#llamas admin stuff

[fluffallamaful]

Llama’s DSMP AU

🦙🦙🦙…

i’ve never been one to explain the lore that i write because ironically, i prefer to just add it to my fics -_- butttt writers block has had me me in a death grip for yonks,, so. ye.

all of my dream smp fics so far are linked to each other. in the same world. i believe 🤔 (there’s some continuity errors but shhhhh) so i’m just gonna put a rough timeline here

🦙🦙🦙…

Pre-Lmanburg

Curing Boredom

Prison (pre-techno)

Crying Giggling Obsidian pt.1

Crying Giggling Obsidian pt.2

Sandwiches and Healing (wip)

XD learns about tickling: my lore follows the hc that george taught dreamXD about tickling (eg. What is Ticklish?/Am I ticklish? by @covenofwives )

The Danger of Strongholds

Prison (w/techno)

A Method of Persuasion

A Break From Prison

Ticklish Dreams and Georges

An Inconvenient Itch

Round The Garden

Prison (post techno)

Company

unnamed, HD intro (wip)

Post-Prison

Nightmare

Familiarity in Flowers

Post DNF reunion

Moonlit Sand (wip)

Scars and Feathers

Boat Fic pt.1 (wip)

Boat Fic pt.2 (wip)

The Feather Monster (wip)

🦙🦙🦙…

[blicketdabest33]

Y'all remember that MCYT PJO au I asked for help with awhile ago? WELL HERE'S THE CABINS AND MY EXPLINATIONS BEHIND THEM!!

#1 Zeus Cabin: Jimmy, Joel Jimmy: He's a Zeus kid, but everyone somehow forgets about it. Joel: He's competitive and strong. Also, because Jimmy is his half brother through godly parent, i get to make a fun bit about him dating Lizzie. And one of his origins in Afterlife SMP was a thunderborn

#2 Hera Cabin: Scott Scott: Scott's whole thing is loyalty. Hera is the goddess of marriage and is insanely loyal to Zeus. However, I feel like Hera should get at least one affair. So now Scott can use peacocks as weapons.

#3 Poseidon Cabin: Skizz Skizz: Poseidon kids tend to be really, really loyal to a fault and heroic, both qualities I think Skizz possesses.

#4 Demeter Cabin: Sausage, Shelby, Bdubs, Stress Sausage: This man built Sanctuary in a jungle and has flowers in his hair. He sells wood. There is no other place to put him. Shelby: Mushroom gnome, spooky mangrove witch, powerful storm witch, i need not continue. Bdubs: Moss man. Stress: SHE HAS FLOWERS

#5 Ares Cabin: Martyn, False Martyn: His planet is Mars, which is the roman version of Ares. He ended Limited Life in such a violent way, i can't help it. He was also red for the majority of Secret Life. False: I just feel like False should get to kill people more often.

#6 Athena Cabin: Grian, Pix, Owen, Xisuma Grian: This sums it up pretty well

Pix: Smart man. Archeologist and definitely a nerd. I wanna see him skipping out on training just so he can read history books. Owen: He likes to explore and discover new things in Pirates. In Rats, he's a tinkerer. In New Life, he's an explorer who wants to study hybrids. In Empires, he's a Llama who's curious about how humans work. Just a very curious character overall. Xisuma: Admin. I'm not elaborating.

#7 Apollo Cabin: Gem, Oli, Lyarrah Gem: She is an Apollo kid because of her Empire in S2. She's the sunlight princess. Apollo kid. Oli: MUSIC. MAN. Lyarrah: She writes the captions for the hermitcraft recap.

#8 Artemis Cabin: Pearl Pearl: Y'know, Artemis could've just like... had a kid, even though she took that oath. It wouldn't even have to be with a guy. Gods can change to whatever gender they want. Anyway, Pearl gets to be an Artemis kid because her symbolism is moon, she loves dogs, and will commit murder and hunt at night.

#9 Hephaestus Cabin: Doc, Mumbo, Tango, Impulse, Cub, Zedaph, Fwhip, Iskall Doc: Redstone Mumbo: Redstone Tango: Redstone Impulse: Redstone Cub: Redstone Zedaph: Redstone Fwhip: Redstone AND has a red scarf (don't ask me how that's relevant) Iskall: Redstone

#10 Aphrodite Cabin: Keralis Keralis: Okay, I don't know why, but Keralis gives me the vibes of a very charming person. His voice is nice to listen to, so imagine how useful it'd be if I gave him charm speak.

#11 Hermes Cabin: Scar, Etho, Joe Scar: Trader Scar, scammer extraordinar. Etho: All i must say is Shady-E's. I get "jack-of-all-trades, master of none, often better than master of one" vibes from him. He's funny, he's mischievous, it just works. Joe: Comedy man. Excellent delivery. And, yet again, i look at this man and go "That right there is a multi-talented man with a habit for mischief."

#12 Dionysus Cabin: Joey, Beef Joey: *points at his season one empires theme* i need not say more Beef: Idk, food. I don't really have a reason. I don't know too much about Beef.

#13 Hades Cabin: Zloy Zloy: Zombie man. He writes the Hermitcraft recaps in the dark at 2am with nothing but pure spite.

#14 Iris Cabin: Katherine Katherine: SHE. HAS. COLORS. and also I couldn't put her in Demeter cabin because Shelby is already there and i am NOT excluding Nature Wives from this au

#15 Hypnos Cabin: Bigb, XB, Wels Bigb: Sleepy stuff, right? WRONG. Gaslight. Go in everyones dreams, make fake prophecies, peace out, and cause chaos. XB: I look at his fanon design, I see an alien, and I go "aha he sleeps" Wels: This guy (@dingdinghq) said so and i completely agree. Something about sleeping in S6.

#16 Nemesis Cabin: Edit: wels not here no more

#17 Nike Cabin: Ren Ren: VICTORY. I don't know much about Ren's story in the Life Series, but I look at this man and see someone who has won a lot.

#18 Hebe Cabin: 

#19 Tyche Cabin: TFC TFC: Man goes mining and gets really lucky. That's it.

#20 Hecate Cabin: Lizzie, Cleo, Jevin Lizzie: Witchy vibes. Also, Arson. Cleo: Arson. She uses her magic for Arson. Jevin: He's a magic slime. Also, Arson. All Hecate kids love Arson.

[tadbitsketch]

so how do minecraft updates work in mcsm?

here's my thoughts on the matter bc im curious as to what everyone else thinks

i think that the updates just kind of happen overnight, when nobody's looking. then they eventually get discovered like, "surprise! there's llamas now!" and people just go with it.

after all they do turn into a pile of their stuff when they die. they do glow red for half a second when they get hurt. monsters do spawn into existence when it gets dark.

and maybe romeo (or the admins in general) had the ability to update things. it makes sense.

but maybe it's just another law of the universe. it's simply how things are.

[ask-nico-and-the-sides]

Heyyy there Thomas, Thomathy, Thoma llama ding dong, Thomas the dank engine (/ref) how are you doing? Are you doing well?

Hey Nico! Write anything interesting lately? Anything about a Carrot king Or kings should i say? How’s life going?

(Ok this is one of the ones where Admin just cannot make art for it, I’ve tried like 15 times, I’m so sorry, but I have to do text for this, I PROMISE I TRIED)

Thomas: Oh, um… I’m okay. Things are just a little quiet lately…

Nico: Wha- Carrot kings?

Thomas: What do “carrot kings” have to do with anything?

Nico: I don’t know, it… it weirdly makes me think of “pintroverts”?

Thomas: Pintroverts? Huh, that sounds familiar.

Nico: It does?

Thomas: Yeah… almost makes me want to put our names together!

Nico: Nicomas?

Thomas: Like that!

Nico: Huh. How odd.

Thomas: I wonder why “carrot kings” made us think of that stuff.

Nico: I guess we’ll never know.

