#if I start on december stuff now then I can work on january stuff the rest of break

[bluebellwrenwrites]

I think I’m gonna actually commit to doing a monthly challenge and Whumpcember seems like a lot of fun 👀👀

[ms-demeanor]

It seemed like your job was getting better there for a minute under new management. Is it new management that's fucking up now, not "fixable", or is it holdovers from the old guy?

So my company, formerly owned by Gary, was "Strangled Bats LLC". The company that bought us is "BunnyCorp Inc." Late last year, BunnyCorp Inc hired "Bruno" as our new CEO. The middle management are Bunnies from BunnyCorp.

Gary was a shithead who abused his employees but he was a stickler for documentation, standards, and naming conventions. Even though we lost a lot of documentation when BunnyCorp let Strangled Bats' CRM subscription lapse, I was able to save a bunch of PDFs and we actually still have printed copies of a BUNCH of our documents. Strangled Bats LLC was a terrible place to work and was very old-fashioned on some things, but we save our papers.

BunnyCorp Inc has a lot of very friendly bunnies in management who are cuddly and cute and easy to get along with and wouldn't know a configuration manager if it bit them in the ass. BunnyCorp was interested in acquiring and absorbing many companies to become one big company and cared more about purchasing companies (and therefore their client bases) than it cared about integrating those companies into itself OR than it cared about making notes on its customers.

Bruno has a long history of working in MegaBigCo and making things very efficient. When Bruno was hired as CEO, BunnyCorp officers did a great job of putting a good face forward and making it look like they had their shit together. By the time Bruno started, I had been working at BunnyCorp for three months and had mostly been focused on trying to get Strangled Bats' systems to mesh with BunnyCorp.

In January, Bruno had been with the company long enough that he started making changes to make things more efficient, because he'd been there long enough to see that there were some problems. At that point, I had started to notice that it seemed like we were duplicating an awful lot of work that was no longer related to issues with un-meshed systems, because I had meshed a lot of our systems. I got promoted and started training someone to take over the simpler parts of my job and was given the responsibility of looking into a lot of our contracts and agreements.

In March, the shit hit the fan and Bruno and I simultaneously realized that BunnyCorp Inc had been papering over a vast chasm of problems, most of which had to do with:

people with institutional knowledge leaving because they were underpaid

previous owners being shit at documentation

nobody except LITERALLY FUCKING ME knowing what modern server hardware standards and pricing should be

solutions for clients that were built with an eye toward reducing cost in the moment rather than planning for growth or longevity

Bruno has good thoughts about improving stuff, thoughts that I support and think are a great idea and think we should try to implement, but he's also a MegaBigCo kind of guy and likes to let employees grind to prove that they're dedicated and worthy of a promotion/raise - this is a shitty attitude that I think is counterproductive and I think is on the verge of leading our entire senior staff into burnout, but he's not at all wrong about the changes that need to be made. Bruno found out that a bunch of our clients don't have spare server drives onsite and shit a brick because of how badly he wants us to get spare server drive to the client sites; he is willing to eat the cost if it means we can get spares to the clients. That's great, it's not wrong, and there aren't enough hours in the day for me to get that done and also do procurement.

Bruno is only just now seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of how utterly fucked our documentation is; if Bruno is the captain of the ship telling us where to steer, I'm the lookout on deck who sees the icebergs before anybody else.

I have been shouting to the Bunny management about icebergs since December and the ship hasn't changed course; Bruno has directed us to put more coal in the boilers and speed up and to patch up some holes and scrape some barnacles off the hull, but I can't shout loud enough to get the Bunnies to pass on the message about the iceberg, so all I can do is make notes about where the iceberg is an when we hit it provide the notes that I took that the Bunnies ignored so that maybe we can start patching up the breaks before water floods in and kills us all.

Things were great for a while because I was no longer working with an actively abusive shithead. Working with Gary was like sighting icebergs on the deck of a ship that leaked a bit and avoided icebergs deftly, but I was left to freeze on the deck all the time because freezing on the deck was all I was good for. Getting acquired by BunnyCorp was like someone handing me a warm coat and telling me to go inside and have a cup of tea and sit by the fire. But then I realized that the niceness and the okayness with taking time off and the slight raise were very comforting but someone still had to go out on deck and watch for icebergs but now nobody is passing on the message that we need to steer away from the fucking icebergs because if you say there's an iceberg that might make someone feel bad and making people feel bad is counter to the BunnyCorp company culture.

I have a constant drumbeat in my head that says "I can fix this, I can fix this, I can fix this." If I work late and go get the info for all the firewalls that I can access, and share info with the team about the ones I can't access, I can update the documentation and fix this. If I get notes on all the servers, and get spares for every machine, and get the techs scheduled to go out and install, I can fix this. If I can go in to the configurations for all five thousand computers and manually check and archive all the old devices, and manually update a field for every one of the two thousand windows 10 machines, maybe our team of sixteen can replace twelve hundred and upgrade eight hundred computers at our two hundred client sites in the next five months. If only I can go through all of those two thousand configurations and update that field before I get dragged away to another phone call from a client or another meeting about how the next acquisition is going to go, so I better do it now, at eight pm at ten pm at midnight at two am when there's nobody to call and no meetings scheduled. If I could just *lock in* I can save us, I can make sure the clients are getting a good turnaround time on their requests and I can make sure the licenses are all getting renewed because I updated all the configurations and I will update all the configurations going forward and I will document this company at knifepoint and I will hold it together with duct tape and spite and I will make it work i will make it work nobody else is doing anything I have to make it work because that's an iceberg, I know some of them see the iceberg, and they're Bunnies and I'm a Bat, some of them have seen this iceberg long before I could see it but they're not turning but if I yell about it and make notes about it and lock in and document it and skip lunch and skip lunch and skip lunch and skip lunch and skip lunch and take half a break so that I can get another device off the list maybe THEN they'll act like there's an iceberg ahead and they'll turn and I won't have to fly off the deck and go find another ship and I can stay on the boat with my friends and the nice bunnies and it will be okay, it will feel like it did after Gary was gone and I could BREATHE and people said that I was smart and good at my job and I deserved more money and I had been treated badly and there were no icebergs because it was so bright and sunny and nice that the whole sea looked like dazzling snow and seemed soft and safe and like I wouldn't have to keep freezing on the deck to stay alive.

So.

You know.

There have been ups and downs. I'm having some trouble staying motivated and even with some decent management it's difficult to orient the team toward the metrics we need to meet in q3 to stay solvent and keep our forward momentum up.

I'm considering sniping our customers and starting my own business, nobody makes the office admin sign a non-compete.

[dumbingofage]

Ive noticed that your comic often reacts to current events, which sometimes change the course of the narrative (like in the current arc) than something that would be set in the exact year that you stared Dumbing of Age. How much do you plan in advance, or is your plot loose enough that current events can fit into gaps, or do you let the ever-shifting political landscape take over and change your story entirely? Whatever the answer is, I am loving it.

Dumbing of Age is set in whichever current year it is at the time. Whenever the real-world calendar swaps from December 31 to January 1, the present year of the comic moves forward an integer.

Admittedly, this isn't something that's always tenable. Covid-19 happened, and 2020 was a magical year for Dumbing of Age where nobody was sent home as colleges were shut down. By the time I would've gotten around to writing characters having to go home or isolate in place, colleges would've started opening up again! And so sometimes you gotta close your eyes tightly and grunt through.

This trusting in, uh, an eventual return to normal-ish may become increasingly less sustainable as... World Happens. Like, I don't think Leslie's class or even the major of Gender Studies currently exists anymore at Indiana University. They shut those down two weeks ago because DEI. Sliding timescales work until they don't?

And the world is so in flux right now that it's, like, impossible to plan for. What will be missing or destroyed from the real world by the time a year from now the strips I'm writing will publish? Is trying to anticipate Awful Changes and making those changes ahead of time in my story just Complying In Advance? Is ignoring any specific parts of it in service of the ongoing story living in a Sanitized Liberal Dreamscape?

