#edit: WHO GOT THIS TO 100k. I JUST WANT TO TALK (this post is my second to hit 100k woahg.) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

luvtonique · 7 months

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I realized something this morning.

This is probably gonna be a long post. (Edit, yep)

I'm a pretty fairly public figure on the internet, and I very regularly interact with a huge amount of people. From YouTube Comments to Discord to Tumblr Asks/Comments to Newgrounds Reviews to MMO Chat to Mic-Chat on Games to Twitch Chat to Stream Chat, blah blah blah.

I've, for years now, over a decade (hell over two decades) talked to probably thousands of people, and have been able to get a gauge on a pretty safe to say "average" of collective human intelligence on the internet.

I've come to realize that not everybody has that kind of experience talking to people online as I do. I've talked to literally thousands, probably near ten thousand, people online in my life.

This is a staggeringly high number and puts me in an outlier position among the rest of you, who likely have only interacted with a double digit number of people online in your life.

Now that you have that information in mind, here's what I realized this morning.

I realized that the reason I don't listen to people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to politics, is because I have learned through talking to all these people that fucking nobody knows what they're fucking goddamn talking about.

I study a lot of things in my spare time, and history is a huge one that I study. I very regularly read and listen to multiple sources talking about historic events, and I make sure to look at as many sources as possible, sometimes including reading encyclopedias in my own home that we've owned for like 40 years.

I cross-reference all of these things and paint a picture of the most likely truths through various means.

Why's that important? Because sometimes a 14 year old on Twitter, literally nearly less than a third my age, will occasionally come along telling me that I'm wrong. Not about history necessarily, but about some opinion that I have based on my own experience and my own knowledge that I've researched myself.

I usually ask them where they got their information, and I'm met with boldfaced idiocy. Completely braindead shit like "180,000 people said it on Twitter," or they link me a Tumblr post with 100k notes, or they say "It's common knowledge," (which is the biggest red flag of them all because not only does it prove they have no evidence to back up what they're saying, but as this post will go on to explain, "common knowledge" is quite literally the worst source of information on anything. People commonly think the earth is flat and that Scientology is real. People commonly think that walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror gives you bad luck. People commonly think that naturally blue food exists.)

In my life I have met thousands of people, and THOUSANDS of them are fucking idiots who very very smugly state completely incorrect knowledge. Earlier today someone tried to tell me that the creators of Beat Saber never sold the company to Facebook, and I showed them proof and they went silent for 3 hours and then went "Yeah so what, Facebook is still a good company" and I wanted to beat my head against the desk.

The internet is full of people who are fascinatingly ignorant. I'm not calling myself "better" or "smarter" than anyone here, I'm just saying that I have learned better than most people that people on the internet are not, and never fucking will be, a good source of information. I don't care if they're your best fucking friend, the coin-toss of them knowing what they're talking about or actually having the facts is so heavily weighted against them, it's seriously like a 98% chance they have no fucking clue what they're talking about.

I urge everyone to take a moment and realize that the internet is, in fact, a good place to find information and do research, but PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, especially MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA, are NOT SMART PEOPLE AND ARE NOT GOOD SOURCES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

These are angry, smug, annoying little idiots who are likely 14 years old with a 1st grade reading comprehension who aspires to be a TikTok content creator as a career, and under no fucking circumstance should you ever, ever, EVER listen to any social, financial, religious, gendered, medical or political advice they give.

The world has gotten vastly out of control with how much people think "A lot of people agree with me" is a good enough reason to solidify your opinions. "A lot of people agree" is the biggest red flag ever, because people on the fucking internet are complete fucking idiots, I'm sorry, but I'm someone with far more experience talking to people on the internet than literally any of you reading this. I talk to people on the internet as a career and have been doing this for longer than most of you reading this have been alive.

So what's the point of this? What's the take-away?

The take-away is that I'm saddened by how many people will attack each other vehemently, cut off friends and family members, label people as toxic or problematic, jump to conclusions, etc. based on complete and utter misinformation spouted to them by people who have never once in their entire life actually looked up what the fuck they're talking about. They treat random strangers on Twitter as "experts" because that person is well articulated or put together a YouTube video with really good editing that's softly spoken by a British accent guy and has scary music whenever some "evil" person is on the screen.

The take-away is that people, like yourself (don't you dare try to deny it) will just believe whatever they read on social media, or whatever their Discord friend-group is talking about, because they are living in a complete falsehood that people on the internet know better than they do.

You are not incapable of doing your own research. You are not incapable of finding the truth. You are not stupid. Just do your own research, look into things yourself, cross-reference, use the scientific method, go to a library, read books, for fuck sake please adopt the basic social skill of "If someone says it on the internet it is most likely not true and I should look into it myself."

Because the current state of people is monstrous.

Y'all get so fucking mad about things that are just plain not true, and you revolve your entire life around things you were told by complete idiots and/or children on Twitter and other social media websites.

Stop.

Look at yourself, look at how angry you get about things, and consider that there may be a possibility that anger stems from a complete lack of any foundation or truth in your own beliefs.

Consider the almost 100% guaranteed possibility that you have been blatantly lied to by people who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and that you are violently upholding standards that are incorrect because you have placed trust in the word of untrustworthy people.

Look up confirmation bias, read about it.

Look up manipulation tactics, read about it.

Look up "Plato's Republic" and read about it.

Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you ever, EVER, form your social or religious or political or financial or gendered or sexual etc. opinions based on SHIT YOU READ ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And while we're here, don't listen to the news either. They're just a bunch of parrots saying what needs to be said to get you all fighting with each other so that the government can fuck things up while you're distracted. Do your own research, check multiple sources, don't consider social media or regular media to be a 'source,' get every bit of information from every angle, and for fuck sake, stop attacking people for disagreeing with you when you, yourself, only believe what you believe because your friend group believes it and you know that if you disagree with your friend group they'll all attack you so you'd rather be on their side, which only further proves my point that y'all need to fucking chill.

"Democracy will never work. If 3 medical experts tell you that you must eat a ginger root to cure your ailments, but 100,000 idiots with no medical experience tell you otherwise, you're more likely to believe the 100,000 idiots. They are louder, there are more of them, and you will gamble on the hope that among those 100,000 idiots, there must be more than 3 medical experts. The voice of the ignorant will always drown out the voice of the educated."

-Plato's Republic, 375BCE (Paraphrased)

"I can't believe Jay just called us all idiots and expects us to listen to him"

-Someone in the comments of this (It's gonna happen)

PS: If you looked up "Naturally Blue Food," and found out it does in fact not exist, good for you for doing your own research!

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merionettes · 1 month

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part 1 of how rubicon got written is here. this is part 2, aka the essay about etc.

the thing about the storyboarding/drafting process that there is no way to describe is how totally obsessed i was for the duration. afterwards i tweeted something like, this is the closest i've ever experienced to demonic possession. i would get up, write all day—like, all day—and go to bed. turn off the lights. then i would just lie wide awake in the dark with lines and scenes and dialogue scrolling through my head until i gave in and opened my notes app. i could not turn it off even if i wanted to. and i didn't want to, i was riding that streak as far as it would take me. because i couldn't look down, right? i could sense what i was attempting to do and anything other than total tunnel vision full speed ahead eyes on the prize would mean i had to acknowledge it.

(context of what made this possible: i was unemployed at the time.)

for the first ~50k or so i was afraid that at any minute i could falter. when i got to the nationals meltdown, that was when i knew i could do it. like, no matter what happened after that, i had the willpower and the chops and i knew where i was going. even if the streak died.

but it didn't. i wrote 100k in a little under 4 weeks. i've never experienced anything like that in my creative life.

—then obviously i had to get a new job and come back down to earth and it took 21 months to get from there to posting the epilogue. still. i will probably be chasing that high for the rest of my life. that was the part that like… made the rest of it possible. no matter how difficult or frustrating it was. that generated the roadmap.

i've talked about this before in comments but i had insanely strong opinions about what was "right" and what wasn't. sylvain's narrative voice was a huge part of that. it's inextricable from the content; it shaped the story; it is the story. for the first couple months it also made me an unhinged stylistic tyrant. if there was one single unnecessary word that struck me as inorganic, as existing solely to make the sentence more digestible or to convey information beyond the fourth wall, it had to go. i could not rest until it did.

once again: this is not generally the relationship i have with writing. lol. it's the demonic possession talking. this is why you have a ton of sentence fragments and stylistic tics and a refusal to let one single shred of information into the text that did not strike me as something sylvain would plausibly think or acknowledge he was thinking. and like, yeah. probably it didn't always make for the smoothest reading experience or the most satisfying narrative development. i'm dead certain there are people who picked this fic up and the bumps drove them out of their mind until they threw in the towel. i just didn't care.

part of that was a reaction to my own old style—you know, the discomfort of shedding old skin. i'd look at those early scene attempts and see all the habits and crutches i'd been trying to move away from over the last two years and double down on The Voice. but part of it… i would get early feedback that wasn't at all wrong, like "what if [clarifying narration]," "what if [more interaction]," and i'd just think, but that's not true. in exactly those words! which is crazy.

