#sorry i can only post coherently in the tags. ANYWAY

[cthoniccompanion]

i genuinely think hecate is one of the best written and designed characters across both hades games and i wish i could better articulate why

[kyouka-supremacy]

(´･ᴗ･ ` )

[unladielike]

After watching Act II of NiER: Reincarnation, I can't stop thinking of an AU where instead of Yuzuki and Hina, it's Vivian and @spiritpyro's Hayate who were both transported from their universes (Chiba, Japan) to the Cage. Of course, Vivian would be tasked with fixing the sun while Hayate would be tasked with fixing the moon, but due to the fact their timeline follows the private verse (aka Vivian losing her memories before becoming neighbours with Hayate) and their revolving theme is 'not quite lovers, yet not quite friends', I feel like the companions assigned to them would be different while the characters unlocked would still remain the same (meaning they will all get to witness Yudil, Sarafa, Saryu, Marie, Priyet, and Yurie's memories).

Whereas Hina had Papa as her guide, I headcanon Vivian's companion would be called 'Gent' and he'll have this particular design, which I badly edited to have a dapper feel to it. As her guide, he would take on the role of what an ideal boyfriend and perfect gentleman should be like (and because Carrier had canonically once ranted about his wife being a nag/having elderly parents that need care, I can see Gent going as far as to claim he works as a rental boyfriend on the side), so I can see him calling her 'darling' and 'Ms. Vivian'. I also have this idea he'll hold onto Jude (the crocheted butterfly she always carries with her) for Vivian every time she needs to enter a Dark Scarecrow, which are these black statues in NiER: Reincarnation that blocks the player's path and contains memories of characters' backstories. Furthermore, Gent would have taken her hand with one of his weird black arms and lifted it to where his mouth should be after he first introduces himself to Vivian, but considering he looks like a ghostly apparition, she finds it hard to really take him or his suave remarks all that seriously most of the time.

As for Hayate, his companion wouldn't be Mama/Babe the same it way had been with Yuzuki, but a pink one called 'Lady' that I headcanon would have this appearance. As his guide, she's supposed to take on the role of what a kind, caring girlfriend should be like and similarly to Gent, would mention to Hayate she works as a rental girlfriend on the side. While Gent uses 'darling' with Vivian, however, Lady prefers 'honey' as her go to term of endearment for Hayate. She'll also offer him massages/pats on the head and remind him to not push himself too much and that it's fine to take breaks if he's tired from traversing the Cage.

Anyways, in true Yoko Taro fashion, Vivian would end up seeing a memory of her huge falling out with Hayate that led to her eventual suicide attempt at some point, which would understandably break her all over again... yet thanks to Gent calming her down/preventing her from ripping apart Jude, she would somehow have enough strength to keep going. Then somewhere along the way, it's later revealed from her point of view that Hayate one day started dating someone else (that's definitely not Hideaki), and to make matters worse, this person was a scumbag. Not only did they secretly record them having sex without his permission just to taunt her and rub further salt in her wound, they also hurled ableist slurs at Vivian whenever Hayate wasn't around, to the point where months later, she ended up snapping and killing them instead of asking Hayate to just dump them.

And Hayate, upon not knowing this, would angrily lash out at Vivian, which resulted in him accidentally killing her before learning what had truly happened... yet because he still cared about her, knowing he was responsible for her death would cause him great anguish at the same time. Regardless, it would seem she killed his lover out of jealousy from his point of view, which is meant to make the player sympathize more with Hayate if they're playing as him and not Vivian. Anyways, they both became isekai-ed to the Cage afterwards (or in Vivian's case, reincarnated within the Cage), where they were each promised a wish by Gent/Lady if they ended up acquiring the necessary Fragments to fix the broken Sun and Moon.

Honestly, though, I feel like Vivian would wish she had never fallen in love with Hayate due to all the suffering he caused her while Hayate would wish he had never been an asshole to her; however, compared to Vivian, who would be angry enough at him to throw hands and yell at him that he pretty much ruined her life, I feel like Hayate would just want to talk/de-escalate things.

...In fact, he'd pretty much be the only one who would actually not want to to kill Vivian to fulfill his wish, so the options would be A) Vivian should get her revenge, B) Vivian and Hayate shouldn't fight, or C) Vivian and Hayate should talk things out (which can only be unlocked after completing one of the prior endings). Unlike with Yuzuki and Hina, though, there does exist a reality where they're happy together, so instead of staying in the Cage, I could see them having an actual heart to heart during Ending B and wish that in another life, they could have stayed true to themselves back then... causing them to be transported to another reality, where they became girlfriend/boyfriend.

Meanwhile, in Ending C, Vivian would acknowledge she's still in love with Hayate but would no longer desire a romantic relationship with him due to trauma... and since wishing for a different reality would be the same as running away from the sins they committed, they decide to live out the rest of their lives in the Cage together. Honestly, I wanna say that since Hayate is immortal, the only reason Vivian would be able to kill him in Ending A is because she has the power of the Sol Fragments on her side.

But anyways, I definitely think one of Vivian's stories would revolve around her ex-girlfriend, Esmé, but I'll never add a proper NiER: Reincarnation AU to her verses page (despite having self-indulgently designed Companions for her and Hayate) because I doubt people have actually played the gacha let alone heard of it (especially after it was announced the game will be ending it's service) and as far as I could tell, nobody on tumblr roleplays characters from NiER: Reincarnation... so it shall forever remain a brainrot AU of mine.

[kdd-works]

Us: Acting like an exclusionist regarding sexualities and genders is wrong. All sexual/gender identities are a part of the LGBT+ community.

Everyone: Yeah! Exclusionists go die! Queer gatekeepers are just feds that don't get paid for it!

