#I may post this several times for people in different time zones to see

[justanotherbirdbrain-blog]

Geology of Natural Disasters and How to write them into your fictional universe.

So, you want to write about a natural disaster to advance your plot and torture your players/characters even more? Let me tell you how, accurately.

I feel like unless it is a volcano, natural disasters are a pretty slept on plot drivers, and some of them are really cool and unique! Today, I will talk to you about land slides, earthquakes (And earthquake related disasters), and volcanoes.

Landslides: Probably one I see the least in stories, but one that would be incredibly interesting to write into a plot where they believe in curses. Landslides can happen along ocean bluffs, slightly hilly areas, and highly mountainous areas, this means it is something that can happen in most landscapes. But what can trigger a landslide? Mostly all you need to trigger a landslide could be just abnormally large amounts of rain, excessive deforestation (with a little bit of rain), or an earthquake. If you don't want to use deforestation or an earthquake as a catalyst, a really cool indicator that the land is slipping and may be prone to a collapse is J hooked trees.

This indicates that there is soil creeping slowly over time, and it may lead to a major landslide.

2. Earthquakes: Probably one of the easiest things to write, earthquakes can happen anywhere, but they are most common in places that are tectonically active areas. There are about three types of environments you can expect earthquakes to be common. The first is just rugged mountains, if your landscape looks like this, you should write in earthquakes. Associated hazards could be landslides, avalanches, and large falling rocks.

The next landscape could be a thin mountain range, next to the ocean, very scenic, but very dangerous. Essentially, I am describing a subduction zone environment.

Earthquakes in these areas could equal a couple different associated disasters. Scenario one: A very large earthquake happens, and the ocean begins to recede. This is a tsunami, enough said. If you are writing a tsunami though, please, please, do not write it as a large wave, thank you. Also, a common way people are hurt by tsunami's are from them going into the ocean because they don't understand a tsunami is going to happen.

Scenario two: A large earthquake happens, your characters are in a valley and suddenly the ground begins to liquify as the ground shakes, once the shaking stops, the ground becomes solid like nothing ever happened, except everything has suddenly sunk into the now hard ground. This is called liquefaction and it typically happens in areas that have loose dirt or lots of saturated soil.

Scenario three: There are a lot of small earthquakes, they do not cause a lot of damage, but you begin to notice that one of the isolated mountains has a plume rising. Earthquakes can indicate lava moving underground and the filling of magma chambers.

The next environment that can host lots of earthquakes would be regions that have a lot of really deep valleys and small mountain ranges (not cone volcanoes), but overall seems pretty flat.

This indicates a transform fault like the San Andreas. If you want to hint at there being earthquakes in the area, you can show fence posts that are suddenly several feet out of line at a dilapidated farm or something similar.

(These earthquakes are different because they are cased from sideways movement, not an up-and-down movement this hint can only be used for this environment). Volcanoes would not be found here, but liquefaction and landslides could still occur here.

4. Volcanoes: If you thought earthquakes had a lot of information, volcanoes do too. First you have to ask yourself, what kind of volcano you want to have, what kind of eruption style? So lets break down the kind of eruptions you can have and what their landscapes look like. Hawaiian Shield volcano: This will produce a smooth fast lava, the landscape typically is pretty flat, but there will be small cones and the rocks can have a ropey or jagged texture and the rocks will be almost exclusively black to dark red.

Stratovolcanoes: These will be solitary mountains, typically, that look like perfect cones (Picture shown in earthquake section). These will have large ash cloud eruptions and pyroclastic flows, they may have some lava, but typically most damage is done from the pyroclastic flows (think Pompeii). Some hints of these, other than describing the cone features (which can be hidden by other mountains), would be to talk about petrified wood! Trees can get fossilized in the ash and I imagine it would be very strange to find this rock that clearly looks to be a piece of wood, but its a rock. Subcategory- Calderas: Used to be a large stratovolcano, but they erupt so explosively that the entire cone collapses and creates a basin.

There are a lot of kinds of volcanoes out there, so forgive me for just putting an infographic and then talking to you about these really rare types of eruptions that I feel like people should know about.

Okay lets talk about blue lava (kind of) and black lava

You will notice the lava is still red in the middle of this image, during the day these would look like a normal eruption, but at night the burning sulfur would make it appear blue. Some cool features other than this, would be that any water in the area would become very acidic and burn the skin due to sulfuric acid. This would again be really cool if you are trying to describe a 'cursed' land.

Black lava: This happens only in the east African rift I believe, but it is a carbonatite lava, but if you are writing in a rift valley (where the continent is tearing apart to form a new ocean) this might be a cool feature. The lava will cool white and will quickly erode, it makes for a very alien landscape!

Anyway as always, this is supposed to be an introductive guide for the basics of writing geology to create cool landscapes/features into dnd or fictional universes, if you are a geologist please understand my oversimplification of tectonics, I didn't want people to run away.

#geology #rocks #stem #dnd #dnd worldbuilding #worldbuilding stuff #fictional world #worldbuilding #fictional writing #writing resources #creative writing

[crishayle]

Astrology notes

Reminder. When reading, take into account your entire natal chart.Thank you for the feedback⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

People with the Moon conjunction/trine/sextile Jupiter are very friendly. I will not say that they immediately seem cute at first impression (you need to watch the ascendant for this), but in further communication with them you feel their charisma and friendliness.It's very cozy with them!

I often discuss with people their natal chart and their complaints, and I noticed that people with Mercury square/opposition ascendant have certain features in terms of mind. For example, memory problems, or good long-term, but poor short-term memory, it is difficult for them to concentrate on several things at once, or on the contrary, they lack perseverance, it is difficult for them to assimilate new information. Their mind is not weak, just different from the usual one.Or I observe problems with speech (stuttering, burr, lisp, unusual accent)

Selena in the 3rd house, Mercury conjunct Venus/Mars, Venus in the 3rd house have very pleasant voices. Their voices are velvety, most often modal (chest)

Have you noticed how during the scorpio season all astrologers wrote posts on the topic of sex? It's all scorpio's vibe𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑

I read on one forum that the combination of the ascendant in Leo and the Sun/Venus in the 1st house gives a bright and sexy appearance. I'm not sure about sexuality, but their appearance is really very beautiful and unusual!

People with Lilith in the 4th house are more likely than others to think about moving to another city/country, and just to another place. In a change of environment, they can feel out of their comfort zone and self-development. If Lilith is amazed, then the person will want to move because of personal beliefs (most often because of politics)

It seems to me that the most important and cardinal thoughts come to our minds when transit houses return to natal houses (for example, the Sun in the 3rd house in the natal chart and the transit Sun in the 3rd house).It's like a personal new year in my head.You sum up your results, plan, create different options for the future. Ideas may come up that you haven't thought about before. Physically, nothing new is happening, the usual routine (home and study/work), but in a person's head there are huge independent (!!!) changes

Guys, whose strongest planet in the natal chart is the Moon, do you also f*cking feel every full moon and new moon?

People with the Moon in the 1st house, the ascendant in Cancer, the Moon in Cancer/4th house, the Sun in the 4th house need personal space. They can be very sociable and energetic, but they need at least 15 minutes of silence to distract themselves and be alone

Retrograde natal planets can be compared to a splinter that is stuck deep under the skin and you can't see where it can be pulled out. It's difficult, but it's possible. Retrograde planets can also be made less problematic, but it will take a lot of effort

Some underestimate the influence of stellium, believing that the ascendant, the sun and the moon are enough to understand a person.As practice shows, most often this is not enough, especially when the stellium and the Big Three are different in temperament.Please consider your stelliums

Mars in Sagittarius can look athletic even if they don't do sports

If you see a person who reads the news about maniacs, murders and crime, then there is a 90% chance that he has placements in Scorpio/8th house

Most content makers have strong placements in Leo/Aquarius/5th house/11th house. I'm talking about people who have been blogging for a long time and professionally, as well as whose work is related to the media sphere

Mercury in Virgo/6th house has a lively mind in conversation. They argue well, they discuss well, they can turn your words against you.They may respond sharply, but in fact

Often we may be attracted to the creativity or personality of some famous person because of similar placements in the natal chart

On the astro-seek website, you can guess the Sun/Moon/ascendant of a person from a photo. According to statistics, people with Scorpio/Aquarius in the Big Three have the least guessed photos. Still, I agree that these are the most mysterious signs of the zodiac

According to Ceres in the natal chart, you can learn about the upbringing of a person (since this asteroid shows the connection between parents and a child).For example, Ceres in the 5th house indicates a creative child. He could come up with a lot of games, drew a lot, and behaved a little differently than other children. He could love to read or listen to fairy tales.Good imagination, but perceives visual information best

It seems to me that people with the Moon square/opposition Saturn/Uranus/Neptune/Pluto are more likely than other people to wind themselves up. These people perceive emotions, events, people deeply. They have high emotional intelligence, but it is often difficult for them to turn off their head and calm down from thoughts

#astrology #astrology community #zodiac #horoscope #astrology blog #astrology signs #tumblr fyp #astro community #natal chart #astro observations #natal astrology #ascendant #astrologer #astro notes #natal chart observations #fyp

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

This is Yonatan Shimriz. He's the brother of Alon, one of the 3 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, and accidentally killed by the IDF due to mistakenly thinking they're terrorists. Yonatan also survived with his family the massacre of Oct 7. And he just had a baby boy. Life WILL win, despite those who think they have the right to take it away.

