#very niche problems i dont even KNOW

[leolingo]

being fixated on linguistics is fun until i get frustrated writing fic bc i can’t properly portray spanish and portuguese speech patterns in english

[urautismdiagnosis]

LANGUAGE HEADCANONS

including the vegimals, also some pirate culture lore for kwazii ig

@calamaroo

BARNACLES

Barnacles learned basic English as an extracurricular when he was younger, but he only really learned it (and gained the accent) when he went to university in Manitoba (polar bear capital of the world and the university works by, with, and for indigenous people with a lot of foreign people coming to study). he's got a similar thing with the speaking Russian and I'm gonna steal the specific language of inuktuk from you.

Also because the Arctic has so many different countries in it (although everyone in the Arctic considers themselves as just "the Arctic because wtf are u gonna do about borders? come through the snow storm and take me to another snowy white spot that looks exactly the same (to you) as the other snowy white spot I was in? FCK borders in the Arctic no one there gives a sht)

Anyways they do have a common sign language because I LOVE SIGN LANGUAGE AND WILL INSERT IT EVERYWHERE I CAN

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KWAZII:

Kwazii did grow up with a very mixed pirate crew, although A LOT of members were either English speaking or Japanese speaking predominantly , he also watched a lot of old kids anime as a kid in Japanese as well lol. not to mention the native island cultures they often interacted with including my very fictional "meowri" (they're sphinx cats with ttattoes and very loosely inspired by Polynesian cultures)...

Because of the general culture of the pirate crew being diverse (esp cuz of interactions on ports/other crews) there was also a lot slang and terms that was known shared and sort of used as a basic communication system for everyone.

so there'd be random Spanish and Arabic terms from the most niche origin points just being used commonly, and that includes a lot of outdated ones, cultural sayings, or words that just don't exist in a lot of other languages, and etc

not to mention that because of how old the pirate clan he was a part of was (founded in 1920s) and because of the different crews there's genuinely like hundreds and hundreds of them being in these isolated communities and even being born and raised in them. so there's a lot of words that cant even be found anywhere else, so kwazii does get frustrated when he cant express what he wants to say but he just... cant even translate the word

OR the words everyone else uses for it doesn't make any sense! it... it kinda makes him feel stupid sometimes

also because his clan did work with a lot of wild animals as non tech sources of information (you feed them and then they get u good info!! for strategy, spying, whatever! and no one even blinks an eye cuz its just a crow (an extremely intelligent bird)!) but uh... the problem with that is that well alot of animals uhhhh misunderstand stuff

so that means that all the names of locations, descriptions of wild animals, ways of naming ships, and all the information would've have to have been animal comprehension friendly. not to mention be more coded cuz of non-friend pirate clans and G O V E R N M E N T S- so I'd get some wacky name replacements for all sorts of things.... its really a mess XD, a beautiful mess but still

also explained why so many of the pirate tales about *insert scientific name of the episode's animal* was often over exaggerated with strange details... including ones pirates shouldn't even known. Like how could they know about sword fish making the water around them warm?

its because a lot of that info CAME from the animals... animals who... don't understand numbers and say things like "and it was 20 feet tall!" even if it was only 5.... because it FEELS that tall to the small animal yk? also not understanding science on a deeper level so its all explained in a strange way. Ofc the pirates DONT help the issue because they be exaggerating the hell out of their own stories-

yeah sure the snake was "long as the river itself" Cj and SURE it was 20 sharks or whatever and not THREE that chased you kwazii

lying in story telling is just a form of pirate love actually, so is pranks and pickpocketing but kwazii refrains lol... this turned into me yapping about the blorbo

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BASIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

Speaking of the basic communication thing, the octonauts crew was trained on the main words for rescue related communication in more common languages like Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, etc and will take time to learn (or just refresh) before heading to a new location.

Because in my own au the communication abilities of the wildlife is a lot more limited based on their level of intelligence. so an orca would technically be bi lingual in their own orca language and be able to speak nearly identical to a humanoid person

also like I said before about sign language, BASIC PIRATE SIGNS THAT ONLY OTHER PIRATES KNOW AYYYYYYYYY

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DASHI:

Australian Dashie my beloved<3 honestly she WOULD have learned several languages and learned more for/from her friends shes so capable and incredible fr. also FCK it MORE sign language! I headcanon shes CODA, which means you're the child of one or two parents who are both either hard of hearing or Deaf! so she actually was learning sign very VERY young from her mom <3 and well the rest of her family cuz they all knew it lol

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PESO:

peso is obviously bilingual and he's the BEST at the basic communications skills thing and most well versed cuz he deals with the most animals one on one, so he actually can communicate with pretty much all the animal creatures, even taking the time to learn some slang terms the animals might have learned so that they'll feel safer and more comfortable around him!

he also picks up on a lot of dialects especially since his cousins are so diverse

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TWEAK:

as for tweak she knows a lot of Spanish actually because hey! Miami has A LOT Spanish speakers, so much that's its actually made an entirely new developing dialect unique to the area!

tweak actually understands a decent amount of Japanese and Russian but.... not for normal conversations, more like because of all the engineering studying she did! research papers, studies, articles, lectures, books etc etc... so she could probably have a full conversation about the physics and math of submarines in those languages but if you wanted to talk about like... how you're feeling today or what you want for dinner she can not answer that LMSO

INKLING:

inkling would absolutely know like SO many languages, I have the headcanon that the reason he actually met barnacles in that university was actually because he studied LAND SPECIES for years (and continues to enjoy observing his crew and doing behavioural experiments on them without anyone noticing, esp since they're so diverse and they're in such a unique social environment on the octopod! but shhhh don't tell the others it would ruin the natural response they have! he does this with love btw)

hes also literally mega brained so I'd be surprised if he didn't at least understand the basics of any language the octonauts knew purely based on his own curiosity....

SHELLINGTON:

hehe Gaelic go brrrrrr

also because I headcanon Shellie as being a a mix of Eurasian otters and small clawed Asian otters, I think he does have some Philippine heritage and knows some Tagalog but not that much and he's a bit sad about that in all honesty. his *ss would also know latin

VEGIMALS:

IVE BEEN PLANNING TO MAKE A VEGIMALESE LANGUAGE POST:

ok so basically their language is entirely unique and not just because of them being the only known vegimals:

the thing is that their vocal cords (or vegetable/fish equivalent) isn't really made for the languages they hear on the octopod... or English.

the thing is they are their own little pod, and during their earliest developmental years they spent the MAJORITY of their time only with eachother or with shellington, what this means is that while some of the verbal and auditorial cues they have is just innate to vegimal understanding- (and also had difficult time replicating sounds shellington made, while it being easier to replicate a word one of the other vegimals made)

they quite literally made their own words for a lot of things while talking with eachother, before shellington had even realized! a lot of their language development did formulate very similarly to english (and Gaelic) because that's what they were hearing from shellington!

as they continue to grow and get older (they're really only about like 11 to me) their English has actually improved a lot, because they've learned how to mimic the others better, that's how they learned that the vegimals still used a lot of the literal baby talk words that shellington used with them while they were growing up, but just in their own original language

not to mention a lot of their language does have a lot of the meaning derived from the enunciation, tone, rhythm, and etc... so that means its a bit harder for those who just.. don't have the built in brain biology to distinguish those sounds to understand them

ofc shellington did literally raise them so its much much easier for him to understand because (whether he realizes it or not) he was actually learning the language AS they developed it! ofc over the years the other octonauts have actually started to subconsciously pick up on the meanings of those more subtle language features of vegimalese, and combined with knowing the vegimals slang/phrases, and the vegimals learning how to replicate more and more English ones, their understanding of the vegimals only keeps increasing

but to anyone else who isn't an octonaut its.... kinda like hearing a lil guy yip yip a bunch of gibberish and then everyone else in the room going "oh yes of course! that's a great idea Tototofrit! and don't worry, well make sure our fish friends aren't scared as we perform your very clever and crafty plan!"

also my friend said I can pull off a decent vegimal accent so if anyone wants any tips lmk (I would stim in vegimalese in middle school btw LMSO but I did learn a decent amount on how they pronounce things and their speech patterns... still working on perfecting it but I got some starter tips LOL)

also the reasons halibeet and pikato don't show up as much as the other vegimals is because they're just genuinely more introverted, halibeet and pikato do enjoy each other's quiet company tho (as well as the other vegimals, but they're really more homebodies who just aren't as into the whole adventure stuff)

[qoldenskies]

Hi, this is a silly question, but welp. Do you think publishing new content on ao3 pays off? I feel like the fandom is dying a bit and I don't know if it's worth writing ff :((

maybe this is just my personal opinion because i wasnt here at the height of the hype especially in 2022 (i watched the show in march 2024 and got into the fandom in june), but the rise fandom is not dying, dont worry.

there are posts here that frequently get thousands of notes, sometimes within days, fics that have gotten pretty popular that are RECENT, a whole culture of aus and events and zines that are still running.

ive been in dying fandoms (the pjo book fandom is so dead yall its joever) and in fandoms that were never even big in the first place (i was in a niche pokemon webcomic community that had upwards of maybe like 40 people active in its discord server, and most of the adults there were republicans or child groomers or usually both .... i know hell, i was there for like four years. trust me) and i havent been in a community as big as rise's since liiike. 2019, i think!

