#this was interesting because I haven't looked at my stats for a really long time!

[doctorhelena]

fic stats meme

I was tagged by the fabulous @roboticonography!

Most hits: A Stutter in Time (20,056 hits)

Second most kudos: Fraternization (568 kudos)

Third most comments: Until Then (We’ll Have to Muddle Through, Somehow) (46 comment threads, 102 comments)

Fourth most bookmarks: Family Matters (104 bookmarks)

Fifth most words: The Best Laid Plans  (9,904 words)

Least words: It's a tie between these two, which are each exactly 1000 words because they each contain exactly 10 drabbles:

One Hundred Words to Say "I Love You" (A Collection of Steggy Drabbles) 

"I’ve Got the Shield. You’ve Got the Sword" (A Collection of PeggyNat Drabbles) 

Tagging: @invidiosa, @teaandatale, @thesokovianaccords, @melliabee and anyone else who wants to do it!

[hollowtones]

first yiik impressions?

Hi. Thanks for your message. I've been thinking about this for days. I wrote paragraphs. Here you go!

Everyone talks up how the game is bad, but I've never looked into it much myself, so I went in with an expectation along the lines of "people whose opinions I often agree with think it was an awful mess, I'll likely think something similar". Expectations were low. Even then I wasn't really ready.

"YIIK" is a game of tedium. I don't think it's a game about tedium, that's something different (though it could be, if it was a different video game altogether; "what if the world was made of pudding" etc). To some degree I think the tedium is by design but I'm not really sure what it's in service of.

I don't think tedium in a video game is a bad thing. "Morrowind" and "Breath of the Wild" are two video games I like very much, and some of my favourite memories of those games are of slowly wandering through empty expanses, or having to suddenly deal with equipment degrading or supplies dwindling because I forgot to prepare. Moments like that feel thoughtful! They're interesting moments of reprieve or of tension that feel thoughtfully and intentionally designed! "YIIK" feels like trudging through chest-deep molasses so it can shout "hey did you know you're stuck in my molasses right now? that's weird, why are you stuck in my molasses right now? did you notice?" directly into your ear.

You'll notice this is a pattern.

Combat is turn-based and involves completing little minigames, timing button prompts or hitting targets or some such. It's a cute idea that wears out its welcome when you start realizing how long every single one takes to resolve, especially when you have multiple party members, and sometimes multiple enemies (I'm told this part specifically gets more egregious as the game goes on). I don't think it's awful or unsalvageable but I'm not super into it as of the point we're at.

This is a pattern.

Leveling up is a manual process that you have to unlock, and it involves going to a save point (any save point? we didn't check), to enter the Mind Dungeon, to enter the actual Mind Dungeon, to walk down a set of stairs and enter individual doors one-by-one, so that you can choose how you want to allocate stat increases, so that you can walk down a different set of stairs to commit your choices and spend your banked experience to level up. I think "you can only power up at specific points / times / locations" and the granularity of stat growth are interesting ideas, and the environment they made for it are a charming idea, and I don't think it needed to be a "Hotel Mario" level that you had to slowly walk through. It could have been a menu. They could have used the resources for a nice background or backdrop for a menu that accomplishes the same thing.

This is a pattern.

I haven't really mentioned anything about the story or writing yet. The protagonist's name is Alex and he's a very self-important nerdy misanthropic dickhead white man (a very specific kind of guy that I've definitely met at least once or twice) who is obsessed with a paranormal message board populated by people like him and desperate to find out more about the disappearance of a woman he witnessed. (The woman & her disappearance are based on the real life death of Elisa Lam & aren't handled with a whole lot of tact, IMO, but other people have put this into better words than I can right now. It sucks. It keeps coming up and it makes me bristle every time.) Alex is a bad person. I know he is. You know he is. The game knows he is. I've seen some reviews say a negative point of the game is "the main characters aren't likeable", which I don't really get, because that's the point of the characters, as far as I can tell. The issue, then, is how much time the game takes to exposit at you how bad the characters are. It's exhausting. Every time Alex has a monologue, it feels like it sums up to 10 minutes of "I am a bad person. I am a bad person. Alex is a bad person. This character is a bad person. Do you get it? He's a bad person. Alex is a bad person. Do you understand yet, player? Alex is a bad person. You should know that he's a bad person. Do you get it?"

This is a pattern.

(I don't know how interested I am in bringing up the game's lead writer right now, if at all, but there's a well-known anecdote where he talks about wanting to write a story about a bad person who is forced to grapple with himself and do better, and how the reason why his game wasn't well-received was because people who play video games didn't get it & weren't ready for a story like that. I dunno. I can understand being upset about negative reception to something you poured time and sweat into, and saying something hasty because of it. "Final Fantasy 4" is a beloved RPG classic, though, and "Disco Elysium" came out the same year to overwhelming praise. I haven't played either of these yet, though, so I'll admit maybe I'm off the mark here.)

The characters we've met so far (i.e. the ones that aren't unnamed NPCs) are… well. There's a smarmy younger kid who idolizes(?) Alex & also made the aforementioned paranormal website. So far it seems like he mostly exists to go "hey fuck you Alex, you dickhead" and immediately say something even more insensitive. There's the insensitive based-on-a-real=ass-dead-woman elevator woman, who immediately disappeared from the narrative while still being an essential part of the narrative. There was a dead(?) robot in a bedroom, who had a choir of ominous hooded people monologue about how weird and sad and strange and uncanny the scene is. What the!? There's a woman who works at the arcade and has Powers. Her design's cute. (I feel like, generally, the game's visuals are Fine. The audio, too. That all ranges from Just Fine to Surprisingly Neat. I don't really have much issue with those aspects of the game, but I don't have much to say about them either.) Alex and Kid Whose Name I Didn't Care To Remember are constantly very uncomfortable to her, because she's a woman and because she isn't white, in the 15 or so minutes we've seen her on-screen, and she gets to tell them off, but then immediately kind of goes "well whatever I can smile and put up with this and hang out with you". It feels misogynistic. I know to some degree Alex is misogynistic on purpose, because the game is bludgeoning your skull in and yelling "ALEX IS SHITTY TO WOMEN! AND PEOPLE OF COLOUR! DO YOU GET IT? HE'S SELF ABSORBED IN A SHITTY WAY! DO YOU GET IT, PLAYER? YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ALEX SUCKS ASS YET? MAYBE 10 MORE MINUTES OF THIS WILL MAKE IT CLICK?" But for a woman of colour (the only one we've seen so far who isn't Probably Just Dead) to finally tell him off for being a shithead, only to turn around and go "well it's ok, you're cool now, let's hang out now because it's narratively convenient and you're the protagonist" is pretty damn egregious!

This is a pattern.

Writing in general feels stilted and long-winded. Most of the main characters feel like they don't talk like people do. Alex gets to feel like a person but that's mostly because he gets to talk to himself so damn much. Most of his monologues feel like overly flowery prose, like someone padded it out with identical adjectives to meet a school essay word count. There's an interesting idea or premise or setpiece every now and then. There's a spark. A glint of something compelling. Every single time this has happened so far I find it immediately snuffed out by an over-blown "oh my god!!!!!!! how weird!!!!!!', or a very long plot dump, or a Joss Whedon-ass quip. There can be no small moment of joy. No story element or visual element can stand on its own legs. There can be no room for ideas to breathe. No space for the player to wonder, to dream, to play in the space. The narrative is compelled to suffocate iself on itself, to take up all space, to swallow itself whole in its making. One very minor (so far?) side character has some interesting dialogue in this one dream world, and I think "oh that's neat", and then I learn they're lines taken wholesale from a book (and I think that's fine, reference is fine, but I have a bit of a chuckle over the fact that this character is the reason why the game has a giant REFERENCES option in the main menu). The literal first minute of the game is a bird telling you "oh my god, the title of this game, right? why'd they spell it like that? so fucking dumb, am I right!" It feels insecure. It reads like the writing has no confidence in itself. It has to make a comment about how silly and video-gamey it is, roll its eyes at itself, mock itself for the thing it's doing while continuing to do it without addressing it or discussing it or doing anything with it.

This is a pattern.

There's a specific part of "YIIK", at this early point in the game (we're only around the start[?] of chapter 2), that feels emblematic of the thing as a whole up to this point. Alex is getting phone calls from a stranger. They're confusing and weird and sound a little like something you might hear in a dream. They make references to some shared past, some childhood, some understanding of Alex, or maybe of you, the player. They've come up a few times. Every single time, I'm left thinking about what it could mean, how it fits in with everything we've seen so far & what the game seems to be talking about, with regards to connecting to other people and to yourself. It's a neat little thing. It's a neat idea. I'm charmed by it. As much as my thoughts on this game are largely negative, I still try to look at it fairly, to understand it, to talk about it, to let myself be surprised by it. As soon as I find myself thinking about this, my thoughts are immediately drowned out by Alex telling me how weird the phone call is, how random and uncanny and dumb this is, and how he's rolling his proverbial eyes about it, in spite of all the other paranormal happenings around him, for another period of Just Too Long. And I am sapped of all strength and I crumble to dust.

