#shitty mini reviews

[loonarii]

ITZY BACK TO BEING HIT MAKERS I KNEW THEY COULD DO IT YEESSSSSSSSSSS

[seat-safety-switch]

How can you tell when a friend is a musician? Check their credit card bills. If all of it is going to buy musical equipment that they'll never use, it's time for you to start booking gigs for them.

Sure, there's a pretty good chance that they're only buying several hundred dollars a month of stuff off Reverb because they like to look at it. Maybe they have a little YouTube channel where they review the "keybed feel." Forcing them to do an actual performance, even with only the threat of peer pressure and social disapproval, is going to force them to take the next step towards becoming an actual musician. Using that actual gear, in front of a bunch of rowdy drunks, in whatever shithole bar had a gap in their schedule that weekend.

Now, I know what you're going to say. Saturday morning cartoons taught us that true friends don't force their buddies to do things they don't want to do. And to that I ask: do you remember an episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks where Simon spent $1500 on a Roland mini-piano? Didn't happen, because Hollywood cartoon writers are paid to insulate your developing mind from that kind of true cosmic horror. You'd never have paid attention in school if you knew that the end result of being interested in math was that you'd be forking over thousands of dollars of your square job money for a machine that makes sustained fart noises.

Don't worry. If you're one of the affected people, worried that your friends will force you to become at least a session musician, you can still turn the tables on them. They wouldn't be your friends if they didn't have a degenerate, money-evaporating hobby of their own. Maybe their shitty Nissan should get signed up for a track-day, so they have an excuse to turn $2000 in tires into mid-tier lap times. Be creative. And while they're racing, you can be pushing F5 to see if anyone posted a TR-303 on eBay in the last five minutes. Yeah, they're usually about this much, but this one has a broken switch. That makes it a deal.

[headlessdino]

batfam hcs

really mundane headcanons about the batfam if they were a Normal, non-vigilante family with some sibling stuff

dick:

always calls shotgun before anyone else (jason) can and they all (jason) get really dramatic over it, esp when they're younger

liked to play mermaids as a kid

had a really bad rebellious phase and would go to parties every week and bruce could Not keep him in check

decorates his room with band posters and other stuff like that. a lot of photographs too.

weirdly competitive about board games

insanely bisexual

late night snacker

used to sleep walk

whistles while doing random tasks like they do in shows

jason:

really likes orange juice

has tattoos

probably got a good couple of shitty stick n pokes as a teenager that bruce only found out about years later

had a photography phase

decorates his room but not as hardcore about it as dick

reads a lot

hates going to bed hungry

really good at math

latino (chilean maybe)

tim:

"would you look at that! someone came out of his cave" (first time seeing his family in the past three days)

doesn't know how to swim (his parents forgot that was a Thing he had to lean at some point) and just tries his best when he's in the water because he doesn't want to admit he doesn't know how

stoner

is insane about chess

really messy room but he still knows exactly where everything is

picks up hobbies for like 2 weeks and then drops them

has a blog with movie reviews

his socks never match

conspiracy theorist

damian:

when he was younger and short he couldn't reach a lot of the kitchen cupboards so bruce bought a stepstool. he would only ever use it when he was by himself or with dick because of his pride

hates mint toothpaste

weirdly good speller

oil paints and makes sculpture

likes puzzles

goes on a lot of walks

plays tennis for his school team

bruce:

naturally wakes up really early

has mini drawer things on his desk

always wears long socks

has a pair of lucky socks

plays tennis with damian

old useless key collection

had a genuine emo phase as a kid and denies it whenever alfred tries to bring it up

got forced to work at a mcdonalds by alfred so the money wouldn't get to his head too much

extra:

all the kids have their names on their doors with the wooden letters

[writingoneout]

Untilted Katamari Reflections

Preamble:

Content considerations for the following include:

Parental abuse

Bigotry

Worldly anxiety

You're welcome back another day if that's too much right now.

I.

It’s fall of 2015.

You and your virgin college friends drink shitty cocktails called the “Slutty Will Rodgers.” They’re just Pepsi rawdogged with indeterminate amounts of grenadine and Captain Morgan. When you bought the mixers a Wal-Mart stocker yodeled “OOOOoOoooOH, maKIN sOMe DRINKS?!?!” and you knew it was time to leave.

We Love Katamari is on the Telly. It’s a sweet, trippy game you first bought to cope with high school. On Dark Fridays at 1am, when your inbox was barren and your balls were full, you’d drive to the empty gym downtown and sprint six miles. Then you’d come home and replay the firefly level until you fell asleep with your pug.

Your college friends are bad at the game, so they pass the controller. You’re playing the underwater stage. A spaceman falls in the pond of people gunk and stacked crabs. It’s going really well if you’re honest. You point to the screen and say “this’ll be Florida if Trump wins.” See Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Rick Desantis has big plans for Disney.

Your friends don’t reply because they soon won’t be virgins and their tongues battle each other’s. It’s a different game they play, one with fuzzier rules, but greater industry respect. You wish the campus gym was open 24/7.

. . .

Your skills as the prince are not inherent. You first meet him in 2005, when your dyspraxic hands can barely tie a shoe. Your parents catch you lose shit for the Toonami review of Me and My Katamari. They buy it for Christmas, hoping to steady your nerves while your father’s in therapy.

Dr. Flam is a Neo-Freudian hitched to your mom’s guy, Dr. Flim. She’s deep in your dad’s dream journal and makes him watch movies like Cool Hand Luke to really reign in his ego. He gets the DVDs from the Netflix site, then through the mail. As a family you watch your dad’s therapy films and reruns of Inyuasha.

In the waiting room you barely navigate the sticky ball through Namco Bandai’s Satoshi Kon parade. See Fig. 2. You’ve only seen adults express anger verbally, so when you mess up you grunt a lot and let out those Leopold Butters Stotch swears like “crap,” “shoot,” and “gosh darn.” You’re not particularly self-aware, so you probably just say “god fucking damn it” a few times and don’t remember. Years later you realize there was probably a secretary behind the glass watching you do all this.

Figure 2: Bwahbwahwabhbawahbwaaaaah.

Sometimes there’s a girl in the room with you, just around your age. She’s stuck while Dr. Flim teaches her mom about what dream snakes mean for her fear of male puberty. That's what he did for your mom, anyway.

You think the waiting-room stranger is cute, but you won’t admit you like girls yet, especially not to yourself. To cope with the cognitive dissonance, you do your weird shit louder while refusing to make eye contact with her. If you get real stressed you crank up the main menu track and yell “ahhhhh that’s so relaxing” while the “nah nah nah nahs” play through your headphones.

