#the character limit on polls is so restrictive!!!

[gatheredfates]

So... I asked if you guys might want some of my question drives back, and you sure did answer!

If you had told me I'd get that big of a response like a year ago, I probably would not have believed you. I know I mentioned it on the actual poll itself, but that's insane. 🥺 Thank you very much for supporting my projects.

Anyway, onto the thing you're all here for: The single-word (anything) drive!

What is a single-word (anything) drive?

I'm glad you asked! The single-word (anything) drive is an extension (and evolution) of my single-word fic drive, where writers would write a small fic based on a word of my choice. I want to give people the opportunity engage in creative mediums beyond writing; aka, gpose, art, meta analysis — whatever makes you happy and engaged creatively with Final Fantasy XIV!

By liking/reblogging this post, you consent for me to go into your askbox to send a one-word prompt generated from this website, picked from a selection of five, as a prompt for you do something creative with your oc. I will then queue any and all completed works to my character question tag, which can be found here, as well as posting them to my Tumblr Community over at SEAFLOOR (though you and other members are welcome to reblog them there in my absence, too)!

While the SEAFLOOR Community is public, it is currently invite only by Tumblr's restrictions about beta communities. If you'd like to join, you'll have to like this post for now. Once Communities are out of beta, you should be able to join straight from its page!

There is no word limit or time limit, no barrier for skill, and you are welcome to ask for another prompt if the original one doesn't vibe. This is all about giving you the opportunity to explore a concept or part of your character you might not have considered, or expand upon your artistic/technical ability.

Sea, when does the drive end? I'm glad you asked! I'll probably keep it open for about two weeks (around July 26), unless I decide to manually call it before then. I'll update this main post to reflect the change if I do (as well as announce it in SEAFLOOR).

That's all for now! I'll either update or reblog this post with more information as needed, so please check the notes of this post for any updates.

[seaofolives]

so this is a really random poll (and my first one on this blog!) but it figures now that I've come up with a "good name" I'd be interested to try:

the abstract of the poll/challenge/idea:

1. I'm calling it "torokatober" from トロカト/torokato. no need to apply strict top/bottom dynamics, of course.

2. I do this challenge every year where I write drabbles every day of october for a particular character/ship. this time, 3x4 is my subject of choice

3. anyone who wants to join won't have to be limited by drabbles! that's just me. others can do whatever they want like longer or shorter fics, art, cosplay, model kits, gif sets, amvs, playlists, etc etc etc

4. if the poll gets good traction and interest, I can open a prompt suggestion form just so I won't have to come up with all the prompts myself 😂 but if the poll doesn't get any traction/we don't get enough prompts to fit 31 days, I can just fill it up on my own, dw XD

6. probably gonna use the hashtags #torokatober2024 and #トロカト１０月２０２４年 for collecting works. so even if no one's interested, I'll post the prompts and my own works there 😂

5. this is going to be strictly diy—no mod accounts, no ao3/sqwa collections, zero promotions or pressure, no strict rules, whatsoever. if you answered you'd love to participate but suddenly can't, there's no guilt or penalty. any kind of pairing that involves these two are welcome, any rating or restrictions welcome, etc

7. poll is up for a week! someone also remind me to submit this thing to the central gw accounts bc I'm queueing up this post and don't always check tumblr 😂

8. last random ask! do these two have an "official" emoji pair??? like 🎭🎻? 🤡🎻? 🪈🎻?? 🤸🤺 or 🎪🏜️ or just 3️⃣4️⃣???? or am I just being too much of a feller-kids lmao but I like shippy emojis ok (or should I do another poll)

[dark-night-star-light]

Thinking about running a best character, best ship, or best quote bracket. Here's how each would hypothetically work (and vote in the poll at the bottom, please!):

The issue with characters would be that I’d have to go through all eighteen and a half books to find all the characters, or the other option is I only take characters that get submitted by the seven of us chilling here together in this hot tub (because like for Conor against Tepin, who the hell’s gonna vote for Tepin, right?). I would also allow you to submit propaganda to get your fav as far as possible and anti-paganda if you want a certain character to lose (as long as you keep it light-hearted and don't try to bash anyone that actually votes for that character etc. etc. etc.).

For ships, I will definitely only take submitted ships, because there are an infinite amount of ships that could happen otherwise. But I'll take anything no matter how crackship-y or rarepair-y it is (within limits, obviously no pedo/incest ships). Tentatively saying I will again allow propaganda and (light-hearted) anti-paganda, since I'm hoping we as a fandom are mature enough to let this be a chill experience and not devolve into ship bashing (I'm pretty sure we are, we're not the a/t/l/a fandom, so).

