#posting a smaller bit to motivate myself to work on this

[paradoxiii]

Sometimes I go on a tangent trying to analyze how I feel about or why I do certain things, & I often feel that by focusing on typing it out it's easier for me to actually make conclusions about the "why", but I still don't have a solution & it's kinda frustrating that I do all this analyzing about myself & still feel like a lazy disappointment to everyone around me.

[hunkpossession0]

**Found this personal trainer on Insta, I chatted a lil bit with him, and now I got his body. Poor him.**

It all started with a late-night scroll through Instagram. You know how it goes—one minute you’re just browsing, and the next, you’re sucked into the world of fitness models and personal trainers, each more jacked than the last. That’s when I found *him*.

This guy was perfection in human form. Towering height, muscles that looked like they were chiseled from stone, and a face that screamed confidence. The guy even rocked a thick, perfectly groomed mustache that somehow made him look even more masculine. His profile was full of workout tips, nutrition advice, and those motivational posts that usually make me roll my eyes. But something about him had me hooked.

“Man, if I had that body,” I muttered to myself, almost jokingly. But then the thought took hold. *What if*?

I shot him a DM, asking for some beginner tips—playing the part of the clueless newbie. To my surprise, he replied almost instantly, eager to help. We went back and forth for a bit, him giving advice and me pretending to be interested, while I worked on something far more… *ambitious*.

As we chatted, I tapped into an ability I’d been perfecting—a way to connect with someone on a deeper level. To reach out and *take* what was theirs. He had no idea that while he was busy explaining how to start on squats and deadlifts, I was making a connection that would change everything.

And then, with one final push, I felt it—the shift.

Suddenly, I wasn’t lounging on my bed anymore. I was standing in a gym, holding his phone in his hand, feeling the weight of his massive arms, the strength in his legs. I flexed one arm, watching as the muscles bulged, hard and defined, beneath the skin. My heart pounded with excitement and something else… an overwhelming sense of power.

I took a deep breath, my chest expanding with muscles that weren’t mine just a moment ago. I was in *his* body now, and damn, did it feel good. The thick mustache above my lip twitched as I grinned at my reflection in the mirror, marveling at how it suited this face, this body. I ran a hand over it, feeling the rough bristles that added an extra layer of ruggedness to this perfect form.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, my voice deep and resonant. *His* voice. My voice now.

My phone buzzed in my pocket—*his* pocket, I reminded myself—and I pulled it out to see a flood of missed notifications. But those could wait. The first thing I did was block my old account. Whoever was stuck in my former body wouldn’t be getting any help from me. They’d just have to deal with the shock of being… *me* now.

Meanwhile, across town, I could only imagine the horror and confusion on my former face as the realization hit. That once-comfortable body now felt alien, weak in comparison to what I had now. But I couldn’t waste time worrying about him—this was about me, about *living* in this body, and I intended to enjoy every second of it.

I turned back to the mirror, running my hands over my chest and abs, flexing just to watch the muscles ripple under the skin. God, I looked good. My new body felt hot, practically humming with energy, with a need I’d never felt before. The gym suddenly seemed smaller, like it couldn’t contain everything I was feeling.

An idea popped into my head, and I pulled out his phone again, quickly downloading Grindr. It didn’t take long to set up a profile—one of his shirtless pics as the main image, of course. The matches started rolling in almost immediately, the phone buzzing nonstop.

I couldn’t help but smirk at the screen. I shot a message to a couple of nearby guys, already knowing where this night was headed. The gym could wait—there were other ways to test out this body, and I was eager to explore *all* of them.

Back in that old, weak body, the poor guy was probably still staring at his reflection in disbelief, trying to figure out what had happened. But that was his problem now. I had bigger, better things to do—starting with enjoying every inch of this perfect new body. The thick mustache tickled my upper lip as I grinned wider, anticipation flooding my veins.

This was going to be fun.

[foxyaries]

My Shifting Story That Keeps Me Motivated To This Day

Well hello again! I think it is time I share my own "almost" success story. I know a lot of you might not be interested in reading about my ALMOST success. But trust me... the more I tink about my own story the more I realize how silly it was of me to procrastinate actually doing it for so long. It's almost funny. But let's get into it, shall we?

As I have already mentioned it in my previous posts (please do read them if you haven't already to fill in any blanks that you may or may not have). I have been at a very dark place at that time. And I didn't wanna live the way that I had for as long as I could remember, because I simply wasn't happy.. with my life or my family. And I felt like I was a good kid. And I was! So when I discovered the subliminal world.. I saw it as my escape and a way to finally become happy. And that's when the subliminal "Wake up in your desired family" came into picture.

Like I mentioned before, there were only a couple success stories under that subliminal, but at that time our community was even smaller compared to what it is now. And those 10 - 14k views was more than enough for me to believe that it was a real deal. It's a bit funny to think about it now because these days we tend to pick subliminals that has thousands and thousands and thousands of views? Am I right? :) That's how we decide whether the subliminal works or not.

Anyways.. back to my storytime. I have already mentioned in another post of mine that those success stories that I did see all said the same thing. That for them to start feeling the results it took them a couple months. And if you remember as well as I do. Back then everyone set a limiting belief that for a subliminal message to start working you need to listen to it for at least 21 days. Even tho that wasn't true, I didn't know much about shifting so I believed it. And I also wasn't desperate enough, so since the stories told me it took THEM 1 - 2 months, I figured it'd take me the exact amount of time. And I thought it was nothing compared to the future I was gonna have.

So all that I did for those couple months was listen to that subliminal at least 1 hour a day and sometimes if I could overnight with the idea that I could wake up in my desired family any given moment. Pay attention to that. I didn't set a deadline or put pressure on myself for doing anything wrong. I just listened and knew it was going to happen. When exactly? No idea. How exactly? Not a clue, but I didn't care. Because knowing less was actually more of a blessing than I thought. I had no limiting beliefs. All it did was awaken my inner child and that whole journey felt magical to me and I really looked foward to my results.

Probably a month passed by when I started getting tired around the same time, every single day so I'd take naps. At a time a half an hour nap was more than enough to make me feel rested and I'd get in the state of being awake yet asleep at the same time. You know what I am talking about. The state during which it feels like you are in and out of sleep. When the sounds feel like they are far far away and then they dissapear. It almost sounds like I was close to tapping in the void state, no? :)

So whenever I'd feel tired I'd just have one earbud in my ear and lay in whatever comfortable position I wanted to lay in. It usually was on my side. And I had no intention to shift because I KNEW it was gonna happen either way. So I'd lay down and just have myself doze off listening to my playlist (I had a couple boosters too but then I'd just loop the main subliminal). And then I started feeling unusual sensations and feelings I have never felt before. All I did was just lay there and day dream about how I was gonna wake up in my desired room and I tried imagining it in detail. How I was gonna walk out of my room and see my best friends that I was going to shift there with. And literally all I did was just loop that scene because it made me happy :')

I keep rambling haha I'm sorry. Back to what happened. I was probably a month in when I started to get tired and naking naps around the same time and suddenly my naps were different? I would just mind my own business, think about my future when suddenly I would feel this insanely strong sensation that I was being lifted off of my bed and that my body was turning and flying somewhere?? But because I didn't know exactly what it was it'd freak me out and my body would flinch. That's when I'd recover the feeling of my body back and it felt like I'd literally fall back into my bed. And I mean LITERALLY get slammed back into my body. And this wasn't a one time thing. Same thing kept happening every single day for like 2 weeks (until I got insecure and shifted my focus somehwere else as I've mentioned in another post). What's funny is that I didn't even realize what was happening. I was just like "Oh? That's a new feeling" I was just curious and wanted for it to keep happening so I could understand it better. I only realized what it was when it stopped happening all together and for that I blame myself.

