#what the heck happened in 7th year

[sunkissesforzeus]

Ocean Spells & Chrysalid Shells WIP (31 chapters out)

Chapter 6: A Heart So Still

As they made their way to the top of the stairs, and alighted onto the corridor, other eerie peculiarities became apparent. The portraits were less lively than usual. The subjects were all sat in their assigned frames, quiet and unassuming, eyeing them warily from their painted positions. It was normal to see this illustrative community piling from one portrait to the next, like bees swarming in herds, the gossip was their honey, the revels, and parties their hive.

[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

Additional info:

2. this was published as news on Sparks' website:

3. Alvin and the Chipmunks

4. Everyone has seen it, but anyway. The Russia Today Report video.

6. When I'm Sixty-Four (Bonus videos: you may also enjoy this version performed by Russell and the band Baby Lemonade and this performance of All You Need Is Love where Russell shares the stage with Jarvis Cocker and The Residents, among others.)

[Edit: dangit I forgot an option. Sparks also joined Facebook in 2007.]

[struggling-jpg]

Some Things About Ma Feima (Yanqing) I Learned

And it matters to HSR Yanqing only because some people have had what they heard about Ma Feima affect their views of him even though it really SHOULDN'T imo.

The underlying point I'm trying to get at is that when we hear about parts of a story or characters we aren't familiar with, it'd be fairer to at least try to look into it more before making final judgments, especially if we only hear see memes and short summaries from a person over the internet.

If you're also interested in this topic then this will be very long, so thank you for bearing with me.

And if not, especially because you don't care or don't want to read about 7S/HI3 Yanqing then that's also fair, Ma Feima and Yanqing are different characters, and I hope you have a good day!

(NOTE: CW for the mention/discussion of a notable age gap between characters in the story. There are details surrounding that but I'd rather place this here for convenience. Look out for yourselves and stay safe!)

It's wild how many different versions of what happened in the Seven Swords visual novel, which is understandable due to its lack of official translation + not being complete (as far as I know? I am open to corrections overall). But the amount of details that go missing or are incorrect is notably large and I find this situation interesting. As mentioned, anyone who knows better (content, translation-wise, etc.), please correct me on anything if needed.

I will use some screenshots from the videos that translated the available chapters (1-2 and part of the beginning/prologue of 3, I believe). The translations are not entirely accurate so heck, I might be wrong on stuff too.

From personal experience, there were two things I heard about Ma Feima from HI3 players:

He killed his master, Fu Hua.

He cheated on his wife.

Legit, the first time I encountered these points, it was as simple as that. And I took it at face value because it understandably takes effort to look into this stuff and a lot of players from HI3 were saying it. But over time, curiosity got to me and I wanted to see the context surrounding it, and here's what I found.

However, here are some things to know about Seven Swords and Fu Hua's disciples:

The Seven in order are: Lin Zhaoyu, Su Mei, Jiang Wanxi, Jiang Wanru, Cheng Lingshuang, Ma Feima, and Qin Suyi

The present of the VN is set in 1496 while the assassination of Fu Hua was twenty years prior in 1476.

Ma Feima, despite being the 6th disciple, is the youngest.

Ma Feima's original name was Yanqing but changed it to Feima when he got older.

Qin Suyi, the 7th disciple, is Sushang's mother in both HI3 and HSR.

Lin Zhaoyu, the 1st disciple, and Ma Feima are married.

Onto the points:

He killed his master, Fu Hua.

Yes, he was involved but some attribute the plan to him. BUT he wasn't. The person who formed this plan was Su Mei, the 2nd disciple.

Supposedly, all seven disciples participated though most, if not all of them, were reluctant to do so.

They were all bothered by Fu Hua's, effective but cruel way of dealing with Honkai-infected people (She would wipe out whole villages if even ONE person was infected).

The last straw for the disciples was when Jiang Wanru, the 4th disciple, got infected.

It was in that battle that Ma Feima got the scar on his face.

Also to note, Cheng Lingshuang, the 5th disciple, was the one to get the last hit on Fu Hua.

This is a straightforward point, a lot of people know this stuff, and is probably the point that's more elaborated on. But I still wanted to mention it because, oftentimes, a lot of the credit for the plan, and sometimes the last hit is given to Ma Feima. It erases the actions of other pretty interesting characters and is simply incorrect.

Onto the second point, because this is where things get really interesting and a lot is going on.

2. Ma Feima cheated on his wife.

This has given the idea that he had an affair, cheating on his wife, Lin Zhaoyu

No, he didn't.

It is true that he was in love with Su Mei but she never loved him back and was very clear about it so in a literal-traditional sense, he didn't have an affair.

Emotionally, yeah.

It seems that he had been attached to her since he was a child.

Lin Zhaoyu seems to have always been aware of that and still pursued to marry him.

BIG NOTE: This is where I'm going to cover the age gap stuff.

One thing that I have rarely seen anyone mention is the large gap between Lin Zhaoyu and Ma Feima in age.

It's said that Lin Zhaoyu is 15 years older than Su Mei.

Supposedly, Qin Suyi was around eight years old when Fu Hua found her.

Remember, Ma Feima is the youngest of the disciples.

I wouldn't have harped as hard about the age gap if they met/didn't know each other in Ma Feima's childhood, but the disciples technically grew up together so I found it to be questionable.

For reference:

In order, that's Lin Zhaoyu, Su Mei, and Ma Feima when they were younger.

At minimum and based on all the searching and math, at minimum, Su Mei would be thirteen there, and by the 15-year age gap, Zhaoyu would have been 28 years old.

Now, based on the writing, Zhaoyu and Feima most likely got married in the twenty years between the assassination of Fu Hua and the present of Seven Swords.

The youngest Feima would've been at the assassination was seventeen years old at that point.

For the present of the story, Zhaoyu, and Su Mei are 56 years old and 41 years old respectively. Feima is likely in his thirties.

Like I said, I'm making a big point to this because, like, what the heck. That's MAJORLY concerning even if you tried to reason your way around it. Besides any potential "normal in the era" type stuff and that they got married when they were both adults, it's still a huge yikes, isn't it? Also, I've seen barely anyone mention that, and the ones I did see it from, it was when I was looking into the visual novel.

It's mostly because Yanqing is the one in HSR, he's the character that gets the most eyes. And when people only know him as a "master-killing wife cheater" without any of the context surrounding it, it's a huge shame, albeit fair if people don't want to actively look into it themselves. But because a notable chunk of players have let those perceptions have weight over an unrelated by anything but appearance, old name, and the parallel of (potentially) killing a master.

The circumstances surrounding the two are very different.

HSR Yanqing has Jing Yuan to raise and guide him safely through his early life. He's still very young and while stubborn, has a good head on his shoulders, and has a lot of potential to grow into someone strong and stable.

7S/HI3 Ma Feima on the other hand, is shown to have grown very differently from his younger self.

He is far from enjoying life, and don't get me wrong, he isn't completely innocent.

But he's completely aware and is miserable.

There's a lot more I could cover in terms of Ma Feima, his circumstances, and the things about the characters around them, but my brain is so fried lol. All-in-all, his story alongside the seven, is very...complicated.

My main thing is that, hey, maybe we should be a bit more vigilant when we learn things about characters. Beyond fiction, misinformation spreads very easily because we, understandably, take things at face value. In terms of media literacy, we see it time and time again when characters get reduced to a singular trait or a ship or get heavily misunderstood by the audience because a simplified summary will never do the context justice.

[sinfulslytherin]

Fire

Summary: your Boyfriend kicked you out of your dorm room and invites another girl over. In the common room you meet Draco Malfoy.

"Daphne has been sleeping in the same dorm as Pansy and Blaise for the last few days...I doubt that she's making her way back to her dorm right now..especially at that pace." Draco says in a calm voice as we both watch Daphne run towards my dorm room.

