#I think this is like the third pitch post i've made

[keriarentikai]

Fandom permission statements

Hello, I am here with yet another pitch for writers to add a permission statement to their AO3 bio! Posts about permission statements tend to circulate among the podfic community, which is really preaching to the choir, so I would really love it if some writer-types also reblog this. ❤️

(While permission statements can and do address multiple types of transformative work, this post very podfic-centric.)

What is a permission statement?

A permission statement tells people who create works based on fanfics (e.g. podfic, art, remixes) whether or not you're okay with people making stuff based on your writing and in what circumstances.

Even if you're not up for giving everyone permission for everything, having a statement we can read is SO appreciated!

What is blanket permission?

Blanket permission is a term podficcers use for permissions that let us create and post podfic without having to contact the author. We love this!

What other kinds of permission statements are there and why would I still want to use one?

If you don't want to give blanket permission, having a permission statement telling folks what you are and aren't okay with helps a lot!

If an author doesn't want to give blanket permission, a statement encouraging podfic but asking a podficcer to ask first still tells us you're interested and that we can expect to receive a friendly (even if not always a 'yes') response.

If you don't want podfic made of your work at all, then telling us this saves us time and saves you from getting repeated messages from different podficcers!

Do you have an example?

Sure do! Here's the statement I currently have in my AO3 profile:

I grant blanket permission for podfics, art and translations, and any other transformative work as long as it involves absolutely no monetary profit or monetary exchange of any kind, or contribution to or use of generative AI. Please link back to the original so I can be thrilled you did it!

Why consider blanket permission?

If you do want podfic made of your work, blanket permission makes it a whole lot more likely a podficcer will choose your work! Because:

Especially for events with quick turnaround times and that include recommendations made to other podficcers for projects, it's often the only way we can get permission in time

It means we can start working on a project as soon as we decide to, rather than having to wait to hear back

Some people are less comfortable reaching out to ask and so will be less willing to podfic works without blanket permission

It can also feel awkward to ask for permission and then not do the podfic for a while (or ever), which can be a mental barrier to reaching out

Blanket permission is so helpful that we even have a whole database of people who have blanket permission so we can find them more easily and an extension that highlights their names in green for 'full speed ahead!'

Podfic makes a writer's work more accessible to audiences that aren't always able to engage with written text, and I personally love it when someone cares about my writing to put in the effort to podfic it. So I want to encourage its creation as much as I can!

No matter what kind of permission you end up being comfortable with, I hope you will consider adding a statement to your AO3 profile, and thanks for reading this pitch!

More resources:

Fanworks permission statement builder by flamingwell Directory of creators with blanket permission (FPS list)

[patricia-taxxon]

I want to set the record straight regarding a certain OST for a short film that should be coming out later this year, because one of its directors is making false and hurtful claims about me and my business ethic. After he made a prominent appearance on a drama stream about me & wrote a section of my callout doc, I told him that I wasn't interested in dragging him publicly, but that has felt more impossible as time goes on and I realize the extent of his misrepresentation. I had a vision of this film being able to release quietly in spite of everything, but I don't think that can happen, and I fully expect him to try and hurt my chances at further work.

In 2023, between techdogs 4 and 5, I worked on music for a then good friend's student film. It is by far the most technically difficult job I've ever had, and I did it for free. Now, before you get mad, this is partially (mostly) my fault. I never negotiated a price beforehand, and when I found out partway through that I was working for free, I let it slide for fear of being disruptive. If I was asked to quote a price today, it would have been approximately 900 USD. The work was a hellish and grueling experience, technical in ways I'd never been prepared for, and I sorely regret not putting my foot down, because I was hollowed out by the end of it.

A big portion of his callout against me is concerned with, bafflingly, my decision not to contribute my own money to the film, which at that point would have been a negative paycheck. I didn't pay the thirty dollars that I would've had to pitch in for the film to be screened, and I considered that a fine payment for the nine hundred dollars of work they got from me. He goes on to write that I'm rich anyways, I pay hundreds of dollars on album art (business expenses that I know I'll make back when the music is released) and "furry porn," because apparently if I am occasionally willing to drop a pretty penny on a pleasure purchase then I should simply be compelled to pay them randomly for things I hold no stake in and that I signed no contract for. He also mentions that I paid them later for the DCP file at another screening, of course by that point I had gotten the vibe that they were wanting for me to drop money on their project, so I did, giving the post-hoc justification that "i guess in this case I also care about the film sounding good." He writes "well I guess that was something she deemed worthy" without realizing the implication would then be that he did not see my own work as worthy.

Let me make this clear, this is like if a voice actor worked on my video game for free as a favor with no expectations of royalties, and then I asked them to help me pay to get the game on steam. This is presented along reheated second, third, fourthhand accounts of sexual misconduct.

And before we move on, to the claim that one album artist had to wait for years before receiving payment, this is true. I did forget to pay one artist, and only found out after their assistant contacted me years later, where I then paid six times the asking price as a late fee. I was commissioning over ten album arts every year, and as of now, this is the only time I have made this mistake.

It is impossible for me to refute his claims about the personal time we spent together in Omaha, as it would just be my word against his. I will just say that he should know the omitted reasons that I have grown to feel I was disposed, discarded, and taken for granted by him, and how he has nothing to do with why I hold those memories at that film festival so highly. He also does the classic thing where he positions allowing me to pick the movie in the evening as this favor he did, making me unknowingly rack up debt for a bargain I never consented to.

During all this, he has expressed an existential fear of being harassed for going public about me, and for this reason I want to say that I still hope that this film can be released without a fuss, but his continued participation in a harassment campaign against me has done far more to tarnish his reputation than I ever could. If you really cared about your image, pressure Crim to re-record that drama stream without your embarrassing petty grievances in it & delete your testimony from the callout doc. Thanks.

[theladyragnell]

This is driving me insane. Who are the original space blorbos??? I have googled the names and searched in Tumblr and I thought at first it was just a d&d campaign or something but then you said it's from the third novel and I NEED TO KNOW

Oh gosh! Sorry to make you go down a rabbit hole!

Anything you see in my "obligatory original space blorbos" tag or see referred to by anything involving the words "space blorbos" (or anything involving the word "Karn" or "Karnisan") is me referring to a long-term original writing project! The Karn series is five novels and two novellas, and it's not published anywhere because I am a very lax editor and I really want to get this one right. So it's the first drafts of five novels and two novellas, and the second drafts of the first two novels (or, well, the second novel has three more scenes in it yet to edit, thus why I've been posting about the space blorbos so much lately, because thinking about them helps motivate me). The first drafts make up a complete series! (Even if there's a second generation series in the back of my brain. Shhhh.)

I want to publish them someday (probably going the self-publishing rather than the trad-publishing route, these are. fairly unpublishable because I don't tend to write super marketable things), but I've found it really rewarding to be able to edit the earlier books as I learn more things about the characters and know more about the series arc I want to do, so none of the books are going anywhere public for a while so I don't edit myself into a corner.

Which is unfortunate, because I really want to share them! But also I've read too many trad pubbed series over the years where it's clear the author wrote the first book or two with a different plan in mind and then had some ideas and consequently fucked their series over a bit with later books not meshing with what they'd been building up to, so I am very determined not to cause myself that problem.

