#i Could post it now but it's like. idk it just has more winter vibes to me so i left it there

[helielune]

lost and found

#jjba #trish una #vento aureo #i love putting her under a spotlight i guess #< tags that make no sense unless you're me or you're here two months in the future bc i queued #another trish doodle and it's like. pretty far back lmfao #i Could post it now but it's like. idk it just has more winter vibes to me so i left it there #in many fics i've read people keep turning her into a pop star. good for her #my art #no longer a wip!!! incredible success story #mostly bc i just left it unpolished. lol don't look too closely maybe. or look super closely on purpose idk whatever you want

[samssims]

Hi Sam! I was wondering if I could ask for some advice on how to make simblr fun again? I love storytelling (it's how I have fun with the game) but lately with writing posts and even in game, I just find myself stressing over if it's good/interesting enough or if I took good screenshots, if my writing is good, etc. I love this game and sharing my stories with this community, so it sucks to feel like this. Thank you sm ♥

Oh Nonny, how I feel this pain. I wish I had a sure fire answer to this but sadly there isn't just one thing that will work.

I will put some advice below for some things that have worked for me in my experience if you're interested in trying them out to try to find that spark again!

Now I have been on tumblr sharing my sims since 2013 so I have seen the community change a lot. Things change, people come and go, it's just the natural way of things. So a lot of the time your community can change around you and so a few years ago sims storytelling was really popular and it was the thing everyone was doing. And I mean everyone.

But now things have sort of fallen off or shifted and there is no shame in that for those who moved onto other things and hobbies. Sims storytelling, at it's core, is a hobby. No one is making money off of it (unless you write it all down and get it published in which case, hell yeah go you!)

That being said, finding your spark again is going to be finding what YOU like about storytelling in the sims.

So here are some tips you can try out in the game to keep it fresh and exciting:

Play the Game

The game has changed a lot and added a lot. It came out in 2014. It's about to be 10 years old. With expansions still being added. Honestly having a family where you can just play through what the game offers you can offer inspiration on how to use in game things for story related things later on.

I have found having a lowkey gameplay (for yourself or even for your blog if you are posting) is an easy way to stay active in the community while keeping things low stakes and casual for yourself while you work on finding your spark again.

Change Up your Post Style

Idk about you Nonny, but nothing gets me less motivated than having to edit photos. If I could just point, shoot, and post, I would have content coming out my ears. Which is what I started doing with my Princess Legacy. All I do is crop it. I add some things here and there but really it's all pretty much easy.

Now I have done it all.

Prose on photos.

Prose under photos:

Icons Only:

Gameplay Only:

And finally just cropped:

Now what is the best? That is personal preference especially for the project you are doing. However I have definitely discovered the crop method to be SUPER helpful.

It makes me not have to worry about the whole photo. Sometimes I have this SUPER awesome detail in the back of a photo but when I crop them I lose all that. Which is not good for storytelling lets be honest but does force me to focus on what is actually important in the shot.

Example: Here is the full cottage photo from above You can see that I cropped out a lot of the cottage in favor of being able to see the deer and swans as i thought that was more a cozy fairytale vibe than just the cottage itself. I lost a lot of this detail yet the point still came across.

TBH the paired crop photos also makes me cut out a lot of access photos if they don't have a pair. It's sort of made me realize how much I don't need to take screenshots of. Though I am definitely an overtaker of photos so I always have plenty to choose from. Sometimes I even queue them then look back and realize they aren't needed and delete. It's humbled me a bit.

I could break down every one of these posting styles but that's a whole other thing you didn't ask about.

TLDR of this section is to experiment with how you post. You can have a lot of fun with that.

If Something is Boring, Skip it.

Do you hate the infant stage? Age them past it. Do you hate the winter months in game? Set seasons to never have winter. Do you hate in game holidays ruining your plans? Delete them all from your calendar. Is it a crucial part to your story? Not anymore. Write around it. Or find some creative angles and dialogue to write over it.

Make the game fit you!

Follow the Inspo

Have inspiration to make a new sim in CAS? Do it! Want to make a whole new save? Have an idea for one scene that could start a whole story but you have nothing else for it? DO IT!!!

The game is supposed to be fun. If you have inspiration for a project, live in it. Have fun with it.

But Sam, what if only lasts 2 weeks and I never touch it again?

Me too, babes. Happens to me all the time. Own it. Keep it around in case you want to mess with it later. Have 10 million saves. It's your life and if it brings you a moment of joy to work on it, then it totally is worth it.

If you want to be like me: Be chaotic and post it too. Then private the posts later when you decide to never touch it again. Never delete tho. I always tend to regret deleted things.

Find Your Community

You should ultimately write and create for yourself, but find others who are doing it too! Lift them up as well! Use one day a week on your blog to give reblogs or shoutouts to your fellow creators and writers! It's all about lifting each other up and making friends who all have the same hobby as us.

Try New Challenges

A lot of my sims storytelling started from inspiration around legacy challenges. I loved to take challenge rules and figure out how to make a story around them. But remember: Rules are made to be broken. Especially in favor of a good story.

If you are working on a current challenge/story, find another to merge with it or to give yourself a heck of a fun plot twist. There are no rules!

Have Fun!

This is sort of the whole crux of it, right? And if you're not having fun then...

Take a Break

You are not beholden to your queue! Let it die out! Disappear for 6 months. Return when you want. Go play Animal Crossing or BG3 or whatever it is at the moment. Sims is a hobby. But it does not have to be your ONLY hobby. Let your brain rest.

In my case, whenever I leave the sims I am always filled with ideas and ready to come back in like 3 days.

This could also mean take a break from your save too. Maybe spend some time in CAS. Or in build mode. Or cleaning out your mods. You can still do sims things while letting your story brain rest.

TLDR:

There is no right answer for this, Nonny. I promise your photos are all gorgeous and your story is wonderful! But creativity like anything ebbs and flows so give yourself that grace to let yourself rest and just enjoy the game again, or enjoy time away from it! You deserve it you superstar creator!

#Sam Speaks #nonsims #looooong post #so sorry I got carried away #had to wait to get to my laptop to answer this one #which is why it took me a minute #hope you find your spark nonny!

[mcofthemansion]

Hihi! Hugs! Currently a little bit obsessed with pokemon since the dlc for indigo disk comes out soon (4 days as of now when I'm posting this) so apologies if I'm not posting some pretty lovely otome guy/girl stuff for a little while...I just can't help but live and breathe pokemon until I have terapagos securely in my party! Little baby turtle must cuddle forever and ever!

So for now, I offer you random pokemon teams that remind me of my/your men for no particular reason : (Ikevamp) -> (Tears of Themis)

Arthur (Ikevamp) :

• Popplio -> Primarina line (Because Vic! Ok? I think I'm referring to one of my first posts)

• Applin -> Flapple (Because of that thing when you give someone an Applin you confess your feelings and ensure a happy future together, reminds me of the red ribbon thing ok!!! ><)

• Lillipup -> Stoutland (Remember in Alola how it helped you find stuff like a dowsing machine would in previous gens? It can be a detective-y pokemon! Yay! Also again...dog...Vic...yeah...still this one represents his detective skills)

• Happiny -> Blissey (Arthur's doctor skills and how much he cares! I can see him having a Blissey!)

• Mimikyu (His interest in the occult and its cute)

• Shiny Milcery -> shiny Alcremie (Reminds me of his love of fudge! It just does! Not much of an explanation but yeah, also the blue decorations!)

Isaac (Ikevamp) :

• Porygon-[2-Z] (It's a super math-y pokemon ok! Well at least the most math-y in my opinion, plus it levitates which I think Newt would find cool)

• Magnemite -> Magnezone (Idk it's a pokemon for really smart people and it's a super science-y and professor-y pokemon...so yeah...don't expect me to try and give a physics answer, my brain is fried)

• Applin -> Appletun (Enough said, just has to happen, it's a big cuddly sweet apple pie, Newt...apples...yeah...this one is sweet ok, also the romantic thing about Applin)

• Sandshrew -> Sandslash (Kanto to be exact! Because Harry, need I say more?)

