#also none of my fairy tale things are on here but i think i have lots of interesting ideas in those as well

[sapphosewrites]

top 10 ds9 fan fics you've written, ranked?

Oooh, tough question, friend! I don't even know what the criteria for this would be, because the most AO3 popular ones are not always my favorites... Okay, you know what, here we go. I'm just going to go for it and make some decisions. I'm giving myself a rule, though, that I can only chose one from a series, so I'm not just listing everything in the Terok Nor AU. I'll also try to hit different kinds of fics I've written.

10.) After the End of the World: A Survey of Seminal Works of Cardassian Post-Apocalyptic Literature from cross-posted to tumblr. 533 words, "An examination of the Cardassian post-apocalyptic literary genre before and after the Dominion War." This isn't my most popular or my best written but it's one of my favorites; I like in-world diegetic texts and worldbuilding and I'm obsessed with the idea of post-canon Cardassia as post-apocalypse.

9.) Never Have I Ever from The Game Is Afoot, 1,294 words, T, "Julian introduces Garak to the human game never have I ever." This was fun to write and is fun to reread every time! I often spend a lot of fic space on angst and identity and all the reasons why it's a bad idea for Julian and Garak to get together, but in this one we just get to spend time seeing them be clever and enjoy each other's company.

8.) Tribbles, Togetherness, and the Great River, 1,742 words, G, "In their shared quarters, Nog and Jake discuss tribbles, pets, and telling their families about their relationship." This is my only full standalone Jake/Nog fic, and it's another that was a pleasure to write and still makes me smile. It's fun to spend a sweet moment with two young people figuring out how they fit together.

7.) Del Floria's Tailor Shop, 336 words, also known as the space tumblr one. I think this is possibly the funniest thing I've ever written.

6.) Push Me Til I Break, 4,653 words, M, also known as the one where Garak interrogates Julian, and the role play goes wrong. Maybe the most tense thing I've ever written, and really leans into the ways in which two deeply hurting people can choose to hurt or hold.

5.) Growth, 45,843 words, T, "Julian and Garak grapple with their pasts and their feelings for each other at the end of the series." My super long post-canon Cardassia fic, back when I had no idea how to string a multi-chapter idea together. There's a lot I would change if I wrote this now (I've grown as a writer in many ways, including my ability to have scene transitions), but some of the conversations and moments in here are still absolute favorites of mine, particularly around ideas of self-forgiveness, the clash between values and actions, and the importance of choice.

4.) Predetermination, 22,200 words, T, Mirror Bashir arrives at the station and suddenly the nature/nurture debate has never had higher stakes. This is one of the places I think I've been most successful in using sci fi to ask big questions that hopefully resonate in the modern day, about who we are and how we become. Also, the ending takes inspiration from one of my favorite TNG episodes, and that was cool too.

3.) Especially the Lies, 13,019 words, T, "Something is going on with Garak, and no one knows what, except for possibly Julian Bashir." This is my only archive-warning-applied fic and it was really important to me to tell a story about care, for a character who I think doesn't believe he's allowed to have any, in a real world circumstance that too often people have to go through alone.

2.) Necessary Storms, 15,149 words, T, Julian and Starfleet Spouse Garak get entangled in Trill politics. I feel like this is one of the things I've written that most feels like it could be an episode of Star Trek, and is also a fairly unsubtle (though initially unintentional) way to explore populism, demagoguery, resource distribution, and revolt at a very particular moment in national politics with the aesthetic distance that sci fi offers.

1.) Old Friends: An Enigma Tale from Terok Nor AU. I'm exceedingly proud of this whole series, which started as just "what can I do with the idea of dabo boy Julian" and has turned into a sweeping journey covering how Terok Nor becomes Deep Space 9. This most recent installment is perhaps not indicative of the series as a whole, but it was a lot of fun to write and is also a dip into my other favorite genre aside from sci fi (murder mystery).

[burins]

I read a LOT of books this year, which is always exciting. I also neglected to do much in the way of write ups during the year proper, so here are little opinions about all 84(!) book-books I read. I love to yap about what I read and I would love to talk about any and all of these. (Graphic novels and comics are gonna be their own post because there are also too many of those.) Bold are my top faves, headphones are things I read as audiobooks.

JAN

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

Shockingly funny book on a writer’s midlife gay crisis. I was a little mid on the end but the prose here was fantastic.

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future - Ryder Carroll

Beyond Bullets: Creative Journaling Ideas to Customize Your Personal Productivity System - Megan Rutell

Read about a million of these for a program; this was the only one worth recommending if you want to try journaling. (The official guide is Fine but it throws a lot at you at once.)

The 365 Bullet Guide: Organize Your Life Creatively, One Day at a Time - Zennor Compton

Lettering for Planners: A Step- - -Step Guide to Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy for Bullet Journals and Beyond - Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece

This should not have been a book.

Afterparties: Stories - Anthony Veasna So

I’ve been meaning to read this for years and years-- So was a friend of a friend-- and it was as excellent as I expected, and also made me tremendously sad that we won’t get more writing from him. 

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space - Amanda Leduc 🎧

This is theory for a general audience but I still wished it was more robust-- Leduc’s arguments had about the academic rigor of a tumblr post, which is a shame.

Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 - Harald Jähner 🎧

Nation-making and identity formation in the aftermath of fascism. There has been a lot of writing about the German project of the post-Nazi era, but this was a very solid read.

Water and Salt - Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

I came across Tuffaha’s gut-punch of a poem, “Running Orders,” online, and while the rest of the collection doesn’t always hit as hard, it’s still fantastic.

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Reading this and The Mirror and the Light at the beginning of the year really ruined me for all other prose for the entirety of 2024, tbh. Nobody does it like Mantel.

Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels - Josef Benson and Doug Singsen

After reading Birds of Prey in October-December I really wanted to read some writing on whiteness in comics. This didn’t touch on what I was most interested in exploring and I did come away from the book thinking damn. None of that book was nearly as good as Tony Wei Ling’s fantastic piece on Crumb and alt-comics’ self-hagiography in SOLRAD.

Mending with Boro - Harumi Horiuchi

Make and Mend: Sashiko-Inspired Embroidery Projects to Customize and Repair Textiles and Decorate Your Home - Jessica Marquez

Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto - Kate Sekules

Mending with Love: Creative Repairs for Your Favorite Things - Noriko Misumi

Mend It, Wear It, Love It!: Stitch Your Way to a Sustainable Wardrobe - Zoe Edwards

Can you tell I taught a visible mending class in February? Honestly any one of these are a good pick if you’re wanting to get into visible mending. This is the best for giving you a whole menu of techniques to choose from and having very accessible instructions.

Modern Mending - Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald

Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More - Katrina Rodabaugh

Creative Mending: Beautiful Darning, Patching and Stitching Techniques - Hikaru Noguchi

This is the best one for getting into the ethos of visible mending. It’s a deeply kind book.

Joyful Mending: Visible Repairs for the Perfectly Imperfect Things We Love! - Noriko Misumi

Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love - Arounna Khounnoraj

The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Once again. Nobody is doing it like Hilary Mantel.

FEB

Finna - Nino Cipri 🎧

Anticapitalist multiverse Ikea relationship drama should have been my entire jam but this book was simply quite bad.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Cathy O’Neil 🎧

Are you ready to get depressed about data? This is a great book for your liberal mom. I could wish it were more anticarceral but for what it’s actually covering it does a great job.

Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty - Lisa Mason Ziegler

Garden planning :) 

Flux - Jinwoo Chong 🎧

If you liked Severance (the show) or have ever projected some identity feelings onto a not-very-good TV show, this is a book for you. Imperfect pacing but still gripping, and I’m excited to see what Chong does next-- this is his first book.

Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell

The premise of this book is simply so sexy. And overall the book is too!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles - Malka Older

Yayyyy Mossa and Pleiti return! I love this series and I loved this book.

A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism edited - Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Esther Farmer, & Sarah Sills

I don't really have a write up for this. It's powerful and well written and I would recommend it.

Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time - Teju Cole

Best book I read all year, frankly. Teju Cole writes about art and culture and being alive when the world is falling apart like nobody else.

MAR

The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi - Richard Grant 🎧

Oh you hate to see a British guy get sucked in by white Southern niceness. (Richard Grant, in this case, is the British guy.) A lot of the stories in this were excellent but Grant gives way too much credit to folks clinging to the tattered remnants of the Old South.

Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine - Michelle U. Campos

Excellent historical antidote to the idea of perpetual struggle in Palestine. Also interesting read just for looking at how citizens of Jerusalem were using national and imperial identities for their political agendas at the time.

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us - Ed Yong 🎧

Lovely book that resists anthropomorphism and rendered me a font of “hey babe can I tell you a cool snake fact?” for about three weeks. 

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free - Paulina Bren 🎧

You know I should have expected a book like this to be exactly what it was and yet. In addition to the sort of milquetoast stabs at feminism the structure is bad-- it devolves into Sylvia Plath’s life story and doesn’t really recover. I don’t mind reading a book about Sylvia Plath but I would like to plan to do that going in. 

The Hunter - Tana French

Only Tana can manage to write a book that is mostly just pretty normal conversations for 75% of its runtime and yet made me unbelievably stressed the whole time I was reading. Creeping dread! We love it.

Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde

I last read this in high school when I was so excited to see that the sequel would be coming out any day now. Over a decade later, any day at last arrived! So it was time for a reread. The sexual politics of this book are insane, which I didn’t pick up on in 10th grade, but it is still an extremely clever and enjoyable book.

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik 🎧

I learned a lot of fun facts in this book but it was rambling and also I do wish books like this would stop trying to overstate the importance of their topic. Rabies can’t be the source of vampire legends AND zombie legends AND werewolves. (Zombies in particular. We know where those come from and it ain’t rabies!)

The Transcriptionist - Amy Rowland 🎧

As a former transcriptionist the idea of a mystery that revolves around the intrinsic weirdness of being the fly on the wall was very appealing to me! This wasn’t quite the book I thought it was but I still enjoyed it. 

City Editor - Stanley Walker

If you can ignore the amount of name-dropping of people who were certainly famous in 1934 newsrooms but I have certainly never heard of, there are definitely some amusing anecdotes. Walker writes with a dynamism and bombast I would love to see in any kind of writing nowadays. However it is also a book written - a newspaperman in 1934 so it does hit every single -ism like it’s trying to get a pinball high score.

The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism - Adam Nagourney 🎧

This book is exceedingly kind to the NYT and it was wild to read this the month that the Hamas mass rape story very publicly fell apart. However reading it did give me a very clear picture of how that story, and stories like it, happened in the first place. 

Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom - Carl Bernstein 🎧

Of all the “how do newspapers work?” books I read in March-April to prep for a fic I didn’t end up being able to write, this was my favorite. Bernstein is an engaging narrator and this answered my questions about how a story actually happens (particularly pre-internet.)

APR

Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America's Community Newspapers - Dave Hoekstra

This ping-pongs between case studies in a way that would be totally fine in a feature story and is unforgivable in a book. But the case studies are interesting!

Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life - Margaret Sullivan

This is more memoir than NYT hagiography, and thus I enjoyed it much more.

Ocean’s Godori - Elaine Cho

I’ve got to stop reading SFF that came out this year. Unfortunately, it is part of my job to be aware of SFF that comes out this year. The pacing on this was UNBELIEVABLY sick-- the inciting plot incident only occurred halfway through the book, and the first 60 pages were us being fairly clumsily introduced to too many characters. The author’s end notes effusively thanked her editor and I think she should not have done that because a really solid editing job could have made this into something I really enjoyed. (People who work in publishing I’m sorry about publishing.)

Bombshell - Sarah MacLean

If your whole plot is going to hinge on a Deep Dark Secret, it better be deep and dark. 

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance - Jeremy Eichler 🎧

I got this for my grandma for Christmas and that was a mistake because this book is so depressing. If I had thought for two seconds I would have known this! However. I did like it! 

MAY

JUN

Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics - Qiana Whitted

Really loved this one. 

Super Bodies: Comic Book Illustration, Artistic Styles, and Narrative Impact - Jeffrey A. Brown

This book would have been fantastic if the author had a) had any art historical or visual analysis training and b) done research about manga and the ways its styles have been used in the west. As neither of those were true this book mostly made me wish it was another, better book. Good comics recs though. 

Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde

Long-awaited sequel! This is an entirely solid book, though I wish I could have read it when I was a teen because it would have rocked my shit then. 

JULY

The Ladies Rewrite the Rules - Suzanne Allain

Really the only thing you need to know about this Regency #girlboss book is that at the very end of the book, which made almost no pretenses to historical accuracy wrt attitudes about gender roles, the main narrative tension is the love interest’s plans to go off with the East India Company to make his fortune. The other characters have no moral qualms about this; it’s proposed with the same air that a modern book would talk about someone going to college across the country. It made me feel completely insane. 

Escape Velocity - Victor Manibo

You know when you read a book and you say wow, I can’t wait to watch this as a Netflix special, but boy was it not very good as a book? That. Also I really wish we had spent more than about two scenes with the servants on the space hotel, so that I could care about them as people and not as plot devices!

Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia - Emily Hilliard

Engaging stories of modern West Virginia.

Belonging: A Culture of Place - bell hooks

The writing on exile in this did make me cry while I was eating lunch.

AUG

Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People - Erica Adams Locklear

More historical than I expected but solid writing on how perception of food affects perception of people.

What You Are Looking For is in the Library - Michiko Aoyama

I really didn’t expect this to get me but I am not immune to lovely, small-scale stories of people being kind to one another in community. Teared up on desk. 

SEPT

Watercolor Is for Everyone: Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit - Kateri Ewing

This was for a class and everyone liked the class! 

Hot Summer - Elle Everhart

I am so hit or miss on contemporary romance. This was a messy, delightful reality show romp. Light on drama, but the robust character relationships are the star of the show.

Loving Mountains, Loving Men - Jeff Mann

The poems here are generally better than the prose, which gets a bit repetitive at times. The poems are also generally very good, and a few of them made me cry. 

Second Night Stand - Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters

I wish I had known going in that the authors were a married couple looking to tell “a story about a healthy queer romance.” All love to them, but I am simply not very interested in reading a story that bills itself that way! And as you might imagine there was a lot of therapy speak and very little narrative tension. Sex scenes were great, though, and if you want a very queer comfort read you might enjoy this. 

You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian

Very chewy character relationships. Sebastian manages to tell a story that feels of its time (1950s sports/journalism) while not being deeply bleak, which is a balance that many many queer historical romances completely bomb.

Lady Eve's Last Con - Rebecca Fraimow

Delightful lesbian screwball comedy. In space! 

OCT

Slippery Creatures - KJ Charles

The Sugared Game - KJ Charles

Subtle Blood - KJ Charles

Imagine if Lord Peter Wimsey had a passionate love affair with a gruff and tortured soldier recently back from WWI. That’s basically these books and I inhaled them. Shout out to detectorist for the rec!

The No-Show - Beth O’Leary 🎧

About 60% of the way through this book, I said, oh man, I hope that the twist to this book isn’t [redacted]. That would make me so mad. Well, it was, and it did! 

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words - Eddie Robson 🎧

Scratched the itch for sci-fi mystery, and the premise is fantastic. The narrator does a mostly excellent job but her American accents are distractingly bad, so if that will bother you read the book.

Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future edited - Zane McNeill and Rebecca Scott

Most of the essays in this are great! Every so often I get in my head about whether I can claim an Appalachian or Southern identity and whether I should do any writing on the subject. And then I read an essay that makes a lot of claims about “I centralize queer, trans, rural southern voices” and then does not proceed to actually demonstrate how they are doing any of that work, and go oh wait I’m actually fine. 

NOV

Better the Blood - Michael Bennett 🎧

A pretty solid thriller elevated by a very solid conceit: a Maori detective is investigating modern-day killings connected to a 19th century execution of a Maori chief by a group of British soldiers. This suffered a little from being written by a screenwriter who very clearly had certain shots in mind while writing (sometimes that works in prose, sometimes it doesn’t) and also from periodic intercut scenes from the killer’s POV (also a convention that works better in TV) which did undercut whodunit tension. Also the main character is a cop. But I ended up finding her sympathetic, which is a HUGE ask given the subject matter. 

The Stars Too Fondly - Emily Hamilton 🎧

Hated this. I tried to be measured in my initial review but every single part of this book was simply so bad. I wish I had those 11 hours of my life back. If this author is your friend I apologize, and also I hope she didn’t base a character on you, because every character in this book acts like a 15yo.  

Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy edited by Meredith McCarroll & Anthony Harkins

I worked my way through my own booklist this fall and this was one of the best books on it. I kept trying to put it on display at the library but our copy was checked out the entire time. Give this to your uncle who won’t shut up about Ohio. 

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston 🎧

First half of this was way more compelling than I expected it to be, and then McQuiston makes the WILD choice to switch POVs entirely and permanently halfway through the book. And I found the second character pretentious and given to fits of purple prose (he describes the first character as a “superbloom” at one point and also won’t shut up about the most art history 101 pieces of art) so I did not particularly enjoy the book as a whole. I will give it points though for having a pretty non-cringey “hi i’m actually nonbinary” conversation, which is astonishingly rare.

Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead

This was initially a book club pick for a meeting that didn’t end up happening, which is a bummer because I would like to talk about this book with more people! A lot of lines in this are going to stick with me-- Whitehead shifts through time and place with deftness and grace. If you like K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary I think you will enjoy this-- Whitehead revels in the body in a similar way.  

I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition - Lucy Sante 🎧

If you’re not already a little familiar with the NYC art scene in the 70s and 80s you may not enjoy this, because Sante name-drops a lot. I am, and I loved it-- it’s a lovely meditation on growing old and hitting your breaking point. Sante is also a fantastic writer, and this is an excellent counterbalance to the particular type of trans writing that is very very common online. (Nothing wrong with that writing, but you need a balanced diet.)

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - CM Waggoner

I loved Waggoner’s previous books and I did end up enjoying this one a lot! It’s an enjoyable send-up of the cozy mystery genre.

Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag

A reread for my yaoi zine piece! Not only does this still hit but I think it’s a particularly apt piece of writing to be reading right now, when we are daily surrounded - images of suffering. Sontag, as ever, does not have any neat answers for us, but she does make you think more deeply about the world that surrounds you.

DEC

How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom - Johanna Hedva 🎧

I loved parts of this, and I hated other parts, which for me is a good sign about a book of theory. I have more thoughts about disability activism and being online that don’t fit into a quick write-up for a book. 

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia - Stephen Stoll

This took me six months to read, but mostly because I was reading it occasionally on desk and I kept having to return the ebook. It demands a little bit more sustained attention than I was giving it! It’s an excellent overview of the history of land use in Appalachia through the 1930s and it gave me a lot of good context for the mountains I grew up under. 

The Forbidden Book - Sacha Lamb 🎧

Unfortunately, I think I would have liked this a lot more if I hadn’t read When The Angels Left the Old Country first! It’s a perfectly nice YA story-- but it definitely feels YA, and I don’t tend to enjoy reading a lot of YA.

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am - Julia Cooke 🎧

I still don’t really know how I feel about this book. It does avoid some of the pitfalls of #girlboss nonfiction, but also it falls right into others. Mostly I wish it had engaged really at all with the people these women met on their travels, or like. Literally anyone Vietnamese. 

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation - Eli Clare

Oof ouch my bones!!! This hits on a lot and does it with incredible grace.

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis🎧

I wish my grandma was still alive so I could recommend this to her, because she would have adored it. Delightful time travel Victoriana. 

The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates 🎧

I really admire the move of making the entire second half of your highly anticipated book about the injustices you saw in Palestine, and I hope it pays off and every NPR listener who loved Between the World and Me picks this up and reads to the end. 

Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

This book reads like a 200-page panic attack, which is not a diss! Really revels in the situational hilarity of anxiety/OCD/something unspecified.

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Okay I had to add this one in because I finished it after making my post. This book (contemporary queer Jewish romance with a bit of the supernatural) was so lovely and deeply felt and often laugh out loud funny. The family relationships are the real star although the romance is also very sweet.

[luimagines]

*walks on in tiredly, waves, leaves a basket of baked goodies, refuses to elaborate as i promptly leave to pass out for sixteen hours* Well hello there, it’s been a while since I left an ask, life’s gotten busy lol.

Anyway! Once again thank you for all of your work in the fandom and for writing so much for the boys, it’s always a delight to curl up after a hard day with a warm drink and just read everything, it never fails to put a smile on my face and make my day a little brighter, so once again, thank you ^^.

(Also I know this is properly incredibly late but happy anniversary to the blog! I haven’t been able to sit down and just write much of anything for a while else I’d have probably said this sooner, sorry about that.)

Also, uh, beware a long ask ahead? This idea has been consuming me alongside Assassin Reader with Warriors and Lustrous Reader and it’s kind of been intruding in the space the fairy tale au should be at while I’m writing it + Linktober, hope you don’t mind me just sharing it here so it hopefully leaves my system lol.

So I don’t really expect many people in the LU fandom to know about Mili (who is a japanese indie band, really good songs), but I’ve been listening to Summoning 101 and then suddenly blacked out and woke up with the idea of Twilight with an au with Summoner Reader (or any of the boys really, I feel like it would work well for any of them, but especially so for Twi, Time and First).

