#I write and it’s like *insert tumbleweed*

[mebiselfandi]

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[little-froggie-enclosure]

What do you do when the rent needs to be paid, your body is riddled with nerve pain and the other bills piling up threaten to send you spiraling? You do what you are good at, of course, and hope folks like the result enough to pay you for it! Let's face it: the economic state of the world is in the absolute shitter and survival itself is a challenge these days if you are not born to the right family or the correct circumstances.

You seek escape through roleplaying, to become someone else for a while and sink into a world where anything is possible. You read fanfiction to seek solace in the relationships and hardships experienced by beloved characters from your favourite works of fiction. You might be someone trying to alleviate the dour cloud of existential dread in others through ASMR or roleplay videos.

I can attest to the efficacy of every method- only sometimes, you can't find anything that scratches a particular itch. Your rare-pair has an empty tag filled with cobwebs and tumbleweeds. You struggle to get the lines in your script to sound natural and compelling.

This is where I come in. My name is Froggie, and I want to translate the ideas you have in your mind into words for you.

Why you should commission me: -I am a queer, neurodiverse, disabled gremlin

-I offer affordable pricing

-You can help me pay for my groceries (please god, I just want to eat)

-I like when I can create something rad for someone

-Work that requires physical labour is difficult for me to reliably do at this time as I am very early in treatment. Fibromyalgia sucks, dude, but I'm always looking ahead.

-I won't steal your firstborn child and replace it with a pinecone with googly eyes hot-glued on. Probably.

I have been writing ever since I could hold a pen (then later on, type on a keyboard) and possess a deep passion for story telling. Let me help you bring your ideas to life!

What I can write for you: -Your D&D character's backstory

-An original roleplay character's backstory

-D&D NPC creation for Dungeon Masters

-Help world build, create settings and plan a story for a homebrew D&D campaign

-Self-insert fanction

-'Your name here' fanfiction

-NSFW fanfiction (I will require proof that you are 18+ for this please!)

-Drabble collections (usually following prompts)

-One-shot fanfiction

-Fandom and original themed poetry

-ASMR Roleplay and comic scripts

-Original short stories

My writing strengths are: -Detailed settings

-Compelling dialogue

-Romantic tension

-Friendship

-Natural sounding script dialogues

-Vivid use of language

-Appropriate use of metaphor and themed imagery

I am knowledgeable in the following fandoms:

-Final Fantasy FFXIV

-Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel

-Inuyasha

-Skyrim

-Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit (both original book and the Peter Jackson movie adaptations)

-The Legend of Zelda (nearly any game in the series)

-Stardew Valley

-Baldur's Gate 3

-Dungeons & Dragons/ Forgotten Realms

If you don't see one here but want to request something, please let me know! Even if I am unfamiliar with said fandom, I am willing to research so I can write your favourite characters right!

All requests are to be private messaged to me so we can sort out the particulars. I want to make sure I know what you are looking for and that my writing reflects that. If we move ahead with an order, I will provide you with some questions regarding your preferences!

I charge $1 USD per 100 words. Any orders that exceed 3k words I will request half the payment upfront. Any word overages will be rounded down in price (i.e. 530 words is still $5 USD).

I also offer personalized animal doodles for $5 USD! There is an example of my work on my ko-fi page.

I accept payment via Paypal and Ko-fi!

You can find an example of my writing here!

[marvellousstawler]

Mon 16 Oct 2023

The busiest week of my entire year (work-wise) just concluded, so, cut me a break, Present Marvo. I haven't even opened my PAX-haul.

Art *cricket noises*... Apparently due to a migraine-addled nostalgia nosedive into Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTube I have learned that I've been Mai Valentine kin-assigned since age eight and cannot divest myself of the need to draw fanart of her. So I guess I'll add that to somewhere on this too-long, unmoving list of incomplete art pieces.

Writing This week I had maybe the worst idea for a 'story' ever conceived, and somehow, against all odds, it already has three 'chapters.' You may remember from last week that I mentioned I play D&D, in 2 campaigns. One of those campaigns is on hiatus, during which time I have, completely against my own wishes, become obsessed with my own bard. To offset this bardless existence I now endure (rather than write the much more useful faction-guide from her perspective), I decided to interview her. Thrice. Writing on my phone in a three-day-long hyperfocused stupor on lunchbreaks, commutes and in waiting rooms. The worst thing about it is that the unfolding dynamic between the interviewee and her interviewer (which, I'll remind you, is literally myself) is genuinely compelling (at least to me) and I'm honestly unsettled by the blatant egotism of that. I wanted to avoid becoming the kind of author who is THAT obvious with their self-inserts in a fictional context, but honestly, it was inevitable. And hey, it's better than no writing. Not that I need've worried, because it turned out through some miracle that I actually did have enough energy to add to TDD's opening act outline AND refine its magic system a little. So, wow? Go me? Don't know how you did that considering how many early crashes you've had this week but, Kudos, Past Self. (Ugh, see? Egotism inevitable. Guess I'm not much of an...elegant egotist? Eh? Ehhhh? Because Mai from YGO, she uses that, that card in the...Anyone? Nah, me neither).

Reading *tumbleweed bounces feebly across an empty highway*... Just this evening I went to a comic store to try and sell some old stuff that's no longer to my taste, only to learn that they don't take single issues. So I thought I might give them to any unhoused people I meet who might want one, just to break up their day and give them something different to read. Like, they're good comics, they're mostly DC, they're just a bit frayed and also not my thing. If I get no takers, I'll put them in one of those street libraries where you can take so long as you give; not enough libraries in general stock comics anyway. Also, while I was at the store I picked up a brochure for a cool scavenger hunt for street art comic panels around Melbourne laneways. It's basically the most Melbourne thing ever, only thing that could make it more so is if some of the panels turn out to feature coffee and/or jazz. Also I learned there are more comic stores in this city than I thought. Apparently if you complete the scavenger hunt you can get free comics at the partner locations, but I'm just keen to meander around Melbourne to look for art, honestly. If you're in Melbourne and you want to take part, you can pick up one of the brochures at most comic stores in the CBD, and scan the QR for more info.

[candyrumm]

um RTTE OC intro yeah...

I was trying to get into the writing grove... and figured this prompt could be easy. Its a silly little stupid story of my self insert character into a show which I loved as a little kid. Some loves are long lasting... heh heh.

This could take place during the auction episode of season 3 where Snotlout dresses up as a blonde rich buyer.

Leor — with her dark brown green eyes, skin the color of golden sand, and raven hair — was watching the area. She sported her usual black top with a red and lavender patch, purple knitted arm warmers, sepia/caramel pleated skirt, dark brown pants, and tumbleweed colored fur boots with red laces. Staying clear of the auction grounds, especially backstage — more or less — to not interfere with all the hustle and bustle. Her uncles had urgent business to attend to. Normally she wouldn’t be near. However she’s heard of some incredible stories recently. A gang of dragon riders, terrorizing business affairs and looting ships. And if she really thought hard, she didn’t really have anything else important to do. Plus she was getting bored and wanted to have a front row seat of some possible jaw-dropping events. Seeing the cause of such tales or even the reactions and dumb-folded that the men have been telling others would have the trip more than worth it. These riders have made such a threat that the men have taken extra precautions to doubling security.  

Now usually, young women such as herself wouldn’t be brought to such place — the smell/stench alone would scare. But ironic as it is she too has a dragon, that which she occasionally ride on. Oh the tale of how they met is an interesting one. Sitting back here under the dabble lighting of the sunlight, thinking of why on earth she came here, and trying to calm her nerves. Sometimes internal thoughts wonder, and wants you to reminisce.

Leor was maybe 11 or 12 when she first laid eyes on her beloved scaly friend. Rogo her beloved — a violet and red colored dramillion — was small. “Do you remember how we met Rowgie? I think it was night time. There was a celebration or gathering happening, a party with lots of food. I think I had wandered near the nursery. And there you were. A lot of your friends seemed to have ventured off. Though there were two or three others there. I got curious and got nearer. The lot of you piped up and skittered towards me. I dunno why but I found some food for ya’ll and feed you. It sounded like someone was approaching, the big dragons couldn’t have been too far away either. I’ve overstayed my welcome, and tried make my leave to exit. But this one dragon would not left me leave. In fact the adorable reptile followed me out. Or at least you must’ve — despite my many attempts of making you stay or be distracted so I could dash away. Cause the next few days, you were pikabooing me outta nowhere. You remember that? Haha-”

Mhm… Leor is snapped out of her bliss by a dark beast and skinny man entering the mouth of the dungeon. Rogo stayed behind, enjoying his snack still as Leor ventured closer for a better look. The structure held all sorts of dragons. She was careful to not draw too much attention to herself, and in awe at what she saw. A nightfury. Or at least she thought it was a nightfury, she’ve only ever seen drawings of the creature.  The skinny person was unlocking doors. Scared of what the night fury could do, Leor figured confronting wasn’t the best course of action. She had taken a step back to process what she’d just witness, maybe a second gone by and when she turned back to see the rider and his dragon, they were gone.

[sardonic-the-writer]

hi! i've been feeliing really down lately, if you have the time could you maybe write just some short fluffy wilbur headcannons? if not thats ok!!

Awh no sweety, I hope you feel better. If you need to, my blog is always open for another anon. Feel free to drop by just to chat or if you need any more prompts dude.

The second Wilbur hears you're feeling down, he's all over you like frosting on a cake

Wants to do everything he can to help, but is afraid of overwhelming you at the same time

"Do you want to talk? Or just for me to distract you." Is the first thing he asks every time

Makes sure to talk in a calm voice in case loud noises or other sensory issues are the root of your bad mood. Even if that's not the case he's still going to do it

No matter what it is, Wilbur isn't going to leave your side until he knows that you've smiled at least once (if not twice)

Netflix is sure to be pulled up, if not a video of him and Phil or Tommy at some point. You just sit there and weakly smile, maybe even laugh a little, at how embarrassed and cringey Wil gets at his own content

"Oh come on, it wasn't even that funny of a joke! And why does my hair look like a tumbleweed that Jürgen Klausvonschwitz cut!"

[*insert small (y/n) chuckle*]

Early morning, middle of the day, or late at night, the comfort session always ends with you laying your head on his chest; listening to the rise and fall of his lungs as it sooths your mind

[yellowocaballero]

saw your tags on that last ask [eyes emoji] moon knight fic is a huge untapped market, i'm telling you, especially for the kind of long fics you tend to write (since there's like less than a thousand fics total right now and most are pretty short) :)

The Moon Knight tag is a fucking barren wasteland. I opened it up and I saw tumbleweeds. And horniness for Oscar Isaac. Awful.

I'm trying to finish the No Chip thing I'm writing /the Batman fanfic I started writing MONTHS ago and got distracted from by Star Wars that I really want to go back to /for just like god's sakes anything else but yes these weirdo little guys are taking up brain space. Imagine having so many problems that you just make up a guy about them. So great. Marc put Steven in a turtle terrarium and fed him a lot of spinach and gave him a lot of enrichment and this is a great use of his time and a reasonable coping mechanism. Hot new Deviantart sona self-insert OC dropped and he's a little meow meow, very unproblematic, has all of my wife's interests, look he's a vegan - look, Konshu, you told me to get a hobby, this counts -

The thing is that I am a gigantic fucking comics nerd, and any kind of comics thing I write integrates an embarrassingly large amount of knowledge. The Loki fic I wrote ages ago was a combination of three different Thor comic runs, the Fraction & Aja Hawkeye, two different TV shows, MCU Thor 1, my medievalism classes in college, and the Poetic Edda. The X-Men series from FOREVER ago was an actual combination of 50 years worth of characters. Or the Batman stuff, and I will absolutely not admit how much Batman I've read in my life. I know more about Deadpool than 95% of the people who write Deadpool fanfic I SWEAR -

I actually know jack, zero, and shit about Moon Knight. There's not much to know, he's boring. Those funny comic panels are photoshopped. He's never had a really good comic. I wouldn't be speaking from a love of the character. I would mostly be speaking from the intense hilarity of the entire premise. Which is usually enough for me, but what that effectively means is I have a lot of jokes but no concrete plot for a fic.

