#so I'm sure you'll see me post more snippets and stuff like that from me in general

[whileyoureinschoolidothisallday]

Your little post about stalker Touya made me crave for more! Are you maybe planning on writing a full fic with this idea? If not, it’s okay tho!

Have a good day/night <3

Awww this is really sweet I'm glad you liked it!!!!

I don't have any plans based off of that specific post, but I am currently writing fics where he is actively stalking you in the background of your relationship and eventually in the fantasy he has about you. You can check out what I've posted for that in this tag and this tag.

I'm also offering that fantasy fic as a sponsorship in support of the Fics for Gaza campaign! It's titled Bury My Ashes at Sea (or shortened to Hex!fic). You can donate and encourage me to finish it a little faster if you so choose!!! Thanks for the sweet comment!!! You have a good day/night too! <3

[larissa-the-scribe]

Hey! I'm looking into potentially starting a newsletter for writing related stuff, do you have any advice on where to start?

Yeah, for sure!

So, I'll be dividing this response into several parts: the technical details, the content details, and the growing details. (disclaimer that I am by no means an expert, this is just stuff I've learned and/or observed and/or heard about)

Also sorry this is so long adfasdasdadfa it kept building on itself

The important thing throughout, though, is to have fun and be yourself. I'm only partially joking.

Technical details:

So what program do you use? How and why? Personally, my criteria for this was pretty simple: what was the cheapest but still functional option, and/or what option offered the best features for free (without being overcomplicated)?

The answer to this will vary depending on what you want to do. For example, Substack, from what I know, seems good; it's free, simple, straightforward. However, I wanted extra features that Substack didn't provide (automation sequences,* landing pages, etc), and so for me the best fit was Mailerlite. As far as I know, it's the only free option that offers automation, and besides that it seems like it has all the features I'd need. No need to pay until 1,000 subscribers, and after that it's still one of the cheaper options.

Some other possibilities include Mailchimp (though their pricing system can get a bit wonky), Brevo, Sendpulse, ConvertKit, HubSpot and like a gazillion others.

Basically, figure out what features you need/want, and go from there, but personally I'd recommend MailerLite. It can be a bit clunky at times, but overall I've found it more intuitive than Mailchimp, and it has a handy assortment of free features.

Honorable mention: Canva is a free service for graphic design, and that can be helpful for setting up any backgrounds or banners you might need.

*["automation sequence" refers to emails you can set up to send automatically without you needing to do extra manual work. For example, if someone signs up for your newsletter, you can set that up as the "trigger" for a sequence of emails that will deliver a freebie to the new subscriber, give them information, welcome them, etc, without you having to remember to do it every time someone new shows up].

Content details:

One of the other big questions that you'll have to answer for a newsletter is 'what am I going to be talking about for the next forever?'

An idea of how to start brainstorming is to sketch out broad categories, and then once you figure those out, see how many related ideas you can list out for each category (say, if you want to write about book publishing, how many topics or details can you cover?). If you can't list more than like 10-15 ideas for a shortish "post" off the top of your head, you may want to look at a different category.

Also, one of the best ways to answer this question is by asking the follow-up question of "what do I want to talk about for the next forever?" If you don't like writing about a topic, it's going to be an absolute chore, and the less you like doing something, the more of a drain that will be on your time and mental resources. And it will be harder to think of things to talk about. Don't worry about what you should write. That's a trap and only helpful in select cases.

So, what can you talk about and what do you want to talk about?

If that's still a lot of topics, you can ask people for their opinions on what they'd most be interested in hearing about, and in general asking 'the audience' for questions can also be a good way to find content ideas.

You'll also want to find a way to talk about your books regularly, too, since you're trying to cultivate an audience that will enjoy the stories you tell. That can be sharing snippets, updates, or even just talking a lot about similar types of books and have a line at the end of "if you liked--" etc.

What I do is I have three categories: 'updates', 'recommendations', and 'content'. Updates is behind-the-scenes stuff of the progress I've made on my creative projects (and a personal touch of things from my non-work life); recommendations is all about other peoples' books, with reviews, collaborations, and such; and content is a serial story I kinda designed for the email format (semi-inspired by podcast stories). I like talking about my projects (and that also makes the audience aware of and invested in my projects), I like reading and talking about books, and I like writing stories and am fairly fast at writing individual scenes. All three of my chosen categories are things I like to do with a lot of options for content, and that makes it easier to work on it regularly.

A lot of marketing-type people will also bring up that what you're sharing needs to 'bring value' to the audience, so that people will want to open your email; but that's really broad, and the 'value' you bring can just be... entertainment. It can be fun to hear someone talk about something they like (or dislike, depending). So like, it's a consideration (you don't want to just be saying "buy my book" over and over again, you want to be giving back to people), but also it is not that deep.

Also! Don't be afraid to talk about stuff you're 'selling'. As long as that's not most of what you ever talk about, people normally don't mind--and also, how else will they know.

Also also: You will want to figure out an upload schedule that you can stick to. Typically, you want to find the sweet spot between 'regular enough that those who signed up don't forget you exist and unsubscribe because they can't remember who you are' and 'spamming.' That can be anything from once a week to once a month. Conventional wisdom states that you don't want to go longer than a month without sending an email, but there can be exceptions.

Addition to the schedule idea: I've found it helpful to figure out a consistent routine so I'm working on my newsletter regularly, and don't have to panic-write an email the night before sending out. I try to work on my next email for 10-15 minutes a day as kind of my warm up for other writing stuff. Sometimes I really need that time every day, sometimes the consistent schedule means I finish early and don't have to worry about the next email for a bit. You could also try dedicating a day a week to focusing on the email versus your story, etc. Basically, play around with it until you can fit it into your schedule in a way that works for you.

[DISCLAIMER: I have a "category three" content system with more or less weekly updates, and I landed on that because I am an over-achiever who can't make up my mind on a thing to focus on. You do not have to make my mistakes. You can just focus on One Thing and do it like every two weeks or something. That would probably be a good idea for starting out]

Growing details:

Then..... the other hard part (on top of the other hard parts lol). You have a newsletter now. How do you get people to join and follow you?

Well, some sites/services make it easier. For example, currently I'm with StoryOrigin, which is a service that allows you to do newsletter swaps with other authors (they promote your book, you promote their book, etc). This does require you to have some kind of "reader magnet," though--that could be a paid one, like your book, but those can be harder to find swaps/followers for, etc. Another similar platform is Bookfunnel, I think, though I don't know much about them (I did research once upon a time but that was Ages ago and I have ADHD lol)

[Disclaimer: I linked to both, but the link for StoryOrigin is an affiliate link, which just means I get something if you go with them. But I do legitimately recommend them]

The downside to both of those is that they are paid. StoryOrigin is 100$ a year, and Bookfunnel is 20-250$ a year. Bookfunnel has a more tiered system, and StoryOrigin has one price and you get everything.

Now, you might find that to be a worthwhile expense, but it is nonetheless an expense. It also isn't a magic way to get your book promoted; sorting through the different groups and swaps takes time, and it takes even more time if you do what I do and try and read anything you swap with (you don't have to do that, and most people don't; you can usually get by with some quick research), but I have chronic "what if I recommended the worst thing ever" disease, so.

However, while SO doesn't magically solve your problems, it does offer steady growth. I only properly started using their services in September, and I'm up to 215 subscribers. I'm also taking it fairly slow; I keep a tighter limit on my swaps (I don't want to spam readers with options, since I make a larger space to talk about the swaps), but I know other authors do like five swaps/groups at a time (basically just sharing the cover), and that can make you grow a lot faster. It kind of is what you make of it, but also it's still going to take patience and effort.

