#also the fact that none of the characters got a second to process all the horrible shit they went through

[funeralflow3rs]

Now that I've sat with HOFAS for a few days, my feels are still p much the same... It was just okay. I'm glad to have ticked a bunch of things off my bingo card sheet and I'm not mad about anything that happened. I LOVED some parts so much, especially the new ACOTAR lore which I was not expecting to get... But it felt so soulless outside of a handful of moments scattered throughout. I had no connection to the CC characters I love ( When I tell u I love Ruhn I literally named my dog after him ) and it didn't feel like they really went anywhere development wise or if they did it was such a fast speed run of it I didn't get to enjoy it before we were on to the next thing. Honestly it left me feeling really empty by the end, that's still lingering and not in the usual book coma kind of way. I wish she would have either split the book in half or slowed the pace down a bit and given the reader room to breathe instead of throwing huge revelation after huge revelation at us. I'm just so sad it fell flat for me when so many people I know are loving it, like what did I miss what am I personally not getting here 😭😭

[spaceagebachelormann]

MARS CAN I HAVE HCS FOR DOING UR MAKEUP WITH THE DUCKS <333333

PLSPSLOSLSLSLSÑSLSPSLSÑSLÑSJSLDLSJSKS ILYSM KSBDND

doing ur makeup with the ducks !

✧ warnings: none!

✧ characters included: charlie conway, adam banks, lester averman, fulton reed, connie moreau, guy germaine, julie gaffney, ken wu, dean portman, luis mendoza, dwayne robertson

✧ additional info: can be read as romantic or platonic! readers gender isn’t explicitly specified but is supposed to be fem

✧ m.list — nav.

ೃ༄ charlie conway

he’s. very interesting about it

he’ll mainly just sit and watch cause he doesn’t know what else to do but will ask questions

“omg what’s this” and it’s probably mascara

even though he’s a guy u would think he knows that

he’s not mean about it or anything, he actually asks a lot of questions because he’s genuinely interested

ೃ༄ adam banks

i have a hc he has an older sister so he actually knows what a lot of the bottles are

he’d let u test lipsticks on his arm <3

and if u wanted his honest opinion on how ur makeup looks he may or may not be able to give it 😭 but if he thinks it looks bad he’ll hesitate for like 5 mins before finally saying “you look a little crazy.. i’m sorry”

and he’d let u put some on him for funsies

ೃ༄ lester averman

he’d talk non stop the whole time u do ur makeup

it’s like 40% questions and 60% random nonsense

it’s entertaining though because he knows all the gossip and has fun facts that are actually terrifying

he’d wanna try to put makeup on u but u don’t let him cause he’ll fuck up 💕

and if u get up to go to the bathroom or just to get something u come back and bro looks like a clown

ೃ༄ fulton reed

despite the fact he’s very silly and chaotic and always has something to start yelling about he actually likes the peacefulness of when ur doing ur makeup

it’s like a little free period for him cause he can get hw done, sleep, just sit there and talk normally, etc

ofc cause he’s a Teenage Boy he’d probably make fun of u a little but he’s overall amazed by the process and how long a full face takes

and also would ask u to tell him whatever gossip yk and his responses are so funny

“so yk chelsea?—” “OHH THE ONE WHO GOT PREGNANT??? YEAHHH” “apparently the dad is j-“ “JAKE??? I FUCKING KNEW IT.”

ೃ༄ connie moreau

i feel like she’s one of those girls who only wears like mascara and lipgloss (not cause she’s a pick me but because she doesn’t know how to do anything else)

will ask u to do hers for her! and teach her how to do stuff like blush and eyeliner since she doesn’t know how but rlly wants to learn

and she also compliments ur makeup every 2 mins

“omgg u look gorgeous!” “connie babes i haven’t even put anything on yet” “and? <3”

ೃ༄ guy germaine

says things like “you look so pretty” or “that looks so cool? omg?” every 2 seconds

he genuinely thinks ur the greatest at doing makeup

and he also let’s u test lipsticks on his arm

i feel like he’d ask u to put eyeliner on him just cause he wants to see what it looks like on him <3

also his hands are probably really steady for some reason?? so if u have shaky hands hed help u put stuff on

ೃ༄ julie gaffney

100% curls ur lashes for u if ur also terrified of the lash curler

does hers with u even though she doesn’t rlly use concealer and foundation and skin stuff cause she washes her face every day <3

but she’d know how to use literally everything and is fucking amazing at it and can help u with whatever u want

would ask u to help her choose colours if she decides to have colourful eyeshadow

let’s u paint her nails <3

ೃ༄ ken wu

i’m ngl he probably just sits there and watches

probably uses the time to just talk about whatever

and if y’all have classes together he asks for help with hw 😭

“so what’s number 4 again??” “oh it’s 13 over 6” “ty!!”

he’d also start organizing ur makeup for funsies and brings u snacks and water if he gets bored

ೃ༄ dean portman

will look through literally all ur makeup for funsies

and also asks a shit ton of questions

would probably say “that’s so girly 😹🫵” as a joke but he’s actually rlly intrigued and likes watching u do it

hands u whatever u need but u probably have to explain it to him and he grabs it at the last second to be a bitch

“can u hand me the lash curler?” “the what” “that curvy thing that looks like a little science tool” “wtf r u talking about” “oh my god let me—“ “OHHH U MEAN THIS”

sometimes he actually has no idea wtf u mean though

ೃ༄ luis mendoza

knows what everything is cause as we all know this MAN WHORE has had like 400 gfs

would suggest different lip colours to do

will 100% rizz u up while ur putting on lip gloss or lipstick

“i like that colour, u should kiss me so we can both have it” “that wasn’t smooth at all”

he also makes jokes like the little comedian he is (compares random people to random shit)

ೃ༄ dwayne robertson

he’s like adam but more talkative

would try to guess what everything is used for and like very rarely gets it right

but when he does he gets so excited

he’d do ur hair while u do ur makeup so u don’t have to after

WOULD PLAY COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE BG.

[comicaurora]

If you still have Sailor Moon on the brain, did watching it at all give you any options you wish to share about other magical girl esk media you wish existed or your own take on how you would create a story in that media space?

If not, then maybe, if you're inclined to, recount some interesting findings about the connections that exist between shojo and shonen media?

(If neither then please disregard, sorry for imposing)

It was interesting! I was surprised at how much it had in common with shonen action anime. Half the boss battles get resolved with a beam clash and the only difference between Super Saiyan and Neo Queen Serenity is whether the hair or the outfit changes.

The one part I found myself sliding off of - due to personal writing preference - is how Usagi is the defacto center of the universe and everyone else is very explicitly playing support. That's part of why I liked the Outer Senshi so much - because they've all got their own ludicrously OP stuff going on, they feel more like equals to Usagi than glorified bodyguards. The inner planet senshi get their own character arcs, which is excellent, but after a while it's pretty clear that none of them can ever finish a fight without Sailor Moon. And that's fine, that's the pretense of the story - their jobs are very explicitly to protect the turbopowerful demigoddess moon princess while she gets her act together enough to remember she can win - but I prefer writing an ensemble cast where everyone feels like the hero of their own story, not the support in someone else's, and that's pretty much antithetical to the core premise of the show.

It also has a lot of the hallmarks of a soft magic system that I personally struggle with - the old "you win by believing in yourself" thing basically means "you win when the plot demands it would be most interesting for you to win" - but again, they can get away with a lot by letting the actual core premise of the universe's power system be stuff like "a pure heart gives you strength" and "the power of love will legitimately make you more powerful." And I respect that the show doesn't just give people powerups whenever - one of the parts I found most emotionally impactful was in the finale of season 3, when Sailor Saturn is going to fight the big bad all by herself and will 100% definitely die in the process, and because Sailor Moon has sacrificed the season's macguffin, she can no longer transform into her powered-up form to help - which doesn't stop her from screaming the transformation phrase over and over, because she is desperate to save Sailor Saturn even if she's been told it can't possibly work. When she gets her The Most Purest Heart Ever powerup at the last possible second, that feels excellent because it's a profoundly impactful character moment that's being supported by the plot with a tangible powerup. It's pretty telling that we don't even see the final bossfight; it's not about the spectacle or the beam clash, it's about the character arcs that surround them. I think that's a really interesting way to handle it and to add depth to an otherwise basic "whose number is bigger" style struggle.

I'm also deeply fond of paragons, and as the seasons go on I really like how Usagi's ultimately kind personality drives her to constantly help, no matter the personal cost or how aggressively people try to dissuade her - and I like that she gets angry and frustrated and even says or does harsh things sometimes, but will ultimately always do what she thinks is right. It makes her feel like a real human being, and the "weaknesses" and flaws in her character - aka the parts that make her something more complicated than a perfectly stoic problem-solving machine - are a lot of fun to watch.

Personal preference, I'd like to see more magical girl stuff where the central pillar of the plot is not a constant will-they-won't-they het romance - but I also like how Sailor Moon as a series is legitimately aware that this is not actually the de facto most important relationship for everyone. Surprising multitude of gay characters aside, I recently caught a season 2 episode where Makoto donates blood to save a close friend, and explains to Usagi that she isn't in love with him, but they have an incredibly profound friendship that's more important to her than any boyfriend, a concept with startles and confuses Usagi. It seems to be a case where the heroine has a Foundational Romantic Subplot that defines the course of her life and the plot, but the rest of the characters get to have more complicated dynamics where their life goals aren't "omg boys", and I liked that a lot!

When comparing and contrasting it to shonen action anime, I think the magical girl genre manages to integrate the lower-stakes slice of life elements significantly more smoothly, and to great effect - the 90% of the show that's silly and ridiculous makes the 10% of it that's extremely serious and gutwrenching much more impactful. That's something that a lot of shonen series struggle with, where the tone goes from "moderately serious with the occasional goof" to "extremely serious with major character deaths." The magical girl genre going from "the dumbest episode premise you've ever heard" to "extremely serious with major character deaths" is a much more precipitous plunge into icy water, as it were.

When I think about how I would write a magical girl story, I basically just smack into the premise of Exalted. Its worldbuilding has exactly what I want - an interesting system of powerset-reincarnation into worthy hosts that allows for complex interpersonal dynamics through varying levels of memory preservation, several different flavors of magical transforming person including Evil Versions, and the one thing I prioritize in my own writing - a world that feels like it can have a lot of main characters and heroes of their own story. Everyone in Exalted has their own shit going on and their own past-life drama, including former friend groups/adventuring parties, soulmates (both regular and evil versions), and anyone who might've previously killed them. Most importantly for my preferences, there's no default main character of the universe. If I were to make an urban fantasy magical girl setting, I'd probably use an extremely similar premise because I find the ramifications of it unbelievably interesting in a way the system itself is not designed to explore.

[thebookdragonshoard]

The Wicked King by Holly Black: Review (SPOILERS)

Dearest gentle readers (sorry, I've been watching too much Bridgerton).

