#Not only did it work but it's ALSO my new personal best— a HIGHLY fitting one at that!!

[stardestroyer81]

Me, running straight into Clyde on the first level of Turbo Ms. Pac-Man: Fake gamer. This isn't the one.

Also me, several levels, extra lives and one game over later:

⭐ The arcade superstar never left. ⭐

[m0tiv8me]

CHALLENGE:

Nov. 1st-30th push the excuses aside and start making those positive personal changes you’ve been giving yourself excuses not to start. Keep yourself accountable through regular postings and check ins and be part of an encouraging group helping each other stay on track.

HOW TO JOIN:

Start following the tag #noexcusenovember to keep related posts appearing in your feed! Next, write up your short term goal or goals for the month of November and post them on your blog or send them to @m0tiv8me. These can be as simple or elaborate as you wish but it should be challenging for you or something you’ve been wanting to work toward but have kept making excuses about. Simple examples include 15 min of any type of exercise each day. Or do X number of push-ups daily. Cutting back on certain junk foods or toxic habits. Drinking more water, going for a daily walk. Working on building a more positive mental perspective and so on. Or you can get very detailed with a very strict specific workout routine or diet plan. Giving up a bad habit or working toward setting a new personal best in something. Or maybe each week or day is something different to keep it fun and fresh for you. Don’t feel strictly tied to exercise or diet based goals only. Think of things you'd like to improve upon but always seem to make excuses about and then focus on trying to actively do away with those excuses for the whole month and make that thing or things happen each day.

This is meant to be self directed so you can tailor it to your own skill and ability levels without feeling too over or underwhelmed. REMEMBER, make it challenging but realistic to your own ability level. Don’t be afraid to stack multiple goals if your wish. For example my own personal goals will include: Drink 1 gallon of water each day. Do at least a 30 minutes workout each day. Which I’m purposely leaving general because I travel a lot and a gym is not always an option so it may include a broad spectrum of exercise types or varieties to fit my situation. And also getting up at 6:00am each day. To me this has been a challenge lately that I’ve been trying to work on and keep making excuses to myself. I know I can do this, it will be challenging but I don’t feel like I’m setting myself up for failure with unrealistic or unattainable goals.

HOW TO REMAIN ACCOUNTABLE:

This is the important part of this challenge. To help keep us honest and engaged accountability is key. I’m offering numerous ways the group can stay accountable during this challenge to hopefully fit various preferences.

Preferred Option: I’ll be scheduling a daily accountability post titled “No Excuse November” Day x/30” each day at 12:00am. I’ll tag all participants in this post so they don’t miss it. I encourage everyone to reblog and add their own content to it at any point in the day. The idea is to get an accountability chain going that’s easy to follow, view and partake in for the whole group. If you prefer to not reblog you can opt to just add a comment with a brief update on your efforts that day to still remain accountable.

Personal Option: Make a daily post on your own blog with pics or a write up or both highlighting how or what you did that day to work toward your goal(s) This can be as brief or as detailed as you like. Please use the tag #noexcusenovember in all posts related to this challenge so that others can more easily find them. Also tagging fellow participants is great to bolster accountability and help encourage and celebrate each others victories. I HIGHLY encourage anyone posting on their own to tag me @m0tiv8me to stay accountable so I don’t miss posts and can cheer you on.

Private Option: For anyone who may wish to remain private or not post or comment publicly I will have the submissions option enabled on my blog if you want to share there. Or feel free to provide updates to me through DM. I will briefly respond with some encouraging words to reinforce the accountability aspect. Submissions will NOT be shared unless requested to protect your privacy.

WHAT YOU WIN?:

Ultimately the hope is everyone wins by ditching their excuses for a month and kicking off healthier or positive habits. However as added incentive I’ll be doing my best to keep track of who’s staying most active, posting or sharing daily and remaining accountable. At the end of the month I’ll be giving some shoutouts and promos to the top 3 I felt were the most engaged and accountable and really crushed their excuses and made prominent progress towards their goal(s).

WRAP UP:

Of course people are welcome to contact me at anytime if they have any questions, troubles or feel they need help. If you see this challenge late or want to join in after the month has already started you are welcome to join at anytime. Just let me know and start posting, sharing and tagging at any time and I’ll tag you in the daily accountability posts.

THATS IT! This challenge is meant to be fun yet challenging and I fully understand life circumstances happen and sometimes things don’t go as planned. Please don’t quit or give up if you come up short on a day. I’d prefer people own up to an excuse or extenuating circumstance and remain accountable. Let the group encourage you and help you feel like you have the ability to get back on track the next day.

My hope is the support from the group will help keep everyone on track and I highly encourage positive messages and interaction in the daily post comments. Now let’s get to work and make positive progress through the whole month of November! No Excuses!!

*if anyone wishes to opt out of being tagged in the daily posts let me know.

[pixiecaps]

Pix im so sorry ur like my go to person for asking what happens cause ur always watching 😭 but if u can can u please tell whats been happening in lore these past couple of streams 😭 /nf btw!

i’ll go as fast and short as i can

DISCLAIMER i have bad memory my chronological order of these past few days is not the best some things may be incorrectly placed so just keep that in mind. some events may be not 100% perfect chronological order 👍

eggs wake up completely dirty one day. all of them. nobody knows why. the eggs don’t remember why or how. but for some reason they were covered in dirt and their cracks looked worse.

around this same time. theres a voting poll going on for a new rule. and basically someone went around stealing all the furniture from everyones bases. leaving only a tiled magma block. they also left black and white couches arranged in numbers and codes. when they deciphered it it resulted in to phrases “I see you” & “Tomorrow”

next day. they all disappear. they are not in their beds when the first person (fit) goes to check for their egg. all thats left on their bed is their little accessories so for instance chayannes bed only had his floatie, pomme only had her berret, and so forth. everyone begins panicking because they were most likely kidnapped and taken again. and some of them from their highly protected bunkers. theres only no note or anything so there is no hints as to where they went. when people ask cucurucho all he would say he classified.

also on this same day all the popular waystones get stolen like ones that’d go to spawn etc etc. they get placed on a platform above the presidents base with a warning not to break them or hell would break loose and also a bunch of binary that translated to viva la revolución. to clarify the eggs disappearing and all these puzzles seem to be separate occurrences.

at some point cucurucho tells qcellbit to investigate some shit and he begins solving enigmas again.

people at this point were pretty fucking fed up including the president who was ready to blow everything up from his anger. until he woke up the next day wearing a white suit and had a wide smile on his face. he keep saying how happy he was and how he couldn’t wait to see richas. there was also a clock that would tick louder and louder when the drugs began to fade. he would become hostile and violent. and then he’d take another dose and become happy again. people began logging in and talking to him particularly antoine was the first to speak with him and later spoke with bbh cellbit. they all agreed something was very wrong and began investigating. they found a secret room in forevers base and that led to a small house in that room with blue walls to represent the sky and fake png flowers and when they went inside they found what appeared at first to be richarlyson. until they walked closer and saw in the place where richas would be was instead a big gray boulder and stones. so they clocked quickly that the “richas” qforever kept talking about was likely given to him by cucurucho and him hallucinating his son on that bed due to the effects of the drugs. they began scheming a plan to get him off the drugs and save their friend. qpac also witnessed qforevers behavior and had an idea himself. he was going to willingly let them inject him and feed him those drugs so that he could find a way to create an antidote before the effects became too strong. while investigating qcellbit overheard a conversation qforever was having with the fake version of richas and he interrupted and tried to snap qforever out of it. however he this only caused a big argument as qforever would not budge so qcellbit did the one thing he thought would work and he broke the fake richas bed. instead of a lucid moment qforever only sat in the corner of the room facing a wall and said that he’d get cucurucho to fix cellbit too.

