#and i think the only other fandom i have an interesting (?) au for is zero escape because

[geddy-leesbian]

still laughing over that person that got super butt hurt about my Leon didn't give a shit about Krauser before the remake timeline post. bitch didn't have an icon or header still just the defaults, no title or anything on their blog, and prior to reblogging my post they hadn't posted/reblogged anything at all since 2018. like they had to have felt SO FUCKING OFFENDED to feel compelled to reblog my post after so many years of inactivity. it's almost flattering that my post was able to cut them so deeply.

also funny because they were mostly offended by things I didn't even say?? one of their main points was that they don't mind headcanon and theory but it wasn't okay for me to present my headcanons as objective fact, and sure, I guess they maybe had a point there. I didn't use the words theory or headcanon in the post, I did word things as if they were objective statements. HOWEVER, every single statement I made was backed up by direct quotes from canon. I wasn't just talking out of my ass, I was simply laying out the differences between how Leon treats other characters and how he treats Krauser, and why those differences indicate that Leon had zero emotional attachment to Krauser. I feel like anyone with a brain probably could have comprehended that I was making objective statements because it's easier to word a post like that and that it was ultimately my analysis of canon and not actual outright canon that's spoon fed to the audience, but whatever, maybe I was overestimating people.

if that had been their only objection to my post, I probably would have caved and apologized and said I could have worded things differently and said Leon not caring about Krauser originally was a theory (I mean a theory HEAVILY backed by the fucking game and more of an analysis than anything) and if they said that and still only included direct responses to my points and why they disagree with my interpretations, I dead ass would have reblogged them saying something like "I personally stand by my own interpretation of how Leon feels about him, but it's always interesting to hear other perspectives! There's not a lot of DSC analysis out there so thanks for sharing yours! Agree to disagree on Leon's feelings, but at least we can agree that DSC is a great game :)"

but noooooo everything else they said was just batshit and made it clear they were just a butt hurt slightly delusional 𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖔 shipper who found my post offensive on a deeply personal level and thought that I despised 𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖔 and my post was me saying that Leon never ever cared about Krauser originally so therefore everyone who ships 𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖔 is bad and stupid because there's no reason to ship it and that I think all people who ship Leon with men are incorrect because canonically Leon has only ever shown attraction to Ada and therefore 𝖆𝖊𝖔𝖓 is the only valid Leon ship.

bitch really thought that I, #1 supporter of the Leon ain't even bi he's exclusively into men 100%homo homo gay Ada was just a comp het crush agenda, sat down and decided to make a post discrediting 𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖔 because I was an 𝖆𝖊𝖔𝖓 shipper lol. just lmao even

like I'm really not that hard to get along with. you can disagree with me all day long on literally everything and I'll keep interacting with you and saying your interpretations aren't any more/less valid than mine are. but if you're going to put words in my mouth and make baseless assumptions about why I disagree with you, fuck off man, you're just getting blocked, not the nice agree to disagree we're both valid treatment I will give to literally anyone who isn't being super aggressive or making shit up.

lowkey kinda upset I'm still thinking about it solely because it feels like they "won" because they're living rent free in my head, but also fuck that, I'm not thinking about them because I thought they made a good argument or I'm devastated that someone disagreed with me, I'm thinking about them because it was actually funny as fuck that the first time I had a brush with ship drama was someone apparently under the false impression that I ship 𝖆𝖊𝖔𝖓. like really I'm (thankfully) never catching shit for the true fact that I very much do dislike that ship, but instead somehow caught shit for liking it even tho I literally don't 💀 absurd. I guess all my actual real opinions are just so absolutely 100% correct and cool and sexy that it's impossible to disagree with me so you have to make up fake opinions to try to start shit with me 💅

[50shadesofoctarine]

Why you should write that AO3 comment:

Hello! I am an AO3 author and professional fandom dipshit. This is an "essay" on why you should leave that comment on the fanfic you just read.

Table of Contents:

"Commenting is too much effort!"

"I don't know what to write!"

Do you want more fanfic?

Fan creators are human beings, not AI content generators.

You can count it as charity work on your metaphysical taxes.

"Commenting is too much effort!"

Yes, writing a comment takes energy. I'm an introvert, I get that. I have two counter arguments to this point.

AO3 comments are not the SAT:

This is a comment from my latest fic, Quantum Entangled.

Three words and a heart. It requires zero consideration, it isn't specific to the fic, it's something you could copy-paste, even. A comment like this is better than nothing. I'll let my reply from AO3 explain why:

"You know what, I appreciate this way more than you'd probably expect. The temptation to lurk is a strong one, both for social anxiety reasons and internet content-consumption culture reasons. But when people lurk, I can't tell that they've enjoyed the story. The more people that lurk instead of interacting, the more I assume that my work wasn't good enough, irrespective of the reader's actual feelings. So this was a very welcome comment to read. Thank you for indicating your enjoyment. I will endeavour to write more stuff for you to lurk on in the future. :)"

A comment like this, one that is as thoughtless and low effort as possible, is still a comment. Something that denotes a reader's interest. Because, and I can't be clear enough about this, I HAVE NO OTHER WAY OF KNOWING THAT YOU LIKED IT. Kudos and comments are my only window into the reader's experience.

Sure, I'd love more detailed and thorough comments on my work, but, if that expectation is the thing that's going to stop you from commenting at all, I'd prefer the bland copy-paste appreciation.

Onto my second argument.

Do you know what also takes effort? WRITING THE DAMN FIC:

You do not get to complain about being forced to type a congratulatory handful of words after reading that 200k slow-burn fantasy au. Do you know how many hours went into that thing? Do you? Because I can guarantee that it was A LOT. All that writers are asking for is a single emoji. A kudos, at the very least. Consider the effort that went into the creation that you've just experienced and give just a thimble full of it back.

Authors lay out a feast for you to devour. They're only requesting a "thank you".

"I don't know what to write!"

Like in the previous example, an AO3 comment can be as simple as three words saying that you appreciated it. Just an acknowledgement that you were there. It doesn't have to be fancy.

But if you want fancy...?

Here's one of my comments, from Tishae's Better Together.

Let me break it down for you.

"Stunning. This au is so well developed. I love how you managed to maintain tension after the point that they discover that their feelings are requited. This was brilliantly paced, and the action (esp the ending) was so engaging."

The comment opens with appreciation. (Think of it as a sandwich with love as the bread. It starts and ends with my enjoyment.)

There are specific details about what I liked.

"If I may ask, what was the crime that the Metatron committed? Maybe I'm bad at reading between the lines or maybe I missed something, but I'm really curious as to what dirt they have on him. Victimless? Bad enough for imprisonment, but not so morally reprehensible as to make Anathema reveal it? Did he embezzle? That's all I can really think of."

Continues with a specific question about the story and plot.

Shows that I was critically engaged and actively considering the story.

You don't have to have questions about every fic that you read, but don't be afraid to ask them if you do. I love it when people ask me about my work.

"Thank you for the delicious food. I honestly thought that you were going to have Crowley's final look be something in grey (black and white being the theme of the show, metaphorically representing separation/binary, so Aziraphale was uncomfortable with it due to the implications. Grey, symbolising unity/shades of grey as an idiom, would then be the biggest middle finger to the Metatron) but I do really like what you came up with."

Gratitude.

Thoughts about how I read the plot. (This is something I particularly love to read as an author. Please tell me what's going on in that funky lil' brain of yours!!)

"I'm hoping this comment provides plenty of dopamine. If the task activation and instant gratification parts of your brain light up, you might be more likely to write GO content again. Love your work, thanks for sharing it. I hope you gain 3 inches of metaphorical dick length. Please keep writing."

Encouragement to keep writing. (This is the best way to ensure that creators remain in the fandom)

A funny comment to sign off.

Now that you know what to comment, let's start on the real reasons why you should.

Do you want more fanfic?

Fun fact! Fanfictious Authoria are a species that sustain themselves entirely on a diet of brain worms, unfinished WIPs, and kudos. As one of the three fundamental food groups, removing kudos from the fandom ecosystem causes a complete collapse of the natural order. In times of unprecedented scarcity, entire populations of Fanfictious Authoria can die out completely. This means that the production of fanfiction, in that particular region of fandom, stops entirely, often causing major ecological damage, and the subsequent deaths of fan species in the same genus. (Like the Fanfictious Artia, or the Fanfictious Editour, both of which subsist on fanfiction based diets to survive.)

In conservation efforts, experts are imploring readers to donate kudos and comments toward any fandom region that they want to stay alive.

But I digress.

When I want more content, I tell the author. Ask and you shall receive; it's the best way to convince an author/artist to make more.

My comment on @mrghostrat's And They Were Streamers

You liked it? Then COMMENT! Not for the author's sake, but for your own. You want to see the ending of a WIP? Well, it'd be a terrible shame if the author gave up on it because they thought no one was reading... They don't know that you enjoy their work until you TELL THEM. They're not psychic, you have to help them hear you. Commenting on the things you like influences the creators of said things to attribute the act of making content (and, notably, making the type of content that specifically appeals to you) with the dopamine hit of reading your reaction. Treat them like Pavlov's dogs. Ring the kudos-bell.

Fan creators are human beings, not AI content generators.

They have real human feelings and real human egos. The contemporary attitude towards media engagement is skewed towards algorithmic, instant, and uncritical consumption. This is pumping straight gasoline into the beautiful lakes of our fandom ecosystem. Fandom cannot afford to treat its creators like mechanical text generators. We are not an unfeeling assembly line, only there to produce content. We are enthusiasts, engaging in our hobby. No fan creator has to show you anything. They are fully within their rights to keep their works hidden in their computer files, never to see the light of day. Every fanfic on AO3 is only there because someone had the grace to share it with you. You are not entitled to an author's work, just as they are not entitled to your kudos. We have a mutually beneficial arrangement. Do not forget your part in this symbiosis.

It's a problem that extends beyond AO3. Tumblr is a less enthusiastic place than it used to be. Fandom as a whole is drifting towards a consumption mindset. I, for one, am sick of it. Reblog things, like them, share them. Make fanart of fanart. Who gives a shit? Do the cringy thing. You don't have to cultivate your blog aesthetic. Be who you are, like what you like, and have enthusiasm about all of it. Fandom should be an expression of radical self acceptance. Embrace it. Leave essays about fics that you liked. Reblog the essays of other's when you see them. Exist in the mutual joy of seeing and being seen. You are not just an external observer, absorbing content from a distance. You are here too. Wave back at us. Say 'hi.'

You can count it as charity work on your metaphysical taxes.

My final appeal is a moral one.

Commenting on AO3 is just a kind thing to do.

You are your actions. Are you the kind of person who does the kind thing when no one is watching? When no one will care?

Fanfiction is a hobby, and I'm not here to guilt you about how you spend your leisure time. I'm only here to say that there is a kindness you could be giving the world.

If you are one of the people that performs this kindness, I thank you.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

@buckysleftarm replied to your post:

After reading this, I happened across this video: https://youtube.com/shorts/-X5l5GFeg1k?si=H2lrsmx0pv60wn1h They're not in our camp anymore and I wouldn't know how to view the non companions anyway on PS5, but it feels like she definitely is taking some time off from Selune without breaking her oath full?

