#admin hours

Needless to say, after months of barely keeping my head above water with them, I'm taking the chance tonight and over the coming days to go through some of the backlog of asks.

I want to tell you -- because I know it can seem otherwise -- that every single ask means the world to me. Every interaction you send in makes me so, so happy.

Unfortunately, mod had an anxiety disorder and a perfectionistic streak much like Pumpkin, and just like he does, sometimes I get way too in my own head. I haven't ignored your asks; on the contrary, I've been agonizing over them for weeks or months because I wanted to give you the considered, deliberate responses I feel they deserve.

I've decided for the new year, however, that I'd rather mildly disappoint you by giving a mediocre response than hurt or offend you by giving none and making it seem like your engagement isn't welcome. I know that it would be painful to me if I tried to sincerely interact and it seemed like I was being ignored, so since I doubt that's a wholly unique experience, I'm throwing caution to the wind and going for it.

For the record, we're still on hiatus, folks. Family holidays are ongoing through early January. I'm busy, I'm tired, I'm going through it.

That being said...you might get some solo expository posts now and then to show you, the audience, what Pumpkin's been up to or how he's feeling. Maybe the occasional journal entry from him; that would be a fun thing to add for the new year, and tonally appropriate for him. If folks reply to prior open scenes I might respond to those because they take place before his disappearance, but given that I went on hiatus for my health and the plot moved on without me, it's likely that they may be dead in the water and that's fair.

There are a couple of people I plan to reach out to privately about that at some point because the scenes are integral to relationship-building for Pumpkin and need to at least have an agreed-upon resolution, but it's fair to say that they may not want to continue those scenes at this point since it's been so long and they've got other things on the docket, which is entirely understandable. If that's the case, you can expect a resolution post to at least give you closure, whether it's a journal entry of Pumpkin's or something else.

I don't know what the future of this blog is right now, but I make a rule for myself not to decide anything hard and fast about any part of my life during the difficult parts of winter. Things may be quiet for some time, and if that's the case, I hope that you'll still be here and happy to read what I have in store for Pumpkin when the worst passes and the muse is ready to talk to me more once again. :) Don't give up on him yet, please. I haven't, and don't plan to.

Pumpkin's crew, from his ship, consists of the following people, exclusively and definitively:

@/nursexanya

@/cptjimmy

@/swan-and-bolts

@/theman-withthe-dustpan

He does not currently have a Daisuke, which isn't really a big deal the way things are currently being written; if one is added to the crew, it will only be by the consensus of said crew's mods.

The only OC directly affiliated with this crew at present is Jon/June, the janitor, which was decided mutually after ooc discussion based on what made narrative sense to us based on what we had been writing together. Jon was not an original part of his crew before the anomaly and his acceptance as part of the crew now does not mean that we have retconned that.

All of our blogs are written with a serious tone, grounded in a hefty dose of realism both in terms of science when and where we can, and also in the human interactions. We hold ourselves to a high standard in this regard, and most of us very rarely allow magic anons, and only circumstantially do when we find it helpful to the blog in some way.

Because of that, while we may have plenty of humorous moments, the overall tone of our writing tends to be darker and full of conflict between the crew due to the circumstances they find themselves in. This is by design. We all met because of our desire to tell a serious story and coalesced because of our shared values about this and other matters.

You are more than welcome to send asks and starters and interact with Pumpkin, but here's a handy list of what to do or not do:

DO

Have a well-fleshed out character with an actual backstory

Give your character genuine struggles to overcome

Make them behave like a professional in a workplace

Interact with Curly in a professional capacity

Keep personal interactions appropriate to talking with a stranger

Give your character hobbies and interests

Make sure they behave like a reasonable adult

DON'T

Start hitting on Curly immediately

Provide nothing but surface-level interactions

Write with the primary intention of pursuing a relationship with Curly

Claim to be a member of his ship's crew

Flirt aggressively

Try to retcon your character into his prior interactions

Godmode (try to take control of someone else's character, in this case Curly)

Pressure me into writing my character differently

Have a minor (under 18yo) character

Write your character as being constantly immature or childish

If you're unsure and need clarification about any of these, feel free to send an ask about it. :) Once again, this isn't meant to discourage anyone from interaction. This is solely about establishing what this blog is intended for, and what both Curly's standards for the people he'll voluntarily talk to, and my standards as mod for what I'm willing to write, involve. If you find that what you prefer to write is on my list of no's, that doesn't mean I hate you. All it means is that our writing wouldn't be a fit together, and that you're better off finding another Curly to interact with who does enjoy those things.

Yeah you guys know how I said things resolved? Lmao I wish. That was the calm before the storm.

I've got about three more weeks of hell ahead of me and a couple weeks of recuperation after that, so you should expect radio silence, most likely, for the next month and a half or so.

Today needed a post, though -- and if you have any questions about how dear Pumpkin feels about his birthday or how he's typically celebrated it in the past, feel free to ask away. There is, indeed, blog lore for that.

I forgot I had a Sinday ask queued for today as of a couple weeks ago lmfao

Don't worry, it is still cancelled, but apparently we all got jumpscared with one last hurrah.

By the by, in case anyone's been wondering why this blog has been so quiet, I have been very sick for the last week and a half, and while I'm markedly better now, I'm also catching up on professional obligations as well as personal matters and household tasks and have major dental work on Wednesday, so posts may still be fairly lean for the rest of the week.

I'll try to queue up some morning and evening posts and get responses out today, but any substantial activity will probably need to wait for next week.

Transparency time, folks. This corner of the community has gotten increasingly quiet in the post-holiday season, and given that, I've tried to focus on writing solo posts to give at least some material for readers to engage with -- but that's tiring and requires me to come up with substantial ideas I can run with for more than a one-off gag, which is a hard thing while both busy and sick, especially when my energy for longer formats was limited to begin with.

On top of that, even with my efforts to post at least twice daily, the few asks I've gotten since returning have nearly all been mod-focused, and there hasn't been anon engagement with what I've been writing.

So because asks are the lifeblood of an ask blog and we live and die by their presence or lack, I'll make you a deal.

Tell me what you're not feeling about this blog. Tell me what you'd like to see more or less of, what would excite you, what I can do that will make it feel fun and interesting enough to you as a reader that you would want to participate.

I'll take that into account, because while this blog is primarily about me telling a story I want to tell, if I'm shouting into a void and can't even tell if people are seeing the posts, how is this any different from writing on AO3? It's important to consider the opinions of readers as well as what I personally want to do. This is supposed to be a participatory medium.

In a month, depending on how this experiment goes, I'll reevaluate and decide how to move forward with this blog.

Thank you to everyone who has participated anonymously, and to all the folks who've been engaged in rp together. The stories we've told together have meant the world to me. I really hope I can steer this blog in a direction that you'll have a renewed enthusiasm for, because this hobby isn't one I'd like to let go of yet.

ADDENDUM:

Today was unexpectedly productive and ended up resolving the majority of the circumstances in my life that have kept me away from the blog, so while I may still be slower to post than I once was given the busyness of the season and my limited energy, it's safe to say that my hiatus is officially over.