#how many sticky notes do i do per post

[strawberryforks]

sticky note // alex walter x reader

summary: alex is in love with jackie, you leave him a sticky note explaining how you’re feeling.

warnings: underage drinking, sadness

word count: 481

a/n: requests/asks are open & encouraged! my first ever post (scroll down) is a list of characters i will write for!

“she didn’t say it back… y/n why didn’t she say it back?”

“all good questions for tomorrow, alex.”

the back of his knees hit the bed and he fell. luckily you’d moved the blankets so you were able to pull them over him and tuck him in. a few moments later you come back into the room with water and advil. alex is asleep so you set everything on his nightstand and fill out a sticky note, ignoring the stinging in your eyes and pinning it to the glass.

katherine is downstairs, taking a step away from the wedding. she waves you over and you walk with a small smile that you have to fake. does she know her son’s drunk and pining for the girl they took in? her best friend’s daughter? probably not, but anything’s possible. maybe she knows he’ll have a hangover tomorrow, maybe she knows he beoke your heart. maybe—but you aren’t about to tell her. “everything’s so beautiful,” you gushed. flattery could bury anything. sadness, anxiety, guilt, lies. all things you were riddled with.

katherine nodded. she was beaming, a perfect smile aimed at you as she sung the praises of the newest addition to the walter household. “that was all jackie,” she credited. “she’s worked so hard.”

she had but still, your smile became more forced. jackie was sweet and really good at things (better than you were, unless we were talking about how many words you could write/read per minute or how many kills you could get on just about any fps game) but even though her smile was nice and she’d been through a lot, you couldn’t make yourself be anything but civil.

you couldn’t be her friend. not when you felt like she was toying with alex’s feelings. not when cole was involved and the paige situation was still so raw alex would talk to you about it and hadn’t forgiven his brother. “i don’t doubt it,” you said. “it was a beautiful ceremony. now,” you hug katherine. “i’ve got to head home before it gets too dark.”

“do you have a drive?”

“no, but it’s okay. i like to walk.” you assured her.

“alone? y/n it’s late. i’m not sure i like that… stay the night, please.”

you weren’t good at saying no. especially not to sweet parental figures who only want what’s best for you and that make the best food. “you can sleep on the couch… or… in alex’s room as long as there’s no funny business.” you laughed and raised a brow, ‘really?’ was your silent question and katherine just shook her head. “don’t tell george.” she amended. “i won’t.” you swore.

katherine piled blankets and pillows from the linen closet into your arms and patted your shoulder as you passed, heading back to Alex’s room. you made a pallet on the floor and fell asleep, completely forgetting about the sticky note you’d left him.

the one that said: “hey alex, hope the hangover isn’t too horrendous. i didn’t mind taking care of you last night because that’s what friends are for, but you said some things that upset me and i’m just going to need a little time.”

[diodellet]

💘dio's mini-valentine's day event!!!💘

Confessing your love is hard and spelling out your feelings is harder. Worry not, lovestruck reader, at least there are a myriad of other ways to show your affection!

Rules💌

I’ll be taking requests through my askbox. I’ll accept a maximum of 15 asks, please monitor this post’s notes to see how many slots are left.

You don’t need to be a follower to join, but at least be 17+

One request per person, I’d like everyone to have a fair chance to send something in. (Requests sent by mutuals will still be included in the case if I reach the maximum number of asks!)

Up to 3 characters can be included in a request, each drabble will be up to 200-300 words.

In terms of rating, I will default to Teen and Up Audiences. I won’t go full-on NSFW, but if the requester wants a bit of spice, I will only go up to Mature (in AO3 terms, references to the deed but not explicit depiction).

If requesters want, they can also specify the reader’s gender and pronouns in the ask++give some descriptors. Otherwise, I will default to gender-neutral readers and little to no descriptions of their physical characteristics.

(^^In relation to this rule, I won’t accept overly-detailed reader characters, OCs, or character name!reader i.e. Shimizu Kiyoko!Reader.)

Please be kind and patient, I’m not the fastest writer, but nobody appreciates being rushed++spammed to speed up on the requests.

With that out of the way, the fandom and prompt list can be found under the cut!

Fandoms💌

Obey Me (Demon brothers and the side characters, except for Luke) 

Genshin Impact (Everyone except characters who use the chibi model)

Twisted Wonderland (NRC students only, except Ortho and Grim)

Prompts💌

“It feels… good to be around you.”

Their thumb stroking the back of your knuckles.

Seeing them in your dreams, being too flustered to face them in real life.

“I’ll never be this happy again.” (x)

“...Why did I have to fall for someone like you?” “Hm? Did you say something?” “No—I didn’t say anything!”

“We can take it slowly. I’ve got you, alright?”

Opening their arms for a hug upon seeing how exhausted you are.

Sharing a room and doing different things in companionable silence.

“When I am with you I am real.” (x)

Talking with them for hours about anything and everything, not even feeling the time pass.

“Dude, you’re so red.”

Sharing playful banter and inside jokes, but everyone thinks you hate each other.

“If soulmates do exist, they’re not found, they’re made.” (x)

Spending five more minutes together in bed before getting up.

Ranting about how insufferable they are, but your friend thinks knows otherwise. (Bonus points if the subject of your conversation overhears Everything)

“Hey, I got you these.” “Oh, thanks! What’s the special occasion?”

Placing sticky notes with little messages on their belongings.

Making you laugh so hard your stomach hurts

“Is it weird that I already miss you?”

“They say we are asleep until we fall in love.” (x)

credits to: The Great Comet, 36 Questions, and The Good Place for the lyric/quote prompts

[msmargaretmurry]

per your request for asks and also that post about how writing porn is the devil (tru) would LOVE to hear about how you approach sex scenes from a ~craft~ perspective

thank u jess for another excuse to talk about WRITING ✨✨

so the first thing about writing sex scenes, imo, is that you have to embrace that sexiness, hotness, turn-ons, etc, are all personal. there is no universal sexy. the things that i think are hot in a sex scene might get neutral or negative responses from other people. and i don't just mean in a your-kink-is-not-my-kink way, i mean even little things like how kissing is described, the words used for body parts, pet names, dirty talk, etc. so the first rule of writing sex scenes is to free yourself from trying to cater to other people's tastes.

unless you're writing a gift for someone, lol. then you can think about their tastes, obviously. or like, in general, there's nothing wrong with being like ooooh my friends are gonna love this. but it's smut, for god's sake. free yourself and get horny* about it.

*a note on "get horny": maybe you are not a horny person. maybe you're ace, or find the horny part of the equation unrelatable for other reasons. in that case, free yourself and get creative. free yourself and let your characters get horny.

anyway. that being said. some thoughts on Crafting A Sex Scene.

the main complaint i tend to hear about sex scenes is that they feel generic, or predictable, or that (for sex scenes that are part of longer stories) they could be removed from the story and the story wouldn't lose anything. so as a writer i'm obviously like, okay, how do i make my sex scenes unique and engaging? there are only so many sex acts in the world, and and even smaller number that whatever set of idiots i'm writing about at a given moment would think of or be into. most sex scenes are going to be about the same handful of sex acts. we are all sisyphus pushing our horny boulders uphill trying to craft a good sex scene only to have to start from the bottom again the next time our characters want to fuck nasty. what is a poor writer to do?

well, the good news is that people have been finding the same handful of sex acts hot for like, several millennia now. this isn't to say don't branch out and get creative and/or kinky — please do! but also in my humble opinion you definitely don't have to think of new and exciting ways for people to have sex to write an engaging sex scene.

for me, the number one driving force in a sex scene is my point of view character. how are THEY experiencing the sex scene? i think about what they are noticing, feeling, wanting, etc. especially the noticing. if they're banging hottie mcbeefcake, "oh hottie mcbeefcake is so hot" isn't a really compelling or even hot description. what my pov character notices about their partner not only conveys the scene to the reader but tells us things about the pov character through what they're noticing: what do they find attractive, interesting, a turn-on? in what ways are they aware of their own body? how do they react to being touched? i try to branch off of the obvious things someone is probably seeing or feeling in a sex scene and zoom in on things that are specific to my character.

additionally, i think it's also important to know what your non-pov character(s) are thinking/feeling/wanting/etc. a lot of that might not make it onto the page, but it's really helpful for me in trying to write a scene that feels like distinct people interacting instead of bodies going through the sex motions.

speaking of the sex motions. i am huge advocate of that post (that you helpfully reblogged today) that's like "sex isn't sexy unless it's a little bit gross." because yeah! sex is gross!! don't shy away from the sweatiness and stickiness and squelching and hairiness (when applicable) because you're afraid it'll turn people off. sex is gross. that people do it in spite of the grossness (and sometimes to revel in the grossness) is part of the hotness. ymmv in terms of level of grossness, obvs, but grossness is part of sex. let it have its moments.