I will say - why is the entire Tumblr tag woobie'ing Marc? He's really morally gray. That's the whole thing. Him sucking a bit is kind of the crux of the entire show, it's why so much of the show happens. He is literally girlboss gaslight gatekeep. If he didn't suck then Steven wouldn't be a thing. Why aren't we focusing on how hilarious this show is.

[runawaymun]

Fanfic goddes give me strength to start my TRSB 5000 word fic I haven't even thought out yet while starting at my new teaching job on Wednesday and having my own studies start again on Thursday WHILE having 3 more shows at the theater :'''>

Oh jesus that’s a lot of stuff to handle all at once!!!

Also ugh what an adult-in-fandom mood wow.

Please take good care of yourself and try and get as much sleep as possible. When I’m struggling with starting a fic or spinning my wheels with nowhere to go, I find it helps to sit down and just word vomit all potential ideas no matter how dumb and just don’t go anywhere with it for a day. Let it marinate. Our brains background process things and you might come up with something you like. Sometimes I deadass label at the top of the document “dumbest version” to give myself that permission.

Swap fonts, write longhand, avoid writing on a blank page if at all possible. Blinking cursors are anathema oh my god. If I have to insert a damn meme to avoid a blank page I will (and do). Sometimes if I really am no thoughts head empty tumbleweeds and mothballs I just sit there and stream of consciousness onto the page, even if it’s “I don’t want to be doing this and don’t know what to write ugh”

Also sometimes idk I know you have a theater/show studies and I personally don’t HOWEVER I do actually sometimes sit there, inhabit the characters, and physically act out the scene. I look like a damn crazy person but it’s easier than trying to make my brain form words. I write it down later.

But bestie your writing is amazing and I also extend my prayers to every writing god there is that you have the strength to begin! You cannot edit a blank page so even if you’re no thoughts head empty zero ideas just vomit out words. Something may appear. At this stage you are only shoveling sand into the box so you can build castles later. It does not have to be clever or good. And please know that there’s no shame in not finishing. It sucks if you have to resign from an exchange but your mental health and overall health comes first, so if it comes to that please don’t overwork yourself 💕

(And if you need someone to just be a wall to bounce ideas off of i’m here. Sometimes we writers just need to play a bit of verbal racquetball and things sort themselves out)

Most importantly: have fun!

[hypaalicious]

Catastasis

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Interlude | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Epitasis | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Interlude²

Yeah, y’all is seeing this shit right. It me, in ya feed after ten thousand years.

*tumbleweeds pass by unconcerned*

I dunno really what to say except, umm... I’m alive. This is my first time logging into Tumblr in a year.  It feels odd. I can’t say that this is a comeback post, because I don’t think I have it in me to be as active as I used to be in this fandom’s heyday. My inbox and DMs have been wiped for this fresh start, but I do appreciate all of the love and support that I know had been sent to me while I was completely AWOL. There’s only one way that I can show my appreciation (and apology), and that’s by... well... getting off my dusty ass and finishing this series I started over a year ago.  The deadline I gave myself was until KH3 came out, right? And that’s in... January of 2019?  I gotta hustle. I seem to have left off on a tumultuous cliffhanger I would crucify any other fanfic writer for doing.  I actually had to go back and re-read my own shit to get a feel of what it was to write again.  This chapter reads differently than the others.  Half of it is from Noct’s POV, and the other half is the regular reader insert POV.

If there was a time that Noct felt this abandoned, downtrodden, and drained, then he couldn’t remember it.

His life was never quite the bouquet of roses, even though his late father tried his best to make sure that he had as carefree of a life as possible. Noct didn’t realize how spoiled he was until he left Insomnia, and had to suffer sleeping on the hard ground in a tent out past the comforts of the city limits and actually eat the fish he caught. Yet, he found it strangely ironic that it was at the fanciest resort Duscae had to offer that he found out that Insomnia had fallen and his father was dead.

It was from that moment on that Noct started counting his blessings.

Now, as he trudged through the echoing halls of Zegnautus Keep, hand tightly around the hilt of his father’s sword, he wondered if there was anything else in his life that would be taken away.

Fighting Ravus - or the shell of what had been him - was the needle in the haystack for the haggard prince. The fact that he still felt Luna’s death as clear as if it happened yesterday came back full force as he put what was left of her brother out of his misery and reclaimed his father’s sword. It weighed heavy on his soul just like everything was, and it made him trail further behind the solemn group through the winding halls of the flying fortress.

After Altissia, Noct couldn’t quite breathe. He felt like he was constantly underwater, reaching fruitlessly for Luna as she floated away just out of his reach; always a tad too late to save her. The fact that he looked upon his trusted advisor and knew that because of him, Ignis would never be able to  meet his gaze again, was unreal. He would have been perfectly fine going through a prolonged state of denial on that alone if Gladio hadn’t made it his duty as the King’s Shield to make him choke on it. There was a fair bit of lingering resentment between them because of that, and it only had gotten worse after he had fallen for one of Ardyn’s illusions and pushed Prompto off of the side of the train.

Now at least the four of them were together again, worse for wear but trudging forward towards their goal of reclaiming the crystal that was stolen from Insomnia.

“A king pushes ever onward, accepting the consequences, and never looking back.”

Noct grit his jaw at the echo of his father’s words in his mind. But what’s the point, Dad? You’re not here anymore. Insomnia’s a wrecked ghost town in the Empire’s wake. The Tenebraen line ended because of me. When the future looks as dark as it does, how can you even tell if you’re looking forward or looking back?

His booted footsteps halted as he sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, willing the tears and the welling sensation of panic back down into the locked box his chest had become.  He had become sadly adept at that, ever since Gladio nearly punched his lights out on a train ride that seemed like it was in another world by now.  He *had* to be a Chosen King for a city that was in tatters, to a handful of people who depended on him.  But for what?  What was the point of being made to suffer in a world that was intent on gunning it to hell while the Astrals watched?  All of these questions, and there was no one to answer them.

When he opened his eyes, Noct realized that he had fallen farther behind from the group than he meant to… and as expected, not one of them turned around to see if was with them, still.  Granted, Ignis was rather… impaired.  The walls of the keep echoed and bounced sounds from every direction, and it was easy for him to be disoriented despite his great progress in all things considered. Prompto stayed glued to one side of him as often as possible, always ready to steer his friend gently in the direction that Gladio had taken the lead to make. The Shield spent as much time as possible doing what Noct supposed he should have had the courage to do, which was look forward attentively, scanning the surroundings for any threats or changes as they moved along.  The raven haired male that felt a lot older than he looked simply studied their figures, growing a little bit smaller with the growing distance, and thought about how their lives had come to this moment.

He never would have thought that what they had could be splintered so easily. As a boy, he believed nothing could touch them.  As young men, it was definitely an “us vs them” scenario, with the Regalia as their noble steed cutting through the landscape of the land outside of Insomnia’s walls.  But now, with the Regalia in tatters like everything else he held dear, Noct thought that the Astrals couldn’t have decided upon a more foolish person to reclaim the Crystal and rebuild the city.

Whatever.  It is what it is.  You’ve spent enough time moping around, you gotta catch up to them.  He placed one foot forward.

What was that? His blue eyes darted to what he thought was a quick flurry of movement just almost out of sight.  His head swiveled in attention, taking note of any shadows that looked out of place, markings that hadn’t been there before.  Noct took a glance up ahead at his troupe before moving backwards slowly, peeking down a steel-lined hallway he had just passed.

A scurry of definite footsteps running away from him met his ears, and before he consciously made the thought, he was chasing after it.

Corner around corner blurred in his peripherals, red painted numbers flew by as he closed in on the figure that seemed to know the compartments better than Noct, and he pushed himself to the limit to cover some ground.  Finally realizing that it would be bad to become further entrenched than he’d like in the maze, he waited until there was a long shot of hallway in front of them, sucked in a breath, and used his father’s sword to toss in a straight line past the figure where the familiar tug of warping to follow it was felt in his lower stomach.  As the weapon stuck in the wall right in front of them, making them skid to a halt in shock, the prince materialized, turned and grasped the person fleeing from him by the shoulders.

“… _______?” Noct whispered the name as if he expected the illusion to fade from him as easily as Luna’s had, despite his steady grip grounding him to reality.  He thought she was dead, lost to the crumbles of Altissia thanks to Leviathan’s temper tantrum.  There had been no time to look for the body, especially not after he roused from a deep sleep of days forever lost to him. His eyes quickly scanned her, finding her thinner than he remembered, and a lot more worn… but unbelievably alive.  Her eyes were sunken and shadowed, staring at him in the kind of terror that Noct probably looked upon so many of the nastier daemons he had encountered at night.  It wasn’t long before the shock of being caught wore off, and she started screaming and clawing at him like a rabid animal.

“______, STOP, IT’S ME!” He shouted over her panic, feeling her fingernails dig into his chest through the t-shirt he wore and winced at the welts she would most likely leave.

“I FUCKING KNOW IT’S YOU, AND I’M NOT LETTING YOU DO THIS TO ME, ANYMORE!”

What? Noct stood as firm as he could in the whirlwind of her onslaught, gritting his teeth at the abuse and trying to make sense of what she was saying. Obviously, she was delirious.  His heart clenched at the possibility that she had been here, in Zegnatus Keep, with nothing but the eerie shells of magitek soldiers and the echoes of daemons scratching the walls.  How did she get here?  Was she abducted? Did she think… that none of us cared to look for her this whole time? Noct’s stomach tightened at just the thought. “_____, I need you to calm down…"

A bitter laugh resounded through the hall, and it sent a chill through his body. “Calm down? Before or after you crucify me for being a traitor?"

Noct took a few moments to gape like a fish before finding his voice again in the face of that accusation. “What the hell are you talking about? I never called you a-" “LIES!” One of her feet shot out, connecting with his bad knee in a way that had him crumbling almost immediately. He kept upright only by force of will, unwilling to relinquish his grasp on the one thing that had reappeared from the ashes of his life that he was damn determined now to not let go of.  “THAT’S ALL ANY OF YOU EVER TELL ME!" He had to do something.  She wasn’t going to stop flailing, accusing him of outlandish things, and seeing terrors where there weren’t any.  Noct knew this form of panic better than he cared to admit to himself.  It was his reality in the days following Altissia, where shadows followed him from dreams into waking and reminded him every second of every moment how uncertain his future was. He sympathized with her, more than she could realize in her effort to dislodge him. So it was with a quick, whispered apology that he made the snap decision to warp them quickly to the opposite wall, giving her no warning whatsoever before the thud of the back of her head connected sharply with the surface.  He immediately felt guilty as he cradled her now limp body in his arms, balancing her weight so that her head lolled into his shoulder.  Staring down at her face, smoothed into the abrupt and forced slumber he laid upon her, he brushed a few strands of hair from her forehead and thought that maybe… just maybe… the Astrals weren’t as cruel as he thought they were if a second chance fell into his lap like this. “I got you, _______.  And I’m not letting you leave my sight again." For once, despite the added weight he held with him as he made his way back to where he started, he could say that his soul felt a bit lighter.

