#and i NEED NEED NEED a rise of the guardians sequel

[cha-lii]

can companies like disney and dreamworks and stuff start making sequels targeted towards their more mature audiences??

like, show me luca and alberto and julia as young ✨gay✨ adults.

show me mirabel as the new matriarch of la familia madrigal.

give me a sequel to rise of the guardians that gets properly into joyce’s lore and backgrounds for his characters.

god damn there is so much these studios could do that they just don’t have the brains or courage for 😩

[hp-fanfic-archive]

Harry/Draco Fluff Masterlist | fics with less than 5k words

long story short: my masterlist page is broken because I’ve maxed out the length of it because I have recc’d too many fics. So I’m taking a page out of @wizardingworldlibrary ‘s book and making masterlist posts which you can find and be directed to on the updated masterlist page. They will contain every fic ever recc'd on this blog, but will be searchable based on ship, genre, length, among other things.

last updated: 09/17/24 | links last checked: 09/17/24

A Fluffy Little Olive Branch by JulietsEmoPhase [T, 4k]

Harry comes into work one day to find a box with a baby owl inside sitting on his desk, and a note from a mystery well-wisher.

*Code-Cracking For Gryffindors by Saras_Girl [T, 4k]

Harry should know better than to conceal mysterious body art from dorm-mates who pay no heed to what happened to the cat.

*Come as You Are by peachpety [E, 3k]

If asked, Harry Potter would categorize his high school senior year as normal: football, friends, and one devastating crush on his tutor, Draco Malfoy. When presented with an opportunity to help Draco, Harry rises to the occasion. Unfortunately, so does his dick. Sparks fly and alarms blare… and the Hogwarts Owlz Gossip twitter feed blows up. Or: the one where an inconvenient erection brings them together.

Cookies and Kisses by bettydice [E, 1k]

Harry is baking christmas cookies and Draco really can't take this anymore.

*Draco L Malfoy (The L Stands For Legs) by StarQuesting [E, 1k]

Harry could spend the rest of his life in the embrace of Draco Malfoy’s legs. If he was lucky, he would.

*Draco's Emotional Uprising by XxTheDarkLordxX [T, 3k]

“For the love of—really Draco? Artificial leather?” The horror in his father’s tone was amusing. “You have money, use it. And what’s with the color scheme? Is that—oh Merlin it is—floral print? This is worse than I thought. You need to move back home. Clearly allowing you to venture out on your own was a mistake.” “I’m an adult,” Draco yelled, still laying on the ground, not bothering to care enough to move. He had chosen his furniture knowing it would haunt his parents. Petty spite did wonders for the soul Revenge, friendship, and a surprising romance kindle after Draco experiences a recent breakup. He just wants to discover who he is, and maybe the knowledge was there all along.

*everything he is by vityenka [G, 1k]

It's almost like a surprise when Harry pads into the kitchen that morning after and sees him standing at the window above the sink.

Happy Halloween! by SereneFreakGeek [T, 3k]

Harry and Draco have been dating for about a year now when their friend Luna has invited them to a Halloween party! What could possibly go wrong? (sequel to Care For Me)

Harry Potter and the Incredibly Organized Personal Assistant by megyal [T, 2k]

Harry Potter's new assistant is snarkily organized.

Hold My Hand by bafflinghaze [M, 3k]

Harry has been with Draco for a number of years now. So when Draco gets injured, Harry has to storm St. Mungo’s.

Keep You Close (Keep Me Safe) by bafflinghaze [E, 2k]

After a long day, Harry comes home knowing Draco will take care of him.

*love me now (touch me now) by swisstae [G, 3k]

Harry's never had a bath. Draco plans on changing that. OR in which Harry gets his hair washed and Loves It (and Draco. He loves Draco too.)

Meeting The Guardians by jlpierre [T, 3k]

Will Draco meeting the 'Dad's', Sirius and Remus, go down well for Harry?

*Patronus by drarrily-we-row-along [T, 1k]

“Calm down? Calm down?! Pansy, you recall that I have a dark mark don’t you? The final is half of our grade! I’m going to fail.” “You’re not going to fail,” she informed him calmly. “You’ll learn Draco, you have over three weeks.” “But I’m an ex-death eater,” he whispered, as though anyone could ever forget. “Death eaters can’t cast a patronus, you know that.” “That’s not true,” a voice behind them piped up, making Draco jump. “For Circe’s sake, Potter, stop sneaking around,” he grumbled. The other boy shrugged, “Sorry,” he said unrepentantly, “Couldn’t help but overhear what you were saying.” Draco rolled his eyes, “Oh, you just couldn’t help it, huh?” He flicked a careless grin at Draco, his dimple showing, and as always, Draco didn’t know quite what to do with that. “I’m just saying that death eaters could cast a patronus.” “How would you know?” Draco asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Snape could cast one, and Merlin knows that you did far less horrific shite than he did,” Potter replied as he sauntered past them and into the common room. “I could help you, if you want,” he called over his shoulder before walking out of view.

Pomegranate Seeds by Lomonaaeren [M, 1k]

Harry and Draco are having fun planning their futures together. And making obscure mythological references.

Problems in Tying by fuxked [G, 1k]

"Well, considering I switched our ties on purpose, I'd hardly say you're going to make me do anything I don't already want to." "You what?" Or the classic tie swap one shot nobody asked for.

Real Texts by Affectiion [G, 2k]

Kingsley has decided all his Aurors need muggle mobile phones. Draco has finally learned how to use his, and gets a hold of Harry's number.

Ron Weasley: Accidental Matchmaker by Phoenix_Waves [T, 2k]

"There's not a sexual tension out there that the man can't accidentally detect!" George beamed. "And then ask the stupid arse question that's going to light the spark and fan the flames." Lee added matter-of-factly. A fluffy Christmas one shot featuring our favorite older Gryffindors.

Spin the Wand by WrittenSins [T, 2k]

In the spirit of inter-house unity, the eighth years have a small party. In an attempt to get Harry and Ginny back together, Hermione and Ron come up with the plan of a rigged game of Spin the Wand, but not all goes as planned.

The Talk by WolfstarPups90 [M, 1k]

Sirius and Remus think it's time they give Harry "The Talk" when they find he's been sneaking out at night to see someone special.

*The Worst Plan He's Ever Had by gnarf [G, 3k]

“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend until valentine's day is over. I detected at least three hexed objects in my mail and five attempts to poison me with love potion this week and I'm sick of it.” “To be—your boyfriend?” Malfoy's voice stuttered and Harry braced himself for the punch he was expecting. But it never came. Instead— “Fine. I'll do it.” Harry couldn't believe his ears. “Just like that?” “Yes Potter, just like that."

They Don't Know About Us by weasley_bee [G, 1k]

Harry and Draco are in a secret relationship. When they are both invited to Ron and Hermione's house for dinner, will they give the game away?

Welcome to the Family by Jencala [M, 2k]

Remus turned to face his husband. “Your godson is engaged to a Malfoy. He’s used to the finer things in life and I, for one, would like to make sure this dinner is not only pleasant, but that he knows we are not peasants.” Sirius barked a laugh. “So the truth is, you want to show off for the little bugger!”

you've got something on your neck by liliette [M, 4k]

when will harry not have something on his neck?

*denotes personal favorites

[littlemisssquiggles]

The Missed Potential of WISH

It’s funny.

Last year, I really wanted to watch the new Wish animated film from Disney.

While everyone else were hating on the art and animation style, I actually kind of liked it and was genuinely looking forward to possibly viewing it on the big screen.

Then the reviews came in. Needless to say, I didn’t watch Wish.

I remember a time when people used to complain about Disney making “too many love stories”. Then Disney stopped making love stories leading to films like Moana, Coco, Encanto and even Turning Red, which weren't bad.

Following the failure of Wish, the biggest complaint I’ve heard for that film is that “it probably would’ve been more successful if it were a love story”.

The last romance Disney had we’re the protagonist was a “black girl” was Tiana from The Princess and the Frog which was technically their last 2D animated feature film.

And don’t get me wrong, til this day, The Princess and the Frog still tracks. Second to Tangled, I still very much love TPATF and it's one of Disney's classics that definitely have the rewatchability.

That being said, Wish is the first Disney film I've seen where the missed potential of what its story was originally supposed to be (herego a love story between a human girl and shape-shifting star boy) versus what we actually got is more popular.

Aww Disney, what were you thinking?! How could you think a film where the main character, who is a PoC, the first "black girl" (well technically I think Asha is meant to be mixed) female lead/love interest that you've had since Tiana in The Princess and the Frog in 14 YEARS where she is actually human for all of the movie and gets to share a love story with a handsome "star boy" who can literally make all of her dreams come and think that that's NOT gonna make you money!

I haven't even watched Wish yet I've seen more artwork and fan-made animatics of Asha and Star Boy than anything from the actual film.

At this point, Disney should just take all of the original ideas they left on the chopping block for Wish and revise them into a future title which is an actual love story they could market from.

Or…as an audience, we can just wait for one of their competitors, like Dreamworks to smell the blood in the water like the sharks they are and capitalize on Disney’s latest flop by taking the ideas they didn’t use and coming up with something that could potentially usurp the popularity of Wish’s failure.

