#if you are... send me qs and ideas while i write it down??

[greenorangevioletgrass]

if i get started on that hangman x astronaut!reader, would y'all be interested? 👀

[semperintrepida]

I’m behind on tumblr but if you’re still taking writing qs, 5&6 please. Also, 15 fascinates me because I have learned recently of myself that absolutely font matters when writing (work) stuff and i get distracted if it’s not “right”, so if you have thoughts on how font affects your (creative) writing process I’d be interested in hearing! Also, not on the list: do you outline with pen & paper or is it all on the computer?

My deepest apologies, I somehow missed this ask in my inbox and found it yesterday while doing that tarot ask meme.

5. What is an image/set of images that you're particularly proud of?

I've been thinking about my older work lately, so I'll highlight a deep cut that only my OG readers will remember: ALL of the formal Japanese garden imagery in Kunoichi. Yeah, I'm proud of that.

They kept walking, until the path rounded back toward the entrance gate, but Britt stopped Santana before she'd gotten too far ahead. "Over here," she said, and she led Santana to a small, unobtrusive path that headed deeper into the corner of the garden, easily missed if one didn't know to look for it. It led them through a grove of green foliage, the air cool with the promise of moisture, and as they walked further the promise was revealed: a small pond with an island, accessible by two narrow stone bridges. Sunlight filtered down through the pines that ringed the pond and cast the space with a milky glow the color of undyed silk. It wasn't quiet, not with the metropolis around them, but it was peaceful, and the light and the feeling of being surrounded by something sacred made it the kind of place where voices automatically lowered to whispers, where possibilities seemed endless. Santana stood like a stone statue, as still as the waters of the pond, taking it all in. She breathed softly and slowly. They stood there for a long time, saying nothing.

In the beginning of Kuno, Britt is a dead woman walking, surrounded by a sterile, hyper-urban world. But every garden in this story is very much alive, and a long-dormant seed, given the right care, can sprout and blossom again.

6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

Hoo boy. Yeah, I've got an idea, one I've been kicking around for about a decade now, for an original science fiction book (novelette? novella? who knows?). The protagonist is a woman who's a drill sergeant in a military belonging to an empire involved in an endless war with another empire at a scale where after battles, entire planets are stripped for natural resources, mineral and organic. The protag's recruits are all clones of dead soldiers, who retain traces of their original personality but need to be taught fighting skills, and she forms a connection with one clone soldier, a headstrong woman who has an innate knack for the fighting arts.

The protag trains her clone squad, then sends them off to battle, where they all die and their organic matter is scraped off the barren rocks so it can be used to make more clone soldiers.

Protag is assigned a new squad of clones, same as the first. Forms a connection with the same clone soldier, who is not an exact copy of the previous, but clone personalities never are...

The clones go to battle and die. The cycle repeats, and each time, more of the protag's backstory is revealed, until we find out that the protagonist was once an admiral of the fleet, and the headstrong clone soldier was her wife who died in battle, after which the protag asked to be demoted to the drill sergeant for the clone squad where her (dead) wife's clone would be assigned. It's the only way for them to be together again.

I've never been able to write this thing due to other obsessions getting in the way (*cough*kyssandra*cough*) and the fact that I fucking hate worldbuilding, and unfortunately, expectations around hard science fiction demand worldbuilding to an absurd degree of accuracy. I'm sorry, I'm not going to learn astrophysics so I can write this story.

15. Does font matter to you when you're writing a draft?

Yes, but not in the usual way—at least, not using typical fonts like Times New Roman or Helvetica. I use the same font that I use when writing code: Droid Sans Mono Dotted for Powerline. I've been ruined for anything else.

Bonus Question: do you outline with pen & paper or is it all on the computer?

All on the computer. I used to do a thing where I'd keep track of scenes on bundles of index cards, but these days I find digital notes easier to deal with.

[fic writing questions meme]

[inafieldofdaisies]

all the qs you haven't gotten yet for the ship asks <3

Questions from this post.

2. Who wakes up early/Who sleeps in late?

Sabrina is an early riser usually, oftentimes not getting that many hours of sleep in, especially when she's too wired and overthinking. Once they get together, she'd find herself sleeping in late, but still mostly waking up before John, and he gets grumpy if she doesn't wake him up. 🤣

7. How often do they say “I love you”?

Sabrina is generous with it, pretty open with how she feels because she knows time with the people you love is limited so she doesn't want to have regrets. John, on other hand is more selective about saying it.

9. What do they dislike most about the other? Why?

Sabrina: That he believes too blindly in Joseph and overlooks the danger it puts him in. She's straight up just worried.

John: How she disregards danger when it comes to herself especially if it means saving others.

11. How do they feel about nicknames/pet names? If they like them, what pet names do they use? If they hate them, why do they feel that way?

John calls Sabrina usually by her name for a good chunk of the story, then he'd sprinkle in "Butterfly" once he actually understands the meaning she finds behind the word. When he's trying to rile her up and just wants to see her get feisty, he'd call her Deputy.

And before that he'd call her Deputy to distance himself hence her subtle hate of the nickname.

I've been hitting a wall on coming up with a nickname she'd call him, like for the life of me I can't settle on anything that feels natural to her character.

12. Do they have a difficult time when separated from each other, or are they fairly independent?

I'd say it's 50/50 depending on the situation and distance.

13. How do they keep in contact when they’re apart? Do they write letters, talk on the phone, or simply wait out the time?

We all know John loves his radio calls, it's more hilarious when he does it but has no idea there are other people around her, poor Calahan will be sending him his therapy bill one day.

15. What songs remind you of their relationship?

It's kinda hard to narrow them down (the actual wip playlist is already so long), so I'm dropping two songs along with the story playlist.

Spiracle by Flower Face

And I want your parties, the shark in your water The scrapes on your knees and the blood that spills over And I want your zeroes, your polluted marrow The sweat on your palms and your surveillance shadow I want your secrets, your clementine fields The ropes that you climb up, the parts that won't heal I want your safe word, your passive resistance The sickness you foster, your favorite addictions

In Madness by Constance

In love and in madness In strength and in sadness When all of the world feels like its giving up on you Take what you have to But leave the hurt that they gave you Cause I see the dawn in you The light is breaking through

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick?

Sabrina would go all out and worry like crazy if he's hurt, when she's the one that's hurt, she'd try to assure him she's fine, minimize and attempt to do stuff herself, which irks him because he wants her to lean on him but she's too used to doing everything on her own for far too long.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

Physical touch to ground each other, words of reassurance, trying to reach the other and pull them out of the dark place, etc.

21. Do they enjoy domestic life?

Yes, because for John it's something unexpected, while for Sabrina it's everything she's ever wanted, some normalcy in the chaos.

24. How do their personalities affect their relationship? Do their characteristics compliment each other, or clash often?

There are challenges, but I feel like they end up complimenting each other when it comes to personality. Sabrina grounds him, while John makes her feel seen and believed.

25. Do they share a room/house? If so, what does it look like and how does it compliment their personalities?

Sabrina and Savannah both stay at the ranch, at first sharing a room because Sabrina wants to make sure her sister is close by in case anything goes wrong. When Brin and John get together, she'd sleep in his bed. She's the one that usually keeps the place in order since he's very busy drowning people. 😂 Sabrina's personality: a home with cozy vibes, not messy or too flashy.

29. Describe their nighttime routine.

Dinner, usually made by Sabrina, John is allowed to help in the preparations, but with supervision, which Savannah finds absolutely hilarious. Making sure she goes to bed on time. Sitting by the fireplace, relaxing or lounging outside if the weather allows it, watching the stars, Sabrina would play her guitar/sing for John. Shower. 🤫 activities.

31. Do they often go out on dates? What are these like?

I feel like their dates wouldn't be considered very typical with the whole situation in the County. Their first date is John's idea after he finds out she: 1) has no idea how to fly a plane, 2) has fear of flying after the helicopter crash. He refuses to accept that and sets out on taking her out in a plane. Chaos ensues. 🤣

33. How do they flirt? Who’s the worse flirt?

Bantering back and forth. I'd say they're handling it fine. 😂

34. Do they have any inside jokes?

She jokes about the baptisms, "Oh, John" is a whole thing at one point. Enough said for now. 🫣

35. Is their relationship a secret? If so, why?

Mostly because of Joseph and the hell he'd raise about it. She's not part of the Project, nor does she believe in what he's selling, and the way he's going about it.