Thomas: I guess not.

[redraven393]

catching up with Philza QSMP Vod. where:

the federation had ruined an old man's front lawn

Rycharlison is adrugdealer

forever took an opportunity and "marries" Philza

immediately met with his wife

the federation send an anarchist an invitation to become a president

Tallulah will rather eat a lime than an avocado or potato

Philza guess Ramon's password

Tallulah's father may or may not be real

Hide and seek in an awesome map Holly shit

the 4th wall has been broken so many times in Philza's Minecraft stream that the admins just let it be broken.

both dad and son thought that the other hid in the same place

the Brazilian are here! :D

there are so many screaming

Tallulah finds him yayyyy

hello Rycharlison

aww there gonna play music

PIG STEPPPP

HESNAMEISPHILZAMINECRAFTANDHEISQUITE OLD-

"my son is DEAD" omg Max

PHILZA OMG u didn't need to describe it

PAYthe SERVER Quackity

Pac and Mike are so cool

BIG LOVE TO MIKE AND PAC

omg Philza is spreading the 4th wall break

the file is so big omg, paper ASMR

"Are you gonna be a president" Sir he is an Anarchist

Max the sound system-the microphone

awww Supportive Philza, opp

Bye MAX

aww the Kids are playing the Guitar

it's nice when the cc are doing lore the admins are still acting like kids

AWWW TALLULAH TEACHING RICHA A SONG THAT WILL TEACH HER

Tallulah BIRTHDAY OMG

yey go stuff that girl with candy

Chayanne is really making plenty of use of his interest in cooking

THE BEES

CATERING LETS GOOO

omg Richa thinks that Will is like Hatsune Miku

Bye guys

is sweet to know that Philza is telling about Will to everyone

OMG Philza the Brazillian magnet

the eggs hear Will's songs too

oh? what do you have Richa

is that a llama

ohhh

omg

Forever is so obsessed with this friend of his omg

HYDRATE BEFORE DIEDRATE

wait the Brazilians are all gone

oh shit

oh no this is like that time with the trio

PARANOIA

Trauma Phil

a Square??

GATINHO and GUAPITO is here

the old man witnesses a shameless PDA

Tallulah is dancing in the background

opp Tallulah not here

the fish is drowning

hey Cellbit

Yay invitations for everyone!!!!

omg

no one believes Wilbur exists

Cellbit nooo

OMG

Chayanne is cooking for the WEDDING

LETS GOOOOO

LET HIM COOK

Cellbit nooo

Cellbit supports Creative Freedom

omg Phil's right Quackity will pull that type of stunt

Cellbit nooo

Richa has never taken a bath wtf???

oh shit he running

yeah show him your dad's picture

omg photoshopped

Forever and Roier is here!!!

omg Forever is gaslighting Holly shit

A Mouth!?

Chayanne is busy planning the catering

Professional Cheft Chayanne LETS GOOOOO

past life Philza omg

Philza is not having it

yeah Richa hit him in the head

your PLAN?????

oh well fair enough

Gaslight vs Guilt trip

omg that is a whole ass restaurant menu

BAGHEERA

yey french

tour pog???

oh shit a BAND??

the band is playing at the WEDDING???

they are so cuteeeeeee

nice home, it sweet that everyone try to make space for the kids in their home

why Cellbit is keeps killing other player

omg Baghera sound so scared that Phill would steal from her the poor lady

nice Megalovania mix it takes me back to 2018

the girls are so talented on music omg

hehe secret

holly shit a bucket full of honey

scary noises

THANKYOU BAHERAA

ohh candy apple

Chayanne professional chef bag

Tallulah is the best

Bagheraa nooo

oh thank god she believe Will is real

Will would have to socialize so much after he came back.

WhOOO THE KIDS FIRST PERFORMANCE

ROCK EGGS

Tallulah is following her old man foot step

bye Bagheraa

oh no the flowers

the Federation building is heighten Phil's property value

ohhh the kids are visiting the build

don't stand on the grass kids

walk on grass anyway

wtf????

what is that???

it is a pretty building

what is going on with the train station??? it was fixed

so they can leave now??

it looks brand new?

fancy train, but bumbpy ride

wat?

AWWW the RACON

aw god no VENUSSS

another venus gone

its okay Tallulah

that is so fuk

oh dragon magic

lol the flies is sitting the trains

lol Chayanne try to catch the bees but got stung

aww Tallulah babby dont be sad

eyy the bois are here

glad they could make Tallulah cheer up

looks like the happy couple happy with the menu

bye boisss

Max is going to get food lmao

it's nice to live near everything but it could also could be dangerous

Tallulah's and will's house really feels like a nice little fantasy corner

yay the kids are now able to get out

sleepy timesss

ohh an album

EGGJOY or RADIO EGG

lol the Wedding photo

Great Album Tallulah

Dragon Story POG

is it Mumza????

you guys will absolutely outlive me

CRY

oh is the Admins asking advice for the Dragon designs???/

if the kids get their wings i hope they also give the bird designed CC wings too

Tallulah pls he's an old man you can't make him run so much

Whooo birthdayyyy

AWWW thank you Tallulah

why is Foolish drowning?

oh god

lol Foolish

omg they were trying to give richa a bath

77777

yeah secur the party old man

kinda sadge

BYE PHIILLL

[covenofwives]

Hi Coven! I’ve been following your blog for. A while. Hello. Llama and I were chatting about your XD vs canon!XD and came up with a pretty interesting idea? And I need to introduce myself somehow so I guess I’m telling you about it now.

So, as per the ask I sent a few days ago (yes that was me lol) coven! and canon!XD are VERY different. And something interesting about how canon!XD acts is that. He’s not really HUMAN — he doesn’t really react like one at ALL. Where your XD is a fully fleshed out character (who I love very much) canon!XD is the one character in the whole series that I might actually pin down as Pure Evil. He has his moments, sure, but a lot of the time it almost feels like a mimicry of life instead of an actual example of it. Not to mention his whole thing about literally feeding off of misery and pain, to the point where he’s created this whole Limbo space to act as his digestive system. For context, there’s this person I follow on Dreblr (the-final-sif, she’s incredible, highly recommend) who often talks about “viruses” as they would exist in a world made entirely of code. And it kind of got me thinking: what if canon!XD was a virus?

Consider: Dream and coven!DreamXD have a falling out of some sort like you’ve indicated before, something about Dream pushing XD away as he grows up and then feeling rejected when XD reluctantly isn’t as affectionate with him anymore. Point is they don’t talk so often nowadays: XD is off doing other things, and Dream is now making his very first server and he’s so EXCITED :3 Because this is going to be a Happy Place for him and his One Big Happy Family :33 And hey, if he does a good job then maybe XD’ll come back someday — who knows??

And then a virus somehow latches onto the world’s code.

As the Admin, Dream is kind of…connected to the world. And in most circumstances he’d probably be able to detect the virus and get rid of it immediately. But, as luck would have had it, this is a virus that is INCREDIBLY advanced — advanced enough to be able to avoid detection. And it does this by — basically feeding off of Dream’s memories, taking his memories of coven!XD and becoming a caricature of how he remembers his older brother. And it tampers with those memories in the process, making them fuzzy and hard to recall, so Dream can’t see the difference.

And then, with a body stolen from Dream’s memories of coven!XD, the virus becomes canon!XD and starts feeding off of the server like a parasite.

It creates the Three Lives system, and instills it in the memories of the server members. It creates Limbo as a place where it can eat off of the players’ codes. And it does all of this while remaining near-invisible to those within the server’s borders. Dream can’t detect it, and can’t even really remember his brother much anymore — and the memories he still does have are caricatures of who coven!XD actually was. Some of the other players, those who’ve met coven!XD before, they can tell that something’s off — George, mainly — but it’s. Well. Who’d suspect something like this? It would mean suspecting that reality itself is bending in around them.