phil also arrives this day ^ and earlier after learning about all the eggs disappearance and all the shitshow thats been going on he decides with the help of two others masked individuals (tubbo & fit) to lava cast the entire federation building. the one that was creates during the election. and they did they completely covered it in lava then placed water over it and it was lava cast. phil then left a note at the top that read “we want answers. we want our children back. we know you know what happened to them. stop the games. you have until the end of this week.”

also that same day foolish found the missing capybara mr mustard and became king of the capybaras officially.

meanwhile all that was happening (honestly i may be mixing up what events happen on the same day so please excuse my chronology here) tubbo noticed two fed workers appeared at spawn who he swiftly dubbed fred and jed after speaking to them a bit. he became relatively closer to fred and taught him what a friend was however fred said he was new to the federation and didn’t know anything he was talking about when he asked about the eggs.

so the next day comes around and qpac is under the effects of the drugs. same thing white clothes big smile. fit and tubbo are the first ones to log on and see their friend in this state to they help and talk to him as much as they can. and sorta realize that when qpac is slowly losing the effects of the drugs he becomes depressed rather than angry like qforever did. he also has more lucid moments than qforever and sometimes broke out of the effects shortly before going back under. later cellbit logs on finds his friend in this state and decides he will not be leaving today until they are better. cellbit speaks with bbh and phil and they begin setting up a trap to secure a way to take the drugs off qforever. cellbit meanwhile starts investigating for some answers. in his base he finds a note left from qpac detailing his plan to take the drugs to find a cure and that it was in qcellbits hands now. so he goes to chume labs and reads a bunch of books and diaries that eventually led him to chume labs island. on this island he found another diary from qpac that wrote about the antidote and needing to use fermented spider eye on the drugs. and coincidentally two of the pill bottles in that same chest with the book. so cellbit immediately rushes back to phil and bad telling them about the cure and they begin brewing. and to their success it worked the cure was called reality dose which description was “A mixture capable of bringing back those lost in dreams to what is real.” so then they devised a way to get them to use the cure. and i won’t go into it in detail cause i was like half watching and i’m not the most informed in what happened next but i think qpac after some talk with the others and being reminded of his purpose in taking the drugs willingly took the cure. then qforever was harder i know him and qcellbit were screaming at each other and i think after they made qforever take the cure he began hallucinating that qcellbit was cucurucho

small edit here: ive been informed both qpac qforever took the antidote willingly and that qforever took it first.

and said that cucurucho told him that the eggs RAN AWAY because there is something on the island that is far worse than the codes or the federation. so the eggs were so scared they fled without saying anything. qforever then fell unconscious and is resting in the orders hospital.

outside of his enigma solving for cucurucho. qcellbit goes back into the abandoned adoption center room in hopes for some clues as to where the eggs went and he finds a map for what appears to be a maze. with code at the bottom translating to A1 and also he found more code somewhere else i cannot remember that said “the answer is not in the center.”

so then this same day tubbo gets visited by FRED the federation worker which gives him a book with a code and leaves. the code translated to “tomorrow 1pm pst” and so we wait for tomorrow to arrive

AND IT DOES tubbo is freaking the fuck out cause he thinks hes getting kidnapped. he tells pac and fit something is gonna happen to him at that time. fit has an encounter with the code entity and it drops a clock in front of him and leaves.

and so 1pm pst arrives and tubbo noticed at his base theres weird black concrete placed around and a black chest in the middle with a book saying not to tell anyone, go to spawn, and an x coordinate. around this time roier and slimecicle log on and also show up at spawn with their own books. after some time they figure out they need to put their coords together and go to that place so they do! its near the wall and they find fred standing there with a gun. he signals to them to go into the cave behind him and they follow. he tells them to keep quiet and once they reached the end of the cave he tells them he cannot go on further with. they see and it seems to be the entrance to a labyrinth. they go through making their way occasionally spotting fred who then they’d chase. until they reached a room which appeared to have two observations decks in the walls above. one with a black couch and the other with a white. there was also a room with a locked door. also what appeared to be a hidden underground section with iron bars and through the iron bars tubbo and slime spot. a cucurucho. however instead of white it was fully black and instead of the usual black pixel face the face was red. when they spot it it immediately runs away deeper into the underground section it was in. the three decide to go in and they reveal a round room with a roulette wheel in the center with all the accessories of the eggs around the wheel.

there was barrier blocks around the roulette wheel. tubbo saw that and glitched himself through with an enderpearl. realizing after he only had one and had successfully trapped himself in there. he also realized he put himself in the predicament where he had to spin the wheel without knowing what it’d do. tubbo began panicking because he didn’t want to be the reason any of the eggs died. all roier and slime could do is watch. after more panicking tubbo spins the wheel and it landed on 5! the room immediately begins flooding with lava with him in it trapped. the. egg accessories begin to cover with lava. tubbo begins pleading to the others to find a way to get him out of there but there is none. the room outside the barrier blocks also begins to flood with lava and mobs begin spawning so roier and slime begin panicking. at one point slime goes down and roier does a sick clutch save‼️ tubbo realizing once he uses a totem he gets fire res and is able to warp out. slime is able to warp out and roier stays a little behind to see if he could open the locked door. he isnt able to. he leaves but once theyre all safely out they decide to go back in to figure out how to open that door. more lava begins flooding the maze more mobs begin to spawn and mines begin to blow up and coincidentally one of the mines blows up the entrance to that locked door. and they go inside and reveal it is a simple federation office with a desk and computer. with nothing else really. they once again leave successfully and around this time cellbit logs on. they tell him everything and they decide to go back and show him the maze because turns out he had that map for it from the puzzles however they once they reach where the room was inside it is completely blocked off. but what they do find is a bunch of federation posters placed inside talking about order and happiness? and also a timer that had 24 hours on it ticking.

later this day we see a streamer tweet out an image of the roulette wheel from today and a went live twitch link. we see streamer bagi in minecraft. her character in an unknown rather empty building with a tree in the center. she walks further into the building and finds a chest with a book inside and a roulette wheel. the book says “let the wheel decide. you will have to follow the light.” she spins the wheel and it lands on two. the floor disappears and she is immediately is dropped below into the overworld. shes in the ocean its raining when she reaches land its snowing. she follows the light which appears to have chests with books that detail how cold it is and if shes getting closer. she follows the trail and we notice more and more black concrete surrounding the biome shes in. interestingly enough first watching i thought they were spruce trees until i realized it was all black concrete. similarly scattered to where tubbo roier and slime found their books. so then she reaches the end of the trail with the final book stating “they should be here any time soon :)” and next to the chest a quartz table with a ticket laying on top of it with her name on it.

and so shes kicked and thats her introduction for that day. quackity tweets out this

and so WELCOME TO THE QSMP BAGI🫶

there you have it you are now fully caught up to speed! that is almost a full week of daily lore recapped:) i hope i did good. sorry for any typos i literally woke up at 10:30 am saw this ask and did not stop typing until i finished. it is now 11:51 am LOL

oh and two upcoming events. today mexican independence and whatever that timer leads to and whatever “huge event” means.

[demonsfate]

FINISHED THE TEK8 STORY. Under the cut, I will be saying how it affects my blogs and changes i may make to my own depiction, as well as how my blog will be canon divergent (for some obvious reasons). under the cut will contain MASSIVE SPOILERS. so, do not peek unless you don't care or you've finished the story already. if you've already completed the story, I highly recommend you look as it will be crucial to my blog and depiction as well as writing with me in the Tek8 verse. thank you.

