#So that's why I've mostly shared exercises

[artvaris]

Hey not sure if you mentioned it before but do you have like a workout you do? just in general <- nb masc who would like to try working out again lol, ANYWAY YOU LOOK SUPER COOL BYE

Hey! Thank you so much for your kind words! I haven't shared a detailed weekly routine, but I've basically done a full-body workout 2 times per week at the gym since January, especially focusing on strengthening my upper body. I shared some of my favorite upper body exercises a while back on Bsky, so I'll attach the full post here as well, maybe some of it is useful to you! But I'll also attach this list of exercises I also shared on Bsky back then! (With a few additions) The full Bluesky thread is here My favorite upper body & arm exercises Home Bodyweight: ✦ Push-ups (I started with knee push-ups and did those for months) ✦ Tricep dips (you can use a couch etc) ✦ Planks (Forearm, straight arm, shoulder tap, mountain climber) Gym: ✦ Chest press ✦ Single-arm cable rows ✦ Bicep curls (regular and hammer) ✦ Shoulder press (dumbbells) ✦ Lat pulldown ✦ Upright rows ✦ Pec and Rear fly ✦ Prone IYT arm raises I wish you lots of gains on your journey!

[compress1repress]

procrastinating so here are some ramblings about sci-fi/horror tropes I would link the challengers trio with

art - I actually think art being a werewolf would be very thematically interesting to me, because he's all about repression and passivity I think it would be fun if every full moon he literally can't control himself so all his passivity is thrown out the window and he becomes a wretched aggressive beast and he would feel so much shame about it <3 also he would love to be self pitying over it too. he already walks around like ughhh im so doomed due to my curse #mycurse ... and so this would just exaggerate that (some of this stuff could work with a vampire thing and i know a lot of people talk about vampire art but I just think werewolf art would be more interesting even just visually, like his obsession with shaving takes on a whole new meaning. and also he's more about 'loyalty' than isolation I think. he's always latching on to someone).

patrick - ok this one is kind of obvious but patrick is SO haunted I can't help but make it literal. patrick + ghosts = yayyy <3 i just think he holds onto the past and has never in his life moved on, so that manifesting as him seeing an actual ghost (or ghosts) would be fun!! especially bc on the surface he's egotistical, selfish, self-centred etc but underneath he holds onto everything so tightly, and the guilt clings onto him, and he can't just shake it off, and the feelings won't go away and he is deeply (almost gothically) romantic in this sense. also thematically it's an interesting look at his flaws, his impulsiveness and sense that he can do whatever he wants bc nothing matters, whilst surrounded by these lingering reminders of pain that prove things do matter, and then he realises that in some ways the ghosts reflect himself!! just stuck in this miserable limbo with unfinished business, and without the tools to fix anything and move on. except he does have the tools but he still won't actually make any meaningful change (him seeing Tashi through the window in Atlanta and she's engaged now and Art is doing better than ever at tennis and Patrick is just stood there in the same outfit that Tashi last saw him in... he genuinely could've been a ghost at that point!!). i enjoy the ghosts as representing him BEING haunted yet also him DOING the haunting bc he has become a ghost himself essentially. he has to hurry up and DO something while he's still got life in him. change something (make the throuple happen yay)

tashi - ok she is why I made this post in the first place so it may be long but omggg Tashi and the clone/double/doppelganger trope would be sooooo interesting. I think identity is such an important theme with tashi, and also something she is very aware of. she knows she has to present in a certain way, and probably self-polices a lot, to the point where in some ways it does feel like there are two of her, the version she knows, and the version presented in society (shout out w.e.b du bois double consciousness), so to physically and literally manifest that in the form of a clone would be fascinating. also through a disability lens there is a certain sense that becoming disabled feels like having a new body, and (at least from my perspective) there can sometimes be an out of body type experience with that as you adjust to a different body physically, and a different self too (just to add, i am not saying this is necessarily negative either). so again tashi's link with versions of the self make the idea of a double sound so interesting. clone narratives often brings up the question of who is the 'real' version and who is the copy, or a fear of being replaced by a copy, which are all questions about the self and identity, what makes us ourselves, and which parts are the most important. I imagine tashi ruminates on this sort of thing quite often, especially post injury with the readjusting of her identity after that. how she has to create another version of herself essentially bc the sport she formed her identity around will no longer accommodate her. tennis won't change to fit her new shape (:/) so she must find a way to change her shape so that she can still participate somehow (creating another self = clone moment)... anyway I think a clone would be a point of anxiety and fear yet also could be very cathartic for her. the end.

[andy-wm]

Jeju: Are you Sure?

Because I am not

I've had this post rattling around in my drafts for months. Every time I go back to it I think to myself.... @curio-queries has probably covered this territory already ... but I can't let it go.

lt's all about the last day of the Are You Sure Jeju trip.

Episode 5 - Day 3.

That's when Tae goes off to 'exercise' early in the morning.

But does he really go on Day 3?

Absolutely nothing in that episode makes sense.

It's stitched together like Frankenstein's monster, and riddled with so many inconsistencies that I can only assume there was no Day 3.

My suspicions started with JK supposedly cooking stew for everyone on Day 3 when they return from lunch at Danso.

Except clearly he didn't cook on Day 3...because the boardshorts are all hanging neatly on their hangers... where they were on Day 1.

Not only that, but the drinks they bought at the Coffee Bean drive through in Aewol (or new, identical drinks) are on the kitchen counter.

It's possible they stopped at the Coffee Bean again on their way back from lunch at Danso, but how does that explain the board shorts?

The staff don't tidy up after them, that much is clear. And if there was a housekeeping service I can't understand why they'd pick up the board shorts, hang them exactly as they were on Day 1, and leave the rest of the house looking like its been burgled.

Tae is shown quietly leaving the house to play golf. But when JK and Jimin go downstairs, we're obviously watching footage from a different day:

There are new, different drinks - only TWO cups of a blue/green colour - on the kitchen counter. And the boardshorts (worn the previous night) are on their hangers. So when the heck was THAT filmed? Day 1?

Top: Tae leaves - morning of Day 3. No boardshorts. No green drinks. Suitcases & backpack.

Bottom: Jk and Jimin go downstairs - morning of Day 3 (?) Boardshorts on hangers.... the same boardshorts they theoretically wore the night before in the pool. Green drinks on kitchen counter. Suitcases in different positions. Etc.

There are many other inconsistencies...

Jimin and JK are going to meet Tae for Iunch. Jimin dresses and styles his hair but then appears downstairs wearing different clothes and a different hairstyle.

Are You Sure both of these are the morning of Day 3?

Incidentally, Jungkook rolls out of bed and sits on the sofa for a moment before hassling Jimin - who is showered and mostly dressed - to get moving.

Why?

Are they late for lunch? If so, how? They've had ALL MORNING...

Asking for a friend 👀

Tae washed up before bed the night before, and then Jimin styles his hair in the same space the next morning... but the space looks completely different.

In just about every shot there are inconsistencies with the luggage, scatrered belongs, their clothing, etc.

Why is one of the two pink toothbrushes still in its packaging? Who's sharing a toothbrush?

(I'll give you 3 gesses haha)

Whose toothbrush lies on the kitchen counter for most of the 3 episodes?

How did Jimin get that injury under his chin?

Did they think we wouldn't notice?

And speaking of luggage...

Why the massive discrepancy in size between Jimin and Jungkook's luggage and Tae's luggage? Jikook's suitcases are HUGE. How much longer are the two of them staying?

The bed Jimin slept in is miraculously made up when JK staggers out of bed. And we know Jimin (aka Mr Floordrobe) well enough to know he didn't make that bed.

Another aside...

JK doesnt even wash his face or fix his hair before leaving for the restaurant 🤦‍♂️🤣.

He stumbles out of bed and rolls around on the floor downstairs, (or does he? No cups of green drink in that bit of footage). Then he suns his back, sprays himself with cologne, and puts on a face mask. Thats it.

They return from Danso and this is where we're shown the footage of JK cooking.

Tae has gone upstairs to sleep before the other two even enter the house. Seems strange but okay.

But why does he not sleep in his own bed from the night before? Why does he choose the bed Jimin was supposed to have slept in?

So many questions!

This whole episode feels like it was put together by a dodgy Al.

Superficially it follows an arc but visually it's a six-fingered hand. It's so full of holes that it almost seems like they're messing with us.

It can't just be slapdash editing. There has to be a reason for it.

Maybe they had to manufacture an extra episode to make up for a lack of usable material in the US?

That's the only thing that makes sense

But then I think back to jikooks' enormous luggage.

Were they really only there for 2 days?

Surely not??

I honestly don't understand. I have no idea what was happening here.

It's so distracting!!

All I know is I can't watch that episode without my brain splitting itself in two so that one half can add to the list of discrepancies while I try to just enjoy the fun moments with the other half.

And now you can all go back and watch again and be distracted by those details as well.

You're welcome!! 🤣

[citrustan]

Hey, Citrus!! I miss seeing your stories and posts on the tl! Do you have a "love-daze" update for us? 🤤

hi!!! thank youuu wee i thought you'd never ask wink wink. this is a follow up to love-daze (myg) so please read that first!!

love-daze (myg) #2

title: only when no one's looking

pairing: yoongi x reader

genre: unrequited love (but is it....?) n friends to lovers but yoongi's a tad uneasy because well yk

warnings: you and yoongi run into a little problem. a little heavier on the angst this time! non linear storytelling, lmk if you find it confusing because this was written in a haste.

"I have a problem," you say, mostly to yourself.

Nini just happens to be in the room. She looks at you intently, waiting for an explanation.

You debate whether or not this problem is even worth discussing. On one hand, you already have the solution but won't exercise it, but on the other, whining about it will certainly make you feel a lot better. But do you deserve that relief?

“It’s kind of complicated,” you murmur, more to buy time than anything.