A very different problem from Whoops They Renovated The Read Residence Hall To Look Completely Different.

My best attempt -- which may be flawed -- is to find the feel of the world, the zeitgeist, or at least choose from among those things the stuff that's unlikely to change. I wrote these current strips 9 months ago, before the United States Presidential election. But I knew that regardless of who won or lost, police were still going to break up and attack campus protests -- because, hey, they did. They were. And next year if Trump won, those same situations would be drastically worse. But the underlying feelings are still there. That was something that was not going to change.

Regrettably, campus protests and police/military action on them is kind of an evergreen college experience. The Kent State Massacre was 9 years before I was born. And the world hasn't really changed much in that aspect since then.

I think the only thing that'd ever actually end those entirely is just the dissolution of universities entirely. Which, uh,

*knock on wood*

[sakasakiii]

I absolutely adore your designs, your work actually got me to read the Silmarillion haha but I am curious, do you have a design for the valar? I’d love to see how you’d interpret some of the lesser talked about valar, like Irmo or Nessa

hello!!!! thank you so much for your kind words! first off, it's such high praise to hear that...! i started drawing this stuff mostly out of a silly love for long haired elf dudes, so it's always very humbling to hear that other people enjoy what i make 🙇 i'm really happy you were able to read the Silmarillion!! it's truly a testament to professor tolkien's amazing work that there is a community invested in his work that's been so consistently active and thriving for decades now :D

now on to your question! i do indeed have designs for the valar -- the first renditions i ever did of them when i was a baby silm fan can be found here, but it's from 2021 so it's very outdated and frankly my old art makes me shrivel up a little ahjsdhj 🫣 then in 2023, i did some rough redesigns of them as chibi heads, but for some reason i never got around to posting it ^^;;; it's just been gathering dust in my gallery, but i suppose this is the perfect time to prove they do in fact exist...!

but this was in 2023, so ive had a few changes ive wanted to make in the time since-- i also never formally drew their fullbody designs, so ive been meaning to getting around that sometime this year :D im not sure when but hopefully before december, fingers crossed! since you asked specifically about irmo and nessa, the most i can say for now is that i think i'll keep irmo's design roughly the same from his 2021 version (though maybe with a more detailed outfit?), and nessa will get a total rehaul to follow her 2023 redesign! im so sorry that this is all i have to offer as of now though 😭

the most i have now are some very tentative manwe sketches from january i havent finished since then hahaha.... i have dubbed him 'biblically accurate manwe' ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

thank you again for sending in such a lovely ask, and may you have a wonderful rest of the weekend! ^^

[soaps-mohawk]

I'm so sorry to everyone that I freaked out with the last post, I was trying so hard not to 😭 I have that like instant fear as soon as I see "we need to talk" or something in the same vein. I always think it's something bad.

This isn't bad, at least depending on how your perspective I guess.

So...I'm having thoughts about CRCB in October. I planned out posting schedules for Kyletober and CRCB and my Patreon stuff and it's going to basically be a post every day, sometimes multiple in multiple places.

That's a lot.

So, I am set on doing Kyletober since all of the fics are already written, but I was planning on continuing CRCB during October as well. But...I think I need a little break from CRCB. It's been about eight months of posting almost every single week and it's been a lot. I'm struggling with chapters right now and with work it's vastly limiting the time I have to write and focus on things and I'm kind of burning out right now.

So, what I wanted to discuss was potentially putting CRCB on hold for October while I focus on Kyletober and everything involved with that. Trying to do both is a lot and I'm not sure I can handle all of it, plus life, plus work.

I was planning on not necessarily putting CRCB on hold, but doing more of a "whenever I can/am inspired" random posting chapters kind of like I did in the beginning when I first started writing the fic, in November/December because those are very busy months and I will be dead tired from work and just general life.

I think I might still do that for November/December and possibly into the new year since there's no way the fic will be finished even if I posted every week until the end of December.

BUT

That's something I'll think about and make a decision on later.

Right now, my thought is...would you hate me if I put CRCB on pause in October? IF I do, I promise I won't end Chapter 39 on a cliffhanger. I wasn't planning on it anyway, but I promise I won't end it on a cliffhanger if I decide not to post any chapters in October.

That way if I do put it on pause, then I can not focus on it for a bit and give my brain a refresh, and I can also focus all my energy on Kyletober.

So yeah, it's going to be a lot doing both at the same time, and honestly I'm ready for a little break from CRCB. It's been going for a long time and it's a lot of words to get out in a week. I've been super stressed lately and I'm just struggling a lot trying to get through chapters.

So yeah. That's basically the dilemma here and the discussion to be had. I know y'all will tell me it's my blog and I can do whatever I want, but I would like opinions on it. Are y'all okay with me putting CRCB on hold to focus on Kyletober? Then pick it back up for probably just whenever I can chapter updates for the rest of the year? In January things will calm down and I'll have more time to relax and write and maybe get close to finishing the story. Plus I know a lot of my readers will be busy the next three months with the holidays and vacations and family and school and all of that, so you won't have to worry about getting behind and having to catch up with a bunch of chapters.

So...let me know...

[sillyandstupididk]

Elias Pettersson style evolution

Petey fits!!! I did this for Quinn now it’s his turn. I took a couple fashion classes in college so I am qualified (I have no memory of these classes). Note that this will be less of an evolution and more of just a commentary, because Petey has just always served cunt.

October 18, 2018- Jesus Christ. Well! This is his first Getty walk in shot. Starting off strong. Apparently that is a staff member beside him. But anyways- good grey suit! A little big on him, but nice neutral colour to start off his journey. And what a beautiful head of hair. Little alien boy.

December 4, 2018- god bring back him and quinny's tie eras!! but also... don't. he looks like a magician. he is about to show me a trick of how he makes the puck disappear into the net. I like how the socks faintly match his tie, and his loafers are fun. there's also just like... a lotta. crotch.

January 20, 2019- hm i kinda hate it. he needs to get a colour analysis done i'm just not sure this is it. does the blazer have a ZIPPER what is that on the left side? the socks being the exact same shade of red as the suit makes him look like one contingent form. very alien

October 15, 2019- jack skeleton?? petey it's not halloween yet silly. look at his slick malfoy hair too i'm obsessed. pristine posture too. this was a 3 point petey night and i see why.

December 23, 2019- Petey... dawg... are you fetching the newspaper? in 1942? now i support putting himself out there creatively and trying new things even if they don't work- but this hat will make a comeback multiple times.

January 18, 2020- gasping choking sobs

August 10, 2020- oh yeah this is a classic Petey fit. he would have a graphic sweatshirt of a mona lisa meme. he so would. love the yellow hat, the randomly not canuck branded mask (I think my school sent us the same ones??), nice pair of jeans, Demmer! His hat says Palm Angels, which you can get on their website for approximately $300 cad. because of course.

February 21, 2021- okay guys he's cooking now. we got a lovely overcoat, grey toque, an absolutely hideous tie which for some reason he continues to wear, and a mask to match the fit! in all honestly guys I kinda miss masks. I hated my face and loved collecting colours. do y'all remember the aritzia ones? bangers. I had a superpuff mask.

November 19, 2021- omg he's getting olderrrr. I think blue is really his colour (non biasly of course). and those loafers got a couple extra detrails which i like a lot. the middle part is kinda funny but it also kinda works?

April 19, 2022- oh baby oh baby. yeah this is the good stuff. the parking garage lighting elevates it so much too. he really rocks no tie well. Plaid suit with the brown loafers and black suit you'd think maybe doesn't work but it does! And just his dress shirt even looks better than ever now it's not obstructed.

November 21, 2022- a three piece?? a three piece suit??? THREE PIECE SUIT??? Elias Pettersson cunt-serving extraordinaire. okay remember how I said red wasn't his colour I LIED. red on red on red with louboutin sneakers ugh you dawggg. and no toque! I cheered! Girlies get ready thought just get ready take a deep breath with me.