and regardless of any new official content coming out, its also good to note that there are a lot of active and dedicated tmnt fans who make official content for other, much older iterations too, and ive noticed a lot of the people who do are older which is definitely a good thing. fandoms at the peak of their hype are usually INSANELY preteen-infested and it's not a good environment i think should be desired. the discourse i see going around on tiktok right now is deranged but its not new by any means. i REFUSE to be a boomer because im only 18 and i know what its like to be 12, but i do not desire nor envy that kind of fame BAHFHDHGH

but like still. point i was getting to is that even if its not at its peak of popularity i dont think the fandom will be dying any time soon and it's not something to be afraid of. i can cite several fics that did wonderfully in numbers (although i dont recommend basing quality off that, its just important to note) despite being recent and have had the fandom in a chokehold as of late. canary continuity could probably count as one of those considering how crazy it was around november or so..... i miss november :')

i think we all kind of see ourselves like drops of water in a bucket and hesitate to come in so strong because we underestimate the importance of our own voices, especially because fandom attracts very socially anxious people, but a lot of the anxiety about engagement can be mitigated by engaging yourself and being the change you want to see! this also counts with creating content-- the thing about ao3 is that you can have completely different audiences for different fics unlike other platforms from what i've seen, so something may flop at first and then do really well later, or even take a while to kick off (cvd and coming undone have been getting some love lately ive noticed... i keep telling myself i'll continue them and then forgetting)

i'd say its definitely worth a shot to post, because ive noticed that ao3 comment sections are overwhelmingly positive in most cases. ive gotten some passive-aggressive or pushy comments before (usually out of confusion because they werent paying attention, which isnt my fault, or because theyre excited and what to see more, which i still do find flattering) but its always been in a sea of a lot of really wonderful people, which has been really helpful because i have disabling anxiety and constantly doubt myself haha.

i think the advice i see a lot of "write for yourself" is kind of unhelpful and doesn't get to the root of the problem because i think it takes away from the fact that art is such a deeply social part of human expression, and we create it to share it,,, i think a better way to put it is that you should write self-indulgently, and there's always a good chance of finding your people by the time you're finished-- i've connected with a lot of people with VERY similar tastes to me because of my writing and it's been miraculous because as great as my other friends are, their interests vary wildly from mine LOL. its worth it even if you dont kick off immediately!!! and of course i urge everyone to engage with artists and writers whenever you can, it means the world to them!!

[soureggs]

I want to say my opinion on the btd gomenne gomenne fan game , i basicly have no leg to stand on but this is just my view on it

Controversial opinion but

I DONT think anyone is wrong realy in this situation,both sides are vaild.

°its very muddy and ppl try to bring in topics i DONT understand????

*I think ppl often forget alot of the Loud minority of gatos fanbase has sorta parasocial relationship with her since at one point gato was very active in her fanbase offten answering questions on the spot and constantly liking fanart and leaving comments, something not alot of creator's do ( i know the creator of sally face interacts with their own fandom too!)

But bc gatos fanbase is so niche the small amount of ppl assum she approves of everylittle thing or knows about every protect/merch ect She doesn't , it apperse to me shes often the last one to hear the news. If even(?)

( somewhat un related but im using this as an example bc its recent) vvvvvvv

// Very recently a merch creator/ seller said that her version of ren was a. l%li-con and there was some ppl who assumed gato was okay with this. She wasn't lol- i mean gato said multiple times kids DONT even exist in the games plot, BUT because gatos so lenient and open to head canons /spins on her characters thoes ppl assume she approved it \\

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Its also very hard when you make a character and then a person starts writing them using their own head canons or having alot of out of character moments

And a STRANGE AMOUNT of thoes ppl thinking its canon or cant get THAT version of your character out of their head/ fan art /wrighting untill eventually its a fanon

Even WHEN a fangame is a perfect (like said fangane) because one person dose it , some ppl with bad intention will use this as an excuse to make a upsetting fangame and wont REALY get in trouble.

Hell even ppl with good intention could do the same and completely miss interpret the characters yk??

Veteran btd fans saw this years ago -

IM NOT SAYING THE FANGAME CREATOR WOULD EVER DO THAT OR ANYTYING WITH BAD INTENTIONS! :0!! There art is grate and im sure they are LOVELY!

But keep that in mind with Everthing i said above how it might be a reasonable personal rule to have in such a small fandom. Especially if she had bad passed experiences

I think ppl misinterpret her words, not out of malice ! Im sure of it! , but (creating your own game based off my work) is much different than

(Creating a game using my characters and or plot or story)

I belive she ment ( you can make your own muderp%rn dating sim) like courten cowboys or lurking for love , lovers trophy , etc etc ! Maybe her wording was a misstranlation ? Or misinterpreted? , im on the spectrum so i have that problem too sometimes ! And Especially since gatos so flexible and vague its easy to missread /gen

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To be Inspired by a work dosent mean to use the characters or plot, just like referencing when drawing ! Example, OFF and undertail was Earthbound inspired but they both dont use any characters ect OVER THE GARDEN WALL Was inspired by Dante's Inferno! But its not the same characters pulled out and used

I hope that helps/gen

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I personaly believe stuff like that , what happened before and even in other fandom is why gato has that particular rule about not wrighting her characters at length. Not wanting to take the risk of someone miss using her characters again! /lh

I think its odd that ppl can Wright about sans undertail doing some weird ass shit and ppl dont scream about how toby fox approves of it . but they do for gato for some reason? ( if you could let me know why pls do ! )

" well ren was giving to gato so its not even hers"

That argument is silly to me, ren was giving as a gift, when you give a present to yourfriend is it yours anymore?? When a person buys an adoptable is it still the sellers?

Its not like gatos shy when saying she didnt creative ren, she was given him and modified him and still lets ppl know she didnt crate him .

Some of them use that as a talking point to say that said fangame creator is fine using that character in particularly as if hes free use, i DONT understand as someone who sells characters /designs(?)

( if you could explain i would appreciate it!)

The fangame devs are very talented the game seems fine from what i hurd! They did take creative liberties but its still very much gatos characters, I think they where respectable with them even in the contex of said game! . But i find it weird that the post says fanart for their fan game is appreciate ( at least in the English post i found prompting it) fan art of a fan game is confusing and i see how some ppl might mix the two up! Know?? like what would even be the tags? 'Sorrysorrybtd?' :0 So i can see how that could be another reason for the rule!

°I acknowledge and am so grateful that the artist. And devs worked so hard on the game and assets , im sure alot of ppl are as well! And im 100% sure it wasn't their intention to upset gato or anyone in that matter at all!

they are NoT obligated to apologize, maybe not make a second game out of respect(?) But thats their prerogative! They can do it , they wield the power yk?

BUT HARASSING ANY OF THE DEVS INVOLVED IS SO so so WEIRD???????

And making dramatic posts about it as well - it just rubs me the wrong way. Especialy using this as a opportunity to disrespect gato and ONE of her only rules she has for this very odd ( positive) fanbase. its kinda a little silly in my opinion . NOT to mention harassing the other game devs - this might make them not want to make any other games at all in the future ! D:

Please know i dont mean anything in this post to be upseting or malicious in anyway, i honestly think no one this fangane drama had any bad intentions or would do anything to upset anyone on purpose! I know its very high tension. And i would be upset too if a fangame i worked SO hard on with characters i love was met with disapprove instead of praise. And this is to say -this could have ben done better on gatos part. Thos could've ben done in privet imp

BUT im not gato , im not the other devs. im not in the positions to say ' i would've done this' bc ive never ben in that position, ive never had to deal with anything like this. So i wouldnt know what ild do in that moment ! And i think alot of ppl also forget that with all devs involved

We are all vary passonat in this fandom. But please dont start burnning bridge's over this! :'3 this fandom is already so devided due to all of our strong personal opinions it dosent realy need to be a. ' pick your side ' thing i dont think..

I am relatively new to the fandom, so i DONT know much about the past dramas srounding it, so if yall have anything youll like to say or add or educate me on PLEASS let me know and i will retract any of thoes statements !

[crazysodomite]

Do you have any advice for bad artists that don't make fanart and never get notes? I feel so embarrassed and sad posting my original ms paint drawings and pencil doodles on here and tagging them with every relevant thing I can think of ';( how do people who dont tag anything grow the number of people who like their art?

I don't believe there is such a thing as bad artists.

I think getting noticed online has a lot of factors. The most important one is probably appeal. If you create art that appeals to the most amount of people, you get the most attention. If you create art that appeals to a niche, you get attention from that niche of people. Appeal =/= Quality. For example, I probably create art that mostly appeals to furries. People who are repelled by the mere concept of furries aren't going to interact with my art even if I was extremely skilled.

A lot also depends on algorithms. My art was getting 1 like and 1 retweet (that was me retweeting my own art lol) because I didn't know how to satisfy the twitter algorithm. The quality of my art didn't matter whatsoever.

At the end of the day you need to stop paying attention to numbers because you will never be satisfied. You could say this is easy for me to say because I Do get notes now or whatever but people used to not give a fuck about anything I did for years. Now I just draw because I like it and I draw what I enjoy and some people are interested in that and some are not. If you are yourself interested in your own work people will start also paying attention and if they don't it doesn't really matter because you're doing what you enjoy. Some people go unnoticed just because they create something most people don't understand.

