#i'm going through this game a lot slower than i would've liked

[retro-system]

tadpole lore shmadpole lore where the heck is geno

#mallow is a funky dude i just wanna meet this guy everyone keeps raving on about #legend of the seven stars liveblog #or whatever tag i used for liveblogging this game #i'm going through this game a lot slower than i would've liked

[dnalt-d2]

So we've got a new update on the Admin Situation, and this one's…A little complicated, to say the least.

Basically, Quackity has stated that he is opening the server tomorrow to welcome the new Korean Creators, but for the time being, there will be no NPCs, including the Eggs. He's also temporarily laid off nearly, if not all the workers he has, including the people doing the Twitter Updates.

And apparently many of them found this out through the stream, much like we did. This seems to be the biggest point of contention for many people, and I'll admit I'm not happy about it either. The only justification I can think of for this is that he didn't want people to find this all out second-hand from people who potentially don't have the all the information. But even with that, I think they should have been made aware before us, even if it was just by a few minutes. That wouldn't have been ideal either, but it would've been better than not knowing at all

The person who brought this forward initially, Lea, has stated that she knows for sure that "Jay" (The person who made the unauthorized update before) was fired, but to her knowledge, some of the other Admins who caused the problems are still employed. I think this might be one of those things that she doesn't have the full scope of information on, since we were also just informed that pretty much all the Admins aren't currently employed. We do have to keep in mind that she's getting this information from someone else who is apparently still in contact with the team. However, it's obvious that even some of the Admins who weren't initially fired aren't entirely in the loop, which means she wouldn't have been getting all the information either. So I think we need to take some of the things she says moving forward with a grain of salt

I'm not saying she's lying by any means, but when you have limited information to work with, playing a game of telephone to get that information isn't always gonna be that reliable

On top of all that, a lot of people seem to be in agreement that Quackity may have implied that money was being embezzled from him and Quackity Studios. I'm not going to say much on that, since it's TECHNICALLY speculation. However I will at least say that it doesn't seem entirely out of the question, and I wouldn't be even slightly surprised to learn that this was the case

Regardless of how it happened, there was a loss of funds, and this loss of funds means that the server has to start slower than before. Hence the absence of the NPCs on the server, and the current stop on Twitter Updates. It sounded to me like he's planning on bringing people back slowly, making sure they're paid for their roles from here on out. And as the financial situation stabilizes, we'll likely see more Admins return to their roles

I want to believe as of now that things are improving. If they weren't, I believe we would have heard about it by now, from the other Admins. We've already seen an Admins in charge of one of the Twitter Accounts say something, and I'm sure we'll get more news like that soon. But we would have DEFINITELY heard if absolutely nothing was going on. I don't think it's fair for the Admins to have not been notified beforehand, and I think that should be the next problem to fix for sure. But the way I see it, what's happening now is a step in the right direction. It's only the first of many, and not even necessarily a big step, but it's a step nonetheless

Once again, I want to remind people that we aren't going to see these changes being made until we're shown them. People can try to tell us what they know as they find it out themselves, but for all we know, they're only showing the bad parts of what's going on. We should really take any future information, good or bad, with a grain of salt as well. It's easy to say things are getting better or worse, but I think we should wait until we see the changes for ourselves and go from there

(I also wanna say that I've seen speculation from a few people, mostly on Twitter, that "Jay" is probably just Quackity trying to cover his tracks and make a scapegoat for what's happening. But with the information we have, that seems incredibly unlikely. Lea didn't know who he was when he first made his unofficial statement, but her recent tweets imply that she knows who he is now. And considering that she's the one who brought all this up to begin with, I HIGHLY doubt she'd keep quiet if he was actually Quackity)

So now, again, all we can do is wait, and continue giving our support to the people who need it. I want to believe that things can get better. I want to believe that Quackity is trying his best to improve things

Try and stay positive, everyone. Even if the server isn't the same as before, we'll be fine. Even if QSMP shuts down entirely, we'll be fine. At the end of the day, people's health and mental health is more important than a Minecraft Server, and if you feel like your mental health is being impacted by what's going on, please take some time for yourself. Worrying constantly over something we have zero control in isn't going to help anyone. If you need to take a step back, please do so. And when you're ready to come back, we'll still be here, even if the QSMP isn't. We've built a great community, and it's been incredibly fun being a part of it. And I sincerely doubt it's going away, regardless of what happens next

