#also the alternate title for this was 'an end to corruption'

[woodsplinter]

An untimely demise

[hazeleafyy]

Hearth chapter 2 is here!! FOR REALS THIS TIME!!

I planned to do a final edit this weekend before posting it, but I ended up finishing edits today so why not (Also I felt bad about the false alarm today;;; )

[ Read on ao3 ]

Title: hearth

Pairing: Zelda x Link

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, enemies to lovers, Link starts out a villain, but he goes through the opposite of corruption, Ganon is not a very good person here

Summary:

Metal scraped loudly, as Revali prodded his talons at the chains binding the unconscious body on the ground.

The swordsman lay still, crumpled in a heap of bloody mess. He did not stir.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea, princess,” Daruk rubbed the back of his neck, hesitant.

"He’s right, little bird,” Urbosa sighed. “This is too dangerous. Any risk to your safety is not worth it.”

“We have to kill him while we still have the chance. He almost killed all of us!" Revali hissed, curling his wingtips into a tight fist.

Tension hung like a guillotine blade in the air. Thick, and suffocating.

“Least of all,” Revali spat, “we are not taking him with us.”

[In which Link was raised as Ganon’s right hand man, but Zelda and the Champions snatch him away.]

[stumpyjoepete]

Thinking a bit more about Megalopolis (see prev post). It's not really the case that the script is as disjointed or schizophrenic as my post makes it out to be. The central plot is pretty simple: an egotistical city planner has an ambitious and futuristic vision for redeveloping the city, and he butts heads with the Mayor and others who oppose him in this. He ultimately succeeds in building his utopian "megalopolis". Everyone is happy, the end.

And yet.

There's this... intense centrifugal force that prevents everything from cohering into a unified whole. It's like a puzzle where all the pieces are cut from the same picture, but upon closer inspection, no two pieces quite fit together. Or like that collection of nonsensical objects. A fork where the tines and the handle are connected by a chain. A watering can with the spout facing the wrong way. A quick glance leaves you confused, and that confusion is only deepened by further contemplation.

I think this is especially clear in the pseudo-intellectualism of the title cards, narration, monologues, and quotations/references:

Laurence Fishburne does this heavy-handed narration at the beginning and end of the movie (and several random points in between). And there are these associated title cards that look like they were made by applying an "Ancient Rome" theme to some PowerPoint slides. "Or will we too fall victim, like old Rome, to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men?" My brother in Christ, you are making a movie where the hero is named Cesar, and the happy ending is when he successfully pulls a Robert Moses. This is not a story about power corrupting or good intentions going awry. What are you doing???

Cesar Catilina interrupts Mayor Cicero's speech (where he is introducing a plan to build a casino) in order to lay out an early plan for "megalopolis", which is an ambitious and long-term alternative to the (short-term) casino plan. He prefaces his megalopolis pitch by reciting the Hamlet soliloquy. What exactly does Coppola think "To Be Or Not To Be" is about? He must thinks it means, "I am a dark and brooding bad-boy intellectual", since it's hard to see how "I'd like to kill myself, but I fear death" fits into an argument about the importance of long-term thinking in urban planning.

Cesar says several negative things about "civilization". "[Imagine] humanity as an old tree with one misguided branch called civilization... going nowhere." (Shot of notebook shows an illustration with 'war' and 'cruelty' offshoots from said branch.) "Emerson said the end of the human race will be that we'll eventually die of civilization." (Note: unsourced, probably fake quote.) "Civilization itself remains the great enemy of mankind." Umm... you're an urban planner! You're doing a high modernism. What exactly does it mean for you to call civilization the enemy? Is "megalopolis" somehow anti-civilization because it looks like a Georgia O'Keefe painting instead of a bunch of straight lines and right angles? Will the "war" and "cruelty" branches wither and die when buildings have labia?

Also, there's this amazing line read that completely inverts the meaning of a fake Marcus Aurelius quote (the quote was attributed to him by Tolstoy but is not actually something he said). "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape... finding yourself in the ranks of the insane." Why did you put in that pause??? Fake Marcus Aurelius is turning in his grave! You're supposed to be fleeing FROM the ranks of the insane! I suppose this isn't really inconsistent with the characterization of Cesar, it's just such a fucking batshit thing to say.

All of the cargo-cult intellectualism listed above could perhaps be excused if the vision that the film is supposedly about had any content whatsoever. Or, alternatively, if the movie was about something more substantive, and the vacuous megalopolis vision took place off-screen in an epilogue, like the "happily ever after" of a children's story. But no! The movie repeatedly interrupts the plot to grab you by the shoulders and scream in your face: "I have a vision! For the future!". And then--now that it has your undivided attention--it shits the bed like a man who has just polished off an entire bag of sugar-free gummy bears and washed them down with a fistful of Ambien:

"Conversation isn't enough. It's the questions that lead it to the next step. But initially, you have to have a conversation. The city itself is immaterial, but they're talking about it for the first time. And it's not just about us talking about it. It's the need to talk about it. It's as urgent to us as air and water."

"Mr. Catalina, you said that as we jump into the future, we should do so unafraid. But what if when we do jump into the future, there is something to be afraid of?" "Well, there's nothing to be afraid of if you love, or have loved. It's an unstoppable force. It's unbreakable. It has no limits. It's within us. It's around us. And it's stretched throughout time. It's nothing you can touch. Yet it guides every decision that we make. But we do have the obligation to each other to ask questions of one another. What can we do? Is this society, is this way we're living, the only one that's available to us? And when we ask these questions, when there's a dialogue about them, that basically is a utopia."

After the revolution, we won't have conflicts anymore; we'll have dialogue instead. We won't have a need for the "jobs" and "sanitation" of "now"; we'll have the "imperishable" "dreams" of "forever". We won't have problems that need solving; we'll all be too busy asking each other questions. Now, if everyone could just shut up and get the hell out of the way and let Cesar implement his vision, then "everyone" will soon be "creating together, learning together, perfecting body and mind." A chorus of children's voices gradually morphing into Laurence Fishburne's, chanting, "One Earth, indivisible, with long life, education and justice for all." It's eschatological anti-politics made entirely from cotton candy. Please, for the love of God, stop making Adam Driver monologue at me! Let's get back to Aubrey Plaza stepping on horny fascist Shia LaBeouf!

The incoherence of Megalopolis's vision is compounded by how anachronistic its depiction of our fallen world is. There are some half-hearted (and ham-fisted) gestures in the Clodio sub-plot towards the dangers of Trumpian populism, but the script was first written in the 80's, and it's extremely obvious that Coppola is writing about New York City in the preceding several decades. The city's finances are in dire straights. (There's literally a "Ford Tells City: Drop Dead" reference!) The city is full of slums, the streets are full of crime, and the elites are all decadent. (For Coppola, decadence means that ladies are doing cocaine and smooching each other in the cluh-ub.) The main character is Neo-Roman Robert Moses, and the conflict of the film is about urban renewal. In case you, like Mr. Coppola, have not been made aware, slum clearance is not a major political issue in 2020's Manhattan.

