#and just needed to ramble about this minor worldbuilding bit

[v-mum-writes]

What is an Atosh-Ansdim?

The concept of Sex Doctors in the Qun was wickedly fascinating to me. I took developing it with a bit of Gusto.

The summary is that There are two types of Doctor in the category of Sex/(UrologyMaybe?)/Hormones/Fertility/Birthing/STDS, basically doctors who deal with that particular body system. That is the Shadim, which specialized in the Female system, and a Ansdim, which specializes in the Male system. They are, respectively, Female or Male alongside their system which i would say has less to do with the gender role of it and more to do with just having first hand experience possessing that system, and the Qun just thinks that's more efficient. There "arent" Aqun-Athlok Shadim or Ansdim, just like how the Qun would say there "aren't" women in the Antaam, but if you were a qunari assigned to being a Shadim or something and felt you were a man, it doesnt really matter, it just matters you have the ovaries. You know, typical 'gender is an illusion' Qunari shit. If you want to visit a sex doc, it depends what your issue is which one you see. If you have a uti and you have ovaries, or you have an unexpected pregnancy, you go see a Shadim. If your balls suddenly turned green and started oozing? you go see a Shadim about that. If you're Bi and you need to have sex, you can see either a Shadim or Ansdim.

Shadim and Ansdim ARE Doctors. There extensive, rigorous learning and information involved. You learn ALL about reproduction systems, hormone systems, pregnancy, and even plenty about other systems of anatomy and especially about how they influence your system. It's as important in the Qunari as being a cardio/heart/blood specialist; it's just a specific type of system. They handle spontaneous pregnancies, they handle infections or dysfunctions, they handle sexual education. They even handle interrogation or infiltration and seduction sometimes, although I imagine there's a special subsection of them for that. The reason they do is because a huge part of being a Shadim or Ansdim is involved with the psychology as well as the physiology of sex and the sex system. A good, highly rated Shadim and Ansdim are very keen-eyed, and they are incredibly practiced; they have a keen need to be able to read the people they're having sex with, what hurts and what doesnt, what's good and what isnt. Most Qunari, after all, have a lot of stunted emotional development and lack of individual recognition. A good Shadim or Ansdim need to fix, and educate. That often involved teaching other Qunari what they like or dont like during sex, or handling people who have been traumatized and are re-learning sex, etc etc etc. Its a complicated doctor and the nature of a cruel world makes the job require a lot of skills. Training begins at 16 like any other job in the Qun, but can take until 25 to be considered a Master of one's profession, and like any medical career you're never done learning as the field is always developing.

Now, a special distinction from regular Shadim and Ansdim, which are already highly regarded, are the Atosh-Shadim and Atosh-Ansdim. They are Doctors, just like Shadim and Ansdim, but the distinction is that they are marked for breeding by good genetic markers that the Qun wants to see in the future generation. There's a hundred factors in this, and there's probably a whole branch of Shadim and Ansdim that make those decisions and selectively choose future breeders; the highlighted experts of genetic research. The factors involved or plentiful- immuno-resistance, strength, intelligence, genetic mutations, resistance to magic, you name it. The name of the game is variety, but with a firm guiding hand. Atosh-Shadim and Atosh-Ansdim are a lot more focussed on the reproduction aspects of their careers than other Shadim and Ansdim, but they're also less common, especially outside of Par Vollen or other strongholds of Qunari Society. Non 'Atosh' Shadim and Ansdim take contraceptives to prevent pregnancy like the rest of the qunari population, Atosh-Shadim and Atosh-Ansdim do not.

As bull discovers in this chapter, Kaayras Adaar has a history as an Atosh-Ansdim. He would have been observed for this position basically the moment the Qunari identified the remains of his now-deceased father, who was also an Atosh-Ansdim from a very SPECIAL line of Breeding Project, a genetic line with unusual genetic mutations in Qunari (Red hair, Red freckles) and full of desirable traits labeled 'close to the Ataashi'. Basically, the Qunari have been trying for centuries to breed Qunari closer to the great ones they feel so kindered to, Dragons. Kaayras has even better traits than his father did.

He was a very high value breeder. They'd had his career pegged well before he was 16- well before they ever informed his Tamassaran.

Poor bastard never had a chance, as far as the Qun was concerned he was born for this.

[nellie-elizabeth]

I really, really loved campaign 3, I loved Bells Hells, I loved the finale.

I want to talk about it a bit. This gets messy and rambly and I’m a little defensive because it’s this thing where I loved the story and I want other people to love it too but I know I can’t make that happen so I just feel the need to justify my own response? Idk, read at your own risk, no shade to anybody who feels differently! Truly!

This isn’t me trying to convince anybody of anything, I totally get that I seem to be in a bit of a minority about C3 and that a lot of people didn’t gel with it! I guess this is just me just trying to articulate my reaction? The one thing about watching this finale that I didn’t like was how alienating it feels to see the negative fandom reaction to stuff and just be like… how do other people not get really jazzed about how exciting and weird and different this is? No shade for not liking it, that’s totally valid, but it did bum me out to be in the main tags and see so many people kind of being like, openly mocking of what I thought was a beautiful story?

I don’t wanna state anybody’s opinion back to them because tbh I still feel like I don’t quite understand the core objection about the gods stuff other than that people liked the god dynamics that existed in C1 and C2 as they were and didn’t want that aspect to be destroyed? And for me I guess my metaphor would be like, in C1 the gods were sitting on a box in a shelf and I had no problem with that, they were cool, they were there, whatever, but the RQ and Vax was the only juicy dynamic that got explored there, and she was the only god that broke the pattern because she was an ascended mortal and therefore a foil to our BBEG of Vecna, etc. etc. The stuff with Pike & Everlight, or like Scanlan & Knowing Mistress, Vex & Dawnfather, Grog & Stormlord – or even in C2 the stuff with Fjord & Wildmother, Yasha&Stormlord, which I really really loved – all of those dynamics were more about internal character growth to me, about characters making choices internal to themselves and reaching out for a new purpose and direction. I never like, “cared” about the Wildmother or the Stormlord as “characters,” they were abstract forces, they served as metaphors for character growth for the PCs in my mind.

But for me, so, the gods are sitting in the box on the shelf, and then through C2 when we learned about this other spiritual thing with the Dynasty and the luxon, and every hint we got about the gods’s origins and the Calamity, it was like the box was rattling on the shelf, and then C3 spilled the box open and made this giant fascinating mess where it’s like - oh man, now because of Downfall the gods are characters to me, and now because of all the lore of C3 and Calamity and Downfall, I don’t know what’s going to happen, everything is upside down. And I’m not even saying that this outcome was THE outcome that I would have loved best, I wasn’t really committed to a particular conclusion, I just wanted to break the box open and see all the shit that came spilling out of there, and that’s what I feel like we got? And I guess that goes back to the core thing of, the way the gods functioned in the story back when we first got to know Exandria in C1, that just wasn’t something that I felt really connected or invested in story-wise, I didn’t dislike it, but it just felt like background worldbuilding flavor to me, pretty standard high fantasy pantheon stuff, and didn’t really compel me especially. So fucking with that status quo didn’t have any… grief to it, if that makes sense?

But like narrative-wise for BH, it’s so cool to me to have this story where the heroes did save the world in that they stopped Ludo from releasing Predathos, and they stopped Predathos from getting loose in any other way and just eating all the gods and thus destroying their realms, BUT what they had to do to save the world did NOT preserve the status quo, it really shook everything up, it made what once had seemed permanent impermanent, it defied narrative cohesion and turned a lot of certainties into question-marks. And I really really love that for the world-building aspect of Exandria, and I really love that for Bells Hells, these characters who stumbled into being the ones to make this call, not because they deserved it or they had the greatest investment or it should have been their choice, but because they were the ones who happened to be there and that’s kind of it. That’s very D&D to me, in all its complicated glory.

I see objections about BH’s meandering and lack of motivation a lot and I just do not get how you can say that’s MORE true of BH than it was of VM or M9, all three core campaigns had the same D&D feel of Matt coming up with story hooks and the players going “okay, yeah, we’re playing a game, let’s go over here and see what’s what.” And then personal investment and stakes are woven into that: the chroma conclave is personal because of what Raishan did to the fire ashari, and because Thordak killed Vex & Vax’s mom! The Somnovem is personal because that’s MOLLY, and he’s their friend. Stopping Ludo is personal for Orym because that man killed his family, and Ruidus is personal for Imogen and Fearne because of their fated births, and because their long-absent parents (Imogen’s mom and Fearne’s dad) are caught up in this mess. So the world-ending stakes end up having personal character hooks to them, but also as always there’s this aspect of a D&D party going to stop the end of the world because that’s what you do, and the RP challenge is having the characters figure out why they’re motivated to be there. I’m not even going to argue that they’re 100% successful at that all the time, like, I think the player who grapples with the question the most directly is Sam, who famously keeps struggling with why Veth would be adventuring when she has a family waiting for her, but he did it with Scanlan too obviously. That’s another thing I think of as a feature, not a bug, of this game, it’s not that a fully improvised TTRPG show is going to have the tightest and most cogent character arcs ever created, it’s that the actors are constructing something on the fly while new concepts are being thrown at them constantly, and what are they going to land on? Not something perfect, but something that hopefully feels true. And I certainly felt that from C3, while I get the sense that many others did not.

I checked in on tags while watching the finale a few times but then had to stop because I just saw a lot of people apparently…. Hate-watching this finale, and just kind of jumping to the most judgmental possible reaction to everything? This isn’t even saying that I was annoyed that people were disappointed, I saw some reactions that I didn’t agree with but that made sense, people being like “man, I wish they’d more directly confronted the risks of releasing Predathos the way they did, I wish this had been something that actual holy leaders and Vasselheim had gotten to help decide” and like, yeah, I totally understand that reaction! But other people seemed to take anything that BH did or said and just decide it was proof of what shitty horrible people they all are, and that did bum me out lol.

