#they exist everwhere

[anonymous-gambito]

Tbh I think the thing that most ruins this episode for me is that one old man insulting Zuko in a way that makes him sound unreasonable and cruel, just on the basis of Zuko having been maimed and disowned by his father, because although the episode wasn't about Zuko seeing how Fire Nation soldiers mistreat and abuse Earth Kingdom people, it could've still taught another lesson; One about the savior complexes of colonizing nations born from a belief of their own superiority in comparison to cultures and nations they see as inferior.

Zuko there thought himself a hero, saving these poor Earth villagers from their corrupt superiors, saving them from themselves. He proudly proclaims himself the heir to the Fire Nation throne (son of a man who in this very episode was shown to have no qualms about killing his own son for power) ...and then the Earth Kingdom villagers tell him to gtfo. Lmao.

And I see some people here on social media just... not getting it. Calling the villagers ungrateful, saying they're mean for shunning someone who "saved them". But this is no salvation.

This is like when a gringo starts getting too comfortable talking about brazilian politics and societal problems to the point you get the feeling they'd be very happy to support another coup. It's horrible.

Just a few months ago when twitter was temporarily banned in my country, we had El*n M*sk trying to pull that crap. Trying to claim we Brazilians "have no freedom" and that we are a poor poor people being suppressed and censored by our government that clearly needs the help from the likes of him, and here's the thing; the only people who agreed with him were the ones who want a dictatorship. No one else was fucking grateful. There's no normal response to this kind of crap besides "No, no, we're good. We don't need you and we don't want you, because we hate you more than anything. Please go fuck yourself somewhere else and maybe fall down a flight of stairs while you're at it".

And I can see people objecting to this comparison, saying "But Zuko actually meant it!" or "But Zuko is an exiled teenager, not a rich man in power!", but here's the thing: Zuko wants to be, and he wants that power, and that is how Zuko presented himself to these people, as the colonizing prince come to save the poor and helpless Earth Kingdom citizens from themselves, you know, by toppling their current leadership. Yeah.

So of course they don't want anything from Zuko, of course they want him gone, and of course they hate him. It doesn't matter how bad they have it with the soldiers, because to them in this scenario Zuko is the bigger threat, the greater of two evils, the prince from the imperialist nation that brought them to this situation in the first place, a nation that has tormented them for over a 100 years, here coming with the same old excuse that that their torment and their subjugation is being done "to their own good". So of course they don't appreciate his damn help.

Remember how at the end of the season, Azula takes control of Ba Sing Se (with the help of Zuko), and it is a Tragedy. It is framed as a tragedy, a poison, a violation. These people weren't "saved" from their corrupt government, they were just made more powerless and lost than ever.

So yeah, I believe that if this episode had come with just a bit of a different angle, some different framing, focused a little bit less on being a Zuko pity party, it could've been really great.

The fact that Zuko Alone doesn't have Zuko defend the villagers against corrupt Fire Nation troops is both one of the biggest missed opportunities ever and also one of the weirdest ones. Like, they could have written as a moment where Zuko starts to empathize with ordinary EK people and comes to term with the harm that the FN is causing to their lives. Instead, Zuko is faced with a situation where corrupt and evil EK authorities are abusing ordinary EK people, which is probably exactly the same narrative he's been learning from FN propaganda about the EK his entire life.

[ganondoodle]

kind of expected that the ability breakdown wouldnt get that much traction (especially on twitter bc if it doesnt do well in the first few hours it might as well be dead) but what i didnt need to wake up to was looking at my twitter notifications and thinking there was a long comment on it at first but then i read it and it turned out to be some guy having dug up one of my old totk tweets where i talked about how zelda was treated-

and if a quote retweet with a thread attached already starts with "this entitled brat didnt understand that zelda was being a history nerd by being in the past and getting to experience it herself" with two screenshots attached of the end of totk with zelda staring at the cam all uwu (which has ??? to do with their point??) i dont even want to know what else was in that thread

if thats how the majority of the fandom is then im even less surprised that nintendy doesnt even have to try to write anything good :I

ah yes, i am a game nerd, and by putting me in a game where i stand around doing puppy dog eyes while being shoved around by NPCs is me being a game nerd OBVIOSULY

[real-hot-grl-shi]

WHY. CANT. FLUFF. TOBER. EXIST.