I liked the story but I was also a little disappointed by a few things. I will disclose that later, for now I want this to focus on primary the depiction and what will change or stay for this blog and how this blog handles Tek8.

-JIN STILL DIDN'T START THE WAR. Honestly this is something that made the story so hard to really really like is that Jin's just good again and there was no real explanation as to why he is back to his old self. Before his character episode, they said he was consumed by the devil's blood ... but it still felt so unclear to me. Regardless, Jin didn't start the war nor was he responsible for it. DJ still started it in hopes to do what Kazuya did, awaken Azazel and take its power. Jin's guilt and suicidal tendencies are still there. However, his guilt, as always on this blog, comes from his weakness, his body being used, and feeling as though he should've killed himself and DJ sooner.

-DJ AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH JIN. Holy shit. This is definitely gonna be the hardest for me - as I am struggling to even know how to push forward with this. As yes, I didn't expect DJ to be precisely what I believed him to be, but MY GOD, the story basically went against almost everything I've written. So I'm gonna do my best to make it work with my own concept. So there will be a lotta points regarding DJ and their relationship, starting with -

-DJ AND JIN KNEW EACH OTHER SINCE THE END OF TK3. Tek8 seems to imply that it's Jin's first time actually meeting DJ. This blog strongly rejects that notion. Why? This blog's biggest focus has been on Jin and DJ's relationship and how they live with each other. It's actually the most fun about writing the two. So, to say they never actually really knew each other would just destroy a lot of fun and love I had for this dynamic. DJ's been talking to Jin ever since he woke up after Jin was killed by Heihachi. Not only do Jin and DJ know each other, they know each other better than anyone else.

-DJ IS NOT IN ANY WAY JIN, HE'S HIS OWN ENTITY. This is pretty self - explanatory, but no. Jin and DJ may share the same body, but they are not the same person. I'm never changing this.

-DJ REGARDING JIN. Okay, as sweet as Jin looking to DJ and saying "you've always been protecting me..." and DJ saying with a small smile, "I'll go anywhere with you" or some shit. But... that does go against my whole depiction. Y'know... DJ did attempt to kill Jin and came close to it before he started the war. So this is something I'm struggling with the most. I THINK I might have an idea of how I can better fit this in my depiction, though. Since whenever I write his Tek6 verse especially, I always strongly imply that DJ misses Jin. However, I'd make it unclear whether or not DJ genuinely misses Jin and thus cared about him to an extent, or if DJ is just uncomfortable by the change and new silence in his head. Because of the "you've always been protecting me" line, I suppose I'll just go completely straightforward and say yea, DJ does care about and genuinely likes Jin. However, as I've also stated many times on this blog - even if DJ likes somebody, when it comes down to it, he'll always put himself first. But DJ liking Jin is also one reason why he's so possessive of him. It's his own fucked up way of expressing that like - so a very toxic relationship.

-DJ'S JOURNEY IN 8. DJ is still mad at Jin for taking away his chances during the war. DJ still tries to gaslight Jin and isolate him as a means of getting back. Jin ends up defeating DJ regardless - like what happens in the story. However, Jin learns that DJ is something - no, someone that will always be with him no matter what. Perhaps using his Kazama powers, or Jun's influence, he/she "purifies" DJ and brings out the best in him. DJ admits his true feelings to Jin, and how they both do need each other if they want to take down their common enemy. Jin, of course, can't so easily forgive DJ for y'know... the selfishness and war crimes. But he also learned from his mother to show mercy and give second chances, as he felt he's been given a second chance. And plus, with a more purified mind, Jin feels DJ in a different headspace than he once was. DJ willingly gives his powers to Jin to fight Kazuya. In a way, DJ and Jin's relationship has improved and they've reconciled.

-DJ'S FATE? Since Jin seemingly lost the ability to activate the devil (or angel's lol) powers. I, uh... I don't know what this means for DJ at all. I really don't know if this means DJ is "dead" or just "dormant." At the point of writing this, I don't know if I'll say that DJ is dead - therefore he can't be interacted with during post Tek8 verse. Or... if I'll say he's still around, but Jin only hears him in his head, and there's no way that DJ can actually take over. Therefore, still kinda hard to interact with DJ in this verse :')

-JIN'S FATE. I'm still unsure what I wanna say Jin's fate is. It seems like he's going off with Xiaoyu, but... I don't think he's necessarily becoming a hermit like many think? For now, I'd like to think he's making up for loss time with Xiao and they're exploring the world together. Jin is absolved of his crimes due to Victor getting to actually know Jin, seeing how Jin has helped saved the world, as well as choosing to believe that Jin was indeed not the one to blame for the war. Jin's also learned to forgive himself for his mistakes, and learned that with friends - he is stronger. Jin is at his happiest, and is no longer suicidal. He wants to live!!!

-JIN ACCEPTING HIMSELF. Yes, Jin is willing to use Mishima-Style again, but NOT because of Heihachi or that Heihachi was actually a good guy (I swear this game felt like it was doubling down on Heihachi actually being noble - barf). Jin accepts Mishima-Style because he realized not all Mishimas are as bad as he originally thought. (See Lars, Jinpachi and himself, - even if Lars doesn't practice Mishima-Style)

[lajulie24]

1, 17, 30 for the fic asks!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

This is a tough question, because I really do try to kind of mix things up in my fics these days, so there are a few examples that might work well as a starting point. But I think Cover Me is a good example of the early-relationship Han and Leia I try to write — a good team, friends before they become lovers, struggling a little with whether getting together is a good idea or not, but ultimately fitting together really well. And bonus Springsteen references, since, as we know, he is a popular Corellian singer and Han is a fan.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even thought you might be the only person to appreciate it?

As far as an AU that basically takes Han and Leia and puts them into roles from another property, I’ve long wanted a Dirty Dancing AU. Maybe not the whole movie, maybe just the part where they finally admit their feelings for each other and then have a dance scene that turns into a love scene. Or maybe just Leia telling Han, “I’m doing all this to save your ass and what I’d really like to do is drop you on it!” Similarly I think a The Cutting Edge AU could be fun solely for Han and Leia being in “the ultimate love/skate relationship”. Also as I was thinking of this question I decided it would be really fun to put Han and Leia in an X-Files AU where they are two detectives in the GFFA solving X-Files mysteries (some of which are probably the work of a Sith Lord or random Force nonsense — I think Han might end up having to be the Scully sometimes in this scenario).

I’m not sure if I would categorize this as fully an AU so much as me just rejecting the post-ROTJ canon, but I have sort of daydreamed a post-ROTJ story where Leia decides fairly early on that being a politician and diplomat is great, but that she’s actually going to be more help to the ideals she and the Rebellion fought for if she takes a very different role. So she and Han (and maybe Luke, too, and Chewie when he’s not hanging out with his family) bum around the galaxy on the Falcon and she works on things like helping slavery liberation movements and supporting refugees and advocating alongside worlds who were especially devastated by the Empire to help them have a voice in the new government and get what they need. It kind of ends up being a Jedi thing except if the Jedi weren’t so chained to the Republic and had more leeway to help folks around the galaxy. They make use of Han’s contacts and skills and Leia studies to be a Jedi and every so often she hangs out with the Alderaanians to help them out too (although the Alderaanians also sort of make this their collective mission, too, once they are able to get a more stable foothold in the galaxy).