• Hatenna -> Hatterene (Newt is super calm...so I can see a Hatenna sticking around him! It might cutely fall asleep at his desk with him)

• Togepi -> Togekiss (Newt had a thing with Theology, don't quiz me I'm tired, anyways in Sheild the dex entry is "Known as a bringer of blessings, it's been depicted on good-luck charms since ancient times" and I was like...awww Newt might like that...kind of a sweet angelic pokemon)

Napoleon (Ikevamp) :

• Rufflet -> Hisuian Braviary (Jupiter! Because, because, because)

• Honedge -> Aegislash (Have you seen his rapier? Enough said, the man can fight)

• Sewaddle -> Leavanny (Idk this always feels like a nurturing pokemon that I could see in a school as an assistant or smth so it would help out at L'École de Napoleon or smth like that)

• Riolu -> Lucario (It's a smart and just fighter, it fits! Plus it doubles Leon's coolness factor XD)

• Bagon -> Salamence (Bagon wanted a change so bad it happened! The whole flying thing...Leon gets it! He wanted to bring about some change pretty badly so they just kinda connect...plus it's a cool dragon!)

• Komala (Cute napping Koala to cuddle with...need I say more? Even more of a reason to sleep in)

Faust (Ikevamp) :

• Shroodle -> Grafaiai (Mephie! It's a poison type! Yay experiments!)

• Beldum -> Metagross (It's a smart person science-y pokemon that floats!)

• Elgyem -> Beheeyem (It loves experimenting with humans and thier memory so Faust would probably get a kick out of it!)

• Zorua -> Zoroark (He would be fascinated by the shape-shifting and it brings the coolness factor, sorta somewhat matches his vibes)

• Nacli -> Garganacl (It can hurt and heal with its salt powers which might get rather useful for Faust)

• Spiritomb (guy works as a priest...I'm assuming he's had experiences with funerals and stuff and I can see this as his ghost type pokemon)

That's about all for ikevamp for now!

Vyn (ToT)

• Deerling -> Winter Sawsbuck (Svart's animal is a deer...and Vyn's hair is white ok!)

• Petilil -> Liligant (His love of gardening and elegant things...it just kinda works)

• Ralts -> Gardevoir (seems like a pretty good psych nurse pokemon to help him out with the feelings stuff and all)

•Rowlet -> Decidueye (His love of Archery)

• Fidough -> Dachsbun (His love of sweet things! And pastries)

• Sinistea -> Polteagiest (Authentic! Just because that's the Vyn-est thing he could get in pokemon!)

Marius (ToT)

• Gimmighoul -> Gholdengo (He's a rich fun loving CEO...explain to me why excitable money made surfing ghost isn't up his alley!)

• Smeargle (Artist...yeah...enough said)

• Ekans -> Arbok (His symbol is a purple snake...I couldn't not do this!)

• Luvdisc (Our Marius is sort of a flirt!)

• Pikachu (It's fluffy and as in the public eye as he is...probably felt a lot in common)

• Rotom (I associate Pax with tech so...yeah...idk...it just fits in my mind)

Anyways! Thanks for letting me ramble! Should I do this with other guys?

#pokemon #tears of themis #tears of themis Vyn richter #tears of themis marius von hagen #ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp arthur #ikevamp isaac #ikevamp napoleon #ikevamp faust #hugs

[naneun-no]

Hi, how do we know Jimin wore Jk's sweater the same day? Maybe it was a different day? Or maybe they both have similar sweaters? I am just trying to understand.

Hey! Thanks for asking!

So, we know it was the same day because it was his diary-cam thing they all did during 2021 Winter Package, and he filmed his on the night of the day that he, Yoongi, and JK made beer, and JK wore that sweater (hence me saying it probably smelled like beer 🤣).

Here’s a video of Winter Package if you have the time and want to watch it:

Other bloggers have also made posts about Winter Package 2021 (I’m never gonna be a blog that details/ does extensive commentary on content as I’m neither organized nor patient enough to do so), so here’s one from @stormblessed95 if you’d like to read a breakdown of the DVD and all that went on:

Now, on how I “know” it was the same sweater: I don’t! Is it possible that Jimin has the same sweater and wore it that night? Yes… and in fact the two of them do have a history of occasionally having/wearing matching clothes (though it’s probably more the stylists’ decisions when it comes to them matching for like photo shoots and red carpets and stuff). But it would just be quite a coincidence. That they’re away for a couple days and he happened to pack the same sweater JK did, and then decided to wear it randomly that evening the same day JK wore it even though he’d already been wearing something different all day. For the sake of argument I guess we could say he could have been inspired by seeing JK wear it…? Idk. If you don’t believe there’s something going on between them, then I suppose the idea that they have the same sweater and Jimin decided to change into his before filming his log is equally as plausible as my fake scenario of asking your platonic friend to loan you their sweater. You have to admit either one is a little weird, though.

For me, I’m using the context clues of JK wearing it that same day, the fact that they had a limited wardrobe to choose from given that they were away, (editing to add what somebody noted in the comments which is that JK wasn’t wearing the sweater anymore during his log that same night 😬), all of the other boyfriend-y vibes and instances they give off and the fact that I personally think there’s something going on between them. So, I’m concluding that it was probably his man’s sweater. I believe that, and it’s really not that deep for me, haha. I could be wrong, and as I say to everyone, you’re free to come to a different conclusion. Which brings me to something I’d like to briefly touch on:

In general, while I do my absolute best not to get things wrong, I sometimes do (I’ll try to come back and edit though and make notes when I do). I’m not a BTS/Jikook encyclopedia, far from it. I never intentionally mislead, I don’t care enough about Jikook for that — I’m not on here with an agenda, just for fun 🤷‍♀️. Still, feel free to always take my stuff with a grain of salt — I’m openly biased, after all! I’m not a news outlet, just a dork who loves BTS and Jikook. Lol. Thanks for the ask!

#jikook #kookmin #jimin and jungkook

[mudefrau]

very long text of me talking about tooticky idk if this is an "analysis" or whatever. just rambling about trying to grasp her truest canon self vs 1990/2019 adaptations vs my daydreams + i used a filter for proper capitalization and punctuation so it's more readable. i am sleep deprived and in love with her so i don't know if it makes sense

Ok, first of all, it feels weird to analyze this as 'I wish that' or 'I would like' because the basis of it all is a woman's children's books in the fifties, where a lot of the inspiration was personal stuff (and she went on for the first two books despite almost no success). It's not like modern-day media that clearly caters to online fandoms—so I don't know how to word stuff like 'I wish Tooticky had more protagonism' in the sense of where do I exactly wish she did? If I'm talking about a remake, it's important to stay true to the author's legacy. I don't feel entitled to make such statements. I think Tooticky and Ninny are so interesting they could take the role of Snufkin and Moomin respectively, but they did not show up that much in the books, so an adaptation like that would be unfaithful and pandering (to me specifically).

I could choose to word it instead like 'I wish I saw more Tooticky in fandom,' but here, I also think it's wrong to tell people what to do when it comes to free art and fics they post on the internet. People should have fun with whatever they like, even if it's already popular or out-of-character (OOC-ness can be subjective when it comes to nebulous characters anyway).

So, I mostly just make my stuff quietly and leave it there. But I finally watched S1 of MV2019—and I can tell people might get more 'demanding' with this show because they're obviously already taking some freedoms despite the clear intent of staying faithful to (mainly) the books, but adapted to the episodic nature of 20 minutes each. I would say they openly choose to give Snufkin more protagonism than he actually has in the book and deliberate choices. So, this makes me look at Tooticky, and I sniff audibly like 'Damn, this could've been you.'

They also gave him more feelings, tbf I see why because he wails when the sea is gone in 'Comet in Moominland' (first example that comes to mind), and I think the '90s is a bit on the other extreme like he's TOO chill in 'Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka.' I would say the books are a middle point between 1990 and 2019. And I can also see the basis of why this character could be gay. Like, let's be serious for a moment, we need to admit this is a fandom conception, but it has some basis given the author's life—HOWEVER, I think Tooticky is more blatantly gay than he is. Not just the butch part, but mainly based on who she's openly modeled after. I don't think it matters she doesn't have a girlfriend or anyone she's very close to in canon. She's still an icon.

Now let's move to her personality. I think Tooticky's character is a bit nebulous like Snufkin (who I keep bringing up because it's the non-winter counterpart); like we don't really truly know what they do when they travel, that contradiction between being social and warm but a loner and distant, and that (at least, sticking to books) we don't know how deep their emotions can go. And I can't make this up as a fan, at best I can label it as a 'headcanon.' Seeing how Tooticky has been adapted in 1990 and 2019, I realize they make her very sweet. Tooticky is normally described as uncompromising and deadpan so if they tried they kind of failed. The mysterious and weird vibe is a bit gone. Snufkin is allowed coolness in 1990 and emotional depth in 2019. I wonder why this choice for Tooticky then; because she's an older woman, she must be mother-figure-like? Tove was not going for this at all. Fandom interpretations add her more 'coolness,' though I think this coolness is inspired by the comic strips.

