#one of my new year resolutions was to read more nonfiction so that's what i've been checking out recently

[ddarker-dreams]

Hi, do you have an updated masterlist? I am new here and I came from your Yandere Aventurine fic that is soo good! But I noticed that fic is not in your masterlist, so I am wondering if I missed any other HSR fics as well.

Thanks!

ANONNN i'm so sorry 😭 i haven't updated my masterlist in ages. however! i'm taking off work all of next week, so i'll have precious free time at long last 😌 i intend on fixing my masterlist up/doing as much writing as i can then! i've longed to be a hermit ever since my hermit privileges were rescinded. i'll be in my natural habitat shortly.

[thesymphonytrue]

Ten Questions

Instructions: prev asks ten questions and you answer them, then ask ten new ones and tag ten people to keep the chain going!

Thanks for the tag @aragarna!! <3

Favorite movie/tv show of 2024?

Favorite Movie was definitely Wicked. (lol if you can't tell by my blog recently LOL) It is probably my favorite movie I've seen in the past ten years to be honest! Maybe my favorite movie ever. 👀

2. Favorite movie/tv show of all times?

I mean, if I'm being honest, it might end up being Wicked. I loved the musical, but I didn't obsess over it as a teen (besides learning all the songs lol), but the movie is just something special. It has a magic to it and every single ingredient I need for a favorite movie: fantastic singing AND acting (they got singers who could act and that is SO important for a musical), morally gray characters, beautiful set, diverse cast, excellent plot, and PLATONIC SOULMATES (my weakness) (and yes, I kno in canon and in the book they could be more than platonic and I'm fine with that too, but their relationship in the musical is so beautiful).

For TV show, of course, WHITE COLLAR!

3. Favorite book?

oh I have so many! This is very hard so I will go with the favorite one I read in 2024 and that would be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue--the combination of exploring art throughout the years and also how one makes a "mark" in the world was so well done and VE Schwab is just such an excellent writer---love all her books.

4. Do you read or watch non-fictions?

I do! I try to read 4-5 nonfiction books per year. This year I read "Nuclear War" by Annie Jacobson (it was terrifying) and a few self-help books (lol) and some parenting books (I'm trying my best, it's so hard).

5. DVD, streams or downloads?

I do like the old fashioned DVD, but we stream everything these days and I will say not having to store DVDs is great.

6. What is the weirdest thing you’ve eaten?

I am such a plain eater---I am not adventurous at all so this is probably super dull, but Caviar LOL and it was delicious! *muah!*

7. If you were rich enough not to have to work, what would you do?

I would totally sing in broadway shows. 😭

8. Dream place to visit one day?

I have always wanted to explore France outside of Paris, as Paris is the only place I have ever been in France! Perhaps somewhere by the coast? Nice maybe? Like I said, I know very little outside of Paris and would love to explore!

9. Someone (dead or alive) you'd love to spend a one-on-one hour with?

Oh my. There are few people I know that I would spend one-on-one for an hour without feeling socially nervous LOL 😂 HOWEVER---I would love to spend an hour with Julie Andrews teaching me how to sing, dance, act, etc. Now, that, I could do. 😉 Or an hour singing duets WITH Josh Groban hahah I'd love that too. 🤣 No talking required.

10. Aspirations, resolutions for 2025?

hmmm! Well, a big aspiration is just to accept myself more I guess? I've always struggled with a negative self-image and self-hatred and I'm really tire of it. I'd love to love myself a little bit this year.

On a lighter note, I'd love to figure out a way to sing more. I just don't know how.

NEW QUESTIONS:

Favorite song you listened to this year?

What's something you are really good at?

What is something that makes you smile?

Favorite place to relax?

Best book you read this year?

Favorite hot drink?

Comfort item?

Favorite way to be creative?

Mountains or Beach and why?

Favorite thing about yourself? <3

Okay, no pressure tagging:

@twisted-tales-told @ssk374 @bluebellsinburbank @babydollbucky @idkimoutofideas and whoever would like to participate!!

[oh-phineas]

Write your RPer Resolutions for 2025! (What are some goals for yourself as a writer? Improve descriptions? Plot with more members? Etc.)

Scale back. 2024 was such a fun year of writing, but I definitely got overwhelmed at times. I've talked about this before, but my limits are less about physically having time to write replies and more about the mental bandwidth of juggling lots of plots. Last year, my resolution was to be more on top of things and I'm not sure I really did that, so I think a more actionable goal is for me to give myself more space to breathe. I want to be able to give my current plots my all and stay on top of my admin duties, and with IRL getting more busy, I think the answer is having fewer characters. I'm planning on closing quite a few characters this year, and I want to be really intentional about whether I pick up any more characters once I do. 6-7 seems like it could be a good sweet spot for me going forward.

