#YURI WRITERS RETREAT

[jelliegirl]

on my own ive written 212 pages of pure bugworld and 548 pages of fiction in collaboration with my girlfriend about the same characters for a total of 760 pages, which doesnt include all the random scattered documents i didnt include in the bigger collections and then the independent stories that only my brilliant pigeon wrote lmao jesus the moth autism is real

[tryslora]

On rereading my old fic...

I’m having a lot of thoughts right now about rereading things I have written.

I struggle to reread original work. I don’t get lost in it when I start reading it, and I suspect that’s because I have already read it a few hundred times (I’m exaggerating, but it’s a lot) before it was put out for public consumption.

But fic. Ohhhh… I am one of those weirdos who loves to reread fic I wrote.

This came to mind because in the past few days, I’ve reread two old fics because both of them came up on my radar for different reasons.

(They were the “Love You So Hard” series of Scott/Stiles fics, and the “Dancing On Blades” Sterek Olympic figure skating AU, both from the Teen Wolf fandom, if you’re curious).

I didn’t mean to read them. But then I sat down trying to remember exactly what I’d written, and a half hour or so later, there I was like oh. Hey. I wrote that and I do not hate it. In fact, I now have a bit of a words hangover where I’m not ready to leave that world.

I love and hate that hangover. I get it both from reading and writing. In this moment, it reminded me a lot of what I loved about both writing and reading fic.

I haven’t had time to write fic recently. I have several unfinished WIPs in a Scrivener file, but if I’m not getting the overdue original done, I don’t feel like I can take time to write fic.

I haven’t been reading fic, either. I’m so far out of the fandoms I used to be part of, I don’t know how to find the fic that will give me the feels I love. I haven’t found a new fandom to be obsessed by where I feel comfortably falling into it. I admit, I like big fandoms, mostly because I love the variety of work and the ability to find so many wonderful gems. Small fandoms are great for flailing in meta, but terrible for finding more than a few fics.

Reading these two pieces years after I wrote them (and yes, I have reread both of them before) brought me right back to the world I lived in at the time. The world of fic. The feels. The memories of what it was like to belong to a  big fandom, and all that energy.

I miss it.

But this isn’t about fandom—this is about rereading my own words.

I’ve heard a lot of writers say that they never reread their own pieces, whether that is fic or original. They don’t want to revisit them. They are uncomfortable.

I find great delight in rediscovering myself. Every story is a snapshot of where my mind was in that moment. Every story is a reminder that yes, I can write, and I don’t hate my words. They are GOOD words. They made someone smile enough to leave a comment, and when I reread them, they make me smile, too.

I, too, want to comment to ask, “hey, where’s the rest? can I have more of this?” and that’s a tad bit frustrating since um, the only way that’ll happen is if I write it.

It makes me want to write more, though. Not necessarily that story. Maybe an original piece. Maybe something inspired by it. Might be difficult, given that one of those stories was absolutely buried in the world of Teen Wolf, and the other was a fanfic nod to Yuri on Ice without being a full-on YOI fic.

But at the same time, I have shapeshifter pack politics in my PHU serial; Alaric has to deal with it all the time. And much of the inspiration for that was drawn from things I developed that were my own head-canons while writing TW fic.

Writing is about learning. Writing fic is about joy, and it’s also about testing theories, and playing with words and ideas in familiar spaces.

It’s about creating a soft blanket that someone might want to wrap up in again and again, shutting out the cold, dark night.

I’m happy that rereading my own work gave me that feel, like I could build a blanket fort out of a story and retreat into a simpler time.

I want to create those same feels with my original work. I want to create a comfort blankie made of words.

In the meantime, I need to stop rereading my own work and move on. Write new words. Remember that if I did it before, I can do it again, and better this time. I’m not done. There are still stories in me; my mind is a library waiting to give books to those who need them.

[proshipper-plaza]

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ нєℓℓσ! ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Hi, I’m a small woman who advocates for doing what you want in fiction and keeping your fantasies strictly in your head.

Before I give you a little information about myself, I should state: minors & antis DNI.

Moving on, I’m a recovering fanfic writer, and I usually write about my ships.

(Canon age Volokari where Akari is fifteen, anyone? Yes, Pokémon Legends Arceus lives rent free in my head. )

My other interests are:

Honkai: Star Rail ( I hardcore ship AvenStelle and have versions of both Aventurine and Stelle. And I also enjoy other heterosexual Aventurine multi— ships, but only where Caleus is the Trailblazer and not Stelle. Reason being, the fandom is strongly vocal about yaoi/yuri ships, and a good majority hate on heterosexual Aventurine pairings. I’m one of the few out there who see Aventurine as strictly heterosexual.

Bendy and the Ink Machine — I enjoy the lore, but strongly dislike certain aspects of the games. And no, I don’t ship Sammy with Susie. I ship Sammy with toon Alice. Ask me about both if you’d like to learn more.

Five Nights at Freddy’s— I have my own AU that I’m still working on, and have my own version of the murderer as well as lore. Again, message me if you’d like to know more.

Pokémon — Raichu and Sylveon are amazing. Also pokephilia is super hot!

Nier Automata — LE SAD ANDROID GAME! One of my all time favorite games. Again, have my own AU where 9S and 2B are the only androids among YorHa who were formerly human and in a relationship, yet both have their memories wiped.

As the final thing I love media wise, really love Super Sonico a lot !

A little bit on yaoi/yuri: I used to be a hardcore yaoi fangirl, but then fell out of it. I enjoy some ships here and there, but overall love heterosexual pairings.

Alright, onto to my personal life

I won’t share too much.

- my parents couldn’t conceive children, so myself and my brother were test tube babies

— I’m special needs, vision impaired, diagnosed with ADHD/anxiety, and get overwhelmed easily with new situations. I used to be an extrovert when I was younger, but then retreated into an introverted state after reaching adulthood.

Other hobbies

— I started getting into baking!!!

— I enjoy creating character aesthetics and character headcanons

— Anime, shows, video games, and movies are a really fun passtime.

Overall I’m someone who suffers from low self esteem/confidence, but I’m doing my best to overcome that.

If you like anything above and would like to be friends, please feel free to message me. :3

[inactiveblog261838]

May I ask for something for Yuri or Felix's reaction to his s/o taking a hit that was meant for him? Your writing is great thanks for doing what you do <3

thank you so much! sorry this is kinda mid, i've been having really bad writers block.

yuri

his initial reaction is horrified. you're crouched down, holding a hand to your bleeding wound, but there's a big smile on your face as you look at the soldier you fell.

"i got him," you say, mostly to yourself. yuri clears his throat and your attention goes to him. you look up at him with curious eyes.

"why did you do that?" he asks.

"i can't let anything happen to you, yuri," you tell him. he sighs.

"i can protect myself, you know that, right? you don't have to put your life on the line for me."

he bends down and looks at your wound, a deep gash from a throwing axe. he thinks about how horribly wrong this scenario could've gone.

"let's retreat for now," he suggests. you nod, struggling to stand up. your wound is bleeding more profusely than you initially thought, and it soaks your hands.

after everyone makes their way back to the monastery, yuri refuses to leave your side. he sits in the medical ward with you, holding your hands as lindhart and manuela heal your wounds.

"don't be so reckless in the future," yuri warns. "i can't lose you."

felix

felix immediately rushes to your side, desperate to make sure you're okay.

he already lost his father, he cannot lose his love too. not to this stupid war that he doesn't even really believe in.

he's distraught, your wounds look bad, and you're bleeding so much. he screams for lindhart, desperate for someone's help.

you're alive and conscious, but the amount of blood you're losing has your vision blurry and fading. you can see felix fighting back tears as he makes a temporary tourniquet for you.