It's been announced today that Israel has hired Prof. Malcolm Shaw, a Jewish British law professor, who specializes in the field of human rights and territorial disputes, to represent it at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. He's one of 4 lawyers that will represent Israel.

If I hadn't verified this is true through several news sources, I would not have believed this scenario. Terrorists fired an RPG at an IDF helicopter in Gaza, missed it, and ended up hitting a medical clinic in kibbutz Nirim, inside Israel, though as you might imagine, it's very close to the border. This is what the clinic looks like after the hit:

Lebanon has filed a complaint with the UN Security Council, blaming Israel for killing Saleh al-Arouri on its territory. Because harboring a senior Hamas terrorist, responsible for the murders of countless Israeli civilians, is not an issue, apparently. Lebanon charges that this is the biggest escalation between it and Israel since 2006 (the Second Lebanon War). They have no issue with Lebanon violating UN resolution 1701, which put an end to that war, conditioned on Hezbollah not being present anywhere between the Litani river and Lebanon's border with Israel (of course Hezbollah has been, and has been firing rockets at Israel from this area). Then again, the UN has done nothing to enforce that part of resolution 1701, so I guess if they don't care, why should the terrorists?

After I posted yesterday that the most likely scenario for who caused the blasts in Iran that killed 84 people is ISIS, the terrorist organization did take responsibility for the terrorist attack. Guess who Iran is still blaming for the attack, and swearing revenge against? The Jewish state. This is what antisemitism looks like. Well. It's one of its many looks.

On a different note, I wanted to see what the American media said about Claudine Gay's resignation, and I was horrified to hear that it's all painted in terms of liberals vs conservatives. Here's the thing, that may be completely true, but I just don't care. Antisemitism is a real issue, and the way the resignation is talked about, it's like the safety of Jewish students is nothing. Antisemitism is just a tool, and sometimes one political camp uses it against its rival, while at other times, that happens in the opposite direction. But it's like Jews are not even a part of the conversation. IDK, maybe it's because I'm an outsider, but the way Jews don't seem to matter even when antisemitism is supposedly finally being discussed, is truly startling. I'm in the middle of an active war zone, and I'm honestly sat here, worried for Jews abroad.

After a lot of work to gather information about their fate, the last 3 Israeli men missing since Oct 7 are now defined as hostages, which brings the total number of those kidnapped to 136, including bodies, and Israelis kidnapped before the massacre (2 living men and 2 bodies). There's one more missing Israeli woman, whose fate is still to be determined. We're 3 months into this nightmare, and there are still so many question marks. Even with those defined as murdered or kidnapped at a certain point, we've seen that sometimes there's new info, which changes what we believe happened to them.

And here's an example for the latter. This is 38 years old Tamir Adar.

Until yesterday, he was believed to be held hostage in Gaza. As new information was gathered, it was determined that he had been murdered on Oct 7. Tamir is the grandson of Holocaust survivor Yafa Adar, who was herself kidnapped, and released in the hostage deal. His body is still being held by the terrorists. Yafa herself was filmed as she was being taken to Gaza, holding her head up, and not crying. In an interview she gave after her release, she said that she refused to cry, because she wanted her family to be proud of her if they saw the footage. She also said that she's still not free, because her grandson is still in Gaza. I can't imagine what Yafa and her family feel after the news about Tamir's fate. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #terrorism #anti terrorism #antisemitism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish

[kuroashims]

☠ CHRONICLES OF A BRAINROT ☠

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After many years simming in my corner, I finally decided to step out of my comfort zone and share my pixel babies with the simblr/tumblr sphere!

I started playing sims with the first opus when I was pretty tiny, and couldn't stop ever since. This game allows my creativity and inner world to express like no other game would, and that's what I love so much about it.

I created many different worlds, kingdoms and stories, but the one I enjoy the most is my One Piece save I started a year ago. It is the first time I am really eager to leave CAS to actually play the game!

Back in 2015 I've been introduced to the manga/anime universe and I never went back! It truly was a revelation, and a revolution in my own stories. But when I discovered One Piece, all of a sudden I was hooked. This universe is so colorful and deep at the same time, it is the safe place I go whenever I feel down, and it never fails me. It may sound silly but I can't explain how warm it makes me feel. Especially Luffy's vibe and laugh, he's so precious.

So last year when I had to stop working because of bad health issues, my last two brain cells met and said to each other "hey, why not One Piece sims?", and that was it, I began this crazy journey of looking for the perfect OP custom content for the perfect OP babies, being disappointed of not finding many or really old ones...and that is when, after weeks and weeks of research, I decided to create my own One Piece custom content, because, why not?!

I never touched Blender (and a year later I still feel such a newbie with it) nor Photoshop before, but it didn't stop me to throw myself into it and man, despite all the crying seeing my creations in game unexpectedly float in the air or be filled with "???" in CAS and such, I can say that I don't regret anything!

I can sing on stage, write songs or dance, but can I properly draw? No, I cannot. And I've been frustrated for so long since I wanted to do fanarts for my fandoms but I tried, aaand it was bad. Like, really really bad. Fortunately simming is now one of my places of expression, and I'm SO EXCITED about my lil creations & stories.

My wish is to grow a small community of One Piece fans and/or fellow simmers with whom I could share my passions and enjoy theirs. I know you guys are out there, and I love you already!!

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➨ useful informations for navigation:

• Some of my posts may contain dark topics, blood and mature rp ships (18+)

• I'll do my best to limit spoilers but take note that there might me some here

• I am WCIF friendly but it might take a while for me to answer since I literally use thousands of cc. So please ask for 1 or 2 items at a time. I will happily share their names and creators

• I will not share any download links of my own OP custom content, because I often use other artist's meshes parts, then I mix them with my own etc ; so claiming these items as my own and share them to dl would break those artist's TOUs. Thank you for your comprehension

• That said, if I ever grow a significant sim community, I would eventually contact these artists one by one to ask their permissions to share my content with you! (with credits ofc)

• On this page I'll only reblog sims from other people that are One Piece characters, as well as One Piece fanarts or anything related

• Aside from my sims I also really enjoy editing my own gifs and manga/anime panels so you can expect to see a lot of them ♡

• Don't be surprised if some of my sims seem really different from one screenshot to another, that is because I have different saves with different timelines (children, pre timeskip, post timeskip, Wano), and various AUs like high school, dark fantasy world etc. For example, by now I already have 8 different Sanji sims in several styles and stages of his life (my biggest number for a single character, but I can't help it...I just love him so much!)

• If there are any suggestions, requests, ships (personally into Zosan/Zolu/Lusan/Lawlu/Acesan/Shuggy/Mishanks/Frobin) and more that you would like to see, feel free to ask and I will enjoy making it happen for you!

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SO HERE WE ARE ☻

THANKS FOR READING...

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY ✿❁❀

#intro post #new simblr #sims community #one piece #cc creator #maxis mix #text post

[9w1ft]

so many signs

so i had this thing in the back of my mind that i wanted to share a little bit about, because i think it’s highlights a little bit of karlie’s easter egging prowess

so as many of you know, i have had a certain piece of jewelry identification that’s been top of mind for awhile. a mysterious (and hilarious) evil eye necklace that karlie first wore on her birthday last year, august 3rd, 2022:

it took a long while to identify but with the help of @kwyw and @corneliastvendor and input from many more, we diligently settled upon a match with the brand Mejuri.

so

…i dunno if you remember, but back at the beginning of the year @kwyw also pointed out that there was an extra connection, between this evil eye necklace and the amulette de cartier:

both talismans of Courage.

the amulette de cartier has its own place in kaylor lore (if it’s new to you you can read about that here and here and here). but, veterans of quarantine kaylor remember how this rep era necklace made a unique surprise appearance during lover/folklore era, ultimately coinciding with karlie’s 2020 pregnancy. which, given the symbolism of the necklace, i think made a lot of thematic sense… being pregnant during the height of a pandemic is scary and, speaking from experience, i as well found myself in search of things to give me that extra peace of mind.

so seeing the necklace have that Courage keyword connection, i couldn’t help but uhhh, have a feeling so peculiar. now, with the gift of more (celebratory) information, let’s take a look at all the times karlie has worn this necklace (*reminder that some of these may be a day off because of the big time zone difference between me and the US):

August 3rd, 2022 — (as pictured above) karlie’s birthday, she writes “cheers to new beginnings xx”

September 2nd, 2022 — this therabody promo, which many of us got a kick out of after midnights was announced, first because she mentions 3am (the name of the extra version of the album) and the word midnight and second because this tiktok is set to the tune of ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man After Midnight”

November 19th, 2022 — a post captioned friyay, notably, wearing a loewe shirt, the designer who she wore to the met gala

December 11th, 2022 — to a celebratory kode with klossy event for her young scholars

December 13th, 2022 — she wore it as part of several instagram stories she had up on taylor’s bday (thank you @kwyw for the reminder 😆)

December 18th, 2022 — she posted this the same day she posted the photos of her josh and levi at the ice skating rink (mikey and misha were there too) before heading to japan.