Read more. I've said this in past resolutions and it remains true. I read ten more books this year than I did last year (!!) and read much more nonfiction, news, blogs... still want to read more fanfic lol. And I STILL want to do more reading of the dash. It's a lot to keep up with but y'all are so talented and inspire me so much that I really think this is important to staying inspired.

Follow the joy! Write things that make me laugh, that make me feel warm and fuzzy, that make me feel inspired. I'm not saying that I didn't do that last year, but I just think writing it down makes it a more tangible goal. Keep a close eye out for the plots that give me that !!! of inspiration and use it as inspiration for future stuff. Slide into people's DMs and ask questions if they're doing stuff that intrigues me. Just have fun.

Respond to more opens and event more. Hopefully I will feel more drawn to doing this when I have more mental bandwidth/inspiration due to the above!

BIG LONG FORM PROJECT. Not RP related, but we're talking about writing and I really want to make this happen this year!

Write at least one resolution, or “goal,” that you have as an RPer for your character(s)

Phineas: Figure out what he's doing after graduation. Figure out what's going on with Build a Brand post Pip. Untangle those complicated Pip-related feelings. Graduate on a satisfying note.

Tiana: Something BIG with Tiana's Place. I'm not sure exactly what. As the poet once said, it's gonna be forever or it's gonna go down in flames. And maybe dig into those feelings about Al and Vixey!

Aquata: Absolutely wedding planning/maid of honor stuff, and I'd love to do some juicy things with her relationship. Last year was surprisingly a big year of personal growth in her ability to be emotionally available and not just because she got a boyfriend— arguably she grew even more in her ability to be a good friend. I think there are some humorous but also sweet opportunities to test that coming up with this wedding,and with other relationships in her life.

Annie: Definitely needs to confront the elephant in the room of her secret relationship— that she is keeping it secret for some awful reasons. I also just want to do more with her career, more kid shenanigans, and I'm very excited (is that the right word?) for her to support Drizella in her divorce

Mirabel: Honestly I wanna see her be brave!!!! Growth growth growth. Really excited for how her research project can be a part of this.

Lightning: Heal from his injury and take the racing world by storm. Reconcile his desire to be a good racer with his desire to be a good person and decide whether it is possible! Also I think I want to do more with his parents this year since I think it's the missing piece in his own parenting journey.

Smee: Find new purpose to pull him out of his depression. I do want to do more stuff with his health this year, both physical and mental as that is something he tends to be too stubborn to address and I think that could be interesting to explore. I also always want to do more Squeaky things. And I am going to recycle last year's resolution and say I want him to be a bad influence on the town's youth :D or the town's older people. If anyone wants to get drawn to the dark side, he's your guy.

Roz: Get rekt, as the kids say (reckon with the basic beliefs she had about herself, her work, and her family!) No biggie

Giselle: Oh boy. I want her to confront her feelings about the Order, about love/romance, about school, and about her place in the world as a woman. Not exactly sure how I'm gonna make it all happen but I have some ideas.

Write at least one resolution IN CHARACTER for your characters. What do THEY want to accomplish or change in the New Year?

Phineas: Just keep Build a Brand alive, tbh. Maybe make up with Pip. Leave things on a good note.

Tiana: Save her restaurant by any means necessary. Be a good friend.

Aquata: Help her clients, plan an amazing hen party for Alana, support James, and learn how to cook!

Annie: Crack this restaurant case and be a good mom.

Mirabel: If you asked her what her new year's resolutions were she'd probably start crying but no she does want to do a good job at her new research assistant position. And graduate!

Lightning: Get healthy and get back to training! Maybe! Or make peace with his retirement. He's still figuring it out!

Smee: Protect James.

Roz: Stop the MAFIA and be good at her job.

Giselle: Help Professor Sánchez accomplish HIS new year's resolutions. Also go on lots of dates and fall in love.

List one or more characters you have never interacted with that you would like to do so

Tito - I think it'd be fun to throw Roz at him since they're both deep undercover

Daisy and Minnie - Maybe Lightning could think they look familiar from some long ago Hollywood party but he can't put his finger on why lol

Ozzy - Play poker with Smee???

Raine - Would love Mirabel and her accordion to encounter some bard magic!

