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mllemaenad · 11 months ago

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Having now listened to all of The Magnus Archives ... hm, yeah, I think they made it out all right in the end. And I don't just mean that in a soppy I-can-only-stand-happy-endings sort of way (although, it's been a crappy few months, and to be honest I wouldn't mind a happy ending), but because I think there's a really satisfying conclusion to John's character arc if he finally figures out how it all works.

Er. John? Jon? I have seen it spelled both ways, and now I am confused. And the character seems to be named after his creator, which is not making me less confused. But the transcript uses "John", so I will go with that.

John's core problem is that he is constantly trying to take control of his life and his choices, but is never able to do so because the narrative won't let him. He undoubtedly makes several rash decisions that the audience can guess won't end well, but even in cases where he sits down and attempts to make the best choice possible he ends up playing into the hands of his enemies, because they are able to tightly control the information to which he has access. Things that seem rational based on what he knows end up being terrible choices, because of how well curated "what he knows" happens to be.

There's a thing a lot of the characters do, where they describe the logic of their world as akin to dreams or nightmares:

SIMON No, no, no, you’re right, of course. The thing you have to remember is that no one actually knows how these things work – not really. There’s always been plenty of theories, of course, and over a century or two you do start to get an intuitive feel for it, but… there’s really no hard-and-fast rules. The powers, or entities, or fears, or whatever you want to call them, are bound up in emotion. In feeling. How they exist, what they can do, how they interact with the world… it all makes about as much logical sense as a nightmare. [MARTIN INHALES] Which is to say, there is a certain sort of emotional logic to it all: things feel like they flow together in a way that makes sense, but if you try to stop and do the maths, then it all comes apart. At least, in my experience. – Simon Fairchild, doing the exposition for characters and audience alike. Big Picture

But, as Simon points out, the trouble is that none of them really understand what they're talking about. Few people in this world seem to dedicate actual time to understanding it – most are either seduced or destroyed (or some weird combination of the two) by the power that comes with worship and terror.

So they get close, but they miss the point: it's not dream logic, it's story logic. There's a reasonable amount of crossover, of course: both deal in emotion and theme and imagery. We'll forgive a plot hole or continuity error in a story if the narrative feels right, and nobody is surprised if their dreams don't have coherent worldbuilding in them. But stories have purpose in them in a way that dreams do not. They're trying to say something that you need to think about. You can't really tell somebody about a dream without imposing narrative logic on it that wasn't necessarily there when you dreamt it, and most dreams simply fade away into nothingness once you've had them. But a narrative is shaped, and if it's good it can live virtually forever. You can't control a dream, but you can and should control a narrative.

That's the thing John finally works out.

I mean - of course it's got story logic, right? It's a story. It's a piece of fiction, so it's got themes and tropes and character foils and recurring imagery and all that jazz. But beyond that, it is a story made up of a patchwork of other stories: most of the episodes contain a little self-contained supernatural story with its own protagonist and its own ending; over the top of that lie a series of recurring characters who pop up across multiple episodes, and whose personal stories you can learn, and who will intersect with each other to build a historical narrative that explains how we got here; and on top of that are the characters who live closest to the present – John and whichever assistants are still alive at any given moment – and their struggle to deal with all this.

It's that patchwork that makes up the net in which John is caught for most of the series: because he is only able to follow the narrative, he is not able to control it. Yes, he is directly manipulated by actual characters in the story – most prominently by Jonah Magnus and Annabelle Cane – but it is mostly the story itself that keeps him locked in place.

In most cases, there is nothing whatsoever he can do about the various events that take place in the story. He's almost always reading about something that happened anywhere between years and centuries prior. Even when he's acquired enough information to understand what's happening in these stories he can't do a single damn thing for the characters. They either made it out on their own or they didn't.

Occasionally the story moves closer to the present, usually at season end but in a few other places as well, but even then he is still following behind the narrative. The story isn't about him, but his predecessor: "Why was Gertrude Robinson murdered? What did she know?" He is following the story of a dead woman. Her story is well and truly over, but he cannot catch up to the end of it.

Because the thing about the Archivist is that – well, it’s a bit of a misnomer. It might, perhaps, be better named: The Archive. Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, John. You are a record of fear, both in mind as you walk the shuddering record of each statement, and in body as the Powers each leave their mark upon you. You are a living chronicle of terror. – Technically John speaking, but in practice Jonah Magnus monologuing about his evil plan. The Eye Opens

His whole purpose in the story is to read (or on a few notable occasions hear) something bizarre, express a general "What the actual fuck was that?" and move on, without any ability to act on what he has learned.

But there is logic to their world. Season five – well, technically the finale of season four – turns the implicit into the explicit.

It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck. – More of Jonah Magnus being smug. He does go on a bit. The Eye Opens

The thing is, though: you aren't a Chosen One unless you're in a story. That's a narrative archetype. Even if you attempt to impose the idea on a historical event, you're only doing so retroactively by slotting a person into a particular narrative framework that probably does not match reality. It's unsurprising that Magnus had to build his horrifying fantasy world out of the trappings of a quest narrative: his whole power base is built out of collected stories. But if that's the world you make, you end up with a very specific set of rules.

Consequently, John spends much of the season explaining why they have to follow the rules of a quest narrative in order to actually go anywhere.

ARCHIVIST (heh) You see that tower, way off in the distance? MARTIN (don’t like where this is going) Yeah. (beat, sigh) It’s watching us, isn’t it? ARCHIVIST The Panopticon and the Institute. Merged into something entirely new. MARTIN (splutter-scoff) Wai– what? No, there’s, there’s no way we can see it from here. We – We must still be a hundred miles from the border, never mind London! ARCHIVIST You could see that tower from anywhere on Earth. And it can see you. And if you walk towards it, eventually you’ll get there. But you have to go through everything in between. [Pause.] MARTIN (bright) You’re being ominous again. ARCHIVIST (ah!) Sorry. Sorry. MARTIN What do you mean ‘everything?’ What’s out here? [The Archivist inhales. As he does so, there’s a sort of creaking – and then we hear the weakest strains of bagpipes beginning to fade through.] ARCHIVIST Nightmares. Come on, that trench is our first. – John, taking a turn at the exposition. In the Trenches

Dreams don't work that way – or at least they don't have to. Dreams can drop you into any situation and pull you out of it again with neither logic nor explanation. But if you are heading to a dark tower to confront an evil wizard ... well, then, everybody knows that you have a lot of walking to do. That you must meet friends and foes along the way and fight smaller battles before you fight the big one. It's how it goes.

It's even more explicit – almost painfully so – when dealing directly with character development.

ARCHIVIST Alright. [MORE WALKING] Next one’s through here. BASIRA Next one? ARCHIVIST Her latest victim. [DOOR IS WRENCHED OPEN WITH A METALLIC CREAK] [MARTIN REELS, SOUNDS OF FLIES BUZZING] Recognise her. BASIRA … No… I don’t think I do. ARCHIVIST That wasn’t a question. It was an instruction. We can’t move on until you do. MARTIN John, what are you getting at? ARCHIVIST This isn’t just a journey through spaces. – Basira preferring not to do introspection in a literal hellscape, but John has worked out the narrative rules so it's confront-your-past day in the apocalypse. The Processing Line

John is not wildly unusual in being a specific person's Chosen One: you can make the word "destiny" do a lot of work, and the poor bastard in the role is as often as not the favourite of a god, or the only child of a king, or the last of something bearing the duty of a larger group.

He is somewhat more unusual in being two people's Chosen One, and somewhat moreso again by being broadly opposed to the thing he was chosen to do. But the core thing is that this is a known role; it's a structure you can work with. Eventually. When you're in a position to do so.

Martin figured it out a season earlier.

MARTIN It’s not him! It’s not anybody. It’s just me. Always has been. I… When I first came to you, I thought I had lost everything. John was dead, my mother was dead, the job I had put everything into trapped me into spreading evil and I… I really didn’t care what happened to me. I told myself I was trying to protect the others, but… honestly we didn’t even like each other. Maybe I just thought joining up with you would be a good way to get killed. And then… John came back, and… and suddenly I had a reason I had to keep your attention on me. Make you feel in control so you didn’t take it out on him. And if that meant drifting further away, so what? I’d already grieved for him. And if it meant now saving him, it was worth it. When you started talking about the Extinction, though… you had me actually, then, for a while. But then – (laughs sardonically) then, you tried to make me the hero. Tried to sell me on the idea that I was the only one who could stop it. And that I’ve never sat right with me. I mean, I mean, look – look at me, I’m not exactly a – a chosen one. But by then I was in too deep. So I played along. Waited to see what your end game was, and here we are. Funny. Looks like I was right the first time. It’s probably still a good way to get killed? – Martin explaining that he was just stringing the villains along. Panopticon

The thing is, he is Peter Lukas's Chosen One. The reasoning behind it is cruel, but I can think of a few stories about gods making bets on what humans will do. But he works out what kind of story they're trying to tell him, and turns it to his advantage.

This is a good one. Everybody knows this one: one of the characters is betraying the others and working with the villains. It isn't because he wants to; it's because his hand has been forced. But it's a trap. It will get him killed. It will get his friends killed. The villains are lying to him about what they mean to do and how far they mean to make him go. The audience knows this, but the characters just keep digging their holes deeper and deeper ... until the sudden reveal that it was a con all along. The "traitor" never intended to turn on his friends. It was part of the plan. It's a classic. It's basically the plot of The Sting. Who wouldn't want a turn at being Robert Redford?

And it works. Martin gets everything he wants out of that ploy: Lukas is destroyed, "Elias" is unmasked as Jonah Magnus, John makes good on his earlier commitment to run away with him, and he skips the eye gouging. You can't fault his results. The problem is, Martin is a secondary character. He doesn't quite have the narrative weight to resolve the primary conflict. That plot revolves around him but the plot does not, so in the longer term, things continue to get worse.

But he does prove it can be done. If you recognise what kind of story you are in, and the different ways that kind of story can go, you can grab on a narrative thread and steer it in a direction that works for you.

ANNABELLE We found the one we believed most likely to bring about their manifestation. We marked him young, guided his path as best we could. And then, we took his voice. ARCHIVIST No… ANNABELLE His, and those he walked with. We inscribed them on shining strands of word and meaning, and used them to weave a web which cast itself out through the gate and beyond our universe. So that when the Fears heard that voice, and came in their terrible glory, they might then travel out along it. Or be dragged. BASIRA Is she talking about the tapes? ARCHIVIST Yes. – In which Annabelle explains why there are tape recorders everywhere. Connected

You can say voice or tapes, but that's missing the point: it's stories that will carry these beings out of the world. Two hundred odd narratives about godlike beings with insatiable hunger and Lovecraftian pretensions who can travel to other worlds when the denizens of those places hear the tales. That has its own uncomfortable implications, sure, but if you've been paying attention you know something else about those stories:

ARCHIVIST Statement ends. (sigh) One thing that always strikes me when I read statements like this is… the bias of survivorship. With one or two notable exceptions, the only statements the Institute receives are those where the witness has successfully escaped whatever terrible place or being has marked them for a victim. I wonder how many don’t make it out. How many of those shapes in the water were once just like Mr. Shakya. – John is being gloomy, but he has hit upon an important point. Submerged

They are largely stories in which humans beat the monsters. They are stories about how to survive. You can do a horror story with a catastrophic ending, of course. It can have a great impact. But probably not two hundred of them in a row. That would be hard going on the listener: another week, another corpse. So these are largely hopeful stories – with those noted exceptions, of course.

I've seen the memes: I know Joshua Gillespie, who beat a coffin that wanted to consume him with a bowl of ice, is a favourite. Of course he is: that's genius. Or Dylan Anderson, who just ... covered a homicidal pig in concrete. Characters like Gerard Keay and Adelard Dekker are attractive because when they arrive on the scene, the supernatural becomes no more than another problem to be solved with just the right application of human ingenuity (and Dekker, notably, is probably the source for the concrete trick – you cannot fault results).

There are two possible threads to pull on here: you can pull on the thread of supernatural horror, or the thread of human resourcefulness in the face of adversity.

SASHA Why record it? ARCHIVIST What? SASHA Before, in the office. It, it was stupid going for the tape recorder like that, and then when you dropped it out there – ARCHIVIST I said I was sorry. If I’d known Martin had another one stashed in here, I never would have… SASHA No, it’s, it’s fine, just… I just don’t understand. I thought you hated the damn thing. You’re always going on about it. ARCHIVIST I do! I did. I just… I don’t want to become a mystery. I refuse to become another goddamn mystery. SASHA What? ARCHIVIST Look, even if you ignore the walking soil-sack out there, and the fact that we are probably minutes from death, there is still so much more happening here. MARTIN I’m not sure we can really ignore the – ARCHIVIST Every real statement just leads… deeper into something I don’t even know the shape of yet. And to top it all, I still don’t know what happened to Gertrude. Officially she’s still missing, but Elias is no help and the police were pretty clear that the wait to call her dead is just a formality. If I die, wormfood or… something else, whatever, I’m going to make damn sure the same doesn’t happen to me. Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened. – John, making bad tape-recorder related decisions. Infestation

And there is mystery. That is another thread you can pull on. Because in the end, Gertrude wasn't a mystery at all. Her activities, her personality, her associates, her strengths and her weaknesses are all pretty well documented. She's dead on the floor with three bullets in her. She's the reason they're in this mess, because she did the thinking Jonah Magnus could not and set him on his path. She would hate that with every fibre of her being – but it is known. What you know about her is that she failed, and she died.

John is wrong, in the above, because of course he is. He doesn't know anything yet, except that his workplace is probably evil and currently full of worms. He hasn't worked out the story logic, yet, and he doesn't yet see the difference between knowing and understanding.

Mystery. What if? That's a powerful plot thread you can pull on, if you're in the right place and you are desperate enough.

There's what he can't do, in the end. He can't trap the weird fear entities in the world and starve them to death. Annabelle knew exactly what buttons to push to get him heading in that direction, sure, but it was never going to work. I don't even mean the business with the lighter, although that's the practical way this was set up. I mean this is a five-season series in which the temples of these dark gods are repeatedly destroyed by fire, book burning is a recurring motif, and "What if we made it explode?" is always a solid cross-generation Team Archives plan. For heaven's sake – The Magnus Institute has basically the same fatal flaw as The Death Star. We're blowing it up in the finale. We just are. It's that kind of story. It doesn't matter what he wants. There was never anything there for John to pull on.

But this?

ARCHIVIST Do it! The knife’s just there. Let them go. MARTIN [Tearful] I’m not going to kill you! ARCHIVIST Cut the tether. Send them away. Maybe we both die. Probably. But maybe not. Maybe, maybe everything works out, and we end up somewhere else. MARTIN Together? ARCHIVIST One way or another. Together. – Absolute last-minute planning, because that's how they do things. Last Words

It can seem to come out of nowhere, unless you've been watching him put it together. His world runs on narrative logic. He is the Chosen One atop a burning tower, on a terrible quest. He's faltered a bit, at the last minute, because if you don't shake hands with Frodo Baggins on the way past you are not respecting your ancestors. He's aware of most of this because he's spent most of the season tiredly explaining to his travelling companions that, yes, the journey is a damn metaphor. He is backed by dozens of stories where people escaped at the last by determination, or connecting with their loved ones, or just ... not being all that interested in worshipping dark gods.

Magnus is dead. The entities are packing their bags and running for the exit. There is no one left to care what he does next – except Martin, who would also like a way out of this mess. He has spent years struggling to understand what kind of story he's in and what his role is supposed to be, but now he gets it and is finally, finally the person in the room with a bit of power.