I WILL FORGIVE HER SWEETNESS AND WARMTH BECAUSE THIS IS SO FREAKING CUTE, though my thoughts in ep13 were "Moomin does not deserve her", Ninny deserves her more, but that is beyond the point of whether it's IC of Tooticky to act like this or not

Despite what I said about her not being overly sweet or motherly, I think her presence is comforting by itself. In 'Moominland Midwinter,' I think Moomin is really 'going through it'. The whole book felt like, to me, a metaphor about growing up (I say this as the characters are no longer referred as children it appears), or Tove's losses she was going through by the time she wrote it, or what causes depression. Which is reflected in that desolate landscape, no one familiar like Moomin's parents or Snorkmaiden being awake, nor his friends Sniff or Snufkin being present. Just edgy Little My, and Tooticky.

I can understand why Moomin doesn't show any kind of appreciation or affection to Tooticky; he has a very heavy heart at that moment. However, it makes me a bit sad no one truly seems in-canon appreciative of Tooticky despite how... epic she is. I guess because she's only there when everyone is sleeping, but still. Snufkin has Moomin and even has in-universe 'fans' like Teety-Woo. Tooticky has her invisible creatures who love her, I guess?

[I have an incredibly cute screenshot of her in 2019 petting invisible shrew but IDK how many screenshots I can get away with without being taken down, I know how the company is like with this stuff. ]

Edit: NVM

This leads me to why I wish Ninny was permanent in MV (again, for reasons I explained above, wish = headcanon). I can see why they didn't do that choice (adding Alicia instead or whatever; I love Alicia, but I'm making a point pls :joy:): post-invisibility Ninny would perhaps be too much of a Little My clone. But when I say MV2019 took some liberties, well, Ninny's final place to stay is not stated in the books. The 1990 anime in the original Japanese dub says she returns to her aunt, who ends up 'missing her' (and wow, I can see why they changed that to leave it ambiguous again in the English dub). 2019 randomly makes up that Tooticky has a sister to argue where they left Ninny at. And here's where I say... why not say Ninny stayed with Mymble? This would solve three things:

Ninny being permanent in MV

Adds a link between Mymble (Jr)* and Tooticky. Come on, people want them to have a connection after that one arm-clinging illustration.

Listen, I think Tooticky being lonely and comfortable with it is very much a part of her character; I think making up a relative for her is not a good move that contributes anything and more like decontributes.

The Mymble house indoors is never shown AFAIK so it wouldn't matter if they decided not to show Ninny again, just say she's there.

((*)BTW, I think I heard Mymble Jr. has not shown up in S1 to S3, but I've only watched S1, so I'm not sure. I have fears Tooticky will not show up again after S1 either. I'm going to cry.)

Like I think Tooticky would be aware she would not be the best caretaker (again, I don't view her as motherly; 'auntily' maybe, if anything lmao) and wouldn't want to keep her isolated anyways. I think Mymble Jr. also would enjoy having a calmer girl around she can read books with and braid her hair and whatnot. Little My's reaction to this would be interesting also.

Coming back to my point of being lonely, I think this could also be part of why Ninny could admire her, in part because she sees herself in Tooticky. So, I prefer Tooticky relative-less because, unlike other characters (Moomin, Mymbles, Sniff), Ninny has no relatives except an abusive one (actually not even blood-related in her original story). This is why I said 'Ninny and Tooticky could be the Moomin and Snufkin of Moomin.' If you keep Tooticky's original 'impassible, panders to no one' attitude most of the time but make her soft for Ninny, and add Ninny's past-influenced possible emotional attachment to her despite Tooticky keeping her distances (which here feels even more justified than Snufkin and Moomin having the feelings they do for each other; not saying all feelings have to be grounded in rationality, but yeah), it really hits. I'm not going into why Ninny might, could, probably be a lesbian as well because I'm kind of tired at this point and this is about Tooticky, but I don't mean this in a ship way it's more like a mentor relationship and I'm drawing parallels to Snufkin and Moomin dynamics for other reasons so people can understand me because I do see the appeal in snufmin.

Overall, I like to write about Tooticky, but she's mostly taking a counselor role in my stories, not just with Ninny but with the Groke as well (in the end, it's an equally lonely and sad character, the difference being she inevitably harms others while Ninny's invisibility just reflects pain on herself). I think, 'I never write about Tooticky's own problems, poor her, she deserves to be sent a whiskey crate,' but I literally don't know what kind of problems would be in-character for her to have. And when it comes to her life and past, I also make her intentionally vague, like she enjoys obscuring it to in-world characters and to the reader. Because anything else feels like going too far and writing an oc. In the end, I understand this is a highly personal character for Tove that was only created later in the series, so I would feel bad for desecrating it.

But regardless, talk to me about Tooticky and feel free to contribute because I tend to miss a lot of stuff. I realized I skipped the opportunity to send people I follow Tooticky questions for that character ask game everyone was reblogging, and I'm so mad at myself for thinking slow lmao.

#cherine text #i don't know if to tag this or not. #too-ticky #tooticky #too ticky

[makigorogoro]

disorganized thoughts on fionna and cake eps 5 and 6

(Spoilers!!)

ok ive only seen the eps once each and im going off of memory so a lot of this is probably gonna be paraphrased and mixed up but whatever . also this post is really fucking long lol sorry

-OK FIRST OFF THESE WERE SO GOOD RAAAAAH

-obviously we are in the farmworld, not surprised but very happy!!!

-also not very surprised fionna and cake immediately went along with simon’s plan

-the whole time they were talking about where to find a crown i was like lol. simon don’t look behind you

-cake bringing fionna a dead rat was really funny

-the versucci gag or whatever was also really good

-but what made me die was fionna talking abt how she’s played a lot of post apocalyptic rpgs and then it pans over to “man who has actually lived through the apocalypse”

-was really cool to see how the farmworld has developed after what happened with ice finn, i think it’s interesting how they’re more technologically advanced since the first time an ice age happened in this world they pretty much reverted to medieval times (does that make sense. you know what i mean)

-i was SO convinced jay was farmworld finn’s little sibling so when he said dad my heart stopped

-the name jay didn’t immediately click until bonnie was revealed to be one of his other kid’s name and i was like HOLY SHIT PUHOY???

-veeeery interesting since assumingely golb destroyed/erased the pillow world

-i guess you could just chalk it up to finn would have named his kids the same thing in any universe?

-but i mean speaking of his kids GOD he got busy with huntress wizard

-i mean it has to be huntress wizard. one of them looks just like human hunter wizard

-sucks that she died though

-simon’s ship of theseus thing was so fucking funny oh my god he’s just like me fr (i started talking about the ship of theseus in one of my assignments a few days ago and i was like. is this too nerdy.)

-i haven’t really talked about farmworld finn yet. a little sad he turned out so cold (pun not intended oops 😭) because of what happened to him when he was younger

-good on him for saying simon was a damn fool or whatever for wanting to put the crown on lol

-i wish they actually had a talk though

-cake saying fionna should kiss him while knowing he’s just an alternate version of her??????? girl

-also farmworld jake still being alive was crazy

-so it did turn out the crown was destroyed in this world, i honestly wasn’t sure since the crown from the main world survived direct contact with a comet lol

-the romeo and juliet style romance going on between finn’s kid and big destiny’s kid was really good

-finn showing up with bartram lmao!!!!!

-dude i love bartram, the bit in finn the human where finn’s mom says that they have to sell the mule and then bartram’s head peaks out from the bed in the corner is unironically one of my favorite jokes in adventure time

-i kinda forgot what happens between here and the end

-so did farmworld finn fucking die????

-idk what happened there i sure hope not

-i really don’t know if we’re going to revisit these worlds in any capacity considering the amount of time left but i hope we do now!! i feel like we need to see what happens lmao

-now for ep 6

-wasn’t really expecting it to open on “fionna world” as they started calling it

-i was wondering how they were gonna balance gumball and marshall yaoi with what’s going on with the main trio

-they did it really well though i think

-i also wasn’t really expecting to be introduced to winter king right away once we got back to the main plot

-he definitely gave me weird vibes right from the start im gonna be honest lol

-blaah i don’t really remember what happens between that and the winter wonder world sequence

-so ill just talk about that. holy fuck

-every review i read before the show came out was really hyping this scene up and i get why now

-was really cool to see the beyond the grotto animation again and the song was so good it’s still stuck in my head

-but the moment the winter king said he overcame the crown with sheer will i was like. um. im calling bs

-i was just thinking however it did happen though i have a bad feeling about! felt really bad for simon and when he said that he sucked i was like. oh no ☹️ dude

-the moment i saw little ice marcy pretty much cemented it for me i was like oh no something fucked up is happening here. tbh i still can’t really figure out what happened with that but given what the winter king said about making an ice betty. uhhhhhhhhhh

-OH YEAH cake once again saying simon and the winter king should kiss . GIRL WHAT ARE YOU ON

-i looooved crazy pb

-i remember when people were saying she was a marcy pb child lmao.