You're now dating dating Yoongi. Technically. Emotionally. Exclusively. But only in private. Because Yoongi refuses to be open about it as to lessen his ex's pain. (But, in turn, he's risking yours.)

It's not like you're dying to be out and about, paraded around as his girlfriend, but when he goes out of his way to protect his ex's feelings, it stings.

"Yoongi won't date me openly," you blurt, "-because his ex is in the same friend circle, and I'm kind of over it." It comes out more blunt than you intended.

You don't know how she'll handle this. You could have worded that better though.

She sinks into the couch, next to you, giving you her undivided attention. She squints for second, trying to remember where she saw Yoongi.

Jennie (or Nini) moved in only two weeks ago, so she has limited knowledge of your life.

Yeah, yeah, point and laugh. You're a grown woman with a roommate. It's a tough economy. Teaching doesn't pay your bills anymore. You had to find a side gig, and this is it. Renting.

Pride took a back seat somewhere around your third bounced paycheck.

"Yoongi's your boyfriend?" She looked surprised, finally connecting the name to the face.

"I mean, kind of. We've never really discussed it in that many words." You pause. "We're only dating each other right now, isn't that all that counts?"

"Yeah, more or less, yes." Nini nods along before adding, "But I still don't see the issue. If you're secure, why does it matter whether or not you're openly secure? I mean, if I were in your shoes, I'd be lowkey too."

TLDR: I'd keep my head down if I were you.

That irritates you more than you'd like to admit.

"No, but you don't know..." You trail off, sighing. You hope this doesn't turn into an argument. "I know it sounds bad right now, but this has been a long time coming." You sounded like you were convincing yourself.

"Yoongi and I were friends first. I've always liked him. She knew it too. Everyone did."

Nini's eyes widen, "Oh! Sure, that makes sense. I mean making the moves on your friend's ex is a little..." She smiles awkwardly, "I mean, I'm not judging."

You felt the need to defend your choices, "I didn't make moves on him. Yoongi came to me. And Sera isn't really a friend, she never was. We were friendly but that's it. We've never been anything more than convenient company to each other."

You feel crazy trying to explain yourself to an almost-stranger.

Jennie shook her head in reassurance, "I get it! I'm not attacking you, I'm just... You know, sharing my perspective."

You throw a beady-eyed glance at her, trying to figure out if she hates you yet. Because that was the reaction you had gotten from most of your friends. Her friends.

They couldn't stop talking about it when they saw you kissing Yoongi at some deli.

Once, someone spotted you at a dinner date and actually went as far as to take pictures of you.

Obviously, they circulated back to the two of you.

Yoongi wasn't pleased.

Another time, you and Yoongi ran into Sera and her best friend at a Claire's.

That was the last place you expected Sera to be at.

You had only wanted to find a cheap belly button ring.

How was that the first time you came into contact after the break-up? At a Claire's?

You should've accepted Yoongi's offer to buy you a custom made ring. But he wanted to take you to Swarovski. And you thought they were a scam. You could get the same quality of stuff for way lesser at other places.

You tried to pretend to not have seen them but then she greeted you while her friend glared at you.

Which obviously made you look insanely rude.

But hello? Wasn't it an unwritten rule for the ex to not acknowledge the new girl? Or were you just childish?

You awkwardly force a smile.

The four of you just stood there. In the middle of a Claire's. All staring at each other waiting for someone to make a move.

Was Sera actually that nice and unbothered? You don't know. But, her sidekick sure wasn't.

And exactly at that moment, Sera decided it was too difficult for her to deal coming face-to-face with her ex and his new flame and excuses herself, dramatically (intentionally or not, it was dramatic) turning away and storming off.

But the cherry on top was Yoongi's reaction.

Instead of calming you down, he went after Sera! And she didn't even look half as frazzled as you did!

Yoongi's legs automatically moved to chase after her.

And, you get it. Fair enough.

Because love doesn't just go poof and disappear. And with Yoongi and Sera--- whatever anyone thinks about them now--- had once been in love. For a long while at that.

It must've been insanely difficult and hellish for them to have to move on from something like this.

So, you really don't blame him for running after her.

Connections don't always break cleanly.

It's just... You wish you didn't feel like collateral damage here.

Like do you think you'd do the same if she was your ex? Yes, probably.

Was it embarrassing for you? Also, yes.

Still, you wished Yoongi had asked your permission or at least glanced at you, just once, to make sure YOU were okay.

But you were left alone with Sera's friend.

She shot you the nastiest stink-eye the entire time Yoongi and Sera chatted on the side.

It was nearly barbaric. It was as if she was trying to overpower you in some way.

Shivers.

That look made you want to hide behind your hands or something. It sucked.

Everyone gave you the look. The 'oh, she swooped in like a vulture' look, that 'there goes the homewrecker' look.

You awkward shifted your weight from one foot to another.

These heels were killing your soles. Yoongi told you to wear walking shoes but you were confident you wouldn't need them.

You looked everywhere but at her. And you still felt her eyes burning holes into your head. Like she was trying to decipher your thoughts.

When Yoongi and Sera rejoined you, they were closer in proximity.

You don't think too much of it. You're just glad your boyfriend's back.

Yoongi instantly wraps his large hand around yours, gently stroking it with his thumb. You look up at him with a small smile.

"Um... _____, I'll see you around more I hope?" Sera's voice broke your little moment.

What the hell had they talked about?

Pleasantly surprised, you just nod slightly. You'd like that actually.

"That would be... Good." You agree. A bit more genuinely this time.

Sera's friend also toned it down after getting a little elbow from Sera.

The two women then bid goodbye, leaving you and Yoongi alone again.

You look at Yoongi who's already gazing down at you, "Still wanna look through the Claire's catalogue?"

No, you think. You're actually done with Claire's now.

As if he read your mind, he pulled you in closer and you let him guide you whenever. Preferably to the nearest Swarovski.

Whatever the hell happened there with Sera, you're grateful for.

He took really good care of you later that evening.

But from that day onwards, you noticed he had pulled back from you significantly, all under the guise of being overworked.

You're a teacher. You get it. Overworking, that too without pay, is, like, part of your job description. Yet, you make time for Yoongi.

But all he ever wanted lately was to hang out at his place. He'd come over only when Jennie wasn't home.

He made you feel like you had to hide your relationship. As if you were doing something shameful.

Nini shifts next to you on the couch. She's still quiet, probably turning it all over in her head.

You pick at a loose thread on your sleeve.

"Do you still want to be with him?" She finally asks, soft but cautiously.

The question catches you off guard. It’s not an accusation. It’s not even advice. It’s just… a question.

Wasn't it already apparent that you did?

Of course, you want to be with Yoongi. It's all you've wanted for months. Nothing has changed about that.

With a voice barely above a whisper, you frown, "I really do."

Jennie doesn’t say anything at first. She just nods like she's trying to convince herself.

"You don’t have to figure it all out right now," she says, "But you shouldn’t have to shrink to be with someone."

You raise your chin a little. Hm. True.

Feeling satisfied by your reaction, Jennie grins and pats your head, "I'm gonna go now. Won't be back until tomorrow... After breakfast?" She looks to you for an answer.

"Um... No, yeah ok." You don't know if Yoongi would stay over after the conversation you were gonna have with him. "Actually, whenever is fine. I dunno."

Jennie raises an eyebrow at your waffling, but doesn’t press. She just stands, stretches, and gathers her things into her canvas tote. You hadn't even noticed her stuff around.

"Okay then. I’ll assume brunch. Or post-brunch," she says with a wink, already halfway to the door. "Text me if you need anything. Or if you want me to fake an emergency call and drag you out mid-convo."

You nod with a little smirk.

She lingers a second longer at the threshold, like she’s debating whether to say more.

"Just… don’t let him confuse you into thinking this is what love’s supposed to look like, okay?"

She looks at you pointedly, waiting for a response.

"I won’t."

She smiles. Then she’s gone.

You check your phone. Five unread messages from Yoongi, all within the last thirty minutes.

[5] unread messages.

yoonie bby: Thinking about you. Can't focus.

yoonie bby: Wanna be inside you already. Miss your mouth.

yoonie bby: Also your pretty laugh.

yoonie bby: Should I cook or bring food?

yoonie bby: Your favourite cheesecake secured BTW. Can't wait to hold my sweet girl tonight.

You stare at the screen for a moment. Your stomach flips, as always. He’s so filthy and considerate in the same breath. He's so Yoongi.

You lock your phone and let your head fall back against the couch cushion, reminding yourself that you were still upset at this situation.

note: okayyy sooo i decided to drop this as an apology for my lack of posting in the recent months soooo do tell me what you think of this :) thanks for reading!

[bladedweaponsandswishycoats]

Justice in the Dark and the Art of Translating Vibes (or: Why the drama's kabedon (ep. 18) is actually the novel's car kiss (ch. 75-76))

I've been mostly burying myself in the material rather than reading what anyone is saying on social media but @lunarriviera said I should share this, so here goes.

I really like the way the creators of Justice in the Dark worked really hard to translate emotional beats and preemptively plan for censorship, and I think it does something interesting because it moves parallel moments around to where they need to be given the exercise in translation that an adaptation must perform.

Spoilers for both Modu and Justice in the Dark versions below!

The main one I want to talk about here is the kabedon/wall slam that takes place when they go to investigate the crime scene where Feng Bin was killed.

Obviously, the scene as it appears in the book at that moment in the plot would not have made it into the drama in a million years, even if censorship wasn't the way it is:

So it is a given that there was not going to be an interrupted wallfuck in the drama, and the creators were well aware of that. In many dramas, the usual thing to do would be to say "well, we'll try and do as much as we can, perhaps a generous shove would be allowed."

But JitD didn't do this. Instead they looked into the origin of the interaction and considered where the characters stand at this point.