And for quotes, again, I'd only make a bracket out of quotes that get submitted. I'm not sure if I will allow propaganda for this one, because it seems kind of self-explanatory. But maybe, if people want it. If you submit a quote, you'd have to be able to tell me which book it was from, the page or chapter number, and who said it for it to be allowed into the bracket, although if you're not sure of one of those things, you could just tell me and I'd try to find it (I own all the books, so it wouldn't be a problem). I may or may not allow you to submit context or background for the quote (in some cases that can ruin the quote, or give it an unfair advantage). Quotes would be allowed to be as unserious or serious as you want, there will be no restrictions on it whatsoever (just don't make your quote, like, a single word or something).

In any case, you’d be allowed to submit as many characters/ships/quotes as you want. I would not reveal who submitted what character/ship/quote if that's something you choose to reveal to me, unless you want me to. I’m not sure how submissions will work, either through my ask box (don't worry, anon asks would be on) or through an anonymous Google form. Of course, my DMs are always open, too, if you want to submit something through there.

Your propaganda would be allowed to be anonymous or not (if you want the credit). It would also be allowed to be as short or as long as you want, and as unserious or serious as you want (you could literally submit, like, "Vote for Rollan, he's so funny and he needs a hug" as propaganda and I would accept it, or you can go deep and start talking about his parallels and arc and motifs and backstory and personality and hardcore analysis stuff, and that would also be fine). If multiple people submit propaganda for the same character/ship/quote, I’ll keep them all, and you are allowed to submit propaganda or anti-propaganda for as many characters/ships/quotes as you would like. When we're approaching the start of the bracket, I'll also say how many pieces of propaganda and anti-poganda were submitted for each character/ship/quote. That way, if a character/ship/quote has no propaganda or anti-paganda, it would be giving everyone a warning that that's the case and that it's the last chance to submit for them. Your propaganda also doesn't have to have any basis in canon. You could make up headcanons about a character and submit them as propaganda and that would be entirely fair game. You would not be allowed to submit links to analysis posts as propaganda, though, even if it's yours. Everything submitted needs to be something you wrote specifically for the bracket.

I would be the judge of whether the anti-propaganda crosses the line into bashing (no hard feelings, sometimes tone can be weird over text), and if it does I'd delete it but let whoever submitted it know that I did, so that they could try to submit something milder. Also, keep in mind that propaganda is subjective. Something you submit as anti-propaganda might actually resonate as propaganda with other people (like saying "Meilin was a racist and a classist" as anti-propaganda might just register as "Oh, she had such fantastic character development!" with some people, completely ruining what you were trying to do). Seems counterproductive, but if you have mixed feelings, I'd allow you to submit propaganda and anti-propaganda for the same character/ship/quote (I don't think anyone will actually do this, but it's an option).

If you have something else you want to add, put it in the tags. I’m also going to open up my ask box soon, so if you want to yell at me anonymously, that’ll be the place to go.

Hate to be that person, but reblog for sample size, please.

[robinyourcreator]

Favourite Female Character

Rules: Make a poll of your favorite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

I was tagged by my fandom auntie @defira85, thank you so much!

Now to uhhhh narrow this down. Let's restrict this to "women who have torn my heart out by way of my kneecaps" or otherwise reorganized my brain chemistry.

And I will tag @drewsaturday, @everyones-beau, @supernovasooth, @aurrieattorney, and @pyr0clast and anyone else who wants to play! /o/

[blueboybracket]

The Ultimate Blue Boy Bracket 2023!

Welcome to the Blue Boy Bracket! This tournament is for all of our favourite blue boys, a common design trait that we all know and love.

Submissions will run from today, the 10th of April 2023, for one week until the 17th of April 2023.

Requirements:

Fictional characters only.

Characters must be male.

Blue must be featured notably on their design/be their 'signature' colour.

I will consider anything in the below range as blue enough (including all different shades that fall into this)

Submission form: https://forms.gle/fKV8aJ2B9jWd9F8P9

Restrictions:

No headcanons.

Characters must be from an existing piece of media. Please don't submit your OCs/FCs (original characters & fan characters), unless you do have an established piece of media that they are featured in, such as a comic.

No real world objects/people/websites/etc.

Additional info:

The character cap will likely be 200, when I say ultimate I mean ultimate lmao. I'll allow submissions beyond that until the deadline, but the final tournament will probably be limited to 150 - 200 characters once the representitive polls are done too.

Characters can be any age, species, etc.

They can be from live action media, so long as it is fictional.

You can submit as many characters as you like, but please don't spam submit the same character repeatedly.

I will limit each franchise/series to 1 - 2 characters each, depending on how big the poll gets.

There may be a few "representitive polls" for certain franchises, for users to decide who should make the cut if there are too many different submissions for one series.

Characters with official visual images are preferrable. I will accept characters from media without images, such as books, provided that they aren't too obscure and there is at least some fanart I can credit.

Please use the image submission feature (either the file upload or link version) if you can, it'll save me a lot of time. If you're submitting fanart, please credit the artist somewhere in the submission!

The bracket will be seeded both randomly and manually to ensure for - hopefully - fair starting match-ups.