At one point the girl stands against a wall and stares at you with her arms crossed. You bet she thinks you’re cool, but she’s probably just annoyed and hopes you’ll notice, or maybe just ask if she’s OK. It’s probably good you don’t talk with her. You might ask something stupid, like if she's seen the roach corpse in the stairwell. It’s been there for a year straight, isn’t that crazy?

For better and worse, you power through your little game alone. Every time you lose the King of All Cosmos beats, shoots, and belittles you. See Fig. 3. It reminds you of when your own dad shattered your Harry Potter wand over the kitchen counter because you dropped a mini pizza.

Figure 3: The King of All Cosmos offers little constructive advice, all things considered.

You fail quite frequently. Eventually you drop the game because it’s getting stressful and you have the power to relieve yourself of the situation—not the Freudian lobby, just your fake dad.

II.

It’s 2012. PlayStation Network uploads The Prince’s primeval outing: Katamari Damacy. Within, Padre Cosmotic flaps his gums over too much hooch then slams his dump truck ass through the better part of our solar system. He dislodges every recognized constellation and even the moon itself.

Cosmos sends Prince to Earth—the last brick left in the shitstorm—to make slop of our planet and bodies. With the slop space itself will be made anew. The Good Son does as he's told, and every living entity experiences euphoric ego death within the bulbous heaven of the Katamari.

As a Real Gamer Teen you lose a lot less in this one. You really go in and fix Fake Dad’s mistakes, no problem at all. This is why a year ago you hailed “gaming journalism” as your calling. You write clean and play tight; should keep the lights on. It’s the most concrete idea you’ve had since 7th grade when you outlined a YA novel called Tooth Pocket. Even you didn’t think Scholastic would buy that one, though. It was just too hot for the book fair.

One day you’re cranking through FFVI and your real dad swings by, mad you're young. He grills your ass and says “I bet you can’t even tell me the biggest thing happening right now.” It’s some real “What’s a gallon of milk cost?” shit, he could mean anything.

 Surprisingly, you can’t think of a good answer. You and your friends are actually pretty informed because John Stewart is still at the desk and y’all chime in every day. See Fig. 4. You also spend hours each week tearing through MSN slideshows in your Graphic Design class because the Photoshop takes five minutes. You’ve seen a staggering amount of the Syrian civil war.

Figure 4: Sometimes in Snapchat you draw glasses on your cat to make him look like Mitch McConnel. You wouldn't do that without this guy.

Still, you’re a little stumped. It’s the middle of a phenomenon native to moralist presidencies known as "a slow news week.” You actually ran out of war shit the other day and clicked through some slides about Pakistani wrestlers. The seniors who offered you Jack Daniels in the Whataburger lot saw it and laughed. They thought you were peeping dong in class. You really weren’t, but they didn’t believe you. They graduate certain you were bricked up in the Dell Lab over big guys in spandex.

“I don’t know,” you tell your dad.

He throws his hands behind his head, hard, like an orangutan chucking logs at a poacher.

“It’s the fucking carbon tax,” he yells. This comes as a surprise, you think, because that shit is last month’s news. It really didn’t go anywhere.

“Do you not pay attention because you don’t give a shit, or are you just a nihilist and think you can’t do anything?” You can tell in his eyes he thinks there’s a real answer. “Seriously, which is it?

You don’t remember what you said. You probably just stammered until he walked off.

A month later he picks you up from marching band. Your phone is dead, so he had to wait twenty minutes longer than anticipated while you found his car. He punches the rearview mirror until the windshield cracks then screams of how your birth kept him from New England.

III.

It’s 2016. A rockin’ MILF in the Psych department gets you really into Hamilton. See Fig. 5. Every day you wake up on the grind and blast “You Aaron Burr, sir?” through your shitty 7-11 cans. While cramming foreign language Quizlets and McGraw Hill Online you do this thing called “Hafilton.” It’s where rock up to “Nonstop” and quit listening just before Hamilton decides what he will stop is being a good husband.

Figure 5: Like Kojima, you know "MILF" is a mindset, not a factual inquiry.

It’s 2018. Your grades are notably better and you’ve snuck into the honors program. Like Hamilton himself, you really flourished at 19 and thought about running for office. You immediately abandoned this idea after remembering your allergy to recordings of your image or voice.

You cohabit with the Psych MILF, and she offers some advice: she’s really had her boots on the ground with this whole “clinical psych thing” and honestly, respectfully, she loves you, but dear God it might not be your scene. It’s taken a real toll on her and the friends, and she can’t imagine you going through that shit.

At 1am in your living room you boot up DOOM (2016) and listen through some Hamilton. Angelica is thirsty on main when you remember that you, yourself, could be a lawyer. You don’t have to run for Congress to fight the establishment. There’s just the common law, and it’s right there. You can just get your grubby little hands in that shit and work your magic.

. . .

It’s the last semester of undergrad. Your Western Thought professor says Hamilton wasn’t really a huge deal and really James Madison shat out the big parts of our faction-proof empire. Yes, there was, in fact, a civil war, but the caplock rifle worked it out. After the Federalist papers he has you read the Bill of Rights but no Supreme Court cases. There’s a lot of talk on negative liberties.

Just before finals, the learned doctor says your generation only has two things to worry about: the climate and the poverty. Yeah they’re big, he says, but they’re just two things. You’re crafty kids, smart as the framers, even.

. . .

The state decides law school is your jam and lets you come inside.

There’s the negative liberties but you actually read Supreme Court opinions when the big boys aren’t shaking fists for Valley Forge. They have you listen to Hamilton for context. You feel dirty. An LRW professor puts on the “I’m Just a Bill” video and your sectionmate with Ivy degrees gets really, really mad.

. . .

The Federalist Society has a comfy presence at your law school. Along with Big Oil they sling out free pizza to every Little Scalia with a rumbly tum tum.

On your way to class you hear what the pizza boys feel. They hate Europeans, those social democrats with the rotten armories and clumpy cash. The Euros, they think, give too much wiggle room for the mentally ill, and by that they mean they mean gay people and probably just women overall.

There are more than two things to fix, you think.

. . .

The pandemic hits. You and some pals start a Google Doc to stay afloat. It barely works. In the Zoom review for the property final your professor catches multiple people crying. "You don't have to be here," he tells them, “there are other jobs.”

. . .

A year passes. You’re in a niche public interest class you do all right with. The professor looks you and thirty-five others dead in the eye and says how sorry he is that law school is traumatic. You shed a single tear in your little window. You're pretty in the shit and haven’t worn pants to class in months.

