#still getting used to using tags of organizational purposes

[twiggythewonderkid]

HAPPY OCTOBER

Finally the best holyday of the year, it kind of crept up on me, but:

movie night w/ friends:

Beetlejuice - Sun 1

Coraline - Sun 8

TBA - Sun 15

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Sun 22

Rocky Horror Picture Show - Sun 29

music night w/ friends:

Visions of Bodies Being Burned (or Splendor and Misery) by Clipping. - Sat 14

Symbolic by Death - Sat 21

Thriller by Michael Jackson - Sat 28

Reading list:

non-fiction:

Curso de Lingüística general by ferdinand de saussure*

A texbook of translation by Peter Newmark*

Introducción al estudio del Derecho by Eduardo García Máynez

La semiología by María del Carmen Bobes Naves

fiction:

TBA

Re-read wuthering heights

*=finish bookbinding

[cannibalisticskittles]

trying out a possible scene?? despite being short it's already gone in a different direction than anticipated, so Who Knows.

[lurking-latinist]

How to Suck Less at Summaries

Probably almost anyone who's ever posted a fic to ao3 or a platform with a similar interface has been hit by that moment of panic, breaking in on the euphoria of having finished and polished a fic--"what do I put for the summary?!"

So much so, that "I suck at summaries" in the summary box has become something of a cliche. It's very understandable! You've already put all that work into writing the fic itself, and now you have to write ANOTHER thing with its own set of conventions and expectations? No way!

And I want to start by saying that that's absolutely fine. Fic writing is your hobby, your creative endeavor; you're not obligated to do anything in it that you don't want to. You can leave the summary box completely blank--ao3 will let you--and there's no reason you shouldn't, if that's what you want to do! If you're happy with your summaries, please don't change them. There's no wrong way to do summaries. This is your invitation to ignore the entire rest of this post!

However. My impression is that an awful lot of people aren't happy with their summaries. They would like to have summaries that catch a reader's attention, that fit common patterns, or that give a good representation of the fic; they're just not sure how to accomplish that, or what readers might be expecting. And the good news is that writing various styles of summaries, like other kinds of writing, is a skill you can improve--and that there are some tips and tricks that can help you write the kinds of summaries you may want to write more quickly.

How do I know? Well, on top of having read I don't know how many fics, I've published 200 of my own, with all different kinds of summaries. (In fact, writing this post is my treat to myself to celebrate publishing 200 fics!) So I have a lot of trial and error experience to draw on. I'll be using my own summaries as examples (plus some hypothetical examples), because I don't want to be nitpicking anyone else's!

I'm going to throw in a cut now because this is gonna get long.

What do you want to accomplish with your summary?

That's the first question you might want to ask yourself. And the answer really is up to you! The name "summary" suggests it's supposed to be a sort of short version of your story. That's one option. But summaries are often used to accomplish various other things, too: some of my favorite summaries don't really tell you anything about the plot of the fic, but instead give you a glimpse of the writer's style or lure you in with a question. It can also fill organizational purposes like commemorating the reason the fic was written (although author notes can also be effective for things like this).

Most fundamentally, I tend to think of the summary box as a place to manage your readers' expectations. I want them to have some sense of what the fic they're about to read might be like, and I want to present that in a way that highlights why it might be appealing to them. Of course, what I write won't be appealing to every reader--and an effective summary, plus accurate tags and ratings of course, allows a reader who won't enjoy what I have to offer to quickly keep scrolling and find something that fits their tastes better. But the way I think of them, summaries are really mainly for readers who will enjoy my fic if they decide to open it. A summary for a fic is like a pretty package for a gift: the gift is great in itself, and the nice gift-wrap makes it more eye-catching and more fun to open!

Sidebar: This "managing expectations" thing is, I think, the reason why authors sometimes add notes in the summary like "I'm sorry if this sucks" or "this is my first fic, it's probably terrible." I completely understand where this comes from--you don't want to make your readers expect some kind of genius literature and then only have something to give them that you yourself are still insecure about! But I really do think they're generally counterproductive. On the one hand, that kind of negative self-talk will tend to undermine your own confidence and make you more insecure about your writing, not less; on the other hand, they can subconsciously prime your readers to notice weaknesses and issues that they might otherwise not even have paid attention to! That doesn't mean you have to pretend you think your writing is perfect; very few of us do think what we post on fic archives is perfect. There's nothing wrong, even, with a note like "this is my first fic" or "this one is a bit experimental, I'm not sure how I feel about it" or "this wasn't written in my first language" or even "this is an old fic and I don't think it represents my best work anymore", although I tend to put that kind of commentary on craft in the author's notes rather than the summary, but that's just me; there's no rule. As an example, when I recently published my first fic in the Hornblower fandom, which has a historical setting I wasn't previously very familiar with, I thanked my beta for helping me avoid "historical howlers" and added "any remaining are my own responsibility." That made me feel better about potential mistakes in research by showing that I was aware I might have made some. I put this in an author's note at the end of the story. But, for the sake of you as a writer as well as me as a reader, I'm asking you--please don't start out our reader/writer relationship by telling me it's terrible! Give yourself a chance to shine. Even if there's a lot you're insecure about in your fic, there's something you love--maybe it's the premise, the ship, even one particular line--that makes you want to share it with the world. Use the summary to highlight that. As your reader, that's what I want to know about!

Anyway, now that you've decided what you want your summary to accomplish, there are a couple of very easy ways to fill the summary box that you might want to consider--if they make sense for your fic.

Just quote the prompt

When I write prompt-fic, often very short, I frequently just quote the prompt itself as the summary. An example would be my 3 Sentence Ficathon fic archived on ao3. Since the challenge in this event is to write a complete fic in only three sentences, a summary wouldn't be much shorter than the fic itself! So I just do summaries like

For reeby10's prompt: "Doctor Who, Clara/Twelve, unforgettable."

(Gaps)

This can work outside of prompt memes, too. If you're doing a monthly challenge, for instance, something like

Flufftember day 21, 'breakfast in bed'

might tell your readers all they need to know to be interested in your story and know what to expect.

Set the context

For some fic, the most important thing you want your readers to know going in is something about the fic's context. For instance, with drabbles I sometimes use the summary as a place to sneak in information about setting/what's supposed to be happening that I didn't have room for in the drabble itself. For Susan's Twist, a 100-word drabble, I set the scene in the summary:

Susan is grooving to the latest chart-topper of 1963. But for some reason, the song makes her grandfather uncomfortable.

which meant I didn't have to use any of my 100 words explaining "Susan was listening to the radio, when..." Since Susan's Twist was inspired by someone else's Tumblr post, I could also just have referenced that post in the summary. But in this case, I chose to phrase the premise in my own words in the summary, and cite the Tumblr post in the author's notes (I also tagged the OP when I shared the fic on Tumblr).

Flower Children is an example of a drabble with a not particularly effective summary where I could have used this strategy quite effectively. The summary is just

Neither of them wants to fight.

which is all right, but which doesn't do much to set up the (admittedly cracky) Eighth Doctor/Dalek Oswin pairing that motivates the fic. But then, I've always felt like I didn't have quite as much of an idea as I'd like about what the context for this fic is supposed to be. Maybe I'll write more about them sometime.

Setting the context can also be useful for summaries of AUs. Very often, what draws people into AUs is the AU concept itself.

For instance, the premise of my story te quaerens, Ariadna is that the events of the audio Zagreus go differently and the Doctor remains possessed by/transformed into Zagreus. So that's what I said in the summary:

The Doctor is still Zagreus, but he and Charley find ways to keep going.

In this case, the summary is accomplishing more than one thing; it explains the concept, but it also indicates a bit of the story's tone--it's fairly optimistic given its premise, and it's more about how their relationship evolves than any particular plotty event.

With setting change AUs--especially in familiar AU settings, like a coffeeshop, high school, or fantasy monarchy--often what readers will most want to know is what roles the characters are filling; in other words, how the translation from canon to AU has been made. For instance, my story Warmth is already tagged as a coffeeshop AU with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, and Adric, so the summary indicates that it's told from the perspective of Tegan as a new employee:

Unexpectedly stranded in London and looking for work, Tegan finds a place where she just might fit in.

If she had been a longtime employee or a customer, that would have changed the story's dynamics, and I would have wanted the summary to reflect that instead. I could have also added that the Doctor is the shop's manager and Nyssa and Adric are the existing employees, but I decided to let the story itself reveal that in this case.

