#i wanna work on this blog again i really wanna

[mimosasys]

ok illurso freak (affirming) this one's for you.

p.s. check our bio if you wanna see actually who's around here (pronouns link thingy)

fav. colour: magenta? lilac? that sort of variety of colours you know the one

currently reading: nothing :( sorgy. really should keep reading House of Leaves but we need a notebook to make sense of it and that's so much effort

last song: lemme check uh. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. it's fire what can we say

last film: I think we watched La Vita è Bella with my family like a week ago but I don't remember it, was good and a tough watch though

Tea or coffee: ok this one depends. most of us drink tea and most of us have it with milk but Lara has it completely black and with no sugar (freak), Cyn has it with milk and sugar but has to always have the same teacup, then Doppio usually makes coffee (milk and sugar) if he's around and feels like it. and then some of us would just rather have water instead. also the drones desperately want to drink hot oil but we can't let them do that (sorry guys I think it'll just kill us immediately). this is just the tip of the iceberg. don't even get me started on DIO

Sweet/salty/savoury: savoury all the way. why doesnt that include salt? I mean not a huge amount but you gotta have salt in things come on that's cooking

Currently working on: well um you see we're probably going to be releasing our debut album in like a month or so and also haven't decided on the name but I guarantee it will happen soon. in true 70s prog style it's got only two tracks, both of which are ~20 minutes long, and is mostly instrumental. will actually post more about it soon I hope

also we're in the process of writing a couple things, one JoJo fic with an original cast and stuff called Sketches of a Mirage that we haven't updated in a bit because we're not sure how to write the next chapter because it's important, and also specifically Rebecca is writing a sort of memoir about the things she gets up to called The Divine Art of Change (On Humans and Otherwise). both are on AO3 if anyone wants to give them a read, no pressure, read the tags etc etc.

DIO is also writing a diary (again) privately at least for now, and the drones + Tessa have a blog of their own @three-drones-and-a-human for whatever they wanna post about. they're also actually writing down their memories and stuff and might post them somewhere eventually? but we'll see I guess

er i don't like tagging people and also don't know enough people to do this with.. I have failed you all.. /j

- Amelia (I think? we just woke up 40 minutes ago and had a migraine yesterday so it's a bit fuzzy rn, apologies)

Nine People I Wish I Knew Better

i've never gotten tagged in these before, it's kinda exciting :D -> and so a very special thanks to: @rose-margaritas n @robyngoesrogue

Favorite Colour: green!!! or grey, or sage

Currently Reading: Like We're Gonna Die Young (Again) by RoseGanymede95 [go read it, it's amazing >:3c]

Last Song: E.T. by Katie Perry

Last Film: i don't really watch movies that often, so i couldn't say ^óWo^ |u u |__

Last Series: last one i watched all the way through was Étoile, and i'm currently debating watching Red, White, and Royal Blue :3

Sweet//Salty//Savory: i prefer more savory things, but my drinks are sweet enough to give ya cavities hehe

Tea or Coffee?: my sociology teacher told me that if i replaced all the coffee i drank with hard drugs i'd have a serious addiction problem

Working On: ooh... so much actually.. so so much. i've got a post-canon Étoile fic i've gotten like- halfway through [featuring jayenne AND gabias] a pokemon Étoile au [bc i love pokemon] a stobotnik fic i'm struggling with, two wbk fics, a link click fic i'm stuck on, QUITE a few polychampions fics, annnd a few more in the beginning stages of fleshing ;3

Tagging [i hope it's not a bother]: @sun-shine-lolli-pops @noteofjoy @technically-human @justcallmeemily @littlepocketuniverse @zephie-zee @candy-coated-eyes @notthemonthbutmarch @starguardianniom

[bernardsbendystraws]

a brutally honest post from me to you.

to preface, I know this is a corner of social media where we fangirl and write fanfiction. i'm aware that these issues are not as severe as irl problems, but just because it's not that serious doesn't mean that a stress/frustration/sadness just goes away.

so yeah, i do know that these aren't the biggest issues that people are gonna face in life, but it's some i wanna talk about. if you don't wanna hear it, scroll. this is a judgement free space and i'll block anyone who disturbs that.

