#and I'm going back to a few other threads and changing them to be consistent

[inhumanheresy]

Another night, strikingly cold, colder than they have yet to experience this winter, falls deeper as the hour grows later, biting st every edge of Zapolyarny Palace. Yana had lit one of the hearths before Tartaglia was able to answer her call, and now she walks with him from the entrance of the throne room towards the firelight, hand curled around his forearm, knowing he must slow his stride so as not to outpace her leisurely steps.

"Most other nations have begun their celebrations," she says with a soft smile, eyes glancing up to gaze at his profile. Snezhnaya dornet begun their own celebrations for a few more weeks yet, but she's not against a moment with her Eleventh before that time - even if she knows he would rather be with another on this evening. Most evenings, perhaps. "I have something for you, so I hope you will indulge me a bit of your time before you leave again. I will not keep you long."

As they take seats beside the fire, she recalls a few years prior, when they sat in these same seats while she gifted him the earring that still adorns his ear now.

"Schastlivogo Rozhdestva. A little early, yes, but I have a job that will keep you busy in the coming weeks, and I hope the holiday will be spent with your family." He may only have a day or two of free time at that point, and she knows how important his family is to him, so she will not keep him from them. She picks up a box from the small table between the chairs and the fire, and hands it to him. Inside, nestled within white tissue paper, is a new red scarf with the barest hint of silver woven into the threads that may just resemble flecks of snow when catching the light. This scarf is thicker than his usual one, not meant to replace it but to be used when it is especially cold, perhaps on this night as he leaves.

The chill of Her touch seeps through his coat and thick leather gloves where She tucks her arm through his, but the temperature She maintains at the moment is not so cold as to be terribly uncomfortable — not for a Snezhnayan-born, at least, and not for any like him who have spent extended time in Her presence.

Her heels click with each step, a feathering rime crackling out over rug and stone even as the two of them approach the radiating warmth of the hearth fire. Its heat does nothing to diminish the icy aura of the Archon by his side, though he himself appreciates both the comfort of the hearth as well as the delicate touch of Her hand. He finds the cushions of his chair, too, pleasantly warm when he relaxes down against it after keeping his arm steady for Her Majesty as She takes her own seat across from him first.

“Shchaslyvoho Rizdva,” he replies, dark eyes crinkling alongside his smile as he easily falls back into the dialect and accent of his home region, so often set aside by necessity when he’s in the capital city. “I’ve heard that Sumeru and Natlan celebrate the solstice in particular, and that Mondstadt keeps the midwinter celebrations going for… well, as long as they can. To hear the tale of it told, it sounds as if they retained their traditions from times before the Archons, back when Mondstadt froze nearly as cold as we do.”

Tradition in Snezhnaya tells that the Tsaritsa ascended to her throne on the coldest day of the year, not the longest. Either time is a prime excuse to both bond with family, he thinks, huddled together against the cold and dark, or to celebrate as vigorously as possible for much the same reason.

“You may keep me for as long as You wish,” he says with a touch of both mischief and affection in his face and the warmth of his voice. “I come late and stay late when it comes to family gatherings, and so must make what excuses I can to linger elsewhere for a while. I would much rather spend this time with Your Majesty than list about aimlessly.”

His own gift for Her is not ready yet, and he feels a twinge of guilt at not having it ready at hand. A silly sentiment, of course, and he knows this, guesses that She gifts him before the holiday so as not to infringe upon time with his family. Ajax smothers that immediate contrition of his in order to truly, properly appreciate the gift She presents to him.

“Oh,” he breathes as the warmth and exquisite softness of the scarf reveals itself from the first touch of his fingertips, and then as it settles against the back of his neck, gentle as a newborn snowfall and yet warm as Snezhnaya’s summer sun.

"Thank you."

Blood-on-snow, home and heartbeat, are the associations that lie against him with the downy comfort of safety amidst winter’s might. Leave it to Her Majesty to understand, to present him a gift both practical and luxurious. Hints of silver gleam in the dancing firelight as he thumbs across the fabric, appreciating the weave, the warmth, and the thoughtfulness for a long moment before slinging it overtop of the one he now wears. The bulk infringes on the wolf-fur of his collar, but oh, he is warm.

And once again, his favorite color. She remembers.

“A job?” He notes what She said belatedly, his words partly smothered by his enfolding layers of scarves. Tartaglia hooks a finger into the high-piled cowl of red fabric and yanks it down enough that he can be understood clearly. Perhaps I’ll see about going home early— But no, Sashko and Tetyanka and Tarasik will still be there, along with their families…

“Rest assured, I will spend all the time I can with them.” Every second he can manage. He’ll count every moment a blessing. “But that is for the upcoming days.”

To lift her hand and kiss it is audaciousness beyond belief for any normal person, much less any citizen of Snezhnaya, but since he was fourteen, unbridled audaciousness has been a norm for the man now named Tartaglia. His breath rimes on his lips as he lifts away from Her skin.

“I would accompany you for a while, if you wish it.”

[unladielike]

    Considering the burgers themselves were very much based on Japanese cuisine, Vivian had been excited to see Mizumachi's reaction to the food truck... and just as she had predicted, it seemed he was pretty psyched, causing her to curl both hands into fists she'll subsequently prop up through the air.

    "Right?! I knew you would like it!" came her triumphant proclamation. Why, Japan might be a much cheaper place to live in compared to Vancouver, but it does admittedly have it's charms, which was something she hopes to have sufficiently conveyed to Mizumachi. Though, given how loudly his stomach then proceeded to grumble away, Vivian supposes that was enough of an actual indicator to prove he wasn't currently feeling all that homesick, and with a laugh, she'll hastily trail after him.

    "Hey, relax! It's not as if the food truck would suddenly grow legs and run away, you know?" Vivian playfully teases before settling to an eventual halt beside him. By that point, one other individual happens to be waiting in line ahead of them due to the fact he had gotten there first after the last customer left, meaning on a rather fortunate note, they wouldn't have to tolerate a super long line. "Anyways... you good with me ordering us ten teriyaki cheese burgers?" Vivian goes on to question.

    "Oh, and while we're at it, how about some soda as well, so the salt from all those burgers won't make us dehydrated? Then again, I guess water would do a better job at quenching our future thirst... still, good ol' H20 just doesn't hit the same compared to Coke; therefore, I'm inclined to believe the more appropriate refreshment would be something less healthier. What about you, though, Kenny? Which beverage would you rather pick?"

[水]

"Haha! I know someone who could eat like 20 burgers."

Mizumachi nods his head sagely, in total agreement with her assessment about the fries. He could still eat 5 burgers along with fries on a regular day, but he did try to consume more burgers than he did fries. Eating too many oily foods weren’t good for athletes, but he had to get his source of calories and meat from somewhere!

“That’s a healthy appetite! That’s a good thing!”

He knew a few girls on the cheerleading team who basically ate like rabbits because they cared a lot for their figure, and it was a bit worrying at times. It was good to know that Vivian wasn’t going to be starving herself because she was worried about her image. The teriyaki cheese burgers sounded so good though that he was already salivating at the thought.

Was paying for the meal a manly thing? Yeah, he could see it. In many countries it was socially the norm that the guy pays for the meals if he’s out with a woman, right? Manners and all that?

“Yeah, that makes sense. Do you hang out with guys more than girls, then?”

He asked because she said something about feeling like she was ‘one of the boys,’ and it made him curious about who she normally hung out with. Of course, there was absolutely nothing wrong in his eyes for a girl to have lots of guy friends (what, with most football club managers being girls?), but he did hear some people call that a flag or whatever. Just sounds like insecure dudes to him.

“Wooww! It looks great! Smells great too!”

He was just salivating a little bit before, but now he was at risk of drooling buckets from the smell. His stomach was just as excited if the sound of his stomach grumbling loudly was any indication.

“Let’s go!”