Please note that it may take a while between submissions closing and the tournament starting. It will depend on how many submissions there are, and the admin's own schedule.

The admin is in the BST (UTC+1) timezone.

This poll was most notably inspired by @ultimatepinkgirl (concluded)!

Other inspirations include; @ultimate-rat-bracket, @ultimatepokemontournament, @blueandorangebracket (concluded), @britishaccentcharacterpoll, @thiefbracket, @sexymanotd-archive (concluded) and @mfshipbracket!

Most of these are still going as of the 10th of April 2023, so please check them out while you can!

[mossy-rainfrog]

Build A Cowboy Round 5!

Hi good evening sorry for vanishing OK SO i mentioned in the tags of my first poll that this cowboy is not just going to be a vaguely historical cowboy, but from a Very specific time frame, because of the fic that his partner Javi exists in. That being said, there is a lot to unpack here with this! The time period exactly is 1841, the setting is Texas (because I am texan and we are predictable) and oh my god this is one of the most insane times for a character to be from texas 😭

Our cowboy will have in fact lived through the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821), the Texas Revolution (1835-1836), tx's CRINGEFAIL attempt at self governing, rapidly approaching our annexation into the US in 1844-5, and then coming right up on the fuckign CIVIL WAR in 1861. These guys deeply understand the concept of "get me the fuck out of the interesting times, im sick of the interesting times". im so sorry cowboys, you can blame Herman Melville for this.

anyways yall didnt come here for a history lesson but you are in fact going to get one because i am insufferable first and an artist second :) and also as a note, race and backstory are always intertwined things but Especially when it is fuckign 1841 so. yeah exercise caution, there will be discussion of racism, medical close-calls, and anti-indigenous genocide. PLEASE ACTUALLY READ THE BACKGROUNDS BEFORE CHOOSING ONE! you dont have to read the sources. those are just there because i have autism. 👍

DETAILS BELOW THE READMORE BC I GOT WAYYY TOO WORDY⬇️

BACKSTORY A: Black Cowboy fled Texas* to Oklahoma with his family after the revolution, now travels up the trade routes breaking wild horses, passing along abolitionist messages, and assisting refugees. A miracle baby surviving a cleft lip with limited surgery and sustained permanent hearing damage as a result, he took up the trade of horsebreaking with flying colors, keeping right up with his older brothers. A sharp shot, keen eye, and a talented horseman, his best trained horses help him identify sounds that he otherwise can't hear. Loosely familiar with PSL, but primarily used a mix of lip-reading, localized/community generated sign growing up.

* After the US aided Texas in staging a coup against Mexico and declaring independence, an ordinance passed in 1836 that fully banished free Black people from the region unless they had personal pardon from Congress. This ordinance was not passed without pushback, and it changed shape and restriction over the years as people of color such as Joseph Tate, John and Charity Bird, Diana Leonard, Allen Dimery, and more all fought for their right to their own lands and lives. The law eventually settled into what was known as the Ashworth Act in 1840, which allowed free Black people to stay IF they had been residing in the state before 1836. It certainly wasn't the victory many had hoped, and even though many free Black persons in Texas were granted pardon to stay, like the Ashworths who the act was named after, many others were forced to leave after their allotted time was up, and were threatened with the future of slavery should they return. thank you texas history for being a vile piece of shit 👍

BACKSTORY B: Mexican/Tejano Vaquero from West Texas whose family has been ranching and cattle driving for decades. Has no interest in moving post-revolution, fuck you very much. If the borders are going to cross his family without asking*, then there's no need to cross them back. Technically lives with his family, but spends extensive periods of time away from home on cattle drives. Steady-handed, steadfast, quick to keep his herd safe. Miraculously survived a cleft lip as a baby and sustained permanent hearing damage** as a result, but that didn't stop his father from teaching him everything he knew, nor our man from taking to it like a fish to water. Knows more about cattle driving than you will ever forget.

*Some brief notes on the borders shifting and alienating people in their own rightful land.

**There was no official sign language of Mexico until the first Deaf school was established in 1869, but he and his family likely have a community-based one that works for them.

BACKSTORY C: Coahuiltecan (specifically Payaya)* cowboy, farrier, and leatherworker. Picked up the line of work as family was pushed to assimilate, one of the few still claiming Coahuiltecan identity at this time**, and has made a good living for himself and his sisters with it. Like the others, miraculously survived a cleft lip as a child but sustained permanent hearing damage as a result. Knows Plains Indian Sign fluently, and also relies on the direction of his horse for picking up sudden sounds before he can spot them. Tries to keep his work as local as possible to avoid separation from family for long, and whenever that is necessary, makes sure to come back soon.

*Note: Coahuiltecan is a term referring to several northern-Mexican and southern-Texan autonomous groups with distinct cultural differences. However, since Spanish and French colonizers lumped these groups together, an immense amount of distinguishing knowledge has since been lost.