Bonus: canon!XD’s existence is feeding off of Dream a LOT. At first it’s barely noticeable, but as the plot progresses and he becomes more and more unstable the parasite gets a firmer grip, and by the time someone finally notices he’s kind of. Mentally destroyed. Even moreso than in canon, somehow. Maybe his motor functions have begun to give out or something, I dunno.

Bonus x2: coven!XD comes to visit after a while and is horrified at 1) the state of his little brother, 2) the parasitic bundle of code that has ruined the server his baby brother was so excited to make for him and his friends and 3) that…is THIS really how his little brother sees him?

Soup. Soup...soup...first off. I am honoured. I see the stuff you and Llama have created and I am just so blown away by the talent of you both. Now to find out you know of me and my blog AND you have sent me an ask is amazing. I am just flooded with feelings right now. You are like this to me 😎 I forever see you as a cool, sunglasses wearing anon who is just so much cooler than me.

pls, take my feelings under this cut

Virus XD is such an amazingly dope concept I love it so fking much. Not only does it beautifully tie in with canon!XD but it's such an amazing character design because XD does, in canon, sort of act like a virus. Messing up peoples lives and taking them to feed. That's actually an incredible idea.

And then XD morphing and pretending to be coven!XD 😭 omg omg using Dream's own feelings towards his brother so the creature morphs into that. An aloof, uncaring, maybe downright mean version of coven!XD and Dream just can't tell the difference from the corruption. I'm so imagining a scene between Dream and canon!XD arguing, and XD is loving it. He's loving the misery off Dream (and maybe with the more intense negative feelings from Dream it gets canon!XD stronger like there's more to feed on) and Dream is so enraged but sad because he's saying "Why are you like this?? You were never like this!" and canon!XD can just answer "Wasn't I?" and Dream can't deny it because his memories are already messed up beyond repair but he remembers some good feelings from XD. He remembers feeling safe and happy with XD but he has no memories of it actually happening. Which just confuses and frustrates Dream more.

AND I LOVE how it feeds of Dream makes dream more unstable. Mentally. Physically. EVERYTHING. Which I think fits perfectly to dream's predicament and plans. His mind is being messed with and he's mentally all over the place, so he acts out negatively to those around him. Which in turn makes everyone react hostile to Dream, which makes Dream act hostile to them in return again, giving virus!XD more to feed off of. A cycle the virus is deliberately making to grow stronger. Maybe it's full power can only be taken when Dream is so mentally and physically drained. Maybe (say after the prison break) Dream is just so unused to his own body he cannot move for long. Like he's forever with pins and needles all over his body, it all doesn't feel right.

AND THEN coven!XD coming back and seeing whats happened. I just it kills me to imagine him finding Dream first, so limp and weak in his body but when coven!XD goes to help, Dream is crying and telling him to get away and XD is just "???" so confused. Meeting the virus!XD 😭omg cause the first thing he'd probably think of is "how did Dream ever think that was me?" and then realising that that is how he's been acting to Dream. Of course it's all overexaggerated but that's how Dream saw it and maybe it isn't far off from the truth. But firsts things first, he has to absolutely go and kick a virus ass.

[aj-is-typing-18]

So......I made another thing for the au started by @shadeswift99 and @red-rose-gown . And if you guys want more and have requests? Feel free to shoot me an ask :)

Tw: body horror

~~~~~~~~

It was a pretty good start to the day for bdubs. Hed woken up early, hed gotten plenty of rest nad alot of work done! It was becoming a very productive day, yet he couldn't shake the feeling something was....wrong. everything felt too....quiet. or cheery. Impulse seemed to be the only other person to ever answer his com, and he was acting odd.

All bdubs knew was that is was some movie spoof thing. But all of the bones screamed he shouldn't go anywhere near botem, and it made him wonder is something else was at play here. But it was better not to know....

Right?

Bdubs decided not to dwell on this, going to brush and breed some more some more Llamas up! He had to stay above the competition afterall. Now, he was just finishing up when he saw something he hadn't before.

One of his llamas was.....unusually puffy.

No, bdubs wasn't imagining it- was he? No. No way! He decided, walking over to the llama a bit cautiously. Odd. It was.....? He saw it was fluffier then Usual, and it seemed the llama had a light pink tint....Bdubs went to pet the grazing llama and quickly pulled away......

Some fur came off on his fingers...

It wasn't normal. It was sticky and melty. Poofy.....smelled like- bdubs put his nose to the stuff.

Sugar.....?

The builder knew something was wrong. He quickly got the cotton candy like substance off of his hand, although there were now a few lighter blotches of skin where some of it was. The builder decided to bandage it up. Didn't X say something about this? Bdubs knew he did. Bdubs remembered the admin visiting a few days ago, telling him to be on the lookout for anything class A-77 v hippies weird. And this was exactly that.

Bdubs sighed, and sat down for a moment. He thought he'd heard something and turned around, seeing the forest and vines....a bit closer then normal. The builder was puzzled. He shrugged. But then.....then he got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Something inside was telling him to immediately go make sure tango and keralis were okay.

The man quickly acted on this, streighting his red bandanna to calm down. Surely they were fine. This weird candy thing couldn't have done anything too bad- right? After readjusting it again to stop his thoughts from spiraling, bdubs headed over.

His gut sank when he couldn't find tango at his base.

Normally tango was always around, he wasnt afk by any means- bdubs searched his entire place, the farms- and there was still no sign of his netherborn friend. He found some of those candy wrappers from meat impulse was selling scattered about, and a half eaten one on tangos table.

But he was pretty sure tango never left his chair look like he'd fallen out of it.

The next 10 minutes were a blurr of anxiety, and bdubs had to step back from the others house and take a breath, looking out across the water. Keralis was home, he had to be. Said he was working on trading after all.

The builder looked down to his arm to see the pink fur creeping out from his bandages.....like they were growing from out of his hand. He kept the bandages on. Nevermind that, he told himself, not noticing he couldnt really.....feel his hand.

Making sure his friends were safe was all that mattered.

~~~~~~~~~

Bdubs quickly got out of the boat, for once the sun was setting. He could sleep when everyone was safe. He pushed aside the fact his hand was being weird, fuzzy and fluffy and all-

Bdubs head a low noise from inside keralises house and stepped inside. It sounded like a groan.

Everything seemed bright. Brighter. More vibrant, as bdubs noticed, walking in and seeing nothing out of the ordinary......

That's when he saw him.

Keralis was on the floor, laying on his back. He looked.....liquidy. his hair looked slick back and hissclera was purple, but his pupils and such were blue and red, vibrantly blank and glazed over. He had a lopsided grin on his melty face, and didn't look.....human. his skin was super gloopy and melty, and it was like taffy......

"K?" Bdubs asked, immediately coming to his friends side, checking for a pulse. He was alive, just really sticky.....

"M...more..." his friend rasped. "Need more....P..please..."

Bduhs picked keralis up, and felt himself stick to the other. Felt as.....as the others taffy like skin almost....ate him. Or, absorobed....? He didn't have time to worry about that, heading to the boat.

"Dont worry." He said gently as he got them into the boat.