He basically zooms over to the food truck looking for the end of the line to stand at the end. With his long legs, his strides were large and fast. Perks of being tall.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Not fluent in English. 

Please tell me I’m not the the only who noticed that team green characters in the show aren’t allowed to hate team black characters. 

Like Aemond can’t even hate Lucerys for cutting his eye and disabled him for life. 

And Alicent can’t hate Viserys for marrying and gr*ping her and forcing pregnancies on her, even though he have no intention to name any of their sons his heir, and treating her mostly like a caretaker and concubine rather than his lawful wife and the mother of his legitimate children. 

Aegon and Helaena aren’t even allowed to hate Daemon the man who ordered the death of their Son.

Like why??? Why aren’t they allowed to hate them???

Hi aleksandra! You make a good point! I think there are a few things going on here.

For one, I think the writing is incredibly inconsistent across the board this season, and there are a lot of dropped plot threads. Some of it is intentional (like, I do think B&C was deliberately downplayed and undermined so that Alicent could have that Dragonstone scene, more on that in a bit), some of it I think is just bad writing and a kind of ... well, look, I can't speculate as to what goes down in the writer's room and have no idea what their workflow looks like or what processes they follow, but a problem going back to S1 is that characters and dialogue vary a lot from episode to episode. I don't think it's all that normal for a fandom to be concerned ahead of time about which writers will be writing which scenes and which episodes, but with HotD there seem to be huge differences in how each writer interprets the characters. Having worked on OFCIR collaboratively with @aifsaath, we work really hard to make sure the chapters are relatively consistent. I gave our first few chapters to my critique partner for original fiction, a guy who knows my writing inside and out, someone I've worked with for about 6 years now, @theravenpiper, and he could not actually tell which scenes were written by me, and which were written by Aife, which I took as a big complement to our collaborative process, and to our ability to edit to a uniform standard. Now I'm not saying we do it better than the HotD writers, but I do think that there is something missing from their collaborative process that makes the entire thing seem disjointed.

I do not think it is entirely that the whole of team green is not allowed to be angry at team black, although that is part of it, some of it is part of an overall bigger problem where major events are not allowed to resonate across the story, and I chalk some of it up to simple bad writing. Rhaenyra is apparently over Luke's death enough by E3 that she can seek out Alicent for some kind of vague "let's stop this madness" ploy, but still conveniently needs "a son for a son" in E8. Although Rhaenyra is negotiating from a position of power in E8, there was no reason for her to feel so desperate as of E3, when Rook's Rest hasn't even happened yet, that she would set aside her grief and anger and go seek peace. Peace was offered in E10 of season 1 and Rhaenyra turned it down after Luke died, so what has changed besides Rhaenyra's own husband beheading a toddler? Other events happen too and have little or no consequence. Rhaenyra and Mysaria kiss in E6 and it's entirely forgotten by E8, with zero follow up. Criston Cole is brought to his knees by the sight of Aegon lying injured by his dragon, but never even visits his bedside. Gwayne never interacts with anyone aside from Alicent and Criston. Rhaenyra sends her younger children to the Vale and never mentions them again (she is shown looking wistfully at a box of toys), nor does Jace. Laena in a vision berates Daemon for not looking after their girls, but does he ask after them when Broome shows up directly from Dragonstone? I could go on. Events just happening and then never really mattering again is a consistent problem throughout the season, which makes it hard to tell when it is happening deliberately and when it is happening because the writers can't get on the same page.

There are two things I do think are deliberate, however, one of them being the scrubbing of Viserys' image. While audiences loved Paddy's performance, a lot of viewers did pick up on how Viserys played favorites and neglected his sons, and I think when the show decided to switch up Alicent's motivation from "she wants to protect her children and knows they will face the sword if Rhaenyra comes to power" to "she misheard Viserys' last words," they knew that the natural question is, "why should she care about Viserys' last words?" A lot of the immediate feedback about that episode involved how Alicent was stupid for not knowing Otto planned to have Aegon take the throne, and a lot of people didn't think that Alicent (or Aegon for that matter) really believed that Viserys changed his mind, but apparently that was the writers' intention, that Alicent truly believed it and managed to convince Aegon (there's a lot I could say about how they could have included this deathbed misunderstanding into the plot without having it replace all of Alicent's other motivations, but they did not do that). So in order to drive home the point that the whole entire war is being fought due to this misunderstanding, they have to make sure the audience is clear that all of these characters considered Viserys a good king. Even if he was Alicent's rapist. Even if he was a deadbeat dad. Even if he was a terrible husband. We are meant to believe he chose Rhaenyra not because he was playing mindgames or out of guilt over Aemma's death, no we must believe he chose Rhaenyra because he was good and wise and to convince us he was good and wise we have to have the green characters reminding us constantly that things were so much better when Viserys was around, that Aegon is inferior to Viserys, that Viserys' wishes are all that matter. Nevermind that it goes directly against the book, never mind that it's not even a particularly powerful or interesting change, it's what enables Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship to continue. Because here's the thing-- if Alicent put Aegon on the throne because she felt it was the only way to keep her family safe, and because she feels that law and tradition ARE on her side, and because absolutism isn't good (!!!) then there's no chance for her and Rhaenyra to ever reconcile. These are irreconcilable differences, not misunderstandings. And so the show has to glaze Viserys otherwise the basic reasoning falls apart.

And the second is the events like Luke's death, Blood and Cheese and Rook's Rest come in, events in which the greens or the blacks harm and traumatize each other directly. It is not that the greens are not allowed to hate the blacks, it is that Alicent is not allowed to hate Rhaenyra, and by extension, the people who Alicent cares about are not allowed to hate her (I would argue that Aemond is allowed to hate Luke on screen, he literally murders him, and I don't think the scene with the brothel madame is an expression of true remorse, it's more "I'm kinda sorta sorry there were consequences for my actions."). Alicent cares about Helaena the innocent, and therefore Helaena cannot be allowed to hate Rhaenyra (note Phia Saban's many interviews about how apolotical and neutral Helaena is). Aegon, on the other hand, can be affected by B&C because he is allowed to hate Rhaenyra. In fact, his hate for Rhaenyra puts him at odds with his mother, which is what the show wants. Aegon is gravely injured at Rook's Rest, but good thing Rhaenyra's forces did not cause the injuries, Alicent herself drove him to battle with cruel words, and Aemond burned him, which puts him at odds with Alicent too (and Helaena is allowed to express ire at Aemond by extension). If you look at S2 as an exercise in driving a wedge between Alicent and her family and downplaying what happens to them in order to justify their decision to have Alicent seek out Rhaenyra and surrender Aegon's life, it makes a lot more sense.

The thing is, it still doesn't work. Their efforts are much too transparent and require characters to act in ways that are simply not within the realms of how normal human beings would react to these situations, much less the characters established in S1. There is a twitter user, and I'm so sorry that I can't remember their name at the moment, but I've seen them express the sentiment several times that Alicent's character this season made them aware, in a way that a viewer should never be aware, that these are scripted lines coming out of her mouth. That is, a lot of the characters in S2 do not feel like actual people. Aegon is such a fan favorite this season because he feels real. Alicent garnered legions of fans last season because her struggle felt real, even if we didn't agree with it. She felt like a character who inhabited a quasi-medieval world, bound by restraints we are not bound by, but nevertheless a human with human reactions who had to make difficult choices and persevere through them. And any human would be angry beyond comprehension at Blood and Cheese, would lose all faith in Rhaenyra, would know that there can be no peace if she is ruling with a man that ruthless at her side. If she thinks her sons are devils (and mind, so far as king Aegon's most egregious action is executing a handful of ratcatchers after one of their number murdered his son, whereas Rhaenyra burned about 65 peasants alive in a quasi religious ecstasy-- will Alicent ever find out about that, I wonder?), they are at least the devils she knows. Better they all die than end up in Daemon's hands, surely? And so OP, you're right, they are not allowed to hate each other when naturally you, and many others, feel like they should. That is because they are writer creations who would never do such things as what happen in the books in the first place, acting out plot points of entirely different characters (their book counterparts).