He does not say "Maybe the girls will dig us out of the rubble and we can go home and pretend this never happened". That would be the best possible result for them, of course, but it wouldn't work. No one would believe it. But what he can do is follow the example of all the people that came before because, crucially, "Fuck it, I am not dying today because I don't want to" and "Look, this is the power of love and I am holding on to it in the face of the worst crap I have ever seen" really are the strategies that work. And now he's in the one moment of the story where there is no one else's story left to precede him. This is the only moment in the whole series where the story is really his, and he can decide what happens next.

And what happens next is a question. The question is "What happens next?" It is a thing that is ongoing, rather than a thing that has ended.

I've no doubt he created more problems for himself, and for Martin. You grab that narrative thread and you are literally asking for them: even the kindest of stories won't give you a "happily ever after" until you have solved The Problems. You would only pull that one if you were desperate, but under the circumstances it was probably warranted.

But maybe, this time, they can run ahead of the narrative instead of behind. That makes all the difference.

#the magnus archives

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cosmicjoke · 2 years ago

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Ah, this is really interesting for “Vinland Saga”, as we’re again starting to see the parallels drawn between Thorfinn and Canute, with each of them seeming to have intersecting problems with disease. I really do like how the story is presenting both sides of the argument here, and not particularly insisting that one is correct over the other. Thorfinn’s pacifism seems like it’s going to be met with a massive challenge, while at the same time, he’s digging his heels in on his beliefs harder than ever, with him refusing to accept what Einar is saying about understanding things from Canute’s perspective of killing the few to save the many, or accepting that Hild’s violence is a “righteous” kind. Thorfinn’s views on violence are so interesting, because of course no one’s life has been more ruined by violence than his. He was exposed to it in brutal fashion from the time he was six years old, and becoming more and more immersed in it as he grew, it stripped him of everything. Any kind of purpose beyond the desire for revenge, any kind of human connection (he had no friends and no family anymore to care for him, having literally to fend for himself or die, surrounded by people who did nothing but use him and wouldn’t have cared one way or another if he died), and living that life for over ten years left him with intense trauma and crippling guilt. So it makes perfect sense why he’s so against violence of any kind, why he says things like “Relying on violence makes me ashamed of my own immaturity.”. Thorfinn is dealing with an understandable bias against violence as a solution to anything.

Seeing as Canute is dealing with disease over in Europe, and being forced to kill people in order to prevent its spread, he articulates aloud what I’m guessing the next several chapters are going to focus on, which is how Thorfinn is going to handle the same situation. Disease is the ultimate indifferent killer. It’s beyond negotiation or threat or cajoling. So I really am interested in how Thorfinn is going to deal with this. While Canute is king of Denmark and England, Thorfinn is the leader of his band of people he brought with him to Vinland, and just like it’s Canute’s responsibility to protect his people, for Thorfinn it’s the same. This story will really become interesting if Thorfinn is presented with a problem which won’t allow him to hold on to his ideals without compromise. How far is Thorfinn willing to take his ideals? Is he willing to let many people die for his refusal to take a single life? I know Thorfinn wouldn’t be alright with that, but he also wouldn’t be alright with killing, so he’s really between a rock and a hard place here. This is the kind of complexity I like to see in this series, where there are no easy, or even right solutions or paths. There’s only what you believe to be the best solution, following your heart. The story isn’t framing Canute as wrong, really, but rather acknowledging that a true Utopia isn’t really possible. It’s good to have ideals, but ugly reality will often intrude upon those ideals, and all of us will be forced into a position sooner or later of either stubbornly holding on to those ideals, sometimes at a great cost, or compromising on them to achieve a greater good.

Thorfinn is getting a lot of push-back on his beliefs from the people closest to him, and I think things are going to be more difficult for him moving forward now than ever before.

I’m also worried about this old guy they brought back with them from Markland. If he survived an outbreak of disease there, then it stands to reason that he’ll have brought the disease with him, and it’s going to infect the settlement in Vinland. And of course, if it spreads to the Lnu, it’s going to wipe them out completely, probably, given they’ll likely have zero immunity to it.

I also wonder if the ship that landed in Europe came from Vinland?

As always, a stellar chapter of an incredible manga. The art blows me away. I don’t know how Yukimura puts out monthly chapters.

#Vinland Saga #chapter 202 #Thorfinn

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druidx · 1 year ago

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Find the Word Tag - Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan - Part 1

I have a lot of Find the Word tag games. So I decided to put them all together to make me edit the Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan, a NaNoWriMo novel from 2012 based on the first TTRPG campaign I participated in the Fighting Fantasy World of Titan setting.

There was a total of 145 words to find so I've split these into batches of ~50. I've not removed any duplicates, and where there's not an exact match I've used synonyms instead.

I've grouped the words by the original tagger - though some of these are old enough the tagger has changed URLs...

Fair warning before you click:

I have tried to keep the snips short, but at ~7000 words, this post is 'colour of the sky' long.

Well, if we're sitting comfortably, I'll begin.

➤ @aquadestinyswriting

Bother

The dragon tilted its head, red scales flashing like fire and blood as it looked at her from another angle. "Well, if that's all it was…" It said, in a descending tone. Alexis nodded fiercely. "Then I suppose I can let you off… But I want you to do something for me, first." "And what would that be?" Richard asked. "There is a Blackguard," the dragon said, "who has been making a nuisance of himself in my territory. I would like him killed.” The dragon sniffed the air, gaze landing back on Richard. “A job, I suspect, for you, holey one.” "Why should we fight your battles for you?" Richard asked. Alexis hissed at him, but the dragon just. chuckled. It crossed its paws, laying its chin down, considering. "Quite frankly," it said finally, "why should I? Why bother sullying my claws when you have appeared at the perfect opportunity to rid this pest for me?" Richard pursed his lips, then gave a sharp nod.

Kettle (Tea)

While Kassandra stoked up the fire and set water over to boil, David, Richard's brother-in-law, bustled around fetching plates and bread for the travellers crowded around his kitchen table. When all had a cup of nettle tea and a plate of bread and jam, David settled into his explanation. “They came a few weeks back,” he said. “They told the village elders they just wanted to practice their new religion in peace. The elders agreed and gave them land to build a chapel. After all, there’re so many gods already – what could one more hurt? “Of course folks are curious. They dropped in to see what this new god was about. And these new priests started converting them.” Bastet raised an eyebrow. “That’s the problem?” “Doesn’t sound like it does it?” David gave a bitter laugh. “But something happened to the folks they converted. Became mindless and mean about it. Our neighbour Sam – you remember, Rich? The fella with the lazy mouser? – he always let me borrow his post-holer, and I’d always let him use my ploughshare. But I went up to ask him for it and he threw me out on my rear, saying the new god didn’t approve of it.” He shook his head. “We never had much, but we had each other. We were a community, see? Now, we haven’t even that.”

Language (Accent)

CW Swearing

Alexis paused at an intersection with Bastet and Victor on her heels and looked around. She couldn’t make head or tail of the street signs, so she grabbed a passer-by. "Excuse me, I’m looking for the trade district," she said. The woman she had caught looked down her nose, brushing away a wave of well-coiffed hair, from where it had fallen at her sudden stop. "It would be over that way," she said, gesticulating to the east. "Thank you," Alexis said, but the woman was already walking away, brushing at her sleeve as though something nasty had landed on it. "Spoiled bitch," Alexis muttered, turning to stick out a tongue at the woman’s back. Bastet winked. As the snooty woman passed, she stuck her foot out, causing the woman to trip. "Oh, my. So sorry," Bastet said, in mimicry of the woman’s polished accent. "I didn’t see you there." The snooty woman spluttered from where she sat on the cobbled street, as Bastet and Victor walked on. Alexis let them catch up and smacked Bastet lightly on the arm, but she couldn’t help smirking at the woman’s comeuppance.

➤ @corkythewriteblr

Citizen

Loyal

"We need to leave," Bastet said. "We don’t know who’s loyal to Dire. These people have their hands full right now, but it won’t stay that way.” "She’s right," Richard said, unfolding from his crouch. "Come on." Mute, Alexis stood, trotting to keep up with the others as they made their way down the castle bailey and into the city, swerving through the chaos of screaming townsfolk to retrieve their mounts from the Inn.

Qualify

Sand (Blacksands)

"Sirs," Richard said with a sharp salute. "I can confirm that both Zharradan Marr and Balthus Dire are dead. We have liberated Troll Tooth Pass, and the city of Castle Dire." "Excellent," Hengar said, his tone relieved. "This is just what I needed, some good news to cheer me up." "Good news? You mean there’s been bad news?" Alexis asked. "Yes, sadly." Hengar sat back in his chair. "Master Yastromo, if you please?" Yastromo inclined his head, long white beard swaying with the motion. "Of course, Captain." The old wizard sighed. "I am sorry, my children, to send you straight out again. However whilst looking through Zagor’s effects, I discovered something disturbing." He held up an amulet depicting a stylized eye in a circle. "He’s still dead, right?" Alexis said with trepidation. Yastromo gave her a sad smile. "Yes. I’m afraid this could be much worse. It seems Zagor was part of a cult called the Eye of Myurr. I have also received word that this cult of Myurr is gaining traction in the town of Port Blacksands. We do not know their aims, but given they worship a demon prince from the Pit, it is surely not anything good." Yastromo glanced at Hengar and stepped back.

➤ @talesfromaurea

Cliff

Desert

CW: Blood, animal death

"Very well. Good luck," Nicodemus said, gesturing at Cee-Jay. "Apprentice?" The boy nodded. With a flash and a jolting motion, the group were surrounded by torch-lit sandstone walls and wailing lizardmen. Victor sent a ball of flame rolling through the crowd, Richard close behind, cleaving a path. Bastet and Jay ran, Victor and Alexis, covering their rush towards the portal. Richard had turned aside, making his way through the press of bodies flung against his sword, towards the lizardman elder whose blade was already slick with the blood of desert rodents, and a wavering chant could be heard through the scrum for fighting.

Ocean (waves)

"Bast!" Alexis shouted. "I need you. Richard’ll take care of Victor. I need help now!" Goregut lifted Bastet around, dropping her next to Alexis. The two of them hunkered down, Gorgut shifting splintered planks as Bastet and Alexis lashed them together as best they could with freezing fingers in the torrential rain. It was a small, pitiful thing, but better than not having anything at all. The three of them tied themselves on long halters to the raft, and then with a joint effort, launched themselves into the heaving waves.

Storm

As is often the case the morning after a storm, a blisteringly clear blue sky beat down upon the sandy shore, with only the merest breeze to ruffle the black braids of the shipwreck survivor. Alexis coughed out sand and rolled over, pawing at the salt crusting on her eyes. She dragged out her water skin and washed off her face of sand and salt before taking a long drink. When she felt slightly more alive – certain that the Great Ever After wouldn’t leave her with crusty eyes – she stood up and started to explore the island and see if she could find her friends.

➤ @whimsyqueen

Fascinate

Alexis clenched her free hand as he walked towards her and forced a smile across her lips. "Most feared Lord Dire," she said. "We have come from the Fort at Trolltooth Pass, sent by your brother in darkness, my Lord Marr, to bring you this gift." "Now, isn’t this a treat," Dire said, stepping around her and Three, his eyes feeling as though they lingered on her as much as the patchwork construct beside her. Dire stopped in front of them, taking a few steps backwards. "Please, show me what it can do," he asked, his silken voice and sickly sweet perfume writhing about her, like the snake of temptation in books of yore. Alexis stepped away and glanced at Richard. They hadn’t planned any of this out, and she wondered how long she could keep the charade up before Dire would know something was wrong. Richard dipped his head, his eyes skittering to where Bastet was signing at her in thieves' hand signals. It was a pattern, followed by the sign for someone getting flattened. Alexis cleared her throat, brushing her nose, signalling she understood. “Three,” Alexis said, addressing the construct. “We’re going to play a little game.” "Goody! I like games," he said. “Please take two steps backwards, and then four forwards for me.” “Okay,” he said, and, squinting at his feet, walked back then forwards, quietly counting his steps. Delighted, he looked back at Alexis. “Done it,” he said happily. “What’s next, ‘Lexis?” “One step right, one back, two forward.” “Okay!” Again, Three’s face scrunched in concentration as he counted his steps, stopping right in front of Dire. “Fascinating,” Dire said, staring up at Three. “You can control it even without it’s crystal.” Alexis glanced back at the others. Victor shrugged. Richard loosened his sword from its scabbard. “Yes,” he said, “it’s a new system my Lord Marr is trialling. Woodling, show him the final command.” Alexis murmured her assent. “Three? Smush!” she yelled.

Gentle

Breakfast finished, Alexis slipped outside with a plate of raw steaks and headed towards the stables. “Good morning, Three,” she called. “Hullo, ‘Lexis,” he said, giving her a wave. She knelt beside her riding dog, placing the plate of steak in front of him. Neisk’s tail beat back and forth as she peeled one steak off and passed it to Three. “Eat,” she commanded, ostensibly to the dog, but Three also devoured the steak as Neisk gave a chuff and settled down to eat. “How are you this morning, Three?” she asked as the construct licked his fingers. “I’m fine,” he said, giving her a big goofy smile. “Your doggy is cute.” “Yes. My to'mae is a very good boy.” Three gave Neisk a gentle pat as the dog was licking the plate. “Listen, Three,” Alexis said. “Me and the others have to go into the city, but we can’t take you. You, um, stand out, a bit. Are you okay staying here with Neisk?” “Oh,” Three’s face fell. “Okay ‘Lexis.” Guilt gripped Alexis’ heart, so she reached over and hugged his arm. “I’m sorry, honey. We’ve got some very important work to do in the city and it’s… difficult when you’re with us.” She looked up into his big, trusting, mismatched eyes. “It’s okay, ‘Lex. I understand.”

Holy

CW swearing

"Yeah… It's some kind of powerful magical item, for sure," he said. "It’s glowing bright blue, but I can’t work out what it’s been enchanted with. Give me a sec, I’ll cast Detect Alignment to find out if it’s evil." Once again the rest of them exchanged looks but kept silent as Victor wiggled his fingers in a slightly different pattern. "Revelux in denomination!" he commanded. The wind sighed. Sand scuttled. Victor screamed. He dropped the dagger, falling heavily into the sand, and covering his eyes. "Holy mother of fucksticks!" Bastet rushed over to him and Alexis swiped the dagger. "What happened?" Alexis said. "Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?"

Ritual (Rite)

Nicodemus raised an eyebrow. "Indeed." He gestured to the viewing mirror again. "As you can see these cultists are devoted and stubborn fellowes. They have almost finished clearing the temple and preparing for their heinous rite which will allow them to open a portal to the demon dimension, or as you might call it ‘the Pit’, bringing their foul lord Myurr through to wreak whatever havoc he wishes on our world. We can not let this happen. As such I am sending you back with this." He handed Richard a cylindrical device, then waved a hand to bring forth a man in pale robes. "This acolyte will transport you back to the temple, and assist you in sealing this portal forever."

➤ @eli-writes-sometimes

Heir (Prince)

"Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?" "I… I’m all right. I think," he said, his voice shaking. "So. Um. Yeah. That thing is pure evil. As evil as a prince of evil in the dimension specially reserved for really evil things." "What did you see?" Richard asked. "Red," Victor said. "Only red. That thing is giving off an aurora of evil so strong that I see nothing but the waves of light from it. Give me a moment – I must wait for the spell to wear off."

Humanity (Human)

"Richard!" came the delighted cry of a woman. The door flew open and out sailed a middle-aged woman, long braids of ashy-yellow hair streaming out behind her. "Kassy!" Richard cried as the woman threw herself into his arms. "Kassy, what’s wrong?" Her fingers dug into his shirt, her face pressed against his chest for a long moment, before she looked up with reddened, haunted eyes. "Oh Richard, it’s terrible," she said, tears in her voice. “What is? Kassy? What’s happened?” "Richard?” Sticking out from around the door was the head of a human male. His eyes were heavy and his thatch of dark hair was in disarray. With one flickering glance, he took stock of the mismatched adventurers on his doorstep. “Richard, are these people your friends?” “Yes. David, what-” The man pushed the door wider. “You need to get inside now. Hurry!”

