#it's so weird to me to think that i'm 'inspiring' or 'nostalgic'

[davycoquette]

Questionnaire~

Thank you for the tag, @drchenquill!

1. Is writing a hobby or way of life?

I always call it a hobby, but almost always prefixed with some form of, "greatest," "most important," or "favorite." I think way of life fits a helluva lot better. I've been writing since I can remember.

2. A journal full of writing notes or a clean, completed manuscript?

The journal one. I have like 900 I'm actively writing in at this very moment.

3. Who (or what) is your writing inspiration?

Cormac McCarthy. The love I have for my shitty characters. The agonizing unignorable need to put words on paper or screen.

4.Which is worse: someone you "idolize" reading your first draft or listening to you sing?

The singing one. I am not ashamed of my writing, but I have been taught to be ashamed of my singing lmfao. Which is weird and dumb because singing isn't something I go around telling people I can do decently - I don't tell people, "Oh, I sing," or, "I'm a singer." So, I have nothing to prove on that front, yet... I don't think I could make a peep of noise if someone said, "Sing me a song." Meanwhile, even when my writing's not at it's best, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm a writer. Here's some shit I wrote that isn't good. Sometimes I write good stuff, though."

5. Has writing from someone else's POV ever changed your own perspective?

I mean... in the literal sense, sure. A story looks different from the eyes of a character. By the same token, it helps me "understand" when people make choices I've not personally made. I think, for this reason, it's important to write about characters with different belief systems than we have - to write about them as sympathetic people with complex emotions. Not just to villainize or cathartically punish them, but to explore why people do the things they do and what life events might drive them in that direction. But cathartic character murder has its time and place, and who am I suggest what others write? Y'all do y'all.

6. Tumblr, AO3, LiveJournal, or FFN?

I have not used LiveJournal since I was a teen - is it still a thing people use??? That sounds nostalgic and fun. Not sure what FFN is; something to do with fanfiction? I only write original fiction, so that rules it out if so. AO3 is very cool, but the interface isn't my favorite. Also fanfic-heavy, so I never know if I've got a place there. Tumblr always freaked me right the fuck out, but the Writeblr community has proven to be my favorite writing community I've discovered online. And in a very short timespan, I might add!

7. AO3 wordcount, and are you satisfied with it?

I do not use AO3 but wordcounts can never be high enough 😎

8. What movie/book/fic gripped you irrevocably?

Probably too many to count. Little House on the Prairie A Separate Peace The Road Fight Club (recently rewatching this was humbling because it showed me how much of my writerly personality seems to be inspired by the way it rearranged my brain chemicals) Bullet Train (I fucken love this movie) Lawn Dogs Box of Moonlight Harold and Maude (book & movie) Pride and Prejudice (book & movie)

9. What’s the highest compliment you’ve ever been given, and have you been given it?

I've received some absolute banger compliments, and I don't want to dismiss any in favor of others. My favorite compliments are often ...questions? Just things that let me know people really did read, absorb, and are interested in things I wrote. Also, my love language is when people think about me of their own volition. So, any time people come to me apropos of nothing or say "this reminds me of you/your characters/your writing, I giggle and kick my feet and do a lil' happy dance.

10. What defines your writing style?

Gritty, casual. If it was art, it'd be the kind with the sketchlines still visible. Deep, silly. Visceral, I hope.

Taglist and blank template under the cut!

@albatris

@capnmachete

@harmonic-melodii

@illarian-rambling

@michellekarnold

@nathaniel-zellos

@sableglass

@saturnine-saturneight

1. Is writing a hobby or way of life?

2. A journal full of writing notes or a clean, completed manuscript?

3. Who (or what) is your writing inspiration?

4.Which is worse: someone you "idolize" reading your first draft or listening to you sing?

5. Has writing from someone else's POV ever changed your own perspective?

6. Tumblr, AO3, LiveJournal, or FFN?

7. AO3 wordcount, and are you satisfied with it?

8. What movie/book/fic gripped you irrevocably?

9. What’s the highest compliment you’ve ever been given, and have you been given it?

10. What defines your writing style?

[magnoliaroad]

Magnolia Road is Moving + Exciting Projects!

Hi there - Rizu here! It's been about a year since I last posted an update here. Life got really busy and pulled me away from Petz. As life calmed down I had the itch to return to some unfinished petz projects! Here's a look at some of the things I've been working on. The major one being the launch of my new home - Magnolia Road on Neocities! Keep reading for more details!

When I first launched this tumblr blog, I wanted a platform that didn't require a whole lot of set-up to get started. While it has served its usefulness as my first home in the Petz community, I need more room for the amount of content that I'm planning on making.

So I've been quietly working on a complete website overhaul and it's been such a blast. I think it will serve me better as a home for my crew and petz content. For the foreseeable future I am planning on keeping this tumblr for long-form write-ups on Petz things.

Without further ado, check it out here.

Not everything on the website is finished but I've put the 'good enough' stamp on it for now. I'm looking forward to fleshing out the pages more with some exciting content.

On that note...

Projects!

Something that I've wanted to do for a while is to create more custom content for Petz 5. Though Petz 4 is the community favorite, I feel Petz 5 has a lot of nostalgic charm and a lot of potential for quality of life upgrades. Despite Petz 5's glitches and bugs, I've by and large have learned to live around them without too much trouble and largely prefer some aspects of Petz 5 over Petz 4, such as the expanded color palette for playscenes, weather, day/night cycles, being able to carry all the toyz with you, etc.

With the new content that I am working on, I hope to inspire some more love for Petz 5 and make it a more welcoming home for your Petz!

So what am I working on? I've been working on a MASSIVE rework of the Petz 5 playscenes. They are quite dated and an eye-store in some instances.

So here's a sneak peek of what I've got going so far. These are not finished yet so these may change a bit!

I'm going for a Luxury Living theme based off of neutral beiges, greys, and gold, with a touch of rococo. I've painstakingly fixed the window sprites (they're a pixelized mess in the original), replaced the garden backdrop with my renovated back yard (see below), and gave the night scene some gentle spot lighting. No more ugly orange floor and yellow fridge.

Continuing on the Luxury Living theme, the family room gets an upgrade.

This one definitely needs more work before it is done but here's my Cozy Cabin themed room.

