from all sorts of regular activity to disrupt the economic systems supporting the destruction of Palestine and to put that time and energy into active protest movement. This is a pretty basic explainer of what you can do and know that doing anything is better than doing nothing, right? If you have to go to work, be visible. If you have to shop, be visible and thoughtful. If you have to rest, enjoy the things you already have. If you want to post, make it about what is happening. Current reports are estimating over 25,000 people have been murdered, with the death toll just going to keep rising between continued bombardments and the lack of resources. Over 60,000 people are wounded, 85% of the population has been displaced, and roughly 1 in 4 people is facing extreme hunger. No hospital is fully functional, for the ones that are still left standing. The IOF (Israeli Occupying Force) has admitted to exhuming graves, and have claimed it's to "find the hostages", but in the face of the other war crimes they've committed, it's hard to believe it wasn't vengeful malicious behavior to psychologically wound Palestinians as much as anything else. While we wait--possibly years--to find out if the International Court of Justice rules that Israel is in fact committing a genocide, people are going to continue dying from this. And so, hopefully, with a bit of concentrated disruption and pressure, this destruction that's already lasted 100+ days may finally find an end. 

In terms of using your power and time, I've mentioned it before, but you could call your representatives. Fax their offices. Email them. Contact the White House. Join actions from organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, the Democratic Socialists of America, and be sure to focus your boycotts (during the strike and generally) on the businesses called out by BDS. You can take some time to read through Verso's Solidarity with Palestine reading list. Make signs for if you're going out protesting, to put in your windows, or coordinate outfits in Palestinian flag colors that show your solidarity. Make sure you're keeping an eye out for local events. If you see art installations, share them, and, yeah, that includes graffiti that bears the message. Let Palestinians take the lead in the global conversation on social media and if you see, say, your reps talking about other things, flood them with calls for a ceasefire in the replies. 

If spending money brings you any comfort and you feel a need to put something into good practice, the Cartoonist Cooperative's page still lists a ton of resources for E-Sim cards.Bisan mentioned today that E-Sims are helpful, but their use is becoming more limited as the overall infrastructure has been so damaged that you need to be in a high place to use them. 

Again, do what you can.  

What I enjoyed this week: Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), How to Read Nancy (Book), Ted Lasso (TV show), my new big Taschen Ads of the 80s book, Movie Flick Chick Vol. 1 by BonerBob (Adult Comic), The Traitors Season 2 (TV show), The Floor (TV show), having a new phone and slowly getting back up to speed with it, seeing some stuff I had been working on at the old job get announced.

Pic of the Week: As I've been wont to do recently, I've made a little promo image with my announcement, so that's here, but my real pic of the week is this amazing photo of Nadja. She was in the chair sleeping and I went to move the Hello Kitty and I put it on top of her and she didn't move at all! It was very cute. 

[akhuna01]

TW: cancer talk, therapy, personal trauma, blood mentioned, mental health

I'm asking for ideas or input about creative ways to deal with trauma.

As many of you know (or if you've ever read the bio on my profile here), I've survived cancer twice.

The first one was diagnosed and successfully treated in 2016, and I thought I'd gotten over it (the second diagnosis was a LOT more dramatic and traumatic), but I recently told my WHOLE cancer story in art therapy for the first time and it really, really affected me. Usually just mention cancer #2, because it was the most recent, and it led to chemo therapy, which is the main cause of all my physical and mental illnesses.

I've been blessed to have gotten into an art therapy and ergo therapy program, thanks to my amazing psycho-oncologist (a psychiatrist specialising in helping cancer patients and their loved ones). It's really helped me a lot, and I'm enjoying it a lot, but so far I haven't been able to connect to my trauma. So I've 'just' painted, and created, and benefited from the support from the therapists and the group.

Now that I've finally talked about my story the repressed trauma has resurfaced and I've been encouraged to think of a way to express it through art.

Pottery is a first step, I've started to make a (semi)realistic figurine of my body, with all the fat rolls, and the asymmetric boobs. It was a difficult task and I got so nauseous from the process (from really thonking about my body image) that I nearly vomited. It was hard. The scars will go on with underglaze, which i expect will be equally as difficult.

There's a lot I want to work through, now that I seem to be ready to tackle it.

Body image and the big scars are one thing.

