#I may edit this post a lot because i'm very indecisive

[ask-dreambert-and-antasma]

Orange text = Dreambert

Purple text = Antasma

White text = narrator / ooc

Character ref sheets

(this is set a few years after m&l dream team)

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[Asks Opened]

Current ask queue : 10

The story is currently focused on Luigi and Dreambert jsyk

bad news: i have a completely unrelated hyperfixation rn and cant muster up the motivation to continue this, but good news: a new m&l game got announced and this has good chances of getting me back into the m&l madness so WOOHOO

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(if i accept to answer your question, it will be added to the queue, if i don't accept to answer your question, it wont, simple right?)

(the only rule is that you cannot ask inappropriate stuff. Basically anything else is allowed! But please do try to write decently so i can understand what you're saying. Hope we can have fun!)

(if you have questions directed to the account owner, please do so in @noddynods 's ask box. I will also post info about the blog on there)

[libraincarnate]

astrology notes: 13 🌅

quick note: i'm absolutely not an astrologer. these are just a collection of some observations, thoughts, theories, and personal experiences. with that being said, i'm still learning along the way & i may come back to edit this post to make corrections. above all this is just for fun. lastly, keep in mind that i’m not reading your birth chart and i know nothing about you. these are just some possibilities that may or may not apply to you. enjoy!

🌞 the sign/water sign that’s labeled as the most emotional is cancer but pisces are also so emotional that they can compete with cancer for 1st place.

anyway, pisces can be super lovey dovey, the type to look at their partner like everything good & beautiful in this world is found within them. pisces feel emotions deeply and it can weigh so heavily on them that it feels overwhelming to the point they wish it would just stop. it reminds me of how stefan salvatore described what it’s like being a vampire to elena gilbert in tvd, how everything is heightened & they feel both the highs and the lows strongly and for this reason many vampires choose to turn off their humanity/emotions.

🌞 having your sun & north node in the 5th or 12th house can indicate musical talent that you are known for but this doesn’t particularly mean fame on a massive scale. you might play multiple instruments, you might be a self-taught musician, if you’re taught by someone else you’re a fast learner and you can connect the dots or notice patterns that take you further in your musical abilities & musical intelligence. and instead of being a famous musician/singer you may play in a band, an orchestra, or at a church but you’re very well known for your talents locally or on a smaller scale.

🌞 libras are the type to ask you which outfit or lip gloss to wear just to choose something else or ask someone else. sometimes asking for another opinion is enough & other times it only makes them more indecisive.

🌞 the face of a gemini rising is so interesting. they definitely look younger than they really are & probably get mistaken for a much younger age. there are people who have drastic glow ups & some who look the same pretty much throughout their whole life. but with gemini risings, if you compare like 10 different pictures of them from childhood to present day it looks like 10 different people that look related but not the same, it looks like they could be sisters or brothers but it doesn’t look like the same person.

🌞 aries in the 11th house: even after getting to know you, your friends may still find you intimidating. may have a lot of male friends or you did growing up, because of this it’s possible that getting attention from men doesn’t faze you. doesn’t give in to peer pressure, may like to play fight or play sports with your friends, but they could think you’re a bit aggressive at times. the competitive friend, “last one to the car is a rotten egg!”

🌞 uranus in the 8th house: you might have an enthusiastic fascination with 8th house related themes. initially this may come as a surprise to you since a lot of these themes are considered dark or forbidden. if you share this side of you with others, they're also surprised cause it's something hidden & no one would have guessed it. you might listen to heavy metal, practice witchcraft, always talk about astrology, or death because the mystery surrounding it intrigues you. people may also think you’re weird for liking these things or they may try to discourage you from doing them.

🌞 retrograde planets like pluto, mars, or mercury in the 1st house, chart ruler in the 8th or 12th house, or having many planets including your chart ruler in retrograde: you may feel doomed, cursed, or scared to live because you’re so familiar with the difficulties and the challenging side of life. you’ve faced obstacle after obstacle & it feels relentless, or you’ve experienced great suffering & trauma that has taken such a toll on you that you’re paranoid of suffering in the future. you almost expect it and you can have a very pessimistic perspective of life. here’s an extra heart for you guys, ♥. life can feel extra hard so remember to be extra nice to yourselves!

🌞sags: integrity is something they take seriously. if you’re going to say something you better mean it and if you’re going to do something then just do it. they expect people to stay true to their words and follow through with their actions but they also strive to do the same. they put great importance on morals, it’s almost like a compass for these nomadic natives. despite how wild and carefree sags can be, they still care about their reputation. but this means being themselves, living their lives according to their rules & not caring what people think as long as they know people are seeing the true & authentic version of them.

