#its my blog i get to pick what i infodump on

[august-undergrounds]

Mormon Doctrine of Blood Atonement and the Law of Vengance

Blood Atonement: This part of Mormon doctrine has now been denied by church leaders and practitioners, and denounced as a lie spread by detractors of the church. However, many official church texts, mainly those created during Brigham Young's presidency, state this belief explicitly. It refers to the idea that, although Jesus Christ's blood has atoned for the sins of the world, there are certain crimes against God that not even Christ can redeem. In this instance, that person must have their blood shed upon the earth so that they may not be subject to eternal suffering in outer darkness as a son of perdition.

"... Brigham Young, taught that in a complete theocracy the Lord could require the voluntary shedding of a murder's blood - presumably by capital punishment - as part of the process for atonement of such grevious sin." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Daniel H Ludlow, Brigham Young University)

While this quote states that the sinner's blood must be shed voluntarily, it does not appear to be a requirement, as seen in the execution of John D. Lee folowing the Mountain Meadows Massacre, of which Brigham Young was quoted as saying during an interview:

[Correspondednt - "Do you belive in blood atonement?"

Brigham Young - "I do, and I belive that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime. The Saviour died for all the sins of the world by shedding his blood, and then I belive that he who sheds the blood of man wilfully, by man shall his blood be shed. In other words capital punishment of roffenses deserving death, according to the laws of the land"] (An Interview With Brigham Young, from Deseret News vol. 26 no. 16)

Other crimes against God that may call for blood atonement are apostasy (denying the church's truth), theft, and fornication, although sodomy and adultery are not included. It is important to note that this practice was intended to be instituted in a state run by the Mormon acting as the head of the government. Brigham Young was once close to this theocracy during the early days of the Mormon church in the Utah Territory. The pre-existing church heirarchy and leadership quickly assumed positions of power, with Brigham Young serving as the Utah Territory's first govenor, where he exerted incredibly influence over the people. In Young's ideal world, he could govern his church and prosecute those deserving of capital punishment through the arm of the law, thus implementing blood atonement.

Examples of this include the diary of John Doyle Lee, who was present for meetings between Brigham Young and The Council of Fifty (a group of religious leaders in a legislative body), as they drafted a plan for the State of Deseret (the proposed name for the modern day state of Utah). On March 3rd, 1849, Young was quoted as saying "...Suffering infernals, thieves, Murderers, Whoremongers & every other wicked curst to [exist?], through mercy to live amoung us, adding sin to sin, crime to crime, currupting the morals of the People when their Blood ought to floow [sic] to atone for their crimes. I want their cursed heads to be cut off that they may atone for their Sins, that mercy may have her claims upon them in the day of redemption."

Additionally, Brigham Young promoted decapitation to atone for the supposed sin of White Mormon men intermingling with Black people. He said, "If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man woman and child it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? no it would be a blessing to them. — it would do them good that they might be saved with their Bren. A man would shudder should they here us take about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, although the true principles of it are not understood" (Speech by Gov. Young in Joint Session of the Legislature, Feb 5th, 1852)

Both of these quotes mentioned above paint a clear picture of what Brigham Young was intending to do with the Utah territory. There are records of him doing so along with the Council of Fifty, which are recorded in John Doyle Lee's diary as discussing decapitating a man and how to "dispose of him privately". Although they eventually let this man live, decapitiation as a method of execution was instituted in Utah until 1888.

Another important part of the doctrine of blood atonement is it's relationship to the murder of Joseph Smith Jr, the first prophet and leader of the Mormon church, and his brother Hiram Smith, at Carthage Jail, Illinois. This assasination occured both because of political strife (Josph Smith was running for United States President, among lesser state-centric conflicts with authorities, mostly about polygamy) and a rejection of Mormonism by the people of Illinois. Following his death, Brigham Young was instated as the new prophet of the church, upon which he began teaching the idea that Joseph and Hiram's blood cried out against God for vengance. This sparked the institution of the oath of vengance, as part of the endowment ritual (one of the highest ceremonies preformed in Mormon temples, meant to give all members the key words, signs, tokens, and ordinances needed to return to God's kingdom).

Oath of Vengance: This was an addition to the Nauvoo endowment during a time where many church members yearned to avenge the murder of their most beloved leader and prophet. The original oath reads as follows: "You and each of you do covenant and promise that you will pray and never cease to pray to Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation, and that you will teach the same to your children and to your children's children unto the third and fourth generation." While some members interpereted this as a prompt for prayer alone, others took it to mean a personal responsibility to kill those involved in the martyrdom, should the situation arise. This part of the endowment ceremony was taken out in 1927 during the intitiution of the church's Good Neighbor Policy. These are not to be confused with penalty oaths, which describe the participants agreement to being slit ear to ear, disemboweled, detounged, and have their hearts split open if they revealed the secrets of the church and their endowed vows to others. (may make an infopost on this one too)

Other notable supporters of blood atonement include Jedidiah M Grant, who wrote the statement below in the Deseret News on March 12 1854.

["It is their right to baptize a sinner to save him, and it is also their right to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned for by shedding his blood. If the Lord God forgives sins by baptism, and there is another law that certain sins cannot be atoned for by baptism, but by the shedding of the blood of the sinner, query, whether the people of God be overreaching the mark, if they should execute the law to save such. They could do it sucinctly. We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed to save him."] (Deseret News, vol. 4 no. 20)

It is important to mention that, although there is clear evidence of the doctrine being preached, the Mormon church made a firm stance that it had not actually practiced this doctrine yet, although it would do so soon towards covenant breakers. They also preached that current sinners who would likely need to atone by their own blood should repent as much as they could while alive, so that eventually their sins would not be so greivious as to require their deaths. Blood atonement was framed as an act of both mercy and love, rather than a deliberatly violent act. Two notable reported victims of blood atonement are Thomas Coleman, a Black man who was murderd by Mormons for his relationship with a white woman, and Rosmos Anderson, a Danish Mormon and willing participant who was sentenced for adultery. (I will make a seperate post about these individuals and other people killed).

Jedidiah M Grant was also quoted as saying the below quote during a sermon titled Rebuking Iniquity on September 21, 1856

["I say, that there are men and women that I would advise to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their case; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood. We have those amongst us that are full of all manner of abominations, those who need to have thier blood shed, for water will not do, their sins are of too deep a dye."]

This doctrine continued to be defended by later prophets, such as John Taylor and Charles W Penrose. However, in a statement issued in 1889 by prophet Wilford Woodruf, the church denied their promotion of blood atonement, saying "We denounce as entirely untrue the allegation which has been made, that our church favors or believes in the killing of persons who leave the church or apostatize from its doctrines." (Manisfesto of the Presidency and Apostles, December 12, 1889) This denial was later restated by church figures like Bruce R McConkie, stating "If by blood atonement is meant the shedding of the blood of men to atone in some way for their own sins, the answer is No. We do not believe that it is necessary for men in this day to shed their own blood to receive a remission of sins." (Letter from Bruce R McConkie to Thomas B. McAfee)

Blood atonement continues to be denied by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, although it is still practiced by some splinter groups today. One final note is that the system for capital punishment in Utah involved the option for either death by hanging or death by firing squad. While hanging did not spill the sinner's blood upon the earth, therefore keeping the sinner from experiencing blood atonement, death by firing squad would, and as such, was presented as a valid option for those sentenced to death in Utah. However, it appears firing squads were less favored then decapitation, which would spill more blood. Death by firing squad was removed from Utah prison systems in 2004, and has now been replaced by lethal intravenous injection. This law was not applied retroactively however, allowing Ronnie Lee Gardener to choose death by firing squad in 2010, the last exectuion of its kind in both Utah and the United States. He cited his Mormon roots for this decision.

[elegyofthemoon]

😊

having a very happy and dumb little moment of kicking my legs around bc ive missed doing this hobby sm asldfjhal and its been nice to actually do it again with a friend now ; v ;

...oh right yeah we're supposed to NOT be shy about talking. my blog i do what i want. and ramble forever.

so um. i've been picking up voice acting again and nick's been indulging me with it lol it's a bonus for me because the way we'd do it is we'd both pick different scenes and we'd go through them together, giving each other delivery lines and etc. it's silly but it's fun for me anyways.

but it was suuuuch a ++++ for me because 1) i got to do my fave hobby again and like. kinda first thing in the morning. it's wild though because i woke up and was like :I i'd rather not do ANYTHING anymore i'm tired. but seeing how i went from :I to ^u^ the moment i started and then eventually losing track of time was .. nice lol and being able to do voicing for certain things i get nervous about voicing and basically trying to overcome things i was hesitant about was such a nice thing !!