Bram - Also could be interesting with Smee bc of James being a medium, not that Smee knows it lol

Pepper - I mayyy have interacted with her at an event but I'm not sure... but Lightning is friends with Buster so he should meet her!

Sorrel - Why haven't I thrown Aquata at Sorrel? Sorry I've been busy I need to catch up on things lol

Talk a bit about your plotting style – what plots are you most drawn to? Do you prefer to come with a fully-formed idea and plot off that, or throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks?

All kinds of plots! I will say... going along with my scaling-back resolution, I'm probably going to try to pare back the amount of big, time-sensitive plots I participate in. I love plots that involve a lot of characters, but I've found myself getting a bit overwhelmed over the past year so I think the answer is being more realistic about my time and bandwidth before I commit to those things! That being said, I have loved all the big plots I have done and I am so so grateful to all the amazing stories we've told. And for the ones I'm in rn, I will continue to put my WHOLE ASS into them because I love them <3 I'm just going to try and be more mindful of my capacity in the new year when it comes to new things!

But I always love a plot that kind of meanders, that doesn't really have a time limit on it. I want to do more of those in the new year, slice-of-life type things that build relationships and drive development. I like funny things and scary things and honestly cheesy things and Important things and superficial things and I love when those things all collide in a beautiful way <3 As the poet once said, genre is a funny thing.

My plotting style is all over the place. Sometimes I have a goal in mind but I have no idea how to get there (I want our characters to be friends, let's brainstorm how we do it). Sometimes I have an idea that I think is funny but idk where it will lead (let's trap our characters in an elevator together and have a singing ghost force them to do karaoke). I never want anyone to feel like they have to have a fully-formed idea before they come to me, but I will say if you slide in witrh something kinda vague, I might not have the brain power at that moment to come up with an idea right away and that is NOT a lack of enthusiasm or excitement it's just hard to think on the spot sometimes!! And honestly sometimes my plotting brain is not in full gear and I kind of just want to kick off a thread with a generic premise and see where it goes from there.

That being said I think I am pretttty flexible-- I think at the end of the day we're all working together toward the same goal so I try to adapt to what works for other ppl bc I'm just excited to write together <3

Talk a bit about character relationships – what relationships are you most drawn to? How do you prefer to approach shipping (if at all!)? What, specifically, are you looking for right now for your character relationships? 

Once again I'm alllll over the map. I love friendships I do a lot of those. I also love frenemies and enemies and all of those things but I always wanna see things moving and changing so I especially love a friends-to-enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-friends-to-lovers??? or any variation of any of those things lol. Just love when a relationship changes.

Like many people I love a found family sitch. Can't get enough of it.

And you know what I love too? Awkward relationships lol. People who are connected in some weird way, or got off on the wrong foot but are trying to like each other, or went on a lackluster date... just the inherent silliness of humans in that way. It's so fun to write.

And yes of course I love shipping. I love a short term ship, I love a slow burn, I'm down for an OTP. I am trying to get better about communicating when I ship something but like many people I get nervous about seeming like I'm forcing something. I want to do more breakups, as always. I love plots that feel like romcoms tbh.

And you know what relationships I really love? Those relationships that don't fit neatly into one category. Maybe they're friends maybe they're lovers maybe they hate each other maybe they were two birds who sat on the same branch in another life and now they're inexplicably drawn to each other in this one. What I'm saying is you should really watch Past Lives (2023).

Plotting Exercise! Pick one of the resolutions/goals in #3 and plan a rough guideline to how you could accomplish it.

AQUATA IS THE MAIDZILLA OF HONOR

ALANA mentions offhand in a conversation with AQUATA that she wants something for her bridal shower (maybe a specific flower? i'll go with flowers for the purpose of the exercise), not realizing it's kind of a big ask, but also she didn't mean it that seriously

AQUATA has a conversation with JAKE about how he needs to show up to the bridal shower with these flowers. JAKE is like oh ok i can do it and AQUATA is like no i'll handle it don't worry about it just show up and I'll give them to you to give her!!!

AQUATA goes to Garden Grove and they inform her that this is an extremely rare, out of season flower and they don't have it. Aquata flips out on WILLOW/WINSTON which is really her taking her stress out about this. Originally they were going to try and work things out for her, but she's being such a pain it's not even worth the money anymore.

