#I don't think Lena is the main problem

[travalerray]

what I am amused about the Magnus Protocol statements and the voices is that. Jon, Martin and Jonah ended up getting trapped in a digital hell to speak random statements to try and influence reality in whatever way they could. They couldn't really....die fully, so now they are doing whatever the fuck they can.

[ekingston]

the gay fanfic problem: he sees him. For a moment i thought it was going to be about the lack of 'she sees her'. But no. Typical.

you said that there's good ways to work around the 'actual' problem he mentions, and now that you've mentioned it, i don't think i've ever been confused reading your fics who's doing what! Do you have any tips or advice you could share :)?

xxx adoring reader and wannabe writer

GRAND, EXCELLENT compliment for a writer who adores not only sapphic love scenes (of which I agree there SHOULD be more) but also group dialogue and very, very long sentences. I'm going to be insufferable about this one for DAYS.

And speaking of being insufferable: I do have tips! As always, grain of salt, etc. I may know the rules but I really enjoy breaking them, and I'm sure I've done it in ways that have annoyed some readers.

Which makes for a decent segue to my first (and most important) tip: don’t be afraid to annoy your readers. Fanfiction is one of the least filtered forms of media. No one can keep us from writing (and, thanks to AO3’s user policies, sharing) whatever we want, however we want. We should take that seriously! If sprinkling your work with sparkly descriptors like ‘the ravenette’ makes you happy, you absolutely need to keep doing that! Also, let’s face it—if you share your work online, somebody at some point is not going to like it. You can’t appeal to everyone. Trying to is just going to suck every bit of joy out of this whole endeavour and ultimately burn you out. JUST WRITE IT THE WAY YOU WANT TO.

That being said, you asked for practical tips. I put them below the cut. Because I can never keep anything short, apparently.

1. When in doubt, just use your characters’ names. Even when you feel you’re overdoing it. You’d be surprised by how easily names blend into the background. My fics are full of instances where I use the same character’s name seven hundred times to make it clear who I’m talking about. You just didn’t notice! (Unfortunately you’re probably going to start to, now that I've pointed it out.)

2. This is an actual rule: pronouns (tend to) refer to the most recently mentioned character or noun.

This is why, instead of having to write

Lena winks at Kara. Kara blushes. Kara knocks over three glasses when Kara stares too long at Lena’s neckline

we can write

Lena winks at Kara. She blushes. She also knocks over three glasses while staring at Lena’s neckline

without making our readers wonder who we’re referring to. So that’s how I personally roll, unless:

an action requires emphasis;

it flows better with the rhythm of my prose;

I’ve started another paragraph, and there are multiple characters using the same pronouns in the scene;

there’s only one character in this scene, but I just realized I haven't said their name for, like, the third paragraph in a row.

3. Phrasing! There’s about a million different ways to structure a sentence or paragraph. Knowing how to shuffle words around is a skill that comes in particularly handy when two or more characters using the same pronouns are involved and you feel you’re drowning in a sea of ‘she’s.

Kara blushes when Lena winks at her. She also knocks over three glasses, staring hard at Lena’s neckline.

4. Strengthen your characters’ voices, mannerisms, moods and motivations.

If you know your characters well and you’ve done the work to make sure your readers know them too, we should be able to tell which one of them you’re talking about when describing a scene.

__ winks at __, smiling—pleased with herself—when __ blushes and promptly knocks over three glasses, her eyes glued to the neckline of __’s dress.

If you’ve sufficiently established their dynamic, your reader should be able to tell who is doing what from the context you created. This is also where writing a very close third person POV kind of feels like a cheat code: when your narrator's voice is the same as your main character’s, your reader will start unconsciously assuming you’re referring to your main character when you’re not specifying otherwise.

When you keep the above in mind, navigating additional characters is like learning how to braid with four, five, six etc. strands, it just gets easier every time, and things like

Lena looks at Kara. Nia sighs. Kara and Lena both look worried. Nia knows Kara still isn’t sure about Nia’s plan, and Lena doesn’t trust Nia’s instincts either. Nia can’t blame them. She is new to their world, and Kara and Lena haven’t had a chance to get to know Nia yet. “Please,” Nia says. She just needs a chance to prove to Lena and Kara that her instincts are usually correct.

can become

Nia huffs when Lena and Kara share a worried glance. “Please,” she insists, growing more agitated with every second that ticks by. She knows she hasn’t earned their trust yet. She knows she can’t count on Lena to come to her aid the way she would if this was her world. But she’s not going to change that by letting them call all of the shots. She needs this win, needs to help, needs to prove to them that her ‘instincts’ are—at least usually—correct.

A final note regarding descriptive nouns:

The reason I personally dislike when writers refer to characters by their hair color or job title is that it makes their characters sound like complete strangers to each other. In my opinion, Maura wouldn’t kiss the detective unless it’s an AU where they’ve just met during a kiss-in protest and Jane is a nameless woman with a badge. And if you’re making Lena shiver at the touch of the older woman’s hand, I’m picturing gray hair & the last person I’m going to think you’re referring to is Kara. Queen Rhea maybe, after the mask has come off and you’ve established that Lena feels she can no longer refer to her former business partner by the name she gave her because it too was likely a lie.

Anyway: unless it’s done as a gimmick or a joke (humor would be, like, its own entire book compared to the chapter that is this ask response), I personally use descriptive nouns only when they specify a relationship & come with a possessive adjective, like 'her sister', 'her girlfriend', 'her assistant'. These emphasize connection rather than alienation, which is what I feel happens when neutral terms are used to avoid referring to characters we're supposed to know by name.

FYI, did you know it used to be extremely common for femslash (F/F fanfiction, for those of you who never owned a walkman) to be written in second person POV, avoiding this issue entirely? The fact that these days it’s used almost exclusively for the self-insert genre is a tragedy. we used to be POETS. I cut my fanfiction teeth on second person POV and it will never not feel like home to me. All of my notes for YMHW were in second person, and I'm surprised some didn’t sneak into the final version.

[autismprotocol]

TMAGP Theory Board Update (Episode 5)

Hi Guys hope everyone had a relaxing week. what did everyone think of the new episode? After I finished digesting the episode I got to updating the board so Here it is!

I also wanna start adding a list of the new evidence and story we add on the board below in case the image is to blurry or you don't want to try and navigate through the image to find a specific piece of info

What Happened in episode 5: Personal Screening

Sam told lena he's been noticing Colin acting strange avoiding security cameras and installing extra locks on his door ( Is he just a normal paranoid IT guy or is he being watched?). Lena brushes Sam off saying " the problem will solve itself"

Chester (Jon?) gives us a new incident that ends up connecting back to the eye much like his last one (RedCanary) but unlike that incident this one is not connected to the Magnus Institute (I notice a pattern emerging that Chester seems to read statements that connect to the eye and also incidents that occur on internet blogs and/or forums.)

Gwen asks Alice about if she knew anything about the IT guy before Colin "A german guy, lots of tattoos" . Alice only seems to remember that their old IT person Amelia complained about his work a lot (why is Gwen suddenly asking about this person? the german bit ties back into when Colin informs Sam that FR3-d1's source code was written in german. does this IT guy have somthing to do with Chester (Jon?), Norris (Martin?) and Augustus (Jonah?) being part of FR3-d1?)

Lastly Since the first board update I found out about the TMAGP ARG set up by Alex and his team back in fall. I ended up reading through Alex's full post and searched through some of the links that were still running and found some info about the Manchester Magnus Institute so thats been added to the board as well. on a post from the Tumblr blog @strangehauntsuk (this was created for the ARG) at the bottom there is a post about the Magnus Institute ruins saying that the Magnus Institute's main facility burned down on December 24th 1999

It also mentioned that the Magnus Institute ran educational programs for gifted children and adults (had a much different purpose then The Magnus Institute from TMA's universe)

Anyway thats it for me until the next episode drops feel free to leave any comments or send any asks if you have something you wanna discuss or theories you want to propose ask box is always open

-Echo

[mastersoftheair]

ok, so my own final (and very, very fresh) thoughts, bc i wanted to wait until i'd watched everything to make a sweeping opinion of the whole series, and it's quite opinionated. and long. probably too long. i write essays for fun (everyone point and laugh):

my personal (and very, very fresh) ranking of the hbo war shows (not including gen kill bc that's a different war, sorry) goes- band of brothers > masters of the air > the pacific (it's the same for my title score rankings. that hasn't changed yet)

my main points of contention with MotA are 1) the nine episodes, 2) the length of the episodes, and 3) certain editing choices. nine episodes, compared to the classic ten, isn't Nearly enough time to showcase all that they wanna showcase (especially when the episodes are as short as they are, once you get past the recap and "next on" parts). and they wanna showcase A Lot! there so much going on! i'd ask them to pace themselves, but they literally Can't!

