#i've never posted my fanarts before but i liked this so i thought why not :)

[fall-dog]

wasteland, baby

i'm in love, i'm in love with you

[olderthannetfic]

TL;DR: multiple people can arrive at the same fanfic idea/premise in different ways, but also, getting inspired by a different fanfic is not stealing, please don't gatekeep!

I joined a new fandom (it's Resident Evil (RE), which I'm mostly mentioning for that one 'nosy' anon because hell yeah I am super nosy as well, so here you go, dropping some names!), and I quickly stumbled upon one fandom-specific plot trope that I thought was both pretty neat but also super obvious (Infected!Character fic, which, in a world with zombies and viruses that cause zombies is a very logical trope).

Anyway, there was not quite as much body horror as I thought there would be, although I'm still looking, but that's not why I'm writing to you, that's just the (un)necessary background.

There was this one fic that I opened, which in its Author's Note clearly stated that the author set this fanfiction in another author's AU, because they loved the world created by this first author. The first fanfiction author basically came up with their own Infected!Character design and backstory (including fanart), and the second fanfiction author liked it so much they were now writing this fic based on/in that AU. Obviously not quoting the AN directly, but this second author was very complimentary and explicitly mentioned where they got the idea from, gushing about the first author.

In the AN for chapter two, the second author stated that they weren't aware that that first fanfiction author didn't allow others to write about the Infected!Character AU they'd made, that that first author in fact only allowed a very limited number of people they publicly approved of to write about their AU, and nobody else was allowed to touch the Infected!Character AU. This second author was now apologising in the AN for not knowing this, plus mentioning that they changed chapter one to switch up the backstory & design to not be too close to that of the first fanficton author's AU.

That made me sad, honestly. I've seen this attitude a couple of times, where fanfiction authors are super protective of their ideas that they won't allow any other fanfiction author to write about them, and it's always struck me as a little bit hypocritical, given the whole deal of fanfiction. Especially when the original/first fanfiction author is credited and the inspired work is clearly done because the second author loved the first fanfiction so much. If it's a highly developed/specific and original AU (so not just any common trope), and you don't even mention the fanfic you were inspired by, then I find that rude, but just flat out not allowing people to even touch 'your' thing? C'mon!

This partially ties into my other gripe about a specific type of comments I occasionally get, which are along the lines of 'huh interesting idea where did you get it? bc/btw there is this other fic with the same idea (posted before you)'; idk if I got the tone right, but they never seem to be actually genuinely asking how I got the idea (and I always delight in telling them, not sarcastically, I genuinely love talking about this stuff, bc I get inspired by the most random things and I love love writing 'original'/new things!! I love tropes as much as anybody, I read a shitton of them, but i when I write I love coming up with new shit/plot! it's so fun!!). They just vanish after my explanation, even when I try to invite further conversation. It always feels to me like they're 'checking' that I didn't steal the idea, and it feels a bit lousy.

I mean in (larger) fandoms, it is not surprising at all that two or three or even more people arrive at the same idea, maybe even inspired by the same thing, same reading of canon, or not, varied experiences--and just because the works are similar doesn't mean that they were inspired by one another, but if they are, that's not a sin! I just want people to not take everything in bad faith, and also, to not 'disallow' others from getting inspired, especially when they do it in a very polite manner!

It's because of comments like these that I sometimes, very privately, worry that before I'll manage to post the long fic I spent months writing--because I'm one of those who wants the thing finished before I start posting--somebody else will have a similar idea, post their thing first, and then I'll look like I'm lying about not reading/stealing their idea, or just jumping on the bandwagon, which again, it's not a bad thing, actually.

And it shouldn't be like that! I shouldn't worry, and people should also be more willing to accept that authors can arrive at the same idea at (roughly) the same time & accept that explanation without side-eyeing the author, and that if an author is inspired by a different fanfic, that's not a sin either (in fact, for me it would be an honour).

None of this is new either, but that RE stuff reminded me of it again.

Oh man, this is way longer than I thought it would be. Apologies. I'm going to add a TLDR at the start.

Anyway, I'm going to finish writing an Infected!Catboy!Leon fic now and be very unsurprised if I find out that somebody else has had the same idea long before me (aside from one or two reader fic inserts with that topic that I stumbled upon on tumblr, bc that's just not my thing at all (reader insert, I mean)).

--

In college, friends of mine had a falling out over one of them "stealing" the other's fic idea.

Space pirates.

Not specific space pirates. Not a way of integrating the concept that was fandom-specific. No, just the general idea of space pirates in the same fandom.

Never have I facepalmed so hard.

[jscwrites]

Please Follow this Backup Blog for Vendetta-IF

Hey guys, it's jsc, the author of Vendetta. I'm making this blog to backup all of the stuff I've posted over on the vendetta-if blog because I can't access my main account. Until I can access my account again, this will be the blog I'll use to interact with all of you and post updates. And in the worst case scenario, this will become the main blog.

So, please, follow this blog as I will be posting updates and answering asks like usual here. Also, for those who want to share their fanarts and other fanworks, please tag this blog too so I can see it. I'll also start reblogging some posts and asks from the Vendetta blog here in hopes of preserving them as much as I can. So, be prepared for a little blast from the past as we walk down the nostalgia road, I suppose.

I'm really sad because just earlier today, I checked my followers count and saw that we were 30 followers away from reaching 4K Followers in the main Vendetta blog, and I was thinking about what to do to celebrate it. Plus, there are also so many awesome fanarts and asks that I don't want to just be gone, which is why I'm making this blog to reblog all of them.

For those who are new and wondering what my story is all about, please check out the intro post I've reblogged. I might need to make another intro post in the future if I never get access back to my account, but for now, I hope it'll suffice.

IMPORTANT LINKS

[ORIGINAL INTRO POST]

[VENDETTA BLOG ARCHIVE]

[DEMO | Latest Chapter: 6 Part 1 | 272.8K words total] 

[FORUM] 

[PATREON] | [KO-FI]

[DISCORD]

CHARACTER RELATED MASTERPOSTS:

[CHARACTERS LIST]

[ARTBREEDER PORTRAITS] [ROs] [Other Pt. 1] [Viktor] [Other Pt. 2]

[CHARACTER PLAYLIST]

ADDITIONAL LINKS

[PUBLIC SIDE STORIES LIST]

[AO3 WRITTEN FANWORK] -> Currently 3 works

For those who are interested in what happened, I'll tell the details under the cut.