Your consciousness faded through hazy half-memories, littered with happier times interspersed with terrors.  It was as if the box you spent so much time tampering shut had been knocked over and its contents spilled out to mingle with the reality you had no choice but to face each dragging, agonizing day that passed in your metal prison.  There were choices you told yourself you had to make to get by… choices that haunted you, taunting your thoughts into the very real possibility that you did not have to surrender yourself to that route.  The man with the wine colored hair was the only thing in which your hell revolved around, and you began to crave the salvation he offered you as greedily as you had slurped it up.  It was inexplicable, how Ardyn had been the reason for your despair while positioning himself in a place to “fix” you, but you didn’t have it in you to counter it with any type of logic.  Everything had shut down in the face of the only people you cared about despising you enough to want to kill you. So you went through the excruciating process of purging that hurt with some that you could understand.  Some that you felt you deserved, but was still too cowardly to face at the hands of those you loved. But at the mercy of a man who was allied with the forces you fought against, you could direct that hatred into the torrid dalliances you fell into again and again.  Ardyn seemed to thrive off of it, as twisted and… inhuman as he was.  The sensation of sticky black goo filtered through next, and you shivered.  The warmth of it was spreading along your arms now, centering somewhere between your elbows and wrists, and inside your mind, you struggled against it.  No, no more. It felt like a fit of sleep paralysis, where you were screaming inside of your mind but your body remained unresponsive.  So you pushed.  Pushed at the perimeters of your inner sanctum until you could reach outward and power your body like the puppet it was to your consciousness.  It seemed to carry on forever. Until, finally... True vision blearily came into focus as you opened your eyes.  The cold, grey decor of the keep greeted you… but you weren’t in the same maze of halls that you had become used to in your time there.  Instead, it was a much larger area, circular and open with high ceilings and the sounds of distant machinery churning to power banks to keep the floating fortress on track.  You blinked away the worst of the disorientation before you stared into the concerned crystal blue gaze of Prompto, his hands the source of the warmth you had trouble determining until then.  Your breath stuttered, and in an instant, you were out of his grip and rolled away from him, your stance in a low crouch and teeth bared like the rabid animal you felt like.  Immediately, he backpedaled, and the look of confusion and worry did nothing to abate the rising fury that threatened to engulf you. How dare he have the gall to look like he gives a shit.  What game is he playing at? Attentiveness brought your senses into full focus as you scanned your area. Prompto didn’t come alone, this time.  Next to him was Noct, and instantly you remembered the brief tussle you had with him that ended as abruptly as it had started.  Glancing from there to Gladio, your lips set in a grim line how you would get out of this.  For whatever reason, they never appeared as a group before.  You rationalized it as them splitting up the efforts to hunt you down, which made it easier to evade them physically even with the taunts echoing through to your ears as you escaped.  But… “You think you have me now, huh?” You spat out, alternating a sharp gaze to each one of them. “Something happened to you here, didn’t it, _______?”  Noct asked, and you wanted to grab that sword he held and shove it right down his throat. “Something that makes you think that we hate you." Feigning ignorance.  That’s new.  But they haven’t gotten me any other way, maybe this is a change in tactics.  Your eyes narrowed. “Yeah. That something is standing right in front of me." Prompto spoke next, his voice uncertain.  “Is it… is it because we didn’t find you?  In Altissia?  Did you make it out of there on your own and find everyone gone?  We didn’t mean to- “Shut… the fuck… up.  I don’t want to hear it,” you placed your hands over your ears in a futile effort to block it all out.  You were too used to hearing Prompto’s malice laced voice, and now he sounded… he sounded too much like the precious boy you had to give up loving in order to move forward. Gladio was the only one who didn’t make a move to talk, stoically appraising you with his mouth set in a grim line.  Yet, it wasn’t holding the sadistic smirk you knew he hid somewhere, waiting to pounce.  He seemed to be searching for something, possibly what your next move was going to be. You thought about rushing them, letting them have every bit of the pain you suffered in whatever you could muster, but you knew you were too weak and stupidly defenseless for that to have any kind of effect.  As your mind shuffled through a plethora of possibilities and which one would be the best to get you up and out of this turn of events, you felt a hand on your shoulder... … and it was with a shout that you dislodged it and elbowed behind yourself as hard as you could.  The person clattered to the ground, and you spun with a snarl that got caught in your throat at who it was you finally attacked. You could still feel your life force leaving you in that fateful moment that Ignis had stabbed you and left you for dead.  He was the one that hadn’t appeared since that time, and you never stopped to figure out why that was.  It delved too deep to even think on, the scar the only one that couldn’t scab over into an armor you used to make you stronger.  But now, you looked down upon him, and everything you had managed to hold at bay roared along the inside of your skull as you clenched your fist and held it all back.  A broken heart was hard enough to mend without the whole murder aspect being thrown right into it all. But you couldn’t move from your spot.  Everything that had happened besides, you ran your eyes over his fallen figure and wondered what was different.  Why does he have a cane?  He didn’t have that when he... The whirlwind of emotions slowed down to a crawl as you felt yourself slowly kneeling down to Ignis.  Behind dark lenses, he made no move to stop you… or even follow your movements as you were expecting him to do flawlessly.  He just sat, propped up on his elbows right where he had fallen, with his chest rising and falling with something like exertion… but that didn’t make any sense.  Why? The blip in the continuity was enough to fracture the endless cycle of hate, despair, and unsuccessful catharsis, and you reached out and lightly placed your fingertips to the edge of a freshly healed scar that marred his upper cheek.  This damage was too extensive to have happened recently, which meant one of two things: more time had passed with you in Zegnatus Keep than you originally thought… or... “Ignis?” This time, your voice came out as a whisper, as your fingers moved from the tip of his scar to the smooth arm of the glasses obscuring the extent of this mysterious injury.  You were vaguely aware of how still the others were behind you, as if any errant breath would disturb a careful balance none of you could fathom.  As far as you were concerned, the world held itself on a balance that was hinged on the moment you put off for no longer, and carefully slipped the frames from Ignis’s face with no fanfare. His eyes were hauntingly beautiful in their newly unseeing state, unclouded with the usual haze that normally afflicted the blind.  They stared forward, silvery and bright, laying stark against his features marred by the pink flesh of what looked like a burn that obfuscated much of his face.  It was then that you noticed that you were quivering, as just that moment alone confirmed something that ordinarily would have been nothing but welcome to know - that these men were still your family.  They had come for you, in the end.  That perhaps the fear of the unknown and the extreme loneliness that permeated you had driven you to hallucinate much of what drove you forward.  But it just made you feel sick, uneasy, and cold. Fuck.  What have I done? “_______…” Ignis spoke then, and you swallowed hard.  “I… am happy that you’re here." That was it.  But it was enough to have you crack the first sob you allowed yourself in Astrals knew how long.  You sat there on your knees, holding Ignis’s glasses to your chest as the tears came down like waterfalls.  It was too much to handle at once.  The deception, of your own mind or from some outside source… the clarity of relief that brought pain in the salvation you yearned for, and the upsetting reality that Ignis, your light in the dark, the one who knew you better than yourself, had completely lost one thing that was most precious to him… and you weren’t there to help him when it had happened.  Never again would you see those warm green eyes gaze upon you with love you grasped right on the cusp of it being too late.  And he would only have the last memory of you to hold onto in his mind’s eye as a visual from that moment forward. I owe Gladio more than he could ever know.  At least… Ignis remembers me as I want him to.  Happy and sated in his arms. A gloved hand touched you then, and you blinked the worst of your tears away. Still, after all that time, and the wisps of your insanity lifted enough to register it, he could calm you with just that motion alone. “I must say, I am dreadfully tired of being the reason for your tears, ________.” His lips upturned in the faintest of a smile despite the heaviness of the situation, and you flung yourself at him and held onto his lithe frame for dear life. “Fucking… shut up, Iggy,” You choked out, tears threatening to take you over once more.  “I’m so sorry.  I am so, so sorry.”  You kept apologizing, over and over, for things you never explained.  Perhaps you wouldn’t need to, and you could just start the long and arduous process of moving past it all. But first, you had the first sane thought you had in awhile, and you knew that it was something that they all agreed with; all of you had to get the hell out of there. “Wish we had time to properly catch up, but we gotta get moving,” Gladio said, mirroring your inner thoughts.  “Don’t take it personally, __________; I’m happy as shit you proved to be the survivor I knew you to be.  But we came here to reclaim the crystal, and I’m waiting for that son of a bitch Ardyn to start taunting us over the intercom.”  His amber eyes scanned the room before moving along. Noct stepped forward and together, both of you helped Ignis properly to his feet.  It was then that you noticed something glowing on the prince’s hand, and you sucked in a gasp as you recognized it. “You’re wearing it. The ring." Noct glanced over at you then, bending down to grab Ignis’s cane and settling it into his hand before giving you a half smile.  “Yeah.  It was a necessity.  But after everything I had lost… well,” he lifted his hand closer to his face, and the light from the Ring of the Lucii cast it in shadows that gave you a weird sensation that you were seeing an older version of him, ready to sit in his father’s place on the throne.  “It’s the least I could do." Nodding, you fell in step beside Ignis, the two of your bringing up the rear as your unified group moved along towards finding the heart of Insomnia, the one that the empire gutted awhile ago and held hostage.  “Ignis… what happened?" He was silent for a moment before answering.  “Many things.  Should we make it out of our current predicament, I think a long discussion is in order.  We have been fractured for quite some time." Your mind whirled with his words.  Does that mean we all went our separate ways since Altissia, somehow?  Is this the grimmest reunion that we all have to look forward to?  You felt like you missed out on years of your friends lives, that those precious moments were stolen from you by... “It’s so good to see the family happy together again,” Ardyn’s syrupy sweet voice rang out from all around them, and everyone stopped just short of what appeared to be a large hangar for some kind of aircraft.  Mechanisms whirled within clouds of steam on the perimeter of the area, and it was easy to feel both exposed and claustrophobic.  “Just in time for your welcoming committee." On cue, bubbling darkness erupted from the ground, spreading in pockets all the way to the stairs in the short distance.  Daemons of all manners clawed their way out from the ether, from imps to Iron Giants, and after having nothing but the ghosts of your insanity and empty magitek armor to keep your company for so long, the rush of fear and adrenaline was almost too much to bear.  You flanked Ignis’s side automatically, and saw that Prompto had done the same.  It made you flinch, but the sight of him automatically calling in his pistol made your realize that you also had that ability.  You just hadn’t used it while your mind was in tatters, and you were certain that Noct would have cut you off from that blessing once he considered you a lost cause.  But now, as you looked at his black-clad back, his father’s sword held tightly in the hand that glowed even brighter in the face of the newfound danger, you reached out to a dormant part of yourself you had been afraid to access and willed the wisp of Lucian magic gifted to you when you came into his service. The weight of your weapon was shocking.  It made your muscles feel more atrophied than they likely were, and it was like grasping a sliver of your past to hold in the grim present.  Yet… with just a glance at Ignis, you were going to fight like hell to keep what was dear to you safe, this time.  No more running from shadows. “There’s a fuckin’ lot of them,” Gladio gritted his teeth, swinging his broadsword in front of him as makeshift shield.  “How many do you think we can take down before we’re overrun?" “As many as it takes to clear a path for Noct,” Ignis piped in, his voice clear despite the combined ambience of guttural sounds and squeals from the gathering mob.  “Do you sense it?" Noct’s eyes hadn’t left the staircase leading into a deeper chamber.  “It’s straight ahead.  I can feel it echoing in my head.  It’s calling me to it." “So, all we need to do is make a bit of a ruckus where the attention is on us, right?” You asked, gearing yourself up for a fight you hadn’t had in a while. “Well, then.  We’re good at doing that,” Prompto took aim and fired the first shot, felling an Imp in one fell swoop.  That seemed to animate the rest of them to action, and Gladio was cutting the first daemon in half that took a step too close to them.  In a flash of blue light, Noct warped to the next enemy, lodging his sword right into the chest of an Iron Giant and causing the large entity to fall flat upon a handful of other smaller enemies.  He didn’t stop, riding that wave as it crashed and moving to the next. From there, it was a blur of action.  Your brain refused to work properly, sluggishly moving through all of the synapses required to go through all of the battle formations and tactics you had used countless times in other battles, but it seemed like your worn and weary body knew what to do.  