Anyways, hello bitches, bros, and nonbinary hoes!! (+10 points if you can name that reference). I will most likely be jumping around from scene to scene instead of reviewing them chronologically because like my thought process, I can't do anything in an orderly or linear fashion.

The Wicked King by Holly Black is a 30 chapter, 448 page (or 10hr 21min audio book) book and is the second installment in the The Folk of the Air trilogy. It is primarily a political fantasy with a subplot of romance centering around our main character, Jude Duarte. Given that this is the second book in the series and that you are reading this, I will assume you already know the characters.

First of all, I'd like to highlight the fact that this is a political fantasy with a SUBplot of romance. I love the fact that, although the growing relationship between Cardan and Jude is relevant to the story, it is not the main focus. I feel like lately, many books are either hinged on romance or completely cut it out, so it always feels as if it's all or nothing. And I appreciate that Holly Black, while still producing a well-written and convincing romance, gave us a complex and captivating political scene with the world-building to match.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was how we got to see more into the inner workings of the High Court and life inside the palace. It was something I often found myself curious about while reading the first book (The Cruel Prince). Plus, we also got to see more faerie revels, which are always fun scenes to read, in my opinion.

Speaking of faerie revels, the revel on the night of the Hunter's Moon. First of all, I deeply despise Locke, and I just had to say that somewhere. Anyways, I like to believe that Jude being crowned Queen of Mirth was not only coincidental in her being the only mortal girl there, but also foreshadowing for the end of the book, when Jude rises to High Queen of Elfhame. Especially how, with her 'coronation' as Queen of Mirth, she was mocked and ridiculed the entire time (as per the game). When Jude is named High Queen and declares as such at the end of the book, the folk around her have much of the same reaction and start laughing at her almost instantaneously, Just like crowing a mortal as Queen of Mirth is meant to be a joke, Jude being crowned as the High Queen is received as a joke by the folk, however true it may be. Furthermore, a part of me has to admire the way Jude handled herself as Queen of Mirth and remained composed despite all the insults and ridiculed, even going so far as to turn the situation in her favor towards the end of the scene. For instance, how she strips herself naked before allowing the folk to dress her in the tattered gown given to the Queen of Mirth. It's such a powerful move for her and it basically screams to the folk that despite, no, in the face their cruel intentions, she can still hold her head high and that none of them could strip her of her dignity, despite how hard they may try. She silently says that whatever they may do to embarass her pales in comparison of what she can do to embarass herself and that, even though she is mortal, she is just as faerie as the rest of them, if not more so. Which I have personally thought since her first scheme to get Cardan on the throne. I think this quote sums it up very well. "After all, if the insult to me is pointing out that I am mortal, than this is my riposte: I live here, too, and I know the rules. Perhaps I even know them better than you since you were born into them, but I had to learn. Perhaps I know them better than you because you have greater leeway to break them."

However, even though Jude was the main focus of the scene, I have to bring up Cardan's actions. Because oh my gods, Cardan. First of all, how he makes sure that Taryn isn't there that night makes me believe that he did it not only because Jude asked him to help protect her from Locke, but that he also did it for Jude's sake. Because what would have been the one worse thing for Jude than her being named Queen of Mirth? If it were Taryn instead. Because I fully believe Locke would do it with zero hesitation, even though Taryn was supposed to be his lover. Additionally, Cardan tried to warn Jude to leave the revel towards the beginning of the scene, effectively trying to protect her from Locke's torment. And then what Cardan said when Locke asked about his feelings for Jude. " I have too often been troubled by dreams of Jude... her face features prominently in my most frequent nightmares... But I believe it is only that her beauty is unique... Excruciating. Alarming. Distressing." We all know that Cardan, being faerie, cannot lie and therefore has to be telling some form of the truth in this scene. And at first read, it's all too easy to assume he is being intentionally cruel. I certainly thought so at first. But then I remembered how Cardan previously admitted his attraction to Jude, more specifically how much it terrified him. Taking this into account, we realize that Cardan is actually complimenting Jude here. It is not that her beauty is excruciating, alarming, and distressing. Or that her face haunts his nightmares. But, rather, that her looks are excruciating, alarming, and distressing, and that her face haunts his nightmares because Cardan finds her beautiful, which he feels like he shouldn't because Jude is a mortal. Also, I like how, at the end of their shared dance, Cardan tells Jude she is allowed to stay or leave as she likes, effectively leaving the choice up to her. Giving her the option to leave insinuates that he is aware of how unsettled she must be after being named Queen of Mirth and that she may want to be alone to deal with her feelings about it, but also giving her the choice to stay essentially says that he isn't going to assume that she is still some weak, mortal girl that cant handle the pressure. Basically, he gives her the option to leave for her own sake if she must, no judgement included, or to stay and tough it out if she feels capable of it, also no judgement included.

Let's fast forward to the end of Taryn and Locke's wedding, aka the first betrayal scene. I was guessing the entire novel who the traitor would be, but I was not at all suspecting The Ghost. I suppose after the beginning sparring scene between Jude and The Ghost, I should have expected it but, you know what they say. Ignorance is bliss. So, The Ghost and Vulciber manage to lure Jude away to The Tower of Forgetting via an attack against it from the Undersea. And once there, it is revealed that The Ghost was the traitor and Jude gets the faerie equivalent of chloroformed. Talk about losing father figures, am I right? That makes what, 3 lost father figures for Jude?? Depenfing on your definition of lost if Madoc counts or not. Anyways, Jude then wakes up underwater as a prisoner of the Undersea. I, again, really enjoy how well this whole scenario highlights Jude's uncanny ability to lie and play a role. Consider, she manages to trick Queen Orlagh and Baelkin into believing she was glamored into adoring them. Even though Queen Orlagh is a major power in faerieland and is older than High King Eldred himself. And even though Baelkin's Hollow Hall was full of glamored mortals, meaning that he definitely should have been able to tell Jude wasn't actually glamored. You'd think at least one of them would have been able to tell. Or that even Nicasia should have been able to tell, given that out of the three she had been around Jude the most. It just goes to show again that even though Jude is mortal, she is just as faerie as the rest of the folk. And at the mention of Baelkin and this whole ordeal, am I the only one who audibly gagged when Jude had to kiss Baelkin? I can't be the only one. Her murdering him? Fully justified, and not even for him slaughtering his entire family save for Cardan and Oak. Good for Jude.

Finally, let's skip to the end of the book (aka the five stages of literary grief) because this review is already much longer than I anticipated. First off, Cardan rgiving up the Court of Termites just to arrange Jude's release??? No one can say he is NOT a romantic. And when Cardan has been poisoned by wraithberry at the masquerade ball, completely and utterly inebriated, and yet he still manages to come to Jude's defense when she is being threatened by Baelkin? Chef's kiss. It truly shows that Cardan has come such a long way from despising her, and his attraction towards her, in the first book to openly doing things that can be interpreted as fondness for her, even in front of the entire court and even when poisoned. And from there, Jude manages to trick the antidote away from Baelkin and kills him in a duel, before returning to Cardan. This leads us to the second betrayal of the book: Taryn.

Taryn tricks Cardan into believing she is Jude while he is still sobering up from the wraithberry and asks requested half the army plus Madoc to be released from their oaths to the crown. To which Cardan agrees without question, due to how much trust he now has in Jude. I didn't see The Ghost's betrayal coming, but I had my suspcicions about Taryn from the get go. She was being overly nice to Jude the entire book, despite her betrayal with Locke in the first book. I feel like this betrayal hurt worse for Jude than that of The Ghost's, because Jude had decided to give Taryn a second chance, despite her broken heart from the first book. And then Taryn turned right back around and stabbed a second knife into Jude's back, right next to the one from the first book.

After that whole debacle, Cardan summons Jude back to his room later in the night. And this is when he asks Jude to give him control of himself back, in exchange for her hand in marriage, making her the High Queen of Elfhame. Obviously, Jude accepts because she stills feels like that helpless mortal on the inside, and what better solution is there for than feeling than acquiring more power and respect. The next day, Queen Orlagh demands an audience with the High King and reveals she is furious about the murder of Baelkin, her ambassador. She threatens war and almost goes through with it. Before she can, Cardan quite literally boils the sea and raises an entirely new island of Elfhame. Which, if you recall, the original 3 islands were raised up by Queen Mab herself. I also interpret this as foreshadowing, however for the next book and the whole Cardan prophecy, specifically the "...a great ruler will rise" bit. Because Queen Mab is regarded in faerie as the greatest ruler there was, having the Blood Crown forged for her descendants. I find it's only fitting that Cardan raises up an island of Elfhame, as Mab did, in his, arguably, first moment acting as a true High King of Elfhame. Orlagh then goes on to back down, still demanding justice for Baelkin. And Cardan gives it to her, by exiling Jude back to the mortal realm until she is pardoned by the Crown. (a loop-hole she could have exploited right then and there since she was the High Queen and therefore part of the Crown). Which enraged me to no end at the time, given that they had just gotten married (a fact that thrilled me.) Again I say: they are the definition of enemies to lovers.

That's all I have for y'all, folks. If this review erred too far on the side of essay, then too bad, so sad. I enjoy writing essays (clearly.)

[sensei-venus]

Had this in my head since we started talking about mermay. @gemini-sensei

Also TW for sexual mermaid stuff?? Because yeah it might get weird to some but I don't want to hear none mermaid fuckers go off-😑

Imagine the fact that when (insert any character because this is my general idea on all merfolk) see Chubby!Human!Reader for the first time they are taken aback. Because they think she is not only beautiful, but in her cute little bikini, all her soft curves and rolls are on full display.

They think she's the perfect mate.

Because to merfolk, bigger chubby females mean healthy and fertile.

The ocean is a very scary and dangerous place especially for mermaids. Between humans killing them for sport or by accident, destroying their habits and home. Also just the nature threat of other merfolk. They can be killed by others for the smallest reasons, from natural arguments to issues with territory. Even fights over mates during and after matting season are a huge issue.

Also the natural conditions of the ocean for them play a huge role. Food can be an issue making both reproductive sides harder to come by. Unhealthy merfolk are extremely common and result in lower young counts in successful mating seasons. Maybe a hand full of young survive, maybe even less to adulthood.

Finding not only a beautiful mate but a healthy one is hard.

When they see Reader for the first time, they go goo goo.

Not only does she look extremely healthy to them, but she is already soft and chubby.

(Mentioning this now, I'm slightly stuck on female mermaids reproduction and mating goes. They all start with this, females will start to “fatten up” during mating season when they start to produce eggs. They store these eggs inside themselves of course until they find a suitable mate. Idea one is that they find a mate, and have sex to produce a hormone that will cause the egg-laying process where the female will then lay the eggs in a safe spot where then the male will then spray his sperm over the eggs. They then wait as the eggs fertilized and then for the next few months, they protect the eggs and wait for them to hatch. Idea two is that they have sex where the male does release inside the female and the eggs fertilize inside her, she then stays in said safe spot for a few months and then gives a form of live birth to EXTREMELY small young. I kinda like the second idea more idk why.)

They fully believe that this human is possibly fertile and looking for a mate.