In the case of Dreamworks, they don’t even need to make a new star boy since, technically, they already have potential “star boy” they can use.

Remember Rise of the Guardians?

Hahaaaaa OF COURSE you do, since it gave us the original immortal boy internet heart throb (also ironically voiced by Chris Pine who played King Magnifico in Wish) ---Jack Frost.

I find it hilarious that another reason why folks are hating on Wish so much is because Disney could've given us another potential immortal boy heart throb "Star Boy" to finally usurp the chokehold that Jack Frost has had on our generation of weebs and artists for the past 12 years since RoTG first dropped.

We could've had it all.

But as I mentioned Rise of the Guardians, did you know that there is character in the original series it was based off of called Nightlight?

While technically not a “star boy”, Nightlight is the closest thing to one in an already established universe from a Dreamworks property and since this squiggle meister never misses a beat to push for continuation of Rise of Guardians, hear me out:

Imagine a Rise of the Guardian prequel-sequel about the character Nightlight and make it a love story.

(Because apparently there's a girl that Nightlight grows close to in his story called Katherine. It's just a friendship but needless to say, there is potential there).

I know it’s been 12 years since Rise of Guardians first dropped and I know I've be hollering for a sequel since 2012.

But c'mon, if there was ever a time for Dreamworks to capitalize on an RoTG sequel, it's now.

As Wish has proven, the internet is hungry for another handsome immortal boy with magical powers.

Dreamworks set the ball rolling with Jack Frost.

If Dreamworks were to revisit RoTG again, take Nightlight's story. Take his design and give him the "Jack Frost" treatment and make it a love story on top of that.

I'm not saying it will happen. Not even saying it could happen.

But if somehow thought becomes reality and something like this does actually happen, whoever does it will be rolling in dough.

This is just a longwinded way of me to say that somebody needs to bank on the concept of a star falling in love with a human and do it now since as the internet has shown, it's what the people want and what Wish failed to give.

~LMS (2024)

[tackletofset]

If I had to choose one word to describe "Dark Heir," it would be 'OTHERWORLDLY.'

[There will be NO SPOILERS in this Review, only vague hints]

“Critiquing the idea of a classic hero and a reclaiming of the queer villain”

These words are written under the blurb of the very ARC. Sadly, most people are still missing the point.

Dark Rise is my true love in the form of a book series. 

As a queer person who grew up sympathizing with villains (who are often queer-coded), this book series undoubtedly serves as a great form of escapism. I feel seen and understood. I found a home here.

Reading Dark Heir was a surreal experience, almost like a sudden storm hitting me all at once. It was like being pulled into a whirlwind. It is everything I could ever wish for!!!

I devoured this book in just TWO DAYS, which is unexpected given my typically SLOW reading pace. It's worth noting that Dark Heir is considerably longer than Dark Rise (with Dark Rise comprising 34 chapters and Dark Heir containing 51). It is also fueled by my eagerness to continue the story after a two-year wait, particularly following that cliffhanger!

Will has always been my favourite character since "Dark Rise," and this sequel only amplifies it. I perceive his struggles with the truth of his identity, as a metaphor for internalized queerphobia. Many queer youth, including myself, have been told that our queerness is evil and abhorrent, leading us to hide and deny our true selves in the pursuit of acceptance from others. Will's yearning for his friends' acceptance, especially from Violet, his best friend.

Many of us would be delighted to see that James has POV chapters in this book! It's great to see his perspective on not only his feelings about Will or Sarcean but also about his family history.

I'm equally excited about introducing the new character, Visander, and I'm thrilled that he can be interpreted as trans. Knowing that CS Pacat identifies as genderqueer/non-binary, I would like to see him writing more trans-coded characters. Visander is a character who fascinates me, as there are times when he can be both lovable and yet totally frustrates me.

Praise Pacat (again), who has been so generous to give us the “Surprise POVs” which made me scream and jump up and down at 2 a.m.

I seriously love the parts where we got to explore more of the Old World. The twists within them are both surprising and, in a way, expected. I've always held the belief that history was written by the victors, and as a result, the truth about the Dark King and the Betrayer was also lost in time. It was also very gratifying to see that the characters that were once hailed as the paragons of virtue were not so saint-like after all.

I hate classic heroes. I despise them and I won't even try to hide it.

Doubtlessly, the Old World chapters are my favourites. And I yearn to have even more of them in Book 3 because I want to know more details about how Sarcean came to power- and his downfall, and the full truth about his relationship with Anharion! I wouldn't mind the book stretching to 60+ chapters to accommodate it.

Pacat has indeed delivered on his promises to infuse this sequel with even more "on-page gay" content, so readers need not fret about the shortage of romance. They are plentiful, to say the least.

Now, returning to my initial point:

!!!Dark Rise is not a story about escaping an abusive male partner!!!

While numerous stories tackle this theme, and it is worth telling, this is not one of them.

This is a story about queer people reclaiming their identities. It speaks to those who have been vilified, demonized, alienated, and even disowned from a young age by the very individuals who should have shielded them—their parents and guardians.

They are continuously taught that their queerness is immoral, abhorrent, and despicable, leading them to believe they must conceal and deny their true selves, often feeling as though they are harbingers of evil and thus destined for condemnation. It sheds light on how queer youths grapple with internalized queerphobia due to an environment that refuses to accept them for who they are.

The accusations hurled at the "villainous figures" within this story mirror the stigma that the bigoted society frequently directs at queer individuals: that we’re lewd, vulgar degenerates, disease-spreaders and a danger to children. 

Dark Rise and Dark Heir underscores our society’s twisted morality that the only available paths for queer individuals are either to deny their queerness or face the gravest consequences. In other words: be converted or unalived.

For those of us who have been demonized and alienated by the people who were supposed to protect us—we are not evil. We do not deserve the abuse directed at us, and it is not our fault. There is nothing wrong with us. We deserve happiness, love, safety, and acceptance.

We should all be unapologetic and unafraid of our true selves, like James.

And oH MY GOD. THAT ENDING!!! You think the prologue was crazy??? You wouldn’t LIVE to see that ending.

I have fantasized about *that* final line before, but I thought it was cheesy and that it might be something more like Prince Gambit's "The King! Damianos! He lives!" but it was not like that at all 🤣🤣🤣

It's my dream cheesy line 💜💜💜

[ganondoodle]

since i cant stop thinking about things i care about and also i cant shut up ever im gonna say my bit about the "well of COURSE they destroyed everything shiekah after botw bc it nearly killed the entire country DUH do you not understand basic worldbuilding??" type of comment i had directed at me (mostly on twitter to no ones surprise and almost exactly worded like this)

--how would you even destroy it, the only thing you can actually damage with anything are guardians and nano-guardians, anything else cant even get scratched, hell you cant even climb the darn things, are you seriously trying to tell me they somehow completely pulverized not just the shrines but titans (divine beasts), the shrine of life and the pillars holding the guardians in storage around hyrule castle and the dome beneath it (whereever that went lol) when it was built to and DID last over 10 000 years ... and if you did somehow find a way to dismantle literally all of it why would you not ... use its parts for something else and also research it (lets be real here, purahs new towers are just the sheikah towers but more impractical and would by all means not need all of the material from all the missing stuff and the purahpad is just ... literally the shiekah stone but looking more like the switch and also worse bc its got almost none of the functions the shiekah stone had) they were so integrated into botws landscape removing them and their chambers would have been so much effort better spent in other places and just so unnecessary (think of the shrines at the twin mountains, removing all of that would be so dangerous and difficult to do), removing the pillars and the dome under the castle would endanger it collapsing no? there also would have needed to be a giant mechanism down there to make the pillars rise up, why would you go and try to destroy that instead of focusing on rebuilding the most important infrastrucutre

(on a sidenote, yes there are holes to the underground in the place of some shrines but its by far not all of them .. .even so there at the very least should be some rubble of them lying about at the bottom plus in most of their places its just plain earth, or sometimes even a cave locked by some puzzle which is.... so weird)

really the only explanation would be that it all just ... disappeared after zelda sealed ganon, which wouldnt only be hella unsatisfying as an answer but also again pose the problem that i would have caused the castle to collapse considering how shiekah tech was so integrated into it... unless it turned to earth somehow ... which would explain that but still be as satisfying of an explanation as 'it was all just a dream uwu' additionally, the zonau stuff under the castle wasnt even that far down so it must have intersected with the shiekah stuff, like the pillars or the dome?? but no its all just zonau ruins now wahoo

if literally all traces were gone and totk was a paralel to botw but with zonau instead of shiekah OK, they still called it a sequel tho, they still talk about the events of botw but in a way that sounds like it was just another lost legend, the tapestry exists as well, and there are a few old guardian parts on top of the hateno institute (still feels like an oversight considering how cleanly everything else was wiped off the map), plus purahs towers and the purahpad are clearly based off of it, so it cant really be some time fuckery either, some things still remain; it just doesnt add up and its frustrating as hell .. ... especially if you were like me completely thrilled and intrigued to learn more about the ancient shiekah, what WAS that dome under the castle for?? what WAS ancient energy really and why was it found in these specific places only?? did they know about ganondorf?? if they built stuff down there shouldnt they have inevitably come across the old tunnels?? the monks literally talk to link in botw why would they withhold that info, what reason could they have?