So, a few hours ago, I decided to open my iOS Tumblr app to check on notifications and stuff, as I usually do. But instead, I got hit with the Tumblr error messages over and over as it keeps trying to load in.

At first, I just thought it was my cellphone Internet connection, so I tried logging in on the desktop. At first, after I input all of my login credentials, the page loaded, but it brought me to the viewing page of my Vendetta blog as a non-user. I tried again, and this time, it said that my account got terminated. I never got any email from Tumblr about this, and it came as a shock because I just used my Tumblr earlier today to reblog some fanarts with no problem and I have never really used my account for other non-IF related stuff.

So, I scrambled to ask my members in Discord whether my Vendetta blog is still up, and thankfully it still is. But, my main account is somehow gone. The problem is, my Vendetta blog is actually a sideblog to my main account, jsclarissa.

As you can see here, when I tried searching for my main account, it says "Ghost blog! This blog does not exist." despite me having used that account to respond to comments and send asks to other authors before.

I have sent a support ticket to Tumblr support and also tweeted them on Twitter. I really hope they can give me my account back as I'm pretty sure this is some kind of technical issues on their end. I'm just worried about how long it would take them to respond and of course, the worst case scenario that it actually got terminated, so, I'm making this account.

Even if I got my account back, I'll still reblog stuff from the main blog here and maybe I can finally have a more personal blog where I can talk about stuff that is not really related to Vendetta.

[etincelleart]

Now that I experienced it, I honestly think that the best way to enjoy something is to do it with only a bunch of people

Last year before RWBY V9 and while it aired I posted fanarts not really imagining that it could reach so much people. I did fanarts before during V8 too, during the hiatus as well, but I never got an audience that huge before

I'm not saying I regret anything of course because everything was super fine until summer. A lot of people started to like my work and it even got shared on other RWBY groups on platforms where I wasn't and when I think about it it's huge for me

It was all fine when it was me drawing something I enjoyed to share it with others who like it as well. I didn't notice how it changed in some way to become more like me drawing stuff for people to enjoy (don't get me wrong, I always loved drawing Nuts and Dolts for example, but having so much people following me for it made me thought without realizing it that I needed to draw them to make people happy no matter what).

And when today I look back at V9 and how I enjoyed it and other pieces of media before, I find myself thinking that I ended up not drawing for myself and I started to realize it with the Kofi requests last summer, but still continued.

I just thought about all this lately and taking some distance does help a lot. At the moment I know the situation on Twitter didn't help with that, but I don't feel like drawing RWBY stuff just because it comes and goes and I shouldn't force myself. And I know no one ever did or said anything about that, it's all me putting that pressure on myself because I never knew how to handle so much people following you and "expectations" in some way. I saw it when people called me "the NND CEO", "the NND artist ever", and I liked it with the hype and all but it definitely wasn't my goal and never has been (even if I know it's mostly a "title" because my main RWBY content is still Nuts and Dolts, and it did a lot of good on people apparently)

It's pretty strange how I never imagined just a single thing such as gaining an audience like that could change so much about the way you work, the way you see art, why do you draw etc. I had a "tiny" audience before, and I can't blame people for following me for one specific thing, but I wish they could also stop make assumptions and put on you the version of you they imagined, because that's also something that happened from people expecting me to be things I wasn't.

Anyway, I want to take a step back from all of this, go back to drawing stuff when I feel like it, I've been drawing my story a lot lately as well as some fanarts of SSO, Wakfu... And when I have more time with uni I'd like to go back to my online course to continue learning about concept art and digital painting. RWBY hype and motivation will come back when it's the time, and it won't be for anyone but myself

[avaantares]

Wait, Zhao Yunlan's gun is actually a...?!

(I've never claimed production meta for @guardianbingo before, but after the amount of time and research I put in on this, I feel like I've earned the "Zhao Yunlan's Gun or Whip" square, haha)

SO. GUYS.

Maybe this is something fandom as a whole figured out back in 2018, but I, who didn't hear of Guardian until 2020, did not realize until now and I need to share the knowledge because when I finally noticed, I made an unholy sound.

I've tracked down where Zhao Yunlan's gun came from -- or at least, what it most likely started as. Not the in-universe dark-energy-maybe-uses-bullets-maybe-doesn't-device-that's-best-not-thought-about-too-long, but rather the actual fake-steampunk-revolver-that-is-best-not-looked-at-too-long-because-it's-awful prop.

Y'know, this disaster:

I was actually working on a different Guardian Bingo fill and needed to look something up for continuity, so I'd flipped through a couple of episodes at super high speed trying to find a scene. As luck would have it, one of my skips forward happened to land on the scene I screencapped above, when ZYL confronts Zhang Shi.

Normally we don't get this clear (or this stationary) a shot of the godawful gun prop. I'd assumed all along they had just taken a plastic gun, glued some extra bits and bobs on it to make it look fancy, and hit it with some dry brushing (fun fact: you can watch the paint flake throughout the series; check out the top of the barrel and the side of the cylinder in the above screenshot!) to make it look #steampunk like the abandoned aesthetic of 25% of the show (as I've said before, I have theories about what happened in preproduction, but that's another post). This sort of thing is exactly what I've done for cheap cosplay weapons or background props for film work that aren't going to be seen at HD detail range.

Anyway, since the detail showed up better here than in other shots, I paused the video to look at the random screws and hex bolts (why??) they'd glued on it, since I recalled that I had the aforementioned gun/whip bingo square to fill.

That's when I noticed a detail that had eluded me before: An inverted V shape at the bottom of the grip.

Only looking more closely, that's not an inverted V. It's a symbol that I've seen a whole series of variations of over the past 15+ years... every time there's a new installment of the Assassin's Creed video game series:

So I started hunting. The principal weapons in each game turned up no matches, but eventually I found a gun that looks almost exactly like ZYL's:

It's not a perfect replica, but the details are certainly all there: The stylized logo; the leaves and swirls on the grip; the feathers up the back; even the Victorian scrollwork beneath the barrel.

Now, what's really interesting is that this gun isn't actually from the AC game series. It's part of an elaborate fan project by artist David Paget that started as a class assignment back in 2014. Even though it gathered a bit of steam in the AC fandom and generated a couple of forum role-play groups, OCs and the like, nothing about this artwork was ever connected to a real Assassin's Creed title. So why would there be a physical version of a gun that was only someone's fanart?