2) it was very much an excuse for me to infodump to nick about what i've been getting into lately (yeah we were voicing some of the h.i3 scenes aslkfalkhj). i've been wanting to for a while but i always get so nervous about it being seemingly Dumb or getting so overly excited over something that might seem dumb to someone else.but :) my brain feels like it has been reset now thanks to me verbally infodumping so YIPPEE

sighs. but anyways. i'm in a good mood alksdfah i have to prep to go out of town this weekend, but i reaaaaaaally wanna go finish the h.sr story... i don't think i actually will before i go 😭😭and i was getting kinda sad about that last night but. letting the story boil in my brain for a bit and process is probably better for me anyhows. so i'll try not to rush myself on trying to finish everything. besides i don't interact w the fandom and keep to my own secluded corner of the universe so lol it's not like i'd be risking anything

[triptychofvoids]

you don't need permission to infodump. go on ahead, speak until your lungs are inside out! fight the system !

ok maybe i will talk about the legend of zelda. what would happen if i talked about a link between worlds real quick. but im going to put it under the cut because i dont need to have a gigantic block of text on my blog xD

so i dont know exactly how many people have played a link between worlds, but from what ive seen its very rarely talked about and is incredibly overshadowed by the other zelda games. i mean i like all the zelda games because its my favorite series and is my special interest but i think that the zelda games on the ds dont get the attention they deserve

a link between worlds is probably in my top 3 zelda games if i really had to pick. it released for the 3ds in i think it was 2013, and it functions as sort of a spiritual successor to a link to the past, and i think that people who like a link to the past would also like a link between worlds. its the typical top down dungeon crawler type game just like the rest of the 2d zeldas are, and its !! a lot of fun !! the art direction is sort of fun and cartoony, the soundtrack is really good i think and it remasters a lot of songs from a link to the past. if youre looking for a really in depth story then you probably wont find it here, but the story that it does have is functional and. i dont know, i mean, i found it engaging. its good. i like it a lot genuinely. in terms of gameplay like i said its like the other 2d zeldas but like a link to the past theres also that dark world-light world dichotomy that is integrated into the overworld and puzzle solving and theres the new mechanic where you can merge into walls which also plays into how you navigate the world and solve puzzles its just so cool.

so um. yeah !! i know thats not much just because im not going to sit here and type out the whole entire game, but if you or anyone hasnt played a link between worlds yet i highly recommend it just because its one of my favorites. i think when people are looking for 2d zelda games to play they usually play a link to the past, links awakening, or the original. which dont get me wrong, those are all great, but i think that a link between worlds gets overlooked a lot in the same way that spirit tracks and phantom hourglass do. at least from what ive seen

neway i wanted to get my a link between worlds recommendation out of the way before anything else because if theres one thing i can talk about A LOT its the legend of zelda series. and god forbid im allowed to actually have a conversation with someone about ganondorf, no one will ever hear the end of it. i have so many thoughts about him (hes my favorite). btw my askbox is always open and i love the sound of my own voice and my opinions are always right so asks are always welcome xD

[callmehere-iwillappear]

actually fuck it its MY blog and I get to choose the content. taz au infodump time. under a read more bc this is gonna be LONGGGGGG

genuinely this WHOLE THING started bc i was like. wow taako and leo are Literally The Same Person. huh. and magnus and raph are too, huh, thats wild, and then it just spiraled from there when i realized just how much shit would translate over so well

its not a one-to-one thing like some stuff is gonna be different - ie obviously barry is gonna be more of a mentor figure to donnie in this LMAO and donnie is still the tech guy, i wasnt gonna take that away from him but like. itll work hes just like how lup is with magic, except with tech. so its fine. he does still have his ninpo and has access to it and everything during the stolen century BECAUSE:

OK. SO. he doesnt do the lich thing, HOWEVER. he does like... make a kinda robot ish body he can possess if he dies. and he makes those for his whole family not just him and barry but ANYWAY

his tech bo is set up like the umbra staff, so it can consume the magic of a defeated magic user etc etc. so that shit happens and he gets stabbed in the back and like, hes not a lich, but his soul is literally made of ninpo, so like. he gets ate

uuuhhh what else

im keeping the thing w mikey grabbing the tech bo and getting knocked back and then leo picking it up and being accepted bc its soft. uuhh they all already have their mystic powers by the time they (re)meet up, leo has more than just portal magic but thats what he specializes in

its set in . kind of a cross between faerun and nyc/hidden city?? i havent figured that part out a whole lot tbh

instead of losing years of his life in wonderland like lucretia thats when splinter gets mutated

the relics are all different, havent decided what they are though. i also might have april be on the stolen century instead of whoever wouldve been davenport i think. hence the not one to one thing

straight up all the bob (or whatever its called in this) tech is stolen from donnie, he left his blueprints behind when he went off to get his relic and splinter was like. wow i can use these! [hires kendra who is Absolutely using this shit for her own gain in secret LMAO]

uuuhh. i THINK thats all i got rn. i made this au a WHILE ago and didnt write all of it down (regret) so i dont remember some stuff unfortunately but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to ask questions if u have any please. please

[karkleisdead]

I posted 13,499 times in 2022

That's 13,499 more posts than 2021!

72 posts created (1%)

13,427 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@geekkboy

@telltaletypist

@soggysocksandcrocs

@secretkryptoniteangel

@a-pair-of-sapphic-socks

I tagged 763 of my posts in 2022

#wwdits - 112 posts

#wwdits spoilers - 96 posts

#homestuck - 73 posts

#nandermo - 31 posts

#the owl house - 31 posts

#toh spoilers - 25 posts

#karkat vantas - 23 posts

#davekat - 19 posts

#dave strider - 19 posts

#dirk strider - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 103 characters

#𝖌𝖔𝖙 𝖆𝖓 𝖆𝖕𝖕 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖒𝖞 𝖐𝖊𝖞𝖇𝖔𝖆𝖗𝖉 𝖇𝖈 𝖓𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖑 𝖋𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖘 𝖜𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖇𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖒𝖊

I sent 3 gifts in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

115 notes - Posted June 8, 2022

#4

Davekat headcanon bc I'm basic:

Dave needs glasses. Like, actual glasses, not just shades. He wasn't able to get them with bro (obviously) and he hid it on the meteor bc he didn't even really realize it. And obviously karkat noticed like immediately like : "WHAT THE FUCK???? GET GLASSES?????" and Dave was like "nah dude its always been like this im good--" The second they're on Earth C karkat forces him to get prescription shades and Dave just. Doesn't know how to react now that he can actually see.

128 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

#3

Karkat Vantas would scroll through #mlm on tumblr, insta, and twitter for a couple hours and imagine multiquadrant (or quadrant-defying) scenarios send tweet

145 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

#2

Dirk Strider hc:

Because dirk was like. Never exposed to humans irl before after the game, he had genuinely never been sick. A few weeks on Earth C he gets sick and is convinced he is dying. He writes a will and testament (he assumes it will be a just death) before Jake kindly informs him that he has a cold and makes him lie down.

184 notes - Posted May 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Infodumping ur friends about homestuck is so fun bc you can literally pick one aspect, one act, or one character and be able to talk for literal hours. ESPECIALLY if it's a fandom favorite and you find some cool theories on them. Or it's like. Act 6. U know? Just one. Infodumping about the entirety of homestuck could and should take days.

200 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[pavo-ocell-me]

Baizhu headcanons! Needed to plan for my next fic and some friends convinced me to post my character notes lmao

Thank you @alberivh for the help!

Warnings: a couple of these are a teensy bit unhealthy, I wanted to look at both sides of him. Don't worry, there will never be any yandere content on this blog.

》▪︎He/they icon bc I said so ♡

》▪︎ says ily very lightly so it takes a lot of sincerity for the person on the receiving end to believe it

》▪︎ they'd tease a lot

》▪︎ kinda thinks of him and the reader as qiqi's parents and will say so to fluster the reader

》▪︎ petty asf but kind, unclear if sincere about kindness 

》▪︎ doesn't do fieldwork or make medicines, more puts together the formulas, runs the other side of his business, and looks to cure himself

》▪︎ unsure how to be in a relationship but can really like someone romantically

》▪︎ unhealthy but I feel like they'd kinda want them to have a condition too? Nothing that'd shorten their lifespan but he wants to relate to someone with that

》▪︎ gentleman asf

》▪︎ not a fan of PDA, does it in reverse. Very openly touches and teases you before a relationship begins, then saves those for behind closed doors when dating

》▪︎ is a bit dense but respects clearly set boundaries, in that he doesn't notice you're uncomfortable with something until you tell him so or react REALLY adversely 

》▪︎ flowers are a love language of his! Going out is a risk for him, so it really speaks volumes that they'd risk their safety for your happiness.