But you know what? It's okay. I've learnt so much since then. And it's insane how all I did every day was look for other success stories to convince myself that this was real. When I had my own very real success story. I KNOW all fo this is real because I experienced it. And I am done looking for a confirmation from other people. I know the truth and that's enough. And you should too. You don't need any of these methods. All you need is to do whatever makes you feel comfortable and happy and that you know works for YOU. Cause what actually matters is that YOU KNOW is gonna work for you. That's all that ANY of us really need.

I know this is a lot, but if you actually read this I hope it helped and made you realize something... anything really. Be your own success story and make your dreams come true.

I believe soon you will hear about my own final success story:) Goodbye for now. Next post will be more about my fairy companion. Do look forward to that!

Much love,

Foxy ♡🦊

[mrvelocipede]

I had carefully put away all of my knitting stuff before the holidays, partly because it was taking up space that I needed for entertaining, but mainly because The Relatives are incredibly good at making me feel stupid and terrible about whatever projects I've been working on. Nothing destroys my motivation and interest in a thing more effectively than having to make small talk about it with people who have spent my entire life not understanding me.

In the last few days, I've been trying to get back to knitting mode, and finish the cable pattern I was in the middle of, but it's a tough slog to drag myself out of the holiday pit, so I decided to cast on a small, frivolous thing to try to get my brain to engage.

It could be a sort of companion to my existing pineapple bag, and smaller strawberry bag (which I don't think I've even posted pictures of, because I am going to get the pattern written first, dammit!). I had a little bit of leftover sock yarn that was the right colors, and I figured I could mess around with some short rows for the shaping.

And it's working!

Except that when it's not next to actual real-life fruit, it looks exactly as silly and rude as you'd think, and the movement of the needles as it's being knit makes it wave itself around in the most appalling way.

[anarchistfrogposting]

I don't consider myself an anarchist but i'm pretty sympathetic, there's just some stuff i'm not sure yet would work well under anarchism as i understood it after reading the bread book.

What would incentivize people to work, for example, at oil rigs away from their communities doing dangerous work?

Would it be that they'd have a smaller expectation for how long they're suposed to work? Like, instead of you working 9-5 for 8 months instead you work 9-5 for 4 months and then can just do things you like the rest of the year?

Yes hi hello! This post re-emerged from the depths of accidental deletion!! I’m getting the bus to go get a burrito so let me talk about this one!!

Kropotkin actually talked about dangerous work; after all, some work is just inherently and unavoidably a bit more dangerous than others: so what’s the point? Why bother?

To start, resource extraction is going to be inherent to any industrial economy, but it’s worth pointing out that when you eliminate a lot of overproduction, an inefficiency inherent to capitalist economy, the demand for extraction is going to shoot down in a big way. That’s a big reason why a lot of the more hardcore environmentalist movements have been radical leftist ones; it’s features inherent to capitalism which are bringing about the downfall of the environment which sustains us.

Another big consideration to make is that a lot of the danger of these fields arises solely because the demands of the profit motive incentivise management to overwork/underpay/cut back on or wholesale eliminate critical safety measures; there’s a reason why unions and collectives in those fields are such critical players in the constant battle to keep people safe.

There are quite a few fields in the domestic/public sector, as well (think electricians, certain waste management professions etc.) which are (and were more so in the past) fairly dangerous but are not generally regarded as such because they’re regulated well in the public domain/have very strong unions/have otherwise strong safety regulation.

This stuff gets safer and safer as we improve the automation of our economy, as well.

It’s worth remembering as well that those remote professions and operations are, in a way, their own communities, as well, and for some people travelling long distances away for more lonesome work is quite an attractive prospect; I once knew a geologist who said he found the relative isolation quite peaceful. My great grandad did some remote mining and he always talked quite positively about it when I knew him (although this is very anecdotal - if anybody in the field wants to weigh in I’d be more than happy to hear what you think).

About hours as well;

If there’s no profit motive, then industrial processes are going to be driven by how to do them as safely, efficiently, and easily (among other stuff). The demand for hours is going to be a lot less tough because you’re going to be able to have more workers and source better equipment without worrying about how it will cut into your bottom line; so yes, the hours will be shorter and the shifts less demanding, with a greater support network and safety network when shit hits the fan. All of this, of course, makes this kind of work a lot more attractive.

But what about dangerous work in general? Why would anyone put themselves in danger?

You just have to look at the tremendous danger that volunteers face to understand that humans don’t really need a profit motive to put their lives on the line to better their communities and the world, or to feel part of something greater than themselves. Not everyone is going to want to do that, and that’s ok, but some people really derive a lot of happiness and fulfilment from dangerous work.

Humanity is flexible and diverse; working together to champion that is our strength, and it always has been.

[summertaters]

OH MY GOSH ARE YOU KIDDING THESE ARE SO GOOOD!!! I love love love your old stuff!!! The little grouchy faces are hilarious 🤣 and watching your style growing in each picture is so cool!!

My favourite was probably the aggressive Kacchako kiss, that’s how I always picture their first, with Bakugou just going for it 💜💜 I’m assuming that’s from a BurnedStars777 fic (I also love their work and have read all of them so I can’t remember which one it’s from 😂)

I would LOVE to know what your costume redesign would have entailed, even just in words, I’m always curious about other peoples design ideas! Like what were those things on Uraraka’s shoulders? What ideas did you have for Bakugou? Only if you want to though, no pressure.

Thanks so much for these, I really appreciate your art so much as I’m sure you can tell!

I hope you keep enjoying drawing too, so if you ever feel like it’s too much pressure please feel free to take a break, I’ll be okay!! I just want you to know that I’m not expecting art from you, I never want it to feel like you have to draw something ya know?

Anyway Thank you so much again, your Art is such a gift and I’m so grateful you’re sharing it with us!!

Hahaha, thank you~ Glad you enjoyed seeing them!!

Yes!! I think I took dialogue from BurnedStars777 'The Art of Conception' and reworked it to be a first kiss situation? xD I could also be misremembering tho lol.

((I picture a very slow burn where finally Bakugou just GOES for it!! It's a bit awkward and rough, but so them~))

This post gets a bit long, so I've added a break-- Art Below~

Since you're curious- I went and did some new rough-ups of the general ideas I had back then.

^ Uravity redesign. Mainly white and blacks with small accents of pink.

A jetpack and boot/calf thrusters to maneuver in the air better. A bit more of a practical helmet with a cute 'halo' look. (Angel face)

She'd overall still have a very cute and round look, but just a lil different!