[o-wyrmlight]

I haven't worked on A Toast to the Pigs very much.

There's a couple of reasons for that: Writers' block from not knowing how to proceed; the exhaustion and burnout of keeping up with the weekly updates; impostor's syndrome for how I write Kim's perspective; the fact that I haven't really read through what I've published of Toast for a good, long while; the hyperfixation I've had for Disco Elysium kind of fading to a certain extent; the prevalent issues that I've noticed in my writing style that I really, really want to work on improving. And don't even try to tell me that there aren't any. I know there are some rather egregious issues.

All of those combined makes it difficult to make me want to touch Toast in the first place, and there's a certain degree of shame that comes with that knowledge. And when I do want to work on Toast, I have such a hard time getting into the mindset of when I worked on it to such an extreme that it practically monopolized my time, just because it's been so long since I last touched it.

I recently tried re-reading it and I couldn't help how, despite how proud I was, something in my chest just kept periodically cringing, and I do know why: It could have been so much shorter. So much briefer. It's no wonder that it monopolized so much of my time in the weeks and months that I'd been publishing it; it's no wonder that I got so burnt out from it. 144,000 words over 15 chapters is not a normal, sustainable pace to keep, and there's so much excess fat and prose that could've been cut down to trim it up and make it neater. Not to say that I'm going to go back and cut down the already-published chapters, but currently, that's the big issue that I see with my writing: I need to learn to keep it brief, and I need to learn to identify what parts of the story would benefit from extrapolation and which parts won't.

I do want to finish Toast--very, very badly. I want to have a finished multi-chapter fic under my belt for once instead of leaving it not even half-finished. I'm just having such a difficult time nudging my brain in the direction to actually work on newer chapters. I've lost a lot of threads that I need to pick up and untangle, especially if I want to come out of it with something that's consistent and good. I know it's fanfiction--we do this for fun, we're all having fun here--but I want it to be good and cohesive, because that's just what I enjoy.

I love that people are still able to read it and love it even if they don't think that it'll ever be updated again. I love the comments that I've gotten so far and I love all of the fanart that I've gotten, too. I don't like this shame of leaving things abandoned, even if I can still appreciate the joy that old fandoms gave me for the time that I participated in them. I appreciate the story, I appreciate the fandom, and I appreciate you. I really want Toast to be a story that we can all be proud of.

So I'll keep working on Toast. I have Chapter 16 finished--more or less, in my old writing style, and I'm undecided if there are a couple of characterization changes that I want to make with it. So far, it's the only one that's 'done'. I'm undecided if I should keep it unpublished until I finish Day 2--as I said I wouldn't start updating until Day 2 was completely finished--or if I should dedicate my time to finishing the rest of Day 2 first. I'll probably drop a poll in a few days, see what y'all's opinion of the matter is.

Despite how exhausting it was to keep up with, having a schedule really did help me focus and push me to put my best foot forward to keep up with updates. Whenever I do start updating Toast again, I'll probably extend those deadlines to once every fortnight (every other week). I can't guarantee that regular updates will be anytime soon, but, well. It is what it is.

In the meantime, I'll be working on a Wattpad cover to crosspost A Toast to the Pigs, because that's something I've really been wanting to do for the past couple of months for some reason. I'll see you then.

[slayemal-na-nerate]

//Okay, so obviously, it's been more than a few weeks, but I've had a lot more complications come up that I don't feel like listing entirely right now, and my mental health continues to be a struggle. That being said, I've put out the majority of the most pressing fires, and I do think writing helps improve my mental health when I get into a groove with it, so I'm going to end my hiatus on a couple blogs in the next week or two, primarily Bruce Wayne and Garrett Hawke. Raven and my CW Flash oc, Leia Morales, might become active again as well if people show any interest in them. I'm not really feeling much muse for Aya right now, and Lavellan will have to at least wait until I finish Veilguard (even though I expect to be ignoring a good portion of canon based on spoilers I've been exposed to). My Star Wars and Riordanverse muses will remain on hiatus until I can muster up the enthusiasm to re-engage with the source materials. Whenever that eventually happens, I'll likely be focusing on Damus Tall, one of my Zabrak twins on this blog, because he's the least depressingly affected by his trauma, which is a nice break from how heavy things can get with my other muses.

In the week or two leading up to the hiatus ending for at least two of my blogs, I'll be working on replies I owe (although, I might need to pause a couple threads that don't come naturally to me and take more effort to write right now), trying to finish Veilguard, and working on the last of my especially pressing irl issues. I don't expect to get all that done, but the only official roadblock to the hiatus ending will be finishing replies. Most, if not all, of those are for mutuals on discord, so if it seems like I'm taking a while but posting little to nothing on any of my blogs, that's why. The week or two I've given myself is a generous estimate to allow me to not rush through everything and overwhelm myself. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to plot things in advance or send asks, though only the former will receive a response before the hiatus is officially over. Replies to asks and thread responses I don't already owe will start post-hiatus, again focusing on Bruce and Hawke only, unless Leia and Raven have any interest shown towards them. Fun fact: Bruce is actually meant to share a canon with Raven, which would make her 24 (same age as the mun) currently; I'll likely add a verse to explain what's gone on with her for the past decade, but I'd probably still default to her teenage self to answer any asks. Whenever I get around to reading the Nightwing comics with the old team back together, that might change, but the truth is, she's just not fun to write consistently during a time where the team isn't together, and I don't think it'd be fun for others to engage with that version of her all the time. It's the same reason I tend to default to act 2 or a relatively happy portion of act 3 for Hawke when answering asks, except at least his self-destructive behaviors can make for more interesting interactions than Raven's complete isolation from the world after their respective breaking points.

Anyway, TLDR: Batman and default purple mage Hawke from DA2 will be coming back in a week or two. Veilguard will be largely ignored and/or altered when added to verses for my Dragon Age muses, but I'm not bringing Lavellan back until I finish it. I always have a lot of muse for Raven and Leia, so they could come back too, but only if it seems like people might actually engage with them. All other muses are on the back burner. Hiatus on the aforementioned blogs will officially end after I finish any replies I owe (mostly or entirely on Discord). I expect that to happen in the next week or two. I'll reply to PMs for plotting, but asks and new starters won't be responded to until I finish what I already owe (still welcome to send them my way before then if you're okay waiting til then, though). Post-hiatus, anything left unanswered without a request to pause is just something I'm not aware it was my turn for. I'll work on a thread tracker eventually, but until then, just message me. Expect replies to be slow, at least to start, but I'll try to get back to each thread within a week. See you guys soon if you write for DC or Dragon Age!

[horseshoegirl]

Lucky! You know what I’m going to ask for… I’m always in need of updates about Liz Jake and Sadie, my beloveds 🥰🥰🥰

Beth! This thing has been sitting in my drafts since I finished DTDT, and I'm so happy you sent this in cause it's literally brought me a new life. I've missed these three more than I can say, and I've been feeling a bit down about writing (I can't say why, but I NEEDED this).

I'm sharing more than a paragraph cause I've missed them so much, and I'm sure the DTDT crew who followed their journey would like a big update on these guys, too!

This is the beginning of The four times Sadie's Uncles ruined her dates and the one time they didn't!

“Will asked me to the prom.” 

It's a Friday night, on the eve of all the Daggers returning from another deployment on a special assignment. It’s just you and Sadie standing together, washing dishes, discussing everything the two of you wanted to do and catch Jake up on when he returned. 

“Oh, how did he do it?” You squealed, knocking her with your hip. Sadie ducked her head and blushed, reaching for more soap for her dish. 

