#IN SOME CAPACITY AT LEAST

[roosterbox]

Well what do you know - December 4th is here again.

On this day, 34 years ago (1987!), the world was blessed (some might say cursed - both can be equally correct) with my beautiful face. Granted, I was pretty small back then, and I definitely cried a lot more, but still.

Gotta say, it’s been a wild ride. Not gonna be so cliché as to say I wouldn’t change anything. There are plenty of parts that weren’t great. But it was certainly …something. One thing I absolutely would NOT change is meeting all of you guys. All my friends in various fandoms. You make this crazy thing called life better. And a lot of fun, lol.

❤️❤️❤️

[harry-leroy]

I came to see Sir George... 

[wigglebox]

lmao okay so going off of those two meta posts i just reblogged

there’s also like

— dean didn’t have the necklace hanging from the mirror in 1520 in heaven 

but he does now 

and his hair is longer 

and it’s not a warm tone nor is there a lense flare so like

[robinsnest2111]

oh, to be a young androgynous and eccentric musician in their early twenties, living the life in a polyamorous and wildly successful band...

[autumngracy]

Me: I love starting stories so so much, but I'm really bad at finishing them these days

Them: You mean as a writer or as a reader?

Me: Yes

[vickorydickorydock]

I know Raph canonically hates roaches the most but honestly he would flip his shit over leeches

[convulsionofhonesty]

with less than a month until spotify wrapped stops tracking, i would like to predict my top 5 artists of the year:

1. julien baker

2. hozier

3. taylor swift

4. lorde

5. phoebe bridgers

[malmagma]

Happy birthday @megamanrecut !

[error-core-animations]

*matpat voice* I must prove he is a robot,,,, some how, some way, I will make it true.......

[toms-gregxit]

just wanna say before it all goes to sh*t, tomshiv could've been so f*ckn powerful, like actually!!!?

(look at this power couple tho 😭)

[muck-raker]

is there an aftg/tma crossover out there yet? has anyone written nathan as an avatar of the hunt?

[science-lings]

great, now I can’t stop thinking about my Zelda’s...

[searidings]

hi! this message might seem a little out of nowhere, but i have a question for you. i love your writing a whole lot, and i guess i was wondering… how do you do it?

you have so many amazing stories on ao3 (with decently sized word counts) that i can’t help but wonder how you do it all? i’m a writer too, and i love doing it, but it seems like i never have the time. it could be because i’m still in school and managing to get all of that work done while making time for myself seems like an impossible task, but i’m sure you have a life outside of writing as well.

sorry, i’m rambling. i guess what i’m asking for here might be your writing schedule/how much you do write a week + any tips you may have?

thanks! <3

alright i've been sitting on this ask because honestly i don't have a writing schedule i have a massive pile of frustration and wasted time followed by a burst of intense hyperfixation, nevertheless i will try to answer as best i can!

firstly, real life gets in the way all the time! i can't imagine that anyone except full time authors (and even then) has the time to write as much as they want to. i've tried to give myself a break with this. if you can't do it this week, or next, so what. your brain (and ideas and plots and musings) aren't going anywhere

- understand that time when you're not creating is necessary and good. if writing is the "output", what's your input? how do you replenish the tank? when im completely stumped i read a book, watch a show, or absorb something totally different so that i have more juice in the creative tank to draw on for my own stuff

i truly don't have a writing schedule. i can't do that '200 words a day' thing though i'm so envious of people who can. i either write nothing for a month, or i write 70k words in three weeks, there's no in between. when i get into it i can write 10k+ words a day, but then there are periods (like now) where i struggle to string together a sentence. there are so many great tips out there for forming daily habits and avoiding distractions to write little and often but that's just not me or my process, and i'm trying to accept that, so that would be my biggest piece of "advice": don't try to do what works for other people, unless it genuinely works for you too

that said, these are some of the things that work for me:

