#so i suppose i'll just use your url

[neko-naruto]

doesn't mean much from me put I very much appreciate sapnap on my dash along with your shitposts🫡

you are absolutely wrong, you are the fucking sapnap mutual, this compliment (?) from you does mean shit i assure you that much bro

[zichqecs-hoard]

Oh I see 🤔 Hmm... yeah, messing with the reload commands can be a little fiddly, in my testing anything after a reload like that does not display. If I do eh...”\![reload,shell] shell has been reloaded” in script input, I can see “she” type out, and then the shell reloads and the rest is cut off. I think because these commands are probably expected to be used in a debug way?

You could consider having the alternates as completely separate shells instead, and locking it off so that the user can’t switch between them manually (though if you did that, you would need some additional code to prevent switches from the ghost explorer as well, if manual switches are undesirable). That way you could just give each shell its own menu in the first place, and not need the shell reload command.

The downside being, I think the blip would be more noticeable that way, and you would also need code to make the new shell loading in move to the same position that the other shell was when it was unloaded. I’ve done it before, it’s not impossible, but it is a bit of a pain 😅 If you did it that way, you could chain the balloon change command onto OnShellChanged.

That’s probably not ideal unless you’re really desperate though, I imagine it’d be difficult to switch over everything you have to deal with a multiple shell system depending on how far you are into it.

Another thought... you could set a variable in the OnSwitchMenu function like shellchange = 1 (and in that case, I would recommend changing it to an \![embed] tag rather than an embedded element, just in case the user cancels the script before it finishes executing. Or, you could use \t in the changing script to prevent the user from cancelling!), and then in one of the events that fires after the shell reloads, like OnNotifySelfInfo, check for that variable, and if it’s 1 set it to 2. Then in OnSecondChange, if it’s 2, change the balloon and reset the variable to 0. (Notify events can’t run scripts on their own, but if you don’t mind a 1 second wait you can shunt it off to OnSecondChange. It’s not my favorite method, but it’ll work in a pinch. You have to be careful with OnSecondChange though - under almost no circumstances do you want to end up outputting a script every second; it’ll interrupt your balloons and make the ghost unpleasant to use.)

That idea is definitely janky 😂 You could also try a timerraise (that’s timer raise, not time raise) command after the reload command instead, if you don’t mind waiting a second or two, and have the event that it raises change the balloon. That may come with its own kind of jank (can’t guarantee how long it’ll take the shell to switch in all environments), but it may be worth testing out to see if it’ll suit your needs.

But by far I think the most solid method, at least for changing the balloon, would actually be to combine your balloons into one. A lot of my ghosts have done this lately, where each balloon has multiple color options combined into a single balloon, and I use OnTranslate to change the balloon tags appropriately (but only if the ghost is currently on that balloon). SSP Angel is a good example of this! They go a bit overboard with the customization, in your case it should be a lot simpler. It should be as simple as an if check to make sure your custom balloon is being used, like if SHIORI3FW.BalloonName == “Aster Tooltip”, and then a check for which mode the ghost is in, and a set of replace commands if it’s in the mode with the alt coloration.

That method has a few benefits, primarily that it makes the script more straightforward so the balloon change always happens, and it cuts out any loading time for the balloon. And with OnTranslate handling the color changes, you can keep writing balloon tags as normal. (Side note, I do not recommend trying to use embedded elements for this instead. I used to do that with tags like %(b2) and %(b4), but then I found out that if I asked my ghosts to repeat the last dialogue just after I changed colors, they’d use the wrong one! So I let OnTranslate handle it now.)

I suppose eh... the problem is it’s difficult to have the reload shell command and a balloon change command in the same script and guarantee it’s not going to behave strangely. So I think the best solution, if you’re able to, is to eliminate one of those, and combining the balloons would do just that. But if that doesn’t suit your needs for whatever reason, maybe those other methods will work 🤔 just test them thoroughly, I suspect they would be plagued with issues of their own 😂

Ooh wait, I have one other idea. Have you considered using a change shell command, and simply switching to the same shell that you’re currently using? I think that would still have the effect of reloading it, but you get the benefit of the OnShellChanged event firing! That way you could set a variable, do the change, and then have OnShellChanged check if that variable is set and perform the rest of the change/dialogue on its end. \![change,shell,%(SHIORI3FW.ShellName)] should change you to the current shell, no matter what it is (uh, these SHIORI3FW variables I’m using assume you’re using YAYA and not AYA, since they come standard with YAYA specifically. I’m guessing you’re using YAYA if you’re using my guide, but I’ll make the note anyways.)

SORRY THAT’S A LOT but hopefully at least one of those things is helpful 😂

I think I can with certainty say I'm past the halfway point with this. there's not that much random dialogue left to make up

I can only hope the switch works as intended on other computers, since a different timing left them mid-transition. it seems like it doesn't interrupt the bubbles switch but it's only if the menu switch/shell reset comes at a specific point before it 🤔

sakurascript is really weird with calling functions, but I Think if you call it as a variable ( %(function) ) it doesn't interrupt the script?? maybe??

[Image ID:

Two gifs showing off Vega complaining about the messiness of Windows' system32 folder, providing the user with a link to open it and see for themselves, and the right click context menu changing its color scheme alongside Vega switching to Rigel.

End ID]

[neriumxoleander]

If you could explain, I'm only learning this now! What's going on with Gato? I've only seen vague posts but I know all social media is gone (because by god fucking twitter apparently) I've seen from the fake gatobob account post about recent events and I'm soo confused. Could you please shed some more light on this? If you are as clueless as I am, you don't need to respond. - @your-very-own-anon (mod speaking)

Sorry for the late response, I've been trying to retag some things while I'm focused on this account for once. I'll try to be brief? please don't take me as the authority on this, I just happened to get into the tags while it was unfolding earlier today. still going under a read more though. i suppose a tw for mentions of racism and xenophobia are warranted. And please do not interact if you are a minor or have no age listed on your blog, I will block you.

Gato deleted her social media accounts this morning (tumblr, twitter, pillowfort) and explained on patreon it was for her mental health and safety (which... safety? hm) and someone here immediately claimed the gatobob url. which happens, it's tumblr. but this person is using it basically as a callout center.

the callout seems to be about an incident that happened in the patreon exclusive discord server before it got shut down a couple months ago. tldr according to this person, someone (a mod?) made a racist comment towards someone, and gato apparently handled the situation poorly and neither her or the mods apology were really that great. I was in the server as a lurker more than anything, but I don't remember being there when this happened.

other people sending in asks to this new gatobob account have also been calling her out for xenophobia, but I have a feeling that's looking a little bit too much into statements she's made about her games being redistributed in Russia and Spain specifically if i recall correctly.

this new blog is demanding gato and the aforementioned mod properly apologize for their behaviour, but in my opinion, this is a really weird and bad way to go about it. Smart to use her url as a way to boost the problem, but... I haven't seen any solid evidence besides some very vague screenshots, none of them including the racist remarks (the screenshots they've posted so far definitely aren't good responses or apologies if they ARE linked to this incident, and it should have been taken seriously) And the victim from the racism incident is NOT the person running the new gatobob account, so it feels very weird to me that this person is taking it upon themselves to stir everyone up and demand things from gato and the mod.

as far as I can tell, gato hasn't said anything about this on patreon, although she's likely taking her separation from social media very seriously. If she is aware (and I'm sure she's getting plenty of DMs about this on patreon), she'll likely make a post there addressing it in the next couple days, but that's just speculation.