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

Several times! Even though I have written quite a bit of smut by now, it took me a long time before I tried it, and it’s always a little out of my comfort zone. As you know, I recently wrote smut that included some acts that…I hadn’t written about before and that made me go “OMG holy shit I cannot believe I actually wrote that” — in something in the way you move (makes me feel like I can’t live without you).

How did it affect my approach to writing thereafter? Well, I think each time I’ve tried something new, particularly in my out-of-my-comfort-zone smut writing, I’ve realized that the only way to do it is to just take yourself through it, step by step. I can’t think of it as “okay now I’m going to write Leia fucking Han” as a whole giant scene because that just makes me come to a complete stop. Depending on whose POV I’m writing, I’ve learned that the smut works better if I focus on what the POV character is noticing, what they’re feeling both physically and emotionally, and imagine each step they take in the scene (and skip over / gloss over steps that aren’t particularly relevant). Then it’s more real than movie-screen sex but not quite so real that we need to know every single detail like you would if you were doing this to someone in real life. And also, I found that when I wrote smut more often, I actually got better at it and liked writing it more.

Thank you kindly for the ask!

Fanfiction writer asks!

[hannahmationstudios]

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

(Also hi! Long time no see. 😁❤️)

Hiii!! Thank you so much for the questions! ;v; ❤️❤️ (I'm taking writer asks here!)

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

Answered that one here! Red Rowan is probably my pick for this.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

I'm not actually that big on AUs, to be honest - the only AU I've really invested any time in thus far is one big "the studio fumbled this so stupendously I have no choice but to ignore their bullshit and fix it" AU (Overwatch... enough said). Other than that, I'm mostly happy utilizing the canon content I'm given to make stories from, though I'm always stoked to read any AUs my friends come up with because they are all so amazingly creative. :D

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

HMM. This is a good one. There are a few really neat horror tropes I've never actually written for that I think would be a lot of fun, but the trope coming to mind immediately is "person stuck in a timeloop and being driven slowly mad across their attempts to escape".

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

I have! I always try to push the envelope with something new in every new fic. It can sometimes be a lot of fun to write things, and sometimes I'll look at it afterward and go "hm, this might be a little too dark for the narrative I'm currently working on". It helps me be a little more brave with going "life is short, and fanfic is a safe space to be a little bit bizarre".

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

My ideal length for writing chapters is around 12k-30k, though I've been known to go over or under depending on the needs of the chapter. For reading I don't know that I can peg a chapter length, though I do prefer longer, as they tend to feel more complete. That being said, different writers' styles always read differently, and can fit more or less into the amount of words they use. There's no right or wrong length!

[grimrester]

Sara's Big Review of Found Footage Horror Films You've Probably Never Seen

Tired of googling "found footage movies" and being told to watch Blair Witch or V/H/S again? Already watched all the highly recommended “obscure” films? Me too! I have trundled through the depths of Tubi and The Found Footage Critic to find some stuff that you've probably never heard of before. Now you too can reap the benefits of my obsession with this curated list of hidden gems!

The list is in no particular order, but there will be a secondary list of "honorable mentions" at the end, for movies that I feel don't quite fit the genre or I can only half-recommend. 

Accessibility note: Tubi is great about including closed captions/subtitles, so most of these have full subs. I’ll make a note of any entries that have no or limited subs.

Death of a Vlogger

A vlogger accidentally captures paranormal activity on film and goes viral. He teams up with a popular (and possibly fraudulent) ghost hunter to ride the wave of his recent fame. This one is set up mockumentary style rather than solely found footage.

A lot of found footage is more about scares than story, but this is one of the few films I watched with a genuinely compelling story arc. Without spoiling too much, I had some real trouble guessing the ending of this one. It's a fun ride and there's some good scares. There's also some novel camera shots, like a "360" video that's been edited for a flat viewing experience.

trailer | available for free on Tubi

Rorschach

Two skeptics meet up with a single mom and her daughter to investigate the supposed hauntings they’ve been experiencing in their home. Imagine if Paranormal Activity was filmed by someone actively trying disprove the ghost instead of just catching it in action.

I’ll admit this one feels almost directly targeted at me, as a diehard skeptic. It’s a fun perspective to approach the story from and while a few other movies I watched did this, this one felt the best executed. Not terribly scary but pretty believable, which is my favorite trait in found footage!

Accessibility note: no subtitles, only auto-cc.

trailer | available for free on YouTube

(Bonus: if you like this concept but prefer aliens to ghosts, check out Case 347. It was pretty good but didn’t personally appeal to me.)

Hollows Grove

Did you like Grave Encounters? Great news! This one has a similar premise - fake as hell ghost hunters show up to film their show and get a real haunting instead.

I won’t pretend this one is offering anything more than a carnival ride of scares. But they’re pretty competent scares, and at points the acting is genuinely impressive.

trailer | available for free on Tubi

Catskill Park

What if Blair Witch was about aliens and had the budget and special effects of a Sy-Fy Channel Original Movie? That’s Catskill Park.

The actors are all giving off “small time actor doing their absolute best for their highlight reel” vibes, which I actually found kind of charming. And there’s a couple of scenes that genuinely impressed me with how they were shot and the energy the actors brought. I didn’t necessarily find it scary, but it was definitely interesting.

trailer | available for free on Tubi

The Andy Baker Tapes

A high-strung, quick to anger YouTuber meets his eerie, awkward half-brother for the first time. They promptly go on a road trip together.

This is the only psychological thriller I watched that was actually executed well. The tension in this one is absolutely on par with more popular found footage thrillers like Creep. I think if I had to give someone just one recommendation from this list, it’d probably be this one.

trailer | available for free on Tubi

The Unknown Visitor

This is one of the few I watched a trailer for before watching, and I was pretty sure it would probably make this list based on the premise alone.

This one’s a pretty good little ghost story... told entirely through a stationary doorbell cam. This is arguably a movie that shouldn’t work without some pretty smart finessing, but it’s honestly pretty effective! It’s also the shortest watch on the list, so it’s great if you’re looking for just a quick spooky movie.

trailer | available for free on Tubi

Honorable Mentions

Bed Eater: The Movie

I don't know what the fuck this was. It isn't horror, that's for sure. But it sure as fuck was weird.

Bed Eater is a "successful" "blogger" (and also a real Instagram account which exists) who posts pictures of herself eating in bed. Daniel is a film student who is enamored with her work and wants to film the process of making her final post.

If that sounds like some dumb shit, that's because it is. As a former art school kid, I innately understood every single character in this.

I could not find a trailer for this movie when I googled it. What I found instead was the entire film.

Accessibility note: no subtitles.

watch the whole thing on Vimeo

#Screamers

An up-and-coming video streaming site gets an anonymous submission and react as though they've never seen a screamer video before. After uploading it, it goes viral, and they become determined to track down the submitter to pay them to make more videos.

Okay, look. I'm not going to lie, this one is silly, a little dull in the middle, and ALL of the scares are literally just screamers. But the fake-website-talk and random hacking scene are REALLY funny. The actors really put on their best "Sillicon Valley weirdos" impressions.

trailer  (WARNING THE TRAILER STARTS WITH A SCREAMER) | available for free on Tubi

The Last Broadcast

Did you really enjoy Lake Mungo? Replace that movie’s troubled teen with a cast of local celebrities and the themes of loss and family with the theme of levels of deception in media and you’d get The Last Broadcast. They have very similar vibes and structures. It really kept me hooked the whole way through.