Another is the feeling that something has been stolen from me, organs and opportunities that I won't get back, and that I didn't 'consent' to - because it was necessary. And it had to happen so fast that there wasn't really time to mentally prepare for it.

Another is blood and shock. I'll spare you the details here, but cancer #1 was in my uterine lining, and the body's natural reaction was to expel/flush it out with blood. It was truly gruesome and i nearly bled to death over the course of 4 days, before I was dragged to hospital by my mother. I've had nightmares about that for 10 days now. Every night.

Then I have to think about expressing the terror of findjng out that I had cancer a second time, unrelated to the first one, and a lot more severely. The fear of being diagnosed a third time is a constant, and leads to a ton of anxiety around doctor's appointments.

I find it incredibly difficult to translate these things into art projects. It's a very personal thing, and I don't want to do conventional clichees (painting a canvas red to symbolize blood or something).

If anyone has any sort of tips for me, to work out an idea, or how to find symbolism that fits me - please tell me. I'm going to discuss this with my art therapist next week and maybe make a private appointment to work on that without the group, since it's a rather intimate thing to do. I absolutely trust her to help me on that, but I want to be active and work on an idea before I see her,ideally RIGHT NOW. I'm stressing out about it.

If you read all of this, thank you. Thank you for listening and sparing me a few minutes. It already helps a lot just to write it all down.

[booniesoil]

Deer in Rusty Lake might mean something else

A lot of people theorize that the imagery of deers in Rusty lake represents hatred / violence towards family, which is something I totally see with Nicholas Eilander and Albert Vanderboom, but I don't know why that would be applicable to Dale Vandermeer. He is perfect!! Actually, I theorize / believe that people with deer representations in Rusty Lake could mean something a bit opposite. First of all, I think the true reason the use of deer is so common and inconsistent is generally because it matches the style or Rusty Lake, so they reuse deer carelessly (sorry Rusty Lake, I LOVE YOUR ARTSTYLE I DO), but,:

I think a more accurate telling of deer for characters in the series would be reaching enlightenment. Between the three characters, they may be taking steps, and may be some of the only characters taking steps towards enlightenment in different ways. (I haven't played all the games in the series recently, so a lot of my information may be out of date or flawed, and it is not fully defined what enlightenment is, or how to reach it outside of possibly drinking the elixir, so I am making inferences). I don't fully know what the purpose of sacrificing Jakob is, but Nicholas had taken interest in using Caroline's memories for whatever reason he needs them for. Intentional or not, helping the lake or not, Nicholas may have been taking steps towards enlightenment.

Dale, to me it seems like the plans Aldous and Mr Owl are attempting to him is to get him enlightened (without his knowledge). He's already a corrupted soul, but as far as I know Mr Crow is attempting to change his negative memories into positive ones, changing memories gut keeping the past, it's all vague but he ends up with the golden cube, which might be a step to enlightenment. Ambiguous stuff I hope it all makes sense.

But most exciting, to me, is Albert. Albert may be unintentionally in the process of becoming enlightened. Seeing as Mr Crow is trying to turn Dale's negative memories into positive ones, seemingly to enlighten him?, Albert is ACTIVELY and unintentionally taking steps to enlightenment by personally changing his past, negative memories of his family into positive ones by. Murdering them all. Nice man! 

Ms Pigeon is the closest character I could think of that may be applicable to whatever I've layed out here, since she does take interest in extracting memories before she dies. I don't fully know the rules here, but maybe she's too side of a character to have an association with deer, or perhaps have not started her experiment, already has a harsh enough connotation with pigeons (although Albert has MANY connotations with many different things, Mr Pigeon can definitely have multiple, too) to provide a second animal connotation, or she may have already reached enlightenment.

William is a character that seems like he's massively failing at becoming enlightened! For being the one with the most work done, he got killed by drinking the elixir, took all the steps to reviving himself, and got reincarnated as Laura, who seems like she got, once again, doomed to a fate opposite to enlightenment. Laura has a ton of bad memories, as does Dale, but her bad memories are utilizing a lot by the lake crew, and ultimately she is not getting steps done to getting closer to enlightenment. She pretty much is held hostage at this lake by her brother to extract bad memories after bad memories to help enlighten Dale. If I am READING THIS CORRECT. 