I'm keeping a mostly neutral stance in this whole thing, but I'm encouraging people to not interact with this new gatobob account. There's nothing we can really do; they aren't impersonating her, posting anything against ToS as far as Im aware, and people have been hoarding urls for years. Just... listen and learn, I think is all I can suggest. Form your own opinions, but don't go on a witch hunt about it, if that makes any sense.

I'll try to answer other questions, but I'm just one guy on the internet who doesn't usually get tangled with things like this. Please be patient.

[yoonia]

Writing Update: 01.06.2024

I'm back with my annual update psa just to give you a glimpse of what's happening this month:

Bedroom Hymns (myg x reader) ⏤ this month's target/estimated word count: chapter(s) 19 & 20; est. 20k words in total ⏤ progress written: around 9k words of the total word count goal for two chapters; some of the smaller scenes that were planned to be a part of chapter 19 has grown substantially longer, so there's a chance that I might have to split the chapter into two separate/smaller ones. I'm having a bit of too much fun with this part, I suppose. I think you'll understand once the chapter(s) comes out :)

Ever a Never After (jjk x reader; ksj x reader)  ⏤ this month's target/estimated word count: act 2 & 3; est. 15-17k words in total ⏤ progress written: outline work 100% done; around 3k words written of the total word count goal for two chapters in first draft writing; it's still a long process to go through but I've been jumping between act 2 & 3 as I'm writing, so I might be able to finish both chapters this month to release soon. Crossing my fingers :)

Hot Mess (kth x reader) ⏤ estimated word count: 6-7k words ⏤ progress written: 3,5k words (first-second draft writing) I haven't got the chance to touch this one as I was focusing more on previous stories. I'm planning to finish this fic soon though since this one's been sitting in my draft for too long :')

Alpha's Inferno (knj x reader) ⏤ estimated word count: 19-20k words ⏤ progress written: 8k words (first draft writing) it was pretty surprising that I decided to open this draft again. But with my plan on revamping the series, I was using this fic to motivate me on going through BMR again and maybe retouch some of the old ones

These are the ones that I'll be focusing on this month. I'll be on and off from my blog while I'm writing because things are going to be a bit crazy this month offline for me too. As mentioned above, I'm planning to revamp my Shifters series, and maybe some others too (*coughs* About Time *coughs*) so that's going to take away a bit of my focus, I'm sure. But I'll make sure to keep a regular update this month as always. See you soon!

note | If you’re interested in being added into my permanent taglist, please enter your url on this link or if you want to be tagged for EANA, drop your url here. If you only want to be added on a specific update, please add your url and the fic you’re looking for in the replies below, and remember to make sure that your url can be easily found/tagged. You can also subscribe to my Patreon to gain access to my writing journal and watch my daily writing process.

xoxo, Dia

[allwaswell16]

sunday snippet

I was tagged by @voulezloux but only because I'm one of the few url's he has committed to memory lol. Okay, so the only wip I have right now is actually finished, but it won't be posted until Aug 24 oh shit that's coming up! Is that this week?? I just consulted a calendar...it's Saturday! Also, I do not remember what snippets I have given for this fic, but it's for @1dalphalouisfest and it is called Let the Feeling Last and I'm laughing because I forgot I titled it that. There's a whole story behind it that I won't get into here. Anyway, pig fic...

He ended up using grocery bags to carry half the popcorn out to Gareth’s pen. “What the fuck happened to you?” Gareth, who was covered in pink and purple splotches of color, ran over to see what Louis had in his bags, pushing his snout into one until Louis dumped them out onto the ground for him. He seemed to quite enjoy popcorn.  Louis scanned Gareth’s pen and found the gate pushed open. “How did you manage this?” A few hoof tracks showed the direction Gareth had been headed. Louis firmly closed the gate and headed off to see what Gareth had gotten into. Zayn’s half demolished berry bushes gave it away. Zayn was going to be pissed. Louis frowned and headed back to his pig. “Did you have to lay around in them? Don’t leave evidence behind! I thought pigs were supposed to be smart.”

I'll tag: @haztobegood @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed @justanothershadeofblue @parmahamlarrie @disgruntledkittenface and anyone else who wants to share a snippet just say I tagged you!

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "ofoceansandtombsanew "?

Oooh that's a fun one! Time to go diggin' though my favs because do I have some recs!

But first, I'll answer the easier of these two questions, the one about my url. Originally it was "ofoceansandtombstones" but some bs happened and my original blog accidentally got deleted. But it was still up for a few days afterwards miraculously so I couldn't actually use my old url for the new writing blog I made, so I went with "ofoceansandtombsanew" to represent that the evils of my clumsiness couldn't defeat me and that I was the same user as the OG account.

But as to why I have the oceans and tombs name in general, there are a few reasons. I'm a professional yapper, sorry in advance for this being long. (TLDR: I love selkies and banshees, I love the ocean & water in general and I have a lot of deep thoughts and philosophical wonders about death.)

Two of my favorite faeries in all of mythology and the selkie (a shapeshifting faerie that goes back and forth between human and seal by use of their seal coat) and the bansee (faerie women that herald death by wailing, screaming and keening). I like to jokingly call myself the love child of a selkie and a banshee as well.

I've loved the water and the ocean since I was a kid. To a point to where my moms both tell me that it was never a pain to get me in a bath, the pain was in trying to get me out of it (so they had to drain the tub first). And that they'd have to keep the bathroom door closed because if my brothers left it open and the toilet seat open... well to Kid Nyla, it was free real estate to play in water.

As a kid I also had a really reckless habit of jumping into the deep end of the pool.......... even though I couldn't swim. But I also taught myself how to swim (ironically I taught myself how to swim underwater, I never got the hang of overwater swimming). I was also that kid that just floated around in the water letting myself become 'one with it'. In the third grade I found this website called changeyourlifespells or some shit like that and spent a month trying to find a spell that would turn me into a mermaid if I touched water.

It's to the point that in any elemental magic system where water is an option, my IRLs stick that one on me. One of my IRLs in particular. Disney Fairies? (The books mostly but I do love the movies. I just wish Rani and Prilla were there too TAT. My girl Fira too.) I'd be a water-talent. I told her once one of my moms said I would have been a firebender and she deadass went "your mom is wrong. It's water. The only option has ever been water." She doesn't even play Genshin but when I talked about Dendro and Electro being possible options for me, she immediately shot that down too lmao to be honest she's right. I'd likely end up with a Hydro Vision and I wouldn't have been mad. She also told me to not be on some Children of the Sea shit and disappear into the ocean whenever I went to the beach.

But I'm also fairly comfortable around the subject of death. If you've read any of my fics on this blog that have a reader character that is a god of death or death incarnate or somehow death-adjacent, you'll have probably read my philosophies concerning death and its place in the cycle. I've been told by funeral directors that they thought I'd be really good in the profession whether as a mortician or a director of a funeral myself if I decided not to go into education.

And I have a blog on the side for this kind of thing but on one side of the family, Mom2's, experience with the supernatural runs in it so it's something I've dealt with since being a kid.

Either way, when I was trying to come up with a name for my writing blog, I ended up deciding to go into my self-proclaimed lovechild of a selkie and banshee-isms. It was supposed to be temporary honestly, until I found something that sounded more writing blog-y. But it stuck. To me there's nothing more beautiful than the ocean, the sound of the waves, the blue, the cry of the gulls and so on and so forth. But there's a beauty in death I think, if you look at it from a certain angle.

^o^ No one's ever asked about my url before, that was fun to talk about!

As for the second... oof that will take some thinking.

💧 = 18+

save your love by @cafedanslanuit 💧

Porco wasn’t surprised when you called him at three in the morning because you were too drunk to drive back to your place. He would always be there when you needed, both as your best friend and the guy who was completely head over heels for you. And both of them were sure Zeke Jaeger was cheating on you.