A lot of people don't interact with anything they don't find appealing or that doesn't fit the theme of their blog or whatever. People rarely interact with art just for the sake of it unfortunately. And that's not a reflection of yourself or your art. It's just how it is.

Going out of your way and interacting with other people and their art is also important. If you just post into the void and don't interact with other artists or try to build community it will be very difficult for other people to find you. When you interact with others they notice you though obviously don't just talk to people to get them to look at your art. Share stuff you like and uplift others just because. Even if they don't end up doing the same. There is a very prevalent attitude of people not wanting anything to do with artists they see as 'below' their skill level or whatever. It's tough out there for people with art that isn't seen as 'high quality' (whatever that even means). But thats unfortunately just how it is. Other peoples opinion of you isn't a reflection of your worth.

Also I think adding a lot of tags might be a problem and get your posts shadowbanned but I'm not sure...

[anonzentimes]

abt your previous ask!! i agree that komahina gets hate sometimes in 2024 but also remember that kmhn is debatably the most popular ship of the FRANCHISE lmao?? imo to take the “kmhn is toxic” argument to so much heart is a nothing burger… search hinata’s or komaeda’s character tag and its like 99% kmhn art. i genuinely dont think its an issue of homophobia or stupidity or anything i think it just comes down to hinata being a Player Surrogate and komaeda being the antag thats constantly in your face and mocking you. people think the ship is toxic because their player experience w komaeda is toxic that’s it 😭 the malice you’re seeking isn’t there. no hate to you or the OG asker ofc but this is a very niche problem in current year to be so haunted by… kmhn isn’t going anywhere trust me

Anon with all due respect, one part of it it is people who have had a bad experience with komaeda or don't understand him, one part of it is people being homophobic, and the biggest part that's more common in this day and age is undermining Komahina due to shipping wars. Just because it's not a major thing there are still people who exist who think and say things against it. There are still people who misunderstand it or deny it for any of those reasons. I feel like you're denying the fact that these are collective issues that happen that result in the same conclusion that's misunderstanding the text. The text is something I care about dearly and I was asked about it. Komahina isn't going anywhere just as the people who perceive fiction differently aren't going anywhere. Whether or not you see these instances as a major issue that hinders the entirety of being able to enjoy the ship itself easily or not these people who misunderstand it do exist as long as the text does. That's just the nature of quite literally Everything SUBJECTIVE. As long as people exist who can interpret it in a way that misunderstands the text, have beliefs against the core aspects of the concept, and have interpretations that impact their views due to preferences there will be instances where it's frustrating for people like me. You can say it's a nothing issue all you want but that doesn't mean it will ever stop happening just as people like me won't ever stop loving it. You're coming into MY HOUSE and MOCKINGLY claiming that it really isn't such a big deal when this whole blog is about my special interests, of course I'm passionate about these instances that are frustrating. Not only that but I was ASKED about it, ASKED. I'm allowed to complain about people who frustrate me when they misunderstand or deny the text that I love regardless if it makes it physically impossible to enjoy it.

Just because I can enjoy my apples doesn't mean I can't complain about the people who are hating on my fruits, even if they can't force my fruit to rot I can still feel frustrated at them for not getting it like I do, denying it's existence, or simply hating on it. You're coming into my garden where the other gardeners are having a shared emotion of frustration. Like, that maybe a silly example but does that get the point across enough for you? You're coming into the territory of people who care and probably see it more because it's such a big thing in our lives. Like, Yeah, I know they can't make my fruit rot, that doesn't mean I can't express discontent over those who don't get it, misunderstand, or most of all are outwardly hating on what I love. By your definition of Niche this is literally the corner of that niche, we are the ones who still see it sometimes because that's how invested we are. Again, it's subjective, we're allowed to express disagreement and discontent with what those people say. And again, this is about one of my SPECIAL INTERESTS, Literal definition that makes it hard for me to comprehend how people see something that is so special to me in such a different and even negative way is hard for me to comprehend sometimes. I'll express that emotion caused by that, and proven by it being an ask I'm not alone in, as much as I want. I'm not harming anybody when I express my emotions between people who agree.

You say you have no malice and I'm sure you may have not intended it that way but you came up to the people who care and said in a mocking tone, "it's not that big of a deal why even care, the only thing that happens in 2024 is people misunderstanding them due to their writing roles," Like, seriously? How rude of you Honestly. And the cherry on top that's the worst of all, in the process you display that you misunderstand their characters. Nagito is just an annoying mocking antagonist to you? Are you SERIOUS? Hajime is half of a player surrogate but you're making the wrong conclusion about it, he's meant to be relatable but he isn't a complete self insert. We're meant to be able to put ourselves in his shoes and understand his relatable experiences, he's not a complete player surrogate though? You're saying people say it's toxic because, "We are Hinata and Komaeda is the mocking annoyance to us," WHAT??????? Before you try to say something like this again go understand their characters better by, perhaps, quite literally READING MY ANALYTICAL POSTS??? I'm certain they'd be helpful because you clearly need them, I'm not writing an entire essay right here and now just so You can understand them I make them for myself and answer questions I want to. If you have questions that you can word in a more respectful tone I can help you understand that way too.

I would have tried to make my words a little kinder but the way you come up to MY Blog with your false claims, misunderstandings, and disrespectful tone pisses me off. You went anonymous not because you might be a bit embarrassed about your interests like most of the questions I get, no, you went anonymous because you didn't want yourself to be known because you Know you were being Blunt with your Disrespectful tone. You have the luxury of the fact you said this anonymous, and I have the luxury of being as blunt and uncaring about your feelings with my response as I want. Kindly, once again, do more research on these characters and develop more media literacy before sending me something in such an inconsiderate tone again.

[arredusworld]

Loongs speculative biology is breaking me a little bit

im adding Loongs (Chinese dragons) to Arredus right, cuz they look cool, are cool, and i refuse to be euro-centric in my fantasy worlds

problem, the way i want to go about it is ruining my life (hyperbole), see part of Arredus is to have implied speculative evolution to back up the speculative biology, and Loongs are making that really hard

lets examine this depiction, scales are seen along side whiskers on the snout, spikes along the back, (presumed) feather coverage on the tale and face, and ears

this creates some issues, see the scales assert that this is a reptile of some kind, the (presumed) feathers make it likely that this is a dinosaur, but thats a guarantee, maybe lizards on Arredus have feathers, maybe its in the class of true dragons, or maybe those arnt feathers at all, and are instead real weird scales, tho considering all the more detailed art ive seen depicts it as fluffy-

-like this, <sidenote, there is so much ai slop of eastern mysticism out there> and while i acknowledge this is a modern piece of art, it appears to be representative of wat ppl think Loongs look like

<another sidenote, some art depicts the dragon with horns but this is inconsistently done so whether its s thing is up in the air>

one more thing b4 i begin speculating is that this project has no respect for modern preconceptions of the fantasy u know and love, only science and even thats a vague impression, so if that means making pegasus a dragon that convergently evolved to look like equines with wings, so be it

with that said lets get into my ideas for how to get this thing to exist at all, firstly lets talk environmental pressures, Loongs are suppose to be water gods of some sort and closely tied to alligators, turtles, and fish, so it is semi-aquatic, and being from china in our world, its likely accustomed more specifically to lush jungle environments

next lets talk niche, every animal in an ecosystem has a niche, wats this guys, well clearly its an apex predator, i dont think this needs much elaboration

next is its behaviors, and again i think its fairly intuitive to say Loongs are ambush predators, like cats and alligators, also most likely making it a solitary animal

finally for the hard part ive been procrastinating on all post, wat friggin animal is this at all, the first thots are obviously a reptile of some kind, if the non scaly bits are feathers, than its a dinosaur, most likely a dragon, however his native land is in Lushia, a continent with very little reptiles at all

another option is to make the Loong a mammal of some kind, maybe a monotreme, which would make it fairly distinct and also give me more freedom to be creative, or a feline, very similar in lifestyle of a jaguar (reminder that these nightmare animals are not only good but happy swimmers)

the issue i run into repeatedly is that no answer makes me happy, while a feline is my fave of the choices, it raises more questions for me, why is its snout so long, is the "scales" just fur pattern? or did this feline specifically evolve armadillo fur, if so why, if its a monotreme, wat does that mean at all, its a neat idea and allows it to lay eggs still but is that all that important? do all monotremes have beaks? does the Loong? is it bioluminescent like platypuses? if its a reptile, why is it one of the few on this continent? it didnt fly over like the dragons did, unless this is a dragon who lost its wings, if so why? why not evolve fin like wings to help swim like sea serpents? if its not a dragon, wat reptile is it? it has to be a dinosaur of some kind thats where feathers are from, but its clearly not any other dino other than a dragon, which circles us bacc around, and wat about them ears, are they false ears like the horns on a horned owl? if so why did it evolve that other than to look cool? does it even look that cool?

in short the Loong is making me tear loong strainds of hair out of my head, so here poll, decide ur thots and please tell me more in the replys/notes/watever else you wanna use to communicate with me

[tex-now]