I think I good way to see if this fits is to crosscheck if random deer in the games could also indicate this, but I haven't done that yet, I'm just keeping in mind Albert, Nicholas, Dale, and William.

I hope that all makes sense! I hope someone use understands this and gets EXCITED by it because I think it's a far more exciting theory with a bunch of potential than the previous one!

Edit: ADDING ON TO THIS. Playing through Paradox for the first time in years, Laura outright said that one of them will die and the other will reach enlightenment, and I absolutely do not see that being Laura. You have no hope I am sorry Laura.

[alarrytale]

I really admire Gina’s presence here since her blog was my first one to follow after I became larrie and most of the larry knowledge including HL’s sexualities, industry and pr tactics and closeting I learned from her blog. And as much I appreciate and respect all her opinions and povs, I also noticed how she suddenly switched to “I don’t know if they are still together, sometimes I think they are and sometimes I think they don’t” opinion + sometimes holds her opinion back on H’s sexuality as well saying that he’s just queer (like if there’s a possibility in her believe that he might be bi/pan) and however he label himself, the most important is that he’s happy. And tbh reading this opinion switches as a still quite new larrie is just making me anxious as long as my opinions and believes are based on what old-days larries, who witnessed it all, say. But I also noticed she just started to hold her back with such a bold opinions like you, Marte, have that they never broke up/hooked up with someone else if they had some breaks and that they are both gays. So she might be bold in her believes but she doesn’t write it anymore because it became an opening a can of worms for her since she’s popular and her asks are the most flooded with antis/gf harries/trolls opinions. So imo she just decided to step on brakes, not because she’s not firm in her believes anymore but because she’s just that popular. But that’s just what I observed in the past year, there were days when she had word larrie in her bio which she also changed.

Anyway I’m still happy she’s there just like you and have a patience and kindness to answers asks because I couldn’t imagine being larrie who believe they are still together and witness their stunt shenanigans and their gaslighting on us on my own.

P.S.: I really hope we’ll get Nouis reunion since they both play the same festival in Berlin and Louis even liked Niall’s post recently and we know how much excited Louis got in Nov that he might see “my Niall” for that RS event. I’m manifesting!

Hi, anon 💜

I think it's very important to make up your own mind and do your own research on all these topics, and not rely on different blogs to tell you what you should believe and not believe. That includes me. I think it can be difficult when you haven't experienced things in person and in the context of which it happened, and the source material is gone or the bloggers that sat on the info have left the fandom. It can be hard to know where to look and who to ask for guidance. However, there are still blogs with plenty of info, blog archives and timelines that can help you make up your own mind and help you put things in context. They're just not active anymore. So the blogs that are still active gets a lot of attention and asks. That doesn’t mean their word is gospel. I see many younger blogs here giving out wrong info, because they weren't here to experience it. There are also hardly veteran blogs who are still here to contest the info being wrong. That means the veteran blogs who're active gets a lot of attention and their opinions are more valued than others. That's both a good and a bad thing.

I'm very confident in my opinions because i have been here almost every single day since 2012. Both on twitter and tumblr. I was here during all the highs and lows. I'm also very clear about what i don't know or feel like i can't confidently make a decision on because of lack of info. I also very much believe in diversity of opinon and hearing different points of view. It's fine to have different opinions or different beliefs. Us larries aren’t a homogenous group of people. So we need to respect each others differences of opinons. We don’t need to reach a consensus. We also need to respect people having a change of heart or not wanting to take a stance on a subject because they don't have enough info to be confident enough in their opinions.

We larries take a breath and we get a ton of shit from antis. So i do understand why people are not always so bold and confident about their opinions. Some anons won't take "i don't know/i'm not sure/i have no opinion" as an answer. They need to know for sure and they need that assurance from the blogger. That's hard to deal with sometimes and a lot of responsibilty when you know the asker will take your word as truth. I wouldn't worry as much about what this or this blogger believes about this and that. Build confidence in your own opinions. You might know more about a subject than i do or what another blogged does. If a blogger succumbed to all the gaslighting, changed their opinons and left the fandom you wouldn't be as lost if you've made up your mind independently of them. You wouldn't be alone in your opinion either, there are loads of people still here who shares them. You just need to find them.