🌞 3rd house synastry: there’s a lot of bonding and making memories together. taking road trips together may be something the two of you enjoy. this reminds me of the movie twilight when bella’s mom gifted her a quilt made of t-shirts they got and saved as souvenirs from the road trips they took. the two of you are probably always talking to each other, having late night conversations, falling asleep on the phone, really getting to know each other well both inside & out, understanding how their mind works, finishing each other’s sentences. it’s possible the two of you went to school together when you were younger. or you show them an old picture of yourself & they notice the area in the background, come to find out the two of you grew up in the same neighborhood or city even though you’ve never met before or you don’t remember meeting them.

🌞 lilith in the 11th house: these natives may dislike technology or the internet/social media for what it is/has become or the way that people use it. they may take periodic breaks from social media & may be against cancel culture. could hate the structure of society or the way the world works & may wish they could live on another planet/in another world.

🌞 venus represents beauty, pluto represents transformation, saturn represents delay & reward, and jupiter represents blessings & expansion. for these reasons i think venus making an aspect to these planets can indicate a glow up.

venus-pluto: the type to come out of the dark looking different but better than ever.

venus-saturn: the one who looks better and better as they get older & aging like fine wine.

venus-jupiter: this can indicate someone who was born beautiful/handsome but then they reach another point in their life where they become prettier or even more attractive.

🌞 harsh mars-moon aspects: can indicate someone irritable, someone who wrestles with their emotions, their feelings can feel burdensome, what they’re feeling can get in the way of them taking action because their emotions may feel like a disturbance or distraction. when they’re upset they may want to break things, they may be prone to expressing & releasing their emotions in a physical way.

🌞 libra, taurus, cancer, or pisces venus in the 2nd/4th house: they’re the type to look good in public and in the privacy of their home, even if they live alone. they might really like buying & wearing lounge wear and pajamas but they still look good. could have their hair done, jewelry on, etc. & it doesn’t have to be in a super elaborate way, but it can be. may like buying beautiful and good quality pajamas. the type to wear perfume/cologne to bed or scented lotion. a cute sleep mask & glamorous ear plugs like audrey hepburn in breakfast at tiffany’s.

🌞 having prominent virgo/18° placements: you may frequently find yourself in a place of servicing or helping others, even if you don’t want to. it just seems to be a theme in your life.

in the 4th house you may help out at home a lot or your mom depends on you/relies on you for assistance.

in the 6th house you may do volunteer work or you tend to stay late & help at your job.

in the 9th house perhaps you help out at church by organizing events, keeping the sanctuary clean, dedicating your time to religious service.

🌞 4th house ruler in the 8th house: paranoid at home, may feel like your family is always watching you, may feel like they go through your stuff, a lack of privacy at home, power struggles with your mom.

🌞 3rd house ruler in the 8th house: frequently thinking about sex, a seductive or mysterious way of communicating, perhaps not much of a presence on social media, intrusive thoughts about your past, researching the occult.

🌞 7th house ruler in the 2nd house: benefiting monetarily from your relationships, sugar baby, making great profit from business relations, a luxurious wedding, spending money on others, giving gifts as a way to show your love and appreciation, financial losses from lawsuits, possibly getting sued by someone you trusted or someone you were close to.

🌞 10th house ruler in the 7th house: using your connections to reach your goals, your relationships having an influence on your reputation, enemies sabotaging your opportunities, a pleasant relationship with your dad, committed to your work, elevating your partner’s life, potentially a spouse or relationships that comes with fame, building a career may be a bigger priority than being in a relationship.

🌞 leo moon: not the type who’s afraid to tell people how they feel, leo moons aren't not known to be emotional in a stereotypical way, but those who know them personally may think that they are emotional, it may be easy for them to validate their feelings & see how they’ve been hurt by others but it may be hard for them to realize how they’ve hurt someone else, may like expressing their feelings through creative outlets such as art or music, could be very-family oriented, could feel an emotional attachment to their hair, they can be the friend to turn to when in despair.

🌞 if you check your birth chart and the birth charts of your family members, you might notice some kind of pattern that reveals shared/similar experiences or recurring themes within your family.

for example, my friend, his brother, and his dad all had experiences of nearly drowning. he & his dad have a 12th house stellium with 8th house placements, his brother has an 8th house stellium with 12th house placements, and they all have neptune in their stellium. (the 8th & 12th house are ruled by water signs, and neptune is associated with water or the ocean/sea)

if there’s a pattern of issues with the women in your family, estranged mother-daughter relationships, a lack of closeness between family members, or family dysfunction you may notice a pattern of lilith or chiron in the 4th house/cancer, moon in the 8th/12th house, or an empty 4th house.

perhaps your family is really into sports, your parents & grandparents played sports professionally, or perhaps you & your siblings played sports in school. maybe you watch the super bowl every year together as tradition, frequently go to sporting events, or there’s just a pattern of sports fanatics throughout your family. if so, there could be a pattern of a 5th house stellium, mars dominant, 9th house ruler in the 5th house, aries in the 10th house, or mars-saturn aspects.

if there’s a pattern of late marriages, a lack of romantic relationships, or troublesome marriages you may notice a pattern of saturn in the 7th house, harsh venus-saturn aspects, venus in retrograde in the 7th house, harsh venus-jupiter aspects.

