#CREativity is the twin of insanity

[luna-loveboop]

I find it funny that Wild, who has basically a couple years ish of full life experience, comes up with the most insane theories for everything

He assumed that the only other explanation to Four being able to split in Four was. That he was quadruplets who'd been hiding this whole time???

Also apparently he believed that his wolf companion Twilight in botw was a diety (and felt very uhh shocked upon finding out that he was not)

Malon made things worse, telling him about her aliens theory

What's even FUNNIER is that every time Wild expresses any sort of confusion at magic stuff that he's never seen before, everyone else in the chain acts like it's crazy for him to be weirded out by it

Honestly maybe Wild's the only one with his head on straight, rather than everyone else who are just like 'it's magic bro' like no he's right this is weird

I appreciate this because it's very considerate of the fact that he woke up with no memories not too long ago, so he doesn't have much experience to explain the stuff that's 'normal' for the chain. Plus the explanations he comes up with are funny.

:)

.

Art and comic and adorable character by Jojo @linkeduniverse au :D

[theeyeofeverything]

Day 2 of ????? trying to beat Eigong up

I REACHED THE THIRD PHASE HELL YEAAAAAAAAH

But I survive only the half of it, and it IS ALWAYS HER TALISMAN THAT GETS ME WHY

I thought I long ago passed this attack but NOT IN THE THIRD PHASE Also red slash... it's fucking impossible to dodge BECAUSE YOU CAN'T UNBOUND COUNTER IN THE AIR

I need unbound counter in the air...

[fangirlingpuggle]

so since ford is like, CONVINCED dips and mabel are his kids in this au he is obviously not going to avoid them no matter what stan says about it (yet another point of tension between them...) so any thoughts on how he trys to bond with them? dd&md perhaps? children like that game right? maybe when it becomes clear mabel doesn't like the actual gameplay aspects he and mabel draw art to replace the official stuff and thats how he bonds with her? weapons also. he also trys to bond by giving them weapons ( i mean its ford cmon now)

Oh he totally disregards Stan warning him off

Ford: These are my children Stanley

Stan: No sixer, no they are not, they are your grandniece and nephew you were in another dimension when they were born

Ford: Oh please Stanley time is easy to mess that proves nothing

Stan:Ford your being stupid, when did I become the smart twin?

I think he's very unsure how to bond with them at first. Dipper is easier though Dipper wants to know all about the journals and Ford is more than happy to tell him everything (His son is so much like him) He also may be asking questions while talking to Dipper about any unusual powers he may have, or if they may manifest later in life. (He is sure all the strange things Dipper has found so easily are him unconsciously using his powers)

Stan: Sixer it's not hard to weird stuff, you found it

Ford: Yes Stanly but I was a genius looking for all of it the twins stumbled into it

Stan:I CAN'T WALK OUTSIDE WITHOUT TRIPPING OVER A GNOME FORD IT'S NOT HARD

With Mabel Ford can see she takes after Bill more with her chaotic nature, but he also see her empathy (And she reminds him of the version of Bill he thought he knew and cared) He encourages her creativity and listens to her talk about ideas and 'I'm sure I can invent that' he makes her insane creations, and doesn't bat an eye at the insane weapons she wants.Stan is close to having as heart attack.

He also gets them to come on explorations with him showing them places in gravity falls and explaining about science and how theoretically certain powers would work. (And if they had certain powers how this would work)

he would totally share his D&D interest and DM for their adventures, Dipper would love it and I think think Mabel who love the RPing and would making the most insane mix of classes Bard, Druid, Ranger with unicorn pig animal companion or something similar. She'd also totally draw characters and maps.

[blueskittlesart]

i kinda really wanna see a big ol vent/rant from you about genshin now lol. I would read an essay

I'm not sure you understand the insanity you just unlocked in me but ok

genshin impact is probably the clearest modern example i can think of of capitalism absolutely eviscerating a creative project. For context, I started playing genshin in 2021, just after the 1.4 update. it was venti's first rerun/the first windblume festival if that means something to you. and I really genuinely thought that it might have had something special. It was a gacha that didn't FEEL like a gacha, which was a huge feat to me.

it began with a very simple story pitch--you, the protagonist, are one of a set of twin siblings traveling through space. you come upon a seemingly unassuming world and your attempts to continue your journey are suddenly stopped by a mysterious, all-powerful figure. you are separated from your sibling and wake up alone on the shores of this planet you were attempting to leave together. throughout that opening cutscene and scattered through the world and your character's dialog there are implications that all is not as it seems, that your character is something unique to this world and that they possess powers and abilities that you've yet to unlock. You are told that you must travel the seven nations of this world in order to find your sibling, which is great--a simple, zelda-like objective which drives the player to explore the secondary narratives of the world. none of this is bad on the surface. in fact i'd argue it's pretty good. there's a ton that can be done with these story bones. even at launch the map and combat system were full of potential as well.

Note: for ease of reading, i'm going to label the different storylines of the game now. A-plot refers to the central objective of the entire game; the find-your-sibling plot and everything that encompasses, including the abyss order/dain, the heavenly principles, the fake sky, etc. B-plot refers to the secondary objective present in each new nation, usually meeting the archon and/or solving a problem for the archon. (A and B-plots will occasionally intersect.) C-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which remains in permanent gameplay but which isn't directly related to the A or B-plots, such as dragonspine, the chasm, enkanomiya, etc. D-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which is confined to limited-time events and does NOT remain in permanent gameplay, regardless of its connection or lack thereof to the A and B-plots, such as the golden apple archipelago, the infamous albedo/dragonspine event, the infamous kaeya/diluc event, etc. Lore as i will refer to it in this post refers to any information which is present in permanent gameplay but which is not directly told to the player within the A or B-plot story quests and objectives, including books, weapon, artifact, and item descriptions, world quest dialog and puzzles, etc.

So now we're in mid-2021, there are two nations' worth of B-plot story quests released in full, and we've run into our first problem, which is that the game isn't finished yet. I don't have any actual information about how the game was/is written, but based on what i've observed over the past few years, my best guess is that the A-plot has been fully written since the beginning, at least in some form. there were very early-game events and information pertaining to the A-plot that would take years to see any actual payoff in the main story quests (kaeya's origin story, the 1.3 scaramouche fake-sky drop, the flowers in lumine's hair, etc.) but those kinds of A-plot story easter eggs very quickly dropped off when the game absolutely EXPLODED during the pandemic.

this sudden burst in popularity was the true beginning of the end for genshin, i think, because suddenly they had a HUGE fanbase that desperately wanted more content faster than they could pump out new A-plot or even B-plot story quests. one of the most pervasive complaints about the game when I began playing in 2021 was that there was nothing to do between story quests. update 1.4 (which was the update I started playing at) was important in that it was the first time since genshin's release over a year before that players recieved any new A-plot, in the form of the archon quest We Will Be Reunited, also known as the quest with the most fucking misleading name of all time. you'll never guess what doesn't fucking happen during this quest. anyways. we were a year into gameplay, two nations out of seven released and a third on the not-so-distant horizon, and it seemed obvious that players were owed some sort of A-plot payoff. and that's very much what WWBR was advertised as, from the quest's name to the banners full of art of the twins staring wistfully at each other. The thing is, what i'm describing as A-plot payoff was actually. not really A-plot payoff at all. WWBR was the reveal that the protagonist's sibling was working with the abyss order, and that the abyss order was connected somehow to Khaenri'ah, which at this point casual players would only have known about from THAT QUEST and MAYBE kaeya's character descriptions if they were diligent enough to get him to friendship level 10 (which, btw there is no indication that you should do to get important context about the story of the game, because kaeya is a 4-star starter character and the only character in the entire game that actually has genuinely important story hidden in his character descriptions.) So what I'm calling A-plot payoff felt at the time a lot less like A-plot payoff than it did like an abyss sibling cameo in an attempt to satiate everyone who was begging for more story. We actually gained almost net 0 information. this is very quickly going to become a pattern.

As I've already alluded to, the motives behind this writing decision are transparently obvious. Genshin is a free gacha game which relies on a consistently active and engaged userbase to make its money. With fans getting restless about the lack of engaging story at the time and a new, very ambitious B-plot quest gearing up for release that would require major support from that fan base in order to remain profitable, the writers were backed into a corner. they HAD to throw the fans some sort of bone in order to keep them engaged with the A-plot, since it was originally pitched as the driving force for the story as a whole, but they were also clearly not at a stage of the writing process where it was prudent to give the player any REAL information about the A-plot. This is how we ended up with a 10-second abyss sibling cameo and an offhanded mention of Khaenri'ah, a nation whose plot-relevance was at that point still basically unknown.

The real problem is, WWBR worked. at least, it worked as intended at the time. It satiated story-focused fans in the interlude between B-plot nations, as hyv was gearing up to release inazuma, which required a lot of time in preparation. WWBR was followed almost immediately by the C-plot golden apple archipelago in 1.6, widely regarded as one of the better events of version 1. GAA was memorable especially because it was the first event that involved an entirely new, limited-time-only map, meaning the event had much more longevity than the standard events players were used to. This is, imo, most likely the update combination that led to the standard formula which hyv uses for its quests and events nowadays. the back-to-back release of WWBR and GAA satisfied both fans who wanted A-plot story AND silenced criticisms about the game lacking endgame playability, which at the time must have seemed like a goldmine to writers desperate for a solution to their content-to-fanbase ratio problem.