So make sure you take care of yourselves

#qsmp #qsmp quackity #quackity #qsmp admin situation

[asumofwords]

I'm so curious as to what went on in his head tbh, like especially when he was bathing her, looking at the damage his brother caused, her bruises, her broken state, I have a feeling he went insane when cleaning in between her thighs, dried up blood and his brother's seed. Like the consequences of your actions are here 💀 (Pls don't take this as a pressure to write aemond's pov, this is just me doing silly wondering)

I wish aemond could've at least done something like given her extra protection or have a spy on aegon because he had to go to harrenhal and aegon threatened treason. Yet he did none of that and left the reader unprotected because he had a false confidence that his brother wouldn't dare.

I just hope he felt guilty, especially when the the reader said “you left me with him, whilst you went to your alys” like yeah bro.

Imagine if he would've been able to return on the day of the assault but alys begged him to spend time with her and he did, being a little slower, now imagine realising that he could've prevented it if he hasn't stayed back, THAT WOULD BE SUCH A HARD PUNCH IN THE FACE.

I don't want aemond to die, I want him to live with guilt of what had happened, how he caused everything, because to be frank, death is way too merciful for him, he needs to go through the mental anguish and pain. Idk if you know fnaf (five nights at freddy) but there's a dialogue by an animatronic in one of it's game where she goes like:

“you won't die, but you'll wish you could.”

Basically saying that she'll put them through so much torture where death seems more peaceful than whatever she's putting them through, Me to aemond and aegon 👹👹 slightly more to aegon because I have a soft spot for aemond even though I hate him just because he's slightly better than aegon tbh (this is high evidence of the 'the devil you know is better than the devil you dont' quote in action)

SORRY FOR THE RANT AND THIS BIG ASS MESSAGE TEE, I had a lot on my mind after that, I LOVE YOUR FIC AND ILYSM 🐇🩷🩷

I absolutely adore you 😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺 my lil heart seeing this message like 🥰🥰🥰🥰

OKAY SO

Aemond was horrified when he arrived back (working on a short Drabble as I don’t have capacity for a full POV atm) to see the reader the way she was. He knew something was wrong and literally sprinted through the Keep to her.

His heart broke and for once Aemond felt guilt about what he had put the reader through (ironic because it was Aegon) and he was absolutely losing it in his mind.

When he cleaned the blood and seed off of her, it was his own way of fixing her and feeling in control of a situation that he also has no control in. Despite being a Prince and Aegon’s brother, he still really doesn’t have too much sway if Aegon keeps sending him away. He’s a second son, nothing more.

But the biggest thing he felt in that moment was rage.

She was his. His wife. His love. His. And to have Aegon touch her, to take her in a way that was supposed to be just for him. To hurt her and defile her and break her, Aemond was struggling to not kill his brother in that moment.

They both need to be flayed !!!!!

🖤🖤🖤 adore you sweetheart

[capnsaltsquid]

Well Gus, now you can reestablish contact with the giraffes like you wanted.

Now that I've had time to collect (haha, get it?) my thoughts after that trauma-fest, let me go through the things that stood out to me in this episode.

First, I feel like this confirms my theory that Belos was using the in-between to spy on people. All he would have to do is use the Collector's mirror to call out a name, and he could see anyone in the multiverse.

I know we've all been waiting for this moment, but now that I see it I almost feel bad fo ... nah, can't say that with a straight face. Choke on a cactus you little red gremlin. Only time I've ever cheered for Philip.

Is this the first time Hunter has called Willow by her real name instead of "Captain"? I think it is. Also, Amity looks really uncomfortable here. Torsos are not meant to twist that far.

I like that the show doesn't have Luz becoming exceptionally powerful, but instead focuses on how clever and adaptable she is. She came up with this plan in a handful of seconds while being petrified. She doesn't need to outgun powerful adversaries because she can out-think them. But goddamn, that's a lot of trauma for a 15 year old kid.

KIDS' SHOW.

That's ... more than 16 former golden guards.

Something I missed on the first watch is that the draining spell instantly accelerated when Raine pulled Eda's arm off. Eda was still trying to hold back the spell to buy everyone time to get away. Very sweet of Raine to keep their promise to Luz, but they would've doomed everyone by doing this if the Collector had been a few seconds slower. Speaking of which ...