》▪︎any partner or coworker will have to win over changsheng. Finding out what she likes is awkward as you can't ask Baizhu directly since shes always with him. You and herbalist Gui have a grand old time tracking what the doctor gives her, it takes weeks at best sjdjsjfjjw

》▪︎if qiqi ever says she doesnt like you in any way while you're starting to court them its over

》▪︎he does get jealous but not outwardly. In the beginning of the relationship, after a little while they may get a bit jealous when someone pursues you, never of your friends. He trusts you. Instead, if someone hits on you while picking up a prescription, he might slip a little something into their medicine. Oh, were the runs not listed as a side effect? Shame. You find out and make him stop sjdjuxuwjge he wouldn't cause physical harm, just what he thinks is mildly petty. Later on in the relationship he just kinda tells you he doesnt like the person who hit on you, drive them away with a clear word and hand on your waist, and you'll both laugh it off

》▪︎pls if they really like you changsheng will sit on your shoulders or in your clothing bdbhfhhdhdf sneke.....

》▪︎express interest in his work and hes whipped smh so many people think herbs and medicines are boring pls he wants someone to calmly infodump to

That's all I've got! Man the jealousy ones are long sjsjwjjfjww thanks for reading

[oleanderblume]

I don't know how else to put this, so here goes.

From one indie author to another, you have a long road ahead of you. I can't tell if you're serious about your publishing career, considering that your blog is full of average Tumblr blog reblogs in-between the sparse posts about your book and other author-ly posts.

First, your marketing could use some work. Most readers will want a summary of the book they are being presented instead of being spoon-fed tropes and other weird Tumblr lingo.

Second, I would suggest getting a new book cover. The one you have now is an eyesore, to be quite frank. The rainbow barrage of colors is just not a good look, and it is very poor graphic design.

Third, you could use a new blurb. Blurbs are very important to sell your novel, and the one you have now left a lot to be desired. Not only is it a massive infodump in the first sentence alone, but it also leaves the genre unclear and is overall worded very confusingly. Blurbs are hard to write, I get it, so I recommend hiring someone else to write one for you.

That's all I have to say. Wishing you the best of luck in your writing endeavors.

Thank you, I'm self pub and honestly don't have any intention of turning my work into a typical run of the mill sort of book marketing scheme, or a full time job. I write because I like to, and I market when I want to. (This being my actual first attempt)

The design and color scheme being loud is intentional, along with the title and the general premise. It's *supposed* to be jarring because how can a story about interdimensional space clowns not be? It's targeted toward people who would be drawn to a book about interdimensional space clowns lol.

My entire marketing is the concept of "this is sounds weird as fuck, wanna read it?"

Idk if you followed the link but the actual blurb is:

Oliver Tarsul is a mostly average 14-year-old kid; aside from being the unwilling roommate to an interdimensional space clown his step-father solicited to rebuild a portal designed by his recently deceased mother. Things are more than a little complicated. Regardless, dealing with a gelatinous slime monster in the shape of a clown girl named Dindet, while also trying to stay under the radar as the only trans kid in school, proves to be significantly harder than he imagined. But the fallout of his mother's supposed death didn't just bring into question what she was working on and who she was working with. It also brought along with it a part of Oliver's past that he'd rather just forget. His biological father.

"Interdimensional space clown" and "portal" pretty clearly state that it's a science fiction, and the inclusion of the MC's personal history denotes a level of reality to the absurd premise.

It's not perfect, obviously, I can recognize that for sure. But I have plenty of time to improve lol.

My blazed post isn't trying to sound like an advertisement because I'm shit at it and that's the point. I don't want to be that platformed, weirdly separated, perfectly curated author. I'm a person first and this is my personal social media, so I will use it personally.

Also...I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but largely what I have seen as successful marketing for books in today's internetty age, *is* utilizing tropes. Like entire manuscripts get picked up by agents based purely off tropes and incredibly brief pitches. There are entire events on social media created to facilitate these sort of pitches for agents and traditional publishers because it's proven to be somewhat successful. (Its also recognizable to the fic community, who I feel would likely be interested in au and original content that fits their favorite tropes)

But...I mean, I've had several notes of people reblogging and saving the blazed post in their tags and thats proof enough to me that my half assed attempt worked.

So, I appreciate the constructive criticism, but I'm not trying to do stuff the normal people way, and definitely not on the single website where doing things the normal people way would work more likely to my detriment lol.

[bookwyrminspiration]

I have no clues how to submit and anon submission but!! I drew the Echo Cat and sent a picture to your inbox!! If you wanted to put it in a post to talk about it then please do, if its not too much trouble-

I'm probably jsut being dumb with the submissions though, and sorry if I'm coming off as rude or insistan or anything-

Have a nice night!!

-Heathen

okay so this took me...longer than it should have to answer but!! I am here now!!! and maybe one day we'll figure out this anon submission thing and won't have to take circuitous routes to look at such incredible art, but today is not that day!!

also it's no trouble at all to talk about it! I love looking at people's art (once I get through more asks I hope to go through a bunch of people's work and reblog it because so much of my blog is just me talking). And you're not coming off as rude or insistent or anything! Anyone is welcome to direct my attention anywhere they'd like, whether it be different art and fics (including your own), books, movies, shows, etc. they'd like me to check out. I'm here to infodump about kotlc, yes, but also to be friendly with you all, and that's easier when talking goes both ways!! So feel free to direct me to different things!

and now onto the art!!! (I'm posting the digital one instead of the first sketch, but if you'd like that one included just let me know and I'll add it)

[ID in alt text.]

I am. I am in love with this cat-like this oh. oh it's so nice. Everything about this drawing is!! Better than every expectation I could've possibly had when you said you drew Echo. Did I have any expectations? no. But you did such an incredible job!!

Your detailing is so clean, like all those little tufts of fur throughout the body. They look spiky but also soft and comforting and I just wanna pick it up and hold it and pet it. The ears too!! The way you've positioned them is so smooth, which is very satisfying. And you've kept Echo looking black in color while also still adding shadows, so huge kudos to you!! Working with black can be difficult when so much of the depth just...doesn't show up even irl, so it's very impressive how you've used the lighting to create areas where the shadow will show.

The expression!! Echo can't really have the big pupils cuteness in its expression given that its eyes are just plain white, so I love how you've brought in the tongue to still give that adorable factor while staying true to its design! The eyebrows too!! I forget that animals can be drawn with eyebrows, but given Echo's different capacity for facial expressions it makes a lot of sense! Idk what it is about the shape of the eyes but I absolutely love them--they're so fluid and it fits in perfectly with its whole vibe.

And then the glitch effect!! The star of the show!! A lot of the time glitches will be in like reds and greens and really vibrant colors, but the way you've done it with black and white to match Echo's color scheme...incredible, fantastic, show-stopping, pure ecstasy, enthralling, captivating!! And then there's also the hints of color that tie it all together!! I use the word glitch to describe how it moves to much and like..yesss, now I can see it actually glitchy like in the tech way!! Absolutely marvelous.

You have absolutely outdone yourself with this one!! I love everything about it and will treasure this Echo for eternity--seriously it's so cool seeing people draw art of the wings au, given that I'm just here writing what I think is interesting. And here you are, not only reading it but creating for it?? Thank you so much, I can't even put into words how thrilling it is, so I really appreciate you sharing it with me <33

[st-agatha-city]

So, I queue my posts, as I often work in bursts. This results in weird pacing of updates, but it helps makes content more consumable I think? If I told you everything new as it arrived there would be weird empty spaces on this blog followed by sudden flurries of infodumps.

Here's a little list of future developments below the cut! (This is kinda more for me than you, to be honest - but I feel good about maintaining transparency, not just so prospective players can feel good about investing time in my project with me knowing that it is on its way, also potential future devs will have a better view of the process!) here’s what has to be done to get the demo finished, and my next steps from here!

Finish writing the other 8 main demo routes - Now that Norman is finished, I have to do Baxter, Denver, Ian, Marjory, Mindy, No Name Girl, Ross, and Tara.

I’ve lucky already made some pretty good progress on Denver, Ian, Mindy, and Ross’s routes. Denver’s is almost done, and Ross’ is close. And I recently started NNG’s and Tara’s, but I’m struggling a bit trying to come up with a good hook and consistently characterize them. I’d really like to make a post about NNG in the fashion of my deep dive “What’s Up With Pixy?” post - which I think will help me figure out how to proceed with her, because she’s a particularly complicated character.