Previously, a similar divergence already occurred at the point of the car kiss/Fei Du passing out at the front door that happens in episode 13 after having gotten dehydrated and low blood sugar from being sick in the aftermath of Zhou Huaixin's stabbing. The kiss, likewise, could never have been shown in this particular reality. To compensate, the creators of the drama made Fei Du's state during the car ride worse, and likewise heightened the severity of the reaction when it happens.

First with the car ride, in which Fei Du is arguably worse off in the drama. (And I really recommend rewatching this bit, both for the filming and the incredible music they gave this little mini-montage):

Then when Fei Du collapses, in the drama they make him actually fully fall unconscious:

The novel version, Fei Du IS out of sorts, and the general progression is the same, but they do also make out in the car before Fei Du gets out and I think it is reasonable to say on that basis that he's not quite as obviously out of it as in the drama. Likewise, he never fully passes out:

So what happened here is that the creators turned it to their advantage; recognizing they can't have the kiss, they decided to crank up the angst/whump and make Fei Du even more messed up (which, let's be honest, is almost as good). What's more, it is an option that was not available if they had been able to do the kiss. So, in a sense, they have adapted to their constraints and provided us with a "two cakes" option.

This is a good example of what I mean by the translation/substitution. Another one is the way they substitute the flashback childhood fever scene since they cannot do the forehead kiss in the very next set of scenes. But I think folks have probably talked about that already, and it's not the one I really wanted to get to.

So now for that: the kabedon at the start of case 4 (or Verhovensky/Doestoevsky/the Yufen School case, whatever we're calling it). This was the passage I quoted at the start of this post, and it, like the car kiss, could never have appeared in the drama.

And here the drama team again did a translation, but in this case it takes into account not just the novel parallel at this moment in the case/plot, but also the relationship progression for each the novel and drama.

Specifically, in the drama, as stated, there was no car kiss. In addition, the novel sequence puts two other important and relevant sequences between the car kiss and this scene: Fei Du's first and second nights out of the hospital. The first night is the one that involves blanket-burrito Fei Du being handcuffed to the bed and the non-consensual hairdrying (glorious moment), the second involves their first fuck, which takes place the next night, after Fei Du has gotten up for water and interrupted Luo Wenzhou reading Lao Yang's testament, and Luo Wenzhou telling Fei Du that he can't explain everything to him yet, so please give him a few days. I won't go into the excellent translations that do occur in the drama condensed single night of that sequence, but suffice to say, when drama Luo Wenzhou wakes up covered in photographs from Luo Guosheng's crimes 20 years ago and Tao Ran's urgent call, in the novel he's waking up in Fei Du's arms. And so later when Zhoudu are going to the Lovers' Mirror on the crime scene date, this is the first date after the first fuck—in the novel.

Meanwhile, in the drama, there has instead been much yearning and a sleepless night where I am certain they were both horribly desperately wishing they were in bed with the other—but they weren't. (Aside: yes I do also love the other interpretation that the filmmakers were gesturing towards them being together with overlapping cinematic effects, but I'm setting that aside for now, what can I say, I like multiple interpretations, I contain multitudes etc.) Thus this moment is not the same moment as it is when it happens in the novel.

What moment is it?

It's the car kiss.

As far as the relationship beats, Zhoudu are still at the heightened point of tension without much physical contact that their novel versions were at during the car kiss.

And that—that kiss was initiated by Fei Du.

(Aside: yes, I also agree with the perspective that Fei Du was trying to get rid of him so he could go have some quality basement time, and he knew that kissing him would make Luo Wenzhou aroused and flustered and furious—and probably he'd storm off. But people can have multiple motivations and he DID want to kiss him too.)

Anyway it is here (apologies for the long screencap):

What does that sound like?

Yep. This is actually the car kiss.

Tbh I don't care at all who tops and I think it is a boring thing to argue about, but I started thinking about this because I was wondering what the writers in the drama were doing and at first glance this was a surprising scene if watched with the novel equivalent in mind. I was convinced that there's no intentional choice made to invert/reverse anything, because in all other matters the creators have been paying an incredible amount of attention to trying to follow the novel in spirit and vibes even when they cannot do so literally. So why would this suddenly be an outlier?

And thus my proposed answer: It's not. It's absolutely in line with the translation strategy they've been pursuing in other scenes previously, but it is complicated by the divergence in relationship progression between drama and novel, the consequence of which its equivalent emotional/horny moment falls at a different plot moment.

The drama kabedon is the novel car kiss, not the novel kabedon.

[valleyfthdolls]

1980s mode redesigns & rewrites based on my own rewrite ideas and ideas I've been sharing with and obtaining from a friend (whose tumblr I forgot I'm so sorry)

Info under the cut, as usual:

Ryoko Mitarai (later Ryoko Aishi):

A serial killer. Largely disregards the safety of those around her, and doesn't care much about anything that's not her senpai.

Dresses in shibuya casual/shibukaji inspired fashion. Perms her hair.

Mostly the same as canon.

Kaguya Wakaizumi:

Social, but feels as if she doesn't fit in with the popular girls she wants to fit in with (the rainbow girls). Feminine and likes cutesy, Seiko Matsuda-inspired clothing.

Speaking of Seiko Matsuda-inspired, she wears her hair in a Seiko-chan cut.

The second of Ryoko's victims. Stabbed in the back after being tricked and isolated by Ryoko. This incident made it clear to the police that there was a serial killer at the academy.

Moeko Rakuyona:

A rule-breaker and regular petty criminal with a tomboyish personality who feels more comfortable being around guys and perceived as a guy. Hangs out with the popular boys/Jokichi's friend group (the rainbow boys), but feels like they see her as the girl of the group.

Wears pants instead of the uniform's skirt despite it violating the school rules. They're also not uniform pants, just some white pants she picked up at the store.

Cut her own hair short after accidentally burning it.

Died in a burning "accident" after losing control of a fire she had started thanks to Ryoko's interference.

Honami Hodoshima:

Suffers from severe social anxiety, to the point of struggling to form words when speaking to others. Despite this, she is very lonely, and wishes she had more friends.

Very easy to scare, which Ryoko used against her.

After encouraging another student to befriend her, Ryoko began anonymously threatening Honami to stay away from Jokichi, causing her to become panicky and paranoid until she confided in her new friend, which caused the situation to become publicly known and a bit of a scandal that someone was threatening the girls Jokichi was getting close with.

Sumiko Tachibana:

Considers herself rather feminine, despite her generally "boyish" hobbies of sports and exercising. A member of the school's track team.

Owns Mizuno brand sport gear (like her socks). Also, apparently, the gym uniform was a real type of gym uniform worn at high schools up until about the 2000s.

Often pushes her lifestyle onto others because she thinks it's best for everyone.

Has freckles and tan skin from being outside so much.

Extremely dedicated to her goals of being an athlete.

Died of heart failure during a track event after a week of having her food repeatedly poisoned with heart medication and blood thinners.

Ritsuko Chikanari:

Rich, bratty, and extremely entitled. Believes that she is entitled to everyone's time and admiration, especially Jokichi's due to her romantic interest in him.

Spends time around the other popular and rich girls, though most of them don't like her very much due to her personality.

Died in an "accident", the details of which are largely unclear. Her former friends largely seemed to feel responsible for what happened- it seeming to have happened, in their eyes, as a result of a confrontation- and as such, the police had a hard time gathering an unbiased report.

Ai Doruyashi:

A junior city pop idol. Positive and girly with a very childish attitude, though it's hard to tell how much of it is her idol persona and how much is her actual personality.

Just like Sumiko, extremely dedicated to her goals of being a pop idol, to the point of changing her entire personality and appearance for it.

Pushed to pursue a relationship with a member of the martial arts club instead of Jokichi.

Why Ryoko felt no need to kill or even harm/humiliate her or damage her reputation, I'm not yet sure.

Teiko Nabatasai:

Loves learning, the pursuit of knowledge, and sharing her knowledge and work. Extremely motivated with very high intelligence.

An aspiring novelist with goals of becoming widely known for her writing.

Dresses a bit like a schoolteacher, and is teased for it by her friends.

Expelled from the academy thanks to Ryoko's sabotage. While of course survivable and something Teiko could and did recover from, it was a distressing and humiliating loss of both her social circle and her academic standing, and that was Ryoko's main goal- to humiliate her.

Komako Funakoshi:

The most popular girl at school. Wants to make others happy and do the right thing at all times. Many people at school see her as "ideal wife" material, while those with no romantic interest in her simply enjoy her presence.

Jokichi is probably one of the many who views her as "ideal wife" material, a fact she is generally unaware of at the beginning of her week.

Instead of killing her or turning her friends/admirers against her, Ryoko ends up doing something genuinely difficult for her: she tells Komako about the way her reputation leads her to be viewed by boys, and that Jokichi only sees her as the perfect housewife, not as a potential friend. Uncomfortable with this revelation, Komako asks Ryoko for help in essentially reverse-matchmaking them- crafting ways for Jokichi to see Komako's flaws and the ways their interests and goals don't align until he's no longer interested in her, as his illusion of her perfection has been broken.

Probably is rather fond of Ryoko after her week, but wouldn't speak out against murder charges against her on the basis of "she helped me get this guy I wasn't especially interested in off my back".

Chigusa Busujima:

Flirty, a bit "seductive", and tends to tease others. Also, willing to hurt and put the people around her down for the benefit of her career and fame.

As a model whose target audience is mostly fellow teenagers (and mainly teen boys), getting into a relationship or explicitly pursuing someone else would damage her image as it would break some of the "fantasy" that she was advertised with, so she courts Jokichi secretly- it's only because Ryoko stalks him that she finds out.

Framed as the person who threatened Honami into staying away from Jokichi, causing Jokichi to lose interest in/respect for and be creeped out by her, damaging her reputation at school, and even causing her image as a model to take a hit due to the scandal.