^ Dynamight redesign. Ripped sleeves, 'handles' on his shoulders + hips (for combo moves with Uravity). Mask slightly altered too.

Biggest change is the gauntlets and gloves that I gave him- open palmed gloves ('cuz the idea would be his explosions would be more potent that way lol. )

Asymmetrical gauntlets- Left side clusters of grenades that could be detached and thrown. Right side a smaller version of his iconic grenade gauntlet. Both gauntlets would have the sweat gathering tubes attached to gather his explosive sweat and store it.

They both would of course still have their matching dots u.u

They're very rough ideas, that I'm sure could be improved upon, but I had fun thinking them up :3

Anon, you are so kind and sweet. I'm so grateful for your support, it really motivates and inspires me- I have so much more art planned in the future! You really make me feel like I'm part of a community <3

I try to take breaks here and there to not overwhelm myself (particularly my wrist will sometimes flare up) So don't worry <3 I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and care!!

I hope you stick around to see what else I have in store for you, and I wish you well! xoxoxo

[kurishiri]

Your translation posts have over 97-100 interactions???

hii anon! ya some of em do get a lotta notes fs - i appreciate any sort of interaction, i really do. by no means am i trying to undermine ppl who lurk. and ik im a smaller translator compared to others out there too. but, perhaps bc i may have phrased it strangely (was in a car when i wrote it), i think you missed the point i was trying to make /nm

longish explanation post under cut ↓

but it’s just i sometimes cant help but think… sometimes i dont feel as motivated to tl stories that should, in all technicality, be “easier” to tl. but i was able to tl a lot of elbies main story, for example even without garnering a lotta notes. i thought abt it a lil (in fact i thought abt it quite a bit, especially after getting involved in bustin out content), and i feel part of it comes down to how interactions should be more of a two-way street than one for it to hold any sort of substantial meaning.

and ive overall come to the conclusion that its not the number that really matters; its the meaning behind each interaction.

yes, some tl posts i do may get 97, 100+ notes at times, but most of them are likes or reblogs without anything written in the post or tags. if you look at any of my tl posts, you’ll find im lucky if i even get 2, 3 comments on a tl post with 90+ notes. hell, i’ll count all my blessings if i even get a “ty for the translation” or smth similar. but comments abt the content i tl is like sure proof that someone has really read and enjoyed the story, and furthermore its smth i can interact with too. on the other hand, liking and reblogging without saying anything is still appreciated, dont get me wrong, but in the end of the day it feels really one-way.

me translating as much of elbies main story as i did (20 chptrs!) was largely in part thanks to a person who had left a comment when i posted with their thoughts on the chptr. they werent long comments, per se, but jus the fact they left a comment on chptrs with their thoughts on the events and scenes meant so much to me, it would be no exaggeration to say i probably would have dropped my rendition elbies main story tl before i hit chptr 10 if not for them. and for al’s main story tl i did, if you ask my moots in a disc server im in, they could probably tell you aaall abt how i spammed the alfons channel with tl snippets while i was still working on the project bc i loved hearing others comments abt it (arguably, i may have been fishing for them, and sure, i may have been desperate — hell, color me surprised they weren’t fed up with me haha — but without them i dont think i would have finished my rendition of al’s main story tl). but when i posted them on tmblr, most of them probably didnt exceed 40 notes. i’d be lucky if i reached 30 /lh waayy less than 90.

you’ll be surprised how much a single comment (or ask!) or whatnot can impact me… there’s probably no amount of likes that could ever outweigh the positive impact a single comment could have on me.

now of course, (1) i’m not saying i inherently expect ppl to comment on my stuff; in the end, commenting is and should really be done on one’s sole discretion. but, it seems to be a known fact among ppl especially who write fics or translate that comments r scarce, few and far in between. (2) i also tl bc i like to. i myself like to bring characters to life through translation. like, yes, it is fun in a very genuine sense. and that also plays into my motivation, but its smth i like to share with others too. multiple things do motivate me - and i think all of it needs to sort of work together for it to really work to its fullest.

[mysecretwindowuniverse]

"Remember when I told you you'd come around? You didn't believe me , silly little bird," "Jerome . . ."

This is cartoonishly late - like, this was originally supposed to be posted on Valentine's Day. Suffice to say, it's been a bit of an unexpectedly arduous journey to get this finally posted.

Back in the beginning of the year I spent about a month on this in total, from inception to completion. I'd just about finished, all the main piece needed were the final touches when my fiance got me sick. And I mean sick; hadn't been that ill in years, and I ended up losing more than a damn week to what turned out to be RSV. And subsequently missed Valentine's Day.

No big deal, I thought, I'll post it by the end of February.

Nope.

The setback of getting RSV turned out to only be the first in a line of setbacks, from getting sick a grand total of three more fucking times (not including the unrelenting menace that is allergies), unforeseen, extensive travel during the spring, followed by anxiety/existential dread over AI and the seeming impossibility to protect your artwork and the bitter hopelessness of the situation. So that kept me from posting. And then, to top everything off, came the travel-sickness-burnout-induced unexpected hiatus taken from this blog.

So yeah, it's been a long road.

But finally I was able to finish this piece - my first (completed) Gotham fanart! My original goal had been to post a semi-corresponding fanfic alongside the fanart, but on account of the aforementioned setbacks and a serious writer's block, that's going to have to wait. I'm still working on it! - but it's completion is seriously TBD.

In truth, I haven't done artwork this intensive in literal years, and it's been really great to get back into it. Like, I really threw myself into this; the urge to create just struck out of nowhere, and I fortunately had the time (and motivation) needed to see this piece through to the bitter end. And honestly? I'm really happy with how they came out!

Of course it's jeromewald, at this point, is it even a surprise, lol? What it says on this blog's header remains true - I do ship both nygmobblepot and jeromewald equally, but (both fortunately and unfortunately) of those ships, one already has an ocean's worth of phenomenal content, whereas the other is far more niche. So I figure it's best to create for the far smaller pair, supply what fresh content I can, and do my part to help keep this lovely fandom alive!

Can you tell I had Thnks Fr th Mmrs on a loop while making this?

'He tastes like you only sweeter' is an insane thing to say, and I feel it really fits a jeromewald x nygmobblepot love triangle. 'The love triangle from hell', one of my favorite things and the hyperfixation that has had me in a chokehold for years.

The pose is shamelessly inspired by that one Batman Catwoman cover (issue No. 9)

I can't say when the next fanart will be posted, but I am working on at least four others at the moment, so fingers crossed the creativity gods smile upon me and I'm able to churn more out over the next few months!

[osakaonryoif]

Bit of an embarrassing progress update.

Hi it's your "I'm not dead" update that I do every few months.

As you know, I'm slowly but steadily working on Act 3, the casino job. I'd estimate it's about 40% done right now, and part of me wants to just drop the first third of it because I know you've all been waiting months, but then I remind myself that you all voted for a full chapter release rather than smaller updates. Anyway this is more than a simple "I'm not dead" post, because I have something slightly embarrassing to admit.