I'm genuinely transfixed. I'm transfixed! Maybe the fact that I wrote Paragraphs about the 4-or-5 hours I've seen of the game can tell you as much, even if you skip everything I wrote in them.

I can't wait to see more.

This, too, is a pattern.

[ladyhedoniste]

Oxventure spoilers!

I'm genuinely so happy with what I've seen so far from the new Oxventure D&D world. The character choices they've started making and the their role-playing skills have grown so much since they first started playing.

The characters they've chosen to play are interesting and fresh, and I'm glad to see they're going in directions they haven't always gone before.

I also really enjoyed watching the Wyrdwood Unraveled first video on Patreon. Zack and Johnny discussed some behind the scenes stuff from the Geth days that many of us had been thinking for a long time, about how it was time to say goodbye once it got the point where the Oxboxtra folks had outgrown their first campaign and become better players than the campaign they were playing, and that Johnny had been nerfing a lot of fights during live shows.

I'm really glad that there was a lot of discussion and planning that went into figuring out the tone of the new series, and pushing their own boundaries so that the stories they told could progress and mature.

As for the first episode, I am beyond myself. I could gush all day about the choices made.

Jane: playing an absolute darling Cleric, so sweet and capable. It was nice seeing her play merciful when it's not usually played in TTRPG's because it's usually inconvenient.

Mike: the pass-ag barbarian, not just defaulting to strong but dumb, seemingly starting to carve a new path (Hopefully. It's a little harder to tell with how low he was rolling, but we've seen him as Barnaby in Blades; I have faith).

Ellen: once again playing against the *idea* that everyone has of her play style (people forget that Merilwen was actually Truth Neutral, like, all the time), and wow, she was really channeling posho elven bitch.

Luke: Of course he went for the really hard but very interesting mechanic (having seen him do the Dark Souls randomized playthrough, I really had to laugh). I mean come on, the luck pervert thing ("Nat 1! Praise Cadence!") is so fucking funny. I'm really looking forward to seeing the story evolve in regards to Happen's good luck/bad luck deal.

Andy: I fucking knew he was going to be playing my favourite character...characters. They're both fun. I love that Robin is just some sweet but very basic stat guy who does his best, and I love that Morven is a seemingly the woman of my dreams, a cool spooky revenge witch. I'm really glad that Robin didn't die off immediately, because that would have been such a bummer to go through in the first episode after the thing with Corazon, and also Nate, even if that was supposed to happen.

I am extremely optimistic about this series, and where they are going to take it, in ways that I wasn't really anymore in the two to three seasons before the G'eth series ended. I'm really happy for them :)

[three-dee-ess]

hiiii 3DS tour!!!!

from the day i first got it, i knew to name it Happiness..... nothing deep about it i just wanted to say "my mom took my Happiness away for exam week :("

a bit of a reveal but i'm the anxious sticker placer anon haha it's still plain to this day if not for a few scratches (a lot actually but it's not that noticeable, right? qwq)

the barcode and numbers are super faded i can't read them!! plus the scratches are much more noticeable, im not sure where most of them came from but i remember one of them is when i accidentally dropped a screwdriver on it oops

the cartridge is pokemon black 2!! i've had this game before Happiness. yup i have a metallic rose DS lite that's sooo busted up, (well i had a coral pink DS lite before that but i got mugged when i was like 7 years old and it's gone which is a story for another time)

anyway, metallic rose had dead pixels that spread like some fungus, L button didnt work at all, buttons feel gross to press now, etc yknow normal 7 year old not knowing the value of things thing

i'd send a picture but it's back at my old house, pray that the spiders know how to play dig dig dug

:D i'm very normal about cyrus pokemon i swear

if you check my theme plaza account you can see i also made one (1) batch of badges which is hunter x hunter badges as you can see from the folders, i'm also very normal about hunter x hunter i swear

i wanted to lay everything out without folders and arrange everything pretty but it's so hard how do all of you do it qwq

gon folder (top left folder) are my 3DS gaammeess, i haven't played some of them bc i still got a lot of games to finish but they're there!!

frens (i didnt make the badges other than the hunter x hunter ones btw!)

killua folder (top right folder) contains DS... well used to, now it holds other games! i also haven't played most of them im so busy qwq

i deleted the shortcuts for the DS games i finished, also it took me way too long how to inject GBA and other games into 3DS

kurapika folder (bottom left folder) contains videos and movies! i figured out how to convert them but it's so hard to find download links to the movies i like now :(

also did you know the first 3 volumes of hunter x hunter are on the japanese eshop? i can't read japanese but i keep them because i like the novelty of it

leorio folder (bottom right folder) is my homebrew and miscellaneous stuffs! self-explanatory -w-

if you have any homebrew stuffs you wanna recommend, tell meee

eek, asks only allows 10 pictures apparently so i'm gonna send another one because we're not done yet!!!!

Happiness is so awesome the crows wants an encore so i shall deliver ohoo

activity log :D i love that the 3DS has this so we can all look back on memories and such

and that's the day when i first got Happiness!!!! i was pretty late to the 3DS party but i stiiiillll love it if you couldn't tell i really love pokemon and that's why i wanted a 3DS so bad lol i don't think i will ever be as excited as i was holding Happiness in my hands for the first time qwq

yknow, i still don't know how this happened

and that's all from meee if you have any questions or wanna tell me something, go to my ask box because i don't wanna clog up three-dee-ess's notifs!! thank you for having me

----

galaxy style n3DSXL

thank you so much for the tour >:3c I loved reading through all of it! In depth tours like this are super interesting to me so thank you for sharing!! it makes me really happy.

I'll need to find my red 3DS again so I can share my own stats, since my grey one I use to mostly play puzzle game titles like picross, not any like, RPGs.

[amitieos]

toa anniversary munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Nic

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday (no year): 14th July

Where are you from? What is your time zone? UK, GMT (or BST but don't get me started on daylight savings I'll explode)

How long is your roleplay experience? Does playing A Bug's Life on the playground when I was 5 count? If not, I started with rping HP characters with my friends when I was like 11-12 over MSN after school and whilst there have been breaks it's something I've always found myself coming back to.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? As above, I made a couple of friends on (unrelated) forums and we all just thought it'd be fun.

How were you introduced to TOA? I thought I missed rp and looked for an FE based rp.

Do you have any pets? Yes, all hail Catcat the Great.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Summer. I hate the heat and humiditiy but once there's no daylight the seasonal affective disorder bass boosts my chronic mental health issues and it's just a bad time really.

What is your IRL occupation? I've gone back to uni to study Law :)

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I love reading, I'm fascinated by linguistics and astrophysics, enjoy DnD and playing video games in my spare time. I'm a particular sucker for the Sims franchise.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Recently I've been playing BG3, Stardew Valley, The Sims & Fields of Mistria but I'm a big fan of the Persona series and really, really excited about Dragon Age The Veilguard

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I don't really play Pokemon much anymore but I'll just say Sylveon I guess

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I met the fourth Doctor when I was 11 and he complemented my vocabulary lmao. I once got published in a poetry anthology with a poem about Shadow the Hedgehog and my parents we so proud of me.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I think I saw a review on TV

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've attempted to play every game except 1/2/3/5/11, although I've really wanted to play Thracia I just *need* some QoL updates and controls. I haven't finished every single one because of lost/deleted saves and stuff but I've watched playthroughs and read up on scripts on everything I haven't actually played myself.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: My first was Fates but Jugdral, Magvel and 3 Houses are my favourite

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Elincia, Mercedes, Franz, Myrrh and ughhhh I can't choose between Chole/Yunaka/Sylvain so I'm cheating

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! I saw Ryoma in all that red armour and it grabbed my attention.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Miss Mercedes if you're free Thursday night

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom, originally be accident but now on purpose :D - Fates: My first was Takumi and I didn't know what an S support was and was very confused. Nowadays usually Kaze or Laslow if playing F!Corrin and Orochi, Nyx or Charlotte if playing M!Corrin. Niles for either. - Three Houses: Mercedes. She's still my go to ofc but I'm also fond of Dorothea, Dimitri and Sylvain. If I'm playing M!Byleth Yuri or Ingrid - Engage: Yunaka was my first and now it's either Yunaka, Diamant or Chloe. Or Mauvier maybe hahfsdgfsd

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I love Pegasus Knights!!!!!!!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Probably a reluctant recruit who accidentally gets involved. Weirdly magic based armoured character.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Either unaffiliated civilian or Blue Lions probably

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Lance, Reason, Heavy Armour Banes: Bow, Faith Budding Talent: idk Axes or Flying?