Take

"Ho! Whoa. You hold up a moment there, lassy," the captain called. Alexis stopped and turned back, arms folded and head tilted with a glare. The captain grabbed a line, swinging from the ship to the dockside, and landed, silken waist sash fluttering in the breeze. He struck a pose, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Are y'trying to suggest that I, Captain Dragan Bloodbeard, of the beautiful Oaken Rose, is not fit to take a couple of poncy humans over the seas to Khul?" The captain took a few, stalking, steps forward, glaring down. "Well, are ye?"

Tough

(Word edited out for better prose) CW: Slavery

Once all the women had eaten, the guards unlocked their cell. The slaves filed out and, one by one, were locked to a long chain. The chain was dragged by a guard down to dim pits where veins of opalescent stone ran through the rock. The chain was locked to a staple on the wall, and pickaxes handed out. The other slaves began to attack the rock face. With a glance at Bastet, Alexis followed suit, struggling to even lift the pickaxe.

➤ @thewriteflame

Erase (Remove)

Alexis must have slept at some point, as she woke in a dog pile of small children and blankets. The sun was burning its way through the hall’s high windows, promising a fine day; what little the weather cared for mortal tragedy… She lay back, staring at the wide-beamed ceiling, exhausted down to her bones. At least it would make assessing the damage easier than if they had to manage it in the rain. Her thoughts turned to Richard and Ithanor, passing buckets in the rain, and to Bastet who’d vanished into the dark, and to Victor, throwing magic and water around with only one care. She should, probably, go check on them. Alexis slithered out of the warm pile, pulling the blankets over those who were left shivering with her departure, watching the children with a fond smile as they snuggled together, filling the hole she’d left. She adjusted her armour – apparently never having managed to remove it the night before – and found her travel pack and weapons close by. On soft feet, she padded out of the Town Hall and into the courtyard.

Flight

"Thank you, so very much," said the dragon. "I’m afraid I was in over my head there. If you kind folks hadn’t come along when you did, I would have been dragon kebab for sure. Thank you again, for saving me, Kypris of the Copper Dragon Flight. Is there anything I can offer you for your excellent service? Alexis instinctively held out her hand. "It’s very nice to meet you, Kypris," she said. The dragon extended a talon and they shook "Why didn’t you use your acid breath attack?" Bastet asked. "My my, you’re very knowledgeable, aren’t you little drow. Well…” Kypris scuffed a foot into the sand. “I was taken by surprise and they tangled my mouth shut before I could use it. I sadly haven’t yet learnt the full way of magic. So I couldn’t do much against those wretched little creatures. Now, please! What can I do to repay your kindness?"

Sleep

CW smoking/ drug use

Slowly they all woke, grateful to find both their necks and belongings intact. “Usually I do not let people sleep here,” the barman said, taking a suck from a long pipe, huffing out a cloud of scented smoke. “But I see you are new here, with no place yet to rest your heads. For the service of keeping the braziers lit and protecting you through the long night.. Eh, I will give you a discount for your newness. Two silver bits each.” He waggled his eyebrows and held out a hand. “Thank you, good sir,” Richard said, passing over his money. “Your kindness in protecting us while we slept is greatly appreciated. You are a godly man.” Silently, Alexis passed over her money. As the coins slipped from her grip, she signed in Thieves Cant, ripoff. The barman grinned widely. With a little prodding, Victor and Bastet also parted, grumbling, with their coins. "Now we’re all friends," Alexis said, "perhaps you can help us further. We’re looking for a ruined temple, somewhere deep in the desert. It’s rumoured to contain a portal to other worlds. Have you heard of such a place?” The barman shook his head. “I have not. But there is a man who sells maps from the marketplace. His name is Hassan. Perhaps he can point you the right way.” “Thank-” Alexis began, but stopped when the barman held out a hand, rubbing his thumb against his forefingers. “The desert is cruel,” he said. “A silver bit.” Alexis scowled. “Two copper is all that direction is worth, and we both know it.” The barman grinned as the copper coins landed in his hand. “Assamarra go with you, tree-child.”

Sound (Hearing)

Before she could get her answer, Richard came pounding over the hilltop. "She shall give it up over my dead body!" he roared, launching into the midst of the cultists, blade flashing in the sun. Fire roared from overhead, arrows zipped through the azure sky. Alexis felt like she’d blinked, and all the cultists lay dead, bleeding into the sand. “Greg damnit!” Alexis snapped, rushing over. “Why in the Pit did you kill them all? We could have gotten information from them. Like why they only wanted the dagger!” Muttering she began to riffle through the bodies for clues. “They… They were cultists,” Richard said, shrinking down. He toyed with the hilt of his sword. “Evil-doers. They were trying to kill you. You’re so small, and you hurt easily. I was just trying to keep you safe.” Alexis looked up, hearing the upset in his voice, and gave a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Thank you, for saving me. I just don’t understand why they wanted the dagger. It’s a piece of junk. I only wanted it because…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just wanted it.”

Space

"Arts, I want you to show these lubbers to their quarters, then report back to deck. We’ll be setting the sails in half a turn of the clock." "Aye, Cap’n. Passengers, if ye’d follow me?" the First Mate said, leading the way below decks to show them to two cabins. "Ladies, ye’ll be in here," Arts said, pointing to one. "Gents, this'll be your cabin." He pointed to another. "I'll leave ye get settled. It’d be appreciated if ye could stay in your quarters till the Oaken Rose is underway. Dinner will be shortly after then." With a nod, he left them to their quarters.

"Well this is cosy," said Bastet, as she and Alexis arranged themselves in the cabin. It was indeed a tiny space, with narrow bunks on one side and a small tin sink, recessed into a dresser, on the other. Opposite the door was a porthole, letting in the smallest amount of light, over which hung a hurricane lamp. "Mm," Alexis agreed.

➤ @the-writing-rat

Boiling

"Yes!" she said. "We have been sent to rid your menace from the face of Titan." To her surprise, Zagor laughed. "Oh my," he said, wiping away mock tears of mirth. "What an adorable notion. Whilst you all look the part, I doubt you have the skill. So you are welcome to try, but do not think you will succeed." "We have might and right on our side!" proclaimed Richard, raising his sword. "We cannot fail!" At that signal, he and Ithanor made their charge The villain’s smirk dropped and his black eyes became those of death. He flicked out a hand and the last thing Alexis felt was the hissing and boiling of an orange inferno headed straight for her.

Charity (Offering)

"Excuse me, good sir," Victor called up to the pirate. "We are looking to secure the services of a boat and a captain to take us to the continent of Khul, the new land of adventure. Might your good self be available for this service?" "’Sir’?" the pirate looked around as if confused, and his crew laughed. "Ain’t no ‘sir’s here. Ain’t none but us brigands and rouges." Alexis ground her teeth. The seaweed under the hot sun was pungent, the lack of beer from the ridiculous rules of this cesspit pounded at her head. “Your h'excellency might be in the wrong place, eh lads?” “Enough!” Alexis snapped. “Brigands and rouges it is, if you can’t even see your way clear to not making fun of someone offering you good manners. C’mon Vic, these fools aren’t fit to take us up the street, let alone to Khul in this rickety old tub.” She turned on her heel, marching away when the laughter ceased.

Puzzled

She sat down next to the former barbarian, his hair and attire neater than she had ever seen it. "So what of you, old friend?" she asked. "Business booming for you too?" "Oh aye," Ithanor said. "As if I wasn't busy enough with the repairs and upgrades on the town, they've got me drafted in building a host of new homes. All these new bodies want places to live." "That's excellent news." "Oh and," Ithanor said with a shy smile. "Roderick’s not the only one with a new addition to his life." "Oh?" Alexis gave a puzzled smile. "Yeah. I, ah, managed to find myself a wife as well. Very soon after you left actually. Her name is Maeve, and we’re expecting a child, late spring of next year." Ithanor fiddled with his tankard. "I’ve got us a cottage close to the northeast wall, if you ever want to pop on over."

Succinct (Terse)

It wasn’t until evening chow when the winds picked up, large globs of rain hammering into the deck and soaking through anyone foolish enough to not have an oilcloth. When Richard stood to offer a hand, Bloodbeard held out a hand, saying, "I do thank ye for yer help, these past weeks, and by the end of the voyage we'll have made crewmen of you, I’m sure. But for now, let my boys work. Go down to yer cabins, and kindly stay until the all clear’s been given." With a terse nod, Richard led the way below, the First Mate's orders receding as they did.

Weather

Eventually, Bloodbeard came below, his hat drooping with the weight of water and his beard hanging in a sodden mess as he put his head around the door of the larger cabin which they’d stuffed themselves into. "Ah, you’re all here. Good, good. We seem to be having a wee bit of a storm, lads and lassies. But ‘tis nought to worry about – this ol’ girl’s weathered her share of rough seas.” He patted the bulkhead. “It’ll just get a bit bumpy at times. If you could remain here for the time being, that’d be grand. Can’t be having you lubbers out on deck, under me crew’s feet while they try to save her…” Bloodbeard’s eyes darted, and he forced out a chuckle. “Or risk ye being swept off to the briny deep, eh?”

➤ @sleepyowlwrites

Settle

The dragon clapped its paws again. "One moment then, please." It stood on its hind legs, squeezing its eyes tightly shut. The sand around it kicked up in a sudden twisting wind, knocking Alexis over as the others coughed and struggled to shield their faces. The wind died as suddenly as it came, dust settling around a handsome man with golden-tanned skin in the clothes of a travelling merchant. Alexis blinked and Kypris winked at her, his eyes – slitted like a cat – flashed with copper flecks. "Neat trick," said Victor appraisingly.

Sideways (Open-sided)

"Thank you," she said. "We should find someplace to sit and study this thing… Wait a sec." Alexis stopped, looking around with a frown. "Where the hell did Bastet and Victor go?" Richard glanced around, a hand shading his eyes. "There." He pointed to where a group of people congregated around a low table. On dusty cushions sat Victor on one side, his competitor – a dark-skinned elf – on the other. On the table were a set of bone tiles and a large stack of cash. Victor, in his bright robes, was frowning down at his hand, while Bastet stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, cheering him on. "They appear to be playing a game.” Alexis squinted up at Richard. “For money." "Yes, thank you. I know what gambling is. They can use their money however they wish." "They’re probably cheating." Richard pursed his lips and huffed. “Be that as it may, the fate of the world takes precedence over the immoral actions of our friends.” He gestured to an open-sided tent. “Let’s get something to eat while we look at the map.” They took a seat under the awning within sight of the gambling table, and a waitress brought them a tray of hard cheeses, nuts and cured meats. ”I assume you know how to use the map to find the temple?” Richard asked. “If the map is good, then yes, easily," Alexis said.

Sound

Outside, the day was warming up quickly. The four of them wandered through the tented village in search of a marketplace. It wasn’t hard, following the sounds of hawkers and hagglers, to reach the center of the oasis and the packed market. Narrow lanes bordered with awnings and tents, were filled with people and livestock, braying and hollering. Trestles covered in a dazzling array of food and goods, bright fabrics – soft, diaphanous, silky – dangling from racks, piles of skin and fleeces. The smell was incredible: sizzling meats, perfumed flowers, woody spices, offal and dung. Bright fruits alongside mounds of powders in umber and terracotta. Weapons and clothes and scents Alexis could never have dreamed of in a million years, sold by people of all creeds, their dialects and languages swarming into one joyous conglomeration. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. Alexis trailed along behind the others, dipping fingers into pots of spice to smell the strange new smells, running her eyes over glittering treasures, laughing and playfully batting away the small children who thrust trinkets and flowers at her.

A lull in the tumult of sounds made her pause. Something like a whisper, a gut-feel, a tickle on the back of her neck made her look back at the stall she’d just passed. Under a lean-to awning of red and yellow were stacks of chests, some open with the papers inside spilling out. "Guys?" Up ahead Richard looked back to see Alexis wandering back to a stall of some wordsmith. “Victor, Bastet! Alexis has found something,” Richard called out, with a huff adding, “I suppose her ‘treasure sense’ is tingling.” Richard returned to her side, as Alexis was scanning the stall. Crackling stacks of papyrus, held down by painted stones, and rolls of parchment lay across the stall’s table. Idly, she picked up one of the rolls, peeking at its contents – a map, of some kind.

Spacious (Space)

Alexis reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but Bastet shrugged her off. "It’s okay," Alexis said. “You tried, at least.” "When we get out of here," Bastet hissed at her. "That one is mine." Alexis backed away to give her some space and went to find the elven woman. "Nassurae," Alexis said “Yes, sá itil?” "I don’t know night from day down here, but I’m told you do. If my friends and I are to free everyone, I need to be awake three hours before the guards come to take us back down the mines. Do you think, if I sleep now, you’ll be able to wake me on time?" Nassurae looked thoughtfully at the other elven women in the cell. Each nodded, gripping hands, their eyes alight with hope. “Yes,” Nassurae said. "We can accomplish this. We will take shifts and wake you when it is time." “Thank you. I’ll rest now.” Alexis glanced at Bastet. “I would recommend leaving my companion for now. She’ll sleep when she’s able, and I’ll rouse her when it’s time.” "Quiet dreams, eshen," Nassurae said, as Alexis lay down and closed her eyes.

Supposedly

CW Racial slur - black american

A rustle came from behind them, causing the group to turn. Richard and Ithanor drew their blades as a human and a black-skinned elf emerged from the scrub. "Who are you?" Ithanor demanded, levelling his blade at the newcomers. "Umm, hi?" said the drow. "Well?" Nathardrin said. The human stepped forward, brushing down his shabby robes. "My name is Victor, with a monocle. It seems we both have had the same idea: to sneak into Firetop Mountain and destroy the evil Zagor who lurks within." "And what are you supposed to be?" asked Richard pointing at the drow. "Some kind of pointy-ear coon?" The drow straightened, shoulders pulling back as she looked down her nose at Richard. "My name is Bastet," she said coldly. "Despite your manners, I, and my comrade here, wish to assist you with your venture into the fortress to defeat Zagor." "Oh really?" Alexis said. "Yazty-" She turned back to where the wizard had been standing, only to find the patch of rocky grass empty. "Oh. Well, I hope one of you’s a spell-slinger." "Indeed, little one. I am the mighty Victor with a Monocle!" said Victor, swaying a little. "I will astound you with great acts of wizardry and maybe even set alight to some things." "And I am a fighter of great renown," said the drow. Those from the militia shared dubious looks. "Well, there’s not much point us standing around debating it," said Nathardrin. "We may as well get on with this."

Sweep

(edited the word out for better prose)

As the stablehand led their mounts out, Victor slipped him a silver. "We were never here, okay?" he said. Wide-eyed, the boy nodded, grasping his broom and vanishing into the stalls to send out little puffs of straw dust.

➤ @drabbleitout

Soon enough their packs were ready and armour had been donned, and now they stood in the blustery morning, the dirt of the courtyard underfoot. To one side their mounts stood patiently, as Hengar ran through the lists of evils they may face: Goblins, orcs. A bugbear, if they were unlucky. While Alexis listened with half an ear, she studied the mounts with concern, and when the captain was finished, raised her hand. "Yes?" asked Hengar. "Sorry, Captain. None of those mounts are short enough for me to ride." "Do not worry, little one," Yaztromo said, coming from the door of the Town Hall, tugging on riding gloves. "We shan’t make you walk. You’re to ride with me, if that’s acceptable?" "Oh." Alexis flushed and dipped her head. "I’d be honoured." Hengar tilted his head at Yaztromo, his eyebrows raised. Yaztromo replied with an allowing flourish of his hand.

