#its very good dm-ing

[critdeeznuts]

i love how by the end of dndads s1, every pc felt important:

henry and his family are HEAVILY linked to the doodler

darryl had to lose his father again to save the others

glenn had his meth bay arc (which i am JUST NOW realising isnt just a funny drug name. its a play on beth may) losing everything and changing the entire narrative

ron's dad was THE BIG BAD. AND CONTINUES TO BE.

[doodlebeeberry]

It's OSC gift exchange number 4, baby!!

Thats right folks!!! once again so so excited to host the gift exchange, hopefully itll be yet another fun one! :D

doing things slightly differently this year: if you wanna join you can just fill out this google form! You can also still join by replying/reblogging/dming me with what you'd like if you prefer to do it that way though.

Rules, dates, and details are all under the cut (and also in the form), please read them through fully before joining!!!

Entries close November 28th at midnight (est)!

For those not in the know, the gift exchange is just what is sounds like! Upon joining, you tell me what you like to see in you gift. After, you'll be randomly assigned a giftee, and will make a gift for them based on what they've requested. When the day comes, you'll post your gift and @ the person it's for!

The timeline this year looks like this:

Nov. 7-Nov. 28: Join the gift exchange by filling out this form, dm-ing me, replying, or tagging this post with what you'd like to receive. You can ask for anything--shows, ships, ocs, whatever! Additionally, if there's anything you dont want to see or can't make (ie, ships that make you uncomfortable), you can make a note of that as well

Dec. 1: I'll let you know who you've been assigned and what they'd like! This'll most likely be done through tumblr dms, so if that's an issue do let me know!

Dec. 1-30: You make your gift! This can be anything, from art to writing to music and more! so long as you follow your giftee's request, the possibilities are endless!

Dec. 31: Post your gift, being sure to @ the person its from! Please do not post your gift before this date!!!

Some other things to note:

You can request anything--shows, characters, ships, etc--just please make sure they are osc related! it is an osc gift exchange after all

Asking for OCs is very much allowed, just be sure to provide me with a reference when you join

in regards to things you can't do, please do note that "i haven't seen x show so i wont do it" or "i'll only do requests for x show" are not being treated as valid requests in this context, so i won't guarantee them. also please remember that giftees are assigned randomly.

If your giftee requests more than one thing, you aren't obligated to fulfill all of their requests if you don't want to. Just be sure to do one of them and you're good!

If you need to drop out for any reason, that is completely ok, it happens! just please be sure to let me know ahead of time so I can re-assign your giftee!

On that note, if you have reason to believe you will be unavailable or otherwise unable to post your gift on the 31st, please be sure to tell me so we can work something out! Additionally, if you can't reach out on tumblr (say, your blog gets deleted) you can also poke me on bluesky (@ bumblebeeberry) or discord (thatonegaycat) about it

You can not join anonymously! I just don't think it'd fair to your giftee

While I highly doubt I will need to, I can bar you from participating if I deem it necessary. Again, unlikely, but in the off-chance it does happen I will message you to let you know, pretty please do not yell at me if I do

Not a requirement but when I send you your giftee if you could just let me know you saw the message i would greatly appreciate it!

As per usual I'll be tagging everything with #osc gift exchange, feel free to use it on your gift as well!

That's it! if you have any questions, comments, notes, what have you, please don't hesitate to dm me! :]

[tinystepsforward]

automattic vs wp engine mastterpost

adrienne's GitHub recap is probably the best place to see a comprehensive timeline of what's going down. it's been kept up to date. my (very out of date) previous writeup is here.

what's happened/other links

Matt has not logged off, just switched platforms, so there's lots on X/Twitter, Reddit, and Hacker News. it's really not worth wading through.

WP Engine actually filed suit.

the complaint includes some truly remarkable screenshots of Matt trying to blackmail the CEO of WP Engine.

which... personally i would not happily work for someone who just blackmailed me while not even my boss, but that's just me. he hasn't denied this at all, in fact confirming on Hacker News:

I haven't doxxed any private texts from other parties like they have. [source]

and, notably,

I even invited her to my 40th birthday on Jan 11, another text message she decided not to share. [source]

this gives me the creeps. in the context of the rest of the way he's talking to her, and the ways in which he's interacted with women in general, it's. not great.

also he slid into an ex-employee (also a woman)'s DMs asking why she was being mean to him bc he'd never been nothing but nice to her, while also making legal threats. so y'know, pattern of behaviour.

a good writeup of the social side of things

if you don't care so much about the open-source stuff, Steph Lundberg's writeup is, like her previous one on Matt's Tumblr meltdown, pretty solid and people-focused.

