#and also retribution

[thankstothe]

eat him alive <3

[olessan]

☼ The Sun Rises ☼

[lucabyte]

A belief in Nominative Determinsim

[wistfulwatcher]

2.05 The Aftermath | 5.01 Nameless, Faceless

[quiddling]

feel like pure shit just want spoon back x

[setevulpo]

lovingly pointing out that the cat king did to edwin what edwin did to his cat

step by step, even. offered him something he wanted (even if only deep down), put a binding spell on him, then asked for something he wanted in exchange for freedom

obviously they wanted different things, but it's funny that the cat king just decided "let's copy paste the crime as the punishment"

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[localcryptic]

sidestep doodles for todayyy <3 putting ripley into the torment nexus

[serpentface]

Hey bro you want some stew haha (Brakul at the age of 18 being hit on by what would soon become an off and on lover of three years, another herder from the neighboring Silde-Urbinnas tribe named Dirgrani.)

As a young unmarried man, Brakul had the responsibility of bringing his family's cattle up the mountain to their clan's summer pastures for grazing. He had been doing this since he was 14 and wasn't fond of it- Brakul heavily favored the comforts of home, and this was three months of living mostly on milk and dried bread, sleeping out in the cold, and squaring up against the occasional particularly intrepid hyena, all with nothing but cattle for company. He had a marriage engagement secured for when he returned in the fall, which he was fairly excited about as it would get him out of the task of summer herding for good.

He met Digrani up at pasture that year. Brakul had been seeing evidence that someone was trespassing on his clan's land and grazing cattle there, and finally encountered the culprit two weeks in. Dirgrani was friendly and charming, and Brakul was very, very easily persuaded out of chasing him off with a stick, instead agreeing to let him share the pasture.

The two of them struck up a friendly relationship, and would stop to chat and share food whenever they met up. Dirgrani, being a decade older and significantly more experienced, picked up on Brakul's sad wistful gazes and frequent excuses to disappear behind some rocks and jack off. Dirgani quickly went from casual flirtation to openly coming onto him. Brakul had a few prior sexual experiences with women but never someone he was actually attracted to, and he accepted these advances and got his shit absolutely rocked. The two stuck together for the rest of the season, meeting up every night to make camp together. When the time came to part ways, they agreed to join up again the next year and continue as they were. Brakul was thrilled at the prospect and completely and utterly head over heels enamored with the man.

Brakul broke off his engagement upon his return (very rudely at that, which caused problems for his clan) and put off any further attempts at getting hitched in favor of continuing his summer herding and seeing Dirgani again. This went on for two more years, with the two joining up in the pastures and seeing nothing of each other for the rest of the year. As time wore on, Brakul became fixated on the notion of working out some kind of arrangement where he could stay a bachelor and live with Dirgrani year-round. Marriage was a firm expectation of life and avoiding it as such would be highly frowned upon, but not unheard of. The Bict and Silde Urbinnas tribes had fairly good relations, and even if Brakul didn't contribute to his clan's wellbeing with the security of marriage, he figured could still provide through close connection to an ally.

His romantic outlook on the situation came to an end when Dirgrai firmly rejected this concept. It finally got through Brakul's head that Dirgrani had no such interest and was mostly just fucking him because he was there, decent company, willing and eager, and it helped pass the long days of boredom and loneliness up at pasture. Brakul handled this badly and blew up at him, and initiated a physical fight. He lost, badly, and Dirgrani stole all but one of his cattle in retribution and ditched. This was the last time they ever saw each other.

Brakul returned home heartbroken and humiliated and having to explain in detail to his extremely aggravated mother where the fuck their cows went. Feeling depressed and tremendously guilty, he finally conceded to courting Sirudan, a cattle-wealthy and dear childhood friend of his, and would marry her the following year.

This affair would continue to haunt his life for the next couple years. Brakul having strained some of his clan's key relations by playing fast and loose with his marriage proposals and then 'losing' all but one of his mother's cattle was already embarrassing, which was compounded by word that a Silde-Urbinnas man was bragging about having repeatedly fucked a younger Bict-Urbinnas herder (who was very enthusiastic about taking it 'like a woman'!) and effortlessly stolen his cattle. Most people in Brakul's life managed to put two and two together, which utterly humiliated him and felt impossible to live down.

Sirudan was a good friend to him and (though Very put off by all this) didn't hold his failures over his head, and encouraged him to just put it all behind him. But Brakul was scared to death by his wife's impending childbirth and haunted by memories of a time where he felt happy, in love, and with hopes of a fulfilling future. When he would later find himself in a friendship and burgeoning romance with a man who was genuinely enamored with him, he was fully primed to skip out on his wife and child, put absolutely Everything behind him, and chase after that possibility of a new life. And so it goes.