This one hurts me to put on the honorable mentions, because I genuinely enjoyed most of it. However, the ending makes such a baffling and abrupt tonal/editing shift that I can’t really recommend it without including that as a caveat. 

trailer | available for free on Tubi

Deprivation

Three dudes drive up to a cabin in the middle of the woods to film an experiment where they stay awake for 7 days.

For a movie without a lot of actual scares, this one sure had me on edge! The three stars do a pretty believable job of playing off each other. Once the deprivation sets in, it’s hard to tell who might snap and what’s real or not.

It’s in the honorable mentions for the same reason as the last entry. Why do these otherwise competent filmmakers not know how to end a movie???

trailer | available for free on Tubi

[solovelyanddry]

#the noms for best adapted screenplay and ruffalo are bad enough but the costumes literally hurt the storytelling in the ffilm! --- hi, i haven't seen the film, but just from what I've read i think it sounds awful and i can't believe how highly rated it is, even by otherwise intelligent people of my acquaintance (i don't say friend, because if they knew me better they'd never recommend this movie to me). Could you elaborate on what you've mentioned about the costumes? I'd be very interested to know!

I just want to preface this by saying that I've only seen the film once (that was enough) and I may have missed some dialogue or a scene that completely refutes my entire argument below.

If you've seen any stills or clips from the film, you've probably seen some of Bella Baxter's (Emma Stone's character) wardrobe. Everyone else in the film is wearing (to my untrained eye) more or less period fashion, maybe a little heightened.

Bella, on the other hand, has a much more avant-garde style, usually keeping the leg-of-mutton sleeve shape but incorporating strange fabrics and patterns, unique structural flourishes, and shorts and slips which give her an underdressed feel compared to the rest of the cast. This is established from her first appearance and continues throughout the end of the film. If you haven't seen the film, you might assume that these clothes tell you about the character - she stands out from everyone else and she is an independent thinker.

EXCEPT! Nobody in the film comments on her clothing. Not when she wanders out half-dressed into the streets of Lisbon, not when she returns home to London wearing some dress-shorts. Not once. Nobody interacts with her differently because of what she wears. She can basically wear whatever she wants with no social reaction. What she says and does do have consequences (well, kinda - survival sex work in this film is treated as quirky profession one does for a few months so you can afford to go to medical school [as a woman in Victorian-era Paris]), but the visual signifiers of her "otherness" have no impact on the plot. She stands out in a crowd to the audience, but apparently not to anyone in the crowd.

ALSO! These clothes - these very unique pieces that allow Bella to express her unique soul? Did she make them? Did she order them or purchase a variety of garments that she mixes and matches to make new outfits? Nope! They were all bought for her by her father-figure! Until the very end of the film, everything you see her in was something that Willem Dafoe's character had provided her with.

For these reasons, the costuming is actively working against the script. Bella is given clothes that nobody else is wearing, which seems to be an expression of this precocious, supposedly feminist character - except nobody ever seems to notice how peculiarly she is dressed AND all of the clothes were bought for her by a man.

This all fits into the extremely shallow "feminism" or "socialism" of the film (Bella says that she's going to a socialist meeting once, and then ends the movie in her walled-off estate garden, living off her father and husband's money). It's even worse when you read the book and find out that there is a whole epilogue where the "real" person that Bella is based on gives her side of the story and de-fantasizes the whole tale, revealing it to be a misogynist narrative born out of her husband's insecurities about being married to a brilliant woman.

[ferociouslycreativemystery]

Dead dove, do not eat: Detailed show negativity below cut, keep scrolling to keep up the good vibes 😇

This is only halfway coherent since I don't have the energy to edit it thoroughly, but thought it worth sharing anyway. Lots of unfinished thoughts, but I hope I still manage to get something of my feelings across. Here goes:

The pirate show really isn't working for me. In season one it was mainly the editing that bothered me, that it wasn't quite tight enough to set a good pace for the humour, but the story and characters were intriguing enough to keep me engaged. It was immensely thrilling to see the love story develop the way it did, especially as it coincided with some of my own queer identity conundrums. It genuinely helped untangle and rewire something crucial in me, and I'll always be grateful to it for that.

But I've only barely managed to make it through the first two episodes of this new season, and to be completely honest I was bored and fretting all the way through. I agree with those I watched it with that it felt somehow darker compared to the first season. Which, fair enough given the direction of the story, but the translation fumbled what appeal the first season still held for me.

The thing about this show is that it's always felt like it's aiming to appeal to certain very fandom-specific sensibilities, particularly the sensibilities that I never really got the hang of. It feels like it was entirely built around the phenomenon of fannon. The thing about fannon is it is highly normative (if not typically heteronormative, then built around certain understandings of life, queerness and ethics, many of which I don't appreciate being made 'defaults'). Fannon mostly isn't as cohesive as your typical canon story either. It consists of lots of disparate elements, a smörgåsbord of generic and normative tropes for you to pick and choose what you personally like the best while being free to discard the others mostly without consequence, allowing you to assemble your own creation from your chosen legos. The allow for some creativity, but only within the frame of how those pieces are predisposed to fit; a curated playpen.

But I like digging deep, not casting my net wide.

What I like about having a particular canon is that it doesn't just have those generically cross-compatible fannon pieces, it carefully crafts its own ones and assembles them in very particular ways. You can strum one thread and find it resonating somewhere else completely unexpectedly. It's exciting to explore how everything is connected in this one-of-a-kind web of meaning, and with each discovery come to love and appreciate its intricacies even more. There are a million paths to walk if you keep adjusting your aim.

Having that solid framework allows for a specific and unique perspective on humanity, emotion, and the world, which takes me out of myself to see familiar things in a different light. Seeing the world through different eyes also generates sympathy, which heightens my emotional engagement. That is what I find so fascinating and rewarding about this particular way of fandom.

In relation to this, I almost always need ships to be explicit to the point of 'the creators definitely made intentional romantic insinuations in this relationship' to see the appeal of it. It needs to tie into the story as it is being told. My romantic imagination beyond that point is basically non-existent. I'm not good at picking up scraps and filling in the gaps; I'm an explorer, not a conductor.

With the pirates, I see the ideas it puts on the table, the pieces to play with, and could see how they might eventually be made appealing to me, but then it just leaves them there and expects me to do most of the actual development. It feels stale and lifeless, with little room for exploration without first constructing the thing to explore, which defeats the whole purpose.

A lot of the language used also reminds me too much of online discourse for me to disappear into it; it drips with the anxious phrasing habits of someone aware and overthinking all the ways this statement will be taken out of context and how its original meaning must be understood or at least not taken as something Bad when that will happen. This is another aspect where the show feels like it was made to be consumed online, being torn apart into pieces which must each individually contain all their context. There is rampant lamp-shading and making subtext full text, leaving nothing to the shadows. It becomes almost like an academic presentation of a story, which demands that you as the viewer can already bring your own pre-prepared web of understanding and interest, that is ready for the pieces to fit into. But if every part of the story is resolved in itself, then what's even the point of telling the rest of the story then?

In fandom, the pervasive focus on shipping or creation of fannon and headcanons never intrigued me as much as the dissection and exploration of actual canon. "Fuck canon" is a valid take (we're here to play!) but it is entirely antithetical to my personal enjoyment.

It tastes like all the sugar without the bitter almond to balance it out.

I'm not saying this is an illegitimate or bad way to tell a story, because I don't believe that such a thing exists. This show definitely has its place in the landscape of TV; there is very clearly an audience for it, and I'm glad that they're getting what they want from it. I'm not part of that audience though.

