#also I’ll be posting those edits VERY soon:3

[uzi-x33]

art dump from school!!!:3 still working on the ranpoe one, i had major artblock today GRRR chat they r so silly:33😜 anyways little autism creatures cus yes, and mini autism ranpo💪 ALSO SHIN SKK WOAHH🤯🤯

[cannedbabs]

Taking $1 Turbo Sketch Comms! (And more!)

((Please read below!))

Hello lovelies! I have gotten a tad tight w money and I’m looking to do adult things like move out and the like and thought I’d do something here about it :] and that’s Turbo sketch commissions!

DETAILS:

* They will be Fullbody sketches! Optionally colored like the above image or like the below images

* Once I’ve gotten a decent amount they’ll be compiled into a sketch page to post!!

* Other characters also allowed, please keep reading to find out about those!

* If you Comm you MUST be ok with messy lines and guidelines. I’ll try to make it as nice as I can, though!

* I take PayPal / Venmo / Cashapp! I even have a Kofi if that’s easier! Just PM me if interested :]

* Also pls nothing NSFW or fetish-y. I’ll turn you down immediately.

For $1 it will be Turbo OR King Candy in any sort of pose, expression, etc you like. Small props (like the spray paint can, a trophy, etc.) allowed at no extra cost!

If you want to add an extra character FROM WRECK-IT RALPH (or Ralph breaks the internet) it will be just another $1! If you want to upgrade it to King Candy/Turbo Bug he will be $3 (sorry he’s just hard to draw!)

If you have a WIR OC and want them, it’ll be $5! But keep an eye out I’m going to be making some WIR inspired YCH’s for cheap soon… ((if you’ve read this far give me suggestions on characters you’d like to see for that!))

If you don’t want Turbo/KC at all just let me know and I’ll most likely haggle! I just enjoy drawing him the most, hence it being $1.

If you’d rather just want a sketch comm from me, those are $5! Doesn’t have to be WIR related :] example below

I talk a LOT and probably some stuff didn’t make sense. Feel free to ask for clarification :] Any reblogs help also!!

All this stuff is listed on my Trello! It also has my TOS so I encourage looking there!

EDIT: sliding this here… also accepting $5 iron headshots and $25 experimental animated bounce icons… examples blow!

((The animated icons will be that simplistic, but I can edit very small things but it will be general bounce + smile! Any species! :]]))

[cosmic-nyx-fanwork]

New post >:) after literally one month but shhh

This is one of my other OCs from that AU I mentioned in the other post, he is Vex and he’s friends with Umbra and Midnight, they’re like a trio (although sometimes Vex feels like he’s third wheeling more than anything-) and he’s also the mechanic (all the humans got replaced by robots because Fazbear never learns-) so he’s often working in Parts and Services or whatever it’s called, my memory is crappy right now ;-;

(Edit: why tf did I call Vex’s coat a cape??)

Btw I made more drawings with him and a few other characters, because I love him so much 💜 (platonic)

Here I was messing with a brush and some effects, I don’t think I will ever rend my drawings like this ever again but it’s nice I guess.

This is another ship in my AU, yes there’s more ships and I regret nothing >:3 I’ll give you an hint of who this other silly could be, it starts with E and ends with clipse :>

Also Vex gets flustered very easily and it doesn’t help that Eclipse is a menace and flirts with him a lot-

Well then, onto the next drawing U.U

Alright, first thing first, this is what I meant when I said he felt like he was third wheeling a lot, they literally start doing this stuff every time the three of them hang out.

Second thing, this was made mostly to experiment with lighting and drawing things that were a bit in the dark (I don’t know if I did fine for it so feel free to tell me if I should improve on something)

And for those who don’t know, I got inspired by another image for this drawing/meme so here’s the original (also I don’t know who made this since I found it on Pinterest so if you know please tell me and I will add their name and social here for those who are interested)

As you can see the dialogue here is a bit different from what I wrote because I wanted it to match with Vex’s character

Now…onto the last drawing :P

Very simple drawing with a little practice at drawing movements (which failed horribly) and a fun fact, Vex was in fact Nexus redesign, before I decided to quit the fandom and turn it into his own character since I didn’t want to waste it, also the tiny blue haired character is me :D

That’s it, if you couldn’t tell I really LOVE Vex and this AU in general, it’s making me want to yap even more about it, but I won’t say anything else for now, even if I REALLY want to keep yapping about it thanks to my autism, but all you’re going to know is that these characters are from the same AU and that there’s more…and it’s going to be turned into a comic, yes you heard that correctly, I didn’t have the motivation to do anything for months and yet the moment I start working on this AU it comes back on full force, yay I guess :’)

I’m still not sure about the name for the AU but for now it’s going to be “Mechanical Madness” and the tag will be something like #DCAmechanicalmadness

And no there’s no Y/N in this story, not even Neptune is here, so sorry for those who wanted a self insert story but this is one of the few AUs that doesn’t have that qwq

That’s all (now for real) thank you for reading all this yapping about my AU and I’ll see you soon with the comic, which I don’t know how long it’ll take but I’ll try to get it out soon and if you have questions I’m reopening the asks, yay! :D just don’t abuse it for self promotion or to beg for money (you know who you are).

Have a nice day/night ^^☀️🌙💜

[blakbonnet]

AUTHOR OF THE WEEK: @clairegregoryau 💕

Everytime the topic of fandom kindness and community comes up, of helping each other out and fostering a quiet corner where people can be themselves, most people in our little fandom think of Claire. She's written over a million words of OFMD fic and read even more, and you can always see so so many recs over on her twitter. Incredible good vibes, and an author who truly lives to lift other authors up. She also does SO SO much for fic authors over on the OFMD Fic Club server <3 And she was incredibly kind and shared her entire writing process with me:

What's your writing process like? Do you start with the beginning or the end? Do you write in order or as the scenes come to you?

I’m a huge advance planner, which is a process that has developed for me over more than 25 years of writing original fiction. I’ll get whacked with a story idea, then I’ll sit down and set out the central kernel of that idea, and where it needs to start, where it needs to end, and what the turning points need to be to get there.

A lot of the time I use a three-act structure, largely because Jenkins has talked about OFMD using that structure (one example here). So that makes it easy for me to hold to the canon beats when I’m writing AU stories, or to mirror them in canon-era stories, which is also something I try to do most of the time. With long experience (and now 1.7 million words of OFMD fic written (!)), I find this part of the process really easy. I’ll usually do that plotting by hand-writing out my notes, because it really fires up a different part of your brain.

Because I am such an advance planner, I do tend to write in a completely linear way from start to finish (I also pretty commonly post my long-fics as I write- each chapter goes up as soon as it’s finished and has a final editing pass). Punching through it in a linear way, knowing the ending that I’m working towards and being enthusiastic to get there, really keeps me motivated.

I do all of my writing in 30-minute sprints at the OFMD Fic Club Discord, where we’ve built a lovely and LOUDLY enthusiastic writing community that anyone is welcome to hop into 24/7. For those who find the constant chat a bit overwhelming, we also have a Quiet Focus Sprints channel. Again via long practice, I’m a very fast writer, but that’s accelerated a lot more over the last couple of years, paradoxically because I couldn’t write the way I used to anymore.

I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that includes some fun brain impacts at times, and it’s really hit my working memory especially. I used to be able to hold all the strands of a complicated story together in my head as I wrote, but now I can’t do that as easily. So that’s why the outline is important for me, so I never lose track of the idea- I’ll also do a quick outline at the start of each chapter I’m writing that notes what needs to happen, and then I’ll write in what I call layers, getting down whatever I can first, and then doing sweeps back through it to add internals, narrative detail, sensory details and so on. I make a LOT of notes and square brackets as I go to remind myself of things to look at later.