Sonoko Sakanoue:

A year younger than the rest of class 2-2. Skipped ahead a grade in junior high.

Well-respected at school for her sigma male grindset dedication to her job as a junior detective and her duty of protecting her classmates and finding the killer of Sumire, Kaguya, Moeko, Sumiko, and Ritsuko. Has eyes on both Chigusa (as a result of the "threatening Honami" scandal) and Ryoko (because her mentor believes it was her).

Stoic, intelligent, and very serious.

Put in debt to Ryoko using her fear of getting hurt or getting others hurt through her job, which she used to manipulate her into knowingly botching the murder investigation, twisting the facts to make it look like her mentor was framing Ryoko, and testifying on her behalf in court.

She carries that guilt with her years later. It never really goes away. No matter how many people she helps now, she still thinks about them.

Sumire Saitozaki:

A shy, timid girl prone to getting scared and crying when upset. A bit childish, but some find that endearing about her.

Naively considers most of her classmates friends.

Gets her red hair from her mother's side, dark skin from her father's.

Ryoko's first victim. Her spirit still haunts the school, and the incidents that followed gave her "power".

Though not fully aware or capable of much, Sumire's anger causes the school's environment to become oppressive, dangerous and malicious. Her presence is the reason people are always turning to look over their shoulders, finding a reason to look at someone funny no matter how small, forming cliques and gangs to defend themselves and each other from the threats of school life, and even capable of being driven to violence over emotional matters.

Jokichi Aishi:

One of the most popular boys at school. Widely admired and has lots of friends.

Generally not especially serious, and tends to play off when he feels awkward (which, due to his lack of experience in a lot of fields, is often).

Plays fast and loose with romance (again, as a cover for awkwardness). Would probably have gone out with any of the rivals who asked him to. Would have even gone out with Ryoko, if she'd only tried even a little bit to court him in the weeks leading up to her attempted confession. And also, if she hadn't gotten arrested and taken to court for like five counts of murder.

To be honest, despite Ryoko's acquittal, he probably wouldn't have ever been able to get past that. Sort of like Ryoba says at the end of 1980s mode- he'd never be able to see her as the cute underclassman who has a crush on him, only as the girl who was accused of murder on national television. But also, not just accused of murder- accused of murder on behalf of an obsession with Jokichi, and of stalking him. The murder alone would've been too much to ever be able to go out with her, but everything related to him in the case was so much he probably wouldn't have been able to look at her or be in the same room as her until graduation.

Kidnapped by Ryoko after the trial. Both Sonoko and Sonoko's mentor are quite sure they know where he ended up, Sonoko never contacted the police about it, and when her mentor did, he was threatened with arrest for harassing Ryoko.

[televisionenjoyer]

if you're okay with sharing, what made you quit terfism??

I'M TOTALLY OKAY WITH SHARING I think it's kind of a funny story. After I got out of high school sometime within my first year of college I became a bit of a butch. Due to my natural fallout with my radfem high school friends I wasn't actively militating with other radfems (aside from like basic feminist activism like marching for abortion and on 8M) but I still shared their beliefs and considered myself terf adjacent. Anyways so. I guess butch me looked very boyish because people started misgendering me a lot and I guess I just sort of accepted it and one day I was like wait. Who even cares. Like why does any of this even matter to anyone. So I sat down and analyzed it in my head and realized the same ideals that had first drawn me to radical feminism (the abolition of gender roles, the idea that you could present yourself however you wanted without it defining you) were the same that my colleagues contradicted in order to shame and call out trans people and once again I was like. WHO THE FUCK EVEN CARESSS like suddenly the whole exercise seemed pointless. So I just stopped.

There wasn't much tying me to it anyways tbh, my radfem friends had become distant, I could always remake my tumblr blog, etc. And I also never had a predisposition to try and clock people on their transness. I never cared much about the transphobic stuff. I just rocked with the idea that your genitals didn't define who you had to be or how you had to dress or anything. And I found that in practice other feminist branches actually lived by this while respecting people's pronoun preferences and their identities and. It was pretty much a no brainer. I couldn't tell you exactly when that shift happened. Just did one day.

btw radical feminism isn't just about gender essentialism. there's a bunch of other ideas I've grown to disagree with, mostly regarding sex work. but I figure this is the stuff y'all are most curious about. i'm also not a butch anymore sadly.

[openphrase123]

hey hi hi i've read everything of curtain call (except, obviously, what hasn't been posted yet) and i HAVE to ask you to share your lost country/skywatcher language thoughts so i can devour them immediately please.

hiiiiiiii so like 90% of the language worldbuilding i did for curtain call was like. very simple sentences and words since i didn't want to make an entire conlang for this fanfiction. what i have written in-fic would fall apart in two seconds if i tried to expand it to any of the lines outside of what i wrote. HOWEVER i have a lot of thoughts about how it WOULD work if it had the capacity to expand outward

putting under a readmore both for curtain call spoilers and because this is going to get long and insufferable for anyone except ME

also if you're not reading curtain call. this is still a fun little analysis about how siffrin's native language influences their behavior. you might have fun with it wheeeee just know that the actual language i'm talking about is not canon. i made it up.

disclaimer: i speak a couple of languages but my knowledge of languages is VERY limited to what i know. so you're going to see a lot of instances of me calling back to japanese or other english dialects. other languages exist and also have these features but i'm just not gonna say anything if i'm not sure of what i'm saying. if you are interested in these concepts in a more academic setting i am NOT the place to find that

second disclaimer: in curtain call, the name for qilaksut comes from greenlandic/kalaalisut which is an endangered indigenous language. this is an open invitation to go learn who, historically, lived in and supported the land you're living on. consider supporting them whatever way you can.

number ONE. dude is it that serious??

nah.

again, i built this for like ten sentences out of a 100k+ fic. so like. there's some inconsistencies, there's some weird stuff. and i know i could have just written all of the curtain call qilaksut in english but italicized, there would have been nothing wrong with that. but i did not because i thought it would be a good exercise in character exploration

because the language you speak has some measure of how you act and carry yourself in the world. (sorry elizabeth if you're reading this. i'm not going full noam chomsky i swear i don't believe in linguistic determinism i'm using this as a literary device) and since siffrin is the only speaker of the forgotten language we see (loop never engages with that in-game as much) and i was a little bit like. okay. why is he like that. how much of that is siffrin and how much of that is the home they don't know

in odile's friendquest she remarks that she only finds similarity in herself within vaugarde because vaugarde is so welcoming to travelers. however odile never went to vaugarde until she was an adult - siffrin presumably lived on the island until he was a teenager, and your personality is fairly Formed by then (at least enough for people to put iterations on it in adulthood) so as much as i could have gone the route of "siffrin it's okay that you don't see yourself in your past" i thought for the themes of this fic it made more sense to go "oh THAT'S why siffrin is Like That"

so as you're reading through this: yes i'm worldbuilding language. but MOSTLY as a siffrin character study. okay! okay.

number TWO. situational meanings.

so ✦‧₊ is "you" and ✧‧₊ is "me/i". but "hello" is ❇✧ which - hang on, isn't that the word for universe and me? no, actually, there's no pronoun suffix (‧₊ denotes when a person is being talked about) so in this context ✧ means "inside". which means ✦ means "outside" in some contexts.

(but harrie, why does "hello" mean "inside universe"?? well i imagine it's the difference between older medieval greetings and the modern "hi". languages morph and drift. this kind of just suggests that without me having to write an Entire Language Family Background. probably a shortening of some corny shit like "within the universe i find you" or whatever. semantic drift.)

and part of the reason i did that was for unicode constraints - there are only unicode characters that look like stars. but the other half is because in japanese and i THINK also in chinese each character has a few different meanings. take 本, in japanese. it has a lot of meanings on its own but let's look at it in situational context. 本棚 is bookshelf. 本物 means real. 本土 is mainland.

so in qilaksut i think these kinds of multi-use words are common. ERGO. why siffrin has trouble thinking of very situational words in vaugardian. if your native language is built up of tangential mnemonic connections, of course you're going to have trouble remembering the word kiln!!

number THREE. reduplication and repetition

take the phrase "✦‧₊ »»⟢" from ch10. in my head, » means "fast" and doubling it gives you "really fast". this happens in AAVE (e.g. "he's RICH rich") and japanese (there is an entire kanji expressly used as a repetition mark so that you don't have to draw complicated kanji twice, it's 々(noma) and as an example, person is 人 but people is 人々)

reduplication is slightly different from this but i think it shows up for words like »», where you're not literally saying the word twice but the vowels double themselves. kind of in a trilling way. i actually say this in inutile and not curtain call but i think the Siffrin Accent wavers a lot and feels like a twinkling star. because i think it's cute

alsooo repetition. wish craft. do u see the vision

number FOUR. pronouns and clusivity

i don't get into the he/she/they or any other third person pronouns in the fic because. well i think the lost country would go so hard on pronouns. there are child pronouns. adult pronouns. pronouns denoting somebody's job or status. hell loop is SO casual about offering to use the "royal we" i genuinely think pronoun usage in the lost country is more tied to interpersonal relationships than gender. but of course that plays a role too

because i think there's a huge amount of gender concoction you could brew in there. i think it would be really fun if siffrin uses he/they because in qilaksut siffrin is mainly referred to as the neutral pronoun mashed together with the masculine one. i think that would be fun.

and then for funsies. clusivity. i definitely think there is a difference between "we" (me+one other person, excluding you) and "we" (me+others+you) in qilaksut. would be fun if this is why siffrin automatically assumes they're getting excluded from things. "where is the vaugardian inclusive we and why has nobody said it to me???"

number FIVE. structure

i don't have a lot of Full Sentences in qilaksut in the fic but in general it follows the pattern place - > noun - > adjective - > verb. and you might be going "harrie, you weeb, that's japanese again" well. i didn't want it to be like french or english. and that's the one i know. so. shut up!!!!

