#it's really cool i think..... i should make a whole separate post about this

[3liza]

im sorry i think im having an autistic oppositional moment that is wholly unreasonable. and that i need to work through it to get my head straight. i have to do some talking it through with myself ancient philosopher style. because no one NEEDS to know that rats and mice are different, really. no one tests you on it. if you arent a rodent specialist of some kind it really does not matter. but

im still having trouble believing anyone, even who lives in i think Indonesia based on their blog, who posts in english on an english-based site that uses pictures and posts about animals as a form of local currency, and who claims to have studied German and Italian extensively, both languages that like english have separate words for mice and rats and in my experience use them in language education templates extensively, would genuinely be unaware that there are more than one species of household pest rodent, and also that a pet rat is also a type of pet. i dont really understand that level of being checked out of information that ambiently exists in the places where this person appears to be interacting with large posts that link to other large posts where ambient information is in circulation etc etc. like they arent isolated and just using tumblr as a personal blog. but i think im having an unreasonable response like i said. i will just have to update my worldview

one of the big things about this thats baffling to me is they really do not look similar except when they are irl scurrying around your house, because the wild type mice and rats do tend to be sort of a similar brown color and often a young rat will be not much bigger than an adult mouse and they hide and move quick so i get it. but in a google search the speciation is really really clear from photo to photo

this is like that time i discovered my boyfriend at the time was unaware that when days got shorter in the winter or longer in the summer, it was because the sun both rose and set at ever-changing times of the day. he thought in winter the sun rose at the same time as it did all year (i should have asked him what hour he thought the sun ALWAYS came up every day but i was so shocked i didnt think about it), but just set earlier. he was like 25 years old and regularly stayed out working or clubbing until dawn, so he must have been putting in extra effort not to notice that the sun was rising at different times. this doesnt even get into that he was fully uncomprehending of how the planet actually works in orbit around the sun but i assume most people do not beyond "the planet spins and this is somehow related to how days and seasons work". learning he was wrong about this didnt seem to affect his life at all. despite it being the second thing they would tell you about earth if you were a visiting alien, you can live your whole life here never internalizing that information despite it appearing constantly everywhere, and it will take 25 years or never for someone to catch you not knowing shit about it. the basic principles of physics are not relevant to the everyday lives of human beings. weird to consider

anyway in my opinion you will have more fun if you know about multiple kinds of rodents or how the earth travels around the sun or that ponies are not baby horses. i think it makes your life better in a lot of ways so its cool that a lot of people are finding out about rats and mice today

there. i have successfully talked myself down from reactive irritability

[callme-holly]

Hiii! I hope ur having a wonderful day/night <33

Do you think you could do the gang (separately) with a reader who's a drag racer? Like they built their own car and everything?

Pls make sure you're eating well and drinking plenty of water!

(This is also my first request ever if you couldn't tell 😭)

The Gang Dating A Drag Racer [the outsiders x drag racer! reader]

authors note - I actually loved writing this, I wont lie. I'm still working through requests but exams are done now so I should be little more on it with posting :) word count - 1.1k

Darrel Curtis - 

I can see you two meeting through Sodapop.

His brother goes to a lot of drag races with Steve and when the two boys see you, they instantly know they have to introduce you to Darry. 

Imagine them just bouncing up to you at the end of your race and giving you a phone number, telling you to call it as soon as you get home.

Obviously, you do, and Darry is the one to answer. He’s understandably a little confused at first but the two of you seem to fall into conversation easily and before you know it, he’s being called away by one of the gang because he’s “been on the damn phone for too long, and dinner is getting burnt”

He’ll tag along to your next race after work and that’s the first time you see him.

He’ll be all smiles and will ask you out on a date while the boys cheer him on in the background

When you two actually start dating, he tries to go to all of your races 

He’s insanely protective over you and will spend most of the race freaking out then cheering you on

He does not care whether you win or lose, as long as you’re okay

If you need help with your care, he’ll do his best and will pick up any parts you need on his way home from work

Sodapop Curtis - 

This boy fell in love with you the second he saw you get out of your car and instantly started gushing over you

He’ll go to every single of your races just to stare at you before Steve finally gets sick of it and forces him to ask you out

You two are so perfect together, I can’t even

He is your biggest supporter and your number one fan like he’s cheering the loudest out of everyone

He’ll brag about you to everyone. He’s just so proud to call you his <33

Soda will help you fix your car whenever you need and he loves driving around with you so much

You need something for your car? No problem, baby, he’ll get it for you! 

Overall he’s just incredibly supportive and he loves you a whole lot. 

Ponyboy Curtis - 

Much like Darry, I can see Pony caring more for your safety than whether or not you win your races

Sure, he thinks it’s cool and all, but it’s not really his thing and if he comes to watch you, he’ll stand at a safe distance away so he’s not caught up in the crowds 

Afterwards, he’ll come and find you and he’ll give you a small, reassuring hug, though it’s more for his sake that yours

He loves watching you work on your car

He’ll very rarely help out thought because, let's be honest, he wouldn't have a clue what he’s doing

But I can see him just sitting a few feet away, book in hand as you work

Johnny Cade - 

You two were probably introduced by Dallas, mainly because Johnny very rarely hangs around at the race track

The big crowds and the noise just isn’t his thing, but after he finds out about you, he’ll stay at the fence line and watch, just to make sure you’re okay

He’ll let you come to him at the end of your race, and when you do he’ll just pull you in for a big hug, regardless of whether others are watching

If you’re fixing up or adding to your car, he’ll sit quietly and watch

He doesn’t really understand what you’re doing, but that doesn’t bother him. He’s simply happy to be next to you

It’s the same as when you rant to him about different cars and all the parts. 

He doesn’t have a  clue what you’re saying, but he’ll nod along and listen nonetheless. 

Dallas Winston - 

He honestly thinks you’re so hot and will brag about you to no end

He’ll go to every single one of your races, and he’ll sit looking smug throughout the entire thing

He isn’t afraid to let people know that your his, especially if you win

The minute you’re out of your car, he’s by your side, slinging an arm around your shoulders and pawing at you before anything other guy even has the chance to look at you

He’ll steal all the car parts you need, just tell him what you need, at he’ll be gone 

Dallas probably won’t help you fix up your car, instead, he’ll probably do the opposite

He’ll stand behind you with his arms wrapped around your waist, doing anything and everything he can to get your attention

I can see him knowing a fair bit about cars; he probably picked shit up from his short time in new york as a kid 

He tries to listen when you rant to him, but he has a bad habit of zoning out 

Steve Randle - 

YOU TWO ARE SO PERFECT

Steve is your number one supporter, dare I say even more so than Soda

He’s going to every single one of your races, no matter what

He’ll be screaming and cheering the loudest for yu and he will brag about you to everyone else around

Your guys’ go-to date is either working on your car together or going to some local car show

You can both talk for hours and hours about different types of cars and their parts and it honestly drives that gang insane

Steve has definitely got a spot in the garage at the DX for you so that you can work on your car at the same time as he’s working 

If you win your race, he’s running over to you and twirling you around without hesitation, peppering your face with kisses

He’s so in love with you, it’s almost sickening <33

Two-Bit Mathews - 

Once again, your biggest support

I know I said Steve would scream and cheer loudly, but this boy is a whole new level

He’s jumping up and down and calling your name the second you step out of your car before running over to you and giving you the biggest hug

He’ll probably also brag about you, but only because he’s super proud of you

Honestly wouldn’t trust him to help fix up your car, however, he will go and retrieve anything you need

If you’re working for too long, he will get bored and he will come and bug you until your attention is on him once more

He’ll listen to you talk for hours just to see you smile and sometimes he’ll join in just for the sake of conversation

He’ll try and pretend he knows what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t know shit about cars other than the fact they look cool and you look damn hot when you’re driving one

He tries for you though <3333

[anti-dazai-blog]

back by popular demand (3 people are interested :D)

classic lit authors and what abilities I think they should have

(I have a very clear preference for psychological abilities)

-abilities can be based on the plot, themes, or just the title itself. not gonna clarify which it is, but it should be self explanatory enough

Jane Austin -- Pride and Prejudice -- cupid-esque, makes people fall in love.

John Knowles -- A Separate Peace -- reads people's emotions. cannot do anything useful with the info he gets from this.

Charles Dickens -- Great Expectations -- midas-esque, turns what he touches into gold. (I think it would be cool if he could also turn things into liquid gold, which can harden to trap a target. however iirc gold is not very strong so... but also it's magic so anything can happen)

Miguel de Cervantes -- Don Quixote -- tells one lie a day that one listener (intended target) will believe. It wears off the following day. Third parties are not predisposed to believe the lie.

Edith Wharton -- The Age of Innocence -- temporarily removes all ill-intent from a target. ALL includes both intent towards her and towards anyone else.

Ray Bradbury -- Fahrenheit 451 -- literally just fire. classic elemental fire ability.

Willa Cather -- My Antonia -- one way telepathy: can talk directly into people's minds but cannot receive mental messages back. this is entirely because I hated this book so much that I wished it could just be zapped into my brain so I wouldn't have to torture myself by reading it.

George Bernard Shaw -- Pygmalion -- medusa-esque, turns people to stone through eye contact

Homer -- The Odyssey -- basically geoguesser. teleports people into a random location anywhere in the world. cannot choose where he's sending them. (all I'm imagining is him trying to use it in a fight and the person teleports like 2 inches to the left. then punches him.)

Sophocles -- Oedipus Rex -- gives people random personalized prophecies. never makes sense until after it's fulfilled.

Eugene O'Neil -- Long Day's Journey into Night -- I'd like to imagine this guy's got that 'illness personified' aesthetic. the ability should be something to do with disease and decay. but I care more about the visual portrayal of the character as something physically rotting. (visually distinct character design my beloved <3)

Baroness Emma Orczy -- The Scarlet Pimpernel -- shapeshifter. I've posted about her on my main too,, I really think bsd could use a shapeshifter. That's a much more grounded sort of chaos that could lead to higher stakes situations without this whole "world ending vampires whatever fyodor's got going on."

-in all seriousness I think if Asagiri would make use of more psychological abilities or psychological threats he could have as many high stakes stories as he wants without power scaling/power creep. but that would involve writing actual mysteries in the detective story. so.-

-I'm so sorry asagiri :( -

Franz Kafka -- The Metamorphosis -- turns into a bug. same way Natsume turns into a cat.

Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo -- deflects attacks. Any attack that hits him inflicts that damage onto the attacker instead.

Lewis Carroll -- Alice in Wonderland -- shrinks and grows things (including himself).

William Golding -- Lord of the Flies -- causes conflict among groups. I'd like to think the mechanics of it could be interesting-- like it shows him different dialogue options [video game style!], indicating which line would cause the most conflict.

There would often be no context for why that line would cause conflict, and he has no way of knowing if the conflict will be directed at him, or just within the group as a whole. He can choose a more harmless option, or he could risk it on the big conflict option in an attempt to eliminate enemies.

George Orwell -- 1984 -- spies on set target, like a camera trained on one person. can only spy on one person at a time.

Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird -- frames a target for a crime. the reverse of Mushitaro's-- generates fake evidence for a crimes instead of removing real evidence.

Oscar Wild -- The Picture of Dorian Gray -- essentially immortality so long as one designated item doesn't get destroyed.

Niccolò Machiavelli -- The Prince -- influences targets. not strong enough to truly be considered mind control, but fairly strong persuasion. see my The Prince post where I explain so much in the tags.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -- The Little Prince -- allows him to understand people. thoroughly. please please go see my the prince/the little prince post, I explain so much in the tags. I have so many thoughts about these two.

Robert Louis Stevenson -- Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -- compels people to act on their temptations and impulses. cannot convince people to do things they would have no desire to do otherwise.

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables -- I think it would be very funny if it just made them unrecognizable to law enforcement. not shapeshifting, just all cops cannot recognize this guy's face. (they could recognize his muscles though, as per lore accurate les mis.)

William Shakespeare -- To Be or Not To Be (I am not naming this Hamlet. strictly for vibes.) -- gives people existential crises. If they have existential crises regularly already, it doesn't do anything.

I'd like to imagine he'd use it on a character who usually comes across as relatively well adjusted and. nothing happens. Like if atsushi/kunikida/chuuya were to be targeted they'd just be like "yeah idk nothing happened... sorry man. better luck next time."

Issac Asimov -- The Feeling of Power -- ability allows him to do any math- no matter how difficult or complex- without a calculator. I'd like to think he's insist that he doesn't have an ability, he's just really good at math. basically the opposite of ranpo.

Reginald Rose -- Twelve Angry Men -- the antithesis to Harper Lee, finds evidence proving anyone innocent. or at least can prove plausible deniability.

Arthur Conan Doyle -- Sherlock Holmes -- understand in full what anyone's ability is, and what its limits, strengths and weaknesses are.

we don't have enough ability-related abilities in bsd. too much offense and defense, not enough middle ground stuff.

Tennessee Williams -- The Glass Menagerie -- turns people into 'glass', or drastically decreases their durability. doesn't harm the target in and of itself, but the target needs to leave any combat because now they can be killed in one hit.

Arthur Miller -- Death of a Salesman -- communicates with the dead. We're gonna need something like this if Asagiri keeps killing off characters at the rate he's currently going.

[amtrak-official]

The E5 is so cool, I wish trains were real

I might as well actually use this blog for something, huh? Since I have the URL now. For a first post here I’m just going to post pictures of all of the E5 Shinkansen merch I own, because why not? Unfortunately I don’t own a lightbox, I apologize for the quality here.

The first image I posted is a nanoblock-type kit, each car of the train was actually sold separately, although the front/rear and passenger cars ate two separate versions. I also have a Doctor Yellow version in storage somewhere, but I think it’s missing a couple pieces. I should check

Next up is a Plarail! I love Plarail. When I was a kid I had a whole track setup as a gift from a family friend who took business trips to Japan, I honestly blame that for me being a terminal weeb. For those who don’t know, Plarail is a type of plastic scale model train produced by TakaraTomy that runs on plastic tracks and requires no real assembly. It’s technically targeted at a younger age demographic, but I love it regardless. Unfortunately this E5 doesn’t have a motor, but it’s got a good reason for that at least…

You thought it was a normal train, but it was me, Shinkalion! A line of transforming robot toys, TakaraTomy combined Plarail with those other transforming robot toys they also make that you’re probably thinking of to create Shinkalion. I actually own almost every release in the Shinkalion Z toyline, which this specific figure comes from. I probably should watch the tie-in anime, but I also have to finish like, Roshidere and Tensura first, and who has time. I did watch the movie with a friend a while back though, I’m not convinced it was real. Look it up if you want to take psychic damage. I’ve heard the latest season might be more my thing though! I do want to check it out.

But of course, what is the E5 if not the H5’s better looking cousin? I might as well show off its counterpart from Hokkaido as well. To be honest, I really regret not applying the sticker detailing to this version. It really loses something, especially with the less eye-catching purple compared to the pink. Also, if you know anything about Shinkalion, it’s probably that the pilot of the H5 mech, at least in the first season, is Hatsune Miku. I actually do have the Shinkalion Miku Nendoroid, I just can’t be assed getting her out of storage right now.

And that’s the post! Hopefully at least someone will enjoy reading it. I might do more in-depth reviews of the other Shinkalion figures I own, or even other figures in general, although probably not on this blog.

[bookqueenrules]

Why 11:05 Might Really Mean 2:18 and 18 Might Be Beth's Magic Number.

Big Ben is featured so prominently in the DD Season 3 promo just released that I knew the time on the clock must mean something important. I think there are multiple possibilities, and we won't know for sure until plays out, but I have some possible theories as to what it might mean. As always, I would love any feedback you have.

At first, I thought it might just symbolize season three. 1+1+the 1:00 second would equal three.

Then, I thought that each hand is one moment away from the 10 and the 2 which we all know was on the "Get Well" clock behind Beth at Grady. Possibly meaning that we are one season away from Beth's complete reemergence from being "gone" just like in Slabtown when we see the 10:10 or 10:2 clock.

However, I hit on something not quite so obvious but incredibly cool when I decided to watch 11x05 of the flagship!

In that episode we get our first real glimpse as to what life is like in the Commonwealth. There are THREE clocks shown prominently in the Commonwealth during that episode and guess what time each shows? 2:18!

The first is in Hornsby's Commonwealth video:

Then, there are TWO separate clocks shown during Miko's miraculous reunion after more than a decade with her brother, Tomi.

The Miko and Tomi reunion is not the only miraculous return in 11x05.

At the end of 11x05 it's a former Whisper that tells Carol and the others that he has seen Connie, though he doesn't know her name, alive.

The clocks pointing to 2:18 in 11x05 might have been pointing the resurrections of BOTH Rick and Beth. In fact, I wonder if the 2 might represent two characters returning and not Season 2? Tomi and word of Connie in the episode but the returns of the original "18 Miles Out" character, Rick and Beth, in the future.

I wonder Michonne was looking for Rick for 18 months before she found him? By the end of season 3 is should be somewhere around 18 months since Daryl originally left the Commonwealth looking for "something" before the time jump at the very end of the flagship.

Remember that season 2 only had 13 episodes, so there is no 2x18 episode, but 2x10 was called "18 Miles Out". It is a Beth/Rick episode where Beth tries to commit suicide, and Shane tries to kill Rick. So, both of them survive things that could have been fatal. In season 2's "18" episode.

In the DD spin-off we have seen 18 specifically called out more than once. I posted about it here along with speculation about how that number is connected to being not too far gone to return.

In DD season 1 there were 18 kids at the school in DD1x2.

There were 18 seconds before the walker broke free of its chains in DD1x3.

Most recently we saw the number 18 on the Rockaway Towing Truck in DC 2.

I wrote about his whole sequence being a Beth survival allegory here.

In case you may think the clock times are just random, here is one example. In episode 2x11, after checking on Beth, Herschel and Glenn talk. Hershel talks about Glenn being a father himself one day. Hershel then gives Glenn his watch as a sign of his approval of Maggie and Glen. Notice it says 6:20 or 6x4. It's in 6x4, when Maggie is searching for Glen, that she reveals to Aaron that she is pregnant making a Glen a father at 6x4.

When Glen takes the watch out just before his death fakeout in 6x3 what time does it show?

2:11 or 2x11 as a call back to the episode when he received it.

I saved the best for last!

So, which episode will be episode 18 of the Daryl Dixson spin-off?

Why 3x6 will EPISODE 18! Beth avoided death in "18 Miles Out" episode 2x10. At Grady she "resurrected" a second time with a pointing to 10 and 2 behind her in reverse of 2x10. Will her third "resurrection" be in the 18th episode?

I don't know, but I am hopefully that we will at least get a huge clue or hint by the end of that episode! It would definitely fulfill the "18 Miles Out" symbolism.

@atrumreginablue

[mixelation]

have you heard of the dire wolves coming back (sorta?) through genetic engineering?? When I read about it my first thought was of you and how you'd probably write a post about its actually all a scam or something...

Ha! Yeah okay, so multiple people have contacted me over this now lol. For reference the only real article I've read about it is this one, plus some general chatter on tumblr, like this post.

I've posted about the company behind this, Colossal Biosciences, a little bit here. The tl;dr of that post is that I think I'm more pro "de-extinction" or "resurrection" than a lot of other people yelling on tumblr. I don't think the goal necessarily should be re-introduction to current ecosystems, but such techniques could give us new ways to study extinct species and the tools we'd have to develop to get there would be MASSIVELY useful to conservation of extant-but-endangered species. I'd okay with a (responsibly managed) plot of land dedicated to letting rich people go ride mammoths or whatever if the money from that (and the general public excitement/interest in biology it would generate) and the technology made to MAKE that are then put into conserving interesting types of worms or other less charismatic species.

The dire wolf being "de-extinct" thing is........ clickbait. They assembled a "good quality" dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) genome from DNA extract from fossils, which is a pretty cool feat if true. They then made 20 gene edits to grey wolf (Canis lupus) embryos to make them "look like" dire wolves. In the article I linked, the scientist they interviewed was pretty frankly like "yeah it's like 99.9% grey wolf." There's also been screen shots going around of whatever Colossal Biosci spokespersons being like "noooo this totally counts guys. Species is a manmade concept! It's the phenotype that counts!" which I think people are right to be annoyed by. You made some grey wolves slightly more dire wolf-like, my guys. Claiming you're made a "de-extinct" species is just..... not true.

