#PLEASE feel free to tell me other things i can incorporate into The Lore

[bropunzeling]

In the girl!Leon universe (my fave universe—it lives rent-free in my mind), does the photo of Brady’s wedding seating chart get posted online? Does it cause minor intrigue as to why Leon’s there? Do rumors start about her and Timmy that thrill and amuse some people much more than others? Or any other Leon-at-the-BTkachuk-wedding details you want to share?

(Thanks for sharing your writing and for all the hours that reading your stories has made a lot more bearable during work travel this year!)

oh my god anon, what a FANTASTIC question. your brain is so big and beautiful. i am immediately adopting this scenario as canon because i fucking LOVE the idea of ~rumors swirling~ about leon and timmy, because timmy would absolutely do the WORST job of dispelling them.

imo in this universe timmy has a series of doomed crushes he just has to recover from and one of those doomed crushes was definitely leon when he was like seventeen and she was really hitting her stride in the league. by this point he has gotten over it (with a pit stop to have a doomed crush on his captain) but also it means when someone asks him at training camp if he's hung out with leon he's very like, oh yeah, we TEXT now, and everyone takes this the way you would expect.

fortunately leon is much less of a repressed asshole now that she's getting laid on the regular and, you know, in love and stuff, so she's not all that mean to timmy about it (and he does send her a sad apology text when it becomes a bigger rumor than is actually funny) (it's funny for a LONG time though) and it becomes an in joke fast. leon tells matthew she's leaving him for timmy at least once when matthew's being obnoxious.

i think the other thing that does not actually leak because taryn is a good sister who deletes things fast is an insta story that is 99% brady and emma swaying and being in love during a slow dance, but in a back corner you can also, barely, see matthew hugging leon from behind with his chin on her shoulder. they are also in love.

[wisteria-project-archives]

FAQ

What is "The Wisteria Project?"

In universe, that is the name of the project started by Vega 5!Wis's father, who discovered the clones and the lab facility they were inside. The objective was to be able to release all of the clones safely from suspended animation, and adopt them out to families that would be willing to love and care for them, and pass the story of their unusual origins onto them. Did they succeed? Mmmm...sort of...

Out of universe, that is the name I've put to developing all of these characters, through art, writing, and whatever else will help me tell their stories!

I have questions about the clones’ lore…

See this post! But also feel free to send an ask if you got another question (especially if it’s for an individual clone!) :>

Can our OCs be friends/lovers/etc??

ABSOLUTELY!! I would love having more fwends for my silly gorls, and I’m a multishipper, so they could potentially smooch 👀👉👈 Feel free to ask in DMs/asks/notes/etc….I am shy and I barely know how to ask y’all 😅

Are your asks/DMs open?

Also ABSOLUTELY!! Please feel free to say hi or give me an excuse to yap about any of the clones :> Only request I have is to keep things SFW…the OTAS NSFW section is perhaps the only place I feel comfortable talking about that stuff lol

Why clones? Where did this concept come from?

I’ve never made proper OCs before, even for farming/life sim games. For player insert characters, I just make myself 😂 Normally it’s not a problem, each game is its own lil universe. But with the My Time games, they all take place in the same world…so between having a “me” in both Portia and Sandrock and those games taking place at the same time, more or less, I had to be able to justify that somehow in universe. And then I thought, what if they were just clones??? After all, this is kind of a sci-fi world and it’s implied that the Old World was VERY advanced, so it’s 100% plausible, isn’t it?

If you’re wondering whether they’re still self-inserts or not, the answer is kind of? They’re separate characters from me and always have been, but all of them take inspiration from parts of me and my life or the lives of people around me!

What about each individual clone and their story?

When it comes to creative work, I’m very much a top-down person. Everything stems from a core premise, purpose or idea, and whatever else it needs on the side to flesh it out or to get it executed comes afterwards.

Portia!Wis and Sandrock!Wis were tied very heavily to the stories of their respective games, but I also use them to expand on or analyze some central part of the generic player character. For the clones in other cities, their central premise was based on me thinking about what little we know about these other places, and what kinds of people would come out of being ingratiated into their respective cultures. Who would you become growing up in the culturally rich and laid back city of Walnut Groove? What about the power hungry army of Duvos? Right on a war front in Lucien? etc.

How the hell can you tell the clones apart?!?

I know, it's hard! 😂 But these are the primary distinguishers:

Color: I associate each clone with a particular thematic color, all in a rainbow. I mark their tags with a respective color heart emoji! You'll see it as the background of their ref arts, and I try to incorporate them in some form into their designs.

Hairstyle: Each clone wears their hair differently, though they all share some features like the hair part or tucking it behind their ears when it's long enough.

City/country: Each clone is associated with a particular place. Note that it's not necessarily the place where they were raised in, just the place that they're most strongly associated with (and also, to be able to distinguish them somewhat because there's a bit of overlap where some of them live with each other lol). When I refer to a clone, unless it's obvious which one I'm talking about, I'll always prepend the first letter of their place to their name (e.g. Sandrock!Wis -> S!Wis)

Surname: Every clone has a unique surname….but I’m not expecting anyone to memorize all of them lol 😂

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml analysis: Native American miracle box

While is it obvious that the new miracle box is of native American origin I still went to do some research on it to see if I can narrow it down to a certain tribe and find more connections hidden in the lore.

So not to waste any time, here is my result:

The native American miracle box is in possession of the Souix Lakota tribe. Just like with the Ml Tibetan guardian monks represent not only 1 but 4 groups, the native American Miraculous tribe is a combination of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota and where we can safely say that the monks will primarily lean towards the Tibet representation, I would say here we will primarily lean towards the Lakota. Therefore, I will call the native America Miraculous tribe Lakota but know that the other two tribes are included in this as well.

So a dead giveaway for the identity of the ml Tribe is Jessicas Shirt. In general Jessica has the hairstyle, the physical features and the accessories typical for representing an “Indian” character and her shirt is a direct confirmation of that heritage.

On her shirt is an obvious reference to the Lakota flag which pretty much tells us that this is the Tribe we are dealing with. Nice, why cant it always be this easy?

Under the cut I cover three more points to go into more detail, read more if you’re interested ^^

1. The medicine wheel

I must give it to miraculous, using the medicine wheel for the upper layer of the miracle box is one genius move imo.

The Medicine Wheel is a sacred symbol and way of life used by the indigenous Plains tribes to represent all knowledge of the universe. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to really get into its teaching and living ways to be comfortable explaining its practice in more details, so in this part I want to cover only what has been directly acknowledged by Thomas Astruc. And that would be the animals (duh, obviously) and the elements.

The first thing I had to learn the hard way in this research is that there is not one "true" way for this symbol to be arranged. The way its used, what animal belongs to which color or element and even what KIND of animal is in it can vary STRONGLY from location to location.

So I accepted that the arrangement can not be pinpointed down to perfect accuracy through research. We were already given all the animals and colors, now all I can really do here is present to you a possible variation of the miraculous arrangement I put together after looking up and trying to understand the differences between the real life ones to continue from here on.

There are only two animals we know for sure the connected color of: The eagle, Jessicas miraculous of freedom and the Thunderbird. In his tweets Thomas mentioned the elements so I decided to include them in the arrangement, how or if they will be incorporated into the show I can not tell you though. But still I wanted the elements in here as well ^^

As already said, the eagle is red and the thunderbird is in the green center. As you can see I put the bear to black, the Wolf to yellow and the Buffalo to white. Those seemed to me the most likely combinations and even if they don’t end up right, it wont do harm to any of this.

Buffalo: white and air because the Lakota have a white Buffalo woman legend where air was one of the main elements she controled and used.

Wolf: yellow and fire. Fire because in Lakota legends the wolf/ coyote is a very unpredictable animal. He's both a trickster and a hero, not always moraly sound but always clever. It's a dangerous but strong and lively nature that I do think the show could represent with the fire element. Yellow is one of the two cases where I was left with this option by default.

Bear: I choose black and water because that's a combination I have seen the most

Eagle: I already know Red and choose earth in combination. At first I thought about putting fire in this place because of its normal association with red but in the end choose earth because I think it's the element that fits the best to Jessica.

But the reason why I decided to include the elements is because of the green thunderbird in the middle. Because where the other 4 animals are connected with the 4 elements, the thunderbird would here represent inner balance and harmony. Of course this isn't it's power, but the layout makes it quite obvious that the thunderbird is the equivalent of the ladybugs and cats yin-yang. My assumption right now is that this is how the show will cover the different types of "balance" although the world cultures it incorporates, but let me come back to this one another time.

2. more cultural references and meanings

The thunderbird represents the most powerful one of this miracle box because the thunderbird is the one animal that is present in every Souix Lakota tribe and holds an enormous cultural and spiritual significance. It is a mythological bird and is associated with several legends starting from controlling the storms, lightnings and thunder to being the protector of the humans and even being a helper of the creation of reality (Reality in Ml are the LB and Cat hence why its place in the middle of the box is well deserved) It only makes sense that it would be chosen for this and I know it may seem cliché but please hear me out, which is why im convinced this is the miraculous of the chiefs.

A couple of details do support this for me but please remember I'm not exposed to alot of native American cultures I'll do my best to get things right but if I do interpret something(s) wrong feel free to correct me.

For one, well, the symbol. While looking up the clothing for a later point I did see a symbol like this on some of the feather headdresses.

Definitely not on all of them, I couldn't figure out if there is a system behind the pattern usage or tied to a distinct area but I do know that it is THERE and not exactly rarely either. Noticeably it isn't a 1 to 1 fit but that is an all time returning thing in miraculous. Real life and historical things like this have to be slightly altered for the show to be able to incorporate them. A great example for this is the old English flag in "Darkblade".

So at this point I'm used to this pattern, so yeah, this could very likely be a symbol they took inspiration from.

The second reason why I think it it's the miraculous of the chiefs is because the piece with the symbol on it looks like one of these

In combination with the feather on it. The feather headdress is also called a war bonnet and was originally only worn in battles and only by the person who has truly earned that honor. Each feather represents a distinct honor earned in battle which is why we see feather headdresses in such different lengths. How this translates perfectly into a miraculous I think is obvious. The headdress is a symbol of true leadership and worthiness of such a status, hence why it were especially the chiefs to earn such impressive ones. Turning it into a miraculous wouldn't change too much about it since such a powerful miraculous is an honor and duty you have to be worthy of as well. Them being originally used only for battles is a perfect fit too, because so are the miraculous.

Then of course once again, the thunderbird.

The thunderbird being the great mythical protector animal of these tribes makes it naturally a perfect fit for the miraculous animal of the great chiefs. The chiefs were not only the leaders they also were the primary warrior in battles which is seen by the war bonnets. Having the Thunderbird be the miraculous of the chiefs highlights their status as the tribes protector in such a genuine way, I personally really really love it.

As the last point of 2. I want to bring up the outside top of the Miracle box and the way its designed. While looking through the clothing symbols and pattern I did notice some that looked similar to the ones on the box. I deliberately tried to find a more recent example of usage because in the end of the day Miraculous is a show for TODAY so if the show used patterns for example that may not have been used in the past but are now associated with the Lakota that’s still valid. So the possible matches for design inspiration I found stem from a picture of chief Arvol Lookinghorse who holds the responsibility of spiritual leader among the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota People to this day.

3. Their location and monuments

Researching the lakota made me think of where this guardian group has its roots, which made me remember something I found on my guardian mountain - mount kailash theory a while ago (I swear right now everything comes back to that theory). In it I showed you the monuments-line around the world always separated by a length of 6666km between each other (basically the height of Mount Kailash) and while I didn't mention it there, there is also one of those "mythical" monuments in the USA.

The bears lodge butte (in Wyoming)

I mean LOOK at this, that is out of this world and breath-taking in every sense of the word! That is a location of a miraculous guardianship if I had ever seen one. Also known under the (sadly) much more well known name of "Devils tower" but this will be the one and only time you will read of me calling it like that. The fact that this butte is still officially called by this disrespectful and bastardized white peoples name is a freaking insult. I'm calling it the bears lodge as this was its original english name.

