#all my other unrevealed characters

[vallis-cineris---wanderer]

I am so sorry for everyone who has to listen to my rants abt the things i made my OCs go through 💀💀💀

[hexhomos]

I don't know if you've written about this before, but I saw that you wrote a bit about Jayce's potential origins in Arcane. I was wondering if you wrote anything similar about Viktor anywhere, or what you headcanon his heritage to be? I know he was originally Evil Russian and is now vaguely Czech. Arcane leaves it extremely untouched, but I always thought it was implied his parents were immigrants based on the unique accent (not typical for Zaun or Piltover which basically means not American/UK based), and the fact that he even has an accent where Jayce doesn't (even though Ximena does). Viktor is such a narratively isolated character in Arcane that it's hard to rationalize him having a large interpersonal community in Zaun, which makes me doubt he belonged to like a specific cultural enclave, but I don't really know.

I vaguely implied his mother comes from Bilgewater in my catafalque fic i think, but that isnt a "country" so much as an island that got turned into an universal pirate all-purpose hub in the middle of the sea. Viktor’s deal is that he's inextricable from Zaun (as one of the establishing champions of that region, defining look and theme for so much that came later) but he's very much penned as an Outsider, alienated, etc. He was born here but he doesn't fully Assimilate, his disability and his accent detaching him from standards of normalcy.

My solution to this general conundrum is that his family originates from Somewhere Beyond. The continents and regions currently displayed in the league worldmap aren't the "entirety" of the world, just what the lore has explored so far. There are other places behind the dark spots of the map that we haven't seen yet! One big example of this being the birthplace of Nilah, the yet-unrevealed Kathkan region, which takes inspiration from south & southeast asia. (Nilah is specifically drawing from India, iirc.)

Here's what im talking about, taken from the Ruined King book:

See how the land keeps going off the side? There's more we haven't seen!

This map is also some centuries outdated, which is why you see Zaun's pre-colonization name (Oshra Va'Zaun) and some pieces of land that have since nuked themselves out of existence (Camavor has gone through a life-extinction event known as the Ruination, and records of its existence stopped circulating.)

In my head, somewhere beyond that border is where Viktor’s family came from, but since they were fishermen (remember Zaun is a harbor town) they eventually end up as part of Bilgewater's regular population, until his mother settles down inside Zaun, where Viktor is born. ta-da! The finer details and lorebuilding are up to the viewer, take your pick.

[paper-mario-wiki]

Since you've been discussing some of your RTFD roles in your ask box lately, do you mind if I ask: do you have any insight into Mikeplier and the Until Dawn dub? Your performance there is really good and hits several different flavors of unhinged and overall the dub is honestly one of the best explorations of existential horror I've seen

I'm pretty sure that ALSO spawned from interactions with Ryan. I think his and my characters kept going back and forth, egging each other on to become more unhinged and, given the occult themes of the game, that sorta naturally went down the "ascended to a higher plane through forbidden knowledge" route. but its tricky to do that given the very strict nature of what i CAN and CANNOT control about the character. so, considering that:

question:

how do you portray divine meddling in a setting where the visuals are predetermined and unrevealed to you?

answer:

acknowledge that you are holding the microphone, what that means, and that no matter what you say you are still in control of the narrative that the audience so stupidly got tricked into following.

it was kinda my only option and i decided that if breaking the 4th wall is the FINAL character beat i get for the video, it has to be THE 4th wall break. the dubs get meta all the time, so i couldnt just say something coy and call it funny enough. what i ultimately landed on as the most effective way to break the narrative without breaking the story was taking off my costume in front of the audience, and then completing the performance as myself.

[henwilsonweek]

Rules & FAQ

Rules

The works have to feature Hen Wilson from 9-1-1 prominently; this is her week, after all a. Works that contain Hen Wilson bashing specifically will not be reblogged or allowed on the AO3 collection

Don't be rude. If you don't like someone's work, back away, say nothing at all, and maybe click on something else you might enjoy more

Tag your works properly (ratings, warnings, etc.)

Mention the day and prompt on your post when sharing your work

If you're posting on Tumblr, tag us (@henwilsonweek) and use the tag #henwilsonweek2025

AI creations are not allowed

FAQ

What kind of works are accepted?

Anything! Gifs, fanfiction, fanart, videos, moodboards — everything is allowed as long as it's 1) Hen-centric; 2) doesn't bash Hen's character; 3) wasn't created through the use of AI

When should the works be posted?

Hen Wilson Week 2025 will run from the 10th to the 16th of February, with different prompts for each day (to be posted soon). Ideally, you'd post on the day of the prompt you're creating for, but I'm aware real life sometimes gets in the way (this post, for example, was supposed to be done two weeks ago; oops). I'll accept late works up to a month after Hen Week is over; just make sure to write what prompt you're creating for + the day it was due when you share it for classification purposes

Is there a minimum length required for this event?

Not at all! No minimum or maximum required!

Will there be an AO3 collection?

Yes, absolutely. You can find it here. It will open on the 8th or 9th of February so you can start drafting on AO3 then if needed.

Do I have to post on AO3 or add my works to the AO3 collection?

Not at all! Not if you don't want to. That's entirely up to you. That being said, here on Tumblr, we will only be able to reblog works shared on Tumblr that have @ us or that have tagged their posts with #HenWilsonWeek2025

Will the collection ever be closed or marked unrevealed/private?

The collection will close a month after Hen Week 2025 is over, but the works will not be unrevealed/private; the works will remain visible for anyone to access

Can I combine a prompt for this with a different event (911 Bingo, BTHB, etc.)?

As long as the other event allows it, and your work meets their requirements too, then of course!

If you have any other questions, feel free to message us/send an ask!

[olderthannetfic]

My feelings about deleting fic stem from personal experience.

I once wrote a fic that I new was going to have niche appeal, but which ended up upsetting the entire tiny fandom. The fandom was small enough that everyone knew everyone, it was really more of a social circle. These were my friends and I'd written something that made them unhappy. They weren't angry with me or anything, but the general tone was politely disguised squick and a few "oh... uh... I did not expect that for these characters :(" comments.

So I orphaned it.

Ten years later, I deeply regret this descision. My unhappiness about the initial reception has faded and I'm proud of the fic itself, and the people who were disapointed with it at the time have moved on and it doesn't colour their feelings towards me or their perception of my more recent writing.

But I lost that fic from my profile, and I regret this.

I regret orphaning it, I wish I'd just switched it to anon to assuage my feelings at the time, but I'm very glad I orphaned instead of deleting.

In addition to my own experience here, I hear a lot of stories from people who deleted fic and then a decade or two later are angry with themselves beause the fic is now lost forever.

I hear very few stories from people who deleted fic a decade ago and still feel they made the right descision, and those stories are usually from people who were writing spitefic, spam, or other works deliberately created to disrupt the experience of readers. A few are from people who were dealing with a stalker or having massive hate campaigns launched against them, and they consider the fic itself an acceptable casualty of having to completely wipe and remake their online experience. They tend to technically regret having had to delete the fic, but the alternative was unlivable.

Almost no one who deletes fic because it isn't good enough or because they're having a mental breakdown or because they've swapped fandoms or because they got a handful of rude or disapointed comments or to get back at an annoying person who liked it or because they're embarassed of the subject matter is actually happy with their descision down the road. Nearly all of them regret deleting the fic eventually.