December 10, 2022- PETEY!!! We've peaked here. This is my favourite look he's ever done. Three piece suit!! Fuck the colours- the navy suit with brown shoes, grey waist coat, and just the most perfect purple and navy tie to tie it all together. My goodness. he could be a wedding guest, he could be the groom, he could be at an award show, and instead he's headed to the must dusty locker room to dunk on all the bitches. 10/10. ily. cunnnnntttt

December 22, 2022- this is getting into more modern Petey style. I really really like it. I love his coat and also this colour palette! Crazy. I fear a belt would've been nice, but it is so cohesive i'm willing to forgive it. his shoessss too. Petey is just. I've seen him in person quite a few times and he really is beautiful. I love blond men. Sue me.

January 20, 2023- another red suit! This one works wayyyy better than the old one. Also with the blue shirt is kinda out there? But it works! Also the Louboutins I know that's right that's my rich boy. His hair is giving Liverpool here.

April 2, 2023- Wow! Brown on brown on brown. Corduroy suit and he pulls it off. Look at him mid-button too. I love the brown shoes with the fit and I love that he went with more casual shoes. They remind me of the Alo ones Quinn has nowadays. Likely inspired by his fashion bestie.

November 15, 2023- What. I want to say this was for Movember but I've seen his beard and it is nothing like this. So.... mischievous? I kinda hate it. Sorry Pete. But I like the grey toque with the grey shoes! Speaking of toques tho.... you will never see his egg head again.

February 29, 2024- Ok WERK. I love these colours on him. A nature palette looks great on him, and also pink! Win-win for me. And the cream New Balances balance the whole thing out because they're such light colours. MMmmmm

March 13, 2024- Corduroy suit is back! And I have more thoughts! I thought I wouldn't like it with a black dress shirt but paired with the black Converse works SOO well!!

March 23, 2024- ok wtf is this pose lmao. I'm a little teapot looking ass. It's a good fit but it looks like he's about to start pas de chating. But wait I must mention the custom #40 golden gooses??!! Petey!! That's sick as hell I applaud you. Now go do-si-do your heart out

April 10, 2024- This isn't anything crazy but I love seeing the boys wearing Van-related gear. I actually don't know if this is Canucks (probably), or Warriors. Very fun tho. He loves Vancouver!! Eat me!! (to the media, not EP40... unless)

April 16, 2024- This is what you will find Petey wearing the most. Nature colours, loose and breezy, maybe linen, fits. He looks just so good though I'm glad he's mostly realized the black and greys and bold colours work, but the natural palette elevates him so much more. Humpty Dumpty sighting!!

December 10, 2024- this is so funny. this definitely touched the line of the formal wear required by players, and since we haven't seen the Carhartt jacket since I'm feeling like he was lightly reprimanded. It looks good though! Vintage granola core. Also I can't believe I don't have more photos of him with food there's so many. I think one time he said what's in it, but alas, I forget.

January 18th, 2025- Blue looks good on him:) And a mint toque! I wonder how many toques hockey players own, because he really pulls a new one out every week. Absolutely no complaints from me! This is where we land with Petey fits, and I think it's a good one to end with. I love he took lots of risks and found what works for him. Perhaps representative of his confident cocky past self that has turned into a quiet reserved adult who has faced never-ending adversity in his play. Perhaps.

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #14 | 12.02.24

And November is over! This month has been filled with paperwork, organizing receipts, and so on, which isn't very fun, but it's part of the job!

We are making great progress with everything overall; merch has been ordered and we have received proof and approved it; our voice actors are already delivering the voiced names y'all paid for during our Kickstarter campaign; and more! Let's see it in detail, shall we? :^)

Our dear Raquel has been working hard (I think I say this every devlog, but damn) on reworking the sprites for the extended demo now that the Special postcards for the Kickstarter are done! For this next batch, she'll be working on Ara and Amon, so here's a WIP of how Ara is looking so far! 💜

I think you can see how her design is already more detailed and cohesive in some areas. We'll most likely ask for feedback when Amon is ready too, to test the waters with both characters like we did with Gael and Xal :^)

The street is coming to life! This background is almost ready thanks to Astro. We'll have four new locations in the Extended Demo to help with the pacing and the introduction of our world and story to (hopefully) make it perfect. Or something close to it!

In the writing department, I've so far added 7000 words to the prologue. We have one flavor choice, two personality choices (and several personality reactions), and three "relationship choices". These basically shape your relationship with Evie in this case. For example, you'll be able to choose if you are intimate friends, are warm to each other, or if you prefer something less physical / touchy. And Evie will remember that!

And this is just so far. While River has a kind of "set" personality, I want people to be able to shape some aspects of their life.

In the writing department I should also include the documents I've provided to our VAs, and to our composer, Tomás. More on that below!

We have a proper help screen! Wohoo! 💜

Now you can enjoy Ren'py's default help screen but looking a bit nicer. This is for those who are not familiar with Ren'py's usual keybindings and stuff :^)

Nothing else on the programming side this month. I've focused on writing the script and that's going to be my main job until I can actually start programming something!

As I said before, our beloved voice actors are already working on the voiced names! In fact, Xal's VA (Francfil Pontañeles) and Pride's (Pat Langner) already recorded them! A little surprise is that we have been able to add our default MC's name, River, as a voiced name. For those of you who want to play with that name, you'll also enjoy some voiced lines!

What else—ah! We are already working with Tomás for our OST, and we have settled in 19 tracks total. Those are even more tracks than we expected! This is thanks to you all, and especially thanks to those of you who ordered more merch via Backerkit. You made those four extra tracks possible!

Our merch has been checked and so far only the pins are missing a preview and therefore our approval. We had to edit some files (beginner's mistake!) but being the first time we do this, I'd say things have been rather smoothly! We'd like to be able to start shipping this month, but it may not be possible. Which is a bummer! But well, we settled in December / January, so January it is, if nothing happens!

(Don't mind the colors being too flashy here—they will look more cohesive in game!)

OH, and the last extra bit! I've been working on the personality choices, as you all know, and Kayden has been helping me make the icons that will appear next to those choices for those who are colorblind. An extra thing to make them pop and differentiate them better! I think they are pretty self-explanatory, and if not, well—that means we have to give those icons a twist!

November has been a chaotic month for me due to the aftermath of the floods and my vacation week. The rest of the team has also had their good amount of irl stuff happening around them, but we've made it! The new year is approaching faster than I thought, as per usual, and I hope we can finish 2024 on a good note!

And that's all! As always, please take care, have fun, and enjoy the rest of the week!

[hotchs-bitch]

Cold December Night- Part 2

Old saint Nick has taken flight With a heart on board so please be careful Each year I ask for many different things But now I know what my heart wants you to bring

“Okay, just tell me one more time. Why do you think this is going to work?”

Hotch sighs at your question, undoubtedly tired of you asking it every fifteen minutes while the two of you drive to your family Christmas. He drums his index finger against the steering wheel, obviously trying to come up with a reason he hasn’t given you yet.

“Think of it as going undercover,” he advises. “It’s like we’re in the field together. We’re a team with a common enemy.”

“A common enemy? Sure, if you also have a grudge against my Aunt Marnie when she’s drinking eggnog punch.” 

“Look,” Hotch starts, and you hold back a sigh of your own. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, but we can make it work. Let’s just get our stories straight; I’ll need to learn about your relationship. How did you and Marcus meet? What do they know about him?”

You look down at your lap, fiddling with your bracelet. “We met online, but I told them we met through friends. They don’t really know anything about him, though.”

One of Hotch’s eyebrows raises, making your stomach flip at the disbelieving look he’s giving you. “Do they know his job? His age? Where he lives? Anything about him?”