The bears lodge is not just a monument in the USA it is the VERY FIRST official monument (1906) and the location of the butte also checks out perfectly with the areas the Lakota settled in real life. I couldn’t get the exact scale but I think you will still understand just fine.

Adding to the Bears Lodge butte I also wanna bring up the "other" medicine wheel. Which is, just like Bears lodge, located in Wyoming.

As we know the rest of the native American miracle box is made of the zodiac signs just like in our normal miracle box. Confirmed not only on Twitter but also in the very intro of the New York special.

But the same way the miracle box is similar to ours the Medicine wheel as monument reminded me of something as well. Of course I'm talking about the ritual circle in the Kwami "dimension" of the box seen in “Sandboy”.

And just like the native American monument it is also of "astronomical" nature. Taking a closer look at the Chinese Kwami circle one can see that the outer ring is made of specific places for each Kwami signified with a picture of their "animal".

And in the inner circle is obviously the moon circulation.

Meaning, put very simple, this is a design specifically meant to represent the Chinese calendar and culture this miracle box is based on. Therefor this should also exist for the native american one. My guess Is that for all the boxes/cultures Miraculous is gonna include they will also have an “ritual circle” equivalents for each based on all the different kinds of stone circle monuments around the world, including the medicine wheel of the Lakota.

But not only was the medicine wheel monument used for astronomical purposes, with it the people wanted to give things back to mother nature. They placed things right in the middle of the wheel under the stones so nature could take it back "spiritually" (for a lack of a better word on my part) through their rituals and chants. Which is something once again similar to what we see with the Kwamis.

First if all, when the Kwamis (who are the embodiments of the abstract concepts reality is made of) enter their "dimension" in the miracle box the guardian symbol opens right at the center point, letting them cross the layers of reality.

Second, the Kwamis are obviously able to take material objects with them to the in-between dimension. Supporting and verifying the Lakota’s ritual because at the very least in the ML world its actually true. And thirdly, when the Kwamis try to reach Nooroo they chant as well and once again the collected energy is combined in the middle to cross the layers of reality. Gabriel is transformed though so he, as Hawkmoth, is able to almost take over the connection and therefore the miracle box if the Kwamis hadn’t blocked him.

This shows that the spiritual dimension layers are interactive from both sides under certain circumstances. A normal human being wouldn’t be able to cross the layers and take control like this but the more a person is involved with/ powered up by the miraculous the more power they hold interdimensional. Which is the idea of a ritual to reach the spiritual side of nature brought to a new 11 as TV shows usually do.

 4. The design of the guardian.

I'm definitely not the right person to properly judge this in depth therefore I will just showcase my opinion based on the research.

The way I see it for the guardians design they tried to combine the guardian "look" with the native American one.

The pants, staff and robe-like upper part are obviously influenced by the guardian we already saw through Fu's flashbacks, whereas the colors, the hairstyle and shoes (etc) are kept more Lakota-like. Though, as far as my opinion counts in this, the much darker skin and the eyebrows in comparison to Jessica does make me question if he is supposed to represent the same native American tribes as her. His bushy eyebrows are a physical characteristic I recognize in rarely any real life photos and neither did I notice such a noticeable difference in skin color.

Jessica and the guardian simply do not really look like they are of the same heritage to me, but again, who am I to say this isn't a legit representation? Besides that, it makes alot more sense that this guardian wasn't lost for almost 200 years like the ones in Tibet, so it is a fair option to consider that this black guardian may not be of "original Lakota heritage" but he is simply a worthy man born in this area of the USA (who knows in what year considering the guardians life spans) who was chosen and trained for the guardianship simply because he was the right fit for it just like Marinette.

I think it's only fair to consider that option as well, especially since we have NO official background on him. But that's just my opinion.

 And as the last thing I want to bring up is the symbol on his robe because this is something I'm going to need help with.

We can hardly see it and I've tried my best to find something in my research but I just couldn't find anything fitting.

If anybody has the means and knows if this is a cultural reference as well, I would appreciate it if this knowledge could be shared here as well. I really would love to know ^^

[thusatlas]

20

I have been wondering how to answer this for a few days now. For reference, the post and the subsequent question (feel free to ask for more):

Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

The obvious one story to go to is the Crownless. But I've been scratching my head on how to answer this without giving any spoilers because most of the stuff that I'm like 'aljnglajbgklrbgl' about, has been planted, but has not yet come to fruition.

So, I'm going to say that there will be spoilers in this post up to Chapter 20 if you have not caught up yet, and the rest is going to be a massive tease for what's to come.

(Which I think is rather fitting as we enter the last few chapters of part 1.)

Continue past this point at your own peril.

Hidden References

There are loads. I was brought up as a gamer, finding Easter Eggs is my crack. I'd love to go on about how, with the theme of wanting to fully embed the world in magical realism, I have incorporated a number of Easter Eggs from real life to enrich the text in a meta way - but that just simply isn't true.

I'm just a fiend who has a lot of fun with the freedom of fanfiction.

The most obvious one that near enough everyone who has commented has picked up on, is the Pirates of the Caribbean reference in Lucius' chapter.

My favourite Easter Egg of them all is that I have actually given away Raine's true identity and further hinted and the lore that goes with that identity. It's buried within the text, hidden in plain sight, which is in keeping with the theme of the story.

There's a fair few references to the Grimm Brother's, especially where the Black Forrest is concerned.

The narration style of 'describing the wallpaper' is a homage to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who have greatly influenced the humour and style of this entire fic. In particular here, the items that Hermione carries on her person is a direct callback to 'Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy'.

There's a reference to Deborah Harkness' 'All Saints Trilogy' (highly recommend these books). I read these and fell down the alchemical rabbit hole that led me to the Voynich.

There are all sorts of popular culture references, from Marvel to Jane Austin hidden within the text, simply because they were on my mind as I wrote them and it brought me great joy to have the freedom to write them.

Not everything is serious. However, I am seriously considering going through and making an Easter Egg masterlist, and anyone who can name them all will get a cookie.

Characters, relationships and hidden foreshadowing (because I love spinning webs)

There are loads, every character has an arc, whether it be big or small. Someone once commented that they weren't sure whether some details was a red-herring and what was real, while another commented that every detail given is a clue.

Both are right, unfortunately - all details mean something but whether they're there for worldbuilding or character development is only something that can be seen when the point comes to light.

The two characters who show this the best are Theo and Raine.

With Theo, we start with this roguish, glib, charming character, who's a touch flamboyant but generally a smooth white-collar criminal.

With Raine, we start with a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde character - Dr Jekyll being quirky, weird and unassuming. In the beginning, we only see brief touches of Mr Hyde - the serious, cold and calculating General. The overall effect is a character that I am pleased to see no one trusts.

But the clues are in the names. They always have been, they always will be.

Just the same way that Fear was a foreshadowing from chapter 1...

For Theo, the reader has had some indication of his character arc since Chapter 2. This was re-affirmed in Chapter 13 and again recently in Chapter 20. Theo is closely tied to my favourite Easter Egg, whose name ties into this whole thing, and further builds upon Harry's canon identity, as we see in Deathly Hallows. I shan't say more, because spoilers. But you will find out soon.

For Raine, it's trickier. Again, it's all in the names, and as I've stated, I dropped that Easter Egg a while ago. But then the reader is told that 'Raine Willows' is infact a careless name, thought up in the spur of a moment. A name is an identity, ergo, what sort of Being cares little about that? Further to this, his journey is closely tied with Hermione's - always has been. The more Hermione has fallen down the rabbit hole, the more Raine has moved away from Dr Jekyll and become Mr Hyde.

The crux of their arcs is closely tied to the heart of the story. For Raine, he is Hermione's mentor. The other characters - Draco included - move around Hermione. She is the constant.

Much the same as the central plot. No matter how many side plots or whatever there are, it's all a helix towards the same focus point.

Part 2

It is my hope, that by the time we begin part 2, all the pieces will be lined up, ready to go. The Fuckening is one really really long introduction, setting the scene and laying the foundation. In order for the plot to exist and for our characters to go on the journeys that they will in part 2, everything has to break.

The allegory

Don't mind me whilst I put on my pretentious hat and dust off my critical thinking robes.

There is a fuck tonne of symbolism, sometimes in the staging of a scene, sometimes in the character's behaviour - Narcissa and Draco chapter 20, the character development of a Messiah.

But by now, if you've been following me or have spoken to me for more than 5 minutes, inevitably 'worldviews' would have cropped up. I sincerely apologise, I am aware that I am a broken record.

I started this fic in a really uncertain time in the world. As a STEM social science researcher, it's my job to look at the big picture and at the time (and still relevant to me now) the question was, wtf is going on?

So for me, along with it being a conversation about the psychology of love and friendship in a deterministic world, I wanted to highlight the importance of belief systems. I wanted to show from a psychological perspective how civilisation is built upon a very fragile network of beliefs both individual and collective, and the agreed-upon social norms only continue to exist, because we as a collective continue to perpetuate them.

I wanted to show how easily those belief systems can break which is why we begin with the disappearance of a horse and a somewhat intelligent cat. And the only way I could do that was to base canon in magical realism. A norm so adjacent to the ones we accept today, is one that will fracture everything so thoroughly and so quickly, that I won't have to write a tome to get my point across.

The Crownless is a story told from multiple perspectives, seeing and living the same long and winding conspiracy. And in worldbuilding, I have tried to show perspectives of different stakeholders, how politics is again, a delicate promise spun from beliefs. The Crownless is not meant to be a serious piece of literature, but it's my way of showing the hypocrisy of claiming Absolute Good and Evil in any situation.

[rainofaugustsith]

Jedi Consular thoughts

After playing through the Jedi Consular story a third time, here are my thoughts. Spoilers for the JC class story. 

First and foremost: I want to give my Jedi Consular a hug. And I want to hack the navicomputer on her ship and send her to Rishi or Manaan or someplace beautiful and quiet so she can rest and relax for, oh, I don't know, a very long time. Everyone is on this poor woman's ass all the time to do something for them. Shield all the sick Jedi, Jenari. Engage in extensive feats of intergalactic diplomacy, Jenari. Oh wait, find the super special secret agents of the Emperor, Jenari. Give your strength to the Voss healers so you're literally doubled over in agony, Jenari. By the way, can you please mediate the Trandoshans' battle too, since you're also the Herald? And help me with my science project? And at the end of this, we'll reward you by...giving you more work. Seriously. That's the "reward" the assholes on the Jedi Council come up with for Jenari at the end of the class story. More work with the Republic military. That seems so completely poorly suited for her, given that her entire story arc has been about healing, learning ancient lore, interacting with different cultures and Force traditions and diplomacy. And when she saved Syo, she talked to him. Jedi Council, why aren't you appointing Jenari as Head Archivist or Master of Force Lore or Head of the Force Healing Department on Tython or something?!  I'm sorry Jenari. I know, I know, they didn't even give you a medal and they aren't going to let you retire to a nice quiet library to read. Here's a hug.  Having said that:  1. I've talked about this with mutuals before, but the Consular story shows how short-sighted the Jedi Council is on so many levels. Like...you've gone to the trouble of reconstructing this Noetikon with all of these storied Jedi Masters. Hello, Bastilla Shan is in the house. So let's make sure that only one Jedi ever learns the shielding technique that nobody else has known how to do for hundreds of years. I'm sure that's the best use of the knowledge. Teach it to one Jedi, don't let her teach it to anyone else, and then ask her to save every Jedi with an ancient Sith plague in the entire fucking galaxy. Go, Council! I'm sure there aren't any possible pitfalls with that strategy, including literally working this poor Jedi to death.  But look, she survived! So... 2. The Rift Alliance would have been better off separating from the Republic. I'm just going to say it. The Republic admitted flat out that they wanted the Rift Alliance planets for resources, not their own benefit. And Balmorra? Balmorra wants both the Republic and Empire to get the fuck off their world. You were not elected, Tai. I wish Jenari had been able to actually counsel them to leave the Republic for their own good. The Voss? Dude. You don't even respect the Force users there. But feel free to exploit them for their resources, I guess.  One fun thing is to have your Consular brightly tell Satele Shan and Kaedan that they should send more Jedi to Voss because the Mystics could teach them so much, just to watch both Jedi Masters suddenly get very, very uncomfortable.  Did I mention Jenari needs a hug? She could use some tea, too. And cookies. What? Those are dark sided. FFS, give her the damn cookies. Can I send her to live in the Esh-Kha's new colony with Hallow Voice? Or send her back to Voss with Gaden-Ko so she can hang out in the Shrine of Healing and get some rest? Maybe they will be nice to her.  3. Tharan Cedrax. I always think he is meant as audience wish fulfillment. The dude is arrogant, is brilliant, and has a very young looking woman who literally is programmed to do sexy dances, praise him effusively and give him unconditional love. And he can screw around with the JC and then drop her with no repercussions. 

