#and then I can swap them out when it gets to March and I've done 80% of a side quest and less than 5% of a main goal

[thethingswedotomorrow]

I love the Good Omens 'Night at Crowley's Flat' trope where after stopping the apocalypse in season 1, they go to Crowley's Flat and talk and kiss and fall in love and have a peaceful night, I do.

BUT

What if the night became 'The Night an Angel and a Demon Get Insanely Drunk and Teach Each Other How to Act'

Because honestly

They go to the flat, and ALL they know is they are going to have to swap themselves if they want to survive and finally be free from Heaven and Hell

But they have absolutely NO clue how to pull it off successfully

Sure, they know each other in and out.

Aziraphale has Crowley's eye color committed to memory (and also to paper, since Aziraphale spent 4-5 years in the late 80s trying to find a craft store in London that could help him do the color justice)

Crowley could find his angel in a crowd of millions (and not even just because only one single person in that crowd would be dressed in that ridiculous shade of tartan)

BUT they know they have to truly get this right, down to the exact detail.

So, naturally, they start by promptly opening the closest bottle of scotch that Crowley had available

Crowley was convinced this would be the easiest thing they've ever done

"Only you, Angel, would find a way to worry yourself to death AFTER stopping an apocalypse"

They begin with the easy part, switching corporations and clothing.

It was easy. Until Aziraphale realized he had to actually physically move in the very, very tight pants Crowley prefers.

The first three times he tries walking, he falls face down. And each time, realizes how it's equally hard to get back up again.

Not to mention that Crowley's corporation had learned that after 6000 years, it didn't really need all those vertebrae and bones since he never used them anyways

So now Aziraphale is just laying on the floor in terribly tight pants, very confused on how Crowley has managed all this time

(Crowley is also on the floor, having dropped there laughing after the 2nd attempt)

After they both get up (one much faster than the other) Crowley tries coaching the angel on how to walk like him

Until Crowley realizes he doesn't actually know how he walks, he just sort of wills himself forward and hopes his limbs keep up with him along the way

Eventually, after enough drinks, they settle on a technique called "Just pretend all your limbs are snakes. And you're a snake. Honestly, just as snake-y as you can manage, Angel."

Aziraphale, as difficult as this was for him, figures out that he may have gotten the easy side of this situation here. Crowley very much disagrees.

"Once an Angel, well, definitely not always an Angel, but close enough right?"

He very quickly realizes he may be wrong when Aziraphale asks Crowley to copy his walk

"Dear Lord Crowley, it cannot be that hard. You simply have to walk in a straight line"

It was indeed that hard.

Crowley has all his vertebrae now, but no knowledge of how they should be used

He tries to hold his hands behind his back and march forward, walking in what he thinks is probably, on some plane of reality, maybe a straight line

He's convinced that he's the perfect image of a stereotypical angel, head held high, an air of 'holier than thou' surrounding him

When Crowley asks Aziraphale, he only says, "Well, I suppose it will have to do for now."

Internally, Aziraphale thinks of the fact that Crowley looked identical to a bumbling penguin walking on ice.

When Crowly sits down, very pleased with himself for an impeccable performance ("As always, Angel. I've still got it." Aziraphale uncaps the vodka and drinks straight from the bottle, just staring into the distance.

He has just realized that their existence hinges on whether Crowley can figure out how to sit on a chair like a proper being with appendages and a spine.

And the odds are not in their favor, if they way the demon is sprawled out on the couch (reminding Aziraphale suddenly of a very well-done noodle, and suddenly he's starting to wonder if humans had the right idea with stress eating) is any indication

Crowley announces that he refuses to utter the words tickety boo, even if faced with destruction

"Honestly I think I'd rather have the holy water at that point" "Crowley." "I swear you just make sounds up sometimes, those aren't even real words"

4 bottles (and a very large order of takeout) later, they've got the act down well enough that it's starting to weird Crowley out

"Angel, seriously, enough with the nose. When have I ever done that with my nose? Exactly zero amount of times. I'm not a rabbit"

2 bottles later and Aziraphale has miracled Harry the Rabbit into the flat for a reason they can't quite remember

But they've got music playing from somewhere in the corner, and plenty of drinks, and the night goes on into the morning, and then they're sobering up and marching out for the most dramatic acting of their lives

And the world hasn't ended yet, so they'll probably be fine. Probably.

[absolutebl]

Hello! I was reading your posts about age gaps and it made me think about how Fort and Peat did two age gap series with seniority swapped—pretty convincingly too! I can think of pairs who’ve done age-gap in one series and same-age in another but no other “verse” ones. (Maybe Yin and War, a bit, in Love Mechanics vs Jack & Joker?) Can you think of any other pairs that have done this?

Branded Pairs who Switch Age Dynamics in New Parts

Ooo yes there have been a few. Often side pairs. Gimme a sec. Honestly this is something I pay attention to for linguistic reasons but don't actually track.

Quick answer? I found 4

AouBoom - BOTH

FortPeat - BOTH

KimCop - ALL 3 (older, younger, same age)

TutorYim - ALL 3

Lists and criteria follows...

Branded pairs who've done multiple roles (as of March 2025)

(pairs in bold fit asker's criteria, khun simply means they are acting using pronouns that do not indicate age dynamics)

FORMAT = PairBrand: seme actor's age relative to uke actor - age dynamics as pertains to seme actor

AouBoom: Aou is younger - BOTH, I am pretty sure he's the older one in Hidden Agenda & since then = younger

BoomPeek: Boom is younger - same age

BossNoeul: same age (!) - Boss = older

BosszoPeter: Boss is older - older

BounPrem: Boun is older - older

EarthMix: Earth is older - older & same age

FirstKhao but really Khaotung & First: same age - same age or khun

ForceBook: same age - same age & Force = older

FortPeat: Fort is younger - BOTH older & younger

G4 (AKA GeminiFourth) : same age - same age

JaFirst: same age - same age, First = older

JamFilm: Jam is younger - khun

JimmySea: Jimmy is older - khun

JoongDunk: same age - same age or khun(ish)