"Yeah. I know. Graham probably lets her know that I am not in my dorm room tonight. He's probably gonna brag about me sleeping in the common room." I say as I scoff.

"How about you'll sleep somewhere else?" He smirks at me.

A laugh leaves my lips.

"You're dorm room? Isn't that a bit obvious?"

Draco shakes his head.

"No, not my dorm room. Let's go." He says as he grabs my hand and pulls me up and drags me out of the Slytherin common room.

We quietly make our way through hogwarts. We are still allowed to be up and walk through Hogwarts, bur we're still careful that no one who knows us spots us together.

Draco suddenly stops in front of a huge wall.

He lets go of my hand and starts to walk past the wall while he seemingly concentrates.

"Shall I leave ooooor....?-" I akwardly say as I am confused what he's doing.

Suddenly after the third time walking past the wall,a huge door appeared.

I look at Draco in shock as he only smirks at me.

He again grabs my hands as I am still overwhelmed by what just happened.

We enter the the room and my heart skips a beat.

A huge king sized bed and some beautiful book shelves. Furthermore, a sofa and a cute fireplace.

"What is this place..?" I say as I look around.

"The room of requirements." Draco answers as he makes his way over to the bed.

"How did you find it?-Did you just run a few laps in the hallway or what the heck did you do?" I ask as I laugh at him.

"Stop making fun of me. I just got us a beautiful place to stay for the night." He says as he rolls his eyes.

"Okay, okay. I was just joking, ferret boy." I tease him.

"You still remember that?" Draco whines after hearing the familiar nickname.

"Draco, everyone remembers. You were a freaking ferret." I say as I let myself fall into the bed.

"I hoped everyone would forget it someday." He quietly says as he looks away.

I laugh at his reaction.

"You think that's funny, huh?" He says as he looks at me.

I smirk as I look at him.

"Yes, kinda."

"I think it's time to whipe that smirk out of your face, you little brat."

Read the whole story here <3

[prussiasqueen]

Hey genuine question: how can someone be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine? I understand you have family and friends in Israel but how can you be both when Israel has been

-using white phosphorus bombs

-targeting Palestinian journalists for reporting the truth

-shooting children (even BABIES) in the head

-refuse hostage negotiations

-basically running concentration camps and torturing Palestinian civilians

And a bunch of other war criminal shit that even South Africa has recognized

People criticizing Israel and wanting them to give back the land to Palestine is not antisemitism. Yes, there are people who take it too far but historically, Israel is a settler nation and Palestine should get the land back. No sane person is saying they want Jewish people dead/not have a place to go. There are Jewish people in Palestine, it was never about wanting Jewish people dead, it’s about freedom and ending the occupation.

I apologize for the lengthy rant, I just want to help educate people on this matter.

Ok so I’m gonna keep this simple as I can anon, not because I don’t think your questions aren’t important… but it sounds like to me you may need to actually sit down and talk to some Israeli people and get the full scoop and idea of what’s happening on BOTH sides. Can’t really rely too much on listening to just one side, because ya know… propaganda and how the media twists so much.

As stated a lot of what you are saying sounds like a bunch of propaganda and rinse and repeat of the same things being said over and over again.

Truth of the matter is, you’re not seeing beyond October 7th, you’re not seeing what’s been going on beyond 1948, a little bit of searching online and heck, even checking in with Israelis about said information could help a ton with this. Secondly, all the information you provided, Hamas literally did the same things to the Israeli as well and to their own people. Hamas has been torturing people since before all this has happened. Literally you sound like someone who hasn’t batted an eye to any of this until suddenly when things happened during October 7th.

This was never a genocide, this has always been a conflict.

There’s so much here to cover, maybe I should suggest you chatting with parts of jewblr?

Another man I might recommend listening and watching is Mosab Hassan Yousef.

A Palestinian man who not only is just a Palestinian but the son of Hamas co-founder, he is also known as “the green prince” you want some true insight and someone who can really break it down for you to understand, I highly recommend having a listen to his videos online (if you can find them) and also his book “The Son of Hamas” Will help give you a better perspective.

I personally could actually sit down and look at you and say, “alright, so where do we start” but I really don’t feel I need to explain when you can literally see what a lot of us have been saying. I mean hell, if you really wanna know more… (I won’t say tumblr is the best of sourcing but, the Jewish community here and my own reblogs on my other blog have walls and walls and walls of text and sources you can go and read.)

“Shooting children, even babies in the head”

Were you…. Not present when you heard what they did to some of the hostages? Umm… you do know that Hamas killed women and children too, right? I mean this is a conflict and war… I mean like I said so much to cover…

War is gray area when it comes to how it is, it’s never fully one sided, there’s casualties everywhere and there is no winning outcome in it at all.

Also can I just… can I throw one thing in here, yes people want Jews dead. People have been wanting Jews dead since the beginning of human existence on earth, I don’t know what planet where you think this is not the case, but Jews have been ostracized for many many many many years, by the Romans, ancient Egyptian, Greeks, the Germans, the polish, the Russian, the Turkish, and the list goes on and on and on, let’s be real here most of Middle East does not want Israel to exist and the people in it. (Especially Jewish) most Palestinians that support Hamas, do indeed want the Jews dead. That’s not up for debate, so by saying no “sane” person wants Jews dead, well when you support a terrorist group like Hamas, you do want Jews dead. End of discussion.

Many one else willing to help put in more info here… that’d be awesome.

@bottlepiecemuses you have anything to add to this for anon? I’m like really tired and don’t feel like breaking this down more…

[felassan]

EA website update:

"Incoming Transmission N7 DAY 2023 Happy N7 Day to our wonderful community!"

"Hey, everyone, Every November 7th, we’ve all come together—developers, superfans, regular fans, kinda-fans—to celebrate (and speculate about!) the games, stories, and community that make Mass Effect so special. It’s a testament to the long-lasting appeal of this universe and the characters who call it home. Eleven years of N7 Days and sixteen years of Mass Effect later, the franchise continues to inspire our development team, and with each day, gives us the opportunity to create more adventures for you to have. Whether it’s one of the many who have been here since the original game’s launch or those recently joining us at BioWare, we are all incredibly lucky to be envisioning this future. That process is equal parts rewarding and challenging. We’ve asked ourselves many of the same questions you’ve asked us over the years! What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— nevermind...you get the idea. And of course, to those questions, there are answers, but you’ll have to wait to hear them. And anything we do say won’t be easy to find, just like you’ve come to expect from our #N7Day teases. But for real… thank you. Thank you for everything, and allowing us to do what we do. We approach the future of this universe with gratitude and deep respect. Respect for you—the community. Respect for the love and dedication you’ve given to us. Respect for the history and the stories you’ve created, and the characters you’ve fallen in love with. And, respect for the future, and the opportunity to do something big—something amazing—for you. Until next time…and Happy N7 Day! —Mike Gamble, Mass Effect Franchise Director & Executive Producer"

"Through o0ur partnership with Humble Bundle and friends at Dark Horse Comics, we’re making all Dark Horse Mass Effect and Dragon Age comics available in a convenient package! Pr1oceeds from this will go to Child’s Play, a charity that seeks to make the lives of children in hospitals more comfortable. We all know how powerful and uplifting games can be, so we’re glad to be able to help bring joy t0o kids in need through this effort. If you’d like to help, too, please check it o0ut! We also have some exciting new merch from our partners for those who want to stock their shelves or add to their wardro0bes. The BioWare Gear Store is releasing multiple new i1tems today! From a brand-new mini replica Claymore Shotgun to Omni-Blade LED Wall Art, we’ve got tons of Mass Effect items for your collection, all go0ing live with a site-wide sale. Be sure to check out items new and old, and follow them on social media to see their latest relea1ses."

"Our frie0nds over at Dark Horse have also been working on something special. For over a year now, we’ve been working closely with them on a few new statues based on popular requests. First and foremost, we’re excited to share that Commander Shepard (female) is ge1tting an iconic battle-worn statue! This has been one of the top requests from the community and we’ve been super excited to see it come to life."