Then public interest prof takes a big, big drag from his long, fat spliff. He spins his desk chair and baseball cap at the same time, never letting go of the joint.

“Hey,” he says. “It’s not your fault, really, but the world is fucked. It’s time to fix what your parents did.”

The next week he gives a practice exam where the best solution is to sell an old lady’s house to Nestlé.

IV.

It’s 2022. After throwing your whole gooch at it, you fail the bar exam.

You fall back hard into exercise. When you’re not slamming Barbri you’re at the gym binging curls and cranking the Chainsaw Man soundtrack. One night on the way to squats you finally hear “Black Parade.” Just like you, Mr. Gerry Wayland is stuck between global disrepair and the desire to write Funny Little Books.

You just started an FLB yourself, actually. It’s spin on a Story Break episode you love. In your version there’s a fucked up civil war horse that moves like a spider and is covered in bugs. Rich people kill the planet then the horse gets lost in space. It’s compelling, you promise. There’s body horror and pirates dressed like Gorton’s Fisherman. See Fig. 6 It’s about the horrors of the contemporary world state. It’ll be fun.

Figure 6: An untapped horror icon. Imagine blood contrasting that yellow.

Big problem, though: you remember rich people love hiking. There’s no grass on Mars, not that good shit anyway. Would they really fuck all of it?

You edit. In the last few years, the real breathless ones, the oligarchs cash their tab. A cartel, they think, could really muscle those stragglers, the tragically common. There’s one city left with both breathable air and refugees. They level it. The few survivors are spread amongst the stars, so their loves and languages may die.

. . .

It’s the middle of Bar Prep Round 2. You and the patient MILF see Hadestown in the Big City.

There’s a juke joint on stage flanked by devil trombones. A sad little guy slinks in from the janitor’s closet. His name is Orpheus and, just like you, he’s a sad, short writer who likes a lady so much it comes out weird. He has a vision, he says, for a little ditty. It’s compelling, he promises, and shit’s gonna change. His love is functional and realized, worth the investment of a hardened woman displaced by capital’s torture. She believes him.

You cry because you know where this goes.

It’s just a single tear.

Don’t worry.

Nobody sees.

. . .

There’s this game you like, by some corporate anarchists who hate themselves. They’re Scandinavian, from the spot in Tallin where you stopped for a cruise. Every gift shop there had swastikas and gas masks leftover from the bloody years.

In the game is a liberal yacht MILF. She thinks you’re stupid but someone’s helping with your gun, so you’ve got that on her. And yet, she pins you, re your whole writing thing. See Fig. 7.

Figure 7: She sucked, but it still hurt when she left.

Your favorite Supreme Court podcast says the ocean’s last hope is other countries. But those countries’ people cry to the Disco game, and their ministers also bought The End of History. You meet them on the subreddit. You're all geeked out, waiting for the tide.

. . .

It’s the era of desert cradles. God thinks you’re disgusting, so he sends his better kids with a memo: the flood was too much work on his end, it’s time for something different.

“Just keep walking,” he says.

Your skin bares his figure. So do the corpses. You little birds among billions, gassed out and screaming, move to clean.

V.

It’s 2023.

We Love Katamari is up on the PlayStation store. You sit with the cats and mow down some crabs. You don’t need it so much these days, but it’s nice.

There’s a Bar card in your wallet, just below your gym tag. There are two interviews in your Google Calendar. Good stuff might happen, hopefully soon. You crawl into bed and wrap an arm around your wife’s rib cage.

Everything matters and nothing is safe.

You are loved enough to sleep.

[scary-pixie]

November 1st = New Tina Year! (secret diary entry and upcoming goals)

I'm mainly writing this down so I don't slack off! Cause if I slack off I can look back on this and think, "wow, you failed terribly. dingus."

Ahem.

Anyways, I am in the process of thinking up some new short term goals now that:

2024 con season is over (with the exception of some smaller events)

Spooky Season is almost over (I like posting non-stop spooky stuff during this delightful time)

Twitter is going inside the toilet

Magazine troubles (more on this below)

I have met the famous man whose inspiration played a big role in both: a) getting back into drawing my old OCs after 15+ years (little round glasses are a bad influence), and b) getting brave enough to be on video after saying I would never do this for god knows how long. (secret: I watched a certain music video with one of his characters the morning before I made my own). BUT HE WILL NEVER KNOW ABOUT THIS AND I WILL NEVER TELL! I AM FULL OF CRINGE!!!

This is what I'm thinking at the moment, in terms of my next creative direction. I appreciate any thoughts or advice!!:

My OC art was an absolute flop in terms of gaining new social media followers. Bluesky seems to be a LITTLE bit better, but it's still early to tell and I haven't posted too many of my OCs there yet either. For the time being, though, I plan to get back to my Schoolism subscription assignments since I've been neglecting them for a bit!

good lord I need to flatten my stomach somehow, as I cannot fit into my preferred fashion choices. I quit watching TV for a while in the summer, which helped a bit (I tend to eat everything in the house while I watch), so I may try this again soon.

arm workouts are going alright I guess, I am gaining a bit of muscle in my armes so they do not look so much like noodles.

Tempted to get back into posting video game screenshots and mini-reviews on social media since people really liked this stuff, but I'm worried it might just add more to my plate.

I'm really enjoying doing videos now, I'm just not sure which direction to take them (or if I even should take them places). I tend to film a lot of myself and a long-time friend in the car just saying stupid shit, but I don't really want to post all of these.

I wish to read more books without falling asleep, jesus christ this is tough.

On a similar note: the magazine I used to write book and comic reviews for has SHUT DOWN GOD DAMN IT so maybe I'll write some new stuff here?? Not sure yet!

I need to get back to my Japanese studies!! I used to do them at lunch and dinner but now I get distracted by all the awful political shit online! Aaaaaaaa!! I really hope America doesn't combust in the next few days but I guess we'll find out soon...

Finally, I need to be more active HERE! It's the best place for longform writing and art that might be a bit too "cringe" for the general public. Let's see if I can stick to it!!

I think that's all I have to SAY for NOW. Wish me luck in sticking to my goals instead of spiralling into ADHD Twitter nonsense, aaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Tagging a couple frands: @prometheus-ghost @fadingdreamerdream @thewebspinner @autolykiss @draganwhorror

Also anyone who actually wants to watch my shitty ass videos, the link is below. I have a bunch more but haven't posted them! https://www.instagram.com/kittensoft39/reels/

[tfmerc]

Kyle Garrick Headcanon's

notes: just a reminder that these are just my silly little thoughts!

