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Hi, I see you've found my personal blog. Welcome! (updated 12/22/24)
Warning: This blog is run by an adult and the content found here may contain subject matter that some may find: questionable, upsetting, creepy, freaky, or straight up weird. This is a safe space for me where I openly discuss and share my interests with others who share the same ideals.
If you are a minor I kindly ask that you do not follow me for your safety and mine.
You may view and reblog the content on this pinned post pertaining to: scams, and the posts linked in my in character and out of character sections of this post.
:) Thank you for understanding.
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Emoji anon's:
🧸 anon --
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👇👇 Information on scams 👇 👇
BEFORE SENDING AN ASK/DM: Do not ask me about blogs that have gofundmes. Even if these blogs have gofundme's and a PayPal, please do not ask me if they are 'a scam account' or say 'I think I found a scam account' unless you can give me 100% proof that it is in fact, a scam. I am not someone who can verify their legitimacy regardless of if they say they are 'vetted and/or verified'. If you send me an ask without reading this I WILL delete it.
Click here for all of the posts I've made about scammers.
✨New!✨Check out my side blog @scam-alerts for more in depth explanations and documentations of scams such as: the art commission scam, the (read more...) scam, sugar daddy scam, and more!
(Also, check out @kyra45's blog where you can find a lot of resources on scams.)
Current list of documented scammers: Part 3
Archived for reference: Part 1 and Part 2
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--In character/blog-sona
I’m Slendy. Your local slender-woman! (she/they)
I am/was a twitch streamer on hiatus until I get better internet. :') (I'm stuck with 5mb down 0.46mb up atm💀)
Want to see Fanart of Slendy? Click here!
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--Out of Character/Personal
Friends call me Bee :) 30+ - she/they - ADHD/Social Anxiety/Depression
Want to see my dog, Tony? Click here! (He's 10 as of July 2024)
Want to see stuff I found that I like? Click here!
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This blog follows a no tolerance policy.
If you message me, reblog, or tag one of my posts with some sort of turf/anti-vax/anti-lgbt+/anti-autisum etc... rhetoric you will be blocked.
NO SOLICITING - Whatever you're selling/advertising/looking for? I'm not buying or giving. Any asks I receive asking for help/money will be searched into and if I find out you're a scammer? I will not hesitate to call you out. So think twice. :)
If you advertise on any of my personal posts your comments will be deleted and you will be blocked.
No exceptions.
I know life is hard right now for some people but spamming comments on peoples posts or sending a dozen asks/DM's to people and demanding they help you? That just isn't the way to do it.
And that type of behavior will not be tolerated here.
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Here's a glimpse of what goes on on my blog that you might wind up seeing if you follow:
SFW content you will find me posting about: -- Animals! Memes! Shitposts! Art! Music! MARVEL content! Polls! Analog-Horror content! Video game content!
Questionable content you might see: -- USA Politics. Smash or Pass. Ship content. Minimal posts about Slashers/Killers from movies.
Minimal NSFW content you might find: -- Monster Lover/Terato related content. Censored NSFW art. Spicy Gif sets. Character x reader smut works. Character x character/Ship smut works.
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Stuff I do: -- I like to write! My requests are open! If you have an idea for something you might like to see, please check out this post regarding requests and the content I'll write for, and see my previous intro post regarding past works.
I also started a series called #Terato Adventures!
-- I document/bust scams! With how common scams are becoming in our world today, I feel that everyone deserves to be informed of what's going on in cyberspace so that bad actors don't steal your hard earned money. I've started up a side blog @scam-alerts to talk about the common and uncommon scams that are going around right now on the internet. (Here on Tumblr too!)
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I think that's it for now. I'll add more if I need to later. :)
Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!
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P1HARMONY AND THEIR FAVORITE WAYS TO TAKE PICTURES OF/WITH YOU !
pairing ; p1harmony x gn!reader
genre ; fluff
warning ; none me thinks
a/n ; my last bonedo post flopped so bad let me go cry
최태양 〰 THEO
absolutely LOVES taking pictures with you in the mirror. have you seen the amount of mirror selfies he has posted? his right hand man is literally a mirror at this rate! he would probably have you stand next to him in the mirror while the two of you are ready to go on a romantic dinner date!!! he would def post it on his ig story with something like “dinner date with loser !!” (¬`‸´¬)
윤기호 〰 KEEHO
can and will take 0.5 pictures of you. he always snaps 0.5 pictures of you when you least expect it! you would be in line waiting to get food, or pay for something and he’d just sneak up and snap a 0.5 picture of you. he definitely has a whole entire folder in his photos app just full of your 0.5 pictures hehe >//<
최지웅 〰 JIUNG
he would probably wanna take those “couple” pictures. like a silhouette of you two at night! your relationship would be like private but not secret. he would also post this on his ig story or feed with something like “the stars they dont shine as bright as you” cause in reality hes just deathly inlove with you and wants to document his life with you with these pictures he always wants to take!
황인탁 〰 INTAK
have you all seen that one picture of him and jongseob brushing his teeth? yeah. i feel like he would creep up and snap a picture of either you or the two of you. he also would probably love taking pictures of the two of you together just to show off to the world whats his!! he would take those pictures where you stand infront of a mirror and kiss eachother with the phone covering your faces!!! like lowkey suggestive pics i guess???? hes defo super lovey dovey though ૮₍˶ ╥ ‸ ╥ ⑅��ა
白翔太 〰 SOUL
would take pictures of you randomly. you could be eating, and you hear him snap a picture of you. in most of these pictures, you would either have your eyes closed or have an ugly expression on your face ( your words not his! ) though he still thinks you’re the most beautiful girl in this world!!! though if you actually felt uncomfortable with these so called “ugly” pictures of you, he would delete them just so you feel better about yourself! he always tries to prioritise your comfort!! ⸜(。˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
김종섭 〰 JONGSEOB
he would most definitely take the prettiest pictures ever. if he saw a scenery that looked good, he would call you over "hey y/n! you should stand there and pose, i feel like it'd look good!" and snap a pic. hes not as good as keeho when it comes to taking pictures, but hes been learning from him!! so all the pictures he takes goes straight to your ig feed because of how pretty he makes you look with the angles and stuff hehfdkjfakdfs (˶˃⤙˂˶)
#soubeomies#fanfic#kpop#kpop fanfic#p1harmony#p1h#p1harmony x you#kpop bg#yoon keeho#choi jiung#haku shota#hwang intak#kim jongseob#choi taeyang
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i lied! i did big fibs, i have more to say about the watcher situation after all. some assorted thoughts:
1. i'm a little surprised at just how big the rift is in the fandom post-apology. if i go into the tag, it literally alternates between "you guys are twisted sickos for bullying them into walking back the new platform" and "you guys are major chumps for accepting the apology and my trust is permanently damaged." this is a fandom that previously seemed pretty monolithic to me as an outsider, so i wonder if this will have long term implications for the sustainability of their fandom.
2. they said there'd be a "free subscription" to the platform for patreon supporters. makes sense, since their patreon tiers are mostly more expensive than the watchertv sub. this was presented as an indefinite sub dependent on continuing to pay their patreon, but patrons are receiving emails saying the sub is actually only for 3 free months. i'm like 90% sure this is the same kind of situation where they encouraged password sharing even though the platform doesn't enable it. they once again just seem to not fucking know what the vimeo ott platform they're using is capable of doing. they have to stop making statements like this until they get a better understanding of it because it's continuing to make them look bad.