🌞 speaking of family, birth charts, & patterns, i just analyzed mine and my family’s charts based on appearance and i want to scream. i looked at our natal charts, along with our venus & ascendant persona charts. in those charts i focused on the ascendant & venus, including the sign they’re placed in & the degrees. & i also looked at dominant signs as well, but only in the natal chart because i was really going down a rabbit hole and had to stop myself.

i took all those things into consideration because as i said in another post, i believe there are so many factors to consider regarding appearance in astrology other than the rising sign of your birth chart.

the 4 main signs that realllly showed up and kept repeating were sag, virgo, libra, leo, and scorpio.

for example, my mom doesn’t have any prominent sag placements while my dad has a sag rising in his ascendant persona chart & sag is one of his dominant signs in his natal chart. my mom is a little above the average women’s height in my country but my siblings & i are tall like my dad.

my mom has dimples but doesn’t have any prominent libra placements or freckles. i’ve mentioned before how i’m libra/venus dominant with tons of dimples/freckles/birth marks, etc. but my dad also has a libra rising in his birth chart and he’s decorated with freckles, beauty marks, etc. just like me, minus the dimples.

leo is one of my mom’s dominant signs in her natal chart and my dad has a leo rising in his venus persona chart. i have a rising sign at 29° (leo degree) & one of the things that stand out about my appearance is my hair and people always comment on my hair as well.

these are just a few examples of the patterns i’ve noticed. but you guys, when i say it goes on & on? i mean it. i literally had to create a chart to keep track of how many times each sign showed up because it just kept on repeating and i eventually called it quits. i literally looked like the pepe silvia meme of charlie from it's always sunny in philadelphia.

i just want to end this by saying obviously doctors or scientists don’t look at a person’s appearance or genetics and say “omg your dad is a leo rising so you probably got your big hair from him.” so i’m not saying any of this is fact or evidence, but when i look at our charts and compare our appearances it’s so cool to see a relevant pattern in astrology. perhaps some of you may notice some interesting things about you & your family too.

if you read this until the end i hope you enjoyed it & thank you so much for reading. ♥︎︎♥︎︎♥︎︎, those hearts are for you.

[mcalhenwrites]

I am so excited to be going to the library tomorrow, even though I won't have much time to read except in-between a very busy schedule. (After Sunday, life will calm down, but until then, I'll have to get some reading done in-between things.) I've already read 49 books out of my goal of 90 for 2024. I also need to find time to work on Geckos, but that may have to wait until next week. I felt like writing tonight. I played some Coral Island to relax, then shut it down to write, but indecision on which story to work on got me. So I haven't written a damn thing. ;A;

Part of that is because I wanted to work on The Hostile Credence, and I know it's best not to open up that can of worms until after I'm done with Geckos. I also want to work on Seasons side stories and continue editing that, but that's demanding. Tonight, I would've fared better writing a new scene for a newer story, instead of something that might demand edits. Anyhow. I did lots of laundry, took care of dishes (I slacked yesterday due to being gone a significant chunk of the afternoon to eat out with roommate's family), made a casserole, and filled my new bag (the one I crocheted years ago is falling apart and is too small). All the while, I had a very wonderful helper named Millie. I love this cat with all my heart. She's so precious. Even when she's attacking my toes or being upset because HOW DARE I GO IN THE BATHROOM WITHOUT HER, I MUST NOT LOVE POOR MILLIE

I don't know if I've posted many photos of the cats here, so old and new. Barnaby (BB) has mostly latched onto my roommate, and he's also the most hyper animal I've met aside from my mom's dog. (I want them to meet and play together. Maybe there would be peace at last.) I do have cat toys on my amazon wishlist if anyone wants to help keep my sanity xD;

Yes, she just. Lays like that. A lot. They tore up the carpet in a doorway shortly after we first got them, so we had to lay down vinyl mats. (We luckily found a long roll of it that fit all four doorways that had carpet that was cheaper than buying four individual mats, and we had enough left that I used some of it to wrap around my plants to protect them from attacks...)

[practically-an-x-man]

How long have you had your OCs, and how much have they changed since they arrived?

Oooh, very good question!!

Let's see....

(long ramble coming up. you've been warned lol)

Preliminary warning that I get a little time blindness for nontangible things like when I first created my OCs, so I'm going more off when I started posting their stories than when they first started taking shape in my mind. I've probably had these guys a lot longer than the dates I put down here, since I tend to let the stories develop and marinate for a while before I start writing them.