With someone's planted a bath bomb in the matrix, which is a retail AU inspired by an incorrect quotes tumblr post, I just stuck the whole tumblr post in the summary box:

Romana: When you work at lush and a customer comes in and bites the soap because they think it’s cheese… this happens way more frequently than you think. Leela: If you stopped literally presenting soap as deli food this wouldn't happen. Narvin: Who goes into a bath store and thinks something covered in glitter is cheese? Brax: Who goes to the store and just takes a bite from the cheese? ~incorrectgallifreyquotes.tumblr.com

I might do that a bit differently now--maybe more the way I handled Susan's Twist--maybe something like this in the summary:

An uptight employee and a too-suave customer are making Romana's job managing a bath store way too stressful. Thank goodness--probably--that her best friend works for mall security.

And then I'd have put the tumblr post that inspired it in author's notes.

Thing is, though, that reflects my taste and what I think is effective now, but it doesn't mean I did it wrong the first time. People read and enjoyed the story, and it was fine!

Also I just showed this post to Moki and she said she thinks the first one's more intriguing. So that just goes to show, it's really a matter of taste.

This strategy is also useful for missing scenes and things like that. Something as simple as

While waiting for Z to return from the rendezvous, X and Y have a conversation.

can draw in readers very effectively, especially if X and Y's conversation was kind of obviously a gap in the story that they might already be curious about.

Use a quote

A surprisingly effective and straightforward way to create a summary is just to use a quote from the fic. I've seen tons of great summaries like this that hook me in immediately. I struggle with using it myself, because I want the line I quote to be powerful/impactful/intriguing and give some sense of what the plot is like and make sense out of context, and I don't often seem to be able to find lines like that in my own work. But I did for The Moon by Night:

It could not have been more than a day that we clung to the hull of that station full of troopers.

Since this is a space AU for a historical fiction novel, this line gives some sense of how the events of the story have been translated into space, and also shows the voice I'm writing in (I tried to follow the style of the original, which is first-person, which is unusual for me). If you can find a line like that in your work, it can be a great summary. You can even just put the first couple of lines of the fic, especially if you've already worked to make them an effective hook!

You can also use a quote from another source. Was there a line or moment from canon that inspired the fic? A poem or song that fits its mood? You can use the summary as a sort of epigraph. (I often use author's notes for this as well.) If your readers vibe with the quote that inspired the story, they're likely to vibe with the story as well.

I did something like this with Absent thee from felicity awhile. The title is a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and all I put in the summary box was another quote from a couple of lines later:

…to tell my story.

This is so short and contextless, though, that I'm not sure how effective it was. It maybe only works if you recognize the specific Hamlet scene that it's taken from and have thought about that scene in the context of a specific episode of Hornblower. (I promise that, if you do, it's heartbreakingly ironic!) This could have been a good opportunity for me to do a double summary (see below), especially since the story is epistolary and I could've established its context. Although I did kind of like revealing who was reading the letter and when slowly over the course of the story.

Okay, but I do want to explain the plot

Right, so we've established that effective summaries don't have to be in that "back of the book blurb" format. But sometimes you want them to be. Sometimes the thing you're most excited about is the story's plot or events, and you want to communicate that to the reader. But you already wrote the story in order to communicate the plot to the reader; how do you condense it into a sentence or two? Here are some tips that may help.

Are you using familiar tropes? If so, just mentioning them will likely tell your reader not only what the plot is, but that (if they like that trope) they're likely to enjoy it. For instance:

A and B are trapped in a snow cave/ice planet/walk-in freezer and must huddle for warmth.

That particular one will also explain a bit about the setting, if you want.

Relationship status/development is also something that many readers want to know, whether it's a romantic or a gen relationship (e.g. characters becoming friends or realizing they see each other as family). For instance, if A and B admit their romantic feelings for the first time in that huddling for warmth story, you might add:

They get a lot closer than either of them expects...

I rather like ellipses at the end of a summary; I think they imply, sort of, "read the fic to find out the rest." I sometimes use them to soften a summary that feels a bit abrupt. I feel like this might be just me, though? So if you don't like ellipses, nothing wrong with ending that same summary with a period.

If you have a fic where the entire content is some emotional development between characters, the entire summary can easily be that too!

I don't really write smut so I don't have good advice for summarizing it, but I get the feeling this might be a relevant strategy for it?

What changes in the story? This could be a change in characters' attitudes towards each other, in the information they have, in their physical situation, or anything else. A story doesn't have to be about one single major change, but there's almost always at least one. (Or a change fails to happen, but in an interesting way: "five times Lois Lane didn't realize Clark was Superman" would be a perfectly intriguing summary!)

What demands are made of the characters? Many stories involve a character overcoming some kind of challenge or meeting some kind of test. A summary can indicate what that challenge is--and you don't have to indicate whether or how the characters meet it! This can contribute to a feeling of suspense, so that the reader feels they need to read the story to find out how the characters react. For instance, I summarized my story Journey as:

The Doctor and Ace need to stop a dimensional leakage to put a life-sucking entity back where it belongs. But to do so, they'll each need to protect the other in their own way.

What are their own ways? Do they succeed? The reader can probably guess that they do--but how? Their attention is caught, and they'll have to read to find out!

Some notes on format and style

Summary style is as personal as the rest of your writing style, so this is only intended as a mention of a couple of trends I've noticed.

Sometimes summaries are 'in-universe'--i.e. they describe the characters and what they do, without reference to the existence of the fic itself as a textual entity--and sometimes, like the "five times" example I gave above, they refer to the fic's format, characteristics, relationship to canon, etc. in direct terms. (For instance, the example I gave for a missing scene was 'in-universe,' but I could just as well have said "While waiting for Z to return during Episode 3..."). Either of these approaches are fine, although I personally tend to incline more towards the in-universe style unless I have a particular reason to use the other, such as in Differences of Opinion, which took a lot of metatextual explaining:

When I read enough easily-crossed-over stories, such as for instance the Age of Sail books that I have been reading lately and also spaceship stories inspired thereby, what inevitably happens is I end up with a nebulous meta crossover setting where they can all hang out outside of their respective canons. Here's one conversation from that setting.

I keep wondering if something more terse might have been more effective, and I could have put all that in the author's notes. But I really think that for anyone who would enjoy this fic, the metatextual complication is a big part of the appeal. So I put it in the summary.

It's pretty standard to write in-universe-style summaries in the present tense, even if the fic is in the past tense. "The characters do this and that," not "the characters did this and that." You don't have to, but it's what your reader is most likely to be expecting.

It seems to be quite common to have a double summary: one that maybe reflects the style and tone of the fic, and another, more matter-of-fact one that explains the plot. They're frequently joined by "or." I don't typically use it--maybe because I rarely have the problem of having too much summary--but if you do, this could be a great solution.

Spellcheck and proofread your summary extra. Whatever strategies you normally use to make sure the words in your story are the words you actually meant to write, it's a good idea to turn those strategies on the summary with special intensity. After all, this is your first impression on your reader, so you probably want to look as polished as possible!

These are just a few things I've noticed that I tend to think about when staring at that blinking cursor in the summary box. I hope they may help you, too, to feel like you have something to say in that moment!

[inklings-challenge]

2024 Inklings Challenge FAQ

(Things that People Have Already Asked or Things I Imagine They Might Ask)

What is the Inklings Challenge?

The Inklings Challenge is an invitation for Christian science fiction and fantasy writers to create stories that fit the Christian worldview. The event runs from October 1st to October 21st, 2024. Participants are divided into three separate groups and challenged to write a story that fits the assigned topic.

Team Lewis

Portal Fantasy: Stories where someone from the real world explores a new world

Space Travel: Stories about traveling through space or exploring other planets

Team Tolkien

Secondary World Fantasy: Stories that takes place in an imaginary realm that’s completely separate from our world

Time Travel: Stories exploring travel through time

Team Chesterton

Intrusive Fantasy: Stories where the fantastical elements intrude into the real world

Earth Travel: Science fiction or fantasy stories that feature any kind of land, sea, air, or underground travel on a past, present, future or alternate Earth

These teams will be assigned at random on October 1st, 2024. Writers are then encouraged to write a story before the deadline on October 21st.

Stories should also use at least one of seven provided Christian themes to inspire some element of their story. This year’s themes all explore feature the seven traditional spiritual acts of mercy which Christians are called to perform. Writers need to choose only one theme, but may feature multiple themes if they wish.