"please, think before you jump in front of someone like that," he says, softly. his usual attitude is gone. now he's just afraid.

"i had to protect you," you reply, staring up at him. you run a trembling hand through his hair. he holds your wrist and stares down at you.

without warning, felix scoops you up and carries you away from the chaotic battlefield, using the bit of white magic he learned to temporarily heal your wounds until a real medic could see you.

"you don't have to be the hero all the time," he mutters as he watches your bleeding subside. you just give him that damn smile and make him avoid your eyes. he sighs and wraps his arms around you, carefully pulling you into a hug.

[beardedmrbean]

A Russia state-media host has called for the country's generals to be "shot" for having allowed troops to retreat from huge swathes of Ukraine — part of a wider meltdown among President Vladimir Putin's cheerleaders. 

Ukrainian forces have successfully regained around 1,250 (2,000 square kilometers) of territory in the country's Kharkiv region over the past few days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Saturday night address. 

Russia's Ministry of Defense has confirmed that its forces were retreating from some areas in the Kharkiv region, the BBC reported. 

The speed of the counteroffensive has seen Russian soldiers fleeing the region in any way they can, including disguising themselves as locals. Ukrainian forces have taken more territory in five days than Russia did in five months, according to New Statesman.

On Monday Russian state-media host Volodymyr Solovyov savaged the Kremlin's military leaders.  

"I do not justify anyone, especially do not argue with the fact that many bosses in uniform (I can not call them commanders) deserve to be dismissed in disgrace, and some of them should be shot, and I can even name a few names to decision makers," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Solovyov is a television presenter, writer, and propagandist who has previously supported Putin's attack on Ukraine. Shortly after Russia's invasion was launched in February, Solovyov announced that he had been placed on a list of international sanctions.

Other state-media, who have until now been optimistic about the war in Ukraine, also expressed dismay at Russia's struggles in the Kharkiv region. 

Anton Anisimov, the host of Russia's sports channel Match TV's political talk show, said on Friday that "everyone who is a believer should pray for our guys," a clip reviewed by Insider showed. "We should pray that our men who are there hold out." 

The military blogger Yuri Podolyaka told Russia's "Time Will Tell" show that Russian troops had "given [Ukraine] quite significant territories."

The Kremlin's official spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday that Russia's "military operation continues" and "it will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved," according to The Guardian.

[professor-tammi]

yet another Big Azure Gleam Text Post, up to ch. 12 (this is mostly me talking about supports because I unlocked a bunch)

Main story stuff:

- in Part II of AG, the Kingdom is actually invading the Empire, which has been completely taken over by Slithers. Duke Aegir rules with an iron fist, and the Empire’s military apparently frequently loots and pillages the villages in their own country. what’s interesting is that the game goes pretty all-in on “hey, the Kingdom is the invading force now”, and practically guilt trips you about the whole thing via random boss dialogue:

“You force your way into my city and kill innocent people, and you’re shameless enough to claim you’re on the side of justice?”

“How ironic. My territory has always strived for peace, yet it’s the first claimed by the flames of war.“

certainly, one of the more clear ways in which CF was an effective anti-villain route laid in the simple fact that it has you declare war on sovereign countries to force reforms and unification upon them... so AG pulling something similar is an amusing way for the writers to turn the tables here. (the situations aren’t the same, of course, but it is nevertheless A Parallels Thing.)

either way, Dimitri is understandably unsure of whether or not he’s doing the right thing, and the rest of the Lions voice their support of his decision, both because they know the Empire would invade the Kingdom sooner than later if left alone regardless, but also because, well, Slithers. (Felix’s line supporting Dimitri here has him tell Dimitri, “don’t look back”... is that the line. I’ll have to cross-check with the JP dialogue at some point)

- the ch. 11 battle has you go up against Monica and her father, Baron von Ochs. you end up killing him, and Monica vows to avenge him before retreating to presumably show up again later. ... where have I seen this before (it’s a Ran thing. Ran also loses his father and swears revenge. I swear Monica is just girl!Ran)

- after the battle, Rodrigue comments that “only our king will be fettered by the vile moniker of invader”, and Felix chimes in with an angry “don’t put this all on him” (to which Rodrigue tells Felix that it’s his job to support Dimitri through it and Felix goes “hmph, obviously”)

- there’s a little Rodrigue/Shez heart-to-heart scene as part of the story here. Rodrigue comments that Dimitri and Lambert are birds of a feather, but that he and Felix couldn’t be more different... but admits that Felix actually does share some traits with him, but mostly ones he’d “hoped to avoid”. and then he says this:

Rodrigue: “He can’t live without some great purpose in life urging him forward. There is no peace in such an existence -- I know because I’m the same way. As Lambert’s right hand, I devoted every waking moment to serving him. Supporting him. And when he was lost, so too was my reason for being. I had no choice but to search for something else to propel me forth.”

and he’s right! Felix is utterly lost when recruited to non-Lions routes in Three Houses, because those routes all lead to Dimitri’s death... :(

- on a lighter note, this chapter has this cute little Rodrigue + Felix moment in camp:

Rodrigue: I will be overseeing our main base’s defense, per our discussion with His Majesty. Which means I won’t be able to accompany all of you. Do try to not slow His Majesty down, Felix.

Felix: Please. Me, slow him down? I’ll be the one dragging him to the enemy’s door.

Supports + other:

- I only now realized but in the Dimitri/Dedue A support Dimitri makes some off-hand comment about how if he hadn’t been born a prince maybe he’d be a mercenary traveling the world with Dedue and... those are some Sike ending vibes!! :D

- Yuri is basically a honorary Lion in Hopes, and I love that! I liked Yuri in Houses, but none of his supports in og Houses particularly spoke to me, so I couldn’t really get into his character in a, I guess fannish? sense because I mostly get attached to relationships. in Hopes, he has both supports and a paralogue with Ashe (+ Catherine), and also supports Dimitri, Sylvain, and Seteth, who are all AG-exclusive. I think his dynamic with Ashe and Dimitri is especially fun; he’s probably risen to a top 5 favorite character for me now :D (I await the ashe/yuri and possibly also sylvain/yuri content... I’m sure we’re getting some sooner or later....)

- by the way Yuri’s real name is Regulus, in case anyone was wondering :)

- also, Ingrid’s father’s name is revealed to be Gunnar, and I feel the need to point this out bc evidently House Galatea have very distinctly Scandinavian-sounding names, as opposed to the rest of Faerghus being mostly French.