Bark (growl)

"What did you find?" Ithanor asked. Quickly, Alexis outlined the layout of the fort, the two sets of stairs, and the pattern of the patrolling goblins. "We should take them out," Richard said. "Are you stupid?" Alexis growled. "What part of 'stealth reconnaissance' did you not understand?" Richard blinked. "Uhhh…" Alexis could see on his face that he didn’t understand, but before she could snap the answer, Ithanor beat her to it. "It means we go sneaky-sneaky-sneaky," he said, pantomiming a person stepping carefully. "We can’t take them out because it’ll make too much noise, and risk them raising the alarm. We just have to be like little mice, trying to steal grain." "Oooh," Richard said, in a rising tone of understanding.

Borrow (scrounge)

Alexis rose closer to noon than she would have liked, rolling out of bed with a series of groans. Her head felt ten times heavier than usual, and her mouth was as dry as pound cake. Aside from the snoring of the night watch, the barracks were empty. Victor, she supposed, was still in the pub, but where Bastet and Richard were she had no idea. By the neat folds, Richard would have risen early. Bastet, on the other hand, might have woken just before Alexis by the state of her bed, or been just as hungover. After dunking her head into the water ewer, Alexis wandered down to the mess hall to see if she could scrounge up something to eat.

Dry

CW Blood

Zagor was sitting in a chair by his desk on the far side of the room. He smirked at them as they entered and fanned out. "So. You’ve come back for more?" he asked, his voice the rasp of two dry sticks being rubbed together. Slowly the lich unfolded himself from his chair, as Victor darted around to fire off a Magic Missile. Zagor’s robe singed, but the creature inside remained unharmed. While Richard and Ithanor charged in, Alexis and Bastet took up flanking manoeuvres. The battle was arduous, but between the five of them, they whittled the lich down until finally, the pale creature lay deformed in a pool of its own black blood.

Fine

Slowly the group made their way down to the ground floor, exiting through the now open front gate and into the fort’s courtyard. "Yaszty!" Alexis cried, spotting the wizard perched on the back of a wagon. She hurried over to him, the others trailing behind. "I am fine, little one," he said, raising a tired hand. "I assume you were successful?" Alexis nodded. "Yep, we got that bastard and his phylactery. Is Lieutenant Nazaretian around? We should report our success to him." Yaztromo hung his head, letting his shoulders slump. "Sadly, the Lieutenant perished in the battle, taken out by an uncannily well-aimed goblin arrow. The men here have nearly finished their clean-up efforts, so I shall be returning with them to Toreguard soon. I shall convey our success to Captain Hengar on my return.” He cast an eye over the group, taking in their dented armour and bloody scars. “You should take some time to rest before returning. Now the Firetop is free, there is no rush.”

Large

"It doesn’t look like they managed to crack the combination," Marag said, running her hands over the outside of the vault. "Good ol’dwarven engineering, that. Everything inside should still be there, then." With that, she began to finagle the door mechanism, until, with a soft noise like a sigh, it opened. Marag pulled open the door, and Alexis’ jaw dropped. The walls of the vault were lined with gold and platinum ingots. The floor was filled with chests, weapons racks and armour stands, upon which hung the most beautiful items – plates of pale, glistening, silvery metal; bladed hilts crafted with tiny jewels; crossbows engraved with strange runes. Magar stepped into the room, gesturing for the group to follow her. With no regard for the horde of treasures, she went to a chest pressed against the left wall and threw open the lid. Inside, nestled in neat rows on trays, were hundreds of gemstones. Maga scooped up a handful, and moving through the group, doled out a large ruby to each. "I hope this will be compensation enough f’helping us. And as advanced payment for taking out that velskkus, feel free to choose an item that’ll help you in your coming fight."

Mercy

"And how much will this map and information cost us?" she said, squinting. "Ah ha! I see the little miss is shrewd, as well as beautiful," Hassan said with a wink, and without breaking stride, added, "Three hundred gold pieces." Alexis gave him a flat look. "Fifty" "Fifty! No no, I can not go lower than two hundred, seventy-five." "One hundred, and you throw in a compass." She cast her eyes over the pile of treasures. A beautiful curved dagger with a jewelled hilt caught her eye. "And this." "All for one hundred golden bits? No no! Lady, you are crazy. That dagger is five hundred gold alone. Two hundred and twenty-five, and that is like cutting my own throat." "Please," Alexis scoffed. "That dagger is thirty at most. You think I can’t spot coloured glass just because the sun’s brighter here? Two hundred and twenty-five for the map, information, the compass and dagger, and one misdirect should anyone ask about us or our destination. Agreed?" Hassan threw up his hands. "Gods have mercy on me! Beautiful, shrewd and cruel, tsh." He shook her hand. "It is agreed."

New

Twilight was falling, the sky banded with pastel rainbow shades, as Alexis returned from the market with her haul of fresh supplies. As she walked along the dirt track towards the pub chomping on a newly harvested apple, she passed a pair of elders gossiping over a fence about some scandal from a few villages over. She slowed down to listen in as one of them complained about the reign of terror from a monstrous elf who claimed to be a paladin. Back at the inn, Alexis knocked on the gent’s door. “Heads up,” Alexis said, tossing him an apple. Richard glanced up from where he was trying to buff out the dents in his armour and caught it with one hand. “Ah, we haven’t had apples in ages.” He sniffed the skin. “Makes me feel a little homesick. How was the market?” he asked, placing the apple aside and returning to his armour. “About that,” Alexis began. Richard’s head shot up. “No, not the market. The market was fine. I got everything we needed. I meant, um. The village you’re from. What was it called again?” “High Creek. Why?” Alexis bit her lip. “Um.” Richard’s brown eyes creased in concern and he set aside his work. “Alexis?”

Peel (skins)

"Hey," Bastet said, calling her back to reality. "I think there's someone in here." Alexis looked over to see Bastet peering through the bars of the cell door. "Hello?" Bastet called through them. From the other side of the door came a blistering string of curses in a harsh language. "Whaddaya dirty green-skins want with me now?" the voice said in common. "I think it is a dwarf," Bastet said, glancing at Alexis. "Whaddaya mean, ye think it be a dwarf?" asked the voice mockingly. "I most definitely am a dwarf, ye lousy stinkers." Alexis shrugged at Bastet. "Sounds like a dwarf, yeah." "You can pick locks, right?" Bastet asked. "Yes. You go get the others, and I will let the very angry dwarf out of his nasty cell." "'His'! I'm very much a ‘her’, ye cretin." Bastet tilted her head. Alexis nodded, making shooing motions. Baset shrugged. "That’s right," the angry female dwarf called, as Bastet hurried off to find their comrades. "You’d better run, ya mangey beskur!" "Hey, enough with the name-calling," Alexis said, looking up from her investigation of the lock. "You keep that up, and you can stay in there." "Och! Now I’ve heard everything. Yon gobbo thinks keeping me in here’s a threat!" "I’m not a gobbo. I’m eshen." "What’s that?" Alexis sighed, spitting the word. "A woodling." "A woodling? Tch! Can’t be. Woodlings never come out the Darkwood." "Well, this one did. Now will you please be quiet so I can concentrate."

Work

Tentatively, Ithanor moved forward, placing a hand on a tall warhammer. As if that was their signal, the others moved forward, selecting what they wanted. Richard selected a suit of plate mail, Nathardin a recurve bow, and new swords each for Bastet and Victor. "Excuse me," Alexis said as Marag was finishing up with Victor. "I don’t see anything smaller than dwarf-size…" "Ah, now, let’s see. What’re you after, hen? A weapon or armour?" "Armour, if possible?" Maga squinted thoughtfully. "Aye, aye. I’ve got just the thing for a quarter-pint. A masterwork project it is, and a bit of an experimentation for the crafter. I doubt he ever thought it’d be worn." Marag chuckled, pulling from a chest a beautiful set of supple black leather armour, studded with that pale, glimmering metal. "Aye, this should see you right well, hen." Quickly Alexis changed. The armour fit like it was made for her. She grinned at Marag. "Thank you."

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yesterdanereviews · 1 year ago

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Cloud Atlas (2012)

Film review #580

Directors: Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Lily Wachowski

SYNOPSIS: The interconnected lives of strangers intersect across multiple lives over the course of 500 years...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Cloud Atlas is a 2012 sci-fi epic film based on the novel of the same name. It's difficult to give a summary of the plot because the film centres on six different settings over the course of five hundred years, with different stories in each time. The characters in each era are played by the same actors throughout, which hints at the idea of reincarnation, perhaps symbolised by a birthmark that many of the characters have, but this is left up to interpretation: in fact, a lot of this film is left up to interpretation. I imagine multiple viewings will reveal new things and connections which are easily missed the first time. While this can be a positive, I think the film thematically needed something more to bring things together. The film ends with a somewhat weak message that doesn't feel like much of a payoff after sitting through nearly three hours. While it is a long runtime, I don't think there's any lulls in the film thanks to the constant switching between the different characters and stories, but it's difficult to say what you're supposed to take away from it all.

The host of different characters and time spans obviously provides plenty of variety in the film: some have stronger stories than others, and some are very predictable. The film is definitely helped by having some top acting talent, such as Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, and the massive budget this film had (one of the most expensive independent films of all time) allows for lots of different on-location shots, so at least in that respect you can get the "epic" sense of the film. This film seems to have a polarising response from people, ranging from it being a really good film, to it being one of the worst, and it is easy to see the reasons for both perspectives. The film has plenty of ambition and variety, and meanders through its different stories in such a way that they are all balanced well throughout the long runtime. However, the editing may also leave viewers feeling like they are wandering aimlessly around with no real purpose. The things which are supposed to tie the film together: the strange birthmark across generations that suggest some form of reincarnation, the writings of a philosopher oft-quoted, and such, don't really provide any overarching themes to bring things together. If this is a film that is meant to be viewed multiple times, then that is a problem, as I do not feel like this would be worth a re-watch for me. There's plenty of ambition and a lot of skill in editing this all together, but the things which are supposed to tie it all together just don't have the required impact.

#movie #movie review #cloud atlas #sci-fi #film #film review #2012 film

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britesparc · 1 year ago

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Weekend Top Ten #594

Top Ten Individual Film Series Within the MCU

One of the more-or-less unique things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe back when it all kicked off is that you had these individual movies about separate heroes, which had their own sequels and continuity and suchlike, but they were all also interconnected in a shared universe. When Avengers came out in 2012, there’d never quite been something like it before cinematically; a team-up movie starring solo heroes from their own franchises.

(I say “more-or-less” because there have, of course, been other film series where different individual films followed different characters but had the possibility to interact with other characters; the X-Men films began in 2000, and the first solo Wolverine movie came out in 2009, just a year after Iron Man. There, though, I think it’s fair to say that it was a spin-off from an existing franchise. Star Trek, too, had separate stories that had the potential to cross over, but really it only amounted to, say, Bashir showing up on the Enterprise, or Admiral Janeway popping up on a viewscreen in Nemesis. Really, what the MCU was doing had never been done before on any kind of scale or across so many different movies)

Anyway, nowadays, with multiple films and TV shows, we’re more than used to characters who debuted in one corner of the MCU becoming supporting characters in another corner. James “War Machine” Rhodes was an Iron Man character who ended up as an Avenger and has since popped up in Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Secret Invasion. The entire MCU Spider-Man saga has hung upon the gimmick of each movie featuring an established character guest-starring alongside Peter Parker; first Iron Man, then Nick Fury, then Doctor Strange. And let’s not forget Wong, who’s been in about 97 different films since Endgame. But at its core the MCU was always about individual “franchises”; separate series of films following one hero (or a team, I suppose). These franchises or series would then interact and intersect in a major crossover event – basically an Avengers movie. After the first Avengers, which established the template, the MCU upped the ante by bringing in the Guardians of the Galaxy in Infinity War before basically having every single MCU character on-screen in Endgame. These, though, are supposed to be big events; Crisis-Level Events as the DCU used to call them. It’s meant to be a big deal, but at the same time, we’re meant to just enjoy the separate film series, following our favourite heroes from one film to another.

So within the overall arching continuity of the MCU, you’ve got these discrete stories, following one hero or one group from one film to another. Yes, increasingly, there is overlap – Tony Stark’s story is every bit as informed by the evens of a Captain America movie as his own – but you’ve still got a bunch of trilogies kicking about. And which is top? That’s what I’m deciding here. Which hero’s own little saga, within the MCU, is the best? This is harder than you’d think, for a couple of reasons. One is that a few characters – like Tony – have an awful lot of development outside their own sagas. Another is that often the quality is quite variable, as we’ll see; a hero might have one or two genuinely barnstorming films, but the average quality of the others pulls their saga down a bit. And also we have the problem that, well, there aren’t really ten sets of films here.

How’ve I worked it out then? Basically, if there’s a set of films named after a hero, then that counts. Guardians are pretty easy in this regard, because you’ve got three films and a Christmas special. Even if a character stars in another film, though, it only counts as their franchise if the film’s named after them. So, for instance, Nick Fury has been in a dozen or so films at this point, but I’d argue the only one about him is Secret Invasion (which, yes, is a show not a film but I’m using terms interchangeably at this point). And I think you have to have at least two films (or a film and a show), which sadly discounts the likes of Captain Marvel or Shang-Chi. I was going to say that a character having two seasons of a show would count as two separate entries, but no MCU show has had a second season yet; and, yes, that means I’m not counting the old Netflix shows, or Agents of SHIELD, or anything like that. Only the Disney+ stuff is definitively MCU I’d argue. So, yeah, even though Loki season 2 is imminent, as is The Marvels (which is a “second part” to both Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, I guess), as things stand all three of those characters have to be discounted right now.

I think in the future I will do another list that ranks the individual characters’ arcs across all MCU films; so, like, how does Star-Lord progress along the entire overall franchise, including his four Guardians appearances and two Avengers movies. That sort of thing. But right now this is about films; which films are the best, and therefore which hero’s own films make for the best mini-franchise within the overall sprawling maxi-franchise.

Make sense? No? Good.

Captain America, 2011-2016 (The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier, Civil War): this is the only series of films within the MCU where I’d give each of them five stars, and all of them sit very high in my personal top ten. Why? Well, it’s partly the execution – these are just very well-made films; the first an old-fashioned men-on-a-mission adventure, the second an on-the-run paranoid thriller, and the third a huge-scale superhero epic. But the heart of these is Steve Rogers, and what he represents, his philosophy underpinning everything, the DNA of the series. The tone and script and cinematography and arc of it all reinforces Steve’s beliefs of honesty and fairness and strength, seen in the friendships forged (Bucky, Sam, Natasha), the sense of sacrifice, and in the bittersweet dramatic ironies at play (Peter unknowingly giving Steve’s argument back to Tony in Civil War). Captain America may be the ideal hero of Marvel, both in print and on screen, and his series of film is the ideal of the whole MCU.

Guardians of the Galaxy, 2014-2023 (Vols 1-3, Holiday Special): the Guardians are great because they’re these big, dumb space adventures that have a kind of filthy streak of irreverence running through them. They’re totally enjoyable as daft action comedies, with their tree aliens and Jackson Pollock jokes and discussions about planets having penises. Except underpinning it all is a really strong emotional heart; James Gunn understands that if you make characters that are just enjoyable to be around, then when bad stuff happens to them it hits harder. The discussion of trauma and grief may be subtly played and pitched at a particular register, but it’s still very real and a massive theme of the trilogy-and-a-bit. And the fact that two supporting characters – Rocket and Nebula – turned out to be the leads of the whole shebang is a great piece of slow-burn development.

