#also me writing this: should also write about the ongoing familial relationships because i think that's related

[babyspacekwid]

Some of my Astro placements and how they manifest

Chiron 4th house:

This placement talks of a wound surrounding the family and home, and well, I would often search for a home because no where to me felt like home. I still feel misunderstood and out of place, BUT, I have made deep and valuable connections that have helped guide me and make me feel the love I should have had. Not to say this placement is completely hopless, it’s beautiful and it’s real and it’s tough, but you come out stronger. I use to hate that fucking perspective too. Like okay??? Who gaf if I come out stronger I’m fucking suffering, like why didn’t I get the parents everyone else has? Why’d I have to walk on eggshells? I felt like my anger and sadness was invalidated because I didn’t feel strong. I felt worthless and disorganized. I was a mess and I still am. Idk if that’s ever gonna change tbh, but despite all, it’s true. You DO come out stronger. In every aspect I have. Home is your people it was never a place, home is your mother cradling you for the first time in a while, it’s your friends taking care of you when you’re sobbing. Home is your dad realizing his mistakes and apologizing. Home is a feeling, it’s refreshing and comforting. Home was never suppose to be stressful, or feel like a war zone. To whoever has this same placement I feel you and I love you.

Mars in Aquarius in the 5th house

I do things unconventionally and I only realize this when I’m with other ppl. It can be as simple as the way I eat my burger, to my taste in music. Which is everything. I like literally everything. I don’t care the genre. If it’s good and catchy I love it. I did a lot of different hobbies as a kid too? Like taekwondo, dance, soccer, painting, singing, writing. But I never stayed long in any of those hobbies. Loved anime which ik everyone likes these days but where I live and during my childhood it was still a bit taboo or considered weird to watch. I was the kid that got along with everyone at school too. I didn’t see the point in highschool having a social hierarchy of popularity. It’s fucking stupid. I remember this one kid in my class who everyone thought was weird, which from their perspective I understand because he liked to talk about taboo topics that everyone thought was outrageous, but I was enjoying conversing with him because his perspectives were fresh and built my own views and opinions. I also have a 5th house stellium and I just fucking hate anything that isn’t fun like. I can’t do the 9-5 I have to enjoy my life like this society was not meant for the way my brain works istg.

Lilith 8th house

Constant comments were made about my body when I was young. From good to bad to what the actual fuck are you saying to a 12 year old. No cause it still happens and I’ve learnt to deal with it, but it has greatly affected how I view myself, my sexuality, and my comfortability with it.

Sun and moon in Gemini

I got the worst of both worlds wtf is this?! Considering my chart is 60% air signs you’d think I’d be use to it but I’m notttttt. I try to stray away from the stereotypical “Geminis intellectualize their emotions” but it’s true we do, but I think it’s cause feeling our emotions are overwhelming. Geminis ARE emotional. There’s just so much going on that my brain decides “I need a solution to this now cause feeling is pain” also hate that I’m not consistent. Consistency is my worst enemy, it doesn’t agree with me and my behaviours and we have an ongoing tense relationship, so I don’t finish anything. Not the books I wanna write or the paintings I wanna finish. Working on it tho 😭

Jupiter in Leo in the 11th house

I know so many people, and the friends I’ve made feel like my soul family. We’re siblings at this point. (Also rlly love the spotlight. What can I say I’m an attention whore)

[scratchtovoid]

📓 DAEMYRA FANFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

• Someone You Knew In Another Life by @spreta-invidia - My current obsession. I made this post just for this story! Time travel fix it fics are popular for a reason with the Dance characters but in my opinion this fic does it best. Told from different points of view, this story centers on Aegon III going back in time to tell his parents about the coming war and their own deaths! What follows is deliciously written political scheming, deep discussions of what parenthood means for Rhaenyra and Daemon, and a tender family story that brought tears to my eyes more than once.

Complete || 65 Chapters || M || 176K || (link)

• The Sacrifice and the Sea Dragon by Fayte2008 - As someone who writes alternative fantasy asoiaf fics, I’m deeply partial to any writer that dares to reimagine these characters in new fantasy settings. So discovering this short but delightful tale of Daemon being sacrificed to a sea dragon made me incredibly happy. Written like a fairy tale, this story would not feel out of place in an anthology of Valyrian legends.

Complete || Oneshot || E || 1.7K || (link)

• your ivy grows (now I'm covered in you) by @charlie-leau - Personally I think anything by this writer is well worth your time! But what I love about this story of Rhaenyra facing an unexpected pregnancy is that it delves deep into both her complicated relationship with being a mother and the stigma of childbirth out of wedlock in a world like Westeros. Despite this series being only five chapters long, the Daemon/Rhaenyra love story feels earned at the end!

Complete || 5 Chapters || E || 87K || (link)

• put down that gravestone by darkgods - This fic will always be special to me because it was the fic that really got me into Daemyra fic in the first place! I don’t think I would even be writing fanfiction if I hadn’t read this series! And that’s because it so wonderfully balances the political intrigue we know so well from canon with a deeply satisfying love story that is all about family. In this canon divergent tale, Rhaenyra gets pregnant from a tryst with Daemon the night of the brothel (unbeknownst to them both). When Daemon is sent away and Rhaenyra is forced to marry Laenor, she raises her sons as true Velaryons. That is until Daemon returns to take his place at court, and Rhaenyra finds she can’t hide her sons’ true identities from the man who sired them.

Ongoing/Hiatus || 28/45 Ch || E || 249K || (link)

• Lavender Haze by madgirlslovesong (sympathy4thedevil) - In this AU, Viserys has a dragon dream of the coming war in which he sees Rhaenyra’s death. In order to change his daughter’s fate, he names Aegon heir and grants Rhaenyra the title of Princess of Dragonstone as a consolation prize. Resigned to a life denied, Rhaenyra finds renewed freedom when Daemon arrives offering her a world of new possibilities. If you want a fluffy, sexy, what could have been for Rhaenyra and Daemon, this is the one! This fic explores life outside of court and allows Rhaenyra to see more of the world than she got to see in canon. It gives the fic a completely unique feeling. There’s also some great fun with Viserys and his reaction to Daemyra’s relationship in a follow up oneshot!

Complete || 8 Chapters || E || 96K || (link)

• Deep Tissue by @luthien-under-bough - Rhaenyra gets a massage that has her feeling especially relaxed! Just trust me on this one, you should read it.

Complete || Oneshot || E || 4K || (link)

• Blood Sweeter Than Honey Wine by Me! - Yes, I’m including my own fic on this list. If you want a taste of my writing or if you’re interested in a completely different kind of fantasy AU, you might like my twisted tale of a Prince who washes up on an island long thought to be abandoned but is actually home to a mysterious Queen with a dangerous secret!

Complete || Oneshot || E || 11K || (link)

[artist-issues]

Hello hello I have very big and complicated questions that started out broad and complex but got more and more specific and more and more personal like my questions to my family and friends always do. Whoops lol. Buckle up.

I wanted to ask about fanfiction. I've really been thinking about that post you made about how a lot of fanfiction can be just used as a form of escapism, and not in a good way like Tolkien described it, but as a 'I hate life so I'm gonna read and write extensively about fictional characters rather than working hard/trying to improve my own life' Which I really want to avoid and not do. In the past I've certainly fallen into that trap- I would get so caught up in writing Marvel or Percy Jackson or Harry Potter fanfiction (not to toot my own horn, but was objectively good and I do think grew my skills a lot as a writer and character analyzer) that I would spend every free moment and many of ones when I really should've been working on school or chores or spending time with my actual family reading and writing it. I was probably doing that 5-8 hours a day when I was 11/12. (Yikes) Thankfully, my parents smacked some sense into me lol. It really just goes to show you how, for lack of a better term, soul-consuming, that these kind of fantasy pursuits can really be. Thankfully, I don't do that any more. I actively limit myself to a max of 3 hours of reading and writing fanfiction over the course of a week, which is a big improvement.

So yay! Now I have a definte separation from writing fanfiction to improve my writing and writing it to waste time because all of my energy is focused on it to the point where it is in my every thought. Good! Growth!

But now my new thing is this- I want to make sure that any and all fanfiction I write has a definite point. I want it to point to good things and have clear messages and blue flowers and point to Jesus, even if it isn't specifically a 'Christian' fanfiction.

For example, let's just point at that Voice in the Dark one shot I wrote, which is one of, if not the, best singular fiction piece that I've written. I think the reasons why it was so good was that A) I expanded on the story in a way that was intriguing, and got inside my characters heads and accurately depicted their thought processes through it B) Made it pleasant to read with details and action and emotion and everything, C) set everything up for a part 2 conclusion of Sam and Five really connecting and talking about what they both said/thought, and becoming friends (which after procrastinating for months, I'm finally working on), but most importantly, D) Had clear themes of hope, perseverance, connection, trust, and encouragement. Which is really what I think made it so much more excellent than other fanfiction pieces I've written. I had a clear point and intention going into it that was more than just 'Have it be something I love and just for my entertainment' although that was one of the reasons I did decide to write it I will say- you do have to love what you want to write in order to write it well after all. But this is absolutely what I want the point of all my fanfiction writing to be like from here on out, being morally great, as well as well-written.

So now, because I really enjoy ZR and its really is kinda perfect for a fanfiction format, I want to turn it into more of an ongoing piece with my favorite missions and Five's relationships with the characters. But how do I go about this trying to intentionally bring in blue flowers and good messages and beautiful themes, and not just only write it for my entertainment because its a piece of media I love? How to I make sure to firstly know what themes I can bring in, and then do it in such a way that's well-written, while also being able to have those fun moments and situations that are both in the game and I've thought up?

And finally, last thing, is I'm wrestling through if I should continue writing fanfiction to 'fix' a story (which is why I started a Percy Jackson and Marvel fanfictions, I wanted to take the parts of each story I didn't like and were poorly done and make them better) rather than make my own point with it. For most of the fanfiction writing I've ever done, my goal was to improve it, to act like a ghostwriting editor the author hired to fix their fundamentally flawed story. But now I'm realizing that I was spending so much time and effort (which don't get me wrong, I do not fully regret, I really do think that I've gotten far better at fiction writing through this) and I didn't even add any more goodness or morals to the story in a way that made it more soul-sustaining and truly good. I wanted to add a lot of bits that made be as a reader squeal and get happy over which... I don't think is bad per say, but its not what I want my fanfiction to be like any more. With my writing, I absolutely do want to improve on the source material, yes, but I also want to figure out what sort of themes and goodness I'm going for with it. So should I continue writing these large projects (cause each piece covers several books/movies) for improvement and also try to expand on the good ideas and themes the authors had, even bringing in my own, or should I just set it aside as that was great, but now I need to focus on making writing morally good and not just for entertainment?

