I hadn't actually opened the forums on kumos before and it seems the pet code doesn't work there, which is a shame, it's much easier. The hyperlink and images do though? And tagging people with @ or # still works. Box doesn't, font and size changes don't, although I think the header codes do (based on the OP of the thread). Quote works but code doesn't.

I’ll adapt and learn XDD

Ack! Seasons is such a good way to put it. In terms of pets I think I used to be more Serious. Deliberate. In terms of my focus I think I’m spreading out and sharing more of the characters I have in mind for books. For profiles I’ve been using more one standard one the lovely one from but trying to add art, stories etc. and different bgs. I’m also having more whim focused ideas overall. :D

I've started to understand a lot of things in life as seasons. I think some things are chapters in my mind, but most are more fluid and less finite in their "endings". It also feels more aligned in my mind with the nature of life. -Rambles about thoughts lol-

Oh man being deliberate at all is hard, but so is being open to what comes and goes! Characters for books you say??? I love customizing a central profile design, especially for groups of pets (groups doesn't have to mean shared story!). I'm definitely a more whim-focused and when-the-inspiration-strikes kinda gal so having discipline at all is the opposite of my normal and wow can it be tough lol.

Finito

This is a nice prompt. :)

I came from Neo where rn pets were impossible to create. I was excited to create nearly any rn back then. I still find rn special, but I'm glad subeta allows us to create whatever name we like.

I started creating art, layouts, and stories for pets just a few years ago. Subeta has kind of replaced social media as my sharing outlet. In addition, sometimes it's hard to find a lot of opportunities for creativity irl, but I can still find many on this platform.

This one is hard! Especially because life got so busy between seasons/eras that they don't really continue and it's hard to describe the changes. When I started I had very little interest in the actual pet stuff and mostly just hoarded things and did quests and chatted in the shoutbox. And then I had enough shoutbox friends that were in Menagerie (back when forum groups were cults and Menagerie was active and using skype and the forums for basically this exact sort of thing) that I wanted to make pets to win spotlights. This was also before the winners queue was years long and they announced daily. At that point we were also still (obviously) in legacy names era, so there were a lot of names that were either made up (Lacewing) or obscure (Kyrkogrim), or pluralized (Tassels, Jangles) to make them unique and then build more story idea off the name. And when I had an idea for a name I wanted for a character instead of going the other way, there were always those friends willing to help stalk the activity dates for when a name would become available and help when timezones made it hard.

And then life did what life does and I ghosted the site for a number of years (always popping in occasionally to keep my names mine, but generally only to to the occasional task or claim some free gift or something). And then the pandemic hit, and I came back because I had time again. And then rather than create new characters, for the most part, I used old things (Rondeau, Clergy) I had written for an unrelated site that had writing challenges (also photomanip challenges and coding challenges) and wanted to use them, so created some pets for that purpose and got their profiles all done up (I think I had done this for one prior pet). And then I got a pandemic job that took up my time, and that turned into my current job which ate up ALL my time, and also involved a lot of not-really-creative writing, so fell out of practice and out of time, so left again.

And now I'm changing jobs (natural progression of the field) into something with less chaotic hours and nearly every weekend free, so will likely have more time to start re-training those creativity muscles! And because names aren't unique any more, they aren't an obstacle. And yeah, I had some freshly done pet with an old piece of writing (Kryptonite, drum major), but I also finally wrote the story for a pet that had been sitting finished except for the writing (fairylight) and have started nipping at the stories for two others who had been sitting done or nearly done without writing.

I do think throughout all of it, they've all still sort of ended up in someway in a fantasy world, though unrelated to one another and from vastly different themes, which sort of ties them all together. I never really liked the feeling of having pets that tied together though since I've always liked one-and-done things in my writing, like one shots and poems. But I have ideas for a pair tied together (that actually the more i think about the more i kind of want to turn into maybe a longer book-type-thing if I can get a firm enough grasp of pacing and longer plots etc to make it happen)... so maybe I'm growing in that way too.

Yeah I had a SB and a HA era I think I prefer this pet era :P What about you?

I think so too, although the shoutbox community at the time was wonderful and a good social outlet. With it now being 1) on kumos and 2) going hours between people responding in there it feels much less social, and, outside of events, the forums often go days without replies. I feel like the SB started going downhill when the site got serious about lag and started hiding it during events to make it harder to use while also navigating the site normally?

I never did have much of an HA era myself, was never the biggest dress-up/doll type person. It gets used mostly for character design (which I am bad at anyway) but easier to throw some clothes that vibe with the character on a mannequin than fail miserably at drawing myself xD.