** Also note: the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation is still very much around today (check out their site!) but nearing the mid 19th century, people at least claiming/listing this heritage on legal documents dwindled immensely for a variety of reasons.

[fswintersdelight]

Text under the ‘Keep reading’.

Winter’s Delight: A Four Swords Calendar

GUIDELINES 2023

Hi and welcome to Winter's Delight: A Four Swords Calendar!

Some of you may remember us from last year, when we ran the Four Swords Advent Anthology (FSAA) event. We received a lot of constructive feedback afterwards. A number of you felt the FSAA was too restrictive, due to being based on a the Advent calendar (a Christian item), and that it might not be welcoming to other faiths, cultures, and nationalities.

We have listened to you and rebranded. This year, the event will run throughout the entirety of December, and be open to more participants.

Winter's Delight is organised by fans of the Four Swords games and manga, for the fans of the Four Swords games and manga. Like last year, it is hosted by @vagueandominousvibes​.

ABOUT

Winter's Delight covers the 1st to the 31st of December. In the months leading up to it, we invite artists and writers to prepare pieces of fanart and fanfiction, to be posted on Tumblr (and, if the participants chose so, to our Ao3 collection) in December to spread joy and delight in the Four Swords fan community.

Each year we have two themes. To represent the name of the event, one theme will always be WINTER. The other is determined through submissions from fans and voting. Submission for themes this year is open until the 13th of August, whereupon a poll will be posted on our Tumblr on the 14th of August and voting can commence. The poll will be open until the 20th of August.

Last year, we had a limited number of available spaces for artists and writers to sign up for. This year we invite anyone interested to post fanart and/or fanfiction on any day in December (subject to the guidelines listed below). If you do participate, please tag us (@fswintersdelight​) so we can reblog your piece and help even more fans see your work!

OUR E-ZINE

Having seen the wonderful fanart and fanfics people contributed last year, we wanted to create an e-zine for Winter's Delight 2023 to collect everything in one place for everyone to enjoy.

Due to the amount of work a zine requires, there will unfortunately only be a limited number of spaces for featured artists and writers this year, as we test the waters and acquire necessary skills.

We therefore have 15 spaces total, with 5 of those spaces reserved for writers.

All fanart and all fanfics will be appropriately credited, with links to social media accounts upon request. The e-zine will be made available as a PDF-file linked on our Tumblr for people to view and download.

Our e-zine works on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like to sign up, please fill out and submit our form by the 31st of August:

https://forms.gle/FixJLK9te9Wz5LPy8

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

DISCLAIMER: These guidelines are applicable for anyone participating in the Winter's Delight 2023 event — as an artist or writer participating in December, or as a featured artist or writer in our e-zine.

One OR both of the themes has to be visible in the submission. The themes for 2023 are: WINTER and [TBC]*.

The submission must include character(s) and/or setting(s) from either the Four Swords games or the Four Swords manga.

We do NOT accept mature or explicit content. This is a family friendly event.

We welcome all ships and AUs.

All written submissions should be in the range of 500–8,000 words. (We are at this time unfortunately only able to offer proof-reading or editing for featured writers.)

Art can include short comics.

Due to the turbulent times we live in, we want to be extremely clear that when we say this is a family friendly event, we mean 'family friendly' to include LGBTQ+ and other minorities. Discriminatory or derogatory visuals/language will not be accepted, and may lead to you being banned from the event.

*The second theme of 2023 is to be confirmed in the poll on @fswintersdelight​, available from Monday the 14th of August.

SUBMISSION PROCESS: GENERAL PARTICIPANTS

For general participants, the Winter's Delight event runs from 2nd of December to 30th of December. You may, on any day in this space, post your submission(s) on Tumblr. There is no limit on how many submissions you can participate with, and we would be delighted to see multiple submissions each day.

All we ask is that you please adhere to the guidelines outlined above, and tag us (@fswintersdelight​) so that we are notified of your post and can reblog it. Please also provide appropriate tags/warnings for your submission(s).

Our tag this year is: #fswintersdelight2023.

If you are submitting a fanfic and would also like to post it to Ao3, please consider adding it to the appropriate Winter's Delight subcollection.

SUBMISSION PROCESS: FEATURED ARTISTS & WRITERS

DISCLAIMER: This process is only applicable to artists and writers featured in our e-zine.

The e-zine is to be made available on the 1st of December. To accomplish this, the deadline for signing up is 31st of August. If there are still spaces available after 31st of August, submissions will re-open for a limited time.

If you are successful in claiming a space as a featured artist or writer, you will be contacted in the first week of September. After you have been contacted, you will have until Sunday the 17th of September to provide a draft of your piece.

NOTE: If you are a writer and require proof-reading/editing, this is your final deadline for sharing the draft you wish proof-read/edited. Comments and edits will be returned as soon as possible.

