#m babbles

[onbeinganangel]

2022 round-up ✨

ooooh this is such a fun end of year little tag game!! thank you @danpuff-ao3 for the tag!

Rules:

1. Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular), 2. your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year, 3. your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year, 4. your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year, 5. and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year!

Before I get into it, I’m tagging @vivantesopales @the-starryknight @mintawasalreadytaken and @sweet-s0rr0w 💕 no pressure, have fun! Alright, here we go:

5 fics

(i wrote a total of 6 so this should be easy enough lol from favourite to least loved — by me personally, fuck stats — we have:) savage natures [aftg, andrew/neil, mary hatford character study, 6k, M]

It starts with the now-familiar smell of blood long seeped into the fake leather of the car seats, with the stench of burning plastic, flesh and gasoline.

It starts like any good ghost story should: I am dead, and Nathaniel has come back at last.

geometric equilibrium [aftg, andrew/kevin/neil, getting together, mutual pining, 10k, M]

Kevin graduates and Neil thinks he’s pretty. Andrew graduates and Kevin pines. Neil graduates and Andrew is way more than 100% done with all this triangle-shaped bullshit and can’t believe he has to be the one to fix it.

Or: the Flawed Court get together, in three graduations acts.

Second Best [hp, harry/regulus, past jegulus, past sirry, porn with a side of hate/hurt but it's not quite hate fucking, 8k, E]

Can you want me like you wanted him? Because I do.

Liturgia Horarum [hp, draco/harry, very soft domestic fluff, 1.5k, M]

From morning melodies to evening encores, a day in the life through the soundtrack of routine.

facedown on my bed (thinking of you) [hp, fem!drarry, hogwarts is an all girls school, getting together, uni au, friends to lovers, 10k, M]

Sometimes the feelings you have for your enemy-turned-roommate-turned-bff are not as platonic as you think. Sometimes you're the last person to realise it.

4 current WIPs

(these are all AFTG fics, sorry HP pals) [redacted aftg mixtape exchange fic] - can’t say much except that my recipient chose an amazing song and a brilliant pairing and that the mods are the best and the stars aligned and fate was on my side when i was given this prompt and i’m really excited to finish it and for it to be out in the world

the next three are actually a series of pwp fics set in the same universe where we have established kandreil but i’m giving them all one-on-one time (therefore, three fics)!! i’m very excited about it! this series features: trans neil, professional athlete shenanigans, kevin being a freak, neil being a horny little shit, andrew being his little weirdo self who plays exy because there's nothing better to do but actually is the epitome of a malewife. lots of porn with a side of domesticity, just the way i like it stand in awe of him - the kevneil fic, which yes is titled after a psalm do not dare @ me lol this one is a very soft rapid escalation of morning glory snuggles and domestic chats in which kevin and neil are in bed and start talking about andrew and at first it's like "oh he's so cute when he's grumpy" and suddenly it's like "and that thing he does with his tongue" and they just get each other off thinking about how much they love their bf!!!! like good for them tbh

clinging to you - kandrew!!!! size difference!!!!! 🥵🥵 like there is one vertical foot between those two bastards and you think i'm not gonna make it a thing? i'm gonna make it a thing. i actually have a good chunk of this one written already, it has taken over my brain. just kevin being "ah andrew is so Large and Beefy and Good at Exy" (*cough cough* exy kink *cough cough* competence kink) but then suddenly they're in bed and he realises he can cover ALL of andrew with HIS body and he's like "oh it turns out he's smol but that's also hot?" immediate fireworks in the ol' brain box!!!!

waiting, wanting - ah. the andreil with that one premise that has been done a gazillion times across every random on earth but idc because i want it. neil is horny, andrew is asleep, kevin is across the world and in the end andrew and neil end up fucking with kevin on the phone listening in. neil gets fingered within an inch of his life and andrew gets mocked for his bad french accent and it’s all very delightful, if i say so myself

3 biggest improvements

oh yay tooting my own horn, my favourite activity lmao cutting back - i started this year with a very clear goal of doing No Fests. i did nearly fail at this and i DID sign up to a fest although for no fault of my own that didn't work out in the end which means No Fest 2022 was a success. i also spent a lot less time forcing myself to write and a lot more time thinking about my motivations, the stories i really want to tell and what kind of presence i want to have. i wish i had cut back more but it's very hard. a while ago i described to a dear friend how falling out of love with a fandom community is a bit like moving house, and this move hasn't been smooth. i am proud of my efforts here though!