Other methods of growing your newsletter subscriber count: growing a following on social media and hoping that translates with landing pages and promotion and the like; directly contacting other authors you might know to do a swap; doing guest appearances on podcasts or blogs etc to get yourself better known; and most of all, be very patient, and be willing to make mistakes until you get good (those last are for any form of newsletter growth, tbh). I've, uh, only ever done the one way, so this part isn't as good as it could be.

NOTE: Feel free to experiment. You might not get it right the first time. You might need to drastically change your content to something you enjoy more, if you find out that your idea didn't work as well as you'd hoped. That's okay! Now's the time to learn and figure out, when you still have a small audience. Also, I've found that as long as you communicate with people, they tend to be pretty forgiving.

OTHER NOTE: While newsletters typically have a higher "return on investment" than regular social media, you're still going to be dealing with less numbers than you might think. For example, a good, healthy mailing list will have like 60% of people actually opening the email; more often it's about 50%. That doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong (actually it means you're doing well), it just means that the further you expand, the more you're going to get normal people who forget to open emails.

Other things to consider:

What email are you going to use for email list?

Typically, it's recommended that, if possible, you try and get a domain name email (connected to a website), because that will make it seem more legitimate and help it get through peoples' spam filters. Using something like gmail, since it's so easy to get an email from them, is associated with spam and as such it might have a higher rate of being blocked/flagged as spam. Getting a domain name email is a whole other can of worms, but it is something that should be considered. You can also start with gmail and then switch later once you have a more stable platform, but switching things like that can be difficult/a pain depending on what all is going on.

(also I think MailerLite requires you to have a domain name email?? I can't remember. But that it is another thing to consider when looking for an email provider)

Reader magnet?

This would probably go in the "growth" section, but basically--what extra incentive/reason do you have for people to sign up to your letter? That can be a short story or a guide or a piece of art or whatever, but it is helpful to have something to pique peoples' curiosity. Also, it's a good way to present what you have to offer in terms of setting their expectations for type of story, quality of writing/content, your knowledge of a subject, etc. And you tend to get more subscribers this way than if you don't have anything to share upfront.

YouTube:

Mailing List Research is a playlist of all the videos I looked at when researching. There are. a lot of them with varying degrees of quality and helpfulness, and it's a pretty messy overall. But there's some helpful stuff in there on a variety of mailing list topics. I was going to pick out the best ones but unfortunately I can't remember which those were. I think I removed the worst ones, though.

Podcast suggestion:

For marketing in general (and Instragram), it might be worth checking out Book Marketing Simplified (by Jenn Hanson-dePaula). She covers a variety of topics, and since she basically has a few core principles that she keeps coming back to, it can get repetitive after a while, but she's a good starting place. She has some episodes on email marketing and ideas for doing that.

Joanna Penn is another podcaster people talk a lot about, but the few episodes of hers I listened to were pretty supportive of AI so I got miffed asdfasdfas I should probably give her another go because I still have a lot to learn about everything, but I might go back to some of her older ones, pre-AI, if I do lol

If you'd want more resources, I could go digging more, but a lot of what I've used to learn has gotten scattered over the years, or is like a single episode from a longer podcast series, etc.

[awritingcaitlin]

2024 Wrap Up

It's still before New Years where I'm at! So let's slide this in!!

Some stats! Words Written: 283031 (give or take) WIPs Worked on: 10 Books read: 3 Beta reads: 10

WIPs Drafting Stage: 8 WIPs Revision Stage: 3

I'm gonna post some snippets from the year under the cut!

January - Finished editing Draft 15 of TBW, and workshopped it with my critique group. In January in specific, it was mostly writing the last chapter. Here's some content from then: Nathaniel and Riela in the hospital after all the shit went down.

For those of you who are newer, TBW is something I've been working on for ages with my co-writer. (If the number of drafts isn't any clue.) But we're 10+ years now. Anticipate seeing more of it as we're probably going to try to do revisions again this coming year.

February - Did some revisions on Heist. Honestly, it was nothing major because I spent that month packing (for a move that never ended up happening -_-) Here's a conversation I was tweaking at the time, having already rewritten the first few chapters of Heist in 2023. (Also this says Draft 3, but it was really more like Draft 2.5. This content is now in Chapter 5.)

Heist is a staple you've all seen me talk about I'm sure! It's set in the same universe as TBW, but with different MCs. I started it in 2022, started Draft 3 in late 2023, and as you'll see, started Draft 4 in late 2024. Still, I'm loving how it's all coming together!

March - Revising stuff in the first 5 chapters of Heist Draft 3. Some content from that time for you: Lelia and Ronan talking!

April - I'd made it through 15 Chapters of Heist Draft 3. However, midway through the month, I had some Life Happen, and stepped away from Heist for Reasons. I'll share some snippets from those works too. Here's a new Em and Vinny conversation that I wrote during that time.

April Part 2 - Due to Grief reasons, I ended up rereading most of CTQ, which is my GriefWIP™, and expanded on one of the scenes for a flashfic contest at that time, now in second person!

April Part 3 - I also ended up working on Aftermath, another Grief WIP. Which did not actually start as a WIP about grief... but I suppose when the premise is surviving after overthrowing an evil dictator, I can see how it went that way.

May - I started working more on Heist again, and got through 22 whole chapters! Some content for the time: the Jam Session!

June - I got Heist up to 34 chapters! Have some theology! It was very hard to find a snippet that was new content compared to the previous draft but also was not a blatant spoiler.

July - I got Heist up to 35 chapters, but then got stuck. Yes, this snippet says it's from Chapter 36 and that's because later I went back and added a chapter (and also had to restructure this whole area of the WIP.) New content: Lelia and Marcella conversation!

July Part 2 - I started working on my Dragon Age fanfic. The premise being that all the origin characters survive and join the party (though not as Grey Wardens.)

August - Heist revisions looked a lot like I didn't know how to number chapters at the time. Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 35, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37..... Anyway, this is when I went back and added a chapter that fixed the problem I'd been having. So here, have Lelia and Ronan talking!

August Part 2 - While all that was going on, I also put another 10k into my WardenWIP.

August Part 3 - I also wrote a crossover fic with @rarmaster. This was an "ending" of sorts for two characters from our respective Kingdom Hearts fanfics.

Premise: The Riku Replica survived Chain of Memories by going to another universe. Years later, he and Namine talk about how they made it.

August Part 4 - Lastly, I wrote a thinly veiled Dragon Age fanfic, modeled after the Urn of Sacred Ashes trailer.

September - I got Heist up to 44 chapters and wrote one of my favorite sequences ever!

September Part 2 - I also wrote another 20k of WardenWIP.

October - Finished Draft 3 of Heist! Then I kind of just rested. (As was my right.)

November - I worked on worldbuilding documents, both my encyclopedia and my history doc.

Working on the Magic Encyclopedia was something that's a long-time coming. There's a very in-depth magic system for the world of Tyrysius, and half of drafting up an encyclopedia for how magic works is so that way we can minimize contradictions! I expect to go back to it in 2025 and continue fleshing it out.

November Part 2 - Working on the History document was good for nailing down what has transpired since the cataclysm 1200 years ago, what nations have risen and fallen, what technology has done, and plenty else. I anticipate working on this more in 2025 as well.

November Part 3 - I also spent a lot of time working how Draft 4 of Heist was going to come together because I already had ideas for revisions and the motivation to do them.

No fancy snippet but:

“Shierdi has rejected my last offer for it. So you’re going to steal it. Shierdi isn’t looking for you because you haven’t done anything for me.” “Yeah but you’ve been trying to get my attention for a year.” “She doesn’t know that. She works through mortal staff a lot and has been wrapping me up in red tape. But, one of the benefits of being known as the drunken god is that none of the other gods think you can make up a plan.” “Yeah but there are other gods of alcohol.” “Everyone knows Adelus can’t plan! Even still, Shierdi thinks I’m more of a drunk than he is.”

