#i'll get through the backlog eventually i promise

[timelessmulder]

[Fibercrafting] Whatever Happened to Spun With Love? {heavy}

(31 days of horror day 9: Spin)

For the past five years, Caitlin "Cat" Doherty found her foothold on sites like Instagram and Ravelry selling commissions for her eye catching, hand spun yarn made with ethically sourced dyes and alpaca wool. She had a small but moderate presence on the convention circuit, selling handmade goods that showed off her yarn. Eventually she started making limited runs, available at convention booths and through higher tiers of her Patreon. Shortly after this she quit her full time job in data entry to pursue fiber works full time.

In mid-2022, at the urging of some other people in the hand dyed yarn business, and people who had bought from her before, she opened her own Etsy. The catalog was massive, with at least twenty listings. This included her most popular limited runs that always sold out within moments. This was when the cracks first began to show, even among her most devoted followers: this was a huge amount of work for one person to be undertaking, even if the listings promised continued limited runs and wait lists.

In an Instragram announcement, crossposted to her Twitter, Cat said:

I appreciate the concern from all y'all :3c but I calculated the amount of work I think I'll be able to handle running a small business. If things actually spiral out of my control, I will step back and reevaluate.

Despite her words, a healthy amount of skepticism remained. Her fans worried about her health, and naysayers thought she'd fold within a few months.

this is a lot for someone to handle! take care of yourself cat

she's going to hightail it the first time she gets orders and the backlog goes crazy. shes doomed

wouldn't it have been smarter to start with like five??? get that bag ig

The orders remained steady for the first five months of operation. Cat would periodically close listings and get items out to customers with slow wait times that remained consistent, typically a few weeks before arrival. The convention appearances came to an end, much to the dismay of people who enjoyed seeing her cottagecore booth in person, but Cat assured people that once she found a groove with this business she would start going to conventions again.

No one was really surprised when things started to slow down. Reports brought up longer wait times, and a major backlog that she couldn't keep up with.

i was put on a waitlist like two months ago and people who ordered straight from the listing got shit before me

girl just limit the waitlist no one will judge you!!!

Cat Doherty tweeted an apology:

I'm so sorry for all the issues. A major life event happened, but I'll be getting back on top of things! I will be halting any new listings to work on my backlog. I'm so sorry for the frustration and inconvenience. In the meantime, why don't you check out Jessica's shop, Spindle and Thimble?

Jessica White was a fellow dyer who also did work dying fabrics. Her store was not as prominent as Cat's, but she had an unmatched business savvy that gave her a solid niche despite middling Etsy reviews. While most of their friendship remained behind the scenes, with Jessica being someone who preferred to keep her life offline, it seemed that Jessica wanted the novice entrepreneur to succeed. Many took the shout out to be Cat returning the favor.

True to her word, Cat closed her Etsy for the time being and started to send out yarn to the people still waiting on orders. People responded with annoyance at how long it took, but surprised delight that the quality was excellent as always.

Three months after the announcement, the shipments stopped. A thread by Lisa Fitz appeared on ravelry:

Has anyone gotten an order from Spun With Love recently?

I should've been in her next batch of orders but its been weeks. I haven't gotten a shipment and no text communication from Doherty. I paid upfront for this!

This spun out in predictable directions.

Christ I hope she's okay ):

lmao who wants to bet money that we've got another "fake her death because she couldn't handle the pressure?" going on

The second comment referencing multiple situations where fiber craft artists have faked their deaths due to being overwhelmed by their sales numbers, most notably Mystic Creations Yarn (talked about in this thread). This situation exploded, with some people doubling down on the idea that she's vanished off the face of the earth rather than deal with potentially irate customers, while others expressed genuine concern. Everyone agreed that if there was an issue, they hoped she would reach out to them and explain.

A few days later, when the argument was a post every few hours instead of a constant stream, Jessica stepped in.