But, preludes aside, the House of Karn series is what I affectionately pitch as Succession meets Bridgerton in space! It's structured like a romance series, each book or novella built around a different couple (or poly ship in one case) and each book with its own coherent plot that wraps up at the end of the book, with a background series arc about successions and coalitions and familial abuse and terraforming and all that good shit.

I made a comic sans series primer sometime back with @sovinly's help, I should really brush that up and post it sometime.

[ohcorny]

How did you first initially get into the professional graphic novel scene? Was it difficult getting ppl to take a chance on your writing/stories and could you talk about it a bit?

wibbles my hand? i probably had it easier than most people. first of all i'd been doing a fairly popular webcomic for like. six-seven years when an agent cold-called me to offer representation, and asked if i had any graphic novel ideas. hunger's bite was but a tiny twinkle in my eye so i started developing it.

(and then covid happened and i got a storyboard job and also eventually fired that agent but still kept developing hunger's bite)

shortly after firing that agent, and after trying to query traditionally with no real luck (though i think i only queried 3-4), there was an event on twitter called #DVPit which was basically: you'd post the elevator pitch of your story + some art, and agents would look in the tag and like anything they were interested in representing. so once the event was over you'd reach out to them with the full pitch and meet to talk about it and if the vibe was right, you'd sign on with them. i think i had 5 agents show interest, and i contacted 3 who felt like they could be a good fit, and then signed with the one i liked best. (i do not think #DVPit exists anymore for obvious reasons)

after that it was her job to send the pitch out to editors, and i think it was maybe in the second or third wave of submissions (ie, a few months) where i had 2 editors who were interested. they made their offers, i went with the one that had a bit more money (and apparently got a Really good deal) and that was that

like Looking Back, i think i had it easier than people who struggle for years to get noticed. it didn't feel that way at the time, waiting months for rejections, but now that i'm through it, it's less daunting. the main issue i would run into was finding someone who understood the vision and didn't want to change it. there was a lot of 'this would probably be better as a middle grade!' but i didn't want to take the teeth out of it.

iunno! overall i think art and comics is one of those spaces where it's like. you know at a glance if you're interested in it, or if the artist is competent. i've done slush pile with comics, it's very 'you know it when you see it'. i imagine it's the same with acquiring editors.

i fortunately have a style with broad appeal :y so it might just be easier for me on that merit

[cilil]

The honest to Eru reason why I've currently shelved my Angbang/Melkor/Mairon related projects in particular (and arguably Ainur in general, unless you count the 25% in Dior lolol) is that I'm... not quite content yet. Like, make no mistake, I don't hate my old works or anything; it's just that for the big future projects I never got around to thus far I'm missing a few final sparks, if you will. Some fine tuning. Some "back to the drawing board", reworking, refining. Also nobody take this as shade (somehow?), this is just me and a me problem and my issues with perfectionism that keep me from writing.

So I'm currently thinking about Ainur designs during the Almaren era, Melkor and Mairon in particular (this is not a serious headcanon post, btw, this is a brain dump that I feel like sharing with the besties on here). Anyway, I would like to try out some "weirder" designs, reason being that at this point Ainur haven't seen humanoids and are going with what they remember from the music and copy from one another. Adding various supernatural and/or animal features is a good start, but what I'm playing with right now in my head is also this angle of them looking kind of... proto-humanoid? Like basically "humanoid according to Eru's description, artist's rendition".

In Mairon's case, I've always liked the idea that his first forms while studying under Aulë looked like a statue of sorts. He made his first fána because he had need of it for work reasons, and while some of his peers may have kept it simple and others added their own flair (see above), he went about it like a craftsman would. Again: Artist's rendition of a humanoid body. And since Mairon is an ambitious artist and craftsman, he carefully crafted and sculpted a lovely shape for himself. The Ainurin version of Michelangelo's David, if you will. I also imagine Mairon's forms (all of them) as androgynously beautiful, the kind that's just absolutely gorgeous and stunning and inspires gender envy in all genders (nobody is safe).

Other ideas I had include making his skin either golden or marble with golden patterns and his hair being kind of... heavy? Like he shaped it into artistic curls and waves, but they would barely move in the wind, if at all; reason being that, at this point, he's a fire spirit working with rocks and metal, so flammable organic material is not his forte (to the chagrin of Yavanna. I like to think that, ironically, Melkor taught him about such material in depth later. But those are stories for another time).

As for Melkor, I want him to look the most human out of all the Ainur, funnily enough. I know this might sound odd considering he was barely even listening to the third theme, but he did have the greatest insight into the vision and it's a big theme that he's the most human out of all the Valar. Nevertheless, his fána would still have its "odd" and "unique" properties, just due to the fact that a) he's Melkor and b) he's weird and extra. Since he's still in a state where he can match all the other Valar and their Maiar on his own, his skin is pretty much impervious to any and all harm, to name just one example.

The main design elements I've been rotating in my head for his earlier forms revolve around his hair. I like to imagine it being pitch black at the roots, like the darkness of outer space, but becoming luminous at the tips. He's rocking the anglerfish ombré. Also depending on the angle and lighting and his mood the lights are constantly shifting in wavelength, and you see all colors of the electromagnetic spectrum flickering in and out of existence. Another thing I've been picturing for Melkor's hair in general is that it's constantly in motion, similar to Manwë who always has his wind around him. The difference is that there is no wind around Melkor. His hair just does that. If there's no wind at all, it's moving, and if there is wind, it's still moving, but not as it should. It's not super noticeable, rather subtle, but if you were to look at it for a long time, you would wonder if his hair is alive and has its own chaotic agenda. Also I'm fond of the idea that he likes to use it as additional arms, think Midna from Twilight Princess (either one big hand or smaller tendril hands, depending on what he uses it for).

...alright, I think that's all I got for now. Thank you for coming to my brain dump, I'll file this one away for future reference aka the inevitable return of acute brainrot

[roomwithanopenfire]

12345 Tag Game

Thanks @monbons for the tag!! This looks like fun!

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words (feel free to interpret however you would like; if not on AO3, can be on Tumblr or FFNET, etc)!

Most Hits: No Sweeter Drug (than just giving you my love) || (Stranger Things, 60k)

Nancy and Robin had a whirlwind summer romance before their sophomore year, but Nancy left her behind, because Nancy Wheeler doesn’t date girls. But after the Upside Down, Nancy finds herself questioning who she even is. And she has to come to terms with her feelings for one Robin Buckley.

I always forget that this fic has the most hits! I loved writing this fic so much and I made a couple great friends while posting it :) It's kinda funny that this fic has the most hits when it's got like the 3rd most kudos, but I blame that on the Large Fandom curse.

Second Most Kudos: Proof of Life || (Carry On, 83k)

Vampires attacked Watford and Baz was Turned, but this time Natasha Pitch lived. What would Baz’s life be like growing up with his mother? How would Natasha feel about her son’s… condition? And what happens when you throw the Mage’s Heir into the mix?

THIS FIC!! This fic was such a joy and pain to write, but I'm SO proud of it. I took a long, stranger things/NSD shaped break while writing this, but I'm so glad I came back to finish it. The comments on this fic continue to give me LIFE.