-simon saying that he wanted to “fix her” while the winter king just wanted to kill her was really interesting. im trying to figure out what it means lol. like we know that simon wants to be the ice king again but also now knowing he would want to fix and save someone from that madness…idk

-her song was really good

-her playing those ominous notes on her keyboard made me laugh

-i haven’t really talked about gumball (im not calling him gary im sorry) and marshall. i thought they were really cute!!! could definitely see marcy and pb meeting in a similar way

-the juxtaposition between gumball talking about his creations to fionna fighting the fucked up versions of them was really cool

-i hope gumball doesn’t take what the lemoncarbs said to heart . they’re just like that

-ok so. I was honestly more shocked that fionna kissed (a version of) simon than him disintegrating seconds after lmaooooo

-i have to wonder why he immediately died here when in betty (the episode) he was dying relatively slowly without the crown’s magic

-ive been writing down a bunch of crack theories and the first thing ive gotten right was the winter king transferring his craziness to pb lol lets goooo

-i was thinking that simon might’ve transferred it himself but then i was like nooo he wouldn’t do that….apparently he would do that

-idk despite how he seemed i think the winter king was still a little insane in the membrane.

-maybe the crown was still influencing him in some way? and that’s the message here? idk

-i can’t believe bi fionna is real

-back to gumball and marshall. gumball describing slumber party panic……oh my jod 🥺🥺🥺

-the baby world was so cute

-“and i’ll be cursed the right way” simon do you fucking hear yourself

Ok that’s definitely not all i have to say but this post is long enough lmao ,, god this show is SO GOOD i can’t believe it’s real. ok that’s all

#adventure time #fionna and cake #Fionna and cake spoilers

[peacereturnedtothevalley]

Taking notes as I listen, idk how consistent I’ll be but I’ll be alluding to future knowledge in these if I do post

AiH 00 starts with Keith initiating the very first fatt clap wow…

It’s been forever since I heard them play dungeon world… Rip to adam koebel as an entity go 2 hell

“Just for this one time I’m going to say what the principles of the game is”

Keith editing era is so distinctive and its so funny experiencing it again in mc+

Austin (cont.): And we're post the terrible period that followed that and at the point of uh… At the point where it could go one of two ways. It can either be a further decline into nothingness or it can be a moment of rebuilding. It could be a moment where we bounce out of this and move on. It could be fall or it could be spring. Um, I like fall colors a lot so I talked a lot about autumnal colors in my original pitch to you and like, that's kinda how I feel— That's the way the world's gonna go if you don't get involved, if that makes sense. If you guys can save the day, we can make it spring, but if you can't, then it's fall and we're heading into winter.

Hearing the world building eps again and knowing so much of the off the cuff suggestions by the cast end up core question or concept deeper into the show is so fun… more people should listen to the hidden c/w world building ep bc it so fucked up to hear how long ago some concepts and planets were made up. Also its very fun

Them starting in a fishing village wow just like hxh

I had to look it up and somehow I completely forgot velas is the starting fishing village. I remember the name velas but did not attach it anywhere. Also forgot hieron is the size of New York. Imagine if hieron was a dark continent situation this whole time

Leylines…. I think I encountered the term for the first time here and now its permanently associated w ffxiv

Halflings politics is so much clearer to me this time… they want things back the way they were…. big retvrn vibes like Okay I get you want to go back to playing your jaunty tunes and chilling but. Love that Fero is like fuck that love you Fero

I didn’t take a lot of character notes but I love them… love the orcs wild to have the new archives established already, I forgot the sort of rivalry it has with the last university (rip).

V nostalgic having Nick here, with a full wizard voice for The Great Fantasmo

Hearing all the alignments talk and going oof ugh hearing hella’s stuff, I love the result of everything coming up due to the evil alignment rules but it Is a bit uncomfortable knowing Austin wasn’t as clear communicating stakes and establishing people were in the same page with him. they all evolve so much as players over the years…

“I really like the idea of a foppish and disinterested god trying to pass time” hehe

It’s so funny hearing Jack discovers cats can be nice and cute on air

Dre isn’t going to be here for a minute and we won’t see sylvi and janine for a minute… miss u………

Audio quality was completely fine also

sky status: seems normal so far

#scallion listen #aih00 #fatt #sorry these will mostly be nothing but surface level wow :) #type thoughts

[mermaidsirennikita]

Do you have any HR with the hero/heroine spying on the hero/heroine doing or going somewhere and then get caught and confronted by the hero/heroine, idk it could be a lake or something, idk if I'm explaning myself

I think I got some stuff for you

Elizabeth Hoyt has these vibes often due to the nature of her books lol:

Thief of Shadows--I mean, Winter is a masked vigilante and Isabel is basically trying to figure out it's him for much of the book. NOW. Her method for figuring it out IS sucking his dick behind a curtain, but still.

Duke of Midnight--Maximus is ALSO a masked vigilante (it's a thing, there's a shared identity) and Artemis catches him doing all that and blackmails him

Duke of Sin--I mean Valentine technically spies on Bridget for like 3-4 months while he lives in his own walls, but I also think there are times when they catch each other doing various nefarious things

A Secret Love by Stephanie Laurens has a heroine masquerading as a widow in order to extract a favor from her childhood friend-turned nemesis. There's a big moment when he catches her slipping up... which is after he has Done Shit with that masked lady, mind you lol.

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley has the heroine spying on the hero with another woman (at the very beginning of the book--he and the heroine are not by any means together and this woman is just like some random he's trying to fuck lol) and he's very aware that she's spying and chases the other woman way before being like "and you are here why?" The heroine is really good at picking locks and creeping, and he's super turned on by the thought of her being a voyeur lol.

If you wanna go more hardcore on this, The Recruit by Monica McCarty has the heroine make first contact with the hero when she spies on him fucking another lady. They've never met and it's a doggy style deal so he makes eye contact with the heroine and gets off on her watching. He confronts her AFTER lol.

Olivia and The Masked Duke by Grace Callaway is another "post-viewing" confrontation, but the heroine spies on the hero spanking another woman before they're together. It Awakens Her.

The Duke Who Knew Too Much by Grace Callaway. lmao THIS ONE is HILARIOUS because this very innocent but nosy heroine spies on the hero when he and his mistress are doing a light CNC (by way of bondage) and busts in like "UNHAND HER!!" and the mistress goes with it because she doesn't wanna be seen as freak. Then the mistress dies... and the hero has to explain to our heroine that he's not a murderer he's just like... into kinky sex.

Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks may be juuust what you need lol. The hero is trying to resist consummating his marriage with the heroine (she's deaf, he doesn't think she can consent though she totally can) and then walks in on her bathing in a lake. He's not God's strongest soldier.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles I think, has the one hero desperately trying to catch the other hero, a smuggler, in the act, as revenge for blackmail. It's great lol. The Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel also has one hero discover the other, his secretary, snooping around the house late at night. And then he's like "I wasn't snooping, I was just trying to fuck???"

Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale has Allegreto walk in on Elena sneaking around his weird little collection room, and he's all "I CAN DO YOUR BIRTH CHART" and she's like "what" because he's crazy.

Tempt Me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas has Harry and Poppy officially meet when she's creeping around HIS collection (we love a hero or heroine with a weird collection tbh).

The Lady Hellion by Joanna Shupe has the hero catch the heroine when she's masquerading a man to try to help sex workers by night. Like he's all "I GOTTA FIND OUT WHAT THE FUCK SHE'S UP TO" and then he's like "hmm that was hotter than I expected".

