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Just sos you knows, AO3 is down under a DDOS attack right now. They’ve been coming back in little blips and then disappearing again. It’s been several hours. (For reference, it’s currently 3 p.m. eastern, July 10, 2023.)

https://twitter.com/AO3_Status/status/1678468065070030856

The culprit (as with a few other DDOS attacks recently) is Anonymous Sudan, a group that is likely Russian, not Sudanese. The ‘reason’ they gave–that AO3 is “full of disgusting smuts and other LGBTQ+ and NSFW things,” is thin and probably not completely legit, though still legitimately concerning.

The AS claim: https://twitter.com/FalconFeedsio/status/1678397195039526912

Reporting on AS: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-28/anonymous-sudan-does-group-behind-microsoft-cyberattack-have-ties-to-russia (you can use archive.ph to get this one, 12ft doesn’t seem to work)

As noted here, https://twitter.com/honeyskeleton/status/1678449598703050769:

DDOS protection is expensive especially for a high traffic site like ao3. And it’s uniquely vulnerable as an independent site without ads or other corporate support. SPECIFICALLY targeted bc of its queer works and yet ppl will still complain every time they ask for donations lmao 

So, again, when AO3 comes back online, please don’t go hard with refreshing all your tabs. Please do remember to download fics you love early and often as  you continue in your whole ~reading journey~. And please do support AO3 through a dono or becoming a donating member, if it is possible for you to do so.

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🫠🤣

it's actually so funny how challenging it is to write bona fide graphic, horny smut. like people don't give smut writers enough credit. you are constantly running out of words to describe the same 2-4 body parts and same 4-6 motions. you are constantly attempting to do interesting and dynamic things in the prose with this extremely limited set of words. you are looking at your prose for the nastier bits and wondering if it actually sounds hot or if it just sounds goofy. you are then toning down your prose and then wondering if it now sounds tasteful or if it's just boring. you do ctrl+F for the word "cock" and there are 37 instances of it in the doc but you hate the 1-2 acceptable synonyms so there's nothing much you can do about it

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HELLOOOOOOO SAILORS

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18+! There are three comic pages in this one chapter update because I haven't updated in so long. I planned to finish coloring the entire comic this month but life had other ideas XD

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Haven't felt too social lately, but gotta drop in to say I'm super excited we have two new Rune Factory games on the horizon. Project Dragon seems to be giving us two beautiful MCs who each have amazing hair??? Y'all know I'm here for the hair. Drawing hand is already itching.

Speaking of drawing, I decided to buckle down and finish the entire Leon x Frey comic (aka KYGUF) before posting again, so it'll all drop at once in June. I'm excited to finally get it done so I can work on the 37 other ideas that are endlessly poking me.

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I keep seeing this meme circulate (from The Office with Michael and Pam), and this idea would NOT leave me alone. Luckily it broke my drawing strike XD

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Contributor apps now OPEN!!!

Artists: https://forms.gle/i8vUofvv3dkhNftp6

Writers: https://forms.gle/Egq7Ge5B2Aj3WoXp8

Cosplayers: https://forms.gle/688s5mgbHbe9aqmw6

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Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

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Actually, while we're on the subject of Dolce's marriage event, I've been very slowly watching the other RF4 marriage events on YT (because I cannot and will probably never marry any of the other bachelors and I don't feel like playing as Lest lol) and finding out that Arthur, Dolce, and Leon's events are all connected was a pretty big smack in the face.

At the start of Dolce's marriage event, Kiel explains to Lest that there was a superstition associated with Leon Karnak: Those who write their names on the right foot of the tower will end up having a happy family. This stems from a legend about a couple who had promised to get married; despite not being destined to be together, they put their names side by side to remember their promise. Sound familiar?

For those of you who have married Leon or at least watched his marriage event online, you already know that Leon carved his name at Leon Karnak alongside that of his childhood friend, Maria, who he had promised to marry. Now I don't know if they were the first to carve their names into Leon Karnak's base (it's been a long time since I watched his marriage event in full), but if they were, then both their actions spawned a tradition that ultimately lasted for centuries.