"Im gonna take you to x, he'll know what to do."

~~~~~~~~

Bdubs couldn't feel anything. It was all fuzzy. He felt like he was in the edge of a cliff, dazed and clear and fuzzy all at once. He hadn't stopped moving since he had found keralis, and now.....his hair was fluffy, tinted pink. His arms up to his elbows were fuzzy and pink, and everything was so nice and vibrant....it was hard not to get distracted. He just wanted to stare.....

No. You have to help get keralis safe, That voice in his head said, as he got up and stumbled out of the boat. He gently picked up keralis and they leaned on eachother, stumbling towards the admins base. Bdubs knocked on his door, and he coulsnt hear the admin talk, but he took keralis.

Keralis was safe.

Bdubs fell full force into it, swing as his eyes finally glazed over and his thoughts reached a murmuring buzz, and the world around him went black.

[pineappleoracle]

:0 you have more minecarft hcs????? i would love to hear them!!

alright *cracks knuckles*

i thought a little bit about what would make the most sense after the end hcs, more about avians from other dimensions or more about what the heck i was on about with hybrids and those "classifications"

and in the end i have decided its best to go for more general stuff off the bat so whenever i do go off about nether avians or the likes there's less explaining to do

let's start with the most important core concept of this all:

What defines a Player? Or the better title i gave it in my notes: Mob or Not?

first of all, there has to be a reason for a specific, lets say type of people to be referred to as "Players", an origin for the word itself

and that origin is the End Poem! And being able to "hear" it was how Players were originally defined too, until they got more into the technical side of things and realized some more specific parameters of identification are needed

Before the first people defeated an Ender Dragon, hopped into the well and heard the Poem, the entire concept of "Players" didn't exist, instead there was just a vague acknowledgement (is that really how thats spelled??) of sentience and a far bigger importance on whatever sort of group, be it species or or country, one belonged to. Once more and more people heard the End Poem themself and it was accepted as actual word from whatever created the universe, the entire concept of somebody being a Player regardless of species rippled through the worlds, changing society significantly - and bringing a lot of general peace, because it's hard to be a dick to anyone based on species if there's straight up Word Of God(s) that you're all equally great. The discovery of the End Poem thus marks the beginning of "modern times", a rough separation of the previous general mess to the focus on exploration and discovery that came after. (After all, this was the Adventure Update!)

imagine a general timeline (that's totally not based on me being a huge history nerd) that goes somewhat like this:

The Classic Age of temples, powerful magic and easy travel between dimension, when all the types of temples were build, spawners created and placed, the Overworld and the Nether were one and the End was still thriving;

The post-apocalyptic mess sometimes jokingly dubbed "Indev" (since the worlds everyone now knows where "in development" during this time), where the Overworld and Nether have been split into two, the old civilizations have collapsed or are fizzling out, the old knowledge is being lost with them and those remaining leave behind only crumbling ruins of stone brick, until things slowly cool down and the survivors are scattered across the universe like lonesome hermits, slowly starting to band together again and explore this universe they know so little about (the Universe may have done a bit of a hard reset during this time, its attempt to clean up the mess that was all the great old civilizations burning too hot until the inevitable supernova. not that the Players know about this, but there's a reason the current Players don't look like those back then, and the oldest ones of them seemingly popped into existence one day in an almost empty world)

The Modern Era, with the general focus of Player society being on exploration and discovery, trying to find out all the secrets of their world and what can be done with them. This is when all sorts of things like Admins and Servers come to be, since the Players figure out the Code exists and then relatively quickly learn how to mess with it too

Now that we know how the whole concept of "Players" came to be, let's get into those classifications I used for the different species in the End headcanons:

Player - A Player is a sentient being capable of Understanding the End Poem, respawning and travelling between worlds. (That last one is the Big thing, only Players have the ability to hop between servers with ease.)

Player-esque Mob - A Mob which is clearly intelligent enough to master language and communicate with Players, matching them in sentience but lacking the Code which allows travel between worlds. Usually cannot respawn without changes to their base Code. (A classification which was added after many years of arguing what the void endermen are, though it admittedly didn't help classify those tall mysteries at all. It did help create a better category to put Villagers, Piglins and extinct species that are impossible to call Players for sure into instead of lumping them in with animals and monsters)

Mob - A living, non-player creature, capable of moving of their own volition and possessing some minor level of sentience. (There are three further sub-categories of Mobs since this is the broadest and most vague category, really more of a catch-all for anything that doesn't fit in with the rest, but even those are vague at best)

-> Hostile Mobs / Monster - Monsters are Mobs which attack Players and certain Player-esque Mobs on sight without prior agitation. Most Monsters only appear at night and burn in the sunlight, but not all. (Common examples: Zombies, skeletons, creepers)

-> Neutral Mobs - Mobs which are not inherently aggressive (and can even be tamed with enough skill and patience), but will attack others if agitated or attacked first. (Common examples: Polar bears, llamas, wolves)

-> Passive Mobs - Mobs which will more likely flee from an attack than retaliate and are relatively easy to tame and keep as pets. (Common examples: Sheep, cows, chicken)

and im cutting this off here because its nearly 2am again, maybe i might work up the nerve to make a normal post on more of this soon explaining more stuff?? we'll see

[mrswhozeewhatsis]

To stop the accusation that I’m dragging this out to please the drama llamas, I’ve studied everything I got (and spent a fair amount of time searching for things on blogs), and managed to whittle things down to their bare essentials. I’ve also tried to talk to everyone about everything, which took time. I won’t address everything that everyone has said on both sides, just a few points that are either concrete, or I can’t address them privately for whatever reason.

The timeline as I’ve been able to piece it together is like this:

Vanessa made a post about more popular writers complaining about lack of feedback. 

Beka messaged Vanessa wanting to know why Vanessa had a problem with her.

Vanessa responded in a way that upset Beka.

Beka blocked Vanessa.

Vanessa got around the block and sent anonymous asks to Beka.

Beka outed Vanessa by responding to the asks publicly.

Vanessa deactivated her blog.

Friends of both proceeded to attack each other.

Claims about Beka (this is not a complete list):

Only supports her friends on her blogs and in Pond Angel Fish Awards

Although it’s been a couple of months since Beka has reblogged fics from other writers at all, by going back through her #read with me tag, I see reblogs of fics from at least a dozen different writers just in May and June. I’ve only been tracking Angel Fish Awards since February, but since then, Beka has nominated 8 stories by 8 different writers.

Ignored asks for Big Fish advice sent to her blog

If there were a way for me to prove this, then I wouldn’t be listing it here. As it is, it’s impossible to prove. As a Pond admin, I’ve experienced the weirdest stuff with asks. I spent one evening chatting with a member while they repeatedly tried to send in asks, and we didn’t get a single one. I do know that asks sent via the app seem to be more likely to be eaten than asks sent via desktop, but asks sent both ways have disappeared. 

There are other claims, this is not a complete list, but I will be addressing them with Beka personally (I have already started doing this, actually). I’m only including these two because they can be proved or disproved with facts. Some of the other claims have been leveled against Big Fish in the Pond other than Beka, as well. The Pond will deal with those privately, but we hope you will see an improvement in these areas when the Pond returns from hiatus.

Claims about Vanessa:

I’ve talked to Vanessa about these, without anything constructive coming from it. I tried. I tried to explain to her that she could have gotten further by using less provocative language and offering constructive suggestions. We ended up having the same old arguments about unrelated issues and going around in circles. The only thing Vanessa ceded was that she should not have continued to reach out to Beka after Beka blocked her. She has apologized for this. I don’t need to list the rest here, just know the conversation happened and nothing came of it.

Claims about Beka’s opposition:

Made unsubstantiated claims about Beka sending herself anon hate