Ranking vocals for prsk characters yippee yahoo

DONT LOOK IM .NOT DONE

20. Saki Tenma

Babygirl I'm so sorry.... okay listen. Saki's voice is actually nice to me! I like it, it's sweet and jubilant to me. Makes me happy. But saki simply doesn't have as... good..? Of a voice as the other characters, that coupled with the fact that she's in a unit with ichika (the line stealer/lh) she doesn't get many moments to shine, and she hasn't has any particularly impressive moments to me. I'm sorry bbg I love you 😔

Best vocal performance: Tera Tera

19. Mochizuki Honami

Once again, HONAMI BBG IM SO SORRY 😔 honami's voice is very soft, and while that isn't bad at all, it's personally not my style :( however I also must add that when honami is good, she is AMAZING, and when she's less good, she usually isn't the focus of the song so it doesn't really matter. Honami shows up when it counts

Best Vocal Performance: Flyway and Regulus

18. Tsukasa Tenma

This hurts. Listen. Tsukasa is EXTREMELY inconsistent with his vocal quality. Sometimes, listening to him sing gives me second hand embarrassment. Other times he serves so much cunt it makes me forget his slumps at times. This means that sometimes his vocals suck ASS and other times they're amazing. Which averages out to a much lower score than the others above him 😔 also since he's tsukasa his voice is incredibly defined and like... nasally..? Which sometimes is a detriment. Still love you tsukasa

Best Vocal Performance: NEO

17: Emu Otori

Emu has a lot of the problems that Tsukasa has but what she has over him is consistency and a cuter voice. Her voice is like. Really squeaky and cute which makes any song that's not that kinda awkward but her voice is PEAK when it fits the song she's singing. She has a niche and whe she fills it she's amazing.

Best Vocal Performance: Mr. Showtime

16. Yoisaki Kanade

Kanade's voice sounds like heaven sometimes. Its soft and melancholy and beautiful and very consistent. She doesn't ever have a bad vocal performance. But you know what she DOES have? Songs that don't fit her voice at all! kanade is extremely soft spoken and her voice usually doesn't sound weak like honami can, but she simply cannot belt to save her life. Songs like Bug, Kitty, Infinitely Gray, exemplify that so strongly it's actually crazy. Kanade didn't even get another vocal for bug and I think that was the reason, she simply cannot go higher than her soft voice, which is a HUGE restriction on her otherwise wonderful voice. Her voice is still really nice though

Best Vocal Performance: Into The Night

15. Mafuyu Asahina

Mafuyu has inconsistent vocals. The thing puts her above other inconsistent singers like Tsukasa, is that her highs are HIGH. When mafuyu goes hard, she fucking decimates. When she doesn't it's mid as fuck 😔 her voice can be really soft at times, which as we know, is not my thing, but she almost weaponizes that by making her belts all the more harsher. You don't expect that from Mafuyu! She's generally either "soft spoken" or apathetic when she's singing! Then she's fucking yelling and you're like "wtf I didn't expect this!" Not only is it fun from a vocal standpoint but it's amazing character acting! Her singing represents her psyche and I think that's wonderful. The only reason why she's so low is because of the inconsistency in some songs

Best Vocal Performance: Bug and Villian

14. Minori Hanasato

Minori is an AMAZING singer in terms of sheer versatility and consistency. Her voice is extremely consistent and she benefits from it! It's also an extremely cute and smooth voice that fits the songs she sings very well! She doesn't really have any detriments, but her softer vocals are a bit restrictive but she doesn't struggle nearly as much as Kanade because she doesn't usually have songs that would require a strong voice.

Best Vocal Performance: Love Trial (Solo)

13. Akito Shinonome

Akito's voice slaps. No further comment/silly but seriously his voice is so.... good. Idk how to describe it. Like okay for one his voice is niche definitely. But his "niche" is street music AND HOLY FUCK I LOVE STREET MUSIC. It's like. So powerful and free? Like he goes hard for every song and it's so fucking good. Honestly he should be higher. He's so fucking pgiohufogigooguhogh... akitos voice.....

Best Vocal Performance: Cinema and CRaZY

12. Shizuku Hinomori

Shizuku's voice is fucking GORGEOUS. Like she sounds like an angel sent from the heavens half the time. Its very satisfying to hear her sing omg she's so fucking amazing. Her voice is amazing and airy and mature. God. It sounds like a fairy resting on a leaf in a magical forest. Shizuku is a siren and I am bewitched by her wonderful vocals. I love you shizuku. It's really soft but I can excuse it because it seriously is that good. Makes my ears happy

Best Vocal Performance: Milk Crown on Soncheka

11. Toya Aoyagi

GASP?? TOYA NOT BEING IN LAST??? WAOW.../silly. His voice is like heroine and I am inhaling it sorry. His high notes His belting his fucking RAPPING OH NY GOD TOYA... his soft vocals are also peak (save me blender) and he's just. So good. And also very versatile! He can do quiet and soft, loud and belty, and he can rap like no one else. God. I love Toya's voice sm. Ough

Best Vocal Performance: Utsuro Wo Aogu

10. Ena Shinonome

Ena pls marry me. Her voice is a little... scratchy? Like idk how to describe it. It's a little rough and SO SOSOOO FUCKING GOOD OH MY GOD. she can't belt like hell, has really good vocal chemistry with her fellow group members, and is just a really good singer! She also sounds really cute but not cute like minori or emu cute. like Mizuki cute. A little bratty? Spoiled? Either way it's really ho-

Anyway she has a few flaws. I'm not huuuge a fan of when she sings softly (nomad is an exception) and I feel like she's straining her voice sometimes. Other wise she's really good and I love her no other notes. Ena one chan-

Best Vocal Performance: I ♡ Nandesu (Full Solo)

9. Haruka Kiritani

Listen to the full Near alt. Her voice is so fucking good im surprised honestly. Its a little bit rough just the slightest bit and very crisp. Like an apple! She's a very good vocalist and almost always sounds amazing in any song. She can do mature she can do suave silly cute anything you need! She's very versatile and just like I said amazing voice.

Her voice can be a little strained sometimes (devils manner 😔) but it's actually used to her benefit at times, like with Darling Dance. Her voice is just really good :3 I love her vv much

Best Vocal Performance: Near (Full Solo) and Darling Dance

8. Ichika Hoshino

Shes perfect what can I say. Nice vocals popular lead singer of her band gorgeous ichika never stops winning. Her vocals aren't smooth, but they're like, clear? Like a sunbeam going through a window pane. Bright and cool and crisp and gorgeous ily ichika. Her voice is hard with soft edges it's everything you could want it's great. Her voice is great. Ichika <33

One flaw is. Ahem. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST LET THE OTHERS SING GODDAMN!!! SHE TAKES UP HALF THE LINES OF A DAMN SONG AND BASICALLY DUETS WITH A VOCALOID WHIKE EVERYONE ELSE GETS ONE LINE EACH. okay I'm done vocals rock

Best vocal: Kibou No Tsuki and Yomosugara Kimi Omou

7. Kohane Azusawa

Her voice is smooth as butter and cuts like a knife you may think she's just another minori but God DAMN can kohane sing. She's a fucking BEAST in the vocals department. She can sing low, high, loud, soft, you name it and she can do it. She sounds so hypnotizing I am NOT kidding about her voice being as smooth as butter. Jesus fucking christ kohane she's the GOAT

Best Vocal Performance: Hitsuji ga ippiki

6. Rui Kamishiro

I mean. It's rui. His voice is gorgeous. He has a really wide range and his voice is very smooth and sweet and amazing ousgsjsshs.. he always sounds like he's having fun with his singing and he just sounds very jovial and mischievous. Love his voice sm. Ouhj

Best Vocal Performance: Fixer and Subarashiki Nyansei

5. Airi Momoi

AIRIIII her voice is perfect. It's clear and bright and fiery and also very versatile! She can sing low or high soft or loud and she always sounds awesome! She's also good at the lil chirps in the background. Just good for literally any song. God ily airi

Best Vocal Performance: Marshmary and Momoiro no Kagi (honorable mention: Parasol Cider)

Shiho Hinomori

[moonshynecybin]

7, 12 and 16 for the writers asks !!!

oh and also, if you don’t mind, i know you write AND draw and was wondering if you rather consider yourself a writer who draws or an artist who writes or both equally or nuance etc? but only if you care to answer obvs!

@matchvedev

7. your preferred writing fonts

whatever god gives me... so typically ariel but in academic writing i go and format it immediately into times new roman. idk what if i said papyrus what would yall even do. KILL ME ?

12. a trope youre really into right now

mpreg mthursday... idk i am always turning over ways to Fix the Rosquez Problem and/or things that would make them worse and crazier people. and a baby is BOTH like i HAD to write a fic abt it... you cant avoid each other now geniuses... other than that, i do like to look at the rosquez fanfiction miasma and turn over what sorts of stuff you would classically find in a healthy fandom that hasnt been done yet/hasnt been done in my own style yet, like when i wrote genderbend and time travel and now mpreg. just the classics that can make my brain go brrr and make marc/vale's sound like old gears clanking together, so im thinking over what would be next... im toying w some version of forced proximity curse but idk we'll see

16. fav place to write

recently i've been writing so much on the clock tbh so the second floor of redacted public library has seen so much... after that i like to do it on my couch or in my little corner armchair... cozy...

writer or artist?

immm every womannnn therye allll in meeeeee... idk i dont tie myself too much to an identity as a fandom content creator or whatever bc i think that can get a little transactional! this isnt a job im not an employee theres no niche i have to work to fill... im a writer when i feel it im an artist when i feel it and im a silly joke poster when they pop into my brain. so for MEEE this is something i do to stave off the crush of boredom and talk to cool smart people and have a laff <3 and like for example. ive very purposefully kept away from monetizing my art irl so it doesnt become a chore and remains a passion !!! and i try to do that here

[fr3shm3at]

２０２４年０６月１０日

I wanna make friends… im just scared.

