#Haven't checked the notes for art recently

[rweoutofthewoods]

fanfic/fandom ettiquite guide

Okay, I've seen some things recently that make me think there is some need to make a master post of some general fandom and fic ettiquite just because some people may not know and I think there's a huge wave of fanfic becoming more mainstream especially on apps like tiktok.

If you don't like it, don't engage with it!! I think this above all, is the golden rule of fandom. The internet is made for you to be able to mute, hide, and censor things you don't like. DO THAT! don't make a career off of hating things. This goes along with the three laws of fandom, which u should check out FIRST OF ALL.

DON'T GATEKEEP!! If you're posting about a fic, art, ANYTHING link it, credit it! Don't post a tiktok about a fic and then refuse to give the name. Not only are you failing to credit the creators of this content, but you're taking away from the fact that fandom is a COMMUNITY where content is meant for everyone.

Ao3 is an archive. You're going to see things you might not like or even find offensive or uncomfortable. But fanfic is not meant to be censored. Ao3 is made to be unfiltered, people can post anything and everything. Posting fics on other sites simply to shame their content not only brings MORE attention to it, but it's pointless. If you want a website that is censored go to wattpad. And of course, if you don't like it DON'T READ. You can filter your tags and warnings on ao3 so it won't show you that content.

Along those lines LEARN HOW TO USE AO3. There is no algorithm, it is not tiktok. You don't need to censor words in your tags. Your fics are not magically getting pushed out to people. Make sure you're using "person 1/person 2" for romantic relationships and "person 1 & person 2" for non-romantic relationships. Make sure things like non-con and underage are tagged under the warnings. AND AS A READER, know how to filter ships and tags to find the content you want. You can filter by kudos, certain tags, exclude certain relationships or characters etc. USE IT.

Do not create placeholder fics or other "non fics" on ao3. This is against their terms of service. You can (and probably will) be reported, this annoys people endlessly. We don't want to find a fic and open it to see "I haven't written this yet, sorry!" JUST SAVE A DRAFT OR DO IT IN A DOCUMENT? this seems like way to rack up hits, and it comes across as disingenuous, I don't see a real valid reason to make placeholders.

HOW TO WRITE AN ACCEPTABLE COMMENT: long is not important. A simple "loved this!" will make an author happy. DO NOT say any variation of "update pls?" regardless of how nice you think it is. Authors update when they can.I'm not the only author I've seen unhappy with this. JUST WAIT, either it will be updated or it won't, and either way you will live. If you have nothing nice to say about a fic?? MOVE ON. Don't leave a hate comment.

Do not rate or publicly shit on fanfic! A lot of authors know many people, and the chances of that author seeing whatever you're saying about their work is very high. If you don't like it, click off and read something else. If it's still living rent-free in your mind, that sounds like fan behavior to me. And there is no standard fics are supposed to meet, don't rate them.

Don't cross-post fics. Don't put fics on other sites, don't put translation on other sites. DON'T DO ANYTHING with a fic without checking with the author first. On that note, also don't post fics on GoodReads etc. unless an author explicitly says it's okay.

IF YOU DO NOT MARK YOUR BOOKMARKS AS PRIVATE AUTHORS CAN SEE THEM!! If you're going to say anything that isn't positive, you better mark that as private or better yet, move on. Don't say anything on a public bookmark you wouldn't want the author to read.

YOU CANNOT PROFIT OFF OF FANFIC, don't sell bound fics! Don't bind fics if the intention is to sell them. You're potentially creating a lawsuit for the authors of these fics and putting the existence of fanfic in danger. I've seen multiple authors debating taking fics down because of binding issues, just don't do it. AND IF YOU'RE BUYING BOUND FICS YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. it's selfish and I wish bad karma upon you.

You wouldn't think I'd have to say this but don't plagiarize or use AI to create fics/art etc. firstly making ai write something IS a form of plagiarism. bUT ALSO just write your own content. If you can't, then writing fics etc. is just not for you. No shame about it!

DON'T ASK AUTHORS TO BETA FOR YOU!! You wouldn't believe how many people have asked me to beta their fics for them, I AM NOT A BETA. I HAVE a beta because my proofreading skills are shit. If someone wants to beta they will offer, or go find a blog or somewhere where people are looking to beta. Like @needabeta You can even make a post asking around for a beta, but don't go bug your favorite authors to proofread your fics.

Really just don't harass authors. Of course, don't be afraid to send nice dms, asks, or comments if their inbox is open, but don't spam them especially if they don't reply. Respect boundaries! Don't send nasty anons, everyone knows this is a sign of jealousy and obsession. You're only succeeding in making yourself look bad. Ask yourself why is this author living rent-free in your mind, hm??

If you don't like a ship, stay away from the content geared towards that ship. There's no reason for you to be in people's inbox harassing them over a ship. It's never that deep. If you truly hate it so much, go consume the content for ships you DO like.

Stay grounded. This goes to both fic authors and readers alike. Hits and popularity are not the mark of a good fic. Getting a lot of hits doesn't mean it's good and NOT getting many doesn't mean it's bad. I'm tired of seeing tiktoks asking "so what's the next big fic?" WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A "BIG FIC"? go look through the ao3 tag and find something you like to read, it doesn't have to be what everyone else is reading.

Headcanons are not law. People can think whatever they want about the characters. If you disagree with someone's hc, just move on... and just because a headcanon is popular, doesn't mean everyone has to abide by it. Be creative!

Don't treat artists and authors like celebs! We're all in this together! We're all losers who like the same characters and ships. Of course, compliment and be kind to all creators because we put a lot of time and effort into creating fan content for you all, but don't worship anyone. Don't treat them weirdly or make a post like "omg x followed me!" that's a bit weird. If you want to be excited, dm your friends and giggle together, but acting like authors and artists etc. are celebs only creates the room for people to stop seeing them as normal people and start acting rude or entitled. And many people are uncomfortable with it!!

TLDR; stop creating so much negativity in fandom spaces. At least in MY fandom it's just constantly shitting on ships, fics, art. It's hate anons, antis, and constant fighting about every headcanon. I'M TIRED OF IT! Learn to filter out content you don't want to see, and move on with your life instead of spreading more negativity.

If you have anything you think I should add shoot me a comment or an ask and I will add it! I'm sure I didn't get everything :) this mostly applies to my own experience being in the hp/marauders fandom for a good 10+ years, and I'm sure it varies slightly from fandom to fandom.

#fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #archive of our own #fandom #fandom culture #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #fanfic authors #ao3 author #fanfic readers #fanfic etiquette #fandom etiquette #fanfic rules #jegulus fanfic #jegulus #marauders #the marauders #marauders fandom #harry potter fanfiction

[andycupte]

Hii, it's been a while...

I have been pretty busy and a lot has happened

I don't know where to start! I erased a lot already

I want to say thank you for all your kind notes on my drawings!! I even got mentioned by an user who was recommending my art. That made my day back then! I also received two asks. I made this drawing (not finished) to answer one of them.

Lucaaaas and Clauss ipipipip

I couldn't finish cuz I was trying something that probably was a bit ahead of me. Lost motivation, said i I was going to check it later and then forgot LOL. I'm really sorry. I'm looking foward to answer that question cuz I really liked it.

I dunno if some of you know that I'm doing part of a fanmade Mother magazine. It is already finished and I think they sold copies too. I haven't got mine yet but I'm really happy for it!

I drew Ninten and Lloyd to promote the countdown! you probably saw it when they posted it! >>Here<<

Uhmm what else can I tell you...

I have been receiving a lot of commissions but I have even been inactive on twitter, I have been attending them in private ; v ;

I joined a facebook latino group about mother where they post memes too. It's been active lately and there is three or maybe four artists that draw funny memes of the kids. It kinda feels like the drawings I made and I feel like I could take out my old notes and check if I could join them too! I just need time. I reaally want to draw again, it made me so happy.

Here is a drawing of my Oc and mr saturn! its kinda old too. I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Again, I was trying something that was a bit bigger than me.

This is my most recent drawing! From this year at least. I drew it just as a break from commissions. I have a lot of work to get done. I should rise prices to lower my load ; ;

I'm pretty sure something is slipping my mind--- I guess I will post again!

Excuse if everything looks chaotic and it's hard to read. I have to get back to drawing!

... what are my tags now????????..

#me :0 #earthbound #mother 3 #my art c: #earthbound beginnings

[discworld-heritage-posts]

What do you think you add? Do you think you make a poignant post better when after scrolling down through it we see someone saying it's "official"?

I'm choosing to interpret this ask as a genuine question (albeit one that's been worded a bit rudely) instead of a hate anon, because I wouldn't want to tarnish people's dashboards with hate anons.

Now, to answer your genuine question... The "Discworld Heritage Post" tagline I add to the end of posts has as much validity as I have authority to bestow it: none. Do I think my tagline makes posts better? Of course not! And I certainly don't think I make them official, (and neither my url or my pinned post claim that I do so).

I don't know what reasons other people had to start their own Heritage Posts blogs for other fandoms, but I will gladly tell you mine: I got into Discworld. I discovered the Discworld fandom in Tumblr. And, one day, while scrolling down some Discworld related tags, the idea just popped into my head. After checking that there wasn't a Discworld Heritage Posts blog already, I decided to make one.

I personally follow a few Heritage Posts blogs, and my reason to do so is probably the same as to why many people follow this blog: I wanted to see that kind of content. Tracking tags and being up to date on the most popular posts of a fandom is doable, but doing so for the dozens upon dozens of media I'm into is impossible, so I like to follow some Heritage Posts blogs to get some of those posts directly into my dashboard (it's also worth mentioning that sometimes, some iconic posts are made when people comment stuff on them, and those don't appear in the search tags, so following blogs that post about a certain fandom is the best way to come across some of those collaborative posts, because otherwise you'd rarely get to see them). So yes, I created a blog that, had it already existed, I would have liked to follow. Also, while other blogs with this gimmick usually limit themselves to reblogging, let's call them the "greatest hits", I've said since the beginning that I didn't care about how many notes something had. Be it cool art or a funny or insightful post, if I like it, I send it to my drafts.

However, none of those reasons are the main reason why I made this blog. The main reason is that I did it for myself. After exhausting all the content that showed up in the Popular Posts tab, I couldn't help but think of all the gold and treasure that wasn't there, buried and hidden due to the way Tumblr's search engine works. If you're familiar with the Discworld concept of "lies-to-children", that's what the "top posts of all time" is in Tumblr. A 20k post from 2016 will not be there, but a six month old post with 400 notes will show up. Surely there had been amazing Discworld posts and art posted in 2015 and 2013, but I wasn't going to find most of them unless I expressly went looking for them. And this blog was the perfect excuse to do so. As of replying to this ask, there's nearly 600 posts sitting in my drafts, and if I didn't have this blog I would have never discovered 90% of them. And those are the ones I've seen. I still have dozens of places I haven't searched.