Like one example is that there’s this scene where Matt is showing how many of the leaders of Vasselheim are deeply grieving about the gods being gone, and it’s complicated, right, because they’re not gone gone but still everything is different forever now - and we get a whole host of different reactions from our party. We get Ashton trying to be understanding but also being pretty smug and condescending (very Ashton of them), we get Orym and Imogen being compassionate and totally seeing the point of view of the grieving Vord, et al, we get Laudna being socially out of touch but candid as she always is, expressing (privately to the group) that she’s annoyed that they’re not being celebrated as having saved the world. And we get Deanna, in one of my favorite lines of the whole finale, I think, talking about how it was never the point to worship the gods because they were gods. The gods gave them power to help people, and that still stays. So we see how even though there’s this sadness and uncertainty, there are still people of faith who have their purpose and maintain it through this period of transition. They get to have this whole new relationship to faith and to the divinity of their guiding patrons, and some of them are going to embrace it and others are going to crumble under the weight of this loss, and it’s going to really, really fuck with the world. It was, I thought, a pretty standard scene for this group of talented actors, myriad reactions and experiences being expressed, no one right answer or definitive way of viewing what had happened.

And I saw multiple reactions in the tags being like “god, this is why nobody likes bells hells, they’re so shitty and they just think they can walk all over everyone and make the decisions for everyone else and not suffer any consequences.” And I just like… don’t understand how that can be your reaction to that scene, to this finale, to this campaign. I truly feel like that’s not an accurate read of any of this. Who’s to say they didn’t suffer consequences?

Also, one last thing, I like that this was a finale of compromises, and I fucking like that Vax gets to come home! I feel like I get exactly why the people who don’t like it don’t like it, and it’s because it unravels the ending of C1 and takes away the permanence of that ending, but like — listen, Vax didn’t WANT to be dead and leave his family, it was a huge fucking bummer, if Vecna hadn’t turned him to ash he would still have been a paladin of the RQ and maybe gone with her forever when he died but he at least would have gotten to live a life with the people he loved, and this ending DOESN’T undo his choice to be devoted to the RQ, it just undoes that thing where he had to be gone too soon. Maybe I’m just selfish but I like compromise land where his important relationship to the matron is still going to guide his life forever, that’s still a core part of who he is, and he gets to come home from work trips to be with his family. Idk, it’s different from the ending we got at first, and I think if you were writing a novel, Campaign 1’s ending is the most coherent, wrapped up, thematically tight story here, and fucking with VM outcomes in C3 totally disrupts that, I get it, I just, personally? Fuck it, Keyleth’s been in pain for 30 years, let her fucking have this one!! I don’t think it ruins the ending of C1, I don’t think it diminishes Vax’s sacrifice, I think… idk. I think Liam’s happy with it. And in a weird way, that is honestly the most important part of this to me? These shows are such a blend of character & performer where the investment and satisfaction of the PC actors matters to me more than how I would have written the story if it were a novel, if that makes sense. Idk, I’m just rambling, I know some people who are throwing parties in the streets about Vaxleth happy ending and other people who are pissed that it ruins C1’s ending, and I’m just like… man, idk. Maybe it’s because the real world is so fucked right now but I really needed a miracle and Keyleth really needed a miracle and I’m cool with her getting it.

There were PLENTY of aspects of C3 I didn’t love, but I felt that way about VM and M9 I think just as strongly as I did about BH. I find myself in this weird position of writing all of this out in this kind of defensive way because I feel so alienated and disconnected from all the negative reactions I’ve seen. I feel genuine sympathy and sorrow for the fans of CR who didn’t like C3 because I am having such a joyful and transcendent experience having watched this 10 year journey come to such an epic close. I wanted to be able to celebrate more with people but I also think I need to just stop focusing on all the ways this story failed to capture some parts of the fandom, because I know I’m not alone in feeling really happy and satisfied right now!

So, so many congratulations to the CR team for this huge accomplishment, I’m excited for what they do next.

[kreeative-error]

“𝐈𝐦 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞?”

» [Hollow Moon] «

1:20─〇───── 3:21 ⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

Welcome to my blog! This is where i scream into the void or just talk to my moots. If you’re here, welcome!

Current Theme: Hollow Moon - The Crane Wives

About me:

My online name is Atlas/Kree! Kree if its just an easy nickname, but Atlas works as a moots kinda deal!

I’m a minor, so please be sfw and not weird.

I am also hella queer!!

If you’re straight/dont know much about the community - Biromantic Asexual Trans Man.

If you get more complex queer terms - Genderqueer Trans Guy, Aroflux Asexual Omniromantic.

Definitely mentally ill of various flavours which i will not elaborate on for person reasons, and also the lack of diagnosis.

Definitely weird, probably cringe, and slightly crazy.

Also i swear a lot so if you dont like that, this is not the blog for you.

Current song fixation:

Literally just any crane wives song 🤍🤍🤍

Interests:

Artists:

Madds Buckley

Conan Gray

The Crane Wives

Sparkbird

Fish in a Birdcage

IDKHowButTheyFoundMe

Specific Songs (I will totally forget to update this):

River Rushing (TCW)

Scars (TCW)

Mad Dog (TCW)

The Wolf (TCW)

Nobody (TCW)

Wine and Wheat (Madds)

I Lose to You (Madds)

Brother (Madds)

Dogbird (Madds)

The Exit (Conan)

Alley Rose (Conan)

Miss you (Conan)

Comfort Crowd (Conan)

Arboretum (Sparkbird)

#4 Fish in a birdcage (FIAB)

Absinthe (IDKhow)

Choke (IDKhow)

Games:

Totk/Botw

Pressure

Doors

Hollow Knight (in spirit)

There is definitely more I just cannot think rn.

Shows/Movies:

Arcane

The Dragon Prince

Heartstopper

The Owl House

Helluva/Hazbin

again. there is more. but the second people ask I forget.

YELLOWJACKETS YELLOWJACKETS YELLOWJACKETS

Moots <33 (Narrowed down to the ones I actually talk to):

@theboredasexual - borace/fruit/smamon/salmon, my beloved queezy pipi (qpp) (forever seperated by a squishy wall)

@atellidoesart - telli/dermatitis, another beloved queezy pipi (forever seperated by PHYSICAL DISTANCE COME HERE I MISS YOU)

@bassguitarinablackt-shirt - fellow madds enjoyer, pjo nerd (i have never read it but he sure posts about it a lot)

@catinasink - we barely talk but theyre pretty chill

@aayeroace - the og moot. literally. my first moot that i didnt know irl.

@streetcatalex - i dont think we've spoken but i send ur rbs to the qpps every 2 seconds u have immaculate taste

(if any of yall want off this list, dm/ask me and i will take it off)

Alt Accs:

@meanwhile-in-aevynfall - worldbuilding with borace

@omg-im-obessed-with-madds - I JUST REALISED THERES A TYPO FUCK- madds buckley fan acc i barely use

@leo-is-a-trainwreck - secret account that turned into a bit with borace, but has been revealed. basically a conan gray shrine.

@frank-and-the-eggs - the forever neglected hazbin account. why am i even tagging it.

my tags:

#kree speaks - my random rambles

#kree is lyricposting once more - music related rambles. also lyricposting.

#kree is maddsposting - the dedicated madds tag

#lucky flickerman'd with kree - sad shit. hopefully wont be a lot of this.

#THATS ENOUGH OCS KREE - oc posting my beloved <333

#mootiful moots with kree - my moots <33

#the queasy pipis - borace/telli posting

(Will be added to as needed)

[vacantgodling]

re. about

you may call me: ren, renjamin, rimz, r.a.a, or vacant

refer to me with he/him pronouns (masculine nicknames like ‘king’ & terms of endearment like ‘dear’ or ‘sweetie’ are also good. just nothing overtly feminine like ‘queen’ is the gist)

i am 26 and my birthday is october 2

i am black, transmasc, neurodivergent, and queer (achillean or yknow gay if you want to be specific. i’m a fag ok.)

as a psa: i don’t care if minors follow me but i’m not your parent so proceed at your own risk.

aside from writing i like: playing video games (mostly overwatch, my special interest for a ridiculous amount of time. but also, legend of zelda & the sims), drawing (when it’s not annoying me), gothic literature & older books with flowery prose, the colors pink, black & gold, history, anime (older anime+demon slayer really), and i’m learning japanese (to the best of my ability. むずかしです)

re. wips

find a list of all my wips HERE! i work on them sporadically when inspiration strikes. find a wip sampler where i show off a piece of prose from the work to give you a sense of its vibe HERE!

if you’re interested in being on my taglists, fill this form out!

my 2023 year in review!

also, for ease of access: current tag games i’m doing (i want to keep track of it this year)

last line tag 2024

wbw 2024

ask games 2024 (general)

tcol character tournament!

re. connect

here are other places you can find me:

bluesky || cohost || pinterest

my partner yves and i make stories together, which is here -> @mothgrudge (i also rb a lot on @babylonsfalling)

i have a discord so if we’ve spoken feel free to ask for it (however i don’t really do servers. maybe one day, but for now no)

maybe this year i’ll work on an actual website & i’d love to make a youtube where i just talk about shit so… maybe, we’ll see...

re. navigation

talking -> musings and personal thoughts

about renjamin -> insight to me / who i am

ren analysis -> when i get meta about my wips

ren mix -> a treasure trove of my music taste

ren polls -> any polls i make

ren reads -> for my ramblings and analysis as i try to get back into books

friends tag -> talking with friends or boosting my friends work

others work -> boosting other writeblrs work

hall of fame -> praise / things that make me happy that i want to keep

ren writing -> all of my writing in one place

ren poems -> all of my poems in one place

short stories tag -> micro or flash fiction bits and bobs

ren art -> all my art

q eh you eh -> queue

sex mention -> tag for any sexual content.

worldbuilding -> all of my worldbuilding notes across all my wips

ren hot cakes -> specifically for my overly opinionated opinions

to read -> others works that i need to get around to reading

rens ocs but sims -> for when i make my ocs in the sims lol

ren plays -> me talking about video games but it’s usually overwatch

ren is jopping on main -> for the rare occasions where i talk about kpop

character stats -> when i decide to compare and contrast my ocs to see trends

ren rabbit hole -> i like history and mythology and the ancient world and i Will ramble about it

[hellaverse-critical-confessions]

I hope Lemoncritiques remakes. It was nice to have a critical blog that was chill and not a straight up hater, still having things they liked about Hazbin.

