#...make the audience happy not traumatised

[eminaths]

My thoughts on Nathalie’s behaviour in Werepapas

so i know this episode came out literally months ago but i wanted to share my thoughts concerning nathalie’s attitude towards adrien in this specific episode, as i might have a different interpretation for it.

as we know, at the beginning of the episode, adrien gets emotional while looking at his parents’ room and instinctively goes to hug nathalie, only for her to react “weirdly” and not return the hug.

throughout the episode, she repeatedly emphasizes that she isn’t adrien’s family and could never replace his mother, despite it being so clear to everyone how deeply she cares for him.

many people have assumed that her behavior stems from guilt for lying to adrien and for helping his father, but after rewatching the episode, I came to a different conclusion: nathalie isn’t acting distant because she lied, she’s acting this way because she failed.

in the flashback at the beginning, set at least 10 years prior the events of the show, emilie tells baby adrien and the audience that nathalie (and gabriel) had been looking for a way to heal her from what we know was the illness caused by the peacock miraculous she used to create her son.

so, right from the start, we get know that nathalie had spent literal YEARS of her life trying to find a cure for emilie. and this was all before the villainy.

in the final flashback, it's clear that emilie is already aware of her fate, but nathalie still tries to reassure adrien, who is also being neglected by his father, by telling him that once they found a cure, both of his parents would stay with him. forever.

she really wanted that for him.

but despite getting blood on her hands and nearly losing her own life, she couldn't make it happen.

they never found the cure. never obtained the miraculous, at least not at the right time, and literally fell into madness for well, nothing.

if anything, that pursuit only led adrien to lose what remained of his father as well. that's why she doesn't want marinette calling her adrien's mother. that's why she didn't try to fight for custody. she does not deserve that title.

remember last season when she scolded gabriel, saying, "the only thing adrien needed was his father"? she has always believed adrien needed his parents in order to be truly happy.

but she couldn't save them from their fate. hell, she even made things worse if possible.

she failed that boy in so many ways: firstly by not respecting emilie's wishes and following gabriel in his madness, secondly by not managing to save his mother, not even with less orthodox methods.

and on top of that, she's keeping all of this from him. she knows that if he found out, he would most likely hate her. but she probably hates herself more.

and i know it's pretty goofy how she seems so reliant on marinette and how she implied adrien only needed her, a 14 years old traumatised child, to be happy, but after all, can you really blame her?

marinette, unlike her, has always, since the very beginning, fought for adrien to be happy and free. she is probably convinced she would be a much better influence than her, a woman who has quite literally failed in every way possible.

ultimately, nathalie's tragedy isn't that she couldn't replace emilie, but that her deepest wish - to keep adrien whole and happy - remains just out of reach.

and, unable to deal with her guilt, she shows her love for him by trying to "let him go" with people who she believes will be able to love him like he deserves, forgetting once again that the one person he needs is her.

[finnlongman]

About Me, My Books, and My Research (2024 Edition)

Hi, I'm Finn, a writer, medievalist, and all-round nerd. You may know me as the author of The Butterfly Assassin, "that person who wrote the trans Cú Chulainn article", the weird nerd in the Tumblr corner writing excessively long and incomprehensibly niche posts about their research, or something else entirely. I am all of those things! (Well, depending on what the 'something else' is, anyway...)

Currently, I'm a PhD student at the University of Cambridge researching friendship in the late Ulster Cycle (c. 12th-17th centuries). I have an MA in Early and Medieval Irish from University College Cork, and wrote my thesis about Láeg mac Ríangabra, my best beloved. I also have an undergrad degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Cambridge, and wrote my dissertation about queer readings of Táin Bó Cúailnge, including transmasculine readings of Cú Chulainn.

You can find out more about my research on my website, which also includes info about all of my academic publications. This includes the aforementioned "trans Cú Chulainn article", an article about Láeg in the Death of Cú Chulainn, an article about the seven Maines, and a discussion of a conference on Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire from the perspective of my own work on lament and grief. Whenever possible, I try to make my research available Open Access. If you're ever having trouble finding one of my articles, please contact me!

If you want recommendations for books about medieval Irish (or Welsh) literature, this list on my Bookshop page has all my go-to recommendations. If you buy via this link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, so this is a great way to support me.

I am also an author, and I write both YA and adult novels. Again, my website is the place to go for all the info and links, but a quick summary:

The Butterfly Assassin trilogy (The Butterfly Assassin, 2022; The Hummingbird Killer, 2023; Moth to a Flame, 2024): YA thrillers about a traumatised teenage assassin who is trying (and failing) to live a normal life in a fictional closed city in Yorkshire. Featuring friendship, street art, Esperanto, zero romance, and a whole lot of murder, as well as increasingly unsubtle commentary on the UK arms industry and the military recruitment of vulnerable teenagers.

The Wolf and His King (coming Autumn 2025 from Gollancz): a queer retelling of 'Bisclavret' by Marie de France which uses werewolfism as a metaphor to explore chronic pain and illness. Also very much about yearning, exile, and the mortifying ordeal of being known.

The Animals We Became (coming 2026 from Gollancz): a queertrans retelling of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi looking at gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and trauma, through the medium of nonconsensual animal transformations.

To Run With The Hound (coming 2027 from Gollancz): my take on the Ulster Cycle, looking at why Táin Bó Cúailnge is a tragedy and what it means to be doomed by the narrative, but not in the way you thought you were. Featuring a lot of feelings about Cú Chulainn, Fer Diad, and Láeg.

You can find out more about my recently-announced medieval retellings in this blog post.

I generally tag personal posts and selfies as “#about the author”; other than that, I think I’m pretty straightforward with my tagging system.

I’m very happy to answer questions about medieval Irish lit, my research, or my books, or just generally to chat. Send questions via asks, chat via DMs, and if you're looking for my articles, you can email me at finn [at] finnlongman [dot] com, which is also the best way to contact me for professional enquiries, whether academic or fiction related.

You can also find me on Bluesky, on Instagram, and on YouTube, where I (infrequently) retell medieval Irish stories for a general audience with lots of sarcasm and hand gestures. Of those, I'm most active on Bluesky.

And finally, if you’ve found my research interesting or just generally want to support me, I have a tip jar and am always immensely grateful when somebody helps me to fund my book-buying habits: http://ko-fi.com/fianaigecht. You can also tip me directly on Tumblr if you like. I’m also a Bookshop affiliate, and you can buy books from my recommendation lists to support me and get some great reads at the same time.

[ashkav]

Rainy, her baby, and the Laughing Samurai theory

So Shioli Kutsuna's character has been revealed! Rainy, a pregnant woman on the crew of the Magellan who has the ability to cause rain fall (Shioli said this during the Tokyo Games show, though I can't find the relevant clip.)

several very interesting things are said during this cutscene, and when combined with what else we know from the promo materials and also from DS1, I think they can be combined to form some ideas. And boy, do I have Ideas about Rainy.

First, the foundation, all (very few) info from previous media that I think is relevant to Rainy.

a) The Songs:

We have so far had three songs about babies/ children in the promo material. Lou's lullaby twice, both connected to Higgs, on the electric guitar and then again with Troy Baker singing it very ominously. And then the broken down rock-a-bye baby tune right at the very end of the state of play announcement trailer during the credits. Obviously, songs to do with children that are usually happy or peaceful now inverted from comforting to something scary and unsettling = Bad Things are going to happen to the kids.

But Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head is not a song that has been made sad or unsettling - yet.