If you ever feel like deleting a fic, consider anoning it or putting it in an unrevealed collection until whatever your feeling blows over instead.

--

[laura1633]

Hey Guys,

I said I would set a small fic challenge up for Lestappen's birthdays so here it is. I'm not going to set up a separate blog for it as it is just going to be a casual low key thing and it will be easier for me to manage from my main blog so I will just pin this note. It's going to be absolute complete chaos to start with as I have no idea how to do things or how it works so please be patient as things inevitably go wrong!

Dates and Guidelines are all below, this will outline how to submit a prompt as well as details about how to fill a prompt.

Key Dates: Submitting prompts: 2nd July - 16th July Claiming prompts: 2nd July - 16th October Posting finished works : 30th Sept - 16th October.

Guidelines for submitting a prompt 1. Prompts can be submitted by following this link and clicking on the 'Prompt Form' on the left hand side (you will need an ao3 account to do this) 2. All prompts must be centred around Lestappen (although it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a romantic relationship). 3. Prompts can include as many other characters as you like (including other drivers, team principles, other sports stars etc) as long as the focus is on Max and Charles. As an example, you can prompt a poly relationship for Max, Charles and Oscar and Oscar can feature prominently as long as both Max and Charles also play a central role to the story, this is a Lestappen fest after all! 4. You can prompt fluff or smut or anything else you can think of. If your prompt contains sensitive topics then please try and use the tags accordingly when prompting. 5. Prompts are preset to be anonymous. There is a box at the bottom of the prompt form that states 'Semi-anonymous Prompt?' leave this box ticked to keep your prompt anonymous. 6. You will need an ao3 account to submit using the steps above. If you don't have an ao3 account but would still like to submit a prompt then please send an ask to me but clearly label it "Lestappen Birthday Fest prompt". If its not labelled I won't know that it is a prompt. Please try and limit the number of prompts sent through asks as I think I will be limited in the amount I am able to add to ao3. Once I hit the limit I will update here.

Guidelines for claiming a prompt 1. The prompts can be found here and you are free to claim them as soon as you want. You do not need to wait for the prompt window to close before claiming your prompts. 2. Feel free to claim as many prompts as you feel you will be able to complete. There are no consequences to not fulfilling a prompt but it’s better not to over claim if you know you won’t have the time to fulfil them.  3. The claims and fills are not set to anonymous so it will show that you have claimed the prompt. However, there are no consequences whatsoever in claiming a prompt and then having to drop it. 4. It is fine to claim a prompt someone else has already claimed. You can also claim your own prompts.

Guidelines for filling a prompt 1. You can fulfil your claim at any time but the collection will be set as unrevealed until the 30th September so your fic will not go live until the 30th September. This also means you can go into your work and edit it right up until 30th September. 2. When completing your work on ao3 there is an option that states 'Set a different publication date' so I would suggest setting the date as 30th September. 3. Whilst the collection will go live on 30th September (Max's birthday) you can keep fulfilling your claims right up until the 16th October (Charles' Birthday) 4. Please make sure you tag your works in regards to sensitive topics. 5. Whilst the aim is to get at least some works posted in the period 30th Sept - 16th Oct I do recognise that if you are writing a longer fic you might need some more time and so I will leave the collection open for people to add to it after the 16th if this is necessary.

What if I want to submit my own piece of work rather than fill a prompt? The very first prompt on the page is a free prompt, you can claim this if you want to post your own piece of work to the collection. Does it have to be a fic? Absolutely not, you can post artwork too if you would like.

Still have questions? If you still have any questions then please feel free to send me an ask either anon or not. Please just be patient as I might not respond straight away, unfortunately I have a very boring job that also takes up my time!

There will be some issues at the start whilst I sort things out so we will just see how it all goes!

Remember it's all for fun with no pressure ❤️

[rinchfest]

Coming this September to an internet near you: Rinch Fest 2024, a ship week for Harold Finch/John Reese from Person of Interest! This is a low-pressure event meant to encourage the creation of more fanworks for Finch/Reese or Finch & Reese’s friendship. Fic, art, gifs, vids, podfic, you name it—all are welcome, as long as they’re Rinch-centric.

Posting for Rinch Fest will run from September 24 through September 30, 2024

PROMPTS:

Day One – September 24 Fluff• Pining• "Always" • Dark• Domesticity

Day Two – September 25 Be Nice To John• Established Relationship• Road Trip • Food/Drinking/Cooking • Art

Day Three – September 26 Be Nice To Harold• Belly• "Beach Cabin in the Woods• "Five+1" • Pets/Animals • Music

Day Four – September 27 Kids/Babies/Pregnancy• Hugs• Clothes • Setting/Genre Change AU• The Machine

Day Five – September 28 Bed Sharing• Wedding/Marriage• Crossover • Canon Divergence • Tropes

Day Six – September 29 Finch Whump • Reese Whump • NSFW/Kink • Retirement • Home

Day Seven – September 30 Free-For-All/Catch-Up Day

Keep reading for more info!

Who’s running this? ArgylePirateWD. Hi! Now with mods @alexsrousseau and @stingalingaling

Any changes since last year? None! As in previous years, Reese&Finch friendship is also allowed

Why not call it Rinch Week? It started out as Rinch Fest on The Rinch Loft on Discord, and that’s what stuck.

Plus, Rinch Fest and Reese & Finch share the same initials.

What’s allowed? Complete fanworks focusing on Harold Finch and John Reese in a romantic or close platonic relationship with each other. Fic, art, vids, remixes, sequels, you name it! No length requirements, no style requirements, all ratings allowed—do what you want!

Anything not allowed? Works where Finch/Reese or Finch & Reese is not the primary relationship (additional ships are fine), works that are incomplete at the time of posting, and remixes or other transformative works for other people’s fanworks that are done without the original creator’s permission. Anything else is fair game, as long as it’s labeled.

Also, don’t be a jerk.

What about [insert controversial topic here]? Can I make something with x?/OMG someone made something with x! Anything else is fair game, as long as it’s labeled. This includes works featuring tropes and kinks that you may not like or approve of. As long as it’s warned for, it’s fine and allowed.

Please warn for the usual AO3 warnings (Major Character Death, Graphic Violence, Rape/Non-Con, and Underage) and any subjects others may find deeply unpleasant, and clearly label any NSFW works.

What about poly? Gen? Poly is wonderful, but this is a Finch/Reese or Finch&Reese event. Sorry.

Finch & Reese gen is allowed!

What do I do with x prompt?/Can I do [insert concept here]? Anything goes! Seriously, however you want to interpret a prompt is fine.

Do I have to make something for every prompt? No! You can if you want, but it’s not required. Feel free to skip days, combine prompts, create multiple fills for each day, anything! This is as flexible as it gets.

If it fits multiple prompts, when do I post it? Whatever day works best for you!

What if I want to do something NSFW? There's no nsfw prompt this year. Is it still allowed? YES! Bring on the spicy if you want!

What about a multi-chapter/piece thing where each chapter fulfills one day’s prompt? When do I post that? Post an update each relevant day until you’re done! (Just make sure you can finish it by the end of the event.)

What if it doesn’t fit a prompt? That’s what Day 7 is for! :D

What if I need to post my fill(s) on a different day? Life happens. The AO3 collection is set to Unrevealed, so I can reveal early submissions on the right day, but if that doesn’t work for you, I’m sure we can work something out.