in addition to grossness: awkwardness. uncertainty. discomfort. imperfection. let your characters be human before, during, after sex. let them have to communicate to make the sex good. let them not communicate and let it cause problems. imo any/all of these things can be included and you can still have both hot sex and a good sex scene. you can (and should!) think about how consent is working in your sex scene, but you don't necessarily have to spell it out or have your characters have a whole-ass conversation about it. or maybe they do have a whole-ass conversation about it. totally depends on what is appropriate for your story, your characters, and the sex you want to write about.

more to the topic of generic/predictability, there's that joke about how all gay sex in fanfic is the exact same "one finger/two fingers/penis" penetrative sex scene, and like… well, it is a joke for a reason 🥴 not that there aren't good sex scenes that use that formula, but i feel like it's so ubiquitous that sometimes people write that as their sex scene by default, or because they know it's what's expected, as opposed to because they think it's the best way to write that sex scene. i'm not even going to get into the whole "not everyone wants/likes/needs to be fingered before anal sex" of it all; instead i am going to say that i think it's always worth (once again) thinking about your characters and the purpose of the sex scene within your larger character or story arc. for example, if the goal of the sex scene is to show an escalation in trust and intimacy, think about what trust and intimacy really mean to your characters and what different ways to show that are. we loooooove to let penetrative sex be shorthand for trust and intimacy — another thing i am not going to get into, and also, we all live in this wretched society, i'm not going to judge anyone for using penetrative sex as a shorthand for trust and intimacy. i've done it! i've read it and found it both moving and hot! if it works for your characters and your story, 100% go for it! but it doesn't have to be. and that's worth thinking about!

more to the skippableness: firstly, if you are simply writing smut for smut's sake, that's wonderful and i applaud you. carry on. if you're writing a sex scene as part of a longer story and you don't want it to feel skippable, i think the best way to go about that is to think about, as with any other scene, how that sex scene is moving the story forward — in more than just a "and now they've had sex" way. this is a lot of the character-driven/thinking about the filter of your pov character stuff from before, but also how does the sex change the stakes of the story? what do your characters learn about each other or themselves during the sex scene? the story shouldn't pause while they're boning.

this is getting uhhhh long now, so i will leave off with one more thing i think about when writing sex scenes, which is what i think of as the We All Know How Sex Works rule. which is basically, i'm allowed to gloss over things. some things i might describe in excruciating detail, but if i'm doing my job well, i do not have to describe every physical part of the sex for readers to follow the sex scene. readers are smart people. they'll get it.

[neaxsfiction]

Requesting an aizawa fic or head cannon of some sort ❤️

Tried to combine some headcanons and a short fic. This is the first request I get, thank you very very much <3

Aizawa's love language

He's a mysterious man indeed. You still cannot understand how you two have that good of a relationship. He's very quiet and of course he barely talks about his feelings.

However Shouta manages to show his love and appreciation for you even if he has a trouble speaking his thoughts.

Firstly, even after a tiring day with the students he makes time for you, and you two have late night conversations about life. You discuss about your aims and goals, your dreams and many other personal and general things. These conversations not only feel comforting for you, but to him as well.

Secondly even during school, he calls you during the breaks. He just wants to hear your voice, even over the phone. He reminds you to drink water, and stay healthy. He doesn't want you falling sick, after all.

Even when you do fall sick, he's there to help you. He cooks you soup, even feeds you if that's needed (his cooking skills are amazing) and provides you with painkillers. He'll appear calm about you falling sick, but inside he's panicking. He makes you feel better and keeps you company ieven if it means to hold your hand while you sleep all night.

Since Shouta isn't that good with words, he leaves notes in your house, reminding you of things you told him that you needed to get done for your job or personal life. He understands the importance of those little things in your life so he gets some faint yellow sticky notes, and his favorite black pen you gifted him and sticks them all over your house. Doesn't matter if it's fridge, bathroom mirror, laptop, closet door, it could be anything as long as he knew you'd see them.

He's very shy to try physical affection with you, but once you attempt it for the first time, he seems more brave next time.

We have been sitting on a bench for a while now. It's his day off, and mine as well and we have been stargazing for some time now. We haven't spoke a word since the sun set, and the silence surprisingly isn't anything near to awkward, just comforting.

He looks so beautiful. His long black hair is down, untangled while his red eyes reflect the moonlight. His skin looks soft under the faint white light of the stars.

He's been staying still for quite some time now. He's letting himself relax and enjoy some time with a person he appreciates a lot. He sits facing the moon and his hands are resting on the bench.

Suddenly, he feels a warmth on his fingers during the cold night breeze. This makes him turn his head quickly and realize you're attempting to hold his hand.

His eyes are asking you a hundred questions per second, trying to find an answer to your sudden move. He wasn't expecting that at all, but he cannot really complain about it.

This movement makes him completely flustered. I mean, no one has ever attempted to hold his hand like this before. He never liked getting touched. But this touch was different. Your touch was soft and loving, easing both his physical and emotional exhaustion.

While staring deeply in your eyes, he accepts your hand and holds it gently. The silence wasn't awkward before, but now it definitely was.

All those feelings were too many for him. He felt so many nice feelings all at once, with that warm feeling in his heart changing his tone of voice to a much softer one for you.

And only you.

~

Aizawa pic credits

Posted on; 04/07/2023

[smalife1234]

It's our 5th weekly smiles!!! Please enjoy the read

What made me smile this week?

Monday, 8/26/24 - today is our first day of school! After many months, today, we get a general idea of all the classes! In my first period, we had to introduce ourselves, what year we were in, and what we wanted to be when we grew up. Those types of questions, then we made a name tent, in which you put your name and then draw what you like on the front. I had fun with that, and it's due Friday. We then got a rundown of the class and then played a funny game of what came first. Chicken or the egg, we had to get up out of our seats, in my case, just be in my seat, lol. Then we had to be in different groups per question. There were about 4 or 5 questions, and we had fun with it. We then got introduced to the website we will be using! After that, I headed to the second period; in the second period, we had to create another name tent that had our name and three adjectives that describe our personality using some letters of our name. We then did a lab where we estimated what time Mrs Mauney put the ice cubes in the little beaker that had a dropper at the end. Our team did not get it right since she eliminated our answer choice, but other teams are very close! Plus, we got a free 100 anyway! Woo, tomorrow she Will be announcing which team got it right. May the best team win! I then headed to lunch as I had my first lunch! And I got a yummy salad with chicken, cheese, onions, and Italian dressing! It was very good and worth the wait. After lunch, I headed to third, where we got to learn all the rules of the class and then do a little fingerprint activity. It was a large fingerprint on a sheet of paper, and inside each ridge, you had to write information about yourself. It was pretty cool! Then, after that, we got a lab sheet that showed different stations of fun things/ scientific things, and it wasn't bad! I have all the parts of the microscope left! Then, in the fourth period, I got to be in class with my friend, and we sat the whole class laughing and learning. We did another name tent very simple, and then we made some sticky notes where we had to put what we wanted to learn from the class. Before that, we made a table of contents! It was fun, and now, at home, we're enjoying a warm bowl of potato soup! We experienced the Subway Surfers New World tour and unlocked Billy Bean! Which is always fun! Now we're headed to bed this whole day made me smile!

Tuesday, 8/27/24 - it's my three-month ALS anniversary!! Although I'm not excited about losing a whole percent of body strength! I am excited for what's to come and how far I've come within three months today in the morning we chilled on the game Subway Surfers and talked morning later on we went to the bus stop and talked about our second day of school and then we headed to school in the first period we did a bell ringer which was pretty difficult but I got it done! Then we did this honeycomb beehive activity where we had to connect different things based on their function but also match them with another thing it was tough but thankfully I got it done and then for the rest of class we worked on an assignment in which we had to pretend to be a physical therapist and write things down about a certain patient the patient is not real. Then we went to the second period and began to talk about the syllabus and class rules. Not long after, we got called for our senior meeting! We had a fun time hearing all that they said and the beautiful messages. We got longer-form videos and, sadly, only one tiny video! So we'll put that in the weekly smiles post! Then I came back to a syllabus scavenger hunt. I got to skip most of it and just do the sticker section, so that was fun. Then at lunch, I got to enjoy a yummy salad without cheese sadly but That's ok I had chicken and onions on my salad which was basic but yummy after lunch came the third period we finished up the rest of the lab and finished with it we then played a game of Myth or Fact that was fun! And then, in the fourth period, we did a speed dating thing that was also pretty fun, and then we just went home and chilled for the day! Today made me smile!