Two thirds of the way through the movie, a falling Soviet satellite provides a deus ex machina, blowing up the financial district and clearing space for megalopolis to take its place. Ironically, a previous attempt to produce the film came to its abrupt end when two planes flew into some buildings in the financial district. Perhaps you heard about it. The financial backers of the film at the time considered Megalopolis's plot a bit too close to current events for comfort and withdrew their support.

But Coppola's depiction of Manhattan was already decades out of date by then. Moses stepped down in '60. Jacobs' book railing against urban renewal came out in '61. The Power Broker came out in '74. One presumes popular opinion of Robert Moses soured in the following years. The crisis of the city's finances that peaked in '75 was over by '81 when NYC balanced its budget and reentered the bond market. The crime wave of the 70's and 80's had receded by the year 2000. The demand for housing in NYC proper is as high as it ever has been, and it's only getting higher. Megalopolis imagines America as an incoherent mishmash of several decades of mid-century NYC, dressed up in the toga of the late Roman Republic, calling out for (Robert) Moses to part the slums and take us into a promised land that is literally beyond any description, and whose only concrete feature seems to be glowing people-movers.

A Robert Moses with the power to stop time, at that!

Oh, did I forget to mention that part? Cesar discovers he has the power to stop time in the opening scene of the film. I forgot because it's literally irrelevant to the plot. Time stops a few times, and then it starts back up again, and the events of the film just plod inexorably forward. For a movie as temporally dislocated as Metropolis, perhaps that's just as well.

[fanfic-obsessed]

Failing to Thrive then Thriving in failure

I just had the funniest notion. Time travel comedy, but the twist is that Palpatine is the one to go back in time. 

So we start just after Kenobi, Palpatine has been emperor for about a decade, he succeeded. The Sith plan is complete, he has everything he had dreamed of and worked toward for a decade…and he is so bored. He never realized that 90% of his joy actually came from pretending to be a benevolent Chancellor and the intrigue of fooling people.  Now he has shown his true colors and could not go back to pretending (it simply would not work). Being the Sith in charge is not as fun as he thought it would be. Even getting to openly torture people has lost its appeal after 10 years.

It’s ok for Vader. For one Vader was never interested in those intrigues in the first place. For two 45% of Vader brain is taken up by trying to resurrect Padme Amidala, 50% is taken up by Obi Wan Kenobi (Palpatine is not sure if Vader wants to kill Kenobi, Kriff Kenobi, make Kenobi tuck Vader in every night and tell him is it going to be alright, Force Kenobi to help Vader resurrected Padme, or make sure Kenobi is eating, taking care of himself, and has a good enough blanket), leaving only 5% for everything else.  

Frankly if this is what Kenobi had to deal with before the war, Palpatine is somewhat impressed he got anything done.

Vader isn’t bored. Palpatine’s assorted lesser minions are not bored, they are living the dream of being as bigoted as their little fascist hearts desire. But Palpatine just could not find joy any longer. 

I do want it clear. Palpatine is not repentant. He does not regret the deaths that he caused, the genocide, the enslavement, any of it. He’s just bored. 

One day Palpatine finds a book, or maybe an artifact, or possibly a scrap of paper with an archaic formula. The title roughly translates to ‘Sith Master Time Travel’ (Listen The Son was also very bored, and being outside of Space Time meant He wanted to see what would happen). Palpatine is able to time travel, but only as far back as when he became a Sith Master. It was also a one time deal, he would not be able to use the method again AND it would destroy his origin timeline (not that that actually factored into Palpatine’s decision at all).  Not to mention he would essentially be possessing and killing his previous, alternate timeline self. 

Of course Palpatine time travels. He goes all the way back to the moment he became the Sith Master (it turns out the Sith titles are not just titles), looking at the still warm corpse of Hugo Damask, just as the Naboo crisis is wrapping up. 

Now Palpatine had already decided to do some things differently.  At first he was still working outward the Grand Sith Plan, if trying to keep his ‘Kindly Politician’ mask a bit longer, however he has decided that instead of Vader (or possibly in addition to Vader, if things get boring again) he will get Obi Wan Kenobi as his apprentice, figuring that there must have been a reason that every Sith Apprentice for 20 years ends up obsessed with the man (also because he thinks it would be funny to corrupt the Jedi’s ‘Guiding Light’). Dooku and all the pieces needed to start the Clone wars are already mostly in place. It is just a matter of maintaining until the clones are the right age.  So he does what he needs to to maintain the Empire building plans and decides to focus on corrupting Obi Wan. 

He fails, utterly. He fails so fully that Obi Wan did not even notice his attempts at corruption. Like he knew it would take time to corrupt a Jedi, he had done before after all, but he still expected at least a little change within the first year. There was nothing. 

And it was not a case of Obi Wan not trusting Palpatine. This is still a decade before the war. Obi Wan is a grieving, freshly knighted,  trying to keep up with a nine year old with somewhat unique trauma. Palpatine knows how to get Obi Wan to feel comfortable and trust him (Palpatine probably knows too well how to get Obi wan to feel comfortable and trust him, between Dooku and Vader). Obi Wan is just, for a given value, incorruptible. 

Now Palpatine’s obsession switch has been flipped. He went into it thinking that corrupting Obi Wan would be a fun side project, a way to pass the time.  He was wrong.  He knows from the previous timeline that torture would not be effective (Listen if the torture mask specifically built to corrupt lightsiders did not make a dent after a month it is pretty well proven that torture will not cause Kenobi to fall, Palpatine knows this) nor would killing Kenobi’s loved work (again, if it didn’t last time we have some pretty concrete proof). 

So now we have Palpatine trying every method he can think of to seduce Kenobi the darkside, always just shy of admitting to being a Sith or being creepy. To the point that he has actually forgotten the Empire building he was doing. He kind of even forgets to be Sidious.  He almost ghosts Dooku, before he remembers that Dooku is Kenobi’s grandfather(that is not the correct term, Dooku tries to correct Palpatine an even dozen times before giving up) and gets Dooku involved in the corruption that is STILL. GOING. NOWHERE.

Dooku basically becomes Grandpa Dooku to both Obi Wan and Anakin, and falls back into the Light while trying unsuccessfully to corrupt Obi Wan to the Dark. Due to darkside vow complications (also because I think it would be really funny) Dooku is not able to say, imply, or otherwise do anything to make the Jedi suspicious that Palaptine is a Sith. Also, to a certain extent he thinks that as long as Palpatine is focused on corrupting his incorruptible grandson, the other Sith is not thinking about galactic domination (To be fair he is correct).  

Palpatine spends most of his time trying to corrupt Obi Wan, while keeping up the act used to maintain Obi Wan’s trust. The thing is Palpatine is fully aware that Anakin in the original timeline was about observant as a particularly dense brick wall and would not have realized that the persona of ‘My friend Palaptine’ did not match the reality of ‘My pal Friendpatine’. Obi Wan would realize if his act was not consistent. 