I sure did use this reply as an excuse to mash out a giant post! Hope you don't mind.

I do actually love that you've brought this up, because I keep seeing variants of it around and have been wanting to comment on it, if for nothing else than to make me feel better. The gist of it goes something like this: after killing Lorroakan, Aylin's "Child of the Moonmaiden" ability no longer shows up when you examine her character sheet, meaning her immortality has been taken away, she is being punished by her mother, has broken her paladin oath, or is feuding with her in some other way. Now... people in the comments of that video sure have takes on Selûne and on Aylin and on paladin oaths and aasimar abilities in general that make giant question marks spawn above my head. 

Personally? I dislike it immensely and think it makes zero sense for a variety of reasons, both in-universe and out! To be fair, as with most headcanons and theories, I'd genuinely love to see someone get creative and do something interesting with it. But I have this knee-jerk reaction to it because so far I've only seen it in the context of people parroting it completely uncritically, just regurgitating it on endless reddit or forum or discord threads and what have you, and actually shutting down or completely derailing Aylin-related discussion. Which frustrates me, obviously, because I want cool, detailed, thought-out takes on my fave, always, and - to be really petty for a moment - since my fave isn't the fandom darling, I only get crumbs to start with! It grinds my gears because so very often I'll want to read this potentially interesting thread about a character I love, but nope, instead here's a dozen comments how "nah man she broke her oath and there's special oathbreaker paladin dialogue with her about it" - no there isn't. That's a very easily verifiable fact, my guy. You made that up, my dude. How dare you just go and make things up on the internet. 

A ton of BG3 discussion has been flooded with a weird wave of statements that are just put there as well-known fact but in reality read like "I heard from a friend whose uncle works at the Nintendo Larian department and he told him Halsin went on a special mission and killed Isobel a century ago because he wanted to emotionally compromise Ketheric but then playtesters reacted badly to it and Wizards made them take it out but it's still hinted in the game, and also if you use an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength and do an unarmed attack on the cart at the entrance of the Emerald Grove you can get Mew" and I find it so grating. And then people waste time debunking this and arguing in the same circles and nobody ever moves on to more interesting stuff. I say this, as if I haven't been an active participant of internet fandom for decades and have literally anyone but myself to blame here, hah.

For instance, the way you phrased it here, as Aylin herself taking a break or trying to step away instead of the "being abandoned and punished by her mother" angle from the video and the comments? That's something I think has potential and something I want to rotate in my mind - would she do it? Could she do it? What would this entail and what would it mean for her? What would actually be enough to prompt her to even try? And it's cool that a little gameplay mechanic thingy prompted that! However - and I'm keeping it kinda vague because I don't want to spoil you on things that happen after the point you seem to be at - if we're talking purely established canon things and not brainstorming an AU or a post-game trajectory for this character, there is nothing actually in the game to indicate Aylin is taking a break from Selûne or her duties, especially not to the extent of having any of her abilities suspended. Quite the contrary, in fact. Everything we get from her and Isobel after the Lorroakan situation is handled shows she is, for better or worse, very much resolved to be her old self and very righteously angry and smiting evil in her mother's name as the Sword of Selûne and actively engaged in protecting Selûnites Realms-wide, and she has her full set of powers and blessings while doing so.

In this essay I will In the rest of this post I will try to be less cranky and I'm going to get a bit technical to try to actually explain what is going on with the "Child of the Moonmaiden" ability.

TL;DR: the buff is disabled as soon as Aylin enters the wizard tower, before any fight or backbreaking or feelings of loss and sadness, likely for the purpose of you being able to win or lose the fight no matter if you side with Aylin or betray her. It is a purely mechanical contrivance and has no narrative meaning, nor is its presence or absence mentioned or reflected in the narrative at all.

Here's Aylin in camp just before being told about the wizard:

Here she is at the start of the fight, when she is sided with:

And here she is, when you side against her:

The above is an oversimplification, however, because the actual implementation of Aylin's immortality is a bit of a mess.

There are two implementations of her resurrection active in the game, and both are implemented as a Status: "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION" and "GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION". Now, I don't know what was going on there and I'm certainly not a Larian dev, but that underscore situation there is... weird. I also don't know enough about BG3-specific scripting yet to come up with an explanation on why there would be two variants of it at all - if anyone does, please let me know! I'm very curious. However, these two implementations of her resurrection ability work very differently, and you can see the effects of both of them in-game. 

The first one, GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION, is named "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" and is tied to the "Child of the Moonmaiden" Passive (itself called SHA_NightsongResurrection, side note: GLO is the "global" prefix and SHA is a prefix that signifies the Gauntlet of Shar area in Act 2). This ability makes Aylin auto-stabilise when downed instead of rolling death saves, go into the kneeling stabilised animation where she can be helped up or healed just like your party members - you know the one, with the little asterisk hovering above them. Then on the start of her next turn she heals for exactly 1HP (unless she's under a healing-disabling effect, such as Bone Chill, which is why people have trouble with her in the Myrkul fight) and she has only her Bonus Action, the same as any other previously downed character.

Mechanically, it applies the "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION_DOWNED" Status to her which modifies what happens when she is Downed to implement the above non-standard behaviour, and also does stuff like turn off her Moonbeam if she had it active.

The "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" Status itself is completely invisible in-game: it has properties such as "DisableOverhead;DisableCombatlog;DisablePortraitIndicator" aka doesn't show up as that little text popup above the character, doesn't show up in the combat log, and doesn't have a visible indicator icon anywhere.

The description for "Child of the Moonmaiden" is:

"Blessed with the favour of a goddess, Nightsong cannot be permanently killed. When unconscious, [at] the start of her turn she recovers 1 hit point."

The second one, GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION with the extra underscore, is a Status called "Nightsong Soars Eternal", and that one doesn't have any other Statuses or Passives tied to it, it simply resurrects her immediately when she dies, and at full health. When it triggers, you can actually see her portrait drop out of the initiative tracker at the top of the screen as if she completely died, and then she gets put in again. This one is active even when the first one isn't, so you can see it in places like camp after she comes back from Lorroakan, and after she comes back for the finale all the way until the end of the game - and by "see it" I mean since it doesn't have any Passive ability connected to it, you have to actually get Aylin killed to see it trigger (I'm so sorry Aylin, it was important for the post, I swear).

The description for "Nightsong Soars Eternal" is:

"Nightsong will be resurrected by the powers of Selûne whenever she dies."

In Lorroakan's tower, BOTH of these are disabled, and if downed, Aylin will just lie there as if she died for real with the little red skull and the "Dead" status until she gets rezzed for a cutscene after the fight or, if betrayed, you go to long rest and then come back to see Lorroakan's progress, at which point she will be up and in the cage with a total of 1HP and that "Soul Caged" status instead. 

Note again that she visibly has "Child of the Moonmaiden" disabled as soon as she enters the wizard tower area, betrayed or not, before she does anything to anyone. It's a way of making sure the Lorroakan fight is actually winnable/loseable/concludable without her getting stuck in that revive with 1HP at the start of her turn loop. "Nightsong Soars Eternal" also obviously doesn't trigger. Instead she says her "I will rise again!" line and stays down. She has every other ability and buff active normally, even ones that explicitly mention coming from Selûne, like her iconic following Moonbeam, for example, or her fancy unique Smite.

Again, significantly: she does not have her immortality buffs if you fight against her, either, betraying her and causing Selûne's wrath and desire to protect her daughter to manifest physically in the room, including empowering Aylin herself with buffs that are called things like "Moonmother's Embrace". See what I'm getting at?

Interestingly, she also doesn't have it when you first meet her:

What does this all mean? Well, I'd say that if we took every gameplay/implementation thing about this game as in-universe gospel, Aylin herself would look a lot different and be far more scaly, for one.

(Makes me chuckle every time.)

In all seriousness, though, if something as big as this happened to a side but still fairly prominent character, the game would tell us about it. Or at least make a bigger deal of it than the deactivation of a passive ability visible on the Examine screen that many people sadly don't really tend to look at and read.

And here's the best thing: nobody has to take my word for any of this, you can see for yourself, without actually knowing how to unpack game files or having my frankly ridiculous amount of hard saves! I think this is super helpful in general, especially for people playing on console:

Here's a link to a truly amazing and consistently updated resource - every bit of dialogue in the game, nicely parsed and laid out and super readable (as well as some additional tools to play around with). 

Here's a website where you can search inside BG3 scripts and other files and take a look at a lot of the nitty-gritty implementation stuff in a convenient way.

I recognise that I go way too deep into things and overstuff my brain with minutiae, but that's just how I work. I take forever to post anything anywhere on the internet because I just physically cannot click a post button without triple-checking everything and quoting and screenshotting things, even if it's the same thing for the twentieth time, and that's certainly a me problem. I very much don't expect people to do things my way, but I also find the games of telephone these things so rapidly become really frustrating, you know?

But my biggest problem with this particular Aylin thing - beyond the annoying preponderance of it, as I've already whined - is that in-universe it just makes no sense and I, an aasimar paladin enjoyer, personally dislike it.

Oath of Vengeance paladins abide by the following tenets: Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it. No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever.

Putting the rest of this post under a cut because it's long and ranty and you didn't actually ask for it.

My first problem: the common argument that Aylin is in the wrong for killing Lorroakan like she did because he has "done nothing to her yet", and that she breaks her Oath of Vengeance because she attacked him preemptively.

The man put a price on her head and sent violent mercs to beat her up and kidnap her. He tries to (temporarily) kill her and imprison her as soon as she refuses to cooperate by… demurely waltzing into the prison and putting the chains on herself? He knows exactly who she is, what has been done to her, and he wants to do it again - no, doesn't want to, he is actively doing it again. The fact that (if you side with Aylin) he fails mid-attempt doesn't make him innocent of it. He refuses to stop and, if denied, gets violent and murderous. 

Player: Have it your way. I'll bring her here. Lorroakan: Good. I was growing scared for you. The last person who disappointed me is suffering for it still. Do not return without my prize. Do you hear me? Good day.

Player: I'll think about it. Lorroakan: You aren't the only one who knows what's on offer for the Nightsong's retrieval. Consider carefully whether you'd like to see your fortune in someone else's hands. Someone who might slip into your camp at any moment, or harry you through street and inn until you're run ragged and surrender. The choice is yours: fortune or imminent death. I know you'll choose wisely.

Mark my words: the Nightsong is mine. With or without your help, she will ascend to her grand fate here, in this tower.

Player: You heard me. The answer is no. Lorroakan: Pity. Then again, perhaps word of your agonising death will draw your little friend to me. Myrmidons - imperatum!

He is fully equipped for it and has set up a whole magical trap and is just waiting for her to show up to trigger it, or for someone to drag her there against her will. He says she will go into the cage "kicking and screaming" and really, this is who she is wrong for "picking a fight with" and "attacking preemptively"? Surely nobody actually thinks that Aylin is at fault here or that she actually overreacted by killing him? I don't really want to go into some people's really, really shitty attitudes towards Aylin for sadly entirely predictable reasons but… man. She went over there and threatened him with violence, demanding an explanation after he sent cronies to attack her in her sleep? Wow, what a weird thing to do. Also, he literally is the one to attack first! She is there threatening and goading him, doing her little "face me charlatan" bit, but he is the one who sics the myrmidons on her (or the player) and actually starts the fight, every time. To be clear, I don't think this is very relevant at all, but people do seem to love bringing it up.