Hey guys, Jessica here. Cat has asked me to let you know that she's had a major health scare and she's very sorry for the upset she's caused to all of you. In the mean time, I will be offering free products of similar color to those who haven't had their orders fulfilled. Just email me a copy of your receipt. If not, we will work on getting refunds out to you.

Most were relieved at the update on Cat's well being, while others preened at being correct that she'd fold under the pressure. More arguments ensued between those people, and those scolding them for being so callous about her health. The argument got pretty heated, only stopping when a mod stepped in to tell everyone to play nice. Creative burnout is a known thing in the crafting community and Cat shouldn't be punished for it, though she should have stepped forward sooner to let everyone know what was happening.

The thread fizzled out after that. People moved on with their lives, chalking this up to another piece of craft drama and more than happy to leave it at that.

Months passed, and someone returned to that thread:

Sorry to necro, but did anyone else see the news report?

In the post was a link to a news report from the town where Cat was living. She had been murdered, and her body only recently found.

To say the thread exploded after that would be an understatement. There were people apologizing for being so cruel about her vanishing, people were trying to reach out to her family to see if there was any way they could help. Digital vigils were held for the person taken too soon. And as it often does on the internet, a question arose from the posters: who had done it? Why?

hey can anyone get into contact with jessica???

i don't think its appropriate. they were friends, jessica is probably grieving like the rest of us

dude leave her alone

idk yall her post is pretty suspicious

what the fuck is wrong with you?

But the seed of suspicion was laid in the minds of some forum users. It spread into the wider community, though everyone's grief disguised any suspicions placed on Jessica. Those who found her behavior odd were often shunned and blocked for it, until they stopped bothering outside of their conspiracy corners. These people would soon be vindicated when news broke that Jessica White had been arrested in relation to the death of 34-year-old Caitlin Doherty.

The investigation at this point is still on going and very little is known about it, but initial reports are saying that someone broke into Cat's rented studio and beat her to death with one a piece of her spinning wheel. Few other details have been released to the public.

--------

ffiberfarrts commented | 2.1k upvotes:

hey op why is this on hobbydrama

[pandaemoniumminiatures]

Hi all, I got back from UK Games Expo on Sunday - a fantastic weekend!

So great to spend time with good friends playing games, chatting and laughing. I travelled up with close mates and we stayed together in an Airbnb apartment which proved to be ideal (and far cheaper than us all getting hotel rooms!).

Our intention on the Friday was just to scope the place out and play some board games, which we did (though I did splash out on a paint set too), and very early on reached the Fighting Fantasy stand where I bumped into my friends Dave and Chris, which was great timing! It was lovely to chat with Ian Livingstone and Jonathan Green, and also Dan at Blue Giant Studios again and talk about the upcoming Fighting Fantasy Fest in September, the special miniature I'll be painting, and see that they've put my painted Bloodbeast on the box!

Ian also let me know that there will be a gallery of the FF minis I did for him in his forthcoming book, so that was an amazing surprise!

Another highlight was that I got to chat with Gav Thorpe and Andy Chambers and try out Zeo Genesis , their new sci fi skirmish game, which was a lot of fun - I got to take a free mech suit mini too!

I had lovely chats also with Bad Squiddo Games, Blue Giant Studios, Cerberus-studios, Realms of Tiberium, Moonstone and Louis Downs (Louis and I have been trying to meet up at the last 4 shows!), MODIPHIUS, Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy, and finally got to meet Man O Kent Games, Mike Hutchinson (Gaslands), Jon Hodgson Illustration, Lost Haven Art (who produced my logo and business promo material) The Thornless Rose, Rolltex Texture Rollers, and my friends Gonders, Julian Sparrow and Geordie Calgar who I know through Twitter etc. On the Saturday night, some friends and I had a big game of Grimdark Future One Page Rules, with Luke pitching his Ork horde against mine and Saul's Rebel Guerrillas:

A great game, very hard fought, and eventually the orks victory came down to one dice roll to see if a squig was shaken after losing a combat - it passed and so finished by contesting the objective on our side of the table!