“He did the ten things I hate about you bleacher dance.” 

“Shut up, he didn’t?” you gasped. You hoped your reply wasn’t too dramatic. You might have let it slip to Alyssa that movie nights now consisted of romantic comedies since your husband hadn't been a participant for the past few months, and Sadie had been impressed by Health Ledger dancing on the steps. 

Alyssa was all too happy to relay the message to Will, who happily jumped on the chance, even getting a few of Sadie’s teachers involved. You might have gotten the video from Alyssa earlier today, and you weren’t going to let on, knowing Sadie would want it destroyed if she knew of its existence. 

Lately, she hated seeing herself cry. 

She nodded, slightly embarrassed at the memory, though you knew she had to be giddy he’d even be that thoughtful or grandiose in his ask. 

“We are going to have to go dress shopping soon. Maybe get Nat and Penny involved. Make it a girl's trip.” 

Sadie doesn’t offer you a reply. Instead, she hands her plate off to you to dry before pushing herself away to the other side of the kitchen.  

“I’m scared, though, Aunt Liz. It’s so bad. I’m not ready for this to happen yet.” 

The plate slipped from your hand, falling back into the water. As you turned to face her, Sadie closed her eyes and started to nod rapidly, wincing as you took in her words. 

“Sweetheart,” you admonished, stepping away from the counter to stroke her hair away from her face. “Why is that a bad thing? I thought you would want to go to the prom with Will. Is something going on? Is he pressuring you?” 

She opened her eyes, worry clearly etched into them. Even as a teenager, how she could puncture your soul with one look had not changed.

“Uncle Jake doesn’t know we’ve been dating. Either does Bradley.” 

Ah, the penny drops. 

She’s right. It’s been five months since the two of you saw either of them and in that time, Will and Sadie went on several dates. There might have been even a kiss or two shared. And to Sadie’s request, she didn’t want Jake to know in the letters you’ve been sending. 

He was, you could say, a bit overprotective of his little girl. And she knew the trouble both he and Bradley could bring on to the both of them, should they wish to. 

 “Uncle Jake and Uncle Roo are going to kill him.” 

“Sadie Seresin-Beck, they aren’t going to…” 

She let out a grumbled sound and stepped away from you to the edge of the island so she could lay her upper body across the granite surface. She let out a frustrated cry, threading her fingers through her hair at the back of her head. 

“What are we going to do?!” 

Honestly? 

You had no clue. 

[bengiyo]

Love in Translation Ep 8 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

Last week, we went off the deep end with Yang being kidnapped and being forced to work on a packaging warehouse in his skinny jeans to pay back his debts. He was able to smuggle messages out by changing delivery addresses and using the language learning code he taught Phumjai. The rest of the cast rallied around to support Phumjai when they didn't know what had happened to Yang, and also Phojai and Tag reconciled beautifully. Phumjai went rogue to try and rescue Yang alone, and now both have been captured.

1:09:32 finale!!

Phumjai really had no plan and got hurt.

Now Phojai and Tag have showed up with no plan. What the hell is this?

All these boys trying to sacrifice themselves only works because these characters have cared so much for each other consistently.

We're doing PPL in the middle of the crisis. I love it. We need 5 million baht. Perhaps if the audience buys this camera we'll save the boys?

What is Bojji up to?

We took of Ngern's shirt and made him sweat, but at what cost?

The PPL is driving me insane this week. You're too injured to lift things. Good thing we have this app to our local wholesaler.

Oh no, Bojji is having issues as well.

I like that Phumjai is stepping up and putting the money he has on the line in a way that asks Yang to trust him more.

Okay, I like this show ending the debt collection on a comedic note.

Curious what Yang does long term if he's given his shares to the employees.

Phojai and Tag are moving in together!!

Obsessed with these two playing baseball as a quality time exercise.

What is it with these dramas and showing a scene from even further back as a beginning of romance event? This is specific to Asian dramas.

Final episode brotherly context and emotional reconciliation. I'm okay with it.

More PPL. I'm losing my mind, but glad this little show must have succeeded.

This episode is so weird, but I'm having fun.

Qi'er and Bojji are so valid for the screaming and falling out.

The parents look so pleased about Yang and Tag.

Little Sun is going franchise, baby!

DID TAMMY TURN THEM INTO A NOVEL?? SHE SAID I'M GETTING PAID BACK FOR Y'ALL USING MY LIKENESS IN YOUR STORE AND PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS!

They said the name of the show. Finish your drinks.

And now they're proposing? This show has everything.

Okay. Drawing the ring on Yang"s finger was so goddamn cute.

Of course they met as kids. These dramas love the notion of destiny.

Final Verdict: 8.5, This Show Was So Much Fun. Phumjai and Yang are one of my favorite pairs of the year. I liked the way they fell for each other and the way this show used its workplace. The plot wobbled massively throughout the final two episodes, and we lost the thread on a few things along the way for product placement, but I really loved these characters so much and I loved the way they treated each other. I'm going to miss having this show in the balance. Offroad and Daou and friends did a great job here.

[derekscorner]

Four changes I would make to Bleach

Before I begin I want to warn you that I will list things from the ending of the Bleach manga. This is important because if you're watching the recent 'Thousand Year Blood War' anime then you're essentially seeing the manga, aka the source materials, final story arc.

Yes, Kubo is quite involved with the anime right now and he is making changes to the story in bits with the anime team. What I fear may be spoilers may no longer be so but just to be safe I warn you anyway.

With that out of the way let us begin~

#1 No Fullbring

When I say this I do not mean that I would cut the Fullbring Arc. I've come to appreciate what it did since the manga ended.

No, when I say "no fullbring" I mean that I would actually make it a temporary power. Once Ginjo steals Ichigo's fullbring that is it. There is no "oh, remnants of it still exist" or other such logic. I would have that power truly lost.

I'd still keep Zangetsu's redesigns but simply remove the fullbring additions like seen in my edits above. My reason for this being a few.

First, I do not like how they have him keep it only for it to just vanish shortly after anyway. Once Zangetsu is reforged you never see it again.

Second, Ichigo being everything under the sun and doing little with it does bother me even now. Even if it's to a much smaller degree.

Third, I once had this post going over how I would have Ichigo gain and lose powers as he learns about the world over the story but I deleted that post since...well the Bleach story DOES do that.

This alteration is just a small one left over from that long rant.

#2 Resolve the Kurosaki twins story thread

This alteration isn't as scenario specific as it is above. I'm sure many have their own ideas on that and I like seeing them. But for the sake of conversation and consistency I will offer the best idea I've heard over the years.

Use the twins to restore Ichigo's powers

From what I remember this idea is simple. In order to restore Ichigo's powers at the end of the Fullbring Arc Urahara had used the twins latent spiritual powers.

I made a big post on them already but TLDR Yuzu can see ghosts as blurry images while Karin has powers she's very vocal about not exploring.

Plus, these two are the closest beings to what Ichigo even is in the series. They would get the chance to be truly normal and, for once, help their brother instead.

It'd be a beautiful little thing in my mind but that is just one option I've seen.

P.S. This idea basically meant that the spirit sword used to restore Ichigo was forged from the twins powers then changed with the spiritual energy of all his friends.

#3 Ichigo loses his Quincy powers

This is one of those potential spoilers I warned about. In the manga Yhwach not only absorbs the Soul King but proceeds to rip the power for his quincy army before finally stripping Ichigo of his own.

This is happens directly after Yhwach infamously breaks the true Tensa Zangetsu before we even got to see it's true ability.

Truth be told, I'd leave the part of the quincy's having their powers, and thus their lives, stolen by Yhwach. What annoys me is the ambiguity of what came next that persists even now.

The Fullbringers restore Tensa Zangetsu but the exact nature it has is just left a lingering mystery.