A few days ago, I discovered the blog page @redo-rewind-if, and IF which has nearly the exact same premise as mine, and loved reading through it. After doing so, I found that I've been writing more every day, and my ADD has been kept in check.

So the lesson is kids, spite is a great motivator!

P.S: to the author of Redo: This isn't a hate post, I love your IF. I just had to get this off my chest X X

[s-che]

Dream Library: Night Witches

Last week (or, well — two weeks ago, this writeup has been a little delayed), the Dream Library’s little Office Hours RPG book club turned our flawless hearts and perfect minds to reading and playing Night Witches, Jason Morningstar’s 2015 Powered By The Apocalypse game about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces, the all-woman regiment who flew continual nocturnal bombing runs over the invading German army between 1942 and 1945. We played over on Discord using a combination of physical and digital materials — including the free one-shot guide available on Bully Pulpit’s website — and, after starting a little bit slower than I would have liked, ended up playing for about four and a half hours. It was a great time.

All of that boring stuff out of the way, let’s talk about what we learned:

Night Witches revels in historical detail.

A recurring theme in the Dream Library’s sessions with these older PBTA titles has been their maximalism — the sense, which begins with Apocalypse World and lives on in more recent games like Under Hollow Hills — that the text of a game book is not just an efficient engine, but an object which you should be able to flip through for minutiae and inspiration. This is all downwind of what I talked about re: Barf Forth Apocalyptica in previous posts, of course, but it also stands directly in opposition to a tendency which bothers me in indie games. Many indie game designers (myself included!) have fallen into the trap of looking at bloated games like Dungeons and Dragons or Call of Cthulhu, getting frustrated with their inelegance, and deciding to make the most lightweight possible alternative. Some of this is also motivated by material concerns, of course — it’s easier to produce a one-pager or a zine than a book, especially if you’re working alone — but there’s a real way in which the dominant philosophy behind indie games has tended towards thinking smaller games are better simply by virtue of being smaller. Night Witches, like both Sagas of the Icelanders and Apocalypse World, follows another path: although the core mechanical engine is easy to understand, the book itself is chock full of extra shit that makes the option really lovely to read through. There’s information on the mechanical specifications of the 588th’s planes, queer histories, the timeline of the eastern front, quotes, illustrations, list of names — it goes on, and, frankly, makes the game better even if it’s also longer. It’s really nice to read a game that takes so much pleasure in its setting — which knows that you want more and gives you more. I hope that indie games can get back to looking more like this, as small publishers continue to grow.

Night Witches makes war an engine, not a playground 

One of the reasons I was particularly interested in playing Night Witches (in addition to the fact that the physical copy had been sitting on my shelf unplayed for a while), was the game’s famous (is it famous? or do I just spend too much time thinking about RPGs?) day/night system, wherein both the narrative and the basic moves are strongly delineated between what happens during the day (when you’re resting up, resupplying, and carrying on personal dramas at base) and the night (when you’re flying bombing runs over German targets). For those keeping count at home, this is also part of why Night Witches and Sagas of the Icelanders were pared together this month: Sagas, similarly, has a strong division between the thing men and women are allowed to do, which goes so deep as giving you different basic moves based on your assigned gender. As things turned out, though, that comparison may have been slightly off. Playing Night Witches and expecting the night (which is, after all, where the action happens) to be a phase of equal significance to the day nearly threw off our session’s timing altogether because — despite the fact that they each get their own sets of basic moves and their own expectations — night passes way quicker in this game than the day does. All it takes is two or three solid rolls (and there’s a much stricter scaffolding for how those roles are going to take place) to complete a mission and send you hurrying back home — and although the missions do have a way of going sideways there’s a sense in which those bitter, desperate, shot-down-behind-enemy lines stories are also abstracted by the rules of the game, allowing us to get back to what really matters: being lesbians at Pashkovskaya Airbase. 

In some ways, the actual bombing-nazis girlboss-in-planes chunk of this game feels more like Blades in the Dark’s downtime: i.e., it occupies a significant narrative role, taking up a major chunk of the character’s life, but exists mostly to provide mechanical feedback which will feed into the “main” action (next mission in Blades or the next day in Witches). Maybe I was just running things wrong, and things shouldn’t have felt so asymmetrical — but as things stood I loved the way it played. The war — our part in it, anyway — felt, appropriately, like this big dangerous invasive thing, threatening the community we were trying to build and putting us in danger, turning us against each other when things went south. The last twenty minutes of our session were taken up by an in-character argument back at the base, as a pair of exhausted soldiers turned on the only enemies they had close to hand — each other. Oh, and another player smoked a cigarette with a hot butch mechanic but that’s not important.

Actually that butch mechanic is important, because--

Night Witches is a game with no mechanical system for oppression 

The text of Night Witches is extremely clear about the fact that, if the historical misogyny and homophobia of the early 20th century (and, more specifically, the queer and feminist losses in the 30s in the Soviet Union) don’t sit well with your table, you can disregard them. The book contains overviews of what the institutional response might be to someone getting outed — state violence for men, medical violence for women — but they also encourage you to make your own decisions over whether or not you’ll involve any of this in your own game. I understand the value of having that kind of provision in the text, and of handing over agency to the players to determine their levels of comfort, but in the aftermath of playing a session of Sagas of the Icelanders and (separately from the Dream Library) quite a bit of Seven Part Pact, pulling this punch felt a little bit disappointing to me. My table was able to say yes to the things we were interested in seeing — and there was some casual misogyny in the game, although we didn’t go far into that — but part of me, when looking at a game about a specifically gendered experience of a specific moment in history, wishes that there had been some mechanical oomf to that, and not just an empty space that said something could or could not happen. Maybe I’m in the minority, there, but I would rather a game mechanize the nastiest parts of its setting — if only to give MCs and players clear guidelines on how the game expects us to deploy them.

Night Witches goes a different way, and... That’s fine. In the end, that’s just fine. Fine in an otherwise excellent game.

What’s Next?

Next month, the Dream Library moving on to a new unit on Monsters & monster-fucking with Avery Alder’s Monsterhearts. After that, Bluebeard’s Bride. After that — well...

I was going to have to play a World of Darkness game eventually.

If you’re reading along, thanks! There’ll be another session writeup coming soon. If you’d like to get in on these games and discussions, come do that! We’d love to have you.

[jinnaizaemon]

Done with second movie, and just about done with the first one now! ...My main motivation for this was that I really, really wanted to translate that one exchange between a Dokutake guard and Doi:

- Huh? Aren’t you one of the part-timer aunties? - I’m not an auntie!

of course she's too young to be called an auntie, how rude.

It's usually tricky to translate made-up names, like the medicine featured in this story, especially when the name itself is part of the punchline... But here the original is 軽身剤, keishinzai, whose characters spell literally "light", "body", and "agent/substance/drug". So... Light body agent. It works just as well in English. Now puns are even trickier, and Nintama is full of them. I try to adapt them as much as I can so it doesn't disrupt the watching experience (most of the time I tell my very kind proofreader/editing friend good luck with that!, actually...), but sometimes there's just no way to convey a pun without a long translation notes, as much as I try avoiding them. Which is why I end up making posts like these on tumblr lol. I'm just ranting atm, but later I plan to make a post for each movie, going through them chronologically with translation notes and my own commentary. One such pun that made me ?! was this one, when Kirimaru warns Rantarou that Happousai is after them :

Happy-Holiday is also climbing!