Third Most Comments: Do As You're Told || (Carry On, 51k)

Simon accidentally gives Baz a permanent compulsion spell. Baz is pissed at Simon for ruining his life, and Simon just wants to fix it. With the help of Penny can they find a cure to the spell? And will Baz and Simon stay enemies...?

Technically, the fic with the third most comments is NSD but I already talked about that one, so i did the one with the 2nd most comments! This was the first multichapter fic I'd ever written and I remember being BLOWN AWAY by the comments. If you're one of the people who commented on this while i was posting it, you can take credit for my entire fanfic career because it was the comments I got on this that made me want to keep going, hands down.

Fourth Most Bookmarks: Just A Dare || (Carry On, 5k)

Simon Snow is dared to kiss Baz in a game of truth or dare, he's expecting Baz to yell at him or punch him, but what happens when Baz kisses him back?

I always forget that this fic has so many kudos/hits/bookmarks. This was the 2nd fanfic I ever wrote! I wrote this one so fast compared to how long it took me to write my first one and I remember thinking it was kind of terrible when I posted it (my first time writing kissing akadfkl), but it kind of took off! I remember I wrote this one because I had read all the other truth/dare fics in the fandom and wanted more.

Fifth Most Words: What to Bring to An Abandoned Planet || (Carry On, EXACTLY 12,345 words which I didn't even try to do)

Agatha, Baz, and Trixie are a small yet mighty group of space pirates who take down a transporter ship that holds Penelope, Shepard, and Simon on their way to relocating to a new planet. But once Agatha’s mighty ship—the SC Comet—falls way to space debris, the six of them have to learn to work together to survive on an uninhabited planet.

This fic was so much fun to write!! I wrote it for the Snowflake Exchange, and it's definitely not something I would have written all by myself! I kind of forget it had so many words because I wrote it So quickly. (Tbh I thought my dunmeshi smut fic would be fifth most words, but it's the seventh 😔 I'll have to talk about it some other time). This fic is the most AU AU i've ever written, and, like, don't look too closely at the lore please, I was just having fun.

Least Words: Nothing || (Carry On, 548)

You were young. Just a boy. A copy of a boy, but a boy nevertheless. You grew up on scraps of food and the backs of fists. You learned to fight before you learned how to speak. You always knew you'd be abandoned, unwanted. And at eleven years old, you woke up. Woke up alone and hungry.

Second person POV Humdrum fic, anyone? I went crazy during the Carry On Countdown. I was posting fics of any word count. Choosing all the wild ideas in my fic ideas list that I'd never have the time to explore with a long fic. This fic was fun! You should read it! (it won't take you very long at all it's only 500 words loll) As someone who is usually very long winded (see the three fics that are over 50k on this list), it was actually super fun to try my hand at something short!

Some tags:

@sweetronancer @facewithoutheart @run-for-chamo-miles @thewholelemon @best--dress @drowninginships @cutestkilla and anyone else who wants too! I don't want to break out the entire taglist, but please tag me if you end up sharing yours!!

[notesanddreams]

Hello! It was such an unexpected discovery that your face immediately came to mind.

About Premonition.

https://x.com/take_utdr/status/1869338620227997770?s=46&t=7a45MyT5qivYT6yEo56cSw

I don’t have perfect pitch, so I can only catch the main melody, but if what this person is saying is true, does it include Gaster’s motif? If you don’t mind, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Hi there! Always a pleasure to see you in my inbox.

So I've reviewed the post, and for my followers who I assume mostly speak English, it says: "I was randomly copying Premonition by ear (I wonder if it's right...) and I noticed something This song is made with the scale (plus an octave) of "Gaster's Theme" It's BPM66, so this song has a strong Gaster element~"

I can confirm the transcription is correct, and I've copied the song directly from the UT Piano Book below:

Now, I take some issues with what this person is claiming, and to explain why, I would like to describe what is happening here. This is a repeating pattern, with the left hand playing a perfect fifth and the right hand playing a root position major chord one semitone above the left hand. This repeats up two semitones, back down, and down another two semitones.

The person in the video has taken the second note of the left hand, and the bottom and top notes of the major chord played by the right hand, which is indeed the root > up one half step > up one perfect fifth pattern that Gaster's motif uses. However, why omit the third of the chord? You can pretty much selectively choose notes from just about any song to achieve the same result. If the pattern had moved in half steps like mus_st_him does, I would be more inclined to believe this was intentional, but I believe this is coincidental since all root position major chords have this perfect fifth in them.

NOW, on the topic of the tempo, I put the mp3 file into FL Studio, which is the same software that Toby uses for his music, and I think 66 BPM is just slightly too slow. HOWEVER, since you can adjust the tempo in FL Studio to the thousandth decimal place, I believe the correct tempo lies somewhere between 66.06 and 66.08, meaning that it could be a BPM of 66.06, or even 66.066, but the difference is so fine I can't know for sure.

I hope you enjoyed this needlessly complicated analysis of a 29 second loop, and I hope you have a good day!

[internetagepoet]

New Blog- Internet Age Poetry

Hey ya'll! It's been a hot minute since I've logged into Tumblr, but I have made my return with the sincerest appreciation for this platform and community. I have been a Tumblr user since 2013 and a Tumblr ghost since about 2018. I had been watching the "desecration" and re-development of this site from the shadows. However, I decided to make a return simply because... the internet isn't what it used to be. With Meta funding the war machine and Twitter/X being abducted by the most embarrassing influential billionaire in the world, I cannot justify spending anymore time on these social media platforms. Our current online status has left us all in what Debord refers to as the "Society of the Spectacle." However, the internet age I yearn for is that of the earnest 2010's. Nothing captures that nostalgia for me like Tumblr. My desire with this blog is to create an interactive space for poetry and literature. I do not want people to interact with this blog as though it was a Canvas Discussion Post or whatever. I simply want to share stories, words, messages- poetry, my original writing, the more established writing of others, and also, provide a space for you to share yours.Now, let me introduce myself to you properly! My name is Sajah Francesca. I recently graduated college with a Bachelor's in English Literature. I am a writer, focusing mostly on poetry, short stories, plays, (and idealistically writing movie scripts, as well). I have a couple publications in literary magazines and have corroborated with a friend in the early days of creating a local zine.In this past year, I published a poetry collection titled "Nasty. Unpredictable. Nonsense." In June, it will have been a full year since the books publication, and I still have over 300 copies to pedal and online sales have been low. I will admit, this is not due to a lack of support from the people in my life or my local community. I have worked vending booths and done elevator pitches to just about every man, woman, and queer teenager I've come across. The first major hurdle is not that people don't read anymore, but the majority of people don't buy books... period, often opting to read something on a tablet or listening to an audiobook. My work was never going to be Booktok palatable and is even too niche for the biggest bookworms. The second is that poetry is considered inaccessible in the larger zeitgeist. This, I think, is an unfair assumption that is pushed by pretentious psuedo-intellectuals who are ruining things for everyone. People are rather dismissive of poetry even though Shel Silverstein, Rupi Kaur, and musical artists like Kendrick Lamar have presented forms of poetry which are WIDELY accessible to many different demographics of people. The third issue is... I don't particularly want to sell my art. Pedaling anything makes me feel like shit and having to market myself while presenting something so vulnerable feels disingenuous. All this to say, I needed an online space to build community. I am hoping to start here by publishing my original poetry for you all to read, as well as share some of my favorites by other authors. Once I familiarize myself with the platform, I will start introducing some more interactive posts/blog chains/etc. Maybe I'll through in some book recommendations along the way I can't wait to hear from fellow artists and lovers of literature.