The seven themes writers may choose from are:

Admonish the sinner

Instruct the ignorant

Counsel the doubtful

Comfort the sorrowful

Bear wrongs patiently

Forgive all injuries

Pray for the living and the dead

Finished stories can be posted to a tumblr blog. The post should also be tagged #inklingschallenge, and tagged with the name of your particular team: #team lewis, #team tolkien, or #team chesterton, so they can be shared on the main Inklings Challenge blog.

For organizational purposes, stories should also be tagged with:

The genre the story falls under: #genre: portal fantasy, #genre: space travel, #genre: secondary world, #genre: time travel, #genre: intrusive fantasy, #genre: earth travel

Any themes that were used within the story: #theme: admonish, #theme: instruct, #theme: counsel, #theme: comfort, #theme: patience, #theme: forgive, #theme: pray

The completion status of the story: #story: complete or #story: unfinished

How do I sign up for the Inklings Challenge?

Reply to this year's Official Announcement post, or send this blog a message via ask box or private message asking to join before October 1st, 2024, and you’ll be added to the list of participants.

What if I don’t finish by the deadline?

Post it anyway! In the original version of this challenge, Tolkien never finished his story! The idea is to create whatever you can, and we welcome unfinished stories. Show us what you’ve accomplished! If you like, you can also post the finished version at a later date, and it will still be reblogged on the Challenge blog.

What if I finish early?

Post it! I’ll share it to the main blog, and it’ll provide inspiration for other writers. If you’re feeling ambitious, create more stories within your assigned topics.

What if my story isn’t any good? Do I have to post?

No one’s judging this. This is a fun challenge, not a contest, and I hope that it will inspire people to push past that voice of criticism and just share whatever they come up with. If you really don’t want to post what you’ve created, no one’s going to force you to, but I hope you’ll join in the fun.

If you just plain don’t have enough to post–say, if the month gets away from you and you wind up with half a sentence–you’re always welcome to keep working on it and post something more substantial at a later date.

Can I use characters or settings from my other stories?

Absolutely! This can be a great way to expand your story world. As long as the story fits your assigned topic, you’re welcome to use any settings or characters you might have created for other works. However, it’d be nice if the story you write can stand alone, so readers can understand it without any knowledge of other works in the world.

What if I don’t like my team’s assigned topics?

I encourage everyone to at least try to come up with a story that fits one of their assigned topics. That’s the challenge portion of The Inklings Challenge–it’ll stretch your imagination and get you to work outside of your comfort zone. The categories are broad, and you should be able to come up with an angle that interests you.

However, if there’s a particular topic that calls to you in another team’s options, you can stretch the definitions to make it fit your own topic. What’s to say the portal in the portal fantasy can’t lead to a different time period? Explore a secondary world of elves in space if you want to. Be creative!

Does [a certain type of story] fit into this Inklings Challenge genre?

Writers are allowed to define the limits of the genre themselves, and can define it as narrowly or widely as they prefer.

I have never read anything by and/or don’t like the author my team is named after. Do I have to write something in their style?

The team names have absolutely nothing to do with the style of stories we expect from the writers. They’re only named after the authors because:

The Inklings Challenge was inspired by a similar writing challenge between Tolkien and Lewis, who happen to have written genres that provide good categories for the challenge teams

Chesterton is another prominent Christian writer whose work dealt with fantastical themes that provided good categories for a third team (which allowed me to include the third major type of fantasy).

Naming the teams after the authors is much more fun than naming them Team A, B, and C or whatever.

That’s not to say that you can’t be inspired by the authors or their works if you like them, but please do not worry at all if you don’t.

Do I have to write an allegory or include religion?

You are welcome to write an allegory or to explicitly explore religion if you want to, but you’re certainly not required to. The goal is merely to write stories that fit within the Christian worldview, not to preach.

What if I can’t think of an idea?

Over the course of September, writing prompts will be posted to this blog for anyone who wants a little extra inspiration. The Inklings Challenge directory also has quite a few writing prompt posts from past challenges, most of which would still fit this year’s Challenge.

Do I have to put my story into a tumblr post?

If you prefer to post your story in another format–such as on another blogging site or on AO3–you are welcome to do so, but to submit the story for the Challenge, you’ll need to make a tumblr post that provides the link to the story and tag with all the required tags, so it can be archived on the main Challenge blog.

Do I have to post my story in a single post or can I post it in multiple parts?

You may post your story in as many parts as you desire. As long as they are all tagged appropriately and it’s clear which order they’re supposed to go in, I should be able to find them, reblog them to the Challenge website, and put them in the archive.

My friend doesn’t have a tumblr. Can they still participate in the Challenge?

This is a tumblr-centered Challenge, so for organizational purposes, the writers should have access to tumblr, so they can be notified of team assignments, post their stories, etc.

However, it would be possible for writers without a tumblr account to participate if these conditions are fulfilled:

The non-tumblr writer provides some name that I can use to list them on a team and that can be used as an author name for their story.

The non-tumblr writer can check the Inklings Challenge blog and find out which team they are assigned to.

The non-tumblr writer has a friend who is on tumblr who can either post the story on their tumblr blog (with proper credit toward the writer) or create a post with the link to wherever the non-tumblr writer has posted the story.

It’s after October 1st and I just found out about the Challenge. Can I still participate?

Yes, you can (if you're okay with the disadvantage of having less time to complete your story). People who sign up after the deadline will be randomly assigned to one of three teams in a way that balances the number of participants on each team.

Can I write fanfiction for the Challenge?

The Inklings Challenge is meant to provide new science fiction and fantasy stories from a Christian worldview, so this challenge is focused on original fiction.

Is there Inklings Challenge merchandise?

Yes! @ellakas designs Inklings Challenge stickers every year--one for each of the three teams. You can purchase them through the links in these posts: Team Lewis, Team Tolkien, Team Chesterton.

Are there other ways to engage with the Inklings Challenge Community?

There are several ways to interact with the community!

On this blog, discussion posts, labeled “The Eagle and Child”, will be posted roughly once a week that provide an opportunity for writers to discuss their story ideas and their writing progress.

@inklings-sprint, run by @allisonreader, provides several opportunities for writers to come together for writing and brainstorming sprints.

The Inklings Challenge Discord provides extra support for people who want to participate on that platform. The Discord is run by @secret–psalms–saturn, and @enjoliquej, so anyone who wants to participate should message one of them for the link.

[cacodaemonia]

1st of all big fan, devoured RC!AU. It's fantastic

2nd of all, I could get lost in your sw resources tag that thing is awesome

3rd Do you have any references for Waxer and Boil's buckets? (Sorry in advance if you've already posted them, and thank u again for all the boxer content 💖)

Aw thanks! <3 I haven't written in the main RCAU for ages, but I'm still plugging away at the Open Skies sub-AU haha 😂

Ah I'm glad that's been helpful! I mostly tag for my own organizational purposes and I know there are some gems in there—especially from @gffa and @fox-trot! My 'sw refs' tag has a lot of overlap, but also includes a lot of image references for fanart or describing things in fics, so that one might be useful, too?

And yeah! I'm not sure if you want Phase I, Phase II, or their ARF helmets, haha, but I know I've got plenty of refs for all of those, so I'll toss them in here...

Boil:

Waxer (The second image shows the back of his Phase I helmet, which is hard to find shots of, in the background behind Boil being awkward 😂 So he had the little droid silhouette on his helmet back then, too):

And some shots of both of their helmets (Waxer is on the far right in the last image—you can see his tally marks):

Their ARF helmets seem to cause a lot of confusion, as I've even seen merch that doesn't show the little Numa painting on Waxer's helmet, and most people seem to mix up who is who in that Landing at Point Rain episode (probably because the writers seem to have done so, as well, since they gave Boil the more cheerful dialogue while having Waxer complain—but maybe he was just having a bad day! 🥺).

There's also the horizontal band of gold paint Boil has under his visor attachment to match the paint on his regular helmets, as well as a grey stripe along the top of the helmet that's lined up with the red triangle on his visor attachment. Waxer has his 'crest' stripe of gold paint, of course, and it continues under his visor attachment a little bit, too. Then he's got his tally marks and snoot triangle. :D

One thing that I only noticed recently is the very faded ship silhouette (or however you interpret the black design on his other helmets) on the left side of his ARF one. In the second-to-last image above, you can just barely see something on his left side, but the only way I knew it was more than just dirt was because I have a little figure with the shape painted on it. Which is also not very visible:

(Thankfully, I don't think I've actually done any images where you can see the left side of Boil's ARF helmet, so I shouldn't have to add that to any of them, haha. Hopefully I haven't mentioned anything about the lack of symbol in any of my fics, though... XD)

I'm still unclear what is going on with the paint on his and Waxer's spaulders in the ARF episode, because it's obviously faded/been scuffed in places, but sometimes, Waxer seems to have an unpainted right spaulder, and sometimes there's a stripe??? His little figurine is the opposite, though, with a striped right spaulder and an unpainted left one. Meanwhile, Boil's left spaulder looks like it could be all painted gold, like in the figure above, but other times, it seems to be a normal stripe??? Who even knows—I'm guessing that the texture for their models got messed up during the production of the episode, so they're inconsistent. Personally, I'm just sticking with 'matching stripes on both sides,' like the rest of their armor. 😂

Anyway, I hope that helps!

