#got to talking computers with someone in a discord server and now i'm like. thinking about it nonstop

[autumnoakes]

man i think i need a cup of tea

[edgelordhoard]

hey im planning to switch over to linux and need advice from the smart people of tumblr, please and thank you. my messages are open so if you need any info to help me out hmu.

General Questions:

im seeing everyone saying ubuntu, mint, and ziron are "the #1 go to versions for beginners" but like... which is it?

i also hear about security being the best with linux but nothing about it coming with antiviruses. does it come with one like how windows comes with defender or do you install that yourself, or is it something different entirely?

all the sources i look at talk about downloading and installing linux but i want to know what to expect when first getting a prebuilt pc with the OS, like the system 76 pcs. do you have to set it up like when you install it or is it as easy as getting any new computer?

i know nothing about coding and im planning to get a computer from system 76 since it seems like the best, and its by far the only source that only comes with linux, and since my current one was pretty much ruined by someone i thought could fix it after a faulty outlet fried its insides, he didnt and made it worse.

so yeah, which linux version do you suggest for a computer moron, any suggestions for computers would be nice (max price is $1,300), i'll put the specs and my uses under the read more.

Preferences:

It ONLY comes with Linux. I despise what Windows has become and don't want to even bother dual booting cause I feel with the switchovers happening they're gonna get salty and make something that'll turn your computer into a bomb if you use Linux with it.

Kinda beefy but not a supercomputer. I don't use AI stuff, I'm not a programmer, but I do frequently play modded Minecraft with my friends and run smps for my Discord servers. I recently switched to Modrinth cause ATLauncher had been giving me trouble. Curseforge is out of the question.

At the most, I'll be playing VRChat with friends while having Spotify or Youtube in the background for music and Discord open in case someone needs my help in one of my servers, similar goes for running one of my SMPs just minus the VR.

Gaming Questions:

I also play VR games often, especially BeatSaber (modded ofc im not insane), and I have Half Life Alyx that I haven't been able to finish cause my already dead and gutted PC struggles to run it anymore even with the lowest settings. My current headset is a two feet in the grave, barely hanging in there, held by tape Oculus Rift S thats as old as my current PC whos also dead. I plan to get a new headset soon and had the Quest 2 recommended to me by friends. If theres better alternatives that isn't Meta please let me know.

I'm a DBD addict. Does it really run DBD or was that just the one guy from the one video I saw.

My friends also often drag me onto Roblox so I need to know if that'll be an option for Linux too.

I know I could probably look up all this myself but every source is outdated from years ago or they all say different things and it just confuses me.

Art Questions:

My current tablet is a Wacom, I got it before knowing how greedy the company actually is, and I plan to switch to a Huion after this tablet dies on me. If compatibility is an issue with it please let me know what to do about that.

I usually use Medibang but I don't think it runs on Linux from what I've seen, if I'm wrong lemme know. Am I going to have to switch all the files over to something else before getting a Linux or are there programs I can use that'll load them?

I also write and need to know if I need to switch all my files to something else before porting it all over to the Linux PC. I just used the default notepad and document programs on Windows.

But yeah, that's all my questions for now. If I think of any more I'll just edit this post. Sorry if I sound super dumb for all this, I tried finding information sources myself but like I said all of them weren't too moron friendly or had relevant information. Most sources I found were articles or reddit forums from years ago so I thought "Hey, why don't I just go ask the computer nerds directly?" so here I am.

[amethystunarmed]

Nobody Should Ever Lose Their Place in the World

Word Count: 2436 AO3 Written for @pulpmusicalsfortnight2024 Day 5: Modern AU. Huge thank you to my beta @faery-people-of-the-future-day!

The first time Anna finds her, it's by accident. 

She is scouring through the database of Observatory Technology and Satellite Services, a subdivision of the infamous Herschel Corporation. It has been weeks of Anna trying to break into their servers, months since the announcement of their new wireless internet system, and today is the first day she has made any progress at all. She actually got in.

It had been practically effortless. Anna doesn't know what allowed her lucky break but she is grateful for it.

Doesn't mean her job is easy now. The files are convoluted, dozens of project names that mean nothing to her. But she only needs one. 

The Bright Future Initiative.

Her Sagitta. 

Still, she is going in the back way, and mostly flying by the seat of her pants. She isn't sure how to search through the files like this; her skills lie more in engineering than hacking. But she needs to find it, needs to get to her-

Her screen suddenly freezes. Anna clicks furiously, but her mouse doesn't respond. No. No, it's not fair. She can't have been kicked out. She hasn't found it yet.

Frustrated tears well in her eyes as she curses at the screen. Just as she is about to restart her computer, brilliant cyan text appears in the code she was searching through.

//error: Designation?

Anna... Anna has no idea how to respond to that. She stares at the screen, frantically trying to come up with some kind of lie Observatory Tech’s IT would find believable when-

//error: Hello? I know you're there. I would like to know just who is interrupting my operation. This is the Traveler speaking.

And that is the moment Anna puts it together. The reason it had been so easy to break through Observatory Tech's firewall today.

Someone had already done it.

Fuck. Fuck.

Okay, okay, she needs a designation. A hacker moniker? Does she ever deserve one of those? Anything but her real name, what could she-

And suddenly, it hits her like a flash, from one of her first Discord messages with John.

Well, if you're going to call me Herschy, I'm going to call you-

She types the name in, not even surprised her keyboard works again. 

You: Nova. I'm Nova.

There is a pause, and the other person types back.

//error: You come up with that just now?

Even though the other person can’t see it, Anna fights to hide a blush.

You: Is it that obvious?

//error: Your work is... heavy-handed, to say the least.

Did they really need to type the ellipses? Anna gets the picture.

//error: And the fact you didn’t immediately log off when I introduced myself really says you don’t know what you are getting into.

Anna frowns. Who on Earth could be so arrogant?

You: You really think every person knows who you are?

//error: Any hacker who knows their way around a keyboard would. You probably do too, little star. Ever heard of the Blazing World Coalition?

Anna’s eyes widen. She has. They are a group of self-identified white hat hackers, the closest thing the modern day has to a real Robin Hood. Just a few months ago, they had completely bankrupted the Itzal Financial Group after they shorted their own employees’ pensions in order to make millions. Not long about that, the BWC had been declared a terrorist group by the United States government.

Anna was chatting with Public Enemy Number 1.

You: Oh.

She isn’t sure why she types it. She just doesn’t know what else to do. 

//error: (✿◠‿◠) I see my reputation precedes me. //error: So do us both a favor and log. Off.

Anna should. She knows she should. She should log off and forget this whole thing, because she is suddenly in so incredibly far over her head.

But she remembers the grin on William Herschel’s face as he debuted her tech. The awe in the newscaster’s voice when he talked about the Satellite that was going to change the world. 

Her Satellite.

You: I’m sorry. I can’t.

//error: That wasn’t a request, little star. And I won’t ask nicely again. You should leave before you burn out.

Anna’s palms sweat. The keys feel damp under her fingers.

You: I can’t, there is something I need. I won’t get in your way, I don’t want money or anything like that. But I can’t leave just yet.

There is another long, long pause after that. Beneath the post-it note she has over her camera, a glowing red light turns on. Anna screams, and then covers her mouth. She still can’t fully mask her frantic gasping because-

They turned on her camera.

//error: ( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡°) You have such a gorgeous scream, little star. Shame I can’t see you. Though there are plenty of other cameras to look through... do you think you can cover them all? (´･ω･`)? 

No. She doesn’t think she can.

//error: There is a lot I can do with a face. You think this is scary, wait until I release all your naughty little secrets to the public. I am sure the authorities would love to hear about your new hobby. So do us both a favor and log off now. I won’t ask again. ヾ(￣▽￣) Bye~Bye~

Anna’s heart is pounding in her ears. All she can hear is the blood rushing through her veins at what feels like 100 miles per hour. She wonders if the Traveler can hear it through the microphone.

But she can’t give up. She knows now she won’t get another opportunity, not if they improve security after this attack; she could barely manage the security before. If they beef it up, she will have no chance. 

The Traveler has made this her last chance to regain control of the Sagitta. Anna can’t bear to waste it.

You: I can’t. Please. Please let me do this.

Another pause. Anna waits for the sound of sirens or maybe for her oven to explode, but all remains quiet. The red light on her laptop clicks off. 

//error: What could possibly be so important you would risk your entire identity just to see this through?

Anna hesitates. A group like the Blazing World with her Satellite, able to connect to the internet from anywhere on a grid where no one else would be able to track them... They would have the power to do anything they wanted if they took it over.

But they help people. All the employees who had lost their life savings when Itzal Financial shorted them? The day after the BWC’s attack, they woke up with bank accounts doubled or tripled what they had been before, with air tight records listing the funds as severance. Even when Itzal Financial had gone to court, there had been no case. No proof. Just over a thousand struggling people were suddenly able to enjoy life again.

They are her only shot now. 

You: Do you know about the Bright Future Initiative?

Anna may ask the question, but she already knows the answer. It's all anyone spoke about for weeks after the announcement.

//error: Herschel's new project? Where he boosted the internet for his companies from a satellite?

A Satellite. A. The dismissal makes her bristle. Her correction is swift and formal, showing none of the indignation thrumming through her.

You: My Satellite. He stole my tech and this is my last chance to get it back.

That agonizing silence returns as Anna waits for a reply. She isn't sure the Traveler will believe her, they have no reason to. 

All Anna can do is wait and hope. The Traveler's words appear slowly, line by line, as though they are trying to convince Anna.

//error: William Herschel has hurt many people. //error: I am sorry that you are among them. //error: But there is something big going on and many innocent people are going to continue being hurt if you don't let me finish here.

You: I'm not trying to stop you! If you let me do what I need to, I will stay out of your hair.

Another pause. 

//error: Nova... You don't know what you are doing. I found you because you tripped a security measure. I caught it and stopped it, but eventually you will get us both caught.

Anna feels those words flay her like knives. They scoop out her heart and leave her only with welling despair in her chest. Even if she had managed to break through the firewall, even if she had done it all on her own with no interference... 

Anna never would have gotten the Sagitta back. 

She is glad The Traveler disconnected from her camera. She isn't fully able to hold back the sob that wells in her and it would have been incredibly embarrassing if they heard.

She is quiet too long. Another message pops up.

//error: Too many lives are at risk. I hope you can understand that.

Anna's next words are petty. Petulant. Probably even childish. But she means every one.

You: But it's fine if he ruins my life? The lives of all the people my Satellite could help? You could help me and you're choosing not to. Doesn't that mean anything?