From here, genshin started following a standard method of release for their next three nations--inazuma, sumeru, and fontaine. the formula generally went as follows: one major version update (usually version x.0) containing a major map update which included all B-plot relevant locations in the new nation, and the first chapter of the B-plot story quest relevant to that nation. this would then be followed by 2-3 version updates which would each contain the next chapter in the nation's B-plot story quest, sequentially. After the nation's B-plot quest ended, during the downtime in which the next nation's story and map would be finalized, subsequent updates would be largely C-plot, and would contain minor expansions of the map to increase endgame playability via exploration and world quests. This is how we ended up with updates like the chasm, the several extra islands in inazuma, and the quite frankly ridiculously large sumeru map, as well as the offloaded maps like enkanomiya and the sea of bygone eras. with the possible exception of the chasm, none of these areas are A OR B-plot relevant. hyv has realized that artificially inflating the map makes their game technically more engaging during the downtime between nations. However, this comes at a price. While the scenery and set design of the game remains consistently beautiful, the actual, mechanical gameplay that populates that scenery very quickly became mind-numbingly boring if not borderline unplayable. While the 1.0 questlines were not perfect, there was at least an emphasis on the player actually DOING things. 1.0 B-plot quests would have you going to mini-dungeon temples and completing challenges which would acclimate you to the combat system while also serving narrative purpose. There were quests that required you to navigate open-world dungeons. Because your characters were lower-level, combat challenges that arose during these quests were CHALLENGES, rather than two-second buttonmashing segments. By the time we get to sumeru, though, both B-plot AND C-plot quests have become little more than moving your character from location to location and tapping through (usually unvoiced) dialog. there's no GAMEPLAY in the quests anymore, because gameplay isn't what makes money. What DOES make money is giving players 300 hidden chests to find in an open-world map segment, each of which gives them 1/80th of a gacha pull. And so the story suffers and the map gets bigger.

Along with the map expansions, downtime between nations usually also nets us one A-plot quest, usually involving the character dainslief, who was the driver of the initial WWBR quest. This is the second half of hyv's magical formula for keeping fans happy between major releases. the A-plot quests will, as a general rule, give players either very little new information or no new information at all, but will dress up the delivery in such a way that it ALMOST feels as though the protagonist has moved forward somehow. the most recent example of this writing style, the 4.7 quest bedtime story, amounts to about an hour and a half of gameplay and, while it DOES contain a segment in which the protagonist finally actually has a conversation with their sibling, that conversation literally begins with the line "I have so many questions, but for some reason I don't want to ask them right now," ensuring that the sibling will not actually be required to give away any plot-relevant information whatsoever, and the quest ends with the protagonist FORGETTING THAT THE CONVERSATION EVER HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

As I think I mentioned before, the cardinal problem of genshin impact's writing is that fans want answers faster than the writers are prepared to give them. I don't doubt that there's a game bible or relevant equivalent somewhere within hyv which contains the explanations we are currently lacking in regards to the A-plot. the game is consistent enough in its storytelling for me to believe that this isn't all just being made up as we go along. But I'm also certain that a lot of the late-game A and B-plot that is planned (especially if the Khaenri'ah is truly planned to be the 8th nation of the game) hinges on the player knowing very little about the A-plot. this would be fine if genshin was a standard single-release video game that players could work through at their own pace, but it isn't. it's unfinished, and each nation in the game releases months to years after the last, leaving the writers to scramble to fill in the gameplay gaps and players struggling to remember plot-relevant information when it's brought up literal years after they last heard it mentioned. Not only does the time between updates leave players frustrated about the lack of A-plot, it makes the A-plot harder to understand when it is brought up, because the writers are required to throw in so much dense C and D-plot just to keep engagement high enough to make the game profitable in its downtime. we joke about the insane convolution of genshin's lore, but that is first and foremost a byproduct of its financial model. the game requires engaement to be profitable, and adding lore for players to look into drives up engagement. The fact that having so much story with so little plot relevance muddies the waters and makes the A and B-plot stories considerably harder to understand doesn't matter as long as money is being made.

I want to take a quick detour here to talk about the release of sumeru specifically, because this is when I really began to clock the fact that genshin was declining. on paper, racial sensitivity issues aside (Not that they're not important, but i'm doing this deep dive from a storytelling and game design point of view, nothing else. that's a whole can of worms i don't have time to get into here) sumeru was a really promising addition to the game. The new B-plot quest which was set to drop in 3.0 was highly anticipated for several reasons. Two fan-favorite characters (kaeya and scaramouche) were expected to play major roles, because of earlier C and B-plot quests, and much of the nation's scenery that was teased in trailers and promotional content appeared to tie into the A-plot. the most exciting draw about sumeru and version 3.0, though, was the major update to the combat system.

Arguably genshin impact's most interesting feature upon release was its combat system. The map was basically a botw clone at that point, and the story quests, while decently engaging, were rough around the edges to say the least. What genshin DID have going for it was a unique real-time combat system that rewarded strategy and quick thinking.

Genshin's combat system is elemental, and on release there were 6 elemental affiliations: anemo (wind), cryo (ice), pyro (fire), hydro (water), geo (rock), and electro (electricity.) in a sort of pokemon-like system, certain elements were weak to other ones, but more importantly, certain combinations of elements could drastically boost combat stats. Players got to construct four-slot teams of characters, each with an elemental affiliation and certain "skills" which would match their element, and you were encouraged to use the interactions of these elements to build teams. very quickly, a huge community formed dedicated to optimizing teams and tiering characters. People would even make a game out of building teams specifically to do high-level damage with "bad" characters or characters who weren't designed to be damage drivers (my 100k jean burst was an incredible moment fr.) this was, of course, also a picture-perfect driver for the gacha aspect of the game, which was how players obtained new characters.

Pre-3.0, combat was... well i won't say it was balanced, but there was no elemental reaction that had any MAJOR advantage over the others. when you actually ran the numbers, i believe vaporize was the best reaction in terms of damage output, with the best team being raiden national with kazuha for EM buffs. but a well-built freeze or melt team could do similar numbers, or even better numbers depending on your artifact rolls. (ayaka permafreeze you will always be my #1.) Despite a steady stream of new characters with each update, characters from the earliest version of the game like xingqiu and xiangling were still topping the charts in terms of usefulness and versatility in teambuilding. However, as early as 1.0, players had been teased that a major update to the combat system was planned. There was a seventh element, dendro (plants) which pre-3.0 only existed as an elemental affiliation for menial enemies. there were no playable dendro characters, and the only elemental reaction that existed relating to it was very low-level and not particularly useful in combat.

Originally, dendro was projected to be added to the combat system somewhere in version 2, but its release was delayed substantially, meaning it came out along with its affiliated nation, sumeru. And as soon as it came out, it basically broke the combat system. I assume that the scaling they ended up going with may have been out of fear that players would be hesitant to integrate a new element into their pre-established team builds, and thus they may have been worried about sales on their dendro character banners, and i assume that the fact that 3 elements are required to get the highest-level reaction was an attempt to make the meta more balanced in the face of that scaling, but, well... it didn't work. At this point, the genshin impact combat meta is basically "if you're not using hyperbloom what the fuck are you doing." there's basically no reaction in the game that comes close to it in terms of both damage and ease of use. you are not going to beat a hyperbloom team with anything other than a better-built hyperbloom team. combat is now very heavily skewed in the direction of dendro, meaning that if you DON'T want to use a dendro team, you're going to be doing significantly lower numbers. And since enemies are added with each update, post-3.0 combat becomes difficult and annoying if you don't have a hyperbloom team on-hand.

The major gripe i have with dendro isn't even the scaling, though. I mentioned offhand earlier that the 1.0 B-plot questline had a section which taught you the basics of the combat system via mini-dungeons. These mini-dungeons, of course, taught you the version of the system that existed pre-3.0, so there's no tutorial for dendro reactions. Rather than integrating the tutorial into the story and world like they did in their early quests, upon playing 3.0 for the first time players were given a popup that explained, very wordily, how dendro reactions worked. there was no opportunity to test these reactions in an environment without consequences--if you wanted to try them you'd have to remember the relevant information, build yourself a team, find an enemy to try them on, and just hope you got it right. This lack of integration is something i began to notice more and more with genshin as it progressed, especially in sumeru. where in mondstadt and liyue open-world puzzles would be explained to you by an npc or via environmental context clues, in sumeru you'd be stopped while exploring every two seconds by a popup explaining some puzzle or another which, of course, you wouldn't read, because you didn't want to do the puzzle right that minute anyway, and then by the time you DID want to do that puzzle you'd have no in-game way of figuring out how to do it. The puzzle popups may seem like a small thing, but it's one of the clearest examples in the game to me of the fact that the player experience is so clearly not being prioritized here. the game doesn't even TRY to be immersive anymore. they have no qualms about pulling you out of the story to read a paragraph about how the puzzle works. they don't care how your character, in-universe, is supposed to have acquired that information. they don't care why your character, in-universe, is doing the puzzle in the first place. because they know the reason YOU are doing the puzzle, which is to unlock a hidden chest that gives you 1/80th of a gacha pull.