I know that if I reblog a month old post with over 2k notes, a lot of people in the fandom will have already seen it. However, a 2k notes post from 2014, or a drawing with 40 notes from 2012 is something that is less likely to have hit people's dashes recently, or at all. When you come across the "Discworld Heritage Post" tagline in a post, please don't picture me as an uppity monarch performing the Tumblr equivalent of a knighting ceremony, or a stuffy museum curator deigning a piece worthy of being included in an exhibition. Picture me as a kid enthusiastically jumping and flailing my arms around while yelling "holy shit guys check out what I just found!!", because that's how I feel running this blog.

Ultimately, whether one of my posts does better or worse is indifferent to me, because they aren't my posts, or memes, or drawings. I'm just the intermediary. That being said, of course it's not indifferent to me, because more engagement means that was a post many people hadn't seen before, or had forgotten about, and one of my goals was to run a blog that would allow people to find those hidden or long forgotten gems.

When all is said and done, Heritage Post blogs are just another one of Tumblr's gimmicks. If we're not your cup of tea, you're free to ignore or block us. If you want to reblog something and don't want the tagline, you can reblog it directly from OP (or from another reblog if OP has deactivated their account).

#long post #THAT BEING SAID #I've seen people being very exited about something they made showing up in this blog and calling it an honor and stuff like that #and to those people I say: I see you and your lovely tags and my heart warms when I read them #i might not have any real authority besides a self imposed gimmick in a nearly defunct social media platform #but if seeing your stuff here makes you happy and proud those feelings are valid and I want you to treasure them #a lot of things only have the meaning we ascribe to them and my tagline might not hold any official meaning #but it does mean something VERY IMPORTANT: #that I saw your post and I loved it and I reblogged it to make sure other people could also find it and love it #I need to come up with a tag for asks don't I? ok how about #asked and answered #dhp's asks #discworld

[pharawee]

Sorry to bug you, but could you give me the cliffs notes on what happened to Best and Chahub and the issues with 9naa? Thank you

Sure thing!

So basically when Best and Chahub's series Check Out first aired on iqiyi it was unavailable to watch in many countries. This prompted the director of the series to give an interview saying that the series was too explicit to show on any other platform such as youtube, and that they were looking into maybe broadcasting it via onlyfans.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with onlyfans and what it's used for, but you could argue that it's a very strange thing to say for a professional director who would probably be better off showing his series on other platforms more suited to traditional longform entertainment (like gagaoolala, the patron saint of queer media 🙏).

Add to that that pornography is illegal in Thailand, and any mentioning of it in an actor's portfolio is probably... not that great.

The director further said that during the filming of the intimate scenes they decided to do away with all protective clothing because it just couldn't be done otherwise (decades of spicy scenes in film beg to differ but ok). The actors were fully naked. They didn't decide this beforehand but directly on set. Many fans have later speculated that due to the stressful and time-sensitive nature of a film set, this might have been coercive and exploitative.

The scenes that were later shown in the series were actually not especially spicy. Certainly not spicy enough to call them "25+". Actually, they were so unremarkable (as far as spicy scenes go) that the series has since been re-released on youtube (albeit probably as a cut version? I'm not sure. I haven't watched it) - the very platform 9naa was so sure would ban them if they even so much as looked at the upload button.

Throughout the whole shock value promotion (because what else could it possibly have been?) the actors themselves stayed strangely quiet. They're apparently on record saying that they value their intimate scenes as art. That's it. There was no further promo. There were no follow-up jobs. Best and Chahub weren't in the special ep (according to mdl Best was but I can't remember him showing up hm). They were either quietly dropped by 9naa or bid their time until their contracts expired.

None of this is especially scummy or even illegal (at least as far as we know). It does leave a sour aftertaste however, because companies like 9naa always have the upper hand over their actors. A lot would have to happen for an (inexperienced) actor to speak up because breaking contracts and NDAs would mean losing their jobs and potentially being blacklisted and/or sued (even Yoon Phusanu only came forward after Y.Ent had already broken contract by not paying him until a set date).

So if a company makes weirdly sensational claims that they later either conveniently forget about or passive-aggressively backtrack on, then that's weird. If they show no interest in promoting their own talent and have a strangely high turnover rate for rookie actors, then that's even weirder.

And this isn't an isolated case. 9naa had a whole series planned with MFlow Entertainment. Beyond the Star was supposed to star actors from both companies, only for MFlow to later finish and broadcast the series on their own due to "differences in vision and work attitudes", editing out as many of 9naa's actors as they could. Weird, don't you think?

And, most recently, Cheque Wacharawee (from 9naa's Venus in the Sky) withdrew from any follow-up projects in a letter posted to his instagram because he had concerns due to work attitudes and couldn't even reach 9naa's lawyer (notice that he too only spoke up after 9naa had already violated his contract). 9naa reacted days later with their own very subdued announcement that has since been deleted. Very, very weird.

Who do you think is to blame here? The actors (most of whom are inexperienced and in Chahub's case haven't really acted since), MFlow (a small but reliable company that makes series that aren't always the most cohesive but at least the actors seem happy 🙏) or 9naa who's at the centre of it all?

Personally, as a fan of both Best Vittawin and Cheque Wacharawee, I've decided to no longer support or watch anything by 9naa. Kiseki Chapter 2 sounds nice and I hope its leads are doing well. Maybe the company has since learned from their previous unprofessionalism but people should at least be aware that they have something of a shady track record.

And if you want to support Best, you can watch his new series Knock Knock Boys which is set to release soon. 💜

#bl industry #thai bl #best vittawin #chahub marut #check out the series #beyond the star the series #venus in the sky #cheque wacharawee #kiseki chaper 2 #ask #jane watches stuff #these probably aren't the cliff's notes you're looking for #i'm sorry for going on and on about this lmao #also i'm sure there was even more that happened with best and chahub #but i can't find one of the sources that talked about it in more detail #and i don't want to spread unsourced rumours #the vibe just feels off with 9naa #at the very least they're unprofessional

[uwublorbos]

Blorbo Spotlight: Commander Pepa

Today in the spotlight we have a character from Ellie @hawkepockets (he/him.) Ellie has been playing GW2 since Season 1 and draws cartoons. Go check out his blog!

(art by @hawkepockets)

Who do we have the pleasure of speaking with today? 

The Commander. Pepa.

What's your background? Where do you come from?

Rata Sum, same as anyone! Statics was home for a while. Then the Priory - 17 years as an Explorer! But you know what we asura say, time's an underground river. Fast, cold, hard to see ahead, and always liable to plunge you into a long lightless, airless tube with smooth rock on every side. I guess it's been rushing me along from place to place for a long time now!

What are some important relationships in your life? (romantic, platonic, familial, etc)

Oh, I'm lucky enough to have a few. Taimi, my protege - don't let her hear me call her that. My partners, Teek and Tarakk. Gorrik is... hm. I guess that's up to Taimi. Don't let her hear me say that, either. And of course, the whole guild is really dear to me. My family is still out there in Rata Sum, too! ... I should comm them, shouldn't I?

Have you done anything you'd like to brag about?

If you're asking the Commander? Nothing you haven't heard before. If you're asking ME? Well, I try to stay humble about it but Taimi let me write a foreword to her treatise draft! Or, she let me put forward a draft for her consideration. I think she asked some other asura too. Ones who've been more recently involved in academia. I bet Zojja wrote one. I bet she liked Zojja's... Drat.

What's your profession? What does a typical day look like for you?

I'm a spectre, obviously. Haven't you read... Oh, you. You mean like a job, don't you. Well, I'm. You know. I'm the Commander.

What are some hobbies you enjoy?

It's been a long time since I raided Stone Summit tombs and lost ratas for the Priory, but I still love collecting artifacts. Things that tell you about the habits and priorities of long dead communities. It sounds sad, but some of the toys, tools, and adornments I've found make me smile whenever I handle them. So many millions of people came before us. And now that the Cycle is ended, I know there will be so many after. I also like that human game, tennis.

(Note from the creator: Teek is @pyroengi's OC, and Tarakk was co-created with @antariies!)

-

That's all for today! If you're an UWU guild member and would like to put your character in the spotlight, use this form!

#uwu blorbo posting #spotlight #scheduled post

[comradekatara]

i am very curious about your thoughts on various utena/atla character parallels… every once in a while i see you offhandedly compare like.. korrasami and utenanthy and i’m like HOLD ON this is so true! if you have any further ideas about that i would LOVE to hear them. i honestly don’t know how big the audience is for rgu/atla analysis but i am definitely part of that audience. 😭

yesss i can't believe you're literally the first person to ask me this lately i've been making rgu references on like, every single post i'm shameless!!!!! over the summer i even wrote (like 95% of) an essay comparing sokka and nanami (tldr; they are meat) and i have yet to revisit it (bc i'm scared tbh) but i will post is eventually that is a PROMISE (for an audience of 5 people). also before we go any further my utena blog is @saionjeans and we have fun there. also, i have some utena/atla crossover art here and here, so check that out if you haven't already. the rest of this post will be scattered thoughts because my nanami-sokka essay will be doing a lot of the in-depth analytical work and i don't need to rehash that all now. but also, because i have never not once in my life heard of brevity, i did write a bunch of mini essays anyway, because of course i did.

korrasami and utenanthy: love and abuse

i compared utenanthy to korrasami a couple times, most notably in this post where i talk about how meaningful their relationship is despite being (arguably) underdeveloped, and then in the tags i still have to acknowledge that utena and anthy nonetheless did it better 17 years prior. but i do think that there is so much to be said for utena-korra and anthy-asami as two young women who are both set up to be "special" but in a way that denies and restricts them from their own humanity, cloistering them away from the outside world and making them more vulnerable to abuse. i talked pretty recently about how asami's abuse is really shrugged under the carpet in a way that pisses me off if i think about it for too long. rgu does such an incredible job of gradually exposing that abuse and its effects on society, not as a deviation from the norm (of the nuclear family, of the romance, of the school, etc.) but in fact a common symptom of it. lok does not critique the nuclear family in any meaningful way despite setting up so many different areas through which such a critique could be facilitated (made worse by the fact that atla sets such a fantastic precedent). but anyway, enough about lok (and how she disappoints me).