Purchases...

I decided to mainly buy things I had been promising myself for a while, and take advantage of show discounts, so in an effort to divorce myself from Citadel paints, I got the Monument Hobbies Pro Acryl base set from Element Games, and a rechargeable lamp from Daylight, which will be so useful when I'm painting at shows! I also picked up The Art of The Miniature Painting Tutor from Warlord Games  because I had heard so many good things about it. I did get a few minis, but deliberately kept that to a minimum as I genuinely want to clear my backlog... (yeah, I know...) so I got a couple of brilliant new Halflings from Bad Squiddo Games, one of Duncan's Sir Coats minis, and after my painful experiences with those Anarchy stencils a few weeks ago, I was determined to get some diamond stencils from Steel Harpy!  Also, as well as the  Zeo Genesis mechsuit, I was given a free mini from the Onepagerules folks. And given all that, I'm actually not feeling too bad this week - I'm continuing work on the Striking Scorpions and I've finished the first five, with the others well on their way, so I would think they'll be ready to photograph later today:)

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Late top 5 ask because I just thought of it: 5 shows that you are always down to rewatch

What a great question that is also such a mean and incredibly evil thing to ask me, wen-kexing-apologist, Chronic Rewatcher lmfao

So fun fact I have seen KinnPorsche 14 times, Our Flag Means Death 11 times, The Old Guard 11 times, Heartstopper 11 times, The Eclipse probably 6 times, Bad Buddy and ITSAY 4 times, etc, etc, etc. And those are counting all the times I have watched a show all the way through. This is not counting the number of times I have actively gone back to watch specific episodes or specific scenes.

See the problem is sometimes I hyperfixate and then I just have to watch it until it is out of my system, sometimes an OST pops in to my head and then I get the urge to watch the show again, and sometimes I agree to edit the transcripts for the backlog of @the-conversation-pod and @bengiyo and @shortpplfedup start talking about a show and I'm like "ahhh good times! I should rewatch that!"

So you can imagine the stress I am under. I'll have to do this by category

Show I Am Constantly Rewatching: Bed Friend

gif by @perths

I know what you may be thinking, and yes you are correct I am in this rewatch for Uea's emotional journey. Uea is my sweet summer child, I love him, I have adopted him in to my family, his happiness is my happiness and I love love love watching him go from a quiet, reserved, unhappy character who keeps getting put in unfair situations through no fault of his own in to this confident, vibrant, happy person who is on his way towards healing. Often times it can be hard for me to pick A Favorite thing; a favorite character, a favorite scene because there are so. many. good. ones. But I am constantly, and I mean constantly rewatching the scene in Episode 8 where Uea tells King about his past. I have lost count of how many times I've seen it, no even kidding I watched that scene before I went to bed just last week. I will always always be down to watch that show because I love seeing how far my boy is able to grow with just a little bit of love, care, and therapy.

Show I Would Rewatch for an Instant Mood Boost: If It's With You

gif by @jimmysea

I have a difficult time understanding/feeling emotion in my body unless I abstract it in to fiction. So when I experience strong emotions it is typically when something super happy or super tragic happens on screen, in a book, during my D&D game, etc. One of my absolute favorite things is when something makes me so happy that my body is no longer able to contain it and I have to do the Neurodivergent Hand Flappies(TM). I think I spent 80% of this show grinning so hard it hurt my face and doing the Neurodivergent Hand Flappies because it just...they made me so happy. Amane is so sweet, and he deserves happiness, and he is getting his happiness and he's just full of sunshine and I already rewatched this show like immediately after it finished. This show joins my This Could Fix Me list.

Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch for Emotional Catharsis: Eternal Yesterday

gif by @duckflyfly

I have not rewatched this show...yet. But I want to, and I know that I will eventually. I can only imagine that it is sadder and more evil the second time around. I cried soooo hard over this show. But it is beautiful, and it is healing, and the pain is a good type of aching pain that comes with coming to terms with grief. With acknowledging grief. With finding where the beauty and peace lie within death and memory, and the way its claws dig in to you and leave you changed forever. Ghosts can be warm, and this show makes me warm despite it all.

Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch for Content: I Told Sunset About You/I Promised You the Moon

gif by @thii-nii

I think I am in @shortpplfedup's camp about how you find new things to think about every time you watch this show. I actually desperately, desperately own I Promised You the Moon several rewatches because I have seen ITSAY four times at this point and IPYTM once. I am currently rewatching IPYTM with a friend who is seeing it for the first time, so that should help. But the first time I watched this show I was unable to function to notice anything, and it wasn't until the third time I'd watched ITSAY when I was rewatching it to prepare for the podcast panel, that I finally was able to form any level of coherent analytical thought to it. So I would rewatch this at any point just to see what more I could pull out of it.

Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch But Haven't Yet: 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us

gif by @dingyuxi

Bold, based on how intense of a reaction I had to this show, I know. But this was one of my favorites, I never wrote anything about it because I was too busy having a literal mental breakdown over it, one that was so bad I almost had to bail on the entire show with like...20 minutes left of it, and I originally nixed my plan to show it to a friend. BUT I have watched the specific scene that did me in (and only that scene) and it went over fine once I knew to expect it so I do want to watch the whole thing again. I have a friend who I have been forcing to watch BL shows I liked and I watch them with her, and this is on the list. However, I am currently running her through I Promised You The Moon and What Did You Eat Yesterday? Season 2 so this show is still quite a ways out from a rewatch because I am not a total monster and want to give her some modicum of emotional break between those two shows and 180 Degree.

Bonus:

Show I Would Never Rewatch: Enchante

I hate this show truly an unreasonable amount. I hate Theo so much oh my fucking god. I refuse to watch this again and I'm mad that I finished it.

ASK ME MY TOP 5 OF ANYTHING BL

[glove23]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I WAS TAGGED BY @nooowestayandgetcaught THANK U ILY

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

- 158

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

- 325,837

3. What fandoms do you write for?

- any and all that I know/like!! I have the most fics in kinnporsche, hp, and grishaverse, but I write for a lot of different fandoms

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

- Meeting Your Maker (Literally)

Harry Potter, Time Travel AU, 64,543 words

- a colorful past

The Batman (2021), Jim Gordon/Bruce Wayne, 688 words

- Your Makers Meet (Figuratively)

Harry Potter, sequel to MYML, 30,726 words, incomplete

- I'm not leaving your side

Love in the Air (2022), Whump, 1,307 words

-no body, no crime

Kinnporsche: The Series (2022), MURDER, kinn kills vegas, 943 words

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yeah! I try to at least, I have a huge backlog to get through whoops. I started writing in the era of ffn where like half the experience was talking back and forth in the reviews and then pm-ing and that's how I made a lot of friends that I still have today. and without that kind of comment culture and the author replying to messages, I might not have ever started writing.

someone replied to my review very kindly and asked why I didn't have any fic, my ideas were awesome (hair flip) and that made me realize oh. I don't have to Just read, I can also write the stories

and the rest is history

but fostering that kind of community, just talking to people who love the things you love, is such a fun part of the fandom experience for me and so I'll always reply to comments (eventually. I'll always get there eventually.)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

KDHAJCHSJXJSJZ I DONT KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU THAT I HAVE A WHOLE SERIES WHERE I JUST KILL PEOPLE AND WATCH THEIR FRIENDS GRIEVE

but that being said, the answer is

into the wind (Love in the Air (2022), prapaisky, MCD/suicide

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

uhh. this one I don't actually know but imma say

love me there (His Dark Materials, lyrawill, fix-it, lyra finds will again after the events of s3)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

yeah, sometimes! 👍 don't do that

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

sometimes. not very often, it's usually M-rated if I do, but just. yeah. I don't know how to answer this

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yep!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, many times! back in my OG ffn days, and then a few times with @nooowestayandgetcaught