All that being said, it's not like they did NOTHING. The headlines and the reddit AMA or whatever defending these wolves as "totally real dire wolves!!!" makes it sound like the company is just doing things without know what they're doing, but making 20 separate gene edits in a wolf and getting three healthy puppies is actually really impressive. They also said they used techniques they developed during the dire wolf project to clone some puppies of the critically endangered red wolf, which is potentially amazing news for conservation. Streamlining complex gene editing means potentially helping wolf populations that have gone through huge bottlenecks and are now highly inbred. Being able to put a gene of interest into another organism also means the gene can be studied, so no matter what people bitching on tumblr say, these fake dire wolves could provide insight into studying actual dire wolves, albeit in a limited capacity. I'd rather there just be public support and tons of government funding for research and conservation work, but in the capitalist hellscape we currently live in, a bro-y biotech company selling annoying clickbait but also contributing actual important work on the side is perhaps the strategy we're going to have to live with.

So, those are the potentially positives I see, but I also have very mixed feelings about Colossal Biosciences as a whole because it's unclear to me what their actual mission, like..... is? They could get us some real conservations #Wins, but they could also do shit like copyright genes and refuse to coordinate with outside scientists they'd need in order to move conservation form the lab to real ecosystems. What are they even going to do with their dire wolves, or their cloned red wolves? Is it really just to show off a big wolf or are they interested in actually studying them? Why are their representatives saying insane shit about "de-extincting phenotypes" on reddit? They're privately funded so there's not necessarily peer review or verification that their various claims are even true.... DID they actually successfully make 20 gene edits? DO they actually have a good quality genome? I have no idea. If anyone knows, please point us at their publications in a peer-reviewed journal.

anyway if i were fuck-off wealthy, i'd be resurrecting weird bugs and various diseases, so. could be worse

[emdoesstufff]

My (fan)casts for the MCU Young Avengers

I've kind of had these in my head for a long time and wanted to put them out into the world and see what other people thought about them.

Harley Keener/Iron Man - Ty Simpkins

I know it's a bit of a controversial idea putting Harley on the MCU Young Avengers team, but I'm a big fan of it. With the whole Jonathan Majors/Kang situation, I doubt we'll being introduced to Nathanial Richard's anytime soon, which I'm kind of glad for. In the MCU, a genius inventor guy in a metal suit becoming a superhero wouldn't become Iron Lad, because Tony is gone, they would most likely become Iron Man. I think out of everyone, Tony would want Harley to take up the mantle and honor his legacy, so I really like this casting.

Eli Bradley/Patriot - Elijah Richardson

Eli Bradley in the comics is being seriously neglected in my opinion and I would hate to see that happen in the MCU as well. The casting crew for TFATWS did an amazing job at choosing the actor to play Eli. I mean this is the guy I picture when I think of live action Eli. Elijah Richardson is also a still relatively unknown actor, and I think that is also a really important part for the character. These actors will be the future of media and it's important for Marvel to bring them up. Eli is also an important representation for the black community and I think that's really important for us to have right now.

Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel - Iman Vellani

Iman Vellani is an amazing person and actor for Marvel and I love her every time she appears as Kamala. I know in the comics Kamala is a part of the Champions, but I really doubt the MCU would make separate Young Avengers and Champions teams. They have also already set up her being the leader of the Young Avengers with the post credit scene of The Marvel's and I think that's amazing. Kamala is a really important representation for me personally and I love her being this amazing character on the big screen in the MCU.

Kate Bishop/Hawkeye - Hailee Steinfeld

Again, Marvel has already set her up to be on the Young Avengers team from the post credit scene of The Marvels, and I think she really needs to be. She has become a fan favorite character and she's just a very cool character that can have an interesting and fun dynamic with almost any other character. Hailee Steinfeld is probably one of the best actresses right now and I really think she is a great choice for Kate.

Cassie Lang/Stature - Kathryn Newton

I know a lot of people did not like her character in Quantumania, and were upset about the actress chosen, but I think she is a good choice, and Marvel just needs to execute it better next time. First of all, they need to let her have her blond hair like she does in the comics, which would immediately make it better I think. Secondly, they need to let her develop more as her own character and away from Antman. Kathryn Newton is a very good actress and I know she could pull it off well if given the chance from Marvel.

Amadeus Cho - Fred Liu

I'm not super insistent on this casting, but I kind of like the idea of it. I also think Amadeus Cho should be done much differently in the MCU than in the comics. I don't think we need another hulk retelling, but something slightly different from anyone else and unique to his character. I've made other posts describing how I would make his character, and if someone would like me to explain, I would be glad to.

America Chavez/Miss America - Xotchil Gomez

Some people either really like Xotchil as America and some people really don't. I personally think she is a really good actor and person who brings America to the MCU very well. The characters from the comics to the MCU will always be different characters, and that's a good thing. The big screen is a different version and all of the characters deserve to grow in different ways from the comics. America might not be exactly the same as the comics, but she shouldn't be. The MCU version is very good in my opinion and she will be an important part of the MCU Young Avengers, like in the comics.

Loki Odinson/Kid Loki - Jack Veal

By now you can probably tell I'm pretty into letting people keep their roles. I know Jack Veal has been going through a lot recently, but now that he is in a better place, this role could actually really help him. He is also a rather small actor and I think it's important Marvel casts people like that. Jack really seems like a sweet person and seems great to take on this role.

Billy Maximoff/Wiccan - Joe Locke

Some people were really mean to Joe when he was cast as Billy, but after watching AAA, I think he is an amazing choice for Billy. He is an amazing actor and sweet person. He also offers that representation for the queer community and as a member of that community, that's really important to have in mainstream media, no matter how much people complain. I can see him having great chemistry with so many other Marvel actors as well.

Tommy Maximoff/Speed - Elisey Bendas

This is kind of random, but I like using his pictures for things as Tommy and I think he looks fairly like Joe Locke, which they are twins. I don't know if Marvel will still go the route of them being twins and looking like each other, but I think this is nice.

Riri Williams/Ironheart - Dominique Thorne

I love Dominique as Riri and I think she is so funny in the role. Dominique is a great actor and she works well alongside Letitia Wright, so I'm excited to see that in the future. She had an upcoming show, so I'm pretty sure Marvel knows they're going to stick with her. Once again, very excited to see what she does and I absolutely love her character in the comics.

[freckleslikestars]

Hi! I was wondering if you’d be up to share how you made the before and after slider on this post:

https://www.tumblr.com/freckleslikestars/780305824654540800/before-after-gif-colouring-challenge

It’s really cool! Thank you!

Aww thank you so much! I literally had a dream about doing this two weeks ago, and when @sophsun1 tagged me I was like "oh my gosh lets try it!"

Now, before we start, I'm going to assume basic knowledge of gif making, colouring, etc. I'm using Adobe Photoshop 2025, but you should be able to adapt the steps for pretty much any software that has a timeline and allows for vector masks.

Once you understand key frames and vector masks, it's super easy to do!

First, we're going to open our gif in video timeline view, with our colouring already done. (My colouring is all in "Group 1")

Next, I converted the footage to a smart object, leaving the colouring as it's own independant group. This isn't technically necessary, but I do this to a) apply sharpening and b) so my layers tab is less cluttered. This is normally also where I'd make sure my image size is correct (I do 540X400 pixels) but I forgot so I did that later on this one.

At this point, I turned some guides on and, using the rectangle tool, drew a rectangle that was around the size of the canvas, clicked to the last column on the right hand side.

The next step is to turn it into a vector mask. With command held down on a mac (I think it's alt on windows, but don't quote me on that) drag the rectangle layer onto the colouring group layer. It will fill in the whole canvas with colour.

Delete the rectangle layer, so that you're just left with the gif itself and the colouring layer with the rectangle vector mask over the top.

Next we're going to animate it, so you need to open the dropdown for the colouring layer on the timeline, and you'll want to scroll down to where it says Vector Mask Position

Making sure your playhead is at the very beginning of the gif, click on Vector Mask Position and drop a keyframe. Then, move your playhead to the very end of your gif and drop another keyframe - at this point you don't need to move the vector mask at all.

The next thing you need to do is find the middle of your gif - this doesn't need to be overly precise, particularly with longer gifs, but the precision means that the vector mask moves at the same spead both ways. Drop another keyframe there.

With the playhead over the keyframe, select the vector mask on the layers panel and using the move tool, move it across to the first column on the left. I personally prefer to use my arrow keys to just nudge it left, rather than faffing about with clicking and dragging.

If you were to export it at this point, it would be perfectly fine, you'd get the moving vector mask to show the before and after, which has a pretty cool aesthetic all of it's own. But lets add some details to make it look like a before and after sample image.

I started by adding the BEFORE and AFTER - I used Adobe Clean as my font, but font choice is really personal preference. I just centred them in the bottom left and right squares of my guidelines. I then drew a white line, using the line tool, down where the divide is, added a couple of rounded arrows (and lowered their opacity), and merged the three of them together (keeping the text separate).

Then I simply followed the same steps to add key frames to the line in the same places as I did with the vector mask, making sure that the centre one was nudged to the location for the vector mask on the centre key frame.

Export as usual and et voila!

Something to note is that this effect works better with longer gifs. As you'll see, this X Files gif was a touch too short, and so the slider feels a little too rushed:

Also, if you're wanting all of the sliders to move at the same time/speed, you're going to want to make sure all of your gifs are the same length, which I didn't do because I'd had a long day and I was procrastinating from postgrad work for an assessment I have tomorrow. Which is incidentally what I'm also doing right now.

Anyway, there you have it! Super simple when you know how! If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask! :)

[clearlykelsey]

Alright, alright. Second try! Well, welcome to my one and only

Of what? Uhm. Everything, of course! Absolutely everything I want, no one asked for, no one needed! wELCOME TO KELSEY USES GRAMMAR FOR THE FIRST TIMEoh never mind.

As one does, I'll simply put my intro here as well because why not, am I right? ahem line break with whatever THOSE are

Well, yo! It's me, ya boy, Kelsey! You can call me Kel too or whatever else you want really

He/him, minor, your local atheist loser who thinks Hero omori is very cool and neat and awesome and best bro to kel frfr (PLEASE WORLD GIVE ME A PERSON LIKE HIM IM BEGGING YOU)

INTERESTS: Omori (For 3 years already, can you believe it?), Stardew Valley, Cult of the Lamb, Am I Nima? (just discovered), moths (theyre cool!)