Someone get this kid a Steam account. More games than he could ever possibly play in the rest of his chaotic existence. I really loved the little spinning had turn animation here; this character has his own soundtrack and an enhanced budget, which as we all know presages trouble for his adversaries (this IS a Disney show after all). And yes, I still think the Collector is another incarnation of Discord. Red / yellow eyes, godlike powers, chaotic sense of fun, and doesn't consider the damage his antics do. This is my chosen hill and you can bury me on it.

And lastly, Luz comes home with some freeloaders in tow. The expressions here are as spectacular as ever. Hunter being protective of Gus, Willow looking worried and slightly suspicious. Amity's face says "I'm about to meet my girlfriend's mom and I want to make a good impression but I've been through the wringer and mine eyes hath seen some shit and I could use a nap". And Luz looks like she probably suffered a complete mental breakdown just after the episode ended. Holy hell, this poor kid.

______________________________________________________

Welp, that's it for now. S2B was a wild ride, and I'll take Dana at her word that we're gonna love the specials. See you in S3, fellow Owl House fans.

#toh #the owl house #toh spoilers

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to go through some more small things quickly because I'm getting behind.

Will You Snail?

More fun and interesting than I expected. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into beyond it being cheap and having tons of positive reviews, but it turned out to be a precision platformer where you play as a snail (and can wear another smaller snail as a hat), and it's about the fear of AI literally taking over the world and whether reality is really real. Also the AI is an asshole and spontaneously spawns bullshit spikes and lasers and stuff exactly where it thinks you're about to go so you have to contend with that in addition to just making it through each room.

I had a good enough time to finish the story and get somewhere north of 50% completion, but I don't really see myself doing the optional stuff like beating everything on the highest difficulty. The auto-difficulty kept me somewhere in the 2-3 range out of 4 95% of the time with very rare spikes to 4, and with me getting worse at stuff like this over time as my reactions get slightly slower, my vision gets worse, and my brain just gets generally weird, I don't really see a point in pushing myself harder just to frustrate myself.

Lara Croft GO

It only took me forever to get around to this one, which I probably would've forgotten about if someone didn't gift me a copy a few days ago. Basically you, uh, raid tombs. Big surprise, I know, but this time it's a turn-based puzzle game. I liked the puzzles enough and different mechanics they introduced enough to finish it because some of them were reasonably clever/satisfying, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with the extra ones after the credits roll. Toward the end after I got the hang of it I tended to finish levels without having to retry more than a couple times, but just knowing I'd have to start over entirely for every mistake or misclick makes it less enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure it's my second favorite Tomb Raider game now, and one of only two I've ever finished. The other was the 2013 reboot, which I thought was great. I tried the sequel to that and didn't really like all the changes they made to the formula because they all made it less fun for me, and I always thought the pre-reboot ones were just bad. To be fair I heard the later ones did get better and I never tried any of those, but the PS1 era games were anti-fun for me.

I'LL KILL HER

More of a digital comic book than anything, like a visual novel with an extreme emphasis on the visual part and no decision making. The art style was enough to get my interest to try it, and that's probably the main thing it has going for it. The story is...fine? Not super deep or original and feels like it maybe has some translation or non-native English issues sometimes, but it all fits together well enough in the end I guess. All of the content warnings for this one for stuff like abuse and domestic violence and suicide.

Cris Tales

Somehow this is the only one of these that I gave up on before finishing it. A lot of stuff in it is absolutely gorgeous (go watch the animated intro, seriously), and I was getting into the setting and some of the themes it was hinting at, and the time shifting mechanics are pretty neat both for exploration and combat, but I just don't really enjoy playing the game very much.

Society has advanced beyond the need for random encounters, but Cris Tales has not. Good thing it has irritatingly long load times for each one, at least on the Switch, and it has to do it again going back from the battle screen to the main overworld. And I really am not into how the combat encounters are balanced. Even basic trash enemies a few hours into the game can do absurd amounts of damage, like 40+ when your characters barely have over 100 hp. You can reduce that with timed button presses like Paper Mario/Mario RPG games, but the animations while pretty are really bad at conveying the actual correct timing for stuff.

