#ANYWAY. this was. an adventure to write. i'm so glad it's finished

[zukkaoru]

where i am going (is right where i am)

“You want to pretend we’re dating.” “Exactly!” Ranpo claps their hands together. “We’ll go all out—I’m talking making out during office hours, disappearing to the bathroom together, calling each other stupid pet names, refusing to be separated when we don’t want to do work. Just imagine how everyone will react!” Dazai considers this. He does rather enjoy annoying his coworkers—Kunikida especially. And no one in the office will be more perturbed by Dazai and Ranpo suddenly being an obnoxious couple. It’ll make Atsushi squirm. Sigma and Tanizaki will try to hide their discomfort until it eventually turns to annoyance, which will be hilarious. Naomi will just laugh at everyone. Plus it’ll catch Chuuya so far off guard they won’t even know what hit them. It’s the perfect plan. “Okay,” Dazai agrees. “Let’s do it.”

or: dazai kills a man, gets a boyfriend, has a gender crisis, confronts his own humanity, and starts to heal. not necessarily in that order.

🌱 25.8k words || souheki / daran / ranzai 🌱 post-doa arc + fake dating

[thankskenpenders]

IDW's Knuckles 30th Anniversary special

I'm still working on finishing Shadow Generations and writing up a big thing about it (yes, yes, it's taken me a month to finish a four hour game, I know), but in the meantime we've got another new Classic era comic out from IDW! Let's talk about that.

The last Classic era release we got was the Fang miniseries earlier this year, which I mostly enjoyed but also found a bit underwhelming. It felt like we were getting diminishing returns with the Classic comics. Ian seemed to be struggling to make the Classic era feel fresh within Sega's current restrictions for that branch of the brand, a branch that by its very nature discourages experimentation and new ideas in a way that the ever-evolving Modern era doesn't. He was mostly just playing the hits, sticking the currently permitted Classic era characters next to each other in straightforward one-off adventures and letting the art team do their thing. We were getting the Ian who was happy to simply be able to take these toys out of the toy box. Again, these comics have been fine, and the art's always a treat, but the novelty of simply seeing a comic with the old character designs was wearing off for me when the stories didn't have as much meat as Ian's (or Evan's) excellent Modern era work.

And then along comes this Knuckles 30th Anniversary special, which is by far my favorite Classic Sonic comic Ian's written for IDW.

...I can't really talk about why it's so good without getting into spoilers, though. The short version is that it's a really nice little story about Knuckles and another character from the games, who's used as a great foil for him... except the solicit didn't even say which character it is, so I'm hesitant to say here. But if you're a fan of Knuckles, you should definitely just go read this. It's great. This one's mandatory reading to me.

And with that out of the way, let's dig deeper and get into the spoilers.

The spoiler zone

After an opening that very blatantly homages Tyson Hesse's old Knuckles comic (yes, the very same one that helped inspire the name of this blog), Knuckles realizes that Angel Island has drifted near the Northstar Islands from Sonic Superstars, and decides that the Master Emerald must be giving him a mission to train the archipelago's own resident guardian.

Yes, this isn't just a Knuckles comic. It's a Knuckles and Trip comic!

I was really delighted by this. I like Trip a lot, and it's nice to get this chance to expand upon her as a character. I think this is her first speaking role, even? I'm glad to see her stick around, and I'm glad to see her appear in the comics so soon, especially since we're still waiting for the mainline comics to incorporate Sage. She's still clumsy and fairly timid, like in the game, but without the looming thread of Eggman she gets to let loose a little. She's very exuberant and expressive and playful, especially thanks to Aaron Hammerstrom's fantastic art throughout the issue (complemented with inks by Rik Mack and colors by Valentina Pinto). It makes sense why she gets along so well with Amy. I hope we get to see those two interact more in the future!

Anyway, so Knuckles shows up on the Northstar Islands after contemplating his lot in life, and realizes that he and Trip have a lot in common. She's not as strong or confident as him, but they're both the last of their kind, these lone guardians of these ancient magical gemstones. He's showing up under the pretense of training her, but you can tell it's nice for him to have a kindred spirit, someone who might be able to really get him.

And then Trip's like... wait, you think I'm the last of my kind?

Yes, the Northstar Islands have actually been inhabited by a whole civilization of sungazers like Trip the whole time! We just didn't see them in the game because, y'know. Eggman was attacking. So Trip told everyone to find shelter and hide from the Badniks. (This actually makes a lot of sense, since you pass by this very village in Speed Jungle Zone. Somebody's gotta maintain those straw roofs and light those torches, and I can't imagine Trip managing all that upkeep herself.)

This also includes a grandfather for Trip, who's been training her as the archipelago's new guardian. Naturally, this has led to some speculation from fans about the old "mandates." In the wake of the Penders lawsuits and Archie's reboot, Sega declared that the comics could no longer create comic-original relatives for the game characters. Has that changed now?

Well, I'm hesitant to read too much into this. For one, as Ian has tried to drill into peoples' heads for years now, the so-called "mandates" aren't a set of concrete commandments from Sega, they just have some general guidelines for the brand, some of which have more wiggle room than others and some of which have changed over time. There's also the simple fact that Sega is working way more closely with the team at IDW, and that people like Ian and Evan are literally on the official Sonic lore team now. Ian can presumably work with the lore team and Sega to figure out Trip's family, and then go and work what they've decided on into a comic, so it's entirely possible Trip's grandpa isn't considered a comic-original character so much as he's a character conceptualized at Sega who just happens to have appeared in an IDW comic before anything else. The lines are a lot blurrier now with all this cross-pollination, compared to the Archie days when it was a separate creative team and a separate canon.

But, again, I don't want to speculate too heavily about what goes on behind the scenes. Regardless, Ian was able to use this comic to expand upon the world of the games and the characters that inhabit it, and I love it for that. It's the first of these Classic comics that feels like truly mandatory reading for the way it builds upon the games. These days we so rarely get to see communities like this in the Sonic world with their own cultures. It's not like we know anything about "hedgehog culture" or whatever. So this is a nice change of pace. The Northstar Islands feel totally different now that I know they've actually been inhabited the whole time, and knowing that Trip is part of an active community with their own history and customs puts a whole new spin on her as a character.

It also makes her a great foil for Knuckles here. He showed up on the island thinking he'd have a lot to teach Trip as someone who's got more life experience as a lone guardian, only to realize his assumptions about her life were completely wrong. Trip brags to her grandpa that Knuckles is gonna train her, but he quickly realizes he doesn't have much to teach her. She may be kind of cowardly, but she knows her way around the island, she can think on her feet, and she can handle herself well enough in a fight, in her own slapstick way.

He doesn't say as much, but you can tell Knuckles is embarrassed about all this. This clumsy kid is showing him up, even though she won't even really listen to his advice! He's also, perhaps, a bit jealous. It's not like he had a grandfather to train him in the ways of being a guardian. (Not in this continuity, anyway.) He doesn't get a whole village of echidnas to teach him about his heritage. He doesn't get fancy ceremonial armor. It's just him, a big green rock, and his two fists. He thought he had this whole guardian thing figured out, and he'd be able to give a kindred spirit like Trip some advice, but it turns out she's lived a whole different life, making him question if he even knows what he's doing. He quickly gets fed up with both Trip and himself, blowing up at her a little.

After reflecting a bit, Knuckles goes back to Trip and comes clean. He doesn't really know how to train her, because no one ever trained him. He figured things out on his own. If he had anyone there to raise him, they've been gone since he was too young to remember. He just knows he has to protect the Master Emerald. That's it. It's a pretty vulnerable moment for Knuckles, one where his dissatisfaction with his life comes to the surface.