I know a big part of this is wisdom and descretion- things that God has blessed me with but I know I always can pursue more of. So I know a absolute perfect answer to this question will require time and experience. But after sorting through my word-vomiting (sorry lol), what would you say to all of this? Thank you!! <3

Hey! First of all, I love getting questions from you, and I especially love it because you take enough time to read the previous things I say that we can have a very level conversation, and a deep back-and-forth, which is not always the case with everybody who sends me questions (I like those questions too, I’m just saying.) So thanks for typing all that up!

Second of all, I’m no expert on fanfiction writing. You’ve read what I have to say about making sure the “Tone & Style” and “Themes” of any “Continued Work” stay true to their source material when it comes to like, sequels and expansions? Well, I guess I would apply that philosophy, generally, to fanfiction, too.

But the point of my “second of all” is actually, there are better people to ask about this than me. I can answer you in a broad “here’s how I apply my storytelling philosophy to this hypothetical scenario” sense, but other people have more experience actually doing what you’re talking about with fanfiction. Specifically, @doverstar, who, if you don’t follow her or read her stuff, I seriously think you’re missing out.

So in summary, talk to Doverstar. She’ll answer this better. But if I had to try and succinctly respond, I’d say: “Intentionality is always better than doing something by accident. But if you genuinely value goodness, beauty, and truth, in your own personal worldview, in a way that is genuine, and you cultivate that…it’ll come out in your writing on accident.” So in a way, even when you’re being intentional, as long as you remember that, you don’t have to be too militant whether you’re writing fanfiction or fiction.

(That’s a thought I’m still learning to put into practice, myself. I err on the side of “control everything to a T, outline everything, everything has to have a tie-in to the theme—if it doesn’t you’re failing—“ and I don’t recommend that mindset 😅) That’s the “short” answer to your ask. I’ve got a deep-dive below the cut if you’re interested, though.

How do I make sure to firstly know what themes I can bring in?

This has to do with knowing the source-story.

ZR unfortunately gets very political and social in further seasons, but to do it credit, the main, recurring, broad theme of Zombies, Run continues to be “Something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.”

They keep coming back to it with literally every villain, and every hero, from multiple angles. You’ll see. They say, “the pursuit of pure happiness alone is bad because it’s selfish—the pursuit of immortality is bad because it’s selfish—the pursuit of everyone’s affections is bad because it’s selfish; but sacrificing for others is the real happiness, the real immortality, the real love, etc.”

So any fanfiction—even if, surface-read, it appears to be about Five falling in love with Sam or Janine learning to communicate, etc—that comes back to “Something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.” is a success. Because it carried on the Main Point of ZR. Or it carried on a point that could be tied to the main point, whatevs.

But your question (for other fandoms) is “How do I know what themes I can bring in?”

Okay, well, that’s actually not so hard. Lots of “sub-themes” fit under the umbrella of the main theme. “Something greater than yourself,” well, that entails “self-sacrifice, gaining a broader perspective, finding empathy,” etc. (something you can see they do with sheltered characters or brittle, mission-focused miopic characters like Janine.)

But how did I find the main theme to begin with? This post. In summary:

Take in the Story, With the Single Expectation that They’re Trying to Tell You Something.

Take Note of Where You Felt Something. Then Figure Out Why You Felt It.

Figure Out What Each Character Wants, and If They Have a Moment of Change.

Look at What Decisions the Storytellers Reward, and What Decisions They Punish.

You can apply this to Marvel, to Percy Jackson, to anything. Once you figure out the main theme, it’s not so hard to break that down into little supporting ideas. And inject those into your own story. And you can even figure out where the storytellers dropped the ball, or lost their theme and did something totally out-of-character, and then fix that with your fanfiction.

Or, galaxy-brain, is when you figure out what the story was trying to say—and it was saying something bad or wrong, but you liked some of the setting or characterizations, you can fix that. Like I’ve always wanted to do with A Streetcar Named Desire.

What you don’t want to do is try to make the story about a theme that has nothing to do with any good or true thing—it’s just gratuitous. For example, I see about sixty fanfics for Twisters (one of my new favorite movies, you may recall) and they’re all about Tyler (the main guy) needing to be defended from his abusive alcoholic dad.

There is no mention of his dad, or alcohol, or Tyler having any emotional trauma, at all, in Twisters. Because the point of the movie Twisters is the girl character’s trauma (and her best friend’s,) and Tyler’s role in all of that is to be the guy who pushes her past that. Because he’s lived a lifestyle of “you ride your fears, you don’t run from them, you don’t even just face them.”

So why would a character who’s whole conception, who was created to say that, be curled up in a sad little miserable ball because his out-of-nowhere made-up father is back in town? He wouldn’t do that. His lifestyle is “ride your fears.” He’d be the guy reaching out and inviting his dad to lunch to see if something he does can make the outcome different, even though his dad never shows up, or always makes a scene, or whatever, because that would be “riding his fears.” That’s Tyler’s character. So why would you have him curl into a little ball and need his 126-lb girlfriend to defend him?

I’ll tell you why, it’s because the point of your story was not the point of Twisters, or anything good. The point of your story was, “I have a thing for emotional scenes where a man gets all weak and vulnerable and needs his love interest to take care of him,” and it shows. So you just hung skin-puppets and names of established characters on “your thing” and that’s trash storytelling. The characters are supposed to serve the story, and the story is supposed to serve the audience, not serve you.

That would be an extreme example of what not to do.

And then do it in such a way that's well-written, while also being able to have those fun moments and situations that are both in the game and I've thought up?

If my fanfic is all about Sam and Five coming clean about their feelings together, that’s fine—but they should be driven to do that because not doing that is selfish. And selfishness is the opposite of “something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.” So I’d have Sam avoid admitting to himself that Five means so much to him because if he does, he opens himself up to crippling worry after what happened to Alice. So out of fear, which is ultimately self-protection, he doesn’t admit that he has feelings for her. But then eventually he comes to realize that caring about someone else actually drives him to work harder for the Greater Good, etc.

See what I mean? Your fanfic can be a string of scenes of will-they-won’t-they, romcom popcorn, as long as the thread holding them together is that character arc that points back to the game’s main theme.

To make it well-written, you just have to be genuine. I know everyone has lots of good tips like “show don’t tell” but books like Jane Eyre tell much more than they show. Some people say, “break up the pace with dialogue,” or “cut the tension with comedy, then ramp it back up,” etc., but there’s no cut to the tension in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. There’s breaks to every rule. There’s an audience for every style. Just do what C. S. Lewis says and “tell the truth, without caring two pence if it’s original.”

If you know your source material and love the loveable parts for what it is, and then you marry that with what you really believe and value in the real world, you’ll get it.

Know what you’re trying to say, love what you’re trying to say, and sacrifice to say it.

I think now that you’re thinking about this stuff, you’re going to have a hard time not writing something morally good, with entertainment as a supporting pillar.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Liberals are showing again that for them genocide is not a red line and they will continue to say that Trump will be worse for Palestine… Because it is clear that genocide is not bad enough for them to criticize their own party for supplying weapons to Israel

Seriously, being so blinded by the party of politicians and believing every lie they lie shows that liberals shouldn't even be allowed to vote because they believe every empty word a politician says…

But what should we expect from people who think that doing almost nothing is enough? Hello, what has Biden done for LGBT+ people and people trapped at the border? He was supposed to get rid of the wall, but he didn't, and he also supplies weapons to Israel (Same Harris), but for you, genocide would only be bad if Trump was to blame…

But what do you expect from people who are detached from reality and call everyone Russian trolls and use the text "Trump will be worse" (which is fucking cynical in the context of fucking genocide), or have the nerve to call someone stupid when they believe in the empty promises of fucking politicians

Choosing the lesser evil is still choosing evil, it shouldn't be promoted as a solution and it sucks that liberals are so closed in their own world that they can accept that their politicians are complicit in genocide as long as they consider them a lesser evil and that's it sucks, especially that liberals don't care about genocide as long as it is convenient in political matters for people to vote for their beloved party, and everyone who is critical suddenly becomes war criminals for them (Even though they choose the party that supports Israel and is Zionist…)

Harris is a bad person (For you, her silencing the strikers with a text about Trump should be a fucking red flag), she has a history of supporting Israel (Colonizer, propagandist and genocidal), so the fact that you are so naive that you believe that electing her will lead to a breakup US relationship with Israel is so fucking naive (And yes, you are stupid yourself because you bought the lies) that the fact that you promote it as fact shows how much you believe in propaganda

You liberals are simply the last ones to call others stupid and evil, because you are that way yourself

Now that I have your attention:

[waitmyturtles]

Jumping into the Cooking Crush familial fray...

I've lately been a bit behind on all my dramas, but I did see percolating over the weekend a great conversation among drama friends and fiends about interpretations of Asian parenting tactics, family values, interfamily communication, and intergenerational trauma regarding Cooking Crush.

This past weekend's episode 11 seemed to bring up a lot. I feel like one of my Reasons for Being on Tumblr is to share thoughts on Asian family dynamics, structures, and tensions regarding our beloved Asian dramas, so I am simply going to add a few extra thoughts to @neuroticbookworm's absolutely FANTASTIC post here that meditates on the ongoing conflict between Ten and his father.

Before I jump into NBW's amazing post, I want to linky-poo some previous writing that I've done on Asian cultural touchpoints in other shows:

Poor Bad Buddy got the Asian analytical treatment here and here

Only Friends and Mew's lesbian moms being Asian moms first, here

A meditation specifically on BBS's Dissaya and saving face, here (which, in regards to her conflict with Ming, we should note, directly led to her literally sending her son physically away from her to continue the family feud)

When I watch our beloved Asian shows, as an Asian-American, I am clicking unconsciously into certain assumptions about how Asian parents and children WILL behave when parents are called for in a show (I emphasized this specifically in my OF piece about Mew's moms). I expect there to be either filial piety present, or struggles with it. I expect to see elder hierarchy and/or issues with elder respect. I expect to see issues regarding saving face. I expect to see issues regarding conditional love, and how a child should act so a parent may boast and/or save face with their external social circles. I expect to see issues regarding independence and parental control over... just about everything in a child's life, from their education to their partners. (Think of King's parents in Bed Friend, and how his parents were ready to arrange a marriage for him; Tian's parents sending him to America in A Tale of Thousand Stars, etc.)