--by far my biggest annoyance with that excuse is that ... if you are so afraid of tech you dont fully understand being taken over by the bad guy again to the point you destroy not just the titans you basically worshipped as divine protectors but also immovable shrines that literally couldnt do shit to harm you even if they were pumped up to the brim with malice/miasma after they have already become non threatening/non functional anyway... HOW could you just go and fully trust and personally play around with new tech that LITERALLY rained from the sky out of nowhere, from a group of people no one knows shit about (like at least the shiekah were still existing and had a small part of recorded history) and never cared either until now that they are suddendly everywhere, even if it cant get corrupted somehow (kinda disproven by the spirit temple) how the hell would anyone know that?? if anything this would be a reason to be MORE afraid of it

even the ancient king that persecuted the shiekah bc he was afraid of their tech when they invented it didnt order them to destroy it, just bury it, despite them of all people knowing the best of how to completely destroy it??? and zelda doesnt seem like the type that would order old history and relics to be destroyed liek that??

it would have been such a golden opportunity to show that hey, the ancient shiekah based their tech on that of the zonau, they found the mines and tech and reasearched it to built their own from it, strucutres that show they were down here building the shrines from underground, titan prototypes, you cant do anything with it, its old and broken, but its there, environmental storytelling and all that

the shrine of life especially pisses me off bc thats like .. ok it was kinda not the best maybe but it still saved links goddamn life, even if it all became useless for some reason at least leave it there as a sign of respect, if there needs to be a cave have it be half collapsed after the cataclysm or something wheres the problem

(also idk if im the only one with that but in botws true ending when zelda says that vah ruta, i think, has stopped working it seemed like a good setup for more? and that she wanted to investigate that in the sense of ah shoot i want it to keep working tho and not in the sense of hell yeah lets smash it to pieces i know this is theory territory now but it seemed like it somewhat confirmed that the titans need a pilots strong spirit to work since they are not connected to the ancient energy network and the spirits of the champions passed on at the end ... the idea that ancient energy was spirit energy either gained from luminous stones or directly spirits is so neat, and i loved that idea of hey the reason why all of the energy went out all of the sudden is bc ganondorf is breaking free after having been kept in a stasis to use either his malice or his strong spirit to fuel it all has never left my mind since i first read about it bc its such a good setup for intrigue, like oh heck the ancient shiekah werent so coolio and 100% perfectly good either, maybe they knew about gans 'future' or history and hey why not trick him or sth into being sealed against his will so that problem is out the way and whoop hes pretty much an infinite source of energy nice lets use that for our research and not tell anyone oh no we created a monster (calamity gan) l guess we are gonna use the tech we fuel with his own life against him lol, OR you could have connceted it to the zonau maybe doing the sealing first and the shiekah discovering him later and being like oh neat an endlessly rich powersource we arent gonan tell anyone about weehoo

it would have tied into the ancient shiekah stuff, explained why it doesnt work well anymore, give a reason to explore the underground and discover it all, give a reason to why it was kept a secret bc no one wanted to admit yeah we made this monster ourselves whoops, give ganondorf a reason to be this angry and make it all more nuanced bc yeah ok maybe the zonau knew about gan and in their effort to prevent it caused it instead by sealing him before he became a problem and it all started a domino effect of disasters leading into all this mess that now poor zelda and link gotta solve

im not saiyng this is the better version or that i am better but again you can literally do so much with the setup for it all and what totk ended up doing with it feels so ... not even underused but straight up backwards treading you had it right on front of you INFINITE POTENTIAL AAARGH)

theres only so much fun gameplay and fantastic music can save and man can you imagine what could have been if the story got the same polish as the gameplay and music ;__;

[arithmonym]

20 questions for 20 writers!

thanks to @accidentallyadorable for tagging me! this was fun. :3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

30! only 20 are visible from my profile, though. my older fics and drabbles are quarantined to a separate account, and a few things are posted anonymously.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

113,190 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

it’s mostly the locked tomb these days. i also have a few old works for the penumbra podcast, the magnus archives, and the adventure zone—and a few even older works for harry potter and percy jackson, but those are on ff.net so i can pretend they don’t exist.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

it’s familiar (but not too familiar) - fluffy griddlehark time travel fic. this was my first attempt at writing them and i could definitely do a better job now, but the prose still holds up.

alive, barely breathing - post-canon griddlehark first time fic that’s fucked-up and sad. sometimes i look at the comments when i want to feel good about my writing. :3

bring your hunger - post-canon griddlehark grief/relationship study. also a WIP. (honestly, this one might go on anon for a bit—it’s vulnerable in ways i don’t want to explain, and i’m shying away from writing the next chapter because the Fear of Being Known got to me a little.)

it’s not unusual - fluffy modern AU where team 69 go to a bar and play catan. palamedes has an oral fixation, because of course he does. this one is campal with background griddlehark getting-together, but i might write a sequel from harrow’s POV someday.

bad idea right? - modern AU chatfic inspired by this post by eskildit. it’s about camilla dealing with the paldulcie situationship™️ & enduring so much dyke drama thanks to the nature of her friend group. it received a podfic recently, which is fun!

(… i also want to write a camdulcie sequel for this one. i’ve been rotating the idea frequently.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

almost always. there are a few scattered comments i haven’t replied to yet, but i like responding! it’s an excuse to drop more lore about the fic and the writing process, IMO.

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

the ace cam fic i haven’t finished yet, which will probably be posted on anon. (i feel like people are going to attack me for poor representation or something, but it’s inspired by my own experiences, so. can’t win them all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

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

something sweet is pure, uncomplicated fluff, so i guess i’ll go with that!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not really. i’ve blocked a few people for being rude, but i haven’t gotten hate in years.

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

occasionally. i’ve only posted 4 explicit fics, but so far it’s a pretty even mix of f/f, f/m, and other.

10. Do you write crossovers?

i have a tlt/w359 fusion AU i want to pick up again! i need to untangle some threads of the metaplot, though.

(also, the first fic i published on ff.net was a harry potter/rise of the guardians crossover. yes. it was cringe. yes, it’s probably still posted on the internet if you want to find it.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, actually! a few of my old hp fics were translated into spanish or chinese.

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

i wrote a round-robin fic with the campal server once. i also started co-writing a fic with quinn a while ago (before we both got busy with school) that i’d like to return to at some point, because the concept still makes me vibrate with glee.

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

i’m not sure that i have one, actually? i’m a multishipper to my core.

15. What's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i have so many WIPs in my google docs that i’ll probably never finish.

i’d like to revisit my fic about necromancers & dysautonomia some day, but my writing style has changed so much since then. i might have to rewrite what i’ve posted.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i’m frequently complimented on my worldbuilding. i’m good at examining the implications of things that other people might not think about, so my plots are original even when i’m writing a fandom trope. (i can’t wait to post my harrow nova AU for this exact reason.)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

sigh. pacing. i write from very close POVs, but sometimes i get too far into the character’s head, and it drags the story down. i’m trying to write sharper prose, but i’m going through an awkward growth phase as a writer—i know the structure i want, but it’s a struggle to get there concisely.

also, i over-edit instead of writing new words, which does me no favors.

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

i guess it depends on context? i have a pretty good grasp on code-switching from being bilingual but not quite fluent, but the memory of that one klance fic haunts me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

i mentioned my first published fic earlier, but the first fic i wrote was a percy jackson self-insert fic when i was twelve.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

indelible! cam and pal figure out that dulcinea isn’t who she says she is at the fifth’s anniversary party, but it doesn’t change anything. <3

///

tagging @harrowharkwife @friendamedes @cindthia @logicbutton @thewinterstale @sluggydrabbles & anyone else who wants to participate!

[thefirstknife]

Do we know what happened between the end of D1 and the start of D2/Red War, or what the setup for red war was? I didn’t start playing until Beyond Light, and despite digging around I know I’m missing something.

There genuinely was not much setup at all, nope!

D1 ended with Rise of Iron which does not have any connection to the Red War. The jump between the games was really sharp and D2, while treated as a direct sequel, didn't really connect to much of what D1 ended on. It was actually something that pissed off a lot of people (and still does, to this day) because Rise of Iron and everything from that was fairly abruptly ended.

An important thing to consider is that D2 was being added to a new platform and the game needed a reason to have all characters start with nothing. That's genuinely one of the main reasons why the Red War was about us losing the Light; it allowed for everyone to start from scratch. So basically the setup for the Red War was that they needed a blank slate start. However, despite that, vanilla D2 treated your character as the established one from D1, regardless of whether you played D1 or not; for me personally, starting D2 was one of the most confusing gaming experiences ever. You didn't get a rez scene or anything; you made your character and you were put into a situation where everyone acted like they know who you are. But the game still needed things to basically be a soft-reboot where you have to earn and learn everything again, so the story had to be about something drastic like the Red War.

With that said, there's a cool little detail mentioned in Skyburner's Oath exotic which launched with vanilla D2:

Now this is the end, brothers, our final fight. Ghaul's here to finish it. Mars taught us how to fight Guardians. The Hive taught us how to eat their Light. Remember that we made it possible. The Red Legion ends it.