finding a balance to my outlining process - outlining has always been my weakness. my two longer works are a bit of a mess continuity-wise because my brain just hates outlining. the moment i write down what happens it ticks the wee box for that task and assumes i am done. this year i have found a happy balance where i don't outline too much so that my brain still thrives on the mystery but enough so that the final product isn't a total mess.

characterisation vs plotting - this ties in a little bit with the outlining thing above but i feel like a lot of what i wrote this year was character motivated rather than plot driven! it's a bit of a new approach for me but i am very pleased with the results. it took a lot of studying (mostly reading original stuff, but also a ton of @skeptiquewrites fic because in my opinion, no one does a full cast of characters that feel real and fleshed out and wonderful every single time like tee does!) and a lot more time considering who these characters are instead of actively writing to advance a story, which really worked out for me

2 resolutions

get back to original work - i have a novel idea that's been in my head for a very long time and my goal was to work on it at some point this year. i even gave it a good go during NaNo — unfortunately, it is largely horror and also very much based in my childhood home, in which i am currently living... you can see how that probably wasn't a good idea in the first place. (wtf was i thinking) so, depending on whether or not i manage to finish building and move into my tiny home at some point in 2023, a good chunk of a first draft should be achieved sometime next year!

give myself some grace - well. yeah. that. this is basically an extended version of the "cutting back" improvement from this year. i have to remind myself a lot that unexpected heartbreak and real life shit and bad mental health are all a thing. i'm not always going to be able to finish my projects, and sometimes i will be able to finish them but it won't be what i want it to be. so i'm putting joy above every other feeling next year by cutting myself some slack

1 favourite line

all my favourite lines this year are from the same fic but i am obsessed with how kevin and neil are basically canonically soulmates so i’m gonna go with:

“A raven-black string of fate tying their pinkies together — Neil's own scarred hand to Kevin's racquet-mangled one.” from geometric equilibrium

#drarry #harry/regulus #aftg #m babbles #tag games #this is so long i am genuinely embarrassed #if you actually read all of this i am kissing ur forehead #shoulda put 'shut the fuck up' in my resolutions #but i won't #! #bc i love chatting shit #long post #idk what tumblr etiquette is like these days #i have tagged long post #normally i'd also like do the read more thingy? but tumblr automatically cuts off long posts these days? #if you'd like me to add a readmore to this bullshit let me know #i am tired and confused

[decaflondonfog]

no one else is asking it so i will so…………… who wants to get hot and heavy with me on the $1500 anthropologie tete a tete sofa

#what a ridiculous piece of furniture i’ve never wanted anything more #i know you’re thinking it too: what exactly are the logistics of shagging on it? #😂😂😂 #m babbles

[twistedappletree]

love the junior scenes in the MDZS donghua where Jin Ling is standing with perfect, regal posture with his nose turned up at literally everyone and Lan Jingyi is next to him hunched over and shouting like a rabid swamp goblin

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jin ling #lan jingyi #top tier dynamic actually lmfAO #lingyi #but my personal name for them is #jingaling #they’re a platonic ship for me btw I am very much absorbed in zhuiling hell #but I love their friendship sm I just love ALL the juniors being T H E M 😭✨🌸💕 #mdzs juniors #apple babble 🍎 #precious juniors #mdzs donghua #the princess and the goblin

[anghraine]

I always find it interesting that no one in P&P has any doubt that Mr Gardiner could and would have shelled out ten thousand pounds to bribe Wickham.

Mr Bennet is determined (at least at the time) to eventually repay him, when he believes Mr Gardiner paid it, but he does believe that. Mrs Bennet simply shrugs off the vast sum of money that everyone believes was expended to preserve Lydia's reputation. Her justification is that she and her daughters would have inherited all her brother's money if he hadn't gone and got married and had children of his own (how dare!). His assurance that she's going to be fine is not an empty one.