No one knows the full and whole truth here. We're all bound to be wrong about some things. So don't rely too much on others, find what makes the most sense to you and what your gut tells you and stick to it regardless of others opinions.

[j2lx]

Major life update... And maybe the end

Hello everyone! You might have noticed my lack of posts and the fact that I haven't written since the year has started, and I'm just here to address that (out of my own will, not because anyone is harassing me don't worry).

So basically the main point is that I've gone back to school after a good two month holiday! And it might just be the start of the year but I have club activities thrice a week, a research programme once a week and just a heck ton of school work to finish on a daily, and weekly, basis. It's notoriously known as the hardest school year, and I can tell you that it's true =") I've basically had to do school work till 11pm (at least) everyday and it really has taken a toll on my body too.

I'm in a sports club, and we have a lot of training... Yeah. Long story short, my body hasn't been very good with handling everything so far, and I've been on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion more than I should have recently. I'm definitely not getting enough sleep, and my physical and mental state is weakening by quite a lot.

Writing used to be my escape from all this stress, and I used to be very very happy when I started to write. But now, with more and more pressure (mostly from myself, please don't blame yourself for this) to write better, I'm feeling burnt out and I just have no motivation to think and explore all the ideas I have. I'm losing interest in jujutsu kaisen too, and I just overall am having an extremely long and horrible writer's block.

Right now, any time I have to myself (which is scarce enough) is spent watching anime, reading manga or gaming (aka time to myself and just time to forget the rest of the world). I seriously can't find the time to write anymore, and I can't keep pushing things (including school stuff and mental health) out of the way to write in general. From fanfic to the stories I was thinking of submitting for a writing programme (that I might not apply for anymore, idk) I just cannot bring myself to touch anything writing related.

So on an even more serious note, I don't want to disappoint anyone with my subpar writing or whatever, so I probably will just be throwing out and posting out the fics I've forced myself to write and finishing whatever requests I have left, before leaving for goodness knows how long. And if it gets to me too much, I might either delete Tumblr just as a way to get rid of this stress, or delete this blog altogether (trust me, I don't want to do it if I can help it).

Yeah so that sums up pretty much everything going on right now, and I really would like to thank everyone for their support (and if you took the time to read through this). Life just isn't easy rn and I hope you understand.

dreamer out 🫡

[flownintothesun]

𝐓𝐀𝐆 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑!

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑(𝐒): Seaglass blues and greens ; summer grass green. Blues and greens in general.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑(𝐒): I like spicy / savory foods a lot. I enjoy food a lot and don't have a ton of food aversions - so I enjoy everything from time to time and like variety rather a lot. Also, I like lemons. Both the writing kind and the flavor.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂: I am one of those odd ones that really likes at least a handful of things from every genre. I have pretty eclectic taste in music though if I had to pick one genre it would probably be Gaelic/Celtic folk? Or more modern folk music? I like showtunes a lot, too and 00's rock / punk rock. But a little bit of everything (all of the time). I haven't gotten much of a start on my 2024 playlist, but here's 2023's.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄(𝐒): Moulin Rouge! (2001), Thumbelina (1994), Cinderella (2015), Big Fish (2003), Patch Adams (1998), The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), The Last Unicorn (1982), Lord of the Rings (2001-), Hunger Games (2012-), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), basically all of Ghibli tbh, Elemental (2023). Honorable Mentions: Les Miserables, Moana, Matilda, Robin Hood, Princess and the Goblin, Onward, How to Train Your Dragon, Love Simon, Red White & Royal Blue, The Greatest Showman, The Little Mermaid, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Maleficent + many, many more...

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: I don't have a current favorite, if I'm being honest? Things I've enjoyed in the past: Many anime/Ghibli as a wee one, Disney, Harry Potter way way back when, Lord of the Rings, X-Men: Evolution, Dexter, Game of Thrones, Reign, LOST, Supernatural (RIP), Our Flag Means Death, Good Omens (still only seen s1), Sense8, Doctor Who, YOU, Anne With an E, Yuuri!!! On Ice, The Walking Dead, Glee, and probably many more that I'm forgetting to be honest.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆: Get in the Water (Morgan Clae cover) I am OBSESSED. Big sea god Westley vibes.:)

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: Hmm...Our Flag Means Death? I have seen every episode but the last with Havu and have started a rewatch with Nonny.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄: I binged the Lord of the Rings trilogy last weekend. :) Most of the movies I watch are comfort and feel good movies with Nonny though. I really enjoy our movie nights and it's something we've been doing since the early days of our friendship. Sharing media both ways with loved ones is a love language for me.

