The Tragic Tale of May Autumnsong

 

Believe it or not, Pandora Mae May Autumnsong used to be a bad character. I mean, an AWFUL one. She was nothing more than a teenager who was neglected by her family and bullied at school because of it, and then she ended up dying (I think I implied she was killed by the same kids that bullied her by pushing her off a bridge) and becoming a ghost who haunted and just looked to get revenge on the people who wronged her. Believe it or not, she also used to be part of this weird haunted summer camp where she hung out with other children/relatives of mythical creatures and monsters (à la Monster High). Groan, CLICHÉD.

Isn't this how, like, 95% of these wannabe creepypasta writers write their OCs' backstories?? lmao

Thanks to the Sims 4, however, I've been able to tweak this character a bit. 

Love that ghostly smoky reaper trail, lol

As you can see, Pandora's still a ghost. Technically, not an actual ghost in TS4, but hey, cheats!!
Specifically, she's now a reaper. I imagine she actually trained under the mythical Grim Reaper himself to ferry the newly dead to the afterlife. She happens to call herself the "Gentle Reaper", as she often says, "Some people are terrified of death. They deserve a comforting presence in their final moments".

In life, she was a young woman (probably in her early 20s) named May Autumnsong (I thought "Pandora" was too edgy and snowflake-ish, lol). I'd imagine she wasn't really "neglected" by her family, per se, but considering the overly-high standards and restrictions imposed upon women at the time, she was usually pushed aside in favor of what her father/brothers wanted. Ironically, I'd imagine she'd be mockingly called "Pandora" due to her being somewhat clumsy and not as "prim" and "perfect" as other women her age.

It wasn't until she was engaged to be married that May's family finally seemed to warm up to her. A well-to-do man had shown interest in her despite all her insecurities, and now her parents were devoting all their time into making sure their daughter was prepared for her wedding.

Unfortunately, a month or so after she and her fiancé announced their engagement, May fell ill. It started with an annoying cough she thought she could shrug off, but eventually, it worsened to the point where she was coughing up blood. She lost weight rapidly and was bedridden. Her worried parents and fiancé summoned a doctor, who confirmed their worse fears: May had tuberculosis.

Her parents didn't have much hope for their daughter's recovery, so they seemingly went back to their distant ways in an attempt to distract themselves from her impending demise. Her devoted fiancé, however, wrote letters to her family almost daily, begging them to tell him when she was feeling better (he'd been sent away to live somewhere else so he'd avoid catching tuberculosis as well).

Within less than a year later, May was dead. She suffered slowly and painfully with no one to physically comfort her, leading her to practically fear dying even though it was inevitable. She woke up seemingly healed, but she was now in a world beyond our own. It was none other than the Grim Reaper himself who would be the first to greet her and attempt to guide her to the afterlife. Still frightened, May wouldn't budge. She was just devastated she wouldn't be able to return to the world of the living.

Funnily enough, that's not even her own gravestone. She's not actually dead in the game, remember?

The Grim Reaper reluctantly decided to make her an offer: she could return to the living world but only to visit those who are about to pass on and later bring them to the underworld. May agreed without hesitation, and she was trained to be a reaper herself.

Clad all in white in contrast to the Grim Reaper's dark robes, May would dutifully carry out her role as a reaper. Whether a terminally ill person's family was there with them or not, May would assure them she would stay with them in spirit to keep them company. The moment they were about to die, May comforted them and promised their suffering would be over soon and they would be at peace. Her angelic appearance also helped the deceased feel more accepting of their passing. 

Her caring nature has led May to call herself the "Gentle Reaper".

I hope you enjoyed reading May Autumnsong's backstory and think it's (at the very least) more decent than her old incarnation, haha.

My Animal Jam masterpieces!

 As a follow-up to my previous post describing my experience having a membership on Animal Jam (a game I used to play religiously when I was younger) for the first time, I have decided to make a kind of "master list" of all the masterpieces I created on the game!

If you're not familiar with what masterpieces are on AJ, they're basically just little decorations you can create through their built-in art program (equivalent to MS Paint).
Confession, I never really used said art program before my membership trial, mostly because you could only really make masterpieces if you were a member (nonmembers were only able to make them if they had "Masterpiece Tokens", which are kind of hard to come by if I'm not mistaken). 