36. How do they feel about having kids? Are they in agreement?

They're both fine with it, though Sabrina hasn't thought about having kids on her own, especially with the Collapse looming over her future, her main focus has always been raising her sister and making sure she's happy and safe.

37. Who’s more emotionally sensitive/cries more often?

Neither, Sabrina cries mostly when she's absolutely overwhelmed or completely exhausted, otherwise she tries to hold it in, put on a smile and oftentimes minimizes her own suffering.

38. Who’s got a quicker temper?

John, without a question. Sabrina is pretty good at holding her composure.

[jcs-writing-hell]

About

Basics

She/Her | 24 | Not a native english speaker

I keep trying to run from writing & the MXTX novels but I always come back

This blog exists since early 2020, but I've been in the fandom since mid/late 2019

Got an extentsive rp background

Contents

Most posts aren't aimed at/about CQL/The Untamed, which is why I never use the tag. I never finished it & don't want to catfish a whole nother fanbase.

The only exception to the rule above are the songs, which I've always been fond of. So, if you notice characterization in any variant of any char that feels related: this is why.

All posts are based on novel canon, but they're rarely to never a direct reflection of or link to it - reason why is that the posts stem from a point of dissatisfaction with canon.

Based on above: all posts are AU's (modern or not), Fix-It's, Headcanon's, Canon Divergences & the likes.

This is not me hating on canon, I simply have other priorities, options, etc than MXTX. I'm not her, her base exists, I just do my thing with it - or that of people that request things, to the best of my abilties at the time.

While there are certain key elements of the chars that I'll always implement, it rarely ever happens that 2 posts of mine share the same exact base for virtually anything - from motivations, goals, relationships, trauma healing stages, etc.

As I'm actively trying to distance from canon to create a safe space for all chars & ships, please keep the points above in mind.

In short: canon is canon, this ain't canon. This a space for love, healing & peace.

My Ships

Please note that I'm not pushing anything into canon, I honestly don't even ship anything in canon/with the full canon base - no, not even WangXian.

The list of the following ships weren't chosen by me, they just planted themselves in my head & haven't left since: XiCheng, NHS/WN, WQ/NMJ, JXY/JL.

The ships mentioned are just the one's that come/came naturally to me, however, I get ideas for whatever - also WangXian. I don't mind any ship, really, my strong point's m/m though.

Requests

As I'm trying to reclaim my "safe space" zone, please note that you can send me any sort of request anytime - through dm, anon, etc.

I have few to no triggers/no go's: shady consent (reason why I don't ship WX), actual bloodline inces* & adult/minor (age of consent is 16 in my country, so that's what I'm used to). If you request something that technically involves a base like that (WX, JGY/QS etc as examples) just know that I'll automatically adjust it to something more appropriate.

So far I haven't turned down a single request, so don't worry about stuff like thinking it's silly or whatever.

Please note that I'm rather bad at keeping writings short, my stuff's mostly 1.2k+ words & that's leaving out a lot that can be left out without sabotaging anything too much.

I might start providing AO3 links to a lot of my posts, that will go more in depth compared to what I think works on here length wise.

Base Background

Some things that are usually a standard in my stuff:

As long as it's not necessary, the most amount of chars as possible will be alive - esp if it's a modern AU, don't expect unnecessary orphans.

WWX, in my head, if not specified otherwise, looks like YLP!WWX

Switches.

In a load of my stuff WWX & JC aren't related at all, never were.

The chars vary from canon in varying degrees, depending on the base - as my thing is to handle the trauma, make them grow, etc. Also, because often times the plots either de-traumatizes the chars or they mess with them in different ways.

(this post will not be tagged, it's just a precaution given how heated different parts of the fandom are.)

[nancywheeeler]

for your fic qs: i'd love if you'd talk abt the max & eddie reality hopping fic; you pick 4 questions you want to answer about it!

standing up the dead, my beloved.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

yes indeed! my original idea, that has some scenes buried somewhere in the bowels of my google drive still, was for max to find herself stuck in a single alternate reality and she teams up the alternate versions of the party + eddie to help her find el in hopes her powers can send max back to her reality. that then evolved into max stuck in a reality where she never moved to hawkins and eddie was guiding her through it, it's a wonderful life style. but my brain wasn't vibing with that outside of exploring the max & eddie dynamic. then while at the beach on a family vacation, i got the inspiration for the scene where max and eddie are sitting on the beach of lake michigan and talking about reality-hopping and finding home. my next google search was "astral plane" because i wanted to vaguely connect it to D&D lore as our beloved kids do in the show and i finally cemented the plot of the fic! there are some little hold-overs from the old ideas though! i have eddie reference being max's guardian angel when she and el come to bring him back from the astral plane for the final time. and in the original single alternate reality version, max discovers she's dating dustin, not lucas which i used in one of sutd's many realities!

2: What scene did you first put down?

the above about the beach scene being said, that scene wasn't actually the first thing i wrote in the google doc! this was: “This is it.” The sweet smell of her mom’s marinara simmering on the stovetop wafted from the kitchen and her dad’s Beach Boys record, scratchy with age and love, sung softly from behind the door of her parents’ bedroom, joined in harmony by the rustling of her dad digging through his dresser drawers. Max curled her toes into the shag carpet, planting herself there hoping to grow roots, and said, “This is home.” “Max,” Eddie pleaded, his tone tender and bruising. Her mom had the same ache in her voice when she told a smaller Max that her dad wouldn’t be back for awhile. “What else do you want?” Max asked. They had everything here, everything time, and illness, and monsters who bit off more than ankles snatched away. This was the reality without storm clouds and riptides. This was the reality where what she built stayed. “It’s not about want,” he said, a crack on the final syllable. “I can’t handle love that’s supposed to be for someone else. Jesus Christ, I can barely handle it when it is meant for me.” that last line of dialogue was the first thing written (and went pretty much unchanged through editing) which leads me to...

11: What do you like best about this fic?

what i discovered while writing this fic is how great alternate realities are for exploring the concept of love and specifically how it’s just that: specific. even when max and eddie hop into realities very close to their own and that are populated by people who are fundamentally the same as the people they care about in their own reality, the love they’re given in those alternate realities isn’t the same and doesn’t feel right. love is built on shared history and, without that history, the bits of love max and eddie get from lucas and steve (and, to an extent, everyone else) ring hollow. and it hurts! in the final scene of chapter 2, eddie stops an alternate steve from saying “i love you” because he knows it would crush him to hear something that doesn’t belong to him and he doesn’t want to have a memory of steve saying it to him for his brain to masochistically play back and think “but you’ll never have this for real.” max similarly feels like she’s robbed another version of herself by hearing lucas say “i love you” basically, what i liked best about writing “standing up the dead” was getting to dig into why experiencing the multiverse would actually be an elaborate torture of the acutest kind

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

as i mentioned in my first answer, the max & eddie’s dynamic was the driving force behind me writing and sticking with this fic. they’re neighbors! they both have bad fathers! (that throwaway line this season from max about her mom sending her dad the letter she wrote him, if she could find him??? ouch!) they’re the primary victims of the season four narrative! after the fights they put up, they deserve to live (but only after i torture them with other versions of their lives that are equally terrible if not somehow worse)! and most of all, i just think they could have really bonded and liked each other. max deserves a good older brother figure and, while i do love steve filling that role, i think eddie would understand aspects of her home life in ways many of the others couldn’t. oh, we could’ve had it all......

put one of a fic title in my ask + questions about it

[alloveroliver]

Author Interview

I was tagged by @peacheat and @dear-mrs-otome THANK YOU GUYS!!! (I also added more Qs if you want to answer those as well *sweats*)

Name: Ash Knight

Fandoms: Now: MLQC, Ikemen Revolution, Ikemen Vampire, Ikemen Sengoku, Mystic Messenger, annnnnd one or two other otomes I like lol.  Want to do in the future: Obey Me (Currently playing) Ikemen Genjiden (translating got to be too much but its GOOD!) Tokyo Debunkers (when it comes out in April!!!)

Where You Post: Mostly Tumblr but also Ao3!

Most Popular One-Shot:  By far Victor x MC “In This Moment.” I’m glad cuz I spent a lot of time on this one and I love the concept of Victor stopping time because he know’s he’s going to miss MC <3

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Mmm, I don’t have any muli fics yet BUT I do have 10 chapters of my blood thirsty fics!  they are all oneshots though. 