I like my smut dont get me wrong BUT I ALREADY KNOW ITS GONNA BE FULL OF IT THIS OCTOBER. EVERYWHERE I TURN. MHA TO DC COMICS. MINORS TO ADULTS. MARRIED OR FUCKING STEP CEST (which is nasty stop doing that.) ITS GONNA BE EVERWHERE. EVVEEERRRRYYYYWWHHHERRREEEEEEEE

Ok I’ll stop talking

[gildedphoenix]

Excert from a story I'm writing:

But oddly, it had been Nocturn who’d helped him most. For so long, Danny’s primary concern had been whatever disaster was currently exploding in his face. He hadn’t had time to look to the future or think about his own desires since he’d died. So on a clear autumn night when Nocturn asked Danny about his own Dreams, Danny was shocked to find that he didn’t have a ready answer. At 14, Danny had wanted many things. He’d wanted to undo the portal accident. He’d wanted to be popular. He’d wanted to marry Paulina. Time went on and he wanted to protect the city. He wanted to get a good night's sleep. He wanted to not flunk out of high school. At times he’d wanted to just survive. 

What did Danny want now? Of course he had all of his new responsibilities. He had a whole un-dimension to rule and govern. And he was slowly getting a handle on that. But that was not really his goal. It was just a daily fact. And Nocturn hadn’t asked about his core’s drive. His Obsession. Nocturn had asked, appropriately, about Danny’s Dreams. So Danny did what he always did when he found a quiet moment of flight among the chaos. He looked up at the sky. It was a clear night, the stars out in abundance. Staring at the glittering unending void, Danny felt his core settle and something he didn’t know he’d been missing clicked into place. 

“There it is.” Nocturn said. 

But Danny did not hear him. With that quiet snick of the final puzzle piece of his soul, his mind had expanded outwards. Suddenly able to connect with the resonance of the universe. To feel the white hot pinpoint of each star in the blanket of space. To breathe into the gaps between one galaxy and the next. Perceiving everything everwhere all at once while losing his connection to himself.

It was a long time before he remembered that he was Danny. That he existed as his own entity, separate from ever expanding and churning cauldron of space. His mind and awareness shrank back down. Slowly letting go of the planets and stars, leaving just himself. His core. His limbs. The sounds around him came back first as the roar of the stars quieted. Feeling came next. His mind letting go of asteroids and radiation and connecting to his clothes and the bed he laid on. He could feel a hand holding his, warm and pulsing. He opened his eyes to see Jazz. He was inside. There were no windows, which was just as well because he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to stay tethered to his own body if he saw the sky again.

“Hey,” She said. “Nocturn brought you home. He said you’d be gone awhile but didn’t say where you’d gone.”

“To space.” He said. “I went to space. And it’s mine.” Danny looked shocked at his own declaration but felt the truth of it. “I’m… I think I’m in charge of Space.”

Clockwork in the perfect timing that only he could have, arrived to explain to Danny that the domain of Space had always been waiting for him. Existing without rule until he grew enough in power and in mind to connect fully with it. To take on the mantle as the Ancient of Space to perceive on that level and still come back to themselves with their own sense of being intact. Even if it had taken him nearly a week to come back.

[thunderstar-supernova]

A truck driver calling back to warn you of someone suspicious you otherwise wouldnt have noticed, a cashier remembering you and your order, a coworker bringing in an extra coffee for you

Its crazy how we are just casually percieved negative or positive and we make impacts on each other. Knowing you are remembered and seen when you go outside for better or for worse because you are a person and you belong in memory

People are just full of interesting stories

Sometimes kindness is a security guard stopping you to ask you whats wrong and letting you cry with them for a moment. Sometimes kindness is watching how many people will casually buy someone they don't know a coffee. Sometimes its seeing someone reach out to pay for another persons food when they realize they dont have their wallet on them. Sometimes its a spill that a couple of people run to help you clean up. Idk ive been in retail graveyard hell and its been helping me to see just how many people are casually kind. There are always assholes but theres a lot of casual kindness out there yk and its good to always look twice and make sure youre kind to the world back

[ltash]

Ode to lost love

"Simon"Ghost"Riley..