Your wrists hurt with each clash of claws or teeth on metal as you twisted and parried, your focus on keeping a kind of perimeter around Ignis.  The blind man was holding his own where it was necessary, despite a few moments of disorientation that had Prompto reaching out in between shots to steady him, but it relieved you that he was not helpless.  Not like I could imagine any situation where Ignis would put up with being helpless.  That’s just not in the cards for him. But, the crowd became gradually deeper.  And the road to salvation was getting farther away, little by little.  With a furious kick to the chest of a flying daemon, Gladio whirled to look at the rest of them.  “This is RIDICULOUS, they never stop coming!" Gritting your teeth, you tried thinking of an alternate way through.  But none came.  The only plan all of you had was to fight until you couldn’t anymore, but Noct was unable to make any progress that way.  None of you had been reunited just to die stupidly together, and you made sure to direct your voice up and over to the Prince who was warping to and fro.  “NOCT! WE CAN’T KEEP THIS PACE, WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!" You weren’t sure if he had heard you until the moment that he chose a relatively clear spot to land, and switched his sword to his other hand.  The one that bore the Ring of the Lucii was now as bright as a miniature star, casting the immediate area around him in a ghostly sliver light.  It was then that he held that hand up, and a sphere of energy formulated around him, a pinpoint like the root of a small tornado grounding the energy to the gem in the blessed ring.  Noct stood in the center of it all, his black hair swaying with the air that moved with increasing velocity.  You were just starting to feel the trickles of a cool breeze before everything was released, and the sphere popped like a balloon and rushed outward, speeding over the rest of you and leaving goosebumps raised on your skin at the sensation. By the time you had blinked well enough to get rid of the glare it left, you realized that the room full of daemons had been obliterated, reduced to the puddles in which they started.  Noct was breathing rather hard after that, but the show had been spectacular… and gave you a hint of what kind of power he could wield once he was properly reunited with the Crystal.  His blue eyes darted left and right, and you followed his attention to realize that the horde was reforming.  The ring started brimming with power again as Noct prepared for another blast. “Noct!”  Ignis called out.  “This is an effort in futility.  You must reclaim the Crystal alone." “What?” Noct answered, his face showing the first signs of worry since the battle started. “If you can obtain the Crystal’s power, we may yet turn the tide.  Elsewise, we are like to perish here." Gladio’s amber gaze flitted to his liege.  “Iggy’s right.  It’s our only chance." Noct’s lips set in a thin line, his hesitance lacing his stance stiff.  “But what about you guys?" “We’ll have to handle this on our own, buddy,” Prompto said.  “If you get the Crystal, this all ends, and we can go home. So you gotta make that your main priority." Noct stood conflicted, even as the daemons began gooping their way back into reality around him.  His eyes searched each of theirs, even Ignis’s unseeing ones, until they settled on you.  You saw his head twitch in a minuscule motion, showing his resistance to such a decision even though he knew in his heart that it was the only one viable to him. “Noct…” you started, and he shook his head again even harder. “I just got you back.  I can’t leave you." Your heart skipped a beat at his words.  They were more open than you had come to expect from the Crown Prince, the master of the art of being both a part of the group and oddly separate at the same time.  Even when things got hairy, he kept a modicum of himself reserved, locked away, and somewhat aloof.  But it seemed like the things he had experienced and seen and lost tore down that wall, and what looked back at you was a scared boy that was desperately hanging onto the one thing he felt he could hold onto. “Noct, you are the King of Lucis, now.  You have your duty.  Let us protect you so you can save all our asses like the damsels in distress that we all are.” You told him firmly. “We got this.  Go." A few more moments passed, and Gladio had quickly gotten into another altercation with a daemon as he pondered.  “NOCT. GET YOUR FUCKING BISCUITS MOVING!” He roared, fending off a few more.  Prompto reloaded his gun and called in the second, showering a rain of bullets on the mob closing in on him. Noct turned then, and bolted for the quickly closing pathway.  He took the stairs two at at time, racing against fate to claim his birthright and turn the tide. You kept his figure in your sights until he disappeared, and then went back to the never ending battle that raged around you. Mechanically, you fended them off.  Once you figured out that your brain wasn’t needed to do the task you were set upon to do, you relaxed and let pure instinct take over.  It helped cleanse your mind as well of the shadows that plagued it, if only temporarily, as you were given no time to come to terms with everything that was.  It was just one strike followed by another; a dodge that fit perfectly into another parried hit that almost took your head off if you weren’t in the right place at the right time.  It loosened your muscles into something akin to fluidity, getting back into everything that had shaped the person you were before it all came crashing down after Altissia. It felt good.  Despite the urgency of the situation, it made you feel more alive than what you had been in awhile. It was at the very end of your collective limits that the group swarming you abruptly stopped, as if hearing a bell in the distance.  Then, the floor opened up again, taking the darkness back to whence it came, leaving the rest of you relieved yet confused at the turn of events. “The hell?”  Gladio grunted, stepping backwards.  Torrents of sweat dripped down his brow that he reached up to wipe away, his battle stance not quite relaxed. “Did he do it?  Did Noct get the Crystal?”  Prompto said next, lowering his gun arm.  Ignis straightened up from his lower center of gravity during the battle, the bottom of his cane clacking on the floor as he situated himself. “Ah… well, that’s when things get rather… complicated." All of you swiveled up to the railing that lined the small landing of the staircase you saw Noct race towards and beyond, and your stomach flipped as you took in the unmistakable form of Ardyn Izunia.  Hearing his voice over the intercom was one thing; you could kind of pretend that he was just as much of a figment of your imagination as you were labeling everything else in your torrid recent past.  But having him in front of you made you far too acquainted with the decision you made, the things you did… and how much you relied on your enemy in those dark times. “What did you do with him, you bastard?” Gladio spat out, brimming with barely controlled anger. “Me?  I simply helped him claim his birthright.  As it has been foretold.  You should be thanking me.”  Ardyn’s head tilted to the side, his unnaturally yellow eyes shining from underneath the brim of his hat.  “You all have been most ungrateful." Gladio made a movement as if he were going to rush the stairs himself, but Ignis somehow reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him. “His birthright. Elucidate,” Ignis said shortly, and Ardyn’s smile widened in glee at the advisor’s astute nature. “Have any of you stopped to wonder why your errant little prince was referred to as the Chosen One?" Silence laid heavy on your shoulders as you realized that you had no idea.  You had always assumed that it had something to do with the balance of light and dark that Eos was always in, and what made the Nox Flueret and Lucis Caelum lines integral to maintaining it. Chosen means he’s got a birthright to the Crystal, right?  It seemed simple enough… but with what Ardyn was leading them to, it seemed to be more than that. “Shall I regale you with a tale?" Prompto let out a heavy, irritated sigh and dispelled his weapons in favor of crossing his arms.  “You’re going to say it anyway, aren’t you?  So spit it out, already." “The Starscourge.  A blight upon this peaceful land that fell from the heavens from an unknown source, tainting all that came into contact with it.  It was a tiny menace that twisted men into monsters, the likes of which you’ve seen, of course.” He flamboyantly swept his hand along the length of the room.  “There was one man… one long ago, lost to history, who could reverse this travesty.  A healer, with only the thought of salvation for his people on his mind, would travel as he could to cleanse the afflicted… but it came at a heavy price." You couldn’t shake the feeling that you knew exactly who this fabled healer was, but your mouth remained shut as he continued. “He had to take the sins of the cursed into himself in order to save them.  And he did… countless times.  His vessel was blighted, but his people were not.  It was worth it… until the daemons rattled in his head, louder than the liberation of those saved.  It cost him… dearly.  For the Starscourge still existed.  It still ravaged those he could not save.  And now… it would take something much larger to save Eos.  Perhaps… a Chosen King, from the line of Lucis Caelum, one crafted by the Astrals themselves to serve this very purpose." You expected an outburst, probably from Gladio.  But none came. All of you were caught thinking about Ardyn’s words, and the dread it bred in your hearts at the implication. “I’m sure you’ve not a clue of how bad it has gotten,” Ardyn’s boots echoed along the metal walkway as he strolled carelessly. “In a few moments, Zegnatus Keep will land and you will be free to frolic amongst the fields you so negligently traveled before, oblivious to what was coming.  But you’ll have ten years to become acquainted with its new look.  You’ll have to be ready to receive your King when he arrives." “Ten years?” Prompto repeated, his jaw going slack.  “We… we won’t see Noct for ten years??" Gladio glared, unconvinced and fed up with all of the talk going in circles.  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t believe that you killed him." “Simple.  Just like the Amicitia line to make a demand such as that.  Your weapons are still yours, correct?  Your connection with your king remains strong, as it should to help you through the times to come.  The Crystal itself keeps him safe in its cocoon, until the anointed time." “Why are you helping us?”  You barely recognized your own voice, as faint as it was.  You didn’t even know if he would be truthful, knowing the kind of person he was to talk in riddles and get wrapped up in mind games.  Ardyn regarded you in amusement for a moment, as if he could see the conflict in your soul and knew what part he had in it. “It is to my benefit to help you, my dear.  It would give me little satisfaction to put an end to the Lucis Caelum line now.  I need him at his best before he sets forth to save this wretched little planet.  Just to see if he’ll succeed where the healer of yore could not." You knew he would.  It was Noctis.  And it was evidently his birthright.  “But what will it cost him?" Ardyn simply smiled, tipping his hat to you all before turning away.  The lack of a direct answer made you fear the worst, but you didn’t have it in you to force it out of the enigmatic man. “A word of advice before I leave you to your preparations,” he spoke to the air in front of him, knowing that his voice projected enough to carry to your collective ears.  “The Astrals are something worse than cruel; they are indifferent.  We are but pawns in a larger game, one where consequences matter not to those moving the pieces.  Your pain is nothing in the grand scheme of things.  They are not estranged gods begging to be received by its people.  They are entities that you should use before they use you… if you can manage." The sounds of his footsteps faded into the distance, and all that was left were the four of you, feeling strangely abandoned. “Do you believe anything he told us?”  Gladio finally asked, but his voice lacked its usual heat. It was from that you could tell that he was a bit shaken and uncertain, which was a rarity for the Shield. “I would like nothing more than to decry his statements, but I fear… I cannot.” Ignis said carefully.  “There was… a book I found in the royal libraries.  I was young, eager to learn anything and everything, and was loathe to wait for those to give me direction.  It read like a fairytale, linked with the lore of the land, that I had completely forgotten about until now.”  His head turned a fraction to the right, as if he was seeing something they could not.  “It detailed a mighty enemy only referred to as the Accursed.  The mention of a True King coming to Ascension by the light of Providence, which would go forth to dispel the darkness that encapsulated the land.  With the help of the Six, and the power of other ancients, would this be done." Prompto scratched his head.  “Alright, well… that kinda makes sense with what Ardyn was telling us.  So, Noct has to save the entire world?  That’s what the Crystal is preparing him for, right now?" “It is my only assumption,” Ignis said carefully, and you sensed that he was holding something back. “Ignis?  Did the book you read… did it tell you what would happen?  Besides Eos being saved?" A minuscule twitch in his lips was all you needed to see for the dread to spread to more of your limbs.  “The… True King comes into Ascension at the cost of his life.  That is the price paid for the land’s salvation." You closed your eyes at the news.  It was as you had feared.  There was always a catch, always a price to be paid. I just wish… it wasn’t him that had to pay it.  Hasn’t he gone through enough? “So.  What you’re saying is that my whole fucking life, the reason I am the King’s Shield, the honor of this tattoo that covers my whole fucking upper body was to brand me for a task to lead my liege to a pre-ordained slaughter?” Gladio hissed, unable to contain his anger.  Ignis simply tilted his head downward, saying nothing.  Prompto looked shell shocked with the information, blinking without seeing anything that was in front of him.  “Is this what we fucking went through hell for? I…” The burly man sucked in a breath, running his fingers through his hair as he turned almost aimlessly.  It was a few more moments of tense silence that he finally walked off opposite the way that Ardyn had gone, back through the depths of the keep. “Let him be, Prompto,” Ignis said calmly, feeling the gunman start to go after Gladio.  “He needs time to settle with everything." “Alright…” his uncertain voice pained you, and you reached out and touched his shoulder to offer what little comfort that you could. “What do we do now?”  You asked. Ignis let out a weary sigh before slowly turning in the direction that Gladio had stormed off to.  “We prepare.  We wait.  And we hope."