Favorite Story You Wrote: Its actually my first Oliver fic I posted around Aug of 2018 (Omg have I been doing this for that long???) It needs to be rewritten BUT heres the link. Oliver x MC “Giving Up Control” I still think about this fic often lmfao. Femdoming Oliver is 🤤👌

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Ooof, a recent Oliver fic. Only because it had alcohol themes and smoliver asking her on a date. Just due to his curse and things I didn't want to change too much but it was all consensual with adult Oliver. I was just nervous some people would read into it and take it the wrong way :( Oliver x MC “In A Perfect World You’re Happy With Me” (Looking back at it, it actually got a good response! I am surprised cuz I posted it then tried to put it out of my mind lol. #thanksanxiety

How You Choose Your Titles: First thing that comes to mind. Song lyrics, one word that sticks out in the fic. Or if its a common word or a word/title I’ve used before I put it into One Look Reverse Dictionary and find a similar word that means the sameish thing. I don’t dwell on titles too much tbh. 

Completed: Last I counted, I had over 500 short stories under my belt. You can read them all on my blog but not everything was put into my masterlist. This was just due to the tumblr purge we had and I had to make a new masterlist since a lot of my fics got shadowbanned due to the tagging system back then. I didnt wanna repost them all lol

Incomplete: I have an entire spreadsheet that I plop all my ideas on... and it is FULL. I organize it by fandom, suitor, and fluff vs. smut. Ummmmmm.... See below: Coming soon lol. 

Do You Outline? I usually start writing when I have an idea and if I need to step away from my computer I will do a quick outline. AKA just some quick bullet points of what I was thinking would happen next lol. If I ever take the time to properly do a full outline, I 100% go off the rails and do my own thing away from the outline. I am what is called a ‘discovery writer’ lol. I discoverer my own story as i write it then go back and edit it and act like I knew what I was doing all along lmfao.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: I have 3 substantial WIPS (like 2-3k words) I bounce between that I’m working on. Victor x Mc, Vincent x MC and Faust x MC. 

A plan to do part 2 of Gavin x MC’ s ”Distortion” . 

I also have an long running AU fic with Gavin x MC (8k currently) but that is far away from being done lol. 

There is also an 11 chapter fic I am planning. I have 2 chapters written but I cant seem to figure out one major plot detail and its keeping me from getting it done anytime soon :( 

There is a chapter fic im writing for a cradle born MC, however its a mesh of our MC and my OC and its kinda complicated. Also its fluff and I’m less interested in writing that BUT I really want to share this story <3

Valentines day is actually prob going to be the next thing yall see from me tbh and that is TBD

Do You Accept Prompts? I used to every once in a while but I have so many WIPS and no personal computer at home rn. (SOON THOUGH!) So I don’t have the chance to write as much in my free time as I used to. I’ll take prompts but I let them sit in my ask box until I am able to write them <3. I am not the person to ask people to stop sending them, cuz I like to see what yall want me to write and take that into consideration for sure. I like taking asks for Thirsty Thursday (even if its not thurs, I will hold onto them until then) and answer them 😍 I love those because more people are involved other than me and I like being a part of something bigger than myself 🤗

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: My Victor x MC story. Its UMMMMM........ ITS SLOW BURN YALL. LIKE WHO AM I?! lmfao. 

*(I am going to personally add a few questions to this tag that I am interested in knowing about others as well lol)*

What do you use to edit?: I pay for Grammarly (its AMAZING even the free version is super worth it) 

For word meanings, synonyms, and better wording I use OneLook Reverse Dictionary ALL THE TIME for every single fic. (and like I said before, to help with titles)

When I feel like something is off and grammarly doesn’t quite know and I don’t know, I put the fic through Hemmingway Editor. It tells you HOW readable a sentence is. If its hard to read I rewrite it and make things a bit simpler for the eyes. Its free in the browser. 

Writing setup: Ideally, the sun is coming in through the window, It’s cool inside, I’m wearing a fuzzy sweater, I have hot coffee or tea, and my head phones are in. 

I listen to lofi music station on youtube but If its distracting I put on lofi without lyrics. I love THIS playlist. (this is live so it’ll prob break but here’s an alt link to their offline playlist) If I am in an upbeat mood I like “Electropose” music. Or I listen to the ‘setting’ a fic is in. Like if its raining in the story, I put on rain ambiance and things like that. 

Do you use a beta reader? No 😬, not really. Anytime I have someone beta read and they comment on the content and not the editing I get way too nervous to post the fic and suddenly it get sick to my stomach laskjdlsdj. I trust a couple gals to beta read in an editing mind set but I don’t bother them all the time. I like to go balls to the walls and trust grammarly, post the damn thing, and bite my nails hoping for the best. 

Where do you get your writing inspo?: Bruh, #1 READING! Reading books, reading fics, reading summaries for things. Also, reading the routes in otomes, watching anime, and letting my mind wonder lol. I also like to chat with people on discord and let the stories unfold. Inspo has also come from a lot of my dreams tbh. My dreams are hella vivid and I try to write them down when I wake up if they are interesting lol. 

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP?: 

[     Without cars and crowds, the evening wind picked up nothing but serene sounds. Crickets gently chirped and leafs quietly brushed one another. The branches rustled together, making an organic symphony that the wind carried up to the balcony you leaned on. 

*****’s warm hands ran up and down your forearms, warming your chilled skin. From behind, he bent forward and nipped at the shell of your ear. 

“Is that better?” His silky hands moved faster, creating heated friction. 

“Mmm,” You relished in the sensation. “Much better.”

His gentle chuckle against your pulse made you wiggle into him. ***** pressed his solid chest against your back and sighed. “Maybe if you were wearing more than just my shirt, you wouldn’t be so chilly.” 

“I just want to be out here for a moment. The fresh air is nice.” You pressed your lips together into a small smile and angled your face up to him. “Don’t you agree?”  ]

tagging: @somethinglacking @pseudofaux @tarralin @steph-writing @kiarigirl @otonymous @jennacat84 @xathia-89 @toloveawarlord @moonlit--river @thequeenshuntress @thirstyforbishiesimagines <3 Honestly I want to tag more people but I don’t wanna be annoying SO if you do this feel free to tag me cuz I am soooooo curious about other writers! Lets be friendsssss <3 

[frostbite883-archive]

Well, either of your ideas that you had written was already written before (albeit differently) by someone else a while back basically (out of the fact that I made questions similar to the ones I gave you which resulted in tumblr bloggers giving me different answers to them). 

gingerly-writing: to this ask I filled out for them. I’m pretty fucking pissed off, and I’ve had my fury checked out by uninvolved parties to make sure it was righteous. It’s righteous.

Me: Not entirely so.

gingerly-writing: First off, feel free not to send people rude-ass messages after they’ve put time and effort into coming up with a response to you? 

Me: The top comment there (the “Well, either of your ideas” comment) wasn’t really the rude comment I typed out. The other one was (which I’m sorry for) which you didn’t copy paste in your third post so other bloggers can see it as that public evidence is vital for context.

gingerly-writing: Also, I thought you were going to use my idea and have me to thank you or something for it when I came up with something like my asks I gave you and something to the equivalent of your “heroes and villains school” stuff before I replied to your ask box sometime ago. Basically, wanting me to give you undeserved credit for my very own idea. I certainly didn’t know you were going to make comments like this either.

So, I actually have a hero and villain school in my own original superhero works, and I did come up with a solution to this one. If you’re writing your own original stuff, please change this up, but if you’re writing fic I don’t mind if you nick it wholesale (as long as you tag me in it! I’d love to read it).

Y’know, for me, this was just background information, but now I kind of want to write a whole book focusing on it.

gingerly-writing: It took me a good 45 minutes to get tumblr to accept my answer to your damn ask, so you’ve just made that a waste of my time.

Me: Maybe. But, from below, you were not bettering the situation.

gingerly-writing: Also, feel free to simply not respond rudely to people’s posts, at all, ever, especially if you were the one who sent the ask in the first place. I didn’t need to know how shit my ideas are, thanks.

Me: Yeah...not really sure where you’re going with this. Are you saying your ideas were horrible because they were based on my idea and how I spread more around on tumblr? Or do you think I’m saying your ideas were horrible because you think I’m somehow saying, implying or thinking that? 