I also use a plot matrix [Twitter thread, Example Matrix] that you may have seen floating around- I mostly use it to keep track of plot details that have already happened within a story, so that I can check it out at a glance, but I will sometimes plan certain elements in advance (as in the case of Tree Change, which covered 87 of the 93 Kinktober prompts last year across 12 carefully planned chapters). There’s always space when I’m writing for the characters to surprise me within that plot framework- as a final plotting thing, once I’m at the halfway mark I’ll often plot backwards from the planned end to make sure that I’m on course, and to see what I need to adjust.

Favourite trope or headcanon you like to explore while writing?

I really like to dig into the friends-to-lovers trope that sits at the heart of the show. The Ed and Stede relationship reminds me immensely of my own- like Rhys and Taika as friends, we’ve been yes-anding each other for over 25 years (all of my least hinged fic ideas come from bouncing thoughts back and forth with my husband), and it’s been a steady mix of constant silliness, curiosity, and care. We’re best friends first and that’s one of my favourite things about Ed and Stede, that they are, too.

What I really love about it is the vulnerability of these two people who’ve been hurt so much by others in the past, who’ve never been fully appreciated for all the things that they are, and in each other they find the one absolutely perfect person who just gets them, and it makes all the difference. It’s always fun to play with that and variations on it in fics, and it’s usually the beating heart of my stories.

Whose voice is easier to write - Ed or Stede? Why?

I want to say that I find them both equally easy depending on the story. Ed as a character speaks very much the way I think- he has that ADHD buzz, the high swear level, and a very AoNZ turn of phrase that’s also very familiar to Australians (like me). Writing Ed is like turning the inside of my head out and it always flows easily.

But I have always said that I see myself in both characters in equal parts, so I find Stede pretty easy to write as well. I feel like I pretty solidly understand him as a person, with his history of rejection and his commitment to trying anyway, and trying to be kind, and letting himself be fascinated by things, from piracy to books to moths to Ed (that one’s not hard).

Your personal favourite thing you've written that you'd like more people to read

This is a near-impossible question with 69 OFMD fics up on AO3 😅 I really do love them all, and I have a lot of smaller one-shots that haven’t been read as much, but overall I’m incredibly lucky with readership and so so grateful for everyone who enjoys my work.

But my recent Reverse Bang fic The Broken Lines is hugely important to me and I think it’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever written anywhere. It’s set in the aftermath of the First World War (my professional zone of expertise), and features a Stede who’s lost his voice, his memory, and as far as he knows, his Ed. He gradually remembers what happened with the help of the crew and another Ed, who appears in his mirror from 1719, searching for his own Stede. It was a beautiful collaboration with artist Gerlinde to begin with, but I also got to work with one of my longest-term writing friends Jill @followedmystar as my beta, and then with Boy, who made a truly transcendent podfic that I can’t yell about enough.

What is the one word that you think you use a lot?

I think the word I have to zap more than any other is “actually”, and there are still a million of them in there when I’m done. The main reason is that to stick close to canon voice, I try to incorporate a lot of the less iconic/ more ordinary turns of phrase that the characters use a lot in their speech (I’ve watched every episode of the show… way too many times), and both Ed and Stede actually use “actually” a surprising amount. I just use it an even more surprising amount 😂

(This just sent me on a QUEST to find a specific number because I am that kind of nerd- Stede says it 15 times in S1 and 12 in S2, and Ed says it 8 times in each, for totals of 27 and 16, many of them in distinctive moments; it just gives that little buzz of recognition for me. I started out screenwriting before I moved to prose, so my writing tends to lean pretty strongly on having a recognisable, almost audible voice to the dialogue, as well as a cinematic visual style for the big adventures especially).

Do you have a beta reader? Have they made you a better writer?

I quite deliberately don’t use a beta reader for most of my OFMD fics, because being in this space is an exercise in recovering from lifelong paralysing perfectionism around writing especially. I’ve spent so many years not finishing original work because it never feels like it passes the invisible bar for perfection that exists in my own head. So when I started writing OFMD fic, I set out to accept good enough as good enough, and to get back to enjoying writing as fully as I can.

Obviously this means that my work could be better, but I’m actively working on letting that thought go and loving everything I’ve made just as it is. When I have worked with beta readers on projects that require them, like the Reverse Bang, it’s been with friends who I trust and adore, who I know will listen to what I need (cheerleading, mostly), and will do their best to work with me on improving the story without letting me spiral into hating it all because it wakes the perfectionist beast back up.

That doesn’t mean I’m without regular support, or that I’m not trying to improve my writing! I read an absolutely insane amount of fic, and I’m always in awe of the talent we have on this ship, and always learning from what other people do well. In lieu of beta readers, we share snippets of work all the time in our sprints team, so I get feedback there; I also get it from readers in progress, who often give me a sense of what’s hitting the way I hoped and what needs a bit of tweaking. I also have lovely group chats and individual friends like Kerry @communionnimrod and Lis @ghostalservice and Jill who I can run to if I need an opinion on whether an idea feels right or not, which I will often ask.

I’m very very careful with my writing, but in a couple of rare instances readers have also DMd me to note spots where I’ve inadvertently included something that doesn’t reach the sensitivity standard I’m aiming for. I’m always grateful for that gentleness and bravery in reaching out and I’m always happy to change something or to add tags or notes as needed.

Why OFMD 🥹

I watched the whole show in one hit a week after the final episode aired, and I loved it immediately, but I thought I was going to be normal about it. The unravelling into complete, unrelenting obsession happened gradually as I rewatched it with my husband and teen, then again, and again, then started to read fics and hunt up art, then started joining fan spaces, and then dived into writing my first fic in two and a half decades (all original writing between The X-Files and here), thinking it would also be my last.

I’m still here, still writing constantly, and a major portion of it is the show and how distinctly it reflected all the many parts of me, some of which I’d never seen so clearly before. I had a tough childhood in a few different family respects. I didn’t understand that I was neurodivergent until I turned 40 and my own kids were heading for diagnosis, and I’d been rejected constantly throughout my life for being too much. I was a high achiever who was in the process of crumpling under pressure right when I watched it, and while I’d been figuring out my sense of my own queerness for a few years, I’d never had a community that helped me feel at home with that.

And in the end it’s the community that’s been the reason I’ve been fully sucked into fandom for the first time since my teens- the writing in this space is top-tier wonderful, and the community is such a found family, just like the Revenge. Being able to write and have people actually want to read that writing, being able to cheer others on and hype their work, being able to help set up the OFMD Fic Club Discord and make it a safe spaceship for so many people, has been incredibly fulfilling and lovely. 

