#it being my new years resolution and all

[formlessvoidbeast]

I'm making miso today!

More accurately, I'm making an Amino Paste (same method as miso, nontraditional ingredients). It's going to be roasted red kuri pumpkin (both flesh and seeds), navy beans, and the jasmine rice koji I just pulled out of the incubator this morning that smells fruity and mushroomy and interesting.

I think I'll do a lower salt, age 1-3 months, sweet miso just so I can eat it sooner! I do have a gallon jar I intend to fill with a 1-year more traditional miso (barley koji, soybeans, higher salt) also, but for my first foray I'm going for a shorter fermentation just so I can enjoy it sooner.

Depending on how I feel and how much koji I have left today, I might attempt an even less traditional miso made from the orange rinds from the oranges that grow on the tree outside my front window and cocoa nibs grown by my childhood friends, because that sounds interesting.

That and/or an amazake.

Today is going to be a good day.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Results from the ‘Who is the tallest MDZS Character poll! Thank you all for voting!

[virsancte]

as the clock strikes twelve 👀

look at how gorgeous angel looks with this hair!!!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH RAHH when i grabbed them into cas i legit teared up over how pretty they are. they're everything to me;-;

[zaacoy]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!💥💥💥 HERE'S TO A BIGGER AND BETTER 2024!!! :DDDD

[eri-pl]

So with @edennill mentioning isekai recently (a week ago? Idk), I started thinking and realized something: (if we ignore part of meta that's self-contradictory anyway or if we squint hard enough) if we are contemplating the concept of "isekai-ed into ME", landing there as an elf makes just as much sense as landing there as a human. Because the difference between the two kindreds is how they're tied to Arda and since we are getting thrown into a different world anyway (because this is the only way this premise makes any resemblance of sense, because time travel is a total mess) we can as well be more strongly tied to it. It makes just the same amount of sense as being more loosely tied.

(Tolkien said that there is no inherent physical difference between Men and Elves; the only difference is the nature of their bond with Arda and stuff like this, purely spiritual or whatever to call it.)

[campbyler]

okay, so, i will admit that even though i keep seeing your fic EVERYWHERE, i avoided it despite being a byler, for the sole reason that it's so popular. idk why but when i tried reading it before, i barely got past the first paragraph before going nope, nope, NOPE.

but now i'm reading it again and I AM OBSESSED. what the hell did you all put in this fic?! i literally missed my train AND bus stop on the way home because i got too hooked reading the fic SIJXNDKSKSK

anyways, you guys are such amazing writers and this fic of yours is going to live in my soul rent free for a LONG TIME.

hello! warning for a long post incoming, but like 90% of this is just some thoughts i have on the matter, not directed at your specific ask anon. so glad you ended up liking it though!! i can deeply sympathize with the public transit horrors though omg a couple weeks ago i accidentally rode my first bus almost to the end of its line when i should’ve gotten off about eight stops earlier. genuinely don’t know what i was doing to not notice for that long lol. i also am not putting this under a read more because mobile decided it hates me so i am so sorry if it doesn’t automatically add one 😭

neither of us are believers in having to like things solely on the basis of them being big — there are plenty of popular things in fandom and outside of it that we don’t personally care for — and while we are so so grateful for all the support and interaction and appreciation we’ve gotten, i feel like this is also part of the inevitable consequences of a fandom piece breaching containment? our fic isn’t going to be for everyone, and there will always be people who dislike it but that’s ok! it’s a niche au with a Lot of lore and longgggg chapters in a fandom with a seemingly significant preference towards in-universe best friends to lovers fics, usually some form of canon divergence or compliance. we have said this so many times before but we literally expected our first chapter to get a FRACTION of the interaction it did, because a lot of people also don’t love to read long incomplete chaptered fics while they’re still updating. if we were writing a fic hoping it would get popular, we would have chosen literally any other premise, and so i would like to make this one thing clear: whether someone doesn’t like the fic itself or doesn’t care enough for the premise to try, it’s okay! it happens and it happens often and we literally do not care.

with that being said, the thing that does get a little 🤨 — both as authors of a larger fic and also just seeing it happen for other Popular Things — is this weird like. groupthink mentality that often seems to come with the Popular Thing in question? while we do actually get this sentiment directed at us pretty often, people usually aren’t saying it To Our Faces — it’s more often posts under the tag or mentions or whatever being like “everyone’s read acswy but me, should i read it?” or “am i the only one here who isn’t obsessed with acswy” or “why is it so popular what’s the hype” etc. and while, like i said, we don’t care if someone likes or doesn’t like our fic, what does annoy us a bit is when people seemingly have to like. conduct a survey or something just to see if they should even TRY reading a fic. like, you have ao3 access, you know the title of the fic and the fandom and probably even have a link — literally just open it up and read a little bit! why are you waiting for 20 replies to your post to hype you up to try something that will have absolutely zero consequences if you end up disliking it!! it just honestly feels like people are trying to gauge whether their investment of time will be worth it and i get it to an extent — fics are long (guilty), they take time to read, sometimes the plot takes a bit to pick up if there’s a lot of exposition and it’s hard to get past that hurdle, and we are all busy people — but to a farther extent it does make it feel like fanworks turn into a product to consume after they reach a certain level of popularity, and “is [insert fic] good, should i start it even if it’s long?” starts sounding an awful lot like asking if something is worth your money to buy. i just can’t wrap my head around why something as innocuous as a fanfiction, created by other fans for you to read for freeeeeeee, would require so much deliberation and crowdsourced input to even just be checked out. and i cannot stress enough that there is no consequence to disliking this fic or any fic, popular or not. like, the worst thing that can happen is you lose 20 minutes of your life, but tbh people who hit post on this stuff at 2am don’t strike me as particularly concerned about this lol