Either why, that comment of yours was not helpful for anyone. Yourself included.

gingerly-writing: Also, as a more general PSA, feel free not to send identical asks to multiple bloggers. 

Me: Not happening. As I can sent any ask at any time by my own free will. As is my right.

gingerly-writing: Seeing someone else answer the same ask really disincentivizes me to answer it, even if it’s in my queue: I worry about stepping on the other responder’s feet, 

Me: Well, to be fair, I can understand the sentiment there. Still, what you say next will lower that sentiment.

and also, it’s motherfuckin rude, you absolute assclown. 

Me: Childish name calling. So...how is it you’re any better with what you had said. What would you benefit from doing that other then venting out your anger. ...Which ironically enough I didn’t even do here and wouldn’t now just so I won’t sink to your level of rudeness. 

gingerly-writing: And if you do send multiple asks and get similar responses, maybe it’s simply because it’s a good fucking idea. If you get different answers, maybe it’s because we’re all different fucking people with awesome different ideas that I’m not sure you deserve.

Me: You know what, I’ll be upfront, and say that I should have not jumped the gun and assumed the worse and could’ve worded my comments better (or just replied privately about the whole matter), you, on the other hand, didn’t do much of anything to resolve the situation as best as you should’ve. In the end, you basically became me. But a little worse.

gingerly-writing

: feel free to block me on the way out

Me: Already did. I’m hoping you don’t treat other bloggers the way you had treated me. Especially if they were nicely bringing up stuff to your attention among other things. And especially, even, in the ‘ginning once they asked you something.

gingerly-writing: #I try to be nice on this site #but I have my limits #and now I'm in rage mode #the asks and the answers #rude #ungrateful

Me: As if you were better with your own fair share of rudeness that might be on the level of hackedmotionsensors’. 

hackedmotionsensors: THIS PERSON IS SO WEIRD!! All they ever do is send these bizarre questions about the DCEU being in MCU!

Me:  Actually, that's not ALL I do. I asked other questions too. And my qs aren't as weird as any one else's either, hacked. Best to not go by assumptions and call people weird for what they say or do. Be it in front of their faces or behind their backs. Also, don't like me or my qs? Then either block me or just blacklist my name.

See ya...never, I guess.

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

Here’s some context on what I was talking about on this post:

TumblrFrostbite: How would you want schools for villains' kids (for Marvel villains' kids, for DC villains' kids, etc) to be ran? And who would you want to run those schools?

gingerly-writing: This is one of those things that I’ve put way too much thought into after you sent this, because I love stuff like this. The question is, are the villains running this school for their kids, or is this something the heroes are putting on to try and rehabilitate the kids while their parents are in prison? I’ll assume the former, but the latter is also super interesting to me.

Disclaimer: this will have a strong DC bent because I have little to no interest in most Marvel villains, whereas I could yack on about DC villains for month. In fact, I might just stick to DC in its entirety because other than Loki (who would be the worst teacher ever, he would encourage so much shenanigans) most of the Marvel villains I know are Nazis or space monsters. Second disclaimer: I’ve watched a lot more animated DC movies and read a lot more fic than I ever have comics, soooooo these depictions might not be comic book accurate. Fanboys, please don’t come for me…but I also don’t really care that much tbh. I like the incarnations that I like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actual answer under the cut because this got hella long. Hope you like it!

Sponsor: Lex Luthor. Funds the school, shows up to speech day to give speeches and hand out prizes, gives the brightest and most stable kids scholarships to work at Lex Corp in the holidays. Absolutely 100% has his own ends, no one knows what they are. Chucks buckets of money at every problem. Likes to bring the school up at fancy soirees in front of Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen just to piss them off.

Headmaster: Deathstroke (or rather, Slade from Teen Titans). Has no idea how he wound up with this job, complains about the pay 24/7 even though it’s in the range of millions of dollars a term paid in untraceable cash from 50 different countries. Basically ends up like Gordon Ramsey: threatens to assassinate the teachers and parents all the time, has actually taken out some abusive parents, but is weirdly, gruffly nice to the younger kids. Teachers self-defence to all the non-powered kids and weapons to anyone who’s interested and has the discipline for it. Grudgingly tolerates old man jokes.

Deputy Headmistress: Talia al Ghul. Absolutely terrifies all the older kids, mothers the younger ones. In charge of who graduates and who doesn’t; will only let kids graduate if their villainy won’t critically endanger their own life. Sometimes shows up in the backs of random classes and lurks there for ‘assessments’; shows up in more than 50% of Deathstroke’s classes to harass him about his technique. Keeps a photo of Damien on her desk, refuses to acknowledge it’s there if someone asks about it.

Biology: Poison Ivy. Excellent teacher, surprises both herself and her students at how brilliant she is. Everyone wants to take biology with her even if they have no villainous interest in the subject. Litters her lectures with feminist rants, eco-warrior tirades and talks about LGBT+ rights, will gently but forcefully correct anyone who disagrees with her. Runs a vegetable outside the school and encourages the kids to get closer to nature. Just enough passing knowledge of memes to make her older students roll about with laughter: ‘Batman’s homophobic because he inconveniences me and I’m gay’. PDAs with her girlfriend in the corridors.

Women and gender studies: Harley Quinn Ivy’s girlfriend, part time teacher. Wanted to take up the psychology post, but after she seriously suggested sharing it with Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) no one wanted to let her anywhere near it. Knows every meme. Gives great relationship advice, will kill anyone’s abusive boyfriend with no questions asked. Brings her hyenas to school in a ridiculously massive handbag. Has her own locker.

Thievery, sneaking around, Gotham safety: Catwoman. Definitely brings in her cats to act as therapy/comfort animals for the kids. Unofficial therapist; absolutely mothers anyone from Gotham, no exceptions. Brings the kids super expensive (stolen) jewellery to wear on prom night and for big dances, charges in secrets about their parents.

Business and Economics, with a side in mind control: Maxwell Lord (in the more business-orientated editions). Keeps to himself, is one of those teachers who doesn’t actually seem to like kids. Always wears a freshly pressed suit. Bit of an asshole. Selina tripped him down the stairs once.

Magic: supposedly taught by Felix Faust, but Klarion enrolled as a student just to show up in his lectures and argue. Every. Single. Point. Magic classes have turned into a magical war several times. They can only get along when someone else turns up claiming magic isn’t real. Faust has a lecture prepared for the non-believers, Klarion has a fireball. Circe often shows up in these classes, ‘borrows’ all the female students for private lessons and turns all the boys into pigs. Pig-Klarion does not appreciate this.

Physics and advanced thermodynamics: Killer Frost. Gets on really well with the Gotham City Sirens; they have cocktail parties in the staff lounge every second Thursday. Is paid by other villains kidnapping Firestorm so she can feed. Absolutely has favourite students and students she hates with a passion; has been known to freeze some students to their chairs in lieu of detention.

Other random villains that show up from time to time: - Flash’s Rogues Gallery. Created the infamous ‘Rogues week’ at the end of the year where every single one of them shows up and helps the students wreak absolute chaos across the school. Can never be stopped from showing up and starting this. Captain Cold comes grudgingly, sits in Slade’s office and has a drink with him; the rest of the Rogues join in with the chaos a bit too enthusiastically. Best week for the seniors. The younger rogues would totally be students and help to smuggle the older ones in for Rogues week.

- Black Manta: shows up sometimes, teaches a few lectures, leaves. Always on super random topics, often tangentially related to his latest evil scheme. The students have a betting pool that reawakens after each visit on how his talk will relate to his next scheme. Literally no one understands why he shows up. Doesn’t get paid, doesn’t seem to enjoy it. ?????? Has great on-land fashion sense though. A lot of the older students have lowkey crushes on him

- Cheetah takes advanced genetics and many other complex of aspects of science. Only shows up to teach special classes for the seniors. High fives Ivy in the corridors.

- Deadshot. Sometimes shows up and interrupts Deathstroke’s guns lessons (poor guy can never teach a lesson in peace), always gets chased out of the school. Gets teary eyed over the young female students kicking ass. Doesn’t seem to do anything useful but somehow gets paid a salary. Sleeps in the gym when he’s on the run from Amanda Wakker/Batman.

- Hugo Strange keeps showing up in disguises and trying to get the psychology job. Last time it was just a fake moustache. What is he even hoping to achieve.