Unfortunately, the legend associated with their act is a tad inaccurate, since it claims that despite their star-crossed romance, the couple ultimately became a happy family. The reality is that Leon and Maria never married; for starters, Leon hadn't even been serious about their promise, since he viewed Maria like a sister and only agreed to marry her in order to get her to stop crying. Then Leon made the ultimate sacrifice and became the first Guardian, forever separating him and Maria. All of Leon's personal issues in the present day stem from the guilt for not taking that promise seriously, since unlike him, Maria had firmly vowed to keep her end of the bargain (Leon marrying her in exchange for her not crying) and he's convinced that she spent the rest of her life in silent misery because of him.

Of course, no one knew that the legend is inaccurate, and in the centuries after Leon became a Guardian, countless couples and families carved their names into the base of Leon Karnak in the hope that the charm associated with the tower would ensure their family's happiness. Among the names carved there in the name of the superstition were that of Dolce's family, which included her, her parents, and Pico.

At the time Dolce's family carved their names into the tower base, Pico was... apprehensive. Dolce and her parents considered her a part of their family, but Pico did not simply because of her nature of a ghost. So what did they do? They "tricked" her into carving her name next to Dolce's, under the guise that they were simply comparing heights. Pico knew exactly what they were doing, but she did it anyway and in doing so, she finally accepted herself as a part of their family.

Unfortunately, much like Leon, the story of Dolce's family does not end happily either. Some years later, Dolce chose to become the second Guardian; as a result, she ultimately outlived her parents and Pico spent the next several centuries waiting for the day the Earthmates finally found a suitable replacement for the Guardians. After she was freed by Lest/Frey, Jones and Nancy took Dolce and Pico in. Jones and Nancy want Dolce to feel like a part of their family, but Dolce is reluctant to accept them as her new parents. Not a single trace of her parents remains in the present day, even the names her family carved at Leon Karnak; she is afraid that if she accepts Jones and Nancy as her new parents, she'll forget her real parents and then they'll truly be gone forever. At the end of her marriage event, a desperate Pico nearly severs her connection with Dolce in a vain attempt to find their family's names and prove that Dolce's parents still exist in some form, terrifying both Dolce and Lest. This tradition is seeming like less of a charm and more of curse if you ask me.

But oh, it's gets better, and this time the unhappiness doesn't even stem from someone becoming a Guardian.

At one point or another, the location of the superstition switched from Leon Karnak to a cave closer to Selphia, most likely because so many names had been carved into the base of the tower. Not only that, but the superstition continued to increase in popularity; commoners and nobility alike from across Norad were visiting the cave in order to take advantage of the charm, and it became so well-known that even the royal family eventually took notice.

As a child, Arthur visited on Selphia while on vacation with his family, which consisted of himself, his father AKA the King of Norad, and his mother, who served as one of the king's mistresses. His mother was interested in the superstition associated with the cave, and she and Arthur carved their names into the wall of the cave to, of course, ensure their family's happiness. The problem was that Arthur's mother had... issues. Issues that involved her not being able to adjust to life in the palace back at the capital and she desperately wanted escape that life, which unfortunately required her to leave Arthur behind. To that end, she convinced everyone that she hated him so that she'd be quietly dismissed from the castle. Unfortunately, Arthur believed in her lies as much as everyone else did and, in turn, came to hate her. Eventually, she disappeared entirely and Arthur never saw her again.

A part of him, however, wanted to believe his mother did love him and some years later, Arthur returned to the cave to confirm his mother's feelings, as well as assist in a tourism enterprise. The day he went in, a cave-in occurred and he was so desperate to find his and his mother's names, he stayed in as long as he could and didn't get out in time; he and many other people were buried alive. It was only through Jones and Nancy's efforts that his life was saved. After this tragic event, the cave was abandoned and the centuries-long tradition of carving names in Selphia finally came to an end. By the time RF4's events roll around, the charm seems destined to remain a mere memory and even that too might eventually fade.