“He was… between things, okay? I covered his bills, and he said he would start looking for a job in January.” You don’t have to be a profiler to see Hotch’s jaw twitch. “They don’t know anything else, really. Honestly, you probably don’t even have to lie to them. You can just talk about your own life for the most part, they won’t know the difference and it’ll be easier to keep our story straight.”

That was entirely selfish of you to suggest, but Hotch doesn’t give any indication that he’s caught on to an ulterior motive. 

“So… you want me to say that my name is Marcus and that I don’t have a job. And otherwise, you think I should be myself. Is that correct?”

“Okay, well, you don’t need to say it like that, like I forced you to come with me,” you huff, peering at Hotch out of the corner of your eye. “But other than that stuff… yeah. Just be yourself.”

You could kick yourself for the way your voice softens; if he hasn’t noticed anything yet, that was almost certainly a glowing neon sign screaming ‘HEY, I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU’. But Hotch just nods in understanding and keeps his eyes on the road as you settle back into your seat.

“Alright. I will,” he promises, and you lapse into silence as he keeps driving. 

How the hell are you supposed to make it through this weekend?

—

A few hours later you’re finally starting to approach the house, with Hotch steering the car down the snowy driveway.

“Marcus,” he says like he’s reminding himself. “My name is Marcus, and I don’t have a job.”

“You’ve got it,” you assure him, taking a deep breath to calm your own racing heart as the car pulls to a slow stop. There’s no time to focus on how pathetic his summary of your ex makes you sound. “Ready?”

Hotch looks uncertain now, like he’s realized that he’s currently in the driveway of your childhood home, but he nods. “Of course.”

Before you can answer, or panic, he gets out of the car and approaches your side, opening the door for you. When you give him a surprised look, he holds out a hand to help you out of the car. “They’re probably watching already,” he murmurs, and you’re sure he’s right. Your family is probably pressed against the living room window right now, shoving one another aside to get a view of your boyfriend.

“Go inside,” he encourages, his voice still low and smooth as you stand up and he keeps holding your hand, “Go say hi to everybody. I’ll grab our bags and I’ll be right behind you.”

Your hand falls from his a moment later, and he lumbers to the trunk of the car to grab both suitcases while you start for the door of the house.

The door is hardly open when two arms are flung around you, and your sister greets you excitedly. “Hey! Come in, come here. Is he bringing your stuff in?”

You hug her back, stepping into the foyer. “Hey. Yeah, he is, he’s just…”

Glancing out through the open door is a mistake. Hotch is pulling his suitcase out, and already has yours tucked under one arm. He must feel your eyes on him, because he glances up and gives you a smile that feels so genuine that you almost believe it to be real.

Maybe this was a mistake. Your heart is aching, seeing him carry your luggage into the house. There’s nothing you want more than to be introducing him to your family for real, to be with him for real. To say ‘This is Aaron, my boyfriend.’

But you can’t do that, and a flutter of conversation breaks you out of your reverie. 

“Honey, where should I put these?” The sound of the word ‘honey’ coming from Aaron Hotchner’s lips should be downright illegal, and it makes you buffer while your sister swoops in.

“This is him?” She asks, inspecting him with a critical eye. You can’t blame her, not with your romantic track record, but you still don’t want to let her stare him down until he gets uncomfortable and wants to leave.

“Yeah, this is Aaron, my boyfriend.” Oops. “Can you give him some space, please?”

And holy shit, you’re bad at fieldwork. Aaron thinks so too, if the look he gives you is any indication, but he doesn’t say a thing about your Freudian slip.

“Aaron,” your sister parrots, but she steps back all the same. “Wasn’t your name Marcus?”

“It’s my middle name,” Aaron lies smoothly, setting down one bag to shake your sister’s hand as he jokes, “She only uses it when I’m in trouble. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You, too. Hey mom, they’re here!” She calls out, and your mom comes out of the kitchen wearing an apron and a cautious smile.

“Hi, sweetie… and hello, Marcus. It’s nice to meet you,” she says, but it’s a little too cordial to be genuine.

“Aaron, please ma’am, if you don’t mind. It’s a pleasure to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you,” Aaron adds, holding out his hand again. There’s a hint of an accent in his voice, one he usually keeps from slipping out. But right now, it seems like he’s got his old southern charm turned all the way up and it’s oozing out of his voice too. “I can’t wait to try those Christmas cookies. She’s been raving about them for the last hour.”

And that southern charm just might be working; your mom is already looking more at ease while she shakes his hand, barely blinking at the abrupt name change.

“Oh, thank you, Aaron, you’ll love them. Do you need someone to help get the bags up the stairs? I can call for one of the men,” she offers, then glances at you when Aaron shakes his head. “The two of you can stay in your old room, I assume.”

And, oh, that is really not good. But there’s no way you could possibly argue now.

“Definitely. It’s on the second floor, babe, I’ll show you where.” You reach for a suitcase, but Aaron gives you a teasing smile and pulls it out of reach. “Hey, let me help!”

“I’ve got it, really,” he promises, brushing a kiss to your temple that sends a spark through your body. “You just lead the way, and I’ll bring the bags.”

With a playful roll of your eyes, you start up the stairs and down the hall, with Aaron right behind you. “This is my room,” you say, pushing the door open and stepping in. The second the door is closed behind Aaron, the playful smile falls off your face.

His face doesn’t fall in quite the same way, but the twinkle in his eyes dulls a bit. “So I don’t have to remember the other guy’s name, at least,” he mumbles.

“Maybe this was a bad idea. We can tell them you’re not feeling well,” you suggest, turning to face Aaron as he sets down both suitcases. “I already screwed up, and we definitely can’t stay here.”

Aaron’s gaze flicks to the bed. It’s a twin bed with a canopy, and purple-blue sheets. “We can make it work,” he promises. “We’re already here. There’s no point in leaving now, especially when I’m just starting to meet them. I’ll win them over, you can relax, and we’ll be out of here in a couple of days.”

He starts towards the door like it’s a done decision, but you catch his arm. “Why are you doing this?”

He doesn’t look at you. In fact, he keeps his focus trained on the ground as he makes his confession. “I don’t want to go home. Jack wanted to spend Christmas with his mother, and I’m not invited in case I have to leave for work.”

And wow, that makes you hurt for him. It also makes your decision an easy one. “Of course we can stay. I’m sorry to hear about that. I'm sure Jack’s unhappy about not seeing you.”

“I told him we would celebrate, the next time he stays with me,” Aaron says, and a small smile tugs at his lips. “Put up a tree, watch movies, bake cookies and leave some out for Santa so he’ll come even after Christmas. We’ve done it almost every year since the divorce.”

The look on his face is soft, warm, and a little sad. “That sounds fun,” you offer, and his smile gets a little bigger. “Let’s get back downstairs. I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea about us being up here for too long.”

That earns you a snort, and Aaron glances at the twin bed. “They really think we’ve got room to fool around up here?” he jokes, letting you lead him out of your bedroom by the hand, and you just roll your eyes and laugh while you ignore the way his words make your heart race.

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[rustbeltjessie]

I haven’t made a pinned post in a while, but since it’s my birthday month and I’m struggling right now, I figured it’s a good time to make one.

First, let me introduce myself. I’m Jessie Lynn McMains, aka Rust Belt Jessie. I’m a writer (poetry and prose), artist, zine-maker, spoken word performer, occasional musician, small press publisher, and general jack of several creative trades. I’m queer—bi/mspec and nonbinary (I use they/them, she/her, and he/him pronouns). I’m disabled and neurodivergent, and the parent of two kiddos. Politically? Well, I consider myself an anarchist at heart, but I still vote in every election. I think everyone should be able to have enough food, and a safe place to live, and yeah, even a few ‘unnecessary,’ fun things, just by virtue of being alive. As for the rest of my beliefs, you can probably garner a general idea if you peruse my blog even a little.