Mullenweg has already demonstrated egregious lapses in judgment and abuses of power, it’s just that up until now he’s wielded his power against vulnerable populations without access to high-powered lawyers and their own massive platforms.

a more technical writeup

this one is melodramatic in the same ways Matt was (uses war terminology), which i don't agree with, and which led to some... internal arguments at Automattic. that part's not my story to tell, but a little more on that later. it's a solid writeup of the actual WordPress side of things. there's some seriously dodgy trademark behaviour going on here.

of note: this blogger locked comments on his post:

and then Matt, uh, found a way around that:

wild!

10% of Automattic leaves

that's a link to Matt's blog post. here's an Internet Archive link.

in short, staff were offered a severance deal of the higher of $30k or six months' salary. while that's very generous, it's still very risky in today's tech market, especially (for the same reasons i mentioned when Matt was melting down on here) for people outside the US, people who need the health insurance, or people with young kids. despite that, 10% decided with very little notice (they had two days to decide) to leave.

However now, I feel much lighter. I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay. As the kids say, LFG!

i'm thrilled to see some of my ex-colleagues make it out. i'm keeping the rest who have stayed on in my thoughts. i don't know anyone who's wholesale shilling for Matt.

Matt's been pressuring staff to post in support of him, @-ing the entire company to vote on Twitter polls in his favor, and so on. many of the people who stayed have written blog posts about it, all starting with "I stayed". people on social media have pointed out the very clear pattern of Automatticians jumping into discourse to defend Matt, and it doesn't look good.

i don't have a lot to say about those posts, except to highlight Jeffrey Zeldman, whose "I stayed" post is perhaps one of the more honest ones. (his Rodney King reference was in poor taste, and he... i don't like his role at automattic, tbc) but like. he's nearly 70. he helped shape the modern internet and develop its accessibility standards. he has often put his neck on the line for disabled staff who don't have as much clout as he does. given the financial troubles he talks about and the state of this market and how old he is, i personally have read between the lines of what he's saying in a particular way.

fuck, man. i'm sad. i'm sad for all my friends who are creaking under the strain and watching others leave but who can't do that. i'm sad that many of them are left in teams which are half-empty or divisions where significant senior leadership are just gone, with no time to document what they had in progress.

i'm sad for Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the former executive director of the WordPress Foundation, who was dealing with a personal emergency and ended up having to miss WordCamp US (where Matt started publicly starting shit with WPE). she came back from that to a gigantic fire in the community she's invested a decade of careful, Matt-negotiating, stewardship to, and decided to take the severance offer. she deserved better.

other things Matt's been up to

mostly linking to comments or posts which compile things here, bc it's too scattered otherwise.

blocking people from the official WordPress X account if they disapprove of his actions.

publicly talking about a vulnerability in ACF, a plugin WPE maintains, which could put thousands of sites at risk. this is not normal, and he met with so much horror even from current staff that he deleted his post.

saying he comes across badly because he's "a little ASD", which is driving me personally up the fucking wall. he's never once said it before and he really is turning into Temu Elon.

generally bragging that he still has more planned. jesus fucking christ

continually saying that WPE's suit is against WordPress.org and the community, which is not true. on which note, his pinned tweet is certainly something:

his choice of lawyer is uh. the kind of guy to defend nestle against literal child slaves.

as always, while i think WordPress crumbling will disproportionately affect websites in poorer parts of the world, there are certainly tyrants who are causing much more immediate and potent suffering. if you've read this far, please do send anything you have spare to gazafunds.com.

[itzddsyanderefanacc]

MDHM & YBG Crossover High-school AU Peter and Alan refs

See! I told ya'll I would post more about this hehe!

this is the official outfits for peter and Alan! I will be including the rest of both games main cast..yes..all of the characters, at least the ones we have seen

anyway, enjoy 5 facts about both of these loverboys!!

(none of these are cannon in both games, this is just cannon in my AU for the story and sillies)

5 facts about peter! :

1. all his piercings are fake, he used super glued them on.

2. peter got the nickname cockbite from roumers that go around the school about peter prostituting himself out to older men (for money ofc).

3. peter claims to hate his sister but takes care of Sarah more then their parents do.

4. peter doesn't call himself an artist but he finds sketching and drawing very therapeutic (but he NEVER shares his artwork).

5. peter often goes dumpster diving in order to find broken technology and parts that he can use to fix them up and sell.

5 facts about Alan!:

1. Alan has a really hard time actually talking to people without getting nervous (he is VERY emotional).

2. Alan is a major klutz and often wipe-outs when he's skating, even though he's a good skater.

3. Alans house that he lives in with his family is right on the edge of a forest. he as a secret weed bush he had planted somewhat in the forest, most he sells to fix up his board and some he smokes for himself when he wants to lay back.

4. Alan has a major soft spot for cute things such as animals or merchandise. he often wants to buy cute little nick-nacks for his room but decides against it since its not "manly" to do so..and he doesn't want to be a bullying victim.

5. all alans clothes are hand me downs or clothes that he had stole from the lost and found at the high-school (exept underwear). he had also taken some sewing classes so he can properly patch up and fix his clothes when they inevitably get wreked

thats all for the silly facts! I hope you guys like it! and feel free to use this au, weither it's in art or writing form, just make sure to credit me! (and dm-ing me first would be nice, I don't bite i promise!!)

