#I love this concept so much and I'm most certainly not done talking about it

[autumn-fairy-in-chaos]

It's been forever since I posted on this blog, which honestly makes me really sad because I love my fairy story but I've been so busy with university and I didn't want to mess up by rushing anything, and there were also those sad moments and no energy...

ANYWAY

I don't think someone might see this? Nevertheless!

ME

FAIRY! KAI KAMAL PROTECTOR (AND ENTHUSIAST!!) HAD TO COME HERE BECAUSE

💫🧚🏻‍♂️FAIRY CONCEPT: DAYDREAM 🧚🏻‍♂️💫

When I tell you I'm in LOVE with this concept, I totally mean it!!

I love concepts related to nature and fairies because it looks so peaceful and ethereal

Gyu, Jun, Binnie, Tyun, and Hyuka- all of them look great!!

But if you were to read my fic, you would notice that Hyula looks so much like my Fairy! Kai that I just feel so incredibly happy and lucky fr

The wavy dark brown hair, the green for the eyes... Just, mesmerizing.

I want to go back to writing soon!

Anyway, if you by any chance read my rambling (sorry!), I hope you may have a peaceful day/afternoon/evening/night. 💫

[mythicmanuscripts]

hello00o Sea!! firstly, I love your blog. it showed me a different way to see BDSM and sub-dom relationships!!! I'm learning a lot and it's even better bc it involves my favorite characters!!

I don't know if you've talked about it before, but I'd love to read your take on Aemond's relationship with his scar and how spouse!reader handles it?? or helps him with it? how it can affect intimacy (at least, at first) anddd all that.

thank you!!!1!!1

(sorry if my english isn't the best, it isn't my first language)

- 🪼

Brilliant question anon!! Don’t worry your English was perfect and I absolutely love this question.

My answer definitely isn’t very explicit but it’s most definitely sub!aemond so I’ll hide it behind a cut just to be safe :)) I'm gonna write this with an arranged marriage but if anyone has ideas about this for any other concept let me know!!!

So I think the best possible way to get Aemond feeling comfortable with showing you his scar is actually to go out of your way to respect him not wanting to take the eye patch off? His entire life he’s had people trying to see what his eye looks like without the eyepatch, he’s spotted servants trying to steal glances while they clean his quarters on multiple occasions.

And then of course there was that evening with the brothel worker on his 13th birthday. She undressed him and took of his eyepatch, not even asking if it was alright. At the time he didn’t know that wasn’t how things were supposed to be done, he thought he just had to be alright with it.

After that night he never ever wanted to show his scar to anyone. He just feels so much more vulnerable when the eye patch is off. That combined with how the brothel worker touched him and moved him and did things to him without him feeling comfortable... he thinks he'll never be close with anyone again, never mind sleeping with anyone and removing his eye patch.

The first time you're alone with Aemond after the wedding, he is so tense that he's practically shaking. You sit down on the bed in your now shared quarters and at first you think Aemond will do his husbandly duties and then leave, but he kinda just stares at the bed and can't seem to move.

So you move to the chairs by the fireplace instead and motion him over to sit on the chair next to yours. He does, and he's still so so stiff, he's sitting straight up, his back not even touching the chair. He is the exact opposite of at ease.

You decide to confess to him that you'd rather not have sex that night, and when you say that it's like you can physically see the weight lifted off his shoulders. You try to think of what you could possibly do now, and so you just take a complete show in the dark and ask him about Vhagar?

He's surprised, but then when you ask again he starts talking about her and how riding feels and everything about it. You smile and ask questions and from there the conversation flows relatively easily.

Once it becomes very late, aemond retires to his own chambers and you retire to yours. He never even touches the bed that day.

Over time you get closer to him and you can see how he's feeling more and more comfortable. You just feel so lucky to be able to see him even a little less composed. He's funny! He's got very quick wit and when you respond back with something equally as witty he smiles and lets out this very soft chuckle. And he's smart! He loves reading, especially about history and you can see his eyes light up as he speaks.

It's that love of history gets you to come up with an idea for your very first 'date' (cause yeah you're married but you certainly don't act like that yet and you've decided to build the relationship from the ground up). You realise that he's clearly so uncomfortable when he walks into your new shared chambers, clearly because of the implications of being in that room with you. So finding ways to spend time with him without being in the bedroom is very important.

You ask him to meet you in the library and then the two of you just sit together and read your own books. You stay there for hours, occasionally reading passages out to each other and discussing different things. The key to this is actually to not sit next to him, to not be touching him at all. There's two couches that face each other in the back of the library and you each take one of them. It's the fact that you're nowhere close to touching him that makes him feel more at ease.

After about a week of this he knocks on the door of your private chambers with two books in his hands and asks if you'd like to read in your shared chambers. You're shocked, but you immediately nod and walk with him. You can see how nervous he is, but you just stay calm and ensure you don't touch him by accident as you walk together.

Once again, you sit on opposite chairs and read your books and read out some passages to each other. He's so much more relaxed than the first time you saw him sitting on the chair.

As you two start to get closer and closer, you notice how Aemond seems almost skittish. So you tell him that you'll ALWAYS ask before touching him, and having you do that means the world to him. He feels so much safer with you then.

When you have your first kiss, Aemond whines into your mouth and shakes and when you ask if you can step closer and he says no, you immediately step back without any complaints. He kinda just stares at you in shock then, because he didnt think you'd actually move. He didnt realise that you'd actually take him so seriously about it.

You don't bring up the eye patch, not even once. You two end up having regular make out sessions and cuddling but you never ever bring up the eye patch. You call him handsome and pretty all the time and you never mention the eye patch. Even when you reach a point where clothes are starting to be shed, you still doesn't ask.

Aemond, meanwhile, is starting to get very confused about why you haven't asked about it yet. Make no mistake, he genuinely loves how the relationship is progressing and how you have this ability to always make him feel safe and secure, but he also doesn't quite understand why you've never questioned him on the eye patch.

He ends up bringing it up one day, maybe after Aegon makes some tone-deaf comment about how you must have to look away during sex when aemond has the eye patch off. Once Aegon finally leaves he asks you about the eye patch, asking why you've never actually asked about it.

You just shrug and say that it's his decision. You explain to him that you know he must be wearing it for a reason and you would never ever push him into showing you anything. You tell him that you could spend the rest of married life without him ever removing the eye patch and you'd be just fine with it.

He doesn't say any more about it at the time, but he spends a lot of time thinking about it and thinking about how insanely privileged he is to have a wife like you.

When he does finally feel comfortable enough to remove it, you ensure not to make a big deal about it? You thank him for feeling comfortable enough to do that and then you carry on as normal. As much as you wish you could take a proper look at his scar and his sapphire eye, you make sure you don't because you don't want him to feel self conscious again and put the eye patch on.

The first time you have sex, he's wearing the eye patch. But then... then right at the end once it's all over, he takes the patch off and cuddles into your chest.

[the-starlight-project]

First of all I LOVE THIS, AAAAHHHHH THIS IS SO GOOD!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤

Second of all I've been seeing people saying "oh god sonic had to watch people die but it actuality it was acting" but I see no one asking "how the fuck did he go super?" And "what about being a werehog?" And all the other form transformation that he has done over the years and also " HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN HIS FUCKING OWN DEATH TO HIM"

Like with the death one, did they put him I a forced coma? Did they tranquilise him? So many thoughts are going on it my head

On a other thought, what is he going to do now he knows that everything is 'fake'? Like he was no clue if sonic's world was real or not cause even tho we know there is no interdimensional interference going on we can't rule out that what happen to sonic was real, whether as an act or it actually happen, cause we know that in the games sonic fort a god(s) and won, and if those god(s) where real what is going on? Are all the actors playing roles that have no clue they are playing? Is sonic the only one who is in the right to believe everything is fake? Is chaos energy real or was it special effects? Is sonic like PROJECT SHADOW? Is sonic a GOD????????? (I'm twicking, or am I 🤔)

We have no clue what is real or not cause we are only the spectators. We are like sonic, we are seeing the things sonic is seeing and making theorys that sonic himself might have not even be thinking about cause our main man is going through like 30 intenal mental breakdowns in like 30 minutes, having an existential crisis and all that.