JuniorMark: Junior is older - older

KarnNut: Karn is younger - same age in one, (much) older in the other

Kim Ji Woong / Yoon Seo Bin: Kim Ji Woong is older, older

KimCop: Kim is older - ALL 3! younger, older, same age

MarcPoon: Marc is younger - older

MaxNat: Max is older - older

MaxTul: Max is younger - same age, younger

MeenPing: Meen is older - same age, older

MosBank: Mos is younger - same age, older

OffGun: Off is older - older, same age, khun

OhmFluke: Ohm is younger (yes, really) - older in all roles

PondPhuwin: Pond is older - same age

PerthLay: Perth is younger - older or khun

SailubPon: Sailub is older - older

SantaEarth: Santa is younger - same age

SatangWinny | WinnySatang: Satang is younger - same or Winny is older

TayNew: Tay is older - always same age (even in Cherry Magic we know they same age from source material) they also act that way IRL

TutorYim: same age - ALL 3 Tutor = same age, older, younger

YinWar: Yin is younger - older, same age

YoonLay: Yoon is older - khun

ZeeNuNew: Zee is older - older

---

Top and Mick: Top is older. I don't think these two can be considered a branded pair, but Every You, Every Me is a masterclass in switching, verse, and rearranging all power dynamics, so I figured I should mention them.

I've left off pairs who haven't yet acted in their 2nd roles (PerthSanta, PavelPoom, UpPoom, MileApo). No I don't care if a new BL is announced or being filmed. It has to actually air to count.

I didn't rewatch to double check so I may be wrong on a few of these. I suffer from Only Friends blindness so that would be one that tripped me up.

There are also actors who have played both seme & uke rolls, but with different partners.

Bah Vinh

First

Gawin

Khaotung

Marc

Mark

Mick

Neo

Pavel

Phuwin (right? when he was opposite Neo - no sure 'cause I refuse to rewatch My Tee)

Pond (not the GMMTV one)

Santa

Singto

Tay (in the same year!)

Tenon

Top

Up

A note for the history books:

OffGun are the only branded pair to have acted 5 different BL roles! Thus I am declaring them current

Kings of BL!

Congratz boys!

I'm not going to keep this post updated, but I did create a new tab in the spreadsheet for tracking branded pairs because this is getting out of hand.

(source)

[bikorarey]

AD's Rewrites: Cullen Rutherford Edition

So for a while I've Hated Cullen Rutherford. I got into the Dragon age series at Inquisition in 2014 and I enjoyed Cullen as an Ex-Templar who was done with the life and wanted to see the templars freed from Chantry control because the Chantry was the issue, not he Templars or Mages.

Going back to play Origins and Dragon Age 2 showed me just how much a lie that sentiment was. I grew to resent him so much that I stopped letting him off Lyrium the more I learned of him from DA2 alone. When he said Templars had the Divine Rite of Domination over Mages I had it. He would never know peace with me.

Now, I can hold that for a while but with Veilguard's release and some freedom from the Mages vs Templar storyline it gave me a new sentiment on bioware companions I hated. I can write him better in Inquisition and even DA2 so that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to rewrite Cullen Rutherford to make him what the writers wanted him to be, a Redeemed Man.

The Rewrite starts in Act 3 of Dragon Age 2. After the Qunari attack and the Hawke Sibling making waves in the circle (either Carver as a Templar or Bethany as an enchanter) Cullen starts to openly doubt Meredith. Ever since Hawke has become Champion Meredith has been talking about them behind closed doors to varying degrees. If Templars have been supported then Meredith believes Hawke is trying to take her place as the Power in Kirkwall and if Mages have been supported she believes Hawke is trying to undermine her Authority.

All this worries Cullen and he warns Hawke to be careful around the Knight Commander. In ambient dialogue he worries about the Champions Sibling and talks about keeping an eye on them and Meredith still threatens them to get Hawke's cooperation.

The Key Change I make is when Anders Blows up the Chantry and the options are being presented when Sebastian says "Why are we debating the Rite of annulment when the monster who did this is right here" Cullen chimes in and agrees. He says the Mage is a Grey Warden from Ferelden and that the Circle mages have nothing to do with his actions. We don't see Cullen again until the Orsino fight. If you're defending Orsino Cullen joins you. He talks about how Templar duties are to protect mages first and foremost and he forgot that after his trauma in Ferelden. Even after Orsino turns he says that without the First Enchanter the rest of the mages need more protection. If you choose Meredith Cullen gives you an out at the Orsino fight because he sees how he used to be in Meredith and that he knows now that he was wrong and Mages must be protected. He won't fight Hawke and rejoins to Fight Meredith. It's no longer a last second change of heart but a gradual turn that shows self reflection and growth in Cullen.

Inquisition

In the days of the Inquisition Cullen is the most different. We swap him with Josephine when it comes to choosing Mages or Templars. Josephine, as diplomat, says that allying with the Templars gives the Inquisition public support. Cullen however suggests pursuing an alliance with the Rebel mages. He knows that there are mages who do not want the world to end and no one knows more about dangerous magic than Mages themselves. He doesn't have approval as an advisor but he is thankful that Mages can be saved and empowered to deal with the Breach. When asked about the Templar order he harkins back to how he felt about them as a boy when he was begging to be trained. Templars were supposed to be the protectors against dangerous magic but along the way they became the tyrants they were supposed to be protecting against.

This also jumps into Varric's unreliable narrator gimmick. If you've asked Varric about Orsino and gotten his disapproval, Cullen will have a dialogue where he admits that he helped Orsino escape after Meredith became petrified. There was no fight against Orsino, Cullen protected him from any blowback from Anders' actions and to prevent an Exalted March on Kirkwall in case the Divine thought Meredith had been slain and Mages ran the circle.

Choosing the Mages also brings about Samson's story. It's along the same lines, he picks up the pieces of the Templars, but Cullen takes a more active role. before the Shrine of Dumat mission. Cullen talks about Templars lyrium addiction and how that is what Samson is dealing with and why he is working with Corypheus. Cullen has already gone through his battle with the addiction and come out the other side because the Lyrium is how they kept Templars ready to fight and abuse mages by clouding their mind. His clarity and shock was what allowed him to have a change of heart.