[rpgmgames]

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace  GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 

Introduce yourself!  Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.

Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 

Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum 

[namjoonchronicles]

[Final: Yongguk Ver.] Tumbleweed, Her (M)#20 -  [BAP] Mafia!Au

[A/N] Come to me, papi. I wrote three version of these, so it might get over lap somewhere because no one in this world writes three endings to a fanfic before. Tell me the version you liked.

Sometimes, painful things can teach us a lesson we didn’t think we needed to know. And of all the wretched things that happened, two made its mark on you. Two of it, of which, you will never forget.

People are lessons in disguise and every each that came into your life, meant to teach you something. Either it is about you, or about them, but there’s always something. Rage is never the solution, but it was the only way you could think of.

And in this final chapter, it started with a broken windshield of a black tinted car by a baseball bat that you held in your hands. You stand dignified on top of the hood of a car you knew belong to Jongup’s clan.

“She’s at it again.” The old lady who sells roasted chestnut by this road would shake her head. “When will she learn that it’s a dangerous path she’s walking in.” She added, and the men in suits would just look at you. And you were aware of this eyes that knows only to judge, but never understand-- you continued your assaults to that car, breaking every shard of glasses on it, the side mirrors, anything you can get your hands to. The younger one in suits hisses, and lunges over to you only to be stopped in his track by his senior.

“That’s our car!” He roared.

Yongguk came from the roadside in his black singlet and army trousers, grabbed your waist from behind and forcefully take the bat from you as you groaned. “This needs to stop.” He raised his voice a little but you were clearly unaffected by it. “I’m fetching Junhong from college but you need to come home first.” He said. You climbed into his jeep wordlessly, stern look in your eyes and Yongguk just blinks to the side when he got in.

He inserted the car key into the jack but before he twisted them, you crossed your arm. “This would have been easier if you tell me where the fuck he is.” You hissed. “You think he’s going to pop up anywhere if you’re behaving like this? That’s the third car this month.” You heard him say. “I made a promise I can’t break.” If Yongguk were to describe you in one word, it would have easily been, ‘Stubborn’.

The calm after the storm that never came. The wound that never got to heal. The heartbreak that never regain its full form. The missing pieces that remained unfound.

To every beginning, there will be an end. But will the hollow, be fulfilled?

“That was some sleep.” You heard him say in his deep voice, a smile upon his face, the little crinkle in his eyes.

That’s right. You’re in Yongguk’s house. Months passed and the wounds are still fresh. The images are still vivid and their tattooed in your heart. And in your mind.

Tattoos.

As Yongguk brushed the strand away from your hair, and hook them behind your ear, he leans in to see better. “The cuts are closing up prettily. Doctor said you should not eat eggs, prawns, any processed meat for the time being. So no sausages, even though I know you’re crazy for them.” Yongguk straightens in his seat.

You brought yourself up, gently, feeling particularly light headed due to the blood not reaching it’s full speed. “Yongguk.” You breathed his name so gently, he looks up at you, with wondering eyes. “All I do is trouble you. I am forever in-debt to you, and I’m sorry for everything, for every minute of your life, ruined because of me. I only cause you havoc.” You started and the words tumbling out of your mouth uncontrollably.

“Don’t say a word...please, just stop.” Yongguk starts to shuffle in his seat, shaking his head while you set your feet next to the bed he put you in, ready to leave it. “Let me finish!” You roared. You held him by the intense gaze you gave him. “I’ve hurt you enough, haven’t I? Why are you still here, then?” You asked him.

It sting him. The words ,they stung him. Yongguk gave the floor a bitter smile, a little shake of his head. “You’re right. Why the fuck am I still here.” He gave a sad chuckle and he drops his head before giving you a glance that made your stomach flipped. “I’ve been to a lot of places. I’ve meet thousands of girls. And truth be told, and I’m not one to brag, but I can get any girls I want…”

“--then go! Go and get other girls if you want it so bad!” You challenged him. But he got up, towering you while you sat on the edge of the bed, a tinge of fear in your eyes, when Yongguk hissed in your face, “But I don’t want that! I don’t want other. Girls....It’s not as simple as that, okay. My feelings are not a switch. They’re not interchangeable. They’re not something you give away and forget. I’m not like you. I wish they were, but they’re not. Because, honestly.  Between you and me. My heart wants what it wants.” He straightens up, he bit his lips and backs away from you, walking backwards.

“And it wants you,” he spins and walked out, and he yells, “...and it fucking! Still wants you!”

Yongguk is a beautiful person. He is. He has always been kind, protective, mature in his decisions. He is the kind of person that get hurts time and time again, and still comes back for more. His genuine heart was yours to take. It still is, even after all the hell he’s been through because of you. But like he said, the heart wants what it wants. But your expectation was wrong. He didn’t come back for the hurt. He came back because you were home. You were his home. His entire fucking everything. It didn’t matter if you didn’t love him. Every words he had ever said.

Love. “You’re the only one I care about.” “I’d spent my days with you, and no one else.” “One of my tattoos are dedicated to you. Maybe one day I’ll show you where it is.”

Hate. “Why did you do that?” “So that’s it, now we’re done? Don’t I mean anything to you?” “If that’s what you think is best for us. Fine.”

You jumped out of bed, realizing that if you lose him now, you’ll lose him forever. There’s no saying on how long he’ll stay patient with you. You tested the waters, and he’s over the edge.

The fridge door is opened and closed and you were relieved to see his semi tattooed back, covered by the black singlet he had been wearing as he pour himself some cold beverages. He is angry, but not angry enough to leave the house. The apartment he lend you. He visibly breathed in and exhaled hard, a loud exasperated and tired sigh. His shoulders rise and fall and you can’t help but empathize him. He deserved more than this. He deserved a genuine heart and soul that loves him for him. “I cannot pretend, Yongguk.I simply cannot.” You thought as you stared to his back.

You were standing by the door sill when you came to see a couple of opened envelopes on the side table, next to the bed. “Choi Junhong tuition fees has been in full.” The letter starts. Behind it, was a handwritten letter from your mother. “...thank you for all the help you’ve given over the course of my daughter missing. You have a lot in your hands, don’t you?”

Had he been paying Junhong, his tuition fees? It looked like it. Had he been catering to your mother? Those letters can’t be lying.

Now let’s be entirely honest. Where else can you find a man foolish enough to do that much for you?

Yongguk sips the cold water and had been facing the tiled wall of the kitchen, his thoughts blank. “Yongguk…” You breathed his name and he turned around to you wrapping your arms around his neck, bringing him closer to you, by the lips and you kissed him. He responded in a surprised but muffled moan before he parted his lips to make way for your eager tongue to enter his cavern. He had his hands holding each side of your hip in place, but as the kiss deepens, he wrapped his strong pair of arms around your waist to feel more of you. And he asked you, “Really?”

You nodded, eagerly. “Let’s start again. Let’s give ourselves another try.”

He looks puzzled. “Why so suddenly?”

“Damn it, Yongguk. Take what’s already given.” You scolded him, pulling his face into yours so you could roughly kiss him again. But something changed in Yongguk’s dark brown eyes. “Is this one of your tricks?” He threw the mood away. And he had all the rights to.

You slid your hand down one side of his delectable face and his chest.  “I will never find another love like yours. Ever.”

-----

Junhong is in complete contrast to what he used to be. Rumor started spreading on how he used to be in mafia. And that has given him unneeded attentions and friends. Back in the days, being in a mafia is something frowned upon on. But nowadays, it’s something that even polices find considerably, not bothersome. Since they’ve come to an agreement that they will refrain from committing serious crimes, it’s all good. But of course, Junhong is no longer apart of that.

And of course, he felt uneasy eyes around him. Boys and girls alike. But your constant calls and texts didn’t make college life too lonely. Sometimes Bang Yongguk would stop by to pass him lunch and everyone in the college knows that Yongguk’s a lieutenant. So that fact may have contributed to a handful of friends who deemed Junhong as harmless.

“Anyone trying to poke around?” Yongguk asked, as his eyes crinkles into crescents. Smiling at Junhong’s who is lazily dragging his feet to Yongguk’s car. “No one dared.” Junhong grins and Yongguk threw his arm around the boy’s neck, jokingly. “What did she cook for dinner?” Junhong asked as he climbed in. “Her favourite. As usual. You think you mattered in her life? Dream on, lad. She only cares about me.” Yongguk boastfully said.

He meant it as a joke, of course.

-----

Rushing to and fro the dining table and the kitchen, you ensured everything is in place before the two arrives. The television left on, with the volumes low helps you shake any unwanted anxieties. Bringing the hot pot of beef soup pass the wall where all the family portraits are, you accidentally tilted one frame. Just slightly. You tutted your tongue and set the pot on the middle of the table where the bowl were turned upside down until Junhong and Yongguk arrive. You rubbed your hands on your apron and went back to tilted frame.

As you fix the edges, to a perfect form, your eyes glided to the torn wallpaper hidden behind it. You ran your fingers on top of the flaps, slowly trying to recover the dull color the original wall had. “Giving the wall a new face don’t exactly erase the events that it had witnessed, would it?” You thought. Yongguk spent days, scrubbing off the droplets of blood that spattered on them. Weeks, for the smell to disappear. Another two weeks, to put on this wallpaper. Junhong helped to. So many people would ask, why would you still live here, knowing fully well of what happened here?

Because you’re unafraid. There’s absolutely, no reason to be.

And slowly, the sound from the television seeps into your soul while your eyes dances on the pictures on the wall, memorizing faces. Bang Yongguk has an attractive smile line. Junhong tends to crinkle his eyes, and is unable to take serious pictures. He is basically a giant-sized baby, demanding attentions every now and then. But can you blame him? He had his youth taken away from him. The news anchor voice of what started as an ambience, started to become clearer and clearer.

“...President Kim who won his election, fair and square brought his only son, Kim Himchan to the parliament dinner, looking sharp in suits. The duo is accompanied by the honorary secretary of the National Security, Mr. Park Hwang Soon and his wife, to discuss the future well-being of the country.” You turned your attention to the screen.

And then your eyes caught something, no– someone. Ding-dong

Just as the doorbells rang, and it pulled your attentions away from the screen, reluctantly. “Coming!” You sped to the front door and yanked them open where Youngjae stood with a bouquet of flowers and some fruits. “I got here too early didn’t I?” Youngjae’s face crumples into a hesitant smile. You beamed back, “Yongguk wouldn’t mind me having someone around. He dreaded the fact that he had to live me alone to set the dinner up… he’d be thrilled to have you here.”

Youngjae’s eyes wander around the apartment and he notices that it had a few changes since the last time he was here.

The wind struck your hair, as you look ahead to the view of your verandah. Youngjae brought himself next to you, resting his elbows on the handrails, smiling. “What could you be thinking about on this lovely, cloudless evening.” He said, leaning to one side of his body, so he could face your side. After a minute long of silence, you blinked and something changed in your eyes. “I need your help. And I know that Yongguk told you where he is,” and at this, Youngjae was already moving away. “Please, Yoo Youngjae, I need to see him.” You begged, tugging his sleeves.