i mean, the editing choices are a Whole Thing! practically gives me whiplash sometimes lol. i feel like the weaker episodes still have parts that are Really good, but like. Individually. they don't work together as a stronger whole, which is to the episode's detriment. rather than jumping around (as the show often did), they could've benefited a lot from focusing on the One Story instead of squeezing three more stories into there (i say that, but i think the 4-5-6 episode run (all with multiple stories per episode) did this very well while Still being very good episodes, so it's not like it Can't be done, it just didn't work for 7, 8 and (partly) 9). granted, i suspect a chunk of the weird editing can be blamed on, well, there being only nine (and not all that long) episodes and no one wanting to cough up enough money for a tenth. ugh! i'm blaming both hbo And appletv for this (and covid19 ig). it's just One More Episode, how much could it cost?? and on the subject of episodes, why no episode titles? you used to love episode titles! i could've brainstormed episode titles for them For Free!!

when it comes to the characters, the rankings remain the same: BoB > MotA > TP. it's not totally fair tho, since BoB followed the exact same (and large-ish) group of guys from beginning to end, so you're Gonna know who they all are and get attached. this wasn't the case (for me!) when watching TP, since, unlike BoB, they jump around from group to group. i never felt like i got to know them all that well, outside of the main characters. i think MotA almost hits that sweet spot, especially knowing they had those two main things going against it: large cast And jumping from group to group. there's a case to be made for bias here (i Was the blog blogging about everything MotA for like. years.), but i still think they found a good enough balance of fleshing out the main characters while Also helping the audience get to know about a bunch of minor characters, of which there are a shitton (and their personalities, motivations, backgrounds, quirks).

there's also the representation of women. actual angel renée lemaire is and will always be a cut above the rest (bastogne is just That Good, argue with the wall). she's written so well that it almost makes me forget about how a bunch of women are portrayed in carentan. i have...issues with how women are portrayed in TP (even tho i love lena), so there's that. MotA falls in the middle (again) bc there's Way more women on-screen, but the writing can be questionable. balanced (as all things should be?) captain l'sandra wing-westgate is a character of all time, but episode 7 birthed the craziest discourse known to man (the hbo war fandom), but it wasn't all that unwarranted. manon and michou were sooo cool, but we didn't see nearly enough of them (another victim of the 'editing too many stories into one episode' problem. why not a whole resistance episode? or at least as the only b-plot?). paulina was interesting, but fulfilled one of those 'attractive foreign woman gives sage advice during/after sex' tropes (there's probably a tvtropes page for that idk). so many red cross girls, but none of the in-depth payoff :/ epic highs (multiple women!!) + epic lows (writing women??) = pretty tolerable. not great, not terrible. it was aight. i trust the fandom to build on this tho.

narrative is the big one tho. it's the whole "doing so much with so little" thing they've got going on (i'm ignoring their big budget here lol, could've been bigger). rather than having one main story with many connecting side stories (like BoB), it does the TP thing where there's many semi-connecting side stories set in the same general area. it helps that there's crosby's narration (i enjoy narration, sue me!), and he helps everything connect, sorta. but there's still other side stories that have Nothing to do with him (sandra's side gigs (revealing what she did takes away the mystery of what she Might be doing), the tuskegee airmen, quinn and bailey's eurotrip). would it have helped if there were two narrators (say, someone like rosie)? idk. gonna sit with that one. if there's a through-line, it's not super obvious like in the other two shows. which is insanely funny to me bc i literally like TP less, but that show's got an Extremely tight through-line all the way down. i can't lie and say it doesn't!

back to budget- i've seen people criticize this show for being called "masters of the air" when there's not much of "the air". ig that's fair, but there's the money issue, again. also, it'd get very repetitive if they were always in "the air". there was enough confusion about identifying who was who with the masks on, so imagine if that was Every Episode. out of All the issues the show has, this is the least issue-y. again, that's just my opinion, and it could change.

another budget thing (i think??)- idk enough about costuming and hair for period pieces so i can't comment on that with my 0 background in it, all i Can say is that i knoooooow people were clowning on marjorie cleven's hair in episode 1 (and i could see why, no such thing as 1940s beach waves). but from what i could understand- that actress' addition was a last-minute thing (bc i had No idea who the hell she was and i already found someone cast for marjorie all the way back in 2021). maybe there's something to say about the quality of rush jobs, but i really do think it was the most last-minute thing bc it came out of Nowhere, and timeline-wise, it looks like that bit was done long after everything else had been filmed. outside looking in, it seems something probably went wrong/didn't work out with who or what they already had and there wasn't enough wiggle room (time and money) to fix it. this isn't me being an apologist (lol), but i feel like a theorist at a big board bc nothing adds up! and i wanna know what happened! i'm just speculating! speculating on this blog is All i did for like Years lmaooo.

this is more of a side thing, but some of the lines in MotA feel really on-the-nose, almost corny. and that was Gonna be a knock against it, but there's some equally Extremely on-the-nose lines in both BoB and TP (Especially in BoB), so if i give MotA shit for it, i'd have to give all three shows shit for it lol. none of them are free of cheese.

another silly aside- no peaches, no main gingers, no main eugenes! we can't have 'em all, but c'mon!

there Is some good tho lol. one thing that MotA really has going for it, that i think the other shows have less of, is- and GOD it feels so weird to call this "world-building" when it's actual goddamn history, but- it's got world-building. maybe that isn't the best word for it. but i like how much Bigger ww2 feels in this show. BoB is one stop, then the next stop, then the next stop, which is, admittedly, good from a narrative-perspective (easy to follow), but not as good when you want a scale of how devastating the war is (in fairness, it was filmed in 2000). even TP feels pretty "enclosed" in a way. there's island-hopping, yeah, but all the damn islands look the same (not including australia lol). it's a theatre of the war we otherwise don't really get to see, but there still isn't all that much to see. it's water and sand and rock and dirt. which is the point, but Whatever! would've been cool if we saw sledge and co. in china, but moving on. MotA's able to really show the scale of it, both in the air and on the ground (that scene in germany during episode 6 was both harrowing and fantastic, also the inclusion of the actual children forced to fight nearer to the war's end in the finale). idk i just liked how it was able to zoom in and zoom out (and in and out again) in a way that the other shows weren't.

another thing it's got that the other shows don't is Really driving home how young everyone is (not "child soldier" young, but damn young). the cast is full of baby faces (rip babyface). a lot of ww2 shows/movies don't bother casting to reflect this, but i think overlooking that takes away from the overall impact. you browse through some old newspaper articles or photos of soldiers during ww2 enough and you're gonna Regularly get hit with the face of someone who looks like they could've sat in the desk next to you during a high school lit class. a lot of those b&w grinning faces look like kids bc they pretty much were (more so if they lied about their age). you don't really get that in BoB or TP (it's Crazy when the real life pics of the soldiers portrayed in those shows look younger than the actors).

i'm mixed about the tuskegee airmen. what we have, i love (thank you, dee rees). unfortunately, my biggest irk is that it leaves me wanting more of them, which i won't ever get. speaking as a black person (not speaking for All black people, just how i personally feel about it), having them included feels like a catch-22. if they weren't included in any capacity (all while knowing there were whole tuskegee airmen in stalag iii with the white main characters), there'd be a problem. however, including them (all while having these time constraints and not enough focus on them) leads to the feeling of having them "tokenized" (which i can see). there's no world where there'd be 50/50 split (even a 70/30 split) bc, at that point, just give them a show of their own. but there'd still be a general annoyance that big budget ww2 shows are only ever white. on the other hand, hanks and spielberg and orloff and miller and all the directors (except dee rees) are white, and how good of a story about black people are you really gonna get from the perspective of nonblack people? that in mind, i personally don't feel put-off by having the three tuskegee airmen in the posters/trailers/promos, bc i just Know there'd be a whole nother problem if they weren't included in them at all despite being in the show for however long (it'd be even worse if they made their pictures smaller). like i don't work in advertising, but i don't know if a "sweet spot" even exists for something like this. people would be pissed off no matter what imo (i'm also speaking with a bias here bc i had to browse through sooooo many comments written by white guys whining and crying and pissing and shitting themselves once they learned that the tuskegee airmen were gonna be in the show in Any capacity, so i'm just cool knowing they're in shambles rn (and josiah cross- he played richard macon- always goes Wild seeing his face in the promos, and his joy is pretty contagious).

i give it somewhere like a 7.5-8/10. 3.75 stars out of 5. not perfect, subject to change, gotta marinate, but i'm overall happy with it! MotA's best episodes are better than many other individual hbo war episodes. should i be grading it using the overall sum of its parts, not just the different parts? idk, i'm not being paid to grade lol.