Rae/Mira: Okay, technically these two started as one OC, originating back when I was 13 or so and first getting into the McAvoy timeline movies (I'd been watching the original movies since I was a kid but got into the new timeline a little later). Originally, they were one OC who was given the power of healing from Apocalypse, used as a fifth Horseman, and gained silver eyes/silver magic as a result. At that point, it was mainly just a daydream I had to 1. help occupy my mind when I was bored and 2. fix a few movieverse deaths that always bugged me, like Angel's. I split them into two OCs when I started actually writing fanfiction, late 2020 to early 2021, and obviously they've gone through loads of edits and changes to make them the unique, distinct OCs they are today.

Robin: I started posting Symphony in August of 2021, so I created Robin probably a month or so before that. I don't remember any particularly distinct changes, though I know I decided to make her a Cassidy about the same time I decided to make her powers sound-based, so those two fell in line together.

Madison: I started Smoke and Mirrors in May of 2021, but Madison's gone through a few changes leading up to that. Her earliest inklings as a character were just as a slightly-feral fish mutant the X-Men ran into while out on a mission (which is actually pretty similar to her actual introduction in the fic). I wasn't even sure if she'd be a better fit for Alex or Sean (ended up with Alex of course), and originally I had her needing to be in water to survive. Obviously that's changed, and she filled out as a character little by little before eventually becoming the Madison we've got today. Bravo was also a spur-of-the-moment addition, but we love him :D

Ophelia: Started thinking about her as an OC in January 2022, just after No Way Home came out, and didn't make many big changes before I started posting her story. Hers was more a sudden burst of creativity where all the pieces fell together (mainly since I wanted to get her story started before the NWH hype died down), so it was a lot faster of a character-building process. I realized about 7 chapters into Catch and Release that I was very much writing her to be autistic without really realizing it, and decided to lean into that as an aspect of her character going forward.

Jasper: Started Heartstrings in August of 2022, but I know I had Jasper as an OC for at least a year before I started writing that story. I knew I wanted them to be an empath from the beginning, mainly to help Kyle once he comes back from the dead, and I had the general storyline already in place, but the smaller details (their love of music, roller derby, even their genderfluidity) fell into place when I started actually putting the fic down on the page. I also didn't have a name for them for the longest time, it was just a big [redacted] of indecision until I actually started writing and needed to pick a name.

Indigo: I started Bolts and Blasters in May of 2021, though I had Indie for a while before that. Most of her primary details haven't changed, and her story's also been constant, but originally her name was Blue instead of Indigo. I changed it because I wanted her to have a nickname/variation, since she doesn't use a surname. Zero was also a last-minute add - originally she had a raccoon as a pet, but I changed it to be Zero for a bit more Star Wars alien flair

Katherine: Started posting WWFA? in December 2021, and honestly, I struggled for a while with Katherine. I struggled a lot with her name, which is how I eventually landed on naming her after the astronomer Katherine Johnson. Other details, like her being linked to Bastet, her physical appearance, her friendships with Emily and Jace, built up slowly over time. The only thing I started with was her leaving the drawings for Ahk and him getting enamored.

AJ: I started posting Nom De Guerre in May 2021 (no idea why I started so many fics in that particular month), and I honestly can't remember how much has changed about AJ over time. I think she was another rapid development, with fewer changes over time.

Quinn: I mainly mentioned AJ because she led to Quinn. I started Desert Song in October 2022, but I actually created Quinn as a character while finishing Nom De Guerre - as much as I loved Billy and AJ's dynamic, I remember thinking how fun it would be to have someone who was once on his old crew with him (and fell with him in Kyiv), who was eventually who Quinn ended up being. I also wanted to be a bit more daring with her than I'd been with some of my other OCs, which is how the queer and disability elements became so prevalent in her story. It's a lot better this way, though.

Kestrel: I started posting Taking Flight in August of 2023, but Kestrel as a character was developed over about a week in July 2023. I was on a trip for marching band and rereading a few of the Fablehaven books, and all that travel and waiting left me with loads of time to ponder new OCs. I got home, starting writing the fic, and that's where we're at today. In general, I feel like I've gotten a lot faster and more definitive with OC creation over time.

Eris: I've only just started sharing parts of their story, and I don't have a core fic for them yet, but I've had them as a character since The Suicide Squad (2021) came out. Their power set and Amazonian identity hasn't changed, but originally they were a female warrior like Wonder Woman and had a different name (I remember naming her after a lion-themed myth, but I can't seem to find that particular myth now), and they were a lot more altruistic and good-aligned than they are now. I think they're more fun this way, though.