That was not "a quick detour" was it lmfao. ok anyways. back to the story. Now i want to talk about D-plot, meaning limited event stories, and lore as i defined it earlier, meaning contextual details not present in quests or playable story. This is where i think genshin's story becomes completely inaccessible.

Already, we've covered the fact that in order to consume the very basic story, players have to be willing to wait years between A and B-plot quest releases, punctuated by irrelevant map expansions and interlude quests. I mentioned before that genshin's incompleteness is one of the major problems of its story. the fact that players have to wait years, remembering plot-relevant information that they have no way of knowing will even BE plot-relevant, for the payoff of these narratives is frustrating at best and actively malicious at worst. But in theory, there should be an obvious way to circumvent this. One could just wait until the game IS completely finished to play the whole thing. Sort of like buying a game in early access but waiting until it's actually finished to play it all the way through. that's theoretically possible. but, as i have been hammering home this whole time, genshin is a free game, and therefore genshin relies entirely on a consistently engaging fanbase in order to remain profitable. if genshin does not have a base of players who are willing to log in every day, or at the very least once every update, the game's financial model collapses on itself. therefore, genshin puts on limited-time events. this is a standard in gacha games, as a way to keep the fans consistently engaging. What is not standard, however, is the way that genshin uses these events as vessels for its story. about 19 out of 20 limited events in genshin impact will be useless menial bullshit with no effect on the story or really even the player aside from maybe making you fucking angry. 1 out of those 20, though, will be innocuously named, with nothing in the banner or event description to indicate that it's special in any way, but it will contain serious A or B-plot relevant information that exists nowhere else in the game. My personal favorite example is the infamous 1.3 scaramouche appearance, in which he showed up, told the protagonist that the sky was fake, and then immediately fucked off again. Scaramouche did not show up again until at least 2.0, and the fake sky wasn't so much as MENTIONED again until 3.2, almost TWO YEARS LATER. but there are others, such as the (almost equally infamous) albedo doppelganger event in which a major character's loyalties are called into question, or the event where major biographical information is revealed about kaeya, the only playable character with major known connections to the A-plot and Khaenri'ah. With all of these events, once the event period ends, the information contained within them vanishes from the game completely. there's no way to replay old events that you've missed, even sans rewards, so if you miss a plot-relevant event the ONLY way to catch up on that story is through word of mouth. again, this is a transparent way to keep genshin's userbase engaged during downtime between B-plot quests; if you don't log in and play every event, how will you know if you've missed something important? You might not be able to fully understand the future story if you miss out on the D-plot now!

The D-plot problem is something that I think could, in theory, be circumvented by dedicated record-keeping. if the wiki had anything resembling an easily accessible event database that marked story-relevant events and contained summaries or gameplay videos, at the very least you wouldn't have to fear being completely lost on the off chance that a random throwaway line in an event from fucking 1.3 becomes plot-relevant. but hyv obviously doesn't want that, because it undermines their financial model, and the sheer number of events and the amount of rerunning of irrelevant events they do makes the task of recording and categorizing them all daunting if not impossible.

Then, of course, there's lore. this is arguably what genshin is infamous for in certain circles of the internet. You know that unraveled video where bdg reads every book in skyrim? if you tried to do that with genshin the video would probably be about 10 hours long. and it's not just books; genshin hides (potentially) plot-relevant information in weapon and artifact descriptions, in random hidden world quests, in character bios... the list goes on. and 9 times out of 10, the information is essentially written in code. Plot-relevant characters will have multiple names, or the relevant information will refer to them as vaguely as possible, presumably to further the "mystery" and encourage theorizing among fans. but the sheer amount of information like this that exists within the game makes it all but impossible to determine what is plot-relevant and what isn't. For a topical example, the most recent A-plot quest bedtime story mentions the name Rhinedottir in connection with events in Khaenri'ah, suddenly making that name A-plot relevant. Rhinedottir is an alternate name for the character Gold, whose existence you would only have known of before this point if you'd unlocked and read the character Albedo's character bios. (Albedo is a limited-run character who hasn't been available since november 2022, btw.) the only other information about Rhinedottir permanently available in the game comes from the description of the weapon Festering Desire, which was only obtainable from a limited event back in 2020, anyway. So basically, if you wanted ANY context for that remark, you'd have to have been playing the game since AT LEAST 2022, AND you'd have to have taken the time to go over your weapon and character descriptions with a fine-toothed comb. keep in mind that as of right now (june 2024) there are 85 playable characters in this game, each with 10 unique unlockable character bio sections, and over 150 weapons, each with their own unique descriptions, not to mention over 50 artifact sets, each with 5 unique artifacts, which all have their own unique descriptions as well. there are also 51 different collections of books which contain written lore as well. the idea that any player could keep up with all this, or that anyone could even sift through it all to pick out the important things that they NEED to keep up with, is insane, especially when the game makes a point of withholding crucial plot information from its players within the A and B-plot quests. this amount of written lore only exists, again, to drive up engagement in the hopes of subsequently driving up profit. Even if the average player isn't reading and absorbing all this information, the fact that it's there coupled with the fact that the writers consistently refuse to reveal anything beyond surface-level A-plot information means that there's basically ENDLESS theory fodder. and THAT means that people will be posting their theories and talking with each other and getting into arguments. it means "genshin impact" trends on twitter. it means engagement, and engagement means money.

basically what it comes back to is that everything is so transparently money over player experience with this game. I think what we're witnessing with genshin is what i would call an end-stage gacha game--a gacha game that's gone on a little too long and gotten a little too popular, and so the veil has started to slip a little more than usual. Gachas work primarily because they operate by toeing the line between what is fun to play and what is a predatory mechanic. As long as the actual gameplay remains engaging and rewarding, players can ignore the unsavory business practices underneath. At this point, genshin has swerved too hard into the money-hungriness and is still hoping that they can use their old tried-and-true engagement farming methods to remain popular regardless. currently, it seems like those methods are still working, unfortunately. Like I said in the post that prompted this, i really can't wait for the hyv writer NDAs to expire 10 or so years down the line, because I can only imagine what an insane shitshow writing for this game must be. I want to see the tell-all articles. I want carnage.

That being said, I played genshin impact religiously from 2020 to 2023. I loved the game. Despite myself, I am still really, REALLY interested in the A-plot. I want to know what's going on with the protagonist and their sibling; where they came from, what happened to them, what the heavenly principles are, what role celestia plays in all of this. I want to know Kaeya's full backstory, what role Khaenri'ah plays in the overarching story, and what happened to it in the past. but I don't really have any faith that I ever will, because I know that as long as keeping their fans in the dark and stringing them along remains profitable, that's what hyv will continue to do.

Do I think genshin impact is unsalvagable? in its current state, yes. If I was given the ability to turn back time and convince a bunch of executives of the profitability of this venture, I would change almost nothing about the story of genshin and completely rework the mechanics of its release. I would make it a series of single-release self-contained games rather than a constantly-updating gacha. Each game would be one B-plot quest, or one nation, eight games in all, preferably released once every year. Removing the gacha mechanic, players would be given access to a certain pool of characters to build teams at the start of each game, and then periodically unlock new characters as the story progressed. for example, if you were playing the inazuma game, you'd start out with only your protag, and after progressing to a certain point in the story you'd get a pool of inazuma 4-stars to teambuild with freely. Then, as the story progressed and you met plot-relevant inazuman 5-stars you'd add them to your pool. I'd change basically nothing about the combat system except for a properly integrated introduction of dendro when it makes its appearance in sumeru. Once you completed the story in that nation, you could move onto the next game in the series if it was out, or if it wasn't, you could continue to explore the open world while waiting for the next release. Would this be as profitable as the gacha model? probably not, but what it WOULD do is allow for much more consistent pacing and writing, with the added bonus of not making your userbase feel like you'd shoot them in the head for their pocket change.

[crepesuzette2023]

Hi! Because someone just asked me, I'd love you hear your Top 5 favourite McLennon fics!

You made my day! Nothing could have made me happier than this ask.

I'm not going to evade your question. I will post my top-five, even though it hurts to choose. But you inspired me to finally write a longer (okay: very long) post about some (not nearly all!) of my favorites, which will be under the cut.

(Sorry for not knowing every writer's tumblr, by the way. Please feel free to let me know, so I can tag authors where appropriate. Thank you!)

My Top 5:

MIRACLE WORKER by @scurator. What can I say. Every time I need my heart broken and to feel an inkling of what grace truly means, I go to this masterpiece about Paul and Robert Fraser finding each other again at Cavendish in 1981.

COAST STARLIGHT by bookofapril is "Miracle Worker's" cosmic twin. The sun to its night. Paul and Robert Fraser on Fire Island in 1974. Nothing I can say will do it justice, so I won't try. This is the "other world" conjured in "Tug of War," so powerfully and joyfully imagined, it's real. (I'm always thinking of this story, but I did so extra hard when I came across a prompt recently: 'They aren't each other's first love, but they're each other's true love'.)