(this is why it was fortunate this was fanfiction i was writing for free, i didn't have to compromise my bonkers experience any more than i wanted to.)

to be clear this feeling didn't last two years. i was eventually able to edit like a normal person. it did last probably longer than ideal. and the point when i was no longer running on unleaded creative adrenaline was when i started to really struggle with the middle of the story. i had to make choices as a writer, instead of relying on the purity of my divine vision or whatever, and i second-guessed myself a lot. it was much easier to feel that absolute bone-deep certainty of Right and Wrong, True and False. and the thought of fucking up when i'd gotten so far was unbearable—like, being so close to making the thing in my head reality and then dropping the ball and breaking the suspension of disbelief.

distance also made it possible to perceive what i was doing and be like, jesus mer what the fuck are you doing. why are you devoting so much of your time to a hobby, why are you investing so much of your life in something you will never be able to truly share, why are you living in a hole with no one else in it. why are you putting yourself through the wringer to get it down "right." why does it matter if it's as good as it can be. why do you care. why is this worth it.

i assume this was pretty obvious before this post, but if not it must be now. this story isn't really about figure skating. for me it's about writing; who knows what it's about for you. i didn't sit down and think, great, felix will be a metaphor. that's just how it happens.

the experience of writing a novel for the first time: i'm saying this with my whole chest because at one point i wouldn't have, aloud. but what's the point in calling it anything else? i know exactly how much i invested in this. i'm the only one who can know. that's sort of the point.

here's a giant collage of the inside of my head. i made it for myself and i take it very seriously. not exactly groundbreaking to say this is the ultimate exercise in solipsism. when you're doing that—what greater gift is there than to have someone else meet you in exactly the same place. any writer would kill for the kind of responses this story has gotten, and i don't mean praise. i mean the close reads, the free response essays, the total and complete validation that this thing inside your head that only you can see is real, actually. when i say thank you, it's not for liking it or praising it—it's for taking it seriously. i loved this thing. i still love this thing. thank you for taking it seriously.

#rubicon #writing

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fallintosanity · 2 years

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y’all liked my post about why Tumblr Blaze is the biggest fuck-you to Facebook and other ad companies in forever, so okay, let’s talk more about another advertiser thing that - intentionally or not - Blaze disrupts.

(disclaimer: I am not a marketer, and have not worked in the ads industry. I have over a decade of experience in information security and privacy at a variety of major tech companies, including Google. A significant part of my career has involved working with marketing teams from the security and privacy side of things.)

Fifty years ago, advertisers had no real way of knowing how effective their marketing funnels were. The funnel represents how many people see the ad, how many people follow up on the ad (by clicking, or going to a store, or whatever), and how many people convert (to customers, subscribers, whatever) as a direct result of the ad. At best, pre-Internet advertisers could see big-picture numbers, like a spike in purchases after an ad campaign kicked off, but it was very difficult to directly attribute any given conversion to a specific ad or campaign.

Enter the Internet.

(under a readmore because this is long. still not a rickroll.)

Without going into a lot of technical detail, the current ads ecosystem gives advertisers an INCREDIBLE amount of detailed information about how their ads are performing. Essentially, advertisers can track how many people see an ad, click through the ad, leave the page after clicking through, convert after clicking through, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Aside from using this to justify their own existence to the business higher-ups (“we spent $100k on ads and got 23k new subscribers, 15k new customers, blah blah”), advertisers use this information to tweak how their campaigns are performing - changing the ad copy, or the targeted demographic, or whatever else in order to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Now let’s look at Tumblr Blaze again. From the FAQ:

(Side note 1: you do get to see all the activity for your blazed post in your regular Activity dashboard, as well, though it’s mixed in with the rest of your activity. Depending on how many notes you get normally, it may be hard to separate the blazed post’s notes from everything else.)

The report you get at the end of your blaze period is surprisingly different than what you see from looking at your Activity dashboard. When my blaze period ended, I had upwards of 9k notes on my post, but this is the report I got:

(Side note 2: I paid for the 20k impressions level so it’s neat that I got more than 25% extra.)

I’d guess that the reason for the difference between the Blaze report and what my Activity dashboard showed is that the report is only counting direct reblogs, i.e. people who reblogged directly from me, rather than from someone else who had already reblogged it. Ditto likes and replies - those are probably only on my copy of the post, rather than on all the reblog chains like the Activity dashboard shows.

Whatever the reason, I actually got a much better view of the true reach of and response to my blazed post just by looking at my regular blog activity, than I did from the “full” report. The report also comes as an email - that’s the whole email in that screenshot - so it’s no good for pulling into any kind of automated reporting or metrics dashboard.

Tumblr also doesn’t allow you to edit or delete your blazed post at all during the blaze period. If you want to change your post, you have to wait until the Blaze campaign is over, or end the campaign early:

(Side note 3: this is GOOD. Since blazed posts are moderated, i.e. approved by a human before being blazed, Tumblr is making sure that you can’t pull a fast one on the mod team by swapping your post content after it’s been approved.)

So Tumblr doesn’t give you any more stats while your Blaze campaign is running than you get just for, y’know, posting a regular non-blazed post. You can’t change anything about your blazed post to improve its performance. And like I talked about before, you can’t target your blazed posts to reach a specific audience.

The upshot of all this is that anyone trying to use Blaze for a traditional ad campaign is not going to get any useful information about how their ad is performing - unless they take the time to interact with Tumblr the way a regular user does, i.e. by obsessively and manually reading all the notes on the Activity dashboard. They can’t change their ad mid-campaign to make it perform better - at best, they can reblog or reply to their own blazed post with additional information. But again, that requires them to interact with Tumblr the way a regular user does.

This is another sign that Blaze is not designed for advertisers or marketers: it makes only the most token gesture toward providing the kinds of performance feedback and enhancement they’re interested in. Given how thoroughly the ads industry flipped out when first Apple, then Firefox, and finally Google announced that they were removing the cookies advertisers depend on for targeting ads, I don’t see advertisers having any interest in using Blaze. It doesn’t provide them the ability to even meaningfully track how well their campaigns are performing or make real-time changes to improve performance, much less target their audiences.

Blaze isn’t for advertisers. It’s for us, the users of this hellsite(affectionate).

#information technology #information security #sanity talks a lot #sanity talks infosec

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mediawhorefics · 1 year

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hiii marie i watched tsn last night and probably just spammed your notes with tsn rb's (sorry!) and i remembered you were writing the tsn fic! i'm super super excited to read it and i was wondering if there was a snippet you might be able to share with us? thank you <3

omg !! i just saw kjnvjkfds pls know you are welcome to spam my tsn tag whenever you want !!! i always feel like i'm annoying when i go on a tsn reblog spree or a tsn fic related reblog spree rip. (tho it's my blog i guess i can do whatever i want!) anyways i'm glad to know someone is enjoying that tag <333 (LOVED your 'i watch tsn like a queer drama' addition.... so true bestie)

and yes ofc i can share a snippet of the fic !!! no one has really asked before so thank you !! it's so nice to know some people are excited for it. idk how much you know about it? i've talked about it here and there, but basically, it's a you've got mail post canon au where mark gets signed up to a super exclusive mostly anonymous dating app for rich people against his will (dustin and his meddling, honestly!!) and he ends up falling head over heels in love with someone on there only to find out it was eduardo all along (she sings to the tune of agatha all along). anyways it's this very cheesy romcom trope-y story where mark basically has to realise that the only 2 times he's ever been in love were actually with the same person and if he wants to have peace of mind and true happiness he needs to earn eduardo's forgiveness and own up to his mistakes. it's gonna be so kitsch i can't wait to post it !!! it's this 100k monster rn and there's still a fair bit of plot to go on rip. i'm rambling now sorry, i've just been having soooo much fun with it and i don't get a lot of occasions to talk about it haha.

anyways here's a snippet that i thought wasn't tooo spoilery??? hope you'll like it !!! tw i gave them the world worst's usernames because i thought it would be funny af haha. apologies it's still unpolished and needs some edits but:

Mark never particularly liked the cold growing up, but there is always something eerie to him about December silently creeping in without much of a fuss in California. It always seems a little wrong to his New York State grown bones, his Harvard in winter thickened skin. Oh, the temperature drops, for sure, their equivalent of ‘cold’, but Mark recalls Massachusetts freezing winter days, him in his shorts in the snow and a disapproving Wardo staring after him, begging him to please put some clothes on, Mark’s skin prickling under the wind as he ignored him. Winter in Palo Alto is child’s play in comparison, which is the point of living there he supposes. It’s nice, but it’s strange.

Feels off.

It feels even more off when he knows he’s not gonna bother going back home for the break this year – like most years, let’s be honest – and get his fill of razor-sharp wind and bone-chilling cold.

Winter always reminds him of the early days of Facebook; him glued to his laptop day and night in his freezing dorm room, pages and pages and pages of code that weren’t quite a website yet fighting to get out of his brain and onto the screen, and Dustin, Chris and Eduardo, a constant warm presence he was barely aware of hovering at his back. Especially Eduardo.

And speaking of Eduardo, winter always reminds Mark of him too, despite his best efforts.

Eduardo, who never liked the cold, not after spending his seminal years in Brazil, then Miami, who always struggled through the sunless, frozen, winter months he spent at Harvard, even though he never wanted to admit it.

It reminds him of Eduardo’s shivering body that night he approached him with the idea for Facebook, cold cold cold cold, but listening to Mark about his idea outside in the January air all the same, the two of them alone on the cusp of something great. They could have been the only two people on Earth that night in the whipping wind. It’s what it felt like to Mark anyways, what it always felt like to Mark. Them against the world. Before The Phoenix, before Christy, before Sean…

Wardo would have liked Palo Alto, Mark thinks that December morning as he makes his way to work and a slow melancholy takes hold of him, the way it always does what that kind of thoughts take root in his mind.

He would have enjoyed the almost perpetual sunshine, the heat, the cool people he would have fit with so easily, the way Mark never could no matter how long he’s lived here…

Mark sighs, taking a second in his assigned parking spot to compose himself. This stupid Gala he has to attend next week has been messing with his brain ever since Dustin discretely informed him that Eduardo Saverin has confirmed his presence to the event as well.

And it’s fine. Eduardo can go wherever he likes. Especially when he’s invited. Mark isn’t his keeper or anything. And he’s proven many times in the past that they can be in the same room without yelling at each other. Well, most times anyways.

But he’s always a little unsettled when he knows Wardo is stateside, the needle of his Eduardo inner compass all over the place, trying to reorient itself when it realizes that Far Far Away is no longer that far. Which is probably why he always feels like his heart is about to explode when they’re in the same room.

It can’t be regrets, because Mark forbade himself from feeling those a long time ago.

But it sure is something.

He still feels a little itchy after a few minutes alone in his car so he gets his phone out, composing a quick text for eswag82.