- poor Dorothea has spent the entirety of AG worrying herself sick about Edelgard -- in og Houses I found that she made for a very good honorary Lion between her supports with Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix, but in Hopes she’s just miserable to be there... to the point that she goes, “perhaps I should’ve died with them.” Dorothea no!! :(

- Rodrigue/Dimitri A convo stuff that caught my eye: Dimitri tells Rodrigue “if you were to die because of me, it would destroy me”... well. that. is a thing that happens. Rodrigue rambles about Lambert a bunch, as you’d expect, and Dimitri says he envies how close their bond was, to which Rodrigue goes “ok don’t tell Felix that he’d be offended” :’D

- the Dimitri/Sylvain support is very interesting as it’s pretty much entirely about politics. they discuss whether people without Crests should be allowed to be nobles, and both characters agree they should; but Sylvain also brings up that the Kingdom needs Crests due to the constant threat of invasion from Sreng, and then goes on to say that Faerghus has basically two options:

1. “Bolster our military and promote prosperity while delicately letting the bloodline dance play out”

2. “Admit bloodlines won’t last forever and create a social system that doesn’t rely on inheritance”

What surprises me is that Sylvain goes on to say that option one is the better option for the Kingdom. that’s... an actually surprisingly conservative take? and amusing, with how often Edelgard fans like to claim Sylvain would agree with her policies. I’m so curious about this that I’ll probably go back and check if it was any different in Japanese

(a bit disappointingly, Dimitri’s response is kind of non-committal; he says it’s easier said than done but doesn’t really clearly indicate whether or not he agrees. anyhow. 2 sounds better, come on, you two)

- Mercedes’ trait of being the most openly flirtatious Lion who isn’t Sylvain is still a thing -- in her A support with Dimitri, Dimitri is visiting her home village undercover and feels awkward about having to introduce himself as someone he’s not, so Mercedes offers to just introduce him as someone “very important” to her and Dimitri’s is like. wait no don’t do that

- annnd Mercedes/Sylvain is perhaps the most blatantly romantic m/f support yet; Mercedes is being married off to a House Gautier noble she has no particular interest in, so Sylvain offers to marry her himself so she doesn’t have to marry the guy. (it’s rather cute!)

- Sylvain/Dedue has Sylvain say Dimitri and Felix are like brothers to him. ... him calling Felix a little brother was also in Houses, to be fair, but I wonder if this is why I never could get behind Sylvix -- they have individual moments that read as romantic, undoubtedly, but the actual dynamic as a whole reads as sibling-like? (idk I just want to figure out why I like or dislike things. that is important to me)

- anyhow, speaking of Sylvain/Felix having romantic moments, that is still a thing in their Hopes!A support, which once again features a blushing Felix :’)

- Felix/Raphael A, of all places, has some extra Dimilix content because of course it does: Felix shut up about Dimitri challenge

Felix: House Blaiddyd and House Fraldarius used to go on hunting trips together. On one trip, a certain prince bagged so many animals it proved impossible to fit them all on the sled. Meanwhile, I went off on my own, encountered a boar, and barely escaped with my life.

[usafphantom2]

Russia ready to end cooperation with NASA and ESA on the International Space Station

Senior officials are pessimistic about the long-term future of the station.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/01/2022 - 2:16 PM in Space

The Russian space organization Roscosmos will no longer participate in the International Space Station (ISS) project, the organization's director, Dmitry Rogozin, said on state television on Saturday (04/30).

The decision has not yet been presented to the government. ISS partners will be notified.

Russia will still fulfill its obligations for another year, Rogozin added, as contractually agreed, during an interview with Russian news agency Tass. Your country provides, among other things, fuel to the ISS and allows the Station to maintain its orbit and avoid collisions with space debris.

This week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov suggested that Russia would move away from the ISS as early as 2025 to seek a national space station.

Although he and other authorities have retreated from such a concrete date for the withdrawal, Russian skepticism about the future of the ISS may complicate U.S. efforts to keep it operating until the end of the decade. "ISS partners would have a lot of difficulty keeping the station functional without Russia," says Vitaly Egorov, industry observer, writer and former spokesman for Dauria Aerospace, a Russian company.

The Russian Federation, the European Union, the United States, Canada and Japan jointly administer the ISS. Dmitri Rogozin had already indicated a few weeks ago that he wanted to end this collaboration because of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Dmitry Rogozin also said on Monday (25/04) that Russia would not leave the ISS until a new proposed station became functional. "Pauses are deadly for human space flight," he wrote in a Facebook post. Rogozin later added that the new Russian station, which still has no name, could be based on one of the modules initially planned for the ISS.

The partners are committed to operating the International Space Station by 2024. After that, your fate is not clear. (Photo: NASA)

Greg Autry, a space policy expert at Arizona State University in downtown Phoenix, says it would be unfortunate if the ISS lost an "inevaluable" partner like Russia. But he says that the United States, with cargo and crew services provided by SpaceX rockets, could keep the ISS floating on its own. "I believe that the ISS can and should continue to provide value until new commercial stations are available for everyone's use," he says. At this point, says Autry, governments should direct their efforts "to the Moon, together or in a constructive competition".

For its part, the European Space Agency (ESA) suspended the missions to Mars and the Moon that it was supposed to carry out with Roscosmos.

Tags: SpaceISS - International Space Station / International Space StationNASAROSCOSMOSWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation

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[a-pale-azure-moon]

Midnight Plays Azure Gleam: Chapter 6

Oh boy. A lot of stuff happened in this chapter and some of it left a very bad taste in my mouth. Of all the characters the writers could've assassinated, I can't believe it was this one.

The ending of the last chapter heavily implied that Arianrhod was going to be our next stop, but the opening narration for this chapter says that Count Rowe surrendered to Faerghus (in fairness, he did indicate he would do this in last chapter's interlude cutscene, but it's still a bit sloppy to write it this way). So the Empire's forces have retreated to former Arundel territory to regroup, and the Kingdom is going to make an offensive strike before they can attack again.

A soldier interrupts the meeting to say that the convoy transporting Count Rowe to Fhirdiad was attacked. Count Rowe has now gone missing. Dimitri speculates that Cornelia could be behind it, and at Dedue's suggestion, sends a separate unit to investigate the attack further.

Camp (Arianrhod)

Mercedes feels conflicted about recruiting former friends, since we're basically forcing them to turn traitor or die. Yup, exactly.

Relatedly, Dorothea says she doesn't really want to fight for Faerghus. Or at all, since she was only in the Empire's army for "Edie."

Miklan's here in camp, which is very weird to see. He's certainly a friendly individual. /s

An NPC soldier says she has orders to execute Miklan if he does anything suspect. So yeah, he wasn't lying about being watched.

Ingrid says when they were kids, Sylvain would sometimes show up with bruises or other injuries, and he'd say it was a "training accident" or something. But Ingrid says she knew what was really going on, and she wonders if Miklan is capable of redeeming himself.

Sylvain himself admits Miklan's put him through a lot, but he thinks his brother can be useful. He also says that if even someone like Miklan can redeem himself, he'll serve as a necessary symbol for Faerghus, both as a former bandit and as someone without a Crest.

Felix is still hissing like a cat over the Miklan situation. He mostly sounds mad about Dimitri not telling him his plans.

An NPC Knight of Seiros mentions Count Rowe's adopted son, who caused trouble at the Officer's Academy and was cut off/disowned. So can I expect to be seeing Yuri soon? (Please yes)

Seteth laments that Jeralt's working for the Empire. Hmm...

Ashe talks about Lonato. And still needs a hug.

Battle

Dimitri's intel confirms Byleth is working for the Empire (sob), and he wants Shez to handle them, given their history. Shez appreciates the gesture but says that a rivalry isn't worth losing a war over. Dimitri asks if Shez wants revenge for their fallen companions, and Shez says seeking vengeance for every fallen comrade would consume their life.

And....Dimitri.exe has stopped working. Our king needs a reboot. Perhaps even a full kernel re-installation.

Dimitri then suggests hiring Jeralt's mercenaries, if they can make a more appealing offer than the Empire. YES YES absolutely you should hire Byleth and then you can fall in love in this timeline too!

Arval thinks Dimitri has funny ideas. (Shut up Arval)

The mission objective is to defeat Byleth and the Death Knight. This is going to be fun. /s There's also a recruitment option for Bernadetta, which I guess I'm obliged to do for completion's sake.

(No offense to Bernadetta fans, but I personally don't like her.)