-—-

- Was obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh as a kid : Originally started collecting them after his uncle coughed up his duplicates. Puffed out his chest and waltzed around school showing them off, bragging about how much cooler his Cyber Dragon Hova is compared to Pikachu. His Ma still has shoeboxes filled with the cards stowed away in her garage, waiting for Gaz to teach his nephew/niece how to play.

- Trinket collector : I just imagine Gaz a little bit like a crow? Always hanging around in the background, studying his surroundings; taking in all the small details. Picking flattened bottle tops up off the ground at shitty pubs, running his fingers over the ridges. Little keychains, Lego figures, random keys, mini hot wheels... all ending up in the top draw of his bedside table.

- Hates minions : It's not that he hates them, more makes him uncomfortable. Watched it with his niece/nephew and payed little attention to it, though re watched it with Soap and couldn't help but start googling what minions actually were.

- His underwear is labeled everyday of the week : Knows that he can space out after rather confronting missions, spacing out during training or briefings; hyper aware of how quickly things can change. But you know what doesn't change? The days of the week, always Monday through to Sunday.

- Practically all his screentime is on letterboxd : A bit of a movie fanatic, leaning towards shitty/old slasher films. Always writes the most in-depth, almost poetic reviews under movies that have .5 stars that no one else knows exist. Stalks other people's letterboxd and will leave judgemental comments on their reviews.

[worldismyne]

MaStar Fics from Fanfic.net

Number of fics 34

Here's a peer reviewed list of MaStar fics from fanfic.net that are not cross posted on ao3. Lists go from oldest to newest.

(All fics on this list: Has the Romance tag, are written in English, properly formatted, and Soul isn't abusive or a cheater in it)

(artist)マカ「ニフラム」　ソウル「なんでこっち見ながら言うの？」 これ内臓詰まってんのかって疑���たくなるレベルのマカさんの

General

A glimpse into the past and future! - Just a little story on how Black Star and Maka met, and then a little future look at them together. Black Star x Maka fic... Cute!

Just Three More Days - Just three more days and Maka will be married.

The Forgotten Blue Shirt - Maka Albarn, our famous scythe technician, had ran out of clothes. As she was rampaging her unorganized closet, Maka came across a blue shirt but had no idea on where and when she bought said t-shirt. She had no choice but to wear it. The young meister decided to take a walk and our bookworm came across a friend that had been long-forgotten in the past. (This has characters speaking in the same paragraph - Myne)

Like Diamonds - Life after graduating from the DWMA (post anime). Maka/Blackstar

Shadow - Because Black Star realizes that his feelings remain the same no matter how many years has passed by. He also realizes that he isn't the bright star that everyone praises but a mere shadow.

Valen-tied Day - MaStar- On the day of love at Death City High, BlackStar is less than pleased to see a boy give his chocolates to his best friend Maka.

 Bonded - "There was nothing there, and yet he felt a pull of strings beckoning him to reach out, to touch what ever or whoever was waiting on the other side." Your Name AU; mini collab with Happyisahabit. MaStar Week 2017 Day 6.

Last Night - Black Star was holding something in that he hadn't realized, and Maka was much more accepting than he thought she would be. MaStar Week 2017 Day 8.

Teen

Black StarCrossed A Soul Eater Poem - A poem inspired by wild ideas rushing though my head along with Andrew Lloyd Webber music . A poem about a night where two unlikely meisters realize they are meant for each other.

Icey Accidental Romance - Some of the group decided to go for a walk through the woods. Maka and Black Star end up in a huge problem. Will this sudden accident change the way they feel about eachother, or will it just bring out the truth? MakaxBlackStar Fluff

Collapssed - Maka was enjoying a day out when Tsubaki and Soul tell her Black Star is missing; they think he collapssed somewhere. Maka panicks as he runs around and eventually finds him in a weak state. MakaxBlackStar fic.

Golden Memory - Black Star is bored.Everyone is busy but Maka,when he find her and takes her to his place she finds a pictre of them when they were younger, as memory kicks in, she realises there was a lot more to their friendship then she thought.MakaxBlackStar May update

She refuses to go on without Black Star - Three years he had been gone. She was at her limit, no longer could she live without him. MakaxBlackStar fic fluffiness! XD Rated T for content

A MakaxBlackStar Christmas! - Shitty title, I know! XD Maka was left home alone during Christmas Eve, bored, she goes to the academy to find Black Star there, the two begin talking and confessions soon lead to much, much more. Rated T for now, may be bumped up to M.

Comfort - Maka has a nightmare, and who's there to comfort her? It's fluff :S BlackStarxMaka please R&R! C: this is the first fic I've posted here. Enjoy! Rated T for sharing a bed XD

Awake - Set post-anime. "I'm the one who can surpass God. The one who can do anything he wants. If there's anyone who can wake your weapon powers up, it's me and my wavelength." After the defeat of the Kishin, Black Star visits Maka in the hospital to remind her of a promise they made when they were kids. Implied Black StarXMaka

To The Moon And Back - Black Star can't seem to get Maka's words from the battle on the moon off his mind. He ends up giving comfort to not only the blonde scythe meister who has left him feeling so strange but himself in the end. Based on Manga Chapter 105.

Maka And Black Star - Maka and Black * Star...Romance! Oh yes I am crazy enough to try this weird combination! Will Black * Star have what it takes to handle Maka? You'll have to read to find out!

Push Me - He placed his forehead against hers, grinning from ear to ear, at the girl's instant blush across her cheeks, "What? Did you think I'd let you get away without apologizing for real?" he asked teasingly.

Halloween Party - "He couldn't recall when this urge towards her had first started. It might have been long before their school days as meisters, or it might have started recently. He wasn't positive when, it didn't really matter." A party leaves Maka and Black Star time to sneak off and catch some fresh air. Maka x Black Star Slight future fic

Guns and Horses - Maka and Soul are very close friends. When She confesses her love to him, he denies her. Heartbroken, Maka turns to Black Star to help ease her pain. That's when Soul realizes he is in love with her, but who will Maka choose?

Problems with Loving your best friend - After something happens to Maka, Black-star has to help all he can, but the problem? He is head over heels for Maka! Now they have to get through everything and keep secrets from the rest of the group! Maka x Black-star

Freight Trains - No one said love was easy, but in Maka's defense no one said it would be hard either. As Maka's suppressed feelings for Soul begin to surface, she is launched into a very strange predicament, forcing her to fake a relationship with the one person she can hardly stand: Black Star.