Winter always makes me melancholic, he types, something so incredibly soothing about the comfort of an ally, a friend, a confident, never further away than his pocket. Reflective. I start remembering things I never would normally think about. I don’t know if it’s seasonal depression or something, but… I’m always getting sad over nothing. Over stuff I should have been done with a long time ago. But I can’t help myself. It’s like December hits and suddenly… Do you know what I’m talking about?

Mark sighs as he sends the text: time to face the music.

The day passes quickly between meetings and coding and important phone calls… He doesn’t have the chance to check his personal texts until late in the afternoon but when he does, miraculously, warmth permeates through the cold of the approaching winter and spreads through him like a sip of burning hot coffee.

I know exactly what you’re talking about, E writes. Everything slows down in winter, including us. We have the time to get reflective and melancholy. So many holidays in so many cultures too. A time of celebration, of togetherness. That can be challenging when you don’t feel particularly joyful. Or in my family’s case, together. Seeing what it should or could be highlights what it isn’t sometimes, yk? Or at least it’s like that for me.

I’m sorry, Mark writes back, feeling angry again on E’s behalf for that family that doesn’t make him feel welcome, doesn’t make him feel like he can be himself.

It is what it is. I haven’t gone back home in a while now and this year won’t be any different. Sometimes taking care of yourself looks like neglecting others from an outsider’s perspective, but… I can’t worry about that.

I’m not going home either this year. I’m busy, which is true, but it’s also… I don’t think I could stomach it. It’s been a while for me too and they’re great, but I still feel like I’m on the outside, yk? Like I’m looking at them through the windows and no matter how much I want to, I can’t go in.

Mark swallows hard. He swallows back down more feelings of rejection and more fear that no matter what he does it’s never enough to belong. He swallows back down the fact that he created Facebook to be part of the club and he now fears he elevated himself so much higher that he can never fit in anymore. And he doesn’t even like people that much, he’s always said so, but the older he gets the more he feels they can be tedious and still part of his life anyway, that being alone at the top might not be the end goal he’s looking for anymore.

#about me #my fics #tsn fic #tia

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tekutiger · 6 months

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FFXIV Patch 6.51 !!

Good Gods a lot has been happening. I finally have a moment to stop and post something 😅

I've been tending to my own personal island, traversing a new island, braving a crazy new event that Manderville added to the Gold Saucer with these hyperactive beans?

I'll be posting a lot of screenies below, some potentially spoiler-y so... unfold the cut if you're interested.

(I'm more or less posting these for sentimental/archival purposes but) Fall Guys Event!

Very anxiety inducing at first but once I got the hang of it, not so much, and rather fun 😎. Ngl though, I did stop queueing after getting all the glamour and pets I wanted, and reaching one win 👑

I need to hop back in for a couple more things but my router is literally dying and I'm waiting for my ISP to come out to fix the issue first. A lot of people, including myself, are learning from this event that the snapshotting sucks. So, I'd really prefer to have my net fixed before attempting to queue more.

Oh!! Something I wanted to throw out there for people who don't want to run this a whole lot but want to put the Fall Guys furniture to use. If you just buy ONE piece of each thing, you can place multiple of that furniture item on your island. Go crazy and make a "fun space". I've been considering doing it, lol. Just food for thought 😋

Island Sanctuary!

I'm not even remotely done here yet. I've hit Rank 20, got the Felicitous Furball glamour, and the 100k crowrie mount/bike, but there's a 200 Felicitous Voucher mount that is going to take agesssss to acquire. I've seen some people with it already. Likely bought the vouchers off the MB or traded with friends. The going rate for those vouchers on my server is 90k-95k each (atm). Buying all 200 of them would make the mount 19m (currently). I'll be patient and slowly earn them, lol 😋

Aloalo Island!

Okay, I'll just be transparent here. I love the Variant Dungeons 🥰. Maybe Zenos wasn't wrong when he was blabbing on about how I'm an adventurer looking for a challenge, or a test of skill. I feel like Variant Dungeons do that decently enough to keep me in a good place (don't get rusty), but don't push me too much to be annoyed (*cough*fliptables*cough*). I'm not a raider- I'm not OP. But I do like a little push or a challenge here and there.

So, for me, I see these as fun, with rewards that are worth the time and effort.

I cannot say the same for the Criterion version of them however. I haven't done them and I see a lot of people raging over the terrible rewards. If it's that many people, it's worth looking into and from what I have heard, they're right to be upset.

If you need raid gear to do Variant Dungeon and the reward gear is under or on par with the raid gear that's needed to do it- that's a huge no. I don't have all the facts or experience to know first hand how true that is though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Posting these 👆🏻 because this is my favorite path. I've always loved mimics and had this slight obsession with them since I played Ragnarok Online many years ago (my first MMO ever).

Silly little treasure chests, you're so evil and cute 💝

(Coulda sworn I got a screenie with the parasol but I cannot find it 🙃. Same with the new hair on my female bun... might edit it in later but probably not.)

Edit: (I'm editing one in at least 🙃)

❘✧༻༺༻༺‿︵‿༻༺✧*̥˚‿︵‿ °∘❉∘°‿︵‿*̥˚✧༻༺‿︵‿༻༺༻༺✧❘

World of Warcraft: Retail (The War Within, Worldsoul Saga)

So, totally unrelated to FFXIV, but also related in a way... my BFF's BF talked her into playing WoW again, and she talked me into playing WoW again, lol (with the help of the cinematic). It's been FOUR years since I've played.

The reason I say it's "related in a way" is because I want to still play FFXIV at the same time and upkeep my FFXIV 'muscle memory'. I started doing the Loporrit Dailies recently - need to continue doing that. I still need to hit Series Level 25 in PvP - so I'll continue doing those daily. I need to continue getting my Island Sanctuary Felicitous Vouchers. And lastly, I began doing the weekly Custom Deliveries for Anden and Margrat. I intend to finish those for the Glamour and Mount. (It boggles my mind how people can say "I'm bored" in FFXIV. There's SO MUCH to do, always. Just admit that you're not bored, you're lazy 😑.)

If the muscle memory thing doesn't make sense, here's an example: It's when you drop/neglect one game for so long (let's call it Game A) to start playing another (Game B), that you completely forget the controls or lose the reflexes you once had for Game A, because you're too consumed living in Game B. I do not want that.

Just thinking about returning to WoW, I feel a bit overwhelmed. All of us used to play Horde for the majority of our gametime (my BFF and her BF, & some of my other friends who've quit). But before I quit, I was trying to make the permanent swap to Alliance (played Alliance for about a year). She's still playing Horde with her BF so I won't be playing with her unless I continue to play Horde. I'll need to find an Alliance server. It'll be cool if I can find a guild that has people who play both WoW & FFXIV. I need to look up which addons I'll need. I fear for all the crap I left in my inventory LOL.

But mainly. When I saw that new cinematic with Thrall and Anduin my heart broke. Anduin has gone through so much trauma in the time I have been away. All I could think about was "Wtf did they do to my King?" And now I feel like I'm crawling my way back and I'm over my head on how to do it. I need to know what happened to him.

(In BfA,) Azeroth turned into a joke and I was isekai'd away Anduin, I'm so sorry 😭. I'll bring some of the light back with me and give it to you, from Eorzea 💖

(FFXIV x WoW collab, when?)

#teku.blog #teku.ffxiv #teku.ff14 #teku.wow #mentioning WoW a bit #ramble ramble ramble

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hightechinfluencer · 1 year

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Going viral with AI on Instagram

Recently my business partner Topher Welsh and I were able to take his Instagram account from 1k to 125k in only 8 weeks flat. When I tell my friends who are in the influencers what we did they almost can’t believe it. Some of them have almost 100k in followers after 4 years of continued growth. What we did was part luck and part skill with 20 years of experience each behind it. We knew there were some simple methods that could be used to get our content to take off. Marvel babies were born…. Expanding into other pop culture icons.

The Content…

AI is a bad word for artists these days but with it, we were able to post 1–2 times a day. Each post had between 4–8 images all related together. We knew that if we used AI, we would be able to make base images and then Photoshop them to look like the images we wanted. (We are both professional designers.) This method is just like how other artists might use stock images and then edit them into a new piece. There is a misconception that it’s a collage tool that cuts out pieces of other art to make new ones which is incorrect. AI analyzes images and then creates new images based on machine learning algorithms.

[While we use Midjouorney, we do believe that artists should be able to opt out of their trained data set and these generative AIs should be retrained with ethical means. We also believe that retraining should also include non-bias models for a better representation in their outputs. We hope to see this change in the future.]

This is how we did it…

Knowing the Basics:

It’s going to be hard to grow on IG without knowing the basics. There are things you will have to research like which hashtags to use for your content, how to make reels, and what the best starter image for a carousel. These are conditional on your content. Some people may have a great engagement with normal photos and some might find more success with just reels or stories. You will need to research what works for others so you can copy their formula. Our niche was “baby versions of famous pop culture icons”.

4 Quadrant - Method:

I like to use a system called the “4 Quadrant Method” invented by the studio Cineasaurus. It basically pulls from 4 specific areas that allow for content to find maximum reach.

Fandom: You can create content around subject matter that people are already interested like Starwars, Marvel, Ghostbusters, Nascar, cakes, etc. By utilizing these fandoms you can tap preexisting audiences rather than building your own. Just remember to keep your feed of content related to each other in some way. If you build a following around cartoons but then start making content around hiking you have essentially “bait & switched” your followers. They will leave in droves.

Flagpole content: Content released around an event, release, or holiday can give you a boost because people are talking about the subject matter. Our best release over the 6 weeks was that of the Addams Family because the show Wednesday had just been released. It got 3 times more views than the next post. People went as far as getting the pieces tattooed on their bodies!

Quality: You need to be able to judge your content independently. Too many people fall in love with their own work expecting other people to feel the same way about it. That just doesn’t work, coming from a place of a professional we can judge a set of works pick out the best ones then improve upon them. This improves the quality of the page overall.