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

I'm gonna say percabeth but I don't think there Is a real answer to this question, bc I love so many of my ships So Hard that just thinking about them makes me cry

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

......I will finish every wip leave me alone (I WILL FINISH YMMF I PROMISE) work in PROGRESS and the progress may be slow but it's PROGRESS

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue I am so fucking good at dialogue, and character interaction. definitely my strengths

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

descriptions. I am too lazy to do them all out the way I want to and so I just kinda. skate by

except in guess I misjudged you (gods I loved you) that one is PACKED bc I spent 9 months on it so

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

mmm unless I know someone I can talk to and get accurate translations, I don't really do this bc I am so afraid of conjugating wrong and google translate is SHIT. but when I do I try my best

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson! in 2012 on ffn on an account that still exists but I will not give u the name of. 🥰🥰

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

as of rn (October 2023) it's

guess I misjudged you (gods i loved you)

Percy Jackson, Royalty AU, Arranged Marriage AU, 56,438 words

it is my BABY and I think one of the best things I've written tbh

#2 would be

if you don't like it (lie)

KinnPorsche, kimchay, MCD, 3,516 words

it's just so delightfully painful and it's the one I show to everyone I show kp bc I'm obsessed with it

ANYWAYS THATS ALL THANK YOU!!!! if you wanna do this feel free to say I tagged you 💞

@seaweedbraens @perseannabeth @karin848 @waitingondaisies (y'all don't have to do this. but ✨✨)

[piningpercussionist]

Hi if I sent in an ask as Lisa would you respond to it and any other reblogs? ^_^

Very potentially, yes!

If it's just friendly Lisa and Kim interactions than the answer will generally be yes a thousand times over! If you're hoping for something more along the LisIm front, I only rp ship content with people 18 and older, sorry! Personal comfort level thing. Please respect this-

I DO have a bit of a backlog of stuff to get through though, so it might be a minute before I could properly respond/engage, if you did want to send something in right now ^^" I promise I'd get to you eventually, but I do have... 3 threads open right now, technically, (unless any involved parties wanted to abandon those threads,) and I think I have a fourth person wanting to start one in my inbox currently (so if they see this: hi! Swear I'll get to that eventually,,, I am In Shambles /j)

(Also, using the ask to announce that I Lived, Bitch!!! Power is still out rn though ✌️)

[byierficrecs]

when u go through submissions, do you read them before you make the graphics, post it etc? bc obviously some of these fics tend to be longer so do you have a backlog of fics you get through eventually and shorter fics to read/post if you havent finished any other ones? or do u post the ones with the most recs? is a combination of both where if a fic has more recommendations you dont read it vs if just one submission mentions it you read it? it im just curious as to how that works especially because you’ve mentioned that the graphics can take quite a while, which is pretty evident on account of how nice they look btw, so i was wondering how the reading side of that looked like !! (sorry in advance if i come across as rude or anything of the sorts in my ask, it genuinely wasnt my intention as i was just curious)

hello! anything under 40k i read in its entirety, anything over that (chaptered fics) i try to read a handful of chapters,,, maybe 10-15k to get a good idea of the vibe. it's also important to me because the submissions (and authors in ao3) sometimes omit relevant tags and it hasn't happened, but i'm scared i might at some point share something with some heavy warning that was not mentioned anywhere :S

(i've been in various fandoms and read a lot of fics,,, the amount of times i've read something with mcd that is not tagged or mentioned is unfortunately in the double digits ;-;)

in regards to the order in which i read the stories, it's the order in which they are posted! i try my best to do the submissions in the order in which they arrive, but i do switch things around depending on length (i try not to group long fics), author repetition and trope. for instance, domestic fluff tends to end up with pastel graphics and it'd be a bit much to post five thingies that look very similar in a row; so, i put other stuff in between.

sometimes, when i'm too tired or overwhelmed and don't want to read (it happens), i switch long stories for short ones on the go.

i've never just "trusted that a story is good", sort to speak. there are some authors i love so i know their stuff is good without reading it, but they also deserve to have their work read and i do still need to get the vibe right. fics that are shared more than once are rare (i think it's only happened 4 times in total), but i promise that is not a factor in how i organise or approach the stories.