[anincompletelist]

2023 writing roundup :D

hi all! thank you to @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @rockyroadkylers @songliili @littlemisskittentoes for the tags on this! I loved getting to go back through all of the works you guys have shared with us this year (and hearing about some of your upcoming projects as well!)

I realized that I did do a year in review post, but that was mostly stats, so I figured I'd participate in this one as well since it'd be nice to have all of my fics linked in one place for organizational purposes!

thank you guys for everything this year, I can't wait for all that's coming in the next one! <3

sarah / anincompletelist xx

Sure As The Stars in the Sky | E | 20k

It shouldn't matter that Alex has been present for each and every one of Henry's most important life milestones, sometimes the singular catalyst for them. It shouldn't be important that he's grown to be more familiar to Henry than even some of his own family members, that part of him is burrowed so deeply into Henry's subconscious that he can taste it sometimes, that even when Alex crashes in, spirited and passionate, it feels like an easy exhale; like coming home. It shouldn't matter, but it does.

praying our bridges don't make waves | E | 82k

When June gets sick, Alex knows he'll do whatever it takes to make sure she gets the care that she needs. Even if that means convincing his nemesis/sexuality-crisis-inducing/clandestine hook-up partner/somewhat of an actual friend to pretend to be his soulmate in order to pull it off. It's both more and less complicated than it sounds.

kiss me like you've got nowhere to be | M | 3k

In the three years they’ve lived together, he thinks it’s safe to say that he and Alex have gotten… close. The kind of close that other people like to point out sometimes when they’re in public, and not just their overinvolved older sisters and overly suggestive friends. A few of Alex’s colleagues have made comments when Henry shows up at the holiday parties or after a stressful work day to make sure Alex is eating and staying hydrated, just the same as Henry’s clients each know little bits of odd Alex-facts that he lets slip sometimes in his sessions. Regardless, it’s all terribly domestic, and the twinge of satisfaction Henry gets when Alex’s dates don’t go well is most definitely not appropriate, even if they are kind of in a weird, probably mostly platonic, very codependent relationship. If he’s not careful, Henry’s going to get himself so, so hurt one of these days.

I feel the beating of your heart, I see the shadows on your face | M | 18k

It’s certainly not what Alex would have predicted a few days prior. If someone had told him he’d be tenderly embracing his self-imposed enemy after switching bodies with him for seventy-two hours and embarking on an unintentional journey of self discovery and then finally finding their way back to each other to ask for a True Love’s Kiss that may or may not break the curse that flipped their lives upside down - Well, Alex would have told them to fuck off.

but I can count on you to tell me the truth when (I've) been drinking and you're wearing a mask | M | 8k

The room goes quiet again, Alex too focused on the sound of his own breathing. He’s already started, he figures, and the person still hasn’t left. But this next bit is a little more personal, and Alex isn’t positive what the parameters are for one-sidedly conversing with a masked stranger about your best kept secrets at a halloween party when you’re so drunk that the floor is beginning to look like it may open up and swallow you whole. Isn’t sure if that might be better anyway.

who ya gonna call? | M | 7k

Henry is a ghostwriter. Alex is a little confused on what exactly that means.

I'll bet it all on me and you, I'll bet it all you're bulletproof | M | 11k

“Let’s do this,” he says. “Let’s,” Alex agrees, pushing down on the handle until the door swings open. “After you, boyfriend.” This is most definitely not his finest idea. Henry usually practices much better self preservation skills. Much better common senseskills. He steps over the threshold of Alex’s room and it feels like sealing his fate. They’re doing this for Alex to win over their bosses in a lighthearted game with a harmless lie, but Henry can’t fight off the bitter knowledge that, regardless of how tonight goes, Alex will be fine, but Henry has so much to lose.

(+ listen to the podfic here!)

but if you could see us from a distance you'd know I've always been so close to you | E | 10k

Objectively, standing half-soaked from rainwater with a stitch in his side and an uncomfortable, raging hard-on outside his worst enemy’s door is not Henry’s finest moment. It’s not even on the list. [or, henry is afflicted with a curse-gone-wrong that stipulates that only his sworn enemy, alex claremont-diaz, can touch him.]

you make it look so easy, I know it's not | T+ | 8k

Bea’s to his left, speaking frantically on the phone with who Henry hopes is the fire brigade or someone else trained to deal with these— situations. In front of him, Pez is fumbling frustratedly with the water hose, showcasing his colorful vocabulary with a flourish of jerky hand movements and chaotic pacing. On either side of the fence, his neighbors are peaking over the sides to ask if everything’s okay, and Henry feels the resolution to make a good first impression crumbling and slipping rapidly out of his grasp. Even David watches on from inside the house, his sage eyes and patriotic bowtie appraising the scene and looking back to Henry as if to say I told you so. And the fryer — the fryer itself is up in flames, thick gray smoke swirling up into the air and soaring high above the tree line now. In the distance, the echo of sirens. Henry may faint right here, in the middle of his backyard at his new home before he's even unpacked, with all the neighbors and his family and friends watching on, on his first official American Thanksgiving. It is, by all means, not what he’d envisioned for the day.

somehow I'd get by (part one) | E | 13k

Henry should have known, probably, that accepting a job offer from Pez would have its nuances. It’s his own fault that he hadn’t asked more questions, that he hadn’t regarded it as a red flag when he’d had to sign several very thick NDA’s at the onboarding, when Pez had smiled so big and so secretively when they went out to celebrate afterward that Henry had to physically look away from it. Though he’s new to the city, he’d thought that working as an accountant wouldn’t offer all that many opportunities for any sort of overly odd, eclectic jobs. So he’d shown up on his first day at the provided address, a big, nondescript brick building in front of him with a duffel bag full of his sign-on papers, his computer, and a framed photo of his dog, David, ready to take up its rightful place on yet another boring, blank desk. He’d made it all of two steps inside the door before realizing that he’d just accepted a contract working for some kind of sex club. He’d stood his ground despite the burning flush that bloomed on his cheeks and then, miraculously, he’d stayed.

take my hand if you can take me as I am | E | 14k

It would hurt less, Alex guesses, if he wasn’t head over heels for the guy he’s supposed to be fucking through an ancient one-sided sex curse with that was partially — a lot, actually — his own fault. But. It’s not like there’s a fucking handbook. Alex has looked. 

if you take a life, do you know what you'll give? | M | 9k

It would have been one thing had Alexander’s job description been simply to stay in his hotel room and operate the funds covertly, an exceedingly safe distance away from Henry and any of Le Chiffre’s men. As it is, they’d instructed Alex to play the part of Henry’s date for the night, subsequently granting him the access he’d need to the private cardroom within the casino in order to report back to headquarters the funds needed in the precise moment Henry would need them. It's too dangerous, and he knows it. Henry's had a lot of blood on his hands in this life, but he refuses to have Alex's as well.

miles to go, but we're almost home | M | 5k

Texas is a bit of a last minute decision. As in, at the actual last minute, Henry had begged them at the station for whatever ticket they had left to get out of the city, shoved his credit card at them expeditiously, and promptly boarded the vessel just as the doors slid closed behind him. Turns out it’s the best decision he’s ever made.

something borrowed, something blue | (to begin posting jan 1!)

dom!alex part two

dom!henry

+

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING HERE TO WITNESS ME SCREAM INTO THE VOID! this space has meant so much to me since I first read the book when it came out, but even more so once I started writing again these last few months. 2022/2023 was a very long, very lonely time in my life and I just didn't have words for a while. when the movie came out, I remembered how much I loved the book and finally opened a blank page again! I needed an outlet, and I found so much more than that <3

PLEASE consider this an open tag to brag on yourselves, but also (no pressure) --

