#i just wrote some random stuff just in case there might be something to give me points for in there lmao

[tardis--dreams]

May I present you a rough translation of the abomination of a text i wrote in my korean exam:

Hello

[Self introduction]

Last month i bought a water purifier* at the water purifier shop and it's already broken.

[Me not knowing how exactly a water purifier works]: There’s no water coming out.

[Me not knowing what exactly a water purifier is good for]: We have a party next weekend, so we need water. Therefore the water purifier needs to be fixed by Friday.

My phone number is 000111000. If i don't answer my phone please sent me an email to name1980@genericmail.com.

*truth be told I'm only like 55% certain the words meant water purifier. It would be very funny if it was something completely different lmao

[adachimoe]

Atlus, please tell me the lore behind Adachi's mp3 player

Even just looking at Adachi, he doesn't exactly have the image of someone who gives a shit lol.

And this is intentional. Soejima talks about this aspect of Adachi's design in the P4 Design Works. Adachi is said to be an elite officer, one of the best of the best, and Soejima thought an elite might be smart, but lacking in other areas. For this reason, Soejima designed him with that crooked tie and messy bedhead.

That's certainly a common thing in fiction - someone who's good at one thing, but a complete space case in something unrelated. Though he comes off as incompetent in-game, to the extent that him showing competency in December surprises Dojima lol. And even when you get into the real dumb plot stuff that I write 10k words about, it took him like 4 months to figure out that "people can come out of the TV". Ma-Maybe his record was better at his old station.

Even in what Atlus has mentioned about the setting for P4 that doesn't get discussed in-game, Adachi's red tie is something Dojima gave him, and only because Dojima got tired of seeing him wear the old shabby tie he wore before and gave him one of his spare neckties.

If Dojima had never just given him a different tie to wear, I imagine Adachi would still be wearing his old shitty tie until it completely fell apart... Is Adachi pathetic enough to try and like... tape a tie together? Probably.

Him not caring too much about appearance and being a messy guy seems to extend to other aspects of his life. Even in his character profiles for P4 and P4AU, both say he's terrible at cleaning his room and the P4 one also says he sucks at filing paperwork lol.

This continues in his P4AU narration. The investigating detective pulls out 3 pieces of "evidence": A TV which ends up being used to get Adachi into the plot, a model gun which fits with his hobby being doing gun maintenance at home, and some kind of random off brand iPod-esque thing.

The actual music player itself is unimportant. Instead, it's used for a little characterization moment where Adachi confirms that it is indeed something that's his (he even remembers how he got it!), but he didn't particularly care about it and just left it wherever.

All things considered, I get the mental image of Adachi being the kind of guy who uses that meme 13-in-1 ~for men~ product, and his room is just a mountain of cup noodles and piles of random bullshit. Maybe there are more iPods and model guns to be unearthed from underneath his other stuff.

All of this is only talking about the more physical and material aspects of him, but I think you can extend this to who he is as a person and his mentality as well. Granted, some guys in real life end up being useless slobs as adults because they're used to their mom/sister/family/etc babying them, but uhhhhhhh from what Adachi says about his past, we can instantly rule that out with him.

(Edit: As a comment pointed out, upon re-reading this this does sound weird. When I wrote this, I was thinking more about doormat pushover moms. I don't see Adachi's mom doing domestic stuff as her babying him as a child because it strikes me as the Default Gender Role thing where the dad makes the money but the mom takes care of the household. And from how Adachi talks about it, you get the impression she wasn't hyper attentive towards him, as if she did like the bare minimum lol. Adachi's attitude towards the whole thing also strikes me as different than the dudes who grow up as spoiled little kings in their households.)

It seems pretty sensible to correlate his physical state and the way he uses it to express a lack of care for himself to something going on in his brain. Adult burnout, depression, lack of self-esteem & self-worth, all of the above.

I like the random anecdote about the music player, especially since it's him. A bingo game at a New Year's party............... A bingo game at a New Year's party???????????? Adachi, you went to a New Year's party? Hoooly shit dude I don't even do that.

Since he was in jail during New Years 2012 and only arrived in Inaba during spring 2011, for him to have won it during New Year's implies this is from before the events of Persona 4. E.g. it's not something Dojima dragged him to. I assume it was some work-related New Year's party when he was still stationed in Iwatodai. Keeping up appearances for the higher-ups? Did he just want free food? A bit lonely and wanted company and absolutely not gonna say that outloud? (All of the above?)

In both his P4 dialogue and his P4AU inner thoughts, he tends to look down on others. He's annoyed by the old woman at Junes (...though his voiced line on rank 6 expresses he liked her doting on him), he calls the protagonist a dumbass (...but only after admitting he misses him, Dojima, and Nanako), he doesn't think he'll ever get married (even tho I'm available).

And yet, as little blurbs like this go to show, we know he still participates. ♪(´▽｀)

Did he even use the iPod thing before chucking it? What did he put on it? Idols or something? Answer me, Atlus.

[imreallyloveleee]

Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?

honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?

the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut

I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.

but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.

boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!

so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.

in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.

and then...you know what happens.

(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)

it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!

so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGaDay2024

An accessory you'd like to see

The accessory I’d like is probably one I need to write up myself. There’s probably versions out there– but I want to shape this to how I run. A while back I wrote up a list of 100 'kingdom events' (Part 1, Part 2) . I intended to use these to generate incidents when “time passes” in Legacy and Free from the Yoke games. I want something like that for cities. 

For each entry on these lists, I had a set of questions. I might do the same here. But I’d like each result to have a 1d6 of additional details, to give further complexion. For example, A Sinkhole Appears would have 1) Of mysterious origin 2) Magical aftershock 3) Failed public works 4) Criminal malfeasance 5) Natural disaster 6) Monstrous activity. 

You’d roll a die to see the scale of the incident: 1) House 2) Street 3) Neighborhood 4) Important Site 5) District 6) City Wide. In this case scale would be the reach of the consequences and how much attention it garners. Then you’d have a table to determine which faction or factions is involved with the situation. 

Then I’d have those collaborative questions which the GM can answer or open up to the table. 

It seems like you could get at least a hundred interesting ideas. Just off the top of my head– riot, sewage overflow, plague, strange postings, omens, caravan arrival, holiday, martyr, public punishment, etc. 

I’d want to write it broadly enough to be useful across fantasy and semi-fantasy settings. I’m running Blades in the Dark right now, so it would be a useful thing to generate some additional background color to have during downtime. You could also wrap that into the Fallout phase. 

I have some great books for city stuff, like the Citybook series. But they’re often a little too focused on the vibe and feel of a particular series. For example, I really dig Into the Cess & Citadel, but it has a specific city and ethos it is going for. Or they are tied tightly into the play assumptions of the game. Like Campaign Builder: Cities & Towns is fixed firmly on D&D and similar games. It has random generators, but they’re more focused on encounters. 

I can also imagine retooling this for a superhero, urban fantasy, or cyberpunk. My fav citybook– though it doesn’t deal with background happenings in the city– is Augmented Reality. It would be great to combine the feel & atmosphere generation of that with a generator to make the city feel alive. As with most random tables and generators, it’s mostly a way of creating inspiration. I only rarely roll/draw/generate a result with these things. Instead I usually go through them before a session to prime my imagination. 