Anna knows just how powerful free internet, free communication can be. Her father would still be alive if he'd had it. They’d been alone in the middle of the ocean, with no way to make connection as his damaged ship drifted aimlessly, powerless. Dead in the water. The doctors say Anna only survived long enough to be rescued due to the rations he sacrificed to give to her. If they had only been able to signal for help...

It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that every day, Anna lives for him. She has to get this satellite back. 

Another long pause, long enough that Anna is left feeling tightly wound. She is waiting for a paragraph, a long explanation she can refute or build off of. The mere sentence she gets back stabs straight through her.

//error: I truly am sorry Nova.

Anna doesn't doubt it. She can feel the pity seeping through the keys like syrup, cloying on her tongue. And it makes the despair inside her burn, igniting the helplessness and eating away at her welling tears until there is nothing left but rage.

You: Traveler, can you promise me something? //error: Only once I hear the terms, little star. //error: But I will try. You: Make him suffer. If you can't help me, at least do that.

This time the response is immediate. 

//error: With pleasure. ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

Before Anna can even contemplate a reply, another message pops up.

//error: Get some rest, Nova. /ᐠ - ˕ -マᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 //error: Things will look better in the morning.

The chat closes and Anna finds herself booted out of the program entirely. The Traveler could have removed her whenever they liked. They were just being polite.

What else were they capable of?

Anna turns her computer off and unplugs it for good measure. She knows it won't help. She has very little doubt the Traveler could log into her phone or tablet or even her microwave just as easily as they did her computer. But it makes her feel better, nonetheless.

She tries to message John. He sends back one apologetic about a family emergency and goes silent for the rest of the evening. She puts her phone on Do Not Disturb. It's not like anyone is going to be reaching out to her.

Anna is once again, alone.

She curls up in her bed and cries for longer than she would like to admit. Her grant was pulled after her prototype went missing at her University's Expo. The school themselves said the theft was disheartening but there was nothing they could do.

Not for the first time, Anna wonders how much of William Herschel's money lines their pockets. 

It's over. Her satellite hangs in the sky, bastardized out of all it is supposed to be. 

I'm so sorry, Father, she pleads, hoping his ghost will have mercy on her. Our dream dies here. She clutches her pillow and watches as light slowly comes in the window. 

Around seven, she gives up on sleep entirely.

When she enters her living room, the first thing she does is turn on the news. This is not her habit. In fact, this is the last thing she wants to be doing. She typically avoids the news, getting only the most urgent alerts from an app on her phone. But today, she wants to see what state the Blazing World Coalition left Observatory Tech in. After Itzal Financial was hacked, it was in the news for months. 

And there's nothing. Not a single mention of the company falling apart. Anna opens her phone to google the company and-

Emails, calls, text messages. Congratulations from old professors, job offers, interview requests. One text from her bank informs her of a deposit with more zeros than seems possible.

And at the beginning of it all, received at 6:13 am, is an email with a blinding cyan subject line.

Hello Little Star!

Anna opens it without hesitation. If the Traveler wanted to steal her information, she would have done it by now. 

You have truly abysmal protections in place, Nova. I was able to get this email in practically no time at all! You'll need far more practice if you hope to continue these endeavors. As I'm sure you may have heard, this morning William Herschel revealed the true genius behind the Brighter Future Initiative and relinquished control of her Satellite back into her capable hands. (I highly recommend watching the interview. His expressions are priceless.) It's all here, the information for operating the cubesat, patents in your name, pay stubs listing back pay plus interest... Everything you have rightly earned. I apologize, for not fully considering the value of that last night. Women like us need to stick together, and I am grateful you reminded me of that. It was easy enough to complete both our goals, and I never would have considered it otherwise. Don't give up the fight. I hope to see you around. The Traveler ✶⋆.˚

Anna tries to reply but the email bounces back; it's already disconnected. 

Anna wants to show the Traveler just how grateful she is, needs to speak with her again. She looks over the instructions and tips she sent.

She is going to need all the help she can get if she wants to find her again.

[luetta]

i'm going back to what 16 year old me used to do in full swing i think. type to myself on dead forums. wanna know a story about me? i used to post on that nazi reddit alternative website voat. for years. not anything political, i just made a subreddit that was my username and made posts everyday about how obsessed i was about a girl called rebekah in the grade above me. i never talked to her a single time in my life. she was just pretty. hundreds of posts. eventually randoms on the website found my posts through the new section and started commenting how creepy i was. and then i guess i referred to myself as a waitress and they started thinking i was a girl who had a lesbian crush. of course i did nothing to disavow that notion. and then when i was with my friend finlay in class, i was on a school provided laptop, seeing what the suggested autocomplete web searches for a, b, c, etc were. and when i looked up 'v' it came up with 'voat [my username]. i guess on this laptop sometime before i had searched it up. i begged him not to look it up and deleted it all the moment i got home but he just went on internet archive and essentially held this blackmail over my head for about 3 months. at the end of high school finlay wasnt popualr in our group (there was always someone who was the cyberbullied person of the day in our group.) and i honestly did a fucking asshole thing. i always say that i was nice and just a victim of this mean group but i did this thing, which completely undoes all that. there was a barbeque for the entire grade on a saturday, school organised but essentually our own thing. in the discord finlay was wondering whether to come, lots of us were there already. i said that there was barely anyone here lol. and that was a complete lie. i lied and made him miss this event for no reason other than to dogpile on him. that night everyone was fighting and i chimed in and he told everyone about my voat account and also about how we had accidentally discovered each other in a league of legends erotic roleplay discord server. so yeah that was fun. i refused to talk to him for like 2 years lol. anyways. the point of this is to say. that im gonna start doing that again i think. post a bunch of stream of consciousness text posts of angst and self loathing and envy and hatred. cus i feel like shit and that's my self harm. im too much of a pussy to do anything else when i feel like shit. i just sit on the computer and make myself feel worse. this can be my self therapy. getting my thoughts out instead of letting them fester inside my brain forever. i can't be fucked going to therapy properly. it doesnt help cus idk how to articulate anything properly. ill get asked whats wrong and ill be like. i dont know. and honestly thats barely a lie. i dont fucking know whats wrong with me. i know that there is something wrong with me, but i dont know the reason why ive turned out like this. im just a fucking weirdo i think. i literally thought that i wasnt a creep anymore after transitioning, that i figured it out. but nope. im still a fucking creep, thinking about girls that i know, obsessing about them. urgh. i feel like. i've fucked my transition up. i fucked up the choices that i didn't know were choices and now im someone i don't want to be. i just want to be someone else but thats not possible because the person that i am, currently, isn't someone that can be someone else. i know that you can just change who you are ! you can do new things and stop doing old things. you can be someone else. but i just cant. i try but i just always circle back to this. uninteresting blob of a person. who does nothing except sit in their room and wish they were someone else. an uninteresting blob of envy. that's all i am and will ever be, i feel. and that sucks. i dont want to be that, but there's nothing else i can do about that. im too uninteresting and unadventurous and afraid to reach out and form connections to people that i wanna. cus thats how you change as a person. by being with other people. you slowly give each other parts of yourself

[tsintzask]

hey hi hello there

So I am finally getting around to writing a proper intro post lol, so hi, i'm tsintzask, or tsin for short. i use that handle everywhere online pretty much, so if you see a tsintzask elsewhere, chances are it's me.

i have had this blog for a long time now, but only really became active here after reddit decided to ban the app i was using to access it. I was an /r/196 user who migrated to my unused blog, basically.

I'm from Greece, and I study computer science in college. As of the most recent edit, I am doing my masters program, so that's going pretty good.

i would consider myself an anarchist, though i don't think humanity is currently ready for that kind of world - i think there's just too many selfish people around that would seek to take advantage of things. still, the current system has got to go. the fundamental idea behind capitalism is to prioritize money over people, and that's just plain evil.

As for other stuff about me, i have been told before i have neurodivergent vibes (it wasn't in like in a derogatory way, but as a serious thing) and yeah i kinda see that. I ought to go get checked sometime

i like a lot of things, as you can see in my blog description: D&D, Pathfinder, Pokémon, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Terraria, insects, cats, memes, cute/wholesome stuff, theater, basic human decency. And I wanna gush about my likes a bit-

D&D and Pathfinder

I've been a player in both d&d 5e and pathfinder 2e, and a DM in d&d 5e. we're talking whole years of doing this. making characters is really fun, and playing them is even more fun! I mostly play online over Discord, but have played a lot irl too, and still do.

Pokémon

While i'm not as into it as i used to in my teens, i have played every game from pokemon pearl up to ultra moon, but not any further as i don't own a switch. that is subject to change if/when i get more into piracy. I've also played pokemon emerald and leaf green in emulators, and i've played mystery dungeon: explorers of darkness. one of the few video games to actually make me cry, btw.

Genshin Impact & Honkai Star Rail

this is my most recent fascination, i've been at it for a couple years now. mihoyo makes their games so incredibly gay and i love that. while i've been a bit burnt out on genshin, i am currently enjoying star rail a whole lot! and i ship a bunch of stuff that sometimes contradicts each other, so if you see conflicting ship arts in my reblogs, there's why. part of it is that i ship kujou sara with every other girl in genshin

btw, feel free to friend me in either game, in the EU server

Genshin UID: 741043259

Honkai Star Rail UID: 700410303

Terraria

oh man, terraria. all of my high school energy and two of my undergrad college years went into this game, it's just so good. I occasionally do modded runs every few months now.

Theater

I'm not a theater nerd or anything, but I did go to an amateur theater group for a couple years. was fun, i'd do it again for sure!

Basic Human Decency

I just think being nice is good. i don't get argumentative often; I used to argue often, but i try to keep most of my interactions with bigots/assholes/etc as a simple joke on their expense before i block them. also, it's taking some effort, but when i have something negative to comment on someone i don't actually have reason to dislike, i've been trying to just let it go and ignore instead.

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

So, I wanted to identify the car, and I was dead set on Subaru because those looked like a Subaru door handle and the Sunshine Orange Subaru painted the XV, known in the US as the XV Crosstrek because I don't write the jokes about yankees needing shit spelled out, the world writes them and I just read them aloud.

So surely this is the car in picture, one would think, especially once assured by Google Lens that that's what the picture depicts. But there's one conclusion I kept coming back to:

Yes, people. Someone out there not only cares what car we think that is but is actively working to deceive us into thinking that is the last generation of the car I keep having to remind myself is not spelled Crosstek. But I will not fall for it, and with my help neither will you!

From such a closeup, in fact, one would surely, if not notice the upper feature line being a nick further out than the upper edge of the handle hole, at least notice the presence of a lower feature line below it, or at the VERY least the doorline curve to its right being concave and not convex.

So perhaps the previous generation had the simpler lines we're looking for?

Yes, but also a handle recess that does not reach all the way to the back of the handle, so, having gotten back to square one, I resorted to a cunning strategy: waiting 'til I got home and finding the picture source on my computer.