I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t have a single clue how to figure out who has sent an anonymous ask on Tumblr. However, what I do know is that it requires access to the inbox the ask was sent to. In order for someone who is not Beka to say that Beka sent herself an anonymous ask, they would have had to have hacked into her account, somehow. I don’t know much about this, but it sounds illegal. Since there was proof of this offered, it’s a useless claim.

Picked apart posts on her personal blog and said they were intended for her writing audience when they were not

Beka’s personal blog was, she thought, relatively private. It was not meant for her readers to see. (There is an argument to be made about how it’s still a public blog that the world can see, but the charge is that she intended for her readers to see it and respond, and that is not the case.) Yet, someone took it upon themselves to stalk it, and then match posts between the two blogs, making it look like it all came from one blog. They then took their argument to the absurd and claimed she was using her mental health issues to drum up patrons on her Patreon. If that were the case, then it all would have been on her writing blog. But it wasn’t.

Belittled Beka’s cries for help, and then attacked her further

I don’t care if you didn’t believe her when she said she was on the edge, you just don’t do that, folks. That right there is the point where you either walk away or report her to Tumblr as a threat to herself. The last thing you do is double down on your attacks. Take a break, walk away, find a kinder, gentler way to make your point. I don’t care who they are or what they believe or have done, when someone puts the gun to their head, you do not tell them they are an awful human being.

Dissected every post, word by word, including auto tags, using intentionally provocative language

Not every post made was like this, but a lot were. This is high school stuff, guys. To rip apart words used by someone obviously in pain instead of reaching through and looking for the meaning behind it is petty and cruel. Not to mention it takes so much more energy to dig into things like that than to just respond to the meat of things. To take someone’s blog name and twist it into a degrading moniker is sickening. To attack words used in an effort to distract from the topic at hand, or to just add on to the already heaping pile of anger you’re throwing around is unconscionable and pointless. This is not what people who are coming from a place of love or kindness do. This is what you do when you hate someone, and that’s just not cool, guys.

Brought up old issues thought to have been settled a long time ago

My husband calls this “stamp collecting.” There’s a statute of limitations on things, and it depends on the thing, but my personal limit on Tumblr is about two weeks. If nothing has been said about something for two weeks, I assume it’s in the past and I try to move on. I say this because, if it weren’t settled, then we’d all still be working on it, right? If something is bothering me, and I work on it with someone, but I’m not happy, then I’m gonna keep working on it with that person. If they seem to forget (which happens because we’re all human), then I’m gonna send them a quick message. “Hey there! I’m still working on this thing. Can we talk about it again?” I do this with contractors who work on my house. I did this with clients when I worked in an office. To bring up something that happened a long time ago like it’s still an active issue is pointless, and goes against one of the main tenets of effective arguing.

Taking obvious glee in tearing down another person

Do I really have to talk about this? If you had any care for the other person, even enough to just care that they are a person, you would not gloat about how you’re going to tear them apart.

Really, all of this stuff comes down to if you are approaching the world and everything you do from a place of love or from a place of anger and pain. Even if you are angry and in pain, treat other people like you love and respect them, and you will find that everything is just better. 

If you feel like I’m coming down on one side or the other of this situation, just know that I’m not. Pretty much, I don’t like things that were done by both sides. These are just the things I feel more comfortable talking about in a public post like this.

Other stuff that’s come up in the course of all of this:

Complaining about notes/followers

So many writers, lately, are frustrated. Tumblr sucks balls on a good day when it comes to notifications and the whole algorithm mess, and that’s still being generous. In an effort to keep the porn blogs at bay, they’ve stifled all creators. Add to that how tags seem to never work when you’re searching for something, and disseminating your work is nearly impossible.

I could tell you all the different ways you can change your focus on the readers you do have, give you lists of things you can do to expand your audience, and offer advice about not comparing yourself to other writers. But you’ve already heard all of that. So, I’m just gonna say it.

If you complain publicly about a lack of notes or followers, you’re gonna look like a dick.

That doesn’t mean you are a dick. You’re just gonna look like one. You’re going to look like you’re ungrateful for the readers that you do have, which is going to turn off those readers, and you’ll end up with even fewer notes and followers. If you manage to disparage other writers while you’re complaining, you’re gonna look like an even bigger dick. So, just don’t do it, unless you don’t mind looking like a dick. 

Need to vent about it? Find a close friend and send it to them in a private message. Have a funny thought about it that you want to share? This is exactly what private messages are for. Create a group DM in discord. Heck, I think even Tumblr has a group chat option, now. Just, don’t put it on your blog, unless you want to lose followers. 

The number of admins at the Pond

Some folks seem to think that the Pond needs to add more admins in order to react more quickly when something goes down. Honestly, I have talked to Mana and Kale about stepping down as admin because I believe the opposite is true. We have a policy that we all must agree on the big things. However, we are separated by 8 time zones. There is a rare hour every few days (sometimes it’s weeks) when all three of us are awake and not occupied with caring for family members. We have a private group chat thing where we each toss ideas and questions and such into the pot when we’re doing things. When the others get to it, they add their two cents. Usually, there are two of us active at a time, and then we wait for the third to stop by for approval. Often, the third has a question or argument that then needs to be addressed, but the first or second one isn’t available. More admins would only be a good thing if we were all in the same time zone. But we’re not. We are an international group, which I believe is a good thing, but the downside is that it slows us down. Sometimes, being slow is a good thing, too. Generally, at least one of is calm and level-headed at any given time. It shifts on who that one is, but they keep us from doing anything rash.

The whole problem is that no one feels like they can tell you when there’s a problem

I’ve heard this so many times, now, but I haven’t responded to it publicly, so here goes. 

Most of you don’t know what I’m like in person, but I’m built like a linebacker. I’m tall, I’m heavy, and I have wide shoulders. I have literally scared small children. Take Jared Padalecki, add another Jared Padalecki on the side, and then take away all the pretty, and you come close to what I’m like when you see me walking down the street. 

I don’t want to be a scary person that anyone is afraid to approach. My goal in life is to be kind and fair. I will give you second and third chances, because I know how awful it feels to be written off. 

My ask box is always open. My chat windows are always open. My email address is mrswhozeewhatsis@gmail.com. I’m the same on discord and skype. I don’t care if you think your thing is stupid, if it’s something that’s bothering you, and I can help, then I want to help. I can’t always help, but I always want the opportunity to try.

If I have ever done anything that made you feel like I didn’t care, then I give you permission to tell me. I’ll hate hearing it, but I need to hear it. 

If I have forgotten to follow up on something for you, PLEASE REMIND ME. Holy, cow, I have a TERRIBLE memory. It’s really bad. I have tricks and stuff that I do to try to make sure I don’t lose track of things, but it still happens. Please, come back to me and remind me that I promised you something. I guarantee that I will not be mad or upset. I will be glad, because you’re helping me to be the person I want to be.

I think that’s about it. The Pond is still on hiatus, indefinitely. We have a lot of things we’re talking about for if/when we come back, and some of them are really exciting to me. I hope we come back. I hope we can make the Pond what we always meant it to be. We’ll need help, and constant feedback from our fishy family, but I still have hope.

[minecraftoworymode]

what happened to the mouse? part 1/?

ng+ notes: the fate of the gladiators.

the challenge room is a personal thing that was made by romeo for him and fred and xara and only them. you think he’d be comfortable with just anybody hearing potentially 600 stages’ worth of recorded lines? there’s a time and a place for testing the public’s mettle and given how much romeo a) rambles and b) loves fred and xara- yeah. no. the general public is NOT welcome to his twisted mind. keep OUT. it’s PRIVATE