Written by one of homies on this hellsite. If you want your quality of Porco-related reader inserts, this is one I recommend fully. I really mean it when I say I go back to read this over from time to time.

Let This Bond Be Heard, Lover by @lychniis

he bore an irrefutable connection with you, tangled through their fingers. parts of you, guides to you and he finds himself so hopelessly smitten and scared...for love it was a beautiful, painful thing.

Aine speaks... and I listen. I don't even simp after Ayato and I was still hanging on every word. Goes to show what happens when the homies cook. A soulmate AU fic with lots of yearning and tension, all in a oneshot.

Nerve in my Bone by @hash-slinging-slasher-trash

Sometimes Satoru forgets how fragile you are. But in moments like these, the realization twists in his chest like a blade.

Another homie cooking up a storm on their blog for no reason, other than the fact that they can! I think this is really good if you love Gojo-related character exploration as well as bro bro being a dad to Megumi. The best of both worlds!

More Than Human by sbj

There is no way I can make this sound original, ever. My attempt to write a believable RrB/PpG in high school fic. Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. - Camus

The best PPG fic in the world, no questions asked. Each character feels extremely representative of what the girls and boys would be like at this age and the fandom around this fic? Love it. We literally all lose our minds whenever this fic updates. I've been following it since its days of being published on FFN and I look forward to reading the thrilling conclusion. Oh god just thinking about the quality of the ships just make me fjsnkjdnkdjfn

Three Months by kaotic321

When the girls get together, watch out! They're making lists and checking it twice. Are the guys in or out? Shika, Neji, Naruto, and Sasuke are now declared 'undateable' by the girls. Who does that leave?

A really fun what if fic about the Naruto girls we know and love deciding to try out dating someone they normally wouldn't. Sakura and Kiba, Hinata and Chouji, Ino and Gaara, Temari and Shino, Tenten and Kankurou. I loved this shit so much found it by accident when I was going through my KibaSaku phase (still love that ship btw). 50 chapters of goodness I still go back to read.

Vertigo by Cynchick💧

Sakura accepts the most critical and dangerous mission of her life, but the price of success may very well be her soul. When your entire world turns upside down, how do you keep from going under?

From my DeiSaku phase. Still love that ship very much btw ANYWAYS, oh my god this was so good. Basically it's an AU of 'what if Deidara didn't die after his explosion' where Sakura finds him and heals him without realizing he's a member of the Akatsuki. Chaos ensues from there years later when she needs to join the Akatsuki for an undercover mission.

Somewhere I've Never Traveled, Gladly Beyond by Wyntermute

Naruto had been bragging all day that his new jutsu was his best yet. Sakura and her new situation beg to differ. Post timeskip.

Another one from the DeiSaku phase lmao. Sakura and Deidara are stuck traveling with each other as they try to get back to the shinobi nations, somewhere in there, they fall in love. Hnnngh this is still so damn good all these years later! The amount of Naruto on here, my god fjdsnfkdsjnf sorry folks. I have read a lot of Naruto fic in my time.

sparkling, stammering, splendid by createandconstruct

He wanted to see her. He always did. He’d gotten used to waking up on time for school each morning because despite everything else, Mitsumi was there. But this feeling, this want, was new, or a revelation of what had always been. A culmination of everything he’d felt before.

ShimaMitsu for the soul, made after during the chapter 53 era when the entire sukirofa fandom was losing it after Sousuke realized he's been in love with Mitsumi for months. 11/10, always read again.

Crepuscular Rays by Axe_puff

It takes Shikamaru a little while to realise he's fallen in love. In comparison, it takes Naruto barely any time at all. But that's only after Shikamaru finds it in himself to confess in the first place.

A retelling of Naruto from Shikamaru's perspective, also he's been in love with him for ages. Onesided NaruHina and an unexpected ShikaHina bromance that fed my soul.

surrender to your peace by spiralpegasus

Sylvain and Felix have been in each other's lives for as long as they can both remember. As the years go by, their relationship grows and changes, but one thing stays the same: the way it feels to sleep beside each other. Or, five times circumstance makes Sylvain and Felix share a bed, and one time it's choice.

Quality Sylvix for the soul, you're welcome. I adore relationship it's lwk why I've never played Golden Deer or Crimson Rose. I have to experience those routes on youtube lmao. Anyways, sylvix is a ship I adore a lot (maybe I should make an addendum to that ship ask I got) and I love when the childhood aspect of their relationship is explored in writing.

[biscuits-of-bagend]

DnDoc, The Loch o' the Lowes #1 - Motion Over Mind

I just changed my url but what clearer way to show it's me than a giant fanfic chapter set in Scotland :P

Previous stories: DnDoc, Coming Home DnDoc, Space Band DnDoc, A Man's a Man DnDoc, The God of Rock 'n' Roll

The opportunity to go swimming in the Loch o' the Lowes actually arose a few days after I started writing this chapter so that could have been a spooky coincidence, except it was so windy that there was absolutely no chance for ominous silence whilst I tried not to get whacked in the face by a wave. I did get some nice photos though so will be including some of those.

---

Rogue lay on his back, floating on the water. It was a kind of weightlessness, if you did it right. It was different even from lying on the ground. Even lying on a soft bed, you could still feel it under your back. You were still aware of all the atoms linking together to make the surface that your body weight pressed down upon. But in the water, you could forget about gravity, or at least forget that it was supposed to apply to you. Of course, this all presumed you were able to keep your whole body buoyant and not have to worry about the gravity of sinking. But all that had been covered in Rogue's training.

   A wave of water splashing up the side of his head and into his eyes got his attention. He rolled onto his front then looked up at the paddle board. He'd drifted a few yards away from it, which was a good thing, otherwise he'd have been right in the middle of the spray as the board capsized. It couldn't have been easy to completely flip a flat inflatable board, but the Doctor and Ruby seemed to have managed it.

   "What happened?" Rogue called, doggy-paddling across the short distance between them.

   Ruby twisted around to face him and the Doctor, over the other side of the board, leaned to his right to see past her. Like Rogue, they were both clad in skin-tight black wetsuits - it would be foolishness to swim in the Scottish summer without one. Rogue had a dark blue swimming cap on to keep his curls out his eyes, but Ruby had opted just to tie her hair back with a bobble.

   "Ruby was trying to get on to sit beside me," the Doctor called back. "But then physics happened and off we both tumbled. Did you know this paddle floated, by the way?"

   The Doctor held up the one-paddled oar that had come with the paddleboard. Rogue was guessing it was a good thing it did float, otherwise it'd be on its way to the bottom of this considerable lake by now. Or loch, he was told, since they'd decided to give Scotland one more go.

   Eventually, and very carefully, Ruby and the Doctor both got onto the board. Rogue held the board steady as best he could and passed up the paddle once they were steady.

   "Do you wanna come up too?" the Doctor asked, though there was a wary note in his voice that suggested he wasn't desperate for a yes.

   "Nah, I'll keep floating for a bit. I think the sun's about to come out from behind that cloud and there's no better way to sunbathe, really," said Rogue.

   "I never would have thought of coming to Scotland to sunbathe," said Ruby. "But the wetsuit really makes it work."

   "Neoprene adds at least five degrees," Rogue agreed.

   "Yeah," said the Doctor, breaking into a smile as the sun did indeed poke its head out. "Glad you suggested this, Ruby. This is delightful."

   The sun gave Rogue a new flutter of energy as its rays touched his face. "I'm gonna go for a swim, guys. Try not to drown while I'm away?"

   "Pfft, we'll be fine," said the Doctor, waving away his concern.