This is where the smoking gun (*rimshot*) goes missing, because I can't prove any of this, and it's been long enough that digging through the archives of the internet to find answers is going to take way more time than I can afford to spend on a project I'm not getting paid for. But there are two likely possibilities:

Scenario A: Some employee in a toy factory somewhere in China got told, "This Assassin's Creed franchise is really big, so we need to be producing replicas from those games to sell. Work up some designs." So the employee Googles "assassin's creed gun," finds David Paget's very professional-looking art, and whips up a replica to mass-injection-mold without realizing it's not actually from a game. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and finds a cheap toy revolver on clearance after several years of sitting in storage because there was little demand for a replica of a gun that was never in a game. They buy several, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!

Scenario B: Other fans were involved in the design. Someone did build a 3D model of David Paget's design that's still available on Sketchfab (screenshot below), and it's not unreasonable to assume that other fans could have thought it looked cool and built 3D printable models. Later, someone on the cash-strapped Guardian production team needs a gun to mod, and acquires the 3D print file of one of those models from the interwebs. They mod the file a bit, print some, glue hex bolts on the cylinder for reasons unknown, and poof! Instant pseudo-steampunk!

Personally, I find Scenario A far more likely than Scenario B, for two reasons: First, the hero prop looks more injection molded than 3D printed, especially given the technical state of 3D printing back in 2017-8. And second... Budget-challenged dramas do have a history of picking up bulk video game replicas and using them as cheap props. I made a post back in 2019 about the WoW Horde shields we spotted in a different drama...

Anyway, no firm answers about the source of the hero prop -- the world may never know! -- but we have now confirmed that in some alternate universe (possibly one of the first eighty?), Zhao Yunlan and/or Zhao Xinci is an Assassin.

Wait, wait, wait... *recalls mechanics of how the whole Assassin's Creed frame story is supposed to work* Uh... so... who wants to write a genetic memory explanation for the whole Kunlun -> [lots of lifetimes] -> Zhao Yunlan thing?

.

(I did actually check the catalogue of a friend of mine who makes replicas of props from various media franchises to see if he'd done a commission of the David Paget design, since a surprising number of his custom pieces actually do end up on film and television, but while he has a gorgeous replica of a revolver that actually appears in an AC game, it appears he has not done the Zhao Yunlan gun. I didn't really think it likely, since he's in the U.S., but you never know.)

[empty-movement]

sorry but please... post your akio plastic covered couch tweet here... the world needs to know...

Warning: pics of gross shit happening on the couches

I'll do you one better and include the STORY! So, I, Vanna (note: Yasha mostly does the Tumblr and I mostly do the Twitter,) was smoking enough weed to knock out a large horse or put a very tiny dent in my constant back and shoulder pain, as one does when when they're a middle-aged Registered Nurse in the year 2023. (I'm 39 but it's an old 39, lmao.)

Scrolling through Twitter, I stumble on a fanart of Suletta from Witch of Mercury sitting goofily on a white couch. Now I haven't seen this show yet, but the white couch....looked familiar, and I know the show is very much a descendent of Utena in terms of creative teams. For those that don't know, the series is written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, who also wrote the two Revolutionary Girl Utena novelizations...which if you didn't know about before, you know about now, and can read translated on our site here! (Warning: Touga and Miki uh, in the novels...)

Anyways, so I hop onto my own website and start downloading the images that will constitute receipts, before realizing 1. these images are all on multiple computers feet away from me, 2. the couch isn't an identical match, 3. that'd have been weird anyway, and most importantly, 4:

AKIO'S COUCHES DON'T LOOK RIGHT. OBSERVE:

The edges of the armrests have sloppier upholstery than the blanket I have covering my computer desk. I took the time to tuck seams at least. What is this??

Now it could absolutely be leather, I thought. It would absolutely track. But leather upholstery doesn't look like this. It doesn't wrinkle quite this way. It would have cleaner seams.

No. No that's too shiny for leather. So here I am, presented with this strangeness I'd never really considered in how Akio's couch is drawn, and having spent the last few months learning about my Italian-American family history, my chemically altered ass came to the only reasonable conclusion:

Akio Ohtori has plastic coverings on his white couches, like he's a depression era American in poverty.

Fuck yeah, I though, A HIT TWEET, there, at the end of all Tweeting things. (Yeah I'm working on that, stay tuned, lmao. I of all people know when to bail on stupid men with stupid power.) Because I am me, I framed it as semi serious by pulling a context to explain it out of my ass:

I was joking.

But the replies? They were not. And then I thought about it some more. And I've kept thinking about it. Do I seriously think Ikuhara and Co literally are intentionally drawing a plastic covered couch? Doesn't that feel, Vanna, like a bit of a stretch, even for Utena meta?

Listen to that CRONCH when Akio sits down in episode 31, before Anthy is seen by Nanami. Look, the buttons on the back rest don't quite fit, but the rest? Yeah it kinda does. I was high, but not wrong!?

Akio *does* surround himself with a bizarre hodgepodge of Americana as an aesthetic. The arm garters. The piping and cut of his cowboy-ass shirt. His American car. His mullet. His miniature fucking golf. Why not the plastic covered couch? It's a trope of American poverty that would absolutely have fallen neatly into the diet of American pop culture that influenced Ikuhara. (He makes references to E.T. and The Godfather and Suspiria and all kinds of things in his other work, Utena itself is a little less obvious with individual references but inherits HUGE amounts of vibes from the same content--Ikuhara and Co watched Lost Highway in theaters during the production of the Akio Arc and I will not be convinced otherwise.)

So yeah. That's the story, and that's the theory. Do I seriously believe it was deliberate? Maybe. Probably. Possibly. But it fits so well it's headcanon for me, and in the Utena fandom, pretty much all canon is kind of headcanon so enjoy this one.

What an asshole.

[alitherandom]

Bad Batch is almost over so I'm going to ramble. If anyone can relate, please reply or reblog. Share what this show has meant to you, share your thoughts, share theories, tag people. Let's give it a send off.

Star Wars has been a massive part of my life for years.

I loved everything about the Clone Wars, the world building, the character development for the jedi, but most of all the clones. As someone who finds it hard to read faces, it was fun getting to know each of the clones as individuals with their own personalities and I actually never had any issues telling them apart. It hits hard, I think that's what makes their stories even more tragic.