Wednesday, 8/28/24 - I woke up and then we took a pretty picture of a tree that was paired with the beautiful sun it was very pretty in the first period we worked on an assignment that we had to write a summary on our patients and wasn't hard and I got it done within thirty minutes we also talked about our struggles and things one girl shared she broke her femur during a car accident and couldn't walk for 3 months! And it happened last year so I hope she is doing well! In the second period, we worked on a density lab where we had to place metal in a graduated cylinder and water to measure its density or something like that! Soon after that, we just made notes! And then we went to third, where I just had yummy salad, except they gave me a whole chicken tender, lol, instead of chicken bites. Hey, I'm not complaining, just shocked 😳! Then, after that, we just worked on forensic work and got to see our first lab! It was pretty cool and fun to do! Then in the fourth period, we just chilled and worked on notes most of the class we chilled at home :) today made me smile!

Thursday, 8/29/24 - today, we just chilled in the morning. Sadly, I had to rush and edit a little video! In the first period, we just got new assignments so that was fun I completed them all in one day the rest of first period just went chill like normal then went to chemistry where we did a card separating activity between molecules and atoms we did some notes and found out that mr s mauney might be behaving her baby September 13th and she will give us an email stating whether or not shes had the baby I wish her all the best in her recovery! Soon after that we got to chill on our phones in third period we started talking about the rules and expectations in her class like a little worksheet type of paper then we took some notes on the temporal lob and other parts of the brain then she told us some story's on this day she said my brain had done something weird I imagined a snake in my dreams and i don't dream about snakes but apparently her husband who sleeps with a C-Pap his mask had kinda un-hooked and it made a hissing sound then another time is when they were very poor back then with there children they would change there kid on there kitchen countertop and in this particular moment the husband was changing the diaper and it wasn't just wet there was obviously poop and they had cloth diapers because they couldn't afford the disposable so not everything would gracefully stay in the diaper and a few minutes later there was some poop on the counter (not actually) but the husband perceived that but in reality it was just some cookie dough that dropped on the counter so she scooped it up with her finger and ate it he started gagging and said you just ate poop and she pointed to the oven meaning it was just some cookie dough that is all that we heard but it horrific yet funny! Then, in the fourth, we sat and chilled, doing a get-to-know-me/ personality poster. Sadly, Willams and Donny's computer was acting weird and kept saying ¨, please do not power off your device” because apparently, the computer was doing some type of critical update! But we went home and chilled, had some yummy mam witch, and were laughing, and listening to Instagram audios that night. Today made me smile!

Friday, 8/30/24 - this morning, I woke up at 6:00 Am, which is rare lol. I chilled and lay in my warm blankets! And then I got ready. As we were heading out the door, I remembered I had left all my jewelry, lol! And they had to help put on my bracelets, my ring, and my necklace, so it was a little bit hectic. We then chilled on the bus and tried to push our way through the entrance because, apparently, so many people wanted to be in the walkway! We chilled for a bit and then headed to class. Since I did not have any work to do in the first period, I just updated some long overdue descriptions, lol! And then I tried filling up my water bottle, but that took forever. It took like 3 minutes, lol! It was kinda funny yet gruesome to wait for my 30-z water bottle to fill up. Lol, I've been typing most of the class, just mainly working on description! Sadly Willam and donnys computer situation is not looking any better I see no progress and it still seems to be having its ¨critical update¨ gosh annoying computers then in the second period since Mrs. Mauney was out we chilled and had a sub I said Hi how are you and she said Hey how are you I said good I sat and chilled for a bit we got our name tents and a new student joined us and sat at our table he seemed pretty chill! We are now doing attendance, and the announcements had a weird cheer thing, which is weird because they never do that. It caught me off guard, lol. Then we worked on a very large paper assignment. It was about matters and things, but I finally got it done! And now I'm chilling here, drinking my water and typing my little heart away. The simplest of things make me smile! Now we're getting ready for yummy lunch! After that, we just chilled in Mrs Churches class and just hung out at home. We had a fun time, and big Donny can officially do thumbnails on his YouTube channel! “Donny & Sc injury” today made me smile!

Saturday, 8/31/24 - today, I woke up around 7:44 Am, waking up many hours before that, lol 12:00 Am and 3:00 a.m. I chilled the rest of that morning, then we chilled for a while in the afternoon, then Donny got to see nostalgic memories on an old phone! He thought it was very cool and so breathtaking to see all those old videos and photos! Then we went to Mack's house for a while! Which we haven't done in a while. We swam for a while! Then a horsefly came up and we were screaming and saying bitch at the fly! We were laughing, yet terrified James killed it, and we thought there was no more of them, and during the time of the first horsefly, we said, " What if another one comes back!” And sure enough, it fucking did, lol (sorry for the language; I usually keep this PG, but to be honest, this was scary as fuck. So I apologize for being overly dramatic in the cuss words!) But sure enough, it did come back. We kept Dunking underwater, lol, and we eventually gave up and went inside. Sadly, the pool day ended shortly, but we did get some McDonald's at the beginning of the trip, and it certainly made me smile. Sadly, Donny is having his major pacemaker surgery tonight at 11:00 Pm! So we have to stay up until 6:00 Am! Until he gets out of surgery, it will be the scariest wait of our life, and we will update you on further information into Sundays or this entry! Who knows, but keep reading. So far, it's 9:51 pm, so it's only a short 1 hour and 9 minutes away! We pray for Donny to make it out of this surgery in Good health! We love you so much, Donny! And we pray you make it out of this surgery! This is such a scary operation and we wish you all the best! - we will give you further updates as we get News! It is 10:50 P.m., and it's 10 minutes till Donny's surgery again. We wish him luck!!

Sunday, 9/1/24 - it's now 11:00 P.m., so it's quite not Sunday, but it's so close. Donny is now in surgery. He needs 6 hours and 59 minutes remaining.. we are beyond scared and hoping he survives the surgery. We love you, Donny; ok, it's now 8:07. thankfully, the nurses took great care of him, and he survived the surgery! He seems fine as of right now! And now we found out that Williams's eye swelled! Overnight, what is the week doing to all of us? we are getting haircuts and going to the mall today! At first, we went to the drug store for our parents to buy cigarettes. Then we went to Dollar Tree, and Mom got many things lol, but we got some vanilla cream cookies! Then we headed to Great Clips and got our haircut! It looks good and we're good with how it turned out! Then we went to the mall. Mom and Dad enjoyed their movie, and shortly after, we went to Five Below and bought some things! But the most important thing we bought was a new bag that was for overheating, and catheter storage since our old bag sucked. Lol, we already find the new bag beneficial! Then we bought a spray bottle for overheating/fake sweat 💦 since we cannot sweat. Promise, all the things we bought were not just for medical purposes lol! After that, we visited Claire's and saw a cute mushroom 🍄 plushie! Then we sat for a while, and now we're munching on our chips and sitting on a bench for a while! We are having fun so far! We soon arrived home and are now chilling getting everything unpacked and organized! We are definitely smiling! There was a bad storm, and it frightened us at how loud the lightning was! But we're ok now and we're chilling! But today was very busy but it certainly made me smile!

What made you smile this week?

Img desc #1: shows a honey bee hive activity filled with different organs and their functions. the goal is to match everything into a perfect shape.

Img desc #2: shows a beautiful picture of a tree standing tall as the beautiful grass gives off its beautiful hint of green, and the rising sun is seen in the distance.

Img desc #3: shows doc's lab work showing drawings of the metals

Img desc #4: shows docs salad at lunch with a huge chicken tender and chicken bites and onions.

Img desc #5: shows a picture of cheese fries with tons of bacon on the fries with plenty of containers of ranch!

Img desc #6: shows a card sorting activity on the doc's table.

Img desc #7: doc is seen in the swimming pool *moments before the dangerous horsefly lol* she is seen smiling with sunglasses. She is in a yellow floaty that's around her neck, and her Atrophied arms are floating about in the pool.

Img desc #8: shows the night sky with the sign Hardee's

Img desc #9: doc is seen near a bridge smiling while wearing a grey short-sleeved shirt, beige-colored shorts, and white shoes.

Img desc #10: Emmie is seen near an ocean. She is opening her mouth wide as she is shocked she is wearing sunglasses paired with a white short-sleeved shirt! And a black service dog is beside her

[amadeusgame]

September Devlog: Full Episode 1 Design Finalized

Per last month's devlog, this month's primary task was to finish the narrative outline and complete game design document for the full Episode 1 release. And I'm happy to announce that this is done, I have a concrete vision to follow, and now it's a matter of ticking off boxes on the to-do list until this thang is RELEASED. I'm getting REALLY excited about this project, and feeling like it is becoming more and more tangible.

Some quick updates before getting into the details:

I'm sure you all heard the kerfuffle about Unity; I've discussed where I'm currently at on the Tumblr blog here.

I went to PAX West (and the Seattle Indies Expo) and talked to a ton of indie devs! I wrote about a lot of upcoming indie games on the Tumblr blog here.