Marketing: You have to have a distribution system to put your work in other places to guide people back to your page.

It’s not a problem if its a feature - Method:

One of the downsides of using Midjourney as a base is that it has a hard time doing hands and feet. We used this to our advantage. Instead of fixing the issues in photoshop, we made sure to leave them in resulting in people feeling the need to call out the imperfections. This led to more engagement, with the posts spreading their reach. I’ve seen people purposely leave mistakes in their reels as a way of enticing people to leave comments correcting them.

Credit and community!

There was an influx of accounts making things out of our content. They were seen in everything from printed on walls, used in marketing content, reuploaded to wallpaper websites, and even was seen tattooed on people. We asked people to tag and credit the account if they were going to re-upload the content. We had to contact Instagram several times over stolen work and accounts passing them off as their own.

The Metrics… How did we do?

8-week growth Growth: Around 12,400% increase

Accounts reached: 16.9 Million

Accounts engaged: 980k

Engagement: 4.1% Rate

Note: Engagement for Instagram is typically very low across all metrics.

Less than 1% is low engagement

Between 1% and 3.5% is average/good

Between 3.5% and 6% is high (This is where our account ranks)

More than 6% is incredibly high

See the account for yourself on Instagram

Write Up in Bored Panda

If you find this newsletter useful, share or tag a friend.

Got questions? You can DM me directly on Twitter

#aiartcommunity #AIart #art #article

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ghoste-catte · 3 years

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I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

#answered #anonymous #writing advice #i guess?#am i qualified to give this?#no #but im doing it anyway

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thefirsttree · 3 years

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A personal update + my next game

OK, time to do this. I’ve been meaning to do a big DAVID WEHLE™ update for a while now and explain why I haven’t released a new game yet, but you know how life gets in the way. Especially when life is a quarantine hellscape, you have three beautiful, amazing, exhausting kids to raise, a spouse’s job you support, a viral YouTube channel that turns your brain to mush, a thousand emails waiting in your inbox since your game is free on the Epic Games Store (with an impressive number of redemptions too! … meaning lots of emails and customer support issues), etc., etc. What also contributes to my lack of updates is because… I just don’t really like posting online. Fascinating correlation, I know!

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a venting/ranting blog post (well, maybe a bit), because my life is seriously AMAZING and INSANELY BLESSED and LUCKY. I can’t believe how many dreams keep coming true, so much so that I feel I don’t deserve it and I really pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes… but I did want to at least be honest, because I owe that to myself.

Wow, where do I even begin? Well, how about we start with the reason I’m even a full-time indie game dev now: The First Tree. This small hobby project I worked on at night morphed into this gargantuan beast (or fox) that took over my life the past 5 years. Which is great! I’m living the dream! And yet, I really didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. At its core, my game is a slow-paced, sad walking simulator (ahem, I prefer the term “exploration game,” but you know what I mean) that somehow seemed to launch at the right time to the right audience. It resonated deeply with some of you, and for that I’m eternally grateful. I still get emails almost daily how my game changed their lives in some formative way. I’m beyond honored.

However, with that spotlight came criticism and demands from the ever-present, insatiable internet. I would randomly be surfing the gamedev subreddit trying to decompress, and I would see a comment by some rando saying how much I didn’t deserve my success, and how it was all one huge lucky fluke. And I believed them!

And to add to it, some devs considered me an indie marketing “guru”, which I was uncomfortable with. I worked hard to market my game every week, and after my GDC talk, people assumed marketing was my passion; the reason I got up every morning. Just to clarify… NO, I don’t like marketing, and I hate being the center of attention. I don’t like asking people for money and wishlists. But I did what was necessary because I was passionate about telling stories, and I wanted to give my story a fighting chance to be seen on the crowded pages of Steam.

So now, you’re probably wondering “well then David, why did you make fancy YouTube videos showing off your success? Not very modest if you ask me.” This honestly could be a long blog post all on its own, because my experience of putting myself in the spotlight and becoming a “content creator” is… complicated. It was an unusual step for me, especially since I never even showed my face online (as a game developer) until my GDC talk.

First off, I always wanted to teach and start a YouTube channel. I love video editing, especially since I’ve been doing it longer than making games! It’s a huge passion of mine. And teaching people who didn’t know they could make and finish games was a huge motivator (and it’s been so rewarding already). But the second reason is, I was scared. I was self-employed, and I was riding the success of a “huge lucky fluke” that would probably not happen again. I wanted to make sure I could provide for my amazing family, and give them food and health insurance and security in these tumultuous times. I was turning my lifelong passions and hobbies into a business, and it wasn’t as simple of a mental transition as I thought.

So, I went all in on YouTube and the accompanying online course called Game Dev Unlocked. I spent years editing the scripts and videos, and polishing them to a shine. At first, no one watched my videos, no one was buying… and in the blink of an eye, the YouTube algorithm picked up my main autobiographical video (“How Making Indie Games Changed My Life”), and I started getting 5,000 subscribers a day. Right now, I’m at 150,000 subs, which is still hard for me to believe. I always had a dream of earning 100k subs on YouTube, so I was pretty happy with the whole thing. Sales were OK, but mostly people didn’t want to buy the course. Then the emails came in…

Something you should know about me: I am a textbook “people pleaser,” and if someone asks for my help, I take it very seriously. If someone is mad at me, even if I didn’t do anything wrong, it’s all I can think about, and it ruins my day. So, taking an onslaught of people begging for help and multiplying that by an impossible amount of people for my brain to truly comprehend thanks to the internet… and let’s just say it wasn’t a healthy mix.

I received thousands of emails from people who were begging me for some kind of reassurance that everything would be OK. That their dreams would come true too. And I wanted to help every single one of them. I went from a nobody working on a game for fun to becoming a spokesperson for the indie game dream. I couldn’t even get a shake from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru without someone recognizing me and asking for game dev advice. And it didn’t stop there… I would get emails from suicidal kids asking for help, teenagers from Afghanistan asking me to get them out of their country, and on one occasion I received an email from a hopeful game developer in a war-torn country who had just experienced a bomb blowing up their neighboring village. His friends were dead, and he was hoping he could finish a game before he died too, and he needed my help. How do you say no to something like that? Didn’t I owe it to everyone because I was lucky with my hit game and I needed to “pay it forward”? (Something people constantly reminded me of)

And then to top it off, after you’ve given everything you’ve got to other people in need… you get hate mail in your inbox. You spend the whole day serving your children and strangers on the internet, then when the kids are finally asleep, you hit the bed to relax and take a look at your phone to decompress, and you randomly come across an angry gamer in your Twitter mentions telling you your game they got for free sucks, and that you took away a potentially great game from them and that your apology isn’t good enough.

Long story short, I went to a mental therapist for the first time in my life. I was broken trying to care for two toddlers and a new baby in a pandemic (which is very, very hard), taking care of my course students who gave me their hard-earned money and demanded results, and the countless people begging for help on the internet. I was this introverted, internet-lurker trying to take on the weight of the world. I was so tired and hurt that no one cared about me and my needs… only what I could do for them.

Quitting my day job and making this hobby my full-time job has stirred up… mixed emotions. This statement may disturb some of you, but I was definitely 100% happier when I had a full-time job and I was working on my game at night. I missed working with the amazing team at The VOID, working on Star Wars… back when the success of my game was this abstract thing I could only daydream about. Mostly, I was making my game for me with no outside expectations to pay the bills or satisfy the ever-demanding internet, and that brought me a lot of joy.

It’s not all doom and gloom though! I’m actually very happy now and in the best shape I’ve been since the pandemic started. I’ve had to confront my weaknesses and personality quirks, but I’m a better person for it (and I’m sure these issues would’ve come out eventually). I hired an awesome community manager for Game Dev Unlocked who is helping SO MUCH with the emails, I can’t even tell you the mental burden it alleviates. I even leased a co-working office to help separate work from my home, and that’s been a huge help too. I’ve decided to work with my old friends from The VOID on a cool, new VR experience. It will take me away from my projects a bit, but I’m ecstatic to work with a great team again (and not manage anything, whew).

These are all things I would’ve never guessed I needed, because I thought I knew myself pretty well… turns out I didn’t.

The reality is: running a business is HARD. Running it solo is even harder. You have to remember, I was burnt out on The First Tree well into the Steam release in 2017, but I kept working on it for 4 more years due to my fears of failing again and not earning enough money for my family.

So, I was wrestling with the age-old concept of commercialism and art. There was this dichotomy of doing whatever I wanted and being true to my vision (what most people assume the indie dev dream is like), and doing only what customers wanted to buy. This is something that has killed me with YouTube… in one specific instance, I was super excited to make the exact video I wanted to make. I loved every part of its creation, and I thought it had a message that would inspire everyone. I lovingly edited it over several weeks, posted it, and excitedly waited for the stats… and it was by far my worst performing video.

This is not a new problem. Even the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo was a commission forced upon him by the very violent Pope Julius II. My wife and I regularly talk about the fine balance between artistic integrity and commercialism, a problem she is very familiar with as an artist who constantly needs to balance what she wants to make with what the customer wants to hang up in their home.

For The First Tree, I was lucky. It was pretty much what I wanted to make (I had to compromise a lot of things of course), and it turned out millions of people wanted it too. Recently, I thought the safe business decision would be to do it all over again, so I started work on a spiritual successor to The First Tree (an idea that I may revisit one day since I do love the story idea). But that isn’t happening anytime soon. Trust me when I say I am now currently burnt out on animal exploration games.

So that realization left me with a question: what do I do next?

I’ve decided I need to make a game that I want to make, for me. It will be a bit different and I’m almost certain most fans of The First Tree will not love it… but it’s an idea that gets me super excited. It’s an idea that could help me fall in love with game development again.

A few more details: this game will be story-driven, first-person, and will use the Unreal Engine. That means development is gonna be slow going, because I have to learn a whole new tool. The “smart business” decision would be to make something quickly in Unity which I’m already familiar with… but I want to do this for me, and UE5 looks like a lot of fun. I’m also shooting for an early-ish release date so I avoid burn out and I keep the game short: I want to release it in Fall 2022, but knowing game development, it will probably take longer.