A smaller caveat is that Fiona seems impressed with Cullen. She remarks that she was surprised to see a Kirkwall Templar on the side of mages, having received mages who escaped from the gallows and hearing the horror stories they told.

You can also ask Leliana why Cullen was chosen for the Inquisition after what happened in Kirkwall. Leliana commends his toughness and growth. She comments on seeing him at his worst in Ferelden and he was instrumental in keeping mages alive in Kirkwall after the Chantry explosion, both protecting them form mobs and the occasional abomination that sprouted up in Kirkwall. They needed someone who could speak with experience on both sides of the issue and Cullen was going to appeal to the conclave before the explosion.

Choosing the Templars makes Cullen feel a little disappointed in the order and what it's become. He sees the hatred of magic in many of them and takes care to station the ones he clocks as dangerous away from the mages who have joined the Inquisition.

Vivienne remarks that Cullen swooped out of nowhere to protect her from one such Templar when you reach Skyhold because the offending knight thought she was to arrogant for her station. and that men like him do the armor of a templar Justice.

In either choice, Cullen's change is clear. Mages are not the threat he imagined them to be after Uldred. They are people and deserve safety and protection from the world and from the dangers of magic.

When Cassandra discovers the rite of tranquility can be reversed, Cullen talks with her on how the process can be moved forward safely and he has candidates in mind from the mages Meredith made tranquil over the years in Kirkwall as punishments.

Depending on your Divine Choice, Cullen either has a formal job. If Leliana is chosen and she abolishes Circles, Cullen works with the College of Bright hand on methods to safely research magic and educate the population on magic to dampen the fear of mages stoked by the Chantry in the past.

if Cassandra or Vivienne are chosen, Cullen is named Knight Vigilant of the new Templar order working directly with Divine Victoria on changes to the new Circle of Magi so more through measures can be taken to prevent abuses of both mage and Templar in the institution.

Either way Cullen at the end of Inquisition is a man that is a complete 180 from the Mage hating authoritarian he is in Dragon Age 2 and does more than lip service to say that he's become a better man. He's done the work and his actions display his changed attitude, not his own words.

Oh and he's not voiced by fucking Greg Ellis either. Fuck that guy.

[kbirbpods]

better late than never: my 2024 podfic stats round up!

things have been hectic with VTMB 2024, going back to work, and Poly*PodWeek starting up but I finally garnered the energy/attention to create my graphics! 2022 roundup | 2023 roundup

each mic = 5 podfics

One change I've already made on my 2025 spreadsheet is tracking better when I record lines for a multivoice! In 2024, if my lines weren't significant, I didn't track it. Which meant I had to search through my spreadsheet and compare it to my multivoice pseud to determine numbers & they may be a little off. This year, I am including it all!

Looking at the numbers... I podded the MOST in January [12 hours, 35 minutes, & 47 seconds]. I podded the LEAST in February [44 minutes, 35 seconds].

These trend a little bit more expected than last year's did! I definitely burnt out in February and then March/April are very busy months for me. But May is, as well, it's just that Voiceteam has me going nuts despite that. June we moved, so I didn't do much, and then July/August I'm off for break! When December rolls back around, I'm making a lot more for ITPE & VTMB.

Here are some of my "top 5" stats:

The first image shows Star Wars, DC, & Danny Phantom for my top podded fandoms but this is the further breakdown. As you can see, of my 96 Star Wars podfics, 60 were Clone Wars. Of my 93 DC podfics, 38 were DPxDC and 30 were Batman/Batfam.

@wanderingjedihistorian is once again my most podded author! Last year she tied with @blackkatmagic but blackkat fell to 4th this year. (I have already podded 8 blackkat fics in 2025, though, so I expect that to change!) @flowerparrish was 2nd this year and I was actually 3rd. I wrote a lot more this year and Perry & I collaborated to pod a lot of those. My 5th place was @theredshirtsarecoming, who is my favorite crossover author so I was surprised she wasn't higher than that!

I podded the most Teen & Up fics with General Audiences in close second. This makes sense because I by far podded the most genfic this year, as opposed to shipping fics. My M/M stat made me laugh, as I am immature. I podded 2 "other" fics, also!

I made the most fics without music but managed to use Taylor in a whopping 37 fics. My most podded for event was Voiceteam (hence the SPIKE) in May but Summer Swap (July/August) was in close second. Some of the Voiceteam fics were birthday gifts (and vice versa).

Some miscellaneous stats:

I podded 118 unique authors, with 81 of them being only podded once! I podded 55 unique fandoms, with 36 of them being only podded once. Now, in there, this does include the misc. crossovers that are tracked in the previous graphic. I used 73 different musical artists/bands - this includes "no music" and "soundtrack" - with 52 of them only being used once.

& the final graphic, which was the hardest to make. Originally I went with 20 but then I just was struggling too much so... My 25 favorite cover arts that I made for my own podfics only:

Now, this is already long, but I've always provided a little insight into my tracking. So, below the cut are screenshots from my spreadsheet!

Before that though, last but not least, my 2025 fandom resolutions: ★ Podfic more multichapter fics (I let my fear of updating stop me) ★ Podfic more of @wanderingjedihistorian's Here There Be Dragons ★ Podfic more Soft Wars ★ Keep writing! I wrote so much in 2024 and I don't want to lose that ★ Get back to the WWT games in the Haunting Heroes discord ★ Worry less about kudos/comments for series I love (create anyway)

SHEET 1: The years broken down (including what I've already done in 2025)

SHEET 2: Where I actually track the podfics!

The totals by month are tabulated on this sheet for ease of layout.

This is the order the columns go in. I don't track word count on this sheet (though I typically do for event planning and such). I also color code using conditional formatting for various events / podfic length but it would be hard to show that lol

SHEET 3: Where the data for the statistics is pulled!

Basically, any time one of those is mentioned, it adds up here. Fics under multiple categories will add a number to each listed category, which is why it doesn't align perfectly with number of fics made!

Every time I track a new event, it also tabulates here. That's why I don't double track events -- I can't say for certain at the beginning of the year what I'll do, so I prefer for it to add them as I go. But, I am considering changing it up and manually adding them so I can instead track for things like "I made this for Voiceteam but also for a birthday present." Unsure yet.