-So the gist of it would be that Summoner Reader is probably from a world where both magic and modern technology exist (albeit with some challenges and friction between magic users and scientists), probably a little more advanced than Wild’s world. And that they themselves had a Link and a Zelda, a Link on his own journey and a Zelda who was incapacitated but probably trying to get back to them, Summoner Reader gets roped into the adventure because they were close to Link and was really knowledgeable of magic, making several attempts to mix it with science which got them mostly ostricized from society, and they know a lot of Hyrule’s history so he asked for their help in locating Zelda, Summoner Reader agreeing because it would allow them to keep an eye on Link and also gather ingredients to hopefully make a breakthrough that would guarantee many of Hyrule’s older enemies like say, Ganon or Vaati or the like would stay permanently down, even if it means shunting them off somewhere else before they could be sealed to try and break the cycle of reincarnation (I mean if the enemy can’t be killed but can be sealed, then surely there’s some way of sending them back to the netherworld where they came from and make sure they stayed there). Surely nothing could possibly go wrong in the middle of this adventure-

-So. 

Things go wrong in the middle of the adventure.

Link dies sort of things go wrong. 

(Either in battle trying to protect Summoner Reader or trying to get Zelda back, or because at some point Summoner Reader overextended themselves healing him and he was just like, ‘Yeah no I’m not dragging them down with me after this one, I can accept the cost of my wellbeing to save my homeland, I do not accept Summoner’s life being added to the cost.’ And ended up going off on his own, Summoner Reader catching up and, despite their best efforts, being unable to heal him, to the amusement of a certain Darknut shaped shadow.)

So Summoner Reader very clearly panics because none of the stories says there can’t be a hero, and there was no one who is capable enough to take up the mantle (I mean they’re a magician and they know for a fact they’re not hero material, and as far as they know there has only ever been one hero per generation/crisis, even if one crisis is mostly only put on hold until another one can come around and finish it), so they think and think and think, until finally they look at the Master Sword, dormant and silent in it’s scabbard that they had to pry off their Link’s long stiff hands hands, and have an idea.

It’s an insane, foolhardy, and incredibly selfish idea. 

But it can work. It can finish what their Link started, it can save their Zelda.

(It can help ease some of the guilt they feel at failing them both.)

So, they get to work, get some decomposing Wolfos fangs, a lot more powdered moonlight than is probably advised, the Master Sword (it could find things once upon a time couldn’t it? So what if it burns their hands, they will make this work, it will work with the last ingredient they’ll use, it will be worth it-), some of their own blood for the circle-

And half a Hylian.

Desperation drives one to do awful things. If they had enough time maybe they could perfect the spell, if they had enough time maybe Link would have still been there to talk them out of it, for finding a better way-

But their Link isn’t there anymore, is he? And they never had enough time.

(All the stories say is that there has to be a hero, never which one.)

(Summoner Reader was trying to pull literally anyone over that fit the bill,  but I like to think that they were specifically aiming for Fierce Deity while using the remaining power of the Master Sword  and well, since he’s sealed in a mask it kind of just targeted the next closest thing he’s related to, maybe he felt a tug in the mask and kept Time up about it and the poor guy is just very over it  lol)

-So now this can be pre-LU or during LU, but the gist of it, is that because Summoner Reader used decomposing Wolfos fangs, the one they end up pulling through the ritual is Twilight (who maybe was on a journey of his own looking for another way into the Twilight Realm like in the TP manga, maybe because Dusk cryptically informed him there were magical disturbances going on where the mirror once was during one of their weekly wine times or something and he immediately took up the quest).

Needless to say none of them trust one another and there’s a lot of complicated feelings going on there (with Twilight still holding some hope that maybe it was the Twili and promptly being smacked over the head with a brick that it wasn’t and Summoner Reader feeling bad they pulled him into all this and over the demise (hah) of their Link and promptly deciding they’re going to A: Not get attached and B: Not let it happen again so help them goddesses).

The plan is that things will be solved and then they’ll go their separate ways, surely it’s simple enough of a goal to achieve.

Right?

-Things do not, in fact, go according to plan, and these two end up catching feelings along the journey, but end up not saying anything to each other because they’re both terrified of trying to say anything and then immediately losing one another at the end of the journey. Except the choice ends up being robbed of them anyway because an enemy (Dark Link as a monster and already up to his shenanigans being the logical option, the funnier option {for me} being a version of Zant from Summoner Reader’s verse that Twi has already decided It’s On Sight on Principle) catching onto the fact that Twilight should not be there and targeting Summoner Reader and, since they used themselves as a tether to bring and keep Twilight there, immediately ends up opening a road to send him back where he should be. Summoner Reader trying their darnest to pull him back and keep him there and Twilight trying to hold onto them-

But they’re attacked a second time, it causes their hold to slip.

The last thing Twilight sees before he falls through is Summoner Reader crumble to the floor like a puppet with it’s strings cut, and next thing they both know-

He’s gone.

(As you may guess, neither side takes this turn of events well.)

-So! If this is pre-LU, Twilight is eventually called by Dusk again and meets the Chain and, remembering what Summoner Reader did, basically went “... Mysteriously opening portals you say?” and doesn’t ask further questions. If anyone notices he’s a little more aggressive to the Shadow than any of them, or that he always look a little disappointed after looking at the portals, well, they won’t ask the same way they don’t ask about Wolfie. Everyone of them has their secrets they’re not ready to share yet, it will come up in time when he’s ready. 

-Meanwhile Summoner Reader, who’s barely managed to escape alive, hastily gotten themselves healed, has way too much coffee and energy potions in their system and with zero sleep, just managed to break out Zelda on their own after a series of Shenanigans, hastily recreating the ritual on the ground while the Princess is trying her best to hold off Ganondorf on their own so they can finish it even as the Master Sword is quite literally trying to burn their hands off and sacrificing all of their years of research to make this work darn it: Surely it will work this time right? If it worked once then it can work again right? *trying to convince themselves and has been actively overextending themselves even more than they already are*

-Next thing they know the Chain is yanked through another portal, much more violently than the last few times, in the middle of a battle, is that Ganondorf?! Why is the Princess fighting alone? Wait why is Twilight rushing over to that fallen person- is that the Master Sword?!

After they’re done with the urgent matters they are definitely cornering the Rancher for answers.

(For context, Summoner Reader didn’t give up on trying to bring Twilight back, because again, they didn’t finish their quest, and he didn’t want to go, that’s reason enough to bring him back. But due to the Chain being all in one place it was harder to find him among them, so they got… creative, and paid a more extreme price for it in spite of Zelda trying to dissuade them because they were sacrificing all they had. It’s a grand ol’ time.)

Huh, in hindsight this could also connect nicely to a Ga1ahad and Scientific Witchery au. 

Anyway that’s all I’ll  elaborate on for now, because this is long enough as is and I’m tired, sorry for the sudden writing dump lol.

In any case, thank you so much for all of your work in the fandom, remember to take care and thank you so much for inspiring me to write more! I hope you’re having a good day/afternoon/night.

-From A Very Tired WintertimeStoryteller 🐚.

This took a while to get to but woah it was worth the wait.

Frist of all. How dare you? DX

Why must you hurt my boy, Twilight, like this again???

Also, Reader is like.... totally dead. ^.^*

They were being held together with bubble gum, duck tape, and sheer power of will. That last summons would have been enough to put them in a coma. Summoning that many people while being that weak would have definitely caused some organs to shut down. If not just have them drop dead entirely.

I wanna see Twilight see their body, attempt to get to them only to be blocked, and then absolutely lose his mind.

Forget turning into Wolfie. Twilight goes straight feral. Full barbarian- "I would like to Rage," sort of thing.

[howlingday]

Hello Hollowing, my prompt is this: After team RWBY finds themselves in the Ever After, they are met by a small child happily waving and guiding them towards the Tree instead of a certain Cheshire cat. Soon they were guided to the tree, with a mansion carved within. With children that looked like recoloured versions of their guide happily waving toward RWBY. They meet Neo, and Jaune, the small older woman clealry pregnant, along with Mint, and Trivia, and a woman similar to neo called CC... basically I want Jaune to explain why he has a harem of Neos with constant flashbacks of each neo having babymaking sex with him. With CC requires everyone else to overcome her instability. Blame Fatally Obsessed. I do not know why I make statements instead of questions.

Ah, okay.

This is way less terrible than I thought it would be.

---------------------------------------------------

This world is weird. Like, super weird. No, but like, SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER weird! Like, think of the weirdest thing you could think of, and it wouldn't be half as weird as what this was.

Okay, maybe not THAT weird, but it was weirder than Remnant, at least. Game pieces moved around, walking and talking like all the faunus and humans did back home. Not only that, but there were also talking animals, too! So yeah, this fairy tale world was weird.

But not as weird as what happened next.

"Hey! Over here!"

Team RWBY looked behind them and found a little girl waving at them. She had short, blonde hair, pale skin, and, as they got closer, blue eyes. Her dress was pink with a black sash wrapped around her belly.

"Um, hi?" Ruby awkwardly waved.

"Are you a Huntress?"

The question shocked the group. This was the first person they met in the Ever After, and she KNEW what a huntress is! Who was she?

"Um, ye-"

"Nilly!" A girl with long, brown hair ran up to the other girl and grabbed her wrist. Her dress was white with a pink sash wrapped around her belly, similar to the other girl. "We're not supposed to talk to strangers!"

"It's okay, Gats!" Nilly replied. "They don't look bad!"

"Don't you remember what Dad said?" Gats wagged her finger. "Looks can be decieving!"

"Um," Ruby stuttered, "we're not bad. Uh, y'know, if you wanted our opinion."

"She's right." Weiss added. "We're just trying to get to the tree."

"Oh! That's easy!" Nilly yanked her hand away. "Daddy can take you!"

"Daddy?" Yang asked.

"Mhm!" Nilly nodded. "Daddy is, like the best person to take you to the tree! He was up there before, y'know?"

"Nilly!" Gats chided. "They're bad guys!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

As the girls bickered, Team RWBY gave each other glances. This was very uncomfortable.

"Were we..." Ruby looked to her sister. "This bad?"

"Eh...." Yang shrugged. "Kinda?"

"Well, none of my siblings were like this." Weiss said with an unamused look.

"Pretty sure you're not as close with your siblings as Ruby and Yang were." Blake added. "It kind of makes me wonder what it's like."

"It's not great."

Suddenly, in the center of Team RWBY, stood a small girl with pink hair done in a ponytail, wearing a black dress with a white sash. She was so quiet, none of them heard her! As she walked to the other girls, they noticed she had a pink tail sway from under her dress.

"Nilla. Gats." She addressed the girls. "Mother's waiting for us." At this, the two girls stopped bickering. The leader looked at Team RWBY. "You come, too."

The little girl in the pink dress then walked forward, followed closely by the other two. Following the trio was Team RWBY. From a distance, a pair of eyes watched the seven girls curiously.

---------------------------------------------------

Neo sipped her tea, enjoying the quiet of the house. Her girls were out playing while her husband had left to run errands. They would all return before supper, as they always did. She looked down, admiring the one change to her otherwise routine life she'd made in the Ever After.

Every morning, she woke up, had breakfast, woke up her daughters, and then spent the rest of the day planning dinner. Tonight's dinner would be stewed vegetables.

"Ugh... Couldn't we have something with more meat?"