- Merlyn shows up when he’s bored to host archery competitions on the front lawn. Mostly does this when Oliver Queen is in town. Keeps saying he’s going to pick a protégé out of the best archers and never does because the Arrow Clan kids annoy him so much he’s wound up thinking he hates kids. Actually loves kids, pretends to be snooty and above them though. 100% has to prove he’s still the best archer at every competition, even the one for 12 year olds.

TumblrFrostbite: If the super villain academy children, by the time they hit twenty, had to do some VERY impressive villainous in order to graduate, what type of villainous stuff would you have the rookies villains do to not only graduate, but also to be considered as full fledged villains?

gingerly-writing: So, I actually have a hero and villain school in my own original superhero works, and I did come up with a solution to this one. If you’re writing your own original stuff, please change this up, but if you’re writing fic I don’t mind if you nick it wholesale (as long as you tag me in it! I’d love to read it).

My thought was: all villains are going to be different, with different strengths and gifts. Sending them all to, I don’t know, infiltrate an island or fight Black Canary (which no one would win, let’s be honest) doesn’t seem fair on those it doesn’t suit. I was really struggling to come up with something that could work for everyone that didn’t force them to work in a team, because, well…villainous teams never work so well. Too many egos and whatnot.

My solution was: have the kids pick their own challenges. Make it their end of final year project. They submit a fully researched plan, all the way from the developmental stages to the final polished article. Plans like ‘killing Batman’ or ‘blowing up the planet’ are swiftly vetoed, but as long as they’re convincing enough the plan can get as elaborate and dangerous as they like. Half the marks come from the plan itself, and half for execution. Sometimes, my particularly vindictive kiddos make their plan to screw over their nemesis’ plan; I particularly enjoy when their plans are both to screw over each others’ plans. That gets entertaining.

They’re assigned a teacher whose knowledge base best fits with the plan the kid wants to execute, and they submit and resubmit and re-resubmit it to improve and refine their scheme until it’s as perfect as it’s going to get. Then, with no further outside help, they have to execute it.

This method lets you titivate the grand finale to best suit your plot needs. Your character has a serious nemesis? Pitch them against each other. Parental grudge? Make their aim to foil their parent’s plans. Hero that they hate? Plan to ruin their day. Plus, you can shove in bureaucratic nightmares and whatever other problems you can dream up (sabotage, indecision, dreams too grand to execute) into the planning stages.

I’m not sure you could do anything in a school situation to make the outside world consider them ‘real villains’: that would take time, money, and a body count, all things a school probably can’t afford to have on their books, villainous or not. But a huge, large-scale, dramatic graduating plan probably wouldn’t hurt any young villain’s rep!

Y’know, for me, this was just background information, but now I kind of want to write a whole book focusing on it. xx

[jumph4x]

Tuning AFR With Bazzaz

It was time for another round of fine-tuning the fueling on my bike, so I decided to take the time to note some good practices for those who may be new to this.

Fueling Piggybacks

Bazzaz and Power Commander represent a class of bike fueling controllers that depend on the factory ECU to do the majority of the work and sit on it's back, making small adjustments to it's output. In terms of wiring this looks like inline filtering. Coils can also be filtered like this, in Bazzaz's case for TC and QS, but the main benefit of a piggyback is the fueling map, so we're taking interest in injector pulse width here.

Exhibit A (factory): [ECU] ---> factory wiring harness ---> [injector]

Exhibit B (piggyback inline filtering): [ECU] ---> factory wiring harness --> piggyback wiring harness --> [Piggyback ECU] --> piggyback wiring harness --> [injector]

Usually accompanied with a wideband oxygen sensor (a sensor that signals not only if the mixture is rich or lean, but also [B]by how much[/B]), these systems can create 2D maps to hit the desired fueling mixtures, using a logging-based feedback loop. On Power Commander there may now be actual realtime loops, as well as timing adjustment.

Operation Principle For the feedback loop to work correctly, the factory pulse width variance must be locked down, so factory oxygen sensors are replaced with static resistors. For bikes with secondary air injection systems, those ports are blocked off to limit fresh O2 entering the downstream. Once the parameters are locked down, aside from the narrow atmospheric pressure or air temperature deltas, the factory ECU will operate consistently. Proper grounding of the ECU, the piggyback ECU, the resistors and subsequently the wideband O2 sensor is of paramount importance, as impedance will be used to determine fuel trim.

The fundamental method of operation is to use low latency IC electronics to intercept the injector pulse signal. For parts of the map that require more fuel, the IC will immediately send the pulse back out to the output for the injector, but once the factory pulse has stopped, the piggyback will elongate the signal the injector is receiving, keeping the injector open longer, delivering a larger volume of fuel.

Exhibit C and D (factory pulse width VS piggback enriched signal):

----[ ]---- ----[ ]-

For leaning out parts of the map the idea is the same, but since there is no way to know when the injector pulse end from the factory ECU, the piggyback controller instead shaves off the leading edge of the pulse by a predetermined millisecond amount.

Exhibit E and F (factory pulse width VS piggback lean signal):

----[ ]---- ------[ ]----

Good Practices

I have spent what seems now like over a hundred hours tuning the fueling my 1290 Superduke across two different engines, and while this is common knowledge to a lot of tuners, I want to save some of you time and expensive troubleshooting. There are a couple of main areas to pay attention to:

The Baseline

Make sure the bike is in good running order, the following factors will all affect your AFR (air fuel ratios) 1. Clean air filter - no brainer 2. Clean fuel filter - most pumps are easy to get to 3. Well running fuel pump - needs to build correct PSI and maintain it 4. Cleaned, flowed and balanced injectors - at about $18 a pop plus shipping from InjectorRX, it is cheap and effective insurance 5. Freshly adjusted valves - shoot for looser end of OE range as valves will tighten with time 6. Good grounding points - especially on piggyback, factory O2 sensor resistors 7. Check for intake vacuum leaks - inspect rubber throttle body mounts, especially. You are looking for leaks after the TB and before the combustion chamber (unmetered air) 8. Check for secondary air leaks - make sure no oxygen is entering or exhaust gases leaving between the chamber and the O2 wideband

The Process

Measuring and adjusting the fueling with a wideband is not too difficult, but requires patience and diligence. 1. Make sure the ambient air conditions are similar, ideally same. This includes moisture, pressure (or elevation) and temperature. Any factor that affects the oxygen density per unit volume matters. In the Bay Area this will rarely be an actual problem. 2. The dimensions you're working with are RPM range and load range (or a close approximation, like throttle opening percentage). To get a good map, you will want to cover this wide range from start to finish, but stop short of lugging the engine at low RPM, not all cells of the map are ever going to (or should) be visited by the factory ECU. 3. The wideband sensor should defer logging data until it's warmed up automatically. 4. The best way to get good data is to change the load and RPM very slowly, so system latencies have minimum effect and conditions like over-run do not have time to happen. Similarly, avoid traction control, wheelie control, quickshifter, rev-limiter and such from engaging. All of these will alter injector pulse or cut spark and that will affect your readings. 5. Your rear brake is a way to create load without breaking any Mexican speed limits, if you do not have access to a dyno. Check to ensure you have fresh rear pads, you will be surprised how fast those disappear when there's consstently a lot of heat in them, especially with something like my bike that develops 100 ft-lbs of torque. 6. Combined with the previous 2 points, this follows: the best way to get good clean data is on the dyno, in my experience. Second best is on the highway somewhere in Mexico, third best is on the track or on the street.

The Adjustment

If you're not using Power Commander realtime autotune, or if you're working with a real tuner, you will need to do the aiming yourself. 1. Develop an idea of target AFRs. To keep things straightforward you may want to pick one value for the entire map. As you experiment with that value, you will likely want to change it progressively from low-load to high-load. For shitty motors or weird cases, you will find area in the low or high RPM range where you will want to adjust it further. Different fuels will have different air requirements, the following assumes premium pump gas. ICE develop their best power somewhere in the range of 12-13.7, however, you will find that throttle response can be wildly different within it. As can be longtail reliability. Richer end (12 units of air per unit of liquid fuel) tends to work well for stressed or endurance engines, think sustained load during racing, forced induction engines, air cooled engines - it will make the combustion cooler. Also it happens to provide the smoothest, even if at times delayed throttle response. The leaner end of things (13.7 AFR) will give you snappier and jerkier throttle response and will make the combustion chamber and exhaust gases a bit hotter.

