#this is WAY out of my comfort zone and my fanart barely gets any engagement so this is even more unlikely BUT

[loverjpg]

"How The Moon Made The Stars" (2023)

[lyraeon]

Hey Lyra...i've got a weird question, how did you figure you you where poly?

god it’s been so long I’m not sure I could really pinpoint it anymore

Also this got REALLY long so short version first:

-got introduced to concept by fanfiction -had always had a hard time getting over old crushes even years later -never got jealous about partner talking to other people -never felt like crushing on others was using up any of my love for my partner -I JUST LOVE EVERYONE OK

And the long version which gets really personal at times:

I do know I kept hearing phrases like, “if you really loved them you wouldn’t feel anything for anyone else”

but thing is that every one of my relationships, I’d already fallen in love with the next person I wound up with before the previous relationship broke up. even if things were fine, even if I still definitely loved them. my first two major relationships, there was a good 10 months where I was already in love with the second guy but still very much in love with the first. I consciously avoided the second guy because I didn’t want to cheat, I even blocked him for a while when he hinted he liked me. I’m *still* friends with the first guy, and it’s literally 17 years later at this stage, and I would argue I still have some degree of feelings for him and it’s only a lack of familiarity between us stopping me from calling it love. I only left him for the second guy because some stuff got messed up in our lives that meant we barely interacted for a few months and I decided that since the second guy had time for me and he didn’t, I should leave one for the other.

I was like 16 or 17 at that point.

Note that I also was having a lot of emotions for other people at this point too, that I later realized were crushes but was blind to that fact at that point because lmao I thought I was straight still hahahaha crap.

when I was about 19, I got really hard into Naruto fanfic. I mean like I probably was before that, but man. And I discovered the fanart and fanfic of someone named Askerian (who I’ve crossed paths with numerous times in other fandoms since then and shes’s still amazing).

A lot of what she wrote was polyshipping.

Mostly Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura OT3 stuff. and just like. This concept of everyone all together? for me, who’d always hated the love triangle dynamic (partially cuz she tended to pick the results canon didn’t, but still) and whose entire life is one big Found Family storyline and who still knew she was vaguely in love with her ex and kind of in love with her best friend and like, was starting to worry maybe she didn’t actually understand what love was and maybe I didn’t actually love anyone like maybe that’s what was going on there because normal people were so fiercely jealous of their partners and so on?

Yeah, polyshipping fic felt like the most wonderful fantasy. It was just. absolutely glorious to see.

I realized I was pansexual around that point too. Broke the news to my boyfriend (who I was, by then, engaged to). He was basically oh cool we can talk about how hot chicks are together then, haha.

Like six months later I was very, very aware I had a huge crush on a girl from an RP group I was in. absolutely smitten. I explained the situation to my boyfriend. “hey, listen, since I’ve realized I’m bi I kind of want to try being with a girl. we’re engaged, I promise I’m not going anywhere, but I think I might be polyamorous, like, I think my brain wants me to be with both a guy and a girl if that makes sense? can I try?”

Gross oversimplification, I know. it was like 2007, those were the livejournal days, I didn’t know nonbinary people existed, I was confused as to what any of my emotions were, I’m not even sure I knew the word polyamorous at that point, it was a mess.

He said no. He tried to get me to stop talking to the girl altogether. We stopped talking out of character and only kept RPing.

like six months later he told me if I was still thinking about it then yes. I asked her out immediately. she was a few years older than me and ran in circles that had polycules so it was nbd to her. She dated me gladly, said she’d been trying to figure out if she was bi anyway.

(spoiler alert, she wasn’t, and that’s ultimately why we broke up the second time. the first time was because my boyfriend got mad after a few months that I hadn’t ‘gotten it out of my system yet’ and that the relationship was actually emotional, not just sexual, so I left her to be with just him, which later lead to a super messy breakup and then to me trying to make things work with her again).