Now, onto the nitty-gritty. We had about ten days between when our last month’s food money ran out and when this month’s came in. It has been refilled as of today, so I don’t have to worry about that for the moment, but because of that gap, I had to spend money I’d set aside for other stuff on food. I paid our rent and energy bill for the month, but I’m a couple months overdue on our Internet bill, and I don’t want to risk that getting shut off. And then, well, it’s December. I’m trying to buy my kids some Christmas presents, and it’s not just my birthday month—my youngest kiddo’s birthday is four days before Christmas. Because of all this, I’m also way behind on writing stuff. I owe my zine subscribers a new issue (I didn’t send anything at all in November), and I’m trying to finish up some pieces to record for my new spoken word EP, but I’ve had to focus on day job and side-hustle stuff that’s more immediately lucrative, so I haven’t been able to dedicate much time to finishing these projects.

If you’d like to throw some $$ my way so I can get some gifts for my kiddos, keep my Internet on, get back to my writing, and maybe have a less-stressful birthday month than I did last year, I have V*nmo (JessieLynnMcMains) and P*yp*l (coeur.de.fantome [at] gmail[dot]com).

But hey, hey, I’m not just asking for something for nothing! I have a lot of stuff available on Ko-fi (rustbeltjessie), including print books and zines, ebooks and zines, and pins, and you can also hire me as an editor or commission a custom mini-collage. And almost everything is sliding scale/pay-what-you-can, some with a minimum price, others starting at $0.

And that zine subscription? It’s still not too late to get in on it, even though the year is almost over. If you sign up now, you’ll receive all previous issues, along with this month’s when it’s finished, and the final two will be mailed out in January.

Or perhaps you’d like to buy or commission something I don’t officially have for sale. Maybe you’d like to buy one of my existing pieces of art? Or commission a custom pin, designed by me, based on the band/film/fandom/whatever of your choice? Or commission a custom postcard poem/art piece, on the subject of your choice? Or have me write you a custom mini-zine, on the subject of your choice? I can do all those things! DM me, and we’ll work something out!

Oh, and I mentioned above that I was working on a new spoken word EP? Go check out my full-length spoken word album, Self-Portrait With Ghosts and Trains, which was released by Hello America Stereo Cassette in July 2021. You can find it at helloamerica.bandcamp.com. (I do get royalties from that release periodically, but it’s not as immediate as if you purchase something directly from me.)

All that said, I know times are tough for most people right now, so please don’t feel obligated to purchase anything or otherwise send money my way. And, as always, even just a few dollars helps, as does reblogging/boosting this post. 🖤

[which-item-poll-archive]

Archiving Which-Item-Poll

Submissions are now open. Please see more details here

Trigger tag list - at the moment outlines NSFW tags but will cover other tags soonish

Tag directory - A key to the tags I use as well as ways to browse by category or the month the poll was originally posted.

Please follow @pick-an-item-poll as they're continuing to post polls where you choose an item

If you want to follow the original blog's new poll blog, it's @hear-me-out-poll

What is this blog?

Basically I'm trying to (manually) reblog everything from their blog to this blog to create a more permanent archive once which-item-poll deactivates the original blog. I'm doing this because tumblr's search functions are notoriously useless for finding specific posts and many posts get entirely lost without a blog's archive page. Additionally, this preserves the tags that contain the information about the items, most notably the websites where they can/could be found.

Once the archive is complete and posted, we'll see where this goes from there.

@which-item-poll if you want me to delete a specific post or a couple that I re-blogged from you please ask me and I will. (Even after you've deleted the blog, since I know your main)

About the Archivist

You can call me Arc (not my name, but it works for now), I'm non-binary and my pronouns are she/they! I'm not the original owner of which-item-poll. I'm typically slow to respond to messages, but will take any suggestions into consideration even if I haven't responded to you yet.

Archive progress

Currently in the queue:

Nothing!

January 2025

Completed Months:

*January, *February, *March, *April, *May, June, *July, *August, *September,*October, *November and *December 2024

*January 2025

(* these months still need their category tags reviewed and possibly edited)

Needs to be queued/drafted:

Anything posted by OP before they deactivate.

Updates

Everything from the original blog as of 18 January 2025 EST has been posted! Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoyed the throwbacks.

I still need to adjust the category tags I added to posts for browsing to make sure that they're all accurate, but other than that the archiving is essentially complete.

So now that the archiving stage is completed, I'm going to potentially create a new version of the pinned/introduction post later on. The focus will be on correcting those tags and finalising the tag directory rather than a new intro post.

Submissions for new polls are now open. If thats the kind of thing you're interested in, see more details here.

Previous updates under the cut

Update: My autotagger wasn't working, which I found out about 1200 posts into this. Currently working on restoring tags to the posts already reblogged. I've managed to fix my autotagger but I had to clear the queue and drafts. (I didn't want to do it... but must to preserve my sanity.... and more importantly my wrist) Once I've got the tags back on the January posts (manually) I'll be able to fill the queue and drafts back up with the original tags intact.

Update: Everything that was posted had the tags added back on. Resuming queuing posts (and I've confirmed that the autotagger is copying the tags). Starting the queue again since there's enough in there to run while I sleep.

Update: I have been misspelling February in all of my tags. I will fix this and continue to fix this as they get posted from the queue.

Update: All the miss-spelt tags have been corrected

Update: I made the pinned post nicer to read! I also added some information.

Update 15/12/24 EST: If I run the queue at 50 posts a day, it will take 45 days to post everything from the original blog to this blog.

19/12/24 7pm EST - Taking a very short break from working on the archive as I have my final assignment due for a university course due tonight. (in about 10 hours in my local time). I should be back to doing stuff with it tomorrow. :)

Update 21/12/24: I'm back to it and working on adding tags to posts before making a directory again. For now, All current archival posts and ones that are in the queue now have the tag #which-item-poll-archive

Update: I have lost my draft about new submissions somewhere :(

Since it was a majority yes vote on the survey about new polls, I'm currently considering how I'd go about doing that.

NSFW items are on their way to the top of the queue. Here's a post about the tags to block if you don't wanna see them! :)

The tag directory is completed! It can be found at the top of this post! There's also a new survey about it. Is it too long?

I'm also going to try and post some things manually to get that time down, but can't guarantee that I can do this a lot due to things happening IRL.

Needs to be queued/drafted:

Any posts remaining in which-item-poll's queue or any other post made between time of update (4:47am on the 15th of December EST) and when OP decides to deactivate the blog.

Pretty close to queuing everything now. Going to include some of the repeat posts from the month of December that were meant to let people know the blog was deactivating ect. But I'm not going to include every single reblog of them. Just for the sake of slightly smoother browsing whilst still backing up the posts.

I found my draft about opening submissions :) Now I just need to edit it so it's coherent.

I've finished queuing and drafting existing posts and are now waiting to archive any future posts between now and when the blog is deactivated.

Everything is now in the queue!

17/01/25 EST - Days left until completed archive: 3 days at 50 posts a day.

The tag directory is completed! It can be found at the top of this post! Since it was a majority vote to not change it, I'm going to leave it as is for now. I'll run another survey on if it's too long once I've pretty much completed it.

[bomberqueen17]

while i've got the file out

So the last bit of time when I was at the farm, I finally gave in to the pressure of @sassaffrassa's art and started reading the Queen's Thief series.

It's... It's great, I'm not as obsessed with it as some (the selective concealment of stuff that POV characters know but the reader can't Until The Reveal is... clever but rubs me the Wrong Way, not enough to throw me out of the book but enough that I do find myself resenting it, but totally understand how it works beautifully for other readers) but it is extremely, extremely ripe for fanfic, I allow that. And I found that it made me think about the fics of Ciri in Nilfgaard again. It certainly made me realize my error in not including any slaves in the Nilfgaard settings-- that's a big dynamic I missed an opportunity to include, but it's not a thing I like to think about and so I had mentally assigned it all to just be slaves working fields etc., which as anyone knows is like. Only a percentage of what societies that contain slavery actually use slaves for. There should have been enslaved people in the households, all through the society, and Ciri objecting to and wanting to change that could have been an entire underlying theme.