Can I work on a previously-posted WIP? As long as it’s finished when you make your post for the event, sure! If you’re just updating a WIP without finishing it, no.

Can I start working now? Absolutely! That’s why I’m announcing it now—so there’s plenty of time for people to make things.

Can I talk about/share previews of what I’m working on? Sure!

Wait, there’s a Rinch Discord server? Do I have to join to do this? Of course not. We’d love to have you at The Rinch Loft, and it’s a fun place to hang out, but Rinch Fest is for anyone into Rinch.

If I want the Discord link… Send in an Ask to the @rinchfest Tumblr, contact ArgylePirateWD somewhere, or ask around. It’s open to anyone who likes Rinch or Person of Interest. I’m happy to give it out to anyone who wants it.

Where do I post? On Tumblr, post to your blog and use the #rinchfest23 or #rinchweek23 tags. You are They are being watched. 👁 And maybe add @rinchfest in your post to be sure. Tumblr is as hungry as Bear and Shaw.

Submissions are also open.

On AO3, you can post it here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/rinchfest23/

Do I have to have a Tumblr? AO3? As long as you’re on some kind of platform and can get a link to the work to me somehow so I can share it with the world, you’re welcome to play.

On October 1st, I’ll make a round-up post full of links to all the shiny things people made. If I know you made it, it’ll go in!

What time zone? The daily prompt posts will be going up at 12 am Central Time, but as long as it’s the relevant day for your fill somewhere in the world, go ahead and throw it in!

(And if you want to sneak in some Day 7 things a little after, as long as they get posted before the Master Post goes up… 😉)

Sounds fun! How do I sign up? No signups! Just post your stuff somewhere on the right day(s), and you’re in!

[antimony-medusa]

How To Set Up An Ao3 Exchange

One of the first things I say whenever anyone asks me about running exchanges is that if you have more than about 30 people in the exchange, do NOT try to match it by hand. That is so much work and takes so much time. Use Ao3's matching algorithm. And people say sure, and then they look at how Ao3 works and they go uhhhhhhhhhh I think we can make a google form work. Because google forms are reasonably intuitive to make work, and Ao3 exchanges are— not.

But the thing is, once you understand the underlying logic for Ao3 collections, they are not that bad, and seriously I can't overstate the benefit of having Ao3 do the matching for you. That's like the difference between 80 hours of curating data as it comes in and then matching it (what happened with hand-matching 325 people for holiday exchange), or 2 hours of double-checking the matching (what happened with matching 125 people for 48 hour exchange). You have to put in extra work to get an Ao3 exchange set up, but it super pays off in the end. So! Here is an intro to how Ao3 exchanges work on the back end. This explanation assumes you know how to sign up for an exchange because I've posted ones like that before, for example, here.

Let's get into it.

THE COLLECTION

The first thing you want to do is set up your exchange collection. If you go to your right-hand drop-down menu, you click on My Collections.

That brings you to every collection you have ever made, and you go to to the right and click "New collection".

That brings you into the back end of the collection. You want to go down and put in a name for the collection that will be the url (so no spaces), a display name, an email for the collection to email when something happens to the collection (this will be public, so use a fandom email), and a basic description.

There's places there to do custom icons and headers, but those are optional, but you can go in and make your exchange pretty later if you want!

We are still in the "setting up" stage of the exchange, so once we go to preferences, you want to select all the tick boxes and make it look like this.

Moderated means that you'll have to manually approve things to be added to the collection (not absolutely necessary but can keep out trolls, and it also means that you can manually check that gifts meet minimums before you let them in to the exchange), Closed means that no one can submit things to the collection yet (once you open your exchange you de-select this), Unrevealed means that any works in the collection will show up as "mystery works" and not be readable (so you keep it unrevealed until the posting date, so people can post early but not spoil the surprise), anonymous means that all authors will be anonymous (this depends on if you have an anonymous portion of your exchange, so it's optional), "show random works" just means that you get a selection of different works when people visit the collection at different times, "send a message to the collection email" is optional but is useful for moderation (like if you're checking people off a list when their gifts get delivered), and "type of challenge" you want to be set to "gift exchange".

and then on this page the only other things of concern are places where you can put in an FAQ, a description and some instructions, but those are all optional! I normally host the FAQ on tumblr, so I just say "go check the tumblr at [link]".

And then you hit the submit button.

Now we get into the nitty-gritty.

First up is some optional stuff— you can add in the times that you're going to do things! This is useful for communication, but not necessary. We're still setting everything up, so you do not want Sign-Ups to be open, that is only selected once you have everything ready to go.

Then scrolling down, you get to Requests and Offers.

This is where you specify the absolute minimum ships or characters that you want people to give you to sign up. 10 is the maximum Ao3 allows, so I always set it to 10 for both "allowed", which is the maximum the site will allow. And required is the low number. I usually set it to a minimum of three, to make sure someone doesn't sign up with "i will only write one ship" or something. This way, people will have to do a minimum of three separate requests and offers.

The "requests visible" is part of the back end thing, and it's up to you if you want to select it or not. If you keep it unselected, the only person who will be able to see requests is the mods, and eventually each person will see their assignment. If you select it, people will be able to browse everyone's requests and both maybe target offers so they can write for a specific person, and be able to find treats (extra bonus gifts) to write for people whose requests they like. Each side has its own benefits or negatives, it's up to you which ones you want to go with!

And here we get into more of the matching info! Let's look at Request Settings.

Now this is what the settings would look like for a multi-fandom exchange. The "details/description" box you want to make mandatory because that is where people will put their DNW and their prompts (and you absolutely want to make sure everyone has a DNW), and the url is an optional one which lets people link an off-site letter on google docs or dreamwidth.

Fandom allowing up to three fandoms means that people can do crossovers if they want (or tag a request something like 3rd life/hermitcraft), and if I wanted to say that people had to request 3 separate servers I would say "must be unique" but I'm okay if people sign up with three Dream SMP relationships in this idea hypothetical exchange, so I'm not selecting the unique button.

I'm ignoring the characters button cause that's extra complication, the only other thing I want to look at is the relationship button. A minimum of 1 ship per request (and there's a minimum of three requests), and let's say you can go up to 20, so people can request LOTS of different ships. I did select "must be unique" so someone can't sign up with the same ship three times. The "allow any" button is off, which means that I will have to select relationships that fit under the fandom that I selected one up, I can't request Shubble/Niki Nihachu (Origins), and put it with a fandom request for Hermitcraft. This has set it so that the absolutely minimum someone can sign up with is 3 relationships (3 requests * 1 relationship each), and the absolute maximum is 200 relationships (10 requests * 20 relationships each).

Requests will look much the same, except I am not putting down details/description or a URL, because I'm not letting people submit requests about what ship they "really" want to match on, they are going to be equally matchable to everyone they offered. Some exchanges will let you submit a requests DNW, but honestly that is so much extra work for the mods, I would not recommend it unless you think it's necessary to stop people from dropping their gifts later.

Okay, so now we take a brief digression into a tag set.