Simon!

Don't you know how many words were clung to your feet?

When you burned the last letter I sent you,

When you took out the dead flowers from the books,

Simon! Did you remember the one who gave it to you?

I used to dance for you like a gypsy in the temple of of love worshipping you like you were my one and only.

You weren't there for me when the flowers bloomed and birds chirped, like the trumpets being played somewhere in my heart.

I used to be the soothing balm for your soul, a gust of cool breeze in the depths of your dispair,

A melody for your tired ears, a sight to your weary eyes, a light to the darkness enveloping your whole existance.

Like the morning sunlight you illuminated my existance, like a river you quenched my thirst.

Then why? Why did you become an incurable disease? a drug so addicting I couldn't live without you.

Why did you become a wound I can't heal, a limb I can't amputate, that gnaws at my flesh and bones?

I didn't know loving you was taking a shot of the poison so strong that neither caused my death nor it let me live.

You were the warmth of my coldest days, the bliss to this aching heart.

Why would you put the dagger of love deep in my heart that it got shattered into a million pieces, scattering it everwhere.

You were there when a bullet from your own gun travelled through my heart, passed through my whole existance, took my every breath away.

When the string to my soul cut off leaving me wandering in the universe of the lost souls for eternity. You were'nt there for me.

You weren't there when the lights were switched off, when this heart took your name with every beat of it till it stopped.

You weren't there when I ceased to exist.

When the maples leaves were crushed beneath your feet, the leaves who carried away my fate with them.

And I was erased from the own lines of my fate.

How easy was to bury me 6 feet down with my memories, how easy was it for me to sleep in the depths of the ground, alone in the darkness.

Left to rot with the negelcted gravestone.

Another girl! Succumbed to your darkness.

And you were the DEATH of me..

If only I could make you mine,

I would If I could, turn back the time..

[warsamongthestars]

Back on my bullshit.

I've got a lot of questions, on how the TBBshow works exactly?

Cos yeah, its been clear for a long time, it doesn't want you asking questions because it will just, fall apart at the seams and go from Frankestein's monster to Frankenstein's ground floor beef.

Like, basic shit. Here's the Plot breaking questions:

HOW DID THEY RECRUIT STORMTROOPERS SO FAST? If they could just, recruit people out of the blue like that, like, Immediately Post-War side, not even 24 hours after the destruction of the Jedi Temple. Where the did they come from? And if they could just, come in like that, why weren't there any natborn armies during the Clone Wars itself? Recruitment takes a long time. Boot camps, at minimum, take 3 months real world. So, Plot Hole 1: Spawning Stormtroopers with Cheat Codes.

WHY DIDN'T THE CLONE ARMY REBEL? If the argument is, that the chip just Wears off, and we know that our troops can and will just rebel against bad officers (We've seen it happen), and that they all do have a pretty strong moral backbone in general... ... How come when this, so called "Wear off" occurred, we didn't see a rebellion enmass? Especially after Kamino's destruction? Still can't recruit and train people that fast, and there's still an entire clone army, and its pretty clear that the show claims there are lots of clones in the ranks and hiearchy... Clearly, it must not just "Wear Off". Plot Hole 2: Attempting to claim that established Sci-Fi Brain Tumors isn't Sci-Fi Cancerous.