So Palpatine decided to keep the act up 24/7.  And everyone knows that your actions become your habits become your personality. 

Somewhere in year 8 Palpatine forgets how to Sith. 

Technically he is still a darksider but not the extra layer of fucked up that comes from being an actual Sith. And he still has not even made a dent in Obi Wan’s light. He has also, almost single handedly, derailed the war that had been brewing and fixed about 40% of the corruption in the Senate.  All without killing a single senator.

Palpatine spends most of his time very confused. 

Palpatine lets his term as Chancellor end, having gone down in history as one of the most beloved Chancellors in history.  The Clones are found and mostly are inducted as an arm of the Jedi Order. Jango Fett is given a metric ton of therapy, which helps him see that the Jedi were not actually at fault for Galidraan (Jango had, in fact, been the person to escalate things to violence) before he is allowed to take Boba back into the galaxy. By that point the Clones want little to do with him. 

For the rest of his life Palpatine tries, unsuccessfully, to corrupt Obi Wan (who never noticed). At this point he is genuinely friends with a number of Jedi (He and Mace Windu have a surprising amount in common, including a love of the theater and a mild exasperation for Anakin Skywalker's antics). He is an honored guest at both the CodyWan and the Anidala Weddings (including a Jedi based wedding ceremony).

Honestly he is having the most fun of his life. 

He is also never caught as a darksider. He never figures out how that is possible either.

[six-paths-of-jeanmarco]

Alternative title: Why Mace Windu was right about everything and could have ended the Sith and their 1000 yrs old scheme in Revenge of the Sith if not for Anakin's betrayal, which was also Palpatine's doing

Saying Mace and the Council would have turned into the tyrants they were trying to destroy just because they wanted to end the Sith swiftly and get a hold of the corruption within the Senate and make sure Palpatine's allies are left powerless before a new Chancellor and a new administration could take office is just stupid, unserious bothsideism at this point

[bryszket]

Happy spring, all! To celebrate, and also to encourage any readers trying to find non-Amazon alternatives for their indie queer lit needs, we are holding a sale on all of our ebooks--now priced a dollar (or less!) until the end of this March. If there's a title you've been curious about, or you just want to round out your collection, now is a great time!

Our books are roughly in these categories:

queer horror: EUSECT, by C.L. Methvin; Darknesses, by Lachelle Seville; Corrupted Vessels, by Briar Ripley Page.

outside the box fantasy/speculative: Something's Not Right, by yves.; MAEJ, by Dale Stromberg; Airy Nothing, by Clarissa Pattern; Noema, by Dael Akkerman.

surreal/absurd: Love/Aggression, by June Martin; Most Famous Short Film of All Time, by Tucker Lieberman; QUERY, by Zilla Novikov.

queer bildungsroman/slice of life: It Helps with the Blues, by Bryan Cebulski; A/E and Read and then Burn This, by R. Merey.

Regardless of category, all of these books are something off the beaten path, playing with reality, form and comfort; so if you're looking for some fresh queer and trans lit, have a go!

tRaum Books Itch-Io store HERE.

[eliluminado7]

BE MY BETA TESTER!!!!

Hi all! im proud to announce that im DONE with the production of my non-linear video editor and i am LOOKING FOR BETA TESTERS!!

Developing an nle has been a childhood dream of mine, and thanks to one of my profs i had the opportunity to work on one for my final assignment for my masters degree. Thats why im looking for people who can test it and give me feedback on its overall functionality, because im aiming to get the best possible grade out of it.

DOWNLOAD LINK HERE (virustotal analysis in case you dont trust zo‎r‎ua -- Fucking shame on you) & explanation below

this is a minimalist, journalism-oriented NLE called PressPlay. Of course in this sample video im using it for a completely different purpose than what it was meant for, which is video packages for both web and TV news programs (known professionally as VTRs in spain). therefore the only transitions, according to the TV standard, are fade-ins and outs (using both black and white colors) and the only effect available is chroma key. You can also implement chyrons (lower thirds and titles). This doesnt mean im not going to implement more functionality (namely keyframes and color correction) in the future though! im always open to expanding it to make it as comfortable for the end user as possible

this was developed in response to the industry standard which is a hellish NLE called Avid Media Composer which, by the way, nearly fucking toasted my PC once (by installing a corrupted driver). But thats a whole different story.

The point is many of my classmates and coworkers were deeply troubled and confused by the sheer complexity of that program, and yet it is the vademecum of all journalists and media workers worldwide, who often have to use it in their jobs, often under a lot of pressure to put out video packages as fast as possible. Thats why i came up with an alternative, more straightforward solution which should reduce editing times and simplify everything while preserving the basic elements that all video packages should have

So yeah, if you feel like messing around with it and giving me some honest feedback, id really appreciate it, mostly because i also gotta work on an essay for this project and any constructive criticism would be very helpful to me. Thank you.

[toweringclam]

Limbus Company characters and the Magnus Entity they'd be an Avatar of:

Yi Sang: The Lonely. Talking to an alternate version of yourself in the mirror who is happier than you is more Lonely than actually being alone.

Faust: The Web. She has plans, and she has experiments, and all of them are secrets you'll never find out.

Don Quixote: The Spiral. She literally lost her mind and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into finding it again. Then, she decided to wear her previous madness as a mask while remaining sane herself.

Ryoshu: The Desolation. Her strong fire and moth motif lends her to this, plus if the original story is any indication, she burned the thing she loved the most.

Meursault: The Stranger. His uncanny, robotic manner, plus the title of his own book.

Hong Lu: The Eye. He seeks to observe the world while maintaining some distance from it. His special eye, as seen in his sigil, also lends itself to this.

Heathcliff: The Hunt. He literally became the Wild Hunt.

Ishmael: The Vast. The Whales are creatures of the Vast if I've ever seen them.

Rodion: The Buried. More like "The Frozen" but still, the same concepts of feeling overwhelming pressure and breaking under the strain

Sinclair: The Flesh. Literally what Nagel und Hammer worships. Kromer becomes a Flesh avatar and wants him to join her

Dante: The Extinction. Their head is the doomsday clock.

Outis: The Slaughter. A blood-soaked general known for her treachery.

Gregor: The Corruption. Literally a cockroach man.

Vergilius: The Dark. Red glowing eyes in the darkness.

Charon: The End. Her name, her whole ferryman motif, the fact she's the negation of so many different versions of herself...

[maud-lin]

Hey, I loved your post on Ulder Ravenguard as he's depicted in Murder in Baldur's Gate. I've been wanting to play MiBG for the lore but haven't had the opportunity yet. Can I bug you for some lore? Apologies in advance for my weird hyperfixation atm.

I'm basically trying to picture the implications of Bhaal's return on the city's government, and how that ties into where we are in BG3.

I don't know if you have any information on Torlin Silvershield, but he was at one point the Grand Duke according to his wiki page, and one of the characters who could become Bhaal's chosen. The problem is, Abdel Adrian and Ulder Ravenguard are also listed as Grand Duke on their wiki pages, and I have no clue how that timeline worked (or if the wiki canon follows an internal consistency vs applying that title to all potential grand dukes).