I am not 100% me since my brain damage and all my interests are very niche and far out. Don’t get me wrong im mentally fucked that i will like pretty much anything if its internet stuff and involves common ground. Personally im not a femcel, but they’re always far cooler than me. And surely some have to be genuinely toxic and i will self exit before they kill me.

My other bottom line is drug/alcohol abuse, listen i can stay up 72 hours and never stop drinking and doing drugs. I just can’t afford loosing my last brain cell EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

Due to my current brain damage: 3/7 days a week i can get plastered with yuh hun.

NEETs are pretty ohkay, sadly i technically fall under this umbrella. I like working bc i get paid to work out all day(i have muscle deterioration problem so its very healthy for me). And i really really love learning. So me being in JLPT and HSK falls under “Education” in NEET.

So that just leaves gamers and normies. And im not in the mood to pretend to be neurotypical. I don’t game like everyone else does, i have an obsession with consoles nearly as old as me or games i never got to play in that life span. I also do not watch Netflix and stuff like that(im a pirate ARGH).

LASTLY if yuh wish to be friends all i ask is be an adult lol. I have brain damage so i dont really remember what i say 24/7 and im weird so who knows what thoughts escape my head into reality. I used to be good at shutting the voices up, bc not even i like toxic the opinions that gets created in my Hellscape. So people like to positively tease me when i said something odd or embarrassing. I kinda like how i have a fish brain it helpt me let go of the past each day.

Yuh can shoot me a message or sum idc. Just be over 18 🩵 . Everything i reblog or in my likes are basically my interests so—

[cringelordofchaos]

ok sorry. another oc.

random facts Abt him:

I actually designed him quite a while ago, when I was about ten years old in fact. they had little to no personality I just liked the design lol. while I was thinking of just abandoning him And never having to think about them ever again I... I couldn't 💔😞. I know he looks like a generic DeviantArt beginner oc but he's MY generic DeviantArt beginner oc ☹️😢

Intersex bi and demiboy

Very sensitive to cold

Always on edge (probably has some form of anxiety disorder due to a number of reasons)(mainly his dad ..)(and classmates)

Nali's friend

Pale due to never going outside lol

Either Slavic or East Asian (I forgot?). He lived in the country that he did when he was younger for a couple years but due to better job opportunities for their father they all moved to USA. His mom makes sure he knows about their culture and their food and their language tho and while he acts like he doesn't care about it he genuinely does find comfort in engaging w his culture even in subtle ways IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT

Rly close to his mom. HATES HATES HATES HATES their dad

While they like to be intimate w the people they're close to he generally is touch averse and avoids physical contact bc. Of reasons.

bad posture

Generally quiet / introverted / "a mood" / inexpressive

Blunt asf. (Thats how he got his boyfriend lol). Generally perceived as rude even when they're NOTTT

Likes cats and knows a ton of small trivia about them (also his whole personality changes when faced with a cat)

Chronic tumblr user

Has an extreme obsession with this one super specific niche obscure old anime franchise. NOBODYs heard of it. It's on their mind constantly. He's MISERABLE (he commissions Nali to make merch of it) (particularly obsessed with this ONE guy who's probably a background character.)

Likes to draw gore

Texts Nali and his boyfriend with ":3"

(tw intersexism) while they had ambiguous genitalia as an infant he was forcefully assigned as male and has an operation done on them. (Mostly bc their dad wanted it that way). He never knew about being intersex and was confused once puberty hit and his body was developing differently from other boys. They already struggled to fit with the other kids due to slight gender non conformity, nationality, sexuality and also possible autism so this just made everything more difficult and isolated them more. It wasn't until he got in a heated argument with their dad that they found out about the operation. He started doing more research on intersex and intersex variations and things started making more sense. It took him a little while to accept it as a part of himself but they don't rly talk about it that much. Due to their dad forcing what he deemed to be acceptable masculinity for so long during their childhood he sorta felt disconnected from masculinity bc his dad's idea of it and everyone else's idea of it brought them sm pain but he realized he doesn't actually mind it and still identifies as partially a boy despite what others expect of them to achieve that label. Idk if I explained any of this well sry

Oh also their parents are divorced. Though it took them a while

No siblings

Despite having a boyfriend he deals w a bit of internalized homophobia

Used to crush on Nali... It was a crush that just sorta came and went if that makes any sense. They're bestiesss

Tall ASF

Has very specific eating habits (eats exclusively fish?) so due to this he's thin and arguably a bit unhealthy

Not actually a furry/cat (I DONT THINK SO AT LEAST??), I just like drawing them that way lol

Very lazy. Avid gaymer. Discord user 😢

Heavily dislikes physical activity. Also dislikes violence (bc their dad is also physically abusive) but in a fit of rage he might unintentionally use it. His biggest fear is turning out like their dad who uses his mental health issues and anxiety as an excuse for his abuse so they try to never mention their problems to anyone ever and are paranoid they're just like him. They're not

Sometimes likes wearing skirts

Fav colour is red. Would you have guessed it ...

Experiences multiple tics, which get worse when his anxiety strikes up. In public they try their best to mask it which only makes it worse

Hates their face (:()

Barely gets any sleep so they constantly look dead

I might change their name (ok nvm I definitely will. I'm sorry to whichever alex is reading this but no)

Sort of just wants to be left alone while struggling so they don't accidentally hurt anyone else. If he messed up in a relationship they believe the best thing to do is to split up immediately. Cuz of their parents whole situation ya know.

Has a shitton of repressed anger they take out on random Roblox kids LOL

When in a genuinely traumatic situation his emotions just. Disappear. Idk how to explain it but their mind tries protecting him from any potential damage so it goes into survival mode and he practically can't feel anything.

Cat coping link?

Forced everyone he knows to watch every episode of the anime franchise there is.

Fluent in japanese

There's more but that's it for today lol

doodles ^^

[moonshine-nightlight]

Hi, I'm always very impressed by your world building skills, even in shorter stories! Do you have any advice for aspiring writers on how to build their fantasy world?

So i drafted a response to this in between working just far too much and then my computer crashed and i lost it. Then i was even busier so i never got around to writing it again but i am making some time this weekend, so worldbuilding post - take 2

My main, high level worldbuilding tips are:

Rule of Cool: worldbuild things you think are fun and interesting. not only is that the best way to get ideas you like and are motivated to write about, but other people will also think they're interesting too. have fun with it.

Iceberg theory: know more about the world than ever makes it into the story. people can sense when worldbuilding is shallow, so even if they never see the true depths of the world they can often sense it's there. plus if u know the whole picture, everything the readers do see will seem more coherent

Integration: i heavily integrate the world i'm building into the story i'm telling--so dig into the plot and characters and make sure that the world and the story serve each other well. your world is there to contribute to the story so make sure its fulfilling that purpose

For more specifics about how i personally world build and for some examples from my stories of the above guidelines, see below.

So firstly, i love worldbuilding. i just think its a ton of fun and could easily spend hours just thinking about worlds in my head. (i mean what else is there to do when ur commuting to work, amiright?) i think that does make it easier for me to take the time to do it right and makes the world come through more vividly in my writing. it can get annoying or tedious or be more challenging at times, but since i like it/find world building interesting, i'm more willing to put in the time and effort to whip it into shape and i get less frustrated with that part of the process in general.

i'm also always thinking about world building to some degree in the back of my mind. picking up interesting information, facts, snatches of cool ideas or images or whatever. then i throw all that in like a junk drawer in my brain so when i sit down to more officially write or flesh out a world, i already have spare parts at my finger tips to use or drawn on.

Reading and consuming other art and worlds also makes it easier to make your own, just lik reading is a key part of writing practice. i don't just mean fiction, but just anything about the actual world makes it much easier to make up your own--that can manifest as awe at the fireflies that actually exist or spite that dragons dont. Whether that's random youtube video essays about the history of musicals or drinks or fashion to books and articles and documentaries or just my friend's niche interests (or their regular jobs). i'm always taking worldbuilding notes in the back of my mind.

For a more writing specific example, i read this short guide '50 Ways to Kill a Mermaid' (its locked for AO3 so u hav to sign in to read it) and it was super fun and cool to read that info from a writer who had studied marine biology. then when i was fleshing out Don't Shoot the Messenger a year later, the problem of Satrasi being a sea demon in a fresh water pool and bloating came to my mind because i'd stored that tidbit from the article away for later use.

My personal method for worldbuilding and plot outlining is sort a brainstorming/Q&A i have with myself (i hope this makes sense when i'm done writing this all out lol).

I've mentioned this before but the prompt that inspired Dale was: "You’re pretty sure your boyfriend was replaced by an eldritch being that can barely emulate being human. Weirdly, you enjoy a better relationship with them than your actual boyfriend."