FWIW Jenari always tells him "I'm not your Jedi" and absolutely refuses to go there. In playing my first version of Jenari, I was surprised that she rejected him when he approached the Alliance after Onslaught. But he was so arrogant, and Holiday wasn't there to blunt the hubris, and Jenari didn't want him back.  4. In the other corner, we have Qyzen Fess, Nadia Grell and Felix Iresso. IMHO these are some of the best companions in the class stories.  5. Okay. Felix. Jenari didn't romance him this time because she is a lesbian and that was hard, because IMHO this is one of the few M/F romances in SWTOR that I can stand. I honestly am constantly stumped why there isn't a huge fandom and love of this character and this ship because Felix is so amazing. 

I can't understand why they didn't bring him back for KOTFE. This dude deserved main story billing. He knew Aric Jorgan and they could have worked with that. And you're going to tell me that in a story where holocrons are important, they could not have found way to incorporate a character who literally has a Sith holocron in his head?! Anyway, I love Felix. His commentary on Belsavis is like the Best Dialogue Ever. I'm sure he gave Jenari hugs. Headcanon is that he's well aware that she is a lesbian and the two of them are BFF and are very close. 

6. The third chapter feels like it's a rehash of the first chapter. Except instead of the plague, we have the Children of the Emperor affecting Good People.  7. I feel like not enough is said about the reason why the plague happened in the first place - namely, the Jedi poked around in a Sith tomb, and then decided to literally sacrifice one of their own by throwing him to the wolves so they could make their getaway. Said sacrificed Jedi was, um, a little angry about that. Not that it justifies the plague, but what they did was really, really shitty. It showed that they felt Parkanas was disposable - which is the same vibe you get from the way the Council handles the Consular. 

I feel like the Jedi Consular would be in their element in the Alliance, with so many Force adepts from different backgrounds, and so many people from around the galaxy. That's how I headcanon it for Jenari. She does not want to be a Sith by any means, but she also does not want to go back to the Jedi and the Republic so she can be worked to an early grave. She just wants a nice quiet place to read. And a hug. 

[thespellweavingspirit]

My Elemental System

Today, I’d like to share with you some information about elemental systems. Specifically, I’d like to talk about my own. Many of you who have asked me to perform an Elemental Alignment reading know that I work within a system of 12 total elements. Some of you have asked me to explain my system, or parts of it, further. While I am always happy to discuss it and answer as many questions about it as I can, it has gotten a little repetitive over time. 

Wait, first of all, what even are elemental systems?

Put simply, elemental systems are situated within specific cultures, practices, and religions and organize certain ‘Elements’ that appear throughout that culture, practice, or religion’s beliefs, and may even form the core of their traditions. While some systems may appear similar, others are totally different from each other. There are a few common elements that appear frequently within multiple different systems, as well. You probably know them well: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water (or some version of these). 

Depending on the culture, practice, or religion, the elements are recognized and organized into a system differently. They may be fundamental to the creation/origin story of a religion, or to a practice’s ideologies. For example, the Japanese elemental system (The godai) is based on the Chinese and Indian concepts of elemental systems. The word ‘godai’ is made of the kanji 五 (go, meaning ‘five’) and 大 (dai, meaning ‘great’). As the name suggests, the Japanese elemental system is one of five elements: earth, water, fire, wind, and void. They each represent concepts that are central to Japanese culture and may be applied to many different aspects of the world including personality, spirituality, and even science. Here is some more about the Godai if you’d like to learn more about it!

There are many dozens of elemental systems across many cultures of the world. Though some may retain the same basic elements as others, it is important to note that it is not the elements themselves that make an elemental system, but rather, the way the culture views them and includes them in their daily lives, practices, and/or religions. 

So What About My Elemental System?

My system was foraged based upon my personal spiritual beliefs about the universe, souls, my past lives and experiences, and my practice. Each element has its own, distinct links to various forms of magic, concepts, and my own memories, experiences, and knowledge. There are twelve in total, separated into three groups with four elements in each group. 

The first group I have come to call The Essentials. They are Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. They are called The Essentials because they are the elements most commonly present in many different elemental systems and thus have lots of lore already written about them. They are also called this because these four elements form the base of my entire elemental system. 

The second group I call The Material Elements. They are Wood, Electricity, Metal, and Blood. They are the Material Elements because they are physical elements that represent four materials vital to my craft. 

The third and last group is called The Ethereal Elements. These are the non-physical elements in my craft: Spirit, Light, Dark, and Shadow. Each represents a different aspect of my spiritual path and has ties to the kind of magic most central to my craft. 

Each of these elements has a “domain” that defines how it behaves and what sorts of magic it lends itself towards well or poorly. Its domain can also include correspondences. When I perform an elemental alignment reading, I’m looking to see what kinds of elements your energy system is compatible with in terms of what kinds of magic you’re naturally good at, what kind of a person you are, what you lack, and what your strengths are. I separate a small amount of your energy from your energy body and expose it to the elements I work with, observing its reaction. Based on the reaction I perceive, I’m able to tell what you’re inclined towards magically at the time of the reading. 

The Domains of the Elements

The Essential Elements

Air: Its primary domains are freedom, movement, formlessness, breath, song/music, creativity, voice, communication, movement, academics, friendship, and the past. In magic, air lends itself well to any method of casting involving song, fast-acting short term spells, communication magic, and, to a lesser extent, illusion magic--especially illusionary sounds. 

Fire: Its primary domains are movement, passion, (sexual/romantic) love, physical activity, independence, and willpower. In magic, fire is good to use for fast-acting long term spells, magic that aims to release or destroy, and love and sex magic.

Water: Its primary domains are emotions, deception, time, creativity, balance, healing, growth, perseverance, and life. Used by those with an affinity for healing magic, it is very helpful in that regard. Otherwise, water is good for illusion magic or any kind of magic that aims to bend time/reality, slow-acting short term spells, and destructive magic. It can also be useful alongside empathic abilities. 

 Earth: Its primary domains are strength, family, protection, patience, stability, and reliability. It is best used for household wards, spells aimed to produce physical manifestations, financial magic, and slow-acting long term spells. 

The Material Elements

Wood: Its primary domains are connection and dependence. Bridges are built out of wood, so is paper (writing letters). When trees are alive, they are the pillar of forests. Animals and other plant life depend on them and, in some forests, they depend on each other. In magic, wood helps energies connect. That's partially why I think wooden wands can be so useful for directing energy. 

Electricity: Its primary domains are reaction, change, and destruction. Lightning will strike down forests, starting wildfires that rage out of control. It is sudden and nearly instantaneous. But electricity, in nature something so volatile, can also be condensed and harnessed to fuel societies. Electricity is good for magic that requires a lot of energy, magic that brings about drastic change, or magic that will have chain reactions. 

Metal: Its primary domains are foundation, protection, conduction, and malleability. Metal can be smelted and reshaped into pretty much anything. A sword to cut down your enemies; a tool for building structures; wires to conduct electricity; iron spikes to drive away the spirits that lurk outside homes; boxes that hold secret things inside. Metal is one of the most versatile elements for magical uses.

Blood: Its primary domains are relationships, destiny/fate, life, family, and sacrifice. The element of blood is useful in magic that incorporates the use of actual blood, such as kinship/ancestry work, bloodline curses and blessings, and containment magic/seals. 

The Ethereal Elements

Spirit: Its primary domains are divinity, divination, ethereal beings, psychic senses and abilities, and spiritual ancestry. Any magic that deals with psychic senses/abilities or divination is spirit’s specialty. 

Shadow: Its primary domain is liminality--the spaces and entities that lie Between. The ghostly realm for instance, or graveyards, or crossroads. Crossroads magic, spirit work, and death magic are examples of magic that shadow works well with.

Light: Its primary domains are truth, knowledge, the past, the outer world, and perception. In magic, light works well in glamours and spells that seek knowledge or truth. 

Darkness: Its primary domains are the unknown, exploration, fear, the future, and the inner self. I actually associate the practice of shadow work with Darkness, rather than shadow. Any magic that deals with the self is where darkness can help. It’s also particularly good at aiding in astral projection.

  End Note

This isn’t by any means the full list of the function of each element within my system; there are a lot of nuances and personal uses for the elements that I’m not listing here. I just hope that this answers some questions about how my system works. If anyone would like to discuss this system more please, feel free to dm me about it or just ask right in the notes!

[pleiades7]

are they meeting up? sapnap, dream and george, i mean? i saw a bunch of people (one person actually) saying things about george probably spending dream's birthday with him? he never said he was traveling to florida, did he? i chose the WORST TIME to join this fandom EVERYTHING is happening and i know NOTHING WHO IS TECHNOBLADE i met quackity when he used to read reddit posts WHAT IS LORE WHATS CC!DREAM help me please give me a summary where do i start who are these people and why is ranboo so much younger than me

Ohhhhhhh anon you sweet summer child. This ask made me laugh actually, it's so chaotic and I'm so sorry. Ok ok where to even begin? Ok I'll start by answering the specific quesitons you asked and maybe hopefully give you some more help ok? ok. there's a lot of information but you'll get a hang of it!!! This could get long so answer is under the cut. Also feel free to message me or send me another ask if you have more questions!

-So everything about george being in florida is mostly a joke/rumor. Sapnap and Dream are roommates right now as of about 6 months ago. George will be moving to Florida eventually, and Dream has said probably sometime this year. People have been speculating about george being in florida for literally a year now, but it hasnt happened. Maybe for his birthday? Maybe??? But dream also said they would tell us when the dream team meetup happens.

-Technoblade is another mcyt (minecraft youtuber) and he's on the dream smp (I hope you know what that is) and is good friends with a lot of those people. His mc skin is a pig wearing a crown :) He's most "famously" known for being super good at minecraft, being part of the sbi (sleepy bois incorporated which is wilbur, technoblade, tommy and philza), and his stuff on the smp. He and Dream had a little competitiveness for a while because they were both so good at minecraft, they had a duel sponsored by Mr Beast, and techno won.

-Lore is basically just the plot/storyline of the dream smp. All of the members of the dream smp play a character of sorts and they’ve written a huge story that everyone is involved in. There’s kind of a “main” storyline with a ton of different side plots along the way. I would start with tommyinnit since a lot of his content follows the main story line and he’s kind of a catalyst for a lot of the plot. Obviously some of the plot doesn't include him, but I would start with that. 