(besides, if that were the case and i admitted it, then people would start spam-submitting the story so i'll hurry with the graphic and that would just make me sad and anxious)

i hope this answers your questions? i confess, i just woke up so this might not make that much sense x.x anyway, please don't worry about your tone, you didn't come across as rude whatsoever~ happy holidays!

[conceptofzero]

You're the first person whose fan-fictions I am reading. You're, like, my fan-fiction awaking. (Loss of fan-fiction virginity? LMAO.)

I am a full grown adult just now beginning to read fan-fiction. Yours are so... so rich in the very words that I lack to describe your craft. Please, please, if writing is your passion, never leave it!

Oh wow, I'm delighted to hear I'm your introduction to fanfiction! I'm really glad to hear how much you're enjoying my work, and I'm so excited for you to carry on with your journey! There's honestly never been a better time to get into fanfiction with AO3 being such a great repository to dig through, and a huge backlog to go through for any TV show or movie you've ever had even a passing interest in!

I've been a little lax about posting fanfic to this account lately but I'm still writing it (and probably will be forever, since it's one of my favorite creative hobbies!) and I promise I'll be doing that until they drag me kicking and screaming off the internet. I hope you eventually decide to dip your toes into participating in fandom, be it by writing or drawing or vidding or whatever your creative outlet of choice is!

[innovativestruggles]

HI sorry to bother you but I saw your daisuzu extract and I love it! Do you think you'll be writing more of it? Have a nice day :)

Heya lovely 🌼

Firstly please don't apologise, you're never bothering me! And secondly I am so so so sorry for taking so long to respond. It's been an incredibly busy few months for me and I barely have time for tumblr or anime 😞 But to your question - well, the FKBU fic is still in the line up amongst several fanfics I am writing. I have two WIPs atm so I will need to finish those two first before I can think of starting a new one. So it'll have to wait for now unfortunately. I can only write when I have time, so there has also been a massive delay in my fics as well.

I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted. I think there are a few DaiSuzu fics lurking around, but the anime is over a year old so I'm not so sure how active the fandom is now...

[incorrectdmp]

Blog Maintenance / Lack of Posting

HI so i kinda put this all in the tags of one of Drift's submissions today but i wanna actually kinda give a proper update of how i plan to go forward with this blog as DMP is coming to a close. a lil bit of this addresses something that happened last episode so HERE is your spoiler warning NOW

Okay so first things first, with Juniper's new name I am going to be going back to all the Junior tags and ADDING juniper to them. Originally i was gonna replace everything including the actual name in the quotes but bro told me not to haha. it's... a lot of maintenance and Juniper's arc is more about trying to find an identity for himself rather than distancing himself from an old name ie Charlie. going forward all quotes not explicitly pre-void will be labelled as Juniper and tagged with all three juniper/junior tags. the one person who submitted me a Juniper quote on anon, i haven't forgotten about your post. I've held onto it for a bit bc i didnt wanna have another post to deal with the name change tag so soon to the episode happening haha

Second, out of context spoilers is coming... eventually. I've had to put my regular post-episode notes on hold until i'm far enough along in my finale work i'm COMFORTABLE taking a likely 2 day venture into a task that's both time consuming and physically taxxing, and so i'm planning on rewatching the episode some time today or tomorrow to do a run for anything in OOC spoilers i wanna add before posting them