Us: Acting like an exclusionist regarding mental disorders is wrong. All mental disorders are a part of the neurodivergent community.

Everyone: NoOoOoOoOoo, I want to act like a lawyer about the different categories of mental disorders against the wishes of the creator of the term so I can gatekeep mental illnesses from neurodivergence because I want to prevent people from having their discrimination recognized because WE have the PROPER form of mental disorder

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[duckprintspress]

Sorry for being a little in the dark, but can you explain what happened with NaNoWriMo? Or at least point me towards some resources pls?

Hey anon!

Never apologize for that. Life is so fucking busy, no one can be apprised of everything going on all the time. Our brains would break even trying. Anyway, multiple things have happened with NaNoWriMo, but for the current debacle, the best answer is probably to read their own words as appended in a reblog to my original post about how to delete.

The TL:DR is, to paraphrase NaNo's own words (after they got a sponsorship from ProWritingAid, an "AI" company), they support using "AI" as part of NaNoWriMo, accusing people who disagree of being ableist and classist.

Having read both their statements, they at least imply that they mean "AI" such as grammar checkers, rather than generative "AI," but they don't actually clarify and it's at best ambiguous if they include generative LLM as being allowed and reasonable. When people got upset with them, they doubled down, saying things like "not everyone can afford an editor," which as someone who personally couldn't afford an editor and so taught myself to edit at a professional level over ten years, I'll own I find a fucking insane and insulting take. A lot of us worked our asses off to learn these skills, and it's not classist to suggest that other people...can learn too. But also...like...if I was certain they only meant grammar checkers, I might be a bit more forgiving (I mean, I use Word's grammar checker, though it's often wrong), but which LLM usages they're actually defending isn't clarified and they jump right to defending their position by tarring people who disagree with them as -isms, and that's some kinda bs argument right there.

To be clear, I think policies banning people from using LLMs in events like NaNoWriMo or on platforms like AO3 is an exercise in futility. Bans are unenforceable, and attempts to moderate will turn into harassment tools. The line between "work written by someone who isn't proficient yet" and "LLM" isn't clear, and policing that line would consume huge amounts of moderating effort for basically no benefit. IMO, for places like AO3 the best bet is simply transparency, as in, people using LLMs should fucking tag it.

To be clear secondarily, putting my "I own a small Press" hat, if someone sends us something verifiably LLM-generated, they will be permanently banned, but honestly, even something I can't verify as LLM-generated, like. Won't be good writing. It might be technically precise but an LLM can't generate a coherent story because it can't think or remember. It's just a word-probability engine. We've never had an LLM-generated submission to the best of my knowledge, but if we did, well. Ban hammer.

Anyway. Sorry. I got off topic. The point is, NaNo basically said we were all ableist and classist because we want people to write (even if they write badly!) for the...write a novel challenge.

And this made a lot of people very angry.

[dragon--sage]

writing patterns

ty @cleric4vampire for tagging me in this!!! and i'm tagging @sillyliterature and @darethshirl (i'm so sorry i'd tag more of you but my brain is fried af. if you see this consider yourself tagged and i would love to see them if you decide to share!!)

rules: list the first line(s) of your last 10 posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

in order from newest to oldest! click the title for the link to each.

LINES

Radiant Hopeful (bg3, astarion x tav)

“Astarion, can I show you something?”

Nightswim (bg3, astarion x tav)

It was a quiet evening in camp, and Nyana was sitting a ways off from the fire, on a hollowed-out log, working on a few rather pathetic sketches of the local plant life.

Spark That Set the Pyre (bg3, astarion x tav, explicit)

Most nights, when Astarion fed off Nyana, she tried to keep her interest and involvement as prim and polite as possible.

The Chivalrous Charlatan (bg3, astarion x tav)

Astarion was going to kill the sorcerer.

Someone I Like Better (bg3, astarion x tav, explicit)

It was night and day, how completely things had changed between Astarion and Nyana, after Cazador had been finished—after the graveyard.

Sunstruck (bg3, astarion x tav)

“Pouting? Or plotting?”

Places of Oblivion (dragon age inquisition, unfinished solavellan modern au, explicit)

Ellana, usually, did not fuck with dating apps.

No Better Waste of Time (dragon age inquisition, unfinished solavellan fix-itish longfic, explicit)

In a darkened attic with a vaulted ceiling, many cobwebs, and one industrious family of rats (who liked to keep to themselves), Ellana Lavellan sat cross-legged in front of an inactive but intact eluvian, her reflection a glaring smudge in the warped surface of the silvery glass.

Her Eyes the Stars (dragon age inquisition, solavellan)

Her eyes — Void take him — he could easily spend a century trying to capture the way their startling amber color appeared in different lighting.

Etha, Ama (dragon age inquisiiton, solavellan, explicit)

It was Satinalia — Feastday.

and bonus even though it's not within the last 10 i have such a soft spot for this fic:

Cry Havoc! (dragon age inquisition, gen fic, background solavellan)

Marquise Briala and Empress Celene were clearly arguing, but Ellana Lavellan was going to interrupt them anyway.

PATTERNS

Um these are all products of my respective hyperfixations on solavellan and tavstarion, so there's that. I see a few long ass run ons, as I expected ahahhaa, but also short, clipped ones. Only a few are in between. Some of them drop you right into the action and others are more scene-setting. The em dash (l m a o). Other than that I think I've been looking at this too long to see anything except my own questionable grammatical choices 😂

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

my penchant for info dumping scene-setting run ons makes this extremely difficult but in case anyone else wants to try:

Vixstarria's additional rule: see if you can arrange the lines into a semi-coherent crackfic.