Authors, fandoms, and music tabulate the same way. I add them to my tracker, the table adds a new row and begins to count how many times I use them.

An additional set of tables on this sheet break down the internal fandoms for Star Wars & DC:

Some big changes from 2023 to 2024:

Started tracking music

Started tracking events

Stopped making graphs (I track too much information now and they take up too much room)

Started tables for the above SW & DC breakdowns

Started uploading to the Audiofic Archive (and became an archiver there, as well!)

NOW, some changes I've made in 2025 already, since I'm posting this so late.

I'm now tracking the exact work I put into a fic, which will help with multivoice tracking at the end of the year! It also will help with more accurate fandom & author tracking, as before if my part in a multivoice was too small, I just didn't track it. I also broke Star Wars & DC down more, since I typically pod very specific DC crossovers and wanted to track how many times I crossover my Big Two Fandoms.

And there you have it! A little late but that's okay. Not tracked includes at least one podfic I recorded but never edited (in 2024 or 2025). I don't track individual chapters for fandom/author/music stats. I don't track based on when I post, I tracked based on when it was recorded!

Have a great year! Here's to creating more and more.

[litnerd]

Study update - semester break (feb/march 2025)

Hey ho y'all. I haven't updated in a while so here's what's been going on:

- somehow survived all my exams. Got a 2.7, a 1.3 and a 1.7 in German and a 4.0 (pass) in the only English literature course I was taking (more about that later lol)

- I passed my German sign language exam

- I'm now taking an online Korean course and it's still a lot of fun learning Korean. I will probably do the higher level one too once I've finished this one.

So, let's continue with what my next university semester shall look like once the break ends in April. These are my courses (after page break) :

- German main lecture

- German linguistics 1.2 (seminar)

- German Mediävistik (medieval German) (seminar)

- medieval German lecture

- German literature (seminar)

- German sign language 2 (lecture)

- German sign language 2 (seminar)

- Medieval English (basically swapped modules to take this instead of semantics and pragmatics, which was the course I dropped out of last year. A man gotta admit his defeat...)

- Medieval English (lecture)

- British Cultural studies (lecture)

As you can see there are quite a few lectures awaiting me next semester... and my attitude towards lectures has never been good. I tend to just. Not go.

Remember how I wanted to talk about my 4.0 in my English literature exam, which was an insane close call? Yeah. I went to 2 lectures and paid attention to...like...half of ONE of the lectures. I studied day and night for 2 weeks straight to somehow squeeze all the information in my head and SOMEHOW I managed to pass even though I hadn't read any of the books we were supposed to read. In German we call this Bulimielernen aka you stuff yourself with information to puke them out during the exam and forget about them immediately once the exam is done. It's always been my problem that I do this. I'm the king of procrastination and it tends to somehow work out for me (I'm very good at memorizing things, have always been great at vocabulary tests for example) but this time it was extremely, extremely uncomfortable and nerve wracking. I don't want to repeat these two weeks ever again in my life. Never. I also feel like this way of consuming information is slowly but surely ruining my ability to remember anything at all. Might also be adhd but I have serious concentration issues.

So with this disclaimer. Here comes my plan for next semester (and the preperation before the semester)

Preperation:

- go through all the old sign language slides to refresh my knowledge before the course starts

- fix my sleep schedule. YES I AM STILL AT IT but I know I can do it. I've done it before.

Semester:

- read all the books for cultural studies immediately

- go to all the lectures (or at least!! to medieval English, medieval German and British Cultural studies!)

- do homework

- prepare for seminars (it makes it so much easier, I noticed that during my German literature seminar last semester and I'm doing the same thing for Korean atm cause attending the lessons would be way too stressful if I didn't do it)

- do sign language exercises regularly

- start preparing for exams at least 3 weeks prior (this plus going to the lectures is kind of the most important point. 3 weeks isn't that long but for me personally it's the max time I've ever spend in preperation for any exam (my A-levels) so it has to suffice for now.)

So. Yup. There we are. Idk when you'll get the next update but this is it for now. See you!

[jensownzoo]

Some of the flowers are up! Lemon bergamot and calendula here, but borage too. Technically you aren't supposed to start borage for transplant, but I've had abysmal luck with direct sowing any seed where I want to put it. Because of my ecosystem, I say with gritted teeth. The pillbugs and mice and whatever else eat the seed in situ while the ants carry it off, hoisting it up on their shoulders as if returning from a successful hunt. So things I want in the single in-ground bed have to be transplanted in. I just make sure the plants that don't like it are started in pots that I can basically tear off to minimize root disturbance. I will be starting corn and sunflowers like this next week--my ecosystem finds those seeds entirely too tasty to even direct sow in the raised beds.

Lettuce is going bonkers in the cold frame. I'm either going to have to harvest some of it as baby lettuce or transplant at least half of the plants so I can get good heads. I'll probably transplant it, but only if I can get my squirrel-protected beds finished this week (I'm making progress!).

I did go ahead and transplant out half of the bok choy and Chinese broccoli, taking six of each and putting them in a different earthbox protected with hoops and frost blanket. Here are the ones I started inside and already transplanted into a raised bed:

They're doing amazing. I did lose two broccoli and some nibbles off some bok choy to a mouse, but a dusting of cayenne pepper worked as a deterrent and I haven't had issues since. I did scatter some dill seed in the empty spots. With all these different growing conditions, I think I will have a nice three weeks of harvest of these two crops.

Little hard to see, but that is a plethora of carrot seedlings towards the top and a row of beet seedlings towards the bottom. This is the 6 foot row in the raised bed using fresh carrot seed I got from the library seed swap. The 8 foot row of old carrot seed I sowed in the ground bed had a massive swarm of pillbugs on it when I pulled up the board to check for germination. I just left the row cover off for the birds to feast and then tossed some old parsley seed down. We'll see if any survives.

Transplanted fava beans are doing well. I ended up with eight plants for a 3 foot bed, so did two rows of four.

Peas are up! It appears most of them germinated so I'll have some lovely pea sprouts for salad when it comes time to thin them. I added a little fine mulch and will add a bit more as they grow to help the diy olla with some moisture retention in these containers.