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Answering this ask FOUGHT ME I swear to god. First I hit post before I was done writing and hadn't added tags or anything because it was just sitting in my drafts, and then when I rewrite it and went to save what I'd done TUMBLR FUCKING DELETED THE POST. The universe saw me being giddy over getting songs and went "well we can't have that" so now I'm writing it for the THIRD TIME (while my thumb is randomly going numb for some fucking reason lmfao. Like, I'm not cold, circulation's not cut off. It's just slowly losing all sensation 💀)

Anyway, attempt three!!!

Omg yes yes yes :DDDDDDDD okay okay, I won't do the whole lil "going through all the lyrics" thing I sometimes do because if I did this post would be stupidly long, but omg just know I've had these on loop almost constantly since I got this ask. They have all been put in their respective playlists now >:]

Wicked Game by Him has gone in the My Girl playlist, because:

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you

It's strange what desire will make foolish people do

I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you

And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

This first verse really does feel like Jam to me. Like, they desperately wanna save each other, and the world is kinda on fire around them. And Jay never thought he'd meet someone like Tim let alone being loved by someone like Tim and have to worry about losing someone like Tim. Y'know?

Step On Me by The Cardigans is either going to go in the Tim Safewords playlist, or in the My Girl playlist, and I cannot decide so right now it's in both. I just can't decide if I want it in My Girl for foreshadowing, or in Tim Safewords for when Jay actually pushes too far and hurts Tim by accident. Like, Jays already stood on Tim's foot and Tim carried on anyway because he loves Jay and he really does want to help him and fix him.

I don't even have a specific lyric that made me go "oh yeah this goes in such and such playlist" it's just the whole song I think.

Perfect Girl by The Cure, definitely My Girl, that one's a given, Jark is indeed a strange girl and does need to be shaken and turned upside down.

Psychic Wound by King Woman... I also wanna put this in Tim Safewords BUT ALSO entry 80. I could put it in entry 80's playlist. I could. I so could.

Enslaved by the opinions, under seductive rule

Please rescue me, I've disobeyed and I admit I'm chained to you

Alex. Idk just Alex and the operator. After Alex kills Jay I have him kinda have this awful moment of clarity where he realises what he's done, and he's so overwhelmed by it that he tries to kill himself, but the Operator stops him so it can force him to continue his lil job for it.

Help me, I'm so chained to you

Someone tell me what to do

Feeling like a psychic wound

Like. This is Jaylex. This is Jaylex. In entry 80 neither of them know what to do, they need to be told, and Alex unfortunately has someone there to do it, that 'person' being the operator.

I do like it for Tim Safewords a lot, and Entry 80 is already like 60 songs strong which is far too many so idk where I wanna put it just yet. Another one that'll go in both playlists until I go through them properly again and make up my mind.

Pitch The Baby by Cocteau Twins is in My Girls playlist, I just like how it sounds, it's a fic that lets Jay and Tim have a little time and space to breathe and just enjoy each other, and the song's so pretty and like, floaty? Idk if that's the word I'm looking for, probably not but it's close enough, it's just a really nice feeling song. And like "I only want to love you" I think the lyrics say? Yeah, Tim only wants to love Jay, he just wants to use this lull in the constant, active threat of death to spend time loving on Jay a bit, teaching him how to let himself be loved and all that.

Daydream In Blue by I Monster is almost definitely going in Tim Safewords. It just feels like it fits, I think specifically because of some of what's gonna happen in that fic.

You're crawling on the bathroom floor

You float around the room and you're naked

Then you're flying out the bedroom door

Like, Tim has a bit of a freak out (for good reason) after he has to safeword, and he does end up on the floor in the bathroom, because he needs a moment on his own and that's the only room in his house with its own lock. And sure he doesn't NEED to lock Jay out, but he feels better if he can, so he does kinda, y'know, fly out of the bedroom door when he runs away to hide for a bit until he can get everything in his head under control a bit. And he's dissociating to high hell so he does feel like he's floating, y'know?

I dream a dirty dream of you, baby You're swinging from the chandelier I'm climbing up the walls 'cause I want you But when I reach you, you disappear

This bit also feels like the Tim Safewords fic, but kinda from Jay's pov more? Like, he knows he fucked up and he needs to make it right somehow, he needs to make sure Tim doesn't hate him, doesn't leave him, so even when Tim's hidden himself away somewhere unreachable (both in real life and in his head for... Reasons (mayhaps someone else fronts to handle the situation... Mayhaps someone split specifically to cope with Jay)) and Jay really does feel like he's climbing the goddamn walls to try and get him back, but when he reaches Tim, emotionally, Tim's gone, he's distant and cautious and Jay knows he's ruined it... And then they have to go to Benedict Hall together :D

Gonna pop a little warning here, the last song in here is one I'm gonna use to talk a little more about Jay's consent issues through, in case you don't wanna read that. Specifically it's talking about Jay trying to force Tim to choke him again, even though he knows Tim doesn't want to.

Reptilia by The Strokes... Yeah Tim Safewords, again. Look I can't help myself that fic's gonna be INSANE and everything reminds me of it. It's just... Consent issues, y'know? I love exploring Jay's consent issues, they're so interesting.

I'm literally just putting the lyrics to almost the entire song under this now lmao. Look, I can't help myself, there's not many lyrics and they really do feel like they could be talking about a dubiously consensual (or even a noncon) situation.

I was afraid that you would not insist "You sound so sleepy, just take this, now leave me"

I said, please don't slow me down if I'm going too fast You're in a strange part of our town

Like... Jay feeling like "god please don't take this from me, I need you to be rough with me, don't stop me, don't tell me not to, just let me put your hands on my throat, please" he's hoping Tim will change his mind and say it's fine, hoping Tim'll essentially say "yeah just take what you want" y'know?

Yeah, the night's not over, you're not trying hard enough Our lives are changing lanes, you ran me off the road The wait is over, I'm now taking over You're no longer laughing, I'm not drowning fast enough

'Tims not trying hard enough to care about my feelings about this, why can't he just see this from my perspective, I need him to be rougher with me' type shit. And then 'well maybe he's just scared of doing something I don't want, like he was scared of with trying out the feminisation stuff with me, so if I take over and put his hands there, he'll know it's fine.' and then 'oh fuck. I fucked up. Oh shit he looks fucking scared, he looks like he's sick, shit shit fuck shit fuck What'd I do what's wrong with me what the fuck!?'

Now every time that I look at myself "I thought I told you, this world is not for you" The room is on fire as she's fixing her hair "You sound so angry, just calm down, you found me"

Tim's gonna get to have a go at Jay for it, of course, he needs to make sure it gets through Jay's thick fucking skull that 'hey, you can't fucking do that what the fuck is wrong with you??? The world doesn't fucking revolve around you, did you stop for even a fucking second to think about what I've told about about why I don't want to fucking do that???'