[nani-nonny]

How would the Peepaws that don't have a Donnie spirit with them react to seeing their F!Donnie again? (Poor guys haven't seen their twins in so long)

I would also like to present them with their favorite apocalypse foods.

And little Raph plushies. Because I love them and definitely don't want to see them cry. :3

Oh! This is good >:) (wasn’t sure if this was for bymh or not lol and I didn’t see this until after I posted the recent bymh hehe I’ll tag it as a bymh solely because of the gifts)

Anyways, a bit of a long post, kind of.

But easily, DMD would cry so, so hard. He would absolutely crumble and hug his twin so hard that he might break F!Donnie’s battle shell (if Donnie was wearing it). He would be unable to speak coherently and the only word that would be easiest to understand is the constant stream of “sorry”.

Reunion’s a cheater and got his brother back already, lol, but when the reset occurred, he and the entire family all hugged each other so tightly for hours. Tears were shed and bruises formed from how hard they hugged each other.

LCD, ohhhh, LCD. Life doesn’t get easier despite how much time passes. When he saw F!Donnie, he felt sick. It felt as if guilt and anger began to churn in his stomach in the worst way possible. And Donnie, ever the inquisitive fellow, was only intrigued by this reaction. Donnie died protecting him, so all Donnie is aware of is that he successfully saved his brother. Leo is reminded of his faults and how he wasn’t the leader smart enough to protect his twin.

(A)PAF is incredibly happy to see his twin. Through Donnie, he sees a chance. A chance to understand where the baby came from, because if anyone knew what Draxum was doing in that lab or anything in general, it would be Donnie. Unlike the others, Donnie didn’t die on regretful terms. He’s so happy he gets to rely on someone again.

And apocalypse foods…

DMD gets rat meat and beans from a can :D

He looks at the crudely plated meal with a nostalgic smile. The way the meat is still steaming and the beans that remain in the can boiling. It’s a bit charred, like he remembers, and he picks up his fork. He raises the fork slightly and says, “Thanks,” before digging in.

Reunion gets grilled roaches on a stick hehe

Reunion raises a brow, “Um… I feel like this is meant to be nostalgic or meaningful in some way, but this was last week’s dinner.”

Reunion don’t fucking lie

He snickers playfully and raises the stick, “Want a bite?”

LCD gets rat soup

He doesn’t say anything as he picks up the spoon and takes a sip. His breath hitches when the broth rests in his mouth for a few seconds before he swallows. Without a second to spare, he digs in quickly, as if on a time limit.

WDS gets rats on a stick

WDS stares at the steaming stick and the charred ends of the rat meat. He looks, rather displeased, but doesn’t outright show it. He takes a bite and nods, “Yeah, just like I remember it… you know, now that I’m back in time, I really took spices for granted. I can’t believe I used to live off of food like this.” He rubs his tympana on his shoulder as his siblings speak, and when he stops he finally says, “I mean, thank you for the food.”

Now, Raph plushies!

Awww, I feel they’ll be so cute and warm to hug!

DMD:

He stares at the plush in his lap. His breath is… tense. His entire body is tense. His gaze remains fixed on the small plushie, as if trying to stare directly into the plush’s soul. He swallows as his hand slowly reaches for his throat, his breath hitches for a second, and his other hand begins to shake. He shuts his eyes tight before his hand pick up the plush. His voice is small when he greets softly, “Hey, big brother…”

Reunion:

He smiles wide and almost childlike. He lifts the plush into the air and catches it with both hands. He spins with the small plush and laughing, “Look how small! It’s so tiny!”

LCD:

He stares at the plush. He taps the plush’s plastron with a glare. He doesn’t say anything, but he sighs. He removes his sword from his hip and unties the braided hilt. He untangles the red bandana and ties it over the plush’s red mask, returning the mask to its original owner. He doesn’t pick up the plush, but leaves.

WDS:

The slider picks up the plush, holding his hand over his mouth. He snorts, and clears his throat as he picks up the plush by its arm with his thumb and forefinger. “Hey, Raph, how do we feel about this little guy? You think he makes the perfect replacement for you?”

APAF:

He picks up the plush as his sight blurs with incoming tears. He tucks the plush in one of his belt pockets and leaves.

[x-eternalmagic]

some selections from the vault (and snippets from my wip fic)

so! for those who are not following me on twitter, i recently went through my drafts for some strifehart content that i hadn't yet shared publicly! i wanted to quickly cross post so you all can see them too :)

putting it under a cut just so i dont clutter up the tag again :)

the one i had written the most for was the more recent kink meme off dreamwidth--specifically, the prompt for a superhero/vigilante au! i hadn't written very much for it (basically just the interaction below), but i had a general idea of cloud and leon's backstories. at some point, leon would show up at cid's repair shop where cloud happens to work and there'd be some fun to be had there!

--

next was what i think was originally what i had planned for one of the prompts from strifehart week 2018; i think it was "witch" or "fantasy"? this one is a little more out there, sorry

but at the time, i'd recently read a fic for fire emblem fates called beyond the sea; in it, magic was kind of a rarity and the people who got power were given a brand, or star sign. i was going to do a KH-flavor twist on it for strifehart. the idea would be that cloud, squall, and tifa all worked as soldiers in a government that was hunting down these "witches" and turning them into weapons or tools of a sort. the three main ones were:

-aerith, with the mark pf phoenix; focus on healing magic -riku, sign of ifrit; mostly can only control fire as he's so young -squall, who had a rare double mark of ixion and leviathan; wind/water/lightning based magic focus, so he can basically create a hurricane at will

the idea was for cloud and tifa to find out they've been ordered to abduct a kid and defect, especially after finding out their friend aerith is also someone wanted by the government. squall, meanwhile, has had enough of hiding and kind of loses it when he finds out riku is the latest kidnap victim. they all end up traveling together, and...i had no real plans aside from that. part of why this never ended up being finished/posted, haha. the most coherent part was below, though i jumped ahead to try and write cloud seeing squall going all out with his magic