SAME AS IT EVER WAS by RedheadAmongWolves. My favorite Outsider's POV. An ageing newsstand owner from Liverpool remembers John and Paul as boys and young men. There's something magical about the relationship coming alive in these glimpses. A story filled with tenderness that reminds me to always look closely.

AN ORGASM OF SOUND by @pauls1967moustache. The insanity of John and Paul in 1967 got the tribute it deserves. I sleep easier since I read this story. It feels cosmically right that it exists.

PLANT A SEED by @eveepe. Paul in his slutty sailor outfit in Miami. He and John are into each other, and happy, and fuck slowly. Afterwards, Paul has an idea for a new song. That's it. Tender, glorious, hot perfection. Apply at least once a week for best results.

For more thoughts about some of my favorite stories, sorted into very much defined-ad-hoc categories, read under the cut.

Young Love:

I love the myth of their first meeting, and stories that speculate about the sexually loaded creative fireworks/gritty jealousies/tentative hand-holding/topping and tailing during the first years. Here are some faves:

Paul finds music, and John, and his life is changing. In STREETS OF OUR TOWN (@with-eyes-closed) you can taste the upheaval and promise of first love and growing up. Deeply sensual, even without on-page sex. The shaky, sweet, and all-consuming fire of John and Paul’s first kiss is immortalized in ALL I KNOW SINCE YESTERDAY (RedheadAmongWolves). In NON NOBIS SOLUM (@downtothe-lastdrop), art student John simply has to know how far grammar school boy Paul will go to please him. But Paul matches him play-by-play. In THE CAST IRON SHORE (@m1ssunderstanding) Paul earns extra money through music and sex. John finds out. They fall in love, and hide their mutual pining behind transactions—but in the end, they man up to pair up, and get their band back on track. (The first part is finished; I can’t wait for part 2.) John and Paul’s ’61 trip to Paris has been honored in fiction many times; WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG THEY ASSUME YOU KNOW NOTHING (@lilypadd23) is a slow-burning, blessedly long story that blossoms sweetly. DON’T THINK ABOUT IT is the concept by which Paul measures both his pining for John and their deeply satisfying (but surely not really queer?!) sex life. Perfectly realized Paul POV by @merseydreams. Finally: I NEED YOU DARLIN’ (verse) (by @beatlessideblog) would have fit many categories, but I put it here, because in the end, it’s about young John and Paul becoming friends, making music, having sex, and falling in love. No more, no less. Embedded in a late 50’s/early 60's Liverpool omegaverse in which there's a place for their bond. But, surprise (?!): It’s still complicated. I can’t overstate how charming and satisfying and funny and hot this work is.

Old John and Paul:

Is there anything as lovely as imagining John and Paul growing old together?

In HERE TODAY (@herspecialagent), John and Paul found happiness with each other in Scotland. On 8th December 1980, they invite friends for a party, and fight an inexplicable sense of doom. A reminder that our other lives can be closer than we think, and to keep our loved ones even closer.

GROW OLD WITH ME (@inherownwr1te): Old farmers and husbands John and Paul enjoy domestic bliss, deal with a broken arm, and make sweet love.

HAVING COFFEE (@feathersandblue): John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “one of the most iconic gay couples in history,” look back on their early love, the Beatles, and being outed in the 80’s, in this oh-so-glamourous, well-written 2020 portrait…

Magical re-tellings of J/P and/or the Beatles Story:

No matter where you come down on the blessed vs. cursed continuum—they were living through something magical.

In KISSING THE BLARNEY (@zilabee) the Beatles draw love and music from kissing Paul, and each other, until the stupid world interferes. But fear not, all ends well. How to tell the truth through whimsy: this story demonstrates it.

In WE ARE ALL TOGETHER (also by @zilabee), John and Paul switch bodies. It helps.

I WAS A YOUNGER MAN NOW (THEN) (POST HOC) BY @fingersfallingupwards: Paul is a time traveler and braids his life together with John’s, out of order, through the years. And yes, they do grow old together—but not without losing each other first. I’m in awe of this story.

A darker time-traveling story is A MATTER OF TIME (D12Fan), in which John and Paul love each other, over and over, and never manage to make it work—but Paul won’t give up.

FOR THOUGH THEY MAY BE PARTED (@downtothe-lastdrop): The misery of the 'Get Back' sessions and memory-stunting technology imported from “Severance” are not enough to kill off John and Paul’s attraction and longing for each other. Again, this is basically what happened, so.

John and Paul without the Beatles?

Yes, please! Sometimes, the best way to dissect and celebrate (and fix?) this mesmerizing and exasperating partnership is to lift it from its context and drop it elsewhere. Anything goes.

WHATEVER FATE DECREES by @dailyhowl: A gorgeous, finely spun, securely handled, self-contained vision of how John and Paul could have worked as artists in love, without a band to 'legitimize' and constrain their bond. I love this homage to their deep and complicated love that needed trust and breathing room.

1967 by @walkuntilthedaylight: What if John and Paul had gone to Spain together and not come back? This story not only explores their relationship layer by layer, it also dives into the the feelings of those who knew them 'before' and who now meet them again, as a couple. A fascinating alternate history. Not a fluffy one.

TOMORROW I'LL MISS YOU (@pauls1967moustache): Paul abandons John in Hamburg—or John stays behind without bothering to write, depending on who you ask. This "Before Sunset"—AU reunites them, years later. They ride a bus and write a song, and the love and tension are sweet and painful.

DOUBLE FANTASY (by @javelinbk): Modern AU in which John and Paul meet at John's flower shop and manage to ignore and creatively re-interpret their feelings for one another for a surprising amount of time, before fate has mercy. I love how their sweet, well-matched eccentricity makes the world a warmer place for both of them.

WE ARE STARDUST (Unchained_Daisychain): AU. John and Paul meet at Woodstock, fall hard and fast for each other, and have to decide what to do with it: Paul's life is back home in England...except...

Angst, darkness, and courage:

Pain, fear, grief, and other dark emotions are part of the real J/P story, so it makes sense to honor and harvest them in fiction. One of my favorite brands of McLennon angst is the one triggered by their feelings for each other, and the thing they become once they're together™. When they're scared of how much they need each other, and of what will happen next.

ONE AND ONE AND ONE IS THREE and MANAGING EXPECTATIONS (both by @pauls1967moustache), for instance. The first is a terrifying threesome with Yoko (at John's instigation, of course), in which trust is never rewarded and sex resolves nothing. The second is Paul wondering, in thoughts both messy and crystal clear, whether he exists independently of John. He turns to Brian for answers. They fuck. It feels like a human thing compared to what is going on in Paul's mind. Just astounding.

SUNDAY DRIVER (@boshemians) dives into the theme of Paul and John being afraid of themselves in the aftermath of Paul's accident (moped, sexual) with Tara Browne. This one, like "Managing Expectations," ends on a lovely grace note.

MACABRE (@dovetailjoints). Lennon and McCartney go too far.

OPEN HEART (@paisanas). Paul drinks John's blood. John lets him. But Paul starts to hate himself for how much he needs John, which John feels as rejection. I love how this story ends on Paul embracing his need. You can see the painful, bare bones of their malnourished love under the lush sensuality of the vampire sex. Raw and rich.

SILENCE (@ohjohnnysblog). Short and piercing. If there is someone you love—tell them. Don't wait.

THE LATE, GREAT JOHNNY ACE (@midchelle). Reeling with grief, Paul is recording an album in 1981. George and Ringo are there. John is not. But in the end—he is. And they touch. I've always admired Paul's resilience in the face of having to perform or "prove" his love of John in public, and this story showed me, without sugar-coating, where this resilience comes from.

Light, hope, and fixing things:

There is also much lightness and brightness in McLennon, because John and Paul were ridiculous, and horny, and weird. And also: they deserve a laugh. They deserve the fluffiest of happy endings. They deserve high-quality, life-affirming smut. They deserve silly, because silly is what they were. You know their names, look up their number.

1980. John is in BERMUDA (@scurator), Paul visits. Paul comes prepared, John just comes. Sometimes, it can be this simple. This story always leaves me in such a good mood. Paul is the (more) experienced one, and it...really works for me.

GOT TO GET DOWN (@eveepe): In praise of John's obsession with Paul's...precious. His small and perfect prick.

ADVENTURES IN TOTAL HONESTY (@merseydreams). Pithy and sexy, and, I quote from the tags: #Excessive Margarita Mixing.

ANINUT (@pauls1967moustache): The Beatles heal, together and separately, after Brian's death. Once more, I quote the writer: "The Beatles did not follow any of the Jewish mourning traditions, and frankly, they should have."

The unhinged weirdness of the Mad Day Out, with John and Paul escaping and Francie, Yoko and Mal not missing them...much, is rightfully celebrated in one of the insaner stories I read: JOHN, I'M ONLY DANCING (@skylikeaflame)

FAIR'S FAIR (@javelinbk): John and Paul are being silly during a press conference, resulting in acute arousal requiring John's skilled intervention. I love the unexpected care and tenderness in this one!