February 3rd, 2023 — february.jpg

and then, at the met gala on May 1st, wearing loewe, she announces her pregnancy, and tells everybody that she is nearly 8 months along!

now, if we are to assume that she is 8 months along this may, we can count back ( 7mo along in april, 6mo march, 5mo feb, 4mo jan, 3mo dec, 2mo nov, 1mo along in oct, 0mo sept) and see how in order to have conceived in september, prep for that would likely have started in… yes, the month before. august! aka… when she first debuted the evil eye necklace!

and when you look back at all the phrases and contexts accompanying her posts with the piece, you can kind of see how the necklace works in concert with her setting her intentions, potentially celebrating milestones like finding out, telling people, hitting the 5 mo mark which is when the majority of pregnancies become more stable, etc… this is all to say, and this is just a simple thing but, i feel confident in saying that this necklace was in fact one way of her hinting at her next child, since all the way back in august 2022 ☺️ and since it’s an eye necklace? well, 😌 all the more nice of a feeling.

#evil eye #all eyes on us #jewelry

[reubenyeoart]

State of the Thing: December

Heyo everyone, it's nearly the end of 2023, and what a wild ride it was. A return to full-time freelancing, as well as several new clients and pushing past my comfort zone with some of this year's new works. With the start of a new year coming, I figured this calls for a long-from article rather than the usual "Commissions for the month" post.

So, on the topic of commissions, due to several reasons (which will be brought up further down) I will be very busy in December, and as such will be offering 2 Rendered-style slots for the month of December! Since it also happens to be Black Friday, prices will be as follows if you book your slot from 24/11/2023 - 27/11/2023:

If you book your slot from 28/11/2023 - 01/12/2023, prices will be as follows:

For commission details, as well as terms and conditions and contact info: Here

Now, as for the dates that I won't be available for contact regarding work:

09/12/2023

I will be attending Singapore Comic Con 2023, and I'll be cosplaying Tighnari from Genshin Impact, so if you're in the area during that day, I don't know; say a friendly hello! I won't bite, and I might have a small gift to hand out.

15/12/2023 - 23/12/2023

My friends and I will be heading to Japan for a holiday trip during this period, so I will be not available for contact during this period. You can send email requests for commissions, but I may not be able to reply until I've returned.

25/12/2023 and 31/12/2023

Since these are the days where my friends, family, and I commemorate Christmas and New Year's Eve, I will not be available for contact during these days as well.

Now, let's talk about 2024; it's no surprise that 2023 wasn't the most fantastic in terms of earning my keep, what with the worsening state of the economy, the increasing efforts of social media to strangle the reach of creators, as well as the ongoing threat of unscrupulous users of AI. In light of all this, I've been thinking of a few possible things I could do to bring more to the table:

Streaming?

A few people have expressed interest in seeing my workflow, and so I was thinking of possibly streaming for 1-2 hours while I work on art. I'll be doing a few trial streams in January 2024 at different time zones to gauge interest, and if it pans out well, I'll iron out the kinks regarding the times when I'll stream, with possible expansions to content.

Restructuring of Ko-Fi subscriptions

Since my Ko-Fi Subcriptions haven't been gaining a lot of traction, I've been thinking about offering more stuff to entice others to join in. The $1 tier will remain the same, but there will be adjustments to the $3 tier and an additional $5 tier with addtional rewards (with updated branding to reflect the changes), and the changes will apply in January 2024.

The updated tiers and rewards will be as follows:

$1 (Wanderer -> Sampler)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

$3 (Traveller -> Purveyor)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

Downloads of high-res versions of artwork

Access to subscriber-only Discord subserver

$5 (New tier: Brewer)

Access to subscriber/donation only content

Downloads of high-res versions of artwork

Downloads of .psd files of artwork

Access to subscriber-only Discord subserver

This is only a preliminary description of the changes, and offerings may be adjusted within the coming year, including possible expansion of content with the aforementioned streaming.

Possible Price Adjustments

Since Singapore has been increasing Goods and Service Taxes to 9%, and most services (Paypal, website hosting, cloud storage) upping operation costs to compensate, it may be time to increase prices for commissions. I'll formulate an updated rate based on the current trend of living wages, and will probably announce the updated prices during the March commission announcement (at end of February).

And that's all that I should be covering for this article; if you read through the entire thing, thank you for your patience, and I'll see you all (hopefully) in the coming year!

Cheers! -Reuben (@ReubenYeoArt)

#reubenyeoart #announcements #commissions open #commissions #digital art #fantasy art #sci fi art #oc #fanart #character art #plans #2024

[stillalittlelostngl]

Geto/Reader - Insula pt 1: Introductions

The geto/reader fic I've been talkin about is finally here ahhh 🎉🎉 I didn't think I'd ever end up posting it tbh so I'm happy I finally got this first chapter done.

This is gunna be a 21 part thing so buckle up i guess. This 1st part is reader meeting her fellow first years.

April, 2006

_

You blink blearily as your eyes shift in and out of focus as you stare at the wooden door in front of you. Rubbing the sleep out of your eyes and fighting back a yawn you can’t help but wonder if it was too late for you to bail.

Having to be up so early had you thinkin that perhaps you weren’t cut out for the whole sorcerer gig. How mad would mama be if she got a call from you now talkin bout how you were on the first flight back home? You don’t remember the time zone conversions off the top of your head and your brain is still too foggy to even begin trying to figure out what time it was for your mom right now. Too late or too early - either way, you knew if you called she’d be raisin hell and your name would be on a shirt by the time you cleared the baggage claim.

If you wanted to live to see 17, it looks like fighting creepy cursed spirits and dealing with weirdo sorcerers was gunna be your safest bet. And ain’t that some shit?

Your eyes travel along the pattern of the wood grain, committing it to memory. You trace over every curve and indentation as you buy yourself some time between now and when you have to step through the doorway. Even if it's just another moment or two.

There’s a nasty knotting feeling that’s settled in the pit of your stomach at the thought of what might be waitin for you on the other side. As painful as it is to admit to yourself it's undeniable at this point. You're nervous. It’s the only bit of information your brain is able to translate at this point.

You can already feel the cursed energy of the two other people beyond the door. Two distinct energies sitting close together and if you listened hard enough, you may have been able to make out bits and pieces of the conversation that they were having.

It was stupid. You were being stupid. You shouldn't be gettin this worked up over meeting a couple of strangers. You’ve met plenty of strangers in your, relatively, short life and it’d never been anything that had you stressin as much as you were now. Meeting the two boys you’d been told would be your classmates shouldn’t have been any different. At least that’s what you kept telling yourself.

It had been a few years since you’d been around people your own age for an extended amount of time and the last time you were it didn’t end very well. Between your mom and immigrating, you’d been unintentionally isolated for the past several years. Your curse technique was a fickle thing, especially when you were younger. Your mom had been so worried that you’d accidentally activate it around others so instead of spending time with your peers in school or going on play-dates you’d been stuck between dusty library shelves with your mother trying to track down any possible information that could make the technique easier to control. You’d complained to her on more than one occasion about having to learn all of the words and theories that would leave your head spinning. You could hardly pronounce them - let alone understand them.

People were more complicated than any of that though. You’re mama had warned you but experience had ultimately been the best teacher for that lesson.

And unlike the others from before the two people beyond the door were going to be constants whether you fucked things up or not. They’d be your classmates for the next three years of your life.

The two people behind the door in the classroom that you’re struggling to build up the courage to enter will be constants for, presumably, the next three years of your life. The thought is enough to cause your stomach to do that uncomfortable flipping you’d been trying to prevent.

A small, pathetic, part of you hoped things would go right this time.

You take a deep breath. There’s no such thing as a halfway crook and you’d made up your mind many months ago that this is where you wanted, no needed, to be. There’s no sense in turnin tail and running after you’d worked so hard to be able to be here to begin with.

