#literally haven't logged in here in months

[mylittlechimera-archive]

i don’t interact with tumblr enough these days to have two separate accounts, so i decided i’ll archive this one and remake ‘mylittlechimera’ url as a sideblog attached to my art account https://iwoszareba.tumblr.com/ if you are interested in following or something 

[e-vultures]

I realize this is a pretty lukewarm take on the 'fuck modern tech' site but god I fucking hate two-factor authentication. ok cool so after I intentionally set up barriers for myself to stop being on my phone specifically when I'm trying to get work done in order to get said work done I have to go get my phone? and go into its little notifications? and inevitably spend an hour distracted because of The Way My Brain Works (and the way it has been fucking trained to work by those notifications)? when I tried to fucking get around this problem and work with the tendencies I know I have??? cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great!!!!!!!!!!

[luna-loveboop]

Wait...

It's November. It's November first. Yesterday was October 31st, so October is over. ...it's over. Is it over?

Inktober, artober, whumptober, flufftober, linktober, every tag ending with -tober that's been circulating for the past month... is it over? I don't know why it's just hit me but...

This matters. So I will try to get the message across, even though I'm not the best at it sometimes

Fanartists, fan writers, artists, fic writers, people making comics, every single one of you that has created art for the past month...

Thank you

This is my first October on tumblr. When I started seeing the "tober" tags, seeing the posts from artists with wips, saying they were going to make something every day to a prompt, making masterposts to update with each day, I thought "cool"

But every day this month, I have gotten on here and smiled.

And I don't mean smiled. I mean I smiled at least 20 times every time I got on the app because I saw all the art and fics. I got to see artists/writers connect stories through different day prompts. I saw people having the most brilliant ideas and creativity, flowing from their hands into their posts. I saw artists responding to continuous asks, telling them how amazing they are. I saw artists getting behind, and keeping going.

I saw Free. Beautiful. Emotional. Amazing. Original. Creative. Art.

Every day

I haven't committed to anything of this before, so I can't directly relate to what you guys were thinking and feeling. But I'm willing to guess; I think you probably enjoyed it, because most won't do such a huge project unless they enjoy it. I think you probably saw it as a challenge you were willing to fulfill, and an opportunity to grow and develop your skills.

... but I'm also willing to bet you did it for us. For people like me, who love art, but don't do this specific type, who are in fandoms, who love tracking and watching you art and sending you compliments, who take joy in your work. For the other artists (and writers!) who admire each others styles and love to learn from each other.

If anyone ever tries to tell me that humans are inherently evil again, I will strap them to a chair, pull up these posts and say look. Look at what these people did. Look me in the eyes and tell me these sorts of actions don't come from the most loving hearts. Tell me these people don't want to make others happy, that they aren't inherently good. And I will tell you you're wrong.

I have so much going on, yet somehow it slipped into my life that I was constantly looking at your art for the joy of it without me even noticing.

And how is it possible. That we have such a beautiful community of people here that we will share. And communicate. And exchange compliments. And literally do things and send asks solely for the purpose of making someone smile.

I'm almost crying by now. God I can't express it well enough! But I am so. So. Grateful

You guys brought me a month of joy! You gave headcanons, and art, and stories!

Even yesterday, Halloween, I was blown away. Because I had expected... I didn't expect anything. And then I log on and see people sending happy halloween asks, exchanging doodles of candy, and headcanons and gifs.

And some are still catching up to the schedule or whatever, and that's ok! But at the beginning of this post, when I was simply realizing it was November, I asked myself "is it over?"

Is it over?

... I don't think so. I've seen artists say they're going to continue and expand on a piece they made and especially liked this month. Some people are still continuing, catching up to a voluntary deadline. All those masterposts with your whump/fluff/link/ink tober art? I know many as well as myself will be going through, looking over your posts with smiles, catching up on some things they missed this month... it will continue in the people and artists I didn't know existed before, but now follow. In the skills and growth in creativity! In the community we've grown, and art you've made, and the art to come, at a normal rate like every other month, even if it's not October anymore!

But my artists, writers... thank you so much. I don't know if you guys know how valuable and amazing you are. How incredible it is that you exist! People say it's amazing we exist under a sky of such stars, but how incredible is it that you made a stranger on the internet smile every day! Your life is so. So. Valuable. I can't even express how grateful I am that you exist, that you somehow are selfless enough to share the most beautiful parts of yourself simply to create, and to create joy. Thank you so so much.

(And this applies to all artists, in any fandoms, not just mine. And I'm just as grateful to people who couldn't do something every day, or only one day! You still share your art, you're just as... incredible. You are incredible.)

Okay.

So I'm gonna do this, and if others want to do it in the reblogs that's great! I do not care at all about reblogging or likes, but I want to make the people that have brought me such joy some appreciation- I hope I can bring you even a smidgen of the light you have brought into my life. So I'm gonna tag all the artists/writers I know of/can think of that have done any sort of October challenge, all of you creators that have made me smile. If people wanna want to tag others in the reblogs or replies to spread love that's cool.