Nikoletta: Similar story to Eris - I've had her since The Suicide Squad (2021) came out, but haven't had a chance to write out her story until now. She's also been through a few changes, though not as many as Eris - namely, her backstory scamming tourists on the streets of New Orleans is new, though her experiences with STAR Labs and the shadows were always part of her story

I have a lot of other OCs that I haven't written out yet, and it's interesting. Some of them are years old, created a while back but without having a chance to write their stories yet, while others are brand new. And like I said, I've gotten a lot faster and more decisive in creating OCs recently. My most recent creations, Easton McKay (a mutant with the ability to make his tattoos/body mods come to life) and Gia Pantazis (a girl who had her life force bound to a patch of clover by HYDRA) , both took shape in a matter of days, and now seem to be well-developed characters.... at least in my head, since I haven't really shared as much of their bios or stories here yet.

[void-botanist]

My Year of Writing

After reading @theskeletonprior's review, I thought I would write one of my own. Original prompt by @maguayans (whose blog theme on desktop is excellent for writeblr and might be something I borrow).

Part 1: Spotify Wrapped version

This year was all about The Fourth Android and bringing it from a half-baked rewrite of an older story to something edible. To that end, I wrote 158,587 words:

30,000 for Camp NaNo in April

30,209 for Camp NaNo in July

50,363 for NaNo 2022, plus

18,013 for a May goal and

30,002 for a June goal.

I archived a lot of those words as I iterated, though, and my current draft is sitting at 43,278 words right now.

Obviously Dez was on my mind the whole time but I also invented a ton of new characters as I fleshed out species concepts and the cultural geography of the world. I also frequently got distracted with other stories in this world and started writing extra scenes about characters who had captured my attention, several of whom are on Dez's future space crew.

My Spotify Wrapped was boring. It pretty much just said "hey you got real into pop this year. We probably classed all the 80s rock and 00s indie you listened to as 'nostalgia', which is silly. Also you still listen to a ton of Approaching Nirvana, like you're in the top 0.5% of listeners". If you want my recommendations, go listen to Wreck of the Day (the song or the album or both) by Anna Nalick, and literally anything by Approaching Nirvana (but I have probably listened to the albums Cinematic Soundscapes Vol. 1 and Illusions the most). Also go (re)appreciate that 38 Special and Fitz and the Tantrums are bands that exist.

Part 2: A More Detailed Review

General

This year I continued working toward improvement, in both my writing and art.

With writing, that looked like getting more invested in planning and analyzing my own work. I finally accepted that the typical plot charts I find don't make sense to me when I try to use them, and not because I'm trying to make my stories Special (TM). Something just doesn't connect for me, and that's okay. That's not the only way to get plot structure. Instead I spent a while figuring out how to use Scrivener to outline in a way that works for me. I also tried to apply my own media analyses and those of YouTubers like Princess Weekes, La'Ron Readus, Jessie Gender, NerdSync, and James Somerton to my own work, to consider what works and what might not.

With art, that looked like learning more tools and tricks in Clip Studio Paint and Procreate, changing my settings to help me not mess up my arm constantly (adjusting my pressure curve!), and drawing at a higher resolution. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference that has made in the way my work looks and how it feels to edit it. I tend to draw small, so I'd never thought about it much, but wow everything is so smooth now. I've also been working on accepting that the imperfections in my work don't make it bad, and that being a slow and indecisive artist is also fine. angrymikko, Nadiaxel, and Chroma Moma on YouTube have been super helpful to me as I try new styles and ways of working and just having fun with my art. ronillust also makes delightful art memes and some tutorials.

P.S. if you're on desktop and you despise the format of YouTube's Shorts page, you can play Shorts as regular videos by changing the "shorts" portion of the URL to "watch". You can also set up Redirector to do this automatically (I wrote a tutorial for this on my main blog).

Writeblr

I was so much more active on writeblr this year, especially during the last few months. I followed a ton of other writers (I won't list them all here but I've been trying to reblog from them to make sure people are also aware of them) and started posting some excerpts of my own work and participating in ask/tag games. I'm having a very good time so far. Please feel free to tag me liberally in future games and prompts!

WIPs

I started working on The Fourth Android after I lost NaNoWriMo 2021, where I was working on Triad and I ran out of steam after about 28k words. On the last day of NaNo I just sprinted some stuff about Zel and Anni and a fledgling form of TFA in which Zel is a journalist and Anni teams up with her to locate Dez, who has absconded over some misunderstanding. Then I thought, what if I just worked on this? So I did. Triad is still going to happen, but it needs a lot of restructuring to work properly.