Echo and Fives are my favourite Star Wars characters so I was really happy when Echo came back in Clone Wars season 7. That was why I decided to watch the Bad Batch- it then became my favourite series.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do when this show ends. I think the hardest part is not knowing what the galaxy has in store for the batch and where it could go from here. Whatever happens I’ll always be grateful for the experiences I've had as part of this community over the last few years.

I think that's what's great about being part of a fandom. Seeing all the different ideas and projects that get put out there every day as well as knowing everyone else is in just as much suspense as I am. I haven't interacted on here that much until the last few months, but I check the tags a lot and all the fanart has been immaculate. The writers and artists are crazy talented and work so hard, I admire the level of dedication and aspire to be like that. 😂

I'm also really grateful for the three seasons we got with Clone Force 99.

Seeing Echo go from a shiny in the Clone Wars to becoming who he is now. (I could talk about that for ages, but I'll save that for another post.)

Seeing Crosshair regain his trust in the batch and get to change.

Seeing Hunter step up for his brothers and Omega.

Seeing more sides to Wrecker's strength.

Seeing Omega go from that kid who'd never seen dirt before to learning from her brothers and proving how brave she is.

And lastly, seeing Tech make the choice he did back in season 2. It wasn't easy to watch, because he deserved more time and there was definitely a massive hole in season 3 without him.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to any of them.

My favourite episodes in season 1 were the last few, when Kamino fell. It was the end of an era as well as a new beginning.

My favourite episode in season 2 was episode 8. I was really proud of Echo, plus he got a hug from Omega which I have admittedly rewatched far too many times.

My favourite episodes in season 3 were episodes 13 and 14. The stakes have been so high and it's been great seeing Echo's ARC skills in action again. (Plus the dialogue with Rampart was top tier. Hate that guy, but it was hilarious.)

I'm well aware of all the theories for the finale. I'm choosing to ignore most of them, but I’d like to present my own.

I hope Echo gets to finish what Fives started and the clones can finally be free, including Tech if he's CX2. I hope the batch gets to burn Tantiss to the ground and fly off into the sunset with Omega and the kids from the vault, and then I hope they continue a lifetime of bullying Rampart. I also hope Emerie gets to whack Hemlock with a steel chair, and then the Zillo beast can eat him.

…After all, Star Wars is based on hope, right?

If anyone actually ended up reading this to the end you're a real one- have a great final Bad Batch eve, and may the force be with you.

[thatonefandomjumper]

I feel like a big part of Heroes of Olympus was influenced by audience reaction. 

I don’t think I’m grasping at straws here. I genuinely just don’t get why some decisions were made if this wasn’t the case.

The plot of the books themselves has always felt very muddled to me and that’s why it always feels like it’s supposed to be a story about characters and relationships, but it just kind of isn’t. Sure, on a surface level, yes, and we get some very lovely character dynamics, but it also feels slightly artificial in a way? The plot was built first and the characters thrown into it, but there wasn’t much thought given too how the characters should be with each other. Even the romantic ones.

Though I feel that I could tie this idea into pretty much every part of the books, there are two things that I personally think of the most while discussing this idea.

For one, there’s Octavian’s entire character.

I have always been confused as to what exactly Riordan wanted from Octavian. He really feels like a plot device most times, made solely for the purpose of stirring conflict between the Greeks and Romans. He as an individual never really mattered. Now, there are some very cool people on this website that have managed to squeeze a decent character out of the scenes we got, but with the way he was written, that in itself is a challenge, as post SoN, it feels like the only intent behind his character was to make him as unlikable as possible. He really was a real character in SoN, despite weird decisions here and there (The killing Gwen scene for example was purely to establish that the doors of death weren't working, and to make Octavian unlikable, but Octavian himself really didn’t have any motive for the killing. It benefitted him in no way.)

In SoN, Octavian is manipulative and well spoken, but after that, he is portrayed as some sort of dim witted idiot, clouded by his desire for personal glory.

The only way I can rationalize this shift in character is in the truly visceral reaction the then fanbase had to his character. They loathed him, taking not a second to rationalize his actions, but simply hate. It also made it so Octavian became the but of a lot of jokes. Those jokes characterizing him as his idiot and megalomaniac that it he shown as in Mark of Athena, House of Hades and Blood of Olympus.

I always suspected Octavian was supposed to serve some sort of grander purpose, or his role in HoO was supposed to be at least a little more dignified or dare I say sympathetic, but there really was no turning back with how hated he was, making Riordan embrace it rather than giving him actual human qualities.

Then on the other hand, there’s also Leo and his relationship with romance in general.

I’ve touched upon it in my Caleo essay (That I kind of wanna redo with more points and evidence to back up my claims, because I am unhappy with certain aspects but I still stand by all I said) that Leo is a character that was written in such a way that getting a romantic partner before resolving certain things would actively detriment the development of his character, including healing from his trauma. The way he was written was just not meant for romance and I will take this to my grave. I’m not saying there was no room for romance, but the way they went about it was... very bad. (A girlfriend will fix my problems. That is his mindset. But he doesn’t grow out of it. Instead he gets a girlfriend. A girlfriend that he treats as a fix to his problems when she is not. A girlfriend that is bad to and for him in so many ways.)

But it is very interesting to note, that especially after Mark of Athena, the speculations and demands for Leo’s future girlfriend went absolutely crazy. I can’t speak from experience but from the tweets from Riordan and fanarts from that time that I've seen it was at least to the point that he took active notice of it. 

Besides Nico and Reyna, there weren’t really any other characters just lying around to pair Leo monogamously up with (I doubt Riordan be willing to make any characters besides Nico explicitly queer at the time and then in the next book he decided to pick up one of the background characters and said, you will do, when pairing Nico up with someone. )

There are many more examples I could go into. The universe suffered in many ways from this. Sure, it’s not the only problem that were detrimental. I believe Riordan had a plan from the beginning with all the main plot points of the series, but I feel he didn’t exactly know where he was going with the characters besides the basics. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the HoO characters. That is why I spend so much time talking and thinking about them, but the issues with the series and characters are so many that it’s borderline ridiculous.

[fluffyhare]

Hey, Avery.

Yes, Casper?

I gotta tell you something.

Oh? What is it?

Well, as you know... For the past few months, I've been writing about you. I've been drawing you, too, and posting pictures of you on my blog.

Oh, I'd been meaning to ask... How is that going? Are you enjoying the new project?

Avery... People love you.