#romance novel blogging #romance novels #book recs

[flashlights-coming-down-the-way]

i’ve had this thought rotting in my brain ever since mitski dropped The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We so im gonna dump it onto tumblr but first of all

SPOILER WARNING FOR LAND OF THE LUSTROUS / HOUSEKI NO KUNI !!!! PLEASE READ THE MANGA <3

also i would like to add a second warning that this post may not make a lot of sense grammatically :3 currently am not lucid enough to make a lot of sense :3

i think that the song When Memories Snow can describe a lot of phos’ character arcs and their progression eerily well like if you were to make a phos animatic to this song it would line up so perfectly

okay first of all i would like to point out the general connection between this song and the gems. i have not analysed mitski’s song by itself, and so i dont know what she intended behind When Memories Snow, so maybe the “memories” could straight up be a metaphor for something and not actual memories but thats not what we’re gonna talk about rn !! we know that the gem’s memories are stored in the physical gem pieces themselves, so if they lose a body part they lose parts of their memories. phos has their whole thing with losing their body parts (and effectively their memories) and becoming a completely different person and all that good stuff

oki now the lyrics :3

“when memories snow // and cover up the driveway // i shovel all those memories // clear the path to drive to the store”

this gives me the vibes of post-winter phos after theyve lost antarc. the first two lines really remind me of whenever phos would just have random hallucinations of antarc’s death over and over again in the anime and the other two lines remind me of how they would basically have to just ignore the hallucinations and keep going on with their life. i would also like to add that while i do think that HNK is an amazing story and that the anime adaptation is honestly so perfect, i also think that there isnt a lot of focus on the fact that phos should not be able to remember jackshit ??? yknow ??? the way that canonical phos just keeps going on with life just kind of fits well with how nonchalant the line “clear the path to drive to the store” feels to me

“and when memories melt // i hear them in the drainpipe // drippin through the downspout // as i lie awake in the dark”

okay so i originally sent a bunch of my interpretations to a friend and i said that this part really fits with phos’ trauma with losing antarc. the way that these lines are phrased gives the vibes of when its late at night and youre tired but the clock is ticking too loudly and you just cant sleep. but now reading these lines again, i feel like it resonates more with how, once again, phos has lost like so many memories they cannot remember jackshit anymore. their memories have melted, but theyre still lingering and they still cling onto phos. a good example of this would be when phos wakes all the other gems up at the end of their hibernation and phos forgets who cinnabar is for a moment, the same cinnabar that was phos’ whole motivation for the first half of season 1. also the “as i lie awake in the dark” basically describes how phos refused to sleep during the second half of the season

ok verse 2 !!

“and if i break // could i go on break?

THIS IS THE MOST PHOSPHOPHYLLITE CODED LINE OF THE ENTIRE SONG !!! to me at least :3 not only does this line apply to them in a literal sense, with phos being the second weakest gem and them breaking a crazy amount of times throughout the whole series, “breaking” also applies to them in a mental sense. i get two different images when i think of this line, the first one being that one scene in the anime (and manga too? maybe? idk its been a while :() where phos is thinking about kongo and the lunarians and everything and they start cracking and their alloy just explodes out of them. i think thats the closest to a mental breakdown a gem has ever experienced at that point. the second image i get is when,,, phos becomes like,,, yk phos’ shattered / monster form whatever you call it,,, thats what i think of

“be back in my room // writing speeches in my head”

i think this goes back all the way to pre-trauma phos. “writing speeches in my head” could represent their encyclopaedia job?? but i think its a better metaphor for their want to join in with the other gems in fighting the lunarians. part of them knows it’ll never happen, so they resort to daydreaming about what it would be like

“listenin’ to the thousand hands // that clap for me in the dark”

connecting with my last point, they want the feeling of accomplishment and the general coolness of being able to fight and they want the praise from kongo and the other gems.

also this image doesnt connect very well, but i think of the god-like phos form when i think of these last two lines. this is the only time in the series where everyone finally has to depend on phos for once, and phos isnt deemed as ‘useless’ or a problem. of course the context is super tragic but idk just a thought

okay phos and mitski rant over !!!

#land of the lustrous #houseki no kuni #spoilers #hnk spoilers #i wrote this instead of studying for physics :(

[minijeong]

june/july before and afters 😎

took a break from giffing for a hot minute since february, but i’m back now for the comeback 😎 it’s a bit before the end of july, but i didn’t have anything to post for today while i’m away so i’ll do this instead. out of all the months, i think this one had the most gifs where i was content with my colour corrections or my colouring choices. every time i thought, ‘you know what, i’m too lazy for this,’ i slapped another corrective layer instead. this is definitely a ‘thank myself later’ moment LOL the first two (karina, winrina) were definitely my best colour corrections. the first lighting looked like a hellspawn and i severely questioned both my ability and my sanity when i decided to gif it. there are definitely things i would change about it but im mostly content with the blacks, blues, and skin tone so it’s a W for me. the winrina one was as nice restoration. a bit tough because of the whites, but glad i could make it look like they stepped into the sun. the next two (click to enlarge) are ones i wasn’t satisfied with. the studio choom one... i wanted to bring out blues but it was really tough on the skin tone and i had trouble working with the magenta lighting. ended up doing a mish mash of things i didnt like and a shade of blue i’m not happy with. i think this was one of those where i changed things i didnt have to and possibly ruined a perfectly good video. the fancam was just... i don’t know... not what i imagined...? i wanted more pink but i was scared of eliminating the non-existent skin tone and, idk, ended up with some orange pink purple clumpy colouring. i shouldve paused in the middle to think after the original plan didn’t work, but i kept forcing it and rushing... lesson learned. at least she cute tho... then comes lts winter and mcore illusion winter. these are ones where i was content with my color and cleaning fixes; when i thought i had to be okay with it not looking good, but figured it out in the end (... i think?). the lts mv was REALLY washed out so restoring the blacks without ruining the light pink vibe (when the pinks were REALLY STRONG) was really difficult. it took a lot of minute fixes but i like how it turned out! the illusion one... i wanted to trash that one SO BAD. i actually planned on doing ning first but it ended up so terribly that i scrapped the entire thing. but then i got frustrated at myself for giving up so i tried again with winter... because whenever i gif winter and want to give up mary comes and slaps me and tells me winter deserves better *s0b* . i really experimented with the denoising here (like 3 different methods in different combinations??) because the sharpening and LED lights of the stage were SO frustrating. i’m also pretty sure winter has skin more on the cool-tone side so the colours were a bit difficult to manage. considering what i had to work with, i’m content with what i did! gma winter and racer winter!!! i’m proud of these two because these are ones where i consciously made a decision and chose a certain deviation from what i normally do. gma winter - i wanted to make it look like she literally came out of fire to cut up black mamba... brrr ow!. it was difficult because the sun made the video REALLY bright and exposed and washed out and i nearly lost my mind. in the end i applied some layers that broke some colouring rules that i normally keep. even though the before/after doesn’t look too great to me on its own, i feel that it looks quite nice as a set so i’m happy with how it turned out. racer winter is one where i made a decision to not make a lot of changes. this before/after shows the most change out of all of them, but the others in the set look like they haven’t changed. most of all, i was proud of my decision not to restore skin tone like i normally do. it was a day after i had a picture taken of me in a room with bright lighting and i looked like a ghost. and i was like damn i guess sometimes keeping the skin light and not darkening it is actually closer to the truth... so i did it here. i think it looks great and keeps it real. as much as it’s important to be careful of whitewashing when giffing, i believe it’s just as important to not darken, redden, or yellow skin past what makes sense with the portrayed lighting.  last one is ningie! idk i just made this one and she’s just so cute so i put it in here. used a combination of things i tested this month and im cool with it 😎 if you read up to here... wow thanks 😎. it’s honestly quite tedious to make a before/after version of every gif i make, but i think it’s really leveled up my giffing and helped me reflect on what i can do to get better at this. (it’s also super satisfying to look at.) this is definitely something i’ll keep doing, and something i’d love to see other people do as well if they’re up for it! next month’s goals... make everything work. i’m planning to gif every stage regardless of how painful it is and regardless of how much it’s been done. just having a record of what i’ve watched and enjoyed when going through my m:gif tag has always given me a lot of fulfillment, so i’m looking forward to this project. excited to push my limits 🤟🏻 also going to start a winter in kwangya hell series  good night and yow! 🤟🏻😎

#m:before and after #m:gif #LONG POST #tw flashing #was a good month #thank god for giffing #q: on vacation

[werewolfetone]

I wish to be the recipient of an info dump. Tell me about something you know too much about

Alright!!! The first thing that comes to mind to infodump about is the Romantics, so I am going to tell you about. hm. the story about the writing of Kubla Khan.

Kubla Khan is a poem by Coleridge named after the real life 13th century Mongolian emperor. This, along with the text of the poem, is... basically all that's concrete about it. It's generally accepted that it was probably written in October 1797, but given that Coleridge didn't really date his poems after he wrote them and also really really loved lying and all forms of embellishment, that's mostly just the best educated guess there is, not a hard and fast fact. I've heard summer 1797, winter 1797, even spring 1798, but in general October 1797 is the most likely and accepted date of composition.

And now for how it was written. oh boy.