In my particular case, I use a 1-dimensional gradient across the load axis on my 2015 Superduke R 1301cc engine. I start at 13.4 AFR all the way at the bottom of 0-4% opening and use that AFR all the way until 50% load. From 50% load to 100% load I enrich it progressively from 13.4 AFR to 12.8 AFR. This suits my reliability and throttle response preferences. 2. Your software will want to tell you what you should adjust the fuel map to (automatically) to hit the desired AFR. I do not have good luck with this guesses process because for some reason for me it always ends up being an over-correction oscillation dance that would eventually converge. What I do instead is approach the desired AFR in steps. So if the software math is saying to enrich by 10 points, I will generally enrich by 5 points, then go out and measure again. 3. Discard any obvious outliers. No good fuel map and engine will have sudden jumps in fueling requirements. If you see dramatically lean values (sudden jumps from 13 AFR to 14 and lower), the engine may have cut spark, cut fuel or you hit an over-run condition. Do not touch the affected cells, go out and re-measure again. 4. In my case, Bazzaz does not collect data for the lowest tier of throttle load (0-4% range), the bottom most row. For extra exhaust pops, extra smooth on\off throttle transitions and reduced engine braking, I like to manually enrich this row to half of what the next row up is, numerically speaking. 5. The general wisdom is: if something looks weird, ignore the data and re-measure. When it doubts, make adjustments small, not larger. When on the fence, especially in high load parts of the map, go a little bit richer - it's safer for throttle inputs and for engine longevity. 6. With time you will start developing good intuition: you will notice the engine sounds differently when it's too rich, you will notice how twitchy the throttle is during lean condition.

The Debrief

Write down what you did and how you did it. Something will happen to your bike and you will want to know what our baseline represents. This can be injectors clogging, you experimenting with different plugs, you upgrading intake or exhaust or simply doing your valves. 1. Wideband oxygen sensors have limited life. Take the unit off your bike including supporting logging module and wiring harness. Save it for later. 2. Create a folder structure for that day's tuning resulting map. Note the target AFRs, note the atmospheric conditions, not the mileage and what your valves were set to. 3. If you have previous maps, do a map delta comparison to ensure the adjustments make sense. You can spot deteriorating valve clearances, dirty air filter, fouled plugs, bad injector spray pattern or a faulty oxygen sensor early this way.

Bonus Round

If you use Bazzaz and you get into this, you will likely burn up their oxygen sensor over the long run. Do not rush to give them $150 plus S\H for a new one. Their systems are based on industry standard Bosch 4.2 (closed air cell system) and Bosch 4.9 (new gen) wideband tuning technology. Standard off the shelf sensors will work, but ensure to match the connector.

In my case, I use the 4.2 system and I verified that Bosch 17018, is in fact, correct. At the time of me writing this it was $67 on Amazon and was Original Equipment part for some Subarus. Bazzaz themselves order these oxygen sensors in bulk from a third party supplier that does not stamp or mark them, making that whole hunt a huge pain in the ass for me, but I confirmed my findings with a Bazzaz tech. So save your valuable time and money.

Incomplete list of sources:

AutoSpeed - Tuning Air/Fuel Ratios http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Tuning-AirFuel-Ratios&A=1595

Master Engine Tuner - Air-Fuel Ratio Tuning Tips http://www.masterenginetuner.com/air-fuel-ratio-tuning-tips.html

Amazon - Bosch 17018 4.2 LSU https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BZL0LC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

KTM 1290 SMR - My dope bike if you haven't seen it https://www.1290smr.com/

[sparda3g]

Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 128 Review

The days of ghouls roaming around Tokyo, let alone the world, is nearly becoming a dream come true. Desperate time calls for desperate measure on all fronts and the battle continues to escalate to the point of possible destruction. The arc continues to proceed to dive in further of the current lore and plans behind the ally and enemy line; two of which have a trick up in their sleeves. It's only matter of who will come out triumphant.

Kaneki, now appearing Batman, is also borrowing the belief of his as well. Joking aside, Kaneki has always stuck to his root to never kill a human, so this is fitting. It's a good thing he's smart enough to convey an inspiring speech. Let's hope he doesn't end up like Light though. His method is to disarm the weapons and show to the world that ghouls will one day roam the city in peace.

I should comment on Kou's appearance as he continues to be showcase like a new side character with a lot more screen time to occur. I'll be honest I am getting a bit more suspicious than the last chapter; maybe because the setup seems to be "perfect" for him to be a spy. I don't know how long it has been from chapter 126, so this only has me questioning on why now. Again, he could be just a tour guy to witness the updated setting, but we just have to wait and see.

As much as it is nice that Kaneki sticks to his no kill policy, the setting is much difficult for him to keep it that way as Shuu points it out. As sad as this may be true, taking a person's life is easier than taking a person's weapon. I don't know if Ishida is planning to challenge his belief, like will Kaneki actually kill a human down the road. I do appreciate that he wants to start the life with Ghouls better by starting with a better impression, but this is draining their energy, sources, and patience.

It cleverly segues from Kaneki to Touka since it does suggest that there's something waiting for them in the future. Nishiki comes in with the update report that pretty much says that they're dying out there if they don't do anything highly productive. Not only CCG is taking down ghouls, but Ghouls have no "food" gathering anymore. Strangely, that should be a good thing since less suicide rate, but that's how messed up this world is.

It makes sense, metaphorically included, that they would hide in 24th Ward to be closer to the location of the one-eyed Ghoul; the one that was mentioned by Kaneki a while back. It's neat that the small detail is in fact important. Not to mention, it would imply that perhaps he's the one that caused the thought of One-Eyed King. It was said that CCG was struggling to the point of extinction, until V arrived and wipe them out. Now I think about it, it would make sense on why V would be very concerned when one-eyed is brought to the topic. Perhaps this is the origin. It could be an interesting expansion to the lore.

One of the questionable moments is Nishiki handing over something for Touka, which she seems to be gracious to receive it. Some would argue that it's a pregnancy test, though depending on the time skip, why now. If it's far in like 6 months later, wouldn't it be obvious at that point? It could be something else. I do tend to think that she may be pregnant and she requested something for the child. It's a bit suggestive with Touka taking care of the children.

The arc continues to build up the CCG members and their distraught feeling. Today, it's with Suzuya and he doesn't have it in him; not as much as before. Hanbee tries to comfort him; talking about how life is going to be changed for perhaps the best and how Suzuya is still human with pain exists within. The way he speaks about being a Ghoul is an eerie telling; as if he will become the new enemy since the world would be cleansed and they're going to have a new enemy lurking around.

Nakarai brings in more of a bad feeling. He implies that Suzuya has been fighting for Shinohara, even if he may never wake up, and sadly we know he won't. That said that was his purpose to fight and if ghouls are exterminated, then what? What would happen to Suzuya? Is he going to drop everything and become the old self? It's his way of saying the world should remain the way it is because one gives a purpose. It's pretty haunting when you think about it.

Speaking of haunting, we get to see a nearly completed reunion of Part 1 Pierrot members; just missing Roma. Because of her leak, not fake news, it implies that this arc may become 24th Ward Raid Arc, now that they know the location. Uta and others are probably going to watch the world burns, because they're nasty like that.

Furuta steps in with another questionable part. He brags about the battle needs a final boss; sounding like me when I describe a character. He wants to send out someone who is powerful enough to one punch Arima and Eto; surely that's a clear reference to One Punch Man, a series that Ishida adores. If it's Saitama, the series will have a dark ending. Anyway, that someone happens to be an ally of Furuta and oddly enough, ends with the name Dragon after Qs Squad were shown.

That is highly suspicious that it got me wondering before writing this review. It could suggest someone who is related to the project or even to those members. Someone has to be really powerful this early on, so I have no idea on how much modification they will have to do. It could be a new character in general. It could be an old character and one that comes to my head is Shirazu. Could he possibly revive him as well? Judging by the panels, it is possible that one of them is “Dragon.” If so, then my money is on Mutsuki, especially how she is with Oggai; too suspicious. It's hard to say but this doesn't look good.

The presentation lies more on the paneling. It has a hidden metaphor and message that is only suggestive at best but perhaps become official. When Shuu brings up the thought of Ghoul's future, it sneakily segues to Touka as if she is carrying a child, which is likely. Kou continues to remain suspicious and it is beginning to worry me. The name Dragon and the use of Qs Squad image is concerning; suggesting that it is related to them or is one of them. 