Stuff I know about decently: Warrior cats, Undertale, NITW, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Alien Stage, Dead Plate (not really), FNAF (sigh...)

DNI -> Basic stuff, you all know it, come on. Also. Anyone who says the word tummy in my presence

May I note im very cool and swag? because i am!! not really though i started crying last time i tried to talk to that cool highschooler one of my irl friends is friends with (note: i had already talked to him before multiple times) Anywho, maybe i'll be awkward or even shy with you at first but. please run while you can. my friends probably regret talking to me because i keep spamming messages

Number 3 Hero fan, Kel kinnie (even if it doesnt look like it), professional frozen strawberry eater (ate a whole 1kg pack by myself in less than a week) and master procrastinator

BOOM HAVE MY PLAYLIST!

i also uhm. play roblox. and. have only like 2 friends that play with me but theyre never online. and my cool hero kinnie friend dipped a year ago. so. uhm. uhm. its uh. blueberrydahooman. i know its stupid i cant afford to change it tho

How do I do this?? just gonna throw everything here separated by uh sections yes. im such a genius.

Tags I use (sometimes)

Just Kel yapping - Pretty self explanatory

Hector observing - I take shitty pics of my homemade hector and post here for you all to see because isnt he AWESOME??

... And that's it.

ALSO! ✏️ for writing (yap, text), 🖊️for art, both for... Well, both. Why pen? Because I only draw in pen irl nowadays!

SUNLESS AU

(AKA the au i may or may not be proud of)

The day I came up with this god awful idea (not) -✏️

The first yap (oh no) - ✏️🖊️

The day almost NO ONE VOTED SO i picked it myself - ✏️🖊️

CHIP! He's real! - ✏️🖊️

Should I include this? I dunno. For now, I will! - ✏️

You feed into this madness... Why would you? Well, thanks! - ✏️

Wow! People like it! Awesome! - ✏️

Alas, Chip. - 🖊️

Doodles. I don't like them. - 🖊️

It took long, but the Chip profile arrived to provide context - 🖊️

Whatever THAT means. It's barely anything! - ✏️🖊️

The poll, so you're aware which is next, I guess - ✏️

Static... But better - 🖊️

Shitpost 1: Have a Sunless Kel dog! - 🖊️

Shitpost 2: He's sad. It's all your fault, anon - 🖊️

Shitpost 3: Happy! Yippee! - 🖊️

Yap, yap, yap. Important, though. - ✏️

Compliments......... I LOVE THOSE!! - ✏️

Static... But WAY better! - 🖊️

Tired. (TW Suicide... Mention? You can see the rope.) - 🖊️

This might be sunless au suntan song frfr

More songs. I'm just spewing out my playlist at this point

Stuff I'd like you to look at

AKA drawings I made and youre legally required to like

Mari

Mari...?

Whatever those are.

Porcupie.

Literal thing with most notes in my blog. Why though???

Messing around with brushes (TW: Suicide)

OMORI! I LOOVE this one!! Pls look at the details thank you

Mitaño AU my beloved

Suntan peak frfr

crack

Animation. Kinda. Im kidding it has 1 second and i'll never finish it

Misunderstanding? Maybe! Happy? Absolutely.

Basil

Hero in a dress. literal biggest flex i have is that spinnileaf reblogged it and i feel so cool man

Baby brother!

The HS Kel saga??

(its hs kel but i insist on making sequels) (i'll continue it) (i think) (does anyone even like it)

Never to be seen again.

Still rising

Still...

byebye this is it for today, next up itll be hector observing

[canmom]

assorted TTRPG things

nugget from the tab bonfire: at some point I was reading about RPGs. some things that are old, some are new(ish). here are some links, since I think they are interesting, and some additional comments.

first-up: my own RPG posts are now archived here. that section of my site is looking a whole lot more fleshed out now.

1. ritual

in 2021, Meguey Baker wrote this one about 'ritual in game design', fitting TTRPGs into her frame of faciliating rituals for essentially therapeutic purposes, aimed at parents. since I like talking in a vaguely (vaguely) anthropological way about the analogies between TTRPGs and other activities (improv comedy, kink, wrestling), this is very relevant.

by Meguey's definition, a ritual is defined through this series of words: intentional contained conscious creative action. of course, she gives these words fairly specialised definitions. she's mostly interested in addressing TTRPGs that go into tough, bleedy places, described in books like Alice Is Missing, BFF, and Bluebeard’s Bride - of these I'm only familiar with the third but I'm kind of aware of the genre of game she's talking about. she suggests that these principles don't really apply if you're just playing to hang out and have a good time, but to my mind, just because you're less formal about it doesn't mean that's not an aspect of ritual, and the analysis is similarly applicable there, just lower-stakes.

in fact I think a whole lot of human activities are rituals (classic bryn move to grab a conceptual hammer and start seeing nails everywhere). the analogy goes the other way too, rituals are kind of like games.

I'm not entirely convinced the breakdown into jargon words really does a lot for me, but the crucial thing here is the sort of entering and exiting into a constrained social space which has its special set of rules. meguey writes these cool little coloured lists which depict the various stages of getting you into a game/ritual headspace and exiting it afterwards...

...and specialises it to the case of roleplaying games as you see. it's pretty BDSM-like isn't it? sure, that's something I'm currently interested in, I recently read The New [Topping/Bottoming] Books, but it certainly does suggest that analogy strongly for me; I think a general recognition that RPGs should have aftercare would do a lot more for the scene than a lot of the other 'safety tools' like X-cards and so on. (a weaker analogy is the principles of animation: anticipation, action, follow-through.)

this idea of ritual also strongly parallels the definition of 'play' of roger callilois:

1. it is free, or not obligatory 2. it is separate from the routine of life, occupying its own time and space 3. it is uncertain, so that the results of play cannot be pre-determined and the player's initiative is involved 4. it is unproductive in that it creates no wealth, and ends as it begins economically speaking 5. it is governed by rules that suspend ordinary laws and behaviours and that must be followed by players 6. it involves make-believe that may be set against 'real life'.[6]: 100–101 

as a set of traits which describe a somewhat fuzzy sphere of activity. meguey's account of 'ritual' focuses more on the set of steps you follow to enter and leave the ritual space, but it is describing, I think, a heavily overlapping 'thing'.

why so explicitly break down a process that most people seem to come by naturally? well, probably for the same reason that kink people do it: the more you play with [emotional] fire, the more care you must exercise to keep it contained. but it is also pretty important, I think, to pursue some degree of ritual for the middle part to actually work. you need to switch mental gears first to get yourself operating in 'game space'. same goes for a number of other 'spaces' for that matter. in RPGs we already have plenty of rituals: getting set up around the table (for offline games), general chitchat beforehand to get us feeling social with the other players, the brief summary of the previous session to mark the transition into RPG mode...

one non-obvious extension that Meguey makes, in the third excerpt above is to the actual text of RPG books, in terms of how they are presented to the reader. I think this is genuinely quite an insight - when you read a book you get into RPG space a bit and imagine playing the game, building up the fantasy of what playing it will entail (c.f. what's the book for, part 3).

though, that said - it is tricky to pursue a strict ritual structure in presentation, I think, because I think RPG books tend to be read very non-linearly. only quite short games tend to get read cover-to-cover in one sitting. otherwise you tend to skip to the part that you need. still: the manner of presentation is very important to an RPG book serving its purposes. and this is a fascinating frame for it.

I'm not sure this essay necessarily gives a new direction (as a designer or a player), but it does give an interesting angle to understand things I was already doing previously, and do them a little more deliberately.

for example, when I make a point of mentioning moments that I enjoyed in the time after an RPG session before we all part ways, that is the 'return/celebration' part of the ritual, and crucially it reassures everyone that even if they were playing an unpleasant character or there was inter-character conflict in the session, it was something I was looking for and appreciated. I do this because there have been times when I've felt a bad kind of bleed, fearing that my character was 'too much' and was detracting from the session, or that a conflict in-character reflected an OOC conflict. having an explicit affirmation helps drive away those fears.

2. rule zero in D&D

this history of 'rule zero' in D&D editions dates all the way back to 2012 (although it seems to have been updated since), but it's still very relevant to my current efforts to understand RPGs, books, and all the weird practices around them, the role of 'rulings' in OSR, etc etc.

right off the bat, I appreciate the nuances that this early paragraph expresses:

The attitude towards rulings vs. rules in the game shows up  - directly and explicitly in the rules text - implicitly in the text and detectable via textual analysis  - in the surrounding publications considered semi-canonical (Dragon magazine, nowadays forums and designer blogs), and  - the culture of gamers surrounding it.

while the rest of the post is still focused on what books say rather than what people did with those books, it's a relief when people note that there is a difference.

so, the essay traces a general evolution of ideas about what role the rules in the book are supposed to follow as D&D moved away from wargaming and passed through the hands of different publishers. how much interpolation and discretion the DM is supposed to apply to the text, how authoritative they're supposed to be at their own table compared to the non-DM players...

it's fascinating to observe how the culture of the game evolved. it's also tricky to distil the different currents down into a brief summary - I tried and realised I was just recapping the article in less detail. luckily the author wrote a summary so I can just quote that:

0e – the referee is an aribiter and fills in the gaps 1e – the DM is large and in charge, the rules are pretty good, your players are at both’s behest B/X and 2e – the DM and players are both important, the rules are super mutable 3e/early 3.5e – the rules and players and DM are leveled out in importance, meaning rulings are minimized and a negotiation with players BECMI/late 3.5e/4e – the rules are pretty fixed and players and DM are equal and subject to the rules as law; RAW is an option OSR and Pathfinder – splitting off in their own directions in reaction to 4e, OSR back to a mix of 0e and B/X flavored attitudes and Pathfinder to a hybrid of 1e/2e/3e attitudes 5e – The DM is clearly in charge and can ignore/change rules and rolls as they deem wise, with the goal of everyone having fun (as opposed to the sometimes-stated 1e goal of “keeping the players in their place”.) It reincorporated a lot of the 1e and 2e thinking into the game to an even greater degree than Pathfinder. PF2e – Effectively back to 3e positioning fairly exactly. It stepped back away from where PF1e and 5e were going and got a little less enthusiastic about GM authority, carefully scoping it to interpretation and, sometimes, changes to make things fun. Maybe a *little* more towards 5e than 3e was, but only by a hair.

anyway, there are a couple of interesting points I want to pull out of the discussion. first is this insightful comment on the broader implications of rules that grant abilities - something to discuss further in a later post...