Let's go over Coleridge's story first. According to him, the night that it was written he was staying in a farmhouse in the southwest of England, due to an illness he needed to recover from before he could travel back to his house. He was reading the book Purchas his Pilgrimes by Samuel Purchas, which is. uh. I think it's about Chinese history? idk I've never read it. Anyway, Coleridge had also taken an amount of opium to help him sleep, and fell asleep reading about Kublai Khan. He then had a wonderful dream in which he composed 200-300 lines of poetry about Kublai Khan, and when he woke he hurried to write them down--but was interrupted! by someone who is only credited as a "person from Porlock." And therefore what we have of Kubla Khan is unfinished, because he forgot what he needed to write as he was trying to get the visitor to leave.

So that's Coleridge's side of things, and the story has become quite well known, enough that it's almost part of the poem. However, there are several gaping holes in this story:

The biggest one is probably the book he claimed to have been reading. It was a very rare book even back then, which made it unlikely that he would have found a copy at some random farmhouse, and it was almost 1000 pages long, meaning that you probably wouldn't carry it around while hiking across England. It's been suggested that maybe he was just thinking about the book and claimed to have been reading it for a better story (this absolutely sounds like something he would have done tbh) but idk.

Coleridge later changed multiple details about the writing of it, especially the details of the drug he had been taking when he wrote it. This could just come down to the fact that he didn't want to have to deal with 18thc ableism against drug users, but I guess what I'm saying is that if he was willing to change one detail for publication there's a good chance he was willing to change others.

Speaking of drugs, given some later events (particularly the time that he thought he saw Wordsworth and Sara Hutchison ah. up to something. but that's it's own post) Coleridge definitely wasn't at his most reliable when sleep deprived and on opium. Which, I mean, no one is, but with Coleridge in particular there's other documented instances of events happening to him after he had taken a bunch of opium and him not being quite sure if what was happening was really real.

It's a very ah. convenient story. Coleridge couldn't finish this poem but oh it wasn't his fault! it was the fellow on business from Porlock! It's also very similar to other stories he would tell about other poems he couldn't finish (usually for mental illness reasons), which were more blatantly made up, which makes me doubt a little bit that it's real. With Coleridge, it's frankly much more likely that he just couldn't figure out how to finish it or couldn't force himself to finish it, leading to him going "oh making up an outlandish story about why it's unfinished would be more fun than actually finishing this." To be fair though "the vibes are off" isn't a very good reason to doubt it but also. the vibes are definitely off.

To be honest we'll probably never know if Coleridge was telling the truth about the whole story or if he just made it up but y'know. it's fun to think about. Also the poem we got out of it is pretty good, you should go and read it.

#samuel taylor coleridge #coleridge #romantic poetry #kubla khan #romanticism #tw drugs #asks #mutuals

[properfurrification]

yeahhhh i’m a little guilty of being inactive. but also i’m not because this isn’t a responsibility BUT I’M STILL SORRY because a lot of you clearly enjoy my stuff

figured i’d just say who everyone in re7 would be even though i haven’t gotten around to drawing them!!! i did wanna wait but burnout and drifting into another fandom and eehhhhhghjkfdjh. y’know?

anyways! the ones i’ve already done are: ethan winters, as an arctic wolf jack baker, as a western cottonmouth snake marguerite baker, as an american black bear lucas baker, as a muskrat zoe baker, as an american alligator (and i know he isn’t Only in this game, but) chris redfield, as a red-tailed hawk. i love chris redfield dearly and i wanted to draw him as smth anthro real fast so i used his re7 dlc as an excuse oopsies

those all have their reasons on their respective posts (i posted lucas and chris together), so if you haven’t already seen them, go check them out!!!

but now....... the ones i haven’t done......... mia winters, as the infamous gray wolf (otherwise known as the timber wolf). she still embodies that strong familial bond as a wolf and would make the most sense in my brain for rose to be a biological child. and it’s necessary for rose to be a biological child for the next game, so mia has ended up as a timber wolf :) imagine her as one of the more orange-y ones also, she’s not an arctic wolf, because while she and ethan are similar in their fierce love of family, they are still vastly different and i would like to show that visibly

eveline, as a goeldi’s marmoset. it is small, looks innocent, has black fur, and at some point in its life it lives off of mold/fungi...... interesting, right? they also stick together in small groups, which i thought fitting for eveline’s urge to have a family

“grandma”, as an american black bear (but very old with lots of white fur). the only reason she isn’t a cottonmouth like jack is because i imagine fur would be easier to imitate when you’re already a mammal and have some, if you’re picking up what i’m putting down. i won’t say it outright just in case somebody doesn’t know the ending but hopefully u get what i mean LOL

peter walken and andre stickland are both american alligators, but clancy javis is an american crocodile. they’re all crocodilians because of their company being called Sewer Gators! and i love crocodilians but that’s not important clancy isn’t an actual gator like the rest of them just because (and correct me if i’m wrong, i haven’t seen a playthrough in a minute) peter and andre say something about not trusting this new cameraman; i’m taking that as clancy was the only guy they could get for the job, at least in the moment, and he ended up not being an alligator so they were like oh wtf!!! if not that, then i just generally think the american crocodile fits him better

david anderson, the cop, as a common snapping turtle. i don’t really have a good reason for this one unfortunately, aside from the fact that tough animals Probably make good police-people 

alan douglas is going to be another timber wolf for the sake of him and mia actually looking like a couple for the “babysitting job” and easing up suspicion. it’s totally normally that two gray wolves would adopt a small little piece of the void don’t worry about it guys !

veronica in the chris dlc is a eurasian wolf, solely for the reason that i think umbrella/bsaa/whoever the hell it is would hire a MASS amount of canines. idk they just give me violent wolf/fox vibes ig BUT there are sections where canines are not

adding onto that, everybody in chris’s team in that dlc is a bird of prey. i think there were three????? so i’m going two common kestrels and an american kestrel on that one. if there were two then oh well that works out i guess LMAO

and if you’re curious, the molded are a mixture of goeldi’s marmosets, american black bears, gray wolves, and american alligators. it’s mostly wolves and bears though, with the occasional other two and very rare muskrat/cottonmouth/crocodile :) also they’re obvs like. they don’t have patterns so you can’t really tell exactly what kind of animal it is but you can based on the form and the heights and stuff yk

edits:

ahhh shit, joe baker and hoffman

joe baker would definitely be another western cottonmouth, no questions asked... an albino one, though

hoffman would probably be another family-oriented animal, like mia and ethan, due to him trying to persevere through lucas’s silly little games to get back home to his family. i’m thinking of a northern rocky mountain wolf, but if that’s four too many wolves, then an african lion would also absolutely work. both are pack animals that live in family groups and defend those groups with their lives

that’s everyone! i think. i REALLY hope i didn’t forget anybody omgggg

let me know if i did, i’ll definitely add onto this or edit it or something to fix it :) hope you enjoyed!!! feedback is welcome, curious if any of you have differing opinions or if you agree :D

AND NO TAGS!!! just for whoever manages to happen upon this lol

[mysteriesofloves]

the milk and honey route + 3,7,9,13 <3

the milk and honey route

What’s your favorite line of narration?

i’m going to go with the first two (passages) that popped in my head, from chapter three:

The girl – her name escapes him, maybe she never gave it – has her tongue in his mouth, sweet from her drink, and his bottle slips from his hand, fingers curling in thick hair. He thinks that’s how Blair’s hair would feel in his hands, a fistful of her curls and a mess of gloss between them and that perfume of hers. This girl doesn’t smell like that – she smells like sunscreen even though it’s almost winter.

and chapter five:

Dan is still grinning, although the shit-eating has been dropped into something more sincere. There’s a sweater stuffed in her dresser and books on her bedside table and a pack of candy on the counter, and while none of it carries the same weight as the little gold heart she passed around from sleeve to sleeve, Blair wonders if maybe they’re the same thing. 

Where did the title come from?

so when i was planning the fic i could not for the life of me think of a good title that encapsulated the vibe i was going for, and then i was rewatching mad men and the penultimate episode was titled the milk and honey route, and it’s in reference to the saying “the land of milk and honey” where things are plentiful and life is easy. the fic has nothing to do with the episode, and i think the episode really means it in a more ironic sense, but when taken genuinely i felt it fit really nicely, and it’s still one of my favourite titles <3

Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

oh my god SO MANY. the fic that is posted is nothing like the original first draft, really only the first two chapters remained the same. for one it was going to extend for another 2-3 chapters but i ended up axing the end because i was really frustrated with it. i didn’t truly love anything i had after chapter 8 so i ended it there. for another the entire getting together in chapter 5 was supposed to happen solely over the phone—like, i had a funny, clumsy attempt at feelings declarations turned phone sex and a completely different actual first time scene for the longest time. don’t ask me why i cut that, idk why. there’s literally so many scenes and alternate storylines that i took out because i just couldn’t get them down in a way i liked. i know there’s one in particular i’d like to take a second crack at and post because i loved the idea—a scene where blair comes across a younger girl by herself in the bookstore and they end up having a conversation about their moms and boys.