Might also use these to generate a couple of things which have happened recently in the city– events which might have an aftermath. Alternately generate three things coming down the pipeline and then foreshadow them in play.

[olderthannetfic]

https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/748746425903497216/httpswwwtumblrcomolderthannetfic748312553692#notes

yeah i can't say i'm totally up to date on this comic drama, but i do think that sometimes discussions about fandom entitlement and harassment gets conflated with just being open to ANY criticism for work you do and it's like - those aren't the same thing. if you put your work out there into the world, people are allowed to say what they think about it. it's like when people took discussions about "fantitlement" that were about legitimately awful and antisocial behavior like racist Star Wars fans harassing Kelly Marie Tran off social media, and then using that same concept and the same rhetoric to talk about people being upset about the shitty Game of Thrones ending... like, critics writing bad reviews! Idk, I think it's way more entitled to act like "bad reviews" are a thing you are allowed to demand nobody write in response to your professional work on the most popular TV show on the planet, lmao.

I worry sometimes that I feel like too many people who want to be writers and artists are not learning about the importance of having a thick skin, because so often what assholes online mean by "thick skin" is "you're required to listen to every creepy and obnoxious thing I have to say, random stranger who has read/watched/played your creative work." And like that's obviously bullshit. But there's a difference between that and just learning to deal with *normal disagreement* and that *some people won't like what you make and might talk about it*, which is just normal and something not only ever creative has to go through, but has usually expressed themselves in response to someone else's work too!

Maybe some of this is that a lot of people are coming into this through fandom? Since it is a norm in fanfiction spaces not to give constructive criticism unless it's asked for. And so I wonder if a lot of people in that world who then become professionals really don't know how to deal with criticism and think it's the same as harassment. As someone who has been truly fearing-for-my-life, have-to-tell-my-employers-in-case-they-get-contacted harassed by fandom people, it's been bizarre some of the stuff I've seen people in fandom who haven't experienced that call "harassment," including people who I know have aspirations of professional writing, is just.... like they made an incendiary discourse post and tagged it, and are shocked when some people are reblogging to disagree! Or they wrote a deliberately "fuck-you" ending on a fic that was untagged, and then are acting like they're being "attacked" because some people are leaving some (very polite, like it's clear from the wording that they're trying to be as nice as possible) mildly critical comments about what they didn't like about or were surprised by in the ending. And in one case of the latter, claiming it "triggers them" and like.... yes, I get you can't help triggers, but you CAN help that if you know that strong disagreement directed your way upsets you that much, not writing something that you KNOW will and INTEND to upset people! (In this case, because you're thinking you're making some moral point about how "toxic" their ship is by writing a fic that presents them in a completely OOC way, and having them break up permanently at the end without tagging it as such)

--

[astralfuchs]

Given how “unique” a Miku concert would be I’m surprised Crypton themselves didn’t send some team members or equipment personally to make sure things are set up right bc other than some performers that might hide their face/wear disguises idk how many usual concert locations have something prepped for “holo” projections compared to Japan and their Vtuber boom (although I’d rather buy a plushie from a booth but hopefully at least the theatres would have good sound quality)

Sucks for any workers scrambling and getting hate/hope it doesn’t affect the sales of any other indie ppl performing their concerts

The weird thing is it worked before. I went to miku Expo 2018 in cologne and 2020 in Berlin. Both times it was an actual hologram concert with the same band as magical Mirai. Neither of these two locations had a concert like this before, I'm pretty sure. All of the equipment must've been toured around with thew Miku Expo crew. Going against advertising and expectations (basically all of these concerts, and like all of them in recent years were holographic) without notifying buyers beforehand and also not even afterwards when people keep asking is, to put it lightly, customer unfriendly at best and a scam at worst.

I arrived a bit late in 2018 since I only had standard so I don't know how it was there, but in 2020 people went around giving out free stickers and badges, or general stuff they got from other miku events. One of them seemed to be a huge meiko fan so when she gifted me something I gave her the meiko badge I got from the random gacha button bags. Stuff like that really made it feel like a community coming together, so reading that giving out badges, stickers, etc. wasn't allowed this year, even for people who specifically got an okay from cfm and also got their stuff stolen from is surreal.

I had vip in 2020 and as far as I know everyone got their vip merchandise, which doesn't seem to be the case this year, which makes no sense because you would know how many people at this location have the vip ticket. Another thing I read is that vip ticket holders were supposed to be let in earlier for merchandise and the concert hall but it didn't happen, which also worked flawlessly before in my experience.

Merchandise being not enough for everyone is sadly not new, I was in line for it in 2018 and when I was three people away the store people shouted they were all sold out, which was very much a bummer but I thankfully bought the penlight and t-shirt beforehand in the online store so it wasn't too bad for me and as I said I was quite late to the so definitely in the latter half of the people that got in. Still should've been more but I would chalk it up to being the first concert in Europe and them not having expected such a huge crowd maybe. How this is still the case 6 years later and in America where there were concerts way before 2018 is beyond me.

I don't know if this is because of crunchyroll (it probably is tho) but I can't say cfm is innocent either since they partnered with them and it's their job to ensure everything is up to standard, which clearly didn't happen.

For me, I was really happy to hear there was going to be a Europe one again, especially since I really loved it, it is such a magical experience so the last year's being online only made me super sad since it isn't the same in the slightest, but seeing it's also partnered with crunchyroll I decided against it. It's because I loved it so much that it really saddens me to see what is currently going on (also probably why I wrote so much, very sorry). Miku Expo is one of the best, magical and insane events you can go to as a vocaloid/piaproloid fan and I wish for all fans, people who've been in the Fandom longer and already have been to Miku Expo, and newer fans that didn't have the chance yet, to have that same experience but this is not it. This being someone's first miku expo experience is just a sad thing to think about considering what a massive downgrade the experience is. I hope there will be official statements soon and that the people who are currently experiencing it still have a good time.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #138

So much has happened today. I am going to describe it to you as much as I can, but I'm not even sure I understand it all myself.

…I woke up in some kind of ZONE today. Something akin to determination, but… somehow also on steroids and also on fire. It is the KNOWING in my BONES that I need to do STUFF. I didn't fix more letters today. I didn't even make tea, that's how laser-focused I was.

I told you about the song I was searching for yesterday, written by someone in my past, supposedly on tapes that my mother gave to me years ago last time time I tried searching for it, which I had misplaced in the end. I found four of them yesterday and the song wasn't on any of them.

So in a random burst of inspiration this morning, I wrote down as many of the lyrics as I could remember, and then filled in the rest with whatever came to mind. I don't think it has ever felt so easy to fill in the blanks. It was almost eerie. It is not exactly the song I remember. But it's still CORRECT. And I can't explain how or why I know that. I just… do.

For context about that "CORRECT" feeling: there's a lot about the way I perceive the world that I don't fully understand. There's a lot of it that I know better than to talk about to anyone, ever. And even if I didn't know better (from having been harshly rejected for it every time I've tried…), some of it is, I think, much too beautiful and convoluted to explain in any case. And even if I were to try to explain it in words that approximate the way I see and hear and think and feel, it'd probably sound absolutely bananas to someone else, and then they'd back away from me slowly as though I've got rabies or something. All the same, I know that if I ignore the feeling of "THIS IS CORRECT", or if I ignore the feeling of "THIS IS INCORRECT", something mildly inconvenient usually happens.