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆: I recently finished the Rise of the Empress series, which I highly recommend. I am tentatively about to start the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm trying to ease myself back into reading after a rough year without putting too much pressure on it. ♡

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: Started The Great with @smokedanced Thanksgiving week but we've not watched in some time and should pick that up soon! I've had a hard time consuming most media this year which is a crying shame.

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍: Not losing my mind? Hehe. Um, honestly just getting organized in life and getting through this little bit of a hard spell. I've been writing a lot with Nonny and not doing a whole lot else other than adulting and managing my illnesses as best as I can lately. But I hope to work toward being more active here again soon. :) ♡

Tagged by: @realmyths (thank you! ♡) Tagging: Everyone? There are too many people I don't know as well as I'd like to yet. Tag me so I can read!

[thelilnan]

little vent

i have been So unhappy with myself recently (at least six months), and I wonder how much is directly impacted by losing my Bubbie last may. or just my own bad choices and bad luck. I don't wanna say it has much, if anything, to do with me turning 30 a few weeks ago. but then again birthdays like that do make you ask yourself "What have I accomplished?"

not a ton, at least not stuff I want to do, especially professionally. somehow i feel like I always miss the boat or everyone knows stuff I don't, even when I try to figure it out, ask questions, take chances. it's frustrating. i graduated with a master's 3 years ago and haven't been able to find anything even remotely related to art. and not that freelancing is necessarily that far off from what I want to do, but hunting down clients is so daunting and unreliable, it's just insulting half the time. so i do commissions and door dashing and while it's okay, it's barely scraping by. and it's not what I want to be doing at 30. just objectively.

i have such a fun time doing conventions though. when the sales are good. but they're not always good, because I serve a niche market. and that's hit or miss. it missed big time this last convention. i didn't break even, and I'm really not in a financial position to lose money.

i don't know. it's a new month and adhd brain says now is the time to start again. so I am. I've given up drinking, at least for this month (my dependency on it has been a little irresponsible and out of control. it's affected my mood, my health, my productivity. i wouldn't say it's alcoholism necessarily, because I dont have any withdrawl symptoms, but it was excessive. anyway.), and i've tried to become more active because i know half my insomnia is linked to unused energy (which would lead me to drink so i could fall asleep, you see the issue here). then i'd wake up at like 2pm, get nothing done, cycle repeats.

but! the last couple days i've gone on walks of at least 1.5 miles, and today (weather related) i did my first 30 min cardio set in over a year. i'm proud of that. it's still not what i wanna be doing, i wish i could just reset myself to 2019 before all these issues came up, before i gained 20 lbs and drank 4 tall beers a night (or more, honestly. worst it got was a bottle of wine in addition to it all) and lost a lot of motivation to even try to develop myself as a person or artist.

but what's that saying? the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. the second best time is today. so i'm doing that.

slow starts. healthy routines will lead to productivity and maybe even a fuckin job. whatever that is!

anyway thanks for reading. please don't fuckin reblog this lmao.

[cherryeol04]

💖Upcoming Works💖

Hello my loves!

It's finally 2023! New year, but not a new me, no matter what I tell myself! 🤣 I just wanted to drop in and let you all know where I've been and some of the projects I'm currently working on.

The holidays were rough, and something happened IRL that I had to take care. Thankfully, everything is going smoothly right now, so I can afford to focus back on my writing! Yay!!! 🎉

So first and foremost, I was cleaning out my Google Drive and trying to organize all my fics and stuff (not going so well 😅) and I've come across a TON of them that I haven't posted here. They are pretty old stories and most of them are not Stray Kids related (though I'm not a Stray Kids only blog, but I'm heavily biased with Stray Kids), so I've decided I'm either going to create a new blog or use my side blog - Cherry Writes - and post the works there. Whatever I decide to do, I'll definitely make a new post with the links and stuff for it. Please make sure you read all the tags and warnings on these old fics before reading them!

