#good question!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

What is the likelihood of there once being a giant sea serpent? As well as the likelihood of them existing without our knowledge?

If you’re willing to be loose on the term “giant sea serpent”, technically they have once existed! Titanoboa was a giant, 13-meter long snake that lived during the Paleocene, and it is thought to have inhabited coastal swamps where it would have spent most of its time in the water. Its skull structure indicates a piscivorous diet, so it was a watery snake indeed! Not quite a sea serpent, but a giant amphibious snake nevertheless. It is also likely that the stories of sea serpents were really about animals such as whales or the oarfish, a long deep sea fish, which actually fits the bill rather nicely! Plus there’s still marine snakes that exist to this day.

The likelihood of a giant sea serpent existing in the modern day, though.. I would have to say very very very low to impossible. If we’re being literal on the term “sea serpent”, as in a giant marine snake, we would have discovered one by now, as such an animal would have to live in shallower depths or at least occasionally bask in the sun to warm itself up and take a breath of oxygen. Even if this giant sea serpent wasn’t actually a reptile but something else, it’s just rather hard to hide when you’re a big animal — even animals we have rarely spotted have evidence of them elsewhere, take for example the scars of the sperm whale that the giant squid causes! Not to mention we’d have to have found their teeth, bones, carcasses or their prey’s carcasses with distinct sea serpent-y attack signs washed ashore by now! So, no, there’s always the tiniest chance but I’m afraid that sea serpents are a creature of legends only!

[ao3-shenanigans]

I’ve noticed - is this completely niche or is it like a phenomenon for cis straight women, when they are writing a straight romance, to prefer to write in the pov of the dude instead of the girl??

Honestly I dunno, I don’t read a lot of romance generally

Let’s see

[eightyuh]

Is Glen worried about his *ahem* love life, as one of the veterans implied?

"No Harry, I was just defending my kingdom alongside her..."

[queerliblib]

Are you looking for volunteers?

-a librarian with no DRM experience but a decade in the profession

Hello! We are accepting volunteer interest forms - you can find them if you scroll down a bit on our website's home page. We likely won't be calling on those volunteers until after our fundraiser is finished, but please go ahead and fill it out! There are so many wonderfully talented people in our community, we're excited to work with more of you.

[silverskye13]

okok i've another question but not an in-universe one; were there any rules or patterns you followed when coming up with the appearances of the helsmets for RnS? :V or are they all moreso based on What Seemed Right for each individual character :0

Mostly just what seemed right, to be honest! A lot of it is based on what I'm trying to do with them as character themes.

Tanguish started out as more of a riff on Tango as a fire-related character. Then I decided Tango would be fire/redstone, ergo his double would be ice/sculk. That eventually kinda balooned into his personality. He's contained, isolated, secretive, sneaky. But he seeps into things. If you've ever had to deal with your road deteriorating over winter, because water keeps freezing in the cracks and breaking the asphalt apart, that's his vibe. You almost don't know he's there until he's cracked you open.

Helsknight has a canon design, but his 110% was just me designing something that looked cool. My first Wels/Hels designs had Wels as a Ottoman inspired knight, with a focus on short, blocky shapes. Meanwhile Helsknight was more of a pointy anglo-saxon knight style, with a lot of triangles and sharp lines. Eventually when RnS started to reform my ideas, I decided Wels was a more caricatured english knight, with a lot of modern crusader/paladin vibes, and focused on making Hels a dark mirror of that. Giving him sharp, unapproachable armor was a visualization of him being an angry, brooding character [which is why, as a lot of people have noted, he opens up a lot more when he starts taking the armor off. That's also why, when he's feeling vulnerable, his nervous ticks have to do with the buckles on his gloves, or the hilt of his sword. He's trying to decide if he's going to open up about something.]

Martyn and Red both have canon designs as well, technically, since they're the 3rd Life versions of their characters, just a little to the left. The crown the Red King has, which covers his eyes, is a direct reference to Ren's quote, "The blood is dripping into my eyes. I can't see. I've been blinded by the violence." He's been blinded by violence, and finds it hard to keep his humanity intact when the crown is off. It binds him to his purpose as The Red King -- protecting people. Martyn in my head looks almost exactly like his 3L red life skin, and that's purposeful. He wants to keep a low profile. He doesn't want his other half to know he's his own entity that exists.