With the help of my therapist, I’ve also concluded that I’ve been too accessible on the internet and that my self-worth isn’t determined by the amount of people I try to help online. Of course, I love helping people and seeing them succeed, but I need to step back and focus on my family and myself. I will delete my social media apps on my phone (I will still post big updates occasionally) and stop responding to most emails, tweets, DMs, etc. It’s not that I’m ungrateful… in fact, if I don’t say thank you or at least acknowledge the incredibly nice people who share a sweet message about my game or want to tell me how I inspire them (still hard for me to believe, lol), I feel a ton of guilt… but I need to let that go. Please know I’m extremely grateful to all the fans who follow my work, so even if I don’t thank you directly, I truly mean it: thank you.

I will still post and stream occasionally on YouTube when I want to (and I still do live Q&A’s for my GDU students). The online course sales will help support my family as I work on a potentially risky game idea (and my new job will help alleviate the risk too). I’m gonna try one more marketing experiment and sell a mini-course soon (and add an Unreal section), and after that I’m done working on it. A gigantic thank you to the people who bought my course and are part of the amazing community, it has helped me and my family tremendously, and it’s inspiring seeing the games you make!

I’m a bit worried about the whole thing since this new game idea could flop, which could definitely affect my family. But a sappy, high-school yearbook quote is coming to mind… I think it applies here: “A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.”

Thanks for reading,

David

#gamedev #indie games #the first tree

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pure-kirarin · 3 years

Text

One piece Characters' YouTube Channel P.2

Okay so this is a little collab with my adorable friend @ducruixxx I had so much fun writing this with you omg. So keep in mind these are ONLY our personal perceptions. This is a Part 2.

Part 1 Is written by her <3

Eustass « captain » kid

Username : CaptainKidGaming

Gaming channel – Twitch Streamer 100k views daily

Kid usually does gaming streams on twitch. He posts the funny compilations and highlights on youtube. He went viral for a video where he rages and breaks his keyboard while playing counter strike.

A part from streams, he does video reactions to silly videos. He slurs and gets angry a lot so he often gets demonitized.

He got banned from twitch once

Killer actually works as his manager and moderator. He likes to keep his helmet on for privacy and some girls watch the stream just for killer.

Donquixote Doflamingo

Username : DonquixoteDoflamingo (can we talk about how this name is so beautiful that it could be a haute-couture brand name ?)

Actually, Doflamingo owns a Maison de Haute Couture called « D&D »

Doflamingo's most famous video is probably called : Donquixote Doflamingo Palace tour [Official] 26,030,701 views.

He has an official editing team, he never actually films his videos alone. His videos are very proffesional looking. His castle has twenty bathrooms, a personal theater, a pool with a sight on the sea. It is the most extravagant place you have ever seen, needless to say. He even has a long gallery with his favourite authentic paintings.

He occasionally does videos where he shows his daily life not much talking actually. It is very sophisticated and almost calming.

Lots of slow page turning and ASMR vibes.

He also does videos where he critiques and rates other brand's runway shoes. He is known for being very honest and blunt.

Trafalgar D. Water Law

Username : Maybe something like « Inked surgeon». He doesn't think much of it.

Does ASMR- Study with me – Informative videos.

Minimalistic aesthetic, no background noises. He does these ASMR videos where you can see his hands clearly, the hands of a surgeon.

The first time you see it, you actually wonder wether it's a hand fetish channel. This man has the best hands ever. (A little like Se ch ASMR)

You can also hear soft Bepo noises in the background.

He does « Study with me » sessions that last twelve hours. Also, a lot of coffee breaks. He never checks the chat though.

Occasionally, he does some informative videos about anatomy, but also some « scary medical facts » videos.

He has a regular posting schedule. His videos are well edited and neat.

Fun fact : He actually did a vlog with Kid once under fan's demand: never again.

I hope you enjoyed ~ Please do tell if you want other parts ! who is your favourite ;) Personally....It’s Koby *wow no wonder* Also thanks @simpymcgee for Law’s username <3

#one piece x reader #one piece #one piece imagine #one piece head canons #law x reader #kid x reader #eustass kid #kid pirates #Donquixote Doflamingo #Doflamingo #Doflamingo x reader

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onewomancitadel · 2 years

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How do you write so much? What's the writing process like for you? Because your big fic is already over 100k which is pretty impressive. I remember when it was just two chapters. My how time flies!

Hi anon (: Thanks for following my fic for so long, that means a lot to me! I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

How do you write so much? What's the writing process like for you?

I think I've been asked before but I didn't quite articulate one major point:

Well, there's a lot of background work. I've already got the whole fic plotted out, and chapter outlines, and I know what points I want to hit and interesting things I want to say. Also with these sorts of things, everything you've ever read or researched will influence what you're writing. I do extra research for the story as well. I daydream to excess, and I daydream whilst I multitask. Housework is a good time to think too.

I can knock out about 8,000-10,000 words on a good day and with harder chapters it's more like 5,000, so I can pretty much write a chapter across two days after I have mentally chewed up the nitty gritty already.

The harder task in that case is the editing, which takes longer.

Because it's self-posted fanfic, so no professional editor, and I don't have a beta - and would refuse to have one pretty much point blank tbh - that all falls on me to do, which is honestly harder than the strict writing itself. Though sometimes when I really let myself go in editing I figure out what I really want to say, and that's probably my favourite part and why it remains fun.

So yeah, I think what ends up stalling a chapter is once I'm past that raw part and I'm finangling it all. With a longfic your concerns are going to be things like continuity, and overall flow, which means that as you're editing one chapter you're juggling effectively the rest of the story, backwards and forwards.

I try to make it as good a reading experience as I can given the particular constraints and freedom as a fanfic. Serial posting is a real joy tbh, the comments and readers whom I talk to are a real reason I keep going.

There's also the fact with Skimming Eye in that I have an idea about how each chapter should feel in terms of strict beats, and I also have an idea of what thematic ideas I want to explore in respect to the greater one in the story already. I generally think of storytelling - not to diminish its artistic qualities - as almost essayistic and argumentative. I don't mean to make myself sound more intellectual than I am (I promise I'm not!), but what I'm trying to convey is that when I have this sort of structure it makes writing a lot easier.

This is why I talk a lot about Jung, and Campbell, as well, and all of the mythic influences, because these are actually narrative tools and languages writers can use, as well as for thematic, mythological flavour.

That is to say, I'm not following strict Campbell (the monomyth doesn't really fit for this story) but I'm certainly thinking about the metaphorical relationship of ideas in my story, I suppose.

I would say overall it's having a good bedrock. There are definitely other fics I've seen where authors have been pretty quick about updating their fic, and serial posting, so their process might look different to mine. It really depends on the type of fic too, mine is kind of epic romance so I have different concerns to other writers who might be writing like, an intense character study.

This post is gunna make me look real fucken stupid if I figure out a plot hole or some dumb shit in the future.

And also, I mean: I love the fic, and I love Jaune and Cinder, and the fic is basically everything I've wanted to write ever. I have basically been preparing for Jaune/Cinder and The Distance Which Fools the Skimming Eye my whole life, it's everything I've ever loved in one thing.

It has a lot of what makes the show interesting to me in it, and it has things that I wish were capitalised upon in enemies-to-lovers (more enemies!!!!), and romance romance romance romance ROMANCE HIGH DRAMA, psychic bonds as a metaphor for transcendental compassion, the healer has the bloodiest hands, it's not about fighting what you hate, but saving what you love, it's seeing and not just looking, and metaphorical sex, and spiritual sex, and literally having to see in someone else's head to see what they feel because they're so closed off but you have the magical power to help them, it's the Our Love Will Endure type of shit in the face of everything else, and nature loves to hide... the old love story played out in reverse and fixed.... everythinggggggggggggggggggggg.... what else... I can pretty much point to any point in the fic and say 'This has years and years of angst behind it can you tell'...

.... and a Maiden and a knight.....

As I was saying, preparing for it my whole life, everything I've ever wanted. So I kind of can't stop writing it lol.

Thanks again for reading! <3 Sorry my reply is far too long. I think that demonstrates the point, yes? Perpetual chatterbox given one (1) opportunity where I can talk without feeling bad (my fic).

#seraphina's asks #user: anonymouse #the distance which fools the skimming eye

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keepitmovinshawty · 3 years

Text

Ok watching the Snyder Cut again but this time with notes!

Kids today will never know the struggle of buying a movie only to realize that it’s the full screen version instead of the widescreen version.

The opening sequence actually made me tear up a little.

Superman’s cry of anguish is more powerful than Zeus.

Amber Heard. Gross.

I like how the Atlanteans and Amazons have their Mother Boxes in secure locations but “man” has theirs tossed in the back of a closet. Sounds about right.

Because of course Bruce Wayne knows Icelandic too.

So Arthur takes off his shirt to swim but leaves his jeans on. God the chafing...

Alfred dragging Bruce is always hilarious.

Ok this bank scene with Diana was in the 2017 version but it’s a lot more violent in this one. And I guess the desaturation of the scene also makes it seem less like a cartoon. There’s actual tension in this. Editing matters.

“Boring.” Diana said cut to the damn chase. She doesn’t have all day.

Diana really makes use of her greaves.

Not Diana vaporizing this dude.

I want a whole movie of just the Amazons.

I actually like how they did the live action Boom Tube.

The Amazons are beasts with their lassos.

I love Hippolyta.

Part 2! I like how this was split into parts.

No one ever says Superman’s name. It’s always “him.”

Diana always wears white.

This whole scene where Diana goes to Athens is left out.

I think this conversation between Arthur and Vulko is too.

I forgot this movie is canonically before Aquaman.

Steppenwolf is an actual character in this one.

Isn’t this the second time Diana has broken into Bruce’s place?

Ooooh a Green Lantern!

Professor Lupin defeating Darkseid is a highlight.