   Rogue flashed him a smile then pushed forward into the water, kicking hard to get his speed up. Once he was successfully off the mark, he relaxed and used long, gliding strokes to cut through the loch. The three of them had entered the water at the narrower east end of the loch, the Loch of the Lowes as it was apparently known. You could almost make out the faces of the sheep ambling around on the opposite side, in a field just up from the bank. To warm up their bodies after the shudderingly cold water - sun be damned, it was cold - had seeped into their suits, they had begun to swim across to the other side. But then after a few strokes Rogue had looked up and discovered he'd left the two of them in his dust, so he'd reeled himself in and gone at a more sedate pace with them. But now he unleashed himself and swam like a machine west towards the middle of the loch.

   When he needed a rest, Rogue stretched out his muscles and lay on his back again. He had an inflatable float on a rope, which was then strapped round his waist. But floating took so little out of him that he barely needed it. Once he'd got his breath back, he rotated forwards so that he was upright and treading water. He spun around to get his bearings until he was looking back west towards the Doctor and Ruby. They seemed to be taking it in turns to jump from the board while the other tried not to get tipped off. Rogue grinned and took in the rest of the scene around him.

   He'd gone too far west to be near any sheep, but given the tiny little stream of water that washed down their field into the south bank of the loch, he didn't necessarily mind that. The loch was framed to the north and south by high, rolling hills, creating such strong lines that they almost purposefully directed your view west. The sun was just creeping over the shoulder of the southern hills, but if they stayed out much later Rogue worried it might start to set. But it wasn't too big a deal, he remembered, since the TARDIS was currently floating on the water near the Doctor and Ruby. They weren't in a rush at all.

   As he made to start swimming again, something about the silence tripped him up. He thought maybe it had started with the feeling that the hills were pointing consciously to the west, but he definitely had a thought in the back of his head that he was not alone.

   Rogue had had this problem before, a lot. He'd always been a strong swimmer indoors, but when the academy had taken him outdoors, suddenly his limbs would freeze and his heartrate would skyrocket no matter how well he paced himself. If you'd asked him 'is there a sea monster in this loch?' he'd have said no, but that didn't stop the tight tingling sensation in his gut. And once it had started, it was really hard to kill it.

   But he had developed a mantra over the course of his time at the academy. Mind over matter, motion over mind. He started swimming again, counting out the beats of the mantra with each stroke. 'Mind over matter' meant that you could push on when your body was screaming, but 'motion over mind' meant that you could keep swimming when your brain was trying to play a trick on you. Focusing on saying the mantra over and over again to himself was a good distraction too.

   He pushed forward, internally whispering, until his arms started to tire. Then he flipped onto his back and floated again, trying to ignore the feeling of something looking up at his body from below.

   Something touched his side. He spluttered and jerked back upright, whipping around to face where it had come from.

   "Woah, sorry," said the Doctor. "You alright, babes?"

   Rogue sighed, smiling as he closed his eyes. He blinked slowly a few times, then nodded and drew the Doctor close. "I'm okay, just got a fright."

   "My bad," said the Doctor, giving him a cheesy grin.

   "Oh, you are bad. You're a villain, a sea monster," murmured Rogue, kissing the Doctor. He relaxed as their lips pressed together and their arms wrapped around each other's backs. They bobbed up and down in the water, losing themselves in each other. But when it came time to swim back over to Ruby on the paddle board, Rogue found the feeling of an extra presence in the water come creeping back into his consciousness.

---

Part 2

@off-traveling-in-the-stars @casavanse @monster-donut @randomwholocker (let me know at any point if you no longer wish to be tagged in each post, especially since it's a new story)

[fountainpenguin]

I've been experimenting with Firefox as a browser on the side (after using Chrome for many years), and while I'm going to try to keep using it because I know everyone says it's a better browser and that switching is easy, I want to make a few notes:

- Only 7 of my 23+ extensions had a Firefox parallel, so it's a learning curve to get used to things I no longer have. So far, I haven't found a working Xkit extension, making the Tumblr experience worse, but I'll keep trying. I miss my slider extension for adjusting screen brightness, which I have on Chrome. However, I'm grateful my password manager carried over.

- There's no Google Docs Offline extension. This isn't going to work for me, who does a ton of my work offline due to long carpooling trips, so even if I switch to using Firefox at home, I'd have to keep Chrome for this

-> Moving things between Word and Docs isn't super convenient for what I do, and I don't have Word on my laptop. Options such as wordcounter.com are an option in an emergency (I often open one such tab before a long car trip), but that's only useful for words, not working on formatting.

- I like Firefox's browser themes. One of them is an animated Spirited Away header that I really like because the URL bar is black and the top of the screen is dark. One of the problems I often have with Chrome is that I edit docs while in the dark, but extensions don't change the URL bar, which is blaringly white and distracting. I haven't tested Firefox in the dark, but I think I would like the dark bar.

-> Unfortunately, one common place I'm in the dark is on long carpool trips... and since there's no Edit Offline option, that's not as helpful as it could be. It may be helpful if I'm on a laptop in bed at night, but I haven't tested this yet.

- Was quite surprised that when I checked Firefox settings, all the "We track your data" toggles were flipped on? I thought that was the one thing Firefox was supposed to not do? (Or I'm not phrasing this properly since it may have been "We let websites use targeted ads by tracking data," or something like that).

And that's fine, I'm glad I could turn it off, but very surprising to me since all the Tumblr posts I've seen encouraging people to switch to Firefox talk about how it's so easy to move your extensions over, it does everything Chrome can do but better, and they never track your data, and so far my experience has been the opposite of this.

- I'm grateful I have a Google Doc bookmarked. All my bookmarks were easy and instant to migrate to Firefox, but because it's separate from Google (obviously), there's no easy way to access my files without having something like a bookmark.

So, instead of opening a new tab and clicking on the Google Apps menu (where I usually go to access docs or sheets), I instead access them by having one doc or sheet bookmarked, then clicking on the icon that takes you to those home pages.

I don't mind doing this because it's the same amount of clicks for me- I'm very used to having a doc, sheet, and gmail in my bookmarks bar and I recently added my calendar to bookmarks. However, if I hadn't bookmarked these before opening Firefox, I don't see any easy way to find them. I'm glad I'm tech-savvy enough to get there, but if I were not tech-savvy, I think this would be stressful for me.

- I'm not 100% sure what the point of a private Firefox browser is when people say that Firefox doesn't track your stuff. It looks like it's for cookies and history. One small (avoidable in the future) problem I had was thinking I was in the private browser when I was still in the regular browser because the colors are the same- there's just a small logo informing you if you're in the private browser.

So, if you're sharing a computer with housemates and trying to use Firefox's private browser, be careful not to get them mixed up. I think I made this mistake because the keyboard shortcut to open a new tab in Firefox is not the same as it is in Chrome, so I thought I'd opened the tab, glanced over at my second monitor, and missed the fact that it hadn't gone through.

- After I told Firefox to stop asking to be my default browser, the next time I opened it, it asked if I wanted Firefox to open my tabs for me. There wasn't a description of what this meant, such as if I'm in Chrome and right click a link to open it in a new tab, if it would open an entire Firefox browser instead of a new tab in my Chrome window.

I did not commit to this option due to me not understanding what it meant, but if that's what it would do, that would be super annoying right now. Also, that's really weird of it to basically ask to be default browser in different words (if that's what it was asking).

So, here's the main reason I wanted to make this post:

- I downloaded a new word counter because Word Counter Plus was not one of the extensions that had a Firefox parallel. I picked the 2nd most popular one (didn't see there was a more popular one 'til now).