Is Aylin brash and reckless and clearly struggling after her captivity, dealing with rapidly flaring up anger and outbursts of violence - only ever, may I emphasise, towards actually horrid people, and she is really rather shockingly forgiving and tolerant of the player character messing with her? Yes! Does she seem to have that classical aspect of "she might go too far one day" or "she might lose herself in the anger and vengeance if she focuses on it exclusively"? Absolutely! Do I think she could have been, say, a Devotion paladin before her imprisonment and it might have been the betrayal and century in the Shadowfell that made her change to Vengeance instead? I love that idea! I also think it's likely she has just always been a very zealous, very smitey and offence-oriented Vengeance paladin, called Selûne's sword for a very good reason, fulfilling a very important role in the ongoing struggle against Shar.

And the whole problem is… Lorroakan will, as we've seen, not stop trying, and people like him will always be around and never stop coming after her especially now that the cat's apparently out of the bag after Balthazar, and Aylin needs to live with this, forever. That is why she is so messed up about this one rando wizard she's never met before. That is why this specific incident is so triggering for her. She has just escaped torment on a timescale that's not something the normal human mind can really grasp. "In this moment, I want for nothing." ended up lasting, indeed, barely a moment! Her mum is a powerful god and right now it seems that what Aylin actually gets from it is having a target painted on her back and, to quote Isobel, she can be hurt just like anyone else, she just gets to suffer longer! She keeps being dealt these shit hands and, yeah, it'd make anyone go… why? Seems unfair, right? What exactly is the point of this? 

The various dialogue options you have while warning her about Lorroakan's intentions and which include trying to convince her to just leave him be include her being so, so frustrated, and so understandably, it makes me feel horrible for her. 

She always ultimately goes to confront him, because she has no other real choice. He will keep coming after her, he will keep sending people after her, and she will never, ever get a bit of rest, and she's, what, supposed to go live in hiding somewhere if you convince him she's dead? Until the jig is inevitably up or this guy dies by someone else's hand? And there's also the element Aylin herself will point out if you keep her in the dark about the plot and Aradin and his cronies come to attack your camp: how long until someone hurts Isobel during one of these attempts or actively goes after her as a bargaining chip?

I guess I just genuinely do not understand the arguments about this guy who has been deliberately constructed to be a horrible, hateful piece of shit with exactly zero redeeming qualities, to an almost comical extent. He beats his apprentice and uses his assistant for target practice! He's a sick, sick asshole! His life's dream rests on kidnapping and enslavement! The guy is conspiring and trying to ally with Ketheric and Balthazar of all people: 

Lorroakan,

I have responded out of respect to my counsellor, Balthazar, who advises me that you may prove a loyal ally in the coming fight. I understand you wish to know about the soul cage which binds the Nightsong to me. Details, I cannot and will not provide. But the magic itself is necromantic in nature, designed by my aforementioned counsellor. I hope your curiosity is satisfied.

General Ketheric Thorm

This is who people think a vengeance pally will break her oath over? Over what, a technicality of who struck first? "Desecrating a corpse"? No, it was Ketheric she did that to, and nothing happened. She just finished this guy off in a violent and dramatic fashion. 

While you can play a paladin yourself and kill so many people in so many ways without anything happening, this is more of a consideration if you play Oath of Devotion or Ancients. It's also one that makes parts of the game harder - comically evil cultists torturing and executing prisoners cannot simply be attacked out of nowhere, and instead you need to announce your challenge first. You need to walk up to them and start talking, establish their villainy, and then fight "fairly". This is also partially an issue arising from the implementation of hostility flags and game logic, by the way. However, Oath of Vengeance gives precious few fucks about this and is a really hard oath to break. In fact, in a very similar situation to the wizard tower, in the House of Grief, you break the Oath of Vengeance if you spare Viconia - at that point lying on the floor soundly defeated and bleeding out much the same way Lorroakan was. Viconia who, may I note, never "did anything to you" but did harm a friend of yours.

Also, and this is a whole separate discussion, but... it's a FR DnD game. You kill bad guys in it. You kill vaguely morally grey, or even good guys in it. You and your friends kill so many people before this point. Multi-act quest arcs conclude with "go to place and kill someone". You mete out "justice" personally, repeatedly, and can harp on that fact, especially if you're playing a paladin. You don't exactly call the guards on people instead, even in the middle of the city. Ludo-narrative dissonance or no, why would this one wizard suddenly be different, and why would this one woman be singled out for a thus far completely typical approach and set of actions? 

My second problem: a great big "Selûne wouldn't do that". I understand Forgotten Realms "lore" is a giant unwieldy self-contradicting mess of a beast and I'm not saying people should be scholars of it to participate in the discussion, far from it, but I would like them to engage with what is presented in the game itself at least.

For the most succinct possible example, look at what Selûne does when Aylin is betrayed. She buffs her in order to enable her to violently and zealously win that fight. Literally empowers Aylin to smack her enemies around more and with greater strength and also burn them alive in holy fire. Not after she's imprisoned and well and truly "wronged", but during this fabulously absolving "mere attempt" on Lorroakan's part.

Also, may I point out the sweet little shielding- and healing-focused cleric of the same goddess is actively disappointed that you and Aylin won't let her come with to hit the guy a few times herself! This goes for the entire party of assorted weirdos, goody-good or otherwise, who firmly believe Aylin should just obliterate that guy. Like, c'mon, my man Wyll! (Super sad and touching exception: Karlach, if you've killed Gortash already. When she begs you not to tell Aylin about any of it at all and go deal with the wizard yourselves, just so Aylin can have a bit more peace and keep her sword sheathed for just a little while longer. Ow, my heart.)

In summary, basically, my twofold beef:

"Selûne punishing and abandoning her daughter for over-zealously defending herself" - nonsensical and uninteresting. Stops people from actually delving into and discussing the complexities of that relationship.

"OoV paladin broke her oath by killing an evil wizard who is actively trying to do horrible things to her and attacks her" - nonsensical and uninteresting. Let's instead actually engage with the material and discuss Aylin's trauma and how she might deal or not deal with it in good or bad ways. What would recovery even look like, for her. How does the way she intrinsically ties her entire being into being a smite-happy moon-magic knight play into it. Let's actually consider the weight and role of duty in her life and the wombo-combo of being an aasimar paladin, an existence with a very "purpose-made" aspect to it. You know, the good ol' Being A Sword thing, including being born into it. Combined with being rather suddenly rather intensely humanised by a loving relationship with a mortal woman, with all sorts of ticking clocks, unique challenges, and both past and pending tragedy there.

Or let's talk about the dissonance present in Aylin's cool and badass scenes of smiting deserving evil. Scenes that go into very violent and very over the top territory, that make you both cheer and cringe, that make a point of showing the other characters reacting in shock. Because I genuinely feel so bad for her and deeply worried for her, all while my silly little brain goes fuck yeah smite him shiny lady! Ooooh look, a flashy Aylin scene, ripping a deserving villain to pieces! But at what cost to herself? Feels so good to have someone deliver some justice! But if I think about it for 5 seconds I don't actually want her to - no, no, I do. I don't want her to have to, is the thing. (It's kind of like that one Gundam meme.)

I will conclude this mess by doing a salty little yeah. It's fine, this is fine, this is sadly pretty much part of the standard experience of liking a female character in fandom. God forbid women do anything indeed. Outside of a few select, narrow and highly dedicated circles, half the (scarce) posts about her are something that's either flat-out wrong, or just assumes the absolute worst of her and reduces her to two and a half shitty stereotypes, and half the fics tagged with her are actually about fandom's favourite two dudes and barely feature her at all.

And on that note, I'm off to actually be a positive force and poke at my own fic some more.

[90shaladriel]

A Lord and His Build - Chapter 17 (Completed)

Chapter 17 - Epilogue (Completed Fic!)

Rating: Mature

Words: 8k

Summary: Our hero's journey comes to an end but the paths go ever winding.

CW: References to birth and half-maia Celebrian 🤭

Thank you once again to the title art by @klynnvakarian!

Well this is the final chapter and instead of a snippet I just wanted to leave a comment on my overall thoughts on writing this fic.

Well, I can’t believe I actually did it! This is my first ever fic and it has turned into my longest after almost two years. While there are elements of this story I could imagine continuing, I felt that I wanted a solid conclusion and this was a sort of novel length point to end it. It was important to me that Ereddâz's journey had a satisfying ending for him. If you couldn’t tell, there’s elements of this character that are deeply personal to me and only became more so as the fic went on. I am grateful to have met this character and gone on this journey with him and at times it was very cathartic to some personal things I had going on. I hope I was true to the character though.

I truly had a great time writing this fic. It was a joy for me and I did feel proud of a lot of what I have written. Sometimes I think certain parts could’ve been better or I had other ideas that would’ve been cool but ended up on the cutting room floor so to speak. But overall this was such a memorable experience.

I’ll never forget the support and pseudo beta reading by my friends in the Saurondriel and Haladriel discords. In fact it was encouragement from one of those discords that I decided to actually put myself out there and write my first ever fan fic with zero experience in a community that I barely knew. That person said something like “your voice matters and we can use your contribution to the fandom” (paraphrasing). I can’t describe how encouraging those words were to read to get over the initial anxiety I had about writing this story.

Since most of the communities I was in were mostly focused on the Haladriel romance or even the smut side of things I did feel a bit on the outside having a very subtle Haladriel element while focusing on this Rings of Power AU story about Orc civilians. I think those fears disappeared after I started writing it for myself in a way AND then I continued getting all those lovely comments and kudos from all you readers here and on ao3. THANK YOU, your interest and appreciation definitely motivated me to come this far and finish it. Let me know what you think. Any constructive criticism is also appreciated!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

HELLO MIRA!!!!! top 5 fav characters to write for? 🌸✨

HI VANA 💖!! i had to ponder this one because my favs to write for aren’t necessarily my favs overall hehe — also as of late i’ve only been writing for hsr and i can’t think of five that i enjoy writing there so we will be dipping back into some of my previous fandoms as well!!

[ask game!]

1. mydei — the man himself 😫 he is SO much fun to write i think because he really just slots so well into the genre of story i like as well as the vibe of relationship i prefer!! his characterization is also very consistent in the game and, although it has depth, it is quite straightforward and logical as opposed to characters such as phainon (this is actually why i was able to predict sm about him without even playing) which makes it easy to reference when putting him in an au 🥹 plus he lends himself to so many avenues for a fic and works so diligently to carry the plot no matter what i toss at him 🙂‍↕️ 10/10 seamless experience 10/10 character mydeimos hsr ily

2. hajime kashimo — i like him for the opposite reason i like mydei in that there is actually like close to zero canon information about him so when i was writing him i got to do literally WHATEVER i wanted!! the creative freedom i was allowed within the minuscule constraints of his canon self was a vv different experience but one i really enjoyed 😔 i <3 random side characters forever literally for that exact reason HAHA it’s fun to do my own thing!!