To fix this I would just explain it. Yhwach's about to remake the world and so he's taking back all the power he had passed around. The only exception to this even would be Uryu due to his 'antithesis' ability. (uryu has proven he's immune to Auswählen once already)

I'd also have Ryuken survive the event but I would leave him powerless since he's more interested in being a human anyway.

For Ichigo, this means that old man Zangetsu is gone. It would make sense for Yhwach to steal his quincy powers but break Zangetsu. All modern quincies derive their power from Yhwach while Zangetsu is a hollow turned zanpakuto.

Hollows are poisonous to quincy and thus Yhwach decides the best way to depower Ichigo is to break his bankai then steal his quincy powers.

You could even use this as an excuse. Once Xcution restores Tensa Zangetsu it's outer shell could break away revealing the original shikai underneath showing that it's changed to reflect the loss of it's quincy aspects.

Heck, you could even change the true Tensa Zangetsu to be purely black like in my edit above. ^^ This is just my idea as well, I'm open to others, all I really want is for the anime to explain it.

I only went this route because I like the idea of Uryu truly being the last quincy by the end of the story. Speaking of Uryu...

#4 Have Uryu do more

From what I've heard this change is actually happening in the anime. I would like them to take it even further due to Uryu's Schrift. In the manga, this man is bluntly stated to possibly be the only known counter to Yhwach's Almighty and Auswählen.

This unique trait of Uryu's manifests as 'The Antithesis' once Yhwach grants him a Schrift.

That alone, in my mind, means that he should be way more crucial to the final battle than the manga made him. He literally just appears to shoot an arrow at Yhwach which he should've literally been able to see coming.

I don't think that role is bad in of itself but by hell do more with it. Show me why Yhwach wouldn't see that arrow coming, show me why the antithesis is...well the antithesis to the almighty.

Just do something with the boy in the finale other than handing him a silver arrow to beat the last boss with like it's Zelda or something.

Anndddd we're Done

These are my four changes I'd like to see. I do not expect #3 nor #4 to actually happen and they definitely aren't going to do changes #1 or #2 now.

I also thought that I would have more but to my shock I do not. I'll end this here~

[kxllerblond]

Hey besties, as you have likely noticed-—I haven't really been active. Truth be told, I had a pretty bad depressive low followed by some really bad burn out that left me unable to do anything more than a few scattered short things here and there and even those took a lot of like energy to push myself to do. I've been in a very frustrated and restless place with my blog in the aftermath of this.

My drafts are stressing me out. Knowing that I owe shit and can't remember with who or where we were in the thread is stressing me out and kind of hindering any attempts at coming back and trying to be active again. Coupled with the typical Tumblr RPC thing of more or less having to rebuild your blog engagement from the ground up again after taking more than a few days off is very energy-consuming.

With that being said, I want to come back and be active and consistent again. I refuse to give up on this hobby and I love my little bastard man still. However, I think I'm going to have to make some significant changes going forward to make that happen.

DRAFTS.

Unless we have a multi-note and plotted thread going, assume they have been dropped. It's just too much to try and track everything down and remember where I was going with a lighter thread months ago or whatever when I was replying to it initially. It's making me freeze up and so nothing is getting done. Following this post, I'm going to be working on fully culling my drafts and likes of any threads I owe.

ASK MEMES.

I am going to be leaning on these heavily. Not much is changing here as this is my usual. I just will likely not be posting any more starter calls or attempting plotting calls or liking them. I'm going to be 99.9% ask meme interaction orientated. Any plotted or long form shit is going to be naturally pursued when I'm interested or have ideas instead of trying to force myself for the sake of it or because I feel expected to as I have in the past.

NEW THREADS.

Here is where I'm going to lose some of you. I'm going to be a burst RPer more than I have been in the past. That means I am going to be relying on shorter note interactions that may get dropped pretty quickly. I'm going to rely on no pressure threads that we can just mention and build off of in new interactions. A quick but gradual development through shorter lifespan threads, if you will. Sort of like climbing a lot of stairs to a certain point of development instead of trying to climb one giant mountain of a single heavy plotted thread at a time.

Does this mean I'm not going to do ANY plotted point A to point B threads? Nah. I'm just going to be very, very selective with them and I'm going to need both of us to be at the same level of passion, ig. Plotted shit and long term shit takes A LOT for me to keep going and so I need both of us to be 100% interested in the story and each other's characters, etc. I think, at this time, I only have 2-3 of those threads/storylines active.

NEW FOLLOWERS, NEW INTERACTIONS.

I'm not going to close myself off completely to following new people or taking on new followers...but I am done more or less screaming at walls or low key begging people to stop being anxious or intimidated and interact with me. I'm mega anxious myself but I do the bare minimum of being the first to send a meme, to like interaction calls, etc. If I am doing this and being the one to make the first step and I still don't receive any sort of energy returned...I'm dipping. I don't have the time or patience anymore to play chicken with people or to coax them into threading with me and I've caused myself plenty of issues in the past by trying to stick it out in the hopes things change.

IN SUMMARY

I know this portrays me as that dreaded flake RPer who starts shit and never finishes anything. I am hoping dearly that building off these unfinished threads will compensate for that lack of long form threading. I am aware this is going to not track with some of you as it's not an RPing format that is compatible with everyone and I accept that and I totally get it if some of you stop reaching out or unfollow or whatever. However, I'm going to be doing what I need to do in order to actually BE here. I'd rather be a tad bit of a flake but still get something done and enjoy this hobby somewhat instead of just sitting here frozen and getting nothing done because I don't want to be seen as a flake or dissuade people from interacting with me further.

Thank.

[imasloid]

SHINY COLORS FASHION ANALYSIS: Yuika Mitsumine (三峰結華)

"I'm an idol… it feels kind of strange…"

This is a project analyzing and taking a look at the fashion design and application in the multimedia series, The IDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors. This section is about the eccentric and lively subculture girl of the series, Yuika Mitsumine! If you want to jump to a specific section, go here!

(This is a reprint of my thread on Twitter. I put it on Tumblr for easier reading and for archiving purposes. Enjoy!)

-----

INTRODUCTION

“Yuika is a first-year college student, a subculture girl with a free-spirited, light-hearted, & somewhat elusive personality. She can talk to people that she meets for the first time easily and has a deep knowledge of idols. Sometimes she has a serious expression on her face.”

---

Profile

Age: 19

Birthday: January 16th

Height: 158 cm

Weight: 44 kg

Blood Type: O

Hometown: Fukushima

Hobbies: Watching idol lives, cameras, anime, games, reading

Special Skills: Studying & can be recognized by her oshi as quick as possible

CV: Shio Kisui

---

Before starting the analysis, I would suggest if you haven’t already, read her W.I.N.G. (introductory) commu (through the broswer game's English patch or on YouTube). If you don’t play the game, I would listen to her image song and read the lyrics to get a better sense of her character.

-----

STYLE BREAKDOWN

Consisting of many different fashion elements, Yuika’s personal fashion is easily identifiable though hard to define. Labelled a “subculture girl,” her open-minded personality leads Yuika to incorporate various styles into her own while still looking unique & fashion-forward.

Before diving into her fashion, I’ll expand on her label as a “subculture girl” using this graphic. “Sabukaru” is more of a cultural movement rather than a fashion style, with personal fashion and expression being varied amongst members dependent on their hobbies.

Yuika’s fashion is mainly inspired from aomoji-kei or blue letter style, explaining her versatile & unique wardrobe. Formerly used as a catch-all for Harajuku fashion, it describes cute & casual fashion that doesn’t appeal to men with a motto of “wearing what you want to wear.”

Popular aomoji-kei magazines like Zipper, FRUiTS, and KERA! covered many different styles and brands, inspired by streetsnaps in Harajuku. The insides featured many experimental and exciting coordinates as sort of a counter against mainstream fashion and the male gaze.