- routine and discipline are important and there comes a time when you just have to sit down and write, but if you only write for pleasure like me and not as a job, a balance between forcing but also allowing/enjoying the process is key or you'll start to hate it so much you give up altogether. remember why you started writing in the first place, and focus on that

- protect the time and space in which you write. i don't set myself word targets or deadlines, but i do schedule in chunks of time (for me it has to be at least like two hours) where im going to (at least try) to write. it has to be purposeful. i don't enforce anything else about my process, but i do enforce (where possible) uninterrupted periods where i can focus solely on writing

- read what you want to write and write what you want to read. it's cliché as hell but it's been working for me, that's all i can say

[theblob1958]

i hope the tech director at the college im transferring who i just emailed is charmed and compelled by my initiative and wants to hire me on the spot to work in the scene shop there

[carpisuns]

girl help im suffering from vibe envy lol

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

hey so I’m not trying to be gross but this genuinely something that I wonder about like how does mc survive on her period in a mansion full of vampires? Especially with a pure blood like Comte or Leonardo like can’t they sense it? sorry if this is weird I’m just genuinely interested In like pure blood and vampire lore and like what they pick up on especially comte as he’s a fave. I’d love to hear your thoughts as always I love your posts and I hope you’re doing well and staying safe and healthy 💛☺️

Haha, please don’t worry! 😂😂😂 I’ve often wondered about the very same thing, and while I don’t have any canon answers, I can offer the most likely scenario from my understanding of the game. Hope you’re doing well too, lovely, thank you! Stay safe out there~💛💛💛

Given what I know, and the fact that blood is only a small component of the discharge that comes with one’s period, I’d wager it poses a low risk generally speaking. I think the plan would be to make sure everyone’s on guard and has been keeping up with their usual doses of Blanc/Rouge (no waiting until you starve, Jeanne, yes that is a threat) but otherwise everyone proceeds as they normally would. I think it would be hardest on the vamps who are most sensitive to the presence of blood/have a harder time controlling their thirst, like Isaac and Arthur. 

Purebloods have been canonically established as having a much lower tendency to bloodlust by comparison to lesser/turned vampires, so I very much doubt Comte or Leonardo would react much. A blip on the screen for them, nothing more. (I often categorize Jeanne as the closest to pureblood level reactivity because his ability to control the thirst is exceptional; the only time he has ever come close to attacking MC was when he was at a point of intense starvation.) I think the only time her period could potentially become risky is if one of them was starving (and therefore reacting on the level of base instinct) or grievously injured. If they have feelings for her or she’s in a relationship with one of them, it may make them want to bite her more, but I don’t think they’d necessarily act on it. I’d assume most of them would be reluctant because MC is already losing blood as it is? Better to be safe than sorry, and all that.

As for whether or not they can anticipate it, I’m really not sure? It’s possible they might sense hormonal changes, but given I haven’t seen them react to anything so slight I can’t be sure. Purebloods I’d say it’s a coin toss; it’s very possible they can sense it before it comes--but I just have no way of knowing for sure. Lesser vampires, I very much doubt it. 

That being said, you bring up a very timely contention (for me) as of late. Which is to say: what are purebloods capable of sensing? I’ll be elaborating on a recent JPN collection story event that included Comte, as it had a very interesting tidbit that I’d like to share with y’all. It isn’t a huge spoiler as I’ll be focusing on the pureblood lore that was included, but for those who don’t want to see it I’ll be placing it under a cut. (Also some slight spoilers for Comte and Leo’s main story rt).

Mandatory spoiler warning:

So this last event featured MC and her suitor taking care of a child for a few days, in which they act like a pair of surrogate parents. Naturally, being a feral Comte stan, I got his story. In it, both he and MC are taking care of a young girl named Emma--the daughter of a fellow aristocrat (a friend of his). At some point during the story, MC accidentally loses sight of Emma while hanging up the laundry. MC searches the entire mansion but can’t find her anywhere, and she begins to panic when Comte encounters her. Alarmed, he gently asks her what’s wrong and she explains what happened. There’s a brief pause [”...”] and then he says “It’s okay, MC. Emma is–”. Comte then leads her to the gazebo where the little tyke is fast asleep, taking a midday nap in the shade. Naturally MC is relieved to see her safe, but also a little baffled as Comte led her directly to Emma. 