anyways, genuinely all we ask is that our readers give acswy a good faith effort because they actually want to, not because they feel like they have to or are trying to slog through it just to feel included or whatever. even from the interaction we actually get via asks, comments, etc (not even counting stuff like twt mentions or the general tag) it immediately becomes sooo apparent who’s reading our fic because they like it and are having fun engaging with it and us as part of a fandom community vs the people that are…. Not doing that lol. and all that to say: thank you for giving us that good faith effort! we get it, we would both be lying if we said that we have never fallen victim to the anti-popularity mindset — that’s not at all what we are implying here. there have been so many times i have not cared for a popular fandom fic and so many other times i’ve loved them. i guess i just wish it was a more common mindset to accept that you won’t necessarily like something if it’s popular, but also that the fact of it being popular doesn’t automatically detract from its quality. the only way you’ll know is to try for yourselffff (maybe without having to conduct that survey first. lol)

[fedoraspooky]

Spooky you're in california right? Are you safe??

As of right now I am safe, yes! Deffo been having some close calls with smaller fires springing up nearby, and the four-ish days of white-knuckle stress and anxiety probably isn't doing me any favors, but I have stuff packed and ready to toss in my car if it comes to that... I really hope it doesn't. xnx;;

[xxplastic-cubexx]

sending you the best wishes for 2025 (even tho there's still 4 hours to it for me lol) 🫶🏻

happy new year to everyone !!!!!! here's to hoping it's better than this one was :^)

[royaltea000]

I wanna try being more multifandom on this account cuz I feel like I’m limiting myself only being in one fandom at a time

[singingcicadas]

Want to do a post-LL25 pseudo megarod/megop relationship where Optimus doesn’t die in the battle with Unicron but somehow gets spat out of the black hole with a reinstated body and matrix. Rodimus tries to save Megatron during the victory lap by persuading him into a sparkbond, b/c of that really common fanon trope of sparkbonds tying lives together so the death of one partner would mean automatic death for the other (it’s a myth but he’s grasping at straws here). Megatron refuses at first, saying that it’s Not A Good Idea and Rodimus would regret it. Eventually Rodimus wears him down but Megatron has no idea what he’s planning and thought it was just going to be a regular sparksharing for goodbye. 

So Rodimus seizes his chance as soon as Megatron’s spark's open, plunging the bond really really deep (way deeper than is safe). It doesn’t work, obviously, he almost drowns in Megatron’s memories of anger and hate and loss, if not for Megatron breaking them out before it got too far. But not before he got to experience some real fucked up shit of Megatron being a sadistic genocidal psyco from a first person front seat pov. And seeing the way Optimus stands out as a constant among all those years of rage-clouded carnage, first as an anchoring point for hatred, then as a source of close companionship and comfort in the Functionalist universe. Megatron is quiet and gentle when he says see, I told you you’d regret it. Now you know why I deserve my fate.

And Rodimus can’t even reply b/c he’s so shaken by the slapping reminder of the true extent of Megatron’s guilt and crimes and the inconsequentiality of his own feelings in comparison. 

Megatron leaves with Prowl but Rodimus can’t let go of him in his head. He keeps thinking obsessively over the sparksharing incident. Then he sees Optimus and has an immediate flashback to Megatron’s Functionalist universe memories. That’s when he realizes oh it’s not entirely the moral issues about Megatron’s past that’s got him all hung up. It’s jealousy. 

Here’s where the megop part is pseudo b/c it’s all in Rodimus’ head lol. They don’t actually have romantic feelings about each other, at all, in any universe. Functionalist Orion was important to Megatron but they were never A Thing. But Rodimus doesn’t know that and he’s torn between jealousy and his own loyalty towards Optimus, his anger at Optimus for not doing anything to save Megatron who clearly loves him, his logically knowing the unfairness of that anger, his recognition of the well-deservedness of whatever Megatron’s fate and his own bias and just the absurdity of his own feelings in general. He tries to visit Megatron in prison to sort things out but megatron won't see him. He wants to leave Cybertron on Thunderclash’s ship but can’t bring himself to go without knowing what’s going to happen to Megatron.

