#and that applies to all the chapters really. Some chapters are largely written by just one person yes but its pretty clear from the casting

[300iqprower]

Sorry if I had to say this: *Takes a deep breath while sweatdrop* Sakurai deserve better.

I used to be a sakurai defender like you, then I took an Olympus to the Frontal Lobe. Followed immediately after by a Heian Kyo to the Occipital Lobe.

I stand by everything I said in this post. I never said in that post Sakurai was competent. She was not, is still is not. She's long proven to be an extremely capable writer when given some guidance and/or when someone else is there to keep her fangirling in check. We have proof* of this in Summer 5, Little Big Tengu, Babylonia, and LB4. We also have proof that she's the world's most prolific character assassin when left alone for more than 5 minutes as shown with Shimousa, Septem, Summer 4, and the two aforementioned lostbelts.

*or as much proof as a game that refuses to properly credit its writers can be

It is fairly well documented that part of the reason Sakurai got immediately put so high up at Delightworks is because she was a Nasu superfan and Nasu pretty much just handed her the Prototype and Extra casts to go nuts with. That's not me saying she has no talent or merit and doesn't deserve a place in the industry - those claims are provably untrue. But it's also provable that she got where she is through Nasu's nepotism and that lack of qualification has shone through time and time again.

Lostbelt 2 is what best sums up Sakurai. It's both so bad that I "skipped" about 40% of it and got an empirically better story experience for doing so, and yet it's also so good that it has not one, not even a couple, but several of my favorite moments in the entire story to date.

Characters that have been directly credited to Sakurai like Douman, Tomoe, Xu Fu, Quetz, Sigurd, Napoleon, Surtr, Caligula, Gorgon, and more prove that Sakurai is capable of incredible writing.

None of that changes her track record of not only making the EXACT same mistakes every time she's called in to take the lead in writing a non-event chapter (and more than one event chapter), but arguably been worse about those mistakes every time she's put wholly in charge of a chapter, from Septem to London to Shimousa to LB2 to Olympus to Heian Kyo.

TLDR: Sakurai is not some objectively good or bad character. She's a real person who is not 100% consistent in anything. She's clearly talented but that doesn't change the actual work we've been presented, which has repeatedly indicated she needs someone to reign her in or her work inevitably tanks in quality due to her eccentricities that range from harmless to outright problematic. She is frequently derided as a scapegoat which is not only unjust and typically just how people try and shield Nasu himself from criticism despite her being part of his responsibilities as the one with the final say in everything, but also detracts from the genuine criticism Sakurai still deserves given some of the truly awful content that has been directly attributed to her.

Honestly I just wish she'd stick to writing events. Her style of heavily leaning into certain tropes and hamming it up more than other writers lends itself perfectly to events and lets her strike a balance of drama and comedy that other writers typically go too far in one direction to land, something that again is best exemplified by Summer 5, which was led by Higashide with her [implied to have been] heavily helping with things hence so many of her characters making up the central cast.

[blackberrysummerblog]

Hi all! Thank you @rimeswithpurple, @cutestkilla, @thewholelemon, and @forabeatofadrum for the recent tags! I can’t believe it’s already this late in the year. It’s not Sunday yet, but I’m working tomorrow so I’m just going ahead and posting early so I can feel like I did something. I know tomorrow can be a hard day for some, but here’s wishing a very Happy Mother’s Day to those of you to whom it applies, and a peaceful day to those for whom it’s a little more difficult ❤️

I’ve been relatively busy with my writing this week (GASP) so I have a couple of things to share. First, some Baz POV from the second chapter of The Field Trap—things are looking up at last:

Eight snakes and a dragon. I knew he would be wet when he came blustering in—it’s why I unpacked his rucksack and laid his spare clothes out by the lit stove—but I still wasn’t prepared for the sight of Simon Snow’s ridiculously thin t-shirt and uniform pants cleaving to his body as though they’d become part of his skin. His chest is heaving, his curls are dripping in his eyes, and he’s holding aloft a brace of four large rabbits that he’s already cleaned.

Honey, I’m home, he’d said, and I know it was a joke, but if I wasn’t dead before, I certainly am now.