Still, Trip sees things differently. He may be used to the fact that he lives on a giant floating island powered by a giant magic emerald, but she thinks that's, like, the coolest thing in the world. HER islands don't fly! And while Knuckles might wish he had someone to train him, Trip thinks that Knuckles becoming such a fearsome fighter all on his own, without even armor to protect him, makes him super awesome and admirable. With both of them feeling better, Trip takes Knuckles to Golden Capital to talk about her heritage as a guardian of the Northstar Islands a bit more, and Knuckles tells her that he thinks she'll be a great guardian before he heads home, once again feeling pretty good about himself.

While this is a pretty straightforward little story about how the grass is always greener on the other side, it's a very effective and sweet one that I enjoyed reading a ton. Aside from the fun of learning more about Trip and the Northstar Islands, it's just a great showcase for Knuckles. (It's definitely a way better showcase for him than his Paramount+ show, as much as I took sick pleasure in that show's baffling creative decisions.) There are also some fun details about his life in here, such as the fact that Sonic, Tails, and Amy have taken camping trips to hang out with him on Angel Island, and the fact that he trained Amy in using her hammer better.

It's just real good, and it feels like the most meaningful addition to The Canon out of any of these Classic era comics Ian's written. We're still gonna be getting more in the future, so hopefully this is a sign that Ian and the lore team have found that happy middle ground where they can keep the Classic comics familiar and nostalgic while also being able to branch out and expand upon things.

Speaking of future comics!

Coming attractions

The end of this issue confirms some things that are in the works for IDW Sonic. For one, we're getting a Chaotix 30th Anniversary special next year. Neat! They also mention some kind of Shadow one-shot dropping following the movie, however fans seem split on whether this is referring to a new story or just the "Best of Shadow" compilation one-shot that's coming out next month. So don't get your hopes up about that in case it's the latter, I guess.

And while we're still waiting for issue #75 of the main series, the IDW team is already thinking all the way ahead to #100, which should drop sometime during the 35th anniversary of the franchise in 2026. Clearly the team's still confident about the longevity of IDW Sonic and excited for the future. And I am, too! Bring on #75!

[buggyboba]

✦ October 17th | Shower Sex

AN 𓏧

↳ ○ | We almost didn't make it folks, I just finished writing this, my ADHD was really bad here, there was a lot of fluff, and I had to remind myself I was writing filth. But listen fourteen deserves fluff, anyone who doesn't agree, well I'm sorry it's to the vortex with you...straight to time vortex jail. SMUT MDNI

SUMMARY𓏧

↳ ○ Domestic life comes with domestic things, and sometimes dangerous shower sex is just what is needed to make a day more exciting.

PAIRING𓏧

↳ ○ Fourteenth Doctor x F!Reader

TW𓏧

↳ ○ Established relationship/companion. Fingering, P in V unprotected sex, back shots. Longish foreplay.

WORD COUNT𓏧

↳ ○ 1700

A03 lINK𓏧

↳ ○ x

MASTERLIST LINK𓏧

↳ ○ x

Retiring had been hard on him; you knew that. Of course, there were still your 'secret’ adventures; sometimes you even took Rose along; it was a shared secret. You, The Doctor, his niece—no, your niece too—you both had been seeing each other long enough, even if it was off and on and had odd periods in between. You two got rather serious when he decided to retire, to heal, to live a life that wasn’t always running. You were happy you got to be a part of it, someone that he could talk to about past events because you had been a companion for a long while now. You had seen him through four faces now; this one was a repeat; you had always been fond of it, and though you knew it didn’t come back because of you, you were glad that it did. You had been gathering clothing to go take a shower; you could feel his gaze on you. 

“Do you want to join me?” You asked and laughed a bit. He got that big grin you adored moving from his lying position on the bed; he moved to follow you into the bathroom. “You big puppy, you know you could just join me; you don’t have to wait for me to ask.”

"Yes, well, what if you didn’t want shower company? Hm? What if you decided you wanted to get squeaky clean all alone? What if you weren’t in the mood to have me there? I would rather have permission than to assume.” He said, wrapping an arm around your shoulder before he kissed your temple. “Besides, having you invite me is one of my favorite things; it means you don’t want to keep your hands to yourself.” He grinned, pulling at your shirt’s collar a bit, before kissing your cheek, moving into the bathroom, and running the water to the temperature you liked. You took the opportunity to slip out of the clothing you had been wearing all day. You rolled your head so your neck would pop. He watched you closely, moving his hands across your now-bare back. He let his fingers massage into your muscles, working away tension. You had started to temp for UNIT, a 'consultant'; it was a fancy way of saying secretary until there was a problem and the doctor ignored their call. It was fine work, paid well, and you got to hang out with Donna and Rose a lot more at work, even meeting the bi-regenerated doctor, the one that he would become eventually; maybe it was complicated. It didn’t matter right now anyway; you had your doctor to worry about, to pay attention to, to help heal. 

His fingers worked, and you felt yourself wanting to melt back against him. His hand slid up your shoulder blade to the crook of your neck, working there and across the back of your neck. Before his fingers slid around to hold your throat, there was no force behind it as he kissed from your shoulder up to your jaw, kissing and sucking where your jaw met your neck. You made a soft sound, his other arm wrapped around your waist, drawing you back against him as he kissed and sucked a deep mark into your skin. Your eyes fluttered shut for a moment as you relaxed into his affection; his fingers at your waist dragged over your stomach down towards your thigh and back up to your hip. He nipped you suddenly, drawing a surprised sound from your throat.

“Water should be warm enough.” He muttered against your skin, kissing where he had just bit before letting you go. You almost whined at the lack of his touch suddenly. You frowned at him pouting pathetically. As you got into the shower, the warm water washed over you, and you made a pleased sound at the way it warmed your aching body. You looked over at him as he undressed, moving to get into the water behind you. He ran his fingers through your hair, pulling some tangles free before he grabbed your shampoo and poured some in his palm, lathering it up a bit before pulling it through your hair. He kissed your shoulder a bit. He was thoughtful; he definitely showed his love with acts of service. You closed your eyes as he let his nails scratch your scalp lightly; you could melt right there. 

You smiled as he let his hands fall to trail down your arms; he pushed you forward a bit so he could rinse your hair. After the soap was out, you turned, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck. You leaned up to kiss him. His hands moved to settle on your hips, pulling you closer; your hands trailed over his shoulders and then down his chest, settling on his stomach right above his pelvis. As you kissed, his tongue lapped against your lower lip, begging for entrance, and you obliged, parting your lips. His tongue slipped into your mouth, and you made a soft sound, your tongue eager to meet his. His fingers pressed into the flesh of your hips a bit more, you savored the feeling of the kiss, he carefully moved to turn you both around so he could press your back against the back wall of the shower, pressing his body against yours, one hand up your side and across your arm lifting it above your head as he broke the kiss, attaching his mouth to your neck again, you made a little sound again and arched against him a bit, feeling his hardened length against your stomach, you let a playful breathless giggle escape. 

He grinned against your neck and let his hand that was holding your wrist above you move back down slowly, grazing over your stomach, and further down, his fingertips traced over your mound before slipping through your folds, teasing you, reveling in the soft mewling sound that came from your throat. His long fingers rubbed, his middle finger pressed into you, his pointer pressing against your clit before rubbing it. When he pulled a beautiful groan from your lips, he slid his pointer finger down to press it into you, starting to thrust his fingers. You felt your back lean against the wall more, your hands splayed against the cool tile of the shower. "Mmf.” You sounded softly, “God.” You breathed, your hips rocking forward. He let his fingers move faster, feeling how your walls clenched and flexed. He let his thumb move to rub slow circles against your clit.