2. miki & kozue and katara & sokka: siblings and memory

in my sokka-nanami essay i talk about how various characters can be read to embody various analogues, but how my focus in that essay is primarily to draw a parallel between sokka and nanami by using the framework for gender/patriarchal logic rgu establishes. however, i also talk about how azula can be read as a nanami (or even an anthy) figure, as well as how katara and sokka can be read as miki and kozue (katara = miki and sokka = kozue, obviously) (and note that kozue and nanami are significant foils/mirrors too). i mean, they even have a similar light blue (to signify naïveté, innocence, childlike wonder) versus dark blue (to signify cynicism, jadedness, resigned subsumption into harmful norms) color scheme going on. the Special sibling and the afterthought. (although before going forward i do want to be clear that i am in no way alluding to any incestuous undertones wrt katara and sokka, and i would even argue that the allusions to incestuous desire between miki and kozue are more complex and nuanced than simply reducing it to mere perversion. but that's beyond the scope of this ask lol)

i know that some people might bristle at my comparing katara to miki (baby misogynist, little freak) but miki really exemplifies the trope of the "sunlit garden" in the same way that katara exemplifies that trope in atla. miki isn't the narrator of course (akio is), but the central motif of desire staked to an illusory formative memory since lost that defines a character's motivations and self-becoming is first properly introduced (not including the utena meeting dios intro) and defined through his obsession. in the same way, we are introduced to the world of atla through katara's formative memories, her desire that motivates her self-becoming also being an illusory formative memory, as well as a tale she longs to replicate ("the four nations living together in harmony"). katara, like miki, is defined by her naïveté and childlike innocence, her somewhat reductive desire to be noble and heroic, and her need to flatten everything into a clear-cut narrative wherein she is always its heroine. like miki, she resents her sibling for being transformed into a more cynical version of themselves in accordance with society's pressures (in kozue's case, it's the inescapability of patriarchy, whereas in sokka's case, it's... a lot of things), and longs for a time when they were "truly happy" and playing together (playing piano, playing in the snow, you get it).

both kozue and sokka heavily subscribe to patriarchal logic and comport and reduce themselves in accordance with the dictums of a world they consider truly inescapable. kozue seeks power within her limited frame, whereas sokka only seeks power insofar as it allows him to assume his very narrow role of protector, but they both assume those limitations to be ontological and fixed in a way that does not allow them to see past it. however, the lack of empathy both miki and katara refuse to attempt in understanding their worldviews, in no way making an effort to broach that misunderstanding instead of simply letting the chasm between them fester, nonetheless implicates them equally. after all, they too both adhere to their own limited worldviews, only in their worldviews they are fundamentally special and thus beyond reproach. sokka and kozue are both integral aspects of katara and miki's sunlit gardens, and their idealized return to a picturesque nostalgia involves a transformation (or regression) of sokka and kozue into their more innocent former selves. and sokka and kozue are in turn obsessed with katara and miki, the central figure around which their identity and actions revolve.

through this framework, aang thus becomes katara's anthy (aangthy, hehe), as the embodiment of katara's hopeful/nostalgic ideal of heroism, companionship, and the idealized promise of a distant irretrievable past. like anthy with kozue, aang "replaces" katara's longing for the softer, more innocent version of her brother with aang's friendship. like miki with anthy, katara possesses romantic feelings for aang despite his functioning as a replacement for sokka before he became a shell of his former self (or kozue before she became... sexually active). this is because katara, like miki, idealizes the patriarchal narratives that dictate that all significant relationships be either romantic or familial (or both). she wholeheartedly subscribes to this notion, hence why she attempts to subsume everyone who can meaningfully fit into her narrative framework as either a lover (aang, haru, jet, zuko for all of 2 seconds) or a pseudo family member (aunt wu, hama, pakku, toph, etc etc.), replicating those dynamics as many times as she needs to to make them fit within her two dimensional tapestry. and crucially, coming face to face with yon rha subverts that, because she recognizes the messy humanity spilling forth from the neat boxes she puts people in, and must thus contend with her own role in her narrative. of course miki, being a side character and not the narrator, certainly not the hero, does not get this luxury. and he must find a way to grow up anyway.

3. akio and ozai: patriarchy

there's something truly incredible about how both akio and ozai manage to inflict psychological harm upon every single character in their respective shows, even if they never interact with those characters directly. their reach is vast and spindly; it cannot be overestimated. and yet, ozai has only reigned for about six years. akio is only acting chairman of ohtori academy. they are not patriarchy itself, but merely its signifier. and obviously their modes of embodying patriarchy differ in many respects: a school is not a nation (despite the similarities), and a father is not a brother (despite akio being father-like). ozai is defeated by by being stripped of his technology of violence, whereas akio is not "defeated" in a literal sense (although i suppose anthy driving a car through his ghost and exploding him into a cloud of roses does make quite the statement), anthy merely leaves. and yet, in both instances, they are both forced to succumb to their own limited ideology regarding what constitutes power. if ozai lacks firepower, he lacks control over his subjects and the right to sovereignty. if akio's control is challenged, if people realize that they can just leave, that the ends of his world are entirely arbitrary, he no longer has the power to abuse and exploit and use others for his own ends.

the metonymic signification of patriarchy figured through both ozai and akio in dual ways further emphasizes their respective roles. ozai is both king and father, akio is both (acting) chairman and (acting) father. patriarchy dictates every aspect of [a patriarchal] society: from interpersonal dynamics to the nuclear family to the school to the state to the world. what makes both akio and ozai so brilliant in this regard is the fact that their influence is reflected in all these facets. ozai abuses every member of his family individually; controls them as a system; inflicts his (family's) propaganda onto the fn education system, rewriting history with (almost) no one to disprove him; inflicts his imperialist agenda both within the fire nation (ruining local economies through industrialization, forcing citizens to conform to restrictive roles, inflicting violence through occupation) and beyond it; he refers to the world as "my world," as if he is its creator, its owner, or its god. and in many ways, he is. akio similarly abuses everyone interpersonally (most notably anthy, touga, and utena); subsumes utena into his nuclear family system so that she cannot leave; uses the academy as a site of control in which adolescents are forced to comply with socially codified norms and thus made more vulnerable to the influence of adult authority figures (especially those who emphasize their individuality or inherent specialness when compared with the rest of the student body); operates ohtori as a sort of nation wherein patriotism is reified through the use of uniforms, affiliations, sociopolitical hierarchies, and an acting government (the student council); and defines himself as the creator/owner/god of his world. to be end of the world. to embody not an apocalypse, but a cage.

ozai and akio both fashion themselves the entire world, but it also makes them more vulnerable to resistance, to any mode of critique that points out the obvious: no, you're just one person, and the logic you use to dominate others is deeply, noticeably flawed. it's a logic that they exploit but that in turns exploits them, as they have so deeply internalized it that they can no longer immunize themselves against any kind of resistance. ozai claims that there is no room for an air nomad in his world, which is why aang defeating ozai through the pacifist values of his people and not through his greater power (which would nonetheless be subscribing to ozai's logic, and thus letting him win ideologically if not physically) is so crucial in shattering ozai's paradigm. just as utena, as someone who refuses to conform to the strict, arbitrary, and violently enforced norms of patriarchy, can so thoroughly disrupt akio's control by resisting him. just as anthy can by leaving. akio remains in his cozy little coffin, exerting meaningless control to uphold the hollow puppet of his ego.

people sometimes joke about how long it takes for zuko to recognize that the burning off of half his face was "cruel" and "wrong," but it's not that zuko didn't find it painful, it's not that zuko didn't fear his father, it's not that zuko idolized his father beyond reproach. he questioned his cruelty, in fact he did so constantly. he simply saw no other way to live. he had no conception of a world beyond ozai's defined limits, had no choice but to believe ozai's dogma and loathe himself for not sufficiently adhering to it. similarly, people often ask "if anthy could leave all along, then why didn't she?" because she, too, was trapped in a coffin of her own self-loathing. to leave an abuser is not as simple as simply stepping beyond the threshold and never looking back. first, you must locate the threshold. then, you must find the courage to look beyond it. i briefly touched on azula being an anthy figure before. well, i think that she is. just because she has yet to see beyond the threshold does not mean she does not find her limits. and yes, its not triumphant, and yes, her facade that masks her pain and fear is shattered, but ultimately, that breakdown is a good thing for her. because that's her first step to freedom.

4. the sunlit garden as mythmaking events

i talk previously in this post about the motif of "the sunlit garden" in rgu vs what i like to call "a mythmaking event" in atla, and i do want to elaborate on that slightly. i provided a link to a post on my utena blog going into what the sunlit garden "is" for each principal character, and atla has a similar mode of communicating these nostalgic desires and idealizations that motivate self-becoming, largely through flashbacks. for aang, it is quite obvious, as his memories of a before and after are (temporally, although not psychologically) fragmented by an entire century. that disconnect severs the two versions of himself quite neatly. those memories with gyatso and the other air nomads (as well as with child bumi, and with the mysterious kuzon) are his idealized past, his "sunlit garden," whereas the storm is his mythmaking event, the point in his life where his choices collide with his telos. there is no going back.

katara and sokka have a similar sunlit garden, their snowball fight being the last truly happy memory they have before the black snow falls and their childhood innocence is severed from them forever. kya's sacrifice and murder is katara's mythmaking event as she then chooses to assume the mantle of her mother who took her place, decides to become the greatest waterbender possible to compensate for surviving the genocide, and chooses to be a hero so that the collective memory and sacrifices of her people will not be in vain. like utena, she witnesses pain and suffering at a very young aged and is moved to become a hero so as to mitigate that suffering, even if her own formative tragedy can never be rectified. also like utena, she idealizes a seemingly utopian past wherein violence was more covert and thus presented itself as more ideal (the time of princes vs the time of harmony). her naïveté and persistent idealism are both her downfall and her greatest virtue. she refuses to accept the true state of the world to the point of blindness, but it is also that refusal to accept it that allows her to force the world into a kinder shape.

as for sokka, his mother's death was also a formative trauma, but his true mythmaking event is when hakoda leaves for war with all the other men of his tribe. hakoda tells him that "being a man is knowing where you're needed the most, and right now, that's here, protecting your sister." it's not a rose crest ring, but it may as well be. from that moment onward, sokka officially comports his identity into being his sister's protector, which is how he thus defines his manhood. and of course, being his sister's protector means being a martyr, because the precedent for "protecting katara" that has already been established is, well, dying for her. like aang being the avatar and the last airbender and katara being the last southern waterbender, sokka is thus defined by his necessity (ie, usefulness to others) as well as his isolation – not only the "last warrior/man" of the swt, but also via his own process of depersonalization and self-dehumanization as he attempts to fully embody his role as an eventual martyr.