THE TAG SET

Okay so basically a tag set is an extra set of sliders that lets you fine-tune your exchange. If you do not use a tag set, when people sign up they will be able to use every canon tag on the archive, and only canon tags. Which is a LOT of tags, but when I ran an exchange without a tag set there were multiple times of hitting non-canon relationships or tags. But it's also a definite extra complication, tag sets are extra fiddly work and they are even less intituive. If you just want to go without a tag set, skip down to the matching segment. If you do want to avoid hitting people signing up with non-canon tags, keep reading.

I'm gonna say right off the bat that tag sets are the single most like "oh I am getting into the GUTS of the machine" part of running Ao3 exchanges, but if you can make them work they can super streamline both the sign-up (for your participants ) and the matching process (for you).

Oh boy, tag sets. Here we start getting into how exchanges start squeezing the interface to make it do what we want it to. I'm using a tag set, so first I clicked on the "tag set" url there and I made my tag set, and then I came back and selected its name from the drop-down menu on the collection.

When it comes to the relationship settings, you have three options:

Leaving both boxes unticked will allow someone to input any relationship that has been wrangled into the fandom and any relationship in your tag set.

Clicking Fandom Only will allow people to use any wrangled tag that has been associated to this fandom— but only those tags.

Clicking Tag Set Fandom Only will allow people to use any tag in your tag set that is associated with your fandom— but only those tags.

Fandom Only is not very useful for how we're using tag sets, because we specifically want non-canon unique tags we are designing for our purpose. Both boxes unticked is only useful if you want people to be able to do mash-up signups where someone puts ZombieCleo & LDShadowLady (3rd Life) on a signup for a fandom of Dream SMP— which in most cases you don't want, because matching that is gonna be very difficult. (We do something like this for mcyt recursive, but recursive is— weird.) The usual and simplest way to run is to click Tag Set Fandom Only, and that way your participants will get a drop-down autocomplete menu of the tags in your tag set, the ones they can use, when they sign up. Easy and simple!

I am leaving characters unchecked, because in both cases selecting a box will restrict the options available to someone signing up to character tags that have been associated or wrangled into a fandom, and we are either a) not using characters at all, or b) using the character field for gift types (more on that later), and we specifically want unassociated gift type tags that are not affiliated with any specific fandom. What tags? Well. Let's move over to the tag set itself.

So, I started a new tag set, and I'm over there on that screen, looking at it. What does that screen look like?

Okay so, part of the appeal of a tag set is that your participants are able to specify the difference between "Rendog & InTheLittleWood" and "Rendog/InTheLittleWood". You don't have to worry about people getting undesired shipping, because people were specifying if they wanted shipping when they signed up. You can reduce a great deal of people getting matched badly by using relationship matching, because most of the time even if people want a Tommy-centric fic, there's a pretty big difference between people who want "Tommy & Technoblade" and "Tommy & Dream". By specifying who you want the gift to be about, you remove a big hurdle of matching right away. That's why most exchanges run on relationship matching.

However, if there are 37 people on a given server, that's something like 2,600 possible combinations of people if you include both romantic and platonic, and that's before you start getting into trios, and that's just way too many tags for the mods to enter manually. So what you do is run a nomination period, and for a week or two weeks you go to all your participants and you go "do you want to sign up for this exchange? Nominate the tags you want to use now! If it doesn't get nominated, it can't be used!" And then people head to the tag set to nominate.

So, on this page, you want "visible tag list" to be selected, because you want people to see what's already been nominated so they don't duplicate, and you want "currently taking nominations" to be selected because you will be taking those nominations instead of doing them all yourself.

So you have to set up limits on those nominations.

The point of taking nominations is to make matching easier, so people normally use the same fandom and relationship limits as they are going to use on the sign-up, to make sure there aren't dozens of tags in the tag set that nobody's using, just cluttering up the space. It also helps stop the issue where someone sees a tag in the tag set, goes "oh man I love that ship" and signs up, but its an extra tag that no one intended to offer, so they don't match to anyone. That's why sometimes people keep the amount of tags that can be nominated low, I've seen people limit this to 10 tags per fandom, or even 7, so that's up to you.

And you save, and now when you link your participants the tag set, they will have a "nominate" button.

They will hurry over to press that button, and then they will see a page that looks like this.

This is a thing where you absolutely want to give your participants detailed instructions, because what Ao3 will try to do is auto-fill people's nominations with canonical tags. WE DO NOT WANT CANONICAL TAGS. CANONICAL TAGS ARE THE ENEMY OF EXCHANGES. CANONICAL TAGS ARE THE ENEMY OF MCYT EXCHANGES IN PARTICULAR.

Remember back when we clicked the button that says tags have to be unique? The canonical tag for Philza & Technoblade doesn't have a server on it, and people might want to be requesting that relationship for SMPEarth, Dream SMP, Origins SMP, or arguably even QSMP. If you only have the canonical tag, people can only request a specific dynamic once, for one server. And that is a problem for every situation where people interacted on multiple servers, and with the network of overlaps that is Empires/SOS/3rd Life/Hermitcraft and DSMP/Origins/SMPEarth/QSMP, that's going to lead to unhappy participants. So you tell people to nominate the ship and also "disambiguate" it, and add the server in parentheses. And then all your participants will hit the button to submit, and you will go into the "review nominations" button, and you will let those tags into the tag set.

Now I just distributed the tag set to a couple friends, so let's look at what this looks like behind the scenes.

Brace yourself, it's gonna be wild, but I believe we can get through it.

Now here is a perfectly standard look at tag set nominations after a few people have gotten into the tag set. This is why they pay tag mods the big bucks.

As you can see, there are a few things to be gathered. The first things is a bunch of people used the canon tags (because that's what Ao3 tries to get them to do), someone else nominated an x-reader ship, we have one tag there twice (spelled differently), and the tags are Piped (they have both the person's tax name and the username). (You can let tags in that are Piped, but I find that it makes the tag set harder to read, and usually exchanges are character-focused unless you're writing video blogging rpf anyways, so I ask people to submit tags unpiped, using usernames.) And for the tags that were nominated in a way that I want (unpiped, and disambiguated so they're unique), Ao3 is trying to get me to use the canon tag. But I don't want the canon tag, I want a unique tag, with the server on it, with no pipes. So.

So were I moderating the tag set, after a few minutes it would look like this.

That's going through and disambiguating the tags (adding the server, which I could tell because of the fandom it was nominated under), removing the piping and using the usernames instead of tax names, and then re-ordering the names so they're alphabetical so people can find them on the list later, rejecting the x-reader tag, rejecting the duplicate and allowing the one that's spelled correctly through. Amazing. I have tags that I want to use (I did some other tags that were ready to go in other fandoms as well). I hit submit. Am I ready to go?

Not yet! First, associating tags. If you accepted the tags through the tag nomination process, you will have a button up there that says Review Associations.

If you click on this, on the back end, anything that you accepted under a previously accepted fandom will be helpfully paired up with this fandom, with Ao3 trying to say "ah, does it go here?"

You just go down the list, and if is trying to put it in the right fandom, then you click the box, and at the bottom of the page you press submit, and then there's your tags sorted out to your fandoms! Bingo! Are you done now?

No.

Because tag sets are the most complicated part of exchanges.