Write the secondary paths. Each of the main routes contain a few constants to give them flavor. A couple of CGs, thirty minutes worth of content, at least one choice, and usually a secondary location you can go to with the character if things go well. Being a novice to this, I want to showcase choices, but finding a satisfying way to include them is a bit difficult. Since usually the choice allows for the opportunity to please or offend the character you’re talking to (as this is the demo and is displaying the most basic but interesting functions.) I do think that there is merit to playing through the ‘bad’ choices as they lead to info you wouldn’t be able to get from the characters otherwise, but I don’t want them to be quick, throwaway bad endings either. I think I might use the ‘bad’ choices to involve and introduce side characters like Eddie, Boon, and Joan :)) oooh okay that’s making my brain tick - I like that one… they could have mini quests like Harvey and Gatsby, thereby incentivizing players to get all ‘endings’ :))

Make background art. I usually do this on my low energy days as it both takes Forever and also allows for me to listen to a podcast while I work, unlike writing :)) if I’m not in the mood though this is hell. Because it is not easy - this is my first time really attempting background art and it’s rough to pick up as quickly as I’d ideally like to. The renpy community has excellent free assets from caring creators, and while I appreciate them, I think giving St. Aggs it’s own flavor is important, not just aesthetically, but to its themes. I do suspect this step may take the longest, moreso even than writing for the demo, but I do not like to half-ass things.

*Stares at the wonky perspective in the outdoor shot of Caliber Coffee that I've been trying and neglecting to sort out for three days now*

Yeah... no half-assing... that's me...

Finish sprites. I have admittedly gone ham on the sprites in this game. Being an amateur, they are definitely not the best. The longer I work on this, the more annoying errors I notice, especially because I keep accidentally messing up or otherwise corrupting files and having to repair them. But... it was important to me to capture the body language and expressions of my characters. A great deal of the story is told through the faces of the characters, and it is very meaningful to me that I represent enough emotions in my characters to show that :) I currently need to finish the required expressions for the demo dialogue, make sprites for the side characters who don't yet have them, and fix sprites with glaring errors.

Edit. You might have noticed, I do not have the best spelling or grammar, especially when tired (always.) This will not fly in game dev. Every time I finish a section, I will spend about a day minimum going over it to catch any glaring issues. This includes usual grammatical issues, but also catch glitches, sprite problems, and other inconsistencies. In a branching path game, that latter one is particularly important. You do not want to accidentally repeat information the players have already been given earlier, or fail to bring up something they should know, but was only communicated in a different route they might not yet have played. It's also important, when designing a game that is supposed to encourage replays, that when crucial info is repeated in different routes that it is conveyed in interesting ways each time. I played DDLC, and uh... the level of Exact. Same. Dialogue repeating in areas you could not skip was my least favorite part. I am lucky to have friends to act as alpha testers to help me catch these errors! If you don't have that, you have to handle all of the editing yourself, which is quite challenging, but doable. I was in that position for several years before this!

Marketing. Probably the most difficult part, especially if you don't have much of a following. I am, was, and probably always will be a bit of an internet nobody, as I genuinely do not like posting information about myself online. With not many followers to pass things along to, I've found myself having to start from scratch, and try different methods. While some may see this step as unnecessary, I like, most people, crave validation, and I don't want to release a game to no one. If you want to make a truly indie game and just see what happens, I think that's honestly pretty neat. But developers tend to seek an audience, myself included. I've taken to applicable reddit threads - though game dev and art circles tend to be more critical due to their unending supply of quality content. I've found meme ones to be a lot more forgiving - provided you trust yourself to make quality memes surrounding your works. I've gotten help from @sugarcoatedsadism on how to make good memes (embarrassing 'how do you do, fellow kids' moment.) My AMV was a 'marketing tactic' as well as a passion project, as people really get into those. Whatever you have the time and energy for is worth a shot, I think!

After that... well... the free to play demo should be ready to publish! Hopefully the step before this one will pay off and I'll be able to release it to a modest fandom, but honestly even just one or two enthusiastic players would be incredible and more than worth it. It'll be a long process, especially between work, maintaining a social life, and accommodating my disabilities that make these processes a little harder, but I am very hopeful that I can get this demo out by 2022 :)

And after that?

Finish the whole game. I'm not sure yet exactly what tools I am going to use to tell the story, as there are a lot of options in game dev. Honestly I haven't totally gotten there mentally as I can't believe I've made it this far. But I have been thinking ahead!

I will be making a post about that soon, to help me figure it out, and maybe read the room for feedback :)) as a newbie dev, I am susceptible to fan opinions, I cannot stress this enough - you have access to me. Use it wisely <3 If I thought polls would gain enough traction, I would use them for sure. I want to know what you guys want.

I do feel lucky that once the demo is done, I'll be able to build off of it, and not start over from scratch again. I am aware and appreciative of the fact that this first step is the hardest.

In the future, once the final game is released as a 'pay what you want' on itch.io, I'd like to develop DLCs for this game :)) I have plans for a Zombie Lane expansion featuring some of the people who also live in Pixy's apartment complex, as well as a pack allowing you to date the existing and currently updateable NPCs that I could not focus on currently due to time constraints (Giv, Harvey and Gatsby, Eddie, etc.) And as for Donny, beloved for his angsty retail attitude and eyebags? I have a whole arc for him that will take an expansion of its own! Spoilers...

[polygarnstars]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Learn to know your mutuals and followers ❤

Cries ily

1) So this is actually relevant to your interests - Aside from dice in general, I just got back from the mall where I picked up the last remaining set of series 2 Borealis dice at the local Newbury Comics! (Is this how we’re going to differentiate them all now? Since now it’s not just new glitter and old glitter but now they’ve also thrown luminary into the mix? Or are we still going to break them up into new and old glitters and have luminary Borealis as a third category of its own? I dunno I just was trying to find whether this was a luminary set when I found it in the store and the page I saw referred to it as series 2 lmao) I know some dice bloggers I’ve seen have some concerns about how luminary is going to effect the Borealis line going forward, and if Chessex does decide to stick with the new luminary lineup it’s likely the normal Borealis are going to become harder to find over time like happened with the old glitter someday I’ll get my hands on the forbidden three, mark my words... so it’s nice to have a full set rather than just a handful of misc Pounders, even if the Borealis line usually wasn’t/isn’t really my preferred style :d

2) Also while I was there I picked up a job application, since they’re looking for seasonal employees! It’ll likely only be part time, but that’s honestly ideal for me right now since I’m still trying to deal with ADHD medications that are going to need adjustment as well as my usual chronic illness and mental health stuff. Plus the environment there matches my interests and is chill and pleasant, even with the holidays, which is exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for considering the last few months of my previous job were so stressful I was having heart attack symptoms on the job (I’m good now fwiw so don’t freak out or anything haha) and stimulant medications can cause increased risk of cardiovascular problems and I’m pretty sure I’m experiencing blood pressure increases from em at least lmao

3) I pulled one of 3DSes out of my emergency suitcase (Long story) while my mother wasn’t home and I’m planning on restarting some of my Mystery Dungeon games to play through again for the first time in years cuz I’ve been in a PMD mood lately, so that’s rad!

4) I was there to see the ending of Alpharad’s second World of Light Nuzlocke the other day! Supposed to keep what happens a secret, but I will say this: ☁️

5) My dude @hypnowave drew my character Thriale the other day look at this

I love it and I love you Rey you’re a real one ;0 I should make a blog to infodump about my characters one of these days haha

[pbjpuppy]

4, 18, 22, 24, 31, 40, 50 for the oc ask meme

yes. YES. IM GOING TO TALK SO MUCH THANK YOU ROMAN

4. A character you rarely talk about?

*SWEATS*. SO MANY OF THEM, 

but UHHH in particular... I feel like a lot of Mansion charas other than Vinny don’t get enough of a spotlight!! Spencer, Giovanni, and Absinthe all kind of chill in the background (especially Spencer I always find struggles to be much more than “Vinny’s little brother”) 

18. Any OC crackships?

I ALREADY ANSWERED THIS ONE W BAILEY/CHERRY WHICH IS MY FAV BUT I am sure theres more. OH speaking of Spencer I used to ship him with Vinny’s jock friend Axel!! I even drew some art for it a WHILE ago. I should bring that back it was really cute. Jock himbo and cryptic little ghost man    

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?

Now THIS is an interesting question...  I think. I can’t honestly think of any examples off the top of my head BUT I feel like I have a lot of OCs who would be very easy TO mischaracterize, especially in Blackbirch, bc everyone is written to be very like, subtle and complOH I KNOW WHO. 