(Basically I don't know social customs or anything at all, so if you don't want me to tag or if I was supposed to do something different or something let me know I have no idea what I'm supposed to do)(if I like accidentally tagged someone who isn't an artist/writer or forgot someone I follow... sorry)

@skyward-floored @kikker-oma @adrift-in-thyme @blueskittlesart @zeldaseyebrows @smilesrobotlover @bahbahhh @soso-dedeck @lennsart @arecaceae175 @illcamp @breannasfluff @solarfire-art @26kabeuchi @cathianemelian @truffeart @scribbly-z-raid @uniquevoidflowers

To all the artists and writers out there: thank you so much!!! You are amazing and I'm glad you exist. Your life is precious, and you matter. Thank you so much for sharing your beauty with us, we love you too!!!!!

... yeah. Just want yall to feel loved... because you are. Again, thank you. Thank you so so much to my beautiful creators who create joy as well as art, who keep storytelling alive. Just... thank you.

:)

[bitchesgetriches]

So the stock market is crashing or at least dropping. Is there a point when I should move my 401k savings? I know youre supposed to leave them alone. But im 25 and the thought of the 24k i have in there all dissappearing and needing to start over is stressful.

DO NOTHING.

Go outside and pet a tree or something instead.

Yesterday the stock market took a temporary drop. How much of a drop? I literally don't even know because I haven't logged into my brokerage firm's dashboard to look. It doesn't matter. And I have about twelve times as much money invested as you.

Here's why we don't believe there's a point at which you should move your 401(k) out of the stock market:

Wait... Did I Just Lose All My Money Investing in the Stock Market?

And here's a more detailed lesson on how to reallocate your retirement fund as you grow older so it's less invested in stocks and more in bonds, which is as close as we get to recommending you move things out of the stock market:

Investing Deathmatch: Stocks vs. Bonds

One last thing: There's a faction of conservative finance bros who are attempting to manufacture economic anxiety in order to influence the U.S. presidential election. Ignore similar freak-outs for the next few months. Keep to your personal financial plan and you'll be just fine.

Did we just help you out? Tip us!

[theidiotwhowritesthings]

Hey girl! Do you happen to have an Ao3 account? I love reading your fics but tumblr doesn’t alway load offline. Just wondering! Thanks! :)

AO3: TheSarcasticKnight

I know what you're thinking.

"JJ, how are you gonna log in on a random Sunday morning after not being on Tumblr in literal months and then casually answer a question about your AO3 username like it's nothing??"

I'm unhinged. That's why. And also I finally made the effort to recreate my password so I could successfully log in b/c I totally forgot it and then was lazy for literal weeks anyways

Sorry I haven't been on. Tumblr is a whole new landscape I don't even recognize and from the looks of it I've missed some drama, but it's fine I'm here. I answered a few direct messages left for me, and if you sent me an ask in the last 6 months (or however long it's been time is an illusion) just know that I read through all of them just now and I love you too 🥰 It means so much to me to know that people were thinking of me. It just warms my little heart.

Admittedly, the chances of me updating some of the stuff on here is slim to none just b/c I'm still super busy with my day job and other projects so I do apologize for that 🫣 I may go back and read some of my old work. That does the trick sometimes. I'll read what I forgot about, get super into it, and then get super pissed when I reach the end and realize it hasn't been updated (despite being the author who hasn't updated it) and then somehow I have enough juice to get something (that exact scenario actually just happened on AO3 with an older series of mine).

Anyways, I'm done rambling. Just know that I love you. I know the world is crazy and life is hard and it's exhausting to keep pushing through the same battles again and again, but you are an incredible soul and you are so strong and you are not alone. 🩵

[yeonmuse]

BREAK THE WALLS | Kim Hongjoong

Finale Chapter | Full Chapter Log

🀥 Government agent Hongjoong x Rebel Oc

🀥 genre | dystopian society, halazia x geurilla concept , enemies to lovers

🀥 word count | 1.5k

🀥 Summary | An organization by the name of Sector 1 was well known for their work in the underground, theyve been well known for the recruiting of teens and using them to form an army since the year 2034. Collecting strays for their rebellion against those in higher power. Now the year is 2064 and the organization still runs strong they run like a family, with the new technology theyve found ways of keeping alive those that have been scorned in any past battles theyve had against the government.

When the government sends in 7 of their best men to infiltrate the organization. What will they do when their cover is blown and their true intentions are revealed? Will they join the rebellion or will they continue to let the government pull their strings like the little puppets they once were?

Skylar district May october 23rd 2064

4 months had passed since the success of the rebellion but their work still hadn't been done. Now that the city knew about Sector 1 they would come to them for all their needs and the organization was more than happy to provide. The last four months had been pretty busy, with them reconstructing the city and now building another Sector hq in the city square to keep them all more in touch with the residents of the city. They had gotten so caught up in the things going on outside of hq that for a long while Yeosang barely even had any time to work out the situation with the microbots and assure they'd be okay to use.

"Hey mom, dad it's Tahani...I haven't exactly been the best of daughter now have I." Tahani sniffles as she stares at her parents' tombstones that were both decorated in wilted flowers.

"I know I haven't visited you since that day but I think I'm ready now. To talk about it all. For the longest time after I lost you two I blamed myself. For running away and joining the organization without so much as a goodbye to you guys or the others. For a while I kept telling myself it was all on me, all because I decided to jump into something without thinking I lost all of you. But I think I'm past that now. I realize that I can't keep blaming myself because there was no way I could have known. I was simply doing what I felt was right, doing what's best for my family. And because of that I met some of the most amazing people." She laughed through the tears as she thought about all those she had met lost along the way.