So. if you open up your tag set, and you scroll down to "Unassociated characters and relationships" there are a bunch of tags that are are lost, Ao3 doesn't know where to put them. This happens when a) you accepted a tag that was associated with a fandom that hadn't been accepted yet, b) it was trying to associate it with a basket fandom that you don't want to associate it with so you couldn't accept the suggested associations (for example: Philza hardcore tags will show up in Dream SMP but you don't want to associate them there), c) sometimes Ao3 just breaks, spaghetti code d), you had manually added these tags on the Edit page— more on that later. So all of these tags you have to manually associate.

You hit the Edit button on the tag set, and scroll down to the bottom, to "tag associations", and start selecting where tags go.

Honestly this is a great time to be listening to a stream or a podcast or something, and then you have the tag set open in another tab so you know what all the unassociated tags are, and you just go down the list like a databasing machine. It is not hard, cause you disambiguated each tag with its own server, it's just time consuming. Note. This is why people go in and accept tags regularly during the nomination period, because if you do this all at the end you've got a BIG job ahead of you.

So, you turned on your VOD playlist and you associated all your tags, and all the tags are where they are supposed to go. You have a beautiful tag set.

But wait, you say, looking at this beautiful tag set. Some of those tags look at little different. What is the "Dream smp and only dream smp" that a couple of them have?

Well.

You see.

Ao3 designed tag sets to work a certain way, and nobody uses them that way. It turns out that "Quackity/Wilbur Soot (Dream SMP)" is a wrangled canon tag, and the system goes "ah, I know where this goes, this is a sub-tag of the major tag, and the top-level tag is Video Blogging RPF, so it goes under Video Blogging RPF, as all MCYT tags do. I am very smart. I have stuck this Dream SMP tag under Video Blogging RPF. I am a good machine". And then you go AUUUUUUUUGH, and then you turn up the podcast a little louder, and then you sit down and you delete the old tag and you write out a new tag that the system doesn't know what to do with, and it goes uhhhhhhh and sticks it in "unassociated tags" and then you go in again and you manually associate it into the right server.

Edit in 2024: I use (DFE) at the end of the tag now, because it's shorter.

It's not hard, it's just time consuming. Shouting at the tag set like STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO as it helpfully tries to stick dsmp tags in SMPearth and you wrestle it out of SMPEarth and into the right fandom bucket.

Deep breath moment. Honestly that's the most fiddly part of a fiddly process, so if you can get through this you're absolutely golden.

Anyways. You got clean disambiguated unique tags, and then you associated them in the right spot, and then you found the ones that got sorted to the wrong spot and you associated them yourself, and now you have a beautiful tag set ready to go. It's a thing of beauty. Shed a tear. Your participants can select from anything in this tag set, and you know they want to use these specific relationships, because they submitted them to you. What next?

THE MATCHING

Okay. You have your tag set set up and it's accepting nominations. Your participants are filling it out right now. You go back to your collection. it's time to tell it how to match.

This is the "minimum number to match" pane, and this is the minimum numbers to make a successful match. You want 1 for Fandom, and 1 for Relationship, and that's it. People will show up to the machine as a viable match as long as they have submitted a fandom and relationship that matches someone else's offered fandom and relationship.

This is a minimum viable exchange. You're ready to go. As soon as your tag set is done (or immediately if you're not using a tag set), you're ready to go back and open your exchange to sign-ups.

Congratulations!

FURTHER TWEAKING

HOWEVER. There is more that you can do. For example, do you want to allow people to request or opt into NSFW? There's an easy way to do that! First thing is you go back to your tag set, and you scroll down to the "ratings" section that you've been ignoring.

You select G and E, and that way, if people are opting into explicit that means they're okay with NSFW, and if they only select G, that means they only want a non-explicit piece.

Then on the collection you switch the requests and offers sections to include a place to specify a rating.

You want them to definitely specify at least one, and if you maximum allowed is 2, people can opt into both and say "i'm good with whatever"!

Then you scroll down to the matching section, and you tweak that to make sure that people will match on Fandom, Relationship, and at least one Rating.

Bingo. You now have a toggle to turn NSFW on and off.

But a lot of people like to match by TYPE of gift too, specifying if they want art or fic or playlist or web weave etc. How do you do that? Ah, at this point you are master of all you survey, and you can make tag sets do absolutely anything you want. Remember we talked about using the character slot? You go back to the tag set and you scroll down to "characters".

Now we were matching on relationships, so the character box is unused. And it lets you put in your own tags. So what you do is you start to add in custom tags.

And then you go back to the Collection settings, and on the requests and the offers you go in to the "characters" section and you say "must select at least one, can select up to six".

And then, you guessed it— you go back to "minimum number to match" and you set that "characters" tab to 1 minimum, 6 maximum. Now people who specified that they wanted Art can be matchable to artists who Offered Art. You have unlimited power, the world is at your fingertips.

There's even more customization that you can do, too! There's "additional tags", which is entirely custom tags you add yourself, that can be anything from specifying if people want fluff or horror or hurt/comfort etc— with the recursive exchange we used it to specify the works people were recursing— I'm considering using it for holidays with the holiday exchange. You can let people opt in or out of major archive warnings by selecting "archive warnings" as a thing that's in the tag set and that you're matching for. Once you understand how the underpinnings of how the machine works, you can wrestle it into almost any shape you want.

So. Whew. That's how exchanges work, under the hood. When I say that this is significantly easier than hand matching the holiday exchange, I ask you to picture just how complicated hand matching gets. Go forth! Thrive! Set up exchanges if you want! The world is your oyster!

Feel free to message me if you have further questions.

[andiv3r]

I'm curious, what is it about stancest that you like?

Ohhg okay, so there's A Lot. Click at your own risk, thoughts on the ship and many reasons I "like" it (find it useful as a narrative tool & fun to play with) under the cut.

I think the main appeal is that there is a formerly strained bond being repaired, and watching them grow close again in their old age is beautiful no matter how you view their relationship¹. I like to explore concepts with stancest that I can't explore with other ships², such as Bill's control and manipulation affecting what could have otherwise been a nice reunion, shared unrevealed feelings being why they both pushed one another away more than necessary in the time right before the portal incident ("for his own good," they both think), or just-through-the-portal Ford meeting a version of mullet Stan while in another dimension (also works for Portaled Stanley AUs meeting another version of Stanford), realising just how bad Stan had it, and (believing there is very little chance of him ever finding his way back home), deciding to take care of this version of his brother where he didn't for the one he knew.

If you're thinking, "Hey... some of those work just fine without making it stancest. You could keep their relationship platonic/familial and still use those concepts," then you're right! I could! Sometimes I even do! But...

I have no reason to restrict the sort of thing I write when the potential for a different dynamic between these characters, as well as being able to explore facets of my own identity through them, appeals to me³. I enjoy looking at the concept of an aromantic alloalterous demisexual and autosexual Ford and playing through how those identities would impact how he sees Stan⁴.

I am also fond of speculating about their time at sea, and what the healing of their relationship would entail. Stan's memory loss (which I think still affects him somewhat, in the form of gaps where certain memories haven't fully reformed or are hazy) would undoubtedly affect things, as would Ford's guilt for "causing" it. There's potential for Stan recovering traumatising memories and Ford both helping him work through that and learning about some of them for the first time - having to learn in the worst possible way that Stan has been through infinitely more than he thought. There is an extremely compelling dynamic here regardless of the nature of their relationship, but I'm a sucker for old queers and lifelong mutual pining that's finally come to a resolution, so putting that era of their life through a stancest filter was inevitable and brings me the most joy.