Kevin, the first dude who Cherry killed. Most of the time it’s assumed he’d be like an overt, obvious creep, but he was unfortunately deceptive and very friendly despite ACTUALLY being a disgusting person. If you were to meet him without knowing his deal, you’d never know how awful he was. He doesnt DESERVE to be like. cared about or characterized correctly but Yknow 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

I THINK... This is another very good question. I’d have to say... Vinny. The way he’s written to be fiction aware he’s “already met me” and has some STRONG opinions but still he’s a very important character to me and I think it would be really nice to talk to him 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Whimsy is five years old and would have the most endearingly ugly blog theme ever. It would be like 100% saturated colors that do not match and her icon (if she figured out how to set it) would be a picture of a carebear. she would make posts that were like “dear tumblr today i saw a bug and i wasent even scared it was gren and had spots love whimsy” and it would be ADORABLE. she would follow jenn and nobody else 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

*POINTS AT PROSE AS A WHOLE* TBH... everyone there is so creative and lovely and i love interacting w everyones ocs and being allowed to infodump abt mine and all the inside jokes and dramatic RPs and WAA its so good i love prose 

50. Give me the good ol' OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

OH GOD OH FUCK UM now I’m still thinking about Whimsy blog. Its like that one post about how kirby and yoshi would send each other nonsense emails with pictures of fruit attached its exactly like that 

I actually HAVE a whimsy blog url saved but i never used it HJJFHKDG 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS I HAD A BLAST 

[veryimportantsparkles]

Alright I’ve kept meaning to do sort of an infodump on my projects because I’ve been really slipping lately.  I dunno how obvious it is?  Probably kind of obvious.  I’ve also been really bad about checking messages and responding to people.  So I figure I can write up a status report and then point to it when I’ve been inadequate about communication.

My IRL job has been wiping me out.  I’ve been getting short, labor-intensive shifts in the evenings, and then random surprise morning shifts shortly after, which has been really hard to manage my time around.  My sleep schedule has been extremely broken and it’s affected my productivity a LOT.  Leadership in my department is about to shuffle around and I’ve been interviewed for the manager position.  If I get it I’ll be working an entirely different schedule, which could potentially be good for my sleepy brain but will definitely leave me with less art time overall.  I’ve also been enduring some back/shoulder issues over the past few months.  Nothing urgent, but it’s limiting how much I can draw each day.  I think replacing my desk chair is going to be a big factor but it’s not the only factor.  I just need to be a smart human and take care of my joints and not hunch over so much.  Working on it.

Here’s the current status of my various art projects:

Laserwing

I ended chapter 5 in June and said I would finish up some other side projects before I start concept work for chapter 6.  One of the projects I needed to finish was the Popkas Yugioh season 4 special, which I finished.  The other big one was my Neonmob card set, which is most of what I’ve been posting lately.  Once that’s out of the way (see below) I need to do concept art.  Chapter 6 will put all the Laserwing characters in new outfits which will need reference sheets.  I’ll need background sketches and layout diagrams so I don’t have furniture shuffle randomly around between scenes.  I also need to sketch out the chapter 6 draft page by page.  I’ve made Laserwing in GIMP up until this point and am going to try switching to Krita for chapter 6.  I might need to do a test page to make sure my process transfers over well into a slightly different system.  Once I’m ready to make real pages, those take a while.  Chapter 5 pages were going up maybe every 2-3 weeks.  I don’t know how many pages are going to be in chapter 6, nor can I say for sure how many chapters are in Laserwing.  An old outline had maybe 40 chapters.  It’s a story with a defined end point, I can say that for certain, but it’s intended to be long.

Popkas

I’ve had issues with Popkas for a while.  I keep picking new themes for dailies, thinking they’re going to be quick and easy, but then end up making them hard for myself.  It’s been to my benefit, I’ve forced myself into learning new art programs and techniques through Popkas.  But it’s hard to keep up the daily schedule.  Currently I’m doing the Paper Mario: TTYD bestiary, which has 124 enemies.  At a rate of one per day, by the time I’ve finished them, Pokemon Sword and Shield should be released and we’ll have all the info about the new Pokemon.  Those will be drawn in ‘Popka classic’ style (scribbly shitposts).  After those are finished, unless my IRL work situation dramatically changes, I’m considering putting Popkas on pause.  In order to do any other monster dexes I’d have to do a lot more research (for example, people have suggested Yokai Watch but I’ve never played one) in order to have anything meaningful to post.  Same deal with Popka Specials (the anime writeup things), those take prep time and anime-watching time that I might not have.  I don’t ever want to end Popkas, but a hiatus might be necessary.

Angelfire Hime

Did anyone even know about Angelfire Hime?  Well I want to post more but that involves finding, scanning, retouching, and transcribing my old high school scribble comics.  It takes as long as any other project but is also low priority because it’s all old content.  Nobody is waiting for the latest update because nobody but me actually knows what that content is, and possibly nobody but me can even read it.  It’s more a personal journey of self-reflection than anything.  I want to return to it but not at the expense of better work.

MeganFantastic dot com

I had a domain name linked to a tumblr that was supposed to be my news blog/front page and I barely use it.  Also, I let the domain registration drop.  Also, I had let a typo in my banner graphic go unnoticed for YEARS and still haven’t fixed it.  Even now, I’m writing this big post to my personal blog instead of the one for news.  The idea was to eventually buy some real hosting and make MeganFantastic a whole site of its own, but that’s a lot of work.  I’ve got a generally good idea of HOW I’d do it (probably wordpress) but I’m not a coder, it would take a lot of trial and error.  This would be a huge undertaking and eventually Laserwing, Popkas, and all my other junk would be contained on one big non-tumblr website.  But it’s uhhhhh not happening yet.

Hundera Youtube

My contribution to our LP channel is to show up, talk about video games, and then draw title cards.  All recording, editing, and channel management is maintained by Josh, and I can’t speak on his behalf about our update schedule.  I will say there are a lot of half-finished games we want to return to.  I will also say that when the new Pokemon comes out Josh is dead set on recording it.  I don’t know if he intends that to be a stream or a regular LP.  In the meantime he streams Minecraft with his friends every Sunday and we fit in our own streams and recordings when we can.

Commissions/Patron Art/etc

I’ve not been very good about this lately and I’m truly sorry!  I have a few things I’m working on, a few things I’ve promised to start working on, and a few things I’ve told people I can do once my workload lightens up, which hasn’t been happening yet.  I really don’t have an answer.  I almost never delete anything so if I’ve been sent a message in any form I should still have it, and I’ll be sure not to forget anyone.  And if I do forget someone feel free to throw rocks at me!

Rane Story 2

What the heck is Rane Story 2?  Well I guess I have to explain Neonmob.  Imagine if ChickenSmoothie and DeviantART had a baby.  It’s a virtual trading card site, which is fun and cute, and I’m drawing out a card series to release on there.  I’ve been using it as practice for painting backgrounds and to fill out some backstory for some 4th-string Laserwing support characters.  Before Mistaire came to Earth, she went to space high school, and that’s where Rane Story takes place.  You can preview the series, and when it’s finished I’ll post about it.  I’ll also repost all the art to DA.  If you scroll through the last several pages of this blog you’ll see some of the art.  I’ve put a lot of my brain energy into getting this done in spite of my work/sleep issues because I don’t want to resume Laserwing until I’ve finished it.  This is what’s stolen my life, guys.  Right now I have 6 more cards to make, and then I have to write and finalize all the text.  I should be done SOON.

Pokemon Nonsense

When my back and shoulder get too hurty and I have to take a break from drawing, one of the easy things to do is whip out a DS and play Pokemon.  I’ve done a lot of twitter shitposting about it lately.  I’ve also drawn up a bunch of gijinkas for my Pokemon.  I’m talking about it now because I also intend to draw up gijinkas for Pokemon to trade away.  I’ve already done a few.  However, I don’t know for sure how I’m going to distribute them.  The idea is people can trade actual Pokemon with me (in either X or Let’s Go Eevee) and the Pokemon they get will come with a character design for you to keep.  I was thinking I might do a discord server for organizing trades and such, but I haven’t yet.  Mostly because it’s low priority and I have SO many other things going on.  But actually playing Pokemon can happen when I’m too fatigued for real work, so the horde keeps growing.  Hopefully my posts and scribbles about it are entertaining.