3. sunday — i only wrote him once and i’m not particularly into him like that unfortunately BUT that one time was such a blast HAHA he is so fascinating and i always enjoy writing a character that has something just a little wrong with them LMFAOO

4. maki zenin — i’ve never officially written her as a love interest but she was like basically the love interest in my (supposed to be) yuta okkotsu fic…i am just quite fond of her and although i think she was mishandled by the manga in later chapters (and her arc is not as good as people claim imo) she is so cool and such a solid personality with a lot to her that makes her really fun to show interaction w various other personalities

5. michael kaiser — now i think this dude is like one of the ugliest guys i have Ever seen especially in the manga so i have never written him of my own volition because generally i do not like him but i’ve had requests for him before and unfortunately he makes me lock in every time 😔 i attempted present tense when writing him for the first time and ended up having a lot of fun with it, and he was also one of my first shots at writing a fic based on a pre-existing myth that ended up going well imo!! so there’s smth to be said for pushing the boundaries and helping me evolve as an author and whatnot

[queenjunothegreat]

OHOHOHO!!!!!! Last fandom event involved a self-indulgent crossover AU that literally only I cared about, so you KNOW I had to go for round two with Lost Trio Week! ( ✿ Ò ω Ó)φ__ This time we're doing a CORALINE AU, which I think is VERY exciting! If you've never seen/read Coraline, fear not! This fic requires absolutely ZERO knowledge of that universe because Piper doesn't know anything about it either.

So, I am VERY proud to present the first chapter of my @lost-trio-week day two fic: Mechanical Lulluby

Piper walked through the front door and as soon as she did, her senses were flooded by the warm rich aroma of chili. Without even thinking to take off her boots Piper scrambled to the kitchen, and her face lit up when she saw her dad humming to himself as he stirred the cast iron pot on the stove. As if sensing her he chuckled softly. "Piper, you're getting mud everywhere." She didn't care. "Dad is it really you?" He paused then and chuckled again. "Not quite." He turned around, and Piper couldn't stifle a gasp. The man before her had her dad's swooping hair and his charming smile, but instead of eyes he had two big shiny black buttons. "I'm your Other Father." *** Piper is an 11-year-old girl, forced to move to the awful town of Lakesville, Oregon. Between the dreary weather, the unsettling neighbors, the ugly house, and her dad's busy schedule, she's forced to make the best of nothing. Then she meets two boys and together they go tumbling into a world just like their own but better in every way. But Piper gets an ominous warning: Never trust everything you see. Now she has to find the wit and courage needed to keep herself and her friends safe. Lost Trio Week 2024 - Day Two: Crossover

To say that Piper was unhappy with her dad’s decision to take her out of school right in the middle of spring break and move her a thousand miles away from everything she was finally starting to get used to was a gross understatement. Everything about the move was awful and seemingly perfectly designed as an attempt to ruin her young life. She hated everything about everything, up to and including the house her dad had moved her into. It was a rather unpleasant shade of pink, like someone had tried to liven the place up by painting it the same color as the medicine her dad made her drink when she had a stomach ache. Only, they had made that decision a billion and a half years ago, so all the paint was faded and gross and dirty. It was old and shabby and run down and ugly and everything Piper had thought it would be and she hated it.

“It’s not old, it’s historic,” her dad had corrected when she’d voiced her complaints.

Only, it wasn’t historic. Much like everything else in town, it wasn’t old enough to be historic, it was just old enough to be bad. Laketown, Oregon didn’t show up on any maps other than local ones. It wasn’t big enough to draw anyone in, and it wasn’t small enough to be cute and quaint. It was just perfectly middle of the road enough to not offer anything of value to anyone. In fact, the only remotely interesting thing about Laketown was that it was founded on an underground lake, so there were old wells spotted around everywhere. In another life, that might have been cool, but by now the lake and all the wells had dried up, so Laketown didn’t even have the dumb lake it was named after. 

Piper didn’t want to live there. She hadn’t exactly loved living in LA, either, but it was better than this place. She wanted to go home, back to Oklahoma and the crisp, clear air and the wide open sky that stretched out for miles and miles and miles. Oregon was nothing like home. Here, she was surrounded by trees, and Laketown had exactly the right amount of lights to blot out the stars when she stared up at the sky, longing for one little piece of the life she’d been forced to leave behind. Unfortunately, no one asks eleven-year-old girls where they want to live, especially not their dads, who were offered a long-term gig as the main character of a TV show, with only the stipulation that they had to film on site. Piper wanted to be glad that her dad’s acting career was going so well, but she couldn’t help but think that making her move to this awful, rotten place was a little unfair. 

“Why don’t you go play outside?” Piper’s dad suggested, not looking up from the script in front of him. He was sitting in his office, surrounded by untouched boxes of all his stuff, just like he had since the moment they’d arrived. He’d shooed Piper off before by telling her she needed to go unpack her room, but it seemed that those orders didn’t apply to him. “You could introduce yourself to the neighbors. Make a good first impression.”

Piper wrinkled her nose. That was the other rotten thing about this house: she and her dad didn’t own the whole thing. That would have been too expensive. Instead, they rented the bottom floor while the basement and upstairs was rented to other people. She had met them, but only in passing, and she wasn’t exactly thrilled to spend any more time with them, but she’d learned that her dad’s “suggestions” when he was studying scripts weren’t really all that suggestive at all.

The Gray Sisters lived downstairs in the basement, which meant that they didn’t have any windows other than a couple of sad little window wells dug out around the living room. It also meant that the whole place was oddly damp. The underground lake and wells may have dried up, but the ground was almost always a little squishy with the amount of rain the town got. Again, just enough rain to make everyone and everything gray and miserable, but not enough to win any sort of records. Just in that area of painful mundanity.

The Gray Sisters themselves were old. Old enough that Piper would agree to calling them historic. Prehistoric, even. Each one of the three old ladies looked one step away from being a poorly-preserved mummy, with their sunken cheeks and wrinkled skin. Each one of them had one working eye and one hollowed out socket (though only one of them actually kept her eye open at once) and one singular yellow snaggletooth each. All this together meant that when they spoke, their words were soft and gummy and Piper couldn’t be entirely sure when they were talking to her because most of the time they had their eyes closed and weren’t even facing in her direction. 

Piper probably wouldn’t have minded all this quite so much if any of the Gray Sisters were like the old ladies back in Oklahoma who liked to sit together on their rocking chairs and sew while they laughed uproariously at one another’s jokes and clapped in delight when Piper sang for them. No, the Gray Sisters were mean, if not to Piper, then definitely to one another. They were constantly shouting at one another and they had awful little nicknames they used instead of real names. 

“Anger!” the one in the kitchen shrieked in her shrill, awful voice. “You’ve gone and lost the sugar bowl again! How are we meant to serve the girl tea now?”

“You don’t have to serve me any tea,” Piper assured them. She didn’t even like tea. They didn’t listen to her.

“Not I, Wasp!” the shortest sister spat back. “T’was Tempest who used it last!”

“Oh, ‘tis lost, ‘tis lost!” the third one wailed, tears steadily pouring down one of her cheeks. “Lost forever to the abyss!”

“What abyss, ma’am?” Piper asked politely. In response, Tempest sobbed louder.

“The abyss, the abyss,” Wasp muttered. She clutched at her chest in terror, and Piper wondered what she was meant to do if any of these ladies had a heart attack while she was with them. “Surely, you do not mean there?” Again, Tempest sobbed louder.

“What abyss?” Piper asked again, just in case she wasn’t heard before.

“The abyss, girl! Pay attention!” Anger snapped. “The abyss in which things are sealed away, drowned, and returned to the world, changed and made anew!”

Piper frowned and cocked her head to the side. “You mean the dishwasher?” The three women howled in terror, sorrow, and fury.

Piper left without getting any tea. 

Her neighbor who lived on the second story was a man named Mr. V. He was a big, scary-looking man, with broad shoulders he kept hunched up around his ears, a scowl so deep Piper was pretty sure his face was stuck like that, and a thick black beard that reminded Piper of the scratchy wire brushes people used to clean up rust. He was so big that Piper wasn’t sure how he managed to fit through his own narrow front door, much less up the rickety fire escape that led to it, and she was convinced that one day he was going to step too hard and fall right through the floor onto her and her dad’s dining table. 

His floor was almost as dark and cramped as the Gray Sisters’, but unlike them, he only had himself to blame. He kept all the lights on his floor dimmed, and every square inch of floor space was taken up by big, oil-smudged machines. Some of them made loud, ominous clicking and thumping sounds, some whirred and spun in place while giant exposed gears ker-thunked into place, and still more belched out thick black smoke and bright tongues of orange flame, some of which made their homes as embers in the thick of Mr. V’s wiry beard. All of the machines seemed designed to do something different, but if Piper was being honest, she wasn’t entirely sure they did anything useful, other than take up space and require Piper to twist and bend and tiptoe her way through to the heart of the home.

“Don’t you touch that, Pippy!” Mr. V shouted at her, causing her to almost lose her balance and stumble over a pile of chains in her shock. 

“My name’s Piper, not Pippy,” she reminded him again.

That was the other unfortunate thing about Mr. V. He didn’t like Piper at all. She wasn’t sure if it was a matter of him not liking people, not liking children, or just specifically not liking her. She wouldn’t really be surprised if any one of the three answers (or maybe even all of them) turned out to be true, but she knew for a fact that one of them was. She tried not to take it to heart, but it was a little hard to not get your feelings hurt when someone scowled at you like you’d committed the ultimate crime by existing.

“What are you doing in here?” Mr. V demanded. “I told you I need to be left well enough alone when I’m working.”

“My dad wanted me to come say hi,” she told him. There was an empty barstool near his work desk, so she climbed up on it, happy to be both off her feet and out of danger of accidentally touching something. “Whatcha working on?”

Mr. V scowled at her, but again, Piper was pretty sure that’s just what his face looked like after a lifetime of grumpiness. She wondered how he’d look if he actually tried to smile. The thought was almost scarier than the man himself. He stared at her for a few seconds, like he was trying to find something to yell at her about, but came up short, seeing as Piper was sitting perfectly still up on her perch. Eventually he settled for a gruff, “I’m an engineer, not a babysitter.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Piper informed him. “My dad lets me stay by myself.”

That made Mr. V pause and he squinted at her. “Yeah?”

“Yup,” she said, puffing up in pride. “I’ve been allowed to babysit myself since my last birthday.”

“If that’s the case, then you can go outside and babysit yourself, Pippy. Away from me.”

Piper blew a loud raspberry at him, which her dad would have been very embarrassed about if he’d been with her, but she didn’t care. Mr. V was mean and he deserved it. “My name is Piper!” she told him one last time before retreating out the front door. 