What is really going on cause it seems like 'shadow' also did not know that sonic had no idea about how they were actors in the beginning of the comic and now he is coming to terms that maybe everything he knew was a lie as well, cause we see reaction to sonic doing a spindash at the wall is when he really started to think the sonic is more then the main character of the story but an actual person who is in the dark and when 'shadow' was bring up all these things from the past we start seeing him get nervous cause he probably is thinking "oh fuck what is happening? I thought he was a actor like I am" and in reality is not

I have rambled a lot cause I love this and with The Truman Show being something I am actively studying for school my mind is going haywire

"Thank you for listening to my Ted talk"/ref

Okay, first of all, massive pretense - there are so many questions in this ask that I cannot (and will not) answer all of them.

HOWEVER.

A lot of these questions are very important, very well thought-out and certainly should not be forgotten - and rest assured, several things you ask about do indeed have answers to them (I'd go so far as to say that about 95% have answers to them, actually). I had a hell of a time reading through this with SB on a discord call and it was SUCH a doozy /pos

The problem with asks like this is that I literally can't say anything without accidentally spoiling the whole comic BUT! I will endeavor to say as much as I can!

Chaos Energy is very much a real force, but it's not universal. In fact, it's pretty much localized. Very localized.

Shamdow may have been acting with Sonic for a long time, but when you're running a long-standing show, you have sets, budgets and effects that reach well into the millions. He had no real reason to question Sonic because surely, it was all just effects. (It was not, in fact, all effects)

Sonic shares some similarities with the concept of Project Shadow, but not all - most notably, he's not an alien or a robot or whatever else Shadow has gone through when trying to figure out what he is in the games. He's not the product of science, he's very much natural.

[i-am-the-oyster]

So I’ve been debating whether or not to ask this question to anyone in the fandom because of how protective people are of him but you seem to be a mature and almost an academic in Beatles history and the psychology of the boys. So I pose this question to you: do you think Paul had a of personality disorder of some kind ? And I really don’t mean this in a negative way I’m just genuinely curious what you think. Paul’s general behavior to me is strange, the way he handles relationships (platonic and sexual) , his grieving process ( i understand that people have a different way of grieving), and just his way of dealing with problems. He’s just so avoidant and almost cold towards things that you would think would break someone.

Thank you so much nonny. I'm really flattered that you would entrust this question to me.

First of all, I'm not any kind of mental health professional, so this is *all* armchair psychology.

Second: I'd be amazed if Paul is not some kind of (diagnosable level of) neurodivergent.

Third: this is a perfect chance for me to talk about something I've been thinking about *a lot*. You see Paul is extremely successful in many many ways, not least personally. His kids seem to be mostly pretty happy, He's done a lot of drugs but never (as far as I know) needed rehab, never publicly gone off the rails. He had one acrimonious divorce and once called David Blaine a name, but otherwise he's been a picture of stability in the face of unprecedented fame.

My point is: as much as we on tumblr like to analyse his behaviour and slag him off for his avoidance, whatever he's got going on seems to be working for him? Yes avoiding your feelings can have detrimental effects on your relationships (tell people that you love them!). But also, maybe letting yourself be ok with things you can't change is good?

Paul is certainly _weird_ (about grieving, about answering questions, about John), but the concept of disorders exists to help us help people who are struggling. Most of the definitions even include phrases like "to the point where it's causing issues in your life". He's weird, but is it a problem for him? For those around him?

The other thing that's worth keeping in mind is that the Paul we get to see is not the whole of him. He's quite private, despite having been sort of public property for 3/4 of his life. I'd be willing to bet that he's a lot more direct, open, and loose with his loved ones than he is on TV. And probably weirder too.

[spidereticas]

Okay I both love and hate that you picked this one because it's the concept I'm probably the most excited about, but also the one I’ve done the least amount of work on so far lol

Basically I wanted to write something that digs a little into the fact that Hobie is almost certainly very anti-cop, but dating Miles, whose dad is, of course, a cop. Miles obviously has a very real anarchist spirit to him (also hello, Uncle Aaron!) but I imagine he's also probably internalized some ideas that Hobie may not necessarily agree with (consider for instance, the question of whether the institution of policing can be reformed or if it is fundamentally corrupt). So I thought it would be interesting to explore that as a point of tension for them to navigate through.

The starting point in my head is Hobie getting arrested on Earth-138 during a political demonstration, and maybe initially not telling Miles about it, and Miles maybe feeling some type of way about Hobie not telling him. And that would be the catalyst for them to finally kind of talk about all this stuff. Here's a little snippet of a possible conversation:

"Alright, say you join a group that's doing some bad shit, because you wanna try and make it better from the inside," Hobie says. "But it's going real slow, yeah? So slow, that the whole time you're in there, they're still going out and doing terrible shit and you're letting them. So what's that really mean then?" A tilt of the head, a raised eyebrow. "Did you actually change anything? Or did they change you?"

"But isn't that basically what you did when you joined Spider Society?" Miles points out. "Tried to change it from the inside?"

"No," Hobie says flatly, crossing his arms. "I joined up to help one person. Two people, once you came along, Brooklyn. Soon as I did that, if you'll recall, I fucking quit."

And yeah okay, Miles thinks, that is pretty much how that all went down.

"Look," Hobie continues, tone a little more gentle now. "My Captain Stacy? Yeah, man's had good intentions too. I had a bit of sympathy for him. But the police were still shit. And they were shit right up until he died."

[waywardstation]

I'm a little sad to see this blog mostly shares polls nowadays... I miss the AU talk and random chatter about ideas or headcanons, your opinions on things and the wip wednesdays I'm still happy to see your art in between all those polls. (before forgetting: you might have already lost but to me Train of Thought IS and WILL BE my favorite submas AU. No contest. Nope. Never.) But yeah, missing the old days here. Dearly. Verrrry much. Don't get this wrong, you're either probably still recovering, you're insanely busy or maybe even moved on... either way wishing you have fun with wherever tracks take you! I was happy to be on this blog in it's prime.

Hey Anon! I will be honest with you on this cause I do want to explain what has happened with this blog lately, and where I plan to go with it. (It’s not going anywhere, don’t worry!!)

There are a few reasons for the inactivity. Part of it is just me recovering from university work. I pushed myself way harder than I should have for way longer than I should have, and now I’m kinda trying to just recalibrate my brain and mental health. It’s really foggy and I struggle with concentration and comprehension a lot currently. (And this is also why I haven’t really answered asks, when I tried to answer Papa Ingo AU asks while like this, it really only led to getting confused and correctional asks in response, because I kept getting things wrong, and that made things really overwhelming.)

AND SECOND! Most of my free time right now is not being spent on this blog, because most of it is going into writing and editing. Concentration and comprehension issues are making it take a lot longer than I’d like it to right now, but I have a lot of content on the way!

- four new chapters of HFBE

- three chapters of IWLYB

- a five chapter, 25k+ word fic titled Rain Check

- another fic titled Entropy Syndrome

None of these are out yet because Entropy Syndrome’s narrative covers a concept that spans across all of these other fics and chapters, and it’s adjusted a lot of content that’s making me rewrite things several times over to ensure it’s properly written in and connected ^^;

And lastly, sadly a lot of it is just irrational anxiety. I stopped posting for a while for university, and anxiety makes me irrationally scared to start again because it always makes it hard to start back at something once I’ve stopped ^^; (I’m hoping dumping all these fics will alleviate this when I’m done with them though! Fic posting is what diminished my anxiety enough to start this blog in the first place!!)

BELIEVE ME I miss how this blog used to be as well, but my mentality is still sort of recovering from what I did to it for four years straight, and I can’t really force it to keep going more right now. It’s certainly a process, but I’m recovering!

Lots of stuff is coming soon! I have a few minutes drabbles on hand, I will attempt to start posting those while I keep working on these fics.

Thank you for the ask anon!! It means a lot that you liked this blog so much. I still love it, and I’m taking care of myself as best I can so that I can get back to running this blog at full efficiency!!

Thank you again Anon!!! ^^

[danosrosegarden]

helloooo!!!! :3

so i had this idea pop in my head and i would love to see what you do with it!

So basically edward most certainly has an account on onlyfans to see women on there i just feel it in my bones, but anyway his favorite account on there is the reader’s….and let’s say one day she just randomly moves in next to him? he’s freaking. the. FUCK. OUT. i mean his favorite onlyfans model moving next to HIM?? oh he’s creaming his pants forrr sureee, anyway she’s just the sweetest person ever and interact with him (and he’s just there profusely sweating like “she’s talking to me???”) whenever she’s lucky to get to see him come out of his apartment like for example he’s leaving for work and she’s making her way outside aswell to run some errands, and the more they’re getting close and being friends she invites him to her apartment for food or drinks and he’s just flipping the fuck out because he loves her (and her OF content) so much, and that leads to smut 🤭

and i dont know maybe…. one day he could appear in some of her OF content….. if he wanted to of course

anyway have an amazing and lovely day/night!