Shows that DON'T deal with these issues -- shows that have wonderfully understanding parents, like Thun's mom in He's Coming To Me, and Pete's dad in Dark Blue Kiss, are also realistic, because of course, nothing is universal, and there are understanding and unconditionally loving parents in every culture.

But most of the Asian shows that we watch have themes like filial piety and elder respect/control present, and it's up to the show's writers to figure out how these elements play into the plots that they're writing.

Through @neuroticbookworm's post, I see that some in the Cooking Crush fandom are calling for Ten's dad to apologize for his hypocrisy in calling Ten out for hitting Chang Ma, while we have seen Ten's dad slapping Ten.

I want to get into how Ten engages with his father in a second, because it's pretty rare in Asian shows to see a child so directly combative, so consistently, with a parent figure. But before that, NBW makes an excellent point with the following:

But, I understand it when my friends, and Asian characters in TV shows, don’t want to force things out in the open if it can be swept under the rug for the time being, because peace of mind in Asian households is fleeting and you would be wise to take what you get.

This is a very important point that those of us in the social services are hammered with -- in other words, how do individuals, as they are growing up, adjust their behaviors to keep the stability of their family bonds either strong, or at least not weak enough to break? How does a child learn to adapt and/or cope for the sake of the other older individuals in their families who DEMAND compliance with their own emotional needs?

Ten has a combative relationship with his father -- but he's still done everything his father has asked for, save for staying away from Prem. As @respectthepetty previously noted, Fire becomes submissive around pressure and high-tension individuals and situations -- because that's how he's learn to cope vis à vis his mother and his upbringing.

This framing -- these specific, generational, tension-informed family dynamics that we see ad nauseam in Asian dramas -- do not lead to an automatic assumption among Asian audiences that apologies would emanate from the parental generation. Especially because the previous generational paradigm is that children have and should go along with the flow of parental control and demands -- as Ten and Fire have so far done.

In Asian collectivist societies and mentalities -- to combat against that flow of control would lead to a breaking of the peace among the family unit, in NBW's words.

I would even go so far as to say that an apology from a parent is as much of a fictional ending fantasy as a perfect romantic ending. And damn, what we have to go through to get an apology. NBW brought up Double Savage, which was so awfully messy -- we got a parental apology only after a not-at-fault child had to unnecessarily apologize first. The show made the children work beyond basic emotional ethics to get that parental apology. That's how rare it is for us Asians to expect a parent to apologize. (And NBW notes so beautifully that even showmakers themselves may not know how to write apologies -- because they themselves may have never received one in real life.)

Considering all these family dynamics and tensions, getting a 180-degree admission of wrongdoing from an Asian parent is rare. And part of the fabric of the lives of us Asians is in sharing stories with our communities about the tensions, the trauma, the misunderstandings that we've faced from our families to be perfect and obedient in all aspects of our lives, as NBW so eloquently says about her country's culture, which includes tremendous control over the sexual lives of children. That's why I go to Asian shows over Western media -- so that I can experience some of that communing over commonalities in fiction.

I want to make one final quick point about Ten's behavior towards his dad, which we see is abrupt and combative. Ten's got some gumption to talk to his father like that, which, me likey, but it's rare to see in Asian shows. Of utmost importance to note is that their history is marked by a severely traumatic event in the death of Ten's mom, which is guaranteed to have had a lifelong impact on the bond between Ten and his dad, and colors their relationship. I know that's obvious by way of the dialogue, but what we see in this outburst is a kind of marked ending to a journey map of his life's experience that got him to the point of the fight. (@neuroticbookworm, I'm stealing your screenshots, thank yew, friend!)

This fight had A LOT IN IT. It was about saving face, about the embarrassment that Ten's dad knows the slapping event will cause on Ten and Ten's friends (and, frankly, Ten's dad himself). It was about Ten's childhood trauma in losing his mother and his anger with his father for his father's actions. It was a revelation that Ten's dad had actually acted, in his own way, and failed at saving Ten's mom. It was about Ten's performance in school, and how Ten says that he has indeed been keeping up with his father's standards. And a whole lot more.

I'm betting money on at least some people -- maybe many people -- in Asian audiences watching this and being critical of Ten for being so combative to his father, his father being Ten's provider for education and money. THIS CRITICISM IS VERY COMMON.

While Western fandoms may celebrate performances of individualism and confrontation, many in Asian audiences will not agree with that. They will see Ten being disrespectful to a parental figure that, in our cultural mores, would arguably automatically demand respect from the start through our notions of elder respect and hierarchy.

This is, in part, because many Asians see going against the flow of familial peace as disruptive. And, anthropologically -- who are we in the West to judge that?

That's why this scene is SO FUCKING HUGE. As an American, I'm like, fuck yeah, read this fucking dad out for filth. As an Asian, I'm like, WHOAAAAAAAAAA. For real.

AND? THE ENDING of this fight -- with Ten's dad making one actually good point about how Ten's punch will affect his friends?

That's collectivism again. That's Ten's dad helping Ten to grow in that moment and recognize that Ten's actions affect other people. That shit is complicated, and I believe it's 100% intended to be complicated.

The dad is still clearly a hypocrite. I do not think that we get that entire fight scene without the show commenting on Ten's dad's hypocrisy that one's actions have impacts on others. Ten's dad is not clicked into his own collectivism, and I believe the show calls him out for it. If that scene only wanted to call out Ten -- we would have only seen that last part about Prem and Prem's friends. We would not have gotten all that other backstory, all the threads in this incredible fight scene.

It was a hell of a well-done scene. And I very much believe that scene is symbolic of this entire show -- marketed as a comedy, friends! -- being insidiously about very complicated family bonds, and depicting the struggles of these bonds just brilliantly.

This show is DIGGING THE HELL into the family backgrounds of characters experiencing tremendous life changes -- including MEDICAL STUDENTS! THE CREAM OF THE CROP FOR ASIAN PARENTS! -- and showing how these pressures can make young adults crumble or resilient.

I didn't mean to write so long, but alas -- y'all talk about Asian families, and I gotta yap. Thank you for letting me throw some coins in the pot, and to offer some thoughts about what us Asians are clicking into in our beloved Asian shows.

Tagging @lurkingshan, @bengiyo, @respectthepetty, @heretherebedork, and @williamrikers for enlightening convos this weekend, and many thanks to my dear Asian friendo @neuroticbookworm for one hell of a meditation that I enjoyed and related to deeply.

[justine1268]

Genuine Question About Broppy getting Children In The Future... (long rant incoming)

Am I the only one who really wouldn't like an accidental/"surprise"/ unexpected/unwanted/unplanned/unintended Broppy child in future canon and who isn't really all that overjoyed about the idea of them having one in the future in general? I want to know.

I kind of feel like the only one because I haven't seen anyone else be so genuinely confused as to why the first situation is such a widespread and beloved thing in the fandom. If you do, please feel free to let me know what you find so appealing about it, because I'm not so sure I understand in all honesty and I want to get it.

I want to say that I really don't mean to come across as rude or hateful towards anyone who created Broppy children that would fit into the current canon who were unplanned! I just want to give my own perspective on it and why I personally feel iffy about that scenario.

A lot of my opinion here is also related to my personal attachment towards the ship itself. It's the first one I've had and for more than 7 years at the time of writing this, they've consistently been part of my life during this time. It's the ship I've been invested in the most.

The reason why I'm worried about this is because in Shrek, an other DreamWorks franchise, him and his wife had unexpected children. If they decide to make an other story like this:

Branch and Poppy is one of their few romantic relationships from ongoing franchises and a very popular one at the moment, so it could be with them.

There's a multitude of reasons why I rather have them want and desire a child before it happens and also to have it be almost a last part of the franchise addition. Like, one of the last things we get out of their relationship.

If it happens accidentally, depending on the context, it could likely be because they weren't careful. I feel like this is especially out of Branch's character. We know one of his major traits is making things the safest possible, he's hectic whenever something could be trouble. I think he probably would put action to avoid getting an unwanted egg as much as he could. We know Poppy can be kind of reckless, but she listens to Branch now and I don't think she is enough to not do any prevention and roll with it. She loves to throw herself head first into danger, but when she truly thinks she'll be okay. If she knows her own safety or well-being are really at risk, she takes it more seriously.

Obviously, putting characters through tough situations is the whole point of a storyline, but when it comes to them getting a child, it is something that (I'm assuming because we don't really know much about that yet) they CAN or at least should be able to control so...I think they should.

I don't want them having a toddler to get in the way of their relationship. I want lots more of just them two. A toddler, unless they don't show up for much, would take up a lot of moments that would otherwise be only with them. I want to get a lot more moments of solely them and focusing on their relationship with each other before a baby comes in!

Their characters, if, let's say, an infant or egg is with them during most events of a movie, I believe would be reduced to having to meet their needs. They're now tied down to needing to care for them and they lose that freedom they currently have. They'll have to be like "Ah, no, can't do that, got a baby." I don't want that.

I find it still way too early in canon for them to have children and that they should really be able to enjoy their time together and with their loved ones for now. Considering all Branch has gone through and the years he spent alone, being at such a low point, I don't want him to have the added responsibility, stress and worries of a parent so soon. I want him to be able to just have good times and hang out with his friends, girlfriend and family.

Both him and Poppy are so busy already, not to mention Branch is a person who really needs alone time. Give him a baby and that's going to be a whole lot harder.

It doesn't even seem to me like it's something they want in the future for now. Branch wants to marry Poppy, we already know that, but neither of them have ever mentioned wanting to have kids someday. Poppy already works with little trolls and loves it, but she has never said she wants one herself someday. Branch doesn't seem like it's crossing his mind. All he wants is to be Poppy's significant other.

I don't want a "surprise" Broppy kid and not know what went wrong or why it was so. If it's like Shrek, they'll leave that part ambiguous and I am not going to be happy about that. If they're going down that road, I at least want to know if they were intending on being careful at all. (Obviously brought up in a way that's appropriate for PG content).

Kids being raised by parents who didn't want them to arrive isn't ideal to me. Yes, parents can have regrets on deciding to have children in a way down the line and it doesn't mean they'll do a bad job, I agree the ship would make awesome parents, but it can be a lot more difficult thanks to that.