[lenaperseveranceoxton]

I've been less motivated to post here lately because I only seem to have negative things to say about the modern state of Overwatch. I know damn well how annoying that is. In the words of Chris Griffin: "Why are you so fucking negative all the time?"

Alas, Lena "Tracer" Oxton is my original character, and I will forever be upset about how the newer developers don't seem to understand them.

First, Black Cat Tracer still drives me up the wall because they would not wear that, but even in the matching spray and name card, they don't have any of their personality. Lena has always been more puppy-coded than kitty-coded, anyway. I get it, though. Let's appease the homophobic straight men who play this game-- and Tracer, in particular-- for a living because that's where the money's at.

Then, I played Overwatch Classic, and as much as it made me appreciate how far the game has come in the few matches where I played any other hero, it is undeniably a Tracer main's playground. Thus, I played fifteen matches of Tracer and Tracer only for the "Play 15 matches as an Offense hero in Overwatch Classic" challenge, but even in my first match, hearing the old Overwatch 1 voice lines was a breath of fresh air.

They used to sound so cool, calm, and collected. Still excited and enthusiastic, no doubt, but more gentle. The way I described it while ranting to my friends who don't play Overwatch is that Tracer's new lines mostly sound like hyperactive Marvel quips written by someone who only had an "incorrect quotes taken from Vines" grasp on their personality and completely Flanderized them in the process.

This is Overwatch 2 Tracer's writing to me:

Sure, they are a silly and clumsy character at heart, but way to overdo it! Also, I still think the person who wrote the "Caught you staring!" line should be flayed alive in front of their family.

Speaking of Overwatch 1 interactions, I also realized how similar many of Overwatch 2's are. I already ranted in a previous post about how Lena used to be angrier towards Talon members-- take going from "It wouldn't be a problem if you just disappeared forever" to "Whoopsie-daisy, I got locked out of my phone," for example. In the same post, I also ranted about how Lena's new interaction with Illari feels like a duplicate of the one with Ashe.

Now, imagine the disappointment I felt when I heard the interaction they used to have with Genji about their survivor's guilt over Mondatta while playing Overwatch Classic and went through Overwatch 2's interactions to confirm my suspicions that they never take a similar tone in the glorified update latter game. They talk about the Slipstream Incident with D.Va and Mercy in Overwatch 2's spawn room interactions, but both times, they only say "Teehee! I can't believe I got lost in time! My bad!"

I know these newer interactions tend to be written by interns in their early twenties, as said interns would always celebrate on Twitter whenever their work got added to the game. Still, as a fellow early-twenty-something-year-old, the drop in quality to hiring actual, experienced writers shows. The only time we get an idea of how Lena copes with their baffling amount of trauma is when Emily tells us, the audience, in the Story Missions that they often fixate on something for hours straight to distract themself.

Whatever, man. Every time Blizzard makes a joke out of Lena "Tracer" Oxton, I give them a new mental illness in my canon rewrite. There are always new ways to torture my homunculus.

[lol-jackles]

I saw an off comment that Jensen's acting is similar to Dwayne Johnson. Now I cannot unsee it. It's not identical (Jensen cries better while Dwayne personality feels more natural) but, what do you think?

Their acting style are similar in that their characters know the camera is attracted to them and they can't seem to turn off that awareness. Like how Dwayne's WWE training made him comfortable in front of the camera, Jensen's modeling days helped him be comfortable with the camera. But the downside is they tends to act to the camera instead of for the camera.  This is a common problem when career models attempt to go into acting.

The main difference between them is despite Dwayne's massive size, he leans more into a likeable everyman, which makes him a good candidate for children's films and inspirational biopics. That may be why Dwayne's acting feels more natural to you. Jensen doesn't appear comfortable playing everyman type characters, though I think he could do it well if he is willing to work with an acting coach.

With that said, despite Dwayne's huge box office success he doesn't really have an iconic role that will make him memorable for decades to come. There's no line associated with him, like Arnold's "I'll be back" from Terminator, or Bruce Willis' "Happy Kay Yea" from Die Hard, or Lena's "I choose violence" from Game of Thrones. In other words, Dwayne's films don't have cultural impacts.

[acsredstringbrigade]

Now that everyone, not just Backers and Patrons have had a chance to listen to the first episode, here are my thoughts. Note, spoilers ahead for all of TMA and the the first episode.

First, I do adore our main cast. Sam and Alice are both very entertaining, and Colin is easily going to be a fan favorite. Im unsure about the tension between Lena and Gwen, but we will see where that goes.

Second, FR3-D1 is apparently an old computer program, and clearly related to some facet of the Eye, given its abilities to snoop through the entirety of the internet and get personal information that definitely violates GDPR. Though the fact that the computers are this old, perhaps they are still analog, allowing them to get around the digital issues that were encountered in the previous podcast. Though there is some irony in an Eye based program searching through the World Wide Web for information.

Next, the added voices. The first two of the three are obviously Martin and Jon, aka Norris and Chester. The third voice, Augustus ... the only person I can think of who would have been pulled into an eye based program with them had to be Jonah. I almost wish it would have been Anabelle, and I do hope to see her later on, but with the masculine name, and a name that sounds as old-fashioned as Augustus, really couldnt be anyone else.

Then, that first incident (yes, I am calling them incidents, not statements, as they are ... distinct in important ways) was fascinating. Obviously, elements of the Corruption are laced throughout, but what fascinates me is how many other facets could be identified there. Stranger, End, Dark, and maybe Spiral. That, plus the fact that the computer can only take one code for each incident ... something is going on there, and it is something that may cause problems for our protagonists later on.

The interview between Lena and Gwen was interesting. (I will come back to this in a later post. There's a lot to unpack, but it is being overshadowed by the next point)

And finally, the incident involving RedCanary. The Canary puns are easily made, though canary in the coal mine seems to be the one they were going for, given the "Canaries dont belong underground" comment. Also, it seems as though the institute itself served as the Panopticon did in the first universe, the offices serving as the cells, and the top floor almost certainly the panopticon itself. That and the ritual down in the archives themselves was likely the place where Magnus died.

The blood stains, the symbols on the floor matching those on a carved box. And we don't know what the picture itself was of, since the moderator removed the image. But based on the reactions of those in the thread, it was some sort of gore, and something involving eyes.

I see two major possibilities. Either something like what happened to Albrect Von Closen, and the man died of internal eyes, and whatever had stalked him posted the picture of his dead body. Or, RedCanary was trying to post a picture of the box for a while before, and it finally posted after he opened it, revealing a set of eyes inside. If the latter is true, those are most certainly Magnus' eyes aka Raymond Fielding from Hilltop Road and the spider box. Either way has implications, and I am fascinated to see which theory holds more water.

Odd that The Magnus Institute had been put on the list of buildings that had already been cleared. Theoretically, that is a list that only a few people use. Then again, I am not a spelunker, so I dont know how tight-knit the community is. I wonder who put it on that list.

Similarly, who or what removed all the paper? Not even pulpy traces of ash? Where are all of the records of the archive?

And for that matter, who burnt down the Institute?

[cornbread-but-minecraft]

What I Don't Like About Minecraft's Modern Music Part 1 - The Nether Update

hey, would you look at that! i'm actually making a post i said i was going to make. that almost never happens. anyway, i have a lot of opinions on minecraft's music, especially how it's been handled in recent (-ish) updates, so i figured i'd make a post series about it.

we'll be going update-by-update, just to make things simpler and a bit more future-proof. each post will be split into four sections, those being:

The Music Itself,

How it's Used In-Game,

How it's Broken on Bedrock Edition, and

How it Affects Cornbread's Music Fixer (my resource pack).

this will be, in no way, a full collection of all my thoughts on the subject, especially since they keep changing as the game itself does. but it will be my general feelings. anyway

The Music Itself

it's good.

wow. what an original take. no-one's ever enjoyed the nether update soundtrack before.

okay, but actually, yeah. music's really good. i don't really have much to say about the music's quality other than that. it's probably the only soundtrack in the past few years that straight-up has no misses. i do have some critiques tho.

firstly, very odd choice to center the new music so heavily around piano when C418's existing nether music has so much emphasis on other instruments. it's especially noticeable with rubedo. rubedo is probably the closest this album gets to being not very good.

chrysopoeia and so below seem to just kinda start their main melodies without any kind of fade-in, which (spoilers) isn't something i really like in the newer soundtracks. buuuut, i think it actually kinda works here. both tracks start with a not insignificant period of ambience before the main melody really kicks in, so, by the time you've noticed that the track is playing, it's already been playing for at least half a minute.

it especially helps that the nether itself received a lot of ambience in this update. it ensures that the tracks are never starting up from complete silence, which is a big part of the problem with tracks like bromeliad, for example. but i'm getting ahead of myself. also, pretend i'm not overusing the word 'especially', pretty please.

pigstep is in a noticeably different genre to all the previous music discs, a trend that would continue for years to come. i do not understand music genres enough to explain just how they're different, but they are. like a lot. not sure how i feel about this.