[pointed-beetle]

Guess what, it's not a fic losers

Well, well, well If it isn't another post that yet again is not another fic, how embarrassing for people wanting updates

TL;DR I will be making a new blog with my personal works and fics that won't be X reader, also here is my Ao3 which will contain longer form series Also this blog is not abandoned just on hiatus until I make something

Hi! Hello :)!! I'll be honest, for the past, however long since my last fic was I've not felt the same creative drive that I once had when it came to writing my X reader fics It has nothing to do with the amount of activity or exposure I was receiving it was more X readers were and are something that I can write quickly enough and get my creative flow out there when nothing else seems to work However!! That is not writing altogether, and I have great news for people that enjoy my writing and maybe don't mind what I write as long as they get to read it!! The first place will be my Ao3, currently, there are only two fics and one of them was discontinued around the same time that this blog went dead, but the other one is currently ongoing!

Better news, for those of you that only consume things on Tumblr, or at least prefer to only read things on the Hellsite I have great news for you too! I will be making an alternate blog specifically for my own things, whether that be snippets of my original work or simply fics that do not fit into the x Reader space. However, I will be keeping one-shots to Tumblr and Tumblr only, so if you find yourself interested in longer-form series I highly recommend that you check out my Ao3 when more things get uploaded there, I will keep the blog updated for whenever new chapters are posted for their respective stories.

Last but not least, this blog will not be abandoned, as I do have quite a few drafts for x readers in the works that are just taking a little more scrutinising than they once did, I promise it every few months but there WILL be content here again you just need to give me some time.

I anticipate like 2% of my following will see this, including my best friend Max, hello Max :) Hope work was good

However, thank you to the ones that aren't my best friend that keep up with my updates no matter how long in between they are, stay hydrated, Monster is not a hydrating drink And thank you for your time :)

[justaboutdead]

Why Escape the Dark Castle is pretty cool

Escape the Dark Castle is a 2017 1-4 player board game published by Themeborne, and its damn good. First shoutout goes to the artist, Alex Crispin, who did an amazing job. The art is all very reminiscent of old school rpgs or choose your own adventure books, and im here for it.

The art isn't the only thing that's inspired by old school rpgs. Everything about the game, from the campy dark fantasy writing, to the gameplay itself feels like an interesting take on the osr, and honestly works best when you treat it as such.

The mechanics are simple (its successor, Escape the Dark Sector is a better fit for people who want more complexity), but there's actually quite a bit of depth. Basically, you slowly reveal scenarios on cards that have been randomly set aside before the game, read them aloud and then roll dice to resolve actions. You loose health if you do bad, and if anyone in the group dies you all fail.

There's actually quite a bit of depth to the system, each character has different traits on their dice, which mean they are good at different things. Before you flip over each scenario You choose a player to flip it. That player is you for the duration of the scenario, and any effects that specify You affect that person. Encounters can award players with items that they can use and pass around to other players between combat. All of this results in a lot of micro decisions across the course of the game.

Combat consists of rolling dice, trying to match the dice the monster has. If you match them you can roll dice. Monsters attack every player after the players attack. If you roll a double, you block and take no damage. Additionally, you can place one character at a time, on rest, restoring 1 HP each round, but taking them out of combat.

While all of these factors individually don't account for much strategy, together they make a huge difference. The odds are stacked against you in Escape the Dark Castle, so every little difference count. In fact ive found that good planning and careful strategy can lead to fairly consistent victories even against some of the harder challenges we've attempted. The game also balances itself for more or less players, giving you less health and the enemies more the more players you have.

Here's the example they give of a monster in the rulebook. The bottom left shows the health of the monster, thevplayer simble meaning to roll s number of dice equal to the player and add that to the monster's HP.

The most important part of Escape the Dark Castle, however, is the mood. The game is all about mood, it even has an official soundtrack (here's it on spotify: https://spotify.link/MVbjH3GkZDb ). This is perfect for setting the mood, and I'd highly recommend it.

The game is packed with flavor text and lore. Every card has a flavorful description of what's happening, which are best read aloud in your best dark fantasy voice. There's also the lore book, which has 2-3 page descriptions of every boss and character, aswell as the Death book, which has unique death descriptions for every card in the game (that can kill you). This is all written with the tone you'd expect from the game's setting.

Due to the nature of the game, they've also been able to publish 3 similarly well designed expansions for the game. Also, if you feel overconfident after a clean victory, you can add more cards (or even more bosses) to your deck and play a longer run.

The game acomplishes a lot for its simplicity, and part of my love for it probably comes from my love for old school revival rpgs. It ultimatley offers a fast, pretty simple but satsfying, definitley quite tense gaming experience that does a lot with its simplicity. Randomizing the control of a dungeon crawl to a deck of cards isn't exactly a new idea but it is executed very well.

(Note: i kept bolding escape the dark castle bc thats how i say it in my head: w all the bravado of a mortal combat announcer)

[evelhak]

30 Days of Autism Acceptance 2023

April 4

Were/are you in special education? Regular school? Home schooled? A private school? Did it change over time? Did/do you like it?

I was in regular school, and now I can finally admit that it was highly traumatizing for me. I felt like I was a "borderline case" who should have just as well been in special education than regular class, despite not having a diagnosis and not knowing I was autistic back then. I'm sure partially that happened because I was "threatened" with special education by someone, as if it was something shameful. Because I was "normal" so I should have acted "normal". But I think it was also because I related to the kids in special education more than I related to my classmates. In after school care in elementary school I always played with kids from special ed. The only friends I felt completely safe with as a small child were those kids. I had less significant misunderstandings with a friend with an intellectual disability and a speech impairment than I had with my classmates. But I never had enough time to spend with those friends for us to become really close, because I was only in the after school care for a year-ish and there were very few opportunities after that, because everything was done with your own class, and kids in special education were in a different building so I couldn't hang out with them between classes either.

I don't have intellectual disability, I always had a spiky skill profile but there wasn't any subject I couldn't pass on my own. I didn't really struggle with school work too much, but I for sure struggled socially. I was bullied and ostrasized by my classmates for a decade, through four different schools, from kindergarten to the end of middle school, which I felt highly ashamed about and did my best to hide until adulthood. I did sometimes try to tell someone but I never called it "bullying", or I downplayed its impact on me, or I said things like "oh but everyone gets bullied". Both because of the shame and because no adult saw it or was able to do anything about it, or cared enough to try, anyway. I felt nothing could be done about it anyway, because I was the reason I was being bullied. I didn't so much think it was "my fault" in a moral sense as I just logically figured out the reason I'm a target must be something in me, because I was still bullied in different schools and different cities, the only common thing in those situations was me, so certainly I had to be the reason.

I had one friend in elementary school who I feel forever indebted to, because she didn't care about what the rest of the class thought about me. She was just so cool and strong and her own person. Everyone wanted to be her friend, but she had decided she liked me so much that even when the other "cool" girls came to tell her how much they wanted to be with her, as long as she wouldn't hang out with me, she told them she would rather be with me than be with them without me. I still think about her strength today with teary eyes. She willingly ostrasized herself from everyone else because of me, and even now it doesn't fit into my head that someone could have cared about me so much. She saved me, without her my only friends would have been the class's stick insects. (They were good friends though.) Without her I probably wouldn't have had the strength to even try to make new friends when I suddenly had to move away.

I had friends in my other schools but none that didn't eventually end up leaving me for reasons I never got to hear. Of course, as is common with autistic people I was also a magnet for manipulative and abusive people, so I got my share of that. Thinking back to it, it seems baffling to me that I never skipped school, it was so much more terrible than I ever would have admitted back then. I think I had one saving key aspect again: my folk dance group. Because it was a really healthy environment centered around a predictable activity, and that's how I was able to make and keep friends there for a much longer time than in the class which was an unstructured social environment and that was brutal to me. I was either completely invisible or I was picked on: who wouldn't choose to be invisible then? I remember it still came as a shock to me when we gathered to watch pictures our teacher had taken of the class in different events and I was barely in any of them.