Look. I love the idea of them having little ones someday, I really do! I just wish it to happen way later on in the timeline than now, and most of all, I seriously want them to intend and want to have a baby before they do (we'll likely know if it's accidental, since, like I said, they did that in Shrek).

Scenarios I'd appreciate in canon:

1- They get married or just engaged in whichever next installment we'll get or stay only a couple and have a child or children that they planned on having years later.

2- They adopt a child/children which they either stumble upon or meet at an orphanage. They still look like their own, their colors being a sort of mix between Branch and Poppy's possible colors and being pop trolls (honestly, my favorite idea for a Broppy child).

3- It arrives at least a couple years after their romantic relationship has started (either still a committed couple, engaged or married), it wasn't intended or expected at all, from an unknowingly failed appropriate prevention method. They would be suggested the opportunity to abort, but they choose to keep their egg/eggs that resulted and raise them.

Scenarios I don't want:

1- It's a Shrek The Third 2.0 where it's left very ambiguous what happened with any time jump or none.

2- Unwanted egg from not trying to prevent it, no time jump at all. They have to raise their child/children as the early official couple they are now.

3- A baby/babies they didn't want and weren't careful for with a truly effective method, years or not after they're made official.

4- The child wasn't really wanted from both sides. Either one of them wasn't actually happy about the idea.

If we mostly get content of them out of the newborn stage (between about 5-18 years old), we get to know them once they already have built a personality. The child also has some amount of autonomy so the parents won't have to impose as much and we can still get only them both interacting pretty often. Kind of like in How To Train Your Dragon where Nuffink and Zephyr were already kids when we met them.

I think that's the idea I'd enjoy the most. Branch and Poppy wouldn't be tied down as much(also yes I'd want to see them getting older. Something so bittersweet in seeing a long time ship of mine age together...chef's kiss with that.) I'd get attached to the child a lot more easily as a character and I'd just love to see how the couple handles their youth.

Like I said: I do see lots of positives. I love the idea of them getting a child to build sweet, deep bonds with. The idea of caring, super invested dad Branch makes me melt. Him getting through that has something that can beautiful and powerful considering his story. It adds another person for him to love. A lot of wholesomeness and emotions to be explored! It can bring more to his relationship with Poppy as well! A supportive dynamic that's always ready to advise each other and to work through when it gets harder...yeah. It's simply great! It's a good foundation for a child to grow up on.

I just have some preferences for how it happens. Thank you for reading my long opinion piece!

[jacksonscouts]

Gather round, Scouts!

Let's meet @roselees, our Scout Spotlight winner! Feel free to say hello or give reactions in the comments. Now without further ado...😊

1. What was your first introduction to TLOU?

Is this when I confess I'm a relatively new fan? 🙈 I first played the game in about 2021 when I was looking on the PS Plus catalogue for something to play, and I've been hooked ever since!

Finding out there was a show was just an added bonus, even if streaming it here isn't super accessible. I wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of games in this genre so it was an accident I stumbled across it, but I'm very glad I did.

2. What would Joel's favorite girl scout cookie be?

3. What TLOU moment lives rent-free in your head?

None.. he's on Atkins ✋️.. my terrible show reference aside, in terms of an actual answer, I'm not from the States so my knowledge of girl-scout cookies is limited to pop culture but after a bit of googling:

I think he'd be kinda basic.. he's probably a thin-mints kind of guy. Whatever Sarah would buy, he'd probably sneak one when she went to bed, in typical dad fashion.

4. Any special talents?

Tess' goodbye in the game was an especially poignant moment because I went into it completely blind - I hadn't had any spoilers and had no idea what was coming. I'm a big fan of exploring different types of relationship and connections within media and so I really loved how they managed to essentially canonize how important Tess and Joel were to one another in that final scene without having either of them out and out /say/ it.

Something about the way in which their relationship is so clearly this unspoken bond built up over the years was really beautifully done and it really does occupy so much space it should be paying rent

And for the show - I'll keep it quick here because I've rambled enough - but definitely the scene where they first arrive in Jackson. I'm also a sucker for found family and I adore how it leans into that trope as well as showing the first instance of Ellie struggling with that new dynamic; it's the first real moment in canon where she goes from being a FEDRA orphanage kid to realising she could have a real home somewhere and all that entails.

I love how you can see that on her face when they get there and she's clearly awestruck by the most mundane things, yet is obviously also struggling with Tommy being effectively this newfound obstacle because she has no idea how his presence is going to shake up the - already turbulent - dynamic she's developing with Joel. Safe to say I have an awful lot of thoughts about those two scenes LMAO

I wouldn't say I'm a super talented person all things considered but I am quite proud of my writing! I've been in fandom spaces for a long time but it's only in recent years I've really been happy with the quality of the work I'm putting out there; it's just for fun, but - as most fic authors on here can vouch for - I put a lot of time and energy into making the plot and the characters tick ❤️ I'm also a historian, which isn't necessarily a talent but something I'm equally passionate about!

5. Would you like to promote anything?

I wouldn't mind promoting my ao3 to anyone whose interested in reading some more TLOU fics - I'm roselees over there too. I currently have an ongoing canon-divergence AU where Tess, Joel and Tommy raise baby Ellie (who they discover at the same time as the Fireflies is in fact still immune in this timeline) and I have several others in the works: a Sarah!lives AU, a part one rewrite following the original idea for the game wherein Tess is the antagonist, and some Jackson!Joel and Ellie shenanigans.

I'd also 100% recommend that if you're a part of the LGBT community or just otherwise an enthusiastic ally, if you want to check out the @tloupride blog run by me and @consultingzoologist, for the whole of pride month we've been reblogging posts that relate to the queer community and TLOU, as well as providing prompts for people to submit their own fanart and fics! We're hoping to keep the blog up as an archive of LGBT pride within the fandom so if you're interested, be sure to check it out ❤️

[gamesception]

Sception reads Cass Cain #16

Batgirl (2000) #4, ongoing discussion story: Peterson & Puckett art: Scott and Campanella

There's a kind of simplified narrative that's grown up in discussions of Cassandra Cain in terms of how things went wrong and who's to blame. Because by the time Cass is strutting around the pages of Robin as a generic and vaguely racist Dragon Lady villain things have obviously gone wrong, and I don't think any Cass happenings before the reboot can really be thought of as 'going right' again. It's tempting to just blame Beechen, the writer tasked with authoring the infamous heel turn. It's even more tempting to blame DiDio, the editor in chief who tasked Beechen with the job, who famously disliked legacy heroes in general for how they 'aged' their predecessors. Certainly Beechen should have done more research before writing Cass, and you won't ever catch me defending DiDio's tenure as chief editor of DC. But the simple narrative that everything was great with Cass until DiDio and Beechen ruined her out of nowhere is glossing over a lot of mistakes that happened before that.

The league of assassins retcon that needlessly overcomplicated her backstory; sending her to Bludhaven with nothing to do there and all her important story arcs and character relationships left unresolved in Gotham; the flanderization of David Cain that kicked the foundation of her character out from under her; the mishandling of her relationship with Babs. And the first big mistake happens right here in issue 4, in the very earliest days of her ongoing, with her original creative team still at their height.

Years back, when I looked her first introduction in Batman (1940) #567, I talked about how the decisions to make Cassandra mostly mute set her and her stories apart, making them unique in the comics landscape. I'm convinced that Cass's writing team was mostly aiming at what this did for her stories in terms of the comic medium - by forcibly restricting the use of words to tell the story, it put the emphasis back on the art, not just to convey what was happening but also what the main character was thinking or feeling about it.

Even in that initial introduction, there was a sequence where whole pages went by without any words at all. It was unique, it was different, creative, it exercised the unique aspects of the comic book medium.

What I don't think Peterson, Puckett, and Scott considered as strongly is what it meant in terms of Cass as a character with a disability, something the mainstream superhero comics landscape really doesn't have enough of, and in particular something that connected her to Barbara Gordon as the previous Batgirl, at the time still in the wheelchair acting as Oracle. I've alluded a bit to how Cass and Bab's respective disabilities, one physically gifted but linguistically impaired and the other physically limited but the master of communication for the bat family, makes them perfectly matched as superhero partners but also sets up an interpersonal conflict between them as each kind of becomes a personal avatar representing what the other lacks.

And while that is there in the book, the creative team is clearly so much more invested in Cass's relationship with Bruce and the whole the whole Bruce/David/Cass dynamic of fatherhood and guilt and violence - and in terms of that plot thread Babs mostly exists to offer a better life of sincere human connection, if only to add a note of tragedy as Cass inevitably throws herself deeper into Bruce & David's mirrored lives of violence and isolation.

But Cass is Batgirl, so it would have been nice if the creators put more effort and page time into her relationship with the previous Batgirl, and the disability angle was the best way to do so, and at some point, on some level, Peterson & Puckett did understand this.

After all, it's how Cass was originally introduced. Sure she struggled, but despite seeming nearly impossible, with Barbara's help she was making progress none the less.

Special thanks to StephanieBrowntheSpoiler for pointing this bit out, as I had missed the connection between these scenes when I looked at this issue way back when.

Also look at bad sad dad David here, crying, overwhelmed at the thought that his daughter might be able to speak to and understand him, like he's been blessed by some divine miracle, even though he's literally the reason she couldn't speak in the first place. Such a shame that over time his character would be reduced from this compelling ball of contradictions to a flat generic villain. But that's a rant for another day.

Anyway, Cass as a mute protagonist is a big deal, both for internal story reasons (connection to and conflict with the previous Batgirl) and external reasons (representation as a disabled hero, unique use of the comic medium). And more besides - thematic ties with her emotional and personal isolation, which in turn ties in to her full face covering spooky costume design, and so on.

...

So you'd think I'd just object outright to the writers just having Cass learn to speak, and honestly I kind of do, but I also have some sympathy on this front, because as I've also repeatedly pointed out making Cass mute presented unique difficulties that arguably outweighed the benefits, particularly given the collaborative nature of mainstream superhero comics.

A mute protagonist puts a lot of weight on the artists ability to convey personality and emotion through facial expression and honestly not many artists were up to the challenge, especially with Cass's full face covering mask. This put serious limits on her cross-over presence which in term limited her presence and appeal for general DC comic or bat book fans who weren't specifically Cass fans following her in her own book. Sadly giving Cass the ability to speak didn't end up improving this much, I can't blame P&P for trying.

On the representation angle there were also issues, as Cass wasn't just a rare disabled hero but also a relatively rare east-asian hero, certainly within the bat books, and being mute meant she often fell into a silent subservient ninja girl cliche in the guest appearances she did get, which isn't exactly ideal either.