[utilitycaster]

Voting sticker was sent via DMs because it's shaped like the state I live in lmao. Also, if someone reading this is in Fly Free or Die by some minuscule chance, please look away now; there be spoilers ahead.

The character I'll tell you about is RH-1/Istra Gryffis/Cassiopeia Wulfren/Stellasa Drith, a Human Replica Droid in an SW5e campaign. Originally an Imperial Agent, she was sniffed out by the scientist she was monitoring on her very first assignment, subdued by him, had her programming jailbroken and a teleportation device installed in her chest, and was then just turned loose on the galaxy to make her own way.

She still believed herself a tool of the Empire, but a broken one, who failed in her mission, and couldn't bring herself to go back to her handler/creator/mentor so spent a few years just roaming the galaxy aimlessly doing small time security work.

Eventually, a smuggler she was contracting with (one of her party members) got into a Situation with a crime syndicate, and the pair had to run off into corporate bureaucratic hell to escape their eyes--or rather, the smuggler did; she suggested that specific approach because the last she knew the scientist who jailbroke her had been planning to go work for that corporation. With danger pushing her toward decisive action for the first time in years, she took that as a sign to go and hunt him down to bring him back to the Empire and get back in its good graces. And, perhaps, demand to know why he shoved a unique piece of tech into her chassis then just left her to do what she wanted with no guidance whatsoever.

Regardless, working for this corporation put her and her smuggler buddy into the party, working shipping as contractors for a major corporation. The details of our current, first arc are, while interesting, also mostly unimportant to what I want to talk about regarding party dynamics/info.

Essentially, the party (who don't know she's a droid) includes her, the smuggler (always getting himself into situations), a clone (hates droids), two droid-specialist engineers (one who just unreservedly loves droids and the other who isn't exactly pro droid rights but wants to rehabilitate their image), and a (secret) Jedi. Various dynamics:

The smuggler is someone Cassioepia's decided she's responsible for the well-being of, because she develops strong loyalties very quickly (great trait for a spy).

Thus far, there have been multiple arguments over droids and how much they matter (she comes down on the side of "just tools, and unreliable ones" like the clone does, if less adamantly).

The clone appears to be coordinating at least a few small rebel groups, and is very anti-Empire, as well as looking to her as essentially his second-in-command.

The clone and one of the engineers are on opposite sides of idealism-cynicism, and she's had to mediate a couple times now.

Finally, in the most recent session, the Jedi used Sense Force (equivalent to Detect Magic) on her. Said Jedi sensed nothing from her since she's a droid, EXCEPT the teleportation device in her chest, which sucked the Jedi's perception in, knocked her out, gave Cassiopeia a heart attack essentially, and knocked her out (also granting her, a droid, Sense Force as well) and that's where Cassiopeia left off.

Word count (after the 1st paragraph since that's unrelated): 518

(Quick note: if you're reading this, yes, DM-ing me the sticker/proof is an option if the sticker reveals more about your location than you wish to share (whether it's that you don't want to share your state, or whether you have a county or city-specific sticker, or what); I will not tell people where you live.

so I do NOT know a ton about SW5e (I saw Starstruck Odyssey and I have seen. the original trilogy and like. 4 other Star Wars movies, none comprising a full other trilogy?) but I love when a character has complicated and conflicting loyalties and a strong sense of duty, which she clearly has, and that is a GREAT cliffhanger that seems primed to absolutely blow your party's collective mind and reveal a whole lot of messy truths, and that's really the best possible thing you can hope for in a TTRPG!

[holybibly]

Hi mommy! i miss you

i just wanted to tell you about something! Well originally, i was planning to dm you because i truly think we could get along well and to be honest i would literally give everything to talk to you in private! Im a good bunny but i need some attention too, please mommy? will you play with me? i’ll behave!

But unfortunately im very shy- i already stopped myself multiple times from dm-ing you just because.. well what if im boring to you? annoy or throw you off by accident? Is it okay if i dm you? I don't know if i'll ever find the courage to do so, but i just need you to know how amazing you are! thats why i chose to tell you this way - sorry!

For me, you are absolutely perfect in every way and im well aware that i only know so little of you. Which is also why i would love to get to know you. But its also the way you come up with all these amazing stories in variety, not to mention your writing style which is.. just delicious. I would gladly drown in words written by you, on any day. The way you interact with us bunnies, how you kindly give us your attention and hear us. The way you talk. You are truly the perfect mommy for me.. for us, im so thankful to call myself one of your bunnies!

even tho im just a shy scared lil bun, i adore you in every way possible - and if.. im not asking for too much now - would you maybe be so kind to give me my own nickname? so if i text you again, you know its me! please mommy? im on my knees for you! i would absolutely cherish that nickname if you chose to give me one! but ofc i understand if you don’t want to do that!

love you mommy! you’ll always be my favorite

truly, yours

Oh baby, that's so sweet. Why don't you DM me?