...complicated.

to this day I’m a mess of emotions. Hilariously, homestuck’s helped me sort some of it out. Because a long time ago, when explaining to my now-partner of 9 years that I knew I was still in love with my best friend even though he’s gay and we weren’t ever gonna be together, I tried to explain that everyone I hold hands with, I feel it in a different place in my soul. So while he felt warm and wide and like a hug around my shoulders, and his hand feels safe and secure, my old bestie feels light and airy in my chest and his hand feels like breathing in menthol, or like lightning. two different kinds of love. 

my understandings of things now tell me that I was pale as fuck for my bestie more than anything, but even now the lines aren’t always clear. I’m demiromantic (and/or quiromantic, who the hell knows) so I don’t crush from a distance. Instead I wind up in bonds with people anyway, and they’ll do something one day and I’ll go oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck not them too whyyyyyyyyy and spend a month frantically ignoring it and in a lot of cases it’ll fade away quickly because it’ll have just been my heart going “I trust this person” and taking a bit to figure out where they belonged. a smaller percentage though, I’m stuck. the emotion’s there. it might be red or pale or even in some cases pitch but it’s still tumbling around in my brain and I’m attached and I don’t want to let people out of my life again.

I only have the one partner right now, my hubby. I have two, maybe three “moirails”, people I’m very bonded to but it’s nothing sexual or physical. and I’ve had just plain best friends so I know it’s a different feeling. But there are people I’ve only not asked out because I respect my hubby’s wishes to be exclusive. Some I’ve even pushed away because there was too much spark there and I didn’t trust myself to not hit a point where I just had to try and talk him into it. I don’t want to push him out of his comfort zone; I love him too much, and it’s not worth risking my one sure thing when most people out there wouldn’t be accepting of a polyamorous situation anyway. In other words, is it possible I’d be happier with more than one partner? and hell, I lowkey think my hubby might be happier that way too because I can be a bit much for him so it might be better for him to have my attention split over mulitiple people. but I respect him too much and love him too much to want to risk our current pretty good, sure thing happiness for a less certain potentially better happiness, especially cuz “losing him” is a potential outcome and that’s nooooot one I’m okay with.

...which got kind of ranty and personal but Y’KNOW

It’s the long version lol.

[fanartfunart]

..Ok I wasn't sure whether or not to send this to you buuuut since you're reading it, that means I did it! First of all, I want to say that I *adore* your work, I think half of all AUs I follow might be yours and everything you draw is just sssoooo soft and pretty and aaaaa. Second (and the thing I was anxious about sending)... I have a (vague) idea for a Sanders Sides AU I just came up with and already got attached to. Problem is, I'm.. not all that involved in the fandom nor do I have (1/2)

enough of a plot in mind to write it as a full-blown fanfic. The next thing that came to mind was an askblog, which would probably work best but I’m scared nobody will notice it/send in questions/I won’t be able to maintain it for longer than a week or so/I’ll get too caught up in trying to make art for it I’ll barely post anything. Main point of my question is.. Do you maybe have any advice to spare? Sorry this got so long and rambly ^^“ Thanks for reading this far! (2/2)

First things first, Congrats on being brave enough to send the message! (and glad you enojy my work!)

As for your askblog idea, I’ve certainly got some suggestions to spare! My first being, have fun with it! Explore your idea, know your limits, do your best and you’ll probably be ok!

((rest under the cut))

I’d certainly suggest giving yourself a back-log of little one-shots/doodles/ect if you’re scared of not posting often or regularly. You can make it your safeguard.

Maintenance, is a bit more iffy, and really depends on what’s going on in your life, (I’m terrible at maintaining things) But, I’d say feel free to answer questions via text when you can/appropriate, take advantage of the queue, (I found out that you can press the alt/option key (on mac at least) on an ask and you can save it to the queue/drafts, which has become a lifesaver) and maybe keep to a simpler style for asks, especially if you get a lot.

For getting people to ask questions~

First, make your initial post. This can take a LOT of forms and shapes, but, the key point is that it needs to introduce your main characters, their current relationships, the setting, and your key plot motivator (ie: daydream au, I had Roman (initially just implied) running away, and subsequently meeting, and reacting to meeting, Patton, Logan, and Virgil (and them reacting to him in return)) With that:

A: don’t give them all the answers! (Should be obvious but I can’t believe how often I see people just giving away everything.) You should leave your readership with enough information that they know what’s going on, but just enough left out that they’re like, ‘hey! what about this!!!?’

B: give your askers a place in the story. Either literally or figuratively. You’ve gotta have your characters interact w/ the askers somehow, give them some staying power.

C: Give your askers information about the characters that they don’t know about each other/their situation! it’ll engage your readers and make them go ‘hey hey hey wait, we’ve gotta help them figure this out!!’

D: let your characters lie to the askers! Let them exaggerate! Let them disagree and interact! (just make sure that you portray it as them actually doing so. if a character isn’t prone to lying, make the character nervous about it. If a character IS prone to lying, and is good at it, make sure the reader knows it, and maybe have the characters who know better call them out.)