"I've met one of the most amazing men I've ever come across and I get to call him mine. Ive met the best of friends...amazing people who I look too as a family, though they can never replace any of you. And yeah, it still upsets me that i can't exactly live the life i thought i'd be living if we succeeded with the mission, but because of the rebellion every day this city gets better and better. I just wish you were here to see it." Removing the wilted flowers from each of her family's tombstones she replaced them with fresh ones before taking one last glance at each of them. Upon making her way back to hq she decided to take her time. She wanted to take in the new city for the first time. See all that they had rebuilt together. With Eden gone her home truly was a giant ball of starlight. Noticing that a few rain clouds came rolling in Tahani sighs before rushing off into the city in order to beat the rain

——

"Are you sure it works Yeosang, maybe we should hold off longer if something goes wrong." Hongjoong paced the floor of the living quarters as they waited for Tahani to return.

"Hongjoong i've literally tested on Yeonjun and Dino and it worked fine, just relax."

"He's right cruella, both operations went by smoothly just to calm down and leave it to us." Eris adds on as she takes a seat right next to Yeosang on the arm of his chair.

"How long will you call him that?" San asks before laughing and the girl just shrugs her shoulders.

"How long will he have that hair?" She asks, earning a sly grin from Yeosang who stealthily brought his arm around the girl's waist.

"Behave." Was all he needed to say for the girl to finally go silent

"Wait wait wait did I miss something here." Mingi eyes the two, a surprised look on his face.

"Mind your business Song Mingi." Was all Eris said before her words were repeated by none other than Yeosang

"Right, mind your business Song Mingi."

"I liked those two better when they were in the lab all the time." Mingi huffs, crossing his arms over his chest

"I'm back." Tahani enters the room moments later earning multiple greetings from her friends and a kiss from hongjoong.

"Ready for your checkup?" Eris sprung up from the couch followed by yeosang.

"Yup im ready to go doc." She responds in a cheerful tone before bidding the others a goodbye and giving hingjoong one more kiss before following the two of them out the door.

As always Yeosang and Eris connected all of the necessary wires and tubes to her body before carrying out their usual checkup scheme.

The only difference this time was Tahani was now going to get a much needed surgery that she knew nothing about.

"Yeosang can you look at this?" And their act finally began.

"What is it?" He asks as he makes his way over to the screen. Seeing how intently Yeosang looked at the screen, Tahani grew nervous.

"Uh something wrong?" She asks anxiously at her question both Yeosang and Eris share a look before looking back at Tahani.

"There's some type of flaw in your system, it may take a full reboot to get rid of it otherwise if it gets any worse it can cause some of your joints to lock up, if that happens this body will become just as useless as your old one would have been." Eris spoke seriously.

"Well if all it'll take is a reboot just get it done, I don't wanna risk whatever the flaw is getting any worse than it already is." At that both Yeosang and Eris low fived one another beneath the equipment table before making any moves.

"Alright it may take a couple of hours but it'll simply feel like you're just resting, taking a nap you know." After sedating her and putting her lower half in sleep mode Yeosang and Eris waited until they knew the girl was fully unconscious to start their work. It had taken hours for the microbots to fully regenerate the lost cells over her cyber mechanic exterior but by the time it had fully covered her outer shell the girl was still fast asleep due to the sidation. Eris and Yeosang decided it was best to let her rest.

Once again just as it had happened all those years ago Tahanis eyes fluttered open only to land on a ceiling of the Sector 1 infirmary. This time yet another thing was different about her body. As she pushed herself out of the bed still somewhat groggy from the previous sedation she stopped dead in her tracks once her eyes caught sight of a mirror out the corner of her eye. She was naked...and not like naked with her mechanical parts showing but actually naked. As her eyes took in the visual before her it felt like a dream. She hadn't seen herself this way in two years. The tears began to fall so effortlessly, and as she ran her fingers over her full flesh body she was surprised to feel her own touch. She could feel the warmth of her hands as they brushed against her small frame. Pulling the first thing she could find over her previously exposed body Tahani ended up walking out of the infirmary with a bed sheet wrapped around her from the chest on down. She quickly made her way down the halls, past the airlock, up the stairs and into the brand new hq building. Pushing past her very confused colleagues she sped up towards the building's staircase and ran all the way up to the building's rooftop.

Rain, she could feel the rain. As the cold droplets pelted her skin she stood staring out at the city allowing the sheet to soak up every drop of rain along with her tears. As the rooftop door slammed open Tahanis eyes shot over to Hongjoong who seemed somewhat startled by the girls appearance.

"Have you lost your damn mind running around in just this? I nearly choked Joshua to death when Leedo told me he'd been staring at you running through HQ in nothing but a damn sheet." Hongjoong nagged as he pulled one of his shirts over the girl's head, allowing her to drop the now soaked bed sheet.

She stares up at him with wandering eyes, feeling true happiness for the first time in such a long time.

"Umm...so I guess you saw, you can now go back to how things were before the ambush, I mean I know it may not be all you wanted because you still can't exactly have children but at least now you can." Cutting him off mid sentence she pulls him in by his shirt and kisses him before bringing her arms around his neck. His arms hooked around her waist and Tahani swore she couldn't have thought of a moment more perfect. She could feel it all, the cold rain trickling down their faces as they kissed, the warmth of his shirt and his body pressed against her bare skin. The way his arms around her waist caused the fabric to brush across her skin, she could finally feel it all.