Elizabeth doesn't seem to doubt it, either. And earlier, at Pemberley, she assumed that Darcy had mistaken the Gardiners for members of fashionable upper-class society—a believable mistake to make, apparently, and he is surprised that they're Mrs Bennet's relatives. (I mean. Fair.) Their summer trip is likely not a cheap one. They're doing quite well.

In any case, I do think the Gardiners' prosperity and its bearing on the Bennets' situation is kind of overlooked by the fandom.

#honestly i think mrs bennet's response to mr gardiner apparently paying ten thousand pounds for lydia to marry /wickham/ #is pretty repugnant actually #the whole thing about how she would have been his heir #and he hasn't done anything except give presents to her children so he /should/ pay for lydia is. wtf. #(this is also manifestly false since elizabeth and jane frequently stay in the gardiners' house...) #in any case the bennet women were never going to be left out in the cold by the gardiners #anghraine babbles #austen blogging #austen fanwank #edward gardiner #m gardiner #mrs bennet critical

[bonefall]

Don’t know if this is the right place to ask, but could you talk more about zoos? I’ve seen many people say that zoos are inherently exploitative and that we should instead focus on advocating for wildlife preserves, etc., but I’m not sure what to think of that. You seem to know a lot about wildlife protection, so what’s your opinion on this?

There are folks faaaar better than myself to talk about the issues of zoos specifically and I'll try to toss in some sources so you can go and learn more, but let me try and explain my mindset here.

Summary of my opinion on this: BOTH of these things can be poorly managed, and I broadly support both. They should exist in tandem. I am pro-accredited zoo and am extremely sensitive towards misinformation. I also do think the best place for animals to be is in their natural environment, but nature "preserves" aren't inherently perfect. They can also be prone to the capitalist (and colonialist) pressures that less informed people believe they're somehow immune to.

Because of the goal of my project being to make the setting of WC accurate to Northwestern England, my research is based on UK laws, ecology, and conservation programs.

On Zoos

On Nature Reserves

An Aside on Fortress Conservation

On Zoos

The legal definition of a Zoo in the UK (because that is what BB's ecological education is based around), as defined by the Zoo Licensing Act of 1981 (ZLA), is a "place where wild animals are kept for exhibition to the public," excluding circuses and pet shops (which are covered by different laws.)

This applies equally to private, for-profit zoos, as well as zoos run by wildlife charities and conservation organizations. Profit does not define a zoo. If there's a place trying to tell you it's not a zoo but a "sanctuary" or a "wildlife park," but you can still go visit and see captive wild animals, even if it's totally free, it's a marketing trick. Legally that is still a zoo in the UK.

(for fellow Americans; OUR definition is broader, more patchwork because we are 50 little countries in a trenchcoat, and can include collections of animals not displayed to the public.)

That said, there's a HUGE difference between Chester Zoo, run by the North of England Zoological Society, which personally holds the studbooks for maintaining the genetic diversity of 10 endangered species, has 134 captive breeding projects, cultivates 265 threatened plant species, and sends its members as consultants to United Nations conferences on climate change, and Sam Tiddles' Personal Zebra Pit.

Sam Tiddles' Personal Zebra Pit ONLY has to worry about the UK government. There's another standard zoos can hold themselves to if they want to get serious about conservation like Chester Zoo; Accreditation. There are two major zoo organizations in the UK, BIAZA and EAZA.

(Americans may wonder about AZA; that's ours. AZA, EAZA, and BIAZA are all members of the World Association of Aquariums and Zoos, or WAZA, but they are all individual organizations.)

A zoo going for EAZA's "accreditation" has to undergo an entire year of evaluation to make sure they fit the strict standards, and renewal is ongoing. You don't just earn it once. You have to keep your animal welfare up-to-date and in compliance or you will lose it.

The benefit of joining with an accredited org is that it puts the zoo into a huge network of other organizations. They work together for various conservation efforts.

There are DOZENS of species that were prevented from going extinct, and are being reintroduced back to their habitats, because of the work done by zoos. The scimitar-horned oryx, takhi, California condor, the Galapagos tortoise, etc. Some of these WERE extinct in the wild and wouldn't BE here if it hadn't been for zoos!

The San Diego zoo is preventing the last remaining hawaiian crows from embracing oblivion right now, a species for which SO LITTLE of its wild behavior is known they had to write the book on caring for them, and Chester zoo worked in tandem with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to provide tech and funding towards breakthroughs in surveying wild pangolins.