I'm guessing Torlin replaced Gorion's Ward after Returning Day, leaving Ulder Ravenguard to replace him after he was abducted in 'Dead in Thay'? Or does BG3 erase Silvershield entirely?

Yeah of course!! You're not bugging me at all, I LOVE talking about this stuff :-)

The campaign begins with Grand Duke Abdel Adrian (Gorion's Ward) being attacked publicly in The Wide by Viekang (the only other living "first gen" Bhaalspawn). One of them dies in the duel, causing the other to turn into The Slayer before being killed by the player character(s) (or poison, if you somehow manage to save Abdel). Whoever dies FIRST is wholly dependant on what the DM rolls during their fight and whether or not the player(s) intervene. But no matter what happens, Gorion's Ward and Viekang both WILL die.

This ushers in the resurrection of Bhaal. Throughout the rest of the campaign, Bhaal (now able to influence the material plane) steadily compels the three main antagonists (Ulder Ravenguard, Duke Torlin Silvershield, and Rilsa Rael) into doing increasingly corrupt and violent things until one of them his declared his Chosen during the Feast of the Moon at the end of the campaign. These things range from petty theft, blackmail, stealing hands off of statues, deporting immigrant workers from the city, forcing poorer citizens to dress in accordance to their social class under threat of arrest, arson, violent prison breaks, kidnapping and killing teenagers for ransom, planting explosives in government buildings, brutalizing peaceful protesters, and ordering the mass execution of hundreds of people.

The "canon" Chosen of Bhaal ends up being Torlin Silvershield (before he's quickly defeated and becomes a wight in the Dead in Thay campaign); but in MiBG itself, all three of them are equally possible candidates.

Whichever candidate becomes his Chosen is dependant on how many points they get on "Bhaal's Favor Track" - essentially, if the player(s) don't successfully intervene with their less-than-noble affairs throughout the course of the game, they'll get one point in Bhaal's favor. Whoever has the most points at the end becomes Bhaal's Chosen. Alternatively, a player character can also become Bhaal's Chosen if none of the other candidates are available or there's otherwise some special circumstance in the campaign that warrants that happening (which is what happens to my Dark Urge in my personal version of the story).

Prior to the death of Gorion's Ward, Torlin Silvershield was a Duke on the Council of Four, while Ulder Ravengard was the Marshal of the Flaming Fist. After Gorion's Ward dies, the seat for the Grand Duke is left vacant and much of the conflict in MiBG surrounds multiple characters scrambling to get elected for the position (including Torlin and Ulder) while The Guild stirs conflict in the Lower City in response to the increasingly oppressive laws being passed by the Parliament of Peers.

Descent into Avernus canonized Ulder getting elected as Grand Duke. Torlin might take it upon himself to ACT as Grand Duke in the absence of an official one, but he never actually gets elected at any point (the wiki is just wrong about that one). I don't think the game ever mentions Torlin by name anywhere, but it DOES mention Rilsa Rael in a letter from Keene:

This means that Rilsa IS still alive and a current Kingpin in The Guild, so she (probably) didn't move down too far on Bhaal's hypothetical Favor Track.

I think the implication is either that Torlin is taken to Thay immediately after he's defeated and Bhaal had always intended for him to be disposable or he was never truly Bhaal's Chosen to begin with (the Dark Urge becoming his Chosen in his place) and that was a rumor spread by people who witnessed the attack of "Bhaal's Chosen" during the fete or something.

But because Murder in Baldur's Gate wasn't written with BG3 in mind, some of the information just outright isn't accurate anymore (like Ulder being described as childless and never married, for example). So imo anything that isn't mentioned in the game is up to your interpretation.

[youchangedmedestiel]

As promised I said I'll give you fic recs to celebrate the fact that I have more than 100 followers now. Again, thanks a lot! This makes me happy! :)

So now, here's my gift to you:

Every fucking fic by xylodemon

The writing is always perfect! I'm not kidding, this is my favorite writer so far! I've never been disappointed by their fics. NEVER! I haven't finish to read all of them but I certainly attend to.

Fics written by deancaskiss

If you like reading about Cas and Dean "just" kissing, then you should try reading those, if you haven't done it yet. I haven't read all of them yet, I read only around 10 fics for now, but same I'll attend to read more.

Then, more specifically:

Blackberries Wild by SaltyWords (agent4hire22) Angst, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Canon divergent after 13x12, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, brief mention of suicidal ideation - around 2500 words

This is so well written, the descriptions are everything, especially the ones for the kisses. It could totally happened like that. It's very true to their character if you ask me.

a kiss for every season (literally) by sobsicles and it is also available as a podfic here read by Scintillating Gatria (LadyLoralye) Canon typical level of violence, Canon Compliant, Brief Dean Winchester/Benny Lafitte - Freeform, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kisses, Smut - around 22000 words

The title says it all, a kiss between Cas and Dean happens every season and since there's never enough kisses between these two, that fic is therefore perfect.

People Who Are Good Like Pie by sobsicles Blowjob, NSFW, Castiel is a Little Shit, Dean is In Over His Head, Flustered Dean, Confused Dean, Creatively ties eating pie into sex, Sounds disgusting but it's really not I promise, it's hilarious, fluff and porn - around 1800 words

And it is indeed hilarious imo as well as very hot. It's short and easy to read, really different from the above. But it's human!cas and I'm weak for him in a sense that there is so much potential with him in a fic and that I love him.

You and I Know the Way by aishitara Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Series, Canon Compliant through 15x18, Fluff, a smidgen of angst, PWP, Porn with Feelings, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Mentions of Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort - around 4300 words

There is human!cas in there too, so yeah I'm sold. Plus some amazing, beautiful, stunning art from winchester-reload is included in the fic so it's even more perfect. This is smut yes, but, BUT you can really see all the love there is between them and that fucks me up. That's the type of porn that makes me cry. I never thought I could say that about porn one day. But maybe it's because it isn't, this is just LOVE!

Humans Do It Better by Hatteress Episode: s06e10 Caged Heat (Supernatural), Excessive Drinking, Light Angst, First Kiss, Second more heated kiss, Kinda Funny.

I invented the tags here because it isn't on AO3. I need to mention this fic because it was like one of the first fics I read. It was more than a year ago and I still remember it. Maybe because I wished it had a next FUCKING chapter. I want to read more about it. I want to see what happened when they meet again later. I want to see what's going on in Dean's mind the next morning when he realized what he did, thinking about how he corrupted a fucking angel. Feeling guilty about it because it's Dean. I - I, maybe I'll fucking write this second chapter one day. But I don't know if it's a thing, you know, writing a sequel to someone else's fic.

Anyway, I hope you'll like reading those if it's not already done. I for sure have more fics to recommend but I have to save some for the 200 followers I guess lmao. One can dream.

BUT if you need specific fics, like from an episode in particular for example, you can still ask me because I sort them by episode tag too.