They don't know much about humans so they believe it might be mating season for them. Reader is clearly healthy and “full of eggs” as they believe. She must be on the beach looking for potential mates. But as they sit back and watch they see no one taking any interest in her. They are shocked when no one comes up to her or tries to talk to her.

Are humans stupid? Do they not see the exquisite woman in front of them? She's perfect. 

From afar in the ocean they watch her for hours until she leaves. Their hopeful that she will come back soon to seek a mate. Maybe they can get her more secluded so they could possibly make a move. To try and woo her themselves.

(This got short but still- I love the idea of them thinking Reader is looking for a “mate” herself while just chilling on the beach during the summertime.🤭)

[thatgirl4815]

Not to be a total Ray apologist (especially now at all times!) but I am somewhat irked at the way Top and some online opinions talk about Ray "dragging" Mew into his destructive lifestyle as if Mew is an innocent lamb being led astray. Mew is an adult who knows exactly what he's getting into with Ray - he's spent the past couple of years chastising him over said lifestyle, and he knows it's driven by Ray's substance abuse and mental health issues. Yes he's heartbroken so isn't making the best choices, but he is still responsible for those choices . Ray, however is an addict. We know this, Mew knows this, Ray denies knowing this. The idea that the addict is more responsible than his non-addict friend (who is very much cognizant of addict's addiction) when said friend decides to dip his toes into the self-destructive world of said addict...well, that's something. People rightly criticised Ray for demonstrating a type of 'poverty tourism' during ep 5 and as far as I can see, Mew's actions seem to be something similar, because we all know it's not going to stick - he's going to try on the unhealthy hedonism shoes cos he's pissed and heartsick, but he can take them off whenever he wants, whereas for Ray those shoes are cement blocks made from childhood trauma which are dragging him down to an early death (as Mew himself prophesied only an ep ago!).

On an entirely unrelated note, my two favourite First moments in this ep were 1) the adorable little noise he made after Ray asked him to help him/pulled out the 'na?' and 2) after Ray asks if he really doesn't want to talk to his dad, there's a second where you can see him imagining it before he sort of shakes himself out of it - it's such a lovely and subtle moment. And I think it's a pattern that repeats in his interactions with Ray - we see him allow himself to fall under his spell, or live in the moment, imagine what his life could be, and we also frequently see him give a little shake of the head and a rueful smile as if to gently knock some sense back into himself. Like we saw in ep 5, his life follows a routine necessitated by his financial situation and the emotional walls he's built up as a result of this and perhaps his romantic history, and he acts like he's fine with it, but then little cracks sneak in now and then that serve to remind him he's just surviving, not thriving. And I do think he's okay with not knowing his dad, and of course he's right about families not having to be mum/dad/child, but still, there's that wistful moment of 'what if' that seems to be a recurring theme throughout his story.

That's a great point about Mew being able to live Ray's addictive lifestyle with none of the longterm consequences; it's definitely a nice callback to Ray's poverty tourism and the ways in which these characters are adapting to other characters' lifestyles and being let into their world. Ray got to see Sand's world and became more empathetic towards him in the process. Maybe this foray into the world of drugs, alcohol, and hard partying will show Mew something similar about Ray? Specifically regarding his own criticisms.

I want Mew to open his eyes to his own errors when chastising Ray about drugs and alcohol. I want Mew to understand that simply lecturing someone and looking down on them isn't enough to make them quit. I want him to see why Ray has turned to these methods of release, and why even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to get himself out easily. This could be a groundbreaking moment for Mew to get to experience a fraction of what Ray is going through (not on a psychological level exactly, but as far as the addictiveness of drugs and alcohol). And yeah, Top's anger over Ray corrupting Mew is frustrating, because he acts as if Mew is a little puppy on a leash, going whichever way Ray pulls him. We know for a fact that Mew is capable of making his own decisions, and whether or not he's going through a heartbreak doesn't change that. He's letting himself fall, and he can ultimately only blame himself; he knows what he's getting himself into with Ray.

(Sidenote, but this is such a big blow to Ray--agreeing to be with him only when you're at the lowest of the low and your judgement is impaired. Mew is winning friend of the year once again...)

First! I agree--he does a great job with subtlety as far as making us aware that he is curious about what it would be like to know his dad. One of the reasons I think First is so good in this role is that he's excellent at portraying the little cracks in Sand's facade, whether it's about Ray or his father. He's good at acting one way but clueing the audience in that he really feels another way. I'm not an actor, but I suspect executing all of those emotions would be really hard to do.

Speaking of Sand though, I just. Want to wrap him up in a hug and tell him that he deserves better. (But also, SandRay endgame PLEASE.)

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

king is one of my favorite characters in classic. dude's cool. he's really goddamn cool. he also gets shafted really fucking hard

i made a bit of a fuck-up in the burner man post, originally, joking about how king gaslit him. this was partially a pun off of burnerman being based off bunsen gas-lit burners, and partially a joke based on how fucking horribly both burner man and king got shafted. i was messaged about it and i figured “yeah actually gaslighting is kind of a serious deal and i shouldn’t really go for that angle”, apologized to the messenger, and reworded the joke.

but that joke didn’t come out of nowhere, there’s a REALLY ACTUALLY SUPER FUCKED UP relationship between burner man, king, and dr. wily

king’s entire deal is that, spoiler alert i suppose, wily made him to lead a robot revolution. however, king succeeds too well and wants to make a peaceful robot-nation to the point where wily has to reprogram him again right after programming him.

see, he gets reprogrammed offscreen before the game even fucking begins. wily apparently released a Day 1 Patch just to make EvilBadGuy.bat function. has to rewire his thought processes so that he can lead a revolution under the impression that robot violence will solve robot violence.

now, you might be saying “wait, this is probably referring to when you reach king at the end of king’s tower and he gets reprogrammed”. the kicker is when you eventually reach king at the end of king’s tower and he gets reprogrammed. see, you fight him, and it turns out he’s actually a decent guy! outside of the murders and mass collateral damage and attempted racial segregation. he’s just misguided and thinks that it’s bad for robots to serve humans because

anyway, so wily appears and he says

which means that King was already being brainwashed and now he’s beiNG BRAINWASHED EVEN FURTHER. HIJACKED ONCE AGAIN FOR THE PLAN FOR SUPER ROBOT FIGHTING BUT THIS TIME WE’RE USING 1.21 JIGGAWATTS, MARTY. WHEN THIS BABY HITS 88 MPH, YOU’RE GOING TO SEE SOME SERIOUS SHIT

there’s a lot to take away from Wily destroying his free will to become a blind puppet, when he was about to give up and become a good guy. again.

first off, the fact that he has FUCKING FREE WILL IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!! wily actively suppresses king’s morals again to make sure king does bad stuff properly this time and just erases king’s code_of_honor.sys entirely to make doubly sure, but King actively rebelling against his programming and going his own way demonstrates something which was supposed to be reserved for reploids! king is a brand new species of robot, he’s fucking incredible and powerful, able to do things that shouldn’t actually be possible among the classic roster! or wily is Actually That Goddamn Bad at coding, which probably explains why 90% of “””his””” Robot Masters are stolen but with his signature put on them. maybe he’s a designer more adherent to the aesthetic (look at all those skulls everywhere) while light’s the genius braincoder.

second off, holy shit wily. he’s done emotional manipulation before, he’s done lying before, he’s done a lot of heinous shit, and i’m pretty sure he whizzled in rush’s puppy food before, but forceful mind control of your own children is pretty fucking bad! and it has descended consequences! it continues on with king to burner man. it’s specified that king both actively “takes advantage of” burner man’s trust in him and also the supposed bomb within him to get him to do his bidding.

given the fact that none of the robot masters have dialogue we don’t exactly get to see much of the relationship between burner man and king, but even with the established information of “robot revolution for a peaceful world” + “set fire to a forest every day” + “this will lead to our peaceful world” + “you will die if you do not” + “trust me and I will lead you”, we’re potentially reaching actual gaslighting. i know my entire deal is making mountains out of molehills with regards to character scraps, but it doesn’t take a lot of extrapolation to get to some pretty goddamn dark territory.

and the thing is, why? why write this like this? i can guaran-damn-tee you nobody on bob capcom’s writing team actually thought about the implications of this! they just shrugged and tossed it in to make the bad guy more bad of a guy! but WHY? it’s completely unnecessary! if it’s just a matter of making king into a robot terrorist, he’s already fighting robots with other robots! if it’s a matter of making king seem SUPER evil bad, he’s already proclaimed he hates humans! if it’s a matter of making wily seem worse than super evil bad, he’s already had 8+ games of doing awful shit! given the generally-optimistic tone of the Classic timeline compared to X and Zero, it seems wildly out of character for even someone like wily to do his creation(s) dirty like so. it’s not just completely unnecessary, it’s tonally inconsistent!

i’ve mentioned before that king got a really goddamn raw deal, and he really, really has! this shit kept me up at night as a kid! it still keeps me up sometimes! i could be worrying about my future! my taxes! i could be worrying about fifty other more pertinent things in life! i could be WORRYING ABOUT SHIT THAT MATTERS

but KING DESERVED BETTER GOD DAMN IT

oh yeah and burner man deserves not being lied to i guess

[theographos]

Have you heard of Inazuma ?

Ahhh Inazuma... Land of eternity, who was mainly inspired by Japan and its culture.

I play the game since 2020, and I can say that Inazuma was a pretty big deal when it got out. First of all, it was the first big region that we were introduced to since the beginning of the game. Yes there was Liyue and Mondstadt, but they came with the game so... No real reason to get hyped about them.

It was also a region who got talked about a lot, like I remember that most of the Youtubers I was watching at the time were sponsorized by Hoyoverse to talk about it's region. And just the fact that it was based on japan made it even popular on the internet. What I want to say by that is that it was of course a trap for all of the weebs to fall into.

A good trap really, the region had a lot of new content, a bunch of really good characters like Arataki Itto (my lovely main) and the final result is just so pretty.

It was a lovely gift, made with the finest wrap and the biggest promises towards the players of the game. And when they all got rid of that wrap to actually get into the plot content of Inazuma, they (and me included) were delighted to see a plot line full of junk.

So a few disclaimers before we dive into why Inazuma's archon quest was a mess :

I am not blaming anyone for liking Inazuma. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's flawless, so don't come at me for that. I have no say over what anyone likes or dislikes as long as it's not illegal or obviously endangering someone's mental or physical health. And liking a region in Genshin Impact is none of that, so don't see any slander on any character of the game. I'm pointing fingers at the writers behind the region and most importantly Hoyoverse itself.

I will also criticize how they used Raiden Shogun's character quest to make most of the evolution of Inazuma. A character quest is not accessible by people under the level of 40, so there is no real reason as to why they did that. It just makes the main plot less accessible to the main players, and so I don't consider what happens in the Raiden Shogun's character quest as a valid part of the main plot line.

There will contain spoilers about Sumeru's archon quest, but none about Fontaine. For personal reasons that are too long to talk about in this post I haven't played Fontaine's archon quest yet. Yes, even the first act. And no, I do not wish to be spoiled about anything about Fontaine.