As always check the linktree (https://linktr.ee/amadeusgame) for all resources related to Amadeus. Most frequently updated are the Tumblr blog and Discord server, but these itch.io devlogs will continue monthly as well.

And now, for this month's updates. 

TL;DR--

PAX West & Seattle Indies Expo: more details on these events, specifically how much it helped me as a solo dev meeting and talking with other solo devs.

New Mechanics Envisioned: made a new paper prototype & sought playtester feedback to determine final control scheme vision.

Finishing the Narrative Outline: process for sitting down and mapping out the full Episode 1 narrative to guide the GDD

Completing the Game Design Document: process for taking the new mechanics & full narrative to fully outline the design for Episode 1

Recreation: media I engaged with this month for fun and inspiration!

Details below for those interested.

PAX West & Seattle Indies Expo

This was my first time attending PAX, and it was incredibly valuable. The Seattle Indies Expo (an adjacent, and completely free, event) in particular was fantastic, because I got to have really in-depth, one-on-one conversations with a lot of other small developers. So many of us are working on passion projects in our spare time, and wearing 20 different hats - from music composition to coding to project management to marketing - while also doing something else to pay the bills. So it felt very grounding to have honest discussions with so many other people who are all in the same boat. It also helped to find that a couple other developers came to the same answers I did on certain topics (virtually all of us are in agreement that you absolutely have to have deadlines that you take seriously, or you will never finish...), and one of the developers I spoke with mentioned something really helpful: that if you only have 1-2 hours to work on your game a week, decide EXACTLY WHAT you will work on in that time slot beforehand, so you've already started dedicating brain energy to the topic before the time comes.

I met a handful of developers who I'm likely to keep in touch with for the foreseeable future. It was a fantastic opportunity. Those of us out here making niche little passion projects really do feel the passion coming from each other. Gotta find your people and support each other!

I'll go ahead and plug my Amadeus blog Tumblr post on the subject again, because I'm also genuinely excited about a lot of these games: 10 Upcoming Indie Games to check out!

New Mechanics Envisioned

Never forget that busting out the sticky notes/scratch paper is an essential step in game design & development.

One of the major roadblocks I faced last month standing between me and finishing my GDD was that I knew I needed to rework the main interaction mechanic. I liked that it was WASD/point-and-click interchangeable, but it felt very unpolished. So one of my first tasks for this month was to figure out what, exactly, my vision for a polished interaction mechanic was. To do that, I revisited the very first step of game development, and made a paper prototype.

In doing this, I was able to identify the biggest source of my problem: I really like that you can control Amadeus - and not just a cursor, but this makes it impossible to interact with things that he can't get to (like looking at things in the sky). This is kind of at odds with the control scheme that seems most natural for the genre.

The central source of my problem was this:

The most straightforward control scheme for my game seemed to be point-and-click, where you don't have an actor you control but just directly interact with environments.

However; point-and-click mechanics are very hard on my wrists (because I have massively screwed up wrists), and I want to make a game that I can play comfortably - and for thematic reasons, this is all the more important!

Moreover; I just really like controlling a little guy and walking around as him.

I have come up with a solution that I think works well, at least on paper. One of my big goals this month is to prototype it in-engine, and hopefully get it in front of playtesters soon. The good news is that I got a lot of feedback from playtesters that the hybrid control scheme was a plus, and almost nobody used exclusively WASD or exclusively point-and-click, which tells me that my "utilize both" design philosophy feels right. Now I just need to polish it.

My goal is still to have a rebuilt demo, containing more or less the same content as the existing demo (unless...? but let's not get our hopes up too high!) with the new mechanics and control scheme, out this Winter. So far, still on track for that!

Finishing the Narrative Outline

THIS was truly the largest obstacle between me and a complete GDD. It is not possible to list out all assets needed in a game if you don't have a list of every scene in the game, and you can't have a list of every scene in the game without a complete narrative outline. Making the demo was easy in this respect - I already knew how my story started. I also knew more or less how it would end (or at least, several key climactic events). But there is no catharsis in a climax that lacks a rich, engaging, and well-developed journey to get there. That's the meatiest part of the game, and it's what I did not have.

Truth be told, I don't know whether the journey I am writing counts as rich, engaging, and well-developed. But I've finally made it concrete, and I think it has heart. This process was actually very rewarding, because I found that in asking myself questions (what is CHARACTER doing here, how does EVENT happen) I found really fascinating answers that made the entire story much more interesting than the one I initially set out to write.

I started just by creating a document titled "Episode 1 Outline" that looked something like this:

Intro

Prologue

Placeholder Scene

Placeholder Scene

Placeholder Scene

Climax

Outro

The reason I was actually able to get from that to a complete outline in less than a month is because, while it didn't really feel like it, I actually did a lot of "writing" last month. I spent the whole month watching a ton of werewolf movies and taking scribbled notes in my Amadeus brainstorming notebook, so I had a huge pool of ideas that were already swimming around in my head. This month's task wasn't to write a story I had no ideas about, it was to finally draw from all of my ideas and refine/organize them to a manageable and logical format.

Most importantly, I gave myself a deadline to finish this outline, and so the day of that deadline I sat down and looked at my intro, my climax and just thought of the "path of least resistance" to get from point A to point B that flowed well and made sense. The resulting outline is much, much shorter than I had initially envisioned (I had some utter delusions of an Umineko-length monstrosity of an introductory episode) - but it works, it tells the full story, and it's complete. And, as will be discussed in the next section, even this relatively "short" episode has so much to it that if it were any longer there's almost no way I would finish it on time.

I still don't have every single detail mapped out at this stage. That much was true for the demo as well. Many aspects of the story wrote themselves by building the game and the necessity of flavor text, signposting, etc.; so I'm leaving room for that. It is just specific enough that I know exactly what assets to make for it, and I know the purpose of each scene. This lets me write early scenes setting up to payoff in later scenes more effectively. I think it should be a good length to be engaging for the player while still letting me give it some polish. :)

Completing the Game Design Document

This was the big thing I needed to accomplish this month. I actually made solid progress on this last month, but I was unable to finish it because I didn't have a definite narrative outline, list of scenes, or finalized control scheme. Once I had these from my work this month, I was able to sit down and finish this document.

I want nothing more in the world than to share this document, because seeing it complete feels like such a massive victory. It shows that I know exactly what I'm doing and that I have solid direction for the development of Amadeus. It proves that this game is getting made. It's even color-coded!! Unfortunately, it contains absolutely GINORMOUS spoilers not just for Episode 1 but for Episodes 3, 4, and 5, which won't be out for years. So you'll just have to take my word for it.

The "Level Planning" and "Rule List" sections of this document needed the most attention, but they are also some of the most valuable for directing the full game's development.  

For the Level Planning aspect, I broke the scenes from my narrative outline down by gameplay type (point-and-click, pure dialogue, puzzle/other) and, in doing so, I found that I gave myself additional ideas for some things I wasn't sure about. Thinking about the narrative in a different way, by breaking it down into gameplay concepts, helped me make certain storytelling decisions and continue fleshing out additional narrative details. This is why I was OK leaving some things vague in my outline - I knew other aspects of development would help me fill in the blanks.

Creating the Rule List is something that, in a way, is helpful as a form of "pre-coding." It forced me to put some thought into how I will actually implement the mechanics I have been brainstorming and prototyping. I already have some ideas, and I already know at least a few edge cases/problems that are going to arise--but that means when it comes time to sit down and actually script things out, I won't be starting from scratch. I've already dedicated brainpower to considering the problem! It'll make it way easier to actually DO, since I've done the first step already.

I know I am repeating myself a lot here, but it keeps coming up because it's important. Putting thought into something before you sit down to "do" it makes it SO much easier to actually do it when that time comes. This entire month has been effectively just that for the whole game: in making this GDD, I have put thought into every aspect of the game's development, so now that I can focus on making it, it's going to be so much easier. I already know where I'm going! What a weight off of my shoulders!!

The last thing I needed to flesh out in the GDD were my asset lists and screen mockups, which there isn't much to say about that can't be inferred from the title. I'll include the mockup for a new menu/settings screen I need to create though to tease some features I hope to implement:

I also included some (annotated) screenshots of the demo to remind myself what the game actually looks like with nicely drawn assets and not mockup scribbles...

Recreation

As with last month, I want to take some time to discuss media I've engaged with this month. This is for two reasons. First, I genuinely believe that it is impossible to create good art without engaging with other art. Second, talking about media I enjoy will probably give you a feel for my tastes, which may or may not inform how likely you are to enjoy the game I'm making. Although the best measure for that is still just playing the demo and seeing for yourself!