I absolutely feel this song is going to be called back to at a climatic moment in the story, possibly at Rainy's own death, possibly as the last thing she says to her baby. The song itself seems like a bad omen to sing to a fetus, what with Rainy's name being what it is and the lyrics being about perseverence through hardship - difficult not to instinctually think Rainy and her baby are about to suffer some pretty awful trauma that ends with one or both of them 'falling' to the Beach.

Raindrops keep falling seems very likely to continue the same pattern of a comforting song for children introduced at a peaceful time only to warp into horrifying due to a climatic moment - the only reason it hasn't already been warped is because the audience has to hear it the first way first and it didn't exist in the last game to be set up the same way, unlike the other two.

b) 'I just can't wait.'

This is a pretty innoccuos statement for a pregnant woman to say irl, but within the game verse, Rainy is literally the second woman we've ever seen who has expressed an actual desire to have children.

Let's very quickly run through the list of female characters who have children in DS1:

Lucy, Sam's wife who killed herself because the visions she was getting from Sam's DOOMS afflicted baby were so horrible she couldn't continue living.

Lisa Strand, Sam's bio mother who became brain dead early on in her pregnancy due to a car accident and who we never hear from, even in supplementals, and is shot in the head by Sam's dad.

Bridget Strand, Sam's adoptive mother who revived him after accidentally killing him and kept him to raise out of guilt, traumatising Sam so badly throughout his life that he suppresses his memories of her and doesn't really want to speak to her even as she lays dying of cancer in front of him.

A whole host of unnamed still-mothers, impregnated after brain-death and farmed for the BBs they produce.

and finally, Lockne, who actually wanted a baby not because of the baby itself, but because she wanted some part of her lover to live on even after his death. Due to issues with her uterus, she is incapable of becoming pregnant, and even when her twin agrees to surrogate, the baby and Mama both die in a terrorist bombing at the hospital.

(for the purposes of this list I am not counting the mountaineering couple, since they don't matter except to create stakes for that one timed mission.)

There's a pretty clear trend here - almost no one wants children, and those that have them are in incredible danger of losing the child or themselves. This makes sense in a world where hospitals no longer exist and the very act of childbirth is incredibly dangerous and mostly everyone is pretty much asexual anyway, so it's a massive outlier that Rainy expresseses wanting the baby, even if it would be a normal thing to say in our world.

Maybe this is a stretch, but I can't help but feel there's some thematic parrellel here between Rainy, who wants her baby to be born very much, and still-mothers, who are made pregnant but never truly give birth and who cannot ever consent - not that they don't consent, but that they are incapable of consent in the first place. All their children, except three (Sam, Lou, and the BB Coffin managed to save), die in the womb. They're always bridges and never babies, never born, never really living or dead. They are nearly unanimously incompatible with the concept of life, or growth, just the same as their still-mothers are incompatible with the idea of wanting them.

More on this later.

C) The Samurai

The Samurai is visibly pregnant. There is only one pregnant character in the cast (so far). There HAS to be a connection here.

This is not the first time we've seen a visibly pregant character do crazy insane shit - Sam, for instance, is 'pregnant' with Lou's glass womb for the whole first game and probably the second too, and he does some intense stuff.

The circumstances with Rainy are different though. For one, her womb is made out of the squishy human stuff, not bulletproof glass, and she can't take it off. Rainy doesn't seem particularly athletic either: in her and Tomorrow's intro, where they're stacking boxes into a shelf, she moves slowly and with effort, not to mention that the Samurai is taller than even Higgs (Troy Baker is 6'3), where Rainy is shorter than Sam (Norman Reedus is 5'10, and Shioli Kutsuna is 5'3). Plus, the Samurai suit has no way to see out of it, so even if somehow it augmented her height, strength and speed, she still wouldn't be able to see what she was doing.

It is very, very unlikely that she is the one inside the mech suit. No, instead, I think it's her baby in there.

Sounds insane, but listen: we've already seen Higgs' robots have some connection to BT's, floating like they do and having visible strands leading up like they do and potentially being vessels for them. Dollman is explicitly stated to have been a normal adult human person who used his medium powers to possess the doll and got stuck there when his human body died. Even Lou seems to have the ability to haunt her old pod, with the ghostly winged BT form and tentacles. The technology and precedent for soul-to-machine connection exist, the Samurai makes baby noises, it looks pregnant. And thematically...

Remember that earlier section, where I was talking about Rainy wanting the baby vs still-mothers who cannot want and produce babies who cannot live? Also remember how parents with DOOMs very often pass the trait onto their children, and that an adult with DOOMs (Sam) and a BB with DOOMs (Lou) connected through the umbilical made some very strange things happen?

I think that Rainy's desire for a child interacting with both of their DOOMs will produce something very strange. I have two major theories about what could happen to get the baby in the machine:

The baby and mother cannot both be on the same plane at the same time. Rainy's baby suffers some strange accident while Rainy is giving birth (maybe she gives birth as the Magellan is travelling through the Beach?), and the connection between them becomes like a still-mother and BB, but only in some aspects. The connection between the living and dead is swapped constantly between mother and fetus instead of mother alone tethering to the world of the dead. Metaphorically, you could compare this to a Drawbridge, evolving out of the previous Bridge-style that BRIDGES created with the still-mothers. With Rainy and her baby, either side can be 'drawn up', and the burden is shared between them. The tragedy of this is that even though both Rainy and her baby survive, they can never truly meet or meaningfully interact, as one must always be on the Beach when the other is in the living world. Possibly this could be made more extreme, where instead of being seperated in mind only they are also unable to interact physically - one must physically be in the Beach if the other is in the land of the living. We know it's possible to live on the Beach because Tomorrow confirmed it, even if Sam described it 'like hell', so maybe they build the baby a suit that it's pod can slot into to help it survive the time it has to spend on the Beach - we know BBs are quite smart and have an abnormal amount of dexterity and also increased senses that allow them to see BTs, so it could be possible that the BB became skilled at piloting the suit because it was literallly fighting for it's life on the Beach. This would thematically mirror Bridget/Amelie, or at least the lie that Bridget/Amelie told the world - that Amelie was Bridget's daughter who couldn't be removed from the Beach.

The baby is psychic pre-birth. The baby is believed to have died inside Rainy because it stops moving and scans show that it's funtionally brain dead - plot twist being that the baby is alive, but has just accidentally astral projected into a machine. The Samurai is an upgraded version of Higgs' BT robots that either Higgs built or Drawbridge built after they'd studied some of his work, and the pregnancy bump is an unconcious change that the baby makes to the robot, like how Dollman can minorly alter his appearance when he's mad.

I think this would give Dollman an interesting double - adult in a small, powerless puppet vs baby in a big, deadly, hypermobile machine. Brain vs brawn, thought vs impulse. It even fulfills Jester vs Sage if we want to get Jung's archetypes in here, what with the Samurai laughing and Dollman being an expository friend you carry with you, like Mimir from God of War.

The second one is the one I feel is most likely - it ties in so neatly and honestly I'm not too sure that Rainy would survive her time swapped out on the Beach if whatever the baby samurai was fighting was strong enough to make it so skilled against Higgs, even if there does seem to be a community there to help her.

Whatever ends up being the case, Rainy absolutely definitely is not going to have a 'normal' baby. There is no such thing as a normal baby in Kojima land.

[lcdrarry]

LCDrarry 2024 Round-Up Post | Week 3

On Sundays during our posting period, we won't post a new work, instead you have time to catch up with the works that posted during the week and hopefully leave lovely comments for our creators.

Happy reading, commenting and sharing! ;)

~Your LCDrarry Mods

PS: Please have a look at the author notes and tags on AO3 for additional information. Thank you!