Don't get me wrong;

MOST zoos are not accredited,

nor is accreditation is REQUIRED to make a good zoo,

nor does it automatically PROVE nothing bad has happened in the zoo,

There are a lot more Sam Tiddles' Personal Zebra Pits than there are Chester Zoos.

That's worth talking about! We SHOULD be having conversations on things like,

Is it appropriate to keep and breed difficult, social megafauna, like elephants or cetaceans? What does the data say? Are there any circumstances where that would be okay, IF the data does confirm we can never provide enough space or stimulation to perfectly meet those species' needs?

How can we improve animal welfare for private zoos? Should we tighten up regulations on who can start or run one (yes)? Are there enough inspectors (no)?

Do those smaller zoos meaningfully contribute to better conservation? How do we know if they are properly educating their visitors? Can we prove this one way or the other?

Who watches the watchmen? Accreditation societies hold themselves accountable. Do these organizations truly have enough transparency?

(I don't agree with Born Free's ultimate conclusion that we should "phase out" zoos, but you should always understand the opposing arguments)

But bottom line of my opinion is; Good zoos are deeply important, and they have a tangible benefit to wildlife conservation. Anyone who tries to tell you that "zoos are inherently unethical" either knows very little about zoos or real conservation work, or... is hiding some deeper, more batshit take, like "having wild animals in any kind of captivity is unlawful imprisonment."

(you'll also get a lot more work done in regulating the exotic animal trade in the UK if you go after private owners, btw. zoos have nothing to do with how lax those laws are.)

Anyway I'm a funny cat blog about battle kitties, and the stuff I do for BB is to educate about the ecosystem of Northern England. If you want to know more about zoos, debunking misconceptions, and critiques from someone with more personal experience, go talk to @why-animals-do-the-thing!

Keep in mind though, again, they talk about American zoos, where this post was written with the UK in mind.

(and even then, England specifically. ALL UK members and also the Isle of Man have differences in their laws.)

(If anyone has other zoo education tumblr blogs in mind, especially if they are European, lmk and I'll edit this post)

On Nature Reserves

Remember how broad the legal definition of a zoo actually was? Same thing over here. A "nature reserve" in the UK is a broad, unofficial generic term for several things. It doesn't inherently involve statutory protection, either, meaning there's some situations where there's no laws to hold anyone accountable for damage

These are the "nature reserve" types relevant to my project; (NOTE: Ramsar sites, SACs, and SPAs are EU-related and honestly, I do not know how Brexit has effected them, if at all, so I won't be explaining something I don't understand.)

Local Wildlife Site (LWS) Selected via scientific survey and managed locally, connecting wildlife habitats together and keeping nature close to home. VERY important... and yet, incredibly prone to destruction because there aren't good reporting processes in place. Whenever a report comes out every few years, the Wildlife Trust says it often only gets data for 15% of all their registered sites, and 12% get destroyed in that timeframe.

Local Nature Reserve (LNR) A site that can be declared by a district or county council, if proven to have geographic, educational, biodiversity, or recreational value. The local authority manages this, BUT, the landowner can remain in control of the property and "lease" it out (and boy oh boy, landowners do some RIDICULOUS things)

National Nature Reserve (NNR) This is probably closest to what you think of when someone says "nature reserve." Designated by Natural England to protect significant habitat ranges and geographic formations, but still usually operates in tandem with private land owners who must get consent if they want to do something potentially damaging to the NNR.

Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) (pronounced Triple S-I) A conservation designation for a particular place, assessed and defined by Natural England for its biological or geographic significance. SSSIs are protected areas, and often become the basis for NNRs, LNRs, Ramsar sites, SACs, SPAs, etc.

So you probably noticed that 3/4 of those needed to have the private ownership problem mentioned right in the summary, and it doesn't end there. Even fully government-managed NNRs and SSSIs work with the private sectors of forestry, tourism, and recreation.

We live under Capitalism; EVERYTHING has a profit motive, not just zoos.

I brushed over some of those factors in my Moorland Research Notes and DESPERATELY tried to stay succinct with them, but it was hard. The things that can happen to skirt around the UK's laws protecting wildlife could make an entire season of Monty Python sketches.