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

fanfic end of year asks!

a fic you didn’t expect to write

something you learned this year

fic(s) you completed this year

fics you’ll continue next year

Thanks for the ask! ^_^ (For this ask game.)

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

speech is silver, silence is golden, lmao. I really truly did not expect to write Garak/Morn smut. But when my friend requested it, I knew exactly how to write it lol. <3

15. something you learned this year

I may have already learned this, but exchanges with delayed fic reveals and then author reveals a week or so after that are BRUTAL on me, and I may (or may not) just avoid them from now on hahaha. The usual fic-posting waiting-for-comments anxiety but drawn out over a muuuuuch longer time period (finish the fic before the deadline to submit, wait a million years for it to even get revealed anonymously, then wait another whole week before I can even link to it on my blog...).

16. fic(s) you completed this year

27 fics finished this year!! Wooooo! (...And I may update this post later if I post any more hehe.)

completed fics posted:

the looking-glass war (Past Prologue Sisko POV, background Garashir)

and if you don't love me now, you will never love me again (Garashir, Broken Link getting together fic)

lockstitch (Sloanshir, embroidery as torture, sometime post-IAESL)

partners in crime (Siskarak, post-ITPM smut)

kiss me hard before you go (Garashir, Extreme Measures getting together fic)

Unlikely Weapon (Garashir, Julian killing Sloan = Garashir getting together scenario lol)

a contract is a contract is a contract (Quark/Brunt smut set during Body Parts)

me and the devil walking side by side (Siskarak smut about devotion and corruption and recognition of the self in the other and all that good stuff)

you're a criminal as long as you're mine (Siskarak smut set during Second Skin, about crossing and setting boundaries, and the homoerotic relationship between a weapon and its wielder)

speech is silver, silence is golden (Garak/Morn smut with pre-Garashir feels. Garak obvs gags Morn during the sex lol.)

every breath you take (Sloan records Garashir having sex)

going up, going down (cracky Siskarak smut, blowjob in the turbolift during ITPM)

A Professional Interest (augmentphobic Sloan interrogates Julian)

Deserted (Garashir stranded on a desert planet)

touch (Garashir IPS/BIL missing scene multichapter fic)

fics for events/exchanges that had restricted word counts (250 words or 300 words):

gaslight gatekeep girlboss (Kira/Winn and Kira/Ziyal, exactly what the title says lol)

the pros and cons of being possessed (Kira/Keiko, argument about what happened to Kira in The Reckoning and what happened to Keiko in The Assignment)

feels so right (Jadzia/Kira, Kira's fun way of coping with her internalized homophobia)

both lips on the mirror (Intendant/Kira, mirror Kira is obsessed with her counterpart)

not unfaithful but I'll stray (Kirawinn, Strange Bedfellows)

chirality (Intendant/Kira smut, Crossover)

drabbles (100 words):

lying down with dogs (Siskarak smut)

i think we're alone now (Garashir, IPS/BIL cuddles)

The Descent (quodo, The Ascent smut)

never loved nobody fully (Disko, two alternate versions provided depending on which Cardassian you want Sisko to actually be into lol. also some amazing people made a podfic of this, which is just so cool!!!)

The Mole (Sloan vs Kukalaka >:3)

sunshine bouquet (Garashir fluff, DBIP)

aaaaand, not fics, but while I'm rounding everything up, here's links to the two amvs I finished this year too:

Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls - Garashir (tumblr, youtube)

meet me in the pale moonlight by Lola Violet (tumblr, youtube)

17. fics you’ll continue next year

Sleep Awake is my only partially posted wip, but I have many unposted wip documents that I intend to post next year (or whenever I finish them)! These include wips with document titles such as: siskarak strip poker, Sub Rosa sloanshir, soulmate sloanshir, aphrodisiac sloanshir, Inquisition in the Abscess 'verse, julian jealous of imagined siskarak, and garak jealous of imagined sloanshir. :) (P.S. - Anyone can always feel free to ask me about any of those and I will immediately go write/edit at least a sentence on it. Trick me into making incremental progress on my shit, please!)

[fantasyinvader]

Lately, there was stuff on my dash about Edelgard lying during her supports with Byleth in an attempt to manipulate them into joining her. Namely, that she made up her siblings. Now, I admit I floated the idea prior to Hopes, since the only mentions of her siblings were by Edelgard and Hubert. No one else seemed to have anything to say about their deaths, then Hopes revealed people don’t know they are dead and are only rumored to be so...which raises questions about how no one talks about the 9th child of the emperor being made heir.

So Hopes established that Edelgard didn’t make up her siblings, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t lie during the support.

I noticed something.

Edelgard’s C+ support, the thing needed in order for her to ask Byleth to join her in Enbarr, is locks once the player reaches the chapter where she asks it. The last chance for the player to get it is before Byleth gains their Enlightened One class. Here’s the kicker though, in the event for that chapter titled A Form of Grief, there’s the scene where Edelgard-As-Flame-Emperor and Thales talks. Edelgard identifies Thales as the one who was behind the events in Enbarr and Duscur, and Thales explains that everything he’s done is to give Edelgard power so that she may purge the surface of “beasts.”

The reason why this is important is that this contradicts what Edelgard says to Byleth in the C+ support. Now, when Edelgard tells Byleth about the experiments they have two options; asking who was behind it and asking why they were done, to which Edelgard replys it was Duke Aegir and the nobility and to create a strong emperor to rule Fodlan respectively. During the Enbarr trip, Ionius will also say it was Aegir, but then during Crimson Flower during the event titled Disquiet Hubert says that the ones who experimented on Edelgard, killed her siblings and made her father their puppet was Arundel and the group he leads which Kronya and Solon were a part of. In other words it was TWSITD who did these things, and he says that Edelgard must have already told you all this. Hopes even made it clear that while there’s tons of evidence against Aegir being a corrupt bastard, there isn’t any for the worst things Edelgard is accusing him of.

Edelgard tries to cover this up, saying he must have destroyed the evidence... but not the evidence of his corruption.

Ionius was a puppet of Thales and blamed Aegir for the experiments. Ferdinand’s paralogue, not available in Flower, reveals that Arundel/Thales also used Aegir as a scapegoat for his brutal rule and heavy taxation on the people of Hymr, and that while Aegir wasn’t a good ruler he wasn’t a monster. Said paralogue also makes it clear that the point of the Insurrection was to strip the emperor of power after Ionius tried to consolidate it on himself, so experimenting on Edelgard to create a “strong emperor to rule Fodlan” makes no damn sense since the Insurrection weakened the emperor’s power.

And looking at the timing, A Form of Grief happens during the last month the player can unlock Edelgard’s C+ support. So during the last month Edelgard can tell the player it was Aegir, Edelgard herself talks to Thales about it, contradicting her claim it was Aegir, and Thales tells her why it happened, contradicting the reason Edelgard gives the player.