AQUATA rants about this to BOO/HERC/MER/JAMES/ARISTA/etc. and someone points out that Aquata is kind of overreacting... and maybe making this too much about her. And maybe someone has an idea that's even better, and even more perfect. AQUATA realizes that the answer, all along, was asking for help

AQUATA apologizes to the poor employees of Garden Grove

JAKE forgets that AQUATA was doing this in the first place for him and used his RAS connections to get the perfect flowers anyway! Or something lol

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update

howdy gang, catch me posting this on the very last possible day of October when I'm truly unable to put it off any longer. another fucking hectic month has hampered my reading, and I'm worried about whether or not I'll hit my prestigious goal of 69 books by the end of the year, but at least I didn't have any DNFs like last month.

I'm also excited to be kicking off No Nonfiction November, when I'll be focusing solely on knocking fiction titles off my TBR. I may keep that up well past the end of November, honestly - I love to learn, but it can also make learning feel like a chore at times, and I think I need to unplug from that for a bit.

so - what have I been reading?

Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal (Heather Widdows, 2018) - I was inspired to seek this out by a couple of video essays that I've already recommended: Khadija Mbowe's "Instagram Face" and Philosophy Tube's "Food, Beauty, Mind." I won't pretend that I didn't struggle at times with the density of Widdows' philosophy-rooted approach - I struggled with my single philosophy gen ed in college, and it has a way of making my mind glaze right over. but I personally found it worth the perseverance, because the ideas Widdows presents are fascinating. she eschews redundant and reductionist debates about whether or not current beauty standards (makeup, hair, fashion, weight loss, exercise, diet, and so on) are ~feminist~ and asks much more probing questions: what does it mean that the amount of money, time, and effort required for a woman to be perceived as beautiful or even acceptable are quantifiably increasing? how do we grapple with the implications of increasingly narrow ideals across the globe, fueled by Western constructions of beauty? to what degree is anyone able to consensually engage in beauty norms, and how possible is resistance? I'm particularly interested in the way Widdows engages with previous generations' work on beauty (Bartky, for instance), and how she builds on their work while also pointing out where it falls short - for instance, many foundational second wave feminist texts on beauty standards can no longer neatly map onto a world where the internet and edited images have such powerful sway over our conceptions of beauty and self. Widdows acknowledges often that one book alone isn't enough to explore every nuance of this issue and I hope to see more from her diving deeper in the future, because her passion is evident and it's a topic that benefits greatly from her thoroughly modern reframing.

The Other Black Girl (Zakiya Delila Harris, 2021) - the mark of a good read is that you find yourself wishing you were reading it when you aren't, and I often found myself longing to have The Other Black Girl back in my hands. a fast-paced debut novel, TOBG follows a young woman named Nella who's the sole Black employee in her prestigious New York publishing company until a new woman named Hazel is hired, and which point Nella promptly begins receiving anonymous messages urging her to leave the office. the story takes some thriller-like twists and turns that I truly could never have seen coming, and builds up thick tension throughout. while the climax and resolution feel a little lacking to me, the prologue managed to send a shiver down my spine nonetheless. I'll be genuinely shocked if this doesn't get optioned for a movie or Hulu original series within the year, if it's not already.

Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships (Meg-John Barker, 2013) - alright everybody, this has officially solidified it: I am a die-hard Meg-John Barker stan. I read Rewriting the Rules as part of my slow but steady quest to read through all the sex books on my TBR and figure out which ones are actually worth recommending to other people, and I'm not exaggerating at all when I say this is the 101 I would love to give to every person in any kind of relationship. it's the best kind of sex book, by which I mean it's absolutely unconcerned by what people do with their dingdongs and focuses instead on how people talk to each other about their dingdongs. Barker guides the reader on a quest to gently examine and deconstruct their ideas about almost every aspect of relationships - communication, commitment, break-ups, boundaries, monogamy, and more! - and build those ideas back up from scratch with an emphasis on meeting their personal needs. Barker (a psychotherapist who specializes in sex and gender) talks briefly about how so many people they speak with are so focused on seeming "normal" in their relationships that they don't even think about what they'd actually enjoy, which resonated with me in a HUGE way and made me think of quite a few anonymous questions I've received over the years. consider this one absolutely sex witch approved, 11/10.