But it's not, because I had meant to write that story as a 5k oneshot, and also I'd entered it right out of Goblin Emperor fic-writing, and whatever that particular fictional society contains, it doesn't have any enslaved people. So I just hadn't thought of it.

Anyway, a digression, but-- it made me, on one exhausted evening, reread the next bits I was going to publish of Not A Crest, and then I still didn't feel like writing but I wanted to keep reading so I dipped into my extras/cut scenes/written ahead docs, and I found an entire a/u I'd come up with and wrote 5k of and then realized i couldn't possibly fit in anywhere.

But. It stands alone somewhat, and I could strip it out of this world and create a new backstory and file all the serial numbers off that too, and...

well now I have another book to write, so I've started a doc with the serial number transpositions in it, LOL.

Now that I'm done at the farm, I have December, January, and probably February without any major commitments. If only I can wrangle my ADHD-or-whatever into some kind of shape, I can hope to bang out at least rough drafts of a couple of these things, or at least enough of them to know whether there's anything to pursue. And, I hope, I can achieve some of my other personal goals around the same time as well. If only I could miraculously learn how to operate a to-do list and make/keep a schedule........

Behind the cut, I'm gonna summarize the a/u snippet and my plans for it. We'll see how this goes.

So this plot depends on Ciri's powers of teleportation and time manipulation, so it can't possibly be in the same continuity as the mammoths and the tall ships, but that means I have a ton of leeway in worldbuilding. It needs to be fantasy-ish but it could be sort of cyberpunk if I wanted. Really it could be just about anything, provided that not-Ciri (I've already renamed her Leila) can still uniquely manipulate time and space, and the mechanism of how she does that is unimportant. It should have a cost, of course, which will be part of the worldbuilding.

So the backstory would be that a larger kingdom/nation-state/whatever kind of polity gobbled up Leila's when she was a young teenager, and she spent her youth as a guerilla, fighting or fleeing and honing her survival skills. There was some larger existential threat, related to the as-yet-undone worldbuilding, but the reveal is that the larger polity attacked and absorbed its neighbors in order to fortify itself against a yet larger invading power-- could be another kingdom, could be like, space invaders, I really haven't decided yet.

Leila meanwhile has come into her powers finally, and has begun to be able to manipulate time and space. i'm going to give her a wise and powerful sorceress mentor, Yennefer-like; instead of Geralt she might have a sword tutor slash captain of the guard or something, an older man who loves and protects and teaches her. Undecided; don't know whether he's important for more than backstory.

And this is all backstory, mind. In this backstory, she finally comes to aid the armies of the polity she had been fighting against, to resist this greater existential threat/invader/whatever. And as part of that she's paired up with this universe's version of Morvran-- I've renamed him Corbin since it means Raven but I'm still open to changing my mind on that. Anyway he's got the important bits of Morvran-- he's both a hostage and a presumptive heir, far too young and far too responsible, a strange balance of overly powerful and completely vulnerable. And for the duration of the backstory, he is helping this mystical enemy-turned-ally (Leila) fight a desperate, scrambling battle using powers that none of them entirely fully understands.

And he has an underling, an aide-de-camp, a young woman who keeps track of things and isn't much of a fighter, and that's where Luliana comes in, and I think I'll keep her name since i made it up anyway. She's a relative of his perhaps, a little older than he is, but allowed to be close to him because she's so unimportant, and she's really his only friend. And she of course falls in love with Leila, who to everyone's surprise falls in love back. Corbin is secretly delighted with this.

The war is long and difficult and horrible things happen to everyone, but in the end they triumph. And Leila is brought back to Expansionist Polity, her own homeland being so thoroughly encompassed and destroyed there's no restoring it, and the leader (perhaps he was injured in the war? perhaps he was already dying? perhaps he's just a guy who wants to retire?) begs her to become his heir, which effectively deposes Corbin, who silently doesn't mind it. But the rest of the government does mind it, and insists she marry Corbin to give them stability. Corbin privately proposes that they have a paper marriage; he is not inclined that way himself, you see, and he would be delighted if Leila and Lu kept their relationship and just let him be nearby, the way they did in the war. Leila counter-offers; she'll stick around long enough to make everyone feel safe and happy, but then she and Lu will run off someplace to live in peace, and leave Corbin to rule and to marry whoever he actually likes. Corbin, too used to not letting on his feelings about anything, agrees to this. And so they all rule together for a year and a day or whatever, Leila gets a bunch of the reforms she'd wanted pushed through, they get along marvellously, and then Leila disappears mysteriously, as agreed.

She and Lu go off and live happily somewhere peaceful. She is unexpectedly bored, Lu is homesick and sad, and her sorceress mentor finally finds her and scolds her for running away. "Haven't I done enough?" Leila asks, and her mentor is like obviously not, but doesn't have anything to convince her with. Until a little later, when the sorceress comes back and tells Leila that Corbin is dead, assassinated. He could not in fact get by without her.

Leila uses her powers to go back, but arrives too late, finding Corbin's head on a spike and his hands nailed below. She notices his hand still has both their wedding ring and the ring she'd given him as an engagement gift on it. He was supposed to have moved on and found himself a better partner.

She musters the last of her power and jumps back a little farther, interrupting the assassination attack, but she is again too late; Corbin is mortally wounded. She sits with him as he dies, and with his last breath he admits that he has always loved her and never wanted her to leave. She needs to jump again, and doesn't have the power for it, but sucks the last of his life-force out to do it, which is unethical-- she also draws from his would-be assassins and the guards who betrayed him, knowing it's a terrible thing to do but will be largely erased by her abandoning this timeline. There'll be a cost and I'll worldbuild that in too, however it makes sense once I've written it.

And this is all still backstory, and the story begins as she arrives, just in time, to interrupt the attack and save Corbin's life, wounded but not mortally. But this time Corbin has some self-possession left, and he is still wearing her rings and apologizes for it and merely admits that he was relying on his enemies' remaining respect for and fear of her. We the audience have not seen Leila's two previous attempts and do not know what she knows.

(Yes, yes, I was complaining that the Queen's Thief series relies too much on this, but I admit I'm trying to figure out whose POV this is from, and I may well not use Leila's, in order to make it not dishonest to exclude this knowledge. We'll have to see what seems honest to me as I'm writing it.)

And the story goes from there, as she tries to restore his rule and tries to figure out which version of him is lying, the one who said he loved her with his last breath before she stole the rest, or the one who calmly, collectedly bled all over her and politely apologized for his inability to do as she had asked him to and find a different spouse.

Obviously I need more plot than that, but it will come to me, I'm pretty sure. But that's where I'm starting. As I've said before, I'm a pantser, and that means I can't outline the plot or I'll paralyze myself.

[ofmermaidstories]

greetings! i am a huge fan of your work and a chronic sjlt rereader

i was just wondering how much free time you have to write, since you have (what I hope to be) a successful working life? I'm struggling w/ time management rn and I kind of hope you have some tips when it comes to writing fics

This one’s taken me a while to get to, anon, and I’m sorry—but mostly because I was in the middle of like, absolute poor time management when it came to my creative projects lmao.