What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

so i always listen to music while writing, not necessarily to get in the mood for the story but just because i need music. charli xcx’s album how i’m feeling now and the weeknd’s album after hours were on repeat in general, and folklore came out while i was writing and posting and invisible string and mirrorball were on repeat, and those make good accompaniments! also the chorus of cardigan, but just the chorus, because of The Sweater.

other than those, i think you are in love is the anthem for this fic, right?

fic ask game

#tmahr #asks

[theninjasanctuary]

I'm still getting Tumblr glitches, as in, the end-of-year post I saved in drafts is nowhere to be found in the browser version, which is where I wrote and saved it, but is there on the app. Ehh.

Well, this one did not feel like a year where anything significant happened. Which I suppose is a way of saying I've had a decent enough year? As in, the world continues to burn, but I don't recall anything officially bad happening to me, despite all the whining and strong language I did in my posts. Nobody died, I'm gainfully employed and mostly bamboozling people that I can keep up. Looking at what I wrote to summarize the previous year, this one's been a breeze. Even though when I re-read what I've been posting this year - and I don't actually remember half of it -, it seems at least in the winter and spring, I wasn't having a great time between sleep deprivation, money woes and raising a sweet, but messy and needy cat; and from the summer onwards have not updated much at all, always complaining about stress. Well, for one thing, it is obvious I should reduce time spent on Reddit so there's more of it for everything else...

In no particular order: this was surely a better year from the health perspective. The last time I was ill was an annoying cold in early-to-mid February, where I actually needed antibiotics again because I tested positive for lung chlamydia, and have been generally just fine ever since, a welcome break after all the ailments 2022 threw at me. The achy wrist is still there and annoying, but I'm hoping it is fixable with the new treatment plan. And the toe I stubbed really bad in early September is still not a pretty sight, but in early December I finally started seeing a healthy pink regrowth emerge from under the cuticle, so the purple bruised part might finally be gone by, idk, April?

Could have used more exercise, as always, but I kept up with massage therapy and tried to keep up with physio appointments at least (there were some unintended breaks). And I've made some improvements about keeping my cholesterol level in check, and feel good about the new GP.

The cat is indeed no longer a kitten, but has grown into a fine adult, he's 1,5 years old now, weighs close to 6 kilos and is a pretty, floofy, bright boy with a friendly, curious personality. It has been expensive (getting all.the.things from zero, plus medical costs, plus food), and takes up loads of time, he nearly always delays bedtime so I lose sleep, and I've had to wash all the rugs, even replacing one with one that's easier to clean, because he either puked on them (his tummy is a bit sensitive apparently), or used the texture to scoot dingleberries off his floofy butt. Ehh. I'm now a lot less squeamish about cat poop, and since we are trying to keep his butt hair at least somewhat trimmed (despite resistance), there are fewer accidents, and he's learned to tolerate the occasional butt showers without clawing.

He's also grown less bitey when playing, and is still positive and confident, not holding any grudges. His favourite treat is freshly boiled egg (quail or chicken will both do, and he likes his portion slightly warm). He does not enjoy getting brushed all that much, but we keep a Furminator handy for quick swipes, because otherwise every damn thing is covered with cat hair, and the floors develop hefty, dark grey dust bunnies. Beyond demanding before-bedtime treats and play, he mostly lets us sleep without interrupting, as he's not particularly food-motivated, just gets impatient waiting for his morning cuddles sometimes. He only slept in our bed for a few weeks as a baby, initially between our pillows, then moved towards the end of the bed, but then decided he needs more space, and now sleeps where he feels like - sometimes on a chair in our room, sometimes under the bed, sometimes in whichever comfy spot elsewhere he prefers that night. I sometimes wish he was more of a snuggler, tbh, since he's so nice and soft with big plushie vibes. He does come asking that I pick him up for a cuddle and purr session when I get out of bed, or come home from wherever I've been, or sometimes before bedtime as well, and occasionally he'll have a cuddly kind of mood all day long, but overall, he's not a lap cat. Still, I lift and carry him around often enough that it might be contributing to my wrist issues. (Typical De Quervain's syndrome sufferers are mothers with young children.)

Work-wise, I've been feeling like a failure all year, despite actually getting at least some things done by winging it, and I feel I've been growing and learning with the new tasks I've had. Even so though, there's loads of guilt and stress, and I've often struggled with an irrational urge to avoid looking at my emails. It's not even that the workload is that much, it all boils down to my inability to focus. And I still haven't gotten any professional help with that, because my ability to go looking is limited (because I'm busy either stressing about work or procrastinating). And I still haven't seen an optometrist either, despite it being on the to-do-list since spring.

Can't say I've kept up on the home front that great either. My cleaning standards are slipping, particularly when it comes to dusting. There are just way too many things. And the inability to focus bleeds over to chores, things take way too long to get done or are delayed endlessly. I wish I could fix this. OTL

I keep procrastinating by browsing second-hand stores a lot. Made a switch to Sellpy as the first choice this year, since Momox changed their pricing policy and now Sellpy has the better deals as well as cheaper and easier shipping/returns, despite never having discount codes like Momox does. As for the score of items purchased, there were wins and losses, I did manage to get a few stellar items I wear a lot, but also returned lots of complete duds, either things that unfortunately didn't fit, or things I should not have expected to work in the first place, I guess. And I certainly kept a few items I don't use as much... if ever, as remains to be seen.

I see it would be better to tone this habit down to save both time and money, but since the shopping urges are at least partly hormonal, I cannot count on consistently making rational decisions. At least I'm not experimenting much with skincare at this point, mostly sticking to repurchasing staples. It still gets a bit expensive even so, and it has to be said that I've had an annoying amount of acne and picking issues this year despite keeping up with an elaborate skincare routine. All of this to be filed under *shit I still don't know how to fix*.

The travelling I managed this year was pretty nice in hindsight, a week in France at the end of January, then another in mid-August, then a weekend trip to Brussels, and an overnight in Helsinki to see a great live. I wish I could do more of this without financial stress, and worrying about leaving the cat (he's not taking separation super-hard, but still). The trip to Japan with friends we could not afford to take was a bit of a shitshow, btw: scorching temperatures, then a typhoon and then return flight cancellation, so stuck at the airport for 2 days before eventually getting rerouted.

Socializing: I think I did better than last year in this respect, I finally was in the mood for, and had the opportunity to throw a proper birthday garden party for myself, which was lovely. Additional meet-ups happened too, even if it would have been fun to have more. And having the cool coworker back at the office has been good, as expected. Now if I'd manage to actually get work done in reasonable hours, and feel good enough about my work output to warrant taking the time for fun, including hanging out with people, it would be even better.

Family: things are good with the boyf and most of the family, but I am stressed about big brother, his wife, and mom's will. Idk how any of this will be resolved. Ideally, I'd just buy the things I want from mom before inheritance ever becomes an issue, thus preventing any dividing issues, but I'd need to win the lottery beforehand...

I managed to do more gardening at mom's over the summer, which was rather nice. The summer wasn't as stressful climate-wise as feared, it was very dry in June, but enough rain from there onwards, and not too hot (I didn't get round to buying a mobile air conditioner nor heat-reflecting blinds, nor Birkenstocks, so this was very welcome). Still sad about losing a major feature of the entire garden, the big maple tree. Hoping to plant a replacement in the spring.

My aims for the next year involve being more responsible about money. It would be ridiculous to end up short on funds again when I'll be earning more than ever. The plan is to put more into the index fund retirement scheme, and I've started an automatic saving scheme as well (it rounds up all the card payments to 1 € up + I've added a monthly lump payment). I do hope to finally calm down about wardrobe upgrades, since I already have so much fabulous, joy-sparking stuff, and instead improve fitness a bit, so things will look better on me. I should definitely get more exercise anyway, and get some sort of a cheapish sports watch might be good. And I need to eat less sugar, and it would be good to get back to 8/16.

It also looks like 2024 will be one of the hardest work years of my life, and I have to manage to pull it all off for things to be easier in the future. It would be good if I just read books in my downtime instead of procrastinating on social media. Work guilt has meant very little reading just for fun this year, and that's not the kind of person I want to be.

As for what to look forward to, I will travel to France again in a few weeks, and probably to New York in June.