"well why can't it be the same syntax as vaugardian then?" i'm glad you asked. i wanted it to feed again more into the idea that siffrin is more susceptible to getting "lost" in a conversation. hard to focus when your normal syntax anchors are not there!!

but at the same time. i write siffrin as a polyglot in curtain call. they're pretty equipped to learn and absorb new languages. once you learn a second language, in general, your third/fourth/fifth gets easier

number SIX. things i can't do in the fic except for once or twice because of unicode restrictions

well i could do it ONCE. with two sentences that are coming up in tomorrow's chapter: but i think in qilaksut writing, changing the rotation/orientation of the word also changes the meaning. slight spoilers for tomorrow's chapter but siffrin has two ways of saying "love you" for two different people - for odile, it's ❥✦‧₊ and for isabeau it's ❤✦‧₊

this isn't for any particular reason, i just think it's neat in the context of how i do names and titles for the rest of the fic. getting called different names based on your relationship to somebody, using altered terms of endearment for someone. two extra rotations of the heart could exist in theory so one of them is probably "loving your kid" and the other issss i dunno. maybe a closer platonic love nearer to a qpr or something. or what you use for your parents/guardians or your betters. i didn't think that far!!

also word opposites. ✷ doesn't have another version with just the lines, but that means "yes" and i think a hollowed out version of that would mean "no." obviously the ✦/✧ shift goes here too. and i think the inverse of ✪ (little) would mean big. but i couldn't find those in unicode so they do not exist in this fic oops

if you made it this far into the post. hi. thank you for reading :) that was probably a lot more than you were asking for. i won't apologize. anyway this post doesn't even TOUCH how i do name stuff in the fic but that also feeds into this. (and the name stuff was something i took out of an old dnd campaign anyway) (of which i have a DIFFERENT altered version for my original fiction but shhhh)

[detailtilted]

In Search of Supernatural Fans from the Early Years

Hi! I’m looking for the legends who originally recorded old Supernatural convention panels featuring Jared or Jensen, or possibly Misha. See "What I'm Looking For" below. If you know one of them, or if you're a member of a community with people who were in the fandom in those early years, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could let them know about this post. I can be reached at DetailTilted@gmail.com or here on Tumblr.

If you aren’t familiar with my project, see the “Project Background” section below. This is not a low-effort exercise to merely repackage old videos. I’m putting many hours of work into each video to improve their watchability and accessibility. I will always credit my sources unless you wish to remain anonymous.

Even if your videos are on YouTube, I’m likely to have more success upscaling them if I can get the original video files. Thanks to the videos AgtSpooky kindly sent me, I've learned how big of a difference it can make when I have the original files to work with. That's why I’m putting more effort into finding those elusive original video takers.

The problem is that they all seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Most of their YouTube accounts, LiveJournal accounts, and whatever other accounts I’ve dug up haven’t had any activity in 10-15 years. I’ve left a few messages on some of them, but I doubt they’ll be seen on dormant accounts. I’ve also gone down some crazy and twisted Googling paths trying to find current contact info for them, but without much success. In one case I even messaged the wrong person, who was at least kind enough to reply to the psycho asking for videos to let me know she wasn't the person I'd hoped she was. Oops!

What I’m Looking For

I’ve already finished CHICON 2007, Comic-Con 2008, and CHICON 2008, so I don’t need videos from those events, but I’d be happy to try to upscale your videos for your own collection if you have some you'd like to send me.

Actually, I could use CHICON 2008 Breakfast videos if you have any. I plan to attempt to redo that video either late this year or early next year.

I’ve been trying especially hard to reach people with original video files from either LA 2009 or Asylum 3 (2009), and I’d also be ecstatic to get some from LA 2008.

Any other old con videos you’re willing to share that have Jared or Jensen in them would be awesome. I hope to get to all the old conventions eventually. I haven’t yet defined “old”, so I don’t have a specific cutoff point.

Even if you just have audio files without video, those could be helpful too.

Length doesn't matter. Both long and short videos are welcome. Maybe I won't end up using them all, but the more options I have the better. Even if I don't put your video in my final edit, it would still be used because I always listen to every single video I can find when I'm finalizing my subtitles. Each video sounds at least a little different, and sometimes just hearing the audio in a slightly different way lets me catch a subtitle I'd missed or misheard.

Also, just to be clear, it isn’t necessarily my intent to exclude Misha. I’ve watched and enjoyed many of his convention videos and I liked Castiel for the most part, especially in the earlier seasons. I’m just not obsessed with Misha like I am with Jared and Jensen, and these videos do take quite a lot of work, so I’ve been putting my energy where my greatest interests lie. I’ll absolutely be including him when he’s in panels with Jared and/or Jensen, and in the future I may consider doing some of his solo panels.

So if you have original video files of Misha's solo panels that you’d like to send me, I’d be happy to add them to my stockpile for future possible use. If your videos turn out to be mostly complete, and if they upscale easily, then I might go ahead and do his panel at the same time I do the other panels from the same convention. If they'll take more effort to work with, I’ll probably skip them for now, but I may come back and tackle them if/when I run out of old Jared and Jensen videos to work with.

For any con videos you send me, regardless of whether I use them or not, I’d be happy to try to upscale them and send them back to you for your collection. I can’t always get things to upscale, so I can’t promise success, but I’ll definitely try.

Project Background - Enhanced Edition Con Videos

You can find my videos on my YouTube channel. (If you're already familiar with my project, skip to the next section -- there's nothing new to see here.)

I started this project in December 2023 to enhance old convention videos. My goal is to make them easier on the eyes and more accessible to both new and old fans from around the world. The videos on YouTube from that time can be difficult both to watch and to understand due to a combination of the older technology used to record them, the difficult recording conditions the fans were working with, and the lack of subtitles that make any sense.

I’m enhancing the videos as follows:

Visual Improvements: I’m upscaling the videos if possible, making color corrections if needed, and adding some slight stabilization to reduce the jitteriness. The end result is far from perfect because there’s only so much that current technology can do, but it's noticeably improved if you compare it to the originals.

Subtitles: I’m adding good, color-coded, English subtitles that can be turned on or off through YouTube’s CC button. The color-coding makes it more clear who's saying what when multiple people are speaking, and YouTube can auto-translate them into other languages to improve the accessibility.

Multiple Sources: If one video has gaps in it, then I'll try to find another that I can edit in to fill those gaps so the end result is as complete as possible. If I have more than one source that captured the same portion of the event, then I'll cut to whichever video I think had the best view of the action. In a few cases I’ve added a split screen with two different videos showing simultaneously so we can see action that's taking place in two separate areas. For example, when Jared and Jensen are on opposite sides of the stage. (There were also the infernal talking head bubbles on my Comic-Con 2008 video which nearly made me throw in the towel, but taught me a lot. 😅)

Extra Content for Context: These older videos don’t take up the full width of a modern video frame, so I’ve taken advantage of the extra space to display some still images with text to add extra context for many of the things they discuss. Some things are a lot funnier, or at least a lot more relevant, when you know exactly what they’re talking about. I clarify Supernatural episode references and pop culture references among other things. Sometimes I’ve also inserted short video clips, usually just a few seconds’ worth, if I thought it would add worthwhile clarity or entertainment to the topic at hand.

Current Project Status

If anyone has been wondering how I’m doing on my current video and what’s next… I’m almost done with the last video from CHICON 2008, which was Jensen’s solo panel. I should be ready to publish it on YouTube this Friday, May 24. I plan to use the same schedule as last time and put the Tumblr post up the following Tuesday when it’s a little more likely to be noticed here.

The next sequential conventions are LA 2009 and Asylum 2009, but I haven’t had much success in my attempts to upscale the available videos. If I were to work with what I have now, I know I could turn out something better than what’s on YouTube today, but the end result wouldn’t be nearly as good as what I might be able to achieve if I can get some original videos to work with. So I think it’s more logical to skip over these conventions for now and give it some time to see if I get any responses, in hope of a better end result.

I do intend to come back to the skipped conventions eventually, even if nobody sends me anything. Once I run out of conventions for which I can upscale the videos, if I still don't have anything better to work with for the ones I skipped, I’ll just do the best I can with what’s available. Even if I can't upscale, I can still do color corrections and stabilization, plus the subtitles and extra content. Some of these panels are split up into a bunch of very short videos, so it would also add value if I can combine them into something more sequential and cohesive. (I found 130 videos from the Jared and/or Jensen panels at LA 2009, and most of them were under 2 minutes long. 🤣) I don’t know if there’s enough footage to cover the entire panels seamlessly, but I’m itching to get my hands on that jigsaw puzzle of videos to try to make sense out of them.

So… the next videos I intend to work on will be from Vancouver 2009. This is one of the conventions that AgtSpooky attended and sent me videos for and they upscaled very well. Her breakfast video had already found its way onto YouTube, but wasn't properly credited. Her main panel videos aren't on YouTube as far as I could find, so that version may be new to newer fans. I'm only just starting to play around with upscaling the other sources out there, but my first attempt at the other main Breakfast source came out well. Both breakfast videos were taken from extreme opposite angles, so that should provide some useful editing opportunities. I’d still love to get more videos of this event if anyone has them.