Basically I like most things about the game except for actually playing it. Well, it's fine in towns I guess, but there's too much other stuff I'm not into for that to make up for it. Oh, and the voice acting isn't terrible or anything, but it's definitely worse than most things I've played this year with voice acting and didn't really do it for me. Also it has the most basic and obvious bug that I'm mildly surprised I've never seen in anything else: it counts the entire time the game is suspended while the Switch is asleep toward your play time. I apparently spent 60 hours on the game, when really it was about 3.

#will you snail? #lara croft go #I'll kill her #cris tales

[softsebnbuckystan]

Soul ties - Part 4 (Bucky Barnes au)

“And if you're feeling lonely you should tell me

Before this ends up as another memory”

A week. You'd met Bucky a week earlier and still hadn't forgotten the feeling of his arm on your back, the deepness of his voice and the blue of his eyes. How could you? You were trying to spend as much time with Darren as you could, but he was hardly ever home.  When he wasn't working, he was meeting one friend or another to watch a baseball game. You had been married for one week, and this was your seventh day alone in your apartment.

The place you and Darren lived in was small and you had given your best to make it feel like a welcoming home. From green plants to scented candles and beautiful artwork, everything was meant to make any visitor feel welcomed and cozy. Your favourite thing was obviously the couch and beanbag chairs : they were all dark grey and the fabric gave them the impression of a cloud. Not that it mattered to your husband, though... You sighed as you got up from your couch and put your coffee cup on the kitchen counter. Taking out your phone out of your back pocket, you stopped for a moment, biting your cheek. Should you...call him? No. It was too soon and you  hadn't  heard from him at all since the wedding. Maybe it wasn't a good idea. Scratch that: it was probably a terrible idea.  You decided to call Steve instead, hoping he would have some work for you at the compound. You  had already helped out a lot, especially in terms of scientific development. You and Bruce Banner were currently working on a tissue-repairing  technology. It was a work in progress and Banner didn't have much time for it, but you always tried to make yourself useful: there was always an agent who needed a wound to be stitched.

"Y/n? Hi! How's the married life going?" Your heart warmed up as soon as you heard Steve's voice on the phone.

"Hi, uh... Good, thanks. Do you need my help at the compound?" you asked.

"No, not really. I mean, you always find ways to help, of course, but we thought you'd like a week or two, you know." He paused. "Don't you have a honeymoon to go to?"

"Darren's too busy with work. He said we'd go when he gets a week off, which is...not right now. So do you need me there?"

Your friend took a moment to answer. "Yeah, we always need you. Do you want me to send a car?"

"Yeah, Darren took ours and I don't think a taxi can take me there. Thanks, Stevie! See you soon."

"Okay, the car will be at your place in an hour. See ya!"

Hanging up the phone, you already felt better than five minutes earlier. Going to the compound meant working, for sure, but it also meant you got to see and spend time with Wanda, joke around with Sam or just chit chat with Bruce. You could say the compound was like your second home, now.  After a quick shower and changing into some jeans and t-shirt, you deemed yourself ready to go and packed your backpack – no, a handbag was not enough to carry your multiple notebooks and pens.

You scrolled on your phone to make time pass faster and when the bell rang, you furrowed your brows. Drivers usually honked and didn't bother ringing the doorbell. You went to the interphone and pressed the speaker.

"Who's there?"

You heard what sounded like the end of a throat-clearing noise. "It's Bucky. Steve asked me to pick you up."

Your lips froze and your brain stopped functioning correctly for a second. Who? What? Why?

"I'll be down in a sec," you ended up saying, acting as composed as possible.

'Damn you, Steve.' You did want to see Bucky, but time to prepare for the occasion would've been better. Last time he saw you, you were wearing a pretty dress and your hair was done and...shit. You quickly ran your brush through your hair, hoping it would make it better, before thinking of how ridiculous you sounded: why would Bucky care about how you looked, and – more importantly – why would you ?

When you found yourself down in the entrance hall, you caught a glimpse of Bucky through the glazed door. He seemed to be carrying something. You opened the door and greeted him with  a smile.

"I didn't know you'd be the one coming,"  you noted, trying to figure out whether he enjoyed being here or not.

He shrugged and looked at the floor.  "Steve apparently had no one available so...he asked me. Ready?" He handed you what he'd be holding the whole time and...