[wayhavenots]

Ooh for your wayfarers 5, 9, and 11 please and thank you 💜

Eta: waIT I posted this too fast and didn't say thank you sky!!! Thank you for the ask about my babies 😭😭😭😭

5. Who was their mentor? How do they feel about them at this point in their life?

Kheralyn - Cenric! Kheralyn becomes attached to the grumpy dwarf so quickly. She knows she owes much of who she is today to him, both because he was her teacher and because he plucked her off the farm and brought her to a place where she could finally feel like she belonged.

Kree - Varyn! (Surprise because when I reblogged the tag game I was calling zir Kree Cenric. and also zir pronouns were different too. But I started another replay and these choices feel much more fitting.) Kree looks at her almost like a mother figure; coming from a noble and sheltered background, ze understood Varyn, in contrast to the other Wayfarers. But ze really isn't one for undying loyalty in the face of evidence otherwise, so episode 2 has zir feeling uh. suspicious. and a little betrayed.)

9. What do they think of the massacre of most of the Wayfarer Order at the Spire?

Kheralyn - Doesn't think about it. Doesn't let herself think about it. She spent years chasing down survivors and failing. Now, she doesn't know what happened, and she doesn't want to. Takes on job after job and doesn't speculate, doesn't look back. Doesn't look forward much, either.

Kree - Wishes ze had been there. Kree has a morbid curiosity about it---needs to understand what happened and why (as if it would change anything). Ze wants to be in charge of closing that chapter of zir life. It isn't that simple, obviously.

11. What song (or songs, if you have no self-control like me) makes you think of your wayfarer?

Kheralyn - Idk what this genre is exactly, but a lot of the folk pop/indie folk music on my playlists is very Kheralyn; even when melancholy, there's still this bright energy behind it. Two songs:

Boreas by The Oh Hellos

Yeah, I'm one spoon away

From setting the ends of my hair on fire

If I'm kindling for a little while

At least I'd feel of use

Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart

Nothin' is as it has been

And I miss your face like hell

And I guess it's just as well

But I miss your face like hell

Kree - This is probably in large part because I don't have a great sense of Kree's personality but ze reminds me of an old OC who was similarly analytical and perceptive and. anyway. the song is Tardigrade Song by Cosmo Sheldrake. Purely the quirky techy vibes more than anything else.

For another song, similarly quirky and highlighting like the exact opposite aspect of zir personality: Communist Love Song by Soltero (one of my favorites).

So look me in the eyes under expanding winter skies

You'll find a feeling there that never knows the cold

Look me in the eyes and the skeptic in me dies

The skeptic is a fool

We are exceptions to the rule

#kheralyn goldsunder #kree varyn #thank you ❤️

[luci-cunt]

im about to go to sleep but when i awaken i hope to find an essay from you on how i get into hermitcraft

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (just got home from work and I have a new puppy so I will be dead for the next week but here's this very quick overview bc I love you and also Hermitcraft)

SO--YOU WANNA FALL DEEPER DOWN THE MCYT HOLE BC DSMP WASN'T CONVOLUTED ENOUGH???? TIRED OF INCOMPREHENSIBLE LORE AND HARD-TO-FOLLOW PLOTLINES FILLED WITH ANGST AND TRAUMA??? WANT SOMETHING A BIT MORE LAID BACK????

OH BOY DO I HAVE THE ANSWER FOR YOU!!!

First of all: Hermitcraft is essentially a series where a bunch of super talented and pretty longstanding mcyt-ers play on a single minecraft server for a period of a "season" and build absolutely fucking insane bases and vibe together. It's all very structured and organized so on every member's channel u'll find playlists for each season.

(oh and by longstanding mcyt-ers I mean literal pioneers in the mcyt community, people who have redstone inventions named after them bc they've been around longer than the redstone itself--etc)

The server is super chill!!! Everyone is very nice and they all get along super well and coordinate things on a discord server so that everyone's got all the info and they also prioritize building over basically everything--which means like, fire tic is off (meaning fire cannot spread), you do not steal anythign unless you will pay it back at least like twice over (once Grian accidentally killed ppl so he grinded them out full enchanted netherite armor/tools + some blocks and this is literally just like, what everyone does)

But!!!! besides all that!!!! where do you start *watching*!!!!

There are something like,,, 30 members on teh HC server??? more??? I cannot remember. Every one of them posts Hermitcraft episodes to their youtube channels, but there's also a HC recap youtube channel dedicated to weekly recaps of all hermit activity which you can find here!!

The thing about HC is that everytime there's a new update to MC, or even just the server starts to get stale--they throw out the world and start a new, completely empty one from scratch and thus is a new "season." Currently we're only a few episodes into the 8th season!

I watch a very limited scope of HC but--here are my limited reccomendations

GRIANNNNNNNN: because of course, we love grian, we stan grian, he has cats--what more could you ask for? Yes you've seen him gracing your screen in MCC and killing it, and you've also most likely seen him in fanart comparing him to Philza bc both are badass MC players with ✨wings✨he's chaotic and super creative and very kind! he also builds lots of mega builds and they are *incredible.* You're gonna wanna watch him if you want some good, lighthearted gremlin content.

Goodtimeswithscar: my BELOVED!!! This man is like, chaos but make it absolutely harmless. He is Dr. Doofenshmurtz levels of unfunctioning in the best ways possible. Mans tries so hard to be a villain and he just akjsd;lfja;sldfkj cannot pull it off and I adore him so much for it. Also he's got a new vibe every season--last season he was a wizard who lived in a giant snail before moving into a massive mining-construciton-thing??? And this season he has very much Howl's Moving Castle vibes. He also streams on twitch!!! Which I would totally recommend bc he's very chill and fun to listen to. You're gonna wanna watch him if you want a little bit more spice to your episodes--what is that spice exactly? Just watch and you'll see >:))

Some honorable mentions of ppl I don't really watch but love:

Pearlescentmoon: she's a new member to the HC server this season and I love her!!! I've only seen her a bit in Grian and Scar's vids but she took down an entire build just to rotate it like 90 degrees we stan an icon.

Mumbojumbo: a redstone fucking madman--also like--posh?? but in an unoffensive way?? I have no idea this man is so white but also I love him?? that doesn't describe him right just--just watch something of his and you'll understand.

Bdubs: my BELOVED!!! he's just aslkjd;flajsdflk everything, idk man just watch a vid and you'll be in love he's just aslkjdf;lasjkf everything. His starter house is a massive moon with a clock hanging from it it's so pog I love him so much watch his videos

OH AND WHAT'S THAT???? YOU GET HOOKED ON HC CONTENT BUT THINK,,,,,,, 'HM--THERE'S NOT QUITE ENOUGH MURDER IN THIS'???

BRO I"VE GOT THE ANSWER FOR YOU!

(also it's very short--I think there's only like 8 episodes cuz there was only 8 sessions--it's complicated but Grian explains it in the first ep dw)

3rd Life SMP

(everyone has 3 lives--losing the first 2 means nothing, but once you die 3 times you goal becomes to kill every other player on the server. It does not go over like this. Roleplay ensues. Gays are had. What the fuck why does Ren have a scottish accent--why is he dead--MARTYN WHAT--)

You want wholesome gays with a bit of angst but an overall happy ending that will make you cry???

Watch Mr. Gaming and Scott Smajor's POV

(they live in a flower filled valley in little hobbit holes and they are husbands and they are not going to murder people bc that is not what nice people do and--oh my god did you just fucking kill my husband alright murder is ok--)

You want lighthearted, roleplay light hilarity???

Watch Grian and Scar's POV

(there's a llama named pizza, grian is bloodthirsty and not even on his red life, and scar really just would rather steal cookies and scam ppl out of their nice clothes than kill ppl)

You want somethign I can't even really describe but there's royalty involved?? and people dying for one another and very dramatic rp??

WATCH THE RED KING AND HIS HAND BRING UPON THE RED WINTER

(there's not even an explanation I can give here, I love them, they're killing it)

(there are other awesome ppl on the server but that's who I was mostly watching, also--Maj--to get you invested here's some mostly spoiler free cool fanart to hook you and some shitposts that are hilarious and very accurate <3 XDD)

Be warned tho man,,, that last episode--on anyone's POV alk;jsdf;lajsd it's ajlsd;fkjsad;lfkj just

Ok sleep time now, I had to cuddle a needy puppy like, throughout this whole thing and typed most of it with one hand you would not believe how hard it is to find and link this many things with one hand if you do not click on every single link I will know and I will stab you <3

#luci doesn't shut up #hermitcraft #3rd life smp #love thes ebitches #plz watch 3rd life I love it so much and no one else has watched it alsdkjf;lajskdfasdf #maj plz #do this for me #also plz enjoy hermitcraft it's so great #scar's streams are so good #and grian is jsut fantastic #goodnight now