In the end, you should be guiding your askers to the key plot points, and your askers will guide you in return. And, if you’re stuck or don’t have many asks in the askbox, post a comic or fic or something to get the ball rolling again!

Now, for the whole noticing thing:

A: tagging, use the tags for everything that applies. The key ones for a sanders sides au would be: [au name: ie Daydream AU], Sanders Sides and/or Sanders Sides au, [Character(s) involved in post/ask: ie Patton Sanders], [particular character traits important to au/post/ask: ie Unicorn!Patton, Shapeshifter!Patton, ext (I… don’t think the ‘!’ is super important anymore, but it’s a habit for me)], TS Art and/or Sanders Sides Art, [type of au (if applicable): ie Fantasy AU], [your personal art tag: ie Fanart’s fanart], [trigger/squick warnings if applicable], [other story-specific tags: ie hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, ect.]

put your most important tags in the first 5-ish tags. Do Not tag Every character unless they’re all there. Also, if you’ve got Deceit as a character (even if he’s a minor character), there’s been a Sympathetic Deceit, Villain Deceit, and Manipulative Deceit tag set-up, so I suggest using those as well as applicable (and, tbh, I’d say use the villain/manipulative thing for any of them if you happen to have that)

Then, some people also have tags for the askers, (I personally just have a ‘answered asks’ tag ((that I often forget))

B: if you think you can maintain it, I suggest using a tag-list and/or a master-post ((the master-post got hard for me to maintain personally, but it was helpful in the begining)) The taglist will notify people when you update, and will keep them coming back! the master-post will help people navigate the story, and will introduce newbies pretty nicely. However!! you can also use a chronological link if you’re using a blog purely for the au! this is the set up:

your-blog’s-url-here.tumblr.com/tagged/whatever-your-au’s-main-tag-is/chrono

Linking in bio just type in:Insert Link Here”> insert whatever you want the link to read as here .

into the description. (note, you MUST have the quotes around your link)

(you can’t copy-paste into descriptions (which is plain annoying), and spaces will have “%20″ instead of a space and if you put it as a link in your description it won’t work, which is something I learned the hard way.)

C: self-reblog. Reblog back to your main/most popular blog, do time-zone reblogs, do night/morning reblogs, whatever, just get yourself out there.

…. I also touched on this subject a while ago too (tho less in-depth cause I wasn’t on my computer), and that’d likely be tagged as ‘ask blog’ or ‘advice’ so idk, maybe look at that too, I might’ve missed something here that I touched on there.

Hope this helps, sorry it’s so long!

[nappainanotherdimension]

SHIPPING INFO.       Answer the following for your muse(s) so people       know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST.       Don’t reblog.

{TBH this meme may feel like a waste of time to read for some people since ultimately I’m not that actively looking to ship Nappa on this roleplay blog. But there are things I’d like to talk about in case someone comes along who does wanna ship etc, and working on this helped me understand and cope with some issues I was having earlier this year in relation to working on ships with others. I apologize for how long it is though. I may sound super indifferent or negative at times in this meme, but I explain at length the reasons why below. Hopefully people don’t equate that with being completely closed off to the idea of shipping. We’re both just...selective in terms of shipping on this blog.}

{Artwork for this icon is part of a set of a recent paid commissioned done by my good friend of many years, @nothanksmate, someone tumblr won’t let me tag of course.}

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE?:

At this point in time, I have no OTPs for the Nappa I play here on this blog.

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?:

I know this topic comes up in the next part, but I just wanna throw this out here: I’m not into shipping my muse with any other muse who is under 18. For obvious reasons.

I’m good with doing anything I feel would be in-character for my muse to do. Though because I have so little experience writing him in a ship, there are still things I’ll learn about him as far as romance and sexual attraction goes. The asks I get on this blog have already helped me learn more about the muse that I portray, so that’s pretty neat! And I thank you all who have helped with that! :3

Depending on how the relationship develops between muses, I could see fluff happening. Especially in a healthy relationship. I headcanon that Nappa is into tasteful PDA and is affectionate – both verbally, and physically – with women he’s involved with in a romantic way. He’ll have a bit of a Saiyan twist to his affections, but he’s a genuine person with how he feels so that part of his personality can easily lead to romantic fluff once he’s comfortable in a defined relationship. He just might be a bit silly or awkward with it because Saiyans aren’t exactly romantic in conventional ways, especially in the beginning of their relationship. But I swear I will usually play this up for cute and endearing comedy. If things are uncomfortably awkward for either muse, that’s not a good sign and the ship probably isn’t gonna happen unless we figure out how to fix it, if it can be fixed.