Once she was back on the ground, she looked around and once again felt the enormity of her dissatisfaction weigh heavily on her shoulders. Just as it had for the past four days since they’d moved in, there was a thick misty fog that hung over the ground, reaching up to her waist. It wasn’t thick enough to keep her from actually seeing the ground or anything like that, but it did make the ground squelch unpleasantly when she stepped on an extra-squishy patch of grass. She kind of wished she’d gotten a chance to find her rain boots, but her dad had fussed at her for dawdling and making a ruckus, so she’d been sent out in the new sneakers she didn’t even like. 

With that thought, she stomped as hard as she could, watching the mud ooze up and stain the white fabric with a sense of gratification. 

She gleefully wandered around the soggy yard, taking care to jump on any spots that made that squelching noise, but that could only last so long. Ruining her shoes was fun, but soon her shoes were caked in mud and she was left with cold, damp feet and no goal. 

That was when she spied a stick on the ground in a perfect capital ‘Y’ shape. The visitors’ center in town had a display about all the bunches of wells scattered around town and even how the people who founded the town used dowsing rods made of wood and bits of metal to locate the water hidden underground. She didn’t know how it worked, but she knew they used sticks that looked just like that, and she was very good at playing pretend. 

“Okay, stick!” she ordered, holding it out in front of her. “Take me to the nearest well!”

She shut her eyes for dramatic effect, then stumbled forward as if yanked along by her magical stick. She wandered all over, weaving in and out of the treeline, only peeking open one eye occasionally to make sure she wasn’t going to run into anything. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t really think it mattered all that much, seeing as everyone in town knew about the house she was living in. If she got lost she could just go to the nearest grown-up and ask for the Pink Palace, and they’d wince in sympathy and take her right back. She’d be fine. 

She’d wandered into a clearing when something caught her attention. In between her announcing to herself what she was doing and communing with her stick, she heard a quiet rustling sound. She froze, waiting to see if it happened again, but there was nothing. Still, she could feel a gaze prickling at the back of her neck. Someone – or something – was watching her. 

She cleared her throat, and tried not to sound scared. “Okay, stick! I think we’re almost there! Lead on so that our town might find water!” She made a show of shutting her eyes and walking forward, but she kept one cracked open just enough to see around her.

Then, out of the corner of her vision, she saw movement. In a split second, her eyes flew open and she whirled around on her heel. “What are you doing?” she demanded at the top of her voice, trying to sound as intimidating as possible. 

It definitely worked, but considering her opponent was just a kid instead of a scary murderer, the feat wasn’t quite so impressive.

“Ahh!!” the boy screamed, cowering behind his outstretched hands.

“Ahh!!” Piper screamed right back, startled by the sound. 

“Ahh!!” the boy screamed one last time before he composed himself. He scowled at Piper. “What’s wrong with you? You shouldn’t scare people!”

“Well, you shouldn’t be a stalker!” Piper scowled right back.

“I wasn’t stalking you; I was following you!”

“Same difference!”

The boy puffed out his cheeks and kicked at the ground. “I just wanted to see what you were doing,” he huffed. “Theresa said a kid moved into the house and I wanted to say hi.”

“Well, then why were you following me instead of talking to me?” Piper said, her tone still a little accusatory. 

The boy shrugged, and gestured at the stick she’d abandoned. “I wanted to see what you were doing. You looked weird.”

Piper felt her cheeks go a little warm at the thought of being caught in her game, but she just stuck her nose in the air and went to retrieve her stick. “It’s called water witching,” she said in her best know-it-all voice. “I use this magic stick to lead me to wells and underground water.” 

The boy looked impressed. “Well, you must be really good at it.”

“What do you mean?” Piper asked, cocking her head to the side. 

“Well, you’re about six inches from falling into an abandoned well right now.” Piper yelped and leapt back towards the boy, who doubled over in laughter. “You should have seen your face!”

Piper rolled her eyes and shoved him. “Whatever. I bet you were lying about the well.”

“I was not!” the boy said, outraged. “Look!” He gingerly stepped over and kicked some of the dirt and leaves around until the lip of a well and its wooden cap became visible. “See? Told ya.”

“I wouldn’t have fallen in, though,” Piper pointed out. “It’s got a lid.”

“Wood’s all rotted out,” the boy informed her. “You can try to stand on it, but I wouldn’t suggest it. You’ll fall right through, just like Dylan did last year.”

Piper shivered and took another step back just to be safe. “Well, thanks for telling me, I guess.” She smiled then, and stuck out her hand. “My name’s Piper McLean.”

“I know,” the boy told her, shaking her hand. “My name’s Leo Valdez.”

“What do you mean you know?”

“Theresa, the lady I live with, owns the house you’re renting,” Leo explained. “Your dad’s an actor, right? I heard her complaining about it to her boyfriend, Michael.”

“Oh. How come you don’t live with your parents?” 

Immediately, Leo clammed up and he scowled at her. “None of your business.”

Piper narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before she shrugged. “Okay. You wanna go exploring with me? My dad’s busy with his script, so he wants peace and quiet at the house.”

“Yeah, okay,” Leo agreed easily. “Theresa doesn’t let me in until sundown anyway.”

Piper very much wanted to ask him again what he meant by that, but she figured it wasn’t any of her business, either. So, the two of them wandered through the trees together. Every once in a while, they’d interrupt their walk with a quick game of tag, until Leo tripped and fell, scraping up his chin.

“Ow!” Leo whined, sitting back on his heels and cupping his muddy hands to his chin. “That hurt!”

“Are you okay?” Piper asked, crouching down in front of him.

“Yeah,” Leo muttered sourly. “I dunno what I tripped on, though.”

Piper looked around for the culprit until her eyes fell on a nearby tree root. It was bumped up out of the ground at just the right height to send an eleven-year-old boy tumbling. She followed it up to the tree it was attached to, and her eyes grew wide and round in wonder. “Leo! Look!”

“Look at what?” Leo huffed but he looked over to where she was pointing and he grinned. “That’s so cool!”

The tree Piper was pointing at was perfectly hollow, from one side all the way to the other. It wasn’t a big opening, but it was plenty big enough for Piper to crawl through on her hands and knees. What was most remarkable about it, though, was that the tree was still covered in shiny new growth leaves. She knew that sometimes trees could live after being hollowed out, but the rest of the trees around her bore the soft green leaves of spring, while this tree was blanketed in a warm, bright ocher. 

“You’ve never seen this tree before?” Piper asked.

Leo shook his head. “Nuh-uh. I’d remember something like this. It’s kinda funny, with the time I spend outside, I figured I’d seen every tree by now.”

“Huh.” Piper studied it for a bit more before she grinned at Leo. “It looks like a portal. We should go through.”

Leo’s face puckered in confusion for a second before he shrugged and followed her lead as she crawled through the little arch left by the tree. When they were both through, she loudly gasped and proclaimed, “Leo, we’re in a magic world now.”

Leo furrowed his brow for a moment and looked around like he was trying to figure out what she was talking about before he looked back at her. “Uh, okay.”

“In order to fit into this world, we have to become magic, too,” she informed him. “I’m an elf wizard assassin who was sent here to kill the evil king.”

Leo just stared at her until she gave him a meaningful look and tapped her toes expectantly. “Oh, I’m, uh, a mechanic?”

“A mechanic?” Piper said, very unimpressed.

“Yeah! A magic mechanic!” Leo insisted. “I can fix anything and I can make magic tools and stuff.” 

Piper considered that for a moment before she nodded in agreement and Leo grinned at her. “Alright then. Come on, we’ve got to work together to overthrow the king.”

Piper soon lost track of time as they played their game. They never got around to defeating their evil king antagonist, but Piper had been introduced to Leo’s pet robot dragon (she tried to argue that robots did not belong in her fantasy world, but Leo insisted that it was an enchanted robot dragon, so she let it slide) and they’d found a way to infiltrate the castle. Piper was about to suggest they begin their final assault before she felt a big, fat raindrop hit her cheek. She stared up at the suddenly darkened sky and felt another one hit her between the eyes. 

“It’s gonna start raining,” she informed Leo.

He squinted up at the sky, too and frowned. “Yeah. We’d better head back before it starts really coming down. I can show you the way home.” Piper nodded and followed him out of the trees and he pointed across the little field towards an ugly pink house. “That’s where your house is.”

She nodded at him then cocked her head to the side. “Do you wanna hang out again tomorrow?”

Leo looked startled that she’d ask him such a thing before he grinned. “Yeah! You wanna meet in your yard?”

“Okay,” she agreed. Then she waved and started running for her house. “See you tomorrow, Leo!”

“Bye, Piper!”

She didn’t wind up beating the rain home, and when she trudged through the house soaking wet, her dad only sighed and told her to shower and get cleaned up before dinner. Dinner was leftovers from the takeout they’d had the night before, but Piper’s dad promised he’d make a real dinner for them the next night, so Piper tried not to make too many faces at her microwaved noodles. She tried to tell him about the afternoon she’d had, about meeting the neighbors and all the fun she’d had with Leo, but he was still reviewing his script, so she never got anything more than a distracted, “That’s great, Pipes,” in response, and the rest of dinner passed in silence. 

That night, as Piper curled up in bed under her big, fluffy blanket, she told herself that things were going to be better tomorrow. 

[transhoverfish]

OK SO IM LATE BUT. MORE SUB3 NEWS!!!

so a few days ago, krafton (their publisher), apparently had this like presentation of their plans over the next like 2 years. and during that they talked a bit about sub 3!

and this obviously creates a LOT of questions. not to worry, though, because unknown worlds added on to this:

im honestly not surprised by this. iirc, when below zero released they said it would be a WHILE before the next game, and they only announced this back in like... january? now, the first game's release was in january, and bz was in may, so it's definitely possible early access with be in spring of 2025. those games did not have multiplayer aspections tho! its possible we'll wait until mid 2025, and full release will likely not be until 2026. but who knows? the first game took like ten to be fully finished!!

and honestly. THANK GOD. i can't imagine any subnautica game having BATTLE PASSES or LOOT BOXES. i would have just straight up ignored this game 😭

i do wonder what these updates will entail! "many years to come" is definitely something interesting to me, because other than bug fixes... i dont remember sub or bz getting many updates post full release. is this referring to bug fixes, or is it implying that it will be in a state of early access for much longer? are they going to just keep adding new things (like the building update for sub1) and taking fandom suggestions? very interested!!

maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but i actually,,,, dont want multiplayer. now i do like bz, and these games arent really intended to be horror games, but also bz is very noticeablely less scary than sub1. and some of it i think definitely has to do with all the extra characters and dialogue. its hard to feel isolated when you know al-an and marg are nearby. so im very happy that it's optional, bc i know i will probably enjoy single player a lot more enjoyable!!

so now... SPECULATION.

so the first thing im curious about that the development team didnt mention:

"uncover the mysteries on an entirely new alien planet"

apprently we are NOT returning to 4546b. which im kind of sad about!! ik the story is very obviously done there, but it feels weird that its going to be some other planet this time around. THERE WONT BE PEEPERS!!!! (well there could be but it would be weird if some other random planet had the exact same lifeforms)

now my next immediate thought is: is this a direct continuation of below zero? my opinion is: no. probably not.

mostly because it mentions up to four players, and robin and alan are, if you look very closely, only two people. now they COULD just create two new characters to go alongside them (my fanfic brain loves the au idea of marg and ryley 🥺) but im just going to assume that with the addition of a new planet, we're going to drop the old storylines. which means no more degasi, sunbeam, aurora, or ayou sisters. we might move away from architects/precursors altogether! (my basis on this is absolutely nothing and i could be wrong, this is 100% just theorizing)

also, i imagine that it would be difficult to keep the plot the exact same with two established characters and then two new ones, depending on how this multiplayer aspect works. if its another crash, it would be a lot easier to just have the extra players die/survive, then try to work in a balancing act of one guy playing al-an.