WHY IS EVERYTHING EVERWHERE ELSE? Where is Cody? What's going on with Rex and his Rebellion? Why did Echo join that exactly, and how come the Batch couldn't be convinced? Why the fuck is Ventress even There. The story (and its writers) keep wanting to push that "Everything is going to occur at a later time". Well, mothers and fuckers of the audience, if Star Wars were to end tomorrow, like full on Vault Sealed Forever, or nobody has access to these "other stories" either by money or medium--then no, the Story didn't happen somewhere else--it simply Didn't Happen at all. Thus, teasing stories that simply Aren't, and refusing to fill in the story that Is. Plot Hole 3: The Excitement is Farther than the Galaxy Far Far Away

PABU The Empire knows about Pabu, it bombed it for the sake of the Force. You tellin' me that, after Tantis was done, Pabu just magically regerated with anti-Evil Empire shields? And that it wasn't immediately placed under Imperial control like EVERY PLANET TBB HAS ESTABLISHED SO FAR!? Plot Hole 4: You don't need to see their identification, this is not the planet you are looking for.

EMERIE KARR I like her concept, so I'm gonna be picking on her execution. So female clone that is effectively a narrative clone of Omega, except if Emerie existed at the same time as the Bad Batch (likely as its hinted 5th member) and the Clone Wars, as we're supposedly meant to believe that Omega did--how come Omega didn't know about her before. Where the fuck was she. Why would Hemlock be finding a random clone in nowhere space and decide that she was sexy enough to be the sexy lady evil scientist? Her concept is great, but current execution breaks the timeline. Plot Hole 5: Omega split into Omega 2 by Mitosis

HOW ARE THEY BROTHERS EXACTLY? How are our Main Characters brothers? I don't mean in the literal sense, I mean in the sense of "These guys are brothers in arms thick and thin, been through so much shit and came together in support in the face of adversity" And yet, the only thing we see is, bickering, no conversations, refusal to confront topics that directly affect them with each other, obsessing about anything else but actually talking to each other, abandoning each other at a moment's notice for one bullshit thing after another without discussion. Utterly ignoring each other when lives are on the line... Leaving one for Dead... Claiming that they're trying to protect their child sister in order to give her a place to grow up, but insist on bringing her on every dangerous mission ever, treating her as a child soldier... ... When they could've just robbed the stupid lizard bitch and been on that isolated planet they were talking about in Episode 2 before the end of Season 1. After a certain point, I think I should be calling The Galactic Child Protective Services Plot Hole 6: With Brothers like these, who needs enemies?

KILLING A MAIN CHARACTER (Aka "oh my gods they killed Kenny") In congruent to the above Plot Hole. They killed Tech, where's the fallout? Where's the effect? Are you telling me that Mayday, a random one episode clone, was more narratively important than Tech, who's been with us for years? And that's just the written death. The narrative deaths have occurred to all the Bad Batch. this bad ass squad who works together like instinct, is suddenly failing at everything, like its their first day off Kamino. Even though, by the show's own visual environmental storytelling, the Batch have been performing missions together since the first battle of Geonosis. They're more experienced than the Republic Commandos by those tally mark counts in their room wall. And yet, inspite of the visual story telling and the Clone Wars, and every piece of Clone Media prior to this Ever, they're suddenly the big bumbling buffkins who can't operate without running headfirst into the nearest beehive. Character deaths themselves occured... ... From Hunter being a generally snarky, one of the guys, who puts on a show of leadership for the Reg's sake--because a shallowed out parody of Optimus Prime and Captain Rex. ... To Crosshair, a snippy, keen if cruel sniper but with a heart of empathy, reduced to a hyper soldier even without the tumor. When this is the kind of man who would pick a fight with god on toothpick power alone. ... To Wrecker, whom for some reason, suddenly lacks skills he had in the Clone Wars. ... To Tech, who no longer gives out fun facts, or even has an emotional reaction to people getting hurt, like he used to in his first introductory episodes. (Remember the horror he had when he realized the Algorithm had a Human voice?) ... To Echo, once bold and audactious, guised beyind a clone who is a seeming rule stickler--now a bitchy side piece who eventually just leaves instead of having a conversation with the very team that took him in, who reduced his once partner-batchmte Fives to a foot note. One story written death, Five Narrative Deaths, Five Character Deaths, because what was had in the Clone Wars--of which the TBBshow explicitly says its a direct sequel to--clearly wasn't here when this started. Whoever these guys are, they aren't the Bad Batch. Plot Hole 7: Fell at Sunrise and Was replaced by Mirrors