Byleth and the Death Knight appear after defeating the vanguard. Meanwhile, Bernadetta screams and locks herself in the center of the map, because that's what competent army commanders do. [Eyeroll]

Thankfully, there are some steps to make it easier to take on the Death Knight and Byleth, because attacking either of them immediately is a very bad idea (I found this out the hard way; my Leeroy Jenkins moment resulted in a game over). Unfortunately, these steps take awhile and are tricky to do because the map is big and there's only a few open paths to the areas you need to seize.

Byleth wants a rematch, almost sounding eager.

Once the outer strongholds are seized, you have to claim the inner ones. The Death Knight is lurking around the path to the inner strongholds, and catapults start firing at you too, making things even more chaotic and dangerous!

Now we can reach Bernadetta and "persuade" her, and in doing so, gain control of the center-most area. The next step is to lure the Death Knight to this area and trap him there and fire our captured catapults at him.

...Except Jeralt, Alois and a few randos appear to take out the green units guarding the Death Knight. Argh, of course. Luckily, my units were spread fairly well across the map and I was able to take out Jeralt's forces without too much trouble.

(Why is Alois here?)

But the Death Knight gets to break free anyway for "reasons." Seriously, what was the point of all of that beyond padding out the length of this mission? The Death Knight barely lost any health.

And just as I've got his health lowered, some enemy Priests show up and I'm unable to kill them before they can heal the Death Knight. I hate everything right now.

Finally, he's defeated and retreats. Time to deal with Byleth. Jeralt sends in some brigands for more backup, because this battle hasn't lasted long enough already.

Byleth hits so damn hard! All of my units are at low health, and even with ganging everyone up on her, this fight takes awhile.

Victory at last! And we go to a cutscene and...

Very cool shot of Divine Pulse activating, and a suddenly green-haired Byleth then delivering a megaton punch to Shez.

What. The. Hell.

Sothis is possessing Byleth?! What is going on?!

It's admittedly cool seeing Byleth's time powers activating from this angle. Shez stands no chance. Arval tells Shez to escape, and Byleth apparently takes back control of their body.

What is going on??

(This scene must be unintentionally hilarious with male Byleth. Just trying to imagine Sothis' voice coming out of his mouth is making me laugh.)

But I repeat: WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!

Shez wonders what they're really up against. Arval doesn't sound deterred. Shez mentions that they might be allies with Byleth before long, if Dimitri gets them to come work for the Kingdom. Arval sounds incredulous at the idea of allying with that "fiend," and basically calls Shez a coward while saying some vaguely sinister things. Jerk.

I got an A rank, surprisingly not due to going over time, even with that screw up with the priests. It was because I "only" got 1419 kills, when I needed 1500 for S-Rank. Grr. Dimitri got MVP honors again.

Post-Battle

Byleth called Sothis by name in the last scene, yet Sothis introduces herself here. Have Byleth and Sothis spoken prior to now or not? Which is it, writers?

HOLY CRAP THEY BROKE SOTHIS! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO OUR GREMLIN GODDESS?!

Seriously, she sounds almost cruel here. Sothis was definitely sassy and snarky in 3H, but she was never outright hostile to Byleth. At worst, she sounded like an angry mom when Byleth screwed up, but she never, ever referred to Byleth as her "vessel," nor threatened to take over Byleth's body. Sothis literally gave up her limited existence to give Byleth her power to save their life!

Byleth is understandably very confused and Sothis gives them no answers.

(I'm guessing from the context of this conversation, Sothis doesn't have complete amnesia, unlike in 3H. I am not opposed to Sothis having a vengeful side, given that Arval is definitely connected to the Argathans, but it needs to be contextualized much better than this garbage. And it needs to be done in a way that doesn't completely destroy Sothis' character! I'm am just stunned at how bad this whole scenario is. Absolutely stunned.)

Jeralt interrupts the scene, as Byleth "wakes up." He seems strangely chill with Byleth's hair and eyes changing color.

I want to hug Byleth so bad right now. Even with the "Ashen Demon" stoicism, you can tell they're troubled. With good reason!

Alois says he won't pull punches even against the Knights of Seiros. God. I'm more angry about what they've done to Sothis, but I am still unhappy with how they've reduced Alois to a Jeralt fanboy. I'm sure his wife and daughter were happy he gave up a steady job with the church to go wander they world as a mercenary. /s

Jeralt makes a vague allusion to Rhea. Just talk to your kid about your past already, damn you! Argh.

Back to the Lions, which is a relief except that Dimitri's leaving us to go back to Fhirdiad. Soldiers from Sreng have crossed into Gautier territory and are heading to the capital, and Duke Ifan's been captured. They also haven't been able to contact Matthias to confirm these reports.

Sylvain doubts his father could've gone down easily, but still knows something must be up since they haven't been able to reach him. Rodrigue notes that the situation is serious if they can't contact either Duke Ifan or Matthias, so Dimitri doesn't have much choice but to go.

(In light of the news about Count Rowe from the start of the chapter, this definitely smells fishy. A trap, perhaps?)

Shez (and Flayn) wants to tag along, but the bulk of our forces need to remain in Arianrhod. Dedue and Rodrigue will be leaving with Dimitri though, and Felix is given command of the army. He sounds very unenthused about this new responsibility.

And that's the end of the chapter. Honestly, the battle was more annoying than fun with all the running around, and the stuff with Sothis just put a huge damper on the enthusiasm I was starting to feel about the story. What a disappointment.

[sevarix-blogs]

2020 Creator Wrap

2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

I was tagged by @rainbowroadimpulse to do this! Thanks :)

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I am honored to have been tagged! I actually only started writing fics in like, July of last year, so bear that in mind. I am not particularly proud of any one work (i still feel like I’m a noob at this) but here we go anyway! This is in no particular order. Also, they’re all FE3H fics because that’s all I write at this point lol.

1. Flame and Ashes - This was my very first fic I ever wrote, and the first fiction work I had written in years. Basically I wanted to write a fic about what would happen after the Azure Moon route in FE3H, and this is how it ended up. I’d inundate you with all the things I found wrong with it, but since this post is supposed to be about loving yourself I will say that overall I’m happy with how it turned out.

2. The Pink Lipstick - This is a silly fic about Yurileth that became my post popular fic for some reason lol. It was probably the one I had the most fun writing

3. To Stop a Rumor - another one of my sillier fics. this one features Seteth being paranoid about rumors of him being in a romantic relationship with someone, to the point where he asks yuri for advice.

4. From Shadows to Light - I think this was the first short fic I wrote? anyway, this is not one of the most popular ones, but I really like it personally. It’s an AU where Jeralt lives and retreats into Abyss after the war starts, thinking it destroyed not only his kid but the rest of Fodlan. But he’s eventually proven wrong and it has a happy ending. :)

5. Turn Back from Despair - I was a little reluctant to put this one here. I actually almost abandoned this one, but someone left me a nice comment on ao3 begging me to finish (COMMENTS MATTER!!!!) so I ended up finishing it. It’s another Jeralt Lives AU (i am a big fan of this AU) with some slightly darker themes. It also features me projecting HEAVILY onto both yuri and byleth (i make them both ace because i desire ace representation way too much) which I’m worried came off a bit awkward, but whatever. People seemed to like it? Maybe I’m too hard on myself? Anyway, I am overall happy with how I ended it and I’m ultimately glad that someone convinced me to finish it.

Thanks again for the tag! I would like to tag the following (only if you want, of course!):

@indigowallbreaker , @beyondthetower , @adrestian-archer as well as whoever else wants to do this!