“Feel good?” He breathed in your ear, and you nodded quickly. He continued to kiss you again briefly before he let his other hand move down to stroke himself a few times. “Do you want to..." He looked at you with those puppy dog eyes you loved; you nodded again, and he pulled his fingers out of you, bringing them up to his fingers to lick your arousal off of them. He moved to step back, hissing as he felt your fingers trail up his length. He leaned forward to kiss you again. He savored moments like this, moments where it was just you and him, where the universe melted away and your focus was solely on each other. He pulled away, “Turn around.” He breathed out. You nodded and did as he asked, turning to face the wall. You bent some, your ass pushed out, and he moved behind you, his hand gripping your hip as his other hand reached down to reposition your leg some.

He moved, lining up with your dripping hole, gripping the base of his cock. He pushed slowly into you, inch by inch until he was fully in you. His hand moved to rub up your ass, gripping it before he started to drag back out slowly. Your fingers curled against the wall as you whined, trying to follow; you didn’t want him out of you. You made a strangled sound as he pushed back in rougher this time before he set a slow pace, wanting to take his time, wanting to enjoy this moment with you. His head dipped down to kiss the back of your neck, growling out a moan as he felt you flexing around him, gripping and milking him. His hips grinding and rocking against your ass as he let his hand trail up your side up your chest and his fingers wrapped around your throat pulling you against his chest as he thrust, his hand that had been on your hip moved to wrap around your waist.

You could feel his dual hearts thudding against his chest and against your back as you groaned out, your hands moving to hold onto his arms, your thoughts fogged with pleasure, and you could only whine out his name and soft curses as he drew you closer to your orgasm. The air was heavier due to the humidity from the hot shower that you had remembered thanks to the water pattering against his back and against you, and the wall and floor—at least clean up would be quick and easy. Your knees felt weaker as your body hurtled towards release. He grunted out as he moved, wanting to make sure you had come before him. He felt the way you shook against him, listened to your breathing, and how your heart beat; he knew your body as well as his own by now. You were close. “It’s okay, star; you can let go, just feel it,” he breathed into your ear as you felt your hips give a weak jerk, and you panted out a whine. 

You couldn’t hold it anymore, and you groaned out your nickname for him as you writhed your pleasure spilling over, and you clenched against him, cumming around his cock. He groaned out and held you against him, slowly rolling his hips through your orgasm. He felt the pressure at the base of his spine, how his cock twitched. He moved, pulling out, his cock rubbing against your ass and back until he gripped it, pumping it. Until hot threads of cum painted your lower back, he panted and let his head lay against the back of your shoulder, kissing the skin there as he started to come down. You felt good, Hazy. He moved after a moment, kissing across your back as he moved to wash you up from your time together. He made sure to be slow and gentle as he washed you up, making sure to give you plenty of kisses and asking if you were hungry after the shower was done. You loved this funky little alien, and you hoped he knew that you were in it for the long haul.

★𓏧 𓏧 𓏧★ 𓏧 𓏧 𓏧★

Taglist𓏧 ↳ ○ @bees-fart-too , @bakusquadobsessed , @anastasa-mslfedit , @cabinedepapel , @asteria237 , @suckerforcate , @bingewatchingmylifegoby , @toastvogel , @starbucks-06 If you want to be added to the rest here is the l x

[ethanmaldridge]

Just finished Deephaven and I wanted to say I love how natural the queerness in it is, even though it's not a love story. I don't find a lot of queer books that aren't romance--not to say that queer romances are bad or anything--and it's nice to read a book with an NB person (like me! :) ) as the lead having their own adventure unrelated to their queerness. Probably similar to how girls feel when the fantasy novel has a female lead instead of a male, feeling happiness at the representation and deeper connection to the lead, I am trying to say.

As someone in a household that's not entirely accepting of those things, reading a book where the main character is called they/them throughout with no transphobia was really comforting in a way. How people say books transport us to another world, in the world of Deephaven I feel safe (about my gender, I mean, maybe not so much about the danger of the east wing).

Anyways. All I am trying to say is thank you for the NB representation and I liked reading a mystery involving queer characters.

This note means so much, thank you!!! I'm always so glad and honored to hear when my books have provided some escape or comfort. I always try to write with myself as a kid in mind, when I was scared and closeted and in a community that wasn't always safe for me. Those feelings exist at any stage, and it's a delight to be able to tell stories that sometimes help.

[kithtaehyung]

I'm glad that 3Tan will be published but for me it probably means the end of this beautiful adventure. Because where I live I probably won't have the opportunity to read your book and my heart aches :( 3Tan helps me live. I literally read a chapter every day. I think no one will understand it who doesn't feel what I feel. This story and waiting for the next chapter gave me wings and above all the will to live and a reason to get out of bed every morning. Now I'm afraid that I won't have the opportunity to finish the story with it. Regardless of this, I'm happy for your success. You deserve it!

omg babe!! it’s gonna be okay, the publishing (if it even happens) won’t be for awhile🥺 the physical copy of the series is just gonna be printed for personal gifts, so it’s not officially done at that point. and I wouldn’t go forward with real publication until it’s all over for awhile anyways🫂 no worries, yeah?

having 3tan accessible to everyone regardless of where they are will keep being extremely important to me. it’s helped me and many others, whatever we’re going through or needing help with at any given point in time. and we’re still gonna close out the main storyline! I wouldn’t pull it before then, that would be super out of character for me🤣

so you’re good. thank you for saying this and I understand the concern🤍 what you said is one of the many, many reasons why i write.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

A 2024 retrospective

It's the 15th of december and I don't think there will be a lot happening in the last weeks of the year. I will schedule polls until the 22nd and then it's a break till it's 2025. In the mean time, let's do a little retrospective of my year

Running a Poll Blog

In February I started this blog. As of writing, we've had 529 games and i'm sure there's some "big names" that haven't been polled yet. And we haven't got the big D game either. Don't worry, there will be a special day for it.

Anyway thank you all for voting, rebloging and submitting. I am glad to be part of the tumblr ttrpg community.

Playing TTRPG

I like stats. I like having sheets for thing like sessions played, whole collection and my bed.

This year I have played 51 sessions total. It's actually a 50/50 of online and in-person (26-25). Being in a ttrpg club really helps (21 sessions). I also played a lot on @anim-ttrpgs discord book club, great place ( and it's no wonder that Eureka is one of my most played this year).

I mostly played One shot ( 25 sessions)

I was a GM only 19 times, that was a vacation.

My busiest month was July with 10 sessions, that was.... a month.

My most played game this year are :

1 Knight an avalon RPG

2 Eureka

3 Triangle Agency

4 City of mist, The Dark Eye and Vaesen

In total I played 24 official games plus 4 different home systems

Game Design

I had a long pause of writing games. This year, I went out of my funk, created and published again. It felt good. I wanna thank the Nagademon and the Anim TTRPG communities for this.

I published Cooking in Dungeon : a solo larp game for those who have no idea what to cook for their meals

The TCG Oracle : a game that uses any trading card game cards for gmless adventures.

Chaos at Cosplay Con : Everyone at the con became their cosplays. Some lost their mind to the characters, but you didn't and now your group needs to get out before the costume consumes you.

A TTRPG addict

I love ttrpg, I wouldn't run this blog otherwise.

This is seen by my ever growing collection, both books and pdf. I bought games that I discovered thanks to this blog. The blog also made me think about where my games come from, and I tend to consume locally a lot, either with original creations or translations.

I am also impatient (the main reason i learned english is because the english manga scans were further ahead than the french ones) and a good target for FOMO so i often pledge for crowdfunding projects. I am waiting on a lot of them still, mostly pdf, I have my own trello to keep track of them.

Good thing with pdf : they don't take place on the shelves and you don't pay an import tax on them. Bad thing : you can't use them to build a house out of books cause your addiction went awry.