zuko's mythmaking event is, of course, branded onto his face. in fact, zuko essentially assumes both katara and sokka's mythmaking events by first being irrevocably altered by his mother's sacrifice, and then being all the more transformed by his father's decree as he attempts to dictate what kind of man zuko needs to be. his "sunlit garden" is also shown to us in flashes: memories of a (literal!) sunlit garden, of turtleducks, of his mother's gentle guidance, of happier times on ember island, on his father's hand resting on his shoulder with pride instead of malice. it is unclear just how truthful these nostalgic memories are. obviously, his family was never actually happy. ozai had always been exerting control over them, even if his violence was once more obscured. we never see azula's sunlit garden, for instance (although i'd argue that she and zuko possess the same mythmaking events), and i cannot help but wonder whether it's because, like touga, she never actually had one.

finally, some honorable mentions must go to the following: toph, whose sunlit garden is also her mythmaking event, as she learns from badgermoles how to hone her gift and reject the rigid societal impositions that seek to limit, repress, and control her. hama, who never attempts to return to her sunlit garden in the swt with kanna, despite her freedom as established in her mythmaking event of teaching herself to bloodbend; she knows that she is irrevocably altered, and thus she can never go home again. appa, whose sunlit garden, of playing with the other bison at the southern air temple, occurs in conjunction with his mythmaking event of meeting aang and becoming the avatar's animal companion.

all of these events are depicted through flashbacks wherein the consecutive shots between flashback and present day mirror the character who is having the memory in the past and present, overlaying their younger face onto their current face with identical framing. i'm too lazy to compile a bunch of screenshots here, and i couldn't find the post i'd seen previously that had done so, but if you're as familiar with atla as i am, then you already know exactly what i'm talking about. this device is so effective particularly because it exercises restraint. every flashback in atla is crucial because it signifies either a sunlit garden or a mythmaking event that motivates the character its focalizing in the present day. atla is economical with its flashbacks, but not withholding. like with rgu, flashbacks in atla are used with a specificity of purpose, and illustrate their points in clear, precise ways. just because atla is not as overtly metatextual with its central themes of narrativization, nostalgia, idealization, bias, and storytelling, does not mean it is not present, and in fact, overt. ranging from katara's role as narrator to the fire nation propaganda aang attempts to correct in school, the use of memory and illusion is crucial in illustrating how atla functions as a narrative about heroism, legacy, and challenging dominant myths through preserving cultural memory under an imperialist regime.

5. final thoughts

obviously, i could go on forever. there is simply no limit to my ability to unpack and dissect these two shows (hence, my sideblogs dedicated to doing so). i haven't even talked about zuko as an analogue to saionji with regard to their latent homosexuality, misogyny, violence, and struggle to conform to a patriarchal ideal. and i barely touch on katara as an analogue to utena with regard to their naïveté, heroism, myopia, persistence, and somewhat misguided desire for justice (through her terms specifically), although like kozue and nanami as mirrors wrt sokka, her traits that i describe when comparing her to miki also map onto utena in many ways – except of course, utena, unlike miki, is also the "hero," and thus has the same destabilizing revelation regarding the banality of evil that katara undergoes in "the southern raiders." moreover, i only discuss one central motif in utena, because i think the sunlit garden is the trope that maps best onto the thematic work atla is doing, but i'm sure that there are many more frameworks i could compare. and yet, i only have so much time, and only so much space in which to ramble. so hopefully, for now, this suffices. however, if there any specific areas in which you would like me to elaborate, you know that i shall always be happy to do so.

#frogs-in3-hills #asks #analysis #synthesis #GOD. how do i even tag this #literally just. aaaaahhhhh goes crazy #guess i'll tag the atla characters but not the utena characters #katara #sokka #aang #ozai #zuko #azula #toph #hama #appa #kya #hakoda #korra #asami #and no i'm NOT putting it under the cut #even tho it is ....... 17 paragraphs long and no one but a select few will comprehend it #because it's IMPORTANT dammit!!!! #my blog my rules #so there

[grandadofrad]

RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS VOL 1

In the spirit of gratitude for the plethora of free resources out there for artists that I've been gleefully ransacking my entire life, I want to share some of them that I've compiled.

smithsonian open access: this is a HUGE one! lots of images that are absolutely free to use, as well as an incredible set of 3-D resources. Their collection spans the same breadth that their multiple museums do-- natural history, gems, fine art, aerospace/engineering stuff, etc. so do not sleep on this.

(screenshot is the 3-D digitization page, one of my fav sections)

2. The League of Moveable Type is a resource for free fonts, but not just any free fonts-- professionally designed free fonts. Some of the bigger sites can be a lot of wading through sub par stuff, but every single thing here was very carefully and lovingly designed, and is free.

3. Unsplash is full of great free to use images. Seriously, huge collection. Portraits, textures, 3-D renderings, you name it and it's probably here and free to use. ALSO cool because images will note whether their creator is for hire if you like their work. You can also submit your images to this platform. (I think it has a premium section but I haven't needed to engage with it yet)

(screenshot of unsplash.com with a search for 'y2k render')

4. rawpixel's Public Domain collection. They've been high quality scanning public domain images for a while. They're free to use under a CC0 license, which is basically without restriction. They've got lots of categories, I personally love the Graphic Design and the Vintage Illustration sections.

(screenshot of the 'patterns' section of the Public Domain collection on rawpixel)

5. Photopea is a free Photoshop alternative that runs in your browser. It's got a few quirks(especially if you run a non-chromium browser, but stay strong anyway) and is ad-supported, but really powerful and robust. It also opens PSD files, supports smart objects and basically all of the Photoshop asset filetypes(.abr .grad .pat etc), as well as has filters, even a couple that Photoshop itself has gotten rid of in their more recent versions. You can use the fonts on your machine, export transparent pngs, and do generally anything that the big guy does. You can also donate a small amount to remove ads and support the singe person(!) who created and maintains it.

(screenshot of a .psd file with smart objects/smart filters open on photopea. The 'file' dropdown menu shows exciting options such as 'export' and 'save as psd')

6. Brusheezy.com is a great place to get free brushes, vectors, and photoshop assets in general(which can all be used in Photopea, btw).

(screenshot of the 'categories' page of brusheezy.com)

7. dafont.com Last but not least, I will include this huge font site but assume most people already have it on their radar. Free fonts! No account needed to download! Tons of categories! Many are demo/limited versions, so pay attention especially if you plan to use numbers or special characters as those are often the things left out of the free to use demo versions. It's nice to have a lot of options but to the discerning eye a decent amount of the fully free fonts here will fall a bit short/feel unpolished. That's not to discourage you from it, as I have a huge collection of types from here and routinely check it when I need something specific.

(screenshot of dafonts.com with the 'sci-fi' section pulled up)

So that's what I've got right now for visual art resources, I hope you can find something useful in here. Feel free to share this list and keep an eye out for the next one! Thanks to everyone out their with a love for sharing in their hearts, it's really inspired me to make some things with no other intention than to put them into the world as tools for others!

#free resources #resource list #art resources #free stuff #free collections #royalty free #free to use #shareware #for the people #dafont #brusheezy #smithsonian #rawpixel #unsplash #league of moveable type #public domain #cc0 license #fonts #textures #patterns #brushes #vectors

[donnerpartyofone]

I'm sure @staff has kind of a lot on their plate right now but while I'm thinking of it, this would be nice to have:

Add a Fandom community label. Or a dedicated universal tag, or a box you can check during post creation, or just anything that has the ultimate effect of allowing users to filter fan content.

This could at-least-slightly ameliorate problems with the search.

I have come into acceptance of the fact that fixing the notoriously dysfunctional search, even on individual blogs, is just way, way, way out of scope for some reason. Tumblr must know that a functional search would radically increase engagement, so I assume that the persistence of this glaring problem means that there is simply no way to fix it. I tell myself that "search" really just means "give me a handful of related suggestions" and not "show me every instance of X". I am learning to live with this.

What compounds this issue is that there is no way to separate fan content from content directly related to your search terms.

EXAMPLE: I search for a popular movie, and the results are so overburdened with people's personal stories and drawings that it's impossible for me to find anything actually related to the film. I give up quickly and Tumblr loses engagement from both me and the people who post screencaps/gifs/music/production info/etc.

EXAMPLE: I'm searching for something--anything--but my commonplace search term happens to be related to a very specific fandom. Perhaps I have never even heard of this fandom. But after scrolling through yards and yards of fan fiction, I have to give up, and Tumblr loses engagement from me and also whoever is posting about the actual thing I wanted.

OTHER NEGATIVE EFFECTS:

1. I stopped tracking ALL tags because they were constantly serving me fan content. I haven't bothered with tags for years because of this.

2. I blocked tons of innocent users because I couldn't avoid seeing their fan content; in order to stop seeing it, I have to sacrifice our entire ability to interact. I'm not alone there, sometimes I even see a note about this in someone's header ("Sorry you're blocked, it's probably because Tumblr won't stop showing me your fan art").

All of these scenarios happen to me and other users all the time and we have been vocally complaining about this. And I know Tumblr has rebranded itself as the fandom app in recent years, but I would say that even a fandom person still wants to see i.e. actual movie & TV show stuff and not just other people's drawings and stories.

So basically Tumblr has two big, related problems: Search doesn't really work AND is clogged with fan content that drowns out everything else.

BUT what if we could just have ONE problem? What if the search had a toggle that includes or excludes fan content. Then even if the search only gives me limited results, I can improve those results by making sure they are ONLY related directly to the thing I want. This would make the Tumblr search instantly, hugely more useful and I would do way more with it, way more often.

Maybe it could even work both ways, like I can choose to ONLY see fan content for a given search term, fandom folks would probably have a use for that. But the main thing for me is that even if search functionality is unfixably limited, I could refine the limited results and get only the most relevant stuff by excluding one common piece of metadata. Problem not-solved, but significantly reduced!