[bangtan-madi]

Never have done this before but I see you write for Yuri!!! On ice so here we go. Can I have a Yurio P. who likes the younger sister of Victor. Since the reader is the younger sister, she has a lot of fans and Yurio tends to get jealous. So can I have a scene where he is clingy to the reader but doesn’t state why? Fluffy Yurio?

It took a few years after debuting as a senior and winning gold at the Grand Prix Final for Yurio to admit he had feelings for you.

Delving into his emotional side has never been his strong suit, but when it came to you, you made him feel all kinds of ways. He felt joy, fear, adoration, and jealousy all at once. But he'd never let you know that, not in the many years you'd known each other.

Why?

Because you were [Y/n] Nikiforova, Victor's cherished baby sister.

While you were still a couple years Yurio's senior, you were much closer to his age than your big brother Victor. The man doted on you like you were the sun, moon, and stars. As did the rest of the figure skating world. You were adored by all of his colleagues and friends, including Victor's fiance Yuri Katsuki--who you adored as a brother. You and Chris gossiped and giggled every time you met, Phitchit was your so-called "Instagram husband," and there were few people that could go head-to-head with JJ in energy levels and come out on top.

While you could barely stand on your own two feet on the ice, never having found the talent like Victor had, you were brilliant in your own ways. You were a travel writer and had a strong social media presence. The world loved you, and you'd gained quite the following on Twitter, Instagram, and just about everywhere else. You even had your own YouTube channel.

But it wasn't just who you were related to that made you popular. You had a wicked sense of humor, one that was a bit dark and sarcastic. You also had amazing taste in music, and that was one of the first things you and Yurio bonded over all those years ago. Like your brother, you could be a bit flighty, but you always meant well and loved with your entire being.

This, and more, had Yurio falling head over heels for you. Those feelings only got harder to ignore as he aged, growing into a young adult in tandem with you.

One of those feelings was jealousy. Not only were you very affectionate towards the other senior skaters--Chris, Phitchit, and Yuri especially--you were extremely popular online. The majority of your following was female, but you had a strong male fanbase as well. Everywhere you went, people knew you by name. Since you were often at his skate practices or competitions, Yurio got to see it all up close.

One particular day, after a free-skate event, Yurio was heading off the ice when he saw you surrounded by a small group of fans in the corridor blocking his exit. You were signing autographs and giggling with the girls, smiling charmingly at the boys. It was innocent enough, but it was just enough to make Yurio scoff and remove his skates in a hurry.

"Something got you all hot and bothered, Yurochka?"

Yurio ignored his coach and stormed over to you. You turned and saw him coming, offering a friendly grin as he approached.

"Yurio, hi--!"

Yurio grabs your hand, linking his arm with yours as he begins to retreat back to the private, skater-only areas of the coliseum.

"Sorry, but [Y/n] has plans tonight. Das vadanya!"

You turned, waved to your fans, then turns back to Yurio. You couldn't help the smile that spread across your face at his scowl and protective grasp. You leaned your head onto his shoulder and chuckled.

"You're awfully clingy tonight. Any particular reason why?"

Yurio merely scoffed again.

"No, why would there be?"

"Just wondering is all. You seem bothered, maybe even a little..."

"A little what?"

You shook your head and wrapped your arm through his, grabbing his hand with your other.

"Maybe a little jealous?"

Yurio didn't reply, but a hint of a blush spread across his cheeks. You catch sight of it before the Russian male shakes his head so that his blond hair covers that side of his face.

"Don't be ridiculous."

Leaning up, you press a brief kiss to his hair and watch as the blush underneath deepens to a magenta.

"Of course not."

[damoselcastel]

Ashen Wolves, part 5

And here it is, the final liveplay post... I finished the sewer kids adventures.

Recycled map: Holy Tomb, though admittedly in-story, that’s precisely what/where it is. The goal of four-tile block doesn’t do much other than tie up four of your units for a bit... I murdenated my way to them, just cause easier to dispose of enemies than getting ganked by 1 vs many. Was just a big wall-and-grind compared to the previous retreat map, Aelfric as the boss was easy enough to Gambit into submission.

Original map: Cathedral. I think the layout was actually the Garreg Mach Cathedral but with a different coat of paint slapped on top. Which, great! I wish they’d done a bit more of that in just NOT RECYCLING MAPS (a cardinal sin of this game). And that final boss...mostly felt cheesy because of the infinite concoction clones. I REALLY don’t like how FE13/14 and now this DLC just resort to endless reinforcement for “challenge”. It’s extremely annoying and cheap when all I want to do is take my crew and flex on the final boss. The design itself is a pretty cool Monster design considering it’s obviously a dragon but also evokes the Crest Beasts (still make me theorize that Crest Beasts are just dragon bodies trying to rebuild themselves). Yuri’s Foul Play was invaluable for helping move people around after the time-and-space attacks, so MVP in my heart.

All in all the DLC’s plot was pretty predictable and not all that innovative. The whole revive-dead-love-interest is like Orsin, only if he was the “nice guy” friend revealed to be a total creep instead of the desperate-and-probably-insane husband. Byleth’s previously-unnamed-mother Sitri was a bit strange of a reveal in that: her body doesn’t decompose. Which does that mean biological Nabateans are just like that? And that the ones Rhea gives life through asexual reproduction are just ultra-janky in terms of health and lifespan? The game sure doesn’t actually explain this, nor the whole “whoops happened again” to the corpse+revival-attempter merging into a big dragon monster that Rhea passingly remarks on. I can’t decide if the writers are trying to be clever or just lazy with this dangling thread lore. The part of the plot that WAS a surprise was Yuri being a double agent, not just working for the bad guy, but also working for THE CHURCH, it was honestly a twist that endeared him further to me... even if I go ??? at how exactly he was going about it.

All in all, this DLC felt like a worthwhile purchase despite being rather short and recycling a lot. The gameplay and maps had some actual challenges and forced you to tactics instead of just waltzing through. Honestly I think this mostly points to the fact that limited class options/units number/resources makes for a more controlled battle map... it’s just better, and I honestly wish FE would stop allowing class changes and instead just give us a limited pool like the old days. If you were hoping this dlc is one where the main three lords (Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard) would bond, sorry to say but that doesn’t really happen. Too much focus on the DLC characters/plot for anything meaningful, and the standing-around exploration dialogue is just shallow. FE7 2.0 this lord trio will never be.

I’ve gotten back to playing my Blue Lions run, and I must say the dlc’s extra Monthly battles and quests do add to replay value, and who doesn’t want some more outfits to play dress-up with? I like the four other option in classes, just for more options (if only a Magic master-class had been added for dudes)

I’ll post about my other playthroughs when I hit milestones in the story, so look forward to #Blue Lions run of #Dame plays Three Houses

[dweemeister]

Shoplifters (2018, Japan)

Films not in the English language are difficult sells in the United States. Over the decades, there have been a few waves, false dawns, of non-English language films and filmmaking figures becoming established figures in America’s culture. In the 1950s, with its domestic cinema regaining its foothold in the aftermath of World War II, Japan gave to the West a number of acclaimed, widely-seen films. Director Yasujirô Ozu (1953′s Tokyo Story, 1959′s Floating Weeds) was not among those directors who made their names internationally in those years – despite initial attempts to distribute his films outside of Japan, he was beaten to the punch by directors whose films (unintentionally) catered to Western expectations of exoticism and Orientalist thinking. Ozu – a specialist in meditative familial dramas – has only become known outside Japan within the last few decades, thanks to the increased interconnectivity of world cinema.