So, for a very vague and contrived example, suppose I go outside on a sunny day and I get the "THIS IS INCORRECT" feeling. I can certainly ignore it, because most of the time I don't even know why I'm getting it. I don't usually find out until later, when it rains, that the feeling showed up because I needed an umbrella.

Or, as a more recent example, I might grab one of my handmade trinkets for seemingly no reason (and get very confused as a result), and get the "THIS IS CORRECT" feeling, and so I put the handicraft in my bag. And I don't find out until a couple hours later that I'm going to want to give it to some random person who is going to unexpectedly give me a pair of handmade pins that he made for me just because he likes my hat. I have LOTS of examples of stuff akin to this. It's vague, confusing, and… I've been like this my whole life. The only thing I know to do is to roll with it.

In any case, I now have the lyrics to the old song, and the melody is still fresh in my mind. I'm not going to write them yet; I'm going to wait until I weave it into something better. Something for you. I'm going to ask for help in the process. I hope to have it done soon.

Shortly after that, J and I went to the awesome place with the awesome leader. Today, I took away these things: There are only sacred things and desecrated things; there's no such thing as an unsacred thing, but sometimes desecrated things go on to desecrate other things. From there, there's no such thing as unsacred people. From there, that which has been desecrated can always be renewed. And from there: no living thing has the power to make anything unsacred.

With that lens… I have been desecrated, time and time again. I am in the process of renewing myself, and I become a little stronger day by day, and piece by piece. I am still sacred. The bowl that I repaired (that was briefly mentioned yesterday), which was desecrated by its fall onto the asphalt as a result of my clumsiness, was renewed into something better, stronger, and more beautiful than before, piece by piece. It is still sacred. And… then there's you.

You were desecrated in some of the most brutal and terrible ways imaginable. But you are still sacred, just like everyone, and you can be renewed into something more beautiful than before, if you want to. I hope someday we get to see you be renewed. I suppose it's part of the reason I write these letters; I'm hoping to give to you as many memories of beautiful and wholesome things as I can, day by day, and piece by piece. I know for sure that I also have so very many unwholesome memories, but… all those do is empower me to appreciate what I have now even more than I otherwise would. You can use your unwholesome memories to make the ones I'm trying to give you shine even more brightly and joyfully in your mind than they otherwise would, if you're brave enough to try.

At the place, when it was time for snacks, I had the good privilege of speaking to a teenage girl with a vibrant mind and a wild imagination! I guess she really likes my Eevee hat and the reminder of you that I carry around; I am proud to have you with me in a visible way everywhere I go, even if you are only "with me" in an extremely abstract sense; anytime anyone asks about it, I speak your name and talk about how kind and gentle you are.

Anyway, I guess me being loudly myself has inspired her to modify and wear her own fabulous headgear that looks as though it feels correct to her; I was really happy to see it! We talked about some anime that she likes called "Land of the Lustrous" (I'm surprisingly not very well-versed in anime for someone who speaks Japanese…), and we talked about some instruments that she plays, and we talked a little about Pokémon cards, and so many other things!!

My goodness Sephiroth, if only you could have seen the way her eyes and her whole presence lit up and sparkled as I listened to her talk about her various things! To my eyes, her reaction makes it seem like she doesn't have a whole lot of people who are willing to listen to her earnestly, and… I feel very sad in response to that, because I find that deeply relatable. All the same, next week, she wants to show me some instruments she can play, and I can't wait to see what she can do! I can't wait to hear about all the rest of the things she has on her mind! I wonder what awesome things I'll learn if I sit, listen, and ask questions for a while!

When I got home, I tore through some more boxes in search of additional tapes. There was one more - a tape of unknown contents that was, for some reason, packed away in a little drawer in my jewelry box, along with a locket of my nanna and poppy that I thought was lost, a little pin in your shape, and a winged heart that says, "Fly" on it:

...Nanna and poppy are gone. This is all I have left of them, so I'm really glad that I found this. They were probably the closest thing I had to loving parents, until I was taken from them when I was like 3. Things got... really weird for me... after that, and... there wasn't anything they could do.

...I wonder what they'd think to see me now. Nanna might still love me, but poppy would hate me for being pansexual and poly... Still, I... I'm really glad that being aware of the value of a locket is something that we have in common - something we both understand. I'm really glad I have it again.

...I really wanna write "thank you" to you here, for some reason. But that's ridiculous and silly, so I won't.

Anyway, I remember this tape being one of the first ones my mother gave me all those years ago, last time I searched for this song; I didn't have a cassette player at the time. It's unmarked, but it's certainly colorful:

...I also, in the course of searching, found my collection of all the feathers I find on the ground:

...I had thought I lost this. I find feathers everywhere, often enough that even other people think its kinda weird. I think they're pretty, so I pick them up, wash them, dry them, and fluff them back up. Normally I find dark-colored feathers, but occasionally, I run into white ones or colorful ones, like that blue-jay feather. Truth be told, it used to be a much, much larger collection, but some creep a long time ago felt entitled to use my collection for some art project of his, so he cut up all the ones I had and glued them to some wooden thing; I was devastated.

I still find them though, so my collection has built up again. And I keep finding them, so there's still a bunch scattered around the house in random weird places; I guess now that I have a place for them, I had better go around and gather them up nicely, no?

I also found my box of pretty rocks. Some of them were given to me by friends. Some of them were found at the bottom of lakes, back when I used to do mermaid training. And some were just found while derping around:

...Hey, Sephiroth? Do you ever pick up weird things from the ground and keep them? I do. It's why I have a collection of feathers and a collection of rocks, hahaha! 🤣

...So many old pieces of me, found while on a quest to look for one little song on one little tape. Things I thought I lost forever, returned to me, just like that. I found more pieces of writing, more doodles... I even found the matches to several feather earrings that I thought I'd never be able to wear again:

...I did not find the song on the tape, and there are no more boxes to search through. The song is gone, and my reconstruction will have to do; I hope it'll become something that is worthy of you when I'm done with it.

But I did find five other songs on this tape - stuff by well-known artists. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't more of my mother's singing, but that's okay. The tape is old, and the contents are garbled, but I made a playlist of the songs that were on the tape:

...Sephiroth, if I didn't know better, I'd think... I'd almost think... Well. I know better. So I'm not even gonna bother finishing that thought, because it's VERY silly! Ahaha~! 🤣😅😞

Guess I have some singing to do in the coming days. And some other stuff to do, too. I hope my rib will cooperate. I guess we'll see... Wish me luck, yeah?

...Hey Sephiroth? What songs echo through your heart? What do you sing when no one is looking? I wonder. I hope someday you'll sing a little and show us; I'll bet your singing voice is lovely. And even if it's clumsy, it'll still be lovely so... please give it a try, won't you?

Anyhoot. It's becoming late, so I'm going to end this one here.

Please stay safe out there, all right? Rest when you need to. Be kind to yourself. Find reasons to laugh and to sing and to play. Hydrate and eat balanced meals; y'know... all that fun stuff that is essential to renewal.