I've always disliked the original snow scene in that all the trees look like lifeless lumpy snow blobs. I wanted to bring back some greenery and make the scene look more vibrant. I replaced the really bland skyboxes with more realistic skies, with the night scene featuring an aurora borealis.

Inspired by my love for Lilly Pulitzer prints, this beach remodel is a more colorful upgrade over the original. I've recolored the sand to look more like....sand and less like this weird ugly yellow sand the original had. I'm planning to make a daytime one as well.

Salon upgrade. This one is very incomplete, so expect this one to change a bit. The original dresser is so hideous that it's hard to make it look "better".

And finally, perhaps my pièce de résistance and my most time consuming overhaul was the backyard. The original looks so junky with its broken fence, muted colors, and lack of landscaping. It definitely needed some more life to it. I hope I achieved that with my 4 seasons remake of the back yard. To say it was a challenge is an understatement. I had to make 3 versions for EACH season. Day, night, and stormy versions. So 12 BMPs along with the edited leaf sprites. The fall leaves are not stills - they are recolors of the original animated sprites and move in the actual playscene! I was excited to be able to pull this one off and I'm happy with how it turned out.

And lastly I've reworked the Petz 5 carrying case skin with a template that makes it easy to come up with new carrying case skins quickly.

Here's just one of the many carrying case skins that I have planned. This one matches the pattern featured in the beach remodel.

And there you have it! These are all works in progress and I can't wait to share more updates with you all. As always, thank you for stopping by!

[sarcasmprodigy]

hi!! i don't know if this is just me shouting into the void or not but i figure i might as well try!

i sent you an ask aaaaaages ago asking how you draw something (i don't even remember what it was, it was 2020 though) and i remember taking the advice you gave to heart. i'm not on tumblr much anymore but you were one of my biggest inspirations from ages like, 11-14 (god that is really weird to think about)

i think i see a lot of your art in my art to this day. so i appreciate you for putting your shit out there for someone like me to see! like i said i'm not on tumblr much, but whenever i happen to see you on my dash i get a little nostalgic :)

if you see this, thank you !! your art still rules and you will forever be one of my favorite homestuck artists (despite the fact that i will probably never step foot in this fandom again HEHE)

Hii! It might've been hands people ask me a lot about hands even though I don't draw them very well. This is very sweet of you I can't imagine being an inspiration to that age range very well so it's a shock to me in a pleasant way.

Whatever you took from my art and put into yours I hope it makes you happy!! I'll still be here even if fandoms change, I'm more into Valorant and my OCs now than I am Homestuck so we all move. :p

Have a good day!!

[unlikelyjapan]

s2e2 rewatch notes

Back on the horse - less wine this time, but probably some of the same analysis you've heard before:

Carmy + Syd all matchy-matchy walking down the hall to "She Drives Me Crazy" by fine young cannibals <3 - and Carmy so badly wants to learn more details about her Dad in that scene.

After sawing open the locker, Carmy immediately passes the hat to Richie (knowing that will give him the kind of comfort he needs) and then instantly moves to self-soothing himself by asking Sydney over to the apartment to work on the menu.

Someone on here already pointed this out, but I didn't see how marked it was until a rewatch - Marcus was *totally* trying to divert Syd's attention right after the invite by requesting "more inspiration" (even syd seems surprised by the timing). There wasn't even a scene break, so we can't blame it on editing - they're really working OT to draw our attention to the 'triangle'.

Carmy's "at least you can rely on him. Is your mom cool" - "So, your dad...." man he's really needling her, this episode is a lot of him trying to connect and getting (nicely) rebuffed - I can't imagine how those soft slights play over in his messed-up head.

Sugar's whole toilet monologue "We don't try new things - we keep doing the exact same things with the exact same people" followed in the next beat by "Who doesn't want easy? Who doesn't want to just be fucking okay?" was a (maybe too tidy) synopsis for the whole series. It's Ebra vs. Tina's perspectives. It's Carmy with Claire vs. Syd. It's Richie's aversion to change vs. understanding his life needs to move on by force.

To be honest, the whole saccharine meet-cute vs. Syd with her Dad parallel play was harder to sit through the second time, but I did it:

The Radiator story was offered up about Syd's mom being more competent than Emmanuel, and how that made her so attractive to him. This is followed by Syd revealing how high the stakes and sacrifices are with her and Carmy with the relationship restaurant.

Emmanuel has an inkling that Carmy is "the man" from the radiator story, and (protective dad-mode activated) his daughter as far too equally competent and vulnerable for such an arrangement (which is on the nose, given these scenes are spliced with foreshadowing at the grocery store).

Followed by Syd revealing how high the stakes and sacrifice are with her and Carmy and the pursuit of the restaurant - her dad seeing carmy as "the man" and her as far too competent for such a hashed arrangement.

Emmanuel says "The restaurants - they're hard and they don't work out" - it's almost like he's echoing/warning her about a relationship with Carmy. "It doesn't mean that YOU won't" - this is literally how all conversations go with concerned parents after you bust out a spontaneous engagement announcement, ha.

Syd gives the classic rebuttal - "I'm in a better place in my life - I've learned a lot of lessons - I know what I'm doing"

After he asks if she trusts him, and after a quiet moment she scoffs - it's almost like she's thinking about saying something else before she pivots and talks about it being weird that she's older than her mom was when she died now, bringing it back to something she knows he can relate to.

She also doesn't quite believe she's "just as wonderful" as her mom - and/or can't take compliments. Syds are made in the same factory that Carmy's come from I guess *sobs*

MEANWHILE - standard meet-cute stuff and bashful Carm, until Carmy almost seems taken aback when Claire says ""because I wanted to understand it" re: the whole broken-arm thing. He takes a beat, looking away, before stuttering his throwaway "th...that was at roosevelt?" line. It obviously derailed him, as it doesn't compute with his idea of care.

I didn't catch this before, but the conviction in the whole "Because you're the bear and I remember you" line delivery is more forceful and less murmured than all the other lines - if you think she's guessing/nostalgic/riffing with him here, I have a bridge to sell you. She talks with Fak, Tiff etc - girl is on her game with reconissance.