Protestors can angrily oppose felling silver birch (a "weed" in this context which can change the ecosystem) because it made a hike less 'pretty' and they don't understand heath management.

Management can be reluctant to ban dogs and horses for fear of backlash, even as they turn heath to sward before our eyes.

Reserves can be owned by Count Bloodsnurt who thinks crashing through the forest with a pack of dogs to exhaust an animal to death is a profitable traditional British passtime.

Or you can literally just pretend that you accidentally chased a deer for several hours and then killed it while innocently sending your baying hounds down a trail. (NOTE: I am pro-hunting, but not pro-animal cruelty.)

The Forestry Commission can slobber enthusiastically while replacing endangered wildlife habitats with non-native, invasive sitka spruce plantations, pretending most trees are equal while conveniently prioritizing profitable timber species.

I have STORIES to tell about the absolute Looney Tunes bullshit that's going on between conservationists and rich assholes who want to sell grouse hunting access, but I'll leave it at this fascinating tidbit about air guns and mannequins which are "totally, absolutely there for no nefarious reason at all, certainly not to prevent marsh harriers from nesting in an area where they also keep winding up mysteriously killed in illegal snares, no no no"

BUT. Since Nature Reserve isn't a hard defined legal concept, and any organization could get involved in local conservation in the UK, and just about anyone or anything could own one... IT'S CHESTER ZOO WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!!

They received a grant in 2021 to restore habitat to a stretch of 10 miles extending outside of their borders, working with TONS of other entities such as local government and conservation charities in the process. There's now 6,000 square meters of restored meadow, an orchard, new ponds, and maintained reedbeds, because of them.

It isn't just Chester Zoo, either. It's all over the UK. Durrel Wildlife, which runs Jersey Zoo, just acquired 18,500 acres to rewild in Perthshire. Citizen Zoo is working with the Beaver Trust to bring beavers back to London and is always looking for volunteers to help with their river projects, and the Edinburgh Zoo is equipped with gene labs being used to monitor and analyze the remaining populations of non-hybrid Scottish Wildcats.

The point being,

Nature preserves have problems too. They are not magical fairy kingdoms that you put up a fence around and then declare you Saved Nature Hooray! They need to be protected. They need to be continuously assessed. They are prone to capitalist pressures just like everything else on this hell planet. Go talk to my boy Karl he'll give you a hug about it.

"Nature Preserves" are NOT an "alternative" to zoos and vice versa. They do not do the same thing. A zoo is a center of education and wildlife research which displays exotic animals. A nature preserve is a parcel of native ecosystem. We need LOTS of nature preserves and we need them well-managed ASAP.

We could never just "replace" zoos with nature preserves, and we're nowhere near the amount of protected ecosystem space to start thinking of scaling back animals in captivity. Until King Arthur comes out of hibernation to save Britain, that's the world we live in.

An Aside

My project and my research is based on the isle of Great Britain. The more I learn about the ecosystems that are naturally found there, the more venomously I reject the old lie, "humans are a blight."

YOU are an animal. You're a big one, too. You know what the role of big animals in an ecosystem are? Change. Elephants knock over trees, wolves alter the course of rivers, bison fertilize the plains from coast-to-coast. In Great Britain, that's what hominids have done for 900,000 years, their populations ebbing and flowing with every ice age.

Early farming created the moors and grazing sheep and cattle maintain it, hosting hundreds of specialist species. Every old-growth forest has signs of ancient coppicing and pollarding, which create havens for wildlife when well-managed. Corn cockle evolved as a mimic of wheat seeds, so farmers would plant it over and over within their fields.

This garbage idea that humans are somehow "separate" from or "above" nature is poison. It's not true ANYWHERE.

It contributes to an idea that our very presence is somehow damaging to natural spaces, and to "protect" it, we have to completely leave it alone. NO! Absolutely NOT! There are places where we have to limit harvesting and foot traffic, but humans ALWAYS lived in nature.

Even the ecosystems that this mindset comes from rejects it, but this shit doesn't JUST get applied to British people who become alienated and disconnected from their surroundings to the point where they don't know what silver birch does.

It's DEADLY for the indigenous people who protect 80% of our most important ecosystems.