This month I spent the majority of my time playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night with my roommate. Truthfully, I did not actually expect this to be relevant to Amadeus in any way because the genre is completely different. But I've never been happier to be wrong! The Halloween-y vibes are of course relevant as I am writing about werewolves, but I was also just so inspired by several really brilliant game design choices. This game features something that I like to call "style AS substance," and that is exactly what I want to convey in my own game. I also got a fantastic idea for something I've been brainstorming for Episode 3 thanks to this game, but I can't elaborate on that any further at this time.

Anyway, it was a fantastic game, and also fantastic inspiration. 10/10 would recommend to friends.

That's all for this month! There will be another devlog at the end of November, and now that the GDD is done, there should be a lot of development progress in that one. In the meantime, you can always bookmark the Linktree and check back for new resources.

[kaleidoscopexsighs]

20 questions for fic writers

(thanks for the tags, @spindrifters @butcherbacterium and @kaaaaaaarf 💘)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

1 posted, but 3 actively drafting

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

a whopping 2.8k at the moment (but this is my body currently has somewhere around 13k written)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

marauders, primarily

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

this is my body is running uncontested

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes! finding your people and building community through shared appreciation of these labors of love is what it's all about, man

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

mmm none of the pieces i'm actively working on are shaping up to have a super angsty ending, but i have some notes laying around for a silver springs-inspired one shot that'll hurt so good if it ever comes to fruition

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

relative to the lack of bumps in the road en route to the happy ending, it's probably can't fight the moonlight. they're just minding their own business and having hot neon pink-hued sparkly sticky sweet bartop sex after closing. minimum complications, maximum spice, baby!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not that i'm aware of

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

my docs are full of steamy tender dirty raunchy bits just waiting to be woven into the narrative and unleashed when the time comes

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

nah

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so -- but as others have noted, similar ideas or concepts are bound to crop up (especially in a fandom as expansive as this one) and still nobody can do what you do how you do it, so. i'm not too pressed.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not yet!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

pour one out for our '80s miami-inspired au, wives. perhaps one day those first few pastel, gasoline-scented pages will see the light of day... BUT i do love collaborating (or just externally processing) with others and the accountability that comes with that, though, so i'm open to it

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

wolfstar

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

i wouldn't say i'll never finish it, but it's just not high on the priority list at the moment -- there's an outline and some written odds and ends for a chicago-set fic, most of which just stems from trading marauders-in-chicago headcanons with @vajazzly

16. What are your writing strengths?

probably atmosphere, imagery, interiority. when dropping into a scene i often lead with sensory details so that i don't get too caught up in like, trying to deliver all the needed information without the whole experience feeling lived in

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

letting a rough draft be rough so that there is actual material to work with! i tend to edit as i go and as a result end up hobbling my flow pretty significantly because it's so hard to turn that off

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

other than latin i haven't had a need for that yet, but if it arises i'd def try to run it by someone familiar with the language first

19. First fandom you wrote for?

hp

20. Favorite fic you've written?

don't know that i have a favorite, per se -- but love me 'til my lips turn blue is the first thing i worked on and shared pieces of since rejoining the fandom earlier this year (after not having written anything for myself in several years) so it'll always have a special place in my heart for that

tagging: @strezzlecki @worldenough-and-time @sommerregenjuniluft

[a-case-of-the-ace]

Fic writer interview :D

Thank you @eoinmcgonigal for the tag!!

Welp let's see how this goes. I've been doing the writing thing for a little over two years, I think? Time has flown and I have done... little.

How many works do you have on AO3? 21.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 57,611. None of which have reached over the 12,000 mark.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Something, Old, New, Broken and Blue at number 1, followed by Something Precious, a Bold Beginning, My Soul Says Ouch and Match Made in Vain. The top 3 are for Stranger Things, and the 4th and 5th are for Mafia: Definitive Edition. I reckon the top ones are at the top mainly because they're a bigger fandom.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do, I'm always so happy when I get them, but I worry I sound like a broken record. there's only so many ways to thank someone for reading and commenting, even though I'm overjoyed every time it happens.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Possibly Ready for Table for Doctor Who's The Two Doctors, since that doesn't end in a good spot for the main character, but the canon story has a good ending, so you know it's going to be ok. Probably Bon Appetit, for Mafia: DE, since it's a dark yandere cannabilism fic.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? That's a tough one, most of mine have happy endings. Possibly My Soul Says Ouch, since the characters spend so long pining over each other before getting together? Also my only polyam fic, (or at least where it's not just implied) so 50% extra love?

7. Do you write crossovers? I haven't, none have really occurred to me. I don't usually read them either, but if it's done well, I'll read it.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not hate per se, but I did have one commenter who didn't like some things, and told me I could change things, and didn't need to stick to the canon. I quite liked my choices, though, and so did other kinder commenters. I do the fic for me, first and foremost.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Not in anything I've posted, but I'm currently writing a Galavant fic that has some, for angst reasons. I did have a tad in A Bold Beginning, but I danced around the subject so much that I don't think it counts. I'm ace, which I don't think helps much, I'm basing most of it off of what I've read.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Wouldn't mind if someone did though.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Mega tough one. Good Omens got me into it, but I haven't read much of them. Stobotnik, since I only watched the films for them? Two/Jamie? I read a lot of Johnlock, but that was ages ago. Geraskier? I think I just binge a ship and return to it if I really liked it. Depends if the ship's small or big, I guess.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I had a mermaid!Tommy au I tried to get going for a long while, but kept getting stuck on logistics. An omegaverse mafia fic, an angsty guilt fic, and even a fic for Forever (TV show from 2014). Plus a bunch of ideas that hit while I was writing something else, and I'd lost the fixation by the time I finished. There's still a few sticky notes with ideas in my phone, from inspo at work. I think I get a lot more ideas than I manage to write :(

15. What are your writing strengths? Beginnings. I love nothing more than going "Bang! Here's what's happening." Otherwise, I dunno what my strengths might be. Writing in full sentences for the first draft?

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Hanging on to the motivation to finish a fic. Not using a variation of the phrase "All they could do was hope." Nearly put that in thrice in three chapters by mistake, I'm sure it's getting old. Motivation for sure though, I miss the days when I was writing tropey one-shots, at least they were one and done.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I haven't really had a need to do it, and would worry about formatting if I did. Closest I've had to this was a heavily accented character, but I didn't really know how to write an accent and so I didn't write it in. Not sure if I'd do it that way again, but it made it easier.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Mafia: Definitive Edition. Wrote my first fic in one of my last year 12 math classes. Also the fandom that made me switch from looking at tumblr on Pinterest to actually being on tumblr. There wasn't enough content, so I had to go searching, and then make my own.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? Really want to throw my hat into the ring on Wez/The Golden Youth, from Mad Max 2, but the only ideas I have for them are really long. Other ones I've considered writing include Forever, Red Dwarf, Sportarobbie from Lazytown, Johnny/Reg from SAS Rogue Heroes and Jude/Cardan from The Cruel Prince.

20. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? I'm really liking the Galavant fic I'm writing at the moment, mainly because it's shamelessly self-indulgent. Probably one of my Mafia fics, Chosen by the Life, Choking on my Love or Bring Me Home. It's been a while since I've read my own stuff, this has been a real trip down memory lane.

Desperately trying to remember people who write so I can tag them... I'm so bad at names, if I miss you I'm sorry. And I may not know you at all well so I apologise if you find this weird.

@feline-ranger @iiep-wop @lilies-in-a-vase @somethingaboutamagpie @ihni

[bigheckinbraindrain]

Once-a-Month Meals

I recently found a website called Once a Month Meals (OaMM). The idea behind it is that they have many MANY recipes that you can prep ahead of time and freeze for later. You can create a menu plan, add up to 15 recipes from their site to your menu plan, and then tell the system how many servings you want each meal to be and how many make-ahead meals of each recipe you want, and it guides you through it.

Yesterday was my first attempt at this. I picked 15 meals that looked/sounded like they'd be really good. I made my shopping list (they allow you to download an exact shopping list, but I wanted to write it out to combine a few things, like there would be an entry for Chicken breast and another for chicken thighs, but I only eat breast, another entry was for diced tomatoes and one for diced tomatoes with chilis that I combined together). And when I got home from the store, I started in.

As I understood it, the basic steps for doing a meal plan session are to

Make your meal plan from the available recipes

Print out a shopping list (the website creates this)

Shop for the items on the list

Print out the prep-day sheet

Make all the recipes

Freeze

My experience of last night's endeavor was that it sucked. Hard. The recipes were good and the prep wasn't really that bad, but there are some things I could have done differently that would have made a huge difference.

I learned a lot in my first go-round. Some things I realized part-way through, some I realized once I was cleaning up my disaster of a kitchen at the end.

My tips for my next round will be:

PAY ATTENTION TO PREP TIMES ON THE RECIPE CARDS

Make my meal plan

Shop at a warehouse grocery store like Sam's, Costco, or BJ's because bulk, man

Pre-prepare my cooking by figuring out how much hamburger meat I need to have "cooked" for a recipe, chopped onions, etc. Do all that the night before

Use these little cups to measure out my spices for all recipes beforehand

Figure out what I'm going to eat for the next 2 or 3 days to keep in the fridge instead of freezing.