[raccoonfallsharder]

a while back you inspired me to write a rocketxoc fanfic on ao3 but I never finished the first chapter so I never posted it

I had found a way to exploit ao3’s workskin system to make a choose your own adventure story because they allowed juuuust barely enough css functionality that I could make passages show up depending on what links you chose. But the writing was harder than the programming so it sits unfinished

What are your thoughts on a choose your own rocket fanfic? Is that something you’d enjoy reading? And how would you go about writing one?

sweet fluffy little golden raccoon baby. (i can only assume you are a raccoon because that is possibly one of the cleverest fucking things i've ever heard. rocket would be extremely proud of you, and probably resentful that he didn't think of it himself.) seriously, this is genius.

i'm honored to have inspired anything at all and i would one-billion-percent read this???? CYOA stories were a nostalgic staple for me (they weren't part of my normal reading consumption because my parents were weird, but my cousins had a ton of them, so when i was a nugget and i was at their place, i would hole up in their closet and read these books and their copies of goosebumps).

as for how i would write one - woof. i don't know. i think i'd have to map it out? i'm not sure if i'd start at the various ends and work my way backwards to a single beginning, or if i'd start at the beginning and work my way out to various logical ends. (i actually have a hard time with sequencing so i might even start in the middle - lets say there was a major choice i wanted reader to be faced with - and everything else would either be about the choices reader made to get them this far and/or the fallout). gosh you could even get really weird and do something completely anachronistic - or fatalistic, where no matter what choices reader makes, they only lead to one outcome. geez the possibilities are endless

what i can say with certainty is that i'm a visual person, so before i started writing-writing, i'd probably create some kind of chart - like a bracket system in reverse, with each "set" signifying a plot-altering choice. that way i could see where my chapters were coming from, and where they were going to. (this kind of thing also helps keep my motivated tbh)

literally HOW FUN though, this is very loki // multiverse of you. i absolutely adore it, 10/10 would read, and if you ever decide to publish any of it, please send me a message or tag me or whatever. i'd be thrilled to get a chance to consume it v o r a c i o u s l y

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 14

Oh snap! The plot be plottin'! Yamaki's (finally learned his name) plot to destroy all digimon fails spectacularly and instead he creates a rift between both worlds and -checks notes- Mihiramon (a perfect level) comes through. We also get a bunch of new stuff introduced this time: using cards to digivolve, Takato being "connected" to Guilmon, and Guilmon's perfect digivolution MegaloGrowmon! Still don't fully know what's going on, but there are more mysteries to solve now which means I'm more invested :)

Notes:

That skyscraper they keep showing with the two towers...is that a real building in Shibuya or something made up for the anime? I tried googling this, but found nothing.

The silhouetted digimon flying into their doom was pretty creepy. Kinda reminds me of all of the souls floating around in the Underworld in Hercules (but like...in the sky instead)

So the enemy digimon acknowledge that they were created by humans but they only obey their "God." For a second I was like "but isn't your God supposed to be your creator??" but that's not necessarily the case in a lot of polytheistic religions, so I guess anything goes.

Yamaki casually chokes out Jian and Terriermon barely reacts ("that guy's rude!") lol wtf

Two very ugly digimon designs in this episode: Mihiramon (weird name) and MegaloGrowmon. Mihiramon looks like he was designed by an 8 year old (I had to laugh when they showed his nunchuck tail) and MegaloGrowmon is just profoundly derpy. Kinda looks like it hurts to be him and he's lost a lot of ability to emote because there's way too much going on with his face.

Considering the timing of when this anime came out, I bet Matrix Evolution was inspired by the coolness of The Matrix for sure. I doubt the name has much meaning aside from sounding neat.

Lots of big hits to the digimon in this one, Renamon falls off of a sky scraper and makes a huge dent in the concrete below and yet apparently takes zero fall damage. Growmon gets his entire side chomped on by Mihiramon and is also okay I guess (maybe digivolving to MegaloGrowmon healed him?)

Galgomon is apparently just braindead because he fully shoots at the open air for a weirdly long time during his fight. Also...apparently he can run out of ammo which I didn't see coming. How the heck does that work? Where does the ammo come from? When he runs out is that it until he de-digivolves and then digivolves again? So many questions...

So Takato is linked to Guilmon physically and was able to create him from a drawing...there's gotta be some connection there...

Suddenly Takato's friends are okay with him being an IRL digimon tamer. I guess they had to fully see him in action to respect it. Seems a little two faced of them...

Culumon was pretty prominent in the matrix evolution sequence...(but why tho)

Megalomon's digivolution sequence was in that charming early CGI. Doesn't look fantastic, but it's nostalgic. I think I can see some improvement from earlier seasons at least. Actually I think these mecha-esque designs sometimes look better in the CGI and then look awkward in the 2D animation.

[phrandallanton]

Dream I had

I was friends/living with Randal and Sebastian. I also think my dad was there as like our guardian or something. We played weird stupid games and the house had a leak so there was just water to our calves the whole time. I kept imagining how cool it would be if I made a really realistic nightmare Chica cosplay and got into this nasty water. Then we got food and I was telling my dad I wanted to go back home. I guess he wasn't my dad in my dream. That or I wanted Randal and Sebastian to get out of our house I was getting sick of them lol.

Then my mom got some designer job but then she gave it to me because I'd be better at it I guess.I'm now in this weird laboratory, gives off the vibe of a horror video game map you would of played on the Playstation 2. Green and gray, nostalgic feeling. I have to create some character where their main focus where their sandals but those sandals had to give off lots of sex appeal.

There was these group of people smoking and on a couch talking to me. They where in the same job I was and I was talking to them. They main lady that was talking to me had a hookah pipe, had red curly hair but not like ginger like actually dyed red hair, a yellow dress, and winged eyeliner. They all loved me cause of how I was so interested in character designing and how much I already knew. Then people where going outside to see 4th of July fire works but outside the whole house was like a carnival and kids where all dressed up like it was Halloween.

I went back outside and I want to say I met back up with Randal and Sebastian but I honestly don't remember. I then walked around the whole Halloween like carnival. This kid that was probably 15-16 that was wearing a wolf outfit then came up to me, he was trying to get with me or something. I told him something on the lines of "No you're not old enough for and I'm not interested in dating right now" and he imedently left all mad.

I then nearly got hit by a go cart. And then there was pig racing but there was no fence. So then a pig came out and tried to attack me. It was extreamly round and big buy the head was small and looked like a humans face more then a pig's. I climbed a pole trying to get away from it but the pig could climb too. Then the the guy who was talking about the pig race started to tell everyone about how these pigs could climb and are also really dangerous. I some how got down.

