#(but i did NOT get much further than plotting them and writing a few scenes that rlly spoke to me)

[thenationofzaun]

Arcane's Music Videos and Storytelling

Many have complained about Arcane Season 2 overusing "music videos" compared to Season 1 and I agree. Two in particular - "Sucker" in episode 2 and "Hellfire" in episode 3 - are particularly bothersome because instead of being supplementary to the storytelling, they replace the storytelling. Entire plotlines are told through these music videos and barely expanded upon further through writing. Despite both depicting very major events that are incredibly impactful for both Zaun and the characters involved.

First, the Chembarons' gang war. Shown entirely through the "Sucker" sequence, dialogueless. Later, there are only a few brief written scenes related to it (Smeech heading to Margot and the meeting table discussion, neither of which actually depict the war). Smeech is later killed and the gang war story is abandoned by episode 3. This would have been such a major event for Zaunites. Not just for major characters, but for everyone who has the misfortune to live in that city. If they had actually written this subplot out, the worldbuilding could have been expanded upon and given much more depth, these Chembarons with excellent designs could have been fleshed out and not felt like a waste of characters, and we would have gotten more insight into the lives of the average joes in Zaun. It would have been a natural continuation of the Chembarons' introduction in Season 1 too. This subplot could have easily taken up the entirety of Act 1, but because of too many competing subplots, it had to be cut short and summarized by the song.

Next, Caitlyn's squad releasing The Grey into Zaun. Shown entirely through the "Hellfire" sequence, also dialogueless. The impact of this action is only briefly mentioned later through dialogue, when really this would have had a huge effect on many people living in Zaun. If they had written this entire sequence out regularly, we could have had character building for the three new enforcers as they interact with Vi and Cait while moving through Zaun. We need this, as two of them don't even have names yet. One doesn't have any dialogue yet. We could have seen in detail the impact of their actions on Zaun, rather than only being told. We could have had much needed characterization for Vi. What was her reaction to this plan when it was first conceived? Did she oppose it initially and have to be convinced?

Edit: The "Hellfire" sequence also covered all the Chembarons getting wiped out and Shimmer being dismantled.

I want to experience these events as a story, not as an AMV. It's admirable how artistic and beautifully made these sequences are, but they are the epitome of "style over substance." In my opinion, rather than being at the beginning of the episodes, these sequences could have worked as end credits. They are summaries of subplots after all. The episodes themselves could have these storylines written out regularly, and then the end credits have beautiful imagery summarizing what happened.

They could have taken a page out of Chainsaw Man's book. Each episode of Chainsaw Man had a highly stylized end credits sequence, all with different animation styles, with imagery of that particular episode's plot. The episodes themselves have normal written storytelling. This way you can flex your artistry as much as you want, without sacrificing the writing. Arcane's end credits are just a black screen with text. If anything could have been replaced with stylized visuals and have nothing of value lost, it was that.

[palenutbasement]

(all scenes are depicted as platonic)

So every Inktober I try to do something more challenging, and this year I thought I would make a short comic/fanfic. I think I got the idea for this one a year ago but I was already wrapped up with another Inktober. Eventually I solidified the idea by making my own prompt list some time ago.

This comic is split into three parts with 10 days focusing on each of them, 30 in total, everything is compiled here. I wanted to post them after October in case I wanted to change anything.

This first part takes place in the summit.

The comic is basically all improvised, that means no planning for the composition, plot, or sketching any drawings. The most planning I did was write a few scripts ahead of time within the month to save me some time but most of them would be changed last minute anyways.

As for the plot, I won't go too deep into it because I don't want to talk too much, so you'll just find commentary on the making of the comic and stuff.

This first part is a little gimmick-y compared to the next two, with new elements appearing almost every day. It’s because I relied a lot on the prompts (dog, milk, etc.) to keep things happening, eventually I move further away from them.

What is surprising to me is how much the art changes as the days go by especially within the span of one month. I did refine a few things to keep it more consistent but this is nearly indistinguishable from the original drawings.

I should also mention that my favourite aspect of this project was adding references to the game and subtle details (if you can find it all, awesome!!) This may have been done quickly but I like to have those things and put at least a bit of effort into the dialogue.

Part 2

Eventually I figured that drawing the same setting for 30 days straight would drive me insane, hence why this comic is split like it is. I’m glad I did because it makes the story a little more interesting, seeing the characters have different attitudes in different places and whatnot.

This one takes place in the cave directly after pt 1. Admittedly I do better drawing outdoor settings, it's what I'm used to, but the cave wasn't so bad to figure out.

I remember these two days I was streaming drawing the comic to my friends, so I kinda zoned out while we were talking lol

One of the prompts was about napping, so I made Dwarf sleep. I believe I was tired that day too and it was therapeutic to draw and include that. Also they look cute, I think.

18 & 19 have some of my favourite drawings in the comic. The campfire lighting is what we'd get if I had a bit more energy each day, and I like the perspective in the first panel of 19.

I find this last section interesting, because of all the 30 days, it’s the only one in Dwarf’s POV. I felt like it was fitting to do something like that at the time.

Part 3

Since we were approaching Halloween, I wanted to have a special part for it. It’s related to the other two parts but it takes place some time after. I’m really sorry it’s out of season, if it were up to me I would have had this post out earlier (thank my midterms for the delay)

Out of all the other parts this one is my favourite. Maybe because it’s more recent I’m inclined to think that way but it has some of my fave moments that I've written here.

Other than that I don't have much commentary for this part. More thoughts at the end!

I was caught up everyday atp, but I didn’t have much spare time to prepare for the ending (I wrote it the morning of that day). I think this is a decent conclusion though.

I intend on coming back to this story, maybe next year to make a continuation but we'll see what happens. There are definitely things that I want to come back to someday.

Thank you for making it this far btw. It's been an eventful month for me beyond this (Untitled) comic, but there wasn't a single aspect of this that I didn't enjoy doing. It's a silly project and I care about it.

Also, I'm not going to neglect the 31st of October! That day will get an illustration, where I will pick my favourite panel and redraw it. I want to take my time with this one so it's not out yet, but hopefully I can finish by Christmas.

[sxpphicwitch]

In general, I'm ok with the finale. I thought the Billy All Along Hex thing was a bit tacky but it is Marvel so I'll let them off. However, I'm disappointed with the Agatha x Rio plot line for a number of reasons.

The first episodes had this smoldering, hurt, wanting thing between the two of them, like they'd hated one another for so long but we were about to see some kind of resolution. We see the first fight, then the road truce, "she is my scar", then "well her mother can't have her", then "I like the bad boys". It felt like a total and complete tone change to "I never want to see your face again".

Then, when we get to the flashback episode, it's hard to connect to why Agatha's so hurt that Rio is doing her job, because we have zero context of what they mean to one another in the 1700s except for "my love". Yeah Agatha's gonna be sad her kid's gonna die, but she's specifically hurt that Rio is going to reap him. But we the viewer only have a modern context for their relationship (and actually a lot of that context comes from vague statements made in interviews). It's sad that her kid is destined to die, but Rio gives her time with him (which is markedly more than a lot of mothers got in the 1700s, that's for certain). And, although a lot of people are hypothesising that Rio is also Nicky's parent, they did not confirm that (and easily could've, and would've also fleshed out why Nicky couldn't live, being born of Death etc etc). I'd have even been happier with the explicit framing of Rio as an absent parent, and their contemporary relationship framed in the context of the loss of a shared child.

But the main reason I'm left feeling something's missing is because we're never shown why Rio cares so much about the feelings of this mortal witch. I'm left wondering why they bothered to include a romantic relationship at all.

And, what's so difficult for me is that it could've been fixed with a few lines and a short scene showing how they met, something like that. It feels like there were key scenes edited out.

I've seen a lot of takes that are something along the lines of "the show wasn't about them, it was about grief etc etc" and that's great but actually, for a lot of people, the show was about them. I watch Marvel stuff casually, I wouldn't say I'm a Marvel fan per se, I was specifically drawn in by the marketing decisions made surrounding that particular aspect of the show. So to have essentially no further fleshing out of that relationship, a kiss which is the kiss of death and then the vague promise that Agatha will turn up in some show about teenagers with powers, doesn't really cut it for me.

So yeah, those are my thoughts.

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank (in advance) the incredibly talented fanfiction writers who are probably already toiling away writing fix-it fics. You're all angels.

[shinynewboots]

Staring at the Sun / Adam x Lute Chapter 1

Summary: After the battle, Lute attempts to flee with Adam. They find themselves unable to return to Heaven and must adjust to life in Hell.