Forever giggling at how the Amazons and Atlanteans do the most to hide the boxes while Man just buries it in the forest.

I want to meet someone who makes me stop and stare like Barry and Iris did.

There’s always a fruit stand.

Barry giving new meaning to running out of your shoes.

Cyborg’s origin story is easily one of the saddest.

Also, 2017 cut his mother entirely out. I mean, Whedon damn near wrote him out the movie.

I wonder if the Sarah they were talking about is Sarah Charles...

Victor helping the single mother was 🥲

Dr. Manhattan is Barry’s father.

Competitive ice dancing. Very competitive ice dancing.

Batman with a lasso...

Victor is still in his bitter stage.

J. Jonah Jameson and Commissioner Gordon are the same person.

Amber Heard again. Gross.

So the Atlanteans here can’t speak underwater. They only make these trill noises. But they do speak in air pockets.

How unfortunate that Arthur saves Mera just in time.

Steppenwolf wants all the smoke with Diana for some reason.

I love Wonder Woman’s theme.

Aquaman casually late but he holds the water back so it’s all good.

The Anti-Life Equation. That thing that makes earth so special.

Darkseid enters the chat.

Steppenwolf without his armor... Yeesh...

How did Darkseid forget which planet kicked his ass 5000 years ago?

Not Arthur looking incredulous about Victor being able to speak to intelligence. Dude, you talk to fish.

Why do the Nazis find everything?

The little explanation about the Mother Boxes was cool. Also a scene that was cut.

Swanwick being Martian Manhunter this whole time is wild. Also cut from the theatrical version.

You know in other versions of his “death,” Superman isn’t actually dead. His body is just comatose as he heals. But he appears dead to humans because his heart rate slows down so much.

Lol the ship AI is like “this is a monumentally bad idea I strongly advise against it please don’t do this” 🤣🤣🤣

Ironically, Superman returning is the worst part of the movie to me. Not the fact that he’s back just how it’s done. The whole fight sequence to me is ridiculous and a waste of time. Like why has he even forgotten who he is in the first place?

Well in this version there’s no awful “do you bleed” and Lois gets herself to the scene.

Bruh... Victor done watched both parents die now.

Henry Cavill is really pretty. Dude has that old Hollywood gorgeousness.

It’s come to my attention that Bruce and Clark’s mothers have the same name.

Time to go fuck Steppenwolf up!

Black suit Supes flying up into the atmosphere to get some of that sweet, sweet solar radiation.

They finally got that thing to fly only to fuck it up as soon as they get there 😅

Steppenwolf is antagonizing Diana and idk why. What did she do to you, bruh?

Wonder Woman 🤝 Aquaman 🤝 Superman

So this whole part with them essentially losing and Barry having to run back time didn’t happen in 2017 at all. Instead they just had him... save a random family?

Seriously... Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Supes treated Steppenwolf.

Y’all outchea feeling bad for Steppenwolf but let’s not forget his debt was 150K worlds. DeSaad said he still had 50K left. That means he destroyed 100K worlds already. Fuck him.

Man why they tease Granny Goodness then didn’t have her speak? And if she doesn’t sound like Ed Asner is it even worth it?

Ryan Choi! Aka Atom!

Silas’ voiceover during the ending was so touching 🥲

Words cannot express how much I hate Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. I actually like Lex as a character but I hate him in the DCEU because just ugh. Worst casting ever.

Oh look it’s Slade. Or Deathstroke. Whichever name strikes your fancy.

Just throwing Batman’s real name out there.

Amber Heard again. 😒😒😒😒😒

I actually like Jared Leto here. Tho that laugh needs work.

I know it’s the Knightmare timeline but I still have a hard time believing Clark becomes Darkseid’s lackey because Lois dies. I get the pain and anguish but dude... Lois wouldn’t want that.

This epilogue felt like the ending, a mid-credits scene, and a post-credits scene put together.

Welp that was great! And I’ll probably watch it a 3rd time this weekend with my siblings.

#zack snyder’s justice league #snyder cut #dceu #justice league

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alwaysthrowsscissors · 3 years

Text

Fic Writer Questions!

Thanks for the tag @venhedish dont mind if I do darlin'! Loved reading your answers too!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

17 and I started May 2020

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

84,430! Sooooo close to that 100k milestone I just need to get off my writing hiatus since I have a beefy one shot WIP and a couple kink-meme prompt fills started that will get me to the finish line!

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On Ao3/as an adult, just Supernatural.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Well Jung – This was my first and I’m still super surprised it took off so well considering all the head-hopping. I also hadn’t written fiction since high school so it’s pretty technically rough!

I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met – Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned double amnesia fic! This was a SPN Masquerade fill and it was super fun to write!

Kiss the Cook – Another SPN Masquerade fill inspired by Dean in an apron in S15. Kitchen fucking is fun fucking!

Iodine and Stitches – 3/5 SPN Masquerade fills that I did fall 2020. Seriously such a fun event to participate in I cant recommend it enough. This is one my only fics with a serious tone throughout which is tough for this clown.

Double Jeopardy – Written for my buddy after finding out she has an intelligence kink! Cut to us giggling about Sam losing his damn mind when he plays Jeopardy with clever Dean!

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Listen…I can’t fully express how much comments give me LIFE! I want to know what you liked about my silly musings, I want to know your fav part, I want to know that I gave you a boner! I'll take a button smash, I'll take an emoticon. Anything, everything! I make a point to always respond back to show my appreciation for people taking time out of their day to make my day.

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Without a shadow of a doubt Yesterday Don’t Matter if It’s Gone about what would happen if Sam and Dean hooked up during Mystery Spot and exacerbated Sam’s downward spiral during the months of Tuesdays. I write a lot of humour and this sucker is humourless PLUS has an unhappy ending! Weeee!

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Never have but not opposed to the idea.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, I’ve been pretty fortunate but I also write pretty tame shit. So if I start dabbling more in the archive warnings it may change. I do have a fun multichap wincestiel non-con WIP in the works 😈

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

AHAHAHAHAHA I’d say a good 90-95% of my 84k wordcount is smut! All M/M all explicit! Fun times over at Casa Scissors 😏. I do have some upcoming stuff that’s more plot heavy though which I’m looking forward to.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I fucking hope not that would be a big bummer.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! And as a noob I had to pinch myself, it still fucking blows my mind! A lovely Ao3 user Yigelulu translated I Can’t Forget the Time and Place Where We Just Met into Chinese. It was so incredibly cool to see my words in another language and a great honour that they liked my fic enough to put in all that work!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yup! Turn Your Head and Cough with my budbud Wearingdeantoprom. Dean gets his prostate rubbed for the first time at the doctors office.

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Wincest wincest all the wincest! My brain is infected and there is no cure! I am a pro-shipper though ship and let ship my dudes. I also dabble in wincestiel and LOVE any combination of winkline and may write it one day. I don’t really read much from other fandoms. I’ve read some George/Fred (I like brother fucking ok?) and I love me some Jess Mariano/Dean Forester over in the Gilmore Girls camp (the perfect enemies to lovers) but its unfortunately such a small ship. Any souls reading this who like those ships, please drop any recs into my box!

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Anything I am passionate about I will finish. I’ve only killed one thing because I got bored with it but I posted my fav part for a fic challenge. I hate not having something to show for my spent time (I know it's a hobby but it's the principle damnit!) and I hate unfinished things. Those damn little ao3 red circles haunt me 🚫

16) What are your writing strengths?

Christ uhhh I’ll say I’m most consistently praised in comments for my dialogue and it’s what always flows the smoothest for me. I think my humour is also a strength, it comes very naturally when I write which is why I have a hard time keeping it out of my fics! Times are tough I just wanna make y’all giggle ok?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Frankly, my greatest weakness is that I don’t take it seriously enough to look at my past writing critically for improvement. I also write (non-fiction) for my job and had extensive training to do so, so when its for this hobby I honestly whip it out, edit a couple times, and slap it up ‘good enough’ styles and I don’t go back to re-read once posted. I think if I looked back, I could see lots of opportunities for improvement and could go from a fine writer to a good writer. I’d also say that I’ve written pretty fun fluffy cracky smutty stuff so I guess another weakness is a lack of depth of plot and subject matter. I do want to explore this stuff more though.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

My concern is if you don’t speak the language fluently, then native speakers reading your fic might feel a big disconnect if you get colloquialisms and euphemism etc. incorrect. It could take them out of your fic if its not authentic enough. I don’t speak any other language fluently so it would END BADLY. I can speak and read French VERY POORLY and that’s it so no, I will never write in another language unless its jibberish I invented myself!

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The only fanfic I wrote before SPN last year was a handful of super cracky, gen Gundam Wing fanfiction in high school!! They are on a broken USB stick which kills me I want to read them so badly! All my other creative writing was original fiction mainly horror/thrillers. I stopped when I started my undergrad cause...that shit is a lot of work yo.

20) What's your favorite fic you've written?

My first love is my first baby Well Jung. I love the plot, I love the humour in it, I love the heart, and it’s still some of my fav sex I’ve written. And the title makes me giggle too who doesn’t love a bad pun? I'm so thrilled it was so successful but it would still be my favourite even if 3 people read it. It made me rediscover writing as a hobby and helped me explore this wonderful (yet insane) fandom. I love all my babies and I even think the writing is stronger in other fics, but he will always be #1 in my heart.

OK this was fun I love talking about fic writing! If any of you read my stuff and want to know more, hit me with an ask; I love making new frans! Tagging @oddsocksandstuff @samanddeaninpanties @raidens-realm I think my other writer mutuals have been tagged by Ven!