[ posts not doing well hurts. ]

when you're brand new, it kinda sucks. getting traction is hard. people like familiar names with familiar writing styles and layouts. they know what they're getting into.

its not because you're writing sucks, it's because you're different. maybe you have some weak points, but everyone has those at some point. so no, it's not you or your skills, it's because you're new and people like gravitate towards familiar things.

when you're not new, it can really suck. now you know you can get the readers, but sometimes that's almost worse. you'll feel like there's more pressure, that you'll never be able to top xyz. and it really hurts, especially if you make something that you're so proud of and it doesn't get as much traction as you hoped it would.

its not because it's bad. there's so many factors. sometimes it's because one of the triplets posted, maybe just an active period on tumblr where the algorithm is really in your favor, or maybe it was because the readers were sharing your work behind the scenes because they loved it so much.

it varies and it sucks. there's pressure to 'do better' but then you feel kinda stuck. you can't always do better, but you can always do your best.

either way, it's not truly your fault. there's so many factors that contribute to how well a post performs. your efforts are still something you should be proud of regardless.

[ friends ]

this is something i've really struggled with. it's really difficult. social ques are not my strong suit, I take things as they are presented to me. every friendship is different and not all of them are created equal.

some people want to be friends for interaction as a transaction. some people want to be your friend to make it seem like they have a place on sturniolo tumblr publicly. some people want to be friends to be your friend. there's a difference.

doesn't matter who you are, how many followers, or how many fics you have. not all intentions are genuine, even if they aren't necessarily bad.

[ drama ]

i've been in drama and i've also watched it. i've tried hard to avoid it but sometimes it is necessary to call out. when i was a smaller blog there were a lot of big blogs people loved that were straight up mean.

i can say confidently that i've never been mean to someone right off the bat for no other reason than thinking i was better than them. that has and will never happen because i know exactly what it feels like.

talk to a person in private first. i don't care what it is. ask them questions and have them give you direct answers. if it is something deeply concerning like a predator, that is an instance where it is important to speak up since it directly effects people on here.

it broke my heart when the juno / bri situation happened and i had dozens of minors dming me saying something happened but they were too scared to speak up.

i really hope that never happens again, but if it does, people need to feel safe enough to go to an adult on here. i'm happy i was that person for a lot of people because i needed a person like that when i was a kid.

put mdni on all you want, but please don't isolate minors when they are wanting to feel included. that's puts them at an even more vulnerable position and people know that. draw boundaries but keep all of this in mind.

i can and always will admit when i'm wrong even if i'm still hurt by the other person. apologizing isn't something that says 'oh this person is wrong, that person is right,' it's something that is required for basic human decency and respect. if i hurt someone, i want them to at least have the closure of having an apology.

i can't take back the actions or words, but i can validate their feelings and that's really important since we're all human and have feelings.

agree to disagree if you need to at the end of the day, but leave people alone. exposing people for things that aren't necessary is never gonna make you feel better.

interacting and creating genuine friendships will you give a lot more peace and joy then hate and conflict ever will.

point is, treat others how you want to be treated. we're all humans with feelings and coming here for an escape to fangirl and write. do things to make the community better. do things to make yourself happy and proud in the long term.

i appretiate anyone who has stayed to read this, truly. i don't know how much of a difference it will make but i don't care. i said what i said and i meant it. if this helps one person, that already makes it worth it in my eyes.

i love being apart of this community and i hope we can build it to something we're all proud of and wanting to be apart of at the end of the day.

with love and big tits, rose 🫶🏻

[tryagainstarlight]

Intro - Odile's Friend Quest!

💫: It was something about the papers...

[obligitory-fma-blog]

You ever realize you are literally going to art college just to draw Fullmetal Alchemist doodles over and over again in your off time or is it just me

[luck-of-the-drawings]

when i was in highschool one o my biggest coping mechanisms was drawing all the kids i hated getting killed and eaten and killed. and well. time is a slowly ascending spiral. you will find patterns.(i work as a blackjack dealer. gamblers are FASCINATING

[solsystm]

silly phone whiteboard doodle of the (NOT SO) dramatic retelling of our day because i pulled an all nighter last night aside from 2 hours of sleep at 9am </3 (& im too tired to make this a proper doodle)

10/10 would do again it was so worth it to keep playing noteblocks in minecraft & annoy our friends with the goat horn heheheeee >:))

[keeps-ache]

wink blink look !!