Here's to 2025

Here's to a new year that I hope will be better than the last, and so forth for any future year. May I not lose myself between too many projects and ideas and not finish any of them. I have already started a new one this december, somewhat anonymously and already I hate the white page in front of me.

And here's to staying on tumblr cause it's my trashcan thank you very much, and I will only leave by the force of the bayonets.

[lcb-oil]

Your fics. Honestly quite incredible. I always look forward to them and I'm so appreciative to have a growing pile of Don-centric fics to enjoy over and over. I always think about the parts of her that leaked through Rocinante and was equally gripped by how it doesn't suppress her bloodlust. Couldn't stop thinking about it. What do you MEAN her drive for justice and urge to spill blood got muddled up into spontaneous outbursts of violence?! Do you think the ever questioned how she never aged and never needed to eat while in the lighthouse? Quite funny to think about how Don had the immortal experience and seemingly didn't question it. But honestly who hasn't gotten into a really good book/game/series and completely lost track of time? Anyway. Keep writing. I'll keep reading. And thank you again :)

Thanks for reading. I'm glad that you'd want to read my fics again and again, haha.

The thought of getting so absorbed in a hobby that you don't notice how much time has gone by AND you even forget to eat in relation to bloodfiends is a really interesting and funny one. I hadn't considered that before.

Maybe that's why Dad Quixote hopped between so many interests! You gotta keep that attention focused!

As for how I'd approach this from a canon-ish perspective, I don't think she'd have any reason to question her immortality since she has nothing to compare her experience against. Kind of like my take on why she doesn't question her bloodlust - as far as she has seen, this is what life is like for everybody.

Re-reading that section of the canto again, it looks like she does have at least a concept of days going by. But then again, who knows if her sense of a "day" in the Lighthouse was is even close to reality? Maybe a "day" went by each time she finished reading a new adventure.

Man, Bari had to be working hard.

Thanks for the ask!

[koko-heads]

i just finished rain code and i think i might cry (spoilers ahead!!)

first of all

I CALLED IT !!!!! I CALLED IT I CALLED IT I CALLED IT I CALLED IT I FUCKING CALLED IT i knew yuma number one and makoto were all connected EVER SINCE yuma and makoto first met and the latter joked abt being number one's son then when yuma left and makoto said "so that's my..." the gears were turning in my head

these shots just go hard no opinion

i was like so close to sobbing when yuma was abt to sacrifice himself but he realised he needed to protect the ppl he loved and cared about + I KNEW MAKOTO WAS A WELL-INTENTIONED EXTREMIST i would've been on his side anyway bc he's so mwah

OH AND WHEN YUMA AND SHINIGAMI SEPARATED LIKE NEOOOOOWWWWW all of a sudden i wanted to apologise for ever calling her annoying those two leaving each other was a punch to the gut but AT LEAST!!! yuma's becoming a detective on his own 🥹

the epilogue made me choke up,,, the others leaving the headquarters,,,, saying goodbye to yakou,,, when they all said goodbye to kurumi i was THIS 🤏🏾 close to crying + the fact yuma was almost never mentioned until towards the end like THATS MY MAN!!! SAY HIS NAME

number one! yuma was kinda.... idk 😵‍💫

VIVIAAAAAAAA yeah i cried he's so lovely i'll miss him forever

AND THE ENDING!!!!! i know sequelbait when i see it there's no way we're leaving yuma behind that quickly

SHARA BRIANNA SUZIE LAURA LIZZIE DOROTHY EDWARD SEAN JANICE MATT ERICA????? THEY GOT THE WHOLE GANG OMG

in conclusion: an absolutely stunning whirlwind adventure of a game that actually had me on the edge of my seat; the mysteries were thrilling, the humour was top-tier and the character writing was truly excellent. i'm just glad my big four (yuma, desuhiko, halara and vivia) survived 🙏🏾

[terresdebrume]

Messrs Payne and Rowland's Adventuring Agency pt 12

Because I decided to go out for breakfast + writing and I'm not at a point in my life where I feel confident working on smut in public xD

"Young Crystal was expressing her shock at my lack of knowledge regarding combat magic," Mr. Payne says in that prim tone of his while Crystal rolls her eyes.

To her surprise, instead of agreeing with her or saying something to his partner, Charles blinks.

"Why would he bother with that?" He asks, apparently completely genuine. "That's what I'm for, innit?"

Mr. Payne's expression takes a painfully smug turn, and Crystal would sigh at him for it except at that point Charles puts a pair of reins in her hand, and she's faced with and admittedly beautiful horse head way too close to her own for comfort. Right. The Horseriding bit. Time to put Charles and Mr. Payne's theory to the test, then. Reluctantly, Crystal steps to the left flank of the horse, and takes a look at the saddle and stirrups. They're way too high for her as they are, and she doesn't want to risk jumping for fear of hurting the poor animal, so she lowers the stirrup as far as it'll go, hoist herself up with her arms, and then struggles until she's settled in the saddle, feeling weirdly slippery.

"You'll have to ride astride," Mr. Payne says with a rise of his eyebrow. "Suits of armor are not suited to riding sidesaddle."

"Neither is that saddle, for that matter," Charles adds. "And sidesaddle is a stupid way to ride, anyway."

With heated cheeks, Crystal takes her right leg out of its bend position and settles her foot in the stirrup, then leans aside when Mr. Paybe steps up to the horse and adjusts the other stirrup back to the correct height for her.

"Well," he says while Charles mounts his own horse, "we'll have to figure out how to get you up in the saddle faster, but I do believe our theory was correct. Give it a press of your heels."

Crystal does, and the horse starts off at a slow pace that she's glad to find manageable. Behind her, she hears Charles and Mr. Payne get their own horses in motion, then Mr. Payne overtakes her, and they're finally on their way to Crystal's first attempt at adventuring. It's funny, because she has no memory of her life before Charles and Mr. Payne found her, yet there's something in her that sings at the prospect, like it's been stiffled before and is finally being let free. She's not sure if it's the magic she apparently has or a result of some other circumstance she won't know until she finds her memories again, but she does know the prospect of even a short mission is... exilarating. She barely manages to contain herself until they're out of the city gates before she urges her horse into a gallop.

"Young Crystal!" she hears Mr. Payne protest, but she's going too fast to catch the rest of it, and even if she could she doesn't want to.

The the wind in her hair makes her feel like she could take flight, the movement of the horse's back under her teeming with power and as natural as breathing and, oh, Mr. Payne was more correct than he thought: Crystal doesn't just know what to do, she is good at it! With a shout, she urges her horse faster on the wide road, nothing but fields and then grass about as far as the eye can see, and she laughs when hoofbeats catch up with her, keep pace with her, then overtakes her, Mr. Payne's gray robes floating in the wind behind him. Crystal whoops again and presses her legs around the horse's flank, delighted when it speeds up again. She leans against its neck as low as her amor allows her to, setting her sights on a tree further down the way that will serve as a finish line as well as anything.

"Race you to the tree!" She calls out to Mr. Payne, and watches him make himself smaller in the saddle, evidently taking her up on the challenge.

They race along the road in a thunder, wind whipping at Crystal's cheeks and stinging in her eyes, her blood racing with the thrill of the chase, the clangs of her armor like drums in her ears. She manages to catch up to Mr. Payne's horse, keeping abreast of him and grinning triumphantly when he turns around to shoot her a surprised look, then swearing when he urges his horse faster. Crystal hisses between her teeth, then leans further onto her horse's neck and yells:

"Win me that race and I'll get you more carrots than you can eat!"

"You got it boss!" the horse says, and Crystal is so surprised the burst of speed the horse puts on throws her clean off the saddle.