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) No idea! Probably Elusia or Firene. The Solm heat would literally kill me.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) TOA ;) (like Noah)

Current TOA muses: Elincia & Mercedes

Past TOA muses? A lot but most memorable to me are Sylvain and Julia, though I'm so excited to see Sylvain in good hands <3

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Elincia and I still have her.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? White magic girlies though I'm trying to change things up.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Hm, I wish I felt I could write more of the male characters I enjoy effectively. In most other fandoms I've written in most of my muses have been men but it's just not so in FE. I'd also love to write a villain okay I once genuinely considered Hilda FE4 lmao

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I like writing dialogue and characters bonding but I'm starting to like more action oriented scenes too.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? For Mercedes in particular I get excited to write her steel and strength, especially when it's combined with her gentleness rather than opposed to it.

Favorite TOA-related memories? Every thread I've writen with Elincia and Rua's Byleth <3

Present or past tense? I tend to default to present in TOA but usually past tense. I'm flexible though and will try and match my partner.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? I actually find small text easier to focus in on and read (I can find normal a bit too cluttered and it can send my eyes wandering lmao) but I'm perfectly happy to use normal text, it just takes me a bit longer to comb through.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 I can't see a shake up happening soon but... Zephia or Chloe are probably forerunners. I've thought about Palla and Astrid too but I'm not sure if I can see the longevity. Also Neimi, Myrrh and Rodrigue have sparked.... ideas. For muses I've written before, Julia is the most likely but I think she's having a nice break right now :)

[corporatefrog]

╰┈➤ Welcome Back to the Channel part 29; like and subscribe

✧.* featuring yn setting up for their newest youtube video when a few unexpected guests arrive : ̗̀➛ notes - this is the last chapter! thank you guys so much for joining me during the journey of this story. I haven't finished a fic in years so it feels so good to write that final line. I left it pretty open ended to be ready for extra chapters in the future!! I could say a bunch more about how thankful I am for people reading this story and how much it's help me work through the past month but i'll let the chapter do that :) tags - college au, superhero au, smau

series masterlist previous | next

Okay. Let’s do this. 

“Hey guys! We’ve got a really special video today!” I greeted with a beaming grin, micking a high five with the camera. So far so good. “We’re going to be doing an interview I’ve been waiting to make for a long time…” I paused for effect before moving to the side, revealing today’s special guest. 

“Say hello to Mysterion!” I exclaimed with applause. I’d add some cheering effects while editing but without it, it sounded a bit empty. 

Looking back at Kenny, a laugh burst from my mouth at the expression on his face. He’d twisted his mouth into some semblance of a smirk but with the mask he looked cool and suave and more like he’d just smelled a three day old diaper. 

“Dude, what is that face? You look fucking stupid.” I said between laughs. Kenny frowned, giving me a side eye. 

“I’ve got a reputation to uphold!” He whined, gesturing to the dark hooded costume, “You don’t get it because you just started using your persona-”

“KENNY! Just say my social security number too why don’t you-” The frame shook as I lunged forward to stop the recording before any more secrets were shared on camera.

It had been about a few months since I’d started working with Butters and the guys would not let me forget they had seniority in the hero/villain world. Every chance Clyde had, he reminded me that he was there when they fought Cthulhu. Of course, Kyle was close behind to say that Clyde had done absolutely nothing during that fight. But that was followed by Kyle reminding me that he was sent to hell and was there during the eldritch battle.

I’d been worried when they found out that they’d stop talking to me altogether. I wasn’t quite sure why. They’ve known about Butters being Professor Chaos since they were children and I see him and Kenny hang out more than he hangs out with Kyle and Stan sometimes. He even hangs out with Craig and his group on the weekends. 

The only thing that’s been hurt by my employment at Chaos LLC is my intel source. Wendy stopped giving me insider details about hero movements if they related to Professor Chaos so I haven’t been able to cover as much of his antics but she was still queuing me into other run-ins with minor villains and typical South Park oddities. 

Last week, fucking Slenderman showed up. Like a tall faceless dude in a suit and tie Slenderman. Just standing in the park. He did kidnap Butters which led to an interesting rescue mission. And the video coverage was insane. Marble Hornets could never. 

I didn’t want to trust it at first. I’d spent a month waiting for things to suddenly change. For everyone to turn on me for being a minor inconvenience at best but Craig still asked me to help him with his stats homework at Tweek Bros and Stan still invited me to whatever random board game shop he was visiting that week. The only thing that changed was sometimes we ran around the city in (if I’m being honest) ridiculous costumes and blew off some of the steam that comes with being a college student at Garrison University. 

The entire college almost shut down last month due to Dean Garrison being convicted of tax fraud and publicly attempting to assassinate the President in order to avoid charges. Without anyone to lead the college and the name now permanently connected to an elementary school teacher turned assassin, the only option seemed to be shutting the place down. That was a rough month. The university was literally on the verge of closure and I still had to write a 10 page research paper. What kind of bullshit is that?

Yeah but it was a paper about The Bachelor so was it really work?

Anything that involves citing in APA is work. 

The routine of my new normal set in pretty quickly. Well, as ‘normal’ as things can be when you’re friends with superheroes in South Park. I went to my classes, made videos for my channel, then I’d meet up with Butters and ruin a few people’s day a few times a week. It was scary how easily I fell into the routine. I’d wake up and say good morning to Stan as though he weren’t shooting tranquilizer darts from a nail gun at me a few hours earlier. Certainly not a sentence I ever thought I’d say. 

Looking back on the past two years, I see all the chances I had to end up somewhere else. If I’d gone to a different university and never set foot in South Park or if I’d chosen a different apartment and never ran into Clyde on my first day there I could have led a completely different life. Even in the moments which dragged on my mind, they all led me here. And the feeling of comfort that comes along with that thought makes every struggle worthwhile. 

There’s nowhere I’d rather be and here. Attending a university with an idiot dean, living in an apartment building with my closest friends, and now helping someone I care about get the revenge he’s due. Oh, and making youtube videos about all the stupid shit that happens along the way.

I restarted the recording, giving Kenny a warning glare before saying the intro again. This time, he kept a normal face which made it much easier to not think about how just a few months ago, I was freaking out at the idea of talking to THE Mysterion. 

Granted, now we’ve seen THE Mysterion vomiting in a toilet at 2 am after eating his taco bell too fast so the shimmer has faded. 

“So, Mysterion,” I started, glancing at my list of questions I’d prepared for the interview, “You’ve been the longest running hero in South Park history! How does it feel to be coming up on 10 years as South Park’s Guardian Angel?”

Kenny hummed as he mulled over the question, “It’s not an easy job-” A knock on the door cut off his answer. I looked over at Kenny with a confused expression. He mirrored my confusion but couldn’t offer an idea on who was interrupting our interview for the second time. 

I paused the video before heading over to the door, looking through the peephole. Toolshed’s signature belt gave him away instantly. He shifted from foot to foot as he waited, tapping his hands against his thighs. 

What the fuck?

I opened the door, leaning against the frame while I deadpanned at my neighbor. 

“What’re you doing?” I asked, looking at him from under my eyebrows. 

Stan flashed a sheepish smile, “Well, I heard that you were interviewing Ken-” He paused, glancing down the hall both ways before correcting himself, “Mysterion today and I was thinking I could join? I haven’t gotten an interview yet after all.” 

“You haven’t gotten an interview because all you’ve done the past three fights is stand in the back with a power drill looking lost.” I pulled up my phone and held it up for Stan to see the footage from the past three hero conflicts. While Kenny and Craig dove into the fray, Stan could be seen in the background, searching through his utility belt for the right tool for the battle. By the time he held up his weapon of choice, Craig would be throwing the final punch.

“Okay those videos are rigged. You got those from the Craig fan accounts.” Stan protested. 

“You’re really reaching now bud-” 

“Is there still time for the interview?” A voice shouted from down the hall. Kyle’s door flew open with him rushing out soon after. The kite strapped to his back caught on the door frame, sending him tripping and falling into the wall across the hall from his door. I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face while the sound of Kyle cursing and tripping over his own stupid fucking costume filled the hallway. 

“Dude what are you doing?” Stan asked, crossing his arms as though he were the one being put upon by the appearance of the Human Kite. Kyle righted himself, brushing imaginary dust off his costume. 

“You said you were going to try and get in on the interview and after my last one-” He gave me a pointed look as though I were the one who chose his stupid name in the first place, “turned into me being berated for an hour and a half.” 

“Yeah but you already had one. It’s my turn now.” Stan whined. 

“Actually, it’s my turn right now.” Kenny said, suddenly appearing behind me at the door. I jumped to the side, holding a hand over my chest to keep my heart from jumping out at the shock. 

“Jesus fuck man. I need to put a bell on you.” I muttered to myself before addressing the slowly growing group of complaining superheroes, “None of you guys get to decide whose turn it is to be on my channel. I set up this interview with Kenny a month ago and we’re finally getting to filming so if you want to have ‘your turn’ you need to fill out the form and join the queue like everyone else. I’ve got Craig and Tweek lined up for next month then Tolkien-”

“How the fuck does Tolkien get to go before me-”

“Because he filled out the fucking form Stan? I literally just told you.” 