So as far as I'm aware, there was... some situation involving Lemoncritiques. I never encountered their posts, personally, I don't even think they were active by the time I made my blog and I never cared to look further into it as a result. So no comment on that part.

It's true that the critical tag can be a very negative place; I can feel myself get a bit overwhelmed when I peruse it too much too frequently. It's fun to pick on things and dissect them, but you've gotta be careful about striking a healthy balance in your media consuption (whether the one you're critiquing or other stuff you enjoy, because we all enjoy other things, of course, and just because we tend to be negative in this tag doesn't mean we're never positive elsewhere). Which is actually why I used to post background design appreciation (I still have that one ask in my inbox, don't worry, I haven't forgotten and I'll get to it), and behind the scenes I like to craft a lot of worldbuilding and minor/original character lore for my own enjoyment.

I would say that several episode analyses make a point of listing the "pros" AND the "cons", some of which I've even reblogged here. I tend to appreciate that. I also find plenty positivity in the creativity of certain redesigns, which I also have a tag for.

I think the bitterness comes from most of us having relatively high hopes for these shows at the beginning (with Helluva at least), and then just seeing the acres of wasted potential, careless worldbuilding and the creator picking her obvious favorites making a huge mess of it all. Plus the deep dislike for Vivzie as a person and how her views are leaking into her work. Which I can't say is entirely unjustified, even if it does show in the tone of the critiques.

Apologies for the ramble and a half, I wasn't even gonna answer this one at first.

But I wanted to make an announcement, as a bonus:

I'd like you all to stop sending me confessions about IRL drama. From the crew, from the fanbase, from other criticals, from anyone. In my pinned post I have pointed out that I prefer to just discuss the cartoons themselves on this blog.

This is not necessarily @ you, Anon, but something I felt the need to reiterate since I have now gotten two separate asks indicating some people missed that bit of information.

[theboarsbride]

After reading all of your wip intros (all v cool and exciting) I’m curious how you go about your research process for them, since they all have varying aspects that I’d assume would require a bit of digging and planning. How do you structure any notes you take for research, worldbuilding, and plotting? Do you enjoy the planning stage of wip writing?

AAAAA!!! Thank you for the ask - I'm so excited that you like all my WIPs!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭🥺💛💛💛

So for me research is a weird thing since, personally, I feel like I am not the BEST researcher?? I think it's just because I struggle to focus enough to do it, or have the time since I already dedicate time for research for college projects, and get so overwhelmed because I don't know exactly where to begin, what exactly to research, etc. So that's why I save in-depth research for when I finish a first draft of a story, just so that I have a better feeling of WHAT I need to look more into in order to add more flesh and meat to the WIP.

A lot of my research will initially consist of watching movies or reading books - reading novels especially - mostly to figure out vibes, inspiration, etc. My thought process is that by reading a book, I can see how other authors have utilized their research and how certain facts, tools, social norms, clothing, etc. is written into their story. Like for The Monster and the Butterfly the main books I read after finishing a first draft was Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Quick by Lauren Owen, and A Taste for Monsters by Matthew Kirby because all three of these stories are set in a similar era as TMATB (especially The Quick and A Taste for Monsters set in the late Victorian Era) or contain similar character archetypes I want to work with (especially ATfM). For TMATB some research I admittedly did some accidental research while working college papers lmao.

I am nearing completion of a second draft, and once it's completed, I have two books I want to read to further flesh out the world of TMATB: The Victorian City by Judith Flanders and How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman.

I've not really had a chance to do as much research for my other WIP ideas since they're either super new or I've not the time, admittedly, but with semester being almost halfway done and having a year left of college, I hope to change this!! But, more light research I tend to do alongside plotting novels - since I personally find that I'm a plotting plantser, so I like to have a planned out 'chapter map' and then I can add or remove plot points as I start drafting!

But when it comes to taking notes, I tend to make one main Google Doc that houses my notes from research, minor details about plot points and characters I think are important, themes I want to explore, settings, etc. I both love and get immensely frustrated with this stage of writing because I get mad when I don't have everything figured out right then and there, but it's also fun to figure out who these characters are and what I want the story to be! Of course, the best part of this stage is putting together playlists and Pinterest boards to help figure out The Vibe™️ for the WIP!🤭

I HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION THOUGH!!!! Thanks so much for the ask - sorry for the answer being so long and ramble-y!😭💛

[supnerds]

is protector of the small a book (series?) and if so should i read it

okay SO

I have been saving this ask because I know I wanna ramble about it but at this point if I don’t answer now I will forget SO HERE WE GO

Protector of the Small is the name of a series that I read years ago and remains one of my favorites to this day! There are four books in total: First Test, Page, Squire, and Lady Knight.

The series is set in a medieval world, in a kingdom full of knights and a bit of magic. About ten years pre-story, the law was changed saying that girls were now allowed to go through training to become a knight, after one woman disguised herself as a boy to do so and proved women could (I think there’s a separate series about her story but I haven’t read it and you don’t need to read it in order for this story to make sense). However, it’s not easy to get over social stigma and since the woman who became a knight can use magic many conservatives believe she magicked her way into knighthood and is an exception etc etc no girls have attempted to become a knight in the ten years since the law was changed.

Until today.

Enter Kel, our main protagonist of this story. The youngest daughter of a minor lord and lady who have been instrumental to the kingdom in securing an alliance with a neighboring nation, the Yamani Islands; by which she spent much of her formative years in this nation while her parents acted as ambassadors and thus internalized some of their customs. Most notably, the fact that they believe showing any emotion is impolite - at various points in the series Kel will put on what she calls her "Yamani face" when she doesn't want others to know how she is feeling. Another important thing about this - women in this country are encouraged to learn how to fight and defend themselves as they are often set under attack by pirates and the like, giving Kel some background in weaponry and battle.

Kel has a strong sense of justice, and sees all living things as deserving of life and rights. She greatly admires Alanna (the first female knight previously mentioned), and these things all contribute to her motivation to becoming a knight— a motivation she clings to strongly as anyone and everyone tries to discourage her, from guests at a banquet refusing to be served by a female page to older trainees adding extra weight to her training weapons and pulling all manner of pranks and tricks meant to drive her away, even getting into fights out of sight of their instructors. Nevertheless she stands strong and continues working toward her goal!

and that’s not to say she doesn’t have anyone supporting her - she draws people to her like moths to a flame and becomes close friends with other pages, servants, knights, etc alike! she also ends up with a menagerie of animals that aid her - a grumpy horse named Peachblossom, the ugliest dog you’ve ever seen named Jump, and a flock of sparrows that adopt her as one of their own.

my thoughts on the series: I absolutely adored this series, from when I first found it what must have been nearly a decade ago to today. It’s a nice easy read - I just checked the series out from the library and finished them all within a few days, though that may also be just me trying to avoid responsibilities

you know those posts that say things like “what characters have you internalized and are now a part of your personality” yeah that’s kel for me. the yamani face is something I internalized either intentionally or subconsciously and to this day I still sometimes keep a straight face even when Emotions occur (we can’t let people know that we FEEL). love her for that

but yeah it’s a really good series!! lots of brilliant worldbuilding, fantastic character development, and great overarching themes. there’s something to be said about the impacts we leave on others and that others leave on us, and how those things can completely change the course of a person’s life.

anyway tl;dr — yes it is a book series, and YES you absolutely should read it

[howlingdemon13]

Actually, I think I will scream about it. You didn't think your resident horror-enthusiast/vampire expert/occult dabbler was going to let this thing go, did you? The movie has been out since August, so I don't feel the need to tag this with spoilers. Consider this your warning.

Angry rambles ahead.

Overall, I'm always happy to get a Dracula/vampire-centric film. I really enjoyed Renfield and I was excited to get a more horror/thriller film about my favorite villain in literature. Is the movie bad? No. I liked the main protagonist a lot and I think the tension-building was actually pretty solid for the most part. I also really liked the monster design. It’s obviously very Nosferatu, but I did get Van Helsing vampire vibes from it, so that was a treat. The Demeter wrecking in Whitby is very minor, cut-and-dry plot point, but one that I think was mostly handled well and I'm glad that this film was made because it's been a long time since we've had any vampire films where the vampires are actually scary (and not in a hitting on teenagers kind of scary). The ending didn't really make much sense in the context of the source material, but it didn't really annoy me as much as other aspects of the film did. It's no secret that this film is heavily inspired by Alien, which is another one of my favorites, and I think that framework for bringing The Demeter to life was a good one (people stuck on a ship with a monster). Also, they went pretty hard with the deaths tbh.

Oh, and the instances where Dracula can manipulate people he’s bitten! I think people forget the mind link between Dracula and Mina, so I’m glad that the “thrall” ability was used here. I'll get the biggest nitpick out of the way. Fucking hate the CG blood in this movie and the overreliance on CG for Dracula in general. From what I can see online, Dracula's actor is in full makeup/prosthetics. Okay, cool, so why does it look completely CG in the final cut??? This isn't to say that CG always looks bad, but this is Dreamworks. You had a makeup department that put hours of work into a really cool monster design, and you went and over did it in post. And going back to the blood... It looks like tomato soup. Like, I'm not buying that these characters are bleeding. Idk if the fake blood just looks like that or if they did something in post that lightened it, but it took me out. Again, this is a vampire film. How do you fuck up blood in a vampire film?