AN: Hello all! I have been obsessed with Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss for the past two weeks and got this plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone! So excited to be writing for this fandom! This chapter is relatively short but I wanted to go ahead and set the scene for the rest of the story. Hope y'all enjoy!

Warnings: Violence, gore, 18+ eventually, Adam-typical misogyny eventually

Chapter 2

“NO!” Lute screamed, running towards Adam. Golden blood dripped from her dismembered limb, leaving puddles of golden tears as it fell. She could no longer feel the searing pain in her arm. No, that pain now belonged in her chest at the sight of her beloved leader being stabbed in the back.

Adam lay face forward, golden blood gushing from his multiple stab wounds as the Damned could only stand and watch in awe as the small demon pulled her knife from Adam’s back.

Lute fell to her knees beside Adam and used all the force in her body to roll him over, the remains of her left arm hanging against her side. 

“Sir! Stay with me sir!” Lute screamed, almost demanding. Adam gave her a soft smile. It had been a long time since she had seen his face, but it was just as handsome as she had remembered. Blood dripped from his nose. His golden eyes were soft but empty, losing light. His hair was messy and full of dirt and debris. His beautiful heavenly robes were stained with blood.

“Adam!” She screamed. Had she ever called him that before? Tears welled in her eyes and she took in the sight of her beloved leader. His eyes closed, and his breathing grew shallow. 

“It’s over,” The Princess of Hell said in a dark tone behind her. Blood pulsed in Lute’s ears and saliva pooled in her mouth. 

“Take your little friends and go home,” Lucifer exclaimed, fire blowing from his mouth in a rage. His voice was low and threatening. All around them, the other exorcists had stopped fighting and Lute could feel all the eyes of Hell upon her. 

“Please,” Lucifer added, a snarky smile on his face. Lute breathed deeply and grabbed Adam’s halo.

“Retreat! All exorcists fall back.” She screamed. Exorcists filled the skies and fled the scene as though it were a crime. The group of Hellions watched on, triumphant looks upon their faces. 

Lute knew she could not leave him. He was better than all of these demons and sinners. He was Adam. He was the First Man. He was…everything.

Lute took in a deep breath and used all of her remaining strength to pull Adam onto her shoulders. It took a few tries as she could not balance him due to her loss of forearm. Finally, she felt secure enough with him on her shoulders. He was much bigger than her and would weigh her down as she flew but she had no choice. She couldn’t leave him. 

She unfurled her wings, beginning her ascent back to Heaven. Exorcists filled the skies, almost all back through the portal that Adam had originally opened. The fucking cowards had not even bothered to try and help her bring back the body of their leader. Fucking bitches. 

Lute could feel Adam’s blood soak into her back. She could no longer hear his breathing. He couldn’t be dead!

He was Adam!

“Don’t you dare fucking die on me Adam,” She whispered as though it were a prayer. Despite being an angel, she had not prayed in decades. What was there to pray for in heaven?

She flew much slower than she ever had, weighed down by Adam and her own exhaustion. Her arm was dripping blood back down to Hell like holy raindrops from above. All of the exorcists were back through the portal.

She was so close!

Just a little further!

But wait.

Why did the portal look like it was getting smaller the closer she got? 

Her eyes widened in realization as the portal closed leaving her flying toward the Pentagram sun, the sky around her empty.

How was this possible?!

She couldn’t open another portal.

She couldn’t—

Falling. 

She felt herself begin falling. 

Her eyes grew heavy. 

She was so tired. So dizzy. She just wanted to rest. 

NO!

Adam. 

Adam needed her. 

Adam was—

Falling too

Everything went dark. 

How long had it been since Lute had been in the dark?

“Dad!!” Lute heard someone scream. Hell Princess maybe?

Adam. 

She had to save Adam.

Adam—

[filthgarbage86]

Part 3, Option 2 - The List: Submissive!Eddie Munson

(this is part of a series that I've been writing but the general idea is that you're trying to figure out which nickname makes Eddie go crazy for and in that attempt, you prove how naive you still are as well) you can find the link to that here

Part 1

Part 2

CW: puppy!eddie munson x afab!reader, smut like absolutely filthy smut, there was plot but that was before, f receiving, face sitting, submissive!eddie, dom!reader, switch!reader, brief moment of degration

Eddie Munson took good care of you. He was always trying to make sure you were pleased not only physically but also in an emotional intimacy way as well. He had such a big heart, you find it really hard to imagine how anyone could be scared of him or think that he's some spawn of Satan. In reality, he was an angel, an absolute darling person.

Most, if not all of the videos that Steve had suggested to you and the ones you found all had very dominant themed names for the guy in the scenes. Which was fine, you loved more than anything when Eddie dominated you. And you knew that most of the names on the list you got just weren't going to encourage Eddie to listen to his own pleasure or even allow you to be able to take on that role or responsibility. You were still going to try them but you were just wanting to figure out what made Eddie blush and feel the same way when he did stuff to you.

At first, you try the basic ones but they weren't really good in that sort of way. And again, there's not much to go off of. So it's not until you two are alone and just sitting in his room that you have the discovery.

You're sitting on his bed and he's sat on the floor, resting his head between your thighs like they're a neck pillow for him while he plays on his guitar. He's strumming out a tune, trying to figure out a chord progression and is so focused that a little bit of his tongue is sticking out. You're just sitting above him, playing with his hair and stroking his face every now and then.

"You're so good, baby"

Eddie shivers a little bit and says a quick little thank you. Interesting.. you had already tried baby but that wasn't it the other day.. You try again, a few moments later.

You start stroking his face and tightened his neck in between your thighs just a little bit more so your presence was notable. You angle his face to look up at you-

"Have I mentioned lately how much I love you? How good you are to me?"

He looks wide-eyed and glazed over. Oh this is interesting indeed.

"N...no, I mean, yeah! but not.. those words exactly.."

"Aw Eddie, you're so cute, you're like a little puppy"

He flushes, deep. Oh. That did something. You remember seeing that in one (1) video and you didn't understand it until right now. It makes sense, especially when he's sitting below you, look up at you with those puppy-dog eyes, big, wide, and brown as can be in the soft lighting.

"You like being called a good boy? Aw puppy, you want to be good for me?"

He whimpers. He lets out the smallest exhale of a whimpered moan and just nods his head slightly, completely forgetting about his music task at hand. You stand up straight, motion your finger for him to come up and come closer and he's on his knees, hands out on both thighs to stabilize him a bit, waiting for further instruction. "Look at you, so obedient."

You now take the liberty of lightly guiding his chin towards you with motioning finger and start peppering kisses along his jawline. This new surge of found power is electric and you're only getting started. You still don't really know what you're doing but you're going along and hoping to figure it out along the way.

"Who knew the satan worshipper of Hawkins, the scary Eddie Munson, was just deep down such a good boy that wants to be taken care of and to be good in return. Isn't that right?"

He whimpers out a soft like uh huh to you and you have a grinch like smile. "Use your words, puppy"

"Fuck, yes. I want that yes miss."

"Oh so good for me puppy, you keep calling me that and we will be in good shape today. Now, what does my puppy want? I'm going to take such good care of you, baby"

He starts getting antsy, he's wanting to touch you and be right up against you, but he's still figuring all that up right now. "I.. I want to make you feel good, miss"

"Baby, that's what you do every other time. What do YOU want?"

He looks up at you from his knee-position on the floor and he looks like he's going to melt away "I want you to use me"

Now it's your turn to blush and muttering for words "Okay. Undress me. Slowly."

He starts going for your belt immediately and you have to grab onto his hair a bit tightly, not enough to hurt him but enough to send a shiver down his neck.

"No, what did I say? I said slowly. You have to wait."

He huffs out but he does as he's told. He slowly unbuckles your belt and pulls it out of your jean loops, disregarding it. He goes to hike your pants down, but again, you pull on his hair. He hisses and moans in succession of each other. "Wait... stay.."

He's really into this. He is blushing just as red as before and you aren't even undressed yet. He zips down your zipper and undoes your button before he is gently wiggling you out of the form fitting jeans. These ones really highlighted your hips. So he started to slowly, absent mindedly, kiss your hips and start sucking into the flesh. He looked up at you while still going so immensely slow.

He looked at you like he was in prayer, and you were an angel- no, he was looking at you like you were a god that he worshipped. He starts kneading and pawing at your thighs and takes a big, obscene whiff of you and groans. He looks up at you once more and just above a whisper asks "please?" You give him a short nod to indicate that he could start.