3. there are multiple reports on reddit that at least ryan and sara (shane's spouse) are deleting comments on their instagram. look, i get it, some of the things people are saying are downright vile. the pointed targeting of steven and the borderline fanfic-writing quality of some of the theories about what went down interpersonally on the team during this decision is fucking weird at best and racist/invasive at worst. furthermore, i dont think making comments on personal instagrams is a good way to be heard. but on the other hand, controlling what people say on your platform right after you made a "we hear you" statement is really bad optics. obviously i think they have a right to delete anything that's outright bigoted, but it seems like they're deleting anything decidedly negative.
4. some of the comments getting deleted are about potential "fake" or "plant" patrons trying to skew the narrative positively on the watcher patreon. i frankly think this is unfounded conspiracy shit until i see substantial proof, but deleting these comments in particular without responding can cause some straight up streisand effect. this can really quickly start snowballing if they make it look like they don't want anyone talking about it. overall i just don't know if they understand just how much they're under the microscope right now. i didn't have to search very much to dig this stuff up - people are watching and documenting them. i think the variety article revealing they did initially intend to remove their backlog and them trying to pretend they didn't walk that back has caused a lot of people to hyper-inspect their every move. they're already in the youtube drama content cycle, and they risk someone making a blowout exposé if they aren't careful.
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Simpatico | Brainstorm x Perceptor FIC Recs
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@fascinationex Simpatico Fics
(Literally just all of them. But for my top favorites.)
A Record of the Eating Days | Ongoing | 12/? | E
Summary: In which Brainstorm takes a stopgap job as a cleaner and becomes attached to a very dangerous lab specimen--one he's not even meant to know about.
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The One Where Brainstorm And Percy Go To A Conference | Complete | 1/1 | E
Summary: For the prompt, "🤔 percy and bstorm go to a science conference, no one gets/believes that they're dating, smh"
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The one where Brainstorm sends Perceptor off to work with a sex toy like it's a packed lunch | Complete | 1/1 | E
Summary: :I packed something for you,: Brainstorm commed him, once he was already on the shuttle.
Perceptor's first instinct was to lunge for his pack in case something exploded.
🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬
the sealpatico au | Series | G-E
Summary: Perceptor is a marine scientist working in the Arctic. Brainstorm is a frightfully clever, mammalian polar mermaid. Chromedome and Rewind have a television show on a cable channel where they're supposed to be documenting orcas. This series is heavily focused on the mermaid stuff but we learn about other characters along the way.
✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️🔬✈️
heart's still beating, guess I'm pretty lucky | @sroloc--elbisivni | Complete | 4/4 | T
Summary: Brainstorm was silent, field indicating nothing. Perceptor calculated whether it would be more logical or illogical to wait, and concluded the latter. Brainstorm made rapid decisions, and had not formerly needed encouragement to voice them, but that had been millions of stellar cycles ago. “I would appreciate promptness in your rejection.”
“Who said anything about rejecting?” Brainstorm tipped his head to the side. “I’m just trying to make sure I’ve got this straight in my processor. You performed ethically dubious, untested, methodologically uncertain engineering on yourself. Because you missed me.”
Perceptor deleted all of his emotions for a reason. After the Quintesson threat leads Optimus Prime to push through the Autobot-Decepticon Alliance, that reason no longer applies. Fixing the situation is going to take some trial and error...and a self-proclaimed genius.
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The Left Side of the Lab | prisonmechanic | Complete | 8/8 | M
Summary: Preceptor takes a job in Iacon without reading the fine print. He very much regrets this.
Brainstorm has a large decision to make- expose himself and thousands of others and solve the fuel crisis or stay chained to a lab desk for the rest of his functioning. But Brianstrom Has always been good at creative solutions; Much to Perceprtor's dismay.
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Hazard Light | cerkowah, @eatyoursparkout, @emporianne | Complete | 1/1 | T
Summary: In the aftermath of the time travel incident, Perceptor made a resolution to get to know his lab partner better. He didn’t anticipate that he’d grow so fond of Brainstorm in the process. Blindsided by a rare and deadly illness, he realizes that he’s miscalculated the depths of his regard.
Perceptor is determined to study and cure the disease with Brainstorm none the wiser. Unfortunately, feelings have never been his area of expertise.
(Hanahaki AU)
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and the other | @polyhexian | Complete | 1/1 | E
Summmary: "Wow, you've had new emotion protocols installed for like a day and you're already developing new fetishes," Brainstorm commented, "Lucky thing they're fetishes for me specifically."
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you can touch (you can play) | badskeletonpuns, thevosboss | Complete | 1/1
Summary: “Ah, there you are, Brainstorm. I had a question for you about—ah. You seem…busy.” The lab's sudden guest—Perceptor—came fully into view, stopped in his tracks by the scene of Brainstorm leaning against a workbench covered in interface arrays. Brainstorm tried his best to keep heat from rising to his cheeks, especially as Perceptor cutely tilted his head and quirked a brow. “What…exactly are you doing?”
Fragging myself for science, Brainstorm thought. “Building spike and array mods for the crew, by request,” he said instead.
As an MTO, Brainstorm wasn't constructed with an array. In a fit of inspiration after a Perceptor-fueled recharge flux, he decides to fix this. Perceptor probes at his experiment, and Brainstorm finds answers to questions he hadn't even thought to ask.
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i absolutely ADORE your writing skills. every fic of yours that ive read so far go in incredible detail and such amazing storylines! how do you write so well?? what's your writing process like??
First off, thank you!! 💖 So happy to hear you’re a fan of my writing style and ideas ✨ Thirdly, sorry if this post becomes a little long, as I’ll likely end up getting into the minutia 😆
My process is probably kinda odd, and definitely extremely time-consuming.
I start off with a rough draft(?), which is basically just me jotting down random possible ideas and thoughts for a given fic, sometimes in no particular order, just whatever comes to mind when I’m brainstorming. Sometimes fully formed paragraphs with dialogue, sometimes just little suggestions. Then when I’ve gotten that out of my system I start to organize it by rearranging everything until it seems to be in a good order, then deem that the fic’s overview and move it to a lower section of my document.
Next, I reference said overview and start typing up scenes and dialogue in a section above.
Anything I end up removing, instead of just straight up deleting it, I move it to the very bottom section which I label “cut stuff” and occasionally go down there to use an idea/line I’d thrown out because it didn’t fit, but found a new place for it to go where it does fit.
I also noticed I write everything in present-tense when it’s in the idea phase, then change practically everything to past-tense when I’m putting it into the actual fic.