She manages to cover her head with her arms by sheer miracle, but the fall drives the air out of her lungs and scrambles her mind with pain, leaves her winded and gasping on the trembling ground even as someone yells and comes to a stop next to her. She's pushing herself up on her arms when someone catches her shoulders and Charles' worried voice is in her ear:

"Crystal," he says with the tone of someone who's called her name before, "Crystal, can you hear me?"

"I'm fine," she says reflexively, vaguely aware of Mr. Payne coming back to them with both of their horses in hand. Charles is trying to catch her eyes, but she turns to her horse instead and points at it: "You speak!"

"Obviously," Mr. Payne says, "honestly, taking a tumble shouldn't-"

"Not you!" Crystal snaps at him, "You! You speak!"

"Yeah?" The horse says. "We all do, you know."

"You all--" Crystal turns to Charles, feeling more than a little crazed: "Did you know this?"

"I don't understand when you whiny at me," Charles says, something like relief in his eyes. "Are you speaking to the horse?"

"Yes!" Crystal says, finger still pointing at the horse. "It said--it said--"

"Hey, boss, do I still get the carrots? I won the race--"

"You fucking bit me, you fucker," says Mr. Payne's horse in a much deeper voice.

"Well yeah but she didn't say not to, and it's not my fault she fell down."

"You speak," Crystal repeats, hearing the faintness of her voice without being able to stop it.

"Oh great," says a light, younger sounding voice from behind her, "Good job Goncho, you brained her."

"I'm not--" Crystal protests, breathless, "horses don't speak!"

"All beasts speak, you ninny," says Charles' horse with a clear snort, "you bipeds just don't take the time to listen."

"Hey don't insult her!" Goncho says, "She promised me carrots!"

"For fuck's sake Goncho, not everything is about carrots. She's hurt!"

"She's fine," says Charles horse in an exasperated tone. "Look, she's not even bleeding. Come on, get up!"

"Hey, woah!" Charles says when his horse steps in front of him to bump at Crystal's torso.

"Up!" The horse continues, ignoring the way Charles tries to hold it back, "Up, I said! The more time you keep us here, the longer before I get back to my stable."

Goncho and the other horse let out long exclamations of protest and start heckling Charles' horse, their words turning back to annoyed whinnies and huffs in the time it takes Crystal to get back to her feet. She sways a bit, but Charles' hand steadies her quickly. When Crystal turns to him, he looks like he's trying not to laugh.

"They were speaking!" Crystal says, "You heard them, right? The horses?"

"Of course not," Mr. Payne says with clear impatience. Crystal turns around, ready to tell him where he can shove his dismissal, when he adds: "The magic was only on you. All we heard were horse sounds." He pauses, glancing at Charles, and then his lips curve into something that looks like it wants to be a smile. "I must admit the sight of you whinnying was quite entertaining."

"I didn't whinny!" Crystal protests, which is apparently exactly what Charles was waiting for to start laughing.

"You did," he says, voice trembling with the effort of pushing through his chuckles. "You make very funny faces when you're speaking horse."

"I didn't--"

"Oh, be grateful," Mr. Payne cuts off, not as harshly as he could, "now we know one thing your magic does, even if it isn't quite helpful in combat. Now, if you're quite alright, get back in the saddle, will you? Going full speed the whole time is not a good idea, but we do not want to keep young Rebecca waiting too long."

Crystal gets back in the saddle.

[sunshinebarbarian]

Hello!! You can call me Pigeon! I'm 23F, from Portugal. I'm making this long ass post to give a little background information about the blog. I'm usually not into games like BG3, so I was a little late to the party, but boy am I glad to have arrived.

Click here to see the list of what I've already posted <3

I'm also posting on AO3!

One of my best friends kept talking to me about the game for YEARS and at some point last month Instagram decided to start recommending me fan edits of Astarion (which is funny because when she first asked me years ago who I'd pick, I very decidedly said Karlach) so I caved, and asked her to let me borrow it from her. When I was about 80 hours in, I broke and actually bought the game, because her account was being used and I didn't want to wait to continue my playthrough.

Neither of us expected me to get as much into the game as I did. Seriously. There's like 12 pages of screenshots I sent on discord of my own gameplay (a lot of it is Sol and Astarion kissing, oops), not to mention the unholy amount of reels and videos related to the game that we send each other.

Anyway, after about 180 hours (if you don't count the hours lost when I fucked up and had to reload the game) I finished the story, and proceeded to go cry in the corner. Instagram once again came to the rescue, when I started seeing posts from @meanbossart and I actually got obsessed with the way he draws his characters. I'd ride his dudrow to the Feywild and back if I had the chance. I'm not much of a visual artist, but I always loved writing, so I started writing Sol's adventures, because I was absolutely not ready to say goodbye to her (we spent over a month together! that's longer than some of my relationships). I'm doing it for myself, but I figured someone out there might enjoy it too, so I'm posting it. Plus this way I can save it more neatly than if I just keep using the notes app on my phone. I'm not new to Tumblr exactly, but I have never used an account for more than just snooping for particular posts. There's also AO3, but frankly that website confuses me and intimidates me.

Now, about Sol, and her story: I'm starting it pre nautiloid abduction, and will follow the choices that I made during the gameplay. I'm going to add some filling, to flesh out her character and her relationships with the whole gang, as well as just to give uniqueness to her story (otherwise you could just. play the game. and it'd be the same thing.). When I was creating Sol, I decided that I would play her as myself, making the choices that I would make, doing the things that I would do, so, the filling will be game/lore accurate still, and it will be based on my reactions and thoughts about game events. Luckily I have twelve pages of screenshots and a lot of messages to guide me. Once the game story is finished, I have ideas for how things will continue, because I refuse to let certain things remain the way they are, and I have attachment issues.

[ageless-aislynn]

So, what all am I working on? So glad you asked!*

*I know you didn't but making lists helps me to feel organized. 😉

Writing (active)

"15 Minutes" chapter 12 and "Recreation" chapter 5 are both in various stages of work. "15 Minutes" has about the first third of the chapter written, while "Recreation" won't actually be written until I've done a bit more on "15 Minutes" in total because I want to make sure they line up together. However, I'm doing a lot of thinking about what I want to include, so Kai and her Reader have definitely not been forgotten! I'll be going through and doing a total read-through of both of them soon, with notes to make sure that any thread I left dangling will get properly snipped and closed by the end. Hopefully. Swiss cheese brain is making this harder. But I persevere, frens!

John, patiently waiting for another long-promised chapter to magically appear. 😉

Writing (passive)

That Noble Team "Choose Your Own Spartan Adventure" idea just will NOT let me give up on it. But right now I'm just leaving it in the percolating stage and hopefully once "15 Minutes" and "Recreation" are concluded, I can give it a try. 🤷‍♀️

"Fluffy Vannak fic" is in the same boat, honestly. I've tried to give up on it so many times but it manages to wiggle back into my "to-do" pile over and over again, lol! I guess I just want to give the big guy some happiness, what can I say?

"Guardian Angel" and "The Price" over in my Flash WIPs are still here as well, patiently waiting for their turn with my single remaining brain cell. That brain cell is very tired but doesn't want to give up on any of them. *shakes pom-poms of encouragement* Go, Single Remaining Brain Cell, go!

Vidding

I have a pile of vid ideas now in progress and that makes me so happy! I wish I was being more efficient and just moving 'em all along, assembly style, so that I have this lovely constant flow of finished vids showing up but... Well, said Single Remaining Brain Cell mentioned above enjoys running over, jumping on the big Vidding Carousel and just randomly riding around on different horses, happily shouting, "YAYYYYYY!" so I can't bring myself to deny her those simple pleasures, lol!

