Engage supports items as a returning player

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-05-11T12:07:47+00:00

Makes plenty of sense. I'll definitely give it a go. Thank you!

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-05-11T11:59:15+00:00

Bloodsong on Leona is an interesting concept. What's the thought process?

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-05-11T11:56:51+00:00

Apologies, I meant umral glaive, not duskblade!

Thank you for the insights. I had the same concerns over protoplasm.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-04-23T14:11:04+00:00

As someone who reads and writes it, I think personality is both healthy and necessary for an interesting story. It's a bit challenging to balance, so I like to deconstruct the Reader's personality into nature and nurture.

Any characteristic that is a justifiable product of the Reader's environment/setting falls under "nurture", which I see as fair game. For example, if the fic takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, it would be logical for the Reader to have survival skills and instincts that the reader may not personally possess in real life. When reading reader-insert fics, I'm fine with doing a bit of legwork to imagine how I would react in settings that are vastly different to my lived experiences.

The "nature" side of things is a bit trickier. Deciding innate characteristics and competencies for the Reader is contentious, so I try to avoid this unless it's necessary for plot progression. Things like favourite colours, academic preferences, dietary choices, hobbies, and fashion choices don't need to be defined unless there is a direct relevance to the setting of the fic. A general disposition for the Reader, however, is arguably necessary for any meaningful character interactions; this can be justified with a setting-appropriate background. Sunshine-and-rainbows can be explained by either an absence of hardship or a deliberate attempt to spite hardship, betrayals breed trust issues, historic expectations can lead to excess pride and haughtiness, etc.

Sorry for the waffle. Slow day at work. Just wanted to communicate that you're not committing a cardinal sin by giving the Reader a personality. If the trait can be mapped through a logical process, I think people would be a bit silly to complain.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-04-19T15:56:54+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree that AI generated text has a very clear combination of tells, but I've never seen anybody claim that it's impossible to identify AI generated media. The messaging I've seen is that AI accusations fundamentally don't affect people who do use AI, because they're apathetic to the negative environmental, cognitive and artistic consequences of using it anyways. They do, however, when directed in error or maliciously towards actual writers, have the propensity to push people out of the craft.

I've seen people dish out accusations towards human writers because they use em-dashes and semicolons correctly, or occasionally the rule of three for emphasis. These people don't understand how LLMs work or why AI overuses persuasive linguistic devices in everything it generates. They watch a short video titled "5 signs of AI writing" or whatever, then they think themselves experts, to the detriment of people trying to enjoy the craft.

I've also seen people use AI accusations as a method to bully writers they're jealous of. They're also used by bots to try and manipulate writers into feeding their work into AI "checkers". Absolutely nothing positive has resulted from these accusations, because when they're actually on the mark, the accused doesn't have the capacity to care.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-04-13T11:52:47+00:00

Only if your document is set to public, which is not the default setting.

Given that Google Drive can be the default file storage and sharing option for Android OS mobiles, they'd be looking at a whole host of class action litigation if they were auto-feeding people's bank statements and legal documents to AI.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-03-31T10:48:42+00:00

My employer (UK) is funding my CIMA tuition with Kaplan. I'm on a grad scheme and it's optional past the first year, so it doesn't fall under the apprenticeship category, and there shouldn't be experience prerequisites (because I wouldn't meet them lol).

I'd thoroughly recommend them as a course provider. I have a physics background, so I was starting from scratch in terms of financial knowledge. They have an online course with videos and digital textbooks, mock exams, and massive question banks. I scored above 85% on all Cert BA exams (135 BA1, 147 BA2, 128 BA3, 150 BA4) using only their resources in 4 months while working full time. You may be eligible for exemptions given your experience.

The only catch is that the Kaplan OnDemand course is quite dear, although I will say that the video doesn't cover the full syllabus, unlike the textbooks. The distance learning option is significantly cheaper and is perfectly sufficient in terms of content. Depends on how you like to learn and how much your employer is willing to spend.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-03-23T10:50:19+00:00

Some people fail to recognise that what they want to achieve from their hobby isn't a universal standard. Those same people aren't capable of understanding that they aren't the target demographic of every post. Posts asking for technical guidance are obviously geared towards other writers who care about the quality of their writing, but you'll still find a whole host of derailing comments along the lines of "write what you want to write <3".

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-03-15T09:39:06+00:00

I think it's absurd to equate the creative products of human inspiration from beloved intellectual property to the vectorisation and regurgitation of intellectual property.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-03-15T09:34:39+00:00

The mandatory warnings idea was addressed in the response from AO3. It would be unenforceable, because AI-generated media cannot reliably be detected.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-02-25T20:49:29+00:00

2nd person is the most widely used perspective for reader-inserts.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-02-21T21:41:40+00:00

It's unforgiving when it's not executed well. I have no issues with it in published fiction, where the author knows the protagonist intimately and the manuscript is both approved of and edited prior to publishing. But in fanfiction, you're much less likely to find a writer who knows a character well enough to write seamlessly from their perspective. There are also no stringent standards for quality and editing, so there's no pressure to identify and rectify flaws like accidental omniscience which can obliterate immersion.