WHERE THE POETS WENT (RedheadAmongWolves): Tender and enchanted story in which Paul and John go to a bookstore, where they're not as famous as everywhere else. As delicate as the chiming doorbells and the pages murmuring around them.

TAKEN AWAY (@crumblingcookies) Extraterrestrial Intelligence intervenes to reunite John and Paul.

CAN I TAKE MY FRIEND TO BED? (manhattanvalleys). Paul fucks the band in sequence and gets off in the end, as is his due. This is a story like Prince's KISS. No filler, all effect.

THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY (@ohjohnnysblog). Warm and nostalgic phone sex in the 70's.

KEEP THE LIGHT WE'RE GIVEN (@backbenttulips). Amidst the rise of Beatlemania, Paul and John expect their first child. This is Paul's 1962 diary.

More Outsider POV's:

STILL MATES (@pauls1967moustache): in 1968, Peter Asher takes the leap to act on his feelings for his sister's spiraling ex fiancé. This isn't about Paul as much as about Peter, and who he wants to be. Gutting character study. It made me love Peter.

ANOTHER GIRL (@boshemians): Astrid reunites with the Beatles during the making of AHDN and registers their words and deeds with the same stark objectivity as her camera. I love how she seeks the shelter of obscurity while they are being dragged into the limelight. But she sees them, wherever they are. J/P in this story feels incredibly real to me.

WHY BUY THE COW (RedheadAmongWolves). The milkman sees everything on his early morning rounds: the arrival of a nice new family, the McCartneys, the mother's illness, the sadness after her death...and the arrival of a new love in the older son's life. He shouldn't approve—should say something, in fact. But a small inner voice holds him back.

SLEEPLESS IN WALES (thinkpink20). Mike overhears Paul and John whisper in bed. He doesn't understand everything they say. I do. Adorable.

Not each other's first love, but each other's true love

THIS YEAR'S FOR ME AND YOU (@skylikeaflame): After a long life, after deep and loving partnerships with other people, John and Paul, encouraged by their grown-up children, finally meet their mutual love head on. A festive story about waiting the perfect amount of time.

THERE ARE ALWAYS FLOWERS (tarenas): The Beatles are in the past; John and Paul's love is in ashes. Paul, who is fragile and bereft, lives with George, who is content. The four ex-Beatles unite for the second wedding of Mike McCartney. At times, the aching grief in this story is almost unbearable. But the love between George and Paul is unusual and real. This is unfinished. I'll keep waiting for the final chapter.

Beyond J/P

WANT ME WHEN I'M NOT THERE (@backbenttulips): Linda catches Paul cheating on her with John. She divorces him. Finally: a story that puts her most likely reaction front and center, with no mercy for the messed-up geniuses.

In the Rebecca-AU LOVE LIKE GHOSTS (@backbenttulips), Yoko becomes Mrs. Lennon. Soon, she discovers that her husband is haunted by the ghost of his first love. It's pleasing how well this re-telling matches the events as they (alas) (almost) happened. The ending is chilling. Genuinely horrifying. I love seeing Yoko as the sensible one and as the focus of empathy.

THE BASS LESSON (@aquarianshift). Paul and Stu fool around without letting go of their mutual resentment for even a moment. And it works. "Let's never do this again." I don't think so.

TELL ME ALL MY LOVE'S IN VAIN (@midchelle). Forget about quote unquote platonically obsessed male rock stars: This about about Maureen and Patti through the years. The web weaving continues.

SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN AND STU (@dailyhowl) A love story in letters—too brief, like Stu's life, but sounding as if the writer transcribed their dictation. Some of the best descriptions of what it must have been like to play on stage with the Beatles during the mania are in NO I IN THREESOME (@with-eyes-closed). George finds himself in the beam of attention between John and Paul, and nearly loses his mind. But he's determined to stay and become part of them. Paul is daddy and "fucks like music" as seen through George's eyes. The whole story is vicious and hot and uncomfortable—until there's the love and quiet at the eye of the storm.

Not for the faint of heart! WHAT THE CIGGIE CARTON SAW (@waveofhand): Paul McCartney having his way with cigarettes.

This is getting out of hand...but I'll stop here. There are so many more stories I love. And I can think of many other categories that would deserve their own post.

So, who knows: To be continued?

[tinkerbellsgf]

Cassie Parker

Daughter of Dionysus

Her name means “shining over man" which is like super slay and cool

Her last name doesn't really have that much of a meaning

Her mother, Erika Parker literally sucks so bad

She was super neglectful of Cassie

But luckily she had a babysitter and she was with her until Cassie had to go to camp

Her name was Ms. Adriana

But we'll get into that later

Her full name is Cassandra but nobody minus her "mother" calls her that and she rarely sees her mother since she left for camp

Pretty much as soon as she got to camp she was claimed by Mr. D.

He just walked up to her

Took a giant sip of his diet coke, pointed at her and went like

"Yeah that kids mine"

Out of the three Dionysus kids, Cassie was the first one to get there

Then it was Castor and Pollux

Her main weapon is a pole-arm and she's very very skilled with it

She's super super close with the Stolls and Katie Gardener

The four of them sneak out of camp often just to fuck around in the mortal world

Little fun fact: Her brothers are named after the Gemini twins and her zodiac sign is Gemini

Since her dad is the god of madness and insanity

She has control over it

And she's sent several of her mom's boyfriends into the psych ward

She can also control grapevines and has strangled the Stolls and her own brothers with them several times before when they're being annoying

Also whenever Connor makes a move for her wallet (which he does like way too many times)

A grapevine smacks his hand away

All four Dionysus kids have an addiction to a specific drink and for Cassie is Cherry Coke

Most of the time at camp you'll find her sitting on the steps of her cabin, either being pranked by the Stolls or pranking with them

Cassie has some immunity to alcohol. Her brothers have this too but it's more obvious with her because she actually drinks

Her hobbies include, pranking with her friends, losing at pinochle against her dad and yelling at Connor for stealing her wallet for the nth time this week

Her style is a lot of small shirts and big pants

She also has a leather jacket she'll wear from time to time

For training she wears a regular camp-half-blood t-shirt and a pair of shorts

There are a few things about her story that I left out so if I can muster up the creativity to start writing a series about Cassie after I start my Nadia series there ya go

[a-nerdy-bi-idiot]

The Gods of Tumblr

We don’t have normal gods, or even evil gods...  The Pantheon of This Hellsite:

Gaud and Pukicho: Twin Gods of Insanity and Chaos

BadJokesByJeff: God of Humor

One-Time-I-Dreamt: God of Night and Dreams

Writing-Prompt-S: God of Creativity

All The Tumblr Sexymen: Angels and Minions 

“Staff“: The Evil God

P.M. Seymour: Messenger of the Gods

Snom: The Holy Prophet of all Cuteness

[child0feden]

FIRE MELTS ICE

kimi raikkonen x cky / jackass member! reader

♡ general dating headcanons for kimi with a member of cky and jackass!

୨୧ decided to make this just the dating era, i might do a part two following along the smau more with them getting married and having their kids if you guys want it! this takes place between 2001 and 2007 <3

♡ related smau available here | view my formula 1 masterlist here

reading music recommendations: rio bravo by cky - come to daddy by aphex twin - right here in my arms by him

♡ you guys met in 2001 when you were both 21!

୨୧ you had been a member of cky / jackass from the very beginning, having grown up with with bam and ryan <3 you got the nickname “ fireass ” because of all the times you’ve had your ass set on fire ( usually by bam )

♡ you’re like three peas in a pod, only ever seeing each other as siblings

୨୧ supposedly, some of the people from mtv had made a deal with some guys in f1 about being able to shoot some stunts with the cars but when you and the guys arrived it seems there had been some kind of HUGE misunderstanding…

♡ while mtv people were arguing with f1 people ( you really didn’t care enough to get their names ) you wandered off to have a look around, not wanting to just stand around watching some people argue

୨୧ you run into kimi somewhere in the paddock, locking eyes with him would usually make anyone else look away almost immediately but you held his icy gaze with your own fiery stare

♡ you don’t believe in all that “ love at first sight ” talk but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t feel like something clicked into place on your heart when you saw him

୨୧ and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t get the exact same feeling…

♡ so you approached each other, him asking what you were up to here and you asking if he listens to aphex twin or bloodhound gang

୨୧ before long bam finds you and decides to do what he does best… which is torment you with a taser and handheld camera!

♡ to say kimi was confused as to what the hell was happening would be an understatement…

“ what the hell are you doing? why did you do that do her? are you insane? ” ( he had no idea who the hell you guys were and literally thought bam was just some insane guy assaulting you, all the while bam was laughing his ass off at you clutching your tased ass cheek )

୨୧ but you left with his number and he left with yours so hey, you’d say it was worth it

♡ you guys begin dating super quickly, you’re both confident and outgoing people who aren’t afraid to speak their mind and there’s clearly a connection between you two so why waste time?

