#i've had this story idea since like 2017 and i feel like i finally have the sims and ps skills and also the time to execute it

[lowvintagesims]

know it sounds funny but i just can't stand the pain i'm leaving you tomorrow

next

[imaginespazzi]

I've been letting your story marinate for a few days. Perfection as always.

I'm very interested in this timeline because Paige getting married after a year dating and Azzi being very pregnant got my braincells firing. And I wonder if one is an (in)direct result of the other. Sorry this is long but I had to write it out.

Feb 2033 - Present day, Stephie is 5. Paige and Azzi not really spoken in 8 years.

2030 - P and Olivia divorce.

September 2029 - Stephie about 18 months. Paige married. Found it interesting that Paige wears an engagement ring...

Jan/Feb 2028 - Stephie born.

December 2027 - Paige's wedding, very Azzi pregnant (the timeline is timelining for me around this). Paige and Olivia been dating 'barely a year.'

Early 2027ish - Azzi flies to Dallas sees Paige and Olivia together, leaves.

Late 2026 - P and Olivia start dating. Paige hid the relationship for the first few months.

May 2024 - End of school year, Paige going into her final season in 2024-2025, appears Azzi is planning on staying until 2026.

September 2017 - Baby Pazzi being adorkable

Other thoughts as I re-read hunting for clues.

I feel like when Azzi's not around and Stephie is over Katie and Tim talked about Paige, she seemed to know a lot about her beyond just seeing her play a handful of times.

The fracturing seemed to happen while still at UConn judging by comments by Jana/Ice. And it was clearly pretty bad from the way the UConn girlies still react to it.

As a side note I kinda don't blame Azzi for feeling so off kilter, Paige parachutes back into her life after barely speaking in a decade, and slides back into how she's so pretty and all this like she didn't have a whole ass WIFE in between. I'd also feel whiplash from it tbh.

Paige doing all those little things that aren't her for the wedding she so wants to love Olivia as much as Azzi but can't. Feels like a massive red flag to be thinking about the girl you wish you could have married on your wedding day.

8 years and it seems like Paige has no idea why Azzi said no?

Azzi feels so guilty but part of me thinks she had a reason that made sense at the time that Paige couldn't/wouldn't try to understand.

I have a partial theory but will save it so as not to put out any potential spoilers (not saying I'm super confident lol).

OMG babes you're pretty much spot on with your timelines. Here's my timeline (literally written on a sticky note on my laptop) for cross-reference (spoilers crossed out obvi)

Yes absolutely, Katie and Tim have definitely spoken about Paige in front of Stephie and especially since Stephie would be with them at Wings vs Valkyries games, they'd make sure she knew

Whiplash + residual guilt, like Azzi's definitely got some valid concerns at the moment

You know how Azzi has warning bells? Paige reeeeeally needs some of those or maybe she does have them, but when they were ringing like crazy on her wedding day, she did an incredible job of ignoring them

Paige and Azzi have had their moments over the course of 8 years but they've definitely never addressed anything they should...

OMG please send me your theory and add like a clue/emoji or something so I can confirm if you're close or not without posting it cause I really wanna hear it.

[7grandmel]

Rip of the week: 25/07/2024

The End of HHGregg

Season 6 Featured on: Transmission Archive ~ The SiIvaGunner All-Star Nuclear Winter Festival Collection

Ripped by The Green Spy, CaptainComedy Visuals by Galacksy

(Note: MP3 embed is trimmed at the beginning as to allow it to be posted within Tumblr's file size limits)

I'm sure some of you were worried about where this week's post had gone. Worry not - I was simply biding my time for the day to arrive. Indeed, we have reached the 25th of July, a Thursday for some, and a national holiday for others. For today, we celebrate, grieve and toast to our dearly beloved, HHGregg. Today, it is Christmas in July, and time to at last cover The End of HHGregg.

For being one of my all-time favorite SiIvaGunner channel memes, I'm shocked at myself in how restrained I've been in covering rips using HHGregg's infamous red-tag-sale commercial. Sure, I spilled my soul out for the joke back with Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source, and Everything Circus remains an all-time classic, yet there's still so much more to cover. In terms of jokes on the SiIvaGunner channel, I feel like HHGregg is one of the most developed ones, one with a legacy cherished by so many people on the team and off - and even a bit of a story to it that's been captured in full glory with today's rip.

Like sure, there's the obvious quirk that makes HHGregg stand out more than many other channel memes - the guy has an outright day-of-the-year holiday dedicated to him. As the infamous Christmas in July ad was what propelled HHGregg's moderately-annoying mascot into becoming a YTPMV star, July 25th on SiIvaGunner has become a sort of understated annual event for fans like myself, much in the same way that April 30th was with It's Gonna Be Me and guess what​?​?​?​?​?​?​?​?. Yet, of course, there's an underlying sort of sadness to HHGregg rips in particular due to the brand its attached to: the company that the ad's many YTPMVs are riffing on filed for bankrupcy in 2017, midway through Season 2 of SiIvaGunner. The store still exists now, bought by a parental company and turned all-digital, but the franchise as it was once known is all gone, with it's ill-fated mascot going down with it.

Of course, we don't really need to feel much remorse for the fall of an electronics boutique - but given the SiIvaGunner channel's way of personifying and giving life to in-jokes and gags the world over, it informs rips using HHGregg in a pretty different way. HHGregg rips on the channel had their biggest stride during the very same year that the chain went bankrupt, as if to suggest that the mascot was desperate to prove his own worth on the one place that still remembered him fondly. In the years since, we got sporadic shots of the guy here and there - and in my eyes, it at one point felt as if it all culminated with the rip エイチエイチグレッグ ホワイトハウスでチョー大変!, a fully-featured edit of Neon Genesis Evangelion's iconic A Cruel Angel's Thesis opening now starring HHGregg himself.

Yet, of course, as I've harped on about with rips like Shiny Smily TALE, Violet Snow Memories and Our Sweet Parsley, one of the most rewarding parts of following the SiIvaGunner channel lies in how the team never seems to forget about any of its zillions of uploads. No matter how much time passes, rippers love one another, the ideas they come up with, and the potential to build further on one another's ideas - it is a core part of YTP and YTPMV culture that's remained strong on SiIvaGunner since its very inception. The A Cruel Angel's Thesis rip above, by excellent rippers Ashley and GramBam36 of The Legend of Cage: Staff Roll fame, was a joyous celebration - a year later, as Season 6's sombre mood results in the Nuclear Winter Festival rolling around, a trio of rippers sees the perfect opportunity to finally put HHGregg to some form of rest. The meme's far from dead today, of course (check the channel right now) - yet, at last, with The End of HHGregg, it felt as if the funny paper roll man was finally ready to accept his fate.

The End of HHGregg, silly of a concept as it may be, executes that concept to a degree I don't think anyone was expecting. Second only to A Cruel Angel's Thesis, Komm, süsser Tod is an iconic piece that serves as the ending theme to the original NGE anime, one tied to feelings of bittersweet-ness, finality - at once able to reference one of the most classic HHGregg rips on SiIva, acknowledging HHGregg's bankruptcy, whilst tying itself directly to the ongoing Nuclear Winter Festival of Season 6. And that's not even getting into the rip itself!