What...?

They just adore you. I get so many people sending me fanart of you. I've had people write fanfiction about you... about us. I've met people, I've made friends, because of you... They love you so much. At least once a day, someone tells me how important you are to them, how they relate to you, how they'd love to hang out with you. You are so loved, by so many people.

...

What's wrong? Why do you look so sad?

Casper, I'm... I just...

Oh, honey... Please, don't cry...

It's just that... When I first met you... you were so lonely. I wanted so much to help you. I didn't know how... I didn't even know if there was a way, but I wanted it more than anything. To see this happen for you... To see you blossom like this, because of me... Why, I... I just never thought... I'm just so happy I could do this for you...

Avery... You've done so much more for me than just this. You've given me an outlet for feelings I've never been able to express, before. You've shown me the immense love I'm capable of feeling for other people, and new ways to show that love. Most importantly, though... You've taught me how to love myself, in a way that, finally... actually works. I can't overstate what you mean to me. I feel very sure that you'll be part of me for the rest of my life.

Oh, Casper...

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a really, really, really big sap.

I love you, dewdrop.

Gosh, embarrassing me like this...

... I love you, too, peach. 💙

[krisvsthew0rld]

I've been thinking about this while making sandwiches for the last like 10 minutes and i feel like i should just get it out somewhere

(*please* tell me if this needs trigger warnings)

i just played buckshot roulette a little while ago and first off, great game, another one of those rare games that come in randomly and create a conversation a hundred times bigger than the game itself, and in this case, deservedly so! i especially liked the tension of pulling the trigger of a shotgun on yourself *point blank*, it is immense, as it should be, and the best part is that it never gets any easier no matter how many times you end up shooting yourself. but that's not really my point with this post.

the point i wanna make is the response I've seen only once but that worried me a lot nevertheless.

mike klubnika, the creator of buckshot roulette (and a few other great games) is russian. and i am ukrainian. now, i personally dont have a problem with mike just because of that, i know better than to blindly hate people because they're 'the other', plus his games outside of roulette almost universally have themes of resisting authority, and somehow i feel that was not born out of nowhere. which is to say i dont think he's a fan of the Current World Event going on between our countries. (needless to say, i'm also having a fucking terrible time living in war, and am not a huge fan of being invaded by russia. i'm only adding this because this is the No Reading Comprehension website.)

despite that, not too long ago, in a ukrainian art server i joined i saw an offhand comment from one user on someone else's piece of buckshot roulette fanart that worried me instantly, (and that was before i ever really bothered to play BR or look into mike's previous games, so it worries me even more now that i know more about the dev!). the comment went something like 'wow i love the game a lot, but the creator is RUSSIAN >:(' which, yeah that is, again, an offhand comment which didnt have much thought put into it, so why am i getting so worked up about it? because it is kind of indicative of the fact that said person only really hates the creator *because he's THE OTHER.* if they bothered to look into just his itch io page and think about any of the games which are not BR, they might have found that hey, they seem to universally have a message i agree with and one of the games just straight up all but screams 'WAR BAD.'

all that to say, i feel like recently, nationalism has been on a steady rise in ukraine. obviously there is a good reason to be upset, very much so, but going down the road of blind hate is terrible, and only leads to where russia is today - a country ruled over by a senile old man, who blindly hates the country neighboring his own, and who successfully tricked most of his own people into doing the same. that tiny little offhand comment isnt the only one that i've seen that showcases this kind of nationalism but it might be one of the most blind and stupid cases.

tldr: nationalism is on the rise in ukraine and i'm afraid

[crowleyholmes]

Flaming Sword Foreshadowing

Last night I was peacefully editing my video just vibing having a good time when I skipped over a scene that had confused me for a while and it struck me like lightning that it HAS to be foreshadowing because WHY ELSE would they have shot it that way????

And I have to add I'm relatively new to the fandom so I'm sure this has come up many many MANY times but to be fair I've spent the last few weeks basically living in the tags and the meta and I while I've seen the theory once in a piece of fanart, I haven't seen connections to this scene so I figured I might as well share my thoughts in case there are any other new fans like me out there who will appreciate (aka absolutely hate) it!

So one of my absolutely favorite theories is that Crowley used to be Lucifer, yes? I have many reasons why I believe this, maybe I'll make another post all about that, but for now let's just roll with it.

Okay so Aziraphale has a flaming sword. Which (I think, don't quote me on this, I'm not religious and don't know much about it at all, most of what I know comes from art and/or just general knowledge) in the Bible, is used by Michael (who is the supreme Archangel), who stabs Lucifer with it as they throw him from Heaven down to Hell, right?

And at first I wasn't too worried about that because like. Aziraphale isn't Michael. Michael, in Good Omens, neither has a flaming sword nor is the supreme archangel.

BUT NOW. At the end of season 2, who is about to become supreme archangel, taking the position that Michael has in the Bible, and owns the weapon that Michael has in the Bible?? Yeah.

So even upon this realization I was like nahhh idk it's. A fun theory but there's SO many other ways things could happen I'm overthinking this for sure.

But then I noticed this scene again with this theory in mind and WHY DID THEY SHOOT IT LIKE THIS here look I made some gifs to illustrate:

Aziraphale is standing over Crowley, sword raised as if he's going to attack him, and Crowley looks up at him TERRIFIED.

Now, I realize there are explanations for all of this, but let me elaborate on my thoughts one by one.

WHY did they make Aziraphale pick up the sword in the first place? There is NO reason for him to hold it, I mean I GUESS he's afraid of Satan, who is about to pop up for a visit, but - what's Aziraphale going to do about it, right? He's just one small low/ish-ranking angel, and the way Satan is portrayed in this show, I doubt the sword would make much of a dent in him. So, okay, perhaps Aziraphale picked it up simply to have Something, Some kind of weapon ready to feel a Little bit safer, but STILL - why pick it up one second before he turns to Crowley, why not sooner, then? And why raise it AT CROWLEY in the way that he does, when what he says to him has nothing to do with the sword at all? He would NEVER want to actually hurt Crowley. And the way this shot is framed, the way the sword is so prominent and threatening, I just don't think they did this only for comedic value (in juxtaposing the threat of the sword with "I'll never speak to you again"). He also briefly looks at the sword right after "I'll -", almost as if he's actually considering it. (OR as if he's thinking "why the hell am I holding this and why am I holding it like this, Crowley's going to think I'm going to stab him?!" which was what I WAS THINKING.) But, again, Aziraphale would NEVER point a weapon at Crowley or threaten him in any serious way - centuries ago/millenia ago, maybe, but not for a long time now, under no circumstances, not the way they are now.