-Here is a playlist of 180 youtube videos that contains most of the lore for the server. Not every stream on the smp is considered a “lore” stream. But the style of the smp is based on roleplay. The lore started off as just a bunch of friends goofing off but suddenly L’manburg is created, eret betrays everyone and the sadist makes an animation and it’s a big deal. So they started writing lore, and making a cohesive story. This wiki page is also a good place to start as far as knowing all of the members and their respective characters. I haven’t read the whole thing so idk how accurate it is, but you could spend some time here to figure out the story. Here is a timeline of the different arcs in the story that will probably confuse you more than anything but this is the “lore”: 

-cc!dream just stands for content creator dream. People make this distinciton to know whether or not you’re talking about the actual real life person or the character (which is just c!dream). so instead of saying just dream is manipulative (which could be confusing if you don’t know if they’re talking about the person or the character) you say c!dream or cc!dream. 

-I wish I knew the answer to the last question. As an older fan I’m often wondering how all of these children are so young and awesome but here we are

I’m more than willing to elaborate on anything here, and answer any other questions. Feel free to message me too :) I didn’t give a summary of the lore because I started to try and it got very very long. If anyone knows of any blogs or posts that have a pretty good summary lemme know so I can link it!! Good luck anon!!!

And assuming this is also you, I’m so sorry I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about so no wonder you’re confused. Is it just fanart? which tag were you looking at? worms????

[mythopoeticreality]

For the reader asks: What do you wish more authors in your fandom would write about?, - What reader or write do you think most deserves a high five?, and Tell me a headcanon (and who you wish would write it)?

Ohh! Awesome! Just the questions I wanted to answer too! xD Thank you, you wonderful nonnie for sending me these!^^ I umm…I might get a bit long-winded here so bear with me….>.>

What do you wish more authors in your fandom would write about?

Oh dear…you just gave me free reign here to give you my fannish wish-list anon. Do you realize what you’ve done?!

Okay, no but, these are some of the ideas and characters I’ve most wanted to see more explored for such a long time now, so this might get a bit long as I’ve been thinking about some of these things for so long, so…let’s split this up by fandom:

Silmarillon/Tolkien:

More Tinfang please, definately! Probably my most obscure fav here,but he has so much potential? I mean, he’s this haf-fey pied-piper type figure and I just need like…all of the fic of him outwitting orcs and robin-hooding it up across Beleriand just basically ruining Morgoth’s day in his own small ways xD I love the idea of Tinfang being this folklorish figure amongst the elves, and I’d love to see more of that.

On that note: More Middle Earth Fairy Lore in general. Yeah I know most of this stuff is only half-canonical at best and pretty obscure, coming from the Book of Lost Tales, but still, it’s just fun? Again, I love the idea of elvish folklore, especially pre-Valarin folklore and I’d love to see more of it, and incorporating some of these older Lost Tales era ideas is such a great way to do it? Besides, the addition of fairies answers an age old question in Tolkien Fandom:

“…they were born before the world and are older than its oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much, for had they not somewhat to do with its making, so that it is for the most part a play for them…”

TELL ME THAT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE TOM BOMBADIL TO YOU!?! Case closed. Tom Bombadil is a Fairy.

Asside from Tinfang and Fairy lore, however, There are a couple of things I’d love to see more of in this fandom as well.

More Amlach would always be a blessing.I don’t really see why he is so often overlooked as a character either. Here’s this guy, he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m maybe not so cool with these Elves dragging us into this war of theirs that I certainly didn’t  sign on for’  but then Morgoth comes along, and sends one of his servants to impersonate him while he’s away. Amlach finds out is all ‘What?! You stole my face?! Oh it’s personal, now…” and then goes to find Maedhros and becomes one of his vassals to fight against Morgoth. He has to be one of my favorite Men in the Legendarium, and I can’t help but picture his relationship with Maedhros to be just…so full of snark. He’s not awed by these elves after all, he’s just here because Morgoth’s an asshole. Honestly, I can’t help but feel that if Amlach feels like Maedhros is wrong about something he will speak up about it. And..Maedhros actually appreciates that? Amlach’s honesty, I mean, maybe not the snark all the time xD I just want to see more of that relationship, and it’s development, blossoming into some kind of respect and friendship between the two. Basically Amlach is awesome and I want more of him.

Finally, I’d love to see more Eönwë/Mairon stuff? This is my ship! The whole tragic lovers-to-enemies dynamic that they could have going? Those moments where Sauron came begging to Eönwë at the end of the War of Wrath and things almost, almost looked like things could have been reconciled, where everything stood on a knife-blade and a held breath? YES, I am here for that. And yeah, I’m a sucker for redemption fics, so I’m here for AU’s where Sauron actually did turn around and seek the Valar’s forgiveness as well.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell:

*slams fist on table* More JSMN Crossovers! I mean, the King’s Roads literally go everywhere, and I can’t be the only one who sees the potential there! You’ve got all of fiction and reality open to you! For instance: 

Send Childermass off on the King’s Roads exploring Faerie and Looking for a way to read Vinculus, and have him stumble on into the DC Universe to run into John Constantine! They can be Snarky Northern Bastards together and deal with Fairies and Demons and Magic! 

Have John Uskglass wander into Wizarding New York in 1926 and meet Credence Barebone! Can you imagine what that would be like? The Raven King meeting this orphan kid who grew up in pretty much the exact opposite situation to himself, In a world where magic is kept a secret, and who had to spend his life suppressing this magic he had? What would be going through John’s head in that moment? What would be going through Credence’s? Can the Raven King take Credence under his wing, get himself a new apprentice? He should. That would be really cool. 

Oh, or what about Strange and Norrell while they’re trapped in the Pillar of Darkness? Send them to Valinor! Imagine the reactions of the Elves and the Valar at the approach of this huge Tower of Midnight. What New Sorcery of Morgoth’s is this? Is this the arrival of some new evil into their realm, like Ungoliant? Imagine this army of Elven warriors – the very same ones that Durring the War of Wrath fought to take down the source of all evil in Middle Earth �� all lining up and preparing for battle…only to discover a pair of fondly squabbling academics

Or you know what? We don’t even need the King’s roads for crossovers! One of the things I’ve been most wanting to see in this fandom is a Sandman/JSMN crossover just…focusing on the relationship between Uskers and Morpheus? Like, I could totally see Oberon’s Favorite Foster Son as having encountered the Lord Shaper over here during his time in Faerie? And just, as a being of Faerie, as a Magician, as a Legend in and of himself, he totally has this connection to Dream? And honestly….why wouldn’t I want to see these two being Melodramatic and Goth and Awesome together? I’d really love to see how they’d interact. (Crossovers involving Daniel would *also* be amazing too of course and I’d really love to see John dealing with the feelings of knowing but not knowing Daniel, of interacting with someone who is at the same time so much older and so much younger than himself. How weird does it have to get to begin to stretch at even the Raven King’s own standards for what is “normal?”) 

Other crossovers I’d like to see: John Segundus and Arthur Weasley hanging out because that would be just…the most adorable thing. And Also Henry Lascelles and Lucius Malfoy, because they just kind of deserve one another really xD

Asside from Crossovers I’d really love to read more things focusing on just the general history and world building in JSMN? I want to see like, the effects of magic on things like the Interregnum and the Restoration! I want to see what sort of History Play Shakespere wrote about John Uskglass and How opening night went! (You Know the Raven King showed up,watching from the shadows. You just know it.) I want to see Isaac Newton as a Magician, dammit! (speaking of that last one I got this lovely fic around Christmas Time about that very thing and I am eternally greatful for it, and y’all should go read it)

And honestly, more fics about the Aurate Magicians and John Uskglass would be amazing? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I want an entire series of novels dedicated to the Aurate era of Magic. I want *all* of the medieval politics and drama. How does John Uskglass interact with say…Emperess Matilda or Henry V? How does magic change things and introduce new issues that have to be delt with? Also…the characters of this time period just *fascinate* me. Yeah, John Uskglass, but also Thomas of Dundale? William of Lanchester? Catherine of Winchester? Donata Torrel and Margaret Ford and their troop of women magicians? Thomas Godbless? Walter De Chepe? Lookit. I just need *all* of the stories about the Aurates.

Oh, and one more thing: No 80′s AU JSMN fandom? I am Dissapoint. I need John Uskglass hanging out in Le Phonographique as is only his natural habitat ;P 

What reader or writer do you think most deserves a high five? 

But there are so many awesome people in both my fandoms? I mean Just going off of the top of my head…

@jordenspuls and @somepallings just seem like all around really cool people and it’s always a delight to see their back-and-forth crossing my dash (even if most of the time I’m too much an awkward nerd to say anything myself) Not only that but they’re also really awesome writers and if you like Johnsquared you should definitely check out both of their work!^^

@ohveda is also super-cool and is also an awesome writer, especially– again – if you like Johnsquared. Also, it always makes me smile when I see a comment on one of my metas, because we’ve always had nice discussion in the past. 

Of course I’ve gotta mention @regshoe here, for loving the Raven King as much I do, for always being an awesome person to talk to and for writing such amazing fic as well as comments in my own stories.

And on that same note, theseatheseatheopensea is another amazing writer in JSMN fandom (seriously, the writing is just georgous. Go read that Isaac Newton story.) and always leaves such lovely comments in my fic as well!^^

Finally, @thearrogantemu and @prackspoor have both written some of my favorite Silm fics.

Tell me a headcanon (and who you wish would write it)? 

Okay, so for most of my headcanons and ideas I don’t actually have an ideal writer in mind for any of them. I’d just really love to see what would happen if anyone took them up and ran with them.

That said, because I cannot provide any actual writers for these headcanons, I will give three each from each fandom to make up for it 8D

The Silmarillion/Tolkien:

  More Fairy Lore from Arda: Before encountering the Valar the elves would often leave out small offerings to appease the fairies and spirits of Middle-Earth. A few berries, a piece of meat from a good hunt, a dish of milk left out on the doorstep. After meeting Oromë and going to Valinor, the offerings became more craft-oriented and were said to be for the Valar, rather than the Fairies. Many – especially amongst the Vanyar – stopped leaving out offerings all together, seeing them as relics of the misunderstandings of the past, too pagan a tradition to continue with. MírielÞerindë, however did continue to leave out small scraps of brightly embroidered fabric as a tribute to Vairë whenever she began a new project. Fëanor continues on in this tradition, leaving a small wire spiral out on his workbench whenever he starts something new – not for the Valar or to keep the Fairies from interfering – but as a tribute to his mother.

Curufin is actually the best rider and horsemen amongst his brothers and taught Celebrimbor to ride 

Arien and Sauron were actually really close before Sauron’s eventual betrayal. Being some of the few Fire-spirits who remained on the side of the valar gave them a particular bond, and  Mairon was someone for Arien to turn to when the feelings of grief and betrayal that her brothers – The Balrogs – left her with grew to heavy. Well that was untill…

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell:

Catherine of Winchester actually didn’t start out as a particularly impressive Magician. Actually, if anything, magic was fairly difficult for her at first. Where she was impressive was in her dedication to her craft, and her shear stubbornness in it’s pursuit was what actually impressed the Raven King enough to take her on as a student (this one is actually a fairly new headcanon for me, but there is something about the idea that I find so appealing…)

Thomas of Dundale is actually a huge nerd when it comes to Arthuriana and tales of Chivalry. He was actually kind of having a bit of a fanboy freakout when he first learned Chrétien de Troyes wrote a song about him. xD More seriously though, tales of Knights and Brave Deeds were what he grew up on before being stolen away to Faerie, and during late nights in the Brugh, when neither of them could sleep, Thomas would keep both himself and John entertained with the old stories his nurse used to tell him. Sometimes he even thinks of himself and John as a kind of reversed Arthur and Merlin. 

William of Lanchester was actually one of the Raven King’s apprentices in his youth. That first week within John Uskglass’s company was one of the most frustrating experiences in William’s life, and by the end of it he well and truely hated John Uskglass and his particular manner of doing things. It was just so much the opposite to William’s own approach? He swallowed it down and pushed on anyway, because he did want to learn, but he ranted to Thomas (who he got on with brilliantly from the start) a lot about John during those early years of their relationship. Thomas helped him stick it out, Thomas gave him space to vent and honestly? Thomas helped smooth things over between William and John when they clashed the most. “He takes growing used to. But he’ll grow on you, if given a chance.” Thomas would say to him. William would just scoff. “Yes. Like a fungus.” Yet by the end of his apprenticeship, William found himself as one of the Raven King’s most trusted advisers and closest friends – and the thing that surprised William the most? When he realized it, he wasn’t surprised at all.