Midnight Sun (Stephenie Meyer, 2020) - listen: there's absolutely no point being disappointed in me, because I feel no shame. Twilight is who I am. this is the skin of a killer, Bella. anyway, how's the book? if you find Twilight Saga's melodrama engrossingly funny like I do, you'll probably love it. for those not in the know, Midnight Sun isn't a new story but retells the events of Twilight from Edward's perspective, and if you thought Twilight was ponderously slow and light on plot then you ain't seen nothing yet. Midnight Sun is somewhere around 100 pages longer, likely because of Edward's tendency to go off on lengthy, page-eating tangents about a.) things that happened several decades ago b.) the thoughts of humans around him, and how much he hates almost everyone around him because of their unbearably vapid thoughts c.) something that he's observing in ungodly detail thanks to his freakishly enhanced vampire senses d.) his own self-loathing or e.) some combination of the above. and I enjoyed this? god, yes. there's nothing I love like the lengthy and protracted ponderings of a really miserable little wretch, and a splash of the supernatural only sweetens the deal. now, having engaged in the obligatory dunking, I have to say that Meyer actually does bring some interesting new shit to the plate here: this is the first time the reader really gets to see the Cullen family alone, not filtered through Bella's POV and watering themselves down for human company, and it really hits home how absolutely alien and inhuman they are when they're away from prying eyes. they're loveable but deeply and profoundly weird, in really interesting and enjoyable ways. Meyer fills in some of the most notable gaps in Bella's personality through Edward's obsession with learning about her, and so the readers gets to learn about Bella's favorite books, movies, and candies. there's a sweetly weird little scene where it's revealed that Edward is responsible for the relationship between two minor characters, because he wanted to thank a normal human teenager named Angela for being kind to Bella by helping her get back together with the boy she likes. also, there's a rock solid gag about how Alice has apparently told Edward that the way people watch tv will shortly change drastically, the kind of joke you can only get when writers revisit a book they wrote in the early 2000s almost two decades after the fact. in conclusion: Twilight is trash but so I am, and we were made for each other.

what am I reading now?

Folklorn (Angela Mi Young Hur, 2021) - this is one of those rare gems that I didn't discover through internet word of mouth but rather spotted on a shelf at work and decided I should nab. Hur's writing is wandering without ever feeling lost, conveying her protagonist's racing thoughts and turbulent past with language that is alternately poetic and harsh, acidic lyrics recounting the suffering of generations of Korean women and the folktales that haunt them. I'm barely 100 pages deep, just finding a foothold in the story, and delighted to read more.

what do I have on hold at the library

Iron Widow (Xiran Jay Zhao, 2021) - still!!!! oh my god please please please please please I'm second on the waitlist and I want it so bad

books I might read for No Nonfiction November in no particular order at all:

Long Division (Kiese Laymon)

Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers)

Empire of Gold (S.A. Chakraborty)

My Heart is a Chainsaw (Stephen Graham Jones)

Once More Upon a Time (Roshani Chokshi)

Docile (K.M. Sparza)

[dark-muse-iris]

2021 Totals, an Alternative to Resolutions

I truly hate New Years' Resolutions. I've never kept one because starting anything on January 1st feels like too much pressure. I've done better with goal-setting by starting at Samhain and having different goals for each season. The temperature changes, my goal changes. My goal during Yule has been reflection and rest. This post is part of meeting that goal and it's long, so I'll place a cut:

At the beginning of 2021, I had just gotten out of being homeless and resented so many people for their role in that experience. After years of giving to others, I learned help wasn't coming for me. That rage made me claw my way out with a determination to break everything within me that held me back from walking the road to my future life alone. It's macabre, but after losing 4 family members in a year and realizing my community thinks disabled people are broken eggs for the omelette of freedom, planning for solitude seemed like a wise endeavor. To that end, my 2021 goals focused on cultivating the individual (since I gave up on the collective of humankind in 2020) and on survival, i.e., living out of spite.

To meet that goal, I needed to address mental health, specifically what my brain believes about my lived experience. By embracing my attachment to lists, I documented all things I did for fun and learning for 2021. The goal was to irrevocably break the part of my brain that believes I "haven't done anything" unless I'm overworking or outside my house interacting with people. Fuck people, man. If I've learned anything, it's that most of the time you can't depend on others the way they've depended on you. When it's your turn for that helping hand, your friends and family will get amnesia and not even call.

Since 2022 is likely to be another year with social restrictions and working from home (at least for me), I thought I'd share this exercise in case anyone else was having that end-of-year meltdown thinking 2021 was a complete waste. It was definitely a shitshow for me, but a waste it was not. Below is my 2021 in Review, plus some new categories of tracking I'll be looking at in 2022.