The dream ended after I got inspired for the lady with sex appealing sandals and then went back into the lab to get on this weird computer thing. But I couldn't work the programs cause it was like people could only use sertant things at a time, and I overall didn't know where to go so I asked the lady next to me. Everyone then got mad and made fun I was a newbie.

The end.

8/10

It was off putting but playing in the dirty water with Randal while Sebastian complained about it being gross was fun. Also sex appealing sandals, like not that the shoe gives you more sex appeal it's just the shoe that's sex appealing is really funny to me.

[vikenticomeshome]

Official "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" Character Bios

"Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" is a super nostalgic show to me. We didn't have cable when I was growing up, so I watched shows like that one, "The Magic School Bus", "Stargate Infinity", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" on the Fox Box back in the day.

Now, the archives that I was able to find from the old DIC site don't have very much content for the show. they just have the synopsis and a short clip.

BEGIN SYNOPSIS

The world's greatest detective has returned - and this time, he's fighting crime in the brave new world of the 22nd century! Sherlock Holmes has been brought back from the grave to battle Professor James Moriarty, the only adversary Holmes ever considered an equal. Moriarty, accidentally cloned by an unscrupulous scientist, is determined to dominate the crime-free world of the future. To help Holmes stop him, the personality of Holmes' loyal friend and companion, Dr. Watson is programmed into the brain of an android. Co-produced with Scottish Television, this series is visually highlighted by a striking blend of traditional 2-D and 3-D CGI animation. Each thrilling, action-packed mystery is inspired by one of the actual literary classics of Arthur Conan Doyle

END SYNOPSIS

While we're on the official synopsis, I noticed something that doesn't actually line-up with the story of the show. Perhaps it is a remnant of an earlier draft of the concept that slipped through. It claims that Moriarty was "accidentally" cloned. In the proper series, the unscrupulous scientist, Martin Fenwick, cloned Moriarty deliberately. He traveled to Reichenbach Falls, found Moriarty's preserved corpse, and took DNA from him. It was Fenwick's intention that Moriarty would become his henchman. Naturally, Moriarty made himself boss instead.

Anyway, while DIC didn't provide much information, there was another group that had more.

Kidsnet.org was a group that produced supplementary educational materials for various kids shows and movies from back in the day. Their website is still viewable in the WayBack machine.

They had a combination poster and study guide for "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century".

This is where we get the official character bios, with the blessing of Fox, DIC, and Scottish Television. Before I figured out the original source, I had seen these bios on fan-sites in low-quality cropped forms. I couldn't find any existing postings of the high-quality versions of the bios, so it may have only existed on the WayBack Machine. Well, now I'm posting the high-quality versions here.

Big thanks to suburbanbanshee.net, the fan-site that showed off the cropped versions and provided the link to kidsnet.org.

BEGIN SHERLOCK HOLMES BIO

Sherlock Holmes, the world's greatest detective, is a gentleman with a keen sense of tradition and a wry wit who still wears his trademark cape and deerstalker hat. When Holmes is involved in a case he tunes out everything else around him because he's always thinking, solving mysteries and fighting crime with his brain, not his brawn.

END SHERLOCK HOLMES BIO

To be fair, he does plenty of cane fighting in the show as well. He also appears to have kicked his drug habits for this incarnation.

BEGIN DR. JOHN WATSON BIO

The John Watson of old was a physician, a writer and a bit of a bungler. Now, his personality has been programmed into the brain of an android. He is very logical and precise when it comes to handling details, but at a loss when faced with situations that don't make sense to his brand of logic (precisely the circumstances where Holmes shines).

END DR. JOHN WATSON BIO

I feel like this bio doesn't really give either the 19th century Watson or the 22nd century Watson proper respect. The 19th century Watson was one of the few people that Holmes genuinely cared about, and he was instrumental to solving several cases. The 22nd Century Watson has a magic scanner that allows him to find evidence that Holmes could not gather with only his eyes and brains.

BEGIN INSPECTOR ELIZABETH "BETH" LESTRADE BIO

Lestrade is impetuous and volatile, the exact opposite of Holmes. The two often clash over how to handle cases. Lestrade's ancestor was a Scotland Yard inspector who worked with Holmes on many cases in the 19th century. Lestrade often locks horns with her New Scotland Yard boss, Chief Inspector Grayson, who grows impatient with he impulsive ways. Lestrade is Holmes's and Watson's guide to the manners, mores and the technology of the London of the future.

END INSPECTOR ELIZABETH "BETH" LESTRADE BIO

Some of the wording here is weird to me. I can understand her acting as a guide to Holmes as he adjusts to the 22nd century. However, Watson is a Scottland Yard robot who already has all of that information. Reading the original Watson's journals allowed him to take on the original Watson's personality as his own. However, that didn't wipe out his 22nd century knowledge.

Her special move is a flying kick.

BEGIN PROFESSOR JAMES MORIARTY BIO

With his extensive knowledge of mathematics and philosophy, Moriarty's brilliance is undeniable. Just as in the 19th century, however, Holmes' evil adversary uses his profound intellect to pursue power and wreak havoc. His mastery of 22nd century computer allows him to control his futuristic crime wave over cyberspace. Professor Moriarty has become a twisted half-man, half-machine bent on world domination.

END PROFESSOR JAMES MORIARTY BIO

Okay, there are a few things here that aren't reflected in the final show. They must be remnants of an earlier draft of the concept. While Moriarty runs a wide variety of evil schemes, the Internet is never a prominent part of his schemes. I can think of two examples where the Internet was involved. There was "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire Lot", which involved hacking into banking systems. They talk about the systems being drained by the titular vampire, but there's never any mention of money or data being stolen. The systems are just taken offline and are temporarily unable to be brought back up. And then, there was "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip", where Moriarty created a prefect virtual recreation of the Prime Minister's office and used it to break the economy.

And what are they talking about with him being half-man, half-machine? The final show never suggests that he is anything other than a fully organic clone. I like the idea of Cyborg Moriarty, but the show didn't go for it in the end.