My whole rant, including the introduction and the disclaimers, is over 2.3K long, take it or leave it. I also happen to believe that longer is better. Yes it is time consuming to read all of this, but this is my way of showing that I care. Plus good storytelling needs time. Like I said, take it or leave it, if you don't want to read this whole rant then it's okay, as long as you don't blame me for not doing something shorter.

So now that we are clear on those points, we shall begin.

My first point is that the archon quest is too short.

Like way too short. We barely have time to get a proper tase of what Inazuma is like, and we also barely have time to process our traveler's character arc. The first part of the archon quest screams of how much the writers knew they had to add the part in which the Traveler refused to help anyone, but they were bothered by it. So they tried to wrap it up quickly by making the traveler see the problem directly. The second part is laughable at best, I mean we all saw the memes about how the war cinematic looked off, like we just have 10 soldiers and 10 rebels against one another and we're supposed to understand that the conflict is big ? And the last part is confusing, mainly because of the sudden apparition of Kazuha, who got a whole character arc while we trying to beat up Signora.

And it's not like Hoyoverse isn't capable of making a character arc during an archon quest. Venti had his little character arc, Scaramouche has his character arc behind the scenes during the Sumeru Archon Quest, but us player are still aware of its evolution, with for example the visions of that one npc researcher. And if we take a look at Honkai : Star Rail, Dan Heng also got to have a whole character arc really similar to the one with Kazuha, but they made it relevant to the plot.

They are capable of all of that, if they gave more time to develop it by having a bigger archon quest. Either by making a part 4 and maybe a part 5, either by making longer archon quests.

My second point is that there is too much unnecessary quests.

Sure, for gameplay purposes it's perfect to have a lot of quest, because it means a lot of content. But with Inazuma it really isn't the case.

We had a whole archon quest, well more like a prologue quest, to introduce Kazuha's motivations through Beidou's fighting competition. I would understand if it was a world quest, i mean they did that with the chasm : an archon quest locked behind a world quest. The world quest could have been about the whole trip towards Inazuma, with the beginning about the fighting tournament. But nope, it's overly long for almost nothing, and it raises another point of mine

They based their whole plot on making the players like their characters. It's not a bad thing, I love Kazuha with all my heart, but our time with him isn't making the plot come forward. Just like, having to do Yoimiya and Ayaka's character quest have nothing to do with plot. You just hang out with them and learn a bit about their personal lives. It's great, but what about the plot ? Okay cool you made a deep dive into Raiden Shogun's motivations during her character quest, but what about the plot ?

They gave too much time over things that weren't necessary for the plot, and like I said previously, didn't give enough time to important parts.

My third point is that it doesn't even fufill the concept of an Archon Quest.

Every archon quest makes a deep dive into the Archon's motivation, how it affected their land and how they'll arrange the situation. For example :

Venti's entire core is to fight to let his people be free. He gave them everything they needed, and let them take their own decisions in order to not become another tyrant. But some people, like Dvalin, saw that move as him giving up on them. So, he made everything clear towards Dvalin and stayed to help him get better.

Zhongli's entire core is to fight to protect his people. He saw war, he saw death but he survived. He created the Adepti to help him, he also sort of created the Qixing to help him rule over Liyue. But now he becomes old, and doesn't want to see everything that he has done come to rot after he passes away. So he decides to retire himself from his position to force the Qixing and the Adepti to work together without him to help Liyue.

And if we compare Raiden to that well... She makes her people suffer, only she is happy with eternity, and she reflects upon that after the archon quest. But she has the potential to be so much more than that, heck it's not like she didn't become popular with the few times we see her in the archon quest, so looking back now there was no point in making her not that present in her own archon quest. Even Nahida, who is locked inside her own temple at the time we meet her, gets to have an equal amount of screentime as every other archon during their quest.

And also every archon quest shows how much every archon is different by their way of ruling :

Venti thought the bestest thing for his people was to leave and give them the freedom to do anything.

Zhongli thought the bestest thing for his people was to give them a safe haven and to dedicate his whole life to serve them instead of trying to really "rule" over them.

Nahida's people never gave her a chance to actually try to be their leader. They stayed focused on the past and let bad people morphed the values of Sumeru into something horrible.

And Raiden Shogun was supposed to show that for her the bestest thing was to keep her land in check, to make sure everything stays at the right place, so that no one has to ever feel grief and feel "nostalgic" of the past like she did.

Which brings me to my fourth point, which is that Raiden Shogun has control over nothing.

Yes she controls what the commission do, yes she has the power to do a vision hunt decree. But, when we take a look at Inazuma, we can see that she do not have any actual control. Four of the six islands in Inazuma are not liveable, and the fifth island is actually full of people who do not worship her, who do not want her. There is a rebellion going on, and she hasn't done anything more than send her army. The magical sakura tree in Narukami is slowly decaying, but nope there's nothing she can do about apparently. It's as if she doesn't even know it's happening.

She is described as omnipresent over the mortals. She is described as always making sure Inazuma reaches the goal of "eternity", and yet everything is going nuts, she doesn't have full control over who goes in and out of her country since there are still immigrants in Rito. I would have understood if Monstadt was in that state for example. After all most of the problems in the islands are god-related, so really no one except a god can do anything about it.

And I would have understood if the main problem was that she thinks she is omnipresent but really everything is out of control, but no, the point of the archon quest is to make us understand that the people want things to change, they don't want her to be overly in control.

I'm not against the fact that the Traveler is often the one who has to do everything, but at least make it understandable. For example, ofr the Aranara world quests, the traveler has to be the one who does that because Nahida isn't capable of helping the aranara, and because the traveler is an adult who can still see the aranara, it makes him important to them.

But in Inazuma we're just doing Ei's dirty work, as if an omnipresent deity would want someone other than them to be supervising big problems.

My last point is that the archon quest doesn't feel like it's happening in Inazuma.

None of the problems in the archon quest are talked about in the world quests, it's barely mentioned in some small quests, and the archon quest is royally ignoring all the problems of the world quests. Sumeru doesn't do that for example : it talks about the decaying of pretty much everything in the archon quest AND the world quests, aranaras are showed in the archon quest, and really the archon quest goes to a lot of key points in sumeru, meanwhile for the archon quest in Inazuma it's only 4 different places, 6 if we count the comissions.

Inazuma have so many different species cohabiting together, has a lot of mysticals things happening everywhere, there are even cat who can talk and yet none of this magic is showed in the archon quest.

Honestly it just looks like a showcase of everything that Japan has to offer and that's it. Yes I see tanukis, I see sakura trees, i see the clothings and the buildings. But what else ? What is the core of anything that Inazuma has to offer ? When we take a look at every other region, we see that they at least tried to give them a proper identity with the inspiration material. Meanwhile Inazuma is just the inspirational material.

When they included nobility in Monstadt, they really did it. They showed how much they were accepted into present society (plot twist they aren't), their role in history, how they feel about a society where no one wants them anymore (with some clans who are okay, clashing with the Lawrence clan who aren't ready to admit 'defeat' yet), they included etiquette and made them active in society.

This just doesn't happen with the tanukis, the onis or the kitsunes. The onis have a bit more depth since they have Itto to develop this part, but really unless you go into the forest you will not encounter kitsunes or tanukis in inazuma.

My conclusion,

The main problem with Inazuma's archon quest is that they didn't give enough time. They didn't give enough time for the plot to unfold correctly, they didn't gave enough time to the worldbuilding, and dare I say Hoyoverse didn't gave enought time to the writers to be able to do anything more than the minimum. I have seen what these writers could do and it is so much worth it, but damn Inazuma is to me, something that Hoyoverse should be ashamed of in terms of storytelling.

And I feel like no one is talking about that. As of now the only things I found on the internet about it are slanders of some characters, or really just people who hate the whole "inspired by japan" thingy, and are just mad about that.

Hoyoverse is a big enough company to have decent storytelling, to give a decent amount of time for their writers to work, and so on and so forth.

To be honest I feel like that if you truly care about Japan and its culture, you should be mad at Inazuma for doing a poor job at representing it, but that's just my opinion.

[stewblog]

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

We don’t allow our heroes to age. James Bond gets recast every couple decades. Comic book heroes rarely get older in any meaningful way. Et cetera. It’s understandable that the characters we’ve immortalized into the modern canon retain an air of (variable) youthfulness, but it also means that they are all but required to have the same sorts of adventures and largely stay the same as a person.

Harrison Ford has no interest in allowing Indiana Jones to achieve immortality, as his fifth and final outing as the character proclaims loud and clear.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny never hits the highs of any of its predecessors, but I posit that it’s not necessarily trying to. Indy does plenty of Indy things (and lightly stretches audience credulity in the process), but by and large Ford and director James Mangold treat the character like he’s aged into his late 70s, both in action and in thought. This movie isn’t intended to be held up as an equal to its genre-defining predecessors. It’s a coda for an icon and in that respect it’s a fully entertaining and occasionally poignant work.

The film kicks off with an opening sequence that’s as fun and rousing as any of the preceding films. The voice modulation on Ford could have used some tweaking but the de-aging special effects are remarkable and for about 15 minutes or so, it’s easy enough to believe that we’re looking at Indy still in his prime, punching lots of Nazis and performing incredible feats of derring do.

Then we cut to the film’s present day. It’s 1969 and Henry Jones, Jr. is now a man out of time. The world around him has passed him by as men are landing on the moon (put there by Nazi scientists hired by the U.S. government). Socio-political movements are upheaving everyday life. Ironically, while he’s no longer a nigh-absent professor, none of his students have any interest in ancient history. Although even his career is leaving him behind with retirement imminent and Marion is filing for divorce.

The only connection he seemingly has left to a life gone by is his goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). So when Helena shows up out of nowhere, proclaiming she knows how to find a the second half of a dial that can supposedly turn back time, he plunges head-first back into action. The search for Archimedes’ Antikythera nearly drove Helena’s father crazy, but it’s also clear that Indy sees a darker side to Helena’s search and he refuses to let her go down the darker path of seeking artifacts for “fortune and glory” as he nearly did. Throw in some Nazis seeking the dial to rectify Hitler’s megalomaniacal mistakes and you’ve got all the trappings of a classic, globetrotting Indiana Jones adventure.

So why can’t it fully capture the magic of The Man in the Hat’s previous (good) escapades? Well, for one, James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg. No one is. Not even Spielberg, at times (see: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). There’s simply a magic to the entire affair that is incapable of being replicated in full, try though Mangold does. And to his credit, there are portions of the film that have the spark and kineticism of Spielberg’s Indy films at their best. The World War 2-set opening on a Nazi transport train is simply outstanding and presents a near-perfect mini-adventure for the character. It’s got just about everything you could want from an Indy action setpiece. The car chase through Morocco is also well-staged and full of humor and thrills (even if I couldn’t stop giggling at the idea that little tuk-tuk carts characters drive are somehow capable of traveling at blazing speeds enough to keep pace with full-engine cars). But even once the film is fully rolling, it’s still centered on a character on the cusp of turning 80 years old. And while Indy’s age never fully defies believability, there’s only so much a movie can do if you want to maintain that hold.