So, yeah. I dunno, there's just a lot you can do with it and a lot that's already there to build from.

¹Purely familial? Hell yeah, there's lots to work with there and that used to be my favourite way to see them! Romantic? Adds an extra layer to all the ways you could interpret their actions (and therefore all the ways you could add angst), love it lots. Secret third thing? I Am Gnawing At The Bars Of My Enclosure, You Have No Idea How Much I Love Viewing Them As Secret Third Thing. Secret Third Thing can mean so much, there is so much to work with there. It can mean "I love you more than anyone else but it's not romantic but I still feel guilty over how deeply I love you because I'm not supposed to feel like this, you're my brother." It can mean "Whenever I envisioned 'settling down' and 'starting a family' I couldn't make myself see a romantic partner... I could only ever see us out at sea." It can mean "You are my other half. I don't know what we are but I know that you complete me." It can mean so, so much.

²Fiddauthor or portalcule would suffice in some cases, but not all of them... and to be honest, I don't want to settle for something that would just suffice. If it would hit harder emotionally as stancest than it would as fiddauthor, then I'm making it a stancest and not fiddauthor.

³I like to explore ideas of gender/sexuality/romantic orientations as a way to work through how I view my own aromanticism. Stanford is a heavily aromantic-coded character, and Stanley can be viewed through an aromantic lens (which is a headcanon for him that I hold dear).

⁴How would his being autosexual affect the physical aspect of his attraction? How would being demisexual impact him, what with Stan being the person he's closest to and knows best out of anyone in the world? How would his lack of romantic attraction impact that relationship? Would it make him feel more or less guilty for his feelings? Would he even notice they weren't romantic, or would he assume romantic, sexual and alterous attraction were all the same? Would his guilt from his feelings (because god knows he'd have that guilt) stem from some place of societally ingrained morals, or would he, as he so often in canon does, shun society's ideas for how he should act... and in that case only feel guilty for having what he assumes is unwanted and unreciprocated attraction toward someone who would be disgusted at him for it? Or would he maybe ignore the guilt, his attention centred on the fact that this attraction, or these feelings, or this attachment, makes him an anomaly, a freak, just like he was always told he was for his physical differences?

[fanwork-exchange-promos]

Multifandom: Forgotten Fandoms February

Posted by: challengingao3 Are you in a small fandom with less than 1000 fics on AO3? Are you looking for inspiration or want to inspire others? "Forgotten Fandoms February" is a AO3 Fic Fest with multiple fandom of choice challenges for small fandoms! If you have a favorite trope, character type or ship dynamic you love no matter the fandom; If you would like to see your favorite song turned into a songfic or if you are curious about what others make out of your favorite quotes and sayings, then feed our challenges! Or, if you're an writer, look for some inspiration yourself! Type My Trope (Tropes, Character Types and Dynamics) Sing My Song (Lyrics and Songfics) Quotes And Quills (Quotes, Slogans and Sayings)   Wordcount is 100 in each challenge. You can request a prompt, claim a prompt or do both just as you like! All challenges are fictional fandoms only (no RPF) and Ship And Let Ship. Problematic ships are welcome - provided the prompt allows them. Works are unrevealed and creators anonymized during the Fic Fest Dates For All Challenges * Sign-Up closes: January, 25 * Deadline for submissions: February, 21 * Works revealed: February, 22 * Creators revealed: February, 28   comments via The Fandom Calendar https://ift.tt/C07Piu9

[peripypo]

The Tri[MMM]ings: Delicious in Dungeon Missed Manga Moments (Episode 1)

This is the first of a series of posts where I chronicle the small tidbits/character interactions that were cut during the transition from manga to anime, for the series Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui! All screenshots from the manga will be taken from Mangadex/#EverydayHeroes Scans, so please check them out! Also, a shoutout to @dungeon-meshi-leftovers, a blog that's doing a very similar thing but more focused on archiving every single little thing cut, with detailed image descriptions for those needing them!

Now, lets get into it!

I was happily surprised with how little content the first episode trimmed out! The first cuts come in the opening fight scene with the red dragon. When Laios mentions how his party got lost and almost fell into traps, there's actually a handful of drawings that show them getting into the hijinks! It's understandable that they cut this out, but I'd love to see more of Laios's old party before they had been separated.

Speaking of them being separated... the next thing cut was the two party members talking to Chilchuck and giving him the notes themselves. I wish this was put into the anime. I'm keeping their names unrevealed, as they haven't been said in the anime yet, but this cut makes them feel less personable and more like side characters, sadly.

The next cut does not happen until Laios and friends begin to enter the dungeon. This little doodle of Marcille reading the paper is missing in the anime, which is a shame. Again, it just gives a bit more personality into the characters. Understandable, but still sad!

These next three moments that were trimmed fall into the same boat that I feel like I'm going to have to call out a lot; both Laios and Senshi have a tendency to go into great amounts of detail when talking about monsters/food in general, and a lot of it gets understandably cut out. However, it's a shame, because not only is it a great piece of world building, but it also really shows how passionate and knowledgeable each of them are about their hobbies.

This next part is what I believe to be the BIGGEST CRIME that the anime has committed. Yes, the food is animated and colored beautifully, but both the ingredients list and the nutrition chart are nowhere to be seen in the anime!! I absolutely love these little details Ryoko put in about the food, and it's so sad to see them not in the show. A shame!

There's also going to be a lot of cut out ingredient spotlights. For example, there's a little drawing of where each separate fruit came from and their names in the manga. Definitely hard to translate to a video format.

Finally, there's a little gag that's cut out of Chilchuck hitting his head on a branch. Completely understandable why they cut it out, again, but still sad to see it go.

And that's all for episode 1!! Thank you so much for reading! Feedback in the replies or in my dms would be appreciated; let me know what you guys liked and what I should include in the next ones! And also, please reblog with any other moments from the first two chapters that you think deserve some spotlight or anything else that you think I should've added!

[atamascolily]

Wow, talk about a "frame narrative"! The end credits for the Eternal recap movie go all out here, with four "frames" of reference overlapping each other: the bejeweled portrait, the one with Kyubey's face, the salamander and cogs filigree from Homura's countdown signs from the beginning of the movie, and (presumably Walpurgisnacht's) curtains. As with the ending of the original series, Magia Record, and the Rebellion Production Note, Homura's silhouette faces away from the audience as if taking a bow, accompanied by the flicking of an old-fashioned projector. This is another one of those shots where Inu Curry's interests are on full display.

One of my favorite art genres is trompe-l'oeil, the art of making a two-dimensional drawing appear three-dimension and "real", and which often involve a similar use of frames and curtains:

Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, The Reverse of a Framed Painting (c. 1670) and Letter Rack with an Hourglass, a Razor and Scissors, (c. 1664).

This shot from Eternal reverses this dynamic--a three-dimensional object is incorporated into a two-dimensional plane, leaving it an open question of what is diegetically "real". A similar technique is used briefly in the second Nightmare sequence in Rebellion:

Here the jeweled frame is also adorned with buttons and the curtains at the top are three-dimensional lace; the background is made of quilted fabric pieces and there are also curtains to either side. The Nightmare is three-dimensional as well and puppeted by Homura's hands which are "blue-screened" to indicate they are invisible to the characters, who see this instead:

The "frame" in the Nightmare sequence is evocative of kamishibai, or traditional Japanese street theater using illustrations on a board, as well as Drosselmeyer's shadow box for the unrevealed Clara Dolls during Homura and Kyouko's lunch date. Once again, it ties into Rebellion's larger themes of performance, illusion, and reality itself. It's almost as if "all the world's a stage".... now where have I heard that one before?