[frankenby]

Okay, I’ve been playing Pokémon Shield recently so consider this FE3H/Pokemon game crossover idea I had for a moment.

Characters:

As of right now, I’m only going to put who I think would be gym leaders/Elite Four people. I may or may not have given every student (and some other characters) pokémon teams with four pokémon each, except if people don’t care about this then I’m not going to do much more with it except for my own personal enjoyment.

Elite Four

Sothis: Champion I think it’s pretty obvious why she’d be the champion. They’re very respected and powerful, but she’s still given the opportunity to be elusive and mysterious.

Rhea: Headmaster of Trainer School (Explained in plot) and Elite Four Member She’s not as powerful as the champion, but she is still quite powerful. I’m thinking she’d specialize in psychic pokémon or dragon pokémon.

Lambert: Elite Four Member Dimitri will be well-known and respected, considering how powerful his father is. He will also have a lot to live up to. I’m leaning towards making Lambert specialize in ice type pokémon because Faerghus=cold and cold=ice.

Patricia: Elite Four Member Again, having your mother be on the Elite Four will make you well-known. Also, it’s plot important. I feel like she’d specialize in fire type pokémon because... you know. Flame Emperor.

Reigan: Elite Four Member Claude’s grandpa doesn’t have a name, so I feel like he’d go by his last name. Again again, being on the Elite Four will mean that Reigan’d grandson is well-known. I kind of feel like he’d be an electric type gym leader because... I don’t know. Yellow?

Gym Leaders

So I would make the nobles gym leaders, but also there are too many nobles and not enough gym leaders. Here’s what I have so far. My reasoning may be garbage (as you can probably tell from the section about the Elite Four)

Rodrigue: Ice Type Gym Leader I will say it again. Faerghus=cold, cold=ice. I just feel like Rodrigue should be a gym leader.

Holst Gonriel: Fire Type Gym Leader Holst was a General in the Alliance and was respected for that, so it makes sense that he’d be a gym leader. Why fire? I don’t know, but I’ve connected dots that aren’t actually connected in anyway to justify myself for this long, so... He probably has pink hair, pink=light red red=hot hot=fire

Seteth: Psychic Type Gym Leader Okay, I swear I had a reason for making him a psychic type gym leader and not a dragon type one, but I can’t remember it. Please just trust me. Or don’t. Please feel free to argue with me, actually. Also, Flayn would most definitely be like Wally and want to be a trainer, but Seteth would be like, “No. it is too dangerous, but you may have this Togepi.” Then Byleth would beat him and he’d be like, “Having my ass kicked by this child has made me rethink my view point. You may be a pokémon trainer now, Flayn.” And yes, Flayn is referred to as his daughter in this.

Miklan: Rock Type Gym Leader I don’t know. I don’t know why I want him to be one. I don’t know why rocks. Just rocks. “Not bad for your kind. A bunch of rocks.”

Cornelia: Ghost Type Gym Leader Tell me this woman wouldn’t have a Mismagius and/or a Hattrene. It just fits.

Jeralt: Steel Type Gym Leader I originally had this as Gilbert, but I feel like it would make more sense for it to be Jeralt. I guess maybe the reason for him sending Byleth to school/them moving would be so he could be a gym leader. Also, steel makes sense because he was a knight, I guess?

Ladislava: Flying Type Gym Leader I love her, okay? So I put her in here. What are you gonna do about it? Ground me? You can’t. Speaking of ground, I was going to make her a ground type gym leader, but it makes more sense for her to be a flying type because she’s got a wyvern, so flying type.

Judith: Fighting Type Gym Leader Again, I love her. It just makes sense to me for her to be here. Why fighting? She is the hero of Daphnel. She’s good at fighting.

Plot:

I came up with this at midnight when 1/6th of my brain cell was functioning. It’s probably got things in it that don’t fit the lore/are just not good and I’m sorry. :( If you want to add ideas onto anything I’ve put on here, please do. Feedback would make me very happy. Also, I have no idea what I’m using this plot for, it just exists because I made it and I wanted to share it.

What if there was an optional school for those interested in trainers? I’m actually pretty sure something similar exists but I could be wrong. Prior to their journey, they could receive a starter Pokémon and be taught how to strategize. Byleth and Jeralt could move to the nearby village a few months after the school year begins, but Jeralt could convince the headmaster—Rhea—to let Byleth join. Byleth could recieve their starter Pokémon I don’t know what the starters would be and battle against someone maybe Jeritza or Catherine or Shamir idk as a sort of entrance exam.

Upon passing, Byleth could be allowed to join one of the Three Houses. I’ve been considering naming the houses after the legendary dogs, the legendary birds, or the lake guardians.

(The paragraphs in italics are just talking about the potential names for the houses, so you can skip it if you don’t care about that.)

So I feel like Entei, Raikou, and Suicune could definitely work, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about naming them something like, “The Entei House.” You could, of course, use their titles, but that would be something like, “The Volcano Pokemon House” and im not sure about that either. Still, I know Arceus is rumored to have played a part in these Pokémon becoming legendaries, and Arceus is going to play a part in the plot.

Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres could also work, but again, the names would be weird. “The Articuno House” Or “The Ice Bird House.” I just feel like those are weird, however I do like that the types for each House are different.

Then there’s Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Their colors match pretty well, and the titles of these Pokémon could definitely relate two the House leaders. Uxie is the knowledge Pokémon and it is also yellow. Claude’s color scheme is yellow, and he’s very witty. Azelf is the willpower Pokémon and it is also blue. Dimitri’s color scheme is blue and Dimitri often has to restrain his impulses and strength. Mesprit is the emotion Pokémon and it is also pink, which is pretty close to red and it has red gems. Edelgard’s color scheme is red. The only issue with this is that Edelgard isn’t any more emotional than other characters, or at least that is what I feel. If anyone has anything to add regarding this, please feel free to say so! (Especially if I’m wrong about my Pokémon lore.)

The house Byleth picks would determine who their rival is (it’s the house leader) and who they would interact with more often. (Trainers sometimes travel in groups, so it wouldn’t be uncommon for them to see all of their old classmates hanging out.)

Again, the plot of the story was created by me at 12:00 am after reading a few bulbapedia articles on Pokémon stuff so that I could find the correct Pokémon to use.

So Sothis is the champion. Not many people have the opportunity to face her, and she’s very secretive. No one knows how long she’s been the champion, either. So I wanted her to have befriended a legendary Pokémon, but I also wanted her to be immortal (or at least I wanted her to have lived for a long time.) So, I decided to have her befriend Jirachi, the Pokémon that grants wishes. She became the Pokémon champion, but as she got older she wished that she could keep living and defend her spot as champion until someone defeated her in battle. Her wish was granted, and at some point she had children, Rhea and Seteth. I’m not incorporating her other children and I’m keeping their names, too. The Elite Four are the only people who really speak to Sothis, along with her son and granddaughter. They are obviously suspicious of why she looks so young and how she’s been there so long, so Sothis tells them the truth. When Rhea finds out, she is determined to protect her, knowing that being defeated in battle will mean she will die. Patricia, however, wants this power for herself. She secretly forms and becomes the leader of a team called Team Flame wow so creative I know who’s goal is to obtain the azure flute, capture Arceus, then use it to defeat Sothis, as Patricia is unable to defeat on her own. Cornelia, Ladislava, and Jeritza will also be members of Team Flame. Once Byleth defeats/captures Arceus, Sothis will ask Patricia if she really wants to be immortal and watch as all of her loved ones leave her behind. Patricia is remorseful, and Sothis asks her to return to the Elite Four. Once Byleth defeats Sothis, she peacefully fades away and Jirachi also departs.

That’s all I have for right now, but I would love for there to be an open discussion about FE3H/Pokémon because I love both and they are all that’s on my mind right now.

[pepeangogoan]

I’m not dead (yet)

Hey remember that time I disappeared from tumblr for a while and then came back and said I wasn’t going away again... and then I went away again? Good times.

Just like before there are a number of contributing factors.Tumblr for some reason not responding whenever I try to upload anything (I REALLY hope I’m able to upload this one). Real life starting to build up again. Finding it hard to motivate myself to do anything in Final Fantasy XIV. Not that I like the game any less, I still love it, but some days all I can really do is log in maybe do a roulette or a raid run... and that’s it. Though with the recent patch introducing new Blue Mage spells I do find myself staying on a bit longer now.

But due to all this and more it’s been hard to actually get anything posted on this blog. This is a shame because I really wanted to conclude the Pepean VS R’atohna stuff. In the past I’ve started plenty of lore things with my characters and I haven’t finished them (bringing up that Eliza’s father is still alive being the first example that comes to mind), and I really wanted to break that cycle this time... but sadly I ended up falling back into it. I may not have a huge following, but I do like sharing my ideas and finishing what I start. However, as thing stand right now I really don’t think I can finish the Battle of the BFFs stuff.

That said, this is partially the reason I wanted to do this post. Instead of just abandoning it outright I thought I’d give a basic summery of what I was originally planning to do. So if you’re one of the three people who were actually interested in where I was going with my characters please feel free to read on. Otherwise thank you for reading this far, and I’m sorry for my absence for so long. Hopefully I can make a comeback in the near future, but we’ll see.

Right so, I believe the last post I did on this was Pepean staring at Eulmore and monologuing about how he’s likely going to have to fight his best friend again when they assault it. I did have panels on their interaction before this inevitable fight made, but as I said before: tumblr wouldn’t let me upload them. It would have taken place just after the final battle with Ran’jit and would have Pepean making one final attempt to reach out to his friend, only to find that he’s still completely in Vauthry’s control. The two would fight once again with Pepean ultimately being the victor this time, leaving R’atohna unconscious.

After Vauthry escapes and Eulmore is liberated Pepean would find his old friend again, now free of Vauthry’s control. It would turn out that when the two of them crossed over into The First something happened to separate them on the journey through. While Pepean got sent to the Crystarium, R’atohna landed in Eulmore. Seeing the light within him Vauthry knew he could use him, so brought him in and started feeding him meol, R’atohna being completely unaware what it was made of. Just like with his other servants, this gave Vauthry the ability to control the Miqo’te’s mind, and after having him test his combat skills against Ran’jit he made him one of his generals. While R’atohna had no control over what he was doing his Echo made him completely aware of his actions. Now free from Vauthry’s control he heavily regrets his actions and begins to question whether or not he’s still worthy of being a hero and fighting by Pepean’s side. However his Lalafell friend is quick to give him a pep talk, reminding him that his actions weren’t his own and that there’s still a chance to make things right. With that R’atohna agree to rejoin the fight, with he and Pepean shaking hands as they acknowledge each other as “Brother”.

After this the main story didn’t give me a heck of a lot to work with as far as incorporating Pepean and R’atohna went, though I thought it would be best to have R’atohna on the sidelines for a bit, still injured from his fight with Pepean (he’d even joke that “For such a little person... you hit hard!”). He would of course help out with getting the giant Talos built where he could, but would be unable to assist in the assault on Gulag. From here the plot would have played out pretty much how it did in the main game, with Pepean defeating Vauthry, only to find himself becoming a Sin Eater, to the reveal of The Crystal Exarch being G’raha (with R’atohna even noting that he looks like him, because I partially based R’atohna on G’raha), to Emit-Selch reminding everyone “Hey, I’m the bad guy remember”, to the whole “I’ve got a sympathetic backstory so you can’t totally hate me” stuff, to the final fight with Hades, The First being saved and so on. Like I said, I didn’t have a heck of a lot to work with in terms of Pepean and R’atohna interaction here, especially now that I’d had R’atohna become free of Vauthry’s control.