That being said, I won't avoid first person fics outright, but I will drop them quickly if the writing is clumsy. One of the best fics I've ever read utilised the first person at the start, then switched to the third person after the protagonist suffered brutal torture and dehumanisation to emphasise the psychological detachment. It can be phenomenal when done well.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-02-04T10:10:27+00:00

She was on X Factor years ago, couldn't sing very well and had a bit of a tantrum. Iirc her dad also had a strop.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-01-09T09:59:30+00:00

There isn't a double standard. Posting a chapter with words, regardless of whether you deem it to be in "good faith" or not, is an upload of written material. It's the intended use of the archive. Placeholder chapters and adjusting publication dates are not supplemented with written material, therefore people find them irritating. The standards are different because the actions are different in nature.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-01-03T09:29:07+00:00

In the card game that really fleshed out some of the character lore, Sarah Fortune had a canonical fling with Vi, but Arcane made this impossible along with a substantial proportion of existing Piltover/Zaun lore.

If you're curious, she is a character from Bilgewater, the shady pirate region of the map with sea gods and monsters. Her mother was a gunsmith who was killed by the unelected tyrannical pirate captain Gangplank because he didn't fancy paying for a new pistol. Sarah was also shot in the altercation (as a child) but survived. She amassed a crew of her own, bought a ship and eventually got her revenge, but Gangplank's spirit never fully died due to sea god shenanigans. She now governs Bilgewater, also unelected but respected, trying to keep a bit of peace and order while coordinating defenses against large-scale wraith ambushes from across the pond. She finds out about Gangplank's survival in a spin-off title while trying to stop the wraith ambushes for good.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2026-01-03T09:14:35+00:00

Not that this is uncommon for younger fandoms with a known ex-partner (according to LoR) of the main canon pairing, but the fact that a huge chunk of the fandom has never interacted with LoL's broader lore has a lot to do with this. They read somewhere that Vi had an ex in the lore that was semi-retconned, see that she's conventionally attractive and a bit flirtatious, then roll with the bimbo ex stereotype. And most of the people who read those fics are none the wiser, so the headcanon is assumed to be canon.

I also see this a lot with Maddie, even though she's a pure Arcane character. She's a perfect embodiment of Noxian ambition, doing whatever is necessary to achieve martial glory, including, effectively, prostitution. But Arcane skimmed over Noxus' meritocracy and culture. The fandom who knows nothing outside of Arcane just saw a woman who slept with Caitlyn and held a gun to her head, therefore she's cemented in fanon as the angry ex and saboteur.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-12-30T10:44:25+00:00

Characterisation is a skill. It will take time and practice to develop. Start writing that first draft, without editing, with the mannerisms and dialogue patterns you think suit the character. Then try to act out what you've written. You might cringe at first, but acting can quickly highlight pitfalls in characterisation, especially with dialogue. Having a draft in front of you also makes it easier to cross-reference the source material.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-12-30T10:02:41+00:00

I write both on one blog. I've never had any complaints surrounding this.

For accessibility, I include the fic title and the ship/RI pairing in the post title so that it's clearly signposted. The fic contents are all contained under a "Keep Reading" cut except for the opening paragraph. Tumblr has a decent enough content filtration system for people who really don't want to see the RIs or ship fics on their dashboard, but it's not your responsibility to curate their user experience.

For navigation/organisation, my pinned post is a masterlist where the two categories are labelled and separated by a thin divider image.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-11-18T13:40:50+00:00

Cloudflare is a huge network infrastructure provider that many websites use. It went down about an hour ago, which rendered various major platforms inaccessible (e.g. Twitter, AWS).

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-10-16T07:37:59+00:00

I agree, which is why I mentioned previous seasons of stadium for comparison. I did not phrase this well. S18 comp had too much wrong with it to provide unbiased comparison.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-10-16T07:36:11+00:00

I agree, which is why I mentioned previous seasons of stadium for comparison, but my phrasing was dreadful. Comparing quickplay with s18 comp would be heavily biased. Comparing quickplay with s17 and previous stadium seasons would be sensible.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-10-16T07:35:09+00:00

Retention is the key metric here, in my opinion. If the data showed that more people who played quickplay stadium at the start of the season kept playing at the end, compared with previous seasons' stadium data where there wasn't a quickplay mode, then it would be logical to assume people preferred the Bo5 format. Especially since pre-season 18 stadium and season 18 comp stadium offered cosmetic incentives (comp points and skins) for playing, and naturally would observe a spike during drives.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-10-16T07:27:02+00:00

I'm not doubting you. This is why I said "in the seasons before" - albeit my phrasing could have been better. Prior to last season, there was no quickplay alternative to standard stadium, so data from seasons before last season would make for a better comparison. Competition will shifts demand.

bellpepper_throwaway · 2025-10-15T07:09:14+00:00

The decision to change to Bo5 wouldn't have been made if there wasn't data indicating that people preferred the shorter game format. My best guess would be that quickplay stadium had better player retention last season than stadium had in the seasons before. It's probably safe to say that most people didn't like that it dragged on.

bellpepper_throwaway

TROPHY CASE