December - Dove into Heist Draft 4! Have a snippet of a new conversation between Vinny and Em, that recycles dialogue from a scene with Lelia and Em that got cut.

December Part 2 - Also I started writing another crossover scene. The premise of this one is that Xion decides the Riku Replica is her little brother. It was rar's idea.

“Sister?”  She giggled. “Yeah.”  He blinked and mouthed the word again, as if tasting it on his tongue. His eyes lit up and he smiled. “Sure,” he laughed. “Why not? Why can’t my family get ridiculously bigger?” “That’s the spirit!” she said. “Want to go get ice cream?”  

That has not really gone anywhere yet, but I needed to get the initial dialogue out of my head.

Anyway, yeah, that was 2024 was a lot of writing. Here's to a good 2025!

[123gocat]

okay so ,,. my thoughts on A Minecraft Movie bc silly

made this part of the post all colorful bc yea

(spoiler warning sorta) (well yes) (very angry catto ahead.. be warned!!!) (well sort of, i tried to stay calm ish.)

(also eyestrain warning bc lots of wordz,,.,)

i typically wont rant about this type of stuff because personally i don't care that much. but seeing the reviews on A Minecraft Movie is actually sad, especially coming from someone who watched it in theaters and actually enjoyed it.

., keep in mind i wrote this after i watched a very angering review video from one of those "film critics"" who only say bad stuff about everything. so i apologize if my tone is very... y'knoww. (literally can't think of the word rn ;p) however i edited in some stuff after to kinda make it sound less rude but idkkk. i don't think it is but it might be so apologies in advance if you disagree with me.

you are allowed to have your opinion, and i'm allowed to have mine.

please take this with a teeny tiny grain of sand.

with that in mind onto the really long probably pointless rant

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

to get straight to the point, i absolutely LOVED the movie. here's why:

i liked the awkward sorta wacky humor, it gives off napoleon dynamite vibes, early 2009 movies type deal. (duh, it's by the same director.)

the cheesy lines, it feels like it adds a sort of wholesomeness to it??

the plot, unlike a lot of movies i've seen recently, the plot is stable, well built up, and understandable.

the character development, sure it occasionally seemed like it was off track in the beginning, but TONS of movies do that and i don't see anybody complaining about that. plus, it makes sense later in the movie.

the acting and the actors, (need i say more?) okay i will. i love how steve literally just says random things when it happens. my deadass can't stop laughing at "FLINT AND STEEL‼️‼️" "CHICKEN JOCKEY🤭🤭" and all the other silly lines they have.,,.- it's not supposed to be serious. why so serious. it's silly. it's fun. live a little.

the soundtrack, it's a good mix between the original minecraft soundtrack and some other songs fitting the moment, don't necessarily know how to explain it but the pigstep scene was really cool to me.

, heck, the art style? it grew on me in the first couple weeks of the trailer release. i feel like that's just people's opinion that it's bad because they're not USED to it. ofc, they want it to be the standard 3d minecraft animation style, like, literally every other minecraft animation EVER?? i like the originality.

and the REFERENCES? oh god the references i loved them so much. technoblade, cooked chicken farm from 11 years ago, everything. just look closer and you'll notice a LOT.

people tend to complain about the plot of it, but yeah, that's why it's called "A" minecraft movie. it's not SUPPOSED to be following a specific plot. I believe the main elements are from minecraft legends, though, but it takes different elements from different games, such as the boots of swiftness from minecraft dungeons and the references to the early concepts of the game. also, just the layout. if you didn't watch it in theaters, then i'll have you know ALEX was referenced at the end!!! i always stay for the ending snippets after the credits. also unrelated sort of related, the text color in the credits was lowkey a vibe. like it kinda hurt my eyes but in a good way kinda vibe.

what i'm saying is, i feel like people are giving it a bad review either cuz they're being biased and crabby, or because literally everyone else on the internet is doing so. let people have fun. go outside. you're not a movie critic, you're a basement dweller. a very nit picky one at that. but what do i know maybe my recommendations are just screwed up with negative stuff. i try to block it out as much as possible, not interact and feed into it and such. but it's what's trending, so i'll just live with that. and wait for something i don't care about to come along, for people to complain about instead. (i'm calling it lollll) (i literally hate the internet sometimezzs ughhh)

or maybe, you just don't like it cuz it's not ur thing. maybe you don't like it because you were expecting something different. maybe you don't like it for other reasons.

that's fine too.

, don't be biased based on the first trailer and impressions. be open minded. have fun. (psst! you fell for the ragebait!! you're giving them more money!!!!)

also, the fact that i see stuff like "why does everybody think it's so great i didn't like it" is absolutely mind boggling. look around!! EVERYBODY is talking about how bad it is. EVERYBODY is agreeing with the majority, because that's simply how people are. you are NOT in the minority for disliking the movie, pal. join the crowd.

(again, maybe i'm just on a bad side of the internet, and there's another side that's talking about how good it is. trust me i'm looking!!! ;w; )

----

goodness, apologies for my tone! i'm usually not this,, how do i put it,,,. defensive? i usually don't swear haha qwq

gosh. again, please take this with a grain of salt it's late at night and i'm in a ,,. mood so to say. ;/

( ((i suggest reading the tags but you don't have to)))

((okay okay i'm gonna post it now my opinion to the interwebz oh golly oh gee i haven't done this in a bit okay stawp stalling okay. okay i'll post it now. okay,. i'll do it. h.hhh,.,. OKAY)))

[watercolor-hearts]

🌀 ❄️ and ☔ please ❤️

[ask game for teasing wips/upcoming projects]

Hi dear, thank you for this ask. ❤ Here are some MotoGP snippets and ideas I have. 😊

🌀Post the fic summary for a fic you haven't written/published yet. It can be hypothetical or something you really plan on releasing...

I'm bad at summaries but I'm working on a story that's about Bez's “Live To Ride, Ride To Live” tattoo because it wouldn't have been me if my first thought when seeing it hadn't been “how can I make this be about hearts/cardiophilia?” Thanks to the placement is wasn't too difficult to come up with something. 😃 It's going to be a really short story, a drabble or a double drabble maybe. Short and sweet with the boys being really in love. ❤ (I could've finished it by now but sometimes I'm really struggling with thoughts about what if I'm forcing my thing on other people and I should stop and not bring it into other fandoms and stuff like that.)

Also, a question: Is that tattoo real? 😃 Because I tried to find other pics of it but I couldn't and I'm starting to think it's just a good edit. 😂

❄️ Share a snippet from a WIP of your choosing

Right now it looks like this is going to be my debut fic. Or if not this, than the one above. 😊 “Nice” little anxiety attack with a side of emotional hurt/comfort.

“‘Franci,’ Marco shouts from the bed, the mattress is still empty and cold next to him, his boyfriend is nowhere to be seen, ‘are you coming?’

Pecco looks at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, cold water dripping down his nose and chin; a face he can’t recognize for a moment.

He has to get himself together, he can’t fall apart and let this thing that makes him feel like the world is spinning with him and he can’t breathe defeat him the night before the most important race of the season.”

☔ Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I probably won't write it but I love thinking about a universe where Luca gets pregnant after a one-night-stand and decides to keep the baby but is also scared about what Vale and others would say.

Bez and Pecco somehow finds out about Luca's pregnancy pretty early on and they decide to help him and figure out what to do and how to tell Vale and stuff. They go with him to the ultrasounds, help him buy baby clothes and toys, massage him, provide emotional support and basically help every way they can, and they slowly become a family, the three and later four of them.

(Vale wouldn't kill him but he wouldn't be happy about it in the beginning. But later he'd be there for him/them.)

And there could be some difficulties during the pregnancy to make the story a bit more angsty and help Beznaia grow closer to Luca and the baby, but it'd have a happy end because everybody deserves a happy end and I love imagining them and the little girl together. ❤

[unluckyxse7en]

Ten people I'd like to know better

Tagged by: @yukarishoodie !!