I won't lie and say that with some bunnies I have an instant connection, and with others I don't.

I don't always reply to messages on time either, since I have a job and a life outside of the blog, but I also have bunnies that I talk to every day and they have become an integral part of my life so much that I even plan personal meetings with them.

Honestly, I never expected that so many people would be interested in me, since I am not very remarkable. And I feel a little awkward that you think I am perfect, since I have many flaws, in general, I am just a houseplant.

I am just me and nothing more.

And I can give you a nickname if you want, how about Little Dove?

[celeluwhenfics]

Since we’re talking horse girl histories and you’ve already let slip the FASCINATING detail that you were once a horse-mounted sheep herder, would you also like to share more about your time as a horse girl? Inquiring minds would love to know whatever you feel like putting out there! ♥️

This is a long overdue reply! Thanks for the ask, and for your patience... Here we go, story time! Be ready for a long rant and too many horse pictures.

Basically, from age 8, I've been that girl completely obsessed with horses. After consistently nagging my parents, I got to get weekly riding lessons and sometimes a summer camp week. (Lucky kid, I know!)

One of my first lessons, wasn't this boy GORGEOUS?! His name was Monty. Not from Monty Python, but from Monty Roberts.

I got to the point where I could volunteer at the stable without being too much of a nuisance, and I participated in two very small jumping competitions. However at age 12 or 13 I decided to stop, being busy with a ridiculously demanding school. This is also when I started being much more serious about piano. (Which is another story entirely!)

Capturing the essence of being an 11yo horse girl in the year 2000. The tshirt says "Harry Pony"

Fast forward to when I was 22, I somehow got a little money of my own, and for some reason, my very first thought was, HORSES. So I got back into it, fell a couple times pretty hard, and became just as obsessed as I had ever been, if not more.

In parallel to doing my MA, I mucked for lessons, assisted a friend trainer, read lots, had a half-pension for a couple months, and sometimes assisted in "babysitting" entire barns for a couple days when the owners were on holiday. I did some jumping, but I was most interested in dressage. I never got to a super good level as a rider, but I really got a good variety of experiences.

I adored this guy I had in half-pension in 2013... He sent me flying through that fence a couple times, but he was the best. Sapporo ❤️

Then I was incredibly lucky that my MA advisor was a horse girl too, and she invited the whole class to retreat seminars on a farm which had about 80 Icelandic horses. My heart exploded for these little guys. I would visit that place (aka paradise) as often as I could. This blessed farm and the lovely family that owns it is the inspiration for the Aldburg paradise in which the pHORSEuasion flashbacks will happen...

I learned Icelandic, and I organized that the summer after I finished my MA (like literally 48 hours after defending), I flew to Iceland to soak in its unique horse culture.

First, I volunteered at the annual horse competition, Landsmót Hestamanna, and saw some of the THE most impressively gorgeous horses the country had to offer, in a surreal scenery, and under a sun that Would. Not. Set.

Then I went on a 1-month intensive language course in Reykjavík, slept little, did too much grammar, broke up with an annoying boyfriend, and tried speaking with locals. But after that the real thing started.

I moved to a sheep breeding farm in the North East (aka edge of the world, super isolated, big nearby metropolis is a 300 people village), that had been looking for an au-pair to help with farm work, guesthouse work, babysitting, and horse riding. I stayed there for only two months, but oh boyy. I don't even know where to start with sharing this experience.

But it will be for another post!

Btw my DMs are always open if anyone has horsey questions or would like some horsetopic-specific beta-ing when writing about Rohan, if you need help with some research of if you want to make sure that a riding scene is realistic! I'm not a horse professional but as you can guess I've been through some stuff... 😅

[oxventurequotes]

What's your favourite of the Oxventure series? Is it the D&D, the BitD, the One Shot Wobders or the Deadlands? Asking because I am just genuinely curious.

hihihi!!! this is like, the trickiest question i could get bc oxventure in all its forms is fucking incredible lmao and i am very, very prepared to write an essay on the subject so tldr: probs the d&d if i had to choose but i love them all equally, wall of text ft me ranting abt how much I like oxventure under the cut.

oxventure d&d is my favourite in the way of if i was held at knifepoint and made to pick a fave yknow? it was the first d&d related anything that i’d ever watched, and im very very nostalgic for the earlier episodes in the basement of loading bar. theyre my comfort vids, theyre a safe place to take my mind to when it’s all a bit much or if new oxboxtra content is overwhelming because im very autistic and new content is sometimes very hard. also, i love seeing how oxboxtra has grown from their awkward kinda-roleplaying-kinda-not winging it through the spicy rat caper to really understanding and manipulating the mechanics of the game whilst maintaining several threads of really uplifting and entertaining story.