The timing is important here. At the end of the month where Edelgard’s first support opens, it ends with a scene between her and Hubert about her reaching out to Byleth, who can wield the SotC in her stead. During the events of the Goddess Tower, Edelgard tells Byleth about how her parents met but that same month a NPC says it was a legend from long ago. Now we have Edelgard’s C+ support ending around the same time story events of the game discredit what she tells Byleth. Then, if Byleth rejects Edelgard she says during combat that she wishes Byleth could have been swayed by her actions and words, and in the Japanese script she did whatever she could for that.

The alternative is that Edelgard ignores the truth whenever convenient, such as how in Hopes she admits she ignored how much influence the Agarthans have within the Empire. Edelgard NEEDS the nobility to be the cause of her suffering with the Church pulling their strings, otherwise she would be forced to admit that she’s doing exactly what the people who did those things to her want her to do. That the teachings she wants to replace with her ideals had nothing to do with what happened, and that the information that informed her ideals came from the mouth of a puppet of those who wanted to control her.

But Edelgard did know, she kept the player in the dark, and the game later titles her the lady of deceit. Really, that’s the game coming clean right there.

[kidukami]

☾┅ about me ┅ ☽

hi, call me mika! i'm 21+ and i go by they/them pronouns. i'm a se asian writer + aspiring literary translator based in the uk. this post is essentially a writeblr reintroduction as i am starting anew in the community with this blog, and i'm really excited to share my wips and connect with all you lovely writers out there! i'm also tag and/or interaction friendly (although my reply speed is... not the best especially for tag/ask games, but i'm trying!), so please don't be afraid to say hi ♡

☾┅ writing interests ┅ ☽

important note: my works may contain mature and potentially triggering topics. viewer discretion is advised.

╳ i'm mainly a prose fiction writer, although i may dabble in scriptwriting and poetry at times. ╳ genres: speculative fiction, historical fiction, thriller, literary fiction. ╳ themes: sociopolitical commentary, satire, dark comedy, angst/tragedy, tragicomedy, morally grey characters, queer romance. ╳ open to reading all genre and themes! you're more than welcome to reblog this with your wips or tag me in them, whether or not they feature any of the above. the above lists are not exhaustive because to this day i still don't know how my writing brain works. ╳ i take plenty of writing-related requests (beta/proofreading, critique, collabs, translation work, etc.)! please refer to my carrd for more info, or contact me directly for inquiries.

☾┅ main wips ┅ ☽

will o' the wisp :: adult sci-fi/thriller novel. ╳ award-winning talk show host and journalist noe crane is constantly treading a tightrope as he assumes his secret vigilante identity behind closed doors, but things get worse when his past comes back to haunt him. ╳ features: tragicomedy, morally grey characters, lgbt+ characters, complex relationships, modern setting, superpowers, conspiracies ╳ wip intro here!

the duña duology :: adult weird fiction duology. ╳ a troubled man in his 30s attempts to escape from his past and seeks refuge in a run-down inn, only to find himself caught up in a dangerous conspiracy against the world. ╳ features: adult (30+) characters, unlikeable protagonist, multiple universes, high concept, complex worldbuilding, retrofuturism, found family, conspiracies, aliens (?) wip intro coming soon! message if you want to be tagged.

a history of the tenshima gang feud (working title) :: new adult sci-fi/romance novel. ╳ when a national museum tour guide somehow travels back to the city's deadliest era in history as one of its disgraced figures, he will soon find that his beloved city isn't what it claims itself to be. ╳ features: time travel, alternate future, fictional setting, criminal underworld, ensemble cast, sociopolitical commentary, morally grey characters, lgbt+ characters, love triangle, lovers to enemies, friends to lovers, mcd, tragedy wip intro coming soon! message if you want to be tagged.

lilium carnage :: historical steampunk visual novel (collab with @nana7esque) ╳ four characters on two sides of the same coin. each of them are determined to deliver their own justice in the corrupted land of navona, even at the cost of their own lives, but little do they know that there will always be a bigger price to pay. ╳ features: alternate history, fictional setting, choice-based story, multiple endings, morally grey characters, lgbt+ characters, tragedy, enemies to lovers, complex chara dynamics wip intro coming soon! message if you want to be tagged.

☾┅ side wips ┅ ☽

shelved wips, wip ideas i have yet to develop, etc.

╳ by the kiss of the sleeping night :: thriller/romance webtoon collab with @nana7esque ╳ retelling of the nyi roro kidul myth ╳ modern setting character-driven script with each characters being an allegory to the seven deadly sins

feel free to interact with this post especially if you're also a writeblr! ♡

[404angelcore]

Wendigo; (also spelled windigo or witiko)

/satirical mythology for dumba$$es/

You must have seen this girly girl on screen before as she’s casted in films easier than Gal Gadot or Jennifer Lopez. (For the record; this baby girl played parts in The Witcher, Sleepy Hollow, The Antlers, etc. but surprisingly she appeared in all the films with a title containing Wendigo)

She’s such a cutie pie as you can see it too in this artwork I took off pinterest lol

But what is a Wendigo? The girlypop is basically a man eating beast with the not too innocent looking smile on her pop culture based skull face.

The whole backstory of this gaunt and skeletal little one with rotting skin, glowing eyes is not truly known but the original plot is that the wendigo is actually a human being who transformed into this beast due to cannibalism, greed, a shitty skincare routine (?) or simply by being possessed by an evil spirit (you decide which is the worst case). So after being transformed into a beast the candidate gets a chance for the first time in their completely futile existence to have a symbolic meaning in overrated mass production cinema. How fulfilling. Except that by being a sassy beast chica with nice little features and a cute smile you unintentionally represent big and depressing word combinations like MORAL FAILURE, LOSS OF IDENTITY and SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION.

The origin of the fame that surrounds this mythical scarecrow is deeply rooted in the oral traditions and spiritual beliefs of Indigenous peoples of the northern forests of North America, particularly those in Canada and the northern U.S. The creature or spirit is most commonly found in the legends of Algonquian-speaking tribes, such as the Cree, Ojibwe (Chippewa), Innu, Saulteaux, and Algonquin. //No, I never heard of them before either//

The North American tribes used the adult swim fairy tale to scare the shit out of their kids in order to prevent them from becoming a twisted, monstrous being due to greed, or rather just being hungry. (To be historically correct the legend was born when the winters were too cold and preservatives weren’t yet discovered… no wonder why there isn’t any McDonald’s cheeseburger from that period of time, still in immaculate shape)

The alternative solution to hunger wasn’t even higher taxes back then (which might seem sympathetic at first glance) but instead of forcing everyone to eat less so that the minority of them could eat a full meal three times a day, they let people die from hunger so that others could help themselves. This was either a good opportunity to try out new recipes or a whole spiritual journey that was bound to end in becoming a cannibal icon.

/Rebecca Frödén/

[lottiesnotebook]

Here Lottie:

Oh no! Your pro tags have been given a new role! How would they fare?