BEGIN BAKER STREET IRREGULARS BIO

This diverse band of street kids is Holmes's secret weapon in his war on crime. Wiggins, the 16 year old leader with boxing training and a photographic memory, 11 year old Tennyson, the match and computer whiz, and 12 year old Deidre, a precocious, reformed scam artist are Holmes's eyes and ears in the streets of New London.

END BAKER STREET IRREGULARS BIO

I don't remember Wiggins being described as having a photographic memory in the show, so maybe this is something that was changed. He does mention training as a boxer though.

Huh. I always figured Deidre was around 14 or 15. But no, the official materials say she is only 12. Either way, she is presented as a reformed con artist. In the episode "The Secret Safe", she tells Holmes about a shop that will act as a fence for expensive stolen goods, which is worrying.

We never see the kids' families, nor do we get much insight into their home lives. We don't get a good view on why they got into pulling cons. We see Deidre's bedroom during "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire Lot". So, we know she has somewhere to live. It looks pretty comfy, and it isn't falling apart. But that's the most insight that the show gives us into her home life. I don't think we ever see inside Wiggin's or Tennyson's homes.

I don't remember many interactions between Holmes and the new Irregulars outside of case-solving. However, plenty of fans reason that Holmes has been helping them get a proper education and move away from pulling cons.

I do wish the kids had gotten individual bios. Because all three were crammed together into one bio, we don't get much information on them.

And there we have it. I should make some posts with my thoughts on various episodes, similar to what I start doing with Cyberchase. Given that this show is finished with 26 episodes, while Cyberchase is on-going with 148 episodes so far, that would be the easier task.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep9: Future's End pt 2

Another episode where I sit there twirling my hair, kicking my feet, and grinning, having my happy Star Trek fun time. It's truly got it all: epic adventure, silly hijinks, time travel paradoxes, phaser shootouts, a cute romance subplot, heck, even a car chase! You could not ask for more.

It's also the ep that introduces the Doctor's moblie emitter, which is a huge deal for his character, and the show in general, now that he can leave sickbay like everyone else. It was honestly a genius move to have a villain use stolen 29th century holo technology to kidnap the Doctor, because not only do we have a workaround for how it can technically be accomplished, in spite of established limits of holodeck technology, we get to keep the emitter and use it forever without any temporal prime directive red tape. Slow clap for that one!

Also, what is up with Chakotay doing flirty flirt all the time in this story?! First with the Captain in the first part (typical, tbh), but then with B'Elanna in the second part! Was this a direction? Or just Beltran spicing things up for his own amusement? Idk, but it's a lot, and it feels weird with B'Elanna, especially when we straight up know he's down bad for Janeway.

And I gotta say, no alien on Star Trek has ever inspired me with visceral terror the way those flannel wearing white guys with guns in this one do. Even the Borg are pretend at the end of the day, but gun-toting rednecks are very real, and even though I know they're not going to kill off main characters, I still sit there thinking "get them out, get them out now!!" when they capture Chakotay and B'Elanna. Having the Doctor phaser those guys was a huge relief tbh!

This story feels more like a TV movie than a regular episode- being able to go to actual locations makes everything seem so much bigger. I mean, they drive past houses! They never just go down random streets on alien planets, because it's too expensive and time consuming to build just to be in the background, and here, we get all the little details of real places, atmosphere, sunshine! It's so great! All the colors look really saturated too, it's almost cartoonish, but not in a bad way. I honestly wonder if they used some kind of filters to make the trees greener and the sky bluer, or if LA really just looks like that. Star Trek tends to be very grey and beige, and I just love all the colors we see in this one.

There's so much here that's nostalgic- the flip phones! Rain Robinson's entire wardrobe! (Girl looks like she stepped out of the pages of Teen Vogue- every girl wanted to dress like her, she even had a VW van, which was very cool at the time.)

I really do like the little romantic subplot they gave to Tom and Rain. It was sweet that they bonded over being nerdy, and it was so lovely that they let Tom be genuine and not cheesy, finally. I love that they gave Rain a little speech recognizing how selfless and dutiful Tom actually is. (I think this episode is where little 10 year old me started to develop a crush on him- and here we are, 27 years later, and I'll still fight anyone who doesn't respect my cringefail nerd blorbo. I'm fine and normal, I promise!)

One thing I noticed on rewatching this, though, is that after the big car chase, when Tom and Rain have their little goodbye kiss, Tom walks away, and gets beamed back to Voyager, but, um... how is she supposed to get home?! Her van just got crashed into, and they're in the middle of the desert! You couldn't just get an Uber in those days! They left her stranded out on a desert road with no car, no food, no water! She's gonna die y'all! The least they can do after she helped them is beam her the hell back to town!! Lol wtf?!

This is one of those eps that's so much fun that you don't want it to end. But of course, our plucky Voyager crew stops Starling from taking the timeship back to the future, and prevents him from destroying the solar system. It's very satisfying knowing his greed is what gets him killed- if only billionaires always got what they deserved lol. And then they get to go back to their own time, but they have to go back to the Delta Quadrant- that pesky temporal prime directive! But we get treated to a final scene of all of the crew together in the mess hall, for the first time ever! I'm not sure if they're celebrating the Doctor's mobile emitter, or getting back to their own time, or what, but it's cute AF. Tom then calls Tuvok a freakasaurus (affectionate), and I'm just about to keel over from warm fuzzy feelings as the credits roll. I love this one so, so much!!

Tl;dr: A conclusion that lives up to the first part, this is an epic time travel story with all the fun, nostalgia, and excitement you could ask for. One of the series best, a true classic.

[hpowellsmith]

March Reading

I read a lot of books this month, and had great luck with how much I enjoyed them! Favourites are bolded.

Brute: Stories of Dark Desire, Masculinity & Rough Trade - ed. Steve Berman

A collection of dark erotica stories about queer men: a variety of horror, thriller, and character studies. Some didn't entirely land for me as they were just a bit too gruesome for me to entirely enjoy, but I did love 'Dark, Firm, and Dry' by Rien Gray, 'Dick Pig' by Ian Muneshwar, and 'The Boy Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was by LC Von Hessen'; 'Suitcase Sam' by Tom Cardamone was horrific enough to disturb me afterwards. There were a few trans guy protagonists but amid a lot of lovingly-described gigantic cis men, trans men didn't get described as objects of desire; it made me realise how much I'd like to read more erotica or steamy romance where a trans man is written in the lavish/idealised/thirsty way a lot of the cis men were in this collection. It was also interesting that most of the protagonists were strongly submissive; it's sparked off a lot of offline conversations about erotic fiction and depictions of kink therein, and my own thoughts about how I write erotic scenes (though I don't consider what I write intensely kinky). I'd enjoy writing more about this subject but I'm not sure Tumblr is the place for it; maybe a blogpost one day?