Adrift - A commercial fishing trip gone awry leaves Braxton 'Black Star' Sterling floundering, furious, and ready to fight a God. Will his mission to get to Poseidon for a one-on-one be victorious, or will he forever be lost at sea? Mastar. Warnings: cussing, violence, talk of death, minor character death.

Mature

Stuck in a Steamy Closet - Maka and Black Star were thrown into a closet by Soul. Things get awkward and turn to hot.

A Black Winter - Winter often leaves a person feeling like there is no hope left, like all the life has been sucked out of them. When Maka finds herself on the receiving end of a prank her temper fires up those desolate feelings as she storms over to the one place where she knows she can take sort through these emotions. It just so happens that he might be part of the reason she is feeling them

Please Take Me - When Black*Star came into the Strip club the last thing he expect was to hear Maka Albarn singing. But there's more that draws him to her. and she may be just what his band needs. But there's strings attached and a lot going on in her life. and she just might need someone just like Black*Star. Soul Eater AU. MaStar Paring. You don't like it, You've been warned.

Explicit

The Sudden Rush Of Passion And Need - Black Star is bored, while going to find Soul he ends up hanging with Maka. Things quickly get hot. Black Star x Maka fluff

Three Two One Take Me! - Maka is having a horrible day. As she tries to get home she finds herself lost in the fog and breaks down.Black Star appears and takes her to an abandoned place he uses as a hideout.What will happen when Maka realises how she really feels about him?LEMON!

Rare Rainbow! True Love? - It's Black Star's birthday. The only gift Maka can give is her body. After realising that they actually have a love connection, things get steamy. Set several years later, surprise twist at the end. LEMON! Black Star x Maka

Oops - An innocent day at the pool turns... not so innocent when BlackStar and Maka are left alone together. MaStar smut. Enjoy! Rated M for future chapters C:

Animalistic - Maka is ignoring everyone to read a new book she's gotten. Everyone else is at the basketball court while she secludes herself... or so she thought. What happens when Black Star comes over to entertain his childhood friend? Will what she's reading have their hang out lead into something more? Please review!

Birthday Tattoo - Maka has never followed the crowd. Her team knows it, and her boyfriend Black*Star knows it. So when Maka decides to join her team's new hobby in getting a tattoo, what will Black*Star think? Will it be his best birthday yet? COMPLETE!

Hot Springs - Team Spartoi is taking a well-deserved vacation at a hot spring. When Black*Star loses the guys and stumbles up on the girls' hot spring, what does he see? How does Maka react? Mature one-shot. Lemon? Read and find out! *Cover image not mine!*

A special shout out to

Rabbid Girl for writing the first MaStar fic from what I can find (it is in Spanish)

XxSoulNoteWriterxX for writing over 22 MaStar fics in the second year of the niche.

happyisahabit for writing the most MaStar fics out of all of us

[snoodls]

2024 art year in review ↫

Wow. Here we are again. Long time no see or speak, friends. Hope you have all been doing and keeping well!

This past year has been the strangest and most onerous yet for me yet. I'll get into it a bit in this post but fair warning that I may mention difficult, emotionally charged topics. If you're not in the headspace for that, no worries, you can skip to the other symbol. I'll see you next year.

∵

Art was extremely difficult this year. I really struggled even finding 12 pieces to throw into a collage like this. I tend to keep a steady pace of one medium-largeish, "postable" piece a month, interspersed with little doodles and sketchbook scribbles here and there. Therefore, it's usually fairly straightforward to compile these. I scroll through my digital art folder, pick out the best or my favorite piece I made within each designated month, sometimes sprinkling in mini works or traditional pieces when applicable. This year, I only made about 8 that I would consider posting--some of which are featured, most of which are actually not. Why? Why am I so hard on myself? (A rhetorical question, but one I ask myself every day and have yet to find an answer to.) Online platforms have become a formalized space for me--a "only the polished enter the portfolio" kind of mentality. I can't quite figure out if that is something to wrestle with or listen to. On top of the usual frustrating strain of perfectionism, I haven't felt the desire to post anything at all this year.

This reticence was mostly due to deep and inordinate amounts of interpersonal stress from changes in a community that I loved and had a huge part in building. I grew fearful to be perceived publicly online and to share any part of my art or life. February and March were black holes. I felt alienated from my identity. I didn't know who I was anymore. It got so bad, I was suicidal. Truthfully, the only thing that stopped me was knowing I had to live until April.

In April, thankfully, I went on a massive trip I had been planning with all of my best friends for four years. (vlpn, Kiire, 1ore, I love you so much!!!) I traveled out west to watch the eclipse and go on a road trip to a national park that I have always wanted to see. Better yet, I was surrounded by so much restorative, healing love. I sat on Kiire's warm leather couch soaking in the real, tangible community that I had built, and drew for the first time in ages. Kiire also gave me the most thoughtful gift--a little hand lino cutter and some vinyl squares. We all gathered at her kitchen table, carving away, laughing and sharing stories. Part of me is still in April, I think.

In May, I started a summer-long pottery class (turned residency, let's be real. I lived in the studio.). It was my first time working with real clay, after dabbling with oven-bake polymer clay and play-doh before that. Since it was focused on handbuilding, I didn't get the chance to use the wheel...which I desperately want to do this summer if I'm still in town. However, even if I was only making pinch pots and tiles, I felt myself grow by leaps and bounds as an artist. Not just in technique, but also in the conception. Why am I doing xyz? What does it mean? What does my medium add to my work? I enjoy working with my hands at a physical craft, but I still wrestle with creating stuff. I love physical objects, but have no space for them at the moment.

I lived more in my sketchbook this year, continuing the trend from last year. My former boss gifted me a shitty little 5.5 x 8.5" journal that I've been using as my work sketchbook. It helps keep me sane at my desk, and my creativity muscles exercised, but does not keep me from still drawing on lined notepads...lol. That work sketchbook has truly helped me break even further away from the trapping of art perfectionism. More and more I am embracing the messy, the ugly, the unfinished. I love drawing in ballpoint pen now, and have started Yet Another Sketchbook of pen plein airs. Okay, some pencil doodles here and there. But mostly pen.

Despite having an upward swing mid-year, my world kind of collapsed in on itself September onward. I don't want to go into too much detail about everything, because it's a little personal and frankly, there's too much to go over. From housing precarity, major random trauma-related panic attacks, a natural disaster, nasty people rearing their heads in my life, grief over losing family land, my grandma getting cancer, my job being so soul-crushingly frustrating and about to become much worse in the new year...it's been so much for me to handle. I'm tired, uncertain, quaking from what has and what may be. I'm creeping through the loamy undergrowth towards 2025, trying to drag myself towards what I love. I want to forge a better life for myself; I just want to live again.