The problem with [D&D 3.5e's claim that you can try anything and the rules only govern chances of success] from a textual interpretation standpoint is that it’s hard to not interpret the raft of “possibility” options in the 3e branch of D&D as being restriction of options. I can try to throw my opponent in a grapple – until a feat comes out that says “In a grapple, you can now throw your opponent.” Thus despite mitigating statements by the designers, their design itself passively promulgates an approach to the rules as written.

there's also an interesting line about how 'old school' the OSR actually is, answer being that it's complicated.

Some, however, consider this to be a bit of a retcon of how old school gaming actually worked. As you can see from this research, it is and it isn’t – the “rulings vs. rules” concept was very strong especially in B/X and 2e, somewhat less so in 0e/1e, and actively militated against in BECMI. Hackmaster and the Knights of the Dinner Table comic prominently parody the not uncommon rules-adherence mode of play in AD&D. As all nostalgia does, the Quick Primer picks certain elements out of the past to bring back and leaves aside some other elements.

finally, we have this comment about the (then very new) 5th edition approach to framing its rules:

It also appears to take a hint from the OSR’s formulation of “rulings, not rules” as well as the prominent fiction-first modern indie games like Apocalypse World when it describes the basic pattern of play – 1. The DM describes the environment 2. The players describe what they want to do (and the DM decides how to resolve those actions – importantly, the PCs don’t decide what rules they use) 3. The DM narrates the results

...which is somewhat true to my experience of 5e, although I think there is still a fairly significant component of 'I use this ability on my character sheet' in the game (I use this weapon, I cast this spell, I use this special ability). So the players do often decide what rules they want to invoke. Although, that is also true of Apocalypse World - something to go into another day.

mostly I think it's really helpful to have a proper sense of the space of practices represented by D&D, since popular discourse (including the game's rulebooks) way too often seems to assume there is only one way that D&D is played. this is a good stab at exploring some of the dimensions, and will definitely inform whatever is the next investigation I make into the structure of RPGs.

for another angle on D&D history, I came across this old (2016) ENWorld post tracing how Gygax got increasingly proprietary and litigious with D&D, and hostile to people putting their own spins on it.

it seems like for more on this topic of early RPG history I should be taking a look at The Elusive Shift by John Peterson, so posssibly more to come on this subject when I get round to reading that one.

3. blorb

I came across Sandra Snan's website, idiomdrottning.org, which is another one of those classic static-site treasure troves of someone's thoughts on everything for like the last decade.

like me, she came back to playing trad games like D&D after spending a while exploring the storygames milieu. She landed on a set of practices relating to the concreteness of the setting, in explicit opposition to 'no myth'-style games where anything not stated out loud is fair game to be modified for the sake of narrative.

she calls this 'blorb', and as these things tend to, it gets something like a manifesto. many other articles on this site talk about various facets of roleplaying games are written about on the site in relation to this.

'blorb' focuses on the relationship between preparation and improvisation: making a big show of referring to things on paper, and making decisions in the open, to reinforce the sort of metanarrative that there is an underlying reality even if it hasn't fully been discovered yet. it emphasises more granular simulation over abstraction.

since it's a little hard to navigate Sandra's archives, I've gathered the posts that are relevant to the subject here:

the chasm width problem (motivating, raising the issue that few games explicitly address the how of DMing)

blorb principles

realism and blorb (which discusses the other name 'klokkverk' used elsewhere in the milieu, and compares it to 'no myth') + the fictioneers talk about blorb again

radically transparent DM-ing

say the DC

antiblorb

GM-less roleplaying games

a blorb thought

the quest queue

there's probably others but these are the main ones I read

for contrast, no myth, a somewhat overlapping and somewhat very different paradigm of games that broadly sums up the norms of the Forge/'story games' tradition.

to sandra, 'blorb' is a statement of the type of roleplaying she finds vastly more satisfying to operate, and the crucial elements to make that happen.

what I find interesting about blorb is that, since its main interlocutor is the Forge/story-games tradition, it puts a fair bit of discussion into how this affects the fiction in practice. e.g. what you should prepare and what you can still improvise, and how the existence of the 'gloracle' (the combination of prepped materials and dice/rules, and rigour in consulting them) shapes our notion of 'the fiction'.

via this post, vincent baker back in 2012 defined RPGs thus:

To me, the crucial feature that makes a game an RPG is that it works by the (so-called) lumpley primple: in order to play, we have to create fictional stuff and agree that, for gameplay purposes, it's true. This is a pretty technical and inclusive definition. It includes Once Upon a Time and that game where you sit in a circle and pretend that some of you are werewolves, for instance.

something I find very interesting RPGs is the process of 'synchronisation' of the shared fiction. the idea of 'shared fiction' is something of an elaborate illusion. every player has a different version of it, with different emphases, different things that are fresh in memory, different interpretations of the images...

consider verbal descriptions of locations. my sense of what is in a scene will constantly be adjusted based on the stream of description I'm receiving from other players - the 'shared fiction' is at best something we approach asymptotically.

in an extreme example, a DM could lead with an elaborate description of the architecture, decorations, and layout of the room, before wrapping up with 'and curled around the central pillar is a mighty red dragon'. dun dun dun! suddenly, I have to recontextualise everything in the scene I was building in my head to accomodate the presence of the dragon.

the unreliability of this communications channel was a source for a vein of classic D&D humour, such as the Dread Gazebo of yore, where the communication channel breaks down leading to an inconsistency in the 'shared' fiction.

'no myth' and similar ideas come from the recognition that, until something is said out loud and enters part of the shared fiction, it can be changed freely between any possibility consistent with the 'established' facts. sort of like the wave function collapse algorithm. they take the attitude that you should do this deliberately to maximise drama and add complications, taking on more of a writer/director role. this character enters a bar, what should they encounter there? it would be fucked up if they encountered their ex, right? ergo their ex is there.

there is a degree of this in every RPG, not just your high-improv post-Forge story games. in order for some sort of consensus to be reached, parts of it must be black-boxed and unpredictable. for example, if I am inhabiting a character, I have my idea of how they will act and what they're feeling and thinking about, and that's authoritative. but that means for everyone else's characters, I have my impressions and predictions, but they're subject to being updated as soon as that player speaks.

for Sandra, this recognition that everything is getting moved around for drama undermines the substance of the world - an inescapable awareness even if the players take pains to make the established, spoken-out-loud fiction consistent.

so, additional 'authority' is central to the 'blorb' playstyle. that is, in addition to each player's authority to make up stuff within their domain (e.g. what their character does), you make a big point of deferring to some additional authorities such as pre-prepped material and dice (which Sandra calls the 'gloracle'), and making it explicit to the players that you're doing so. for example, you might talk about the random encounter tables you're using and what would change their contents, or declare the DC before every roll.

it's kind of a defensive style of DMing, in that it's entirely designed to forestall any suspicion of 'fudging' behind the scenes. the tradeoff is: more explicit discussion of game mechanics which might detract from the sort of 'atmosphere', but equally a stronger sense of inhabiting an external world where things are 'really' happening 'offscreen'.

to me, the idea of 'fudging' doesn't bother me nearly as much as it seems to bother Sandra, but I think there is some truth to the thought that if everything is subject to random tables or pure off-the-dome improv, the game can start to feel a very homogeneous. as Sandra puts it in one of her articles:

I don’t want to expand randomly as we go either, because if everything is randomly rolled as you go along, where’s the agency? South becomes the same as north becomes the same as west because wherever you go, the dice are furnishing for you, so the choice about where to go matters less.

it's probably got something to do with information theory, right? once you become familiar with the table, and you know when the table will be invoked, you've broadly found out what there is to know about that thing. there are only so many bits of information.

I was saying the other day, games are interesting because they are something to explore through interacting with them to discover all their weird nuances. players are pretty good at sniffing out how complex and varied the underlying system is. a wide set of interesting, spicy locations - and logical relations between them - has more nuances to discover than a random table with, say, 10 entries.

the problem is of course that such a prep-focused playstyle can lead to huge amounts of 'wasted' effort fleshing out elements of the gloracle which may never be activated, especially if players don't spend their time rubbing against your creation in various ways to discover its nuances. Sandra's approach is to work out what's easy to improvise on the fly (the 'wallpaper') and what is crucial to pin down in advance, and largely prepare the latter - the difference, I guess, coming down to experience. we can think of it in programming terms: a small authoritative state and things that can be derived from that.

in my experience, at least some players have become a lot more considerate of the workload of GMing. far from trying to resist 'railroading', they will often generally deliberately try to steer themselves towards whatever location a DM has prepared as a courtesy; meanwhile the GM will be able to get a sense of where the players are planning to go so they can prep between sessions. however, that is contrary to the more 'sandboxy' approach where the core appeal is 'you can do pretty much anything', which is what Sandra is trying to generate I think.

I'm too much of an improv-focused GM to really become a partisan of 'blorb' - for me, discovering improv-oriented story games after D&D was as revelatory as discovering D&D after storygames was for Sandra lol. I trust somewhat in my ability to come up with weird interesting stuff on the fly and flesh it out later, and I tend to find the moment of being in the hotseat of an RPG gets the creative juices flowing like nothing else, so it's actually quite difficult to come up with anything good during prep.

however, I think there is a lot to be said for the value of making at least certain things concrete, and communicating that to the players, and Sandra makes a good case for showing your hand. it's a way to make the shared fantasy take on certain qualities it won't have if it remains purely arbitrary improv, even if the only real functional difference is when you make something up. both because it's hard to keep track of everything in your head without some kind of aid, and because the first idea you come up with will rarely be the richest, most interesting.

so next time i run a game, I'm not going to take such a zero-prep, all-improv approach, but try and work a bit harder on 'overall consistency'.

definitely a provocative blog to encounter...

