#thank you so much for these!!!

[racingliners]

HELLO i'm asking two fic asks i hope that's okay!

✑ PROCESSING for The Rules of Strategy and ♡ SMALL THINGS for Slowly And Then All at Once please🥰

it is ALWAYS okay to ask me to yell about more than one of my fics!!!

✑ PROCESSING: pick a fic and I’ll tell you what it was like to write it!

Oh my beloved TRoS... (ao3 link)

So one thing to know about is that because I'm autistic I will research the shit out of anything. And while I watched the 2017 season at the time, there was a lot of Mercedes-centric things I missed out on. So a lot of my research for each race weekend chapter consists of tag surfing here on tumblr for pictures and video clips (mainly to see what Lewis was wearing on a specific day if I need it, and if there was anything notable that happened across the weekend), looking up free practice/quali/race reports, and also watching the Mercedes strategy debrief videos so that when I'm writing Strategist!Seb, I have a really good idea of what I'm talking about. In a couple of instances (Bahrain, China and Spain) I've also watched the full races back just to get a proper feel for when writing the race sections, and for any team radio clips.

Then, I'll get writing. I'd actually planned out the vast majority of the chapters many months ago based on the season results and what I could remember from 2017, as well as the various relationship development points. But I do the above stuff to get my brain into the frame of mind for whichever specific race chapter I'm writing (I like to do a balance of actual racing and mushy romance bc that's just how my brain works, and because in a way they both influence each other in the plot).

Sometimes I'll be going about my day and I'll have an idea drift into my head for a future chapter, or even a bit of dialogue, so I'll write it down in whichever relevant notes doc I have so I have it on hand for later.

Obviously when I actually get to writing things will change a bit in terms of what scenes I do end up including. I have my notes as a guide and just go with the flow in terms of what feels best for the development of the story. The only exception when I've done a complete 180 for what I originally had planned was the Monaco chapter, which I ended up setting post-race at the Mercedes factory and at Seb's house. IRL it was a rough weekend for Mercedes and I felt like I'd already written that to an extent with the Bahrain chapter, so I opted to change it and I'm really happy with how it ended up turning out.

♡ SMALL THINGS: pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favourite minor detail from it!

I am SO happy someone asked me about this fic bc I just love it so so much! (ao3 link)

I'd say I'm definitely a very detail orientated writer, so I just love sprinkling little things in here and there in the hope that someone else notices them and loves them as much as I do.

One of which was definitely in the hotel room confession scene towards the end, where I very specifically had Jenson wear a mint green shirt (what was about to become Team Brackley aka Mercedes colours) to foreshadow him and Shov getting together.

He adjusted the fabric of his shirt, a mint green button down with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and slowly walked over towards Shov. The best case scenario of them going to be at different teams in a couple of months’ time meant that if what Jenson was about to say completely blew up in his face, it would be somewhat easy for neither of them to see or speak to each other ever again. As painful a prospect as it was.

Team colours are such a huge identifier, especially in F1 where every team has their own distinct colour scheme, so it's something I love to play around with a lot for the symbolism of it all (I did a very similar thing in Life In the Fast Lane where I had Sophie and Benedikt wearing each others helmet colours, also to foreshadow their romantic relationship). And at this point in 2009, Jenson had already signed his contract to join McLaren in 2010, so it was because of that I had Jenson wear a Mercedes colour (instead of BrawnGP white or yellow) to signify to the reader that they're about to become each other's person as he and Shov only had a very short about of time left at the same team.

fic ask game

[aworsening]

Not sure what type of prompts you're looking for but:

Thematic: on grief, on sisterhood

As a song: Glass Animals - Mama's Gun

More elaborated: Losing a part of yourself as a child, noticing years down the line, looking for it in yourself and others

[mercymaker]

1 - 3 + B for an oc of your choice! 😊

Uncommon Questions for OCs and their creators

I'll do the OC questions for Thoriel, just to switch things up a little bit!

1. What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

Not very long! While Maleane is more of a thinker, who tries to devise a plan of action before getting her hands dirty, Thoriel is very much a doer who just springs into action and rolls with the punches. I think it helps that she's very charismatic, so most of the time things just work out in her favor. But even when there's no action to be diving into, Thoriel is not someone to sit idly. She sings, she dances, she plays her harp. Then sharpens her blades, tinkers with things, finds people to chat with. The girly finds it hard to sit on her hands and do nothing!

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Laughter finds her lips easily! Thoriel loves to laugh and make others laugh as well. And she's quick and witty, so jokes spring up in her mind with relative ease. It's not easy to live a life that feels like a gift, something you owe someone, so she takes every opportunity to enjoy it and laughter is one of the most important aspects of life.