@firenati0n @affectionatelyrs @kiwiana-writes @daisymae-12 @read-and-write- @inexplicablymine @happiness-of-the-pursuit @heybuddy-drabbles @wordsofhoneydew @nocoastposts @firstsprinces @sparklepocalypse @ninzied @getmehighonmagic @iboatedhere @magicandarchery @matherines @zwiazdziarka @raysletters @cricketnationrise @xthelastknownsurvivorx @gayrootvegetable @lizzie-bennetdarcy @eusuntgratie @whimsymanaged @priincebutt @duchessdepolignaca03 @leojfitz @user-anakin @anchoredarchangel @tinyarmedtrex @rmd-writes

cheers to a wonderful year, friends! I am so grateful for all of you and for this space that we've created to share and connect with each other and the art that inspires us. here's hoping 2024 has a lot more of that! <333

xx

[buriedunderdaffodils]

hi. i'm an autoassassinophile here to giggle and twirl my hair about the thought of getting murdered. i also experience cotard's delusion and am half convinced that if i die i'll just come back again; this delusion isn't super intense these days but it still lingers and mixes with my sexuality. plural and sometimes other alters will pop in. in my early 20s. he/it, host is a nonbinary straightbian.

other things you'll find here:

cnc

discussion of self harm in a kink context

cannibalism

feeding and weight gain (not into involving fatphobia)

incest, mainly between siblings

piss on occasion

zionists and radqueers/transableds/etc fuck off. not into photos/videos of real gore. and of course the obligatory disclaimer that i don't support actually killing people or oneself, i believe in harm reduction for extreme sadomasochism, and you shouldn't fuck real corpses 👍

feel free to send me questions, fantasies or threats! <3

list of tags and alter signoffs below the cut

organizational tags:

#buried pages - posts that i put enough effort into to use this tag

#dead dj - music i like!

#page: necrosis - posts written in the setting of myself being able to regenerate from death, and having a "big sis" who helps me out and is a little too into seeing me dead

signoffs:

[none] - usually the host, fronts the majority of the time and the main one running this blog. binary men do NOT have permission to flirt with him, especially violently.

☁️ - Mostly a sadistic dom top and my posts and faves will reflect that. Honestly unsure of my orientation but still open to flirting from whoever, just don't expect much from me emotionally. 🕊️ is the only one allowed to be dominant toward me.

🕊️ - bisexual guy, i don't know what else to say about myself except i fucked that old man and will continue to fuck that old man. no further comment at this time

🗡️ - proud bitch and massive crybaby, idk what my sexuality is i just woke up

🫀 - my personality is 50% bimbo idiot 50% creepy slut and that's my ENTIRE purpose in this system :D i also don't know what my sexuality is but i like women LOL

📹 - Not actually that horny of a person, mostly just a voyeur.

🍨 - just some fucking slaughterfag, not much to say

💙 - has not written his thing but he exists in here somewhere

💤 - genderless ball of violence. 🦂 is one of my siblings.

🦂 - some kinda sapphic, here to fuck and not much else! largely responsible for spreading the in system incest bug in our brain ^_^ 💤 is one of my baby bros <3

[pkmnirlevents]

Info/Mobile Directory

Hello everyone and welcome to pkmnirlevents! Our goal is for this blog to serve as a central hub for people who are planning events or searching for events to participate in! We also plan to be an archive for starting resources and other material folks might find useful when running their blogs.

Our community has been rapidly growing, which while exciting can make it difficult to network and know what's going on. The introduction of stakes tags have been a huge help, though folks still may become discouraged if they struggle to find out about events before they're truly happening. A lot of planning goes into these things behind the scenes!

This post will serve as the directory for mobile users, though on desktop we have a handy navigation page that should remain up to date! If any links are broken or outdated please don't hesitate to let us know!

Directory | Prompt Events | Current HS Tag | Current LS Tag | Current NS Tag | Starting Resources | Ask/Reblog Games | Promos | Reblogs | Our Tip Jar

For an explanation as to how our tagging system works and how to submit an event check the read more.

Tag Explanation:

Event tags are to follow the format of MonthYearStakes, meaning if for whatever reason we are having an issue with updating our tagging system on our various pages you can manually look up info about current, past, or future events if available!

Ex. June23HS would be our tag for High Stakes events in the month of June 2023

Stakes abbreviations*:

HS - High Stakes (The fate of a region or the world is at stake. Grievous and even fatal injuries may happen to people and Pokemon. These often have a great deal of planning going into them, so please keep that in mind when opting to participate.)

LS - Low Stakes (May also be referred to as Drama Stakes. Meant for higher stress events that are not necessarily life or death for participants or their Pokemon.)

NS - No Stakes (These events are meant to be relatively stress free! Conflict may still arise, but nothing intended to have a lasting negative effect on participants. All in good fun!)

*Subject to change as needed for organizational or clarification purposes

How to Submit an Event:

When submitting an event to us it's extremely important that you include a link to at least one blog involved with the event (preferably the "host") and the dates that the event will be taking place. We understand that sometimes these dates may move around, and if need be we are willing to adjust tags but it's important we know where to sort it to begin with.

Please also specify if your event will be High Stakes, Low Stakes, or No Stakes (you are free to clarify as much or as little as you want here as there are other types of tags our system doesn't include).

Finally, include a description of what your event is. You don't have to spoil major plot elements, but at least give people an idea of what they're getting into. The use of keywords may also help people manually searching through our blog!

We may eventually provide a template for event submissions to follow, depending on the general traffic this blog gets. As of right now we do not see that being necessary. However, if your event submission does not include at least these things we will not post it.

Remember that when it comes to crossover events communication with your RP partners is key! Be respectful and do not spring major plot elements on your fellow roleplayers. Try not to become discouraged and importantly have fun!

[jellazticious]

sorry i don't have much better to ask, but how long have you been doing Jelllaverse stuff? it's always interesting to know how long people have had their ocs/stuff.

Jellaverse is not any official name lol, that's for organizational purposes in which I fucking forget to tag oc stuff as 😩😩😩😩😩 Also I need to update the link in the bio. Maybe temporarily hide it too

also DW ABOUT IT any ask is welcomed and appreciated! mamacita for the love of crust send me more

Answer under the cut

She-Clops has been the first among all of them, I think they've been there since 2016. It has had two rewrites and so many characters came and went but I think I'm satisfied with the Blueyesque story style it has now

Ghost Pile and When The Moon Is Bright both came around 2017 when Deltarune and Cuphead are huge hits. These are probably gonna be dormant but like, I like to include em but also here's a random pic cuz I can't find any drawings of either

The Light Plague started at 2018 and it has had many beautiful and painful rewrites. TLP is also the oc set with the densest story since it's a compilation of angsty characters that has each their own thing going on

Crank Those Gears, I believe that was 2020 or 2021 during my TF2 era because that is heavily inspired by EngieSpy. Still adore GR-17 and Nodiel dearly, hope I get to start on the webcomic

On the same world building as CTG, there's Shallow Stares with the magic tree babies. Shallow Stares came along shortly after She-Clops. One of the trees in the trio, Twelve, his design actually came to me in a dream and I just drew him. Next thing you know it became an entire dndesque adventuretimesque fantasy world, post apocalypse and all (and that apocalypse was TLP)

Not part of any self made world but TF2 ocs but Michel and his team should also be here too, somewhere mid 2021 or early 2022, that beautiful fucker is made because the DNAD server (GODBLESS DNAD YEEHAW) has a pack of people who absolutely adores tentamercs and I joined in with em. Gave him a whole team with their own original traits to go along with them. I haven't posted anything about this but the Soldier in Michel's team is a druid that wanna be human

Leave You're Not Safe Here, heavily inspired by Don't Hug Me, is the second newest out of all the sets, I think it's one year old or about to be a year old. Honestly I LOVE the concept of LYNSH cuz the main characters are all these weirdcore or abstract people but it's like a Regular Show thing so there's also humans in it. Tho the humans are rainbow coloured like Psychonauts characters (fun fact, TLP characters used to be coloured the same way, Cobalt is the only one that isn't changed) Lemme tell you smthn about LYNSH. It's the humans that act like weirdos and they insist that the abstract characters don't belong anywhere. Absolutely not a metaphor for anything

And now it leads us to Cursed To Charm. First oc set that's collaborated with someone else on the writing, shoutout to my brother from the same mushroom root @beefy-the-stronk CtC is barely three months old and yet we already came up with three seasons worth of a timeline, it's beautiful shit

[ensemblesongs]

Note that every personalized, unique character solo (i.e. IRONIC BLUE) is tagged under their unit name, their name, & "solos". I know it can be painful to try to find, say, Birthday of Music due to how old the upload is with just the solo tag. But if you look in the actual character's tag, or look up "Knights solo" in the search bar, it should appear, as an example, if the name itself doesn't work. I've also been thinking the solos tag is getting cramped, so while it will still be used, I might be separating the "solos" by what song they are, just like I did with the bite-sized new year's solos by giving them a unique tag. This will be added to the pinned soon. I'm thinking of making actual pages on the blog rather than multiple mile long posts to make navigation far easier. Even though one can always just look up a song, there's also the possibility they'll find songs that they've never seen heard by not doing so, or they might not have thought about it, which is why tags are nice to have for organizational purposes and discovery alike.