The YTPMV work done here to sentence-mix and pitch-shift HH's various vocals to fit the melody of Komm, süsser Tod is, for lack of a better way to put it, downright remarkable. Despite a seemingly limited pool of voice lines to work with and a rigid framework of a melody, the guy only ever "sings" in complete sentences, with pitch shifting that manages to sound shockingly natural, still as gratingly chipper as HH tends to sound but still seeped in that vibe of bittersweet-ness that I discussed before. It goes through every beat and phase of Komm, süsser Tod without ever having the vocal samples sound forced, including the deeply inspired use of a layered, choir-like HH performance on several segments. Althewhile never forgetting the classic HH lines, the red-tag sales, the HD-TV and Whirlpool appliances, and of course, the Christmas in July. The cherry on top of it all is the intro to the song, before the main melody truly kicks in, as this little interlude sneakily includes a guitar now playing Deck the Halls just as featured in the most infamous Christmas in July ad - a sombre reminder of where it all began.

That aforementioned vibe is, of course, emphasized greatly by Galacksy's incredible illustration for the rip, the literal End of Evangelion depicted as being the fall of HHGregg as a whole, in absolutely spectacular fashion. Like with i love(d) you and so so many other rips, it's so often these seemingly small touches that end up elevating rips to all-time classics for me, and it's a trait that The End of HHGregg's audio also eventually contributes to, in a way I truly don't wish to spoil for you all. Nevertheless, the key takeaway here is one that's evident right upon first listen: This is a DAMN impressive YTPMV effort that at once celebrates and mourns one of the YTPMV world's most cherished sources, yet pulling it off as if it were effortless. In celebration of YTPMV, of SiIvaGunner, of one of the channel's most immaculate of somewhat-too-hidden gems from Season 5, and of the very state of memes coming to an end - The End of HHGregg is everything one could ask for.

Godspeed, you rolled-up brochure cretin. And happy Christmas in July to you.

[understandingbimbos]

Narrowing the scope.

What would you call a non-announcement? This is that. I have no earth-shattering news, nothing important to say. This... is a blog post.

I'm overwhelmed. This project is overwhelming. As you all know, (or maybe don't know... I've gained quite a few followers since then) this began as a personal project. Something I've had a burgeoning interest in for years as someone who's been into this fetish for years, my annoyance at the BimboTok phenomenon (Which is, thankfully, mostly dead now, though residual effects do remain) finally spurring me into action.

And as such, being a personal project, I began this blog as... well, a blog, I guess. To share research I've accumulated and thoughts I had publicly and reach an audience that may be similarly interested or just curious. Had I been keeping up with the times I may have gone for Wordpress or Substack instead. Had I more confidence, YouTube. (Also if I had more confidence I probably would've contacted others by now instead of languishing in the comfort and stagnation of obscurity... but that's a different story, probably.)

Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, the book. Post-2017 Tumblr may have not been the best place to build an audience but the (lovely) audience I did acquire convinced-influenced-inspired me to write my thoughts, feelings, and research into a book.

Turns out writing a book is hard.

What am I actually doing? What am I actually writing? Sometimes I think I know, I don't. I have no idea. I guess I know what I aspire to write... but there's no way I can. Because writing a book is hard. And I probably have ADHD, amongst several other personal problems. So while I'm still not sure exactly what I'm writing, or what I should and shouldn't cover, I am sure I will have to... "narrow the scope".

Or maybe I could do it in increment volumes, like:

History of Bimbofication and the World, Part I

History of Bimbofication and the World, Part II

History of Bimbofication and the World, Part III

I guess that's a joke. So, really, no, narrowing the scope. And I guess I have not much else to say except... let's see how that goes.

Also, I made a Discord server.

It's not for sexual roleplay or porn (and if you attempt that you will be banned) but it can be a place for bimbo and bimbofication related discussion and, like I intended when I first started this blog, sharing resources, I guess just in a more communal way. And a sort of real-time version of this blog because I'm tired a lot and posting in a server requires less effort and less internal-pressure for formality.

So, feel free to share. This is a temporary 7 day link. If things go well and there's further interest I'll add a permanent one later.

[rukimakino-heirofheart]

🔥Puella Magi Madoka Magica

🔥Renaruki

🔥 MadoMagi:

The original anime was pretty mediocre and had a mediocre soundtrack. Its fatal flaw is that it tries to center itself around a single main character (Madoka Kaname herself) whose viewpoint we see the world through, but her characterization physically cannot get focus in this format in an anime, because you just don't get to see how deeply screwed up her worldview is if you never know what she's thinking. Consequently, you actively lose information by telling the story in a format other than a novel or VN. (Observant viewers may recognize this as the same ultimate problem behind why adapting FSN for the screen inherently requires getting more exposit-y about Shirou's deal.) Ultimately, I wholeheartedly recommend skipping the MadoMagi TV anime entirely; most of the best parts of the Puella Magi Series are elsewhere and don't expect familiarity with a disappointing TV anime. (The Different Story, Rebellion, and Wraith Arc escape this curse by not being Madoka-centric, instead focusing on more conventional protagonists in Kyouko and Homura.)

Rebellion was a perfectly fine ending in and of itself, and it doesn't need a sequel. The only reason I'm interested in Walpurgis no Kaiten's existence is that it seems to be going so far out of left field that I kind of have to entertain it and find out what the cook is.

Of the "classic" Puella Magi titles (pre-2017, i.e. before Magia Record), I'd rank them like this:

Puella Magi Tart Magica - Masugitsune

Puella Magi Oriko Magica - Kuroe Mura

Extended Puella Magi Madoka Magica Series - Gen Urobuchi (TV, Rebellion, Wraith Arc) & Masaki Hiramatsu (TDS) & Hanokage (Wraith Arc)

Puella Magi Suzune Magica - GAN

Puella Magi Kazumi Magica - Masaki Hiramatsu

Rankings of Tart and Oriko may be swapped depending on how I'm feeling that day.

This is not to say that Suzune and Kazumi are bad manga, but the former quite infamously ran into production troubles and the latter bit off way more than it could chew, and it shows. Kazumi has a lot of cool plot ideas and themes in play but reading it for the first time can feel like being subjected to a plot point firing squad. The original manga run of Suzune was good but not spectacular -- it didn't truly get to shine until the MagiReco crossover events started happening. (It has been 1200 days since the last Suzune event...)

MagiReco fans often describe Arc 2 as "when it gets good," and it's common to write off Arc 1 entirely as an extended prologue, however I do still maintain that Arc 1 is a good story on its own terms. You can feel the weight of the production issues (there's a very noticeable midpoint shift where a major rewrite happened) but it's still a perfectly fine and coherent story. Most of what the fandom writ large likes to call "flaws of Arc 1" are just, intentional foreshadowing.