(...the line in the subtitles we'll end up publishing might be different if we find something better LOL)

In the original, Kirimaru calls Happousai 冠婚葬祭 kankonsousai, a four kanji characters compound meaning "an important ceremonial occasions in family relationships". Kirimaru, you're ten, where did you even learn that word. Anyways, he only kept the -ousai part, so I kept the Happ- part myself. ....A holiday is an occasion to meet family right...? So it works..right?!! Hah....... Nintama.......

Anyways, it's a fun movie with great bits of animation, and it's from a time where the cast was much smaller so the featured characters each get a lot of time to shine. it has a lot of Hanko!! Hankoooo!! I'm excited to share it later!

"konjou, konjou, ashita no joe!" has been looping in my brain since. i keep wanting to say it. that random line was just too fun

[reflectionsofthesea]

Hiii I’m back! It's been a pretty stressful and busy time at work, so I'm less online than usual, but still learning finnish daily! It's actually being my saving grace: getting to detach myself from work,routine and stress and just putting my head into something completely different that I enjoy doing. Putting a read more because I wrote a lot here:

I've been progressing with my exercise book, and learned how to express the need to do something 'i have to...' and also the imperative tense. Really useful stuff. I also finally finished trascribing all puhekieli 'basic rules' on my notebook!

Some new stuff in my daily learning routine:

I started listening to podcasts and short stories! I was a bit intimidated at first, but now I've been enjoying doing it every day when I am cooking, cleaning the house or even when drawing/working. I'm listening to a beginner's podcast and can basically understand a good 80% of it, which is making me feel so proud and motivated hahaha. The crazy thing is that even if I don't understand a couple of new words, I can follow the conversation and the topic and I always know what the host is talking about, it's crazy. I'll definitely continue listening to podcasts and stories daily because I think it's helping A LOT and truly making me feel like I'm making huge progress and my brain is enlarging lol.

I started using LingQ! The importing videos/podcasts feature is super useful, and I imported some videos in finnish from youtubers I found and having LingQ generate subtitles in finnish for me and translation in english, so I can study them is so useful. That way I can exercise listening to more puhekieli and expand my vocabulary. It helps that the videos are super fun and entertaining themselves, so I genuinely want to know what's happening hahaha. (one was a Sims4 house building video, another one a travelling vlog)

I tried writing some 'stories' for the first time, this is also an advice I heard from a video, that helps with getting your brain used to constructing sentences and phrases. I already did this in a smaller way, writing very short sentences practicing different grammar rules to commit them to memory, but this exercise really makes you put more effort into building longer and slightly more articulated sentences, like phrases you'd say to someone when having a chat, or thinking out loud. I decided to pick some random themes and just write what I can about them! The pink underlined words/verbs/adverbs are things I had to look up because I didn't know how to say yet. I think this is a pretty fun and creative exercise to do though, and I can see how it can make your brain faster at producing sentences on the long run :) It will be fun to keep doing this when my vocabulary grows and I can say more stuff! (I saw a writing exercise idea on tumblr that was describing your Dnd characters and something about their personality/stories, and I really want to do that!)

Overall, I'm feeling really good and motivated. I remember feeling a bit stuck a month ago, and now that feeling is gone, and I feel like I improved a lot. I really think implementing new exercises like the written stories exercise and especially listening a lot has been so useful and important into me feeling like I'm growing more in this language. I'm really glad I fought my inner doubt and saboteur and just did it. I also gander at posts written in finnish here on tumblr and realized I understand a good 70/80% of what's written in there. Sometimes more or less, depending on how long the post is or how specific the words used are. But that's pretty crazy to me and really satisfying!

Also, if you need some inspiration for your language learning journey or some good tips (like the listening to podcasts and writing stories I'm currently doing), please watch this video! It really inspired me to keep going in my journey :)

[littledesertfox]

Who was Fritz Bayerlein?

I've been planning to make a post like this for a long time, since about August to be precise. But alas, motivation and free time don't always coincide. Last year, I've become very interested in the life of Fritz Bayerlein, former chief of staff of Erwin Rommel and also a close friend of his, and I wanted to share what I learned (and still continue to learn) about him here as well. However, I felt that probably not as many people would even know who he es, as he is not such an extremely well-known personality like for example Rommel himself, or some of the other most famous figures like Göring or Himmler, where you immediately have at least a basic idea of who they were. Hence I first wanted to make a comprehensive post with a short biography to present a basic overview of his life. Well, it probably became a bit more than "short". Of course, this means that I could not touch upon every detail, and I apologise if I've been too unprecise in some matters. As of now, I myself haven't read everything that there is to be found about him either, but very much plan to do so in the future. Now that this big thing is out of the way, I hope to make more posts about him, smaller and focusing in more detail on specific aspects of his life.

Fritz Hermann Michael Bayerlein was born on January 14th, 1899 in the town of Würzburg in Bavaria. He was the middle one of three children between an older brother and a younger sister. While the family was not rich or prestigious, the parents worked hard to provide for their children the best they could. Fritz and his siblings were home-schooled until the age of ten, before he and his brother were accepted into the local Gymnasium - a school type that would allow access to university upon successful completion, and required high performance from students. Fritz was an excellent student who aspired to become a teacher for history, geography and mathematics himself one day - although his father likely wanted him to strive for an education with better opportunities (becoming a primary school teacher didn't require a university degree back then and wasn't seen as a very prestigious job, teaches in higher institutes such as Gymnasiums usually had a better societal standing, but the education was often costly and difficult).

However, these dreams were shattered when the Great War broke out. In spring 1917, his school held emergency exams so that the 18-year-olds could graduate before being drafted. Fritz registered as a Fahnenjunker (officer candidate) into the 9th King's Bavarian Infantry Regiment. Unlike his older brother, who also tried to apply as an officer candidate but struggled a lot more with it (due the family not being rich or influential), Fritz had it much easier now, since a lot of young men had already died and the high command was in desperate need for new officers. After completing his training, he was later sent to the Western front. He received the Iron Cross 2nd Class for successfully holding off an enemy attack on August 30th, 1918. A day later he was wounded by a grenade splinter and sent home for recovery, just shortly after he was promoted to Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier and assigned to further training on his way to become an officer. By the time he completed his course, the war was over.

After the war, Bayerlein was part of the volunteer battalion "Dittmar" for a while, before being promoted to Fähnrich and being accepted into the Reichswehr in 1919. The regulations of the Versailles treaty only allowed a number of 4000 officers to remain, but he had proven to be a candidate with a lot of potential. The Reichswehr had some very strict rules: officers had to pledge themselves for twenty-five years of service, and among other things they had a strict marriage policy. Officers were only allowed to marry after the age of 27 or at least 8 years of service. Additionally, lower ranking officers usually didn't earn a lot, so unless they were coming from a wealthy background, supporting a family would have been difficult still. Bayerlein had been promoted to the rank of Leutnant in 1922, but still continued to live with his parents during times when he wasn't at the garrison as he couldn't have afforded a place of his own. The financial crisis during the 1920s further contributed to this.