Last song: it was on a playlist that I ended when it looped so can't properly check it but my best guess is it was the "Battle! Ogerpon" theme from pokemon! Not quite a thematic fit for the playlist but tbh it has some good wa rock-ish vibes sjfjsjfdn

Favorite color: black, BUT honestly I like lots of colors both separately and as a combined thing! Like I'm really big on rainbowcore things and pastels as well so it's not an entirely straightforward thing for me ^^;

Last movie: tbqh I'm answering this now so my answer doesn't become some sort of christmas movie /lh - pretty sure it was illumination's Sing! Very silly movie but I enjoyed rewatching it a lot

Last book: if comics count: "Kase-san and..." bc I've been craving school life fluff mangas lately.

If it has to be text only: a pokemon fanfic called Poison Oak centered on the Red/Green (Oak) ship - it's a longer read than I'm normally capable of doing lately so that's the best you'll get out of me /lh

Last show: uhhh. Spongebob Squarepants I guess! My family's been rewatching that off and on lately.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Definitely sweet. Sometimes savory but it's probably at least 70% sweet

Relationship status: @shyyren 's my partner! 💖

Last thing I googled: "Lycoris" (spider lily... term? It's like part of a scientific name) so that I wasn't misremembering its association to the color red lmao

Current obsession: pokemon. It's pokemon. It's like. My ocs in pokemon, with a side of Legends: Arceus game. Just. Pokemon.

Looking forward to: Making more progress on writing stuff for the aforementioned pokemon ocs, whether it's greater plot stuff or just little one-off snippets for funsies!

Tagging: uhh I'm gonna end up tagging a lot of people I already know p well but I don't follow blogs a lot anymore and also tag games can be fun so!

This is Optional but if you'd like to join feel free!

@shyyren @abunnydreamingofkisses @hatoratomoen @iolitewyvern @aeriedwelling @thesurprisinglyqueertoast @no-longer-a-dude

And literally anyone who sees this please feel free, I have a headache so I'm blanking on people I can/want to tag but I promise if we've ever interacted, or you've followed for a while, I want to include you too! Please tag me if you do this bc of this post I Want to see /gen

[ferelbasta]

Wow... just wow, the brainrot and brain storming with Beetlejuice (cartoon) has been... really intense... like I honestly can not stop thinking about this ghost with the most.

It's been so crazy like I've even dug up long old ideas I used to have for him with I was a teen. While I had the cartoon ofc to watch I always came up with episode ideas too, these never got far (thanks adhd...) but I did happen to cling onto one idea I had for him, a video game concept. If somehow you remember this title from 2010, "Beetlejuice, and the Crystal Cards" then I'll just be baffled like how have you not gotten tired of my inability to make stuff?? Ok ok joking aside, when I was younger I brainstormed a game idea for toonjuice that was in sure very much inspired by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, since in both games there are these crystal like items used in both that have a ton of mysterious powers. I remember that I did make some concepts for some attacks, bosses, and the cards themselves but never got that far with it all, I think another thing got me hyperfixated by the time so I of course just dropped all things Beetlejuice to focus on that... until now.

I've been tweaking and fixing my old ideas to where things make more sense for both Beetlejuice and story wise as a whole, looking at it all I'm wanting the story to be based around Beetlejuice, Lydia, and this character who is very important story wise (she needs a good name and I need to try and design her) along with others later joining the group to save the Neitherworld from this unnamed characters younger sister, since this sister is trying to take it over with the help of the cards she has in hand, with the unnamed character has some that Beej and co. Will be looking for and using in gameplay. I wont say too much as to spoil things story wise but thinking of it all I want to try and have this story really look into Beetlejuices psyche, since I've heard snippets of the musical (I STILL need to see it) and I've thought of mixing a bit of both into this concept, and having certain characters show up as well that weren't in the cartoon.

Regarding these crystal cards, I originally just had them act like powerups or something like the crystal stars, but thinking on it I'm wanting to have these be akin to Tarot cards, these do still give the wielder special powers but with a catch, you must have either a strong and healthy mindset, or at least a decently good one, or these cards can really effect one's psyche, and the more you use them the more these effects do harm. Now of course there are some cards that have a positive effect, it's just you'll then become rather vulnerable for a bit... I'm def going to retool the cards designs and names since... oh wow you can just tell a young kid named these XC I'll still keep the one I dubbed "Card of Mischief" since I do want that one to really lean on "supposedly" being designed around Beetlejuice anyway, the color from light blue to a lime green however will change.

I really do need to write a lot of my new ideas down so I can try to stitch them together (man there's just so much going on in my life to do so asfgddg) since I've been listening to a lot of video game music to help me build the scenes happening in this game concept. Even so just typing this down is helping me from becoming too overwhelmed from Beetlejuice... again, since shit the brainrot hit me like semi truck X-x

If anyone seems interested what do ever I don't mind talking about this more, just I hope I can have enough focus on this to actually post stuff art wise >>;;; eh we'll see what happens! Thanks for reading my passion filled ramblings for this massive dweeb

[thetentaclecommander]

This is an 18+ blog. Pretty much anything under the Ao3 archive warnings section, and then some can and will likely be represented here, so no histrionics, plz. I don't have a DNI or 'required reading' but do have 'things' listed at post bottom in case they are like deal breakers or whatever so you cannot say you weren't given advance warning as to my content. *I will not waste my time reading DNIs, strawpages, Carrds or whatever new not on tumblr page. The block button is a great (sex) toy and you are free to use it at will. I sure as hell do.* +++ FAQ Who is this? Hi, I’m TTC

I write Nemesis and Jill boning a lot. For the plot, supposedly. Been doing so forever ago. What are you? An immortal sentient tentacle who moonlights as a jaded fandom old. I can and will out-drink you. What other names have you've gone by? I've lovingly been called That Tentacle and Server Satan. I'm a walking kink-filled perv factory full of bad ideas, hence the names. + What fics do you write? Fic list for the Devil's Saga AU. The Ships in the AU My AO3 + Tags for Blog Navigation Here. + (Con't under the cut for more general info and disclaimers)