When AniReco (the companion anime to MagiReco that tells a completely separate story)'s final batch of episodes originally came out that fateful April 3, I gave the production as a whole a massive side-eye (I distinctly remember logging on and asking a chatroom I was in "what is even happening?? Why is the anime Folklore of Zero propaganda all of the sudden?? Wait, Neo Dorothy Motherfucker???? Huh??????"), but I've since warmed up to it. It's its own thing, and you have to have its place in the series' cosmology and the showrunner's goals in writing it explained to you first before you start watching, and it makes some writing decisions I find to be questionable, but it did a remarkably good job for a series that was slashed from 39 episodes down to 25 halfway through.

Apparently this is a hot take now: I like Nagisa Momoe's actual backstory as detailed in MagiReco a hell of a lot better than "dumb idiot child wished for cheese instead of healing her ailing mother." The collected Nagisa cycle of MagiReco stories makes her arguably the single most interesting member of the Holy Quintet.

I want more Kyubey worldbuilding, goddammit! We know precious little -- the Incubators were created by an advanced alien civilization (local expert Touka Satomi, A1C9), and their tissue is analogous to stem cells and can be reconfigured on the fly (Kosane Kiriha, NMG) -- and I need to know more! What were the progenitors like? Did they wipe themselves out? Actually, now that I think about it, are Incubators like Touhou's shikigami where you take fleshy hardware and flash it with your own artificial intelligence? We know a human can control one (Madoka uses LoC-branded pink Incubators for surveillance purposes) and we know a human can have their soul shoved into one losslessly (mokyu!), so like, what are the limitations here? Hell, the Pleiades made their own once! It sucked at its job, but it existed! How did they do that? Tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I think that even in the absence of the Automatic Purification System, being a magical girl is just kind of objectively better than being human. You get to opt out of mortality, you get private(-ish) telepathic communication for free, you get a shrunken hitbox -- no more worrying about workplace safety hazards as long as you protect the gem! -- you get a weirdly specific personal magic that varies in effectiveness from Konomi's baton pass to Iroha's localized time reversal, and even if you don't get something useful you still have a magical weapon that you can spawn on command. That's even before we get into the existence of Coordinators, and the logical applications of their Adjustment magic in gender-affirming care. To be quite honest, if Kyubey ever had reason to approach me, my wish would probably just straight-up be "immediately megucify every human who exists right now and every human who will ever exist in the future regardless of energy cost."

I'm scared of the new Magia Exedra mobage's existence because (1) it's very prominently advertised as being Quintet-centric and I'm sick and tired of the Quintet, and (2) there's a nonzero chance it will take resources away from Magia Record to focus instead on what seems, if the credits on the website are to be believed, to be a shitty autobattler. MagiReco is the best thing the Puella Magi Series has ever done and I want it to survive well past its tenth anniversary.

🔥 RenaRuki:

Okay, seriously, did the entire Tamers fandom collectively forget that, past a certain part of the D-Reaper arc, none of the Primary Colors are actually human anymore? Because it feels like I'm the only one who's acknowledging this, despite the fact that "Ruki, alienated from humanity, voluntarily gives it up, while Renamon, aligned with humanity, is a trans woman" seems like a pretty obvious thread to work with, and being turned into a digital life-form offers plenty of opportunities for neat body horror, not even to mention how this affects the ways in which Ruki's Candy timeline counterpart has steadily been getting worse for two decades.

[Side note: I really need better names for the "more canon" movie timeline that's relevant, essential and true, and the "less canon" drama CD timeline that isn't. If I keep calling them Meat and Candy I'm going to get weird looks from the non-Homestucks.]

I swear I had more observations I was going to put here but I got sidetracked. Might add on a reblog later.

[chirasul]

for the ama post: I want to ask who was the first character ever conceptualized for Coelary and have they changed much from their original incarnation? and if so, in what ways?

the VERY FIRST bug character I made was Arsenia! and she has changed a LOT since her first iteration, but I found her style pretty quick and then I've been refining her design ever since.

gonna put some images under a readmore because my first drawings of arsenia are NAKED!

this is the very first drawing of Arsenia, based on a threadwing antlion. i posted it on twitter on September 8th, 2012 (good god over 10 years ago)

i started drawing her a lot more within the next year, where she started to assume her current form, which was influenced by anime styles i was trying to emulate:

i had these vague ideas of her story, which i slowly started to piece together into a webcomic. arsenia's design varied wildly due to my extreme lack of art skills

the first few pages of this were posted on the Coelary tumblr back in 2013, though the script quickly outpaced what I could draw, so I quit programming school and started art school in 2015 (at age 25) and yes: i did in fact go to art school just so i could make coelary

(this one's from 2017)

by the time i started drawing final art for Coelary from 2017-2020, Arsenia's final design was basically locked in and I could draw her fairly consistently each time

(2021 Arsenia)

nobody really tells you this, but designing a character is largely about getting to know them over time, especially as you cultivate your style and build your skills

(2023 Arsenia)

To be totally honest, I don't really FEEL like Arsenia's design has changed over the past decade, per se; it more just felt like I had to learn to make my art skill live up to the idea of her. But I think I'm there! I can finally draw her the way I originally imagined her.

I hope that's what you were looking for and feel free to ask any followup questions!

[winreyplace]

Intro: James "Howlett" Howlett

My Name: James Howlett, go by Howlett since coming to Winrey Place My Personality: I’m down-to-earth, laid-back, and always open to yakking. Deep within me lies a primal nature that gives me a wild streak, but it’s always tempered with gentleness. With age comes wisdom, and being older than dirt means I am the perfect person to turn to for practical advice. There is no story too scandalous or shocking for my seasoned ears; I’ve seen and heard it all. My Birthday: I’ve been around since 1832 born on 4/20; blaze it! Species/Cultural Identity: I’m a mutant My Gender Orientation: Cis man, but with a little sprinkle sprinkle if you get my meaning; he/him My Sexuality: I like guys, gals, and other pals: I’m Bisexual, though after this many years alive I’ve landed on the asexual spectrum too My Disabilities/Conditions: Well, I’ve got superhuman healing, senses, and strength as well as an adamantium skeleton and retractable claws; sometimes they’re cool, other times not so much. I’m also autistic, have PTSDxinfinity, and a brain made of Swiss cheese. Physical Description: I'm a bit of a short stack at 5'3", and I got these warm blue peepers that'll make ya feel right at home. My hair's dark brown and thick as a bear's coat, cut short cuz who's got time for styling, am I right? My skin's a nice, natural tone, like I've been out and about but not baking in the sun or anything. For my build, picture a barrel with arms and legs and you're on the right track. Let's just say I'm not worried about staying warm in the winter, cuz I've got more hair than your average throw rug. My sideburns aren't just facial hair—they're a statement. So yeah, that's me in a nutshell: compact, cuddly, rugged as the mountains and twice as handsome. My Relationships: My life partner is Logan, but I also consider Tasha, Meyleth, Butler, and Sean my QPPs. I get passionate with Diana and Pope and am down to be a BDSM play partner/mentor for anyone in the family. Lav and Mel are my daughters and I love ‘em both. My Hobbies/Interests: History, reading a lot, wrestling, kink (particularly masochism), games of skill and strategy, forest animals, and a good beer. My Canon Backstory:

Eh, a little bit of the Hugh Jackman Wolverine movies, a little bit of the Marvel comics, a little bit of the shows, and a little bit out of my own Swiss cheese munbond brain. Honestly all the key highlights are; I was born Canadian and a bastard (both senses of the word); I fought in wars; I did work as an X-men and in the academy plus a few other groups; I had many lovers of all genders; I lived ferally a few times in the woods; I traveled all over the world; all that is until Mel stumbled into the academy and offered me something new.