3. How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?)

When Thoriel was a wee lil child, Maleane would hum while putting her to bed. Later, when she got a bit older, her mother read stories to her, and then eventually, taught her how to read all by herself. So, growing up, Thoriel was quite fond of reading before bed. When she grew up and left to forge her own adventures, Thori's most likely to write before resting. She sings or plays harp, writes some words down on a piece of parchment, or the edges of a book she's reading. At times she gets lost in a thought and starts writing poetry.

B) What inspired you to create them?

Thoriel just sort of sprung in my mind almost fully fledged. I knew she'd have pink hair because I could totally see Mal's daughter just dunking her hair in a pot full of beetroot juice because she'd think it's so cool to have pink/purple hair! I knew she'd have heterochromia because I wanted to give her something from her grandma. And I think it looks neat and a bit funny considering her parentage and her mother's, uh... company. If you didn't know any better, you could take a look at her, then Maleane and Astarion, and think they're her parents lmao. As for Maleane, she was very much a "oh god, i am finally playing beegeethree, i need to make a character quick!!! panic! oh, i can just sorta make my mage from wow!" case and then I had to untangle all that and justify my choices and make a coherent character out of that (which was not easy!).

[femmmie]

💙Smoshblr December Asks Day 2💛

What are your top 3 favourite movies?

And how easily would your friends (or ppl you work with) be able to guess it was you, based on them?

What a fun question! In the 90s I would go to the movie rental store every weekend and rent some blockbusters! So I've seen quite a few hahaha. These are my favorites:

1. The Neverending Story: my oldest friend would know bc we would watch in on repeat so much! I taped that one from television. I rewatched it as an adult and it was even better. I love the strong, pressing plea of the movie: dare to dream!!! When the princess looks into the camera I'm like *_* yes I will give you a new name myself!!!!

2. Back to the Future: this movie is an absolute masterpiece. It is SO fun to watch. And stands the test of time. I was on holiday in California and we were just strolling around LA, when we saw an outside screening of the movie. The warm weather, the people around us and the movie made for an unforgettable night. I tried to recreate the moment at my birthday party so my friends know I love it.

3. Indiana Jones: this isn't so much about the movie and more about the actor 😍😍😍 Harrison Ford can get it.. then and now!! Some of my friends know I'm a horny bitch like that lmao so they know, others probably suspect!!

[tawnysoup]

Finally now that the comic is fully public on comicfury, I get to share it with all of you here, too <3

If you enjoyed, please consider supporting by buying a PDF of the comic on itch.io: https://tawnysoup.itch.io/home-in-the-woods

[tariah23]

Oh…. Well, it’s over for Crunchyroll I guess

[ionomycin]

my favorite pieces from 2024

[theenemyod]

I think people should be allowed to sleep in the same bed in a non sexual and non romantic way. I think cuddles can happen non sexually and non romantically. I think most acts of affection are non sexual and non romantic until you make it sexual or romantic (other than the obvious things like actual sex is sexual)

[crowcrate]

The girlies!! &Silver <-honorary girlie I think

Also team chaotix because the idea was too funny and I couldn’t help myself

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is live!

You can find it at: https://www.animal-photo-references.com!

Here's how this repository works: all photos were taken by me, a human, at zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other facilities with animals in human care. There is no AI involved in the photo editing or creation and there never will be. Right now there's 56 species on the site; my catalog has over 300 and I will be uploading the rest of them as fast as I can.

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these references. Yes, even for work you're going to sell.

All other usage/reproduction requires permission, but assume I'm friendly and please do ask! That's educators, researchers, the media, people who need images for a school presentation, etc. This is just to retain copyright/control in case they're scraped/reused unethically - it doesn't meant I don't want folk to have access! So please do reach out via the contact form on the repository website, I don't bite and I'm most likely going to say yes.

Please don't repost the repository photos to your own blogs: I've created @animalphotorefs as a dedicated blog to share photos from the site, and of course I'll reblog a lot of it here! That again just helps with retaining copyright and sourcing of the images. If you really want to repost some for a specific purpose, please just ask me first!

Also, folks, this project has no funding. It's just me and my camera.

There will never be a paywall on the site - I believe resources like this absolutely must be free for everyone to access. So please, please, please support the repository if you use it. Want sneak peeks at photos, cute videos I take, or to help choose what I photograph and what gets posted first? You can do that through Patreon (and there's a free trial on the most interactive tier!) If you'd like to just drop a tip, I've also set up a Ko-Fi.

I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the repository.

To whet your thirst for cute photos, here's an Indian rhinoceros contemplating a goose.

[noodles-and-tea]

Last part whoo!!!

PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3 / PART 4

[mikqchoux]

I like to think i'm funny:,)

[hansoeii]

we go just right.

[nerd-izzy-art]

Those critters in Safe Haven had every right to be wary of Poppy coming back.

Still it was super funny for them to be talking crap right in front of us.

[sonykatzen]

pretty boy