Romance will be very experimental, because I headcanon that Nappa’s never been in love romantically before. That would have to include an education/learning process, and effort put into the relationship from both of our muses, and us muns’ side. Nappa is proven to be capable of unconditional love in canon. It just has to happen with the right person for him, y’know? I’m also not opposed to one-sided feelings on either of our muses’ sides.

Because I’ve spent a lot of my roleplay experience writing Nappa in a situation where he’s left with unresolved anger and bitterness for what happened to him in canon, I’m really not up for putting Nappa into an unhealthy relationship and put him through a lot of negative emotions. I don’t want to ship him with anyone who brings out the worst in him. He wouldn’t be happy, and that wouldn’t be fun for me to write responses for.

Graphic smut for a roleplay thread is off the table. If our muses have a strong enough bond in their relationship where it is natural for both characters to want to engage in sexual activity, I would skip to afterwards. I don’t mind implying things, or writing sensual scenes. {More information on what that means comes comes up later in this meme.}

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?:

Again a huge NO on anyone under 18, and even at age 18, that’s really too young for my muse. 20-30 year-olds may even be too young, unless they are mentally mature. Nappa can be childish sometimes, but he’s still a full-grown man who’s about 60 years old with lots of life-experience. If your muse is young enough to be his kid, that’ll be on his mind. He’s not going to be comfortable with anyone as a love interest if they act overly childish and bratty, especially for little to no reason. He’ll complain about that sort of person if they’re in his presence, even if there’s no shipping potential going on. If your muse acts like a child, he’ll treat her like one.

Age gaps are going to be a thing I have to deal with since few people play muses as old as mine, and if they are older, they don’t look it or act too differently from 15-30 year olds. I’m not fully against age gaps, in fact I think they’re interesting, so long as the characters can respect one another and are even with mental maturity.

Respect and maturity are two key things that have to be there for a ship with Nappa to work. It’s okay if the two bicker at first, or don’t always see eye-to-eye, but they need to get along. There has to be a strong friendship or at the very least some fair amount of kindness from the other person before Nappa can feel any sort of romantic and sexual interest he'll think about or want to act on.

 ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?:  

Yes, mostly because my muse is a choosy person. 

Nappa has an elitist attitude, and because he’s never experienced romantic love, he observes male-female relationships with the perspective of if he and the woman in question will make desirable children, and if she’ll make a good mother. That is just how his mentality works at the moment. It would take a lot of chemistry and a woman with a lot of desirable personality traits to make him overlook some of his hang-ups. The woman has to get to know and accept who Nappa is IC, the good and the bad, in a consistent roleplay thread. Not just think he’s hot and want to skip to the “fun stuff.” To me the process of writing two characters falling in love is part of that fun stuff. If things are rushed, there’s a high chance Nappa won’t feel the same interest as your muse and he’ll friend zone her. (But that’s not always bad because remember there has to be friendship before anything more can happen.)

As for the mun, I only feel a drive for wanting to ship when I see chemistry. In my opinion, Nappa’s harder to ship within roleplay, than he is in fanfics or fanart stuff. I do love shipping, so I’m always willing to interact to see if a ship can happen!

But in general, I’m not actively looking for a ship to happen with Nappa on this blog. But if a ship happens it’d be a pleasant surprise. Until then, I’m not going to worry about hooking Nappa up on this blog.  He’s fine being single, and I’m having fun writing him making other sorts of relationships with all kinds of muses.

 HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NSFW?:

When it comes to talking, anything that starts to get dirty with graphic sexual activity details is what I’d consider NSFW.  Detailed descriptions of sexualized body parts, groping/stroking of genitals or breasts are things I consider NSFW. Also detailed sexual fantasy thoughts and emotions felt during physical activity can be too. Basically if you could get into trouble for getting caught reading it at work, or I don’t think the content is suitable for minors to be reading, I’d consider it NSFW, tag it accordingly, and may even use the Keep Reading cut.

Blatantly stating things like: sex, penis, vagina, kinky, “let’s fuck” or other such things, I wouldn’t think are worth labeling and tagging. Grabbing, smacking, or rubbing a butt isn’t NSFW to me unless said butt is bare and the muses are starting to do something sexual in nature.