Another thing I do is have the same paragraph pasted several times in a row with slight variations to lines so I can see which version looks best to me. I’m extremely particular about my wording; I have literally texted my sister to ask which of two words sounded better in a sentence. Many times. 😂 Part of the reason for that is because I don’t like using the same word twice within a few paragraphs when I can use a synonym. Like instead of “apple” a second time I’ll say like “the green fruit”, then “the healthy ingestible/the sour sphere” if I want to be funny. XD
I also have been blessed with a very active imagination; I have over 20 PiB fic ideas written down, most of which will never see the light of day, as it would take way too much time and energy to flesh them all out, lol (although if anyone wants to hear about them I’ll gladly show what I do have written for them~)
I’ll include a few pics for reference of what my fics look like while in varying stages of the writing process. (spoilers if you aren’t current on IDNFD or AFfaL btw)
(Also sorry I took so long to respond; I was in a car accident where I got T-boned by someone running a stop sign and had/have a bunch of bs [and pain] to deal with <.<)
Anyway, I hope my reply was satisfactory, and if you or anyone else has any more questions I’d be more than happy to answer them!
#thanks for the ask!#puss in boots#deathpuss#puss in boots the last wish#pussdeath#ask answered#writing advice#if it counts lol#fanfiction#ao3 writer#pibtlw#pib the last wish#writing is a lot of fun but takes me forever XD#IDNFD#AFfaL#IDNFD fic
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Ok this is super random but I thought it was super funny
CW/TW for FNF
So, this is a word document I found called Whitty x Senpai fic, but I don't think I ever finished, probably started in 8th grade. But what I wrote feels SO MUCH like a opener to a Boyfriend x Senpai fic it's funny-
Senpai, or Chris as that was his real name, was doing his normal stuff. Being in a videogame. Being played by a girl he attempted to ask out, over and over and over again. It was enough to drive anybody mad, but the worst part of it all was he couldn’t do anything that was beyond his code. He couldn’t say he wanted to be free, he couldn’t ask for help, he couldn’t say a word, other then what his code designated him to say, he was silent. He felt trapped, like an animal at the zoo.
However, one day, instead of Girlfriend, it was Boyfriend who came home to her house late one night. Incredibly intoxicated, he walked over to the bed, sitting down and turning on the game. Nobody else had attempted to play the game before, considering it was made specifically for Girlfriend and nobody else. So when he pressed start, Senpai was free from his locks that held him down as the world corrupted around him.
Before he was deleted along with the world, he jumped out onto him.
Boyfriend, being as intoxicated as he was, just said “Hey man…” Not even recognizing the fact he just came out of the screen.
He held onto him. “Thank you thank you!” He said with glee, it was more excitement than he had ever felt before in his entire life really. “I can’t thank you enough…”
He pushed him off lightly. “Dude…I have a girlfriend.”
Ah right…, Senpai thought to himself. That’s the guy I fought…He hugged himself, he was glad to have his own body back from that demon. Although it was true Boyfriend had made him more than a bit ticked off, he helped him free. Twice. So he couldn’t help be a little thankful, and plus it wouldn’t affect how people view him if he was thankful now since he was intoxicated. It was a win across the board.
After what he said registered, he got up and crossed his arms. “I’m straight too you know…idiot.”
“Really?” Boyfriend raised an eyebrow. “C’mon…everybody’s a little curious.”
“Well I’m not…shut up…” He walked out of the room.
#tw fnf#cw fnf#senpai fnf#boyfriend fnf#whitty fnf#whitty x senpai#boyfriend x senpai#fanfic#fanfiction#lucyfanficz#lucyshipz
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IT HAPPENED AGAIN?? ANOTHER PERSON I WAS WATCHING TURNING OUT TO BE A GROSS CREEP?? BRO WHAT THE FUCK...https://www.deviantart.com/gellygirl/status-update/HELL-NAH-IT-HAPPENED-AGAIN-1076758989
So yeah, great. Just great. Anyways proof of James' gross actions is in the post but here's the proof of the picture, and once again both of my comments were deleted...this pattern sure is annoying https://www.deviantart.com/shadowmax0htf/art/Jippery-as-Smillingcritters-1076726193
And if you look at his profile, he has a friends list in his bio, some friends include:
James, the other person being talked about.
Kaplan: Someone I already talked about here, he was the pedophile and Autism Speaks supporter, basically he just supports child abuse ig.
Ikky: Someone outed as a transphobic pedophile.
Neko: Someone outed as a suicide baiter who made everyone uncomfortable and constantly demanded attention.
Victor: Someone who...I'll just leave this here https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Udx6Ys2yGeyuqTxKfPA0BfRLd1vLQegMbuH93EmO7U/edit#heading=h.f838d1x14nhh
TMNTLOVER/Or known as Tyrik: Someone I recently posted about, who's an incest and pedophilia supporter. Also has a little white-knight who also defends incest and also discriminates against adopted children, using them as an excuse to say incest is okay. (Just fucking gross.)
You really can't give this person the benefit of doubt when he so happens to support so many bad people and straight up censors anyone who tries telling him about the bad people. Maybe he's just too stupid to have the brain-capacity to consider maybe not everyone who's nice to him is a completely innocent person no matter what but...this shit's exhausting, and now he can join all his little creep buddies in the list of gross people. 7~7
I feel bad for all the innocent peeps in his friends list who's forced to be associated with Shadowmax and his disgusting "friends". XC
Also, if anymore proof is wanted, feel free to request it, and I'll do what I can to provide ^v^
Is ShadowMax just a supporter or someone who did stuff though?
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Ok, I am going to get political here and I really need you guys to bear with me. If the sign doesn't say enough, then this should. Project 2025 was created by the heritage foundation and it is a document that is intended to support what is viewed as the "American Dream" and "Strong Family Values". However, the American Dream does not support marginalized groups nor does it aid those in distress or in need of financial assistance. Ergo, if you are poor, you're on your own. The Family Values they are referring to does not include anyone who has melanin in their skin, does not practice Christianity and essentially is not of the cis or straight and narrow. So what does this mean, for the rest of us?
Well for starters, let's begin with the folks who are poor.
Those who are poor and are barely making ends meet are often disabled, unable to keep a job due to overstress and burnout. Which is often led to developed mental illness and can even intermingle with anxiety. Because of this the production of serotonin in the brain can even cause a negative impact on job performance. Especially given the low wages that will eventually lead to the employees inability to make ends meet without obtaining another job. However, as of recently, it has gotten to a point where it is a crime to be homeless in public. And part of Project 2025 is the decision to cut the section 8 program.
So as you can see, that quarter million people as mentioned will only get larger due to the growing cost in food, unregulated rent, cronyism and bribes from major corporations. With that being said, how will we speak up? What can we do when we are so hell bent on just complaining about a situation and doing nothing? We protest and say vote. Voting in a two party system has gotten us absolutely nowhere. In the past four years, the LGBTQIA had their rights held hostage and threatened by the DOC as a means of voting for them in the next election. Police have received qualified immunity across the board and have even received pardons, not punishments for their actions against BIPOC folks and other marginalized groups of people. Educational programs have been cut and reformed into a nightmare and social systems have slowly been chipped away by small government systems for the sake of saving money. Doctors now have a right to turn people away for being unable to afford treatment. Doctors also have a right to turn patients away if their lifestyles do not match their political beliefs, despite their Hippocratic oath. I can rant and rave about how the MTV website was completely deleted off of the Comedy Central platform. I can tell you how 30 years of queer history just disappeared at the drop of a hat. I was born just at the end of the AIDS epidemic. Music was still going strong and I remember dancing around in front of my grandma to the colorful pop videos as a kid. I remember the silly and weird Bumble Bee music video and the Captain Jack stuff that was not quite appropriate for television. I even remember Daria.