Make up my Ziploc bags and bowls with their labels

Group similar recipes together (like my Santa-Fe chicken and my taco pasta) because I can reuse some of those mixing bowls without having to wash and dry them in between when a rinse would do just fine

WEAR MY GOOD SNEAKERS FOR ARCH SUPPORT because I didn't last night, and my feet were dead weight about 5 recipes in

Download an audiobook to listen to while I'm prepping. Or a podcast. Or something.

Make sure I do my flash-freeze recipes in a logical order. Somehow, all my flash-freeze ones were near the end. Since I needed freezer room to store the pans before packaging the item, I couldn't do them in succession. Honestly, I'll probably ensure I only do 2 or 3 flash-freeze recipes per prep day, and do one at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end. Or just start and end.

Make an "eat" calendar. I will make a little post-it note and pre-write each individual meal on one note, then add it to my calendar (so I can move them around if I want to). I could also use calendar software to do this, but I like the tactile feeling of placing and moving stickies. I'm a very techy person but this is one thing I do like doing with paper.

Get 11 inches-wide plastic storage bins. I can freeze all my bags lying down, flat, and then put them into these storage bins in order of when I'm going to eat them

[alphashley14]

Guess who just completed an entire semester’s worth of chapter quizzes in less than 2 hours? With minutes to spare until they were due? 🥲

Moi.

I apparently misunderstood a particular part of my course/syllabus or something, because I thought a particular thing was one assignment but no - it was 14 quizzes, one per chapter, 10 questions each.

One may wonder how my stupid self missed all that. The answer: the quizzes were on a separate website connected to the textbook that I thought our class wasn’t using. HA! I SPED to get that set up tonight!

It’s especially frustrating because I literally emailed my instructor weeks ago because I feared that I’d misinterpreted something. And I wrongly assumed that it was no biggie when he never responded. What a fool I was.

ANYWAY…

140 questions.

I got ‘em all done in less than two hours.

And how many total out of all of them did I get wrong?

SIX.

134/140.

BOOYAH bitches

I mean- not to brag but… 😎🧠📚Hehe. Me smart. That, and I BOMBARDED my textbook with sticky notes throughout this semester. So it was easy to find the answers I needed.

Mainly just making this post because that was RIDICULOUSLY stressful and scary and I needed to vent.

Thank God for the neurodivergent brain’s ability to get something done well and quickly after you’ve literally had months to do it and now there’s 2 hours left at 10pm. 🥲

I’m too powerful. 😈

[lindszeppelin]

I posted 5,695 times in 2022

That's 5,426 more posts than 2021!

243 posts created (4%)

5,452 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@loving-elvis

@karamelcoveredolicity

@browersbody

@emrose-gold

@troubleinapinksuit

I tagged 2,851 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#ep - 989 posts

#austin babe-ler - 912 posts

#&lt;3 - 83 posts

#jdm - 52 posts

#fic rec - 51 posts

#austin butler - 50 posts

#lol - 48 posts

#karl - 37 posts

#elvis - 30 posts

#queen monica - 30 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but my ''little quirk'' has been creating an entire spreadsheet on google docs with his entire discography and films...ranking them as i go

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The Things Left Unsaid

Pairing: Austin Butler x Fem!Reader

Prompt: You and Austin were old flames many moons ago, but when he wrote you a letter to come and visit him a lot of feelings rise to the surface.

Rating: Mature. 18+. Bye-Bye Minors, peace out

Warnings: this is basically a repurposing of The Notebook but slightly different lol, fluff, smut, probably inaccuracies of country/farm living, oral (f and m receiving), a lot of pining, some angst, handjob, squirting, swearing.

Word Count: 15k.

a/n: Hey babes! So, since Austin and I both love The Notebook with every fiber of our beings, I wanted to try my hand a writing a sort of Notebook-esque story. It needs to happen and I wanna give him his Notebook fantasy lol

See the full post

637 notes - Posted October 12, 2022

#4

Hot, Sweet, and Sticky

Pairing: Austin Butler x Fem!Reader

Prompt: You're in the kitchen baking some desert, and Austin takes this as the perfect opportunity to show just how much he appreciates you

Rating: Mature. 18+

Warnings: housewife kink, oral (f. receiving), p in v sex, playing with food during sex, swearing, a bit of fluff of course, creampie, light choking

Word Count: 5.8k

a/n: not much needs to be said aside from this needed to be written, and i volunteered as tribute to do it. :) (this was KINDA inspired by Cherry Pie by the band Warrant.)

See the full post

649 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

#3

DEPRAVITY

pairing: Elvis x Fem!Reader (you could alternatively imagine Austin!Elvis in this scenario)

summary: Elvis experiments in the bedroom with you, as he reveals a kink he's kept hidden for a long time.

rating: Mature, 18+. Minors...get out of here with peace and love.

warnings: dirty dirty smut, gun kink, swearing...

word count: 5.4k

a/n: hey, im back Lol. i hope you guys enjoy. i just had to write this and get this thought out of my mind. it was plaguing me lol. forgive any grammatical errors and things as per usual. i do my best

tags: @ash-omalley @powerofelvis i forget who else wanted to be tagged, but here you go!

See the full post

814 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

#2

See the full post

1,088 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Show Me Your Wild Side

pairing: Austin Butler x Fem!Reader

summary: Austin has been your adoring boyfriend for quite some time now. On a rainy day spent inside, you two spend some much needed quality time together. pretty simple premise but will pack a punch...trust me.

rating: Mature, 18+. Minors, get yo self outta here! Avert your eyes.

warnings: oral (f receiving), fingering, handjob, dom and sub dynamic, edging/orgasm denial, thigh riding, over-sensitivity. maybe more i forgot to mention? 

word count: 10.2k. listen, i didn’t come to play around.

a/n: Hey loves!! This is my first go at writing fanfiction in years, so do forgive any grammatical errors and things like that. I hope you enjoy! 

tags: @elvisstyles​

​

See the full post

2,467 notes - Posted September 11, 2022

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[lemaclinic]

When it comes to improving your smile, veneers are often considered a go-to option. But a question that lingers in many minds is, are veneers permanent or just a temporary solution? This blog will dive deep into the longevity, benefits, and considerations of veneers, answering common queries while focusing on quality, cost, and post-treatment care. What Are Veneers and How Do They Work? Veneers are thin shells, usually made from porcelain or composite resin, designed to cover the front surface of your teeth. They can transform discolored, chipped, or misaligned teeth into a perfect, natural-looking smile. The process involves removing a small amount of enamel from the tooth surface, allowing the veneer to bond securely. Are Veneers Permanent? The word “permanent” can be a bit misleading when it comes to dental veneers. While veneers are designed to be a long-lasting solution, they are not technically permanent in the sense that they will last forever. Veneers can last between 10 to 20 years, depending on various factors like the material used, oral hygiene, and lifestyle habits. However, once applied, they cannot be removed without replacing them, making them a long-term commitment. The Lifespan of Veneers: How Long Do They Really Last? One of the most common questions people ask is, how long do veneers last? As mentioned earlier, the longevity of veneers can range from 10 to 20 years. Porcelain veneers tend to last longer—up to 20 years—because of their durable and stain-resistant properties. On the other hand, composite veneers have a shorter lifespan, usually around 5 to 7 years, due to their less durable material. Several factors affect the lifespan of veneers: Material Quality: Porcelain veneers are generally more durable than composite resin. Oral Hygiene: Regular brushing and flossing are essential to maintain the veneers. Diet and Habits: Avoiding hard or sticky foods and refraining from nail-biting or chewing on pens can extend the life of your veneers. Professional Care: Regular dental check-ups can help maintain and monitor the condition of your veneers. Are Veneers a Permanent Solution for Everyone? Not everyone is an ideal candidate for veneers. People with severe gum disease or those who grind their teeth excessively might not benefit as much from this treatment. In such cases, other restorative options like crowns or orthodontic treatments may be more suitable. It’s essential to consult with a qualified dentist to determine if veneers are the right fit for you. The Cost Factor: Are Veneers Worth the Investment? The cost of veneers can be a significant consideration. Prices vary based on factors such as the clinic's location, the dentist's experience, and the material used. On average, porcelain veneers can cost between $800 and $2,500 per tooth, while composite veneers may range from $250 to $1,500 per tooth. While veneers may seem expensive, they offer a long-term solution for those looking to improve their smile. It's also worth noting that high-quality materials and expert dental care are crucial for achieving lasting and satisfactory results. Understanding the Treatment Process The veneer application process typically involves several steps: Consultation and Planning: Your dentist will evaluate your oral health and discuss your goals. Preparation: A small amount of enamel is removed from the tooth surface. Impression: An impression of your teeth is taken to create custom veneers. Bonding: The veneers are applied to the teeth with a strong adhesive, and adjustments are made as needed. Post-Treatment Care: How to Maintain Your Veneers Proper care is essential to maximize the lifespan of your veneers. Here are some tips: Oral Hygiene: Brush twice daily and floss regularly. Avoid Stain-Causing Foods: Limit your intake of coffee, tea, and red wine to prevent discoloration. Regular Dental Visits: Schedule check-ups at least twice a year to monitor the condition of your veneers.