You do your best to settle your rattled nerves, despite thinking of every nightmarish way this first interaction could play out, and slide the door open.

Unfortunately, in your eagerness to power through your internal turmoil you slid the door open a little too hard and the loud thunk of the wood caught the attention of the room's occupants.

One whipped his head around with a speed that almost had you concerned he’d given himself whiplash. He had dark hair and wide, bright eyes that crinkled a little at the corners as he met your stare with a broad smile. It was the brightest smile you think you’d ever seen and it matched the signature to his cursed energy. It was a steady and strong thrum with a delicate warmth about it that practically rolled off the boy in waves.

The other, a blonde boy made up of all sharp features, merely glanced your way with a furrow of his brow. You guessed the brunette had been talkin his ear off before and your loud entrance wasn’t really endearing him to either of y’all. But damn. He looked like he had nothin to smile about in his life. He was dead behind the eyes too - you're not sure if it was a sleep deprivation thing or just his general expression. His energy, unsurprisingly, was much more subtle than his counterpart. It was something soft - like a cool breeze.

You offered a mumbled apology for your loud entrance as you closed the door behind you and made your way over to your new classmates. You felt stiff and hoped your movements didn’t look as robotic as they felt.

“I didn’t know we were having a foreigner as a classmate," the brunette was practically vibrating with excitement as he jumped off of the where he was perched on the others desk - ignoring the blonde’s indignant muttering as he nearly sent the entire desk tumbling to the ground with his momentum. You couldn’t decide if his eagerness was endearing or off putting just yet, "I thought there weren’t any curse-users outside of Japan. Where’re you from? You’re a westerner, right?” The words came in rapid fire succession as if he’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to get it all out quick enough. It nearly made your head spin.

You offered a timid smile - unsure of how to go about answering him. You hadn’t been in Japan for no more than a month but it looked like being a foreigner was going to bring about more attention than you were usually comfortable with. Nobody had been bad about it, but the stares you got from time to time would make you itch. Foreigners made up such a small portion of the population here and with your skin being a golden brown instead of the paler tones they were accustomed to you guess it was to be expected.

“Have some tact," the blonde grumbled after righting the desk, "you sound ignorant. Of course there’s curse-users and sorcerers outside of Japan, it’s just not as common.” His hair spoke to his own foreign background somewhere in his family tree. You wondered if he had to get used to stares and questions too.

You give a small hum in agreement. “There ain’t many of us back home and it just seemed like a better opportunity to learn in the thick of things,” you offer in explanation as you take the seat next to the blonde.

Japan was the epicenter of the sorcerer society you’d found yourself in after all. The Japanese sect had more resources and time to spend on developing curse users than whatever was left of the sect back home. You’d never been too heavily involved in sorcerer society back then - your mother had done her damndest to keep it that way - but you’d overheard enough whispered conversations about cursed spirits popping up left, right, and center and how overwhelmed things were becoming. It’s why the Japanese sorcerers had been called in to assist and how you’d come across the one who had scouted you. It was just your luck that he’d been able to sponsor you and get you into the Tokyo prefectural jujutsu high school.

You just weren't too sure yet if it was good luck or bad luck. You'd always seemed to have more of the latter.

You introduce yourself to the boys with a small bow of your head. “Please take care of me.” It’s not as formal of an introduction by Japanese standards that you'd been taught to give but seeing as how neither had offered their own names first you decided it would have to do.

Apparently formalities didn't matter all that much to these two.

“Soto, huh? Your Japanese is pretty good for a foreigner! If I closed my eyes I probably wouldn’t have even guessed you were the one speaking!” the brunette practically beamed and you had to fight down a small heat that started to warm your cheeks at the unexpected compliment. It had been a bit of a rush to learn the language and you imagine the lessons you got from your recruiter hadn’t been very by the book, “I’m Haibara Yu. How long have you been here? We should go do some touristy stuff if you haven’t been able to yet!”

You hadn’t been expecting their friendliness right off the bat but the boy’s smile seems to come to him as easily as breathing and he seems so painfully sincere in everything that he says. You can’t help the smile that tugs at the corners of your mouth. You go to respond but are quickly cut off by the blonde.

“Idiot, we’re not here to go sightseeing,” You’re not sure if the muscles in the blonde’s face knew how to do anything other than frown at this point.

“Don’t be such a buzzkill,” Haibara wrinkled his nose and brushed off the other boy’s annoyance with a childish pout, “we can have fun in between exorcising curses and training. Just cuz we’re here doesn’t mean we can’t live a little - you still need to introduce yourself too!”

There was a beat of silence as the blonde eyed the two of you as if he was thinkin on something and couldn’t quite come to a decision. With a tired sigh he responded. “Nanami Kento,” it sounded strained, as if the words physically pained him to say, “let's just focus on surviving the year first before we worry about anything else.”

You can’t help but raise a brow in response as your eyes slide over to meet Haibara's and you both share a look of understanding.

The Nanami kid is definitely a buzzkill.

-

You saw that geto/reader tag and got excited, huh? 🤪 he's not showing til pt 3, stink stink.

I actually have up to chapter 3 finished tbh - just doin some more edits. This chapter was going to be longer but i decided to just absorb the last bit into the next one cuz it'll flow better imo. Next one will be longer as an apology

Anyways, Soto's dialect and the way i'll be havin folks talk are gunna be very intentional choices based on their backgrounds.

Nanami is a lil bitchy here too & we aint get to see much of him or reader's impression - don't worry he'll have more time to shine next chapter. Remember this takes place before anything we see of nanami in the manga - the relationship is gunna develop.

#fanfic #jjk #fanfiction #jujustu kaisen #jjk fanfic #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #geto #suguru geto #geto suguru #getou #getou suguru #suguru #suguru getou #geto suguru/reader #suguru/reader #suguru geto/reader #getou/reader #getou suguru/reader #suguru getou/reader #geto x reader #geto/reader #geto suguru x reader #getou x readee #getou suguru x reader #suguru x reader #suguru geto x reader #suguru getou x reader

[chichiricatsan]

Discouraging things I have had to unlearn and continue unlearning in my almost 33 years in this earth.

| You're not an artist, you only draw fan art. | Fan art is still art. It's a gateway into art itself, if anything. It can get you attention for your original works to be better sought out and recognized in your portfolio. And even if you never make original art, fan art is still art and deserves to be recognized, especially the time and effort artists put into it.

| You're not a writer, you only write fanfiction. | Fanfiction is still writing. It's still practicing the written word through the eyes of fictional characters you enjoy and relate to. It's even more than that. It's creating worlds or scenarios with those characters and places that may never exist otherwise. It's, again, a gateway into writing itself if anything and get you possible attention for original works.

| You're not an artist, you don't leave your comfort zone enough. | I do try to practice outside it, but admittedly I do have a comfort zone. Everyone does. But there's also a difference between a comfort zone and an art/writing style, and I tend not to show my practices OUTSIDE of that comfort zone and instead show a more finished product within my style that I've agonizingly tried to form over the past several years. Still working on it, even. It's a never-ending process. Perhaps that's what's considered a "comfort zone" nowadays. I don't know for sure. Still, to find comfort in my works along with growth seems like an integral goal worth pursuing in one's art, no?

| You're not a writer, you don't read enough or you only read fanfiction. | Reading is reading no matter what the medium is. It's keeping one's critical mind open that's key. Famous or not, well-done or mediocre, long works or short, comics or more visual works--whatever it is, there's value in reading. Yes, even fanfiction. I've read fanfiction better than a good number of bestsellers. Never talk shit about fanfiction lest ye be surprised and shooketh. And that's not even going into some of the debilitations that people can suffer that keep them from reading on a regular basis. Any reading is still reading and worth it.

| You're not an artist, you only draw cartoons. | All art is art. A toilet on display in a museum can and has been marked as art and even has a category it falls in called "dada art" that generated questions about the role of art and artists in society. Everything is art. YOU are art. A drop of life in a vast and interminable universe, possibly from a God or Gods or ever from the evolutionary processes of the universe, always changing, never finished. You are art. And cartoons, anime, animation in general is far FAR greater in potential than the perspective to which you're giving it credit. I could go on, but I will not, lest I be here for the next 84 years.

| You're not a writer, you don't post what you write for others to see. | Not everything needs to be seen by people for validation. This is one of the hardest pills I've had to swallow as I've suffered greatly with issues of my own for years needing external validation. I still do. It, too, is a neverending process. But some things, I feel, just don't need to be shared to be appreciated. It feels like how I feel about flowers in bouquets. They're so beautiful in those bouquets, crafted by artisans and carefully arranged to be a cacophony of beauty for the eyes. But the same is said about wildflower fields. They're not always there in the public, but they are there, and they are equally as beautiful even when you don't see them.