As always, my writing went from high angst to low angst as I developed that first TFA concept further, which I think speaks to how I just like stories about people being friends. Which is, you know, a pretty broad qualifier, but I find that even in stories with high stakes and high drama the thing I find most delightful is friendship dynamics (can you tell I'm thinking about Hunter x Hunter as I write this? I got kinda into that too). A lot of my thinking about character arcs has been related to "how is this friendship interesting?" and the cultural worldbuilding I've been doing is going to help me explore some of those dynamics. (This also applies to romantic couples, not least because friends to lovers is the only thing that seems to work for me in my writing.)

Books and Other Things I Consumed

I read a fair bit this year, especially compared to the last couple years (I'm actually pretty proud of this because I read maybe 2 books in all of 2019 and 2020 and only got back into reading last year). Like Harrowben, I've starred my favorites.

*The Expanse series 4-7 by James S. A. Corey (4, Cibola Burn, was a particular favorite just because I love stories set on alien planets. Overall I think The Expanse could use more theys and gays, but I'm pretty happy with it)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (I enjoyed how clever this one was, and also it has robots. For some strange reason I have become incredibly interested in robot stories)

Artemis by Andy Weir (honestly I think about this one a lot. I think it had some of Weir's character writing flaws as seen in The Martian but the worldbuilding was pretty compelling and I'm a sucker for epistolary bits)

*Fearless by Shira Glassman (a wonderful quick read about snowstorms and lesbian moms. I also bought several of Shira's other books but haven't read them yet)

*Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (I rarely buy books in physical form anymore but I did buy this one after I read it. Superb. Waiting for the sequel)

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (I enjoyed this one a lot. I can definitely understand the criticisms, and the formatting was kinda weird. But on some level I felt like I was reading something that was in my own genre)

Currently reading

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian (the sequel to The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. It's just a super fun read)

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (the sequel to Finlay Donovan is Killing It. Honestly disappointed in this one, especially compared to the first book. There are some excellent moments but there are also a lot of things that don't really seem to make sense, and I'm very frustrated with the romance part of it)

Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse book 8) by James S. A. Corey

Books I started and plan to finish (I often put down books because they're not what I want right at that moment)

Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

The Doctor's Discretion by E. E. Ottoman

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Murmuration by T. J. Klune

I won't list out all the shows I watched but I do think that Hunter x Hunter, Exception (the Netflix anime), Mob Psycho 100, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have all influenced the way I think about my writing and to some extent my art (seriously the color and visual storytelling choices of Edgerunners are so interesting and cool). In video games, the environment design of Hades, Risk of Rain 2's Survivors of the Void expansion, and Slime Rancher 2 really fascinated me, and I spent a ton of time using Sims 4 to build places that exist in TFA to better visualize them. (I really want a game that is just Sims 4 build mode, but with more detailed building capabilities and endless building space. I just installed Sweet Home 3D, which might do it for me.)

Here's to another year of writeblring and creating. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above (especially Exception if you've seen it), and/or your recommendations for anything but especially cool stories about robots/androids/gays/theys.

[lunamigos]

finally making a pinned post yayy :)

hello maybe this text is a little messy, i'm have a certain difficulty in forming sentences, never had write a big text in english ( i'm brazilian! so i'm still learning english, my english is actually very good but its not perfect ) sooo there's some things about me:

hi, I'm a minor so pls don't be a weirdo, people can call me lunamig, luna, lunamigos, mugi, mig and gi, any variation is ok, l goes by she/her, But neutral pronouns can also be welcome, i'm brazilian and i'm autistic

as l said before, i'm learning english, but i'm also learning russian ( I'm not for the war ), l started learning russian a little while ago, so i'm just learning the basic, l know some words and the alphabet, now with the english, I've been learning English for 5 years now, so l'm very good in english, i'm just very shy and this makes me indecisive when writing sentences, especially shorter ones, also, If someone is going talk to me, try not to be rude or anything like that, if l do something wrong anyone can correct me but please be respectful, If I take a while to respond to something or don't respond to something, don't feel bad, it's probably because I didn't know how to respond, so, moving away from the topic of languages, l have many hobbies, this is what l will share in my blog, my main hobbies are drawing and writing, but what l will post here are usually my drawings, i'm also multifandom, but my current hyperfixations are object shows and fnaf ( now it's undertale :p )

about my blog itself: I want my blog or tumblr to be a SFW and safe place for everyone, If I do anything wrong, anyone can correct me, as long as it's not rude, sometimes l can say some opinions from mine, l will try my best to not make any polemic speech, to not hurt anyone feelings or something like that, but l think l also need some respect, I'm very uncomfortable with some religions, but I hope you don't see it as an offense, I will always respect others, Sometimes I will post drawings that may contain blood, but rarely a lot of blood, l may post drawings with creepy and bizarre content, like some weird monsters.