...

So yeah, I can absolutely see reasons why Peterson and Puckett might have decided that nearly-fully-mute Cass was in retrospect a mistake and why they needed to change it, but that doesn't stop me from hating how they did so. Which basically amounts to 'a wizard did it.'

This is terrible for a couple reasons. First of all, a key part of the tone of Cass Cain's batgirl is the grounded, low fantasy, 'street level' focus. Remember the one rule?

No costumed criminals. No supervillains. No wacky sci-fi shenanigans. Not because any of that stuff is bad - all of that stuff is great! But it's also antithetical to the smaller, more personal, more human stories that the Batgirl creative team was aiming for, stories like the one we saw in issue 2. But now that grounded tone is always going to have the specter of this random psychic wizard guy floating over it, making his presence known with every thought bubble and speech balloon.

Worse, Cass learning to speak was important. It meant something. Remember again how she was introduced:

Struggling, with her own effort, with Bab's help, making slow progress, but making progress, and making it together. This plot thread was the emotional and narrative backbone of the two Batgirls' relationship, and only four issues in Peterson and Puckett are throwing the entire plot in the garbage.

The writers will try to keep a version of it going with Cass still being unable to read, that doesn't carry half the weight of being unable to speak or understand words, which is probably why the writers very infrequently bother to bring it up, and it never gets a satisfying resolution - she learns to read off panel while evil from another wizard and once she's good again we just never speak of her as a disabled hero any more.

What I keep coming back to is that this is something Cass and Babs should have achieved together, not something hand-waved away by a wizard. If the writers decided that Cass being non-verbal was more trouble than it was worth and needed to be resolved quickly instead of agonizingly slowly over the course of her ongoing, then Cass & Babs should have found a believable breakthrough themselves.

...

And while I'm treading dangerously close to 'fix it fic' territory, there was such an obvious break through they could have used right there that I can't help from bringing it up. Because if fictional mute human Cass has such a hard time learning to speakbecause her brain was trained to interpret gestures and movement instead of spoken words, well, there just so happens to a language communicated by gestures and movement instead of spoken words, one in common use by actual mute people right here in the real world.

Yeah, duh, right? Hell, we've already seen Cass using hand gestures to convey meaning in a sign-language-adjacent fashion in issue 2

And again here in issue 4

Just, like, have a scene where Barbara's had a frustrating teaching session with Cass, maybe she's complaining about it to Dick or someone while sitting around outside, and she happens to notice somebody signing and has a eureka moment. Or maybe Cass rescues someone who signs and they try to sign 'thank you', and Cass is able to understand them from context and body language and realizes the gestures are a way of talking and she just gets it, and then she can excitedly go to Babs, that works too, though I'd be more inclined to give the little victory realization moment to Babs since she gets so few victories in this book.

And of course Babs will already be fluent in ASL because that's something that would be believable even if it hasn't already been established somewhere that I don't know, and suddenly they start making progress quickly, knowing ASL can help her learn to at least understand more spoken words more quickly even if actually speaking stays awkward and difficult due to never training those muscles during her development. Breakthrough in one issue, Cass frantically learning signs and making progress faster progress understanding spoken words the next, and by two issues later you can have Cass talking in speech bubbles or narration boxes implicitly translated from sign to written English the way comics do for any other language.

Plus, you could have cute domestic scenes of the other Bats learning ASL to talk with Cass, the kind of thing that really would make her feel more like part of the Bat Family.

The fact that, as far as I can remember, the concept of sign language is never mentioned in Cass Cain's stories, in or out of her solo title, is the kind of thing that makes me think her original creators never thought of her inability to speak in terms of disability representation, because if they thought about actual mute humans even once while conceptualizing this 'mute hero who understands body language instead of the spoken word' then the way actual mute humans use a language spoken in body movements to communicate would have come up. Like, at all.

....

Of course, I'm not the first to suggest Cass be fluent in ASL, as an alternative to psychic wizards or otherwise. It's a common enough fanon thing that it even has some pretty well reasoned push back:

Sure, Cass learning ASL super fast wouldn't be realistic, because yes, ASL is a lot more complicated than just pantomime gestures, it's an entire language, and learning any language would be an agonizingly slow process for someone who grew up without any. And yeah, ASL isn't one to one signs to English, so learning ASL wouldn't necessarily make learning to understand spoken English any faster or easier. Though I would counter that /part/ of Cass's difficulty learning to speak, separate from her brain's difficulty processing language, is that her audio processing wasn't trained to distinguish the particular sounds of speech and her mouth was never trained to produce them - this is referenced in this issue in that even though she can understand and think in english after the wizard changed her brain, she still can't speak it herself yet. Her brain would still have difficulty processing sign language, but her eyes and hands wouldn't have any trouble seeing and reproducing it.

But realism really isn't the important part here. The exact nature of Cass's disability is already tied up in her unrealistic upbringing and, for lack of any better terms, super powers. Those powers allowing Cass to pick up ASL unnaturally fast at least has some grounding within the unrealistic aspects that have already been established for her character - certainly more so than a random psychic guy just magicking spoken English into her brain. Because that's the alternative. If it were entirely up to me I would have preferred Cass continue to struggle with Babs' help as she slowly learns to communicate over the course of several years rather than all at once in issue 4. This hypothetical 'sign language communication breakthrough' proposal is based purely on the assumption that the writers had already decided wordless Cass was just too difficult.

And at least this would be Cass and Babs achieving communication together through their efforts - however arbitrarily abridged - rather than their core character driving plot line being magicked away.

........................

Geeze, looking back this post is very negative, and I don't like that. As much as I think this decision was completely wrong headed, as many issues as I take with Batgirl #4, it's still her original team in their prime, so there's still a lot nice to be said about it. This post is too long already, but I wanted to end off buy saying stuff I liked about the issue, and I don't want to spend a third post just on issue 4, so here's a lightning round of compliments.

The two panel spread of the psychic guy touching Cass's head and her martial arts turning into the word 'TALK' is so good. Like, I hate the storytelling move here, I hate what these pages mean for the narrative, but the execution is fantastic.

The transition between these scenes, where Bruce is devastated trying to tell Alfred about the video and Alfred's like 'you're bleeding, whatever it is you're worried about can wait' before Alfred sees the video, and then after compulsive parent Alfred is all focused on the little kid in the video while annoyed bruce is left to tend his wounds on his own? This is a cute little bit for both of these characters and it always makes me smile.

This whole page is great. Cass celebrating a successful mission by going out to do more work, the goofy smile and fist to the forehead 'hard headed' bit, Babs worrying over Cass, the level of clutter and detail on oracle's desk, the bricks and all. Babs balling her fist over the live mic to talk to Cass as she heads out. Those big boxy yellow pouches on Cass's belt - have I talked about how much I love those, and how important they are to the look of the costume? The way they break up the otherwise too much black with a nice spot of color in the middle, add some visible weight to what is otherwise a very ethereal and acrobatic character design. Anyway, just, this whole page, great stuff.

The contrast between effortlessly taking down multiple armed goons early in the issue, vs. her comedic, even cartoonishly goofy loss to the random mercenary lady after the psychic wizard magicked her body reading super power into talky words, leaving her effectively defenseless. That 'Oohf' face as she takes the first punch is hilarious. Also, hey, those pouches again.

...

There's a lot more I like about this issue, but yeah, post too long already. Even if this team is doing things I don't agree with, they're still doing those things /well/. And it's not like anything done in this issue ruins Cass's character or book outright. It's a faltering step in a wrong direction, and sadly only the first of many, but in the mean time the stuff that's great is still great here. And the issue ends off promising some serious personal drama, both with Bruce leaving to confront David Cain and with Cass struggling to comprehend her first real defeat. I'm eager to get to that stuff, and leave my complaints about issue 4 behind.

[polyhexian]

Thinking about the emotional rollercoaster that is Hunter and Jasper's newfound developing relationship after Jasper's no longer dying of infection and everything's come to light. Hunter now knows the truth, but can he HANDLE the truth? He was already having, like, seven ongoing crises, and now he has THIS on top of them. He's just learned about a dozen new things he gets to be angry over!

Your approach to writing Hunter's trauma recovery has always been very raw. I like a good saccharine hurt/comfort fic as much as the next person, but I really appreciate the raw approach, too. Recovery isn't perfect, it can be ugly and uncomfortable and painful, and you've never shied away from that. So I'm thinking of a still-reeling-from-Hollow-Mind Hunter, freshly dumped in another dimension with his weirdo stalker who turns out to be the father he'd just gotten used to thinking never existed, and I'm looking over at Agony!Hunter and Lament!Hunter for comparison and wincing.

I commented on another post about how I feel like Hunter would WILDLY vacillate between "you should've just kidnapped me by force!" and "yeah I was definitely super brainwashed and would've run back to tell Belos everything first chance I got" for the first…however long it takes for him to come to terms with this. But I can also see him lashing out at Jasper, like, here's some of the awful things Belos did to me, I hope that telling you about them makes you hurt because I feel like you abandoned me and I'm angry. But then that eventually goes in the complete opposite direction, like, I'm not going to tell you about what horrible memory gave me nightmares tonight even though I'd feel better if I did, because I know you love me and you were trying your best and you've been hurting every day for 16 years while you tried to get me back, and I don't want to hurt you more.

Jasper just…trying to get his kid to talk to him if he needs to. Probably at some point when Hunter's clammed up Jasper has to open up a bit himself like, look, nothing you could say is going to surprise me, that man gave me more opportunities to look at my insides than I want to remember; I'll be angry and sad about what you went through, but I've spent 16 years thinking about what he might have been doing to you and trust me, nothing you say is going to send me into a horrified shock response. Maybe he's reluctant to talk about his own experiences much because 1) Remembering sucks, and 2) He doesn't want Hunter thinking he's trying to upstage his pain, but like…they have adjacent trauma from the same abuser, they're gonna understand each other on a wavelength most other people won't get.

I do feel at the very least though Jasper would nip whatever personhood-related crisis Hunter might be having in the bud. Nope, nope, none of that; it took me 12 years to figure out I was a real person with feelings, and I didn't bargain with Belos to convince him to allow you the privilege of thinking you're a person just for you to start questioning it because you found out you're part vegetable. You've got 16 years experience of believing you're a person, that's a fantastic foundation that you should NOT take a sledgehammer to. Are we real people? We damn well BETTER be after all the work I put into figuring out emotions! Maybe this is like, the one thing Jasper really puts his foot down on. He's fine if Hunter's angry at him or if Hunter never forgives him or whatever, but he absolutely draws the line at Hunter thinking he might not be a real person.