Anyway, end of middle school was such a shit show that I knew something had to change. That's when I basically learned to mask over the summer and made a real "high school debut". In middle school I still hadn't made much effort to hide my weirdness but in high school I made all the effort. I made sure to enter the new school like a different person. I started wearing makeup, my clothes were nondescript but stylish enough. My role model was Rory Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls because she was loved for being a nerdy little bookworm, because she was cute and girly and weird in an acceptable way. I did master that in high school enough, but the price I paid was of course high... Doing that performance meant I had no close friends for the first year, only aquintances. Sure, no one hated me, which was the goal, but also I didn't reveal anything real about myself to anyone, so how could I have real friends? Eventually I did get real friends through another group activity: drama and art classes. (Most of those friends were probably not neurotypical, so we clicked.) But I still suffered the consequences from masking so much that I had no energy to hang out with anyone after school.

I was so burned out from high school for multiple reasons that I became pretty much a hermit in the beginning of university, but that's beyond the scope of this post, I think.

I think the point of my reflection here is that not only was being in regular school traumatizing for me because allistic students didn't understand autism and bullies saw it as the perfect opportunity to target someone, being in a regular class also routinely prevented me from connecting with neurodivergent students whom it would have benefited my mental health to hang out with. I was trapped in regular class, I had no way out of the environment that was traumatizing for me but no one would notice I was in pain, and no one would believe it even if I tried to tell. My classmates called me "the stone" and I suspect it was at least partially because I didn't react to their bullying in a visible way. And I think all this gets at the the key experience of undiagnosed people, people with invisible disabilities: you cannot access what you need, because people don't have you in the right context.

[no-romo-hoes]

Logan Sanders: A “Brief” Rant About My Undying Love For Him

Logan Sanders has become such an important character in my life, I really don’t know where I would be without him. Probably very similar to where I am now, but let’s not talk about that today. Instead, let’s talk about how I grew to love him, and eventually fall in love with him (to an extent).

I’m ashamed of myself when I admit this, but I used to agree with Virgil in that he was my least favourite character. I honestly found him quite boring; useful, but boring. Especially in the earlier episodes, such as “Way Too Adult” and “The Mind vs. The Heart”. However, as the series progressed, I grew to enjoy his presence, especially in “Accepting Anxiety”, though that episode focused on Virgil. Just watching him start talking at that speed with that level of tension was hilarious and weirdly comforting. I think I first started really loving the character in “Fitting In″ when he made that extra effort to make sure Virgil felt comfortable with his hair, despite despising it himself (and no one caring about his feelings, only Virgil’s). I noticed how much he cared about the others and the changes he made to himself to better suit their needs and it really resonated with me. I’ve never really had any connection or positive relationship with any of my teachers despite schools always going on about how much they care, so Logan’s subtle displays of compassion got to me emotionally. 

The “Moving On” episodes were some of my favourites out of the whole series, especially rewatching them after discovering my love for Logan. His rational contributions and genuine desire to make Thomas feel better, his concern for Virgil’s situation, his suppressed joy at the idea of a new uni course, THE CAT HOODIE??? I just adore this man. I was filled with so much positive emotion when watching him in both episodes. It’s sad knowing how much he’ll suffer in the later episodes. I want to hug that man so much. I highly doubt he has ever been hugged, so he should start now. And now I’m sad. Damn it. 

Though I adore his appearance in those episodes now, I think it was only when watching “Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts” that I truly fell in love with him (obviously he’s a fictional character and I’m aro ace so it’s perfectly reasonable and not at all weird). I watched as he remained perfectly calm and stable throughout the whole episode and how he basically saved c!Thomas from a huge breakdown, and I just went, “Yep. That one. I want that one.” He just looked and felt so stable and reassuring; by that point I was hooked.

I watched “Working Through Intrusive Thoughts” and I just melted by how kind he was to c!Thomas and how civil he was with Remus. Firstly, it’s one thing to watch the kindness of a person like Patton, who would do anything for anyone, and a whole other thing to watch a seemingly emotionless robot demonstrate such wholesome compassion for their friends. Secondly, he was angry at c!Thomas. Positively furious at being ignored and not having his needs met. But he still changed his actions to meet c!Thomas’s needs instead. If that ain’t love, I don’t know what love is. It was the same for Remus; Logan was becoming increasingly irritated by Remus’s deliberate taunting, but he still did his best to remain calm and establish a truce between them. He failed of course, but he still tried. That level of self control was astounding to me (especially since I have none myself), and I was truly amazed by how well Thomas (the real one) played that character. All the conflicting emotions and turmoil going on beneath the surface and how it bubbled and boiled ‘til it exploded. Ugh, he’s so gorgeous.

In short, I love Logan Sanders so f**king much I would kill god for him. He is a sexy man. A cool man. A cool, sexy man. I can’t wait to see how his character arc develops. Part of me is excited to watch him suffer and break, but also I love him so much and I don’t want to see him sad. 

Love you Logan, Thomas if you read this I love you as well, you beautiful man :)

[creacherkeeper]

happy sleepover saturday luka!!! all even numbers for the dnd asks go tf off bestie!!! (maxwell for character q's) :)))

omg thank u my boy

(dm)

2. What is your NPC creation like?

i mostly create npcs to fill a needed role in the story, decide on some basic traits that fits or contradicts that roll, and then they flesh themselves out from there. my npcs tend to get a mind of their own very quickly so i have to do very little work

4. What's your favorite part of DMing?

creating characters or lore or scenes to Target Players i just love knowing whats going to drive them insane and then doing that on purpose as much as possible

6. Plot or character focused?

as a dm, very plot focused tbh. but i like to, as much as i can, create my plot around the pcs and players. lost has become more character driven because of choices the players have made and scenes they want to run

8. Do you prefer world or character creation?

for lost, ive actually been enjoying both fairly equally? im usually such a character bitch but making the world FOR the players & pcs and coming up with lore that will be interesting to them and tailoring it all to a wild west setting has been really fun and interesting. and my players have already started making secondary characters to explore and flesh out the world more so i guess its working!!!

(player)

10. How do you come up with characters?

i am VERY mechanics driven when it comes to pcs. i usually come up with class/subclass/multiclass first, then as i build the sheet try to figure out what kind of person they are based on the mechanical choices im making. personality and backstory usually come from that, but sometimes i do start with a basic concept or theme. i knew erley was a cowboy paladin, bo was going to be a ranger at a national park, and maxwell was an adhd mad scientist. but for example i decided that my new short shot character solare is very [redacted] because he has a +20 in [redacted]

12. What's your favorite part of playing DND?

when the other players are all really invested in the story and each others characters. like yeah we made all this up and we care so much!!! fuck yes!!! love getting emo about our little guys

14. Do you like to player characters with family?

i do!!!! i did notice a trend in my main game pcs of Only Children With MessyTM Relationships With Their Parents and we simply. arent going to examine that <3

16. Do you have any archetypes you tend to play?

not really? ive played a freakish amount of pcs at this point so they tend to be all over the place. i do love a Sad Boi tho <3

18. Do you prep for sessions?

daydreaming :))))) but thats it

(for maxwell)