PPS: Please share far and wide! Thank you!!

***

Podfic

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"The Pirc Defence" by sleepstxtic

Prompt: "The Queen’s Gambit", 2019, Scott Frank Written by: @sleepstxtic Narrated by: Anonymous Podfic Length: 01:05:00 Rating: Explicit Warnings: None

Summary: They were rivals, and they were lovers, and they were the greatest chess players of their generation. Exactly in that order.

Listen to it now on AO3.

***

Art

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Draco's Moving Castle

Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3) Author: Anonymous Art Medium: Digital Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None

Summary: Art for LCDrarry2024 fest. Prompt was Howl's Moving Castle.

Read it now on AO3.

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Fic

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we were born to be national treasures

Prompt: "Legally Blonde", 2001, Robert Luketic Prompted by: MoonyEmilie3017 (ao3) Author: Anonymous Word Count: 4,979 words Rating: General Audiences Warnings: There is nothing triggering in the work, although it does heavily rely on the subject of needing academic validation as a woman in a patriarchal society.

Summary: Danica Malfoy is determined to study law and move forward in life. But is anything really ever that simple?

Read it now on AO3.

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End of Beginnings

Prompt: "All of Us Strangers", 2023, Andrew Haigh Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 5,324 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Canonical Character Death

Summary: As Harry and Draco start developing a relationship, Harry finds himself drawn back to the Potter house in Godric's Hollow, where his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died.

Based on the movie All of Us Strangers (2023) though you don't have to have seen it to understand the fic.

Read it now on AO3.

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The Potters : Possessed case

Prompt: "The Conjuring", 2013, James Wan Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 12,039 words Rating: Mature Warnings: Horror, blood, vomiting, mention of suicide, possession, exorcism

Summary: After a lecture, Harry and Draco meet a frightened woman, telling them that her entire family is scared to death of their new house.

But Harry and Draco wanted to take a break after a traumatising case. Maybe it's just natural causes and the house isn't haunted, right?

Read it now on AO3.

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By the Book

Prompt: "The Proposal", 2009, Anne Fletcher Prompted by: Anonymous Author: Anonymous Word Count: 14,586 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: None

Summary: It’s hard being Draco Malfoy: workaholic publishing professional extraordinaire. Between revolutionizing the Wizarding World and fighting with Harry Potter, his chief of staff, it makes sense Draco forgot to check his mother filed some paperwork. Oops. Easy enough to avoid deportation by saying he’s engaged to said manager.

Too bad that plan involves visiting Ottery St Catchpole, a gaggle of redheads, and defrauding the government.

Read it now on AO3.

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this strange effect

Prompt: "Killing Eve" (2018 - 2022) Prompted by: Soulmates Drarry Author: Anonymous Word Count: 30,670 words Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Violence, Blood and Injury, Assassinations, Killing Eve AU, Murder, Light Poisoning, Obsessive Behavior, Reference to past addiction issues, Presents

Summary: Harry hated his job, his cousin, and his inability to figure out how to fit into the boring, depressing world around him. He kept his peace until Draco Malfoy turned out to not be dead like Harry thought he was. Deadly, though? Harry was going to figure that out.

Read it now on AO3.

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The Heart of the Heart

Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3) Author: Anonymous Word Count: 52,775 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: None

Summary: Harry Potter’s boring routine comes crumbling down when he takes the wrong shortcut at the wrong time; he almost ends up in a brawl, gets rescued by a handsome stranger, successfully escapes sentient tar, learns to walk on air and then becomes victim to a spiteful, petty and undeserved ageing curse - and all that within a single afternoon! Now transformed into an old man, Harry decides to run away in search of a way to reverse the spell, but the path is precarious and the journey long. As he's trying to make his way through magic and treachery, danger and deceit, it's becoming abundantly clear that something more is hidden behind petty magic - something deeper and more valuable and connected all too thoroughly to what may only be classified as love.

Read it now on AO3.

***

Please help promote the fest by sharing your favourite submissions, so more people can enjoy all the amazing new Drarry works of LCDrarry. Thank you!

Creator reveals are on 15 June.

[pumpkinmetaphor]

I ran into your "Ouran, performance, audience" post again and it suddenly reminds me of this TikTok miniessay by @eijifan357865 (ourantok's strongest soldier). Link here ≥ ( https://www.tiktok.com/@eijifan357865/video/7406163938892582190 ... it's also pinned on their profile too) I think the way op discuss the theme of performance & Kyoya's actions during the beach episode to be really fascinating, and also a analysis I haven't seen much of before. I would really like your input on the video and if you agree? I do find your own analysis to be also very compelling and I love your ouran fanfiction too btw. hope you're having a happy new year

Happy New Year! Glad you're enjoying the fic! Just watched it! Common W from a fellow KyoKao truther.

I think yes, the essay is spot on. Ouran is about performance and each character is not only putting on a performance for their role in the club but it putting on a performance for themselves and the people around them, and people invariably see through it. Breaking down those walls is a series of plot points. I think the points about Hikaru and Kaoru are correct. Hikaru and Kaoru have literally no boundaries and are traumatised; it's what makes the act so easy for them to do. I think the point about them viewing each other as an extension of themselves is a good one. I'd push it further to say that they don't necessarily feel the *same* way about that?

Hikaru views Kaoru as an extension of himself in the sense of literally an extension of his own ego and persona. To Hikaru initially, Kaoru can't really have any wants or needs or facets to his personality that differ too far from Hikaru's own because they're basically the same. He's unaware when Kaoru is deferring to him. Because of this, he views Kaoru as the one person who can't betray him-- because how can you betray yourself? It's why it's important for Kaoru to, pretty ruthlessly, stab Hikaru in the back in order to knock himself off that pedestal so Hikaru can view him as a different person.

Kaoru meanwhile views *himself* as an extension of *Hikaru*. Hikaru is the correct model, Kaoru is the facsimile. That then naturally plays into how he views himself.

And, yeah, this allows a level of cognitive dissonance when they're doing their host club act. It's just another joke and it doesn't matter because they're basically the same person but also it's funny because they're not so their customers are soooo stupid.

With regards to Kyoya, yes I agree. I'd also push it in a slightly different direction with Haruhi and him in Ep 8. I'll write a full post about this some other time, but Haruhi's gender is also a performance in itself. Haruhi, at various times, benefits or is hindered by the performance of her gender identity. Ep 8. is a good example of that. When the girls are being threatened, Haruhi approaches the boys as a boy. Perceiving her as a boy, the boys respond with physical violence. The assumption of this scene is that if Haruhi was perceived as a girl, the boys would have responded with sexual violence-- given that is the implication of their intentions with the girls Haruhi is defending. Kyoya threatening her later then reflects this. He perceives Haruhi as a girl, and that's part of the point he's making. It's not necessarily all "Haruhi is a girl, therefore she's weak and vulnerable and needs boys to protect her." It's that Haruhi's seemingly unaware of the manner in which her performance as a boy offers social protection because she views her gender as completely irrelevant.

Haruhi's naive reaction to Kyoya's actions in some ways proves his point, but in other ways proves him wrong: Haruhi is savvy enough to judge the situation for what it is, another performance.

[smilingangel582]

Yooo I'm still at a loss for the links and I'm sorry guys...I'm such a clutz, hehe~

☆anyway never mind that let's go down a other roller coaster of tickles with genshin impact. I wanted to right for Kaveh but loss inspiration at the moment... so guys pls bear with me I'll be writing for sweet kaveh soon!

Warning spoilers for fontaine version 4.0!