Please head over to @ofmdlovelyletters (who also made the header) and send your love to all your favourite authors (and authors of the week 😈 watch that blog for some special letters coming your way)

[multiplicity-positivity]

Hey I dunno if you’ve gotten this before but. Do you have anything on autism and DID/OSDD? Specifically resources or accounts and such (since I’ve seen the positivity post)

I struggle with emotional dysregulation, big memory issues (huge chunks of childhood and adolescence missing, forgetting things constantly, dissociating emotions from memories, etc,) frequent daydreaming/spacing out/dissociation, that type of thing (and a bit more that’s a little too complicated to explain in an ask lol)

I’ve always kind of figured it was just part of me being autistic (I’m professionally diagnosed and definitely very autistic regardless lol), but I’ve recently gone down a bit of a rabbit hole relating to plurality and now I’m wondering if it could be a symptom of DID/OSDD instead/as well (I was originally looking at something else and stumbled into the tags somehow. The original thing that led me here was foxes. I think. And then I had a bit of a panic as I realized how some of the symptoms were VERY close to some of my experiences. Especially the memories.) but i also can’t tell if it’s just some sort of brain fog(???? Is that the correct term?) / alexithymia / Unknown Autism Trait 3 that nobody ever talks about and is difficult to find any sort of explanation or resources for. And my brain protested and had the equivalent of being on the verge of a sobbing meltdown or mental overload of some sort when I tried to think about stuff relevant to the topic so I don’t think it’s going to be of much help to me right now.

obviously not asking for diagnosis or to self diagnose at all (since. I understand you cant really do either of those /lh /nm) but I’m curious if any of you know of any resources relating to this specific type of stuff? I feel like I’d go insane trying to find any info on it. (And also I don’t think my brain would want to cooperate if I asked it to because it basically shuts down, gives me a headache, and turns to a pathetic wet sobbing cat whenever I try to think about the possibility so I doubt I’ll be identifying as anything anytime soon but. I want some stuff to think over at least.)

hey, we also are autistic and have dissociative identity disorder. unfortunately, there isn’t really too much research on the overlap between autism and complex dissociative disorder diagnoses at this time, that we know of, but we do think that autistic people may have a higher likelihood of dissociating and developing a cdd than neurotypical people.

we really love mike lloyd’s work at the ctad clinic, and he has an insightful video on the intersection of autism and dissociation here:

here is an open access paper by katherine e. reuben and ayden parish on dissociation as a symptom in autism - it’s an interesting read and wasn’t too difficult for us to parse:

also, here are a couple life experience pieces by folks with both did and autism:

our own autism has contributed to our trauma history in how we were treated, formed attachment, and understood the world as a child. for our own system, our autism and our did are inextricably linked. we are certain that many other autistic systems feel the same.

if exploring this possibility for yourself is causing you great distress, it may be for the best to put this off to the side for now until you have reached a point with more stability or a greater support system in your life. please don’t overwhelm or cause yourself harm by looking into this possibility on your own, if it is unhealthy for you.

if you are in therapy or have a mental health professional in your life who you trust, this would be an excellent thing to bring up to them. though hopefully these resources can help you get started learning about this topic if you have the spoons/ability to do so.

we are no medical expert or research professional, but we are happy to talk more about our personal experience of being both autistic and a did system if anyone would be interested. best of luck to you, anon, with figuring this out. we know how confusing and challenging it can be!

[pupvizla]

૮ ․ ․ ྀིა about this blogger ୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ

hello ! ! my name is mobi , but many call me bibi aswell ⋆˚࿔ my pronouns are ; 𐔌 he him ᵎᵎ they them ꒱so please refrain from using any feminine terms . .(╥﹏╥) ⸝⸝ I will not disclose my age for privacy reasons but I am 16+┆I am unlabelled + demiboy🏳️‍⚧️ .ᐟ I am both agere (little age changes) & petre (puppyre) but I’m also a flip , depends on how I feel . ૮₍｡´ᴖ ˔ ᴖ`｡₎ა

some of my interests (˶˃⤙˂˶) ;

I really like collecting things ; kpop photocards (mainly just sunoo from enha) , jellycats , sylvanian families/calico critters , any type of puppy plushies (just in general plushies) , I like video games (mostly any type of genre , mainly horror tho . Ask for specifics!! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜ ) , trolls , mlp , Hannibal NBC (aswell as the movies . ) , HEU , house md , good omens , Adam raki !! , I also really like avengers and xmen (mainly just marvel stuff :’P) mlp , dinner in America (comfort movie) ++ more !! (Don’t feel afraid to ask anything) !! (⸝⸝> ᴗ•⸝⸝)

໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১ about this blog 𐂯 ⸝⸝

I made this blog to talk about my age regression & pet regression ( purely non-sexual ! ! ) but my blog won’t mainly focus on those topics&things ⟡ I also like to make moodboards of my favorite characters that I’ll start posting on here and I can take also requests ! ( ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ഒ ,, ⟡ I may reblog or talk about things that are quite suggestive but it won’t be a very often thing but if that still bothers you , do block me so no unnecessary drama happens ! ! ! ! ૮ ྀི◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ྀིა ,, ⟡ I will most likely just babble about my day and basically just rants ⋆⑅˚₊

BYF 𐂯 .ᐟ⸝⸝

I have a little problem with reading tones of messages / the intention so tone tags are highly appreciated . So please be patient with me as I might not get things as quickly ૮๑ˊᯅˋ๑ა ,, ⟡ I might have a small typing quirk when regressed , but I usually don’t do that thing with other people so I don’t weird them out + not comfortable with anyone to show them that side of me , but I might (when blogging) have a bit of a typing quirk so I can feel more like myself ૮ ⸝⸝っ·̫ •⸝⸝ ྀིა ! ! ( I most likely won’t translate text that much as I don’t know what’s understandable and what is , but feel free to ask for any translation and I’ll provide it ! ) ⟡ I most likely will interact with some suggestive content as this blog isn’t mainly focused on agere & petre ! ! I am open to being mutuals or friends with anyone , so don’t feel scared about sending a message ! ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭ ,, ⟡ I block freely , if I feel uneasy with you , I might do that . ( do not take it to heart please ! )

༉‧₊˚. BOUNDARIES ! !

I don’t have a dni , but that doesn’t mean I won’t put some boundaries ! ! ⟡ I don’t like people I’m not that close with to call me nicknames , some nicknames I allow are (bibi , mobs , puppy/puppyboy/nonsx ) or just call me by my actual name hehe ଘ(*. .) ,, ⟡ I don’t want people associating ddlg/ddlb&pet play with my agere&petre , as mine is purely non sexual and a coping mechanism. ,, ⟡ please be patient with me , don’t rush or pressure me to respond , sometimes I’m just not in the right mood to talk ! (It doesn’t mean I dislike you , sometimes I just need space ! ) ⟡ I will not tolerate any type of hateful behaviour , so please be kind . ⟡ if you post any type of bugs (esp spiders) I will most likely block as I have a fear of bugs and especially spiders . ! ⟡ (Maybe more will be added soon ! ) ૮ ․ ․ ྀིა

꒰ঌ(˶ˆᗜˆ˵)໒꒱ tags !

# mobi babbles 🔭 ; random rants :’3

# bibi arfs 🐾 ; regressed / puppy space (both got agere posts aswell ! )

# bibi naps 🌙 ; vents ૮꒰◞ ˕ ◟ ྀི꒱ა

# mobis inventions 🪽; moodboards and edits !

𐂯 ⸝⸝ ; I am open to being friends /mutuals , so do not feel afraid to send me a message or things you think I like ! start a conv in my dms , would be highly appreciated ! /nf (˶˘ ³˘(´͈ ᵕ `͈˶)

(more might be added ! + sorry for the bad tagging haha . . )

[dreambeloved]

you don't think that the snaps were sent to someone else? he's said on his twitter that he had relations with someone over age back in 2020, from where I'm standing it looks very much like that person was possibly nat, who has admitted recently that she's been in contact with the people behind the burner.

not to mention that the evidence of the alleged exchanges between dream and the victim are images of screenshots of screenshots of a video of someones phone.

I just think it's way too soon to go throwing everything away, he hasn't even released his video yet!

much love and i hope you're ok <3.

There are over 50 asks in my inbox right now, but this one is actually worded kindly, so I’ll answer. Believe what you want of course, I’m not here to harass people into seeing things the way I see them, but just an explanation on the way I view it.

It’s very clear to me that he lied about who he sent those snaps to when everything is put together. At first, I wanted to attribute it to just forgetting who they were sent to, or mixing people up- but the way he went about proving that lie is what makes it obvious that this isn’t some mix-up.