so. what happened to the people in his city?

as chaotic as they all were (taking after their patron), there was some sense of organization to the chaos when he was there. once he was gone all that energy had nowhere to go- no more direction, see, since they were all too stubborn to take direction from anyone other than him. no one else was worthy. not just because he was their god but because he was fun! he was good at everything, an inspiration to all of them, valiant and creative and brave! because he was their leader, a good leader! and though none of them knew it or wanted to put words to it if they did they all considered him their friend, and friends don’t just leave forever without a word.

surely he’d come back. the admin was a perfectionist perfect and whatever he did, he did it 116%. he wouldn’t just... abandon them.

the sudden bedrock ceiling and effectively eternal night? surely another challenge he made for them, a gift, to help them to grow stronger and become the best versions of themselves they could be. they wouldn’t let him down. not like his so-called “best friends” or the other people in the underneath- all ingrates! they would show him. they would show him their determination, their passion, their loyalty in the best way they knew how.

surely he’d come back, if they could just do something impressive enough to get his attention.

at first they’re clearly antsy and a little restless, but it’s mainly stuff like not being super safe with their fireworks displays- a couple of singed hairs here and there. but it just keeps escalating like, you know how in skyrim youll enter some random cave and find the diaries of the folks who were in there last and it’s like

DAY ONE

we set off some fireworks! they were really cool, but not cool enough i guess... hope the admin comes back soon, val just figured out how to flip bottles so they land facing right-side-up. living it up in the ‘burg :-)

DAY FOURTEEN

we were performing a play when ash was like, ‘we can’t just FAKE tussle! if the script says your character kills mine, well- i’m not going down without a real fight! that’s what the admin would have wanted, right? and if one of us dies, well, it’ll get his attention right?’ and we were all like right! can’t believe none of us had thought of that before.

it didn’t make him come back but we’ll all remember your sacrifice, ash.

DAY SIXTY FOUR

was it because we kept calling his city ‘romeoburg’? he said it first! as a joke, sure, and of course he always said that he hated that we called it that, but he was always smiling when he said it, so we thought...

he always told us words have power. maybe if we call him back to his city, with its real name this time, he’ll hear us? if we just all cry out loud enough?

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX

maybe we did something wrong.

maybe we just need to find whoever did something wrong.

DAY FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

it’s just the two of us now. this is all that remains of the once proud windrose gladiators- two cowards and a llama. maybe the admin will come back now, if only just to laugh at us. it’d be the worst feeling but that wouldn’t even matter. i just want him to come back and tell us what we did.

[ghost-hyunjin]

TW: Babbling about a relationship, brief mention about ghost stuff

“@butterflyyuna​ had a great idea about sharing thank yous and thoughts about the good in our lives, whether it be people or memories. Admin-nim and I thought that was a wonderful idea. Also, Happy Birthday Yuna!”

@cupid-channie

“I’ve probably annoyed many of my friends and family on here about my boyfriend and how lucky I am to have him. Even though we don’t talk all the time, I always appreciate his kindness and the fact that he reached out to me on our first meeting. Channie, please take care of the people out there looking for love and a little bit of hope in these times! I’m sure your messages you’re delivering are greatly appreciated and the people who are getting them feel a little happier receiving them. I know I’m proud of you.”

“Sometimes my friends and family tease me and ask why I haven’t asked him about marriage, but I don’t wanna pressure him.” [Admin: “Also the guy’s nervous, I mean wouldn’t be nervous to ask about that topic?”]

“Please look after my boyfriend if he is delivering a letter or a love message to you or for you! It’s getting colder out and I worry about him in a good way. I kind of hope we can spend a little time together during the holidays, but if not, I’m not mad because he’s helping other people out there.”

[Admin: “Mr. Cupid, you might need to come get your soft ghost man. He’s being so mushy that even I’m about to go a little Drama Llama here.”]

[fluffallamaful]

Non-Nuke DSMP AU’s with Llama and Soup

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

a compilation of ‘fix-it’ AUs from ‘Soup the Destroyer’ to heal the hearts of those mourning the dsmp 🥺 (in a easy to read format, ie. THE MASTERPOST)

below cut!!!!

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Beach Party AU

The nuke fails mid air and no one dies. They instead throw a party to celebrate Tommy and Dream finally getting along

link

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Healing AU MASTERPOST

The nuke hits and only Dream is hurt badly. He can barely move on his own and requires the help of others (HERE)

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Tickle Therapy AU MASTERPOST

Sam/Quackity use tickle therapy in prison instead of isolation/starvation (HERE)

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Disc Finale AU

Instead of being thrown into prison Dream just gets tickled by the smp members

link 1 - Dream gets tickled

link 2 - Punz gets involved in tickles

link 3 - item teases

link 4 - interrogation turned comfort

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Drunz Interrogation AU

The nuke fails. Tommy’s newfound hope for Dream creates confusion for the rest of the server. Dream and Punz are captured and interrogated

link 1 - Dream and Punz capture

link 2 - tickle interrogation expanded

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Brotherly Foolish AU

Foolish finds Dream and provides comfort tickles (he’s also massive)

link 1 - travel tickles

link 2 - Dream provoking

link 3 - giant Foolish

link 4 - Dream provoking with Bad

link 5 - Foolish’s new rules

link 6 - Foolish punishing Sam

link 7 - Foolish punishing Quackity

link 8 - mandatory sleepover

link 9 - sleepover reasoning

link 10 - Foolish actually ruling

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Manhunt AU

The nuke doesn’t hurt anyone but still scares them enough to get therapy. Dream is nowhere to be found and a manhunt search party is sent out for him

link 1 - tickles to calm

link 2 - tickles to catch

link 3 - protecting Punz, Q + Sam ed.

link 4 - protecting Punz, Sap ed.

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Demolition AU MASTERPOST

The server realises that Dream will never heal if the prison is still standing; so they blow it up. (HERE) was once ‘Sapnap Manhunt AU’

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Sleepy’s ( @sleepy--anon ‘s) AU

The nuke doesn’t explode and Dream allows Tommy to get him used to good touch again

link

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Memory AU

The server reset occurs but Dream recovers from amnesia faster than everyone else

link 1 - intro

link 2 - people start to remember

link 3 - Quackity and Sapnap fight

link 4 - Dream omitting memories

link 5 - ‘evil’ Dream defence

link 6 - Dream’s manipulation techniques

link 7 - techniques don’t work

link 8 - tickles and reassurance

link 9 - pre vs post pandora vs s2 dream

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Pet Blob AU MASTERPOST

Dream gets out of prison and is so weak that he transforms into his blob form (HERE)

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Karlnapity AU

Karl’s memory is restored and Sapnap and Karl go to inform Quackity

link

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Time Travel AU MASTERPOST

All characters are sent to limbo in the reset. They get inspired to fix all their flaws, and then get sent back in time to the point where Techno breaks out of prison, with this knowledge in mind. All of them except Dream (HERE)

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Limbo x Therapy AU

The Time Travel AU meets the Tickle Therapy AU. All characters go through limbo and break into prison to save Dream, meanwhile Sam has begun tickle therapy with a very confused Dream

link 1 - set up, everyone storming prison

link 2 - Sam’s explanation

link 3 - tummy kisses

link 4 - the schedule

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Locked-In AU

Same as the Time Travel AU, except that Dream is sent into a coma after limbo. Everyone gets a self-reflective limbo except for him.

link 1 - set up, Dream’s coma + escape

link 2 - tickle amendment

link 3 - capture and explanation

link 4 - comfort tickles

link 5 - Dream’s confusion

link 6 - frozen lake amendment

link 7 - frozen Dream cuddles

link 8 - pre-lake fluff

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Servant Quackity AU

Post-nuke. Dream is paralysed from physical detonation and Quackity is selected to be his carer

link 1 - Quackity’s new job

link 2 - shapeshifter Quackity

link 3 - dehumanised Quackity

link 4 - dehumanised Quackity 2.0

link 5 - Q feeling like he’s intruding

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

Dream Egg AU

Techno escapes the prison and Dream is left alone. Dream is so distraught that he lays eggs and develops animalistic traits lmao

link 1 - intro, Dream’s eggs