(also i like keeping the ending of bz vauge. if they show up again, they would have to mention what happened to the rest of the architects, and i think it's much more fun if thats a mystery!)

((also also, im gonna drop a bomb on u all for a second. i actually,,, dont like al-an. i have a deeper connection to probably every single other character in bz. i think they really fumbled al's character and story and he is so incredibly bland to me. it feels like they go nowhere with how he was responsible for the kharra outbreak because the game ends immediately after he confesses! it would be nice to give him another chance, sure, but i personally dread the idea of even more al-an. sorry everyone for this horrible news))

HERE'S A CONCEPT IMAGE

i hope they bring back some cut content creatures for this!! i noticed this new area looks VERY similar to the safe shallows, and several of the fish seem to be variations of ones we've already seen (im already seeing bladderfish and hoopfish color pallettes, and the shark resmbles some early concept art for the shadow leviathan, but with the ice worm's colors...)

will there be more land areas?? is it going to entirely underwater?? more kharra?? NO DISEASE AT ALL?? AAAAAA!!!!

[spadesncrows]

ok so abt that au i was talking abt before,,, 🥺👉👈

To start off, this is something I’ve had in the back of my mind for quite a bit that I haven’t been able to fully express and show due to reasons I’ll mention later. This project has lowkey given me some brainrot so I hope my words don’t just sound like I’m going clinically insane LMAOO i swear I’m so definitely normal abt my aus guys (denial)

Dead Casino is a twst au I’ve had for a while but has been on the backburner for being very unfinished. However, since it’s a little (keyword: little) bit more fleshed out, I think I can at least give a general summary on the concept !! :D

First off, the concept behind it was a direct inspiration from mlp infection aus I’ve seen on insta. Since mlp was a large chunk of my childhood and certain variants of horror had become an interest of mine as of late, I liked the idea of mixing them together. But—of course—when I enjoy something just enough, it eventually becomes a feeling of “how can I forcefully throw it in with my current obsession into the mind equivalent of a blender” and Dead Casino was the smoothie that came out of it. Essentially, the resulting foundation is that NRC experiences a zombie apocalypse, but as with most things I obsess over, I wanted to build on that.

To get into the nitty gritty of it first, there’s a few core things abt the infection that basically effect not only what the characters face, but the story itself:

The infection is primarily based off of blot, and the concept of it using something/someone as a vessel to control and harm others

While blot zombies are the most common creature plaguing the school, blot has the capability to take over different objects as well when under specific circumstances, which leads to the creation of (mostly) nonhuman blot infested monsters

Over-accumulation of blot can lead to an increased vulnerability to the infection. This especially targets those that have overblotted prior to the outbreak, even if they had seemingly “fully recovered” :)

As for the story, I don’t wanna get super into it just bc yknow spoilers, but the general overview is relatively simple(ish). Basically, it folllows Ace and the rest of his group of survivors (mostly Cater, Trey and Jade) after the initial outbreak on campus. I wanna say anywhere from a month to a month and a half?? Basically enough time to be at least a little more accustomed to everything going on if that makes sense !!

Ace and co. take refuge in classrooms near the cafeteria, but just like everyone else, is not allowed to leave the safezone unless permitted. Surprise surprise, he leaves the safezone not permitted. In fact he does this multiple times through the first couple chapters alone. And the whole story.

But essentially, Ace manages to figure out two things the first time he leaves the safezone in the prologue:

That there are living survivors in Heartslabyul trapped there under the rule of their infected housewarden, which—by extension—likely means the situation may be the same in other dorms

That both Deuce Spade and Grim—who he hadn’t seen since the outbreak and assumed were dead—were actually alive and MIA.

And that basically kickstarts the rest of the story !! The main group infiltrates different dorms in the hopes of reconnecting with any survivors, all while trying to solve the mystery of their old friends’ whereabouts :)

Now the reason why a good chunk of this au was pretty much kept under wraps was for one main reason specifically: I had zero clue how to present it.

My initial thought was “oh!! Fanfic :3” and then it scrambled into “…comic? Animation? No?? Both?? Neither??”

…and then it kinda just sat there. I had the story, I had the idea, I had the biggest brainrot, but no way to properly explain or show it. And then I got the thought that plagues me every single time—at least once—I join a fandom: make it a video game.

At first, i wasn’t going to. But then it clicked into place just a bit too well and the ideas kept coming together and it wouldn’t stop and now we’re here :3

More specifically, Dead Casino is gonna be portrayed as a desktop game ^^ (i took like two game dev classes, sue me /j)

here’s some ideas for different mechanics I thought of including !! They’re all on my spam blog, but I have a third blog in the works rn where I’ll have all the info organized eventually :3

[1], [2], [3]

And here’s some irl doodles I’ve made for this!! These are beta designs and the like for different characters and stuff !! (Tw for body horror, knifes and guns, lmk if I need to add any more warnings ^^)

[shichidikai]

tagged by the wonderful @strawhattery to answer 20 questions for fic writers! tysm bree!! 💕

how many works do you have on ao3?

5 😌 (i swear more are on the way)

what's your total ao3 word count?

74,650

what are your top five fics by kudos?

help i only have 5 lmao, well:

good in red (op, zosan)

till all the seas run dry (op, zolu)

so(u)l (op, zoro/zolu)

creation, and joy, and god, maybe (op, zoro/zolu)

act 4, scene 5 (op, buggy with a hint of shuggy)

(this is so funny because i only have one published zosan but they're out here dominating 95% of my current wips ksjhlkshlh)

what fandoms do you write for?

currently a one piece writing machine* 🫡

*efficiency not guaranteed

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

yes! i love love love hearing people's thoughts about my stories, and am so appreciative every time that someone takes a moment out of their day not only to read, but to let me know that they enjoyed what i wrote, and being able to chat with them about the elements that spoke to them, the characters, etc. is a part of fandom that i value a lot!

what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

act 4, scene 5 (sad clown noises)

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmm.... good in red is happy feelsgood, but till all the seas is like... a super sappy idealized wrap-up, so i'll give it the edge

do you get hate on fics?

thankfully no (not yet? 😰 knocking on many wooden things)

do you write smut?

for someone with basically zero experience writing it in my early days, i somehow decided that it was a great idea to lean 200% into it as soon as i picked writing back up, so... yes, yes i do.

do you write crossovers?

(shoving ff.net under the rug) no never haha! ha

have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope, not that i'm aware of at least

have you ever had a fic translated?

nope (but if anyone's interested...)

have you ever cowritten a fic before?

not yet, but i do think it could be a super interesting thing to try! (with about five thousand apologies in advance to my cowriter skjhlkjsh)

what's your all time favourite ship?

OH... MAN. this is legit really hard to say definitively, but vashwood, zosan, orufrey, and kagehina are all up there at the top

what's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

ngl the elisabeth das musical zosan au might end up this way? but as long as i'm still writing, there's always hope!

what are your writing strengths?

i'd like to think that my dialogue is engaging, my pacing is decent, i have good comedic timing, and that my overall plots (while maybe nothing groundbreaking) are fun and entertaining 🥺

what are your writing weaknesses?

OVERPLANNING, overwriting, and overthinking in general. needing to write in order and being a terminal edit-as-i-go person, which makes it difficult to continue, then getting upset that i'm not progressing akjhskjhs. i fear i'm always walking the fine line between "girl who just likes to yap and wants you to see this as clearly as she does" and writing in circles with purple prose, and i tend to latch onto both my outlines and specific lines/portions that i write far too strongly and have a really hard time letting them go, even when it becomes apparent that they're a big part of what's holding me back (actively working on a lot of this though, and i do think i'm getting a bit better!)

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i'm most comfortable incorporating other languages as single words or phrases, but if it served the purpose of the fic to have full dialogue, i'd also just want to have a native speaker to check with or i'd be terrified to royally mess it up lmao

first fandom you wrote for?

gundam wing... (creaks in my rocking chair) you see, little ones... back then, we wrote 1x2x1... lemons... limes....

favourite fic you've ever written?

stylistically it's good in red, but till all the seas will always have my heart for the sheer number of cheeky canon references i managed to cram into it and the fact that i simply had SO much fun while writing it!

tagging @okayprairie, @ghost-maya, @incalamity, @kakuriyo, and @summerofspock if any of you haven't done it already and would like to!

[bunbitti]

rules and stuff

I take ~3 requests at a time, also don't rush me pls

Taken: 0/3

Long ahh rules only bc it would waste less time for all of us to have ppl asking for stuff I can't write well for

Main interests at the moment (for tldr):

Honkai Star Rail

Zenless Zone Zero

Return of the Blossoming Blade/Return of the Mount Hua Sect

Male characters

Fandoms I know/might write for (may be updated later when I think of more):

Honkai Star Rail

Zenless Zone Zero

Return of the Blossoming Blade/Return of the Mount Hua Sect

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

The World After the Fall

Detroit: Become Human

Maybe other manhwas/series if I've read them (you can try asking if it's not on the list, I can and will write for side characters if I'm attached to them enough lmao)

Fandoms that are a maybe:

Jujutsu Kaisen

The Avengers

Naruto

Attack on Titan

Haikyuu!!

Harry Potter

Undertale/Deltarune

Fandoms I don't write for (this means I either definitely have not read or interacted with the series or don't see myself writing for it much/at all, so that you don't waste your time asking)

Miraculous Ladybug

Boruto

Percy Jackson

Disney, Pixar, etc. movies and stuff?? I didn't have a childhood if you couldn't tell already, and I also don't really watch movies

other sports animes (I'm sorry I just never watched them and I wouldn't have the time to start)

Characters I can do (predominantly male, I can't guarantee any quality for female characters):

HSR - Gepard, Sampo, Dr. Ratio, Aventurine, Boothill, Sunday, Jiaoqiu, Moze, Mydei, MAYBE Jing Yuan, Argenti, Luocha, Dan Heng, Welt, etc.