<3333333

Girl Next Door - Edward Nashton x Camgirl!Reader Headcannons (NSFW)

Contains: descriptions of masturbation and camming. Also, a jealous and somewhat delusional Eddie.

Note: return of the camgirl! I truly love this dynamic. I know this concept has been done before with Eddie, so I tried to be original as could be.

♡ "Excuse me, sir? Could you lend a hand for a moment?" Edward's blood runs frosty, his limbs frozen solid as he watches you struggle with your boxes in front of your apartment door. The contents inside clatter about in loud cymbal crashes. There's no fucking way.

♡ The shine coating your hair is the same shine he's seen late at night on his laptop. The curves of your hips are the same curves he's got his eye on as he pumps his cock with a tight grip. The curl of your pouted lips, the bat of your long lashes, hell, the sparkling color of your nails...it's really you, isn't it?

♡ It takes every fluid ounce of strength flowing through his body for him to not jump for joy. He was on his way to the store, but groceries could wait. "Uh, yes, of course," he coughs, scrambling to help hold the boxes.

♡ "Thank you," you say. "I'm new to Gotham. You're actually the first person I've really interacted with." Oh, how heartbreaking. A sugar-sweet angel like you shouldn't have to have her blood pumped and tainted with the filth of this city. If only I could find a way to protect her...to hold her close to me, then nothing bad could happen...

♡ As it turns out, you live two doors away from Edward. You offer a warm smile as you enter your apartment and close the door. Edward nods and rushes back to his own place, instantly peeling his pants away and frantically pulling out his cock. He's grasping at the faint notes of your perfume still swimming around in his nostrils.

♡ Regular porn didn't do it for him. Everything was so...stiff. The moans pouring from the women's mouths reeked of plastic. Fake. That's what it all was. The concept of paying for what he liked seemed more appealing. After all, these were real girls in the comfort of their own homes. Real pleasure. He liked seeing that.

♡ It didn't take long to find you...and he was smitten. You were a real life doll, overflowing with enchanting beauty, soft skin dripping with grace. Your moans were luscious and candy-coated. And besides all that, he could tell you were really enjoying yourself each time you appeared on camera. Oh, how he wished he could hear those groans in person and feel them dissolve on his tongue. How he wished he could just reach out and touch that smooth skin, tug on that soft hair...and now you were here. It felt like a fluffy-clouded dream.

♡ He imagined it with his eyes squeezed shut and his fist gliding up and down, his cock throbbing and glossy with precum. You would invite him over for dinner one night. After all, he was the only person you knew in Gotham. Something about that excited him. You would open the door and Edward's breath would snake out of him, floored by your bewitching allure.

♡ The night would wax and wane to the tune of wine-soaked laughter and stolen glances. "You're so cute, Eddie!" you'd say. "I just want to eat you up!"

♡ A breathy whimper slid from his mouth as he pumped faster, thinking of how small brushes of the hand would turn into grazing up and down his sensitive sides. How that would morph to the shedding of clothes, the soft click of kisses, the candied sound of your moans as you slid down onto him.

♡ He was always jealous of the comments you'd respond to while playing with yourself. Every "you're so pretty" turned his blood a deeper shade of furious red. Each "I want to fuck you" made his heart race with rage. You were supposed to be just for him. His little secret.

♡ "Mine," he growled lowly, tugging desperately, feeling his high draw closer. "Mine." Maybe one day you'd let him come on camera with you...then he'd really show those pigs what they could never have.

♡ Hot cum wept from his tip as his breath hitched in his knotted throat. He did feel a twinge of guilt rip through his organs for a split second afterwards...you had barely spoken two words to him, and here he was, leaking all over his clenched fist from the thought of you.

♡ He couldn't afford to wallow in his pathetic disgrace for too long, though...he had a mission now. It was time to make his dream girl his reality.

[outofangband]

in response to an ask from @justpostsyeet about what Laws and Customs of the Eldar say about sexual assault

under a cut for non graphic discussion of this!

also thank you to @undercat-overdog for helping me find the relevant passage that I literally had memorized but could not find (seriously I spent like an hour reading through Morgoth's Ring and could not find the part I needed, my fault for researching when half asleep but anyways, Undercat saved this post!)

The ask: Hi, hope your having a good day/night (maybe this request doesn't worsen your day). I honestly love your posts and I've a thing that I want to ask to you.

Maybe you has done this before but what do you think the elves view on sexaul assault must be?

And even if it's true what must be the reaction of elves when the a) hear about such news, b) witness such cruelty, c) experiences such awful things themselves .

I know it's a very sensitive topic and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable so, ignore it if you want. I've my own headcanons but I just wanted to know your opinions.

My response: this does not worsen my day! I'm sure you know this from my posts but I write a lot of darker topics and I'm fine discussing this! Indeed, I enjoy discussing darker topics, I can find it very cathartic to write about

Thank you so much for the ask and for thinking of me!

The concept that elves cannot survive sexual assault comes from Laws and Customs of the Eldar, an essay style section of Morgoth's Ring, in the Histories of Middle Earth. In LaCE, as it's often known, Ælfwine, or Elfwine, a pre canon character in The legendarium is credited with the editing of this text as well as other parts of the histories of Middle Earth adding another aspect of meta to it.  

LaCE is a controversial essay. Many consider it to be precanon or non canon. Others consider it an in universe philosophical or religious work rather than biological facts or universal standards for the elves. I think this interpretation is probably accurate

The relevant part you're talking about is a footnote in response to this line of LaCE Even when  in after days as the history is reveal many of the Eldar in Middle Earth became corrupted and their hearts darkened by the Shadow that lies upon Arda seldom is any tale told of Deeds of lust among them.

The footnote reads ...But among all those evils there is no record of any among the elves that took another spouse by force for this was wholly against their nature and one so forth would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos. Guile or trickery in this matter was scarcely possible even if it could be thought that any elf would purpose to use for it; for the Eldar can read in the eyes of another whether they be wed or unwed 

I agree with you that it's probably not the case that sexual violence instantly leads to death.

I think it's fun to play around with whether or not LaCE is a, canon or b, strict biological law! Generally I go with it not being so but there is a lot of fascinating ideas that can be explored, if often horrifying ones, treating it like that! (the idea that elves can tell in the eyes of another if they're married or not is FASCINATING even if the idea that such a phenomena would prevent sexual violence is...troublesome...)

On the basis of LaCE not being biological law though, there are a few possibilities for this inclusion (note: these are in universe possibilities, not a complete list of reasons why Tolkien might have included it)

a, an in universe narrator trying to mitigate or cover up the fact that this did indeed occur

b, as in most versions he appears in, Ælfwine is not an elf but a human, this could simply be an idealistic notion or misconception or even misunderstanding or mistranslation

c, sexual violence is a taboo subject in many human cultures, it's certainly not implausible that it was treated similarly the elves. Even if it's not an attempt to cover up actions by well known figures in the history of the Eldar, it could be a denial of cultural traumas or a refusal to reckon with a certain kind of pain

The fact that it specifically reads 'no record of any taking the spouse of another by force' is somewhat strange. Obviously, non married people can be the victims of assault (and people can be victimized by those they're married to; it's worth noting here that Tolkien did seem to realize both, some of the primary, and only, instances of rape in the legendarium are instances of marital rape)

A...generous reading is that it is worded like this because the footnote appears in relevance to the section about marriage and this is meant to discuss specifically how certain trauma affects the marital bond, something that LaCE defines as a spiritual and physical matter.

(Plenty of horror you could potentially explore there; spouses actually feeling the pain and trauma of their partners due to this bond, whether trauma from this kind of violence or other)

What I do think is true is that elves have a stronger connection between body and mind and soul and that severe trauma of any kind can lead to physical consequences up to, including and beyond death of the body. This is of course not unheard of in humans, stress takes a physical toll. But for elves I think this connection is perhaps more profound.

This is not limited to sexual assault and indeed most of the instances we see of this in canon are not related to sexual assault.

It's worth noting that there are some troublesome aspects of Tolkien's wording. Obviously the linking of sexual assault and lust is not entirely accurate. Desire and lust often do not play a role in sexual violence; power and control perhaps being more pertinent. Then of course the fact that it says 'no record of one taking the spouse of another by force' is also questionable as I talked about above.

In conclusion, I think like the rest of LaCE, it makes more sense as the philosophy of one group or individual rather than biological reality.