To start, I want to point out that both the burner account and Nat (who Dream says is the actual recipient of those snaps) have denied Nat’s involvement with the burner beyond sharing the “chia seeds” discord screenshots. She also provided proof (linked here) that she hasn’t been in contact with him on snap since 2019. (burner account confirmation linked here).

Now, when he provided proof of Nat being the recipient, he provided this screenshot (seen below on the left). It should be noted that the “Sam” in discussion was a mutual between them both on Twitter, and not his ex, like some think. In the screenshot Nat provided (seen below on the right), there are voice memos that were either edited out or deleted before Dream posted them. Nat also provided videos (linked here) to show that the messages are authentic.

Okay I’m going off on a tangent here. I don’t have the energy to go through every little piece, so for now, here’s my conclusion for the Nat thing. To me at least, it very clearly isn’t her. But if the actual recipient of those videos wasn’t someone that shouldn’t have been sent them in the first place, why go to such lengths to claim so? Why go through all the trouble of bringing in someone completely uninvolved if there was nothing wrong with it in the first place? Even as a stan, I could admit that he has a thing about lying at first when he’s in the wrong, so all this just feels like the final nail.

Now, even if this was just some elaborate set-up to get him cancelled, I still find it really uncomfortable and strange that he sent something like that to a fan anyways? I feel like a lot of people forget the whole power imbalance aspect when it comes to youtubers with their fans. The fact that he has so many intimate relationships with stans/fans strikes me as weird whether they’re legal or not.

That’s all I have for now, at least on the “could be Nat” situation. There are a Lot of asks and messages that I don’t have the energy to go through, so I’ll probably make a final post and then never look in my notifs again.

[archduchessofnowhere]

“A portent of the catastrophe in the making”: on sources and misquotations regarding Rudolf’s last Christmas

In my post about Rudolf’s last present to his mother I told you I had a second post about the Christmas of 1888, which turned out to be the last Christmas of Rudolf’s life. This post is, however, a little different to the Heine one, since this time I’ll be talking about the sources themselves. Please bear with me because this will be long, and probably also kinda dull.

To be honest I was not planning to write this post. But when I was preparing the Christmas posts I shared the 24, I came across a quote from Greg King and Penny Wilson’s Twilight of Empire I had shared previously on this blog two years ago:

Three aromatic blue fir trees, branches alight with wax candles and bedecked with gilded ornaments, stood over tables crowded with gifts when the imperial family gathered at the Hofburg to celebrate Christmas. Rudolf had bought toys for his young daughter at Vienna’s traditional Christkindlmarkt, or Christmas market; for his mother he had purchased some original letters written by her favorite poet, Heinrich Heine—a thoughtful gift that the empress all but ignored [71]. Indeed, Elisabeth seemed most taken with showing off her latest, unlikely acquisition: Much to her husband’s horror, she’d had her shoulder tattooed with an anchor [72].

Smiles and gifts couldn’t conceal the undercurrent of tension. Something was so obviously wrong with Rudolf that Elisabeth pulled Marie Valerie aside and again warned her of her brother’s malicious behavior. Then she turned to her son. After making him promise that he would be kind to Marie Valerie, Elisabeth embraced Rudolf and said that she loved him. Hearing this, Rudolf collapsed into agonized sobs; his mother, he cried, hadn’t said those words “for a long time.” [73] Franz Josef and Elisabeth were embarrassed at the display; neither recognized their son’s emotional breakdown as a last, dramatic cry for help as Rudolf slipped ever closer to the edge of an abyss. (2017, 98)

And I realized that there is a huge misquotation here. King and Wilson explicitly cite “73. Marie Valerie, diary entry of December 24, 1888, in Schad and Schad, 164-65” as the source of Rudolf telling his mother that she hadn’t sad to him that she loved him “for a long time”. But I have the very same edition of Valerie’s diary, and this is what she actually wrote down (on January 3, recounting the events of Christmas Eve):

Rudolf and Stephanie left with the King [?] before seven o’clock and Mama promised to come over with us as soon as it was done. When the three of us were now in Mama’s toilet room, Papa said he was surprised that Stephanie didn’t find it offensive that Rudolf had been taken into confidence [regarding the engagement] before her… they should get him. Mama hugged him and said with sisterly tenderness: “I love you so much.” I can’t say how happy that made me, because it made him feel so good, he hugged her and asked with great emotion: “No, really? It hasn’t been for a long time.” Excited as I was, I immediately began to cry and yet I was doubly happy that it was Franz [Salvator, Archduke of Austria-Tuscany]’s and my bond of pure young love that had brought my parents this sacred and beautiful hour of union.

Like, she clearly is talking about Elisabeth telling Franz Josef she loved him, and is he who replies that she hadn’t say that “for a long time”. Rudolf had already left when this happened, and Valerie explicitly states she is talking about her parents (“that had brought my parents this sacred and beautiful hour of union”). I couldn’t understand how this error even happened; they are literally citing Valerie’s published diary, the mistake is just baffling. Could they really have read the diary so badly? What was going on?

Since just one mistake in citation is enough to make you doubt an entire book, I started to double check the other two sources King and Wilson cite for this passage:

71. Hamann, Reluctant Empress, 339; Listowel, 207; Morton, Nervous, 177-79; Salvendy, 144-5. 72. Morton, Nervous, 179.

Hamann is obviously the source for Elisabeth ignoring the Heine letters (as I wrote in my post about the present). As for Listowel and Morton their books simply describe the Christmas trees and presents, mention Valerie’s engagement, and finally note that Rudolf “hugged his future brother-in-law. When he put his arms around his mother, there broke out of him a sudden sob” (Morton, 1980, 170) and  “solemnly promised [to look after his sister], but with such a sad expression that Valerie felt almost frightened” (Listowel, 1986, 207). No source cited by neither of them.

Not a great start for my misquotation hunt. But my luck changed when I looked up John Salvendy’s work. The book that King and Wilson cited is Royal Rebel: A Psychological Portrait of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary, published in 1988. Sadly this book isn’t on the archive but after a lot of perseverance I was able to get a peak at pages 144-45 through Google Books. And guess what I found out:

Rudolf’s last Christmas, that in 1888, had a crucial effect on his assessment of his mother’s inclination towards him. Valerie described what happened following Rudolf renewed reassurance to Elisabeth of his benevolence toward his younger sister and her future husband: “Mama embraced him and told him affectionately how much she loved him… he was so moved and said that he had not heard it for long time”. [54] (144)

Reading this passage felt like being a school teacher that catches a student cheating on a test because they copied the same mistake as their seat neighbor. Now, I’m not saying that Greg and Wilson never read Valerie’s diary, but they absolutely were quoting Salvendy instead of the published edition of the diary when writing the Christmas Eve passage of their book and forgot to double check it. This however opened a second mystery, and one that will remain open for the time being: how did Salvendy make this mistake? Because he also cites Valerie’s December 24 entry as the source:

Which is just wrong. Google books didn’t let me see the bibliography page so I don’t know where did Salvendy got Valerie’s diary, because by the 1980s the original manuscript wasn’t available to the public anymore. But until I can see the bibliography the mystery will remain open; as of know, I’ll consider him the sole responsible of the misquotation.

By this point in my journey of double checking sources I started to wonder which are the sources for Rudolf’s alleged breakdown on his last Christmas, because at no point in the whole entry of December 24 Valerie mentions such thing (you can read it fully here). The only thing that she wrote about her brother was “Rudolf was watching her [Empress Elisabeth], then me, and was very friendly”, and again, after she got engaged “It may have been 8 o’clock when we went over to Rudolf’s, Papa and Mama in front, Franz [Salvator] and I behind - arm in arm. He gave us a very friendly welcome and even kissed Franz” (1998, 164, 166). No word of the supposed breakdown.