[icedragonlizard]

I've made major headcanon changes!

Hello everyone. I'm unsure as to how often people in the Kirby fandom change their headcanons to be different from what they used to be, but I've decided to update some of my headcanons.

Some of them are pretty big changes! Different from what I used to think before. I suppose it's just happened as time goes on and I come up with new ideas. I've only been active in this fandom for about a year, which ends up having my mind actively develop ideas over time.

But anyways! Here are some of my major headcanon changes:

-I now headcanon Dark Meta Knight and Shadow Kirby to be friends. Back then, I had them not getting along, but it's changed now. I'm also changing the personality of my Skirby a lot, so I'm now rendering this post to be obsolete. I do however still interpret DMK to not be a good person as he's temperamental and assholish, but now he's slightly more reigned in because Skirby is a friend of his that's able to occasionally keep him in line. Skirby is one of DMK's closest friends alongside Daroach. I'll talk more about these concepts in a later post, but now let's go on to the next big changes down below.

-Shadow Kirby is now effectively added to the Wave 2 friend group. As I have him being friends with DMK, he's also now good friends with the rest of Wave 2.... Daroach, Adeleine and Ribbon. Can elaborate more on this later, but at this point my verse considers Skirby to be an "honorary wave 2er" in a similar way to how Nago, ChuChu and Pitch are "honorary wave 1ers".

-Dark Meta Knight and Flamberge are now friends in my verse. Something I hadn't really done before, but am doing it now. They're distant friends, as DMK is closer to Daroach and Skirby than he is to Flamberge, but these two sword users are sparring pals! They like to beat each other up with their weapons for fun and enrichment. DMK still doesn't do much of anything with the other two mage sisters, though. Zan in particular doesn't really even seem to be a big fan of him.

-Francisca is now the mage sister that Susie is closest to. I used to have Zan Partizanne hold that title, but now it's Francisca. In fact, Zan is actually now the mage that Susie gets along with the LEAST, hahahaha... they're still ultimately friends, but they like to butt heads a whole bunch, as they're basically firm rivals. Francisca on the other hand is a very close buddy to Susie in my headcanons now, she might be Susie's third or even second closest friend. I can elaborate more about this in a later post!

I still have Zan being the mage sister that Taranza is closest to, and Flamberge being the mage sister that Magolor is closest to. Now I've got a perfect double-trifecta with now having Francisca be the mage sister that Susie is closest to!

-King Dedede is now a big Marx hater. I suppose this one might not be as drastic of a change as some of the others, though? I say this because I already had Dedede not liking Marx, but now it's turned up a notch. Dedede is legitimately ticked off about being a top favorite prank target for Marx, as it threatens his reputation and he also clearly doesn't appreciate Marx for additionally messing with his waddle dees a lot. If you asked my verse's Dedede who is his least favorite fellow dream friend, it's absolutely Marx. But don't worry about the jester too much, because it gets better for him in the next big change down below. Consider it an exchange of haters.

-I'm now all in favor of Wave 3 + Marx being a friend group. This is a big change from what I used to headcanon, I would say. I've ALWAYS had Magolor be pals with Marx, but back then I used to talk a lot about how I interpreted both Taranza and Susie hating him. That has now changed. I'm now doing a 180 and considering them to be friends with Marx. They'll still "butt heads" with him as they both have cain instinct relationships with him, but ultimately Taranza and Susie are now friends with Marx in my verse. Congrats to my Marx for being friends with them now, congrats to my Magolor for now having his three besties get along! I'd be more than glad to elaborate on this in later posts as I can talk more about Marx's individual dynamics with Susie and Taranza, but yeah I'm now on the train of having these 4 lunatics be a friend group. I guess we can call the group the "Magogang" because I bet Magolor would want to call it that.

Even though the "Marx and Taranza ought to bite each other" and "Marx and Susie would get into arguments about clockwork stars" posts I did a while back are still very much plausible to happen in my verse. Like I said: cain instinct is what the jester has going on with those two! He's still a devious little shit even when he's friends with someone. Top kek.

It's like Dedede is simultaneously taking Taranza's and Susie's places for being a big Marx hater. Lol. Still a net positive for the jester though, he's losing 2 haters and gaining 1 hater from someone that already didn't like him before. He'll take it!

-Wave 1 + Magolor also now exists in my verse, to go along with Wave 3 + Marx. This one might not be such a huge change because I already had Magolor getting along with Gooey and the animal friends, but now he's closer friends with them than he was before. And that's in no small part thanks to Marx. I still have Marx being pals with the rest of Wave 1, and now Magolor is too! Gooey and the animal friends get to experience the fun of the chaos duo. Magolor and Marx, being the besties they are, are interactive with each other's respective dream friend waves! Magolor interacts with Marx's buds in Wave 1 while Marx interacts with Magolor's buds in Wave 3. This technically makes a connection between Wave 1 and Wave 3. Even though Taranza and Susie still aren't very interactive with Gooey and the animal friends, they're all the extended friends of Magolor and Marx.

Not to do Wave 2 dirty. At least I've given them Shadow Kirby to add to their group. And I mean, Adeleine and Ribbon are good buddies with the animal friends and Gooey, so there's some connection between those two waves there. Daroach is, additionally, decent friends with Rick, Kine, Coo, Marx and Magolor.

-I am now planning to introduce individuals of Helper species, such as a Chilly and a Vividria. This is something I need to expand on more, but I'm planning to have a Chilly individual be a friend of Magolor's to reference Magochilly. LMAO. I don't actually ship Magochilly but the idea here is to have a Chilly individual be hanging out with Magolor and Marx inside their 3 AM slumber parties in the Lor Starcutter. And I'm thinking up a Vividria individual that's a big fan of Susie as she has designed a goddess statue based on her, the one you see in Star Allies. Will converse more on these ideas later!

Those are all the big changes I've made, more or less!

And if you might be wondering, I'll update my google doc of Kirby dynamics at some point. Before the end of the month, I'll rework it to be in compliance with my updated headcanons and I'll reblog that original post to remind you all when it's updated as I'll update the google doc at the time.

That won't stop me from elaborating more on the updated concepts above in tumblr posts beforehand, though! After all, the google doc merely just summarizes dynamics, I can go into much greater detail in tumblr posts! Feel free to ask away in my inbox what you're curious about in any of these concepts.

A lot of the headcanons I've had before these updates are still the same, so this doesn't invalidate ALL my headcanon posts before this. It's not that simple. If you need more specific clarification, feel free to ask me.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: September 2024

……….FILM……….

Army of Darkness (1992) Having now seen the original trilogy, it baffles me that all of the Evil Dead reboots exclusively lean into horror. Two thirds of the these movies are practically Saturday-morning cartoons! I love everything about this, from the humour to the puppetry to the insane haircuts.

Mad Monster Party? (1967) This is the first feature-length Rankin-Bass production that I've seen and you can tell the animators were invested in this one. 80% of the film is visual gag it's all so much fun. Zero complaints though I am a sucker for anything that lumps a bunch of public domain monsters together.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) While I wish they'd gone with the original sequel premise (Beetlejuice goes to Hawaii), this is still a solid comeback. Does it all work? No. But it is a great pitch for a Beetlejuice limited series.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) Loved the original, loved this even more.