Love Kills Twice - Rien Gray

I adored this high-heat F/NBi romantic suspense book. The characters were hot and appealing, with a lot of substance and groundedness to them along with it. The plot was tight and I devoured the whole thing at top speed. Much recommended!

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

A memoir about a fifty-year-old farmer and her husband who became homeless and walked England's South West Coast Path. Powerful and evocative in places: I enjoyed it, though some of the descriptions and dialogue of the people encountered melted into one another a bit. I'm realising that I rather like these people-hit-rock-bottom-and-walk-in-the-wilderness-about-it books. They always inspire me to look outward and get outdoors, albeit in a lower-key way.

The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker (reread)

This was quite nostalgic for me, because I read it a long time ago (before the first in the series, actually). I like elements of it more than Regeneration - getting to know Billy Prior better, the city scenes, depiction of queerness and homophobia beyond what Siegfried Sassoon talks about in Regeneration, some of the socialist politics and class consciousness - but the main plot hadn't fully stuck with me. I think I see why: there are several long sequences that I found hard to focus on, and some of it is a bit strange, veering into depictions of multiple-personality-disorder that have been pretty debunked nowadays. Still, I enjoyed revisiting it. The sense that William Rivers is on the verge of breakdown feels palpable and gripping.

Love Bleeds Deep - Rien Gray

Justine and Campbell are on a not-so-idyllic not-exactly-honeymoon in France, growing accustomed to life together and the combination of enjoying a private life and Campbell's deadly occupation. This doesn't shy away from the psychological damage both leads have suffered, while also showing exactly how much they mean to each other. Again I loved it just as much as the first one.

Love Burns Bright - Rien Gray

So many romance books focus on the sexy getting-together part, and sequels don't always keep the spark going. But this series is so good for that and for keeping the emotional connections between the gorgeous characters. In this one, we meet Justine's family, which is already fraught as Justine wasn't in a position to be in touch with them for a long time - but things soon get complicated. I loved it.

A Love So Dark - Rien Gray

Such a good finale for an amazing dark queer romance series! The relationship between Justine and Campbell is beautifully drawn and as hot as ever - no weird misunderstandings or other relationship-drama nonsense - but their situation is anything but settled as some consequences from earlier books come back to haunt them. What a fantastic series this is! Some of the books I've read about nonbinary characters treat them as learning opportunities, or as nice best friends, or as a vehicle for positive rep, and I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see a fully-formed, hot, flawed, adult nonbinary character making their way through excellent thriller plots. I love Campbell and Justine and I'm sorry to see them go, but it was an amazing ride with them.

Valerin the Fair - Rien Gray

A beautifully-written fantasy novella, the first in the Out of True series about sapphic knights. The details are so lovely - they remind me of what I loved about the prose style in Spear by Nicola Griffith - and the intimate scenes are stunning. You can download this for free, so if this sounds like your cup of tea, do give it a look!

[two-reflections]

how you feel about your current WIP

Which one, hahahahaaa...

Thanks for asking, it's always good to do a WIP audit. Let's do it as a numbered list. Only going for the multi-chapter stories here. I also have a lot of oneshots in varying states of completion.

Non Warhammer 40k stories are under the Read More.

Carrion's Heir - Technically not a WIP, but not fully uploaded yet. It would have been a better story if I hadn't had to follow a set of prompts, but that was how the challenge I wrote it for worked. Still, I love the main character and his story arc. May come back to it in the future.

Of Steel and Flesh - Started off as a quick series of campaign-inspired drabbles, but became its own thing. I kind of love it and kind of hate it sometimes. Maybe I should have just left it as a bunch of tiny vignettes. I am committed to finishing it, though. Again, I care a lot about the main characters, and I REALLY like the Dark Mechanicum sect in it.

Even in Death - MY BELOVED. MY DARLING. MY SWEET, SELF-INDULGENT DREADNOUGHT-BASED BABY. Putting this one off to finish other projects hurts so bad. I want to write the rest of this ASAP.

[Unnamed Techmarine Story] - This is about my character Bai'keti's 30 years on Mars. It's less about his training and more about what being so far from his brothers and culture is like, the difficulty of adopting a new culture, and his intense friendship with another techmarine in training from the Dragonspears chapter. I'll probably never upload this one because I'm not too familiar with what Mars in 40k is like beyond "Admech and the Void Dragon live here." Plus, it's based on my own time as an International student at a particularly weird British University. It makes me feel nostalgic for the rare good times, and also SO freaking glad I survived my time and am not there any more. Hated my Uni so much. This WIP is also on the back burner at like 12k words, will probably pick it back up in the autumn.

[Unnamed Salamander Story] - The story of Val'ten's first year in the Salamanders' 6th company. Includes a romance between him and his brander priest, but it's mostly about various missions and adventures, how he settles to life as a Salamander brother, and his attempt to grow a little garden in his downtime. This one is my most long-term wh40k project since I came up with Val'ten in 2017 for a completely different (and much worse) fic. His story has been stuck at around 60k words for months because it's on the back burner while I finish other things, but this is the story I think about in the shower, when I'm waiting in a queue, when I'm on the train. It's so important to me.

Other fandoms and Original Work

The Name Within - A leftover from my Kingdom Hearts Days. It's about Isa straightening out his head after everything that happened in KH3, and coming to terms with perhaps never functioning like a normal human after experiencing literal dehumanization at a pivotal age. I've linked it because it's on Ao3, but I wouldn't bother checking it out, it's probably not worth reading unless you really like this one particular dude. It's been missing around two paragraphs to finish for years. I should just bash those out and finish it, but it's hard to find the keen for it now.

Big Name on Campus/The Dream He Was Given - Temporary names for two fanfics based on a very old Sci-Fi manga. One is a weird fix-it-fic, the other is based on the University career of my favourite character, the chronically ill director of a medical center. I know, another university story, but I swear this one's not primarily based on my experience; rather, on watching my parents' students over the years. Decent chance I will never finish these two, there's no English-speaking audience for this comic so they're only for me. I love BNOC, though. The other, I could take or leave.