Why is...this? Because I want to see more Nemesis/Jill content, and it’s a bitch to find. Also, after years of putting off even joining Tumblr, I wanna share my AU and keep this crack ship alive. Maybe even fanwank on my thoughts about Toll and Onery or even on Jill, the long-suffering bad bitch that Cap keeps forgetting has a compelling storyline right there. But this is mostly just blatant shilling of my AU + What’s your fandoms? Resident Evil. To be clear, I mainly stan RE3: Nemesis, not the remake one. The 1999 one. But in general, I like this goofy series, boulders, nonsense science, bad plot, and all. I do like other stuff that I might occasionally reblog. Could be silly shit like Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel or Arcane to heavy shit like BTD. I'm random like that. + Format of each post: A snippet, a link to Ao3. I’ll list any pertinent CWs if needed. My fics tend to be 18+ some of them marked with Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings and DD:DNE (ie unapologetically dark shit cause RE is a survival horror franchise), so keep that in mind. I might drop early snips; I haven’t decided on that yet. + Is Nemmy -ever- nice in your fics? Pffft (well, he’s 'nice' in bursts, as in a burst of tentacles through Brad’s face). In seriousness, in my take on him, he’s complicated, having the ability to be ""kind"", and ""caring"" but is a Tyrant through and through - basically closer to canon. I like canonical villains and I like my monsters monstrous and, at times, barely grasping that human/monster line. Expect infestations and murder. + What is your stance on RE3: Nemesis (1999) and RE3 (2020)? 1. remake Carlos got the glow up omg 2. Jill was sassy in both and I do love og but ngl remake!Jill was so done and I feels her 3. the monsterfucker vibes was mostly immaculate 4. og Nemesis was hotter and scarier. 3make massacred my boy (I don't judge those that like 3make, but maaan my boi T.T) like my biggest gripe along with the cut content was the game missing the point of Nemmy entirely reducing him to an annoying superman jumping nuisance and honestly lessening the N/J shippy vibes for me + Do you do fic requests? RPs? No. I simply don’t have the focus/time to do requests or things outside of my stories. I write what I want when I want. + Do you do DMs or Asks? I just flit in the night and talk when I feel like it. I prefer all convos in the broad daylight on public posts. But I’ll open my Asks. Be stupid, and I’ll simply close them. Capisce? Also if you DM me wastes of time things like 'Hi', 'hello' - the kinda shit ppl mock on dating sites especially with a pretty much blank profile, you'll be blocked. In fact, I block pretty freely as I value my time. + Don't Whine, You Know What I'm About [Disclaimers To Save People Time] This Tentacle posts here: -sex acts that ranges from soft to oh gods please don’t kill me -urk- -tentacle murder/parasitic 'fun'/horrible things occurring -high/low brow story drama (think Gothic Horror-esque) -crack ships mixed in with canon with zero regard about their 'purity' -monsterfucker shit, duh This Tentacle: -believes that fiction does not have the power of a death note over one's actions and believes people are not inherently stupid or unable to understand for themselves what they engage in -holds sex positive/pagan/kink and leather/poly/queer friendly/profic views -is against the -isms and/or -phobias used against others -laughs at killjoy puritans; your hell/churchy-speak means nothing to me a lifelong heathen eldritch egg laying being If you hate any of these you’ll -not- have a fun time with my works. Also, this shouldn't have to be said, but kiddos (under 18) Be not seen or heard as per ye old adult fandom rules. I reject all signal boosting requests/callouts; promotions will be at MY discretion. (More than likely, the answer will be 'no'.) We team SALS/DLDR/YKINMKBYKIOK in these parts. Be freely stupid with your ships; none of it’s real. Fandom is stupid, don’t take it so serious. Also, the murderkink. Gotta have the murderkink and worms. A'ight, Enjoy!

[illithiddies]

sending you something for that wip ask game two days late :)) ❄️🌧️☔

❄️Share a snippet from a WIP of your choosing.

So like the only WIP I have any actual prose written for rn is my post-game bloodweave fic so I'm struggling to find non-spoilery bits from that ASJKKHJF

When first light begins to peek along the horizon, dotting the city in gold and orange, Astarion will retreat into their tower once more. He’ll have some witty remark on the tip of his tongue, always ready to dance around the most wounded parts of himself as if to minimize whatever damage he still expects those around him to inflict. It’s a cycle Gale desperately yearns to change. To see those same gold rays of light play over the angular planes of his face once more, instead of the departing shadow of him.

🌧️Share something angsty from your WIP.

Gale orb reminiscence moment yeehaw

But all Gale can think about when he sees it is how he’d stood in this exact spot after he’d been cursed with the orb. How he’d stared, equal parts dumbstruck and mortified, at the freshly placed burn on his chest. The bruise in the center hadn’t yet had time to form. It raised and blistered aggressively over the following days, adding another layer to the pain and confusion that already addled his heart and mind, but to see it after it’d healed, the perfectly formed lines of it — it almost felt like a brand. An artistic rendition of his folly, embedded into his skin forever.

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I think the very first BG3 things I ever started working on was a bloodweave fic with the concept of the tadpole mind stuff being a little more broken? I liked the idea of (act 3 spoilers here oop) Gale's Netherese magic bullshit reacting to the Netherese magic bullshit with the tadpoles. Very fun concept and it was honestly just a good excuse to take force bonds from Star Wars and shove it into BG3, but I don't think I'll ever have the time or energy to actually write it. But the concept of those two kind of being stuck in each other's heads without a way to turn it off was SO amusing to me.

[nakanotamu]

ive never actually watched a stardom match and im really bad at learning new things, so how would you recommend watching matches? and do you have recs for what matches to watch first?

AHH I'm so so happy to hear you're even thinking about checking them out I love getting asks like this!

Okay so idk what your familiarity is with pro wrestling but if you've like never watched wrestling at all my friend wrote a guide to starting with Japanese pro wrestling here. It's targetted towards people also learning Japanese and much more comprehensive promotion wise than just Stardom so the part you'd want to read is the one labeled "How プロレス storytelling works".

As for how to watch Stardom like the literal steps of how to find Stardom matches, I answered that in my sort-of beginner's guide here. (I talked about a couple other companies as well but me being me it's mostly Stardom.) tl;dr kind of the only way to watch Stardom matches in full and in decent quality is just paying for a sub to Stardom World. There are pirate sites but they tend to only have big shows and top out at 15 year old cellphone quality, and there are highlights (though I think those have become more rare?) and the weekly show on youtube if you're really not sure about the like $8, but World has everything.

As far as specific matches I have sort of two answers for this. I did, pretty recently, recommend a bunch of random matches in this post right here, and stand by those as matches I really enjoyed. Also I have since watched the QQ vs OT cagematch I mentioned there and can confirm it owns and I think the emotions will still come through even if you didn't follow the whole story.

However. That is where the second answer comes in - following stories. To be quite frank I think watching old wrestling matches is overrated, I think most of the fun is in following along with wrestling; wrestling is something happening right now. This is probably an ironic answer from someone who is like chronically a month behind bc I can't stand to ever skip a show but I am who I am. Maybe it's more accurate to say I think rewatching matches is overrated.

But anyway the simplest way to put it is my rec for matches to watch first is matches that you think look interesting that have happened pretty recently. Natsupoi and Saori Anou had a strap match on July 2nd, which is just as gay as it sounds but not in the way it sounds, I haven't watched it yet but I've heard good things. The 5 Star Grand Prix, Stardom's yearly big singles tournament, just began last weekend on the 23rd, and is a great way to get introduced to most of the wrestlers. I know the time commitment of a wrestling show can be daunting, I'm very familiar on a personal level with the way it eats time, but I think you can still get a lot from just watching a little if you can't get through everything. If you pick one person in each block and only follow their matches, you'll still get a little snippet of every other competitor to see if they hook you, y'know? Caveat if you do begin with that show though that the main event ended with a real injury, which obviously isn't fun to see happen.

If you decide you're enjoying it and want to try and start following along, my translation blog is here (it's not exhaustive and I'm behind with some stuff but I do what I can) and my asks and DMs are always open if you have questions about any stories or characters or anything.

[stickyspeckledlight]

speckled dabbling in LnD?!?! id love to hear abt what u think of rafayel hes my fav (=•u•=) (no rush tho)

ohohohoho, rafayal...

I haven't spent too much time with him yet; again, main story is cockbocking me still, so i haven't seen all main story or event things with him (i still need to finish the event stories for the current event lmao), therefore, I do not have the whole breadth of this man.

THAT SAID.

BRO WHAT A BITCH I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

he's so silly and like, bratty, but in a cute sort of way yknow. if i met him irl i would probably get impatient and pissed off with him, but through the screen? hell yea brother lemme see all your antics!!!

i've been pretty foucsed on caleb stuff...and zayne, surprisingly (mostly because he's like. most of what he says like "why are you up so late at night get some sleep" is like a snap back to reality moment for me and I'm like, bro, zayne, you're so good at making me put my phone down, that is why he is the goat, but also zayne is very silly but this post is abt rafayel not zayne)

anyways, i haven't done his tender moments and stuff, but even so....THE INSTANT I AM DONE WITH GRINDING OUT CALEB RANK HE IS NEXT. again, he's just so silly. i love him. it's less of a "omg smooch me" sort of love, more of a "hey broski i wanna see what kinda out of pocket shit you'll say today."

i've also seen some snippets of his memories, and i have to say...