“Wipe your feet before you come in any farther,” I say shortly. “Dry clothes are by the fire.” I turn my back and hear him laying down the rabbits and his bow and arrows. Two loud thumps signal his shoes coming off, and then there’s the slushy sound of wet cloth rubbing against itself as Simon makes his way over to the fire.

“You laid my clothes out for me,” he says, like he’s awestruck. I bite the inside of my cheek and stare up at the ceiling, trying not to visualize what’s going on behind me as I hear his sodden clothes hitting the floor. “Baz?”

“What.” Who am I kidding, I’m very much visualizing all of it.

“You can look.” His throat sounds dry. I shake my head, eyes squeezed shut now with the effort of holding my fangs in. “Do you not want to?”

I try to think about everything I told him earlier. He’s going to end up following the Mage to the end of our world someday, and I’ll have to stand with my family. I think about my fangs, ready to burst from my gums at just a hair’s more provocation. I think about how inexperienced with all this I am, and I feel hopeless. And yet…

I turn around.

My second share is from the piece I’m doing for COBB, which I’m really happy to say that the first 5000 word chapter is completely written for. I feel strangely…competent? LOL. Here’s a bit of Dev POV:

And he did. I watched with a cold sort of horror as my cousin, always the more powerful magician of the two of us, stood on our balcony and asked the universe for a handsome man with blue eyes, golden skin dusted with stars, and curls that were neither fully blond nor brown. He would be strong, brave of heart, and make the best sour cherry scones in the world (sour cherry? That’s not even a real type of scone, I wanted to say). Instead I’d said, “That doesn’t sound impossible,” in spite of the sparkly-sounding skin. Baz had given me stink-eye as only he could and can, before adding the coup de grace: “He will have the blood-red wings of a dragon, and a tail.”

It had taken all I had not to burst into laughter at that, but my headstrong cousin was already pressing rose petals into the potion and blowing his breath onto them as he tossed them out into the night air. “Baz,” I’d admonished, but the spell was cast, his heartbroken wish already caught by the breeze and curling up, up, towards where the full moon hung heavy and silent in the sky.

Have a great week everyone! No-pressure tags: @drowninginships @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @nightimedreamersworld @arthurkko @artsyunderstudy @facewithoutheart @iamamythologicalcreature @aristocratic-otter @tender-ministrations @valeffelees @mooncello @confused-bi-queer @beastmonstertitan @prettygoododds @youarenevertooold @raenestee @roomwithanopenfire @asocialpessimist @hushed-chorus @papierhaikuphoto @stitchy-queerista @orange-peony @brilla-brilla-estrellita @ivelovedhimthroughworse @bookish-bogwitch @c0nsumemy5oul @aceumbrellaheroes @larkral @letraspal @stardustasincocaine @cows4247 @shrekgogurt @j-nipper-95 @ic3-que3n @ileadacharmedlife @wellbelesbian @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @onepintobean @theearlgreymage @imagineacoolusername @mostlymaudlin @shutup-andletme-go @sailorblossoms @hertragedyconnoisseur @yellobb @ionlydrinkhotwater @alleycat0306

[rollercoasterwords]

oookay. finished the secret history let’s go

so the book itself was split into two separate books, book I and book II. for clarity’s sake, im gonna further split it into 4 parts, part 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

so first quick summary 4 bg information (no spoilers, as promised!!)

so basically a group of sexually repressed 20-something gays push the first homophobe they see off a cliff

OR

we’re told of Bunny’s murder in the first 2 pages, separating the book from other crime novels in that most of it was less a whodunnit and more of a whydunnit. in part 1, we’re introduced to richard papen, the narrator, who applied to a college, Hampden, miles away from his home state bc the colours on the brochure were pretty. he falls in with a group of students who are studying ancient greek; henry, bunny, francis, and camilla and charles (twins). So for a while, things look awesome. richard’s at a good college, with a large and tight-knit group of friends. What could go wrong?

this part transitions into two after richard and bunny find out about something terrible the rest of the group did in the past.