[cheolism]

Hiii I recently became a Carat and as an avid fanfic reader, I was wondering if there are any stories you can recommend!! I have no member preference, as long as there is an interesting story (longer the better, if there are chapters even better). And i love me a good smut 👀

hi sweetheart!! first and foremost, i recommend checking out the other authors of svthub. here you'll find a variety of svt writers!!! as of right now we're doing our spring collab, so def check that out!!! note that i only have a few members on here (gyu, joshie, hoshi, kwannie)? i didn't realize until i finished that i only had these four???? idk if this is my subconscious trying to tell me something but i'll continue to ignore it!!!

my personal faves are all reblogged under fic rec, but here's some that have stood out to me since reading~

spoiled by @wonusite ; KMG

"summary: you have never been spoiled, but that changes after you meet the man your mother is going to marry."

it's got four parts and is so fucking disgusting and wonderful it's ridiculous. it's seriously a marvel to humanity tbh and when aliens come and ask for a relic to prove that humans deserve to be spared from their alien wrath, i'll give them these fics <3

acouasm by @angelwoozi ; HJS

"n.) a ringing noise in your head — and it's just three words of promise whispered by yours truly during moments of sorrow, or moments of joy. the whisper also lives in the crevices of your mind during moments of pleasure, when he makes love to you, his true love."

it isn't necessarily long, but it is so fucking sweet and artful? in my tags i described it as truly belonging to the golden hour, and tbh i still stand by it. it's incredibly tender and freya's way with words reminds me of ancient greek and roman statues; there's an era in art called neoclassical, where artists mostly focus on depicting mythos and creatures from greek, roman, and christian lore. like, an angel with outstretched wings, her shawl expanding and wrapping around her, heaven's spotlight surrounding.

to the brim by @toruro ; KMG

"description: all your sweet husband wants is to put a baby into you—is that so bad?"

LISTEN mika writes some of the filthiest shit, i'm not even kidding. idk how her brain comes up with some of this stuff? somehow she KNOWS all of my deepest kinks and secrets and just writes them like they're NOTHING? truly a menace to society and we should all be on our knees thanking her.

bluff and nonsense by @thepixelelf ; KSY

"

“Soonyoung? Yeah I know him, you should too. He’s on the uni’s dance crew, and ever since he joined them, their popularity’s skyrocketed. I’ve met him a few times, great guy — got a tendency to run his mouth but hey, no one’s perfect. He’s smart anyways, probably knows how to deal with the consequences, right?”

or

Soonyoung never thought one bluff could lead to so much nonsense."

this fic fuckign RUINED ME. the others don't have as much plot as this, but even months after reading it still remains one of my favorite fics. i've been meaning to reread it? but i just haven't gotten to it, but i know i'll still feel the heartache and betrayal all over again, it's just that good. like it's so good you can feel the stabbing in your heart and tummy :(

vanilla by @milfgyuu ; HJS

"Summary: Joshua has a secret but perhaps it’s not really a secret at all. Maybe you’ve just refused to see it in an effort to keep your feelings at bay."

probably the dirtiest fic on this list. it's absolutely wild. there was NO preparing for everything in this fic? it's insane. absolutely insane fr. like -- even reading the tags can't prepare you. reader wasn't prepared and i really don't think ANYONE ever could have been.

stay-at-home husband/dad mingyu by @celestiababie

it's what it says! stay at home gyu who is willing to help his darling breadwinner spouse with whatever they need :) it's got multiple parts and such, and it's so cruel that it exists because it'll occupy my thoughts every once in a while and then i just have to stand there thinking about desperate little gyu whining while a teacher is talking. will change your life, 10/10 recommend

pussy sport by @duhnova ; BSK

"synopsis: leave it up to boo seungkwan to almost suffocate between your thighs, eat you out till you’re crying, and to figure out a new kink of his."

when i turn 108 and am getting ready to walk off the edge of the earth, and they ask me my secret to living so long i'll think back to this fic and smile, and then suddenly i'll be brought back to life. it's this serious. every once in a while someone on the svthub server remembers it exists again and goes feral. and i completely fucking agree, we should be going feral over boo seungkwan 24/7. to not be feral over boo seungkwan and this fic is a cardinal sin, and not the sexy kind.

#from katie #ask #anon #n*sfw

[titanrpg]

how i learned ttrpg design, part 3

you can check out part 1 here and part 2 here

as always, this is about my personal experience learning ttrpg design, and i claim no particular expertise or authority on what constitutes "good" game design

3

so far, i've discussed the games i drew on for the start of my ttrpg education. now let's talk about how to improve (when you need to/if you want to). now, i'll say i don't think "improving" is a great way to think about it. i prefer to think about it as "how to be aware of the tools you need to accomplish your design goals"

for some people, the three games i've discussed are plenty for them to get started. these people tend to like experimenting for themselves and then doing more research when they need help. (i fall in this category.) other people may want to read more before starting in earnest. this is also a smart way to go. (obviously you can go overboard with researching so much that you never actually start, but we are far from that place here.) either way, at some point you'll need more information than you currently have.

how do you find the wisdom you seek? the best answer is simply asking for help from people you look up to/trust. but i've never been good at asking for help, so uhhh this post exists

quick story time. i recently visited maryland to go to my partner's sibling's wedding. in a local comic shop's manga section, i saw this book. i was like, oh fun, it's a manga about kids playing a goblin slayer ttrpg.

but then, when i opened the book...

mechanics!!

it's a TTRPG!! i don't know anything about goblin slayer, but now i'm combing through this book for cool tech. of note so far: at the end of every round of combat, each player has to make an attrition check. fail that, and your fatigue score goes up. at 4 fatigue, you fall unconscious. at 5, you die. punishes long fights and incentivizes players to find alternate solutions. it uses only d6s. and there are sections of fiction illustrated with beautiful manga art. these choices feel old school to me, but it came out in 2019. now i'm really excited. i'll get to see what japanese osr is like!

to me, this pursuit of ttrpg tech feels like discovering an ancient library and searching through old tomes for the power i seek. and there's an online version of this that anyone can dig through for ttrpg tech: osr blogs

old school renaissance/revival, or "osr," as far as i understand it, is a ttrpg genre/design paradigm, typically along the lines of old school d&d. i'm not the best person to explain this, but the way i think about this school of design is it tends to prioritize player skill over character skill. it's the difference between solving a puzzle and rolling to solve a puzzle. because of this, they often make really cool mechanics for challenging players that don't just amount to "roll a 20, do the thing." they also tend to share their thoughts on traditional blogs.

here's an amazing, meticulously catalogued library of keystone OSR posts

by marcia b., @/traversefantasy on twitter, who has an OSR blog of her own using marxist and freudian frameworks for analysis

rise up comus

by josh mcCroo, who's working on a game called his majesty the worm. pretty sure i don't have to say anything else

permanent cranial damage

by ava islam, whose assertion that "Armour Class and Hit Points are the same thing" blew my mind when i was starting out

goblin's henchman

which is where I found the hex flower tech that i adapted for HEXFALL's main mechanic

and one non-OSR blog, that of jay dragon

yes i am a possum creek fangirl. this blog is bananas good. if you haven't read up on playground theory, oh boy you're in for a treat

final takeaway: you never know where you'll find new tools and ideas!

obviously credit people and don't use what's not yours. but have fun and share cool tech with others when you find it!

hope this was helpful <3

p.s. another place that apparently used to have a ton of ttrpg activity was google+. every so often i hear whispers of digital libraries filled with all sorts of salvaged g+ ttrpg treasures. never seen an invite link with my own eyes though. if you hear anything, let me know, will ya?

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #how i learned ttrpg design

[hotwaterandmilk]

Just another one of those posts where I do a bit of a general update on a few things. This time opening with an edited scan of Maomao from Nekokurage's Kusuriya no Hitorigoto manga adaptation to get your attention. Boo!

I've been reading the Kusuriya no Hitorigoto light novels and enjoying them in the sense that I think preteen me would have liked them. I started reading the LNs earlier this year (as they're great for reading in waiting rooms and the like thanks to their short format) and I think the LNs are definitely my preferred version of the story. The anime has a nice OP theme but is fairly middling otherwise and I don't go much on the art in either mang adaptation (though Nekokurage's art has improved recently and Maomao looks less like a giant-headed baby doll in the Animate bonus cards per my scan above). Maomao is the real draw in all versions so obviously I preordered her Nendo the first moment I could — bring on May 2024!

Speaking of translated light novels you can buy right now, the first part of the Oguni no Koushaku Reijō wa Tekikoku nite Kakusei Suru light novel was just released as A Young Lady Finds Her True Calling Living with the Enemy Volume #1 by Cross Infinite World (see here). It's a solid story that doesn't overstay its welcome and Bertine's business acumen is just *chefs kiss* for those after a competent heroine.

Once the second and final part of this is out, I'd love to see Cross Infinite World pick up another short (but unrelated) PASH! Books publication, Shiitagerareta Shuusai Reijou to Ringoku no Haraguro Kenkyuusha-sama no Amayaka na Yakusou Jikkenshitsu. The web novel version was quite solid but I haven't read the printed version yet. Yeah I like science ladies, what can I say? It would be so good to keep seeing interesting titles for girls and women being picked up for English release because I tire of isekai villainess stories (which imho peaked years ago with Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou) and there are some great little tales out there that do things a bit differently & just need to be shown to the right audience.

I'm so excited for Metallic Rouge in early January! While it used to be that getting an original property from BONES was always exciting, it has been a while since they've created anything I've really cared about but I'm hoping this will break the drought. If a show has Izubuchi, Kawamoto, Yamada contributing then you know I've got to be there. Plus a couple of lady leads in a SF setting? Trailers with some great action and music? I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much but I'm keen to give it a shot. If it isn't for me at least I can say I've given it a chance, right?

I've been terrible at sharing the latest about this year's Silent Möbius anniversary, but I'm not a news blogger and frankly very few people care so eh y'know, whatever. BUT I figured I should say something about FAIRYTALE PARFUM releasing scents for the key members of AMP this month (though Mana has been totally forgotten, it seems). You can check out the range here, there will be a launch event on the 10th of December in Shinjuku too.

Asamiya drew new artwork for the bottles and while I'd love to get Kiddy's perfume that nods towards her bodily acceptance in its notes, importing that stuff is just too much of a pain so I've settled for a tiny acrylic stand of Kiddy instead. Sadly there's no option to buy a set of stands so I just went "whatever" and grabbed just my best girl. Anyway, if you'd like a tiny acrylic stand of an AMP girl with extra weird proportions then make sure you check out the FAIRYTALE PARFUM website.

#personal #sorry for the long post #this is just y'know a bunch of stuff that didn't warrant individual posts #so here it all is in one big slab sry

[somethingclevermahogony]

Character Intro! Ninma

Hello y'all! I am currently working on making a post for Shela, the winner of the poll. However before I introduce you to a secondary character I thought it would make sense that you know both of the MCs. I previously introduced y'all to Narul, if you haven't seen that yet or if you are new to my WIP check out the pinned post on my blog or click here.

Send any questions you have about either of them!