(Which I could still do on my phone too if Google wasn't hellbent on pretending Lens could ever be a serviceable replacement for the OG reverse image search when you can't even sort matches by fucking size and its idea of exact matches is as accurate as my idea of staying on topic speaking of which what were we talking about I swear this never happens.)

And I found it's a 2009-2014 Subaru Liberty (name by which Aussies got the Legacy 'till 2020).

But, oh the irony, the orange that clued me onto the Subaru brand altogether? It never adorned this generation. And this, as you can see in this more accurate lighting, is not even that orange. Because as it turns out...

Indeed, in the ultimate act of deceit, what you were looking at wasn't yellow paint nor orange paint for, being a wrap, it wasn't paint altogether!

This explains what would otherwise be a bafflingly uninteresting picture: in any normal car, that's just a door handle. In a car basically coated with sticker, that is a flex.

And yes, fortunately, the filename can chime in in the debate.

Not saying that a color necessarily is anything someone making it is willing to say it is, but if you mean to insist that this is yellow...

...well, go tell 3M that. Or go get told that by 3M! They do offer samples.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question: if you liked this post, you might like those - or the blog’s Discord server, linked in the pinned post!

EDIT: This is, by some order of magnitude, this blog's most popular post, and I'm happy to have entertained so many. If you're one of them, like @uxbridgeenglishdictionary here...

...I have great news for you: there's now a spinoff blog called @what-is-this-car, dedicated to identifying make, model, generation and year of vehicles seen around or sent its way, and explaining what gave them away! I work on it with the very appreciated help of many talented friends, and I'd love of you to check it out. (And, well, to check this blog out too, if you have the time.) Thanks! :)

Also, @furreteatingicecream posted a render of what the picture looks like to those suffering from protanomaly (or red-weak colorblindness), courtesy of color-blindness.com's color blindness simulator.

If you think this doesn't look any different, well, we may have worked out why you don't think it's orange.

is this orange or yellow.

[dendro-bunny]

Digital Flowers

Time skip!Kenma Kozume x FEM!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Synopsis: [Fist time for everything] It's been a hot while since you and Kenma got to talk face to face due to work. He takes it upon himself to give you a great date even when far away.

Warnings:

(a/n): low-key can't get blue period out of my head so I don't wanna start spamming that kinda content and write for other characters before I go on a writing binge for Yotora... *Does venti laugh*

The clock on your phone read 2:39 am. You should have been asleep in bed, however a certain pudding head was up streaming and this was the only way you had to communicate with him till his breaks. However there was something special about this stream, you were in it, The discord call read almost 12 hours. You wanted to help with the 48 hour charity stream. this was the second day of the stream and you decided to join in the last quarter to give him some motivation.

Your character runs past his with a baguette in hand. "HON HON HON IM GONNA WHIP THIS DOUGHHHH!" Sleep deprivation was getting to the both of you.

The joyful sounds of his laughter blesses your ears as Kenma brings his farming to a stop. "P-pudding! Why did you- hahahaha why did you spend all of our money on-" he gasps for air. "God dang strawberries and bread?!"

You cover your face as you laugh loudly going quiet. "Pudding?"

A snort breaks though the silence and Kenma laughs even harder. The chat is absolutely loving it. The donation goal was hit a long time ago but of course Kenma promised this.

HatterBatter26: Omg such couple goals!

Everything Girlboss: WHY CAN'T THOS BE ME AND MY INVISIBLE BF!!

Kodzukeeeeeee: I've never heard @(y/t) and Kodzuken Laugh like that before

MadderCadder: Tubucas

"WHY DID SOMEONE IN THE CHAT SAY TUBUCAS?! WHAT IS TUBUCAS!" Just as either of you think you've calmed down you just start back up in the laughing fits. After a while though things do calm down. You hear kenma's phone buzz loudly on your headphones.

"Excuse me! I didn't know you had bees Kenny! With all that gosh darn buzzing!" You lost what you were going to say half way through that sentence but just kept talking.

"It was Kuroo, He told me your surprise was ready." You can hear the soft smile he gave and also see it on your second monitor. Yeah you also game and stream but you are currently on tour all over Japan. Right now in Osaka you were luck enough to be graced with access to a pretty powerful computer thanks to an old friend of yours.

"Surprise? What for?" You head tilts as you look at the face cam for the highlights, you are also recording game footage.

"Well as your viewers and mine know... You are away traveling around Japan.. on tour for about a month... And though it's ending soon in 2 week.. I uh.. don't think I can wait to take you on, on on, on a date so uh... Uhm... Wanna get off Stardew and get on my Minecraft server?" The chat explodes, Kenma's twitter is already blowing up with a clip of him blushing while stuttering to ask you on a date.

"Awe kyama~ I would love to go on a Minecraft date with you~" He can hear you claps your hands and hear you smile as you talk. A small smile slips it's way onto his lips as he switches the stream to an intervention screen and face cam.

"why do you have to call me that... Ugh it reminds me of the guys..." He sighs obviously ticked off at the thought of Yamamoto Screaming that at him while jumping on him. Soft giggles fill his ears... Oh how he wishes you were actually with him. So he can hold you and hear that in his left ear as you try to break out of his hold while he tickles you.

"Ahhh spawn is decorated! It's like an Smp! Oh god I'm getting flashbacks of the war...s." He laughs that uncommon soft laugh only you get to hear... And now 678k people get to hear for tonight only.

"War...s? How many prank wars have you been in pudding?" He turns is character towards you. When you slowly turn to face him and say nothing he loses it.

Loud music plays through both of y'all's headphones.

"Ah! God! My ears!" Kenma presses the head phones closer to his head while you hold yours over your ears.

"Heh?! What'd you say!?" Your eyes and nose scrunches as you (fake) shout through the mic.

"Someone just Subscribed for their 3rd year in a row... Bro... I'm old now huh?" He shakes his head and continues on.

"Anyway though, this date... Welcome... I actually hired a professional builder who is one of my admins... Adikons the tech Wizard... Who is also an amazing builder and well you'll see what I asked them to do." You look your screen in awe as he breaks some wool that acted as a curtain to the world.

"oh... My... Kenny... Wh- this couldn't have just happened... And wait why did Kuroo tell you it's ready when-" You try to wrap your brain around the beautiful scenery. The both of you use the same shaders and texture pack, you found the shaders and he found the texture pack. The way the light cast off of the building and onto the water. The way the big trees and their leaves sway were mesmerizing.

"Well you'll see in a second uhm... Yk Kuroo is good at redstone and stuff... Somehow..." He throws shade to his friend knowing that he would have complaints later when he sees the clips on YouTube.

"Yeah? Oh my god don't tell me that's what he had been doing for a couple of days!" You look over at him while you walk over a bridge to a small little cafe area.

"Well he isn't the only one who did something on the server." God why does his chest feel so tight all of a sudden.

Ok calm down Kenma just do as planned and everything will go smoothly... Hopefully...

"IS THAT MUFFIN! MY KITTY!" You awe and immediately start doing baby talk to the look alike of your kitten back home. What you don't hear is Kenma trying to explain why she is there.

"I should have killed it will all the others... You're not paying attention to anything I'm saying anymore..." There is an evident pout on Kenma's face.

"NO DON'T KILL HERRR! I'll listen I'm sorry! YouknowIlove.... You.... Morethanmycat!" You rush your sentence making it even less believable. So much so where Kenma slowly turns towards you like you did to him earlier and pulls out a netherite sword.

"KENMA I SWEAR I DO!" You crouch up to him and push your character against his repeatedly making kissy sounds.

Chat explodes with "Don't kill her please 🥺", and Things along the lines of "I want kissies from @(y/t)", and "DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN CAT!" It's an inside joke you have with your chat.

"hehe ok.. ok.. I won't kill her but we have a lot of things to explore...." You hear his keyboard typing as I'm chat appears 'PULL THE LEVER KRONK' just like that.

Suddenly the floor underneath you disappears and now you are falling.

"HOLY! OH GOD! WE'RE FALLING!" You look around and on your way down you can see how beautifully decorated the way down is

"Well I mean, I fell for you so..." The blush is evident on his face. Silently he is typing to Kuroo and Bokuto cursing them out for making him say that. However what he doesn't see is that you're wide eyed staring at his character blushing.

"i- uh- ANYWAY WHAT'S THIS WAY HAHAHAHAHA!" Nervous laughter funnels out of your mouth as you run away.

I will make a part 2 cause this is too long and my brain juices are over. This was supposed to be for new years.

... it's 3 days after and I started 2 days before new years 😃

[basilly]

AYUP!

Hope this is ok basil!

I know you are busy rn so take your time!

I understand if you deny it!

You don’t have to give me the credits.

I’m sorry if i wrote him wrongly, and i understand if you deny it because of that

I’m not really sure how this is going to work because im really dumb. But maybe you can paste the fanfic part and make a post with it, only if you feel comfortable tho!

---

All platonic!

Song: Love Like You by Rebbeca Sugar

Reader x IRL! Wilbur

0,5 K words

y/n = Your name

y/u = Your username

Today insecurities and self-doubt were taking over you, luckily your best friend, wilbur, is here to assure that none of this is real.

--

You looked at your computer clock "2:24" and sighed to yourself.

Today has been busy, school, assignments, streaming, answering e-mails, and now, editing to post something on your youtube channel.

Your mental health also wasn't at its best. Anxiety and insecurities had been chasing you since the moment you woke up. The constant search for what people saw on you that could be special didn't help with your insecurities.

You finished cutting all the needed parts for your video. You sighed and got up, coming back to your room with a glass of water, taking a sip, you put the water glass on your desk. You proceed to open Discord, only to see Wilbur's user with a small green dot on its bottom left, indicating he was online.

You knew Wilbur for a long time by now. He was by far the one you most talked out of everyone in the SMP server. Being friends with him was one of the best things that happened in your life. He is just so special and sweet. You wondered how someone as amazing as Wilbur could be friends with you. Why? Out of all people, he choose YOU to start a friendship.

Opening your chat with Wilbur you sent a text to him:

y/u - AYUP

Wilbur - AYUP

Wilbur - why do you still awake?

y/u- Editing and thinking about some things.

y-u= What are YOU doing awake at this time huh?

Wilbur- I'm boreddd and don't want to sleep

The conversation seemed to have ended. When you hear a familiar sound coming from your Discord. Wilbur was calling you.

You accepted, only to be welcomed with a tired and unenergized "ayup"

The conversation was in a low tone, most answers and reactions being a hum or a small laugh due to the lack of energy when suddenly Wilbur asks:

"ey, what were you thinking about?"

You were a bit confused, but soon you remember the message you sent him earlier about what you were doing.