How it's Used In-Game

the nether update is the first* to have biome-specific music, and i (mostly) think it did it wonderfully. chrysopoeia and so below fit their biomes really really well. all the new biomes play and feel so distinct from each other it'd probably feel weirder if they didn't have biome-specific music.

and that's where my praise of this soundtrack ends.

let's start with the second-biggest thing and move our way up: the nether update added four new biomes and three new music tracks.

but fine. warped forests don't play music, so obviously they don't need their own track. so that leaves three new (music-playing) biomes and three new music tracks. that's one new track per biome, right?

no.

rubedo is exclusive to the nether wastes. the biome that was already there. the biome that is already heavily associated with C418's nether music. the biome C418's nether music was written for.

i feel like they should have had lena write a new track for the basalt deltas instead. as it stands, basalt deltas share their soundtrack with soul sand valleys. and we know the music is for soul sand valleys because java edition gave each one of these new tracks their own folder and so below's folder is named 'soulsand_valley'.

but if i'm being honest, all that up there really isn't that big of a deal. it's just a little weird. but the second thing i want to touch on actually is really bad and is kinda why rubedo's existence is such an issue for me.

each biome in the nether plays one biome track from the nether update and all four general nether tracks from volume beta... in theory. in actuality, the volume beta tracks almost never play because the game is set up so that each biome is almost twice as likely to play their one biome track than any of the four general nether tracks. i don't just mean any individual general nether track - i mean all four of them as a unit.

i can understand what they were going for. since the general nether tracks play almost anywhere in the nether, they probably just wanted to make sure that the biome tracks had more of a chance, since they only play in their respective biomes. but the exact chances they chose are simply way too much in the nether update's favor.

even the nether wastes, which give their biome track (rubedo) a weight of 6 instead of the usual 7, are still dominated by their one, single biome track. C418's dimension-defining music became a rarity all throughout the nether. and it makes what was once the best soundtrack in the game very, very repetitive and grating.

*i say the nether update was the first to have biome-specific music, but that's not actually entirely true. underwater music is also technically biome-specific, but it's much more known for being exclusive to the underwater than to any specific group of biomes. also, technically, it wasn't added to bedrock edition until the nether update, which i will be talking about soon.

like, right now.

How it's Broken on Bedrock Edition

okay, i lied. well, no. i said something misleading. (well, actually, i typed something misleading). basically, i'm not going to be talking about underwater music just yet. i will instead be talking about nether music first, and then underwater music. since this is the nether update post.

for some context, before the nether update, bedrock edition played all of its music at 10% to 30% volume, depending on the track. nether music specifically was played at 15% volume.

contrast this with java edition, which played all of its music at 100% volume. when java edition received the nether update soundtrack and fucked it up in all the ways i've already described previously in the post, it decided to play its new tracks at 50% volume, since the files themselves are so much louder than the existing C418 tracks.

how do you think bedrock edition handled this?

they could've done some math and decided to play the new tracks at 7.5% volume, since that's 50% of 15%. they could have doubled the volume of the existing nether music and had the new music play at 15% volume to keep the numbers round, and they almost did, but not quite.

see, this was around the time where parity was starting to become something important, so instead of adapting the java edition solution to work with bedrock edition, they just completely copied it, playing C418's nether tracks at 100% volume and lena's at 50%.

they did not change the volume of the rest of the music.

so this left the game in a situation where overworld and end music played at 10% to 30% volume and nether music played at 50% to 100% volume, which is a really big difference, but at least you had to change dimensions to hear it, so it's not as noticeable, right?

no. i misled you again.

during development, the soul sand valleys were internally referred to as 'soulsand valleys', with soulsand as one word. this is incorrect, so java edition ended up changing it before release. bedrock edition usually doesn't see the point in changing internal IDs (case in point, the flattening is ongoing as i type this in the year 2024), so it didn't do this. it did, however, change the name of the sound event the biome uses as music.

another thing bedrock edition doesn't like doing is fully removing features. so, when i say they changed the name of 'music.game.soulsand_valley' to write soul sand as two words, what i actually mean is they added a new sound event for that.

this new sound event is the one that got fixed up before release.

yet another thing bedrock edition doesn't like doing is having a biome's internal ID not match the name of the sound event it uses as music. i think you can see where i'm going with this. bedrock edition uses an outdated sound event for soul sand valley music.

remember when i said the bedrock team 'almost played the new nether tracks at 15% volume'? yeah, this is what i meant. 'music.game.soulsand_valley' plays so below at 15% volume.

so, to recap all of that, in version 1.16, the nether update, bedrock edition plays all of its music - menu, overworld, end, creative mode, dragon fight, end poem, etcetera - at 10% to 30% volume (really quiet), except for nether music, which it plays at 50% to 100% volume (really fucking loud), except for soul sand valley music, which it plays at 15% volume like the rest of the game! soul sand valleys are even inconsistent with basalt deltas, which are supposed to have an identical soundtrack.

did i mention that the outdated soul sand valley music sound event doesn't play any of C418's tracks like it's supposed to?

underwater music! is a lot simpler to explain.

basically, on bedrock edition, underwater music plays at 20% volume. this is technically within bedrock's previous range. it's just really loud. not loud enough to be in parity with java edition (which plays underwater music at 40% volume), but definitely loud enough to be noticeably inconsistent with other overworld music.

i simply wouldn't have chosen 20% volume, is what i'm saying.

How it Affects Cornbread's Music Fixer

it wouldn't be a me post if i didn't mention this pack at least a little bit, would it?

okay, so technically, the pack didn't exist until sometime after the wild update, but leaving both this and the caves and cliffs soundtrack until the wild update post would just be a lot, so i'm going to be talking about how this pack deals with nether and underwater music right now, as well as the history of those.

the very earliest versions of this pack were very bare bones. i didn't even notice the volume of music was inconsistent at the time, i just wanted swamp music to be less everywhere. but, version 1.0.0 did still change nether music a little bit, in that it made C418's tracks more prominent.

first things i did were i made soul sand valley music consistent with basalt deltas, and then i lowered the weights of chrysopoeia and so below from 7 to 4. this gives the game a 50-50 chance of playing either the biome's biome track or one of C418's general nether tracks, so that the new biomes still predominantly play their own unique music without being irritatingly repetitive.

i didn't want to remove rubedo completely, so i just lowered its weight to 1, so that it still plays, but with a 20% chance and not vanilla's 60%. this makes the nether wastes predominantly C418's volume beta music, as it should be.

fun fact: when i was first porting this pack to java edition, i actually forgot to tweak the weights of the nether music and had to fix it in a patch, so that's why the earliest version on modrinth is 1.0.1 and not 1.0.0.

it took me a while after that for me to change the volume to make it consistent with other music. odd, since that quickly became a major feature of the pack. but eventually, i did one of the things i suggested mojang do earlier in the post: i changed the volume of C418's nether music to 30% and lena's nether music to 15%. (well, in the bedrock style of the pack. eventually, i split the pack into bedrock and java "styles" that are separate from the edition any given release of the pack is for).

at the same time, i lowered underwater music to 10% volume. (also in bedrock style only). and that's how nether and underwater music have stayed in this pack all the way to the current version 1.4.1.

---

oof that was a long post. took me multiple days to write it and it's probably going to end up being one of the shorter ones in this series. or maybe not since i have to explain a bunch of context in this one that i won't have to later. idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[bambiraptorx]

People need to stop making me hate big mama so much! I'm supposed to love her! She's evil. Shes a giant spider lady. And she's voiced by Lena Headey!

But also...yeah sounds about right...she totally would:(

-🔮🕸

I read somewhere at one point that one of the potential plans for Rise S3 would have been to have Big Mama essentially take over the Hidden City and become that season's main antagonist. And while I don't know if that was actually how that season would have worked out or if it was just something they were considering and might have eventually scrapped, I started thinking about how she would use her influence to control an entire city like that.