in part 2, bunny starts to become hostile to his friends after learning of it, while richard is able to wrap his head around it quite quickly. It escalates to the point where bunny becomes a potential threat, in that he might spill the beans to someone else. here, henry begins to plan bunny’s murder, and the rest of group just sort of goes along with it. parts 1 and 2 were pleasant, and paced really quickly. i was hooked the entire time. part 3 gets a bit dull, but it picks up again after Bunny’s funeral and hits the ground running.

book one ends right before bunny dies, and book two starts right after.

part 3 opens into a police investigation for bunny, who is believed to be missing until they find his body. in this part, tensions within the group begin to escalate. most of p. 3 is spent at bunny’s family’s house, who have invited many people bunny knew to stay with them during the funeral proceedings.

part 4, i believe begins after bunny’s body is found. here everyone’s like REALLY on edge. I will say most of it was just richard and francis running around frantically together while charles slowly goes insane with paranoia that henry’s trying to kill him as well. yk what, some of charles’ dialogue in this part is unsettlingly reminiscent of a panicked letter written by bunny that was found only after his death. In the book, there was only one passage of it shown, but that was enough. reading it, one could practically hear the panic, the desperation in bunny’s voice, one later mirrored in charles. vv psychologically thrillery. Im having hannibal flashbacks actually

and ohhh my god the ending. It was the climax to end all climaxes rae. ill never get over it. It was bittersweet ig, like all the best endings are. 

one thing i noticed is that throughout the book, there are these like future reflections littered through. like ‘thinking back on it now, i wish i had. . .’  or ‘funny, that was the last time i ever saw him’, which have the story a sort of They Both Die at the End quality. yk, like a tragedy waiting to happen. I think i remember you doing something like that once, rae, in atydsp. I believe it was right in one of the summer 1977 chapters but i could be wrong. I think something like that really makes a story gut-wrenching, especially with the whole looming impermanence that the reader is all too aware of. the very last lines in the epilogue read, ‘I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.’ see? whenever one of these bad boys is thrown in there, the scene changes from just a regular scene to something golden and significant. I think i once saw a post that read, ‘in movies time travellers are always scared of drastically changing their future by doing something small, but no one in the present ever things they can drastically change their future by doing something small’. thats what that reminds me of.

in the epilogue, richard refers to himself as a bystander, and he’s not wrong. he’s the narrator, of course, but in the end, the story’s not really about him. it’s about henry and bunny. I kind of get now, those lines at the end of the epilogue. Bunny’s death, and the events that subsequently followed, are so much more important than richard himself will ever be. 

TSH is famous for that one line henry has, when charles asks him how he could possibly justify cold blooded murder, and henry says, ‘I prefer to think of it … as a redistribution of matter.’ but the line that got to me the most personally was an unassuming one, camilla in the epilogue about her twin brother charles: ‘actually, charles and i dont really talk anymore. It’s broken my Nana’s heart.’ not that she and charles should ever be in the same room together ever (very fucked up things happened), but it’s just the impermanence of relationships. how two people who may be at one point inseparable just drift apart. it’s not any one big fight or falling out that snaps the thread of their connection, but that thread just wearing out and growing thinner and thinner until eventually nothing is left anymore. thats what gets to me.

andd also one thing that kept happening was that i’d accidentally (or on purpose) flip a few pages ahead and reading something really fucking deranged or unexpected and just be like ‘huh???? what??? how?????’ and i’d go back and read up to that point until it made sense. i’d love love LOVE to give examples but i’m not allowed spoilers :(( the book is just the right amount of deranged though it rlly tickles ur brain in just the right spots without being overly ick

I think someone said that it was a francis/richard/charles/camilla/henry love pentagon but its most like a love diamond. grab a pen and paper folks, it gets complicated. imagine charles at the top, francis on the left, richard at the bottom, and camilla on the right, with a line extending from camilla to henry. there thats tsh.

all in all 8/10!! if it’s on your reading list like you said it was, definitely move it to the top.

one day i WILL read tsh i promise!! unfortunately it cannot go to the top atm bc im working thru the books i already own 😔 love this review tho i honestly didn’t really know what the book was about & this actually sounds really good…

[lusthurts]

writing meme about me!

no official tag but thought maybe time to share more about myself! mostly because I want to know more about you all as well, and @sperrywink extended an invite to seblaine mutuals so I will do the same!