Really need to get those squirrel-proofed beds finished as the fennel is ready for transplant. I got the hardware cloth up on the back, sides, and top (of a 2.5'x30' raised bed) this week despite the strong winds we keep having this March. Now I just need to build the access doors for the front. I don't think I have enough hinges on hand, so some of them might have to be lift-into-place access panels held in place with a twisting bit of wood. Old school but it will work for squirrels.

Put the sweet potatoes in a plastic tote with damp potting soil to encourage them to sprout. Twinkle Toes the cat supervised. I don't have the lid, so a loose draping of plastic wrap on top will keep the humidity elevated and this set-up will go on a shelf in the bathroom where it's warm and sunny. Crossing my fingers this doesn't take much more than a month to give me time to root some slips by mid-May. I mean, these weren't bad given that the plants went into the ground at the end of July, but that's mostly because the weather was warm (and thus they were still growing) through mid-November last year.

In addition to all of this, I also potted up my eggplant seedlings, genovese basil, and Blue Berries tomato seedlings. Many of the other tomatoes will have to be done this next week, at least the ones where I want to keep all the seedlings that germinated instead of just thinning them.

My wonderous neighbor gave me about 20 gallons of a compost/garden soil blend that he had leftover after filling all his containers and raised bed. The compost part was great but the garden soil part was pretty heavy on the clay so I mixed it up with all of the coir/peat-heavy spent potting soil that I had collected. It ended up about half-and-half and I used it to top off all of my own containers as well as fill two "new" railing planters that I had scavenged from the alley during people's fall garden cleanup. It was really nice of him to think of me so I gave him a dozen of my hen's eggs in thanks.

[nacricissa]

WIP Intro formatted like @sleepyowlwrites told me

TITLE: A Soul In Parts GENRE: Dystopian mid-future sci-fi SETTING: Montreal, Old Quebec, in the year 2116. TROPES (THEMES): Scrappy band of normal people vs Evil Corporation. The depravity of humanity when someone tells them its OK. Seeking out a life worth living. STORY: My name is Rheanne and I do not legally exist. If Montreal had a steady supply of power, I wouldn't exist at all; the Soul Fracture machines that nearly kill you until all of you has splintered and gone would have destroyed me. Instead those of us who were in them at the time of the brownout have had fractures of our souls mixed up between all of our different bodies. A small piece of me is now in a custom clone of Marylin Monroe, alongside the body's original soul, and the son of the man who sold his own son to buy her. The man who is in a Soul Fracture machine of his own, nearly dying so that a part of his soul can join us in here, and make this body legally an extension of him. We intend to make him regret that.

THE CHARACTERS:

Rheanne (She/Her) POV character. She was the soul born in Christie’s manufactured body. She's now split between her original body and Mary's, but communication only goes one way.

Chrysanthemum/ Christie (She/Her). Desperate to transition and escape her life in general, she sold her pre-transition body to the company to be able to afford a new one.

Mary (She/it). The original soul in the body Rheanne currently inhabits, Mary was raised from birth to be supplanted by a client of the company. As a direct clone of Marylin Monroe, she was raised from birth, as opposed to being built full-grown like Rheanne’s original body.

Adyr (He/Him). A third soul in Mary’s body, Adyr was traded to the company by his father for Mary’s body.

Roger (He/Him). The customer who purchased Christie’s pretransition body. Fragments of Christie’s and Mary’s souls are also present in the body, and they beg him not to demand the refund he initially wants.

John (He/Him) Adyr’s father. He is vile. He’s bought Mary’s body because if you put your own consciousness in someone else’s body, you can now consent on that body’s behalf, in the eyes of the law.

HOW DOES THIS WHOLE CLONE SOUL FRACTURE THING WORK

When you have a near death experience, there is a significant risk part of your soul fractures off and dissipates. If two people have a near death experience nearby to each other, they may swap a little bit of their souls. If one person nearly dies over and over again, their soul will have dissipated enough that they can act as a receptacle for a new soul, if someone has a near-death experience near them.

All soul fragments are conscious of the body they are currently in, and may be able to control it. I'm going to rely a decent chunk on the experience of people with DID to develop the mechanics for many souls in one body. A soul in its original body can also experience and control to some extent any body in which another fragment of that same soul resides.

Deux Tois inc, the company that created Rheanne and Mary's bodies manufactures (and illegally buys) bodies to be emptied of souls, so that clients can put a fragment of their soul in this otherwise empty receptacle. With no other soul to compete with them, the client's soul will have reasonably total control over their second body, allowing them to be in two places at once. On this basis, a second body you've purchased is legally you, and you can use it to get things done on your behalf.

STATUS CHECK: I've only recently inherited this idea, and so have nothing written down outside the tag on my tumblr yet. I hope to get my plot diagram done by the end of March, and then get to writing.

[dominateeye]

I see a lot of people talk this way (even now, months after the post in the screenshot was written, but swapping out Biden for Harris). And I know there's not some magical way of putting it that will shake liberals out of the inevitability thinking that's been drilled into them since birth and nothing big enough happened early enough in their lives to disprove. But I have just had a thought.

When death is behind you, and the options in front of you are all impossible, the worst choice you can make is to turn on your heels and whistle while you march into death. Not just from an ethical perspective, but from a logical one. If you embrace the thing you're trying to avoid, you have a 0% chance of avoiding it.

Any of those impossible options have a better chance of success. Even if only temporary, taking a path forward that can't work out gives you more time to avoid being part of something monstrous. And there may be opportunities to switch to another of those impossible paths later on when the one you're on goes no further.

But there's one other thing about trying something impossible. The more people do it, the more of a chance it has of succeeding. A third party candidate has never won the Presidency? Sure, not up till now. And even if they don't win this year, that's more people who have had conversations about why that's never happened, what other options they have, what those candidates believe, and why exactly the people who never consider their other options haven't done that before. What about the current world has changed from the past one. How it can change further. How they can be part of it. When you get more people thinking about what else can be done, you get at least a few more people willing to do something different. You make the impossible a little bit less so.

When death is behind you, and all options in front are impossible, the best choice is to make one of those options possible. Even if you fail, you will have succeeded at avoiding death a little bit longer. And the next person who has to make that choice may find one impossible option a little more possible than you did.