Warden-> Hawke

Hawke-> Inquisitor

Inquisitor-> Rook

Rook-> Warden

Ooh hello Anon! This is very reminiscent of my Protagonist Swap Game that's gotten me through a truly hideous week (so if you want more details on these swaps, or alternates, feel free to play that too, if you hadn't already seen it!)

Without further ado, let's swap my girlies, though I will be making appropriate alterations to the canonical backstories to keep them consistent with their personalities, so with that in mind:

Luna Tabris in Dragon Age 2

Given how central being a City Elf is to Luna's identity (and the fact we have an alienage in Kirkwall), let's make the whole Tabris family refugees in the Hawke family's place. Maybe Luna loses her newlywed husband on the road to Gwaren when they face the darkspawn. She's not going to have a noble title or Hightown manor to reclaim, but let's say she ploughs her earnings from the Deep Roads into her new home in the alienage, making it a better place to live, protecting it from humans who'd take advantage of her people, maybe giving a glowing white-haired elf a few reasons to live and flirting with a pretty pirate along the way...

And then she hears a guard raped one of her people and Aveline, who was meant to be fixing the corruption within the system, didn't even investigate? Maybe Luna's the one burning Kirkwall down at the end of Act 2, never mind the Arishok. XD I could genuinely see her allying with him, at least until the issues of what to do with Isabela and the mages came up, at which point she's always going to pick her loved ones over ridiculous concepts like 'honour' and 'single combat'. I don't see a way she survives leading the Kirkwall Elven Revolution but who knows, maybe she escapes with Isabela and Fenris and lives like a pirate queen?

Rhiannon Hawke in Inquisition

So I usually say Rhiannon should have been at the club or possibly a popstar instead of in Dragon Age 2, but I actually think she'd be a pretty good Inquisitor. She's smart, charismatic, and would make a terrifyingly good cult leader, even if she'd be a little bewildered by it. She'd certainly have a better time there than she did in her own game, or than my canonical Inquisitor did. I do think she'd be a little too trusting, though, and that would get her in a lot of trouble come Trespasser...

Rheyah Adaar in Veilguard

I genuinely think Rheyah would have a much better time in Veilguard than in Inquisition. Sticking to her canonical age, she'd be about 30 when the game starts, which is a little more grownup than Rook reads to me, but that's all to the good - being the baby of the gang at 19 in Inquisition was rough for her, and being one of the grownups along with Neve, Lucanis and Emmrich would be a lot easier for her. I also think she'd probably know Taash as a fellow Vashoth mercenary, and they might even have played with her younger siblings as kids, so she'd definitely be WAY less isolated than she is in Southern Thedas.

I also think she'd be much more likely to attempt to redeem Solas as Rook than as the Inquisitor - in my head, she never quite moves on from him being one of the first people in the Inquisition to show her kindness and treat her like a person only to turn around and say that actually he'd never seen her as a person at all and now only did so unwillingly, but when she's Rook, they've never had that conversation, and she is a strong believer in second chances and forgiveness otherwise.

Cara Hawke Laidir in Origins

Oh no if ever there were a character who should not have been sent to deal with the Fifth Blight... XD Cara's defining character traits are Spoilt Princess with a (Very Well-Hidden) Heart of Gold, so I don't think she'd necessarily be a GREAT leader in this particular hour of need, or deal well with the privations of being on the run.

I do however think that Alistair would immediately be lost to her confidence and force of personality, so at the end of the game Ferelden might end up with Mage Queen Cara ruling at his side (yes I know that's not possible canonically but the canon of Origins never had a Cara to deal with). Would she be good at being Queen? Probably not, but I don't think that would stop her.

Thank you for the ask, anon! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did thinking about it!

[its-short-for-jackalope]

OKAY, WE GOT A TRAILER AND A TITLE AND I HAVE THOUGHTS

You know what that means: it's brainrot time.

🏝 TITLE REVEAL: WHO IS THE SEARCHER IN THE SHADOWS?

quick note, I love this title. It's rad as hell. 10/10. anyway—

of course when I hear the word "Searcher" I immediately think of the one and only Addison Arvad, missing captain of the Antikythera and beloved wrecker of journals.

look at her. I love her. she's beautiful. also I am lowkey obsessed with how Jackie draws hair. (please teach me your secrets.)

We didn't get to learn much about Capt. Arvad in episode 3, but we do know that she was a Searcher who disappeared without any explanation, along with the rest of her crew. Kal probably had something to do with it, since he was attempting to retrieve the ship's orrery and said some vague stuff about fog and vortices, but even he doesn't seem to know exactly what happened to her and the crew.

Whatever the case, her disappearance is the reason most of the events in TGOA even happened, so it would make sense for her to be a big part of the next episode. And if Addison is the Searcher and the Searcher is in the shadows, then I have two (and a half?) theories.

The first is that she (and her crew, if they survived, who are also presumably all Searchers) are lost somewhere and that whatever "fogging the vertices" entails led to her getting whisked away somewhere else. She could be trapped there, trying to get out, and/or maybe she is in shadows in the same way Margaret was—maybe she has lost her memories and her magic.

The second theory is actually an idea @man-down-in-hatchet-town proposed that promptly blew my mind: what if whatever happened to Addison led to her getting corrupted and going dark and she is the villain of the episode? I honestly love this idea so much and I think it would be fun and also delightfully heartbreaking after hearing that entry from Addison's journal and getting a glimpse of the person she once was.

(also every pulp fan I know is in complete agreement that we want a cool female villain, pretty please Matt— 🥺🙏)

🏝 OH GOD, THE TIME TRAVEL

I've already yelled a bit about Rose being separated from Samuel and the others, so I'm not gonna repeat myself here, but I also have other thoughts about the time travel!

The trailer has confirmed that Rose was indeed sent two weeks into the past like Ahlaam said she would be. I think it's safe to assume that Rose will have to wait those two weeks until she can reunite with the others, and I also believe we're gonna have to wait with her.

Rose’s two weeks are going to be important—she's meeting Dakkar and hopefully getting some Travelore™ about the island and The Blazing World, and probably getting into some sort of trouble that better not require a printing press plate to resolve, since she doesn’t have it right now—so I don’t think they're going to just blip by. Otherwise what’s the point of sending her back in time?

I think it’s a pretty safe bet that we (the listeners) are probably going to be doing some time travel ourselves, hopping between Rose's two weeks with Dakkar and the rest of the brick family in the present as Sia takes them to the island and they get started on all that mysterious work they have to do. I have no idea what they're going to find there except maybe a rocket? but I can imagine Samuel and the others following Rose's trail as they piece together what's happened to her and learn about this place and its inhabitants, and then the storylines will connect by the end of the episode and we'll get the twins back together and they'll never be separated again!

Isn't that right, Mr. Dahan?

/lh

Alternatively, I suppose the Ellen Austin could be met on the shore by a Rose who has already spent two weeks on the island and then we could get relevant flashbacks here and there, but I don't think that's as likely. It might be too impractical for this medium when we have a lot of story (and lore) to cover and only so much time to sing about it! Plus, that"By the time our heroes are reunited" bit really makes me think that they won't see each other until closer to the end of the episode. The reunion is absolutely gonna make me cry. I can't wait.