FAQ: Common Questions About Veneers Q: Do veneers require special maintenance? A: Veneers do not require any special maintenance beyond regular brushing and flossing. However, it’s essential to visit your dentist regularly for check-ups. Q: Can veneers get stained or discolored? A: Porcelain veneers are highly resistant to stains. Composite veneers, however, can discolor over time, especially if you frequently consume stain-causing foods and drinks. Q: Is the procedure painful? A: The veneer application process is generally not painful. Local anesthesia is used during enamel removal to ensure your comfort. Q: Can veneers be replaced? A: Yes, veneers can be replaced if they become damaged or discolored. However, the process involves removing the existing veneers and applying new ones, which can be costly. Q: Are veneers reversible? A: Once applied, veneers are not reversible because a portion of the enamel has been removed. It’s a long-term commitment. Why Choose Lema Dental Clinic for Your Veneers? At Lema Dental Clinic, we pride ourselves on offering top-quality dental services with a personalized touch. Here’s why you should consider us for your veneer treatment: Expert Team: Our team of 350 highly trained professionals is committed to providing you with the best dental care. Cutting-Edge Technology: We use a 100% digital system to ensure precision and comfort. Quality Materials: We use only the best materials, like Ivoclar and Straumann, ensuring durable and natural-looking veneers. Comprehensive Services: From consultation to aftercare, we offer a seamless and supportive experience. Patient Satisfaction: With over 50,000 happy patients and multiple awards, we are a trusted name in dental care. Invest in your smile with Lema Dental Clinic and enjoy the confidence that comes with a radiant, long-lasting smile. Contact us today to schedule your consultation and take the first step towards the smile you've always wanted.

[sergeantnarwhalwrites]

Happy STS! Today I have a riddle: what comes first? The title or the story? 🤭 To expand, I'd love to hear the creation order of one (or several) of your stories. Did you think of characters first? Plot? World? What was the final piece?

Happy STS! Thanks for the ask!

Lol the title usually comes dead last. I really really struggle with titles. XD Arguably I guess the world or plot technically comes last cause what the hell is worldbuilding. I usually kinda iron that out as I go (sorta). And characters are basically always first for my big WIPs.

For Robots & Gardens I think I started out with characters. But I was really back and forth with this story actually. The og characters looked very different. It was Green, Peace, Digits, and a fellow unnamed protestor that was attached to Peace at the hip. That protestor was basically dropped. And Hollis and Donnie were added. Everything I do is chaos XD I usually don't really outline. At most I'll write something in a margin or on some sticky notes. So a very vague structure of the world was next and would continuously be added too, cause why would I force myself to figure out every detail first? I knew city, I knew industrialized, I figured there would be some distinctions the further you got from the heart of the city, and robots (how many idk XD I still don't fully know but I've got a better hold on it now). The world was hella loose and the plot was arguably looser. XD Didn't really have one for a hot minute. Plot became clearer and more defined before the world did even though the world came first. Title officially was last. It was literally called "Random story idea" for the longest. Then I saw a post on tumblr one day giving like averages of word counts per story type. And I was like woah I'm kinda close to that Novella one. So it was then called "Novella sorta" before I finally came up with Robots & Gardens. Which I actually didn't like for the longest. XD But it stuck around cause I couldn't think of anything better. And I hate it way less these days.

I'll spare you from the Fucked at Five and Space Don't Dictate Fate tales. Just know Space Don't Dictate Fate had four different titles and the plot had been changed and revised so many times I actually down low started hating it. Editing that thing made me want to bash my head against a wall. The world and plot were bashing heads for that story so they both were dead last. And Fucked at Five is my youngest so everything is up in the air really.

[d3mon-ology]

On Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Finding Roaches in Your Apartment During a Black-Out:

This is the third time this year I have lost power for multiple days. For all of Metro-Detroit, our energy is serviced by a singular company: DTE Energy. As of August 25th, their stock prices went up by 0.47%. Their yearly revenue is approximately 19 million dollars. This summer, they decided to raise their rates. There is no other choice for us — it is DTE or bust. We were still vocal about the hike in prices, commenting on the proposal’s official posting, You want to raise our bills because you’ve already fixed our infrastructure? Then why did I spend almost a week without power this February? Or something of a similar rhetoric. This summer, some people reported that they began paying 4-digit monthly bills. Personally, my bill jumped from $50 to $170.

For those who do not live in Michigan, please know our summer has been the mildest and weirdest one I’ve experienced. It is August, typically the hottest, most humid time of year, and it has been overcast, wet, and cold, like it is November already. The past two days have brought us terrifying, violent storms where lightning cracked. I thought we’d lose power that first night. Instead, it was the strip of apartments facing ours. I remembered thinking, Finally! This winter, my strip of apartments lost power first and was fixed last. I thought it fair, almost, that they lost power and we got to keep ours. Our neighborhood, clearly zoned for low-income housing and apartments, was always the last to get power back, but instead of paranoia about this resonating me, it was the idea that DTE chose to bless the other apartments. As though a couple hundred dollars in rent per month was the determining factor of who deserved heat in the winter or light in the summer.

So I rejoice our luck — we got to keep our light, our air. Until yesterday morning, when I woke in a sticky sweat to silence and a depthless black. Having always been afraid of the dark, I scrambled for my phone. I tried my lamp, though I knew exactly what had happened. I got up to look out the window at the rain, and I grumbled at the sight of the other strip’s twinkling porch lights. I couldn’t help but resent them, which my neighbor noted later when she lent me her flashlight.

I reported our outage on my DTE app. I tried to go back to bed, but I am in the midst my biannual, irrational fear that mice and cockroaches were infesting my kitchen. Making homes out of my stove or the empty pizza box we left out because we didn’t want to throw it out in the rain. The pitch black only worsened this, so I waited for the sun to rise with my phone’s flash light on and my battery draining. It occurred to me then how soft and plushy I was, how I would not survive long without the accoutrements of my life. Or maybe I would, I thought, and I would have to just get over myself. Become a heroine of my own design.

So my mind wandered in the early morning, looking out for the first sign of light. Eventually, before I fell asleep, I thought of the book assigned for this semester’s course: Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie.

The lives of Ifemelu and Obinze have been eye-opening and a delight to read. Their romance was, in my opinion, a bit spottily rendered, but I didn’t care about their romance. I enjoyed Ifemelu’s portrayal. Adichie avoided a pitfall many Western authors, even the most bra-burning, Bechtel-testing, still fall prey to: the madonna-whore complex. Ife was a woman who was sexual, who had desires beyond men but who saw them as another delight in the wealth of life’s bounty. Following her middle-class Nigerian life and her immigration to America and then return home, I thought Ife so refreshing to read, relatable but also wholly unique in her perspective. She was human, but there was also something a bit invincible about her. It was not that she was able to overcome anything, but rather that she never once wallowed in her weakness. She found something else to sustain her, and I admired that quality. It made her my favorite character, honestly. Reading her story was like reading the life story of a family friend you considered an older, more enlightened aunt who had traveled the world and treated you like a sister.

In particular, she was unfazed by roaches during her first night in Brooklyn, noting that if she had been at home in Lagos she would’ve gotten the broom and killed the fucker without much thought at all. But she didn’t, claiming this American roach as different, as though the weight of a new country had softened that brazen edge to her.

This moment in the book came to me when I finally gave up on sleep. I dressed in the dark, and I decided I was going to drive around. My phone was nearly a corpse, and frankly, I just wanted to sit somewhere and watch my Webkinz iceberg video in peace. I didn’t want to think about mice scratching to escape my pillowcase, roaches emerging from under my sink, or bed bugs, which my coworker recently got and who I, selfishly, worried had given them to me. More so, I was tired of that unhinged feeling that repeated intrusive thoughts instills in me. Like if I did see any of these things, I would be hallucinating, and it would go beyond just idle superstition into a territory where in-patient seems mighty necessary.

So needless to say, I lost it when I walked into my kitchen and saw a cockroach, grasping a small crumb in between his pinchers. He’d just left the pizza box and was ambling across the floor. Much like Ifemelu, I did not kill it. Unlike her, it was not because I felt defeated or so out of place that to interact with my environment felt sinfully wrong. It was because I had never had to. Despite my history of infestations, roaches had never actually crossed from the ephemeral into the real.