The option I've chosen is to elect Jill Stein President. If you join me, it'll be a little more possible.

[kingthreshie-official]

Now that I've had some time to sit with the epilogue story after a bit of going back and rereading it, I don't know if I should be excited for the future of these stories or not. I'm going to put my rant and contexts under a readmore because this is going to be me vomiting at a textbox and assuming someone else on the web will get it. But it's going to be a mix of thunder Junction and the epilogue.

When it comes to Magic the Gathering, I go back and forth with myself often about whether the story comes first or the cards come first. Some sets, Like (I will argue) Both Eldraine sets, Seem to have a lot more focus on their stories, and then make very flavorful cards based off of that. Other sets, like thunder junction, feel like the gimmick and cards were designed first, and then all of that had to be pasted into a story. While I get that it can be hard to make gameplay and story always line up, as you have to tow a line between a player always being confused, and a player feeling railroaded or obligated to stick to the story, Wizards never really has to deal with the stakes of "railroading too hard".Decks are always 100% customizable, you can't take that agency from a bunch of jerkasses at a table, so they have the ability to lean harder into their story than a lot of other games media does. The Writing decisions made by the stories team have the potential to completely adjust what cards get made if wotc was bold enough to follow through with actual adjustments to their world. But OTJ proves that that will never happen, and that any exciting consequence can be stepped back on in 2 stories for one card that will probably make a lot of bank, or to see a villain in a cool hat.

To be fair, Marchesa looks really cool as a cowpoke. her hat is very cool. But justifying going back on her fighting so hard for her kingdom just for a supposed villains set feels like a regression of her character, especially since she has almost always had someone else do her bidding. And a lot of the Villains seen in thunder junction didn't seem to be used or changed for the better, a lot of them felt like set pieces that could have been swapped out with anyone else in that story, and the results would have been similar. I can't think of any significant reason what it *Had* to be Tinybones, Breeches, or Eriette. The only characters that stand out to me as being irreplaceable in the main story are Oko (driving plot forward for Kellan), Geralf/ Gisa (Geralf patched one or two wounds, Gisa is a wild card that causes problems, but she is OH so Memorable I cannot imagine that train scene without her) and Annie Flash (Again, Kellans Concious/Catalyst to make sure the "right thing" for Kellan is done, and provides some context as to How and why Akul is dangerous.). And to be fair, I didn't mind that up until the final chapter. It was fun enough, not a world shaking MTG story but considering we're still at the beginning stages of seeing a world with Omenpaths (as players. This is set 3? 4?) And there's still a lot of questions to ask about creatures and planes (the Gisa and Geralf side story goes into this so well. I love those 2 they are ICONIC), It did its job OK and I wouldn't have had anything to write home about.

Until Jace.

I will admit, I'm not a huge fan of Jace, but it's mostly because he's boring. You know that once he's involved in plot the stakes are basically off, as regardless of how perilous the situation is, or how heinous of an action he performs, He's going to make it out with a few cuts/bruises/maybe a memory wipe and everything else will basically go back to a degree of status quo. It's not fun following a character who you know is going to be mostly fine and alive by sheer virtue of him being there. And I get its because over time he has become *the* mtg Mascot, but that's why I thought Phyrexia/March of the machines was interesting. It was finally a consequence for Jace that he couldn't fully shake himself out of, and his presumed death felt like the end of an Era and a potential for something new and interesting. You know, until he showed back up. And the story shows him getting out of what should have been certain death with a fever and another road trip back to Vryn. And I realized that I have been Punkd for the past few stories and of course nothing changes anymore its Jace Fucking Beleren and he's going to win again. And of course it's with Vraska again, If they make me go through the crime of having to listen to those two in an audiobook format again, at least this time I know not to order from drive through while listening to MTG story (so one of us has consequences, and it's not him). Being able to beat out glistening oil with a fever also felt cheap, but that may just be because I feel like there's better MTG characters that we lost due to the oil.The fact that we may never get them back feels like a kick to the shins.

However, I am also not totally doom and Gloom about Jace's reappearance in MTG story because we see a bit of the return of "Jerkass Jace". Contrary to my opinions about Jace, Jerkass Jace is a relic of a bygone Era and I Missed him so much, because he was unbearable! A total monster! An absolute pain to everyone around him! Unlikeable, Clever, and selfish! Cared about nobody! Jerkass Jace was so ethically bankrupt that I am going to be honest he may have the potential to turn this entire thing around. The BBEG MTG villains (Phyrexia, Eldrazi, the Dragon formerly known as Nicol Bolas), have been the predictable and therefore kind of dull villains for the longest time now. You can usually predict which one is next by the results of the previous ones fights. But Wizards could make Jace the big bad evil guy with Jerkass Jace! I think that would be incredibly refreshing. Get a new face in the Villains spotlight with a character who's powers have the potential for it (and as Annie mentioned, he is hiding something) and it could be really interesting! Jace has the motives! It could be a great way to bring intrigue to him! (And not the eldrazi. Or bolas using an omenpath and dipping off Ugins plane) Nobody will see it coming let him go NUTS!

[discountdps]

So one fun thing I did to keep myself from giving up on this stupid mount was keep a spreadsheet of all 2000+ duties I've had to do. Mostly I wanted a way to kind of list EVERYTHING that I got, as well as what type of duty, what role I was playing when I did it, whether the party succeeded or failed, and just notes in general if it was a good or disastrous run.

What I did NOT include was the time of day I did the duties and, unfortunately, what Data Center all these duties took place on. Because when I started, DC travel wasn't a thing. I will say it's probably 80% on Crystal DC, with the rest being on Dynamis. Basically, this is kind of a long-winded way to say that the data isn't actually indicative of anything statistical, and is just anecdotal!

Some navel gazing under the cut.

I started on March 20, 2022 and finished on September 22, 2023, amounting to a total of 551 days. That's an average of about 3.7 duties done a day.

When I first started, Guildhests were absolutely the king of mentor roulette content. The most common Guildhest was Under the Armor for a whopping 153 times. I definitely grew to love/hate Bockman! On the one hand, the duty is quick, so I can move on to other things. On the other, it's boring and I'd see him multiple times in a row if people were using it to farm for commendations.