You stutter a bit for being caught out of nowhere.

"ah, nothing, I was just thinking about some things..."

Wilbur only hums, waiting for you to continue.

"I don't know... you are just so incredible, so nice to me, sometimes I think I'm not deserved of someone so nice... I wish I knew what makes you think I'm so special..."

"I wish I could be half of what you think of me..."

You gave a small laugh at the end of your statement, trying to lighten the mood.

"y/n! no! don't say these things!"

Wilbur said in a loud tone compared to the volume you were talking about before.

"You are one of my closest friends, you are one of the sweetest people I know, Just like every friend of mine, you are truly incredible y/n"

"Honestly, you are one of the best people I know. You are so special. You are a lot more of what I could have wished for y/n"

The silence showed presence for a few seconds when Wilbur interrupted it;

" I'm sorry y/n. It was all at once"

The man fell laughing and kept apologizing through his laughs.

After a few minutes in this situation, you and Wilbur kept talking until your sleep came.

Telling him to go sleep soon and take care, you ended the call, heading off to your bed, still laughing a bit at his sudden reaction.

-✒️ anon

YOO THIS IS SO GOODDD AJDBJA i love it🥺 tysm for even doing this, and if u ever want to write in the future PLS LET ME SEE UR BLOG<3

Imma link this direct ask- but DANG

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Apartment AU Masterpost:

-Everyone lives in an apartment complex.

-Xisuma as landlord? Or just a really well looked up to person in the complex. Whichever works for you!

-Pranks all the time. Everyone's constantly pranking each other.

-Everyone has 'normal people jobs.' Perhaps Joe is an English teacher? (Cleo's also a teacher. (Irl.) Omg, what if they teach at the same school?) Maybe Bdubs is a professional interior designer? Maybe Cub builds computers? Go nuts, get creative.

-Actually, screw it. Bdubs works at IKEA.

-Everyone meets up every Friday night to go to the pub or go bowling or just do something together.

-They have a discord server because of course they do.

-European Hermits are early-birds, American hermits are night-owls. (This is the only way I can think to portray timezones and waking hours when everyone's living in the same building.)

-They all still love minecraft, don't worry.

-Keralis has so many books his flat is basically a library. He lets people come in and borrow books for a small fee.

-Tinfoilchef is a bit of a shut in but everyone makes an effort to include him.

-Etho would also be a cryptid like Xisuma. Like, we've seen Xisuma's whole body other than his face but the best we know about Etho is that: 1. He exists and 2. From the, like, one single real life photo he's shared, he broke a headset. Also, 3. Allegedly, he's buff. Otherwise; Beef and Etho invite Pause (who lives elsewhere,) over at random intervals to [play ctm maps] and do god knows what. Bdoubs works at IKEA but is the person to make the room displays, y'know.

-Scar sells dice and other tabletop rpg supplies that he designs. His shop is magiccrystals. com

-Cub and Scar made business with the guy who runs the fight club. They get half of the profits and everyone’s always wondering how those two can always afford the most expensive Christmas gifts for everyone.

-Mumbo could be an engineer or work on a STEM field, and he works on some really important and impressive projects and that would explain his polish person, Exept, when it comes to helping another hermit to change a lightbulb or fix a microwave he is an absolute disaster.

-Grian owns a parrot that knows everyones' names and faces and greets them when they come in.

-Scar's apartment has a balcony filled with plants and he has to bring them inside for the winter. (I'm assuming that all 4 seasons happen) Even without the balcony plants, his place is still full of indoor plants including his favorite venus flytrap. There is always a plant knocked over from Jellie's shenanigans. Jellie is supposed to stay in his apartment, however she keeps on getting out somehow, even getting to Xisuma's apartment occasionally.

-There's a grassy patch out back that acts as a backyard, but Stress has effectively taken it over. Perfect for flowers of all colors in the spring and summer, and during the winter you KNOW she’s building an ice castle from which to throw snowball at all her friends.

-Beef and, when he’s visiting, Pause get a lot of questions about Etho (since unlike X who gets one tightlipped visitor in shape of his brother Etho gets two that are willing to be vague) however they charge a fee for people to guess. They’d never actually sell him out but the guesses are always something technical related so there’s not much of a risk, he actually works as a botanist/gardener.

-Iskall is extremely good at ice hockey and, as resident Canadians, Etho and Beef have played with him. However Iskall only knows that he’s played with Beef because both beef and etho refuse to tell him who in the rink was Etho when they played.

-The only person who’s seen Xisuma's face is Keralis.

-Nobody knows what Grian does for a job. Like, when they think they've figured it out what he does, they're thrown through a loop again because he does a lot of odd jobs. Need help with a pet? Grian can help! Rip on your clothes? Don't worry, Grian knows how to fix it! Ect.

-Grian's an assassin. Iskall will make assassin jokes and Grian, without looking up from his coffee will go: "that's not how that works!" And then go back to being quiet. Everyone's like ????

-I love the idea of Grian knowing all these cool facts and when anyone acts he says 'it's because of his job,' and they still can't figure out what he does. He keeps correcting Iskall on assassin facts but they're all just like 'oh Grian sure must love those types of movies, huh.'

-Cleo teaches Joe's kid. (That means she teaches either year 2 or year 3? // 1st grade or 2nd grade?)

-Grian's family is in the mafia but he mostly just vibes. Sure, he works with the mafia, but he keeps his regular life away from work and none of the hermits (besides False because she saved the Mafia boss) know. Imagine boss looking at False and going, 'oh hey, you're already protected.' False is confused and says 'what?' But the Mafia Boss has already left.

-Etho is always in full kakashi cosplay.

-Honorary hermits apartment au: zloy and pixl have a radio show but also act as private investigators. Falsie hires them to investigate how she got the protection of the mafia. On their investigation they start asking Elybeat (that lives on a building right next to the hermits) about weird behaviors that he might have seen. Ely just goes ‘all of what they do is weird. I’ve recorded weird stuff they say and remixed it. They though it was funny and put the remixes as their elevator music.'

-Everyone thinks Etho is an assassin, but really, he's a horticulturist/botanist. He doesn't bother to correct them cause it means he doesn't get pranked, (or, as often.) Maybe someone finds out eventually? I don't know who. Maybe Doc and they keep it hush hush cause they think it's funny or something. || Maybe Bdubs finds out, (because I think he's seen Naruto?? Swear I saw a Twitter post where he recognized a Naruto joke) and he's the only one that recognizes that Etho's dressed like Kakashi and NOT an assassin. (That's lowkey a joke though.)

-Someone warns Grian against parking euro because they think Etho's an assassin and Grian just kinda goes: "alright then." Knowing that there's no way Etho is an assassin, but also realising how the hermits view that profession, he most likely starts feeling kinda bad.

-Beef used to be a car photographer and Mumbo takes photographs as a sideline when he was in college. They would occasionally chat about their past experience in the photography field and sometimes gush about cars.

-Hermit Challenges was actually a truth or dare game among the hermits. Mumbo was basically delirious from lack of sleep to explain his absolute gremlin energy. Mumbo dares Grian to steal front doors before passing out and everyone decided that was the end of that game. No one thought Grian would do the dare. A week later, everyone but Etho and Xisuma were missing their front doors (including Grian.) He stuck them in his bathroom so no one immediately saw the doors.

-As already established, Joe constantly hangs at Keralis's library. Let's say he also has a hobby for writing, and one time he was asking to himself how *insert really specific murder scene* would work in real life. Grian or Doc then overheard him and answers him in a also very specific way, he thanks them with 0 concerns and continues with his writing.

-Etho has been an assassin but it was many years ago, and retired to care for plants. (As you do.) He got hired by The Goatfather but intentionally botched the killings because, 'hey now those two are friends >:(' He and Bdubs still have the endrod game but it involves the whole apartment building and several discord messages going "located" or "flashlight on the move.'

-Stress paints all the hermit's door and puts their names on them. (-🌿)

-The organisization Grian works for is called "The Watchers!" They text him in riddles of what his missions are. This is so that if anyone peaks at his phone, they don't understand immediately!

-What if in YHS happen because of grian family and Sam is from an other family who does not support the grain family. So grian will not bring up high school and school and when joe and Cleo talk about there student grian sometimes cringes remember what happened in high school. (-🌿)

-Grian and Mumbo's hobbits holes were two cupboards they found on their respective apartments and decided to make a room out of them and named them their hobbit holes after they found out they both had them (-🐿️)

-What if it's a really old apartment and the 'hobbit holes' actually connect to each others apartment. (-🐺)

-Mumbo has these periods when he overworks like crazy and when they're over - he sleeps for like 24-36 hours straight. Everybody knows about this and help him if he falls asleep in random plaxes around the apartment. Mumbo once fell asleep right before his door and Grian tried to help him get inside while mumbling. Guess which remix were aded to the elevator music next week.

-Whenever anyone is annoyed or upset, grian sometimes pops his head up from his book and goes "who do I need to kill?" No one takes him seriously though he *would* kill for any of his friends.

-People who have left the server work nearby but have moved to new apartments. (For example, Welsknight works at a nearby food truck) (-☘️)

-With the Grian being a spy you get several oints where he thinks he's been found out but no one puts the and two together. They're all like: "Grian just likes action movies I guess."

-Scar's "wizard robe" is a bathrobe he owns. One day he forgets to change and just walks out in a bathrobe and no pants.

-Since Cleo teaches Joe's kid, maybe that extends to all the hermits' kids? Like the ones that have them, like not at the same time but at some point you know?

-I don't think I saw any regarding headgames, but I could've missed it. Anyways, what if Cleo wanted to make a big Scrapbook in her free time of all her friends, so she asks everybody to try and get pictures. So the PVP heads are candid photos, and the tradeable one are like selfies or group pictures. The other heads could just be a requirement for the picture like have a sheep in the picture. And maybe she gives the winners dinner payed by her or something.

-On the head cannon that hermits that aren’t on the server work nearby, Biffa is the actual mayor.

-Are mobs (and half mobs by extension) still a thing in apartment au? Cause if not I propose that Jevin just has cloob blue dyed hair and a bunch of blue tattoos.

-XB bakes a lot and always shares the food he makes with the others. They adore his cookies. Scar really wants to make some cookies in the shapes of disney characters with him, but he's too shy to ask. (-nameless anon)

-Perhaps Mumbo and Iskall are also protected by the mafia because of grian (perhaps scar is too) They and False have a 'we are protected and have no idea why' group (-Frost Anon)

-Imagine the hermits want to throw a nice party but X and Etho were kinda like “yeah no i’ll pass” so they make it a masquerade so that they can come- and then the whole night no one knows who anyone really is, but still has a really good time.