In March 1926, he encountered Erwin Rommel for the first time during a vacation in Kleinwalsertal in Austria. Bayerlein was there with some men of his battalion from Würzburg, and likewise, Rommel was there with some officers from his company in Stuttgart, acting as their skiing instructor. Bayerlein was on a hike one day when he spotted the group on top of a particularly steep and difficult slope, and like everyone else watching he was left quite impressed when Rommel was the first one to go downhill, confident and without any trouble. He had learned Rommel's name at the time (upon asking one of the men that were with him), but they only got to know each other personally three years later. In 1929, Rommel was sent to Dresden to become an instructor at the infantry school there, and Bayerlein (now an Oberleutnant after being promoted two years earlier) was assigned to be his assistant. Over the next years, the men formed a close friendship: they worked together as instructors, but also spent a lot of time together off duty, going on walks in the woods (sometimes for literal hours), visiting some of the local landmarks, or simply spending time together at the apartment that the Rommel family lived in at the time. Fritz had a good relationship with Rommel's wife Lucie as well, and although he never had children of his own, his bond with their son Manfred was probably the closest he got to taking up a parental role.

When the Nazi party seized control in 1933, Bayerlein was currently attending the war academy in Berlin in order to become a general staff officer. Personally, he was politically leaning towards the Social Democratic Party (same as his late father), but as an officer he wouldn't have been allowed to vote either way. However, with the introduction of the Aryan paragraphs and in 1935 the Nuremburg Laws, he suddenly found himself "accused" of having Jewish ancestry, which would have resulted in a discharge from the army. The reason for this was mainly that he could not provide any record of his maternal grandfather's identity (his mother had been born as an illegitimate child and the father remained unknown) - therefore he couldn't deliver unequivocal proof to be of entirely "Aryan" descent by National Socialist standards. Additionally, his mothers maiden name Denkmann, along with his mere physical appearance were considered stereotypically Jewish by the Nazis (although they of course have no rational basis, it was plain antisemitic stereotyping). All of this resulted in Bayerlein being classified as a "quarter-Jew" or "2nd degree Mischling", even though there is no actual evidence that he has had any real Jewish ancestors - the unknown grandfather could have been anyone. Eventually, he was allowed to remain in the army, likely due to being regarded as a highly skilled officer. In the first few years of the Nazi reign "quarter-Jews" weren't as targeted yet (the explanation was that the "Aryan" part of their heritage should be protected), however this would eventually change.

From 1935 on up to the dawn of World War II, Bayerlein (since 1934 with the rank of Hauptmann) held positions in a few different units, mostly as a general staff officer. In April 1939, he was appointed the 1st general staff officer of the 10th Panzer Division, holding the rank of Major since his promotion the year before. With this unit he participated in the Invasion of Poland. He was noticed by Heinz Guderian, who commanded the 19th Army Corps during the invasion. Guderian awarded him the Iron Cross 1st Class for his successes during the campaign, he also liked that Bayerlein was a proponent of modern warfare, and had him eventually transferred to the general staff of his own unit. As 1st general staff officer under Guderian, he then proceeded to participate in the Battle of France and later the Invasion of the Soviet Union. He also received his promotion to Oberstleutnant in September 1940.

In October 1941, Bayerlein was transferred to North Africa and appointed chief of staff of the Afrikakorps - this era of his life is probably the one he's most well-known for, and likely also the one where the most photos of him have their origin. The commanding general and Bayerlein's direct superior at this time was Ludwig Crüwell - Erwin Rommel, who held the command before, had moved on to be the supreme commander of the entire Panzer Army Africa that the corps was also a part of. Regardless, Rommel and Bayerlein were working together very closely on many occasions, as documented by numerous photographs from the time that show Bayerlein at the side of his old friend. In December of the same year he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He proved once again to be a capable officer, also the type who would sometimes disregard orders and act on his own initiative, similar to how Rommel sometimes did. He was promoted to Oberst in April 1942. Later in the same year, Rommel temporarily appointed him the commanding officer of the Afrikakorps (from November the 4th to the 16th), after the previous commander, General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, had been taken prisoner by British forces. In the following month, he was transferred to be chief of staff of the Panzer Army Africa, now serving directly under Rommel.

By spring 1943, the defeat of the German and Italian forces was inevitable. On the 1st of March, Rommel promoted Bayerlein to the rank of Generalmajor, just a few days before his departure. Bayerlein followed him just about two months later with one of the last flights before the surrender of the remaining troops. He also received the oak leaves to his Knight's Cross. After a few months in the Führerreserve, he was appointed commander of the 3rd Panzer Division as was sent to the Eastern Front. Based on his experiences in Africa, he tried to implement a form of warfare that focused on mobility. At the beginning of 1944, he was tasked by Guderian to become the commander of the newly formed Panzer Lehr Division - it was a division made up of training and demonstration troops and the only fully mechanised division in the Wehrmacht. After it was called to participate in the occupation of Hungary for a few weeks, the division moved on to its original destination in France. In the meantime, Bayerlein had also been promoted to the rank of Generalleutnant. After D-Day, he was tasked to lead the division in the defence of Normandy, but was faced with heavy losses and eventually had to retreat. He later had to temporarily hand off command due to an injury, but took it up again once he had recovered, and lead the division in the Ardennes Offensive. In the meantime, he had also received the swords to his Knight's Cross. In February 1945, after the offensive had failed and the Panzer Lehr Division was severely decimated, Bayerlein was reassigned to the 53rd Army Corps. The troops continued retreating until they were encircled in the Ruhr pocket, and on 15th of April, Bayerlein sent a formal capitulation message to the U.S. 7th Armored Division, which was accepted in the early morning of the following day. He was the first commanding general of the Wehrmacht who surrendered his entire corps, rather than just himself and his staff.

Bayerlein spent the next two years as a prisoner of war. During this time, he showed to be cooperative with the Allied forces. He started working for the U.S. Historical Division, helping them document battle histories, later he also took up work as a car mechanic, hoping to stick to this occupation after his release. He never intended to continue his career as in officer in the later formed Bundeswehr, after almost three decades in the army, he had had enough.

The new beginning after his release was rough. Bayerlein moved into a small apartment in his hometown of Würzburg. The house it was in belonged to him, it had been given to him as a reward alongside the swords to his Knight's Cross. Although the other inhabitants paid rent to him, money was tight as it had not been decided yet how to handle retirement pensions for former Wehrmacht officers. However, once these matters were settled, he was able to enjoy quite a decent life. He continued working for the Historical Division, and later also helped as advisor for books and films on WW2 topics, such as The Guns of Navarone. He was also a main contributor in B. H. Liddell-Hart's The Rommel Papers together with Lucie and Manfred Rommel. Bayerlein had a close relationship with the Rommel family even after his friend's death and would remain in regular contact with them for the rest of his life, it wasn't uncommon that he would pay them a visit or invite them over to his own place every once in a while.