The deadline for submitting the final version of your piece is the 30th of September. To submit your piece, please share it with us via the method in which you were contacted (Discord or email, as provided in the sign-up form).

Should anyone drop out or not submit their piece by this deadline, backup artists/writers will be contacted in October (see deadlines for backup artists/writers below).

The host of Winter's Delight 2023, @vagueandominousvibes​, will spend November producing the e-zine, and make it available on our Tumblr as a PDF for reading.

If you have not been contacted, but have agreed to be a backup artist/writer, you will be contacted in the first week of October if any spaces become available. You will then have until Tuesday 17th of October to provide a draft of your piece. The deadline for submitting your final version is the 31st of October.

BACKUP ARTISTS & WRITERS

When you sign up to be a featured artist or writer, you get the option to be a backup artist/writer for the e-zine.

This means that if there are more people signed up than there are spaces available, you can be on our backup list in case one of the featured artists/writers has to drop out or doesn't submit their piece in a timely manner.

If you agree to be a backup artist/writer, you will be contacted in the first week of October if any spaces become available. You will then have until Tuesday 17th of October to provide a draft of your piece, with your final deadline for submitting a completed version being the 31st of October.

LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES

13th of August: Deadline for sending in ideas for second theme.

14th of August: Voting for second theme opens on @fswintersdelight​.

31st of August: Deadline for signing up as a featured artist/writer.

17th of September: Deadline for sharing a draft. FEATURED ARTIST/WRITERS ONLY.

30th of September: Deadline for sharing final piece. FEATURED ARTIST/WRITERS ONLY.

17th of October: Deadline for sharing a draft. BACKUP ARTIST/WRITERS ONLY.

31st of October: Deadline for sharing final piece. BACKUP ARTIST/WRITERS ONLY.

1st of December: E-zine made available on @fswintersdelight​.

2nd–30th of December: General participants share their pieces on Tumblr.

31st of December: Final piece of the event posted by the host of the event.

THANK YOU FOR SPREADING THE WORD!

With your help we can make this December a kind, loving, welcoming, and vibrantly joyful month.

I look forward to finding out what our second theme for Winter's Delight 2023 is going to be, to see everyone's fantastic artworks, and to read all the fanfics you share for the event.

Hugs, spice, and all things bright,

Kalh

CONTACT

Tumblr: @fswintersdelight​ (EVENT)

Tumblr: @vagueandominousvibes​ (HOST)

Ao3: Winter's Delight: A Four Swords Calendar. Collection moderated by @WriterKalhsScribbles.

[bl-bracket]

Hello! thank you for running this fun bracket. Having done similar fandom events before I'm not sure other folks know how much work it is behind the scenes so I wanted to send my appreciation.

I wanted to preface this with a thank you because my comments have nothing to do with anything you've encouraged or can control but if you can share with the voters who follow you:

It really does ruin a light-hearted fandom poll when people choose to be rude and entitled over it. It has nothing to do with hurting someone's feelings over a fictional character and everything to do with people choosing to be rude to others. It's fun when people make posts advocating for why their pick is so (insert characteristic) but it's no longer fun when people start insulting the other side and their fans.

I've seen it getting worse and worse with rounds with it being especially bad this round so I'm hoping if you share this message and remind participants that it's just a fun poll but the people you're being rude are real, it'll encourage people to focus on the fun part of cheering on their favorite character instead of being rude to others in fandom.

Thank you and good luck with the next round!

Firstly thank you! It means a lot!!!

And yeah, I noticed things were starting to heat up a lot more in the final few rounds. Another tournament blog I follow was also having to deal with people getting a bit more aggressive so it has been on my mind for a bit! I also received WAY more asks than I have ever received in the past in a very short period of time which was also a lot to deal with on its own, so I was planning on making a post like this regardless!

It is really important to me that things stay light-hearted and fun on here for me personally as BL and dramas in general are a fun hobby for me and not something I wanted to get all bogged down in negativity. I'm not saying that there isn't a time or place for more critical/less positive discussions or opinions on these things, this just isn't the space for that.

Competition can be fun and I don't want to limit the competitive aspects of this, but I do want it to remain a fun space where all fans can enjoy themselves regardless of who wins or looses!

I'll try my best to not respond or repost to anything I find to be a bit too mean or harsh or that subtracts from the fun of it all, but also as someone who can tend to be more sensitive, I also can tend to overcompensate and assume that things that may come off as a bit rude to me, might not to others and not want to restrict something that is otherwise fine. That's just to say that I'm probably going to make mistakes and not be prefect at avoiding more inflammatory posts, so please just be patient with and know that my messages are always open if you find one of the propaganda posts offensive or overly-aggressive.

I have lots of fun doing this, and I know many others have fun participating so I just hope that we can all continue to have fun together and not let things go overboard!!!