"SHARKS ARE EATING THE GRASS FOR FREE." like bruh it's like the instant i feel that my interest in any of these characters might just be from the infatuation of going thru a new game, they instantly say the perfect out of pocket shit to make me fall in love.

LIKE BRO. HE DID NOT JUST LIKE. FORCIBLY ADMIT HIMSELF INTO A HOSPITAL OVER LIKE, TRIPPING OVER A PAINTBRUSH, CALLING MC TO COME TO HIM BECAUSE HE'S MOPING THAT SHE HASN'T COME TO SEE HIM LATELY, AND GOES "OH GOD ITS BEEN 800 YEARS" AFTER GIVING YOU THE SILENCE TREATMENT; AND THEN WHEN MC IS LIKE "ok yea I'm sorry lemme make it up to you here is this fresh fruit i got" HE TURNS HIS NOSE UP TO IT BC ITS ONLY JUST AN APPLE AND HAS THE GALL TO MAKE YOU PEEL IT AND FEED IT TO HIM?????????????? LIKE. BRO THIS IS SO ELABORATE JUST BECAUSE YOUR CRUSH HASN'T COME BY TO DO BODYGUARD THINGS. HE IS SO DRAMATIC AND SILLY; AGAIN IF I KNEW HIM IRL I WOULD LIKELY GET SICK OF HIS BULLSHIT BUT I LOVE THE BULLSHIT THROUGH THE SCREEN LIKE YES LEMME SEE YOU DEMANDING WE TREAT YOU LIKE THE QUEEN YOU ARE (also like, he's definitely got to be a pillow princess, y'know...)

speaking of bodyguard. he just. makes you his bodyguard. just like. "yea be my bodyguard? ok ty byeeeeeeeeeee"

he's definitely an artist for sure; he marches to the beat of his own drum, and if the world's got a problem with that, well, they'll just have to start drumming to his beat.

also i was playing the crane with him (farming achievements) and i love how confident he is that he can get the plushies; which is really funny because he did not get a single one during that session lmao.

also the free outfit they get you where's he's like a butler or something has no reason to slay that hard. bro has some serious style. as he should as the main twink of this game (which is also funny bc he's the smallest of them all, but still 6ft; the LaDs men are all so huge lmao).

anyways, love raf, he's like a cutie pie to me. main story is currently still trying to get me on the xavier train, but pretty excited to see whatever deep scary lore is behind this boyo. apparently he's a mermaid or something but idk much beyond that. i skipped his anecdotes at the time because i didn't feel like reading, and tbh i do not fuck with the LaDs prose that much (I'm sure it's better in Chinese, but the prose of the EN localization is leaving much to be desired; it's not horrible or unreadable or anything but it's just like, a lot of fluff before getting to the character dialogue and stuff. maybe this is a taste of what it feels like to be a booktok girlie? lol)

[schrijverr]

Hi!!! How are you??

I can not begin to say how much I adored the fic even if I did want to throw something at Buck and Eddie's head every once in a while. Like it was such a fun read and I really had fun trying to figure out what would happen in the next chapter. I adore how soft the final chapter is - Buck and Eddie deserve it after everything. I love how you included the bit about HR (and how the Tsunami may have influenced the opinions - but a valid argument was made that Buck wasn't on duty. If they were both working, they would be reacting completely differently to the situation because Buck wouldn't be MIA) I love how soft the chapter is though - it's about Buck and Chris (and little bit of Eddie) healing from the damage that tsunami wrought and I honestly adore it.

And there's going to be a sequel!!! (I did happen to see it on the Tumblr so I saw the snippet and again I adore how in love they are - also thanks for clarifiying that they wouldn't break up, that was a fear I didn't know to have lol) But if you don't mind me speculating, I wonder what the angst will be - we have the season 3 angst of the well, but Buck and Eddie don't really have any major storylines in season 3 (Unless we want to consider Buck finally getting over Abby, but that's irrelevant to this storyline) But season 4. Season 4 is where the good stuff is - you've got Daniel, which after Maddie's reaction to Buck lying...will be interesting for sure. (I've commented on it, but the fact that Maddie didn't come back, didn't reach out for 3 weeks will always make me angry and frustrated at her - like is it in character? yes. Can I still dislike it on principal? yes.) And I don't know if you'll be including the crossover episode but if you do, that's the angst of Eddie and Buck having to interact with Eddie's parents, which I'm sure will say things about their relationship judging by the first fic. Anyways, my assumption for the sequel fic is that a lot of angst will be derived from their respective families.

And I can't wait for the remaning AUAUs - I've mentioned before but I love the Probie Buck AUAUs because it's a completely different thing from what the main fic and the post Probie Buck AUAUs are, so I'm really excited for the upcoming 3 fics! (Do you have a schedule or are you just going with the flow, if you don't mind me asking?)

Hope you have a great day!

ahh thank you so much! It was very fun to read all your speculation and I am glad you had fun with it too and enjoyed it :D After everything I put them through, I felt like they indeed deserved their happy ending xp, so it was nice to give to them. Happy to hear it's appreciated. And yeah, I had to justify them working together again after the whole debacle in the first place lmao, I think it also helped that Eddie isn't a probie anymore lol. But due to how everything went down, I thought it would be most fitting to indeed end with a moment of healing for all of them, as well as family moment. Like if you compare how we met them to where they are now, it's staggering how far they've come :D

And yayyy, I'm glad people are excited for the sequel. I told myself I wasn't going to, but then this story gnawed on me (and now a third installment is nipping at my heels too, but I'll see how far my motivation might carry me and if there is interest after this first sequel I'm writing now). I am going to reveal more things about it later, because I have a plan, but the plan is getting out of hand, so I'm not commenting on any speculation yet, but it's very fun to read. One hint I will give, is that the events of the sequel have been referenced in the main verse already... now I'm shushing though xp

But in the meantime there will be AUAUs, glad you're looking forward to them! There is something so special about Probie Buck, because it's just such a different context <3

[slightly-nerdy-rambles]

Tagged by @tarisilmarwen

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

--

*claps hands* Right, so. As I've been getting better with committing to projects, writing longer ones like Spoiler Alert was, and getting really serious about my original writing, I've come to realize that many of my older WIPs and story ideas will probably never see the light of day as I keep coming up with new ones that end up taking priority. It... doesn't exactly help that I tend to get super-focused on one fandom at a time, which, combined with needing to also work on the original stuff, means my other fandoms tend to languish for a while.

This is why it's taking me so long between Postcards from Tokyo updates. My "muse" just isn't with Teen Titans right now, so other projects keep taking priority even though I'm still bound and determined to eventually finish it. It's also why I haven't posted here in a while: I got sucked back in to yet another new-old fandom several months back (you'll see it below), and wasn't sure how interested my Tumblr followers would be in it.

But the tag has been posted, the challenge has been made, and so here are the WIPs that I'm still hoping to complete!

Original Work

Chronicles of the Horizonlands: Beyond the Border

More than Myth: Sirenians

Kim Possible

Mission: Possible (Episode 1: Rivalry)

Better Diplomacy Through Glorious Combat

Teen Titans

Postcards from Tokyo

Dissonant Whispers

Neopets

Artefact Hunters: Draikfang

Artefact Hunters: Ikimono's Mirror

DnD Campaign

Monster Party

(As with last year, I don't actually know enough writers on this site to even know where to begin with tagging. If you're a writer and want to share your WIPs, I hereby informally tag you to go for it! *throws confetti*)

[joyflameball]

Making my own post abt this actually, since there is a more popular version running around that has shitty advice and I sure as hell ain't gonna manage to hijack that

Switching to Firefox: What do?

Now a lot of us are neurodivergent and have FAR too many tabs for our own good, and I can understand if you're nervous about switching because of that, since that's a LOT of tabs and you don't wanna lose them. Trust me, I relate to that immensely. I have FAR too many tabs open for my own good.