My Bond Backstory: Not too much to tell; she randomly showed up in the academy one day as an empath kid, probably in one of her immersive daydream paracosms, and we made some kinda connection. I think for her it was around March 2017, right after she was enjoying some of Jackman’s movies? We had some bumps at the start of our soulbond because I was a grumpy grump, a loner, and chronically underfed, but after getting a good few talkings to by the Prof and Logan, Mel’s dad, I got the idea that if I passed on this opportunity, I’d be the biggest dumbass in the universe. So I quit my job at the academy and moved into the Larramore universe at Winrey Place to make it easier to be there for the girls [both Mel and Lav]. For a while, I worked as a co-worker to Logan, which turned into a friendship, then brother-at-arms, and the final evolution is the loving partnership we have to do this day. Coming here was the best decision I ever made.

[caramelcoffeeaddict]

Weekend WIP - Ask Game

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more).

I was tagged by @bitbybitwrites. thank you for tagging me!! I don't post fics until they are complete, so unless I've mentioned the story on my blog, some of these answers are not going to make sense to anyone but me, LOL. also, I try to only work on one WIP at a time, but I do have a few partially started/outlined stories sitting in my drafts folder on my hard drive, and I guess they are technically WIPs even if I'm not actively working on them, so here goes nothing...

-

1. WIP List:

Andy Hummel's Last Will And Testament

Breaking Stereotypes

I Taste The Truth

You And Me And The Beat

The Escape Plan

2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest?:

Breaking Stereotypes is currently just over 55k words, so definitely that one ;)

3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest?:

Probably Breaking Stereotypes?

4. Which WIP is your favourite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why?:

Currently, I'm only focusing on Breaking Stereotypes, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it and getting it published.

5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why?:

I Taste The Truth is a pretty intimidating story to write. Which probably explains why I haven't even looked at in a few years. why? because it involves a lot of world building since Kurt is part-Fae in that fic, and I want to make sure I can explain things properly without info-dumping, but also make sure that I'm not leaving out important info that lives in my head but a reader might need extra context for.

6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?:

again, I Taste The Truth. for all the same reasons that I explained above.

7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why?:

none of them? I've only ever had a beta read a fic if the story was written for a challenge where a beta was a requirement of the challenge.

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block?:

all of them!! that's why their WIPs, LOL. Breaking Stereotypes was fic I started in 2017. I think I put it on official hiatus in 2019, and have only really done minor edits here-and-there until this year when I finally figured out what direction to take the story.

9. Which WIP has your favourite OC? Tell us about them?"

as of right now, Breaking Stereotypes is the only story with an OC. Her name is Candice. She is the manager of Blaine's band as well as Trent's girlfriend (Trent is bi in my fic). She's a smart and snarky, and she takes her job very seriously.

10. Which WIP is the sexiest?:

I don't have a lot written for it yet, but my guess is that You And Me And The Beat will be the sexiest ;)

11. Which WIP is the angstiest?:

I honestly don't know. Andy Hummel's Last Will And Testament, maybe?

12. Which WIP has the best characterisation (in your humble opinion)?:

all of them? again, I don't know. I think my characterization is about equal across all my stories? I could be wrong though.

13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)?:

You And Me And The Beat? maybe?

14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on?:

Definitely Breaking Stereotypes.

15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why?:

I don't put expectations on my fics. not the way this question implies anyway. the only expectations I have are things like "I expect this to have 20 chapters" or "I expect this to be around 20k words" or "I expect to complete this story by next week". I don't expect anything else from them. I really am that annoying person that writes stories strictly for my own enjoyment because these stories are in my head and I want to get them on paper so I can read them. even though I complain about it, the creative process of bringing these stories to life is the best part of writing fic. I just share the completed stories with the fandom for fun, because I figure there might be other people out there that will enjoy it as much as me. if not, no worries. it made me happy, and that's all that matters.

16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?:

daydream? yes. I think about all of them often. usually just the one that is my main focus of the moment, but sometimes one of the others likes to remind me it still exists, and tries to command my attention ;) however, I don't usually have dreams about my WIPs. (I have occasionally gotten an idea for a story/WIP because of a dream though)

17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other fics don't?:

I Taste The Truth has that element of including Fae attributes and otherworldly components, which makes it different from my other WIP stories.

18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humour?:

The Escape Plan is a fun and silly fic.

19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process?:

nope. sorry.

20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs.:

I honestly can't remember what I have or have not shared about each of these fics, so I don't know what you don't know. but if you have questions you can always feel free to send me an ask! I love talking about my fics with people.

[digi-log-conversation]

Were you the person in the secret annex online rip?

For obvious reasons I don't want to be drawing attention to this video, so I will not be tagging this post with my usual tags for Q&A stuff, but it turns out I do have a lot to say.

Content warning for nazi stuff.

Yes, this was me! Let me tell you the full story of how this rip came to be:

At the time, backroom was trying to think of what to do for 4/20 the second time around, since we already celebrated weed the first time. 2017 was kind of the height of SiIva backroom considering "edgy" humour really really funny so it was quickly decided that we would be celebrating Adolf Hitler's birthday. The twist, however, was that only a small number of rips uploaded would be relevant at all, and that they would all be implicit references. AKA, you wouldn't think that these rips are connected to Hitler if not for the fact that they were all uploaded on his birthday. The only exception to this was to be the planned finale rip, a character-dedicated Snow halation rip featuring the tyrannical dictator himself. This ended up going up on Flustered Fernando, I believe, under the title "Mein Theme - World War II".

On the day itself, I happened to be on my way home from school, and we had some balloons there, I think leftover from someone's birthday the day before. It was then that I got the idea to make this video, since the Anne Frank house was pretty easy to reach. After checking whether there was some possible viable metadata I could upload it under, I wrote "HBD 4/20" on the balloon, walked next to the Anne Frank house and put it down on the ground, filming all of it. When I got home I quickly edited it all together and posted the video.

At the time, I don't think I was very worried about the way this video would be seen. I considered it to be pretty tame even for an offensive joke, because noone had even seen it happen. Nobody but me would know what was on that balloon or what it even meant, and I didn't take it very seriously, because in my eyes it wasn't.