He immediately dives in and you're already having a hard time standing, your knees buckling at him angling himself so you can quite literally ride his face. The noises are pornographic and sloppy from him sucking and slurping you up and you still somehow feel absolutely filthy.

Without trying, your hips start to spasm from pleasure, making your clit rub up against his nose and both of you are moaning for different types of pleasures. You grab onto his hair and you don't hold back at all, swaying your hips up down.

"Fuck puppy... shit- feels so good. You're so so good to me, baby" He mutters something and you pull him off of you for a moment, "don't mumble, what did you say?"

He takes a few deep breathes, looking already fucked over, "I don't want to be baby right now, I want to be good, I want to be your.. your.." You smirked, feeling a bit of deja vu from this "You're safe. You want to be my..." "Call me puppy again, please."

"Good puppy, that's my sweet boy, wanting to listen so well and make me feel so, so wonderful. Tongue out, handsome"

His blush goes down beneath his shirt collar and he continues licking stripes up you, paying mind to go all around your puffy sides and circling your clit just how you like it. He angles himself again to where he's now got a finger entering you with ease, followed by another, slowly going in and out of you. You are practically humping his fingers and face, and you look down to see that he himself is humping the air.

"You dirty, filthy dog. You really did just want to get me off huh? You so pussy-whipped you'd do anything to be praised huh?"

He's nodding feverishly, adding even more friction to the equation. You weren't going to last long, not when he was being so irresistible. "Fuck fuck fuck.. shit, fuck, shit- Eddie I'm cumming, I'm cumming! Oh FUCK!"

You're essence is dripping from you, it pours out of you without indication or warning. You are washed over with such pleasure that you continue to sit and ride Eddie's face until you literally can't take anymore and have to sit back down on the bed.

Once you catch your breath, you pull him up to the bed to find not only his face is soaked in your essence, but there's a prominent tent and wet patch in front of Eddie's jeans.

"Thank you Bunny"

"Thank YOU. Now... does my good little puppy want to finish the job?"

Let's just say the way he's fucking into you, the way he's whimpering and moaning while just hammering into you? There's a reason he earned his nickname, just like you earned yours

Oh to have a relationship where you're fuckin like a couple of love-sick puppies or bunnies.

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

A/N: I KNOW NOT MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BUT I WANTED TO GIVE IT A TRY, I KNOW IT'S A LITTLE RUSHED BUT I WAS WORRIED ABOUT LENGTH AND EVERYTHING. If you want more puppy!Eddie or submissive!eddie, leave a comment or request in my ask box!

[presidenthades]

Here’s the behind-the-scenes for Lavender Ch. 6!

Usual disclaimer that these thoughts aren’t necessarily canonical to the fic verse until/unless I write them into the actual story.

Aegon’s undercover adventures are some of my favorite things to write. If this chapter weren’t monstrously long, I would’ve written a lot more about what exactly Aegon did while sleuthing. Editing for concision is painful. 🥲

Aemond being terrible at going undercover is another of my favorite things to write ahahaha.

In the books, Dorne is very ethnically diverse. You have salty Dornish like the Martells who tend to live near the coast, sandy Dornish who live in the desert, and stony Dornish in the mountains who look and act more like Andals than like the Rhoynar. So it’s possible for Aegon to pass as a stony Dornishman (the term isn’t coined until later in the timeline, so I don’t use it in the text) as long as he doesn’t draw too much attention.

Originally I was going to make Aliandra extremely flirty with Aegon, to the point that she brazenly crosses the line of propriety. Then I realized that would play into the “promiscuous sex-centered Dornish” trope that’s prevalent in fandom, so I backtracked. I also looked critically at how Aliandra is described in F&B. Although I usually think the “unreliable narrator” part of the Dance is exaggerated, I think it is plausible (and probable) that in-world maesters would not write about Aliandra, a foreign Dornishwoman, in a sympathetic light. She’s depicted as coming onto Alyn Velaryon, who is depicted as being brave and noble and true to Baela. But Alyn is a serial cheater, so if something happened between him and Aliandra, I doubt he was totally innocent. So instead of making Aliandra a homewrecker, I just made her flirty and a bit boy-crazy for Valyrian men. She’s a rebellious 16yo, so I think her doing the medieval equivalent of putting up band posters of her family’s ancestral enemy tracks. 😂

S1 Mysaria joins the spymaster business as a way to make money off of rich people willing to pay for her info. In this verse, she gets so good at it that she has a few of Viserys’s personal servants on her payroll, hence her ability to find out about the journal etc. Of course Larys doesn’t like this, because a) she’s infringing on his turf and b) if she knows about his scheming with Viserys, she might tell someone. He acts against her after the moon tea, so she has to flee quickly and ends up in Dorne. But she has limited resources and she gets sick (something like tuberculosis), so she grows desperate enough to broker a deal with Aegon. She’s realized she can’t return to KL as long as Viserys (and Larys) is in charge, so she hopes allying with Aegon will give her a fighting chance.

“It may shock you to hear this, but I don’t know every YiTish who lives in King’s Landing.” This was my wry little joke about the IRL microaggression where people sometimes say, “Oh you’re [insert racial/ethnic minority]? Do you know [insert name of person also in that racial/ethnic minority]?” Aegon wasn’t really asking that; it was a ruse to see if she’s lying about Myranda. But I imagine Mysaria gets asked about all the YiTish people in KL a lot. To be fair, the YiTish community in KL is probably very small in this era, but it’s not like they have social media to keep tabs on each other.

“Old men, young men, rich men, poor men, hale men, crippled men.” It’s not a coincidence that Mysaria mentioned the last one re: “tempting even the most calculating man to act unwisely” around Jace.

Larys’s spies have orders to stop Aegon and Mysaria at all costs from spreading news about the plot against Aegon. When they realize Aegon and Mysaria have found each other, the spies take advantage of the Dornish people’s anger about the Targs and foment further unrest. Larys also has spies inside Sunspear, who are the reason it’s so easy for the mob to infiltrate the castle.

Mysaria’s parting message about Aegon being “Lord Protector of the Realm” rather than just the Highborns is another foreshadowing of Aegon the Smallfolk King. Also, even though she’s been on the run, she’s heard bits and pieces about the Smallfolk in KL favoring Aegon, which contributes to her decision to ally with him.

Qoren is barely a character in this fic, but he is yet another example of one of the themes in this story: parents are (or should be) willing to sacrifice everything for their children. His only scene is him giving himself up to the rioters to buy his kids time to escape.

The assailant is of course on Larys’s payroll (lack of tongue is the big giveaway). He also uses show!Jace’s trick at Driftmark of throwing sand in Aemond’s face to temporarily blind him.

Sunfyre is the MVP, carrying five people in his saddle. Bro needs a back massage after this.

Vhagar and the Martells’ face-off makes me cackle. They are all definitely remembering the first Dornish War.

One of Viserys’s first journal entries is about being “pissed about something Daemon did in a brothel.” This is of course a reference to the S1E4 brothel scene with Rhaenyra. In this universe, Otto doesn’t immediately tattle to Viserys about it. Instead Otto leverages the information to persuade Viserys that he can’t keep Rhaenyra as heir.

Viserys really loved Lyonel Strong. Larys takes advantage by pretending his Lyonel 2.0, which helps win Viserys’s favor. Larys also hands over a supposed copy of Daenys’s Dreams and Portents, left behind by Queen Rhaena at Harrenhal. Is this a real copy? It could be! Some of the prophecies are very prescient from an IRL reader’s POV, particularly about the false Aegon (the alleged Aegon VI in the books who’s probably actually a Blackfyre, sponsored by the Golden Company) and the mother of dragons (Daenerys, obviously).

I’m of the belief that prophecies in fiction are best utilized to make things WORSE, not better. So here, Viserys’s obsession with TPTWP almost wrecks his own family, when all he needed to do was nothing and things would be fine on their own.

Aegon casually demanding Dornish subservience on a whim is so on brand for him. 😭 He has a good instinct for when opportunities arise for him to seize. The problem, as highlighted in this chapter, is he doesn’t always want to seize those opportunities. He would rather be selfish and go home to Jace. But she’s his conscience now, and he thinks she would want him to secure Dorne. (TBH she would want that; most people would not foresee Viserys disinheriting Aegon for it.)

Otto would 10000% have come up with the best PR campaign of the century if he was able to see the Dornish treaty first.

We don’t get a canon description of Rhaenys and Visenya’s crowns, so I took thematic liberties. Aegon ends up giving Rhaenys’s crown to Jace, so I wanted it to be something suitable for Jace. The OG Targ trio had a Velaryon mother, so I figured Rhaenys may have decided to honor their mother with her crown.