2021 in Review, totals:

Concerts attended - 6 - all virtual

Museums visited - 1 - I cried looking at impressionist art

Books read - 21 - 11 fiction, 10 nonfiction

TV fiction series watched - 31 seasons - Half of these were historical fiction, surprise surprise

Documentaries/Reality specials watched - 38 - several of these were true crime or related to cults

Anime/Cartoons watched - 21 seasons

Korean/K-Drama watched - 1 (of course it was Squid Game, I wasn't soft enough for fluff in 2021)

Movies watched - 77 (holy shitttt)

Discord Servers - 10 (I'm not very active, but if I want to engage with a group I usually do it here)

Projected Categories to track in 2022:

TV fiction series (by season) - I'm planning on more sci-fi and historical fiction.

TV non-fiction series (by season) - I'm planning on more food documentary series since it's harder and harder to eat out these days.

Documentaries - I'm still studying cults as a hobby.

Comedy specials - This needed its own category since drunk me enjoys them and watched several in 2021.

Movies - Should I watch less movies in 2022? PROBABLY!

Anime (Japanese only) - I missed out on a lot of "classics" when I was in college and grad school, so I'd like to try to catch up on some.

Cartoons (non-anime) - The place for me to re-watch old favorites for the serotonin boost.

Korean/K-Drama - If 2022 is a softer year, I'll watch more k-dramas.

Books (fiction and nonfiction) - I'm going to pledge to read 22 books for 2022 as part of the Goodreads Reading Challenge.

Concerts (virtual) - I actually really love virtual concerts. I can see everything, wear comfortable clothes, and the food's cheap. They're disability friendly in the way live concerts could never be.

Concerts (live) - I have three live concerts planned for 2022. Hopefully I'll be able to go to them...

Museums visited - Now that I'm vaxxed and boosted, I can visit more museums and see traveling exhibits on low-traffic days.

Hobbies I worked on - In 2020 and 2021, I picked up a lot of hobbies and feel I should be keeping track of them to see how rampant the ADHD is getting under stress.

Video games played - It's a crime that I don't have this logged anywhere, as I've been gaming since 1992.

Fanfictions read - Bringing this back since I'm here online again and would like to support the community that's still here and on AO3. My to-be-read list was over 100 fics when I left in 2020.

Words written - I'm going to participate in some writing challenges this year. For 2022, I'm planning on spending LESS time helping others and more time writing my way out of my own shit. I don't know how much of this will be for fanfics vs. original fiction. I'm just focused on writing *something* and get my flow back again.

Playlists curated - I need to overhaul my playlists because about half of them aren't functionally working for me and I rely on music for mood management. I'm going to build some new ones according to mood like any Pisces would.

Number of times I helped a friend in crisis - Tracking because I feel I've done this too much in 2021. My empathy gets me in trouble. Some ask for help and don't even say thanks anymore, so I'm over it. I don't feel good helping others anymore, so I'm going to track this monthly to make sure I'm honoring my own boundaries. The truth is I helped more people through storytelling than I ever did being on the phone til 2 AM knowing that person on the other line just wanted to dump on me. My advice is no longer getting shared in 2022. I'm just going to lie like everyone else and say "oh nooooo, I'm sorry" and pretend the solution isn't obvious.

I want to extend a heartfelt congratulations to all of us who barely got to the end of this shit year, a continuation of 2020 for many. I hope the people we morphed into for survival continue to serve us through 2022 and its share of challenges. There are more bridges to burn, more opportunities to seize, and more difficult roads to cross. May we all stand firm on the freshly-cemented bricks others have thrown at us and continue to wear the impermeable armor we've made from the scraps of blown-up experiences.

[oh-phineas]

RP RESOLUTIONS AND HABITS

Write your RPer Resolutions for 2024! (What are some goals for yourself as a writer? Improve descriptions? Plot with more members? Etc.)

Reading more! And not just RP stuff, but all kinds of stuff— fiction, nonfiction, fanfic, blogs, the news... but ALSO I would like to get better at keeping up with the dash. I think reading makes you a better writer and I actually do think I did a lot more of this in 2023 but I want to do it even more in 2024.

Follow-through, organization, keeping track of interactions and relationships (I know I put a version of this on every RP resolutions lmfao) There are so many great one-off interactions I have that I simply forget to follow-up about and then months go by and I'm like oh YEAH these characters interacted and it was great WHY did I let so much time go by without doing something new?!?!? Maybe there's a way to incorporate this into my tracker or something idk. I don't have a great solution here other than just being more mindful when I close stuff but I really do want to get better at this.

Quality over speed: I think sometimes I get so excited about putting something out in the world, whether it's a oneshot or a task or a reply to a thread, that I speedrun it when it might benefit from marinating a little longer. I'd like to slow down and smell the roses more this year!

Write at least one resolution, or “goal,” that you have as an RPer for your character(s)

Phineas: I want him to fail in some way! I think that'd be interesting to explore this year because things are going pretty well for him rn all things considered.

