bittersweet choco

it doesn’t have to be a “punch line” as in the end of a joke. It could be the part that punches you in the gut. The most exciting, juicy, shocking info goes at the end of the sentence. Two different examples that show the difference it makes:

doing it wrong:

She saw her brother’s dead body when she caught the smell of something rotting, thought it was coming from the fridge, and followed it into the kitchen.

doing it right:

Catching the smell of something rotten wafting from the kitchen—probably from the fridge, she thought—she followed the smell into the kitchen, and saw her brother’s dead body.

Periods are where you stop to process the sentence. Put the dead body at the start of the sentence and by the time you reach the end of the sentence, you’ve piled a whole kitchen and a weird fridge smell on top of it, and THEN you have to process the body, and it’s buried so much it barely has an impact. Put the dead body at the end, and it’s like an emotional exclamation point. Everything’s normal and then BAM, her brother’s dead.

This rule doesn’t just apply to sentences: structuring lists or paragraphs like this, by putting the important info at the end, increases their punch too. It’s why in tropes like Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking or Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick, the odd item out comes at the end of the list.

Subverting this rule can also be used to manipulate reader’s emotional reactions or tell them how shocking they SHOULD find a piece of information in the context of a story. For example, a more conventional sentence that follows this rule:

She opened the pantry door, looking for a jar of grape jelly, but the view of the shelves was blocked by a ghost.

Oh! There’s a ghost! That’s shocking! Probably the character in our sentence doesn’t even care about the jelly anymore because the spirit of a dead person has suddenly appeared inside her pantry, and that’s obviously a much higher priority. But, subvert the rule:

She opened the pantry door, found a ghost blocking her view of the shelves, and couldn’t see past it to where the grape jelly was supposed to be.

*lies down in a puddle of tears and apologizes to the many fictional women I had to leave off*

A lot of characters tragically left off (Luminara Unduli, Galadriel, Hera Syndulla, Callie, Mable, Falin, Allura, Petra, Cara Dune I'll stop here because otherwise I won't stop, but I wish this list were a lot longer!)

I wish there were more spaces but ill just have to say that a few characters narrowly missed this list (namely Mualani - Genshin Impact, Jane Doe - Zenless Zone Zero, Severa - Fire Emblem Awakening, Timerra and Yunaka - Fire Emblem Engage, Angie - Danganrompa and Harue Shigima from Paranormasight) but im pretty happy with this list!! Oh and also feel free to ask me about why u like any of these characters if you are curious!!

and I'll tag, of course @faerie-rain, @ask-the-abyss-keeper, @exaltprincess

have fun everyone!

*picture of the game under the cut:

Tried to keep them all from different series, but couldn't leave Lilith off the list. So many more couldn't fit :(

At first I was just gonna do one character per media but UTDR and ISAT are important enough to me to where I decided to get 2 for them, though Undertale still only gets one since Undertale and Deltarune are very related and I don't want 4 from that sphere (Which I still kind of did get because of Martlet from UTY but shush)

I tried so hard to keep this to one character per series… but my beloved Amphibia trio. And then Gideon too.

Anyhow, thank you for the tag!

* "Oh, but adhd-fandom-and-gay, Creature is usually referred to as masculine anyway despite canonically not caring about what gender he's referred to as so he's not allowed to be classified as a fem character—" IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT ME ON THIS YOU BETTER BRING A FUCKING GUN

*She's transfem. How do I know? She told me.

There's more but our brain is crunchy. OH. JUST. ANYONE. ANYONE (female) FROM THE MECHANISMS

@rocket-raccons-fluffy-tail @fryingthepanwithapplesauce (also I did see your picrew tag, we're going to do it tomorrow.:))

@orangeswithsquirrelfaces @goldfish-casino

*would say hermitcraft too but that starts falling into the realm of is it c! anymore

most definitely forgetting people, also wanted to add more to the poll :P such as Mabel GF, Mira GOH, Persephone ORV, c!ZombieCleo, the list goes on.

proudly let the mechs take over the damn poll

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

EDIT: part 2!!

they came in the mail !! 🍎💚