Ravens are trained by maesters in Oldtown, and then they’re cared for by maesters. Sunspear has a maester, but Dorne and the Reach are such historical enemies that I can’t imagine maesters/ravens being prevalent in Dorne before Dorne joins the Seven Kingdoms. So it’s hard for Aegon to receive news from KL before he returns to Sunspear.

Aegon intentionally used Jace’s handkerchief as a white flag to her father and grandmother because symbolism. Who says he isn’t a politician!

Viserys never tells Aegon about the song of ice and fire because he doesn’t really want Aegon as his heir. But him only mentioning Rhaenyra as “mother of dragons” in his journal shows that he never particularly wanted her as heir either; it was all a means to fulfill the prophecy.

When Aegon offers to make Rhaenyra his Hand, she plays with some of the roses in the room because she’s thinking about what Jace would want. 🌹 Also, I feel like Rhaenyra would genuinely be happiest living an independent life. She doesn’t want the throne because she wants to rule, she wants it because it’s validation that her father loves her. So Rhaenyra doesn’t immediately accept Aegon’s offer; she doesn’t actually want to rule as Hand.

“I am not so precious to him.” Rhaenyra plays with the Daemon necklace when she says this, so “him” doesn’t necessarily mean Corlys.

Aegon doesn’t trust Viserys (for good reason) so he refuses to go into the Red Keep where anything could happen to him. Instead, our Smallfolk King insists on having everything happen in the open, to be judged by the people. Also, witnesses are a good safety measure.

“Kings must place the greater good above our own wants. We all must make sacrifices for the sake of the realm.” Viserys doesn’t actually exemplify what he preaches—but Aegon does in the very next moment, when he offers to give up his claim.

“I do not hate you.” Viserys genuinely believes this, though he can’t bring himself to say he loves Aegon. He didn’t condone Larys sending the assassin after Aegon—but Viserys didn’t ask Larys for details either, so he’s not a paragon of fatherly virtue. As long as Viserys keeps his hands clean, he can claim innocence.

As one commenter said, “Daemon jumpscare!” Daemon has haunted the narrative thus far, but he hasn’t really been a character in this fic. As readers know, Daemon never has a chance to cause trouble in Lavender…but maybe in a sequel. 👀

Aegon’s efforts with the walkway project and general willingness to hang out with the plebs pay off this chapter. I love the scene where all the Smallfolk give him little gifts to try to make him feel better. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s the best they can afford to give away, which says a lot. Compare this to Aegon’s highborn “friends” who don’t even reply to his messages…

Rhaenyra is baffled by how much the Smallfolk love Aegon because, as evidenced by S1E4, she’s never been one to mingle with Smallfolk.

Jace hears about the party that Aegon is throwing on his dad’s front lawn and decides to help him out. People love free food, so she sends Gyles to stir up the crowd in Aegon’s favor some more.

Alicent has a small scene where she holds Aegon’s hands and stares as if counting his fingers. This is a reference to how lots of newborn parents like to count their babies’ fingers and toes.

Jace sees Gyles and Ronnel every day when they serve her pies, so she’s able to plot with them without attracting suspicion. Aegon’s friendship with the Smallfolk leads to Viserys’s downfall. So poetic.

Hippocras is a spiced wine that book!Viserys enjoys drinking. It was also believed to have aphrodisiac qualities. There’s the unspoken implication in this chapter that when Viserys drinks hippocras, he usually asks Alicent to come over for a sleepover. 💀 Jace knows this. Usually Jace would sympathize with Alicent, but right now Jace is thinking,“Alicent, Aegon is your son, please stop crying for 5 minutes and DO SOMETHING to save him.” Now that Jace has her own son, she is a bit more brutal about pushing Alicent to make sacrifices for her children. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jace actively arranged for Viserys to be served hippocras… 👀

At the very end of this chapter, Alicent FINALLY gets her Green Dress moment in this universe. She’s stopped dressing in black as if she’s in pseudo-mourning. Now she’s waging war against Viserys, and boy is she efficient at it. She’s described as being in disarray and dressing less modestly because she seduced Viserys, waited for him to fall asleep, then held a pillow over his face. But Alicent is very religious, so she feels guilty AF about it and has a breakdown in public.

See Chapter 7 commentary here.

[warningsine]

Your answers to the asks about fanfic has been so interesting but now I’m curious about those 1% of fics that are amazing. Would you mind gives us some examples?

I mean, sure, but keep in mind that

a) even those are my 1%,

b) most of them are pretty old recs, because I don't read as much fanfiction as I used to.

Without further ado:

The North Remembers by qqueenofhades (ASOIAF) It's the one I mentioned earlier. Back in the day, I read another work in this fandom, but this one made me forget where canon ended and where this fanfic began.

The Narrative Strain by The Noble Arduenna (Wicked, bookverse) The author utilized horror elements to make Elphaba and Glinda swap roles in a way and turn the latter into a tragic heroine.

A Colder War by Charles Stross (Lovecraftian horror) The Cold War set in the Cthulhu Mythos world.

Eighty-Six Years by jimmymcgools (Better Call Saul) This is the 7th season of the show. To me. The same author wrote this pre-canon/canon compliant series that I adore.

Roads by panademonium (Breaking Bad) Post canon neo-noir/western with Jesse, Saul and Skyler. Sadly, the last two chapters were never posted. The same author wrote a missing scenes type of fanfic for what Jesse went through while in captivity.

Interstitium by AssaultSloth (Mass Effect) I was reminded of this one last year, because the 8-Bit Big Band used the author's full set of lyrics of "Scientist Salarian" and gave musical life to it. Anyway, I remember enjoying other Mass Effect fanfics like Interregnum (how Garrus became Archangel) and The Siege of Shanxi (what happened during the First Contact War, this one had some punctuation issues), but AssaultSloth should have been on Bioware's payroll. The author managed to delve into every single ME2 character's head and make sense of certain things that didn't in the game, e.g., how a bunch of murderers and war criminals that hated each other were able to work together. And few people could write Mordin as brilliantly as AssaultSloth.

The Monomythical Adventures of Regina Mills and Emma Swan by maggiemerc (Once Upon a Time) No, come back, don't leave! Yes, (as far as I remember) these works had some typos and the 4rth part of the series remains unfinished. Yes, sometimes they got borderline crackish (not a bad thing in my books). That being said, maggiemerc took that atrocious soapy mashup of Disney fairytales and made it gayer with Emma/Regina, Aurora/Mulan and a bisexual Hook. Except the romances were a subtle thing that didn't get in the way of the work's epic fantasy adventure plot. She included various myths and fairytales that weren't Disney's latest hot property. The story had a good pacing and focused on Regina's character development without defanging her or whitewashing her into a contrived redemption arc. Honestly, the third part alone (steampunk dystopia with Cora in charge) is worth it imo.

unsentimental by foxbones (Happiest Season) Listen, I give zero fucks about this film. I'm usually lenient with lighthearted romcoms, but the only thing this one managed to make me do is open AO3 to check if other people thought that Kristen Stewart's character should have ended up with Plaza's. (They did.) Accidentally, I stumbled upon a romcom about Plaza and Brie's characters. That made me chuckle at the time, because I'm pretty sure the only words they exchanged were each other's name. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it (I was familiar with the author because of this post season 1 "Killing Eve" fanfic) and ended up liking it more than canon. It's been a while for me, but if you want a "Happiest Season 2" that is focused on Riley, check it out.

He Who Pours Out Vengeance by Underground (Hannibal) Alternate version of season 2. Considering it was written before the actual season, it’s prescient about certain things. Not many people could capture the tone of the show; stay true to the dark and obsessive nature of Will and Hannibal's connection. This writer could. Unfortunately, the sequel remains unfinished.

I wanted to mention a rather dark "Killing Eve" fanfic (took place after season 1 ended, but the tone and Villanelle's characterization leaned into the books), but the author took it down. Sad, because it was one of those rare stories in the fandom that went beyond lesbian yearning/sex between Eve and Villanelle. It had an interesting plot. Anyway, I'll link a cheeky reimagining of season 1 instead: Down, down under the earth goes another lover by Vaultdweller. It is technically an AU (see, I can do AUs after all, heh), but only technically since the characters and their world are the same. The main difference? Eve is darker (think of seasons 3 & 4 Eve) from the get go.

Elainie by The Scorpion (Phantom of the Opera) Okay, I don't remember this as well as the other pieces on here (it's been many, many years), but it was distinct. Most works in this fandom used to be fluffy/smuffy takes on the musical (which I do not care for). This one was Leroux-based, gruesome horror with good characterizations.