"A helmet? Why would I- Oh. You don't have a car,  do you?"

Bucky let out a laugh. As brief as it was, you couldn't help but swoon. You looked up and smiled back. "What's so funny?"

"You don't like bikes?" he asked, raising a brow.

"No, I just... They're not as safe as a car. "

"It's safe with me, I promise. Come."

You followed him with a grin as he placed his helmet over his long hair and you tried to strap yours on, fiddling with your fingers.

"Let me help." You almost stopped breathing when his fingers brushed against your chin as he attached the helmet's straps. "Okay, we  should go now."

You nodded and sat behind him, unsure of where to place your arms. "Hum..."

Bucky gently seized your wrists and brought them on his stomach. "Just hold on here." You  felt his back tense as you joined your hands on his body. You hadn't been this close to him since you'd met. Your own body's reaction was to nestle against Bucky's. Whether you wanted to feel safe on this bike or you just needed him to be close, you had no clue. Bucky started the engine, made sure you were holding on tight and started driving through the streets. The wind on your exposed skin made you shiver and after ten minutes or so, you felt comfortable enough to rest your chin on Bucky's back, right behind his shoulder.

Something in the way Bucky drove and took his turns made you think he was  used to go faster. Was he slowing down for you?

"Are you going slower than usual?" you yelled behind him.

Turning his head around would've been too dangerous so he nodded.

"Don't hold yourself back for me then, I'm not a kid!"

His shoulders moving hinted at a laugh as the motorbike sped up. It only made you cling harder to him and when you arrived at the compound half an hour later, you realised  you were smiling too hard for your own good.

"You screamed", he said in a soft voice, a smile floating on his lips.

"No, I did not."

"Yeah, you did."

You  shook your head and tried putting on a serious face as you saw Wanda coming to you. You didn't want her to tease you about your – probably  – huge smile. By the look in her eyes, you could tell she'd obviously busted you. She hurried towards you and hugged you tight.

"I'm so happy to see you," she breathed. "Are you here to work with Bruce?"

"Yeah, or just help around." You lowered your voice. "I needed to get away from home for the day."

Your sister gave you a confused stare before she understood. "Oh. He's working too much again?"

"Yeah. I guess staying home with his now-wife is too much to ask." You looked away for a second. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be bitter."

Bucky got off of the bike as well and stopped next to you, as if waiting for something. He must've spotted the interrogation in your eyes because he gestured to your head.

"The helmet," he explained. "I don't think you wanna wear that all day."

You chuckled. "No, I don't." You struggled once again with the straps and when Bucky unstrapped them for you, the same shiver as earlier ran down your spine. "Thanks for the ride," you added as he walked away to the building. He waved at you and nodded, smiling a little less brightly than he did in front of your house.

"That was some tension I just saw there," Wanda remarked. "Were you even able to keep your hands off him on that bike?"

"Wanda!"

"What? I'm just asking. Isn't he your soulmate or something?"

You ran your hand through your ruffled hair and gave her a disapproving look.

"You"re the one who told me soulmates could very well be friends," you argued. "And you  shouldn't be encouraging me down that road. I'm married, in case you forgot."

"Yeah, to a man who didn't even booked a honeymoon."

"He's busy," you said, looking away from your sister. Finding excuses for Darren was easy. Selling them to your sister was a whole different ballgame.

"Not to me, y/n. You should tell him you want to go!"

"Yeah, maybe tonight." You started walking to the compound. "I need to talk to Bruce about our last meeting. I'll see you later."

Wanda shook her head before going the other way, towards the gardens. You loved your sister, obviously, and she meant the world to you. However, when she was seeing right through your lies and excuses like she'd just been, it always drove you mad at yourself. Sure, you were in love with Darren and he'd never been mean to you, but you knew perfectly you didn't have to take all of his shit. You could feel he was taking you for granted, and you decided that had to change. If you didn't start fighting for your own wellbeing, you knew Wanda would. You weren't eager to witness such events.

--- Just finished writing part 7, so here's part 4 for you! I hope you still like this story :) Your likes really make me smile throughout the day ehe

Tell me if you want to be added to the tag list!