| You're not an artist, you don't practice enough. | This can be condensed to a sentence I've adhered to myself over the years: Your worth is not measured by your productivity. Practicing takes times, it takes energy, it takes motivation and inspiration. It's a mixture that never seems to fully align, but we push on regardless. We're still doing art, so we are artists, amateur or not.

| You're not a writer, what's the last great works you've ever read outside of schooling? | Studying the oldies when applicable is important, yes, but not the only thing worth studying. Certainly not. There are a lot of contemporary works that go above and beyond the call of worthy to read and study. Period.

| You're not an artist, you trace things!!?! | HAHAHA. Ahem, sorry. Surprise...? You'll find most artists do! Not to simply "copypasta" things, but to learn and retain muscle memory, for poses or pieces that are more complicated than they can fully feel comfortable making or just because they need it! Everyone has to start and learn somewhere, and tracing is helpful, for beginners or no, and I encourage and will continue to encourage it for artists of all kinds. Not saying to trace and sell/distribute a person's work 1-for-1, of course, but using 3d programs to model out things, using perspective grids, stock photos and photomanipulations and Frankenstein amalgamations of those photos can help create a better image the mind cannot. Sometimes,--hell, in my case it's most times--translating things from head to paper/computer is impossible and references and tracing is needed to get a satisfactory piece or product for a client. It's how and when to know to use your resources... without using AI programs nowadays as well *sigh*

| You're not a writer, you haven't officially published anything. | Have you? If so, congrats! That's a hard thing to achieve! A lot of people haven't, and even if they haven't, they still write and possibly publish with other means you may not know about. So, I'd say they're still a writer.

| You're not an artist, you haven't gone to school for X amount of years. | I cannot begin to argue how classist and bullshit this statement is. Even those who have gone into secondary schooling to do art has the potential to come out of it with similar/the same experiences to someone who learned on their own. More often than not, the difference will be that one will have a substantial amount more debt in their lives. It is amicable for one to pursue arts in secondary education, I'm not saying it isn't, but to judge someone's ability or character in the arts solely on this is a terrible thing to do, to say the least. I have a bachelor's in illustration and I'm never not learning more techniques or more from younger generations or just learning and appreciating art and artists. It's a learned skill that always needs to be sharpened like a knife or it becomes dulled, not something you pay for and suddenly learn everything about JUST with schooling.

#anyway i'm having a lot of feelings can you tell? #i'm just on my soapbox with my opinions and pep talks #mainly to myself...but i felt like i was in a sharing mood #writing #art

[cloneficgiftexchange]

clone fic gift exchange: frequently asked questions

this will be linked on the pinned post of the blog, and it is more general, as it’s intended to be used for all clone exchanges i run here in the future, as well as the one that's currently being organized as i’m posting this. if you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out and ask :)

why do i need an email to sign up?

i use a secret santa generator to randomly assign matches, as it's way easier for me and has been very successful in the past, and that requires an email address. i have an email account that i use specifically for fandom things (exchanges, zines, etc), and i highly recommend it for anyone who wants to keep themselves more organized (or doesn't want to give out their personal email!)

can i still join if i only read or write a few clones?

yes!! as long as the common denominator character is on your list, you can absolutely participate! i ensure that everyone has at least one character (usually it's rex) on the list of clones they are okay to receive, so this way if you see who you have and you're like "i don't know/don't like any of the other names here," you can just write for the common denominator. there are several protections i put into place for each exchange in order to ensure the comfort of the participants, and this is one of them.

is there a limit on clones we can put down as ones we'd want to receive?

technically no, but i would advise you to choose no more than six or seven of them. for some people a giant list of potential clones may be great, but for others it may be way too overwhelming. there also may be certain exchanges where the options are limited to a certain number, such as the bad batch.

should i be writing my person's favorite clone?

you can write any of the clones on your person's list. i do not ask for a favorite clone at sign up because i see it as another protection on behalf of the participants. If someone's favorite clone is one that the person who has them isn't really into, i wouldn't want to make anyone feel pressured to write them or bad if they don't choose them. in order to further remove this bias, i place all the clones names in alphabetical order on the prompt document.

i don't write smut, can i still join?

absolutely!! i myself don't read or write it either, and i make sure to ask about the comfort level of participants regarding smut on the sign up. you can find a whole post i did about that here.

what's the posting situation like?

when the exchange day finally arrives, you'll post your fic on your blog and tag me so i can reblog it here! if you're done with your fic early, i ask that you hang onto it so we can all post together.

other than the exchange day, is there a specific time to post?

since we're all in different timezones, the only requirement i have about timing is that you post at some point during the 24 hour window in which it is exchange day for you. that will be different for someone in australia vs someone in new york, and that's totally fine. i usually don't start tracking people down who haven't posted until the monday after the exchange, and if you're really worried you'll miss it, you can schedule a post to go up at a certain time too. deadlines for sign ups are always in eastern standard time though, simply because that's the time zone i'm in.

#cfge.faq

[aerialworms-art]

October wrap-up

So! October is at an end! And I have not finished Spocktober/Trektober. Let's see how I did!

My goals for the month were:

To have fun :3

To get used to finishing drawings

To get used to posting them, too!

To have fun :3

To improve my sketching and lineart skills

To end up with a bunch of finished drawings (of Spock!!!) :3

To let go of a bit of my perfectionism

TO HAVE FUN :3

So how do I think I did?

Having fun:

I had a lot of fun with it this year! In previous years, I've pretty much immediately devolved into an anxious mess because there were too many options and I bit off more than I could chew. This time around, thanks to my guidelines (only inking, not spending too much time on each day, sketching and thumbnailing in advance), it was a lot easier to let loose and have fun thinking up ideas and enjoying the process. Plus, I let my friends know I was doing it this time around and got encouragement and support, which was lovely.

Getting used to finishing drawings:

I did better at this than I thought I would! There are several drawings I've finished this month that I would have given up on if not for this goal. Do I think they were all my best work? No. Did I learn from the process? Yes! And some of the ones that have gotten the most notes were ones I thought no-one would like and struggled to finish. So! I also figured out new ways of motivating myself to finish things, which is also very helpful.

Getting used to posting things:

Also went better than I thought! Although I didn't manage to maintain a cushion of queued posts like I wanted to, the response I've gotten from actually posting my art has been amazing! I've gained several new followers (hello!!) and gotten so many nice comments, and went from being afraid of posting anything to tentatively looking forward to people's reactions, which is a huge improvement for me. Getting that accountability of posting publicly also helped keep me going when I felt like giving up - seeing my friends laugh when I showed them my silly comics or getting nice comments really made me feel like sharing my art is worthwhile. So thank you to everyone who reblogged my art, commented, liked, etc. I'm glad you did!

Improving sketching and lineart:

I definitely think I improved my art skills. Getting into the habit of thumbnailing really helped take the pressure off the sketching phase, and trying so many different ideas pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to try drawing things I wasn't so confident on - look how many hands I drew!!!! As for the lineart, I think I've gained a bit more experience in using pens, although I did buy a whole new set of them halfway through the month which put me on a new learning curve. Lineart's never been a huge favourite of mine, and I do miss using my tablet to do lineless art, but the nature of the challenge did help me to loosen up and experiment to keep my mind engaged the whole time.

To end up with a bunch of finished drawings of Spock:

Check! I have 14 finished drawings, with another four sketched and needing inking, plus a whole load of thumbnails to work from in future. I may go back and add colour to some of the days for funsies, but there's several that I can just put on my wall as-is and be proud :)

To let go of a bit of my perfectionism:

I definitely did! Like I said, there's a few of the ones I've posted that I'm not too proud of and know I could do better on, but I've spent all month purposely smacking my hand away from perfectionism, and I know I've tried my best given my limitations. I'm still proud of myself for getting this far, and for posting when I was anxious, and for improving my skills, and now I get to stick up my art on my wall and be proud of it! I'm not magically cured by any means, but I do have a bit more evidence that perfection is not a good goal to pursue, so I'm going to keep this experience in mind for the future.

So what now?

I do have thumbnails for almost all of the rest of the prompts. I am doing NaNoWriMo this month, and I have a digital piece that I want to finish for the 5th (holy shit. three years.) So I think I'll take a little pause on these prompts, but I don't want to stop. I'll keep coming back to them, and keep posting them, until I run out of prompts or motivation, whichever comes first. I've really enjoyed seeing people's reactions to my Star Trek art, especially the comics! I also have a backlog of SPN fanart I want to post, so I'll probably queue some of that to come out soon.

TL;DR: Watch this space!

And if you've been following along/commenting on/reblogging my art this month (or anytime), thank you so much! It's folks like you that make sharing art worthwhile!