Ps. Are my fics so bad that Lyney still refuses to come to me!!! I want him, so I'll keep on writing till he comes to me! Heck, his C3 sister is waiting too nyaaaahaaa~

Magic is a performance of art with picturesque illusions. Lyney often became overwhelmed by Caeser's joy in magic as he taught him several aspects of it. Indeed, he began to love it as well... especially playing tricks on others' minds as he played on.

It'd often the smaller ones thst excited kids more. Picking mora from their ears, picking flowers out from under his cloak, he could fo ample things just to get the audience happy.

It's usually days when the big magic tricks would begin, most unexpectedly he feels nervous though he had a knack for avoiding troublesome thoughts. Only Lynette read him like a book...

"Lyney!"

The sharp tone made him look up instantly, startled by his loss of awareness as he was sipping tea at his place with the traveller. Freminet was missing as always, being engrossed in diving - perhaps he ought to learn how to relax from him as well.

Ever since the trial, he became anxious about doing grand performances. He did perfect it at practice, but...he was worried if someone would sabotage his show again and create another victim...

Seeing Aether tilt his head in question to ask how he's feeling, Lyney chuckled sheepishly. "Oh dear, sorry to zone out like this... I may have been preoccupied by the fact that Paimon's not tired of floating around"

"Hey, Paimon's floating his similar to you guys walking, you know!"

Seeing her indignant reaction, he thought he had drawn their attention away from him. Still, Lynette didn't even make an attempt to sound accusing as she calmly said, "You're rigid, brother... perhaps you're nervous after all"

"W-what..? Surely you jest... I'm just more concerned about Paimon's logic to floating, " his face darkened as he lowered his head to the side to avoid any misgivings though the opposite just convoluted.

"Hey, you better not mess with Paimon!" Paimon, being Paimon, ignorantly grumbled in her chirpy voice, sounding offended presumably. Still, Aether could sense his offensive tactic being seen through. He might find it more intriguing to see past the crumbling defence he built desperately...

He shook his head now. "Lyney, we're close enough to see through your act..."

"Ah, drats..." he smiled weakly, seeing how his sister and the traveller were onto him. Keeping his tea cup to its original place on the table, he began to reason.

Now his solid defence has a crack...

"Alright, alright, guys... I am human, so I'll admit I am nervous after the water tank incident, " he offered. Now Lynette stated slight concern in her cool tone,"It's not the same trick... so why are you that worried?"

Sighing, he bit his lip, as if he got scolded by a teacher, "Making mistakes, I guess?"

Aether noticed his stiffness. He could tell the young magician must have been traumatised by the death of Cowell. Either way, they came here to cheer him on. He wondered if he could do anything for him... something to perk him up.

"Lyney" Aether began now gesturing to Paimon. "Allow Paimon to massage your shoulders... to make you relax... she's good at that"

Paimon gasped at Aether audacity to make a request unbeknowst to her, "You little! Of course, you put this on Paimon...!"

Regardless, her starry gaze genuinely desired to help, so she began "Alright Lyney let Paimon loosen you up"

Lyney anxiously waved a hand. "Oh n-no need... It's not really necessary... I really don't have stiff shoulders..."

(Cute...)

Aether rolling his eyes said, "Come on Lyney, no more secrets its obvious they are stiff..."

Before Lyney could evade the offer, Paimon was already behind him. "Relaaax, Paimon is an expert masseur. She can make you lose your fears in a snap!" She removed the pegged Cape so easily, and began to descend.

Until he staggered away, immediately stiffened by her gentle fingers reaching for his shoulders.

"D-dont Paimon... its not necessary"

She couldn't even touch him when he slid off from the couch only to stand and face her, Paimon pouted "Awww but can't you trust Paimon?"

"I...uh... It's not t-trust..."

Lynette, seeing the obvious issue and she finally pointed out, "It's not you, Paimon. He's got ticklish shoulders..."

"Lynette!!"

The casual reply made him blush but only to let Paimon's curious eyes widen in wonder. She waves her arms in frantic excitement "Nooo way Lyney! You didn't tell us your ticklish!"

Extremely nervous, he lowered his hat to hide the blush "A-Arent we all Paimon...?"

Most of Paimon's giggled converted to menacing titters as she wiggled her fingers. "So come here and let Paimon make you relax in a better way"

He had not expected this situation to collapse on him like this. He backed a little too far to bump into a seated Aether's knees and fell, half on his lap.

"Oh dear my apologihihihiies -Wahahait!" He struggled to sit up and grab Aether's sneaking fingers prodding his sides.

His squeaks contagiously threatened to leave his lips as Aether was mischievous as well.

"Are the fatuus this weak to tickling? I must say that's a bit disadvantageous"

Paimon, floating towards Lyney's upper body, began to perform her special tickly massage on his shoulders "Waiit for Paimon Aether, she wants to tickle him too!"

"Ahahha guys plehehehease" he curled now bur Aether grabbed his hips and snickered at the stream of loud and sweet giggles, "as I was saying... we could make you spill any little secret from the house of the hearth right?"

"Ihihihin your dreheheeheams I'm nohohot thahahahat weheheheheak"

"Ahhh, tsk, tsk it's not about being weak... It's about how ticklish you are, " he taunted by kneading his ribs with pure intent to torture information out of him.

Poor Lyney, on the other hand, tried to roll to the ground, but Aether got up and pinned him further to the couch, now both of the ganging on him where he's cornered.

"Lynehehehehtte!" The twin sister peacefully finishes her tea before saying,"It's ironic how his worst spots are the most exposed areas. His armpits and thighs are pretty bad, you know"

Hearing this intel Paimon snickered "ehehehehe let Paimon excell her Paimonial wrath! Your armpits are Paimons now!!!" She charged in yo perfectly fit her small hands into his delicate armpits, she even blowed at his neck to make him squeal and hiccup into louder giggles and laughs.

"This was just to make you relax, so..." Aether teasingly swiped a finger over his thighs suddenly, making him shrill in shock and squeak, "Pleheheheease!"

"So no... at least not today, " he said this, and Paimon reluctantly backed off."That was for making fun of Paimon!"

Chuckling at her ridiculous high pitched complain Aether now cupped his cheeks to get a better look at his adorably blushing red face. "Teyvat to Lyney... you there~"

He still giggled as he said "Aaha yes, I must thank you, but... that was a bit much, wasn't it"

Meanwhile, Lynette coolly expressed, "Ignore him. He loves being tickled so you guys can knock yourselves out"

Lyney flustered now "Y-You can't just...!"

"Oh really?" Aether grabbed his shoulders now making him stiffen again "I thought I found a knot right here? Guess Paimon's masseur skills are still lacking"

"Hey!" One from Paimon.

"HEHehehey!" Another from a bewildered Lyney who giggled at the light touch now trying to move away.

"Ahahaha nohohot again! Nohohot thehehhe shoulders ahahahaha aehehehehther!"

"Let the magic begin!" Lynette smirked, joining the finale of wrecking her brother. None of them have the intention of letting Lyney go until he's cheered and satisfied.

Well... not that Lyney wanted it to stop... he liked this feeling...

[rpgromanceplayinggirls]

Name: Long Live The Queen

Genre: Fantasy, Strategy, Stat Raiser, Visual Novel

Platform: PC, Mac OS X, Linux, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Release: 2012

Audience: Teen

Protagonist Type: Set

Romance type: Optional, BxG, GxG

Official Synopsis:

Being a Princess is not an easy job. Being a Queen is even harder. Especially when you're only fourteen years old, and the reason you've inherited the throne is that your royal mother has just met an untimely end.