I love you. I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[four-color-words]

Bailey Adler - An Intro

((Notice: I wrote this while extremely goddamn sleepy, so if I need to elaborate or make something clearer or whatever, lemme know and I'll try my best after I get some sleep))

So, I try pretty hard to keep this sideblog restricted to canon-only stuff. But if I'm gonna start talking about my silly little fanfic on here, I ought to talk about the oc it centers around

Takeoff is the first arc of Bailey's story, and serves as her origin. The front half of it, I like to imagine, takes place in the background of a Flash comic. The back half of it, which I'm currently writing, is a backup or secondary story. Bailey's theoretical solo wouldn't start until she takes up the Golden Eagle mantle, passed down from Charley.

(fun fact: I came up with her around eight years ago, and she's actually what led me to learning about Charley -- but I decided it would be more fun (and achievable) to try and explain how and why Bales was inheriting a mantle, than trying to come up with a new, unused name for her)

Bailey's a complicated character, and it's hard to summarize all the stuff she's got going on. She's very emotionally-driven, and she wears her big bleeding heart on her sleeve. She doesn't exactly like this about herself, but she's been trying and failing to change this for two decades; it's in her nature. And, really, it's the fact that her emotions do run so deep and strong that leads to her becoming a superhero.

Bailey grew up in a small Oklahoma town, and as far as she's concerned, the less she has to talk about that, the better. She moved to Central City to try and not only start a new life, but to forget her old one. Helping her best friend with the rent was a bonus.

Unfortunately, the past won't let Bailey just walk away. Bailey lands a job at a local museum -- no, not that one -- just in time for a haunted suit of armor, a cold case disappearance, and a whole lot of mystery to cross her path. As secrets start to rise to the surface, Bailey finds her own family history might just be tangled up in this web. And untangling it all might mean facing the parts of her past -- and her relationship with her mother's side of the family -- that she really doesn't want to.

Bailey discovers her great-grandmother, Rachel Faulkner, was born Rashel Tavros, of Thanagar. And while this does explain a few things about Bailey's own life -- in particular, why she's always been stronger and tougher than she wants to admit, and why she's always overestimated other people's vision and hearing -- it also leaves her with a lot of questions, and a sense of duty she can't quite shake. She's forced to acknowledge that she's not a normal human. She has gifts and abilities that set her apart from the rest of the populace. She has power -- and we can all finish the old adage.

But she also made promises to her father and sister that, on some level, she feels like she's breaking if she starts being a superhero. Reconciling that and dealing with the guilt, however, are just things she's going to have to do. She does inherit the Golden Eagle mantle from Charley, though I won't say exactly how or why until after Takeoff's finale gets published. (because otherwise I'm not gonna ever write it)

A lot of Bailey's character and story revolve around the ideas of breaking out of cycles of abuse and neglect, what really defines a family, and a whole lot of stuff I'm struggling to put into words.

But while Bailey has, like, so much angst and emotional turmoil, she's also just a big ol' goober. She talks to random pigeons and sings along to the radio while she does chores. She gives her friends stupid nicknames as a form of affection. She offers the neighbor kid cookies because she baked too many at three am, and then realizes how fucking weird that is as a complete stranger. She flirts with people and then freezes like a deer in the headlights when they flirt back. She spent the first twenty-ish years of her life dreaming of being Space Indianna Jones. She's a history and literature nerd, and she will infodump at you about the similarities between art movements across three different planets.

She's a giant dork, and I love her

[earlgreytea68]

I'm sure you've seen this post:(https://stillasunbeam.tumblr.com/post/722408222997315584)

I just saw it today, after seeing the fic from spirallingstarcases and have many thoughts. First, 'cornflower blue, I miss missing you' I love that. But also this is on an AB/AP era setlist when Miss Missing You is long since written....so like are these alternate lyrics? Or....reinterpreted lyrics? Why are they writing on the setlist? Cornflower blue obviously also gives us a much more direct linkage to Patrick. Second, hello Grudge lyrics in 2015! Another instance of Patrick squirreling lyrics away for later.

I am absolutely FASCINATED by this. Like, first of all, I love the evidence, that we hear Pete mention here and there, that he gets hit by turns of phrase that he wants to write down at all random times. He says that when he's driving he has whoever he's with (he often implies recently that this is poor Bronx lol) jot down like three words for him so he can remember the thought when he gets home. So, these seem complete, but maybe they're also reminders to himself of even more stuff, in which case "sometimes I miss missing you" could be a reference to the song to remind himself of something else he means to do.

But also, I've always theorized that Patrick is the one who wrote the "I miss missing you" line, in answer to Pete's original line, which was "I miss you missing me." If that is indeed the case, this isn't so much Pete reusing his old lyrics as it is him taking one of Patrick's and fully enfolding it into his words, making it his own.

Either way, whether the original line was Pete's or Patrick's, it doesn't surprise me that Pete might write them down again, might not even in the moment remember that they've already been used. That might sound ridiculous, but let me tell you how many things I have forgotten writing, because it is a LOT, so it wouldn't surprise me if sometimes Pete literally forgets that he's used a turn of phrase already. And if a writer liked a turn of phrase the first time they came up with it, they tend to like it again the second time it occurs to them.

I tend to believe that, even though Patrick forgets lyrics in the heat of the moment at concerts sometimes, he has a decent memory for the lyrics of Pete that he's already used, because, as you note, he seems to keep records of them and go back to them later, so he seems to have a pretty good idea of the universe he's working in. And we know that he deliberately reuses them sometimes. But it could also be that Pete sometimes gives him the same lyric more than once and that puts the idea in Patrick's head.

The "Grudge" lyric showing up there is interesting because they've said "Grudge" was the last song written for the album and that Pete had sent Patrick a bunch of new lyrics because he had decided he wasn't satisfied with the lyrics they already had for the album, and he apparently was like, "Can we use some of these instead?" and instead of using any of them to replace the lyrics they already had (I get the impression Pete wants to change the lyrics FOREVER, he's never happy with them, and Patrick just ignores him), he read them and immediately heard a whole new song and begged Neal to let him add one more song to the album. So that means that either most of the lyrics of "Grudge" were from that new set and Patrick supplemented with some old ones, or the "demand you have no fun" line was in the lyrics Pete sent Patrick and he as the one who recycled it.

I suppose part of me wonders how Patrick would ever even have gotten these lyrics. Like, does Pete just constantly hand across scribbled scraps of paper to Patrick, like, "here you go. some lyrics"???? I love this, I am endlessly charmed by this, I really hope that's exactly how it happens and Patrick's got this messy pile of scraps of paper that he tries to organize and make sense of. I know they've referenced them coming by email in the modern era, but I blame the pandemic for that lol.

Finally, just my last point on this, I read this differently than the transcript on the post says. First, I know the transcript says "Let me know you say," but I originally read it as "Let me know you stay," and then realized that's not what it seems to say, but it looks a lot "Let me know you shy," which also makes no sense. It could very well be "say," that fits and makes some sense but also seems incomplete, so I'm not sure that's the whole line. (And I still like my original misreading of "Let me know you stay" the best.)