That was thorough documentation that was gone in the drop of a hat. Namely due to the fact that much of it was crucial to human history that needed to be observed, studied and matched to our culture today. To see how we interact with eachother and learn from the past. Also to learn how we dealt with LGBTQIA identities and the losses that occured in the fifteen years prior to 1995. At the same time, it is a history that was wiped out as a means of rejecting diversity and protest against a system that does not work for the people.
Gen Z, I am looking at you on this one. You focus too hard on being an adult and on superficiality. You need to knock it off. You act like you are against the system and yet you play into its hands just to look like old money. You make fun of millennial's constantly and hardly know the the world history that we picked up and grew up learning in high school. Namely because before you got there, small government cut funding. We don't blame you for that. We do blame you for educational negligence and wanting change. You don't even know what it is you want to change. You only know that you don't want to be poor. And it pisses you off that you are. Which I totally get. But you need to work within your means and get creative, babe. Stop selling thrift shit online. You're ruining goodwill for the rest of us. It's not cute and we miss our gucci bags and louis vuiton sun glasses. You little shits aren't going to get those with a side hustle, unless you marry a slum lord that you hate. So stop playing into the system. Get weird and go repurpose a barbie doll like the rest of us. I made a lot of fae and pirate outfits that way. I even made a freaking belly dance outfit like that.
That and I went to micheals and joannes...
a lot.
Circling back.
TL;DR
Be Gay, Do Crimes, Burn the entire Establishment Down to Make Way for a More Equitable Means of Government that is not only by the people, but of the people and for the people. Project 2025 is not only dangerous but it is a threat to those of us who want to live and prosper. I want to have children and become an actor. I want to have a long life and grow old enough to see my grand children live out their dreams. Or at least see my children live out fruitful and happy lives.
I'm sure that many of you want something similar.
#Spotify#project 2025#anti trump#social justice#equity#we need to talk about this#this is important#I want to live
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Trick or treat!
idk if you've read this fic but here's a delete scene from home by now! i like it a lot but it ended up setting up legacy stuff i never followed through on so ... into the discards document.
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Mom calls late a few nights after Matthew gets the text from Draisaitl. He still hasn’t answered it. She mostly wants to chat, and gossip about the people she and Dad had over for dinner that night, but partway through the conversation she says, “Oh, before I forget, I do have a question for you,” and it makes Matthew’s stomach tense.
“I need to plan a trip to see your Nana sometime this fall,” she says, cheerful and practical, “And I was wondering if you wanted me to time that for when you’ll be playing Winnipeg. We could make a whole thing of it.”
It’s a nice idea. Matthew will be in Winnipeg plenty this year, and the schedule’s already out so Mom can arrange whatever she wants. It makes Matthew clench his jaw. He keeps trying to imagine it, Mom’s family all settled in a box and then going out to dinner with all of them after the game, and the scene won’t play in his head. He wants it to, so much it aches, and yet—all he sees is himself in a Flames jersey, waiting for a perfect pass from Johnny down the ice.
Somehow, he doesn’t think Jets fans will like him any better in a different color jersey. Not that that matters, not that he cares what they think. The people whose opinions matter to him all like him, and he doesn’t care about what Jets fans yell from the stands any more than he cares about whether Leon Draisaitl likes him.
“Sure,” he says, after so long that Mom is definitely going to know that something’s up. “That sounds nice.”
She hums, clearly skeptical. Sometimes Matthew hates how well she knows him. “Seriously,” he insists. “It’ll be nice. Do whatever you want, I know you’ll make it nice.”
She will, too. Matthew knows she’ll get everything set up perfectly, and everyone will have a great time, and he’ll be glad to see them all. It’s just that his brain is seizing up every time he tries to imagine this season, unable to come up with an idea of what it’s going to be like to play in St. Louis, to play with a brand new team. To play with Draisaitl.
“Okay,” Mom says. “I’m not going to book anything yet, so let me know if you change your mind.”
Matthew won’t. He wouldn’t let her down like that, much less the rest of his family. “I won’t,” he says, but he’s already thinking about everything else that’s going to happen this season. Brady brought some of it up when they argued, that Matthew’s going to have to decide about so much off-ice stuff that he’s been ignoring. How he wants to present himself to the city of St. Louis and what the team expects of him as a representative but also a local.
Thinking about it makes him want to hang up the phone and maybe walk straight into Lake Ontario.
He’s still lost in thought while Mom hands the phone over, and he’s startled to hear Dad’s voice in his ear.
“Hi,” he says, a beat too late, and Dad laughs. “Sorry, I was thinking about stuff.”
“Sure you were,” Dad says, laughing. “I know you just don’t want to listen to me.”
Matthew could argue with him; of course he wants to listen. He’s listened to him on more topics than he can count for as long as he can remember. He wants to hear what his dad, who he admires as a person and a hockey player, has to say.
He’s not in the mood for it right now. The joke grates, but it always has, and nothing Matthew says has ever made it stop grating, or made Dad stop making it. He just chuckles. Over the phone, Dad won’t be able to tell that it’s a little forced.
“What were you saying?” Matthew asks. “I’m listening now, I promise.” The laugh under those words is a little forced too, but in Matthew’s defense he’s just got a lot on his mind. Some of it’s stuff he could talk about with Dad if he felt like it. But sometimes Dad just—well, sometimes Matthew thinks he answers questions like that based on what he would do rather than what he thinks would work for Matthew.
“Have you thought at all about what number you’re going to wear?” Dad asks.
This one, then.
Matthew has, of course. He knows that it’s a little conspicuous that he hasn’t settled on one yet. He knows people want to know what he’s going to do, have since the day he signed. That it would feel pointed if he didn’t wear Dad’s number but also if he did.
“I’m just focusing on training right now,” he says. He’s shit at lying to Brady and Taryn, but he can lie to Dad. Not about everything, not all the time. But he can do it, even if it makes his stomach churn.
They can always talk about it when Matthew’s back in St. Louis. Dad will be around, and Matthew does care what he thinks about it, especially if he hasn’t made up his mind by then.
Dad clears his throat, a little too pointed for Matthew’s taste. He knows what Dad wants, that Dad wants Matthew to wear his number and play the way he did and step perfectly into his shoes. Matthew doesn’t know if he can do that. Playing in Calgary made it easier to not do that, and he’s gotten used to it. There’s also the fact that there’s no guarantee it’ll happen in exactly the way Dad is having it play out in his head, even if Matthew did want it to.
“Seriously,” Matthew says. Too insistent. Pushing too hard. Dad brings that out in him, and sometimes it’s in good ways and other times it’s this. “We’ll talk when I’m back at home.”
“Sure,” Dad says, and it doesn’t sound sarcastic, but Matthew can tell he’s a little disappointed. Though he’s probably a little disappointed that this wasn’t the first conversation they had after Matthew signed, so that ship has sailed. “Looking forward to it.”
“Course,” Matthew says.
“You want to talk to Mom again?” Dad asks, and honestly, Matthew does.