"Its perfect, this is perfect." She smiles as they pull away from one another, still hugging him close to her body as her eyes scanned over their city and the setting sun.

(To those that made it this far please leave a comment so i know who to give all my love to. Thank you for going on this journey with ateez. I wrote this story so long ago and freely like it was time for me to finally post it to tumblr, and maybe start working on book 2)

[girderednerve]

i haven't seen anyone on here talking about it yet, but the CEO of our brave website has embroiled himself in drama again, this time in a more high-profile way: matt mullenweg is the head of automattic, which owns tumblr and also wordpress, the largest service provider for wordpress, an open-source web hosting project and infrastructure for a huge percentage of the web; he is also a founder of & on the board for wordpress, the nonprofit that manages wordpress (the open-source project). matt, in his infinite wisdom, got mad at wpengine, a different service provider for wordpress (the open-source project); supposedly, he's mad because wpengine uses the open-source software but doesn't contribute financially or in staff time to support it, but that's actually completely legal to do even if we think it's a party foul, so wordpress is suing wpengine for trademark infringement & wpengine is countersuing for extortion. matt, #1 most stable tech CEO in the business, banned wpengine from accessing wordpress.org, the website that hosts plugins & themes for the open-source project. he can do that because, according to him, it's just his personal website. again, a huge percentage of the web uses wordpress, even if those websites don't go through automattic to do it; wordpress.org gets thousands of requests a second, and matt broke like literally a million websites (wpengine's client sites) with no notice. this is a hilarious thing to do, but it is not necessarily a great idea, so our intrepid leader is paying automattic employees who think the whole wpengine grudge match is a bad idea up to six months of salary to leave the company (8% of his employees took him up on it). so it's going great & matt still does not know how to log the fuck off when he's mad

[emotionalabuseawareness]

Personal update

Hi, everyone.

I'm... here. I'm... fine. Pre-covid-era levels of fine, even if less stable - as in it takes really only a little to throw me off and have me spiraling down. At the same time I'm also kinda better at recovering afterwards. Yet I'm aware now more than ever that I need to do trauma therapy for things to properly improve and for me not constantly struggling with flashbacks and stuff. I've done therapy over the years but never trauma therapy, at first (for the longest time) because I didn't know that that was an option, that there are therapists specialised in that and then, because there was so much else going on and then I tried but oh man, the waiting lists are so long... I'm planning on starting it sometime this year.

I've been neglecting this blog so much and I literally haven't logged in in months out of guilt. At the same time I'm so busy with work and projects that I don't really have the time to post, for now. I'd really want to get back to it at some point (maybe the end of the year?) and I also still like to eventually publish the website I was planning to do, but I'm not sure anymore if I'll manage that. Definitely want to post here again, though. It's kind of hard to grasp that it's been 12 years since my first post. I wonder if I were to re-read all that I've written if there are things that I think totally different of by now or where I'd just give different or possibly expanded (due to more life experience) advice. Surely something I'll check when I start posting again.

12 years also means that I worry somehow about people getting discouraged by the fact that for me and for others, just leaving your abusive parents, hasn't lead to a stability in mental health, but that there still are struggles. That has also been a reason for not wanting to log in and post here. ...in the end it's just the reality, though. Experiencing years of abuse in childhood will for most people lead to CPTSD and have long-lasting effects. Still, things have gotten better and I do hope that things can improve even more. And I hope that things improve for you too.

Take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself. If you need a hug right now, let me give you at least a virtual one.

[caernua]

re: your arcana post - i literally don't even go here but i live for drama.... if you were ever to do a video essay or even just a write up in a post about the situation.... i want to know what happened, can't resist 👀👀

oh my goodd it's so eerie to explain it to someone who wasn't involved but this silly little mobile dating sim was just an initial passion project from a small team of employees of an indie game developer that was basically given six weeks to turn in something completely self-indulgent and it quickly got a backing on kickstarter around 2016-2017? beyond that it was quite a classic case of a project becoming more famous than its creators expected and it turns into a bit of a mess bc of their lack of experience. and by that i mean they got very close to the fans, and that's bound to open a can of worms. they used to make weekly q&as and you can't imagine what an exciting event that was, oh my god literally everyone was in a discord server losing their shit bc the devs had opened the askbox and we could ask the stupidest questions in the world about their characters and they would answer bc frankly they were very funny and the characters were all like... established in a funny enough way that it was so easy to make good jokes about them.

and i think what makes it very interesting is that the fandom was actually pretty small, but it felt HUGE. those q&as seemed like the most viral posts you could run into when you logged on tumblr but really most of them had a couple thousand notes at best, even when the arcana was at its most popular. it was literally like living in a small village where everybody knew EVERYBODY. if you posted something, high chance everyone in the fandom would see and reblog. it was like a hive mind.

also part of the reason why it felt so huge was bc everyone was churning out fan content like CRAZY, i don't think there was ever any fandom i've personally been in where i've seen so many people create so much damn stuff and frankly i think it's one of its strongest features. idk what it is about this game but everytime i revisit it inspires me so much, suddenly i wanna pick up my tablet after months, i wanna try writing again, etc. it's just wonderful at urging you to create and i have no idea how one even achieves that.