“Okay, well I just think it would be more interesting to have Toolshed on before Tupperware.” Stan looped his thumbs through his utility belt, kicking a foot at the ground with a frown tugging at his lips. He looked up at me with pouting eyes, blinking rapidly as he tried to change my mind.

No way this 20 year old is pouting in the hallway right now. 

I blew a breath out of the corner of my mouth, averting my eyes from the pouting college student. I better not regret this. 

“Okay, fine.” I started. Stan’s posture immediately improved as he straightened up and began to walk towards the door. Kyle followed suit with a borderline giddy smile of his own. I held up a hand to stop them, “But this is a one time thing, okay? Don’t go telling the others you can just bug me into doing a video with them because I know Clyde can and will be the most annoying motherfucker to ever exist until I do an entire series about him.” 

Kyle and Stan nodded rapidly, heads moving in sync as they agreed to whatever would get them in the video. I was about to move aside and let them in when Kenny sucked in a breath. 

“We weren’t supposed to tell other people about this?” He asked. When I turned to stare at him, he plastered an awkwardly large grin on his face. 

“Who did you tell?” I asked, holding my breath out of fear for what he’d say next. Kenny paused, eyes moving across the ceiling as he thought over the question. That’s never a good sign. Then he began counting on his fingers, mouth moving in silent words as he continued to tick off different unknown names. 

Letting his hands fall with a shrug, he looked back at me with the still incredibly awkward smile, “Only like a few of the guys-” 

“MUAHAHAHA, THIS IS WHERE YOU FALL MYSTERION!” Butters came barreling in through my balcony doors, fists raised to the sky as he posed in the living room. The four of us turned to look at the villain. 

“False alarm, Butters. Apparently this was a lowkey thing.” Kenny said, pointing to me with his thumb as though I were the buzzkill in the situation. My jaw dropped as I turned to Kenny, appalled that he had the audacity to claim I was ruining our private interview I’d spent a month planning. 

Butters’ arms fell back to his sides, tinfoil of his gauntlets scraping slightly against his belt, “Awe geez, and here I was ready for a scuffle.” He said, scuffing the toe of his boot against the floor in a similar pout to Stan’s from moments before. 

Why am I friends with a bunch of toddlers? 

Before I could address Butters’ appearance, my apartment was flooded with the rest of my friends all clad in their hero costumes. Tolkien waddled behind Tweek and Craig, turning sideways to get through the door with Clyde following close behind. Soon my apartment was filled with arguing superheroes and one very boisterous villain, all trying to figure out how to fit themselves into the frame. 

I squeezed myself onto the couch between Kenny and Clyde, feeling like I should at least have the original planned video guest in the middle of the frame. Voices overlapped as Stan tried to shove Kyle over, pushing Tweek and Craig further to the side. The cacophony of sound bounced off the walls and made the air buzz with the rambunctious energy. 

Normally the noise would send me spiraling, overstimulated by the different sounds all pulling me in different directions, but the noise around me calmed the normally racing thoughts in my mind. I’d spent so long sitting in front of this camera, reading off new stories of the people who now shouted my name to grab my attention from opposite ends of the couch I’d gotten off Facebook Marketplace. The once deafening silence which filled the moments between takes was replaced by shouts to move over and accusations of stepping on their kite string. 

It was the best noise I’d ever heard. 

“I’m starting now! Everyone shut up and follow me lead!” I announced, stabilizing the camera before returning to my spot with a smile.

I smiled for the camera. I smiled at the thought of the views a video with all of South Park’s heroes would get. But I also smiled from the overwhelming happiness that came from being surrounded by my closest friends. 

“Hey guys!” I greeted, raising a hand to mimic a high five with the lens,

“Welcome back to the channel!”

taglist [reply to be added]: @sula0kin @lacuna-at-dawn @anglettecolours @cocolena@sukisprettyface @feverish-dove @sweetadonisbutbetter @hand-writxen@mishstuff@sophtophie @triphovia  @lacunaanonymoused @inkedintothepaper @toodeepintofandoms@mmmaackerel @sillybilly-123@n0tangeliccc@sophtophie@inkedintothepaper 

[stormoflina]

Domi interview, part 5 (final part)

About loneliness

D: "Whoever says they don't ever feel lonely, is lying. There are moments, when I feel lonely. Sometimes, there are days, when I'm sitting at the sofa, thinking "well, what do i do, they don't [friends] have time, they are not here", I haven't been here that long that I would just say it to somebody let's hang out. In dayslike these, I put on a movie and hope that I can fall asleep quickly and tommorrow can come quicker. There are days like that, they are not easy."

About getting recognized

I: "At the moment, in Liverpool or Manchester, can you just walk down the street [without being recognized]? Back in Hungary, Budapest, it wouldn't really work, I think, to like go to the grocery store?"

D: "It doesn't really work here either. Well, I don't really walk around in Liverpool, because I live in Manchester. only been there once, when I signed the contract, but even back then it was weird, even tho I didn't even play in a match back then. It happens in Manchester, but it's easier there, there are more teams, City, United. A lot of players live here, from Liverpool, Everton, you can get around easier, but you still have to be mindful, they recognize you, watch you."

I: "Is it tiresome, a part of it? Sometimes you must be like, okay, I just want to go to the mall. Can you make that happen, or are you like, I won't go, because it's too much trouble."

D: "There are ways to work it out. We have connections here and there, they can make it easier, more comfortable for us."

About the English press

D: With me, they have been fair so far, so I can't say anything bad about it. I guess, I haven't been here that long to say anything about me, but in time, we will see how it is."

About the Salah-Szoboszlai-Trent triangle

D: "I really like this box-to-box and the rotations we have going on. We all know what to do, we all pay attention to each other, I really like my position."

About his running capacity and speed

Asked if he feels like he always had this speed and runnin capability in him, or it's something new he had developed since joining Liverpool.

D: "I had it Leipzig too, I don't even understand... Speaking of the NT, in the NT, every single match, I get leg cramps. Here [LFC], never. Yet, when I look at the stats, I run much more in LFC, than I do in the NT. At the end of the Everton match, I started sprinting once again (...) But I'm not the only one. If you ask Milos (Milos Kerkez, his hungarian NT teammate, who also plays for Bournemouth), he says the same thing.

Maybe, because the pressure is bigger [in the NT], I'm the captain, I have to pay attention to more things, the others. I try to take the pressure from the others, so they can play more freely, I try to help everyone, so maybe this is why I get cramps. I do everything the same, I eat the same things, vitamins, everything."

---

There were some other questions in the end, but they were not that interesting, about stats and stuff, so I left those out. Hope you guys enjoyed it, thanks for all the kind messages you left me!

[cedarbranch]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @sunriseverse thank you!!

tagging: @figbian @shark-myths @stoplightglow @zipegs and anyone else who wants to participate (with no pressure if you don't!) questions below the cut :-)

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

currently 65! i've orphaned several over the years though. unfortunately i am an Extremely Slow Writer so i always wanna see this number go up and it never goes as fast as i want it to :') we can hit 67 this year... surely....

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

847,778! used to be higher (more in the 950k range) prior to orphaning, i'm not sure if i've actually written over a million words or not at this point? v excited for the day that milestone actually shows up in my stats though! my current wips could tip me over, we'll see how it goes... 👀

3. what fandoms do you write for?

currently hannibal and stranger things! i've bounced around many fandoms in my day, but my most significant contributions thus far have been for mcr/bandom and the magnus archives. really hoping i end up writing enough for my current fandoms that i can consider them part of that shortlist too!! :-)

4. top five fics by kudos

like a moth to light (like a beast to bait) / 2117 kudos, save that heart for me / 1480 kudos, how particular, my fondness of you / 1445 kudos, convicted criminals of thought / 1177 kudos, and questionable decisions / 847 kudos! wow, that last one took me by surprise, it was such a jokey little fic i often forget about it. nice to look back at these and see things with over 1k kudos though, i remember that being an unattainable pipe dream back when i was writing mcr in the dead era that was 2017 :')

5. do you respond to comments?

i often do! i try to respond to every comment i get when a fic is published, and i like to respond much later on as well, it just tends to slip my mind if it's an older fic. stuff gets lost in my inbox. i certainly read every comment though, and the comments left on older fics are often the ones that make me happiest!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmmm... i mostly write happy endings unless they're character studies. the true angstiest ending i've written is for a fic i haven't posted yet (hint: it's a sequel to a oneshot of mine!) but i do have short fics about both michael and gerry's deaths in tma? i'll go with the gerry death fic, thinking of the sun.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

they're mostly happy!!! but the one that ends most on a note of Joy, i think, would be rosemary and thyme, my fae!martin au :-)

8. do you get hate on fics?

nah. i have an extremely vague memory of getting a comment that made me go "omg my first hate comment" but like it's so vague that i can't tell if it's a false memory or not 😭 people have always been quite nice to me, thankfully!

