fullsludgeknightranch

[honeystarcamper]

﹙☆﹚Jiu Niangzi Gif Icons request by the-symphonica-org

f2u! credit appreciated but not needed + don't forget your daily click!

[heph]

I started rewatching House today because of your art

So sorry...

[eggkevinshouseaton]

headcanon.... kevin wears his moms stuff, like, any of margarets stuff that survived in the fire... you get me????

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┌── ⋅🥚⋅ ──┐

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Yeah i getchu i getchu...

And I raise you one better! (And frankly, sadder.)

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Technically, this WOULD sort of conflict with the fact that Kevin wore those same glasses when he was a kid, but come on, no way he's keeping that on for 20 years! +Adult prescription and new pair or something But yes, was planning to draw him looking at mom shirt with despair in his eyes...but you get what you EGG 😁

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[qumiiiquinnquin]

misremembered someone’s request and realized when i went to check it again AFTER i had finished this...so here’s some croma

[aishawilson]

thinking about how i thought jeff buckley was this guy

[theimaginatrix27]

So it's been a year since I began delving into Star Trek fandom properly

It's officially my birthday in my timezone! This time last year, I was gushing on the server @kintatsujo made for our circle of mutual friends about the best/most well-thought-out part of my Star Trek AU, now dubbed Galactic Warp, after its most important advancement. In a few weeks, it will be the one-year anniversary of my joining the Trek server where I would make all the friends I have in that fandom (particularly gonna shout out @roguetelepaths, who you may have noticed I've been reblogging a lot of posts from of late).

A lot has happened over the past year on that front, if I'll be quite honest. I've posted eight! fanfics for DS9 (holy shit), bringing my number of works on AO3 up into the double-digits and totalling about 140 thousand words! And there are many more to come, I assure you—the plot bunnies living in my brain evolved into tribbles and started churning out ideas for this fandom and these characters, as if making up for lost time.

I hit a lot of milestones this year (remembers the name of the first Trekfic I posted and laughs). Let's see if I can remember them all! :D

I discovered I can write Sci-fi, actually! Honestly I'm looking back at my confident assurance of the exact opposite of this and laughing, because I have proven that claim false in several ways over the past year. (See my Threshold fics for the most obvious example). But like. Also. The backdrop of one of my original series is kind of a Sci-fi setting, so I've been doing this for a while. Yeah, Kinta, laugh it up, you were right and I was very silly.

I can write Star Trek fanfics, actually, and if I mess up on anything, nobody's gonna care! I was so scared I'd embarrass myself in front of a fandom I found very intimidating, but so far, everyone's been so welcoming and people like what I've put out there! They really like it! I'm honestly humbled and grateful for all my lovely readers who have said such nice things to me in fic comments, and in private on Discord. You're all wonderful! But critically, I did make a mistake, and nobody gave a single, solitary shit. The story's an AU anyway, and people have been enjoying it, and I was worried for eleven years over nothing. You won't believe what that does for a lady's confidence.

I've learned some stuff about my own personal writing process, which is a big step forward! I've been taking in writing advice for as long as I've been fully online. I've listened to writer after writer tell me how they work, how they do things, and I've tried plenty of it myself, but to no avail. Earlier this year, I ran out of words to paste into 4TheWords, a website I'd joined several years ago because I liked its premise (turning writing into a game, where you could defeat monsters with words you wrote). I hadn't written on it live before, due to copy/paste issues I was able to resolve (the font in the site editor is different to the font I use on my computer when writing offline), but I actually started doing it because there is a particular group of enemies that are specifically time-based (all enemies have a time limit in which you must defeat them, but these guys set a timer within which you must keep typing), and I thought I could use that as freewriting sessions. Freewriting was something I'd been sure would work for me if I needed to get unstuck, and I'd actually noticed I could untangle issues I had by talking about them with friends in private, often without them even being around to help. So I tried it. And wonder of wonders! I got unstuck! On multiple stories! Just by rambling about them on a timer! And then I started writing words to defeat other enemies on the site live, and wait. How many words did I write this week? On this day? It's been a real game-changer, particularly as my edits count as more words, which impresses the fundamental truth that every word you write matters, even the ones you delete. Even the ones you edit away because the sentence didn't feel right. Even the passages that ultimately don't work. It all matters, and it all helps. And if I get stuck again, there's always the endurance monsters to help me out! About half of the stuff I've posted was shared in the last three months. And it's all thanks to 4TW. If you think this sounds cool, look them up! They're good eggs and don't support generative AI in creative writing. :)

I've also achieved a few writing firsts as a result of that last point!