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I discovered it on accident as most of us do - I was on the Glee wiki I think? There was a link to select fanfics on the ship pages at the time, and I started reading one of the Finchel ones, and it was game over for me lol - I started writing my own a while after that, and I participated in a variety of Glee RPGs that inspired me to write other characters. I was in one of those massive Glee RPGs in like 2011 on fanfiction.net, and it was very formative for me in terms of connecting with the rest of the fandom and wanting to do more of that. RPGs are also so great for exposing you to ships you never would've liked or even thought of before, although all my current ships came from elsewhere lol

oh, and there was the whole escapism from family shit that was going down at the time thing - that was a huge factor for sure

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

I've almost exclusively been writing for the Glee fandom since the beginning, although the ships I've written for have changed drastically throughout that time. I've dabbled in some other things as well depending on my special interest at the moment, but I always come back to Glee. Other fandoms I've written for include The Outsiders, Degrassi, How I Met Your Mother, 13 Reasons Why, Girl Meets World, and Skam ! none of these are published anywhere anymore though as far as I know, it's all far too embarrassing (and yes I'm aware that's the most bizarre mix of fandoms ever)

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

at least 12, I wanna say I started around 2012ish?

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I genuinely think it's about equal, but it comes in waves. Sometimes I'm reading more, sometimes I'm writing more. I'm almost always working on something and I'm also almost always in the middle of reading a long fic.

5. What is one way you've improved as a writer?

I think I've gotten a lot better at writing comedy and ensemble dialogue. I like writing the silly goofy scenes with large friend groups a lot, especially when I feel like I've nailed the character's voices enough that I don't even need dialogue tags to know who said each line.

6. What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Ohio geography lmao - I like always have Google Maps pulled up trying to map out different locations and how far drives would be, etc. I also have researched a ton about various colleges (especially for my current WIP since these characters are actively applying for college rn) and France (never been there, constantly have to write stuff that takes place there).

7. What's your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I genuinely do love all comments! I especially loves one that are specific/mention parts of the chapter or the fic that they enjoyed or thoughts that they had while reading. I also like chatting about the characters and canon and their predictions/hopes for the rest of the fic. The length doesn't really matter so much - I love long comments and short comments, and I try my best to respond to all of them.

8. What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Idk I kinda write a lot of infidelity and toxic relationship stuff. Seblaine is the main ship I write for nowadays, and the nature of their relationship lends itself to a lot of infidelity in their process of getting together. I also just love writing angst, so even when I'm writing established relationships, they end up being sort of toxic throughout especially given the traits of both characters. I just find it more fun and probable to write a slightly toxic relationship than a 100% healthy one.

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

PWP - I struggle so much with writing smut, although I like to think I've gotten a bit better at it recently. I'm also trying to get better at writing ensemble fics, but it's definitely a struggle for me to give each ship/character enough attention. And I'm pretty awful at world building, so anything remotely fantasy, sci fi, etc. is a huge struggle for me.

10. What is the easiest type?

slow burns! I've gotten so much better at delaying the characters from getting together for a really long time in fics and it's soooo fun. I prefer a character centric slow burn with lots of sexual tension and an arc that involves characters moving from enemies/friends/strangers to lovers over the course of many months or years.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

I like to write outside of my own home - something about physically relocating makes me way more productive. I write a ton on planes (I travel a lot for work). I also love a good coffee shop, Panera, park, library, etc.

I write in Word and publish to AO3 - used to write in Google Docs but it's so slow and laggy so I much prefer Word. Used to publish on fanfiction.net but I will never go anywhere else now that I've transitioned to AO3, the far superior fanfic site lol

I am most productive with writing either during the day if I'm somewhere other than at home or in the middle of the night in bed - my most productive hours at home are between like midnight and 3 am

12. What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

I recently got over my fear of PWP and published a one shot that I'm very proud of. I have many ideas for things similar that I'd like to work through in the future!!