……….TELEVISION……….

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episode 1.21 to 1.22) Okay didn't watch much of this in September but it's taken a nosedive into a pool of existential dread. I mean it was always there but it feels like the end is going to be a battle with conflicting ideologies instead of the Angels. Wild stuff.

……….YOUTUBE……….

The Sustained Two-Shot by Every Frame a Painting It's been years since EFAP posted a video and I implore you to check out their back catalog of really insightful film analysis. If you like this video, you'll like the others. VIDEO

The Question No One Asks Shigeru Miyamoto by Good Blood Great insight into game philosophy and design, as well as a unique lens with which to explore the Zelda series of games. VIDEO

AB Dictionary by Allison Bornstein For those who may not know, I have a passion...for fashion! I keep going back to a few core resources for inspiration and guidance and Allison Bornstein's youtube channel is one of them. She leans towards women's wardrobes, but this introduction to her approach is fairly universal (leaning towards personal style vs "wear this not that".) VIDEO

……….READING……….

Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie (Complete) Really digging into Christie's work has given me some more perspective on which sorts of mysteries I connect. This one, which spends some time with the suspects, but not as much as in other books, made it much harder to keep track of everyone. But dang if the endings don't deliver so much satisfaction that I can't help but finishing it and thinking "Yeah! That was good."

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Complete) The Discworld series of novels are always great but sometimes one just really clicks for me. Loved the monsterverse setting, loved the politics, loved it all. I'm not sure I'd recommend this as a good entrypoint but if you've read any of the Discworld books featuring the Watch and you haven't read The Fifth Elephant, definitely check it out.

Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground by Donald E Westlake and Darwyn Cooke (Complete) Darwyn Cooke's adaptation are always so stylish I always feel a little sad reading it, knowing it's his final rework of the Parker series. And such a gut punch at the end when it says Parker will return. Darwyn Cooke has been such an inspiration for me and his work is incredible; please check out this series or the DC: The New Frontier comics OR his run on Catwoman OR his contributions to Spider-Man's Tangled Web.

FF Volume 1: Fantastic Faux and FF: Volume 2: Family Freakout by Matt Fraction, Lee Allred, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, Joe Quinones, and many more (Complete) I loved Matt Fraction's work on Hawkeye and Michael and Laura Allred's work on Silver Surfer so I was excited for this pairing...but it didn't really click. The writing felt surprisingly dated and even across the two volumes I felt like I was missing a lot of context. I wish I could recommend it but there are better stories from these creatives and about these characters.

……….AUDIO……….

Flight b741 by King GIzzard & The LIzard Wizard (2024) The beauty of King Gizzard's prolific output is that they have the freedom to experiment. Sometimes I don't connect with what they're doing, and sometimes they put out an album like this. Into it.

Shingangumi by Ginger Root (2024) The vibes are right on the mark but the majority of the album just kinda washes over you. Some of Ginger Root's singles are really catchy and it's a shame I haven't connected with any individual tracks just yet.

……….GAMING……….

Wonderland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) With the book's upcoming release, our Tuesday group decided to take a break from Oz and Neverland and do a few dungeon delves. It was a whirlwind that included a character death and exploring a secret secondary realm! If you want to read the campaign diary then it's over here!

And that's it. See you in October!

[torveiglyart]

The more I think about my hobbies and achievements (or lack thereof), the weirder I realize my life is. I had never really thought about some of these things until as of recent, specifically when someone introduced to another as "cool". Like what.

First things first that I've talked about on here is I'm an oboe player. Which is already a kind of "different" instrument to play. And, actually, I've been third chair in the All-District wind ensemble for grades 11-12. So there's that.

Another thing I tend to tell people /if prompted/ is I'm a nationally recognized Scottish Highland dancer. I placed third in the southeast regionals and qualified to perform in Las Vegas along with everyone else who qualified across the country. This one is kinda like my "fun fact" during ice breakers 'cause it's something I know won't be repeated.

I'm a digital artist, as you all know, but I also do traditional art often. A few of my paintings in my portfolio helped me score a spot in NCSU's ID program. Maybe one day I'll scan them and post here.

I'm a singer. This one goes multiple ways as in: HS choir, church choir, musical theatre, and bands. I just like singing and got blessed with a nice voice... I think.

I can bake and decorate very well. As in won a cookie decorating contest at the NC State Fair well. That was a good year for me :). But it's also the perfect ganache every time kind of good. I guess the same can be said about cooking given no meal I've made has gone wrong or tasted bad. I seriously hope it stays that way.

This next one only partially counts because while I'm not /fluent/ by any means, I can somewhat comfortably hold a conversation in a few languages. French, Spanish, Japanese, and, strangely enough, Swahili, are languages I've worked on since uhhhh... I don't know at this point. And I've since added Scottish Gaelic to that list to work on. Languages just fascinate me and I plan to travel A LOT when I get the money to do so.

I do archery in my free time. Often enough I have my own bow and arrows. It’s fun. And last time I went to an actual range I never missed a target which I’m totally bragging here but it’s also just a fun activity to get anger out, you know?

Back to the musical theatre thing, I actually was called back for an audition to enroll at UNCSA, but did not make it. And back in freshman year, I did this whole Society Performers multi-class thing, but cut it short to work on my studies. So while I probably could have gone into theatrics, I don't think that would have been the best choice for me.

An going further back to the instruments, I can also play piano, ukulele, and clarinet, but lessons are those were far fewer than oboe.

Time for the weirder stuff.

I definitely have ADHD, and so does my dad, but we're both undiagnosed so let's just not go there.

I can't whistle or roll my tongue. People always seem really surprised by this one but it's not like I'm in a tiny percentage with that one.

I'm nearsighted in one eye and far sighted in the other, and I also only require one contact lense/prescription. Actually let's call this the whacky section.

I'm allergic to celery. Yes, celery. And only that. Not pollen, not pets, not dust, not even ragweed, but celery. And only when it's raw. Cooked in a dish? Fine. Raw in a salad? Cotton-mouthed and itchy. Not terribly sad about it though.

I can't ride a bike. Like, I know how to in theory, but I just never had a bike growing up. My older sister's always had a flat tire, and by the time my younger brother got one, I was too big to ride it. So I scooter instead :).

I have perfect pitch, as in I hear a pitch, and can tell you the note it is, and can tell you what key a song is originally in and sing it. I would get in trouble a lot as a kid for "picking a fight" with my siblings by telling them, "it actually goes like this," and then changing the key they were singing in. While many find this cool or helpful, unless you're a music student or something, it's actually annoying. The car radio is always a few microtones sharp and there's nothing I can do to make it in tune. My choir teacher would also have me sing the starting pitch for songs, no tuner, which was nerve-wracking.

WOW this was just me ranting (bragging) lol, sorry about that, but hey! Now you know more about me!

If you have any questions or comments, don't be afraid to ask! Or, y'know, do the whole asks thing. I think I changed the icon for that but I'm not sure.