Now power is up for grabs. You may be the official heir, but much of the country's nobility would love to steal the throne for themselves. Aggressive neighbors will take advantage of any weakness to enlarge their borders at your expense. And that's not even mentioning the magical dangers which are lying in wait...

Can you survive long enough to reach your coronation?

Content warnings: Violence, Sexual Assault, Incest

Notes:

Long Live The Queen is a brightly coloured game that appears to be a lighthearted magical girl story, but is actually closer to Game Of Thrones in its focus on scheming nobility and political intrigue. In keeping with that, the main character, Princess Elodie, is mostly interested in marriage for political reasons, and the game is light on actual romance.

There are twelve named suitors, but very few of those have a truly romantic outcome. There are also some unnamed characters that Elodie will marry in certain endings if things don't work out with the main cast.

Of the twelve suitors, three are women. None can be married in the legal sense, but Elodie can embark on a committed romantic relationship with two of them. If romancing Brin, you can remain officially unmarried and monogamous with her, but if you romance Briony, you and she both enter into marriages of convience to hide their affair. One of the women, Alice, does not love Elodie no matter what, and will only enter into a relationship in an ending where an evil Elodie uses her power over her to trap her in a non-consenting submissive relationship.

The majority of the suitors are significantly older or younger than Elodie, which is portrayed as normal for nobility, though many characters express personal discomfort with the fact.

One suitor, Kevan, is traumatised from a history of sexual abuse, and is in a co-dependent sexual relationship with his sister. His life can be improved if he marries Elodie and breaks up with his sister, but it's clear that he will struggle with his trauma regardless.

Another, Ignatius, is already unhappily married (to Kevan's sister, at that), but will become available for romance if Elodie arranges for him to become a Duke, at which point he divorces Kevan's sister.

Two of Elodie's male suitors, Adair and Anciet, are children even younger than Elodie. Elodie's marriage to Adair remains platonic even into adulthood, while Anciet grows up to be a surprisingly dedicated husband.

There is one commoner amongst the male suitors, a young baker named Erevard. He is the hardest character to romance in the game, as the circumstances for encountering him and making him marriageable are extremely reliant on a specific world state that is difficult to achieve. He is the only suitor that Elodie can legally marry for love, and his ending is the only unambiguous happy ending in the game.

[reddie-ao3feed]

A Trip Gone South

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/wE5hj9u by Shuutingstar A two-week trip to New York City was plastered on a poster outside the Losers' classroom, the news almost bizzare since Derry never had exciting excursions like this, but after impulsively participating in the raffle to win the tickets, they were more than surprised to learn that they had, in fact, won. So after a bit of contemplating, they head to New York (with a man named Robert Gray) and await to see what the future holds. OR: I make the Losers work at a circus, give them a false sense of security, and then traumatise them!! Words: 5301, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English Fandoms: IT - Stephen King, IT (Movies - Muschietti) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon, Robert "Bob" Gray, Judith (IT), Original Characters Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough & Mike Hanlon & Ben Hanscom & Eddie Kaspbrak & Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon & Ben Hanscom & Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Georgie Denbrough Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Pennywise is Robert "Bob" Gray (IT), POV Alternating, Idk what i'm doing, Eventual Happy Ending, Derry (Stephen King) is Terrible, Teenage Losers Club (IT), Angst and Feels, probably?, Tags Contain Spoilers, this is gonna get real dark later on, Fluff and Angst, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, Canonical Character Death, it's Georgie's, How Do I Tag, Eddie Kaspbrak is a Mess, Eventual Found Family, no beta we die like Georgie in every AU I make because I can't let Bill be happy, Circus, Human Pennywise (IT), Creepy Pennywise (IT), Eventual Relationships, Richie Tozier is a Little Shit, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/wE5hj9u

[nalyra-dreaming]

Magnus turning lestat is gonna put us all in the hospital I fear lol

With Daniel Hart hopefully scoring it, and if they play a version of Vicious or a darker version of the music from Louis’ own turning aaaaaagghhhhhhghg

Kinda haunts me too that Rolin has said he has a very specific clear vision for what he wants for the TVL season and how he wants to tell lestat’s story and has deemed lestat’s vampire transformation to be the most traumatising of all main vampire cast….you’re right they aren’t going to pull any punches, it’s like they teased that backstory in a limited way with lestat describing it somewhat as a way to prepare us almost but seeing it will be so much worse, not to mention seeing Sam play younger human lestat so full humanity and searching for happiness with Nicki…it’s going to hurt like a fucking bitch. Him seeing Magnus’ face in the audience at the theatre and later abduction, there’s so much horror potential, or if they do the horror thing where in scenes like lestat and Nicki just walking down a Paris street theres creepy ass Magnus just in the background watching, it will be terrifying

Also the way Magnus’ physicality is described it’s very animalistic, very disturbing, it’s interesting Rolin was involved with the Exorcist Tv show because that kind of repulsive horror vibe is how I’ve always pictured Magnus or maybe it’s just the visual of how he’s described as dancing on all fours in the fire that I’m thinking about, very demonic!

Yes, I also think they're going to go full horror for it. Given how they pulled everything else up from in-between the words so far...

The Vampire Lestat has a lot of horror potential. Not just the turning, or Magnus, but the Witches Place, too. The wolves, as heroic as that may turn out. The Golden Moment. All of Nicki's depression and how Armand "handled" that (pun not intended). Les Innocents. The searching for Marius. The revenants. Going to earth. The tomb of Those Who Must Be Kept.

I'm always struck when I read Anne's book how much she glosses over some things - or, better, how she lets the characters gloss over things. Lestat is a walking trauma, just as Armand is, everyone really (Well. Maybe with the exception of Fareed? And that Doctor?^^).

And Rolin will make us look.

And I cannot wait.

[ao3feed-piltovers-finest]

Espresso Yourself - A Piltover Coffee Shop Disaster

by van_seok

Caitlyn Kiramman, a criminology student, is in desperate need of coffee. Desperate. Nothing fancy. No surprises. Just a simple cup of black coffee to make up for her sleepless night of paperwork.

What she got instead was a front-row seat to The Last Drop's barely functional espresso machine, a barista with pink hair and a dangerously charming smirk, and a "speciality drink' that was probably a biohazard. Between Vi, the head barista who may or may not be flirting with her, Jinx, a self appointed "guest barista" causing absolute chaos, and Ekko, the exasperated coffee addict attempting to fix the place, Caitlyn starts to realise that this cafe is less of a business and more of a controlled disaster.

And yet, despite the explosions (literal and otherwise), she finds herself coming back the next day. And the next.

Because unfortunately for Caitlyn, she might have just developed a massive crush on the woman responsible for 90% of this cafe's health code violations.

Words: 2107, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English

Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Caitlyn (League of Legends), Powder from s02e07 AU (Arcane: League of Legends), Ekko (League of Legends), Jayce (League of Legends), Viktor (League of Legends), Rizzmaster Vi, Down-bad Caitlyn

Relationships: Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends), Ekko from s02e07 AU/Powder from s02e07 AU (Arcane: League of Legends), Powder from s02e07 AU (Arcane: League of Legends) & Vi (League of Legends), Ekko & Vi (League of Legends), Caitlyn & Jayce (League of Legends), Jayce/Viktor (League of Legends)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Banter, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Meet-Cute, Nobody is traumatised, Nobody is Dead, Baristas, Coffee shop shenanigans, everyone is happy

Read onA03. from AO3 works tagged ‘Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends)’

[juminies]

I present myself as a Jumin bad story ending 2 hater in the grand scheme of things, but there is a lot of nuance to it. The thing is, I actually think it functions very well as a bad ending and does an incredible job of showing the negative path Jumin could fall down very quickly given the opportunity. It allows a prime look into his mindset and his brain and really opens him up to let the player properly see the deeply buried, traumatised, grimy parts we only narrowly skim otherwise. In that sense I hate it in the way you're supposed to dislike any bad ending: this is not where we should have ended up; this is not how I, the player, should have acted; it's uncomfortable and upsetting and makes you go Oh, oh no. If people were normal about bad ending 2 I would lovehate it in the way I have written long analysis posts about how normal ending is a bit fucked.