P.S. I'm pretty sure that had I finished this one, it would have become a fave too. I started reading it a few years ago, because Mike was one of my favorite characters in the BB/BCS universe, but stopped due to life™ developments.

[fanbun]

Time for me to talk about Hazbin Hotel now that season 1 has ended!

I’d like to start off by saying I enjoyed watching the show. It is a visual delight that introduces some much-needed variety to the western adult animation space. Charlie and Vaggie as main characters hooked me even way back when I watched the pilot on YouTube. And although many of the songs caught me off guard in the episodes themselves, I kept going back to listen to them for days afterward.

But in all honesty, when it comes to writing, season 1 is a structural mess that wants to do as much as it can in 8 episodes rather than narrow its focus to what is most important for a first season. Yes, of course this is subjective to an extent, but the lightning-fast pacing the show quickly adopts is a common complaint even among the most hardcore fans. It is glaringly obvious that major plot points and character development are rushed because Vivienne did not want to compromise her vision to fit neatly into the number of episodes given to her.

Sure, I agree that 8 episodes a season shouldn’t be the norm but I don’t think the quality of a show is doomed to suffer because of that. Choices were made by the writers to include characters and scenes that could have easily been saved for a later date or even cut entirely. Season 1 didn’t even have to end with a climactic battle between heaven and hell, as first seasons are usually meant to introduce characters and provoke further intrigue that can be expanded upon later. But as it turns out the almighty cool factor demanded a war to end season 1 and that’s what we got.

This is something I’ve noticed often while watching Hazbin. The spectacle of engaging designs, captivating animation sequences and catchy songs quite literally steal the show. This “cool factor” will almost make you forget that many of the main characters have hardly spoken to each other outside of a few brief jokes here and there.

Hazbin wants to be cool and it wants to have an expansive cast of characters to make the world-building feel fleshed out. But this doesn’t exactly work when we’ve hardly gotten to know a character before moving on to the next one who seems far less relevant to the main selling point of the hotel that the first season is SUPPOSED to be establishing.

And here’s where a HUGE issue with the pacing comes in and that’s how fast we see sinners at the hotel get better. It doesn’t feel like 6 months have passed in the show since there is barely an indication of the passage of time, and we also don’t get to see much struggle to change from those staying at the hotel. Both Sir Pentious and Angel Dust are given their own character development episodes, but in my opinion a single episode for each is not enough to feel like the development was realistic and earned. Directly afterward we see them immediately improved and acting as if they have become close family with those staying at the hotel.

It was jarring to watch since I felt like I was missing the context for when all of the characters bonded to the extent of being that close. The only characters I saw bonding in a way that felt real were Angel Dust and Husk, and even though episode 4 was terrific for showing Angel’s struggles and how the hotel serves as his support network, it made me desperately crave more genuine moments like it.

I especially wanted more genuine moments between Charlie and Vaggie since they experienced an upset in their relationship towards the tail end of the season. And unfortunately the last two episodes didn’t satisfy me since the two talked more with other characters I wasn’t interested in than with each other. It’s a shame that Alastor often steals their spotlight, and from what I’ve heard season 2 is going to be more about Alastor and the Vees too. This worries me, as it seems Vivienne is showing favoritism for the supporting cast over the main characters.

Still, I will definitely be checking out season 2 when it’s released to see if there have been any improvements. And even if there aren’t, it’ll be a fun show to turn my brain off to. I see the show’s existence as a net positive for the animation industry despite the issues I have with it.

[not-rude-ginger]

Was thinking about Smooth as Ink today, would you mind sharing any trivia about it? (About a character, a scene, the writing, anything is okay.) I know you're working on it, I just miss it a bit. (Still, take your time, I can be patient.)

This is very sweet, I've been working on it a little this week, trying to fix an issue in the plot so I can get the boys further down their path in a satisfying way, and it's really nice to know people still want to see the rest even though it's been ages.

Let's see, Trivia, Trivia ...

I won't give the details away, but I had to spend some time trying to find a way to translate the Lan parents' story into a Modern AU that would follow the canon in spirit, even if not in detail. It ended up being kinda interesting to develop, as I didn't want it to be a straight victim!Madam Lan -- she did kill someone in canon and we don't know why -- I thought having something messier and confusing and would also tie into LQR's determined dislike of JC was much more satisfying. LQR has seen this film before, and he didn't like the ending.

JFM continues to be the hardest character for me to write, EVER. Odin Borrson, who I think was the originator of the tag 'X's A+ Parenting', was easier to write than Jiang Feckin Fengmian! He's the reason it's been such a slow process, I cannot figure out how to present him because he's so, so passive. I know he loves JC, I know he wants whats best, but Oh My God he's infuriating! I keep having to remove him from scenes because he just turns the scenes to sticky treacle.

LWJ runs away from home -- but he doesn't know how to book a hotel so he runs to the Nie because Dage will know how running away works!

Something I'd like to go back and fix before I post new stuff is small details like JYL and WWX's lives outside of JC -- JYL's wedding, her career as a YT chef, maybe some stuff about her chronic fatigue, JL being on the way before the wedding, etc. I feel I didn't give them enough thought for how important they are to JC, which is kinda normal for the story I'm writing, but I feel it would just add to the overall story to add a few things in.

NSFW trivia under the cut

I'm planning for JC to realise he has no idea what the standards are for gay virginity loss (is it sharing an orgasm, penetration, hands, mouth, what?) so he can worry to NHS that he might have taken LWJ's without making it special like he wanted. He assumed they were building to penetration as "The Deed" but thinking about it, that makes little sense (what if neither of them want to be penetrated?), and now he's not sure whether they've already crossed the line or not. NHS finds this very cute.

[theozilla]

I stayed up late last night finishing the Pluto anime (I watched the English dub; I am planning on rewatching it in Japanese and the German dub eventually) and now I am putting down my thoughts after having slept on them. 

Urasawa’s Pluto is one of my favorite manga (and comics) of all time, so I was very invested at the prospect of it getting an anime adaption (regardless of the fact that I expected I would end up, and still do, preferring the manga as the best way to experience the story). Anyways, overall, the Pluto anime is a great anime and a good adaption. The animation was very good, though I agree with the common criticisms that parts of it could have had better compositing. I do have a few criticisms of it as an adaptation though, critiques that go beyond the standard practice of shortening, slightly modifying, and cutting of (less plot-essential) dialogue and scenes that come when an anime adapts a manga (especially text and plot dense ones). I essentially have three major/not-insignificant criticisms of how the story got adapted (though I am quite aware that the cause of these shortcomings may be more due to the anime production just not having the time and/or resources to do so, than being deliberate creative choices). 

         My first criticism is the fact that in the manga Gesicht and Brau-1589 did end up exchanging memory chips (this happens at the end of volume 2 in the manga, which is roughly analogous to what episodes 2 and/or 3 of the anime adapted). Cutting that plot point from the anime is a significant story loss IMO as it was an essential step in Gesicht’s character arc, specifically him slowly realizing that parts of his memory were erased. It also diminishes the effectiveness of Brau-1589’s character as not only does it further explain and justify why Brau considered himself and Gesicht to be two of a kind (i.e., Brau was able to notice and discern Gesicht’s erased memories) it also removes narrative parallel/“rhyming” of how Atom had previously read Gesicht’s memory chip and is implied to have picked-up on the same erased memories as well. Also not getting to hear Brau-1589 do the haunting line of "500 Zeus a body" voiced-acted is a crying shame. 

         Secondly, the choice to cut out the various scenes Dr. Roosevelt, the immobile super-computer A.I., and the President of the not!USA, from the first half of the story was a mistake. In the manga, by volume 2, the audience is supposed to be explicitly clued-in to the fact that Dr. Roosevelt and the President are directly involved the serial murder conspiracy (with the how and why still being unknown). Not having this context established before the second half of the story in the anime I would imagine makes the later scenes of Dr. Roosevelt and the President that do get adapted much more confusing and random for an anime-only watcher. It also diminishes the greater connective and overarching themes of the narrative, particularly the ones critical of the USA and Neo-imperialism (which I cynically wonder if that was one of the reasons said scenes were cut). Excising the earlier Dr. Roosevelt scenes and references to it, as well as the parallels with Brau-1589 (and the theme of robots feeling hatred and other extreme emotions), brings down the quality of the character and thematic writing in general as well. 