By the way, I should mention that you're going to notice these masterpieces seem to have been created by two different users: "xxTheLivelyOnexx" and "princesskittykins"; these are both me! The former is my main account and the latter is my side one. I redeemed the membership trial a week or so later on my side account just for the sole purpose of creating more art to display in my main account's den. ^^;

I only made one actual masterpiece back in the day (probably around 2017-2019????? I don't know, as far as I know, there's no actual way to see when you created a masterpiece on AJ unless you actually wrote it down in the art program lol) and it's this one:

It's my OC, Lily! (she's not a princess anymore, and plus, her whole look is outdated)

Here she is again, this time made during my membership trial:

Yup, a clear improvement! ✨

The rest of the masterpieces below were created during my membership trial.

This one was created as a sort of "greeting" for people who visited my den.

A creative (?) subvert on the "not like the other girls" trope featuring Stacy Willow and her sisters.

Stacy's sister Becky (on the right) and Lily's rival/frenemy Mariangela (on the left) share these common traits: they both like to wear their hair in ponytails and revel in the limelight of popularity!

My Beauty and the Beast OC/main Disneysona, Arietta Cadenza. The violin kind of sucks, but whatever...

Both of these feature my OC, Elisabeth "Lissie"!

It's cut off in the bottom left on the first image, but the outfit she's wearing is inspired by artwork by VIVINOS, a Korean animator I like.

The second image features Lissie as she appears normally (left) and as a Dungeons and Dragons character (right).

Lissie's mother, Rose! (also the inspiration for some of the animals that I created)

Mother and daughter doing their looks for their day in a mirror!
I know the "mirror" obviously sucks, but I'd argue Lissie's hands are also quite awful...

I like to call this one a "subtle contribution for pride month".

You see, not only does AJ impose a strict chat filter that prevents you from saying any pride-related words ("gay", "lesbian", bisexual, etc. - while I am aware that at the end of the day, this is a kids' game and anything remotely "sexual"-related is going to be banned. This extends to masterpieces as well, though some players have kind of gotten around this, mostly by drawing pronouns and pride flags in the background. After all, if you can't say you're gay, why not show it instead in the form of a flag?

With all this in mind, I chose to draw my OC, Caelus, who was originally modeled after the rainbow goddess, Iris! Yes, she indeed does have rainbow hair, and she loves everyone who lives below her sky kingdom. ♥︎

Speaking of rainbows, here's my take on the wannabe scene queen my younger self really wanted to be!!!

Little Maddy thought jet black hair and green eyes was like, the perfect combo (you can see how this translated into my awful self insert, Charlotte Li), and she was obsessed with all things cutesy and rainbow. She also really wanted to wear arm warmers, for some reason.
Maybe because a lot of the avatars on the games I played back in the day dressed like scene kids/emos...

I mentioned Charlotte, so here she is! Of course, she gets rainbows as well because uWu sO kAwAii!!!!11!!!

Oh boy, have I got a story behind this one.

First of all, these are my characters (l-r:), Crystal, Emiko, and Vesta. They're actually princesses and revamps of some old Super Mario characters that were basically just recolors of already existing characters, haha. 
Originally, I created a masterpiece featuring Emiko and her older adoptive sister, Maiko. It was basically just a cute shot of the two hugging with their names added next to them. For whatever reason, AJ denied it! 
Unfortunately, the game does have a habit of flagging quite a bit of harmless masterpieces as containing "inappropriate content"; I don't know if that's the fault of an automatic moderator or an actual human moderator who decided to be a piece of trash.
I was determined to make a piece featuring my Mario characters, however, so I just put Emiko alongside two different characters, all in fairly neutral poses, and just had her say something. Sadly, her older sister had to go, but it was worth the approval of the AJ moderators! ^^;

Last but not least, here are my Ancient Egyptian characters, Princesses Berenice Hotep and Ra-nefer-u!