It's a weapon against the Maasai people, stopped from hunting or growing crops on their own land. It's violence for 9 San hunters shot at by a helicopter with a "kill poachers on-sight" policy, as one of the world's LARGEST diamond mines operates in the same motherfucking park. The Havasupai people are kept out of the Grand Canyon that they managed for generations because they might "collect too many nuts" and starve squirrels, Dukha reindeer herders suddenly get banned from chopping wood or fishing, and watch wolves decimate their animals in the absence of their herding dogs.

It's nightmare after nightmare of human displacement in the name of "conservation."

That all ties back to that mindset. This idea that nature is pure, "pristine," and should be totally untouched. There are some starting to call it Fortress Conservation.

You can't begin to understand the criticisms of modern conservation without acknowledging that we are still living under the influence of capitalism and colonialism. Those who fixate on speaking for "animals/nature/trees who don't have a voice" often seem to have no interest in the indigenous people who do.

Listen. There's no simple answer; and the solution will vary for each region.

Again, my project is within the UK, one of the most ecologically devastated areas in the world. There are bad zoos that the law allows a pass. There are incredible zoos that are vital to conservation, in and outside of the country. There's not enough nature preserves. The best ones that exist are often exploited for profit.

I hope that my silly little blog sparks an interest in a handful of people to understand more about their own local ecosystems, and teaches folks about the unique beauty even within a place as "boring" as England.

But, my straightforward statement is that I have no patience for nonconstructive, broad zoo slander that lumps together ALL of them, and open contempt for anyone who tries to sell nature preserves like a perfect, morally superior "alternative." We need them BOTH right now, and we need to acknowledge that zoos AND preserves have legal and ethical issues that aren't openly talked about.

#ALSO THAT GUIDE IVE BEEN WORKING ON IS DONE #Im just waiting for the input of the sensitivity readers bc I made a whole section on-- #How ableis m might express in the different clans #And part of it became a thunder-callout post lmaooooo #Also this zoo doc has been sitting competed in my drafts for a while #All this to say that uh. I hope the strange place they visit in the upcoming se is not a zoo :J #I will hit it with a golf club if it is <3 #Leaning heavily towards the 'oh no two DEMIGODS ended up in a zoo' idea #Which is objectively funnier #And you know what else is objectively funny. When these posts break orbit and then ppl are surprised that i am a kitty cat blog #Hal. It's about Cats. #Bone Babble

[fatherentropy]

Xelzaz's line on Maormer made me chuckle because... y'know. Yorick. Also been rocking a hood w/ his usual face mask so you can't see shit on his head so he could easily pass for whatever which is fun for situations like this??? idk Anyway!!

Playable Maormer w/o needing mods when (never, I know but shh)

I might be the only person that jokingly threatens people I'm comfortable with but y'know. Never said I was good with people. Said the opposite actually lmao

Also I keep drawing Yorick as super aggro but I think that's just the Nebarra effect because he's a space cadet tbh.

was gonna have Xel and Lucifer say something at the end here but I... forgot what but also not happy with these faces because blah blah argonian hard blah. Same thing I'm always complaining about lmao

Judging

anyway, silly nonsense that's probably funnier in my head but now it's OUT of my head and that's what's really more important tbh. That all of you have to be inflicted with it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

#CWart #The Elder Scrolls #Nebarra #Xelzaz #Lucifer Skyrim #sorry the quality of my art keeps degrading. I'm tired but I'm also more tired of trying to hold unto things until I'm not tired. #it's not happening #Think he'd be mostly imperial actually... or breton?... reach men?? idk comparing my ancestry results to tes' kinda confusing shit #it don't matter. I'm culturally German American. Yorick is culturally Bruman Nord. yeehaw. #I"m babbling I need to go to bed it's 4 am

[pasteilian]

P—Plz..No more

#pastries babbles💌 #boop o meter #m—my nose

[popponn]

i love him so much my stomach hurts.

absolute cutie. hardworking. passionate. focused. dedicated. good son. humble. a bit messed up sometimes but that's his charm. adaptable. understanding. is ready to change & fix his faults & lackings. very very cute.

#im so tired of loving you but i never want to stop it has been months #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #it kinda hits me this is m y own blog so hey being noisy here for isagi is fair game #i love him ue ue #probably cant never pull him but it's okay im happy to be able to love you muah muah bby boy perfect and wonderful ueu eueue #babblings

[panda-of-the-trash]

Official listing

Looking for angry goth girlfriend/boyfriend/partner

Will you be the Crowley to my Aziraphale?