The ship and environments looked pretty solid though. Can’t complain. Now that that's out of the way, on to vampire lore and the worldbuilding as established in the source material. I have the book opened next to me. Be afraid. I should point out that Bram Stoker's characterization of Eastern Europeans in his book are... not good. Stoker never set foot in the country and got most of his info regarding East. Euro. folklore and culture from books (riddled with stereotypes, of course). That is to say, I'm relying on death of the author here, and I am willing to give him a bit of grace here. Not a lot though. He's contributed to me having to encounter the G-slur on a regular basis. And that brings me to Anna. In the books, Dracula has control over/has made an agreement with the local villagers (specifically the Roma community, but I don’t have the spoons to get into that rn). Anyway, I don't buy that she doesn't know that Dracula is a vampire. She says that the people of her village fear Dracula and that she and other women have been offered to him as food. He drinks her blood ffs. It's clear in the text that the locals suspect that Dracula is a vampire or liken him to one. The term “nosferatu” is also used in early chapters since this region of Romania has a large German population dating back to at least the 1300s. A few other Slavic words for evil entities are used to describe Dracula by the townsfolk, but stregoica specifically is used and defined as "witch". Which isn't wrong, but if you know me, the word we're after is strigoi. A creature or spirit that feeds off of the energy or blood of a living person. Vampire. Much of what we associate with vampires today comes from the Romanian version of the vampire. Use it. Please for the love of god use it.

(I write lore-accurate Castlevania fics and my family is from Satu Mare. I promise you I know what I'm talking about).

All of that is to say that Anna would definitely know that Dracula is a strigoi (or would liken him to one based on his behavior), and that she would probably know how to kill him. Would making Anna knowledgeable about Dracula's nature perpetuate multiple stereotypes? Yes, I am 100% willing to admit that. However, in the worldbuilding of a fictional story which the film is using as its framework, it falls in line with the text no matter how we feel about it. The folklore surrounding strigoi is very much still alive in some ways in Romania even today. In rural areas, sure, but alive nonetheless. And, if you want to avoid the stereotypes completely, you didn't even have to write her in. Aside from being given to Dracula by her village as a food source (which I think perpetuates some pretty gnarly stereotypes by itself), she doesn't really give the other characters useful info aside from "Dracula drinks blood" (which is already evident in Dracula draining animal corpses) and "he's a monster but not an animal" (which doesn't really help/would have been figured out eventually - not that it matters because the point is that everyone on the ship is supposed to die). Basically, I feel like her lacking any real knowledge about Dracula makes zero sense in the worldbuilding established in the book and the film, and her even being there if she did ends up being needless anyway since everyone dies. It's compelling when characters are faced with a creature that they know nothing about. That's why Alien is so good.

And, no, I don’t think she’s a bad character. She kind of reminded me of Anna Valerious but more of a lowkey badass. I just wish they had given her either more knowledge about Dracula or just had her as a stowaway who gets bitten early on (it wouldn’t really change the plot too much).

Also, the rosary not working? I know the captain is found tied to the wheel on the ship clutching a rosary in the book, but he wouldn’t have been able to shield himself effectively with it, so that checks out. Movie has no excuse for how that sequence was written.

That’s all I can tell about without my brain exploding. Thanks for sticking with this dumpster fire.

trying not to scream and yell about the last voyage of the demeter (which i know i'm very late to)

[b-a-pigeon]

My Nanowrimo project this year is just a rewrite of the same story I was writing last year, which is... hard to explain, kind of!

It takes place in an industrial-era, vaguely-fantasy-steampunk setting (taking very loose inspiration from 19th-20th century Central & West Asia) in the midst of widespread political change.

The protagonist is an amnesiac vampire named Ara, who is traveling across the continent by hopping trains in order to get his old journals & some lost memories back. He gets stuck at the border, where he meets an academic who offers to employ him while studying his case—but what Ara learns from the people he meets here raises more questions about his past than answers, and he has to choose between continuing his journey or staying long enough to unravel the truth. (I need to figure out a less vague way to describe this plot but there's like. a lot going on lol!)

Worldbuilding for this project has been so interesting because Ara is experiencing a lot of the world for the first time in his memory, so he has this outsider perspective on recent developments that everyone else takes for granted. Like, all the recent industrialization and urbanization and mass migration and the creation of nation-states with policed borders are all normal for the people he interacts with, but the notes he has (dating from decades earlier) depict a completely different world and he doesn't know how to navigate or make sense of any of it.

It also has me thinking a lot about how a predominately human world would impact nonhumans in a political sense. There are elves here who live in remote rural locations now suddenly contending with border police in their territories, and the reality that humans have claimed every bit of land as theirs; nomadic vampires who have never had or needed documentation in their lives suddenly unable to travel legally between the places they split their time. Fantasy racism is like, broadly very corny but it stands to reason that a world with a human majority would end up trampling on nonhuman minorities as their states scramble for power and wealth so... I'm trying to do this in a way that is actually thoughtful and not corny but we'll see!

Anyway this kind of turned into a rambling infodump but I wanna post about this project more, so I'm resisting the urge to stay silent until I have a clean and pretty intro post lol. I'm making it a vague goal to post regular updates (with excerpts maybe??) all month so hopefully y'all will learn more soon!

[muddshadow]

Hey! Not sure if you participate in Worldbuilding Wednesday - if not, feel free to ignore this. BUT IF SO.

I'm fairly new to your work - BUT - is there anything about your WIPs you've been working on lately? Anything you want to share? Perhaps a little detail about a character you figured out recently? Or even a little worldbuilding detail you were thinking about and developing recently? Perhaps even a little bit of inspiration you got from reading or art lately?

Wombo serving your needs well? ୧(＾ 〰 ＾)୨

If not, I'd just like to nudge you and say hi :D If so, I look forward to your rambles 🙈✨❤️

@bloodlessheirbyjacques (:

hello !! i love writeblr themed days and thank you DEARLY for the questions, but i tend to participate in a liminal time space where wednesday could also mean friday <3

SO. Despite my best efforts to focus on my primary projects, this little story has swarmed all the useful parts of my brain. It developed out of a very strange dream and a trope I've always loved: monster x monster hunter. Plenty of the world-building and the exact sequence of events is still an exciting fog, but I've mostly riddled out the plot and character arcs. Artwork and information below, and here's a little summary from my WIPs page...

THE HUNGER ROT // dark fantasy, immortal warriors, magic harvested from blood. After several hundred years of fighting together, the death of her sister leaves Peony hollow. Hollow enough to help a vampyric sorceress pursue revenge against her maker.

A lot of my projects have a strong theme of healing and self-discovery, and The Hunger Rot is about the crush of immortality - the regrets that never fade, the loss that never gets easier, and loneliness as the price for power. I'm still tinkering with the world, but the story has a gritty medieval feel where magic is relatively common and effectually versatile - but all magic requires the sacrifice of life. Ripping up some flowers may heal the bruises on your knuckles, and burning a century-old tree could cure plague from an entire village. Aggressive and powerful magic comes from blood - slitting the palm may summon a swirl of fire, and slitting a throat could burn a forest.

As you might expect, this produces some not-so-friendly sorcerers who prefer that others pay the price for their power. But the truly prolific mages are those that make the ultimate sacrifice - their own life. They become vampyr - unaging mages who don't have to burn flowers or slit palms to use magic. They trade that inconvenience for drinking blood. This practice is incredibly controversial; some countries have it outlawed under execution while others encourage their warriors into it. But not everyone can endure the process - some are too weak for the sacrifice and die instead, some are consumed by the ensuing bloodlust and wither into mindless ghouls.

Fugitive sorcerers and bloodthirsty ghouls (and all the other sharp-toothed hungry creatures lurking about the forests) are challenging threats, and most people (even mages) do not survive the experience. So if you have a nasty ghoul problem, you enlist a handy-dandy Marrow! (also called Sourbloods, Red Warriors, pest control, hunters...) Marrows are mercenaries - they can't perform any magic, but they are immortal through the process of drinking vampyr blood. This stalls their aging, heals minor wounds, and grants them relative protection from anything thirsty for blood (no creature wants to drink vampyr blood - it's already been corrupted through the act of sacrifice). But drinking vampyr blood is also a death sentence for most people - Marrows go through years of grueling training and several sacrificial trials before making the final step.

and now the two main characters!! here are some random sketches i mashed together and colored real quick :v

SASHKA is a very old vampyr, at least several centuries, and time has empowered her, numbed her, and rotted her sense of purpose. When Peony first meets her (a hundred years or so before the story begins), Sashka is obsessed with the thrill of power and the independence it allows. She's charming, cunning, and everything she says or does furthers her own ambitions. Peony would trust the manners of a ghoul before closing her eyes in Sashka's presence. But when years pass and Sashka seeks out help for a desperate quest, it becomes clear that the price for true independence is more than the soul can afford.

PEONY isn't quite so old as Sashka, but the years have battered her worse. After losing their father and triplet to ghouls, Peony and her (now twin) sister Rose endure the trials of the Marrow. Peony has always been stern and sullen, her sister an extroverted opposite, their dynamic a perfect balance as they travel and fight across the lands for many centuries - so when Rose dies rather abruptly, Peony is left a ghost of herself. Continuing on feels meaningless after so many lifetimes, but when her old enemy Sashka approaches with a stupidly perilous plan of revenge, Peony agrees to one last adventure. But sometimes deciding to die reveals all our reasons for living.

ok that's all for now :v thanks for reading <3

[sammys-magical-au]

Hi everyone!

Since my art blog is doing so well, I decided to make a writing/fic blog too! This blog has also kinda become my new main blog

Icon & header image by me :)

Other blogs:

Art blog: @night-terrors-official

(Dead) main: @adhd-jack-harkness

Instagram: TheBumblingBea

Wattpad: SammyR1978

Discord: thebumblingbea

YouTube channel:

Little bit abt me

I’m pansexual, ambiamorous, genderqueer/trans, & lovequeer - I use all pronouns. I live in Canada but I hate winter. I am an aspiring screenwriter and one day hope to reboot the show you probably followed me for; Torchwood! It’ll probably take a while tho so please don’t start tweeting about it. Also! I am an adult (21 babeyyy) so if you are a minor and are uncomfortable following me bc of that, pls don’t! I’m ok with minors following me but it’s always up to you and what you’re comfortable with

{pls read this post before requesting} [requests & inbox closed for the time being]

Other important (?) posts

This post has all you need to know about my three main ocs

Or, see this post for writing advice!!

Find my works easily!