Most of this is fandom specific though - I'm super intimidated to write for big fandoms because I've gotten so comfortable in the Glee fandom, especially writing Seblaine which has a relatively small audience in comparison. I'd love to write Marauders, but that fandom is HUGE and very intimidating because there is so much lore and fanon to mess up. I hope to give it a shot one day though!

13. What made you choose your username?

it's a song lyric! lust hurts comes from the song "Barcelona Boots" by Arlie - the lyric goes "Lust hurts, could you bear it for me?" and I thought that was very fitting for someone like me who's obsessed with romance in fiction but can't be bothered with it in my real life

any of my mutuals are welcome to participate! I'll specifically throw in a tag for @daisyishedwig @calsvoid @xonceinadream @andyandersmythe bc these are the ones that come up first when I go to tag haha

[bratprincezz]

"Open My Eyes..." Chapter Three

(very little use of ‘Y/N’) 3,881 words Beta Read and co-written by my husband. General Warnings : (the first link on the SERIES MASTERLIST) apply to future chapters. Also, you can see all of the dragons and other animals I’ve created in the series masterlist (link below)

SERIES MASTERLIST

Aemond spent the next few weeks following you around like a puppy, though he tried to hide it and his natural swagger helped. That isn’t how he saw it, but Aegon frequently teased him about his newest interest. You, on the other hand, were still unsure of his intentions since you still hadn’t talked about the kiss.

You and Aemond were walking to the library together. You had just finished training and Aemond was teasing you about your fighting style. “I wouldn’t say you fight in a…conventional way.”

You knew what he was really saying, which made you sigh. “You can fight to live or you can die honourably. At least I’m ethical.”

“How’s that?”

“I give my enemy a quick death.”

“I haven’t killed anyone, yet.”

“Try not to look forward to it.” You looked at him, “It isn’t what the songs and stories make it out to be.”

Later, you were both sitting and reading when Aemond suddenly broke the silence. “What age did you first ride?”

“I was eight when I rode my first dragon, Gaelithox.”

You traded stories. Your favourite was how and why Aemond got the sapphire for a false eye. You frequently rode your dragons together. He was only soft and gentle with you, not counting when you trained together. His tenderness towards you was evident to everyone. Soft whispers and stolen glances at meal times did not go unnoticed by Otto.

You didn’t see Aemond that next night at supper, but you had made some soup because you were feeling homesick. You needed to see Aemond and talk about the kiss, so you came up with the excuse to bring Aemond some food, as he’d not come to supper nor did he request anything to eat. You stood staring at his door as though you’d lost your wits. What were you going to say? It was a mistake? Should you apologize again? You knocked and waited, hearing a shuffle and a muffled, ‘Come in.’ You walked into Aemond’s quarters and sat down the tray at his table. It had a bowl of soup, along with bread, cheese, and a fruit.

He perked at your presence. “What is this?”

“It’s cactus soup.”

“Really?”

“It’s edible, I promise. I made it myself. It’s from the prickly pear cactus. There are two of the pears, right here.”

Aemond straightened at that, tossing one of the many scrolls on his desk aside. You had cooked?

“It’s not much, but you didn’t come to dinner—“

“No, it’s great.” He sat at the table and pulled up an extra chair. “Sit? Please.”

You did as he asked. He loved your soup and ate every bit. He hadn’t eaten all day and your meal hit the spot. You traded stories and bonded while he ate, but it was an hour later and you knew your friend Jaera would like to get her rest. You had completely forgotten why you wanted to talk to him. “I’m afraid I’ve been keeping you from something important that you would like to get back to.”

“Not at all, really. Just reading announcements.”

“Still,” you stood up to leave. Aemond softly took your hand, but you worried. “The hour grows late.”

Though Aemond wished you would stay, he knew you were right. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you to be visiting privately so late. “Have a good evening.” He let you have your hand back and you continued on your way.