Probably doesn't help that the whole situation is likely compounded by Hunter's guilt that oh, all his friends had to leave their family behind and are super worried about them, and he just GOT his dad back but he can't even be grateful about it?? What kind of horrible person is he??

And later on, when they've progressed past the worst of the anger, and Hunter has realized that yeah, he really does want a relationship with his dad. Then his issues of self-worth and believing love is conditional come into play.

I'm imagining some point where they're having a quiet conversation, maybe on the couch late at night. Maybe it started with Hunter asking why - why did you even care, why were you so willing to die for me when you barely knew me for two minutes. And Jasper is like I don't know, I just did, but that's not good enough for Hunter so he keeps talking. He talks about growing Hunter, all the work he put in and the attention to detail, about how excited he was, how he'd quietly talk to the planter box and spill out what he was only starting to realize were real feelings, about how he'd put his finger in Hunter's little palm and feel his heart stutter when his hand closed around it.

And Hunter listens to all of this in silence, watches Jasper smiling at the memories while he speaks, and he starts thinking about himself. About how he's never been able to maintain Belos's approval, how he's never been able to impress the coven heads, how he's just a half-a-witch who's never been anywhere near as powerful as Jasper is, how he's never been able to beat the Martlet in combat, how he's got so many punishment scars, how he's been such an awful, ungrateful brat these last few weeks to this man who loves him so much; love is conditional and Hunter has done nothing to earn Jasper's love and he probably needs to figure out how to fix that before he loses what seems to be a good thing, except his failures are many and his debt to Jasper is enormous and there is absolutely no way he will ever be able to impress or repay this man.

Jasper is still smiling into the middle distance as he says something about how badly he wanted to meet Hunter and how curious he was about what kind of person he'd be when he emerged.

Hunter feels a rock sink in his stomach, and very quietly says, "Sorry for the disappointment."

And Jasper blinks and looks down at Hunter, pure confusion on his face, and asks, "Why would I be disappointed?"

ahhHHHH

jasper completely blindsided by this. he doesn't have the proper experience with hunter's self worth issues yet to expect stuff like this, its just fully like. what?? disappointed??? when did i say that?? did i make it sound like that??? shit im doing a really bad job at this i guess. but also like. disappointed?? how could i ever be disappointed? you're alive! you have friends! I'm so happy! this is everything i ever wanted! and hunter is like no, i mean, disappointed by me and what i turned out like, i'm not nearly as brave or loyal as you, im a coward. and jasper is just floored. like ???? no! you are so smart and creative and kind and you are brave! what are you talking about??? you're a great kid! cue hunter bursting into tears

[notsogreatpotoo]

1, 7, 13 and 17 for your ask game!

hello!! thank you for the ask friendo :]

ask game link for reference

1: favorite or funniest nicknames you've gotten

I haven't gotten a ton of nicknames that I've liked, bc usually nicknames are based off of your 'real' name and I'm closeted to most people I know irl, but one of my friends nicknamed me Emsy, and some of my friends used to call me Mouse in middle school bc I was a very wide-eyed and confused child. but I do really like nicknames when I get them :]

7: an excerpt from your funniest, weirdest, or worst essay from middle school or high school

okay so freshman year of high school, we read romeo and juliet, and i had read it before but not in an academic context and so when my teacher said we were going to write an argumentative essay on which character was to blame for the whole... situation, i was like. no. that's not the point. so i very spitefully wrote an essay that i ended up getting an A on, which was cool because it very much did not fit the prompt. here's the intro:

Placing the blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet has been debated for centuries. Their tragic fate leaves the audience wondering: who was most at fault? Can the blame even be fairly shifted onto only one person? In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, two people become infatuated with each other, but their families have an ongoing feud that limits their relationship. Many characters have expectations set for the two, whether those expectations be that they should be enemies or that their love will fix the feud. They eventually take their lives as the result of a misunderstanding. However, it is clear that Romeo and Juliet’s deaths are ultimately caused by the toxic society and surroundings their own families helped create, and the arbitrary laws of society that their families enforced.

idk, i just think it's funny that younger me was like, i don't want to do this. i'm not gonna blame one character, that's not the point of the story. fuck society.

13: something you really want someone to ask you about

i could literally talk at you forever about my oc insert hunger games fic, the first part and the second part (wip) (i have three parts planned) are currently almost 46000 words and the main character is the closest thing i will ever have to a child. i've decided i'm gonna post the first chapter of it on ao3 in a few days and then figure out a regular update schedule after stuff gets straightened out (i'm moving), but if you ever want to get distracted send me an ask about literally any of it

17: government assigned ao3 tag (choose one you really like, one that seems accurate to your life, or find a generator)

one i really like: Mutual Pining

if i'm in the mood to read fics with ships, i'll find one of my fandoms and sort by mutual pining. i love these fics bc usually the complications are internal emotional complications instead of things like cheating. (note: i do not support censorship. just because i don't like reading about cheating does not mean i support censorship of that sort of reading material. curate your own experience, do not attempt to control others'.) i also like fics that have a little bit of emotional build up through pining or smthn bc it helps me get more invested :]

one that seems accurate to my life: Alternate Universe - College/University

mostly self explanatory (i'm in college and it feels like a different universe)

generator assigned tag: Historical Inaccuracy

as a History major that's hilarious

thank you again for the ask!!! :]

[vtforpedro]

long life update - TWs in tags

It feels like it's been ages. I'm so exhausted and in a lot of physical pain. Going on two months of it being the worst it's been right after a couple of months of the best it's been. Chronic pain + grief + trying to get help from doctors who should have their licenses revoked + dealing with a shit relationship with my mom + a good, decades-long friendship ending + the ongoing disability process with the SSA + LAW FIRMS.

I'm so fucking tired. I don't remember if I updated that the appeals council decided not to review my case because the 'judge followed the law' except that he didn't. So, as it turns out, my original attorney (and he did not tell me this) before he left, wrote that if they denied me, it should go to federal district court.

I'm now working with a NY law firm to take my case to federal court because my current law firm believes it has merit, and I guess they do, too. That's how fucked the decision was, and I'm glad my initial reaction of bewilderment and anger was spot on lol

The good news is, it should only take another year! ._.

My neurologist is the worst doctor I have ever come across and I'm quite literally stuck with him with nowhere else to go. I wish him upon no one. I'm so tired of calling the SSA, getting documents to them, signing things for law firms, contacting law firms, getting no responses, and contacting them all over and over again. I am in incredible physical pain, like this actively makes my neuro stuff worse. Everything makes it worse. I have autonomic testing in a few days, and idk if I'll get through it b/c I have to stop the meds that keep me out of the ER two days prior, and it scares me.

My relationship with my mom is fractured and I don't feel like family therapy is actually helping. I had to end a friendship with someone I love and care very much about but who was growing too comfortable mistreating me and I was giving them too many passes 😞 I've known them for the better part of two decades.

It's been over seven months since my cat Isis died. I don't know how. It feels like she was here just yesterday. Yet, all the nights I've sat and talked to her and wept are all too real. I miss her more than I can say. She was my soul cat. I keep thinking about tomorrow and how she'd be so nosy getting into EVERYthing when gifts are opened at Christmas. Having to stop her, move her, laugh because she was just so n o s y and it was hilarious. And she's not gonna be here for that ever again.

I'm having a really fucking hard time tonight. It's just hitting me how god-awful this year has been and how I have a bad week to look forward to before even getting to the new year lmao I have to stop taking so many of my medications 48hrs before 1.5-2hrs of testing to see if we can find out Yet Another Thing Wrong With Me but knowing my luck it'll be 'no findings' and the mystery of why my core body temp plummets to 93.9 in the blink of an eye won't be solved until I have suffered juuuuust enough.

It never ends. Never. I want to give up. I'm so tired of doing this. I don't want to anymore. It never. fucking. ends.

I absolutely cannot say it's all been bad, though. I've met incredible, warm, welcoming, giving, kind people this year. Y'all have helped me more than you know and I'm so so so lucky to be able to call you my friends. This year has sucked for so many of us, but I want to say I'm proud of you, and I love you all very much.

My fic is gonna be printed in a hardcover zine early next year. I participated in a Big Bang for the first time and that'll also go out early next year. I'm hosting a tiny event in my tiny fandom server that I'm super excited about. I have a raffle prize to write (bagginshield !!!! SO EXCITED to revisit the og otp) and a Valentine's gift to write for another fandom.

I posted 401,000 words this year and wrote many more unfinished wips, plus a long one (90k) that I am very invested in finishing.

I painted and drew so much this year. I improved a lot, too! I got a couple of portraits printed from inprnt to see how they looked, and it was MY art, and they were GORGEOUS. I thought I would hate seeing my art professionally printed, but no! I almost cried. They looked so lovely.

My cat Lilly had health issues almost immediately following Isis's passing, but she is doing so well right now. She's blossomed into another cat, and while she's not my constant companion, she is with me so much more than she used to be. When she walks onto my desk I am to stop everything and hold her like baby in my arms until she decides that's enough (or I really need to move) lmaaao she's such a goober. My heart cat. <3

I'm not doing well right now--my MH is bad. Especially tonight. But it felt good to write the good things.

I'm sorry for my lack of replies and kinda disappearing. I'm running on fumes. I hope next year will bring physical relief so emotional relief can happen.

For those of you facing difficulties of any kind, I am holding your hand in spirit.

[jedi-enthusiast]

For the fanfic ask game: 💖 👀 🥺 🤲 🥰 (sorry I know that's a lot LOL feel free to pick and choose!)

The ask game <3

Oh no don’t apologize! I love people asking a bunch of questions because I love rambling about my fics!

💖- What made you start writing?

I have two answers for this question, since I actually stopped writing a while ago and then got back into it.

I first started writing in general because I was primarily a Wattpad user (I had no idea Ao3 existed, but give me a break I was like 13) and I was reading fan fiction for a manga/anime series called Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler and I just wanted a heroine reader like me.

Most of the "readers" or "ocs" in those fics didn't really stand up for themselves and often let the guy characters walk all over them--or they would be referred to as "badass" but were never really given a chance to be badass. And, at the time, they were also mostly blonde haired/blue eyed.