I feel like there’s other projects on hold that I wanted to discuss, but right now I’m too braintired to remember, and some of my ‘projects’ never actually got talked about online so nobody’s waiting for an update.  My greatest problem seems to be that I try to juggle too many pointless side projects and then drop them all over the place.  Sometimes I’ll shitpost about an idea and even I won’t be sure if I was serious or not.  How do I end this post?  I don’t know.

tl;dr Megan is SLEEPY and dropped her spaghetti everywhere but somehow still has time to play POKEMON and WON’T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

[patchdotexe]

Tell us more about shadowy

cracks knuckles. anon you have just opened the pandora’s box of leos infodumping

so, to set the stage here: he’s part of a setting called Shattered Worlds, in a totally different continuity from Chaosverse (where Checkpoint / askchaosverse takes place). there’s totally different rules and worldbuilding and all that, and while it TECHNICALLY takes place in the same multiverse (and has some characters in common, if EXTREMELY AU) it’s… also basically shoved in the twilight cage and locked off from everything else. it’s also a setting from 2007 that lasted until 2014, so it’s about to get wild

(it’s also gonna be under a cut bc this is gonna get VERY long. tl;dr: he’s a universe-destroying asshole that stumbled across an artifact of immense power, lost control of it, blew himself up, and is behind the entire plot of Shattered Worlds, both directly and because of consequences of him exploding. also he’s kind of an AU shadow/mephiles? i guess???)

Shadowy is something called an Outsider, which are… well they never got defined very well, but they’re a species that’s mobian-passing (and apparently is all hedgehogs, seeing as the 3 established Outsiders are hedgehogs?) and have the ability to jump from universe to universe at will, among other individual powers like Chrome’s telekinesis. they mostly use this to kinda hang out on various versions of Mobius, blending in as being an average mobian and either solving problems or causing them. Shadowy’s of the latter kind. they can be identified as an Outsider by their weird eyes, although that can get a bit blurry sometimes because theres some other SW characters that get them under specific circumstances which… usually involve an Outsider doing something.

anyway the point is Shadowy’s kind of a dick. the downside of being an outside force to the multiverse as we know it is… he doesnt really have any attachment to it? he’s not really a god but he’s near-invulnerable, can just bounce out of a universe as soon as he starts facing any consequences, and kind of sees everything as a game where he can just knock a few pieces over, see what happens, and then leave to do the same somewhere else but with a different method. he’s bored. the full effect of what he does doesnt really matter to him, he just entertains himself by making a mess of things. he’s also, like, a teenager with phenomenal cosmic power, which always goes well

so Shadowy’s running around from universe to universe, just kinda fucking with people to see how much he can get away with, when one of his worldhops kinda… fails. and instead of going through a portal directly from one universe to another, he falls into the void between worlds: Nullspace.

(”wait isn’t that a thing in sonic forces though” i came up with nullspace in like 2010 and can dig up old posts from my first blog talking about it, and there’s only gonna be more similarities to forces as this goes on, its COMPLETELY baffling and i swear to god it is a total coincidence that im still not over)

anyway so Shadowy accidentally dumps himself into the void, gets lost, but finds something that had gotten sealed there ages ago, potentially by another Outsider: something called the Phoenix Orb. im bolding it because its very important. this is like, THE plot macguffin. it’s also basically the Phantom Ruby, because as soon as Shadowy gets his hands on it he goes from “asshole” to “asshole with total control over reality”. and he REALLY wants to see what this shiny rock can do, so he goes back to his deal of universe-hopping and picks a world he thinks will be very interesting to fuck with.

meet Robo (left) and Recky (right)! Robo wants to be a hero. Recky becomes a supervillain to spite him. Robo assembles a team of random furries and they all go on a bunch of adventures, including meeting clones of themselves, having an EX Gear race, getting lost in the desert, and various other shenanigans, usually involving fighting Recky and his cronies O-Mel and Blade.

then Shadowy shows up.

Recky’d gotten himself in a tight spot, so he wasn’t exactly going to turn down help when a random hedgehog showed up and allied himself with him. …sort of. Shadowy was just kind of a pest to Team Ultimate Robo (or TUR for short), and sometimes would even intervene on their side if things went south. it was kind of hard for anybody to tell what side Shadowy was really on.

finally, though, Shadowy had all his pieces in the right place and set his plan in motion. he approached Robo and took advantage of the metal sonic’s insecurities and tragic backstory, and convinced him to ditch his team in favour of destroying Mobius with him. Recky found out and alerted the rest of TUR, and they teamed up to race Shadowy&Robo to the Eclipse Cannon before Robo used it to wipe out everything.

while Recky was up in space, O-Mel and Blade decided to stick to Recky’s original plan and kidnapped the members of TUR that had stayed behind on Mobius to.. i dunno, do something. mind control them into working for Recky, probably? back at the ARK, Shadowy got his face kicked in by Robo after he was snapped back to his senses, and fled back to Nullspace to recover and plan his next move. Robo had just made things personal… and Shadowy hadn’t taken full advantage of his new powers yet.

Robo freed the captured TUR gang and made a big distraction for them to escape, and in the confusion Shadowy appeared and kidnapped a specific hedgehog to use as bait. it worked, and Robo gave chase to try and rescue her. using the Phoenix Orb, Shadowy took control of SK and gave her enough power to near-totally destroy Robo, then sent her off to do the same to the rest of TUR. she basically got turned into Infinite, complete with having a realitywarping gemstone shoved in her chest.

it was a pretty solid plan, except it quickly fell apart when SK started fighting back for control and tried using the Orb’s power to attack Shadowy instead. he was losing control of the situation, and the two of them ended up in a struggle with Shadowy desperately trying to get the Orb back before she figured out how to use it. in a last-ditch desperate effort, Shadowy used the Orb’s power he could still draw on to forcibly fuse himself with SK in hopes that, if he couldn’t get it away from her, he could at least take control of the fusion and go from there…

…and things very quickly went from bad to worse.

turns out taping together an Outsider, a hedgehog with a shitton of Chaos powers and potential, and an artifact with total complete control over reality, is not good for the universe. or any universe. enter the Shadowy Phoenix, who kinda goes full Solaris except with like… realitywarping instead of time control. the creation of the Phoenix was literally shattering the world around them, and neither SK or Shadowy were in control– it was basically just the Orb itself running rampant and at threat of not only destroying TUR’s Mobius, but the entire multiverse if it wasn’t stopped.

so it got stopped. and exploded. the sudden death-explosion of a superdimensional being tore reality apart and flung everybody across the multiverse, with both Shadowy and SK gone… until SK suddenly showed back up 3 years later with no memory and with a shard of the Orb still stuck inside her. this is when the main Shattered Worlds plot kicks off!

as for Shadowy, it’s… not really clear what happened to him.

[piefanart]

Hi Pie! I’m writing a story, and I really want to have one of my characters be autistic, with a special interest in Bugs and Dancing. I was wondering if you had any tips for how to do that well without misrepresenting, and also if you have any tips for writing about special interests. Sorry if this is bothering you! I just really want to make sure I do this right

Hey there anon!!!

thats amazing that youre putting an autistic person into your writing!!

im not the best at writing stuff like this out, but ill try!!

dont make autism the only important bit about the person. autistic people are people, so dont treat the character like an alien or anything. its good to mention that they are autistic, but it doesnt need a neon sign. it should fit smoothley into everything else, like if a character had brown hair. dont make jokes about their autism, it always comes across wrong.

not all autistic people are alike! i love that you know your characters special interests, because the sterotype is trains. my special interests are video games, whale sharks, and anime! everyone is different, and some autistics dont even have a special interest. additionally, special interests dont always last your whole life. for example, when i was a toddler my special interests were dinosaurs and the wizard of oz. the latter lasted until i was 11 or 12, and ended around the time i discovered minecraft and star wars, which replaced it.

special interests in general are things that an austistic person “latches onto”, that is, sometimes thats all the can think about. when i was little everything had to be dinosaurs. we were really poor, so it didnt always work out, but i remember having a pair of dinosaur pajamas that i wore as often as i could get away with. now days i always have something related to my special interest with me, be it a wheatley charm on my necklace (that also has a key my honorary twin sister engraved with the words “221B” and “Nethel”, to represent my nickname of Sherlock and Nethel being the tolkien elvish word for sisters; and my necklace also has a spinner ring my boyfriend gave  me thats too big for my fingers), a zelda hat, or even just a t shirt with a character or symbol from something i like on it.

i also have a tendency to only want to talk about my special interests, and i have a huge problem when it comes to talking about anything else. and making small talk; thats just plain torture. i tend to make analogies that relate back to one of my special interests, or i will only talk to people who share an interest with me. im not very good at making and keeping friends irl, but on tumblr i have a ton of awesome friends!

many autistic people will sometimes (or often) infodump about their special interest, going into great detail about it. i know that when im semiverbal that one of the things i can do to actually talk is find someone to talk about something i like with. i will talk very fast, and stumble over words with lots of messed up grammer because i get super excited and my brain works much faster then my mouth can.