Third, I'm.... REAL sorry i haven't been posting a lot on this blog. there's a lot of reasons for that. obviously as most of y'all know as I am an official artist for DMP now i'm INCREDIBLY busy with the finale, and even though putting quotes from the backlog onto the blog or on a queue isn't terribly hard or time consuming it's also something that just slips my mind a lot. also i have a lot of anxiety surrounding my backlog getting too short, even though it's not THAT bad right now. plus, considering I know the ending of the show and a ton of my quotes have BEEN in the backlog for SOOOO long some of them may be outdated in terms of dynamics and such, and I'm not sure how many of them i'm ACTUALLY willing to post because i haven't combed through them in a while. plus a lot of the older ones just aren't as funny to me. once DMP is done and i still have the hyperfixation brainrot i may try to maintain this blog a little more until i at LEAST get through all my backlog quotes. once those are done I'll probably just post quotes as i see fit whenever i find them, instead of actively trying to maintain a backlog. i haven't had time to actively go hunting for new quotes in a long time, so that stuff will come once dmp is done, again. I wanna keep the blog running for at least a bit after DMP is done as a way to help everyone including myself with going content cold turkey, and as i'll NOT be swamped in work it'll be a good time to TRY and find new material. plus i wont have to worry about anything with dynamics changing.

as for quotes running as we lead up to the finale? i'm gonna try posting around every week or so, maybe in 5 quote batches? i'm not sure. again, lots of anxiety surrounding the shrinking backlog combined with So Much Work that i make no promises but i DO wanna at least treat yall as we enter one last mini hiatus as we're working hard behind the scenes to give yall the finale you DESERVE

[mysticdragon3md3]

Damn it. I guess no more Crunchyroll for me.😢

Some posts explained that Sony buying Funimation and consolidating it with Crunchyroll gave them a monopoly, and without competition, they could charge what they want and take away the free version of Crunchyroll. Well, at least now I know why I won't be able to watch anime on Crunchyroll anymore.

I guess now is a good time to admit to myself that maybe I've stopped watching anime. I just never get around to watching it anymore. Every once in a while, I watch a series or 2, if it's good, I'll binge, even get super obsessed and buy Nendoroids for it. But my habit tracker space for watching anime has been empty for MONTHS. Maybe it's time I come to terms with maybe I don't watch anime anymore. ;_;

Someone recently said that they watched kids' shows as an adult because they were just too anxious for "emotional labor". That Tweet got a lot of likes, so it must be very common, without any of us realizing it. I remembered I did the same thing. Lots of Max & Ruby. But nowadays, I find myself only watching YouTube. There could be tons of anime series to catch up on, lists and lists for my backlog, even series I heard about and got a little excited and interested in, but still I end up watching YouTube instead. Just video essays, documentaries, op eds, movie reviews, character analysis, reaction vids, and lots of let's plays. I think that's why my past few big fandoms have been videogames without me realizing it. Persona 5, Fire Emblem 3 Houses,... It was easier for me to keep up with the videogame community, than to sit down and watch anime. Sure, I'd become emotionally invested and impacted by a videogame eventually, but there's so much gameplay space between story beats, that is just background noise while I multitask, before the story continues. Maybe videogame let's plays blunt the emotional intensity of a story, compared to my experience of anime, where every frame and dialogue is important, and every 20min of its content spurs me to write 2-5 hours worth of thoughts. I have intense reactions and maybe I just can't do that anymore. Maybe compared to watching others play videogames, anime has higher concentrations of me becoming emotionally invested, and so emotionally effected that I'd waste hours just writing my reactions, thoughts, and analysis. I think I just can't do that "emotional labor" anymore. Maybe my brain just subconsciously avoids it now too. Maybe it preemptively makes me suddenly disinterested in watching anime, even when I'm about to choose something from Crunchyroll. (Which happens to me a lot.)

What a shame. Earlier today, some clips of Dress Up Darling and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 were on Twitter and it started to get me interested. It reminded me how much I love anime, how beautiful the animation is, and how much simple fun it can be. But who am I kidding? I am a very anxious, neurotic person, and I probably can't deal with fictional emotional drama beyond detached video essay analysis anymore.