Meanwhile Optimus is just disappointed that he survived yet again and is too tired to care about anything other than his job. Everyone else is super joyous and in awe at both his survival and the restoration of the matrix, he’s the only one who’s Not Happy with the way things turned out. But he can’t say anything, not when the miracle has everyone so hopeful and united. Bumblebee is the only one who notices that something’s wrong when he starts showing physical symptoms, but there’s no way Optimus is able to tell him the truth; by that point his accumulated mental barriers of guilt and denial and subconscious self-preservation are so thick that it’s next to impossible for him to ever open up to another.

Optimus busies himself with governance stuff. he doesn’t visit Megatron. He appoints new council members and new Senators, most of whom knew Megatron as the AVL leader. Rodimus is automatically granted a seat at the council but he never shows up. Nobody’s seen him in office since the Lost Light landed, except for an endless flow of charges for illegal engex consumption, drunken misconducts and truancies. Optimus tries to contact him, tries to get Ratchet and Magnus to keep an eye on him and set him up with therapists and the like, but Rodimus ignores every attempt at contact. 

Deep down Optimus knows that those aren’t actual helpful solutions, Ratchet and Magnus haven’t been able to get Rodimus to listen forever and there isn’t a therapist left alive who can even begin to understand the stuff they’d been through, but most days he can barely bring himself to summon enough energy to do his duty as is. He can’t deal with Rodimus’ problems on top of his own. Bumblebee and Roller do the best they can but there are times when their care becomes a burden in and of itself. So he pays the fines and files away the charges, and with that also files Rodimus away to the back of his mind (as well as Megatron, he knows it has something to do with Megatron, Megatron’s always at the bottom of his grief one way or another, but that’s another thing he can’t deal with, not right now)

Eventually the Galactic Council demands for Megatron to be handed over as part of reparations. Everyone knows what’s going to happen to him if they do. Unlike the last time Optimus doesn’t have the will to make that arbitrary decision himself. He tosses it up to a senate vote.

That’s when Rodimus bursts into the room screaming

Stuff Happens and they get Megatron out on parole, Somewhere along the middle of that Rodimus’ megop misconception gets cleared. But Megatron’s time’s still ticking down cuz idk the Galactic Council really really hates his guts. Rodimus insists that it doesn’t matter, he’s determined to make the most of whatever time he can get. Megatron thinks this is just going to make it more painful for Rodimus for both of them when the time comes but after ten thousand words of angst finally decides to go along to make him happy.

Optimus would sometimes unconsciously pause to watch them with each other, the playing, the banter, the easy affection. The sometimes-exasperation and good-natured tolerence. He'd feel happy for them but also envious, not because he wants to break their ship to do megop or rodiop (is that even a ship name) but because he's wistful for the affection between them knowing it's something he'd never have for himself. Worse, he knows that he could have it in an instant if he wants to, with someone who cares for him deeply and he cares back, it's just one step away from his fingertips—but it's a step that he knows in his heart that he's too weary to take, at least in this lifetime

He swears to himself that he would find a way to ensure that their happiness lasts.

weirdest fake love triangle i have come up with ever

[gayfrasier]

just had my semi annual “omg i like theatre” moment.

[espytalks]

Dang theres so many different crafts and not enough time or money or storage space.

[deus-ex-mona]

wdym christmas is next week?????

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 12, day 16

Flick! My boi!!! How I have missed you so 😭

Anyway I was bored at work today so while I was working I also went back through my art posts and I realized two things:

I really miss drawing

I don't actually like where the Flick redesign was going

So! Despite my stylus only having 5% battery and my iPad only having 11% and I only having one charging cable betwixt them, I opted to draw tonight! Because seriously I fucking missed it, oh my god no wonder my brain has been chewing on itself lately who am I if I'm not drawing holy fuck

*ahem*

So anyway the first two sketches were me trying to knock off a bit of the rust that's built up by trying to recreate Flicks two poses and hopefully recapture some of the attitude that got lost/muddied as I worked on the redesign. The second two sketches were my attempts to find more of his attitude. I don't think the superhero landing pose works for him, like, at all, but I might be on to something with the last sketch there. Just need to find a good pose reference for going spinny while dual wielding swords! Pretty sure I know where to get one of those :D

But yeah my stylus died and I can't charge it yet bc my iPad is still only at 35% (he is old and decrepit and his batteries take awhile to charge), so even though I have time to do a quick bit of 3D work, I think instead I'm gonna go stare at a blank page in a WIP document until words fall out. Or until bedtime, either/or. Because I've also missed writing and that drabble on Sunday merely whetted my appetite, it did nothing to sate it and I want this damn writer's block off my chest!!!

[godlesslostsoul]

First book purchase of 2024 is gonna be the Heroes of Olympus series I have decided this and now declare this as law

[windor-truffle]

Welp, I (Dolphin) made another side blog to yell about Tales of Graces specifically, feel free to mosey on by if witnessing unhinged rambles about angsty WIPs and other Graces lore sounds like fun