(Note: that was rhetorical. I already know the answer to that.)

[sincerelyyadere]

Beta testing review (no spoilers)

3/10

Toxic, love triangle, nsfw, yandere but in a bad way, omegaverse, alpha x beta x omega, top x switch x top, secrets

TW: nsfw, rape, drugging, abuse

This is the worst shit ive read in a long time, mostly because for 40 fucking episodes nothing was happening. Boring as hell, and you see this black haired guy? Fuck him, hes trash.

And after those 40 episodes of mindless scrolling, couse i was like “well, they said there will be a yandere here…” author thought it was boring too, apparently, and out of nowhere we got rape, drugging, emotional and physical abuse and… yandere? But in the worst way possible. So, in the first half i was hating just the black haired guy, now i hate the violet too. What the actual fuck, how can you manage to make all of your ML undesirable?

Main character on the other hand is perfect. I loved him so much, and i liked his trauma history, how it was unrevealing and how we got to understand his choices better.

Nonetheless, i feel bad saying this, but with all this raping and drugging and god knows what else, at least this shit got sort of interesting, and it was not so boring anymore (i was literally scrolling through sex scenes, how boring can a manhwa be that you skip sex scenes???)

Of course, no trigger warnings in the manhwa itself, but thats a given at this point. At least characters point out that the rape did happen, and dont just act like ot was nothing and just a “rough sex”.

I think i will be reading new episodes as they come out, since i struggled through 70 chapters of this shit, but if any of you want to read this, just skip to chapter 37, i will tell you what was happening before that so you dont waste time:

[SPOILER WARNING]

RECAP

Jihyuk is the main character who works in a bar for exclusive members, his boss is going out w/ his brother who is an omega.

Jihyuk fucks around a lot and then he meets yoo-jun who is of course wealthy as fuck (the black haired guy). He is an alpha in heat so jihyuk helps him and fucks with him. Yoo jin doesnt remember that but he helped jihyuk’s brother years ago, so jihyuk wants to pay him back. Yoojun convinces jihyuk to keep fucking with him, since he needs someone to reguraly fuck. It turns out he imprinted on some omega ages ago and when this omega dumped him, he was left alone with his horniness all over the walls.

Jihyuk agrees to be his fuck buddy, but reluctantly - he is scared of falling in love and he can feel himself falling in love with yoojin, who is still in love with his “hyung” - the omega he was dating.

COINCIDENTALLY JIHYUK HAS A FRIEND WHO IS AN OMEGA. His name is eunsong, but jihyuk calls him hyung of course. Jihyuk doesnt know that this hyung is the same hyung yoojun is in love with. Eunsong however is in love with jihyuk (here we have this shitty triangle).

So jihyuk is in love with yoojin, yoojin is in love with hyung and hyung is in love with jihyuk

So now:

Important facts:

Yoojin will drop everything if he hears that he can see his hyung somewhere which breaks jihyuk’s heart.

Jihyuk took hyjngs virginiy but he doesng remember that

Right befor the action of 37chapter starts, hyung found out that jihyuk is fucking with yoojung. Sp he invites yoojung to some bullshit party and the only condition is that he has to brong a date (to check if what jihyuk and yoojung have is serious - of course they come to the party together)

I think thats all, i really dont reccomend reading it from the begining, but, i guess you can try???

Hope my colourcoding helped😭😭😭

[project-lumen]

it's speculative lore questions time ... no need to answer, since these sort of questions can get spoiler-y, i'm just very much kicking my feet anf giggling about this game

1. Is Watcher!Grian a thing? Or does he have any other watcher-related history? Does WC know? Does anybody know? Would this have any effect on his, say, moveset or knowledge of things?

2. Either way, is Grian still the creator of the games? Have the Watchers hijacked it or was it all the Watchers in the first place? (Dude loses his game and goes whoops. Fuck me I guess. I suppose it's a torture maze now)

3. What about Martyn's Eyes and Ears AU? Will aspects be pulled from that? Say, for example, the falling scene - is that something we see, is that a relevant character who speaks to him? Or is EnE mostly ignored (bc. yk. it's technically an AU anyways)?

4. How do the Watchers operate? Are they like a big pantheon that works together or are they more individualistic? Or would you compare them more with a cult? Are the members often seen as Gods or are they just god-like entities functioning as a group? What about senior figures vs the WC - how do they treat each other?

5. crumbs for me ..? what does the watcher child look like ..? appearance description for a poor boy ..? sir, could i please have some more ..? my name is oliver twist and i like silly fictional character appearance descriptions ..?

Hi-hey-hello! Arto and group here to answer!!

Watcher!Grian isn't as much of a thing, but he is very much more aware about the Watchers and who they are compared to everyone else. There is a hint of Watcher relation at the end. Grian used to be a Watcher, but was more of an apprentice than a fully fledged watcher; in-between the stages of Watcher Child and an actual Watcher. He was rid of his powers as soon as he entered 3rd Life. But as the series goes on, he gets slightly more and more Watcher possessed---to become a window for them to watch and keep an eye on everyone. The only time he breaks away from it is Wild Life! Wow that was a lot of watcher in this paragraph,,

Grian was the suggester of the games, but did not run them. The Watchers took his idea and claimed credit, turning it into a torture game for entertainment. Of course, it wasn't originally meant to be, which is why Grian knows the rules but wouldn't expect the horrors to come like the rest of the group.

Martyn's EnE AU will have slight involvement, fragment-wise. Three hearts symbolizing their lives will be placed on different parts of their body (for example, for Third Life, Martyn's hearts would be placed onto his cheek, which is also where his fragment goes (I think? I don't watch Martyn as often)).

How the watchers function as a society is more so unrevealed. All you really figure out is about TOPTS, The One Pulling The Strings. TOPTS is essentially a Watcher hivemind, connecting everyone. Though it lives and breathes, it's not necessarily alive, but is the only thing above the Watchers. Inside of TOPTS belongs the Source Code, aka the Heart. Now I thought of the name Source Code, it felt really familiar to smth else so that name might change lol idk where I got it from. Anyways, the Source Code is the very thing that channels all life---the reason of the Watchers, Lifers, and other creatures' existences. But it can get corrupted, and everything can go awry, so it'd not invincible.

Well, it's more of a beta design (have to confirm with others), but this is how I draw them!

I forgot their little halo on the second one, whoops!

They are feminine, but not a girl whatsoever. Watchers don't really have a concept of gender because yk theyre kind of deities, but Watcher Children can have human ish traits as they're not fully fledged Watchers and can only take their Creature Form.

Another thing is that the Watcher Realm is so incredibly random, they try to create it off of Earth. So there will be fake, purple plants, and giant, "bustling" cities (that are completely empty) with "greenery" right next to a literal wasteland o a desert. And then right next to that, is a beautiful, even MORE fake ocean that doesn't even continue. It just stops really abruptly. Not really a lake, completely like an ocean, except at some point it just cuts off and theres just a wall of water. Its a bit hard to explain LOL but I hope your questions were answered!!