i also think that the d&d (and for that matter, gaming as a whole) part of the internet doesn’t cherish johnny chiodini enough because their dm-ing throughout the entirety of oxventure has been nothing short of fucking stellar, like, since day one they have brought nothing but passion and patience. they are so fucking funny and personable and seem to know exactly where the story needs to turn to come to a satisfying close. they’ve made being a dm into an art form and i hope they know that. more people appreciate johnny challenge.

blades in the dark, though, is also very close to my heart because its darker and more serious and everyone is a little more settled into the concept of roleplaying that they really begin to experiment with their characters, and it is a delight. also, luke. fucking luke westaway and his questionable voice acting and his fantabulous imaginarium. Oh my fucking god luke. fucking hell. was it not enough to be a funny internet man. was it not enough to make very good music. must you also create meaningful stories and mysteries and uhgjfgf luke.

and i could go on and on about “but the one shots!” because they’re so fucking funny and “but deadlands!” because its brilliant to see yet more characters (and gm cowboy andy! my prayers answered!) and there’s the rub. if i think about it for more than five minutes, i can’t choose a favourite, i just really fucking love oxventure as a whole. im so glad that it became more than a one-off d&d playthrough and im so glad they’re making something of it because that’s what it deserves.

as a group they have such fantastic chemistry that its hard not to believe that the whole channel wasn’t originally dedicated to ttrpgs in the first place. it's obvious the love they have for these games and these stories and it's such a love letter to the idea of found families and hfjfshdfidsfhsf idk im very brainrotted abt them

sorry for the actual fucking essay oh my god

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

Hi Skelley! I realize my dropping in is a bit random but had an advice question for you: how do you balance your fics? I have so many projects in the works and just kinda flit to whatever one will hold my attention. Do you do anything particular to get into the writing mindset or does it just come to you?

- siren (who has not written anything more than 3 lines in a WIP at the beginning of the year and it is driving me crazy)

random is all good siren <3 never fear about reaching out to me Honestly, this is still something I struggle with myself. I start a lot of projects, and I don't necessarily finish them all without really being in the mindset for them. A lot of that has to do with me getting super fixated on a fic idea, and needing to instantly put all my energy into it, but the downside is that also leads to me losing steam at random points - sometimes a few chapters in, sometimes while I'm still outlining, a lot of the time it's right near the end, but a lot of that has to do with my fear of something ending and then not coming up with anything else interesting to share and readers not caring anymore (terrible mindset, I know. I write for me, but I share for interaction) I find music playlists help a lot to steer my focus, whether its creating one for the fic, a character, or the OC I'm most focused on, it keeps me thinking and spinning thoughts and ideas around in my head (it's also why all of my playlists are like 50-300 songs long lol) Also, having struggled with burn out a couple times this year, I will say this: DO NOT PUT PRESSURE ON YOURSELF. Completely step away from fandom stuff if you have to (I was taking week long breaks from Tumblr and that seemed to help me a lot). Focus on just enjoying your time, take part in other hobbies, watch other movies/tv shows, play other games, eventually it should (hopefully) refuel the creative juice tanks. Sometimes just not thinking about what you've been wanting to think about really just helps to give the brain a break and relax.

It's also very beneficial having someone you can just sort of yell ideas at. Even if they don't necessarily come to fruition, the "yes, and"-ing from someone else outside of the work can be incredibly helpful and its also nice to know someone else cares about your story even if its just a jumble of ideas at the moment (feel free to DM me if you want, I'm happy to listen)

Anyways, I hope this helps <3 because it is not a great place to be, and I know how frustrating and upsetting it feels to not be able to channel the creativity the way you want.

[polyamorouspunk]

OH BOY OKAY SO IM BACK IN YOUR INBOX TO RANT ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

So like. We were supposed to be waiting until the end of august right. Which I WOULD BE FINE WITH. But evidently he is not cause he is like. Texting me constantly. With goodnight and good morning texts. And being very super flirty. And. I feel overwhelmed.

And I realize Im just a very low social battery type of person. On top of being arospec. But it feels like a lot even for a non arospec person. And idk if its like. Hes in a honeymoon phase or something. But I am. Not at that level atm.

And I haven’t talked to him about it yet. We are actually planning on talking about shit on Wednesday. And its definitely something Im gonna bring up. Its a matter of *getting* through Wednesday. And then I *hope* he gets it through his head that I can not do this level of romance and flirty shit all the time. And hope hes okay with that.

BUT ALSO. On wednesday when we talk, I have a line and if he isnt willing to accommodate it. Then I can not do this relationship. And that line is simply to block his ex. She hates me, and has been abusive to him. And honestly the fact that he doesnt want to, it feels like hes trying to keep that door open. Rather than actually wanting to commit to a new relationship. (And to my knowledge, he is not poly).

But yeah. Yeah. So Wednesday I might be on here screaming about job interviews or i might be screaming about how much dating sucks.