Fanfics:

Torchwood: The Alternate Universe season 4 (TTAUs4)

Torchwood Just Imagine (JI)

Torchwood Like Renther Like Son (LRLS)

Torchwood The Queen of Hearts (TQOH) (currently being rewritten)

Torchwood We Are Family (WAF)

The Extended Adventures of Sam and the Doctor (EASD)

Torchwood Pride (TP)

Torchwood Life at the Palace (LATP)

Torchwood Little Moments (LM)

Torchwood Six of Hearts (SOH)

In Space With Amyplier AU (aka assorted ISWM and some AHWM fics)

Nimona au

The Legend of Lionel Saabem

After the War (and During, and Before)

Original Works:

Sweet & Sassy (SAS)

The Legend of the Lost Twin (TLLT)

Capricornica

STAR

The Greater Universe (TGU)

And check the #sammy writes for you tag for writing requests! (Number of current requests being worked on: 2)

All fandoms (that I may or may not write for but will definitely ramble about incessantly)

Torchwood

Doctor Who (specifically the ninth doctor)

LixianTV

Markiplier (ISWM, AHWM, etc)

Jacksepticeye

CrankGamePlays/Ethan Nestor

Unus Annus

MatPat/Game Theory

Good Mythical Morning

Watcher/Buzzfeed Unsolved

Sturniolo Triplets

Way more YouTubers than I can name 😅

Murdoch Mysteries

Wings of Fire

Nimona

She-Ra and the Princess of Power

James Cameron’s Avatar

Resident Evil (kinda, I’m just here for Leon, Ethan and Rose honestly 😂)

Encanto

The Lion King/Guard

Good Omens

How To Train Your Dragon

Star Wars

Tags

Anything tagged #🧠💫 (can’t link tags w/ emojis ig) is me rambling either about my au, deep lore, fantasy/sci fi design, or worldbuilding stuff

#go to sleep sammy is anything I posted in the middle of the night bc my brain wouldn’t let me rest until I did

#sammy rambles and #its sammys life are about what’s going on/what has happened in my actual life

#tropetastic is where I talk about those juicy tropes I love or those horrible tropes I loathe

#sammy gets asks is pretty self-explanatory, it’s any sort of wonderful interaction I get from people via asks or submissions

#sammy gets soft feelings for humans again … also pretty much explains itself, this is just a separate tag for me to gush about when people are cute

Please BLOCK/FILTER #sammy gets sick if you’re triggered by/don’t wanna hear sick talk!! I’m a chronic complainer when I’m sick but I don’t wanna bother anyone with it

#sammys tats is a tag for my ramblings about tattoos - either getting them, wanting more, or coming up with ideas for ‘em, you can also block/filter that tag if tattoos are a trigger

Anything tagged #she needs to hear this… is stuff I wish I’d heard when I was younger, and am telling my past self now 💕

Vote on my occasional polls, or see the results of old ones with #sammys polls (I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m only including this so I can check my own results without having to scroll but it’s beneficial to y’all too right?)

Check out #twi tag/#sally tag/#moonie tag/#vera tag for pet pics 💖

Anything that is tagged #suggestive contains nsfw jokes, sexual language, etc, although it’s mostly used for headcanons/ramblings or incorrect quotes as fics would have any necessary information about this in the warnings section - if you are under 18 or just don’t want to see this type of content and follow me, please block/filter this tag

Block/filter #wip spoilers, #original story spoilers, and #fanfic wips because any posts tagged as these will contain major spoilers since I can’t keep quiet about the Lore™️

Also have this Markiplier Ego Taglist I hardly ever use if u want

Headcanon tags:

headcanon: its only him (Torchwood headcanons)

headcanon: captain im tired (ISWM headcanons)

headcanon: dont you get it i love you (She-Ra headcanons)

headcanon: i see you nimona (Nimona headcanons)

headcanon: like my father before me (Star Wars headcanons)

headcanon: you were fantastic (Doctor Who headcanons)

headcanon: we couldve been us (Good Omens headcanons)

headcanon: what have you george (Murdoch Mysteries headcanons)

headcanon: you were so brave (Wings of Fire headcanons)

headcanon: and i see you (Avatar headcanons)

headcanon: you are my best friend (How To Train Your Dragon headcanons)

Au tags:

au: what do you want anakin (The Legend of Lionel Saabem au) < Star Wars

au: you destroyed everything we had (The Hero Who Never Lost Faith au) < Star Wars

au: he was my friend (Two Broken Hearts Together au) < Star Wars

au: everything (Torchwood: The Alternate Universe au) < Torchwood

au: please just trust me (Everything Goes Wrong au) < Torchwood

au: who do you have doc (The Extended Adventures of Sam and the Doctor au) < Doctor Who

au: moon still likes you (The Jade SkyWing au) < Wings of Fire

au: my sister is a princess (The Lost Princesses au) < She Ra

au: of course youre our kid (Nimona Gets a Family au) < Nimona

au: do i know you from somewhere (In Space With Amyplier au) < In Space With Markiplier

au: i am human (Deity!Captain au) < In Space With Markiplier

au: i hope you find who youre looking for (Two Sam Ryders au) < In Space With Markiplier/Torchwood

au: i do wanna be free (I Do Wanna Be Free au) < A Heist With Markiplier

au: would you protect them (The Pentas Family au) < In Space With Markiplier/Torchwood/@wouldntyou-liketoknow’s fanegos :3

au: call me lucas (Sinking Heart au) < Sinking Iron

F̶̮̫͈͙̌́̃̽͂͘͘ï̴̧̧͎̠̺̹͊̆n̶̝͕͓̤̘̦̼̠̽́̌̑̿̋̃̎͘ḏ̴͓̮̳̲͍̺̲̗͎̋́ ̴̛̩̯̰͙͖̩̾̿̋͝m̸̱̈́y̶̘̞͈̘̝̗̥̪̒̓̎̈͜ ̵̳̪̪̮͚̫͇̿͛̎̋̾̀͑ë̷̤̰̙̻̙́͊̑̔̓ģ̴̛͇̹̻̠͔͎̜͛͒̃̄͑͂̑̀ơ̸̙͛͂͌͒͘͘̚͝s̶̳̣͖̩̒̅ ̶̨̨̠̗̀̄͂͌̂̉̈̍͝͠h̸̡̬̖̮͔̬̹͒ę̶̦͕̫̠̭̥̬̌̋̀̈́̊̀̀͊͆͘ͅȑ̸̮̇é̸̛̫̹̦̩̭̗̯́̒̋͆̇ ̴̫̜̼̲̙̖̤̐̕͠ ̵̢̘̮̙̫̯̺̀͌̽͒͗̿͊̌́̍͜ ̷̜̥̠̭̱̪͒

RULES:

I won’t tolerate exclusionists/radfems/TERFs/purists/anti-ship {bc proshippers aren’t the bad guys here} (or whatever you call yourselves you’re all the same), racists, misogynists (this includes pro-lifers/anti-abortionists), ableists, or bigots of any kind. Gtfo.

I try to provide adequate warnings on all the writing stuff I post but if I don’t, please let me know and I’ll try to include that in the warnings next time

That being said, I write whatever I want and if you don’t like it, don’t read it. It’s that simple. I will not accept criticism I didn’t ask for

[starchildarden]

YES HELLO time to ramble abt SAYER :] for the ask meme, 8, 11, 17, 29, 33 & 35?

tumblr user electricshoop THANK YOU FOR MY LIFE oh my goodness

8. Favourite piece of random worldbuilding / lore Adam threw into an episode without ever explaining or elaborating

I don’t know that I’d say it was never elaborated on, but okay okayokay, the parallel door dimension? The Almost Cottage? The blood-red willows???? The shambling figure????? They can’t cut the camera feed to it no matter how much they try????? Help??? Mr. Adam Bash that is terrifying sir please respond???? i listened to it alone at work in an empty building and when i tell you i Did Not Get Any Sleep

11. Best character (main or minor; artificial or human) to share brunch with

I want to say my besties FUTURE and SAYER so so bad but I can’t honestly say they wouldn’t just make the whole thing a little bit uncomfortable? FUTURE’s gonna say something that makes me a little nauseous because it thinks it’s funny and SAYER just kind of. Feels like it’s staring condemningly even though it has far better things to do than watch a hapless human eat a crepe.

So my official answer for this is Evan Brady, because he has that tired, genial vibe to him and we could definitely just sip coffee in companionable silence while he reads over lab notes. 10/10 feel that my guy Brady would suffer begrudgingly through me showing him all the memes in the backlog that I like to inflict on people. gr8 guy, cool guy, my favorite science guy

17. Roadtrip with all the main characters! Who do you hand the aux cord to, who gets to drive, who brings the snacks, who’s responsible for navigating?

aux cord goes to FUTURE, because it Will choose a polarizing genre extreme. We will be swinging wildly back and forth between hyperpop and hardbass and Turkish rap like a temperamental pendulum and it will be fun. some linkin park at times of course it is still at That Point and so am i

SPEAKER gets to navigate! it is excellent at getting down to business and won’t meander through a very long soliloquy when you ask what exit to get off on (coughSAYERcough). my buddy here isn’t just a glorified clerk or hotel concierge, it is the only thing getting us where we’re going so smoothly and it doesn’t need the GPS to know which route is the most effective!