The Skyburners (one of the legions) mention here how they made "it possible" (highly implied to be the Red War) and that they learned both how to fight Guardians and how the Hive "eat their Light." The same lore tab also mentions how the Skyburners participated in the attack on the Dreadnaught back in the Taken King and were first on the front lines for that. In this mission from the Taken King in D1 the Skyburners sent some sort of a message to a source in the Empire, possibly with information they uncovered in the solar system: the implication being that this information they sent was instrumental for Ghaul to eventually lead the invasion and cage the Traveler's Light.

We don't know for sure if that was planned since then, obviously, but it can be used as a little bit of a hint and prelude to what would eventually happen, showing us for how long the invasion was being planned and how Ghaul prepared the Light-supression technology. It could also be just the Skyburners doing the typical military boasting where they're taking the credit for something after the fact.

Other than that, there was nothing that really set that up in any other way. The event quite literally happened out of nowhere and blindsided the entire Vanguard and all Guardians. Our communications were compromised beforehand by Psions, though the Nine were involved as well, so nobody could prepare for the attack (although, two people DID predict it: Lakshmi-2 and Osiris). Chararacters like Ghaul and his Red Legion were also not mentioned at all prior to D2 so there wasn't a setup about him or his army.

[bettsfic]

A few years ago—god, i must have still been in college. 2018? 19? You made a master post of all your fic up until then. Would you be able to make another post, with all your fic from 2019ish-now?

sure! i've been wanting to do this for a while but the question becomes - how to organize? i write in too many different fandoms to do it by canon. so we're just gonna go by the myriad ways my id is on full display.

i skipped a few fics that i didn't like so it's not *everything*. also many of these are locked down so you have to log into ao3 to see them.

masterpost of my fics, 2019 - 2023

key:

personal favorite

you don't really need to know the canon going in

VERY NSFW

diet cottagecore

there's a house. somebody is sad. chores.

rest in grace - violet evergarden, violet/gilbert, canon divergence - 20k, complete

float - breaking bad, jesse/OMC, post-canon - 19k, complete

good bones - star wars sequels, reylo, modern au - 12k, wip

stray - genshin impact, razor/lumine, canon divergence - 6k, complete

"i don't remember you" to "let's pretend to be in a relationship" to "oh you've been in love with me your entire life?"

fake dating via trauma-induced amnesia and chronic illness

a standing engagement - the hunger games, odesta, canon divergence - 57k, complete

wind of the new world - the hunger games, odesta, sequel to ASE - 10k, complete

digging for orchids - tgcf, hualian, modern au - 43k, complete

a brat and the guardian she desperately wants to fuck

and the guardian who is trying desperately not to give in

huaycan - the gray man, six/claire, post-canon - 16k, complete

in water falling - the clone wars, rexsoka, dystopia au - 14k, complete

a long way - game of thrones, jaime/myrcella, canon divergence - 18k, complete

so obsessively in love that their life is upended and their identity irrevocably changed

romance with repercussions & codependency ever after

free ride - tbosas, snowbaird, modern au - 24k, wip

patronage - painter of the night, nakyum/seungho, modern au - 11k, complete

lemon - star wars prequels, anidala, modern au - 73k, complete

organic chemistry - the clone wars, rexsoka, modern au - 57k, wip

"i will kill for you" (literal)

murder as a love language

acquittal - tgcf, hualian, modern au - 10k, complete

the bluff - barry (hbo), sally/barry, canon divergence - 9k, complete

if i had a nickel for every fic i've written where an unstable marriage is saved by an adrift third burdened by the guilt of their society-ruining decisions

i'd have two nickels, but it's weird it happened twice

before the suns rise - star wars prequels, obianidala, canon divergence - 30k, wip

renovations - frozen, anna/elsa/kristoff, modern au (no incest) - 47k, complete

"whoops, i was trying to kill you but i fell in love with you instead"

villainfucker city rise up

the truth of time - rurouni kenshin, e/k, canon (live action) - 6k, complete

penitence - star wars sequels, reylo, canon divergence - 17k, complete

porn, but also healing from atrocity

honestly every fic i write could fall under this category

reclaimed - star wars sequels, reylo, omegaverse - 14k, complete

light - saezuru, yashiro/doumeki, canon divergence - 30k, complete

sick part of a sick thing - stranger things, hellcheer, no upside down au - 45k, complete

let ruin end here - tgcf, hualian, modern au - 8k, complete

the art of scraping through - the 100, bellarke, modern au - 18k, complete

porn, but also righting the wrongs of decades past

boys with big regrets and even bigger—

dirtbag - stranger things, hellcheer, no upside down au - 60k, complete

moderation - the 100, bellarke, modern au - 40k, complete

always be closing - mdzs, wangxian, modern au - 32k, complete

femdom tsundere (ft. pegging)

grouchy women and the submissive men who adore them

black-eyed - mdzs, chengqing, modern au - 16k, complete

not if, when - original fiction - 12k, complete (the pegging is there in spirit)

ghost in the pearl - westworld, dolores/caleb, canon divergence - 7k, complete

the innate comedy of abject pining

"i'm so in love with you it's killing me lmao"

no certainty of doors between us - mdzs, wangxian, modern au - 6k, complete

the beach episode - tgcf, hualian, modern au - 20k, complete

shut up and kill me - original fiction - 5k, complete (not really a romance)

if you dig my stuff and want to support me, you can

subscribe to my newsletter

buy me a coffee on ko-fi

thanks for the ask, anon! this was fun.

[thecrossoverwriter15]

Hey guys! I’ve been working on ideas to write a film based off of the books, the Guardians of Childhood and wanted your input!

Now, I’m against writing a sequel to the first movie only because I feel like Rise didn’t set up enough to write a sequel that people would go to see. It didn’t really show the growth of the Guardians as a team. In other words, the movie felt like it started halfway through their story, like there should have been a movie before setting up everything in Rise. Not to mention the fact that the movie isn’t very huge with audiences minus us and Jelsa fans, it would be hard to really get us involved with the characters stories UNLESS it was just redone. If Dreamworks started at the beginning of the Guardians’ journey, it would have made the death of Pitch in the finale of Rise feel much more impactful. Set up and payoff - that’s what a story needs. You know, it’s actually a good thing that the books aren’t as popular because then there’s a chance to bring these characters into the movie world with a BANG. Plus, there are fans of Rise Of The Guardians who would get excited over a sequel or ANYTHING involving the team!

So, that brings me here! l’ve come up with some ideas, but overall, I want the basics the be:

• The look of the universe, the world building itself and characters will look and feel as they did in the books, with their respective powers and traits. (Yup, I’m looking at you Nightlight!) I will also add little easter eggs to make Rise fans happy!

• 2D - I chose the 2D animated design because I feel like the order to make this, I need to push the boundaries as to how the characters can move. You know the original episode of the series, Hazbin Hotel? The way the character Alastor stretched and moves when he first walks into the room upon meeting Charlie? It would be great if Pitch had that sort of movement. (I’m still debating on an Anime, Blue Eye Samurai look or an Arcane matte painting, combined with the character designs from the books.)

Now I’m going to ask you guys some questions in a bit! I need some fan input into what you guys would want to see with these characters! I don’t want Jack being the main character only because I want to try something different, but if it comes down to you guys wanting Jack as the MC, then he can continue to be the protagonist!

Alright, guys..

Will be posting the second poll after this one is up!

[hezuart]

So since William Joyce confirmed that Krampus does exist in the rotg universe, how do you think he should be portrayed if they ever made an rotg sequel? Personally I think he should be written jus like death in pib, an unstoppable force of nature villian. Or maybe seen as a villian at first, but then slowly as seen as some mysterious anti-hero. I’d like to see the movie explore north and Krampus’ relationship and how they met. Maybe there should be a movie short on who Krampus was before he became the Christmas demon.

From my understanding, Krampus was initially a creepy demon bound to serve the church, scaring or kidnapping children for the sake of obedience. This can be interpreted in many different ways for modern age, and also for a potential Rise of the Guardians sequel. Krampus could be a complex good guy, scaring children for fun but also because he knows a lot of them are brats who need a reminder to mind their manners. Krampus could also be a bad guy, chained and forced to terrify children for the sake of making sure they don't end up like him.

Maybe he's neither good nor evil and just hates bad kids.

Either way, I think North would be uneasy around Krampus.

In my head, I see Krampus as a carefree charismatic guy that took it upon himself to scare kids into submission, but North never asked him to. North often scolds him for doing it, insisting coal is a fine punishment, that kids don't need scaring, and his wonderful magical toys would be enough to change their minds into being good. Krampus disagrees and thinks North a sweet man, but naive.