Youngjae gaze deep into your eyes as he peel your hand away from his shirt. “...When will you learn to stop loving the person you cannot love?” Youngjae muttered. “If you mattered at all to him, would he be leaving you this long? Think. Learn to let go. He is a dangerous man to be with, haven’t the death toll scared you enough?” Youngjae walks back in, and you followed him, right after. The curtain flaps as the wind strikes, but Youngjae’s mind remained unhinged. “Maybe I’m crazy but Youngjae, I don’t want Jongup. I need him.” Your eyes were wet. And from the looks of his face, he is caving.

-----

Nothing about this club is comforting. Nothing about it has a way of making you feel calm. Maybe the reason why you’re here played a part in it. A whiff of expensive cigars, and the cold wind from the air vents above, the neon, flickering lights were dizzying you. The bass is heavily boosted and quickly, you pushed your way through a crowd of drunken people, to go across. The hallways were dimly lit. These are the VIPs room. One of these rooms would have a number of girls in it. A private show for wealthy, sickening young lads. You’d be surprised who you’d catch.

But a tall girl rammed to your shoulders and with her smokey eyes, she threw you a look, not an apology escaped her mouth and red lips. She drew her eyes on you and decided that you’re probably misplaced by someone. You really looked like you’re trying to catch your spouse cheating. But that’s not the case, now is it.

In the direction she went, your instincts tell you to follow her. She was dressed up provocatively and her mini skirt rode up her thigh as she climbed up the spiral stairs. She hadn’t noticed that you were following her. You didn’t know that clubs could be multi-storeyed. You’ve never really been in one long enough to notice it. The old club you worked  in before had only one floor. You were stunned by the scenery that reveals themselves before you. In the past, these would have frightened you greatly, but this time it didn’t. You feel  yourself growing far too curious to turn back. You’ve seen a pretty expensive looking bottles of champagne, but none quite like this. You wondered, if you wandered around long enough, will you get caught?

You were certainly not dressed for the occasion.. Whatever the ocsassion was.

But what came, was what you came unprepared for.

The moment you scanned through the room of wealthy, gorgeous and drunk people, you saw one couple on top of each other. And it was in that moment, you learnt the meaning of the word: Unforgiving.

Your light of steps sprinting through the crowd to the door you came from, knocking everyone that came in your way, out. They hissed and cursed at the your actions, but the emotional turbulence that you experienced had rendered your hearing, to an ambience. What’s more important for you right now is that you head out of that club, before these tears fall pathetically.

You ran as fast as you could, and the entrance never looked so far. Visions are blurry, your thoughts are getting hazy as you let your heart take control of the situation. The world is crumbling down around you, and the next one to go is you.

The loud honking of the car rammed consciousness into your head and you realized it was raining heavily outside that loud club. You’ve stepped into a large puddle, in the middle of an almost empty street, several cars are passing through and another lorry passed you with another loud honk. You spun around, in daze. “Go home, drunkard!” The driver yelled and because the sound of the falling rain is louder, you almost couldn’t hear him say. Stumbling in your own step, you ran your finger through your dampened hair, before falling to your knees, crouching and crying. You dug the heel of your hand into the socket of your eyes, trying to erase memories of what you witnessed.

A heartbreak.

The montages, images of you and him, during the happy times, flashes across your memory. The way he smiled, the way he kiss, the way he holds. His touches, his scent, his laugh, his cries, his frustrations, his eyes. The memories continues to drill themselves into you, without a care. And with every each of that, your heart took blow after blow. “How could you. How could you.” You chanted and from behind, you heard the sound of the rain hitting against the polyester coverings of an umbrella, and rain was shield away from you. This person right next to you, knelt and tucked your hair behind your ear and you whimpered, “Why would he do that. Yongguk. Why?”

Yongguk blinks sadly to your current state, wrapped his strong arm around your petite body and helped you up. He had you seated on the front passenger seat before leaving you alone. You watched him go back to the club’s entrance that’s now overflowed with men in suits. One single blue haired guy that you didn’t need introductions to, came forward. They appeared to be having a conversation. That ended with Yongguk punching Jongup across the face. Your hand flew to your lips, gasping. Yongguk then marches boldly through the pouring rain, and into the car.

“Did you know what he did?” You asked Yongguk as he drove. “Didn’t have to.” Yongguk saw you crying, and there was no explanation that would justify that. He didn’t bother to ask. “He was kissing a girl. Passionately. The way he would kiss me. What a hoe.” You rolled your eyes to the view outside the foggy window.

Jongup had his hands all over that girl. Was kissing her obscenely. Was enjoying what he did. Not even noticing that your whole world had crumble beyond fixing.

Yongguk swallowed his saliva as he turned left on the first junction. After he have you seated in his car, Yongguk went back to the club, in the pouring rain without the umbrella. He saw one face and that was all he needs to lose absolute control, but what Jongup said upon meeting him, was what set off his outrage. “Break my face because if you don’t. She’ll come running back to me. I did what we planned, so punch me and take her away from me, now.” Jongup walks out of the comfort of his men and displayed his face. “Make me the bad guy of the story Yongguk. Finish me.” Jongup clenched his jaw and the punch he asked for, came from Yongguk’s robust fist.

It was the only to make you forget him.

Jongup, with his busted lips sat on his Bugatti, parked by the bridge. Broad daylight, his hands holding a velvety box. He sat on the hood of his car, in his grey suit, paired with black dress shirt. The compass tattoo on his neck, the miscellaneous writing along his long fingers, his leg dangling, while the other is tucked underneath his thigh. His eyes shrinks from the glares of the bright sunlight, accompanied by the sound of the stream and the engines from the cars passing through the bridge above.

He flips the velvet blue box open and it revealed a ring. Sparkly, titanium finish with black diamond as the centre. Jongup sighes. “If she’s not wearing it…” he shuts the box with the ring remaining inside, lifted himself from the hood, walked as near as he could to the bridge and the water underneath, he steps back and threw the ring box as far as it could go, with a low grunt, “...then no one else could.” Jongup returns to the hood and pick up his gun before entering the car and throttled through the street, followed by at least a dozen of black Sedans.

[Several month later]

Yongguk received a letter of promotion. He was recommended by Himchan’s father. Jongup helped Yongguk with the dirty works while Yongguk remained faithful to his job and you.

Jongup lived as a man in the shadows. And Yongguk worked to return your mesmerizing smile to you. And he’s succeeding, every day.

[A/N] He’s such a baby. A million times yas! Thank you so much for the love given to this fanfic ever since the start. Please continue to support the boys and their awesomeness (especially my Uppie his new song Try My Luck /he needs my body on him lol/ is my jam nowadays, and Yongguk’s Yamazaki,  hence the birth of this fanfic). I know I told you guys there will be three versions of endings. I ain’t lying. Like and reblog, and feel free to come inbox me anytime.

[Mutual Ver.] [Jongup Ver.]

[overwatchneedsyou]

Headcanon for MCcree raising a child :3 daughter?

~Whenever I write I picture McCree with a kid, I always think of this song.

McCree

He loves to hear her laugh. He’ll do just about anything to make her laugh. A funny dance, a bad joke, you name it, he’ll do it if it’ll make her smile.

She is not here for your gender roles. Nope, not this little girl. One minute she’s playing with dolls, the next she’s got action figures. She’s wearing dresses and the next day she’s in nikes and overalls. Try and tell her that ‘girls can’t do [insert thing here]’ or girls should do [insert thing here]’ McCree will send flowers to your funeral. 

McCree loves to braid her hair. They spend a lot of mornings with her sitting on the floor watching cartoons while he fights attacks that tumbleweed on her head with hairbands and bobby pins. 

She’s just like him. I’m talking spitting image here. Same smile, same accent, same sense of humor. She’s just as much of a trouble maker as he was and he knows it’s karma for all the mischief he caused growing up. He wouldn’t change her for anything in the world, though. Both of their heads snap up whenever someone (especially Ana) yells ‘McCree’ because honestly, it could be either of them in trouble. 

Did someone ask for sass? No? Well, you’re getting some anyway. This little girl has a silver tongue and McCree doesn’t know where she got it from. She’s got a clapback on stand by at any moment of the day. Do not try her. She’s been grounded more than once for talking back. “Don’t catch an attitude.” “You’re the one who threw it.”

They’re both bull headed and as she gets older, it gets worse. There’s shouting matches and hell will freeze over before either of them say they’re wrong. It’s lead to a lot of slammed doors and silent treatments but in the end they both love each other and let it go.

As she gets older and leaves the nest, McCree finds himself missing having her little feet stomping down the hall or spending lazy Sunday mornings on the couch with cereal. She comes to visit often and he’s happy he raised such a wonderful girl.

[ivanaxoelle]

clearing things up.

it’s definitely been awhile since i last posted, and i have a couple of updates (for the tumbleweeds and all), and things to write about and clear up. 

here’s what you’ve missed out on while i have been gone, in case you really wanted to know, both major and minor:

I'm currently out of school and just finished my (i)GCSEs. I'm on summer break! *insert applause* I will be back in school in mid-august, but until then I don’t have much external weight on my shoulders, which is a nice feeling :) I will be doing the IB Diploma next year, but more on that later.

I fell in (and out) of love. definitely something bold to say; and I didn’t think I would say it this year, but it happened. it’s honestly totally changed my perspective,  but I guess this is quite the sensitive topic for me to talk about. I have been trying to combat it but it hurts too much to deal with it head on, so I've been doing it a little at a time. I also have accepted that it won’t be easy, but as long as I feel okay, I guess that’s all fine and dandy. the relationship wasn’t great for my mental health either, so I guess that’s a positive that it no longer really exists. 

I'm back on youtube again. this has been planned for awhile, but I never got around to it until late June. I am trying to post a video every day for the sake of ‘vedj’ (video everyday in July) and I've failed a couple of days. I do hope to be back on it seriously and be committed to posting, so if you would like to do me a favor and show some support, let me know you’re supporting me by watching them, it’ll mean a heck load to me. 

I will be trying my best to post, but I can’t guarantee a post daily. sorry, both to you and to myself for failing my goal. nor will I just post my own posts, I will be reblogging several other things I have passionate about too on this platform, for more variety as well as just for enjoyment. it’s the art of Tumblr that I don’t wish to destroy. this will be more of a personal style blog, rather than just a ‘diary’.

I might be starting a new blog. over the course of this year, I have been really inspired and motivated by the studyblr community as well as the blogs, and as I'm starting a new school year and a new course, I want to make a studyblr myself. I'll probably update you more on that in a later post, but keep your eyes peeled... I hope?

i’m no longer learning norwegian. you probably didn’t even know that I even started, but if you’ve read my older posts before, you will have noticed that I was learning Norwegian. that is no longer happening, as I have stopped doing so since having to start revising for my actual exams. though, however - I do hope to continue learning once I have started school as my IB CAS. of course, more on that soon.

that’s all i really have for now - stay tuned for more! excited for what the future holds ^~^

also: having Grammarly has made me realise how many times i say ‘i’ sorry about that, i promise i’m not that self-entitled or conceited. lol 

[bizmediaweb]

7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

This is the first post in our series on Guest Posting, with a focus on benefits other than just SEO, for a more successful and fulfilling approach to finding readers for your blog.

Guest posting is not all (or even mostly) about SEO.

My first experience of ‘guest posts’ was back in 2005 here on ProBlogger when I decided to take a month off blogging to have a holiday with Vanessa and wanted to keep posting on the blog.

I put up a post calling for people to contribute posts while I was gone – and had a great response.

Here’s my post announcing the guest posters.

This opened my eyes to the potential of hosting guest posters on my blog – but I also got feedback from many of the contributing bloggers that guest posting on ProBlogger was hugely positive for them too.

Among the benefits they saw were:

Spikes in traffic to their blog

Building their brand

Showing their authority

One blogger even told me that it led to them getting a dream job.