DNI!!: pedos, zoos, MAP ( just peds with another name ), Homophobes, People who ship child characters or characters who act childish, people who make toxic ships, peoplo who romanticize toxic relationships, nsfw artists, nsfw account, racists,People who judge other people's bodies, People who judge others by their age, anti furrys. ( Maybe l forget some things here, but l think that it's suficient to understand )

I think that's it, for now, maybe l edit this post later! Byee (⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)~~

[camb99-cbmi6]

My top 10 Eurovision Song Contest entry songs:

So I actually started this list back last year but I'm so indecisive I couldn't settle on an order lol, but I've managed to rank my top 10 favourites now although the only one that is definite is 1 really, 2 - 10 are pretty interchangeable. I want to mention though that I only found out about Eurovision in 2014 so that was my first year, so I don't know a lot of songs before that other than a few I've seen in compilations on YouTube. I also like to see and hear the songs for the first time in the finals so I'm going by those live performances and not the studio recorded versions things like Spotify have, although those are all I can include in this post. Anyway on to the countdown starting with number 10.

10: Together - Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Ireland - 2018

I mean it's a gay love song, how can I not love it? Sure is a little sad but it's a beautiful song in my opinion and Ryan sings it lovely, and the accompanying dancers were great and not an over the top visual element like so many performances tend to be.

9: Sound of Silence - Dami Im - Australia - 2016

Another beautiful song and Dami hits those high notes perfectly, which so many people on Eurovision try and unfortunately fail to. Also another nice and simple stage performance.

8: Rhythm Inside - Loïc Nottet - Belgium - 2015

The first song in this list which I prefer the live performance to lol. Loïc singing while led down for part of it is no easy feat, plus he does an amazing ballet like spin which I love and wish I could do lmao.

7: Run Away - Sunstroke Project, Olia Tira - Moldova - 2010

You may know this one as the song with "Epic Sax Guy" lmao. I don't think it did that well in Eurovision, and to be honest I think I prefer the Spotify version, but it did get the recognition and appreciation it deserves...in memes lol. Can we also give a shoutout to the violinist though because that fast paced piece he plays at the start while being on a rotating platform is pretty amazing. Sunstroke Project also represented Moldova in 2017 with "Hey Mama" which I also like a lot and would be number 12 lol.

6: Heartbeat - Can-Linn, Kasey Smith - Ireland - 2014

Okay I have no idea how this didn't make the final, although 2014 was my first time watching Eurovision I wasn't keen on a lot of the songs, so I'll always be mad that Heartbeat wasn't one of them.

5: Spirit in the Sky - KEiiNO - Norway - 2019

I feel like people either love or hate this one lol, but personally it was one of my favourites in 2019 and came 6th.

4: Only Teardrops - Emmelie De Forest - Denmark - 2013

I don't really know what to say about this one other than I like it and think it's nice lol. It's one of those that can cheer me up if I'm having a bad day.

3: Heroes - Måns Zelmerlöw - Sweden - 2015

Okay to be honest I wasn't a fan of this one when I first watched/hears it, I felt like it won because of the fancy visual effects, but over the years it's grown on me and I do actually like the song, especially Conchita's cover.

2: Arcade - Duncan Laurence - The Netherlands - 2019

I think this was the first year since 2014 that I agreed with the winning song at the time lol, although there were a lot of entries in 2019 that I liked, but Arcade is a beautiful song sung by Duncan's beautiful voice accompanied by a beautiful less is more approach on stage and that's all the ingredients to what makes a winning song in my opinion.

1: Rise Like a Phoenix - Conchita Wurst - Austria - 2014

Okay before you come at me, yes I may be a little biased as it was my first Eurovision lol, but I loved the song and again simplicity on stage. I also felt like the song had vibes like a James Bond song which as a fan of that franchise helped me to love it, and it even inspired me to create my own video game mod where it would be used for the theme song lmao. Conchita was also the first drag queen I ever saw, and like many people I was very confused at the time (and not very supportive to be honest as much as I hate to say it, I was 14 and life was hard, not that that's an excuse to be hateful I know), but her message when she won I found very impactful and I love that she refers to the LGBTQ+ community as "The Unstoppables". I always love it when she returns in Eurovision, and I'm very glad her winning song is my all time favourite.

Thanks for reading this if you've made it this far lol, no doubt I'll be changing my mind again after this years contest (yay we're actually getting one) but I might also do some lists like "Underrated Eurovision songs in my opinion" or top 10s from each year before we get there, so if anyone would like those please let me know, and do share your thoughts too! :3

[redscullyrevival]

Kristie’s Favorite Anime of 2018

Here are the (overall) transcripts of my end of the year audio posts covering my favorite anime experiences of 2018. All audio can be located on podbean but tumblr is typically more receptive to the written word and I’m still learning how to do audio levels and editing; it makes sense if people rather read my goofy thoughts!