Pitch and Krampus would probably hold respect for each other, but Pitch is probably annoyed Krampus piggybacks off North's belief since he comes hand in hand with the holiday. Krampus probably knows this and takes advantage; maybe he even snaps back cheekily at Pitch, saying Pitch stole Sandy's dreams and became the Nightmare King where before he was just the boogeyman so he too his piggybacking without realizing it. Pitch would be embarrassed and insist it's different. (Perhaps there's a small rivalry between him and Pitch)

Krampus knows he makes North and the other Guardians uncomfortable, but he doesn't care. If anything, he relishes their awkward fumbling and distaste for him. Krampus would be really physically friendly with people, very touchy, and because of that, Jack probably wouldn't like him. Krampus would act too friendly with Jack, thinking they're both pranksters keeping kids in line, but Krampus has Jack all wrong.

Something like that, maybe?

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb:

Monsters hide. Love divides. The dead will rise.

They say that when the world is out of balance, the Guardians of Dawn are reborn.

Li Ami is an exile. Exiled from friendships, from ordinary magic, and from her own family, Ami is sent to the outermost West to care for her mentally ill father, whose rantings and ravings might actually spell out a dire prophecy. When her father is arrested for stealing from the sacred grounds of the castle, Ami must make herself of use to the presiding Beast by finding a cure to the mysterious blight that is decimating their harvest.

Guardian of Wood...There you are…

Meanwhile, as signs of magical corruption arise throughout the Morning Realms and the threat of the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons looms ever larger, the tenuous peace holding the Realms together begins to unravel. Jin Zhara, the newly empowered Guardian of Fire, realizes that she might be out of her element. Her magic is no match for the growing tide of undead, and she needs the Guardian of Wood to defeat the revenants razing the countryside. The two must journey to the Root of the World in order to seal the demon portal there and restore balance to an increasingly chaotic world.

Filled with adventure, romance and a race against time, Guardians of Dawn: Ami is the next book in the richly imagined Guardians of Dawn series.

Review:

The Sequel in the series, following a new Guardian of the Dawn as the guardian group expands and the story continues. In this book we are introduced to Li Ami, an exile who is sent to care for her mentally ill father whose rantings about a prophecy might actually be true. When her father is arrested it is up to Ami to save him by bargaining with the presiding Beasts to find a cure for the mysterious blight that is infecting the harvest. Meanwhile our other Guardian, Jin Zhara is trying to fight against the undead and find other fellow guardians to help her face off against them. Jin Zhara is the guardian of fire and knows that the Guardian of Wood is who she needs.... and when she meets Ami she might finally find the one she needs. The romance in this book was sweet too, with Han being a somewhat demi-sexual rep and Zhara learning about it. The romance between the Beast and Ami was also cute. Overall it's an interesting enough sequel to the series that would have you interested to see what the next two guardians will be like and how they will join the core group and storyline. I would definitely recommend this series to YA readers who enjoy fantasy and Sailor Moon-esque storylines.

Release Date: August 6,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[pierreyboi]

With Megamind 2 and Kung Fu Panda 4, do we need Rise of the Guardians 2?

Rise of the Guardians (2012) is one of the underrated Dreamworks movies that do not have a sequel. Bee Movie (2007) and Shark Tale (2004) do not have sequels but they're popular in internet meme culture, what!?

Although with Rise of the Guardians in late November 2012 and a Frozen movie in late November 2013, paved the way on an ice ship. But with Frozen getting a third movie? Why won't Rise of the Guardians make a 2nd movie!? Or maybe just a Jelsa shipper in me.

With Megamind 2 making unsuccessful reviews and Kung Fu Panda 4 making positive or mixed reviews.

I just hope if we have Rise of the Guardians 2, it won't be bad, it could be decent/good. But I do not know even what's to come.

[lunarsands]

ALSMP Fanfic: Along The Roads To Sanctuary Ch 1

Bonus also Empires SMP S2 fanfic! I just didn’t want to make the title field too long ^_^;

Characters: PearlescentMoon, Scott Smajor, MythicalSausage, Eddie, Joel Smallishbeans, Bubbles the Dog, Hermes, mentions of other Empires S2 characters, including a certain misplaced warlock… Sausage Supreme

Relationships: MythicalSausage/Scott Smajor

Tags: Canon Divergent, fictional religion, scosage, Afterlife SMP meets Empires SMP S2 but in an AU way,

Warnings: violence, surrealism via magic auras, humorous misunderstandings about infidelity, (tfw your husband cheats on you…with you), kidnapping (although we know how that went in canon)

(Sequel to Echoing Through To You, When The Skies Cry, Until The Blood Moon Descends, Then We’ll Rewrite The Stars, Wherever These Flowers May Grow)

Summary: A happily ever afterlife is interrupted by the distant past; Sausage receives another calling and is sent into a different mortal world from their old one, with Scott insisting on following so they won’t be separated. They both lead brand new lives but only Scott regains memories of the previous one on his own, and he isn’t allowed to remind Sausage about any of it without jeopardizing the mission the angel was sent to complete – a mission someone else was supposed to have dealt with.

(Also available on Ao3!)

[ A/N: Gratitude as usual to Cynthrey for brainstorming and for help translating dialogue lines to Spanish! | Since my sequel title game is getting excessive, I’m noting here that this also follows the events of “Who’s The Unfairest Of Us All”, hence the italicized blurb at the beginning]

---

Chapter One

As soon as Sausage and Scott had left after telling her about their encounters with Myth and Smajor, Pearl began to pace around the inside of the royal gazebo, her mind abuzz with thoughts of parallel versions of people. She stopped at one point to wave a hand over the reflecting pool, bringing up a sepia-tone image of a world from the past.

She watched it for a moment, then let out a distressed sigh and returned to pacing around, hands clasped tightly behind her back.

An unfamiliar voice called out from the direction of the pool. “Goddess PearlescentMoon, we need to have words with you.”

Pearl froze, then pivoted on her heel. Rising out of the pool was a bipedal figure made of jittering static. When they fully emerged, they stepped onto the floor, remaining indistinguishable, although Pearl thought she could make out the shape of a pair of closed eyes. “Well, that’s quite an entrance,” she said stiffly. “But – I’m sorry? Who are you?”

“We are one of the higher deities, responsible for matters of the spirit which are involved with all living things. That includes souls. You have something to answer for…”

Behind them, the pool returned to the image of the sepia-washed world just as a figure wearing a crown of red and gold stepped into view.

~*~

Having overseen the settling of night across the mortal realms, the starborne guardian Scott made his way home with a series of mid-air leaps and bounds that left a trail of purple sparkles in his wake all the way back to PearlescentMoon’s realm, where it was also still night. He smiled, thinking of how he and Sausage would have a chance to watch the sunrise together before he took a little rest and the seraph started his daily work. They would still get to spend time together during the day, but night had become very special to him.

“Sausage! I’m back!” Scott called cheerfully as he opened the door. He then gave pause. There was an odd stillness about the place, and he found himself beginning to rush as he went from room to room, looking for any trace of the seraph – a note, perhaps, if he’d had an early duty to attend to. As he entered the bedroom, he could swear he heard the sound of a baby crying, just for a split second – but, no, it had to have just been the creak of the door hinges.

Then he spotted several feathers on the floor, a glint of silver along the tips as the light from the doorway fell on them. “Sausage?” he asked of the empty air.

It was unusual for him to up and leave with no word, regardless of whatever task he had to do. Scott turned, not even entertaining the thought of waiting, and was soon bounding toward the center of the realm where he knew he could find the one person who should definitely know where Sausage was.

The royal gazebo came into view, a humble and rustic structure on the outside that matched its surroundings and had nothing fancy about it that would indicate it was where a goddess held court. She was, at the moment, seated in her wicker throne and chatting with a messenger from some other minor god but her gaze flicked over to Scott as he entered. She held up a hand to pause her conversation then nodded at the starborne.

“Pearl, have you seen Sausage? He wasn’t at home waiting like usual and I didn’t see a note. Was he summoned for something?” He had expected a mere confirmation; he did not expect her look of sympathy.

“I am so sorry, Scott. This is going to be difficult to hear, but he received another calling.”

“What? What do you mean? I thought seraphs didn’t get those anymore!”

“It’s unusual but the situation turned out to be dire. And also complicated. It had to be him.”

“Wait, so… I don’t get to say goodbye or anything?”

“It was urgent.”

Scott hastily considered his options. “So, he’s on some mortal world again… Send me there.”

“I… don’t have that type of power over you.”

Scott tried not to let too much annoyance cross his face. “Then at least show me, please.” He gestured desperately to the reflecting pool set into the gazebo’s floor off to the side.

“There honestly isn’t much to show right now. He only just entered the world, but he’s also starting over – from the very beginning of a new life.” Aware of what he intended to do, and as usual knowing she couldn’t stop him, Pearl added, “You’ll have to do the same if you want to follow him. There are different rules there than the world where you two met.”

Scott’s eyes widened. He hadn’t imagined that sound of a newborn baby. The echo back at their house was Sausage’s connection to this realm. “W-Will he remember me, when we meet again – however many years that ends up being?”

“No. He can’t remember right now. His task requires… other memories. I can’t explain all of it right now. I’ll answer you if you call on me, when you regain your memories of life here, but you absolutely cannot tell him. It’s very important. There is… a great evil that he is now responsible for undoing. You can help protect him if the danger becomes too much – I know you could never be stopped from doing so – but you still have to be careful. Promise me, Scott of the Stars. Promise me you won’t interfere with this destiny.”