--

the third is a twist on spirited away/the boy and the beast/song of the sea.

kid squall ends up in a fantasy world after being separated from his sister ellone, and is found/taken in by werewolf zack and dryad/nymph aerith. they have to hide that squall is a human and pretend he's a baby werewolf and he ends up getting found out on a big festival day. but he'd end up on a quest with cloud, who was a selkie, as a way to keep him/zack/aerith from being banished. no concrete plot ideas for this one either, unfortunately, so it's not gotten anywhere, even if i had a cool scene in my mind for squall getting outed as a human :( (but i had a track off the boy and the beast ost scoring a big fight zack gets into when squall gets found out)

--

i had no other major fics planned aside from my current WIP, but here's a snippet from a drabble i was fiddling with where leon gets sick and doesn't realize it, just because i like how i used to write his interactions with yuffie

--

ANYWAY here's some snippets from/about my current WIP, a song without its melody.

first up is actually a piece i had wanted to be in my main longfic, a little bit of levity, but ended up being cut. it was intended to go after the scene i have of leon and sora in song (since it was a scene that i had to cut from levity that i managed to fit back in), but with how leon's interactions with roxas and xion have changed, i had to leave it in my scraps doc! it is, generally, the vibe i kind of want for leon's relations with roxas and xion respectively

next are just some snippets from upcoming sections, so please look forward to it! :3c

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ANYWAY if you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading and i hope you're havin a good one :)

[greatprotector-if]

Just popping in to say that I really like your writing style. I really really like how it not only makes you feel things, but also LETS you feel things — if that makes sense. (it doesn't, but anyway.). I like how the narration is just a tiny bit unhinged and WILL make you laugh. I like how despite that, it doesn't sugarcoat or downplay the very real flaws and fears that follow every character.

Like, yeah, the world is tiring and people are tiring and you kind of just want to lie prone facedown on the ground Forever, but also. The narration (or, well, the MC) WILL snark literally Everything in sight to hell and back. You will have a heart to heart with someone deadset on getting that "MC's #1 Pain in the Ass" t-shirt and they WILL, quite literally, fly away when the conversation gets a little too honest; you are allowed to take your ire out on a pile of twigs. Presumably. You stare into a chicken's Not a Single Thought Is At Home eyes and someone WILL vehemently come to its defense if you slander it. Pillows will fwoomp pathetically to the floor. Everyone's sort of got their own wet cat thing going on. But also everyone is lovely. (And some people just suck, but they can wait their turn this isn't about them). You're allowed to feel angry. You're allowed to feel sad. You're allowed to feel a strange mix of everything and nothing. You're allowed to feel spite. You're allowed to be kind. You're allowed to be complicated and frustrating and flat out vexed with yourself. You are a person; you are a person. Those who surround you are also people — strange or vexing or supernatural they may be. The world is alive. You are alive.

Anyways. Yeah. :D I gotta clarify that this isn't about choices or variables and all that IF stuff. This is about your writing. It's just how it makes me feel. It's how your worlds and characters and everything make me feel. They are very dear to me. Thank you so much for sharing them. I love reading everything you show us, and I'm so glad you're writing.

Sorry for terrorizing your inbox with this Very Long Thing (I'll probably do it again). Once again, thank you, and good luck with everything!! 🤺🤺🤺✨✨✨✨

[P.S. Also, I typed a Very Long Thing in my tags for a certain post of yours but tumblr cut the whole thing in half when I posted it 🗿 I was like, "THE AUDACITY" and took off to your inbox so I could tell you what I meant to say in the tags (most of it is in the first paragraph of this ask) but now I'm kind of glad that tumblr offed my tags like that. It's allowed me to convey Everything to you in a.... somewhat more coherent manner, at least 🐓✨]

THJFN D. FHJFJGKGKVJVNFNVNGMV. dude WHTA THE HELL you are too too kind thank you so much?!?!!???!!??!!!!?! , , ,,, thank you for takingthe time to write this...... and even coming to my inbox when your tags cut off DJFJSKF SERIOUSLY i appreciate this so. immensely i'm ):

i won't lie i am struggling a lot with trying to convey this in a way that's satisfying with the IF format but the characters are what i consider to be among if not The Most Important thing in my writing and that includes the mc, so injecting little quips/opinions/human things into narration is my jam. if they don't feel real then what's the point!!!!!! it's hard with player choice and variables and it's definitely been a steep learning curve for me (which is part of why it's taking so long to write lol oops) but. i just. people are complex. and i want to make room for all sorts of people if i can. & i'm so glad that my writing makes u feel things. wven kust in general because THAT'S ALL WE WANT AS AUTHORS. LIKE. THANK YOU

ok i have no idea what i'm saying at this point this is so stream of consciousness no clue if it makes sense but THANK UOU AGAIN. WAGGJHH. I SEIFOFK. i am going to think about this ask every fuckign day for the rest of my life. this ask is my NEVER BACK DOWN NEVER WHAT?

[unironicallycringe]

My semi-incoherent ramblings and questions:

“The colours of their nails signified their class. For example, black nails were considered higher rank whereas green fingernails... not so much.” a reblog from the tag TMM notes

Wait you made Ghost’s nails black. And Shenbar’s is green, G’otishmmar has none (it seems like G’otishmmar dislikes the class distinctions?).

Do you mind explaining which colour means what?

Why is the Goht from majora's mask listed as writing notes along with "the charging goat" tag, what are you planning to do with G’otishmmar. >:(

“#Surely There Aren't Any Complex Political Issues Depicted In This Mural And I'm Sure Gran Is Fine With It Being In Her Home” 

yes I’m totally sure portraying Gran and the Lizarfos in a black and white way is fine. I wonder why she still stays? Other than because her children.