So starting from the bottom and working our way up to number one, here is my 2nd favorite anime of 2018:

A Place Further than the Universe

Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka

From Madhouse studios

Ohhh, my babies. My beautiful daughters!

A Place Further than the Universe is... I don't want to say an unusual show because feel-good anime is a dime a dozen. What's special, I suppose, about A Place Further than the Universe is how drastically it accomplishes being a feel-good series filled with positive affirmations along side being a uniquely and specifically displaced story within it's universally understandable emotionality.

Ugh, god I hated that sentence. OKAY.

Yes, there is what is known as the iyashikei, healing (at this point) genre, which are shows that often times focus on being relaxing slice-of-life series that often times take place within magical worlds where the fantastical is treated as mundane but wondrous - but that's not what Further than the Universe is doing and I'll try my damnedest to explain what I think it is doing and why, but no promises...

A high schooler named Shirase has been saving up a ton of money to travel to Antarctica, which is where her mother disappeared three years ago. Adults and peers a like find her tenacity oddly unpleasant... but when she meets and is helped by the indecisive Mari the two band together to try and make Shirase's completely bonkers dream a reality. They are joined by two other girls, Hinata and Yuzuki, and all four begin a self initiated journey towards engaging, controlling, and nurturing their own lives.

High school girls going on a trip to the Antarctic is quiet the concept, what's impressive is that the series pulls it off - the girl's individual motivations and the struggle they go through to accomplish their goals is grounded and feels earned and believable even within the obvious fantasy and convenient plotting of it all.

A Place Further than the Universe is incredibly intimate. This is a series that, good god, does not hold back in digging deep into the cozy but horrifyingly vulnerable space of storytelling where there is no problem larger than the characters; it's all relative conflict. Which for some viewers is never gonna be of that much interest or draw no matter how well crafted (and this show is supremely well crafted) a story that makes - if there isn't some larger conflict that hangs above characters rather than being trapped within them some people have a hard time paying attention or connecting. And that's fair.

I am not one of those people. I eat this stuff up, I'm more than fine with scaling my ability to engage, to care, down to if someone clips their nails or not! There is nothing so insignificant I can't be lead, when skillfully lead, to emotionally invest in. That's an ability I have, and that's something this show is very, very good at tapping into and pulling out of even it's more reluctant or critical viewership.

The wacky Antarctica bent is the balance to the individualized conflicts each girl faces as well as being the series entire thematic thesis, it's there in the name; "A Place Further than the Universe."

When discussing this kind of relative stake storytelling with my wonderful friend @sonnetscrewdriver she has said that stories like this one are often times about highlighting how every person's life is in essence it's own world, that what may seem trivial or insignificant from the outside can be magnified and brought forth within story telling to be given immense power and significance. And in doing so, in having an individual high school girl's hopes and insecurities broadcasted to be so thoroughly understood and felt by an audience is truly breath taking. And this series does this not just once but four times.

Each and every single one of us may as well be as far as Antarctica, further than the universe, from the person right next to us. From the people we live with, from the people we know as our friends and our family. And we would be without effort, without intentional effort, to not be alone. To be understood. To have friends and to feel accomplishment, to succeed, and be decisive; so much of those things are never completely given.  

And that's the bare bones of this series. That's the end of the day take away: Feeling fulfilled, feeling cared for, and loved, and connected is work. It's hard. And even in a group, even on a trip of a lifetime, there will be moments where you're not okay. Even in a wider scope of accomplishing what people said you couldn't, even when you are doing what you set out to do, each of us a world and what matters to us, what we love and what hurts us, is all to the wider universe insignificant. So don't measure by the universe. Don't measure your feelings or your experiences from the outside.

That's a lot to get from a 13 episode anime series isn't it? Fuck yeah it is, but that's why I love it. I'm ten times more preachy than A Place Further than the Universe actually is and not nearly as concise or eloquent (I like hearing the sound of my own voice too much) - but please, if you take anything away from this mess today, I hope it's the knowledge art isn't always about pushing you back or knocking you down, it can be more like a strong embrace; and that's this show. A Place Further than the Universe will make you cry, absolutely, don't get me wrong, but it won't be a Banana Fish way. It's not hurtful, it's cleansing. It's... comforting.

Which brings us around to closing the circle on this series: A Place Further than the Universe doesn't position that the distance between people needs to be merged, that we need to destroy our barriers. We need that distance. We can't wear the lives of others (well, stories come close, but...) 

This is an incredibly well made and directed series about four girls who go on an adventure and find themselves and each other, but what's striking to me is how A Place Further than the Universe so concisely expresses that our trails and efforts to reach a new place, to reach out for someone, is no more a comfort then our ability to recognize the ways in which we are apart. Our distances can be a comfort too. We just have to learn how to measure ourselves with ourselves.