The Avengers, 2012-2019 (The Avengers, Age of Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame): the first Avengers was totally unexpected, a terrific ensemble action comedy that took the tone established by Iron Man and filtered it through disparate characters to really define the voice of the MCU. We all hoped it would be good, but with so many plates to spin, I think quite how good was a surprise. Age of Ultron is still pretty good too, but a lot messier; however, it’s the two-part Infinity War/Endgame finale that astounds. Talk about Avengers having plates, these two films had to wrap up ten years and twenty movies’ worth of story, giving satisfying, era-closing arcs to major characters, paying off dozens of hours of development. It’s frankly bonkers that it succeeded, the kind of once-in-a-generation achievement that is just phenomenal to behold. Yes, the epic nature of these films means that sometimes they lack the nuance and focus of a single character piece; but like the best crossover comic book sagas, this hits in a particular register and stands as a spectacle from modern mainstream blockbuster cinema.

Spider-Man, 2017-2021 (Homecoming, Far From Home, No Way Home): the MCU Spidey largely differentiates itself from both the Spider-Man films that came before and most of the rest of the universe by focusing on being a “Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man”; it’s a terrifically-played high school comedy with superhero adventures thrown in. The winning chemistry between Peter, Ned, and MJ all contributes to making these films feel smaller-scale but still important, with a funny, friendly, dynamic. The first one is terrific, the second one a bit looser, but the trilogy overall is elevated by the operatic, epic finale. Far more than just a meta bit of fan service, No Way Home’s references to universes that came before has been the MCU’s best use of the multiverse to date, and the way its central tragedies and notions of sacrifice tie into Peter’s philosophy – going all the way back to that bedside chat with Tony in Civil War – is excellent.

Iron Man, 2008-2013 (Iron Man 1-3): where it all began, a tonally pitch-perfect introduction to the universe. RDJ’s Tony is a masterpiece of a performance, bottling lightning with his rambling, hilarious delivery, louche demeanour, and toughness in he face of danger. He immediately anchors the universe in a sense of heightened realism, and whilst the first film is fairly traditional in its origin story structure, it still serves as a great launchpad for the franchise. Yes, the second film is ropey, but still enjoyable; there’s little further character development and it once again ends with robot suits fighting robot suits, but we get Don Cheadle and Scarlett Johansen and Sam Rockwell, and that ain’t bad. However, the real heavy lifter here is the night-on perfect Iron Man 3, which unpicks the character, offers greater depths, shows his resourcefulness in unique ways, gives us a bigger but also more interesting robot suit finale, and has the entire MCU’s best twist of all time. You can judge a person’s entire character by whether or not they like Iron Man 3. It’s true.

Thor, 2011-2022 (Thor, The Dark World, Ragnarok, Love and Thunder): Thor is one of my favourite MCU characters – well, Marvel characters full stop – but his films are a little bit variable. The first one is definitely enjoyable, a very arch and stylised high fantasy epic mees dork fish-out-of-water comedy; the second attempts to add a layer of darkness but is incredibly muddled and creaky. It was Taika Waititi who realised both the comedic potential of the concept and its star, giving us the hilarious Ragnarok – which, for all its comedy, still gives us multiple character deaths and the destruction of Asgard. Waititi also leaned into the wild Jack Kirby comic book iconography, with some brilliantly realised sci-fi design that’s evocative of Heavy Metal magazine. Love and Thunder is divisive, but personally I adored it; yes, the comedy is broader and the story itself a bit woollier, but it’s also a film where its themes are carried over perfectly into its subject matter, and the realisation of why it’s called “Love and Thunder” hit me like a ton of bricks.

Ant-Man, 2015-2023 (Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania): a bit like Spider-Man, the Ant-Man films revel in their low stakes. I don’t think they’re quite as charming or successful, but they’re still great; street-level caper comedies of escalating craziness, with their goofy, affable charm heightened by the way Peyton Reed handles the whole size-changing concept. This gives us some great special effects and action scenes, true; but it also offers the potential for great gags (Hank’s building turning into a carry case; the giant Thomas the Tank Engine). Quantumania is a different beast, retaining the films’ cheery, dopey humour, but injecting a little bit more pathos and a lot more action, a technicolour sci-fi marvel that definitely isn’t for everyone – and I think has the real risk of putting off people who really enjoyed the low-key charm of the first two – but still gives us a really exciting Avengers-style romp.

Black Panther, 2018-2022 (Black Panther, Wakanda Forever): now we’re getting onto film series with fewer entries, and here I think we begin to see individual films having more of an impact. Because I would have thought Black Panther would have ranked higher on the strength of its first film; a brilliantly realised bit of Afro-Futurism from Ryan Coogler, with a commanding central performance and fantastically constructed world. Wakanda was unlike anything we’d seen before, and even if the story descended into usual mo-cap superhero tropes, it still gave us moments like Killmonger’s “bury me at sea” speech. The sequel, perhaps, could never live up to it; especially once the tragedy of Chadwick Boseman’s death unfolded. You can, sadly, see the joins where the existing narrative had to be retrofitted to harsh realities, but regardless, it’s still a very uneven film, with moments of great power nestled amongst wasted characters, back-and-forth plotting, and a rather wet finale.

Doctor Strange, 2014-2022 (Doctor Strange, Multiverse of Madness): two films here that, perhaps individually, pale before Black Panther, but hold their own against its sequel. The first Strange is a somewhat by-the-numbers MCU origin – mardy protagonist gets some powers or something, learns not to be quite so much of a dick – but the wacky visuals give it strength and originality. Leaning into that, the sequel has even bolder, weirder moments, but brilliantly they’re filtered through the prism of Sam Raimi’s gonzo horror lens. A zombie Strange with a cloak of demons; Wanda emerging from a cracked mirror; Black Bolt’s head. True, it doesn’t make quite as much out of the multiverse concept as it could have; and the sudden development of some of its characters isn’t really handled in a as nuanced a way as perhaps we’d like. But overall these are two very good films, with great visuals and a nice sense of freakiness.

The Incredible Hulk, 2010-2022 (The Incredible Hulk, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law): okay, here’s where we get really tenuous. The fact is, there have only been nine proper series within the MCU; that is, a film that’s had a sequel. I was briefly tempted to include Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, but those are really two separate things that are crossing over this winter in The Marvels, even though there’s obviously a lot of connective tissue. So, to get it to ten, I cheated a bit, and decided that She-Hulk was sort of a continuation of the overall Hulk franchise within the MCU. Bruce Banner is a major supporting character, after all, with the extended first episode dealing with him and situation quite a bit; and there’s a major revelation towards the end too. Tim Roth reappears. And She-Hulk herself kinda carries on his whole legacy… so it fits? I guess? It’s moot, really, because despite She-Hulk (the show) being a really funny, fourth-wall-breaking meta-commentary on the MCU, sitcoms, TV, and all sorts of stuff too, it’s not really enough to lift The Incredible Hulk out of the doldrums. It’s fine, I guess, the movie; there’s some interesting stuff about Bruce trying to control his anger. But it’s never as exciting or interesting or amusing as, say, Iron Man or Captain America, and the big effects-driven monster-mash finale is a big damp gloomy squib. Overall, things are good – She-Hulk really is terrific – but sadly Incredible Hulk remains my least-favourite MCU movie. Never mind; he had a lot of development in other people’s movies, so it’s all good.

#top ten #marvel #mcu #captain america #hulk #avengers #strange #spidey #guardians #captain marvel #panther #ant-man #thor #iron man

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360digitmg-bangalore · 2 years ago

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army-of-mai-lovers · 4 years ago

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in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough.

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.”

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role.

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all.

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.”

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.”

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~”

y’all WHAT.

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back.

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai.

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too.

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!”

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse.

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.)

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out.

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show.

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.”

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring.

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what?

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her.

Conclusion

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked.

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here.

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice.

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us.

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pascalpanic · 4 years ago

Note

Prompt idea: Lingerie with Frankie Morales but make it cute/funny? Picture this, you've got all of the fancy bits you've never worn before and you're struggling with the fiddly latches, crying out, "I can't get this shit on!" You finally figure it out, show it off to Frankie and he loves it. But he likes sex best when there's nothing between the two of you, so he works on unwrapping you. You notice his lips stop moving on you for a few seconds before he whines, "I can't get this shit off!"

Tangled Up (Frankie “Catfish” Morales x f!Reader)

Summary: ^^

W/C: 3K

Warnings: uh this is filth. SMUT 18+, oral sex (f receiving), lingerie, unprotected PIV sex (wrap it before you tap it, babes), Frankie has no patience and is rlly strong

A/N: this speaks to me, anon. I love this. I hope you do too!

Frankie already thinks you’re the most beautiful thing on the face of this planet. Every little thing you do is amazing to him, the way you call his name, the way you bat your lashes at him when you really want something.

He’s absolutely obsessed with your body; he’s told you that and demonstrated time after time that he thinks you’re the goddamn prettiest thing he’s ever seen, that your body is absolutely perfect in its uniqueness.

Naturally, Frankie has his favorite pieces of clothing on you, the way they cling to or flow off of your wonderful form. Frankie is a big believer that the body is the soul, and he’s absolutely in love with yours. Anything to accentuate your soft skin, with colors that stand out against the tone of it, drives Frankie absolutely wild.

Lingerie is his favorite. It surprised you at first. Frankie is a patient man, slow and soft when he wants to be, prioritizing you over himself in everything he does but especially in the bedroom. Something like that feels self-indulgent to him, like it’s his one weakness, you looking like that just for him. Then he gets to unwrap you like the best fucking present he’s ever received- yeah, Frankie is really into lingerie on you.

He’s gifted it to you, gone shopping with you to buy it, but his favorite thing is being surprised. The element of shock and sensuality when he’s confronted with the most beautiful body wrapped in such perfect garments is his favorite sensation, next to digging his fingers into your hips and pulling your body against his to kiss you.

You know how much he loves it, and that motivates you to do it somewhat often. The problem is that lingerie is expensive. You usually find yourself repeating outfits for Frankie to rapidly strip from your body, which he clearly doesn’t care about. You look sexy, and he loves it. But you love the surprise, the shock and admiration as he has to run those tough and strong hands over the lace.

Frankie particularly loves dark colors, like black or a deep velvety red, on you. He thinks they look painfully seductive, tempting.

That’s what’s motivated you to buy the piece laying on your bed. It’s black, with a bra and panties and quite a lot of straps, buckles and loops built into it. You’d been hesitant, but seeing it in real life makes you even more excited. Frankie gets home soon; time to get in.

The panties go on easily, obviously. The next part is the challenge. There are straps upon straps, endless slots for you to shove limbs through. You hold it up and frown, not quite sure how to get it on.

Wandering to the mirror, you shove yourself into the thing, making some errors but eventually finding the proper way to wear it.

You look hot: both physically and sexually. There’s a lacy collar, attached to the intersection of the bra. The cups are mesh with lacy decor to cover the nipples, and there are many straps over your abdomen that hook up to the panties. All in all, it’s a complicated number, but you smile as you do a little twirl. Frankie will like it.

The other hot: you’re sweating. It took effort to put it on, lots of odd angles to pull and tug. You feel warm and flushed, so it’s a relief to plop on the edge of the bed and let the cool air of the house get you acclimated again.

You wait, mindlessly scrolling through your phone as you relax on the bed. Frankie’s schedule is far from exact, but you know the 15-20 minute window he’ll arrive home in. Lucky for you, the garage door opens at the normal time he arrives home.

Tossing your phone aside, you perch seductively on the edge of the bed, crossing your legs and leaning back on your arms. “Frankie, baby,” you call into the house as the door opens.

“Hey honey,” he calls back. You can hear him taking off his boots, taking off his jacket. His footsteps ascend with him as he climbs the stairs, and you fidget a little with the lingerie.

He stops in the kitchen, doing something or another. You frown a little. “Frankie,” you call again.

“Just one second, babe,” he chuckles, grabbing a glass of water and something to eat in the kitchen. When he has his things, he meanders through the house and to the bedroom. He nearly drops what he’s holding at the sight waiting for him.

He’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Nothing special, but he always looks so good in it. You naturally smirk just at the sight of your man, of how perfect he is. “How was work?” You purr, letting your head loll to the side so he can get a full view of your body.

Frankie swallows hard. “One second.”

You frown and he walks away, putting the water and food back down in the kitchen. He hurries back just to stand in the doorway, staring at you. “I… wow.”

You giggle a little. “I know you like something to tug on,” you tease and snap one of the straps against your skin. The sound goes straight to Frankie’s dick, steadily growing harder in those dark-wash jeans. “Well?”

“You look like a fucking bombshell, babe,” he groans as he walks closer and falls to his knees at the edge of the bed. “Holy fuck,” he shivers as his fingers trace up your bare thighs, sliding beneath the waistline of the panties.

“Glad you like it,” you chuckle and take off his cap, throwing it aside so you can bury your hands in those pretty curls. They’re so soft, fluffy when you run your fingers through them.

Frankie’s lips find your thigh, starting just above the knee and making their way up. “Love it,” he nods, murmuring it into the soft and sensitive skin there. “But you know I like you better with nothing to separate our skin,” he flirts, looking up at you with those round eyes that make you weak.

You shiver under his work, twirling one wave around your finger. “Take at least a little time to enjoy it, baby,” you pout.

He sits back on his knees and nods. “Of course. You know what…” he trails off as he stands, going over to the dresser and grabbing something from on top of it.

He returns moments later with your Polaroid, smirking a little. “Now I can enjoy it longer,” he chuckles as he pops open the lens. “Pose for me, baby girl,” he says, his voice growing darker and deeper as he takes in the sight.

You do, legs spread and chest pushed out, looking at him seductively through the camera. There’s a flash and a click as the camera takes the picture, then the film pops out through the bottom, still black as it develops. Frankie sets it back on the dresser, along with the photo, then stands at the foot of the bed. “How do you suggest I appreciate it, hm?” He asks.

Eyeing him, you can’t help but smile. “Take your shirt off first.”

“Okay,” he laughs softly and pulls off the soft gray tee, exposing his muscles and slight tummy. It’s such a beautiful sight, and your eyes follow the thin trail of hair down.

“Now the belt.”

“Should I just presume you want it all off?” He asks again, tilting his head.

Laughing, you fall flat onto your back on the bed. “Yes. All of it. Off.” You lift your head just slightly, dropping it as you realize it might add a couple of chins.

“No, watch me,” he orders, and it makes you smirk. It’s an easy domination, the way Frankie could do whatever the fuck he wants with you. Neither of you ever agreed upon anything, never made a pact and discussed the idea of something serious, but it’s something the two of you learned over your time of knowing and loving each other. Frankie knows what you like, and you know what he likes: when he gives the orders. When he’s fully nude, his thick cock heavy and reddened, you smile even wider. “What next?” He asks, allowing the role to be played.

You pretend to think about it, stroking your chin. “Well, do whatever you want to me. But the lingerie stays on.”

Frankie pouts. “I wanna fuck you, and I like it best when there’s nothing between us.”

“Then find another way,” you shrug, that devious little smile tugging up the corner of your mouth. “Do something else. Maybe if you’re good enough, I’ll take it off for you and let you fuck me.”

“Oh, you’ll let me fuck you?” He teases as he gets on his knees, one hand on each thigh as he pushes them apart and nestles between them. “How kind.” His lips trace along the inside of your thigh, slowly working their way from the knee to the apex.

You shiver beneath him, wiggling at the anticipation. “I’m giving,” you sigh, any sarcasm you attempt to give lost in a moan as Frankie mouths at your clit through the panties.

“You sure are,” he murmurs, his own body shuddering at the wetness of the lacy fabric covering your slit. His tongue contributes to the dampness, starting at your opening and slowly licking all the way up to nip at your clit through the lace.

“Baby,” you whimper, your hands digging into his hair.

“You told me to take my time,” he mumbles and looks up at you, eyes darkened with lust. “I’m just following orders, baby girl.” He pushes the panties aside and laps at your folds.