Art is the work of @faeporcelain ! i hope to do a commission or two with just Ninma in the future.

Intro continues below!

Note: Everything listed below is the case at the start of the story, and are not necessarily the case for the entirety of the book

Ninma is the youngest daughter of Hutbari, King of the City State of Labisa

Ninma was born and has spent her entire life within Labisa

Ninma is five years old though she is unusually small for her age.

Her father is King Hutbari, her mother is Zibatha (Hutbari’s 6th and youngest wife). Zibatha is the child of a Jezaai mother and a Namutian father. This makes Ninma ethnically, 50% Kishic, 25% Jezaai, and 25% Namutian.

Ninma has 27 siblings, of which she is the youngest

Partially due to Hutbaris desire that his children not become undully influenced by their mothers's foreign influences, Ninma spends very little time with Zibatha, and knows relatively little about her.

Despite her young age, at the insistence of her father, Ninma has been tutored on how to read and write and is quite adept at it, when she wants to pay attention at least

Ninma's favorite story or piece of literature is The Naked Lord and the Crashing Waterfall by the poet Ramu, a less than age-appropriate comedy. Much to Ninma’s displeasure, the tutor who allowed her to hear this tale was promptly banished from the palace grounds and replaced.

Ninma loves to climb and has already broken 2 fingers from various falls at the age of five.

Her favorite colors are yellow followed by red.

Her prized possession is the golden circlet which she wears on her head, given to her by Hutbari as a birthday present

Her favorite food is nubut tuntiwanash literally "ovened fish" or more simply "Baked fish". She is also quite fond of peaches, which being still new to Kishetal, introduced from the east, are an incredibly expensive delicacy.

And here is a bonus, an Excerpt from Book 1 Chapter 1

A pair of slaves wafted the king and his guests with fans of wood and parchment to cool the nobility and to shoo away the fat black flies that had a penchant for taking afternoon swims in the wine and the beer. A handful of the king’s children took seats around the pit. The king's once prolific proclivity for producing children had slowed considerably in recent years. A rumor had drifted around the palace that Hutbari had become particularly close with one of his young advisors favoring the young man's company over that of any of his wives. They often disappeared into locked chambers to discuss policy and foreign relations. These discussions must have been quite heated if the sounds the servants heard emanating from closed doors indicated anything. The king’s youngest daughter, Ninma, dipped her bread in the wine, so as to allow it to soak up the crimson liquid. No doubt the little princess was meant to be practicing her letters under the eye of a palace scholar but Hutbari was far too engrossed by the fresh bowl of wine in his hand and the scene before him to notice her.

@patternwelded-quill @flaneurarbiter @skyderman @blackblooms @roach-pizza @illarian-rambling @dezerex @theocticscribe , @axl-ul By the way if anyone wants to be put into a taglist, please let me know by replying to this or messaging me!

#writeblr #my mc #writing #fantasy #worldbuilding #queer fantasy #fantasy writing #world building #narul #testamentsofthegreensea #fantasy world #wip #wip excerpt #send asks #art

[sage-nebula]

Tails in IDW #54

Okay, I'm sorry, I can't wait. I've gotta talk about Tails in issue #54 and how far he's come and how I will never NOT be on my "he's a hero, not a sidekick" bullshit after this. I'm going to put it under a cut though, in case you haven't read the issue yet / don't want to be spoiled. You can always come back to check it out later! Until then—

So as we saw in the preview pages, we start with this:

I feel like most people know this, but in case you don't: canonically, Tails has a phobia of lightning. Thunder too, in a way, since thunder accompanies lightning, but this is the big one. I don't think we're ever given a specific reason; my headcanon is that lightning was involved in whatever killed his parents, though he doesn't remember it. But it could also be something as simple as "the higher you are, the more likely you are to be struck, and since Tails flies, he has a fear." That's reasonable.

But either way, when asked about whether Surge and Kit having powers that directly relate to Sonic and Tails' biggest fears, the IDW writers said that it was indeed intentional. (It might have been Ian who said this? It was either him or Evan, can't remember which.) Meaning that the writers and artists absolutely had that in mind during this issue, so Tails cringing here on the very first page as he lifts Sonic out of harm's way as best he can is not just because he does tire pretty quickly when carrying Sonic around, but because he is literally facing his biggest phobia in the worst way as he does so. Because this isn't just a random lightning strike; Surge is controlling the lightning and she is targeting him, trying to knock him out of the sky. And then, what do you know—she succeeds!

Tails gets straight up electrocuted and stunned. And as cute as his little dizzy eyes art is, being electrocuted like that is no joke. Sonic get hit with the brunt force of Surge's attack, but it looks like any shocks that hit him were incidental. Tails' whole body is lit up, and he was shocked badly enough that he let go of Sonic's hands, which then allowed Surge to make the collision. His worst nightmare come true, basically.

But does he let that stop him? Does he cower and beg for someone to save him? Nope.

After Whisper loses Cyan to Surge, Tails holds her back from getting herself electrocuted just moments before. (And side note, but he has to literally full-body hug her to hold her back . . . he's so little.) But as he tells her, he's not giving up! Yes, Surge is scary af. Yes, she's weaponizing his greatest fear. But the city being destroyed aside, Whisper's family was taken from her. Sonic is hurt, and can't defend himself well. Like, legitimately, right before Whisper sent Cyan to Sonic's aid:

His knee is shot. He can still move on it, but not well at all. Certainly not well enough to hold Surge off for long. By contrast, his recent electrocution aside, Tails is doing all right. He can still move. And despite how afraid he must be, he's got a plan. And what a plan it is!!

After getting Sonic to lure Surge to an appliance store, Tails uses all the appliances in the basement to drain her power. Basically, causing a power surge, lol. And side note, but this bit right here—

—not to talk about my own works, but it reminded me of what I literally just wrote, wherein Sonic apologized in advance for having to knock AU!Tails out. :') Brothers.

Tails' plan works, but the thing about power surges is that they aren't gentle. They can explode and cause fires. And when that's about to happen (and I imagine Tails has some experience with this due to his workshop lol), what do we get?

Again, lightning is Tails' greatest fear, he has a phobia of it . . . yet here, when stray shocks of electricity are coming off Surge, it's Tails who pushes Sonic behind him, Tails who tackles Sonic out of the way. Again, Sonic is injured; he can move and he can run, but it's difficult. So Tails airlifting him or knocking him out of the way is not a big surprise in that context. But Tails is literally putting himself between Sonic and his own biggest phobia right here, facing his fear not just for himself, but to protect his big bro!! Look how far this baby has come!! This is a huge moment!!

But whoopsie-daisy, who should appear on the scene but the traumatized little boy who was led to believe that his toxic big sister was dead :') And remember how I mentioned earlier that Surge and Kit were designed with Sonic and Tails' biggest fears in mind? Tails' phobia is lightning. Sonic's is water, and drowning. And so when Kit arrives, and discovers that Sonic (unintentionally) lied to him . . .

Kit doesn't dish the same, cold, sadistic drowning statistic / threat that he gave to Tails back when their first encounter happened (because he's far more furious here), but his intention is still pretty clear. He has as much control over water as Surge does over lightning, and he is directly targeting Sonic, who, again . . . has a fear of water, phobia of drowning. But Tails, seeing what's happening (and having been down this road with Kit before) immediately jumps in the way, and uses his tails to disperse the water. Which is a pretty cool trick tbh!! It makes you wonder if perhaps he's done something like this before—if Eggman ever targeted Sonic with the robotic equivalent of a giant fire hose (lol), and Tails learned to deflect bursts of water as a result, to cover for Sonic in situations like this. But then again, Sonic looks pretty shocked in that art above . . . and here:

Like "bro are you seriously taking hits for me right now??" (side note, but Kit asking Sonic, "why would you bother with me, you already have him" is just :( like I fully expected it, but still. ouch.)

And then we get . . . the best most important panel of them all:

Setting aside for a moment how Sonic is a bit panicked about the danger that Tails has put himself in (although we will talk about that more in a second), how many times have we seen this, but reversed? We've seen it over

and over

and over

and over again

Obviously Sonic trusts Tails to back him up in a fight, obviously he's fine with Tails helping him, but when things get really, really dangerous, Sonic protects him. He has kind of a "do as I say, not as I do" approach when it comes to this, where it's fine for him to be in life-threatening danger, but he really doesn't like it when Tails is. Push comes to shove, when things get really bad he'd prefer if Tails was somewhere safe. And this exact gesture, holding out a hand to shield Tails behind him / tell Tails to stay back, is one we see repeated throughout the series.

But here, it's flipped! Sonic is telling him not to—he quite literally yells, "Tails, no!"—but Tails pays this no mind. Water is Sonic's biggest fear, drowning is his phobia. And Tails has faced Kit before, Tails knows how to handle it. So this time, he's the one holding out a hand to shield Sonic, he's the one gesturing for Sonic to stay back, he's the one saying "I got this." Danger level is currently at a point where he needs Sonic off the front lines, and he's the one taking point. And Sonic does not like it (and I don't think Sonic will ever like it tbh, it's a big brother thing), but that's the way it's just gonna be right now as far as Tails is concerned and I mcfucking love it.

(Back to Sonic's perception of the danger: It might seem weird that Sonic was fine with Tails airlifting him during the Surge fight, when she was firing lightning at them, but panics when Tails goes up against someone who can drown him, but this makes sense to me for two reasons. One, on the most basic level, lightning is not Sonic's biggest fear. Obviously being electrocuted is no fun and he is not a fan, but it doesn't set off the panic alarm in his brain that water does. He can get shocked by lightning and get back on his feet pretty quickly; the same can't be said if he's got water being forced into his lungs at a rapid kip. So even though Surge had wisps and Eggman's tech powering her, I think that on a base, primal level, he's more immediately worried about Kit because Kit is the one weaponizing his greatest fear.

On a more story-centric level though, they really didn't have a choice. Surge's speed was manufactured to rival Sonic's own, and he's got a leg injury. He's not fighting her at full power. They can't just leave, because that would leave the citizens in danger (plus she stole Whisper's wisps and Whisper is their friend), but also Sonic can't really fight her on the ground. I don't think he wanted Tails to be in that situation, I think if he could have had it any other way he would have—but in the moment it was the only plan they had, until Tails came up with another one. So that's why I think he was like "we have to keep it up" versus his clear "get out of here" that we see in the basement when Kit attacks him.)