Thankfully, the film’s best material leans into the fact that Indiana Jones is in his twilight, and that it’s impossible to defy time and that it is, in fact, essential to embrace it, to understand that some things must pass, that some things are impossible to change. But also, that living in the past (both literally and figuratively) is a fool’s errand.

Dial of Destiny is a reminder that we are more than just the best memories of our lives. Heroes age. Heroes make mistakes. Heroes go beyond what they’ve been immortalized as. That may be a slightly depressing thought, but Mangold and Ford lean into the humanity of it. This is Indiana Jones at his most vulnerable, but it becomes a story about a man finally coming to terms with the good and bad that has weaved in and out of his life as he finally realizes what’s important is what’s in front of you, not behind you.

What makes the Indiana Jones movies so special and different from so many other action adventure movies is that they obliterate cynicism. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade, each of those adventures ends with Indy learning more about himself, about the world he knows and the parts of it he can’t explain. He starts each of those stories cynical about something, and ends them with his eyes opened to how he was wrong. That element, that destruction of cynicism is what drives the heart of Dial of Destiny. It may lack the dynamism of Spielberg’s entries at their best, but it retains the beating heart of the character and his evolution. It’s a touching, meaningful ending to an immortalized character who has never felt more human than he does now at the end of his adventures.

[thatneoncrisis]

20 questions for 20 writers!

tagged by @waitineedaname thxx

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21 works, i feel like thats a healthy number

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

i have 439,385 words, a very large chunk of that is from We Have Always Lived in the Apartment

3. What fandoms do you write for?

right now its the locked tomb, used to be homestuck, i have some crossovers with the magnus archives and one with john dies at the end

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

We Have Always Lived in the Apartment -- TLT horror mystery modern au

Insert Jesus Allegory Here -- solkat focused continuation of karkats pesterquest route, i NEED my new fics to get more popular than this oh my god

Gehenna the First -- TLT houseswap au with harrow as god

the gap between a tragedy and comedy (in this life its just you and me) -- TLT coffee shop au.

What's Eating Gideon Nav?  -- TLT catholic boarding school horror au

5. Do you respond to comments?

not typically, theres some weird thing with my head where i kind of hate that it counts my comments in the total comment amount. i cant explain it i just dont like how it looks, plus just repeating variations of "thank you!!" feels hollow after a while. im more likely to answer direct questions about the story rather than general commentary i do love talking about my thought process and intentions

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ok so i cant actually tell you this because none of those fics are Done yet but all you need to know is that i consider all of my TLT fics tragedies to some extent. take that as you will. i dont even Like the word angst really it portends a level of melodrama id like to avoid

7. What��s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say its a dead tie between A Brief Lesson In The Occult and Shit. Let’s Build A Fort. i can barely look at these anymore and if you read them and feel compelled to tell me you like them: dont. i can do better now

8. Do you get hate on fics?

never to my knowledge has anyone ever publicly disliked one of my fics. in fact sometimes i dream about someone posting it in their discord group chat and making fun of it because im so curious about what theyd say

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes i have. i do it almost exclusively as satire or character analysis as i find like, the physicality of sex to be inherently kind of goofy. liek the second you have to describe a dick or boobs with words the magic is gone it just becomes weird silly looking flesh. so i like focusing on weird and bad sex, unsatisfying or clumsy sex. sex that changes you in no significant way

10. Do you write crossovers?

yes i have. A Brief Disappearance and Statement of David Wong are both TMA/JDATE crossovers and i DID write a homestuck/TMA crossover but its not on my ao3 i guess? odd

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no? does that happen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think once someone asked but i have no clue if it happened

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

@notedchampagne is my co producer in all things forever but ive basically written everything myself and they help polish it up

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

shiiiiiiite uh. jade/davepeta still means a lot to me. i think there are a lot of really engaging ships in TLT but i always kind of default to griddlehark i just kind of understand them the best

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

eventually SAM and i would like to circle back to our fanventure Therapystuck but we both got really busy with school, work and a general lull in the HS fandom. also maybe someday ill go back to Insert Jesus Allegory Here i liked the direction of the story i just have to get myself back in that headspace. being into homestuck Does something to you, like psychologically

16. What are your writing strengths?

after asking some friends theyve told me im good at tone, prose, funny metaphors, and dialogue but a caveat for the last thing as "I have yet to see how your Own guys talk and how you'd handle distinct voices from scratch so I'm only giving you about 80%"

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i hate like. writing Around the important bits of a scene. i love the physicality of characters and what it reveals about them, along with pieces of the scene the narration deems important or interesting enough to mention to the audience. but im always worried im jsut fucking yapping. also i hate like, political scenes theres a rhythm to them that i dont quite understand. people sitting around using specific language that Feels important in a way that doesnt make it clear im bullshitting like 99% of what theyre talking about

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

AHAH. GOD. i actually looked this up the other day because theres an original story i want to write where i want to make it clear theyre basically speaking french the whole time, even though its written in english. i only speak english (i took some french in hs, its left me though i want to pick it up again) so i wouldnt know anything about how it reads to polyglots but i guess theres really only so much you can do outside of literally learning a new language just to write a story for free. ive seen a whole host of tips so i gues sit just matters how you employ them

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Homestuck. my only regret is that i wasnt a better writer

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

FUCK christ uuuuh. favorite right Now would be The Apartment but EVENTUALLY id like it to be Gehenna the First because its the hardest to write and i need it to pay off. if you havent read it uhhh. hi. hello. you should do that. i think its really cool and fun and junk

CHRIST who to tag i dont follow big writers uuuh @tranquilitybasehotelcasino and @accidentallyadorable sure have fun

[nightingaletrash]

Hey friend! I hope you're doing well. After admiring it from afar for a long time, I bought the Dragon Age games on mega sale. Do you have any suggestions for mods I should use to play? Thank you!

okay so, first off, welcome to hell I hope you enjoy your stay because there is no being normal about Dragon Age once you're in deep enough <3

second off

how much time and disk space do you have? because I use *a lot* of mods

First off, there is a learning curve to modding Dragon Age. DAO is deceptive in how easy it is to mod because for many mods, the installation is as simple as 'drop file in the override file' but there are some caveats based on how the engine works and it pays to understand what files are what, and what they do. DA2 is an almost identical process but tends to be much less finicky in practice, and DAI is infamous for being trickier by comparison due to the fact you have to use the Frosty Mod Manager, but you don't necessarily need to know the different types of files like you do with the other two.

If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask, I'm happy to share whatever I know ^^

So starting with DAO, here are some mods I'd recommend:

Unofficial Remaster - what it says on the tin, this mod includes higher resolution textures and introduces some updated models to create consistency with the later entries in the series. There used to be a lot more involved, including other mods that help increase cohesion between games but a lot of that was cut because people bugged the mod author too much about it.

Natural Lighting - makes the character creator less dark ^^

Female Proportion Fixes - there are three versions of this mod, one for humans, dwarves and elves respectively because the originals are pretty damn bad. Humans come with two variations, Sensual and Seductress - you only need to choose one.

Elf Update - this is entirely optional, as it essentially swaps the elven designs with the less-human elf designs used in DA2. Elf Update comes with its own version of the proportions fix, so if you chose to use this, you don't need Elf Proportion Fix.

Neutral Female Armours - does away with the atrocious boobplates that plague Origin's ladies. Luckily, a similar mod wasn't needed for DA2 and DAI because Bioware largely got their shit together. There is a compatibility patch for the proportion fix mods - those files need to overwrite the corresponding files in this mod. The Unofficial Remaster also includes some retextures for this mod as an optional file.

Extra Dog Slot - because the Dog is a very good boy and deserves to come along on quests without taking up a companion slot.

Dragon Age Redesigned - again this is optional, as I use this mod solely for non-companion NPCs, as bioware's originals sometimes look a bit odd. If used with Elf Update you'd need to delete all of the elf headmorphs included in this mod to avoid getting the wrong heads showing up. There's three options to choose between, Lore, Balanced, and Aesthetic.

Goblet De-Gobbler - tackles a pretty well-known bug with modded armours and rectifies some little inconsistencies with a particular sequence.

Thedosian Grey Wardens OR Grey Wardens of Ferelden - DA2 and DAI gave Wardens a uniform, yet there's none whatsoever in Origins. Which is odd because everyone seems to recognise you as a Warden on sight. Thedosian Wardens uses the Inquisition armour models while GWOF uses the DA2 model so it comes down to personal preference. Personally I'm a Thedosian fan and use it and it's related mods - searching Thedosian on the Origins nexus will bring them all up. It's pretty much everything you need for GWOF is pretty much included in the mod however. There are also some good retextures for both available by VagranDreamer.

Origin Unique Grey Warden Armour - adds some GWOF style armour with some unique flavour. These are included in Vagran Dreamer's retexture series.

Thedosian Wardens Arsenal - new Warden themed weapons. GWOF does include weaponry as well, but this stuff is my preference. It also contains scripts that allow it to replace all NPC Warden loadouts with this weaponry

Complete Bi Overhaul - because it could be gayer. Also includes some optional files to either stop certain male NPCs hitting on a female Warden or to get them to hit on a male Warden.

There really are so many more that I could like like character creation mods and NPC morphs I use, but I don't want to overwhelm you with info. I literally use too many mods XD

For DA2, here's my top hits:

Kirkwall Expanded - a really cool mod that adds new little quests to the game, a bounty board, and just livens up the city.

Automatic Chargen - opens the CC in the transitions between the acts (this game is divided into three acts with time skips between them), so if you want to mess with the idea of your character changing over the years, this mod is 10/10

NEW Import Vault Fixes and Editable Vault - essentially a bug fixer oriented around the content imported from your Origins save, and adds the ability to tweak the worldstate in game

Sapphim's Dialogue Mini Mods - a collection of little mods that alter some conversations to tone down some unnecessary sexism and to let the game be a lil bit gayer (and shut Gamlen's damn mouth)

Wardens of Weisshaupt - puts all Warden characters in Warden gear, and gives you a choice between shiny Inquisition ported armours like Thedosian Wardens or the original DA2 models ^^

Again there are dozens more mods I could recommend in regards to armour, headmoprhs, companion gear etc but those largely come down to preference so it's best to find what you like for yourself ^^

Then there's DAI. Keep in mind that for a long time, the go-to mod manager was DAIMM. Mods from that period are DAI.mod files; nowadays most people use Frosty Mod Manager and a lot of mods are made with Frosty, as its more powerful. Some dai.mods do work with Frosty, but it can be hit and miss.

Complete War Table Operations Without Waiting - For Frosty - DAI's war table operations take real time to complete, which is terribly impractical if you actually want to just clear them out and get them done. This mod changes the waiting time so the operations are completed automatically or have a very short wait time

Less Shards Please - An Oculara Rebalance - you might have heard of the tedious shard side quest; this mod makes it significantly less tedious.