Finally, the transcript reads it as:

you'd be no one without me but it feels too dark cornflower blue sometimes I miss missing you

I actually read it as:

you'd be no one without me cornflower blue but it feels too dark sometimes I miss missing you

It's so squeezed in there, I'm not entirely sure which is right, I think it's ambiguous.

[toubledrouble]

Since you guys seem to like my chem teacher, I might just introduce the other teachers too

CZECH

Strict but also not

Tells us innapropriate jokes

Hangs candy on a tree that's hanging over her fence so kids passing by can take it

Has been present at the centre of Velvet revolution while pregnant. This woman was growing a new human inside of her body and still wanted to be present at the square when Gott and Kryl sang the national anthem

Was interested in a book I brought to class one day so much that she wanted to borrow it

Loves Dead poets society

Literally a manager of an orchestra

Lets us eat during class

Has a resignation letter thing ready at all times in case she just decides to quit, she's prepared for anything

She can be absolutely terrifying but she's also an absolute sweetheart and she teaches so well

When Adam tagged her (as in "tag you're it") she laughed and then ran up to me and tagged me

Disappointed by the lack of knowledge about culture we have

Honestly she's an icon idk what to tell you

Cool teaching methods

Probably will yell at you when you say something stupid but she's actually calm and that yelling somehow works to fix your stupidity? It's magic or something

Told us how many marks we need for her to be able to give us the final mark and let us just chill when we had them, no more tests

She just knows so much stuff

Her son is a doctor, ex army doctor I think? She must have passed the cool smart genes to her kids

Apparently one time I gave her some work of mine to read and then forgot it but she remembers? I'm so afraid what kind of cringe that must have been

Doesn't call me just by my name but by a sort of nickname (literally not even my own mom uses the affectionate version of my name)

Promised to give me a chocolate after partaking in the czech olympics regionals

Literally more proud of me than my family haha

Also teaches German. But speaks even Russian and I think French? And a bit of Latin. And obvi English.

Travelled a lot in her youth, it seems?

Keeps calling herself a grandma xd

Has absolutely stellar hearing and idk how she does that

She's an lgbt ally, yay!

Also wants equal marriage if she can be in a registered partnership (because she doesn't want to get married, she considers it long, boring and unnecessary at her age. And she doesn't need the benefits that marriage has)

Once described types of men using trees... It was a very interesting conversation

Accepted the fact that instead of a summary of one book I wrote about how it represents a metaphor for something because I misunderstood the wording of the assignment. She didn't let it slide with one other guy because he literally wrote the thing that showed up when you searched it up on Google but she let me and my explanation of three different ways the metaphor can work live and honestly I love her for that

Sometimes makes German grammar references in class and makes the russian-taking group confused

Tells us fun facts about the works we talk about in literature

Always says everything how it is

Will call you an idiot (affectionate)

HISTORY

Plays the guitar - both electric and acoustic

Was at a Pink Floyd concert recently

Has a motorcycle

And a cool aviator-like leather jacket (refuses to tell us where he got it, it's top secret)

For some reason is dating our bio teacher and we kind of pity him because at least to us she's mostly a bitch lmao

Tells bad jokes and worse stories (but we love it)

Tells us random innapropriate historical facts (apparently Napoleon didn't last long in bed and idk why he knows that)

Or says something about his past career or family history (randomly drops in how his ancestor had to ski back from Italy after ww1 or something about a client whose family tree he made)

Loves romanticism era literature

Goes fishing

One time he told me I look like I'm going to die (I'm very pale and it was summer)

Used to be my English teacher and it was amazing, we we wrote a postcard from a vacation to our principal and he made a rude comment about him and then quickly told us not to write that

Laughs whenever I have to go to the student council meeting because we both know something about toilets is going to be said

Had me read in the school announcement thing because he remembered that I was in poetry reciting competitions

Also made me start the teacher's day with greeting them as colleagues and then saying "this is prof. *his name* but 20 years younger with a soft, velvety voice"

Actually made me read a second thing there recently because he thinks I have a nice voice

My father figure lmao

We had a totally peaceful discussion about ancient and modern history and which one is better (it's ancient history and I will die on this hill)

Took selfies with us on a trip

Complains about how "see? If they paid attention in their history class, they would see where it was going and this whole thing could be prevented"

When he decided to make me suffer and ask me questions in front of the board (verbal exam) he asked stupidly formulated questions so I gave him just as dumb answers ("and what are these men in the photo doing?" "standing in front of a vagon" *shocked laughter* "I mean, yes, but I meant what are their jobs or... You know" "well you didn't say that" "that's valid")

Makes fun reanactments of situations he's explaining (that could be colonising, class enemies, literally whatever) and it's so fun

But also likes to make me suffer. Literally touched a pen during class? Amazing tell me everything you know about the current situation of native Americans in America (we were talking about the American revolution and this was kind of off topic but I can't really complain because I knew anyways).

Knew I love Joan of Arc, had an assignment about her ready and it was a free topic that he didn't assign to anybody, still decided to make me write my assignment on the structure of society in the middle ages (which you have literally not even one slide of info about because it just isn't that complicated unless you want to go into unnecessary detail which he hates so I was forced into writing a slide about my opinion comparing the society in the middle ages with the current one)

Just enjoys giving me harder assignment with a smirk that makes me want to punch him so bad (still adore him tho)

After I tagged him at lunch (literally ran past him, punched him arm as I was in full speed sprint and yelled "you're it!" in the full dining hall), he called me and my friend (they were filming it) into his office and then turned to one of my friends, tapped her shoulder with one finger and said "you're it." and we honestly lost it

One time accidentally said the Romans had rectangular squares (instead of shields) and I had a fit of laugher and he attempted to send me to the hall to calm down but when I got up to go I literally collapsed on the floor in a stronger fit of laughter and he started laughing at me

Loves to recommend historical movies. Or criticise them, for that matter.

Shittalked one Marie Terezie series with me

Has extremely cool hair

We actually made a meme about him being the hottest teacher and I really hope he has seen it. I might print it and give it to him at the end of the year, who knows

One time during a gingerbread thing I will describe somewhere a bit lower, I needed to make a good symmetrical cross (+) but screwed up so I just turned it into The sword in the stone and joked about giving it to him. Our main teacher actually did give it to him and he thanked me in the hall and I was so confused because I had no idea

One time I accidentally sent him a meme instead of an assignment. A Henry VIII meme. A really bad one.

One time I sent him a meme on purpose, tho. One about Romulus and Remus. He asked me about it and then told me he will be looking forward to receiving more memes in the future

GEO/BIO (aka our main teacher)

Makes tremendous exams even worse by forcing you to recognise pictures of the stuff. Cultural heritage places, trees that look literally the same, freaking moss that you can't tell apart let alone based on a projected photo...

Made us do damn maps of every continent. But at least three for each - river systems, terrain, and then possibly just classic geography. Also made us remember the capitals of every single European state which made me want to stab her because despite being slavic i keep switching some of the balkan countries

Lab work. Just. Lab work is pain.