A whimper trails from your lips and your back arches off the bed, desperate for more. “God, I fucking love you.”

Frankie traces two fingers through your slick, teasing at your entrance and sitting back on his heels to watch the sight that accompanies the unholy sounds. “You think you love me? I got to come home from work to this,” he groans, taking in the sight of you and plunging two thick fingers inside of you. “Nothing better than this, pretty girl,” he shudders and dives back in, sucking at your clit and tracing it slowly with his tongue.

You keen into his touch, grinding your hips back against his mouth. “Fuck, Frankie,” you cry out as he curves his fingers inside of you, hitting that perfect spongy spot.

“Yeah?” He murmurs into you, his tongue barely resting for a second.

“Yeah, oh fuck,” you shiver. “Baby, don’t you dare stop.”

“Couldn’t if I tried,” he groans, working his tongue harder against you.

It’s all too much in just the right way. The cresting wave that builds inside of you finally breaks as Frankie swirls the sensitive bud around his tongue, and you whine his name as the release pours through your body, making you shake and squirm and moan. “There we go,” he murmurs as he pulls away, your body coming down from its high. “That enough appreciation for you?”

“Plenty,” you nod. “Now fuck me. Please.”

He smirks a little and stands. “Finally,” he chuckles as he runs his fingers over the endless straps covering your body. He snaps one of them against your breast, making the soft flesh ripple. He groans at the sight, of the way your tit bounces against it.

Frankie pulls you to sit up, reaches behind and unclasps the bra. Normally, that would be enough to get you naked, but there’s a neck harness and straps and to be honest, he doesn’t know where to get started. “How the fuck did you get this thing on?” He murmurs.

You laugh a little. “It took me a really long time, honestly. It was hard.”

Frankie sighs and pulls at the straps, trying to find a good way to get it off. His deft fingers search your body for some kind of clasp or buckle, but find none. He unclips the panties from the top, at least, and slides them off, then gets back to working.

His eyes look up at you and he pouts. “Come on. Give me a hint, baby.”

“I don’t fucking know, Frankie,” you laugh, still on an endorphin high from the orgasm moments ago. “I don’t know how this thing got on and I know even less about how to get it off.”

Frankie’s forehead falls against your chest, groaning. “Fuck.” He tries gathering the straps and pulling them up. That doesn’t work. He searches under every strap for maybe velcro or snaps. Nothing. He pushes you back down onto your back.

“Goddamnit!” He groans and his lack of patience gets the best of him. Gripping the straps, Frankie pulls them hard until the straps break, leaving you bare beneath him and completely stunned.

The straps fall to your sides, exposing your full chest and abdomen. “Frankie!” You exclaim, honestly more than turned on from his little show of strength.

“Sorry,” he bites his lip and looks down at you, but you know he’s really not. The tip of his cock is leaking, red and flushed and you know he’d do just about anything to get inside you now.

You giggle a little, the adrenaline from the moment rushing through your veins. “That was fucking hot,” you admit, spreading your legs. “You got me stripped down. Now fuck me, Frankie, please.”

The embarrassment is gone from his face within seconds. “Yes ma’am,” he mumbles, climbing over you and kissing you desperately hard.

You cup his face and hike your knees up around his waist, kissing him back just as readily, tongue pressing against the seam of his lips. He allows you in in the exact moment he thrusts inside of you, making you moan into his mouth before breaking away.

“Frankie,” you whimper as he’s pushed fully inside of you, throbbing and twitching as you say his name. “Fuck, baby,” you whine, his thick cock pressed against your cervix. “You gonna go easy on me?”

“Not in the slightest,” he mumbles back and pulls mostly out before pushing back in, hard. You cry out his name over and over, grabbing at his shoulder blades and back. You can feel the muscles there shift as he pushes, holding himself up over you. His head falls down with a groan as you reach one hand behind him to teasingly tug at his balls.

In return, Frankie lowers himself over you and brings one hand down to circle your clit, thrusting in time with the movement of his worn fingertips. God, he’s so damn good with his hands, always has been, and you whimper that into his ear, moving both hands back up to clutch at his back, nails digging into his skin.

It’s almost a competition of pleasure between the two of you, who can do more of the tiny little things the other loves, who can get the other to their peak first. Frankie kisses at your neck, mumbling sweet words into your skin, crying out as your nails drag down his back. “Baby, please, you feel so fucking good, god you’re so big,” you groan next to his ear, filling it with all of the affirmations he loves.

“You‘re just so fucking tight,” he grunts, thrusting harder and harder into you. You get tighter as you clench around him, and Frankie knows that it means you’re close. “Come on, baby girl. You gonna cum on my dick?”

“Yes, yes,” you chant, head falling back into the bed. “Oh, fuck, Frankie-oh!” You squeal as he hits the sweet spot inside of you once more, his fingers working in the perfect rhythm with his hips to make you fall apart, clenching and fluttering around him as more slick coats his cock.

He groans at the feeling, shivering at the way you clamp down on him. “W-where? Where do you want it, baby?” He asks you, knowing he’s about to burst at any second, the way you’re absolutely destroying him.

“In me, please,” you beg, and it’s an offer Frankie can’t refuse. He lets go, filling you with the hot, sticky seed. You whine at the feeling, desperately gripping his skin.

He whines your name in your ear as he comes down, shivering and pulling out, lying next to you on top of the ruined lingerie.

“That was expensive,” you whimper as you limply toy with a strap.

“I’ll buy you a new set. Two new sets,” he tells you, breathless and sweaty. “God, you looked so good in that,” he sighs, chuckling a little. He gets up and wanders to the bathroom, getting a warm, wet cloth and coming back to clean you up.

The sight of his cum dripping from inside you is almost enough to make him hard again, but he bites his lip and wipes you down, tenderly kissing your thigh. “Thank you,” you murmur weakly and smile down at him.

“Doing my job,” he teases and kisses your knee before cleaning himself off and tossing the cloth in the laundry. When he lies down next to you, he takes the discarded lingerie and throws it off the bed, wrapping you in his arms. “You’re so amazing,” he chuckles. “God, I love you.”

“I love you too, baby,” you hum and kiss his face, nuzzling your nose into the curve of his flushed and dewey neck. “I have stuff to make for dinner.”

The reminder that it’s only 5:00 or so makes Frankie laugh a little. “You don’t have to. You’ve done enough for me tonight,” he murmurs, kissing your temple lovingly.

“Never said I was doing it alone,” you chuckle sleepily, your eyes slipping shut. “You’re helping.”

“Damn right I am. Maybe we take a nap first though,” Frankie says as he pulls you closer in his arms.

“A nap sounds good,” you nod and kiss his cheek. “I love you.”

“Love you too, baby.”

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

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Sometimes I finish a book and walk away thinking about how good it was. Other times, the primary sensation is “I’ve just wasted hours of my life on this.”

But on rare occasions, the one and only thought that consumes me is “I Must Discuss This With the Knitting Circle”.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need to talk about The Seventh Raven by David Elliott.

This is a retelling of the Grimm’s fairy tale “The Seven Ravens”. And it’s specifically that fairy tale, not just an adaptation of a “Six Swans” type of story.

It’s also in verse. And not just free verse. He uses different styles of structured poetry for each character and for the narrative voice.

My favorite part of the story was the author’s note where he discusses the thought processes behind each poem form he used.

Two of the poem forms he uses are the one used in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty” and the “Pushkin sonnet” used in Eugene Onegin! I was going nuts when I read that, because I couldn’t believe that this man HAD SOMEHOW DESIGNED THIS BOOK TO LINE UP WITH MY EXTREMELY SPECIFIC POETRY EXPERIENCES! How does that even HAPPEN???

Knowing that, I get a bit judgey with the way he messed around with the poem forms. Like, why do a Pushkin sonnet if you’re not going to use iambic tetrameter? It’s part of the form! People have managed to retain it in translations so I think you can up your game and not get lazy with the syllable count.

This is a surprisingly good adaptation of the fairy tale. I was worried that doing it in verse would make it very bland, and while of course we don’t connect to these people the same way that we would in a prose story, the chosen form does lend it a very cool dreamy, fable-like feel. And the characters all have unique voices and perspectives. It also manages to do more than just present the original fairy tale in poem form--there are innovations here that make it feel like its own story, which is one of my requirements for retellings.

It reminds me a bit of The Little Prince in the way certain characters represent certain life philosophies. Her father has a never-ending dissatisfaction with the way things are. She runs across characters who represent Despair and Materialism. (And the characters are in the original fairy tale without this symbolism, but the way he translates it to his story’s setting is interesting).

The thing that really made this Knitting Circle material was the way that the fairy tale intersected with religion. I don’t know what to think of his use of it.

The story pivots around the main character’s baptism--as in the original. Yet he equates religion with magic--there’s a line where the priest says he needs water to do his “abracadabra”. It could very well just be a poetic turn of phrase. But then after the little girl survives, the priest just...leaves, saying he’s no longer needed. It seems to write off baptism as just another magic life-saving ritual. But baptism also exists in the story as something important. I don’t quite get it.

There’s still something about it that gives me an inkling that Elliot may be coming at this from a Christian perspective. Even if he’s not religious, there’s more of a sense that he understands such a perspective better than a lot of secular writers. I can’t put my finger on any one moment, but there’s just a something that resonates with my worldview, even if it isn’t perfect.

(There’s also the fact that he’s apparently written a similar novel in verse about Joan of Arc. It could indicate religious devotion, or it could just be another example of the culture repurposing her story from a secular perspective. I’m wary.)

Biggest problem with the story is the “Seventh Raven” of the title. He’s supposed to be the one we sympathize with, the emo boy who doesn’t fit in anywhere. But he just winds up being kind of annoying, not really even trying to connect with the people around him. Even after they’re saved, you would think the story would be about him learning to balance his need for freedom with his need for community and caring for the people in his life. But he just kind of lives off by himself still thinking about how different he is from everybody else. Really dropped a ball there.

As a story, it’s probably not all that great. But between the verse and the philosophy and the retelling aspects, there’s so much interesting stuff to think about and I wish I could discuss it with you guys.

Between this and Eugene Onegin, I’ve learned that I need to seek out more novel in verse.

#the seventh raven #fairy tale retellings

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dutchdread · 3 years ago

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In regard to what you said about how what Squall and Rinoa had wasn't necessarily true love because of them being teenagers, why is it that you even consider that Cloud and Tifa had true love when Cloud is technically a teenager too? Why do you say that you wouldn't like Aerith if she had survived and ended up with Cloud? You act as if Aerith ending up with Cloud is a bad thing. If Aerith survives things could've ended up happening differently for Cloud. He could've ended up happier with her.

To answer this question I think it's important to understand the difference between love and lust, I advise reading an earlier article I wrote about this:

"what is love, baby don't hurt me" There are a couple of things to address here. First, I am not sure I ever said that what Tifa and Cloud had at the end of FFVII was "true love". It's something that I think is up for debate, the fact that they haven't spent a lot of time together yet as actual adults makes me sympathetic to the idea that it's not really that far yet. Personally I find that they satisfy the conditions necessary for it to count as love, but you won't hear me pretend it's already at the same level as the love shared between my parents, who've been together for 40 years. Even in love there are degrees, love can always grow stronger, and I have no doubt that in case of Cloud and Tifa, it would. I am not pretending they start out as the ultimate pinnacle of perfect or true love. One of the most telling differences I think between people who support Cloti, and the people who support Clerith, is that the former are simply more in touch with reality. That having been said, like I mentioned earlier, I do think Tifa and Cloud satisfy the conditions of love that I describe in my article, I'll quickly go over why, but before I do, I think it's important to answer your first question first. "If being teenagers precludes Rinoa and Squall from having true love, why doesn't that same logic apply to Tifa and Cloud?" Well, the short answer is that being a teenager does NOT preclude you from loving someone, and I didn't say that it does. My argument is a bit more subtle than that. It's not that teenagers can't feel love, it's that it's very easy for teenagers to mistake infatuation with love. It's important here to distinguish between two different emotions, no one doubts of course that teenagers love, for instance, their parents, but we both understand that that's not exactly what is meant by love in the romantic sense. We also all know that we can be nervous around a boy or a girl that we barely know, and feel physically attracted to them. However, I think that everyone whose ever had more than one relationship in their life knows that that isn't love, it's merely attraction and a physiological response. It doesn't involve the same deep appreciation and closeness of a person that we associate with love. For me personally, the first girlfriend I ever had was someone I actually rather disliked before they suddenly confessed that they were attracted to me. When we were sitting on her couch a while later with her pressed against my arm my heart was beating out of my chest, I was more nervous than I ever had been before in my life and was borderline hyperventilating. But that had nothing to do with her, and all to do with me being a young boy who was about to make out with a cute girl. But that nervousness isn't love, I didn't love that girl, honestly, even while dating her I still didn't even like her that much as a person, and that "nervousness" quickly faded. My heart beating out of my chest...was not love, conversely, when I am with the person I actually do love, my heart is completely at peace. True romantic love I think lies at the intersection of those two emotions, where you long to be with someone physically, not because your heart is beating too fast, but because they're the physical representation of the complete and complex set of characteristics that make up that person. A state where you understand both yourself, and them, and understand that through everything you have become a part of each other. You would not be yourself if they're not there, because a part of you would be missing. The problem with teenagers in love isn't that they can't form the feelings of such a bond, but that they too often think that's what they're feeling when all it is is raging hormones. They think they can never live without each other but they'll have a new sweetheart 2 months later, because it's the nervousness, the beating chest, the excitement, and not the long deep appreciation of who the other person is and what they actually mean to you. They just feel new strong urges and emotions and ascribe meaning to them

when there barely is any. They lack the mutual understanding that sharing time together creates and which is necessary to understand who the other really is, and what that means. They lack the knowledge of the self needed to understand what is important in life and more importantly, what is, or should be, important to YOU and why. They lack the life experience needed to differentiate between love and infatuation, and they lack the wisdom needed make positive choices concerning which feelings to nurture, which often makes them subservient to their emotions rather than guiding them. Love takes time, it takes commitment, it takes understanding, it takes choices and the willingness to sacrifice, those are the things that bind two people together, through thick and thin, as they say. The good, and the bad. In a way, Cloud and Tifa perfectly represent that long slowly developing strength of mutual importance, while Aerith is more like a representation of the temporary hurricane of affection that we often ascribe with something new. This is the reason why Aerith was described by the developers as being like an exchange student who leaves midway through the schoolyear. This is the reason why Cloti is so often described as a "slow burn". The reason Cloud and Tifa are slightly exempt from the "teenagers in love" problem, although it does still factor in, is that their bond didn't start a week before the end of the game. Their bond started when they were kids. Tifa has been an integral part of Clouds life for his entire life, to the point where he decided to join SOLDIER, aka, the army, just in the hopes of getting Tifa to notice him. That is a decision, that is a commitment, that is Cloud tying Tifa into his sense of self ever since he was a boy, he didn't just sit around "wanting" her, he made a decision, to not just "desire her" or be "in love" with her, but an active decision to live his life with her as a central part of it. Those sorts of decisions and action form what you care about and value, what you deem as important, what you see as "you" and your life. Cloud had a type of love for Tifa long before he ever started developing any sexual urges. And Tifa doesn't just fit what he sees as important, he has made her important his entire life. In a way, he's molded himself over time so that the things he treasures, are the things she exhibits. More than that, the entire premise of Clouds character arc is rooted in him finding his true self. I mentioned earlier that a crucial part of love is knowing who you are, and what you treasure and why, and FFVII literally gives us a direct manifestation of Cloud finding himself in the lifestream.....and it's Tifa. There is no question here of whether Cloud knows who he is, what he treasures in a woman, and whether Tifa fits that mold, because Tifa made that mold. Concerning time, Cloud spent over a decade being in love with Tifa, she's not just a part of who he is, but she's such a part of who he is that when he lost her belief in him, he lost faith in himself and who he is. There is no question that these two characters lives are fundamentally emotionally intermingled. Cloud would not be Cloud without Tifa. And the same goes for Tifa, who has always held the image of Cloud close as a sort of representation of what is important. First like an unattainable star in the sky, then as a boy. Cloud is not just someone who has always been important to her, he's also her last link to her childhood, those things form bonds. Tifa is compassionate, and I've always been able to pinpoint the moment where in my opinion Tifa went from having a crush, to displaying true love, and its' the moment where she decides to spend that last days of her life caring for Cloud in a coma. That is not a small decision, and those decisions matter, they're not just telling the world something, they're telling YOURSELF something. When you make such a decision, you cement what is important to you. Through thick and thin. Tifa chose Cloud, she chose to believe in the memories they share together, not of the

memories of the last few weeks, but of the boy who asked her to the water tower all those years ago. Tifa, like Cloud, found herself during FFVII, Tifa knew what she cherished, it wasn't soldier Cloud, it was the Cloud she knew, the REAL Cloud, and her selflessness and conviction is rewarded.