"And, of course, if you w1ant to put a squad together for her, Dark Horse is also releasing new statues of Wrex and Tali. These statues are brought to life with the level of care and quality we’ve all come to expect from Dark Horse over the years. These two iconic characters are ready to take the fi1ght to the Reapers!"

"F0or those who live in colder climates (Canada being a prime example), our friends over at Volante Design have returned this year with s0omething just for you. Following the success of the N7 line of apparel they released, the team at Volante has created a Garrus Vak0arian-style parka, complete with a “head cone” to protect your 0face."

"A0nd of course, Sanshee always has something for our b1iggest fans. For lovers of Grunt, Lia1ra, and adorable va1rren, the team has created a new set of plu0shees and pins for your colle0ctions! Be sure to chec1k out their site for all that and m1ore."

"Your joy, creativity, and passion help drive us towards the future of Mass Effect and all that it may be0come. The team is ta1king their time to cr1aft a whole new adventu0re for you to enj1oy, with new stories, chara0cters, and experiences to fill it. At the end of t0he day, that’s w1hat N7 Day is about. Cel0ebr1ati1ng yo0u an1d th1is speci0al fr0anchise that br0ings us all to1get1her. W0e hope you’1ve enjoyed the glimpse1s int1o the fut1ure of the fra0nchis1e so f1ar. An0d don’t wor1ry, ther1e’s mo1re to come, but fa0rther away! Ever your biggest fans, —The Mass Effect Team"

[source and link to all images in post]

Associated Twitter post:

[source]

[echoing-gravity]

Double Legacy Sally Jackson Au

Okay. This has been my head Canon for like, years, imma try to explain the best I can.

So basically Sally is a 4th Generation legacy of the Norse God Loki (25%) and a 6th Generation Legacy of the Roman goddess Venus.

Making Percy not only 50% Greek sea demigod, but also:

20% Norse Trickster/lying/MISDIRECTION 5th gen

and 15% love/pretty as fuck Roman. 7th gen.

His Im/mortality blood split is more like 85/15.

Her parents (Percy's grandparents) died in that airplane crash when she was 5 because Sally's mom was a 3rd gen Loki and was unaware(cuz like apparently Norse demigods don't smell until AFTER they die) and Thor was all like, "heck no get the FUCK out of the sky" and Zappos hammered them to death.

(Percy has a Times 2 weakness to electric types. You think he's scared of ur lighting bolt? When he has to worry about a fucking lightning HAMMER? the answer is yes. To both. But like hammer>spear-bolt)

Sally found out about her heritage like maybe 2 months after her parents died(she inherited these cool norse pirate dagger/half-swords(I swear I can't remember what their called rn UGH), from HER great-grandparent. Percy's great-great grandparent ei: the Loki demigod. Loki gave them to her, and told her what's up.) and then she being the badass hardcore survivor she is, learned everything she ever could about Norse/roman(but also Greek) mythos by the time she's 12.

She meets Poseidon when she's 16.

Then Percy happens when she's 17 almost 18. And she learned from his father while she was carrying, that he would attract monsters.

Since she's related to Loki she has his whole "avoidance/dodge/misdirection can't be caught" thing. (As well as the shape shifting, but she can really only change her gender. But this is not relevant)

Sally, has been alone all her life, she is a SURVIVOR, so she buys an RV/tiny-home on wheels, and covers it absolutely completely buries it in a mix Norse and Egyptian magic-y misdirection runes to hide Percy's scent. She figures if she uses multiple mythos, it will be harder for Them to find her baby.

so there is no Gabe. Percy grows up even more of a mamas boy than canon.

She teaches Percy all about all the mythos, but like she does it in a very avoidance way that he knows NONE of their names like "the Greek sun god did this" or "the Roman sun god did that" and teaches him never to think their names "so they can't here you"

The changes in Percy's powers:

1: Since he's still Poseidon's kid but also now son of a legacy of the SHAPESHIFTER he can shapeshift, but only into a merperson, and only when he's wet. (Also he's genderfluid)

Sally teaches him to keep himself dry, he HATES it but understands that he needs to be sneaky, this first happens when he's like 7. And it doesn't happen during the full moon cuz like "the moon controls the tides" and what not. Yes, he is bioluminescent. Blueish/green aquamarine glowy mermaid fins!! His scales are either black or so dark indigo that they Look black.

2: Since he's a legacy of Venus, 7th gen notwithstanding cuz he has the 50% from the sea to make him stronger, he can do the charmspeaking, well... CharmSinging like a siren. When he was like 5 there was this really close call cuz when he sings one of two things happen. Either A: the default of "everyone in hearing range that isn't related to aphro/Venus is suddenly attracted to him, or b: people fall asleep. option a is the one that happened, he has to focus to get people to sleep. Sally is a smart cookie, she realized what was happening and decked the guy in the face before he could do anything to the baby 5 year old Percy. Sally then bans Percy from singing (at least around other ppl)

He HATES it. He loves to sing! but he understands enough to understand that sing around ppl is dangeours. This also happened when he was seven, but before the tail thing.

Sally, trying to hide Percy's heritage, and getting inspired from the Avatar the last airbender cartoon, trys to teach percy to only attack with "ice-bending" as to misdirect suspicions.

She tells him to "try and make the water stiff and cold"

He hates it. And how it feels "The sea doesn't like to be restricted" and what not, but like he trusts his mom, she's super cool and smart so he goes along with it, and OMG he gets cool water powers??? Like Katara?! From his favorite cartoon??? Best 10th birthday ever!

Ugh I can't remember if I'm forgetting anything, oh wait right. He can sense when people are trying to trick him. It's like a little itch I the back of his head. His mom can too, so they end up having these conversations where neither one is TECHNICALLY Lying, but like not telling the whole truth and shenanigans. Ei: "your father is lost at sea" does not ping his built in lie detector. So he's really REALLY Good at lying without lying. (Like what fae so in fairytales)

Because of this Percy thinks his dad is a mermaid. Percy is unaware that he is a demigod, he ony thinks his mom is a history-mythos nut. And that his mom is hiding him due to the myth of "if u cut out a mermaids eye and eat it you become immortal"

ugh thats all I can remember rn I'll edit it later.

Oh wait I just remembered since Percy's blood split is 85/15 he kinda can't really be referred to as a Half-blood. That is waaay more than half. Since like Frank blood split is 49/51 he can still be described as half. In other words,

IN THIS AU NICO IS ONE OF THE SEVEN.

and I also ship percico.

All of this is to say it leads to a dramatic scene outside of the doors of death where nico is like nico: "you have to go your one of the seven!"

And Percy is like

Percy: "nope I'm not 50/50 I'm 85/15 that's waaay more than half.....blood"

Nico: "but I can't leave u here"

it's more dramatic in my head and they are not dating by this point, But it's like mutual pining. Percy then kisses him and then pushes him into the elevator in his shock. Tells him to use his wish when he saves the world to use Persephone keyblade to get him and Bob out of Tartarus.

Then since this Percy is op and has seen alta, he blood bends all the rivers in the ground into spikey ice shards cutting the actual Tartarus(not his mortal plain body that Bob and friendly giant guy is fighting while Percy holds the button, but like the actual ground.) into 1000 pieces. And kills him. Like the sky primordial. He also killed poison lady. Btw. I'm so tired ugh what else. They are now stuck in Hell: frozen over.

Percy's logic for cutting up Tartarus with his own insides was as follows:

70% of the mortal human Body is made of Water.

70% of the earth is covered in a Body of Water.

The earth is Gaea, a primordial.

Mortal humans were based on gods.

And gods are descendants of primordials.

It takes a mortal and a god to kill a giant.

it took multiple titans (and a primordial to trick) to kill the sky primordial. His body was cut into 1000 pieces.

Ei: saltwater is Gaea's blood. And so are the rivers. I mean their called Bloodstreams for a reason.