ZZZ - Wise, Anton, Billy Kid, Lycaon, Seth, Lighter, Harumasa

ROTBB - Lee Songbaek/Isongbaek/이소백 (x reader-only for him, no ships; there's not enough x-reader and plenty of ship fics for him already), MAYBE main characters/anyone else

ORV - most people, just not x-reader beyond platonic because I can't really see it

TWAF - Carlton/Karlton, maybe others

DBH - Connor, RK900, Hank, Gavin, others maybe

Topics I can do:

sfw, fluff, headcanons, etc.

nsfw (I might not be so good at the explicit stuff, but we can try)

AUs - soulmate, college/modern, royalty, etc.

depression/similar topics (only because I'm likely depressed)

character x reader, if I like that character enough and/or could see them in a relationship with the reader; platonic and romantic both allowed

some ships, only if I'm confident I can pull it off

Topics I won't do:

dubcon/noncon/toxic/abusive stuff (especially between shipped characters or in x-reader relationships) beyond what is already in character, I've had enough of that abusive stuff irl, I don't need it in my writing (having it in a backstory is ok as long as we're doing recovery/healing from it or something)

gore? idk

pedo/zoo/etc.

nsfw if the character(s) is/are minor(s), regardless of if they're shipped with another minor

mental illnesses/other conditions that I'm not familiar with and wouldn't be confident in getting accurate

aging up characters (unless we're talking about canonical versions that exist, like post-timeskip in Haikyuu where characters have jobs and/or are in uni)

whatever I'm not comfortable with

x reader:

unless otherwise requested or stated, will be gender neutral

if it's important to you, you can specify details about the reader (height, size, other physical characteristics, backstory, etc.), otherwise unfortunately I am not a mind reader

likely in 2nd or 3rd person, very unlikely to be 1st person

General:

the more specific you are in the request, the better (sometimes I worry about not getting things how people were thinking of it in their heads lmao)

will probably be short-ish (see the lengths of existing fics) unless by some miracle I have more inspiration

I may be inconsistent af, haha

Don't request nsfw if you're a minor, and don't interact with my nsfw content if you're a minor

Uhh yeah, this should be it, I'll update it when rules change

[torchickentacos]

Slightly tangential to my last reblog (in the sense that 'if you hate something then is it actually bad or is it just not for you'), but sometimes I see posts like "I hate when fandoms focus too much on shipping*" or "I hate when people make headcanons that have zero basis in canon, he would not fucking say that" or "I hate that people only ever write the same 5 cliche AUs" and it's like, idk. I think some of you guys just don't really like the things that fandoms tend to be built on (and that's okay). If you hate everything about something, then maybe you just aren't its audience, or maybe you need to find other ways to engage with it that are more enjoyable for you. The solution is never 'less people need to enjoy this specific thing because it annoys me personally', though.

*putting an asterisk on this one because there are interesting discussions to be had here, but none of those (productive) discussions are 'people should just be less interested in shipping because I said so', in my opinion. And of course opinions are allowed! You are TOTALLY well within your rights to hate the things listed above, but people are allowed to love them, too. The secret to a good fandom experience is to encourage the parts you enjoy rather than to try and discourage the parts that you don't enjoy.

[some-stars]

i spent yesterday rereading all my old fic that i hadn't read in years and years, including the unfinished stuff, and man, i know i'm two fandoms deep in Soft Shit and Happy Endings now, and it's not that i don't love that stuff because i really do, but i forgot how deep my love for toxic complicated nonsense runs and now i kinda miss that.

like ten years ago i wrote 10k words of an Oz fic (AU where beecher didn't fall for it in s6 and stayed out, so two years later keller breaks out and shows up at his house) and then didn't look at it again until yesterday, and that shit was not only better than i remember, it was satisfying. i mean not completely satisfying bc it stopped halfway through but ohhhhhh my god, the fucked up self-destructive each-other-destructive painful wildly passionate deliciousness of it all........i know IWTV could fill this hole for me but i wouldn't DREAM of trying to write fic for a show that genuinely brilliant. like what would i even add.

and i used to do that all the time!! like if you go back before 2020 on my ao3 page it's at LEAST 50% ambiguous-to-sad endings. and my WIPs from before then are also wonderfully Tangled. genuinely i miss it so much?? but i have absolutely ZERO interest in writing anything sad in deadpool fandom, i don't think. so i just gotta wait i guess. someday...............

[laismoura-art]

You don't talk about them even though I know you have opinions on the overall character, so... Sektor!!

1. Why do you like or dislike this character? (both MK9 and MK1 because I know you prefer one over the other).

For the next ones, you can only do MK1!Sektor if you want since I know you go with her!

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? (I already know you hate when people pit her against Sareena in ship wars, so is there anything positive you like? 😅)

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I'm overall curious about Sektor in your AU!

Hey Rasta! Interesting choice!👀 Thanks for the opportunity to talk about ma girl, Sektor!

LET'S GOOOOOOO!!

MK1 Sektor ⚙️

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Probably for all the reasons most folks dislike her, lmao!

MK1 Sektor is nothing like OG Sektor! I don't like OG Sektor, so I don't care that he was replaced (especially by a woman, sue me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) Plus, her being different is kind of the point of being a Multiverse story, we came here to see different, and she sure is different!

She's not pure evil like her OG self, and thus not beyond redemption! Sure, she's really, really, really mean, and has evil tendencies, but she needs to be encouraged to act on them.

I honestly believe that if she had better people surrounding her (instead of evil MK1 Bi-Han and her father) she would be a better person, and I like that about her, cause unredeemable characters aren’t really my type, lmao! 

Oh yeah, and in my AU, both she and Bi-Han are good people (I was already physically incapable of making evil Bi-Han, now I feel I’ll be physically uncapable of making evil MK1 Sektor, lol). Now though he is still the person she spends the most time with, he won’t bring out the worst in her like he does in canon! (They are still a reeeeeeally mean duo, tho, but they have a good heart😅💕)

But even as a villain, she's still an entertaining villain! She's a cartoonish villain who wants to do evil with her pookie, and they are most likely the duo that runs away giggling after causing some mischief. And I know that's a bit silly and doesn't appeal to everyone, but it sure appeals to me much more than "rotten to the core villain with zero charisma" that was OG Sektor (to me)

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

I did sprinkle my answer with some of my thoughts on MK9 Sektor, but just not to be entirely unfair to him:

I do love to make him the big bad guy in all my fics, and I make sure to make you hate him as much as I do!

He's a real unredeemable character to me and I have zero interest to write him as anything else. He lost me when he condemned Harumi, Satoshi, Hanzo, Cyrax, Bi-Han and Tomas and made Kuai Liang's life hell.

On top of it, I hardly find him charismatic. MK1 Sektor has some real energy and a fun personality, but MK9 Sektor can't even make me fear him even when he has one of the most terrifying goals!

6/10 would kill without hesitation

2. Favourite canon thing about this character?

Honestly, I really like the person she is when MK1 Bi-Han is not around cause, like I said, he brings the worst in her!

I think a lot about her interaction with Khameleon!

She was still VERY arrogant (can’t blame Bi-Han for that, lol) but quite the noble warrior! She had Khameleon's back the whole time and made sure to save Khameleon's Umgadi sisters!

She was only temporarily allied to Khameleon but in that short time she was a true ride or die and fought fiercely for her!

I think "ride or die" is her defining trait and I love that it's part of her nature, and not only something exclusive to Bi-Han. Like, "she's loyal cause she has feelings for him" no, she's loyal to him cause she's a loyal person!

(And a little speculation here, if I may: the reason Sektor went after Harumi so quickly even when Cyrax insisted she should be left out of the fight was because she saw herself in Harumi.

Harumi is also a loyal and fierce protector, and she wouldn't back down when Kuai needed her. Sektor knew that if their roles were reversed, she would react the exact same way and would be as much of a threat as Harumi was!

It was a true game recognising game moment, lol!)

3. Least favourite canon thing about this character?

Her boyfriend, lol💀

Look, I love Sekhan as an evil couple, they match each other's freak, they are goofy and silly, and as long as they STAY LIKE THIS, and don’t become a real threat to my girls, Harumi and Cyrax, by starting the “body horror factory,” I’m good with them! 

But I can't help but still wish they were my “mean but with heart of gold” duo ✊🏾😔

They did make a little cameo on my Umgadi Girls fic, and I really liked how they came out! I think this is my favourite way of writing them!

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Fanarts? Lol🙃

I’m still to explore beyond Tumblr to see what the rest of the Fandom is doing, but here in the neighbourhood… hmmm, I guess any positive take is valid, and they come mostly from the Sekhan part of the Fandom, so though I don’t love this ship, I find some joy in it, especially when it’s more comedy focused!

They are really a funny couple, and I think folks are sleeping on it!

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I saw some folks saying she was being a “hypocrite” when she said Kuai had "forgotten the meaning of family” but my headcanon/theory/character analysis is that she was actually being cunning and trying to create some animosity between Tanya and Kuai.

We know she turned her back on her mother, and we know Kuai has EVERY reason to be mad at Bi-Han. We all know this. But Tanya doesn't!

For Tanya, Kuai is the guy putting his own brother in second place, while Sektor is the devoted woman doing everything she can to rescue her man!

Huh, I wonder which one this grieving widow would be more inclined towards in case the two had any major disagreement and she had to side with one!

Ma girl is slyyyyy!

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Best friend, best girlfriend, you name it! Either way, I say it's Khameleon!

I know, obvious choice! But hear me out!

I keep saying that Bi-Han brings out the worst in Sektor, and a better company could encourage her to be her better self! And I say Khameleon is the one!

Sektor wants recognition! She's a genius and wants to be acknowledged as such! We can tell cause she's always flexing her armour and her skills!

And who were the two people who praised her? Bi-Han, sure. But also:

Here's a genuine compliment! One of the few she gets! And we can tell it's genuine cause Khameleon has no reason whatsoever to lie to her. Heck, she doesn’t even have a reason to compliment her! She views Sektor as the enemy!

Sektor probably realised that, too, given how she acts later. She saves Khameleon from Chaos!Geras and then teases her in the most friendly and heartfelt way possible!

No, seriously, just take a look at this body language!

Girl has her mask covering her whole face, and she still manages to have a visible shit eating grin!

Praise this little shit, lmao!

Tell me these two wouldn't have the best relationship ever! The cutest friendly rivalry!

CyberSaurian, my beloved!❤️💚

And I'm not done with them! Cause after Sektor teases her, Khameleon drops this gem:

Thank you, Khameleon! That's what I've been saying!

Sektor wastes her talents with the likes of Bi-Han!

She could be doing so much good, but instead she was almost executed because she chose to side with him! She could be Grandmaster, but she lost that chance when she chose to set Mr Sleeping Beauty free instead!

Bi-Han drags her down, and I think Khameleon could help her see that!

A little fun fact about my AU, since you're interested:

I plan to have Khameleon and Sektor meet there too!

I'm still working on the details but the general idea is to have Sektor and Bi-Han (and Cyrax too) travelling to Outworld cause he got "infected" with an unknown source of magic (cause I want Noob Saibot in my AU) and they are looking for a cure.

The Umgadi girls invite Sektor to train with them so she has something to do while Bi-Han is being treated. There she meets Khameleon and though they don't get along at first (cause Sektor is being, well, herself, lol) they eventually get to like each other!

The reactions are what I'm looking forward the most, lmao:

Sektor: I must say, Khameleon, you... are not as terrible as I thought you would be.

Khameleon: Was that supposed to be a compliment?

Cyrax: The highest...

Bi-Han: How nice of you to get a girlfriend while I was dying.

Sektor: You were just dying a bit, don't be a drama queen.

Bi-Han: >:O

(She teases bit she was worried sick about him, lol! Also I'm still deciding if I'll go platonic or romantic with CyberSaurian)

Harumi: I've been waiting 12 years to finally get a hug from you and I'm still waiting, but Khameleon gets one in a week??