Scott’s heart ached. It might be a very long time before Sausage returned to the celestial realm if all of this was to play out as indicated. It would be better to at least be in the same world to help, rather than just watch from above. He murmured out loud, “Now I know how he felt, only able to look in on me in the other world after he ascended…” Then he nodded firmly.  “If we were destined to be together despite all the other trials, then this is destiny, as well. I promise.”

~*~

The first decade and a half was something of a blur and spent unaware of the power of the cosmos just beneath his skin, but as Scott made his way into his later teen years, he found himself studying the stars, drawn to follow them and see where they led. He began to explore around outside the idyllic town of llama herders and quiet meadows, collecting shiny rocks from the hills and streams, and occasionally even stumbling upon half-buried relics of a long-ago past – well, mainly pottery shards and arrowheads, but one time he found a gemstone that definitely had been shaped by artisan hands.

This gave him a taste for treasure hunting, and when on trips to other towns while accompanying llama caravans delivering goods, he would stop to scour local history books that might lead him to other shiny discoveries.

Some turned out to be in the clutches of people far wealthier than him. Some were squirreled away in general collections, and others were rumored to still be in the ruins and caverns they had been lost in. He wanted to acquire them all, even though he wasn’t always sure what was behind that urge. Stealing probably wasn’t the best idea…

At least, not without some tricks and training first. He practiced with treasures out in the wild, scaling cliffs and navigating ravines, although finding quite a bit of it to be easier than others might. His agility was unparalleled, and sometimes he seemed to have no regard for gravity at all.

The only thing that ever seemed to – if momentarily – throw him off his game was the sound of a bird taking flight. Something about it always caught his attention right away, and he would be compelled to watch as the bird flew away.

~*~

Elsewhere in the world, a young man learning to be a blacksmith in a peaceful town full of magically-gifted people would wander outside in the evening and sit to gaze up at the sky. His surrogate father, Eddie, the blacksmith training him and a member of one of the anthropomorphic peoples in the area, would join him after tidying up for the day.

One evening, after a particularly busy day and needing the extra hand with cleanup but finding him already gone, Eddie went out to retrieve him. He was on the bench out front as usual, making him easy to find, at least. Eddie put on the act of it being arduous to lower his older, aching body onto the bench. “Well, quite a lot to do still today, yet here you are. Sausage, why do you stare at the sky so much? It will still be there after we’re actually done for the day.”

“Sorry,” the young man offered, laughing awkwardly as he realized he was being scolded. “I can’t help it. They’re just so beautiful! I love seeing them appear as the sky gets dark, like a mystery that’s only revealed in certain light – or, well, lack of light, I guess. Lack of daylight, specifically? Anyway, I love to see them. I - I’ll come inside in a minute, I promise. I wasn’t going to not help close up the shop, I just…” He turned his gaze upward again. “I feel drawn to them. Sometimes I wish I could meet a star.”

Eddie scoffed, although it was a gentle sound. “You know they’re just specks of light, and not something you can actually see in person, right? Aside from legends that say otherwise, but those are still only legends. Even the old stories of spirits from the forests are just people who had nature magic. Probably just someone who had light magic, and either they or someone else claimed they fell from the sky.”

“This is unusually cynical of you tonight. I mean, one day someone might tell the legend of Sausage, the man who could talk to animals! I could be mythical, even!”

“I’m unusually tired and sore tonight, son.” Eddie tried to sound grumpy, but he enjoyed Sausage’s idea of whimsy. “Get back inside and help your old man out, then you can run with your imagination later.”

“Yes, sir, on my way!” Sausage hopped up and scurried inside. Eddie heard him a moment later chattering with a mouse before the sound of a broom sweeping the floor followed. He smiled and folded his arms over his stomach, taking a rest of his own as he admired the sky.

~*~

Adventuring and treasure hunting naturally came with a few costs. There were the occasional close calls where Scott was nearly caught stealing, and the ones where he was caught – an incident with a witch came to mind, when he had merely been trying to procure some potions to help in his endeavors, and while she was busy brewing, his sticky fingers just so happened to try to touch a shiny bauble hidden away on a dusty shelf. He figured she wouldn’t even miss it, considering the number of cobwebs around it. Instead, he ended up running out of her hut with neither the bauble nor the potions, and her threatening that the only reason she didn’t curse him right that second was because he paid for the potions in advance, and she at least was honorable in that aspect.

Then there were the physical scrapes and bumps from hastily escaping traps, his agility saving him from worse damage. He managed to avoid any major breaking of bones, although he did sprain his wrist one time. A little bit of rest and strictly adhering to stretching exercises saw him back to his craft again.

He was more careful about inspecting his surroundings when closing in on an item, now expecting pretty much everything to be trapped in some way. Yet one thing he did not heed was rumors surrounding treasures – he only believed in concrete evidence. No, a tomb was not guarded by an invincible warrior clad in armor; it had a redstone system that assembled iron golems when the trap was triggered. No, people were not stolen away by spirits; they bumbled their way into a hidden pit with a sheer drop all the way down to bedrock while the trap reset overhead.

Someone could say that a relic was ‘haunted’, but he dismissed those claims as nonsense. Actual magic had to be performed in front of his eyes, and until then, he remained skeptical. But it was still a good way to get a lead on where a treasure might be.

One such tale sent him on his longest journey to date, to find the entire treasure room of an ancient kingdom. It was said that the people had fled a great calamity, and with their ruler gone missing, not a second was spared toward worrying about what was inside the castle. Among the treasures were rumored to be a magic staff that allowed the wielder to travel to other dimensions – Scott guessed it might allow someone to magically summon portals to the Nether and to The End – and something called the Nether Star Pendant, said to contain the soul of a grim reaper, and whoever carried the relic with them would be safe from all manner of death. For that one he figured it had a spell of protection on it; there was no possible way a mere gemstone could hold such a spirit.

The ruins seemed promising, once he found them among overgrown fields and the crumbling foundations of buildings long since reclaimed by nature. He made his way to the largest footprint and scoured around until he found a way underground, where the lowest levels of the castle might have survived intact. After no small amount of digging, however, he found the old corridors to be impassible. This was not as simple as buried treasure under a beach somewhere.

He hated to leave empty-handed, but this would take some possibly serious excavation, and he didn’t even know for sure if there would be anything in there. Ancient tragedies eventually passed, and in the aftermath other people might loot an area as soon as it was safe – especially an entire abandoned castle.

He camped for the night under the stars. He would explore around tomorrow, maybe do a little more digging – maybe an extra meter further in might yield something to make this worth it. Even just a fancy sword or two would suffice. Although, perhaps the missing king himself had taken the items when he left, intending to cross dimensions and cheat death.

~*~

Elsewhere in the world, a man was running for his life through a village that was engulfed in fire everywhere he turned. He had lost track of his remaining loved ones in the smoke when everyone scattered. At least one of them needed to escape. At least one of them needed to keep the magic safe.

Well, no. Eddie had insisted that it be Sausage who must absolutely make it out alive and flee far, far away. With arrows streaking past him, he continued to run. He tried to use the smoke and flames to his own advantage until he could reach the outskirts of the village and attempt to lose his pursuers in the forest. As he crossed the border into the trees, he whispered a fervent request to those old spirits of the forest that Eddie had once talked about, hoping they might hear him and aid his escape somehow.

Someone answered, although he saw none of it as he fled, eyes straight ahead to find a path. Behind him the brush grew thicker, tree branches closing in to fill gaps, with vines suddenly swinging down to conveniently catch around a soldier’s chest, almost seeming to pull them backward. Giant sunflowers sprang up to block the way as well, and their stems proved too tough for the soldiers to cut them down with any type of speed.

The tyrant king would still want him – and anyone else possessing so much as a scrap of magic – to be found. Dedicated trackers and assassins would have to handle that.

~*~

Scott checked his map one more time. This was definitely the right desert temple. The supposed marble skull had to be around here somewhere. The drawing in the bottom corner was pretty specific, so it wasn’t like he could mistake it for one of the other dozen, mundane skulls laying around. Someone had once had a very creepy idea of décor, or maybe thought the display would scare off thieves. But he still wasn’t about to become superstitious and turn back.

He sidled around a bend in the corridor, very much continuing to be cautious of traps, however. He gasped quietly. There it was, finally. It practically gleamed in the dark, the light of his torch not yet reaching it, but once he had made his inspection of the floor and walls, the torchlight struck the pink jewel in the skull’s right eye socket.

He grinned to himself. It was magnificent. It would look wonderful in his collection. He kept his eagerness in check, however. Picking up a treasure was where the final two traps would be: triggered by touching the item itself, and by carrying it past a specific threshold.

With the utmost caution he removed the skull from its place. There wasn’t any dust around it to have left an imprint…or to hide some mechanism. He remained alert as he retreated to the doorway of the chamber, and watched every step he took on the way out of the temple. He even waited to see if taking the skull a certain distance caused any reaction, but it seemed he was going to get away with it completely unscathed.

That was, until he woke up the next morning and found he could no longer see out of his left eye.

Except that turned out to be because he no longer had a left eye.

Meanwhile, the skull now sported a brand new, shiny green gemstone in its left eye socket.