୨୧ so you don’t waste time and begin officially dating after just one date :)

♡ there were DEFINITELY some rumours going around in the mid 2000’s that you were actually dating ville or you were cheating on kimi with ville

୨୧ some people going even further and saying you were actually in a throuple with ville and kimi

♡ the gossip magazine titles got real creative with the headlines when those rumours started… so many corny lines about how they’re both finnish so that must mean you have a type and a bunch of other stupid shit

୨୧ you ran with the joke for a short time, your nickname changing from “ fireass ” to “ finnisher ” y’know, because you supposedly make two finns finish? god, it was so stupid

♡ you were never dating ville, obviously, you were more like siblings with both him and bam and you were happier than ever with kimi! the only members you ever did anything with was dico, rake and chris ( not pontious ) and those were simple pecks for the camera!

୨୧ and kimi knows not to worry, he’d never been the jealous or insecure type, he has no problem speaking his mind if he feels something isn’t right

♡ kimi absolutely loves to watch you skate in the parking lot of your apartment complex!

୨୧ he thinks you’re so damn good and should’ve gone pro… whenever you fuck up and get a really bad scrape, he’s always gently asking if you’re good before coming over to help you up and make sure you don’t snap your skateboard in half, knowing you’d regret it later…

♡ you’re forever thankful that you fell in love with someone as unbothered as kimi

୨୧ you usually come home from a day of filming smelling like a disgusting combination of vomit, alcohol, gasoline and cigarettes…

♡ you always apologise to kimi for the smell ( despite knowing he really doesn’t care all that much ) before heading to the bathroom to brush your teeth and take a hot shower

୨୧ but he’s hot on your tail, following you into the bathroom and watching you undress from the doorway… when you hop into the shower, he moves from his spot in the doorway, getting undressed and getting in with you

♡ he doesn’t talk much, it’s mainly you asking about what he was up to while you were gone and him answering! only sometimes asking you similar questions about the stunts you did

୨୧ he washes your hair for you, his hands surprisingly gentle, mindful of any tangles

“ tilt your head back more, kulta… that’s it ” ( he acts like getting some water in your eyes would hurt you more than any of the stunts you’ve done before )

♡ small things like this were common between you, a show of love and care <3

୨୧ when bam made haggard, he obviously wanted you to have a character in it and so you did! but it wasn’t just you, oh no…

♡ why would bam miss the opportunity to get an f1 driver in his film? he’d be a fool to not beg you to ask kimi for an appearance in the film as your character’s boyfriend

୨୧ kimi agreed but ONLY for you <3 his appearance was much shorter than yours but bam was happy with it and it would go down in the books as a nice piece of semi obscure f1 lore

♡ people know whenever kimi has brought to with him to a race because the only thing they hear coming from his drivers room is him, bloodhound gang, cky and gnarkill…

୨୧ you actually convert kimi into being a huge fan of these bands, he already liked that type of music anyways but he didn’t listen to those bands before he got with you! you make him so many burned CDs

♡ whenever kimi is with you while you’re filming for jackass and perform a particularly nasty stunt, the cameraman LOVES to pan over to kimi, capturing his face which wears a slight frown and a scrunched nose <3

୨୧ when ryan did the toy car up the ass stunt, he made sure it was an f1 car, just to add some irony to the situation as you were the one giving him advice on how to get it up there ( kimi was NOT impressed with the joke )

♡ something that happens on the regular is f1 journalists calling in on radio bam, hoping to get the latest scoop on the cars and drivers from you… as if you know anything about the cars?

୨୧ of course, you entertain them for a minute or two, feeding them fake stories about how all of the drivers actually despise each other and they’re feuding… you know they won’t mind!

♡ but when you get bored, you quickly dive into a deeply detailed description of yours and kimi’s sex life, giving them only the dirtiest details

୨୧ they always hang up, it’s a guarantee <3 usually kimi is listening in at home or even sitting in the studio with you, just gazing at you with a tiny, sly smirk on his face

♡ you and kimi are both very laidback souls!

୨୧ most of your free days are spent in your shared apartment, laid on the couch together, your legs over his lap whilst you watch a horror movie

♡ oh how you love your iceman…

[rosesradio]

Hi, do you mind if I pick your brain about the pro/antiship thing? I'd like to check first because it's a dumpster fire of a controversy in fandom spaces and I'd 100% understand not wanting to touch it with a ten-foot pole. But also cuz it mentions somethin triggering+disturbing.I've always wondered what another person might think but I usually try to stay miles away from fandom drama, but you seem like, not chronically online about it

lmaoo thank you, i try to make my blog a chill, safe space to come to despite me being. Not chill about anything ever 😅

so here’s the definition of each that i added to the poll:

Proshippers argue that shipping is all fictional, so there is no harm in shipping characters who shouldn’t be together in real life. Anti-shippers argue that fiction reflects and influences real-world beliefs and behaviors, so fans shouldn’t romanticize unhealthy relationships. You can be proship and not ship any problematic ships, or vice versa.

i got these definitions, with my own addition at the end, from a Reddit thread you might find helpful.

so i’ve been in fandom for many years, and up until around 2022 i was mostly what would be considered an anti-shipper.

within the (*gags*) sanders sides fandom, there was a ship called remrom. this was the ship between the characters roman and remus, canonically twin brothers. i never shipped it, not my thing, and it caused a lot of division in the fandom. people would often put on their wattpad (yeahhh wattpad era babey) profiles & even their fics “dni & leave if you ship remrom, go die” etc. i don’t think i put that on my own fics, but i was hostile & blocked people i found shipping it. because how could you ship twin brothers, that’s disgusting!!1!

…the funny thing about sanders sides, though, is that all of the characters represent fragments of one guy’s personality. roman is his creativity, remus is his dark!creativity, etc. the fandom shipped many other pairings with the (non-related) characters, the most popular being Roman and Virgil (anxiety). (Yes this is causing me physical pain to type out thanks for asking 🧍). so all that exposition aside…we were all shipping selfcest. and in a way, is selfcest any worse than incest? i suppose that’s subjective, but it just goes to show a bit of hypocrisy.

i also shipped some “problematic” pairings over the years, but changed them up to be “non-problematic”. for example, i had a billdip fic in which i made bill bodily 15 to match dipper & had him turn magically human (does this make the ship entirely non-problematic? hell no lmao, but as is the way of 15-year-old rose)

so that aside, i joined tumblr in 2022, in the cobra kai fandom. there’s a ship in the cobra kai fandom called silverusso, a ship between an insane(ly hot? don’t look at me 🫣) karate instructor named silver and the main character, daniel larusso. this ship is extremelyyy toxic on several levels. for one, daniel is freshly 18, while silver is assumed to be in his 30s(?) during karate kid 3 (please watch karate kid 3 but also be sure you’re sober when doing so because the movie is a trip, lol). for another, silver essentially seduces daniel into devolving into a violent robot, primed for silver’s command & corruption.

now for me…i’m not going to get into the details because i don’t want to, but i had experienced trauma somewhat related to the silverusso dynamic the previous year (only with minimal karate, lol). even three years later, i am still impacted by said trauma in small ways. i was honestly insulted by people shipping this ship, because it felt like they didn’t care about victims & were romanticizing and sexualizing situations i was having nightmares about.

that is, until i made some friends in the fandom. i bonded with them on our common interests, and then i got to see a bit more into the silverusso shippers’ heads rather than the horrible things i was hearing about them from others. i learned that they really weren’t that bad people at all, all well-intentioned & respectful of boundaries. some of them were even victims of trauma similar to my own, who used darkfic as a place to vent their emotions. considering i had told very few people of what happened, considering no one really understood, i felt safe.

not to plug, but this is a fic i wrote sort of in that space lol

so anyways, i learned more & more about proshipping ways, profiction, anti-harassment, & anti-censorship. i adopted the take that fiction can be a good place to explore complex emotions or even just compelling ideas.

(because you do not need to be traumatized to be interested in darkfic! in fact, the anti-ship take of “darkfic is okay if you’re recovering from trauma” is often harmful to victims, forcing them to out themselves for a stranger to judge if they’re “traumatized enough” to be “allowed” write darkfic. people should be free to write whatever with no explanation, just respect to others & proper tags/warnings).

i would like to think that the anti-ship ideals are in the best interest of others. they often do speak from a place of wanting to respect trauma victims (even if the hate messages they’ve sent me aren’t very respectful, lol). i can see how easy it is to be swept up into the moral quandary of it all because i’ve been there. in fact, if i saw trauma victims who were anti-shippers today, who felt the same resentment i did in 2022, i would feel sympathy for them and wish them the best in their recovery. darkfic has definitely helped me, though it is not for everyone. (though to those people i would also recommend they block bothersome tags and try to clear it from their mind).

i do wish people would approach actual proshippers to ask the way you are right now, anon. i think the spread of misinformation on how “being proship = shipping only problematic pairings” or god forbid “being proship = being a pedo” means a lot of well-meaning people obviously are disgusted and don’t bother to seek out the actual meaning of the term.

you don’t have to ship problematic parings or like darkfic to be considered proship. in fact, a lot of my mutuals here only like fluff & traditionally “healthy” pairings, but they support people’s right to ship and write whatever they want, provided it stays in its properly tagged lane. it’s just important to not push for censorship on sites like ao3 (one of the last safe spaces for every kind of fanfic), as well as not harass anyone in fandom for what they do with fiction. it’s not proper fandom etiquette, and it’s not a good thing to do.

fictional characters are dolls. real people are real, as are their feelings.

one last thing

i hope all of that answered your question, anon, and feel free to return with any more questions you might have 💌

[multidimensionalslvt]

۪۫🐾'۪ 𖧵 introducing my archeologist-YouTuber dr ˊ˗

A/n: FINALLY GOT MY MOTIVATION 😭😭. If you have any questions ask!!