So what you should do in that case is save your tabs. I personally saved my tabs in a private Discord server, since that let me open the tabs again easily, and make categories for each type of tab, but you can use something like Notepad to save them as well. So, you copy-paste all your tabs over to wherever you're saving them (and additionally, copy-pasting all of them will allow you to see tabs you don't need and delete them, since they're no longer buried).

Once you're into Firefox and signed in, head to Settings. You should see in the general tab the button that says "Import Browser Data." You'll see a dropdown arrow that will let you pick whatever browser you wanna import your data from.

That easy! From there, pull up ALL your tabs and you're good to go!

Simplified explanation:

Save all your previous tabs, maybe in Notepad (I personally used a private Discord server, for the reasons I explained).

Once in Firefox, head to Settings and import your Chrome data.

Pull up your tabs that you saved, and you're in!

Settings

So, you're in the general tab with your data from Chrome imported. Now, keep going through the Settings, because there's a LOT more you can do, and Firefox's settings are fairly simple to navigate. I can't give you any advice for the general tab, that's all for you to handle.

Head to Home, and this is where you'll need to start changing some stuff. I recommend disabling "Recommended By Pocket" for the safest experience, not just because it's better for privacy, but also because the Pocket stuff is annoying. Also disable "Snippets" at the bottom.

Search

Head to Search. From here, you'll be able to disable Google as the default browser, which is good for everyone. You can use DuckDuckGo, which pretty safe.

If you wanna use a different search engine from what is shown, it's gonna be a bit more complicated to set up. In the Search tab of settings, set it so there's a search bar in the toolbar.

Go to the address of whatever new search engine you wanna use (I'm personally using ecosia.org, as it helps w the environment by planting trees, AND it's got a really good privacy policy). Let's use as example: youtube.com .

You'll see a magnifying glass with a plus sign in the smaller search bar. When you click it, you'll be shown a dropdown that says "This time, search with: [all the search engines]." Click the YouTube icon that has a plus sign next to it (again, YouTube as example).

I'm explaining this somewhat confusingly- Mozilla's website has a much better explanation.

Head back to the Firefox settings, and set your default search engine to the new site. Bam.

(Additionally: to disable ever searching with Google, scroll down to Search Shortcuts, and remove the check mark next to Google.)

Simplified explanation:

Set it so there's two search bars.

Go to the address of whatever search engine you wanna use.

Click the magnifying glass, then the icon of the new search engine.

Head back to the Search settings, and switch to the new engine.

Privacy and Security

THIS is what you're here for. Firefox has LOADS of settings to make you more secure. My personal recommendations are:

Set enhanced tracking protections to Strict, or if you wanna customize it yourself, Custom. This will allow you to block cryptominers, trackers, cookies, and fingerprinters.

Set it to clear history when Firefox is closed, if you wish.

Set it so that the search bar will not show you suggestions from sponsors, and don't allow Mozilla to process your search queries.

Under Permissions > Location, set it to block all requests to access your location. You can do the same for whatever other permissions you'd like, but especially block Location.

Block Firefox from making personalized extension recommendations, at the very least. If you don't want Firefox to use telemetry data, set it so Firefox won't send technical and interaction data to Mozilla.

Block dangerous downloads, obviously, and set it to HTTPS-Only Mode on all windows.

Enable secure DNS stuff using Max Protection. I'm personally using NextDNS (recommended by r/piracy).

Again, I'm not the arbiter of information here. You do whatever you want with your privacy and security settings. These are just my personal recommendations.

Extensions

A point of contention in the original post was how many fucking addons the OP had that essentially did the same thing, like several different adblockers when just one is enough. This is risky not just because it'll slow your browser down to hell and back, but also because it'll make you MORE traceable.

However, this doesn't mean you should go around with zero extensions. Especially since In Today's Day And Age, you WILL get ambushed with ads wherever you go. So at the very least you'll need an adblocker. However, there are extra extensions you can use to help clean up, for example, YouTube Search.

Here's my personal list of extensions. I made sure these aren't redundant, or don't cover settings that Firefox already has.

I could be wrong in places, so if anyone wants to push back on this, I encourage it.

Ublock Origin: GET THIS ONE. Everyone and their mother loves this bad boy. Great adblocker that works REALLY well to clean up the web and make things less... awful. It lets you block specific website elements (so if Tumblr's pulling shit you can block it), and in settings it has a WHOLE lot of privacy/safety settings you can turn on which I won't go over, since this is a post about Firefox. The point is: GET UBLOCK. Everyone loves it, it's great, it's reliable, 10/10.

SponsorBlock: This is a GREAT addon that completely skips sponsored sections in YouTube videos. It feels kinda seamless sometimes. It also lets you skip a lot of extra unnecessary stuff as well.

Youtube Search Fixer: Unclogs YouTube's search so you won't get playlists, shorts, unrelated search results, all that fun stuff, so you can just find what you're looking for. Not entirely foolproof, as the search is going down the drain generally, but gets rid of shorts and shit.

Youtube Shorts Block: Automatically turns YouTube Shorts into standard YouTube videos so you can get away from the fucking TikTokkification of the Internet.

Return Youtube Dislike: Remember how YouTube inexplicably removed the ability to see dislikes? This addon reverts that. You can see dislikes again.

Auto Tab Discard: We're all neurodivergent here and have way too many tabs, and that slows down our fucking computers. Auto Tab Discard basically puts those tabs into sleep mode- not deleting them, but making them go offline so they aren't taking up as much running time. It also lets you mark specific sites to NOT get put into sleep mode, if you need them up for whatever reason.

XKit Rewritten: Look. We're on Tumblr. We know this site's bullshit and how it's impossible to use. XKit helps fix a LOT of the bullshit on this site and adds on helpful stuff. Seriously, get XKit, they're the ones carrying this whole fucking site.

Again- I could be wrong. And I think the only one you 100% DEFINITELY NEED is uBlock. The others are just for convenience. You don't need to install any of these extensions except uBlock. It's just my personal recommendations.

TLDR

Get Firefox. Save all your tabs from Chrome, sync your data, do all that jazz.

Set your default search engine to anything but Google. You can do DuckDuckGo.

USE FIREFOX'S GREAT SECURITY SETTINGS. You don't need a million extensions to do stuff Firefox already CAN do.

The only extension you 100% need is uBlock Origin, but here's my list of ones I personally recommend to help clean up the web and have a better experience.

Get off of Chrome. Google is currently on trial, brought there by the fucking DOJ, for being an illegal monopoly. The trial started about a week ago, and will last for about three months. Depending on how this goes, this could shake up Google's whole monopoly, and change the future of the entire internet.

Firefox is better in every way than Chrome. Firefox will actually try to protect you and lets you opt out of unnecessary data collection. Firefox is not based on Chromium. Firefox is open source, and its code has been scrutinized and deemed as safe. It's not perfect, no corporation is- and Mozilla is ultimately that, a corporation. But god, it's leaps and bounds ahead of Chrome. Switch to Firefox.

[seidenbros]

AU Overview

Since I have a couple started, not everything posted, and stuff that's still just in my head, I needed to write this overview, to have it all together.

Flatmates AU | Veteran Geralt, musician Jaskier

(I'm Lost, I'm Found in You - currently writing)

Geralt reeturns from Afghanistan and moves in with Jaskier, whose home is too quiet all by himself. Roach is Geralt's trusted service dog, because the nightmares haunt him. Jaskier comforts him at night, when he wakes up screaming with soft music. They fall for each other, but don't want to admit it or ruin what they have. Ciri enters their loves as Geralt's godchild, who runs away from her abusive foster family and stays with them - for now.