[valerieofavonlea]

Anyway here's my opinions on spoilers:

1. Tag new spoilers for a reasonable amount of time

1.5. Spoilers do have expiration dates, and demanding spoiler tags years down the line is ridiculous

1.6. That being said, general fandom tags are great for organizational and tag blocking purposes and I use them a ton, but don't get mad if someone doesn't.

2. Don't be a dick and intentionally spoil people. This means also not responding to someone who is obviously experiencing the story for the first time with vague hints and *wink wink* spoilers.

3. Stay out of the tags/communities until you're caught up. Yes I know fomo or whatever, but people will still be there to discuss things when you're caught up, and you're gonna have a much better time when you know everything

4. Demanding spoiler free spaces in the general fandom is really stifling to discussion/fan works

5. Use common sense and take care of your own experience <3

[solrika]

The first part of Bahryn in the Bogan-possessed-Zeb AU. (It's tagged "bogan-marked Kallus" for organizational purposes. yes I know it makes no sense. leave me alone. :p)

~

Zeb can taste the Imperial’s fear, a cool syrupy slide down his throat, and it eggs him on, makes him unwise. Letting the Bogan uncurl from where it’s been hiding in the back of his head isn’t necessary when dealing with one injured human. Not when the change rippling through his body hurts so much, and costs him a few precious seconds. 

The quicksilver flash of calculation hiding under Kallus’ fear flares, and while Zeb snarls through the pain of his ribs cracking open to reveal his second mouth, the agent scrabbles for his bo-rifle. 

Should’ve known better, Zeb can’t help thinking, as Kallus braces himself against the recoil and fires. You never corner a wounded animal. 

The bolt hurts, almost as much as the shift does, but the Bogan just laughs and knits him back together. Kallus’ fear is back, the scent so thick Zeb can’t even smell the smoke of the damaged pod behind them. 

Running his tongue over his teeth, Zeb grins. The kind thing would be to make the kill quick, but he’s got no love for Imperials, and even less for the self-proclaimed Butcher of Lasan. And there’s no Kanan to placate, or kids to watch for. So he takes one slow step after another, letting the Bogan absorb every rifle bolt, watching Kallus drag himself back one frantic movement after another. 

“Just drawing it out, mate,” Zeb drawls, switching his tail. “I’ll get you eventually.”

Gritting his teeth, Kallus fires another bolt. “And what,” he pants, hair flopping forwards out of that perfect slicked-back coif, “do you plan on doing with me?” 

Zeb has to pause a moment to grunt in pain, curl around the healing flesh, but nothing is going to stop him now. He’s got his prey right where he wants him. “Oh,” he says airily, “haven’t decided. But right now I’m thinking about crushing your head like an overripe meiloroon. It’d be so…” He shows his fangs. “Easy.” 

Kallus’ back hits the wall, and he uses it to hitch himself upright, begin hauling himself sideways and away. He’s usually a fast runner, clever enough to squeeze himself through spaces Zeb can’t fit his shoulders, but his leg is wounded and there are no close hidey holes in this vast cavern. This time, this time, there’s nowhere to escape, and the imagined victory tastes sweet. 

“What even are you?” Kallus gasps out. “I should have killed you! You should be dead!”

“Like the rest of the lasats, right?” Zeb growls. “No. You’re not getting away that way, agent.” 

Kallus, surprisingly, growls right back. “Even if you kill me, the Empire will still win. Every day, we recruit more informers. Every day, we persuade rebel sympathizers to reconsider their allegiances.” He twists the bo-rifle into its staff configuration, and the Bogan laughs in the back of Zeb’s head. There’s no way Kallus is wielding a souled bo-rifle, and without kyber, it’s just as toothless as the weapon’s rifle. 

“Every day, more beings get fed up with you lot,” Zeb retorts. 

Kallus snarls, a poor imitation of a lasat’s threat, and the fear is still floating in the air between them. “I’m getting fed up with you.” A sliver of bravado, despite all that terror—Zeb could almost admire that kind of courage–and he braces himself against the wall, raising his weapon. “Just get it over with, and face me.” 

“Feisty,” Zeb chuckles, and strikes–

–the bo-rifle’s crackling energy burns, just as brightly as the Purifying Flame, and the Bogan howls. 

Zeb stares dumbly at his smoking fur. Kallus’ bo-rifle is souled. 

It’s alive. 

Which means–

“Where did you get this?” he roars, and this time ducks under Kallus’ strike, grabs the bo-rifle’s stock and holds tight. The human strains against his grip, but Zeb just tightens his fingers through the crackling anger of a kyber crystal who wants him to let go– “Where?” 

“Lasan,” Kallus chokes out, “it’s a trophy, I told you–”

Lie, whispers the Bogan, and Zeb gives him a shake, uncaring when it makes the agent whimper in pain. “No. Tell me the truth.” 

Kallus’ eyes dart over his face, that quicksilver calculation rising, and finally he says, “The Lasat guardsman I faced… He fought well, died with honor. He gave me the rifle before…”

Lie, hisses the Bogan again, and Zeb echoes it. 

“Fine,” spits Kallus, “fine, you want to know how I got this? My first unit, on Onderon–one of you killed those boys, one by one, picking off the wounded like it was sport. He savaged me, but left me alive, and I made him regret it.” The smile curving his lips is vicious. “I got the attention of the ISB because I hunted him down and dragged that bastard to the nearest Guard outpost. And I demanded satisfaction.”

“You dueled,” Zeb says, slowly. He can see the shape of it: a young, angry Kallus unable to simply accept prison as adequate recompense for his squad’s death. And the Guard offering a ritual duel, intended to help Kallus spend his violence and make a clean break, but– “And you won.” 

“They said I fought honorably.” Kallus tips his chin up, pride running through his voice even now. “And it was mine.” 

“But you still attacked Lasan,” Zeb says, returning to the sticking point, “We showed you we were more than that one lasat, and you still–” 

“It wasn’t supposed to be a massacre!” Kallus bursts out, and Zeb could feel the Bogan between them, pushing and pulling at the agent’s thoughts like a kit trying to get a snail out of its shell. “It was going to be an example, and the T-7s weren’t supposed to– and honor doesn’t keep you alive–” 

Kallus clamps his mouth shut, horror kindling in his eyes. It’s a miracle his heart hasn’t given out yet. “What in the seven hells are you doing to me?” 

“I deserve the truth,” the Bogan says with Zeb’s mouth. It burns just as much as the kyber still straining against Zeb’s grip. “I deserve to know what you did to my children.” And then, surging forwards, it crowds into Kallus’ mind. 

The moment it lets Zeb go in favor of the agent, he staggers a bit, finally letting go of the furious bo-rifle. I’m going to need burn cream for my hand, he thinks absently, and then has to catch Kallus as the agent’s eyes roll up in his head. 

He’s an easy armful, only weighing about as much as Kanan. Maybe a little lighter without the benefit of Zeb’s cooking, all lean muscle and pointy elbows under that uniform. Zeb stares down at him, pokes at the Bogan. Are you going to be done anytime soon?

No reply. Typical. 

Most of Zeb still wants to crush Kallus, but the Bogan will be cross if he does it before it’s finished. And a little part of him–

That kyber loves the agent, in a way only a freely-given souled weapon can. Just as Zeb’s bo-rifle resonates with his soul, so does Kallus’, and that means once, this was an honorable man. 

Maybe Zeb is curious, too.

[alchemiclee]

i've been told/keep seeing posts about people suddenly not liking when people add tags to their posts with their own thoughts/feelings/opnions/experiences, and even people that say not to tag with certain common organizational tags (like ships for example i see the most. some people use a ship name for organization purposes and not necessarily for shipping. for example i use "collei and her dads" for cyno, tighnari, collei art for my organization so I cam find them again and theres been a few artists screaming not to use ship tags and that could be seen as a ship tag. so what do i do? not organize your art into my tags and let it get lost and never seen again? not share your art at all? kinda silly but whatever, ill just ignore your art).