20. Is your character religious?

he is!!!! he's a follower of burnlow, the god of fire, lightning, creation, and destruction. he truly does believe himself to be gods specialist little boy <3 im still trying to decide how/why he became a cleric though, waiting for my dm to help me flesh that out :) (i also decided the erley curse CANNOT continue so i gave max a +13 to religion)

22. How do they feel about the rest of the party?

he hasn't met them yet! but i do imagine it's going to be like "hello i am your new annoying gay best friend and you are Stuck with me as i have imprinted on you like a baby duck". maxwell doesnt really. have boundaries. he might have to work on those <3

24. If they were the god of anything, what would they be the god of?

self-expression

26. What kind of music would they like?

tbh prob like heavy metal and screamo. he would love welcome to the jungle by guns n roses

28. What would they do if they were betrayed?

smash everything with his big hammer <3 bonk

30. What are their thoughts on justice? (highly specific now)

that bad people get whats coming to them and most people are bad people which is why the world is so fucked up and violent

32. If they were on GBBO, what kind of contestant would they be?

would burn literally everything he baked either on purpose bc he claims it tastes better that way or because he was talking to the hosts or other contestants and forgot to set a timer. he would be kicked out very early but would be a meme-ified fan favorite

34. What would their thoughts on the fall of Rome be?

that empires deserve to fall and things would be better if everyone just kept each other in check

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Asta and the Barbarians by Becca Fox

Chosen by the Masters #0

Gripping, gritty, grueling ~ grabbed me immediately and wouldn’t let me go ~ perfect for YA readers who like a darker story with a happy ending.

What I liked:

* Lady Asta: Mayor of Kenshore’s daughter, pampered, privileged, home invaded, family slaughtered, taken captive, tortured, educated, learns, makes friends with Viggo and Bryn, bodyguard, romance budding at end of the book

* Viggo: bright, brawny, intelligent, strong, lethal, highly trained, good friend, leader, best friend since childhood of Bryn, lost his father when young, has two sisters and a mother he cares for, attracted to Asta

* Bryn: desires to be a doctor, mother was a healer, father a warrior, caring, compassionate, strong, wise, focused on helping others, bright, honest, trustworthy, good friend and best friend of Viggo’s since childhood

* The idea of being chosen by Dotharr and how it played into this story’s characters

* The close friendship and alliance made between Asta, Viggo, and Bryn

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* That I felt a part of the story

* Getting to know more of the background of Holger and the Holgarians and how this book fits in with the others in the series

* Finding out who the evil treacherous people were supporting the mastermind and hoping they would be taken out

* The part King Torvald played, who he married, and how he grew in his role as king as the story progressed

* Wondering if there will be a book that deals with the journey Asta, Viggo, Bryn, and King Torvald are set to make at the end of the book

* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to like

* Thinking about how evil more than one in the story was and wondering how people can be as these characters were.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author/in this series? Yes

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

On the day the Holgarians attack her town, Asta is blessed by a warrior god and is empowered with the heightened senses and unnatural healing abilities these foreign invaders possess. Grief-stricken and paralyzed by terror, she’s hauled onto the conquering general’s ship and taken across the sea. One year later, Asta graduates from warrior academy with honors and is chosen as one of the king’s personal Defenders. She will finally have the opportunity to kill the man who gave the general his orders and avenge her family. She doesn’t expect the king to be young or kind, or completely oblivious of what his men are doing overseas. He has been told peaceful negotiations are going well. But Asta knows better. Asta must find proof of the general’s treachery and bring it before the king so that she can save unconquered provinces from meeting the same fate as her hometown. But the king’s counselors suddenly start dying, and the king himself is hounded by foreign assassins. Revenge will have to wait if Asta’s going to keep the king, the mainland’s only hope, alive.

Chosen by the Masters

An epic fantasy adventure following people who are chosen by gods and goddesses to perform certain tasks that will better the world around them. This series would entertain readers who are also fans of Kristin Cashore's work, the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, and Pride & Prejudice.

AUTHOR BIO

Author of Young Adult and New Adult Fiction

Becca Fox is an awkward introvert who loves to read and write, watch crime-solving shows and anime, and play videogames next to her gamer husband. She also loves to bake, and plan trips she hopes to take one day. She has three kids under the age of five so no, she doesn't get any sleep and yes, she's in desperate need of a housekeeper.

Website:  https://www.beccafoxauthor.com/

Twitter: Bears_Goose1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_becca_fox_author/

[rubywithin]

Who to Trust? 29

I started to shiver....I definitely didn’t trust Sora but Naruma had helped me out so much. (Ein) “Tetsuya if that was the case then explain why Annabelle was found in the Lab?”. (Enrique) “I mean they could of moved her body, if it was at night they would of had plenty of time to!”. I don’t like how possible this is...after all she had been hit on the head, what if that was a second culprit attacking her? (Yuri) “I don’t see how either of them could of gotten one of my strings though, I prefer to keep my puppets safe! Also I told both Ein and Sora who I got a picture of....I highly doubt Sora knew before hand. And since I was the one who was framed I doubt Sore tried to do it”. (Ein) “Plus me, Tetsuya and Naruma admitted who our pictures were of too each other!”. Yuri....do you know who is trying to frame you? (Gina) “Then once again we have nothing to go on” (Tetsuya) “Actually we have plenty of info now!”

“You see who is close enough to Yuri to know about his recent doubts? Enrique, who hangs out with Yuri and could of easily stole one of his strings? Enrique. Who was going along with my false narrative? Enrique”. (Enrique) “What a load of garbage....” (Ein) “Who knew I was knocked out and was found by Yuri? once again the answer is Enrique!”. I did not expect Tetsuya to throw out an accusation as bait like that... (Sora) “I guess he could of easily took my chain while me and Naruam were at the cafe”. (Isabelle) “True...the killer definitely could of seen who was out at night! The odds are starting to stack up against you Enrique” (Enrique) “Hahahaha the odds against me....no matter the odds I come out on top! After all you have no proof at all that I did any of this” the issue is he was right, if only we had just one bit of proof. 

(Yuri) “What if we check his room for one of my puppet’s that has the string taken off?”. (Enrique) “So what you let me borrow one...right....ugh” (Ein) “Also you hung around the third floor a lot because of Yuri so easily could of saw what Kyoya was up too” all we can do is get him to own up. I could see the pressure on his face, (Luna) “Enrique did you know about Annabelle possessing the poison?”. (Enrique) “No....I just panicked how was I suppose to know she would try to kill me?” there it was the confession. (Tetsuya) “Oh but you were fine with killing Kyoya?” (Yuri) “And using me to get away with it!?”. (Enrique) “Things just lined up so perfectly....I never expected you people to trust Yuri....yeah I did it, I guess I lose!”. It just hit me this time around 3 of us will be gone now....we all voted for Enrique and he walked into the next room. A dice was rolled....then suddenly a number of floor’s opened up equal to the number on the dice and he fell!

(Yuri) “His picture was of his best friend....who he had always won against but despite that always wanted to play games against him!”. We all left the trial room and went back to the Livingroom....I didn’t even want to know what was in store for us next. (Hedgy) “I have an announcement, the rooms you were fitting your trap door in will now be permanently locked”. (Tetsuya) “At least Kyoya’s work will be preserved!” Hedgy looked annoyed at that comment. We were all give out maps with the 4th floor! the new rooms were an art room, a music room and storeroom! I decided to call it an early night....I felt bad for Yuri being betrayed by Enrique like that. A thought in my mind though was did he see the person who attacked me? Also we never learned if he had hit Annabelle on the head....I don’t get how she could of take a blow like that and made it all the way to the Lab!