I'm pretty sad at the idea of losing Crunchyroll. I mean, I remember what it was like before Crunchyroll. I promised to not go through the black market anymore, once a got a job and Crunchyroll had that free viewing ad-supported option. But if it's gone, I guess I'm watching on YouTube now. And actually now that I think about it, Crunchyroll did crash on me so often, even when I sat down to watch it, that I would often end up watching on YouTube instead! That's right, now I remember! That's why I got stuck on ep 3 or 4 of Jujutsu Kaisen for like 2 days! Once again, YouTube proves to be the superior viewing platform. (Even Twitch crashes on me, but YouTube is always stable.)

I was going to say that if I had no more venues to watch anime, maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing, because it would force me to finally catch up on my manga and videogame backlogs. Not to mention that my recent ship got me back into reading fanfiction, semi-regularly. There's lots to do besides watching anime. And honestly, I'll probably spend more time watching YouTube anyway.

[aro-acethetic]

I don't want to rush you, but I send an ask on nov. 20th, when you made that post about being out of requests, and I see you've made a few since then, so I'm just curious if tumblr maybe ate my ask or if I broke a rule by mistake, I sent in the aroace genderqueer ask (is cool if it did go through and you aren't done with it, I just don't want to keep checking in if it got eaten and with my memory, if I don't check in everyday, I'll forget for like 3 months)

hi! I'm afraid I think it might've been eaten. I have an aromantic genderfaer request and an aroace gnc one, but not aroace genderqueer. sorry about that! feel free to send it in again. also, fair warning, I have twelve other requests to get through, so there may be a bit of a backlog. but I promise I will get to it eventually!

[citrinemystic]

Oracle Readings

Okay, now that I've gotten through the backlog in my ask box, it's time to talk about my Oracle Readings.

Point the first: I like doing them too much, and it's actually making use of the many decks I have (I know I've only been doing readings from three specific ones lately, but I have several more that I'll probably start incorporating going forward) so I will continue to offer free one-card readings for the indefinite future.

Point the second: That said, I'm going to be having a ✨major life experience✨ here in the next few weeks, so I can't promise how quickly I'll actually get to the requests left in my inbox. I will get to them eventually, it just may take a week or two.

Point the third: I'd really prefer if those interested would stick to just one request per month (or so). Not to say I won't answer, I just answer them in (mostly) chronological order, and I don't feel it's fair to people who haven't made a request before to not have their ask answered before someone who's already gotten an answer.

Point the fourth: After answering so many asks in the past few weeks, I've got some guidelines that may help when someone is making a request:

I have better results when giving a general reading rather than answering a specific question. It can be a general reading about a specific area of someone's life (general love reading, general career reading, general spirituality reading, etc.) but if I'm asked specific questions, my advice may seem to miss the mark since oracle cards generally lend themselves best to general advice.

If you are going to ask a more specific question, keep it as broad as possible.

I would advise asking "What do I need in this situation" or "What do I need to know" type questions over "How will this work out".

I make no guarantees for future events. I can make guesses, but I'm not going to promise that things will turn out a specific way.

I will not be answering any more "what does x person think of me" questions. That is incredibly specific, and more to the point, I'd have a better idea of what someone thinks of another person by reading their body language than reading the cards.

That said, I do still answer "what does x group think of me" because that is more about how someone is generally perceived rather than how a single person views them.

Please understand that the advice I offer is what comes to me after I draw the card, sometimes supplemented by the guidebook, but generally I'm relying on my own intuition. I am a flawed creature, and that means sometimes my intuition, and therefore my advice could be totally off-base and not make sense in reference to a specific situation.

Lastly, If you're going to leave feedback, I'd rather have it left in my message box or on the post with my response rather than in my ask box. I'm disinclined to post feedback asks because that feels a bit too much like tooting my own horn, but I do see them and appreciate them.

I'll probably do a post showing all the decks I'm willing to use in the next few days, so if you're interested in a reading, keep an eye out for that.

Also, I'm kind of putting myself in a box by offering my Oracle readings, but I am also happy to give advice related to magical correspondences and spell crafting. I may not be as knowledgable as some, but I do enjoy sharing what knowledge I have.