Back to art, as all things seem to go--last year I wrote that I wanted to experiment with new mediums and techniques. Good news, bestie, you absolutely did. From linocut to pixel art to markers to to clay!!!, it has definitely been an experimental year at least. In 2025, hm...I think I want to keep at studies and focus on light and depth. I also want to keep up the trend of getting weirder and less literal with my work. I'm interested in trying out some interesting compositions and having patience with myself when stuff is not turning out. Turns out you can put down the pen and pick it back up. I also miss zines and want to make more...and also I want to keep up valuing my creative time and mini projects (like my tarot journal & my media journal).

I did hit some other interesting art milestones this year--I was rejected from some zines and even gallery openings. There's this great song off the new John Craigie live album that especially resonated with me. Listen to the whole song and whole album if you've got time. "If you haven't been failing, you haven't been trying." / "Maybe the cool thing was that even though [Van Gogh] wasn't successful, he still painted, every day, all the time, right up 'till the end. I wondered why. Probably for the same reason I was driving to these coffee shops. 'Cause it felt good to swing." / "As I passed under that sign, I could almost hear the tired voice of Jiffy Lube call down to me. "Oh Johnny. How long must we watch you fail?" And as I raced past into the unknown darkness, I called back, "Oh Jiffy, how long you got? We gon be up for a while."

∵

To close, I've never really done this before, but since I haven't posted much this year, I thought I'd go through everything pictured for some context. This is generally left -> right, top -> bottom...

A panel from my comic for Commander of your Heart zine, featuring Ximone and Sappho. I was also published in 2 others this year; very cool! A tiny doodle of Wideeyes from my mini sketchbook. A gift for my friend's birthday of his cat, Lily. Her muzzle really does look scrunkly like that. Ahku, sweet Ahku, from when I did a challenge to draw with your Least Favorite Brush. I still hate the brush. A linocut stamp I made of Xiyu using the aforementioned supplies. One of many stamps I carved this year.

A piece for Archalyte to gift a character to 1ore. Fletcher, my Wermz NPC and the mascot of the summer event I ran this year. Getting into pixel art! A goofy paintover of a guinea pig featuring Nickle. A study that I did using a tablet in the studio I helped build--my third time ever working with one! I think it came out alright. Work notebook doodles for a self-published zine I'm working on. Copic markers on trading cards, featuring two of my Neopets and a Werm of mine. Ora's was done freehanded with some leftover acrylic paint I had after painting a sculpture. Since this year has sucked so bad, I've been self-soothing in silly ways; namely, spending some time on Neopets and getting wildly back into Pokemon cards / into Battledome cards for the first time. I've been enjoying tiny scene compositions and collecting little art prints.

Daihei for Artfight for 1ore...I did this while on vacation with my family and it was my first digital painting on my computer in months. Tiles from my ceramics class; my first project! I wish I could show my final project, but it does not photograph well. Ceramic coaster I painted with The Archivist. Doodles of The Sphinx and The Archivist I unearthed today. Marker drawing of vlpn's character 6298.

Vent painting from October. Painted sculpture of Starrain. Ink painting of Ahku surrounded by stuff.

Onward, blinking towards the sun...

[scintillyyy]

Hi! To continue the O'Neil discussion from [mumblemumble] weeks ago: there's a huge patchwork of interviews from different writers about how he ran things at different times (Max Collins has some especially interesting memories of him being *too strict*), which I hope to be able to compile for your review soon. That aside... have you ever read O'Neil's Gordon of Gotham mini? I'm told there's a scene in it that feels like him directly shitting on all his hippie beliefs as a young man.

always happy to continue the o'neil discussion! psychoanalyzing (dead or alive) men over a certain age is a favorite hobby of mine. probably because of my dad or something.

i am so excited to read whatever it is you compile! i think i've seen that about collins as well--but it does track with what i've heard about o'neil in the 80s office where he would mmm have standards but also not give guidance so when writers failed to meet his standards he would come down on them but also since he refused to "hold their hands" it was for sure kind of messy. one of the interesting things when thinking about and analyzing writer recollection as well is that you do have to take into account that all recollection has personal bias of the person who experienced it (not in a bad way! and this is true for both the pro-o'neil and anti-o'neil side). as far as collins goes--he probably was right to feel that o'neil was unnecessarily strict with his expectations while offering no significant guidance as to what those expectations were. someone else who maybe understood o'neil and his personality a bit better, like a lot of his assistant editors, were also right in their recollections that he wanted to be more hands-off. there are 5 sides to every story, etc.

i had not previously read gordon of gotham but i skimmed through it, and it certainly was. something in its "gordon is a good cop in a sea of shit". anyways, since it's supposed to he a prequel to year one, the first issue is full of hippie vs cop given the time era being invoked. anyways, i'm going to assume the scene in question is this:

where after saving a hippie from being beaten by a cop after said cop rammed into the hippie's volkswagon van, gordon goes on an anti-hippie rant. which. yea certainly does read as if dennis is raging over the stupidity of his youth, but i also do want to say that in context gordon also is a shitty husband in this mini (the part where his wife says "you promised to keep me pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen! and i'm not pregnant or barefoot!" certainly is a thing) among overall being fairly conservative so i honestly cannot say for certain that this is, for a fact, denny railing on the indiscrestions of his youth or if he's drawing from his experience of what the cop/establishment vs hippie/counterculture fight of the time era was because to me it reads a lot like the arguments of each side back then distilled into speech bubbles to let you know where the character is supppsed to land on the culture vs counterculture war in the year of our lord 1970 or whenever this is supposed to take place prior to year one.

i will also say. denny could very well be shitting on hippies because he never was actually one himself and has a negative bias of them but also still be a democrat--this involves a highly nuanced political discussion that takes into account that most people have a wide variety of beliefs that may not always be completely in agreement with each other despite mostly being aligned. i know he has a reputation for being pro-counterculture (the legalize pot button he wore in front of stan lee comes to mind) but was he a hippie? well. i'll be honest--according to his wikipedia he joined the navy after college and participated in the blockade of cuba during the cuban missile crisis and he never actually smoked pot himself despite being pro-legalization because it make him sick. while he certainly did have progessive and counterculture beliefs i would NOT place him as actually being a hippie when he was younger or thinking that hippies had the right of it. he could be a generally progessive person who thought that hippies were generally useless to society and he wouldn't have been alone in that? i'm not saying i think that, ofc, but like. despite hippie culture being relatively a huge part of how we perceive the 60s, overall hippies were not a majority movement (hence why they were counter-culture) and people bipartisanly kind of thought they and their beliefs were fringe and ridiculous? anyways it's also, unfortunately, very normal for people to grow older and cognitively change and look more critically on the more idealistic beliefs of their youth, so even if he was a hippie (which i kind of doubt. that man was on no lists.), it would also make sense for him to look back and rail about how young and stupid he perceived himself to be. and, while by all accounts i've seen, dennis was a democratic his whole life. there's a non insignificant amount of people who used to be hippies who have taken a complete 180 turn on their beliefs as older adults. there's a very large amount of conservatives who have long hair and ride motorcycles. so yea. anyways. it could be him railing on his youth or it could be just distilled hippie vs cop arguments or it could be he always thought hippies were kind of dumb. many possibilities.