I personally think that's all a bit ridiculous....i don't know if that's a more recent thing (like with twitter people coming here suddenly and expecting to act like this is twitter) or if it happened in the years since I took a break from tumblr. but bAcK iN mY DaY we used tags as a little whisper to add our own thoughts without interrupting the main post. adding hard comments or replies was more seen as "too much/too loud" if it wasn't something directly meant for OP. tags were usually never meant for OP and were always for the reblogger and their followers. these days more and more people seem to think tags on their posts are all speaking to them directly or interrupting their post (not to say you can't speak to OP through tags, like i'll say nice things about their art in tags) but not everything in someone's tags on a post they reblog from you is for you! you can ignore it!!!

I know on twitter (where I went after leaving tumblr a while back) people use quote retweets to speak to the OP often. but not always. I sometimes would quote a tweet to add my own thoughts while using the quote as like a citation to credit OP for the idea. but I have a few times where the OP thought I was speaking to/about them and got very upset about it. one was a large account who quoted me back and got very nasty and sent their minions after me. quotes are louder than tumblr tags. so that's more understandable, and I was always very hesitant to do it, but I personally see indirect tweets about another post as extremely rude and posting screenshots of tweets on twitter is also rude.

I loved coming back here mainly for the tag system! I missed being able to share a post and also quietly add my thoughts. go on long rambles related to the main post without stealing their post completely or needing to make a whole new post. I know most old tumblr users get that and don't care, probably. I NEVER saw anyone complain about it in the past. only say how much they love it. it was just part of how this site worked for us. a culture thing we naturally created. so i'm assuming it's mostly new users who don't get this culture? it also doesn't help tumblr made it so you now see tags in your notes tab and not just comments added and replies. before, you would have to go to "someone reblogged your post" to see if they added tags because tumblr only showed comments. I personally LOVE when people add tags to my post with their thoughts and stories and whatnot. ai i'd go to every reblog I got to see if there's tags added. it's like an uncommitted interaction. they dont expect a reply, i don't expect a reply. they are isolated thoughts, but still related. it's still a form of interaction, without the pressure of being direct, and I feel seen/heard when they add them. (it means they're not a bot, auto reblogging my posts /hj) seeing tags on my posts i'm not just shouting into the void alone and someone sees me. me adding tags to a post is a gentle "you're not alone/I hear you/im a real person not a bot" from me. but it also could be me saying "your post inspired me! I want to write something too! but im being quiet about it so i dont take away from your post and your post gets all the credit" when I add my own little tag ramble.

so the fact that people are now suddenly being upset by people adding their own experiences and thoughts to tags is super disappointing and and frankly annoying. tags don't take away from your post and you can just ignore them! no one is forcing you to expand the tags in your notes and read them! hardly anyone will see them. most will only read your post and not people's tags! I know no one usually reads my tags because i've added secret messages to the end of my tags and no one ever responds to it lmao things like send a pic in my ask and i'll draw it for you.

yes I know "RESPECT PEOPLE BOUNDARIES" but it kind of disrespects my needs as well. theres a thin line between someone's boundaries being crosses and someone's needs not being met. but that's a whole debate i'm not willing to have so don't start it. (not that kind of boundary is easy to not cross. not bringing up arguments. but asking people to not use a main function of a website is kind of pushing it imo...) yeah I want to respect boundaries the best i can, but unless you say in the post "don't reblog and add your own tags" no one will know and you get upset when no one knows. and no, no one will read your profile/pinned post before reblogging. no one will go to the original post and read your tags. they will only reblog it right off their dash if they aren't seeing it directly from you in the tags/for you page. some people will reblog 100 posts a day. they won't go to every profile/original post before reblogging just to see if you have any special conditions and rules for your random one post out of hundreds they see a day. that's too much to expect, honestly, sorry to say!

but this is tumblr. maybe it's better for people to accept the culture/etiquette here and let it happen without complaining, or realize this isn't the place for them! because it doesn't meet their needs and boundaries! and that's ok! it doesn't have to be your place. you don't need to stay here if you don't like how it works! asking an entire website to "respect your boundaries" by not participating in a basic or essential function of the website is a little ridiculous to be fair....

no i'm not saying your boundaries don't deserve to be respected. i'm saying this probably isn't the place to have those boundaries in the first place. because there's am established way this site functions that works in counter to your wanted boundaries, so it just doesn't fit your needs. and like I said that's ok! you don't need to stay here if it upsets you that much! it's better if you find a social media where people can't share your posts. like a simple blog site that doesn't have a share function! or like Instagram? people cant share those posts. (sorry, I dont know much about social media) if you really want people to stop adding tags that bad, either turn off reblogs completely, or ask staff to add a notification option to turn off seeing added tags on reblogs! (if you're veeerry lucky, and not a trans woman, they might listen to you)

[dustyfairywings]

Ok I think I know now how I wanna go about organizing my blogs.

I’m gonna make dedicated fan blogs for Blue Eye Samurai and Hazbin Hotel each. I’m gonna continue doing any original posts or reblogs about either within their respective blogs.

In the case of the BES blog specifically I’ll also be blogging about Edo Japan more broadly since I’ve wound up doing a lot of research in earnest about the period for fan fiction writing. I’m also thinking I’ll throw up any BES-related journal writing exercises I do over there. It’s probably gonna be a sort of open journal documenting my writing and research process interspersed with reblogs of others’ fan art, fanfics, and fan theories.

Likewise I will set up dedicated side blogs for any other specific non-fandom topics or aesthetics. I’m particularly fond of the surprisingly poetic prose of tumblr shit posts (think “tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit” type posts) and just the very specific type of humor and storytelling that arises from tumblr’s reblog system and the community’s character. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to these posts I want to preserve haha.

I’m gonna change the name of this blog so it’s in line with all my other socials and I’m gonna uh TRY to clean this blog up (this is likely a Sisyphean task and I expect I might give up on this over time. But I still gotta try). I’m also gonna try to cut down on the number of mindless reblogs that wind up on this blog. If I reblog something here it should be because it’s helpful info/advice, important news/PSAs, or other people’s complete/finalized original work or fan work that I don’t have a dedicated blog for. In the case of informative posts I will do my best to only reblog it here once I’ve read through it and not just skim it tell myself I’ll read it later. In addition to all this I’m gonna uh actually try to use tags for organizational purposes. Force myself to slow down my mindless consumption and actually interact mindfully instead.

There’s still a lot of stuff I’ll want to reblog with zero thought or explanation just cause it’s funny or relatable or whatever, so all that sort of stuff will go on a dump blog. I’m really attached to the blog’s current name, it’s been with me from the start, so I’ll probably use it for my reblog dump.

Why do I feel compelled to do all this? Well, for the vast majority of my time on this site I was content with just being a faceless, largely voiceless user that just reblogs whatever is relatable in the moment and scrolling endlessly. I was on tumblr sure but I was never really in community with anybody. Now nearly a decade down the line, I feel like I’ve finally found community with others on this website thanks to Blue Eye Samurai, and the last thing I want is to drive people away bc they find my blog to be obnoxiously spam-like and disorganized. You can’t follow others from your secondary blog, only your primary blog and I actually want to have mutuals here. When it comes to social functions on this website, THIS blog is my first foot forward and generally others’ first impression of me. And in that respect, I’ve been a poor steward of my own image. If mutuals want to get to know me, this blog doesn’t really say anything useful or coherent about me. It’s literally a dump and we all deserve better than that.

[wajjs]

oh god I'm sorry for not censoring it, i didn't know it works like that forgive my pea brain

HDKSKDKDJDB IT'S FINE but yeah, tumblr works like that. if you don't censor words in the "body" of the post, or even in tags, the post itself will still show up when you search for the term.

so, for example, say you wanna post a negative rant about spongebob, but you don't want spongebob fans to find your post when they use the search function. in order for your post to not show up when people look up "spongebob", you need to:

a) censor the word in the post itself each time you use it

b) censor the word in rambling tags (like when you have a super long tag in which you're going off on a tangent etc you also need to censor the word there)

c) censor the word in tags in general (if you are like me and tend to use tags for organizational purposes, tagging it as "anti spongebob" will still make your post show up in regular spongebob searches. unfortunately.)

i have also noticed that some people have tried to get around censoring by writing it out like "i cannot stand that sponge. he's such a bob". if you do this the post will still show up in searches. yeah. the only way to keep your hater<3 behavior confined to your blog is to censor the word, because not even splitting it up works.