PLOT HOLE: the Rush A special mention plot hole that occurs when you place too much action in too short of time with too little thought. Effectively attempting to turn a TV show, subscription serivce or not, into a 25 minute long tiktok-vine-ytshort. Its exhausting, its Patience killing, it has no Pace; and to believe that this is a good thing, means that you are Also affected by the Rush and should probably pick up a real book or maybe play Pokemon Generation 1 or pick up a text adventure, because you are going too fast for your brain to handle it and it is not good for you. Its commercialism techniques. Don't make them the new norm.

If I've missed any plot holes, lemme know, I'll take a look. Even with my SPECIAL EYES (MY BRAND!) I can't spot everything.

[nathaniel-history-and-stuff]

Since wackos and bigots are getting upset about Easter and the Trans Day of Visibility coinciding this year, people have been commenting on how the date of Easter is calculated. I've seen some progressive people spread some misinformation and I feel like people should be holding themselves to a higher standard of critical thinking than the transphobes.

1. The date of Easter being based on the lunar cycle has nothing to do with "paganism" (pre-Christian religions of Europe). The Gospels claim that Jesus died during the same week as Passover. The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar and so Passover is calculated based on the timing of a full moon, and so Easter was as well. That's it.

2. Easter doesn't have anything to do with pre-Christian festivals. It is true that the word "Easter" is an Anglo-Saxon word that refers to a pre-Christian season and maybe a pagan goddess, but almost everwhere else the name for the holiday comes from Greek Pascua, from Hebrew Pesach (Passover). It is an overly narrow view to attribute an English word to the whole nature of Easter. Any supposed pagan connotations of the Easter bunny or eggs is modern imagination, these are modern sentimental inventions, not ancient.

3. And relatedly, questioning the historical reality of Jesus is a fringe conspiracy theory that no respectable historian buys into. There is plenty of doubts about the accuracy of the Gospel accounts, and obviously of the Resurrection as well, but it is crackpot stuff to assume Jesus literally never existed.

Pseudohistory and misinformation thrive when you accept something that conveniently fits into what you'd like to be true and you don't even bother to look up basic information about a topic.

CORRECTION: There is apparently some debate over whether easter eggs are a medieval invention due to them being prohibited during Lent or descended from ancient egg-decorating practices. It seems that the practice of decorating eggs might actually be quite old, but it seems to have originated in the ancient Middle East and then spread to Europe with Christianity.

[atalante241]

A (bad) summary of the events of the cataclysm from memory bc some ppl don’t understand what happened (somehow)

Someone in Khaenri’ah fucked around and a bunch of monsters started doing shit

Said monsters spread out through the world literally everwhere, this is how Bocacius ended up dying in the chasm, those soldiers in Inazuma from raiden story quest 2, the giant dragon fight in mondstadt, Natlan was an epicenter of fighting & Rhukkhadevata was dealing with the whole knowledge thing. I don’t remember Fontaine.

Places sent out fighters to Khaenri’ah, specifically I think at least mond. I could be wrong abt this one.

Seeing as the whole world was going to shit and like two different Gods died somehow, the whole thing was dealt with, a lot of casualties everywhere. (Like Signora’s husband or whatever, Makoto & a bunch of other people)

And no, the whole hillichurl/immortality curse isn’t due to the cataclysm. That shit existed before that… for some reason.

[rotlix64]

Hehehehe

Dreamcore creatures. Just nomesence everwhere

"They are your childhood friends! Don't you remember them? You used to play with them all the time!"

The idea of their existence camed out out of the absolute nowhere; i just started with a dog ball and keeped going

I love them so much, they are so fun to draw thanks to how weird they are ^v^

I show you all more of them later, right now i am too sleepy to think about it

[sophieinwonderland]

"I do have sources but im not obligated to post them" why WONT you post them? If you really do have them, why wouldn't you be happy to share them everwhere and debunk all of our existences??? or maybe... thats just a cover for not having sources to back you up at all? 😱 who would've guessed?!