But when it's uploaded to a YouTube channel with (at the time) 156 thousand subscribers, it sends a different message. A message saying "yes, we're okay with celebrating someone who represents the murder of 6 million jews," and "we're willing to take our jokes offline," which is a VERY dangerous message to send. I consider us lucky the video mostly went under the radar and didn't attract the kind of people who would be down with that to our community.

And that's where the video stayed for the next 3 years; under the radar. After I stopped caring about impressing my "edgy" friends, I wasn't very happy about the video staying up, but I didn't exactly want to draw attention to it by taking it down. A bit unreasonable, I really should have just taken it down at that point, even if that meant it would have turned into one of those notorious SiIva lost media cases. Anyway, I removed the video in 2020, and that's the end of the story.

While the contents of the video may have been fairly tame, only depicting minor criminal activity (at least, I don't think littering counts as a hate crime??), it was a lot more about the message it sent than the events it depicted, and I'm happy it's gone. I've been speaking pretty objectively and retrospectively about it up until now, but I feel it would be remiss of me not to say how I feel about it now: I'm sorry to anyone who saw this video, recognized the message it was sending, and felt any degree of uncomfortable. If this video or any of the culture surrounding it put you off SiIvaGunner or made you feel like you wouldn't belong in the community around the channel, I'm really sorry. I hope you'll give it a second chance. If you saw this video and wish SiIva would go back to its former "edgy" glory, kindly fuck off.

Lastly, a few closing remarks. You may be wondering why I even bothered answering this ask instead of just ignoring it and letting the video rest in obscurity. Well, I don't like shying away from or hiding parts of my past. I much prefer to acknowledge that it happened, what I learned from it and how I improved. However, please don't take this as an invitation to highlight this as one of my contributions on the SiIvaGunner Wiki. I'd rather not see my name in the little infobox on the article, so I guess consider the video disowned.

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Hey there! Could you tell me a little bit more about why you chose to start ballet as an adult, your experience, etc? I'm in my twenties and used to do ballet when I was little up until about ten. I'm a huge fan of ballet and have been following it seriously for years, but recently I've been thinking about starting adult classes myself and am pretty nervous. Any suggestions or tips? Thanks!!

P.S. I'm also curious to know if you've started pointe or if you want to?

HELLO! WE LOVE ADULT BALLET DANCERS!!!!!!!!!!

I started paying light attention to ballet in 2010 when I took my first Russian history class, however it wasn't until 2013 when I took a more in depth 20th century Russian history class where I fell in love with it. My professor told us that the Bolshoi was coming to where I live and recommended it to us, so I bought tickets for the only night I was free and I was disappointed with the cast because Albrecht was being danced by an American (David freaking Hallberg lmao). I had no idea who the dancers were and I barely knew the story of Giselle, but I went and omg fell in love. I was so lucky that my first live ballet performance was Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg! After that, I began watching as much ballet as possible and it's been the thing I watch the most ever since.

I never really thought about taking ballet classes until 2017 when I started seeing more adults taking ballet and finally decided to work up the courage to go to a local studio in 2018 to ask about adult classes and have never looked back. I now do two ballet classes and one contemporary class a week and those three days are the highlights of my week!

The awesome thing about adult ballet is no one is judgy and competitive. We are there to have fun, improve, and enjoy while still taking it seriously. I would look around at different studios (I found mine by googling adult ballet classes) and ask about their programs and levels. Before you go, I recommend watching a few classes on YouTube that go over basic steps like tendu, degage, rond de jambe, just so you're not completely lost when you go in, but that's not a requirement! Also, don't feel pressured to wear tights and a leotard if you don't want to. I wear them sometimes, but also wear leggings/shorts and workout shirts too, it doesn't really matter!

When it comes to pointe, I would LOOOOOVE to be able to do pointe. I tore my peroneal tendon my first year dancing and I've been rehabbing it for the past 4 years. I'm hoping that by next summer I'll have the strength, flexibility, and balance needed to start pointe.

You should DEFINITELY start classes, it's honestly one of the best things I've ever done!!!!

[amostimprobabledream]

Writer Tag!

Thanks so much @blindmagdalena! How many works do you have on AO3? As of right now, 67. What's your total AO3 word count?

No idea lol.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? A Lungful of Smoke Quid Pro Quo The Trees Stood Witness The Beast You've Made of Me the beast you've made of me

I feel like three of these should be discounted because I wrote them in like 2017 - the Hawks one was literally when he was first introduced and we didn't even know his civilian name then.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do, though not every comment - usually if they're just like "Part Two!" or "More plz!" I tend not to reply to those. I tend to worry about looking like I'm purposefully boosting my comment number by replying to them all.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? Definitely "as the stars explode".

What’s the fic you've written with the happiest ending? I'm not sure, most of my fics are smut oneshots so I guess hitting the big O is a happy ending. "The Gift" was a pretty happy ending for Grimmjow and Reader.

Do you write crossovers? Not usually but that doesn't necessarily mean I never will.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yes. Once I got a particularly stupid one about some girl getting salty that I spoiled a character's death - a character that had only appeared in the manga, so as an anime-only watcher she shouldn't have even been reading about him since she shouldn't know who he is if she hadn't already seen some spoilers.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I think it's pretty much all I write lol. I'm trying to branch out a bit but I worry people feel cheated with no sexy payoff.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I have, though this was back in like 2015 of a fandom I'm not naming out of embarrassment, and they reposted it to ff.net. Luckily I don't think Reader Inserts are permitted there so I'm assuming it got deleted anyway.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, a couple of times! Mostly into Russian.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, though my Peaky Blinders OC fic is based off an RP I was doing with my friend, so some of it was partly written by her, which I'm repurposing with her permission. <3

What's your all-time favorite ship? I tend to not get too involved with shipping because I like ships that are more unusual and get tired of the same super-popular pairing getting shoved down my neck. That being said, I am forever salty Peaky Blinders set up Tommy/May in Season 2 and then inexplicably just sorta dropped it because May's actress got preggers. (I want them to finally get together for the movie so badly but I'm not holding out much hope.)

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will? I like to think once my hyperfixation kicks in I'll go back to some fics I've ditched but I find multichapter stories difficult to commit to. I do want to continue with my Demon!Dabi story and that Dazai one I wrote one chapter of and then ditched. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm fairly good at dialogue and I try to put unique twists on concepts I've seen done before. I personally also enjoy the personalities I give to my Readers, I'm a bit picky with Readers in Reader Inserts (I hate it when they're either super passive and meek or aggressive af for no reason).

What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I have a bad tendency to skip a lot of exposition because I want to jump to dialogue. I also sometimes worry my writing is too beige prose-y and I should take my time a bit more. Also I am awful at finishing multichapter fics because I get distracted so easily. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I guess it depends on how it's used? I quite like it when people write characters with accents, I think it adds a nice flavour to stories. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Fruits Basket and Naruto lol. What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to I have a bunch of like, half-started Billy Butcher x Reader concepts but he's such a hard character to write for. I think it's because I don't get to discuss him nearly as much as Homelander. What's your favorite fic you've written? I'm personally pretty fond of "I'm neon phosporescent" for Dabi being a kinky bastard and "stardust in my eyes" as my first foray into The Boys.