#original poast #artie talks #i am feeling so much more positive than any of my previous attempts at an inktober style challenge! #this has genuinely been so much fun and it's so nice to feel like part of a community #i'm sad I didn't get to any of the suptober prompts #cause I had some ideas for those too #but given various life stuff and also my very last minute decision to even attempt it this year i think i did excellently #and I am going to record the fact that I am proud of myself for future-me to look back on #also. uh. the askbox is open if anyone would like to send prompts. i can't make any promises but if something catches my imagination #i may doodle a little thing for you! #chatting is also encouraged! i like making new friends :)

[devitalise]

💗 IMO 💗 in addition to the usual reading round-up + next month's itinerary, would you also care to share your Succession thoughts as a longtime/big time fan witnessing it come to an end🎤

oh this is sooo perfectly timed i just watched episode 6, but first let's get into the

april book wrap up

let it come down by paul bowles

this kick started a themed reading moment of exploring Tangier through several different books, namely during and post the formation and dissolution of the International Zone. this reminded me of the man who watched the trains go by by georges simenon, the slow unravelling of a persons psyche as they grow more and more paranoid. i found some of the perspectives a bit lacking, sentences a touch too long to lose momentum, but i will pick up another book by Bowles. also discovered this book from reading checkout 19 in january (that book is rife with recommendations the author and the main character are obsessed with reading (and i like looking into books that are mentioned in others))

links in march wrap up

in tangier by mohamed choukri

i think my goodreads review still stands up on how i feel about this book. really glad that my research led me to this book, and Choukri as an invidual. teaching yourself how to read and write in your 20s and then getting to meet and befriend authors you revere could only really happen in the late 60s. the writing landscape felt so small and interconnected in this book, and the juicy gossip like nature was so frank and i think lended a real humanity to people who can sometimes just be names now that everyone involved is dead. similar to let it come down, Tangier is a main character in its own right, and i appreciated Choukri discussing his struggles with the white men around him yearning for a time that's long gone instead of appreciating what the city offered at what was present day. super engaging read.

music: in tangier

naked lunch by william burroughs

was expecting this to round out and also complete my Tangier setting reading. first dnf of the year! i was so, so confused, to the point i thought i'd picked up sci-fi that wasn't going to build the world at all. now that i'm reading older books, it's so interesting to see the threads of what has inspired authors that came after. has brett easton ellis read this book? i can't be entirely sure, but the disjointed, surreal and out of this world ramblings of heroin hallucinations is something i can see influencing the prose of american psycho. only made it around 60 pages in, put down purely because there's no overarching plot, and all the sexual violence was gory for the sake of it i felt. william burroughs as an individual is interesting (mentioned in in tangier, though briefly)

music: naked lunch soundtrack (i might watch the movie, though!)

good intentions by kasim ali

this book inspired an 8 minute voicenote to jaye. sometimes disliking a book can feel so freeing to me personally, i love loving books but getting jolted back to something that i don't like can definitely bring out more eloquent thoughts or critiques of the book for myself i've found. went into this in the best faith, and wasn't rewarded at all. such a missed opportunity for the book to just to refuse to acknowledge antiblack racism amongst nonblack communities, and i'm sure it's done in a way to mirror the naivety of the main character, but to be so close to making a point and then continue to circle around it is lazy. the big aha! moment of this is the love interest having to admit that her being a Black woman is actually a problem and the reason the relationship isn't working. just disappointing, really. interesting threads on faith and Islam, and conforming to parental expectations, but still quite surface level. trying to be too many things, not good in any of them.

music: groovy mix (man, the niche mixes on spotify are good)

may reading

i'm currently reading in cold blood by truman capote. he was mentioned quite a bit in In Tangier, and after reading swan song by kelleigh greenburg-jephcott in 2021, he came to the forefront of my mind. after that i'll probably pick up the third in elena ferrante's neapolitan quartet: those who leave and those who stay.

now... succession thoughts

i'm really enjoying the season so far. i think we're seeing all of the kids at the rise before the fall, and maybe (kendall and rome, especially) are just about to start falling. still unsure how i feel about shiv pregnancy i think if it wasn't leading to tomshiv resolution i'd be able to appreciate it more for what it represents to shiv as someone who has rejected motherhood and other ideas expected of her as a woman. but i hate tom, so i just think it's a bit lazy. greg has outstayed his welcome to me, he serves absolutely no purpose

kendall roy is still my babygirl :)

#book talk #djservo #long one today i feel!

[ao3riley]

I saw someone (a friend) posting about their struggle to regain writing mojo after losing it, and I know that this is something a lot of people struggle with. So far I’ve managed to keep going (sort of) even though I’ve been struggling with it somewhat too for the last several years.

So I thought maybe I’d share my list of little things that may or may not help. Try some of them if you can, see if they help you? And if anyone has any good things to add, feel free to share!

Without further ado, the list, in very long form. For the tl;dr, just read the bullet points.

General advice about getting fresh air / exercise, eating healthy, etc.

You’re gonna see this everywhere. I don’t know how much it helps, but I guess it can’t hurt, if you’re able to do so. But having a little comfort food isn’t bad either, so don’t punish yourself unduly in the name of “bettering yourself”.

Consume different media.

This is important to me because of the way I generate ideas. I think of my brain as a machine, and I have to feed it things in order for it to produce things. If I’m constantly feeding it the same things and it’s giving me nothing, it’s time to feed it something else and see if the change helps. Sometimes this generates entirely new ideas that run like mad, sometimes it obliquely gets me through a plot hole that’s stumping me... Maybe it’s just taking my mind off the issue so the ideas can form, who knows?

When I say “different media” I don’t mean anything specific. Books, movies, anime, tv shows, podcasts...whatever is your jam, just go find something new! Ask friends or followers for recommendations if you don’t know where to start.

Create for different media.

This sounds silly, but if you’re a fanfic writer (like me), maybe the thing that’s got you stuck is the fandom (or ‘verse) that you’re writing for? Even if that other fandom work doesn’t go anywhere, it’ll get your brain moving in a different direction, and maybe that’ll kick the stuck gears into motion again.

Start a new piece.

I’ve always got half a dozen (or more, I cry) works in progress laying around, and I try to keep some whacky ideas saved when I have them but don’t have the time or energy to work with them. Sometimes just starting fresh can be a big help, and it may make it easier to go back to the big thing after you take a (productive) break.

Even if you’re still stuck on the big piece, you will have written something, and you’ll feel better about it. That big thing will come back to you if you let it!

Cowrite with someone.

This has actually been a BIG deal for me, and probably one of the biggest things keeping me going. Most of the work I’ve done in the last year has actually been with a cowriter, rather than solo. This does bug me --I have my own pieces that I want to work on, and they’re lagging-- but it does still feel good to get stuff written and stories told.

Here’s the critical part of this though: you have to find a cowriter that you can trust with your stories and that you mesh with, someone who is additive or multiplicative, not subtractive.

What do I mean by this? You and your cowriter need to have a nice comfy Venn diagram of interests and comfort levels when it comes to themes that you’re okay writing. If there’s too little that you have in common, it’ll be hard to create full stories together, right? You’ll be more limited by each other’s comfort zones than helped.

And there’s also the trust issue. If you’re like me, you may be (a little too) protective of your work and your stories. If you’re going to write with someone, you’ll have to trust that they’re not going to just run off with your work.

So I’d recommend talking to friends who are also writers, someone who you can be honest with about your interests and boundaries.

If you can find someone like this, cowriting can be absolutely magical. Someone will suggest something, the other person responds, and before you know it, a silly throwaway joke line becomes 100k+ of text. Sure, you won’t land every idea (I’ve got several that are never seeing the light of day), but there’s something wonderful about the energy you can get from just creating with another person, feeding off of their ideas and adding your own (while cackling like an evil gremlin as you turn up all the dials and your partner sighs before smacking back). It’s an awesome experience that I’d definitely recommend. Maybe it’ll help kick you back into gear to work on your own things after!

That’s all I’ve got off the top of my head (sorry for typos, I’m still recovering from a cold) and I hope it helps someone!

#writing tips

[moontheoretist]

Fandom: Tony would definitely develop frostbite if he was left there for more than several hours! Me: You DO know that people LIVE in Siberia, yes?

It looks like I fell off my hype for Post-Civil War fics, because I found that nowadays, every time I see a fanfic that tries to give Tony fatal injuries from the cold, it makes me angry. I liked it before, but now that I know that Siberia is not what people think it is, that it’s not a frozen wasteland with subzero climate all around, it just makes me furious that nobody even wants to do the research about the place, and instead they rely solely on what movies fed them (just like I used to). Contrary to popular belief: people do actually live in Siberia. And climate there depends truly on the place where you live. The average temperatures are not as bad as I thought. The coldest regions are obviously in the North, the warmest deep into the continent in the South where Siberia borders with Kazakhstan, India and China. And funnily, there are people living in the “coldest towns on Earth” like Oymyakon, Yakutsk. And there is far more greenery than you would all think possible, lol. Snow is in fact not snowing the whole year, and the earth is not a frozen glacier. It’s a challenging climate, yes, but not impossible to live in. There are people there. Cities, farms etc.