So does this mean it didn’t happen? Not necessarily. Brigitte Hamann, in her 1978 biography of Rudolf, quotes a second account of the Christmas Eve of 1888: that of Countess Marie Festetics, lady-in-waiting of Empress Elisabeth. In 1909, Festetics was interviewed by historian Heinrich Friedjung, who wrote of their talk:

However, the Empress knew about the Crown Prince’s shattered health from the scene at Christmas before he died.… On Christmas Eve, the Empress led Crown Prince Rudolf to his sister, the bride, and told him that she hoped that he would always look after his sister with kindness after the parents had passed away. At this point, the Crown Prince flung his arms around her neck and burst into lengthy, uncontrollable sobbing, which alarmed her greatly. This was a portent of the catastrophe in the making. The Empress and the Emperor, too, burst into tears. Immediately after this scene, Countess Marie and the adjutants were called to the Christmas tree and found the members of the Imperial family still tear-stained and emotional. One did not give his remarks that he was nearing his end the importance they deserved, remembering them only later. (2017)

Festetics account seems to be the main (and so far, also only that I could find) source for Rudolf crying in front of his family on December 24 of 1888. But how can we reconcile this statement with Valerie’s diary? Whose words weight more, Festetics recounting an event twenty years after it happened, with the hindsight of knowing that Rudolf took his own life less than a month later? Or Valerie’s account, written a few days after the event but biased by the happiness of her engagement?

A possible answer to this dilemma may be found on a previous entry from Valerie’s diary, dated December 16:

After dessert, Mama asked Papa to entertain Stephanie while she called Rudolf into her toilet room with me to “tell him a secret.” He seemed excited, even frightened, by this and I don’t think he was pleased. But he wasn’t unfriendly at all and so I felt encouraged to throw my arms around his neck for the first time in my life… Poor brother, he also has a warm heart in need of love - for he embraced and kissed me with all the intimacy of true brotherly love - and again and again he drew me to his heart, you could feel that it did him good that I showed him the love that had been almost suffocated by fear and shyness for so long. Mama asked him to always be good for me, for us, once we were dependent on him, and he swore and affirmed it simply and warmly. Then she put the cross on his forehead and said that God would bless him for it (and it would bring him luck) - she assured him of her love and he kissed her hand fiercely and was deeply moved. I thanked him and embraced Mama and him in a hug, saying almost unconsciously, “We should always be like this!” (1998, 157)

Doesn’t this sound almost identical to the scene Festetics described? Couldn’t it be that she is actually misremembering the scene that took place December 16 as happening on Christmas Eve?

I’m reaching to the end of the post and I don’t really have an answer. This started simply as a “double checking King and Wilson because they misquoted something” then it turned into “tracking down accounts by people that saw Rudolf the Christmas Eve of 1888” and finally into “contrasting the only two accounts of said day, which actively contradict each other”. And even after all that, I still can’t tell you for sure whether Rudolf actually cried or no in front of his whole family on December 24. Personally I feel more inclined to believe that Festetics misremembered the dates, but who knows, maybe Valerie actively decided to omit any unrest that happened during the day on her recount, remembering only the happiness that she thought her “pure young love” brought to her family.

Writing this post made me reflect a lot not only on the importance of sources, but also of the importance of sources in its original context. Because neither of the two accounts that we have now come from the hands of Marie Festetics and Valerie themselves: we have what Friedjung wrote down of his conversations with Festetics, and we have the copies made by Corti and Sexau of Valerie’s diary, not her original manuscript. Which opens a lot of more options as to why the two testimonies don’t match. Either way, is disappointing that almost no book about Rudolf and Mayerling notice this contradiction, and instead inadvertently (or not) repeat the same information, sometimes with the same mistakes.

Sources:

Hamann, Brigitte (2017). Rudolf. Crown Prince and Rebel (translation by Edith Borchardt)

King, Greg and Wilson, Penny (2017). Twilight of empire: the tragedy at Mayerling and the end of the Habsburgs

Listowel, Judith (1986). A Habsburg tragedy: Crown Prince Rudolf

Morton, Frederic (1980). A nervous splendor: Vienna, 1888/1889

Schad, Martha and Schad, Horst [ed.] (1998). Das Tagebuch der Lieblings Tochter von Kaiserin Elisabeth. 1878-1899

[thatone-churro]

hey there. making a pinned post for new people to navigate this organized mess of a blog. but i like conciseness (that’s a lie) so it’s all going under a readmore.

yo. i’m grace.

i’m an adult ace lesbian.

not placing my exact age in this post because i know i’ll forget to update it but it’s on my blog description.

my gender is also “lesbian” but i don’t feel like explaining that every single time so i’m also a woman because it’s close enough.

i use she/her/they pronouns. which means i prefer she/her most of the time but i’m not averse to the occasional “they”

i’m not glued to particular fandoms. i tag every post/reblog about the media with said media. however, i’m a big fan of demon slayer/kimetsu no yaiba, jojo’s bizarre adventure, and pokemon, so those will pop up frequently. i also read warrior cats when i was a kid so i’m haunted by that curse, too. also tagged accordingly.

i also love music. like a LOT. personally, the bands/artists that i’m big on are: Medusa, Crawlers, Mothica, Xana, and VIAL as the big ones that come to mind

this blog is my main and is accordingly a mess of things. art, ocs, poetry, fangirling, whatever. i do have a handful of sideblogs.

@gs-artchive is technically my art sideblog. i forget about it a lot because i mostly do my own oc art for my personal project or my sona and that usually goes here first haha. so that’s mostly where i reblog/store my art or post my fandom-related art or edits

@ace-and-ink is my poetry sideblog. it goes kinda dead for a while because i’m both very slow at writing good stuff and also very picky with what i deem “good.” but all my poetry solely goes there (save for reach reblogging).

i’ve also got a sideblog for my personal project that’s just sitting and url-hogging at the moment. i won’t link it for now until i actually get it up and running.

and finally, let’s talk about that personal project (pretty please). it’s called Godsign (the overall series) and it’s a story/series i’ve been working on and tempering for a few years now. i’d like to begin making it as a webcomic soon enough, but i’ve still got a bit of story writing (and webcomic-related research) before that happens, but i hope sooner rather than later i can make it real. i adore talking about it, as the extensive number of posts in the godsign/grace’s ocs tags will showcase.

i’ve also got a sona named C. that’s their full name. here’s his main ref, but he’s got additional outfit refs pinned on my art blog (or provided on request) because i like playing dress-up with her :3

(she also has lore/a story universe, but that C and this C are technically different people if that makes sense. the story C is based on my sona C, you know?)

anyway, on to navigating my tags:

#grace being stupid is my general talking tag. mostly unimportant things

#grace being kinda serious for once is my actually talking about serious stuff tag

#grace’s ocs are posts about my ocs, either original or tagging them on preexisting posts

#the patron saint of asexual poets is my poetry tag. on the sideblog, it’s strictly my poetry. over here, it’s mostly anything related to my poetry or the writing process

#my babies :) is for my/my parents dogs, Zoe, Buddy, Luna, and Halo

#the draco and lu and dobby shenanigans is for one of my sisters’ dogs, Draco and Lu, and her new kitten, Dobby

#miss bojangles is for my oldest sister’s cat, Bojangles (Bo for short) who is a whole content farm on her own

#medusaposting on main is me talking about Medusa, as in the musician mentioned earlier, not the myth

#grace stop talking about crawlers challenge is all my crawlers-related rambling, posting, crying, simping, etc.