i will also note that in the mini gordon has a bit of a gay awakening with his villain.

this too, could be a sign of something. (jk)

[vivalgi]

Almost forgot this month's Choices Insiders due to my lack of interest in the app that's taken me over again lately.

If anyone's wondering then here's what I wrote in the monthly questionnaire:

---

Of course we're getting new skill set and weapons because the ones we already have aren't underutilized enough:

The lead writer Emi also has a twitter thread about the series.

Let's be honest, the real reason why we're getting new skills is because PB really wants us to spend them diamonds on new bling. Fine, money has to come from somewhere, though I'm not really thrilled about it. I even pointed it out in my book 2 review:

--- "Our artists have also been hard at work..." Oh, screw you, PB! It's just some quick sketches for the ignorant masses. The real stuff was definitely baked in the AI oven. I've already seen - the new CGs, outfits and characters were all done with the help of image generators. Also, not a fan of that mini hitler blocking Nia's spotlight.

---

Did PB even let us send questions this time? I usually check Instagram daily and was looking forward to send another set of questions PB will never answer but I swear I didn't see one in the story feed. Regarding the replies, I don't get why PB doesn't want to spread out its release schedule on other week days. Each book would more attention that way.

---

The only one here I'm really looking forward to is Blades 3. I'm dreading what PB has planned for the wedding stuff in COP3 as PB has a really shitty track record with GOC characters. I just want to solve the father's murder and I'm already imagining a head canon about divorcing from Trystan 2 months after the wedding and starting dating Ruby instead.

Even though Bitten is a supernatural story with two LIs, it's still gender locked for some weird reason, so it's a no from me. I simply can't play with those ugly ass new female MCs and they're too much boring work to fix. The other two new titles Inheritance and Years Apart sound like boring Hallmark fillers🥱

---

Funny thing is that in the FAQ PB already said Blades 3 wide release would be in November so why put the ambiguous "fall" here:

---

It's sad to see Choices in such a miserable state and its new sugar daddy's murky background doesn't instill confidence either and it's all affecting my motivation to deal with the game at this point. I'm more excited about Candlelight's project but that one takes time make.

[eyewithinthesky]

Shitty headcanons

Obey Me

- Asmodeus doesn't use deodorant. He has so many rose scented bubble baths that the sent sticks and he just uses perfume for the rest.

-Levi has absolutely gone on the devildom black market to get video games from the human world.

-Barbatos has a room in the castle that is dedicated to astrology and future visions. (It's like a void)

- Satan has read A03 before (or the Devildom equivalent.) He's seen your posts.

-Lucifer reads your private messages too. He said you weren't the only one with that ability.

-addition, he reads the Anti Lucifer club chat the most to learn and avoid their pranks before it happens

-Diavolo has joined up with the hate luci club to prank him. He found it very funny.

-Belphie has one of those mini tents that you stuff with pillows and sleep with.

-Beel and Belphie have a solar projector

-Levi has a water projector

-Mammon has stolen RAD's credit card before and gone shipping with it.

The Magnus Archives

- Nikola reads all reviews on skincare products.

Additionally, she won't buy from brands if they've been animal tested.

- Helen wanted to own a hotel before becoming fused with the Distortion.

-Jon had listened to 'Everywhere at the end of time'

-Micheal has tried finger knitting. It didn't work (half joke one)

-Martin has seen videos online of people with pet mini highland cows and demands Jon get one.

-Elias has put cheap shitty wine in an exotic bottle to convince to his rich friends it's good (he drinks all the good wine)

-Tim has played Two trucks in the office before

- Sasha knows the violin. She learnt as a child.

[waterparksdrama]

Thanks for replying to my would you recommend them because I had heard so much mixed reviews, I didn’t really know what to think about it

What shitty jokes has Awsten made or who’s he hung out with? I’m not that familiar with him

The only person I really know of is Joel Madden I think but I don’t really know HOW shifty he is, I’ve just heard things

awsten used to make a bunch of edgy jokes pre 2016 for like. literally anything under the sun. like this is a man who admitted his white ass got like five durags of his confiscated in high school so just imagine the rest of the edgy shit he was saying and you'll probably be on the right path.

joel madden fucking sucks. maybe his twin sucks too but joel dated hilary duff when she was 16 and he was 25 and it was very public (right before she turned 18 of course). they're on better terms now i guess (i mean the maddens are definitely a part of the reason the band of hilary duff's husband opened for parx last minute on their most recent tour) but it's still. weird.

not to mention the maddens are such trendsters that fucking joel has collabed with blood on the dance floor when it was definitely known that dahvie was an actual pedo.

and one final nail in the coffin; their glassdoor reviews of their management company. angry detailed reviews of how disorganized and misogynistic the work setting they foster is with descriptions of it along the lines of "men's locker room of the industry", "vanity project", and "young women steer clear". the maddens are parx's mentors and they are the first to be under their management company.

i really don't want awsten to become a mini madden but the maddens do have their own successful business ventures through veeps and clearly they're encouraging awsten to do similar things with his hiidef fashion line. idk i just kinda worry sometimes awsten's gonna ride off the coattails of his former glory like the maddens do with having podcasts with tiktok artists they sometimes manage and only make shitty music every four years. - iz

[80roxy08]

2025 to do list

(to be updated later obviously but I need to Remember some unfinished 2024 projects)

ART

Finish one (1) chapter of LLLC (please. I can do it. I have like 7 pages to color left. I must defeat the art block demons)

Cutesy shaped glasses with the blorbos

Be free of cringe drawing of Louis in my 14 years old anime boy crush outfit

Emilie doggo cover art

Practice digital painting

SEWING

Shorten second hand summer pants I was given (not urgent)

Replace ugly sparkly chain with ribbon or black thread on second hand vest I was given (can be done between two other project, should take 5min once I've decided on replacement) - It took way longer than 5min lol

Doll crop top for Rainbow High

Sweatshirt vest for doll Louis

Also basic print t-shirts for both => In progress

More cross stitch projects

Learn crochet ?