During the early 1950s, Bayerlein's name became known to the police as he was suspected to have had sexual relationships with other men. Homosexuality between men was still prohibited in Germany at the time under §175. Multiple acquaintances of his mentioned his name in police interrogations, many of them were suspected of being homosexuals themselves, and were assumed to either be former partners of him themselves or have knowledge about his relationships with other men, as they were frequenting the same social circles. Although there were mentions of having Bayerlein called in for an interrogation, it seems that this never happened, at least there are no documents to be found. It remained at the suspicions, and he was never convicted for a supposed crime. According to other reports from friends and family members, Bayerlein also had multiple relationships with women during this time of his life. Nowadays it is assumed that he probably was bisexual and enjoyed relationships with both women and men. He moved around different town during these years and always liked to keep his relationships separate, with no long commitment. He never got married or even engaged throughout all his life and didn't have any children - by his own choice, he would have had plenty of opportunities to do so as he was considered an attractive and pleasant man who was liked by many women. He simply enjoyed being independent, but it seems he was always upfront about it, not making any promises about marriage or commitment that he didn't keep. The topic of his sexuality might be never fully cleared up. Bayerlein himself never had a chance to be publicly open about it even if it was something he had wanted - only in 1969, a year before his death, the law was loosened to allow relationships between men if both partners were over the age of 21 and not in any kind of dependent relationship (e.g. as employee and employer). Similarly, even the close friends and acquaintances who might have known more likely kept quiet in order to protect him, despite the change of the law, homophobia was of course still quite rampant and could have unpleasant consequences. In the end, he himself was probably the one who knew best about his true feelings.

In 1957, Bayerlein quit his work for the Historical Division, it seems he finally wanted to move on from military matters, though he still served as an advisor for some books, recounting his experiences as an officer. He moved back to his hometown of Würzburg where he and his sister opened an Oriental carpet shop that they managed together. He spent his last years rather peacefully, enjoying his time with friends (like the Rommel family and others) and family members, though his health started deteriorating in his last years. He had suffered from coming and going liver and kidney issues for a long time, possibly since his time in Africa or even before, and had needed to be hospitalised because of it a few times before already, though when he was younger he had always managed to recover again. Eventually however, it had finally caught up to him, and on 30th of January 1970, Fritz Bayerlein passed away at the age of 71 years. His funeral was one of the last public military funerals held in Germany, and aside from family and friends, many of the men who served alongside him in the Afrikakorps or Panzer Lehr Division attended to pay their last respect for their former commander.

Main sources: U.S. National Archives, Box 329, AE 501661, Fritz Bayerlein, 1-155. Spayd, P. A. (2003). Bayerlein: From Afrikakorps to Panzer Lehr : the Life of Rommel’s Chief-of-staff Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein. Schiffer Pub Limited. Rigg, B. M. (2009). Lives of Hitler’s Jewish soldiers: Untold Tales of Men of Jewish Descent who Fought for the Third Reich. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Bayerlein_(Generalleutnant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Bayerlein

[I'm aware that some sources are already a bit older, and that not everything presented in them may be in accordance with more up-to-date research, and tried to keep this in mind while writing. Additionally, I want to note that of course I'm not infallible and can make mistakes, and I'd still recommend you to do your own research as well should you be interested in the topic.]

[choicesficwriterscreations]

September MC & OCs of the Month - Special Edition: Celia Moore

Help us in welcoming September's MCs and OCs of the month! That's right, plural! Most months, CFWC highlights one randomly selected MC or OC from our Meet My MC / OC List. (More info here.) But this month, we're doing something different.

In August, @lilyoffandoms hosted a Writers Appreciation Month, and we announced the September Writer of the Month would be selected from its participants. But all participants agreed - Lily deserved the honor! Still, we wanted to do something nice for the eleven writers who elected to participate to help uplift other writers in the fandom. So, this month, each of the eleven participants will have one of their MCs or OCs highlighted.

We will introduce each MC / OC individually, and once all eleven have been highlighted, a masterlist for the month will be created. We hope you enjoy getting to know all about them!

The ninth MC of the Month is @trappedinfanfiction 's Celia Moore!

Learn more about Celia below...

In your own words, tell us what you like most about your MC. 

It’s hard to say exactly what I like most about her, but probably her dedication. She doesn’t back down when things don’t go her way and will always do everything she can to do what she believes is right. She has worked hard to end up where she has, and she knows it; she won’t let the words of others destroy her own accomplishments. 

Do you feel your MC is like you at all? How are you alike or different?

I feel like I put some of myself in every MC/OC I have, and Celia is no different. She might be the one that I am the most alike, but at the same time, she’s a lot different from me. Maybe a bit more like how I want to be. She’s passionate and not afraid to speak up if something is wrong and is willing to take risks to turn things in a better direction, especially in the medical world. She’s also a lot more social than me. While she enjoys her alone time and keeps a smaller circle of very close friends, she doesn’t really have a problem talking and getting to know new people. 

What is most important to your MC? What is their motivation in life?

The most important thing for Celia is the people around her, her family, friends and patients. They are her motivation. She wants them to have a good life and wants to help where she can. She hates where the medical world is heading, where money is becoming more important than what the people needs. As her influence in the medical world grows, she uses her privilege to work for a world where people don’t have to go into a life-time of debt just to get the help they need, and that no one should be turned away just because of their looks and identity. 

What are their biggest pet peeves/dislikes? 

People who always think they know best because they googled something and generally rude/intolerant people. “Oh, you’re a woman? You have to be a nurse. Let me speak to a man.” is something she hears a lot, and it makes her blood boil.

If your MC could change one thing - anything - what would it be? 

If she could change the world, she would. She knows it’s impossible in reality, but through her work she knows she at least can help her patients. She will do her very best to give every single patient the help they need. Be it someone to talk to, or finding the right treatment.

What is your MC’s favorite quote or song? 

This one is so hard! I never have any idea when I am asked about music, because what I listen to isn’t necessarily what my MC/OCs would like and I honestly can’t even settle on my own favorites. However, I can see her liking Raleigh Carrera’s music.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your MC?

I never believed that I would ever post any of my writing, but Celia has been my door into sharing it. She has developed into her own character outside the MC I played as in Open Heart and I have had so much fun writing her story. She was my escape during the pandemic and I have gotten so many friends in the fandom because of her. Some have left, and some are still here, and I am grateful for every single one. I never believed what was supposed to be a small drabble would lead to where things are now.

[aheathen-conceivably]

how do you go about planning your storyline? :) especially for your decades challenge

Hello there dearest! I’m sorry this took me a while. It’s a bit of a difficult one and I wanted to take some time to sort out the chaotic process in my brain before I tried to type it out 😅

This is just a rough outline of what works for me specifically in writing a historical story on simblr. I can’t speak to writing advice in general because it’s not something I have experience with; nor do I think this will be helpful for everyone. So please feel free to pick and choose whatever suits your fancy or ignore it all completely.