[frozenjokes]

long list of mcyt ships and my dumbass opinions this post was getting too long and I have so much more to say

skizzpulse: needed to write about this because I don’t ship them at all but something is deeply weird about them in a way that is neither platonic or romantic. They have transcended human definitions of Relationship to me. No they’re not a QPR either. They’re weirder. Whatever you’re thinking they’re weirder. Do not separate. Attached at the hip.

etho: etho is in a realm of his own where I simply can not ship him. he’s not doing the romance. he’s not doing the qpr. he’s not doing shit. And it’s not because he can’t pull bitches; he is swagless and a loser in a way that brings ALL the boys to the yard (as opposed to Grian who is similar except he can’t pull anyone), he’s simply getting weird with it. He walks right past any sort of relationship into something deeper; resident sopping wet animal. aro/ace also but this isn’t nearly as relevant as the autism

cubscar/convex: favorite hermitcraft ship and it is not even close. It is NOT EVEN CLOSE. in the way scarian are both covered in lighter fluid and holding matches, convex are also doing that except it’s become a game of who can set the other on fire without being lit up themselves, and they’re both having the times of their lives (ends with both of them on fire every time without fail and it’s usually scar’s fault). they’re insane about it. the vex shit???? insane. their minds are beautiful and deeply wrong. I think they should kill each other.

solidaritimes: I will never forgive Scott smajor for separating scar and Jimmy in secret life he has no idea what he took from me. In a world where Jimmy is often the butt of the joke (by his own volition, I understand) the sheriff deputy thing was fucking beautiful. Sunshine and rainbows, love and support and adoration and everything good and healthy. A massive breath of fresh air and easily my favorite part of the hermitpires crossover. They mean everything to me. I’ve never seen such losers be so in love. Failgirl power.

redscape: another banger. These guys are GOOFY and I think Scar hits a magical combination of being Completely Exasperating vs Setting Off Mumbo’s Bullshit Radar which makes them bounce off each other in a lot of fun ways. They are versatile as a couple between banter and shenanigans and dedication, it’s a pairing I generally think of as very healthy and fun and if you also like all of these things don’t read my Boatem Ghosts AU because I make redscape awful and Mumbo pays the full price! Whoops! I love to think about them falling fast if I am writing them as romantically/sexually inclined characters, where Scar is frustrating but at the same time charming and silly in a way that draws Mumbo in. Mumbo on the other hand challenges Scar and chips away at his facade in ways he finds exciting. I like a Scar that wants to prove himself to Mumbo, win him over, where Mumbo is just lightly exasperated about the whole thing.

cleo/cub: probably the only pair on this list that I think are friends normal style. I just really adore normal style friends cleo and cub feuding about their museums so I had to tell you. I need to write them as friends more often. I love thinking about cub helping cleo fix up her stitches as well as other maintenance on their body. guys who nudity doesn’t matter to they’re both just chilling with their shirts off. special platonic dynamic to me.

ranchers: I don’t care about ranchers

moonrot: I don’t normally ship cleo and pearl in most of the smps or whatever. However. The specific dynamic they have in my boatem ghosts au makes me a little insane I really like them together. Pearl is a little bit deranged in her Wanting Revenge On Scar but ougghg that pirate scar’s hanging out with… she’s so cool… and then Cleo brings them to the ghost island and Pearl thinks she’s even cooler cleo is So Awesome ougghggh and then she gets worried because Scar is a Ultra Murderer TM so she’s quite protective over Cleo and doesn’t like Scar being around them AT ALL but her ass is dead so she’s not doing shit about it. The pining once Scar is out of the picture is Out Of Control. I should write a one shot about this.

ethubs: I think this is the only ship I can honestly say has ever been too weird for me. I think they’re deranged in a way that makes my skin crawl. I am deeply afraid of them. They’ve never kicked it normal style in their lives. I look at them and I don’t know what I’m seeing. It scares me. I respect this ship deeply and leave freshly slaughtered sacrifices at an altar once a week in a hope that will be enough for ethubs to leave me alone.

[horsetailcurlers2]

addison montgomery fanfiction recs by pairing

(although i am *relatively* new to the greys fandom, once i finished season three i immediately obsessively scoured the internet for any addison montgomery centric fanfiction i could get my hands on. here are just a few of my favorite ones for each of my addison ships (of which there are many). this is by no means an exhaustive list. my qualifications for this are that i’m cool and have good taste and spend way too much time thinking about fictional people)

ADDEK:

-“The Climbing Way” by winter machine (this is actually probably one of my favorite fanfictions of all time, period. this author is just absolutely brilliant at capturing their dynamic and all of its complexities. the entire thing is actually from derek’s POV which i was surprised how much i enjoyed considering i can sometimes be a derek hater lol but it provides some really good insight into his character without being as forgiving as canon or as bash-y as some fics (if that makes any sort of sense?). it also combines two of my favorite addek tropes: “sad baby backstory” and “traumatic event forces them to actually confront their issues”. it is also a very captivating portrait of derek and mark’s realtionship and has lots and lots of flashbacks. big angst warning especially for the early chapters.)

-“Some Bright Morning” by winter machine (i just can’t get enough of this author. i love any addek fic that heavily features savvy and weiss bc i think they should have made more appearances in canon. or savvy should’ve at least lmao. weiss was kind of a dick. but i like him in this fic! this is a very very interesting AU because it takes place largely outiside of canon settings and features a lot of OCs. it also takes place around early season one so the mark wound is still very fresh. its set entirely on a small island in georgia during savvy’s mother’s funeral so there’s plenty of forced proximity and bed sharing. the original setting and cast of characters are really fleshed out and completely captivating. like, i would read a whole separate story just about this island and its inhabitants. also features lots of background on savvy and addison’s friendship. and plenty of angst of course. you may be sending a pattern with these recommendations)

-“do you think i have forgotten (about you)” by crime_wives (this one legitimately made me sob. like, my body produced actual tears. angsty one shot. not happy-addek. a perfect snapshot of their tragic ending)

- “Unhinged (AddisonandDerekandMark)” by RulerOfAllThatIsEvilChiFlowers (very dark. very twisty. somewhat non linear.)

- “This Hurt Can Teach Us Both” by darlingwrecks (oh my lord this one is so so addek- bittersweet, sexy, nostalgic, painful and delightful all at once. my favorite thing about this writer is the way they write backstory, especially for the Med School Trio. this is also kind of fun because we never got to see how these two dealt with their post divorce logistics. derek was just kind of like “take all the property and fuck off” which is not at all how these things work lol)

MEDDISON:

- “lately she’s undressing for revenge” by emilyprentits (only read this if you want to be driven to tear your own hair out by the emotions this will make you feel. this is one of the fics that fully convinced me to ship meddison. so so so good and it’s like it was written from inside of meredith’s actual brain)

-“i’ll show you every version of yourself tonight” by withpeopleinperson (two words: stripper addison. read it. be forewarned it’s only one chapter and has not been updated in a few years but it’s a GREAT chapter regardless)

-“the seven stages of intoxication” by theprincessdiarist (meredith grey doling out meredith grey levels of emotional dysfunction. featuring loads and loads of delightfully frustrating mutual pining)

-“Sex and Caring in Seattle” by Bluefall (meredith once again having totally normal and regular feeling about her ex boyfriend’s wife. i love this one because they are both just kind of bisexual disasters and derek is just Also There. i love the way this author perfectly captures meredith’s perpetual inability to navigate her own emotions)

*EDIT: i also realized i forgot to add that these last two were recommended to me by @crime-wives !!!

-“open the floodgates up” by SugarsweetRomantic (this has EVERYTHING you could want in a meddison fic: mutual hurt/comfort, bed sharing, friends to lovers, these two being absolute dumbasses about each other. had me crying and also kicking my feet. genuinely)

MADDISON:

-“Make This Go On Forever” by darlingwrecks (i am so in love with this universe. i usually don’t gravitate toward kid/family centric fics but this one is so so much more than that. it’s maddison, if those two had made a real go of things, stayed in new york, and kept the pregnancy. there’s even some background merder eventually (which is not usually my jam but i like in this context). very very fluffy at times, a bit angsty at others, super in character but iirc i think this was written pretty early on in the show so addison and mark’s backgrounds may be a smidge different than in canon. this is the link to the rewritten version (i think?) on ao3. the author had the original up on live journal back in the day and i could have SWORN i read a sequel that i found a link to in the depths of their LJ but i cannot find it anywhere rn)

-“When I Grow Up” by winter machine (another maddison-if-they’d-stayed-in-new-york-and-addison-kept-the-pregnancy, but with a twist that brings them to seattle to see derek, who they haven’t spoken to in seven years. a fantastic plot but also sort of just a brilliant exploration of how mark and addison would be as parents given their own childhoods and how they have pretty much been cut off from the one healthy(ish) family dynamic that either of them have experienced. there’s also background merder in this one and it actually kind of made me like merder which is a major feat)

-“Celery” by winter machine (a fun little one shot featuring Derek Being An Idiot, Drunk Addison, and Mark Crossing Boundaries. a little bit sad and a little bit funny. again, everything by this author is just great)

JADDISON:

- “A Certain Slant of Light” by darlingwrecks (this is for those of us that were weirded out by addison’s convo with amelia in season 18. a more fleshed out exploration of addison’s mental health during the pandemic. it’s a very raw and honest portrayal of depression and anxiety and how someone like addison would navigate it while being a doctor in a global pandemic and raising an 8 year old. it’s not nearly as bleak as it sounds though. lots of fluff, a little smut. also touches on how addison might’ve grieved mark and derek. and archer makes some appearances which i loved (i know he’s an asshole but i really like addison’s brother lol))

-“Diamonds in the Sky” by Ziaaaaa_sdc (there’s so few jaddison fics out there, probably because of how compressed their relationship timeline was as they tried to wrap up the show, but this writer has several and they’re all so good. there definitely aren’t enough fun AUs for them so i was really excited when i first found this. its Ballet School Jaddison and there’s actually only three chapters atm. no idea if it will be updated ever again but it’s still more than worth a read. a smidge angsty so far. also seems to be setting up a little enemies to lovers arc)

CADDISON:

-“Help Me (With The Butterflies)” by BlackRoseMatron (a very sweet one shot. this author is single-handedly keeping the caddison shippers fed and i love it. they also have some really great meddison stuff)

[aworld-inpink]

just a quick warning, I do read most of the cast as trans in some way, especially the siblings, so if you get easily triggered by stuff like that, just don't interact please 😸

please be respectful of the space I have curated ★

Trans Obey Me! Headcanons ("brothers" edition)