However, when I say "I hate BE2" really what I'm talking about is the way people simply were not ready for it to exist in the way it did, especially not at the time it did. A large proportion of the game's audience did not see BE2 and look through the surface dynamic, and instead completely ignored everything the game was trying to show regarding Jumin using BE2. They saw the CG and went "hehe BDSM, this is just like Christian Grey <3" and that was that. It led to massive flanderisation of his character by a concerningly large proportion of people who played and didn't play! the game. And sure, on one hand, if you really want to overlook Jumin as a character to fulfil your fantasy then okay. It's an otome game, the fantasy is the point. But it's frustrating as someone who loves Jumin so much to see people get him so wrong because they won't step away from 2016/2017 fanon. I still(!!) see people intertwining his BE2 outlook with his good end outlook, as if they're the same, which is absolutely wild considering both the layers of character development he goes through in the following days and the fact that it legitimately does not make sense that he would act like he does in BE2 if MC does not have her BE2 personality. You can obviously acknowledge that that part of him (the fear, the possessiveness) exists/ed on some level—in fact, please do! He's very multifaceted and it's important to note that he's not perfect! But you can do that without using it to heinously mischaracterise him. I could get into the ultimately what Jumin wants is whatever you want, he thrives on seeing his partner happy and feeling good side of it, but it's barely even relevant if what you're trying to do is tell me that Jumin is a sadist. He's not even a sadist IN bad ending 2

[hurremsultanns]

MC and MC:K:

Hopefully this question makes sense but is there a character from one show (MC or MC:K) that helped you understand a character from the other show? Like a character from MC century that helped you understand or contextualize the actions/ideas of a character from MC:K or vice versa

Some characters (Hurrem, Kosem, etc.) we see their whole life journey from beginning to end but others characters we only get to know about their past from either brief flashbacks or dialogues therefore their present day actions and the extremes they go to seem a little bizarre without the background context (at least to me).

There aren't really any individual characters for whom this is the case for me. However, I have found that understanding the situation of one of the sultanas can help you to understand the situation of her rivals. Since they usually have to contend with similar circumstances and problems.

In terms of MC vs MC:K I think that MC:K does recontextualise a lot of MC in a very interesting way. Especially given that it's in many ways the 'be careful what you wish for' version of the show. Especially when it comes to a comparison between Hürrem and Kösem. After all, it is very tempting after watching MC to wish that Hürrem had just been able to do away with the fratricide law or just let Mustafa take the throne. Especially if you support Mustafa's claim (which personally I don't, I don't support the throne to begin with). But MC:K forces the audience to confront the reality that just doing away with the fratricide law and having someone nice on the throne (in this case Ahmet) doesn't automatically solve everything and make the system perfect. Sultans and princes still die, people's lives are still ruined, and the abusive system continues being abusive. Which goes to show how just removing one element from a system that is otherwise still toxic isn't a panacea when there are other deep-seated issues at play.

Kösem gets to do the very things that a lot of people (especially teenagers and people who were only watching through a 'team sports' lens) would have been rooting for their faves to do during the original show. She gets to get rid of the fratricide law (with the help of the precedent that Ahmet had already set) and then take out her enemies (in a scene that parallels the final scene in The Godfather Part 1 no less). So if you're rooting for her, it's the ultimate wish fulfilment of an absolute victory that no character got to have in the original show (at the cost of the fact that in the process Osman and Mehmet die but even so). And yet she still ends up with one of the most tragic arcs by the end of the show. Having become far more like Safiye than she had set out to and the antithesis of everything that she had claimed to stand for, lost all of the people she loved (most of them to the struggle over the succession - and lets be real here - Murad's toxic paranoia) and being murdered in Turhan's palace coup. So MC:K really forces you to contend with the fact that there is no truly happy ending in any of this that doesn't involve a lot of tragedy on mass scale.

It certainly makes the outcome in which Mustafa take the throne look a lot less rosy. Especially when rewatching season 4 in particular makes it so clear the extent to which his supporters were out for the blood of his brothers, even though he himself absolutely wasn't. Espwcially with the additional context that Ahmet and Kösem had a far easier time avoiding the fratricide law because of very specific circumstances around trying to make sure that there was at least one heir who could take the throne upon Ahmet's death. Because Ahmet took the throne childless and his only potential heir was his half brother. A circumstance that did not exist in the case of Mustafa and his brothers. So his brothers would have probably died if he took the throne regardless of his wishes. And he would have taken the throne deeply traumatised as a result. So Hürrem doing her level best to avoid that outcome isn't robbing the empire of a bright future. She's literally just protecting her children from an outcome that means their almost certain deaths. She was simply making the best of a terrible situation while trying to keep her family alive.

[sabrecrane]

Some General Worldbuilding/Writing advice for writers

My experience at worldbuilding

There are numerous ways of developing your skills in worldbuilding and as is common with writing fantasy, sometimes you lose track of the huge amount of information you've developed over days, months, and even years. What makes fantasy such a fun genre for me to write personally is how I can completely manipulate the world to become so much more interesting than the one we live in. The best way to help you all build your own worlds is by sharing how my world Goleirious came to be.

Characters

The very first thing I focused on was actually my characters instead of the world itself. This is a method I have found particularly useful. Without characters how can you hope to build an immersive world that also fits around their personalities, you know? This is one of many methods, of course, but I have found this one to be particularly helpful. It has taken me a total of four years to get to where I am today with my book and honestly I'm glad I didn't rush its development. I have cut away and pieced it all back together until I was happy with how it came out.

My main character is a guy called Kaizen Gold, a victim of a tragic event and also struggling to deal with his daily life of being bullied. Everything is going wrong for him and until the events of the first book, he didn't think it could get any worse. Why am I introducing my character, you might be wondering. Well, Goleirious is built around him and around what he eventually will become. The world is post-apocalyptic, two hundred years in the future and based in America but of course having current continents wouldn't really make for a magical experience now, would it? So, to counter that and make the world as immersive as possible -- America has been split completely by the common natural disaster that previously wasn't in our world -- meteor showers.

Since the world is after a disaster, it only makes sense for it to be a mess. Just like Kaizen's life is. He's had limited help, everybody is against him, he has the weight of the world on his shoulders...just like the surface has the meteor showers to deal with. No, I'm not talking about a population that LIVES on the surface -- I am talking about the very ground itself. There's threats around every corner, there are things that don't initially make sense to the reader but soon it all comes together just like Kaizen's life does.

When I read books I focus on the characters initially and ask myself if they fit in the world they have been crafted to live in. Do they have goals, fears, are they well developed characters, do they change throughout the book or do they stay the same? As soon as I get connected to the characters, that's when I focus on the world itself. Of course, this could be entirely different for you which is what makes writing and reading so interesting for each individual. 

Target Audience

There has been something that has been mentioned to me many times before and it relates back to the worldbuilding aspect of everything; people have told me they prefer books that they can lose themselves in, a perfect world so to speak with no issues, no corruption, a distraction from reality. On one hand I understand where they're coming from but at the same time people lose themselves in the world of The Hunger Games and the Gone series by Michael Grant and there is plenty of dark shit in there. Without darkness, corruption, challenges that test your characters abilities, what is the point of writing the story?