but yea the fandom slowly disappeared partly due to controversies, some of the creators were found to have been into some questionable stuff back in their not so olden days and they stepped away from the limelight, afterwards i believe a lot of the team stepped away from the game altogether. but it was weird because the controversies were constant, not just towards the creators but also within the fandom itself 💀 and given the huge volume of them they of course ranged from reasonable criticism especially regarding the representation of the characters of color, or the absurd microtransaction to stuff like 'his eyes are drawn bigger in this cg so the artists wanted to make him look like a child so this game caters to pedos actually' dkjgdkfj i saw some CRAZY takes and the bad faith criticism definitely overshadowed the reasonable voices in my opinion, it was not balanced at all. they stopped doing the q&as, the posts they made on their official tumblr became way more sanitized, and actually in a way so did some aspects of the game, and little by little it grew quieter.

and now it's... silent. but it's so near and dear to my heart, i think it's an absolutely wonderful game and what i love about it the most is how much it inspires people to create. and i think the reason why is bc unlike in many games like this (at least i think, i'm not sure cause i haven't played many) your character doesn't just suddenly meet every love interests. they have a connection to some of the love interests and a past they don't remember so it's very interesting to peel those layers back, BUT because it's your character the story stays quite vague about the past. so it's incredibly fun to speculate, to create a backstory, etc! that's i think one of my favorite things about it and it's not a coincidence that arcana went on to inspire some fans to venture into the visual novel genre as creators themselves.

and yea overall it just felt like a close positive community (well. mostly really, we are talking about a fandom on tumblr here so) and a super creative and inspiring one. the jokes were super fun, the art was top notch, the writing was also good. so yea i kinda miss it and it's sad to see how empty it seems now? like i see people from 2020 onward go 'ohh i just discovered this game' and i'm like... MY SWEET SUMMER CHILD... YOU HAVE NO IDEA.... YOU HAD TO BE THERE.... and ig i didn't really answer your question bc i kind of glossed over the drama but i went through the whole phenomenon bc i think it was. really interesting to witness 🫡

[merrock]

HUMP DAY ACTIVITY REMINDERS

Good morning, Merrockites! Rather than cram all of this into June's mod post, I thought with 48 hours to go before our next check, I would make a separate post to go over some activity reminders. (Bonus: I've included some advice/tips for those struggling a bit under the cut, as well.)

We will be having a big activity check on Friday that will check for the following things:

each character has made at least two in-character interactions in one week's time (must be two different threads).

each character is interacting with two different writers in the group in the span of a two week period.

every writer has replied to at least one open starter in a month's time (should be applicable this month -- we have some new ones if you haven't yet!).

I would like to go into June fresh, which means we are going to drop all existing strikes and give everyone a clean slate -- but that also means moving forward, we will reach out to you if we notice a lot of strikes accumulating, just to see how we can help you out. As always, the check schedule can be found here.

A moment of full transparency: I set up checks on Thursdays, most of the time. It's my "work day" on main, anyway, and allows me to take my time to double check blogs and see where people are with activity, and then double check Friday and remove those who logged in during that last little bit. If you wake up Friday morning with a notification that you are on check but your blog is not on check, there's a very good chance you were on the original draft of check and were active in that last 24 hour period, and Tumblr is just glitching. You are only on check if your blog is listed, promise.

I've stressed a lot lately about how groups are only successful if everyone does their part, and that they only really work if we keep in mind that we all rely on one another to keep activity up and things going. This is true! But I wanted to maybe try and offer some advice / tips / things that help me out with activity, for anyone who has asked lately, or might be struggling.

trackers are a handy tool! you can set one up in a google doc, in notepad, on a literal notepad, whatever you want. it helps you keep track of what threads you have, who owes who, what writers you're writing with, etc. for me, it's a fabulous way to keep a visual of whether or not i am able to meet all of my activity goals re: writers and two threads per week. but remember: trackers are for you and your eyes, they don't need to be someone else's responsibility!

working in order is helpful for you & your writing partners. i know, i know, muse is stronger for some threads (and that's okay, as long as all of your stuff is being worked on regularly alongside them), but -- either you or your partner are going to lose muse for other threads that are sitting for longer periods of time while you're working on the same ones repeatedly, you know? try to work on things oldest to newest when you can, to avoid that. use time stamps! say "oh, i need to get to all these threads from last week / three days ago / yesterday!" to keep 'em going.

if you play multiple characters, keep them equally active. whether it's setting a goal of doing five replies on each of them at a time, doing a certain time's worth, whatever works for you! it's important to remember that all of your kiddos should be treated equally, and try to balance activity across all of them, so they're all an equal part of merrock. it's like... you know, they're your babies. they all get the same portion of macaroni and cheese at the dinner table.

i one hundred thousand million percent would rather see you just be active and having fun and cementing a sort of presence for yourself in the group, participating in events and enjoying your time in merrock than watch anyone stress out about being "caught up" on replies. it is way less important to me that you are 100% caught up, done, everything replied to than seeing that you are replying to new starters regularly, making an effort to reach out to others ooc, trying your best to maintain steady activity. promise.

The reason that I say all of these things, and try to offer advice and help and encourage people to be more cognizant with activity is simple: people rely on you in a group setting. Pushing off a reply for another week, only doing replies on certain characters, dropping threads, even sitting on finished threads that someone's waiting on all could be the difference between someone ending up on check or not -- that one reply could mean that they don't have a second writer for the two week period, or they were desperately waiting for your response to even meet the one week goal.