Crime AU

(You'll Make Me Brave - nearly finished | Chapter 5 of 7)

Jaskier is found with bloody hands and visibly distraught next to his father's dead body. It definitely looks like he killed his own father, but did he? Jaskier doesn't even know that himself. There was someone else, but did he imagine that? He had every reason to kill his father. After years of abuse, mainly towards his mother, and finally killing her (which could not be proven, cause of his father's connections) Jaskier had a motif. Geralt, the Detective ont he case, believes him, though. Maybe because they're connected through their abuse (Geralt was burnt by his last foster family), but there sure is something more.

Hacker AU

(Let's Just Close Our Eyes and Let Go - can be read as standalone, more to come)

Jaskier operates under the name the Sandpiper and steals from the rich to give the money to homeless shelters, since he's spent a lot of time on the streets after his family kicked him out after coming out to them. Geralt sees him play music on the street, has seen him a couple of times and finally finds the courage to ask him out. Jaskier takes him to his home: A small flat on top of a building where he has loads of plants. Plants that don't even bloom at that time of year. Geralt see's Jaskier's magic (which Jaskier is completely unaware of). Vesemir calls Geralt since they had a break in their case. In front of Jaskier's building, he tells him that Jaskier is in fact the Sandpiper)

Hockey AU

(Wherever You Will Go - A first chapter, but there will be more)

Famous contemporary romance author Julian Alfred Pankratz is set to travel with the Kaedwen Wolves (who won the cup last year) to get to know how they interact with each other, learn about hockey, so that he can incorporate that in his next book. He's a little nervous, but still excited, until he sees a familiar face among the players. The face that was the model for one of the main characters in his last book, because they'd nearly fucked in the elevator they'd been stuck in- Only that Geralt had made it clear that he was looking for something serious, while Jaskier is afraid of commitment.

Modern Jaskier in Geralt's time

(A snippet, but nothing more has been written yet)

Jaskier is on his way to a gig when his car breaks down. With no cell reception, he starts looking for the next town, only to find that there is some sort of medieval festiva. At least he thinks that is the case. The costumes are so real, so detailed! And the monster on that guy's horse looks amazing. What great work! OH and the wig! Only that it's all real, and Jaskier still has to find that out. (taking photos with his phone, cause he can charge it with his solar panel, but he doesn't have a lot od ADHD medication anymore, so that's gonna get interesting)

Celebrity AU

(Rambling about it and a snippet)

Jaskier is a famous singer, but he can't deal with the pressure and turns to alcohol. All the fake friends make him appreciate alcohol even more, but he has a problem. That's why Yennefer hires Geralt as Jaskier's live-in-bodyguard/babysitter. He has to make sure that Jaskier is safe and that he goes to his AA meetings. He even get's rid of all the alcohol he can find in Jaskier's home for a start.

Your Name AU

(Rambling about this and a picspam and a tiny snippet and another)

Geralt and Jaskier wake up int he other one's body every now and again. At first they think it's just some kind of weird dream, until their friends ask them what the hell had been wrong with them the previous day. At first they're both like "I do what I want", but that quickly changes, because their behaviour has consequences for the other one, and they start to like each other or rather what they find out. And suddenly, Jaskier had to find out how to wield a sword, while Geralt needs to learn how to play the lute.

Stardust AU

(I only have a snippet so far)

Jaskier is ripped from the sky and lands down on earth with a necklace that he hadn't had before. It hums with magic, so he know he has a purpose down here. For centuries he'd watched the humans down there, has seen them fall in love and he yearned for the same thing. Geralt is hired to bring that fallen star with the necklace back to the family to whom that necklace apparently belongs. He doesn't believe in this whole "fallen star" shit, just like that people eat a star's heart to live longer. But he soon finds out that all that exists and that some people want to capture Jaskier for that purpose. He takes him to Kaer Morhen to find out more about him and the family that hired him. Vesemir might know more.

The Bachelor/Prince Charming AU

(Nothing yet, just thoughts)

After getting his heart broken more than enough and hookups and friends wirh benefits, Jaskier longs for something that lasts, something real (and he has to get married before he's 30 to get that family inheritence). Maybe that's why he rushes it along with partaking in this show, becoming the new Bachelor/PC. Geralt isn't one of the contestants, though, he's Jaskier's best friend. Has been for years, and he's also been in love with Jaskier for... God knows how long. But there's never been the right moment to tell him, because there's always been some other/new guy. Geralt is part of the show as well, as Jaskier's go-to-person, the one he talks about all the guys with to make descisions on who to send home. The audience ships them, because their chemistry is just *chef's kiss*. When they're down to the last 4/5 contestants, they meet Geralt as Jaskier's best friend. But how is he supposed to tell jaskier which one of these guys seems like the right match, when he wants to be that one himself? On the other hand, he always thinks that Jaskier deserves better than him, so... difficult times.

Neighbours AU

Geralt and Jaskier live next to each other but can't really stand the other one. Geralt is always so grumpy, and Jaskier is incredibly noisy! Like, he's always home when Geralt is around. Does that guy even work? Yes. Yes he does. While Geralt works a full-time job, Jaskier works for the radio station and actually has his own show where he gives advice on relationships, where he himself is rather skeptical when it comes to true love. He's willing to try though. Meanwhile the two of them get to know each other a lot better through a "blind date chat" kinda thing. They only know the first letter of their first name. No pictures. And they start falling for each other.

[gamesbyalbie]

Hey, everyone! ☺️

Sorry I've been so quiet on here, I've been going through some stuff which put me in a weird headspace (plus, I wasn't sure what to say after taking a break so I've been postponing writing this update). Anyways, here's some of what I've been working on:

Hades' Kitchen - working really hard on the UI (trying to build it from scratch), getting to a point with the demo that I'm really happy with, also debating doing something for K's birthday on March 3rd (what would you like to see?)

Mousetrap - Working hard on the next update (will include new story up to leaving for the second locations, more in-depth character interactions, expansion on the nightmares available, potential encounters in the tunnel for all six nightmares - not just the "escape" one, and a quick character creator that'll allow you to skip the prologue), this will hopefully be ready by March 5th, but I may have to push the date back a little bit since I have midterms this week

Zorlok - Working on the demo and UI for this one as well, also writing a few snippets about the main characters and getting the intro post ready to drop on March 4th (which will also introduce you to the two main characters and the central conflict of the story)

As a side note, as a way to practice coding/UX design I took a vampire dating simulator I made a while ago and revamped it (get it... revamped it... I'll show myself out). It's really short and was originally done as an academic project so it's mainly focused on channeling the source materials, but if anyone's interested in it, I'd consider releasing it.

Under the cut you'll find screenshots of a lot of this stuff.

(Hopefully, I'll also be less intimidated to interact on here now that I've ripped this proverbial bandaid off 😅)

Nothing for HK that I'm comfortable showing yet, that's all a lot more complicated and doesn't resemble what I'm going for yet.

ZORLOK:

For a little context, this setting takes a lot of inspiration from the 80s/90s so the color palettes are all based on retro posters and graphic designs from these periods (these are just two of the themes and we're still a ways off from the finished product). The choice of symbols is meant to be reminiscent of VHS/movies. Also, that little D20 actually rolls and displays the number when you click it, really proud of that one.

NOTTIVAGO - A VAMPIRE DATING SIMULATOR:

MOUSETRAP [SPOILERS, I GUESS?]:

Here's a little sneak peek at how your dreams will be expanded upon and how you can customize which recurring nightmare your intern will suffer from.

There are six nightmares your intern can be haunted by (four of which you choose from at the beginning of the story, two of which you must lie about to acquire), I'll post more about them on the Mousetrap blog soon if you're curious.

When the update launches a new interaction will be included in the bus scene where Alaric/Aria will ask if you were dreaming. You can choose not to tell them, tell them the truth, or lie about the dream you had.

(It's also worth noting that current save files should still work due to some fancy variable footwork but there will also be the option of the quick character creator)

(Debating whether or not to keep this second bit in the game, lmk if you have any opinions on it)