A mortal a titan and a giant kill Tartarus.

Gaea was right about one thing Percy will admit.

If u want to to rid your garden of weeds, you have to rip out the roots.

[bubblybumblebee1]

Alright

Barbie lore time lol

So I've done the math of Barbie's many siblings (cause I'm bored)

And if some of these characters aren't the same person (Tutti, Kelly number 1 and Anastasia, aka Stacie)

And assuming that Kelly number 2 and Chelsea aren't the same person despite what Mattel says since their ages don't match up

Barbie would canonically be the eldest child of 9 kids

Including a possible set of quadruplets (Tutti, Todd, Kelly number 1, and Stacie since they're all supposed to be the same age)

I was looking through the wiki for Barbie and her family, and it starts with Barbie obviously, then Skipper, Tutti, Todd, Kelly number 1, Stacie, Kelly number 2, Chelsea and Krissy

But the younger siblings' ages also don't match up either of how old they're supposed to be vs. debut orders, as well as where they stand in the family tree

Tutti came after Skipper making her 3rd oldest, then her twin brother Todd but

Kelly number 1 came after Tutti and then came Stacie, who has also been called Todd's twin

Are Stacie and Tutti the same person and just look different as they got older? Is Tutti a nickname and Anastasia aka Stacie her real name? And what about Kelly number 1? Who came after Tutti but before Stacie?

Or did something happen to Tutti and Kelly number 1? Did Tutti get sent away to live else where since she looks like trouble? Was she the trouble maker of the family?

Again: What happened to Kelly 1?

Also, where does Todd stand? Is Todd in the middle if they actually are quadruplets and what number order of middle since he's listed as both Tutti and Stacie's twin brother? Or is it Tutti, Kelly 1, Stacie, then Todd?

Then there's Kelly number 2, the apparent 7th oldest, yet her age range is listed as 3 and in preschool while Chelsea is listed as 6 and in elementary school

Is Chelsea actually the 7th born child and Kelly 2 8th?

And if all these other siblings really are different from each other and not the same people going by different names or nicknames, where are they? Why do people only know of some of Barbie's siblings but not the rest

Do all of Barbie's best friends and Ken know about these siblings? Many have known Barbie for years but only ever see and hear about Skipper, Stacie, and Chelsea

Then again, these are also best friends who have never even heard of her siblings and vice-versa

Or is it because these 3 accompany Barbie the most throughout her adventures since apparently these 3 live with her and not their parents

When the heck did Barbie leave home? Why is she allowed to have custody of some of her siblings? Because of her many career moves? Also, isn't Barbie 19 since that's when she apparently stopped aging? Skipper is between 14 and 16 now, and I know Stacie is between the ages of 10 and 13 with about a 4 year age gap between her and Chelsea, who's 6

So modern age time wise: Barbie: 19, Skipper: 14 - 16, Tutti, Kelly 1, Todd and Stacie: 10 - 13, Chelsea: 6, Kelly 2: 3 and Krissy: 1

Meaning Barbie's parents were having kids about every 3 years

Many questions about the Robert's family

Maybe I'll do the extended family since they have some cousins and I wonder where they fit age wise

[softgaychild]

I miss my 7th grade year, not because of school, but because it was then that I discovered this little Korean kids show named 'Tobot.' I watched dozens of episodes not understanding anything going on all since I was watching it un-subtitled in Korean. I even watched some of the sequel series it had like Athlon, V/Galaxy Detectives. Truly a moment in my life. (It should be noted that I rediscovered the series years after the fact in English on Youtube and that was how I was finally able to watch it and actually know the plot)

I also watched this other kids show called Dinocore which I absolutely devoured the first 3 seasons of. Season 2 had a small twist where for a brief minute you thought that they had killed the MC, and Season 3's first fight lasted 2 episodes and highkey made you question if this "monster of the week" style show would have the main characters lose immediately (of course it didn't

Oh and going back to Tobot, it was kinda based as it had hella interesting plot points. The show literally starts off with a kidnapping, there's dozens of near death experiences for a bunch of the characters. There's bombings, the spreading of addictive substances to children, terrorism, the kids get trauma, one of the main characters is a bit racist for one of the story arcs, it's crazy. Although unfortunately the english dub/edit removes several of the plot points that make it so interesting. Heck, even in V/Galaxy Detectives they nearly kill the MC from the previous Season with a cliffhanger where he's left powerless and sinking in the arctic ocean. Dinocore also does a similar thing where the MC is left comatose for like an episode before awakening with a new power. I need to rewatch the last few seasons in order to remember what happened cuz I don't even remember how they beat the final villain.

Long story short, Korean kids shows hit different.

[reginrokkr]

I have just completed the new Xianzhou quest, so leaving a few thoughts under cut!

𖧷 He didn't make a physical appearance, but I was mistaken about this man— his presence be stronk and to be honest, good for him. It was outrageous enough to get into a prison and not find Luocha :|

𖧷 I adored seeing Huaiyan at long last after hearing and seeing things about him. I feel that his talk about mistakes in the past is also about himself for not having been able to do anything / enough what concerns Yingxing here, as it seems that he continues to be very meaningful to him, probably as if he were his son or a grandson.

𖧷 I was already skeptical since Jarilo-VI with Topaz's coming (or was it the Aurum Valley event first? I don't quite remember) about the IPC, but they have gotten to a point of being insufferable to be by now and I hope they continue to be that way and that HYV don't make them "likeable" to sell more on their future banners. But on to the story: suspicious as heck with the making of borisin-looking mechas using actual biological tissue from them at that. I dislike them with all my soul.

𖧷 Not a fan in the slightest of the March 7th bit. They left it at the conversation between Feixiao and Yukong with the seriousness behind it and the foreshadowing of what was about to happen, and then they forced me to go through her part of learning swordsmanship. Way to kill the vibe there << The one good thing I have to say about this is that I liked the final part specially with Jiaoqiu.

𖧷 Moving forward with the plot, I adored to bits that they didn't cut any slack with the borisins and that they made them as deadly scary as several documents and the knowledge of what happened to Blade's homeworld because of them. It made me feel lots for what the Foxians must've endured and it made me feel for Jiaoqiu, a Foxian himself, going through the trouble he is just for a chance to heal Feixiao and probably for the best of the Xianzhou too.

𖧷 So eventually it's official that it's been 700 years since the disintegration of the High Cloud Quintet and this will be a topic that I'll stay away from the dash from now on for reasons I'll keep to myself. It's very saddening the disproportionate commentaries I've seen about them for more reasons than one and it continues to be even to this day, even after all the time that has passed since they didn't get any kind of spotlight for some months.

𖧷 Dan Heng has entered the club of making me feel for characters in this patch, the immense effort that must've taken from him to keep himself still despite being in the Shackling Prison, the bad memories, everything... He's so caring and I like that he's acceptant of those who know him as the Imbibitor Lunae.

𖧷 I can't wait to see more of the Xianzhou. It has that special charm to me that never dies out and even after Penacony, it never did. I won't ever get tired of saying that Xianzhou is the best "world" to me in HSR so far because of its compelling story and many of its characters. There is that vibe of coming back home and seeing the characters interacting with one another that felt so dissonant in Penacony because, great part of the characters there, weren't even local so-to-speak.

𖧷 Oh, and as one last note: has anyone addressed the big elephant in the room of what Moze said? That the mara-struck are actually using a technique typical of the Caelorum Venti and how this was a thing even during Dan Heng's quest with Bailu? Everything is looking so sus right now and I adore every bit of it.

[shortformblog]

The Formula That Shaped Cable TV 📺

So, I do this thing where I publish a shorter version of Tedium on different outlets like Substack and LinkedIn. I call it Lesser Tedium, and I’m going to try it here. If you like it, subscribe to Tedium here. If you think it sucks, leave an angry comment, so I feel the depth of your anger.