         And finally, a few adaptation choices done in the final eighth episode, I feel brought down the quality of the climax. Beginning with the least significant one, but still important IMO, was the cutting of Doctor Tenma and Professor Hoffman’s scene at Gesicht’s grave. Besides it further elucidating the themes of the narrative, it’s also just a loss in terms of giving a bookend to Hoffman’s role in the narrative and his relationship with Gesicht. Next, is the anime’s decision to make Bora completely non-verbal when Atom and Pluto confront him during the climax. In the manga, the intelligence of Goji/“Abullah” was still present, which not only made the climax more emotionally engaging, but it also specifically made Pluto/Sahad coming to terms with the ghost of his father much more effective as well. Lastly, and my biggest issue with how episode 8 adapted volume 8, was the choice to have Atom remembering Gesicht’s final words and the flashback that reveals how Gesicht found the robot child he and his wife adopted, occur in the middle of the scene where Professor Ochanomizu witnesses Atom picking up a snail and showing how he still has his humanity intact after being revived in the way that he was. In the manga said scenes occurred right before Atom is about to deliver a killing blow to Pluto (and are subsequently intercut with the remainder of the climax). The way the anime rearranges the contents of volume 8 in episode 8 really messes up the flow, particularly the emotional flow, of the story’s climax and makes it less engaging and effective as a concluding experience. 

Anyways, despite those three major areas I took issue with, I still really enjoyed the Pluto anime and consider it to be a great work overall. Though I still recommend the manga as the best and proper way to experience the story. 

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

Oh btw! Right back at ya - 2, 9 & 13 for There Are Some Cons to Being and Archeologist…, A Couple Nights Later…, and It Might as Well Happen! Life is Already So (Old) God(s)damn Weird! (aka my personal faves of yours 😊😊)

~ @sammys-magical-au 💖

Thank you so much, Sammy! It's been FOREVER since I got an ask about characters or stories! (I'm pretty sure this is only the third creative-focused ask I've gotten this year. 🥲)

___

There Are Some Cons to Being an Archeologist…

2 — What scene did you first put down?

The start of recent-flashback-scenes; where Penn and Illinois were chatting in their hotel room, the day before they set out to explore the underground cave. I didn't come up with the opening scene of LevianthanPat circling the jeep and tapping at its windows until a few days after I started writing the story.

Since half of the story is made up of those recent flashbacks, I decided that I wanted to start it off with present events to keep readers curious.

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

Sort of? Y'know the middle of the plot, where Penn and Illinois find a certain chamber in the underground cave? They examine it, Penn gets some weird vibes, and the two of them decide to leave...only for Illinois' nemesis of a boulder to crash in?

Originally, I had planned to write the duo actually leaving the chamber, only to encounter the boulder further along and find themselves in an entire slapstick chase sequence until they were eventually driven back to that one chamber and the boulder finally broke the petrified mass at the center.

However, while I was writing, the story got much, much longer than I'd anticipated, so I had to make some cuts to the plot here and there.

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Well, writing rituals are a bit all over the place for me. Half of the time I do enjoy having some background noise, but other times I need it quiet in order to focus.

The time I spent on this story was the latter. However, I think “Seven Devils” by Florence and The Machines would be a somewhat fitting song for certain themes later in the story. (Due to LevianthanPat being involved, lol.)

___

A Couple Nights Later…

2 — What scene did you first put down?

The scene where Murdock, Caliban, and Azalea stopped to visit Sparky's and Ness was the one to wait their table. Mainly because I'd been holding onto the exchange of technical puns between Ness and Cal for SO DAMN LONG and was just so eager to finally get it out, lol

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

I think one initial idea was for the story to not involve Murdock, but I decided to bring him in because...well, I want to write about him more and more often as I continue developing The Pentas Family's lore/stories.

Along with that, another thing that didn't make the cut was for Illinois to be much more active in convincing Penn to talk with Caliban and Azalea. As in, Illinois basically pushing Penn over to the other table, or just approaching the other table to introduce himself and explain what Penn told him about his estranged cousins.

Obviously, I didn't go with that, because I really wanted to show how Illinois can respect boundaries. Although you've gotta admit, he does kinda give off the vibes of a headstrong friend who might up and drag his buddies into something they're avoiding/procrastinating on.

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Didn't actually listen to any music during the writing process. But, if I had to pick a song to be playing in the background, I think I'd go with “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. (Yes, I know, I'm so old-fashioned, har-har.) Especially for the scene where Penn realizes that he recognizes Caliban and Azalea...as well as how he can see them subtly recognizing him as well...

___

It Might as Well Happen! Life is Already So (Old) God(s)damn Weird!

2 — What scene did you first put down?

This was one of the stories that I just wrote from start-to-finish. (Which, in hindsight, might be why I ended up in a time-crunch and pretty much just wrote from noon to nighttime in order to post it on time for your birthday 😅)

Still trying to go back to my old tricks of just jumping around and getting the big/important scenes out first so I can be inspired to write stuff around them, thus filling up the story a bit faster.

9 — Were there any alternative versions of this fic?

Nope, not really. I was honestly kinda surprised at myself; I usually have a bunch of ideas and end up needing to just settle with one for a single story (unless, of course, I can find a way to convert the extra ideas into scenes and have them lead into one another nicely enough).

13 — What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Lol, like you said before, I mentioned “Mx. Sinister” in fic for a reason. I was already planning on having Cruz play his violin in a scene or two, but I didn't want to just say that he was playing. I wanted to reference a real song so readers could imagine the music. Plus, I'd looked it up on YouTube, and it seems like there aren't any violin covers of “Mx. Sinister”; really, all I found were piano covers.

(A little extra trivia here: IDKHOW is one of my favorite bands...but there's this up-and-coming singer on YouTube who I discovered by random chance, and I honestly like his cover of “Mx. Sinister” more than the original. His name is Clem Turner, and I highly recommend checking out his channel and all his other covers! He has the voice of an angel!)

___

[aluminescent]

Happy Christmas🌟 Not to bring you any stress about the second book... but I'm still on the edge of my seat after reading the first one🤭 So if the second book is still something you're planning on doing take your time✨ Aand if you happen to have some updates on it I would be so curious to hear?😅💛

Hey there, and not to worry, you're not a bother at all! I'm always so amazed that people are still interested in this story 😭. I'm definitely still writing, but it's taking far longer than I anticipated for this next installment. I've also been experiencing some ongoing life-altering issues these past few months that are getting in the way of my writing consistently (but bonus, some of these problems are assisting me with a couple plot points in my fic so . . . let's go, I guess). Trying to see the the silver lining with these, though, and trying to keep a positive attitude. Timing wise, I cannot make any concrete promises as to when I might start posting.

I'd be happy to share a couple of updates, though (under a read more, because, as always, I'm long-winded):

I think I've finally landed a new title for this next installment.

I'm aiming for 3 arcs again for this book, just like Blackout.

I have one (1) chapter fully completed. It continues to go through multiple rounds of editing, and small details may further be edited down the road as more of Book Two is rounded out. But when a lovely beta (bless her soul) read through it a couple of months ago, it was around 12.5k at its completion. With the most current changes, it's now nearly 20k and barely looks the same as when she'd looked it over, but it's much closer to its final draft than it was a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I'm unsure if I want to post it within this next book, as a one-shot, or even post it at all. As it's currently written, its best position within this next book would be 1) as an 'interlude' that prefaces the second arc; 2) quite possibly as the prologue, which then might deter people from reading the rest of the book because of the chapter's content; or 3) as a standalone before Book 2 is even posted. Again, it might not show up at all. I'll only know when the overall installment is nearing its close and I'm better able to gauge the overall mood.

While there's still a lot to be written, there are multiple plot points and scenes written out, but where they fit around each other is still a huge unknown. The reason for this is:

I'm still going between this being a final sequel or if there might be a third book. If there is, both books will be written for simultaneously for most part (I think, aha). Some parts of this has a life of its own that's only revealed as I write.

I'm trying to create a more complete universe for the various subplots I explored in Book 1, especially regarding the Reid household (Spencer, Diana, and William equally), and regarding Maeve. I know that neither William nor Maeve is everyone's cup of tea, but I'm actually enjoying rounding them out more and giving them more substance than the meager bits we got from the show. Either way, this means that I'm weaving a lot into the past. Believe it or not, digging into both of these characters will be necessary for the healing portions of this overall story.

While there's a lot of healing to be had in this installment, I can't turn away from the hurt and some psychological warfare; helps me sleep at night and keeps my pores clear just as equally as the comfort, you know. We did leave of with the looming threat of The Replicator, yes, but there's a lot of untapped footage that reveals what happened with our poor victims (ahem, Spencer) when they were so drugged to the point of absolute unconsciousness.

I hope these sort of whet your appetite if at all!

