#I still can't believe any of this

[ladysarai]

2024 Fandom in Review

I have never before had any REASON to do this, but this year was... wow. Just. Get this.

My TOTAL word count since 2006 on AO3 is: 140,392

2024's word count was: 113,325

So until this year, in NEARLY TWENTY YEARS OF FANDOM, I had only posted 27,067 words in 17 stories. And until this year, the last time I posted a fic was in 2020. I posted TEN stories this year. SINCE JUNE, FRIENDS.

I have posted ten stories and 113,325 words in the last six months. I do not even recognize myself.

I should say that I don't recognize US, because @nutterzoi, my beloved bestie and amazing co-writer, wrote FIVE of these with me, for 102,203 of those words.

Fandoms written: Inception. Literally ALL OF THIS is due to Inception and the Inception fandom. Pairings written: Arthur/Eames. Number of words written: 113,325 (how??) Your personal fave: CURRENTLY it is Ice and Mirrors, because it's my newest baby and I wrote it for my @nutterzoi and kept it a secret. c: Also I tried something new and went non-linear! Which was a challenge for me! Total kudos: 769?!! Longest fic: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted (56,014) Highest kudos: Antebellum (237) Most hits: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted (1,796) Most comments: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted (17) Most bookmarks: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted (62)

Author’s Favorites: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted, There's More of Gravy than of Grave about You, Ice and Mirrors, Proximity and Chance, The Missing Piece

Your proudest accomplishment: Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted, because it was written for the Inception Big Bang, and we actually finished it. It was one of the first fic ideas that came to me when I discovered the fandom and Zoe and I took it and shaped it into something really full and have an entire AU for it. It came out beautifully, and we finished it on time, and it's the longest fic we've ever managed to finish and post. So I'm very proud of this one.

List of fics completed this year (in order they were finished), including the first line of each fic:

Safe as Houses: By the time they reach the safe house just outside Oslo, Eames is well past exhausted, and he’s not sure how Arthur is even still upright.

Antebellum: He’s not watching Arthur sleep.

Homecoming: Arthur hates Gotham City.

Debriefing: It takes too long for Eames to find a chance to escape Fischer.

Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted: Arthur is in Belarus when he gets the call about Dom. (@nutterzoi actually wrote this line. The first line I wrote in it was this monstrosity: Eames is undercover, underground and entirely off the grid when it all happens, because he was foolish enough to take a job with an extractor who was having an affair with the daughter of a fucking Columbian cartel drug lord while married to a woman with ties to the bloody Russian mafia.)

The Missing Piece: “What’s wrong with him?”

A Tremendous Thing: As a general rule, Arthur tries to keep his information brokering to certain set hours.

Proximity and Chance: Eames stumbles and the only reason he doesn’t land on the forest floor is that he falls into a tree trunk.

There's More of Gravy than of Grave about You: Eames looks up at the knock at his door, smiling and gesturing for Mal to come in when he sees her there.

Ice and Mirrors: It’s so cold that the air is sucked out of Arthur’s lungs.

....You know, I tend to think of myself as being very wordy and too prone to run-on sentences, but these are all quite short. Who knew!

[aeviann]

XENOBLADE X NATION HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ALIVE AGAIN

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

BBC Merlin & Text Posts (11/?)

[seventh-district]

Making Incorrect H:SR Quotes Until I Run Out of (hopefully) Original Ideas - Pt. 3 - Random Screenshot Edition

[Pt. 1] [Pt. 2] [Pt. 4] [Pt. 5] [Pt. 6]

[egophiliac]

GRIMS COMING!!! You gonna pull for him??👀👀

I'm gonna try, but...

I have mere hours to decide if I want to make one last attempt at Malleus or save a few to try for Grim...and this is all before the new event reveal on the 16th. truly the most difficult choice of our modern times. the gacha is getting its revenge for all of my Lilias.

[peacockrulz]

N tries to tell another joke (gone wrong)

Sequel to This

[lazylittledragon]

about to start my yearly critrole campaign 2 rewatch so prepare for me to be absolutely insufferable

[gingermintpepper]

Okay, let's finally talk about EPIC's Apollo

I feel very compelled to say, first of all, that I do not dislike Epic. In fact, I am very fond of Epic and have been following its production and status very eagerly! I attend all the launch streams, I watch all of Herrans' update videos; I am, at the end of the day, a fan and I want it to be known that my words are spoken out of love and passion as much as they are spoken from a place of critique.

So really, what my problem with Epic's Apollo?

In the briefest possible terms; the choice to have Apollo be defined by his musical aspect in God Games is thematically strange. And not in the 'oh well in the Odyssey, Apollo was important to Odysseus and his family so it's weird that that wasn't kept in Epic' strange, strange in the sense that Odysseus' character arc since My Goodbye has been getting more and more obviously Apollonian and so it is positively bizarre that when we get to meet Apollo, the god seems entirely disinterested in him and his affairs. So much so that he is not even defined by any station that would indicate that he has been watching over and protecting Odysseus and his family.

What do I mean by 'Odysseus has been following an Apollonian arc'? I'm so glad you asked!