Party Banter Tweaks - Inquisition's banter is unfortunately kinda buggy, so this mod gives you a better chance of hearing your companions talk to each other! There's a lot of great convos you don't wanna miss ^^

Enhanced Character Creator - adds even more sliders and options to CC, as well as a hair slot unique to the Inquisitor that some modders use so that Inky's hairstyle isn't shared with random NPCs. It can be a lot to take in, but once you have a grasp of it, you can really customise your character extensively

Dialogue Wheel Overhaul - completely changes the way the game’s dialogue wheel works to make it more cohesive, universal, and functional

Modded Hair in DLCs - what it says on the tin; the DAI DLCs are a bit finnicky with hair mods, and this is one of the ways around it

And as usual, there's loads more I could add but if I did, this post would need links for potentially hundreds of mods lmao

sorry this took me a while, I may have overwhelmed myself a bit because I literally use hundreds of mods in these games, and I didn't want to overload you with mods and information. If you need any help, let me know because there's a lot to know. Origins can be deceptively tricky thanks to the engine and its the one that has caused me the most headaches lol

[baelpenrose]

Project Praetorian 39: New Arrivals, pt 1, Friction

The team greets the new kids who just touched down, and Xavier demonstrates his leadership capability, dealing with one of the most troublesome new arrivals. TW for racism, antisemitism, queerphobia, ableism...spoiler warning, one of the new conscripts is alt-right at this point in the story. And he's now dealing with a unit whose CO is a Jew, whose Intelligence Officer is an Afro-Latina, and whose second in command is a Black man. Oh for the record there's also a bit of toxic masculinity in the groundwater, but they are being combat trained by a Marine, and frankly... yeah, teenage males do, in fact, use "throw down" as a fast and dirty means to establish pecking order if nothing else is working. As always, @canyouhearthelight helped find a good balance for all of the characters here, and did an excellent job beta reading. A big send up to @learntolive-again for the original design behind Micah as well, who is a different and far more likeable member of the new kids.

Xavier

As the blackhawk set down, Vergil called out to the rest of the kids about who was getting off. “Smith and Franks are with them - so is someone else. Tall white guy, bald. Broad shoulders. Suit. Looks like he’s got a shoulder holster?”

“That’s Agent Thompson.” Echo said. “He’s from Aventine - odds are they were gathered and held there for a day or two before getting transported here. He’s actually the guy who black bagged me.�� 

Xavier filed that away. “Anyone else?”

“Uh…Tall Latina girl, just hopped off the chopper. She looks around fifteen or sixteen. White boy, short hair, kinda brownish? Blue eyes. He’s got a bruise under one of his eyes - he’s wearing cuffs. Uh…black boy, paler than Xavier or Echo, maybe mixed, might be the youngest of the three, kinda twitchy, I’ve been watching him for five seconds and he keeps fidgeting with his shirt. And…uh…girl. Agent Thompson and Franks are lifting her out of the chopper, putting her in a wheelchair. Really. Her arms are moving, her legs aren’t.”

Xavier idly made a note to explain to Vergil that ‘mixed/not mixed’ was not really a thing you could distinguish by sight most of the time but for the purpose of right now that was not gonna be his biggest problem. What were they doing conscripting a paraplegic? 

The group was already running over, at least ready to greet the new kids, with Gideon calling after them, and Xavier’s mind was racing. The disabled girl couldn’t fight - not even like Shiloh - so conscripting her, even if she was a strong candidate, would have been with truly evil intentions, probably with the intent of using her to test the limits of Koleth’s process.

They got to the chopper landing pad as the blackhawk was beginning to lift back off, heading towards the airstrip. 

Xavier waved to everyone, preparing to start his usual welcome spiel. “Hey, welcome to Imperator. I know you’ve probably got a lot of questions and none of them have been answered because your kidnappers were probably assholes, but you’re with your fellow kidnap victims now and we’re happy to answer most of them.”

Then the white boy spoke. “Why the fuck do they have you rolling out the welcome wagon?”

“I’m the second in command of the team you just got press ganged into and we prefer greeting our newbies ourselves rather than having our in-house opposition do it for us.” Xavier said, lightly, slowly scanning the other boy’s body language, recognizing the tension, hostility, and feeling himself grow tense. 

The Latina girl snorted and said something in Spanish, which Xavier didn’t catch. Echo responded, haltingly, and Xavier glanced back at her. “I picked up a little, I’m not fluent, but I know a bit. We’re…just expect we’re gonna wind up having to be polyglots by the end of the war, now that I’m thinking about this.” 

The white boy - Jared - snorted. “We’re in America, right?”

A prickle rose in Xavier. “We are, though we’re gonna be operating all over the world, so we probably should pick up a few more languages,” he started, easily. “Anyway, the multilingual girl over there is our intel officer, Echo. The blonde kid behind me is team sniper. Where the fuck is…” he suddenly spotted Mark, who stepped forward and offered a hand.

“Mark Ascher. Team leader. Xavier is the second in command.” 

If Xavier had any doubt about the problem this might turn out to be, it vanished the moment he saw Jared’s face twist in disgust as he heard Mark’s last name - and visibly refused the proffered hand. “Casey, over there, is more of a close range suppression expert, and the giant guy, Jonathan, is our heavy weapons expert. Shiloh is a medic - and the little redhead is more of a specialized support situation, it doesn’t really make sense in normal military terms. You’ll understand it better once you actually see how we do stuff.” 

“We already got filled in on the idea that we’re gonna get experimented on and get fucked up powers. That was just about the only thing anyone bothered making clear to us.” The paraplegic girl spoke up. “Speaking of which, I’m Kimmy. The Neo Nazi you’re bothering to try to be polite with is probably screaming a certain word, hard R, in his head, after asking, out loud, what the point of grabbing a cripple like me was. Honestly, I’m impressed by the restraint that he didn’t start calling your ringleader a slur at the offered handshake.” 

Xavier’s gaze didn’t leave Jared’s face as Shiloh’s snapped over to Kimmy - and the medic began signing rapidly, even as Casey began translating. Kimmy was laughing for Shiloh’s remarks. “Oh, he’s going to love you, but…”

Xavier refocused on Jared. “She kidding?”

“White identitarian. Some of the modern movements can recognize Nazis had some really dumb hangups.”

Xavier blinked. “Answering ‘yes’ would have been exactly as shitty but made more sense.”

“What a surprise, you don’t get it.”

“Mostly I don’t get what a Nazi’s ideology is if you strip out all the shitty hangups about race, religion, ability, sex, like…what’s left, at that point? The standard-setting bad guy aesthetic of the century? An obsession with impractical superweapons?” 

Jared opened his mouth and Xavier interrupted. “Don’t answer, I actually didn’t want to know or care to find out.” 

Xavier signaled to Jonathan, and said, flatly, “This guy is a Neo-Nazi. Sorry, white identitarian. It’s like a neo-nazi, but apparently with fewer hangups about…something. The hangups they keep are the ones that suck though. Also, not that it matters, worse drip.”

Xavier tried not to smirk as Jared looked up and down at Jonathan - the very image of the Aryan ideal. A man who, garbed in Hugo Boss, with his blond hair, muscular physique, and piercing blue eyes, would have looked like the perfect scion of the Prussian warrior class to splash across an SS recruitment poster. Jonathan looked at Jared and asked, “So…how are we gonna deal with him?”

“I figure we have to figure it out. Like…maybe he can get his shit together, maybe not. If not…aliens are a thing, odds are he’s gonna catch a plasma bolt when he can’t accept taking orders from a Jewish boy or acting on intelligence from a black girl.” 

“I just want to ask. We’re getting kidnapped by a flagrantly globalist organization. Experimented on against our will. You’ve been put at the disposal of a Jewish officer. Fighting something that is kept secret from the rest of the world. And none of you are even considering that my worldview has a point?”

Xavier looked at Jared for a very long minute. “Mark was kidnapped too, dipshit. Also, he didn’t get promoted by Imperator. We picked him as officer. He only got an actual rank later.”

“Why’s the medic flailing around?”

Jonathan growled. “It’s ASL. Why are you talking?”

“Just curious about how stupid this place is.”

Xavier held up a hand, which probably indirectly saved Jared’s life. “Jonathan, please control your temper. If you hit him right now, with no protective gear, pieces of his skull are going to fly everywhere, hard enough that it’s going to be a hazard to other people.”

Jared managed to not flinch at that, though whether that was because he was very brave, very stupid, or simply didn’t realize how strong Jonathan was yet, Xavier couldn’t tell. 

Jonathan eased down and Xavier looked back to Jared. “Now, not that I really want to ask you but the boy you came here with, since apparently babysitting you is my duty right now…”

“Some nut from an immigrant family. Honestly don’t know much more than that. Didn’t talk to him much. Name was Micah. Place is really recruiting from the bottom of the barrel. Freaks, gangbangers, cripples, queers…”

“White trash neo nazis.”

Jared snorted. “Alright. I walked into that one. People calling the shots don’t look at me any better than they look at a banger like you.”

Xavier scowled. “I’m not actually a gangbanger. Asshole. They said I was, to get me in juvie, then they took me here. How’d they pick you up?”

“Said I was involved with a junior chapter of a white supremacist group, scooped me up.” 

“Were you?”  Xavier was morbidly curious. 

Jared shook his head, and Xavier was relieved when he began his explanation. “No. I had an older cousin, but I was planning to join the military when I turned eighteen, get away from my parents, maybe go back and pledge later when I got out, or maybe not. They don’t take you if you’re with a radical group.” “You have the most remarkable talent for saying shit that looks like it’ll dig you out, then turning hard and digging deeper instead. Why’d you want to join up if you thought the problem was stateside?”

“Why’re you trying to get in my head?” Jared was suddenly sharp, aggressive.

Xavier cursed internally. “Maybe I like knowing who I’m working with. Maybe I know that Imperator is hell and we’re stuck in it together and I’d rather not be dealing with a neo Nazi the whole time and having to wonder if I’m gonna shoot him so he doesn’t frag me, or Mark. So I’m trying to figure if I can find something that can get us some kind of understanding.”

“Fuck off. If we’re fighting aliens I get that they’re priority. But I’m not gonna pretend that it’s fine that I’m working with people who belong here only slightly more than the aliens do.” 

Xavier realized that ironically he already had an option with just that, but it wasn’t enough -  a start, but not a good one, not something that would get Jared onboard with anything real. 

But Jared wasn’t going to listen to that perspective, not now. And on another level, there was a language he and Mark spoke to each other, a language every teenage boy was intimately familiar with. 

On one hand, using it with someone like Jared might confirm all of Jared’s already atrocious beliefs about him and people like him. On the other, the shock of it happening followed by a rapid follow up might allow him to actually speak and be heard. 

No, though. Not here, where the staff would see. Later, where there weren’t cameras. Assaulting the new guy in front of staff would communicate internal conflict Imperator could exploit.