CACTUS SOUP W/ CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

1 large soup pot

1 1/4 cups chopped white onion

1 cup diced bell peppers

1 tablespoon oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 habanero chili, seeded and minced

1 pound tomatoes (2 large), cored, peeled, and chopped (or 15oz of canned crushed tomatoes)

1 1/2 cup Nopalitos (cactus)

2 quarts chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano if you have it)

1 teaspoon salt, more to taste

1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1/3 cup lime juice (from 2 to 4 limes, depending on the size)

1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

——————

1 1/4 cups chopped white onion

1 cup diced bell peppers 

1 tablespoon oil

Sauté. Cook until peppers are soft and onions are translucent, about 8 minutes. 

——————

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 habanero chili, seeded and minced

Add the garlic, minced habanero, and cook 2 minutes longer.

——————

1 pound tomatoes (2 large), cored, peeled, and chopped (or 1 cup of canned crushed tomatoes)

Add the canned (or  peeled chopped tomatoes) to the onions. 

——————

1 1/2 cup Nopalitos (cactus)

2 quarts chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano if you have it)

1 teaspoon salt, more to taste

Add the stock, oregano, Nopalitos, and one teaspoon of salt.

——————

1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs 

After simmering 15 minutes, adde Chicken and cook 10-15 minutes.

——————

  1/3 cup lime juice (from 2 to 4 limes, depending on the size)

  1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

After removing pot from heat, add the lime juice and cilantro.

Aemond stirred as you snuck into his room through a secret passage. He sat up and watched as the tiny flame danced around the room. “Who is it?”

You moved the light to show your face clearly. “It’s me.” You set the candle down on his desk. Then you turned to him in bed and began to pull your nightclothes down, but you paused because it looked like his one remaining eye was going to pop out of his head. “Is this okay?”

“Princess… What about your virtue?”

“I haven’t been a maid since I was fifteen.”

Aemond’s cheeks flushed at your confession. He was happy the room was dark so you couldn’t see. “Princess…” He couldn’t believe his luck. He wasn’t a virgin, but the sight of the woman who had been on his mind, standing in front of him, asking if she can fuck him? Was it another dream like the other he’d had of you? “Princess, the small council has decided to offer you an engagement to Daeron.”

You giggled at the way he sounded when he told you. As though he needed to get it out of the way. “I know.”

You were really offering yourself to him. Not because he was paying, he hates paying for it. It wasn’t because he was a prince; you were a princess and would most likely marry a prince or a king. “Say that you want me and not my brother.”

“I want you. Not your brother. Either of them.”

Aemond silently nodded, so you continued until you were fully exposed in front of him. He swallowed thickly and already felt himself growing hard. Could he really be this lucky? Was he soon to be inside of you?

You pulled his sheets away (of course he slept in the nude) and you straddled his lap. He had forgotten about his eye patch and covered his sapphire eye with his hand, but you put your hand on top of his. “Let me see.” You kissed his face, where you could see his scar still.

“You’re not disgusted?”

You gave him a gentle smile, “You can see my scars.” Indeed, you had battle scars along the front of your body and on your arms. You kissed the hand covering his eye, then you sat back. “I didn’t think you were so uncomfortable with it. I’ve heard stories about you showing it off—“

“Oh, you’ve heard stories, have you?” He removed his hand. His body was tense, teeth clenched. He was defensive as you looked at his beautiful sapphire. “I’ve heard stories about your people, too. Whores, the lot of you. Taking multiple lovers. Interbreeding with the savage natives of Sothoryos—“

You pushed him down. “Never,” your nails dug into his chest. “Speak of me or my people or my famly that way again.” You pulled your hands away, slowly. “The natives aren’t what everyone says they are. Not all of them.” When you felt him relax, you noticed his hardening cock under you. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I’ve seen lots of things on the battlefield, and before, and after.” You kissed him, “But…” You touched your cheek to his. “I have never seen anything more beautiful than your face. All of it.” You slowly lifted your hand, long enough for him to stop you, but he didn’t. First, following the scar from top to bottom, then you kissed under his false eye. “Ketsaltik.” (‘Handsome.’)

His finger followed a scar on your shoulder.