[w1ld-wr1t3r]

Trick or treat? 🩷🫶🏼🫂

I shake up my treat bag of writing goodies, reach inside, and pull out your random prize . . . behind-the-scenes of a fic or series! Congrats, trick-or-treater!

Hmm . . . let's go to my Star Wars AU for this one! All about how it was created, my reasoning for certain lore and narrative choices, and how some of my ideas are panning out:

When I say that the idea for this AU grabbed me out of nowhere and started running, I am not exaggerating. I was literally watching the sequel trilogy one weekend, and it happened to be a race weekend too, so F1 was on my mind already. I think I thought something like, "Man, imagine the skill needed to pilot an X-wing properly. And to do it without dying in battle, too!" And then all of a sudden, I was also thinking about how much skill it takes to drive an F1 car without crashing it (because I think we can all agree that most of us wouldn't last five seconds behind the wheel of a racecar. If their necks have to be THAT muscular just to withstand the g-forces, then clearly I don't stand a chance). One thing led to another and now here I am.

I knew from the beginning that I was making this AU in the Rebels vs. Empire era. The prequels are fine, but I wasn't about to make everyone Jedi or something when I knew Order 66 was on the horizon. Plus, the original trilogy era is just generally more exciting to me. And I ruled out the sequel trilogy era immediately. After that train wreck of a trilogy, I would rather stay away from it. (To be fair, I do enjoy watching the sequels. They're entertaining at the very least, and do have genuinely good moments in them. But if you focus on the story too much, you start to notice the plot holes, confusing story directions, and aggravating character choices. Why is The Force Awakens just Episode IV all over again? Why couldn't Holdo tell Poe her plan in The Last Jedi, exactly? Who the heck was Snoke?? How did Luke and Leia know that Rey was a Palpatine but she didn't?? HOW DID PALPATINE COME BACK IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?)

(*deep breath* Phew, sorry about that! Got a little carried away. Anyway:)

The decision to make Lando Force-sensitive was an easy one. My favorite Star Wars show is Star Wars Rebels, and one of the main characters, Ezra Bridger, is a kid who doesn't realize he can use the Force until he happens to run into a rebel group that includes a former Jedi, which eventually leads to him getting hunted down by an Inquisitor, one of the Empire's official Jedi hunters. Lando's story is similar in a way: he joins the Rebellion, eventually realizes "wait a minute, do I have the Force?" and then has to deal with an Inquisitor on his tail when he accidentally reveals too much of his abilities. He's not super strong in the Force, because I didn't want to make him too over-powered, but he can sense things before they happen, move a bit faster than others, sense the emotions and intentions of people around him, and, his most special power, he can use the Force to heal others. Now this last power, I will admit, is actually inspired by the sequel trilogy. By certain scenes from The Rise of Skywalker, in fact. If you're familiar with the movie, then I think you can venture a guess at what might happen to Lando and/or someone he cares about at some point in the story. (no, I'm not elaborating further. You'll find out more when I get around to publishing it! ;) )

Writing this AU has been happening in short bursts. I have about half of the main story loosely outlined and a few of the major scenes written out, but I still have to figure out how to start the story. I also have ideas for side stories and sequels as well, but I haven't started writing most of those yet. I mostly just submit to the whim of my muse when I sit down to write, so if I sit down planning to work on one fic but my mind says I should work on something else, I listen to what my impulses are telling me. I find that I tend to write better (and write more) that way. In fact, I'm actually just coming out of a dry spell for this AU. I opened up the document again the other day and now I'm feeling motivated to write in it again. Hence why I picked it for this ask, it was on my mind already!

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this is mainly a Norrix AU. However, other ships and dynamics will appear too, sometimes just in the background, other times in their own installments in the series. I already know for sure that I want to include Brocedes (though the jury is still out on whether it'll be platonic or romantic in the end). I'm sure we're all familiar with how their drama went down in real life. And in Star Wars, what could be more dramatic than two friends torn apart because one joined the Rebellion and the other joined the Empire? Oh yeah, it's that kind of drama for Lewis and Nico! Will we see an Imperial defect to the Rebellion and fight alongside his childhood best friend again, or will we see them permanently torn apart by intergalactic war? Who knows!

Other relationships that may appear are Loscar and maybe Bearnelli. I have fic ideas involving both but we'll see if I actually get around to writing them.

One more thing about this AU is that I decided pretty early on that if I was gonna write about war, then I wasn't going to shy away from the bad parts. I'm not gonna just torture all of the characters for no reason, but if the plot demands it, let's just say that someone might end up in the med bay for a long while. I'm preemptively apologizing for what I have in mind for Oscar in the main story. And uh, maybe Ollie too, if I do end up writing that side story. They'll both be fine, don't worry!

Maybe.

[impetuous-impulse]

NaNoWriMo Midway Progress

So I've accidentally entered a drought era due to the Sisyphean task of keeping up with NaNoWriMo. I wanted to thank everyone here for the support they've shown me (but I got bowled over by November)! This is my first time participating in the challenge and the thought of people who want to read my work motivated me considerably. Since we're over halfway through, I thought it would be good to write down some insights.

At this point, I've been writing, but I can't even say my attempts have been wholly successful; I am still not caught up with the daily word count (which I have been failing from Day 1). The story is... progressing, at the very least; I think we're a quarter of the way in. If the story pans out fully, it will probably be 80-100k-ish.

I've learned quite a bit about my writing over the past few days. I really don't fit the style that NaNo requires of writers, which is "quantity-over-quality-becomes-quality, so just knuckle down and write and edit later". My approach is more like "find the precise words for each sentence and fine tune it even more when editing", which takes excrutiatingly long. Having tried out NaNo-style writing, I already know I need extensive edits for the first few scenes (mostly because Ney made so big of a mess). Style constraints also aren't helping—I need to practice writing in past tense a lot more.

Speaking of writing on your feet, I have learned that I absolutely cannot pantse things. If there is no plan, it takes infinitely longer for me to finish a scene, which affects the pace at which I achieve the word count. Historical stories that mess with timelines absolutely need more than... the week of planning that I did, lmao. One way I kind of got around this was literally word-vomiting chapter outlines in advance to rack up my word count in the first week. I also tried to rewrite scenes and include them into the word count, but found out that slowed my momentum.

If I write over 2k a day starting from now, I should still get to the 50k word count by the end of the month. I worry that I won't be spending enough time immersing myself in different scenes because the story timeline will be moving much more quickly the further I get into it. Maybe I can solve this by following the main thread of the plot (the Ney and Soult Show) and leaving bits that involve other characters I haven't researched later.

Feel free to drop me a line or ask questions about the project if you want to. Until next time!

[hueynomure]

top 5 fics you've written!!

Ooo, that's a tricky one! I'm only gonna consider finished Ao3 autonomous fics - there's so many WIPs in my folders, so many enticing ideas that haven't turned into real fics (yet)... I've also written quite a bit for the Magic: Expanded Multiverse project (Magic the Gathering fics, but keeping the worldbuilding roots and giving a wide berth to canon) and permutations of my own OCs there, but calling most of them - and especially my fave to write - fully autonomous fics would be a bit disingenuous, I feel. I'm still pretty proud of those, though.

So, without further ado and in no particular order, these are the 5 fics that come to mind right now when I think of being the best for me, in combined terms of quality and importance for myself and my growth as a writer:

Dragon's Blood: a classic fairy tale about princes, dragons and maidens fair... with a twist. I've had a lot of fun, experimenting with the narrative tone! The connection with the original media is practically nonexistent - a wink to a certain character of the aforementioned MtG fan project.

The Antlion's Den: A Naruto recursive fanfic. I have an undying appreciation for what @jumpingjacktrash did for me just by existing and posting his stories, so when I had the inspiration to make recursive fics of his work I jumped at the chance to... return the favor, in a sense? The Antlion's Den is the meatier of the two fic, featuring his OC being cute, my OC being a bastard and a bigass fight at the end... when he said it was the best recursive fic he had ever received it easily made my week - I still smile at the thought.

Farewell gifts: This is a shared spot with Breaking Point and Woven In, really - they are my first steps in the Miraculous "fanficdom", but while Breaking Point features one of my best tropes ever and it's my very first ML (and Loveybug!) fic, Farewell Gifts features the Mariwalker post-reveal scene I wrote in THREE DIFFERENT FICS (wtf) and most importantly it was the first time I tried to engage a sweet, adorable teenage romance on its terms - I'm way more used to write gritty fights, bitchy dialogue and angst.