No pressure tags: @librarianqueen @inkyveins @honeydazai-main and anyone else who wants to participate!

[despairforme]

 💫 + any of my urls :') I never send these for myself because it feels so self-servicing but fuck it i could use some positivity TwT

[ POSITIVITY MEME! ] ( always accepting! I am just slow at answering them--- )  

[ BLUE! Hello, one of my absolute favorite writers and favorite people and honestly I consider you one of my best friends on here.

I remember before we started interacting, I saw your writing around and I was like: WOW I'd love to write with this person. AND lucky me! I got my wish! I am forever amazed at how well you portray your muses, and especially considering how different they are. The thought you put into them, and especially how you analyze how they think/feel. It gives you such a good grasp of their personality. I feel like I've gotten to know a lot more about the characters you write ( specifically Renji, Ikkaku and Kensei ) through your portrayal. They seem so ?? Canon to me ?? But with an extra layer of "this is why they act the way they do", and it ALL makes sense. I'm not sure if I'm explaining that right but yeah !!

I'm also blessed to be writing one of my BLEACH OTPs with you. I always wanted to write Byakuya/Renji with someone, but I've always worried that it would not work out in the end, in case our portrayals clashed ect, but there was no need to worry about writing with you! From the very beginning I knew our muses would fall in love. Your Renji is simply perfect for my Byakuya. We've had SO MUCH FUN writing them!! I've loved every moment of their interactions, and honestly it's been a while since I was so into something that I wrote that much on discord. In May I wrote like 18k with you on discord?? I love writing with you so much it's literally one of my favorite things to do !!

Also, gotta mention your art. Your art is one of the styles that inspire me. I'm not just saying it because we're friends. I adore the flow and life that your style has. The movement of your lines. How "alive" the characters always seem. As someone who has more of a stiff style, it's incredibly satisfying for me to look at your art. I love the softness of it ?? It's SO PRETTY! And also when you draw in your more realism-style, it's incredibly beautiful. Your skill with anatomy and drawing faces AND HAIR OH MY GOD THE WAY YOU DRAW HAIR !! cannot be underestimated. I've also known you for quite a few years now. I bought a commission from you back in 2017, and it's been super inspiring to watch your art-journey from back then. Love love love your art and I'm forever following your art-blog, so I can see your work ( I love seeing it even if it's not from fandoms I'm a part of uvu ).

OH AND I ALSO wanna talk about your creativity. The past few days we've been making OCs and a story together and I'm !!!!!!!! So excited about it !!!!!! I'm thinking about it all the time and how our boyfriends are gonna deal with the very difficult life we're giving them. It's been 2000 years since I made a whole story/world with someone and I'm amazed at how smoothly it's going. You're so easy to plot with, and you have such great ideas. It's a cliche to say but - we're vibing like crazy ?? I LOVE IT!!

And, finally - I of course have to mention about how kind and sweet you are. I love talking to you because it's so wholesome and relaxing. Our friendship is like a safe place?? Idk how else to describe it. You're always supportive and kind, and patient. You deserve all the good things and I hope people around you are treating you nicely. I feel truly fortunate to be your friend, and for being able to spend so much time with you. I want to thank you for your time and for the kindness you always show me. I'm here for you if you need to talk/vent or if you need anything else from me. You are my precious friend and I wish you all the good things !! ]

[halcyandaze]

question that came to me out of the blue but were there previous versions/scrapped ideas for bonomo and nova [or oc in general]?

oH BOY so I've had bonomo for over 7 years now so uhhh I do indeed got plenty of old material of those two and how they kinda evolved and changed over all that time

so lucky for you guys, for once I'm gonna *pukes in mouth a lil* ugh, share my old art from when I was 15, oof uhhh you're welcome in advance (yes I realize some of my old followers here could have been following since I was 15 but still) also since I've had these characters for so long and tie into my own life at times I may accidentally go off on some tangents but whatever

strap in folks, this is gonna be a long post

bonomo

2015: aight so I first made this lil dude in september 2015 in a sketchbook after school. didn't think much of him at the time, just a cool character design that kinda stuck around. an ex friend of mine gave him the name bonomo (I suck at naming things) but yes humble beginnings here, literally just a little guy

early 2016: ok so at this point I got attached to the design and wanted to flesh him out more. at first he was just a lil creature with a monitor head, but I wanted to run with that retro computer kind of theme and fully embraced it by making him into a robot

mid/late 2016: alright so here is when the design really started to take shape and tighten up as you can see, from this point not much changes with bonomo as far as the design goes except for just minor art style changes from here. this is where I start building more personality, being rather positive, naive, goofy

2017: here is where I really start knowing the character well and finally get all the kinks out of the design. ended up making him very expressive, taller, softer, rounder, everything past this point is peak bonomo

2018/2019/2020/2021/2022: not much to report at this point his design is pretty much solid from here

nova

early 2016: so here I first wanted to make a simple persona/self insert kinda thing and made this rough unnamed loose design of a lil alien creature, as you can see I cannot decide on a color palette to save my life

mid/late 2016: got a name for them and started calling them nova, and I finally picked a goddamn color palette and basic outfit design about damn time. at this point they went from being just a nameless self insert persona concept to be their own character instead

2017: same with bonomo, this is where I feel like I got a good solid design for them, and all of their major design has stayed the same from here on out. I also brought back/revived some elements from their very first designs in 2016 as a design for their younger self for backstory purposes, but this is still a bit rough and I put it on the back burner to shape up their current design and story before tackling their backstory

2018: not much change here except I feel my art has gotten much better at this point lol

2019/2020: at this point I have bonomo and nova's personality, design, dynamic, and story rough ideas down pretty solid so I work more on nova's past and backstory more and have nailed down the design for their younger past self

2021/2022: both versions of nova have remained pretty much unchanged from here

early 2016: both bonomo and (at the time unnamed) nova were more of just designs than the characters we know em as today. I started drawing them together around march 2016 just because I thought "oh haha a robot and alien, sci-fi cross over time" without thinking much of it

mid/late 2016: here I find myself drawing the two together more and it's at this point I realize to myself 'oh shit I can do something with this' and started to really flesh out who they are and where they came from and wanted to turn them into full characters instead of just little doodles. here I started experimenting with lore and story ideas, many of which have changed a lot or have been scrapped completely by now. at first I imagined both of them being from space, but ended up scrapping that and having bonomo be native to earth. I also didn't have a full motive for nova to come to earth yet either, but I knew they'd both be on earth at this point just causing trouble. I also was debating making their story much more depressing and even toxic at points for the two of them, even debating having bonomo leaving nova for good at some point, but that just made me sad over time so that quickly was changed

2017: here is both when their main design elements and personality start to take proper shape. I base their personalities off of exaggerated aspects of my own, bonomo being my goofy silly naive geeky half and nova being my feral stubborn paranoid half. I have also started forming the very rough idea of nova's backstory to how they arrived on earth, why they're on earth, how bonomo and nova meet, and their basic every day lives