Remember Them is the last song in which Odysseus explicitly uses his sword until Mutiny where he must use it to defend himself against Eurylochus' blade. He uses it to help enact the plan to conquer Polyphemus and, due to Polites dying in that battle, Polites who wished for Odysseus to put the blade down entirely and embrace a post-war life, Odysseus also retires his sword. This is an action that symbolically separates him from Athena - and the image of Odysseus as a traditional warrior set for him in Horse and Infant - as much as My Goodbye physically separates him from the goddess and her war-ways - from this point onwards, Odysseus will no longer be leaning on Athena's wisdom or methods to solve his problems. Likewise, he will no longer be able to rely on her protection.

Odysseus thusly solves most of his upcoming problems through diplomacy and avoidance. He approaches Aeolus - a strange and ambiguous god (both in gender and in motivation) and appeals to them for help. Circe too, he approaches not with wishes to conquer or for revenge, but for the safe returning of his men and an alternate way forward. In all of these scenarios, there is some Apollonian element which is subtly interweaved alongside the influence of other gods; it is with a bow and arrows that Polyphemus' sheep is slain (and thus it is this Apollonian element which is at the root of Odysseus' spat with Poseidon), it is a vision of Penelope that warns Odysseus that his men are about to open Aeolus' wind-bag, Circe's peace offering to Odysseus is to refer him to a prophet of Apollo who has since died.

In this way, Apollo is walking alongside Odysseus for all of his journey after Athena departs - even in the Underworld, he is guiding him. It is Tiresias' proclamation that is the last straw for Odysseus, it is by the power of a mouthpiece of Apollo that Odysseus decides to embrace his ruthlessness. It is with the bow and arrow that Odysseus subdues the siren who sought to trick him, likewise, Odysseus does not attempt to undermine or escape the fate of paying Scylla's passage price - he knows of the doom about to befall the six men and quite unlike the rest of the journey until this point, he does not fight against it. This all comes to a head on Thrinacia where it is a blade which sacrifices the sun god's cow and brings destruction upon the crew once more.

My point with all of this is that when I heard the teasers for God Games years ago, it made perfect sense to me that Apollo would be Round One - he is not Odysseus' adversary and has no reason to oppose Athena's wish to free him. From other teasers about what will happen in the climax of Epic, Apollo will still be walking alongside Odysseus - it is Apollo's bow that Penelope will give the suitors to string. Likewise, it is Apollo's bow that will prove Odysseus' legitimacy and identity. That bow will be the power by which Odysseus hunts his adversaries and cleans out his palace - it is Apollo who is the avatar of Odysseus' ruthlessness, not Athena.

So tell me, truly, what was the point of having Apollo raise a non-argument in God Games? Why have him appear unconcerned, aloof and slightly oblivious? Why have him appear in his capacity as the Lord of Music at all?? And if the intention was never to make Apollo an active player in Odysseus' life like he was in the Odyssey, why keep Odysseus as a primary archer?

The answer of course is that Apollo is inextricable from the fabric of the Odyssey - his influence and favour exudes from Odysseus just as much as Athena's. In Athena's ten year sulk, it would have been Apollo who kept Telemachus and Penelope safe. It would have been Apollo protecting Odysseus from Poseidon's gaze as he travelled the seas (according to the Odyssey anyway)

Forgive me for not being excited about something that I thought was being purposefully set up. I was extremely ecstatic about all of the little Apollonian details that litter the sagas because I know where this story ends up (loosely) but all God Games did was reveal that maybe those Apollonian details were not intentional at all, but merely the ghost of the Apollo who persistently haunts those he favours, even if he cannot explicitly come to their aide in an adaptation.

[cinnamon-flame]

Viva Piñata art dump

Viva Piñata was my favorite game when I was younger and it influenced my style heavily throughout the years but I've noticed it's like really niche? I haven't seen a lot of people talking about it which is a shame since the whole series is absolutely adorable. So I'm spreading the word myself with some funky doodles

[xenasaur]

have u ever been having a convo with someone and they drop something that drives u into a white-hot rage so deep u can literally fucking feel ur heart start to give out

[somegrumpynerd]

@wickjump you will never not be an absolute genius

[rash0mon]

define soulmates? it's them

[verstappentime]

why are people acting like charles had some massive shunt or something he literally just. got p2 to a driver who had an incredible day. based off a tiny misjudgment, slight difference in strategy and a car that responded differently to tires. he fought to the line and drove incredibly on a car he later revealed he thought was going to shoot him into a wall lmao y'all need to remember we used to be hoping he'd get out of Q2????

[queerofthedagger]

started reading the hobbit january 6th. finished the last installment of the history of middle earth on december 22th. what a year. what a journey. what an absolutely incredible body of work. please excuse me as i go cry a little for it being over, for it being so good, for it having been such a companion and how it will no doubt continue to be one beyond today <3

[musical-chick-13]

This is the only thing I'm going to say about the election until it's over:

Anyone who did not vote for Harris or who attempted to dissuade people from voting for Harris, you are indirectly responsible for whatever shit Donald Trump does if he gets elected. That blood is primarily on his hands, yes. But it is also on yours. I hope you can live with that because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to.

[gethoce]

Quick silly Valfrey asking their next @kirbyoctournament opponent Sir Meteor what dinosaurs even are. (They all died with the old world and Valfrey doesn't even know there was anything before she was born, naturally no knowledge on dinosaurs.)

Sir Meteor belongs to @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me