Neo cast a glare at the whining voice. The voice belonged to another Neo, though the voice was not quite her own. Instead, an annoying creature had taken residence in her body, wearing it like a coat, doing with it as they pleased.

"Oh, don't give me that look." The being replied with a roll of their neon-blue eyes. "Even Trivia is sick and tired of it!"

The woman in question, hanging clothes to dry outside, flinched. She shivered as Neo quirked a brow at her former self. She hid herself behind a wet sheet.

"Ow!" Mint, a disguise of herself used to infiltrate Beacon during the Vytal Festival with Cinder, flicked the being in Neo's ear. "Oh, I was not being mean to her!"

Neo hefted herself to her feet, hands to her back for support. Soon, it would be her turn to bring life into this world. She couldn't help but wonder what her child would look like. What mother didn't?

"Oh, and before you set the table," the being said, "we're going to have guests tonight. Four of them."

Neo eyed the being, unsure of what they meant. For all their schemes and plots, the creature wasn't a liar and often made use of their ability to see and hear things outside their home. If there were guests coming to visit, then there would be guests coming to visit. Neo would need more vegetables, and hands to pick said vegetables.

"Speak of the Grimm, as you say."

Neo looked to the door, and a tiny knock came from the other side. She opened the door, finding eight familiar faces.

"Mother." Greeted Berry with stoicism.

"Mommy!" Squealed Vanilla joyfully.

"Mom?" Called Gateau in concern.

Neo glared past her daughters to the four huntresses behind them. They swiftly reached for their weapons.

"Neopolitan?!" Litte Red exclaimed in her surprise.

"Of course she'd be here!" The Ice Queen growled.

"Is she pregnant?" The Kitty Cat asked.

"Guess she found someone dumb enough to knock her up." The Blonde Bimbo rudely remarked.

"Now that's just rude." All eyes focused on the timbre voice in the distance. A figure in rusted armor dismounted a large jackalope, named Juniper, and removed his helmet. Beneath was a ruggedly handsome bearded face with tired, blue eyes. He gave a chuckle. "Rude girls don't get dessert."

[artsyjedi]

They don’t stay together at the end | Charles Leclerc x reader

summary: you and charles meet, live and life goes on.

author’s note: i enjoyed this but no at the same time? maybe it’s a little confusing, sorry. I hope you enjoy anyway :) and let me know if you do! english isn’t my first language!!!! and it’s been a while since i wrote something, be nice please

*also: I think the reader is gender neutral, but i don’t exactly remember.

warnings: none but If you find any let me know

**2nd part: ‘they see each other again’

“Move in with me to Monaco” Charles’ voice caught your attention.

You had met during that week, three days ago to be more precise and the days since have been more than a dream. A true fairy tale.

Charles’ was travelling, enjoying his days off before the begin of the season, and you were trying to make a life in a new place. You were working at a cafe when you met him; brown eyes enchanting you right away. He was a prince; the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen.

“Hi” he said softly while paying for his drink.

“Hi” you answered back with a mere whisper. If he wasn’t paying fully attention to you, he wouldn’t have heard.

And that was when you figure it out how powerful a two letter word can be.

This simple ‘hi’ became a whole conversation at the end of your shift, and then him showing around the city; his favorite spots, places he holds deep in his heart. Charles told you stories and you loved how his eyes sparkled with passion whenever he mentioned his family, friends or his career. He loved talking about art, he showed you his songs. Every little thing he did, you fell more and more.

But this dream would end one day. You knew - and so did he. This whole fairytale is gonna come to an end eventually and he’s gonna go back to his prestigious life as a driver while you gonna go back to your cafe and small apartment you share with other three people. Everything was gonna be nothing more than a memory - one you will hold close to your heart forever.

He was still staring at you, body and hair wet from the hot shower. You were on his hotel bed, covered with the white sheets, hair a mess and body tired. You were still sweating. He looked ethereal.

“I can’t, you know that” you laughed.

“Of course you can” he sat next to you, hand holding yours “You can live with me. At least at first if you want to live somewhere. And if you want, you can find a job there - or not too. Just come. I need you”

“You’re insane! I can’t just go and leave everything behind again. I need to create roots, a life. And more: what people would say? They would think I’m using you for money and fame”

“Who cares about what people think? It’s me and you that matters, nothing else. Create roots with me. We’ve been having such a good time together here, why not keep this going?”

“Because” you tried to argue, taking a deep breath before continuing “Because this is just a moment, Charles. This is good, perfect, but we both know it won’t last. This is good because it’s gonna come to an end. That’s all. Destiny played its part: we met each other, we learn from each other, and now we need to follow our own paths”

Charles got quiet. He was sad, you could see it; feel it even. But he knew you weren’t wrong. You couldn’t just drop everything you’ve been fighting for and go on this adventure with him; he had everything right already. A name for himself, a career.

“I love you. I love this” your hand held his face and went to his hair, caressing the brown humid strands. He closed his eyes, letting his head lean on your warm touch. When he opened his eyes, he found you smiling. Charles Leclerc was truly a thing.

He leaned further, nose meeting yours and he let himself enjoy the intimate touch. He kissed you then, with more passion than he had on the previous days.

“Fine” he rested his head against yours “I hope we meet again soon. Until there, let’s enjoy the time we have, ok?”

“Ok”

The days passed and everything felt then times more real. The feelings you had towards each other were crude and transparent to everyone. You went more places together, ate together, slept together. You loved him and he loved you. Life was simple.

The day he left, you went to the airport to say goodbye. It felt right.

While you saw him walk to his gate and disappear from your sight, you thought how beautiful those days were. It’s was not just about love, but about moments, about knowing to live with the knowledge that everything can and will end. One hour, one day, one week, one month or an entire life - moments are what makes life what it is and the best thing we can do is be grateful for them to happen at first place, and for the people who are part of it.

When you left the airport, the cold breeze met your face. That day was a good day, and you hoped faith would put Charles in your path once again; in that life or in another one.

[sparklyfarmfreakpaper]

Hello!!! I hope you liked the previous story because after a while the ideas and creativity came back to my mind again. So here you have another writing, I hope I have captured the essence of the character of Lizzie (A.K.A MY WIFE) since she is a very complex character. Enjoy!!!

Synopsis: Lizzie has a very bad time in Ever After, far from her home, from her mother, the strangeness makes her very depressed and it doesn't help that the boy she fell in love with has broken her heart. But maybe not everyone in Ever After is like she thinks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a place far away from Ever After High and the Village at the End of the Book, where the sunlight hardly penetrates the leaves of the trees, the weak crying of a girl could be heard, who was none other than the princess of hearts, Lizzie Hearts. But what had happened for the tough and strong future monarch of Wonderland to be hidden here crying? Well, the poor girl had, ironically, a broken heart.

The reasons were several and they were fair, first she was far from her beloved country all because of the tyrannical and dark Evil Queen who went beyond what was written in her story, causing problems in all the fairy tale kingdoms. The curse she had placed made the once exotic and beautiful Wonderland twist into something more horrible, luckily the Evil Queen was stopped in time before completing 100% of her curse but still the little she could do with her evil magic had done damage not only to the lands but also to the people.

Her mother, victim of the curse, or perhaps of stress and pressure, changed her attitude completely, becoming more paranoid, more aggressive, more furious. She was forced to escape from Wonderland with Maddie and Kitty, leaving everything behind, even her mother. When she arrived, she already had a bad feeling about all this. First, Milton Grimm did not deign to look for a real solution to the problem; the first and only thing he did was close off every portal that connects to Wonderland. Then, nothing, absolutely nothing in Ever After was the same as her hometown; there was no madness, there was no magic. Everyone looked at her, Maddie and Kitty strangely, everyone was somewhat afraid of her because of her temperament and her usual; “Off with your head!”

Lizzie was still crying, her mother told her that a queen never shows her feelings, that was one of her valuable instructions, but she simply could not bear it any longer. As she buried her head in her legs she heard the sound of something approaching, when she raised her head she saw a boy of her same age dressed in a much more casual way and she couldn't help but get angry not only because she was seen crying but because of an incident related to the Ever After boys. Daring Charming, the heartthrob, not only went looking for her for a bet between friends but also didn't care much about "cheating" on her with Duchess by inviting her to the movies.

Gathering all the energy she didn't waste crying, Lizzie screamed

"Off with your head!" she said as she stared at him with red eyes from crying. The young man jumped a little in fright.

"S-Sorry...?" he asked, although he was scared. Still, it worried her to see someone crying in that place.

"Didn't you hear what I told you?! Get out! Get out!" she shouted at him, but her voice sounded more and more broken.

"It's okay, it's okay!" —he took out some tissues from his pockets—. "Here, so you can dry your tears. And, by the way, I wouldn't stay in this place for long; things can get... dangerous." The boy turned around and left. Lizzie kept the tissues and also left after hearing a noise that didn't sound like someone else at all.

The next day Lizzie was as if nothing had happened in the school cafeteria, she was sitting next to her friends Maddie, Kitty and Raven (who was invited by Maddie). While they were eating she saw in the distance the prince who broke her heart, Daring making more than one princess fall just by showing his smile. She frowned, she was angry, a lot but she still had certain feelings for him. Kitty said to her when she saw her

“Don't pay attention to him, princess, there are better things to be angry about” Kitty advised her, who from the beginning never liked that blond

“You're right Kitty, I'm going to practice Croquet, the team needs its captain to be prepared” She said, and left without further ado.

Lizzie headed to the croquet field with a firm step, trying to drown the pain with each step. She knew that croquet was one of the few things that kept her connected to her home. Upon arriving, she took her mallet and began to hit the balls with more force than necessary, letting out the accumulated frustration. With each hit, she mentally repeated that there was no point in continuing to think about Daring. However, her heart insisted on remembering his smile, his looks and that brief illusion that he made her believe. But her mallet broke from so much force that she exerted, she was redder than the red queen herself! Furious enough to explode right there! However, she did not expect someone to offer her a new mallet. “Here,” she turned around and found herself facing the boy from the day before. This time, he didn't lash out at her because he had honestly taken her by surprise.

“Thank you… Who are you?” The princess of hearts asked curiously.

“I'm [Name] Hollow. Nice to meet you.” The man cordially introduced himself.

“[Name] Hollow, what can I help you with?” He asked in a demanding tone, although with some curiosity. The young man ran his hand over the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“Well, I’d like to try to join the croquet team…”

“Really!?” She said in surprise. Usually, people who don’t fully understand what Lizzie is like avoid trying to join the team. Only a few did, and they still have problems with her.

“I even made my own mallet out of wood from the forest.”

Lizzie examined the mallet [Name] had offered her. It was crude and rustic, but well made, and the artisanal touch gave her a sense of familiarity that reminded her home

“Interesting… Although I must warn you, croquet is not a game for children. It’s aggressive, fast, and you have to learn to play to the fullest,” Lizzie said, assessing herself from head to toe with a defiant half-smile.

“I’m willing to try, princess,” [Name] replied firmly.