Caladbolg is heading south to Woodfall isn’t he? That sound bad, really bad. I wonder why Caladbolg decided to go passed the wall anyways.

Oooo Ghirihim has a bad relationship with the Igo-kana Interestinggggg. I smell drama. 

“Garo were enemies of the Ikana Kingdom. Their nation sent several spies to investigate Ikana Canyon to gather intelligence” From the Zelda wiki

Masada is a Garo huh. The sheikah are or are involved with Garo. The Garo also took mini Ursang away. >:(

They’re trying to do something again >:((

(Mini demon Ursang and Ghost is very cute whyyy)

Do Igo-kana names change based on how they perceive themselves? In other words was Ursang always Ursang? 

“Igos du Ikana” from Majora’s mask. 

Huh, I wonder how long Ikana lasted. How prevalent is musicka in the current society and does it become more widely used overtime? 

Also is it possible to explain which cultures influence the cultures in this world?

I have been currently shaking your tumblr blog like a tin of my favourite snack for the past couple days.

As you can see I very much love the world you are making (maybe a little too much), please tell me more.

Sorry if it seems overwhelming due to me spit firing questions like this but I’m not sure how to coherently put this thing together. (”- _ -)

Long Answer Post Incoming (Which Will Probably Get Built In My Drafts Over The Next Week Or So)

Regarding Nail Colors

Nail color being class-coded wasn't planned until I learned about its historical significance myself. Shenbar's being green was coincidental to her design, but it fit nicely with the class theme I'm going for in Orq'oten. So far, only green and black mirror the class-coding of real historical use of kohl. It's moreso a minor setting detail since it was unplanned from the start.

G'otishmmar does indeed dislike class distinctions, though that might not have always been the case.

Regarding G'otishmmar Being Tagged With "Goht" Sometimes

Regarding Caladbolg

They certainly headed somewhere, probably looking for their lost cargo...

Regarding the Garo and Sheikah Connection

You're pretty much there! There's one group of people missing in the equation, which you can find in the chapters about the Lanayru Distribution Center ruins.

Regarding Ursang & Igo Names

Ursang is this particular character's birth name.

It's not typical for an Igo to change their name as often as they change their face. I'd say the core identity associated with a name is kind of like a safe harbor to return to, especially for a culture of shape-shifters. Of course, that core might shift over time in natural ways (growing into a new life role, gender associations, etc), which could result in name change.

Regarding Ikana and Musicka

In my mind, Ikana spends a long yet indeterminate amount of time declining before becoming the ruins in Majora's Mask. The kingdom used to encompass all of what is now simply regarded as Termina, but it shrinks to only the area you find in-game.

Musicka is a niche area of study for demons since they grasp it less easily. In Ikanan society at the time of TMM, it's mainly used for entertainment as an art form, and rarely for serious spellwork. Most demons tend to overlook its potential in favor of the more useful Magicka. Musicka's prevalence increases after Ikana's decline.

Regarding Real World Cultural Influences

Ikana as a whole: Ancient Fertile Crescent (Babylon, Sumer, Akkad)

Boko-kana: Middle East/West Asia (They influence Ikanan culture as a whole because they're the most numerous peoples, so this ties into Ikana having the above cultural identity. Other demon tribe cultural influence sort of radiate outward from here in similar directions to their fictional map)

Gerra-kana: South and Southeast Asia

Igo-kana: Central Asia

Massu-kana: Eastern Europe and Asia Minor

Twili-kana: Northern Asia

The Hylians and Sheikah follow the general canon vibes of Europe and East Asia respectively. The Gerudo here are North African inspired.

Thank you very much for the ask, it got my creative bits working and put TMM on my spinning microwave plate too :3c I hope my answers satisfy in ways that also continue to intrigue you.

[willkimurashat]

Looking for Gabi fans to follow and MC/Gabi fanfics to read. Some of my favorite lgbt litg blogs have either deactivated or are no longer playing litg Suresh fans are trying to hijack Gabi's tag with biphobia and hate posts. I'm scared to open her tag. Suresh fans are hating on lgbt players because FB made Gabi a LI and they can no longer use her to justify Suresh's action. We get enough bigotry from the writers. =( I have met some lgbt fans on reddit and IG, but they don't have blogs

Hello anon, and welcome to ✨Gabi Fan Club✨

From the second I saw her design, I completely swooned (and maybe drooled a little too, but we don’t talk about it🤫) and kept imagining the Frida Kahlo scenario between Gabi and MC, passing down the clown red nose of shame to Suresh lol!

In all seriousness though, I am so sorry you encountered hateful posts and biphobia, and I am not surprised - the Suresh debates can get heated. I think fusebox did us dirty for only giving us Dana as an li (who, let’s be real, wasn’t written great, especially with the kissing Eddie part) and Gabi aka the girl Suresh cheated on MC with. Idk what reaction they were expecting from fans because there’s something problematic with every single character this season, and I’m so sick of fusebox perpetuating these racist and biphobic stereotypes time and time again. So naturally, it sparks further hate and -isms from the players, trying to defend or offend some pixels. I am personally not on a Suresh route, so I don’t really care about that side of drama. I like Gabi and I think she is an interesting character, she has a cool back story, she’s interested in MC, and jee is she hot (sorry for being shallow). I also think it’s weird to shame people for liking a game character. Like, I guess I can understand it if someone’s into Dylan, who is just beyond problematic, and good friends wouldn’t and shouldn’t let you date someone like that. But other than that, my philosophy is that LITG is a game - that’s literally all it is, just a story with some 2d pixel art, and we shouldn’t be taking it so close to heart. If people like Suresh - you do you, if people like Gabi - please, by all means, suit yourself. They’re not real, so we shouldn’t let the hate and bigotry and racism get so out of hand that it hurts real people.