I'd say that pretty much says it all, the groundwork is in place, the only thing needed after that is for a person to CHOOSE to go for it, to not give up, and that's what we get in the events before, during, and after ACC. That the two are willing to sacrifice and work on it, because they know that the other is worth it. And Tifa and Cloud have that as well. When Tifa is feeling down in case of Tifa, Cloud says he'll be there for her, when Cloud is having difficulties in ACC, Tifa never gives up on him. Ultimately Tifa is the glue of this relationship, because she has proven that she will never give up, and that's why her love is real, and why Cloud and Tifa ultimately will succeed as a couple. Cloud and Tifa have a difficult start to their relationship because of factors external to their feelings towards each other, but when you purely look at the basis of their relationship and feelings for each other, it's one of the strongest foundations in fiction. They have to weather a lot of storms together, but the reason the story can throw those storms at them, is that they have the foundation that allows them to handle it and grow stronger. "Why do you say that you wouldn't like Aerith if she had survived and ended up with Cloud?" I don't say that, I say that I don't like the Aerith version that exists in the minds of Clerith, and I don't. What I say specifically about Aerith surviving and ending up with Cloud is that I don't like that story, I think it would be a fundamentally bad story. I do say that I would not like Aerith if she knew the future, or anything really about the relationship between Tifa and Cloud, and still chose to try and get between that. Because setting aside all the shameless "Cloud/Tifa doesn't own Tifa/Cloud, they can do what they want" arguments, we all know that if your friend has someone they've cared about for a long time, and they're hitting in off, and you then try to get between that....you're scum, and I do not want you in my group of friends. I've known people like that, they're not kind. I also say that I wouldn't like that character, which is different from not liking Aerith as a person. A person can be sweet and likable and I can still not like their character if I think that the character is a hindrance to the story. "If Aerith survives things could've ended up happening differently for Cloud. He could've ended up happier with her." And if pigs had wings perhaps they could fly, or perhaps they couldn't. Perhaps had Aerith lived Cloud would have somehow married Scarlet, or perhaps if Aerith had lived Cloud would have been miserable and drank himself to death. I don't care about baseless speculation. Listen, I have no doubt that if Aerith had lived, Cloud would be happier, since it would be one less death on his consciousness, but he'd be happier WITH TIFA, Aerith living or dying has zero impact on who he ends up with and saying "maybe" is absolutely meaningless. Maybe if Aerith had lived, Tifa would have died, and the world would have ended because I don't need to be a fortune teller to predict that if Tifa died, Cloud wouldn't have come back from that. Honestly, saying "perhaps if Aerith had lived he'd be happier with her" is such a blatant attempt at trying to sneak shit past the radar that it honestly bugs me, you can take that implication back to the Clerith boards where dishonest takes live.

#Cloti #FFVII #ffvii remake #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #aerith gainsborough

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balioc · 4 years ago

Text

A Taxonomy of Magic

This is a purely and relentlessly thematic/Doylist set of categories.

The question is: What is the magic for, in this universe that was created to have magic?

Or, even better: What is nature of the fantasy that’s on display here?

Because it is, literally, fantasy. It’s pretty much always someone’s secret desire.

(NOTE: “Magic” here is being used to mean ��usually actual magic that is coded as such, but also, like, psionics and superhero powers and other kinds of Weird Unnatural Stuff that has been embedded in a fictional world.”)

(NOTE: These categories often commingle and intersect. I am definitely not claiming that the boundaries between them are rigid.)

I. Magic as The Gun That Can Be Wielded Only By Nerds

Notable example: Dungeons & Dragons

Of all the magic-fantasies on offer, I think of this one as being the clearest and most distinctive. It’s a power fantasy, in a very direct sense. Specifically, it’s the fantasy that certain mental abilities or personality traits -- especially “raw intelligence” -- can translate directly into concrete power. Being magical gives you the wherewithal to hold your own in base-level interpersonal dominance struggles.

(D&D wizardry is “as a science nerd, I can use my brainpower to blast you in the face with lightning.” Similarly, sorcery is “as a colorful weirdo, I can use my force of personality to blast you in the face with lightning,” and warlockry is “as a goth/emo kid, I can use my raw power of alienation to blast you in the face with lightning.”)

You see this a lot in media centered on fighting, unsurprisingly, and it tends to focus on the combative applications and the pure destructive/coercive force of magic (even if magic is notionally capable of doing lots of different things). It often presents magic specifically as a parallel alternative to brawn-based fighting power. There’s often an unconscious/reflexive trope that the heights of magic look like “blowing things up real good” / “wizarding war.”

II. Magic as The Numinous Hidden Glory of the World

Notable examples: Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, H.P. Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle

The point of magic, in this formulation, is that it is special. It is intrinsically wondrous and marvelous. Interacting with it puts you in a heightened-state-of-existence. It is -- ultimately -- a metaphor for The Secret Unnameable Yearnings of Your Soul, the glorious jouissance that always seems just out of reach.

It doesn’t so much matter how the magic actually functions, or even what outcomes it produces. The important thing is what magic is, which is...magical.

This is how you get works that are all about magic but seem entirely disinterested in questions like “what can you achieve with magic?,” “how does the presence of magic change the world?,” etc. One of the major ways, anyway.

The Numinous Hidden Glory fantasy often revolves around an idea of the magic world, the other-place where everything is drenched in jouissance. [Sometimes the magic world is another plane of existence, sometimes it’s a hidden society within the “real world,” doesn’t matter.] The real point of magic, as it’s often presented, is being in that magic world; once you’re there, everything is awesome, even if the actual things you’re seeing and doing are ordinary-seeming or silly. A magic school is worlds better than a regular school, because it’s magic, even if it’s got exactly the same tedium of classes and social drama that you know from the real world.

Fantasies of this kind often feature a lot of lush memorable detail that doesn’t particularly cohere in any way. It all just adds to the magic-ness.

III. Magic as the Atavistic Anti-Civilizational Power

Notable examples: A Song of Ice and Fire, Godzilla

According to the terms of this fantasy, the point of magic is that it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense within the logic of civilized human thought, anyway. It is nature and chaos given concrete form; it is the thing that tears away at the systems that we, in our [Promethean nobility / overweening hubris], try to build.

There’s not a baked-in value judgment here. This kind of magic can be presented as good, bad, or some of both. Same with civilization, for that matter.

It’s often presented as Old Myths and Folkways that have More Truth and Power Than Seems Reasonable. Narratively, it often serves as a dramatized version of the failure of episteme, and of the kind of entropic decay that in real life can take centuries to devour empires and ideologies.

This kind of magic is almost always the province of savages, actual inhuman monsters, or (occasionally) the very downtrodden.

(I think it is enormously telling that in A Song of Ice and Fire -- a series that is jammed full of exotic cults and ancient half-forgotten peoples, all of whom have magic that seems to work and beliefs that at least touch on mysterious truths -- only the Westerosi version of High Medieval Catholicism, the religion to which most of the people we see notionally adhere, is actually just a pack of empty lies.)

IV. Magic as an Overstuffed Toybox

Notable examples: Naruto, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Or, sometimes, we care about what magic actually does. More than that -- sometimes we want to see magic doing really interesting things, and then other magic intersecting with it in ways that are even more interesting.

The fantasy here, in simplest terms, is “magic can achieve any arbitrary cool effect.” There doesn’t tend to be an overarching system that explains how it’s all supposed to come together, or if there is, it tends to be kind of lame and hand-wavey -- a rigorous system of Magic Physics, delineating the limits of the possible, would get in the way of all the cool effects we want to show!

Once again, this shows up a lot in combat-heavy narratives. Less with the genericized D&D-style “magic is a fist that can punch harder than your regular meat fist,” and more with people throwing weird and wacky powers at each other in order to show how those powers can be used creatively to overcome opposition. Sometimes, instead of combat, you get magicians using their cool-effects magic to MacGuyver their way out of problems or even trying to resolve large-scale social problems. Issues of magic usage within the narrative being “fair” or “unfair” or “cheesy” are important here in ways that they generally aren’t elsewhere, since the fantasy on offer comes close to being a game.

(Ratfic often falls into this category.)

V. Magic as Alternate-Universe Science

Notable examples: the Cosmere books

This covers most of what gets called “hard fantasy.” The fantasy on offer is a pretty straightforward one -- “magic has actual rules, you can learn them, and once you’ve learned them you can make predictions and achieve outcomes.” It’s puzzle-y in the way that the previous fantasy was game-y. It’s often a superstimulus for the feeling of learning a system in the way that video game grinding is a superstimulus for the feeling of rewarding labor.

The magic effects on offer tend to be less ridiculous and “broken” than toybox magic, because any logic you can use to achieve a ridiculous effect is going to influence the rest of the magic system, and special cases that aren’t grounded in sufficiently-compelling logic will ruin the fantasy.

Not super common.

VI. Magic as Psychology-Made-Real

Notable examples: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Persona

This kind of magic makes explicit, and diagetic, what is implicit and metatextual in most fantasy settings. The magic is an outgrowth of thought, emotion, and belief. Things have power in the world because they have power in your head. The things that seem real in the deepest darkest parts of your mind are actually real.

This is where you get inner demons manifested as actual demons (servile or hostile or anything in between), swords forged from literal hope, dungeons and labyrinths custom-tailored to reflect someone’s trauma, etc.

The fantasy, of course, is that your inner drama matters.

My personal favorite.

VII. Magic as Pure Window Dressing

Notable examples: later Final Fantasy games, Warhammer 40K

This one is weird; it doesn’t really make sense on its own, only metatextually. I think of its prevalence as an indicator of the extent to which fantasy has become a cultural staple.

The fantasy on offer in these works is that you are in a fantasy world that is filled with fantasy tropes. And that’s it.

Because the important thing here is that the magic doesn’t really do anything at all, or at least, it doesn’t do anything that non-magic can’t do equally well. It doesn’t even serve as an indication that Things are Special, because as presented in-setting, magic isn’t Special. Being a wizard is just a job, like being a baker or a tailor or something -- or, usually, like being a soldier, because the magic on offer is usually a very-simple kind of combat magic. And unlike in D&D, it’s not like magic is used only or chiefly by a particularly noteworthy kind of person. It’s just...there.

The great stories of the world, in these works, don’t tend to feature magic as anything more than a minor element. The point is to reassure the audience that this is the kind of world, the kind of story, that has magic.

-------------------------------------------------

Thoughts? Critiques? Other categories to suggest?

#media analysis

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the-gay-prometheus · 3 years ago

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*peer pressures you into talking about your old Warrior Cats universe* <3

Ok now that I've gotten not one but two requests to ramble about it I guess that means I legally have to. Beware, this is long af.

K so- it was going to be a whole thing. Like... four series, four extra books (two prequel books, two books for the finale), and probably a bunch of other short stories and spin-offs. Each of the series could be read separately, but each of them would relate to each other, all culminating in the finale where the stories would all intersect. Honestly it would've been best to read them all together, especially 3 and 4 since ~context~, but each was unique enough that it could be its own separate thing.

The first prequel was going to be the story of some prehistoric felines, with the main characters being an American Cheetah and an American Lion, and the first domestic cat who also happened to be kind of a god - her name was Bast, because I'm not creative. The lion character would be the one who would go on to be the first cat in cat hell (used the dark forest as a stand-in, but it was more of its own realm) because he was a conservative strong believer in maintaining felines as The tertiary species and was willing to do anything to achieve that. The cheetah became the first feline to receive nine lives after a failed attempt to cross the Bering Strait Crossing which was melting for the last time. Even though she was the main character of the book, her story was never really meant to be anything more than a sad story in the future Bast had imagined. She's got other significance too, but I won't go into it here lol.

The second was going to be about the backstory of the series (generally) overarching villain, Kindred, and his brother, Progeny - results of an experiment on just how far interspecies breeding could go in felines. The ~ghostly spirit~ of the lion from the first prequel saw this experiment as his chance to get back to his original plan, and essentially he got reincarnated as Kindred. Basically the idea for this would be to give context to who Kindred is and why he thinks the way he does and why he's able to do the things he does, as well as giving a lot of background about Progeny, who becomes important in series 4.

Then onto the series...

Series 1 was the one I put the absolute most thought into and had actually started writing. It was inspired by a place on my old college's campus that seemed like the perfect spot for four clans to reside. As much as I want to explain it, I think I would need a whole separate post for that. To be put most basically - the story is about confronting a lot of unspoken generational trauma. If I go any further than that I'll ramble about it for hours because I still have a lot of Feelings about the story and the characters.

Series 2 was the one I probably had the least concrete ideas for. It would take place somewhere in a mountainous area with a group of either two or three clans, and the main character was the product of a failed experiment in extreme linebreeding conducted by Kindred. He had some deformities and also had a severe memory problem, that would erase months worth of memories at a time. How he acted was entirely dependent on what memories he still had from before each memory lapse. This was probably the absolute most fucked up series, and it was going to have a lot of horror elements to it. There were no real protagonists, just a fucked up cat dealing with really fucked up situations and being manipulated by his fucked up sister who was manipulated by their fucked up parents who were manipulated by their fucked up mother and even more fucked up Kindred.

Series 3 might have been my favorite because it contained my favorite OC and also was like... super interesting. It follows the story of an ex-show cat who literally changed the course of history just by making one tiny decision that would have otherwise seemed inconsequential. In the future Starclan was given to follow, she would have no effect on the clans because she would stay a show cat and live her life as basically a celebrity in the show cat world. Instead, during a house fire that she was supposed to escape safely from, she leaves just a few seconds too late, singes off the fur from the tip of her tail, and the fur grows back ticked with white which makes her ineligible for showing. She ends up running away after being sent to live as a barn cat temporarily while her owners/breeders tried to find somewhere new to live, and this is where Starclan takes notice. In their future, Kindred was supposed to be the end of the clans, the end of cats in general to some degree. This cat, though, ends up killing him before that could happen. The unkillable cat was killed by a cat born in the most lavish of lifestyles. The series is basically how she comes to live in the clans in the area she's in (clans which were very different from typical warriors clans - i can explain in a different post lol), goes through hell in the name of proving herself, and dies a fuckin legend. Think Firestar, except way more badass and also way better because she was never meant to be a legend in the first place - she worked damn hard for what she got.