“Call me Lizzie.” She introduced herself formally.

She raised an eyebrow, surprised. Most of the boys in Ever After avoided their team or left after the first game. But [Name] didn't seem intimidated.

"So what are you waiting for?" Lizzie challenged him. "If you really want to join, you'll have to earn your spot."

So the two of them spent a lot of hours playing long games of Croquet, Lizzie was really enjoying each game and had forgotten all of her problems. Since then Lizzie and [Name] had started to meet more often and started to go out more often. Without realizing it, the boy's presence slowly began to repair her heart. Lizzie throughout those weeks had discovered something, that not everything in Ever After was as negative as she thought and that, perhaps, she can open her heart again to give love a chance.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Lol, I'm gonna talk about SNOW WHITE a little bit... After all, it is a re-imagining of one of the most important animated movies in history... If not THE most important...

The press seems to keep implying that one of the reasons this mega-budgeted Disney behemoth flopped is...

The age of the movie...

In addition to running the gamut of all the "controversies" surrounding the film well before its release in an attempt to explain this bad opening away. (It's really none of those things, either.)

But that's one of the sentiments being echoed, "Well, it's based on one of the oldest Disney movies, which is almost 90! That's why people aren't really showing up."

That seems like a legit reason, no?

Among the lowest openers of the live-action/photoreal Disney remakes are the ones based on the Walt-era films.

SNOW WHITE was 1937, PINOCCHIO from 1940's remake went straight to Disney+ so we can't use that to gauge anything. Hold on, let's see... 1941's DUMBO. The 2019 remake opened with $45m. One of the rare flops of the pre-COVID stretch of Disney remakes, which all seemed to be unstoppable. CINDERELLA, 1950, the remake opened with with $67m. It was one of the lower budget ones, so it did fine in the end. Over $500m worldwide, covered things quite nicely. MALEFICENT, off of 1959's SLEEPING BEAUTY, opened with with $69m, its sequel didn't do as well... Yet well enough for a third one to be in development, okay. Then there's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, partially based on the 1951 animated film, with a $116m opening-WHOOPS! And how about THE JUNGLE BOOK, inspired by the 1967 animated film, the last one Walt was alive to personally supervise most of, opened with $103m- WHOOPS!

Are we sure it's the age of the film? Are we sure it's because it's based on a Walt-era film? Let alone, the first ever?

While it is true that the remakes based on the Renaissance favorites, such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING, tend to be among the biggest of that crop of films... and LILO & STITCH - based on a 2002 movie - is sure to land somewhere around there in late May... I still don't think that really explains things here. Why this particular remake didn't open great. (Relative to budget, if SNOW WHITE were some $100m-costing endeavor, everyone would be singing a different tune.)

Some of the press, some of the box office analysts, are trying to suggest that SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS' age hurt the remake's chances at the box office. And even go as far as suggesting that it's not really a quality film... That the original is some "musty" old movie that isn't well-liked...

For example, from BoxOfficePro:

"Children will always gravitate towards fairy tales and princesses, but this one could have simply been too old, musty, and devoid of beloved songs."

The key words being "could have"... And they're not the only ones who have said something like this...

I mean, forget that SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS remains the highest-grossing animated movie of all time when you adjust the ticket sales to today's prices, and that's not even beginning to factor in all the re-release totals over the span of six decades. Sorry, NE ZHA 2 and INSIDE OUT 2... When the film came to video in 1994, the film was approaching its 57th year of existence... The home video release was among one of the biggest of all-time for ANY MOVIE, moving 50m units worldwide, sitting comfortably alongside other Disney home video record-breakers BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN, and also walloping contemporary blockbusters on video like JURASSIC PARK. Like, it's impossible that people my age (32) aren't really aware of this old-ass movie. I feel like everybody I knew had it on VHS, I certainly did!

Oh, and when it came to DVD in 2001? Same deal, sold millions of units. Snow White is always prominent on the "Princess" franchise stuff. You get the idea, there's obviously something good about the movie if it keeps moving those kinds of units whenever it comes around. Unlike, say, whenever OLIVER & COMPANY came out of the vault, or even something like ROBIN HOOD.

And that’s not even getting into its impact upon original release, and how it was praised by and influenced filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein, Dario Argento, Orson Welles, the list goes on. How the premiere ended in an audience of Hollywood regulars - many of whom doubted the production - utterly moved by drawings.

And as for songs? Who DOESN'T know 'Heigh Ho', 'Whistle While You Work', and 'Someday My Prince Will Come'? The latter partially inspired 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' from THE WIZARD OF OZ, for goodness sake! 'I'm Wishing' inspired John Lennon when writing 'Do You Want To Know a Secret', a goddamn Beatles song. Whether they're beloved TODAY or not, that's besides the point. These aren't duff songs by any means, and the way they're woven into the narrative still works great to this day. The filmmakers at the Walt Disney studio in the mid 1930s understood the assignment, what makes a musical work. How it isn't merely characters singing at random points, in that it's the film's storytelling transporting YOU into the characters' feelings, seeing the world from their perspective. And meanwhile, you have a more recent Disney musical like MOANA 2 that keeps self-consciously reminding us how weeeeeeird it is for people to start singing.

Oh yeah, speaking of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'... THE WIZARD OF OZ came out two years after SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. A 1939 movie... and recently we had WICKED PART ONE come out and do excellently. WICKED wouldn't be a thing without THE WIZARD OF OZ, let alone the century-old source material... So I guess one movie isn't old and musty, but the other one is?

Make that make sense...

Okay, sorry, I don't mean to sound bitchy... But, to the people writing these articles... Please look harder...

I know what it is...

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, unlike THE WIZARD OF OZ, is an animated film. And a Disney film at that. No one's going to speak of THE WIZARD OF OZ as if it's some outdated old trinket, nor write that about any other classic live-action family film... I know, I know. It's been this way forever when it comes to talking about animated movies. SNOW WHITE gets more knocking, in more ways than one, because it's animated. An inferior cartoon for children. I'm probably overthinking these weird claims that were probably off-the-cuff on the writers' collective parts, but...

SNOW WHITE, the 1937 movie, is so much more than just some outdated old cartoon... It is so much more than just "oh, it's the first Disney animated movie, an admirable first shot that would be improved upon by later movies." It wasn't a trial-and-error film that lead to better things down the line, it's a Disney masterpiece through to through to these eyes and ears. The first, and one of the best.

Thus, the remake flopping is NOT because of the original...

If anything, SNOW WHITE '25 took in $42m this weekend **because** of the original and how iconic it is. At the theater I work at, we got quite a few girls dressed as Snow White. Clearly lots of people, even kids, know this character, this old film, and even... *GASP* Like it to some degree?

If this was some new fantasy movie, I don't think it would've made those kinds of numbers, especially with those rough-looking CGI'ed dwarfs. Who the heck would see this movie if the original 1937 film did not exist? Plunk this thing into an alternate universe where Disney never got around to making features, maybe never even existed to begin with... Do you think people would go and see this thing? I don't really think so... The "Snow White" name and imagery and iconography got the few people who saw this thing to get to the cinema in the first place.

It's only not making real money, like, say, $80m+ domestically on opening weekend because... Well, I'll be real, if I wasn't some Disney animation superfan and was just some casual moviegoer? I wouldn't want to watch it. It just looks like a waste of time. Badly CGI'ed dwarfs like something out of the CATS movie, and garish visuals that don't suggest the splendor a big budget fantasy film *should* offer. It's 2025, there's no reason a $250m+ SNOW WHITE movie should look like that. Especially from Disney.

And I suspect even people who are familiar with and even LIKE the original SNOW WHITE from 1937 probably felt the same.

That Disney could do much better with this live-action/CG re-imagining. CINDERELLA 2015 did great and even managed to get some of the best reviews for one of these remakes, this could've done the same! Even though the Renaissance remakes BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, and LION KING got bad marks online for their visuals, they still passed audiences' tests for approval. It wasn't that much of a bar to clear! SNOW WHITE just didn't, and it has everything to do with its dead-on-arrival looks... Not because of Rachel Zegler playing Snow White, not because of anything she said, not because of any political matters really... I think Joe Sixpack and Jane Soccermom are pretty much tuned out of that very online nonsense...

Oh, and **certainly** NOT because of the 1937 animated feature that started everything to begin with...

It just looked bad, and apparently it ended up being unsatisfactory...

[seastarblue]

Tumblr Games: OC Prompts: Character Profile

thanks for the tag @bardic-tales here !

Rules: Answer the prompts for an OC—buttttt I kinda wanna do the interview style again! Partway at least. Gotta work on them character voices, ya know?

So I’m already making profiles for my OCs, but I figured it might be fun to do one for an OC I wasn’t planning on profiling:

✨Saffron✨

Let’s go!

———

Full name? “Saffron of Gentlebright. At least that’s the one easiest to pronounce for humans.”

Age? “Er… maybe… 450…? Give or take a few decades— I’ve lost count. Whoopsie!”

Gender? “Gender? I hardly know her! HAHAHA! You can use she/her for me though.”

Species? “A ✨fairy✨.”

Appearance: Saffon is a short (nO im NOT), red headed fairy with bright yellow eyes and shimmering purple dragonfly wings. She’s got a collection scars here and there.

Occupation? “I’m the captain of the Fifth Order.”

Family:

Spouse? “None. Never was one for romance!”

Parents? “…No.”

Siblings? “…also no.”

Best Friends? Tell me a bit about them!

“Alrighty! First and foremost, we’ve got Aris! Aris min Qultaar, if we’re being specific. He’s my partner-in-justice! Now as for the rest of my team: I love them equally—some are just… more equal than others, HAH! Like, uh, Nero di Accardi, Thannis of Spring, Tembris Quicksilver, and Percival Whitlock.”

Pets? “No, but I did have a cat called… Baby Kitty. He died :(“

Describe your room? “Ah, there’s not much. A bed, nice soft blue sheets, it’s got holes in the mattress for my wings—I tuck em in, don’t want them to get crushed, ya know—I’ve got a nice little nightstand that Thannis carved for me with some knickknacks Aris gifted me. I don’t spend enough time in there to really decorate.”

Way of Speaking: Saffron’s speaking style wildly changes depending on who she’s talking to. With her team, it’s casual, easy, gentle at times. With superiors, it’s formal, tense, very eloquent. With criminals… well let’s just say she doesn’t stop to chat much.

Physical Characteristics: Apart from what was listed above, Saffron has white diamond shaped pupils, and blue blood, as she is a Fae.

Items in your bag RIGHT NOW: “Oh, uh, let’s see… a knife, some food, a broken pencil, another knife, some vials of potion, and… another broken pencil. Who put those in there…?”

Hobbies: Sparring, planting, dancing, writing, interrogating people

Favorite Sport: “Hm… I’m a fan of wingball, but I don’t play often.” (Wingball is just football but in the air)

Abilities: Saffron has a lie detecting ability, as she is a fairy. She also has some very good Glamor skills, as well as mean Fire magic.