Tiana: Last year I talked about getting tempted by fame and fortune, this year I think I might actually be able to put it into motion! So I'll second that. Generally also just want to make sure I'm keeping up with some older relationships of hers, knights and stuff like that.

Aquata: Move her toward my goal of being involved in sports management stuff (y'know what she went to school for lol) with her work at the gym! Would also like for her to reckon with political stuff and what she's accomplished/hasn't accomplished on Board

Bruce: I hate to do this but I genuinely can't I'm sorry!!! But lots of growth and reflection and big decisions, that's all I wanna say at this point.

Anastasia: Introduce a new challenge with parenting Levi! I'd also like to delve a little more into her desire to get remarried because she's struggling with single parenting I think more than she expected to and I've written some stuff on that theme lately that I've really enjoyed.

Tanya: I haven't kept this a secret, she's gonna move on </3 But first I want her to get to a satisfying place in her relationships, which means working out her weirdness toward the Snow Quartz situation LMAO, maybe getting some closure with Penny, maybe open up a bit more about her past with Mim, stuff like that.

Mirabel: Get a little messy and #gayotic— she and Alice got into a monogamous relationship right off the bat and now I think it's time for her to explore. I feel like I kicked this off with Candace and now Penny but I want more stuff like that. Confront more of how she really feels about her history, and some family stuff that is #spoilers.

Lightning: I want to keep building toward him becoming a better person and rebuilding his relationship with Cruz! This year I also want to be better about portraying what's going on in the racing world because it's important and I sometimes let that fall by the wayside. I've realized in ruminating on his failures in his love life that he may need a female friend to tell him women's perspectives on things (sorry if that's reductive but he genuinely doesn't have any his own age and I think it would help him a lot LMAO)

Smee: Be a bad influence on the town's youth :D

Roz: Flesh out her relationships with Karen and Randall, maybe do some flashbacks??? I'd definitely like to do more RAS stuff with her, but also some regular situations where she draws on her RAS training. I think the big challenge with Roz is always Putting Her In Situations because she is an introverted/quiet character and you gotta be intentional with that sometimes so they don't stagnate.

Write at least one resolution IN CHARACTER for your characters. What do THEY want to accomplish or change in the New Year?

Phineas: Still get Build a Brand on the New York Stock Exchange! Be a good boyfriend to Fawn. Expand SPF and do more outreach. Launch that conference he and Pip were talking about?? Set up Ed with a hot new partner!! Be epic :)

Tiana: Beat Gusteau's Continue to make the restaurant a success! Be there for her friends.

Aquata: Get her certification to be a trainer, get her job on the Board back, protect the other merpeople of Swynlake

Bruce: Learn how to make tempura! Keep his Letterboxd up to date. Listen to more informative podcasts. Help the other merpeople of Swynlake.

Annie: Teach Levi something new. ...get a new husband, maybe.

Tanya: Leave everything on a good note :')

Mirabel: Master the basics of DnD! Pass her classes! Figure out wtf she's gonna do after next year...

Lightning: Become a better person (???)

Smee: Get the crew back together and get the hell out of this place

Roz: Assist the Swynlake RAS team and accomplish the Society's goals. Do something nice for Bob's birthday. Investigate new methods of sharing information among Swynlake Secondary parents?

List one or more characters you have never interacted with that you would like to do so

It's mainly new characters!!! Sorry folks the holidays have me running around like crazy!!!

Camilo - my cousin!! Let's flesh out that relationship!! Lots of exciting stuff coming up for the Madrigals so I think it'll be easy to make this happen

Tófi - insane that I have not written with our reptilian ruler yet. Something with Smee mayhaps? Let's throw those villains together >:)

Queen Clarion - I feel like we GOTTA throw her and Aquata together!!! I don't have a strong idea on this also but maybe something with Phineas because 1. he's a buffoon lmfao and 2. idk something to do with Fawn lol

Talk a bit about your plotting style – what plots are you most drawn to? Do you prefer to come with a fully-formed idea and plot off that, or throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks?

Plots I am drawn to!!!

I am generally pretty open-minded! I do a lot of silly little slice of life plots, hence my army of Mundus characters lmfao. I sometimes struggle with more intense lore-heavy plots but if you have an idea I am always down to clown just let me know what you need from me. I think I said last year that my genre is a sitcom episode (which doesn't mean there can't be drama and tears and magic!) because I am frequently very lighthearted but I like when things have a bittersweet emotional core. I like romance and shipping but I think my plots tend to more often be about friendship and family just because I write what I know and those are the big things in my life right now haha.