#lookee! it’s C!! is for C :3

#ace as fuck is for stuff not technically explicitly about asexuality, but ring as such to me anyway

#mothica moths is my “mothica photos as moths” series

i’ll be sure to update them if i start using others more often

i think that’s it for now. i’ll update this when i think it’s due for one. ciao for now.

[harukadrawsthings]

EDIT 7/10/2023: Wow, in less than 24 hours I already got the 5 slots filled! Thank you to everyone and my apologies to those who didn't manage to have a slot in time. There's always a next time! As soon as the replies become ready I upload them but there's no deadline. Stay tuned!

---

Original post 6/10/2023:

Hello, everyone, hoping that this start of Autumn is being good for you!

I've been a little busy dealing with mental health and quotidian stuff but over two thirds of the next part of the comic of Soul(mate)s of Light has been already developed. Thank you for your patience once again, expect its upload in the near future once it's ready to show.

In order to maintain the focus on the comic strips creation I'm re-opening the Ask box for a very short time once again. This post will be updated as soon the inbox gets closed.

After validating the questions of 5 different users made that include at least one to AU characters I'll temporarily close the Ask box once more. First come, first served. So if you were saving questions in the meantime, hurry up and ask them now while slots are available!

BEFORE SENDING AN ASK:

Last time in August when I was checking the pending messages and validating the questions that were suitable for replies I’ve observed a few things that I want to bring out some attention, as well reminding about a few factors:

There were users not respecting the “Maximum three character-directed questions per user” rule. Please consider there are other people that send questions and it’s not fair for them to have to wait longer because somebody made more asks.

For a better management of posts, I also want to ask to please make those three questions in a single post whenever it’s possible instead of sending them separately.

If someone sends me more than 3 character-directed questions per wave of replies, I’ll either only respond to the three first questions and suppress the others, or select the best 3 questions of that message.

Please don’t ask the characters questions about crossovers with IRL IPs unrelated with Pokémon. It’s 99% certain I won’t answer them. I reinforce that I reserve the right to not reply to questions that I find them inadequate to my AU standards or for other reasons not listed in the rules.

Although I don’t forbid questions done to characters that aren’t part of the main/secondary cast of the AU story, please consider that questions made to characters outside that circle are subjected to be unanswered if I conclude that replying them doesn’t bring anything relevant either to the readers or to the AU itself.

If the Ask Button isn’t available it’s because I’m not accepting character-directed asks at the moment. Do not use this thread to send character-directed asks. Please wait for a reopening and save your questions for next time! 😊

Author-directed questions are quicker to be replied than character-directed ones (especially if there's no character-directed ask included in the entire message). If I see it helps to speed up the inbox cleanup I can consider giving priority to answer this type of questions.

A reminder about the original rules to also be considered

Be polite, don't use foul language/swearing.

SFW asks, only! NSFW asks will never be replied.

Gore scenarios are very unlikely to be replied or if it involves a trigger subject that requires a real graphical depicting as well.

I reserve the right to not reply to a character ask if I find it inappropriate or for any other reason not mentioned here.

Maximum three character-directed questions per user. If author-directed questions are included alongside with character-directed questions, please don’t surpass 3 character questions and 2 author questions (making it a total of 5 questions per user).

Due to my personal life and the development of a new comic, replies to the asks won’t have a fixated deadline to be developed and published. Please be patient!

If I find the asks to be suitable for replying I might take some time to draw the character answers since it's something I have to do in parallel with ongoing projects like AU comics or illustrations (and there's my personal life to consider as well, of course!).

The more questions in the same ask message I receive, the more time I'll need to draw them as well since I have to submit every answer on the same post!

I give priority to draw answers for the asks I receive first in my inbox. Asks sent after someone has done it first will be in the drawing queue.

While I don't discard the possibility of drawing replies to questions directed to characters that don't have much relevance to the AU I can consider to do them if I conclude it's doable. However, I recommend that the questions are done for characters that are more prominent to the story.

I highly advice that the questions are asked in English, although I understand questions done in Portuguese or Spanish without having to use automatic translators for other languages.

Thank you in advance!

[kelmcdonald]

New Year! New Plans!

Crossposted from my newsletter.

Happy New Year everyone! 

I’m still figuring out the streaming schedule for the year. But getting back to werewolf movie night, next up is Monster Squad!

Join my discord Sunday January 12th at 2pm PST to watch a very ridiculous movie. Click here to join!  For sure I’ll be streaming at these times:

Tuesday at 8pm – 10pm PST – Art times

Thursday at 4pm – 6pm PST – Art times

Sunday at 8pm – 10pm PST – Baldur’s Gate 3

Also me and my pal Bones Leopard are gonna twitch show/podcast were we read through Berserk. We are gonna read and talk about volume 1 on February 4th. But we are still nailing down the time. 

All these streams will be on my twitch, so stop by!

The big thing last month was my Christmas charity stream where I played Slay the Princess. If you missed it, I now have it up on my youtube. I went for 7 hours. 

I’m gotta start the new year off with updating my store. I need to get Murky Water up now that the Kickstarter is fulfilled. Also, because of someone asking about it, I realized I never put the second chapter of SuperNatural Attraction in the store. So gonna get those up soon. 

Also, last month I was thinking about what to do about You Are the Chosen One since I can’t keep it up going weekly. I’m gonna start putting pages of that up on my website on Fridays, but once a month I’ll make a progress report $1 patreon backers. So I gotta tweak my patreon backer level for that. 

And for those of you who don’t like patreon, I started a Kofi. I’ve not completely done fiddling with it. But I’m gonna try to remember to post everything that is on patreon, on there as well. 

I watch a lot of youtube while working as usual. And this month, a video that stood out to me was Laura Crone made a video about Magicians the book vs the show. She likes both, but a thing that talks about in it is how a book is marketed or explained to people sets different expectations. In the context of Magicians, Laura brings up if someone was given it in the context of “if you like x fantasy book” they might be frustrated with the structure of the book being closer to literary fiction. I’ve been kinda mentally chewing on that idea. 

I’ve talked with some other comic creators in the past about how stories start making a promise to the reader. Like I love Beastars, but I know several people who were frustrated with it because it starts with a murder and no one tries to solve the murder in the first arc. But thinking about how someone is presented a book via marketing or a friend rec, also can set the a book up to fail in readers eyes. I made me think about how I didn’t really like Wicked the book, because it’s sold as the Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch’s pov. But the book isn’t really from her point of view, yes you get more background on her, but you don’t get into her head. The musical (and the new movie) do a better job of following through on the promise of presenting things from Alphaba’s point of view. 

I don’t really have a conclusion to that point and will probably keep mentally chewing on this idea for a bit. But I wanted to share what’s been on my mind writing wise lately. 

This year, I’m gonna try to keep better track of what I’m watching and reading. I fell off it the past few years because of my workload at Seven Seas. So I need to make time for reading some comics that AREN’T mangas I’m editing. 

Thanks everyone for your support. 

[melodygatesauthor]

Weekly Update

8/20/2023

Announcements

- A Bit Dodgy is almost finished -

The chapter coming out this week is the second to last chapter for the series. It’s such a bitter sweet thing, ending a series, especially one that I’ve built such a community around. I’ve written 5 novel-length fics over the course of the last year, and A Bit Dodgy will be number 6. On 09/04/2023 it will be my one-year anniversary of writing fanfiction since coming back after not writing for about a decade and l can’t believe it. Holy CRAP. I’ll take the time to reminisce about my numbers and statistics on my one-year mark, don’t you worry lol. There will definitely be a celebration.