[autobots-in-training]

Hi! This is for every bot (and the human running this blog) I just wanted to say hi, I think you’re all cool, I hope you have a good day, and happy holidays! :)

Ravage: December is an interesting month, because humans are so... Unusually cheery. It's weird when i go on missions, how does nearly the entire planet have that weird human dressed in red and sometimes blue everywhere??

Galvatron: Humans are weird.

Ravage: Each city state on cybertron had its own holidays, there were just a couple that were enforced by the coundi-

Frenzy: Outta my way!! I fucking LOVE christmas!! TC is obsessed with earth media, and showed carrier some stuff that's popular around this time of year, and started a tradition of giving us stuff!!

Ravage: Ugh, you only like it because your present is always new speaker mods for your outlier abilities that somehow make it even more unbearable.

Frenzy: AND IT ALWAYS FUCKING ROCKS!!!

Rumble: it's so astonishing that she hasn't permanently damaged her audio receptors.

Frenzy: Only a little bit!! My left receptor doesn't register lower frequencies anymore!

Rumble: That's a bad thing. You know that's a bad thing, right?

Frenzy: You're no fun! All our presents are so fucking cool!!

Ravage: You do know that Starscream helps build them right?

Rumble&Frenzy: WHAT???

Galvatron: Ha, you broke them.

Ravage: They were going to learn sooner or later.

*end transmission*

(happy holidays to you all, thank you for sending asks and participating in my silly little fan continuity. next year will have more fics, more lore and more art!! (bit of a longer message in tags))

[whenyoucomeback]

Hmm I should make a promo post. Or boost one of my old ones.

[bbq-potato-chip]

i can't think about drawing right now I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!

[vonpharma]

“handwaving genuine, good-hearted concrit, to refusing to even engage in the conversation at all, to constant changes that make the event less fun for a huge chunk of us”

Do you mind if I ask more about this? I’ve also participated in sicktember (casually) and I haven’t really noticed anything that fit this, so I just wanted to ask more about your experiences if you were comfortable elaborating. I’m mostly curious what changes were made that made the event less fun (other than delay in prompts released I heard about that)

yeah sure! right off the bat i wanna say that this is not something i was like. PISSED OFF or intending to start any drama about, just some stuff that made the event less enjoyable for me.

i also wanna say that you haven't noticed it because sicktember is very very careful to not publish anything that makes them look bad. they do not engage with any of their replies or asks unless they can spin it in a very sanitized, pr-friendly manner. try creeping through the tags and replies on some of their posts, and while a lot of shit is deleted or lost, you can still see traces of it, some of which i will link to here.

the prompts becoming more delayed. i wasn't here in 2021 (when they dropped in early march), but in 2022 they dropped in mid may. that was awesome because it gave us all lots of time to prep--my favourite thing about sicktember is how accessible of a prompt event it is! the prompts don't all drop like a week before the event starts, you have all summer to write so if you have a full time job or responsibilities you can still participate. this year they made it very clear the prompts were ready to go in may but didn't drop them until mid-june.

when people started sending asks about this, they responded thusly. they maintain this weird kinda... pr-friendly, stepford smiley vibe whenever anyone tries to open a dialogue with them? and it just comes across as so dismissive of anyone trying to make genuine points.

here they say that "many things go into planning prompts" but don't elaborate on that at all. for context, the night before this ask, they had made it clear that the prompts were all ready to go. the hand-waving comes in the form of all the "suggestions" they offer here--"well, you don't have to do every prompt!" (but i want to. it's fun. it feels good. and that's what i've done in the past) "you can write after september!" (i did that last year. it was kind of miserable. i like posting with everyone, it feels like a big celebration!) "we give you like 100 days!" (that's cool. but you could give us more at no detriment to yourself. a lot of us didn't make the deadline last year.)

check the notes on this post and you'll see several disappointed contributors/fans who are trying to open a dialogue with the event runners, all of whom were ignored. several people have reached out to me saying that their asks about this were ignored.