#ask game #about me #fanfic writing #spn fanfiction #my writing

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cozy-neko · 3 years

Text

The Cherry On Top • Character Introductions • 01 | And so it begins • 02

With each cup of coffee Y/N placed in the cupholder, a low grumble accompanied the action. Each thunk of coffee that slid into each holder was a little more aggressive and heavy-handed than the task need be, but the air of irritation that emitted from the girl was undeniably strong, and the unfortunate barista that was tasked to make this foul-mood customer’s drinks handed her the last of her order before quickly slinking away.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Y/N continued to grumble under her breath the entire frigid three blocks back to the campus of where her office was located.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” A scowl was evident on the girl’s face the entire elevator ride up the tall skyscraper until it dinged and stopped at the 70th floor. It wasn’t until the doors slid open that Y/N sucked in a shaky breath and plastered a Crest-worthy, Splenda-sweet smile on her face as she exited the lift and entered the bustling office.

“Coffee’s here!” Y/N sang out and placed the two cup holders down on top of the front office’s counter tabletop.

“Y/N’s back!”

A scurry of workers crowded around the 21-year-old girl as she animatedly read off orders off the top of her head and handed them out, one-by-one to its rightful owner.

“You’re the best, Y/N-chan!” A senpai from the tech editorial department ruffled her head, earning a small whimper of protest as she tried to sooth her hair. It wasn’t like she spent twenty-minutes this morning trying to tame her unruly mane for nothing.

“Isn’t Y/N the best? She’s always so good at remembering who gets what.” Another senpai from the lifestyle editorial department chimed in and took a sip from her latte.

“Oh no, no! I’m just doing my job.” Y/N let out a forced chuckle, but it went unnoticed as her coworkers slowly disappeared back to their corner of the office to get back to work.

"Alright, you can drop the act, you fake."

The instant Y/N heard a snort coming from behind, the fake smile that was plastered to her face immediately dropped as she whipped around to face a chestnut-haired male.

"I hate it here," Y/N groaned and leaned her upper body onto the countertop. She let out a huff of air and blew a stray piece of hair away from her eyes. "I can't wait to graduate from coffee intern to staff writer."

"You're meeting with the Chief later today, right?" Oikawa Tooru removed his hands from the pockets of his slacks and eyed the remaining drink leftover.

"Mmm, yeah." Y/N let out a distracted sigh as her thumbs flew across the keyboard of her smartphone for a quick text. With the click of a button, she locked her phone and shoved it into her pants pocket and gave her full attention to the older male. "Chief told me that she had good news for me, and judging by all the overtime work and random projects I picked up over the past few months --"

"You mean bitch work?" Oikawa interrupted, earning a glare from the girl.

"For your information, my 'bitch work' got published last week! And that's besides the point. All that matters is that Chief has noticed that I'm a responsible worker who is willing to go above and beyond my day-to-day tasks and now I'm definitely getting the promotion that's been long due!"

There was a smug grin on Y/N's face while Oikawa rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you are a hard worker, Y/N-chan, but that doesn't mean you should be doing other people's tasks when it should be their job to do them in the first place."

"Can't you just be happy for me?" Y/N whined. "I didn't graduate from UTokyo with over $100k in student debt just to go on coffee runs. And I don't even get to have my own drink!"

Oikawa sighed and placed a hand on top of the shorter girl's head. "I am happy for you. And proud of you. I hope you get the staff writer position you wanted, and when you do get assigned to my department, I'll make sure to run you dead with ten articles simultaneously."

There was an evil, teasing glint in Oikawa's eyes which Y/N responded to by sticking out her tongue.

A ding! interrupted the teasing banter and Y/N checked her phone. She let out a quick squeal and a small hop.

"Gotta go! Ayame-san from tech has an article she wants me to write!"

Y/N waved goodbye and scurried away.

"Hey! I asked for a dirty Chai, not a mocha! What the fuck, Y/N?" Oikawa yelled after the retreating girl.

"Serves you right for making me do your coffee run too, Oinkawa!" Y/N's bubbly laughter echoed through the hallway as she skipped towards the tech editorial department.

Oikawa sighed and tugged at the front pieces of his hair. It was already nearing the end of the day, but he was still at least half an hour away from completing his remaining task for the day. He was currently in the middle of copy-editing an article one of his staff writers submitted earlier today when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Oikawa removed his glasses and pulled out his phone, rubbing his tired eyes while unlocking his phone. It was a text from Y/N.

She must've finally talked to Chief, Oikawa thought. He swiped his thumb to unlock his phone and read the text.

Oikawa grimaced at Y/N’s text. It was obvious the meeting did not go the way Y/N had wanted it to. Sighing, Oikawa stood up and packed his things. Looks like the article was going to have to be pushed back a week; there was a more important meeting he had to attend to first.

Y/N glared at her phone and bounced her leg, a nervous tick that Oikawa absolutely hated whenever she did. Maybe if he was here right now, he would've had the opportunity to scold her. Except his train was running five minutes late. Y/N groaned as she watched another minute go by.

Where's Tooru?

How much longer was he going to make her sit in agony at their favorite bakery and tea shop?

Right when Y/N was about to hit send on her phone, the shop door jingled, and in waltzed Oikawa.

"Alright, alright, I'm here. What happened?" Oikawa was slightly breathless, having sped-walked from the station and down the block to meet up with Y/N. He rolled up his button-down sleeves and removed his work badge from around his neck.

"So I got the promotion," Y/N began to which Oikawa cut her off.

"Okay, congrats, but that's hardly an existential crisis."

"No! Let me finish!" Y/N stomped her foot once, irritation beginning to seep in. Oikawa rolled his eyes, completely immune to Y/N's temper flare ups. Instead of retorting, he opted to take a sip of her fruit tea. "I got the promotion, but it wasn't the promotion I wanted."

"Did you get placed in lifestyle with Iwa-chan? I heard that department's kind of a mess right now. Iwa-chan told me their lifestyle editor's too busy hooking up with Hanamaki's layout intern to even run the department --"

"Tooru, for kami's sake, I'm begging you to shut up." Y/N groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I'm TK Mag's new gossip blogger. Chief wants me to freaking exploit influencers under the alias of 'Cherry' for the new Cherry on Top blog."

“The new what now?”

end notes:

→ the timestamps at the top of each photo are irrelevant. the timestamps that you want to pay attention to (or not. it really doesn’t matter) are the ones within the text chats.

→ if you see the word shanchou in oikawa’s and y/n’s texts, i accidentally misspelled the word shachou which means “president of the company.” i was debating whether i wanted to use the japanese spelling or just keep it as Chief. i changed my mind multiple times and decided to just go with the english version but got too lazy to correct the photo. 🤡

→ props to authors who only explicitly write smaus. creating each social post is so time consuming and slightly frustrating that i almost threw my phone across the room.

→ don’t come at me for my nonexistent and try-hard humor. 😔✋this is why i only write angst.

→ no kenma and akaashi this chapter, but they will be introduced in the next!

TAG LIST:

if you’re interested in being notified when a new chapter gets published, please interact with the series overview post to be added to my tag list for this series!

also, please make sure your tag notification settings are turned on, or else I won’t be able to tag you!!

@howcanibreathewithnozaire @stupid-mimi @hiraeth-z @elianetsantana @onwnonly @purplelimesss @random-stufff1 @winterstudent @akabiscuit @arttzume @ianieworld @sunnout @meemsx @dushsies @umiilikesmilk @lcmecobain @tsukkiyuuji @basilton485 @0grenntea0 @kiss-my-cheek @hugscore @thatfunnysprout @soynomnom @ittsvias @multi-fandom-fanfic @ms1015 @restinpeace-minusone @lailaaparkerr @icantsleepcauseoffandoms @minhocatboy @its-the-aerieljeane @tiltedmint @thoughtfullydelightfulgiver @vivalasvegasbaby @miyayane @kiiayashi @china-yana @normalisthenewnorm @mer-majesty @kac-chowsballs @kodzuken-blog @dksfl920 @zaras-warudo @infantwomanjen @tabipleats @lowqualityline @blondealpaca @kenmas1mp @rae-k-018

#the cherry on top #haikyuu x reader #kenma x reader #kenma kozume #haikyuu smau #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu kenma #kozume kenma #haikyuu smau series #hq x reader #hq kenma #writings

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savrenim · 3 years

Note

hi hi hi. so I just got into the Hamilton fandom, I swear I am four years late where did everybody go, and, well. I am apparently a hamburr shipper. bcs that is my life now. anyway I saw your fic ifmlam and I swear it is my favourite of all the fics I've ever read (and trust me I've read literally thousands). I love it so so much, how do you write fics like that??? I cried about four times during the whole thing, I stayed up till 4am reading it even when I had to wake up at 7 because it is just. that. good. I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards and ifmlam has just ruined me. I can't think of listen to Hamilton without thinking of ifmlam anymore.

on to my qursttion: is it abandoned? of course it's perfectly FINE if it is. don't let anyone tell u differently, your fic is YOURS and u are amazing.

but pls I really need closure from ur fic, it has been haunting me if its abandoned or ongoing and I've read ur other fics and they are just chefskiss and thank you so much for writing them all. thank you thank you thank you, I will never be able to thank you enough for writing this fic and for everything it's done for me. I am probably thousands of miles away but I am sending you virtual jugs through a co.puter screen right now.

(don't feel pressured to reply to this or update it flam, I know how overwhelming it can get with so many messages and after a while u get desensitized to it. u can literally reply "thx. itfmlam is abandoned" and I would still be amazingly star struck. anyway has gotten way too long and I need to sleep and I'm sorry u probably won't see this so I'm just talking to myself right now but bye!!)

and thank you so so much for writing itfmlam.

aaaah hello anon!

thank you so so much???? I am so??? honored??? that ifmlam rates so highly to you, and also that you've read my other fics??????

the answer to the "is ifmlam abandoned" question is probably the worst possible one, which is pretty much "I do want to finish it, both for the folks that still want closure as well as it bothers to me have abandoned projects that are in the public eye/ already partially published, but also, it is last on my current writing projects list"

my current actually active writing projects list, kind of in order of priority, is

I'm literally three chapters away from being Actually Fully Done with the not-quite-first-not-quite-second let's call it 1.5th draft of an actual?? full?? original?? novel?? Opus which of course then goes out to beta readers and then gets who-knows-how-much edited and then maybe beta readers again if a lot does change and then a copyeditor my mom, my copyeditor is my mom, and maybe my little brother he's one of the betas but is very good at catching typos and then I!!! get to publish it!!!! which is the single thing I am most excited for!!!!!!!!! this should be closed up in the next week or two, and then take a while for people to actually read the draft and get back to me.