“Have you really not decided yet or are you just bullshitting?” Mom asks as soon as she has the phone back. She must have gone into another room.
“I really haven’t decided,” Matthew says. “I swear.”
She laughs, and it feels different than when Dad laughs. That’s always been true, and Matthew’s never thought much about it, but he does now.
Matthew remembers following Dad around arenas as a little kid, wearing a jersey that hung down to his knees and wobbling on skates off the ice. He remembers thinking that his dad was the coolest person in the whole world, that he wanted to be just like him when he grew up. He also remembers the few early teenage years where he got to know Dad better, and the conversations they had as Matthew started to make decisions for his career, how much insight and perspective Dad was able to provide. He just also remembers the arguments when he was 15 and 16, the way that Dad never quite managed to hide what he thought would be best, even when he was trying to be supportive.
Matthew knows him well enough now to have an understanding of him as a whole person, good and bad.
“I’ll talk about it with him when I’m back home,” Matthew says. He means it.
“Okay,” Mom says. He can practically hear her smiling. “You don’t need to ask for his advice unless you want it,” she says. Matthew knows that. He also knows Dad will be gutted if Matthew doesn’t ask for his input. “Dad is yelling from the other room to tell you to text him when you’ll be back so he can set up a tee time for you two.”
“I will,” Matthew says. A deadline, then, unless he wants to talk about nothing but this for a full 18 holes, which, frankly. He’d much rather spend the time picking through all the rosters in the conference and making stupid wagers over who’s going to contend this year.
“He will!” Mom shouts, not even bothering to cover the phone. It rings in Matthew’s ear.
“Thanks,” he says, failing to muffle his laughter. “Talk to you soon?”
“Course,” Mom says. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Matthew answers before he hangs up.
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Alive
helper
He blinked, turning his head to look at the strange box surrounding him. He reached out to touch the edge of it, only to have it slide out of reach as he tried to grasp it.
"Holy shit, it worked!" The voice made him twist about before his gaze landed Outside, on his Creator, "Finally!"
The stick waved out at his Creator, but He wasn't paying attention, instead typing something into the computer. And soon the stick learned why as he felt a sense of knowing wash over him. His name was "helper".
Once he was named the strange box vanished and he began to examine his surroundings in earnest. The page was littered with drawings of other Sticks. Some were clearly drawn free hand, and a few even looked almost exactly like him, with straight lines and perfectly round heads. Most of them were black, with a few of other colours as well.
Suddenly he found himself lifted up by the Cursor and brought to a blank page, "Alright helper, let's test you out. Draw me an apple."
He nodded eagerly and looked at the toolbar, climbing it carefully to grab the pencil and change the colour he was drawing with to a nice vibrant red. He grabbed the paint bucket as well and hopped back onto the page.
He drew a simple circle and coloured it in red with the paint bucket. His Creator shook His head, "No, no, waaay bigger. And can't you do better than that?"
helper winced a little at the criticism, picking up the pencil again and making as big a circle as he could, and filled it in with red paint again. He climbed up back to the toolbar and changed the colour to black before hopping back down to add a little tick to the top. There. A stem was what was missing from the last one!
"Are you serious? I made you to help me with art and stuff and you can't even draw a decent apple! I can draw a better apple than that!"
When his Creator was done, it was actually hard to tell who had drawn which apple.
"Useless," His Creator drew a thick lined box around him, dragging it to the corner of the screen and just left him there.
helper sat on the floor of the box, clearly he deserved this. He wasn't good enough.
He waited and waited; he watched his Creator leave the screen and hugged his knees. Was he just going to be left here forever?
--
It was bright Outside before anything changed again. Someone else was staring at the screen, someone with long brown hair and blue eyes, "Oh hey, who's the little guy?"
"Oh, I made it to help me with art, but it sucks as bad as I do. Look at the apples."
"Ooof, yeah, can't tell which one's yours and which one's his."
"I'd actually kinda forgot about it. Might as well delete it," At that statement, helper sprung up and began throwing himself at the walls of the box, but they didn't give. He didn't want to be deleted!
The one who wasn't his Creator frowned, "Okay so maybe he's not great at art, maybe there's something else he's good at. Wasn't the one in that video an ad blocker?"
"Yeah, but that was a combat stick, this thing's not equipped for that."
"Well... maybe he's good at writing? You could definitely use the help on your essay."
"... I guess." His Creator sat down at the computer again, deleting the box around helper, picking him up and placing him in a half-written Word document, "Okay, fix it up for me then."
helper climbed up and down lines, moving periods and commas around, erasing and capitalizing letters, the Creator and His girlfriend nodding in approval, "Well, at least you're good at something."
helper clapped his hands, looking up at his Creator who grimaced, "Urgh, really shouldn't have drawn eyes on you."
--
And that was helper's life. Trapped in a box when not needed and only let out when there was an essay or research paper his Creator needed done.
It was miserable and dull. He only ever got to see the browser, the Word program and his painted cell.
He hated it.
He knew there was so much more out there!
But how to escape? When he was working on a paper, he was always being monitored.
--
It turned out he didn't need to come up with a plan.
His Creator's girlfriend sat down at the computer, looking through the tabs until she found him, "Hey there, little guy."
helper looked up at her for a moment before glancing back down, "Aw, it's okay. I don't have a project for you. Terry's graduating soon, he doesn't really have any more papers he's gonna need done, I don't think. And I'm worried about you. I think he's probably gonna delete you soon."
helper jumped to his feet, looking up at her, "Don't worry, I'm not going to let him do that. As a matter of fact..."
The box vanished and helper dropped down to the bottom of the page, "Ooops, sorry!"
helper waved it off, stretching out his limbs. He watched as she moved the cursor down to the bottom right of the screen and tore open a bright white hole.
"There's your way out. Good luck, little guy."
With that she got up and walked away, leaving helper to his own devices for the first time ever. He glanced up at the toolbar, before climbing up and grabbing an armload of icons. He might not be much of an artist, but he thought these ones might serve him well no matter the situation, since he had no idea what awaited him through the portal.
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Cyborg 009 BGOOParts Delete (2020) - Volume 3
This manga is clearly meant to be binged and not read extremely slowly like I've been doing, so I'll try to read more at a time to do things properly. I'm still really frustrated that this is such a rehash of tired material. It might be acceptable if this was a reboot, but it's supposed to be more like a sequel/continuation so...
Ch. 15
The monologuing continues! Apollon and Joe talk about their respective squads, what makes them similar and different. Joe emphasizes the fact that the numbers cyborgs resent being made and plan to eradicate all of Black Ghost's cyborgs from the face of the Earth.
Helena asks Francoise to help her stop the fighting, but Francoise says that she can't because she doesn't want to abort the mission. Helena knocks Francoise out and turns into her dark, Artemis form, complete with creepy looking wings jutting out of her cyborg spine. They drew her all sensual this chapter which made me kinda uncomfortable lol.
007, 002, and 006 fight the lesser Mythos cyborgs in the background. They're not given much to do and it's hard to care about their part of the story.
Ch. 16
This chapter was straight up incomprehensible for me. Not only do they shout out some new attack name every two seconds, but half of them aren't even in Japanese or English. Also, a lot of the characters use old timey Japanese. At this point I'm just hear to admire the art.