Clearly, she already has a ton of power and influence given the Battle Nexus New York shebang (that she was advertising throughout season 2, so it's not like she was hiding it). And while canon doesn't address it exactly, we know from Draxum that potentially exposing the yokai to the humans is considered an extremely serious crime but she just?? does that for personal profit??? And there's no way she didn't think that through, so she either decided the potential profit was worth the criminal charges, figured that she'd be able to get the charges dropped, or knew that the Council of Heads wouldn't even prosecute her.

As I mentioned in this post, I've given her a lot of sway over the yokai education system as one of her avenues of building her power. But education isn't the only pie she's got her finger in: basically every industry in the Hidden City either has her direct influence on it, or people who owe her something in it. So for a lot of the lore I've built around Big Mama, she doesn't need to take over the Hidden City. She already runs it. If she did ever outright seize power from the Council of Heads, it wouldn't be taking control so much as openly acknowledging the power she already has.

//CW Drug Use, Substance Abuse, Addiction, Manipulation//

And as for her letting the Nexus fighters maintain substance abuse issues like I mentioned in that last lore post, it's just one of the many, many things she uses to control people.

Fighting in the Nexus is incredibly stressful, so many people who do it long term end up with serious substance problems (alcohol, drugs, etc) as coping mechanisms. If they want to get clean, she'll help them get clean (and lord it over them every time they try to defy her, that without her, they'd still be an addict). If they want to keep using, she'll help them keep using (and by providing them their drug of choice, legal or illegal, by letting them work for her, she becomes the safest and easiest source).

And if the Council is aware, they turn a blind eye to it: after all, addicts who have a safe, legal source for their substance of choice are much less likely to end up committing crimes, so really, she's just making society better, right? And honestly, that's what a lot of what she does to gain power boils down to: she makes it look like she's trying to make society better. She funds schools, medical research, housing developments, and so much more, but at the end of the day it's about making people feel indebted to her.

As far as the Hidden City is concerned, it couldn't function without her, and that, not the title of leadership or obvious political power, is what really matters to her.

[man-im-so-high]

as you probably have figured it out - i am the anon

idk why i thought anonymous could protect me from the consequences. i really don't.

the "call out post" was beas and coucous idea. i have nothing to do with their personal issue with lena. this will be about my side and i'll only be speaking for myself.

for some time in may, i was friends with lena. but then they and george (also very sorry for them misgendering you) started interacting with me less and less. i reached out to lena and the situation was cleared. it was alright and all talked out. yet, i was overthinking and probably over-interpreting the messages.

then, a week ago, i posted a post where i was mad at my moms boyfriend and said something very insensitive and horrible about him being a drug addict. lena rightfully called me out. i tried to explain my situation, tired to apologize for it. i also tried to apologize on tumblr, by making a post. i'm very sorry for what i said. i'm in a very bad place mentally and getting my thoughts out helps me (as you probably know by seeing me on your dash all the time), but there are thoughts that shouldn't be said or even be thought - that one being one of them. i should've never even thought that, since the main post had nothing to do with it. it was wrong and unforgivable, that was my first mistake.

then i posted that i want to be friends with everyone on 75blr and someone said that maybe there's a reason why i'm not. it made me anxious and overthink, jumping to conclusions, thinking it had to be lena.

i talked to coucous, telling them about my assumption. they told me that they had problems with lena in the past and told me about the situation with bea. i remembered lena and george talking about it once when we were in a groupchat together. and i told bea and coucous. another mistake. i should've just kept my mouth shut. i should've never said anything. i'm sorry for telling them, it was none of my business. i wasn't part of the situation, i had nothing to do with it all, so why did i say anything? honestly, because my brain kept telling me that lena hates me. yet lena said they DON'T, i just didn't believe them. why? insecurities.

now, the post. they planned it, typed it out and before it got posted, i read it and approved it. i can't apologize for the misgendering, since i'm trans* myself. i didn't think of george using other pronouns now. i'm really sorry for that, but i understand if you don't forgive me. if we do a call out post, we could've at least fact checked your pronouns. embarrassment at its finest.

it was so indescribably wrong to even create this post. i didn't think of the consequences it could have on lena, george or jj. i thought i could get away with it. i don't even wanna imagine how you felt when you read it, i already felt terrible finding out you figured out i'm the anon.

it was an impulsive decision, made from insecurity and my terrible mental health. i mean, it just shows that i have no balls - i was too scared to reach out to lena again, so what do i do? i hurt them? why the fuck did i do that?

i was so scared of getting cancelled for the shitty ass thing i said, that i tried cancelling someone else. i was trying so hard to protect myself that i hurt other people. it was selfish, probably even narcissistic.

i'm sorry, i should've kept my mouth shut. it was a situation between lena and me, not for all of 75blr. if you hate me now, i get that. it was the wrong way to handle a situation that was not that deep. i take all the blame for my behavior.

finally, i gotta face my consequences. if you want to unfollow or even block me, do that. i'll be taking some time off tumblr and focus on my mental health.

lena, i hope you can forgive me. i understand if you don't wanna talk to me ever again, this was so wrong and unethical from me. i sorry for how i treated this, it really wasn't that deep and if i had reached out to you before ever thinking of this post, we could've possibly talked it through. but i get if you don't ever wanna talk it out, and i'll live with that.

george, i'm sorry for the misgendering. i'm also sorry for telling them about what you and lena had said in the groupchat. that was none of their business. the whole situation between you all was none of my business.

i hope you can forgive me one day. and maybe, when i'm in a better place mentally and when i have worked on my flaws, we can at least get along again. i'm already in therapy and believe me i would love to see my therapist rn but she's on holiday, i'll see her in 2 weeks. i realized that my behavior hurts others. maybe it's just my anxiety, maybe i just really am selfish. i mean, my dad is a narcissist, maybe i actually am too.

well, i guess that's it. i'll delete tumblr for now

i'm sorry that i hurt you.

- kimi (man-im-so-high // lukeslights4ber)

[theredcapeofk]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @fazedlight for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

I have three main sources of inspiration:

my own brain where my ship and fandoms live rent-free.

tumblr: other people's works keep the passion alive and new ideas coming

discussing the ships and fandoms with other fans

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

So many of you guys do inspire me for so many different reasons it's hard to make a list.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

I love to have Eliza around she brings a sense of calm and reassurance to my scenes. I also love to have Esme, she's so cute and I like having her melt everyone's hearts from sheer cuteness.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

Writing and reading fanfics have taught me that my views tend to change on ships and tropes. So my never today could inspire me tomorrow.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

I don't know about a writing process... I get an inspiration and start writing. Sometimes I outline longer fics and sometimes the stories cannot be outlined so I let it write itself as I go. Of course I make the whole thing coherent.

If that wasn't cursed enough, I'll just add that there are times where my brain just won't English so I have to think my writing in French and translate it.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

The outpour of inspiration that makes me write until my eyes/fingers hurt

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

I honestly don't remember. But every research I ever make for a fic is a fall down the rabbit hole. You start by a word research and two hours later you end up watching a tutorial on how to comb a Giraffe's hair...(It never actually happened, but you get my point lol)

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

Sometimes all of the above plus typos and the sequence of tenses? This used to never be a problem, but the further I get from my English classes the blurrier sequence of tenses become.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Fight scenes and action scenes. Like how am I supposed to describe who does what and how...?

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

Very often. In Change my Direction Kara was supposed to heal a lot faster. And then she didn't and here we are lol. In My Eyes are Up Here Kara was supposed to spill the secret sooner but she couldn't. And in a project I'm still working on on the rift era, Lena was supposed to cave in sooner but she's stubborn lol

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Definitely Kara and Lena. I have so many questions and I would love their take on what canon left unsaid. I would also like to speak to Brainy and Cat. I would pester Brainy about the 31st century to know the extent of Kara's and Lena's legacy. I'd ask Cat how she managed to create Catco and also what finally gave Kara away.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Kara and Lena are always idiots in love in my fics and when they do admit their feelings to each other, they only live for one another.

As for themes, I tend to come back to the rift era because canon created a tension that needed solving and their version only broached the surface. And this conflict brought so many things to the surface for the characters there are so many alternate answers to be given I feel that it's an exploration that keeps on giving.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

My phone. I've been writing mostly on my phone for years and I love the flexibility it gives me. I can carry it around with me and write whenever inspiration strikes.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

You guys actually have strategies for that? Hahaha. What I tend to do, is highlight words or sentences as I go along. Then, when I'm done with a chapter, I put the fic away for a few days and then I start re-reading the chapter from the start. Best-case scenario I take the highlights off, worst-case scenario I highlight more stuff lol. As some words need translating I try to do this step incrementally because I know how long or hard the language check can be.