Twisted Links - Original story. After a series of international incidents and corporate takeovers, HR Agent Marley from the Pan-Martian Corporation ends up as temporary site director for a radio telescope in the Caribbean with secret instructions to ensure the Corp's permanent control of the site. Unbeknownst to Marley, local engineer and anti-colonialism activist Victor is struggling to hide a rogue Pan-Martian AI which caused a major international incident several decades before. Will Victor be able to keep the AI secret, or will Marley find out that there's a second being living inside Victor's head? Whose vision for the future of the telescope will become reality, or will the whole place shut down? The first 20k words of this story secured me a first-class Master's degree, but just as I was gearing up to write the rest, the catastrophic demise of the telescope where I grew up happened. I miss this story and want to go back to it but... Trauma...

[kithtaehyung]

15, 16, 27, 32, 44 :3

HI FRANKIEEE love the pics so let's get it!

15.  How do you deal with writer’s block?

oooo definitely a location change is the first thing i try. so like, if i can't get any work done at home, i venture out and go to a cafe or somewhere else to try. if that doesn't work, i put it down and wait until something inspires me, whether from movies or shows or art!

16.  How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied with a project?

lmfaooooo sometimes it's two, sometimes it's (draft) (redraft) (scraps) (mixed draft) (draft to post) (post), all separate docs lol

27.  Favourite line/scene

man, y'all.. i still really, really like the firepit scene in last november. but there's also a lot of scenes in three tangerines that are so dear to me, too. shout-out to that balcony that i find myself on, years later. or that kitchen, still so vivid in my mind and will forever be. if i can pick a favorite line for now.. it would be this one in fireworks:

More bursts of brilliance boom and break spots in the dark night, and you rest your cup on the railing before gripping the wood with both hands.  Hands down, this is the most content you’ve felt all night. And the most contemplative. You almost feel nostalgic for the exact same moment you’re living, which you didn’t think was possible until now. Your words leave you in puffs of white,  “It’s so weird how you can love something you’re afraid of.”

32.  Most difficult character to write

already answered this, but i would also go with a character that i haven't released yet! it's fashion ceo!taehyung, and he is.. quite the one to write lmfao

44.  How much research do you do?

depends on the subject matter! if i need to fact-check myself, then i'm gonna at least do the bare minimum. if there's something more extensive, then i'd do a little more work. since most of what i've written so far is slice of life, i haven't had to do too much!

these were amazing! thank you so so much for asking. it's actually really fun talking about these with y'all

writer ask game questions!

[alwaysanangcl]

Happy Munday y'all! I hope that you've had an amazing July and that as we get ready to head into the tail end of summer, you are happy and fulfilled! I've got a couple weeks until the semester starts back up and I'm not sure what my presence here will be like when that occurs. I'm sorry that I've been so spotty, sometimes I feel like my spark for writing is waning, other times I have so much inspiration but it's hit at a poor time! I love you all and this amazing little world of creativity we share here and while I don't know if I'm going to be able to get back to where I was a year and some change ago in terms of activity, I hope you all know that you're all always on my mind in some capacity. Whether it's a song that comes on or something that I read, I still think of your characters and I appreciate you sharing your creativity with me!

It's funny, I'm feeling really nostalgic today and that Eddie quote My hair was buzzed and I didn't have these sweet old tatties yet. keeps buzzing around in my head because in the past twelve months my hair has grown out about six inches or so and I've picked up four new tattoos and this version of me that I am right now feels very different from who I was and I'm still figuring out what all that means lol. Sorry for waxing poetic! Big feels are on the brain today, so chances are that's what I'll be writing hahah. But yeah! Pics of my two newest tattoos under the cut!!

Sorry for the weird angle, hahah. My artist had me laying down and I was waiting for her to set up her photo station so it was a raise your arm up kinda opportunity. Now my Eddie tribute has some baby bats to hang out with!

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

https://gamerant.com/loki-season-2-mcdonalds-partnership-sylvie-details/

There's such an insanity in this. The fact they are taking this so seriously and expect the audience too as well. Like, people don't fondly look as product placement as something positive in movies and tv.

GotG works because stuff like 80 music and aesthetic is something that can be liked even if one doesn't have personal nostalgic attachment to it. And it is music, aesthetic and pop culture that people do form attachment to and keep in their lives.

For most McDonald is not some warm nostalgic experience people think of. It's thought of as cheap, unhealthy and more often than not poor quality food. No one attach is themselves to eat fast food chain like they attach themselves to their music. It doesn't inspire people like movies and tv can when writing their own stories.

Like, Wanda finding comfort in watching sitcoms is a thing people do. Sylvie finding comfort in working for a fast food chain is a joke and them taking it so seriously just makes even more of a joke

Yeah, it is kind of weird. You think maybe it's an American thing? Maybe they feel some kind of attachment to McDonald's for some reason, but I doubt the rest of the world gives a damn. It's just one of a million other fast-food joints that I particularly never go to. If I go fast-food, I'm buying pizza, baby.

I wasn't watching the MCU back then but did they make such a huge fuss about Stark eating a burger back in IM 2? It's like they're trying to convince the audience that this has a deeper meaning or something. Wanna give it an emotional angle? Do it in the script! The fact that they're trying to sell this so much and so repeatedly kind of makes me think they didn't do a good enough job of it in the episode and they're trying to cover their asses or something.

Anyway, Sylvie is not human. She could find those families with kids at a park or coming out of school, the McDonald's thing was done for marketing purposes and that's it.

I gotta say though, this part in that article is bothering me:

"The season 2 trailer indicated that he (Loki) is having an issue with time slippage, and there would be no individual better at understanding the problem than a person who spent her entire life hiding in the timelines."

Sylvie knows nothing about that. She didn't even know magic didn't work at the TVA. She's not some expert about timelines and time shenanigans, she was only at the TVA for a few minutes as a kid. Loki said in ep2 he had been watching videos regarding those aspects of timelines, etc so if anything... he knows a lot more than she does. But S2 is going to be more of the same, I'm afraid. Loki being clueless and Sylvie showing how much more than him she knows.

PS. Isn't this show supposed to be about him? Yet all articles I've seen talk about her. Why don't they change the title of the series? Oh right, it may not sell as well...