[most-canon-non-canon-ship-poll]

I, the poll runner, made this poll because they suck that much

Why Mileven is shit - a submission-based essay, part 3/3

Mileven - a currently canon het ship from the Stranger Things fandom between Michael (Mike) Wheeler and Jane (Eleven) Ives/Hopper/Byers/IDK

This doesn't mean she will never have another relationship, it doesn't even mean she is "alone" while other people are in relationships (although personally I think there is nothing wrong with not being in a relationship tbh... some people need to unpack this). It just means that she reclaims the power to decide if and when she will give love to someone again, a choice she's never really had. As for Mike, I believe his low self-esteem and what makes him feel so different is his feelings for Will which have steadily stepped out of platonic more and more as time has gone on, and THAT is the truth that is hard to admit, not his apparent love for El that she has been begging for him to say. Mike and Will are written so perfectly as a romantic duo that it is wild to me that anyone would ship Mike with anyone else. Mike deserves more than to be a shitty friend and El's boyfriend (because if he really does just love El, then his actions are just him being mean and weird with no cause or explanation, which I can't imagine is the case), Will deserves more than to be the sad gay in unrequited love who only suffers, and El deserves more than to be some boy's "superhero" who is loved for what she can do more than for who she truly is. She deserves to shake the shackles of male control, and yes... Mike unfortunately falls into this due to his feeling responsible for El's wellbeing because of the unfortunate circumstances they met under. Plus he's, in my opinion, fallen even harden into this parentified role in Hopper's absence (those parallels are insane too, don't even get me started). Anyway, all that to say... Mileven is an objectively bad ship that doesn't fit with the story Stranger Things is telling. It doesn't serve any of the characters involved in a positive way, and Byler is a significantly more touching and well-built couple. Personally, even the argument that El will be "crushed if they break up" doesn't really carry any weight. It's clear that she has already hurt so much IN THE RELATIONSHIP, so ending it just seems like the logical next step (and I'm among the people who believe she wanted to break up at the pizza place tbh). Why should she stay with someone who can only love her in life-or-death situations? Why should Mike be with someone who makes him feel worthless or not enough or like his personal experiences and struggles aren't valid? Why should Mike and El settle for a relationship that takes so much work but makes them both ultimately unhappy (it's giving Karen a d Ted). Why should Will just accept that in a world of demogorgans and alternate dimensions and telekinetic lab children, the craziest and most unlikely thing is a queer boy like him finding requited love with the person who makes them feel better for being different and encourages them to fight on? I just don't think the writers are telling that kind of story. I love El, Mike, and Will... I hope they will get a beautiful ending. To me, a beautiful ending would include Mike and El mutually caring for each other enough to admit that their relationship is not good for either of them as El deserves to be loved and needs time to heal, and Mike deserves to embrace his truth and his own feelings without feeling insignificant or unlovable (and ultimately be rewarded for embodying one of the show's core themes: that forced conformity is bad, you will never feel gratification or happiness by pretending to be something or someone you're not, it's okay to be a "freak" and it's okay to be different and to rebel against the limited, restrictive forms of "happiness" society pushes. After all, forced conformity is one of the real villains in this show, as clearly stated!)

[acetonitril]

wip game

I went on holiday for two weeks and got tagged in what feels like a hundred things? I'm trying to catch up, but I feel like this is the one that is most likely to force me to stop avoid writing (that was a lot of verbs). Tagged by @perishablealex and @crooked-jes. Thank you ❤️

RULES: make a 24-hour poll with the names of your wips, let it run, then write one sentence for every vote the winner got (I'm also going with Alex's variation to add a sentence for every vote each one got)

As you can see, Bradley will be going through a lot. I am also seriously restricted by the character limit of these poll options...

I suppose most people have done this by now so sorry if I double tag but @theinsouciantknitter (write! the road trip fic!!), @wordsonamission, @mackwinnon, @hangmanbradshaw, @satanssugar, @harry1989, @jakeseresins (no pressure!)

[cutekittenlady]

Tumblr Plays Pokemon?

I have a sudden urge to play more pokemon.

Why?

Probably because I love pokemon. And also because I'm returning to some big time Faves. I'm rereading and rewatching One Piece, I've returned to writing a Voltron fanfic I started 3 years ago, and I am (once again) relistening to Discworld (I'm trying to pick something new up okay! But its hard, so very hard, to top Pratchett.)

With that in mind though I wanted to make this playthrough more interesting.

And so I want to try playing pokemon in a new way by exploiting Tumblrs polling system. Essentially I am going to leave it up to YOU to decide things like what starter I use and what pokemon I catch in each route/area. I'll do this by making a series of polls up to the point in which I have to fight a gym leader, rival battle, etc.

I'll have some control over this given I'll be making the poll, and obviously the results will rarely be unanimous given the nature of how the polls themselves function. After all there is a limit of 8 options per poll, so in later games when there are multiple pokemon available on each route, multiple polls may need to be created to narrow down a choice.