Tag list :

@ginger-swag-rapunzel @joscelyn02

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x y/n #james bucky barnes #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan imagine #marvel #mcu fanfiction #self insert #catws #cacw #tfatws

[theintentioncraft]

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I've been tagged by @lordbelacqua (thank you Dea! <3) to talk about Backlead aka: that one Masriel fic I wrote where I got massively carried away...

Rambling/essay under the cut - fair warning, it's a long one!

Okay so first of all just a little disclaimer that Backlead did not follow my usual writing process - the idea was 110% borne out of self-indulgence and it was also both my first foray into HDM fanfic and my return to fanfic as a whole after a long hiatus from writing, so for me this was really a chance to just get back into the swing of things. Everything from Heavenly Guard through to Swansong and all of my current WIPs follow a more structured process and I'm happy to discuss any of them in a separate post!

PLANNING: I tend to find with my fics that I either have a nice little timeline of events planned out pre-writing or I have a very specific event in my head and I just take that and see how things unravel from there and Backlead was 100% the latter.

All I had in my head initially was the ballroom dance scene and so a lot of my admittedly-minimal planning was around the technicalities of that particular section, as well as some of the more general details e.g Marisa's outfit, the setting of the ball, etc. Planning the dance was the most fun part because it was a chance for me to put a lot of my dance knowledge to good use and think up something that fits the back-and-forth way in which Marisa and Asriel frequently navigate their encounters. In a way though I'm actually very glad that a lot of this fic Just Happened instead of being planned out, sometimes it's nice to just run away with an idea!

MUSIC: This gets its own section because this is one of the most important things in my process. Every single fic I write is written to various pieces of music that just help me to put myself in the right headspace for whatever I'm writing at the time - sometimes its just a single piece of music (I wrote Swansong in one hour with just one track from the Unforgotten - a TV show in the UK for those of you not familiar with it - soundtrack on repeat) and sometimes its entire playlists. I do love geeking out about my music choices for fic writing so happy to talk more in a separate post about music for some of my other fics if anyone's curious!

For Backlead I found a couple of playlist-vids from the lovely raviolae on youtube that really worked wonders for my writing. This comes with a disclaimer that I did not necessarily attribute any of these specific songs to either dance scene and I wanted to leave that open for people's imagination - but it's still brilliant vibes for thinking about two once-lovers-now-enemies trying to one-up each other whilst ignoring how much they still find each other attractive.

The two playlist-vids in question are here: you're stuck on the dance floor with your rival and find out they're an annoyingly good dancer and you're dancing with your rival and both of you want to lead

WRITING: First step every time is to figure out who's POV I'm going to cover because that makes a major difference in the way I'm going to write. Characterisation is the big thing for me and there's nothing I love more than to really get inside a character's head and basically think like them, and figure out what makes them tick and how they'll react to the story I'm putting them in. With my initial idea for Backlead being basically about the subtle power dynamics of a ballroom dance, Marisa felt like the natural go-to for this one and I found it much easier in this instance to write in her headspace than in Asriel's.

I wrote this fic in a very out-of-order fashion. The first dance (the slower, waltz-style dance) was the first part I finished, then I did as hinted at above get very carried away and move onto the section in the hallway, then I went right to the start and covered the entire section leading up to that first dance. Then I revisited the hallway scene because I wanted to rework it (the initial version was planned to be more explicit and involved less dialogue - but I wasn't comfortable with writing out the former at that time and the latter got changed by way of me having a sudden burst of dialogue-themed inspiration). The second, more set piece style dance came last in terms of the 'major events' that I wrote purely because I spent a lot of time racking with my dance knowledge to try and make it work in a way that didn't feel forced.

My final major writing stage is to write the 'transitions' between each major part - small pieces where nothing particularly noteworthy happens but it helps the fic to flow from one conversation/event to the next and also sometimes allows me to sneak in a bit of characterisation that I couldn't fit in elsewhere.

Along the way I often leave sentences half-finished with a bracket indicator so I know to go back to it later or I make little notes if I've added something in that needs explaining earlier in the fic, and I make sure to sort those parts out before I jump to the self review/beta reader stage. A couple of examples are below:

Although sometimes this method does also annoy future me too 😂:

SELF REVIEW/BETA REVIEW: Whenever I finish a fic, it gets put away for a day or two and I stop thinking about it completely - if I'm using a beta reader (usually @thatlavanderbard but I sometimes enlist help from friends on discord), I'll send them a copy of my draft at this point so they can start going through and leaving comments for me to work on, but the idea is that when I go back to my work a few days later I'm looking at it with semi-fresh eyes and can properly sift through each sentence to make sure things make sense.