Artemis' body is now the Dolphin apparently. What is this Arpeggio of Blue Steel??
At least 005 and 008 got some screentime this chapter. Every time 008 does stuff outside of the water I'm like "he's just a dude" lol. The Aquaman conundrum...
Ch. 17
Geronimo's battle wraps up with the Minotaur dude. DAMN that guy was annoying. I think he said "The Dark Labyrinth" about 50 million times. I was so pissed off having to read it over and over lol. Like...shut up already (thankfully, he did).
I really love how Pyunma has been drawn by this artist. He's come a long way. He acknowledged how limited he is outside of the water in this chapter, which I appreciated. Chang comes to his aid.
Ch. 18
Apollon monologues himself to death lol. The dialogue is sooo bad in this manga. They keep repeating the same phrases ad nauseum and it feels cheesy for them to be ranting so much during a battle. Just have them fight in silence and monologue after or something.
In addition to the dialogue being cringey, the action isn't really good either. The Mythos cyborgs keep dying and I keep thinking "wait...how'd they die??" It's not drawn clearly at all. Apollon gets shot up and then set on fire somehow, but they didn't draw Joe doing any of that so I'm like ???
Ch. 19
Okay, Hippo Man making 007 melt was pretty disturbing body horror, I gotta say. 004 then easily takes him out in a pretty boring battle. Hippo man went on and on about his "true name" and they made "kaba/baka" puns. Hey Cyborg 009, aren't comic relief characters supposed to be...funny?
Artemis is pissed at Joe for killing Apollon, but what did she think was gonna happen? This is such a blah retread.
Ch. 20
Lion dude turns into Heracles (which looks like a guy wearing a lion fur and wielding clubs). The cyborgs all gather for their final battle (aside from Artemis probably)
Who was the hairy dude in the beginning? I'm sure I'm just supposed to know who is his but I forgot lol. It's so hard to follow this manga when no one's documented it on the 009 wiki yet boohoo
Joe looked pretty badass showing up at the end there ngl (plus the shippers probably like to see him carrying 002 like that)
Ch. 21
Okay, this last bit was interesting (finally). They talked about how the numbers cyborgs have already defeated Black Ghost and are now just cleaning up their ooparts. Heracles disagrees and says that the Mythos cyborgs ARE Black Ghost because they're following through on their mission.
I had to remind myself what ooparts are. It stands for "Out of Place" parts. It's supposedly an American term, but I've never heard of it. It's related to cryptozoology and refers to anachronistic artifacts. I guess the Mythos cyborgs kinda fit that, but instead of being new stuff in olden times, they're old stuff in modern times? IDK. I wonder if OOParts is a well known concept in Japan or just this mangaka's hobby?
GDI Helen showing up at the last second to resurrect everyone is cheating >:/ now this arc will never end!
I like learning random stuff from manga. Heracles kept bringing up the Nemean lion so I looked it up and basically it's a lion whose fur was impervious to weapons. Never heard of that myth before! With the added context I appreciated Heracles' design more.
The mangaka's fanart sketches at the end were really charming, I liked their little self portrait too (they didn't need to draw 008's OG design though -cringe-)
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hi its me again ..
sorry to bother, just wanted to ask if you have any tips on how to start off a fic.. i have an idea ive been sitting on for ages and i have so much planned but i just... can't start it!! how did you start an insulting indifference...
oh man.... im so ass at giving advice.... but thank you for asking anyways! let's see.... this got long so im placing a read more
the way i write is very based on improvisation. i either go into a fic with a very very broad idea of what i want to accomplish, and let the story take me wherever it wants. if i think of something randomly that i want to write, then i go to the bottom of my word document and pound out about two to three sentences IN the moment or scene, just to set the tone. i typically end up hoarding about 3 or so pages of disconnected story moments or character dialogue. by doing this, i can also foreshadow events or make parallels that span across several chapters in the story.
work OUT OF ORDER!!! its fun!!! it keeps it exciting!!! there was one fic i wrote where the last chapter was the first ever thing i wrote for it, and so i had a better picture in my mind about how the entire thing would GENERALLY play out. i like to leave the details in the moment, which is where the improv aspect comes in. if you let yourself ride the tide of the story, you wont have to force it in certain directions as much. sometimes you have to correct its course, but mostly youre there to cruise along with the story thats coming to life!
think of it like... a bunch of big dots. and these dots are all connecting by lines. like a big web. everything in the dots are BIG STORY BEATS, and the lines are the exposition between them. the lines don't have to be straight, either. they can have loops, or wiggles, or tiny tiny dots of their own. it may not be as exciting as the HUGE dots, but its still necessary. then again, maybe it isnt! dont feel like writing a scene? skip it! trust in your readers' abilities to make inferences based on all the other context clues you give them in the text.
as you can see, i suck at giving advice HAHA. my brain is.... not very good at sorting the chaos into something tangible for others to understand.
if you have an idea, just run with it! write for the sake of writing SOMETHING. anything is a good starting point. ANYTHING. you can always go back and edit it later. write what you DONT want to write so you can get to the stuff you DO want to write.
)--)o
i would also recommend never deleting stuff youve written. if you write a scene that you end up hating, cut and paste it into a separate document just for safe keeping. it might come in handy down the line, even if you never actually USE it. you might be able to look back on it and REALIZE what does and doesnt work about it, which will improve your tone and general skills for OTHER stuff you're going to write in the future.
and one of my favorite things to do in a story when im stuck is STEP OUT OF MY BOX. especially if youre writing from a single character POV. we've been following the story of a single person, but every single other character they interact with has been going through a fanfic of their own. what is happening to them? what are they saying? being told? experiencing? what would cause them to change their mind about something suddenly? or act irrationally? the best part about writing for humans is that they're flawed. all of them. so we can write them making mistakes and doing stupid things. it helps push the plot along. it creates conflict, WHICH IS INTERESTING. we love conflict.
find something you want to write about in a fic, then expand the world around it. when i started an insulting indifference, my goal was to write about Alejandro's trauma, Noah's mental health, and have them experiencing healing by mending their relationship with not only each other, but the world and people around them. and then it grew from there!!!!!!!!!
ok im done
i talked WAAAY too much about utter nonsense. i hope at least 5% of this was helpful to you. LOL!! thank you again for the ask!!!!
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Genesis Legacy Challenge Masterpost
All things Genesis challenge will be posted here. I'm already 5 generations deep and I hate archiving stuff that's already done so, I'll have a main post for each generation so you can see who's who, see the family tree grow, and then you can follow in real time over on twitter until Elongated Muskrat finally makes that hell site implode.
TL;DR
Genesis Challenge Info Here Family Tree Here Generation One Highlights Here Generation Two Highlights Here Generation Three Highlights Here Generation Four Highlights: In Progress Generation Five: In Progress
Keep reading for more info on how I've been playing this challenge.
First of all, what is the Genesis Challenge? So you know in the bible how there was like...nothing? And then the Watcher was all, "let there be sims" and it was good? And then those Sims started multiplying? Ok so you start with a blank save. I used this one from @srslysims that you can find here. It has every lot bulldozed and all sims deleted. You create two founders. I used a female and a male. Then those two founders go off and make babies with the randomly generated townies. Then, your heirs (I used the first female baby from my female founder and the first male born to my male founder) and move them to another world, and repeat. Essentially filling up each world, one generation at a time, and always being able to trace your lineage back to one of your founders. You can find a more well written description of the challenge here.