(One of my favorite moments in Detroit: Become Human, d'aww)

Anyway, what's in progress is:

A Mass Effect Andromeda vid that I'd love to get done in time for Mass Effect Andromeda Appreciation Week (Jan 27 - Feb 2) I wasn't able to make anything for this past N7 day in November so I'd love to get this done to take part in this! The focus, naturally, is...

Um, Mr Vidal? Actually this vid isn't about you and Sara. Or you and Scott. Or, errr, you at all. Sorry.

Sara is stunned into buffering forever at that. 😉

No, frens, this vid is about...

My terrible driving, lol! I'm not sure if I'll get it done in time but I'ma try!

UPDATE: Surprisingly enough, I did get my vid done and it wasn't about the Nomad like I thought it would be. It's for my Bestest Turian Girl, Vetra!

"Not A Crush" is here for your Mass Effect: Andromeda appreciation viewing pleasure! 🤗😉

A Halo the series vid, focused on the Marines, requested by @threshergm that's about half done

A vid for 68 Whiskey, requested by @threshergm, focused on Rosa Alvarez (Cristina Rodlo who is Talia Perez in Halo), about a third done

A Dead Rising vid for mah man Frank West, giving me problems with the song, unfortunately. This is an idea I've wanted to do for a long while but the song is just NOT letting me cut it like I'd like to (and I don't want to not edit it down). So I'll just have to keep working on it.

And there we have it! The Official What Ais Is Working On Right Now list! 🥳

I'm also making this list in order to hopefully give my Single Remaining Brain Cell a tiny bit of serotonin, in the hopes of keeping her going.

Go, Brain Cell, you can do it!!! 😂😉

Love you all, friends. I hope you're doing well. 🤗💖

[kaledya]

Hello there! (I know you like star wars, let's test your knowledge lol)

Richard here again. I just wanted to say that I'm terribly sorry for the flood of questions I asked previously, and instead go for a little more sober approach regarding the techniques of an artist/writer.

1) where do you find the time to write/draw? Personally I cannot ever get myself the time to draw something really detailed, or write some actually long part of my (already almost finished in my head) Hazbin Hotel au, as well as its Sinners Symphony adaptation.

2) where do you find motivation to create art? I cannot convince myself it's a good time to make something, ever, and I hate myself for that. When I see how fast you're capable of producing art (almost like a factory lmao) I cannot stop thinking about what I might be doing wrong.

3) where do you gain inspiration to make these original? Do you just start thinking and say: "hey this merged with that would be kinda funny/cool/interesting, let's do that" and just go, sit down and make it, or is there a "secret formula" to get original ideas?

I hope I didn't disturbed you during something important, have a nice day/night and see you next time, hopefully with the wheels of my AU already moving!

Once again, love your art, cherish your writing and most importantly, keep having fun making it!

Richard

OBİ-WAN KENOBİ!!! ohm I mean hi!

1-I want to study animation, so I can find time since both the drawings I make and the things I write are things I need to do anyway.

2- I don't know how to answer this exactly, but before HazbinHotel came out, I had not drawn a at for almost 4 months (this was my first artblock and I hated that) when the trailer was published. I got a great desire to draw.And when I posted my drawings on Twitter and saw that people liked my arts and wanted more, this became my motivation.I still have motivation and inspiration right now, I hope it continues.

And I'm so glad to hear you're writing AU, I'm sure you'll do a great job!

3-The thıng you mentioned happens to me from time to time.But, for example, an idea comes to my mind about what would happen if Alastor adopts a child, and I do it.Then, if I like this idea, I sit down and start planning it in detail.To give an example, Serenity emerged at the end of this process.

And when it comes to inspiration, my inspiration comes from the books I read, the TV series and movies I watch, and the games I play.If I give an example

Constantine:

Books: The Prince, The 48 laws of power ,Sherlock

Serenity:

Games: Last of us 1/2.

Books: Sherlock (Watson)

Series: Adventure time story of Marceline and Simon/ice king

So consume plenty of content and you will find inspiration.

No, it was a pleasure for me to answer your question. I wish you a good day too.And I'm so glad you like my work!❤️❤️

[lexicals]

Aaaa okay I've finished the novels now too. Gonna put my thoughts down on them and how they compare to the tv version

So overall I think I like the novels better, the interiority you gain from the format adds a lot I think and it definitely benefits from not having to hold back on things like the gorey side of the supernatural elements (and yes, the gay as hell elements). I think that same lack of restraint in the writing adds a lot more comedy - while I thought the tv version was very funny, I found the books hilarious, and I think a lot of that is down to not having to pull punches on how outrageous wei wuxian gets to act, which is the core of the comedy so much of the time. I also felt that the ending was a lot more coherent, which makes sense given how much was cut out of it for the tv version, and obviously it's nice to have a confirmed post-canon marriage and continued adventures! The post-story cases were a lot of fun, I think some of my favourite parts were getting to see the two of them interact with their little gaggle of juniors and help guide them, it's very sweet.

As for criticisms, I have to be honest, the more mature scenes really weren't for me. I wasn't a fan of the blurry lines of consent (it felt like the aim was consensual non-consent, but... it still didn't sit right, especially some of the dream sequence stuff) and a lot of it felt fetishising to me, but then I suppose it's something to be expected from the genre, so I can't complain too much about it. I liked the fact that the in-universe homophobia was acknowledged and taken into consideration, but sometimes it felt like it was being played for titillation rather than taken seriously - again, though, genre conventions. It also felt like there was an underlying tone of colourism to the character descriptions, but honestly you could probably level that critique at the tv version as well. These were things that soured the experience a bit for me, but the overall read was still positive, and I did really enjoy the story even despite knowing what was going to happen already. It's a good tragedy when you're reading along thinking "maybe it won't happen this time" lol.

I find myself a bit confused as to what wei wuxian's actual cause of death was - obviously the tv version makes it very clear cut, but the book only calls it "spiritual rebound" and doesn't really elaborate or directly show anything from after the massacre, so it felt a bit vague. I suppose the idea is that he lost control during the siege and was torn apart by his own power? Not sure if I've missed something there or if it's just not very clear. It's not a huge annoyance but I was a bit surprised they didn't get into it more than passingly.

Anyway overall it was a really good read, and now I get to go read all the good fic that's out there :3 It's even poked my writing itch a little which hasn't happened in ages - idk if I'll actually follow through with it or just keep my musings to myself, but it's nice to have a nice big brain space to play in after a long time of not having one. I'm glad I finally got around to this after seeing other people talking about it for such a long time, it's been a while since I had a series grab me like this so it's been a lot of fun.

[scoops404]

Aaaahhh I just finished ‘Merry Men Making Merry’ (otherwise known as MMMM) and I’m so hyped about it!!! I had so much fun reading it, your world-building is amazing, so impressive!

As I said I’m a big fan of the story of Robin Hood and it brings back childhood memories. I like that you can read your fic without having any knowledge of the original story, but if you do have knowledge of it it’s so much fun to recognize parts. Like BBH being friar Tuck had me cackling, it’s perfect!

I always love how you write Larray, I can literally hear him in my head with the way you write him 🤭

Oooh and don’t get me started on the ingenuity of incorporating their background stories through flashbacks, that really made the story come to life for me.

//“You gave me a purpose,” Dream tells him, barely audible over the cracking and popping of the fire. The wind almost carries the words away, but George heard them. They’re his now.//

This is probably my favorite part in the fic. For a moment there you had me fooled because of how the og story ends, but your ending was literally perfect. Anyway, I don’t want to spoil too much and I’ve been going on for too long so for anyone reading this ask please go read the fic, you will not regret it!

Thank you Scoops for giving us such a wonderful story again, you’re amazing!

(All that’s missing was the map of the realms at the beginning of the story, haha)

MMMM because it's finger lickin' good!!! Lol no that's so cringe omg

Spoilers under the cut!