Anna Cordero was a teacher and Understands snacks. She knows the best kinds of snacks because elementary school children are always very hungry, and because being a teacher means that you Learn the healthy, sustainable, portable foods or you perish on the job. Anna brings almonds and pretzels and low-sugar juice and those cool cheese cracker things and it rocks and she rocks

bc it’s funny to me i think SAYER should be the driver, because i feel that it has Had Its Day backseat driving and judging others. my contractual best friend in the whole wide world could use a bit more direct responsibility. it’s in the car with us and it is very observant so I wouldn’t worry about careless driving except for the part about it being a disembodied voice with no hands most of the time but we will figure something out

29. How do you deal with SAYER endlessly rambling at you about how imperfect, inefficient and overly emotional you are?

the real question is how does SAYER deal with me endlessly going “cheers i’ll drink to that bro” every time he brings up my inefficient and emotionally rampant flaws. look, man, i know i have a ton of Feelings and i know i have the focus of a dead goldfish but joke’s on You, i have come to terms with it and i improve at my own pace and now you must come to terms with being my best FRIEND

33. In the parallel universe in which we get that happy ending where SAYER and Hale end up only somewhat grudgingly living together and learning how to be happy and care for themselves and each other - what do they call the stray cat that keeps showing up at their doorstep?

the answer feels like it should be “theseus” but SAYER would be acutely aware that it’s a misnomer even if it was intended to invoke the parable, because the ship wasn’t named theseus and that’s the focus of the problem? maybe “timber” as a nod to how they replaced the rotting planks?

hale is very. not adamant or zingy with the names so it might just end up being called cat which makes me laugh

35. Tell me about any crossover and/or AU you’d like to write/read.

WARFRAME okay everything i’ve ever been into has a warframe crossover living rent free in my head

okay so massive warframe spoilers? maybe? but WF and SAYER already have a ton of common threads

→ they are both In Space, as a freebie → they handle the concept of Identity, especially as respects the body you inhabit. if you spent your whole life in a construct, only to wake up in your body, which one is you? → warframe is at its core about how empathy and compassion and mutual seething anger can bring two parties together and form an iron bond okay, like to quote the game (spoilers), it’s about seeing into an ugly, broken thing and taking away its pain and FRANKLY i want to get FUTURE in a room with a savvy Tenno and see what kind of emotional catharsis can happen → (SPOILER) transference transference transference jacob hale is a low-level tenno already with the amount of mind-jumping he has done → the WF equivalent of the AI is actually more akin to the probes in nature tbh!! plus? what’s more human, a thoroughly shackled cephalon, or an AI endowed with a full range of emotion? → did OCEAN experience some kind of space madness?? like the kind brought about by travelling uncharted subspace??? when it experienced Null as it describes, sterile, is it like being touched by the Void in WF? → quite a bit of my future silhouette is based off of my valkyr bc she too has been harmed inside and is very, very angry and ready to rip things apart → i have SO many thoughts abt this okay i have SO many i love sayer and i love warframe and i would love to squish em into a single thing if i had the spoons

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

I wouldn't mind that post on VNs!

So I was gonna write three different lists, but then after writing the first part I realized this is very long and takes a while to write and nobody cares anyway so I’ll just post my recommended list only. Well, I mean, you asked, but I doubt you wanted all this lol. Thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about this stuff, though. Hope you enjoy my ramblings!

An explanation for what this list is: Sometimes I know a game isn't perfect in many aspects but I still had a genuinely good time playing it, hence why I'm recommending it. Also I should mention that I could talk for hours about some of these games so if anyone’s curious about more of my thoughts, let me know.

Alright, now that that's out of the way ...

How to Take Off Your Mask / How to Fool a Liar King / How to Sing to Open Your Heart (f/m): This is a trilogy of smaller, single-RO games where you can take one of two routes depending on how you act, and they’re all interconnected where you get to meet and interact with the previous games’ characters in the sequel games. I went into this expecting very little but what I got blew me away with how funny, charming and cute the games were. They don’t take themselves too seriously, at one point an angsty male character monologues deeply about some shit, and another one just slides into frame and starts mocking him. It was so fucking funny, holy shit. Also, a central theme is literally racism against catgirls? Which is monumentally stupid, and probably the games’ main flaw, especially in the final game where it pairs up a catgirl with a catgirl racist, but that one still ends with a literal bisexual queen literally making a man her malewife because she fell in love with his cooking, so like ... It speaks for itself. My favorite game of the three is the second one, where you get to play a punchy fake catgirl and romance a pink-haired prince. And honestly, all the female protags in these games are lovely and a breath of fresh air, and the male characters are fun and not abusive assholes either. There’s full Japanese voice acting, and two out of three female protags are literal catgirls who pepper in “nya” and “mya” into their dialogue, and it’s just treated as a quirk of their catgirl race. I AM NOT KIDDING. Yet somehow it never comes off as cringe, because it doesn’t take it self too seriously. These games are just cozy. That’s the only way I can describe them. Cozy and hilarious. Play them yesterday. Dream Daddy (m/m): Man tumblr did this game dirty. This is just a cute, wholesome daddy dating simulator with gorgeous art. Coming out on Top (m/m): So you know Dream Daddy? What if it was EXTREMELY, MAJORLY NSFW? Though I realize how bad the comparison really is, the only thing these games have in common is that they’re gay dating sims and don’t have an anime art style and oh, yeah, they’re both really well-written. Or at least, extremely funny. COOT (heh) is DDADDS’ horny older cousin, and I first encountered the game on a lesbian letsplayer’s YouTube channel. Yes I watched a lesbian play a gay porn game and it was GOOD. I was there for the cringe and fun and got surprised by how genuinely funny and sometimes actually touching the game was. I can’t give it my universal endorsement because it’s not a game for everyone, as I said, it’s extremely NSFW and the menu theme literally includes the singers screaming “SEX SEX” at the top of their lungs. There’s more to this game than the porn, but there’s just so much porn. It can be censored in the settings but it’s unavoidable. However, I still think it’s worth a look just because of how funny it is and how charming the characters are. If you don’t want to play it yourself, at least watch Anima’s playthrough of it. It hasn’t aged super well in some spots but I still go back to it every now and then. Akash: Path of the Five (f/m): This game markets itself as a more “professionally produced” western dating sim, and that’s accurate in some superficial aspects. The game is pretty poorly written, but it’s absolutely gorgeous and has really good English voice acting by actual professional voice actors. The premise is quite self-indulgent, but I genuinely respect that about it. You play as the only female elemental in a village with only men, and all five of your classmates want a piece of you. It’s clear the writers have put some thought into the lore and worldbuilding of this world, but barely any of it comes through in the actual writing and plot, which is basically just a vehicle for you to get together with your boy of choice. The ROs aren’t very well-developed either, and the plot is the same in every route with only minor variations depending on which guy you pick, up to the point where the protag has the same voice lines in some parts regardless of which guy she’s talking about. It also has one extra half-route that’s so bad and pointless I genuinely wonder why they wasted resources on making it instead of spending a bit more on the writing/adding some variations to the main plot. So why am I recommending this game? Well, it’s pretty, and it sounds nice. This game is a himbo, gorgeous but dumb as rocks. Enjoy it for what it is. I know I did. Get it when it’s on sale, I think if I hadn’t gotten it at half-price I would’ve felt a bit more cranky about it. Also Rocco is bae. Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons (f/m): Yes that’s the full title, no I don’t know what it means either. You may have noticed how most of the games so far I’ve enjoyed because they don’t take themselves too seriously? Well, this one does. It takes itself SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY. Like, way too seriously. It’s a little embarrassing at points because baby, you’re an urban fantasy dating sim. Calm down. But the game has gorgeous art and 3 out of 5 routes are very good. The last route, the one with your teacher, is both the most problematic yet somehow the one that breaks down the very concept of a dating sim within its own narrative (yes, this shit gets fucking META) and it got so wild at the end that 1) I still listen to the soundtrack for that route and 2) I still remember it to this day despite finishing it ages ago. My favorite route is Shou, he’s a sweetheart, but the mindfuck route is so buckwild that I think the game is worth playing just for that. There’s also a route that’s like a neo-noir mystery? I Do Not Know. This game is many, many things and it does them so sincerely and tries so hard, you can’t help but respect it. It doesn’t always stick the landing but man, just let this thing take your hand and wax poetic at you for a bit. Also get this one at a sale because it’s very expensive to get the full version. I got it for 9 bucks on itch.io and I felt that was a fair enough price, I’d say I wouldn’t have minded paying more for it because there’s a lot of content to enjoy and/or be baffled by. Arcade Spirits: This one’s a bit more weird from what I recall, and I honestly couldn’t tell you much about it, but I remember having a very good time with it and recommending it to a friend when she was going through some tough times and she said it made her feel better. I remember it making me feel better, as well. This is a VN about an arcade and the ROs are wonderfully diverse, with very real human conflicts that get explored in each of their routes. It can get quite existential and heavy at times, but in the end it’s a kindhearted game that I think everyone can enjoy. The main character was also, how you say, mood. It’s a game about getting possessed by a video game and then learning self-love. Ebon Light (f/m): This one’s free/name your own price on itch.io so go play it. It’s a weird plot where you play as a girl who ate an elven relic? And then the elves kidnap you because you’re the relic now. All the ROs are extremely pasty (like, literally white, as in literally the color white) dark-haired elves, except for one, who’s an extremely pasty blond elf, so ... diversity? I honestly don’t know what this game is aside from unique. I used to be a bit put off by the art style but now I think it contributes to the general atmosphere. It’s a weird game that technically doesn’t do anything groundbreaking but still left an impression of “huh. weird” in my mind and I think more people should play it. The ROs are all pretty generic dating sim archetypes but done well, with bonus points to Duliae who’s just a massive creep and I love him, and also Vadeyn who’s the only bitch in this house I respect. The worldbuilding is honestly a bit buckwild and I can’t give enough credit for how unique the elves’ culture is in this game. Definitely give it a go. Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds / Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (f/m): These two are newer releases of an older Japanese visual novel. I wouldn’t call it a dating sim, it’s ... it’s more of a super depressing historical fantasy epic with some minor romance aspects awkwardly wedged in. It’s seriously some of the heaviest and most grimdark shit I’ve ever played in a VN/otome. I don’t understand why it’s a dating sim, it doesn’t read like one, it’s just historical fantasy based on real world events with characters based on real people, and they kill and they die and they grieve and they suffer. The games are literally about the downfall of the Shinsengumi, there’s no way of avoiding everything going to shit and you get to watch and be in the middle of it all as they struggle to stay alive and relevant in a world that doesn’t need them anymore. And there’s the protag in the middle of it all, being useless and submissive and bland just the way the usual otome protag is. I don’t think these games are necessarily fun, and the romance is certainly a lot more downplayed and deeply problematic just based on the age differences alone with some of the men, but the sheer amount of horror and sadness in these games make them stand out above its peers. It’s like watching a war movie. Since most of the characters are based on real people, they feel like real people instead of the usual otome archetypes, and they are so, SO flawed, it’s interesting to just watch them deal with the shit the world throws at them. It’s an Experience, and if you’re up for it, I think it’s worth the time. Cinderella Phenomenon (f/m): This game is free on Steam so go get it. You play as a really, genuinely shitty princess who gets cursed to be poor and forgotten and she has to help one of the ROs break his fairy tale curse so that she can learn about being a good person herself and return to her normal life. This game doesn’t look like much, but it has a genuinely well-written main character who’s actually at the center of each of the stories and in the overarching plot instead of just being around to make eyes at the real protagonists, aka the love interests. Aside from the main character, my favorite part of this game’s writing is how each route slowly but very smoothly expands upon the overarching intrigue. If you play them in a certain order, you get more and more info revealed to you that you didn’t see in other routes, gaps are filled in as you find out more about what actually happened and why, but every route also stands on its own as a full experience and none is more canon than the rest. There’s also some really heavy emotional parental abuse explored, which I found quite potent at times. The romances themselves were alright, I think Karma and Waltz were my faves.