[waspgrave]

Solas and Mythal’s relationship is that perfect blend of fucked up and tragic I have been wanting from them for a decade. The mother and her child, the two lovers, a queen and a general, the dog and its master, the servant and the lord. Love it. I knew I sensed fuckery with the way solas talked about her despite ‘burning her off his face’. Then to see him shrinking up in front of her, how he groaned ‘mythal’ in dread and even began to hold the dagger out towards her to take bc he knows he’ll do anything for her if she asks. man needs therapy for his absolutely disastrous and problematic situationship thank you for letting me watch your traumas unfold like that king

[valcubust]

inktober 8: mirror

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 232

Once more thinkin of These Series of AU/Prompts, where the Class pulls a Tiamat. Becomes Giant Hydra Dragon. But with some inspiration from @radiance1's Blob King AUs. Specifically also the dragon ones.

Now, the nine of them are admittedly far older than they once were. Far older than most of the people outside the cage they were tricked into all those years before, exhaustion seeping into their bones as their ectoplasm was siphoned away.

Yet no matter how much the GIW drains away- if they're even called as such anymore- they never run out. If anything, at least from what they've noticed, unable to do much of anything else in this pit, this tank of green and red, they seem to be making more.

Their recollection of being separate, of having separate bodies have long since slipped away in exchange for keeping memories of their families and friends long gone now. Perhaps they're in the zone, as ghosts, but perhaps not.

Days feel like both seconds and years, words falling away as their Core hums as one. Sometimes a Blob ghost manages to find its way inside- the trap designed not to stop things from getting in, but to prevent them from leaving.

They always disappear whenever the ecto is taken away, not having enough to continue holding on to a physical form. But... the blobs don't stay gone. Their own ecto brings them back, tiny forms almost mimicking their own.

It's something to distract them, something to actually do besides growl at the figures beyond the barriers around them. The blobs don't speak, don't make more than squeaks, but it's something. Almost like dozens of toddlers floating around, becoming more and more draconic in shape with every siphon.

Do their captors realize, they wonder, how they've made them all stronger than they were even before? Do they realize what they've done, creating this loop of ever-growing power?

No, Star giggled, pink and gold scales shimmering as she bobbed her head in amusement, Paulina's darker purples following.

They don't know, Wes agreed, dark amusement echoed by both Sam and Dash, fangs flashing amidst the liquid. The trap would not be able to contain them for much longer, they all knew. They could feel it, how the siphon stuttered with every run.

It wouldn't be long now. They had waited three hundred years for the chance to escape- they could wait for a few days more.

...

Though they won't complain about an early prison break if those alarms are anything to go by.

[salty-an-disco]

it's really fun how, if you get The Moment of Clarity as one of your routes, the new ending becomes impossible to achieve.

That vessel, specifically, cannot be 'defeated' (the state a vessel need to be in to be valid for that ending) in any way. You gave up that chance the moment you threw away the knife and decided to stay. You already tried everything else, then, now there's nothing left to do but take her hand.

[lucabyte]

Hmmm just gonna spit this headcanon out in text post form since A. I don't think I could exposit it well enough in image form and B. It's not actually textually/thematically substantiated and I don't like actually staking my stuff on just vibes alone*

But anyway. I'd say it's pretty evident that all the islanders forgot their names, right? King obviously. Because why the hell else would he do that, but also Siffrin No Middle Names No Last Name.

They're 'pretty sure' they've 'always' been 'Just Siffrin' 'as long as they can remember'. It's a pretty cruel twist of the knife to say that they don't even get to keep their birth name as a memento, which is why I'm saying as such.

My utterly unsubstantiated claim is I think it'd be cute to say that Sisyphus *is* the name Siffrin initially picked, assuming the myth of King Sisyphus is recontextualised as idk, just a play or something in the setting. But I like the idea of Siffrin going 'oh shit 🫵 he's just like me fr' at a tortured fictional character long before the irony kicks in.

As for how Sisyphus -> Siffrin. I think that chronic mumbler and emotional doormat Sif just did not correct people who misheard the name during their time travelling, and went through enough places with incompatible phonologies (pronounceable sounds in the language) without ever really writing it down that it just got kinda. Changed until it was unrecognisable, and Siffrin just went with it until the earlier pronunciations slipped out of their swiss-cheese brain. And they just kinda don't remember any of that.

Also, something something the horrid realisation that Siffrin also named themselves after a King. Just not as blatantly.

*(though I think there's something here about Siffrin, a guy from a belief system that seems to thoroughly disincentivise autonomy and self-motivated choice continuously having their hand forced to make changes/choices they don't want but have no choice but to... It's not solid enough to really back this up tbh, but it informs it.)

Anyway.

[thekitofit]

• Lt. Bush •

[ reblog please instead of only liking and save an artist's life ✨ commissions open ✨ ko-fi ]

[defenestratin]

you only get what you grieve