Some of these bloggers then started to offer to ‘guest post’ on other blogs and continued to see benefits.

How Guest Posting Developed

Over the next couple of years we saw numerous bloggers leverage the power of guest posting to launch their blogs: Leo Babauta from Zen Habits comes to mind, and also Chris Garrett.

Both of these guys would do bursts of guest posts on numerous blogs over a few weeks – they’d seem to be everywhere – creating high quality content, building their brand, driving traffic to their blogs, and getting their work in front of a wide audience.

It was a win-win-win situation: Leo and Chris benefited, of course, but so did the host blogs (who got great posts for free) … and so did the readers of those blogs (who got access to fresh new voices).

Around 2010, though, things started to change.

Bloggers I’d never heard of would pitch to post on my blogs.

The posts they submitted seemed to be more about inserting links than providing value or showing the author’s expertise.

People had realised that there was another benefit of guest posts: SEO/link building.

A few things happened at this point: an explosion in the amount of people doing guest posts, lower quality posts, and people just wanting a link – not caring about delivering value.

Some people even paid to have their posts/links inserted onto blogs.

This went on for several years. Everyone was doing it, but then in 2014 Google put a stop to that, and Matt Cutts (who was the head of the web spam team) caused a huge stir in the blogging world with this post: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

As a result, many bloggers stopped guest posting and looked for different ways to grow their blogs.

I wonder if people threw out the baby with the bathwater. They’d become so obsessed with link building that they forgot the other many benefits of guest posting.

7 Great Reasons to Guest Post

Why guest post, then, if you’re not using it as a link building strategy?

#1: Get Your Name Known

When you guest post on a major blog in your niche, you instantly boost your authority and credibility: your writing has been featured somewhere impressive.

At the very least, guest posting on several blogs in your niche will get your name recognised. It allows you to get your work in front of a new audience … and it can also impress big-name bloggers. However, to even be considered by other blogs, your writing needs to be of high quality and value to their audiences. Earn the opportunity and earn the authority.

#2: Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Blog

Guest posting will bring in traffic: not just any traffic, but quality, targeted traffic (if you appear on a blog with a similar topic and audience to yours).

This traffic can turn into qualified leads: people who are a good fit for your products or services.

Check with the hosting blog about what you can and can’t include in your bio at the end of the post, in terms of linking to your own site.

#3: Build Your Email List

If you direct guest post readers to a sign-up incentive, you’ll quickly grow your email list … giving you a ready-made base of potential customers to promote your products to.

Some bloggers link to a “landing page” for their newsletter in their bio, and you may even want to customise this so you have different versions for the different blogs you’re guest posting for.

#4: Network with Other Bloggers in Your Niche

While commenting on blogs can be a way to build a relationship with a blogger, the best way to impress someone quickly is to send them a great guest post.

This provides real value for them (content their readers will love … that they didn’t have to write themselves!) and the power of reciprocity means they’ll be more likely to do you a favour in the future.

Bonus points if you take the time to get to know the blogger and their audience, and check if they actually accept guest posts, rather than cold pitching them.

#5: Open Doors to New Opportunities

I mentioned before that one of the first guest posters on ProBlogger landed a dream job as a result. You never know who might read a guest post (or who might be impressed by seeing your name on a major blog).

Guest posts also offer social proof: on your website, you can name the blogs you’ve written for – which could impress a new reader enough to get them to stick around. You may even want to use some of your guest posts as a writing portfolio, especially if you’re looking for freelance work.

#6: Improve Your Writing Skills

When you don’t yet have many readers on your own blog, it can feel like the tumbleweed is blowing past: no-one’s commenting, and certainly no-one’s pushing you to create your best work.

By guest posting, you give yourself more opportunities to write … the more you do so, the better your writing will become. You may also get feedback from the blogger (or blog editor) you’re writing for: this can really help you grow as a writer.

#7: Develop Your Ideas

As you put your ideas in front of different, larger audiences, you’ll get feedback. Some of this may be negative or critical, but in my experience, the vast majority of blog comments are positive.

If you get lots of positive feedback about a particular post, perhaps it contains an idea that you’ll want to develop further (maybe even as an ebook or ecourse). Or maybe you’ll get a comment that offers a different perspective – one you’d not considered before – or a way to deepen your work.

All guest posts will bring some benefit … but you may even find that one particular post is a game-changer for you.

That’s what happened to Jon Morrow when he guest posted for ProBlogger back in 2011. He wrote How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World.

This post did much, much more than just give Jon some link juice (which, of course, wasn’t his reason for writing it anyway).

It moved people and inspired them.

It showed Jon’s ability as a writer.

It sent Jon a lot of traffic.

It won Jon many new fans and deepened his engagement with his existing audience (many of whom weren’t aware at that point of his story).

It also got him 9,000 (yes, 9,000!) subscribers, as Ahmed Safwan explained here.

In case you’ve been skimming: SEO isn’t the only reason to guest post. There are a whole host of benefits to guest posting, whether you’ve just started blogging or whether you’ve been doing it for years.

In a couple of days one of our regular guest contributors, Ali Luke, will share how to find guest blogging opportunities and how to boost your chances of getting your submission accepted. I write a weekly newsletter with a wrap up of the latest ProBlogger content. Sign up so you don’t miss out on the rest of the series.

What has been the best thing you’ve experienced from guest blogging? 

The post 7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting appeared first on ProBlogger.

       7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting published first on http://ift.tt/2u73Z29

[richardrobertsimsuccessblog]

7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

This is the first post in our series on Guest Posting, with a focus on benefits other than just SEO, for a more successful and fulfilling approach to finding readers for your blog.

Guest posting is not all (or even mostly) about SEO.

My first experience of ‘guest posts’ was back in 2005 here on ProBlogger when I decided to take a month off blogging to have a holiday with Vanessa and wanted to keep posting on the blog.

I put up a post calling for people to contribute posts while I was gone – and had a great response.

Here’s my post announcing the guest posters.

This opened my eyes to the potential of hosting guest posters on my blog – but I also got feedback from many of the contributing bloggers that guest posting on ProBlogger was hugely positive for them too.

Among the benefits they saw were:

Spikes in traffic to their blog

Building their brand

Showing their authority

One blogger even told me that it led to them getting a dream job.

Some of these bloggers then started to offer to ‘guest post’ on other blogs and continued to see benefits.

How Guest Posting Developed

Over the next couple of years we saw numerous bloggers leverage the power of guest posting to launch their blogs: Leo Babauta from Zen Habits comes to mind, and also Chris Garrett.

Both of these guys would do bursts of guest posts on numerous blogs over a few weeks – they’d seem to be everywhere – creating high quality content, building their brand, driving traffic to their blogs, and getting their work in front of a wide audience.

It was a win-win-win situation: Leo and Chris benefited, of course, but so did the host blogs (who got great posts for free) … and so did the readers of those blogs (who got access to fresh new voices).

Around 2010, though, things started to change.

Bloggers I’d never heard of would pitch to post on my blogs.

The posts they submitted seemed to be more about inserting links than providing value or showing the author’s expertise.

People had realised that there was another benefit of guest posts: SEO/link building.

A few things happened at this point: an explosion in the amount of people doing guest posts, lower quality posts, and people just wanting a link – not caring about delivering value.

Some people even paid to have their posts/links inserted onto blogs.

This went on for several years. Everyone was doing it, but then in 2014 Google put a stop to that, and Matt Cutts (who was the head of the web spam team) caused a huge stir in the blogging world with this post: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

As a result, many bloggers stopped guest posting and looked for different ways to grow their blogs.

I wonder if people threw out the baby with the bathwater. They’d become so obsessed with link building that they forgot the other many benefits of guest posting.

7 Great Reasons to Guest Post

Why guest post, then, if you’re not using it as a link building strategy?

#1: Get Your Name Known

When you guest post on a major blog in your niche, you instantly boost your authority and credibility: your writing has been featured somewhere impressive.

At the very least, guest posting on several blogs in your niche will get your name recognised. It allows you to get your work in front of a new audience … and it can also impress big-name bloggers. However, to even be considered by other blogs, your writing needs to be of high quality and value to their audiences. Earn the opportunity and earn the authority.

#2: Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Blog

Guest posting will bring in traffic: not just any traffic, but quality, targeted traffic (if you appear on a blog with a similar topic and audience to yours).

This traffic can turn into qualified leads: people who are a good fit for your products or services.

Check with the hosting blog about what you can and can’t include in your bio at the end of the post, in terms of linking to your own site.

#3: Build Your Email List

If you direct guest post readers to a sign-up incentive, you’ll quickly grow your email list … giving you a ready-made base of potential customers to promote your products to.

Some bloggers link to a “landing page” for their newsletter in their bio, and you may even want to customise this so you have different versions for the different blogs you’re guest posting for.

#4: Network with Other Bloggers in Your Niche

While commenting on blogs can be a way to build a relationship with a blogger, the best way to impress someone quickly is to send them a great guest post.

This provides real value for them (content their readers will love … that they didn’t have to write themselves!) and the power of reciprocity means they’ll be more likely to do you a favour in the future.

Bonus points if you take the time to get to know the blogger and their audience, and check if they actually accept guest posts, rather than cold pitching them.

#5: Open Doors to New Opportunities

I mentioned before that one of the first guest posters on ProBlogger landed a dream job as a result. You never know who might read a guest post (or who might be impressed by seeing your name on a major blog).

Guest posts also offer social proof: on your website, you can name the blogs you’ve written for – which could impress a new reader enough to get them to stick around. You may even want to use some of your guest posts as a writing portfolio, especially if you’re looking for freelance work.

#6: Improve Your Writing Skills

When you don’t yet have many readers on your own blog, it can feel like the tumbleweed is blowing past: no-one’s commenting, and certainly no-one’s pushing you to create your best work.

By guest posting, you give yourself more opportunities to write … the more you do so, the better your writing will become. You may also get feedback from the blogger (or blog editor) you’re writing for: this can really help you grow as a writer.

#7: Develop Your Ideas

As you put your ideas in front of different, larger audiences, you’ll get feedback. Some of this may be negative or critical, but in my experience, the vast majority of blog comments are positive.

If you get lots of positive feedback about a particular post, perhaps it contains an idea that you’ll want to develop further (maybe even as an ebook or ecourse). Or maybe you’ll get a comment that offers a different perspective – one you’d not considered before – or a way to deepen your work.

All guest posts will bring some benefit … but you may even find that one particular post is a game-changer for you.

That’s what happened to Jon Morrow when he guest posted for ProBlogger back in 2011. He wrote How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World.

This post did much, much more than just give Jon some link juice (which, of course, wasn’t his reason for writing it anyway).

It moved people and inspired them.

It showed Jon’s ability as a writer.

It sent Jon a lot of traffic.

It won Jon many new fans and deepened his engagement with his existing audience (many of whom weren’t aware at that point of his story).

It also got him 9,000 (yes, 9,000!) subscribers, as Ahmed Safwan explained here.

In case you’ve been skimming: SEO isn’t the only reason to guest post. There are a whole host of benefits to guest posting, whether you’ve just started blogging or whether you’ve been doing it for years.

In a couple of days one of our regular guest contributors, Ali Luke, will share how to find guest blogging opportunities and how to boost your chances of getting your submission accepted. I write a weekly newsletter with a wrap up of the latest ProBlogger content. Sign up so you don’t miss out on the rest of the series.

What has been the best thing you’ve experienced from guest blogging? 

The post 7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting appeared first on ProBlogger.

       7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

[kristinejrosario]

7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

This is the first post in our series on Guest Posting, with a focus on benefits other than just SEO, for a more successful and fulfilling approach to finding readers for your blog.

Guest posting is not all (or even mostly) about SEO.

My first experience of ‘guest posts’ was back in 2005 here on ProBlogger when I decided to take a month off blogging to have a holiday with Vanessa and wanted to keep posting on the blog.