When I get stuck to a point where I can't move on, I beg my English speaking friends for help. @lenaralanvers has helped me so much since 2021

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

The summary is always my absolute nemesis

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I think I define it from the hits.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

I do have a playlist for Supercorp and it's always growing. There's a lot of Celine Dion and Greek pop songs in it. There's something about Celine Dion's voice and late 90's and early 2000's songs that just screams Supercorp to me. The Greek pop songs have a special way of expressing pain and regret that fits perfectly with the rift era.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

If I had to pick someone, I would commission them :). maybe 2024 is the year I finally do this.

And if anyone wants to create fanart from any of my fics please feel free to.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

Phew...tough question! I don't have time to actually count them all, but I'd say twelve? out of the top of my head. Some will be one shots, some will hopefully become multichapters.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

If you want to write fanfic go for it. Don't let anything or anyone stop you from ever writing. Never plagiarize anyone and if you get your inspiration from someone, always give credit.

- - - - -

Tagging (respectfully and without pressure). If you've done the game before, feel free to send me a link to it ;) @chaotic-super, @lenaralanvers , @inkedroplets , @fyonahmacnally if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. But also anyone who'd like to do this!

[doyelikehaggis]

https://www.tumblr.com/hydesjackiespuddinpop/723400504889294848/send-me-a-character-and-ill-answer-with-my

Elena Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, & Tyler Lockwood pls 🥹

AHHH bestie YES thank you for this, I need some good distractions right now and this is PERFECT, let's do it!

Starting with our Main Character, Elena Gilbert!

• My NOTP for them: Might be (definitely is) controversial but D*lena. Anyone who follows me and has seen a few of my posts about TVD knows this about me but I just do not ship, do not like it and wish they weren't endgame.

• My BROTP for them: Ooh, okay, either Jeremy or Tyler. The only problem I have is that I ship Tylena, so I should probably choose Jeremy. I genuinely love their dynamic, they make me very happy <3

• My OTP for them: *Deep breath* STELENA. It will always be Stelena. Despite the fact that I totally agree with people who say that both Salvatore brothers were bad for Elena, I can't help but love those two and wish that Elena and Stefan were allowed to be endgame. Early seasons Stelena will always have my heart <3

• My second choice pairing for them: Probably even more controversial but my answer is Matt. There's something so sweet to me about their relationship in the beginning, and how much they genuinely cared about each other, and I just think life would have been a lot better for both of them had they gotten back together before everything went completely wrong, and I just love the idea of them getting a happy human life together.

• My fluffy pairing for them: Oh god, that's hard because I still want to say Stelena or Mattlena but... they've been through some shit. They're both really fluffy though! Okay, no. A genuinely fluffy pairing for Elena would probably be Elejah. I KNOW there's some history and angst stuff but the IDEA is SO FLUFFY. I just know Elijah would worship the ground she walks on, and just AHHHH.

• My angsty pairing for them: I think I've already answered this three times above. However, if we want to go REALLY angst then Beklena is the perfect candidate. I really don't need to say anything else about this. I love them and their angst.

• My favourite poly ship for them: Probably Barolena <3

• My weirdest pairing for them: Probably Elena/Tom Avery considering she literally never met him lmao but I like the idea of Elena with her actual fated doppelganger!

• My intrigued-by pairing for them: I think I want to choose Tylena for this one because I didn't initally ship them but I was super intrigued by the idea of them because of a few posts that came across my dash!

Now for our Queen, Bonnie Bennett! <3

• My NOTP for them: B*nkai. I just can't quite see their dynamic being anything but hatred after everything they went through. Bonnie was too hurt by him for me.

• My BROTP for them: Baroline <3

• My OTP for them: Okay, maybe a tad hypocritical considering my first answer but Bamon. The dynamic between her and Damon was just so interesting and special, and there was a genuine mutual love for the other in both of them that breaks my heart over and over again. Not to mention book!Bamon!

• My second choice pairing for them: Bonenzo <3 I didn't love them at first because I was (and still am) an avid Denzo shipper but they grew on me and now I really appreciate the love between them and how they found a bit of comfort and security in each other. They deserved to be happy together in the end, honestly.

• My fluffy pairing for them: Bonora because witchy lesbians <3

• My angsty pairing for them: God, Bamon and Bonenzo both qualify for this as well lmao but I'd say Bonenzo wins this ones considering Enzo actually died in the end. Their entire relationship is a ball of angst.

• My favourite poly ship for them: Probably super obvious but Bamenzo. I love Bamon, Bonenzo, and Denzo so it just makes sense to combine them! Bonnie has two hands <3

• My weirdest pairing for them: I'd probably say my weirdest pairing for Bonnie is Klonnie but I just think the idea of Klaus and Bonnie is a very interesting one!

• My intrigued-by pairing for them: Stefonnie. I don't absolutely know that I ship them, but I'm intrigued by them. Especially if Stefan got with Bonnie in the beginning of the show instead of Elena. I loved the scene between them during the dinner episode when she said she had witches in her family and Stefan was genuinely curious and made her smile.

And last but certainly not least, my fave little werewolf, Tyler Lockwood <3

• My NOTP for them: Tyler/Vicki is just a no-no. Their dynamic was awful pretty much the entire time and just. No.

• My BROTP for them: Matt is his bestie, obviously <3

• My OTP for them: Parkwood. Don't even talk to me. They deserved the world and were screwed over at every turn.

• My second choice pairing for them: Forwood. Also screwed over at every turn and it makes me want to scream if I think about them for too long because they really did deserve better and they were SO GOOD and just ! Damn it, Klaus!

• My fluffy pairing for them: Probably also Forwood despite the fact that they were constantly angsty as well but they had their fluffy moments.

• My angsty pairing for them: Also Forwood. Assume Forwood for everything because I miss them every day.

• My favourite poly ship for them: Tyler/Caroline/Bonnie becaue I just think they're neat <3

• My weirdest pairing for them: Probably Jyler. I just love the enemies to lovers dynamic they would have, and the idea that they had so much hostility towards each other in the beginning not because they both liked Vicki but because they liked each other.

• My intrigued-by pairing for them: Also Jyler.

This was really fun! If you have any more characters you want to send in, feel free! <3

[icwasher]

I've been working on a story that's been in the back of my head for a while and I've already told my sister all the details on multiple occasions and I don't really want to reiterate all that to her again, so if it interests you, here is a rambling post about my current WIP!

I was originally going to write a two-book series that chronologically comes before this story, but I really don't feel like writing the other story and I think that with sufficient flashbacks and explanations, I can make this story work without the other two books.

The two books were going to tell the story of a young dark magic user (and Allure) who was also the Crown Prince of this country called Letria. For a bit of background, dark magic requires killing to get its power (in order of magical power gained from their death, plants, animals, humans, dragons) and it's also like a drug, so if you use dark magic long enough, you'll be a slave to it. The main character of my current WIP was the villain of the original story. His name is Ciaran (See-air-aine (rhymes with aim)). His little brother drowned (after Ciaran failed to save him) and his death haunts Ciaran, which is why he turned to dark magic in the first place. Long story short, he summons the devil, gets defeated, gets his ability to do dark magic taken from him, and then his father disowns and banishes him beyond the mountains to a kingdom called Oshar.

The current story picks up six months after Ciaran is banished. He's been wandering around and is almost out of money, and as he travels through the forest to get to the yet-unnamed capital city of Oshar, he stumbles upon this village that's been burnt to the ground. There he finds this three-year-old girl, Lena, who has been orphaned. He takes her in and plans to leave her at an orphanage in the next village he finds (orphanages are actually really nice in this country so this isn't him being awful or anything) but he bonds with her and ends up adopting her. Then he goes to the capital city, gets a job as a member of the Guard (basically a police officer), and gets a domestication arc!!!! His boss, Armend, becomes a pseudo-dad to him and helps him work through his TraumaTM. For a little while, he gets to live a normal life.

Then, after barely a year of living in the capital city of Oshar, Ciaran gets a letter telling him that his dad needs his help in Letria because a bunch of Allures are causing problems and Ciaran, while unable to do dark magic, is an expert on the subject. So he reluctantly goes to Letria to help out his dad.

The group there consists of his dad, his ex-girlfriend, and the Truth Seekers, who were the main characters of the first two books. He killed one of their friends, so they really do not like him.