-Grian wanted a pet parrot, but felt like he would be terrible at taking care of one so he has toy parrots instead, those that have pre made phrases and such, and he is proud of his toy parrot pets. (-🐿️)

-Xisuma hosts a podcast! That's where all of his Xisuma speaks content ends up coming from. (-🇵🇭)

-Etho has a secret food blog called "Cooking With Etho" (based on the actual cooking with Etho segment in usually his modded stuff.) He also knows that there's hermits that either: have no idea how to cook properly or can't cook real meals due to their work. To help with this, sometimes he leaves finished meals or recipes with them (outside their doors or somehow in their fridge) and no one knows who does it prompting the theory of a self care ghost haunting the building.

(All of those in red were from Anons!)

-Joe works as a LAMP Developer.

-False has an assortment of swords, knives, etc. She even had a bow! She also has a dummy to practice fighting on.

(-@unpredictable-pancake.)

-Stress is a wedding designer. (-@the-angry-numel.)

-Iskall also works at IKEA with Bdubs. (-@mandatedempathy.)

-There's a local club that's basically fight club a few people are in. False, Iskall and a couple others are in.

-Hypno is kind of a bit of a loner. Everyone on the floor considers him a friend but he doesn't really have a best friend. He just does his own thing and people usually let him do that. He's fine with it.

-XB and Joe spend a lot of time at Keralis' library house just reading the books. Keralis usually charges every except those two because 1. They're there so often and 2. They're basically his room mates at this point. (-@tomcatacaphe.)

-Ren works at a bar as a bartender or musician. (-@friendlyneighbourhoodpieceoftrash.)

-Building on the last thing with Ren as a musician or working at a bar, he works at a bar as a server but does live music on weekends. It's the bar/pub/restaurant that the hermits sometimes hang out at together.

-I can see Grian working at a pet shop but also on the side of the mafia because of YHS. Or at least he used to be involved with the mafia.

-Beef once had to cart Etho off to the hospital for a chemical burn and explain to the other tenants that the explosion heard suspiciously close by wasn’t mafia activity. Etho is just an idiot with a hobby of making homemade fireworks.

-(-@limelocked.)

-False is the chief of police for the town they live in. Iskall is a hired assassin who normally gets employed by the mysterious figure GOATfather. Doc is the GOATfather, head of the mafia. Falsie is trying to hunt down these two as well as any others associated with them. The nHo is part of the mafia. Falsie has no idea any of them are in the mafia and they refuse to kill her because she has become such a close friend to them.

-Maybe Grian is a spy instead of an assassin? The group the Watchers is a government policing organization bent on trying to crack down on mob activity in the area.

(-@creator0fchaos.)

-The elevator music is hermitgang and remixes. -(@lookitsspacekween.)

-Zedaph is a game show host. Tango makes cartoons. (-@aphion-and-on.)

-Come on, let Iskall play ice hockey! Maybe not professionally if it doesn't work for the AU but he's v good at least. (-@automnalsaffron.)

-Grian maybe works at an animal shelter or an animal rehabilitation center. So everyone who has a pet usually comes to him for help if their pet is sick or injured. (-@vahco.)

-Grian has a safe full of guns, all the Hermits know about it but think they're fake. (-@xxpzmistxx)

-X never comes out of his room so no one’s seen his face. The only way he communicates is via text, Discord, and an intercom right by his door. He almost always gets groceries whenever the hermits are busy and therefore have no time to go out- but the hermits know he’s a real person because sometimes they hear guitar solos coming from his room.

-Hypno is a voice actor!

-Joe and Cleo often go home at the same time, and all the way it's almost always Cleo complaining about her students being bratty and the likes (Bonus points if Joe carpools with Cleo, who owns a car.)

-False unknowingly helps the boss of the mafia after seeing him wounded on a street one day, earning her their protection.

-As a callback to Season 6, Stress became a cat lady for a bit while False became a dog lady. As an added bonus: Cleo became nuts when Cub decided to gift her with spiders for her birthday or some other event.

-Mumbo still sidelines as a cameraman/film director for short documentaries and comedy sketches where he often invites Zed and his buddy Jack to act maybe?

-The first time X was proven to be an actual person was when the girls temporarily kicked the boys out to have the apartment all to themselves for a girls’ night which prompted the boys to have their own boys’ night. X was wearing his grey helmet that night so his face was still obscured tho, and from that day forward they always had a weekly girls’ night and boys’ night alternating on which group gets to have the apartment to themselves.

-False may seem like she can take a shot or two, but in reality she’s very lightweight and easily drunk, and is always the first one wasted. She becomes a flirty drunk who flirts with everyone and everything when she’s tipsy, an angry drunk the more she drinks and eventually a sad drunk before passing out. Cleo and Stress, her drinking buddies, always find amusement in this.

-As a callback to Xb living a thousand blocks away from society in s7, maybe he lives at the highest floor where not many (if not no one) occupies?

(-@heyitsroby.)

-Civil War started because they used to get groceries delivered to their doors and Grian started stealing them when they were left in the doorstep. Everyone stole each others groceries until one day they went into teamss of one side vs the other side of the corridor to the other until Grian stole so many groceries Dic was like 'Dammit!' He started going to the store to get groceries instead of getting them delivered to his door after that. (-@sayeshaa1108.)

-Regarding apartment au: Zedaph is similar to miu iruma from danganronpa: making the weirdest inventions and coaxing the other hermits into doing weird things for science. (-@oh-hecc-im-stupid.)

-Idk if Doc has a profession yet in the apartment au, but it just struck me- what if he owned a private casino?? Cause of s7? Just a thought! (-@853dragons.)

-Cleo really enjoys doing miniature diorama scenes. Like the tiny dudes from "Night at The Museum". She's like crazy good at it, and Joe will sometimes base his poems and stories off of her dioramas. Also maybe Joe has published a book of poems and short stories? (-@lynxes15.)

-Doc works as a social engineer and part time mafia boss. He rarely shows up for game nights. However, when he does, nobody else stands a chance.

-Tango, Impulse and Zedaph go over to each other's rooms so often they practically live together in an apartment room 3X bigger than everyone else.

(-@trashedeggnog.)

LINK TO NEXT POST: https://hermitcraftheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/617640752709861376/apartmentau-masterpost-2-link-to-previous-the

Posts with TW:

Guns, Gangs, Getting Shot. Don't read if you can't handle this topics.

-Everyone finds out Grian is an assassin/mafia boss because someone from a different gang (*cough cough* sam gladiator *cough cough*) found out where he lives and tried to murder him. Queue epic gun fight scene. If you want some angst, Grian gets shot a couple of times in the fight but didn’t realize it because of the adrenaline and passes out. (-Anon.)

-Imagine someone like, finding Grian's guns and weapons and just being :0 and Grian is a little nervous. But then the other hermit just think the guns are cool (it's probably either etho or doc) and they're just gushing over how cool the guns are. Grian is relieved. (-Anon.)

-iJevin owns at least one gun. He's not in the mafia or a cop or anything, it's just cool and legal so he as one. He's the constant counter for the other gun owning hermits who have them for more mafia related purposes (context: jevin owns at least one gun irl) (-Anon.)

[bisexualmcqueen]

going to make this a reblog chain instead of newposting to retain context, readmores will keep it from getting too long? :3

3 questions i'm adding:

what is your favorite personal headcanon? (big or small! character, worldbuilding, something funny, etc!)

favorite scene from any cars/planes media (movies, shorts, games, etc) and why?

do you own any diecasts or merch? ALT: any dream merch you'd like to own/see made?

my answers to OP's questions under cut:

-How long have you been a part of the fandom?

I've been online and contributing on-and-off since 2009! before that, i was a lurker for a year or two. cars fanfiction on ffnet got me into writing and changed the entire course of my life, which is pretty hilarious. I've only taken 2 breaks from the fandom in my life- from about 2012-2016 (i focused on x-men during this time), and then in mid 2020-mid 2024 (focused on minecraft). my favorite early contribution to the fandom has to be this fanart of doc and lightning. note the date posted ;) and yes, that is oldschool DA-speak <3

-How did you get involved in the fandom?

I was always an artist and writer- i was writing, illustrating, and binding my own little 'books' at age 5. i liked to draw and write, so i did. a few years later, this naturally extended to cars. i got online and started sharing, and i've never stopped. later on, the cars 3 hype period led me to create a discord account in 2017. in the ensuing chaos of discords being deleted repeatedly, i was recruited by someone similarly responsible-minded and set up the carburetor county server, which still stands today. ive met some of the most wonderful people thru that server/thru tumblr and in this fandom.

-Who is your favorite character and why?

HEHEHE. well first of all, i should start by saying ive always loved anthropomorphic machines. i grew up on ttte. for my 3rd birthday they got me an engineer's cap. they used to take me trainspotting to calm me down. now, picture 7 year old me standing in front of the CRT cassette-cabinet, excitedly playing the brand-new Incredibles 2-disc DVD set on our brand-new DVD player in november 2004, and lightning mcqueen appears onscreen. oh i was done for from the start. its been 20 long years of Favorite Character. and seeing Cars finally, after a year and a half of tv commercials? i was lightning mcqueen at recess. i started the fourth grade and introduced myself by saying i'd watched Cars over the summer and that everyone else should, too. the only merch i owned was an empty promotional cereal box because the lightning mcqueen mcdonalds toy was impossible to come by, so if i wanted to see any pictures of the characters i had to look at the cereal box because there was no computer and the movie wasnt on dvd yet. ah but the question is Why. obviously i must have some form of autism or adhd or something, but beyond that there's still plenty reason. (i tried to write it out, but have a List Of Madness instead.) let's start out easy: he's fucking hilarious. he's mean, he speaks his mind, and hes got bite to go with the bark. his relentless bitchy nature makes him a perfect target for slapstick karma. he's clueless, he doesnt know anything. out loud he talks smack but his actions? theyre all sweet. complains about tractor tipping but goes with mater and hangs out anyway. goes 'yeah okay 🙄' to cruz but gives her his racing number. whines about the 'schoolbus of death' but he jumps in front to help without thinking. calls doc selfish and a liar but thinks about him when he gives up his dreams. he says 'light your neon' and they leave it on for 20 years. he takes puns literally. he snores. he drives like he's dancing. he has stress dreams. he cant act. he hallucinates. he's an insomniac. hes secretly a nervous wreck. hes braver than all of us combined. he's a blue-eyed man who punches the walls. everyone hates him. everyone loves him. he refused to sign any racing deals unless mack was his hauler. he has to pave the stupid road and do character-building manual labor but by god hes going to do a good job. he's going to figure out that stupid turn and better himself even if he's up all night because he refuses to give up. when smokey reminds him that people care about him and asks him to find himself again, he lifts his chin and says 'yes sir' like he means it. he's also a really cool vehicle, like on a technical level. and his design kicks ass. incredible mix of 'cute talking cartoon car' and 'holy shit thats an awesome piece of machinery'. (i would show some of my spec notes but theyre at least 20% headcanon). hes detailed, hes lovingly made and developed and cared for as a character. this all doesnt even Begin to cover why i like LMQ honestly, none of this is the type of deeper character analysis i would Like to say. but to me, he is the coolest guy ever, and he makes me very happy.

i'll circle back and answer my own 3 questions later, this is plenty of yapping for now! XD

WOC Question game!