However, the next advancement I’d have for my characters would come in their return to The Source. Upon arriving and reuniting with their friends again, Pepean and R’atohna take a much needed rest. Pepean would return home to a loving reunion with Eliza but would quickly find something’s still not right with him. He can no longer communicate with nature. He can’t create Aetherial being anymore. He’s unable to harness the power of the elements. Pepean lies awake at night realising a horrible truth... he’s no longer able to use magic. Upon further examination it turns out that the light of the Lightwardens he absorbed did more damage to him during his corruption than he thought, namely disrupting the Aetherflow within his body. Pepean would consult his friends on this, his heart sinking as he realises his dream of becoming the greatest magic user has now been torn away from him. Thing is, I wanted to show more of a character to Pepean, rather than having him just be an upbeat Lalafell. I wanted to show him vulnerable, scared, and even disheartened. I wanted to advance his character a bit and I thought a good way of doing that would be to take him out of his role as a White Mage and into the role of a Gunbreaker. This gives him a bit more tragedy in his life (not that he didn’t have enough of that already), now his dream, the thing he lived for, the whole reason he became an adventurer in the first place, has been torn away from him. This would just be a lore thing however. While I love Gunbreaker, I still plan on maining Healer roles within the game itself and mastering all magic classes. This is just a lore thing to advance Pepean a bit more for this blog.

While Pepean’s friends do try and comfort him during this difficult time, it’s still a heartbreaking situation for him. But hope does come to him from a very unlikely outcome. As Eliza, Terry, and Selaine try to comfort the depressed Lalafell, R’atohna comes in wearing his basic adventuring clothes (the starting gear) again, with Misago by his side. He says he’s thought long and hard about it, and he’s decided to quit the life of a Dragoon once again, though this time for good. The life brought him nothing but difficulties, both during the Heavenward stuff and after being used in the role to fight his best friend. He says that with the Dragonsong War over, Ishgard no longer needs an Azure Dragoon, something he understands Estinien realised as well. Pepean its quick to point out to him that he had a dream of being like a lance wielding hero who saved him as a child, but R’atohna explains that he has a new hero he wants to be like now: his best friend. He’s decided that if Pepean can’t achieve his dream of being a great magic user then he’ll do it for him, saying that if Pepean’s going to defend them as a Gunbreaker he’s going to need someone by his side to keep him healthy. As such R’atohna is now pursing learning healing magic (with my intention of having him become a Scholar). While Pepean does say he wishes he could be there to teach him everything he knows but he’s unable to now, R’atohna tells him not to worry as he looks to Misago and says he has a great teacher already, to which Pepean agrees. So the two begin pursuing new paths, with Pepean promising to become the best Gunbreaker he can be, while R’atohna promises that no harm will come to his friend as long as he’s around. 

At first it seems like Pepean is in a similar position to Thancred, being unable to enchant his ammo, he eventually develops his own work around to it which he calls “Drawing”. While he can no longer use magic he’s able to find a way to Draw it out of the creatures he fights in order to charge his ammo (yes, this is meant to be a homage to Final Fantasy VIII).

If you’ve actually read through all this thank you very much. This is as far as I’ve gotten with character lore stuff so far. 5.1′s MSQs didn’t give me a whole lot to work with in regards to moving this plot forward. I imagine Pepean dealt with the stuff in The First alone, while R’atohna began his training at the Arcanist Guild. Soon I obviously plan to incorporate Eliza, Terry and Selaine into the story, having them come to The First too, but I thought it better to suss things out with just Pepean and R’atohna first. Pretty much any posts I make going forward are going to be continuing on from this lore. I hope you enjoyed what I’ve come up with and will continue to support my blog. Now, hopefully I can get this posted and get back to work on more FFXIV related stuff.

Thank you all so much.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Yo! The name’s Sparky– or at least, I enjoy calling myself that as a cool alias and watching all the messages come in of people saying I remind them of their old dogs– and I believe I’ve posted here a couple times in the past few years. Thing is, I never cease to get a few great jackpot responses from my ads every time I do this, but eventually, roleplays tend to slow down and people tend to disappear off the radar [which is completely fine, I get it], and I always seem to keep discovering new ideas and fandoms I wanna dive into over time. So, I rinse and repeat and post again, and that’s what I’m here to do, today.

  Just to get it over with, I’m nineteen years old, have been roleplaying for about eight years, now, and am willing to roleplay with anyone of legal age in their state, if only because I enjoy incorporating smut into my roleplays. If you’re somebody who likes to fade to black every time characters get freaky with each other at points in our story, I’m unfortunately not the gal for you. I enjoy long-term plot heavy stories for the most part, but am totally down for PWP as well, so feel free to message me for either.

  At the moment, I’m mostly looking for a buddy who wants a Fandom roleplay (Canon/OC), so please contact me if you’re interested and match pretty damn well with the rest of these guidelines:

  Care about your writing. I’m not asking you for a whole fuckin’ novel every response, you can write however much you’re comfortable with as long as It’s more than one sentence, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t have a spelling error or a typo every other word. Everyone makes mistakes, I’ve been there on many, many… many, occasions (it’s no joke, man), but like– just try, y’know? To me, lazy writing shows a disinterest in the roleplay, which is a huge turn off for me.

On the same wavelength as above, please don’t feel stressed over how much you’re writing or if it matches enough to mine. Again, all I’m asking is for my partner to be interested and care a little about what they’re typing; I tend to write a LOT for roleplays I’m excited about but I’m not expecting you to respond with the same amount at all. If your limit is three paragraphs max, stick to three paragraphs max. If you love writing novels every response, I will fuckin’ read… ALL of that novel.

I will ONLY write Double-up roleplays [unless you for some reason are just looking to play a canon character], I am making this very clear because not only do I fuckin’ love seeing all the different characters people create, but also because the more the merrier. I like it when these things are played fairly– I play a character for your OC in return for you playing a character for mine.

25 is way funnier than 24

Most of my pairings will likely be M/F or F/F (seeing as right now I only have one M/M pairing when it comes to canon/OC, and you’ll only be seeing them if you’re looking for Homestuck), but your side is totally free game. Do what you want. I’m also chill with Polyamorous ships and/or love triangles as long as you’re cool with the possibility of me going that route, as well.

It would be appreciated if you care about your side of the roleplay about just as much as you care for mine. I’ll totally do the same; I will get overly attached to everyone in our roleplay.

Please be okay with our OCs being eventual buddies sometime in the roleplay; I have a guilty pleasure for connections between all characters, even if it takes like, a roleplay-year for them to meet. Obviously, if we end up planning something wherein that’s not possible, that’s chill, too.

OOC chat is 100% welcome– throw me all your jokes and ideas and stupid scenarios and possible future Ideas for the roleplay, tell me how much you love that one subject, talk to me about your day. I’m here for it.

  Some extra info for those people who REALLY wanna know what they’re getting into:

  I have 0 limits, on like, everything. The smut we write out can be weird kinks galore for all I care, there can be suicide and torture and pedophilia and major deaths and mental illnesses in our plot; and I have a bad habit of assuming my roleplay partner can handle anything I dish out in writing so just, if you have hard limits make sure to tell me about them before they can come up in an awkward situation.

I’m totally down to share kinks before a roleplay; ESPECIALLY if we’re jumping into PWP or a smut-centric plot

I’m a very carelessly blunt and a smartass, so If I say anything that makes you uncomfortable just tell me and I’ll chill out a bit.

I’m in Mountain Time

I mentioned this before but my responses can range from like chapter-in-a-novel to a few paragraphs, and I’m not expecting you to match me in the slightest. Do what you do and we’ll be fine.

I very much love talking about character and relationship headcanons and shit, so like, hit me with all of your ideas, I could talk about this shit for hours.

I draw. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. There’s a large chance I’ll end up drawing characters from OUR roleplay, so just let me know beforehand if that’s not something you’re okay with.

I’m pretty flexible with response times, but it would be appreciated if you tell me beforehand if there’s something going on in your life that’ll make your replies more scarce than usual.

  FANDOMS: bolded names are preferred in the fandom.

  [Tokyo Ghoul]

Wanted: Juuzou Suzuya, Uta Will Play: Anyone from the fandom in general. Really. I’m completely caught up with the manga, and I’ve watched all available seasons. I’m kinda obsessed.

  [Invader Zim]

Wanted: Dib Membrane

Will Play: Anyone, I’ll play Sizz Lore for all I care, fuckin’ love this show and It’s comics.

  [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]

Wanted: Donatello, Raphael [2012], Casey Jones [2012]

Will Play: Any turtle, Casey Jones, Splinter, April O’neil, Karai [2012], Mona Lisa [2012], etc.

  [Homestuck]

Wanted: Dave Strider, John Egbert, Sollux Captor, Cronus Ampora, Terezi Pyrope, Gamzee Makara, Karkat Vantas

Will Play: Anyone. Again. The trolls, the kids, the midnight crew, the Cherubs, Doc Scratch, Lord English, Hussie himself I guess, they’re all available.

  [Sonic]

Wanted: Buddy the Wolf, Silver the Hedgehog, OCs

Will Play: Fuck, this fandom’s kinda ridiculous. Just request any character you want, I’m sure I can play 90% of them, or we can just build shit around OCs.

  [Creepypasta]

Wanted: Ticci Toby, Jeff the Killer, Ben Drowned

Will Play: I haven’t been around in this fandom for quite some time, but you can request anyone– If I don’t know them yet, send me their story and I’ll figure it out.

  [Undertale]

Wanted: Mettaton… Maybe Chara

Will Play: Anyone but Sans. Please, not Sans. Not again. Never Again.

  [Diabolik Lovers]

Wanted: Kanato Sakamaki, Laito Sakamaki

Will Play: Yui Komori, Ayato Sakamaki, Laito Sakamaki, Shu Sakamaki, Reiji Sakamaki, Subaru Sakamaki, Kanato Sakamaki, Cordelia

DISCLAIMER: I’m totally willing to dive into this fandom, But I warn you I’ll probably make a character that’s somehow logically capable of beating the shit out of any of the vampires, because I have this weird love-hate grudge on this fandom and want to make a strong female that can put them in their place. Otherwise, feel free to request whatever you want for your side. As of this point I’ve only seen the first season, but maybe I’ll get around to forcing myself to watch the second and I can offer more characters to play.

[Free!]

Wanted: Rin Matsuoka, Sousuke Yamazaki, Rei Ryugazaki

Will Play: Anyone from the first season, still haven’t gotten around to finishing the second, yet

  If you want to contact me for a roleplay but are currently only interested in OC/OC, I’m willing to work with you as long as you message me with some sort of plot in mind. I tend to only play dominant females if you want an M/F relationship, just as a heads up.

  CONTACT ME

Email [Preferred]: Gatorteeth333@gmail.com

Discord: Sparky#4225

Tumblr: http://thesparkyshark.tumblr.com

[viollscovehq]

Are sirens and elves common in their modern society that they’re all well known? Would any of the skeletons be some? Or even half? Sorry if this is silly!

Not a silly question at all! I’m of course, so down for answering questions about lore. I’ll talk about Sirens first, and then get into Elves second since they’re a bit more complicated. But to answer the second skeleton real quick: no, none of the skeletons should be completely a mythical creature. We’ll talk about half or less so later, but in the most simple way, it would make it too complicated, and drive away from the core “slice of life” element of this plot.

(I’m putting it under read more because it got long. Please feel free to ask more questions, or message me if something doesn’t make sense)

As for Sirens! They are common, yes! Sirens exist all around the world, however, in America, they are primarily along the East coast in the Atlantic (they occupy most of the Atlantic in general so that’s how you can follow them globally. Because Violl’s Cove is big for fishing, their Siren culture is very deeply rooted compared to some coastal cities. As stated in the Lore page (which I recommend looking over again to help solidify things) After the All-Human Marriage bill was put into place, “Human and siren marriages surpassed human and elf marriages within the first five years.”  Which can help to picture that they’re pretty common in Violl’s Cove.