That's the million dollar question!

If you had sources that could prove your arguments, where are they? Why are you hiding them and keeping them secret?

[vroomvroomcircuit]

Notes

(A little drabble I wrote on a post it)

"I believe that the most important thoughts fit on a post it note. If they don't, they are not important. They are just spirals."

Not many sentences changed Max as drastically as those uttered by his most beloved girlfriend. She had a habit of carrying a block of those notes and a pen with her everwhere she went.

It amored Max, honestly. Sometimes she wote short, precise bullet points of words floating around her head.

Sometimes she jotted love notes in the smallest handwriting to exist down and hid them in his pockets, giving Max always a pleasant surprise.

Not many people, nobody really, changed him as much as she did. So after he lost his beloved, his one true love, he started writing notes about his love to her and leaves them on her grave.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

If layline MC has a creation starter then maybe she shows up with an egg that they know its theirs to care for by its parent. and out come the most gangly little horse thing wobbling everwhere. its arcs are not there yet it looks cute in an almost ugly way. It comes up to their Thighs and only starst growing when the Plottm starts happening.It still only grows to be around a head taller than them and is like an affection cat. Its a scardy cat and hides behind is parent half the time. No one knows how it Eats. They blink and food has bite out of it. I think this still puts little MC as the one who is doing the Plottm and not have something do it for them. ( I assuming they themselves are throwing down with the corrupted Lords and Ladies (maybe I dont know the plot yet) and Still have that nice companionship. and baby arceus is cute in my mind)

No one knows its a god. Laventon is excited only bc He got to witness a brith of a magical creature that probably has only been hearsay before.

[ Anonymous: I thought I saw a tag about creation starts on ley lines but now I cant find it so maybe I made it up so apologies if I randomly threw that into the au think tank out of nowhere ]

no you saw correctly! it wasn't a tag, it was the first paragraph of this other reply lol. i do think babi arceus is always a very cute idea whenever it comes up

...but man. plot. plot plot plot. you've asked a question about The Plot now i have to think about it. i feel like it isn't just the nobles being frenzied again, since that feels like just doing canon again and i kind of want to get further away with it? i don't know, this is all very loosey goosey thoughts and i'm bad at putting my vibes ideas down on paper, but i feel like if the nobles and wardens and pearl/diamond as a whole are still a structure in this world, they're like, much more of a background thing? like, they have this noble soulbond so i guess they do exist, but the actual plot is some other much different Fantasy Quest and they're really just other characters on the adventure. if that... makes any sense at all.

like, is hisui even a thing? i feel like the clans might be much more spread out as a whole... if they're even clans, and it isn't just the wardens and leaders forming a structure with no other regular people involved. like every individual warden looks after a certain area, and they all report to adaman and irida, but those are the only people in diamond and pearl. and they just sort of... orbit loosely related towns and villages etc. and then they all get dragged into akari's situation, maybe because akari&co went to adaman and/or irida as a user of a primal magical force who could maybe shed some light on the situation (they couldn't, but they got caught up in the adventure for their own reasons anyway.) i guess since they're all picking up and leaving, their jobs are also much less important than they are in canon? like it's not such a huge deal for them to just wander off for a while.

this might all sound like complete nonsense, i don't know. like i said it's just vibes in here.

[stevethehairington]

22, 29, 32 for the writers questions!!

ty for sending this in!! <3

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

hm this is. this is a funny one to answer bc i feel like i am part incredibly organized and part chaotic mess lmfao. bc like i use google drive for my fics and i have a RIGID organizational structure for that. like i have a folder for each of the fandoms i've written for and within that fandom folder i have a writing folder and within that writing folder i have my docs. and those are organized by docs i've started and are either waiting to be written or are in the middle of being written which kind of hang out in the folder loosely. but then i have a separate folder for my finished fics, a separate folder for my finished fics' plan/outline docs (if they have one), and a separate folder for each event/challenge/project i've participated in. so like for steddie i have a folder for each of the zines i'm in and a big bang folder.