Of course, Surge wakes up and Kit carries her off and that whole bit is also very sweet and sad and tragic and heartwarming—but really, I am just so, so fucking proud of Tails here. He seriously saved the day in this whole issue. Yeah, Surge did get a good hit on him—she was using lightning and he was in the sky, of course she hit him—but who was the one who came up with the plan to stop her? Tails. Who implemented the plan? Tails. Who squared off against Kit when he showed up and reacted exactly the way everyone knew he was going to? Tails. "Sidekick" my damn ass, he deserves the hero label just like Amy and Cream and everyone else in the comic. A sidekick is someone who assists a hero, who reports to them and ultimately answers to them. The hero is in charge, the sidekick is not. But that's really not the case here! Yes, Sonic looks out for Tails—but Tails looks out for Sonic, too. Sonic counts on him as an equal partner, and so calling him a "sidekick" just doesn't feel right. I love the IDW comics, but "tech-savvy sidekick" is always going to annoy tf out of me, lmao.

Anyway. Super proud of Tails. He shined in this whole issue. He deserves the whole entire world, or at least a bowl of mint choco chip ice cream. I hope when all this is said and done, he gets some.

Can't wait for issue #55!!

#IDW sonic spoilers #miles tails prower #sonic the hedgehog #unbreakable bond #surge the tenrec #kit the fennec #sth

[fly-sky-high-09]

HII I’m not sure if this is the right blog but I’m so curious about how you color artwork, like what brushes you use, I really love your style and have thought about taking some inspiration from it

Hi! :D This is fine, I'll reblog it to my art blog so it can be easier to find, no worries.

I'm not the type that uses too many different brushes! I ended up comfortable with just a single brush for most of my work unless the style calls for something else (like soft look of Rain World, which I did a little step by step for here~)

The main brush I use for just about everything is Design Brush. I use it for sketching, I use it for lineart and I use it to add shadows and highlights! I also like to mess with the backgrounds with it

I got hooked to Real G-pen recently for fun lines and texture! Opaque watercolor is what I use for soft rendering like slugcats~ Gouche is very fun to paint with also because of the texture! I haven't used in awhile tho. Light running ink is what I use for smokey effects, clouds, stuff like that! I love the brush! And uh... the last brush is called *checks the source* Nouchika Square Brush. It's free! It's square! It's new to me! very fun to use!

Details about the steps with Design pencil:

After sketching, I basically just lineart with the same brush in a different layer (or multiple of them, if needed!). Once done, I also duplicate the lineart layer to make the previous a little sharper, since depending on the pressure the brush can be faint or very strong, which will come in handy with colors later!

Single layer VS doubled:

Next, for easy color in, I select the areas outside of lineart, invert selection and even shrink it by 1 pixel. Then, I color the new layer bellow lineart flat with one base (in this case, Koromon's pinkish color)

Above it, I hand fill other colors and yes, there are probably easier ways to do that but I am way to used to the hard way XD Note that I rely on this: Hold CTRL and click on base color layer to select everything in that layer, then make a layer and color within that, so I don't cross the border/lines.

I usually lock layers for the next part but you can also just make a new layer above.

Use gradient tool (with which ever options) and select colors that are slightly shifted in hue and saturation from the base color picked one and toss in a bit of gradient shadow and highlight in each locked color!

Remember, color picker is your best friend ever to befriend in any art program! it will help you find hues in this gradient you can work with to add to the shape while doing the simple render!

Now, I use the same brush still but I change sizes depending on which area I'm going to go across. Nice part about it is the aforementioned pressure that can apply less or more color depending on how much you press down. I go with the light strokes over first and then stronger ones above! you can get softer shading this way! Same with highlight~ If something feels off somewhere, color pick the nearest hue and stroke the mistake away~ You can do the same if you want to use any present hue in another part of the figure

after that's done, I then tend to put another layer and select Overlay option on it to add at least a little bit more shadow or highlight (I chose highlight in this case). There is no background for this drawing so I figured it would be nice to add a little bit of cold colors to the warm ones Koromon is made of.

You can play with other layer options or even edit and color adjustments like tone curve, color balance and brightness/contrast, with any color layer! I do it a lot actually~

You add some extras if you want and you're done~

There is not much to it, so I use this for a simple style commission!

#ask #my art #sorry if something sounds odd it's a little later here as I toss this together dfgjgh #I dunno how good is to use the brush I use I'm just a bit too used to it with how I handle my pen pressure #I noticed it has a different(?) texture on my older tablet somehow? #might be the dps difference between tablets #but anyway #that's how I roll~

[dalamusrex]

hey there! used to write with a bunch of yall ages ago, back when tes tumblr was popping. lionofmara, booksandbrimstone, and more. where is everyone writing these days? (posted anon bc im not using my writing blog to send this)

Ahh, I see!!!

Some of the closest people I used to write with are still on tumblr! A good chunk of them have just fallen out of TES and are on their personal blogs most of the time, or fallen into another fandom, or both (hello I'm both haha). My personal is at @dragonbleps where you can catch me blabbing about Dal or his many AUs, among other typical tumblerian reblogs. Any Dal art is typically posted to the corresponding blog and then reblogged there.

A small handful of me and my friends made BG3 blogs that we write on now! Dal's is at @noamuth, which is a sideblog to this blog. I've written with @roquenxnar (@dragxnsfire's writer) @fxrest-bcrn (@aetherianxarchive's writer) @theoakandthemistletoe (@boarchasers writer) and @yaivai so far! Some may be multimuse, multifandom or both.

There's also @tadfooled and @lockpicksandjuggling (both @whatoddities writer) but most of the writing I do with her is on discord! We like throwing ideas back and forth and talking about them and fleshing them out a little :)

Some people RP on discord but I've tried that before and it feels weird to me, but that's just a me thing. Maybe I'd get used to it. There miiight be a few people who've moved to Pillowfort? But I haven't seen anyone I write with really move to any other site. I have a Pillowfort but it's empty, made during one of those annual Tumblr Is Dying--Quick, Backup Your Blog And Jump Ship panics lmao.

TES Dal isn't going anywhere, and like I said, all his AUs are a sideblog of this blog, so any ask to this blog doesn't go unnoticed if someone still wants to RP with Dal! I think about him all the time and am more than willing to talk about him, I've just kind of run dry on story ideas for TES, so having AUs lets me keep those Creative Juices flowing while I continue to think about Dal haha.

I think at this point I'm just gonna drop all RPs I currently have in TES drafts aside from the one with Seldo which is fairly recent, and have a (mostly) blank slate :) Or maybe not, because I'm indecisive lmao

Check the replies and notes of this post to see any additions!! Like me, some are more than willing to still RP TES, it's just been slow going bc of lack of content and also irl stuff <3

#ask #Anonymous #missy rambles #ooc

[pteroducktyll]

FtM Hysto Recovery + Tips (Plus general tips for dealing with low/no spoons or recovering from any surgery)

I haven't been on Tumblr for years, but recently re-joined to check out art, as I start to work on getting my idea for a graphic novel off the ground (as well as getting serious about improving my art again). However, I'm hoping these first few posts get found by an entirely different audience. This is being written in 2023.

I'm going in for a laparoscopic hysterectomy on Thursday (today is Monday) and want to share my experience, as much as spoons will allow, so that other people can hopefully benefit in the future. I, personally, have struggled to find things online that fit my situation as a trans man with a history of pre-cancerous pap smears, abnormal bleeding, PID and ovarian cysts (but not PCOS). Although hysterectomies for "GRS" or gender affirming surgery purposes are easy to get where I live, mine in particular is primarily being done to avoid cancer and to stop the abnormal bleeding and random debilitating pain that comes out of nowhere every few years and upends my life for weeks/months. So if you're someone facing the prospect of a laparoscopic hysterectomy, regardless of your gender identity, and have a history of medical issues (but not PCOS or endometriosis) in your reproductive region, this blog may help you! Or, alternatively, if you're a trans man looking to get a laparoscopic hysterectomy, whether or not you've had issues in that region, this might help you, too!

It should be noted that this is written from the perspective of someone in their 30s with a complicated medical history, including Type 2 Diabetes and a very rare kidney disease (which has an average life expectancy of 29 years for men, but we aren't sure how it affects trans men), so the pre-surgery process I've been through is not the typical one. I also have chronic pain and know from my past experiences with very severe pain that a) I have a low tolerance for any pain beyond what I deal with day-to-day and b) I have a high tolerance for opiate pain medication, which means it takes a higher dose for me to address the level of pain that a lower dose would address in someone else. These both affect the length of time that I'll likely need to be on painkillers, and how functional I'll be while I'm on them. This, in turn, affects how quickly I'll be able to do things like return to work and driving.

I should also note that although it's common in some places for this surgery to be completed as day surgery, my jurisdiction almost always keeps people in overnight; this is because it takes almost 24 hours for the anesthetic to work its way out of your system, and until it does they won't have a true indication of your pain levels and, therefore, won't be able to make sure it's adequately controlled before sending you home. It's much easier (in my experience, and according to the doctors!) to stop you from having pain in the first place than to get it under control once you do.

Also, I live with my partner and a roommate, and my retired parents are about 90 minutes away and have a guest room. My support network isn't huge, but it's high quality. My partner managed to get 3 days off work for my surgery and the 2 days following, and after that is on a light workload for about a week in case she needs to take care of me. She also has a lot of flexibility with her job, and her boss really likes me, so if there are complications or she needs to spend more time at home to look after me, I don't think it's completely out of the question. All of this is to say that I'm going into this surgery from a very privileged place, in terms of not having to do much to look after myself in the aftermath. My surgeon did advise me, however, to take 1 week (for sure) off work if I could, and that I may need a second week. My work consists of two research jobs that draw heavily on my brain power, but don't require me to move around at all, especially as I work from home, so the issue is the painkillers, rather than actual healing time. Other jobs will require different amounts of time off work.

Because I'm neurodivergent and like to have as many details as possible about ... literally everything, I'm going to make this as detailed as I can. Essentially, I'm hoping to share everything I know and experience without leaving anything out. If it's too much detail for you, I'm going to be doing my best to include useful headers.

Notification of Surgery & Lead-up

I received notice about my surgery just over a month before my surgery date; it was around June 26th that I was emailed and told my surgery would be on August 3rd. I had previously met my surgeon in January, and was told it would be a 6-8 month wait until surgery. Between that appointment and being given my surgery date, I'd had bloodwork done, as well as an internal ultrasound. I've had several internal ultrasounds before and while they are far from pleasant, they are not as dysphoria-inducing for me as they are for other trans men, I'm sure. I am more physically uncomfortable during them than mentally/spiritually uncomfortable.