WRITING

Re-read the Kaeya almost die on dragonspine electric Boogaloo fic for orthography and have it edited for posting later

Also the Razor Ragnvindr last two parts ? Depends if beta reader is busy (love u babe)

Make progress on second eula/Kaeya fic

Make progress on new Ragbros longish fic (Need to review Sumeru lore and shit) - write down basic outline, figure out Plot

More French???

MINIS

Finish dollhouse. Paint porch, glue windows, glue and paint roof trim, prepare roof coverage (which glue?). Toilet door ? Make more furniture. And books.

Get started on Doll Emilie (3d sculpt then print)

Needle felt head eating bug from Lethal Company

Maybe needle felt Kiki from Acnh ? For another mini doll

Make progress on some kits (but the painting pieces is so looooong)

And the Versailles inspired room box!

GAME

Replay Stray (trying for full memories + achievements)

Play Portal

And cult of the Lamb

Genshin - finish at least Sumeru exploration and characters' quests for fic purpose. Try to get to Fontaine (looks fun)

OTHER

Start list of cool museums and places to show in September

Do stupid paperwork (voting stuff beginning of the year, september holiday stuff in may/june)

Look into getting laptop battery replaced ?

Get better a cooking. Objective : from shitty to vaguely acceptable

Print and bind more fics/books !!

Listen to more music - all of dad's cassette tapes. maybe find new CDs for the car. AC/DC or Springsteen vinyl if I can find it for a reasonable price ?

Clean up old clothes/books. I don't need them all. I know I don't.

[read-alert]

book 164?

Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett illustrated by Melvyn Grant

This is a picture book tie in to Discworld, illustrating both the fictional story Vimes reads his son in Thud! and the spin Vimes puts on it to entertain his son and make it about Vimes and the people in his life.

It was absolutely adorable, and it was so fun to see official illustrations of the citizens of Ankh-Morpork, a really delightful addition to Discworld. However, I did take issue with the way Dibbler is drawn. In Discworld, Dibbler is a vendor of notoriously shitty products and a scam artist always looking to make a quick buck- a loveable scoundrel, but a scoundrel nonetheless. So the fact that he's the only human character in the book to be illustrated with racialized features when all the others are white is really gross, and knocked off half a star for me.

4.5⭐️

Send me a number between 1-283 and I'll tell you what book I read and provide a mini review!

[drmarune]

What happened in my year years reviewing

Have no order of moth

—I make right now all ready for live in my new home whit no parents but whit assisted got killer back pain

—oh I take now Testosteron because year you can guess why

—I whas tow moth really sick because my muscles and tendons reshaped so painfully this I couldn’t do something and whas in hospital whit it and this for too moth laying in a bed whit no work and I couldn’t do something about it really

—I realize my mini comic in the next time at my work place

—I got a nice place at work to work whit

—I had this and the last moth no work haha mental illness 😄

—I had and maybe have it still baby blues and got incredibly horny and wanted a child but I don’t want one exactly because I’m not mentally stable for one came highly because of stress or so……..

—I take care of my brother after a hard divorce of he’s part

—I got blue sky and I’m happy whit it

—my artist idol did see my art👍

—got a nice mini mixer on x mess and I did use this think hart

—I did go in my second puppetry like voice cracks and growing stuff and so and a lot of body pain and I’m 24 now AAAAAAA FUC€

I didn’t do not pretty much this years but man whas this a shitty year mostly but year it’s going on hope 2025 will be nice 👍

[plznomonkeys]

Wtf is up with reviewing on fanfiction these past years?

Mini-rant incoming

Y'all, idk what happened to these sites, but over the last couple years there has been huge changes on FF.net and AO3.

When I first started out in like, ~2011 ish, I was 16, young, dumb, wrote pretty cringe fanfics. MF's, I got a review on the first chapter of fics within 24 hours that I posted. They were honestly dogshit and I didn't have ANY concept of characterization. They just... did what I wanted them to.

One of my fanfics got over 400 reviews IN 3 MONTHS.

THATS OBSCENE

But now? I'm lucky to get a single review with a thumbs up emoji. And I get it, some people have nothing to say, but even little, "hey this is great, I like this, don't like this bit, but I'm still reading" is totally fine! I even rather have people give a review when they stop reading and tell me why. Because how the frickity frackity am I ever going to improve as a writer if nobody stops me?????

And I get it, maybe my writing just isn't good enough. That's entirely possible.

HOWEVER

If that was the case, why is my view count on FF over 500 reads per chapter? How about my AO3 being at over 5000 hits? If they were so shitty, why are people reading them?

And then I see these fucking posts online about people saying "oh yes, this fanfic was amazing, it means a lot to me, I love this author, they're amazing" but have they ever told the author that? No? Then they're shocked when the story gets abandoned.

I'm sorry, but reviews and commentary seriously matter for us authors. Seriously, they do. When I post a chapter that finally lore drops some seriously important notes to a story and nobody gives feedback, I start questioning myself. Did I do it right? Was it poorly written? Am I just fucking with myself and an idiot? I don't know, can't tell.

Tell your authors that their book is good. Once is not enough. Seriously, even just every few chapters tell them!

I've written two fics that are approximately 200,000 words deep, but they have very few reviews. And do you know what that looks like to a viewership? There is a massive amount of people who will read a review on the story before they pick it up. If there's a 1% ratio of reviews/comments to hits, it looks really really bad. It makes the story look like nobody is actually reading it through. This is why stories get abandoned. They live in the author's head, rent free.

I don't have to write it out honestly, I can keep it to myself if people don't want to review it. My Naruto fic is complete inside my head, the ending is set, I don't need to do anything more. So if people don't tell me they want to read it, then I'm not gunna write it. Like it's a pretty straight forward concept people seem to misunderstand.

And I get it, writing is supposed to be fun and stuff, but there's time and effort put in to making it work and keeping characters in character, in editing, in making the story read more enjoyable. Why would anyone put themselves into free labour for nothing in return?

It's just shitty, if I'm being honest, that people don't realize their stories are more likely to get put to the side if they don't show interest. Me personally, I comment and review everything I read, even if it isn't great, because I understand how important that fucking is.

Well, rant over, I guess, but I'm just super fucking salty.

And to those that do review, you're amazing. I have 3 loyal readers that I'm genuinely writing just for them, that's it. I hope they have warm sunshine and cool pillows.