Anyways, this got very long, and idk if any of it is coherent, but in short: we shouldn’t bully people on which characters they like and we shouldn’t let the hate hurt others. What we should do, is criticize fusebox for continuingly villainizing and stereotyping LGBT characters and characters of color, and we should be able to have some fun playing:)

P. S. To people spreading hate and biphobia: check your privilege please. Before posting hateful comments about LGBT characters, ask yourself, why does this reaction come up to me in the first place? Why am I so angry about a wlw route? Who do I see in Gabi? Maybe it’s someone who hurt you before or maybe it’s internalized homophobia speaking? Food for thought. And honesty, if you do have so much hate on your mind, maybe just put your phone down, take a breather, and just.. close out of the post/comment/reply? Your bigoted opinion is not worth the pain it can cause someone.

P. P. S. Also, just wanted to mention as well, there’s definitely a lot of wonderful people on here, who I know would not judge you or anyone for liking Gabi or what have you, and I really hope you stay safe out here because cyberbullying is real, so please, take a step back if hateful posts get too much - always always always put yourself first, lovely!

P. P. P. S. Also also, I haven’t written any Gabi x mc fics and I don’t know if there are any, but you can definitely check out @litgwritersroom - they’re a bunch of wonderful, talented, creative lovelies that are very open and accepting of every player. I’m not sure if their asks are open currently, but they do take fanfic requests!;)

[omegamoo]

my ask is to tell me more about the whittled pantheon (i am lost and confused so ig this is an infodump request if you want!)

EEEHEHHEHRHEHEHEHEHREHAHRJA. hi! sorry infodumpijgabt the whittled pantheon is truly the best thing ever!!!

you can always find stuff here <- takes you to the explanations tag on my blog w other more coherent worldbuilding rambles! there’s also one specifically about iota but admittedly that one’s a mess haha

and i’m putting this under the cut uhhh yeah i’m soooo normal abt this. this is so long read as much or as little as you please

n e ways. whittled pantheon speedrun. it’s a group project that started with a bunch of my friends fuxking around on minecraft but became so much more. tgm, twig, and i are p much the only ones still working on it as it’s been well over a year, and we plan on making it into a webcomic of sorts! it’s no longer mc at all and rn we don’t have a lot of prose/comics actually written but i’m working on it (a friend was like can i read it and i was like well. haha u can read disconnected shit but…)

ANYWAYS. the story itself centers around eleven gods/demigods :] they’ve been carved (for the most part) by a being named the Carver, who is part of a species that’s supposed to activate life-supporting gods called “failsafes” to each planet, but this one branches out and carves other gods instead.

broadly the story is about the good/bad nature of humanity, love, grief/loss, healing, immortality, moral compasses, and it’s a bit of commentary on the world as we know it today. ha

there are two main planets - the ones where gods are originally carved, and the one they flee to when the first one is ruined. here is a post i made a bit ago about some of the planet/universe worldbuilding if u want details

the story is told by two of the gods mostly in hindsight, but also by snapshots/comics of the gods and writings that they/various mortals left behind. we’re working on sorting out how much will be folk stories and such

also the world has its own language setup, map, regions of trade/climate, seasons/calendar… can you tell we think abt this a lot haha

anyways. the plot is multilayered due to the fact that it started as an mcrp server and now there are many gods doing many things, so uh hmm not going to be giving u a plot synopsis on this post bc that would be a hot mess and too long!! but maybe l8er maybe i’ll make another cast list in a minute tho and u can ask for details idk idk i don’t wanna keep rambling for too long ha. ha

[smallandterriblyafraid]

…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ ◅

&lt;:3)~

(Updated Saturday, December 3rd, 2022, 4:12 PM) - LoM

[Disclaimer: Due to formatting, some of the text may be difficult for some to read. If you find that that is the case please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it immediately! Also, most of this is copied over from my main account so I don't have to type everything twice, so if something looks familiar, it probably is! I hope this doesn't cause too much trouble!]

Hi there, I'm LoM! I use singular they/them pronouns but may grant permission to use other pronouns to people I am extremely close to. I speak English (🇺🇲/🇬🇧) and conversational French (🇫🇷), and am learning Welsh (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿), so feel free to talk to me in any of those languages! Taken by my lovely girlfriend, so I'd prefer for people to avoid coming onto me, but I am okay with joking flirting (like "kissing the homies goodnight" or "marriage for tax benefits") as long as it's just for laughs! On principle I won't turn off anon asks ever but if you're a jerk I'll steal all of your left shoes and right socks. My main blog is @toosmallformyowngood , and my agere sideblog is @thesmallestofall, so feel free to check those out too! That's all I can think of for now but I'll probably update some things later!

My current hyperfixations are:

- Resident Evil: Village (and a bit of RE 7)

- CoD Modern Warfare 2 (specifically annoying the gamerbros lmao)

- Overwatch (Yes I live in shame over this)

- Anything SCP related

- Also anything Lobotomy Corp related

- Pokémon (Train guys are so skrunkly)

- Fallout [NV & 4]

- Anything TTRPG (D&D, WH2k, etc)

- Uhhh probably something else I'm forgetting

- Also I might talk about my OCs from time to time (I'm sorry)

Please note that I do not take requests at the moment. Suggestions by mutuals or other close friends maybe, but even then anything I write would be in headcanon format. I'm not that confident in my writing skills, nor am I confident in my ability to maintain a semi-coherent schedule, so for the time being I'm just shitposting for the sake of having fun. If you want to talk to me though, I'm all for it! I love sharing ideas back and forth (and just human interaction in general).