A forgotten TV show from the late ’80s played a massive influence on how cable television was made—so much so that the formula it spawned is better known than the show.

In the midst of the recent Writers Guild of America strike, a lot has been said about the ways that writers are paid, particularly how the rules often end up being quite confusing.

But even when the rules work out, they can be weird as heck. My case in point: The weird case of what happened to the late-’80s show Sanchez of Bel Air.

This show, which aired during the fall of 1986, was a bit of a forgotten unicorn at the time of its release. Airing on the USA Network, the show had a lot in common with a later Bel Air-based television show, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, albeit focusing on an upwardly mobile Latino family rather than a black one. It was a sitcom when cable television was not known for airing sitcoms.

The show aired on USA at a time when representation, especially positive representation, of Latinos on television was quite limited, and the show did receive criticism for not being particularly authentic. (One potential reason for this: While its cast—with the notable exception of Bobby Sherman, for some reason—was largely Latino, its creators, Dave Hackel and April Kelly, were white.)

The show was not a hit, and disappeared after just 13 episodes. But because it appeared so early in the history of cable television, it became a bit of an unexpected landmark for completely behind-the-scenes reasons.

See, as a part of the show’s creation as one of the first sitcoms explicitly produced for the medium, it led to the development of a residual agreement about how much writers received upon re-airings of the show. The current formula breaks down as such: For the second to fifth re-airings, writers get 50 percent residuals, then it shrinks down to 6 percent on the sixth re-airing and 4 for each of the 7th and 8th re-airings. Gradually, the scale slides down until the 13th re-airing, when every future replay gets 1.5 percent each.

This formula, crazy as it sounds, is better known than Sanchez of Bel Air. It’s called the Sanchez Formula, and is generally used for scripted shows that air on cable television.

In many ways, emerging technologies shift the game for writer compensation—and the current Writers Guild of America strike highlights how, when these rates fall out of sync with the work being created, it can create serious problems. While the Sanchez formula wasn’t perfect, it worked well enough that it has stuck around for nearly 40 years.

» Wanna learn more? Check out my 2018 piece “TV’s Hidden Math,” which explains why so many shows have 13 or 65 episodes—especially if they’re syndicated.

[candycryptids]

Ayoooo, I'm back to be a pain AGAIN! This time I really, really, really want to know more about... duh, Chuu! But also a little about Tuesday, as well. This idea is just so COOL and I need to know more.

So! How long did it take Chuu to finish building Tuesday? I know it says he's been 'finished' for around 6 months to a 1 year but I imagine the process must have taken Chuu forever! And how in the heck did she learn to make an entire being from scratch and give it the capabilities to understand/learn emotions and what not?

My curiosity is insane and I'm going to stop before my "one question" keeps turning into a billion more. :)))

Ok so we’re gonna start with the first question, and then the second answer ends up being a huge timeline-lore dump, so, uh, brace for impact?

It took Chuu 10~ish years of development to get Tuesday to a 1.0 state, starting from drafted prototypes on paper to Built.

She wanted an assistant after going MIA from Garlemald [if you ask her, she’ll say she quit; she just only left an audio clip at her station that said GoodBye :)] because going from having people to run around and do grunt work to, doing everything herself forever…. Sucked.

Learning to Build Tuesday as a whole took her first visit to Ul’Dah, where she was first properly exposed to Mammets in the Goldsmithing guild. Delicate, small robots with full on Hearts. Personalities. MEMORIES! Opinions! Instead of Ceruleum, like Magitek, they ran off Aether. It’s fascinating- it’s not a weapon, it’s different, and confusing as hell. Chuu sticks her nose into their business and learns as much as she can about, how Mammets even function, how they’re put together, until the Gil she had starts to run low, and the Flames start questioning why there’s a Viera here with shocking similarities to one of the head engineers from Garlemald, and she dips again. To Limsa, where she meets the then-Warrior Of Light Keathan. Their extensive knowledge in Aetherology sets Chuu briefly into learning Arcanist magic (hence… part of the origin for her obsession with Carbuncles)

Together they draft further still prototypes on paper, utilizing Keathan’s extensive knowledge on the Body- and the affects Aether has on it, and the reverse (a body’s affect on aether). (it is, in fact, what their Archon Mark is for; BioAetherologist is the word we’re settling on uvu;) to make some pretty Huge Headway….

Something Chuu coins as ‘Mammetek’; a marriage between Magitek and Mammets that would be able to Talk, Walk, Carry, Gather Materials as well as Analyze them for Quality and Usability. A slimmer silhouette than her previous designs, a Mammet heart, a Magitek’s dependable, durable framework, but no need to make room from Ceruleum Tanks, or Emissions. While this Assistant would likely still need coolant, heat sinks, vents… it would still be possible that, to the layman’s eye, it would appear as any other Person, given enough fiddling.

Until the 7th Umbral Calamity occured, and Louisoix’s magic wipes from all the memory of The Warriors Of Light….. and Chuu and Keathan both wind up with gaping holes into the memory. Keathan with terrible active recall, and Chuu with no recollection of the Project they’d been working on together for all this time. Aimless and restless, she drifts away from Limsa and settles Temporarily in Kugane, with its more neutral stances. This is about when she falls in with her current shady Free Company, lmfao. [Which I’ll say, has lore, but I don’t know it, cos our rp scene is, shall we say, a tumbleweed, at best.]

While she’s moving in more fully to their base of operations, about a year after the Calamity, she dredges up notes and prototypes for something that she can’t remember having drafted in the first place. There’s numerous notes on something called a ‘Mammet’ though, which sends her back to Ul’Dah, much to her consternation, but it was the best and only place to learn more.

She happens to meet Keathan again- though the two are mostly struggling with a sense of Deja Vu at first, trying to place where they know each other- they eventually work it out, though perhaps the middle of the market street wasn’t the best place to discover this…

Regardless, the project ends up in full swing again, with Keathan making occasional contributions when not otherwise occupied (though Chuu did probably throw them off their intended task a number of times)

Tuesday [1.0.0] isn’t operational mid-ARR, and he’s not allowed out of the workshop at all. No legs. No face. No hands. But he has a voice, and he has crude mitten-like graspers, and Keathan spent quite a bit of time conversing with him while Chuu refined code and worked on the frame. Originally he was more like a dating sim- predefined responses to partially defined questions and phrases. But it was…. Vast. Training a learning module was easier; let the Mammetek utilize stored memory, and let it build on recalled conversations to generate its own responses based on those. It gets more complicated than that rather quickly but it was more forgiving a module than trying to code for every conceivable combination of words. *please understand my knowledge of computers and programming is rudimentary at best, I’m leaning rather heavily on Fantasy Handwaving

Tuesday’s first proper forray with a body includes mitten hands and a blobby-somewhat suspect-tonberry head, mailed in pieces to Ishgard once Chuu finally got word where Keathan and the Wayward Fugitives had ended up. This is Tuesday [1.2.45]; The startup takes quite a large amount of Aether- so it’s really fortunate Keathan has just that ;)

And Keathan continues to [treat them like a person] and not a Machine! So do most other Ishgardians, actually. He’s Keathan’s attentive, if a little eccentric, assistant and bodyguard. By the end of Heavensward- following a [major incident] with Nidhogg, he’s on 1.3.49. A furious Chuu had to build him a new leg, and made some alterations to his software in the hopes she could head off some of his ‘riskier’ plans (partially at Keathan’s request).

Working as a group in Azys La with Gerolt gets us to Tuesday [2.5.58]; new body, working individual fingers, a lovingly crafted and life-like Faceplate (thanks Keathan 💖) and, more importantly, an enhanced Mammet heart that could better Sustain itself and didn’t need to tether with Keathan to remain operational all the time. Allagan tech also aids in creating a durable self-healing bio-skin, so he gets to wear… like… real clothes. Not just a full coverage padding-insulating armor-body, but. Like. CLOTHES.

