I'm finally making progress on my event so hopefully tomorrow I'll have results but no promises because I get home an hour later and have to vote at an HOA right after so I'll be even later than usual getting home (for context, normally, when I get home and start writing immediately I can finish a chapter/one shot just before I need to shower and go to bed IMMEDIATELY with minimal distractions. Same for art pieces actually. It's unfortunate but it is what it is).

The rest is me rambling about an OC story ideas

In the meantime, while I've been at work, I've been trying to decide what I like better for Nikia's story. Mostly because I'm bored to tears and there's only so many reddit stories you can listen to before your brain melts. Specifically the growing up and how/why she runs into WBP.

At first I wanted it to be on her first mission that would start her career as an Elite Ranger, which has a slew of requirements above just being a regular ranger. It would also net her her own cabin and the most freedom of schedule and movement. Elite Rangers don't usually manage your groups or host outside of emergencies because they need to leave at a moments notice to take care of disturbances. But that didn't give her much time to be good at what she does enough to be an unknown at Marineford, though I teased the idea of her low-key revealing herself before ultimately deciding she'd never land at Marineford cause she wouldn't touch that shit with a 10 foot pole.

So I thought a decent way to bring WBP to her is them taking the island under their control by absorbing the pirates that previously claimed the island under their protection. It wasn't long before I decided it would be a nice, cute backstory if her mother was rescued by said pirates when Nikia was young so the captain ended up being her father figure. And it would be nice is he was old friend with Whitebeard though they don't talk much since he settled down a little to keep near his new favorite island.

I was thinking the "Many Hands Pirates" or "Clover Pirates" as their specialty is knowing someone for any job. Really low-key and social. They're the ones that organized the personal security force on the islands into what it is today--which is terrifyingly efficient and low-key, as well as the concept of Elite Rangers.

Anyway, they're the ones who deliver the bad news to Nikia about Teach and whatnot and are shocked at her reaction. As well as the ones that take her to Marineford knowing damn well she'll be about cloud height and ready to take whatever shot she needs to while everyone else catches up.

Prefers that, actually, because while he doesn't have those old fashioned "keep women out of the fight" ideas, he doesn't want his adopted daughter to be fighting Marines either. He taught her to fight dirty and hit hard for a reason damnit!

That and I wanted a really sweet moment where Thatch gets a little shovel talk and Whitebeard gets tetchy so he looks at him and says "You look after your kids, let me look after mine... By the way, I don't give a shit who your father is, make her cry like that again or string her along and I'll wear your balls for a coin purse."

Or maybe I just grew up around too many people with pig farms so my idea of protective is a tad intense. Idk.

Anyway, the idea of her growing up with an off and on again pirate father seemed fun. There to look into her milestones and provide a unique perspective.

Also I get to have a weird fertility/sexual health festival where someone (maybe Thatch) commits a faux pa of asking for the berries specifically harvested at the very start (which is only picked by of age/began puberty girls/women). It's a faux pa because they're very obvious symbolism and meant only to be eaten by the one that picks them or the one that they intent to have "fruitful relations" with. Given freely, of course. So asking is INCREDIBLY BOLD and depending on how old the girl is, INSANELY CREEPY AND INAPPROPRIATE as the berries have sexual health benefits as well as (believed) aphrodisiac qualities, but like... Chocolate does. Unless you're already DTF odds are you won't feel anything.

Anyway, Nikia gets very flustered and horrified and it's up to her father to explain why that was a terrible thing to ask outright. Let alone in public and they're lucky everyone knows they're strangers to the festival and asked someone at least of appropriate age.

There's a special part of the festival before dawn where the berries still attached to flowers are picked by those mourning mothers passed in childbirth who carry them from the hill all the way to the water (beach or cliff, haven't decided) to give the unripe fruit to the sea, picked before their time. Mostly because I wanted Ace to get to have a moment where he properly, openly honors his mother and it makes sense to have a moment of memoriam for women who passed like that in a festival meant to encourage sexual health and well-being in primarily women.