The bummer part is, and again, this is mentioned in that same portion of the lore page, having human/siren children is next to impossible. Not only is it the unsavory factor of… a human having sex with a half-fish, but if a pregnancy were to happen, the differences in DNA would make birth defects or miscarriage extremely likely. It’s happened in the past, where rare few children have been born of human and siren parentage, but it’s not really a modern thing, nor would that blood relation to something like that offer much advantage in a supernatural sense. Being a child of a siren and a human is still possible, though! They just adopt (and I’d be really interested in the dynamic, emotionally, of having a sea parent, and a land parent).

As for Elves! They are also really widely known. In the US, Elves are dense in heavily wooden areas, so there are large populations in the mid-west, as well as the pacific north-west. However, they litter all around the country, and a community of Elves have been in Violl’s Cove for centuries, long before humans moved there. 

However, the culture between Humans and Elves is a bit wishy-washy. Elves in this world, to no shock, are very hoity-toity. Even if Marriages between them have been legal for decades, Elves are very strict, culturally, about keeping Elves pure. The only reason humans and Elves have been able to exist peacefully for the last century, and not try to kill one another, is a mutual respect and understanding of different cultures. They all live by the same laws but other than that, they live separately. 

Every once in a while, an Elf will end up falling in love with a human. Elves being Elves, they’re pretty up their own butt, stubborn, and loud, so it’s hard to tell an Elf no, even one who’s breaking away from the culture. Typically it just means that they leave Elven society and live with humans. Not exactly disowned, just a mutual choice that if you want to be with a human, you live in that world. It’s not extremely common, but it happens.

As for children, they can can conceive children together, and you can meet people who are Half-Elves in human society. They are not recognized by Elven society, however. While respected, they wouldn’t fully accept you into their space. In the home, they might still have Elven cultures integrated, but mostly just from their Elf parent passing things along. Mostly in the form of meals, cultural beliefs, and sometimes magic if they were a witch-elf.

Hopefully this helped! I also want to make clear that both of these things are not common, and that only a couple characters would have these backgrounds. Most of them are meant to be human, but please incorporate any sort of lore as you see fit!

[syrupwit]

Just Married Exchange 2019 Letter

WARNING: CONTAINS AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILERS

Hello, and welcome to my letter for Just Married Exchange 2019! Thank you very much for considering creating a fanwork for me. This letter is intended to provide optional details and potential inspiration; my primary intention in writing it is to make things easier for my assigned creator. If it’s not doing that for you, please feel free to disregard it.

My AO3 profile is here.

For this exchange, I’ve requested fic only for the following fandoms and pairings, divided into themed sections for ease of browsing:

Dishonored: Corvo Attano/Delilah Copperspoon, Delilah Copperspoon/Emily Kaldwin

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/2012!Tony Stark [Endgame spoilers]

The Umbrella Academy: Allison Hargreeves/Luther Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves

DNW / DO NOT WANT

Hopeless or unremittingly dark endings

Rape/non-con

Underage sex

Non-canonical permanent major character death

Onscreen animal harm/death (referenced/implied nonspecific death is fine)

Onscreen child abuse (referenced/implied past abuse is fine)

Bestiality, necrophilia, scat, permanent non-canonical significant body modification

Characters in requested romantic ships being written as asexual/aromantic

Character or ship bashing

GENERAL LIKES

Humor: ludicrous/cracky premises treated seriously or unseriously; comedic action sequences; comedy of errors; hijinks; absurdity; gallows humor.

Romance: first times; get-together; pining; friends to lovers; enemies to lovers; UST; belligerent sexual tension; flirting, especially when one character doesn’t think the other is being serious; flirting in established relationships; possessiveness and jealousy without entitlement.

Action/Adventure: time travel; interdimensional/multiverse travel; escaping from captivity together; camaraderie, teamwork, unusual team-ups; missions/cases and snippets thereof; undercover as XYZ; identity porn; road trips of the terrestrial, extraterrestrial, aquatic, and supernatural varieties; space travel; visiting other planets; wilderness survival; climactic warehouse confrontations; wacky foes/locations/circumstances for battles; bar fights.

Smut: characters feeling overwhelmed; lots of emotions; awkwardness; praise kink; unexpectedly compatible; kink discovery/exploration; characters being really into their partner and/or what they’re doing and/or how into what they’re doing their partner is. I will read pretty much any kink besides my DNWs if the characters are jazzed about being together and doing the specific act(s).

Miscellany: atmosphere, mood, immediacy; character studies; missing moments; surrealism; slice of life; domesticity; appetizing descriptions of food; diners; carnivals; big scary buildings with tragic histories; mansions; abandoned mansions; secluded or remote locations; forests; beaches; holidays; seasons; weather; thunderstorms; getting caught in the rain.

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DISHONORED

Corvo Attano/Delilah Copperspoon Delilah Copperspoon/Emily Kaldwin

Delilah! She's the best/worst. What if her coup in Dishonored 2 taken a slightly different approach? Alternately, what if she'd shown up earlier to claim the throne? I'm tickled by her creeping on Corvo as the Heart and her tension with both Corvo and Emily. I'm fine with UST or weird feelings/foe-yay instead of straight-up romance for both pairings.

Please note that I love these games + world/lore and am spoiled for everything.

Freeforms Requested:

Disastrously Incompatible Political Marriage: Because it so would be. How might future history books characterize a Corvo/Delilah or Delilah/Emily co-rulership? What about journalism of the day? How would they fare resolving problems in the empire? Diplomacy? Daily life? Or maybe they suck as co-rulers, but unexpectedly discover that they’re okay at fighting together or living an average life?

Disastrous Wedding Ceremony Everyone Will Gossip About For Years: PLEASE. How rushed or drawn-out was the wedding planning? Has one of them been trying to sabotage the ceremony with clashing decor choices, or perhaps with murder? ...Does the Outsider crash the reception?

Is my spouse trying to kill me | Someone's trying to kill me and I think it's my spouse: Grouped together for being thematically similar. I feel like Delilah is a more likely candidate for the role of spouse-attempting-murder, but I’m intrigued by the reverse as well.

Marriage is Interrupted by an Assassination Attempt and they Continue After they Take Care of Them | planned assassination during wedding night goes wrong: Again, grouped together for thematic similarities. Who hired the poor assassins? If Delilah or Corvo / Emily end up having to use their powers, how do they deal with the aftermath?

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.[Buffer space for Endgame spoilers below!]

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MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

Peter Parker/Tony Stark 2012!Tony Stark/Peter Parker

Wooooo! \m/ This is my MCU OTP at the moment. I adore their mutual importance to each other, their easy teamwork and camaraderie despite the age gap, and the potential for ANGST ANGST ANGST and pining as well as humor and fluff. I love stuff where they’ve been pining mutually and self-awarely for a long time, but also stuff where one or both parties don’t realize their feelings until XYZ catalyst forces them to.

Please note that my underage DNW does apply here, although UST and feelings/pining while Peter is underage are fine with me.

I'm totally down with Infinity War / Endgame compliance or canon divergence AUs (e.g., the universe where Thanos disappeared in 2014, AUs where they defeated Thanos in IW, Civil War was resolved without Tony recruiting Peter, etc.). Please feel free to run with the freeforms as-is, or check out the expansions and prompts below.

Freeforms Requested:

Accidental Travel to an Alternate Universe With an Unexpected Spouse | Permanently Transported To Alternate Universe Where They're Married To Person Who Is Dead In Theirs | Temporarily Transported To Alternate Universe Where They're Married To Person Who Is Dead In Theirs: I’m intrigued by the idea of Peter traveling to an alternate universe where he’s somehow married to Tony, but also by the idea of Tony -- post-IW Tony, perhaps -- stumbling on a world where he’s married to Peter, perhaps in the course of trying to reverse the Snap.

Trapped In Fake Perfect World That Includes Marriage They Don't Believe They Can Ever Really Have: Oh no! Who’s trapped? Who’s the fake perfect spouse? What compels the trapped party to give up the fake perfect world, and how difficult is it and why?

Always Married to Same Person When You Dream | Marriage within dreams becomes real: Is the dreamer pining, mourning, or experiencing a more complicated situation (e.g., a spell, meetings on the astral plane, meetings in a temporary afterlife, meetings in a space between universes, premonitions of a breach between universes, etc.)? I am very fond of dreams and surreality in fic, so I would love to see that sort of atmosphere incorporated too if it floats your boat.

Aliens Make Them Get Married: YESSSSS. Whatever the justification, I love this trope.

Characters Keep "Forgetting" to Annul Accidental Marriage | Series of Mishaps Prevent Annulment of Accidental Marriage: This seems like it could be hilarious. :D

Carried Over The Threshold: I just really like this image! Though I’m partial to Peter carrying Tony, the other way around appeals to me too.

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.[Buffer space for Endgame spoilers above!]

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THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

Allison Hargreeves/Luther Hargreeves

I will admit I wasn’t sold on Allison/Luther during my first viewing of the series, but subsequent viewings have decidedly awoken me to their charm. I’m super interested in the idea of an incongruously sweet connection arising from the fucked-up-ness of their upbringing, and in exploring how that connection carries over into their adult lives.

Allison became a superstar; Luther spent four years alone on the moon. How did they part, back when the siblings went their separate ways as young adults? Where was Luther during Allison’s wedding? How did Allison learn what happened to him? Did they keep in touch directly, or just hear about each other incidentally from the people they did maintain contact with?

If you can tell from the selected freeforms, I am here for tropey fluff and angst for this pairing. I also really like canon divergent AUs -- The Day That Wasn’t, handwavey “we averted the apocalypse after all” AUs, for want of a nail, etc. -- and futurefic. I enjoy Claire and would love to see her meet Luther. In general, though, I’d just like to explore these two more.

Note: I would prefer that any fic written for me in this exchange not focus more than briefly on the incest aspect of this pairing. Outsiders can be horrified that the adopted siblings are getting it on, but the Hargreeves children don’t seem to care a lot in-universe, and I’d like it to stay that way in fic.

Freeforms Requested:

Asking someone to be their witness

Character fantasizes about getting married

Crying With Happiness During Wedding

Wedding Fluff | Wedding Planning | Something Old Something New Something Borrowed Something Blue

Crashing a Wedding to Prevent a Bad Marriage | Crashing A Wedding So Character Can Marry One Of The Participants Instead | Objecting during the marriage ceremony

Road Trip Honeymoon | Road Trip to Marriage Ceremony

Trapped In Fake Perfect World That Includes Marriage They Don't Believe They Can Ever Really Have

Undercover as Married While Mutually Pining

Time Loop Can Only Be Ended Through Marriage

Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves

So. Five is a dick to everyone, but he’s slightly less of a dick to Vanya. What’s up with that? Or: How close were they as kids, and how might they reconnect as adults?

I’m really interested in how a relationship might develop between these two in a future fic or canon divergence AU. Maybe Five only zapped forward in time for a little while, or was able to return at an earlier point in time than 2019? Maybe Vanya was able to learn to control her powers as a child and grew up as a participating member of the Academy? Maybe -- maybe! -- the siblings managed to avert the apocalypse, and they’re adjusting to life together in the aftermath? I don’t know! I’m interested in all kinds of things.

I love the idea of Vanya and Five as a battle couple or married coworkers, and of them getting together while on a case/mission. A while ago, someone on FFA brought up the idea of them undercover fake married in 1950s suburbia, and I am SO into that -- both the specific setting, and the concept of Five/Vanya going undercover as a fake married couple in various eras/locations.

Please be advised that my underage DNW includes Five having sex while in his younger body. UST is fine, but I’d like Five to physically be an adult for any sexual situations.

Note: I would prefer that any fic written for me in this exchange not focus more than briefly on the incest aspect of this pairing. Outsiders can be horrified that the adopted siblings are getting it on, but the Hargreeves children don’t seem to care a lot in-universe, and I’d like it to stay that way in fic.