9. do you write smut?

i do! i tried to avoid it whenever i could when i was younger but these days i've actually become super interested in sex as a vehicle for character studies. that tumblr post that's like "the plot of this smut fic is that character A believes himself abandoned by god" is one HUNDRED percent my approach recently, definitely expect some of that upcoming on my ao3 lolll

10. craziest crossover?

i don't really write crossovers! i like them in comic/fanart form, but i tend to be less interested in crossover fic (unless it's HEU, i do quite like spacedogs)... the only times i've ever thought about creating crossover content myself were for a couple pacrim fusion ideas!

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

eh, not really. a long time ago i did have someone basically rip the worldbuilding from one of my AUs with the serial numbers filed off, but they did ask permission - i said yes because i was like 16 and felt too awkward saying no. so that was weird! but not quite stealing.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!! to steal a kiss from borrowed lips was translated into russian, such an honor :D

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have, a really long time ago. i don't think i would do it again (unless it was with, like, one of two specific irls) bc i think i'd struggle with figuring out a collaborative workflow. part of me also thinks it could be a fun exercise though...

14. all time favorite ship?

OUGH..... mannnn what a question. it changes every few years and i feel like my response is influenced by not just the source material, but the quality of the fan content and the fandom interactions i've had... you know what? i know i have current-hyperfixation bias, but for now i am gonna say hannigram. it's just too peak.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Too Many Of Them - but in particular, my chrissy cunningham-centric longfic. it's an entire treatise on sapphic loneliness and small-town queer isolation and i do think it'd be a fucking masterpiece if i ever managed to commit to it, but it's on the forever back-burner i think.

16. what are your writing strengths?

hmm... characterization through dialogue is the main thing, i'd say. i'm always thinking about how to match a given character's speech patterns and i think i tend to capture their voices pretty well!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i'm my own biggest critic so i could list a bunch, but pacing is a big one. i tend to let things run too long and i feel like i've only just managed to balance it better in my current wip... only took a decade of fic-writing to get there 😭

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

depends a lot on context. honestly too many thoughts to condense well into an answer for this djglfg but in short: usually nice if it's just a few words, but can get unwieldy otherwise

19. first fandom you wrote in?

kuroshitsuji 💀 self-insert and OC-centric fic. how very unlike me

20. favorite fic you've written?

moth to light has been the reigning champ for a while now, but i think several of my current wips could potentially unseat it!

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay I’m STILL procrastinating watching s15 bc I’m SCARED so here’s my extremely biased ratings/opinions on the episodes of s14 to help me procrastinate (episodes which are multiple parts of a single story will be condensed into one slot)

Room Zero: SO cute and good, I LOVED the animation style, it was simple and short but really well done with great colors, fun alien designs, and fluid animation, and I just like seeing the guys go on missions like that. It's a shame that the animated show never got picked up bc I would've adored seeing more of it. 10/10

From Stumbled Beginnings: Very cute and funny origin story for Simmons and Grif, and I love that they were p much always together since they enlisted lmao makes their dynamic rlly good and the humor actually got a couple laughs out of me. 8/10

Fifty Shades of Red: Sarge's humor never quite landed with me like is has for some people (my boyfriend lmao I literally have to pause episodes sometimes so he can stop laughing. Anyway) but it was a very humorous and in character origin for him as well. 5/10

Why They’re Here: Less interesting than the previous two, obviously just meant to fill in plot "holes" and to also show us the origins of the other characters. Also I am completely ignoring that one line from Tucker in the interview, just gonna chalk it up to the "edgy" humor it does not exist to me. 4/10

The Brick Gulch Chronicles: WONDERFUL stop motion, very fun and cute and entertaining, very wholesome and still in the vibe with what the show itself is. I appreciate the willingness to do stop motion for most of it. 10/10

Red Army Unit FH57’s Adventure: It was kinda interesting and kinda funny but I found myself kinda tuning it out cuz it just felt kinda whatever. The combo of the different animation styles was cool though and I thought the ship misunderstanding them was funny. 5/10

Locus and Felix: Okay I'm gonna be a black sheep for a second and say that I rlly don't care that much about Locus and Felix. I don't think Felix is a secretly deep sadboi whom I'm gonna spend an unnecessary amount of time thinking about, I don't think Locus as secretly good all along, and I don't care that much about their partnership and what they were like before Chorus. That being said, the animation here is absolutely gorgeous, this is probably my favorite animated story in the whole season, it looks awesome. The plot is nothing special but who cares like I said it's beautiful, 6/10

Fight the Good Fight!: VERY funny and well-executed propaganda video, short and sweet and nothing more to it. It does its job. 5/10

Meta vs. Carolina: Dawn of Awesome: Another one I really don't care for because literally everything leading UP to the fight between Meta and Carolina is a waste of time. Maybe some people really care about their weapons and stats, but I don't. And even then, you kinda know Carolina is gonna win the fight, the question is just how. 4/10

Grey vs. Gray: I don't know or care about the Game Grumps and the entire thing felt like a short gag that went on for way too long with a predictable ending. 2/10

Caboose's Guide to Making Friends: Again, ADORABLE art style and very cute having a story be told from Caboose's perspective. 7/10

Head Cannon: Kinda funny I guess. I wish we'd gotten it spread out more equally among the heads Omega jumped into. Ik he didn't spend equal time in there but who cares. Whatever, still funny. 5/10

Get Bent: I LAUGHED PROBABLY THE HARDEST AT THIS ONE AND THAT'S MOSTLY BC OF LESBIAN DONUT IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AND IT WAS HILARIOUS (also hello, bisexual church?) 9/10

Red vs. Blue: The Musical: it was fine. it was creative. The dancing was well animated. Enjoyable. 5/10

Mr. Red vs. Mr. Blue: I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs but Kaikaina was in this which automatically boosts it to a 8/10 (I also like that they have movie nights it's cute)

RvB Throwdown: Fine but mostly forgettable. 3/10

The Triplets Story: REALLY interesting concept (y'all know I love the freelancers) that felt like it dragged on too long and only gave Ohio something to do. 4/10

Immersion: The Warthog Flip: I loved the costumes and the actual Warthog and it got a couple laughs out of me. 5/10

Red vs. Blue vs. Rooster Teeth: This was made for the fans/themselves. As someone who is neither, none of it was funny and I just kinda waited for it to be over. At least the animation of the armor irl looked rlly good

[screechhermit]

Earthbread Mechanics - Combat 1/?

So first post of many here. I'll say this now, most of the posts about this will not be in order as they're just going to be whatever is on my mind at the time. Today its some aspects of combat. Some of these ideas are pulled from a bunch of different places with a lot of them coming from Kingdom as its the main game with combat, and I haven't played Tower yet, so I'll get into the stuff I'm pulling from there first.

Attacking

In theory each Cookie would have a class(charge, defense, magic, etc) with this only really effecting the skills and what toppings they should use(I'll get into those in a bit). Outside of that Cookies would all have a main melee attack along with a ranged/magic attack depending on the Cookie.

Toppings

So Toppings, another bit from Kingdom yes I know, but I find them as interesting as a mechanic. In essence they function the same as Artifacts from Genshin but we aren't going there. Anyway in this hypothetical game they would function the same way that they do in Kingdom. You'd equip a max of five to your Cookie, with each kind having differing effects on stats.

Resonant Toppings

Additionally I want to touch on Resonant Toppings briefly. I love the idea of them, with sets meant for specific groups of Cookies. However, I feel that Kingdom initially kind of dirty, with Moonkissed and Trio Toppings both being no longer available yet we can still get Tropical Rock, Draconic, Sea Salt, etc. Even in limited amounts they are still available to us. In this case I would imagine the different varieties would simply only be obtainable depending on the region of the world. Moving on!

Crystal Jams

So I have an issue with their inclusion into Kingdom. While in concept they are very cool, honestly would've preferred for Legendary Cookies to just have Magic Candies. However I don't want to remove them outright because there is an aspect I like about them for use in a party style of combat. These being the Rally Effects they have when a Cookie possessing one is in your party. An item in game that provides buffs to your whole party is very fun. But changing them from their form in Kingdom is how to obtain them and how they would be used. Firstly I'd keep them in their first stage form as the simpler design just looks nicer. I'll go more into them in another post as this is getting long as is.

Elements

So this aspect is something I just find fun for games sake. It does also make strategies for what Cookies to have on your party. Having Elements assigned to Cookies in an open world rpg does feel very cliche but it also just feels correct to me to include.

Elements can tie into so many other aspects of gameplay in a variety of ways. Plus they're also just fun to look at, all the pretty colors and fun symbols for each one. I do find it interesting that of the ones currently in the game, they all seem to tie into an Ancient, Legendary, or Dragon Cookie. So putting that into the context of the other three Ancients, four Dragons, and the other nine Legendaries, it leaves a lot of gaps in the Elements to get filled. Sleep for Moonlight Cookie, Wind for Wind Archer Cookie obviously. I could see some kind of Space or Star Element for Xylitol Nova Cookie and the likely four other Nova Cookies. We all know its inevitable, Devsis loves to release higher rarity Cookies in sets of five. This isn't even considering the Beast Cookies yet. But that's for another post.