This probably doesn't come as a surprise to my writer friends, but I've fully accepted the fact that the first thing I need to do as a writer is write. I have heard that a thousand times before, and I knew it was true on some level, but I would always let my anxiety and perfectionism get the better of me, and overthink myself to a standstill. With the method I've been employing on 4TW, I've had to press forward if I want to beat the clock, which has pushed my ADHD brain into doing what I want it to (part of why 4TW works for me is that it sets little deadlines outside myself. I cannot set my own deadlines, I know the person who drew up that schedule and she's too easily distracted and also likes to have fun too much). With even the low-stakes pressure of beat this guy before time runs out, I've been able to at least get started, and once I've picked up a little momentum, I get excited about my stories again, and we can have days where I write over 6000 words in twelve hours, because I don't want to stop!

I've stopped trying to force my chapters to be a certain length. I let each one be as long as it needs to be, and if that's a couple thousand words longer than the last one, fine! It achieved it's purpose for the story, and I'm not going to cut stuff when it was all important! Besides, I've noticed that each story finds its rhythm if I give it the space it needs, and the chapters end up being close to the same length anyways.

I've been getting bolder and bolder about the stories I write or consider writing! Too often in the past, I've been unsure about whether an idea will work for my audience, but the more times I've let myself be weird on main, and nobody has come out of the woodwork to yell at me for it, the easier it's been to be that little bit more wild with my ideas. And having friends to babble to helps with that too, people who tell me to go for it are super important and I appreciate every one of them!

I've actually written stories inspired by prompts! I'd never really done this before. Being prompted by a post is one thing (love ya, Threshold AU), but actually doing prompts for a challenge? That was always difficult for me. I'd always second-guess myself if I came up with any ideas for a particular prompt set, and then procrastinate on trying for years. But this year, I participated in Dominion Week, and although I've only posted four out of the seven prompt fills, I do have ideas for the other three days and will write them when the tribbles are done filling in any gaps they think should be patched in the AUs said prompt fills are relevant to. :D

Related to the above, I wrote oneshots! That stayed oneshots! And one of them stands completely on its own! That. That has never happened before. I've said several times on this blog that I'm not wired for short stories. I wrote my mother a story for her birthday and it was a backstory event from my Ylonaverse because I couldn't think of an idea that could stand on its own. And then Dominion Week happened, and I started two series of single-chapter stories, and wrote a oneshot that was a thought experiment and won't be a part of any of my currently existing AUs, and I'm still mind-blown that that even happened.

It has been a good writing year for me, in other words, despite its ups and downs.

Oh, and I also have had the capacity to Braille up my stories for a year now, and although I'm a perfectionist about this and want the Braille versions to be just right, because I intend to podfic them, I'm still very glad I can Braille things up at all.

But that was gonna happen anyway. The Brailler and paper were part of last year's birthday present, much as the binding combs and binding machine were part of this year's one. And the discussion of that part of my creative life should have its own post at some point. Probably when I have compiled enough to start actually podficking.

[angelz-dust]

AINT NO WAY UR BACK OMG I MISSED TOU

HAHA man i'm barely back i just pop in every now and then. but thank you for missing me bc i miss being on here 😭

[primordialfather]

[kowaindar0u]

they judge me before they even know me. that's why i'm better off alone. (ookurikara --> yuichi)

[ PROMPTS FROM SHREK ]

Oh...

Yuichi had always thought that perhaps he and Ookurikara were more similar than either of them knew for sure. But this... well, he understood.

He scoots a little closer to the touken danshi, hands in his lap as he fidgets with the ends of his sleeves, as he's wont to do.

"... I used to think the same thing, for a long, long time," Yuichi admits. "Sometimes the thought still crosses my mind. But... I know better now."

He knows Ookurikara doesn't tend to be as touchy as some of his other men, so he simply gives a short nudge with his shoulder.

"I'm still working on it of course, but... I mean...I think everyone makes judgements of everyone upon first meeting someone. It's... Not always bad. But more than that... If you never listen to anything else I have to say again, listen to this-- you're not better off alone. Especially not here-- not where there are people who love you, and who want to get to know you, no matter what their judgements might be. I..."