Finally, I'll note that the two primary examples I can think of in the works of victims of sexual violence who "choose" death or at least leaving body or life in some form or another are not elves but are Aerin, a human, and Arien, a Maia (Arien's example also not being strictly canon), both of whom choose fire. (also I think that whether or not Aerin died is actually ambiguous and is certainly not definite, that being said the idea that she did is a perfectly plausible reading) Also why are their names so similar...

[being-of-rain]

Time to write down my initial thoughts on Space Babies and The Devil's Chord! I'm currently busy staying with my girlfriend in America, so I've only watched the episodes once. And there's a lot of episode to talk about! I guess this is the most TV Doctor Who to come out on a single day, both by episode count and I assume by runtime. (I sure hope it doesn't get overtaken any time soon. Weekly episode schedule my beloved, whole-series-at-once events my despised.)

I've said before that I've used the word 'fun' too often as a way to sum-up new episodes, but it looks like that's going to be harder and harder to avoid. This season so far has a very wacky zany silly cartoonish style (especially apparent in the lead duo's energy together) and I think that's the season's greatest strength. My opinion on both of these first two episodes are similar: they're just okay, with the pros and the cons kinda balancing each other out, but the cartoony style makes them much more enjoyable to watch.

Under the cut I'll go into more details. Probably more complaining than not, because nitpicking is always easier to spend time on, but here's your regular reminder that these are opinions and anyone reading is encouraged to disagree.

And if you thought my ramblings about new episodes were long before, this time there's two at once!

--

Grossout stuff like bodily functions never really appealed to me, and neither does talking babies, so Space Babies had those things against it. But it also had things that I loved; on top of the infectious energy of the leads, there were some fun sci-fi concepts, playing with storybook narrative, and the design of the Bogeyman. And the Doctor saying that "nobody grows up wrong" was alone worth the episode. I adore that sentiment and it fits so well into Doctor Who with its constant cast of scary aliens, artificially altered or created beings, and characters with generally convoluted backstories. It's just a shame the episode faltered at its climax when applying that idea to the Bogeyman, because the sympathising and acceptance of it felt very rushed.

It's fun when new companions get an introduction scene or two where the show tries to teach as many of the important rules and backstory as possible. And Butterfly Ruby certainly was a hilarious addition to that. But as much as the show is allowed to mess around with time travel rules, it can still feel contrived when it says things like 'taking Ruby to meet her mum is too dangerous.' I can't think of a reason why they couldn't just park a bit further down Ruby Road and talk to her after she seemingly doesn't have any more effect on Ruby or the Doctor's lives. I'll talk more about the ongoing story arc stuff in a bit, but right now I still haven't strongly connected with Ruby. This is very much a personal thing, but she still feels kinda Generic Companion to me.

Oh, and I think every time the Doctor talks about how the Time Lords are gone and he's the Last One, I'm going to groan and roll my eyes. Honestly I think the best thing to do with that is just show that a lot of Time Lord society survived (very easy, since there's no reason at all that most of them couldn't have just run away from whatever the Master did to the Capitol) and then just move on. I'd love to explore post-War Time Lord society more, but at this point I'd rather just leave them alone and be done with retreading old ground that the show is not going to actually do anything with other than the odd angsty line.

--

The Devil's Chord had a lot of fantastic moments and elements, but that made it more frustrating to me when it didn't put the effort into fitting everything just a little better. It reminds me of my thoughts on The Giggle; I love love love whimsy and emotionally-driven stories, and stories don't have to be a slave to logic all the time, but moments of silliness or entire plots that revolve around whimsy are so much more satisfying if they have a narrative logic behind them. I think a prime example is the song at the end of The Devil's Chord: even if it's not particularly good (most songs that are just repeating one line for 90% of its runtime aren't going to interest me), it's whimsical and joyous and makes me want to see Tardis teams sing and dance more often. But it doesn't have an in-story reason to happen, it doesn't quite fit the episode's tone, and (as much fun as fans have been having fitting it into the season arc) the episode doesn't even really have a twist at the end. If any of those things weren't true, the song would've had so much more impact than it did, and I find it annoying that the episode couldn't shuffle things just a bit to make it work.

Somewhat similarly, the Maestro themself was spectacularly entertaining, but also felt rather shallow and full of missed opportunities. I was already a bit over RTD writing flamboyant and random queer-coded villains after he reinvented the Toymaker the same way he reinvented the Master (although a drag queen certainly adds a welcome layer to that) but it was sad that Maestro had the same surface-level connection to music as RTD's Toymaker had to games. Yeah they climb out of pianos and use sheet-music-themed whips and dress in a conductor's outfit, but that sounds more like a Batman villain than a Concept Made Flesh. Sure they can magically-somehow stop the world making music, but their motivation for it is... kill everyone in the universe? I really hope RTD can write better Old Gods than his last two if he plans to make them recurring villains. (By the way I assume that the world losing the ability to make music for two decades was magically unwritten at the end, but then again I assumed the same thing about the Flux destroying the universe and that was only half undone.)

Also, I know not every historical episode has to be a 2005-10 style celebrity historical (even though that might be one of my favourite ways of doing it), but if they didn't want to do that then it felt a bit out of place to have two of the Beatles turn up at the very end, with no idea what was going on, and save the day. (And the other two Beatles vanished completely. ...I know the other two were a bit less famous, but after learning that RTD ships the Supernatural brothers, I really wouldn't be surprised to learn he ships McCartney and Lennon.)

Anyway, some other fun or great moments that I wish were in a slightly more coherent episode are: Ruby playing her lovesick lesbian song, the Doctor and Ruby doing their piano battle together, the sonic silence scene, and the destroyed London scene which Maestro abruptly turned into a black background. Oh, and the Doctor saying "I thought that was non-diagetic" was hilarious, I think fans are going to get a lot of mileage out of the idea that the Doctor can hear the background music in older episodes.

Other random things about the episode: it did make me think of Scherzo's fairytale about the king who banished music from his realm. As a batfamily fan, the music teacher at the start being named Timothy Drake for no reason is confusing and funny. It's a niche pet peeve but I think its silly when fiction ties itself to when it's coming out for no reason or in contradiction to its own continuity, so Ruby saying her present day is mid-2024 baffled and irritated me. Since the last episode she's either been travelling with the Doctor for several months, staying at home for several months, or has decided to skip several months ahead, none of which seem very likely.

One last thing I'll say about The Devil's Chord is that the zany cartoonish energy, the visiting of recent history, and the magical menace all remind me of Legends of Tomorrow. It's one of my comfort shows that puts a lot of plot importance and stress on whimsy, jokes, and feel-good moments, but actually does tie them into the narrative. Compared to the last half dozen episodes of Doctor Who, Legends is more of an outright comedy, but its more satisfying and the emotional beats hit harder. If its trying for a more similar tone, I hope Doctor Who can reach the same highs as Legends (which, to be fair, took a few seasons to figure things out).

--

Finally I'll talk about the story arc! Or story arcs, because there's a lot going on. And looking back at his first time on the show, I realise RTD is a big fan of arcs that are basically just repeating things in the background that don't have any impact until the last few episodes. Personally I prefer arcs with a bit more relevance and development, but unfortunately that's probably harder to do on Doctor Who with less episodes.

That said, I was very surprised that Ruby's arc is one of the most interesting things to me in these episodes. The Doctor's memory of her mother changing and then breaking through into the real world is cool as hell, and then Ruby having something about her that trips up a god is really compelling 👀 Is that girl a cosmic horror??

On the other hand, another mention of 'the One Who Waits' is really boring lol. Just another ominous name that everyone can look concerned about without any substance. But I have seen fans connect it to the billboard for Chris Waites and the Carollers, which is hilarious. And speaking of, the mention of Susan was really cool, and so in-depth that it has me wondering if she'll actually come back, which I don't think New Who has made me do seriously before. Then again, it's so on the nose that surely it must be a red herring...

I can't wait to find out what it all means. And I can't wait for the next episode!

[runningfrom2am]

𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞'𝐬 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 !!

closed !!

i'm in my eras era so here is my taylor themed celebration! I've never done one of these before so do bear with me here!

thank you all so much for reading (and seemingly enjoying?) all the stuff i write, and most importantly all the love and support I've received since i started posting it. you guys are amazing and i cannot thank you enough. this went from me and my best friend being delusional while we sit in my car until 1 am every tuesday night, to her encouraging me to start writing this stuff down, to five HUNDRED people following me because they like to read it too? (prob a decent amount of bots left over but that’s fine) it's honestly unbelievable and i'm so grateful for every one of you and your replies, reblogs, feedback and likes, and also tagging me in stuff you guys write because i love to read it all. truly, you're all so talented.

like i said, i cannot thank you enough but i can certainly try. so this is what i have set up for my little celebration! of course, I'm still taking requests as usual, but they might just take a little more time. I can't wait to see what you guys send me and what you want to see!

if we haven’t met before, hi! i’m raye :) thank you for stopping in! you can find my nav here, which has all my masterlists, my rules, and a bit about me!!

my masterlists !!

requests/asks !!

𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐢 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫: rafe cameron, jj maybank, drew starkey, john b routledge, pope heyward, sarah cameron

🪐 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬: send me a song and a character and I'll write a little thing (blurb, oneshot) (depending on how inspired i am by the song, *cough* your best odds are with taylor swift) ab them based on the lyrics !

🥂 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬: send me three people for kiss/marry/kill, would you rather, etc. etc, really any games!

🧣 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥: send me a word or a photo or anything and I'll tell you something ab myself based on it

🏹 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫: send me anything and let's just talk ab it!! not necessarily obx, but if you want to talk ab characters, theories, anything like that i am absolutely all ears!

🧸 𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐧: send me a character and a concept/trope and I'll make you a moodboard!

🍂 𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞: send me a little bit about yourself and I'll give you a song that reminds me of you and tell you which character you remind me of most and why!

this will be open from july 24th-28th!

send me everything here and i’ll get to it as soon as i can!!

i'd also like to say a very special thank you to all my mutuals who have been so kind and my biggest cheerleaders in everything i write, and have been truly good friends and I'm so glad I've found all of you :)

@madelynie, @mutual-mendes, @slut4drudy, @winterrrnight, @keziahcore, @totalswag, @sadfury @fullfledgedemo @rafemotherfuckingcameron, @peachprairie,

[maythearo]

Yeah! The g3!! I know it has certainly been a uhhhh controversial topic lol

Imo draculaura looks sooo cute

Certainly lolll

You know how it goes I'm gonna ramble again so I'll put the read more thing for the sake of scrolling past it 😭

Well I'll start off by saying that, in this era of reboots and mass adaptations of every mildly old franchsie ever, is kinda impossible to avoid negative reactions from the people who were fans of the first generation of such franchises, because it happens, when someone takes something you grew up with and changes it to a modern audience most people's reaction will be "what in the world that's not how it was back in my days" + the phenomenon of older generations not liking the stuff that comes all for younger generations and etc. And I mention all of this bcs this definetely affects how people's opinions on things such as design (of MH in this case) go, there's lots of strong biases in this conversation of reboots and all

And tbh I wasn't immune to that 💀 at first I didn't like a lot of small decisions they made because I was used to the old one and "the og's always better" type of opinion, monster high was a big part of my childhood and probably a big boost to my interest in art! Which is what I live for baisically nowadays so ofc I felt strongly about it 😭 but when I came back after some time I realized, hey it's not that serious. I don't even remember specifically what those things I criticized were about, so that's an indicator of how much I actually cared, deep down lol. Like, pink Lagoona did not kill me, can you believe that? /s.

My opinion as of now, is that I think the g3 designs are really cute on their own!! I'm gonna stop myself from comparing it to the first gen because for the most part that's a waste of time and also a huge tangent from where I want to get 😭 recent reboots are a product of this era and they adapt accordingly. Sometimes they hit sometimes they miss, I think g3 mh is going well mostly!

(Talking about the concept designs and doll designs in this part) g3 takes from general modern fashion, clothing-wise the characters are not draaastically different from each other, they all just dress like how teenagers nowadays do but each got their own little motifs to their wardrobes. I don't think this "lack of difference" between each other's outfits is an enormous one nor is it inherently a bad thing because hey, if it looks good it looks good, and you can distinguish their clothings between one another just fine imo. In some cases I got some nickpicking in terms of "the pattern of this shirt is not working with these pants" or "whoa there's a lot going on with these colors" or "they really love to put bright pink lipstick on everyone huh" but it's rarely something I heavily dislike (only cases I can remember are that I wasn't a fan of was Heath 💀 feels like halfway through the process of his design mattel said "no you can stop now he's good like that" nothing is happening with that look, it's crazy, what happened to my boy. And Twyla, that wasn't as bad a s Heath's, but it just didn't work for me)

I can't say anything about the quality of the material of the dolls themselves bcs I don't have any of the new ones but oh my god, I also think Draculaura is adorable 😫 I think Venus dropped too recently and I'd buy her for sure!! The braided hair is everything and her fashion sense is probably one of my favorites so far? I also love Abbey's doll, and Frankie too especially that one line that they got a guitar? Instrument? Rockstar theme I think? (I'd cosplay that, no joke) from what I can see the designs are putting a lot more variety on drawing and sculpting different body types, features and details on the dolls and I think that's super fucking awesome! G1 also experimented with facial features and details on the body every once in a while but not as nicely done as now!

For the animated series I understand they had to tone it down to some extent because inserting all details the dolls and concept art had could lead to technical trouble (I think), so it isn't fair to compare them to one another. I'm just gonna ignore the animated series in terms of design for now, cause it's in the dolls and in illustration that a franchise like monster high work best anyway. I don't think much abt the cartoon tbh and I'm also not up to most episodes, idk who else dropped recently. But honorable mention, in the standards of the animated series my favorite designs are Deuce and Medusa for sure

That's long enough of a post so I'm gonna stop right hereeee, this was more of an overview of the g3 as a whole rather than ratings of each character, but yeah! I'm no longer a hater, I'm ok 👍 (if you're one of the people who heard me extensively complain over g3 before in another social, honestly I don't even know what it could have been about but you know what, disconsider it, it's easier that way 😭) I may have more opinions about it but that's all I could remember for now. Also my brain is fried.

And I can always change my mind on this, so there's that! Someone get me a Venus and Frankie doll rn please and thank you

[rjshepherd]

I tried SO hard to like SIGNALIS. It has everything I love, the puzzles, the easy to enjoy gameplay loop. But I just couldn't get into it. I had no idea what was happening the entire time, I didn't even know elsters name until the end. I understand it's cosmic horror and it's meant to drive you mad but I dont find that fun!

The main reason I checked it out was because it was meant to be like silent hill and it certainly is but something is missing. By the end of sh2 for example I always understood what James had done and why. The endings were just him redeeming himself in various ways. Sort of got the endings here but not how we got there.

No one asked but since I have a foundation degree in games design here's how I'd fix the parts of SIGNALIS that drove me nuts.

Elster never speaks outside of cutscenes and there's not much dialogue in them. Give us a diary of her thoughts, explaining how she's feeling about what's going on. I found it hard to care about elster and Ariane because I couldn't understand what was happening in game and how it related to them. Elster is almost a blank slate and I personally have no investment in this story. Letting me know elsters thought process would get me more invested.

The 6 slot inventory system is atrocious. Yes yes rule of 6 and all that but it's still terrible. You're telling me I'm trapped in dream of a mining planet with not a single bag I could use to hold more shit??? Could Ariane not have Dreamt me up a holdall? Or make it like re4 where things have sizes. A rifle shouldn't take up as much space as a tarot card.

A glossary of the enemies, characters and locations would be REALLY interesting. I don't know if it's BC I'm stupid but I found it hard to keep track of everyone because most of the characters are numbered rather than named.

I am begging y'all to just explain a few things blatantly. What is the connection between Ariane and aline aside from looks. Why would the government send a useful bioresinance human like Ariane on a suicide mission? If ISA was dead the whole time how and why is she there in arianes dream loop??? How can falke be both Ariane and elster ??? What's going on with Adler? How are the other replikas you talk to not going mad?

Again maybe I'm just fuckin stupid but I had to watch a 2 hour video explaining the most basic concept of the game to me. You can say the story is ment to be obtuse and up for interpretation but I couldn't Intuit shit. I was SO confused the entire time which is a shame BC I was having fun playing.

Edit

ALSO EPILEPSY MODE WOULD BE NICE. IM TRYING TO LEARN ABOUT THE SAD SPACE LESBIANS NOT HAVE A SEIZURE OR MIGRAINE.