- Arto, Kori and Pinkish

[viinas]

First 6 of my tarot series for my fire and silver characters. If you want to know a bit about them i'll throw some explanations below!

(from the Rider Waite tarot guide) I THE MAGICIAN - Helena Zairi Skill, diplomacy, address, sickness, pain, loss, disaster, self-confidence, will, the Querent himself (if male). Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental illness, disgrace, disquiet Helena’s character journey is largely about coming into her own as a spell caster. She goes from using magic as a nomad solely as a method for survival to finding peace in the connection her power gives her to the elements. Then, after the dust settles and the war ends, she realizes that she is, to her soul, a healer. Naturally, her journey comes with many setbacks as well as debilitating losses in a war created by the generation before her that she is now forced to shoulder and clean up. Her lineage and their connections to greater things throws her onto the center of a battlefield that she, as a peaceful spirit, must learn to navigate.

II THE HIGH PRIESTESS - Kithara Alva Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed, the woman who interests the Querent (if male); the Querent (if female), silence, tenacity, wisdom, science Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge She’s the psychic! Of course she’s the one with all the secrets, mystery, and future yet unrevealed. Really, though, Kithara’s journey centers around uncertainty. Like Hel, she is a young girl forced onto a battlefield despite her own gentle heart. She has experiences the others in the story can’t even comprehend, having died and come back fully corporeal, heart beating anew. With that resurrection came the price of her own humanity slowly eating away at her from within. Kithara must hold onto who she is and where she comes from, finding her own reasons to fight that aren’t dependent on her lineage. She has a quiet, tenacious fire brewing inside of her that has propelled her into making reckless self-serving choices that she isn’t certain are hers or the entity inside of hers. Her passion is a double edged sword of altruistic love and aimless hatred all at once.

XII THE HANGED MAN - Ilum Griam Wisdom, trials, circumspection, discernment, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic Ilum’s biggest struggle is not allowing his trauma to define him. As a little kid, he was thrust into a world he knew nothing about, wielding a power he couldn’t understand. He carries his regrets like a penance for what he’s done, as if he doesn’t deserve peace. Of everyone in the group, he is the most knowledgeable as he has an insatiable need to be armed with all available information to make up for the time he spent in ignorance. He forces himself through trials of his own making, be that emotional or physical, as retribution. This toes the line between being selfless and selfish, where he’ll gladly sacrifice himself without considering the collateral damage that will cause to those who love him. Ilum prides himself on being a leader and sharing his knowledge where it’s needed just as much as he is loath to allow himself the fruits of his own labors. The card illustration shows him being hung by ghost hands, both a nod to his necromancy and his regrets.

XIII DEATH - Charity Winters End, mortality, destruction, corruption Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrification, somnambulism Charity is a child of corruption, her biggest fear being to succumb to the very same darkness that took her father. As such, she is very careful with how she navigates her necromancy and deals with dark spirits. So while she focuses on keeping her mind and soul guarded, her physical safety is easily compromised. Charity’s fire and silver storyline involves her having been incorrectly used as a sacrifice in a blood ritual, thus, she’s at the top of the enemy’s hitlist since she’s the only thing keeping them from achieving their goals. She is forced to confront her own death and mortality in an especially morbid way, having such a connection with the after world and personal experience with what once-innocuous spirits can become. She throws herself head first into danger without considering what all it means for her physically, so long as she can keep her loved ones safe and her mind intact.

XVIII THE MOON - Ellard Charaux Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, error Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error He’s a werewolf! He gets the moon! Ellard’s arc is about decision and honesty both with himself and with others. We start the story with him getting close to Helena because he is tasked with killing her, despite himself, but as he gets to know her and realizes that he’s living in in a pack that’s basically a cult, he has to decide whether it’s more important to stay with the poison he knows at the expense of himself or live a life on the run where he won’t have the community and certainty the pack grants him. Ellard fights with his inner demons a lot and has trouble defining his own moral code. His life was essentially stolen from him since his infancy and his defection comes with the new challenge of figuring out who he is outside of his pain and trauma.

XIX THE SUN - Aero Strynx Marital happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment Reversed: The same in a lesser sense Aero is the antithesis to the wolf packs. He stands for everything that is getting in their way. I gave Aero The Sun instead of The Magician because as a great sorcerer, I feel he represents a sort of overarching power and light that everybody else can draw strength from. He is Helena’s mentor. Ilum’s confidant. Avril’s savior. Kithara’s last ties to her family. He represents something so different to everyone in his life yet with equal importance all around. He is stability. With that, of course, comes his own turmoil and history that he is desperate not to repeat. He is a widower who watched everyone he loved die in his name. He knows great love just as intimately as devastating loss. His wisdom, experiences, and resilience marries everyone around him to their own strengths.

[manettheeternalelir]

A Practical Guide to Evil

So I've sat with it for most of the day, and while I think I'll be ruminating on it for much longer than that, here are my thoughts.

Obviously, spoilers.

First, Akua Sahelian. Even going in knowing that she was going to get a redemption arc, I was thinking that maybe I misremembered the name, that it was another character that was going to be redeemed. Especially after the demon at Marchford and of course the Doom of Liesse. I will admit to literally squealing when Catherine broke her fucking bones after 1st Liesse. As the story went on, I began to forgive and forget, and to be honest by the middle of Vol. 7 I was like get over it and kiss her, Cat. I guess I just never felt that bad about the Doom after the Everdark, despite the narrative's insistence on reminding me of it. Maybe that's good writing, that I liked Akua so much, maybe not, idk I'm just a little guy.

Hakram was a great character, with a perfect pivot from in Cat's shadow to becoming a man of his own. He was the button that EE could press to ignore all of the logistical issues when the army got big, so that was kind of annoying, but whatever.

Indrani. Around the time that she and Cat finally fucked I was screaming in my head for them to fuck, so that feels right. Really liked her characterization towards the end with the other Refuge refugees, especially the line where Concocter tells her it didn't have to always be a fight. Good shit.

Vivienne was hit or miss for me, she was her own character, but never really felt that important to me, despite obvious narrative importance. Never the same level of emotional connection to me.

Masego, my darling beloved. My sweet perfect boy. My autistic wizard son. I love him. There may be flaws in his character, maybe, but I will never see them. He is the platonic ideal of a wizard to me.

And then Catherine. She went though so many forms of anime magic. Guide truly cemented itself as a shonen to me, just by virtue of never quite knowing what she could actually do. Her characterizations were relatively constant, enough to ground her as a character anyway, but the way that she always had a hidden plan did get a little annoying. It wasn't quite Sherlock Holmes level unrevealed scheming, but there were definitely moments where I groaned out of annoyance, namely when she was take prisoner in Wolof. I'm probably overstating how much wasn't foreshadowed, and I'd guess that for a lot of people the excitement of guessing "how would Cat get out of this one" was fun, but by the end I was rolling my eyes half the time.

Overall I loved it, and I'm definitely going to reread it at some point. It will provide inspiration for my dnd campaign for years to come, and I will be shamelessly stealing characters forever. Kairos Theodosian was incredible, and probably my second favorite character.

My single biggest critique was that there were stretches of like 5 or 6 interludes in a row, which inevitably lead to me saying "Cordelia FUCKING Hasenbach" under my breath