but then when it comes to what i'm actually writing... that can get messier lmao. i kind of write across like 3 different platforms? like i use google docs for my main document to write in, but i also write in the notes app on my phone, and i handwrite a lot of things too (mostly bc i cant use my computer at work to write fic so i resort to good ol fashioned pen and paper lol). so it can get tricky trying to remember WHERE i wrote that one piece i'm looking for lol and i have to dig and dig through sheets of notebook paper and my insane amount of notes on my phone and the docs that i have (bc sometimes if it's getting too long i'll split up the doc too just to get a clean work space).

i also have a binder that is full of like old fic stuff i've jotted down, whether that be old snippets i've written, or ideas i've scribbled onto a sticky note, or something i printed out to edit. that binder has stuff from sooo many different fandoms in it lol. i've tried organizing it by fandom and i've bunched all the stuff for one specific idea into a paperclipped stack or i've put it in one of those sheet protector pages lol.

but yeah it's like organized chaos i guess you could say. but it works for the most part so! here i am! lol

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

ooh! easy question!! i draw inspiration from literally anything and everything!! the world is full of stuff that makes GREAT stories!! so yeah i absolutely pull from everything around me - whether that's looking up prompts on tumblr, watching a show/movie or reading a book and wanting to au it, something a friend/coworker/someone random on the street said, an object i see that sparks something in me, a color, a weather pattern, a mood, a song, a recipe, my own feelings, other people's feelings, my life experiences, other people's life experiences.

inspiration really truly comes from everwhere!

when the well runs dry i try to dig deeper. i try to look through prompts that might spark something, even if it's a tiny little ficlet. oh i also like to look through old ideas i've had for other fandoms when this happens bc sometimes the best thing to do is to recycle!! bc like the inspiration was there at some point, and looking back on it helps to respark that and bring it back! and trying to revamp it to fit my current fandom/pairing really helps get the gears turning again too.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

you can find the answer to this one here!

weird questions for writers

[mbistuff]

My reply to this seems to have been eaten by Tumblr, so I'm gonna do it as a reblog.

I'm probably considered less enfranchised than many people here, having started at Strixhaven. I tried Magic Arena on a pure whim, and it quickly ended up becoming a daily ritual for me. Since then, the game's progressed from "Well it's free to play, may as well play it" to "This next set looks really cool, guess I'll check out the story" to "May as well pick up a commander deck or two and check out the local scene" to "Travelling over an hour both ways to attend drafts and prereleases".

Magic turned out to be the card game I'd always wanted. I fell in love with the mechanics, the world, the characters, the stories and the way the company running it seemed to actually communicate with their players. Magic felt like something truly special.

I had my gripes, of course. I vastly prefered formats with smaller card pools, with the two 5-card standard sets I got to experience being some of my favourite times to be playing Magic. When WotC announced the change to rotation, I was disappointed, but understood the logic and still defended them.

Universe Beyond always felt wrong to me, and while I didn't play any of the formats it was present in (besides the occasional commander game), it still felt like I was being advertised to. Still, I simply played less furing the summer months when they were the new Tentpole set on Arena, feeling pretty safe knowing that I never needed to interact with the cards. After all, Wizards had promised that I wouldn't need to.

The pace of new product was too much. I was able to ignore much of it, but it felt like each set was getting less and less time in the spotlight. A set felt new and we were already seeing previews for the next shiny new thing. Every set just started feeling disposable, just one in the long line of new product. Still, again, Wizards said they were aware of the issue.

The last few sets definitely felt more hollow than most had in the past. Unlike many, I actually mostly enjoyed and defended the story, especially those written by Seanan McGuire. It was the cards themselves that often didn't live up to the world that the writing had created. Still, I looked more towards what I did enjoy, rather than the things I thought mixed. Wizards seemed to be listening, and these mistakes all felt pretty fixable. I was actually feeling optimistic about the future of the game until Friday.

Friday was crushing. I feel like my trust has been entirely misplaced.