Tuesday [3.6.60] comes about post-ish Shadowbringers, when she gets her hands on YorHa technology to take apart and refine and study…. Through curious means. [Tuesday’s Soul] was called there, having residual ties to Keathan, so much of her work comes from second-hand sources until she figures out how to get there on her own power. Don’t tell Shtola.

I imagine he’ll face another updated body and hardware/software to 4.6.49 in Post Endwalkers, working in tandem with Thavnairian Alchemists who designed Varshaun’s vessels. She comes a long way by that point on being closed off and insular, more willing to… care about other people, lmfao, and a course in the Studium about Memory gives Keathan some ideas to work on with Chuu and Tue about upgrading his memory- store it as Aether, and not just as hard copies of ‘deemed important’ or ‘requested’ video and audio and training data. (So basically…. He gets pumped with way more aether and it gives him a proper unique Personality, by about EW, lmfao. Outside of just Formed Opinions and Programmed Quirks, which are the basis of things… it’s a minor but important change I think)

…. Which is to say; how did she learn to give Tuesday Personality? Technically, she didn’t! It was more Keathan’s influence and fingerprints that led to Tuesday having as Developed a sense of self as he does, with Chuu working to accommodate his growing Self while also stubbornly refusing to let him be completely self-governed. He knows entirely too much to be allowed to act completely on his own, you see.

Additional silly fact as a thank you for reading this much; anytime he has a full face and hands and ears and all during Heavensward screenshots it’s because I struggled immensely with knowing I had to obliterate all expression and nuance by slapping a tonberry head and gloves on. So I let him have his face (which I worked QUITE HARD ON, THANKYOU) And hands, because I really like hands as part of a communicative medium. :T

Also, his hair used to be white-ish and green, like Chuu’s, but following HW he asks to be Blue instead of Green- not only to match the color of his tech but also to match the hair of the person he has strong emotions tied up with (Haurchefant, who is provide links for relevant posts but there are a Good Many).

(You might notice in many images their hair isn’t even actually a pure white, but a greenish yellow, this is because I kept going fucking blind with their Snow White hair so I shifted it a few shades into pale grey-green and I’ve enjoyed it much more lmfao.)

ALSO I HAVE SCREENSHOTS IF PROTOTYPES FROM CHUU’S JOURNAL- I struggled to figure out where to place them naturally and even considered doing some heavier editing to make it look like an actual journal schematic, but the payoff wasn’t enticing enough to pursue, so have these on their own; (they were taken using a variety of fiddly filters and a smidge of post-editing but I’m pretty sure it was just “some sorta sketch shader” and then fiddling with settings in gshade until it looked right)

Fuck I forgot to tag my HUSBAND @zombiesockfuckinglovescardfight who is Keathan @v@

[akocomyk]

Well that was fun

Honestly speaking, I made this post because I wanted to make an artwork showing all the eleven hearts together. I didn't draw these hearts in one go and I just made them within the span of days that I was posting the Top 11 Moments—which I also didn't write in one sitting, of course.

In my eleven years of doing this annual review, never have I had this much attention. I shared those blog posts on my Facebook account and it amazed me that people reacted on them. By that, I mean other than garnering more reacts and comments than usual, people also messaged me or talked to me about the life moments I posted.

I was so flattered by how people were able to appreciate the stuff I shared about my life, 'coz it could mean that they still care about me at some degree (?).

Or sadyang marami lang talagang marites.

I'm kidding. 😁 Most of the memories were about my love life, plus me leaving my former employer, so... I guess people find that intriguing.

Another thing that set 2023 apart was that... It took me a hard time to write it. I can't explain it, but I was cramming almost everyday because I couldn't find the words to say. Come the time I was down to the remaining five memories, I told my boyfriend-who-never-was that the blog entries were getting harder to write as I went further up. Thinking about it now, I realized that only one memory was actually easy to write. Everything else made me feel like shit. Maybe I should've called it 11 Shits of 2023 instead of hearts. 💩

And I also didn't follow the scoring and ranking system that I use—at least, not 100%. The last time this happened was back in 2018.

Upon posting the 7th Place, I thought hard if I should proceed with the 6th—which I still did. With five moments remaining, I contemplated whether the ranking I had was appropriate. I switched the Top 5 moments a dozen times, basing solely on what I feel, before I arrived at what eventually came out.

So. Yeah. That was one heck of a year.

Let's hope 2024 is better.

[ironwoman359]

Soooo I was looking through my drafts because there's posts in there years old, and I found this old fanfiction question list that my dear friend @thuriweaver tagged me in two years ago and I thought what the heck, I'll fill that out tonight because I've been trying to work on writing more lately. So, without further ado...

1.How many works do you have on AO3?

95!

Though I've written more, there are things on @ironwhumper359 and @ironwoman359-writes that aren't fandom related and are only on tumblr, and there's probably some other things on my masterlist that aren't on AO3 either, maybe I ought to comb through it at some point and upload more!

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

333,493! And fun fact, I just counted that up manually from all 95 fics because I thought AO3 didn't display that stat, but it turns out I just wasn't logged in. The stat page says I actually has 335,438 words, so either I missed a fic or it includes the author's notes or summaries in that count.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

 If you look at the fandom list it has 10, but I think 5 is a more accurate count, which I'll explain in a sec. These are the fandoms on AO3:

Sanders Sides (Web Series) (87)

Super Mario & Related Fandoms (3)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (3)

Undertale (Video Game) (3)

Leverage (2)

Video Blogging RPF (2)

Who Killed Markiplier? (Web Series) (1)

In Space With Markiplier (Web Series) (1)

Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo (1)

Markiplier TV (Web Series) (1)

The thing is, the two fics in the "video blogging" fandom are markiplier ego fics and I'd lump those, Who Killed Markiplier, In Space With Markiplier, and Markiplier TV all as one fandom, and also, all the Super Mario fics and MCU fics are actually both Sanders Sides AUs, so those aren't really separate fandoms either.

A better list would be:

Sanders Sides

Markiplier

Undertale

Leverage

Six of Crows

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

So this was fascinating to look at! I'm going to list them in reverse order, for the Drama.

5: How to Catch a Fairy, posted on June 16th, 2020 with 2,918 hits and 515 kudos. This is a very short little oneshot, filling a prompt from a Bad Things Happen Bingo card, "Used as Bait." I really enjoyed writing this one, but I'm surprised it's beat out so many of my other, older fics. It has almost 100 more kudos than Our Own Villain, the (admittedly incomplete) fic that is my 6th biggest in kudos and kind of put me on the map in the TSS fandom. I guess people really like fae, feral protective love interests, and analogical.

4: Phase One, originally posted on September 11th, 2020, with 3,575 hits and 532 kudos. Now this is far less surprising, the Marvel AU is one of my most popular stories, with an entire sideblog dedicated to developing it, and it is by far the story I am most asked about continuing. The story is told partly through in universe S.H.I.E.L.D. documents and internal communications, questions on @ask-agent-sanders, and traditionally posted stories. Phase One is the AO3 name for the traditional story portion of the universe, each chapter being an entry in the story. The plan was, eventually, to create a fic called Phase Two for stories taking place post-Avengers (2012) content, but I haven't updated the fic in nearly 2 years.

3: A Part of the FamILY, originally posted on May 9th, 2018, with 5,326 hits and 696 kudos. According to the author's notes, I originally wrote the fic in February of 2018 to celebrate 1,000 tumblr followers, so it makes sense that it would have a lot of kudos. It also leans HEAVILY on a lot of tropes that the TSS fandom was really into at the time, and even has song lyrics in it with links to said songs on spotify. I stand by the quality of the actual story and writing on display here, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that those aspects make me cringe just a bit today 😅

2: A Fiendly Reunion, originally posted on July 7th, 2019, with 7,621 hits and 766 kudos. This story is one of my proudest achievements, both in the TSS fandom and as a writer in general. At 30,000+ words over 10 chapters, it is the longest single fic I've ever posted, and the only multichapter fic over 4 chapters that I've ever completed, outside a Big Bang challenge I did in 2018. It took over a year to write, and was a huge passion project for me. I'm really, really happy that it's at the number two spot, and that my readers loved it as much as I did. I'd honestly be surprised that it wasn't at the number one spot, if it weren't for what IS at the number one spot...