[roobylavender]

i love how you hold in-depth and insightful discussions with your anons even if they might disagree with you, i feel like you're such an easy person to talk to 🥹 which is to say i wanted to ask you about something - if you don't mind - i'm always really surprised when you discuss bruce vs. ollie's parenting styles because i feel like the differences you mention weren't necessarily so clear-cut?

for instance i think the 70s were really when the "oh no how can we send our own kids out there to fight criminals and die" conundrum was first raised in superhero comics because of dennis o'neil, stan lee, etc starting to equate the concept of child sidekicks to child soldiers & abusive parenting (hence bucky's ~death~ around this time too), and as a result of that + o'neil wanting to take batman back to its darker solo-ish roots, bruce was written to carry even more immense guilt over sending dick out as robin. and certainly he's had moments like this before, where he worried that he had done dick more harm than good (and for ex., subsequently erasing his memories as robin and sending him back to an orphanage like in world finest's #153..) but for the most part he's very insistent on dick being robin and he understands and encourages the fact that dick wants to balance his civilian life with being robin very much (reason #489893 why i think marv wolfman having dick drop out of college was OOC but that's another subject). tbh that's why i'm so defensive of the original context of batman comics, the fact that children were working in sweatshops or factories or as garment workers etc back then definitely allowed people accept the idea of bruce gifting a bat-copter to dick for his birthday in batman #10 (which is implied to be his 8th birthday 😭) or dick performing shoulder surgery on bruce at age 7-8 or whatever in batman #2 - so in the same vein, i don't think the thought of "oh no dick's life is in real danger as robin" should ever seriously enter his mind (as opposed to in-the-moment anxiety, which i'm sure happens a gazillion times a week) until dick's college years imo?

and i know you've mentioned before that you don't take the golden age personalities/morals ascribed to bruce & dick too seriously because they vary greatly depending on whether the tone is comedic vs. serious - but i actually think they're pretty consistent! for instance for the first ~30 issues of detective comics, bruce is a lot more OK with the idea of killing criminals, but it's clear that after a child, dick grayson, comes into the picture he takes a much harder stance against killing (hence why his original vow with robin by candlelight says "WE two will…never swerve from the path of righteousness" - implying batman will now hold himself to a new high standard that he's also setting for robin). as you said, when batman and robin do mention just "finishing off" a guy or whatever it's definitely played off for comedy and i think the audience is meant to recognize that :]

and re: ollie, the 00s series has him grappling with the "child soldier" worry a hundred times for mia, connor, and roy, so i think this sort of realization should happen slowly and organically for him too (and not just bruce) and it kinda already started back in the 70s anyway with roy's drug overdose... idk i like to imagine that bruce and ollie are a lot more alike despite the surface-level differences in temperament or personality and that's really what causes the (one-sided, from ollie LOL) tension!!

anyway i'm so sorry for dumping this entire novel in your inbox, it comes across like i'm just trying to lecture you but i promise i'm very interested in what you think 😭 and thank you for reading and always providing such interesting replies/commentary in general! have a lovely day ♡

please never apologize for this omg i am always elated to talk about the vast expanse of canon and hear other perspectives on it! and i wholeheartedly agree with you actually, the impact of the 60s really cannot be understated in how it altered dc’s approach to certain topics going forward (and i would love to find scholarly articles about this if there are any). like it’s really interesting how cape comics reacted to wwii and the social welfare era in very distinct ways, because on one hand as you said it originally wasn’t too hard for a reader to wrap their head around the idea of kid sidekicks because there probably were a lot of kids at the time who were also working due to the wartime labor shortage. but the 60s was a huge moment for civil rights and social welfare of all kinds and this was particularly with respect to children. i’m actually in a class right now called children’s rights so we discussed some of that history and the shift at the time that caused legislators to begin to take abuse as a concept seriously. i guess the tricky part about comics and our engagement with these characters is trying to balance the evolving world against what we would like to be a consistent depiction of the characters even though that isn’t necessarily possible, because the politics and concerns of various writers obv filter through (like wolfman and his reagan era propaganda lol). i def want to get further in my ollie reading someday because i’ve heard so many good things about the sort of gravitas of his role as a parent increasing as time goes on. and it would be interesting if more than one character ever converged on that concept of sidekick-ery as child abuse. i think the problem really is that some writers adapted that mindset while others didn’t so you ended up with a lot of tonally dissonant books and characters even though addressing this issue collectively across the expanse of the canon could have been very interesting

[feybeasts]

Godly Matters: a short story

Wrote a lil' story about Lena and Kenna that I dug, so I'm sharing it here beneath the break! 2.2k words, mostly just a bit of slice of life!

============================== The gods are defined by what they embody, it shapes them within and without. What miracles you can perform, what aspects you possess, even your earthly shape- you are as much a product of your domain as it is of you.

The words of Lena’s mentor echoed in her mind as she plopped heavily onto a bed of silken cushions, loosing an exhausted sigh.

Though Lymella certainly knew what she was talking about, being many thousands of years older and a goddess for about as long as goddesses were a thing, the knowledge the heavyset liontaur had provided was of far less comfort than the solid pile of downy pillows Lena now settled into. It had been not much more than an earth year since the vulpine love goddess had taken up her mantle, and though it had been something of a fluke, given she didn’t even know the Fae- or their gods- existed at the time, apotheosis had become at least familiar to the young deity. Granting alms, helping those she could help, learning to be… less wary of the help of her small but dedicated corps of druids, Lena had somewhat put on the blinders and been the best pink-furred, heart-motif’d fox god she could have hoped to be. As luck would have it, “rather good” was about what she could manage on a given day.

Certainly, the perks of the job had helped that. 

Sure, there were the aforementioned druids, the eternal lifespan, the magical powers, all the expected benefits of diety-dom, but there were certain boons to being a divine being amidst a world of magical critters she hadn’t even taken into consideration at first. There were the bright, reverent smiles as she changed lives for the better, the purposeful sense of duty in her work, the offerings…

…oh, the offerings!

Lena hadn’t asked anything of the faefolk- it wouldn’t have felt right to hide what good she could do behind a transaction- yet despite her insistence on doing her work free of charge, despite the humble surroundings of her renovated, single-structure temple, despite all that, offerings had come, and they had come in multitudes. With no real concept of currency, the faefolk bartered and traded for what they wanted, and so the things that worshippers offered were always something personal, craft-made. A carving of fine, chocolate-scented wood in her likeness, a painting of a happy couple she had reunited; these things were all so personal, so kind, and Lena had done her best to display each proudly- even as space had started to become something of an issue. 

But the offering Lena treasured most, and the ones she had no trouble in… displaying… was the food.

It was the first time she had ever been offered something in thanks for her work; a humble woodsman, having little to give in thanks for saving his beloved pet from illness, had offered to make her pancakes. It sounded so silly, pancakes for a goddess, yet Lena had been so touched- and so unwilling to turn someone down- that she had accepted the gift wholeheartedly. The way her eyes widened into saucers at the taste of homemade syrup, the way all five of her fluffy tails had wagged, it must have been apparent to the woodsman how greatly Lena enjoyed this sort of gift, for once she had returned home, it wasn’t long before denizens of his same little village had started to arrive at her temple- all bearing their homemade dishes. Croissants, blintzes, pie, cider, jerky, and sausages- the talents of the villagers were as varied as their dishes, and as word spread that the Heart Goddess was something of an easily-impressed gourmand, the variety and number of the edible offerings only grew. Soon, the need had arisen to add the only other addition Lena had asked for her temple since she had reclaimed it- a spacious basement pantry where the least-perishable offerings could be stored… And anything that couldn’t be stored disappeared right down Lena’s gullet.

Which, of course, had soon served to illustrate Lymella’s advice- for the more homemade food offerings Lena accepted happily, the more she became associated with homemade food. And the more she became associated with homemade food…

Across from Lena’s resting spot, well within reach, was a small marble end table. Upon it sat one of the more recent gifts she had been given, a wood carving much like one of the first she had ever gotten. It was made from the same dark, chocolate-scented wood, carved with the same level of care, but compared to the first carving by the same artisan, there was one crucial difference: this carving was much, much fatter. Looking like some ancient sculpture of a long-lost fertility goddess, the fox depicted was wide and squat, with a big, round belly and a prominent chest, her rounded cheeks set in a warm, matronly smile. It would almost have seemed farcical, how rotund this depiction of Lena was, if it wasn’t just about as true to life as a carving could get. Seated nearby, resting idly on one side, rounded cheek resting in a plump paw, the real goddess was almost a splitting image of her carving- if anything, it somehow managed to make her look skinnier.