Relationships:

Her team: very good! :>

Lloyd Santhuff: very bad :<

Vivirette Hawthorne: she thinks the noble is weird.

Fears: She fears losing her entire team without being able to do anything. It’s a very real fear… also slugs.

Faults: She tends to freeze up, which isn’t a good quality to have as a leader. She also has a problem with taking things seriously—she doesn’t.

Good Points: Saffron is very honest (not by choice—long story, still counts), and she’s very good at giving advice, having lived for literal centuries (don’t make me feel old :[ )

What they want more than anything else: all Saffron wants is to be free to keep them safe.

———

phew this took a while. Note that you don’t have to answer as an OC, just for one!

Tag game list! Lemme know if you want on/off via DM or ask!:

@sableglass @vsnotresponding @dioles-writes

@paeliae-occasionally @astor-and-the-endless-ink @allaboutmagic

[kanerallels]

Would love an overview of your book (what it's about, the process of writing it, etc.) if you get the chance! Congrats on becoming a published author!!! That's so amazing!

Well it took me long enough but I'm finally getting around to answering this. (Merry Christmas if you celebrate, by the way!)

Okay I can throw a summary under the cut, but here's some essential details:

It's a fairy tale retelling aimed at middle graders. But what it's really about, to me, is a sense of finding where you belong, family, faith, and also overthrowing an evil empress. Minor detail

It has a really cool cover and some AWESOME illustrations

The process of writing it took about five years. Started out in a blue composition notebook and grew from there! It's doubled in length, had chapters added and parts cut, but overall the key story has remained the same

It is part of a series. I have at least four other books planned (three main series, one prequel book that's still pretty important) with ideas for so many others floating around in my head. I'm super excited to see where it goes, and happy to have y'all along for the ride!!

If you want to see some behind the scenes information, scroll my "land of the tales" or "hazel rambles about her original writing" tags! They're full of stuff that will make sense someday

Thank you so much for asking, that's so sweet!! And I really appreciate the encouragement

Rebecca Wood has never known who her real family was. So when a boy named Liam finds her and tells her that he knows where her real family is, it seems like it could be too good to be true.

Oddly enough, that's far from the strangest part. It turns out, Rebecca is from the land of fairy tales, though it's not exactly the same as the stories—Snow White and Cinderella are notorious assassins, and the land is ruled by the Evil Empress Goldilocks, who seems to have a special interest of her own in Rebecca.

None of this makes Rebecca's journey any less fascinating as she travels through a perilous and beautiful land full of magic and mystery, looking for the one thing she's always wanted.

(and yes I did copy and paste this off Amazon but I wrote it and it turned out pretty well, so I think I'm allowed to. As a treat)

[deancaspinefest]

A Fairy Tale Cliche!

Author: butterflyslinky | Artist: CoyDahlia

Posting on Monday March 18

True Love was never in the cards for Castiel. He is, after all, a Changeling raised by Cave Trolls, raised in the Court of Storms, where tender emotions are not encouraged. True Love was also never in the cards for Dean. They may be under a curse that can only be broken by True Love's Kiss, but nymphs don't tend to settle for one person for life. Too bad none of their friends will listen to that logic.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

Castiel did the only thing he could think of and extended his hand. “Would you care to dance with me?”

The nymph stared for a moment. “Are you going to declare your love and ask me to run away with you?”

“No,” Castiel said. “I’m going to dance with you until you don’t want me to.”

“Well.” The nymph put their hand in his. “Guess I can do that.”

Castiel smiled and led the nymph onto the floor. As though by magic…okay, probably by magic…the orchestra started at once and Castiel swept the nymph into a gentle waltz, grateful to Sam and his lessons. He was still clumsy in boots and he didn’t want to step on the nymph’s inadequate shoes.

“You’re a Changeling, right?” the nymph asked after a minute.

“I am.”

“Great. Wanna give me the lowdown on that?”

Castiel didn’t know why, but he found himself spilling his entire story to the nymph, more than he’d told anyone, even Sam. The nymph listened in silence, watching him from behind their mask, and they seemed to relax the longer Castiel spoke.

“So here I am,” Castiel finished quite a bit later. “It’s been a bit of a journey.”

“You’ve barely even started,” the nymph said. “Training with Jo is step zero…you don’t even have your Quest yet.”

“I thought finding my One True Love so I can stay in Avalon was my Quest.”

The nymph laughed. “Please. Like it would be that easy. You can’t really know someone is your True Love until you’ve faced major adversity together. You know, kiss a frog, turn into a swan, what have you. And that’s assuming True Love even exists for you and not just random lust or infatuation.”

“Do you not believe in True Love?”

“Sorry, sweetheart,” they said. “But I don’t go around sharing my story with everyone I meet.”

Castiel slowed slightly. “Just tell me,” he said. “Do you have a True Love you should be dancing with?”

The nymph softened. “Nah,” they said. “Don’t have time for that crap. Though you’re offending an awful lot of people by dancing with me.”

Cas glanced around again. There were indeed quite a few people watching them, and many of them looked pretty unhappy. “Were they on your dance card?” he asked.

“Nope,” the nymph said. “But they feel entitled to me anyway.” They grinned at Cas. “So if you want to take up all my time, I can stay until midnight.”

“If you want me to,” Castiel said. “But I’d like to know what to call you if we’re going to spend the next four and a half hours together.”

“Dean,” the nymph said. “You can call me Dean.”

(continue reading on Ao3 on Monday March 18)

[screemnch]

The Pathologic Russian and English analysis: Artemy Burakh the Haruspex Part 2.

I think I've officially been classified by the world's forces as a fanfiction author because of this, for you see... The reason it took so damn long for me to get around to this is because I was trying to not get deported, avoiding homelessness and having a generally horrific time. But that is none of your concern, I suppose, so let's cut to the chase.

As the Changeling: I can’t exactly say that there are many differences between the Russian and English versions of the Haruspex here - same as outlined previously, he is laconic, distant and impulsive. In terms of tone of voice, the main difference would be the constraints of grammar in the English language. Russian is quite a versatile language and allows for people to structure sentences very… Liberally. This is what I meant when I spoke about the Bachelor speaking with a very “deliberate” sentence structure. He would construct his sentences properly, with all the nouns and verbs there need to be in a sentence, never neglecting the “I” - speaking in a very proper manner, even when using not so proper words. In English it’d be quite difficult to illustrate where the difference lies - these two languages employ vastly different sentence structures. The curt tone of voice is furthered with Burakh particularly because he doesn’t structure his sentences formally. His communication is very barebones, often foregoing the “I” in what he says, for example, since it can be indicated through the form of the verbs used. I’d previously said his manner of speech reminds me of fairy tales, and I think it’s particularly because of that - the modern way of speaking is very individualistic. It’s all about explaining yourself clearly and concisely, putting emphasis on the person. Artemy doesn’t put much emphasis on himself in his dialogue, talking about actions instead. The order in which he puts words is also distinct from more modern sentence structures, though that is a bit more difficult to explain. Y’all aren’t here for that anyway so let’s get to the screenshots. Once again, the order of dialogue here is dubious at best.

I want to bring attention to the last sentence here (partially because I don’t know how much material I’ll have for this part of the analysis, so I’m just putting in whatever I want) - the original Russian version says “Where do [someone’s] eyes have to be to mix us up…” which is where I get to talk about Russian expressions. See, the implication here is that the onlookers eyes have to be positioned on/in said onlookers rear end - because that is a common way for Russian people to express that someone is inept at something. Someone’s clumsy and can’t do anything well with their hands? They must be growing out of their ass then! Though I can’t think of any other instances in which that would be used off the top of my head, but yeah. Ass eyes.

It is. So difficult to not just start talking about Clara right here and right now, she’s my special little blorbo and there’s so much about her BUT. I will limit myself to this note (yeah, right, we’ll see). Main things to note here - Clara goes from addressing Artemy informally to then using the formal version of “you” (or, I guess, the formal version of the verb addressing him because Russian is a totally real language that exists). This is combined with the fact that the way she asks Artemy who he is is specifically worded in Russian in a way that implies scrutiny. It’s extremely difficult to explain, the difference is in only one word but the literal translation would also not convey the meaning well. But basically - she asks him who he is in a standoffish manner, realises she’s talking to the Ripper himself and immediately goes to address him formally and here’s the kicker: instead of saying “don’t hurt me”, in the original version she said “don’t upset me”(literal) to which the English equivalent would be “don’t be mean to me”. So yeah, Clara realised she just gave snark to a murderer and immediately went for the “I’m just a little girl, you wouldn’t want to hurt me right?.” Comedy gold. (Or a stark example of how girls and women have to force themselves to be more palatable in fear of violence from men. You decide).

The focus here is on the “Love will find a way. Blockhead” line (the rest is for context). The sentence before that isn’t even present in the Russian version. In fact, the original version just says something along the lines of “You’ll find her if you love her” (with the exception that with the freedom Russian allows it was expressed in just two words.) I also had a good laugh at Clara calling Artemy “blockhead” because I thought it was a bit anachronistic (it wasn’t, the word was used as early as the 1500's and I swear I’m gonna have to start using MLA format citations for this one day aaaaa) but it suited the translation well, as the original insult that Clara threw at him was comparing him to a large and unformed mass of stone - a common insult for someone stupid. Just wanted to point out the fun stuff.

Entirely unrelated since I can’t be bothered to look for context for either of these, but the fact that they’re in proximity and similar to each other (while being very different in Russian) was kinda funny to me. The former being something along the lines of “So what do you need here?” and the latter meaning something like “Have you come with business?.” The second one also bears the hilarious implication that Artemy expected Clara to just… Come by on a whim, with seemingly nothing to do - either because he doesn’t think highly of her, or because there’s a precedent for people to come wandering into the Ripper’s hideout for no reason. Either way, once again - funny.

Listen, I don’t know if this is anything, and hopefully there are other Russian speakers who can tell me if I’m being a little stupid here, but! I also know that a large number of pathologic fans love to talk about this silly little thing called gender. And the fun thing about Russian is that everything here is gendered as all hell. In terms of “adoption” there are two words that essentially mean “to make someone (take them in as) your son” and “to make someone (take them in as) your daughter”. And it is a very common thing for anyone to say they’ve been adopted (as a son) regardless of their gender - since so much literature is oriented on men and talks about them more than it does women, so it’s a word that comes to mind first (had to talk to my mom about this, heehoo). However in this particular instance, Clara says that Alexander took her in as his son. It’s something entirely normal to say in Russian, and I don’t think that this thing alone is enough to build off of, but since I know there are people who would add this to a pile of headcanon justifications - I’ve pointed it out to you. Because I love you. You’re welcome. (yes I’m talking about Clara again, I can’t help it if she’s just better than everyone)

This! This is what the translation should’ve said in the Bachelor route!! I know I’ve already talked about this, but now I’m even more confused - they got it right with the Changeling, what was stopping them from recycling the same translation with the Bachelor? Like, I would like to think that maybe it’s an error on the side of the website I’m using (but also hopefully not, I don’t have the time to play the games at the moment) but it’s also entirely possible that the translation team translated this phrase TWICE instead of saving time. Because people aren’t always efficient. Anyways.