MC: “I’m so glad she’s okay. But…how did you know she’d be here?”

Comte: “Purebloods are good at sensing/detecting nearby human beings.”

And I ????? Granted it’s possible it got translated incorrectly but...I really don’t understand how else he would have known exactly where she was? If MC asked around and searched the entire place and still couldn’t find any trace of her, how would Comte have just known in an instant? Additionally, if he spotted her before he found MC panicking, then I doubt he would have just left her there without an adult/guardian nearby--he would have either stayed there or taken her with him. 

So this makes it plenty plausible that he really did just sense her presence in the vicinity. But........like..........howmst in the fuck. Is that even possible. I have no idea, but I find it a little shocking that I’ve only discovered this now? I mean maybe I missed it somewhere else where this tidbit of lore came up, but as far as I know they don’t discuss it much? The most I remember is Comte giving very clear indications that purebloods were able to sense each other, but I assumed that was restricted to purebloods only...

That being said I’ve been thinking about it and, well, there are at least three pretty strong instances in the game that could affirm his claim in this story. Namely: the beginning of the story itself (Comte’s POV of the prologue), the kidnapping incident in Comte’s main story, and the beginning of Leonardo’s main story.

I remember @a-maidens-dream asking about something very interesting in Comte’s POV story, and at the time I was a little unsure what to do with the information--it wasn’t aligning in a way that made sense. But I think this might help that tidbit fall into place? I think that Comte really hadn’t realized she followed him into the door until she was already in the mansion, and as such this ability to sense humans would explain why he knew she was there before Napoleon even told him anything. If purebloods can sense human people, then he would know a human being entered the house because of the species signature; the only human person living there otherwise was Sebastian. I’m not sure if the sixth sense is acute enough for him to be able to differentiate between human people. (My guess is that it’s not that specific, or if it is, the pureblood has to know the person very well to be sure.)

Building on that, this is a subtle distinction, but it still stood out for me. In his main story route, both MC and a fellow aristocrat (a woman she was friends with) are taken to these small cabin things in the middle of the woods. All Comte, Napoleon, and Jeanne have to go on is the general location of these hideouts. They decide to split up; Comte goes one way, Napoleon and Jeanne go another. I find this instance particularly interesting because Comte’s POV indicates a kind of loss of rational thought--he is 100% in a panic state, just moving to satisfy one objective: save MC before time runs out. This suggests that Comte very much could have been relying on that sense to pinpoint her and her assailants. We have no evidence to believe he was ever a soldier or somebody with extensive experience in tracking--or that knew the landscape well. But he only trusts she’s alive and unharmed for sure when he has her in his arms again, suggesting either that this sixth sense has its limits (in regards to specificity of the person being detected) or that his judgement in that moment was too compromised for it to be clear.

The last one, and perhaps the funniest possibility of the three, lies in the beginning of Leonardo’s main story route. Iirc, Leonardo spends much of that time hauling MC around the mansion to interact and properly situate herself in the mansion’s social dynamic. While this may just be a coincidence, MC notes that she actively tried to hide from him and make herself scarce, but whenever she tried no amount of stealth worked. One can certainly argue he just paid attention or asked other residents about where she was, but I do think it’s worth considering? I need to re-look at the chapters, but I seem to recall her trying to hide in a garden shed and he still found her immediately and just picked her up and walked right back out. 

Tl;dr: So does this mean Comte/Leo can sense when MC is on her period? I have no idea, but at this point I really can’t be sure what abilities they do and don’t have!