You know about these weirs streams where it's just someone peeling an egg? Yeah she made us go that during our lab work

Also forced me to go to the bio olympics and j hate her for that because I don't even like biology

Literally makes me and my friend aka the responsible ones do so much stuff that we have basically no free time so she can kiss my ass

I hate her sm

Complains about being overworked, proceeds to dump half her work on teenagers

She sucks most of the time

Only nice to our medic group

Like. She buys us food after competitions

That doesn't change the fact that she's evil and overworks me constantly. One time I screwed my shoulder up after a full day of running around and running errands and carrying stuff and running upstairs with it and-- yeah I was in pain so I don't like her

Actually made us spend part of our Christmas break in the school kitchens baking and decorating gingerbread and doing other arts and crafts for some charity thing. I love charity events but once again I was sick and tired and had no free time

Makes our medic club do a thing where we explain first aid to kids. This includes minimum time to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. One time I got a fever and still had to stay there. When I finally got home, I passed out haha. Spent the next two weeks in agonising muscle pain with a cold and a fever. Once again I refuse to forgive her for making me stay there.

PHYSICS

Kind of a pedo if I'm being honest

Somehow always manages to mess up whatever he's explaining and teach us wrong information

Tests basically each class

Sometimes can be convinced to play physics themed Kahoot

Old man

Just... So weird and random

Muted the whole class on zoom during quarantine and then complained that noone responded (we were texting in the chat but he ignored that)

So many weird zoom stories

Has that shirt + beige pants fit

Does so much weird stuff that he refuses to explain because "that's between heaven and earth"

Please just elaborate for once

Exams fron things he never even talked about because why not

MATH

Sometimes tells us what nails she is planning to get

Always get the worst bowl/helmet cut and then when it finally grows out a bit she does it again. My heart weeps.

Once made someone cry during geometry??

Threw someone's pen from the window

Threatens to throw more stuff

Honestly so done with us sometimes

Rocks red and black fits most of the time

Wear a light scarf sometimes because it's cold

Keeps saying it's trivial (it either isn't or we're just stupid, jury's still out)

Wears heels all basically all the time

Probably so done with me because I just can't count haha

Loves us but sometimes we piss her off

Sometimes we just have gossip session about our main teacher because she dislikes her as well

Complains about the specific blue chairs we have and use sometimes and she's so real for that

MUSIC

Weird

Somehow made us watch psychological horror movie based on a fairytale (probably of German origin like the most of them) instead of... Idk. Something related to the class.

Going out consists of walking to a nearby pub/restaurant and sitting in the garden area

Or the basketball court thing

Thinks he is a local celebrity (he's not exactly correct)

English

The sweetest

Made us a traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish

Me and my friend made her a list of classic Czech movies we reccomend

Always says "girls, why are you so late?" when you come in not even a minute after the bell rings

Thought I'm from a bilingual family lol

Sometimes we discuss and compare Czech and Ukrainian traditions in English

Confusing pronunciation

One time she said the name Shakespeare in such a funny way but she's sweet so we don't want to tell her

Watched the new Puss in Boots movie with us in class, told us we can bring snacks

ART/P.E.

A lesbian

Has asthma

Loves art and art history

Seriously she's like me from another universe

Plays audiobooks during art class

Grades mostly based of effort

Made big canvas paintings with us and then decorated the school with them and that was something new and revolutionary

She's cool, I like her

Used to be an equestrian, apparently?

Makes art history quizzes on her insta stories

So many boob flower pots and sketches of women... I love it xd

Oh yeah she also does ceramics and makes cups and flower pots and stuff

RUSSIAN

Sweetheart as well

Used to be my English teacher before we switched groups

So done with pur group sometimes

Very excited to teach us the longest or funniest words like достопримечательности

One time she watched Masha and the bear with us during class

And Jen Počkej Zajíci (Ну погоди) even tho it's basically the same in all languages since there's minimum speaking

Also made us recite a poem about lunch during the week and I still remember it after rlike three years and I hate that

[lottiecrabie]

Hey! Super duper random, but how did you get into writing? Your stuff is my absolute favorite and I have some ideas of my own that you inspired tbh. I’m thinking of starting to post on my blog but I don’t even know where to start! Any tips?

tysm! tbh writing has always been something very intrinsic to me. i’ve been writing stories ever since i was old enough to hold a pen, and before that i was rambling them out loud. its just part of who i am. that means i’ve had fifteen whole years to practice my writing! that is unfortunately the best advice i can give you; practice, practice, practice. writing is a muscle and it must be exercised.

for more concrete advice, it’s important to follow an idea and story you personally enjoy. you need to find something that sparks and makes you want to write, or you’ll be unable to finish it. having an interesting idea, loveable characters, and being able to capture the attention of an audience is the most difficult skill for an author to have, yet the most important. even writers you might find lacking— all the most famous smutty romance writers who people might complain about the technique still manage to have this skill few others have, which is why they are bestsellers.

i believe there’s two type of writers; those who write dialogues more easily, and those who favor action. finding what comes easier for you is a great way to exploit your strength and work on your weaknesses. believe or not, i used to be a dialogue writer, yet i’ve worked hard enough on my prose that i think i’m now morse known for that than my dialogues.

if you are a dialogue writer, try to remember to vary the distance between dialogues. i mean that quite literally; when you view dialogues, they shouldn’t all be one after the other, or you might as well write a play. remember to distance with interjections, thoughts, feelings, reactions, descriptions, actions. it doesn’t have to always been a big distance between two exchanges; sometimes, during arguments or particularly vivid teasing, quick, snappy dialogues is the best option. you need to find the perfect rhythm depending on the mood.

if you are more an action writer, i find that prose is the most fun and beautiful thing to write. stylistic choices really give a certain personal vibe to your writing, whether you enjoy prose or not. a dry, direct style gives a personal trademark as well. i think the balance of it is the most important, and something i myself have not even mastered. knowing when adverbs and adjectives are becoming too many, when you’re teetering on purple prose, when you are too much tell and not enough show are all things that you must look out for.

paragraphs are an absolute must. the first thing that makes me exit a story is a lack of paragraph. one idea, one paragraph. following this rule is essential to being coherent and not a terrible struggle for your readers. switching between your speakers is essential too!

in the end, especially in the case of smut, as long as its not boring, you will have people reading. everything else can come with practice, and that is what is very essential. you would not like what i wrote five, four, even two years ago. i do not even like it. but i got there because i wrote, and i kept writing, and i got better. good luck !

[adachimoe]

Random conflicting Adachi details in the Golden anime

In the post about "Adachi was totally stalking Mayumi", I mentioned:

I’m aware that the Persona 4 Golden anime has its own version of this where Adachi is actually legitimately seriously assigned to go babysit Mayumi. But that’s just the anime adaptation’s take on Adachi, and in the commentary track for episode 7, the director emphasizes that this is their take and encourages you to think whatever you’d like. 

So here are some other decisions that the Golden anime made that conflict with what else is known about the character.

Golden anime: Adachi is in Tokyo before coming to Inaba. They don't name Tokyo, but he's shown working at a rather distinct building when he receives his transfer order to Inaba, and the building is the real life Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department building.

Atlus: Adachi didn't live in Iwatodai, but he did used to work in the heart of the city (source: Persona Stalker Club episode 11).

I assume that the anime staff picked the Tokyo PD to make Adachi look successful before he gets booted all the way to Inaba.