Once I started going to Dynamis, Dungeons started to creep up and eventually overtake Guildhests as the duty type I was most likely to get. Part of the reason why I started going to Dynamis was to avoid the Extremes. Not that I don't love to do them, but when you're staring down at 2000 duties that you need to complete, Extremes are, in all honesty, a trap. Most of those 30 failed duties were extremes, and most of those were because we ran out of time. So spending 60 minutes to fail and not even have it count towards anything? Definitely stings.

Unsurprisingly, Extremes were the bulk of the failed duties. The most commonly failed one? Ramuh. This one is really tough to explain to sprout tanks on what their responsibilities are and how to tank swap. The chances of this duty succeeding really depended on having non-sprouts in the tank role.

Continuing to speak of Extremes, I was much more likely to get one on the weekend. I'd guess it's because people are much more willing to sit for hours in queue over the weekend rather than during the week. Monday was the day I was least likely to run an Extreme. Other than a single time (mom cut herself and couldn't get the bleeding to stop), I never once left a duty that I queued into.

Overall, I'd definitely say I had a lot of fun doing these. There were some real stinkers I had to put up with, either trolls that were intentionally failing mechanics to cause wipes or people just refusing to press their buttons. But there were some really great moments, too. Like the Hades Extreme that we very nearly cleared in a single lockout, despite me being the only person who had done the fight before. I'll probably keep doing a single Mentor roulette daily, but I think my days of spamming it over and over are done with now that big horse is mine.

IT IS DONE.

[spinoff-antithesis]

[@distinguished-turtle-enjoyer ]

i actually have not stopped thinkin bout your bb!edit like,,,, its so good and scratches my brain right

how long have you been doin edits for? do have any tips for someone, who hypothetically, wants to start doin edits too? what programs do you use? how did you do the cool animated bits?

im so sorry for all the qustions 😭😭 i just think youre very talented and inspirational and i hope you have a good day ^_^

hi firstly oh my gosh you're literally so sweet i am gently shaking you i love you so much /p. secondly, i apologize for the long answer! (it's all under the cut. this got away from me. i'm so sorry apparently i have a lot to say.) (also you're so good about the questions i would constantly be asking one of my professors questions during class to the point where she said i didn't have to go "i have a question" every time i approached her)

i've been editing since 2016! around march/april, i think? loved it so much i went into film & video production in college as a major so i could do editing for a living. (i have done more motion graphics for my classmates than i have done edits outside of class assignments, BUT!)

the program i use is after effects - i started learning it when covid first hit the united states because i had nothing better to do with my time (other than music theory but i failed that bc my professor focused more on the history aspects than the actual theory soooo) and my ipad kept giving me the "no more storage" whenever i tried to use videostar lmao. (vs has, apparently, gotten a LOT of good updates, so if you're looking to start editing and have an ios system, i'd look into it! only downside is you have to pay for some of the cool stuff).

also the program i use for masking (i think i explain this later dwdw) is superimpose. i've been using it since 2014 and it's SO nice bc i can use my fingers to erase backgrounds & stuff instead of hoping i can get it to work correctly in ae or photoshop (photoshop my DETESTED i'll use it but i'll complain the entire time).

for people who want to start editing: tutorials on how your program works and how to do specific transitions are gonna be your best friend when you're first figuring things out! i forced a friend to literally walk me through how after effects worked when i was first figuring it out, and when i had swapped to videostar back in 2017/2018(?) i had watched a Lot of tutorials. that and played around a lot and figured things out on my own - which is also always a good way to start!! it's also totally valid to look at other people's edits for inspiration - most editors don't really care, as long as you don't flat-out remake their edit (some people don't like that!). i have a style insp folder on instagram where i save edits that i like so if i need transition ideas or i'm doing a different style, i can look there for inspiration. at the end of the day, as long as you're having fun with it that's all that matters!

also, starting simple is always okay!! my edits for a year were just me slapping gifs & video segments together on a timeline in cute cut pro bc imovie didn't load them lol & it'd crash every time i breathed. ++ it never hurts to ask people for feedback/constructive(!!!) criticism/etc! (also not to sound like everyone else but practice? good. it's so good. if i showed my 14/15y/o self some of the edits i can make now they would've passed out on the spot bc i was still trying to figure out transitions back then. programs can also sometimes make a difference in edits, but usually it's not super noticeable until you start getting to the Complicated Shit.)

a lot of popular programs i've seen are ones like video star (ios only), alight motion (android only), after effects (i recommend 🏴‍☠️ing it tbh, i only use it legally bc i had to use adobe programs for school), capcut, and i think some people still use sony vegas pro & maybe cute cut pro (i've heard it may have actually gotten better since i last used it in 2018)? i have no idea. programs also depend on whatever device you're using to edit on! since i've been using my laptop, i'm able to use after effects (it's computer-only), but when i used my phone/ipad to edit i used ccp & vs.

for the animation - it's a lot of cutting up the image and masking! more complex animations, like the one i had of leo walking down that red 'hallway' have several different layers that have been masked. (i removed the background & filled in the spot where leo originally was in two different apps - superimpose (taking leo out) & photoshop (filling in the bg)) in after effects, the way i've done this was mask out the specific thing i wanted to move (like an eye) and then put that mask on what i've called a "base" (not animated), and then stick a solid behind the base to match the color of the object. (some of my layers are not named appropriately; base 2 is the left arm & the four "SIX_[...]" layers are the mask/bandana tails)

an example of this would be for any of the eye blink animations i did! this (above) is the same shot, with and without the eye - since it's masked out and i have the background solid behind it, it doesn't look too unnatural/have a black outline/mass where his eye should be.

what it looks like without the solid layer behind it ^ (the red lines are from the null layers - ignore that)

this is what my timeline looks like if it's a more simplistic animation - the only five things being animated here are leo & raph's eyes. (there's only this many layers bc it's two characters in one shot & i was also animating their pupils - typically, an eye-blink animation is about 4-6 layers for me (solid, base, mask, & null to animate with, 6 if i'm animating both eyes & 4 if just one))

in after effects, there's this really cool tool called the puppet pin that one of my friends (lovingly) yelled at me for not knowing about - which. yeah fair she wasn't wrong it's SUPER useful in animating, provided you chop up your image first. if you don't it's a mess.