When I'm self-reviewing I generally tend to follow this order of operations: spelling/grammar check (via docs') -> flow check (making sure any deliberate time skips/POV changes/etc in my fic flow smoothly from one part to the next) -> address beta reader comments (because they almost always pick up on things I myself would've picked up on anyway) -> general detailed final read through to make sure I'm happy with every single line and it all makes sense.

Backlead didn't get a full beta read because I had hit a point with it where I just wanted it up ASAP and my impatience got the better of me, but the rest of the above self-review stages still happened and I still spent a fair few evenings going through it properly and also running the occasional sentence or two by some helpful discord friends if I didn't like the way it flowed but couldn't quite figure out how to remedy it!

POSTING: First step was to reset my AO3 password because I forgot it yet again whoops

On a more serious note this part is pretty straightforward - once I'm ready to post a new fic I generally just go on autopilot for this part of the process (other than when I get to 'additional tags' and immediately get brain freeze...). As soon as it's up on AO3 I swing by here to make a post about it, then swing by discord to drop the link to friends who may be interested in reading it and then I normally nervously scuttle away from my notifications for a while out of fear that people hate it lmao.

That last part was especially true for Backlead because of it being my first trip into HDM fanfic and I always get extra nervous when posting my first fanfic for a new show/game/etc. Thankfully I got quite a few nice comments both on here and on discord that provided good motivation to stick around and post a few more things!

I always panic when asked to tag people lmao but I'll tag @fortheloveofwii for any part of the Onward, Onward series, @lyracordelia for any chapter in Hiraeth or the fic as a whole, and @glassrunner for this absolutely gorgeous gifset of beautiful game soundtracks. Please don't feel like you have to do this if you don't want to though!

#stel talks #showyourprocess #y'all thought i rambled in my fics just look at me rambling here #i'm hoping this makes sense! #it was nice to dive into how my brain works when i try to write things #my writing

[existentialstatesofmind]

Weekend Fun

Clare: giggled. "Yeah well it's tiresome having people think of you as a saint." Of course Clare was a little scared she was going to get kicked out anyway because of her parents. Even though Christians were supposed to accept everyone, it didn't take much for some of them to turn their back on you. Back when the group called themselves Friendship Club, they had tried to take Darcy's purity ring away because people got the wrong idea when she'd been raped. Clare smiled and nodded. "Good to know. My family used to go church together at least two or three times a week but we've been missing services lately." Part of her wondered if God was mad at them. Her smile widened when Dakota told her a secret in return. She reached for his hand and gently squeezed it. "Ignore them." Clare murmured when his brothers seemed to find it hilarious that he was blushing without even knowing the reason. "You do know that's nothing to be ashamed of right? Please don't be one of those guys who wants to get a girlfriend just so he can have sex. I think you're better than that." She whispered. As Clare said it, she realized she really meant it. Dakota had girls throwing themselves at him all the time. If he was desperate to lose his virginity, he would've already hooked up with one of them. "I'm glad her mom was brave enough to help them get out of that situation. But even if they are safe now, what's going to happen when her dad comes back?" Clare asked soberly. No wonder Dakota's friend had been clingy, it didn't sound like she had anyone else to rely on or comfort her. Home was the one place were you were always supposed to feel loved and cared for. "You'll have to teach me if we have to clean. Even my mom doesn't do that thorough of a job. I just clean my room and help vacuum, mop, and dust. She does the rest." Clare turned red. "That isn't going to help me! Even they had different birthmarks, I wouldn't be pulling down their pants to check." She squeaked. Clare had already ruled out Dakota having more muscles as a telltale because she wasn't about to ask if she could feel his abs whenever she wanted to make sure he was the twin she was talking to. She laughed as Stacy explained about the video. "Oh wow, that is really cool! I haven't been swimming in awhile because it's still freezing outside." Clare pointed out. Her bikini tops didn't fit anymore either. She followed everyone into the kitchen once Dakota set the pizza on the table. Her stomach growled as the delicious smell wafted through the air. "Okay." Clare sat down and told Dakota which soda she wanted. She smiled at Dallas and Dakota. "Yeah, I think it's great." Clare bowed her head and put her hands together, saying the prayer along with everyone else. Once she had a couple of slices of the hot pizza on her plate, Clare immediately started eating it. "Mmm." She hummed appreciatively.