Some of these things might help you. Some of them might not! People work in different ways, and that's more than okay! But since I've had some people ask for help, or mention struggling lately, I thought that heading into the summer, it would be a good day to offer advice and try. xx

[driflew]

Snow Angel

OC Writing comm for @korredev !! this was really fun to work on, i can see why you're obsessed w the dynamic these guys have bc it's really fun to try and balance the love/hate thing they have going on. thanks so much for commissioning me!

There's a knock at the door. This is the last in a series of noises--the scratching of a key against a lock it no longer fits, the jiggling of a door firmly secured, loud and annoyed swearing--but this is the only one which gets Korre out of their armchair by the warm fire and answering the door.

"You changed the locks," is Arseni's attempt at a greeting.

"I lost my key," Korre says, "Knew there was no use trying to contact you and get yours so I could copy it, so I just replaced them."

Arseni seems irritated by that response, feathers ruffled against the cold wind blowing in bursts outside. Korre pulls their cloak tighter, trying to fight off the chill.

"Did you even try? Or try to tell me you'd changed it?" Arseni asks. Korre scoffs, folding their arms.

"I don't know. Would you even know if I did?" Korre asks, "You didn't leave any word as to where you were going or how I would contact you. For all you know, I could have written to you every day, and I just couldn't send any of them."

"You didn't write," Arseni says.

"No, I didn't," Korre says, "I've got better ways to waste my time."

"Like?" Arseni asks. Korre frowns.

"Why are you here?" Korre asks, instead of answering. "I haven't seen you in months. You didn't even say anything before you left. You were just gone."

"Were you worried about me?" Arseni asks.

"I was kind of convinced you fell over in the snow and got buried or something," Korre says, "I didn't really want a literal snow angel somewhere under my lawn, but all I did was waste my time shoveling. Do you know how exhausting that is?"

"Is that one of your 'better ways to waste your time'?" Arseni asks.

"Definitely one of the worst, actually," Korre says.

Another gust of wind blows through the door. Arseni's feathers fluff up, and he tucks one wing closer to himself. He holds the other out, blocking Korre's view of the walkway behind him, though Korre isn't quite sure why.

"Well, I didn't die in the snow yet," Arseni asks.

"Shame," Korre replies, "Still doesn't explain where you were."

"I mean, I wasn't always in one spot," Arseni says, vague.

"Why, then?" Korre asks, "Why did you leave? What was so important you had to go? Why didn't you ever write to me?"

"Is 'I didn't want to be here' not a good enough answer?" Arseni asks, "I didn't choose this."

"Then why come back?" Korre asks.

One second stretches into two stretches into three. Arseni doesn't answer. He stays standing in the cold, shivering in Korre's open doorway.

Korre mimes thinking, then snaps one finger as if they've come to some grand conclusion.

"Don't tell me. You've got a mistress. I bet they finally kicked you out, and now you've come crawling back," Korre says. Arseni rolls his eyes, but that does get half a smile from him.

"Absolutely not. Watching over one person is more than enough," Arseni replies, "You're too much trouble as it is. You even lost your keys out here without me? Next thing I know, I’ll come back and you'll be the one buried under the snow."

Arseni shivers with another long breath of wind. Korre watches him, pulling their cloak tighter. A shudder wracks Arseni's whole body, but even then, he doesn't retract his wing from where it keeps the wind from blowing through Korre's cabin.

Korre sighs.

"You're letting all my warm air out," Korre tells him, "My fire's going to go out at this rate."

"I don't know what you want me to do about that," Arseni says.

"Grab another log from the shed around back and bring it in," Korre says, "You owe me for letting my fire get so small."

"I finally get back and you make me do chores? Don't you know how tiring it is to travel all the way out here?" Arseni asks, but he steps back, "You haven't changed where you store the firewood, too, have you?"

"No," Korre says, "That's still right where you left it."

[theha1r]

hi hey hello - it's been thirty thousand years since i've actually been properly around, i know. life has literally been SO BUSY this month & just i literally haven't been able to be here. it's 8pm now & i literally intended to be here sooner today even, like i literally logged on at 3 pm ... yet here we are. but i'm still??? gonna try??? to do things tonight? we'll see how far we get, but i'm gonna try. i hope maybe i can actually be around more often soon, i'm sorry y'all. i miss everyone & being here so much fr -

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I've seen people saying Rubius never loved Vegetta and that Vegetta "finally has someone who loves him" and it's driving me insane, I don't even know much abt Karmaland but I know he loved Vegetta pls what is this misinformation </3

The easy explanation is they didn't watch Karmaland.

That's literally all it comes down to.

Everyone who's seen Karmaland, whether it's K5 or K4, know Rubius and Vegetta love each other. Hell even Roier, who was a fan before he was a streamer, knows this (hence the nod to Rubegetta in his presentation).

However, lots of people, particularly non-Spanish fans, haven't seen Karmaland, so they only know about incidents like the wedding second or third-hand. What people don't talk about is the aftermath of the wedding. The wedding didn't happen at the end of the series. Things between Rubius and Vegetta didn't end in tears and anger and betrayal. In fact, it happened (relatively) in the middle of K4. While there were undeniably hurt feelings, that wasn't the end of their friendship, or their relationship. They had many more happy, sweet, heartfelt moments, but people like angst so that's usually what gets talked about more.