Undercover: the first smut I publicly shared! It was so exciting, to explore this whole new genre, weaving fluff and smut with no further goal than indulging my writing itch! And the response was incredible, it gave me so much confidence to continue and eventually write Augmentation and its continuation, which I'm pretty sure I'll finish writing at some point. Speaking of long-awaited conclusions...

Are Hexagon Square Dances a Thing?: if you had asked me a few weeks ago, this wouldn't have made the cut. I was so excited to join in @asukiess's Valentine Week celebration of Loveybug, figuring out a way to use all the LoveyWeek prompts to build some sort of plot (with @mostmagical's amazing help) and daily posting was so much fun! ...until it came to a jarring stop. The very last chapter got stuck in my brain sideways, and it took me EIGHT MONTHS to get through it. It soured the whole memory of that delightful week for me, so I'm glad I was able to finish it. To keep with the First Times theme, this was the first fandom event I joined in my life! And except for that snag at the end, I had a grand time.

Thank you for the ask! It was cool, to look back at my work this way 💜

[kingdomoftyto]

It's taken 15 years, but it was worth the wait...

All right, I've put it off long enough (and had a very busy/distracting couple of weeks) so it's finally time for my review of TAAAM Act 2

For those who missed it, the second half of Turnabout: an Ace Attorney Musical dropped at the end of last month [here's a link to Act 1 for good measure], and to say I've been listening to it a lot since then would be a gross understatement. My partner and I have literally been greeting each other after work each day with, "Today's biggest earworm was [insert TAAAM song], how about you?" Even if I listen to any other music on my morning commute, by lunchtime I'll inevitably still catch myself mouthing the words to "Lotta Things" or "Tomorrow at Last" or whatever else.

What I'm getting at is that this is not just a cool piece of collaborative fanart. This is a legitimately fantastic musical. Period.

The music is wildly catchy, but remains cohesive with every other song. There are repeated leitmotifs and about a dozen reprises and incredibly satisfying references to music from the games (I was waiting for "Cornered" the entire time and was NOT disappointed when it finally showed up late in Act 2). It feels well-structured, like a real Broadway production. All of the songs from Act 1 that I would have considered the weakest--they now stand fully redeemed by their absolutely phenomenal reprises and callbacks in the second half. Every song in this musical, every line, is there for a reason.

And this careful planning serves to accentuate the stated primary goal of the entire musical: maintaining the character-driven narrative of the games and emphasizing the pathos of the story. On both counts, this team absolutely delivered.

Because not only is this a really cool musical, it's also a fantastic piece of collaborative Ace Attorney fanart. (See what I did there?) I know I already said it in my Act 1 post, but these folks understand these characters and what makes the story so memorable even 20 years later. The emotional beats, the character growth, the relationships between them all, are impeccable. Every character gets their time to shine, and in particular I want to praise their handling of Maya and Gumshoe, who feel like fully realized people and each go through their own personal arcs throughout the course of the story that are just as satisfying and heartwarming as Phoenix's own.

And that's a good segue into the subject of what creative liberties the team DID take with the story, because there honestly aren't that many, but what they did change is so good. I replayed Turnabout Goodbyes a few nights ago and was surprised at how much dialogue in the musical is taken line-for-line, sometimes even verbatim, from the source material. But, aside from the changes you might expect from condensing an entire mystery game's worth of story into a few hours of runtime--such as simplifying the cases to require fewer clues to solve--they really only altered the plot in ways that gave more chances to develop the characters, and to create rewarding arcs for each and every one.

They added a whole damn scene of just Gumshoe and Maya having a heart-to-heart. It is easily one of my favorite scenes in the entire play. These writers drank their respecting-Dick-Gumshoe juice that morning, and that single scene gives a better emotional payoff to his loyalty to Miles than I think we ever got in canon, while remaining utterly in-character for everyone involved. Meanwhile, the scene doubles as one of many stepping stones* for Maya's own character arc (which is also much more focused and consistent than in canon, imo!), in which she struggles with her feelings of helplessness and inadequacy as she tries to live up to Mia's legacy.

(It goes without saying that this scene also serves the practical purpose of getting characters in place to further simplify the details of the case, as mentioned before, because the writing is unparalleled and I will keep emphasizing that as many times as it needs to be said.)

In truth, there are only two things I would qualify as "major" changes to the story (in that they're different from canon, not that they actually change the plot itself), and I'm hesitant to spoil them here because both of them are SO good and both of them hit me like a truck when they happened. One has to do with emotional depth getting added to a certain character's arc, and the other has to do with relationships between characters. (Maybe I'll add them as a self-reblog to this post because I still need to scream about them lol.)

In any case, I'm not kidding when I say that the musical's version of events, big changes and small, is so compelling to me that it has now superseded the canon version in my mind.** It manages to tell the exact same story while not only giving some of the "side" characters much more credit, but also tying the cases themselves together into a single narrative. The specter of Redd White and his chokehold on the justice system is present in the back half of the original game, but the musical tweaks things to really make you feel how all of these pieces fit together to direct the characters' actions and growth. It's just... ugh, so brilliant. [chef kiss]

I would be remiss if I didn't also take a moment to directly praise the performance of the actors. As obsessed as I am with the music itself, my single favorite moments in both Acts are actually short lines of spoken dialogue.*** The delivery just struck a chord in me and I still lose it a little every time I hear those parts. (And other parts, but. Shush.) Everyone did a great job, but the three leads (Ren, MJ, and Gavaroc, who played Phoenix, Maya, and Miles respectively) absolutely knocked it out of the park in both their sung and spoken performances. Is it weird to say I'm obsessed with how convincing the screams are in "600,000 Volts"? It is, a little? Okay, well. [cough] Regardless. The whole cast really knew what they were doing throughout this entire production; the emotion is extremely powerful when the moment calls for it**** and they elevate the dialogue--again, a lot of which is taken DIRECTLY from canon!--from something good to something amazing. The delivery of these lines has literally changed how I look at the first game, now. They're that good.

Quick shout-out to some of the other voices that have invaded my brain and instantly become my headcanon voices for the characters. Just off the top of my head: Larry, Payne, Sahwit, Redd, Grossberg, Lotta, Lana... seriously. This cast is absolutely star-studded. Even the ensemble freakin' killed it, absolutely transforming every song they were in. The soprano that hit that high note at the end of "Justice for All (Reprise)"????? MAGNIFICENT. GOOSEBUMPS EVERY TIME.

Good grief, this is already so long and I still have so much more I could say. This is why it's taken me so long to write all this out, by the way. This musical is transcendently good, both from a musical perspective and a fandom one, and I simply have not stopped rotating it around in my head since I first heard it.

It's NOT without flaws. Of course it's not. The sound quality on a handful of spoken lines is noticeably lower. The word choices in a few verses feel just slightly clumsy, or forced to fit the meter. The visuals for the Youtube release are a little goofy at times because of the limitations of the game assets used. The plot of the second act, even simplified, would probably be a little too dense to easily follow for someone unfamiliar with the source material.

But if there's anything to be learned from Ace Attorney, it's that perfection shouldn't be the most important goal. Sometimes a few rough edges are necessary to allow room for truth. And the truth is, in this case, a story. A story about a lawyer named Phoenix Wright, who loses a mentor, gains a best friend, and saves a man who'd lost himself.

It's a story worth hearing, and what better way than in song?

--

*- For the record, my favorite song in Act 1 was "I'll Be There", so among all the MANY times the end of Act 2 punched me directly in the heart, the moment that hits me the hardest is probably still the part of the finale that reprises it. That last stanza (I hope you know I'm glad we met...) makes me want to cry every single time. Maya Fey Protection Squad, indeed.....

**- Except for ONE thing at the very end, but that's a story for the self-reblog where I scream about the spoilery stuff LOL

***- My fav line in Act 1 is Miles' real-time epiphany that Redd White is a murderer. ("The only people in that office at that time were the victim and the- ...killer.") You can HEAR his eyes widen as he falters, and the choice to have that as his turning point in place of Turnabout Samurai is so brilliant in so many ways I can't even handle it. I love Miles Edgeworth so much. Anyway, THEN, my fav line in Act 2 is Phoenix's heartrendingly soft, "I've got you, Edgeworth. I've got you." It's so tender and yet so sure. It's Phoenix catching Miles as he falls, looking him directly in the eye, and telling him it's over, I won't let you suffer for one more day.

****- Another of my many favorite lines is Phoenix's "Did you DO it!?" underneath Miles' singing in "Alone". The desperation. The ANGUISH. During my replay of Turnabout Goodbyes I literally had to stop and take a second when the button prompt labeled "Did you do it?" popped up on my screen. That hurted.