[tuiyla]

She-Ra’s like, really good, people

It’s been over a week since She-Ra season 5 came out and I binged it and this is not going to be coherent but I just want to rant about it a bit before writing some more structured metas. I deffo wanna write about Catradora and how I think SPoP is the true spiritual successor to the Avatar.

But first, let me just scream about how good this show is. I already started rewatching it, pretty much straight after finishing it, and I don’t rewatch tv shows often. The exception is Avatar (seen it like 15 times) and sitcoms. But She-Ra is so layered that I felt like I needed to watch it again just to appreciate the dynamics even more.

I already enjoyed the first season but it kept getting better and better. I’m not in love with the art style and it’s definitely for a younger demographic overall than my other favourite animated shows, but like any good kids’ show it balances tone well. It doesn’t talk down to its target demographic but also includes more traditionally mature themes in a digestible and entertaining way. Not all the jokes landed for me but as the series went on I learned to appreciate the tone and the type of humour She-Ra goes for.

It’s funny to me because this is definitely the type of show I would have rejected as a kid, with all the princesses I would have deemed it “too girly” and therefore not for me because screw gender roles. There’s a degree of internalized sexism to that, for sure, a rejection of the feminine because it’s always been seen as less somehow. But there’s also a truth that, at least in my childhood of the late 90s and early 00s, children’s media targeted at girls often had a poor quality to it, at least when compared to “boys’ stuff”.

She-Ra is not only a clever, heartfelt, complex story, it also transcends that binary of having to be either for girls or boys. I know most of modern animation rejects that as well, but She-Ra embraces so many traditionally feminine qualities while also going beyond gender roles and even the gender binary. This show is so queer, man, and I love it. It’s especially impressive when you consider the source material that was literally just the girly version of He-Man. I have no beef with 80s She-Ra, haven’t seen much of it, but this is such an upgrade.

That being said, I would have loved to watch She-Ra as a kid. I’m so incredibly envious of kids, aged around 10, who get to watch this show as they’re growing up. But I am so, so, so happy for them and for the future of animation that shows like She-Ra can be made now, that they’re being made. I’m going to go into spoilers soon, but just before that: She-Ra’s a perfectly enjoyable show in many aspects. I think the worldbuilding’s pretty cool, the story feels coherent and planned out, it’s lighthearted and so genuine. That’s the word that I ultimately choose to describe the series: genuine.

I feel like so much of TV aims to be dark and gritty nowadays, animation included, and though that’s slowly turning to dark comedy or a balance between fun and serious, it’s still the norm. At some point in the last decade, creators became terrified of being judged as cheesy. Even something like the MCU bathes in bathos to avoid being cheesy. But She-Ra proves that creators shouldn’t be afraid of being genuine, of basing characters and storylines on the simple power of love. Like, it’s such a cliché trope but I think that’s mostly because it has become stale.

Noelle Stevenson has talked about the importance of love in her story and I’m so grateful for that. Through, She-Ra, she’s truly proven how powerful love can be in a story and how it doesn’t have to be cheesy. It’s just so unabashedly genuine. The power of love and friendship literally saves the day several times but it’s always so genuine and more importantly it always makes sense that it doesn’t get boring. If the foundation wasn’t there, then I’d say “well this is just super cheesy”. But the show makes a point of building relationships and making them the focal point of the story.

Alright, so, spoilers because I need to talk about character arcs and THAT KISS and just everything. I really need to write more in depth about Adora and Catra and their relationship but for now I feel like it’s so important to appreciate how they’re developed. Everything from their shared childhood to their trauma with Shadow Weaver and the finding their way back to each other, it’s just *chef’s kiss*. It’s so well-written and believable. Ngl, I do have some minor issues with Catra’s redemption arc. Let’s just say that on a scale from Kylo Ren to Zuko, she’s definitely closer to Zuko. I also appreciate Shadow Weaver’s death scene and how it allows them to move on. I didn’t see that one as Death as Redemption and it shouldn’t be. Again and again the show made it clear that she was abuse towards both girls and nothing will negate that.

From what I can tell, the fandom really latched onto Catra, even when it wasn’t clear whether she’d get a redemption arc. I think that’s important, because unlike some characters in animation, Catra’s actions were almost always framed appropriately. There was always an understanding as to where she’s coming from, how she’s acting from a place of hurt, and yet her actions weren’t justified. They weren’t suddenly all okay just because she’s hurt, too. I especially loved in the season 3 finale when Adora was allowed to finally say no, to say that Catra’s actions were not her fault. That season as a whole was beautiful, like, episode three when Adora’s struggling so much and Catra has the opportunity for a better life but she still fails to choose her own happiness because she’s too bitter over SW and Adora? It’s poetic cinema. I love that angst, so well done.

It would be so easy to misfire in Catra’s storyline and either a) write off all the awful things she does because she’s just “misunderstood” or b) irredeemably stuck in her abusive environment with no hope of escape. They balanced quite well there and managed to handle such a complex character with delicacy. I’m quite happy with how Catra was portrayed because on the one hand, she’s painfully relatable to me and I assume to many others. The audience can see their own mistakes reflected in her character because we’ve all been too stubborn, done things out of spite, refused to acknowledge that we were wrong because we were hurting so much. At the same time, I always felt like the show gave me enough space to judge Catra’s actions and acknowledge that she was in the wrong. I honestly think I would have been a better adjusted teenager is if saw this show just before my angsty years, lol.

I’m going to write more about Adora at some other point but I love how vulnerable she’s allowed to be. Protagonists never used to be my favourite characters because they all seemed the same, with two major categories: the stereotypical male hero who can do no wrong or the angsty boi who can be shitty and the text still frames him as awesome. It’s only recently with series like The Legend of Korra and She-Ra that I go “damn, protagonists can be like that, huh.” Adora is a dumb jock who tries so hard and she deserves all the hugs in the world.

Also, Catradora? Breathtaking, amazing, groundbreaking. No doubt She-Ra needed shows like Adventure Time, LoK, Steven Universe and the likes to pave the way but still, it went there. I saw people be anxious about whether they were gonna be queerbaited, but I always, idk, knew? Trusted? That She-Ra would follow through. I didn’t wait six years for Bubbline to happen for Catradora to not get their big damn kiss. The series has been so effortlessly queer from the get-go that it just made sense that they were always heading there. I did see a gif of the kiss before watching s5 and ngl, that spoiler kind of bummed me out in a way that I wanted to be surprised. But even before I saw that I wasn’t worried. And the context of their journey in season 5? That cannot be spoiled by a simple gif. You have to experience that to fully appreciate it and that is the marker of good storytelling.

I understand that, though this should be the norm by now, Noelle Stevenson still had to be smart about how she approached the execs and she wasn’t sure this could happen. I cannot tell you how happy I am about what she said regarding how Catradora was so integral to the story that the execs couldn’t not allow it. That’s so brilliant, and it feels so natural in the story. Queer love saves the day and it’s not ambiguous, it cannot be censored because you lose a part of the story without it. You did it, Noelle, you funky little lesbian, what an icon. I can’t wait to see more stuff from her.

In other news, I appreciated other characters as well, like how all the princesses got to be different and awesome in their own unique way. Season 5 was great for so many characters, Mermista got so much to work with and Spinnerella and Netossa got so much more characterization than in previous seasons. Glimmer continued to be the third most important character in the story and I’m happy about all the relationships that also got to be canon. Good characters and dynamics all around, no wonder since the show is built on that.

Such a satisfying conclusion and one that makes you feel like this is just part one of a much bigger story. Such genuine, heartfelt moments, well-developed characters, complex themes explored in a respectful and digestible way, and such an unapologetically fun show. Melissa Fumero as a side character? Yes please. Catra’s new haircut? Heck yeah! She-Ra’s new design? Oh my.

I’m not even like, super into She-Ra, and I usually don’t write so much about things I only watch casually. But this show is so good and important that I had to rant. And I will write more about it eventually, but for now I needed to get all of this out. I’d give it a better structure but if I really get into I might never end up posting it so for now here, have this ramble of love. She-Ra, of all shows, deserves that.

[anomaly00-archive]

Happy Storyteller Saturday from @Inky-Duchess and a Very Happy Pride💜 Rant about anything you like. About a character, a storytelling element, worldbuilding fact or anything.

Thanks for the ask @inky-duchess and oh boy do I want to just ramble on about my favorite minor character that makes one singular appearance as a corpse--that’s right, I’m talking about Titania.

Ok, so Titania is basically the catalyst of WCTD. It’s her death that causes Fenice to travel to the capital for her funeral which gives her an excuse to stay (because Dantalion over here suddenly feels really guilty at being an absentee parent to the child of the love of his life, but I digress) at the capital which, well, political stuff, intrigue, yadda yadda. Whenever I referenced Titania in earlier concepts of the story, she was always portrayed as this perfect, untouchable, beautiful being by those who loved her. Which kinda makes sense with the whole ‘don’t speak ill of the dead,’ but just taken up a few notches with Dantalion and Fenice considering Titania as their pillar of strength.