I know some creators just come up with answers to fan questions, but I don't get that impression about this - Atlus had already thought about it if Adachi was talking about being sick of seeing the Moonlight Bridge. (Tho the Moonlight Bridge in Persona 3 is modeled after the real life Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo. I guess we have "Tokyo at home".) I think Iwatodai is a big enough city that Adachi would miss it when he's stuck in Inaba too. It's modeled on the very large port city of Kobe. Going from working there to working in the sticks would be a huge shift.

Golden anime: Adachi is wearing a red tie as he drives into Inaba with his transfer papers.

Atlus: Adachi's red tie was a hand-me-down from Dojima because Dojima couldn't stand seeing the shitty tie Adachi kept wearing (source: Persona Stalker Club episode 5).

The Persona Stalker Club stuff was after the anime aired, so it's not like they could have known. I also don't get the impression that this was a random answer. The person who asked this question on Stalker Club was totally on to something - why *do* these 2 dudes both wear red ties? Also, in Adachi's social link, Nanako points out that he has holes in his socks, so him wearing a threadbare tie that pissed off Dojima sounds about right lol.

Golden anime: Adachi's apartment is rather empty. Barren, even - there are no personalizations or decorations. It's also noticeably clean - part of the plot is him cleaning out his fridge, and the setting files only shows some folded clothes on the ground.

Atlus: Adachi is noted as being bad at tidying up his room (source: his P4U2 profile).

I don't think this is a "random" trivia thing that someone just wrote for his profile. In the notes accompanying his character design from the Persona 4 Design Works, Soejima talks about communicating that Adachi really was an elite in the police force through his bedhead and crooked tie. How elites have some part of them that's "off", and in Adachi's case, it's that he isn't mindful of his appearance.

Imo, what Soejima did with his character design helps give the player a visual about how his home looks without ever actually seeing it. Like the mental image I have of him is, "dude who sleeps on a futon surrounded by stacks of cup noodles and beer cans, uses a 10-in-1 product, owns 1 suit", and I thought that way before ever seeing his P4U2 profile.

Meanwhile, the Golden anime adaptation went in a different direction and used the appearance of his place as an extension of himself. His room's barren appearance and lack of personalizations reflects how Adachi doesn't have much going on in his life, and the kindness forced on him by others is something he keeps on a cold shelf before physically throwing into the trash. Hmm, it feels heavy handed when you type all of it out like that lol.

???: Btw, the anime might make you think Adachi has a classic yellow PVC raincoat, but it's actually a yellow mods coat (source: Soejima's character design for Adachi says "mods coat"). The m51 parka that was worn by mods is made of nylon, so it's also waterproof. That said, I have no idea if the anime was trying to draw him in a pvc raincoat or a yellow mods.

[joswriting]

Writer Q&A

Finally doing this, thank you for the tag @lexiklecksi!!

I tag: @wheres-all-the-tea-gone and @atmospheric and anyone who wants to do it

What motivates you to write?

An inherent desire to communicate and deal with certain feelings I have (usually bad ones). My big WIP On The End Of Everything is about characters that are very dissatisfied with their lives and with who they are but have no way of changing this, as well as an exaggeration of the apocalyptic feeling we get when we don't have our lives completely together (might that tell you something about me?). Both this story and my short story anthology WIP make political commentary in the stupidest way possible, like any scifi story should.

Every character has a trace of me and every trace of me is examined and judged in all sorts of situations. It's both a form of self-therapy and a way to unload nonsensical ideas and peculiar humour.

A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I like my poems best of the stuff I've written in the past 3 years, and there's a rather long one with some body horror elements (CW), but here are two verses from that one:

you may climb to the valley but the descent is steep there the partyhouse is filled to the brim here lie the parents, not awake nor asleep tie them together for their bodies are thin down the sea over yonder and into the deep see them drown and wonder, why had they no skin? a fly on the water comes to pose a conundrum if your face were another would you feel any different? then all insects fall dead to beat of a drum the wet blows are approaching and becoming vociferant another face is growing over your own now, how fun the next mouth utters sweetly the cry of an infant

What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

I'm not sure but I used to think descriptions? Especially of rather gorey and disturbing scenes, that's what I used to think. I haven't done that sort of thing in a while though, I hope I get to do it again soon. Well, apart from poems, as you can see.

But I think desciptions in general, they are my way of bringing the humour.

What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

The fact we all stay curious about other people and their work! Plus everyone here is so earnestly in love with writing, it's nice.

A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Those synonym and rhyme websites, translators, but in my case especially wiktionary.org

A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

I like the world building in On The End Of Everything's first universe the best, but it's a sort of mystery so I don't want to spoiler it. To give you an idea of the current vibe (after all the worldbuilding that is to be uncovered); it is a universe with no sun, one planet that is able to support human life due to geothermic activity and an ecosystem of bioluminescent critters, and a human population with names like Nestlé (my main girl of this universe, I love her).

What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

If you're stuck just write Anything else. Could be a completely unrelated story idea you have or you can try to write the scene from someone else's perspective or write what someone completely different is doing somewhere else in-universe right now. Just because it won't be part of the finished story doesn't mean its not valuable. And hey, depending on the tone of your writing or how exciting the scene is you could just put it in anyway. For example: i dont really know how to write my current scene so instead i just wrote about a random bioluminescent dog called Stephen Colbert and his take on the scene. My writing is silly.

[dennisboobs]

How could a guy get involved in helping out with the wiki? I've never done it before and I don't think I'd necessarily be any good at writing the content (I'm too biased and I know it) but I love doing repetitive organisational stuff like linking pages together and keeping an eye on formatting and stuff.

We all started somewhere! The nicest thing about wiki work is that every little bit helps (and nothing is ever catastrophic, the rollback and page history features are a godsend, and I have a bot set up in a private server to give me live updates for the wiki). Even if you don't think you'd be great at writing, someone else could come along and spiff up the stuff you wrote, edit it down, change your wording, etc. In many cases, it's better to have something on a page than nothing at all, even if you don't feel it's adequate. Trust me when I say that starting from scratch is worse for someone like me, especially when the subject has fifteen seasons you're now faced with recapping because at some point someone decided Dennis' page should be full of jotnotes detailing his sexual exploits instead of an actual per-episode or even per-season summary.

If you think you're biased, stick to facts, cite your sources, and don't extrapolate a ton; it helps to work on pages you don't have any particularly strong feelings about too (though this isn't always the most motivating, it might still be a good place to start out).

I'm going to work on writing up a style guide for the wiki, probably something similar to the one I wrote for the Disco Elysium wiki, but until then, small edits and just doing what you can (fixing spelling errors, watching for consistency - US English on the Sunny wiki is a bit of a struggle for me because I'm Canadian, I slip up - with grammar and regional spelling), and if you're familiar with how interwiki links should be handled (something like... [[Dennis Reynolds]] or [[Deandra Reynolds|Dee Reynolds]] or ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', only first mention on a page should be linked, first mention should be the full name/title, etc.) my suggestion is just going to the topnav and hitting "random page" and seeing if you hit on a page with a glaring problem that you can tackle.