So when that idea grabbed me, i started brainstorming about the world and asking myself questions. Why is the reader with the boyfriend if they don't really like them? What would make someone stay in a relationship like that? Do i want to make this a dark story? And i did not, i wanted it to be fun, so the arranged marriage angle came to mind. And if that's the premise then when is the story? is this our 'past' or another world entirely? diff world means more freedom so i automatically leaned in that direction.

Can the reader tell the 'boyfriend' has been replaced? Are demons a thing people know about? does the reader know that's an option? which is more fun? if the reader is worried about Dale getting caught, that's more room for hijinks so then yes, demons are known, but not common otherwise too many people would notice.

So my plot and worldbuilding are evolving in tandem and informing each other, based on the type of story i want to tell and how the characters i have in mind will react etc.

i run through a lot of ideas and turn them over in my head--trying out diff pieces to see if they fit--and am always willing to drop an idea or save it for another story if i don't think its working for the current one

For iceberg theory, i mentioned above for Dale would be the religions in that world. When i decided to introduce a priest like character (for discovery danger) i knew i needed to focus more on the religions than i previously had noted. the majority of what i came up with isn't int he story, but i think the fact that i know it helps me write when did end up in there, helped make it consistent, and means i can more easily work in allusions to it without having to work so hard those singular times.

For example, i'd decided to call the demon realm "the Depths" early on, which to me already invokes deep water and darkness, so i followed that through to sort height and air and light as being perceived more positively. fire and light are important symbols in this world and they primarily burn their dead--to bury someone below ground would be seen as almost condemning them and someone drowning is also seen as like, not good for their soul because what if it is 'pulled down' rather than 'ascending'. some of this was alluded to in the chapter, but most of it is not. this also helped me come up with the various "by the light" "dawn's ire" and other similar little 'religious' phrases and exclamations different characters use at times.

Meanwhile, in Sacrifice, the people living their are relatively non-religious--thats why they both don't pray to any other deities and it takes 5 years of problems to even bother trying an old god. it's not sacrilege because they're desperate people trying a long shot, not violating or abandoning a different belief. because i wanted the reader's main problem with it all to just be that they didn't think it work.

And why is she a translator? because i wanted to use the idea from that one post that goes around about how ridiculous it is in movies when their translated prophecies rhyme in english. why are they arguing about the translation? because its a dead language so no one really speaks it, that means the people who came up with it were here a century ago or longer. why aren't they here anymore? nomadic so they left and ended up staying away because of a natural disaster elsewhere. why is this town here now? a particular export/resource in this area became valuable enough for people to try to live here. the fact that its a lumber town due to some rare wood native to the area doesn't come up in the story, but i know it and i think that i know that about the town helps it feel more real, makes it easier for me to reach for new details when i need them

and going back to anything can be inspiration, let's talk about the doorlock in the very beginning of Finally Woken. its literally just a magical keypad/number pad but with different colored tiles instead of numbers because i wanted the reader to be able to get in, but i felt it didnt make sense for them to hav a physical key. and i thought it would look cool in Heshi's door and it went well with the fact that he's a glassblower . also, why is Heshi a glassblower? because i frickin' lov blown glass - i just think its so cool and pretty. that helped lead into the sort of artisan economy feel that world has.

Each of these stories has an outline and notes doc at a minimum. the notes doc is where i throw lik pics, inspiration posts, random worldbuilding ideas etc. only much shorter stories or stories that are heavily based in 'modern' world don't hav extensive random notes.

my Dale folder has subfolders for characters and the setting, as well as random worldbuilding files such as "demon summoning/magic" "spiritual belief and org" "fashion - feminine" and so on. Even excluding the plot outline and chapter notes (and not counting pics) i've got like, over 4k of random notes saved. dale is the one i hav the most of that for, but all my fics have some little section with stuff like that jotted down

in the end, i think the best way to sum up all that is with my three original rules of: put stuff u think is cool in your world, known more than you tell to help everything fit together and seem deep, and build your world around your plot and characters because they should all be working together to tell the story you want to tell.

honestly, i could ramble about worldbuilding all day so if anyone has any questions or wants more examples, just let me know ^^

[thepowerisyouth]

MONEY / FINANCE STRESS CONTENT WARNING, this next line is unfortunately quite stressful about money so this was an important warning for me to add:

This is also less for the random strangers on the internet who have no reason to trust my advice but more for the 10-15 people I know personally who trust my money advice based on prior experience and Ive sent them my blog link in the last month or two

US stock market is about to tank. On a global perspective its stupidly overpriced because markets like China are hitting 5 year lows (as in we've increased our stock market over 2x since "COVID lows", but their market is even lower than it was then.

Timing is hard but it is entirely possible yesterday was the peak of the market. Might also not tank for 6 months.

Market psychology is fucking weird tho so please absolutely dont 'short' anything, which is basically the same as 'buying puts'. Michael Burry nearly bankrupted all his friends, family, and random investors by insisting on 'shorting' things based on knowledge of impending crisis.

Just sell everything. I mean literally everything. Bond etfs might go up but youd have to have eyes glued to the charts to sell in time. Gold wont do, neither will bitcoin. Their negative correlation to stocks isnt really a thing anymore.

Get every etf, stock, whatever into cash in the brokerage account, then move it out of the banks/brokerage firms and into something physically in front of you because we are, in fact, in another 'historical period of bank runs' its just not quite at the peak yet.

Not trying to increase anxiety beyond nessecary-- its just that any, single bank can immediately freeze your money-- leaving it up to the Federal Government to pay you back-- and it might possibly be the case that youd have to rely on whats called a "bank bail in" to see your savings again.

Not a fun situation to be in, even if it wont happen to most people its just safe practice to do this during a "historical period of bank runs"

----------------

This blog is basically my diary of my thoughts (suprise suprise). But Im an open book, privileged (but poor) little white boy with complex societal/generational abuse and very little home problems so lets fucking go theres a whole mormon cargo van to unpack

Definitely recommend tags Im terrible at them.

---

To those reading this, if you have ever met me in real-life or on the internet than you have taught me varying degrees of information which can be randomly retrieved by my brain at any time depending on current CPU performance. Thoughts of my loving husband have occupied my headspace probably 95% of my time since 14 so he has absolutely taught me at least 100x more than anyone else in the world.

When I say "I", oftentimes Im thinking about "me and my husband", or even sometimes "me and my friends/family", or even sometimes "me and society"--- but I am not always 100% aware of the current headspace environment and/or beliefs of the minds of those around me without feedback

---

There are currently over 8 billion individual varieties of the global human language spoken within the mind. Lets start translating them all. Misunderstood words become mean labels.

I fucking hate mean labels

"Math wiz" = racism and/or classism and/or gender shit. Fuck that shit

When a person is niched off into one part of an 8 billion population human society, it becomes impossible to not "live in a bubble". Bubbles change in size constantly even if not visibly observed. Bubbles can be different sizes depending on your current day-to-day thoughts of your own society. Bubbles must pop. Enlightenment implies life only gets better the more times ya pop and lock it

My path away from purely mathematics, logic, and scientific theory began when I met my husband, and for the first time in my life it became important to me not to be an asshole to everyone around me

Ive been told (only after I started dating my traumatized husband tho and helped him heal a lot) that I'm a natural communicator-- and all my life I found myself listening and learning to everything and everyone around me trying to understand both their and my own motivations-- then I like to garble them up and spit 'em out. My memory recall ability is wonky tho and fluctuates highly with nutrient intake-- I'll get into that later

I wish I could have a million years to read every blog on tumblr. I really do. Connecting & communating is extremely important for understanding one another but it takes time

I had an extremely unique childhood (who hasnt lol), enough so to isolate myself quite a lot through sheer dumb luck. My mom is also everyone's favorite school teacher so of course I was learning a lot from a young age. Luckily I glued myself to the first person who wanted to glue themselves to me equally & we grew exponentially closer to eternity

If its still not clear: my husband and I are bored and love chatting with people, but like most internet loving freaks my mouth don't work sometimes well but my fingies do. My ears got fluff a lot but I got eyes for LEDs like a hawk. Wish they werent LED tho

I also have a naturally short sleep cycle (i.e. extra time for this), and I really wont be offended or weirded out by someone reading through and liking 20+ or whatever of my posts at once randomly. Stories are supposed to be read in chunks, and I think of this blog as a story & also workspace for my thoughts that Id love to see which chapters everyone has read through. Also I love (and only respond positively to) positive feedback, yet also suggestions for ways to improve my "theorums". As in, good faith discussions are totally welcome on any post.

For my 50 year old parents reading my blog so lovingly in their limited evening time-- you can sort by tags to see what topics your familiar with, if you play around with the search function while on my page. Mom. Show dad how to do it

In the very, very bottom of my blog I dont even think I managed to tag shit properly-- but its the roughdraft workings of the philosophy, as well as my own logical framework for answering lifes questions. Its 2 months ago so I might not even be writing according to my own works down there anymore idk I change fast sometimes

Last thing for now here is that I was always criticized by teachers for not showing my work, and for not reviewing my tests before turning in, and I pushed back hard because nearly every time I went over and corrected a mistake-- I saw I most often got it right the first fucking time on a pure hunch. I act on impulse when I'm not meditating mostly for efficiency purposes because I believe I'm correct, but remain open to emotionally positive feedback so I can help remove all doubt.