If you made it this far, I am in awe. Sorry for putting this wall of text on your screen! 😅

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  katdeerly! @katdeerly has 3 fics posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and all of them are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by katdeerly:

Here For A Reason

you remind me of someone (it's probably you)

if you were a melody (i used only the good notes)

"Each of katdeerlys fics are like putting on a comfort movie, sitting back and enjoying. Each story is visual and dynamic and I've gone back to read them as comfort fics over and over. The ensemble casts, the characterizations, the ensemble cast. It's all so good and I return to them like a warm cup of soup and blanket around my shoulders." -- Anonymous

Below the cut, katdeerly answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I write Steddie because it was the first pairing in a really long time that affected me enough to get back into writing and fanfic and fandom in general! I was dealing with a lot of big personal life changes when S4 came out and I somehow fell into Steddie fic, so it wasn’t long after reading that the itch to write finally hit. I love the duality of Steve & Eddie’s dynamic - on the surface, they are the stereotypical “opposites attract” but when you examine who they really are as characters, there is so much they share: caring, self-sacrificing, passionate, thoughtful. Even from their few interactions in canon, there was so much to build on and so much unexplored potential.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I love angst, so really any trope that inspires that, like a good miscommunication or misunderstanding. And I believe all the best relationships are rooted in friendship, so I love a friends to lovers or a second chances fic. And always need a happy ending!

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Doing this exercise really made me take a big picture look at my stories so far – so apparently, my favorite tropes to write are slow burn, found family, romcom AU, with a little forced proximity, slice of life, character study.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

I literally have too many to count, I have an obscene number of private bookmarks on AO3. The ones I’ve reread the most are probably “Exactly What It Looks Like” by Bilbosmom, “You Taste Just Like New York” by IrisLanding, “Dog Days of Summer” by WabiSabiPapi, “Buy Local: Steve Harrington’s Guide to Modern Sexuality” by loudsnapdragon, “swing for the fences” by occassional_loverboy, “Tuesday’s Gone With the Wind” by thisapplepielife, among many others…

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’d really love to do a future fic. I’ve written a lot about first falling in love (and for good reason!), but I like the idea of showing something more lived in, a well-worn but well-loved relationship or something about the passage of time and grappling with the “what could have been”s and roads not taken.

What is your writing process like?

SLOW. Not actually but currently? Yes, it’s slow. I find myself needing to really immerse myself into the story to write and edit from the mindless scribbles that my outlines start out as and sometimes that takes more time and energy than I find myself with, especially during the week. I write mostly in sprints where I set aside a few hours to get out a big chunk in one sitting. So I guess my writing process is: sporadic and finicky. Oops.

Do you have any writing quirks?

Not so much a quirk but a lot of my initial outlining happens in the middle of the night while I’m half-asleep. I set the brightness on my computer on low, close my eyes, and “stream of consciousness” write without looking. Which means my first outlines are usually riddled with misspellings and logical leaps that make no sense in the light of day.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I post as I go. I usually have everything vaguely outlined but (as noted above), sometimes revisiting my middle-of-the-night draft weeks or months later means I’ve backed myself into a corner or what I’ve outlined doesn’t fit into what eventually made it onto the page in earlier chapters. So, in the spirit of “it’s good enough”, I post as things actually get written!

Which fic are you most proud of?

“if you were a melody”, if for the only reason that it’s the first fic I finished! It’s the first time I really got the rush of getting engaged readers as I was posting and I’ve received the most lovely comments on it. It was also definitely the most fully formed in my mind before I even started writing, which made it feel almost effortless from the beginning.

How did you get the idea for Here For A Reason?

When I first started reading Steddie, after S4, the pieces of the storytelling I connected with the most were about what came after - after the trauma, after the healing, after you start putting yourself back together. I loved the idea of starting from scratch, but not starting from a clean slate. You bring everything with you, for better or worse, so for me, the story really started from this place of having both Eddie and Steve recognize where they are, what they have to build on, and decide where they want to go next, together.

When writing Here For A Reason, what was something you didn’t expect?

what was something you didn’t expect? This story was the first thing I wrote in a really, really long time. Until I got back into fanfic via Steddie, I had a mental block on creative writing for years. I look back on the early chapters and I cringe! So I guess what was most surprising to me about this story was the fact that it allowed me to find my voice as a writer again. Reading back, I can see myself experimenting and finding my style, so just the sheer rediscovery of this passion of mine is something I never expected.

What inspired you remind me of someone (it's probably you)?

I came up with “if you were a melody” after a drunken movie marathon of The Holiday and White Christmas, sprinkled in with a little Stick Season by Noah Kahan, and after I finally finished it, I still had romcoms on the brain - and my favorite movie of all time is While You Were Sleeping. Looking back across all my fics, they all seem to stem from a character’s inherent loneliness and then tripping their way into love and community (oh boy, let’s not delve into that particular inherent trauma too deeply). And apparently, I was not done telling that type of story! Lucy in the movie is truly that lonely but loveable character archetype, and I found it translated so well to my favorite Steddie dynamic to write.

What was your favorite part to write from you remind me of someone (it's probably you)?

Honestly, delving into the character motivations! While “Steddie but make it romcom!” seems simple on the surface, I spent a lot of time trying to make the character motivations realistic. What inspires Steve to keep the lie going? Why would Wayne keep encouraging this absolutely insane scenario? What would ultimately get Eddie to forgive Steve in the end?

How do/did you feel writing if you were a melody (i used only the good notes)?

It was so fun! Yes, there’s angst and obstacles, but ultimately the time pressure of the set-up and the “love at first sight” nature of the Steddie dynamic made it so easy to write their relationship journey and really intertwine the fluff and the angst, the mistakes and the inevitable happy ending. I also just really loved Eddie in this one, confident and competent but still a chaotic goofball at heart.

What was the most difficult part of writing if you were a melody (i used only the good notes)?

I didn’t want the happy ending to seem too easy or inevitable! They were so clearly in love but with Steve really trying to be strong and not fall into old patterns, having him realize that pride at the expense of happiness isn’t worth it and that trusting in love again after heartbreak is one of the bravest, strongest things to do - again, really making sure his emotional journey made sense. And also, exploring Eddie’s POV in the epilogue was challenging just for the sheer logistics of how he would have done all the things he needed to do; I had a spreadsheet with different time zones for each character’s story beats.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Honestly, I have a terrible memory for specific lines, I’m sure I wrote some good ones? I remember scenes and emotions more so than specific lines – so the blue wall at the end of “if you were a melody”, the downtown Chicago rooftop at sunrise in “you remind me of someone”, Eddie & Steve at the tattoo parlor in “Here for a Reason”… all of those evoke the same feeling in me, of the two boys experiencing something intimate and magical, of finally giving in to that undeniable pull between them.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Oh god, I don’t want to embarrass myself by promising or promoting anything in the future when I’m such a slow writer! It is my solemn vow that every fic of mine will be completed. Not to say I don’t have a few plot bunnies hopping around in my head, but in terms of anything specific, I guess I’ll know more after my next sleepless night…

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

It was truly such an honor to be asked to do this! Life has been rough and writing has been slow, so taking the time to look back and explore my own process and fics was such a lovely, much-needed reminder of why I love fanfic and this Steddie community. Thank you for thinking of me, and thank you to anyone who decides to read one of my stories because of this.

Thank you to our author, @Katdeerly, and our nominator! See more of katdeerly's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[taralen]

ANNOUNCEMENT: Lots of new art uploads (soon™)

I've been drawing, but a lot of what I've done, I didn't feel like uploading. However, just because it's [[TRASH]] to me doesn't mean it is to everyone, so I plan to upload a rather big dump of [[mostly Spamton]] doodles I've done privately.

People keep sending me inbox stuff, and I should probably answer them. I still have a huge backlog of "ask me anything" stuff I did for myself and Spamton that I still need to get to.

I've been feeling HELLA better since late April with adjustments made to my HRT, stopping other meds, and regularly exercising, so my mood has been consistently a lot more stable. I feel confident and determined.

My personal life affairs have also improved (aside from the housing mess). I've reeled in a lot of my problems, focused on myself, and have been feeling [[FREEDOM]] because of it. Now I just have my OWN book[s] and my OWN fanfiction to focus on while all these other people I tried to do stuff for can go figure things out for themselves (except for my writing partner of 15 years. He is my buddy and the ONLY exception!!!) I'm DONE living for others, but I have been hanging out a lot on Discord and Roblox, so those are the two places I've been very active in lately (just only with a small group of people because I'm still kind of wary given all the HORRIBLE drama and unstable connections I've madei n the last 2 years).

If anyone is wondering, yes I did play Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune. Spamton is still my #1 favorite character [[ever]], so that has not changed! I've also drawn Tenna, but they're kind of just silly doodles right now.

I also want to try uploading ORIGINAL art again, which I've mostly kept private. My DeviantART account has been inactive since I started posting here, primarily due to my reluctance to upload original content. Why? Well, I didn't think anyone actually cared about them, but I've got some renewed interest via Discord, so I'm going to try again. I don't expect anyone to care about it as much as I do, but I AM a novelist, and I draw art for my writing. Hence, I might as well share SOME of it. HAH.

Anyway, those are the updates.

[tozettastone]

2024 Fic Review

Tagged by @voxofthevoid.

I didn't think I was gonna do this one because of how long it seemed, but day to day, I mostly just use my stats page to compare public bookmarks to total bookmarks, so this was an interesting exercise in making me actually look at any of these stats.

Stats stuff

1. How Many Words I Wrote in 2024:

134,246

2. My Top 5 Fics by Hits:

This was interesting — I don't think I've ever looked at my hit counters before.

Deadbeat. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/56638825)

Say Uncle (https://archiveofourown.org/works/57702268)

Thicker Than Water (https://archiveofourown.org/works/58122280)

Other Reasons To Hate Uchiha Itachi (https://archiveofourown.org/works/53127385)

In Progress (https://archiveofourown.org/works/60802894)q

With the exception of In Progress, these are ALL Naruto OC & Akatsuki fics, haha. That's my brand right now, I guess.

3. My Most Bookmarked Fic:

It was Deadbeat. It has 423 public bookmarks but 619 in total, which is almost triple the next most bookmarked fic of the year. Huh.