And this isn't including the fact that you all may vote for me to abstain from capturing any pokemon on a certain route until later. Some routes in some pokemon games, after all, can hide deceptively good pokemon that you can only obtain by returning there after obtaining an essential HM.

So thats it right? Tumblr gets to decide what pokemon I can catch and who will be on my team?

Oh but tumblr. Dear sweet Tumblr. My wonderful followers.

I want to make it more interesting than that.

You see the thing I looove about pokemon are the stories you can tell. All the different team compositions, all the little characters your pokemon can become as you play, and all the little ways you can make the game potentially more difficult, yet oh so very interesting at the same time.

With that in mind I propose a set of... RULES.

I can only catch a single pokemon from every route (otherwise the polling is just pointless)

I can only catch a single member of every evolutionary family (no armies of eeveelutions, Sorry gang, I like them but thats been done to death.) So no owning multiple members of the same evolutionary family.

I can only attempt to catch a pokemon ONCE and if I fail I can never catch a member of that species again. Fail to catch Pidgey on route 1? Well too bad, looks like I dont get Pidgey, Pidgeotto, or Pidgeot for the WHOLE GAME. (This is to make the catches more memorable/meaningful and consequential.)

I can only have a single pokemon from every type. This makes every team member essential and meaningful and consequential. No bulking myself up with a team of only psychic types.

The team can have no repeat natures. Our team needs varied personalities after all! Personalities that are too similar will clash and mess with team synergy!

If we have to have a dedicated team member for HMs, then they're going to be a full member of the team and count towards the typing AND nature rules. No mules or slaves on this team. If we have a Bibarel for the HMs then they're GONNA be a member of the team.

All these rules are rather restrictive, BUT they will make the polls you guys vote in more consequential!

Do you vote to skip a route to try and get a better pokemon later? Do you vote for a weaker earlier route pokemon for early type advantage while passing up on bigger powerhouses down the line? Do you sacrifice having dedicated type coverage in favor of having a reliable HM user to access more areas, items, tms, etc? Do you vote for a pokemon with a lower easily achievable catch rate, or risk your vote on a higher stronger catch?

Do you vote for the popular pokemon you know everyone will vote for? Orrr do you decide to make the voting, and subsequent results, more interesting by voting for an underdog?

I'm certainly interested in finding out.

But before that, a decision needs to be made.

((I still have an active save for ScarVio and I'm still iffy on how to adjust certain rules for its open world setting which is also why I'm leaving SwSh out for now. If this turns out successful, we could maybe hash out how to apply the ruleset to those games down the line but for now I'm just putting in the limitations for my own convenience XD))

[catwings-writes-things]

For the ao3 wrapped: 3, 6, 16, 29

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

Surprising no one, I'm gonna have to say A World of His Own. Before this year I'd never written anything (I do mean anything--no fanfic, original fiction, essays, nothing) longer than around 15,000 words. Now I have an in-progress fic with a single coherent storyline that's over 100,000 words long and nowhere near done. Some of the chapters are longer than 15,000 words. And not only that, but I'm really proud of the writing and the characterization. The Jailbreak Squad have taken over my brain and I have no objections whatsoever.

6. Favorite title you used?

De Humani Corporis Fabrica--Latin for "On the Fabric of the Human Body"--is the title of the best-known anatomy text by Andreas Vesalius, a Rennaissance anatomist and pioneer of human dissection, which at the time was considered taboo. As such, most anatomical knowledge came from dissections of animals, inspection of traumatic injuries, and conventional wisdom from earlier anatomists who had largely been working under the same restrictions. Vesalius was both sufficiently dedicated to his pursuit of accurate anatomical knowledge and sufficiently unbothered by other people's opinions as to cut bodies down from the gallows after public executions (sometimes having to fight stray dogs for them) and take them home to study, even allowing them to decompose in his living space to get at the bones once he'd learned all he could from the soft tissue. (He was also my first historical friend-crush, which probably tells you quite a bit about me, although perhaps not much to which my fic wouldn't tip you off.) De Humani Corporis Fabrica is his masterwork, illustrating what he'd learned with intricate drawings of bodies in various lifelike poses and states of dissection.

Needless to say, Andreas Vesalius was a Flesh avatar if ever there was one, not to mention probably autistic AF, and De Humani Corporis Fabrica seems as good a candidate as any for a Leitner. So when I set out to write a fic featuring late human-era Mike Crew nearly working himself to death in an extended burst of autistic hyperfocus and Angela the Flesh avatar trying to both help him deal with the immediate fallout and convince him that bodies have limits and he needs to treat his with more respect if it's going to last long enough to get him wherever he's going, using "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" as the title seemed pretty damn perfect.

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Families of Choice, which is the canonical tag on AO3 for the concept I've mostly heard referred to as "found family." It's specifically tagged on three of the seven fics I've posted this year (that number is misleading, due to my aforementioned longfic), but it could or should have been tagged on six of them. ("Fix-It," "Temporary Character Death," "Complicated Relationships," and "Twisted and Fluffy Feelings" appear on two fics apiece, which probably also gives some relevant information. Especially that last one.)