Another question I have is WHY did they make Crowley fall to his knees? Sure, the earth is shaking, everybody is quite wobbly, but Crowley is so sure-footed usually, I find it hard to believe that he would fall when even Newt manages to stay on his feet (no offense Newt, I love you). But okay, I guess, maybe they wanted to show how desperate Crowley was? Visualize him giving up? I can't really argue with that one, but in combination with Everything Else, it just seems like they put them in these exact positions WAY too intentionally.

I just know that this scene is going to come back to haunt us, it will happen again but with a very different, very serious threat from (a possibly/probably memory-wiped) Aziraphale, an actually FLAMING flaming sword, and an even more desperate and terrified Crowley.

Bonus:

[genopaint]

Week 13 of the daily dragon challenge! I'm VERY pleased with some of the stuff I drew this week, including some REALLY good fanart. Hope you like it too!

Also, since it's the last week of March, the Most Popular Dragon poll is up right now! Vote for your favorite dragon this month and they'll get new art tomorrow!

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #84 - Kingdra

Thought it'd be fun to do another Dragon Type today! Completely forgot Kingdra was one of them so I thought that'd be a fun one to draw! Don't worry, eventually I'll do some of the dragon looking dragon types too lol

Daily Dragon #85 - Brad

Was really nostalgic for Tech Deck Dudes yesterday, and remembered there's a dragon / kaiju dude so... Of course I just had to

Also, DAMN, Brad has 9 variant color schemes released over the years! So, naturally, I had to make them all. Do you have a favorite? Did you collect Tech Deck Dudes as a kid? And as a bonus bonus, I made my own variant too. Why not?

Daily Dragon #86 - Connery

Well... y'know... There are MULTIPLE dragons in the Tech Deck Dudes series... And I might as well do a Zood since I did a Dude I won't do all the dragons for this challenge but I wanted to do Connery because I actually had him as a kid! Neat! This little thing influenced how I drew dragons for YEARS when I was a small child lmao I miss tech deck dudes actually

Daily Dragon #87 - Penelope

I figured since I finally saw the Barbie movie, I gotta draw THE Barbie dragon, right? I remember watching Barbie Rapunzel a lot as a kid and yet somehow I've never drawn Penelope before! No time like the present, right?

Daily Dragon #88 - Velocidunce

These dumb dinos are known for their obnoxious laugh you can hear while they're hunting. Because of this seemingly uncontrollable laughter, a lot of smaller prey animals are startled and run away when Velocidunce tries to hunt them

A lot of fanart the last couple days so I figured I should make something new again! Originally this was gonna be a wise dragon but I decided to change the design completely and made it an idiot instead :) anyway, I think I need more non-reptile dragons. Maybe tomorrow!

Daily Dragon #89 - Sketchysaur

Just a random little dinosaur I drew on my phone in a parking lot today! You'll have to bear with me on this one, I'm very tired and busy today and I'm gonna have a tiring busy week ahead of me too

All my first attempts. I need a phone stylus lol

Daily Dragon #90 - Molluscreep

This might seem just like a clam... And, it is. But it's also a powerful dragon! They store massive amounts of energy in their mouths to blast out, which can sometimes form beautiful crystals in their mouth! The mouth muscle is a famous delicacy!

I really wanted to do a non reptilian dragon today, and for some reason a clam is what kept coming to mind! I think it's pretty neat looking!

[lookinghalfacorpse]

How many works do you have on Ao3?

12 total.

2. What is your word count?

146,611!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I write only dsmp at the moment, but i've also posted naruto and devilman.

4. What are your top 5 fics? (stats)

in the wild all lessons last

the trees deny themselves nothing

pandora's vault prisoner symptoms

veteri-mycosis

awakening

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

i don't respond to comments unless there's a specific question for me (ie "is it okay if i make fanart of this"). i read every comment and they make my day, i just never know what to say and i get too stressed over it!! i also don't like how the author's comments will skew the overall comment count.

6. Angstiest ending for a fic?

that would be veteri-mycosis.

7. First Fic with a Happy Ending?

my very first fic, technicality, has a happy ending. so do most of the sasodei fics besides long roads.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope! i might've seen someone vaguepost about itwall but it was so vague it was hard to tell.

9. Do you write smut?

i've tried to write it before, but have never posted! i'm actually not the best at it.

10. Do you write crossovers?

nah

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so!

12. Ever had a fic translated?

no, but it seems pretty cool

13. Ever co-written?

i have not! but most of my fics are brainstormed with @3nderm1te. they had the most input on veteri-mycosis.

14. Favorite ship?

c!doomsdaytrio!

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but probably never will?

man. i want to keep adding to prisoner symptoms, and i will if i can ever find the inspiration, but it hasn't hit in a while. after a time, the symptoms pile on each other and it's hard to think of scenes that separate them out.

16. Writing strengths?

i'm very comfortable in my "voice" as a writer and can make it Work For Me.

17. Writing weaknesses?

my emotional scenes fall flat. consistently. and although i'm decent at plotwork for short-to-mid sized pieces, it's difficult for me to make a coherent plotline for longer pieces.

18. Thoughts on dialog in another language in a fic?

i think there are ways to do it where it will still make sense for non-speakers or not fully interrupt the reader's experience, but it's tricky.

19. First fandom you have written for?

naruto! my sasodei phase was long, dude.

20. Favorite fic you have written?

tough question! i think itwall is my Ultimate Baby, and the fic i think back on the most fondly. i also think that awakening is my objective Best fic.

Thanks @morgueofstories for tagging me :) i always forget who actually posts to ao3 and don't want to tag someone who doesn't, so consider yourself tagged if you want to do this.

[another-clive-blog]

clive au idea: he hits his head really hard at the casino (when he gets punched by bostro), and he gets some kind of amnesia. when he wakes up, from what he can gather from the others on who they think he is, he starts to genuinely believe he is future luke.

Angst angst angst- Alright I was excited about this one so I tried to make both fanarts and fanfiction hehe. Both are under the cut !! ('Do you like the color of the sky ?' Type of post ndjvdhcd probably SO LONG)

A fair warning tho, I drew on paper and photos destroyed my colors. I'll wait for nice natural sunlight next time...