This brings us to Hirokazu Koreeda, perhaps Japan’s best living filmmaker but almost unknown outside of Japan and moviegoers with access to theaters that don’t always show the newest blockbuster. Koreeda’s narrative focus is similar to but less aesthetically rigid than Ozu – his films, like Ozu’s, display little Western influence (the two most popular living Japanese directors are Hayao Miyazaki and Takashi Miike; they both are heavily influenced by Western films). With the democratization of movie availability thanks to home media and streaming, Koreeda’s reputation should be blossoming. But in the last great waves of non-English language films becoming popular in North America (the 1950s-60s and late 1990s to mid-2000s), there were nationally-trusted film critics that served as gatekeepers and arthouse/revival theaters and video stores that served as local curators to accessing these movies. The democratization of film criticism (which, yes, applies to this movie-reviewing tumblr), the retreat of arthouse/revival theaters from rural and many suburban areas in North America, and the death of video stores have narrowed the options for Koreeda and filmmakers like him to gain greater recognition across the Pacific. For one of the best films of 2018, Shoplifters has had a miniscule release.

Shoplifters is the story of the Shibata family. Though some of the family members are related, they are, in part, a closely-knit found family. Father Osamu (Lily Franky) and his “son” Shota (Kairi Jô) support the family through their shoplifting; mother Nobuyo (Sakura Andô) works at an industrial laundry; young adult Aki (Mayu Matsuoka) works at a hostess club; the elderly Hatsue (Kirin Kiki) owns the residence and fraudulently supports the family with her late husband’s pension. One night after shoplifting, Osamu and Shota encounter Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), a young girl sitting outside her parents’ residence – she appears cold, hungry. They invite her to stay with them the night, and Yuri accepts. The following night Osamu and Nobuyo intend to take Yuri home. They overhear a massive fight between her parents, with the mother’s words suggesting psychological and maybe physical abuse towards Yuri (she also exclaims, to paraphrase: “I wish I never had her”). Osamu and Nobuyo turn around with Yuri – fearful of what the parents have and might do to the girl. Yuri will be given a new name, Lin, and becomes a loved part of the Shibata household. Yet according to the letter of the law, Lin has been kidnapped. Greater troubles lie ahead for the Shibatas – threatening the lives they have built for themselves and for each other.

Going by the recent filmography of Hirokazu Koreeda – Like Father, Like Son (2013) and Our Little Sister (2015) among them – the questions that he, as sole screenwriter in addition to serving as director, poses in Shoplifters might seem simplistic with a superficial glance. What is a family? What do they do for each other? Whether you have been lucky to have come from a supportive family that has stuck together or whether you have not, you probably have some ideal of what a “family” looks like. No matter how old one may be now, this ideal probably emerged in childhood – based in what the trusted adult figures (if any) brought to one’s life. The two children in Shoplifters ��� Shota and Yuri/Lin – are, because of the nature of childhood, the most impressionable. How the older members of the family act will leave imprints on the children long after the end credits roll.

Yes, the Shibatas have taken Lin (who is about five years old) from her actual, biological parents – to turn her in is to risk exposing their shoplifting ways. But never in the film’s runtime do their actions raise any questions about the depth of how much they care. Where does this compassion come from? It appears that living on societal fringes has not dulled their instincts for kindness, but sharpened it. Lin is given a second chance at life as it should be lived. With the Shibatas, she never has to worry about feeling unwanted or being the cause of parental strife. For Shota, as the elder child, he fears being replaced (not to the extent that Kun feels in 2018′s Mirai, thankfully). Other than the inevitability of the film’s ending, the only other weakness that might be argued about Koreeda’s screenplay is how quickly Shota takes to Lin after his initial coldness towards her. In the closing scenes, Shota questions whether Osamu has really been the great, loving father figure he always made him out to be. Osamu’s answers to Shota’s queries are truthful – acknowledging fully what he was thinking during a fateful night, realizing the pain he might be inflicting on Shota. Ultimately Shota realizes that only he can say whether Osamu has been the father figure he claims to have been. Shota’s answer will inspire bittersweet tears.

Shoplifters, inspired by news reports about Japanese poverty and shoplifting because of the nation’s economic stagnation (ongoing since the 1990s and exacerbated by the graying of its population), premises the Shibata family in poverty and crime. Neither is romanticized or, worse, exotified. Whatever stealing Osamu and Shota engage in, it is never from individuals, but stores – their baseball-gesturing shoplifting carries no malice, existing only as a need for survival. In between the family’s time working at their jobs, the Shibatas can relax and be themselves. Take this excerpt the beach scene from the film’s second half:

Yuri/Lin and Aki play at the water’s edge, Osamu and Shota are swimming further offshore, and Nobuyo and Hatsue are enjoying lunch on the sand. Another scene with a fireworks display features a gorgeous shot of the family looking up, eyes sparkling in the blues and reds illuminating the sky. The children keep in touch with their innocence; so too the adults with their sense of wonderment and celebration. Those looking for a film teeming with self-loathing or self-pity because of the family’s poverty should prepare for disappointment. There is little self-serving dialogue making demands of others or organizations. The Shibatas’ situation is livable because of the support each family gives to another. Their home – cluttered (if we’re comparing this to what I’ve seen in Japanese films set in the 20th and 21st centuries) and without privacy – is portrayed as welcoming. As the film continues, we learn more about each member of the family. The nature of their work, their personalities, and prior histories reveal fascinating lives that cannot be defined solely by poverty and struggle.

A collection of outstanding performances by the ensemble cast helps make Shoplifters the moving film that it is. This was one of Kirin Kiki’s final films before her passing last September. In her later career, she had starred in many of Koreeda’s films and became one of the director’s best stock actors. As Hatsue, she plays a woman who has seen and done much but probably will not open herself up to tell most people about herself. There is a slight mischievous glint in the actress’ eyes, even when speaking earnestly to the fellow family members. And by her final appearance, Kiki shows us someone slowly fading away, on her terms. The other adult actors – Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, and Mayu Matsuoka – have their own challenging moments. Matsuoka (as Aki) has, contextually, the film’s most awkward scenario (have this film written by almost all other writers, and it’s a disaster), but she performs the moment in the most natural way possible. Franky (as Osamu) and Andô (as Nobuyo) are inseparable from Kairi (as Shota) and Sasaki (as Yuri/Lin), respectively. The beauty of their performances is intertwined with the child actors opposite them – expressing joy, abandonment, sorrow, and forgiveness.

The spirit of Yasujirô Ozu can not only be found in the themes present in Shoplifters, but in its cinematography by Ryûto Kondô (who has a sizeable filmography, but none of his films appear to have made a dent outside of Japan). Kondô’s camerawork during one-on-one conversations – specifically in the concluding passages – recalls how Ozu and his cinematographers (Yûharu Atsuta especially) often placed the camera in between the two figures speaking, obliterating the 180º rule, and making these moments feel documented, rather than staged. There are many long takes across Shoplifters, but never does the film feel too languid. Koreeda and Kondô have figured out how to shoot their film economically and expressively – something that few director-cinematographer combinations can ever combine effectively.

While researching for Shoplifters, Koreeda visited an orphanage. There, he encountered a young girl who had the picture book Swimmy by Leo Lionni (a Caldecott Honor winner) in hand. Says Koreeda in an interview:

The staff tried to stop her, telling her she was bothering us, but she read it to the end. Everyone, including the staff, was moved and applauded her. She looked so happy. I thought she really wanted to read that book to her parents. I couldn’t get her out of my head and wrote a scene reflecting that moment.

In the same interview, Koreeda said that Shoplifters was made for the girl he met that day.