You want your characters to have an end but to have an end they need to experience something traumatising -- something that tugs at your heartstrings. These comments have frequently made me rethink my worldbuilding but at the end of the day, the readers making these comments are not my target audience which brings me to my next point on worldbuilding. Your target audience is important regardless if it's a short story, a poetry book, etc, in every media there is someone focusing on marketing their projects to the correct audience. Why? Well, without a target audience there is no fanbase and without a fanbase there's no motivation from the creator to continue and without that...well, there's no ending for the creator's characters. 

How does this fit into worldbuilding? Well, how dark is your book? Did you mean for it to attract the attention of adults? Or was it teenagers you wanted to read your book? Is your world suitable for teenagers to read or does it deal with way too many heavy topics to even consider making it something targeted for teenagers? These are the questions you have to think about when it comes to your characters and your plots. From day one my book has been aimed for an audience of 16+ and I have done my best to craft my world to fit that demographic. I have researched what is particularly popular for this age group and as such have introduced topics this age group can relate too/ characters they could easily connect too. To be on the safe side, I have also made a trigger warning list so all my readers don't get jump scared by a potentially triggering scene -- something I advise all writers to include in their books especially if it deals with dark topics.

Resources I have used

I'll admit creating Goleirious has been a pain in the ass. Instead of keeping notes in one place I have everything separated in notebooks, google docs, notes, everywhere. So my advice is get a folder, you don't necessarily have to restrict yourself to a single notebook especially not if you have ideas late at night and want to jot them down but keeping everything in one place will definitely help. I don't particularly use this method but many have suggested the use of Pinterest. If you're wanting to create maps I recommend any program like Procreate, Clip Studio, Krita, and so on but I personally use Inkarnate. Inkarnate is an online map making program that you can edit again and again to suit your needs as your world changes (which in most cases, it definitely will.)  For writing I just use google docs and publish the chapters on Inkitt, a self publishing app similar to Wattpad but without the ads. I have also heard of writers using Reedsy and numerous other tools. For inspiration for your book, look at books you have already read and pick out aspects of characters you enjoyed and parts of the world you'd particularly like to focus on! Use social media to promote your books or even start a blog like I'm doing here but most of all when you focus on worldbuilding just think what you want to stand out in yours.

In mine for example, the magic comes from an asteroid that breaks off causing the meteor showers in the first place. That's my selling point for my world and I make sure to advertise that specifically because it's different, unique, and something that differentiates my book from others that may be similar to it.  So far, I have focused only on my experience and the methods that have worked for me but in future posts I'll also be discussing some that may end up working for you. I just thought this would be a good introductory post to make since I've noticed worldbuilding and keeping notes together is something that stumps a lot of people.  At the end of the day, no matter how many similarities you have in your book, your characters will never be exactly the same as others in the market. Writing is your voice and it differs from person to person so use that to your advantage.  Hope this has helped!

[bug-decal-kissing]

Hey friends!

I'm a god auditor not a babysitter!, by othersin, was updated today, with 2/3 Chapters released! It has a rating of General Audiences and Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, with additional tags "Fluff, Funny, Cute, ProhibitedWish, scarab is not having fun"

You can read it here:

Hey what if, Scarab got throttled, would that be crazy or what/silly. Do not be mean to the BABY, POLLY DID NOTHING WRONG </3 AND FOR ONCE I AM PLEASED THAT SCARAB IS GETTING YELLED AT/j. He'd better redeem himself in the next chapter or I'm never looking at him ever again/j.

Not That Bad, by Megastrum, was updated today, with 4/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Fluff, Angst, Prohibited wish - Freeform, Slow Burn, Touch-Starved, My First Fanfic, Scarab Has Trust Issues"

You can read it here:

PRISMO IS LEARNING <3333333 AND A SOFT MOMENT WITH FIONNA AND CAKE, YES !!!!! Which was then quickly diverted by Prismo learning what Touch is and also Scarab is traumatised :[ my poor boy </3

A new work, Wrath of the Wishmaster by Void_Ink_Studios was published today, with 2/2 Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Scarab has identity issues, Orbo is the worst, Prismo gets mad, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Chronic Pain, Scarab has Chronic Pain, Established Relationship"

You can read it here:

Both of the Chapters in this work are also on Tumblr, you can find them here and here :]. Let me tell you when I first read these I was losing my mind, they're so GOOD/pos !!!! Prismo just being there for Scarab was making me feel so many Emotions, I love it. I love this work !! And I HATE ORBO >:[

Whim of Wind Took Me South, by Thehyperfixationking, was updated today, with 6/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Attempted Murder, very unsuccessful attempted murder, Eventual Romance, Alternate Universe, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, Hurt/Comfort, Multiverse Travel, no beta we die like old man prismo, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, no rating yet cause the whole story isn't written may change, Enemies to Lovers, Farmworld (Adventure Time), Finn Mertens - Freeform, Jay Mertens - Freeform, Jake (Adventure Time) - Freeform, but like Farmworld Jake, Unique Weapons choice, Winter King (Adventure Time)"

IT BEGINS !!! >:}< THE STARTING OF ENEMIES TO LOVERS HAS GONE INTO MOTION; SCARAB IS NO LONGER TRYING TO KILL SOLSTICE !!!!! It only took six chapters, but that just makes it extra special/pos/j.

NSFW works are below the cut :].

I've decided to move works that are rated Mature and above below the cut; just to be safe :]. This doesn't mean that there's guaranteed to be smut or anything, but I feel better if works meant for older audiences are seperated./lh

Silly Bug, by TJade, was updated today, with 10/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Explicit and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Genderbending, Domestic Fluff, Teasing, Humor, Suggestive Themes, Awkwardness, Awkward Sexual Situations, Awkward Conversations, Communication, Healthy Relationships, Voyeurism, Oral Sex, Threesome, Frottage, Sexual Roleplay, Dacryphilia, Degradation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort"

You can read it here:

I nearly forgot that these two are in Fionna's world and seeing characters like Kheirosiphon in Ch.9 is a pleasant surprise/pos !! I have a feeling Fionna and Cake have already begun to put two and two together but I can't wait for more >:]. Please let there be no identity crises or I think I will cry/j.

[blackkat15]

The Stanley Parable made me cry and here's why:

I go into The Stanley Parable to follow Adventure Lines™, shut down mind control facilities and hide in broom closets.

I didn’t expect to actually cry over a game.

I haven’t done that since the ending of Doki Doki Literature Club.

I didn’t expect The Narrator to show me reviews from Steam.

He got so hooked on the fact that he can’t please everyone so he created a skip button to try and make everyone happy.

He cares too much about what his audience thinks.

He doesn’t realise that you can’t make everyone happy.

And so, when he locked me in a room and prompted me to press the skip button, I felt unsure.

But I had to do it. There was no other way.

The first skip was fine. The Narrator was happy.

After the next skip he started rambling on about how Cookie9 could change their review.

The third skip was when I started to feel bad. The Narrator had sat there for around 30 to 45 minutes and he said for me to not press the button while he tried to find a way out.

I actually waited for a solid hour.

I pressed the skip button again and the time that had passed had increased to 12 hours. I started feeling worse. The Narrator said that he couldn’t find an exit and then he started to ramble on about the negative reviews again.

The next skip had two weeks pass. The Narrator’s panic was starting to build and so was mine.