(Yes hi i´m a single and desperate nonbinary bisexual)

#anya babbles #aziracrow #aziraphale #my sibling said i gabe off aziraphale vibes and that i should get myself a crowley #so here goes nothing #link if this fails i´m never letting you forget it/lh #crowley #good omens

[almea]

With all these animators being like "Oh yeah this Bee scene/moment was originally even more romantic but we had to change it because this happened before episode 6," I can't wait for established Bees in volume 10 when they have the right to make it as romantic as they want because they're girlfriends now.

#Annie babbles about RWBY #Bumbleby #The established Bees in the latter half of volume 9 were SO GOOD and I need volume 10 so I can get more of that #Listen if CRWBY is pandering to anyone with the Bees it's T H E M S E L V E S

[queerpyracy]

no firmer reminder of being an animal than when i do some moderate physical activity and my mental health is elevated by like 1000%

#we have been Struggling to get back into our good habits guys gals and pals #i intentionally started re-ordering my routine to do said physical activity in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning #since summer heat is coming l m a o and oof it has been difficult to actually make myself do it #but i'm getting better!! thanks to keeping a tally of how many days i do it every week #babbles

[onbeinganangel]

hi! just here to tell you I adore your tarot drabble series so so much! every single one is magical✨ you tell beautiful stories with so few words 💌 I don’t know much about tarot so I was wondering (only if you’d like, of course!) if you could talk about your process in connection to the cards? I would love to know more about how their meanings inspire your writing!!

omg hi 🌳🌳🌳🌳!!!

you are so kind! I have been dragging this series around like my wee dog does his blanket (which is to say, I love it and want to see my task through but also jesus fucking christ why is it under my feet I can’t stop tripping oh fuck ouch bloody! stupid! blanket! aaaaggghh) and it just means the world to me that you are enjoying my teensy little drabbles!

(before I talk out of my arse, I want to say that I know tarot is a very loved, powerful, and special tool and practice for a lot of people. I am by no means a savant and I do it very informally, the way I was taught by my aunties and then later by a group of friends. my practice may not match your practice. such is the way of the world.)

I grew up around a remarkable group of wonderful women that taught me a lot of things, from how to make bread to getting stains out of fabric to — you guessed it — how to read cards. but then I was a teenager for a dreadful little time so I lost that for a while, and for a few years now I have been trying to reconnect to that. my practice is rusty but I love how the cards still feel right, like I know them.

so, back in like march (?) or so, in an attempt to practice and study two things I was feeling very weak at but love dearly, I decided to get back into writing by pulling a card and trying to make something out of it. a lot of tarot has to do with intuition and reading of imagery so whenever I’d start on a new drabble, I would pull out the physical card and let it speak to me. in fact, for the most recent ones, I have been pulling the same cards from two or three different decks and looking at them for guidance (sometimes a different illustration will put more emphasis on something so while I know the meanings of the cards by heart, the deck you use can also influence your reading)

all cards are easier to read when applied to a question/problem/situation (and also you usually pull a few in a reading and they are much easier to understand when together rather than just a lone card), so there is a lot of freedom when writing because I am not necessarily going in with any of that in mind. sometimes I go in with just a pairing and look at the card and see if anything comes to mind, sometimes I throw in an extra prompt or ask myself do I want fluff? angst? smut? or do I want this to be an AU, etc.

for a lot of the cards, I have used them really liberally. so, while the meaning of the card always comes to play — sometimes very obviously, sometimes very subtly — I have been trying to really put the card against the pairing and/or genre, and then let it lead me.

as a quick example (I’ll shut up soon I promise), I wrote this open ending drarry one for The Hermit card, which is traditionally a card that means introspection and isolation but it is also about seeking wisdom and knowledge, despite not quite knowing the way — which is sort of where I got the open ending from! visually, most depictions of The Hermit have him holding a lantern and I actually used this motif very literally for this drabble: as the bright light that sets everything off. the drabble starts with Draco’s magic (“hot and bright”) and ends with Harry’s (bursting into “pure brightness”), so while the meaning of the card is also there, it’s obvious I also took a lot of visual inspiration for it. 