Hirokazu Koreeda has been working towards Shoplifters for the entirety of his distinguished career. Once again, he has cemented himself as one of cinema’s greatest humanists – among the living and of all-time. In a time when English-speaking audiences seem unknowledgeable, maybe even hostile to, films in another language, there just so happens to be another non-English-language film that has been grabbing the headlines for the end of 2018 in Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (not that I am complaining). Such is Koreeda’s luck once again; perhaps his timing will work out to his benefit some other year. But most importantly, Koreeda is making films presenting questions of familial love and the meaning of family itself in ways that few filmmakers can. For Shoplifters, the answers provided to those questions are incomplete, left for audiences to contemplate for themselves, in respect to wherever they may be in life.

My rating: 10/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Shoplifters is the one hundred and forty-ninth feature-length or short film I have rated a ten on imdb.

NOTE: Shoplifters was seen as part of the 2018 Movie Odyssey.

[chrismerle]

OKAY NOW IT’S DONE time for my thoughts, the least spoiler-y part of all my rambling

gameplay: A +. seriously, there are not a lot of games where I’ll contemplate going back once the story is done solely because they’re fun to play. for this one? I will probably wind up playing it more tomorrow just to keep filling in the map and doing side quests. combat is smooth and easy to pull off even when it requires multiple buttons. web-swinging is possibly the best game mechanic I’ve ever experienced. like, I don’t like flight or gliding in games, but I very willingly spent this whole damn game playing The Floor Is Lava until putting my boots on the ground was mandatory. it was good enough that I only used fast travel twice, and one of those times was required by the game tutorial (the other time was because Spidey on the subway is funny as hell). granted, I do still have my complaints. maybe I was just doing it wrong (I was probably doing it wrong), but dodging felt a bit wonky. for a lot of higher tier baddies and bosses, they attacked in volleys, so if you didn’t hammer on the dodge button until your thumb fell off then you were going to take two or three hits or more even if you dodged the initial strike. at higher difficulties, Spidey’s really only got three or four hits in him. also landing could be a bit of an ordeal. I can’t count the amount of times I vaulted straight over a roof I was supposed to land on, back and forth, several times. luckily, you were incapable of accidentally launching yourself to your death, as even jumping off of skyscrapers just resulted in Spidey doing a tuck-and-roll and bouncing to his feet on the ground below. and I wasn’t a huge fan of the stealth mechanics. don’t get me wrong, I loved MJ and Miles, but I’m generally more of a fan of very fast-paced gameplay, and the stealth sections were very slow.

boss fights: on the whole I liked them, but they weren’t perfect. most of them were some variation of ‘do this, kick in face, dodge, repeat half a dozen times, you win.’ it got a little old. especially since, for most of them, the pattern was ‘run/swing/dodge in circles, web up enemy, kick them in the face, retreat, repeat.’ still, it’s a minor complaint. Shocker escaped the pattern. Electro and Vulture were both in an area conducive to swinging the whole time, which made it more exciting. and while Scorpion followed the pattern, Rhino definitely did not, and having to keep an eye on both of them and their methods of defeat kept it interesting. unfortunately, while fighting Mister Negative on the train was entertaining, his later fight felt a bit generic. and the first stage of Doc Ock’s fight was yet another round of ‘run in circles, web, kick, retreat,’ with an added periodic AoE attack that was super annoying and the loss of the ability to customize how you fight. the second stage makes up for it, though, but I’m always a sucker for an overly emotional slug-fest.

interface: not much to say here. it looks clean. it’s pretty well organized. there’s a lot of variation in how you can do things. it’s pretty intuitive, when it comes to upgrading. the map is functional. it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it does its job well and won’t make you rip your hair out.

visuals: the animation was beautiful. fluid. natural. filled with detail and care. the settings were great. for the most part, the people looked great but, and I’m still not letting this go, for whatever reason damn near every character model had eyes too big for their faces. I was legitimately glad that most of the cast wore masks because the ET eyes were genuinely creepy. like, if it had been a stylistic choice, sure, but eyes aside the people were basically photo-realistic. and anytime a photograph showed up, it looked super uncanny. but really, those are basically my only gripes about the visuals. as an added bonus, whatever suit you wear shows wear-and-tear when Spidey gets the shit kicked out of him, which is a nice, unexpected touch.

story/writing: I am so glad this was not another Spidey origin. I have seen too much of the Spidey origin. you have seen too much of the Spidey origin. we have all seen too much of the Spidey origin. I’m not even giving the MCU a pass here: we didn’t see Holland Peter get bit, but he was in every other way a stumbling newbie. so the fact that he’s already been Spidey for 8 years at the start of the game? I am all for it. and I’m glad it was its own thing. it didn’t try to ape the comics. it’s attempting to be its own universe, rather than trying to retell the movies or 616, and it’s compelling as hell to boot in the creative liberties its taken. the dialogue is spot on. this has become my quintessential Peter Parker. you spend the vast majority of the game with him, and you will love him by the end. he’s an endearing wise-ass with a guilt complex the size of Manhattan, and if you are prone to feelings of ‘I like to watch my faves suffer’ or if you enjoy feeling like you want to wrap a character in a blanket, then Pete has got you covered. and while the side villains are a bit neglected, the main villains are definitely not. you know they’re doing bad things, but you can see the twisted logic in it. you can follow the paths their thoughts took to get them where they are, and you can realize that in a twisted way, it all makes sense. and it’s a little chilling. and there were just...so many small moments that made it great. Spidey teaching Miles how to throw a punch, Pete damn near crying when Aunt May gives him money after he gets evicted, the way everyone staying at the homeless shelter is so familiar with Pete so you know he volunteers there a lot, the way civilians react when Spidey’s close by. the world feels just lived in enough to make you care. even the characters who don’t have much to them are still enjoyable. a lot of the villains that show up don’t have much to them. I’ll be upfront about that. they show up. they snark. they fight. they get their asses kicked. but the ways they interact with each other and the details you find in the background still manage to make them compelling. I think it all works well together whether you’re new to the Spidey mythos or not. if this is your first exposure to Spidey, then parts of it may genuinely shock you, and I want you to have that experience. if you already have some idea of the Spidey story, then you get this pit in your stomach as you realize certain things that are going to happen later and then hope to god they don’t. as an admitted nerd, I was very much in camp ‘oh please no.’ but still, it managed to pleasantly surprise me. the writers knew what they were doing. there were aspects I was geared up to complain about--the argument Pete and MJ have for a good portion of the middle of the story, foremost among them--because in the hands of any hack, they would be unbearable Hallmark-esque cliches, and...they weren’t. instead of having some ungodly Third Act Misunderstanding, things I ordinarily would have taken issue with got addressed in ways that made sense. the wind got taken out of my sails on a few occasions, and I was happy for it to happen. my only real gripe is small, and it’s that we don’t really know what happened to Mister Negative. like, did he die? did he get sent back to prison? did they just leave him on the floor? what happened there?

voice acting: someone give Yuri Lowenthal a medal, he was fucking spectacular you see what i did there? eh? eh? but really, every voice was great. Pete was the joking wise-ass who cares too much for his own good that we all love. Otto was the right amount of long-sufferingly paternal. May was an authority figure you wanted to listen to while simultaneously wanting to shake her. Miles was an endearing puppy. MJ was...also kind of a puppy, but a more excited one. JJJ was JJJ. no one’s performance was grating. no one was phoning it in.

aaaand...yeah. I think that covers all of it. I had a good time. maybe I’ll even buy the DLC.