Either way if this goes south Im just committing myself to a life of being single and free with my cat

- that one really annoying mutual

Nooo you’re not annoying trust me you should see me in my other mutual’s DMs.

Man I’m sorry that sucks. I’m 100% that type of person and I’m trying my best to hold it back and not be overwhelming and flirty to someone I’m pretty sure doesn’t see me that way because I don’t want to be annoying. I’m sorry you’re feeling overwhelmed.

As someone who is like that I personally think I would be able to (and hopefully am) tone(ing) it down. Best of luck, I had my own Serious Conversation™️ last week as you know which a lot of my mutuals are getting bad vibes from but 🤷🏼

Wishing us both luck in our semi-romantic adventures.

[vacantgodling]

💚🍀 for the OC Ask Game!

thank you for the ask! i'll keep talking about nondisclosure :3 maybe i'll do the main ones + leo lol.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

nyseah: butch trans woman & she calls herself straight but queer and its just because transitioning made her relationship to her sexuality very complicated. she tends to be attracted to men or masculine people but because she's trans she doesn't think that any relationship that she's in will ever be "straight". and for her, its really more about who she jives with versus their gender identity-she wouldn't turn down a good connection basically. she doesn't try to label it but if she Had to that's what she'd say.

donte: cis man & mspec gay but far to tired to care about pursuing anything with anyone pff

alona: cis woman & bi

leonine: masculine nonbinary (they/he) & pansexual

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

so technically nyseah and alona came from the same OLD story that i used to have when i was like 12 and technically they haven't "changed much" in terms of the Very Very basic gist of their characters (nyseah is still a psychic nurse and alona is still a secretary of a corporation). i don't really know WHY i thought of these two but a lot of that old story that nondisclosure directly grew from was a clusterfuck and probably inspired by my desire to be quirky and love of anime.

donte is an interesting one, because i had an idea several years ago to make a d&d campaign that was kind of like a noir instead of a fantasy based thing (so like dnd rules but it was a noir). and instead of just me being a dm my idea would be to have a character in the story that the players all get information from and so i made his initials D.M (donte macbride). but bc i don't really have friends to do that kind of thing with and i don't know shit about dm-ing i decided to just kinda keep him on the backburner as an oc, and then ended up using him in a roleplay with one of my friends, wherein i developed his backstory (tldr don's mom was killed by a serial killer when he was 14 and while the police couldn't figure it out, he solved the case and killed the murderer in essentially one day and instead of going to jail, the head of the force at the time was like hey kid you got a talent for solving crime, ya wanna be a detective? and then he's been doing this shit for like 30-ish years pff. its slightly tweaked now to fit with the lore of this wip but the gist is the same), and i really fleshed don out as a character. and then my friend kinda lost interest in the roleplay, so then when i decided that i wanted to revamp alona and nyseah cuz i'm mad attached to them, i thought maybe i could toss him into the mix with the two of them to make a rotating 3-way pov narrative :D

leonine was a character in that roleplay i did with my friend and his backstory of being a celebrity who's friend was murdered and then he goes to don for help is also still the same. tbh they weren't supposed to be a character i got attached to but i liked his energy lol

[thevalleyisjolly]

Dimension 20/ 1, 8, 9 & 25

Ey, thanks anon!

1 - the character everyone gets wrong

It's admittedly very hard to get on Murph's level and balance the right amount of awful shithead with the right amount of earnest caring, but I can't remember the last time I saw a good take on Cody that really understood his personality and characterization. It's not any one thing in specific, I just don't often encounter takes on Cody that make me go "Yes, this is the character Murph played, he would 100% say this/do that."

8 - common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

The Ravening War is actually really good. I understand if you don't like Matt or his style of DM-ing and don't want to watch the season because of that. As someone who did watch it though, the cast were absolutely impeccable, the season really deepened and explored so much of the lore about Calorum, and I'd say that from a narrative standpoint, even considering that it's necessarily tighter in format as a 6-episode season as opposed to a 17-episode season, it's slightly better story-wise than ACOC. No pressure or obligation to watch it, everyone makes their own decisions about their media consumption, I just think it's really good despite all the pre-season flack it got.

9 - worst part of canon

This isn't about a specific canon event, but I think in general, seasons are stronger when they have clearer rails and narrative beats. The limited-run format of the show as a whole does not lend well to an open-world sandbox approach, and all of their strongest seasons have been ones where the story structure is evident and the players work within and around that structure. Sidequests like ACOFAF and Coffin Run were really great because they had clear goals that everyone at the table understood (navigating the social dynamics of the Bloom to achieve your own goals, getting Dracula's body back to the castle). Likewise, the strongest seasons narratively were FH:SY, TUC, and TUC II. And in all of these seasons, the players still had a ton of room to improvise and make their character decisions. Railroading is negative when it prevents the table from having fun, but having rails is not a bad thing in and of itself, and I wish seasons would go back to having a little more structure and narrative guidance.