With all of those thoughts planted into the realm of Tumblr for all to see, I bid you all a good evening as its getting late on my end as I type this. Thank You and Goodnight!

[cicaklah]

fic author q&a

thank you @the-lady-general for tagging me, I love to procrastinate by doing stuff like this.

1. Why do you write fanfic?

because my brain is a relentless what-if machine and it can't be stopped or tamed. If I wasn't writing it down I'd be losing time just thinking about it, trust me, its far better this way.

and because I love writing, love the fic community, and just love creativity. I've been reading fic literally every single day since I was 11 or 12 and I'm now 38. I'm passionate about the fic writing world and my experience in the 'conventional' writing space has been nothing but anxiety, inferiority and bitterness.

2. Which of your posted stories do you think about the most, even though the story is “finished”?

I don't tend to feel like that about my stories, because I am always up to write sequels or prequels to things, or add stuff onto various universes. I still think often about weibermacht, which is the name of the sex club in my Hitman stories, and one day I will write a proper weibermacht story, but the reason I still think about stories is because they aren't properly finished. I also think a lot about the watch me series because I feel guilty that I never finished it. I have at least another 3 stories in various stages of writing.

I'm planning on doing a WIP amnesty next year (once One Man is finished), and I'm hoping that it will get me to finish some of these things I want to return to, but haven't since.

3. If you could give yourself fic advice from when you first started writing fic, what would that advice be?

Use the momentum of being really into something to make more art. Write as much fic as you can, and don't let guilt catch up with you. It doesn't matter if it sucks; you have to love it, and if you love it in the moment, you are going in the right direction.

4. What’s your relationship to fic stats?

As a professional sort-of statistician I adore them, I wish there were more of them, specifically available over time, and also the number of subscriptions to series would help me as someone who writes in that way. BUT: comparison is the thief of joy. My big fic-related breakdown was over constantly comparing myself to the people I thought were my peers. Stats don't tell you why you aren't doing better than someone, and I know from my profession that you can't just assume things from numbers.

5. Is there a pairing or scenario or friendship you miss writing? If so, why? If not, why not?

I miss Stormpilot (Finn/Poe) circa 2017. What a beautiful time. It will never come again, even if we got something to make the ship sail again, the world has changed.

6. What motivates you to write?

Much like the lady general, I am motivated by wanting to tell jokes, or by specific ideas that enter my brain and won't let go. I am motivated to keep going on one man because there are specific stories I need to share with the rest of the class, but I must tell the rest of the story in order to get there. The journey is the point, but so is the punchline.

7. Why do you write for the fandom(s) that you write for?

Star Trek, specifically SNW, is my current blorbo, so I write for myself and my id on that one. Hitman is for the thirsty thirteen and because its OTP. Oxventure is...complicated. I am so very burned out on that fandom. Super Secret RPF pairing is because of my co-conspirators <3. I've also written way, way too many things because Phoenix and I have talked about them and I've then be POSSESSED.

8. If you’re stuck writing a WIP, what do you do?

As long as I'm still interested in the project, I do my best to push through. I have the philosophy that a story doesn't really exist until it is published anyway. I do have an abandoned WIP folder, and within that is a folder called 'look I'm never writing these ones'. There are 12 stories in that folder. Meanwhile there are 134 I have yet to give up on, not including the 4 that are currently in progress (not including one man.)

Basically I need another WIP amnesty.

9. What do you wish people knew about comments?

They really are the fuel on the fire. I have finished stories because of comments. I have written entire worlds because of comments. I do my best to answer every single comment, and I try to also leave comments as much as I can. At the same time, I have to, for my own sanity, try not to put too much stock in them, because we have to be self-fuelling machines, we have to be self-raising lazaruses. You have to write for yourself, because if you base everything on other people's opinions, you will die nobody.

10. Maybe there’s a question you wish had been on here. What’s that question (and answer)?

I think the question I'd like to ask is what is your personal greatest fic achievement? Not your most popular story, what was the story that you still look at and go: I will never not be proud of that achievement. Mine is the fact I have published 750,000 words and 130 stories and I still feel like I'm only just getting started. That the perseverance over the last 14 years proves that I can do whatever I set my mind to, that I am valuable in a way that matters, and all the doubters of my youth can go fuck themselves forever.

I'm tagging @postalninja, @stickthisbig, @android-and-ale and @alienfuckeronmain and anyone else who wants to do it. lets navel gaze, lads.

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (3)

Haven't looked at numbers in a minute, and since my presence online has been super inconsistent (especially here) recently, I have no idea how this will end up looking. I've updated this sheet a couple of time during the year, but not in a way it tracks old numbers... Because Tumblr has a limit of 20 images per post, I won't include the graphs here, like I did last year, but in this doc (for those interested). Also, I realised I didn't even do celebration posts for milestones this year... And there were quite a few ;-; sorry

For the relevant projects, I've also included a more detailed recap of what's been done this year. All of it is under the cut.

The projects are ordered in date of release.

Forewarning, those stats are not a good representation of IF/Tumblr popularity. The numbers should not be taken as a baseline for comparison. There are many different factors that resulted in those, most of them being out of everyone’s control. I am only comparing myself to Past-Me.

2021 Releases

Status: Complete.

No major updates, since the game is complete. Only some maintenance fixes. The source code of older versions is also available on my GitHub.

Stats:

5.475 total plays (+1.7k-ish)

30 ratings (+5), with an average of 4.4/5 (+0.1)

Inside 316 collections (+108)

Almost 2.3 views/play (+0.1)

Unsurprisingly, the interest for MtP is going down. The game is complete, has not and will not have new updates. It would surprise me if it would gain any traction at this point. I expect the additional plays not to pass 600 by the end of 2024.

2023 Milestones:

5k plays

30 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

I wanted to have an update for this project in 2023. It didn't happen. There is actually quite a bit of work to do in the code, which I had started but didn't complete.

Stats:

40.326 total plays (+12k-ish)

97 (+28), with an average of 4.6/5 (-0.1)

Inside 2.679 collections (+913)

About 2.0 view/play (+0.1)

For a year without any update, I am honestly surprised so many people still played the game this year (average of 30 plays/day). I'm very grateful about it, nonetheless. Hopefully, I'll have something to show for this year!

2023 Milestones:

30k + 40k plays

75 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

This was another project I had planned to complete this year and... didn't. I managed to write a bit for the game, but nothing that would warrant an update.

Stats:

2.203 total plays (+760)

13 ratings (+2), with an average of 4.3/5 (+0.1)

Inside 126 collections (+38)

Went to 2.9 view/play (+0.2)

There were a few jumps in interest in Exquisite Cadaver this year, especially considering there were, once again, no updates (especially at the start of April). But nothing very substantial... I'm honestly pretty happy peeps still enjoy the game, because the whole thing is a bit strange xD

2023 Milestones:

2k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

2022 Releases

Status: Completed

Absolutely nothing has been happening with this game, not even a bug fix or anything. When I get back to this project, it will be for a complete re-haul. Which won't happen in a long while.

Stats:

3.205 total plays (+790-ish)

19 ratings (+4), with an average of 4.3/5 (=)

Inside 293 collections (+90)

About to 2.2 view/play (+0.1)

2023 Milestones:

3k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Completed

There was a plan to fix the issues in the game AND add new content. But, if you've followed me this year, you've seen... nothing happened! Honestly, a whole re-code of the game is needed at this point.

Stats:

1.458 total plays (+785)

16 ratings (+6), with an average of 4.5/5 (+0.3)

Inside 103 collections (+59)

About 2.1 view/play (=)

The lack of blowing up stands on two things: the game is not that good... and I don't really have an intro post peeps can share...

2023 Milestones:

1k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing

Out of all the WIPs I have, this one got the most progress. It got two major updates during the first half of the year (one of which included a maze!). The second had been spent working especially on Chapter 5 (it's a chunker) and starting Chapter 6 (for MelS). We are trying to wrap up the project for 2024.

Stats:

9.379 total plays (+6.4k-ish) (so close…)

56 (+28) ratings, with an average of 4.8/5 (=)

Inside 783 collections (+444)

About 1.9 view/play (+0.1)

A pretty decent growth for the game, though it is not always consistent. Most interest in the project happens during updates (duh), with some dozen returning players weekly. I don't think it will ever reach the level of CRWL, but it is doing pretty well considering the genre.

2023 Milestones:

5k plays

50 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Completed(-ish)

Until the first anniversary of this project (coinciding with the EctoComp once more) this game was in French only. Since last October, it was re-written to include more rooms inside the house, and a proper ending beat. It was then translated into English, and the whole thing was recoded. There are still a few kinks I need to handle, but it is essentially complete.