Let me tell ya, there is nothing more horrifying than opening the draft you've been revising for weeks, highlighting, checking the word count, and seeing the number 2,940 when you're expecting 17k+ and you're in the AO3 editor box, so there's no way to recover history if I actually had deleted 14k words.

Image of my word counter extension on Firefox vs. my definitely more correct one from Google Chrome- same document, and I checked to confirm all the words were highlighted in Firefox.

Luckily, all my 17k words are still there. I'm just doing final revisions and will be done soon - trying to get from 17k words down to 15k - but I will definitely be doing this in my usual Chrome because Firefox is not up to this task.

... Okay, I just switched to using the more popular Word Count extension, and even though I followed the steps in the extension, nothing happened. I didn't get a pop-up.

-> After testing, it doesn't work correctly. I was able to open a new AO3 chapter and select a small section of text. However, it doesn't even try giving me a pop-up when I test it on the chapter with 17k words. Not a good sign that the only two word counter extensions with more than 1,000 people are unable to do this, even though the extension's page says "works for any length of text."

So far, I haven't had adblocker or captcha conflicts, though I do have to go through the usual annoyances of setting a new browser to my settings.

I also read somewhere that Firefox doesn't let you copy-paste / cut-paste because it protects your data by not saving things in your clipboard. So far, I have not encountered this problem. However, if I did, that would also be a deal-breaker because I need to highlight and move data between docs (and within my doc) on the regular.

I'm going to keep testing Firefox sometimes because I'd like to use it since people keep saying it's the best and that Google is changing stuff in June, so now's the time to switch.

Since I've only seen posts that enthuse about Firefox being easy and the best on my dash, I at least wanted to mention some of my struggles so my followers can go into Firefox with appropriate expectations if they're also hoping to do things like have an accurate word count or use Google Docs offline (especially if they're holding out to switch until June and might be caught off guard if the learning curve is harsher than expected).

So, imo:

- Chrome is still the best option for me as someone who keeps track of thousands of separate Google Docs and Sheets and likes them to be easily accessible

- My research suggests there is no possible way to edit Docs offline if using Firefox (Bad news for my multi-hour carpool life and a definite deal-breaker to switching permanently)

- The two most popular word counters were not able to handle the length of an average document (less than 60 pages in Google Docs)

-> I can continue using the Google Docs app on my phone to edit offline and then access those docs on Firefox when I'm back in Internet connection, but I'd rather use a laptop keyboard than a phone keyboard if I'm in a vehicle for 6 hours (which is a common experience in my life right now)

- I recommend testing extensions thoroughly in a practice setting before you try to use them for actual important work. I would have been SO embarrassed (and potentially fired) if I was checking a ton of articles for a client and some of them were off by 15,000 words, but I waved them through because I'd only tested the extension with small sections of words (where it seems accurate) and not long sections.

I also would have been embarrassed if I'd searched something I thought was private and then I wasn't in the private browser and it came up in my recent history.

So, I would say Firefox may not be the right browser for a writer unless they've found different tools that get around these problems, and if you want to use Firefox, take the time to get familiar with it before you do anything "serious" with it. If you have important documents to review for work, don't jump in assuming your tools will work correctly.

[writermuses]

Life Update | 📌 Post | Updated 2 August

Hello writers! I'm Natty (35, she/her) and welcome to my OC multi-muse/multi-verse indie RP blog. I am selective and slow to reply. There will be crime, smut, and other triggering content on this blog, but I use "trigger tw" and "smut" for tags fairly consistently. Nevertheless, I will not interact with writers, muses, or faceclaims under 21. Thank you in advance for being patient with me. Here are my rules:

My opens are open forever! If you reply to an old legacy starter, I'll reply in the new (beta) editor. Alternatively, you can make a new post and @ me with a 'continued from here' link. Either way, this blog is NEW EDITOR ONLY! Threads with problematic fcs, anyone under 21 people, or posts in legacy will be dropped. However, I'm not typically bothered by what you write with other people and we don't kink shame. I only ask you talk to me before trying something wild in a reply.

Do not reblog/like the musings unless I tagged you on the post. If you want to use a musing, then you can reblog from the source. If there’s no source linked then copy the image URL. If you’re not the @ and you're in my notifs, I will block you.

My replies will be slow. Therefore, do not post more than 2 replies to me per day. This is supposed to be fun and my escape from my career and deteriorating health. Some days off work I just need to rest physically and mentally. I'm mostly just a weekend writer.

I will drop threads with writers that use me for my males. Whether that's you picking up a bunch of my guys and one girl or repeatedly replying to my male opens while letting my female threads go unreplied for months/until they hit the 2 month drop point. I'll ghost you for that shit so quick. I do also try to pair a male and female reply for each writer as I cycle through what I owe to keep it balanced. If you only want a guy, we can have just the one thread. Be honest about it or leave because this isn't the blog for you.

I have severe anxiety and work insane hours. I’ll write what I can, when I can, as the muse for a reply hits on the weekends, but I also have to acknowledge that I have a lot of threads and giant replies stress me out and are not fair to the other writers, so they aren’t going to take priority and may be dropped. Thank you for understanding, especially those of you that tell me it’s okay to not to match length. If a reply hits 2 months I will assume you dropped it, no messaging needed.

Formatting: Cut your posts! Also, I prefer small font and medium or icon gifs, and only reply to reblogs using the new editor. If you only have large gifs or no gifs of your faceclaim, it's okay to not use gifs in your replies. Put the gif at the bottom of your reply. I will not match over the top formatting and will drop a thread if your aesthetics supersede quality writing.

Replies: I ask that you move the plot forward in your reply. If you repeatedly insta-reply and aren't moving the plot anywhere, I'm going to lose interest and drop the thread. Rate and order of replies does not equate to interest in a thread. If you're stuck, do a time jump or wait to reply. You've got 2 months before I will assume you dropped the thread.

Be well + Be kind 💙 Natty

Rules . Muse List . Starters . Tracker . Musings

[moon--hotel]

Building an RSS Feed for a Static Site

Lover's tree! Lover's tree! I have crafted an RSS feed for the first time! It was a pain in the ass, but I'm glad I learned how to do it.

This page was indispensable, but it doesn't have every part of what I learned, so I'll write my own tutorial below. Specifically, I used this with the Zonelets system, but it should work fine for most static sites.

First, make an .xml file. I just titled mine feed.xml and put it in the same directory as my blog.

Copy and paste the following into your xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <channel> </channel> </rss>

Between the <channel></channel> tags, we are going to do two things. First, we have to detail what our blog actually is.

<title>Title of your blog</title> <description>Description of your blog</description> <link>URL of blog</link> <atom:link href="URL of blog/feed.xml"      rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />

Change the stuff in pink to be what it's supposed to be.

Now, we are going to add a bunch of "items". Each item = a post in your blog. Copy and paste this template for each post:

<item> <title>Title of post</title> <link>link goes here</link> <guid>link goes here again</guid> <pubDate>Mon, 1 Jan 2023 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>     <description><![CDATA[html of your post goes here]]></description> </item>

Change the stuff in pink to be what it's supposed to be. Keep to the structure as closely as possible, ESPECIALLY in the pubDate section. If you want to make sure your RSS feed works correctly, copy and paste the whole thing into the W3C Feed Validator and see if it gives you the OK.