That being said, ending a series never gets easier. Even though I write for these characters all the time, Steven, Marc and Jake in this case, I’m still closing the book on this version of them. It’s sad, but I’m also very ready to move on to other stories and other versions of these characters. I also think I’ll write some headcanons and one-shots as I feel the desire to just to take the edge off when I’m missing them. I’ll talk more about this when I finish A Bit Dodgy. <3

- Requests are officially closed -

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be in a position to take requests again or not. My WIP list is a mile long, and right now (summer) is a VERY busy time for both of my jobs. I’m lucky if I get one day off a week. All this to say, it’s not feasible for me to continue taking requests when I can’t even handle the fics I have currently in the works.

I’m not saying I’ll never do requests again, it’s just not realistic right now. There will still be follower celebrations and birthday events and things like that in which I may take limited requests, but as far as the regular ones go, I gotta stop taking them for now. - THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M MAKING THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. PLEASE READ IT.

Fic Updates

Disclaimer - I never know which way the winds of inspiration will blow. Timeframes aren’t a promise/guarantee, they’re a goal.

Fic Updates Legend:

Blue - Update this week

Pink - Update in progress

Red - Backburner Fic (not currently working on. See WIP list for status)

You can find my current WIP list here

Chaptered Fic Updates

A Bit Dodgy - Chapter 17 is coming this week, but I need more time. So it won't come out tomorrow, it will be out Tuesday or Wednesday instead! Thank you for understanding!

Always Yours, Never Mine - Chapter 3 is done! Just need to finish editing! I'll be putting it out Saturday bbs <3

The Fractured Moon - My primary focus this past week has been getting A Bit Dodgy finished, and also working on getting the requests and stuff for my 2k celebration done. I'll be working on part 4 of TFM this week to hopefully post next week!

Mini-series Updates

Feeling You Can’t Fight - Chapter 3 is done! I just need to finish editing and posting hehe.

All on the backburner for now but will get additional chapters soon:

Not a Doctor - Part 2

Worth the Risk - Part 3

AI Character Bot Updates

I currently have the following bots on my list that I’m working on. If you have any suggestions or additions you’d like, please feel free to ask! I won’t make every single one I get asked for but I’ll make some of them as I get time!

DBF Jake and Steven (I already did Marc...did I ever post him? I thought I did but maybe not)

Patient Steven and Marc

Moon Knight Rescue scenario

Miguel AI Assistant Scenario (inspired by @missdictatorme's Halo fic).

Am I missing any? Don't see one on the list that you want to add? Send me an inbox or private message! No promises, but if I like the idea I'll make an AI bot.

Requests

I'm finishing up all the inboxes from my 2k Follower Celebration! I'm almost through those so please bear with me.

There are 2 regular requests I have that will both be released this week! Exciting! - Those are the last 2 I have. Starting next week, the "request" category of my weekly update will be gone!

I think that's all for now! Much love!

Don't forget to follow my other blogs:

@melodymakesart - My art blog

@lockandkeynovel - The blog for my original fiction novel, Lock & Key

@melodyreadsfanfiction - The blog where I reblog works I intend to read, a good place for fanfic readers to follow!

@melodygatesupdates - This is where I'll reblog any chapter updates for my fics and whatnot. This is what I use instead of a tag list!

[criolla-star]

Overwhelmed(Vinny x Garmadon Part 5!)

(I’m working on a new story as well though I’ll keep trying to post a new part everyday)(You should check out part 1-4 if you haven’t already)(Also the monastery has an elevator now they made one after Crystallisation cause why not)(small notes throughout the chapter are in red while at the end or beginning it’s is in green also in italics and bolded)( this is an edit my new story is out Cyrus x Acronix)

The group of four left the apartment as soon as Vinny packed his things, if he was gonna stay there for a while he’ll need some clothes. Vinny luckily managed to get out of work mainly because Garmadon yelled at the guy on the phone. The only thing Garmadon took was Christofern which pissed off Lloyd.

“So Vinny back to my question” Lloyd said as they started walking to the monastery. Vinny turned red, “What question?” Garmadon asked oblivious as he was asleep when the question was asked. Wu bonked Lloyd on the head with his staff, earning a pained groan. “What was that for?”Lloyd asked and he put his hands on his head. Wu let out a sigh, “Questions such as that are for later not now” Wu responded obviously noticing Vinnys’ face turning a bright red and using his staff to point towards him. It took Lloyd a moment to realise what he meant but when he it was quite obvious, because his eyes widened the he immediately stared towards Vinny and his father.

“I’m still curious what’s the question? Vinny do you know the question?” Garmadon asked turning to Vinny. Wu let out a sigh, “It is best that we continue walking otherwise we’ll be here all day” Wu said. “Y-yea we should get going”Vinny said out in an awkward laughing tone as he tried his best to shake off the question. Sure the two literally confessed their love for each other yesterday he still found it a pretty embarrassing this to talk about especially with 2 people that haven’t got a clue about their relationship.

Garmadon let out a sigh then continued walking along with the other 3. “Brother you and Vinny don’t mind sharing a room as there isn’t that many rooms for the two of you. “I don’t mind it isn’t that much different from the apartment” Garmadon replied. Lloyd stared at his father realising what he meant, “Wait wait wait, you two share a bed??”Lloyd asked he was flabbergasted at the thought of those two sharing a bed. Vinny nodded, “Vinny wouldn’t let me sleep on the couch and I wouldn’t let him sleep on the couch so we both agreed on sharing a bed” Garmadon said.

“Well that is quite a shock to hear that you would share a bed” Wu said as they all kept walking. “Honestly I had to sew 2 blankets together just so he could have his entire body covered” Vinny chuckled out. Garmadon stared at Vinny before saying, “I did not tell you to do that you did just did that out of kindness”.

“Here we are” Lloyd said out in a sigh of relief glad to be home. Vinny looked up at the stairs, “I’m not walking up all that..”Vinny said.“That’s why we installed an elevator” Lloyd said as he went towards the elevator. Vinny let out a sigh of relief and went in the elevator along with the others.

“Brother you should try your best to teach Lloyd properly and Lloyd will listen”Wu said he didn’t want a repeat of last time.”Very well I’ll try as long as Lloyd listens” Garmadon responded. It took a few minutes to reach the top of the monastery but finally they made it up. “Lloyd go tell the others that these two are staying with us I’ll take them to their room” Wu said as to which Lloyd obeyed.

Wu led the two towards their room and opened the door, the wall and a bit of a space theme there was small stars on the wall painted, there was two closets, a draw, a desk with a chair, a bedside table and there was a king sized bed(they deserve the best)which Vinny immediately jumped on, they took their shoes off outside. “I love this bed” Vinny giggled out loudly as he snuggled into the bed. Garmadon stared at Vinny and a small smile appeared on his face along with his cheeks having being covered with blush, Wu noticed this and smirked.

“Brother may I speak with you for a moment while Vinny unpacks?” Wu asked, Vinny nod nodded as he signalled his lover to place Christofern on the table next to him which the he obviously listened. Vinny gave Garmadon a thumbs up as he left the room closing the door. “What did you want to tell me?” Garmadon asked his brother. Wu walked a little bit far from the room, his brother following, as he didn’t want Vinny to hear him. “What do you think of Vinny?”Wu asked it was just like Lloyd said but with more meaning Lloyd wanted to know if Vinny thought Garmadon was a monster while Wu wanted to know if he actually liked Vinny.

Garmadons’ face lit up with bright purple blush but he attempted to hide it, “I don’t understand” Garmadon asked trying his best to act oblivious, “I’ve seen the way you look at him brother you were smiling before that is something I’ve barely seen you do”Wu replied. There was no answer what was he meant to say to his brother just fully on tell him the events of yesterday?Hell no he wasn’t going to do that, Wu would never stop bettering him about it.