Sektor: I didn't hug her, she fell unconscious and I caught her.

Harumi: I felt unconscious on you once. You dropped me.

@thegrimoiresvoice would you be interested in my take on Sektor?👀

[mcytblrconfessions]

*sighs in sadness* Ocean Queen Lizzie you were too good a character to be released onto the masses who couldn't characterize you well in fanfiction to save your life :(

The joy your story brought me (self-proclaimed number one Ocean Queen fan /hj) is immense, but it does not cancel out the multitudes of fanfiction flattening you into a hollow shell of yourself who only exists as an extension of the men in your life, clogging the LDShadowLady fandom tag and making it nigh-impossible to fin the (rare) fic in which Lizzie is in-character

And trust me, I know. My experiences are born out of pain and sorrow. Deep in the clutches of hyperfixation, I checked the LDShadowLady tag several times every day for months, no filters. I looked at every fic in the tag, and the backlog of fics. I read every fic in the tag, with only a few exceptions for the most truly unstomachable fic. Even as my hyperfixation loosened, I still checked the LDShadowLady tag often, and scrolled through the backlog. I still read every Lizzie centric fic I can find, and a lot that isn't. I still am on a constant search for good Lizzie fic (please: anyone want to recommend any fics? I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing/missed/forgot to bookmark! she doesn't have to be the main character, just significant!)

I have gazed into the abyss. I have absorbed the scope of it. I have written fic on my own.

And yet: the problem is less with the lack of Lizzie fics, and more with the bad ones, the ones that don't actually feature her in any real capacity, which becomes easy to see once you've read a lot of them noticed the pattern, just a combination of sidelining, of mischaracterization, and mischaracterization by omission, that trap that is so easy to fall into.

I can forgive fandom for this to an extent. No fic writer is perfect, this is about the collective patterns. But after a certain point, it starts becoming harder to ignore: the way she is written into fics only to warp around c!Jimmy (sometimes other male characters) with zero regard for her interiority, her agency, her struggles, her potential, in fics that give male side characters these things.

The way she is ignored varies. Sometimes it is the most blatant examples: she is put in a situation in which multiple canon traits/opinions/experiences of hers would obviously be relevant, but all are ignored except supportive sister. Sometimes it is more subtle: it iisn't a plot hole that her being a supportive sister/caring/"strong woman girlboss" (in the way that doesn't actually give her any agency or depth or plot importance, she's still a flat character only there for support, but actually we only write her as a personw with no interior depth or anything interesting bc she's just so cool and competent and perfect there aren't any problems that give us reasons to focus on her or give her like, a character arc or something) is the only thing that comes up in the au, but the fact that the author didn't find anything else about her interesting or worthy of show, never considered showing her in more depth, giving her an arc, giving her choices to make, the fact that over and over again authors decide that the only reason to show her is if she's supporting a guy, grates a whole fucking lot. Mostly, it is more subtle but once you see it you will never stop unseeing it. I try to repeat it but I just sound like a broken record.

Am I going insane for noticing this when nobody else seems to? I worry that, even being mad mostly at the trend and not the individual writers, I am still somehow being too unfair to them. I check my line of thought over and over. Then, once again, I am reading a fic and I can't stop thinking about how it's another fic in the pattern, and I try to find something that isn't and it takes me pages and pages, and I am so angry again. Death by a thousand pinpricks. Driven insane by a thousand lackluster Lizzie portrayals.

It's hard not to feel crazy. People like the Ocean Queen! People don't dislike her character! She just slowly gets flattened, over and over. Never any interest in her depths. (yes I am ocean punning at a time like this)

I am awash in a sea of misery. Every day I think of her and I wish for a world where people liked her better. Where she was the character with a million fics exploring her potential. I think about it and I think about her and I think about my fic for her and the good fics I've read for her and I open another fic where Lizzie is tagged and I hope.

(The pain these fics bring me is immense but the joy I feel about the character is greater, at least. Mostly I think about that. Two sides to everything, how unfortunate/lucky)

Ocean Queen I love you.

[erseac]

With that last story out of the way, let's do a little recap of 2024 in terms of me writing smut. This is only the second year that I've done it, and god, I've written so much. I don't think I'll keep up this pace next year. Or maybe I will, who knows.

I published a total of 19 new stories of very different lengths, for 72,999 new words in total. Some highlights in terms of writing:

I took part in the Rare Kink Buffet event and posted six stories for it: Go Fuck Yourself (one of only three Ladybug/Shadybug stories, but I think that's mostly due to other people tagging things differently), The Full Black Cat Experience, which is fairly popular yet somehow got zero comments, Hand Stuff, The Go-Between and Cozy for Miraculous, and Other Uses for Blood Bending as my first work in another fandom (Avatar the Last Airbender).

I took part in a thanksgiving-focused event (the idea being to produce smut that americans can secretly read at the thanksgiving dinner table) with A Lady's Secret.

For the Miraculous Ladybug Hurt/Comfort Prompt Meme I wrote Sprained Relationship.

The ML Kink Meme run by @fuckyeahladybug took off, getting a lot of new works by several writers, and I added three of them: My House, My Company, My Nathalie, featuring toxic post-resurrection AU Eminath; Venom, featuring Zoénette doing some experiments, and Playing the Part, featuring some illicit sex between Tom Dupain and (adult) Alya Césaire. Especially the latter is absolutely not everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay, but it was a very interesting writing challenge. Only one of them is a self prompt fill, but I'm not going to state which one.

Apart from the Zoénette one, there's also been a lot of Chloé this year: When Friends Come From Afar, published just a few hours ago, and Smile!, my first planned multi-chapter smut story (though really it's not much longer than some of my one-shots), both with Adrien, Marinette and Chloé. There's also A Thief's Punishment, which is just Marinette and Chloé and some accidental (but well-deserved) bondage.

My passion for stupid Marigami continued with Make-Up and Hair Cuts and also showed up in Dance Floors and Dragons, which I wrote to create some more canonical ship tags.

I branched out into some different fandoms, with the aforementioned "Other Uses for Blood Bending" and Secret of the Stone for Tomb Raider (reboot era), which I wrote on a whim. I wonder whether people would be upset if I wrote a second version of this in the Miraculous Ladybug universe with Nathalie instead…

Not fitting into any of the categories I just made up on the spot are Phones Must Stay Off During Movie Night, a fun thing to write but I have no idea where it'll go next, and Sleepy, written because I was sleepy.

Last but not least, For Science! got an update, but I can't really take credit for it, as @akumatisedhamster contributed some great art for it. Thank you so much!

As for next year: I promise absolutely nothing. However, I want to continue writing. I have a lot of WIPs, both new ones I started this year and old ones I've had in my mind (and partially on the page) for ages. There is some Adrinette, Ladynoir, Marichat, Chlobrina and a lot of other things brewing; we'll see where they get to. And I definitely want to get into some relationship tags I haven't used yet. Alyanette, for example.

I think Miraculous Ladybug will remain my main fandom, but I don't think it'll be my only one. We'll see what ideas hit me. I'd also like to participate in some more fandom events, but no specific plans yet. I have ideas for more fills for ML Kink Meme prompts as well.

And it's also possible that I just won't write very much, since I do have other hobbies as well. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, thank you so much for all the kudos and comments and bookmarks. I've had way more fun writing smutty stories than I ever expected thanks to you all!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

duck: "well actually scratch that in my elaborate psychological torture dehumanization royal au he would but it’s out of duty and deference"

MIRAAAAA you must know i read "elaborate psychological torture dehumanization au" and perked up like a damn dog, i would LOVE for you to elaborate on that (only if you want to ofc!!)

DUCKYYY I AM FINALLY HERE TO ANSWER THIS HEHEHE i would also love to elaborate (adding a cut because i already know i am probs going to talk too much) i was just hoarding this until i could give it my Proper attention (also. this is probably not as interesting as you were hoping because i haven’t pondered TOO much upon this topic SLDKJFH it’s just something that crosses my mind every now and again)

SO. in a royal au i feel like everyone just makes nagi a chill guy like just a villager or a normal advisor or whatever and i need you to know that that is WRONG I’M SAYING IT NOW IT IS WRONGGGG there is just no way you have this enormous (cough 6’3 cough absolutely built fsr cough) guy who is naturally talented in all aspects back in those days (assuming a medieval-adjacent setting as is the case for most royal au stories) and you don’t send bro STRAIGHT to war LKDSJFH whether you want the reo/the mikages in general/someone else holding the leash there is zero doubt in my mind that he is a knight but in a more specific sense of the word he is a WEAPON LMAOAO like. this isn’t a guy who’s fighting for honor and shit he dgaf about that he’s literally just doing As He’s Told. i think his laziness in the present au would translate very much to an aimlessness and lack of desire in a royal au?? not exactly laziness in a 1:1 sense (he Does things just fine) but he just doesn’t have any independent thoughts any independent feelings and i believe this is also something his “owners” would try to foster — their wants and desires become his own because he doesn’t have any, so again he’ll just do whatever he’s told to because. sure why not

i think after a certain point he would probably not even really consider himself as a Person truly…he is his sword and his sword is him and steel doesn’t have feelings ergo he doesn’t have feelings. again this is something his “owners” (<- referring to them as such because idk if you would want to imagine reo or the mikages or anyone you LIKE in such a role DLSKF) would want to encourage because the less he’s thinking the better he’s doing as he’s told. it’s to the point where he has a similar status as the weapons in the armory — they show him off, he’s cared for, but everyone knows that he’s a thing not a person and he’s kind of just okay with it because he doesn’t know better…this ties into what is essentially his abandonment by his parents in the actual canon of bllk LMAO i can see them just shipping him off to be a knight at the castle and patting themselves on the back because they think that’s doing right by him when actually it just worsens his need to please (so that he is not abandoned again) which is then crystallized into that internalization of other people’s desires as his own which is what eventually leads to him being in this state of like. inhumanity. of being dead while living.

^ all of that is more outcome-based because i would need to do more research into how he would END UP that way (because nobody is like that from the get go) which is where the elaborate psychological torture dehumanization comes in LDSKHFJ but anyways. so i think that if i were to ever write this without fear of the fourteen year olds in the bllk fandom canceling me i would in fact give reader nagi’s “leash” and have him be Her dog…Her weapon…you know what i’m saying and there’s like this whole autonomy aspect to it where nagi is less than human by virtue of being a living sword and reader is less than human by virtue of being a woman and the only way for HER to regain her autonomy is commanding nagi (via his power she can have her own?? if that makes sense…in a room of big swords wave the biggest and your voice will be heard type shit) but the only way for NAGI to regain autonomy is by going against her wishes and finding his own. and i think i would have reader be supportive of that but in a way where he unintentionally becomes almost dependent on her to the point that like even when he thinks he has his own impulses they are the same as reader’s so are they REALLY his or is he just trying to please her again?? and the entire story would be him trying to separate actually loving someone as a person versus loving them with the loyalty of a blade whereas for reader it would probably be something related to getting over the need for using men (nagi, her father, whoever) as a crutch and actually being listened to in her own right