They were back at the tables and Xavier could see Mark talking to Micah, nervously at first, then excitedly. Mark pulled out his phone and texted - Xavier looked. “Micah’s family is Ethiopian originally. Mixed-faith. Micah’s Muslim, sister is Jewish. We’re talking food and holiday stuff.”

Xavier glanced back to where Kimmy was being talked to by both Shiloh and Casey, and to where Echo was fumbling her way through a conversation with Mia. “Fuck…”

The newest wave was going to be harder to integrate. Parties and everything else didn’t make language barriers or ability barriers or whatever psychological issues Micah had any easier. 

Or Jared’s bullshit.

Speaking of which, Xavier turned to Jared and said, very, very softly. “Listen. This is a party. A welcome party, a party that our conditions are better than when we came here. Long term, after we win the war, we’d like to make the whole world better than it was. We’ve won two battles against the aliens. We’ve also fought humans - and won both times. We’ve never fought another Praetorian. I don’t know how it would go. But I’m never going to find out. Because, to be really clear? If it becomes obvious you’re going to fight us rather than help us? You’re not going to live long enough for your powers to develop into an actual threat.”

He took a breath, then leaned back. “I get it. Right now, you’re new. You’re scared. You’re rattled. It’ll take a while for you to integrate to the team. Take it as a chance to work on your shit with Leon. Don’t make it anyone else’s problem. We’re all in it together. Get to know people without pissing them off. Here’s the thing, Jared: my immediate family? Not bangers. I knew people who were. I had relatives who were. One uncle went down for some pretty heinous shit, and to this day I don’t know if he did it or was covering for the guy who did. I was told not to be like that. Maybe you were told to be like your cousin, maybe you weren’t. Don’t know. But this is a good time to be something else, because you’re not gonna survive this place if you choose to make an enemy of everyone else on the team.” 

Jared was quiet, then walked away without a word, and Xavier looked at his food, shoved something in his mouth, and walked over to Mark, who excused himself from Micah at the look on Xavier’s face, as politely as possible passing him off to Molly and Vergil.

“Hey. Xavier. What happened?”

Xavier realized he was shaking, and sat down. “He’s a fuckin’ problem, Mark. I told him he could either drop the Nazi shit or we were gonna kill him.”

Mark looked at Xavier, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

They both looked at the fire pit. “I didn’t realize how much I’d changed, man. I knew I could fight, knew I could plan, but like…That moment, where I told a kid our age I’d kill him, cold, for being a piece of shit, and I wasn’t even angry, I was just…I was just realizing that it was because he was a problem we couldn’t afford.”

“Yeah.” Mark was quiet, and Xavier shuddered, then Mark asked a question. “So, you’ve talked to him. Sorry I left you alone with that. Do you think he’ll listen?”

“I think he might. I told him he could change. That he had a choice. Lot of these assholes want to be big shots, and we’re gonna be the biggest deal around for a long time. He’s got glory on one hand if he decides that diversity isn’t so bad, or he’s got being buried in an unmarked grave on the other if he wants to stay a Nazi. Easy choice, right?”

“If he realizes those are the choices.” 

Xavier nodded. “Let’s hope. How’s the new kid you talked to?”

“He’s pretty great. Antsy, he was hospitalized for some kind of psych disorder. He hadn’t told me which one when we got sidetracked.”

“What do you think of them scooping Kimmy?”

“I think we need a word with Gideon or Koleth.”

“Or both.”

“Yeah. Or both.” 

[name-s-are-not-important]

Woah, the anon who got mad over a story a stranger writes in their free time and posts on the internet for free, was hilarious actually. I almost laughed.

To the point: Your answer to their ask inspired me to ask my own question - would you like to maybe share some historical inspirations that lead you to create The Iron Song the way it is? Or maybe drop some more historical facts; the one about ages of royals' marriages was really neat.

Wish you a nice week, love your stories, byeee~

I laughed too, what a beautiful scene.

Oh wow, I love this question…. You have hereby opened Pandora's box, dear questioner, for this is a subject I love and could rant about endlessly. So, get ready, here's the short version :) (Thank you so much for this question!).

Alternate versions of a story when we change one detail in the whole course of events. This is a construct that has fascinated me for a long time, and which, as part of an ‘exercise’ in history and social theory repetition, I have long used. We take one event out of a process or add an event that wasn't there. What impact will it have if we leave the rest. In this case it was a change of two elements, i.e. Halt's disappearance became a more important event than in the canon because…. well… and this is where my undying love of fantasy and quasi-mythological stories reappeared, hinting at a magic-fantasy setting, but with ‘canon-ish’ realism. No dragons, but with magic. The second element to be knocked out of the sequence of events is Caitlyn's death. Caitlyn is fine and the second most important character besides Halt. What's happening politically, socially, plot-wise now that we have a strong princess who is, to put it lightly, pissed off at what happened to her dear brother. We have a mother who will fight for her child no matter what, we have a sister who will stand up against her brother to protect her brother. We have a princess for whom the nation will go to war, in an age of sexism, misogyny, patriarchy and a prevailing religion that despises women. How did this happen?

I love the role of women in history. I hate the version of history we are taught in schools, kings without mothers or wives who ruled and killed and died, and women in general were there but are not. Hundreds of books in ‘medieval’ realities wonderfully replicate this pattern. One female character per plot and that's enough. Absolutely no RA book would pass the Bechdel test. Not a single one of them. We have so many guys all birthed by women. We have a princess heir to the throne, a bunch of couriers, a queen, a queen mother…. and none are important enough to get even one scene with another woman to talk not about a guy. So my story will be half about Caitlyn, half about Halt. The sequel to ‘the Iron Song’ is already about Caitlyn. That much I can reveal. She is the main character. Give me more strong female characters who are strong beyond the fact that they say they are different from all the girls and are so much more masculine that they can deserve to be cool.

Erasing queer love in the pages of history. We know that history hates queer lovers. A few couples have managed to survive this hatred. We know that Achilles killed Hector only to avenge Patroclus. The grief of how many other Achilles was never recognised as their official reason for changing the course of history? How many Patroklos were buried in oblivion by books written before clerical historians, altered centuries later, censored and castigated? And how many women, queer women, have never moved beyond being ‘dear friends’ with their loved ones? I wanted a story where every important character would be queer. A story about a civil war heroes who met on two sides of the barricade, in love with each other and forced to fight each other. Soldiers who gave up the option of a comfortable life just to be with each other even a few days longer, in danger but together.

Again women, but this time mothers. Such as Eileen, but also such as Caitlyn, and such as Rosalind, and such as Siobhan, and such as several others whose names the plot has not yet given us. Women who was never cared about and whose names we don't know or remember because no one considered them important enough to be recorded in history.

The tragedy of civil wars. My country's history is littered with uprisings. For more than a century we did not exist on maps, trapped under the occupation of three other countries. When ww1 erupted, people called to serve in the occupying forces were pitted against each other. Shoulder to shoulder with the people who had occupated them, but against their neighbours who already belonged to another country. Brothers against brothers, acquaintances, friends. All because someone in power decided the fate of hundreds of thousands. The canon speaks of civil war, but from the POV of a king betrayed by a baron. I like Duncan, I love Duncan, but he was not the person most devastated by the war. He lost his wife later, but saved his daughter. Thousands of people went to fight for him and never came back…. In the history of probably every country there are plenty of dates marked with the notation ‘war’. The king died, long live the king. How many hundreds lay in the ground splashed with the blood of other hundreds is irrelevant to history. What matters is that the king is still there. And if he is gone, another one will be put on the throne.

Religious trauma. Yes, generational, and that of mine a little too. Without going into private details, the topic of religious trauma and its impact on society and the formation of social, behavioural and even legal norms is something that has interested me for a long time. This time I created a new religion, just for the purpose of this story. I was not inspired by any existing religion and if there are elements in common with any, it is a work of chance. This religion was meant to be the most atrocious form of violence against the most innocent, so that the full extent of the revulsion of what kind of person still supports it can be seen. The idea of cutting a child with a knife to rub an infusion of herbs and incense into the wound is meant to horrify and disgust. We experience this religion from the POV of people who have been harmed by it. Directly, like Halt and Óengus, or indirectly, like Caitlyn, or by stories in general, but still, like Crowley. And then we get into the head of someone who was so sure of his faith that he would sacrifice everything and everyone for it. Religious fanaticism, especially mixed with politics, its social effects, the propagation of religion by fire and sword, or in general the idea of religion being imposed on someone by force for the grace of a deity…. all this I wanted to show as horrifyingly as possible, before looking at it from the perspective of the people who grew up with it in a less cruel form than Halt, and the people it gave power to.

Family trauma and violence within the family, especially a high-profile one. Children in good clothes and in a rich home. Screaming behind closed doors. Now it is talked about, but so many centuries of these cries have passed and no one listened to them. In the records we find references to the fact that some king there was ‘eager to anger’. That is to say, he probably beat his wife, children, servants and anyone else who got near. And all of these people had stories that were not told.

8. Brothers but enemies, enemies but brothers. My beloved concept. Right next to unreliable narrator and haunted narrative.

9. Military history, especially medieval history. I love it. It makes my blood boil when I read the ‘bigos’ made by many authors who write about the ‘Middle Ages’. For non-Slavic: bigos is a dish made of cabbage, bacon and sausage, but it was often made with whatever you could find in the pantry after a week's work. A heavy, indigestible, not-so-good-for-your-belly-even-if-smells-yummy bigos. Such is the ‘bigos’ of military history, weaponry, military formations, armour, castles, architectural styles, ways of fighting and commanding an army that is made into many books. I fell in love with ken-jitsu at one time, and then fencing because of it. My country also has a very long history of knights and one heavily-armed cavalry, of which some misunderstood patriotism people are veeery proud. Anyway, this is the knowledge that everyone remembers from the most famous historical movies. It didn't help my special interest in the military through the ages to not develop.

10. The 10th, and probably last, eves of major historical changes. We remember dates when things changed. But how did it change? Well, the king changed. Why? What was happening one, two, ten years before? Sometimes some teachers tell us, and praise them for that, but generally it's just about remembering dates and events. But history is about people. People made it happen. Someone once hit the table one too many times and changed the world. Someone else hit him and there are two political parties with the same idea but great hatred towards each other. Someone else risked everything to protect his family. Who was he in history, a traitor, a hero, a fool or a loving brother/husband/son? Or maybe it all depends on whose song we listen to….

And now 3 funfacts, if anyone made it all the way here - congratulations!!!

The most known type of armour, the full plate armour appeared in the late Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries). It was composed of metal plates joined by leather straps to shield the knight from the blows of swords, lances and arrows. It weighed approximately 20-30 kg. A tunic with an embroidered coat of arms, the knight's family mark, was sometimes placed over the breastplate. Armour was bloody expensive, so if someone could afford it, they were rich and important, and unlikely to fight with a sword against just anyone. The heavy cavalry as a formation was mostly made up of men from noble families, serving in it was a great honour. For all the rest, there was room in the terrified, poor, dirty and poorly armed crowd that was trampled and murdered. In addition, this beautiful armour had one veeery important function - to prevent it from being pierced by a sword. A knight wielding a sword did not hit another knight in full armour with a sword, because this would not be very effective. Against each other, knights fought with lances. The sword was for the hoi polloi. And NO ONE, I repeat no one, rode into battle with their head uncovered. All the epic scenes of taking out a sword against a huge army and knights with bare heads, dishevelled hair and madness in their eyes…. it's as if we took away the soldier's bulletproof vest and sent him in swimming trunks instead.