The chapter ends with Ayato, who is on a mission to talk to One-Eyed, finds a city far below the surface; perhaps a city for mutants and I don't mean ghouls. But seriously, it looks like the man made a city for his brethren to live forever, unless there's more to it. The real question is will he cooperate?

The chapter continues off with building up the updated and expanded lore, many concerns with the placement of these characters, including Kaneki's struggle to hold on to that belief, and couple of moments that could lead to many theories. It won't be long before war arrives to their only home.

[jafreitag]

Leslie Nuss: The Liner Notes Interview

Leslie Nuss is a singer-songwriter, based in Valparaiso, Indiana. She lives with her family in an idyllic space south of town. Her sister in-law is a close friend of mine, and she reached out and asked if LN would be interested in doing an interview with Leslie.

I’m a proud Hoosier, born and bred. Local music is cool, but an interview here isn’t a foregone conclusion. If a Creed cover band in NWI asked me to fluff their stuff, I’d say no. Basically, the material has to be good. Leslie’s is. Felsen‘s Andrew Griffin, who was interviewed here earlier this year, had this to say about her: “Leslie Nuss is my home town hero. Her music is a strange and sublime alchemy that creeps up on you, crawls in your ear and gets lodged in your imagination.”

Leslie has a catalog on Spotify. She recently released an EP titled V (cover art above, Spotify widget below). In conjunction with that, we emailed back and forth some Qs and some As. Here’s the result…

JF: Hi, Leslie. Now that it’s December, I can start off with an early Happy Holidays. What’s your holiday prep entail?

LN: Well, for me it’s almost like a month-long process. There’s my annual holiday letter that includes as many photos (with captions) as I can cram into an 11×14″ sheet. So many people tell me how much they love the letter and several people save them and reread them, which is nice to know. The card has a photo of the kids in front of the tree.

Plus, “Mrs. Claus” makes things, so she is/I am busy. I think that my daughter no longer believes, but she did for 12 years. Kind of amazing.

JF: Yeah. We should probably get to your music, in case there are any younger readers, who still believe, haha.  The first thing that strikes me about the new EP, V, is the production. There’s a big, lush sound for an independent release. Was that something that your aim?

LN: Yes. Even though I’m indie, I want it to sound as good as possible. Plus, if I have Master Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi working on it, it better be good. To be honest, it’s his ears that I’m after.

JF: Were you involved in the studio stuff? Did you have a team?

LN: I love to be in the studio, even though I’m mostly watching/listening. For a lot of it I was, especially the first half with Kyle Paas in New York City.  Kyle started Von the recommendation of his friend, Kyle Kelso, who produced my first LP, Action Hero Superstar.  Kyle Paas is a very cool dude and extremely creative. After a while, it was really hard for me to go back and forth to New York, so I thought I’d finish the EP in Chicago, but it wasn’t happening. So I asked the people behind the Women in Music Facebook page to recommend a female producer, which led me to Ainjel Emme of Block of Joy.  She’s in Los Angeles, and she worked on some parts of V on her own.

Basically, I found the producers, and they found the additional musicians.

JF: How much of the EP did you play? I’ve seen you locally, and you’re a great guitar player, but there’s plenty of piano on the record, too. So I’m guessing that you may have done that.

LN: You are so kind! Actually, this is the first time I did not play on one of my recordings. At first it was hard for me, but then I realized it gives someone else a chance to play and me a chance to hear what ideas they have. Also, there are so many great musicians and I love giving people the opportunity to play on a recorded track, and letting them do their thing.

As for piano, though I took lessons as a child, it’s only now, after taking lessons from local legend Waz since March, that I’ve been able to write a whole song on piano. But performing live seems a ways off yet.

JF: What’s you background? Where’d you go to school, and what did you study?  Was your family musical, and did they encourage you to pursue songwriting and performing?

LN: I’ve always been all over the map. I went to the University of Illinois and studied Pre-Med and Fashion Design. The idea of studying music never occurred to me, even though I was quite musical and sang in choir, etc. All of the bands I admired, I don’t think any of them studied music, and so I thought that you just sort of taught yourself. My family was musical, yeah. My mother played the piano, and my father sang in the church choir, and both of my brothers dabbled with the guitar. They were mildly encouraging, though my mother used to say, “It only takes one song!”

JF: Who are your influences? Like I said, I’ve seen you play, and I always think of Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan.

LN: Yes, to both, and the Beatles! I’m still a fan. Then I got into New Wave and fell hard for English music. But Hüsker Dü, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Sheryl Crow, too. I do love good songwriting.

JF: The EP has a lot of facets. “Lost” is ethereal in a Julee Cruise way, but there’s also an edge to some of your stuff. “Subway,” for example. And “Writer” (my fave) has some of both qualities – a dreamy opening, then a slow build to a solid closing. Did you have a big picture of the EP going into the studio? Or did you just take your best material?

LN: Both. I did present the songs I really liked, and I had a vision. I wanted them to be slow because I’ve been a bit unnerved at the speed of life these days. I wanted to help set a mood for people (for myself).  And to be honest, I wanted to … uh, put out some songs that people could have sex to.

JF: How collaborative was your recording? Describe that process.

LN: Well, usually I try to give a lot of creative freedom, so I can hear what the producers have to say. I may give a nudge here or there, but, mostly, I want to encourage them. There is a lot of trust that needs exist, too. Kyle [Paas] gave me a road map, other artists/songs that he was inspired by, and that helped. The cool thing later was Ainjel taking a look at me and basically saying, “I got you.”

JF: Another process question. What comes first for you, lyrics or melody? Do you write separately from songs?

LN: Well, I write every way. Often, a thought comes into my head, and I sing automatically. I also play – the guitar, the piano – because striking different chords in different ways can also spark a melody. I think “Writer” started with the two chord riff, and I played that over and over again, while letting my mind wander “where it will go” (ala John Lennon). But mostly, lyrics first.

JF: What inspires you, lyrically? How autobiographical are your songs?

LN: Aha! Most of my songs are incredibly autobiographical. I’m a problem solver, and that means, if something’s on my mind, sometimes songwriting is a way for me to look at it from a different angle, or to try to articulate something that’s hard to say. For instance, there’s a song, “Someday,” that will be on an upcoming EP (the third in this series) that is about my son, Harry. While I often write personally, I strive to do so broadly so that, hopefully, someone else can relate to my take on the human condition.

JF: How often do you write?

LN: Every week, for sure. Sometimes, like when I was just in Joshua Tree, ideas come almost faster than I can write them down/record them (usually into my phone, as a video, voicemail, or note). Songwriting is like a wild beast. Do I keep letting the ideas flow, or do I finish the ones I’ve started?

JF: The dreaded gear question. What kind of guitar, etc?  Geek out, or not.

LN: I play a lefty Taylor 410-CE, a black and white telecaster (I noticed Courtney Barnett also plays one – another lefty!), and a beautiful custom arch-top by John Gray. But I would love to take a trip to Southpaw in Houston to look for an acoustic with a smaller neck.

My amp is a Music Man 210. I’m still grateful to John Jinx, who reluctantly sold it to me.

JF: What’s been your experience with the Northwest Indiana music “scene,” for lack of a better word?

LN: I’ve loved playing live with Specx (my side project), but it’s hard to play a four-hour gig. There are so many great players in the area! I would love to play more gigs as part of a line up of three or four bands, but that is rare here. I’ve been thankful to play at the Hunt & Gather maker’s market in Crown Point and the Valparaiso Farmer’s Market, which is a great way to reach new fans.

JF: You also mentioned to me that you’ve been talking to Andrew Griffin of Felines. Do you have any plans to write or record with him?

LN: Yes. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to make that work as he lives on the West Coast. He has a great ear, and is a fantastic drummer and I think we could do something cool. Since I was just in LA working with Ainjel, I’m now regrouping. Then I’ll send him some tracks and see what he thinks.

JF: Ok, last one. What do you want to say? Feel free to talk about anything – upcoming shows, new material, anything personal/political. You have the LN soapbox.

LN: Ok, thanks. I am finally getting it together on Bandcamp! You can go right now and get the tracks, or my holiday special packaging…it’s an incredible site and it just takes time to upload all of the merchandise, etc. And, finally releasing V on Spotify.