[autumnalwalker]

Find the Word tag game

Thank you for the tag, @fearofahumanplanet.

My assigned words are sense/sensation, chaos, crowd, wide/width, and dense/density.

A slightly hilarious coincidence given that I just established in the last "Find the Word" game that "chaos" is somehow not yet within my written body of work. Alas, I fear I will need to skip that one. I'll make up for it by hitting all the variants too.

Passing the tag on to @monstrousfreedom, @kaiusvnoir, @careful-pyromancer, and @junypr-camus

Your words shall be: awkward, waiting, water, & tree

Excerpts below the "Keep reading" line.

Sense:

Apparently it is traditional for archivists to know the stories in the library well enough to tell them as entertainment at whatever gathering they happen to be at.  Having mostly just been skimming as many books as possible for organizational purposes so far I wasn’t really familiar enough with their contents to recite them on the spot like this.  But my outsider status afforded me a unique advantage.  While I couldn’t remember much at all of history, whether my own or my world’s, I could still remember a number of works of fiction.

And so after a moment of consideration I launched into a (heavily abridged) retelling of a classic.  A story of a man from a quiet village much like this one who was invited out on an adventure to recover stolen treasure from a dragon and found a magic ring along the way.  I was hesitant and awkward at first, neither confident in performing in front of others nor in my ability to do the story justice, but as I went on I got more and more into it (even if I had to make up names for characters I didn’t remember).  It’s funny, I have this sense of a memory of being averse to speaking because I dislike the sound of my own voice, but I didn’t feel that at all last night.  Or since I’ve been here for that matter.

I’m glad to say it went over well.  Strangely, Marva had memories of her grandfather telling that same story when she was young, albeit with some differences in the details.  Perhaps a previous outsider told it as well? It was, as I said, a classic.  Abridged as the story was though, it was still a long one and by its conclusion it was well into the night and we were all tired.  Not that that stopped the kids from asking for an encore, although I suspect it had more to do with not wanting to go to bed than with my storytelling talents.

Sensation:

“What are you doing?”  Ashan asks.

“Opening this the fast way,” Eris says while staring at her hands and tracing the glyphs on the left glove with one finger.  Back of the hand then the palm.  “Get back.”

“But this ward is only partially undone.  Unstable as it is -”

“It will make what I’m about to do that much easier.”  The corner of her mouth twitches up in anticipation while she traces the right glove’s glyphs.  “So thanks for that, but get back.  There might be some backlash.”

Eris claps her hands together and twin jolts run through her palms and up her arms to meet at the base of her neck.  She throws her head back involuntarily at the shock and bares her teeth in an expression closer to grin than grimace than it should be.  The initial sensation fades as she lowers her gaze to look at the shelf in front of her but her hands are tingling now and will be until she takes off the gloves.

Crowd:

“I hate anime,” Ashan grumbles to himself for the second time that day.  

No, that was not quite fair.  He had some vague recollection of enjoying some show or another as a child.  What was it called again?  Something with magic cards and a girl on roller skates.  An interesting concept for quick casting of spells, but unlikely to be practical with its reliance on bound spirits.  There was also the one with the talking hamsters.  That one had been fun.

Perhaps it is not so much anime itself as anime conventions that bother him.  Even after being back on the world of his birth for a few years now, he is still not used to the sheer density of the crowds.  And the novelty of convention goers stopping to ask him who he is supposed to be wears thin quickly.  Even worse are the ones who mistake him for a favorite character and ask for a picture.  And while he is used to being mistaken for a woman - and even finds amusement in it so long as the mistake is not repeated after correction - the well-intended compliments mistaking his white robes for a dress are beginning to test his patience. 

All that is secondary though to the fact that such concentrated escapism and suspension of disbelief makes for a Masquerade breach waiting to happen.  Coupled with the sheer number of cosplayers making it easy for outsiders to blend in, it was no wonder that there is nearly always an incident at these events.  

Wide:

As we rounded that curve the cave opened up around us into a truly massive cavern.  Clusters of glowing crystals grew from floor, walls, and ceiling alike, ranging from barely finger-sized to huge, angled, floor-to-ceiling columns wide enough to fit a person inside.  The colors varied in much the same proportions I’d noticed coming from windows in the Village at night; mostly blues and magentas, with the occasional green, and more rarely yellow and orange.  What I hadn’t expected was for much of the cavern floor to be given over to scattered pools of water.  Most were fairly small and shallow, but a few were easily big enough to swim in.  Daianna advised us not to.  And not to drink from the pools either as it tends to make people sick.  All of these pools were lined with crystals at the bottom and the scattered clusters seemed to be more dense around their edges.  It was markedly cooler down here than up on the surface yet just as humid, a combination that gave a bit of a chill.  Curiously for such a wet cave there were no stalactites or stalagmites, but there were crystal growths in analogous formations here and there.

Daianna, in the lead now that there wasn’t brush for Butat to clear, continued to take us further and further in until we reached what could only be called an underground lake, wide and deep enough that the light from its far depths was faint.  Here she instructed us to unload the crystals we’d brought and toss them into the water.  This was something of a surprise to me.  I’d been expecting to find a pile of previously deposited crystals that had “recharged” that we’d be collecting and replacing with a dun pile.  Instead, Daianna explained that the lightless ones we’d brought would dissolve over time in the water, providing material for new growths.  And it was those new growths we’d be collecting. 

Width:

The rocky coastline makes for a significantly bumpier drive than the commute from the manor to the estate’s forest.  Less bumpy though than Ashan would have expected from riding in the open flat back of a brake carriage drawn by a pair of roughly horse-shaped constructs.  It seems that the late sorceress Bridgewood had preferred the transportation modes of her youth to modern vehicles and left her estate furnished accordingly.  Had she personally built and enchanted this vehicle?  Being her work would explain how it had managed to fit itself through the trunk of a tree half its width, and perhaps even how they had remained upright when emerging vertically from the floorboards of a ruined cabin in the middle of this ice and lichen-strewn wilderness.  

The personal transport of one of the most powerful mages of the past century across multiple worlds and now he was riding in it.  The thrill of the thought sends a shiver down Ashan’s spine.  Or maybe that was a regular shiver.  Road had not exaggerated about the cold.  Given the ice floating in the water in the summer, he guesses that they’re somewhere near the Arctic Circle, if not above it.  And while the air might not technically be freezing the wind made it feel that way, even with the enchantments sewn into his robes.  At least they seem to have arrived during a lull in the storm.

Dense:

The docking point was another protruding cliff, much like Siren Overlook.  Similar enough to make me wonder if both of them were artificial.  This one however was overgrown with creeping vines and broadleaf ferns.  (They looked like ferns to me anyway.)  There was another matching arch here as well, but it had collapsed and shattered, now easy to miss except as raised blocky patches of greenery.

This rampant growth stopped as it met the treeline at the landward end of the cliff.  Gazing into that forest was more like peering into the mouth of a cave.  Little grew from the ground other than the great trees.  Each of them was nearly big enough around at the base to fit my cabin inside, and it easily could have fit in the spaces between them with room to spare.  I wouldn’t have expected such tall trees to be able to stand with expansive branches, yet up at the edge of our lantern light we could make out the bottom of the canopy and the branches of the trees tangled together with their neighbors in a dense web.  A web that helps them hold one another aloft perhaps?  But certainly a web that catches the sun.  It would not surprise me if the forest floor is as dark at noon as it was while we were there.

As much as Cass wanted to, we did not walk beneath those branches this night.

Density:

Eyes darting to my periphery, I caught sight of the nature sprite walking beside me in lockstep.  The sound was not truly a tapping at all but a clicking, a clacking, a clattering.  The noise of jaws housing wooden fangs barely opening and then snapping back shut in time to an incessant beat.

As the creature of the woods became aware of my awareness, it stopped walking, although the sound continued unabated.  The opening in the trees to Siren Overlook in sight, I took a few more steps before turning around to face my companion.

I’d rarely seen this being by daylight, and even now it was backing into the shade of the trees at the edge of the path, eyes aglow under its cloak of leaves, branching antlers curiously uncaught on the jungle density, and gnarled wooden hand outstretched, beckoning.  There was a rust red stain on those fingers that had not been there before.  Around the mouth as well, creating a mockery of lips.

This was an invitation.  An entreaty to turn back.  An offer to follow into the woods.  To abandon my worries and cares, my fears and anxiety.  To lose myself in the rhythm of the hunt.  To become something else.  To run frumious through the jungle with jaws that bite and claws that catch.  To let the song fill me until I am more it than me.