I honestly haven’t really tried going back to the SB for the kumos /long delay reason :< I have fond memories though! Aw no scribbles rock! I vote for wonky drawings XDD But yes the wardrobe is very useful for character design. 0-0

I don't think there's ever been rhyme or reason for my pets, they're things I like, random things that inspire me, personal outlets and some I made just so I can have a nice tc One thing I fell out of was making singers of bands I liked I had at least 5(most of which were found to be garbage people and dumped) and a bunch of different bands. now I just have my top 3 bands.

Hmm. You'd think after such a long time on this site (18 years (!!!) this past May), it would be easier to identify seasons like that. But it isn't XD

The big one that I saw, after looking over the pets I still have, is that in earlier years most of my pets on Subeta were a reflection of other things I was into at the time. Glaielle is actually named after something very obscure: the creator of an old Flash game called Aether. (Glaiel-gamer was the actual name. I actually feel very weird now about naming her after an actual person, but I haven't thought of anything else I'd rather name her.)

Anyway, I adopted out virtually all my older pets so it can't really be seen anymore, but within those two 'seasons' I can kinda sorta pick out the things I was into at the time I made the pet. Flammie I made not too long after replaying Secret of Mana. Amegami was originally a creature that could be summoned in an old original story I imagined years ago. (And now she's a Majin in Xenoverse 2, wild XD but she's still a bunny) I used to have a pet named Mezame, which was a reference to music from My-HiME. Rajei, Rangu, and Iruta are all references to a manga called Alice 19th.

All along, though, there's been some pets who are basically OC's that didn't have a story to call home. More like character concepts. Sevidical is a great example: a diabolical game show host. I worked him into the original Subeta story I tried to write some time back, but originally he was just, well, I have this idea for a character. I think it's cool. Now what? XD

Much more recently, I have a few pets that don't really have a character yet, I just needed a name because I really like the art for this color pet and want one. Caliban's my most recent example of that. Been wanting a Storm Irion for some time, had the potion and everything ready to go, just...no name, no idea. I finally broke down and swiped a name from the Shakespeare play The Tempest. I can kinda feel a character idea forming around it, but nothing concrete or compelling yet.

I remember when I started playing in 2012, pet slots were a lot more limited. I think it was 5 for a standard account and another 5 if you had a gold account. (I was a poor college student back then...getting enough CSC to grab Tauren's name in a name clearing was a BIG DEAL.) I had to choose names that had a lot of meaning to me because of the limited number of slots. The fact that I was able to get some of my original character names plus some RW names without unique name spellings was pretty significant. I know Tauren, Pureflower, Daron, Peren, Voorik, Dogged and Huzzah were in that first batch.

I'm another one that started out on Neo and having pet names with a ton of numbers or underscores...really not my cup of tea, lol.

Once I got my first "real job" a couple years later, I got my next 10 slots and that's when I started getting into names that were either unusual RWs or occasionally misspellings of names that fit my characters. (I know I had Flaim, for example.) There used to be a forum where unusual RW/RN names were posted and I'd check it around my Subeta anniversary to see if there were available names that fitted my current character ideas.

The day we got non-unique pet names was my happiest day on Subeta. I had a TON of characters I wanted to rep on Subeta but I couldn't come up with alt names that really fit the character.

Now, I try to split new pet slots between my novel characters, foodies, the "legal bunch", and fan pets, depending on what story I'm feeling when I get more slots. (I still have around 80 pets I'm hoping to create over time and I'm sure that number will only continue to grow with the years.)

omg the original pet limits were SO hard! It was nice that if your GA expired you didn't lose the bonus slots that you had already filled. I definitely grinded like heck to buy some of the totems for extra slots to try to max as much as I could in those days. Also every loyalty box was a pet slot xD

I think every pet person felt the pain back then. =D

I was dumb with my very first loyalty totem and did the treasure chest option. Because 100 TC slots seemed amazing. To be fair to my (younger and dumber) self, we didn't have the option to exchange slots between pets and buying bulk slots was a lot harder back in the day.

ooof on the TC loyalty box. I have too much number-brain and literally went and evaluated the cost-equivalent to each option before going with a pet totem, which had been what i was leaning toward anyway xD

First off, your HA is so dang good. Second, please write alllll the walls of text I LOVE it :D

Sungam the Magnus omg lol Um I am very interested in this writing you speak of and need to set some time aside to go explore your pets! I love their names and am intrigued about their characters! Also amazed at your battle skills haha.