The shock and realization of what had transpired was enough to keep him stunned for the better part of the day. Putting the skull back was unlikely to change anything. After all, there was someone out in the world – at least at one time, since there was no way to gauge how long the skull had been there – walking around missing their right eye.

It took longer than he would have liked to gather his thoughts and choose a course of action. Maybe someone with more knowledge of magical artifacts could tell him how to get his eye back. Nothing that he could recall mentioned anything about the skull being magic, only that it was pristine and had a beautiful crystal in it.

.

Quiet inquiries eventually led him to an old wizard in a swamp – a very likely place for someone who would have knowledge of a body part stealing-and-transforming artifact. By that point Scott was more than happy to hand over the skull in way of payment, and he figured the weird potion was pretty much meant to knock him out so the wizard could extract his eye from the skull, change it back to normal, and return it to him.

At one point he heard a strange sort of echoing sound, and then felt the warmth of sunlight, and then could smell freshly turned soil, and then tasted honey.

All that was left to sense, then, was…

He opened his eyes. The wizard, the skull – all trace of everything was gone. But he could see properly again. He still had everything else on him that he had brought, so the wizard hadn’t robbed him; whatever reason he had for disappearing before Scott woke was fine to remain a mystery. He was just glad to have his full sight back.

He pushed open the door of the shack, knocking aside a tall sunflower without realizing that it hadn’t been there before. He passed several more sunflowers on the way to find a clear stream to get a look at his face. He leaned over and was startled to see that it wasn’t his eye, because now his left eye was yellow.

Unless maybe it had been altered by being in the skull and then removed from it? With the wizard gone, he had no way of finding… out…

Something else was strange.

His reflection appeared to be glittering, and not just from the sunlight refracting off the water. He looked down at his hands, then turned them forward and back; his skin appeared to be dusted with pinpoints of light. He brushed at them, then dipped them in the water and splashed some on his face, too – since it also glittered in the reflection.

But, no, it wasn’t something that could be washed off.

A memory stirred. He glanced over his shoulder at the nearest sunflower, then looked back down at the water. As the ripples faded out, he saw himself again, but with violet hair and matching eyes, a purple gradient starting bright at his fingertips then darkening as it went down the bare arms of his reflection.

He stumbled backward and landed pressed up against the side of the low hill. His head became a whirlwind of conflicting memories. His life here, but… a life somewhere else. A life of many creatures, not just human, starting with a small mothling and ending with a shooting star that left purple sparkles in its wake.

He gasped and looked at the sunflower again. “P-Pearl? Pearl?! Can you hear me?!” He jumped up and looked around, frantic. “I – I’ve remembered! I’ve remembered! Pearl, help me – where is he?!”

He reasoned that it might take a moment for his words to reach her. In the meantime, he crept back over to look in the water and gingerly touch his cheek below his left eye.

Perhaps the skull had known exactly what it was doing by taking the eye of a starborne.

~*~

“Scott, just remember – it is very important that you do not remind him yet.”

Scott kept that warning circulating in his head as he made plans. Pearl had responded by coming to him in a dream and giving him a quick briefing. Sausage was somewhere called Sanctuary, building the next phase of his life in this world. Scott would do the same to keep up appearances – a place of his own, rather than simply trying to move into Sanctuary right off the bat. Taking inspiration from the life that had gotten him to this point, he named it Chromia; a small kingdom situated in a flower meadow, which was his own poignant reminder of his home in another world.

It also conveniently gave him a source for trading with local villages, and he made a bittersweet pun out of calling Chromia “a place to dye for”. He looked forward to the day when Sausage might pick up on the second layer of the joke.

In the meantime, he learned that not only did his replacement eye reveal his own appearance, it also showed a glowing aura around magical items; he supposed starbornes could be considered magical beings. Upon this discovery, he tore through his collection, looking for anything of exceptional power that he might use to help Sausage when the time was right.

He found a set of five rings that glowed brightly and one gaudy scepter that had a spell contained within it. Items that had been proclaimed to be special turned out to be mundane, while a few others were, surprisingly, lit up like torches. He soon figured out that with a little concentration he could see the hidden runes floating around things, and he translated a few of them as he went along. The rings all had protection ensorcelled upon them. The scepter held a single fire charge.

A pair of netherite scimitars caught his attention. He remembered fighting with a sword and shield just fine in the past, but perhaps he could start practicing with them. They had a few layers of spells on them, which would doubly come in handy. He decided he would keep them secret, and let everyone think the ruler of Chromia had standard battle skills – more a colorful surface than substance underneath.

.

When an invitation went out calling on all the rulers of the lands to meet and discuss one big trade deal, Scott saw his chance to finally see how Sausage was faring. At first the gathering was dominated by a very outspoken goblin then everyone began talking over each other, but Scott’s focus was on Sausage, to the exclusion of anyone else. He appeared much the same, having managed to obtain a scar over his right eye again and was… well, honestly, quite a bit more buff-looking than Scott remembered. When Sausage loudly announced that he was trading in every type of wood that existed, it was clear the extra muscle came from lumberjack work.

Scott mentally shook off the distraction and began to analyze the others, just in case. No one seemed like too much of a threat so far… The presence of a pirate seemed a little shady, but that might have just been the instincts of one thief to another.

There was, however, one more shock of the day for him. One person towered above everyone else – literally. As Scott’s gaze traveled up their body to their face, and then as he focused on their voice amid the cacophony, he realized he recognized who it was. He couldn’t help murmuring out loud, “What are the odds of it being­ this world…”

Joel. It was Joel. The weather god. And he was showing no sign of recognizing him – or Sausage, for that matter – as he turned from his current conversation to look down at Scott. “What’s the matter, little colorful man? I noticed you on that hill near Stratos. You had better stay on your own side of the border. I’ve got big plans, because I’m a big god, and you don’t want to get on my bad side.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Scott replied coolly. “Don’t worry. I planned to just stick to my flower fields.” He turned away to not let the calculating look show on his face. There was no telling how long it had been since Joel had last seen them. Time was always a funny thing between the mortal and higher realms. It was possible Joel had forgotten all about the two florans who had been wandering around his world when he had been a fledgling god. Of course, they were also both decidedly less leaf-covered and not flower-bedecked now, despite Scott’s comment about fields.

A wistful look now crossed Scott’s face as he wandered away from the group. He might have managed to establish Chromia on top of lands that he and Sausage had once worked to repair. The idea was solidified when he wandered far enough for a distant structure to come into view, and he soon recognized it as the Greatbridge of Gilded Ratio – or, the Ancient Capitol, as the archeologist who was studying it called it.

“Hey – Scott, was it?”

His heart fluttered as he heard Sausage call him by name. “Yes, that’s me.” He kept his tone even as he turned to see the founder of Sanctuary jogging over to him. He tried very hard to not stare, for a few reasons. Then he realized something; just because he couldn’t remind Sausage of their previous lives didn’t mean he couldn’t show attraction to him. “What can I do for a strong, handsome man like yourself?”

“Um.” Sausage let out one of his giggles that Scott now realized he missed hearing. “I just, um, I heard you trade dyes? I have some colorful building designs I want to try, but I’m going to need a lot of dye for the concrete. Can we set up some kind of extra deal between just the two of us?”

“Sure. I’m actually lacking tree variety in Chromia. I’ll trade you color for color – I’m thinking regular planks might get too boring after a while.”

“I would highly recommend spruce for a lot of things, though!”

“Oh, that goes without saying, that you would—” Scott caught himself, “…because you seem to know what you’re talking about, being a lumberjack and all. I would assume decorating taste goes along with it, best use of each type and all that.”

“Oh, yes yes yes, architecture is another hobby of mine!” Sausage smiled proudly, perhaps glad that someone was seeing beyond his brawny exterior. “You should visit Sanctuary after I’ve built it up some more, you might enjoy what I have in mind, since you seem to also like a good color combination.”

Scott smiled warmly. “I’d like that. You can let me know how it’s going whenever you come by Chromia with a delivery. And you’re also welcome to stay for a little while, if you like…” He lightly placed a hand on Sausage’s arm and decided to not be subtle as he offered an admiring glance.

Sausage grinned in response, blissfully unaware that it was his own husband flirting with him, but clearly appreciating the interest.

~*~

Upon returning from the gathering, Scott decided he needed a better way to communicate with Pearl other than waiting for her to visit him in dreams. Recalling how Sausage had been able to focus directly on him via the memorial dais in the cemetery of Heaven’s Reach, he disguised a small shrine as seemingly just another part of a patch of sunflowers next to a supply shed, while including a small reflecting pool to ‘fancy up’ the shed itself. He figured it also counted as a nod to the farming goddess.

It took a day or two of visiting and quietly speaking her name over it, but there came a point where he walked past it and caught a glow coming off of it with his replacement eye. He smiled in relief and stopped to gaze into the pool. “Pearl. I can see you’ve connected. Can you hear me right now?”

The surface of the water shimmered, then the goddess’ face appeared. “I hear you and see you. Clever of you to think of this.”

“Well, you gave the suggestion last time. I figured it could work again. I’ve spoken with Sausage. He seems well, and didn’t recognize me at all, so the memory thing is working perfectly. I assume I’m allowed to spend time with him as long as I don’t purposely try to trigger anything.”