Anyway! Here's the specially coded comma that can go in the tags: ‚

And now on to other things;

DNI list below the cut! (In no particular order)

🚫 DNI if you: 🚫

Are rac.ist, homo.phobic, trans.phobic, bi.phobic, pan.phobic, able.ist, aro/ace exclusionary, or any other form of xeno.phobic

Think that poly.am people aren't part of the lgbtqia+ community (They are, die mad about it.)

Are a N.S.F.T blog (Jokes, art, artistic photography, writing, and fandom stuff are fine tho. It's just the irl stuff and only.fans links I'm shying away from)

Are a t.erf/rad.fem/etc (Tradwife stuff is fine so long as you aren't pushing it on anyone else. Everyone has a different vision for what they want their personal future to look like and yours is valid too, so long as you're not on "a woman's place" and all that bullshit.)

Are a practicing M.AP (People with intrusive thoughts can stay, though. It's not your fault that your brain is giving you icky thoughts when all you want is for it to shut up; my only qualm is with people who either see no wrong in the action, or do and go through with it any way.)

Support J.K. Row.ling and or her works. Please read literally any other book. It's not even that good.

Are anti-endo (I won't tolerate invalidating other's identities and lived experience, sorry)

Are anti age.re/pet.re, etc

Vilify mental illness

Don't support neopronouns (Including emoji pronouns.)

Are anti it/it's pronouns

Are a T.rump supporter, anti.masker, c.ovid denier, etc. Your conspiracy theories are not welcome here

Are an Oni.sion stan (Kind of pedantic I know but the dude sucks to the nth degree, so-)

Crosstag posts with both strictly N.S.F.T and sfw tags (Mistakes are fine as long as it's just a genuine slip up and you do your best to correct it. We're all human and sometimes accidents happen, but doing it on purpose or leaving it up after being told the issues is a no go.)

Are anti.-choice/pro.-life

Are anti free healthcare, food, water, etc

Think autism and related quirks need a "cure" (I'm all for personal choice if the "cure" was a pill or shot but currently the "cure" is eug.enics which I am not about)

Think DNI lists are bad or a waste of time

That's all I can think of for now. However, with that said…

✅ Do interact if you: ✅

Are a roleplay/gimmick/character blog, or anything like that! I love talking to you guys! You're cool! Also seeing how this is my fandom sideblog, it matches the theme

Have OCs. Tell me about them! I love hearing about people's characters!

See a fandom on here you like? Please talk to me I crave interaction so badly-

That's all for now! See you later! &lt;3

[kaleschmidt]

DSAF Assorted HCs

Just a note that some of these HCs involve my own AU/verse where the main gang are given a second chance at life (labeled TKPverse)! These are like highly self-indulgent

Jack (he/they/it)

Jack grows a shitty mullet (Affectionate) post-DSAF 2

Actually likes to keep his hands busy. Machines aren't his specialty, but he likes sewing + knitting and actually was the one who knitted the scarf for Dee's birthday!

Had a fling with Harry (actually canon guys. trust me.)

Everyone in DSAF 1 has played a part in Jack loosing their front teeth at least once in all universes

After the true end, Jack is the only one with solid information of all the timelines he went through. Everyone else can remember pieces of different timelines, but only vaguely

The whole Kennedy family is Filipino (with the family moving to the US). Jack wasn't as close to his heritage as his other siblings, but he can still understand Tagalog. He just can't speak a lot of it.

LOOVVEESSS chicken adobo. He overseasons it so badly though. Corpse tastebuds.

look i get tall jack but also. 5'2" jack. hear me out.

Dave (he/she)

Dave's far-sighted, but he never figures it out until TKPverse, and even then, he refuses to get glasses until he's forced to. He rarely wears them, though

Dave uses both his name + William, though he prefers only people close to him use William. Still hates being called 'Willy'.

Ambidextrous!

Dave is humanoid but... no one knows what he exactly is. His anatomy is somewhat normal, but his body has some kind of muppet-like/felt texture, with his hair similar to craft fur. Also he does taste a bit like eggplant.

Genuinely likes licorice

Usually done unintentionally, but Dave sometimes falls asleep with her eyes open. This has scared the shit out of Jack several times

Dave has lots of boundaries regarding his hair. Jack's one of the few who's allowed to touch and style it

One of his most prized possessions was this. It was one of Dave's few toys back then

90% OF INCIDENTS WHERE JACK LOOSES HIS FRONT TEETH ARE BECAUSE OF DAVE.

Steven (he/him)

I'm gonna be honest i do not have a lot for him. Sorry Steven i love you stil.

Before his springlock incident, Steven's favorite animal really were foxes!

The type to have really old movies probs

Peter (he/him)

Genuinely likes Rick Astley, especially his album "Whenever You Need Somebody". Has unintentionally rickrolled the family several times

^ He also likes Sade. One of his favorite songs is 'Smooth Operator'

He's the dad in the grocery store who has his song come on and then starts doing a jig to it and embarrasses his kid. Jack joined in. They were both kicked out

as long as we don't have any information on caroline idc idc peter was THE fucking malewife. and he was also the wifeguy. he loved his wifey so much he would go on full fucking rambles to jack about caroline on the phone

Eldest Kennedy + the closest to his heritage. Peter knows perfect Tagalog and also learned his mom's family recipes!

Dee (she/they)

dee i am also so fucking sorry i don't have a lot for you.....