This isn’t as much of a translation thing as it is maybe an “I don’t know English” thing. I was really confused when I first read it and only after comparing it to the Russian version did I understand what the second sentence was supposed to mean. As in - yeah, I can tell how you could read this in English and understand it - but it isn’t intuitive at all. And I get it - it’s pathologic and very little is actually intuitive here. But I wonder if I wasn’t the only one confused. In Russian, the sentence states “if it weren’t for me, you would’ve drowned your town in blood.” A simple little clarification, and I think an argument may be made about the difficult to understand nature of patho’s writing but… There’s a difference between a message reaching the audience with some difficulties and the message not reaching the audience at all.

Hey hey it’s time for “Burakh (and maybe other characters, we’ll see) treats Clara as more of a concept than a tangible person!” In this edition we’re gonna be focusing on the “deadly girl” turn of phrase, where the original Russian version has him call her “girl-death.” Not in a sense that she’s the death of girls, or that she is the reaper with a pink bow over its hood, rather that she is “the girl that is death”. We saw this earlier in the Bachelor’s campaign, where Artemy referred to her as “evil,” meaning the concept of evil - Burakh seems to be prone to identifying Clara through these big generalised ideas, rather than giving her concrete qualities. It’s actually pretty funny, because Clara constantly appraises him in their conversation, calling him rude, scary, and mean. They both call each other demons though, so at least there’s that. Also instead of “henchmen” Burakh refers to Dankovsky being surrounded by “squires.”

From the same conversation - the second sentence is only similar in essence. Maybe I’m making it more of a deal than it is, but there is a hint of an apology in the Russian version, which goes something like “There’s not much faith in you; you understand that yourself” (Conveying vibes here). I like the distinction between “faith” and “trust” because Russian (fortunately this time) does have different words for those two concepts. And it’s interesting to me, what with how religion oriented the Changeling campaign is, that Burakh specifically says that he doesn’t have much faith in her. Something-something themes.

Unfortunately that is about all I have in terms of specific points to bring attention to. It sucks immensely that there was so little time for IPL to work on the Changeling campaign, because not only is she super interesting, but also because (for the sake of this particular analysis) the interaction that her and Artemy have are absolutely wonderful. On one hand they have a lot of comedic potential (which I know isn’t the aim of the game, but hey, I laughed a lot reading their dialogue) and on the other hand some of their dialogue is actually quite heartfelt. In comparison to the Bachelor’s campaign, we get to see the Haruspex from a very different perspective. There’s even a little bit of that “does not get paid enough for this” energy that most people like to portray him as here. There were not that many differences in the “did you know we were dolls” dialogue between Artemy and Clara, so I didn’t get to talk about it much but I would suggest anyone to read or reread it - there is a lot of wonderful insight into both of the characters in there. Haruspex saying that he is still human specifically because he didn’t figure out the situation he is in (as opposed to Daniil, who figured out they were dolls) and that he is actively choosing to stay in this unfair predicament because he knows that finding out the truth would leave him permanently scarred? I don’t know about you, but it made me go a little bit insane. And even with Clara having the ability to understand where he’s coming from and that you’re given the option to invite Burakh to the Cathedral even after we are shown that he is completely blind to the bigger picture? That’s different from her conversation with Daniil, in which they are both on the same page about being dolls. This conversation in particular seemed so earnest to me, and if I wasn’t talking about translation differences, I would do a whole bit dedicated to that conversation. Otherwise I’m just a bit sad, since I don’t have that much to say about the Haruspex in the Changeling route.

As usual - comments, concerns, feedback is welcome. Genuinely no clue about when the next instalment of this mess of an analysis is going to be, but we are finally going to talk about Clara properly, so keep an eye out for that.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1D, MATCH 3 OUT OF 16!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Carrie:

Cinderella’s ball goes badly and she kills a town. What is there not to love?

Carrie is a horror retelling of Cinderella, look it up it's true

Cinder:

She killed her evil stepmother and stepsisters (technically they "adopted" her as slave labor and the narrative treats her as the villain for this but tbh out of all the things Cinder has done, this was the most justified)

She's my wife and I love her and she's also evil but it's okay

She does cool fire stuff and murders people but I think that can be forgiven

I love her. Jkjk uhm she's really cool and while a lot of people say she's an evil Cinderella she's more like a Cinderella who never gets saved and has to save herself. And she's so super cool and charming and a genius. And she kills people sometimes but it's okay because she's very very sad and I think more people should care about her.

Cinderella as a villainess! What if Cinderella wasn't saved by her fairy godmother and instead murdered her step-family and joined an evil witch terrorizing the world? Cinder Fall is a dangerous villainess who has helped topple kingdoms and will do anything to gain power.

This propaganda is just going to be me listing all the ways she fits her Cinderella allusion. Like all of the characters in RWBY, Cinder is an allusion to a character from fairy tales/legend/etc. In her case, CINDERella. She's one of the earliest and most important antagonists, although at first there wasn't a whole lot to connect her to the Cinderella story besides some surface-level references(her name, her superpower being the ability to create glass objects, that one part of the dance arc where she infiltrates a communication tower and has to be back to the dance by midnight when she transforms into a dress), but in the later volumes the Cinderella aspects to her character become way more clear. (spoilers for later parts of the show here on out) People have summarized this way better than I am about to, but basically: She came from an orphanage and was adopted by a wealthy family from from another kingdom(a mom and her two daughters), but was really only adopted so that she could do servant work at the prestigious hotel they owned. The "prince charming" in her story wasn't a romantic interest, but a huntsman(someone who fights the monsters in the world, a career all the main characters go to school to become) who frequents the restaurant in the hotel. He sees her being mistreated and secretly trains her so that when she's 17 she can apply to one of the combat schools and leave her "stepmother and stepsisters." Like all the villains, though, she's like a version of her allusion where things went wrong, so instead of being whisked away by "prince charming" to his world, she ends up in a position where she kills the "stepmom" and "stepsisters," "prince charming" tries to bring her in for murder bc it's his job, and she kills him too. Now a child with nowhere to go, she gets picked up by the main villain, Salem, who acts in the Cinderella allegory as the "fairy godmother" who uses magic to give her "freedom." Except the magic is a parasite monster that gives her certain abilities, most importantly the ability to take the powers of a very select kind of person that Salem needs. This "magic" also has a time limit like the dress and the carriage, except it's the fact that it's a parasite that's slowly consuming her. Cinder thinks she wants these powers because if she's powerful, she can secure her freedom, but has yet to see that Salem is just using her, making her the new "stepmother" in her story(she came close to realizing this, mentally comparing Salem to her "stepmother," but then turned around and threw herself into her quest for power even more). Some people also compare the other characters in Salem's inner circle to a new set of "stepsisters," especially with how none of them like Cinder and wished her good riddance during the period of time she was missing and possibly dead, and that there's subtle competition between all of them for Salem's approval, similar to how siblings can be with a parent. Some people have also said it's possible that Neopolitan played the new "fairy godmother" role during said time where Cinder was on her own, because Neo was able to help Cinder a lot with her illusion powers, including using them on an airbus("carriage"), which was also the scene where Cinder got her outfit change for the new arc. There is also a part in the Atlas arc where she lets the General know she was in his office by leaving a glass chess piece on his desk(like the glass slipper that Prince Charming identifies her with), when she fucked him over earlier in the show with a computer virus with a chess piece logo.

Literally explicitly based off cinderella yet somehow people were shocked when her backstory involved basically being a child slave to her "stepmother" and abused by her "stepsisters". She put up with their abuse for years until they finally crossed the line then she snapped and killed them. But now she's still being manipulated by another stepmother figure. She seeks power because she thinks it will give her freedom. She can shoot fireballs. She has the most outfit changes of anyone in the whole show. She's a poor little meow meow and a girlboss.

Hot

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

RWBY volume 2 episode 1 rewatch thoughts

.Bold move starting off with two new characters, especially ones that attentive viewers would know are villains

.Something really weird is that the old shopkeep never speaks past volume 1 even though he does in the first episode

.Considering how a lot fairy tales that are mentioned in show turn out to be foreshadowing lore, I'm kinda bummed that none of the books mentioned here seem to be linked to anything

.The window darkening switch things are really cool

.And Emerald and Mercury just straight up kill a guy, how many people have they killed and why did Emerald not even get a slap on the wrist later?

.Society if the text on Blake's notepad was decipherable and you could see her thoughts on Adam at that point

.Nora shooting cherry tomatoes(?) into Yang's mouth is weird and stupid and I love it. Let them be dumb teens

.Is Ruby calling her team (minus Weiss) "Sisters" where that one quote of Monty wanting team RWBY to be a sisterhood comes from? Because that quote has no other source to my knowledge.

.Ruby why are quoting Richard fucking Nixon, and why do I think that's the funniest thing ever RN. Oh god she a gun nut who fights protesters, did you vote for Trump Ruby? Did you? (this is all a joke before someone takes that in bad faith)

.Ah yes, one of the two real puns Yang actually makes in the whole series. And every fanfic author proceeded to have her be pun machine anyway.

.Wow Didn't expect them to show Weiss getting Creampied, that's kinda inappropriate don't ya think :)

.Neptune looks like what would happen if someone tried to combine Rex Salazar (Generator Rex) and Ninja (The Fortnight guy) genes into one clone body and it turned out defective (Can you tell I don't like him?)

.Shout out to whoever yeeted Jaune

.Whichever writer said that the foodfight isn't "100% Canon" or whatever is fucking coward. I get it's ridiculous but so is lot's of other stuff in this show

.Wouldn't putting turkey's on your hands get really fucking gross with all the meat juice

.Ruby surfing with a lunch tray gets a hell yeah from me, let her do Sonic the hedgehog type bullshit. Also shout out to that one animation someone made her breakdancing with Crescent Rose. I might dig through tumblr to reblog that later

.That one joking shot of Ruby holding Weiss was edited to remove the silly stuff in this volumes trailer, which can be argued to be straight up queerbait. Whiterose being teased as a joke is oddly thing in this volume and only this volume (also the anthology manga's but those are written by fans so that's not surprising)

.The first time Ruby becomes the rose pedal sphere thing is a scene you aren't even supposed to take as fully canon, also they should have let her do the giant vortex thing as part of her "real'' moveset

.I like to think the one of the reasons Ozpin didn't get mad is that this shit is kinda normal for Hunters

.God I fucking love Roman

.Emerald please, she doesn't care about you

.Eme and Merc are blood thirsty enough for Cinder of all people to tell them to keep their hands clean

.I forgot how funny Mercury can be

.Cinder he's a committed man, that's not gonna work

[tangledbea]

my brain has decided to go on a tangent regarding names, so I apologise if there ends up being a lot of questions on this subject in this ask. feel free to answer as many or as little as you'd like!

rapunzel was named by her parents, right? so did gothel find out when the whole kingdom found out after her birth, after it had been announced, and then just decided to keep it? i feel like keeping her name AND telling her her real birthday was risky, no? if her birth name was rapunzel, however, wouldn't eugene have known that was the name of the lost princess, and find that intriguing at all. or in this universe, was rapunzel a more common name? i feel like I'm over analysing this 😂 perhaps their just minor plot holes.

also, would she have grown up with a surname? is gothel technically mother gothel's surname? was she rapunzel gothel!?! and do you have any headcanons on what her oficial surname would be, what frederick and arianna's is? i know that in my country royals did not have proper surnames up until way after tangled was set, so perhaps that is the same here.

no idea why i have decided to completely fixate on this tonight but there we go😂 any thoughts?