Stats:

252 total plays (+181)

1 rating with 5 stars (=)

Inside 13 collections (+7)

About 4.9 view/play (-0.7)

Unsurprisingly, there was little to no interest in the game. The page was visited a bunch of times, but few people clicked (probably because it was in French. Since the translation, more users have checked out the game and played it. I don't really expect much more interest from players, unfortunately...

2023 Milestones:

100 + 250 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW Oh... it doesn't have a page... omg.. stpid me.

Status: Completed

This year, the game was re-edited, translated to French, and recoded - a proper remaster including sound! And another game I can call complete and shelved!

Stats:

605 total plays (+270-ish)

10 ratings (+3), with an average of 4.8/5 (+0.1)

Inside 31 collections (+17)

About 3.2 view/play (+0.1)

I am not shocked to see this, honestly. It's a short meme game around a gimmick mechanic that gets old pretty quickly. Still, some interest made in late last June (somehow???) and when I published the remaster in autumn.

2023 Milestones:

500 plays

10 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing

At the start of the year, I updated this game to add a tiny bit of content (a few passages) and ensured it could be played on mobile. And published a template from this UI.

There was more content written for the game, as well as mechanics coded, but nothing is coherent enough (or devoid of bugs) to be playable.

Stats:

500 total plays (+333 !!!)

4 ratings (+4), with an average of 5.0

Inside 39 collections (+28)

About 3.0 view/play (+0.5)

Combined a tiny demo with a pre-set character, a not super popular genre, not much to do or little replayability... and you get this. I'll just check back when the game is actually complete :P Honestly, I'm just glad some peeps caught the inspiration for P-RIX.

2023 Milestones:

500 plays !!!!

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW (oh and it has both an intro post and an IFDB page now!)

2023 Releases

Now that we are going into the new releases, there is less comparing, and more putting down the base.

Status: Completed

Biggest high of this year! Released the game in January, won the comp in March, was interviewed shortly after, remastered the whole thing during the summer break (which included a total re-haul of the UI, an English translation, and increased content). Hands down my best game of the year.

Stats

967 total plays

7 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 68 collections

About 3.1 view/play

Lots of views on the game page without plays for the longest time, because, up until the remaster, the game was only available in French. Things picked up then the remaster was uploaded (though it coincided with the IFComp). The game is also not available for mobile play due to its interface...

2023 Milestones:

Won the French Comp!

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

The first Act of the story was created for the SeedComp! (which didn't win anything because I organised it, and it would have been unfair :P ). There was a plan to complete the game after the SeedComp! was over, but that didn't pan out. I have notes for it, though a re-write of Act 1 may be necessary...

Stats:

633 total plays

5 ratings, with an average of 3.6

Inside 46 collections

About 2.6 view/plays

While bummed by the average, Not surprised. The game is incomplete and plays on the noir codes, which are... something (also the twist is silly). I'll pay a bit more attention to it when the game is actually complete :P Also... It never got an intro post....

2023 Milestones:

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Complete

Released for the SpringThing in the Main Garden, this game was supposed to be updated by the end of last year and... it ended up needed a lot more work than expected. I am still working on it. This was my attempt in experimenting with Twine, creating a parser with a non-parser program. It... didn't work all that well as a conventional parser, but it worked pretty well for other peeps.

Stats:

650 total plays

5 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 56 collections

About 2.8 view/plays

Honestly, not bad considering this is a weird parser, that worked eh and still has some issues. I won't ever expect it to blow up, honestly, but it's nice to see a play or two popup on my screen sometimes.

2023 Milestones

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Complete-ish

Created for a French Jam where I could not choose the program, the game was then upgraded and translated into English for the Text Adventure Literacy Jam a few weeks later. It was my first proper parser game (and made with Adventuron). I still need to fix some issues and typos with the English version, and retranslate back into French...

Stats: The game has currently two pages: French and English

160 (58+88) total plays

4 ratings, with an average of 5.0 and 4.0

Inside 4 collections

About 2.8 view/plays

No surprise here. Parsers are not popular on itch. (I should maybe add it to the textadventure.co.uk website....)

PLAY FR - EN | INTRO POST | RATE FR - EN | REVIEW

Assets and Other Tiny Games

Loads happened with this sections this year, with the addition of 5 new templates, and a whole Guide for SugarCube.

In January, the Setting Template was added - with the Space-Tech UI one following at the end of March, the VN-lite UI one in July, the Character Creator in November, and the Title Page UI in December.

The Guide was released in two periods, with a pre-release before the summer, and a complete one mid-december (which included a download point).

As of last month, all templates are also available on Github, and the Guides are all "playable" on itch.

CScript to SugarCube Guide/Folder

105 downloads (114 plays)

4 rating at 5 stars

Inside 36 collections

Get it here.

Tweego Ready to Use Guide

425 downloads (51 plays)

1 rating at 5 stars

Inside 6 collections

Get it here

Note: this guide got its own page in November of this year, despite being available since 2022

SugarCube Guide

1.300 "plays" (76 download)

11 ratings at 5 stars

Inside 102 collections

Get it here

Templates

2105 downloads

25 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 274 collections

Get them here

After the release of Le Jeu de la Dévotion in late December 2022, I've been participating in other game jams with tiny entries. While one did get a bit more interaction than even my larger piece (Collision, wtf), little really happened to warrant a proper section (they are really tiny!).

And so these were released:

April 2023: À la Campagne [English]

June 2023: Clarence Street, 14, Collision, Intersigne [English + French]

Aug 2023: Le Diner [English]

Oct 2023: In the Blink of an Eye [English + French]

Nov 2023: Tower of Sleep [English] <- BINKSI :D

Dec 2023: Dévoiement [French]

2023 Overall Graph

Ok I lied, one graph:

Compared to last year, the graph is less very high peaks and very low down time (with a slow increase), but a more consistent base (higher than last year) with some moderate peaks for releases (namely Harcourt's and DOL-OS). The downloads have boomed, but that's because of the templates...

The increase of overall small releases (with jam/comp entries) probably helped in this staying a bit consistent (though I could do a better job at hyping up releases before and after they happen here and in other places). It would probably have looked much different if my release focus was somewhere else (like CRWL).

And that's it for stats (I'm skipping the follower/note counts)! The 2024-plan is next!

[ala-baguette]

Fic Stats Game

Rules: Give us links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most bookmarks, fourth most comments, fifth most words, and fic with the least amount of words.

Thanks thanks for the tag, @turanga4! (even if it took me a while). I haven't spent a great deal of time looking at my AO3 stats in detail, so this was fun to explore. Just going to focus on AO3 stats and ignore FFN's because trying to combine them made my head hurt.

Most Hits: Predictably, Knowing Where to Look. It's loooong and been going on for quite a while, so no surprises there. The more chapters, the more hits, so I don't know that this stat says much to me.

Second Most Kudos: A Lonely Path. My only other long-fic, so again not too surprising. Interestingly enough, however, when I first looked a few days ago, it was actually KwtL. Those two have been battling it out for first place on my stats page for a while, but it looks like KwtL finally won out (of which I am proud). Another interesting observation: while I would consider KwtL my most popular work on AO3, LP (first published in 2009) received way way way more engagement on FFN. So interesting to see how times have changed in the fandom and how the culture is different between the two sites.

Third Most Bookmarks: Never a Free Elf (Kreacher's Left Behind installment). I'm stupid proud of Kreacher. I wrote this story thinking, 'Wow! This is such a fun pov to write but no one is ever actually going to read it, because who gives a shrivel fig about Kreacher.' But then people did read it! You lot warm my heart.

Fourth Most Comments: A Life Filled with Laughter and Ice Cream (Florean Fortescue's Left Behind installment). Again, one of my more random side-characters to explore. I fell in love with Florean while writing this one, so happy to see him get a little attention. Florean was a man who fought hard for his little bit of well-deserved happiness. It breaks my heart to know that would he later give it up. He was too good for this world.

Fifth Most Words: Lemon Drizzle (Justin Finch-Fletchley's Left Behind installment). Justin deserves this tiny bit of recognition because it's the only recognition he's likely to receive, poor love. I don't believe that any story is a flop, but... objectively, this story was a flop. At just 200 hits (for context, while there's quite a bit of variability, my Left Behind stories average at ~13-1400 hits), I can't really fault the writing when no one ever really clicked on him to begin with. He's a nice reminder to not to take stats too personally.

Least Amount of Words: Mix Tape. This was intended to be a silly little drabble for Hinny day. 900 words later I realised I am incapable of writing drabbles. Brevity is not my strong-suit.

I know this post has been floating around for quite a while, and honestly, I don't know which authors have enough individual stories, so consider this an open tag to any who would like to participate!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Devs' Intentions

I read an article yesterday (I think it was GameRant) about a whole bunch of stuff that was cut out of Baldur's Gate 3 before official release. I don't remember all of them, but that's probably because they weren't very important to me one way or the other. However, there were a few that, for better or for worse, caught my attention. And ... well, I'm me. Before I start liveblogging the ridiculous cuteness that is the start of the Shadowheart romance (because whatever multiverse she lives in, Alisaie apparently goes for the dark-haired, mostly-serious, adorkable-when-allowing-herself-to-be-vulnerable godly ones), I wanted to talk about a few of them.