[charmikarma]

charmikarma's homestuck fanwork rec list

will be updated as i work my way through more things i like :) check under da cut

notes: parentheses indicate the focus(es) of each work, and works with explicit content are marked [E]. gen means there's no specific ship or character focus.

Canon Compliant or Canon-Adjacent Works

Karkat Goes To A Convention, Act 1 by Cole (gen)

i have two pitches for kgtac. here they are:

if you ever find yourself missing homestuck in the old days before postcanon, or even just the old days of homestuck fandom, you should read karkat goes to a convention immediately.

this is the most homestuck thing i have read since homestuck.

act 1 of kgtac is completed, and is the main draw here. act 2 is currently ongoing and is pretty much completely unrelated to act 1. i think it's alright. but act 1 is absolutely a must-read.

Detective Pony by sonnetstuck (dirk)

do i even need to explain this one? it's detective pony. it's a great character study of dirk. i'm sure you've all heard of it. if you haven't read it, go do that now. please.

Jade Route by SPICYYETI (jade)

jade route is a post-epilogues comic following meat!jade who is trapped in a body controlled by calliope. it's a take on the "ending" that the epilogues don't offer. i think it's pretty clever - it does a great job of using the medium. also, it's about jade :) may or may not have had an impact of some size on how i personally read jade.

AU Fics

Crossfire by HappiKatt (gen; dave)

ok, this series only contains one fic (for now). it's called "the calm is terrifying when the storm is all you've known." ok i literally could not put this fic down. it has the best hook i've ever seen. a proper fucking novel. and some of the best character writing i have EVER seen for the whole strilonde family. augh it's so good. and the art is really good too (YES IT'S ILLUSTRATED).

The Eurydice Suite by callmearcturus [E] (gen; davekat)

inception au. some of the coolest action and plot stuff with an ensemble cast i've ever read followed by the best davekat fic i've ever read. really cool stuff.

Catacombs by oxfordRoulette [E] (jadekat; dirkjohn)

another series. it's a d&d-like au. very tongue in cheek about this fact at times. the real draw here is the third fic in the series, Vanitas Vanitatum, which has stellar dirk and john writing. you could read it on its own, but the first two fics are also QUITE good, are about jadekat, and the second one sets up vanitas beautifully, so... you should read all three??? :3c

Miscellaneous

Homestuck Made This World by Ranged Touch (analysis)

hsmtw is a readthrough/analysis podcast whose goal is not to analyze homestuck on its own terms, but to challenge it and put it back into its historical context. it's not the easiest to listen to as a homestuck fan - the hosts are very critical at times, and i don't always agree with their opinions on things that happen in homestuck - but i think the analysis about what homestuck does, tries to do, and is responding to is very important, especially for people who weren't there for homestuck's original run. which... includes me! i read homestuck in 2014. i missed most of the most important homestuck historical moments. in any case, hsmtw changed the way i look at homestuck and other media. highly recommend, at the very least for understanding homestuck's historical context

Sugoi Quest for Kokoro by death420 (gen)

well well well well well well. well. 🤔 well. if it isn't ratchet and fuckin CLANK

DORITOS & FRITOS by bb-panzu (davejade)

good video. has davejade. i'm not an artist or anything but i think there's some kind of artistic genius happening here. it scratches my brain just right.

[leefi]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere Read-through | Part 1: Chapters 1-14

Part 1: 1-14 | Part 2: 14-22 | Part 3: 22-34 | Part 4: 34-64 | Part 5: 64-80 | Part 6: 81-90 | Part 7: 90-100 | Part 8: 100-127 (caught up here)

Hi!!!! I've been reading through this webnovel after seeing @ot3's pitch for it and started writing down some thoughts on the characters and worldbuilding and imminent murdering. This story is very, very long and I only reacted up to about chapter 33, so most of my thoughts will involve the worldbuilding and less the murder mystery aspect -- so if you're looking for theorizing you won't find much of that here. Since I'll be continuing eventually, I wanted to post what I did make note of to revisit later!

Most of these are not marked by chapter/section because I was lazy and I'm not sure how easy it will be to follow as a result, but everything is chronological.

everyone here is hijabi mashallah

The visual I'm getting of the solar system/local system/dimension they inhabit is kind of a blend of steampunk and fantasy and uhh some secret third thing. With the walls of their "universe" painted in that puella dollhouse witch lair style. Does the sun bounce around like a screensaver. Does it orbit their earth or is it on a fixed axis flung out into “space”? Does “space” even exist anymore? I’m assuming they’re in an enclosed area that they've created. Do they actively use arcane resources to keep objects (ie star and planets) sustaining themselves, or have they made them self sufficient?

everyone is so mean to Ptolema leave her alone what the fuckk let a bimbo live i want to kill you all you’re so annoying. Ptolema I WOULD be your friend and not ask all these weird ass questions. and we would hold hands and skip and giggle

Yes shes an airhead nepo baby but you guys could try doing anything other than snickering and rolling your eyes whenever she says stupid shit. If she starts arguing back about government war crimes during the Revolution or something then you have my blessing to beat her ass!

I HATE kamsurepa i HATE her i HAYE Her and her stupid ass name

Ran and Su have no chemistry its insane that theyre always hanging out every conversation is like uhhh (awkward silence) (rude comment from Ran) *Su voice* wow she gets me so well. every time they talk im like what the fuck just happened.

Su’s internal narration is too self aware for me. it’s like she talks like she knows she’s a character? or something. it's self-deprecating in a very bizarre way

im sorry i don’t know if i can continue with this. i know too many med students irl and these characters are literally pissing me off. compliments to the author for realism you knocked it out of the park

Oh, thank you very much!" Kam said, reverting back to her smiley-diplomatic form for a moment before stepping away from the counter and continuing as she handed us the cards. "...as far as it seems to me, the desire to reproduce is essentially an immature form of pursuing life-extension - this idea that you'll 'live on through your children' that's patently pseudo-mysticism justifying what is ultimately an animal instinct." ⬇️ I’m going to grab her ginger head and swing her around like bowser in mario 64. SHUT UPPPPP SHUT UP please tell me shes the one that dies

You know," I mused idly, my eyes wandering. "I think this is actually the fourth glass ceiling I've seen today." "Mm, it's true that you don't see a lot of women working in Aetheromancy," ⬇️ I know this is a small nitpick but aren’t we really far into the future why do they keep using terms like this 😭 gendered stuff like this still exists billions? trillions? of years into the future?

Why has the disco elysium skill tree randomly started talking to su. Is this her future self nagging her. Is she pulling a han sooyoung. when do we get to the various utsushikome ego deaths

"prosognostic overlap"…do ppl repeat faces? Are most people cloned at this point? What triggered the need for cloning surely medicine is advanced enough that childbirth or test tube babies are feasible? Can bodies be cloned and reinhabited to inhibit aging? Is there some disturbing psychological element to seeing someone with the same face as you? Does it make your brain short circuit? Kam mentioned having children earlier which I assume means people still give birth or have test tube babies, so i don’t know if it’s the result of cloning…but it does sound like a sameface sort of thing. What else would it be if not that though?