link 2 - transformation reasoning

link 3 - surrogate eggs

link 4 - Quackity’s abduction

link 5 - Quackity gets tickled

🦙🍲🦙🍲…

[lesbianrustcohle]

so yesterday at work i was doing a lot of pretty rote admin stuff so i watched the emperor's new groove for the first time since childhood (when i hated it due to various reasons that are no longer in effect), followed by the road to el dorado for the first time ever

and boy was that a gay experience and i really did not think I was going to still be haunted by a llama twink like 18 hours later but here we are

[arizaluca]

Ooh you're still doing the headcanon thing? Could you do some on the 3 Admins?

I’d love to! And I’m always doing the headcanon thing, haha xD

- Romeo gets SUPER touchy when the one-inch difference between him and Xara (with Xara being one inch taller than he is) is pointed out.

- Romeo, Xara, and Fred used to have ship wars with the citizens of the Underneath. (”Binta and Cam for life” “Okay but I ship Val and Soup” “I kinda ship Val and Binta” “FIGHT ME XARA” “Okay”)

- All of the Admins emit this aura that causes a certain emotion (when they’re an Admin). Romeo’s was anger, Fred’s was calm or happiness, and Xara’s was creativity. 

- The Admins themselves are immune to the auras, but you should’ve seen most of the citizens of the Underneath if all three of the Admins were in the same spot. (”Why is Binta calmly crafting a new weapon to destroy something?” “Fuck is she?! Binta, WAIT”)

- (inspired by @beforethebedrock) Romeo had two parrots named after Fred and Xara. He taught them swear words. (Including others in other languages.)

- Romeo likes cold places to a RIDICULOUS extent. If he ever sulked, he used to just teleport to a snowy place or a meat locker and just lock himself in. 

- Both Romeo and Xara see Fred sometimes when they glance at Jesse; Jesse and Fred are so similar at times that it’s genuinely a little creepy. (If Jesse is a nice person in the game.)

- Most people were not THAT scared whenever Romeo and Xara got mad (since that was just pretty often), but when Fred got mad– and I’m not talking annoyed, I’m talking REALLY FURIOUS– reactions ranged from “o shet” to digging a hole and hiding in it.

- Romeo loves animals (especially fluffy ones like dogs or cats), but getting him to admit it is near impossible.

- Once Romeo made a weird hybrid between a cat, a dog, and a spider. The result was a eight-legged fluffball with a cat’s head, dog ears, and many eyes that was oddly adorable yet terrifying? (”Romeo what the hell is that” “It’s… a felcanider.” “A what”)

- Romeo has had to catch himself several times when talking to Jesse; a couple times he nearly called them Fred. (It’s even easier to do so when not looking at Jesse or if the Jesse is male.)

- Fred had a weird affinity for spicy foods. He didn’t LOVE them or anything, but you could give him the spiciest food of all time and he’d eat the whole thing without blinking. (”Was that supposed to be spicy?”)

- Sometimes if the Admins were bored, they’d collaborate together to create new things. Some of the best things in the world were created that way (for example, llamas were created by the three Admins by accident while collaborating one day.) 

- Romeo cannot hold alcohol. At all. If he drinks more than two glasses of alcohol, he starts becoming totally smashed. As a normally-built person with a decent muscle mass, it is a mystery as to how that’s possible.

- Fred had scarily good health before becoming an Admin; while the other two Admins would catch colds, fevers, whatnot periodically, he was never sick, never had allergies (Xara was always so mad about that in the springtime), and never developed any health problems.

- Conversely, Romeo would get raging fevers, horrible colds, and break bones or ribs all the time. It was somewhat a relief once they became Admins.

- Interestingly enough, they were originally NOT Admins; however whenever anybody asks about it Romeo and Xara (if both are still alive) will find a way to change the subject.

- Xara was the one who created Endermen; she did it one day out of complete boredom. Romeo then created creepers to even it out, and Fred invented zombie pigmen. (”I thought you would’ve created, like, a dog, Fred.” “I like people; and I wanted to try mixing a pig with it to create some sort of hybrid. The result was, uh… this.” “We can see that, Freddy.”)

- Xara, Fred, and Romeo all had pet names for each other. If they really wanted to embarrass each other, they’d just call each other the pet name in public. (Fred was Freddy, Romeo was Romie, and Xara was Zee (or Xee if Romeo was spelling it out on paper))

- The original zombies were the Admin’s failed results with reincarnation; a weird form of respawn. They never fixed the rule, though, so if someone dies, there may or may not be a zombie version of them created elsewhere. Eventually, the corpse’s clothes, facial features, and distinguishing features get mangled and worn away so much that they become indistinguishable.

- Romeo created spiders to scare Xara; she used to be terrified of spiders. So Romeo made them all gigantic as a joke. (”Romie I will literally kill you as soon as I’m done running away screaming”)

- In retaliation, Xara made silverfish; Romeo is scared of mice. (”Okay okay I’m sorry about the spiders Zee” “I don’t believe you” “I’m super sorry okay now please make these things go away”)

- Fred would play the peacekeeper half the time and just watch Xara and Romeo argue with one another periodically. The results of the arguments were hilarious.

- The first person the Admins created may have been someone named Soren. 

- Despite what Romeo may seem like, he has a weird dislike for killing. Blinking out of existence; sure. Killing someone… no. 

- Fred was the first person Romeo had really ever killed.

- Killing Fred was basically a result of Romeo’s paranoia, fear, and desperation making him snap. There’s a reason he’s not entirely there whenever Jesse interacted with him until they literally punched some sanity back into him.

- Xara had a really weird love for salty snacks. Like, forget cake and stuff like that; potato chips all the way.

Hmm… that’s all for now, I think.

[financiallymint]

Experiment 8: Backpacking and Studying in South America

I’m back!

You may have noticed a little less activity on social media and generally on Financially Mint in the last few months. Reason: the author (yes me) went a little crazy, decided to go travelling and never come back (and now I’m back). It was an amazing 3 months: I started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and went all the way through to Santiago, Chile, up to Peru and then over to Bolivia. 4 countries, one backpack and an intrigued solo traveller. Of course, it was amazing; I did things I had never dreamt of doing (touching dinosaur footprints) and met people I didn’t know could exist (a horse psychologist??).

But I also learnt a lot. Not just about myself, but about the world, and people. I learnt a lot and it wasn’t until I had been back for 2 weeks and had was back in a routine that I realised how much I had learnt. So, of course, I’m writing a post about it: 5 things I learnt backpacking round South America.

1. You can study and travel

This trip was an experiment; I wanted to see if I could study, work and travel at the same time. I study online at The Open University (post on that coming soon) and I work as a digital marketing freelancer on the side. Throughout the travels I had to keep studying, turning in assignments on time and keeping up to date. With the freelancing, I dropped most of my clients and told them I’d be back in a few months.

So did it work? Kind of. I was able to study and turn in my assignments, but any attempts to work went out the window. I answered emails and did admin, but proper work was pretty much impossible. Sleeping in hostels and with couchsurfers meant I hardly ever had some quiet time and couldn’t really concentrate. But that was fine, because I was ready – I had 3 months of blog posts written and not much freelancing to do.

I study maybe 3/4 hours a week with the OU, and what’s cool with travelling alone is that I could rearrange my day around getting my studying done – study in the morning, tourist in the afternoon. A pretty cool arrangement (which was completely shattered the minute my friend from the US came to do Peru with me, since it was harder to manage my time). I also must mention that I am half Spanish and therefore could communicate easily with locals – a great advantage, I realised during the trp.

So you say: ‘Great! Studying and travelling sounds amazing! I’d love to do that too, but how on baby’s Earth do I finance it? I’m already broke as a student, where would I get the money to travel around South America???’.

Well my dear student friends, let me tell you something: those three months cost me around £3,000, excluding the plane ticket. £3,000. Think about it. Is it really that much?

If you got a job, even a student job, applied the 15% rule and budgeted correctly, you’d get to that number in no time. Next thing you know you’re getting a degree and travelling! I’m not saying you have to do it, I’m saying is that it’s possible.

2. Travelling doesn’t have to be expensive

Moving on from the last point: my trip cost me £3,500 in total, this time including all plane tickets, accommodation, food, trips, tours and souvenir llama jumpers. At first it may seem like a lot, but the budget was £1,000 of expenses a month, which ain’t too bad if you ask me.

Related: Mastering the art of travelling on a student budget