...Until you get married, that is.

During the Sweet Nothings town event, Porcoline comes up with a new version of the superstition that requires couples to carve their names into the hull of the airship. Although he intended to do it with Frey/Lest, the protagonist runs off to grab their spouse and does it with them instead. The overall narrative of the event is the same regardless of who it is that Frey/Lest has married; however, that is perhaps is what makes it most meaningful. No matter who the player chooses to marry, Frey/Lest ultimately continues a centuries-long tradition that very narrowly avoided dying out. And this time? We know the family is destined for happiness. This is especially touching in the cases of Arthur, Dolce, and Leon, since the families they originally carved their names with ultimately fell apart. By carving their names with Frey/Lest, they are fully moving on from the people in their past towards a bright future with the one they love most. It's a beautiful part of their individual epilogues.

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About the charm... in one of the fics I wrote a couple years ago, Frey crafted a charm to help Leon when he couldn't sleep. She used a blue core because the in-game description for it is "A blue crystal that has magic power. Makes you feel calm." I brought that idea back for this because I'm feeling mushy.

ALSO because I'm feeling mushy, his wedding ring has a green gem to match Frey's hair and eyes. Idk, I never thought about his wedding band much until now but this felt right XD

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...this was just supposed to be a small, angsty but sweet sketch about Leon's nightmares to get me back into drawing 'cause I haven't felt like it, and now it's a whole-ass 2 page, full color comic that just EXPLODED from my fingertips. SBL always blames me LMAO so this is all YOUR fault now!! Dang ittt!!! XDD

I'll post the whole thing when I'm done coloring it all XD

It's still thirsty as fuck because it wouldn't be me if it wasn't, now would it >>

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Done polishing. It’s out the door and posted.

Enjoy, Spinch! (since no one else will likely bother with it)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46672432

Title: Ephemeral Nonsense Fandom: Rune Factory 4 Pairing: Frey/Leon Rating: Teen i guess? Heavy suggestion of sex but nothing explicit Genre: newlywed snuggles and fluff Summary: Leon awakens from a nightmare, to find himself alone in bed, forgetting why his newlywed wife isn’t beside him. Wordcount: 1604

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Haha! Lemme guess... Leon nightmares? I started sketching it last night XD

Spinch, you little shit.

<3

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The best ship dynamic is actually just. "I love you and it terrifies me. I'm terrified how much I need you and how much I want you to need me. I'm terrified I'm no good for you and I'm going to hurt you and ruin you and I'm terrified of how I feel when you're around me but I can't bear to push you away completely because I'm terrified to be without you so now we're stuck in limbo and that's terrifying too. I'm terrified that if I lost you now it'd destroy me and I'm terrified that it's too late to do anything about it. I love you. And it's terrifying."

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Absolutely obsessed with this mini comic idea that popped in my head during insomnia hours last night, and I frantically typed all the dialogue into my phone notes. Of course it's another Leon x Frey but it's pure fluff and adorableness, and will only be one page. Basically Leon wakes up from a nightmare without his wife next to him, only to remember she's having her first girls' night since they've been married.

Only problem is idk if I can pull it off because it requires drawing ALL of the RF4 bachelorettes. Since I haven't felt motivated to work on my smutty comic in a bit, this might be what pulls me out of the rut, though. Guess it couldn't hurt to try. Probably no color or minimal color tho because I'm just not in the mood for that kind of pain XD

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being so fucking annoying about a subject on a regular basis that people associate it enough with you to call someone within it “your guy” is so funny. yeah that man is the lead singer of an acclaimed band but he is also My Guy, i guess. that’s true

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Now that Matt Mercer has been officially announced as Ganon, I’m going to use this opportunity to push my rune factory 4 agenda with Leon. Hear the voice actor that plays all your faves call you love, sweetheart, and ask you to have his baby all while running a farm and dungeon crawling.