2018: ok so now that I have their designs, personalities, and daily lives and motivations down, I start working on their actual story and have gotten it pretty solid now (but these are all spoilers so hmm ask for more info later if y'all really want uhhhhhhh)

2019/2020: at this point my art has gone from much more simple and flat color generally to much more rendered and symbolic and distorted and psychedelic, cuz this was after I dropped out of college and was battling some nasty drug addictions at the time which quite literally changed how I see the world to a much more confusing and broken and distorted place, and my art changed to reflect that. it was at this point that I started working more on nova's backstory seriously since it ties into where their story finishes

2021/2022: my art at this point was a lot of self reflection cuz I had a lot of emotions and a lot of personal growth and a lot of change in my life at this point and phew these two were really going through it in my artwork while I figured my shit out. but here we are now!

so yeah uh that's bonomo the prototype robot and nova the ex-space criminal they live in the middle of nowhere new mexico and get up to silly shenanigans and tomfoolery :]

[weaselandfriends]

hey! Just watched Players, and was interested in hearing more of your thoughts on it--in what respects you found it hewed true to your own research/experience. I've never engaged with eSports, but Players' depiction of "online masculinity" more broadly was very compelling to me, and reminded me of Jay from CQ, albeit with a more balanced/positive slant. I think that sincerity/positivity hurt the show by preventing it from exploring racism/sexism in gaming culture; you catch glimmers of it, particularly in the internet's reaction to Nightfall's replacement of Guru, but the show goes out of its way to avoid couching it in those terms, presumably to show eSports in a more sympathetic light. Race and gender are common themes in your stories; do you think you would have placed more of a focus on them? Also, have you seen American Vandal? That show's first season was memorable to me for its dissonant ending, which placed all that preceded in a new light; Players has a more understated version of the same, in which Organizm's inhuman, unhinged voicemail is shown to have perfectly predicted Creamcheese's feelings, thus humanizing it in retrospect--only for Organizm to reject this, sacrificing everything in pursuit of impossuble perfection. Many of the show's characters are embodiments of some skill/archetype, and it asks what exactly separates these paragons from ordinary people--which I felt closely matched your own style of characterisation. Thanks for your time!

I'll preface this by saying that I haven't actually seen Players. I just know about it, since it was heavily advertised on the LCS stream when it came out. I'll mention a fun fact though: Nightfall's actor is actually an ex-LCS pro named Youngbin, a Korean-American who once played for Team Liquid. As I understand it, the show also has cameos from many other real pros and esports personalities.

I can speak about some of the topics you brought up, though. First up, racism in the esports scene. This was one of the major topics I wanted to cover in my planned esports story. In particular, I wanted to use the story as a vehicle to challenge the idea of American exceptionalism. In League of Legends, the North American region is a distant fourth best, behind Korea, China, and Europe. In the early days of the scene it was possible to chalk this discrepancy up to infrastructure, especially when it came to Korea; having already developed a sophisticated esports scene due to StarCraft, Korea had an organizational and coaching edge over the rest of the world from about 2012, when the game first took off in Korea, to 2017, when big money investors in the other three regions were injecting huge cashflows into teams. This was an era of Korean dominance, where Korean teams won almost every time. To catch up, the other three regions would import Korean players to their regions as much as possible (since 2015 there have been rules in place to limit imports to 2 per 5-man team), and the only region to ever really catch up to Korea is China, which combined high-money importing of top Korean pros with the gargantuan Chinese server population (China loves League of Legends, it's like the national sport) to finally start winning some tournaments.

North America has consistently lagged behind even China and Europe, an issue mainly related to low server population and poor American internet infrastructure, which forces most prospective NA players to learn and practice the game on much higher ping than pros in any of the other major regions. On top of NA being bad, NA is consistently buoyed by high-profile import players, as opposed to "native" North American players. Actual American and Canadian players often take up filler role player positions around imported Korean and European stars, which has led to a general fact of life that Americans are simply not that good at the game compared to the competition. This is in spite of the fact that League of Legends is an American game made by an American company. It's a joke in traditional sports that Americans are only the best at sports they made, but in League, Americans aren't even that. I wanted to center my story around an American role player in a more supportive position like top, who would have to grapple with the fact that despite being in the top 1% of the top 1% of the top 1% of players, he was simply not good enough to matter beyond that.

Racism in the esports scene is an odd issue, because it's less "racism" and more "regionalism"--or xenophobia. This is due to the league format of professional League of Legends, in which regional leagues (Korea, China, Europe, and NA) feed into a major international Worlds cup. In a sports scene where teams are not tied to specific cities the way they are in traditional sports, this regionalism is often what drives fans to support certain teams, what causes people to root for a team that feels like "theirs." This makes the fan ecosystem closer to the way people root for teams or players at the Olympics or the World Cup, instead of what it's like in the NFL, NBA, etc. Where things get complicated in terms of League is that unlike the Olympics or World Cup, teams from a region are allowed to field players from other regions to represent them. In North America, as I mentioned, this issue is exacerbated because not only are North American teams bad, they're bad often without even being quote-unquote "North American." I mentioned before that there is an import rule that ostensibly ensures every team is 3/5ths comprised of native players. However, due to a variety of loopholes and also the United States' significantly more lenient legal residency and immigration restrictions compared to China, there are many players who were imported to NA solely to play League of Legends who are now technically counted as non-imports. At the most recent Worlds, NA sent three teams, and of the 15 players on those teams, only 3 were "native North Americans," the rest either being imports or former imports who got green cards, making them legally residents. One team was comprised entirely of imports or former imports. Meanwhile, other regions are represented by teams that have a majority of "native" players. So the fan ecosystem is designed around supporting "your region," but NA is in the unique position where "your region" is majority comprised of players from "another region." Hence the point of soreness.

The racism question gets further complicated by the racial makeup of "native" North American players, which heavily slants toward Asian-Americans/Asian-Canadians. Of the 3 "native" players at Worlds last year, 2 were Asian-American/-Canadian (the third was Quebecois). Doublelift, the most famous and beloved North American pro, on whom I believe Players' Creamcheese was modeled, is a Chinese-American whose real name is Yiliang Peng. The breakout rookie star of last year, Jojopyun, is a Korean-Canadian who "native NA" fans held up as the shining hope of native NA talent. Youngbin himself, who plays Nightfall, is a Korean-American "native" pro. This begs another interesting question: Is it racism to support Asian-Americans over Asian Non-Americans? I think this uniquely positioned sports ecosystem creates a complex and interlocking system of identities that is prime for exploration in a narrative format. With the prevalence of European importing, it becomes even stranger. Most of the white players in the North American league aren't Americans or Canadians, but European imports, who are often subjected to the same prejudice and bias among fans as Korean imports. THEN it gets even more interesting when you factor in country of birth, which isn't even tied to citizenship or residency. One of the most famous "native" North American players is Spica, who was born in China and moved to Philadelphia when he was 10 or so. He still has Chinese citizenship and is only considered a "resident" of the United States, exactly like many of those green card-holding "imports," and yet Spica is universally considered "native" talent by fans. Last year, one team (CLG) made a splash by fielding almost entirely "native" talent, and was held up by fans as the "native talent" team--even though one of their players, Dhokla, was born in India. So where is the line? What distinguishes "native" from "foreign"? This is such a complex notion of identity that I feel like I could talk about it for hours.