Aristotle, who I fucking hate but has a few things of real merit, said that wisdom comes from experience. That’s why it is so valuable in learning virtue. Having lived on my own at 17, half homeless and without any adult supervision, I have grown to see adulthood as a list of first experiences that are necessary but ultimately shift one’s paradigm with each “first.” When I totaled my first car, I learned the wisdom of not leaving your car in the impound lot for five days, of how it is okay to trust scrappers on occasion when they are sweet boys who give you an extra hundred because they recognized struggle and pitied it when they saw it, and of getting back into a car after you realize how fucking stupid you and other drivers are. Dealing with roaches is another one of those “first” experiences, accompanied by a growth spurt, but much like totaling my car, it’s not one I want to learn how to overcome.

So I panicked. I woke up my partner, told him to come quick, annoyed when it took him a minute to clamber up. By the time he followed me into our small kitchen, the roach was gone. This was when I burst into tears, feeling all the weight of the past 48 hours — the sleeplessness, Ifem’s first days submerged in Americanah, the weeks of paranoia that had crescendoed to a singular moment that confirmed all my worst fears. I had felt inspired by Ifemelu’s resilience, balmed by her depression in those first few American months. Adjusting to a new country and being an adult are such disparate experiences that the Venn diagram between them is two circles, but it is a testament to Adichie’s writing that I found connections nonetheless. Learning the nuances of American English follows the same structure of learning a new “first”: you learn by a series of experiences. I calm down, I stop crying, and I think with hope and dread that this is life. After all, Ifemelu has to relearn the nuances of Lagos life after returning to Nigeria. And the same applies to each reoccurrence of a “first.” Life is a series of wisdoms being gained, and I think this is why I admired Ifemelu’s resilience.

So I look at the roach’s mangled body. I hug my partner, tell him we’re getting a closed-top garbage can tomorrow. “Some spray, too,” I add. I put down some diatomaceous earth. I turn off the flash light, and I watch the window. The sun comes up, and I go to sleep.

[bedimanav92]

Things to Know While Preparing for JEE Mains

After the board exams, there are various national-level entrance exams to help you lead to the next part of your academic journey. The JEE Mains is one of these exams for students interested in pursuing engineering. This is a challenging and highly competitive exam, so it's important to know how to prepare for it.

Here are 6 things to do to make your jee exam preparation more effective.

1. Be Clear About the Syllabus

When you start your preparation, it's a good idea to go through the syllabus and the study material to know how much you have to cover. You can also mark out the main topics that will be given more weightage. Knowing the syllabus can help you plan how you will prepare for the exam.

2. Make a Schedule or Timetable

Setting an approximate schedule for your preparation will help you cover the material more efficiently. It will also help you prioritise important portions. Set small goals and plan the dates by which you will aim to finish topics. This enables you to manage your time better. You can also add the mock tests and previous question papers to your schedule. Qandi is a learning platform that helps you develop a customised preparation plan.

3. Practice with Mock Tests

Mock tests are a great way to make sure you get the hang of managing your time while writing the paper. Check out previous years' question papers and solve them for practice tests. This is also a good way to get familiar with the questions and topics that will come.

These tests give you a sense of the exam pattern. This includes the total number of questions per subject and the types of questions like multiple choice and numerical questions. The specific number of questions and the pattern may change, so it's important to keep track of the changes. It will also help you assess the order in which you must attempt the exam to ensure that you finish within the stipulated time.

4. Make Notes and Refer to Them

Making notes is a great way to condense the material into smaller, easy-to-understand points that will help you quickly study and revise. Notes are great for last-minute revision and help you organise the study material so you can easily find the topics you want to refer to. Don't forget to highlight key points and mark the important topics with post-its or sticky notes.

5. Find the Right Study Material

When choosing the study material for the exam, pick a few books instead of many. This keeps it focused, avoids confusion, and helps you stay on track. Ensure you include the NCERT books since these cover important topics, concepts, and formulas. There are many different reference books available for jee exam preparation. So it's a great idea to find the right books, so you don't spend time on material that is not relevant.

6. Self-Assessment

Self-assessment is a great way to get a sense of what you need to work on to optimise your study schedule. Mock tests and solving previous years' papers are good ways to do this. Once you finish a mock test, you can analyse it to get a sense of where your weak spots are and what needs to improve. This helps you plan your preparation better to focus on the topics you need the most practice. Q&I enables you to test and assess yourself using effective learning technology.

Summing Up

These important points will help you structure your JEE exam preparation and manage your time better. Qandi offers various learning tools to help you test, analyse, and improve your preparation to make it more effective.

[inherhouseshewaitsdreaming]

A Dream of 2023: Achieving with Agile

This is the culmination of a number of things in my life. A combination of journaling and work experience. A bringing together of my thoughts on goal setting. This will make more sense if you’ve read my post on achievement based goal setting, though I I think this can work with traditional goal setting too.

That post talks about setting goals in a way that works for me as an Achiever-Explorer. Lists of things. A map to what I want to achieve, but something flexible enough to accomodate my changing interests. That post was about choosing what to do. This post is about how I am going to actually do that.

What on earth do I mean by ‘agile’?

Agile is a project management/development methodology. The idea of agile is to deliver small things quickly instead of one big thing at the end. It does that to deliver outcomes quicker (reasoning that 1/10 features has value without needing to wait for the other 9/10) and to enable flexibility and iteration (reasoning that by the time you have delivered 4/10 features, the requirement for some of the others might have changed).

My achievement based goals approach is definitely influenced by this agile approach. What I’m going to do here is talk about how I plan to use some of the tools of agile (or specifically Scrum) to help me direct my efforts against all those achievements. In particular, we’re going to use the Backlog and the Sprint.

Note that I am using Milanote to do this. Other tools are available - Trello is designed for this, and I would expect you can use Notion. I’m very visual and Milanote suits me best. If you want to do this by hand, sticky notes and/or index cards were the first tools used for agile.

The Backlog

The Backlog is a list of all the things you want to do, broken down into deliverable items. It is the detail underneath the achievement lists. It is divided into sections called Epics under which sit tasks called ‘tickets’. For example:

I have an Epic for each writing project:

For the novel I started in NaNo, I need to complete this and then edit it. A lot. In the epic I have all the tasks I need to do this - a list of scenes to complete, a list of scenes to edit. Each one has its own ‘ticket’.

For the project to write a flash fiction length story for each tarot card, I have a list of tarot cards. As I also want to complete my tarot journal, I have two tickets per card - one to journal, one to write a story.

I have an Epic for this website. It has a ticket for each blog idea and each social media post idea. I add these as I come up with them - I do not attempt to plan the entire year for this. It could make sense to break this into smaller Epics later, if it becomes too large.

Once I have created these lists, I prioritize them if possible. My tarot cards get selected at random by drawing one each day, but my novel ones are in the order they appear. I have also prioritized the Epics themselves. You can reprioritize these as you go - do what is best for you at the time.

The Sprint

The sprint is a unit of time for which you do planning. It shouldn’t be shorter than a week and it shouldn’t be more than a month. The most common unit is 2 weeks. During the sprint you complete a number of tasks, called Sprint Rituals:

The Planning Session. For your given time frame, look at your backlog, starting at the top, and assign what tickets you plan to complete in this time. Typically you estimate these to work out how many you can do. I’m working on the idea of a 20 minute time block (a pomodoro). Once you think you have your capacity, select the tickets you want to work on, starting at the top of the backlog and working down. You might pick them all from the top epic or, if some are more time based/sequential, you might pick from the top few Epics.

The Retrospective. At the end of each Sprint you look back on what happened and ask yourself what went well, what didn’t go so well, and how you want to improve. This is the iteration that makes agile so effective.

Prioritization vs Spread across the year

The biggest change that comes out of this approach is that instead of spreading activities across the year, I am prioritizing on them and working on the ones I think are the most important. Instead of writing every day, I suggested doing 365 writing sprints in my previous post. With this method I am deliberately not doing a writing sprint each day. Instead, if I want to work on writing sprints, I might do a few each day. I might do a day where that is all I do.

Right now I want to work on writing shorter fiction. There are lots of good reasons to write short fiction - mostly I want to learn and experiment and that works better in shorter forms. So my sprint is full of things that would suit that - writing sprints, learning about writing, reading more short fiction. It is not full of editing my NaNo novel, or working on my art. I am going to do a few things in focus, and not a large spread.

This won’t work for everything. I am trying to do a daily tarot draw, and that really has to be done daily. Its not something I can go back and do later. But it will work for most things - even things like journaling can be caught up on later.

This, like the achievements, is an experiment. Its also an idea that other people may or may not find useful. Whatever you do for your planning and goals this year, good luck - you can do it!