Though all the magazines above have ceased production due to a change in audience and trends, the Aomoji-kei movement still lives on through brands, digital newsletters, and the thriving fashion culture of Harajuku. Also, magazines like mini and SO-EN are still around today.

This diagram from Asahi Sato shows that Aomoji-kei is split into many styles ranging from simple & girly to individualistic & sporty. The next few tweets identify major groups that Yuika’s fashion is drawn from, but keep in mind there is heavy overlap & won't include all of them.

Group 1 of her various styles I dub her “original style.” This style is highly featured in her default outfits and many other early cards of hers. Heavily influenced by the kawaii, amekaji, pop, & original harajuku street-style trendsetters, this style is very fun and eccentric!

Group 2 is less showy than Group 1, with a more conventional elements that reflect modern street style, but still show Yuika’s eccentricity and skill of outfit composition. Appearing after the peak of her “kawaii pop” style, it’s a more casual and laid-back style comparably.

Group 3 is the most mature, elegant, and “smart” pool of looks that Yuika wears. Featuring a mix of solids and simple patterns, dark and neutral colors, and elements of the mode casual and feminine styles, it’s a group that shows off a more simple but modish side to her.

Though I categorize her styles in groups, Yuika’s style can���t really be categorized. They bleed between different groups or don’t fit into any at all. These groups were made for people to identify her weared trends, but compartmentalizing her style doesn’t really fit her at all.

Now I would like to talk about some common elements of Yuika’s fashion that appear, regardless of style inspiration. The most famous are her trademark glasses and baseball caps, customized so they fit any look she wears.

Two more essential elements of her personal style are her frequent & variable use of pattern & color clashing and colorblocking & color theory in outfit composition. These being mainstays in her fashion make it as versatile and interesting as it can get.

This tweet shows four outfits and how she applies clashing, color theory, and conceptual importance to make them exciting, unique, & varied. Though a wide range of style influences and colors are used, all these outfits are “Yuika-core” connected by common styling values.

The above section was written inspired by a blog talking about Yuika’s fashion sense, so I would like to give them thanks for well-written another perspective on her style.

No need to talk about her fashion’s color palette as she doesn’t limit her fashion to a specific group of colors, but her image color is a medium-blue like sky or rain. For such an outgoing personality, her image color has a weight to it which we will cover in the next section.

-----

STYLE ANALYSIS

Yuika was scouted by Producer while taking shelter from the rain, coming back from an idol-merchandise haul. Upon seeing her smile and how much she loves idols, he asks her if she wants to become an idol.

She finds it hard to believe she actually got scouted and thinks it’s some kind of elaborate prank, but she accepts the offer and becomes an idol. It’s later revealed that she wanted to become one due to being curious about the world of idols and wanting to be admired.

To fans and the members of L’antica, Yuika acts as the moodmaker and jokester of the group, always having a huge smile on her face and constantly cracking jokes and making merry. She’s the initial glue that bonds L’Antica together and always makes sure everyone is feeling happy.

As to why she’s so outgoing, it’s revealed that it comes from interacting with other idol otaku at live shows but she keeps this a secret from most people. She is a diehard idol fan of many female groups, collecting merch and going to handshake events.

In fact, most people know that Yuika is a “subculture” girl and has many public interests like fashion, photography, and manga. However, she keeps her insane idol hobby under wraps, even hiding merch from the L’antica girls when they visit her place.

One special quirk of Yuika is her high degree of reading the atmosphere and sensing the mood of the room quickly. In her Landing Point, she reveals she keeps her otaku hobbies a secret because when she would talk to her friends about anime, she felt the vibe get uncomfortable.

Yuika is really sensitive to the vibe getting rancid in fact, feeling uncomfortable if everyone isn’t feeling content. She will do anything to make everyone feel comfortable, even putting her own feelings on the back burner if she feels it would unnecessarily complicate things.

Even with the Producer, she is known for hiding her true feelings and masking it with her outgoing personality and deflecting issues that bother her, burdening herself instead. She doesn’t like to show signs of weakness and keeps a well-hidden distance from most people.

In cards like “NOT≠EQUAL,” “Dizzy Dizzy,” and “No Life,” she is also shown to be very self-critical and barrages herself with deprecating comments. She only discloses these feelings with Producer, as she feels bad troubling anyone else with her “trivial” problems.

Her image song, “Plastic Umbrella,” discusses her habit of hiding who she really is and keeping a boundary from most people to “protect the peace.” Not wanting to “bump into anyone” but also “wanting someone to find her,” this paradox of personality is everpresent.

-

Though her personality is somewhat hard to explain, her fashion really eludicates who she is as a person. At first glance, her style is very eyecatching and eccentric, but not in an intimidating way. It’s very fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously in a way that is amiable.

However, if you look closer you’ll see that a lot of care and meticulous detail is put into her outfits. The colors, patterns, silhouette, composition, mood, atmosphere, accessories, clothes, etc. are all specifically picked to fit each other in a way that is incredibly skilled.

As said by others, Yuika has an incredible eye for detail with people, but this expands to her fashion as well. She is good at studying, remembering, and applying knowledge to situations, seen in how variable her fashion influences are but still maintaining a cohesive style.

Personally, I would describe her “fun” fashion as an mechanism of lowering others’ guard similar to her outgoing personality, masking her real feelings. Not to say that her fashion is ingenuous, but it helps make other people feel at ease regardless of intention.

Yuika’s style evolution is hard to spot, but major style influences she wears change with time. Out of all the Shiny Colors girls, Yuika definitely has the most unique take on fashion & the fact that it’s also a commentary on herself (both shown and hidden) is the cherry on top.

-----

This is it for Yuika Mitsumine!

If you liked this thread, check out my Twitter and give me a tip on Ko-Fi so I can do more things like this with other idol series! Thanks for reading <3

Next section: Kiriko Yukoku

[more-than-a-princess]

17. When do you block someone?

More Munday Questions - Accepting!

As some of my mutuals can attest, I'm pretty bad about blocking people, even when I probably should. In general, I'm pretty particular about who I interact with in the first place. If I'm sure that a mun's posting frequency, writing style, and/or muses will not vibe with mine, I won't follow/follow back.

So, beyond that, here's a few reasons why I've soft/hardblocked people:

Forced an interaction on dash, particularly in the context of assuming I was playing my muse in a certain way without even asking. (In this particular case, it was assuming that I would just write Sonia as a Remnant of Despair, when I try to convey in my rules that this is usually my least favorite verse to write in).

Attempted to force a romantic relationship without plotting or buildup.

Showed general hate/bigotry/the things I don't want to see on my dash.

Non-RP blogs reblogging my threads/headcanons

RP blogs stealing headcanons

If they're clogging the dan.gan.ron.pa RP tag with one-liner askblog responses. I try to use the fandom RP to find promos for new blogs to follow and in the past year or so, it's been completely overrun with askblogs putting every interaction in the tags. As I'd prefer not to interact with any of these, I just hardblock them all when I see them.

But beyond that, the biggest thing I should block for is the following:

Excessive complaining about the RPC on dash.

There is nothing more unappealing to me than venting or passive-aggressively shaming someone's mutuals into writing with them. Whether it's consistently answering anon (or non-anon) OOC drama on the dash, PSAs, or just complaining that someone has no interactions/a specific type of interaction. Particularly if the mun complaining is barely writing threads, or has no active threads at all.

Listen: it's fine to feel frustrated. We all do! However, it is extremely discouraging, at least for me, to interact with a mun who is constantly expressing their frustration with their threads/drama/the RPC on dash and expecting their mutuals to interact with them after.

Vent to friends on DMs/Discord/elsewhere (I certainly do!), but on dash, you're going to have to be the change you want to see in the world.