---

Question Stuff

1. What was the most surprising thing about writing in 2024?

Well, now that I'm looking at the statistics page, it's gotta be how well-liked In Progress is? I don't know, I don't usually look at kudos or anything (except to admire it if it's a palindrome!) so I didn't really realise... It's a 5K word one-shot Bleach fic that's basically time travel trope puree, because I skimmed most of the time travel tag and wanted to write something short and fun. I'm glad people seem to have liked it but I'm a little surprised.

2. What was the most enjoyable to write?

Probably Sweat Equity. Sweat Equity happened because an anon sent me a prompt and it was a banger. I wrote it in one sitting while I was in Bologna, sitting in a park beneath a tree that was almost certainly older than my whole city. It was nice.

3. Which fic is the most underrated?

Nailed It. Listen, I am not complaining. I understand why other people didn't love it like I did: it's high context and a stupid pairing, and I reckon MANY of the people who got a notification —for a Deidara/Madara fic that was already a spin off of some other unfinished soulmate AU fic! — were like "Ummm, what the fuck, Tozette, I'll pass."

I see you, you are so right, and that is a valid choice.

But also, I raise you: every character in that fic is terrible and it made me laugh.

4. Which fic(s) had something "cut" or an idea that never happened?

This bleach fic, which I may yet manage to clean up and archive for a little one shot eventually.

It never got off the ground because of fundamental incompatibility issues. Irreconcilable differences are grounds for divorce, etc etc. Can't be helped.

5. Which fic(s) did you want to write but didn't get around to?

I would have liked to have finished Where The Heart Is before I started writing like 5 different Bleach fics all at once, actually.

6. Any WIPs that never got published?

Goodness me, yes. Three Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto) fics, a long form Ishida/Szayel (Bleach) fic, a new fic in my Murakami Madeline series (Naruto — that's Where The Heart Is), an Urahara/Ichigo/Urahara (Bleach) fic, an Akatsuki Time Travel Ensemble (Naruto) fic...

There are probably more.

7. Share a snippet from a WIP fic?

Here's something from my draft of Where The Heart Is:

"Your friend won't look me in the face, senpai," complained Tobi. "Isn't that too suspicious?" Maddie managed not to twitch but it was a near thing. She had absolutely no desire to look Uchiha Obito right in his sharingan eye. "It would be suspicious if she wanted to look at you!" Deidara snapped. Dramatically, he turned away from Tobi. "Stop following me everywhere! Hm!" "We're partners, though," Tobi responded, totally unconcerned by the honestly staggering amount of disdain Deidara could cram into one sentence. "Senpai, don't you want to spend time with me?" Tobi teetered forward and around so he could angle his bright orange mask up at Deidara's face. A shard of ceramic scraped on the stone floor underfoot. "Eh?" He looked down and spotted the broken pieces of Maddie's ugly ex-teapot. "Ah! Senpai, is it yours?" "Is it—?" Deidara's face contorted. "What are you trying to say?" Worse, his volatile chakra also contorted into a flicker of intense killing intent. Maddie's hearts kicked into their highest gear.

8. Which fic was the one you were most excited to write?

Hmm. Interesting to have this as a question distinct from which was most enjoyable to write. Excitement...

Maybe Deadbeat?

Deadbeat was one of those fics that kind of happened to me while I was reading a lot of OC romance fics I didn't like very much and thinking about how I could write a Kakuzu one that I liked instead. Since it's not a romance you can only imagine how well that went! But I ended up liking it a lot better and writing all of it over a weekend in a scrambling little frenzy.

9. Fic hopes for the New Year?

I've got some WIPs to work on. I'd like to get Where The Heart Is (Naruto, Murakami Madeline (OC) fic), Plan C (Bleach, time travel, IchiIshi) and Open Season (Bleach, Grimmichi) posted.

Ideally, I would also like to hopefully get the other two Bleach fics drafted at least — the Urahara/Ichigo/Urahara one with the time travel and the romantic parasitism and the Ishida/Szayel one.

I hope my tolerance for the fandom lasts long enough to see me through, lol. We'll see!

--

I'm cursing @mixelation and @redflagshipwriter with this tag meme because they might enjoy it. But if anyone wants to do this one and hasn't been tagged, tell everyone I tagged you. :P

[lbibliophile-sw]

Codywan Masterpost - 2022-2024

@codywanweek - day 8: 5th Anniversary

This year marks the fifth aniversary of Codywan Week, and the third year I've participated (2022 was my second Star Wars event!), so I decided to celebrate by creating a masterlist of all my Codywan works to date.

Works are ordered approximately from least to most angsty. They are mostly drabbles, and the Codywan relationship is usually left ambigiously platonic/romatic. All SFW.

Fluff and Shenanigans (occasional background angst)

Distraction (affectionate) (AO3) | drabble | Cody tries to reason with his General, who is distracted by other priorities.

See No Evil (AO3) | drabble poem | Cody and Obi-wan stare into each other’s eyes. All in the name of plausible deniability.

Tea Party (AO3) | script and comic | Obi-wan likes taking his tea in the communal rec room, likes when his troopers come past to say hello. But this might be taking it a bit too far...

Post-battle Ritual (AO3) | drabble | As a Jedi, your lightsaber is your life; so keep hold of it. ...Yes, you too.

Face to the Sun (AO3) | drabble | Armour Markings have meaning. Cody's isn't a sunburst.

Shared Custody (AO3) | drabble | Obi-wan keeps losing his lightsaber. Cody takes a different approach to preventative measures.

The Force Provides (AO3) | drabble | One proposal is gracefully declined, and another gleefully accepted.

Multitasking Meditation (AO3) | drabble | A Jedi practices many exercises which increase in complexity over the course of their training. Obi-wan has mastered this one, and so lost the benefit of the lesson it teaches.

Hurt/Comfort (with eventual happy ending)

Harmonic Motion (AO3) | drabble | As a Jedi, maintaining a long-term romantic relationship is hard. But with Cody, with the war over, he finds the right balance.

Sueing for Emotional Damages (AO3) | drabble | Cody might have his General back, but he's still upset that he was tricked into thinking he'd been killed in the first palce. And he knows just who to blame.

Taboo (AO3) | poem | A clone trooper's helmet is as much their face as the one they were created with; something deeply personal to those who have so little. But when Obi-wan tentatively asks to try on Cody's, he doesn't refuse him. His own feelings are no less taboo.

Just Another One of Those Faces (AO3) | drabble | Most plans involving a clone going undercover are doomed to failure… unless it takes place in the heart of the Republic. Obi-wan still worries.

There Were Two in the Bed, and the Little One Said... (AO3) | drabble | Nightmares are never fun, but company makes the aftermath easier.

Silence is Golden | poem | Cody loves his General, but he'll never tell.

Angst (aka. Order 66)

The Nightmare (AO3) | drabble | The Nightmare is unsettling in a visceral way, but after years of the nightly visions they are used to the feeling. And they always wake up. He just needs to wait until he wakes up...

Degrees of Trust (AO3) | drabble | Cody doesn't understand why his General's ‘I trust you’ suddenly stopped being a promise and instead became a pain-filled thing of guilt and grief.

Bonus (not specifically Codywan, but they provide significant inspiration...)

31 Days of Jedi Lies (AO3) | poem | "No, you are NOT fine."

[llyfrenfys]

Some really good notes from my post courtesy of @margridarnauds about that person accidentally using a white nationalist slogan to support the Welsh language:

I know someone who is doing a PhD on the Far Right and the co-option of cultural movements and these tags are bang on. Its the difference between a healthy nationalism and an unhealthy nationalism. A lot of this goes for Irish nationalism as well as it does for Welsh nationalism.

There's nothing wrong with (and arguably a lot right with) minority language preservation. It can be used for great good (strengthens community ties, preserves culture) but if co-option is not guarded against readily, it can also be used for great evil (see: using minority language struggles as an argument against immigration, for example).

The Far Right sees the cultural preservation of anything (white) and it's like a bat signal. These things are magnets for white supremacists and assorted fascists of all kinds. Which is why it is so goddamn important to be vigilant against people like that hijacking your movement.

I see a worrying amount of Welsh nationalists use (accidentally or not) the language of the far right to argue for Welsh language preservation. It can be as innocuous as advocating for a Welsh Academie Francaise to as obvious as insinuating that Wales must be kept "ethnically" Welsh in order to keep out foreign influence on the language. I see this go unchecked all the time in various Facebook groups for Welsh independence (most of which I've left since admins of these pages either don't know or don't care that people use their groups to share these sentiments).

Nationalism ≠ Fascism - but if you don't keep an eye on the company you're keeping, any well-meaning nationalist/independence or language preservation movement can be hijacked to promote hate. I only know a scant amount because I was only vaguely considering joining Yes Cymru a few years before they all went sideways (but I remember Owen Exie Hurcum talking about this on Twitter at the time) but the leadership of Yes Cymru began to squeeze out minorities from the group- nonwhite folks, gay people, trans people etc. Whole thing put me off from joining. I don't remember the full details but from the testimonies of others, the group was hijacked and steered into a reactionary way of being. Considering a large amount of Welsh nationalists also idolise groups like the FWA (Free Wales Army - a Welsh nationalist group formed in 1963 which tried to emulate the IRA in Ireland, with little success- mostly just playing paramilitary dress up) - whose symbol is this flag:

Even if the flag itself is based on Welsh folklore and is supposedly an entirely innocent, non fash design- it still is like a beacon to the Far Right who will take any amount of symbolic validation as a cue to join your movement and derail it for their own ends.

Which is why Celtic scholars, people with casual interest in Celtic languages and/or their respective cultures and civic nationalists alike need to be vigilant against those who would co-opt the field for their own twisted hate campaign.

So, one final thought,

Returning to my original post responding to that American chiming into Welsh politics from overseas. Please PLEASE be careful when wading into politics that isn't yours. Where the Far Right are involved, it doesn't take much to cause a dumpster fire - if you aren't 'on the ground' with these issues so to speak, you aren't in the firing line if your comments go sideways and enable/provoke the Far Right in this country.