For a start, six standard sets a year is way too much. Even outside the absurd pace, it means that over the the course of this decade, Standard is going from a size of 5-8 sets to 14-19 sets, with one of these sets being double in size.

Universes Beyond in Standard is the big thing. Companies digging up old IP is everwhere these days and quite frankly, I'm sick of it. It feels like everything is a reboot or a crossover or a nostalgic tie-in. Magic felt like something special, something that for the most part could exist as itself in a media landscape turning increasingly derivitive. Now, with outside IP replacing standard Magic sets, it just feels like an advertisement, it just feels like everything else. The magic of Magic is gone.

Then there's my specific problem with Final Fantasy. I've had this franchise in my backlog for years, with me avoiding spoilers this entire time. Every year, I play through one or two jRPGs as blindly as possible, with one of my goals being to experience every main Final Fantasy jRPG game. These past few days, I've seen multiple spoilers for the franchise, just by being in general discussion spaces for Magic. Magic has become an obstacle to me enjoying Final Fantasy.

But what gets me most is the lies. In 2021, WotC promised that UB wouldn't come to Standard. As the company works three years ahead of time, we know that it took just a single year to internally break that promise. You could have came clean about the change of plans at any time since then. Heck, I recall recent statements that UB would remain something being done in addition to the regular output.

How the hell am I supposed to trust anything the Magic team says again, having knowingly left lies on the website for three years? My faith in Magic has been broken, and I don't even know what it would take to fix at this point.

I'm going to leave off by saying that since your promises mean so little, why not abolish the Reserve List? From my experience, the sentiment is that all it does is gatekeep new players from higher power formats. It seems very much the will of the playerbase at large (who are aware of it, at least) to see it gone.

I’ve always felt the core role of this blog has been one of information. We make a lot of choices in design, and I try to use my various communications, including Blogatog, to walk the players through what we were thinking when we made key decisions.

The challenge with this approach is that it’s very logic-focused. It uses intellectual justifications to explain actions. But the problems I’m often responding to are emotional in origin. I have a good friend who’s a psychologist. He refers to this (using the words of author Robyn Gobbel) as an owl brain solution to a watchdog brain problem.

When someone is hurting, hearing about why the thing that is causing them pain is the result of intellectual decisions falls flat. That’s what has been causing some tension lately here on Blogatog.

It’s clear that for some Question Marks changes over the last few years represent the loss of something key to what makes Magic special to them. To them, the game is losing its heart.

While I can’t necessarily do anything about that, I want to better understand what you’re going through. So I’m using this post to ask players who are concerned with the recent changes to help me understand their feelings. Let me hear your stories about how your lives have been affected by these changes.

[thesunandhermoon1]

Every now and then, when i'm in the middle of something i would have this rush of nostalgia for my old room in the house i grew up on

Where there i had everything i needed and i could shut off and sometimes i guess i miss the feeling and that i had very simple things that could make me happy. A book. My white long table with my pink laptop. My big window, my cat, my tv, and thats it.

I never thought that i would continue missing it. I always thought i could have that magical feeling everwhere as long as there is good natural light but no. It doesnt exist anymore. This calm, clear, naive energy. So i miss it. I miss a lot . All the time its nothing new. Maybe its just a way of showing that i miss things being calm and simple i guess. Or that things changed. But i guess i could never really let it go or accept or move on from its like a wave, wave of grief and nostalgia for days that would never come again. And just like in a movie i return to present me and i'm like.. am i here? Did i went this far? Am i this old?

I asked yesterday why we are so cynical about life all the time? And they answered that that is life. And i guess i just want to go back , back when i saw only just me , i could take care only myself, i was in school, and pretty much free. Free in mind.

Now i am 30. And it all changes and i dont have any answers. Simple is complex, you are not only thinking of yourself, everything has a meaning, and work and fullfilment is diffrernt things sometimes, politics and things going on in your country - you think maybe i should do something? My parents did, their parents did, thought about whats good to the people,for the future, for the kids, should i? Can i?

change?

I dont know.