Glay has a thread with translations of Rubegetta moments from Karmaland 4, which I highly recommend perusing if anyone's interested in learning more about their relationship. Like you said, there is unfortunately a lot of misinformation about them (and Rubius in particular). As I said it in a previous post, those two aren't toxic, they just need some therapy and need to learn how to communicate better. Rubius needs to learn how to let people get close to his heart without fearing they'll hurt him, and Vegetta needs to learn how to communicate his thoughts and feelings better.

But at the end of the day, this is an entirely different server. Technically nobody's past relationships should matter, but ripples of the past clearly still carry over. Friends in previous worlds are still friends in this one (ex: Roier and Mariana), and many relationships, both romantic and familial, carried over too (ex: Wil being Phil's son, whatever the hell's going on between Q and Luzu and Q and Wil, etc). The moment he saw Rubius, Vegetta gave him a kiss, and Rubius declared Vegetta as his one love in the song he sang for Vegetta's birthday, so it's clear that the love they had is still there. Whether Rubegetta is your thing or not, that fact remains.

Anyways, I'm always gonna be a Rubegetta fan, but I respect other folks' opinions so long as they don't try and spread misinformation or purposefully paint a character in a bad light for the sake of a ship.

I also want to take this opportunity to say I don't really care about shipping discourse. I think it's fun to discuss and analyze things, but I can't stand toxic fans who harass real people over fictional relationships. I'm very salty that so many Foo/getta shippers harassed Rubius so much that he hasn't logged on for an entire month, so if I seem a bit " :/ " towards that pair, it's solely because of toxic fans and not because of the cubitos, CCs, or regular fans. We're all here to enjoy goofy block man roleplay, everyone just needs to remember that and chill out.

[use-your-telescope]

Let's spread some positivity! Tag some of your fellow content creators here and let them know why they are absolutely amazing!❤️

OOOOOOOPS I think I have had this sitting in my asks for a while and completely space cadet-ed on it...

@infinitystoner my first tumblr friend!! You are so freaking talented at every genre and trope you tackle in fics - I am so grateful you thought to message me via the hellsite those many months ago!! Your smut? Immaculate. Your angst? Hurts so good. Your character chemistry? Simply divine! The way you create atmosphere and use language to create such nuance is truly a masterclass.

@loki-cees-all CEEEEEEE you are my beloved angsty queen. The way you are able to get inside Loki's mind and really dive into the little details that bring the hurt is so fucking delightful. I know I owe you at least a few raving reblogs of your most recent fic, so stay tuned!

@the-lady-amphitrite my fellow lore and world building lover!! Any time I get to see behind the curtain in your work is such a blast, and you also crack me up on the regs. Plus video game nerding is alway a delight!

@sarahscribbles Smut goddess! Whether looking for soft or kink, Saz has got you covered. Saz also does such a beautiful job of highlighting relationships in her smut and really giving them depth. She also has some absolutely delightful fluff to investigate, if you're looking for pure warm and fuzzies.

@cleo-fox I am still working my way through your catalog (god damn I am so behind), but YO everything I've read is a straight BANGER (literally and metaphorically). You balance environment, chemistry, and pacing so perfectly in every story I've read, and you've turned some of the more mundane moments into straight up steam sessions.

@maple-seed THROWN. HOLY THROWN. If you, random hellsite user, are reading this and have not read Thrown, *DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO READ THROWN!!* It is the *perfect* comfort fic - friends to lovers, slow burn, so soft I want to scream. I'm not on the tag list because I get the A03 emails, and let me just say the *moment* I see that notification in my inbox I drop what I'm doing and go read the update (even if I'm in the middle of a meeting, haha!). I'm behind like, four chapters on reblogs because I have so many thoughts (most of which are OH MY GOD MY HEART IS GOING TO EXPLODE FROM THE SOFT!!). Also, Maple's portrayals of Thor and Valkyrie are delightful!!

@tripleyeeett You are SO FREAKING AMAZING AT WRITING ASTARION and so funny and down to earth and I love your no-bullshit attitude and nerding about BG3 and all sorts of stuff.

Also, I know that they haven't been posting stories for a while, but I do also want to shout out @asteralpine (kaeorin on AO3) - their Loki's Lullabies series was my first introduction to Loki fics (back in 2021); part of why I made a new tumblr account was to be able to share their stories, but more importantly I don't think I would have even started WEMTBB if I hadn't discovered the Lullabies! I have slowly been working on a mega post of all my favorite stories from the series and why I love them so much, but I'm starting to think it's going to be a multi-part post because with over 250 entries in the series, there are too many to fit in one post. These days, the lullabies can only be found on AO3 and you need to be logged in to read them, but I highly, highly recommend them. Oh, and also, there are other non-lullaby stories, and they also are all A+.

[wishful-soda]

Hi hello hi

Bit of an announcement/update/word vomit thing. Sorry it's so long.

First; I'd like to apologize for dropping off the face of the Earth. I've received lots of asks/messages checking in on me & I promise I didn't ignore anyone on purpose, I genuinely couldn't tell you the last time I opened tumblr.

Okay so; I know most of you are aware this hasn't been the greatest year for me mental health wise. It's been the hardest year for my depression in a loooong time & that was with just every day life being life.

Welp, the universe or God or the grand pubah or whoever decided that wasn't enough & really socked it to me....I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I work in the mortgage industry. A large portion of my pay is bonus pay per file (as usual in this industry) & then I have a smaller base hourly pay. As of August, the bottom completely dropped out of the market when interest rates sky rocketed. My bonuses shrank to almost none.