-------

This might turn into my 'life story' post, as its already going there. Heres what I have so far in the way of my knowledge of my family before I was brought into existence, and my "earliest memories":

Family context:

I dont know jack shit. Nobody talks about it at all.

Here's my own observations Ive made using the framework and perceptive filters I was given--

My whole family is white Texans.

Ancestory is slaveowners of course, further back is a very likely direct parent-child descendent line from the most famous inbred british royalty of the 13th century i.e. King John, whose brother was the arab genociding Richard.

I would call my immediate family as upper poverty class. Its more like poverty with extra privileges cause mental health stigma was the only thing holding them back not other shit too.

As children we had a lot of very privileged opportunities because my parents made a lot of sacrifices to try and bring us back up the class ladder. Lets look into that generational trauma issue

My dads parents (born in the early 40s, dont know the year exactly. I think '43 or '44) were more upper middle class, pretty high income. Owned an insurance business that was very successful by the early 2000s at least. My grandpa is described to me as a "monster" and "violently abusive". I have a single memory of him screaming at me as a young child and I was cowering under a desk, so I really believe it. No other stories at all to provide context.

-- I gotta split this section off I realized I wrote the next thing about post-me context Ill need to move this part lower down later--

My grandpa got early onset dementia, my dad didnt notice in time, and my grandpa bankrupted his successful company and lost several million of dollars to "scammers and sexy ladies."

My dad found out around 2015-16 or so. He told me a little bit after telling me my grandparents were getting divorced. My dad managed to scrape together about $200,000 which is being sued for by the IRS actively.

(He split that money in two, and entrusted me tell him how to invest half in safe value stocks that I handpicked as well as a calculated risk allocation to bonds which we sold for 30% profit the second the market crashed. He gave the other half to a brokerage advisor. I never met the advisor but saw the results. Dont get me started on how the other dude did with that money-- we started this endeavor in January 2020.)

Personally I also dont believe that its possible to spend an entire fortune on scammers and strippers, so Id love to see his books and figure out what the hell went wrong with that asshole. I have a hunch I know something more than anyone else ("Enron", guys, we're talking about an insurance company in HOUSTON, in the 2000s) but I will never be sure without the books.

----

Back to other family--

I do not know a single thing about my grandma on my dads side. She raised me quite a lot, but yeah I literally have only heard her life described to me as "she was a housewife"

On my moms side, my Mimi (also born 1940s but slightly younger so I think 1946 or 1947) came from a divorced, upper middle class family. In 1964-65, She and her step mom both got knocked up the same year so she watched her divorced dad remarry to said step mom when she was 18-19 and getting a shotgun marriage herself, so you can imagine what that was like. The "biological" of the two moms was a very good mom and very queer from what I hear. She died when I was a baby, from lung cancer. Thats all I know. My mimi raised me quite a lot, nearly equally as much as my mom did

My mom's dad, my Papa, came from a rural farming family in East Texas. Dont know much else of anything, but he and his siblings were named "Billy, Bobby, and Betty". As in, they are what everyone likes to call "hicks"

--

Moving onto my direct parents now. I know a little more about them of course, but since we're getting closer in age to the present-- I think itll be easier to describe my understanding as common stereotypes. If its unclear what I mean definitely feel free to ask, but I'll probably say "I dont really know"

Not much else is relevant other than knowing that my moms family was the mormon one, but that as soon as my dad was love-bombed by the church he joined to. Mormons were also different in the 90s I'm told.

My dad struggled with being one of the "crazy schizos" of the 90s. As in, very traumatized, upset, and gaslit by the government and his parents. Must have done a damn good job dealing with it by the time he was in his late 20s and I popped out cause he was never a "bad dad" to me at all. Definitely yelled and was more angry at times, but less than any other friends parents Ive ever met, and from what I remember he came into my room at night and apologized to me literally every single time within like 5-10 minutes. I know pretty much nothing about him pre-me. He was a tradesman my whole life and specialized in remodeling kitchens & bathrooms (the 'dirty work of construction'). All his initial clientele were the rich people my grandma lived near and was friends with.

My mom would have been extremely queer-presenting and posting on tumblr if born in the year 2000, but was born in early 70s, and was a raegan teen in high-school in Texas during the satanic panic-- she presents completely cis, straight, but has body dysmorphia issues. Thats about you need to know about those issues I'm sure my tumblr folks can assume the rest and be perfectly correct. Cause thats about all I know too and I'm assuming the rest about my own mother

--- Earliest memories

I think a lot of people face doubt about their own earliest memories, maybe hearing the way I connect the images of these events in my head to my emotions I felt will help others do the same.

----

Two disclosers about me & my current healthcare discoveries before moving on

1) My only "major" childhood trauma is loneliness. I have a partner now (started dating early high school, nearing 10 years together now) who was just as lonely and we are glued to each others side constantly, and have made our life work great that way. So don't feel too bad reading this, I'm only able to write it down because Ive healed that trauma and can dig this stuff up with no issues to validate the emotions I felt even as a child

1) I believe I have a genetic trait that is only just getting discovered. There are something like 6 discovered mutations that hold this similar trait so far, and its just basically chronic insomia.

It being a genetic trait tracks with how my mom describes me as never settling into a normal sleep pattern at 6 months old, having absurd amounts of nightmares and death anxiety keeping me up at night as a child, and I still dont sleep at any given time. I average 2 hours less sleep than my husband, who averages 7-8 now that he isnt actively being abused at home.

Going to get sequenced but even if negative I'd probably just be a 7th mutation, as they only found the other 6 genes via case study.

The scientists whove discovered it call it "Familial Natural Short Sleeper", if you desire to look it up. They describe the trait like its the best possible thing in the world. Well... terminally chronic insomia is not the best thing in THIS world thats for sure.

---------

My "earliest memories"

These arent ranked by time accurately of course. Took enough effort digging through my brain to turn them up, not like Ive got a 2003 calendar stuffed in here as well.

I did do my best to sort by first memory but it also might be sorted by the order at which I recovered the memories as being one of my "earliest" when I was a child and asked such things

1. Pure emptiness. I can only describe it as dissociation. I can remember nothing about the environment around me, except feeling suddenly sucked out of it, seeing only darkness, feeling almost a ringing in my ears and the deepest dread possible. This same feeling followed me in life for a little while, but started to take more visual shape when I was an adolescent, until at some point I would see myself sitting in a chair alone in a room that is infinitely sized but that slowly gets darker the further out you go. I cant remember what exact "real-world" event caused this feeling to ever happen each time it did. I just can remember having it happen occasionally when I was awake and doing things. Definitely dissociation. (If you are willing to believe me further I think its just probably "lights out" and being scared of that)

1. Riding a mattress down the stairs. I kind of remember two images, one is the tunnel vision of going high speed down the stairs and the other would be from looking back up at the stairs when I was done going down. Totally fun, probably my first rollar coaster ride. I might remember my siblings laughing too but it wouldnt be because I can remember the actual laughing-- but I can remember feeling the joy of being in a group of people laughing. At the time, my parents were selling the house so thats why I also remember it being a completely empty carpeted room that we were riding down into

2. My brother smashing his head repeatedly into the refrigerator for 'fun' and someone saying "wow he has a hard head" or something along those lines. I was learning english I cant remember exactly what they said but that was definitely the meaning I took from their words. I think this memory is strong, because I was truly very curious as to why my brother was just running at full speed, head down, and headbutting a hard surface. The words someone said after that must have been one of my first 'answers'

3. Watching my siblings play in rare Houston snow. Not much remembering there actually. Probably just thought it was mezmorizing to watch as I just really remember a picture and feeling peace

4. Will add more later.

[definitelynotshouting]

I said I was gonna stop cause it’s late but I thought of another question that I think you might enjoy

What exactly is the Listeners’ ecological niche? What do they do? You’ve mentioned that they’re symbiotic and function similarly to some fungi, and that they can even form a sort of hive mind with other Listener hosts to work towards the same goals, but what are those goals? How sentient are Listeners on their own, without a Player host?

WOOOOO OKAY SO THIS IS A POST IVE BEEN MEANING TO MAKE FOR A WHILE NOW AND ONLY JUST GOT THE TIME TO DO SO

Buckle in everyone lets talk about:

~Ecological Niches~

So to answer this question, im gonna ironically set the stage by talking about something that doesnt SEEM related but trust the process alright this is necessary background info

What we need to briefly dissect is server formation.

Ive mentioned before that singleplayer servers form around spawned Players--- much like a star, code coalesces and forms both Player and world, as a shield between them and the in-between. The thing ive only recently settled on is that all servers are formed by Players in some shape or manner.

Essentially: Players drive server creation.

I'm going to skip the mechanics for how multiplayers are formed rn because thats information for another post, but the essence of what you need to know is that Players are the driving force behind server formation. And the thing about Players, as entities, is that they have a drive to play. And the thing about playing is that sometimes... you get bored.

Theres a tendency to abandon old servers and old worlds--- it happens eventually to pretty much all of them, and its a natural process. Servers arent supposed to be around forever. But sometimes a Player will abandon a world that isnt that old yet, that isnt ready to be recycled by a virus, often for a myriad of reasons. One of these is boredom. Sometimes you just dont click with a with a new world. Sometimes you dont want to continue playing, and so its fairly common to just abandon the world and start a new one.