I actually give myself the summer season off!! Which sounds ridiculous saying out-loud, but it’s so hot over the november/december/january combo, and busy to boot with a lethal combo of like, birthday season/christmas/nye and summer holiday events in general that I just don’t bother writing. 💀 But it means that I have to make up for it once the season turns, and plan ahead—I’ve been bad it with the fics in the past couple of years, lmao, but ideally I’d like to get a chunk of stuff done now in the autumn/winter months so that I have stuff to spread out and post. 🥹 When I’m serious about it (truly serious about it, instead of just larking about, which to be fair I am most of the time dlkfsjlskdfjs), I’m quite ruthless! My general rule of thumb is that you have to be, you have to be selfish LOL. That’s the biggest secret/non-secret to any creative endeavour, but especially writing: being absolutely ruthless with your time. You have to steal it back wherever you can; meal prep ahead or something, get up earlier than you normally would, shunt the kids off to the husband or a sister or idk, the dog. But you need to carve out time for yourself and you need to be slavishly devoted to it. Any other hobby that you do for fun that maybe you’re not as serious about? Backburner. My reading drops to non-existent levels when I’m seriously writing something. I even hate starting new shows, because it’s taking time away from what I’d rather be doing—writing. I used to do morning journal pages, when I woke up—it’s good for brain dumping and working through whatever internal problems you’re angsting through, but the problem with that for me personally is that I was using prime brain time on overwhelming crazy shit (my brain 💀) and just wouldn’t be interested in dabbling with fictional emotions and problems afterwards. Which means—I axed it. 🙂 I no longer do morning pages; if I journal it’s now at night, just before I go to sleep.

But look: you have to find balance with this!!! Specifically balance that’s tailored to keeping you sane, and safe from burn out. Maybe you need dedicated time outside of writing to do something physical, or just to switch off. Some of the best inspiration for fics or writing in general comes from just living your life, so you gotta go out and see things and people and do things. But I’d be lying if I didn’t just admit that my idea of time management is to jealousy guard what time I do dedicate to writing lmao. Sign out of everything that’ll be distracting, put yourself on DND if you have to—but stake out your writing time and write, no matter what, no matter who or what needs your attention for the rest of the day. Figure out when you write best—in the morning, in the evening, somewhere in the middle—and give yourself 15 minutes a day, half an hour, whatever, just something. If you’re getting burnt out during the day at work, then get up half an hour earlier in the morning and write then. And I know, I know, it’s so easy to say—but that’s why writing is selfish, LOL, that’s why I’m saying you have to be selfish. If you wanna do it then something has got to give, and the trick is finding what in your life you can bear to give up in the short-term, for the long-term reward of having written something.

[inkdragonworks]

Monthly updates are back! Who knows for how long…

I started back up on this mid-November, over a month ago, so I'll be combining that with December's work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bulk of it finishing functionality on the Chapter 3 enemies. Ratsa Go, Slush, and Chipper are completed now, and a round of fine-tuning was conducted on the rest.

Some initial tile-setting/background work has begun. Chapter 3 takes place in Snow Machinia, on the peak of Mount Glitteroam, so it'll have a wider variety of spots compared to Chapter 2's caves.

This one's the mountain peak pass towards the city! It introduces the snow and wind effects, something that'll persist throughout the rest of the chapter. Wind especially plays an important role in conjunction with the new Propeller Gadget.

The rest of December was spent jumping to the middle of Chapter 3, at the construction site, refining the level design and scripting cutscenes for it.

Chapter 3 is really where the story gets going by the end, and while that sounds weird, I think by that point you'll have a good grasp on who Poppin and Jupa are, and introduced to all the major characters of the main plot. The structure also helps support potential exploration and side quests, stuff that I really hope to get into in the future.

Here's a portion of the level design for now. These two larger rooms are separate buildings, with multiple routes to go up it. You can either stick to climbing one building, weave between the two, or explore both of them for all their chests.

Besides Chapter 3, some additional brainstorming occurred on Chapter 4. That part of the game has been the most tricky for me to settle on, and I feel like I'm closer to something I'm happy with. It's difficult balancing all the elements; the main difference is the second half of it is light on story cutscenes, compared to the rest of the game. Like a "dungeon" type of area… though I wouldn't say it's as complex as one.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm hoping that for January, I can finish up the level design and cutscene scripting for the Construction area, and finish up Chapter 3's main boss, Rickity.

A lot of his attacks were already completed way back, so it should be a matter of making his desperation phase, intro/outro cutscenes, and then balancing out the states of which attacks he selects.

And from there, idk, it depends on what I feel like doing. Jumping to the earlier part of Chapter 3, continuing with the rest, more tilesets/backgrounds, or maybe enemy/obstacle coding for Chapter 4. It's good to keep things open for the sake of interest and not getting worn out on just one thing. Coding enemies or cutscene scripts get less fun when you're on the 8th one in a row.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's about it for Poppin & Jupa: Pocket Adventure! Enjoy the snow, if you live somewhere that still gets it.

[moonshine-nightlight]

2025 Writing Plans

With this being the third such yearly plan post, i think its officially a tradition lol. my standard disclaimer is this is my high level plan right now, subject to change and likely overly optimistic, but still worthwhile to make and try to layout. posting about writing plans gets me excited for the new year.

here's what i'm thinking:

Nothing's Wrong With Dale: Borrowing some of my plan from last year, i need to finish my own edit of Dale, hire an editor, commission cover art, and then self-publish. I'd love to get all that done in time for december publishing, but given how long everything was taking last year, i'd settle for just pushing it over to editors by the end of the year.

Short Stories: I want to finish off Courtship Confusion and Free Piano: Haunted this year, along with at least one other new story, but i am not trying to predict what that might be lol. maybe one that's been on my shelf for a while,maybe the one i started a couple days ago, maybe a new idea I havn't even had yet, like Voluntary Sacrifice. Nothing's gonna get posted until May at the earliest.

Novella(s): I'd like to kick off work self-publishing two other Novellas: a combo naga novella (Finally Woken and Selfish) and Sacrifice. No idea how far I can get between my edits and revisions, scrounging up the money to pay for editor/publishing/cover art, and pulling together some sort of timeline for all that, but I want to get it all going so i have more self-published work out there (it'd b really cool to go to a con or something in 2026 and have a set of books to promo and not just 2 lol - not to get too ahead of myself).

Series: I want to make Sacrifice the first novella in a 6 book series, each focusing on a different deity returning to the temple with the final book about all of them coming together against a common enemy, likely focusing back on the MC from Sacrifice. I have some note sand outlines for the different stories (although they all need better titles). Currently, I was considering them being a published exclusive, but I might still post abridged version on here, especially as I work through my ideas. So for 2025, in addition to getting Sacrifice further on it's own publish journey, i want to complete all the outlines and notes, solidify the characters, etc - everything i need to start writing these stories.

Longer stories: I still want to work on planning them out and making a decision on one to start posting next, like with Dale, but I don't think that actually posting anything longer like that will happen in 2025 (see everything else i want to do above lol). Still, getting organized is important and i'm looking forward to fleshing them all out and knowing which one i'll be diving into next.

So lots of stuff i want to get into and multiple things I want to try to finish off lol Definitely overly ambitious, but its getting me excited to get to writing.

As always, my day job is extremely busy January - April and this year is no exception so new stories until that time passes.

Feel free to send in any asks about upcoming/current stories! I'm looking forward to all the exciting writing and publishing to come in 2025!

[fereldanwench]

I didn't want to completely sit out a year-in-review, but for reasons I'll explain at the end of this post and under a cut, doing the traditional pick-one-pic-from-each-month approach just wasn't going to work for me. So instead, here are 20 of my favorite shots (in no particular order) of Valerie from 2023!

(I'll share solo Goro shots and shippy/story shots in two other posts before the year ends.)

Some thoughts about this year (cw for anxiety and depression mentions):

So yeah. I actually hadn't planned on joining in on the virtual photography year-in-review fun in part because... Well, frankly, I wasn't sure if it would actually be fun for me.

Although I do have pictures for every month, the first third, maybe even half, of the year was a struggle on almost every conceivable level. A lot of it was shit that carried over from the end of 2022, which was also an incredibly difficult year for me. I don't really want to delve too deeply into why--Some of it was personal, some of it was professional, some of it was fandom, and if you know, you know.

The main obstacle I had here is that looking at a lot of the shots I took from about January to May (give or take a few weeks on either end) honestly reminded me of Bad Times™️. I've worked really hard to pull myself out of that depression/anxiety cycle and return to a healthier approach to fandom and online socialization in general, but I just didn't want to spend a lot of time in that mental space. There are a few shots from those months that made it to my favorites, and I hope one day I can look back on that stuff and just feel the good from it again. Alas, that day is still not here.