Lucifer:

transmasc Luci genuinely brings me so much joy

like, the idea of him being the oldest and first to come out?

im in love

Lucifer is one of the more cut and dry ones to me

but I do love people who draw/write him as transfem, theyre the biggest troopers ever

Luci definitely acts as the main support for a lot of the others

especially when it comes to appointments for hormones

he/him, FtM

Mammon:

i am so insanely obsessed with this man

me and him are t4t trust

nah, but for realz

trans guy Mammon with the COOLEST top surgery scars, you will not catch them lacking

probably got a sick ass tattoo to give them a cool shape too

similar to the white on his chest in his demon design

off topic, but chubby Mammon actually makes me 🤤

need to be squished between his thighs yesterday bro

jjhjhjhjh they're so handsome look at that little guy go

i feel like he would say his pronouns are he/him but secretly wouldn't mind they/them also

he just feels like he would be seen as less of a guy

i love them

he/they, FtM (and so devastatingly bisexual (affectionate))

Levi:

everybody say thank you to Levi for inventing being transgender

she ..... she's my everything

if Mammons my boyfriend she's my wife bro

(Mammons my favourite, Levi just has more whimsy)

gamer girl

i NEED her bathwater gang you don't understand ......

i made a whole post about transfem Levi, you should check it out ;)

tho trans guy Levi also has a special place in my heart and my bed (he's just like me fr)

do you wanna know the good that flat girl Levi would do for the ecosystem??

it would end climate change

she/her, MtF, Ruri chan was her trans awakening (half joking (not really))

Satan:

oh Satan the demon that you are

yknow they do say that Satan invented the gays

this NERD

book lover? likes cats? BLONDE?

how much more she/he/they can you get bro

demon born out of hatred, aged from transgenderism

that's all I'm saying

do you think Satan would feel the need to tie himself down to one specific gender identity?

fool.

Satan is everything and Satan is nothing

she/he/they, shrugs (genderfluid would be most accurate, but they're mostly unlabeled)

Asmo:

see the fandom argues about Asmo all the time

"is it ethical to headcanon them as trans just cause they're feminine?"

well, no, not necessarily, but that's besides the point

Asmo's similar to Satan in the way of not being tied to one specific gender or expression

but I feel like she's much more aligned to being a guy than Satan is

like, he doesn't mind other pronouns and sometimes enjoys them

but I think she's bigender with a heavy masc lean

expression wise he's more fem, but gender wise she's more masc

she/him, bigender and so full of love

Beel:

him.

i. i love him so much.

he's genuinely one of the sweetest characters in the game, and someone I would genuinely like irl

anyways however

I feel like this one is very stereotypical of me

cause this is the same headcanon as most of the trans part of the fandom

but Beel is so very trans man

like, didn't have top surgery just exercised to turn his boobs into pecs typa trans man

he's so powerful

and so lovely

and so, so transgender

he/him, FtM

Belphie:

similar to Levi, I do actually have a separate post just about Belphie

so if you want a less brief headcanon, check it out

anyways

Beel and Belphie are both trans to me, even in scenarios when I don't see the others as such

but my thing about Belphie is massively projection and based off my own identity

I think Belphie is also trans, but doesn't pass, doesn't want surgery, and doesn't necessarily want testosterone

like, I think he would feel a bit isolated from his siblings, especially Beel sometimes, since they're all relatively passing

but Beel would reassure him and they would cuddle on bad dysphoria days together, tons of snacks piled onto the bed for Beel and movies on autoplay for background noise :)

he/him, nonbinary

[topazadine]

How to Write Faster (And, Hopefully, Better Too)

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

I've shared some tools before to help improve your speed and motivation, which include:

Using a word count spreadsheet

Working on only one WIP at a time

Leverage StimuWrite and Cold Turkey

.... but I still have a few more tricks, which I'll share now.

Why should you listen to me? I've written over 2 million words of fiction since 2021. That's a lot, more than many people write in a lifetime.

This is despite the fact that I also write 22,000 words every week for my day job. I do around 10k of creative fiction a week. And there's also the time I spend writing these articles for you, the lovely people of Tumblr, which is around 4-5k per week.

So, all told, I probably do around 37,000 words (creative, informative, and otherwise) every single week.

I did that by following these tips.

Separate the work into stages.

First, let's outline the stages of work (or at least the stages I use). You may have a different setup, and that's fine - if you do have a system that works for you, then you probably don't need my post at all. Keep doing what you're doing and ignore my advice.

But if you do not have a system, consider mentally separating things into these parts.

Active Writing. When I am busy doing the draft. It is both the most precarious and productive time; everything else related to books goes on the backburner. I am doing nothing writing-related but writing. No discussing the work unless I'm stuck somewhere, no making moodboards, NOTHING. This is my sacred time when I am in the thick of things and I put Writing Blinders on.

Percolation. I am done with the first draft. I set the piece aside and do other things like reading other novels, outlining another story, answering tag games, playing with moodboards, or putting everything aside and focusing on other hobbies. This is so I can come back to revisions with a fresh set of eyes. It keeps the story in my mind and can even help me discover new things I want to add.

Revision. After I have had a beta reader check things out, I go back and start fixing things. Then it percolates again. I repeat percolating and revising as many times as I feel necessary. Many times, I will have one beta reader look at it, then revise, and then have another beta reader look at it, each one getting a slightly different version of the story so I can compare what they liked or disliked.

Prepublishing. Most authors' least favorite part: marketing and telling people about your book so that they want to read it when it is ready. That includes stuff like making mood boards, doing tag games, sending out ARCs, setting up adds, posting on social media, and so on.

Again, ONE STEP AT A TIME. Do not blend all of these into a slurry.

I will say that this time around, with Pride Before a Fall, I ordered the cover before I was done with the book because I had a very clear vision of what I wanted.

Talk less, write more.

This is similar to the problem I highlighted in my Double Outlining post; the more you talk about your story, the more you trick your brain into thinking that you've done the work when you categorically have not.

Plus, the time you spend talking about your book is time you spend not writing your book. We can't do both simultaneously.

I don't really talk about my stories while I'm doing them, not even with my family. I may post a line or two, and I may tell people the basic plot, but I'm not spending hours discussing them with anyone unless I need advice on what to do next. Even then, it's more like "hey what do you think about this? Good? Cool, off I go."

Please get out of the habit of exhaustively picking apart your work with other people during the Active Writing stage. That can come during the Percolating and Revising stages.

Devote all your love and attention to one story.

Yes, I've mentioned this in a whole entire post, but I need to emphasize just how important it is to write stories one at a time. Working on a million things at once is not efficient; it's scatterbrained.

Force yourself to do ONE story. Just one. Not two or three or five. ONE.

Again, I've written 132 stories on AO3 (two of which are 100k+, multiple of which are 50k+), published one book, and written 5 of the upcoming manuscripts for the 10-part Eirenic Verses series. I am a very productive writer, and that is because I do everything one at a time.

Don't tell yourself "oh, I can get more done if I do a little bit on this one and that one and that one."

Can a chess player win three games of chess if they play all of them simultaneously? Uh, probably not. Each of their opponents is devoting everything to one game while their concentration is split between three different boards.

And you're not going to win either if you're playing twenty games of Write the Book simultaneously.

Do not mess around with moodboards, tag games, character questionnaires, playlists, etc, during Active Writing.

I discussed this in my Extremely Controversial Writing Opinions, but it bears repeating.

Do all of that stuff later, after you are done, as a marketing tool. It's procrastination, plain and simple.

Any time I get sucked into tag games or moodboards while writing, I get less done because I'm devoting time and energy to something that doesn't actually enhance my book.

It's one thing to do character questionnaires while you're figuring out a character, but quite another to stop what you're doing and tell everyone what your character's favorite food is.

Is that helping you get the project done? No, it is not. Log out of Canva. Turn on Cold Turkey to block Tumblr or Twitter. Leave that stuff alone.

Read short stories.

You know you need to read to become a good writer, but taking hours out of your day to read a novel while you're drafting your own novel can take away from your writing process.

That's not to say you shouldn't ever read novels, of course, but you can do that while you're in between projects.

During my active writing phase, I like to read a short story before I get started on working. This gives me inspiration and primes my creative pump so I'm excited to do my best.

Reading short stories also helps me focus on brevity rather than long-winded diatribes, which lets me pack more into a story.

Don't reread your work during Active Writing.

It's easy to get sucked into rereading and then not get anything new done; plus, this makes you want to revise, which should come later.

Reread only as much as you need to fix plot holes or remind yourself of where you're going. Refusing to reread also lets you look at your work with fresh eyes during revisions.

Make a writing ritual.

You need to tell your brain that it is writing time. This could be anything, like brushing your teeth right before you sit down to write, or drinking coffee out of one specific coffee cup when you are in writing mode, or putting on a playlist that you only use when writing.

For me, I light incense and ring a bell, then ask my muses to help me. When I take a break, I'll light a new incense stick (it's Japanese incense so very light scent) and ring the bell again.

That's about it, though I may write another post with more tips. I hope these are helpful to you, even if you don't like them. Sit on them, think about it, and give it a try. You might find yourself spending more time writing and less time just thinking about writing.

I've created a masterlist of writing resources that you can peruse at your leisure, all for free.

The posts I write can sometimes take me hours - they're always intricate, always thoughtful. This one took me about 1 hour to write.

I do this as a labor of love for the writing community, sharing what I have learned from almost 15 years of creative writing.

However, if you'd like to support me, maybe you'll consider buying my book?

9 Years Yearning is a gay coming-of-age romance set in a fantasy world. It follows Uileac Korviridi, a young soldier training at the War Academy. His primary motivations are honoring the memory of his late parents, protecting his little sister Cerie, and becoming a top-notch soldier.

The book features poetry, descriptions of a beautiful country inspired by Mongolia, and a whole lot of tsundere vibes.

You can also check it out on Goodreads for a list of expanded distribution.

If you do purchase my book, don't forget to leave a review!

Reviews are vital for visibility on Amazon and help to support indie authors like me. Whenever you love a book, be sure to let the author know! It's much appreciated.

[arctic-space-penguin]

New main DTBAU post bc I need one, ANYWHIZZLE

The full breakdown that isn't really a breakdown bc I still need to write scenes, but I wanted to give the general idea of what this little au will be about/of

okay, so BASICALLY, Leo is the only one dropped during the famous Lou Jitsu escape, the other three having been rescued.