Exhaustion Mechanic: Oh dear sweet fucking gods, I'm glad they scrapped that one. Apparently that whole bit where the companions remark how tired they are is a holdover from that, but it used to come with a decrease to stats, just like the exhaustion mechanic in the PHB. Except ... I'm not sure they could have implemented that without it being ridiculously punishing. Encumberance is bad enough; don't hit my stats because I want to keep playing without taking a long rest, okay?

More Crafting Than Just Potions: Apparently at one point they were looking at allowing people to make and enchant their own weapons and armour. This is why you tend to find gems and metal ingots all over the place. While I'm a little sad about the lack of a crafting mechanic, I can see why they left it out - having a herbalism kit in the TTRPG version is one thing, but carrying around a fucking forge is something else again. And at least now I know this, so I can actually sell off the stupid metal ingots (except the infernal iron, obviously) because I don't actually need them.

Minsc: Apparently he should have been introduced earlier in the game, with a much more comprehensive character arc. I'm not sure why they went with the "rushed in Act 3" introduction to him in party, mostly because I haven't got that far yet, but I would imagine it has something to do with party management.

The Entire Upper Level of Baldur's Gate: Apparently there's an entire section of Baldur's Gate the city that was just ... excised from the game. Maybe they didn't have enough time to finish it, or maybe it just made the game too unwieldy, but apparently data mining indicates that there were a few things tied to the upper city that ... well, were really, really important to varoius characters' endgame states. So if you're dissatisfied with some characters' endings? It's probably to do with that. (And I won't go any further because spoilers.)

The Dark Urge: Now, here's the one I look at and really think, "Larian learned some lessons from Divinity: Original Sin 2" as regards player agency and going too far on the grimdark. Because apparently? Originally, the only way you could have an original character was to take the Dark Urge. There was no Tav / Dark Urge divide; if you wanted your own character instead of playing one of the origin characters? You were stuck with the Dark Urge, whether you wanted it or not. Now, don't get me wrong; if someone wants to play that, more power to them. Just, from what I've read about it, it does involve a certain loss of agency dependent on your stats. If you have to resist that Dark Urge, you're going to need saving throws, and if that's your dump stat because you wanted to play a strength-based character, that's just ... yeah. I don't mind the option being there; it's interesting on the conceptual level. I just wouldn't want that to be my only option. So I'm glad that Larian pried themselves out of Grimdark Valley long enough to go, "Okay, some people might not want to spend all their time fighting blind murderfrenzy just to play a good character", and make a separate, non-Dark Urge Tav. I also figure it has something to do with the issues in Divinity: Original Sin 2 where you'd want to take a specific course of action only to have one of your companions slaughter the quest objective before you could talk to them. (Still never forgiving them for that.)

So ... yeah, some things I'm really glad they stripped out. Others I wonder why? And some, while I enjoy them as mechanics (look, I am a crafting fiend, okay?), I can accept that they wouldn't have added much. I guess I wonder the thought processes that were going on in dev meetings where they came to those conclusions. I imagine the Dark Urge thing and the exhaustion mechanic thing both got, "Look, we can't stick them with this; they will riot", but ... what happened to that whole section of Baldur's Gate?

Maybe I've been dealing with too much bullshit from various AAA game companies*, but if they sell that shit as DLC I am going to set something on fire.

* - YES I AM LOOKING AT YOU, BIOWARE, WITH YOUR SELLING OFF THE ACTUAL ENDING AND/OR KEY ELEMENTS REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND THE NEXT GAME IN THE SERIES AS DLC. I AM NOT FORGIVING YOU FOR LEGACY, AND I AM CERTAINLY NOT FORGIVING YOU FOR TRESPASSER. DLC IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN ADDED EXTRAS, LIKE SOLDIER'S PEAK! YOU USED TO UNDERSTAND THIS, EVEN IF YOU DID STICK A FUCKING AD FOR IT IN CAMP.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Happy WBW! It feels like I haven't done this in a while so here's some questions:

What are popular drinks in your world? (Could be either alcoholic or soft drinks).

What is a common form of entertainment in your world?

What is the most interesting weapon you've made up?

Lol I am answering this sooooo late. I am so sorry my friend. But Happy Long Belated WBW all the same<3

What is a common form of entertainment in your world?

In WIPI there is a boardgame called "Coat of Arms" which is like four-way chess meets DnD. There are four sides, the object of the game is conquer the other three. Temporary alliances and secret alliances ensue. Each side is given stats for terrain, resources, population etc. and there are a series of accepted commands that can be strung together on each players turn. There are different versions of the game. Some are medieval siege warfare. Some have canons. Some have dragons. Some use spaceships and nukes. Games can last months and cheating is expected.

What is the most interesting weapon you've made up?

Not a weapon but a shield. A necklace with a pendant that projects an electromagnetic forcefield dome around the wearer's body. When something travelling above a certain speed hits the dome it will immediately disintegrate. It is meant to defend against bullets, the force of explosions, and flying shrapnel. It does not have any effect against slower attacks like darts, throwing knives, people throwing bricks, and good old fashioned punches. This is to stop the shield from disintegrating random objects the wearer will come into contact with like chairs, the floor, and other people. These shields are expensive to make so they are mostly worn by military officers and nobility to protect them from snipers. This is used in WIPIII.

What are popular drinks in your world?

I put this under the cut because 1. this answer is long enough, 2. Content Warning for dismemberment (due to hypothermia) and because the drink is kinda gross.

This comes from a paracosm (elaborate daydream) of mine which I like to mine for WIPI and WIPIII content - I don't know which WIP it will end up in, maybe both. Also, it's not really a common drink, just a weird one.

Moonshine cocktails with sterilized human body parts (toes, fingers, teeth) in them for decoration.

What the heck, Kate??

I know, I know. Some context:

The Empire of Segraeli was in the midst of a succession crisis and peace-talks between the two sides were being hosted by their long-time ally, Oshuada. Unfortunately things started getting tense and it looked like the conflict was about to boil over and become an international war. To ease the tensions, Lyrira, the Empress of Oshuada (who is about 20 years old but has been empress for ten years by now), decides the throw the most hedonistic, scandal-inducing Halloween party in history. She invites all the diplomats and political figures in attendance for the peace talks (representing eight major empires), and her hope is that they will either be distracted by the excitement of the ball, or so outraged that they will forget their initial anger long enough to calm down so the peace-talks can resume. It works.

All the body parts were sourced ethically (believe it or not) from a bar in the remote part of the empire. The story goes that a hiker who frequented the bar lost his toe to hypothermia. As a joke, he got the toe sterilized and stuck it in his shot glass the next time he went to the bar. Somehow the tradition caught on, the hiker donated his toe to the bar, and drinking the toe-shot became an initiation ritual at the bar. Soon, more and more people were donating their amputated body parts and the bar became locally famous for the weird tradition. (and when a messenger from the Empress shows up one day and asks to borrow your body part collection (for generous compensation) you don't exactly say no.)

This is based off a real bar in Yukon, Canada by the way.

[annes-room]

💻 Jan 9, 2024

introductory days for the semester are now over, the next classes will be all about actual material now! just wanted to write a little first impressions for my classes and what I'm looking forward to in them :)

stats: my prof seems super fun and cheery, he told us a bit about his education and teaching background and he has such a variety of experiences and I always think that makes for a better prof, so I'm excited to learn from him! the material itself seems chill, I did really well in my stats course last semester, so I'm eager to build on what I've learned

film studies: we're going to be looking at film as history, as a way to explain and interpret time periods and the culture/events surrounding film eras. I've never delved in to that area of analysis before, but I think it'll be really cool. our big assignment is to write a research paper about any topic relating to an era we're studying, and having just finished my english course where we had to do the same thing but with books, I think I'll be well equipped for it. I've also taken a previous film class with the same prof and I liked him, so that always helps too.

compsci (programming methods): technically I haven't actually gotten into the course yet, I'm on the waitlist, but I will sit in on the lectures until I actually get in (or until the deadline to sign up passes). it has a 25% fail rate, which seems scary, but I think it's mainly because you go from using Python and being hand-held by the profs, to having to learn C, which is more user reliant and involved. the prof seems super chill and eager to help students and there are a lot of help sessions for labs, so I think as long as I keep up and get help where I need it, I should be fine.

women and gender studies (consent): this is my other arts option that I'll stay in if I can't get into the first compsci class. the prof is open and friendly and gave the outline for the readings this semester and there's a huge variety of topics within consent that I hadn't considered, there are a lot of heavy ones for sure, but they're all important and I won't be upset if I have to stay in this class.

compsci (ethics in data and ai): I'm so pumped for this class! this is only the third time it's been taught, so it's pretty new and I'm really interested in the topic of the course, especially as ethics surrounding data and ai has become way more prevalent during my time at university.