So I started writing because I wanted a heroine reader that stood up for herself and didn't take anyone's shit and was actually badass on paper--and who had brown hair and eyes like me. I actually still have the full outline of the fic I was working on, and a draft of the prologue, and here are two commissions I bought for my oc:

I did eventually stop writing for a while, though, because I was just tired of writing and rewriting and rewriting (the outline and draft I have currently is my 3rd rewrite of the entire thing, 4th if you count the other completely different version of it--I get very nitpicky with my fics sometimes).

What got me back into writing was actually you. I started reading "Shoulder the Sky" and I saw how much work you had put in and how passionate you were about your fic and I just...got inspired. I already had an outline for The Great War sitting in my Google Docs (from back when I first got into Star Wars) and I basically decided "fuck it, if they can do then so can I, I'm gonna start writing again" and I did, and now I have two fics ongoing and several in the works that I can't wait to get to.

👀- Tell me about an up and coming WIP!

Ok, one of my WIPs that I'm working on (that I hope to start writing soon, once I finish the outline) is a Modern!AU called "Deeper Roots."

Basically Cody and Obi-Wan are high school sweethearts who have had a long-distance relationship for over a decade now, since Obi-Wan had to move away from their town when he got custody of his siblings (Anakin, Ahsoka, and Reva) from their father (Qui-Gon) due to family issues.

Well, Obi-Wan and Cody decide that he should move back to town since Anakin will be starting college soon (he's 21, but took a gap year and then waited since he had an accident that took his arm) and the college of his choice is nearby + Ahsoka wants to go to that same college + they all miss Cody a lot and want to see him more.

Only one problem. Cody hasn't come out to his family and they have no idea he's dating someone, let alone that he has a boyfriend and that he's--for all intents and purposes--technically a father of three. They all try to keep things a secret from his family still, but things obviously get a whole lot more complicated once the two sides of Cody's life start to intermingle.

(also, I think Reva should be incorporated into their family in Modern!AU fics more often, I think she'd make a great youngest child)

🥺- Is there a certain moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Ok, slight spoilers for BCC, but one interaction that always makes me emotional when I start to think about it is this one line that I have planned for the end of BCC.

Basically Obi-Wan and Cody are hiding away in a storage room after a hard battle and Obi-Wan says something about "not wanting to be High General Kenobi."

So Cody says that they don't have to be Commander and General. That, when it's just them, "they can just be Obi-Wan and Cody."

👐- Would you please share a snippet of a WIP?

Nothing else is really written yet, so here's a snippet of the next chapter of Bloodshed, Crimson Clover:

The Force sparked restlessly under Obi-Wan’s skin as he stared at the empty holomap in front of him, eyes searching it for the readouts of a battle that hadn’t happened yet—or, rather, was happening, but just out of reach. He could look away. Attempt to meditate, or finish last mission’s report, or do something more productive with his time, but the near-blinding blue light of the blank screen had already seared itself into his mind and he knew that, even if he walked away, it would follow him. 

So he stayed. 

Staring. 

He hesitantly reached out along his and Anakin’s Force Bond, gently pushing forward the memory of Crys announcing they were only fifteen minutes out and an impression of– you? Them? Safe? 

Part of him didn’t expect Anakin to respond, and another part of him dreaded that very fact, but—as always—Anakin was full of surprises. He was quickly hit with a twin pair of waves, harsh impressions of impatience and frustration that burned the back of his throat, and their corresponding memories—one of the 501st’s Star Cruisers disappearing in a flash of fire and smoke, a supply ship they were escorting quickly succumbing to the same fate, Anakin’s admiral informing him that they couldn’t hold out much longer. 

The taste of ash felt thick and heavy on his tongue, and it took him a moment to recover from the sheer intensity of it all—although he was careful to keep his expression devoid of any emotion. Anakin was strong in the Force, but that meant he often forgot to take into consideration how his power might affect those around him. Obi-Wan was used to it, however, so he was able to disperse the effects quickly enough, and the emotions that followed were all his own. 

🥰- How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

*cough* ahem.

I love getting questions about my fic and I love getting comments and people talking about it--all of it just makes me so happy! I love my fic and I love to see people loving it too!

[oh-my-damn]

You know what, I read through all your post yesterday and today and I want to thank you for shining a light on this problematic behavior. I also want to thank you for allowing me to see his relationship with Jenny from a different perspective.

Jenny like Alba was agreeable in the beginning. I mean she ended her marriage so she could be with Chris. It was all puppy love and dream seventh grade boyfriend at the start. She enjoys being around him and his circle. She loves that she include in everything from Vegas to Disney. I’m her mind she got the quarterback at the price of altering her personality to fit his.

Eventually all puppy love fades and that’s where couples struggle. She begins to question his fuckboy behavior. Why he feels the need to constantly party, go to strip clubs, but the majority of their time together is spent at his house doing what he wants spewing his pseudo intellectual bullshit.

He really fooled Jenny too. She was in a vulnerable time in her life after ending her marriage. It looks like he love bombed her by showing up to her premiere, confer shows and book reading. Spending time with her support system was easy because it’s a few suburbs over so he really doesn’t need to put much effort in.

She starts causing too much trouble and becoming less agreeable so he ends it. He goes back to his fuckboy ways and now Jenny is stuck with the realization that she left her husband for this douche. They talk about each other in interviews, looked awkward AF at the premiere and that’s that.

Until late summer/early fall when the realization hits Chris that he doesn’t need to pick up women and have a FWB rotation with ATL women if he just apologizes. I’m sure he hit her with the it’ll be different this time, I promise to change speech and she fell for it. Nothing changes. It’s just the same shit different day. They continue their relationship because their both in ATL working so it’s easy and convenient. Then they both wrap and the curtains lift up and she realizes she got duped again.

Once a fuckboy always a fuckboy. Chris strikes me as the guy who expects his meat and potatoes on the table when he gets home. I partially blame his upbringing because that’s how he was raised. He had a stay at home mom who did everything for her family and I think he wants the same for himself. If he’s going after an independent woman it’s strictly for the purposes of stripping her independence away from her because I think he gets a big thrill from it. It’s clear he likes being in control. Being in control gives him power over you and your life. If he’s the sole breadwinner then you have to depend on him and can’t really leave. He boxes them in without them even realizing it.

THIS. I COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF.

And the end part !!

I actually mused over this not too long ago bc as you may or may not know, I started writing a book (before all of this) about Chris in a secret relationship and it is still ongoing and when this came out it really spun me for a loop and I couldn't write it for a long time.

Anyway, in it, she's a lawyer, so not in the industry, and they keep it quiet to protect her.

But I had this written down before the articles came out and stuff in my drafts, its an interaction with them that is SO REAL to me bc this is legit what everyone should remember when in a relationship (I know I'm more aware of this due to law school but its an important lesson)

I'm so sorry this is long but I didn't know how to cut it down without losing the point of it, so I'm gonna put it under a cut.

I don't think many of my readers realized how important a conversation like this in a relationship where one partner makes a hell of a lot more money than the other. It's easy to get swept up and give in to it, but then what happens when its over? You're alone, standing there, having given up on your dreams, your safety net, for what? A boyfriend?

Any lawyer knows to never do this because we've seen the cases but I can tell you that it happens way more often than it should.

Anyway, here it is, read if you want, my point is that I agree with everything you said so much !!!!

This is the excerpt from the stranger with the money/work dynamic talk:

"Fuck work," he grumbles sleepily, his voice deep and groggy, "Stay." 

I let out a small laugh, pushing my back into his chest as he wraps a long leg over my hip to press into me more insistently. 

"I can't," I reply with a smile, finding one of his hands and entwining our fingers, "I need to work." 

"Why?" He half whines, huffing against my neck, "Work is no fun, stay here with me. I promise to give you a good time." 

I chuckle, "Well, I need work for money. And you know, that's without mentioning that entire 'I want to achieve my dreams' thing." 

"I have money," Chris murmurs against my neck, "Take some of mine." 

I snort out a laugh, shaking my head in response, "I don't want your money, I want my own money." 

Chris huffs jokingly, his warm breath tickling the back of my neck, "Are you saying my money's no good?"

"Mhmm," I giggle, "That's exactly what I'm saying." 

"How dare you," Chris grumbles, his arms releasing their hold for only a moment before he turns me onto my back. He leans on his forearm to hover over me, a teasing glint in his cerulean blues, "What's wrong with my money?"

I grin as I look up at him, reaching up to card my fingers through his mussed up morning hair, "I didn't earn your money. I earned mine." 

"So?" He questions, leaning down to nudge my nose with his own, "If I wanted to share my money with you, it would technically become yours." 

"Yeah, but that's not how it works," I chuckle, my hand trailing down the side of his face to stroke his beard, "I wouldn't feel comfortable spending money that wasn't my own." 

That makes his brows furrow. He tilts his head, blue eyes gazing over my face before he asks, "You don't think you'd.. ever, feel comfortable with that?"

I mirror his curious look, letting my fingers trail over his cheek, "What do you mean?" 

"Weeelllll...." he drags out the word, maneuvering around until he can place his beefy body between my legs. His upper body hovers over mine, leaning on his forearms, as I let my fingers run through his soft locks. 

"What if," he continues, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "For example, hypothetically, we were married. Would you still feel weird about it?"

I let out a surprised chuckle, tilting my head as I look up at him. My fingers card through his hair as I shake my head, "No, if we were married it would be different." 

"Why's that?" he muses, leaning into my touch with a soft smile on his face. 

"Because then we'd be married," I reply with a smile, "Being married is a whole different type of security. I wouldn't have to worry about becoming reliant on you, or your money, or your lifestyle, and risk that you'd be able to pull the rug out from under me suddenly."

His brows furrow, and I quickly add, "Not that I think you would! Of course not, I just mean logistically, like, rationally, as a lawyer, we know the pitfalls in these types of situations. Becoming reliant on your boyfriend is never a good idea." 

[stabbyfoxandrew]

Ok book recommendation. Not sure if this is something you'll like but it's one of my favourite series and I need more people to know about it.

The set up is basically: Atlantis is real and sometime in 1960s (I think) some astronaut saw Atlantis which was previously hidden from humans by magic. Humans obviously went to war with them and won. So now all the people of Atlantis have moved to Nantucket.

The governing class is a group of the most powerful magic users who all have sort of courts i guess with a bunch of lesser houses under them. They are all named after figures in a tarot deck (or rather the decks are named after them) so we have the tower, the fool, the lovers etc

For us the most important court is the Sun Court. The main character Rune and his best friend/bodyguard who have known each other since they were literal babies are from the sun court which was raided and fell when they were teenagers. Rune and Brand are in their 30s now.