Pearl smiled patiently. “Yes, you can be friends with him. I did say you could help him. Just keep your own disguise up.”

“I do have one question, and it’s more for me than him. Do you know what, um, happens if someone gains access to a piece of a starborne? Can it be used to influence the stars in any way?”

Pearl’s expression became sad. Scott’s stomach twisted, now worried he had inadvertently caused a bigger issue – except, he didn’t know at the time he was risking a starborne’s body, nor knew what the skull was capable of. “I don’t know why it took your eye, Scott,” she said, startling him since he hadn’t told her any of that yet. “But I tried to help you as best I could.”

“Wait, what do you mean? Did you read my mind while you were in that dream?”

“No. I had been watching both of you. Dire events were happening around him, so I checked on you, too, to see if anything pivotal was also going on around you. I saw you seeking help. That wizard was only going to give you a glass eye, but I imbued it with power that could help you. Why do you think it’s yellow, and not green?”

Scott touched his left cheek. “Yellow… …like a sunflower. But… then it triggered my memory…”

“Yes. I had something else in mind to give you a nudge to start the process, but I had to intervene somehow in that moment. Now you’ve got a little divine assistance to help out more.”

“So, I can see what I really look like, and I can see a glow around magical items. Is there anything else? Wait, why didn’t I see what Sausage really looks like – I mean, he doesn’t usually sparkle like I do, but wouldn’t an angelic aura count?”

“You’ll be able to see more in time, when and as needed. For now, it’s just an extra edge. Have those magic items at hand, and so on.”

“I figured I would keep them handy, yeah.” Scott tried to think of anything else to ask, but nothing came to mind right away. “I’ll check in again if anything else out of the ordinary happens. I guess you can give me a signal to call me over to this shrine if you need to tell me anything, too. For now, I’ll keep just being Scott, ruler of Chromia.”

Pearl now smiled gently. “Live your own life, too. It’s sort of like another chance at a mortal life.”

Scott gave her a sad look. “Pearl, you know I can’t have much of a life without him beside me. This is like life-adjacent, where I only see him from a distance.”

 [ Chapter Two ]

[smolbluebirb]

I've been playing around with a Mungrove concept for a Rise of the Guardians AU and I wanted to ask, if y'all don't mind helping me out:

It occurred to me that... Billy Hargrove was possessed by an alien hivemind that used him to destroy his home... and Kozmotis Pitchiner/Pitch Black was possessed by an alien hivemind that used him to destroy his home...

If you have no idea what I'm talking about and have read this far, a popular fanon redemption arc for Pitch Black, the villain from the Rise of the Guardians movie, pulls on his backstory from the Guardians of Childhood books and would have Jack Frost go looking for Pitch Black after the events of the movie, realize he was just a dude who'd been possessed by an evil hivemind, and try to save him.

I really like the idea of slapping the Stranger Things cast into this AU and giving Billy this redemption arc - and Eddie Munson would actually be a fucking perfect Jack Frost. He has no idea what any of these people's backstories are and honestly wants nothing to do with any of this, but he can't make himself stand by when his kids are being threatened.

So basically I really want to write a Mungrove twist on BlackIce but I don't know if Mungrove fans would have any idea what's going on if I set the story after the events of Rise of the Guardians and just alluded to them, or if I'd need to do a movie rewrite and then hop into the Mungrove in a sequel.

If this idea sounds cool feel free to comment or tag and tell me that, because that would make me 110% more likely to actually write this!! If I'm the only person who's interested I will probably just write it in my head lmao.

[depizan]

Okay, here's my question related to fiction: Imagine Disney puts you in charge of Star Wars, tells you Star Wars stuff needs to keep coming out, but you get complete creative control (including freedom to reboot anything if you want). What do you do with that universe?

Ha! Well, there are a whole lot of things I'd have done differently if I were in charge of Disney!Star Wars from the beginning, but I don't think going back and redoing those things would help.

So, onward it is.

One thing I think the Star Wars universe desperately needs is something that shows Jedi being what they're supposed to be: the guardians of peace and justice. I'm not the right person to write that, but I'd want to find someone who is, who could do a show about Jedi helping people and being a force for good. So we can see why the Jedi were once so valued and respected. This could be set at any time before the prequel era.

Sticking with the Jedi side of things, the Knights of the Old Republic comic books--the ones about Zayne Carrick, disaster Jedi--would make for a fun series. I'd be tempted to change some parts of it I'm not so fond of, especially in the second story arc, and I'd definitely write it so mentions of Revan don't give them a canonical species or gender.

Those were my reasonable suggestions. Now for my wildly self indulgent suggestions.

Screw current Disney!Canon, the sequel movies were a depressing disaster. Do-over time. Or AU time. Or whatever. Let's steal all the best stuff and give the galaxy a better sequel era! We're going to use parts of the Heir to the Empire trilogy as our base, steal the best characters from Disney!Canon and a few other places, and do a sweeping epic of the galaxy post Return of the Jedi. Rebellion in the Corporate Sector with Fiolla of Lorrd and Odumin and other characters from Brian Daley's books (Jessa? Bollux and Blue Max? Skynx?). The stormtrooper rebellion we deserve with Finn, Poe, and Rey (who is not related to anyone, much less Palpatine). The original Thrawn stuff, only with no (or a significantly redone) craaaaazy evil clone Jedi (but everybody else). Let Sinjir and the others do stuff in a less depressing and fucked up version of the galaxy post RotJ. Maybe we can wedge the Hand of Judgement in there somewhere. And the better parts of the X-Wing books. Basically, we're just kitchen sinking all the stuff I like into an epic series or interconnected series. Empires don't fall with the destruction of one battlestation, or even the death of the Emperor. New Republics take time and effort to rise. But there is hope and there are heroes. And the galaxy will get to be a better place.

On the complete opposite end of things in both scale and time period, I want the goddamn small scale group of heroes story that Disney periodically offers and then promptly fucks up. To that end, we're going to round up some people who can write the kind of stuff I love--and write--and we're going to adapt my fics and have the crew of the Wayfarer's Luck be wandering do-gooders in the Old Republic.

And, hell, there are other SWTOR fics and fic series that would make excellent Disney+ shows. I shall release them all! Mwahahaha!

And maybe adapt Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy as a prequel to the original movies and the epic series(es) up there.

Let there be Star Wars!

[anexlomara]

TOTK doesn't really feel like a sequel.

Now don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game. Within the first 5 or so hours of playing, it shot up to my top 3 games of all time, just behind Portal 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Guess I have a thing for sequels. That said, TOTK functions less like a sequel to BOTW and more like a remix, taking what BOTW laid as groundwork to change and rework into a wholly new experience.

Now TOTK as a game has its roots as DLC for BOTW, with the development team having too many ideas to put into the game as DLC, so they decided to start on a whole new game. This presents an opportunity to take what worked with BOTW and build off of it and to take some of the criticisms of it and rework those aspects, to varying degrees of success. For example, BOTW's massive open world was both a source of praise and complaint from the audience, with many praising the new direction for the series and some complaining that the world was too empty with not enough to do in the world. The development team for TOTK seems to have taken both statements to heart, effectively doubling or tripling the world size with the additions of the sky islands and the Depths, but also reworking the world to have more interesting places to explore, like the myriad of cave systems and mines. This is what many sequels attempt to do, double down on what worked and fix what didn't about the previous installment.

But TOTK doesn't just do this, it also removes aspects of the world that BOTW went to great lengths to introduce as integral to the world. The Sheikah Tribe is a major piece of the story of BOTW, with its ancient tech being the catalyst for the setting and how the player/Link interacts mechanically with the game via the Sheikah Slate. Their towers are how you acquire the game's map, their Guardians are a constant threat, and their Divine Beasts serve as the games dungeons. In TOTK, while the Sheikah Tribe exists as an entity, their technology and role in the story are massively reduced, with incredibly little of their tech remaining in the world with no explanation as to where it went. Now this is obviously to make room for the new focus on the Zonai and their technology, but without an explanation, it feels like there is a lack of context/information to what happened in between the two games.

So what do I mean by TOTK feels like a remix. Well, it's what it shares with BOTW and the changes to what they share that gives me this feeling. Take the Shrines for example, in BOTW, they are Sheikah technology rising out of the earth, as most Sheikah tech was unearthed; but in TOTK, they are now Zonai tech, falling from the sky with the coming of the sky islands, and not only that, they are in new locations, resetting the puzzles and exploration needed to find them. For another example, the powers Link acquires in TOTK are similar, but differ from the ones in BOTW. Ultra Hand is incredibly similar to BOTW's Magnesis, but allows much more freedom in with you can interact with and how. None of the other powers have good equivalents across games however, with the dev team seemingly wanting to try new ideas with how Link can interact with the world.

As said at the top of this post/essay, TOTK is an amazing game. It expands on both the lore and mechanics of BOTW and the Zelda franchise as a whole. If BOTW was a testing ground for a new way to play Zelda, TOTK is the logical next step, remixing and reworking the lore, mechanics, and world of BOTW into something wholly new yet incredibly familiar.