The whole theme with the heavy cavalry is different in ‘The Iron Song’ but for reasons of social change initiated by religion. Claíomh Deartháir are a religion of warriors, and have controlled the state for three hundred years, training their commanders and dictating political terms. They have introduced quite a few changes. Some of you may have heard the opinion, dating back to the golden ages of chivalry, that one who has the heavier cavalry rules the world. Let's just say that Claíomh Deartháir agree.

Contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages were as concerned about hygiene as they could be. In historical sources, one can find information about city baths available to everyone. The poor and peasants had designated places by rivers and streams where they could wash. The nobility enjoyed oils made from flowers, herbs and fragrant spices. A tiny nod in this direction is, of course, the scene at Araluen Castle where Crowley, brought up in a more poor, farming family, has the opportunity to come across the strange-smelling oily soap-shampoos that Halt was given by the medic. Previously, as a soldier, he preferred the traditional bathing methods for this social stratum. Halt sees nothing strange in this, having been brought up in other realities.

The strangest medieval footwear comes from Kraków (Poland). These shoes are ciżemki, flat with a short upper with an incredibly long ‘nose’. They appeared in the trade around 1330 and became very popular in Western Europe as cracoves or poulaines. The length of the top lengthened and shortened as fashions changed to reach a length 60 cm longer than the foot at its peak. Often the tops of shoes were decorated with additional elements. They were associated with promiscuity and decadence, so much so that at one point the Church issued a decree on who could wear them and who could not. An English poem from 1388 said that because of the long tops of the ciżemki, men were unable to kneel during Mass. The ciżemki fell out of favour around 1480 and did not reappear on a mass scale until the 20th century.

(To take care of the facts and not to rely on AuDHD's sometimes unreliable memory, all facts have been described based on online sources)

And if you'd like more rants, I have a whole lot more :)

Anyway, thank you so much for the opportunity to share this. You've made my day!

You have a great week too, thank you so much!!!

[faceglitchsworld]

It's the 7th of November, that means that I got dragged into Ateez once again after months or so for my birthday letters.

Happy birthday to our captain 🥳

Please look at the collage I made for him 🥹

Ok, this time it was a little messy because I wanted to fit the angle so you get the performances a little confused and the centre is messy BUT it's still good.

Also, fun fact, this time I didn't need to do my double check for the baby pic! I immediately saw it and said "this is him, it's clearly him. I can't be wrong."

If I was wrong you can make fun of me, really.

And now it's time for the letter!

It's seems it has been ages since I've talked about a certain type of idol in my letters. You might wonder which idol I'm referring to. Well, I'm talking about the leader who gets disresp-I MEAN, lovely teased by the other members, especially the most chaotic ones, of course.

But well, this time, I don't want to talk about this side of him because I think all of you know and already made memes about it. No, this time we'll talk about A R T.

I don't think I need to explain how he immediately caught my attention. If you followed me for a while, you know that the first members I always recognise at first are always the rappers. And Hongjoong is a rapper of course.

But he's not just a normal rapper. He's a rapper with a recognisable voice. He has that voice that you can't not ignore. You just can't. Even tho I confess that I didn't believe that he had that tone when I was listening to the albums. I needed to listen just to one (1) Ateez live performance to change my mind.

And of course we can't talk about singing without mentioning the charisma in performing. I think some of you knows his smile™. No, I'm not referring to the happy, warm smile, I'm referring to the other smile. The one which makes him turn into a demon in the process. You know, that one. You have no Idea how I love it because it tells everyone "see, me and the boys™ are going to destroy the stage in a matter of seconds, be prepared". And of course, none of us is prepared when it happens.

The control he has over the group, the way them are following him during a performance...you can't say that he doesn't have charisma. He has it. A lot.

And of course I should talk about his MC charisma too. It's still charisma after all. I know that conducing a radio program is different than conducing a TV show but, well, let's say that you need different qualities. You need to capture your public just by using your voice and you need to show your character by the way you use it. And I think no one can deny that Hongjoong doesn't have this talent of him. You just need to watch one episode of Idol Radio for noticing how he's able to catch your attention thanks to his voice. He's born to be a MC in general.

But of course, you can't talk about performances and charisma without mentioning his creative side.

I don't want to open an entire discourse about who actually produces the songs and how much creative control he actually has over the songs because that's not the time. But still, I think that, despite the limits he still have because of the company (and Eden), he tries to show his creative side despite all the possible rejections he might get.

At this point I don't know how much control he has over the lore or the Ateez's storyline, but my delusional side wants to believe that there are some details made by him which made the story unique, especially in the music side. Of course, since they're details, we should find them, as little treasures he left during this long path.

Dear Hongjoong, in a few hours we'll get the first video ever about your first photo exhibition. I'm very impressed and proud of how you finally managed to show an artistic side of you thanks to photography. I hope everything will go well and that you'll have the occasion to host much more exhibitions as time will pass. Actually I really want that you'll get much more freedom creative speaking too. I remember how you said at Lee Mujin's Service that you have more than 100 demos and that you want to show them to us. I've been curious about it since I've heard about it and I sincerely wonder how an album completely made by you will sound. I want to hear it so bad. I want to hear your artistry at its fullest.

Hence why I wish that you'll get much more creative freedom and control as time will pass by. Actually, I think you should have got it much more earlier but, well, better late than never.

Since you already did your birthday live (and you did it very very early this time, WOAH, I'm impressed), I hope, you'll spend a bright day today with members.

Happy birthday, true pirate king 🏴‍☠️

[pharrell-the-formation]

I want to share a small hypothesis about the world of Simulacra. I have to clarify that I haven't played the third game yet, and got only a couple of endings in the second one, because I can't stand this part. Perhaps somewhere there are direct explicit denials of the following, then take it just as another AU of mine.

So the thought is: what if the characters in these games are living in a simulation?

Let me explain my train of thought. None of the games give us more information about simulacrums than the fact that they are some powerful creatures that love to play around with human destinies. And their most important distinguishing feature is that they are all tightly tied to different kind of technologies. Then the question arises: did they exist before technology? Given HOW MUCH exactly this feature plays a role in the plots of games, I doubt it. However, it means that they were also created by people, which contradicts the fact that only a few units of the population know about them, and then only the very grains. Even the verified methods of destroying creatures do not exist, except for one of the positive ending of the second part, invented in the process.

The only significant thing that the creators gave us on this topic is an article from the second game. It says that the influencer awakened the beast simply by becoming popular. It didn't look like he had summoned a demon with a ritual, it was more like some being was just showing an interest in him. In addition, Charlie himself spoke of this creature as a Deity. And this, after all, correlates with past information - they have repeatedly proved in words and in deeds that in terms of abilities they are MUCH superior to people.

What I try to say is that one of the variations of the theory about our world as a matrix implies that there is a certain superior race that controls this matrix and we are a human zoo for it or something like that. In my version, simulacrum creatures actually are some kind of higher organisms and the world of characters for them is like a fancy board game with a ton of figurines laid out in front of their metaphorical noses. They lived quietly for themselves, and then something took place that irritated them and they began to abuse their little animals in various twisted ways.

Therefore, they do not have a full-fledged physical appearance and communicate only via messages in instant messengers or through human carriers. They are with people on different levels of reality, like pen pals from different cities, with the only difference being that one can kill another using only its will. Therefore, Taylor's consciousness was captured in seconds despite the distance. Therefore, in the bad ending, Teddy can be DELETED from the world. Therefore, Maya saw technical interference in reality, around her.

And you, as a player, are immersed in the shoes of just such a non-playable character, a faceless member of the crowd, who must find a way to agree with someone, who is actually playing here.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

For the ask game:

Violetta and Francesca sat by the patio, looking at the sunshine together. They waited for some friends to come over.

The first were Ludmila and Naty. They couldn’t believe they had known them for over 70 years now. The second ones were two ladies named Jim and Yam, who Violetta and Francesca had gotten to know thanks to their oldest daughter marrying their oldest daughter. Yes, this meant that some of their grandchildren only had a bunch of abuelas.

So did all of Ludmila and Naty’s grandchildren. They only had one daughter, Stella, and to almost no one’s surprise she ended up marrying Camila’s kid, Kim. They ended up having four children together. Ludmila still did not know how to handle the fact that she and Camila were family by marriage now, even if it had been 20 years since Stella and Kim tied the knot. 

Violetta and Francesca had three kids together - Elina, Carolina and Oliver. Elina was their oldest, who married Jim and Yam’s daughter Lola. The two girls had two kids of their own, and only women for parents and grandparents. Carolina only had one kid with her husband, and Oliver, while married, never had any children with his wife. Ludmila used to tease Violetta and Francesca about how, despite them having more children, they got less grandchildren. 

Jim and Yam had a second daughter named Charlie, who had a child with one man, and then she had two others with another man that she still to this day was married to. So, they had 5 grandkids in total, which was the most out of all of them. 

Ludmila and Naty arrived first. They went out to greet them. 

So, in the beginning, this was going to be at a nursing home, with also way more characters. But I felt like it'd be more cozy to have it be at Vilu and Fran's house.

Due to me having a lot of next gens now, I thought of ways to connect and crossover the dcla characters, by letting their kids get together (there's more Violetta next gens I imagine eventually get together with SL next gens). I had this idea that far in the future, almost all characters manage to intertwine in some way, and there's descendants that have managed to be related to a majority of them at once. I even tried once to come up with a fun family tree on how all character's descendants eventually got together, making their kids be distantly related to them all in the process. BUT, that just ended up being way confusing, especially because I got two different universes to work with. And these universes are essentially the same for everyone except for Violetta and Francesca - who are with Leon and Diego in universe 1 and with each other in universe 2. However, I still do believe that in the universe where they marry their canon endgames, they still eventually might be friends with Jim and Yam. I mean, if you've read my next gen fic, Lola is still friends with Leonetta and Diecesca's daughters, so it's not surprising they'll get to know them due to their daughters just being friends. Also, who Lola ends up with in universe 1 (where none of Franletta's kids exist), well... we'll see.

I have not at all thought much about eventual grandchildren, to be honest. I just spawned ideas that "oh, they have this many kids, maybe they have one", and also tried to include different family constellations; some have kids with different people, so their kids are half-siblings. But I really have not brought much thought into who every single person has married, besides the ones mentioned by name. The rest are just "some dude/some gal". Ludmila and Naty having four grandchildren came from me having that in the christmas event last december. I have for long known that I wanted Luty's daughter and Camila's kid to be an eventual couple, because I thought it would be funny that Ludmila had to deal with having Camila as her in-law. But I have not named or even gendered any of those four grandkids.