But is she really that perfect?

Titania is considered one of the best warriors of her time, even by Iskaavar standards. The Iskaavar are a group that places much emphasis on strength (any kind of strength, so physical, mental, arcane, etc.), currently led by the absolute monster of a badass, Eliskander. His skill in strategic warfare expanded the Iskaavar’s territory to triple what it used to be and cemented their uncontested control over the Valurian paths which made them unimaginably rich. And Titania is considered to be even better than that guy (like father like daughter, huh?). Hell, it’s basically historical fact at this point that Titania is the main reason why Dantalion won against his siblings’ bid for the throne. Titania helped kill every other rival. 

But as a mother? Titania barely passes. I got inspired by one of my favorite literary characters Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind. One of the other characters often insults Scarlett by saying that a cat is more motherly than her because of her disinterest in her children. But then again she was barely more than a child herself when she was pregnant and had to survive a war and really anyone would look like a bad mother when compared to Melanie Wilkes. Titania is a bit similar. She’s the kind of mother that will provide you everything you need to live a good, healthy life, all the while maintaining socially distant. She’s been independent for as long as she could remember (it’s hard not to be when you have so many siblings trying to impress your father and one of the first lessons you remember ever being taught is how to properly hold a bow), so she pretty much forgot that children need things other than food, water, and a place to sleep.

Anyway I could go way longer on Titania, but I think I’ll leave it at that for now.

[ais-n]

Hi, Ais! I had read The Foxhole Court trilogy thanks to you and I loved it! (not as much as I loved ICoS hehe). Can you recommend me more books as good as TFC and ICoS? It can be fantasy or fiction, M/M romance would be great too. What are your favorites? Please help me find something good!

Yaaay! I’m so glad! God I love that series T_T Nora write more everything plzzzzzz

It’s like me with One Piece, lol; it’s a life’s goal to keep recommending AFTG/TFC to everyone I meet who may be even a little bit interested XD And like OP, if I ever hear anyone ends up reading/liking it I get so happy lol

[[Oh damn - also I always fail to tell people this and just realized, RIGHT BEFORE POSTING, I should probably go back up and mention - FYI I’m working on an LGBTQIA+ fantasy/sci-fi series called Wildwood Rising, first book is Incarnations. In case you’re curious. I’m editing it super slowly atm, but on my Patreon I give updates here and there on it. Anyway read the glossary + first 4 chapters for free here, although I’ve actually done some editing which will make the chapters change so keep in mind that’s super draft mode. More info at my writing masterlist if you need it.]]

Anyway I have a few thoughts on recs, but FIRST - I have to give a disclaimer. Also even the disclaimer has to be under a cut apparently because RAMBLING

DISCLAIMER - so you know whether or not to listen to any of my opinions:

I am an extremely character-driven reader. I like stories that have plots, absolutely, because I usually can guess the ending of a plot a few steps into a story and that gets boring and old fast. 

Which is probably why to me, characters are the most important part of a story, as is character progression. 

I need to feel like I get that character, whether or not I agree with them every moment of their choices, and if the story is a romance with a couple, I have to truly be sold on the idea that THESE TWO should be together, not just because they happen to fulfill tropes of whatever is currently most popular in whatever genre, but rather because they actually fit as two human beings who I could realistically see falling in love. 

I also really like reading stories of people STAYING in love if it has to be a romance; I get really bored by stories that spend all this time getting someone together, and the whole thing is believable until sex gets involved and suddenly they’re instabanging and then that’s the end of the story. Because sex = healthy relationship?? idk, it’s honestly probably the fact I’m asexual that this is a pet peeve of mine. 

Anyway this is absolutely not shade but so many books which people think of as “m/m” have a totally different vibe than what I tend to want to read. They are often written specifically to be sort of male sexual romance books in which the point of the story is to get two dudes together sexually and then if there’s story beyond that, bonus Jonas, and if not, well, at least they whipped their dicks out on page. 

I’m not at ALL knocking this type of book, or people who like reading those sorts of books. There’s damn good reason to write and read those sorts of books, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them. I mention this only to say that for me, as a reader, my attention span is soooooo short dude. I have little to no attention for stories that revolve almost completely around sex, especially if the sex isn’t even built into the character progression.

But here’s where there’s a huge difference for me: the characters.

If I connect with the characters, I will read almost anything. I’m a reader who’s phenomenally biased toward reading character progression and preferring a mixture of darkness with lightness in the story - dark themes but also humor, some sort of balance like that. Whether or not characters have sex, whether or not there’s a solid romance at the base of it, whether or not a lot of things I care about less than I care about connecting with the characters.

Ideally for me, a book series or even a singular book has a good plot that’s interesting, great characters, great character progression, and a variance in emotions combined with solid enough worldbuilding that I feel like I’m there. But for me, to read and recommend something, I could give a lot of passes on an underdeveloped plot if the characters and their progression is great enough, but if it’s the best plot in the world and the characters don’t grip me I will never recommend it. 

Also, again, this is no shade to m/m as a genre, and more of an explanation of my phenomenally short attention span and super pickiness as a reader… but I find that a lot of the stories I try reading that are marketed as m/m start out strong for me as a reader, but by the end I’m less enamored. The ending is too abrupt or I don’t like the dynamic of the main couple or the vibe is off or the plot is too easy to predict or etc etc. So I really only have a very small list of m/m I ever recommend tbh - I tend to like stories that aren’t specifically written to have gay/LGBTQ male leads but rather feel like they are a story which happens to feature LGBTQ/gay male leads. That may seem like a minor difference but for me, the vibe between the two is massively different, and can dictate whether I love something all the way through or not. 

I just wanted to mention that because I know not everyone feels the same way, so if you really love plot more than characters, you may want to take some of my recs with a grain of salt because you may find you don’t love them as much as I do, and you love other things more. I feel like honestly I’m way too picky of a reader probably, so other people probably have much better lists.

(Oh yeah btw, all of this is me framing things as a reader. To be clear: I’m not saying AND IN CONCLUSION I AM THUS A BETTER WRITER or anything at all like that lol I’m not a better writer than anyone tbh. I’m just saying as an extremely picky reader, these are stories I like and/or things I think others should give a try if it speaks to them)

M/M:

DEFINITELY RECOMMEND

Raised by Wolves by W.A. Hoffman is my other favorite m/m series along with TFC/AFTG, and I have been recommending the two at the same time for literal years. This post is me waxing poetic about it and why I love it. So is this post. Also here too which tells you the book order etc. I love the hell out of that series, but it’s definitely the sort of series that people may have a strong reaction to for various reasons. Let’s just say if you were to actually do a bunch of trigger warnings for ICoS, the list would be long. RBW would have a similar list that’s similarly long, probably. I need to read the latest story that came out from RBW a year or two ago; only reason I haven’t is I totally want to reread the story from the start but goddamn that’s an undertaking if I do lol I might though, after I finish my current ebook read. This series is finished (well, idk what the newest short story is about but as for the main series, it’s done)

MOSTLY RECOMMEND

Psycop by Jordan Castillo Price - one of my flaws, probably, is that I’m too honest, and I don’t ever mean to be a dick but I also can’t stand the idea of misleading anyone or lying. So in all honesty, the plot on this series can be kind of frustratingly light or predictable at times. HOWEVER, I looooove the characters. I frickin LOVE Victor Bayne, the MC. I’d started this series ages ago, read through like book idk 5? 6? and got kind of frustrated by some plot stuff, never finished reading the series. Recently I randomly remembered it and decided to try it again. I read all the way through all 10 books and then almost immediately started over again because I was curious to reread from the beginning knowing some things now. There are some things this series does super well, IMO, and I could do a whole post on this series if anyone wants. But tl;dr is I really like the worldbuilding of the psychic powers, I LOVE how Victor’s such an unreliable narrator and how the series deals with showing the way anxiety and addiction and etc affects the mind, and I LOVE how the main couple at first seems super like wtf?? in terms of how quickly it comes on (like, literally, first chapter - just read it lol) but the more you read, you see how perfect they actually are for each other. One thing too: I almost didn’t read the 8th book (Skin After Skin) because it’s got a minor character as the main POV and I wasn’t sure I wanted to break my roll going with Victor as MC. But I did read it and I’m very glad I did. If you read this, DEFINITELY read book 8 where it is in series - it gives you a really good, more objective view of the main couple, plus it’s interesting seeing the characters from a totally different viewpoint than Victor. The series is ongoing but I still recommend it. If you want to check it out, JCP has the first half of the first book available for free to read, and you can buy the books on Amazon etc - http://psycop.com/stories/ATLexcerpt.html#buybook

NOT SURE YET IF I RECOMMEND

Widdershins by Jordan L Hawk - This is the first book in a series called Whyborne & Griffin, of which it looks like from the quickest glance at Amazon so far there are 10 books? I’m trying to do next to no research on the series because I want to be surprised. Kobo tells me I’m about 23% through the first book, just about to start chapter 8. I have this listed under “not sure yet if I recommend” because as aforementioned, I have a tendency to have a totally different view of a book or series in m/mdom at the beginning vs end of the first book or the books in the series as a whole. So far I really like it though, and I hope it remains a vibe I can get behind, because right now I’m really enjoying it :) I love nerdy MCs. Languages are my jam, man.

OTHER SERIES I LIKE

I’m mostly just gonna say titles/authors on these with short mentions because this is so long but I can talk more on any if you want:

The Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling (sometimes called by its first book: The Bone Doll’s Twin). I don’t want to say too much on this so I don’t spoil you on anything. It’s kind of dark and pretty richly written, though.

Six of Crows + Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I talk about the series here, and talk about “if Kaz were in ICoS, he...” here.

Plus a bunch of other mentions of authors or books here

LASTLY - non-book recs aka shows? I totally recommend the tv show Lucifer, just sayin. And Brooklyn 99. And Nate and Jeremiah By Design but that’s getting into the HGTV territory of the world so I should probably stop.... lol