a lot of autistic people will do tons of research into their special interests and suck up any information about them that they can, but this doesnt pertain to everyone or every aspect of the special interest.

for example, back when my main one was star wars, i would sit down and spend hours reading the wookipedia or reading various star wars books. (i own over 200 star wars novels). my star wars interest ended when the force awakens was released, because my dreams of seeing mara jade skywalker, jacen jaina and anakin solo, and grand admiral thrawn on the big screen were crushed and i couldnt find a way to cope other then deleting star wars from my life. dont get me wrong, i still love it, but im very bitter.

but on the other hand, with whale sharks, i hardly know anything about them. you could ask me anything about legend of zelda lore and i could probably tell you, but i have no idea about anything about whale sharks. i just really enjoy watching them, they way they swim is extremely interesting to me and i tend to fixate on videos of them. your character might be this way about bugs, if you chose. or they could be that way about dancing! where they cant dance, but they like to watch people dancing.

additionally, dancing can easily be a stim! stimming is short for stimulating (or something like that, i forget) and is how autistic people regulate themselves with the world around them. everyone stims differently, and almost anything can be a stim!

i like to stim by chewing on things, but not material, becuase the texture of wet material is painful to me. but for other people its the exact opposite! i also flap my hands when i get super happy, and wave them around when im talking. when im upset or watching a movie i will rock a little bit back and forth.

not all stims are pretty and aestetic, though. a lot of stims can hurt the person, or just arent accepted by society yet. many people stim by banging their heads on walls or their hands. i stim when im nervous by picking on wounds, which has led to far too many round scars from moskito bites. sometimes i flap so hard i hit my hand on something, which hurts like heck. or i accidentally hit someone in the face, which gets awkward fast.

some more tips; use autism first language! person first (person with autism, etc) is extremely abelist and rude. aspergers is a term that is being slowly ruled out; some people still use it to refer to themselves but reffering to someone else with it is not very accepted. dont use functioning terms (high functioning, low functioning, etc), they mean nothing and are extrememly ablelist. 

if you feel up to it, you should also ask some other autistic people for their input! i know @autism-asks has covered some of this before, i think they tag it #writing. theres also @strangerdarkerbetter, who is an amazing person who runs a great blog and might be able/willing to help you out as well.

feel free to go through the #actuallyautistic tag on tumblr to get inspiration as well, just make sure that your character doesnt fit into the perfect sterotypical jello mold of what an austic person “should” be.

sorry about the long reply, ive had too much caffinee ^^”

and sorry about any spelling errros!! im still not used to my new keyboard, and i type by memory rather then looking so sometimes i hit the wrong key (or type the letters out of order lol)

thanks for asking!! good luck with your story!!!! (you should totally send it to me when its finished-)

[dollarstoreartspam]

Ok so Jacob Portman and Olive Abrolhos Elephanta have ADHD and you can pry this headcanon out of my cold dead ADHD hands so here we go~

Jacob

Younger Jacob had like a big hyper fixation on the peculiars and exploring and it was like a big Special Interest, and when he got older and got made fun of and sort of lost his interest he felt really Empty for a very long time 

Somewhat subtle stimmer

He chew stims a lot, he’s definitely broken like a dozen pens or more by chewing on the ends really hard. He also probably chews on shirt sleeves and the inside of his cheek, once he bought himself a chew stim toy but his mom thought it was gross and threw it away, he goes through like three packs of gum a week

When he’s really excited he probably like slams his hands of counters and stuff

The human embodiment of the Leg Bounce ™

Sensory stims are his SHIT man, Ricky probably makes fun of him because of how many slime blogs he follows

Hyper Fixates on really specific things like how planes work and ends up watching shows ‘How it’s Made’ and various documentaries and reads like every slightly related Wiki and before he knows it it’s been 40 hours and he hasn't moved for two days

Forgets to eat way too fucking much

A smart boy, he’s pretty good at understanding things on a base level and his anxiety forces him to behave enough in class so he isn’t diagnosed with ADHD until he’s like 15 and his parents are the kind of people who “Don't believe in labels” and think “It's just a phase everyone goes through” and Jacob is SUFFERING 

Zones out a lot

He’s TERRIBLE at studying and reading stuff like he gets distracted v easily

When he tries to study for finals it’s like dissociation central and hours of Tumblr scrolling

The reason he hates his job at Smart Aid is because it’s that type of Boring ™ where you feel like your brain is going to explode and you’re filled with such an overwhelming sense of under stimulation you want to slam your head against a table

Goes through interests so fast. I can guarantee this boy has played at least 5 sports, been in 20 + clubs, and picked up a million hobbies before dropping them all within a month to a year (like in the book when he talks about how the year before he had begged his parents for a camera he no longer gave two shits about like that’s so relatable man)

CANNOT maintain friendships. He won’t text back or drives them away and he’s honestly surprised Ricky and the peculiars have stuck around so long.

Olive

Weirdest fucking thought processes, like she’ll just be sitting at the dinner table and be like “Doesn’t that old lady who lives halfway up the street have red curtains?” and everyone is like “wut” and she’s like “WELL we were having turkey for dinner and that made me think of when me and my parents moved to England, right? And I met this girl named Tilly and she was my best friend! And Tilly had this Golden-Brown hair, right, that was in these pretty bright copper coils? And it looked exactly the color of this turkey! And Tilly only visited over the winter because she was staying with her aunt and she taught me all about christmas and I taught her about hanukkah and she got me this really nice skirt one year for what we called christmaanukah! It was brown. But her Aunt didn’t like her hanging around me right? And whenever Tilly visited and we hung out it was cold because we had to hide outside and her cheeks got all red and then I remembered I tore my current skirt and I wanted Horace to make me a new one but this time a red one  because red is just a much more pleasant color isn’t it? But we’d need to go into town and steal some red fabric right? So I thought of the old lady with red curtains. Horace do you think that would make a nice skirt?” and all Horace, who is used to these tangents is just like “sure olive” 

Stims so MUCH

When she’s excited she gets very bouncy and just kinda hops around and if the peculiars aren’t careful she might just like hop to the ceiling or the sky

Flaps so much holy shit she gets so excited man and you know, you just gotta Flap ™

Gets distracted very easily

Not the best at school, she’s loud and forgetful and she tries SO HARD but can’t focus

Wants to Always Do Something. It doesn’t matter what but this girl Cannot Sit Still

When she gets her mind set on something NOTHING can stop her from starting. Starting being the key word here. She’ll focus on one project for like three days straight and then stop right before finishing cuz she got bored and it drives Miss Peregrine INSANE

SO IMPULSIVE

Jacob gets her a Fidget Spinner and she’s in Heaven she loves it

Needs to say out loud what she plans on doing or she WILL forget

Together

Have the most inconsistent rapidly changing conversations that NO ONE can follow

Don’t tell them to get anything or remember anything or go anywhere without someone else because they WILL distract each other and forget

They definitely infodump to everyone and each other, Bronwyn and Millard are good to infodump too because they listen and REMEMBER some of your random babble. Sometimes Jacob and Olive will infodump to each other and have a full conversation, both talking about two completely different subjects and overlapping each other and it’s a glorious mess.

Neither have ANY perception of time its bad

[aplaceofstone]

AO3: faceofstone

Dear Yuletide Writer,

thank you for offering one of the small surreal fandoms of my heart and I hope you will have fun writing for it. Anything can happen! Symbols! Meaningful non sequiturs! Things! Stuff!

All prompts and ideas are just suggestions, if you are the kind of Yuletide writer who likes to follow them. If not, cool, they are certainly not the end-all of what I love about these fandoms and characters.

If you like visual prompts, this entire blog is 20% recipes and 80% aesthetics that mostly fit my requested fandoms...

I like found families, oddball friendships, sympathy toward outcasts, characters who fully embrace being outcasts, melancholy, a sense of place, bittersweet accomplishments, and a stubborn flicker of hope in an overall bleak world. Dreamlike atmospheres that aren’t necessarily scary, some sort of reassurance that can be found in the weird and the profoundly unnatural.

All fic formats, tenses, povs are fine.

± canon-compliant levels of assorted grimdark are fine, so eg I have no problems with characters dealing with canon rape in Twin Peaks but would rather avoid it elsewhere, whereas murderous infradimensional overgrown ants are better suited to specific Myst fic.

Myst: Any (Jeff, Atrus, Calam, Yeesha)

Having recently visited a few caverns irl, I am struck by a feeling of longing for the capital-letter-Cavern, its heavy voids and silences. Any of these four characters, alone or in bundle, had the chance to wander down after the Fall and experience some kind of reflection or adventure. I am equally interested in the more rational kind of plots that are normally associated with Myst-era characters and in the thrill of the unexplainable that comes with Uru territory, and in mixing it up. Any of these characters could walk into some meaningful building with some history that resonates with them, meet a bahro or twenty-five, follow the mysterious rowboat that can be spotted in the farthest waters of the lake, hear a ghost story...