While I'm working on that, I'm also actively working on some fics as well, with one that is taking the majority of my attention because it has a deadline! 😆

MinChan Valentine's Exchange - Twitter Event

Taking Control

Drabble requests

Daydreams & Sunshine

Office Love Series (which I, surprisingly, haven't posted here yet, but don't you worry! It's coming!)

An Ateez Fic (because I've recently descended the Ateez rabbit hole and was inspired! 😂)

Lastly, I wanna take a moment and say thank you to everyone who has been so patient with me, waiting for their drabble requests to be finished as well as waiting for updates for Taking Control. I also want to thank everyone who simply reads and likes my stories! Getting the notifications that someone has liked one of my stories always makes me so happy and helps encourages me to continue writing, especially when I get stuck in my own head.

So thank you everyone! I love you all! And I hope you look forward to the upcoming stories when they're finished!

[aegisgrey]

God I can't believe I'm making a political post on tumblr in the year of our lord 2024 but I actually haven't seen this take yet and in the interest of striking while the iron is hot, I'm gonna throw this into the void.

There are two things I really, desperately, want anyone who considers themselves anywhere on what we all generally agree is anywhere near 'left' to takeaway from this election and everything that happened over the last year. I don't care what specific label you fall under, if you're communist, anarchist, or just straight up a democrat it's not important, assume I'm making this post about you ok?

The first thing is that many of y'all really, really, really need to get outside. I'm not talking about going physically outside and touching grass you all already know you need to do that more. You need to get outside your comfort zones. You need to listen to opinions you don't agree with more, including batshit insane takes from insane sources. I'm not asking you to agree with them but you need to know what the fuck is out there. The amount of absolutely nothingburger takes no one actually believes that I'm seeing people spit out as 'this is what the right believes' shit is frankly sad. And it's indicative that you have absolutely no idea WHY this election went down the way it did. If you are someone asking how this could have happened, I'm talking to you more than anyone else, because I'm seeing a ton of that. The answers to that question are out there, you're not gonna like them and you're gonna wish they were simpler and made more sense to you but I promise you if you Actually Want To Know, it's out there.

The second thing is for white people. For the record, I'm white, straight, and a cis man, so when I'm saying this I need you all to understand that I need to leave this here when I am done saying it. All of y'all need to fucking listen to POC. And I'm aware that a lot of you probably think you're one of the good ones and that you absolutely listen to people of color and you think racism is bad and good yes I understand good job now I'm gonna say it again but different this time. You all. All of you. Need to go ACTIVELY find POC who understand their shit. Who are academics and understand the complex issues at work here, and you need to actually go digest their work. You will have to read books. You will need to pay attention to hours of dry content that does very little entertainment but a lot of education. I have adhd and a whole bunch of other mental shit going on too folks, I promise you can do it and you need to stop using your attention span as an excuse for ignorance and for the fact that all the liberal influencers you listen to are white people on tic-tok. Bell Hooks has been going around recently and yeah sure that's a good place to start but please let that just be the start. This shit isn't hard to find it's just not always accessible to a 2 minute video. Break up a two hour long video, do it on your commute or wherever you can instead of listening to a murder podcast every once in a while. Because leftist POC circles have been here the whole time and they know more than you. They know a lot more than me. They have the answers you are looking for and they are not surprised this shit happened. Please leave good resources matching this for folks to check out if you have them.

I'm not gonna debate any specific issues in the comments I don't care about your buzzfeed Top Ten Reasons Kamala Lost, if you can't see this isn't about that then Idk what you're even doing reading this, there are a ton of better places to go debate that shit. I'm not trying to answer your questions, I am not the right person to do that, I'm just trying to make sure people even know the answers are out there, please use this time to go look for them.

That's all I got for you hellsite, I'm not an educator and I don't have a platform but still I just. Couldn't take another person asking me and/or the void how could this have happened without saying something that I can now consider my formal response. And I get that this is a grieving thing for a lot of you and if that question is just the only way you can vent ok, I swear I bear you no ill will, but if you actually want answers and you want to have agency over your fear and confusion, here's a couple things you can do. I'm not here because I want to call you out, I'm really not, I'm here to tell you that if you don't know what's going on, that means your world is too small and you need to grow if you wanna feel better in the long term.