Series 4 would have followed the story of Progeny's daughter, Genesis, who was never meant to be born in the first place and who ends up being a half reincarnation of the cheetah from the first prequel story. After her father dies, she and her mother go wandering. Her mother dies of illness, and as a young kit she winds up being discovered by followers of the now-dead Kindred. She gets taken in by Kindred's cult, where she meets her cousin, Dynasty. The two are raised as sisters, and while Dynasty was originally supposed to be the one to take over as lead of the cult, Genesis ends up being favored. The two kind of have a massive falling out after Genesis realizes the cult is Not Good, and Genesis runs away where she changes her name and joins a clan and basically tries to ignore that she has any part to play in this whole storyline at all. Meanwhile Dynasty is discovering that she herself is part of a whole new prophecy.

The finale would have just been the closure of the storyline, with the cult continuing to gather members and clans from all over joining together to fight back along with a few other helpers, the third incarnation of the lion from the prequel, human beings are involved - it was A Lot. But it was also fun to think of because all of the main characters from the other series are involved in some way or another.

#ask me about any of the individual stories/characters if you want to know more lmao #this was something i thought about 24/7 for about.... five? six years? something like that #so i still have a LOT of thoughts about all these stories and characters even though i'm not actively working with them anymore #should also mention that all of the main characters related to Kindred in some way have some sort of cool power #so you can ask about their abilities too lol #warriors cats #warriors #warriors ocs #fanclan #a brief pause in frankenposting #prometheus speaks

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wickedpact · 3 years ago

Text

A ranking of all the TTT stories in order of how much I liked them.

(Oh god this is so long)

1 My Mother's Axe

BABY ANDYYYYYYYYYYYY. Honestly this one had the trifecta of developing a character's motivations, developing a character's backstory, & developing their personality. The story starting out with Andy teaching Nile to use the axe was so charming and fun, and you could feel that chemistry they had in Opening Fire, the way they teased and bickered with each other so naturally. I loved the wedge between them on the subject of the axe, how Nile was perhaps a little too young to understand Andy's feelings about whether or not its the 'same' axe. I also love how the axe is obviously the symbol of the franchise and hugely important, but you never get a sense of exactly how important it is to Andy until you read the story.

I love the entire Ship of Theseus theme, and how it feels so natural that for Andy she has to get attached to the idea of things rather than the things themselves because she'll always outlive the things themselves-- the axe is symbolically her mom's axe, even if physically it isn't. And I love how she clearly clings to that concept so tightly. "This is the labrys she held in her hands...." IT GETS ME.

And the fact that this sense of BELONGING, of FAMILY, of CULTURE is so important to Andy that she clings to it (figuratively and literally) with both hands. And of course it's important to her, she spent so long alone that the woman doesn't even remember her birth name. That axe (or the idea of that axe) is all she has left of her mother and that family/culture she was born into.

PLUS on that note I love how Andy doesn't remember if her mom was her actual biological mother, but it doesn't matter to her. This woman was her mother in all the ways that counted. And how her mom BETRAYED AND KILLED Andy but Andy loved her so much that she avenged her and carried her axe for thousands of years. THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!!!

I also loved how the story transcends the timeline of the whole franchise and seeing Andy through the years. Loved seeing her with the varying squads and with varying axes. Also baby Andy was so cute. It was cool seeing her so young. like holy fuck. Andromache The Scythian, Immortal Warrior (but smol). Love that.

Also I think this one is one of the few ttt stories that doesn't suffer from length problems.

tldr: goddammit greg you've done it again.

2 Zanzibar and Other Harbors

Zanzibar my beloved. I've said before, but it's downright comedic how little regard there was for Joe and Nicky's character designs in this story. The same person who does the colors for the regular comic did the colors for this one too, and you can tell, every panel of this story was Beautiful.

Ik there was A Lot of criticism of this one (lmao @ how the fandom had no idea what was to come) but I thought a lot of The Discourse was a bit dramatic. I did think Nicky came off as a little oblivious to Joe's feelings in this story, but I've said before, I honestly think that was a 'tone not translating' thing. It felt like Nicky was nagging Joe for [checks notes] saving innocent people, but Joe was so amused by Nicky's complaints I really do think it was supposed to come off as teasing.

Plus I know the 'Joe running off into danger and Nicky reluctantly following' dynamic wasn't popular (I'm a pretty meh on it meself) but I did love how Joe's impulsiveness (if you want to call it that) was interpreted as heroism and not hot-hotheadedness. All of the examples Nicky and Joe talked about included Joe explicitly saving people. (and it also took A Lot for the nazi to actually provoke Joe).

I also feel like their characterization here was closest to the movie canon-- the bit where they hear the woman scream and Joe goes running in to save her while Nicky swoops in on Joe's heels to comfort her while Joe and the nazi were fighting reminds me of the train car scene. Joe had suggested First that they go find Nile because she needed to be protected, and Nicky later added that Nile probably also needed emotional support. Similar reactions.

But it was So Good, the themes of queer community and the enduring nature of queer culture are Not themes you see in media that often and it was such a delight how it was done. Also it's one of the few more modern TTT stories that has a completely valid excuse for taking place when it did. Chef's kiss.

3 Passchendaele

I love the Duality between seeing baby Andy and then seeing Mama Andy in the very next issue. This story doesn't have a ton of meat to it, but the entire concept of Andy adopting a war orphan straight off the battlefield PLUCKS MY TENDER LITTLE HEARTSTRINGS, and I think it's especially poignant for comic!Andy. I think most people wouldn't think twice about movie!Andy doing something like that but comic Andy is so hardened and almost cruel sometimes, and seeing that even for her the world hasn't beaten all of the compassion from her yet is SO!!!!!!! this woman contains MULTITUDES okay, she's violent and angry and tired and Done but she's also so kind and compassionate and THE STRENGTH OF HER!!!!! Also the idea of her and Yitzhak co-raising a kid together is so damn cute. It was #mysterious pre-Yitzhak-story but now it's cute. holy fuck. It's cute.

& the headbonk panel of her and Zeus lives in my heart. anyways.

4 Many Happy Returns

I Know people weren't thrilled about Booker being in this one, but I've developed a pet-peeve about that: this story was *not* booker-centric. Booker only exists in this story to the extent required to explain the importance of the gesture Nile makes towards him. If there was a story about Booker making some grand gesture of kindness to Nile no one would be saying it was Nile-centric. bc it wouldn't be! Booker exists in this story to explore Nile's kindness, its not about him. I saw that a couple times and it bothered me. anyways.

AAAAAAAAAA I loved this one, the art was beautiful, I loved how Andy Nile and Booker were drawn (like their comic selves but.. more looking like actual people). I loved Andy and Nile's Bants, how Andy wanted to jump right in and Do Violence but Nile was basically telling her to hold her horses.

I feel like I'm just repeating the post I made on this story a few days ago, but I LOVED how Nile's plan revolves not around violence or Cool Mercenary Skills but on Nile's own life skills (as she canonly did a lot of minimum wage job-hopping before the marines in comics canon). Her plan used her skills, not the skills of an immortal warrior, and HER SKILLS were in fact more useful for the situation! lov to see Nile's resourcefulness and planning skills.

AND HOW NILE WAS PROBABLY WATCHING BOOKER??? it's so Much bc 1.) nile knew booker A SINGLE DAY and yet he made such an impression on her emotionally that she had to keep an eye on him and 2.) she said in the movie she wanted Booker to get off free with an apology. Yes she's a member of the team but that doesn't mean she's necessarily going to follow orders like a good little soldier. I also love how she convinced Andy to go along with it. her HEART, her KINDNESS, her THOUGHTFULNESS, UGH.

5 The Bear

Honestly I have like no negative things to say about this one other than a.) character design issues which is less about the story itself and is more of a 'tog comic in general' criticism and b.) too short, but it was supposed to be a tease, so.

But I loved Yitzhak, I wasn't expecting to really like him at all but like I said in my other post, he tickled me. I love characters who are Kind™, especially if they have little reason to be so given their backgrounds. Chef's kiss. Lov him.

6 Bonsai Shokunin

I know this one was a little controversial bc of the outsider POV but whenever I see people upset about that they never point out that the Outsider Guy (the samurai) existed as a reflection on Noriko. His ideas are explained in the text to develop hers. The whole story follows how she gave mercy to a scared young man and in response he murdered Noriko, repeatedly! Who gave him the right to inflict such pain and suffering on the world? In his opinion, the lack of response from the gods was his permission. And for Noriko-- over and over again she dies and suffers because she gave mercy, which lines up with her ideas in FM about how it's their fate to rule mortals and if they don't align with that plan/fate/whatever then they suffer. It shows some background to those ideas and how they developed in her mind outside of Ocean Madness™. Additionally, his idea of 'the Gods have done nothing to strike me down so it's fine if I do these things' kind of explains how Noriko may justify her own morally corrupt actions-- she's died so many times and it's never stuck. Maybe if she did die any of those times, or while she was in the water, maybe that would've been a sign she was doing something right, or at least doing something normal. But she hasn't died. Fate isn't done with Noriko yet. And maybe there's a reason for that. In her mind, it's just not a very pleasant reason, is all.

There were things I was kind of meh about tho. I did kind of wish we saw something of Noriko and the team, or smth explaining the way she was before her dip in the pool-- personality, likes dislikes, etc. but it wasn't bad or anything. It was super vague tho, I had to read it a few times before I got what it was going for. Liked the art. Liked the bonsai metaphor. And of course I Respect the decision to use the 1300s (1200s? I don't remember off the top of my head) rather than using the last 200 years.

7 Strong Medicine

Honestly looking back, this one made me kind of sad because both this one and Bonsai Shokunin explored character's ideas on Fate and The Divine and how that intersects with immortality and I totally thought that theme would be continued, especially with Love Letters. But Then It Wasn't™.

Admittedly.... I had to re-read this one to remember most of it. I liked Booker's ideas on God, 'The conductor of the symphony just may not be very good at his trade' but the plot itself was kind of forgettable. Some fuckin cowboys try to kill a doctor (their second) because he couldn't save their sickly brother. Book tries to stop them, gets killed, and then comes back and kills them all before they get the doctor. Alright. I liked the artstyle because the characters were ugly in a similar way that leandro's are, but way more bearable.

I love the Irony of Booker concluding that there is no such thing as fate or destiny and nothing has meaning, AS HE UNKNOWINGLY SAVES MERRICK'S GRANDFATHER FROM BEING KILLED. Booker getting fucked over by life/god/destiny yet again. It also kind of explains about where the fuck hell Merrick's interest in immortal mercenaries even came from.

I originally had this one a lot higher and then I thought about it and moved it down like two spots.

8 Never Gets Old

I liked seeing Booker interact with his kid. And we got a name for the kid! Philippe was a little bitch though, he was a little obnoxious. I liked how Booker was so thrilled to experience a restaurant with his kid (and since we know he was there before, it can be assumed he went with all of his kids and yet he was so charmed each time). It fits with his line to Nicky in the moon landing story about how you don't appreciate beautiful things 'unless you have someone to share them with'. It was charming to see Booker interact with his kid, and to see him so happy. Also lmao @ Booker's big fat Ye Olde Crush on Andy.

However at the same time it was like.. of all the things to write about,,, I guess? Booker's Night Out...... alright. Especially since Book had so many stories.

I don't know, it was alright. The old man killing him really came out of nowhere, (but the 'Salut, asshole!' panel was funny tho).

9 How To Make a Ghost Town

I've hit a point where talking about these stories has gotten less fun. I liked this one but I felt like Achilles getting lynched was not really necessary for a story that was already tragic (a story that already involved Achilles doing a lot of suffering at the hand of bigots). When we first got the blurb for this story I thought it would be about Andy returning to the squad and making friends with Booker after losing Achilles and them butting heads on the idea of family and when to cut off ties. So a little bit of my underwhelmedness about this one might be just my expectations being different.

Honestly I was pretty interested in Andy and Achilles' relationship and I would've liked to see more of them-- like, what was their dynamic like? What did they love about each other?

But anyways Andy leaving and Achilles getting killed anyways feels so pointlessly tragic (which I suppose is the point..... I don't like tragedies) she left to save him and yet people killed him anyway. Meh.

I did love the bits about Andy wanting to have a domestic life (Andy and her multitudes again) and the little detail about how she buried her axe near the road but he buried his guns under his bed-- he was an escaped slave, he never had the luxury of assuredness like Andy did. It was a sad story.

10 Lacus Solitudinis

'You put this one above love letters crim??? how could you???' easy, lmao.

There was stuff in this one I liked. But to talk about stuff I didn't like: (I'll keep it brief, I know ragging on this story has been done time and time again)

UH, setting aside the 6 year cold shoulder between Joe and Nicky, I thought their chosen method of conflict resolution was... bad at best. Nicky's inability to talk about his feelings was also annoying, especially since the entire point of this story is a fight Joe and Nicky had, and yet we don't get both sides to the story, which is...... important? That fact is especially annoying bc in the absence of Nicky explaining his side of the story, it's absolutely a possible (and admittedly probably unintentional) interpretation of the text that we do get that Joe routinely resolves conflict between him and Nicky by simply cutting Nicky out of his life entirely until Nicky just. caves? Even if it takes years?

WHICH i could get into that interpretation and how fucked up i find it. but im not going to. out of restraint.

I don't know, I think there are a lot of interesting ways to go about this conflict but 'Nicky wants to kill a guy and Joe refuses to acknowledge his existence until he stops because he thinks Nicky is too much of a Good Boy to get his hands dirty like that' ('I wont watch as the world turns his (...) compassion into something ugly'. ) wasn't.. how I would've done it. (I mean you know Joe doesn't give a shit about what Nicky is doing in a moral way, because Joe doesn't even care or mention that Booker is killing those cops too. Joe only cares because he doesn't like the idea of Nicky changing in a way he finds undesirable.)

admittedly I've said before, I do like the emphasis Joe's reaction puts on Nicky's kindness. Joe has a complete inability to cope with Nicky simply Not Being Kind. It speaks to the steadiness of Nicky's compassion all those years. but still that fact doesn't make it the conflict feel worth it

hm. I said I would be brief and I wasn't.

oh well. basically I thought there was interesting conflict potential there but it wasn't done the way I would've liked, and the way it was done leaves a lot of disturbing (and again probably unintended) interpretations to lie.

What I did like? Andy and Joe having that pessimist/optimist dynamic. Joe nerding out about science. Andy not being impressed by The Achievements Of Man. I loved Booker needling at Nicky about his outdated slang and also trying to give him Older Brother advice practically in the same breath. I loved Booker giving The Worst relationship advice ever and Nicky being like 'I Will Not Do That, Ever, Thanks.' the family vibes were so good. The Joenicky vibes left a lot to be desired tho.

11 Love Letters

I talked about my problems with Nicky in this story (and Lacus Solitudinis). I don't know, the story isn't bad but I do hold a little bit of a grudge towards it because its very existence begs the existence of a solo Joe story and we didn't get one. If we never got this story, then we could happily count Lacus Solitudinis and Zanzibar as The Joenicky Stories™ and move on with our lives. sigh.

I remember when we first got the blurb for this story I was really curious about why Nicky specifically + the setting, and the answer kind of feels like 'the author had an idea for a story like this and saw ttt as a good enough place to utilize that idea'. Plus I was really underwhelmed by the Romantic Sentiment in the letter. If you look at it line-by-line, the majority of the letter is actually Nicky talking about how lonely and disturbed he is, rather than actual,, yknow,,, Romantic Sentiment. I mean, compare the van speech and this letter and this letter is just kind of meh in comparison. I liked nicky calling joe wise! and I liked the brief sun/moon metaphor! and otherwise it was eh. It didn't even have cute squad banter, which is why Lacus Solitudinis is above this one.

12 An Old Soul

Nun orgy. Nun orgy?????? Nun orgy.......

The whole story felt like a setup to have a nun orgy. Why did Booker have abs? Why did they do that to Andy's nose? ?????? the art was good at least.

nun orgy.

#tales through time spoilers #obviously #long post #seriously dont open that read more unless youre committed to scrolling past all these Words

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