The problem with this is that theres only so much capacity a dev crystal has to maintain its server cluster, and overstuffing it with more servers than it can take will lead to its collapse (which as ive mentioned before, is CATASTROPHIC for the entire cluster). And this is where Watchers come in.

Where a Player's ecological niche is to create servers, a Watcher's is to keep Players within that server for a greater length of time. Basically, Watchers are a bit like herding dogs (and massive shout out to the anon who gave me that idea); before they were hunted almost to extinction, Watcher colonies would flock to different multiplayer servers and feed on the Players within them, heightening their emotions which very lowkey softlocked the Players into staying on that server for a greater length of time than if they were left to their own devices. When youre invested in a world, in the people within it, and your emotions are heightened while inside, you arent exactly focused on leaving, yknow???

So Watchers, on an ecological level, are essentially pinning Players in place to feed off of them, and keep them from abandoning servers for new ones at an unsustainable rate for the local dev crystal. Seekers, when they were around, would then hunt down the Watchers and eat them, or run them off in the process--- which then freed the Players to finally move on and make new servers again.

Which brings us to the ACTUAL question here, about Listeners.

Listeners are a relatively new type of entity, i think. With Seekers fully extinct, and most Watchers also hunted to critically endangered numbers, the universe needed a new solution for keeping Players in place for long periods of time so dev crystals wouldn't get overloaded. So Listeners were created as a new and more sophisticated way of forcing Players to stay in server worlds for a longer amount of time.

While Listeners dont have a super strong sense of individualism, they are independently sentient from Players and as entities they have a vested interest in remaining on specific servers as long as possible--- specifically because ive recently decided they are specifically connected to sculk. The explanation for that is ALSO for a different post, i think, but essentially Listeners can make new Listeners through the exp orbs Players expel after death, if they die near a sculk catalyst. So Listeners have a lot of incentive to stay on servers and get their Players to build up tons of exp levels before getting them to die so they can continue to make More Listeners, if that makes sense.

So to recap:

Players: create servers

Watchers: feed off Player emotions to trap them on servers for a longer period of time

Seekers: hunted and preyed on Watchers which released any trapped Players

Listeners: formed semi-recently to bridge the ecological gap made by the Seekers going extinct and hunting the Watchers to near extinction, for the same purpose of keeping Players in place for a longer period of time

I hope that answers your questions and then some!!! :D i need to make some posts about the new Listeners lore at some point soon, plus more info on multiplayers, but i'll leave those for a later date :] thank you for being patient while i percolated on this, i hope you like the post!!!

[suenitos]

Yeah while i can get behind her point and i do support what hes trying to say im just so sick of people talking about a subject while (accidentally) showing that they didn't do research. Be it not enough of it or just straight up none at all.

It kind of directly goes against the point shes making about other 'bad' commentary yters because one of the staples of those channels is spreading either harmful misinformation on accident or on purpose.

Im ofc not saying that her uninformed inclusion of yters who act exactly like the '''bad ones''' shes talking about is the same as content farming channels lying on purpose but i cant help but see a slight resemblance.

Especially if it now makes everyone watching associate these yters with being part of the 'good ones' while they actually VERY MUCH are not that

Stuff like really makes me question how much research they do in general and if ALL their videos have the same sloppy attempt at it. Which in turn makes me stop watching them which is sad but also its their own fault 🤷

i suppose and you're well within your rights to feel that way! i understand. i think i kinda felt the same in that i again question his inclusion and how it will be received by the audience-- i feel like this could be more of an audience problem in that something something confirmation bias even if theyre missing the actual context in WHY he was in the section the creator put him in regardless of what she actually thinks of him as a person or cc, if shes a former fan or anti dream (unfortunately in a lot of cases one and the same) i dont know. we cant really assume intent there like many in the comments did in praising her for including him (even if again i have suspicions). at the same time the video was mostly about commentary youtube so of course his inclusion feels jarring even if its meant to be a supplement to the actual point of how youtube controls you and the algorithm/data dictates what you should do in your genre.

sorry for being devils advocate but also somewhat in her defense i never see anyone talking about the fact that doing research is hard because unlike dream its not lucrative or profitable to talk about tommys mishaps or mistakes, shitty things hes done and people hes fucked over. in the sense that none of that is well documented and as accessible if you dont know what to look for, or you dont have context. and if the only criticism comes from dream stans who dont have as much reach or platform (and who get shit on if they get attention because well who are you to talk) or those neutral normal people who think hes just an annoying kid (based) theres no incentive to actually internalize any of that because his "scandals" are never big enough to break containment or interesting enough to call attention to the exact channels shes talking about and we fucking hate. and thats WHY hes seen as "one of the good ones" too, even if WE know hes still a bit immature and a bit of a snake. but who is going to listen to toxic dream fans, or this rando 32 year old? they cant be trusted anyway.

while i do think people could make more of an effort with vetting people they include in their videos and i do agree even INCLUSION is unfortunately reinforcement for a lot of peoples belief in the tommy made it out narrative, we honestly do have to acknowledge theres an information gap with people not being aware of stuff because we dont consume the same information online all the time and there is inherent and at times progressively extreme bias in what spaces we do involve ourselves in. just as a rule, you know. parallel realities, rabbit holes and all that. people cannot let go of their parasociality! its a really really awful feedback loop unfortunately in talking about narratives that have a death grip the internet but if it is something like this in that you have no idea if this person is genuinely informed (or even CARES enough to gain multiple perspectives on things that have largely been kept IN the "niche" community, not everyone is chronically online) i personally try not to assume people have the same access to that information as i would as someone that understands parts of the space deeply and feels comfortable enough to be against those popular narratives. obviously the lack of attention to detail can be a symptom of a larger problem of not doing enough research, but in relatively unserious cases like this where i likely will never watch a video of this person's again im willing to hear them out on stuff i actually DO care about within the discussion, because there is enough nuance i can grasp something valuable out of it.

thats just me though, you dont need to agree, but theres a lot of things here that i feel were worth putting my thoughts out on !!!

[santae-salt]

disclaimer that im not super well versed in santae so pls correct me if im wrong or out of the loop on things /genuine i would love to hear back on what im about to word salad about as it has been rattling in my brain for a minute.

idk how much of a fair comparison this is but i feel like pawborough is the antithesis or at least a sort of mirror to santae in the way both are projects spearheaded by a single person. i think a major source of santae's problems is the fact that it has been in development for over 10 years and is operating with some extremely outdated philosophies. i know they aren't in the same petsim niches (neoclone versus rpg), but things like the premium renaming on santae feel indicative of that. i cant think of any RECENT petsim that has taken that direction. it could be just that i'm not looking in the right places, (neoclones never interested me) but a lot of the examples of sites that have renaming cost premium i've seen mentioned even on this blog are also on the older side. the fact that artists are getting paid at such low rates also feels like a holdover from the early days of petsims when things were much cheaper to produce (though i've heard people say rates THAT low were always considered pretty bad even back then).

definitely correct me if im wrong here, but i feel like the only new thing santae has really done is present itself as vehemently anti-retirement and not have a lot of KS exclusives. i'm pretty sure all the KS campaigns of petsims post-FR that i've ever heard of used some kind of exclusivity model, including pawborough. how this will eventually play out for santae is something that intrigues me, and if it proves to be a boon and not a detriment, i'll likely be happy to see future projects do something similar. but outside of that, santae to me sounds like its trying to be a modernized version of older style petsims, but it hasn't fully let go of aspects that more recent games have let go of/improved upon for good reason.

meanwhile, and i fully admit im biased because this is the project i've been following more closely, pawborough has always felt like it's trying to be more fresh and innovative. it started as a "FRclone" so to speak (three poses per breed, three slots for colors, each slot having different patterning genes, a color wheel for breeding, and some early web layout mockups were very similar to FR). it had its own stuff going on yes but personally, that was a big part of the appeal in pawborough at the time of the KS. i liked FR and i liked cats, why not have both? but over the course of its development so much has changed. theres a new color system for breeding, the site layout doesnt scream FR anymore, there's a stronger focus on the rpg mechanics, and much more. plus, if staff is to be believed, they have always paid their artists significantly better, allegedly starting at $50 per asset. and that number has gone up recently with plans to pay them even more once the site launches with premium purchases. now i will say some changes on pawborough has led some to people say it went from copying FR to copying another cat based rpg, Pixel Cat's End, and ehhh while I can see it my main point is that pawborough has evolved significantly since it started development, and i think it has benefited from it. not to mention, MANY of these changes were results of user feedback. (which isnt to say i haven't heard of santae changing things in response to feedback either, but it sounds like theres usually some initial resistance while with pawborough feedback generally feels like its being taken in stride and is seriously being considered.)

again, people who have been following santae for longer i would love to hear about their development journey and what they're trying improve on in the petsim landscape. i would love to check out a fresher take on a neopets style game with allll the QOL 2020s web design can provide. i just dont want to get in the discord or trawl through old posts on socials which are mostly just promotional adverts from what i can tell. sorry if this all sounds stupid i should be sleeping but i needed to get this out of my head!!! thank you fellow saltheads 💜

☁️