[ao3feed-victuuri]

in a future time;

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2FAiCnH

by thehandsingsweapon

After failing to publish his final collection of poems for his master's degree, Yuuri Katsuki retreats to Minako Okukawa’s summer house on the Thessaly coast. One bright afternoon, a diver emerges from the Aegean sea: hair the color of moonlight, eyes the color of the tides. He’s an archaeologist, Yuuri learns. Not just any archaeologist. He is Victor Nikiforov, whose first book, Beloved, is one of Yuuri's favorite pieces of non-fiction literature. Yuuri’s spent his whole life enraptured by ancient myths, has wandered countless museums to look into the time-washed, smooth faces of Apollo, of Persephone. Only now does he understand why the Oracles gave such dire warnings to the family of Psyche; why they ever insisted Cupid was the one god all other gods feared. Victor unlocks something that saturates his work; makes Yuuri understand why Sappho ever wrote 'let me tell you this: someone in some future time will remember us.'

Words: 2914, Chapters: 2/7, Language: English

Series: Part 5 of in a future time;

Fandoms: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Katsuki Yuuri, Victor Nikiforov, Yakov Feltsman, Yuri Plisetsky

Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov

Additional Tags: back on my mythology references bullshit, victor's an archaeologist and historian, yuuri's a poet and a writer, greek summer of gay pining, pretentious poetry abounds, queen victoria has been dead for one hundred slutty years, lgbtq+ people in history: victor nikiforov's personal soapbox

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2FAiCnH

[fearsmagazine]

XYZ Films Acquires THE SUMMONED Following World Premiere at 2022 Overlook Film Festival

XYZ Films announced their acquisition of director Mark Meir's Faustian morality tale, THE SUMMONED, out of the 2022 Overlook Film Festival. The distributor is planning a North American release of the film in July of 2022.

Tara Grandier (Actor - Angela Gulner) / DP - Justin Mark Morrison

In the picture, young Elijah (Hamilton's J. Quinton Johnson) attends a self-help retreat with his rockstar girlfriend Lyn, unaware that the enigmatic doctor who runs the estate has summoned him here to settle a generations-old supernatural debt.

Elijah Moulton (Actor - J. Quinton Johnson) / DP - Justin Mark Morrison

Directed by Meir with a script by Jewish-Ukrainian writer Yuri Baranovsky, THE SUMMONED's powerful cast features Johnson (Hamilton on Broadway, AMC's The Son), Emma Fitzpatrick (THE SOCIAL NETWORK), Salvador Chacon (FX's Mayans M.C.), Angela Gulner (Netflix's GLOW), and Freddy Douglas (Hallmark's The Odyssey). A Wicked Myth and Happy Little Guillotine Studios co-production, the picture is Produced by Baranovsky, Meir, Gulner, Justin Mark Morrison, and Dashiell Reinhardt.

Dr. Frost (Actor - Frederick Stuart) / DP - Justin Mark Morrison

James Emanuel Shapiro, XYZ Films' Executive Vice President of US Distribution, notes, "All I can say is that I felt summoned to work on THE SUMMONED! Mark, Yuri, and Angela created something smart and scary, and I can't wait to show this to as many people as possible!"

(L - R) Lyn Rose (Actor - Emma Fitzpatrick), Joe Agrippa (Actor - Salvador Chacon), Elijah Moulton (Actor - J. Quinton Johnson) & Tara Grandier (Actor - Angela Gulner)  / DP - Justin Mark Morrison

THE SUMMONED director Mark Meir adds, "We are thrilled to have XYZ bring this film to audiences. As leaders in the genre space, we’re honored to be among their titles."

[wyseink]

For the "10 question..." meme 1, 2 and 7 please:)

I wasn’t sure which of the 10 Question memes you were referring to, so I just answered these for all of them! 

10 Questions Every Fic Writer Secretly Wants to be Asked

1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

I tend to go a bit back and forth, but right now, it’s still my Yuri!!! on Ice fic, Two Nights in Paris. It’s one of the few of mine that is multi-chapter and has a full story arc rather than just being a drabble exploring a few concepts. It was also just a lot of fun to write. I can always let loose a bit more with Victor and Yuri than I can other characters just because of their careers, lifestyles, and the nature of the series. 

Let me know which fics you want for 2 & 7, as I’m going to need a bit more specification. ;)

10 Questions for Fic Writers: Writer’s Choice

1. Which fic did you put the most work into and which did you put the least into? Be honest!

I put the most work into my Yuri!!! on Ice fic, Two Nights in Paris. Ironically (or perhaps unsurprisingly), the work I put the least amount of effort into is for the same series. It’s a drabbled titled On those quiet evenings… and one I wrote while browsing pasta recipes on Pinterest. It’s also my most liked fic. -_-

2. Which sentence or paragraph is your favorite among those in the fics you’ve written? Why is it your favorite?

“She stared out over the water, unable to shake the feeling that despite what she saw on the surface, he was still retreating back into the abyss.” - Turning Point, a Psycho-Pass fic

To me, this sentence just perfectly sums up Ko and Akane’s relationship over the years and his character in particular. The fic takes place in a peaceful time when the characters are finally free, yet despite the circumstances his nature hasn’t changed. Akane still feels that she in some way can’t reach him, even if he is right there beside her.

7. Which fic do you believe you took the most creative liberty with and why?

There’s a little fic I wrote years ago for one of the most unpopular pairings in the Free! fandom back when the show wasn’t being driven into the ground. It’s comprised of two companion pieces, Overdue Meetings and Changing Tides that visits the Training Camp from Hell trip after the older characters have all graduated. I had written Overdue Meetings just for fun and giggles, which explores Gou developing a crush on the new club president (Rei). I hadn’t expected to really see it through, but one day I just decided to go for it and started writing Changing Tides to explore it further.

It was also an excuse for me to practice writing something a bit more teen-oriented, which was nice. I usually write for an adult audience in real life and usually one in the fic world as well, so it was a fun, refreshing change of pace for me.

10 Questions for Fic Writers: The Where, When, and Why

1. If you could be a spectator and watch one of your fics play out before you in real life, which would you choose and why?

Probably Two Nights in Paris since there are plenty of scenes that aren’t particularly private. Plus, that would mean I’d be in one of the cool locations the characters visit.

2. What was your process in coming up with and deciding on the setting in [title]? Did you do any kind of research to prepare and, if so, what kind?

Keeping with the Two Nights theme, I’d just known I wanted to take a look at a quick and realistic but romantic getaway for the characters. I had an image of them at a hotel window or balcony in mind, and due to a series of odd events, the result became the city of love itself. Which, if you’re familiar with the series, it’s a pretty obvious call.

I did a ton of research, utilizing everything from travel sites to friends who either frequent the city or have lived there for at least some duration of time. I also kept in mind that it wasn’t the first time Victor would’ve seen the city, but would see it from a new perspective with Yuri. All of this while they were dealing with their trademark communication issues and some stress in their relationship. I also thought about how my French friends spoke and listened to different French YouTubers to really get in the rhythm of the original character I included’s dialogue.

It’s also worth noting that I’d been reading a nonfiction book set in Paris at the time.

7. In what ways did the setting influence the characters in [title], if at all?

It’s kind of a spoiler, but it loosens both Victor and Yuri up to get away from skating for a bit. They have no choice but to focus on their relationship, and there’s an added twist at the end that explains the decision to go to Paris further. ;)

Thank you so much for the questions! They’re much appreciated. Let me know which titles you’d like for the ones I wasn’t able to answer if you’re still interested. You can find almost all of my fics on my AO3.