They all expect him to still be AngstyTM and all mean and dark but he shows up at the palace in Tired Dad Mode. He wants to get this over with quickly. He just spent the past two weeks traveling in a tiny carriage with his three-year-old daughter and he is exhausted. He's using up all his vacation days to be there, and he really does not care that half the group of people he traveled to assist hates him.

During his time there, Lena gets kidnapped by the Allures who were causing trouble. They want to get to Ciaran because he's the only person who knows how to summon the devil (basically) and they threaten to kill her if he doesn't give them his information.

Now, this is a tough decision for him, and it's really important, because in the prequels (I'm going to start calling the two books that come before this one that) he chose the fate of one person (he was trying to store enough magic to raise his brother from the dead) over the good of the universe, and now he's being faced with that decision again. He makes the choice not to save her (which is heartbreaking and awful but also the Right Thing to Do) but in the nick of time the Truth Seekers show up and kick the Allures' butts, so the story gets a happy ending. Ciaran's dad offers to let him be the Heir again but Ciaran does not want to be King, so he's like, "Nah" and goes back home to be a police officer. Eventually he and his ex get back together, but that's not until years later and would only show up in the epilogue.

[theanxiousghostartist]

TMAGP 25 SPOILERS

(Reactions and Theories)

Pre-Case (Sam/Alice chat):

I'm glad Sam and Alice are finally communicating! Sam explained to Alice how he feels like she is overbearing, especially when worrying about Sam. So many problems could be solved with communication, and I'm glad they're getting along again.

Also, Celia is asking Sam to reassure Alice was so cute.

Case:

This case disgusted me, I was nauseous the entire time. I don't think a case or statement has affected me that much, ever. I hated it, but that's the goal of horror, so I'm not upset about it, lol.

It definitely reads Corruption, but maybe with Web in it as well? I don't have many notes about this case because, well, I hate thinking about the case lol.

Overall, I think the Hungry Man Grill works similar to the Distortion's Hallways or Hilltop Road in TMA as a certified location for the fears to feed.

It could also be a breeding place for Avatars. The hunger that Harte felt was definitely unnatural for their situation. Perhaps it wasn't a human hunger at all - perhaps it was the hunger for fear. Maybe the people that escape this place are meant to Become, while the rest are used as feeding.

(I might add on to this later, once I've processed everything, but IDK)

Post- Case -

Colin:

Woo! He's back and alive!

He reminds me of S2 Jonathan "Supplemental - I broke into Gertrude's Flat" Sims here. He just wants to save everyone, like he said, and he believes FR3D1 is the one causing everything (the fears, the externals, [Error], ect), and therefore, it must be destroyed. It's odd to me, though, that he didn't go directly to the servers, FR3D1's main system, and instead targeted the computers. If he really wanted to destroy FR3D1, why go to the extension instead of the head?

There are two reasons he could have done this:

1. (The most likely imo) - He wanted to protect the others. By destroying all the computers first (and probably their phones/other technology), he could safely explain what was going on and then destroy the server. If Alice believed him, it would satisfy that small part in him that's questioning if he's just crazy. I pinpoint Alice here because we know she's much closer to Colin than Sam. Therefore, if she believed her, it would be more reassurance for him than if Sam believed him. Furthermore, if he destroyed their computers, he could, in theory, destroy any influence Fr3D1 has over them.

2. He was compelled to, in order to minimize damage. Colin was compelled by someone ( who could've been Fr3D1 (I'm pretty sure it's an entity of some kind itself), Lena (while she did seem surprised about Colin, she didn't seem too worried about the servers, only the initial computers), Jon/Martin/Jonah (who I'm theorizing are trapped in the computer, and thus, could manipulate the systems (as we've seen with cases popping up for specific people) and possibly outside figures close to the system via the compute), [Error], or some other force we have not met yet). If the damage Colin did was minimized, it would dave Fr3D1 and the overall function of the OIAR.

Group Chat:

Lena speaking to the group with a tired mother tone was very funny to me; I love the interactions in this series so much!

I'm glad people are worried for Colin - thank you, Alice and Sam (although, arguably, Sam is more worried about the information Colin provided than Colin himself, which is very Web vibes).

"I thought he might hurt Alice" - awww

Gwen seems to be agreeing with Lena, a lot, which is kinda put of character for her - I wonder what her plan is...

"While I understand your concerns [Sam], there is no way we can realistically act upon them." Lena's higher-ups have something to do with this, don't they? I wonder if Lena is trying to protect Sam by shutting down his worries. Maybe she was doing the same with Colin?

The server is essential for the OIAR? I wonder if she means more than just cases? Perhaps it serves as a way to find future Externals (like INK5OUL and [Error]). Maybe it also serves as a way to keep tabs on Lena?

Celia:

Celia is in Oxford again, and her teleporting/sleepwalking seems to be getting more and more frequent. I've been wondering for a while - why now? Why would she go looking for everyone (besides Georgie) now, when she had time to do it before?

Maybe it's because her "late-night travels" to Oxford are getting more and more frequent (as supproted by her thoughts at the end of the episode and Lena being concerned about her absences affecting her work). Perhaps she thought she had more time, but now- now, "her self" is rejecting being in this new universe and is taking her to the portal to go back. She can't stay here long because eventually, she will be pushed back to somewhere (maybe not even her home universe).

I called "her self" because I'm not quite sure if I should describe it as a soul or her unconscious or something else, but with the themes of self in many cases, it seems fitting to call it "her self."

(Sorry for the tangent!/gen)

I loved the character interactions in this episode! Very fun stuff. Although the case disgusted me completely, it was really good.

[hersmilehereyes]

During Covid when I posted at quarantine centre, there was 24-hour duty but we had nothing to do, couldn't go anywhere, we weren't even allowed to go out of the campus. As u know Khali dimag saitan ka Ghar.🙂

In that time we had given years to each other, we talked a lot, I had built my world around you nd I always wanted that forever. During all this it didn't occur to me that you also had a world to manage, I should have understood that everything is not always stays same. If someone having not enought time to talk or reply doesn't mean we are not important. Then I decided to open up about the only secret I left with. I decided to tell u everything (never thought it would happen in that way) after expressed my feelings by hook n crook everything was out of my control. I don't know what happens to me, couple of days I was out of my mind, and our last msg's was like closing statements. I thought I had to take a break nd the break created worst history. Even today I'm unable to discribe those days that why I was crying like everything is finished, why I don't take that video call. So.......🤐

Today I'm at that stage of my life where nothing matters to me, means nothing. Gone through a lot in last 4 years. I feel I hurt myself more than anyone else. Nhi bna m yar aj ki duniya k liye.

But one of the few regrets is that things shouldn't have been that way between us. And I admit that I alone am responsible for that.

The action taken by me during covid, the way I left. The worst I did to someone till date. Maybe u don't have any malice for me. Maybe that anger gone to ashes. Maybe u forgiven me .May b God will forgive me but I will never forgive myself for this.

Bcz Baba Premanand ji often saying that kisi ko dukh pahuncha kr kitni bhi bhakti kr lena Karmo ka fal milega hi.

Bcoz u didn't know what I feel about u But I knew exactly what I mean to you.

An innocent person had done a lot for friendship, yet she still suffered punishment. Why? Bcz of my madness 🙂

I realised these all things after few months BUT at the end of crucial 2020 I realised that I'm a totally different person now. I think I am a pessimistic, cynical person nd now I'm not that person you thought. Being friends with the kind of person I had become, would be cause of unnecessary drama in your life nd sucking ur mental energy. I felt that to be ur friend again I need to improve a lot which is impossible now. It's too late. so it best to stay apart I thought u would move on in some time. Spent a year cursing life nd accepted things as it was.

But I Often wondor if I'm doing right? To u? To me?

Is this what friendship is?

I was wrong. if u had thought about me even half as much as I thought about u in last 4 years, then I can understand what u must have gone through.

Nahi nibha paya yar main🥹 sorry chala main Gaya tha pr Laut k aap aa jao🙏🏻

Many time I wrote long paragraphs but always found myself unable to sent Bcoz of all these thoughts. Hmesha Der kr deta hu main. But now it's too much yar. Can't handle it. The stone I put on my heart is being heavy every day.

I want my superHero my best friend back with same vibes. But what cost??

I guess I will never be able to rebuild the bond.

How can I be so selfish? Then nd even now. Problems r not only belongs to me.

If I were you, I would never return the friendship handshake.

[lenaperseveranceoxton]

I'm trying to layout everything that happens between Winston's recall and Zero Hour, and I've never been so close to just releasing what I've written for Lena and ignoring canon altogether-- The Overwatch headquarters never blows up, Lena doesn't lose their adoptive father for over seven years, and all that.