Let's get to know everyone in the fandom better!

Rules of the game: I'll post some Cars/Planes questions. Reblog with your answer. Create a new post with new questions directed at the fandom.

Include the tag "wocquestiongame" in your responses and be sure to tag the cars fandom. Let's see where this goes.

My questions:

How long have you been a part of the fandom?

How did you get involved in the fandom?

Who is your favorite character and why?

My responses

1 and 2: I've been a fan of Cars since 2006, when I saw it in the theater. Only within the last year have I gone balls-to-the wall with hyperfixating posting WOC art online, writing fanfiction, and generally interacting with the fandom...so I guess I'm pretty new to the things, here. I'm not super active online because of my work schedule (I'm a groundskeepee for a local zoo), but I try the best I can with the time/energy I have at the end of the day.

3. Doc Hudson, hands-down. When I first saw the movie, I liked Doc...but thought he was being rude and unfair to Lightning. Fast forward a while to when I got my dream job, teaching college geology. After three years, I realized that the admins didn't give a shit about education and that they seemed to be doing everything in their power to shut down anything that myself, or other professors, tried to do for the student body. I quickly became disillusioned by the apathy and lack of support...and I had to resign because the stress was literally killing me. I know now that this is a common theme in higher ed...but all I wanted to do was teach. To see that flame of understanding kindled in the eyes of my students...

To lose that, was like having my soul pureed in a blender, and I...havent been able to teach since.

Every time I hear Doc's line "there was a lot left in me, and I never got the chance to show 'em"...I tear up. He's still reeling from an apathy that ended his career ..and I understand how hard that feeling can be to rebound from, how you can lock everything in a garage and hide behind a new personality... because your old life is too painful to think about.

[personasintro]

Hi, Mimi! I see that you've opened your ask again (obviously I sent this one hehehe, btw I am contemplating if I'll go anon on this ask because I don't want people to come at me for raising my concern, we'll see at the end of my ask hahaha). I miss u, not just your stories but u being happy interacting with your readers. I hope that you are genuinely happy and more than fine right now.

I have a confession to make... I got sad because some of the "new comers" in your discord server is a bit numb and disrespecting you, idk if it the right words, I don't get their vibe. Some are lowkey sugar-coating their words but it still comes out as a negative one. I felt hurt because there is not a reason to discuss it there. I know that you read conversations in there, even though you don't interact that often on discord. Discord should be a place of your comfort, a safe space for you (and your readers). I do understand each others frustrations because things got delayed (with MH), but you always spoil us with something or update other story of yours so it's still a win-win situation. What I don't get is others tend to be "understanding" when in fact, they're not.

To Mimi's readers I just want to remind you that it's unnecessary to talk about Mimi (like talking behind her back, or not, since she can read everything). She's trying. She's a human and not a computer bot. She's not Siri nor Alexa. Please be understanding, because at the end of the day she does not owe us anything. She's the only one who deals with everything in her life, may it be outside or inside the social media. Let's be kind to one another. I don't mean any harm to anyone.

(Okay now, I decided to be an anon hahaha but Mimi if u want to know who I am, I'm the one who recently confessed my admiration towards you 😅)

Please take care and be happy 💜

Not gonna lie, when I visited it today I felt sad too but I'm trying to understand them as much as I can. Whatever I do, it's always not good enough but that doesn't mean I'm not aware of everyone who's very supportive. Like I said, it always starts and ends with the topic of update and that can get frustrating too.

I think I'm mostly misunderstood and that's super tiring. If I didn't post a chapter, I always tried to find another fun way... like ask my muse game, posting sneak-peeks, creating a playlist for a story, doing other fun stuff on twt for mh, working on a story at the same time... but it's never good enough. The more I give, the more people expect from me and once I've my own personal stuff that I'm going through, people get frustrated and it's because I haven't updated one story for some time.

I'm very thankful for this message, you really have no idea how much I appreciate it. It's always so good to find someone who understands me! Thank you bub x

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Happy new year everyone 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I know 2020 has been hard for everyone.

And I want everyone to know, suffering isn't a contest and we all suffer in different ways. But I feel I should give my year in Review. Just some things that happened to me personally.

This was an intense, and long and spiritual and emotional journey for me...

I really discovered what it meant to have community, family and what my life means to me.

But I feel I need to get this in writing cause I can remember the year with vivid detail and I will probably forget if I don't get it down.

Do I have to share this publically online to my tumblr account for a bunch of strangers to see? not really.

Do I want to?

Yes. I think so. Just from how so many people on tumblr and real life have touched me.

This is kinda long and no one needs to read this.

(idk how to do a readmore on mobile. But this is where I would add it later. No one needs to read if they don't want to.)

January/February: (and some background on the last five years of my life cause.....well. it's important.)

As people knew, I got way into Invader Zim last summer. I spent most of my waking life working a dead end job at a grocery store. I lived a sad lonely life, going straight home to a single dark studio apartment. With not many material possessions outside of games, my laptop and my tablet to my name. Half of my material loves, such as home furnishings and books were still in boxes from when I moved in. In case I ever had to move again, or get some "big screenshot or copywriter" job in the city.

....

I lived in that city in the same dead end job and apartment for five years.

No friends. No social life. I often refused to make doctor appointments or attempt to establish myself in that city. I didn't even talk to anyone in my workplace.

Work. Go online. Go to sleep.

I lived like that for five years.

I thought it was good.

Even my therapist thought I was doing well.

When I really wasn't. My main character flaw I struggle with is motivation.

I can talk to someone about very detailed plans I have to fix a problem... But I tend to never follow through.

Just because I can describe in detail how to fix my personal problems, it doesn't mean I will do it.

(I have gotten better at this but it's a major struggle)

I might have been a Zombie during the day...

But by night I was pouring my soul into my AU and my analysis.

After being so thoughly ignored or overlooked by the Naruto fandom and the Undertale fandom, I felt like I had finally found my home and was settling into a community there.

I just loved that people loved what I had to say.

Especially my AU.

It's no secret that a lot of themes in my au revolve around found family, grief, and loss.......

Fatherhood, in particular.

What it means to be a father, how much do you need to try when you mess up, how willing should a child forgive their parent, especially those that have wronged you and how much of it is factually accurate and simply a self projection of what children want their parents to be and visa versa... What amount of forgiveness and change is nessasary...is it needed?

....

It's no secret that a lot of my AU is a giant coping mechanism for my Dad's death. Espessially the falling out and growing closer with a lot of my family members throughout the years following his death. (Most of the time I keep it ambiguous to how it relates to my personal life unless I include a readmore that states so outright. I feel my au can be enjoyed by a variety of people in the fandom who don't need to know me as a person or my life story.)

My Dad passed away in 2016 in February and my family still feels the aftershocks to this day.

It's part of the reason I moved to the city, alienated myself from my family and people that loved me and refused to experience life for five years.

My entire world was Zim, and I was okay.

March: When America finally realized and started to feel the effects of the pandemic....

A lot of people got scared.

Me included.

I didn't have any streaming services or access to the news. So I only heard accounts from my mom.

I didn't understand why the store was so dead quiet and empty for a few days, then it went into mass chaos and panic in the span of two days.

It felt like Retail black friday in the worst way. Everyone was packed like sardines. Everyone was yelling. The lines at the registers bled into the clothing department.

I was witness to customers shoving others for toilet paper, being rude to cashier's and just overall unpleasantness.

At the time, I didn't even fully grasp what the pandemic was, and I feel a lot of people at the time didn't either.

I ended up absentmindedly scratching my eyebrow in front of a customer and she screamed and villanised me for it. That they didn't want groceries touched by my "unclean hands"

I ended up breaking down into tears.

The customer behind me gave me a hug and told me I was doing a great job.

But the damage was done. It was the final straw, I couldn't stop crying and I was breaking apart.

Thankfully my Boss (the one who likes me) pulled me aside and asked what's wrong.

It was then that I quit. No notice. Same day. I had to get out of there.

I was planning to move to an apartment with my sister in the summer, but my Mom offered for me to move back in with her temperarily just so I can get out of the city and away from the pandemic.

So I did.

I got scared, broke my lease a month early and quit my job of five years that gave me nothing back.

He told me, "take care of yourself and your family, I won't keep you here, do what you need to do."

So I did.

April-June:

A very eventful few months.

My mom offered for me to live at her place, but for some reason she was acting like I would live there forever. That this wasn't a temporary arrangement, and that I didn't have an apartment set up already.

This was in large part to my sister, who had lived with my mom taking advantage of her for years.

Even though my sister and I were going to move in together, I was just never sure about it cause of how she never packed her stuff or made any effort to find a job.

My mom often acted like I was lazy and not searching and was treating me like... Well, an unruly teenager instead of a woman of 29 years. She acted like I was a failure for returning home when it was her idea in the first place.

I would have just been petrified in the city.

Like usual, I retreated to my au again.... And in the spring, something eventful happened.

In may, 8th 2020:

I was invited by @rissynicole to join an invader zim discord.

Now, I've never really used discord before. I always thought it's interface is too confusing.. and I'm a member of a few other iz discords and I usually don't follow them that closely.

Rissy assured me it was different cause some friends of thiers made it and it was smaller.

Before I knew it, I was sharing memes and getting to know everyone there.

It wasn't long after I invited my partner in IZ crimes, @paketdimensioncomic who was genuinely wary of iz servers due to a bad experience with the last one they were a part of.

But soon they were sharing memes and laughing with everyone else.

My eyes were starting to open and I was able to connect to fans of my work in an interpersonal way. And I was able to discover new artists and aus I never knew about.

I was also able to meet so many others of the community and invite them to the server myself.

The moo-ping 10 server kept me sane while I was living with my judgmental mother.

Not only that, the summer was very productive for my au.

Drawing was all I did, and it was a huge break from the job as a cashier I had.

Not only that, June came, and with it, me and Ceph's first collab fic:

A result of us just going back and forth in our DMs constantly about Professor Membrane and how he changed in ETF for the better and how much we adamantly stan "trying-to-be-a-good-dad-brane" and how much of his ETF development has to be implied off screen in order for the emotional resolution in the movie to matter.

The only reason I never professed my love for Membrane as a character in the fandom before the fic dropped was.... Well....