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ME - E - EE .ᐟ

✶⋆. birth name : Moira Swan

✶⋆. online name : Angel

✶⋆. nicknames : ang, mor, moi

✶⋆. nationality : Swedish-American

✶⋆. birthday : September 27

✶⋆. zodiac : libra

✶⋆. languages : Swedish, English, German

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PERSONALITY .ᐟ

✶⋆. traits : quick thinker, genius, creative, hilarious, adventurous, compelling, attractive, initiative, problem solver, sarcastic, flirty, competitive

✶⋆. likes : going on runs, digging, archeology, coffee, drunk karaoke, dancing, working out, chocolate chip pancakes, reading, playing guitar, Dr Pepper, F1, going to the beach, Taylor Swift, flirting with people, being unhinged on the internet, my friends, making youtube videos, Streaming on twitch, hockey, animals, learning about history

✶⋆. dislikes : Littering, Poaching, nosy people, Dr Pepper haters, people that slut shame, being told to calm down, the smell of nail polish, rude people, lavender scented things, liars

✶⋆. known for : the songs ‘maneater’ ‘slumber party’ ‘circus’ ‘promiscuous’ ‘obsessed’ ‘where u @‘ , iconic one liners,, being an archeologist, angelsplaining, being bffs with jshlatt, being friends with Charles and Arthur Leclerc, being a formula one stan, streaming, being a YouTuber, party girl, flirting with EVERYONE, being a swiftie, being beautiful, where I’m from, reading spicy books, taking so many photos, having cool hair, being up at crazy hours, having an insane converse collection, having best fan interactions, drunk karaoke, vlogging, being a hunger games, marvel, and criminal minds stan, simping for celebrities and fictional characters on the main, being unhinged, knowing basically everyone

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APPEARANCE .ᐟ

✶⋆. face claim : Madison Bailey

✶⋆. height : 5’6

✶⋆. hair : My hair is a mixture of red, ash blond, brown (like a calico cat I suppose).

✶⋆. extra : I have light freckles, septum piercing, 5 ear piercings on both sides, belly piercing, central labreth piercing, mountain looking birthmark on my thigh, scar on my hand from my first time in the field, 16 plus tattoos

✶⋆. style : idrk how to describe it but it’s a mix of everything. Casual and abstract.

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FAMILY/BACKSTORY .ᐟ

✶⋆. backstory ; Grew up in Sweden until my brother and I were 10 years old. (Our parents were not rich but well off) Then we moved to the USA. Mal and I started carting in Sweden at age 6. At 12 our parents died in an accident. And we were forced into foster care. My brother and I stopped carting for a while until we were 14 and my sister convinced him to continue. When our sister became 18, she started raising us. We lived in Texas. Until we graduated highschool (mal and I graduated a year early) then I went to college and my sister and brother moved to cali. I graduated at 20 then I jumped head first into my archeological career.

sibling one

✶⋆. name : Nevaeh Swan

✶⋆. age : 28

✶⋆. career : professional dance choreographer.

✶⋆. extra : we’re so close omg. She has a YouTube channel.

sibling two

✶⋆. name : MalakI Swan

���⋆. age : 24

✶⋆. career : formula 2 racer (soon to be f1)

✶⋆. extra : my twin. we’re known as the trouble twins😭. Oh and I forced him to make a yt channel.

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LIFE .ᐟ

✶⋆. job : archeologist, streamer, youtuber

✶⋆. main friends : handsum fella, Jshlatt, Ludwig, Jack Manifold, Hasanabi, Austin show, Carina Singh (my manager), Lando Norris, Logan Saergant, Valkyrae

social media

✶⋆. youtube channels : I have like 3

⊹ user : archAngel101

⊹ subscribers : 999k

⊹ content : random facts about archeology, have a segment called “angelsplaining” where I basically explain shit.

✧ user : angel.digz

✧ subscribers : 714k

✧ content : gaming content/like more of my streaming content

ᯓ extra : I also am thinking about having a vlog channel. And my siblings and I have a channel for our podcast.

✶⋆. twitch :

⊹ user : archAngel101

⊹ followers : 645k

⊹ content : this is more so streams about my day job ig.

✧ user : Angel.digz

✧ followers : 701k

✧ content : where I do video games or tier lists or wtv. I also have a segment called “angelic nights” where I pull all nighters with my guests. We stream 3-4 hours then vlog the rest.

✶⋆. instagram : I have 3 accounts. My 3rd one is private.

⊹ user : archAngel101

⊹ followers : 991k

✧ user : angel.jpg

✧ followers : 289k

✶⋆. tiktok :

⊹ user : archAngel101

⊹ followers : 1.01 m

⊹ content : a bunch of shit tbh idk how to describe.

✧ user : angeldigzdeeznuts

✧ followers : 21k

✧ content : this is my alt so I just post unhinged videos?? Idk😭

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PETS .ᐟ

number one

✶⋆. name : Cassius

✶⋆. age : 2 years

✶⋆. species : frog!!

number two

✶⋆. name : Calliope

✶⋆. age : 3 years

✶⋆. species : birb!!

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[bed-of-ashes]

I love E!False because when you take a step back and look at everyone's series, everybody else has gotten used to that type of roleplay from season 1. They're leaning full into it now with lots of creative liberties, and all of them are using magic as much as they please. Joel is a god, Lizzie's town is full of animals, Shelby is getting kicked out of witch school, Katherine's got her curse, Sausage is restoring magic, etc. And False, well, she's not huge on role-playing stuff—mostly she does hermitcraft. She doesn't have tons of experience, her emotional support Ren isn't here, she's just sorta floating through. Her early lore is about a pumpkin guy just sorta moving about her empire and these dreams she has about builds. She has no memory and she stole a dead guy's clothes, but mostly her videos are kinda like "hey guys today we're building a bridge because I sorta feel like there should be a bridge here :)" She has no scope of how insane she can actually be until the rift happens and she's like "oh shit I've been sorta tame actually" and then she makes a whole plot line about trying to kill her twin sister and getting tortured and imprisoned because of it. Iconic

[levemetal]

I have a million and one svsss AU ideas that idk if I'll ever write cause I have 0 confidence in my untested writing skills. Any of these appeal to you?? Go ahead, use 'em. Know any fanfics like that? Please please PLEASE leave them in the comments. Ideas to add? Anything? Please go ahead I have no friends that are as deep in the svsss brainrot as me to subject this to ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣��᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Continued under the cut due to excessive rambling

These will be Ghost King/Calamity!SJ cause he has been living rentfree in my brain ever since one braincell at one AM shouted about it so you have been warned.

- Dual Ghost Kings YQY and SJ, Post canon of PIDW. That's it that's the idea. Their extras hurt my cold dead heart way too much and as much as bbygirl SJ is a piece of shit, Yue Qingyuan deserves happiness, and for that he needs his Xiao-Jiu. Basically YQY does not stay dead when Bingge turns him into a pincushion à la White No Face to Xie Lian except with arrows. What happens from here? Idk didn't get that far but I imagine he steals back his (probably dead) Xiao-Jiu, maybe does some other batshit insane shit like we all know that deep down he's capable of, and the duo fucking COMMUNICATES for once in their life and they live happily ever after. Bonus points for hilarious deaths for Bingge.

- If you're a filthy multishipper like me, want a BingJiu version of the above QiJiu? Easy, SJ decides to haunt Bingge's ass for eternity and vice versa when Bingge kicks the bucket and so they spent the rest of eternity trying to make each other miserable in increasingly ridiculous and creative ways. Maybe along the centuries they find a common enemy or sort their shit out and proceed to make their awful existence everyone else's problem. A match made in hell, truly <3

Are you seeing a theme yet. I like a general comedic air to svsss AUs, it just belongs to the svsss experience ya know? Anyway carrying on-

Shen twins, and SQH twins cause why not. If you want Binghe twins too, actually probably funnier with Binghe twins, where one is our beloved maiden Bingmei and the other OG!PIDW Bingge but forced back in time with memories of the PIDW timeline. Transmigrator SQH aka Airplane gets the peak lord + Mobei-Jun plotline while OG!SQH is just chilling as an An Ding Peak Hallmaster or something. Meanwhile, the Shen twins have a funny game of imposter going on. As far as everyone is concerned, there is only one Shen Qingqiu, Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan transmigrated in earlier into the novel, but ended up going to CQM with Yue Qi while SJ got stuck in the Qiu household as in canon. From here the details can change but the main idea is that

A) Shen Yuan knows how to do his peak lord job actually

B) SJ is a calamity ghost, having died either in his disciple years or alternatively never made it out of the Qiu household alive

C) Both SY and SJ have been playing switcheroo when SY needs to head out and do stuff or just wants SJ to do his paperwork for him.