Yet, far from being bemused by her turn of anatomical fortunes, Lena couldn’t help but find the whole thing… rather charming. Yes, she hadn’t expected a few good meals to embed in the collective psyche that she was nearly spherical, and she certainly hadn’t expected that perception to stick, but the young goddess had come to embrace her new self with a certain degree of… well, the only word she could think of was delight! In truth, though she had never been too bothered by her mortal form, it had never really… been what she wanted. Tall, lanky, and human were all fine traits for someone out there, but not for her. When she had quite incidentally assumed her mantle, turned into a fox- and a vixen, at that- it was like the world had aligned, as though her form finally matched who she was within. A pink, five-tailed fox was as far from her old self as a creature could be, yet it fit Lena like a glove- and as that very same fox had grown plumper, rounder, and softer, this only seemed to become more true! The Heart Goddess being a fat, pink vixen fit Lena just fine- and she knew it pleased someone else, too. Someone who, at that very moment, plodded up to sit beside her, taking a moment to let her presence be known before wrapping a thick, gray-furred arm across Lena’s back. “Hi, wolfy~” Lena murmured without looking back, smiling as a heavy snout nuzzled up against her cheek, the scent of freshly-burnt charcoal in the air. “Hello yourself, sweet~” The other creature replied, turning to kiss Lena’s cheekfuzz. “...Still dunnae have a better pet name than ‘wolfy’, eh?” the creature added after a moment, a chortle weaving through her husky baritone, “S’awfully on the nose, y’know” Finally turning, Lena’s small, pointed snout met ‘wolfy’s,’ and she gave her visitor a smooch. “I like it!” Lena defended playfully, looking over at her visitor, “...Plus it bugs you, and that’s kinda cute.” If not for the affection obvious between them, one would have thought Lena and her visitor were polar opposites. Beside the pastel pink fox sat a tall, dark-furred wolf, whose wild eyebrows, thick claws, and bushy tail gave off a wildness that was altogether alien in comparison to Lena’s own fluffy civility. Her facial features were broad and boxy compared to Lena’s excess of curves and points, and her bright green eyes were a far cry from Lena’s dark brown. Her garb was simple, a tunic and breeches, and it was stained with soot, a far cry from Lena’s clean, silken garb. About the only thing the two had in common was in their build, for despite her thick musculature and hint of a feral upbringing, the wolf was just about as fat as Lena was- and almost a head taller. “Not as cute as you,” The wolf finally replied, gently cupping Lena’s cheek with a sizeable paw, “And my pet names are far more clever”

The two kissed once more, and Lena felt the wolf’s other arm slip around her back, squeezing the two as tightly together as sheer volume would allow. It was one of Lena’s favorite feelings in this or any other world, and as the two parted lips, she only hugged as far around her lover’s waist as her somewhat-shorter limbs would allow.

“Yeah…” she murmured after a moment, “Y’got me there, Kenna.”

Her eyes fluttered shut, and she couldn’t help but smile. There was no better place to be than in Kenna’s arms, or at least none she had ever discovered. The wolf’s embrace was sturdy, firm, all the strength of a seasoned craftswoman with none of the discomfort. Truth be told, Lena could have fallen asleep in her love’s arms then and there, but it wasn’t long before Kenna spoke up again.

“Long day, eh? Haven’t seen ye this spent in a while”

“Mhmm…” Lena replied, face half-buried in smoky wolf-fur, “Just lots of… catching up, going from place to place, lots of…”

“Walking?” Kenna replied with a smirk Lena could feel. She knew the implication, of course, but she was too tired to challenge the good-natured teasing.

“I wish I was the goddess of office appointments,” Lena muttered only half-jokingly, “Ly carries around more of… her… than I do, but she also has four legs”

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen her go anywhere, either,” Kenna added, her brogue taking on a quizzical tone for a moment, “Anyone who wants the Goddess of Mirth’s favor comes to her- maybe that’s a page to take outta her book, eh?”

Lena pondered for a moment, drawing back to think, but then stuck out her tongue, waggling her head to and fro.

“Nah! Not my style- Ly’s all about partying and hanging out and… y’know, being… big… is her whole vibe- I can’t ape that”

“...Why not?”

Lena turned, looking over Kenna’s face. To her, the question sounded like a joke, yet the wolf’s expression was genuine.

“Why can’t you take a page out of her book, relax more?” Kenna repeated, “Nobody said you have ta skitter to and fro, especially with the image of you not bein’... skittery…”

Lena knew what she meant, but brushed it off without a second thought.

“Because! People need me out there! Nobody expects me to sit around in a temple, taking appointments and being some… divine lump!”

The fox’s voice peaked more than she expected, squeaking slightly on the high tones. But Kenna’s expression remained unchanged.

“Lena…” She said, her tone level in a way the goddess had heard too many times to recall- it was her patented ‘I am going to bestow Worldly Wisdom’ tone, and Lena loved and dreaded it in equal measure.

“You don’t have ta run yourself ragged- nobody expects that of you.”

A paw fell to Lena’s side, squeezing gently.

“You’re not exactly shaped like a runner-about, Lena, and d’ya know why?”

“Because I gave people the impression I like food too much?”

“Because,” Kenna corrected gently, her low voice kindly but firm, “This is the you that makes you happiest- it’s the you that resonates with everyone.”

A smile, a lean, a kiss.

“It’s the ‘you’ I first fell in love with.”

At this, Lena reddened, and deeply. It was true- though the practice of food gifts for the Heart Goddess had started long before, it was only once she met Kenna, once feelings had begun to develop between them, that Lena had first noticed her change in stature. She had thought nothing of it at the time, assumed she had to have eaten herself into that shape, but as she thought on the circumstances of the time now, all she could remember vividly was how much Kenna’s confidence inspired her, how much her presence brought her joy… and how she wished for nothing more than to be more like the woman she grew to love.

The gods, after all, were defined by what they embodied. And there was nothing Lena quite embodied so much as her love for her ‘wolfy’.

With this thought, Lena sank somewhat, though it was with relief and understanding, not in defeat. She allowed herself to loosen in Kenna’s arms, and slowly, a sheepish smile spread across her cheeks.

“Truth be told… most people just come to me now, anyways,” Lena admitted quietly, “I guess I thought it’d be… selfish if I let myself relax and… enjoy it.”

“Sweetheart, there isn’t a selfish bone in your body,” Kenna replied, chuckling, “If the Heart Goddess would rather linger closer to home so she can be her best, fluffiest foxy, there’s not a just soul that wouldn’t understand.”

Lena’s smile widened, though her cheeks didn’t quite lose their blush.

“If I do, I’m probably gonna get… bigger, y’know,” She said quietly, “Like… a lot bigger.”

“And if you do,” Kenna replied, “I’ll love you just as much.”

This was enough for the Heart Goddess, for at this, she simply buried her head in her girlfriend’s chest, and for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, there she stayed.

Happy.

Contented.

And no less divine.

[anneapocalypse]

I like your post about gray morality in video games! On the other hand I wanted to add that the gray decision-making you're talking about can have its own pitfalls (distinct from the pitfalls of centrist/apolitical "both sides are bad" apathy). I'm thinking of gritty action heroes who are presented as morally gray because they're pragmatic enough to torture and kill in the name of Truth, Justice, and the 'Murican Way, or just in the name of a macho revenge fantasy. To be clear, this isn't an indictment of gray morality, which I love when done well. Hell, the stories I'm complaining about tend not to be THAT gray in practice, as the bad guys are often SO exaggeratedly bad that there's not a real question of whether the hero is willing to Do What It Takes in the end. My point is more just that that's what people often mean when they condemn "gray morality."

Hi! Sorry this has been sitting my ask box for a while, I got busy and didn't want to just dash off a response.

(We're talking about this post, for those who haven't seen it. RIP my notifications.)

Anyway I'll just say here for the record that yeah, gray morality in fiction can be done poorly! While the line for "done poorly" is going to be different for everyone, I can certainly think of examples I've disliked.

(This got long, sorry in advance. 😩 Also, spoilers for Fallout 3 and all the Dragon Age games, if anyone cares!)

My go-to example of one I think is a real stinker is the Fallout 3 DLC "The Pitt" where the critical decision is... whether to free a bunch of people from being enslaved in horrible conditions! But! in order to free them, you have to kidnap a baby from... the enslaver. Because something something the baby's genetics are the key to curing the illness that afflict the slaves from their horrible working conditions... you don't actually have to hurt the baby, though, she'll be fine. She'll just be taken away from her parents. Who are, again, slavers. I promise I'm not making it sound any stupider than it sounds in the game itself. :P Like the whole concept of putting an infant in your video game inventory and making a break for it is just a little too wacky for me to take seriously, but it feels like you're meant to take it seriously, and apart from trying to inject some ambiguity into the decision, I'm not sure why the whole baby plot would even be there. Honestly, Fallout 3 isn't a game about moral ambiguity. (I think both New Vegas and even Fallout 4 do that kind of thing better.) Most of its major decisions boil down to "Do you want to do the Good Person Thing or the Evil Bastard thing?" That's the game. No one is trying to inject moral ambiguity into blowing up Megaton. It's just a thing you can do if you want to roleplay an Evil Character. I love Fallout 3, I'm just saying, that's what it is. And I think "The Pitt" would have been both more thematically appropriate and less stupid if it had just skipped the whole baby plot and been like "Hey! Do you want to be the Good Person who frees the slaves, or the Evil Bastard who allies with the slaver?" It's morally simple, but the thing is the baby didn't actually make that story or the decision any more interesting to me, so it might as well not have been there at all.