1: Broken Wings, originally posted on September 9th, 2018 with 7,747 hits and 1,159 kudos. This fic is the most popular thing I've ever posted on AO3, and it's tumblr cross-post has over 1,000 notes, which is a lot for a fanfiction on this site. Why? It's short, at just under two thousand words, it's angsty and it's fluffy, it has protective-and-self-sacrificing Virgil, protective light sides, vague and abusive dark sides (this was 2018, ok, the fandom was a very different place then), it has wings, and to top it all off it was actually based on fanart, this amazing workby @asofterfan who came up with all the wing designs and potential dynamics that the winged sides would have, I just took their vision and translated it to words. I kind of love that my most popular work is actually something that's collaborative in nature, I think it says something about the way fandom comes together as a community <3.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do! I used to not as often because I felt awkward, and I'm not gonna lie, I still do sometimes, but these days I try to respond when possible, because I really, really appreciate comments! They're absolutely everything as a creative.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I'm not really into angsty endings, very rarely do I leave something unhappy on purpose. Sometimes I start out with something unhappy, only to later go and add more fic to give it a happier ending. I'm Left in the Dark originally was a short prompt fill, chapter 1, but then I went back and wrote chapters 2 and 3 to resolve the plot.

All that to say, I think the angstiest ending out there is actually the ending of an instant of great white gravity, which is the first installment in a series I hope to write more for that I'm calling Before and After, though I haven't made it a series on AO3 yet. By it's very nature of being a prequel to the events of Who Killed Markiplier, the whole thing has big 'doomed by the narrative' energy, and even though not every fic will necessarily have a melancholy tone, great white gravity does, because it's about Will being too late to ask Celine out and having to live with watching her marry Mark instead, and about Damien watching the friend group he used to be able to count on be irrecoverably changed by this tension. Goooood angst, right there!

7. Do you ever write crossovers?

I do! Or, I've written one, at least. The Marvel AU isn't a recasting like most of my other AUs based on existing stories, the Marvel characters also exist and are in the story.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don't believe so, no! I've been very fortunate in that regard, the little hate I have received over the years has all been in my askbox directly, never in the comments of a fic that I can recall.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope! Sex-repulsed asexual over here, but y'all have fun in your corner of the internet!

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

To my knowledge/recollection, no, but I do know that someone reposted one of my fics on Wattpad once. They credited me as the author though, so I didn't ask them to take it down, but in general, I don't like it when people do that.

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Until the Sun Rises, a walking dead style zombie AU, is a collab with @buzz-by-bee, aka @a-valourous-choice, author of the To Build a Home series! We haven't updated it in a long time (oops) but it has a sideblog over on @until-the-sun-rises that has some pretty sweet fanart as well as all the content if you're interested!

You Don't Own Me (You Don't Even Know Me) also started out as a collab with @5-falsehoods-phonated, aka RoseyWinter on AO3, but he has since left the project and left me to finish our plan on my own (which I keep saying that I'll do and then not doing, whoops).

Also, I swear I've written a fic with @theinvisiblespoon, but maybe I'm just thinking of the hours we used to spend rp-ing and all the times we've talked about writing a more structured story together and then just never doing it (have you spotted the theme yet?)

12. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh gosh, that's so hard. Even back when I only wrote for One fandom I was a multishipper, and now I'm shipping in other fandoms? Too many good choices, how dare you make me choose. If I have to limit it to 5 all time favorites though... Analogical, Moxiety, LAMP, Kanej, and the Leverage OT3.

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Undertale! if you go waaay back on my AO3...or, you know, just click on the Undertale fandom link there, you can see the few works that I put out: a series of prompts for Cheer Up the Skeleton Week, an event focusing on depicting Sans as Happy for once, an OC self insert story that I quickly abandoned after a few chapters, and Your Fault, a piece about the multiverse breaking down that I'm still actually pretty proud of, all things considered.

14. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Oof, that may be the hardest yet. A Fiendly Reunion, because I actually finished it? A Sanders Carol, because it was my first ever Big Bang, and my first ever completed multi-chapter fic? The Secret History of the Invincible II, because it's new and exciting? They're Only Children because I have so many ideas for it? I honestly couldn't tell you. I love all of them, they're all very dear to me.

15. BONUS QUESTION: Do you have a WIP that haunts you?

Dude, all of them. If I've filtered things correctly on AO3, then of the 24 works in progress that I've started, only 9 are actually complete. That's 15 unfinished stories floating around in my mind, and I know it's actually at least 17, because there are two that show up as completed because I'm doing multiple single works in a series instead of chapters in a single work, so they look complete right now but I know that they're not, plus there's a few that never have been posted to begin with. SO many unfinished stories.

But the one that haunts me the most has to be Our Own Villain, because it is quite possibly my oldest wip, over 5 years old at this point, and it's still not finished but I want it to be so badly. Other wips I've kind of made peace with potentially not continuing, but I swear to god, OOV has to finish before I die, even if Sanders Sides as a show has changed so much since January of 2018 when I first had the idea that the whole premise is now fundamentally flawed, I just have to finish. It's my fanfiction white whale.

---

This was fun! If you've never read any of my work before (tho let's be real, if you made it this far you probably have), I do have a masterlist pinned right at the top of this blog that you can check out. Most of this post was sanders sides because it's what I've written the most of, but I'm actually focusing more on some in space with markiplier and six of crows stuff fic wise, as well as my own original writing. Thanks for reading, I'm not going to tag anyone specific since this challenge is so old. Any writer who sees this and wants to do it, go for it!

[lovethesagefan]

NEVER SAY NEVER!!!

I try real hard not to use the word "never" because once you say it, you will end up doing that thing to which you said you wouldn't do. Well, I fell victim again to it.

Five years ago, I walked down the steps of NCHS, turned in my keys, and swore I would never teach again...unless it was on some college campus.

I had left, probably the only job I ever love, due to uncomfortable attacks by El Diablo and an ailing mother. I will also admit I was burning out. i was out of gas. Removing my AP classes killed my motor.

Five years later found me motherless and living in the land of retirement. Of course retiring early had it perks, it also had its warts. You see, retiring early meant I didn't get my full pension. My expenses were still there. When my mother was alive, she made sure I received a supplement for leaving teaching to care for her. That ended in 2020.

So faced with more money going out than coming in, I looked for a teaching job that would allow me to stay home, not deal with the Horde, and keep my pension. I thought about some of the tutor programs online or teaching English to rich Chinese students. But I love teaching Social Studies! I did apply to the IRS, the last of my employer before I landed that first teaching job in Macon. But nothing was happening and I was hanging on by a thread. Life happens people. You can either sit back and let it swallow you up or you can get up, put on your serious clothes and fight back, even if it meant going back on a "never" situation.

I was once a sub, so I know the drill. Kids act up for subs, unless they have a teacher who put the fear of God in them. Like me! I knew I could sub and keep my pension. Now I also looked at the pay differential if I just walked back into the classroom. I still not quite sure which is giving me the most bang for the buck. Nevertheless, I decided I would do long term subbing on my terms. It would be middle school. I know what people say about middle students. Heck! I probably said most of it out loud myself. I chose not to go back to high school. Man! I love high schoolers. You can have real talk with them about their futures. The activities are there and you see your students through the years. And when they graduate and after the ceremony they come up to you and say "Mr. Norah, thank you for being such a great teacher!" It makes all the nonsense you have to put up with worth it. I am serious. I ran into a former student last week and was overjoyed when she saw me. I was told the student had been so excited to see me.