The main thing that's tripping me up right now is that we don't know when Winston sent his "Are you with me?" message.

Thanks to Reflections, we know Jack and Ana apprehend Hakim around Christmas of an unspecified year. Since they leave Ana's necropolis hideout a week later, that means Valkyrie likely takes place in January.

Angela leaves Cairo soon after Valkyrie. We know this because Baptiste travels there after "What You Left Behind" to warn her that Talon is coming for her only to arrive to the aftermath of Talon's firefight with Helix Securities.

The issue here is that, in "What You Left Behind," Vernand Sainclair tells us he received Winston's message three days ago.

Let me explain. Baptiste leaves Port-de-Paix on the same day, and once in Cairo, he does at least find Cassidy. He follows him all the way to Bucharest, Romania, and New Blood #3 takes place.

Several hours later, Cole meets Zarya, and by the end of New Blood #4, Zarya's family shows them both news footage of Zero Hour. New Blood #5 starts with the same news footage and ends with the New Blood crew headed to Gibraltar.

Initially, I thought Zero Hour was supposed to be a "prelude" where Ramattra was testing the waters before taking his invasion globally. This would explain why Winston took Lena and Mei to Paris in particular and how everyone had time to upgrade their arsenals, among other things.

Now that I realize the New Blood crew arrives at Watchpoint: Gibraltar at the end of Resistance but not long after Winston's "Are you with me?" message that brings the Zero Hour crew back, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Aside from that, though, everything else seems to line up very nicely... until you remember Overwatch 2 is supposed to take place two years after Winston's recall. That's where it all falls apart. In my rewrite, it takes place only a little under one year after his recall, and even then, it has its issues.

In Valkyrie, Angela also says the last time she heard from Genji, he said he was going to confront his brother, so Dragons also takes place not long before Zero Hour, as well. This fits with Genji's message of Hanzo needing to pick a side in the changing world, so chances are that Genji also goes straight to Paris after this.

Still, Genji (almost certainly) wrote to Angela in Reflections, and she received the letter before Valkyrie. So, what's the deal with their interaction in Toronto saying they stopped writing to each other? (That's a rhetorical question. Do not come to me with that nonsense about the newer writers wanting to push a different ship.)

Another problem is that Angela says "Lena has continued to help where [they] can, despite everything that’s happened, and the risks." Even Jack sarcastically asks if he should "fly to Gibraltar and join up with Winston," completely ignoring his adopted child Lena. Lena accepted Winston's recall immediately, and there's no way they haven't been spotted in the Overwatch Museum with Winston by this point!

That aside, though, allow me to play devil's advocate. Let's say Winston's recall is not the same as Winston's "Are you with me?" message, even if "What You Left Behind" seems to claim it as such. As a former handler for Overwatch rather than an agent, Sainclair likely believes them to be the same because Winston broadcasted the latter over Overwatch's emergency frequency. However, he seems to receive this message in January- again, not long before Zero Hour- and I don't think there would have been a delay between Winston sending it and him receiving it. Unlike CSIS in Calling, he didn't need to decrypt it or anything.

Winston's message is also what wakes Mei from cryostasis. The "Mei's Adventures" journals take place in late October and early November, and Mei shows up on Atlas News at Christmastime in Reflections. So, how would she wake up in the January before Zero Hour? Well, she can't, but still, it's not clear when she does wake from cryostasis. The only thing we could possibly go off of is the sticky note that says "Happy birthday (Me)i" outside her dorm room in Ecopoint: Antarctica.

At first, I wanted to say Mei and her team agreed upon entering cryostasis before September 5th but decided to hold out a little longer to celebrate her birthday. Despite the grim reason for them entering cryostasis, Mei seems happy in her recording at the beginning of Rise and Shine, and her colleague says "Cryo chamber time" was an hour ago. In her excitement, running on the high of being the birthday girl and all, she might've just not been keeping track of time. 🥲

Thus, in my rewrite, I thought I'd have Winston send the "Are you with me?" message either a week or a month after the recall, which he sends on March 16th, 2067 (and considering the significance of Mondatta's death, this isn't subject to change). This means Mei would wake up and join up with Winston throughout somewhere in late March and early April. (The idea I had for her was that she would trek across Antarctica for days, eventually find other people who nurse her back to health, and ask for a flight to Gibraltar, stating only that it would help her get back on her feet. I also played around with the idea of Winston getting Lena to pick her up using a shuttle stored at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, much like they do with Juno, but I decided that was even more ridiculous.) But then, my problem was "What does Mei do between April and October?" In this case, having her wake up in September does seem better, but then, I have to factor in the rest of my rewrite. Aside from the issue of what Winston would do between March and September, I would have:

-Lúcio drive Vishkar out of Rio on May 14th (with this poster during Resistance advertising an upcoming show for the anniversary) -a Siberian omnium mysteriously reactivate on July 10th, the eve of the anniversary of Russia's first triumph over Anubis' attacks in the Crisis. (I know this already canonically happened by the events of London Calling, but I chose to ignore it.) This cancels Zarya's tournament and causes her to enlist while giving her ample time for Seeking. -Doomfist, fresh out of prison, kill Vialli on October 31st (at a Halloween ball, I guess? I know it's supposed to be Carnevale, but that's in February or March, but I want Vialli to order Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra to kill Katya Volskaya after July 10th, when she's profiting from the "Second Omnic Crisis") -Reaper and Widowmaker try to steal Doomfist's gauntlet from the Overwatch Museum in New York on November 16th while Doomfist is chippin' (back) in(, choom). -Doomfist intercept the transport of his gauntlet to the Numbani Heritage Museum on December 21st (while Efi, now on school break, is there hoping to fly to Brazil to see Lúcio perform on Christmas Day), and most importantly... -Lúcio also perform in King's Row on December 31st, with Lena and Emily in the audience.

Now, with those events laid out, I think the biggest issue lies in Hero of Numbani. The thing that annoys me about Blizzard's canon is that Doomfist breaks out of prison, and nothing happens for two years. I want his revenge to be swift. I want him to be a threat. In Hero of Numbani, however, he's just so comically written. "(reappears after a month or two) Teehee, I just destroyed this statue of Gabrielle Adawe! You can't catch me!~ ^w^"

In canon, Efi takes about a month to first get Orisa up and running after Doomfist attacks the terminal, but in my rewrite, that means January, just before the start of Null Sector's global invasion (I pretend I do not see Orisa showing up in Seeking). If Resistance happens right after Zero Hour, then how does Lúcio appear to help stop Doomfist? How does Sojourn meet Efi and Orisa? To be honest, the new Overwatch recruiting the help of a ~12-year-old girl is ridiculous, so I don't mind just erasing Orisa altogether.

On the other hand, I could have Orisa drive Doomfist out of Numbani for the last time on Unity Day (which is also on March 16th, not subject to change) without Lúcio, and then, Efi and Orisa could help the new Overwatch long after, say, Ironclad has already taken place. Don't even get me started about Juno, though. I have NOT thought about where she fits in yet.

Going back to the list I made before that tangent, I don't see where Winston would record the "Are you with me?" message. While I could see him being like "Doomfist is out of prison! He's trying to get his gauntlet back! Where ARE y'all???", that would wake Mei up in November, which is too late. Also, it seems like he's the only one in Gibraltar when he's recording it, but I have to imagine that, after so blatantly violating the Petras Act in New York, Lena can no longer return home to London. (Sorry, Emily!!! 😭😭😭)

Wait a minute. What does that mean for Lena visiting Winston in Reflections? Possibly seeing Lúcio perform on New Year's Eve? I could just rewrite Reflections so that Emily visits Lena and Winston in Watchpoint: Gibraltar alone, but it's not the same. I need Lena and Emily to stick together, and I need Lena to see Lúcio perform live and buy a vinyl record of his Synaesthesia Auditiva album before they meet in Resistance. How are they going to do either after publicly violating international law, BLIZZARD?!?

You see the dilemma I'm going through? There are some parts of Overwatch that are very thoughtfully put together, but in the grand scheme of things, the revolving door of writers has thrown everything off. Most things seem they should happen with the same three-ish months, and there are other things telling us they should happen within in the matter of years. I want to stick to pretty closely to canon wherever I can, but to get most things to work, it seems like it calls for an entire reboot. I'm too far along in the rewrite I've spent over a year on to reboot it!

Just... why do I even bother anymore? That's it. I'm putting Overwatch in The Sims, and if Lena dies while trying to cook a microwave meal, that's what I'm considering canon now. (/j)