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Honestly, I can't decide. I've been proud of so many things I've written this year that I really can't narrow it down--which is a good problem to have! If it helps, after I post chapter ten, I think I'm going to make a "pick your favorite bit of out-of-context A World of His Own dialog" poll--each option a line spoken by a different character.

Okay, never mind. I found a favorite. From Chapter 2 of A World of His Own:

“I can't... sit and watch television with you,” Helen finally said, almost a snap. “It won’t work.” She gestured at herself, head to feet. “This isn't even a real body. It's more of a... concept.” “Well,” said Harriet mildly. “Sit the concept of your butt down and let us introduce you to The Twilight Zone.”

Thank you so much for the ask, anonymous friend! I hope you have a great day!

[gold-rush-official]

Demo Announcement and Poll

With a poll comes the arrival of the Gold Rush demo game, so allow me to say:

Welcome to Gold Rush!

The game, even as you see it now, is not final. This is just a demonstration and everything you see, including the audio and background images, are not going to be a permanent part of the game, this is simply to help with the visualisation and due to time restrictions and just overall limitations. This for a college FMP after all, and I only had 3 months, and with limited skills.

In the actual production of the game, I’d like to have original audio that truly fits the game (maybe even some custom audio tracks for the characters), hand-drawn backgrounds and more consistent sprites and even some official art, but so far, this is what there is.

Since it is a demo, it also stops after Alicanto explains the rules of the game show, so the poll is more for first impressions of the characters and to further explain the concept.

It is not a legitimate poll, and one will not be released until the first round of the game is complete, which will take time and effort, though thankfully without the limitations of college (this very post will show up on the deadline) I can work on improving the game and adding to it in my own time.

Since the demo poll is not legit, you can vote at any time and it will not expire.

So have fun and I hope you’ll support the project!

:3

[eliasdrid]

kinda want to see a full tournament similar to the sexyman competitions but it's AIs/robots...

if it doesn't exist already or unless you plan to do it can ihave permission to maybe make one 👀 (since it's your idea)

I'm unfortunately too busy to organize one though it's come to mind ^^ feel free to do one yourself! I look forward to it.

Also it'd have been completely fine if you had gone ahead and done it, I don't own the concept of polls/tournaments :3 though I do appreciate you checking to see if I was planning to do one!

Moving on, if you are restricting it to videogames you have my blessing to grab all the characters from both polls I did (1) (2). Additionally the second poll has some more characters at the bottom that didn't make the cut because there's the 10 options limit. Some of those characters might be a bit more popular than a few I chose for the first poll. I forgot to add characters from the Mega Man and Mega Man X series btw - there might be some popular robots there! People also tagged characters I didn't add (or didn't know about) so looking in the tags might give you a few more options.

Also I have no idea how to organize a bracket but there's a free bracket generator here which should be of use if you haven't found one yet.

EDIT: ALSO LEGION FROM MASS EFFECT SHOULD BE IN IT. IMO

[chronicbeans]

Iolite Hospital Feedback!

Since I have started posting some little Tales from the Iolite Hospital short stories (more like concepts, but that is besides the point), I have been loving the feedback! I'm happy that some people seem to love the idea and characters, so far!

I do have a question, however. Since those stories are more like concepts, and not the entirety of my view for the project, I would like some input for my project from the audience. My plan is to either make a web comic or web animation series once I get access to more equipment to make that possible (like an electronic drawing pad and a good computer, etc.). One part of this series has been puzzling me, however, when it comes to the execution.

I cannot tell whether or not I want to have the series be mainly a day-to-day life series, or mainly focused on the mystery surrounding the hospital. I am sure that it will end up being a mix of both, but I don't know which is better to have on the forefront.

See, the day to day life of the characters dealing with their environment and conditions is something I would love to put at the forefront. That is a big part of each character's life, since they have to work to overcome their struggles in order to be more comfortable with themselves as people and realize that they are more than their conditions. So, if it were mainly a day-to-day series, they would slowly figure out the mysteries. I also like the idea of having the series mainly focused on the mystery, but I am unsure of how I would go about it.

If anybody has any input they would like to share, you can leave them in the comments! I would make a poll, but I don't want to make it feel like anybody is on a time limit or that they are restricted to these two ideas! I am willing to hear whatever y'all have to say, since hearing from the audience is always a good idea!

As an extra add-on to this post, I remember someone asking if I have a Kofi, which I currently don't. So, if y'all think it would be a good idea for me to get a Kofi at some point, let me know. Just note that, if I do eventually make one, it would mainly be for my Iolite Hospital project, since I do not feel comfortable accepting donations for just writing fanfiction and such. If I make a profit off of donations, I would like for it to be for my own, original work, and not something mainly based off of a preexisting property.