25 - common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

It's not a complaint, but I don't think we really need Fantasy High: Senior Year. I wouldn't complain if that does end up being a future season, but I think there's also value in letting a story and its characters rest. Going back to Elmville in, like, a one-shot or in a campaign focused on other characters (i.e. The Seven) is great, but I like the arcs that the original PCs had across Fantasy High and Sophomore Year, and while I'm sure they could always come up with more stories to tell, I'm satisfied with where they concluded in Sophomore Year.

[monstrsball]

OUGH!! I HATE STORMS I GET SPOOKED anyway ive had thoughts about oikawa playing dnd recently and i have a post drafted but its saying there. kageyama doesnt play but he DOES backseat game hinata, who oikawa is very happy to have at his table. Oikawa keeps asking if kageyama is going to join in or if hes going to be disruptive and keep eating their snacks and he says no, but he keeps telling hinata what to do so oikawa does the closest thing to an isekai as he can as a dm and makes kageyama the demon trying to make Hinata his warlock. (slightly unrelated but in general the phrase "get isekai'd, idiot" is a good one

meanwhile kuro and suga are making their rogue and wizard (respectively) catboys kiss. they are also trying to draft iwaizumi into the "party polycule"

idk if you know much about dnd but this has been on my mind and i hope you get some enjoyment from these silly thoughts i have :3c

the storm has stopped for now which is good! but i think it's supposed to start up again soon. :( i'm glad other people understand my feelings about it, haha. i always feel silly for getting so anxious when it storms.

HQ AND DND!!!! i love when people make hcs about them playing dnd, hehe. dungeon master oikawa so true. kageyama backseat gaming hinata while also insisting that he doesn't want to play is so funny. yea he would. love the idea of oikawa essentially isekai-ing him and forcing him to anyway fjdklfjds. i like to think the only reason oikawa doesn't just kick kageyama out is because of hinata and suga. (or so he says at least)

like the bit with kuroo and suga trying to integrate iwaizumi into a polycule with their characters, so very funny. always on board with kuroo and suga being silly together. i love them.

i'm still very much a beginner to dnd so i don't know... a Whole lot? but i do think i know anything enough now to understand dnd headcanons better lol. i very much did enjoy your thoughts!!! thank you for sharing

[suenitos]

i am a lore head and i won't even apologize for it i was writting essays in my friends dms on the wholeeee thing until Um techno's passing where i lost any and all motivation to tap in (he was my favorite). idk it was so special i can atest that the reason it was sooo build up was because it worked in a way you could both take things at face value (as in, dream looking for the disc using his minecraft abilities being translated to him having those abilities in-character) and also imaginate stuff (such as burning george's house and/or the pogtopia arc could both be dramatized and downplayed). IDK IT WAS SO FUCKING SPECIAL

i do agree that q's lore being of incredible visual quality and cinematographic helped create this sense of greatness but it lacked so much succint stuff. you couldn't do anything but strong lore beats with that kind of lore, so a mixture of normal rp-ing and big lore cinematographics would've been good, but he missed the equlibrium and made a lot of people very annoying in how they reacted to the "writting" of the dsmp (like, remember those people saying that certain characters should have certain endings for how their characters had done, while the ccs were just having fun? yeah the change between dnd kind of rping to the fake idea of this being a fully scripted and narratively consistent arcs was q lolol). ANYWAY IDKKK lots of thoughts about everything always

sidenote on "is this lore" "is this canon" i also hatedddd that so much everything is canon lore. nothing is canon lore. lore doesnt even mean what you think it means 😭 you really mean plot.

YESSSS LIKE THESE PEOPLE WERE OUT THERE CHECKING EVERYTHING ANF CATEGORIZINFG EVERYTHIGN JESUS CHRIST THAT FAKE NATION YOU LOVE ROSE UP TO MAKE A DRUG MONOPOLY AND MAKE CDREAM'S LIFE HELL NOTHING MORE !!🌟

like people forgot really quickly that this used to be a mishmash of breaking bad and hamilton roleplay 😭 and most of the ccs are not actors or writers but they clearly had a lot of fun with it and again the relatively unserious medium of streaming made a lot of those moments actually more epic becuase it was serious but also not. i love your persepctive on this! its kinda funny you mention the dream irl abilities a little bit because i remember a few months ago friday got slammed for that here by an insane lorehead who was very much of the Everything Must Have A Reason crowd even though that was WAYY before any actual substantative plot HAPPENED.

i agree with the balance aspect and even though a lot more interactions between LN characters happened on other peoples streams (and was relatively more chill), i think the emphasis on these huge lore streams was a detriment to the story it was trying to tell whatever that was. i was confused more than sad that slime fucking died because as a casual dsmp viewer i only tapped into the big streams and nothing about the way slime was intro'd or integrated into the story through those streams really captured me the way someone might be swept into like crimeboys for example. it just wasnt the same. and also on the point of obsessive viewers FUCK michael i wish sapnap killed his ass

[utilitycaster]

Big D20 and ACOC fan here. The "they won't get the rich lore" argument just also feels so ridiculous from a technical standpoint? Like, CR fans watch long ass episodes, the campaigns for it span over a hundred episodes lmao. I'm pretty sure they're actually primed for lore retention and are fairly used to intricate plot points. I personally can't wait to see Matt take this on and bring in more viewers.