At about two or three years old, young enough for Donnie to eventually forget he had a family, minus Leo because he technically never stops looking, he leaves home in search of the missing brother (twin) they (he) would have had.

This leads to an eventual failure, a new home found on Staten Island, and meeting April first (as most people seem to believe he does).

I want Donnie to have met April, Cassandra, and all the villains early plus if he knew April early, and then she found/met Raph and Mikey, she would have to live two separate lives unsure if she should tell one side about the other... or no, you know what, let's make it so that she never finds Raph and Mikey and only knows about Donnie after stumbling across him during his initial search for Leo. Yeah, that would be funny, cause then when the show starts and everyone sees the two other turtles, they're all just like "The hell are two more turtles doing here?! One was bad enough, but three?!"

And so now they have to be unsure about whether to tell either party about the other, meanwhile Leo shows up, and now they're all just really, really confused and have no idea where these turtles keep coming from.

Now, since Donnie was thrown into human society early and never left it, he gets a little bit... obsessed with it. I mean, like, obsessed obsessed. He steals clothes, food, outdated school curriculum books, kids toys, normal books, etc. April sometimes lets him have more updated school textbooks to borrow that he totally gives back. He thinks human culture is, like, the best thing ever, so when Leo and Draxum emerge from the depths to try and destroy what he loves oh-so much, he isn't very happy about it at all. I want Shelldon to be a very, very... crude rendition of a human, since, well, yeah. He'll still be purple, probably, but it's clear he was modeled after a human.

As for Leo, well, I like a good parent Draxum rather than a bad parent one, so Leo gets lucky (and gets to be a spoiled brat). Bad Parent Draxum would be way too difficult for me to write in the "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR CHILD?!" kind of way. But yeah, Draxum is a good parent :)). Anyway, Leo, uh, goes along with his dad's whole "we have to destroy humanity for yokai to live up top again" philosophy, as most kids who love their parents do. Plus, he also wants to make his dad proud of him, as most kids who love their parents do. Even after meeting his obsessed "twin", as Donnie claims they are, it just makes him want to destroy them more because, like, who in their right mind would think humans are cool? They put sunglasses on their dogs, they take photos of their food, and do not get him started on April.

The twins relationship would be so complicated now that I think about it.

Donnie: No way, the twin I've been searching for for years who I forgot about my other family over, hiiiiii!

Leo: One, we are not twins and two, gross you like like humans?! Sorry, but I won't be associating with someone like you and now I want to destroy the humans even more.

Donnie: :((( I just want a brother...

Enough about the twins, we need to learn about RAPH and MIKEY and SPLINTER and APRIL and DRAXUM and CASSANDRA and THE PURPLE DRAGONS now!!

Raph is the big sister ever. Not literally obviously, but he is. Even more so than in canon. After Donnie disappeared and he heard about Leo, he was super protective over Mikey, making sure the one brother he had left wouldn't leave too. Raph is overjoyed when he sees Donnie again one day, only to get disappointed when he finds out that the softshell forgot about them when he didn't. Meeting Leo is a fever dream for Raph, honestly. On one hand, it's "oh, yes, another brother!" and on the other it's "oof, wait, he wants to destroy humanity".

Mikey is the one who wants the least to do with the twins than anyone. One is somehow more insane than he is, and the other is just, like, no. He's still the cook and he's still creative, but the in his eyes the only family he has is Raph and Splinter, not whoever those psychos are. Mikey will avoid them at all costs, which means no attempt of a Draxum redemption arc on his part.

April only ever meets Donnie while he was searching for Leo. When Donnie disappears to Staten Island, she doesn't see him for three years before he shows up at her window one day. Her parents find out about Donnie early as well, easily accepting him since he makes April the happiest she's ever been. She sneaks Donnie textbooks every once in a while at a secret meeting spot so he wouldn't have to read old ones with 'incorrect' information. Her and the Purple Dragons are also best friends since Kendra's nicer here.

Splinter is much more involved in his two son's lives here because he doesn't want them to be taken from him as well. He reads them stories, learns how to cook before Mikey does and takes over that job, helps them clean their rooms, and spends time with them outside of his shows. He got to see Donnie and Leo again, but to him, they weren't his sons, because he only had two. He had gotten so wrapped up in making sure his two remaining sons were okay that he had eventually forgotten about the lost ones.

Oh, sweet Draxum the good dad. This goat got anything his little red-eared slider son wanted, no matter what it was. This would backfire, but not for a while. Draxum wanted to show his son how much better yokai culture was than human culture so that Leo would go along with his destroy-humanity plan. Draxum pretty much just lives two lives to ensure the success of the plan.

Cassandra is the same level of crazy as Donnie is, so they became besties quickly. She taught him anything and everything she would learn so he could defend himself because she knew how hard the world can be on someone. Of course, knowing Donnie would eventually lead her to knowing April, which eventually became something she would look forward to.

The Purple Dragons are pretty much the same minus being friendlier. They have a love-hate relationship with April and Donnie, and often give him supplies for tech projects (including Shelldon. he was also made based off of one of them too. I won't say which, but he was).

To recap:

DTBAU!Donnie: the crazy human-culture-obsessed turtle living on Staten Island who wants brothers

DTBAU!Leo: the spoiled kid who doesn't want brothers

DTBAU!Raph: the over-protective big brother who doesn't want to lose more brothers

DTBAU!Mikey: the rebellious little brother who wants nothing to do with the twins

DTBAU!Splinter: the watchful father who forgot about the two other sons he had

DTBAU!April: the best best friend who only ever meets one of the brothers

DTBAU!Draxum: the good dad who wants his plan to destroy humanity to succeed no matter what

DTBAU!Cassandra: the equally crazy Foot Recruit who taught one of the brothers to fight

DTBAU!Purple Dragons: the hacking trio who make friends with one of the brothers and April

Now SHIPS...

um...

I want to try to have at least one love triangle, so I came up with the most complicated one I could: Leo, Cassandra, and April.

I personally headcanon that Cass is bi, so she would be crushing hard on them both while they're probably off fighting somewhere.

Leo and April: *arguing about how stupid each other's lives are probably*

Cass: *watching* *prolonged sigh* I love them both...

Since there's already that love triangle, and I don't want to say who Shelldon is crudely based off of because Donnie likes them, I'll let you guys guess for now.

I don't want them all to like someone, plus Raph is all the self-control for him and Mikey, they don't need more. It's nothing against them.

Big Mama, Sunita, Mayhem, and all the other villains remain with the same personalities

(all villains hold a respect for Donnie tho, because he leaves them alone and respects them right back. plus most used to be humans, so Donnie can ask them about what their past life was like before being mutated.)

Although, actually, I want Mayhem to be Donnie's 'pet' of sorts, not April's. He was the one who found Mayhem first. He was the one who took him in. He was the one who had Mayhem when he got the vile.

Knowing me, I'll probably have the alternate first episode of the show out in a week or more

[terrestrialnoob]

Oops, I actually have a lot of feelings on the DPxDC tagging discourse...

Just complaining under the cut

First thing I want to complain about: not a fan of the "we were here first" argument from some of the Danny Phantom people. What do you mean "we"? I watched Danny Phantom on TV when it was airing on. I also watched Batman The Animated Series when it was rerunning. If this was the same account I had a decade ago, there'd be posts from me from 2015 talking about both The Batman and Danny Phantom and how cool it would be for Danny to be in the Teen Titans.

"We were here first"

Yeah, We! You and Me!

It feels like you're trying to deliberately separate me from something I love. Like you're deliberately cutting out people who enjoy the same thing you do because they don't enjoy it the same way.

Oh, and uh, fuck that one person specifically who did math poorly and is upset that AO3 has DPxDC fics. "Over 30% of DP fics are DPxDC" So you want there there to be 30% fewer fics!?! You want there to be 30% fewer people who enjoy Danny Phantom enough to write fics about it? That is what you're asking for. You want there to be fewer people to talk to about Danny Phantom, fewer people to share ideas with and expand lore with and talk shit with. You don't want someone else loving something you love because they're loving it wrong, and it just feels icky.

As an aside, I've said before and I will say again, but the naming conventions in Danny Phantom.... Danny Phantom is the main character's name. Like, I barely get around this by tagging the character as Danny Fenton, but sometimes, that's an entirely different character! So, if someone wants to tag the character but not the fandom, what do they do? Other people have pointed out that Danny Phantom is the Umbrella tag that covers the entire Phandom, while DPxDC is a sub-fandom, a small part of the fandom whole.

Also, second side question, if someone new to the fandom shows up, and sees no DPxDC, and then starts trying to make DPxDC content, are they going to get dogpiled out of the Phandom completely? Is their first interaction with other fans going to be "get the fuck out of here, we don't want you here"? Is that the kind of fandom we want? (I say, as if this is a hypothetical and people haven't gotten into Danny Phantom from DPxDC and are now being told the fandom doesn't want them)

I don't want to be mean, I barely even think it's a good idea to mention, but if you really, really can't handle DPxDC, then maybe you should take a break from the fandom? It's not fair, you shouldn't have to leave your own fandom, but you are the one having a hard time curating your own experience. Like, I personally, hate OCs, absolutely disdain them, but the Phandom is full of OCs. Literally every day there's a new OC bending the reality of the canon to make space for them. But, instead of kicking up a fuss about it, I ignore them. To me OC are for other people, this thing I don't like that will never be separate from something I love, and I have the ability to recognize that and move on. If you can't do that, can't block the people you hate or ignore the posts you don't like, you might just not be mature enough to handle being a fandom this big. It might be best for you to pick out a few friends and have your own little space to talk Danny Phantom away from the fandom at large.

"Well, why can't you do that with DPxDC? Have your own place and leave the Phandom at large alone?" This isn't equivalent. DP is still DP whether it's attached to xDC or not. See above comment on Umbrella Terms and Sub-Fandoms.

Low-key, DPxDC is a little too big to cut off now. If this conversation happened 5 years ago, when it was just the occasional Danny Phantom x Teen Titans fic, you could have reached out to everyone, got a conciseness, but now, it's toothpaste that can't be put back into the bottle. Unfortunately, this is what the Phandom looks like now, whether you like it or not, we cannot return to a simpler time before everything got out of hand, we can only adapt to the way it is now.