Kota: listened to Clare talk about home and church, he didn't say anything because they were in front of his family and he didn't know if Clare wanted them to know about her situation. He nodded when she told him to ignore them and listened to her whisper. "I know there's not. Ash and Dom are virgins too. Dallas isn't." he whispered honestly. "We just don't like everyone to know." he assured. Hearing Clare mention their dad coming back, he smiled at her. "He'll be gone for a year, when he does come back it'll be for the summer, she'll be here and sticking to me like glue because of the guys and her sister will be at her friend's for the summer." he explained. "After that he goes back and he already knows if he comes here I'll beat the crap out of him because I almost did. He tried to slap me and I caught his hand, then flipped him onto his back with my foot on his throat telling him not to mess with a black belt. he left after that." he explained. "I'll help you." he said honestly and laughed when she mentioned their birthmarks and pulling down their pants. "Sorry, it was a bit funny the way you said it." he apologized and listened as she mentioned not swimming in his while. "We went swimming on Christmas. Our pool and porch are both heated so we can go whenever we want. Emi, however is afraid of water so we're bringing her to the public pool in the summer." he explained. As they started to eat, he sat down and smiled as everyone conversed and looked over to Clare. "I'm glad you like it. This was supposed to be dinner." he admitted with a slight laugh. After they finished he watched Emi run and carry out his guitar. "May, May." she said handing it to him. "Stacy, join?" he asked taking it off her. He put the guitar strap around his neck and took a chair with him as Stacy did the same and everyone gathered on the couch and love seat. "Whole song?" Stacy asked. "No, not suited for Emi. It's too depressing." he said and started to strum a fast beat. "And s the sun went down we ended up on the ground. I heard the train shake the window you screamed over the sound, as we owned this night I put your body to the test with mine. This love was out of control 3, 2, 1.. where did it go." he sang and strummed slower. "And she said." he sang. "If you were me you'd do the same. I can't take it anymore, I'll draw the sades and close the door, everything's not alright and I would rather..." Stacy sang and Kota strummed for a few moments picking up the beat. "And as the sun went down we ended up on the ground. I heard the train shake the window, you screamed over the sound and as we owned this night I put your body to the test with mine. Our love was out of control, tell me where did you go." he sang as he strummed and soon stopped. "I was forced to take an elective in middle school and I was sick when we were picking them so the school automatically chose mine. Obviously I took guitar for the entire year. My mom walked in on me one night strumming on a guitar one night that I borrowed from school and heard me singing and immediately enrolled me in voice lessons saying there needed to be a singer in the family and since she wanted us to be talented in multiple things to make it easier to decide what we want to be when we grow up I didn't fight her. She's always telling us we can be whatever we want and no matter how many times we tell her we want to be something, enroll in a class and drop out because we don't like it, she smiles and tell us that it's ok. We don't need to have that profession. Our sister Kelly, she does ballet, tap, is a makeup artist, plays the violin, and figure skates." he said honestly. "As you already know Dallas and I can both do stunts, mixed martial arts, gymnastics, and karate. I skateboard which I taught myself it, play guitar, sing, and cook which my mom is teaching me." he said honestly. "Dom and I take art, there's a lot that can come out of it and we are quite sure if we're going to do anything with it, we both also take computers. I want to learn computer programming where as Dom right now wants to hack and do computer forensics which we both need to be better typists which we think everyone is a typist because in middle school our second elective was computers. The whole school had to learn how to type without looking at the keys everyone had it until they graduate. We want to continue it. We both also know hip hop dancing. I like playing sports though. Kota plays with me some times, but I like it more than he does, he just sees it as a work out." Ash shrugged. "I also like video games. Sometimes I'll play all night on the weekends to see how long it takes me to beat a game, then write the company about how they can make it better. I once got paid one summer to test out a video game. I beat it in a day." Dom shrugged. "I want to learn about medicine so I might take that in college." Dallas explained as all of them opened up to Clare.

#wf