and that’s basically how I go about most of the drabbles! I will pick an element (a lot of the cards have sooooooo much you can take from them, all the little details in the illustrations matter) and come up with a situation and it all snowballs from there. sometimes it’s very hard to keep it at the 100 words. but yeah, that’s it : ) I am not taking myself or the series very seriously, and I lost steam along the way a lot, but it’s been a fun excuse to practice short form, to try out new pairings and study my tarot all at the same time!

thank you for this question and I AM SO SORRY FOR RAMBLING I don’t know how to shut up sometimes oooopsies. anyway thank you thank you, you are really very kind for asking! I hope at least a third of what I just wrote makes sense x

#the answer to this is 8 drabbles long #what the fuck is wrong with me #marion learn to talk less challenge #now I’m off to write a couple of drabbles because I still have 28 to write lmao it never ends!!!!! #(if anyone has cards/pairing suggestions pls feel free to throw them at me) #no promises but i can try #i just want to finish this damn series before the end of the year lol #thank you trees it was really fun to actually try and put my messy process into words <3 i appreciate you #qs and as #m babbles #tarot card drabbles

[decaflondonfog]

istg i aged more during this stupid depp v heard trial than i did during two years of worldwide trauma because of a pandemic.

#i am even including the non-pandemic related trauma i suffered during lockdown #yeah #i am #tired #so tired #m babbles #i should tag this so people don’t have to see it if they don’t want to??? #how?? #depp v heard trial #hope that does it #anyway #good day i am going back to bed asap

[blinkpen]

paisley: who WOULD you let top so readily you wouldn't even need any time to even break down The Layers firs- demersa: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower paisley: , oh, wow you answered that super fast, demersa: locked and loaded, it's the only answer ready to go any time, paisley: i won't lie, it's a good answer

#oc babble #demersa #paisley #demersa blazing through a no death run in bloodborne then somehow suddenly dying over and over at that fight #dem: -sighs- i don't want to be disrespectful #zoe: .....wait do you secretly have the same weird fuckign brain disease as m- #demersa: ssshhhhh mine is soooo much harder to unlock i am SO much more valid than you do NOT fuckin SPEAK to me... #[grimstone in the background conjuring painstakingly accurate lady maria cosplay materials in preparation for halloween] #grim: if fate proceeds down this route we will want to hire extra janitors for cleanup after the party

[y-rhywbeth2]

Honestly the Patch 6 lines have set me up for life: vague enough to work with, but not to explicitly confirm anything, and it leaves space for me to go running off into whatever insanity I feel like going with it - which is always my favourite type of canon - while everyone else does the same. Hell, I can create multiple different flavours of headcanon and keep it fitting the canon. It's perfect to me; I'd leave it in its perfection never touch it again, Larian

#I do have him in a bromance with a different “non-canon” aroace Durge - her only loves and murder and power... and necromancy #Also my raging lesbian who will pine after every woman in this godforsaken party #Do I go for world domination with Minthara? The Shadowheart parallels? But Lae'zel's killing efficiency is aghhhh. I need her. #And Karlach's a r m s. The smirk. The “Gortash was your only friend” but “you would die for Karlach” hurdle #babbling #just opinions #/durgetash

[anghraine]

I am eternally amused by Mrs Gardiner pausing her effusions to dissect Wickham's vs Darcy's attractiveness—Wickham's kind of prettiness just gives him this look of goodness, you feel like he's got to be a great person, while Darcy's kind of prettiness is like, perfect features, which is nice and all, but not the same ... though there's something about him as well that makes it hard to believe he's actually bad, even though he's got to be a bad person because Our Pal Wickham would never lie, but Darcy does have such a nice mouth, you notice it when he talks—

Elizabeth: this is how I die

#mrs gardiner is so determined to be accurate lmao and elizabeth just has to sit there and listen to her backtrack and over-analyze #we don't actually know how elizabeth takes it beyond her general radioactive level of embarrassment at the time #between running into darcy at his own house and then her mistakes catching up with her w/ the gardiners #but i canNOT think this is helping :P #anghraine babbles #austen blogging #m gardiner #elizabeth bennet #fitzwilliam darcy #george wickham #deep blogging