🏝 TRAVELER ISLAND, BABEY!

The island's inhabitants have magic similar to Margaret's, and are led by a new group of powerful Travelers.

...Well, maybe it's not Traveler island, exactly. I'm guessing that most of these ~inhabitants~ are actually Searchers. Sia might not be the only Traveler, but I don't think there are a lot of them out there. It makes more sense for there to be less Travelers and more Searchers to balance things out if the Travelers are significantly more powerful like they've been implied to be.

I definitely think Ahlaam is one of the "new group of powerful Travelers" and I'm super excited to get to know her more. (I am also hoping that maybe we'll get a Jackie Traveler character? 👀) I still don't know if Dakkar is a Traveler or not, but I'm inclined to believe he might be a Searcher—mostly because his portrait doesn't have glowing eyes and flashy gold jewelry like Sia or Ahlaam. (I also feel like it may not be a coincidence that he's wearing a light blue-ish colored shirt like Addison, even if it's a different style and looks considerably less like a space suit, lol.)

They speak of a lost kingdom, The Blazing World, and how what occurs on Lincoln Island will impact an entire civilization.

The Blazing World!!! Rose hasn't heard this name yet, but we have! (and Margaret and Samuel.) The people on Lincoln Island could be survivors/refugees from the Blazing World, or perhaps they are all here on a war mission and this is simply their base of operations. Either way, I'm sure the civilization being impacted is the Travelers'; even if this island isn't currently sheltering all that remains of their people and this is only an outpost for the war, they still have some valuable people here—like Margaret, who is recovering her memories and I am certain has an incredibly vital role to play in this war—and the aftermath of whatever happens will undoubtedly be felt beyond the shores of Lincoln Island. Either our heroes succeed in whatever they're trying to do here, or it goes wrong and the Blazing World potentially loses valuable warriors & resources, and the war against Itzal takes a turn for the worse.

🏝 THE "D" WORD: DESTINY

By the time our heroes are reunited, they will be closer to understanding their destinies than ever before...

Destiny... oh, I've had many thoughts about this and been part of multiple discussions with various friends about fate and coincidence and puzzle pieces coming together in this story. enough that I'm almost not sure where to start.

...Eh, chronologically, I guess.

1817 — the year the Stratford family paper stand was established and the year Anna Hanover's father lost his place in the world. Both of these events affected the characters' lives, helping to cement the twins' love of stories and giving them an eventual connection to the New York Sun that would allow them to publish the moon hoax, and giving Anna her tragic backstory and a goal that would drive her to construct her own moon out of brick rather than ink.

1829 — the year I believe Margaret Cavendish arrived in New York City. She lost her memories and her magic, and the Travelers set her up here to live in comfort and safety and loneliness. We don't know why this happened yet, but I think it's safe to assume the location isn't a coincidence when we know at least one Traveler with precognitive abilities and it's only a handful of years until...

1835 — the year of the moon hoax and the brick satellite. Samuel and Rose Stratford write a story that takes the city by storm, attracting the attention of both Margaret Cavendish, who has been looking for answers and winds up with more questions and magic she doesn't remember or understand, and Sir John Herschel, who doesn't want fantastical stories written about him, thank you very much—but wait, how did he get here? He was in South Africa, a whole other hemisphere! How did he find out about the hoax so quickly?

Well, someone brought him the newspaper that made him come to New York, meet the Stratfords and Margaret, and invite them all to work on the brick satellite with him. They go to British Guiana, manage to finish the satellite alongside Anna, get it into the sky thanks to Margaret's Radiance, and finally meet the Traveler out in space, who somehow knew they would be there and knew Margaret's magic was returning but is surprised that her memories weren't. The Traveler knows more than she's telling, but rather than explain she sends the quartet back to Earth.

1874 — the year the quartet are teleported to. They happen to meet a friendly bosun who offers them a place on a ship that'll take them to New York, right where they want to go. Perfect, right? But in reality it takes them to a ghost ship that just so happens to contain some stuff that helps Margaret remember some things. There's a crazy awesome magic battle, sailors vanish, the ghost ship vanishes, and by the end of it all they're sailing towards a mysterious island and the Traveler, Sia, is telling them they have a lot of work to do.

...okay, the point I'm attempting to make here is that yeah, it definitely seems like something has been leading them here, to this time and place. I just can't tell if it's ✨️destiny✨️ or if it's just Sia, who can see into the future and had a clear hand in at least some of these occurrences. She sent our heroes to 1874 in a flash of light, right into Morgan's path, into Kal's, into the Antikythera's. And if she did that, who's to say she hasn't been guiding the quartet in more covert ways this whole time? Someone had to get that paper to John. Someone—specifically a Traveler someone—had to get Margaret settled in New York.

You could say that it's all destiny and that Sia's foresight and her actions are simply destiny's way of getting shit done, that it was all going to happen this way no matter what. You could also go round and round questioning how destiny and precognitive abilities work & influence each other until your brain feels like it's melting (why yes, I am speaking from experience) but I think I'm going to skip that and focus on a different question instead:

What does destiny (or Sia) have in store for our heroes?

I don't know, of course. probably a rocket at some point? gotta wait for the episode to find out.

but regardless of who or what has been pulling the strings, it took a lot to get our heroes to this point and the idea that they're meant to be here, that they've always been headed toward something that's more than this the lives they had before is so unbelievably exciting??? even if you don't care for the idea of destiny or fate, you know great things are coming and that the story is gonna get bigger and wilder.

🏝 YEAH I KEEP MENTIONING THE ROCKET, DON'T I?

might as well actually give it its own little section on this ramble-y ass post, lol.

We've had hints that there'd be at least one rocket in the story from the very first M.A.I.A. transmission. (If you haven't seen those, you're missing out!) Now that we're getting new cast photos where everyone has been posing with a little red rocket, it looks like it's time!

Maybe the quartet are going to help the Travelers build a rocket. Maybe they're going to help repair a rocket that already exists. Maybe they're going to go to space again, or another planet—The Blazing World?—or maybe they're only going to see the Travelers off and that'll be it. (Okay, that last one would be a little disappointing, lmao.) Hell, maybe they're only going to Lincoln Island to meet a rocket that hasn't arrived yet! So many possibilities!

...hmm. I think that's it? I think that's all the thoughts I had. I have been putting this post together off and on since last night so if I missed anything or it seems a little disjointed then that's why, lmao.

this is admittedly less of a theory post at times and more of a John impression (it's not my fault I have questions!) but why wait for M.A.I.A. transmissions and more information when I can shout about it all now? the universe simply wouldn't be right if I didn't seize every opportunity to scream about Pulp Musicals.

anyway, if you read all of this then I hope you enjoyed it! you can expect/dread more posts like this in the coming weeks, as soon as we get more info and M.A.I.A. transmissions. can't wait to see my best girl again. 💙

...I really hope Matt and Jackie have gotten that window fixed.