I really desperately want to finish my open-but-like-90%-written fic, which means we raise it up, the final chapter of to the bottom of the river bc I realized that it was kind of incomplete, and the second chapter of a buried and a burning flame because any more work there will need to wait until the author publishes the next book in the series. this should be closed up in the next month or two.

Speedwrite the draft of the second book of the Opus series so that hopefully by the time book 1 edits are happening, I have an almost complete draft of the second book. this is mostly me side-eyeing myself about taking nearly four years to write the first book, but that is solidly in part because I had so many other open projects which point 2 is about clearing that docket. this should be done in the next year.

And then just have my major projects be, at least until books 1-5 are written and published, books 1-5 of that because that is arguably the first major 'plot arc' of the series, so if I'm looking for a pause point on writing, that's probably where to stop.

There are two or three other short side projects (a weird fun second person short story tentatively titled witch-queen, a collection of four short stories Memoirs about a not-so-evil necromancer and the shenanigans he gets up to trying to rule a kingdom, working title Perfectly Normal Recipe Blog which is a collaborative project about a perfectly normal recipe blog that definitely doesn't include anything out of the normal) that will happen when they happen

There are other projects that are on the backburner -- The Numanok Files, a series of probably 12-15 short novellas about a mercenary/ bounty hunter esque person in space whose specialty is dealing with hauntings, but, like, 80% of their jobs is actually "you are effectively a space home inspector pointing out faulty wiring reacting to solar flares/ there's a weird alien fungus/ it's carbon monoxide okay change your atmosphere filters" and 20% of it is punching ghosts; there's a post-post apocalypse novel that I want to write that I know characters and general pacing and half the setting but need to work out the other half and figure out how much aesthetic I want to commit to; there's Strangeside7 aka spacerace book that is my reaction to how much I love how Redline the anime movie commits itself to "no we are about a race, like 60% of the screentime is just fully going to be an utterly ridiculous sci fi space race"; there's even a ridiculous YA trilogy that I would have to completely transplant the setting but might end up writing because the interplay between angel-physics and physics-physics was one of my favorite things in the world. and I guess the weird ridiculous technically a sequel series to ifmlam that was going to be published as original books that was basically me having fun with 'okay I fucking love star wars prequels old rotting space bureaucracy galactic republic style' except with seers and that also still might happen because it does have some of the coolest sci fi concepts and honestly I thiiiink that's all?

but the tl;dr of that timeline is I'm trying to finish a punch of projects Right Now, so that I can write books 2-5 of Opus, and then when I'm done that (which honestly, my average fiction-writing output is close to 100k a year. if I'm concentrating purely on one project, and writing books that are about 100k, we are talking four years. although my job situation is super up in the air in that period and writing might get put solidly on the backburner as I try to make it in academia, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I will re-evaluate which projects go next, and that's when ifmlam is likely to come up for review.

I do not have any expectations that I will make it as an original author. I'm planning on posting all of my stuff online for free, but, like. it is incredibly difficult to convince people to try out even a piece of free and easily accessibly original work even if one has a huge following, I am a very small fanfiction author, and from what I can tell the majority of the people who are interested in my work are mostly interested in me finishing ifmlam. writing is a hobby for me, and while I'm writing mostly for me--and hence the for me bit at least for the next five years is pretty solidly going to be this series that I am deeply excited about and have sunk my heart and soul into every single aspect of--I'm human, and I don't really like shouting into the void, and I expect if I spend five years publishing to absolutely no response I will either stop writing for a while and do other things gods know my life is busy enough, return to fandom in general to write some other fanfic about whatever I get deeply into, or return to a work that I actually get response to. so ifmlam will probably start getting worked on a bit at that point one way or another. unless, of course, we are in the incredibly rare timeline in which I do make it as an original author, there are people who are deeply hyped for my original works and an actual demand for them, in which case as you may have noticed there are enough ideas there to keep me busy for a decade or two, and they will just get my full attention instead of fanfiction*. in this timeline, I will do what I was considering doing a few years ago, which is officially declare ifmlam otherwise abandoned and make one more giant chapter update which is a full and cleaned up outline of what I was going to write, interspersed with the scenes already written, and have ifmlam be given at least that closure.

*I want to make it clear that I very much love fanfiction and am proud to have been a fanfiction author and in my heart of hearts would keep writing it forever, I just also have a lot of ideas for characters and settings and magic systems and Aesthetics and I have been biting at the bit to write something that is //mine// and all mine and only mine for a while, I don't see original work as superior so much as there are a dozen fandoms that I am currently in and bursting to make content about except oops these fandoms currently only exist in my head, and I want to correct that

of course given how much as writing is my vent activity and I write what I'm in the mood for, there's a chance I'll feel ifmlam cravings before then, just... expect it to take a couple of years for an update, but also for there to be an update one way of another in a couple of years? but as for right now, I'm turning to original writing, because that is what brings me joy.

but I am really deeply honored that it brought you so much joy!!! and while I will never publish spoilers in a public place, if you message me off anon I am perfectly happy to give a run-down of my current plans for the ending, bc I know "wait a couple years and see" is not the most satisfactory of answers! and hey maybe you'll be like me and once you've given Opus a try you'll decide you like it better too, it does have Seers although they are deeply different Seers than in ifmlam but imo it's very gay and fun and at least politics on one side

#my life #my writing #ifmlam

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dassandre-00qpidsarrow · 3 years

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Fics of 2020 Highlights

Rules. it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works! I apparently wrote a lot of words last year. Over 100k of them with a beloved writing partner, so I can't know exactly how many of them are mine, but I was pretty prolific solo, too. And though 2020 sucked -- really, really sucked! -- in general, I'm quite pleased by many of my stories. I hope you all were, too. This list is chronological by posting date. Tagged by @ato-the-bean

24 Years of Christmases: Chapter 22 - "North Star" - Series Rating: E (Chapter published 1/2020)

Chapter Summary

: Christmas Eve was festive but subdued. Hushed with moments of cheer that came from family being together and shared stories of Christmases past: Violet’s with Siger before the boys were born, the year Remy got the best of Mycroft and Sherlock with mince pies liberally laced with castor oil, the Christmas when Emma was nine and she spent the entire night waiting up for Father Christmas only to wake up under the tree wrapped in her father’s arms. James even told a ribald tale of Christmas he spent in a Bedouin encampment in the middle of the Sahara.

This is a particularly painful chapter in the Bond/Holmes Clan’s Christmas experiences, but it is one that I think gets to the heart of who James and Q (Remy) are as a couple.

Without Being Told - Co-authored with @boffin1710 - Rating E - WiP (Published 4/2020; 165k and counting)

Summary

: The disaster made of Westminster Bridge and dismantling the remnants of Nine Eyes were only the beginning of the mess that needed to be cleaned up after James Bond walked away from everything hand-in-hand with Madeleine Swann. Sooner or later, something was going to break. No one expected it to be The Quartermaster.

Boffin and I set out to tell a story about what would happen if James Bond came back to MI6 after faffing off with Madeleine Swann and found that Q no longer worked there. Not only did a character overthrow the initial plan and claim Q (Ellery) as his own despite the authors’ initial intentions, but ... WOW! The response to this fic is nothing either one of us anticipated. We are truly humbled by all the readers and the comments and want to do justice by them and the characters as we make our way toward the ending.

Sefa, The Publican - Part of “The Hole and Corner” series - Rating NR (Published 7/2020)

Summary: This is part of the series "The Hole and Corner" which focuses on a pub of the same name. This pub is the best-kept secret in London. Literally. The only ones who know about it are those who work for MI6. It is *their* pub. It's a place where they can safely relax and talk without always having to watch their back. Some chapters focus on characters we already know. Other chapters, like this one, center around original characters who help "flesh out" the entire pub experience.

This chapter fulfilled a collaborative prompt square for 007Fest. Soufflegirl91 asked to learn more about The Hole and Corner's publican, Sefa, who was introduced in the first part of this series, "The Pub." I have come to adore Sefa, as do most of her patrons. She is particularly enamored of Q who feels much the same.

Cupcake - 1904 words of utter fluff and crack (Published 7/2020) - Rating NR

Summary

: The resulting explosion of tart lemon counterbalanced with the sweet raspberry across his taste buds nearly sent James in paroxysms of gastric joy. It was the best damn thing Bond had ever eaten.

This story came about from a photo of a cupcake provided to me by

@boffin1710

who said the cupcake was the best he’d ever eaten. Of course, after a foodie review like that, I had to turn it into a fic. A photo of said cupcake can be found at the bottom of the story.

Long Day ... or Was it a Week? Part of “The Hole and Corner” series; Co-Authored with @boffin1710 - Rating NR (Published 8/2020)

Summary

: The Hole and Corner sees to the needs of its patrons in ways you just can't find in any other pub.

Another glimpse into The Hole and Corner and how Sefa meets the needs of her unique patrons. Q, in particular, is often in need of some TLC. I really enjoy writing in this series and hope to have more stories set there soon.

They’re Only Words - Co-Authored with @boffin1710 (Published 10/2020)

Summary

: “We’re all too bloody busy, and until you complete the required Psych evaluation, you are banned from your Branch. Get it done, Q!”

Q faces off with Psych and finds an unexpected ally along the way. This ended up being a rather unique piece for both Boffin and me. It’s more of a character study/exploration of Q and his interactions with an OC Double-O.

I know this is six stories, rather than the five listed, but I had a hard time choosing.

Tagging:

@boffin1710 @notwhatyouthoughtiwas @iambid @1amvengeance @frickandfrack83

#00q fic #00Q00 #AO3 fanfic #dassandre (00QpidsArrow)

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