This festival takes place in the first part of January to open a new year and prepare the land/people for spring. Specifically when a large part of the snow melts on Winter Island and over waters the Snowmelt Berries, making the usually spicy berries very ripe, juicy, and sweet. Prone to popping in your hand so it's quite messy but also the reason there are so many damn bushes on Winter Island. It's impossible to overforage these berries, they grow to fast and so many. The snow quickly returns at the end of the month, halting the rapid growth the island had previously been enjoying.

Summer Island feels like fall/winter during this time and usually gets a bit of snow lol

full offence but I do NOT watch movies so I can "turn my brain off" I take this shit so seriously

no offence but the reason tumblr is “dying” is, well, yes, of course the cursed like/reblog ratio and the change in user behaviour (because of people being used to how instagram and tiktok work) BUT also the lack of weekly shows. i say it with my whole chest, they don't produce captivating and engaging stupid weekly tv shows anymore because streaming killed that so you have spikes of activity here when Something happens in general fandom or up to three days after a new season of whatever drops and then it's a wasteland. this is obviously an old woman yelling at a cloud missing supernatural and the vampire diaries and pretty little liars and all these other shows type of post but honestly give me back weekly tv shows where i have something to watch for 40 minutes almost every day of the week after work so then i can read and reblog it on tumblr give it back for the sake of my sanity

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

A h-heartfelt reunion..?

Bonus

#the Nowhere Man who waits and the God of Stories who watches

crowley used the metal tool in season 1 to start time, and we learn that he's used it first to start space. to create the stars -- he still remembers how. he still remembers all of heaven's passwords: in the book crowley is described as an optimist because he has the "utter surety... that the universe would look after him". not god, but the universe. and of course he does: he helped create it and he's looking after it, too.

think about it: aziraphale had a sword, but crowley is about to face satan who wants to destroy the world, and crowley's only weapon is a tool of creation

fucking hate it when the stuff everybody says "actually works" does actually work.

hate exercising and realizing i've let go of a lot of anxiety and anger because i've overturned my fight-or-flight response.

hate eating right and eating enough and eating 3 times a day and realizing i'm less anxious and i have more energy

hate journaling in my stupid notebook with my stupid bic ballpoint and realizing that i've actually started healing about something once i'm able to externalize it

hate forgiving myself hate complimenting myself more often hate treating myself with kindness hate taking a gratitude inventory hate having patience hate talking to myself gently

hate turning my little face up to the sun and taking deep breaths and looking at nature and grounding myself and realizing that i feel less burdened and more hopeful, more actually-here, that i am able to see the good sides of myself more clearly, that i am able to see not only how far i have to grow - but also how much growth i have already done & how much of my life i truly fill with light and laughter and love

horrible horrible horrible. hate it but i'm gonna do it tho

Will the real FNAF Helpy please stand up?..

Danganronpa 3 episode 17 is a big WHAT THE FUCK HOW DARE YOU SHOW, IM READY FOR THAT FAKEOUT NOW, ANY TIME SOON

And then episode 18 is, awww Mitarai you absolutely useless dumbass, look at how much the show bullies his pathetic ass, he can’t even crawl out of the mud properly <3 <3 <3

(click for higher quality!) draconified link concept ive been chipping away at this past week ..... here's my funny little compendium concept for him:

"A heroic spirit has taken the form of this bestial dragon. Unlike it's kin, this creature exhibits an extremely aggressive disposition. It appears highly territorial, and will relentlessly chase down those who disturb its skywide patrols - of which it seems to be endlessly searching for either a long-time vassal or foe. Unfortunately, it seems the spirit within has long since forgotten exactly who it was looking for…"

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

I was telling my dad about ao3 and he asked "But why would anyone do it if they're not being paid?" And that genuinely makes me so sad. The fact that the majority of people are told things are only worth doing if there is financial gain in it. Oh you're an artist? Artists don't make any money.

Sometimes the point isn't money. Sometimes it's just to create.

The road to forgiveness is paved with miles of bullying

staff still hasn't given me polls, what should i do?

🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪 their moms 69%

🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪 their dads 31%

grace image os i get to look at her

What do you like about the Diasomnia boys if I may ask?

I always love hearing about the different reasons people enjoy characters.

I mean, c'mon. he has split custody over Sebek okay

also, Lilia in particular has maybe the best timeskip character development of all time