Here is a (very condensed) version of what my RSS feed looks like, for comparison. The indents and colors are just for ease of viewing/understanding what every part is.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <channel> <title>moonblog</title> <description>Please enjoy.</description> <link>http://moon-hotel.neocities.org/blog</link> <atom:link href="http://moon-hotel.neocities.org/blog/feed.xml"      rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Hello World</title> <link>https://moon-hotel.neocities.org/blog/posts/2023-06-24-Hello-World.html</link> <guid>https://moon-hotel.neocities.org/blog/posts/2023-06-24-Hello-World.html</guid> <pubDate>Sat, 24 Jun 2023 19:07:25 EST</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<p>Hey, testing out <a href="http://zonelets.net">Zonelets</a> as a new blog engine. Hopefully it'll be easier--well, not easier, but more full-featured--than the way I was doing it? I really just wanted a way to do a blog on Neocities while also supporting stuff like Commento, so we'll see if that works.</p>]]></description> </item> </channel> </rss>

[izzy-ikigai]

[Browser names in bold if you just wanna skip to the paragraph you want to tell me I'm completely wrong about because that's your browser]

So, in light of the possible future where some of the chromium-based browser might get kicked right in the content-blocking code with Manifest Version 3, I actually felt the need to look around for alternative browsers to our holy lord the Google Chrome if we can't even have uBlock anymore.

Obviously I'd love to have a browser that won't die in the next 2 years, so either backed by a company or backed by a large community would be neato. It's fine if it's chromium, as long as content blockers will keep functioning or at least have alternatives. I did consider MS Edge for a hot second, I read somewhere it's supposed to not yield to Google for the new APIs but couldn't find it again, but then I remembered that Microsoft is an anti-consumer oriented company that pours billions into AI and making our lives worse in general and that even if it does run on Linux I do not fucking care.

I went over a few of the obvious choices and while yes, Firefox is oh-so-different, the basic threat/security model of FF is still lacking. Trading one security issue(not being able to run full-fledged content-blockers) for another one seemed a bit like a letdown to myself.

And while yes, the company Mozilla puts a lot of money in advertising how privacy-oriented they are(on social media, with targeted ads, lol) the have gotten to a point where that's simply not completely true anymore.

I also looked at Brave, it has a few cool features and the notion of a crypto wallet built right into the browser gave me the ultimate anti-climax and the tab was closed with Mach 10(someone please make a video about what would actually happen with a finger going mach 10).

For now I arrived at Vivaldi for testing. It has a few decent built-in things like tracker/ad-blocking(via url lists, which works pretty decent on it's own but I decided to additionally also run uBlock since URL list don't catch everything).

It also has an absolutely overwhelming amount of customization that made me realise how "default chromium-based browser" is basically like plain rice and I've just gotten used to plain rice every day to the point where I didn't question if that's good or nah. Vivaldi made me realise that spices exist. I know it sounds ridiculous, it's just a stupid browser, after all, BUT...

Just look at this Tab Cycler.

Or this Spotlike-esque in-browser search

Oh you would like your tabs on the side, cuz that's what the cool kids do? WELL WHICH SIDE IS IT THEN????

Oh you said tiling your windows in your operating system's UI sucks so your browser should do it? Yup, if for some weird reason that resonates with you, it also does that.

Pause button so you can focus on something non-internetty? That little shit hides in the corner of the status bar.

A weirdly functional and also overly customizable side-bar? Got that as well.

Honestly, when I say an overwhelming amount of customization, I mean it. I've been playing around with this piece of shit for like 4 hours and I watched the intro videos to some of the things and I really feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.

Someone please tell me some dealbraker about this browser, it's almost 3AM and I need to sleep. Like holy fuck this thing feels like someone went "imagine if your browser was as much of a full-time job as emacs was".

And no, I'm not switching to Vivaldi (yet). I'll obviously give it a solid month before I'll make such an obviously life-changing decision. I might even do a cheeky install on my phone I guess.

[ignitesthestxrs]

fuck yeah I'll come talk to you! my goodness. I've long been hesitant to send asks to blogs I don't know or consider popular.

I followed you for your pjo writing, so I was very surprised to find out that your url is from matthew stover's ROTS novelisation. two-ish years ago I watched star wars for the first time and fell in love with the prequels, it is probably still the fandom I most interact with on here.

I notice most (all?) of your star wars fics on ao3 are sequel things. I haven't seen the sequels yet because of general negative internet sentiment towards them. although this is bad logic because the internet feels negatively about a lot of great things, including ("great" is subjective I suppose) the prequels.

as someone who still mainly associates you with pjo, I guess I'm just curious about you and star wars in general. did you watch the movies when they first came out? or did you, like me, discover them later? and would you care to make a case for watching the sequels?

and as an aside - how do you feel about anon asks. do you prefer when people are non-anon?

truly genuinely i dont think i've ever met a person on this website, Popular Online or not, who has been upset about receiving genuine asks. LIKE as someone who prefers to be approached rather than to approach people i very understand the reticence to make contact, but if you ever have hesitance because your brain is like 'ooooh they aren't gonna want to talk to meeeeeee' i really truly think you can let that one go. esp because anon is an option - the worst thing that happens is that someone doesn't respond, which is also not personal and is usually related to brain death on the part of the person receiving the ask

BASICALLY i really think that most people making themselves available on the social media want to use the media to be social - if they didn't, they'd close their ask box.

MAN okok i love to talk about a personal fandom history LOL star wars is a weird one for me! i came into the fandom extremely sideways - while it turns out i had watched at least one of the prequels in theatres as a child, i had somehow wiped all memory of them from my mind, leaving only a residual obsession with padme amidala's lipstick lingering in my hindbrain

so my first Real Encounter with star wars as a fan concept was via Livejournal Role Play lolol, the premise of which is that you would roleplay as characters either in an AU setting, or an isekai-your-character-was-captured-from-their-home-world-somehow setting. so i was playing sakura from naruto in a harry potter/final fantasy fusion AU (there's a fun sentence) when someone joined the game with Jaina Solo from the star wars extended universe, and i just thought the character and player were the fucking coolest?

so that's how i ended up learning about like, the post-original Star Wars trilogy EU books first LMAO and then eventually i watched the original trilogy and re-watched the prequel trilogy (this was back in 2009/10 so sequel series were not on the horizon at all). i rp'd a bunch of star wars characters in a bunch of games (most notably middle aged Leia from the later EU books and a man called Kyp Durron who i refuse to believe was not the template and inspiration for kylo ren), and also played the Knights of the Old Republic games, and eventually helped create and moderate an rp based on those games. so my first star wars creative endeavors were very rp based, and kotor based, and any fic i was writing at the time was like, kyp durron and alyss from a ya novel adaptation of alice in wonderland are falling in love in the harry potter/final fantasy fusion setting where we also included pokemon so kyp has a shuckle for a pet because jaina gifted it to him as a gag. all that fic is littered around the internet - lj accounts and dreamwidth accounts and defunct aim group chats, where you'd write stuff for like the three people who were into your extremely, impossible to replicate cross canon ship instead of doing your stats homework, it was heady shit.

the username came about after i decided to abandon my old internet handle/identity of 'feilyn' lolol. basically i made up 'feilyn' as a name for myself when i was like 15 and used it everywhere, which resulted in most online friends i made at the time calling me 'fei', which in turn got cuteified into 'feibean', which is what i originally called this blog right up until someone sent me an ask going 'hey feibean' and i went oh NO i HATE that, and decided that i needed a username that was like, Poetic and Pretty

the funniest part to me is that i hadn't actually read the stover novelisation at that time? i just knew about the passage it came from because a friend had quoted it at me before and i was like oh that's Beautiful. so i did probably the most pretentious thing in the process of making a pretentious internet handle, which was to refer to a thing i hadn't actually read (i have since read the novelisation LOL and highly recommend it to anyone into star wars i general, but especially if you feel the prequels had Great Themes and Poor Execution - the book does a much better job at the execution part)