Middle school was where I really began teaching. I had a great crew in Griffin. Those days I will cherish til the day I die. The students were wonderful. The administration allowed us to try just about anything to raise student achievement. There was where I got most of my "daring". Kids never quite knew what to expect in Mr. Norah class.

So I hatched a scheme. I knew some people who I thought would look out for me. I would be a long term sub. With my certification, I would get much more money than an ordinary sub and keep my pension. I was all set until the county decided place someone in my slot. I could have gone elsewhere, but for personal reason, I owe a great debt that I had to pay. To keep me, I agreed to LT as a DES teacher, same room, same subject. You see, there were a greater issue.

My coming on board was not to just collaborate with the person in my slot. I was to be an anchor for 7th grade. The school had a lot of new teachers. They needed someone who could mold them. There is where I come in. There were 2 new social studies teachers. I mean spanking new. It took me almost 3 years to get a job, these guys are being hired right off the graduation stage. The grade level also needed that force to guide them.

Now believe me, it is not ME who thinks this. I am nothing of the sort. Despite my pleadings, people, students, administrators believe that I am some phenomenal educator along the line of Horace Mann and Mr. Chips. I am no such thing.

I will admit, I love teaching. I got that from my mother. She was always teaching us something whether we knew it or not. When I became a teacher, she would save stuff out of the newspaper whether it was for my grade or not. She saw that I loved teaching more than anything despite the problem I faced. It was in my blood. I was short a year from reaching the magic number of 30. That's when you get the full bag of coins. But now is it that important to get it? It is something that did nag at me over the years. Yes I was retired, but I didn't have 30 years. See other people even in other fields, retiring at 30 years. Plus when I retired, I was 55. I thought people retired in their 60s, got Social Security, and played golf. So what does one do?

Well I tell you. They go back to the one thing they know they can do or at least think they can do. And that is what I did. I returned to teaching via subbing. Now in my position as a DES teacher, I have a subset of students I am charged with being sure their needs are being met through modifications or making sure the child's needs are being served. I have no lesson plans, unless I am teaching, which I am still trying determine my relationship with my co-teacher. It's her room, her rules, and her students with the exception of my charges. As a veteran who always had a collaborative teacher in my class, I know I wouldn't single out the DES students. I would help everyone who ask, but I have to always make sure the DES children are being served.

Today was the first day of school. Kale decided that he wanted, nay, he needed to go out at 4 am, thus breaking my sleep. I get back to sleep but get up late. I slept through two alarms that I set. My fail safe, my sister, couldn't reach me which signaled I was dead to the world. She woke my cousin to wake me up. I got up and was out the door in time. I made it school on time forgetting that every child on God's green earth would be trying to get to school. No close parking for me.. But I made and I was energized like an atomic battery. My new teammates welcomed with open arms. The APs treaded lightly cause they know the wrong word would send Mr. Norah home.

The plan almost immediately went off the rails. The first block went of ok. Then because they needed a teacher in a class, I was the go to person. You see I was the anchor. So I took the job. I was in charge of a classroom of students for the first time in 5 years. I was afraid i had lost my touch, but there was still a little sparkle in hands. I was the entertainer. I told some of my stupid jokes. Students traditionally do not like the first day of school because they may not be with their friends. So I have to work to try to get them to see it will be ok. They can still have fun. Middle schoolers are so different. I played classical music. I talked about the composer and what the music was about. I told them I expected them to graduate. In a way, I told them I cared about them. Now many of them won't here that message, but the seed has been planted.

I am back home. I am told I will have to hold the fort down once again. I am a veteran warrior. I have the scars to prove it. I taught Crack babies of the 90s. I missed the Covid Kids but like a hurricane whose destruction comes in waves upon the shore, so is the problems with Covid. You know are so sweet. I will say what I think as if I am some great educator or philosopher and they are amazed. I am just me. But I digress. In one class, I had to transform back into the teacher because a student was chewing gum. I hate students chewing gum. It's the Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford hating wired hangers type of hate. It is because kids don't chew, they end up popping it or putting it under desks and table or the floor. So anyway, I told him to spit it out. A few minutes later, he had another piece. Now my 7th grade students knew I was one of the best gum finders in the world. I would catch the best of them. So on the first day, I had to call him out. I called him to the desk and just asked had he lost his mind? I just told him to spit the gum out and he had another piece. I told him if I even have to look at them with a suspicious eye, I will call his parents and no one like getting a parent phone call on the first day! You have to establish the ground rules. Now remember this wasn't my class. LOL! I was just covering it for the day. But these are kids on my team so I would be in contact with them on a daily basis.

On a whole the day was good. My sister said that school was my "happy place." I can't deny that. I think it was something I always knew. Students were my children. They feed me with their successes. Hearing about a student getting married, a new job, or just how happy they are in turn pump me up. I am serious. I can't explain it. These students I count as my own and they know it. Many will hit me up for advice. They may remember sitting in my classroom after school and picking my brain about some issue they are facing. I have children of my own, so I am not a father. But being a teacher, I guess, will have to be close enough.

Thus ends day one of a new journey. I do not know what will come of it. I do not know if I will survive it. Have I lost my touch? Will I jell with this team team whom I do not know? In this new role, can I still be effective? I do know I have made some fast friends who waves at me in the hallway and their face lights up when they come to class. I told myself not to enjoy this. I had the best time in 7th grade Griffin. Nothing can replace that. However, this is different, so don't compare...just enjoy!

[sketchbook-magic]

I was scrolling through my mom's Facebook to get reference photos for a gift I want to make her for mother's day next month and I found her post about an incident that barely anyone believes me when I tell them about it but now I got the receipts!

You may be asking yourself "what the heck is going on here? Why wouldn't people believe a story about a wreck?" WELL BUCKLE UP- pun unintended. So this happened to me around 7th grade, the year before I had broken my left leg in an unrelated incident due to slipping on a patch of ice after an ice storm and it was still healing so I needed a bit of extra time walking across the road in front of my house where my bus dropped me off in the afternoons. So I proceeded to do that as normal while my neighbor down the road who is BLIND was seen driving his white pickup truck, speeding (my neighborhood has a speed limit of 55 because it's a country highway passing around and into the nearby town so it's not urban enough for a lower speed limit), and doing literal zig zags on the road all caught on camera by another lady who was behind my bus who happened to have a dashcam. You may be asking why my blind neighbor was driving in the first place, well he's a cattle farmer and landlord and his son is a drug addict and his doctors forgot to revoke his license after diagnosing him as blind because he was elderly at that point and they thought he stopped driving two decades before this accident. Because his son was unreliable, he did most of the supply shopping for his farm or house maintenance. So anyways, my school's buses have a safety feature to let students know where a safe distance away from the bus is in case of rear accidents so they don't get hurt and it's in the form of a very long yellow stick/pole. And if you haven't taken physics before, basically with enough force, even the dullest of objects can impale something, and speeding over 55 mph is definitely enough force for a safety feature like that pole to impale someone. So the truck ended up hitting my bus as I was crossing the street and out of sheer luck, that pole missed me enough to only rip a hole in the front of my jeans. Had I been further along, reminder that I already had a broken leg which made me slow, that pole would've impaled straight into my broken leg and right leg which would have caused me to lose my leg entirely. I was so close to the pole when the wreck happened that my bus driver was shielding kids' eyes as they got off the bus because he expected to find a bloody scene next to the exit of the bus and he didn't want to traumatize the preschoolers. I've never seen this man panic in my life up to that point so it scared the absolute shit out of me. So after that the school and police had me and the other kids on my bus crowd around my driveway to give witness statements while my neighbor had to be cut out of his car. The school got there before the cops did because my bus driver was convinced I was brutally injured before he exited the bus so they were speeding to damage control and limit any lawsuits because my mom's Latin and has a reputation at my school for being one of those moms so they were terrified of what she would do. But yeah, no one ever truly believed the story of me almost getting impaled by a school bus but now I have proof so suck it!