Now they are sort of detectives for hire have been hired to find a missing person. While they also have to deal with some unexpected developments from a sanctioned raid they took part in.

Another thing worth noting about Brand (who is human) and Rune (who is an Atlantian) is that they share an emotional bond like they can literally feel each others emotions. It's an old Atlantian tradition that is explained in the books. Their relationship is so special to me. They have the best banter. And are so protective of each other.

Rune one of those characters that are both simultaneously so smart and badass while also being such a dumbass like he definitely laughs at dumb puns and thinks he's so funny. He is resourceful with his magic which he has to be and knows all about politics because he has to he was basically a prince before his court fell. He also has this quirk that I love where when he feels awkward in a situation he reverts back to being overly formal.

And Brand is that sarcastic, so over it bodyguard who will snipe at you but he is also so protective and caring (if you know where to look) (and Rune knows where to look and because it's from his pov you will hear all about it) and is the type of only I am allowed to make fun of him character. He will make you respect his people.

There is also an intricate magic system. Which i won't go into too much detail about but you basically have to charge these special objects with a spell you want to use in order to use magic.

The world is also so queer. Like it is stated multiple times that attraction to only one gender and monogamy are not the norm in this society.

The books are part of an ongoing series currently three of the planned nine books are out but the author also has published a bunch of free extra stories for in between the books.

The series is called The Tarot Sequence and the first book is called The Last Sun. By K.D. Edwards.

I would recommend looking at the trigger warnings though you should probably be fine seeing as you are in the aftg fandom.

(One of the opening lines is: "I am, before anything else, a survivor [...]" though so)

Sorry for writing this entire essay lol. I just really really love these books especially the relationships between the characters no matter if they're platonic, romantic or familial they all love and care for each other so much. They are some of the best interpersonal relationships i have read and I think about all of the characters so much. Sometimes I just have to stop and go oh randomly in my day to day when I think about another devastating thing about them (both positive and heartbreaking)

Oh one last thing before I finally shut up they don't know who lead the raid on their court so that is an underlying mystery throughout the series

oh my god anon thanks for this! like i have to admit i was on the fence when you mentioned atlantis, BUT the rest of your lil essay (cutie i love when people are passionate about their interests!) has convinced me to add these to my list!!! :D

also! when i looked it up on goodreads i was like 'ohhhhh' because i've seen the cover somewhere before? but yes! added! :) when i get to it i'll have to make a post!

[anneimaginesundertale]

The Best of All Timelines Timeline

The Best of All Timelines is the ongoing saga that's the "canon" story on this blog. Unless something is set in an AU, this is the timeline where stuff happens in my drabbles. (I will also try to start tagging stuff that might not be "canon"--for example, if I write a hurt/comfort fic about somebody getting shot, that probably didn't happen.)

Here's how events shook out so far. Kind of a floating timeline, so I'm not putting dates in here, but I hope it makes sense. Some of this is linked to old roleplay parties, which should be available to reread HERE.

Monsters are freed. Sans and Papyrus make a home on the surface along with the other Undertale monsters in Ebott City and the surrounding area.

Sans messes with a certain machine in the basement and accidentally brings several other pairs of skeletons into this world. After comparing worlds, they name the other timelines Underswap, Underfell, Swapfell, Horrortale, and Mobtale. The boys try living together, but numerous arguments and awkward encounters send them scattering across the country.

No one thinks to check if the machine is still summoning skeletons from other worlds. Sans knows that more have come through, but hides it. The new skeletons are sent off to live their own lives.

Anne (that's me, y'all; we're all about self-indulgence here) meets Sans and Papyrus when they move to Littleton (a quiet village about half an hour from the city). They become friends and one summer the boys invite her to go and visit their other cousins. Anne loves all the boys so much that she tells them they're always welcome in her home. The boys become regular visitors.

Anne hosts a Halloween party with some of her new human friends and invites all the skeletons. The boys all like her new house so much that they gradually all move in. The house has more than enough room for everybody, which is good, because more cousins show up! The Mobtale brothers make an appearance around this time.

Anne hosts a Gyftmas party where the Mafiafell bros show up.

After a mysterious noise starts coming from the basement, the G!bros are discovered! They finally found a way out of the void through the machine. Although not everybody trusts them, they join the family.

A spring cleaning party uncovers strange magic items in the shed and the attic. The items are sent away to Alphys to study at her lab, but eventually are stolen by...somebody. This is an ongoing mystery.

More mysterious noises and then the basement explodes! The Outertale brothers crashland their spaceship through the machine, effectively destroying it. No more skeletons can come through that way, but there are more in the world than initially thought.

Gradually, we meet the Dancetale brothers, the Oceantale brothers, and the Farmtale brothers.

Somewhere in here, an old friend of the blog (@kezi-likes-undertale) invented a dream game machine that allows people to go into various AUs and play out stories. This has worked out really well (other than one hiccup with G! and Jess, but that was a one time thing...probably...)

Several of Anne's human friends have fallen in love with skeletons. Anne herself has fallen for Sweets (HT Papyrus). There are three weddings (Blue and Ray, Anne and Sweets, and Boss and Trashy). Other skeletons make relationships official. Lots of cuteness ensues.

Blue and Ray (@pureangleda) have a baby! Randy Bistroke Gaster is the first babybones born into the big family and everybody absolutely adores him!

TIME SKIP -- 5 years later!

Some of the skeletons moved out of Anne's house and into their own homes, either in the neighborhood (Skeleton Acres) or in the wider world (Littleton, Ebott City). The OT bros live in Ebott City and work at the botanical gardens/aquarium. A few moved further away or went on long trips. The MF bros are at their casino in Las Vegas. The DT bros are on a world dance tour. The UO bros live in the ocean near a vacation town called Sweet Sands, about an hour from Littleton. The farm bros have their farm about half an hour west of Littleton, near a town called Pinewood.

There are now six babybones in the family, with another one on the way! Ray and Blue have Randy (5) and Cherry (2). Anne and Sweets have Someday (4) and twins Grace and Gideon (2). Boss and Trashy have Poppy (2) and another baby on the way.

Randy had his fifth birthday party just before Gyftmas. It was Pokemon themed, as that is the lad's current obsession.

In January 2024, we pick up with the family one month after that party. From here on out, we'll have to figure out what happens next!

[tinyletterz]

YOU SHOULD GIVE ME UR VISUAL NOVEL RECS GRABBY HANDS

OKAY OKAY OKAY thank you for indulging me i love them sm some of these descriptions might sound like theyre missing stuff i just dont wanna spoil anything. all these games are free, online, and can be found on itch.io but i also linked them here too

this also got really long because i explain too much but i wanted to make sure i added enough detail w/out spoiling but also w/out leaving basic synopsis stuff out??? the mc is customizable so your not playing as a base set person which is so nice of the writers thank you guys sm:

a tale of crowns by @/ataleofcrowns

a story that follows the mc (you) as the new crown. there are 4 love interest (all male, all female, or a mix). this one depends on romance based meaning there aren't any aromantic options (i just wanted to put that out there since you are aroace ^^) i love the lore behind it and its geared towards poc which is nice <3 this is also the very first IF i stumbled upon. this is ongoing and chapter ten was just released and theres good/bad endings of chapter ten

superstition (pc versions: s1, s2, s3) (iphone friendly versions: s1, s2, s3) by @/13leaguestories

fantasy and a few other things that follows your journey through the new world of supernaturals you found after helping a woman on the streets. its rated 18+ because of sexual references but you can avoid it 100% at the beginning in the settings, though you might not be able to romance some of the characters. there's 6 love interest in total (3 male, 3 female) but depending on the setting there might be less. you also don't have to have a romance with any of them ! s3 is still in the works

when twilight strikes by @/evertidings

modern fantasy where you work for the ioas (international organization of supernaturals) as a bounty hunter. things get complicated after failing to catch a bounty the second time but i think thats for the best. i love this game soooo much it reminds me of shadowhunters and i love shadowhunters (just the books not the show but thats a different discussion omg). there are 5 romance options (1 is male, the others you can set to female/male/nonbinary or randomize like i did) ive played through this about three times; twice for the same character and once for another but i love the character dynamics

wayfarer by @/idrellegames

i will not lie the reason why i started playing this was because it reminded me of tolkien and i love tolkien. this story has you being a wayfayer: a person incapable of magic. you go on quest, forge pacts, and try your best to survive in a world thats not so kind to you. i think theres 7 romance options but i think you can not romance anyone too?? if you want more information about them you should check out the blog for the game since we haven't met all of them yet. ive played this game 4 times because i was unsatisfied with what i did those other three times and im gonna do it again :D there's options for sexually intimacy but also asexual routes though that means no relationships with some character. two chapters are currently out !!

mirror mine by @/if-mirrormine

okayaya so you were out shopping for your sibling's birthday right and when you finally get home, you won't believe it...you've been gone for 10 years?!?! everyone's so confused, your confused, your cat's just glad to have you back honestly. so an investigation has been reopened about your disappearance on why it felt like no time passed for you but ten years for everyone else. i love mystery sci-fi genre its still releasing chapters!! i think theres 4 romance options (1 male, 2 women, 1 you can pick) nd im not sure about aromantic options yet but its amazing

speaker by @/speakergame

theres a curse on your family that the first child has the ability to see visions of the future. you and your sister are twins with her as the oldest, meaning she is the Seer. you are a Speaker which means you can understand a limited amount of her visions. i love the writing there's also a demon dog which makes everything better!! theres 5 romance options i think ?? (2 you can pick, then theres 1 nonbinary, 1 male nd 1 female) ITS SO GOOD its a fantasy mystery IF and ive played through it twice so far

scout by @/anya-dev

its an apocalyptic story about humanity surviving in small communities. one morning (i think it was the morning) you meet other people not from your community which id odd because people can't survive on their own without support. this causes a whole list of issues but without these issues there wouldnt be a story so im very happy :D there are 4 romance options (2 male, 1 female, 1 you pick) but im not sure if this will get anymore updates. the author said their life was pretty hectic so i do hope things are alright on their end. even if it doesn't get updated i think the story is still amazing and will be seated with my favorites <3

ANYWAYS THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME RANT ABOUT THESE GAMES they hold a special place in my heart i hope you play some of them and find them interesting like i do !!!!