Membrane can be a decisive character in the fandom and I was so worried people would hate me if I did an analysis on him, simply because he's not the best parent in the world. (As an understatement)

Ceph and I really encouraged each other to scream our love for the science himbo loud and proud more frequently and so often.... I actually start to see less Membrane hate posts and breakdowns then their used to be.... I like to think it's a combination of Me and Ceph's influence, along with ETF and the Quarterly's painting Membrane in a slightly more nuanced light then he was previously.

I never wrote a collab fic before and it's such a rewarding and fun and unique experience that I don't think I'll ever have again. And I love working with Ceph on our fics so much.

So much so we did it again...

July-August:

I never thought I would be one of those people who writes NSFW IZ fic... But here I am.

The Brainbrane au started.... An au of my au where Membrane and the Computer fall in love and Membrane makes him a body.

This ship was based around the idea where we joked that Membrane and Zim's Computer would have funny interactions if they ever met, under the pretense Membrane thinks Computer is Zim's parent.

Our headcanons morphed and shifted until we just full blown started shipping them.

Just because Membrane and Zim's Computer have overall REALLY entertaining chemistry.

It's a character dynamic never seen in the show or comics (yet) and I imagine thier interactions to be nothing but entertaining banter.

The fic was also born from spite... Making fun of the troupes and cliches that we found personally destestible in some questionable zadr fics.

So an angry ace and a demi-bisexual collab on a porn and end up blessing the fandom with

Compapa headcanons,

Computer being recognized as a more common used fanon character,

The ship of Brainbrane.

The fandom having a crisis of "oh God, not only are we xenophiles we're technophiles too!!!" Or "why you gotta give Zim's Computer an ass"

More android Computer designs

It was an eventful summer.

In the midst of all this, I moved into my new place, got a new job, and I was able to see my friend (who is def my platonic straight soul mate) who lives in Indiana.

She came to visit, showed me how to decorate and how to take care of my body better! Things were looking up! It was great.

September-November:

My job was at a boat store. If was approaching the fall and my hours were being severely cut.

I was getting into a rut of depression again.

I thought things were changing but the same routine I was trying to escape from was the same thing coming back.

But instead of letting it take hold, I decided I was going to do something about it... I was gonna visit a museum and go with my sister. Just... variety stimulation.

Well that didn't happen.

I talked about this shortly in my au itself...but..

My sister had a complete mental breakdown.

She stopped taking her meds, went off the deep end and was in the hospital a total of five times throughout November.

A lot of it was acting out and the perfect storm of environmental factors that made her scream and act out so she would keep going back to the hospital.

It was traumatizing for me.

I just can't explain what it's like. For her and for me to be in that position.

I'm not telling the full story and a lot of bullshit things happened I won't share here.

She got diagnosed with bipolar one and my mom expected me to be a caretaker for her.

I threatened to disown my family and move away out of state.

It was just too much for me to handle.

So much I was a nervous wreck.

I tried to pick up a second job... Cause my sister was in the mental ward so frequently and couldn't pay the bills.

But I was fired within a week cause I was so stressed I couldn't retain the basic information they were training me for.

It was an office job.

My dream.

It could have been.

I was fired from something I really wanted.

I was only there for three days.

I could not retain any information.

I was a mess.

My sister was a trigger, my mom wanted me to live with her. I couldn't live like this.... I had to get out.

I had to get out.

December:

Remember my Indiana friend?

Well the first week of December is my birthday.

My 30th to be exact.

While I did pick up a seasonal position at Target (not my first pick)

I took the first week of December off so I could spend time with her. Cause she agreed, I needed a break from this crap.

Surviving 30 years is cause to celebrate and if I had to celebrate with my sister I would have cried.

I know there was a risk traveling out of state during a pandemic...

But I needed out, I needed a friend..

And I kinda wanted to look at the place since I was considering moving there.

My friend's mom was sick so she avoided me and her daughter and got us a hotel room.

It was fun! I got to swim in a salt water pool, we talked about Naruto, I showed her the iz and su art books I brought, also Computer and Membrane tea.

I also got to meet her other friends and get crunk. And her bf who is super nice and funny!

I had a super fun birthday....

Until her mom told my friend that her grandparents had covid and that was what she had. And my friend got sick within that same day.... As did I.

I owe so much to her family.

I was an entire state away...about a ten hour drive from home.... She let me stay at her house. "The covid house" we called it.

Cause everyone (except the father. He avoided everyone and booked a hotel immediately cus he was an ER doctor) had covid within a day.

I called in, the test results were positive and I had to stay with her family for ten days quarantine before I could work again.

Which would have been fine....

If my tumblr didn't log me out perminately of my old account. @dana-chan325 .... Which really sucked cause I had a constant headache and was too sick to engage with tumblr or much of the fandom. I didn't want to make a new account when my head was in a bad fog and I could barely breathe or smell.

It's not like I saw much of my friend either.... We all slept at different hours and she had more symptoms then I did.

It was just netflix, danganronpa v3 and cry.

I was miserable, but at the same time.... Not?

I really feel like God himself was the one who pulled me off from tumblr, and my living situation.

Maybe a whole extra week feeling like a bobblehead was what I needed.

It gave me some much needed clarity on my relationships with my mom and sis and friend.

Running away to Indiana was not the solution here.

Once I was better within ten days and no longer had a leave of absence, I drove home.

I am glad I fully recovered (but from how I understand it, my dear friend is still ill. I'm praying for her)

I might have gone to work a bit too soon, cause I had an asthma attack after trying to unload a single cart in the span of six hours.

My boss lectured that my speed was unacceptable, and even though I explained the covid situation and breathing problems many times, she threatened that I'd be fired if I'm that slow again.

Que the next few days of work where they put me on register.

Instantly I was sent into a panic remembering the last time I was on the register and how that panic attack caused me to quit.

I even asked if I could go back to stocking, since my breathing had improved. My boss assured me that I was put on the register cause they needed help and nothing to do with my covid thing.

Then as December concluded and the new year began, my boss said that this was the last shift for me cause my position was seasonal and they were letting a lot of people go.

I then asked why I was on the schedule for Sunday, and he told me to ignore it and I'm free to reapply for full-time.

I mean.... They can act smart about it...

But putting your general merchandise stocker onto register after she had an asthma attack and missed working the first two weeks of December due to covid.....

Not a good look.

So once again, I'm jobless once more.

Will probably continue to live with my sister for awhile.

But I do not feel as if it's a bad thing....

I met so many good people this year....

My friend's family even gave me 500 usd to cover my rent since I couldn't work for a majority of December.

I've seen evil and good from humanity this year. I've seen acts of god, good friends and what my real family means to me as well as friends I consider family.

This year really made me look back at the person in the mirror and say,

"I deserve better."

And actually worked for it this time.

Oh and after Christmas I got a horrible yeast infection that burns over most of my body currently.

Very accurate doodle to the pain I'm in right now.

(seriously my body is a fungus.)

But hey, good news, I respected myself enough to go to the doctor about it!!

So that's progress.

I really hope 2021 holds good things for me.

Thank you to the mooping 10 server for always being there and keeping me sane,

Thank you tumblr for liking my au and everything.

AND A SUPER SPECIAL THANK YOU TO @evartandadam and her family for housing me and my dumb diseased ass. Everyone, she is an angel and I can't express how much she means to me. Please check out her art and buy her stuff on redbubble.

Anyways... Byebye 2020.

I look forward to what I can accomplish for myself this year.

[transgirlhoshizorarin]

Story Time I Guess

The people this is about and the people who will read this are mutually exclusive. So this isn't about you.

I have so much to say, to no real effect. Maybe to make myself feel better, but that's just selfish and does nothing for the collective good.

Whenever I'm in a group of people, that's when I feel the most lonely. At least when I'm in front of a computer screen, the colors and lights keep me company, and the occasional interaction with people I like.

It's so lonely constantly feeling like I'm a third wheel wherever I go, like I'm dragged along because I'm a charity case. Bring this quiet person along so we can feel okay about ourselves for not ignoring them. Maybe ask her a question every now and then so she doesn't feel excluded THAT much. But therein lies the paradox: I'm so lonely and yet I am too scared to wedge myself into conversations and things to make myself known. It's better to not be seen, it's better to not exist, and yet I feel so lonely because of that mentality.

One place I felt like I was not an outsider, I was considered a friend. It was a discord server where some people were in voice chat consistently, and it was during a time I was painting for my 2D Color And Design course. I would join the voice channel and just sit and listen to other people talk. We were all trans. I was invited into the server from the person who made it. I joined a channel and asked if it was okay to just hang out there while I painted, since it was background noise. The people in there said they were okay with it, but they didn't speak much. I think they left after a while.

After trying to join the voice channel again for a different reason, I found out that I couldn't join. The server founder had to remove some restrictions on me that someone else placed, so that I could actually join the voice channels again. I guess someone didn't want me in there, just existing. So since then, I've been avoiding joining voice calls in discord. I assume it's because I'm older than a lot of people I exist with these days, and I can't reasonably assume I'm welcome in those spaces. I can't reasonably assume I'm welcome in any space. I'm trans, but only when it serves other people's interests as a joke, apparently. I'm fun, but only when it makes other people laugh. I'm useful, only if it's something I'm somewhat interested in and won't infodump about because it's not an interest of mine. Kept around when it's convenient, ignored otherwise. So I left that discord, not long after finding out that one of the higher-ups in that server had blocked me here on tumblr.

I'm also very interested in 2 people at the moment, one moreso than the other. Let's say K and T. I've known K for a very long time, and I've developed feelings for them...for at least 2 years at this point. They'll share their interests with me and propose we watch things together, and for the most part, I agree to do it when we have the time to do it. But when they ask if I enjoyed it, I do, but I have a hard time saying that I do, hard time saying that I enjoy any bit of material because, well, that's just how I am. I can truly enjoy something but I can't bring myself to say that I like it. I'll always say that "it's good," or "it's okay," but never truly say anything about liking it. People usually take that to mean that it wasn't actually interesting, so they stop sharing things with me. And I think that's what happened with K's circumstance here. But at the same time, I've dropped a couple hints and I think I got back what I expected - an implied rejection, but not outright because they were just hints and not outright statements of fact. "Hey I like you," isn't something I'm going to say to them. At this point, there's no way I can say it. I've tried to share my interests with them, and I've been met with basically a brick wall. They don't really seem interested in what I have to share, be it music or tv shows or anything that's interesting to me. Of course, they'll share things with me, and I'll take it in wholeheartedly. I see where it fits into how it made them the person they are today, and I appreciate it to see how it can affect me. But every time I try to level it out and share something with them, they don't listen. They don't watch. They'd rather go off and do something with someone else. And I let them go. So I guess that's how it should be. But how do I kill these feelings without just outright confessing to them about it, and having them shut me down like I want, but without making the friendship weird?