EB's design has a lot to do with his past and not his present. [I feel like I keep alluding to him having a backstory,,,, we'll get there someday.] The way I've put EB and EX as characters in relation to Xisuma, is they represent different struggles he's had at different points in his life. EX was the hubris of being a server admin, the desire for limitless control. EB was the pride of success, and the white knuckle grip it required to keep it. He used to be a very prideful, and very dangerous, person. And stung pride [ha! bee jokes] can lead to some very angry outbursts. So he looks very waspish, long and thin, and sharp angled. The fact that he's an android is 110% just because I headcanon Xisuma is a robot. Sorry doomguy I've fallen in love with the AI headcanon.

The Demon is a take on ImpulseSV's character trait of sharing that turns into exploitation. One of his big collab points with other people is the fact that he makes farms, and in 3L there was an entire plot point around how he kept giving people things, and all of those people individually agreed because he kept giving everyone things, he was on nobody's side, so, you couldn't really betray him, could you? The Demon therefore is a character who is determined not to be used or exploited in any way. He hoards his wealth like a dragon, makes pacts and bargains that only benefit him, like a demon, and his eye is always watching for a knife in the dark [don't think too hard about Tanguish taking knife lessons]. The man has, to put it bluntly, trust issues. So his design echoes that idea of a monstrous person so busy armoring himself he's forgotten how to connect with people. Bright golden eyes, impenetrable scales, armor and tools disproportionately strong compared to what he should ever be expected to use them for. He's daring someone to betray him, so he can be justified in destroying them for it.

I'm trying to think of other characters that've popped up.

Evil Sausage [I think the fandom calls him Bratwurst??] is mostly just a parody of some of his appearances in Empires. I liked how linked he was to Xornoth, so I imagine the shadow that makes his elytra wings is what's left of his union with Xornoth the demon.

Hels!Watcher Grian is both a reference and a handwave at the fact that Grian is an instigator. It makes sense that a fear, or mirror, for that would be someone who refuses to interact with the world, or maybe wants to but physically can't. Eye themes abound.

[loud shrugging]

Yeah, that's it. It's whatever seems right for what the characters are doing.

[onejellyfishplease]

Oh, oh, oh! 🤚🤚🤚 I have a question!

What eye color do you headcannon Donnie to have?

I personally can't decide between the fannon favorite heterochromia, gold (for color pallette reasons), or the weird reddish color 2012 Donnie had

i definitely headcannon him to have the red/blue hetrochromia! i think you can see it in some of my art for Open Your Shell!

i also headcannon for Leo to have the same heterochromia, but switched! like theyre mirrors of each other!

[koshercosplay]

i saw a menorah in which the (non-shamash) candle holders looked like they ended at different heights, but the bottoms were all the same heights (with candles in, the candles were all level)

is this kosher? because on the one hand the candles are all the same height, but on the other hand it *looks* unkosher.

technically the form of the menorah itself isn't relevant, like you could glue some candles to the windowsill and that would also be fine. it's the lights themselves that need to be of even height, because otherwise, you don't see a menorah of lights.

so yes, that menorah is kosher!

[cinamun]

So cin, since we can have multiple families on one lot now would you move a family next hopes family?

OOOH!!! Friend! Okay so part of the reason I wanted a little story break was to see how this new pack might play into the story line. I think for Hope and her family, owning her own property and raising the babies is a top priority and I don't think they want to share their lot right now. Besides, their house takes up every inch of the lot!

Having said that, Mercy does live in a condo and there *COULD* be room for an additional unit..... I'll let y'all come to your own conclusions about that lmfao.

One to look out for is Dira. She's already said she's not interested in college, I'm sure she wants to move from her parents house and, if so, does that mean she'll be renting her first apartment? And who all over there?

Stay tuned friend!! I was thinking TFA wouldn't resume until after the turn of the year but I can't keep my hands off their save so you might see the story resume sooner!

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

In Overmorrow, what happened to Ephemer's Chirithy? Did it not survive the fall of Daybreak Town? Or are they just not on speaking terms for some reason? Is it because Ephemer's shenanigans back when he was a normal wielder gave it high blood pressure from the stress?

Honestly, this is one of the things I can’t quite figure out, even outside of Overmorrow. He’s never shown to have a Chirithy and it’s only briefly implied that he would have one here:

So because it’s so vague and wasn’t ever really written into canon, I tend to usually just not give him one, or I at least don’t make it relevant enough to bring up. But if I had to make a guess…since Chirithys are extensions of their wielders in a way, maybe his is dormant inside him. In Overmorrow, he admits he’s used to figuring things out on his own, so I’d say that his Chirithy would have sensed that early on and just tucked themself away as a part of him rather than staying as a physical aide at his side.