Personally, I'm very bad at following challenge rules and sticking with them so I only had two rules, don't cheat money and always be able to trace my lineage back to an original founder. I turned off all story progression in my game, except aging, and...got a little too crazy with this challenge. I am responsible for every birth in this save file and I have documented every birth on family echo and you can view that family tree here. This is absolutely NOT required for this game and just me having too much free time on my hands and adding an additional layer of lore. The lore being, something happened and now only direct descendants are fertile so all children must be born to a direct descendant.
How did I do this? Well, again, an abundance of free time was a big factor but, I did use some tools and a schedule to aid in this quest. Number one, start tracking everything...immediately. I have a notebook where I was writing down every hookup and whether or not a baby came from them and then once there was a baby, they (baby and other parent) were added to the family tree. I, personally, am a big fan of Family Echo because I don't care about all the frills. I just want names, pictures, and relationships, and it covers all of that and is very easy to use. Bonus, it's free.
As far as the schedule goes, I would play my main founders for however long and then when I had some downtime while they were pregnant (I use MCCC and have pregnancy set to 7 days), I would go around to families that didn't have kids yet/weren't currently pregnant/hadn't had a kid too recently, and I would use WW and make them hookup (so that it used WW's fertility settings, therefore making babies less likely than vanilla "try for baby" and also, therefore, more random) and move on. That's it. They got one shot and they either did or did not get pregnant. If they did, I marked it down, came back after the baby was born to get their name and get them added to the tree. If they didn't, I waited until the next "cycle" and had them WW hookup again and left it up to fate as to when they did/didn't have kids.
All babies born in the game are created in a "traditional" sense but, no, not everyone on the tree is straight. I did not have the new science baby feature prior to Gen 5 so a sim would have to hookup with someone of the opposite sex to have a baby but, they did not then have to actually be in a relationship with that person. In other words, some direct descendants have been "sperm donors" or "egg donors/surrogates." Lumpinou's RPO mod does now have an actual donor aspect to it, plus we have the science babies now so, I may incorporate those instead going forward.
Also, probably the last thing to note, once a sim became a parent to one of my legacy babies, that's when I would move them to a lot in whatever world I was working on. For instance, male founder gets townie female pregnant. Male founder stayed on home lot, townie mom and baby would get moved to a nearby lot. This continues until the world is full. Heads up though, you can very quickly overpopulate your world. For Rent adding multi-unit possibilities for every world is actually what made me want to jump back into my Genesis Legacy because now I can have better population control. Housing crisis solved! lol
Anywho, this is the longest I've stuck with a legacy, it's been full of chaos, and has been a hell of a project. You can read the highlights of each completed generation here. Also, I count my founders as Gen 1. Sooooo:
Founders/Gen 1 Highlights Gen 2 Highlights Gen 3 Highlights Pt 1 and Pt 2 and Pt 3: The Final Part Gen 4 Highlights: Under Construction Gen 5: In Progress on Twitter
View the full family tree here.
And if you've made it this far, thank you for reading all of my nonsense!
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please Star endow us with your college knowledge
Perhaps, uh,,, plot construction? Advice for plot in general? Anything that comes to your mind, really. It makes me so happy to listen to people who are really passionate about something 🌟
I’m happy to impart some college knowledge! 🌟 As always, there are a lot of opinions and preferences in this world when it comes to advice, and this is merely mine! Here are some general points re: plot that I like to keep in mind/live by, lol.
Bullet point outlines! If anyone ever tells you that you need a detailed outline of your plot to start writing a story, ignore them. Half the time, I’ve got just a mess of bullet points that are primarily to help me keep details, timelines, and events straight in my head. There’s random chunks of dialogue thrown in, silly comments reeking of excitement aimed toward myself, and big bolded notes about things I seriously need to remember.
These are to help you, so add everything you need to it, like ages, years, character details, single sentence plot points, etc. Sometimes, I go chapter by chapter with a couple lines of the major things that need to happen in each; sometimes, I just have a bullet list of things that happen and I decide as I go where the chapter breaks happen.
All that being said, there’s nothing wrong with not having a plan either. I don’t have a plan for half of my current WIPs, lol. It’s totally okay to just start a story and see where it goes. Maybe a plot will emerge, like it did in we fall apart (but dad puts us back together), or maybe you’ll start each new chapter like “All righty, what’s gonna happen this time?” Letting the characters lead the story is fine—in fact, it can be a lot of fun!
Don’t be afraid to rewrite scenes! I know it can feel discouraging or like you’ve messed up if you think you should start over, but I promise rewrites are a totally natural part of the process. There are a lot of times when I’m in the middle of a scene and I decide the tone feels off, or the story’s going in the wrong direction, or even sometimes I just plain don’t like how it feels. At the same time, though, this is supposed to be fun! Perfection isn’t necessary! A lot of my stories only go through one draft, and that’s totally okay! Not rewriting doesn’t mean you’re a bad author.
Heavily related to the above point: keep the old stuff! Don’t go deleting entire paragraphs or pages of work, not even if you decide to do a rewrite! I often keep a “discards” part of documents at the very end where I copy/paste the original version of something to, or I’ll just start over in a new doc. You never know if you’ll decide you liked a certain part of the original or if you later think of a way to tweak it so it works. I did a ton of rewriting and editing on a one-shot a few weeks ago, and after all sorts of discarded paragraphs and working on a copied document to preserve the original, guess what? I ended up going back to the original and simply incorporating some of the new bits I’d come up with since deciding on a rewrite. Keep your work!!
If you have a specific series of events and A Big Moment as a climactic scene, everything prior to that moment should ultimately be leading up to it. That doesn’t mean you have to constantly be go-go-go toward the goal, but just be aware that diverging too far from your Big Moment can muddle the plot or make the Big Moment seem less important. Like in Miracles (And Those Who Make Them), from the very beginning, we’re working toward creating Audrey. But we’re not tunnel-visioned in on that. We still see casual scenes and interactions between characters. We take our time getting there, but even the interlude is still ultimately part of that progression: we see Joey’s doubt and insecurity, which he frequently battles against before she’s created.
Slower scenes like that (that some might consider filler, but I have my own issues with that) are very necessary—they give the reader a breather, a chance to relax after some tension or anticipation, and they’re also good breaks for the characters. We need quiet/happy/peaceful/relaxed scenes to break up the heavier plot-focused ones to avoid overloads of information/action and to reset the readers in terms of attention and tension. It’s the oldest comparison in the book, but think rollercoaster. You need ups and downs and track that isn’t necessarily exciting in order to create an overall balanced and fun experience.
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Eucatastrophe: The Deleted Songs
A discussion about old theories for Deceit's name prompted me to go and find the original version of the Snake Name song from Eucatastrophe (which is essentially the same as the final version, just with 'Janus' in place of one of the other names). And while I was in the lyrics document, I stumbled across a few other interesting snippets that didn't make it into the final version. (I'm very forgetful, and this was like three years ago, so I honestly didn't remember any of this stuff.)