I still need a good reason for the switching and duping, but wouldn't it be funny if the disciples just had to deal with their peak lord behaving WILDLY different at times. Most of the time it's good ol' Shen Yuan smiling at disciples, way too enthusiastic for monsters and plants and keeps forgetting his fans everywhere. Then one random week in the month after he has a resting bitch face, scowls, snarls and bitches at anyone and has 0 patience for teenage attempts at music.

Most shrug it off as just terrible migraine weeks, but some disciples are suspicious, most of all Bingge who is CONVINCED something is WrongTM. Like, he KNOWS SQQ and this SQQ is just so different, something must be different. He doesn't know how right he is yet everyone just thinks he's actually insane.

I know this is probably increasingly insane and dumb, but fast forward to the Abyss opening. SJ was probably there to keep an eye on his clumsy twin, but SY ends up asking the ghost to look over the Luos, as the system still demands that they go to the abyss. So SJ after much grumbling agrees (after all he probably just was unmasked as ghost calamity, and the twins as demons, with a huge amount of cultivators moving their way. It's really the smaller hassle to jump into the Abyss and deal with the horrors there. Besides, the scholar in SJ would be curious about the abyss (and SY too let's be honest) ), kicks both in and goes "Alright we're taking an impromptu field trip" and jumps in after leaving SY to deal with the political mess that comes after.

Anyway, the last AU can be changed in various ways, like make it a PIDW time travel fix it with only the OGs around, or just Shen twins, etc. Feel free to shout at me how dumb this all is.

[yuseirra]

What if Ai and Hikaru are "gods who don't realize they are gods"? The idea of such entities were suggested recently (I went and checked, it's mentioned on chapter 144)

and tsukuyomi even said "I'm sure your mother is watching you somewhere in this world, she might be looking down as a star, you know?" to aqua during chapter 118. This may not just be a taunt, but something that's actually true. This idea of Ai being a reincarnation of the brightest star is something that's been introduced in the song IDOL already("一番星の生まれ変わり") and it's something that's stuck out to me because Ruby had once mentioned something about Ai being "chosen by the gods" and that Ruby herself is an incarnation of Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun(Ch3). This is brushed off as a joke but with what's been mentioned there.. it's something that can be important.

that's why Ai can't be reborn as person again, maybe? She's returned to being a god and is watching her children and kamiki from afar, protecting them and helping them in ways she could?

In "Fatal" a person (most likely to be Ai) that's is dearly pursued by the speaker of the song is described as a star-like being:

Your eyes with glittering stars in them

A dazzling light that saves all from loneliness

You have given me a fatal flaw Selfish giant star, ruined lives

The idea of their love being a "star"'s continuously being revisited throughout the song. What if Ai really WAS a star that had a form of a human once and has returned back to being it after death?

and it's because of the "star" that the speaker(who I think is kamiki) decides to "embrace his destiny"

Please, keep your eyes on me I'll weaponize even the pain carved by fate So that it can light the regrets from sometime

Your beauty radiating from far away causing Burnt eyes, stripped feathers, creative fall from heaven

Taking over every field of vision You shine egoistically Even the feelings kept deep in my heart I will drag them out and sublimate And I will embrace all of my destiny

I will not stop to struggle on this stage I want to get closer to the only [ai] This foreordained destiny

It's the darkness that fell out from the light of that star

Doesn't Kamiki's name have "light" and "god" in it? Either he has something to do with the gods or is one himself without realizing what he is, and starts to accept some sort of fate he has himself after having met with Ai

and it makes sense for him to go

Keep your eyes on me, my dearest fatale!

because she REALLY COULD be watching what he's doing from the stars, trying to get closer to her so desperately

it's really interesting if you start to take kamiki as a god of some sort, because that'd explain how he's unintentionally caused others to grow insane by the things he's said. He told Uehara about Airi and he ends up killing her. He told Ryosuke about Ai and he stalks and murders her. Maybe he's been subconsciously using his divinity of a god making people to take action but it ended up all twisted and it doesn't work out the way he originally intends for it to be. With the case of Yura, what he's said about her ends up coming true too, maybe she really didn't watch her steps on the mountains but that was because of his powers of a god that's caused it?

This would explain why the police never found him suspicious after Goro and Yura's death and the other murders (if he's really caused any/and more of it), there's no way to prove he's the one that'd done it because he really didn't do it in a physical sense.

So Ai, who's returned to being a god now, could be trying to stop him through her children? And Tsukuyomi is getting involved in this because Kamiki's going out of line as his duties as a god(although he doesn't know if he's one) too?

Anyway, that's what's been on my mind today. The idea of gods have been introduced time to time, and I feel some of the major characters would have to do with it.. the twins were reincarnated for a purpose too(ch. 75) and itd make sense if it's because of what'd been going on for their respective parents in this new life. If so, the gods have their children fix what their parents are up to.

[aidens-ocean-galaxy]

what would you think of a marauders australia au (which characters would be what, e.g. eshays...do you think their personalities would be different and what would they be, where would they live/be from, just the idea of them being aussie, etc) ?

personally i find the idea funny (as an aussie) and im kind of tempted to write a fic

anon, I love you /p

this is by far one of the best asks I’ve ever received on here. So, thank you

where do I even begin?

Okay, I’ve always had the hc that the rosier twins are French and indigenous Australian, like I’m fully obsessed with it.

I feel like all the characters are either form Victoria or NSW or maybe even Queensland but idk.

The marauders (James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus) aren’t eshays but they do have their own gang sort of thing and they will pick fights with eshays. Barty however, is an eshay, BUT HEAR ME OUT, he’s only an eshay to upset his dad and break the law bc he likes it. But I feel like he would get so bored of the eshays he’s around bc they don’t have that creativity that he has (insanity).

Remus Remus Remus. He’s a country boy. He’s got that thick Aussie accent (I just wanna see it happen tbh) and same with Mary.

Marlene, Dorcas, Xenophilius, and Evan are surfers. They spend too much time at the beach literally doing anything they can. They love the beach and Pandora, Emmeline, and Lily would join them bc they also love the beach. They would all collect crabs and starfish and put them in a big bucket and then put back where they’re supposed to be but Evan (the little freak) would secretly keep some to do experiments on.

Jehfidjkd dude you need to write an Aussie au this instant

[too-much-tma-stuff]

My Hyena!Danny AU fic has almost 5 times as many comments as my next most popular fic :0 The engagement on this one has just been Insane and I am so so grateful! It's been so much fun to write and so rewarding and it feels weird to be 2/3 of the way finished it now since I outlined it as 27 chapters.

I have so many ideas too for what more I want to write, I still need to finish me Demon Twins AU, and me Getting Help AU + plans for two different dead tired plots, and a TMA fanfiction with Desolation!Tim. I haven't been this creatively motivated and fulfilled since I was a teenager!

[not-terezi-pyrope]

My novel, Total Entropic Denial, is now available to read for free on Royal Road!

April Pearce's world feels like it just might be falling apart. Her restaurant job leaves a taste in her mouth almost as bad as the food they serve their customers, her kinda-sorta girlfriend is probably, almost-definitely mad at her, and despite her best efforts, she can't seem to stop her neuroses from leading her face-first into bad decisions and bloody accidents. But as if that wasn't bad enough, now it seems that there might be a very real chance that she's losing her mind. As a series of inexplicable and increasingly horrific occurrences lead April to question the fundamental nature of her reality, staring an incomprehensible truth in the face will strip her down to the deepest marrow of her soul, and leave her straddling a line between two twin terrors; that she's either going insane, or, even more terrifyingly, that the things she's been seeing are absolutely real. Following those questions to their conclusion will lead her to new horizons, throw her into conflict with unexpected enemies, and make her even more unlikely friends. As the boundaries of reality start to crack wide enough open to catch glimpses of the horrors that lie outside of their confines, the scope of her struggle starts to tend towards a yawning infinity. Wherever this path may end, one thing's for sure; once we get there, nobody will be able to shut their eyes and ignore the consequences.

Total Entropic Denial is my experimental Science Fantasy/Horror novel, with the guiding ethos of experimenting with high concepts while also getting extremely weird with it. This is the largest creative project I've ever undertaken, taking up almost the entirety of my 2023, so it'd really be cool if you'd check it out!

Total Entropic Denial features queer characters and relationships, alien worlds and creatures, and body horror. It is a mature work that at times deliberately seeks to provoke, so I will up front provide the following:

Content Warnings: Violence Blood Explicit gore Explicit sexual content Shocking content Situations of ambiguous sexual consent Depictions of homophobia Depictions of transphobia Death Existential despair

The book fully free and available to read online at the above link. I would have liked to have optional monetization, but unfortunately I can't add a PayPal donation link to the Royal Road listing without exposing my deadname. In the event that a significant number of people want to do that, let me know and I'll figure something out. In the meantime, please leave a review and/or share the book around!

Additionally, I want to give big thank yous to @ericvilas, @fipindustries, and @theothin for beta reading this for me, as well as other help and encouragement received!