I put up a post calling for people to contribute posts while I was gone – and had a great response.

Here’s my post announcing the guest posters.

This opened my eyes to the potential of hosting guest posters on my blog – but I also got feedback from many of the contributing bloggers that guest posting on ProBlogger was hugely positive for them too.

Among the benefits they saw were:

Spikes in traffic to their blog

Building their brand

Showing their authority

One blogger even told me that it led to them getting a dream job.

Some of these bloggers then started to offer to ‘guest post’ on other blogs and continued to see benefits.

How Guest Posting Developed

Over the next couple of years we saw numerous bloggers leverage the power of guest posting to launch their blogs: Leo Babauta from Zen Habits comes to mind, and also Chris Garrett.

Both of these guys would do bursts of guest posts on numerous blogs over a few weeks – they’d seem to be everywhere – creating high quality content, building their brand, driving traffic to their blogs, and getting their work in front of a wide audience.

It was a win-win-win situation: Leo and Chris benefited, of course, but so did the host blogs (who got great posts for free) … and so did the readers of those blogs (who got access to fresh new voices).

Around 2010, though, things started to change.

Bloggers I’d never heard of would pitch to post on my blogs.

The posts they submitted seemed to be more about inserting links than providing value or showing the author’s expertise.

People had realised that there was another benefit of guest posts: SEO/link building.

A few things happened at this point: an explosion in the amount of people doing guest posts, lower quality posts, and people just wanting a link – not caring about delivering value.

Some people even paid to have their posts/links inserted onto blogs.

This went on for several years. Everyone was doing it, but then in 2014 Google put a stop to that, and Matt Cutts (who was the head of the web spam team) caused a huge stir in the blogging world with this post: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

As a result, many bloggers stopped guest posting and looked for different ways to grow their blogs.

I wonder if people threw out the baby with the bathwater. They’d become so obsessed with link building that they forgot the other many benefits of guest posting.

7 Great Reasons to Guest Post

Why guest post, then, if you’re not using it as a link building strategy?

#1: Get Your Name Known

When you guest post on a major blog in your niche, you instantly boost your authority and credibility: your writing has been featured somewhere impressive.

At the very least, guest posting on several blogs in your niche will get your name recognised. It allows you to get your work in front of a new audience … and it can also impress big-name bloggers. However, to even be considered by other blogs, your writing needs to be of high quality and value to their audiences. Earn the opportunity and earn the authority.

#2: Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Blog

Guest posting will bring in traffic: not just any traffic, but quality, targeted traffic (if you appear on a blog with a similar topic and audience to yours).

This traffic can turn into qualified leads: people who are a good fit for your products or services.

Check with the hosting blog about what you can and can’t include in your bio at the end of the post, in terms of linking to your own site.

#3: Build Your Email List

If you direct guest post readers to a sign-up incentive, you’ll quickly grow your email list … giving you a ready-made base of potential customers to promote your products to.

Some bloggers link to a “landing page” for their newsletter in their bio, and you may even want to customise this so you have different versions for the different blogs you’re guest posting for.

#4: Network with Other Bloggers in Your Niche

While commenting on blogs can be a way to build a relationship with a blogger, the best way to impress someone quickly is to send them a great guest post.

This provides real value for them (content their readers will love … that they didn’t have to write themselves!) and the power of reciprocity means they’ll be more likely to do you a favour in the future.

Bonus points if you take the time to get to know the blogger and their audience, and check if they actually accept guest posts, rather than cold pitching them.

#5: Open Doors to New Opportunities

I mentioned before that one of the first guest posters on ProBlogger landed a dream job as a result. You never know who might read a guest post (or who might be impressed by seeing your name on a major blog).

Guest posts also offer social proof: on your website, you can name the blogs you’ve written for – which could impress a new reader enough to get them to stick around. You may even want to use some of your guest posts as a writing portfolio, especially if you’re looking for freelance work.

#6: Improve Your Writing Skills

When you don’t yet have many readers on your own blog, it can feel like the tumbleweed is blowing past: no-one’s commenting, and certainly no-one’s pushing you to create your best work.

By guest posting, you give yourself more opportunities to write … the more you do so, the better your writing will become. You may also get feedback from the blogger (or blog editor) you’re writing for: this can really help you grow as a writer.

#7: Develop Your Ideas

As you put your ideas in front of different, larger audiences, you’ll get feedback. Some of this may be negative or critical, but in my experience, the vast majority of blog comments are positive.

If you get lots of positive feedback about a particular post, perhaps it contains an idea that you’ll want to develop further (maybe even as an ebook or ecourse). Or maybe you’ll get a comment that offers a different perspective – one you’d not considered before – or a way to deepen your work.

All guest posts will bring some benefit … but you may even find that one particular post is a game-changer for you.

That’s what happened to Jon Morrow when he guest posted for ProBlogger back in 2011. He wrote How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World.

This post did much, much more than just give Jon some link juice (which, of course, wasn’t his reason for writing it anyway).

It moved people and inspired them.

It showed Jon’s ability as a writer.

It sent Jon a lot of traffic.

It won Jon many new fans and deepened his engagement with his existing audience (many of whom weren’t aware at that point of his story).

It also got him 9,000 (yes, 9,000!) subscribers, as Ahmed Safwan explained here.

In case you’ve been skimming: SEO isn’t the only reason to guest post. There are a whole host of benefits to guest posting, whether you’ve just started blogging or whether you’ve been doing it for years.

In a couple of days one of our regular guest contributors, Ali Luke, will share how to find guest blogging opportunities and how to boost your chances of getting your submission accepted. I write a weekly newsletter with a wrap up of the latest ProBlogger content. Sign up so you don’t miss out on the rest of the series.

What has been the best thing you’ve experienced from guest blogging? 

The post 7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/YqX3OUak5mg/

[silvino32mills]

7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

This is the first post in our series on Guest Posting, with a focus on benefits other than just SEO, for a more successful and fulfilling approach to finding readers for your blog.

Guest posting is not all (or even mostly) about SEO.

My first experience of ‘guest posts’ was back in 2005 here on ProBlogger when I decided to take a month off blogging to have a holiday with Vanessa and wanted to keep posting on the blog.

I put up a post calling for people to contribute posts while I was gone – and had a great response.

Here’s my post announcing the guest posters.

This opened my eyes to the potential of hosting guest posters on my blog – but I also got feedback from many of the contributing bloggers that guest posting on ProBlogger was hugely positive for them too.

Among the benefits they saw were:

Spikes in traffic to their blog

Building their brand

Showing their authority

One blogger even told me that it led to them getting a dream job.

Some of these bloggers then started to offer to ‘guest post’ on other blogs and continued to see benefits.

How Guest Posting Developed

Over the next couple of years we saw numerous bloggers leverage the power of guest posting to launch their blogs: Leo Babauta from Zen Habits comes to mind, and also Chris Garrett.

Both of these guys would do bursts of guest posts on numerous blogs over a few weeks – they’d seem to be everywhere – creating high quality content, building their brand, driving traffic to their blogs, and getting their work in front of a wide audience.

It was a win-win-win situation: Leo and Chris benefited, of course, but so did the host blogs (who got great posts for free) … and so did the readers of those blogs (who got access to fresh new voices).

Around 2010, though, things started to change.

Bloggers I’d never heard of would pitch to post on my blogs.

The posts they submitted seemed to be more about inserting links than providing value or showing the author’s expertise.

People had realised that there was another benefit of guest posts: SEO/link building.

A few things happened at this point: an explosion in the amount of people doing guest posts, lower quality posts, and people just wanting a link – not caring about delivering value.

Some people even paid to have their posts/links inserted onto blogs.

This went on for several years. Everyone was doing it, but then in 2014 Google put a stop to that, and Matt Cutts (who was the head of the web spam team) caused a huge stir in the blogging world with this post: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

As a result, many bloggers stopped guest posting and looked for different ways to grow their blogs.

I wonder if people threw out the baby with the bathwater. They’d become so obsessed with link building that they forgot the other many benefits of guest posting.

7 Great Reasons to Guest Post

Why guest post, then, if you’re not using it as a link building strategy?

#1: Get Your Name Known

When you guest post on a major blog in your niche, you instantly boost your authority and credibility: your writing has been featured somewhere impressive.

At the very least, guest posting on several blogs in your niche will get your name recognised. It allows you to get your work in front of a new audience … and it can also impress big-name bloggers. However, to even be considered by other blogs, your writing needs to be of high quality and value to their audiences. Earn the opportunity and earn the authority.

#2: Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Blog

Guest posting will bring in traffic: not just any traffic, but quality, targeted traffic (if you appear on a blog with a similar topic and audience to yours).

This traffic can turn into qualified leads: people who are a good fit for your products or services.

Check with the hosting blog about what you can and can’t include in your bio at the end of the post, in terms of linking to your own site.

#3: Build Your Email List

If you direct guest post readers to a sign-up incentive, you’ll quickly grow your email list … giving you a ready-made base of potential customers to promote your products to.

Some bloggers link to a “landing page” for their newsletter in their bio, and you may even want to customise this so you have different versions for the different blogs you’re guest posting for.

#4: Network with Other Bloggers in Your Niche

While commenting on blogs can be a way to build a relationship with a blogger, the best way to impress someone quickly is to send them a great guest post.

This provides real value for them (content their readers will love … that they didn’t have to write themselves!) and the power of reciprocity means they’ll be more likely to do you a favour in the future.

Bonus points if you take the time to get to know the blogger and their audience, and check if they actually accept guest posts, rather than cold pitching them.

#5: Open Doors to New Opportunities

I mentioned before that one of the first guest posters on ProBlogger landed a dream job as a result. You never know who might read a guest post (or who might be impressed by seeing your name on a major blog).

Guest posts also offer social proof: on your website, you can name the blogs you’ve written for – which could impress a new reader enough to get them to stick around. You may even want to use some of your guest posts as a writing portfolio, especially if you’re looking for freelance work.

#6: Improve Your Writing Skills

When you don’t yet have many readers on your own blog, it can feel like the tumbleweed is blowing past: no-one’s commenting, and certainly no-one’s pushing you to create your best work.

By guest posting, you give yourself more opportunities to write … the more you do so, the better your writing will become. You may also get feedback from the blogger (or blog editor) you’re writing for: this can really help you grow as a writer.

#7: Develop Your Ideas

As you put your ideas in front of different, larger audiences, you’ll get feedback. Some of this may be negative or critical, but in my experience, the vast majority of blog comments are positive.

If you get lots of positive feedback about a particular post, perhaps it contains an idea that you’ll want to develop further (maybe even as an ebook or ecourse). Or maybe you’ll get a comment that offers a different perspective – one you’d not considered before – or a way to deepen your work.

All guest posts will bring some benefit … but you may even find that one particular post is a game-changer for you.

That’s what happened to Jon Morrow when he guest posted for ProBlogger back in 2011. He wrote How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World.

This post did much, much more than just give Jon some link juice (which, of course, wasn’t his reason for writing it anyway).

It moved people and inspired them.

It showed Jon’s ability as a writer.

It sent Jon a lot of traffic.

It won Jon many new fans and deepened his engagement with his existing audience (many of whom weren’t aware at that point of his story).

It also got him 9,000 (yes, 9,000!) subscribers, as Ahmed Safwan explained here.

In case you’ve been skimming: SEO isn’t the only reason to guest post. There are a whole host of benefits to guest posting, whether you’ve just started blogging or whether you’ve been doing it for years.

In a couple of days one of our regular guest contributors, Ali Luke, will share how to find guest blogging opportunities and how to boost your chances of getting your submission accepted. I write a weekly newsletter with a wrap up of the latest ProBlogger content. Sign up so you don’t miss out on the rest of the series.

What has been the best thing you’ve experienced from guest blogging? 

The post 7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/YqX3OUak5mg/