Do you want more threads/interactions/ships/etc. but memes and starter calls aren't cutting it? Send asks to muns you want to write with. Send DMs and chat/plot with them directly. Be proactive. It won't always work out but that's part of being a roleplayer. You'll never stop putting yourself out there and yes, you'll get rejected quite a bit. But you will find your writing partners and friends who do want to write with you, who do understand you, and who really enjoy your muse(s) and what you'll create together.

I've been writing text-based roleplay for over twenty years at this point and in that time, I feel it's safe to say that people want to write with other people who are eager to do so. It can be tiring and disheartening when things don't go your way at times, but perseverance really is key in this hobby, and a positive attitude.

[quickdeaths]

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

I have a few, so in no real particular order

Dropping threads/not replying to starters without saying anything. I try to be communicative about things when I can (although I'm sure I don't always succeed) and I'm happy to make changes, or move things in a particular direction, do a timeskip, location change, whatever if the need is there. What I can't do anything about, though, is when someone drops a thread with me or sees a starter I wrote for them and decides not to respond without saying anything to me.

It puts me in a state of like "are they gonna reply? should I send them a message or would that be bothering them? if I send in a meme or like their starter call, will they be annoyed because we already have something and they're just working on it? I understand that not every thread can continue for 40+ replies, and not every starter is a 10/10 out the gate, but I can't know what's up if people won't tell me.

Blatantly ignoring easily-available information (especially for ship purposes). This doesn't happen too much anymore, but it used to happen with some frequency, where people who I barely knew, or hadn't written with much, would pitch me on things that contradicted some of the most basic things on my muses' pages. There's a lot to read and everyone makes mistakes on things sometimes, that's not really an issue, but, for example, on some of my other blogs there was a small pattern of people trying to pitch m/f ships for my lesbian characters, when my character's sexuality was like the third line from the top on my page.

Way too much OOC content. People can run their blogs as they like, and it's not my right to tell people what they can and can't do, however, something that personally drives me a little crazy is when I see a new RP blog that will make upwards of like ten posts a day that are aesthetic posts, OOC life updates, shipping calls, memes, and other miscellaneous posts, while answering IC memes or writing threads maybe extremely infrequently. I remember on another blog following someone, and at the point where I softblocked them, they were making three or four posts a day, without fail, and yet I had to go back over two months to find IC content. It's just not really compatible with how I like to handle my experience.

Blog hopping. I understand that there are valid reasons to archive or delete a blog and remake it, but occasionally I have seen people go through like a blog every month or two, or go from having a single-muse blog, to putting their character on their multi, to making a new single-muse, to remaking the multi and putting them there again, to putting them on a single-muse again, etc. etc. The explanation that I often hear is that people want a clean slate, or things got too crazy, they want to get away from some problem, or something like that, but then they will keep the same URL, the same aesthetics, re-follow all the same partners, keep the same ships, etc.

The analogy that I use is like, if you have bedbugs, moving to a new apartment but bringing the old frame, mattress, and bedding is not going to help you. Sooner or later you're going to have the same problems again. For me, as well, it's a struggle to keep up with past threads or interactions, conversations that might have been had in IMs, etc. if they're spread out across lots of different blogs. It's just not really an impulse I understand, and I find it disruptive, especially when consistently paired with dropping all threads and wanting to start new threads with the same characters.

[ofthecrowsandcranes]

thoughts of the week

i went into this intending to write a reflection on the grimoire challenge for this week but ended up thinking more about general reflections of my practice instead, so, thoughts:

like i said in this reblog, i'm using this challenge (and a bunch of other stuff) as frameworks, because i haven't really written down much of my practice. most of it lives in my head. i have (2) partial grimoires, one that's evolved into just a notetaking notebook and another that was digital that i don't really use because even though digitization makes it easier to organise, there's something about paper that i really, really like.

so my goal/intention for this challenge is to practice consistency. attempting the prompts that make sense to me, even if for some of them i know they're going to be a rough draft of what my practice ends up being. for the spellwriting 101 one, i haven't even done enough spellwork to know what process works best for me (consequences of being more pagan than witch for the past few years), so i took notes from @breelandwalker's how to write spells post since her process is concise and feels like a good checklist of "did i consider this aspect? am i being specific enough or not?" obviously my methods may change as i do more practical work but having a good starting point is what matters the most

one of my general goals for 2024 was to just Do things, and worry less about the finished product and more about the process. so some of my pages are messy and i don't have a specific order for things. i'm filling in the index/table of contents last so i can use it as a "where did i put this" list instead of a "this will go here" list. in the future, i'll probably use a binder or something with easily insertable pages/entries as a formal grimoire, but for now, i'm recording and practicing and that's what matters most for me, since i haven't done that before. despite four years of doing stuff on and off.

i'm gonna put a cut here because otherwise this post will be Massive but i'm gonna go into more detail about some of the pages/things that i did for reference.

monday

name your book: done! i just called it my spiritual lab notebook, since that's what it is.

definitions (ritual and spell): done! very UPG, but to me a ritual and a spell differ because a ritual is to affect the Now and a spell is to affect the Later. also rituals have more broad intentions vs a spell which has very specific intentions

Study herb: bay laurel! i did a bay leaf wish ritual on new year's day with my family and my mom asked why bay leaves, and i was like "hm, i don't know the specifics of why they're associated with wishmaking" so i added them to my herbs list so i could find out, and then learned it's because they're fucking bay laurel. i feel extremely stupid for not making that connection but! now i know!

tuesday:

outline: done! it's blank, i won't fill it in until the notebook is full

study gem: not done, still trying to decide how to substitute this. i might do tarot spreads instead.

spellwriting 101: done! discussed above

wednesday:

common tools: done! i really only put three things for now, but i'll probably go back and add things as i remember/find new tools. so far i've got tarot cards, embroidery thread, and candles, but in writing this i've remembered bells and jars and beads also

year outline/calendar: done! added the Big 4 (solstices & equinoxes), samhain, lughnasadh, and christmas (since my family celebrates it). will definitely be adding more as i go, but that's what i want to celebrate (or do celebrate) for now

Practical (tool usage): done! did a 3 card pull with my elemental power tarot, since i want to use it more as a reflective tool.

thursday:

altar design/workspace: done! sketched a layout of my current altar + wrote some wishes/dreams for when i have a different space.

practical (cleansing): not done yet—around this part of the week my chronic illness stuff started to flare up, and since cleansing involves actual cleaning for me, i couldn't really do it while resting. it's on my backburner for later.

friday:

personal practices: done! did a quick journal entry in DayOne

and that's all! if i can get to cleansing today i'll do it, but i have many other things to do also, so i'll get to it eventually.

[overflowchute]

i guess that's really my fundamental problem though. i can survive on my own but i solve life problems extremely slowly and without external pressure it can take months for me to even attempt a thing. adhd meds are weird b/c they do help. but the way they help is a bit sneaky, they let you focus on whatever thing you're currently doing. like you're setting yourself on rails. so you need their "power" but you also need the "will" to decide what thing you're using them to do

i've always felt that one of the psychological problems is much like having two magnets that you're pushing together as they repel. you can hold them together but the moment you're not exerting force they separate. the meds do help with that b/c they stop the separation. that's what the meds overcome, the repelling force that requires immense effort to do when you're not in the proper phase. and often once you start a task you can actually lock into it and fixate on it and get it done even without meds. but executive dysfunction can only be overcome by exhaustive planning and the problem is that exhaustive planning is work in-and-of-itself. the biggest problem for me with planning is that i earnestly don't know how long things take

if i schedule my entire day into blocks then i can kind of push myself to try to deal with it but if i'm actually "in the zone" it's hard for me to break away and i earnestly don't want to, because i don't know if i'll ever be able to come back to that! so i get motivated to stick with something until i've solved it, b/c i'm Actually Doing Something. which leads to me spending hours on, say, a programming thing i've done before but have to relearn and i want to finish before moving on. the really frustrating thing about situations like this is that such neurodivergence and mental disabilities and so forth feel like the answer is simply applying will, and yet you end up repeating a cycle of somehow not making the right decision… which is how addiction works of course. things look different in the moment on the ground. and if you don't know /where/ you must properly exert your will, it can be really difficult to change one's behavior