I’m not going to do graphic sexual scenes, but I do feel confident about how good my sensual writing can be without going “all the way.” By sensual writing I mean things like touching, and kissing in places that are going to be sensitive, but aren’t any of the body parts mentioned above. I take advantage of describing voice tone, verbal word choices, eye direction, movement, thoughts and feelings to build tension without getting too smutty.

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH?:

At the moment there are no ships for my muse with other muses.

Nappa has had muses express their interest in him couple of times, but either chemistry wasn’t there for him to want that kind of relationship, or the mun and I agreed that we only wanted playful flirtatious banter. 

Nappa was starting to develop a crush on Poharu before her mun had to leave in my Xenoverse verse, but it’s nothing too serious, but I will mention it from time to time when portraying Nappa in that verse because I like it. (And I’ve mentioned before I’m 100% cool with one-sided crushes.)

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?:  

OOC communication is important if you would like a ship to happen.  Decent communication about our muses and the direction of our threads can help out a lot.

Like I’ve said, I’ve never written a ship with Nappa in roleplay before, and if you want a ship to set sail, it’s a good idea to make a blueprint before building that ship, ya dig? I’m fine with playing things by ear, but this can also lead to our characters saying or doing things that might piss each other off and make it harder for a ship to happen.

I can’t be the only one putting in the work either. If you’re not going to put in any effort – be it IC and/or OOC – then you probably don’t care that much about it, and I’m not going to either. Constantly dropping threads in an effort to rush the relationship process will result in a higher chance of the ship failing too. 

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?:

Whenever I see potential chemistry. I like ships that help both characters grow as people, especially if it’s a positive relationship. I’m only interested in working on healthy romantic relationships for Nappa on this blog.

 ARE YOU MULTISHIP?:

I hate to say I’m undefined on whether Nappa’s blog is a multiship blog or not, because I know for some people that is very important to know. But I have a hard time imagining a single ship ever happening with my muse, and I’m not actively looking for ships.

I guess I’ll deal with that decision if the time ever comes where I need to.

 ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?:

I love shipping and crack!shipping with fandom stuff. When it comes to roleplay though, I just play it by ear, and have low expectations for ships. I like when ships happen naturally. It’s a fun surprise! If ships happen, they happen!

Though I will admit, when I like a ship I will be enthusiastic about working on them. Mostly because I’m invested in  how things go! I guess I’m a healthy middle-ground kind of girl when it comes to shipping in roleplay.

If I see my partner isn’t enthused about working on it, I back off real quick. I’ve had bad experiences with shipping in the last year or so. One of my partners who is also a close friend kept giving me mixed messages that made me feel bad for being invested in shipping in general, not just with certain characters we played together. This made me feel all sorts of negative emotions towards wanting to work on, or even talking about my own fanfiction for months too. I’m slowly overcoming these feelings recently.

 WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?:  

I vicariously grew fond of Raditz x Nappa because of my friend @homosorcerer‘s content, but outside of their stuff, what other people do with it doesn’t tickle my fancy. Not sure if it’d be something I’d roleplay. *shrugs* In general though, I don’t *personally* see him having a lot of chemistry with other dudes.

For the heterosexual side of things, I don’t see any canon women from DBZ who would be good with Nappa either. (Though the right writer could possibly get me change my mind or get into it vicariously through their work.)

TBH I’m more open to crossover ships or OC ships with Nappa. (Just please no Nappa x Ami…just no.)

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?:

I’d suggest talking to me about it and also roleplaying for awhile with me and my muse before deciding if you really want to ship with us. After reading all this I probably sound like I’m really difficult to work with, but it’s a whole different ball game for @radmanraditz so I’ll be doing this for his blog soon too.

If you’re unsure of what to say when you bring up the topic, there’s this awesome post I found with a great format that’s short but detailed enough. I’ve even got it linked to my rules page in the shipping section.

Thanks to anyone who sat through reading all of this! I know it was really too long!

TAGGED BY.

@el-coyote aaaages ago!

TAGGING. {Oh goodness I’ll tag people but I feel bad if they feel like they have to read all of this. Also I can’t remember who all has done this already??}

@mihoshi-kuramitsu @ayekanaru @5kye @krazyokami @the-green-anon @tuffletruffleking and anyone else who might want to do this!