The next skip was a year apart. I listened to every word The Narrator said. He was losing himself. He was losing himself to silence.

The next skip I don’t hear his comforting voice and I start to panic more. Where was that voice that I enjoyed so much?

The next skip has the smoke alarm go off, it startled me and I stared at it until I could press the skip button again.

The next skip I arrive in the middle of a rant that The Narrator was having. I listened to him all the way again. He was really stewing in those negative reviews. He doesn’t acknowledge that I had returned. My panic rises.

The next skip I don’t hear him again and water starts to drip from the far corner of the room.

The silence is so loud.

The eleventh skip was the worst. The Narrator has gone insane. I don’t know how long it’s been. He’s muttering “the end is never the end is never the end” over and over. The water damage gets worse and so does my concern for the disembodied voice that I grew fond of.

The next skip I don’t hear him again. The water continues to drip.

The silence is louder.

The next skip happens and the ceiling had collapsed. All I can hear now is howling wind.

The next skip has light shine through the new hole in the ceiling. I start to worry even more for The Narrator.

The next skip calms my nerves as I see plants growing and birds chirping. I take a moment to enjoy the tranquillity before pressing that damn button again.

The next skip plunges me back into a state of fear and panic. No more plants just darkness and otherworldly noises outside. I rush to press the button to try and get away from the noises.

The next skip actually traumatised me. Those high-pitched screeching noises scared the hell out of me. It’s at this point that I silently plead for it all to end.

The final skip leads me out into the desert. I stood there staring at the room from outside as the music played. It was at this moment where I actually cried at my desk.

I had killed The Narrator. He was a great storyteller who let one measly bad review eat at him until he eventually died from insanity. I regret pressing the button and not resetting the game.

Reading trivia for this ending broke my heart even more. In the thirteenth skip the noises out in the dark are actually The Narrator calling out to Stanley. He had used the last bit of his strength to call out to me and then he had given up and died the next time I pressed that button.

During the Epilogue I nearly screamed when I saw I was in the desert again. I literally had to pause the game and calm myself down just to continue. The silence is too loud. That desert is nothing but a bad place for me.

I picked up the bucket and I felt a little better. I was glad that I put it in the escape pod otherwise I wouldn’t have made it through the Epilogue.

The Stanley button actually made me cry again. The Narrator was right. It does hit harder the second time when I needed confirmation that what I had heard was correct.

I hate the skip button ending, I have never felt such fear and panic in any horror game I’ve played. The emotions that ending provoked in me were just terrible. But it’s okay to cry.

I never want to do that ever again.

I don’t want to suffer through the silence again.

The Zending was another ending that made me cry. I didn’t keep flinging myself off the platform when I noticed that The Narrator was very worried again. I don’t understand how some of the YouTubers that I watched could just do that. I sat there in the room with the pretty lights and enjoyed a silence that wasn’t scary. It was a comfortable silence.

In other words, I cried over a game.

I cried over a game that has multiple endings and messages.

I cried over a Narrator who wouldn’t hesitate to kill me in some runs.

If I didn’t have a thirty-minute vibe session with him in the elevator I don’t think I’d care as much. When he’s not being a sadistic egotistical jerk, he can be a funny and caring dude.

My heart fluttered when he said he was proud of me and I nearly cried again during the ending where I just went up and down the elevator to the mind control facility to mess with him.

I’ve never cried over a game as much as I did with The Stanley Parable.

I love this game so much.

Rant over. I’m going back to the elevator with my favorite disembodied voice.

[denimbex1986]

A little bit over a week ago, Netflix released their adaptation of David Nicholl’s book One Day. As a fan of the novel and the panned 2011 film, I knew what to expect from the story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, which One Day follows over the course of eighteen years. While it might come as a surprise to the critics, the film adaptation had the potential to make me weep back in the day. Alas: when I watched Netflix’s rendition, the tears didn’t come. There were a few, but they weren’t the guttural sobs that I’d expected. I had the same experience with All of Us Strangers and The Iron Claw too. But scroll X or TikTok, and you’ll find that it’s quite the opposite for most viewers of these sad-centric media, with people describing themselves as “traumatised for life” and “choking on [their] own tears” in response to One Day alone. Was it a ‘me’ problem? Or is it that misery porn is at such a saturation point that I simply can’t withstand anymore?

“The way the iron claw broke me is insane [sic] definitely ugly crying at the moment, ” reads a tweet about A24’s flick on the Von Erich brothers. “I’m dead inside” reads one in response to Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers. It’s safe to say that misery porn not only has the desired effect, but that people gobble that up. There’s no better illustration of that than the sheer amount of it. As well as those mentioned, last year saw a renewed interest in Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life, and recently we’ve been blessed (or cursed) with films like The Whale, Past Lives, and Close. While Hollywood execs aren’t going to slap it on their films anytime soon, misery porn is now almost a genre in itself...

And all of this comes at a time when we’re not only recognising our society-wide penchant for “yearning”, but wondering what it is exactly that we’re yearning for. Happiness would be an obvious answer to that question if it weren’t for the popularity of films like The Iron Claw and All of Us Strangers. With them in mind, it seems what we’re looking for is the experience of feelings, no matter how positive, negative, or how extreme. Given we’re all a bit numb – big chunks of our existence being mediated by phones and computer screens – that makes sense.

Essentially, we’re at a kind of crossroads with the genre. Still, what is it about the people, like myself, that don’t get a kick out of misery porn anymore? Some say that not crying at films makes you a bit of a weirdo. Some say it means you’re depressed. I’d hazard a guess that it’s down to the fact that, as I get older, I’m increasingly aware of the fantasy element of what I’m viewing. In this sense, you could argue that misery porn capitalises on a vulnerable audience that has something of a sell-by date...

But the idea that misery porn finds an audience unified by their shared vulnerability does tap into something important: that there’s ethical considerations that come with the genre. It’s a rhetoric that all the chatter around A Little Life comes to time and time again. Namely, is it okay to use trauma as entertainment? Or is it veering on the voyeuristic side of things? It’s a hard line of argument to pursue – you start getting bogged down with whether anyone can tell someone else if their art is appropriate – but it’s arguable that there’s a time and a place for misery porn. A landmark work of the genre, for example, might be something like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. That feels off the table in terms of its supposed “value” as misery porn, because it was so seminal in exploring women’s mental health. The same might go for something like Ava Duvernay’s limited series When They See Us, which dramatised the events surrounding the central park five. It’s horrible to watch, but we need to see that.

Beyond that – and this is most definitely a ‘me’ problem – there’s something annoying about the inherent competitiveness of misery porn. The hordes of tweets with suicidal ideation and increasingly obscure clips… They’re grating. As it is when someone obnoxiously sniffs during the final moments of The Iron Claw. That’s no-one’s fault, per say. Directors like Andrew Haigh don’t set out to have their work diluted into a clip from Fleabag and the girl loudly weeping in the cinema is probably just responding to the Letterbox-ification of cinema in a broader sense. You haven’t watched a film unless it’s been recorded on an app, given an arbitrary rating… And sobbed because of it.

Where does all of this leave us? One thing’s for sure, and that’s that I don’t think we’ll see the back of misery porn anytime soon. That’s okay, though. These conversations are a testament to the fact that we’re increasingly conscious of who’s benefiting from the exploration of these hard-to-swallow subjects. With that, we might usher in audiences that find value outside the things that pluck at their heartstrings. While their online reception obscures it, there’s so much radical loveliness in films like The Iron Claw and a TV series like One Day. Both, in fact, are unified by their endeavour to represent the afterlife, which I’d argue is worth more merit than how much they make you cry...'