“Vegetation in Siberia mostly consists of taiga, with a tundra belt on the northern fringe, and a temperate forest zone in the south”.

Anyway, frostbite is definitely something to be watchful off, but Tony was a lucky bastard that the bunker they were in was actually a silo that was deep underground. Ground is a very good insulator against cold, and it’s usually warmer underground than it’s on the surface.

The danger and time for frostbite to develop would then basically rely on the fact of where exactly the bunker was in Siberia, and during which season exactly they were there. MCU Wiki seems to put CW between 3rd and 23rd of May, which means not much snow at the time, even in Iceland where the scene was filmed. They must have been filming the background (as the entrance is a studio built setup) during a different season when there was more snow for aesthetic.

Seasons of the Year: Siberia [check the link]

“Production supplied Cinesite with many aerial plates of Iceland for the Siberian Environments which we were able to stitch together or take sections from to construct our Hydra missile base,” states Simon Stanley-Clamp. “For the rock-covered entrance to the base, we completely remodelled the rockwork, replacing everything from the set piece to create a more organic appearance and really buried/bonded it to the mountaintop.” Snow effects needed to be produced. “I’d just come off another movie featuring light flurries to more heavier down pours of snow – so I had a pretty good understanding of what was needed and used those setups from Houdini as a starting point. From our first passes, Dan gave further direction for us to edit.” So, either this scene doesn’t happen in May as Wiki claims, or Hollywood once again relied on their narrow ideas that Siberia is a frozen snowy wasteland 24/7 365 days per year.

Still, leaving him there was definitely “leaving for death”.

Iron Man armor was busted, and who knew if there were any supplies in the abandoned bunker like this? Silos like this are usually built to not keep any people on site, as the rockets could be launched remotely from afar (I checked). There was probably no need for food supplies, but considering Hydra kept it as its base and kept their soldiers and supersoldiers there for a time, maybe they had some left. Still not enough to survive on, though. If any at all. And going outside without any equipment to survive the cold, not knowing where, how far and in which direction is the closest city, which in Siberia would mean miles and miles without any human settlement, could be literally suicidal.

#mcu fandom critical #mcu fanfiction critical #siberia #tony stark #still fuck steve rogers #yes I did research #yes I am writing MCU fic #mcu fanfiction #mcu #writing #avengers civil war

[wahlpaper]

Girls Like Girls Review

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

CW: Loss of a Parent, Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Underage Drinking and Drug Use, Dangerous Driving, Near Death Experience, Breaking and Entering, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Controlling Parent, Domestic Abuse, Toxic Friendships, Fade-To-Black Sexual Activity, Vomit, Child Abandonment, Swearing, Grief, Violence, Injury, Bullying, Mentioned Abortion, Gaslighting, Classism, Sexism, Accidental Outing

3.5/5

I grew up watching Hayley Kiyoko on Disney Channel and have been following her music career for quite a while. When she announced that she was writing a book, I knew I had to read it, no matter what. For those who use YouTube more than me, you may have realized that this book is based on the music video for the song of the same name. I didn't realize this until listening to the acknowledgments at the end of the book. Based on my experience, I recommend reading the book before watching the music video, assuming you haven't seen it yet. The story ventured outside of my comfort zone, but kept reeling me back in. I honestly didn't know if I liked the book until the very end, but I had refused to DNF a Kiyoko book. 

After her mom dies by suicide, Coley moves to a small town in Oregon. It's the summer before her senior year of high school and she's now stuck living with the father that skipped out on raising her. He's a man she doesn't know or trust. While out biking to avoid being home, she nearly gets run over by a group of popular kids. They likely wouldn't have taken her under their wing if it weren't for their ring leader, Sonya, being intrigued by Coley. As the summer goes on, the two girls become inseparable. Will they unravel their feelings for each other or will their family lives and social circles drag them down?

It's important to note that Girls Like Girls is set in 2006. Kiyoko was 15 that year and therefore able to pull from her own memories of how teenagers lived in 2006. There's AIM, LiveJournal, tattoo chokers, no smartphones, and different slang. There are also a lot of references to the popular music of that time. I recommend looking up the songs you're unfamiliar with for the full experience. Of course, the mindset towards human rights was also of the time. Many characters, Coley and Sonya included, could have benefited from therapy, but that wasn't as openly talked about 17 years ago. Homophobia was also more publicly accepted at the time. These issues haven't gone away, but it's nice to see that things have improved. 

Speaking of queer content, Girls Like Girls is a story about two very different teen girls realizing they are attracted to their own gender. It becomes clearer throughout the story, that despite Sonya coming from a well-off family, Coley is in a much safer environment to come out as gay. Sonya has a controlling mother and a few openly homophobic friends. Coley finds several other queer people in her community and a number of allies. I am relieved that we got a little bit of Sonya's POV, because the relationship between Coley and her would read as irredeemably toxic otherwise. I am also relieved that the book takes the time to address the toxicity that's there. If you're patient, the book will address everything you're wondering about.

I experienced Girls Like Girls as an audiobook. It was mostly read by Kiyoko doing Coley's POV. I enjoy her voice and love when an author reads their own book. She was joined by one of my favorite audiobook narrators, Natalie Naudus, for Sonya's LiveJournal posts and emails. There are a few other voices throughout for small parts. While I enjoyed the ensemble cast of voices, I disliked the music and ambient sounds that were mixed in. If it had been consistent throughout the whole book, I would have liked it. Instead, the additional sounds would appear out of nowhere and temporarily take me out of the story. Please keep that in mind if you're trying to decide between print and audio. 

Kiyoko's writing style will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, especially those looking for queer content. It's a summer romance, for one. It handles dark topics well without being the kind of book to make the audience cry. It's a small town setting with a new girl trying to become a part of a group of friends who have known each other for years. It's not usually my type of genre, which is why I potentially would've DNF'd it had a different author written it. There were scenes that made me uncomfortable, but I was often reeled back in by the action. I don't regret sticking it out to the end. I enjoy the way the story resolves. Of course, you'll have to read it yourself if you want to know the ending. 

If you're interested in a small-town YA romance with queer content and dark topics, Hayley Kiyoko's Girls Like Girls is the book for you. Should you pick it up and stick it out, you'll be rewarded with a music video summary of the book. Give it a chance, it's the kind of book you'll remember!

#hayley kiyoko #girls like girls book #girls like girls #celebrity author #wlw #queer teen characters #teen romance #summer ya #book blog #bookblogger #queer books #queer characters

[valuehits]

Instagram Strategy: The Ideal Time for Instagram Posting

In today's fast-paced world of social media, where millions of users scroll through their feeds every day, the timing of your Instagram posts can make a significant difference in your engagement levels. Understanding when your audience is most active on the platform is the key to maximizing your reach and impact. But, as any seasoned social media marketer knows, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of when to post. It all depends on your unique audience, their behaviors, and their time zones.

To shed light on this crucial aspect of Instagram marketing, we've delved into data from various social media tools and studies conducted by industry experts like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, HubSpot, and Later. They've combed through millions of Instagram posts to pinpoint the most effective posting times. However, keep in mind that these are just guidelines, not rigid rules.

In this article, we'll explore the findings from these studies and tools, discuss the best times to post on Instagram, and offer insights on optimizing your posting strategy. But remember, while these insights provide valuable starting points, your journey to Instagram success will ultimately depend on your ability to adapt, experiment, and understand your specific audience. Let's dive into the world of Instagram posting times and discover the art of mastering them for your brand's benefit.

They are merely a guide; the best outcomes will come from exploring and examining your data.

Time When Instagram Posts Are Most Effective by Location

If your audience is international, think about and post at the best time for their time zone rather than when you are.

Consider staggered posting across several time zones or looking for country overlaps if you work across several nations.

Determine when your Instagram followers are most active (see below), then make local time adjustments.

When Should You Post On Instagram?

The worst day to post, according to Hootsuite, is a Sunday.

Wednesday is one of the most excellent days to post on Instagram, according to Later and Sprout.

Later believes that "early to rise and early to post" on Mondays is the key to getting the most views and engagements.

Source : later.com

What’s The Ideal Time For You To Post Reels?

There is no denying that video material is becoming more popular on social media and other internet channels. Thanks to TikTok, short-form videos have a growing market. Competitors, such as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, have emerged.

If you're testing out Instagram Reels, then based on the following:

According to Hootsuite, Monday through Thursday between 9 and 12 o'clock is the most excellent time to publish to Instagram Reels.

SocialPilot says the ideal time to post from Monday through Thursday is between 9 and 12 o'clock.