As for sexism, yeah it's just really sexist.

I guess it's a bit more nuanced than that. League of Legends is like chess in which there is ostensibly no physical reason why women wouldn't be able to compete at the top level, and yet there simply are very few women who do. I follow the League scene from the amateur system to the pro leagues, and it's not like there is a large number of talented female players who are simply being withheld chances to compete due to organizational/player/fan sexism. There have even been instances of major organizations creating all-female development teams, but these teams are generally comprised of players who simply aren't at a level high enough to compete in the major leagues. Every so often you get a female player or two in the amateur or development leagues, but they don't generally stand out enough to be realistically promoted to a major league team.

In all four major regions, there has only ever been one female player who competed at the top level, that being Remilia, a trans girl, whose story is brutally tragic. She was manipulated and abused by the owner of her team, Chris Badawi, who provided for her a botched gender-reassignment surgery that left her with permanent pain for the rest of her life, until she died by suicide some years later. As you might imagine, any fan discussion on Reddit that even tangentially involved Remilia was a graveyard of posts deleted by moderators. The prejudice there, sadly, is about as rampant and overt as possible.

This post went pretty long, especially since I haven't actually seen the show you asked about and wasn't able to give any more specific thoughts on it. Hopefully, though, this provides a bit more context to the strange and complex regional and racial identity issues in the scene.

[ghoste-catte]

multiples of 9

@sagemoderocklee i know it's you

9. How do you find new fic to read?

Go to the GaaLee tag and sort by new, lol, since I've read almost everything in there at this point. If I'm joining a new fandom I'll generally sort by complete and under 15k by kudos for the pairing I'm interested in, or find an author I like and go through all their works and bookmarks, but in my old age I've become deeply accustomed to my single ship. I miss the reclists of ye olden LJ days; they were a great way to find hidden and underappreciated gems.

18. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

Since you didn't specify a fic, I've got a couple of sequels/expansions on my existing fics planned.

For years now I've been planning to write a remix of if nobody moves, nobody will get hurt called 'if nobody gets hurt', which is basically the original story but expanded and from Gaara's POV.

There's an after-the-happily-ever-after epilogue to The Stolen Child that's actually based on a post someone made about it here on Tumblr ... but I need to ask their permission first, and I've been too shy.

There's a prequel to Worship as I Please that goes into the much-requested alcove in Grass Country, though probably not in the way that most people are hoping for (it's a pining-while-fucking fic, so heavy on the pain).

There's also an epilogue to To Love Like Broken Glass that @we-return-in-waves requested, which I won't give too much away about.

And finally, there's a part 2 to Try Again, where Lee teaches Gaara to do much more than kissing.

27. How long did it take to write [insert fic]? Describe the process.

Since there wasn't a fic specified, I guess I'll go with my most recent fic, Tsuru no Danna. I originally hoped to write the fic in one, one-hour sitting like I've done with a couple other fics recently, but it ended up being a bigger story than I planned. Ultimately, though, I think I wrote it in like 3 hourlong sittings over 2 weeks or so? That doesn't include the amount of time I spent outlining and 'marinating' on it (by far the longest part of my process). I also had to forgo my entire typical editing process so that I could make it in time for HorrorFest.

36. Do you visualize what you read/write?

Oh, definitely. What I write way moreso than what I read. When I'm reading, I'm generally pretty immersed in the story, so unless something's just super-duper visually evocative, I'm just really absorbed in the words more than anything. When I'm writing, though, I definitely swing wildly between "I know exactly how I want to describe this and the perfect words that sound lovely together" and "I know what's supposed to happen in this sequence and what it would look like but have no idea how to describe it." A lot of my clumsier, uglier sentences come from the latter, but sometimes striking at something 4-5 times to get the perfect sequence churns out a decent one, too.

45. What’s something you’ve improved on since you started writing fic?

I think I've improved on a lot, honestly; when I look back and read my first fic from 2017 it feels very amateurish and awkward to me. But I think I've most improved on developing my own author voice as well as (to an extent) being able to sometimes evoke the voices of other authors. I've gotten a better sense of how to word and pace things to give a poetic feel vs. a fairy tale feel vs. a childlike feel and so on. It's been a journey for sure!!

questions for fic writers - ask me some!

[kyurilin]

Got sentimental, decided the first few days of December are gonna have posts about the stories I completed this year and then maybe a post about other new ideas I've had!

So starting off with

Which is starting off STRONG, but it's the one I started posting in May. I promise I'm still working on it, it's uh. Very hard to write. Also I think I have to put an AU tag on it now

This is the first chapter story I've posted since October of 2017. Between trying to make myself write by just making long stories out of prompt blogs and switching to only typing in Google docs, I hadn't really worked out how to do chapters and didn't want to do multiple Google docs. Fun fact, this story was supposed to be a single chapter but it got way, WAY bigger than I expected.

As hard as it is to write for various reasons, it's one of my favorite things I've written like, ever. It's been a lot of effort to work on, but I've always wanted to write a struggle between two characters having to share the same body and never got it right, and I feel like I've finally hit a point where it works.

Considering my headcanons for these characters remain consistent and I keep accidentally linking all my stories, it was very hard not to make this somehow linked to Mic's Bullshit Life so the erasermic origin story is very subtly changed, but the All Might's Thicc Thighs Fan Club is still in existence. Go figure.

My favorite part of writing this story is dancing around the fact I have no idea where the actual story ends and as of chapter 373 of the manga I am very scared.

My least favorite part of writing this story is writing it. The first chapter plays out so well that I kind of use it as the baseline for how the chapters should flow, which is why I had to scrap most of chapter 5 and start over. It wasn't working and I'm VERY slowly getting through it now but my brain has exploded with ideas lately.

Writing the podcasts and getting to work with the dynamic of this friend group before any of the trauma was like, perfect. Originally the Hizashi and Oboro podcast was Oboro meeting Shouta's family for the first time but it was too much exposition so that was cut in favor of the sports festival bit. Expect at least one more podcast bit, but uh. It's not a happy one. There's an OLD story idea from before even Mic's Bullshit Life I had revolving around Mic's high school podcasts, and realizing I wanted to incorporate it into this story meant finally using it

I don't have much more "fun" trivia about this one because it's so sad but man. I've loved the idea since it came to me. I will continue to love this idea even when it makes me really sad. And I'm sorry ya'll have to put up with a non-existent update schedule because I'm not lying when I say I have SO many more stories in the works right now. But thanks to everyone who's read it so far ya'll are great.