(separated by layer vs i should've really put the mask tails & leo's head on separate layers and didn't bc that was the 2nd to last animation i had to do and i was losing my mind bc i wanted to be done with the edit lmao)

the way people animate depends all on their style (there's two common ways to do blinking animation - having the anchor point at the bottom of the eye, or the middle of it) and the program they use. it's been a while, but i could probably tell you how to do some basic animations on videostar still even though i've been doing them in after effects for about 2-3years now. ALSO the best way to have an animation be noticeable is to over-exaggerate it/make them Big - which, yes, can mean 'breaking bones' and having the limbs be a little wonky at the start. (if you want it to be realistic though go Just to the point where it looks uncomfortable lmao)

uhm. again i am so sorry that this is so long i THINK this is everything? if not: my inbox/dms are always open if you ever want to ask more questions, wanna follow up on something, etc etc!! (also if you ever start editing please send me your edits!!! i'd love to see them <3)

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

"Family isn't always blood. It's the people you want in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to you smile & love you no matter what."

I know that Valentine's Day is a holiday that is kind of meant for boyfriend's and girlfriend's but I see it as just as a regualr day to remind my friends why I love them! My best friend in the entire world if you don't personally know me and we've talked before is @littlebatinthenight.

This might be a super weird collage of characters because of the fact that they are all his favorites! (I still look at my screenshots that I took when he was first getting into My Hero Academia of his opinion on Tsu. He would fight anybody for her and it's honestly hysterical. I am still trying to presude him to watch Fruits Basket but Haru is his main husbando from that show to which I can't blame him.)

I first met Bats through an anime group chat last March. At first we didn't really talk a whole lot until that chat got deleted. That's when we really found that as best friends we had a ton in common instead of just a handful of favorite shows (I wanted to put some FullMetal stuff but eventually swapped it out for a Haru).

I think that if I could define my best friend in one word it would be chill. He could be friends with just about anybody. I've introduced him to a lot of my other friends and they've become friends with him as well! That's just the kind of person that he is because he has so many interests that they span so he can talk about nothing and everything at the same time.

Bats is one of the few people that I can say who legit changed the way that I think and act. Without him I would probably still be face down in the ditch that is pining. See, I have a really bad experience with love as a whole. The one time I came close to having a relationship it blew up in my face and I was left pining after the object of my affections for two years running. It wasn't until Bats looked at that relationship and went "Huh that isn't right" and talked me out of a relationship with my ex-best friend.

Bats you're my best friend in the entire world. I love talking with you about everything and nothing at the same time. You're the bestthing that ever happened to me due to the fact that you have helped me out of a lot of bad things in my life. I don't think I've ever really taken the opportunity to properly thank you for everything that you have done for me or told you how much I appreciate you. I love you so much, you're the Yakko to my Dot and I will always appreciate you for everything that you have done for me.

[seatosomert]

WHAT TO SHOOT IN LOCKDOWN.

9TH MARCH 2021

If you’re a keen photographer it’s been hard to not feel frustrated with the Covid Lockdown situation the last year.

I have done the right thing throughout, sticking to the rules regardless of how much they swapped and changed and become more difficult to understand at times. Yet, despite doing the right thing, I’d be lying if I said I’d done this without feeling begrudged in some way.

Mainly, if I am honest, because I’ve seen so many people just flouting the rules and not giving a shit about everyone else.

Putting that aside, as I have no desire to just whinge my way through this post, the main reason that this situation has had such an impact upon me is because at heart I love adventure and the outdoors. I love street photography and I love spending time with and talking to interesting people.

All things that I took for granted until they were taken away from us.

Photography is headspace for me. When I’m focused on photography I’m not stressing about other shit. I don’t think about work and I don’t worry about stuff hardly.

It engages the creative part of my brain. Creation is opposite to destruction. This is how I feel about it anyway in respect of art. I love photography. It feeds my soul.

Yet a great challenge for me over the last year has been what to shoot during lockdown periods. No longer can I hop on the train from Leeds to London for the day to shoot street photography. Or take a weekend break with my wife in the Lakes. All the things that were for me, not just a trip away with my wonderful wife, but an opportunity to immerse myself into my chosen art.

I’ve had to find things to shoot and so I’ve got a few images that I’ve shot in recent weeks and months during lockdown periods. All have been within a mile of my home unless stated.

The razor wire fence gave me a feeling of a prison or border control in an Eastern European locality. It's actually some land that travellers kept occupying and an earth mound around it didn't quite cut it. So about a year ago or so, this ugly and oppressive looking fencing was erected to keep them off the land. However, seeing this things in a different light in your mind's eye, then producing that in an image in a way to look as I've described involved exploring different shoot angles and using some creative colour grading to change the mood. I've thrown in the beer barrels and the sunset just to cheer the set up ha ha.

These images were [shot at home] related to travel (and my desire to be doing just that). So I used some lighting and softboxes with a reflector to produce these images using a film simulation on the Fujifilm Camera I have.

In and amongst all this I coached my son with his GCSE photography projects he was set by his tutor. That kept an interest for me and allowed me to have some father and son bonding time also.

So what do I have planned for the next few weeks?

Well here in the UK we can travel further afield for exercise now. We had to stay in our local town or village prior to the 8th March. So I intend to get out for some hiking as soon as work commitments allow and I'll take a small camera with me and capture some images en route.

I'm planning on setting up some studio lights at home and shooting some stuff with my wife, possibly a themed shoot, we'll see.

I'm starting to move my business towards more Product photography, so I'll be shooting more of that too.

I'm also planning to shoot some flat lays.

They're all things that require fore planning and pre visualisation and so they'll engage my creative brain greatly.

I'm going to get some of my best work printer also in large print.

Why? Because to truly shine as a great image, high quality prints are unbeatable for showcasing your work in my opinion.

So just a few ideas around what I've done during lockdown and what I am planning as we move forwards.

Any questions you have, just comment below or message me directly.

Have a great evening and see you all in the next blog, soon.

Kind regards.

Neil.