As previously indicated, this may require trial and error and depends on your sector and target market.

When Should I Post Reels to Instagram?

There is no denying that video material is becoming more popular on social media and other internet channels. Short-form videos now have a growing market thanks to TikTok.

YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have been the competitors' responses.

If you're testing out Instagram Reels, then based on the following:

Hootsuite is the most excellent time to publish to Instagram Reels, Monday through Thursday between 9 and 12 o'clock.

SocialPilot, the ideal time to post from Monday through Thursday is between 9 and 12 o'clock.

As mentioned, this process may require trial and error and depends on your industry and target audience.

When On Instagram Are People Most Active?

Consider your audience's routines and habits as a starting point before continuing. For instance, many people check their social media accounts right after waking up and before heading to work.

The best time for a morning post is typically between 7 and 8 a.m. (local time), though this can vary based on the demography and age.

People frequently check social media when they get up, spending a few minutes or longer reading through their newsfeeds or seeing Instagram Reels.

Therefore, an excellent time to post in the morning is between 7 and 8 a.m.

During lunch breaks, people frequently use their phones. If you publish between 11 and 1 p.m., when people are probably taking a break for lunch, you can increase the likelihood that your post will appear toward the top of their feed.

To assess what they might be doing during the day and what time they might be active at night, it is essential first to understand your consumer and demographic.

What Is the Recommended Instagram Posting Frequency?

That depends on a few different things.

Do you have enough content, ideas, and product photos to post daily or weekly? The goal here is to post regularly.

Avoid simply posting content and focus on developing a consumer journey-focused strategy.

Although it could take more effort initially, doing so will benefit your content strategy in the coming weeks.

By worrying less about creating content, you can devote more time to interacting with your followers.

Try blogging three times a week if you have a few post ideas. By consistently monitoring your insights, you can identify areas that require adjustment and make the necessary changes.

To encourage follower expectations, as we mentioned above, consider constructing a journey, strive to publish different types of messages, and try to post information consistently.

You can check the following to help determine when you should be posting:

Examine your most successful postings, noting the date and content of each.

Check their availability to determine where and when your audience is engaged online.

You must be aware of the various time zones your brand works across and post at the times appropriate for those zones, in addition to knowing when your audience is online.

Use Instagram Insights to measure most of the above factors and obtain helpful information.

Instagram Insights usage

You must set up a business or creator account to access Instagram Insights.

When you reach 100 followers, you can see information on your audience's age, gender, and geographic area.

You can use the Instagram Insights tool to analyze your successful posts on Instagram.

Analyze and test. Analyze and test.

Continue to Test and Be Consistent

Your Instagram post strategy assessment accuracy will improve with more content. Use your study results to adjust your strategy.

Ultimately, it's up to you and the brand to decide what success looks like.

There may be more likes, comments, and followers, or people are more aware of the brand.

Posting at the right time is essential for engagement on social media, but it's also crucial to use appropriate hashtags, images, and text for each post. To manage your social media presence effectively, consider hiring a social media expert for valuable insights and strategies. Additionally, watch promoted posts, as they can impact your Insights. Finding the right balance between these elements is essential to increase engagement and grow your followers.

#instagram #instagram marketing #hiring a social media expert

[rmhashauthor]

hello hello! how is your latest writing WIP coming along? Are there any particular scenes you're really looking forward to writing? Any characters you've fallen in love with more than you anticipated? (this is a friendly excuse to talk about your story and characters!)

Oh boy... You've opened the floodgates, my friend.

The Dragon Prince's Consort is going well, I'm several chapters ahead of the posting schedule but I am having to acknowledge the fact that I've been on a little bit of a dry spell because of starting a new job. It's one of those that needs a lot of brainpower in the beginning because I'm still training, and I'm the kind of person who stresses out if things aren't just *PERFECT* so the period between "I'm new so no one expects me to know anything yet" and "I've been here long enough to know what I'm doing" is my least-favorite part of starting a new job. Some days I come home with half a brain cell and just enough energy left to eat a handful of shredded cheese and go to sleep. Damn you, capitalism! Let me write!!

But enough of that.

At the moment TDPC is hovering just under 160 reads on Wattpad, which is fine because a lot of people who follow me wait until I'm done writing to binge. STARFISH was like that, once I let everyone know it was DONE done I started getting weekend warriors who would mainline the whole thing in a couple of days and flood my inbox with screaming emojis. Someone is doing that right now and it's always a delight.

Anyway, TDPC is all plotted out and has been for a while now, so the task is to finish writing the damn thing. And like most ADHD people I already have another story lined up that I'm working on an outline for and may or may not have started drafting the first chapter 😉 I like to take little breaks from one story and work on something else to keep things fresh and interesting, otherwise it's like eating pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner - pizza is great, I love pizza, but by Day 2 I'll gnaw off my own legs for a salad or some soup.

This new one I'm excited about because I've never written a true Villain before. Well, he's not really a villain, per se, more like a "fuck you, fuck your rules, I do what I want" type of guy. I figured if I've written two stories with cinnamon-roll male leads it's time for someone who's more a walking middle finger to society and laws in general. While he's not a mass-murderer or anything, this guy definitely has blood on his hands and isn't the easiest to live with, as the heroine will find out once she's conscious again. I figure most people love a Bad Boy who is a Good Man, so I'm going to see what I can do with that.

Now for his foil, boy is SHE a mess. Look, someone is going to take one look at this sorry thing and yell BOO MARY SUE but frankly I don't care. There's a point to making her such a sad sack and it won't become clear until her bastardization arc kicks in. Plus, I figure if she has a history of making terrible decisions when it comes to men then having her do a little more of the same is in-character for her. Except maybe this time it's different because she's trying NOT to be such a good girl, maybe this time she won't be so naive and her newfound cynicism might prove useful.

The whole story has a Heavy Metal (of which I am a MASSIVE fan) vibe to it, it's a lot grittier than my last two and that's on purpose. I've been listening to a lot of psychedelic doom metal (more than usual) to get my head in the right space for it, which has been interesting. It's not going to be a pretty story, full of flowers and sparkles and happy, because at this point in the universe in my head all the shiny has worn off the concept of First Contact and now we have to deal with the realities of life in space among half a dozen other species, all with their own goals, fears and issues. I've decided to leave my comfort zone of writing cute stories about sweet people and instead do something that I think a lot of people are going to see as dark and even problematic - some themes are not going to be easy to digest, even for someone like me who's lived a relatively easy life, but I hope that I can do some justice to it by 1, talking about it and thus making it less taboo, and 2, doing what I usually do which is make the plot as important as the sexy bits.

However, I do have some hard rules I DON'T break while writing, and there are a few things I will NOT use as plot devices or tropes - I don't write about SA, I won't write an abusive relationship, and I don't do age gaps where one person is underage. I may go right up to the line and stare at it, but not only am I not comfortable writing those I don't want to drive readers off. I'm grey about "trigger warnings" in that I think people should be prepared to run into things that may upset them in fiction, film and art because that's the whole point, but I also believe in self-censorship and letting people decide for themselves to put down something I or another creator has made. It's only fair to give readers an out when things get too hairy, I've put down a LOT of books because the author decided that dubcon was okay when it wasn't, or because their male MC was just an insufferable ass with Alpha Male syndrome (yuck). Hell, I've lost interest in entire SERIES because I've seen tropes get subverted and then the author goes back on the old trope, completely derailing and destroying what could have been a WONDERFUL twist because they didn't commit to getting weird with it. Like my late father always said, "If you're gonna be a bear, be a Grizzly." At the very least, be a Grizzly in a funny hat.

Scenes I'm really looking forward to include Captain PTSD's "aren't you tired of being good?" speech, Miss Sad Sack discovering his "Daddy Mode" and being UNCOMFORTABLY turned on by it, a recurring bit where she has to sit in his lap for business reasons and it is excruciatingly embarrassing how much she comes to like it, an incident where wounds are literally licked in super-inappropriate places, a plethora of R-rated one-liners, and a frankly STUPID amount of sexual tension between two idiots who know EXACTLY what needs to happen, but pride, stubbornness and personal convictions keep it from happening (just... SO MUCH TENSION). A lot of really bad decisions will be made and people are gonna get hurt, but I'm hoping by the end what looks like the beginning of a Very Bad Situation will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to both of them. I'm also looking forward to playing with more Daddy-dom scenarios that AREN'T borderline abusive, the concept of "you cannot legislate morality", a new alien species with some WEIRD behavioral quirks, and ☆*KNOTTING*☆ Yaaaay!

If you're gonna be a bear, be a Space-Grizzly with a wizard hat and a tricycle made of napalm and glitter.

#writeblr #scifi romance #author #creative writing #writers on tumblr #book blog #booklr #authors #scifi #science fiction #fiction #be weird #get weird #stay weird