So why was it so cheap? Mostly because I did quite a lot of couchsurfing, did a 2 week workaway, hostel home cooking and also the fact that South America is a cheaper continent (yay!). But the most interesting part is that I know I could have done this trip on an even lower budget. Think of all these options: working in hostels, doing workaways, au pairing, etc. When I told other travellers my budget was £1,000 a month, they were surprised; most people travel on way lower budgets. Once again… all I’m saying is that it’s possible.

3. Travelling is one of the best forms of education

Why am I so supportive of the whole travel and study idea? Because travelling is one of the best kinds of education you can find. Just as important as a degree (or even more…).

Think about it: you throw yourself into an unknown world, alone and ready to learn. You have to figure out how to get from X to Y without internet, you have to communicate with locals and understand their culture, you get to meet other travellers and make friends. All that is education, because you learn how to be independent, how to relate to others and also you get to know a little more of yourself – something universities don’t really offer.

I’ve done quite a bit of travelling in my short lifetime, but what was different about this trip was the people I met. Some of them inspired me, some intrigued me, and some became my very good friends.

I met this guy in a little town in the south of the wine province in Argentina (Mendoza) called San Rafael. It’s famous for having tons of nature activities and is great for family outings. This friend I made was living in this little town and worked as a rafter on the river. He loved the water and his job was to guide people down the river and save lives. But he was taking it a step further; after seeing how underdeveloped and disorganised tourist information was, he joined up with a developer and was started building an app. This app would help families figure out which cool activity to do, how much it would cost and where it was. I loved it. By day he was a rafter, and on the side he was an app developer – in this little town in the middle of the Mendoza desert. I simply found it inspiring.

You learn so much from the people you meet, it’s quite unbelievable. You learn about their culture, their way of living, their day to day activities (sacrificing a llama fetus before each starting a construction project – Bolivia). And it’s fascinating.

Another important lesson I learnt was how lucky I am to have grown up in a Western country. Peru and Bolivia are lovely places with lovely people, but seeing what corruption, poverty and inflation does to people is heartbreaking. Yes, we’ve got our crazy politicians, fake news and are addicted to technology, but it’s nothing compared to what I saw in some places of SA. Thanks to our society, I am able to travel, earn my own money, get an education, have my own thoughts and express my own opinions. And now I realise, that’s a lot.

4. Travelling alone is LIT

I did the entire of SA alone apart from Peru, where I had planned to meet my friend from California and do the country together. Most were surprised that I would venture into the wild alone – but I was looking for real adventure, and I knew the craziest ones are the ones you do alone.

Travelling alone means meeting a ton of people wherever you go, and it forces you to be sociable. When I travelled with my friend, we stuck together and enjoyed each other’s company – I couldn’t be asked to talk to others. His lack of Spanish meant it wasn’t easy to talk to locals – so we mostly stuck together. It was nice to mix it up with a friend (thanks Ryan), but I was still happy to be overall backpacking by myself.

So I was able to meet a lot of people and go where and when I wanted. After doing a canyon trip in Mendoza, Argentina, I fell in love with the place and wanted to go back and stay some nights there (San Rafael). And guess what? I did exactly that. Boo yeah.

It also meant I could work/study when I wanted to, and that I didn’t have to organise stuff every five seconds for those who didn’t speak Spanish (*cough cough Ryan ;)). So overall, pretty amazing. You should try it.

5. I wasn’t productive

Of course, everything is not always unicorn and rainbows. The trip was awesome, amazing, life-changing. But there was one negative side: I wasn’t productive AT ALL.

Ok yes I did manage to keep up with the studying and some reading, and I did learn a lot from the people and the countries. But I wasn’t making any money, I wasn’t advancing with my career or my ambitions. It may seem frivolous or obvious to someone else, but it wasn’t to me.

So the 3 months were more of a holiday than anything else – which is great, of course, but I felt a slight frustration that I couldn’t get on with my career ambitions, because the constant changes and lack of wifi made it pretty much impossible.

Financially Mint was updated once a week from my stock of pre-written articles. But pageviews considerably decreased due to the lack of marketing, social media activity and interaction with others. Oops.

So yeah, for three months I didn’t do any work, really. And since I’m someone who likes to keep busy and work on my ‘goals’, those hours without wifi stuck waiting for a bus were a little frustrating. I wasn’t challenging myself professionally, something I only realised I missed when I got back to work; that feeling of progress, of reaching goals.

I’m not complaining – I’m simply observing. The the lesson here is: backpacking = holidays. You can’t work online and keep moving about every 3 days. Now I know.

What’s the next trip?

So I’m pretty much done with backpacking – I want to get some real work done and start growing the FM community. Next time I go travelling, it’ll be for 6 months+, something called slow travel. I’m moving from Edinburgh to Barcelona for 4 months, where I’ll be doing an internship (my first 9-5!). And after that… who knows?

What are the plans for Financially Mint?

I put the website growth on pause for 3 months, which meant there was a lot of catching up to do when I got back. But my head is cleared and I feel focused.  After an awesome FI meetup in London and talking to other people working on similar projects, I created some new goals and tasks for FM. This website is my baby, I ain’t giving up now.

So what are some of those goals?

Coaching: I want to try helping other students face-to-face or on Skype. Free of charge, just talking. Contact me if you’re interested in being part of the trial run.

Courses: Apart from the 6 day email course, I haven’t created anything else. In the process of creating budgeting, investing, saving courses. Step-by-step and actionable.

Community: Once I start the courses and coaching, I want to create a community of students – a place where we can all ask questions and learn from each other (Facebook or Slack?)

Social media: As much as I dislike checking my phone every 5 min, I’ve decided to take on a bigger presence on social media. Check FM out on Instagram and LinkedIn!

Projects: I love the topic of Financial Independence, I love how it changes people, gives them hope and teaches them how to enjoy life. We started a podcast with 2 other friends called Financial Independence Europe (yes very original) where we interview people who have reached FI in Europe, figuring out the best countries to work, retire and invest in. Also on track to organising more FI meetups and events in the UK and Spain – Contact me if you’re interested in helping spread the word and make it happen.

So there you go! A little update on Financially Mint and myself, and some interesting lessons on travel. Hope you’ve learnt something and would be interested in hearing people’s thoughts!

[rodentmancy]

What's wrong with people favouriting your stuff on FA? Unless there's something wack about one of those users; I'm ignorant on furry drama and the ilk unless it's REAL big.

Do you.. not know who dragoneer is? He’s the previous owner of furaffinity, still the admin tho. He’s the reason that zaush was working for fa for so long, zaush is a known rapist and child porn collector. He is known for siding with aggressors cause folks even just..talking about what happened to them is “inciting drama”. He’d rather hire his friends than anyone who actually knows anything about running a website, which is why a known zoophile, chase, is still an admin on the site. He’s defended Daniel “TORA/Growly” Llamas, who has a lteral child sexual abuse conviction, because he was neer’s friend and was SooOooOo upset when he had to ban said friend because the dude was using fa to find new kids to harass. And yes, kids can and do make fa accounts.

I left the site originally around when pms were getting leaked cause the sites code is broke af and super easy to hack. We found cool things like someone went to neer for help cause zaush, their old friend, has raped them. Neer told that person to keep quiet, cause again, it’s causing Drama to go public in any form with that. Which was also around when he was made a staff member. That was just great.

There’s also been cool things like him raising 10k to fix the site and then..doing nothing. Also the weird silent sale to imvu, who maybe owns the rights to uploaded work? Maybe? He doesn’t know. He told users a few months after the sale that it happened, I’m sure he knew folks would be upset. But that’s just a small tale on how he can’t run a website, which is lesser to the whole befriending of monsterous folks, defending them and then intentionally putting them in positions of power over a massive group of ppl that he knows includes vunerable folks

The other person in that cap is idk some random person who liked my art and is fine I’m sure. They’re not dragoneer, the person who made me say “kill me”.

@m00-scharfschutzen