Thank you! It's always so reinforcing to hear that people like the prompts! Wow you nailed it - I completely relate! I also came from Neo where every pet was named with underscores and numbers lol. But YES to the ability to be creative here, it is my primary creative outlet and the place that actually continues to motivate and inspire me in that way! I'm so grateful for it. I'm also a lot more social here than on "social" media lol. I do post and comment on my insta semi-often but that's because it's kinda linked to my work and it's where I share thoughts related to that. Showing up just as myself and hanging out chatting is a Subeta thing for sure. It's so refreshing to have a place to feel safe and positive! I need to get back into profiles. I was making them a while back and stopped and now I feel totally lost again with the CSS :')

I was never bold enough for the SB or cults back in the day. I'm bummed I missed out on the good times in menagerie, but found it too intimidating to really get involved with. I think I may have been a member towards the end though. I definitely remember the cool boards like weekly writing prompts and stuff. That's where some of my pet stories came from!

The cue sobs I keep mentioning it to in hopes he will cave and let some of us act as volunteers reviewing profile submissions. There were only 18 pets in the winners cue somewhat recently (he looked) and when I told him there were tons and tons that had been submitted and were waiting months or years to win he was shocked! So I think we're going the right direction since he said he'd talk to the folks involved.

Oh gosh yes. Naming pets with periods or underscores at the start / end, pluralizing, unique spellings. Because it was almost impossible to get some names when they were unique. I am still a LN girl personally but WOW am I SO HAPPY that NUNs are a thing now. What a HUGE qol change.

Yay for a new job that has better work-life balance and allows more Subeta in your life!

I trend towards one and done as well, it's my natural style. I'm still honestly doubting myself ever finishing the World of Magic I've created. I want to go for it, but I won't be shocked if I end up changing my plans for them and writing solo stories that just take place in the same world. sigh

Pet Eras 4 Lyfe

I think going with the flow is the most fun! I tend to be a "draw inspiration from whatever sparks it" which can make my writing kinda like this - whatever jumps out is what will be shaped into a story. A little different now but still my default!

good for you for dropping fan pets! I made Hallows as a fan pet for HP and when we all found out about JKR I changed him to be a home for a poem I wrote during Pride month one year. I love knowing how mad that would make her haha.

I can identify trends in how I've done things, but it's hard to see when a season truly opened or closed, and honestly often I guess it's not seasons but things continuing to grow and evolve and keep some traits while gaining new ones.

Ohhh I relate to that! Originally I think I made pets after things I was a fan of (Kamots, Chemukh, and Matsi are all named for wolves from an awesome study on wolf social behavior for example) or real life things like my pets, my husband, etc. I didn't really create characters and didn't know how to get that ball rolling.

Writing is my gift when it comes to arts, so I was almost the inverse. I would have a theme or feeling and write, but couldn't really have a "character" that was fully formed that writing would belong to. Neither is bad! Which is one of the things I love about being creative, there are no rules lol.

Yes! I've been into choosing species and colors I love and figuring out a character from that and the name I adopt! It's been fun to start shaping in yet another new way!

omg the dark ages xD I remember having the 10 slots and feeling SO excited because it was so hard to have such a tiny number of pets. I worked HARD to get those plushies to get more slots, they were SO expensive to me at the time omg (and still would be relative to new cost). Any snag or pound find of a good name was amazing, and getting chosen to adopt a coveted name was worth throwing a party. The competition was fierce. I never got anyone in the clearings, I wasn't quick enough and remember being pretty sad more than once. Gosh remember the "available RW / RN" boards? I would check new posts constantly in case I found something special that worked for an idea. I was so lucky that names I wanted for some pets were uncommon and not from popular places!

I love your pets and their stories, so SO glad that NUNs are a thing!

lol months. Clergy was made and nominated during lockdown or shortly afterward xD. Certainly before the previous job started 4 years ago xD.

I know this isn't super high on the prio list (understandably) but just wanted to poke you again about the Spotlight Volunteer Squad (see 's post above).

Thanks for letting me poke you about stuff! I just don't want it to fall totally off the radar, even if it needs to wait its turn <3

- if you've had a pet nominated and waiting months (or more) with no feedback or win can you also chime in please? Alternatively if you've had a pet move super quickly lately please say so!

I've had pets waiting for nearly an year, but also got a win with

I hate how random it is, I won't say it demotivates me because it clearly doesn't lol but I'd appreciate a more fair and coordinated process

What also bothers me is how scare the wins are - I understand that maybe there aren't that many pets in the queue but doing it once every week feels grueling