If you have an interest in Celtic languages, countries and politics- you have a duty to be responsible with what you do and say. This isn't to say that you cannot engage with these topics- but that you should exercise caution lest you accidentally worsen an already delicate situation.

This has been your regularly scheduled Celtic anti-fascist tedtalk. Please reblog to make sure more people become aware of how delicate things can be and how to prevent fascists from getting a foothold in this field. Thank you.

[snoodls]

2024 art year in review ↫

Wow. Here we are again. Long time no see or speak, friends. Hope you have all been doing and keeping well!

This past year has been the strangest and most onerous yet for me yet. I'll get into it a bit in this post but fair warning that I may mention difficult, emotionally charged topics. If you're not in the headspace for that, no worries, you can skip to the other symbol. I'll see you next year.

∵

Art was extremely difficult this year. I really struggled even finding 12 pieces to throw into a collage like this. I tend to keep a steady pace of one medium-largeish, "postable" piece a month, interspersed with little doodles and sketchbook scribbles here and there. Therefore, it's usually fairly straightforward to compile these. I scroll through my digital art folder, pick out the best or my favorite piece I made within each designated month, sometimes sprinkling in mini works or traditional pieces when applicable. This year, I only made about 8 that I would consider posting--some of which are featured, most of which are actually not. Why? Why am I so hard on myself? (A rhetorical question, but one I ask myself every day and have yet to find an answer to.) Online platforms have become a formalized space for me--a "only the polished enter the portfolio" kind of mentality. I can't quite figure out if that is something to wrestle with or listen to. On top of the usual frustrating strain of perfectionism, I haven't felt the desire to post anything at all this year.

This reticence was mostly due to deep and inordinate amounts of interpersonal stress from changes in a community that I loved and had a huge part in building. I grew fearful to be perceived publicly online and to share any part of my art or life. February and March were black holes. I felt alienated from my identity. I didn't know who I was anymore. It got so bad, I was suicidal. Truthfully, the only thing that stopped me was knowing I had to live until April.

In April, thankfully, I went on a massive trip I had been planning with all of my best friends for four years. (vlpn, Kiire, 1ore, I love you so much!!!) I traveled out west to watch the eclipse and go on a road trip to a national park that I have always wanted to see. Better yet, I was surrounded by so much restorative, healing love. I sat on Kiire's warm leather couch soaking in the real, tangible community that I had built, and drew for the first time in ages. Kiire also gave me the most thoughtful gift--a little hand lino cutter and some vinyl squares. We all gathered at her kitchen table, carving away, laughing and sharing stories. Part of me is still in April, I think.

In May, I started a summer-long pottery class (turned residency, let's be real. I lived in the studio.). It was my first time working with real clay, after dabbling with oven-bake polymer clay and play-doh before that. Since it was focused on handbuilding, I didn't get the chance to use the wheel...which I desperately want to do this summer if I'm still in town. However, even if I was only making pinch pots and tiles, I felt myself grow by leaps and bounds as an artist. Not just in technique, but also in the conception. Why am I doing xyz? What does it mean? What does my medium add to my work? I enjoy working with my hands at a physical craft, but I still wrestle with creating stuff. I love physical objects, but have no space for them at the moment.

I lived more in my sketchbook this year, continuing the trend from last year. My former boss gifted me a shitty little 5.5 x 8.5" journal that I've been using as my work sketchbook. It helps keep me sane at my desk, and my creativity muscles exercised, but does not keep me from still drawing on lined notepads...lol. That work sketchbook has truly helped me break even further away from the trapping of art perfectionism. More and more I am embracing the messy, the ugly, the unfinished. I love drawing in ballpoint pen now, and have started Yet Another Sketchbook of pen plein airs. Okay, some pencil doodles here and there. But mostly pen.

Despite having an upward swing mid-year, my world kind of collapsed in on itself September onward. I don't want to go into too much detail about everything, because it's a little personal and frankly, there's too much to go over. From housing precarity, major random trauma-related panic attacks, a natural disaster, nasty people rearing their heads in my life, grief over losing family land, my grandma getting cancer, my job being so soul-crushingly frustrating and about to become much worse in the new year...it's been so much for me to handle. I'm tired, uncertain, quaking from what has and what may be. I'm creeping through the loamy undergrowth towards 2025, trying to drag myself towards what I love. I want to forge a better life for myself; I just want to live again.

Back to art, as all things seem to go--last year I wrote that I wanted to experiment with new mediums and techniques. Good news, bestie, you absolutely did. From linocut to pixel art to markers to to clay!!!, it has definitely been an experimental year at least. In 2025, hm...I think I want to keep at studies and focus on light and depth. I also want to keep up the trend of getting weirder and less literal with my work. I'm interested in trying out some interesting compositions and having patience with myself when stuff is not turning out. Turns out you can put down the pen and pick it back up. I also miss zines and want to make more...and also I want to keep up valuing my creative time and mini projects (like my tarot journal & my media journal).

I did hit some other interesting art milestones this year--I was rejected from some zines and even gallery openings. There's this great song off the new John Craigie live album that especially resonated with me. Listen to the whole song and whole album if you've got time. "If you haven't been failing, you haven't been trying." / "Maybe the cool thing was that even though [Van Gogh] wasn't successful, he still painted, every day, all the time, right up 'till the end. I wondered why. Probably for the same reason I was driving to these coffee shops. 'Cause it felt good to swing." / "As I passed under that sign, I could almost hear the tired voice of Jiffy Lube call down to me. "Oh Johnny. How long must we watch you fail?" And as I raced past into the unknown darkness, I called back, "Oh Jiffy, how long you got? We gon be up for a while."

∵

To close, I've never really done this before, but since I haven't posted much this year, I thought I'd go through everything pictured for some context. This is generally left -> right, top -> bottom...

A panel from my comic for Commander of your Heart zine, featuring Ximone and Sappho. I was also published in 2 others this year; very cool! A tiny doodle of Wideeyes from my mini sketchbook. A gift for my friend's birthday of his cat, Lily. Her muzzle really does look scrunkly like that. Ahku, sweet Ahku, from when I did a challenge to draw with your Least Favorite Brush. I still hate the brush. A linocut stamp I made of Xiyu using the aforementioned supplies. One of many stamps I carved this year.

A piece for Archalyte to gift a character to 1ore. Fletcher, my Wermz NPC and the mascot of the summer event I ran this year. Getting into pixel art! A goofy paintover of a guinea pig featuring Nickle. A study that I did using a tablet in the studio I helped build--my third time ever working with one! I think it came out alright. Work notebook doodles for a self-published zine I'm working on. Copic markers on trading cards, featuring two of my Neopets and a Werm of mine. Ora's was done freehanded with some leftover acrylic paint I had after painting a sculpture. Since this year has sucked so bad, I've been self-soothing in silly ways; namely, spending some time on Neopets and getting wildly back into Pokemon cards / into Battledome cards for the first time. I've been enjoying tiny scene compositions and collecting little art prints.

Daihei for Artfight for 1ore...I did this while on vacation with my family and it was my first digital painting on my computer in months. Tiles from my ceramics class; my first project! I wish I could show my final project, but it does not photograph well. Ceramic coaster I painted with The Archivist. Doodles of The Sphinx and The Archivist I unearthed today. Marker drawing of vlpn's character 6298.

Vent painting from October. Painted sculpture of Starrain. Ink painting of Ahku surrounded by stuff.

Onward, blinking towards the sun...

[blood-orange-juice]

Since you asked me, I have asks for you! And I'll do anything for an opportunity to pick your brain:

5. Share one of your strengths

13. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?

14. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?

33. How do you feel about crack? (The fanfic genre, not the stimulant)

37. Talk about your current WIPs

38. Talk about a review that made your day

That's quite a compliment ^^'

5. Share one of your strengths

I've been told it's side characters. They just spawn in the text and charm everyone.

13. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?

That the best way to learn is trying to imitate writers you love. Simply rereading already helps a lot, and my favourite exercise is taking a paragraph I've already written and rewriting it in someone else's style. It teaches you so much

Also (can I have two favourite ones?) one I actually took from Russian lit class in school. The teacher talked about how Chekhov was very dry in his descriptions (the Western world mostly knows him as a playwright but Russian kids study his short stories first) and that summer night has already been described thousands of times, we know how a summer night looks. It's enough to write "shattered glass glittered in the moonlight"

So I try to ask myself whether a thing I want to show has already been described by enough people. Sometimes it works better to focus on a fun detail and let the readers' imagination do the rest

14. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?

It wasn't really an advice, just a popular attitude that you need to cut everything from prose that doesn't serve the plot

Yes, kill your darlings and yeet that sentence to the scrap pile, texts need to be condensed. But also texts need to breathe and plot-irrelevant details help with worldbuilding

33. How do you feel about crack? (The fanfic genre, not the stimulant)

I greatly appreciate the genre and I think it's the hardest thing to write

37. Talk about your current WIPs

Labyrinth Warriors chilumi edition, I'm stuck at trying to learn how write innuendo. Turns out I can't write romance to save my life

Also I'm trying to rewrite the 3rd chapter of Transcendere because I deviated from the original plan there and just wrote angst instead of unhingeness

38. Talk about a review that made your day

I refuse to pick one

When I asked Saoki if Transcendere was over-the-top angsty and they replied with "no, it reads as the story of someone that was handed a knife without a hilt and told to not come back without a bushel of grass". I still think about it (it's a lovely review to get but also it sums up the character so well)

Also when you were quoting parts of Ephemeris that were about understanding/kinship with comments like "why did this turn me on". MY AUTISTIC ASS WAS VERY HAPPY

Also when Lim wrote the progression of their reactions to Alexey because oh my god :D

Also Ray awarding me a PhD in Childe ^^

Thank you for the ask! <3

ask game