I’ve had to get over my irritation at the industry for their lack of equality and bite the bullet. Women in Music still have a ways to go to get the same opportunities and respect as men. I’ve spoken out and up about these issues, and there are some really encouraging signs, but 20/80 is still hard to accept. About 20% of the voting members of the Grammys are women. Likewise, about 20% of musicians who tour are women. And what I like to stress is that music lovers are missing out on the great and awesome talent of women!

It’s also been a bit disheartening to see the domination of digital, which had led to the downfall of physical releases. I’ve always been a fan of album art and liner notes, and have put out 4 full length CD’s, where had 20 page booklets. That additional expense is hard to justify now, especially as an indie artist. I still had fun with the packaging for V, which included a temporary tattoo, a sticker, and a coloring page.

As for upcoming shows, I’m set to play at Hunt & Gather possibly with Specx on December 15th, and then I need to get serious about getting a schedule for 2019. I’ve been so focused on the recording and releasing and everything else that live shows were not on my mind. I’m also doing a pop-up show on December 8th at Society in Valparaiso–I’m making bags and accessories to sell/fund my recording projects. I’ll be there and will also sing a few songs throughout the day. When I lived in New York, I supported myself as an accessories designer, so why not.

JF: Thanks, Leslie. The EP is great. Thanks for sharing it, and sharing your time.

Folks, you can check out Leslie’s stuff on Bandcamp HERE or Soundcloud HERE. She has a personal blog, and she’s on Instagram @leslienuss1. Oh, here’s V. Enjoy.

More soon.

JF

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Titans Email Qs May

Titans Email Qs May

You’re already wrong on Roderick Henderson…

Yes, yes I was. I left it because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t expect to be 100 percent with my predictions. I stand by my accuracy and always have, for 20 some odd years now. He looks like a glorious beast of a nose tackle and I thought he would surprise. Oh well, minus one for me.

Which wide receiver for fantasy football?

I’ll write something up, but in short, definitely Rishard Matthews. It’s not even close.

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Jonnu Smith for FF?

No! Rookie tight ends that start don’t usually do well, nevermind a backup to a star like Delanie Walker.

What if he starts opposite Delanie and isn’t just the blocking type?

Still no. There may be some week where he has two touchdowns and I’m wrong here, but I would guess that I’m correct the rest of the time. You just don’t draft backup tight ends in fantasy football. If you have some sort of Aaron Hernandez Rob Gronkowski daydream, then I suppose a last pick on Smith makes sense. I am “not there.” I think he’ll be something special in the future, not in 2017. If Delanie gets hurt, I think it’s possible Coach Mike Mularkey goes with Jace Amaro to replace him. Amaro did well last year as a short-term fill-in. Sorry, I am a new fan of Smith, but not for redraft fantasy football.

Do I know about Trevon Hartfield?

I do, I do… a teenie bit. Cornerbacks have to have this “I’m better than you” mentality to smother a wide receiver. Wide Receiver, as you know, are some of the most gifted athletes in the NFL. I like a brash almost too confident cornerback. I like that fire and competitive spirit. A common gripe of mine is how come there aren’t taller cornerbacks to cover these huge gazelles playing wide receiver? This all leads to a quote Hartfield once said. He said something like “I don’t care how tall you measure me as I’m six (feet) two (inches). I can cover the big guys.” I don’t remember the quote word for word, but that stuck with me. I like it! As long as he has the usual confidence, throw in some fun delusion about how tall he is… I really like that in an odd way.

How come you never write about your CB theory and NFL teams don’t do it?

Exactly! Why isn’t Mularkey reading my column and why aren’t NFL teams following my advice? He wouldn’t even have to think, just do as I say and the Titans would win the Supe! All kidding aside, I guess I just felt I beat a drum too long.

See somewhere along the way, I noticed that almost all wide receivers play cornerback in their younger days. They play both ways from when they’re little kids all the way up til high school. Sometimes college coaches will try them at cornerback, but usually, they are focused upon the receiver spot. It is a very very high percent of players that have experience at cornerback.

I think it was when Troy Brown was effortlessly switching to play corner when this idea “hit me.”

Suppose the Titans have this inkling that they are going to cut player X in a few days. Move him to cornerback. See what happens. He is going to be cut anyway and he could have ten years experience playing corner. I understand being a great corner in peewee football and high school football is different. They already know all the coached theories from playing the position. They know how to play the position and are terrific athletes. Give them a chance at corner. Make it some sort of exit policy.

My thinking is not that every wide receiver can play corner, just that they have a very likely chance of finding someone that could. A 1 in 10, 1 in 20, 1 in 30 chance? I’m not even considering the odds favorable, just that it all fits perfectly. The players have the athleticism, the experience, and the know-how.

There’s no way Mularkey uses Gibbs’ offense

OK. I’m fine with disagreement.

Was Delanie Walker the first tight end to line out wide?

No, not even the first Titans tight end. Years ago, Jared Cook used to, on occasion.

Food questions

I don’t know the answers. While the Titans may be all skittish about giving out player information and playbook information and all, I don’t expect the franchise to have any second thoughts about answering your food questions. Write them. They want you to look forward to the games and fill your belly at the games. I imagine they would answer all of your Qs.

If PK is not on ESPN, then Midday has to create a better app

I say “Midday” rather than “104.5” all the time too. “Midday” isn’t a station and that’s kind of funny how they have conditioned us. Their app is pretty sweet the way you can play the radio live and fetch previous interviews. I guess it could be “touched up” to look prettier, but I don’t have an issue with their app. I do think PK needs to have a Periscope/FB Live session where we all just suggest what he does in the future. PK grabs a pen N paper and then brings that paper to his boss at 1045. He has a large following. He has a boss that I don’t know, but surely the boss wants to appease the masses and get more listeners or….readers. 1045 has a website. PK could certainly write and post his thoughts on there. I don’t know here. I think what you mean is that PK needs the space to write and/or a means to send a notification that he’s got some news for us fans. I’m with you. I’ve got some panic in me too. I think he should just have some session where we suggest things to him and he rattles them around and thinks on it. I adore the guy and wish him all the luck in the world. I would prefer to have a paperboy throwing a paper in my driveway. I’m not necessarily a fan of how news has developed the last twenty-thirty years. Let’s just show him our appreciation and hope things work out for him….and consequently us- his readers.

The Titans site isn’t airing pressers….gripes

Yeah totally. I have loved it and praised them for it. I am absolutely let down by this. I haven’t even noticed them posting transcripts on the site anymore. Let’s hope they have some technical difficulties and some new set up that they’ll utilize when training camp begins. Maybe all of this was just so they could take the time to set things up.

DeMarco Murray is over the hill, Derrick Henry love…

Murray looked fantastic last year. There is zero indication that he hit some NFL “old man” mark in his career. I love to watch Henry too and am also a fan, but it’s about competition. Henry will have to beat out Murray in camp if he wants the starting spot. That said, I am not sure that Mularkey wants to start Henry. Murray is a far better receiver and I think Mularkey/Robiske want the dual threat. All of us that predicted “year two” may have to wait some more.

Taylor Lewan shouldn’t be posting about drinking beer. That video with the child last year made him an idol for little kids and….

Whew that’s a very involved comment or question. I don’t teach my kids to idolize sports players. I don’t encourage it. I don’t think our society truly does anymore. I do notice that some do, but it’s very different from when I was a child. I think Lewan was having a good time with his friends. I also think he was adorable with that kiddo last year. I think our society frowns upon drinking so much publicly that our adult actions don’t make much sense to kiddos. We appear hypocritical saying don’t drink, discussing alcoholism, and then follow that up with “get me a beer.” Publicly, I’m not sure we’re in a good place. Lewan seems like a good egg. He seems to work so hard and is so personable. He just trained with the 101st airborne. Shift the focus away from drinking I guess. There’s lots to like about him. I don’t support this line of thought at all.

Reader, you sent me in a picture and then didn’t reply when I asked for permission so I’m not posting your pic.

Apparently, the Titans store at the stadium has a Henry jersey for sale that is not Derrick’s number. It is Travis Henry’s former number. I think this could be explained as some clerk making an oops and stocking the wrong item or someone making the wrong jersey or some boss ordering the wrong one. I did not guess “they’re trying to rip people off” as was suggested. I think it’s just an oops.

Predators….

I write of the Titans, not Predators, sorry.

Get a Titans tattoo, win a free ticket

That is a funny suggestion. Write them. It’s permanently on your body (well, kind of) and supports the team logo and….it’s an amusing suggestion. See what they think.

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