Actually, if they’ve figured out teleportation (whatever it was called when they went up the aetherbridge) - let's say they can atomize a body and reforming it elsewhere (though we don't know for sure yet, could also be a fold in spacetime) - transferring consciousness to an empty clone of yourself (and therefore effectively doing away with aging or death wholesale) sounds a lot more efficient and technologically practical than maintaining an organic system that naturally decays. Why keep on finding ways to push the human body past its limits when you could simply transfer a person to a new, identical vessel?

I feel like the key to immortality isn’t maintaining an organic body, which naturally tends towards systems of entropy (being a biological thing, entropy=decay), but rather delineating and separating human consciousness from its host and replicating its original environment perfectly. I’m not talking about making a copy of consciousness, which is just glorified cloning - I’m talking about *transferring* a consciousness.

You could almost call dementia itself the mind's tendency towards its own kind of entropy?

Though if you transfer a consciousness to a younger body, the dementia issue could still potentially remain. Depends on if it the author sees it as a solely physical phenomena (atrophy/buildup of inhibitors of the brain) or there's some metaphysical anomaly about amassing too many memories/"existing" too long in general

The way spellwork is described is really cool and feels super believable. Optimizing multiple concurrent spells into one “function” is intricate and sophisticated, and you have to dedicate a lot of brainpower to doing the math in your head. It’s like they’re coding the real world. I love the way lurina describes this it's awesome.

[cladestruction]

ok so let's talk about Enif!

my girl: i love her to death and think about her quite a lot! so much so that she's in my head at all times. her (general) storyline is pretty much the same one i've had since the start of her creation BUT !!! I've been racking my brain trying to make sure there are little to no plot holes. and on that quest I've made the decision to make changes. some very little and other very very consequential. here's a little list! I'll make sure to explain in detail in Enif's wiki page in a future update.

name change: Enif Bane. for the sake of the story I want for Enif, she can't go by Enif Cordero. Her birth name Laura Cordero has to be revealed later on. along with her name, there'll be changes on some key aspects, like how she became Liz's daughter and how much Enif knows about the truth (the cult, her training, and her biological family).

she is left handed. this is a small and rather irrelevant detail but I have to integrate it because I hadn't thought of it until I made a mistake while drawing her lmao.

No tattoos, no scars. again, for the sake of the story, Enif's character will be slightly tamed down. the tattoos and scars were direct consequences of her nocturnal training sessions with Liz and the cult, but I want Enif to be painfully average on surface level, so yeah. no traces on her body.

special abilities: Enif still knows how to defend herself, but she's far from a powerful fighter, physically speaking. Liz wanted her to know the basics of self defense and made sure Enif would know her way with knives and blades (for ceremonies and stuff), but I really wanted to nerf her in this aspect because I want her to have one special ability developed above any other: voice changing. in summary, Liz wanted Enif to be skilled at manipulating (much like herself) but she went even further. she made sure Enif would learn how to control her voice and tone with expertise. thanks to this, Enif essentially knows how to mimic other people's voices. I know it sounds like fantasy but at this point I'm appealing to the show's canon nonsense lmao so yeah she can do that !

Enif doesn't learn the truth. initially, I wanted Enif to confront Liz and force her to confess to all her doings, including killing Enif's parents. in this new version, Enif doesn't confront Liz and doesn't learn the truth. she could eventually (I have an idea involving Charles), but I think it's much more tragic if Enif never finds out that her parents died because of Liz. it adds another layer to how much her perception of reality has been manipulated by Liz. it also adds some realism because life's like that: there are so many things we don't know and we die without ever learning.

other stuff: for Enif's storyline, there's some things post canon that have to happen. for one, General Crozier starts working with Dethklok (I've seen people pitch this idea and I love it. credit is not mine, however). second, Charles goes on to keep working with the Church of the Black Klok. and third, Dethklok is still going strong as a band, they are self managed, and they keep the same dynamic of the show essentially, but of course with added development. some other minor things, like the klokateers still being a thing (let's just say aotd didn't kill all of them, plus new people came to sign up after the great reuniting).

that's pretty much it, for now. after all, these things caught my attention because i've been writing down Enif's story in some brief chapters! and i gotta make the pieces align as good as possible. see ya!

[wardensantoineandevka]

Someone in the Midst discord has dubbed you Lisan Al Gaib and I thought you should know.

I know that's from Dune, but I don't know anything about Dune, so this is a little lost on me. But judging by some Google searches, I presume this saying I am prophetic.

Well, to the folks in the Discord, my track record is actually only 50-50. I have made a LOT of incredibly wrong predictions in private about this show! But, you don't get to see that because I've only been calling the shots on main that I feel SUPER confident in—and even then I do often call a miss. People don't remember those because it's not as flashy as when I do get stuff correct, but I do get things very wrong. My tendency to only post things when I feel reasonably certain but hold back on theories I very much have that don't met my threshold skews my apparent record. I promise you, I have been often very wrong. It's just the fact that I only post theories I feel REALLY sure on that's giving this perception because you don't see the wrong stuff I've pitched to people I chat with privately.

What also helps is that I post a lot of theories, and I post a LOT of musings that are not formal theories but are simply playing in the narrative space to entertain myself. Sheer frequency and density of posting often means that you'll be right eventually, perhaps more often, by just scattershot method. I like to think I'm trying to be thoughtful and not scattershot (i.e. randomly guessing) with my thoughts on Midst, but the point stands.

I will say though, I AM pleased I connected the moonfall to a bomb threat in the Highest Light, though I did get many of the finer points wrong because I believed the former a practice run—though, we do know that both involve Ledge's inventions. (On that note of me being wrong: I did think that Kozma was a red herring there, and I wondered if Imelda orchestrated it, I just never posted about it.) I AM pleased about pointing at Agatha Ledge.

Let me also take this chance to say, and I've said this elsewhere, it's really because Third Person put down a tight story with a clear thematic arc and really well defined character journeys! We're in the endgame, so all of the pieces are already here in front of us, it's just a matter of trying to understand how they all fit together, and Third Person's efficient, effective, and elegant writing has made it much, much easier to guess. Theorycraft becomes incredibly easy when there's very clear narrative goals. I'm doing very little here, actually.

Third Person has the ability to, as we've discussed it in film school, determine EXACTLY when the audience starts to miss a character or is wondering when a plot point is going to come up again or resolve, then immediately bring that character or plot point back, so I've been simply trying to listen to my instincts on what questions I have or what character I find myself missing or what plot points I go "hey, remember that?" about. If I listen to an episode and I find myself thinking about something, no matter how unrelated, I try to follow that feeling because I trust Third Person as storytellers to be aware that at least some of the audience is feeling that due to how consistently they've circled back to those things exactly when the audience wonders about it. So, it's all on them!

Anyway! This is way longer for sure than you all expected it, but since I'm not in the Discord, thus don't have more regular opportunity to talk with you all, I thought I'd take the chance to give some insight into how I approach and think about all of this where I can! I'm flattered, I promise you that my track record is not actually that clean, it's all because Third Person is telling a tight story, but I am still very flattered!

I'm glad you all enjoy me guessing stuff, and I hope it's fun for all of you subscribers who listen ahead to see me guess stuff and know before I do whether I'm right or wrong. I aspire to be a whole other layer of tension for you all.