[dynamoe]

Last month I uploaded the last chapter of Tomorrow's Just Another Day to AO3.

71,832 words, written between 5/2022 - 6/2023 → go to the Billy Quizboy & Pete White index

If you read any of this shit, thank you very much. I hope you got some entertainment out of it. I can now retire from my brief but intense career as fiction writer.

— THIS TUMBLR IS ALSO RETIRED —.

Tomorrow... follows Boy Genius: 54,414 words between 11/2021 - 2/2023

Boy Genius was meant to read like a (very long, unfocused) episode of the Billy & White spinoff show, had it existed. Tonally, it's in the sci-fi-through-mundanity Venture genre: a SuperScience convention paralleled with the culture of competitive boy geniusing. Billy's mother is the only other canon Venture Bros. character to appear.

Tomorrow is fan fiction in response to fan fiction. I never saw a Billy romance attempted so I wrote one. It's not slash or erotica— just '90s style indie film awkwardness. Not in the Venture Bros tone at all. There's no sci-fi element other than Billy's robot hand; no Venture content other than Billy's Rusty Venture memorabilia collection.

It's still a nostalgia wank. I go real deep on mid-1990s specifics.

Because the show came out so slowly over a long period of time (20 years!), the current generation of most-fired-up-fans are way younger than the creators or the characters. Each fan creates their own internal canon for the characters they love. They experience it through their own frame of references. Own it. Go on with your bad self. I GET IT! YOU DO YOU!

THAT SAID...

Seeing fan stuff saying like "Pete identifies as gamer ..something something playing Minecraft" "Billy buys import Vocaloid/Anime figurines" totally gives me whiplash. Because I'm an old. (Not as old as AstroBase Go and not as old as Conjectural Technologies but enough to know their references.)

My read on it— Venture Bros is a quintessentially a Gen X show and Gen X nerdery is a whole other animal. Being a weird dork manifested in a whole other way before widespread internet use and the current age of geek culture dominating pop culture. It was a shameful niche.

So, playing around in the '90s I got to define some of that old school dorkwad identity and I got to top-load it with every nostalgic element of the era I could think of (and research for even deeper cuts.) I was in high school then, so some of that shit is stamped on my brain.

I created an original character who I hoped would be interesting and flawed and believable for the era but most importantly funny playing off the characters fans would already know. (And then get rid of her when I was done, though I felt bad about it.)

Between the two stories, the only material I never found a use for was high school stories of 9-12 year old Billy meeting an inspirational (secretly alcoholic/crack-smoking) teacher, taking over the varsity Quizbowl Team, a battle of wills with his rival (the unctuous team captain with a McEnroe perm and temperment) and getting stood up by his prom date (Pretty in Pink situation where he is both Duckie and Andie).

if you've read all the way to the end of either story, please leave me a comment or send me an ask or DM or something. I wrote a hell of a lot of words (and drew way too many illustrations) on this fuckin' thing. Thanks.

all Billy Quizboy & Pete White material:→ FAILURES of SCIENCE index

off into the sunset (in a universe where I didn't blow her up)

→ go to the Billy Quizboy & Pete White index

[raccoonfallsharder]

idk if u remember string cheese anon but hi, it's me

honestly I might just send asks occasionally when I do mundane things that I think rocket would have interesting reactions to because I'm bored :P

I think he'd find coloring books really weird at first but then secretly do urs when u aren't looking (and if he's anything like me, he would see one of those "adult" ones that's needlessly complicated with the patterns and despise it for doing too much, but maybe he wants it to be complicated. it's overwhelming for me tho lmao)

ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ STRING CHEESE NONNIE. how could i possibly forget you? please. you inspired some of my most delightful imaginings in the last few weeks and i am grateful for your presence in my asks!

no pressure but if you DO decide to send mundane things you think rocket would have an interest in, i would be eternally delighted

as you know, of course, rocket didn't really get a childhood. even the lovely memories he might've had playing tag with lylla & teefs & floor are more bittersweet than nostalgic. so when you tell him that coloring is relaxing and meditative and that it reminds you of being a little kid, he just blinks at you, and scoffs, and goes about his day.

but he pays attention. he watches you. and you seem to really enjoy it. and rocket doesn't like to miss out, so after you go to bed one night, he flips through your coloring book and opens your box of crayons.

they smell weird. waxy. he likes the feel of the fibrous paper wrappers under his fingers, though.

maybe if he had torn out the pages he'd ended up coloring, you wouldn't have noticed his additions so quickly. or if he'd just been more normal about his coloring. but rocket's style is too meticulous. unique. the colors he chooses don't always make sense - how d'you know? you ain't been around the universe long enough yet to say what's weird an' what's not, he reminds you smugly when you confront him. on the other hand, you realize that you have no idea what the high evolutionary did to his eyes. maybe he still can't see red - or maybe he sees more colors than a terran human like yourself could even dream of. either way, each stroke of color is deliberately applied. in fact, rocket's probably one of those people who adds more detail into the pictures: makes the boring humans look like other lifeforms he met once, or changes their clothes to reflect something he saw one time on a space station out in the lumyra system. i imagine he's actually really good at drawing in a particular, precise sort of way - he maybe hasn't consumed a lot of narrative or conceptual art, but he can glance at a mechanical diagram and flawlessly recreate it years later.

in any case, he's realized you're right. there's something relaxing about it - pulling color out across a soft sheet of paper. changing it. making something of it. it's liberating. it's freeing. he can do whatever he wants. go wherever he wants. he particularly likes it when you bring out older coloring books - the waxy smell has grown on him, combined with the scent of the shabby-soft, faded paper. he likes the simpler images over the more complex ones, too - but mostly because it leaves him more room to create what he wants on the page.

next time mantis stops by, she brings some coloring books that quill had sent along from terra. you and rocket pour over them, exploring each page. after he's done with captain-shit for the night, he takes a break from the new ship he's been building to sit with you and color in the common area.

it ain't like being a kid again, he tells you one night, thoughtfully.

you blink over at him. what?

coloring, he says. it ain't like being a kid again.

you wait, looking over at him while he thoughtfully selects another crayon.

being a kid was bein in a cage, he tells you quietly, turning his eyes back to his page and pressing the waxy tip into the paper. he doesn't look up.

this is like flyin.