Right now, most pages have lazy and unnecessary templates like this: {{Dennis}}, {{S8}} that I'm working on getting rid of and replacing with the standard links: [[Dennis Reynolds|Dennis]], [[Season 8]], so if you're up for the task, that might be an easy place to start, and should also serve to get you acclimated to the wiki and the editor (speaking of, I'd suggest using the actual source editor - not the VisualEditor or the VisualEditor - source mode, but the actual Source editor - which can be found in My Preferences > Editing.)

If you need anything at all, you can hit me up on my profile's talk page, on Discord @ Literally Satan#3262, or here on tumblr, and I'd be happy to help. Thanks for your interest!!

[soulsxng]

Rules, tag 10 followers  you want to get to know better!

Tagged by: @sansloii​​ Tagging: steal it from me!

Name: Aya, Riah, Rai-rai. I noticed there's a lot of people that pronounce Aya like...(the letter) A-yah, but it's actually Ai-yah. Riah is Rai-ah.

Star Sign: Sagittarius sun, Libra moon, Cancer rising!

Height: 5'9" (I shrank a little, weh.)

Middle name: It's a secret c: I'll just say that it's a super common one.

Put your itunes/spotify/youtube on shuffle. What are the first 6 songs that popped up? (*puts the bigass master youtube playlist on shuffle and shrugs tbh*)

Mon.ster H.unter: World - V.aal Ha.zak theme (FalKKonE metal arrange)

La La Latch (Pentatonix)

The Reverberation Ensemble (StudioEIM)

Requiem (Chogakusei cover)

Kisaragi Station (nqrse)

Put Your Records On (Corinne Bailey Rae)

Ever had a poem or song written about you: I have, a few times! When we were still in elementary school, my little bro wrote a poem about me for class. And then I had a group of friends write a song about me when I was in high school (I had been dealing with The Big C at the time and was in the hospital, and they wrote it to cheer me up. It made me cry orz)

When was the last time you played air guitar: I'm more of a random dancing/wiggling randomly when music is playing type. Oh! Actually, it was a few weeks ago, because I was messing with my little sister while I was visiting her at work. That was an air banjo though, from an inside joke I have with my siblings.

Who is your celebrity crush?: I don't think I have one? That feels like a cop out though, so I'll say that I'm a big fan of Ol.an Ro.gers? He's hilarious. Me, my wife, and a few of our friends got to meet him last year actually, and it was a lot of fun!

What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?: FUCKIN-- okay so there's a lot of bad sounds out there, but one that has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time? People chewing with their mouth open, or sucking on their teeth a lot. OH, ALSO SUPER HIGH PITCHED NOISES. Like when movies and stuff play that like...tinnitus noise sometimes?

As for a sound I like, uh...it's sort of hard to explain, but sometimes when you hear people singing a harmony, if the voices line up perfectly, you can naturally hear what's called an overtone. I might have to look for a video or something, but essentially, you can hear a pitch the next octave up from one of the harmonized notes even though nobody is singing it. It's super cool, and gives me goosebumps every time. It occurs in instrumental harmonies too, iirc?

Do you believe in ghosts?: Kinda? I guess it depends on the circumstance.

How about aliens: I mean, yeah. I think it's scarier to believe that we're the only planet out there with intelligent life and whatnot on it, than to believe that there's others out there that we just haven't encountered, yet. Also, the odds of that are just astronomically low anyway.

Do you drive?: I do! Where I live, it'd be kind of impossible to not have either me or Kei able to do so. Plus I just enjoy it overall, most of the time.

if so have you ever crashed: Nope! I've been driving for like 13 years now (started a little before I turned 15, shhh), and haven't had any accidents.

What was the last book you read?: Uhhh I think it was MDZS book...5? Whichever one just released earlier this month. Otherwise, it was The Starless Crown.

Do you like the smell of gasoline: Diesal, nah. It makes me gag. Regular gas...eh. I'm indifferent to it. Unless it's rancid gasoline, in which case, it also makes me gag.

What was the last movie you saw?: ...I think it was the D&D movie? I'm gonna be honest, I watch very little tv, and very few movies.

What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?: I guess it would be from when I was in like 9th grade? I was sledding with some friends, and we were at this massive hill, having fun and being stupid. It was fine, but there was part of the hill that the snow plows liked to push snow from the parking lot into. So there was a big snow pile off to the side, and because I'm in a state known for the bitter cold, these piles might as well have been-- as I referred to them when I was a teenager-- small glaciers lmao.

Anyway, random fun fact, but the average sled speed on a decently sized hill is like 20mph. (can't remember where I learned that though so don't quote me on it) This hill was especially steep, so I want to say that I was going even faster than that, I got bumped into by one of my friends about 3/4ths of the way down, and slammed into the of one of these frozen slowplow piles full force before I could stop myself or roll off the sled. I hit the entire right side of my body, but mostly my thigh.

The resulting bruise was so severe (It was a bone-deep bruise over most of it. The doctor that saw me afterwards thought I had been in a car crash!), that if you were to touch my right thigh even now, you can still feel the muscular scarring it left. Yeah though, it's from like...just a little above my knee, to just below my hip.

Do you have any obsessions right now?: Probably Eld.en R.ing. I've been on and off of obsession with that since it came out, and obviously rn is one of those "on" periods! Singing is always an obsession of mine, same with dog stuff (specifically training/behavior/health related stuff), aaaand...worldbuilding stuff. Like the deep, almost scientific worldbuilding stuff that I probably won't have any reason to share with anyone else, but will randomly babble at Kei about while she's captive in my car and my mind has clung to one idea in particular.

[tsarisfanfiction]

Fire and Sand? :D

Fire: What’s a scene that you are dying to write?

I have a few of these, but the issues come in getting to those scenes (I cannot write out of order because inevitably by the time I reach that scene something has changed in the build-up and it no longer fits perfectly the way I wrote it and it's like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole and at that point no matter what I do I will always hate that scene forever more so for my own sanity and love of stories all that happens are notes to remind myself what's coming up).

One is the scene I'm actually at at the moment in Eclipse, where we have some proper communication going on between Apollo&Hades. Unfortunately, here dying means two things at once because I really wanna get this scene written but doing it justice is so hard it's stalling my muses...

Another is a rescue moment in a different (In The Depths of Despair) I've been working on while I try and butter my muses up to return to Eclipse - in this case, it's some protective!dad!Apollo because how dare those monsters try and kill his kid? And also a rare pair (platonic) that occurred to me today in that fic which I now really, really want to get to already!

There's also an Apollo&Artemis conversation in You'll Be Here In My Arms which I've been chewing over for ages but haven't got as far as writing, and a scene in a random AU I came up with the other week which might appear if I can worldbuild it successfully because we're talking actual AU here and not just a bit of canon-divergence... oh, and Stitch has some great moments lined up when I get back to writing that!

Sand: What’s the softest scene you’ve ever written?

Oh boy, this is a hard one. Depends on your definition of soft, I guess? If you mean literal soft, I have a few scenes in Tales From The Heart that have a lot to do with animals and soft fur and animal hugs! Then there's some bed-sharing going on between worried and/or exhausted brothers in a few of my Thunderbirds fics, although don't ask me to name which ones in particular - it's a common trope in my TAG stuff (outside of the whump and angst!)

Not sure I could give a specific example here, sorry!

Elemental Writer Asks