In the notification email, my surgeon sent additional attachments; about 200 pages of information from a) their office specifically and b) the health authority [one document about hysterectomies, one document about recovering from surgery in general]. These documents answered most of my questions, and also had instructions about fasting, pre-surgery instructions (there's a special sponge I have to buy and use the night before surgery and the morning of surgery) and recovery information. The documents were very generic, and because they came from different sources, the information was sometimes contradictory. I, personally, took the information on board in this order of trustworthiness:

Things my surgeon had said in-person during my consultation appointment in January

Things included in the information from my surgeon's office directly

Things included in the documents from the health authority

If there were contradictions that seemed extremely important (e.g. one document said to wash everything my face with the special sponges, while another said, in all caps, to absolutely NOT wash my head or face with the sponges), I followed-up with the surgeon's office or the most appropriate person (e.g. pharmacist).

Pre-surgery Appointments

Because of my medical history (diabetes and Alport's Syndrome), I had an extra step in here. My surgeon required me to have a consultation with my internal medicine doctor's clinic (but not with my specialist) to get the all-clear and make sure my risk level wasn't too high. This doctor made some assumptions about the medications I'm taking, which led him to think I had both diabetes and a heart condition, which would have put me in a much higher risk category. Because of that, he ordered extra bloodwork, and an ECG, and booked a follow-up with me for a few days later. That initial appointment with him ended on the assumption that the surgery likely would be postponed. However, the bloodwork and ECG all came back fine, and at the follow-up he gave me the all-clear and said my risk wasn't very high at all.

I had a few other pre-surgery appointments.

One was with the surgeon. In my case, the doctor actually doing my surgery is a resident colleague of the surgeon I initially consulted with. Now that I had a specific date for the surgery, and my life situation had changed a bit since the consultation (e.g. work), I asked to meet with the surgeon to ask questions that had come up since the initial consultation, and so that I could meet the person who would be cutting into me and make sure I was comfortable with her. She answered all my questions really well, and it turned out I was more comfortable with her than the original surgeon. This was a quick 5-10 minute talk, but I highly recommend asking for it, even if your surgeon hasn't changed. You'll have another chance to talk to your surgery just before being wheeled into the OR, but you'll be nervous and may be medicated by then, and it's just nice to have this conversation ahead of time and in an environment where you can look at a list of questions you've written down, and actually pay attention to the answers.

The hospital required another two appointments before surgery:

The pharmacist

About a week before my surgery, the pharmacist called for 5-10 minutes to discuss my current medications, supplements, vitamins and holistic medicines (if I were taking any) and to find out what time of day I take them at. Easy peasy.

2. The anesthetist

Exactly a week before my surgery, the anesthetist called to discuss the operation itself and the anesthetic. I'm not sure if the doctor I talked to will be the anesthetist who is actually in the room with me, or if it was just her job that particular day to call and get the information that will get passed onto the one who will be in the room. She was very nice, and explained the method of anesthesia, as well as how I'll likely feel when I wake up, etc. She also saw on my chart that I have a history of chronic pain, and zeroed in on my back and shoulder. She asked if there are any positions that make me more comfortable, and then explained the position I'd be in for my surgery -- tipped back toward my head -- and that this sometimes gives people back and shoulder pain even if they don't have any to begin with. She said my arms would be alongside my body, fairly tight to it, and I said that would be fine. I practiced laying them beside my body later that day and promptly discovered that's actually pretty painful for one arm, but I'll mention that when I get there and hope for the best! If I was having the conversation again, I'd answer by saying I wasn't sure how that would feel but that I'd practice it before the surgery day to see, and then ask who I could talk to if it turned out there's a better position or if that one wouldn't work. Ultimately though, the surgery should be 1.5 hours to 4 hours at most, so I'm not overly concerned. What you should take away from this if you're having this surgery and don't already have back/shoulder pain is that you might wake up with some, but that it should go away in a day or maybe a little less. This type of surgery also requires the surgeon to inflate your belly with gas in order to make room for the scopes and so that they can see what they're doing. That gas can stick around for a day, sometimes two, according to the anesthetist and can be a little bit painful or uncomfortable. I can't remember anything else that came out of this conversation.

In terms of pre-surgery appointments, that was it.

Tips and Tricks for Being Prepared

The next little bit is information I acquired through talking to my therapist (who's had several laparoscopic surgeries!) and many hours of research online, as well as living as a person who often has few spoons.

Get your first 1-2 weeks of meals planned and ready in advance. For me, this means I've picked up a large number of cans of Alphaghetti-type foods, and I'll be buying as many frozen meals as I can but have VERY little freezer room because my partner and I share with our tenant. Other options include things like HelloFresh, identifying nights when it will be easier for your partner if you order food in (if you can afford to), making big batches of food leading up to surgery while you're well and then freezing them, creating a list of meals you'd appreciate friends bringing over [remind them to bring them in disposable containers, so you don't have to feel guilty when it takes you weeks to get the containers back to them!], etc

Buy some Depends/adult diapers. I bought store brand (Life brand, specifically, which is Canadian) ones. The only ones I could get were maximum absorbency unless I wanted to pay twice the price for name brand ones, but I suspect I could do with a minimum absorbency one. I bought the underwear-style ones. In the store brand, they don't look very underwear-like at all, but if you have more money to spend, some of the name brand ones look convincingly like underwear! I also bought 'Unisex' ones, but would have bought womens if the unisex ones weren't an option; I suspect the mens' might have a built-in bulge area that would be awkward for me. The point of the adult diapers is that their 'waistband' is not a traditional waistband -- it's about 8" tall, very thin, and crinkle-cut so that it doesn't put pressure on your skin. This will stop you from having clothing pushing on your incision sites. BONUS is that they ARE absorbent, so you won't have to also wear pads to deal with discharge (which can, apparently, last for 6 weeks). Try the Depends on for a day a few days before surgery. Yes, it will be awkward and you'll feel silly. I am literally sitting in bed, with nothing wrong with me, wearing nothing but an adult diaper and a tee shirt while my partner's at work. But this has 2 purposes: 1) chances are you haven't worn these before, and you want to make sure you've got the most comfortable ones you can in terms of fit and style; 2) if you've worn them once already, it'll be familiar when you go to put it on when you're ready to leave the hospital; you'll know which side is the back and which side is the front, and the 'weirdness' of wearing them will be less unsettling. You're going to have other weird stuff going on, this doesn't have to be yet another weird thing happening!

If you live alone or your partner doesn't (or can't) change the sheets, layer sheets on the bed. That's right, layer your mattress with bottom sheets. That way, you can peel the top one off and have a cleaner sheet beneath it. It won't be the same as being able to sleep on a fresh, clean sheet straight out of the cupboard or dryer, but it's going to be better than the one you've slept, sweat or, universe forbid, bled on.

Get a LEAKPROOF (truly) travel mug with a handle. After surgery you'll have maybe one comfortable position to lay in. You're not going to want to get out of that position to retrieve your water, but you're also going to need to be drinking a lot of water (it helps you recover, and also helps get your bowels moving again). Being able to lose your water in the bed is a luxury, but a necessary one. I got mine at Winners for pretty cheap.

Get a nightie or onesie. I usually sleep naked. I don't really own pyjamas -- when I need to cover up to sleep (like when I visit friends or travel), I throw on a pair of joggers, or boxer briefs. But those both have waistbands and, remember, we're trying to avoid waistbands. I ordered a sleep shirt from Oodie, which was on sale, but still expensive (I paid around $60, including 1-2 business day shipping because I didn't think of it until the last minute), as well as a halloween one-sie from Old Navy that's apparently leftover from last year's halloween stock. I'm expecting the onesie to be way too hot, but I need something I can wear out in public in case I have to get groceries, or pick something up at the pharmacy, or stand outside because the building's burning, without exposing myself. I also borrowed a robe to go over the sleep shirt when I leave the hospital.

Have whoever's picking you up bring 2 pillows. One goes between your abdomen and the seatbelt, and you sit on the other one.

Have whoever's picking you up bring fast food. When you leave the hospital you're going to either be ravenously hungry or feel like you never want to eat again. Either way, fast food is going to be the one thing you didn't realize you needed so badly in your life until that moment. Your body's going to be craving carbs and fat, and fat is also what's going to help your pain pills kick in.

Have ice cream, chips or other junk food on hand. This is mostly so that you have something to eat when you take your pain pills. Fatty foods help opiates work faster; as someone who takes them several times a month for chronic pain, I've sometimes noticed a difference of -hours- between taking them with fatty foods and taking them on their own.

Get a walking aid. We use our abdomens for everything. If you don't already have something like a cane, pick one up. Keep the receipt though; if you don't end up using it, you can usually take them back. With that said, my therapist said it's at about the 2 week mark when you feel like you actually need one. If you don't have a cane but you have walking/hiking sticks, dig them out and keep them handy.

Grab some baby wipes. You can get laparoscopic incisions wet, but that doesn't mean you're going to feel like you have the energy or endurance to shower right away. You're still going to want to keep your pits and bits clean.

If you take daily medications, organize them in a pill organizer. Things can get confusing when you're on painkillers, or when a partner is dishing out your meds. You know exactly how many you take, and how often, so the best way to approach this is to get a pill organizer and get all your doses for a week ready before your surgery. Monday AM, Monday PM, Tuesday AM, Tuesday PM, that kind of thing. There's nothing worse than being on painkillers and trying to remember if you've already taken That Very Important Medication You Can't Miss or not. Or, worse, not even realizing you've missed something that can give you withdrawal symptoms, and suddenly waking up a few days after surgery feeling worse than you've ever felt in your life and wondering if you need to go to the ER, only to have it turn out that you missed your meds.

Buy something for yourself that you can look forward to. I bought a video game that I've wanted for a couple of years that was finally on sale. I haven't touched it, and won't until sometime after surgery when I feel up to it. Giving yourself a little reward when you're going through something hard is always nice.

If you're diabetic...take a minute before your surgery to remind your partner/anyone you live with/anyone who's going to be looking after you about how and when to check your blood sugars, what numbers are abnormal for you, and what to do about them. Being ill or recovering from a surgery can really throw your diabetes out of whack, even if it's well-controlled beforehand, and recovering from surgery might make you feel a lot of the same symptoms you'd feel from a hypo/hyper or DKA, so make sure you (or someone else) test your sugars regularly and have things on hand to deal with abnormal or worrying results.

Take your phone everywhere. Painkillers (and pain) can make us unsteady. As someone who's taken a fall and had to wait hours for my partner to wake up and find me and help me back to my feet (and then bed), I don't recommend it.

These are the things I know about pre-surgery, but I'll try to update...eventually if I learn anything new post-surgery.

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