Alright SO the fun thing is that I've actually done the part we were talking about lol, so without any further ado :

Soooo yeah. Next Google search : How do I tell my kind but sometimes provocative apprentice that he's actually the villain we were looking for.....

And would you look at that !! The fanfiction takes place right after that last picture <3

-

"Professor ? What is wrong ?" Big Luke asked, confusion written all over his face. Not concern. Never concern.

Layton should have known.

"You have to tell him, Hershel," Dimitri simply said, another nail in the coffin. He was right, of course, but that didn't make things any easier.

"Professor ?" Little Luke asked, his eyes worryingly going back and forth between the two men.

Well, it was too late to turn back anyway.

Big Luke must have felt it too, because he tried to back away at the last possible second. "Wait, wait, wait-"

A sharp inhale. Composure. And onward we go. "You are not actually Luke Triton."

"I'm not ?!" The actual Luke Triton yelled in anguish.

Layton kept his eyes on the silent young man who was now looking at him with an intense something that he couldn't quite describe. "Your name is Clive Dove. Your parents died in a tragic accident 10 years ago. They were collateral victims of a failed experiment ran by Dimitri's colleagues."

Big Luke whipped around, glaring daggers at Dimitri, and for a brief second Hershel thought that his memory had come back all at once.

It had not. "Tell him he's wrong !!" Big Luke commanded with a sheer anger that only seemed to incriminate him more.

Dimitri shook his head, the same tired sadness he did everything with heavy in his eyes. "He is telling the truth. You told me yourself, because unlike me you were there that day."

"No !" Big Luke insisted before the Professor cut him off.

"Clive, you then got adopted by a nice lady called Constance Dove. She-"

"Stop it !!" Big Luke yelled. Had they lost their minds ?? He would remember if his parents were killed. He wouldn't just forget the last memories he had of them ! No, no, no- Brenda and Clark were alive and well, little Luke had told him that. The professor and that Dimitri guy were just- just making up lies, testing him ! The Professor had been suspicious of his sudden memory loss, and Dimitri was a liar through and through.

They were lying, and he knew exactly how to prove it.

"If I'm not Luke Triton, then what am I doing here ?" He asked, because well- why would he be a part of Dimitri's vicious plan when the guy supposedly murdered his supposed family ? Why would he introduce himself as a Future Luke trying to stop Professor Layton, thing that he had apparently done ? And had he just conveniently ran into the Professor and stayed by his side by sheer luck ?

He crossed his arms smugly. All of these theories fell apart the second he was thought not to be Luke Triton. Checkmate, Professor. You won't fool your apprentice this time.

Layton looked him dead in the eyes. "You are the mastermind behind this whole thing."

...Hu ? Well it was a good question, but he wouldn't exactly call himself a mastermind-

"What do you mean, Hershel ?" Dimitri's voice cut through the silence, and for once he sounded alarmed : Big Luke somehow knew that it was strange to hear so many emotions at once from him.

"We have known for some time that someone else was manipulating Dimitri," Layton admitted, "but we couldn't quite find who. I am afraid we may never get confirmation with your unfortunate situation, but I do believe you were behind all of this, Clive."

"Stop calling me that," he snapped, "and stop telling such stupid theories !"

"You kidnapped those scientists and you told them to work on these weapons-"

"Weapons ?! Is that true, Clive ? This was never a part of our plan, we-"

"But I'm not sure what the final product is supposed to be. It must be something rather enormous, a new kind of weapon or a fortress-"

"Enough !!" Big Luke screamed. "Aren't you done already ?! I thought you were a brilliant man, but you're as pathetic as the rest of them !!"

A gasp. Little Luke took a step back, then another. He looked- he seemed betrayed, and disheartened, and he quickly ran to the professor's side.

Big Luke remained silent- almost. He suddenly was made aware that he was panting, his whole body uncontrollably shaking. He ran a hand down his cheek and surely enough, it was wet.

Most likely sweat than tears.

He looked around. The professor and Luke were finally silent, eyeing him like he was a predator about to strike. Dimitri had gone quiet too, but more in disbelief than anything. It was finally quiet, and yet there was a buzzing in his mind that was deafening, like something was going to snap soon and go off.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Luke Triton- Clive Dove.

Nothing. Not a single memory in sight. His parents, whoever they were, were gone from his mind- possibly gone forever.

The buzzing had stopped by now, but the anguish had not.

[melimpostor]

OMG you are one of if not the best aruanie artist i saw, i cant believe i have only found you now!

They were like the first ship ever for me and they still mean a lot, they are so sweet, especially in your style. The ironic thing is, that at first way back around season 1 i started to see aruanie fan art, and at the time i tought it was a bit odd (i guess i missed all the signs in the show), i liked it but i considered it somewhat of a crack ship, especially since Annie was present just for one short season then it seemed like she never actually gonna come back. And then i lost my mind when suddenly in the manga it was just straight up canon xd. It propably helped that from the begining they were my favourite characters even individually.

They are still the best ship ever, like what do you mean in her whole life she was raised for war, but then couldnt kill the one guy who didnt cared about all this conflict and revenge he just wanted to explore the world, and her decicion cost the warriors the whole mission and eventually changed the world 😭

Btw do you know of some fanfictions that you would recommend?

WaaaAAAAAA- (ಥ◡ಥ) I’m not sure i deserve such a title, but thank you very much for your kind words, I appreciate it a lot ! ♥ ♥ This blog is fairly new, i've been active here since january so it might be why -

Haha I feel you! Aruani made me feel things i never thought i would for fictional characters before. I personally shipped them from the start. I guess I was gifted with the vision and carried the curse of being judged by my AOT-enthusiast friends for years. So I understand why it felt like a crack ship at the time for some. I was pretty sure i was delusional myself- but now… SIKE !!!!!!!!!!!! I am unapologetically taking my revenge with Aruani fanart now XD

But yeah, Annie is basically the one who compromised the whole mission because of her affection for Armin. Ruthless Annie. Flawless Annie... Falling for the sweet sweet boy with cute smiles and curious eyes?? aaa i’m weAk..

As for fanfictions, I am actually new to this kind of media. I never really looked for written fan-content in any other fandoms before…well- now... But i’m happy i’m finally doing it because it opens my artistic viewpoint and this community is very talented ♥ I didn't know writing could make me feel so many emotions and keeping me involved like that. I never experienced it to that extend in the past.