SO by the time the sequel movies were announced i had been into star wars for like, 5, 6 years? and it had been a staple part of not only my creative life but also my social and romantic life, so i was primed to be fucking obsessed. at that point i wasn't journal rping anymore, and most of my creative energy was split between fic (pjo and grisha at the time) and trying to make my original book idea work (it did not), and i had gotten into the groove of Writing Fic For An Audience.

and then the first sequel movie came out and i fucking loved it! like sure it was a little derivative, but it had so much of what i loved about star wars in it, and it especially helped that kylo ren really did seem like a kyp durron expy, and i was right in the middle of my weird heterosexual lesbianism phase where all i wanted to write was Overpowered Man Gets Stepped On By Brunette Teenager He Underestimated so reylo hit me like a fucking freight train.

i think in the first month after that movie came out i wrote like, 21 fics in he space of a month. i went to my first ever music festival and was just lying in the tent writing fic on the budget smart phone i had bought so my actual phone didn't get stolen. it was SUCH a flurry of creative energy for me, because star wars before that point had been not a dead fandom, but certainly not a fandom that had a lot of Fic-Centric Life in the spaces i was in, and the movie brought so much new blood and voices and interest and readers to the canon. so if i told people i felt like writing x thing and asked for prompts, i'd get like 10 or 12 requests at a time - more than i could fulfill, certainly, but also so many that it really fed the fire of my interest and determination to Provide Content

and then, you know, the Drama and the Discourse and the weird creation of shipping as identity where people became A Reylo instead of shipping reylo, and this formation of Antis as a thing, and on and on until fandom in general becomes this place of adversarial combat that is supposed to reflect on your ethics and moral as a person and Oh Man i do remember being exhausted by all of these arguments at the time (and now tbh, but these days i am not actively participating in them). eventually i dropped out of star wars as a fandom from like, creative and discourse burnout i think, and also my relationships with the friends i shared the fandom with were changing, and i was also changing as a person and then TROS came out and was really a death knell to any joy i'd gotten out of the fandom or canon from that point.

as for a case for watching the sequels - i think if you can watch them without needing them to Be Anything In Particular, you can have a good time with them. like, for example, i think TROS was an objectively bad fucking movie, but i had a lot of fun when i watched it because i went it with a baseline of curiosity about how or if abrams could pull this off, and the answer was 'by trying to split every fandom argument of the last 4 years down the exact middle' and 'no, he can't pull it off'. that shit isn't a movie, it's a video response to every star wars trending topic between 2015-2019. and at the time of viewing, this was very fucking funny to me. i had a ball.

SO if you can watch them with the contextual understanding of like, these are massive corporate enterprises created by committee, with different people at the helm of different movies who had very different understandings on what the point of this trilogy was, i genuinely think they can be a good time. there's pew pew lasers, there are some real affecting moments, and there is a lot of bewildered amusement to be had at nature of attempting to create Billion Dollar Art.

if you are looking for a story that is going to leave you feeling fulfilled and as though the creators had consideration and respect for either their viewers, their actors, or the story they were telling, then give them a pass. like i really really think there is a lot of fun and interest to be had in watching the sequels for both 'here is a space fantasy laser fun time' reasons and 'what does art look like when it's primary purpose is to create obscene amounts of wealth based off the nostalgia of nerds but also the concept of modernising a franchise for the 21st century' reasons, and these are both big reasons why i engage in any kind of media LOL

but i also understand the special place star wars holds in a lot of people's hearts, and not wanting to engage in material thatg feels like it has sucked a lot of the joy out of that special place is always legit. so like, if you are intrigued, give them a shot, and if you find yourself hating the experience then stop watching. trust ur heart babe

FINALLY i have no strong opinion on whether people are anon or signed in! it's all about your comfort level truly, i do not put emphasis on one mode or another. sometimes people will send me something signed in and ask me to respond privately, which i am always happy to do, and sometimes people will send messages anon, but identify themselves as like 'oh im the anon who asked about sunflowers, i'm sunflower anon'. SO YEAH whatever combination of identifiers is personally comfortable for the person sending the ask is how i prefer people to communicate.

THANK U for ur ask clearly i love to Talk & Engage and i appreciate u giving me the opportunity <3 <3

[catboii]

((just a "little" (ha) update I guess, nothing major, just a note that I'm sorry if I post alot this week with seemingly no regard for my/my muse's vast presence on the dash, or if I end up writing alot of short weird drabbles to vent.... if there's questionable stuff it'll be tagged like always <3

I understand if you need to unfollow me to keep your dash clear for other people if you're mobile etc. or if you need to blacklist my muse's url for a bit if it's overwhelming

After xmas everything may have settled and if you wanna refollow then I'd welcome you back and wouldn't ask any questions. your comfort (whatever that may classify as in the context) is my utmost priority!

normally I try not to clutter, and I try to keep general post reblogs minimal and just queue most of them. I'm just... not doing too good rn

then again it's a 50/50 that I'll be posting nothing at all, just making my muse's presence known if it wants to sorta wave at someone from the depths of my brain hell jail.

I'll still be checking in around xmas stuff bc this muse gives me v happy bubbly vibes whenever I write it and that's honestly what I need rn.

I'm sorry if your muse reblogs/replies to one of mine's posts or smth and I seemingly glance over it. I genuinely just didn't see it. I always try and respond to stuff, or if it doesn't know how to reply I at least acknowledge that my muse saw it by liking it. but I might not have the mental capacity to actually keep up w stuff

...

BASICALLY I'm either gonna be kinda quiet or rly hyperfixated on not being in my own head for the next week or so.

I'm obv stressed anyway bc I need to do xmas shopping still and it's a struggle bc online it probs won't come in time. we're going "late night shopping" on thursday though so hopefully we can get a bunch of stuff then

but mainly an old work friend of mine passed away today. He's been unwell for a few years, and I dunno if he knew what it was and was just keeping it quiet, or if they genuinely couldn't work it out. last I heard he was getting MRIs.

I had a complicated relationship w him (positive) bc he was either bipolar or had BPD like me (although he wasn't diagnosed with either, but it was obvious he at least had bipolar), and if you know anything abt BPD you know what an FP (favourite person) is, and we were sort of each other's when we were working together? I think. like I say he wasn't diagnosed, but it felt like that. we hit it off really quick and were both really comfortable with each other, and he was just the sweetest most supportive person. he was one of my FPs, which basically means my brain was cursed to be in intense friendlove with him. He would tell me that he loved me and appreciated my friendship, was always saying you need to tell people you love them, however you can, however you mean it, because you don't know if you'll ever get to tell them again

he always showed off the little things I made him and made sure everyone knew exactly where he got the silly little origami animals on his desk, or who made his juggling balls that were his favourite thing in the whole world bc I made them for him by hand, and picked the fabric out specifically for him.