I really wanted to write Robin Hood and I was blessed to get the prompt (It was one of those challenged where you give your top 3 preference and then get assigned one). I knew I could write something actiony/adventury because I LOOOVE writing those and I think I'm pretty good at it. Cc!DNF don't really lend themselves to action and adventure but AU versions of them do. Deep in Dream and The Mushroom King and the Nightmare were some of my favorite stories to write. Like, fully obsessed while I was writing them and working on the world building, and MMMM reminded me heavily of those vibes.

I have seen the DIsney animated movie, of course, and also "Men In Tights" and both of those stories kind of spoof the already famous tropes of Robin Hood, so I did some digging --aka I watched an hour long youtube video essay about the evolution of Robin Hood lore-- and dove in. I wanted to add elements from different "canons" - like Robin Hood being secretly a nobleman. I also didn't want this story to be 100K words (which, as you know, I could easily accidentally do) so I decided for the plot, we would center around something fun-- stealing something, since that's what he's known for. I didn't know how to make George Maid Marian because obviously he has to be the love interest, OBVIOUSLY lol, so once I changed it to Maid Marian being Dream's sister, it all kind of fell into place.

However, I also wanted to see *how* they became the Merry Men, I think that's really interesting and integral to the story, and thus the flashbacks were born. I really don't like flashbacks, both in reading and writing, I think they can be done very very well (Hi Luci!), but normally i just find them really boring, so I had to keep them short and action packed to keep everyone's attention.

BBH as Friar Tuck -- fit tooooo perfectly, I just had to. I went back and forth on George or Sapnap being Little John and then decided it didn't really matter ultimately, they both kind of fill that role. Though, George kind of also rounds out the "Robin Hood" persona --please note that he gets mistaken for Robin Hood at least once in the fic!

I had a blast writing this one and, not going to lie, it got away from me for a while, but @rebelwithoutabroom helped pull me back lol.

Thank you so much for such a lovely review of the story! I'm so glad you liked it <3

(Yes, next time will add a map, though i have no idea what it all would look like so that will add like 5 months onto things. Also, multiple realms, what was I thinking?!)

[terramythos]

TAYLOR READS 2023: SYSTEM COLLAPSE BY MARTHA WELLS

Title: System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7) (2023)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, First Person, Agender Protagonist

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 11/19/2023

Date Finished: 12/31/2023

In the aftermath of the alien contamination incident of the Adamantite colony, Murderbot and its humans face a new challenge. Barish-Estranza, a major corporation, seeks to claim the planet and its inhabitants as salvage, which would doom the colonists to contract slavery. To save them from this fate, the non-corporate humans must find a way to convince the colonists to trust them and reject Barish-Estranza’s offer.

But after a nervous breakdown, Murderbot has problems of its own. Unable to trust its own judgment, Murderbot must come to terms with its distressingly human response to the traumatic events of Network Effect— all while keeping its humans from accidentally killing themselves in the cutthroat political climate Barish-Estranza brings to the Adamantite colony.

“On the team feed, Ratthi asked, Can we come down and help you, SecUnit? No, I told him. He hadn’t asked me what I was doing, probably because he was afraid I didn’t know. Which, valid, but this time I actually did know. I continued around the edge, because if I was right, the first one would be directly attached to the pad. If it wasn’t here, I was going to look incredibly fucking stupid and the humans were going to assume because of redacted I— Oh, here it is.”

For live reading notes, check the reblogs (contains unmarked spoilers).

Content warnings and review (spoiler-free and spoiler versions) under the cut.

Content Warnings: Mentioned -- Murder, torture, sexual slavery. Depicted -- Slavery, PTSD, self-hatred, emotional manipulation, dehumanization, violence, gore (kinda), death (implied)

**SPOILER-FREE REVIEW**

This section is spoiler free for System Collapse, but not The Murderbot Diaries as a whole, so please keep that in mind!

I've consistently enjoyed The Murderbot Diaries throughout its run. The strikingly relatable narration Murderbot supplies makes the books approachable and entertaining to read, despite often delving into disturbing and dark subject matter like slavery, depression, and anxiety. The book chronologically preceding this one, Network Effect, is one of my favorite novels of all time. While System Collapse doesn't reach those heights (and it doesn't need to), it's yet another story following Murderbot's adventures and struggles with personhood, so I predictably liked it.

System Collapse occupies a more transitional space than previous entries. We end the novel in much the same place as in Network Effect, literally and metaphorically. Murderbot makes the same decision it does at the end of Network Effect; to leave its Preservation humans and travel with ART and its crew instead. I question whether System Collapse was originally planned when Network Effect was written; as a story, it feels tacked onto that entry. It's just more of that book-- a continuation of some loose threads from it.

However, this isn't a criticism, at least not yet, because despite feeling similar to Network Effect, System Collapse introduces critical character development in order for the next arc, which I imagine will focus more on ART and the University, to succeed. I'll get into more detail about that in the spoiler section, but I have no problem with a break from the extreme high stakes tension of Network Effect to spend time developing various characters, including Murderbot itself, especially going into the next story arc.

**SPOILER REVIEW**

By far System Collapse's greatest strength is how it addresses Murderbot's trauma post-Network Effect. If I'm right and this entry wasn't originally planned, I'm glad Martha Wells decided to write it anyway, because leaving the long term effects of what Murderbot went through in the air and unaddressed would be a disservice to Murderbot as a character and readers who have undergone similarly traumatic experiences.

In particular, Murderbot experiences a realistic depiction of PTSD, something it's disturbed by and ashamed about. System Collapse can often be a brutal read because Murderbot is so hard on itself, seeing itself as an incompetent failure for having a reasonable reaction to trauma. It hearkens back to earlier points in the series where Murderbot didn't really see itself as a person, something that has gradually changed over time. But one thing that sticks out to me is a heavier thematic focus on Murderbot's humanity.

Murderbot itself is a construct-- a combination of machinery and cloned human material. We know it has a human face, human neural tissue, and some organic body parts, but the series to this point has focused on Murderbot's PERSONHOOD rather than its HUMANITY, which are separate things in this series. Murderbot itself doesn't identify as human, usually avoiding the association and approaching the world as a machine would. So after Murderbot suffers its PTSD episode, when ART says “this affects the part of you that is human," and Murderbot doesn’t outright deny that assertion, it's VERY striking to a long time reader. Murderbot's human aspects have to this point been depicted as a nuisance, something Murderbot feels neutral about at best and dislikes at worst.

System Collapse makes a direct connection between a fundamental aspect of Murderbot's character and this idea of humanity. It's something that seems obvious in retrospect but as far as I know is the first time the narrative directly addresses it. Murderbot LOVES the TV show The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. As an autistic-coded character, Murderbot's primary special interest IS Sanctuary Moon (and the concept of human media as a whole). It watches favorite episodes of this space soap opera to comfort itself when it feels stressed or overwhelmed. One reason Murderbot cites for not hating humans despite what they've done to it, even before meeting humans it likes, is their ability to create media.

Yet when we meet ART in the second book, a space ship bot with greater than human intelligence, it doesn't understand the emotional aspect of media at all. It needs to watch TV shows by seeing the reactions of others to get full context. One of the ways ART and Murderbot initially bond is through watching shows together like this. Murderbot cites "human neural tissue" as a requirement for fully understanding media. Yet here in System Collapse that same neural tissue causes major problems for Murderbot— the trauma response.

One connection System Collapse makes to Sanctuary Moon and why it's so important to Murderbot is that, after hacking its governor module pre-series, Murderbot used Sanctuary Moon to heal and rewire its brain. Murderbot has always had some human aspect to it, whether it likes to acknowledge this or not. And one of the things most precious to it is something it would not be able to fully understand or appreciate otherwise. So Murderbot has to grapple with both positive and negative aspects to, as ART identifies (correctly, I feel), its humanity. I was hesitant about this framing at first, as the series to this point has avoided addressing this so directly. But on reflection I REALLY like it, and am interested to see how the next entry expands upon this.