If you have cool visuals or worldbuilding in mind for an Age, go wild. But when it comes to canon settings, this year I am mostly interested in D'ni and the tunnels and the desert above.

Jeff could be meeting Yeesha for the first time, and/or first following his father and his DRF pals to the City, coming to terms with the Call... if you feel like writing DRF people, I certainly feel like reading them. Jeff cautiously spending time with Yeesha, whom he likes to think of as a friend but is as skittish as the roadrunner painted on her chest. Roasting marshmallows around a bonfire? On a road trip for the sake of it? Jeff observing the first explorers, or following his father's footsteps and trying to come to terms with his death?

Atrus could be searching for Yeesha a few years after she left them and find... something else instead. He could link to D'ni incognito a couple of years after End of Ages and see the Cavern lit up anew, breathing with new life and speaking with new voices. Maybe Yeesha could accompany him (although, good luck with the incognito part in that case). Before writing Releeshahn, he could reflect on some meaningful bit of D'ni history, maybe along with Catherine or Marrim. He could explore the desert before building Tomahna. He could probably see a stalagmite grow faster than D'ni did in between failed attempts at a restoration. He could find beauty in many things and be kind and avoidant to many creatures.

For more specific Yeesha&Calam ideas (along with a very specific BoD-era Atrus prompt), last year's letter still applies. Calam solo fic would probably be the best fit for a spooky story in the Cavern... or what did this master writer Write after the Fall? This is an interesting post for Calam fic, I think.

Yeesha simply yeesha-ing around makes for great fic. Did she first see D'ni as a child, with her parents? Maybe she felt something so clearly and then struggled to find it again when she started her journey as a teenager. Maybe she finds Catherine's journals long before the DRF do and reads something about her parents' past, maybe she somehow feels a connection with Catherine after her death. Slice of life fic where she sometimes drops by to care for an aging Atrus on Releeshahn and allow herself to be his daughter is always welcome... any plot that gives her something nice for a change, some positive connection.

DNW: non-canon ships, character bashing (just to play it safe with Yeesha. I like to see her flaws and contradictions explored but I like her!)

Twin Peaks: Tammy Preston

She didn't get to do much on her own in the show, which only makes me want to read a hundred fic about her... away from the intimidating aura of her two mentors (being the teacher's pet can be stressful!) and of Diane “told me to go fuck myself and I was thankful, 10/10 would be insulted again” Evans, would she still be kinda introverted and so very awkward, or would her nerdiness shine like it does in her written notes in The Secret History? Or would it be a blend where she speaks up more... and regularly infodumps like a champ? After all, her diligence and awkwardness in the show go along well with her geeky side in the book. I know some people feel that they're two very different portrayals but I enjoy them both and I think they dovetail pretty neatly to boot, as it's not unusual for someone who's not the best at social cues to be more open in writing. Chrysta Bell said that one thing she has in common with her character is that they both feel the need to be thoroughly prepared for an upcoming situation and that's an interesting trait too.

In general, I don't have any strong preferences for Tammy ships, I just want her with a girl and for the fic to make me get why she likes the other girl and why the other girl likes her. If you're into any option in the tagset, barring Blackie, Denise, Diane and Doris because the age difference would be excessive for me, and adding Shelly and Donna to round it up, go for it, I'm eager to be convinced!

Starting with the more out there prompts, there was an interview where CB was asked whether she felt that Tammy was “the new Cooper” and she said no but Tammy is trying her best!!! And that Coop is more open to the unknown, and Tammy is only just starting. As I think that Cooper's failures are a big part of the narrative, I'm not sure anyone should aspire to be the new Cooper, but anyway, I've been wondering about these two characters interacting (in dreams?) ever since. Reaching out to her as the new Blue Rose agent and/or as someone who is just starting to peek 'between two worlds', warning her, teaching her, getting to know her and even seeing shades of Albert and Gordon in her. And what would she think of him? And maybe Laura is with him, or maybe it's just Laura and Tammy, secrets whispered to her ear, a world just for them. Maybe Laura could be a better teacher. She knows the darkness. Or maybe she would be too intense. Or maybe she got ripped out of the timeline thanks to sOMEONE and still hasn't fully found herself again so Tammy would meet Carrie instead, how'd that go?

I have also been thinking about this post and how cool it would be see Tammy go through shifted realities, and how she would relate to Audrey, and Audrey to her. I don't know if The Final Dossier will tell us anything about how the rest of the town perceives Audrey's absence, but Tammy could find a clue and start a little investigation of her own?

Cynthia could be a fun partner for supernatural casefic. She's the Air Force side of Blue Rose to Tammy's FBI, like Milford and Gordon in The Secret History, and later Garland and Cooper... we don't know much about her but I love her attitude, I think they'd be a formidable team. ...or they could simply go out one night in Buckhorn before Cynthia flies back. And find a ghost or something.

The lack of scenes with just Tammy and Diane is one of my biggest regrets. I was expecting some follow-up to the “fuck you, Tammy” scene, maybe with Tammy a little starstruck and Diane seeing both herself and Coop in this young, naive agent and... trying to open her eyes. Or just them talking about cats, and/or Tammy is surprisingly proficient at mixing a Cosmopolitan, and/or something spooky and surreal happens while they're having breakfast.

Albert and Denise are her mentors – we see Albert mother-henning her all the time and Denise seems very protective of Tammy specifically, and I eat up platonic mentor-pupil dynamics with a spoon. Any adventures with either of them? If we swap out Gordon for Denise, what's Tammy's average day with FBI dad and FBI mom (but no shipping them, please) instead of FBI dad and FBI grandpa?

Or if you can think of any plot that would involve Tammy and Constance, Candie, Jade or Darya, go for it instead.

DNW: character bashing, Dale/Audrey on Coop's part (whereas Audrey fondly remembering her teen crush, like the stuff Richard mentions, is okay)

THE FINAL DOSSIER UPDATE: Can you believe Mark Frost single-handedly saved fanfiction by having Tammy stay in town for a whole year. amazing. I’m not too interested in how she researched the mythology stuff, but anything that might’ve happened in the year she remained there? Please yes.

Europe After the Rain II - Max Ernst (Painting)

Biggest version I could find online: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/max-ernst-europe-after-the-rain#!

Nominating De Chirico and Magritte has been a winning move these past two Yuletides, so, without further ado, onto my third fave... the aspect of his work I love the most is basically landscapes – among those, I picked one that felt a little more narrative, with more potential background to explore, and clearly 'post-apocalyptic surrealism' are two great tastes that go great together.

This painting feels like grief etched into moss-covered stone. What kind of war is called a rain, or are the war that ravaged this land and the rain in the title two separate things, and what is growing on these ruins? How 'after' is this? Are the figures strangers travelling through this landscape or did they survive its destruction? Are there any promises left on the horizon? Are there any promises left here? Are you mostly inspired by the palette and texture?

You are of course welcome to integrate elements from other Ernst works, both settings (I am oh so fond of his forests and their suns) and characters (Loplop, assorted bird people...), if your story moves away from the confines of the nominated painting and you're looking for inspiration. If you do so, please drop the titles in the notes so I won't miss any references?

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Alpha, Kokone

I finally got around to reading this manga this year after a decade or so since I first saw it recced and I was delighted to see it in the tagset! Especially with just the two characters who made me fall in love with it. What I enjoyed the most overall is the manga’s relaxed attitude, especially considering its end-of-the-world setting, and its focus on small joys and small adventures. I enjoy slice of life stories with a creative setting in general, like Aria and Haibane Renmei, so that specific mood is a big draw for me. The more it draws on the uniqueness of the setting, the better!

Alpha and Kokone had a delightful dynamic from the get-go and their chapters were always my faves, so the ending made me so, so happy. I’d like to see them ride off into the sunset to explore some place together, but warm and fuzzy Café Alpha mood is also great. Or maybe they have an adventure in some abandoned place and the go back to warm and fuzzy Café Alpha! Established relationships are always great for me, but we also missed an actual get-together moment, when they realized they had each other and wanted to remain with each other as humanity faded away. I’m interested in some focus on the fact that they’re androids (different sensory experiences, parts glitching or breaking etc) if that’s a kind of thing you enjoy writing.

I’d be perfectly happy with just them and an empty world, but if you want to use other characters, my faves are Sensei, Ayase, Maruko and Nai.