Or maybe you’re right and they truly aren’t on speaking terms because he kept disobeying them by snooping around and stuff 😅 we know how much of a worrywart Chirithys can be when given specific instructions to follow, only for their wielder to break the rules

tl;dr maybe Eph is such a rascal and is so bad at admitting when he needs guidance that even his own Chirithy doesn’t know how to manifest for him

[ghoulishfreak]

I've always been curious about having triggers installed. The idea of someone who could use it against you at any moment is so hot. Have you done it to a sub before? Does it really work? 🕷️

yes! i think it really depends on the sub, some take to it easier than others. it's all about wearing down any resistance. that's why obeying is such a big part of what my hypno posts, if a toy obeys without resistance then you can put anything in their head 💕

[allyooops]

TMI: Do you have a piece of clothing or accessory that makes you feel extra good about yourself? For example when you need to "feel better" then that is the thing you'll default into wearing?

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Sotha Sil: 99.9% of the people I know are stupid.

Vivec: I’m the 1%!

Sotha Sil: Are you? Are you really?

[amatorysacrivn]

whose heart is that in the icon? is it the mc's? is it the LI's?

it’s whatever love interest you’d like to interpret it to be! i’d like to imagine it’s jelly’s hand reaching for the heart

[eightyuh]

Does SP usually replenish or do you have a finite amount that you start with?

"Should your soul survive, it becomes Retired-- like mine. In this state, your max capacity for SP is greatly reduced. I can hardly do anything with it anymore."

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Talk shop Tuesday question coming at you (sorry if you've already been asked this before 👉👈🥺) : so, when you think of a fic plot, at what point do you think of the Pedro Boy/love interest to go along with it? Do you ever change that character as the idea develops?

Hi Rae!! Hope your Tuesday has been good to you! This is a great question, and one I haven't been asked, so thank you for sending it in!

It's actually sort of hard to say which comes first for me, the character of the plot. I think it usually starts with the character - I'll be sitting there daydreaming about a specific character, picking out details about them that stick out to me or things about their canon story that I wish I could change, and then I'll start thinking about ways to highlight those details or make those changes. With Point of No Return, for example, I was thinking about what Ezra's life before the Green could have been like, and who or what he was talking about when he said "no love too intimidating", and then I drove by an old farmhouse on my way home, et voila. The farm and the old flame came along due to the fact that I wanted to give those things to Ezra specifically.

OR I'll be listening to music or watching a movie/show or reading something that makes me think of a character, and I'll see where that leads me. Like with A Clumsy Romance. I was thinking about the Before Trilogy (because those movies are stamped on the inside of my brain and I wouldn't have it any other way) and - Before Sunrise, especially - just made me think of Nico because its this very ephemeral, romantic take on love.

In a way the love interest character, whether its a Reader insert or an OC, also comes rolled into the plot idea. I'll choose a profession or backstory or main character trait for them based on what I think would work best in terms of the story or in terms of who/what I think would work well with the chosen Pedro character. Many moons ago I wrote way more OC love interests than Reader inserts, but every now and then I still like dipping my toes back into the OC pool if I have a VERY clear and defined idea of who this character is. Like with Clara in PONR. I also have a very chaotic wip (I call it chaotic because the thing is currently in more pieces than an unassembled IKEA bookshelf) featuring an OC named Emma who will hopefully turn up sometime this year soon, and she is very much Emma in my mind, like she's a whole fully formed person in there.

RECENTLY HOWEVER! For the first time that I can remember! I started getting ideas for a new story, but the starring role is a toss up between 2 characters. I have the sort of overarching main idea (it's a monster story! a dark one!) but depending on who I decide to go with, it could kind of stray into a few different directions. So I feel like I have more musing to do with that one before it takes flight.

TLDR: I'm not in charge, really. The characters show up and say "This is what we're doing. Make it happen, bitch."

Thanks again for this!!

Talk Shop Tuesday

[silverskye13]

Are you ok with being directly tagged in any fanart of your fics?

Yes! I prefer it in fact.

When people don't tag me sometimes I worry about reblogging it. I don't like invading peoples' privacy, and I know sometimes folks get nervous about the creator of the thing they made their thing for seeing the thing they made for it [I'm also that person lol].

Generally if its tagged under the fanfic's title, or people @ me directly, I take it as my sign that I'm allowed to interact with it.