Being as I had just closed on my very own house that I worked very hard to finally be able to purchase in June, this was not great. Cut to November & it had only gotten worse. Nearly everyone I worked with has been laid off . & then the death blow, they cut my hours to part time.

So a mixture of more work with less support in less hours & trying to figure out how to pay my bills sent me spiraling like big time. I've been a really shitty wife, friend, employee, daughter, etc for the past two months. I haven't had it in me.

I haven't logged on because I've felt so guilty for the lack of updates to SotD that I've felt like I didn't want to be on here. I felt like I couldn't come back without an update or a date for when the next update would be.

That, & the fact that I've not had much free time at all, I've been doing every side hustle I can come up with & applying for second jobs.

I'm genuinely so sorry you guys. I feel like I've totally failed all of you & I hate it. I do plan on coming back to SotD, but I honestly cannot tell you when & for that I am also so so sorry. I am just trying to stay alive right now & it's a struggle every day.

I know no one asked for this much info about my life and it's quite possibly too much, but I felt like I owed y'all more than 'Idk when I'll update again'.

I appreciate all of your messages & want to thank you so much for your concern & care about me. I know I have not responded yet, but I promise I've read every single one of them this morning. It means more than I have the capacity to express right now. Thank you for loving my writing & being literally the best online community/family I could ever ask for.

I'm so genuinely sorry.

I hope you are all doing well & hope to be able to get back to hanging out here, I really miss it.

Love y'all 💖

xx Soda

[roo-bastmoon]

Qobuz & ARMY Conduct in Solo Era

We know we need to buy Like Crazy and Face more to help Jimin avoid free fall on the charts this week. Scroll down to learn how to buy on Qobuz if you haven't already.

It's my understanding that sales count for Billboard charts if you use 1 credit card per digital purchase, 1 credit card for up to 4 physical purchases. Whether or not you can use the same email address is up to each site (BTS US store yes, iTunes no).

Speaking only for myself, for digital purchases, I've made 6 iTunes accounts and bought the singles and albums (and alterative versions) there; I've also purchased all digital versions on Amazon Music and WeVerse and bought Like Crazy off a Stationhead listening party. For physical copies, I have purchased both albums each from Amazon, Target, and Weverse. For all 24 hours of every day, I have 6 premium free trial accounts running playlists on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Puppykitties? I am tired. But it's Jimin, so...

I'm here to tell you about one more option, and then I have to call it a day and just keep streaming on my premium accounts, because I'm maxing out of money and energy.

Qobuz is a digital store that counts for BB100 and it was incredibly easy for me to sign up using my Facebook and purchase Face. I didn't sign up for a streaming service or agree to anything else; I literally just logged in via Facebook and bought the album for download.

Here's the link, have at it:

Remember you need to download each track by clicking on WMA button and letting it play for a few seconds on your device.

Here's what that looks like:

I'm certain you're tired by now and ready to call it a day, but if you can afford another $7 purchase, please buy this digital album one more time on Qobuz if you haven't already. It's easy and a trusted site. If you cannot, please reach out to Jimin USA and Jimin Funds and make a new iTunes account and buy with their gift cards.

Jimin has been dragged up and down stan twitter this week (we knew it was gonna happen no matter what) and now the "ARMY" fans who did nothing to help Face are gearing up to help D-Day* instead, so we really need to do our best to purchase this week and then keep streaming like it's our full-time job.

*A note about Yoongi and D-Day--and how we need to conduct ourselves as ARMY.

I'm OT7. I will get behind every single one of their projects. I can't wait to cheer Yoongi on during his Newark concert. I understand that the boys are releasing content on top of each other because enlistment is coming up soon. I trust the Tannies have agreed to their promotion times and plans. So please do not bring any shade to any member to my blog--I'll boot you.

However, it's very clear to me that almost 40% of this fandom ships a pairing that demonizes Jimin and many simply feel neutral at best about him and do not put in much effort to defend him or support him. Just my observation; maybe lots of fans feel this way about their own bias. I'm simply noticing how big accounts have been damned near radio silent for Face and are already organizing streaming and buying parties for D-Day's prerelease this week.

Add to that how hard we've been working to stream for Jimin, and yet Spotify and YouTube (especially YouTube) are deleting millions of streams every day. I share your pain and frustration over this. I think it's normal to talk about it in the DMs. But let's keep a clean timeline.

For fans of Jimin, we should act in a way that would honor Jimin and make him proud. Please do not whine or dwell on any negativity; do not badmouth a member or those who bias another member or the company they all work for. Definitely do not waste any precious time or energy dogfighting antis online. Please support Yoongi and all the boys as much as you can.

Keep it classy, even if you wish Jimin had more individual promotion time or radio play or more music videos and playlisting or whatever you perceive should have been done differently. It is what it is, and we want our boys to feel supported, not judged.

Despite all the bullshittery, Jimin has done remarkably well and gifted us with an amazing album. Letter alone is enough to keep my heart lit up like a firecracker for a good long time. So please, remember to conduct yourself as a true ARMY, and any injustices you perceive, answer it with rage-buying and rage-streaming.

Meet them in the charts, not the streets.

Now, I have myself a nice little sinus infection blooming into a full grown migraine today, so I'm gonna take a wee break and rest up. But I am around, and usually more active on my TWITTER if you want to be friends there. And I'll be streaming nonstop, you can be assured.

Please do your best my puppykitties. Talk more with you soon.

Love, Roo