2. last year, they said they would only be accepting fills on the sicktember blog through submissions, and only posting 10 random ones a day. in the past, sicktember has reblogged every single fill directly from the writers.

here's why this is shitty:

when you submit something to a blog, the blog owner then becomes the one who effectively "owns" its engagement. that means any notes, reblogs, comments, follows, etc. all go to sicktember. they do not go to the person who MADE THE STORY. if you, the author, want to see what people are saying about your work, you have to pull up the sicktember window and obsessively check it. if you want to respond to any comments, you give sicktember more notes.

this is just more work, especially if you still want those notes. you would then have to make TWO posts, one on your personal blog and one on sicktember's. and people are probably disinclined to reblog a story twice. it is not exposure or engagement to do this, it actively robs authors of engagement.

sicktember might not even post your fill. they pick ten random ones a day. this is because...

they literally admitted that they lose followers when they reblog every fill. they said aloud that it is all about engagement for them. maintaining followers means more to them than highlighting the contributions of all the people who are making their event what it is. they are quite literally trying to maximize followers and stealing engagement from their contributors. it's kind of fucking insidious.

the only valid point here is the thing about reducing mod workload. still, they could've just... opened apps for another mod? inquired for some extra help? lord knows i would've jumped at the opportunity to curate! i'm sure others would've too.

contrast this to whumptober, who religiously reblog every single fill despite being a much longer running event than sicktember.

this is why i started @sicktemberfeed. with permission, but the mods were even weird about THAT... i asked if it would be ok to make, and they said "well, it's not like we could stop you." weird fucking answer. it's fine to say no.

3. i didn't speak out about point 2, but did speak out a little bit on this blog about point 1. @yes-i-am-happyaspie's husband (@spaceninjas42) dug through my blog, somehow found my untagged critique (it was not vitriolic or cruel, just a plea for an open discussion) and started getting on my case for talking about it on my personal blog. there was a second, much more vitriolic reply that he left but i was a dingus and blocked him as soon as i saw it, which means it's now marked deleted and i have no way of getting it back or proving it. that's kind of a "just trust me bro" situation.

4. the prompts this year were not very good. that is a purely subjective opinion i have, but a lot of us agree that they really stray from the concept of sickfic. we have a lot of heavier whump events floating around and the appeal of sicktember is that it is for fluffier, more low stakes stuff. seeing "cardiac arrest" and "anaphylaxis" and "medieval treatment" on there had me and a lot of others scratching our heads. their response to this is always "just sub it out!" but when we start running out of alt prompts because so many of the main ones are not what the audience is vibing with... there is room for critique there. there is room for a discussion.

i can't stress enough that the problem isn't necessarily these changes--they are not dealbreakers! the problem was sicktember's attitude. every single time anyone in the community tried to say 'hey, i think this idea could use work/tweaking' the response was basically just, again, the happy-go-lucky stepford smiler pr voice "we'd like to remind you that blah blah blah! happy writing, authors!" and absolute refusal to talk to their community at all. as i've said many times, this is not a dichotomy--where one side is "we fold to any criticism! our fans control us!" and the other side is "you're not entitled to anything! we run this event for free despite our busy lives!" like you can very much find a happy medium there but they just. do not.

none of that is a deal breaker, genuinely. i was still planning on participating up until the very end, and i obviously am now.

what was a deal breaker was them posting harry potter shit.

[phightingconfessions]

I also have an entire au dedicated to silly little biografts (and homestuck) (a lot of homestuck inspos in that one)

~🎩

AW WINNINGGGG WITH THE HOMESTUCK INSPO did you know i run a phighting oc blog thats set up kinda like homestuck asks its called ra💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[drifloonz]

one day ill be annoying ab my selfship again . although i enjoy that ppl enjoy my writing most of this is entirely self indulgent, projection, and for me . being so real .

[espytalks]

relistenign to the adventr zone after all these years, wondering when the one guy starts doing the tako voice

[starrynight-edits]

ill miss mew!!!!

I think ill prolly be making a new spriting blog thats less focused on pq edits so im not sure if anyone will be interested but i will probably link it once i do but ill miss you guys too!!!! thank you so much for being around while ive been doing this blog its been nice to have so many cool people interacting with my art in this way and its been super fun i really appreciate all the love and support along the way :D

[hinadori-chan]

low key wanna like

set up a queue for posts i like that don’t circulate anymore so that way the recirculate but also i don’t spam but like

i don’t think i’ve ever used a queue before tbh lol