ive been thinking about this a lot b/c i got screwed up by daylight savings again but also it was dst last year that permanently knocked me out of my previous cycle, where i was able to consistently go to bed by at least midnight and get 5-6 hours of sleep. now i regularly get caught up on a specific distraction i'm trying to oust and don't even feel like i'm probably functionally in prep to sleep mode until about 12:30-1:30, and it's that weird mid evening brain fog before

i know i say this like once every few months we've all seen this thread but i am sort of pondering recognition of it and also of how i have not managed to fix it in any real regard. yesterday i accomplished only a few things - well, ok i did laundry/hygiene etc... but it's way too easy for me to end up trapped in brain trap cycles, low energy passive things like youtube videos i can't quite distract myself from and multitask, or, well, card games and other special interest stuff

i think fundamentally i am frustrated b/c i can be fairly functional when i have something to be motivated by but i don't have much of a strong push to fix these problems. it's just smth i survive over and over, becoming more miserable and cutting it closer and closer until something jolts me back into functionality for a few days. i've felt the same frustration with creative work, in that i don't even know who i'm making stuff for. and i think that emptiness is causing me problems. i earnestly do suspect that a major element is social for me, i put an immense amount of effort into the ygo community space i was in for a little while for instance lol. unfortunately i'm a picky person and easily triggered or upset by a lot of people, can't get all the social depth one kinda needs to actually, like, survive out of a lot of spaces like that... so it ended up being upsetting. but i do think maybe ive been wishing i had some social motivation

but ultimately this is a lot of self-analysis about what i probably should be doing that's may be totally separated from actually doing something. so i guess we'll see what happens

[bonuscatart]

Sometimes I feel like Hasbro has forgotten how to market My Little Pony (probably other franchises, too). It's like they're trying to sell the Brand™ instead of stories and toys. They keep milking G4 instead of of letting new stuff flourish (e.g., that leaked summer camp concept). They canceled G5 with loose plot threads. I've not heard anything confirmed for G6.

The toys have lost quality over the years. Shrinking size is one thing, but effort in design is another. There's a few things I can think of, but I'm going to focus on cutie marks. They are a very recognizable part of the brand. Why are they only printed on one side? Has technology not improved over the years? They're printing eyes on both sides, so why not cutie marks? Why change the animated characters' marks to one-sided? I have 2 inch Dollar Tree G5s that have cutie marks on both sides. If toy makers can print double sided with $1.25 figures and the anniversary G1 merch, why not consistently do it?

I'm most familiar with the mini play sets. I can tell they've lost effort. I don't own any G1 Petite Ponies, but their sets look detailed. They had mechanisms that used the ponies like keys, and some ponies had brushable hair. G3 Ponyville figures had several buildings and accessories, even when they repeated sets for Core 7. Buildings had working mechanisms and/or lights. Each pony's hair had a discreet peg hole for "hair clips," or they could be swapped like wigs. G4 had more body types, yet the Friendship is Magic Collection was... lackluster? It feels like Hasbro used the "collectible" label as an excuse to not put backs on the buildings. On one hand, FIMC had more accessories than the blind bags. On the other hand, the throne for Canterlot Castle can't fit inside without laying down. Then, G5 downsized to 1 inch Mini World Magic. Some reviews call them low quality, Polly Pocket knockoffs. I didn't want to buy them because they don't match my 2 inch town.

I don't think cutting costs is improving profits. Instead, customers* are looking at higher quality brands like Wild Manes. Hasbro didn't give G5 time to develop, so there was less motivation to buy toys. Toy sales were low, so Hasbro didn't spend time on G5. When will Hasbro remember that you have to work to make money?

*U.S. customers who like horses. The Chinese MLP merch (e.g., Dinosaw) seems to be doing well.

[hillvalleywrites]

1, 12, 17, and 19 for the writing ask game!

1. The last sentence you wrote

'Thomas, why do you do this to yourself?'

12. A trope you're really into right now

I'm obsessed with time loops. It's a rigid mechanic that contains amazing flexibility. They're about how people can change and about how people can resist change at all cost. They're about hope and futility. They're about how you make your own bed and about how powerless you feel to control how you move through the world. I've always loved them but I read an incredible Death Note fic about two months ago that's had my brain buzzing about them ever since.I explored something time loop-esque with I Just Can't Stay Here Every Yesterday, but I'd love to write a true time loop fic.

17. Talk about your writing and editing process

My writing process can definitely vary depending on the project, and also my mental health/state of mind whilst I'm writing it. For a longfic, though, I like to loosely plan each chapter (I use flashcards for this, a few bullet points on each one), to get a shape of the overall structure of the story and the key points of each character arc. From there, I start writing. I like to write chronologically, so that I'm not tempted to skip straight to the parts that excite me most and leave myself filling in all the 'functional' gaps later. However, I also like to give myself a bit of flexibility, so if I feel like there's a scene I'm really really drawn to in that moment and it's crowding out the scene I'm meant to be writing, I'll write that one instead. Depending on how I'm feeling that day (I struggle with agoraphobia), I either write at home in silence, or I'll go to a cafe/bookshop and write there, using the people around me as ambient noise. Usually as I work through a draft, I'll have more ideas for the later half of the work, and I'll add any more ideas to the flashcards or flesh out existing ones to come back to later. I'm most productive when I write every day and set myself word goals. For example, with my current WIP, I wrote ~33,000 words in six weeks by being consistent with it. However, my mental health in the six weeks since then has been...awful...and I haven't written anything. But I'm finally in a place where I'm ready and excited to get back to it and finish this draft. I only have two chapters to go!

With editing, I like to have a full first draft of the entire fic before I start editing. I make a copy of the draft and change the font (my first drafts are in calibri, second in times new roman, third + beyond in arial). Then I read the draft in full and write, on paper, some notes about how I feel the pacing, structure, and character arc play out over the fic. Does it feel fast? Slow? Where does it drag? Are there any points where I don't believe the characters' decision-making is convincing? Are there any threads that feel dropped or unresolved? I leave comments for myself on the draft and turn track changes on. Then I use the search function to find all the words I tend to overuse: 'just', 'felt', 'turned', 'looked', 'breathed', stuff like that. I consider the sentences where I find them and ask myself: are they necessary (usually not). I mark them up too, then go back and begin the process of rewriting sentences and fixing any structural and pacing issues. At this point, I'll send it to my beta (if I'm using a beta). Then I go through all their suggestions and make the corrections I want to make, and disregard the ones I don't think are useful. Before I upload a chapter, I'll do a final pass, checking for punctuation, spelling, and other minor copyedits. I like this process because it's very thorough and produces, I think, the best version of my work, but it's also hard because no-one is reading it until a very late stage in the process. I've toyed with the idea of editing and uploading the first chapter of my current WIP so many times because I hope the positive reinforcement would push me to actually finish it, and would maybe be a boost to my mental health. So idk, I might break my own rules.

19. The most interesting topic you've researched for a fic

My fics don't tend to require large amounts of research - I didn't have to research wedding planning that much for this WIP, for example, because I've been heavily involved in wedding planning a couple of times in my life. Most of what I research is location-based, so for I Just Can't Stay Here Every Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on Google Earth in Cicero (Indiana), El Paso (Texas), and Palo Alto (California), because I've never been to any of those places. I'm really interested in both dreams and memory, so I researched more about the science of them both for IJCSHEY (although, the science of dreams is elusive).

I also enjoyed researching more about Romantic literature for my current WIP. In it, Thomas is writing a PhD about water in Romantic literature, so I wanted to read a little of what I imagined he would have read in order to write it (although none of that made it into the actual fic).

Thank you for the ask! :)