Freeforms Requested:

Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress

Fake Marriage Results in Surprise Real Feelings | Obviously Fake Marriage Leads To Third Party Realizing Their Feelings For Half the Couple

Pretending to be married to access information

Undercover as Married | Undercover as Married Leads to Unexpected Feelings | Undercover as Married While Mutually Pining

Honeymoon Heist | Road Trip Honeymoon | Working While on Your Honeymoon

Time Travel Backward To Fix The Past Also Results In Unexpectedly Getting Married

[buscemifan]

here’s some zestiria thoughts

you’re free to disagree, this is just my opinion

i dont like this game. heres a few reasons why

I have at least ten hours on my playthrough and it STILL does not feel like the game actually started. I can’t even pinpoint why. I feel like I’m just going through the tutorial exposition. and due to the nature of the game and having so much of your journey hidden from you, it feels like that feeling won’t ever go away.

Alisha leaves. Actually all of the characters should leave except for Alisha. Her fighting style was fun and I loved her come back Alisha

The lore is so boring. Most of the other tales games have wonderfully vast universes that manage to incorporate social commentary into amazing worlds (symphonia with separation of church and state/racism, vesperia with corrupt govenrments, Abyss with the individuality of a person and human life, etc.) but from what I can tell Zestiria is pure lore. 

its not even good lore?? like. you’re the sheperd. remove the evil please. where’s the gray morality? every other tales game makes you think about this decision may be good for me, but not for someone else, but not zestiria. why is it so perfect? the only person who cares about the hellions being purified or whatever is the Bad Guy, so. who cares. definitely not me

speaking of that, the whole game is set up within the first two hours and then that’s it! you’re off! have fun being the world’s errand boy! sorey goes around and does a series of convoluted sidequests that are so forgettable and “point A to point B” i can’t but feel like i’m checking stuff off of the world’s most mundane to-do list. plus lailah keeping information from you just kind of feels like if your mom was telling you to do a bunch of chores for a surprise, but never tells you what the surprise is.

you cannot have a world that vast with lore so deep and then make the plot so streamlined. I don’t need a star on a map that’s 5 feet in front of me when you told me to go 5 feet forward.

what the heck is mikleo’s personality?? maybe this is just the fandom but I interpreted mikleo as a snarky and immature boy that holds sorey in a high regard and is willing to make sacrifices for him and only him. but there’s like 18 different mikleos floating around. whatever makes your ship sail, I guess. personally, i think he’s rather boring, but he’s pretty, so it’s fine, right?

oh yeah can the normin shut the heck up. they ain’t cute. stop tryna make me like them bamco

why do they not explain the lore more. I understand that I keep hammering this and maybe it’s better in Berseria (I don't know, i haven’t played it) but if Zestiria wants to be respected as a standalone game, then it needs to act like it. seraphim physics are NEVER explained. they’re invisible, but do they have mass? can you bump into them? why can they carry visible people with no repercussions? are all the clothes they wear invisible, or only when they’re on their bodies? can they change clothes? WHAT ARE THE RULES

i’ve been trying to beat around this bush but. it’s not fun. games gotta be fun. otherwise just make it a movie or smth. the gameplay is a snooze, the battles are clunky and awkward (if you’re gonna replicate the graces style, don’t give it that style without giving it the speed). the most fun I’ve had playing this game are in the accessories screen

The field banter is cute and all, but there isn’t enough to make it fun. You hear the same conversations a million times.

malevolence is so, so dumb. people make bad decisions, people are evil. don’t blame it on some weird purple space dust. it’s just human nature. have sorey try to purify a person and his behavior not change. have sorey struggle to understand how can still be evil, I purified him? sorey living with seraphim and trying to understand how a human could do such horrible things; they had so much going for this game and they wasted it ALL and I’m pissed

please tell me why I should care about Rose. like the game clearly couldn’t decide if they wanted the cool & collected assassin or genki happy girl or quirky hipster girl and tried to make her all three. i don’t care for any of her except her introduction, when she’s all “I could kill you if I wanted.” That was the best Rose. bring her back

i literally don’t care about any of the cast, sans Alisha and maybe Zaveid. Sorey is great but he’s a pretty boring protag and everyone else either annoys me in one way or another or just wasn’t a good character in the first place. maybe they just weren’t the right cast for the game?? i’m not sure. but i dont care

the game looks gorgeous but it moves so awkardly

also the whole “no speech bubbles” thing was great in theory but it misplaces the player’s priorities. older games were better in that respect because voice acting would indicate an important scene, and newer older games were the best because you’d get non voiced speech bubbles, then voiced speech bubbles, then voiced captions at the bottom. it helped you differentiate what was important! with zestiria, every scene treats itself like it’s the most important scene in the whole game, and I’m not sure what information is actually relevant to the plot

anyway that’s my thoughts. kudos to you if you actually like this game, glad you could get enjoyment out of something I couldn’t

[hyah-through-hyrule]

Spoiler free review of BOTW

I recently finished BotW and I’m excited to share my thoughts in a non-spoiler and honest fashion. (Switch version)

Technical aspects- I’ll admit I’m not well versed with technological terms when it comes to gaming, so if something I write doesn’t make sense it’s because I’m stupid. The fps are much better in undocked mode than in docked mode, which is how i personally like to play it because i love the portability. Feel like playing on the couch laying down? No problem. Playing while in bed under several blankets? Cool! Long boring bus ride? Not anymore! The being said, the fps seems to dip slightly when in towns or in heavily forested areas with a lot of foliage. It dips for a couple seconds, but they’re infrequent enough that it really doesn’t hinder gameplay. 

Now onto graphics. I must admit that I’m a bit biased here because I will always prefer stylized graphics over realism in any game. To me, the style reminds me of a mixture between Wind Waker and Skyward Sword, and I really love it. I’d be extremely pleased if they kept this type of cel shading in future Zelda installments. I often found myself taking a break to admire the scenery, weather it be a sunset, lightning storm, or some body of water. This version of Hyrule truly is a beautiful world.

Hyrule- The love that the developers put in this world is astounding and apparent. No two places in this world are the same. Typically with large open world games such as this, you’ll find places that are carbon copies. For example, cave complexes or ways that trees are organized will be identical in many other games. Not this one, every inch of this world is unique. Even what you get from cutting grass can give you different ingredient drops depending on where you are in the world.

Animals- Mad respect to the people who were in charge of designing and programming the wildlife. Sometimes I’ll watch animals from afar to see what they do. Birds will bathe themselves in dust, other herbivores can be seen grazing. Some animals can harm you while others choose to flee if you get too close. Little details like that really make the world seem more alive and dynamic.

Enemies and difficulty- If you’re the kind of gamer who plays games like Dark Souls for breakfast, then botw likely wasn’t too difficult. Most gamers (me) don’t play hard games like that for breakfast, so keep in mind the difficulty is being reviewed by a noob who needs to git gud. Botw is challenging at first, especially for those of us who are getting used to playing on a new console. Even the lowliest of the enemies can instantly kill you if you aren’t paying attention. A detail that I personally like is that the enemies will become tougher the more you progress, just to keep you on your toes. Once you learn how to deal with enemies depending on what weapons they’re using, you’ll have no problem fighting them more efficiently, dying less, and in general feeling rather cool. Now here’s a bit of a personal gripe; enemy diversity. There are lots of different enemies (some animals included too as they’ll actively hunt you), and they can wield a variety of weapons. Despite that, I wish there were more enemy types instead of having base enemies recolored. The variety felt a tad bit lacking in that regard, but it was neat that they could fight with different weapons. (There’s still a certain type of enemy that I still wont mess with even 150+ hours later.)

Npcs- Wow, I think this game really outdid itself with the npcs. In most open world games, the models and/or dialogue for npcs will be repeated. Not here. Some base models were reused occasionally, but they were tweaked so no one looked exactly the same. However, every single npc in this world has unique dialogue. I highly recommend you talk to everyone, as it can often lead to a sidequest, worldbuilding trivia, or sometimes it’s just funny dialogue. (My personal favorite is the ‘master torch’ wielder). I also greatly appreciated the fact that every npc Hylian wasn’t simply a white skinny guy. No, there’s npcs of all sizes, lots of women, and lots of different shades of brown. The Zora and Rito were different colors and heights. The Gerudo did have a few npcs who I could tell were reused assets, which the developers cleverly hid by making their skin tone lighter and their hair shorter/colored differently. The Gorons were the least diverse race in my opinion, but they were changed enough that it wasn’t glaringly obvious. The dedication to make everyone an individual is outstanding and it helps make the world all the more alive. Seriously though, I’m super impressed that not any of dialogue was reused anywhere.

Horses- I was going to post this with animals but decided to have it as a separate topic. I’m in love with the horse mechanic. You can go catch any horse you like, whether you want it for aesthetics or stats. You don’t need to steer your horse at all as it will follow the path all on its own and it won’t run into trees if you’re not controlling it. (Just make sure your bond is all the way up, which is easy to do via petting and feeding apples. Even though mine are maxed bonded, I still pet them and feed them because they’re all good boys and the prompt to do it is there, so why not?). The horse riding in this game is one of the smoothest ones I’ve experienced in any game (including games that feature non horse mounts too).

Dungeons and shrines- Botw broke a lot of Zelda conventions, and the dungeons are no exception. They were fun to explore and discover, though I do wish some of them were longer. I do hope they keep this non-linear system of finding shrines/dungeons out in the wild, but it would be nice if they could incorporate some longer and organic dungeons alongside the shrines. A mixture of the two would create a phenomenal experience.

Story- It’s no secret that in order to create a massive and dynamic world, the story had to take a few hits. I loved the memory system, it was clever and unique. Like with most Zelda games, you have to find the lore yourself by talking to npcs or finding writings via journals and monuments. Still, there’s a lot of stuff that makes me wonder ‘wow this is cool but what’s the story behind it?’ I do like having to find story things on my own rather than it being spelled out to me. There’s a lot of unanswered questions and loose ends. Perhaps the DLC will expand more on this. Despite the story being a bit lacking this time around, it didn’t make the game less enjoyable. There were still plenty of emotional moments, and I’ll admit I teared up in some spots. (Not including when I cried when first coming out of the shrine of restoration, that didn’t have to do with story, only with the fact i was so excited to play after five long years of waiting).

Towns- There’s not much for me to say about the towns (other than the fps thing mentioned earlier). The music that plays in them is wonderful and there’s lots of interesting npcs and sidequests to follow. One weird thing is there is one town you could theoretically never find as it’s not part of the main quest. I think more was intended for it, but there wasn’t enough time to finish it/ something changed when creating the story. Perhaps something will be added to it with dlc, or it’s simply a small village to find at you’re own leisure.

Music- Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge sucker when it comes to soundtracks, which is why I’ve saved the best for last. You’ll hear a lot of mixed reviews from people about the music. I personally am in love with it, I’m even listening to the soundtrack now as I’m writing this review. The ambiance of the music sets the pace when you’re out exploring. The shrines have different music depending on what type of shrine it is. Battle shrines are the easiest to distinguish. A shrine with a puzzle involved will be in major key, while a shrine with no puzzle is in minor. It’s a subtle difference that most people won’t catch, but it’s there. The music outside of shrines also varies, though I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I believe that it depends on if the shrine was hidden or not, but I don’t have solid proof for that. The guardian theme always startles me, even when I’m actively seeking them out for loot. It’s one of my favorite songs, but it’s a shame it doesn’t last long because you’re either fleeing or trying to kill it fast before it kills you. I could go on forever about the music, but I should wrap this up soon. The final dungeon and battle is in my opinion a bunch of masterpieces, but you’ll have you’ll have to discover that on your own. Botw outdid itself with it’s music, and I do hope it is appreciated more once people get used not having music that plays constantly while playing.

Overall, this is the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game. It’s not without it’s flaws of course, but it was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to the dlc and future installments in the series.