Dee was never able to have her 18th debut, but TKPverse, I believe Peter + Jack made sure to give her the most extravagant surprise belated debut! The only guests were the main cast but Dee was still touched. Also yes the kennedy brothers did get a custom-made gown for dee

They love all cats, but their favorite breed would be ragdoll cats

Dee doesn't know a lot of Tagalog, but she's learning more from Peter

Matt (he/it)

He's allergic to nuts. Why the fuck did he accept Jack's payment? god if i know. Matt also has an orange allergy

Matt has NPD because that's my medal of honor to him, along with the he/it

After the California location shut down, Matt just. disappeared. No one heard of him since then. Jack was only able to find him by dialing random numbers

SPEAKING OF DIALING! Matt can literally use anything as a phone. He does not have an actual phone at all and he refuses to get one

Has complete knowledge of the alternate timelines. You didn't hear that here, though.

Nobody knows if he's human or not but they're afraid to approach him.

Matt is capable of genuinely smiling, but never does so during work*. If Matt ever genuinely smiled during DSAF, it probably would have a reversed effect of attracting people to him. a bit scary

It's so used to having a forced smile that whenever it talks to anyone, even if it's not face-to-face, Matt ends up putting on a forced smile

So fucking tired.

Matt usually listens to music as background noise. This usually consists of metal, screamo, breakcore, and/or the most drilling sounds known to men. If you ever asked it its favorite song, Matt would say "the one with the screaming :)"

the percentage of how many times matt was involved with making jack loose his front teeth is low but is not 0.

[gottagobuycheese]

Ten Very Specific Happiness-Inducing Things

(For the past four-and-a-half months I have been trying to write this list, only to be foiled by failing to save this as a draft in combination with repeated mass extinction events of my own technological creation. Sincere apologies to my computer, whose labor rights I have surely violated in every possible way. I promise I will shut you down on purpose some day instead of letting your battery run out from neglect, and will make a better effort not to accrue hundreds of new tabs in under a week ignoring, of course, that I opened over twenty new tabs in the making of this post.)

ANYWAYS, thank you to @theoldaquarian for tagging me, and apologies for taking so long! But know that even though it’s taken a long time to actually make this list, even just keeping it in the back of my mind and being reminded of it every now and then has been a nice bit of brightness these past few months :D 

And now, three paragraphs later whoops here is the actual list, in no particular order, which will inevitably be much longer than necessary: 

1. When something silly happens to you in public and it makes a handful of strangers laugh/smile 

(The thing that specifically comes to mind here is the time this particularly vicious seagull stole a chocolate croissant right out of my hand. It was a tiring morning. and I was on my way back from from what I believe was our neonates exam, and I’d literally just stepped outside Tesco, two bites and half a euro into my croissant as a reward to myself for making it through the harrowing experience, when this UTTER BASTARD swoops underneath my elbow to steal this half-eaten croissant from my closed fist. AND IT WORKED. But I couldn’t even be mad about it, it was just one of those John Mulaney days and it WAS pretty dang funny, so I just yelled that it owed me fifty cents and went on with my walk) 

2. The color blue 

(This need not be explained) 

3. Successfully quoting a whole scene or episode from memory that you haven’t read or watched in years 

(Will ANYTHING compare to reciting the entire band geeks Spongebob episode on the way back from marching band rehearsal with a bunch of people from different sections chiming in whom you may not even know?? Remains to be seen) 

4. People making music out of unconventional sounds 

(BIGGEST shoutout to @silent--sonata for showing me the power of microwave bleeps and keyboard clacks) 

(And also anyone else who’s ever heard fire alarms, car alarms, creaky old pipes, or weird hose noises and decided the next best thing to do is to break out your instrument(s) and improvise some cool jams) 

(And can’t forget office supplies)

5. Showing someone the recorder cover of the Titanic song for the very first time 

(I think I nearly killed my friend that time, 10/10 would recommend)

6. Finding a stairwell with the perfect kind of echo to yell/sing/whistle/Play Some Kind of Music in 

7. When you’re running/walking/Doing A Task exactly to the beat of the music you’re listening to 

(Shoutout to Toby Fox for writing Spear of Justice at the exact tempo required for me to book it to the six o’clock bus less than fifteen minutes after waking up) 

8. Dancing and singing horribly to really cheesy Bollywood music on a rooftop in the middle of a monsoon 

(Bonus points for lugging up one of those old fashioned antennae radio and sticking an umbrella over it) 

(Doesn’t even have to be Bollywood music tbh, any music you can’t sing well — ESPECIALLY instrumental music) 

9. Scrambling across the city with a bunch of strangers in someone’s car whom you’ve never met before for the sole purpose of catching a legendary Pokémon 

(There’s nothing quite like wandering around in front of some tiny dilapidated church until a nondescript black car pulls up beside you and rolls down the window to allow the passenger to stick their head out the window and go: “[REDACTED]? Get in” and then speed away because the timer for the nearest Entei’s running out. It almost felt like an action movie lol)

10. When the wind tussles your hair in just the way that makes you feel like a Ghibli movie protagonist 

(To which I quote: IN THE SPIRIT OF OWNING ONE’S CRINGE) 

Thanks again for tagging me! This was a delightful thing to brainstorm and good reminder of the little positive things that keep us going day to day, despite whatever else is going on. Anyways, absolutely NO pressure to make a list (I know this is likely a repetition or something very out-of-the-blue to most of you), but because I am greedy and would love to see my dash filled with whatever oddly specific things that make y’all happy: @pachelbelsheadcanon, @averybritishbumblebee, @internetkatze, @mehrto, @yeswevegotavideo, @beingjanee, @drivingsideways, @rogueofdragons, @ifeelbetterer, @queenerdloser, and GENUINELY anyone else who wants to share their tiny happinesses. The more the merrier! 

(EDIT: The formatting is being very annoying and won’t indent, so I went and bolded the different numbers instead. Sorry if it’s difficult to read!)