Of course, it’s time to take this below the cut, since you know it’s going to get a bit long 😉

1. Find Inspiration (Nonfiction books, Blogs, TV shows, YouTube videos, Period Pieces, etc etc…)

For a decades challenge/history based story I think this is really the starting point for me. Whether it be styles of architecture, clothing trends, a historical fact, or an individual’s story, there’s so much real life inspiration to be found for this type of story. It can often seem small, but sometimes pinpointing what you know you want to include and working it in there can be the crux of so much of a story.

I’ve said this before but one of the very first things I knew I wanted to include was the Titanic, since it was the first historical event I ever became interested in. Other examples are New Orleans as a setting, the inclusion of Storyville, and even something as small as the axe man that I included in this post.

When I find these moments of inspiration, I try to immediately transform them into tangible scenes or plot points rather than simply jot them down as a note or like a “maybe for later”. This keeps me from getting mired in too many ideas or overwhelmed with things I like, but that don’t necessarily have a place in the story.

However, sometimes it also means I will need to tweak ideas as the plot develops, such as changing the original storyline of Rosella and Lord Harrington to Rosella and Georgiana; but even with these edits, this process still creates a sort of scaffolding structure for the story as a whole. It gives me plot points or small, specific scenes that I am working and writing toward. I’m then able to allude to the eventual outcome beforehand as well as weave a larger narrative around it while still having clear points of guidance for where I want to go. 2. Connect the Dots

The “dots” here are the aforementioned scenes and/or plot points that I have written well in advance. I have dozens and dozens of these, and I’m basically constantly adding to the document where I keep my writing. This is all kept in chronological order so I can see the progression as well as where I need more narrative to fill out a decade. I generally look at this structure and ask myself: how do I realistically reach that point?

To use the example of the Titanic again: this meant somehow getting the oldest daughter of a relatively poor and close knit family aboard a ship bound for America. It meant not only putting her in contact with someone who would have access to these tickets, but also giving her a reason to leave the people she loved. Then once those larger dots are connected, I continue to focus on smaller and smaller threads, like the details of Georgiana herself or Rosella’s relationship to Zelda, until the storyline feels fully fleshed out and a character’s motivations are coming through. 3. Character Consistency

That last bit is very important to me, and I always try and think about how the characters are functioning within the framework of what I’ve written and the historical landscape. Sometimes this comes into play before connecting the dots, but often it is actually what finally puts the puzzle pieces in place. Something sim-specific here is that I really do use sims traits as guidance on who the characters are, how they interact with the world, and how the world has affected them. So often when I am referencing a prewritten plot point or scene I will ask myself, how would that character get to this point? What may have happened that would lead them here? How does their personality interact with this historical event or point of inspiration?

Many scenes have often come from more outward facing questions, like, is this trait clear to everyone reading as well as me? Has this visibly impacted their life and done so in a sensible way? This is in part responsible for many extra scenes we saw at the end of the 1920s when a few of my best simblr babes pointed out to me that Antoine’s motivations weren’t very clear. It also helps me to fill in and round out that base storyline structure with more small, real-life scenes that showcase and develop certain traits as characters grow and interact with the world around them.

—

With all that said, this is often a very long process that involves reading or watching historical content, going over my own writing again and again, and just waiting for the day when my brain suddenly writes 5-6 scenes unprompted. Other times I’m flying by the tip of my boots, watching y’all feedback and incorporating it or reading through scenes with friends for their help.

So the process has looked very different at various points in the narrative and through the many months I’ve been writing this story. But overall, having those points to write toward as well as tangible character traits have guided the process throughout.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Fic Author Questions

@curator-on-ao3 thank you for tagging me in this new set of fic author questions! I had a lot of fun answering. ❤️

1. Why do you write fanfic?

I guess I stuck with it and stayed inspired largely because ive found really wonderful communities in fanfiction, whether its coming together to share in one beautiful AU story or different iterations of canon or just experiencing the joy of writing together. and having those communities has sustained me through some very isolated years and have been overall a positive experience in my life. ive made really wonderful friends through fanfic.

But I can't deny that I got into fanfic because my brain just fixated on one story and i had the overwhelming urge to put it on paper and so a smaller motivation is that there continue to be stories like that that motivate me to keep writing fic.

2. Which of your posted stories do you think about the most, even though the story is “finished”?

I guess just by virtue of planning the sequel at the moment, I think about and reread Unbroken alot

I have also had the Universe to Mend in my mind since last year and keep coming back to the two versions of Janeway i explored in that and where I left the two of them. and thinking about the other characters too: Mortal Q and Captain Chakotay and Stadi/Tuvok and where they might wind up next.  I have a few ideas for what might come next so I suspect there's at least one sequel on the horizon somewhere.

3. If you could give yourself fic advice from when you first started writing fic, what would that advice be?

Deadlines help you set goals and motivate yourself, but you don't owe them to your readers.

4. What’s your relationship to fic stats?

So, and this has been a very good thing for my self esteem and general mental health, working with data all day has made me really ambivalent about my story stats. They're interesting and useful when I have a specific question I want to answer with them but the rest of the time I no longer pay much attention to them.

The stats that I do focus on are all things I measure - timeframe to chapter/story completion, average words per chapter, total word count. Those help me set realistic expectations for myself and help me work on my goals of having healthy writing habits and writing more concise stories.

5. Is there a pairing or scenario or friendship you miss writing? If so, why? If not, why not?

I miss writing Threshold AU!!!!

I want to again and will again, but having had like... negative amounts of writing time this summer and being fixated on a new long story, lots of others have taken a backseat. i really miss the cameraderie of writing threshold au stories and the freedom and joy I get from working with that really original fresh premise - it frees me to experiment and be a bit more imaginative. im sad i havent had time for it in a while.

6. What motivates you to write?

A story takes up residence in my head and its beautiful and tempting and I cannot rest until I have delved in and explored it. Thoroughly.

7. Why do you write for the fandom(s) that you write for?

communities and friendships do a lot to help keep me inspired, both while continuing old longstanding stories and developing new ideas. and ive found this with Sailor Moon and Star Trek. I doubt i would be as prolific in either fandom without those communities.

8. If you’re stuck writing a WIP, what do you do?

I shove it in the back somewhere and work on other things until ive figured out what I dont like about it thats got me stuck. sometimes it works out that I just need a better idea of where the story is going. and then the story gets finished. and sometimes i find myself realizing the premise is a good one but the execution isnt.  and then if ive already started posting it, i put it in my "Under Review" collection (an unrevealed AO3 collection only I can see) and figure out if i can rework the story from the ground up or if it isnt going to get finished. I've got 3 in there right now.

9. What do you wish people knew about comments?

That it is actually a huge boost in inspiration to get a nice one. and that it's okay to leave short ones.

10. Maybe there’s a question you wish had been on here. What’s that question (and answer)?

My write in question: Do you create or want to try other types of fanworks?

Just for me i make playlists for characters to help inspire me for fics. sometimes i dabble in fanart. drawing is always really relaxing.

im also facinated by bookbinding. it looks like a really fun physical craft to build even if it looks complicated. i'd love to learn more about how it works.

A lot of my people i usually tag are tagged already so If you want to respond with your own please do!