You can view all these masterpieces at my den - they're all displayed with my main account, xxTheLivelyOnexx (NOT MY SIDE ACCOUNT!) You'll also find a few masterpieces that were bought from other people because I thought they looked cool! 
My den should be open for everyone to visit (not just friends), so you can just look up my name and come visit!

My experience with a membership on Animal Jam

 So last month (May), Animal Jam, a virtual world that I've probably been playing for a decade now, promoted a free membership code (which lasted 2 weeks)! I don't know how often they release membership codes, but I might have seen a post on Reddit and Twitter where AJ promoted a similar 2-week membership code in 2020. So I suppose it's quite rare!!!

This was my FIRST time having a membership on Animal Jam! And you know, it's actually a lot more... enjoyable than just being a non-member??? I mean, no wonder I rarely play this game...

Anyway, I decided to create a post featuring my highlights during my two weeks of membership! Yeah, not OC-related, buuuuuuuuuut...
This is my blog, come on. I post by my rules!

First up, here are all the animals I had during my membership!

When I used to be more into the game a few years ago, I had a habit of naming my animals "DJ [insert last name]". I think it all started when I had a bunny named "DJ Kawaiipaws" and I liked how catchy, cute, and cool it sounded, haha.

I always wanted an otter as my main animal! Almost everyone in the game plays as an arctic wolf, and - don't get me wrong - while I do think they look cool, some of the other animals are kind of underrated. Otters are one of them. I mean, look how adorable they are! They're so cute in real life, too!!!!

The rainbow raccoon, DJ Perfectpride (come on, I just had to pick that name, it just fit), actually showed up in the diamond shop during my membership in celebration of pride month! Apparently, it's been around since 2020.

The falcon and fox named "Rosy Fieryflower" are meant to be "cosplays" of my OC, Rose.

Lastly, the wolf, DJ Grandgem, is wearing an outfit (well, sans the flowers on the tail) that my younger self chose back when I was more into the game. I even picked the same fur colors and a similar name my younger self liked! I usually cycled between the names "Baroness Grandgem" and "Queen Grandgem".

Here are the pets I made during my membership!... well, just the ones with the golden locks. ^^;

I believe I named the black and brown dog "Sugarpaw" and colored it to look like my own pet dog.

I also love my gecko's rainbow mohawk and bandana combo.

Some screenshots of my den! Definitely an upgrade from my basic, one-room non-member den.

I believe it's Cosmo's Den, and I decorated it to look like a mix of a grotto/greenhouse/garden! I kinda have a thing for this aesthetic, haha.
I even had a decently-sized plushie room/stash!

Peep my friend photobombing (or "photo booming", as I said in order to get around AJ's strict chat filter) my screenshots - yes, the other raccoon and the wolf are owned by the same friend, lmao.

Last but not least, my jammer wall! Yeah, that one thing you can't even access unless you're a member!!!

I made my first post on it (the top one with the otter) the day I redeemed my membership code, then I made the next two posts when I attended the "Bunnies Only" party. The last post was made a day or so before my membership expired.

I'm not even exaggerating, the game has a HUGE lag issue, for some reason. And it's not just me experiencing it, my friend (the same one mentioned previously with the two animals) also mentioned going through a laggy game. It was especially bad for us when we both played the "Forgotten Desert" adventure (it didn't matter whether it was just us two or we played with two other random players). Neither of us remembered the game being this laggy before it was transferred to a downloadable program after the end of Flash!

With all this being said, I will NEVER be playing Animal Jam again... well, at least I won't be playing for a VERY long time. I've already deleted the AJ app from my computer and I don't plan on reinstalling it unless there's a significant update (like another free membership promo). 
I know we all have our preferences, but AJ just isn't worth it for me anymore. The game has declined in popularity since around 2015 (according to Google Trends when I looked it up a while back) and pretty much the majority of players nowadays only care about trading and rares. It kind of sucks, honestly, I miss when the game was more focused on animals and conservation and all that (especially when it was originally backed by National Geographic - this was how I discovered AJ in the first place!!!), and I even miss all the roleplays people used to do, as cringeworthy as they were (like those adoption roleplays in the Pillow Room, and random people starting little scenarios in their dens and all that).

But I guess that's how all childhood games/MMOs decline (and dare I say eventually die off).