He looks away-- he's getting more emotional than he'd intended. After a deep breath, he continues.

"I can't control how you feel, or what you do, but... I beg you not to isolate yourself so much. It's not easy-- trust me, I know. But it's nothing compared to trying to get through shit alone."

[2leggedshark]

I saw blocks I couldn't make out in a tiktok slide show and out loud said "who are these minecraft men" before realizing it was Zoey and aphmau.... Women im so sorry

[leorawright]

friendly reminder in case u didnt know :3

venture's pronouns are OFFICIALLY they/them only!

i just saw u refer to them as 'she' in a recent post is all.

no hate in anyway, just wanted to let you know!

I know they're non-binary, and I keep forgetting😭😭

I'm sorry, but I fixed the post, and I'll try to do better in the future👍

[queen-ofsunflowers]

Would the Barbara and Lynette hangout quests be part of the Sparkle AU in any way?

I... didn't realize Lynette had a hangout. Huh. Learn something new everyday.

But probably not. The AU primarily follows the basic plot of Winx Club with some shifts, divergence and changes to make it fit more with the Genshin cast that fill the original roles. For example, while Collei fills Aisha's/Layla's role with the pixies in Season 2, it's Barbara who fills the same role when it comes to Season 3 and her homeworld being invaded/in danger by the antagonist.

Another example I can think of with divergence is the current chapter that I'm working on for this AU. It's still season 1, right about the time of the specialists' exhibition.

Instead of being just the specialists, it's a sort of convergence of all the schools to demonstrate to the students' families, those who donate to the school and other important figures just how much their students have learned throughout the year.

There's no Diaspro equivalent, so a lot of this chapter had to be reworked. Instead of finding out about an identity switch, the gang finds out about Xiao's situation proper. Events from the last chapter are impacting him pretty bad, which leads to it.

Instead of Lumine choosing to leave like Bloom does, Dain actually withdrawals her from Alfea temporarily because he believes that things have gotten too dangerous for her. It doesn't help that Lumine kept a lot of what had happened at school a secret from him for this exact reason.

There are other things, but I don't want to ramble on this one post for so long. I might take ideas from the hangout events, though, if the need should arise.

[shenanaginag]

Been a while since I've done a SLARPG one minute draw from memory challenge.

Next one up for the main villains: Paula!

I feel like I captured... Something about her here.

I overestimated how much armor she was wearing tho. Definitely didn't miss anything else of course...

[fitz-avery-vacker]

oop ignore that last ask. didn’t realize me in the other blog operate in separate cannons.

-@thematchmakingoffice

Oh shoot I read this late.

-Red

[thewapolls]

What an odd progression these monsters have had...

So the unique development here is that the enemy HARPY in WA1 got split up into the specific named Harpies of Greco-Roman myth: AELLO the "storm swift", CELAENO the "dark," OCYPETE the "swift wing," and PODARGE the "fleet-foot." I like how WA2 opts out of the bird aspect for a more unique look with big bat wings. It's a nice change of pace that still keeps them fairly recognizable as harpies. I also like how the humanoid bust emerges from the bat silhouette rather than just slapping wings on a woman's torso. But after WA2 the models they all share are this weirdly Mothman specific looking design? despite there not ever having been an actual Mothman enemy in any of the Wild Arms games??

SIREN is a pretty sensible recolor of the HARPY. It appropriately is a seafaring encounter in the overworld. Alter Code F introduces this strange harpy-centaur looking design that never shows up again.

VALKYRIE is a bit of a stretch but I guess it fits as a flying woman.

LAMIA is an odd one off monster that appears in Alter Code F. It shares the SIREN model which does happen to be a sort of combination of a SIREN and a more obscure LAMIA design, although typically you'd expect LAMIA to be a mix of snake and woman, there are some that depict her as part beast.

I have absolutely no idea what BIBER ZEHR is about... I tried just running the Japanese BI-BE-RU-SHUU-RU[ビベルツェール] through google and all the top returns are WA4 walkthroughs...

(a damn... I missed ARCHON, a 3rd version of the SIREN and LAMIA in Alter Code F)

[bumblingdragon]

Just remembered I'm supposed to have a tag list, forgot for the last like 3 posts, oops