According to the series, Rapunzel was named by her parents, yes. I have this whole headcanon about that, but it also predates the series, which muddled it up a bit. XD

However! She was also named after the Sundrop flower! You see, it's common practice to say that "Rapunzel" means "lettuce," but that's inaccurate at best and just wrong at worst. The plant in the original fairy tale that the woman craved was rampion. Rapunzel is the name of the rampion flower.

This is a rampion flower.

Look at the center of the Sundrop flower. Look at the way the stamen curl. Yes, it does resemble a lily, but at the heart of it is a rapunzel flower.

Rapunzel was named after the flower that saved her.

And then Gothel kidnapped her. And I headcanon that she also named her Rapunzel, after the flower that she now bore the magic of. So, it was a big fat coincidence that they both named her the same thing.

As for my previously-mentioned headcanon, while her name was officially announced (according to the series), in the movie, she's only ever referred to as the Lost Princess by the townsfolk. I don't think her name was used much by the general public. I also don't think she told her her real birthday with any intent. The baby present for the first lantern raising is not a newborn.

A child as wiggy and giggly as this baby is at least three months old. I therefore also headcanon that this lantern wasn't raised in honor of her birth, but of her naming. She'd made it to three months, the risks of her dying were greatly depleted by that, alone. It was now safe to assume she'd likely survive infancy.

I think Gothel - who doesn't like aging and probably doesn't know how old she is anymore, nor remember when her own birthday is - probably wouldn't tell her about birthdays unless she asked. Rapunzel is smart. Rapunzel charts the stars and observes the seasons and likely notices that there was a pattern. The world turned the same way every year. The lanterns always rose when the stars were about the same. Perhaps Rapunzel chose her own birthday to coincide with the distant floating lights, because she felt like they were meant for her, as opposed to her feeling like they were meant for her because they happened on her birthday. Perhaps when Gothel couldn't tell her when she was born, Rapunzel suggested that day, because she knew the lanterns would rise that night. I dunno, it's a bit of a stretch, but I'm kind of sick of, "You know, if Gothel hadn't told her when her birthday was none of this would have happened lol." (Not that you're saying that, but with a similar -- if sincere -- line of questioning, I'm getting that same old frustration I've had for almost thirteen years.)

As for surnames, I never assumed Rapunzel grew up with one, but I headcanon her royal surname as Solaris.

[settsunoie]

Over RequiemZ Main Post

Cg translations :

Kaize - Claude - Molly - Noil - Dorothy

Gameplay preview:

Kaize - Claude - Molly - Noil - Dorothy

I fell in love with this game ever since I've seen it on my January's B-log, and the more I digged for infos the more I was intrigued.

Here is the opening movie for the game :

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Story :

[Oz], a kingdom ruled by a monarch and 4 witches

There, numerous strange structures called [Ruins] have appeared. Decaying buildings, ivy-covered trains This is the scenery you're used to seeing, but this seems out of place here Inside the [Ruins], strange lifeforms are roaming around

Lost in this other world, you've been sentenced to death To escape from your fate, you have no other choice than to go investigate the monster-filled [Ruins]

You will embark on a journey along fellow death row inmates They, who were once [Bloodthirsty killers] On this journey, you'll have to head to the [Ruins] while being at the mercy of their quirks It seems that numerous choices will be made as you are travelling But, remember one thing

There is no such thing as a meaningless life

Your journey towards the end, alongside these bloodthirsty murderers, have began

Source :

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In a nutshell this is a post apocalyptic medieval world and The Wizard of Oz mix match.

The game is also composed of two types of routes for each guy [Fact] (the "safe" route) & [Dark] (we're getting freaky in this one) and a total of 4 endings per guy

So let me introduce the main characters : (don't mind the names the = is official)

Yuhiru (cv : none)

"I won't regret my choices"

The senior high school student lost in another world The senior high school student lost in the Oz kingdom Because of her dark eyes and hair, she was condemned as a [devil possessed being] She's standing up for herself against this grotesque situation

Age : 18 Height : 165cm Occupation : Senior Highschool Student

Kaize = Ozma (cv : Azakami Youhei)

"As long as I live, the calamity won't end"

The black eyed, devil possessed prince The feared cursed prince His indifferent smile can cause misunderstandings because deep down he is afraid of what other can think of him He killed his father the King, with his own hands

Age : 20 Height : 182cm Birthday : 3rd of August Occupation : 2nd Prince Likes : Cheese omelette / Cleaning Hates : Alcohol / Strangers Wish : To get revenge Family : Father (deceased) / Mother (deceased) / Elder brother (deceased)

Claude = Grain (cv : Furukawa Makoto)

"Do you think knowing the truth would keep you sane ?"

The researcher obsessed with the [Ruins] A [Ruins] researcher that was banished from the Royal Academy He is a caring and knowledgeable wise man. He tends to hide his inner self and keep everything to himself He brutally murdered everyone in his hometown, including his family

Age : 23 Height : 183cm Birthday : 3rd of December Occupation : Researcher Likes : Stew with a lot of vegetables / Mathematical puzzles Hates : Snails / Horror stories Wish : To discover the truth about the tragedy Family : Father (deceased) / Mother (deceased) / Younger sister (deceased)

Molly = Woodland (cv : Ishikawa Kaito)

"Let us pray for your souls. Worry no more… … and die"

The mysterious undertaker The young undertaker that keeps his smile in front of corpses He emanates the lovely aura of a fairy tale prince. He knows how to lockpick and escape from any situation, somehow He attacked a group of peddlers on the main road

Age : 24 Height : 175cm Birthday : 4th of November Occupation : Undertaker Likes : Rye bread / Card games Hates : Sausage meat / Swimming Wish : To meet his fated one Family : Father

Noil = Bestia (cv : Suzuki Ryouta)

"I have to survive, even if I'll struggle till the end"

The wild rogue knight The one being known as the problem child of the royal knight's order He may be wild but nevertheless he takes his duties seriously. He is a warrior of great pride He slaughtered a platoon of knights under his command

Age : 19 Height : 186cm Birthday : 12th of July Occupation : Knight Likes : Rabbit paella / Cooking Hates : Doctors / Preaching Wish : To arrest his friend Family : Father (adopted) / Mother (adopted) / 2 Elder brother (adopted) / Elder sister

Dorothy (cv : Horie Shun)

"Isn't punishment a form of kindness ?"

The polite but actually rude Witch of the North The goverment official nicknamed [Witch] tasked with keeping an eye on criminals, travelling with you He is irresponsibly lazy. For some reason, he is overprotective of you Even if he seems interested in medicine, I wish he wouldn't treat me with such a suspicious smile

Age : 25 (self proclaimed) Height : 177cm Birthday : 10th of October Occupation : Witch Likes : Butter pancakes / Starry sky Hates : Being punctual / Guiding others Wish : For you to be alive Family : None

[unlucky-leek]

I'm still really struggling with the whole novel writing thing. I'm gonna ramble a bit so you can ignore this if you want lol

Basically I've realised that I keep settling on an idea, doing a bunch of research / planning, getting super into writing it for a while, and then lose all motivation as soon as I reach some sort of roadblock. For example I'll be like "OK cool, so how do we get from plot point A to plot point B...", but then the more I start trying to come up with solutions, the more I start overthinking everything, and then I end up in this spiral of "that doesn't make sense, the characters wouldn't do that, that's too cliché, that's just a dumb excuse for x, y, and z, no-one would read this or take this seriously, imagine the negative reviews, etc etc", which I *know* is dumb because I've been writing for *years* and ever since I was a literal child I've had people complimenting my story telling and writing style. Even my fanfics have had a lot of nice comments from people. And it gets worse than that - I occasionally find forgotten collections of my own writing from over a decade ago and I'm like "damn, this is actually really good, how did I do that?" And then I get miserable because I feel like younger me was writing much better than current me, and I don't know how to recapture that.

I think a major issue I have is that my characters tend to take on a life of their own, and then it becomes hard for me to make them do things I know they wouldn't do, which makes changing and adapting the story much harder once I've established them. On the flip side, if I don't do that, then I don't feel invested in them and can't be bothered writing their story, which also sucks.

Something that simultaneously keeps impressing me and annoying me is my writing from 2016-2017. As it turns out, I wrote a LOT that year. There's so much, and I love re-reading it because it feels like I'm reading someone else's work (maybe that's a dumb thing to say, idk). But the problem is it's all half finished or random short stories that will never fit in anywhere. It's so mystical and philosophical, full of dark themes, pondering existence, fairy tale like settings... But none of it is finished, and now I feel like I can't do it justice.

There's a story I started back then that I'm desperate to finish but it's so philosophical that I get sad every time I try to work on it, which sounds ridiculous, but it is what it is lol (it's based on the concept of Tulpas if you know what they are).

Then there's the story I've had going on in my head since 2008. I've written a few scenes for it here and there, but the damn thing spans over 3000 in universe years and almost 20 irl years, how the heck are you meant to condense that into a book?? I tried writing a new story set in the same universe, but it just didn't feel right. Ironically they're the characters I feel most comfortable writing about even though I can never publish anything about them (probably).

Then there's one I've been working on recently that was based on an old fanfic story of mine (the original plot, not the characters), but I keep getting paranoid that I can never publish it because the original fanfic from 2011 is still out there. Are original adaptations of fanfics you wrote a thing? Would people sneer at it?

Then I have a random other story I got pretty far with but realised I don't know enough about the themes or the community involved to write it respectfully, so I've temporarily given up on that for now too.

I've kind of ended up in a bit of a slump I guess. In no small part due to the fact that since 2017 I just haven't had as much time to write as I'd like, and if I do I overthink it all and don't actually write anything. Or I'll be spending time doing other things I enjoy and an annoying thought will be going "you could be using this time to write", and then I just feel annoyed at myself.

Maybe I should just start with a short story collection or something... At least I know I'm relatively good at those. Or maybe I'll push through the sadness it causes and just work on the Tulpa one at last.

Not sure why I'm writing this to be honest, I think I just needed to get it all down to clear my mind.

Thanks for reading if you got this far, I hope to have an actual story for you to read one day!

~03/10/2024