But I am happy to report that the other reason I wanted to approach the review differently is a lot more positive! It's also two-fold: 1) I spent the earlier part of this year exploring more of a technical side of virtual photography and 2) I was really prolific the last third or so of this year so trying to narrow faves from about August until now was just not possible.

One of the few good things about the end of 2022 was being able to upgrade my graphics card, which meant I then had a rig that could support ray-tracing and hot sampling. As a result, I started putting a lot more focus on lighting and getting acquainted with new tools. I also was trying to work with the new AMM posing system, which is very convenient in some ways (100s of poses without reloading the game!) and a complete pain in the ass in others (can't move characters without their poses breaking!). Custom photomode poses + Nibbles Replacer has been the game changer I've been waiting for.

Or to put it more succinctly, December 2022 through about April 2023 felt like a relearning/return to basics kind of creative period, which is essential, but also means I just don't really like a lot of what I did, lmao.

Then, shockingly (I'm not shocked at all), starting treatment for my anxiety and depression in the second half of this year suddenly made creating a lot easier and fun again! Crazy how that works.

Even bumping this little review up to 20 shots instead of 12, there are still pictures from the past few months that I had to cut as favorites. There was just no way I could condense the amount of fave shots I took from August to now in just 5 options.

I also owe quite a bit of this revival to modders for asking me if I wanted to take shots for them--Exploring more of a fashion photography approach to my shots I think did a lot to build on what I had learned earlier in the year and encouraged me to try something new. I don't want to tag anyone in this long-ass glorified diary entry, but if you invited me to take mod shots for you, just know that it really meant a lot. ♡

And that's where my head has been with a yearly review! Is filling out a little template with 12 pictures this serious? No, it definitely is not, lmao. But hey, overthinking shit is still something I'm working on. ✌️

[stargazer-sims]

First Visitor

Nora: Your place is great, Forest.

Forest: Thanks. You know, I feel like I should be mad about my dads kicking me out, but I'm kinda not. I like it here so far.

Nora: What's not to like? This is a nice little spot, and you've got your freedom. No annoying siblings, nobody yelling at you or telling you what to do.

Forest: Nobody yelled at me at home either.

Nora: But the other stuff still applies.

Forest: Yeah, and now I can finally be myself. Know what I mean?

Nora: I do know what you mean. And you know what? I'll bet a lot of people are super envious of you right now for getting out and finally being free.

Forest: You think so?

Nora: Totally.

Forest: Like who?

Nora: People who are dying to move out 'cause they're sick of their parents' bullshit. Who needs a curfew, or your parents being all weird about who you date? I do what I want, and Cody doesn't care who I invite over to our place.

Forest: Cody's your boyfriend?

Nora: Not really. Students can't have a teacher as their boyfriend. Another stupid rule, but I don't want him to get fired, so...

Forest: He's a teacher?

Nora: Yeah. You know Mr. MacAllister? The guy that's on his work placement from uni? It's him, but he's only going to be at our school until December, and then he's going back to university in January to finish his program. He's like my roommate with... secret benefits, you could say.

Forest: Benefits? You mean, like, you slept with him?

Nora: Why do you look so shocked? Don't tell me you and Caroline never did it.

Forest: We didn't, actually.

Nora: Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Caroline is obsessed with rules. Her parents probably told her she wasn't allowed and she just blindly followed along. Uh... no pun intended.

Forest: No, I don't think her parents told her she wasn't allowed. She said she didn't want to, and I respected that.

Nora: If she said she did want to, would you have done it?

Forest: Probably. Like, I don't really know how, but we would've figured it out, right? Camellia and Hayden did, and I'm pretty sure Caroline's friend Rainbow has too. Like, a lot, 'cause she's always talking about it.

Nora: I heard a rumour that Rainbow did it in the janitor's room with some alien guy. Not that I blame her. The risk of getting caught makes it so much more exciting.

Forest: Did you ever do it in there?

Nora: Not yet. I'm waiting for the right person to come along.

Forest: Such as?

Nora: Maybe you, if you're up for it.

Forest: I already told you, I don't know how.

Nora: That's not a problem. I can teach you a few things, but it mostly comes naturally anyway, once you get started.

Forest: I kinda want to, but...

Nora: I'll bet Caroline's gonna do it with her new boyfriend. You don't want her to get ahead of you, do you?

Forest: If she wouldn't do it with me, I doubt she'd do it with Ben.

Nora: Seriously? Have you seen him? She probably just didn't want to do it with you because she wanted some jock. You know how athletes are. Totally obsessed with perfection.

Forest: Do you really think that's it?

Nora: Of course it is. You didn't live up to her expectations, so she kicked you to the curb like trash. Now me, on the other hand... I'm interested in getting to know you for who you are, and I can really appreciate a soft body too. Men like you are way more cuddly then guys like Ben.

Forest: You think I'm a man?

Nora: Unless there's something you're not telling me, or I missed too many biology classes.

Forest: It's not that. It's just that it makes me sound grown up.

Nora: Well, you are independent now, aren't you? How many little boys do you know who're living on their own?

Forest: Good point.

Nora: Ooh... I just thought of something!

Forest: What?

Nora: We should go to the Harvest Dance together. Imagine how mad Caroline will be when she sees you having a good time and not moping around because she broke up with you.

Forest: You really want to go to the dance with me?

Nora: Why wouldn't I?

Forest: You never seemed interested in me before. Like that, I mean. Like a boyfriend.

Nora: I didn't want to be accused of trying to steal my cousin's boyfriend, did I? I could hardly have asked you out while you still had Caroline hanging onto you, but we don't have that problem any more. Now I can have you all to myself.

Forest: All this time, you really wanted to ask me out?

Nora: Mm-hmm. So, will you go to the dance with me?

Forest: I wasn't planning to go, but yeah. Now that I officially have a date, why not?

Nora: Great. I already have the perfect dress.

Forest: What's it like?

Nora: Let me keep that a surprise, but I think you'll appreciate it. It hugs all my curves.

Forest: So, like most of your normal clothes, then?

Nora: You've noticed.

Forest: Kinda hard not to, honestly. You do get dress-coded a lot.

Nora: Stupid dress code. Teachers just don't understand freedom of expression. If you've got something to show off, you should be allowed to show it off. That's what I think. School has too many dumb rules.

Forest: If you don't like it, why are you still in school? You're on your own, so you could quit if you wanted to, right?

Nora: I could, but if I didn't go to school, how would I get my daily entertainment? High school is way better than any soap opera.

Forest: Is it really worth the hassle, though? I'm kind of thinking about quitting. My boss at the pizza shop would probably give me full-time hours if I was available.

Nora: If you do it, let me know and I'll quit with you. We could get a place together, and we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

Forest: I don't know if that's really a good pl—

Nora: Shh... no more serious talk. You need to learn some stuff before we go out together.

Forest: Is this okay? Shouldn't there be like, consent or whatever?

Nora: I consent. If you consent too, we're good. Besides, it's just kissing. It's not like we're taking each other's clothes off or something. I mean, not that I don't want to take your clothes off you, but...

Forest: I don't want anyone to take their clothes off.

Nora: It's cool. We can save that for another time. Now, show me your skills and stop worrying.

Forest: *whispering* Is this good?

Nora: You're a quick study.

Forest: Thanks.

Nora: I never would've guessed this is your first time kissing a girl.

Forest: It's technically not my first time. I've kissed Caroline on the cheek a few times.

Nora: You're adorable, Forest.

Forest: Is that a good thing?

Nora: *laughing*

Nora: I'd better get going, but I'll come back tomorrow if you want, or you can come over to my place.

Forest: I'd like to come over to your place, if that's okay.

Nora: Awesome. I can't wait to show you around. It's not a very big apartment, but I have an amazing bedroom. I think you'll really like it.