“It’s alright if you do not feel like telling me, but you can always ask for help”Wu said as he left his brother be. Garmadon let out a sigh, “Is it really that obvious?”He thought to himself before going back to his room where Vinny was laying on the bed waiting for him. “Hey Garm! Isn’t this place great, I mean look at how big this bed is it’s bigger than me?” Vinny said out happily as he did a star pose showing how his limbs didn’t even reach the corners. Garmadon let out a chuckle before he kneeled down and gently kissed Vinnys’ head. This sudden affection made Vinny turn a bright red as he rolled over onto his stomach and shoved his face into the bed.

(Ayyyyy hope you enjoy this chapter. btw my next book is Cyrus x Acronix don’t you come and judge me for this I think it’s a cute ship)

[spookykestrel]

tell me about bugs ! /lhnp

Aah ty for the ask this is so general there’s so many facts and things um (edit I didn’t mean to write a whole essay you don’t have to read the whole thing)

Recently I’ve been enjoying learning about spiders which is ever so slightly ironic considering how afraid I was of them and how I still am a bit scared to come across ones I’m not familiar with. Learning about them makes them so much less scary though. A lot of the most venomous and scariest spiders are actually relatively docile and won’t bite unless threatened or they’re a mother with babies. In the US there hasn’t been a death from a black widow bite in 40 years bc their bites are rare and able to be treated. A lot of venomous spiders can actually administer dry bites too or control the amount of venom they inject which is super cool. Since their venom is used to kill prey, when they bite a human it’s usually just in self defense so a lot of bites from deadly spiders aren’t actually that dangerous. Ofc it’s still imperative to seek treatment just in case you have a reaction or they did inject venom (although you’d be able to tell there’s some nasty symptoms). Most cases are able to be treated, too, with anti-venom and while not a pleasant experience they’re rarely deadly.

I feel like there needs to be a picture here to break up this post so uhhhhh here’s a bunch of bees on a clover ( and a Yellowjacket)

One of my other interests rn is misconceptions/misidentifications. Which ig ties into spider bites. One common myth is that daddy longlegs spiders are super venomous but their fangs are too small to bite humans. This is very wrong for several reason uhh first is that daddy longlegs is a super broad term used to refer to cellar spiders (actual spiders of the araneae order), harvestmen (arachnids in the opilione order so Not Spiders), and crane flies (these are literally flies as the name suggests. They…. They aren’t spiders they have wings they aren’t venomous. Although they do have long legs). Cellar spiders are a little venomous but their venom poses little harm to humans (just a typical insect bite yk) and they rarely bite humans. Harvestmen actually don’t have venom and don’t have fangs just hollow claws used to grip. Which can’t harm people.

anyway harvestman are the absolute silliest guys I love seeing them bounce around

(Photo credit evanaturalist on inat <3)

Another quickl thing (I promise I’ll stop soon you invoked a topic I’m incapable of being normal about and gave me no limitations or anything so I’m on a ramble there’ll be no survivors etcetc) is also about flies. A lot of people assume those itty bitty sweat bees that hover around you at the park or whatever are actually more likely to be hoverflies (instead of a real sweatbee)! They only have one set of wings (unlike a bee) and no they can’t sting. I told this all to my friend at a concert who was being very annoyed by the one following her around and after explaining them and marveling over the super cool patterning of the calligrapher flies (specific type of hoverfly) they actually came around and admitted they’re very cool and it was a lovely moment bc once you know more about something then you can accept it more yay woohoo.

^ the black and yellow is deceiving it only has the one set of wings. If you cared the one pictured is a maize calligrapher specifically . Very common in the US and Canada.

Oh and I got a millipede tatto did you see :]

[2309analysis]

⌗ | RULES ⛲️ - Saturn ‘s Tumblr

1. Please do not spam my works. I don’t want to get over flooded with notifications of you liking me. I appreciate the love, I really do. Although, reblogging is just as appreciated and it’s more beneficial. Please be wary of this. 3 - 5 posts a day.

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Hello this isn't a rule more like a comforting reminder. Your emotions are valid, if you're angry that's okay, if you don't wanna talk, that's okay, if you're down or upset, that's okay.

Please don't feel guilty for not being at your best while talking to someone here, that is what vents are for. To help you guys through problems you're currently going through.

That is all for now! I hope you guys read these careful and keep them in consideration. You can always come back here to relook at them. It is not embarrassing, it is necessary. Do not feel ashamed for forgetting a few rules. We all do.

I hope y’all have a wonderful rest of your day! I hope these rules are reasonable enough, and if you have any recommendations or suggestions / questions, feel free to give them to me in replies! If you do not want to reply it, dm or give it as a question. I don’t not mind anyway you do it! You are heard and I want to make sure you know it! ^^

[bvannn]

Weekly Update March 29, 2024

I’m pretty volatile in terms of mood, but I did get a good amount of actual work done on projects. I’m exhausted, I haven’t fixed my sleep schedule yet because I’m addicted to working. Like I’ve genuinely tried to stop and go to be early or sleep in and I just always ‘just one more drawing, just one more verse, just one more thumbnail, it’s let me find this one perfect instrument, just let me finish these four bars, just let me-‘ and before you know it it’s two hours past bedtime and you haven’t even brushed your teeth yet. Or eaten dinner. On the bright side all the stuff I’ve done has gone pretty well!

First big exciting point, that little pitch comic I’ve been working on? Thumbnailing/writing is done. Done enough anyway. I might still go back to edit some pages but I can get going on others now, which is great because even though I’ll only post the full thing once I have the whole comic complete, I might post individual panels, so there will be stuff to see! I’m also going to try to keep writing at night, so I can let other episodes and stories play out a bit, but Art priority will be shifting more to the comic. It will be 30 pages so it will likely take a while, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to do 3 or so panels a week while I’m finishing up this semester and switch to a page a day once I have more time.

Music is also going very well. I’m putting the final mixing touches on a vocaloid cover song (unless I decide to go back and redo the guitar, which I might), which I’ll try to start putting visuals to soon, although that’ll likely be pretty slow since I finally got past the thing that was bottlenecking me on the comic project. I’ll also have to get licensing settled, although that currently looks to be affordable. The whole project has given me a taste for blood and now I want to do a bunch of other cover stuff, but good news: I also found a nearly finished cover of another song that I had put aside in favor of the Green Day one. That’ll probably take a while before I can call it ‘done’, though, whereas I could probably release the first cover song today if I really wanted. I have some time tonight where I’ll try to throw some music together, maybe I’ll work on that.

There’s a few smaller nearly-finished songs I dug up from the depths of my WIPs too, one I need to redo a melody line, one I was bottlenecked on finding a specific instrument for, which I did the other day in lab, and a few others that also either need structure or Melodies. Plus there’s those two that are waiting on lyrics still but I’m still chugging at that, just slowly. I might also try that one tonight too, if I finish or can’t do the vocal cover for whatever reason. There’s also a couple character themes that haven’t really been priorities but I did re-outline one that I’ve been working on, so once I have recording time I can go try that one. That one is on its third draft so I really hope this one will stick.

Other miscellaneous projects haven’t seen much progress this week. I’m still thinking things through for that epithet TTRPG campaign, but I’m having a bit of trouble outlining the third chapter. I just need more brain power for that though, so earlier bedtimes would do it. A couple other art things keep coming to mind but I’ve been focusing more on big projects, so that’ll probably continue if I can. This next week I want to focus on keeping my body as healthy as I can, and then comic, second cover song, and visuals for first cover song, in that order of priority. Passive projects I can work on while doing other activities will be epithet TTRPG planning, song lyrics, and outlining future comic stuff, in that order of priority. If I come up with any song Melodies or ideas for visuals for the song I’m finishing up those priorities might shift, but right now I want to stick to more of a plan, since it worked out well this week.