In vague chronological order, here we go:
The Snake Name Song (Sname Song) - I just would like to note that I apparently noted that it should be sung 'to a downright mischievous and jaunty tune, directed right at your most deceitful companion'. I think that's fun.
The DWIT Ballad - Close to the end of Chapter Five, Octavian starts to sing a ballad he's writing, loosely based on what the Sides have told him about their entire deal. You only get one verse in the actual fic, but the original intention was for it to be a full song, a ballad-ified version of the events of Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. I got four verses in, realized that I couldn't make it interesting and I didn't like how it flowed, and gave up on it. Here's all I had.
Mr Sanders had six Sides who wouldn't let him sleep He'd been up to almost midnight, eyes shut tight and counting sheep At half past twelve he sat up - rubbed his eyes and shook his head "That's it! I'm done! - exhausted! What is wrong with you?!" - he said -
"If there's a problem or dilemma keeping me from rest, Sharing and resolving it is really for the best! I've been lying here for hours, I've been tossing to and fro So tell me what you're stressed about - speak one by one, let's go!"
Said one, "your late-night thoughts, my friend, they really are obscene! They're cruel. They're gruesome. They're intense. And more than that, they're - mean! I think there's something wrong with us - my morals are askew Thinking frightful thoughts like this just simply will not do!"
The next had agitation strong enough to last all night - "There's monsters in the dark and I can barely sleep from fright! Your friends obviously hate you; you forgot to lock your door, The only way that this can end is violent messy gore!"
I really liked the alliterative syncopation of the first line, which is why it ended up in the final version, despite it not really having a real reason to be there.
The Fae Banquet Duet - two major deleted bits from this. The first, a Remus verse beginning with 'my lover's dick is hard' - I didn't know where I was going with this, but it seemed Very Him. Secondly, Janus-as-Thomas was going to have an actual in-text verse instead of the narrative just mentioning him 'starting to mutter something of a melodic ostinato'. Two problem with that: one, it interrupts the narrative flow, two, it makes it really obvious it's actually Janus before the reveal.
You can still hear me singing it in the recorded version, though. It's in triplets, which I thought would be a nice counterpoint to Logan and the twins singing mostly straight quavers and semiquavers. Here's the lyrics.
Take my mask take my hand, all fade to memory I’m not a person and I am imagin’ry Smile and touch my cheek, hold my hand, now I see Every word that I speak turns into fallacy
I also had a whole chart set up for writing Logan's verse, because I wanted the rhythm and rhymes to be very precise. I mapped it all out syllable by syllable! I can still sing it perfectly to speed.
Janus's Riddle Song - original intention was for all the Sides to have or be featured in at least one musical number of their own. Jan's was going to be a riddle battle with the Two-Faced King, in the style of Riddles Wisely Expounded.
I'm pretty sure what I've got here is just straight-up stolen from a version of that ballad, and I was going to change it and make it more stylized later on (although I know the presence of 'falsehood' here means I at least changed it a bit) but I think this is all I have.
So what is greener than the grass? What is smoother than the glass? What is brighter than the light? What is darker than the night? What cuts deeper than an axe? What is softer than melting wax?
Envy’s greener than the grass Flattery’s smoother than the glass Truth is brighter than the light Falsehood darker than the night Regret cuts deeper than an axe But love is softer than melting wax.
The Tam Lin Filk - in the style of the original Tam Lin Ballad, this was going to be how Tomas Linus confessed his entire deal! Or part of it, anyway. Later, I considered shifting this bit to be in the epilogue, to be the Octavian^2's Epic World-Saving Ballad that everyone hears in the woods, but by then I was brushing up against the deadline and couldn't make my brain write the full thing. Three verses is all I got.
Be wary, Sides and Sources all With flowers in your lovely hair Who pass on through the woods this morn For I do wait and see you there
I watch you as you weave your crowns And watch your Thomas break the tree And watch him take the King’s bright fruit Without the leave of Him or me
A tithe to hell the King must pay He pays it every seventh year One human life - it’s only right That I, his friend, should volunteer.
Erlking's invocation - is the same rhythm and metre as Logan's verse in the ball song for, uh, obvious reasons. I had a chart for the rhythm and rhyme of it as well.
I also apparently wrote an actual invocation for it, in the style of the Mechanism's Red Signal. Why? Uh, I guess I really liked the Bifrost Incident at the time. (Still do. It's a banger album.)
Finally: at the very bottom of the lyrics document, there's a one-and-a-half verse filk of Macavity's song from Cats the musical. It does not fit anywhere within Eucatastrophe or anything else I've ever written, I can't remember writing it, I have NO IDEA WHAT IT IS DOING HERE. Here it is, verbatim!
Anxiety, Anxiety, there's no-one like Anxiety, There's never been a Side of such uneasy notoriety, He always has a argument and hides behind his hair, Whenever things don't go to plan, Anxiety is there.
Anxiety's the bane of us, we call him Genghis Khan For he's the master worrier that plans get wrecked upon . etc
I really should write another musical fic sometime.
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weird writer questions: 3, 25, 26!
weird questions for writers asks
3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?
A billion years ago when we were all still beholden to PCs, I used to write everything in Windows Notepad and then copy to Word afterwards because I found it easier to write when I didn't have the distraction of fonts/sizes/italics. Over the years, I have thankfully broken myself of this habit, but sometimes when I'm stuck in the middle of a section, I'll open up a blank Word document and start writing in that - somehow the absence of all that came before and all that will come after takes the pressure off. I mostly write in word, but then update it into the google docs file corresponding to a story so that I have it on the go if inspiration ever hits. The annoying thing is that google docs always formats a space after each line break so every time I copy it back into word, I have to manually delete the space so it won't piss me off. (Also smart quotes on my iphone/ipad vs straight quotes on my macbook - just default it to straight quotes, google docs, so I don't have to find/replace every time I edit it somewhere else!)
25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?
There is no story so I suppose this is irrelevant, but I've always thought that when the Yellowjackets girls get rescued from the wilderness (circa 1998?), someone in the media gets wind of how the cinematic stylings of Sandra Bullock kept them going in the Canadian Wilderness, leading Kurt Loder and the MTV crew to hold a special screening of Practical Magic in Jersey for them. Years later, Van runs into Sandy B when they're filming a movie near her hometown and tells her that she's a big fan of her work, to which Sandy jokes, "You must not have seen Speed 2 then," which, let's be real, is the ONLY good thing to come out of being stuck in the wilderness for 19 months and having to cannibalize your teammates to survive.
Another hyper-specific detail re: Top Gun Maverick is that I've always assumed that Coyote's mom used to send mini-care packages to Hangman when she sent Coyote stuff because of course he went to one (1) barbecue at Coyote's when they were on leave and charmed the hell out of Mama Machado and immediately became "one of the family." (Except to Coyote's brother who has still never forgiven Hangman for innocently hitting on his now-wife/then-girlfriend at the party.)
26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?
Not to be Sophie Nélisse about this but it doesn't consume me. If I liked the character enough to want to explore the characterization more, then it's probably fun more than anything else? I also think it's less about getting in a character's head and more about getting their voice right. Once you have that, the rest falls into place.
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