Beyond Murderbot itself we do get development of some newer characters. Iris, ART’s favorite human, made an appearance in the last book, but gets a lot more screen time in System Collapse. We get a sense of her self doubt, but willingness to do what is right in the face of danger. Another character I really enjoy is Tarik. I honestly can't remember if he made more than a passing appearance in Network Effect. But System Collapse develops him as a human foil to Murderbot; he was part of a corporate death squad and broke free, has trauma associated with that, is the newest member of ART'S crew, and is quietly a badass as like, a background detail, which is pretty funny. With the book's greater focus on humanity and how it relates to Murderbot, I think a character like this has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see where that goes.

Slavery and self-determination are core themes of the series, and we continue with that trend in System Collapse. Barish-Estranza are the primary antagonists and seek to enslave the surviving colonists of Admantine in everything but name, and the conflict focuses on finding a way to convince said colonists to establish themselves as an independent entity to escape that fate. While I don't think it's the most poignant exploration of these ideas in the series, it is nice to see the consistency of The Murderbot Diaries' anti-slavery message and the variety of ways it's explored throughout.

Another overarching plot thread gets expanded upon in this entry-- that of free constructs besides Murderbot. Murderbot encounters a "ComfortUnit" (a cutesy name for a sex slave) earlier in the series and frees it, and we still don't know where it went or what it has done since then. In Network Effect Murderbot frees another SecUnit which it calls "Three", who is a minor character in this entry. During the story of System Collapse Murderbot frees two other SecUnits owned by Barish-Estranza, one of whom helps them during the climax. It's implied this Unit will do what Murderbot initially did and pretend it's still under the governor module's control while continuing to do its job.

So my question is, when does this part of the story all come together? The slavery of constructs is arguably THE conflict of the series. Murderbot has given various constructs the means to disable their governor modules and free themselves throughout the series. Presumably this could cause a chain reaction over time as other constructs free each other. Is this the endgame of the series? I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.

**CONCLUSION**

As always I greatly enjoyed System Collapse and highly recommend the entirety of The Murderbot Diaries. It's one of my favorite series ever and if you haven't read them yet… DO IT! I would not consider System Collapse the best entry in the series (it's hard to beat Network Effect) but it provides compelling character development and food for thought regarding the next story arc of the series.

[artist-issues]

(I may have accidentally clicked the Unfollow button instead of the Ask button, my bad!! 😅 Still following ya!)

I'm here to deliver you a fun question amidst a world full of negativity, and that is;

If you ever had the opportunity to create your own story/animated film, what would you want it to be about? Who would be the characters and how would you want to write their stories? Would you bring in subtle tenets of your faith, or go all-out Lewis/Tolkien and dive into analogy/Christian values? Fantasy or Sci-fi? Romcom or thriller? Adventure or something cosy and intimate? Any worldbuilding?

Basically, if you could write your dream stories, what would they be about?

Sorry if you've got a similar question before, but I am really curious. Your posts talking about storytelling and faith always fascinate me, and I'd love to know how someone with such a love for Christ and stories would go about creating their own stories 💙

This is a wonderful question! I can't tell you how wonderful. Thank you! I'm so glad you follow me still!

I guess I'd always lean more toward allegory, and fantasy. I don't know how to make a story that isn't saying something very intentionally about God and people and their relationship to God.

It's funny, my taste in stories is more intimate. My favorite Disney movie is Lilo & Stitch, for example. But I have a hard time boiling it down when I make my own stories, because I like to trace every character's motivations back to their source--and when I do that, I wind up world building without meaning to, for way longer than I planned!

I make my stories based off of the Invisible Ink model by Brian McDonald, with a few tweaks to the outline so that it makes sense to me specifically.

So I always start with a thesis statement, the Point of the Story, the lesson I'm hoping it teaches. Then I break it down by listing "characters that need to learn it" and "characters that believe the opposite of it" and "characters that know it already." And then how they all interact, and where they'll be by the end of the story. Fun stuff like setting and fictional history and characterizations come while I'm filling all of that in, kind of naturally, which I wish I was better at giving in to.

Anyway! On to the fun part of your question;

I keep my stories really private because I have learned that if I "tell" the story, even just in a summary or a tumblr post or a text to a friend, I lose a lot of inspiration and a lot of...mental freedom to finish the story itself. It's like once I say it out loud, that version of the story is final in my subconscious, and I have less motivation to tweak it.

So I don't tell people about my ideas. Not unless we're officially or professionally collaborating.

But this question is so GOOD and I so APPRECIATE IT, that I'm going to get over that and tell you about one, for example, that I started doing but probably won't get to make.

I call it "Come When You're Called" and it's a story about a sheep farm, from the perspective of the farm animals (but specifically the dogs.) The style is like if all of Ruyard Kipling's Serious Animals With Their Own Noble Cultures met Albert Payson Terhune's How Animals Thrive Serving Their Owners met Disney's Fun Anthropomorphic Animals.

The main character is a border collie named Sky Blue (she's liver-colored with blue eyes) who is learning the lifestyle of a good dog on her master's farm. She's very energetic. Thats the one word you could use to describe her. She never stops trying to play or have fun. She's proud of being the fastest dog on the property; the older border collie she's learning from, Sharps, isn't even as fast as she is. He's teaching her how to recognize the Master's commands and obey them immediately.

Sharps is excellent at what he does, but he's super irritable because all he cares about is the work. If he had a character arc, it would be to find his identity in how much his Master loves him instead of how well he can do his job. When he first meets Sky, he doesn't like her because there's a subtle fear that he's getting too old to do the work himself. He's very strict.

There's another older dog on the property. His name is Lockjaw but everybody calls him LJ, and he's the opposite of Sharps. He's even older, wiser, and downright jolly. He used to be the guard dog for the whole huge property, but he's been raising a young German Shepherd named Buckwild to take it over. Buckwild and LJ have southern accents and Buck is a very smart, good dog...as long as someone tells him what to do, and exactly how to do it: his default state is laziness. He becomes Sky's love interest.

Anyway, the music would be very highlands-folksy—think The Oh Hellos. Each animal species on the farm has its own "culture," but they all function like a kingdom serving their king, the human Master. When you're living by that code of obeying and fulfilling your purpose, the animals generally call it "Coming When You're Called." But if you are disobedient, lazy, or out for yourself, stealing food or killing the Master's chickens or whatever, you're twisted and looked at with scorn and apprehension by the good animals.

It would be super episodic. 🤷‍♀️ There's villain characters, like a pack of wolves that like to try picking off the sheep every once in a while. Theres also a tomcat who does not Come When He's Called, but just sort of does whatever he wants around the farm and causes mischief. Theres a tiny black kitten who Sky teaches what she's learning, about how to Come When You're Called, who wants to grow up and chase the lazy tomcat off and take his place. Stuff like that.

I have other ideas. One, in particular, I've mentioned before, got me involved with the studio I'm currently working in. It's an allegory to do with a siren, vampire, and werewolf in the early 2000s. But I'll keep that one to myself 🫢 for now! The story the studio and I are making right now is sci-fi fantasy adventure, about a family that needs to figure out their relationship to each other and the world they're finding themselves rulers of...but that's all I'll say about that until it's out there for people to watch!

Really I like creating all of it. I've got a sci-fi idea, three fantasy ones, and then an ongoing batch of monster stories, too! I guess I always tend to create as if my audience is...in that 12-20 range? But really, like Disney, I'd like it if my stuff could be enjoyable for all ages. We'll see! I think! I hope!

Thank you for this question!