Right! Like...firstly, fans of Critical Role, or Matt, do tend to be massive fucking nerds, and CR in particular is pretty heavy on lore so assuming the worst of them is pretty dumb. Secondly, as I said, there's very few resources for this lore other than watching (requires a subscription) or reading the transcripts of the episodes - and I want to be clear, I don't blame the D20 wiki editors, who have as far as I know been minding their own business - but the people hyping up the rich lore have done nothing to bring that canon to potential new fans, instead just tsk-tsk-ing and saying "you wouldn't get it." Thirdly, I'm going to take a wild guess and say again that Matt and Brennan have gone through the lore together and are going to set the stage adequately for new viewers.

Which is the big thing that I think the people attempting to say "you wouldn't get it unless you've continuously been in the fandom specifically for ACOC for three straight years" are fully missing (and which your ask here does take into account appropriately). Dropout needs subscribers. That is their business model, and D20 is one of the shows that brings in the most new and continuous subscribers since many of the other shows, while great, are unscripted quiz-style shows and permit a more, well, drop in and out style of viewing.

The past few D20 seasons have not been pulling in the same viewership, and we can speculate why that is but it ultimately doesn't matter. They are specifically bringing in a popular and well-known DM, having a group of experienced roleplayers, and returning to this specific beloved setting on purpose to do so - both to mine the overlap in fandom between D20 and CR and perhaps expand it, reach out to fans of Aabria or Anjali, and perhaps bring back in people who watched A Crown of Candy but haven't kept up since. A lot of the discussion truly feels like it paints Matt as "asshole who wandered on set and seized control over my blorbos" and not "person who was very deliberately invited to DM this particular season and has the explicit blessing of Brennan, Sam Reich, and anyone else involved in the decision-making at D20." (I honestly don't know if the D20 powers that be are aware that there's a cohort of D20 fans who just passionately hate CR or Matt but the thing is, if I were a hypothetical executive who was, shall we say, plugged into the fansphere? I'd pick the setting of Calorum specifically so that we retain its passionate fandom, even if they don't like the DM, while also bringing in new fans. It would be the smart business decision, and also pretty funny.)

But also...look. I am certainly not above criticizing fan theories based on poor understanding of lore, or when people are like (smug voice) "well I'm a lore muncher so combat doesn't interest me", or when they respond to thoughtful meta with irrelevant projections. But if someone wants to watch Critical Role and make liveblog posts of "hell yeah, Fearne just stole that guy's watch, iconic" without going deep into the lore? That is absolutely just as valid a form of fandom as writing meta, or fic, or creating fan art, or cosplaying. The same goes for any other show. If you want to get into lore discussions and meta then yes, you should be relatively up on the lore, but if you just want to hang out and enjoy the show? You can show up to episode 1 absolutely cold and pick it up as you go along. It's fine, and anyone saying otherwise is an asshole who does not have good intentions.

[jiminsass-istant]

Hello,

thank you for speaking about boycotting. And yeah you are right in the regards when you write that people do not care cuz they feel safe in their own country, but I dont think they fully grasp how precarious the peace is, and how easy it is for someone to come from outside and say move, or we are moving you by force... no one is safe as there may be no real consequences (see the icj ruling bout ishrahell and nothing has really changed).

i would say even small acts of defiance may help if enough people do it. be it starsht or mcsht (btw seeing tae post the mcd photo was like, wow either he lives in absolute vacuum or does not really care), luckily our country was not stormed by amazon so we dont really have that influence here.

(there is app No thanks, which shows you which products are or are not on boycott list. i have tried it on the known suspects and it shows them as boycottable. i will use those products up and find alternatives after.)

but what the boycotting and armys brought to my attention was how i was perceiving bts and their impact and their own causes. be it on world or their fanbase. not sure why but it reminded me of the dickens quote - it was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

Hi again Anon! Yes i did see the ICJ statement on Israhell. I'm just waiting for its consequences but they don't come. BDS reported some time ago that about 46,000 businesses have shut their shop in Israhell, and that was the last good news.

I just type in the brand name to BDS website and check.

Please tell me more about how you were perceiving bts and their impact. You need to explain to me anon, or I'll never get it T_T. Can't you just DM? We can't keep talking like this. Clearly most people don't care to read this either.

I have also thought about Israhell and its people you know. I really appreciate the very few ones who realise what their country is doing and admit they are in the wrong. Because it's difficult when you are surrounded by propaganda that your country is ki!!ing terrorists and not innocent people.