That being said, it means I haven't read a lot of them yet, besides work keeps me busy and my reading is pretty slow…So for the time being i 'll suggest you take a look at this post which regroups a lot of work already (and I think reblogs have some updates too ! )

And if you wanted my personal recommandations, maybe ask me again in 6 months or 24 so I have time to catch up ! haha- sorry dear writers, i failed you for so long ;;

[goodluckclove]

On Being Seen

I'll warn you in advance, friends and colleagues - I might not have quite an optimistic take on this one. In advance I'll say that I'm totally all right, there's no need to comfort or fawn or worry. It's just been a pretty crazy couple of days and it's sort of left me in a kind of perturbed state of mind.

I feel as if I've developed a reputation on Writeblr as someone strongly supportive of other writers through their struggles and successes, and I figure it might be useful to see that I speak as someone who has their fair share of doubts. Consider it a show of neurosis that supports me as your steadfast advocate in creative growth and potential.

I'll put it under a read more. It's nothing triggering I don't think, I'm just a little embarrassed to have it fully visible under what I still consider to be a relatively professional space. Or at least a space for me as a professional whose brand involves not being very professional.

Nevertheless.

I debated for a long time self-publishing Blind Trust. I went back and forth every so often for weeks, and my poor wife had to deal with the brunt of my strange excuses not to do it. It really came down to one big question, which was...why?

Why am I publishing this? And for money, no less? That's weird. Why would anybody support that? It wouldn't deter me from writing if I never published any of the Songbird Elegies. I'd still write them. I've been writing stories for almost 20 years that no one has ever read and no one will probably ever read.

Sure, I have the fantasies of relative cult notoriety. People making fanart of my characters and sharing weird memes about my plot points. Finding comfort in the words and stories I've created to comfort myself. When I was still considered schizoaffective my dad gave me a copy of Flow My Tears the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick and said that he was "like us". If that happened to someone else with one of my books it would mean the world to me.

Then again, would it? Because in my actual, real, physical life I am terrible at taking praise. It's like trying to catch a ball from the other side of a brick wall. If you ever pass me on the street I'm guaranteed to be wearing soundproof headphones and blasting music to keep anyone from talking to me. You might catch my eye and I'll smile and nod, maybe toss a compliment your way, but if you try to have a conversation and I do not know you I will absolutely just keep walking. I can't do it.

I love people and I'm terrified of people. It's always been this way.

It's easier online. I mean it when I say that I'm open to anyone here just starting a conversation with me about anything. There's already the unspoken assumption that we're all already weird, so I don't have to think too hard about your motivations. But still, large amounts of praise and positive reinforcement make me deeply uncomfortable. I've been trying to work on that for years, but I find most advice on building self-worth deeply unhelpful.

It's not like I'd prefer hate. I think I'm just not used to being noticed either way.

This is the first time I've made an honest effort to put my work, and by proxy myself (all writers are brands now, says the publishing industry as a whole) on display online. And for the most part it's been great! I enjoy the connections I've made here. The promise of making more. There are so many skilled storytellers here that it gives me a lot of hope and excitement for the future of literature.

But it's weird. It's really weird.

Most of the time I see it as another social media client. I stand by the posts I make and do them for fun, but I also do them to maintain a presence and draw in more attention. I studied to do things like this for work before. I picked like three social media management tactics that I thought I could remember when I was 18 and just stuck by them. And then occasionally I go oh wait. This isn't some nonprofit. This isn't a start-up for tech assholes. This is me.

And that's weird.

It's not a massive following I have, but it's more than I've ever had before under my own personal and creative writing. I published short stories and articles, but I never heard anything from them. There are short stories I have on online journals that I genuinely do not know if anyone has read. Here, I see people like things and I'm like huh. I feel like a mummy or a ghoul. I do not understand what people are doing.

One part of my brain takes this information and says that it's probably proof that when I publish Blind Trust, some people will buy it. People have expressed interest already. Which means they're probably interested, I think. I post excerpts of my writing and people seem to enjoy it enough to click a button or leave a comment. That's cool. I don't get why it happens, but it's very cool and it makes me happy.

At the same time there's this undercurrent of paranoia. I don't get it. And I don't think I ever will. That's essentially been my only coping mechanism for publishing at this point - I don't know if it'll work, but I might as well try and if I do something will probably happen.

I know I'm a writer. At this point it would be ridiculous to say I wasn't. I'm a professional, working writer, and experienced enough to know that saying all that doesn't say much in terms of quality.

Am I a good writer? I don't really know what that means. I like Blind Trust. I'm reading it for the fourth time as I edit it again and I genuinely enjoy it. So someone who thinks like me and has similar tastes to myself might feel the same way. I don't really know who that person might be. Statistically I imagine they have to exist somewhere. And that there's at least a handful of them.

Imposter Syndrome is real and I don't think it ever goes away. I'd like to think that it's one of those things where you think about it less and less, and this is just the first night in maybe five months that I'm really thinking about it.

I'm not expecting to make a ton of money off my first book. In fact, I probably will be sick from anxiety with any purchase I get for the first year, because it means that someone spent human money on writing I am happy to just give them for free.

But this is going to be my job. I want this to be my job so I can spend more time doing it. Because I've dedicated so much time to doing all of this, it means I get to spend a lot of my day getting other writers to write even a little bit of their own stories. And that's so important to me.

I don't know. I don't really have a neat end to this. I'm forcing myself to actually follow through with posting it, and then to continue keeping it up even though it feels incredibly vulnerable to be, in my opinion, this self-indulgent and whiny. It's insecure. I'm still insecure. I'm in therapy and on medication and there's more shit I got to do in life.

Still, I'm telling myself that my version of being a Professional Writer is to showcase emotional pitfalls like this. Newer writers might know that you can sometimes have a night where you might not be in despair, per say, but certainly deep confusion, and then come back the next day and keep on working. I stand by what I mean when I say that the craft should not be entirely miserable. It is still maybe 25% inconvenient to me, and I am currently in that less-desirable quarter.

So what am I doing? Wife got us Jersey Mike's, so I had a yummy sandwich. Kafka is sitting on my calves, just behind my laptop monitor. I'm listening to my soul/funk playlist while Wife plays Hell Divers for the first time. Later we're going to play a board game.

But for now, I'm going to keep editing my goddamned novel.

Blind Trust out in June. Get ready people, because I'm not.