But Fallout 3 isn't the kind of thing I was thinking of when I made that post. I was thinking a lot more about things like the decisions in the Dragon Age games, which don't usually fall neatly into The Good Option and The Evil Option, and are more likely to ask the player to make their own judgments. And a common criticism I see of those games is that they're "centrist" and try to "both sides" in-universe issues because the game doesn't explicitly tell you which choice is The Good One, or it doesn't explicitly reward one choice and punish the other, and that's... not really an interpretation that I generally agree with? But that's a much more involved discussion, honestly. At some point, I'd like to write a post about how I feel Inquisition presents the mage rebellion, because it's such a big topic and big game (and by "I'd like to" I mean... I already have a draft started, whoops). That's just more than I have time to get into today!

But I will say this: I find the plot decisions where you're given an obvious "best option" to be the least interesting choices in the Dragon Age games. The Redcliffe decision in Origins is the most obvious one to me, where I think the option to save Connor from possession should at least have been much harder to find, because in the lore, the fact that mages even can be saved from possession and not just killed is widely unknown because it goes against the templar party line, and the fact that Ferelden's First Enchanter is just like, "Oh yeah, sure, we can totally do that, pack up the lyrium boys" just doesn't really mesh with everything else we're told about the Circles and conventional wisdom on magic. Plus, the fact that there's no consequences for leaving Redcliffe for days with Connor possessed just... makes the decision too easy, for me, because in-universe it feels like it shouldn't be that easy. There's also the werewolf decision, wherein the Lady of the Forest just tells you straight out that Zathrian can break the curse with his own death, presenting you with a "best option" that it feels both stupid and sort of comically evil to disregard (like, from a purely pragmatic standpoint why would you fight the entire pack of werewolves or an entire clan of elves when you can just make Zathrian solve the problem here and now).

The ending decision of DA2 is an example that I feel has a really stark moral contrast to it (which I've discussed before), and one that I think does place certain constraints on role-playing, but in that case I think it's appropriate to the themes of the game, so I don't mind it.

But my favorite plot decisions in Dragon Age are things like the Landsmeet, the Winter Palace, and even the Orzammar quest line. Not just because I love fantasy politics, but because you have to work with what you're given in a way that feels realistic to the setting and the story. No matter how much of a hero you are, you can't waltz into Orzammar or Denerim or Halamshiral and brute-force a perfect solution. Unless you're a dwarf yourself, you're an outsider who doesn't know anything about dwarven politics and no one is particularly forthcoming about the situation because everyone has an agenda! and yet you have to solve this conflict in order to get aid against the Blight. You have to make a decision based on very little information and almost none of it concrete. At the Landsmeet, you may want justice, but it's your word against Loghain's with no proof of what really happened at Ostagar, and if you want to win you need provable charges, you need to show the nobles that you support their interests and not just your own, and no matter which butt you put on the throne, you're faced with the very real possibility of another succession crisis a few decades on so congratulations, you've just kicked the can down the road.

And oh, the Winter Palace, my beloved. You cannot make Briala the Empress, no matter how much you might want to! You cannot abolish the monarchy. You cannot force Orlais to relinquish the Dales and re-establish the Elven state. Your options are: keep the empress whose reign overall has been sympathetic to elves and commoners and relatively diplomatic toward her neighbors, but who also may have just done a good old fashioned massacre to crush a rebellion and maintain her power; let her be killed and put the militant expansionist on the throne; get Briala and Celene back together (maybe with the hope that Briala will continue to influence her); help Briala do a blackmail which surely will work out totally fine and not backfire in anyway; or force them all to shut up and play ball for now, basically just kicking the can down the road. None of these options are perfect by any means! There are interesting and believable in-character reasons you might choose to role-play any of them. And every one has the possibility of unforeseen consequences later on, positive or negative.

I made the original post, in part, in response to condemnations of the kind of decisions I enjoy in these games. And at the end of the day, it's okay not to like those decisions, to prefer more unambiguous choices or more room to indulge in the fantasy of fixing everything. But that's not always the kind of story a game is trying to tell, and I think that's fine, and personally I enjoy the complicated decisions more. And I feel like sometimes those complicated or ambiguous choices are read as if they're either presenting all options as morally equivalent when they're not, or that they're "punishing" the player for a choice if it has any kind of negative outcome, and I don't think that's the case! I think it's fine and good in fiction to explore the ways in which trying to change things for the better can be difficult and how a choice with some negative consequences may still be the best one available, and so on and so forth.

Anyway, I hope I didn't get too far afield here, and thanks if you read this far!

[andmaybegayer]

Project “Let’s watch every single Fast & Furious movie”

This was. A very, very stupid movie. Easily the most influential one we've done so far but it is NOT good.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

This movie starts at a high school so we're already off to a bad start. Sean, the most American human alive, gets into a petty street race and to avoid going to jail is sent to live with his dad in Japan. He immediately starts getting into street racing somehow involving not the Yakuza, but a guy whose uncle is Yakuza. I bet his other uncle works for Nintendo too. The most American man alive is constantly bewildered by this strange oriental wonderland but not so bewildered that he does not Americanly barge into situations and make high stakes bets that he has zero idea how to pull off.

His ass is not 17!

You simply cannot efficiently blend "The actual Yakuza are here moving tens of thousands of dollars" and "17 year olds getting into fights over MP3 players".

Sean here has the most impossibly American accent, every time he opens his mouth you're like what in the goddamn was that, where did that come from. I have no idea if that's just how the actor talks or if he's affecting it.

This movie trades very highly in flash, exoticism and admittedly well shot driving scenes. The first race in Japan is stupendous car gore, absolutely wrecking a very fancy Nissan Silvia that feels like it was designed to make everyone cringe. Drifting is just implicitly cool, even if the bizzare chase-drifting used in some of the action scenes looks extremely silly.

There once again is an absolutely banal plot! Sean gets into debt with Han, one of the Drift King's lieutenants who is also secretly betraying the Drift King. Han is extremely gracious about letting Sean pay off his debts because... I guess because a brazen American is the only person who is willing to get into races with the Drift King. It's not entirely clear. There's a good run of training montages as Sean learns to drift, which is pretty much the core that holds this movie together, everything else is wild.

I'm not sure if this just feels bad because it's in comparison to the pretty solid movie that was 2 Fast 2 Furious but I feel like it's also bad when taken in isolation.

The rapper they put in this movie is Bow Wow who plays another 17 year old nicknamed "Twinkie" who is just called Twink by everyone all the time. It's. Certainly a writing decision you could make.

Tokyo Drift culturally was Initial D for the masses, it introduced the concept of drifting to a much, much wider audience, and you can see those effects take hold almost immediately. Need for Speed Carbon came out later the same year and introduced drifting as a major mechanic, you started seeing a lot more drift demos at car shows, and two years later Red Bull would have the 2008 Drifting Championship.

There's so many plot threads that just never resolve ever in this thing. Sean moves in with his estranged dad who is a navy man. He alludes to "his mistakes" and there's all kinds of setup for them to go back and forth and resolve their separation but it doesn't happen ever. There's a love interest who mostly serves as a source of friction between Sean and the Drift King but whose complicated history is kind of just smoothed over in a single scene. I think they tried to fit a good story and cool race scenes and realized they could only fit one, and went with race scenes. A lot more minutes of the movie are dedicated to driving shots than before.

I must once again stress that in theory this cast is mostly teenagers. It's not even that they look like 26 year olds, they are also constantly out driving at high speed surrounded by adults who don't seem to care that they're teens so it's like. What was the point. Why did we do this? Was it just to appeal to The Teens? You could fabricate any reason for an American driver to run away to Japan and have to learn how to drift, making him a teen was absolutely not necessary, and they don't do jack shit about them being teenagers! They all just act like adults who sometimes have to go to school for some reason! Bizzare choice.

There's no screenshots here because the only interesting scenes are driving, which are really meant to be seen in motion. That's basically the verdict. 3/10 good driving scenes.