Also bears repeating from last year I think— I don't do smut but I'm always down for a steamy plot as long as we can fade to black or zoom out for the actual deed if that makes sense (I don't mind if we describe how the Scenario went, I just don't really want to get into the nitty gritty details basically). I think there is a lot of interesting stuff that happens around those situations and I'd love to explore that!

I also write a lot of fights and conflict and morally questionable characters, so as always, please feel free to come talk to me if an interaction is going an uncomfortable direction for whatever reason! At the end of the day this is supposed to be fun and I really want to make sure my partners are always having fun <3

Plotting style!!

I am a big fan of just throwing characters together to see chemistry vibes, especially if they have some interesting thing that connects them. This doesn't always lead somewhere groundbreaking, but sometimes it can be a good foundation and since my rping background before this was with a very plot-light group, I still like to use those improv muscles every now and than! So if we're in a thread like that and it's starting to stall sometimes I like to throw in a Quirky Situation lol.

With that in mind, PLEASE always feel free to let me know if you're not comfortable with the direction of something and we can retcon/walk it back/pause until we figure out the right direction! I hope that doesn't sound scary lol when I say "twist" I literally just mean like idk maybe my character suddenly spills their drink or maybe they say something goofy but I'd never want to ruin a thread for someone with something like that so yeah I am always flexible!!

ALL that being said, I am also always down to plot something out very specifically, whether it's a big arc or just a minor silly thing. Please don't feel like you need to have a fully-fleshed idea to approach me— I am always down to brainstorm. Sometimes I might ask if you have something in mind but if you don't that's totally okay! I just like to ask before I start taking over haha. I know I will frequently approach people like "hey I had this idea and I'm not totally sure how to accomplish it but if you're down to brainstorm...." and tbh sometimes I may ask if we can pause so I can noodle on something but again that's not due to a lack of enthusiasm that's just because sometimes my brain needs some time to marinate on an idea

Talk a bit about character relationships – what relationships are you most drawn to? How do you prefer to approach shipping (if at all!)? What, specifically, are you looking for right now for your character relationships? 

As I mentioned before, I write a lot of friend stuff and a lot of family stuff! I like when that stuff is complicated, when maybe communication has broken down or people struggle to understand each other or hurt each other even though there is love there. But I am also very happy with sweet chill relationships and I enjoy those greatly <3 I also write a lot of enemies! I'm very drawn to rivals and stuff that exists in kind of a gray area. I think it's fun when characters are wrong about each other or let their judgments and biases get the better of them.

I'm also down for a good ship! Ngl I tend to lean toward short-term stuff or at least relationships that change a LOT— I've never really done an endgame ship and I'm not opposed to them at all but I just don't have a lot of experience there! Honestly to me if a relationship is interesting I'll probably find it interesting whether they're together or broken up or friends or whatever. I always say this but I definitely need to be less shy about saying so when I ship something bc I tend to be a little shy lmaooo. But I promise I will never be offended if you don't ship something that I've said I do, as I've said we're all just here to have fun and I wanna work together to make a plot that works for both of our characters <3

Plotting Exercise! Pick one of the resolutions/goals in #3 and plan a rough guideline to how you could accomplish it. Here’s an example.

LIGHTNING LEARNS TO RESPECT WOMEN MORE

LIGHTNING attends a panel at Pride U on women's history month as a way to try and become more #educated and to help him on his #journey. Afterward, he approaches one of the panelists, QUEEN CLARION, and puts his foot in his mouth by trying to flirt with her.

HERA, overhearing the conversation, remarks that he's incapable of having a conversation that doesn't go a flirty direction, which he disagrees with. They make a bet.

To test the bet, they go to Pixie's. They relay the story to MARLIN, who is skeptical of Lightning but also offers some helpful tips about royal fairy protocol.

On the walk home, LIGHTNING and HERA actually have a deeper conversation about how LIGHTNING'S attitude is harmful. He confesses some of his reasoning for acting the way he does, but vows to do better.

Taking what he learned from HERA, LIGHTNING approaches CASS to apologize for how their date went. She quickly declines the idea of another date, but he clarifies he's just here to apologize— and they discuss whether they can eventually be friends.

At another town event, LIGHTNING once again runs into QUEEN CLARION and says something stupid— but this time, he remembers what MARLIN told him and manages to salvage the interaction.

He relays the whole story on a run with DOC, who rags on him but is ultimately proud of him.