And in the case of T. Well, we only recently started talking. I don't know much about her. I could go sleuthing through her twitter, but that's weird and creepy and I don't want to study up on someone like that. She offered to be someone to listen to me when I have problems, but I can't in good conscience do that to someone I just met, and I definitely won't do that to someone I consider a friend, unless I know 100% that they're willing to listen to me complain about my paradoxical problems I've listed and alluded to here. She knows a lot about things that I don't, and I know that she makes far much more money than I do. Well, I just quit my job last thursday, so everyone is pretty much making more money than I am at the moment. I can't say that it's necessarily intimidating, but I feel like I have nothing to offer to her that would make me worthwhile to have around. So maybe I feel intimidated in that sense, that I feel like I cannot actually have anything to contribute to the relationship, be it friendship or anything more.

For fuck's sake. I'm 35. And I haven't had a single relationship last more than a year or something. And all of my relationships have had some really crazy inequalities that either made me the deadweight or I had way too much power so I had to distance myself because I simply felt bad for being in the relationship. And in all of them, I was too scared to end it myself. I'm sorry.

I just want to exist and share a space with someone else.

But there's also the question of physical intimacy. I know in theory, and in my head, I would like that. I know I would like it. But when it comes to actually doing it, I can't make myself even touch the other person without feeling like I'm overstepping boundaries. Am I touching them too much? Do I use my hands? Do I just lean up against them? Am I not touching them enough? Do they want more than I'm doing now? If I ask questions, I'll get answers, but if I ask questions, I'll also sound absolutely clueless. Which I am. I just don't know how to physically interact with other people in any meaningful capacity.

I don't know what to do.

[simmancy]

I was wondering how you first started your berry legacy? Did you make a new simblr for it? How did you first start posting and getting into a routine? I really want to make a legacy myself but i'm scared that it would look really mediocre and unorganized! Any tips on how to plan out the storyline and start posting? Thank you!! (asking this to a few different blogs so sorry if yo see this question somewhere else)

I’m honestly super honored that you’re asking me! I’m still a pretty small simblr compared to a lot of people.

I’m going to put this under a cut, just so it doesn’t clutter up people’s dashes because I RAMBLE (like seriously, I’m re-reading it all now and I go on and on and on) but I’m gonna cover everything you asked!

TL;DR: get mildly inspired, get involved in the community and have fun with it!

I cannot recommending creating a new blog enough. While it’s definitely easier to just create a sub-blog off your personal, you’ll have a harder go at keeping things separate once things take off. Plus then you probably won’t have ALL your million tumblr things that you’re already following mixed in with your sim stuff, making things so much harder to follow.

Once you start your simblr (whether a sub-blog or whole new tumblr), TAG EVERYTHING. XKIT SAVES LIVES. Not really, but it will save you a lot of time once you install the Quick Tags and make tag bundles. Seriously.

At least once a day, a “reblog if you’re a maxis match simblr” thing comes across my dash–don’t be afraid to reblog those when you’re starting out. (Or the alpha equivalent if that’s your thing).

Seriously, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and get involved. Ask for sim requests, reply to things, join a Discord server–don’t be afraid to talk to people! I’ve actually made a few good friends this time around. It’s awesome.

This is just one of the unfortunate realities about things–if your pictures look good, you’ll get noticed quicker and blah blah. You can get by on just writing, but it’s a lot harder. This is still tumblr. It’s microblogging. LOOOOONG text posts (like this one lmao) are not what it’s geared towards.

Anyway. I play TS4 on Ultra, and that does a lot of work for me. Sometimes all you really need to do is sharpen and brighten things up. Reshade is another good alternative, if your computer can handle it–that takes a lot of the decision making out because it edits for you! I used to use PickyPikachu’s reshade presets. The downside is that it’s pretty resource heavy.

The basic point here is that having good lookin’ pictures goes a long way to making your stuff look “not mediocre.”

Also, and this is a side thing–find a good theme for your simblr, something that looks good for both text posts and pictures, probably something with either a sidebar or header (or both).

This is the meat of the section and it’s all really Kit/Pastille-specific.

I started up the Pastel Pastilles because I saw Berry’s challenge–I had already read Splash of Color a long time ago, and had a (now obviously abandoned) TS3 rainbowcy. But TS4 was fun and ran like a beast and I liked berry sims, so I dove in. If you were to go back in my archives, though, you’d see that I started posting a TS3 LEPacy, and that’s not even my first one.

I’m not going to even talk about the Grims in this post, since they’re really new. But they’re a prime example of using community involvement to stay interested haha. I’m very excited to play with Ruby and her future family because of all the nice sims people sent for her to eat alive become friends with. 

Planning with the Pastilles

With the Pastilles, I honestly got a little tipsy one night and did my initial planning based around Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Like… Not even gonna lie. That was honestly my starting point. You can almost see hints of this in some places. From there, I had certain scenes I wanted to hit.

Gen 1 - Luna - “Hopeless”; it’s about being in a shitty relationship and hoping that changes lmao (“I hope hopeless changes over time”). Luna and Dianthus were meant to have a much more obviously toxic relationship but Luna ended up having four kids by her second pregnancy and I just couldn’t play and write that fast. However, I always knew that Luna’s big moment would be telling Dianthus to get out.

Gen 2 - Verity Vine - “Now or Never”/“100 Letters” - There are a couple things that have stayed consistent in this gen: Veri and her dreams, the peach spouse’s dad was gonna be a dick and they would be separated for years, and they were gonna hook back up at a wedding. 

My very first concept was that Riesling was going to be a bit more wishy-washy and bend to his father’s will (hence “Now or Never” being the song). By the middle of the generation, it was clear that Veri would become the distant one (“he said ‘please don’t go away,’ I said ‘it’s too late’”).

Part of writing a sims legacy sometimes is… letting the sims do the writing for you. Meri and Forest weren’t supposed to be the ones getting married (it was supposed to be Chai Tea and Black Cherry) and they definitely weren’t supposed to have the twins but honestly the story is better for it, you know? And obv most of Veriling’s story isn’t the way I initially planned.

All this said, once I knew where I wanted the story to go, I knew I wanted to plan around a few set-pieces: the fountain scene where Riesling trips onto Veri and she realizes “OH SHIT,” the scene where Eiswein walks in, Punk!Veri’s “I don’t dream at all anymore,” and Riesling’s “Hi, I’m Riesling Puck, you might recognize me from your dreams.” Those were all scenes I knew I HAD to get.

Gen 3 - ??? - ��Angel on Fire” - it’s about anxiety lmao so I don’t mind linking it, it’s pretty obvious. Gen 3 has an anxious heir, a song about anxiety was on the nose.

I don’t really recommend the getting tipsy part, but definitely do recommend going in with a basic concept.

The cool thing about challenges is that you already have the guidelines as a starting point. One of my favorite parts about this challenge in particular is seeing how people re-interpret the rules–for instance compare the Gumdrops, Frosts, Amours, Pastilles, Fairyflosses, Prisms–we all started from the same basic rules and there’s still a lot of variation, especially once you get past the initial introductions.

Also, SERIOUSLY: don’t be afraid to take inspiration from crazy places–a song you heard on the radio, a movie, your own life, whatever. Like, I decided Veri’s generation would have it’s first Act at Oxtail University because of the “dream of ivy covered walls and smoky french cafes” line in “Beautiful” (from the Heathers musical). The song otherwise has VERY LITTLE to do with Gen 2. It’s just that line became a starting point for me.

Keeping Things Lookin’ Snazzy with the Pastilles

Looking back, you can kind of see Gen 1 was a bit brighter and lighter/different in editing style than Gen 2. I purposefully set out to get a “dreamy” feel for Gen 2′s pictures. It works for me and the Pastilles–it might not for your legacy! Play around with things to see what works.

I’ve also noticed a lot of banners nowadays (they weren’t as big my first go around here on simblr, but they’re everywhere now). I think that helps to keep things “on brand,” organized and consistent too. I personally don’t use a banner for the Pastilles–I didn’t start with one, and now it looks super wrong to me when I try to use one…. So instead, I’d recommend looking at @frost-rainbowcy–she is SUPER on-brand. I can only aspire to reach that level of #a e s t h e t i c.

HOWEVER, I do keep everything on my blog hyper-organized–there’s a main page where everything’s pretty much linked, and the character page. 

TBH, you don’t need to go that in-depth. I just like leaving weird easter eggs in places. You might too.

Posting Consistently

So, I started posting the Pastilles officially almost a week after I made the first post with Luna. That’s because I played a BUNCH right at the beginning, so I’d have something consistent to post for a while. It wasn’t initially as story-heavy as it is now. That’s something you probably want to decide before you start posting.

Right now, I’m posting inconsistently because I’m trying to wait around for Cats and Dogs and not give into the temptation to give Veri and Ries the babies they keep wishing for, but….

I’m in game almost every day–I get off work most days between 2 and 4 now, so by 6 PM I’ve eaten/showered/started up TS4. Even if it’s just to make a sim for someone.

I tend to do all my picture editing on Sundays, as it’s my day off. Sometimes it bleeds over into Monday, my other day off. I don’t always write posts up those days, but I at least stick them in the queue so they’re THERE. For me, it helps giving myself that weird deadline lmao

As a result, I almost always have something queued up.

I utilize the queue like MAD. Right now it’s set at 6 posts a day between 3 PM and 12 AM EST, but I change it up depending on what I have going on and what I can crank out. Usually I leave it on 13 posts a day.

Basically, learn what works for you. It does take some trial and error, but you’ll get it eventually.

Now here’s the real truth: you won’t post consistently if you don’t love your game or your sims.

I love playing the Pastilles as much as I love writing them. To the point that I have them backed up in several places just in case. I’m genuinely attached to the family, and that makes it worth it to me. Sometimes that doesn’t happen immediately (I love Luna, and Vino, and even Dianthus that shitbag, but you can tell that I got invested with Veri and Ries–Gen 1 is 30 pages long on my blog. Gen 2 is 92 and counting).

Storywise, I stay interested because I love the fluffy romance bits and snappy dialogue as much as the Drama Bombs, and also (spoilers) I’m a sucker for supernatural stuff. So I tailored my legacy to fit that.

But when I don’t want to play sometimes I just go in game, grab a few pictures of them in CAS and redo the character page for the 25th time. And that’s okay too. I just always try to make sure I have something to post, even if it’s a small (even if it’s just Riesling’s face. Because I know that’s what y’all want. It’s cool. I get it).

I seriously rambled a lot, but I hope this helps!! Once you get started, please let me know too! I’m rooting for you, non, and any nons to come after you.