One time around xmas, bc of covid, we had these big plastic screen dividers between our desks and I used posca paint pens to draw him a HUGE Robin in a scarf and santa hat (his name was Robin and people always got him little Robin themed things, he loved them) on the one by his manager desk, like a name tag, but Facilities told him he needed to clean it off and chastised him thinking he did it, and you're "not supposed to vandalise work equipment" even though they're literally washable and it was xmas. we were sticking decorations everywhere, how is it any different? but he played along but he was really mad. He didn;t wanna say it was me that did it, because he thought I might've gotten in trouble, but he also wanted to argue that I'd put alot of work into it. I hadn't put that much in, it was just for fun and I liked drawing it, and he got to see it! That was the important part. and I said so. but I cleaned it off and drew him a new Robin on a piece of paper and he kept it at his desk like a retired picket sign, and told the story to anyone who would be polite enough to listen

mostly though, he gendered me correctly (and he was in his 60s so being so passionate abt they/them pronouns was just really sweet, though he was clearly bi but still in the closet, so it was maybe a little projection, in a way, or just straight up quiet queer solidarity), and literally agressively made sure everyone else did too, when he realised I'd been just letting people at work use whatever pronouns, he got really proactive and made sure all my paperwork was marked as "them" officially (with my permission). if anyone misgenered me he would get visably annoyed or disgusted, and there were a couple people who "forgot" (every time) and he actually got angry at them about it and reported them for harassment, which might've been a little extreme, but I honestly felt so validated, and I'm tearing up thinking about it. I don't think anyone's ever fought that hard in my corner, especially after only knowing me for, at that point, less than a year.

We worked together in a couple different parts of the business for a couple years, until some stuff happened that I shouldn't say bc I need my rp blog(s) to stay far away from my professional life, but we were gonna be working together doing something else, but it wasn't his thing, it was stressful and there were other reasons, but he just lost it and walked out.

we had a little joke when we were training before he left, he had this soft toy robin that he let me borrow because I was really anxious, and I gave it a little notepad and pencil and wrote something silly on it for when he got it back each time. usually some out of context joke on what we learned that day, so we could both laugh about it. but when he left I still had it, and I messaged him saying I would get it back to him sometime, but he said to keep it to remind me of him.

I put it away to keep it safe, but I'm gonna have to go and find it, because it's one of the only physical things I have left of him.

[quillheel]

spell out your url using song titles. then, tag as many people as there are letters in your url! ( repost don't reblog. )

:O !!! i've never done one of these before, neat!!! usually this is for a specific muse i THINK but bc i'm a multi i just wound up picking songs based on if i personally had a meaningful connection to them + they gelled with the vibe Quillheel tends to have with musing n themes!

Q ━━ Queen of Peace - Florence + the Machine ( Oh, the queen of peace / Always does her best to please / Is it any use? / Somebody's gotta lose )

U ━━ UNWELCOME GUESTS - The Narcissist Cookbook ( Like a hundred thousand unwelcome guests / Crammed into the narrow corridors / Of our dark hotel by the sea ; ... As I said, I don't believe in ghosts / But that doesn't matter really / I don't think you did either / I think I'm about to find out / What it actually feels like to be / Haunted )

I ━━ It Means Everything - OMORI

L ━━ Life - Mother Mother ( Oh, maybe I'm right (Feels wrong) / Where I'm supposed to be right (Damn right) / Where I'm supposed to be, this is my life (La-la-la-la-la-life) / This is my life (Stop) / Yeah, maybe I'm right )

L ━━ Love Love Love - the Mountain Goats ( Snakes in the grass beneath our feet, rain in the clouds above / Some moments last forever, but some flare out with love, love, love )

H ━━ Hymn of the Medical Oddity - The Weakerthans ( The sun will start late and clock out early / And I'll drive around and wait for it / Follow familiar roads / Emptied of every memory / Under a sheet of silence and unmarked snow )

E ━━ Eat Your Young - Hozier ( I'm starving, darling / Let me put my lips to something / Let me wrap my teeth around the world / Start carving, darling / I wanna smell the dinner cooking / I wanna feel the edges start to burn )

E ━━ Everything Stays - Adventure Time ( Everything stays right where you left it / Everything stays / But it still changes / Ever so slightly, daily and nightly / In little ways, when everything stays )

L ━━ Lullaby - American Murder Song ( Hush falls the evening / And tickles the bell / Love, close your eyes / There are stories to tell )

tagged by: @rceway !!! thank you sm!!!!!!!!!!!! tagging: @ofeggies @lcngdays @theaterrush @rdkii @flockrest @jfouler @z0mburger @nectaric @mightiestbanana aaand one extra @campblcd for when u return from The Tumblr Grave n prob make a multi bc musics fun as hell <3

[shark-myths]

thanks for the tag, @just-about-nothing ! for what it's worth i am completely charmed by your url, especially knowing its origin.

are you named after anyone? no and i was supposed to have a different name, my father swooped in and changed it while my mom was still loopy. my middle name, by far the best part of the whole thing, is the name of my uncle who died before i was born

when was the last time you cried? wow i'm so happy about this, it was at my fall out boy concert! but i came very near tears at the end of the 'tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' episode of strange new worlds that i watched last night due to unfair & malicious directorial choices

do you have kids? believe it or not i am a fully fledged stepparent, despite swearing up and down since age 3 i would never be a parent and not really ever measurably wavering in that conviction.

do you use sarcasm a lot? not online really! in person, yes. i also speak in what i have decided is my cat's voice more often than you'd find cute

what's the first thing you notice about a person? lmao everything. i am a very skilled noticer (e.g., nosy). but i find most salient how i feel around them / how they seem to make others feel.

what's your eye color? like @just-about-nothing, debated. blue green grey gold, depending. my license always said green but when i moved to michigan a decade ago they changed it into blue at the dmv, and that's stuck ever since

scary movie or happy ending? i don't like scary movies but i love a scary ending

any special talents? i make the best sauces and pretty good soups, i read quickly, and i'm good at speaking extemporaneously

where where you born? outside of chicago

what are your hobbies? reading, writing, running, knitting, the michael hobbes extended universe

do you have pets? you all know i have too many cats

what sports do you/have you played? HAH never, not even one, i have never been on a team in my damn life

how tall are you? 5'5.5"

favorite subject in school? the best classes i ever took were psychopharmacology and medical anthropology

dream job? yarn store or plant store or book store. have attained career and now just want to go back to cozy retail

bonus! url significance? you have heard this before, but years ago, before i failed at something major that sent permanent ripple effects through my entire sense of myself & my future, i used to think i was a myth about a shark. you know the one: if i stop swimming, i'll die. i have had to unlearn this myth--it's not even true about sharks, why would it work as a way for me to live? reader, i didn't even like taking showers; they were an unbearable waste of time. i was racing towards the outcome of my life so fast, i didn't enjoy any of it. i was a wind-up doll made of control. so now i am here, living better, living at all. remembering always that bullshit myth about a shark. maybe now my url can remind you too!

also, like. sharks are great

[nuderobotbeach]

Pinned for your consideration. (You can skip this one honestly I don't mind.)

Hello. Welcome. I don't have much to say here but I can provide you with links and a pre-emptive FAQ because years of being on the internet and in and out of fandom spaces has taught me that you're never too small to need one: Q: Can I find you elsewhere? A: Yeah! Here, and here. Q: Will you draw something for me/Do you take requests? A: Occasionally! I work quite a bit though, so you'll have to keep a look-out for when I open them, and keep in mind that I do set limits/pick and choose what I work on. If, though, you're still absolutely in love with the idea of something from me and you want something more specific and detailed then you can go here and send me a commission request via any of the methods listed. I can't promise I'll be immediately available for work, but I do my best to communicate and compromise as I can. Q: Hey, you drew something cool for a thing I'm into. Can I use it in my fic/project? A: If it's on this blog then go nuts. I'd appreciate some sort of "hey here's who designed this," but that's not super necessary. I do design stuff for my own use, but I don't mind sharing. Just be respectful and we're good. This is all supposed to be purely for fun. Q: How often do you write/are you gonna finish -insert project-? A: When the mood strikes and the stars align I write a few paragraphs in a few google docs occasionally. Also eventually.

Q: Can I send you asks? A: Yeah, go crazy.

Q: The fuck is your url? A: This:

That's all I have for you so far, folks. Happy browsing.