“I didn’t come in here to start an argument.” You kissed him again, pushing your tongue into his mouth. “I came here because I want you inside of me. Mitsnikneki nechiitik.” (‘I want you.’) You ran your fingers over his nipples, causing him to shudder. 

Aemond sat up again. His hands grazed up your thighs, “And you appear to know exactly what you want.” He squeezed the globes of your ass when he reached them. “And how to get it.”

“I only hoped you wanted me. I wasn’t sure after the day I was showing you the map.”

He held on to your hips, moving you to grind against him. “What would possibly give you that idea?” 

“The way you completely changed the subject after I kissed you. And before that, when you pulled away from me.”

“I wanted to kiss you too, but the small council decid—“

“Otherwise known as your family.”

Aemond sighed. “They wanted you with Daeron, and I was only doing what I thought was right for my family.”

“What’s right for you?”

“This.” He pulled you down and kissed you. Aemond bit at your earlobe and whispered, “Use me the way you envisioned when you thought of this moment.”

“My Prince.”

“Call me Aemond. Call me whatever you wish.”

“Okay.” You smiled and gently pinched his chin, keeping your fingers there as you spoke. “But I want you to keep calling me Princess.” Your hand traveled from his chin down to his groin. He was fully hard now, ready to be fucked, his one eye was dark & half-lidded. He laid back again and that eye closed when your hand wrapped around him firmly and you started pumping. When he finally looked at you again, you positioned yourself over him and you both watched as you sank down onto his length. His deep exhale told you how pent up he was. “Has it been such a long time?”

“I’m very particular. A woman has to pique my interest; keep my attention.” His grip on your waist tightened while you rubbed your clit. He watched as you pleasured yourself with him inside you, but not for long. He started by encouraging you up and down his length. You slowly ground into him and he grunted, “I’ve tried relieving myself, fighting, drinking, training, and nothing has felt as good as this.”

You whimpered as he sped you up. “You almost make it sound like it’s your first time.” He latched his mouth onto one of your nipples. Your fingers carded through his loose strands then you lightly pinched your pearl. “Mmm… But I can tell it’s not.” You moved your hips up & down, and he groaned. You looked into his eye as you sped up. Eventually, you were fucking him as hard as you could, your hips slammed into his. He thought he might explode when your hand went around his neck and you squeezed just enough to let him know who was currently in charge. “Who am I?”

He moaned as you slammed down on him. 

You were so close. “Tell me who I am,” you whined.

“My Princess.” He fucked up into you with the same ferocity.

While keeping eye contact with him, you gripped onto his shoulders and you cried out, “Fuck! Aemond!” It was like connecting to his soul. You were in a daze as you came and Aemond continued fucking you through your climax. He slowed down temporarily, while you came to your senses. You tried to help Aemond achieve the same end by speeding up again.

He pulled you in by your neck to kiss you passionately. “My Princess has a mouth on her.” He took over then, fucking up into you to chase his own high, but when he was close, he slowed down. “What about…” He could barely form any thoughts. “Baby…”

You slowed almost to a still. “I’m protected, but if it makes you feel more comfortable, I can finish you in other ways.”

“That’s best for now.”

You smiled and got off of him, crawling down his body. He looked down at you as you licked up the length of his cock. His hand flew to the back of your head. “Princess…” His grip tightened as your mouth completely enveloped him and you started sucking. It didn’t take long to bring him his release. You swallowed his seed, making a show of it to tease him.

There was a comfortable silence  while you both caught your breath. He held you close to him and you both laid like that for ten minutes, cuddling. That was until you quietly got off of the bed. He watched as you picked up your shift and started dressing. “Where are you going?”

“Back to my apartments.” 

Aemond almost panicked for a minute. Had he done something to offend you? Should he have finished inside of you? “You don’t want to stay?”

You finished dressing then you kissed him again, making sure to linger at his lips. “In Westeros, it is already improper of us to do what we just did. I don’t want to press my luck.”

He kissed you again. Honestly, he meant for it to be quick, but it was as though the second his lips connected to yours, he was under some spell and it was 18 seconds later that you finally ended the kiss and parted from him. You left him satiated and sleepy, so he fell asleep quickly after your encounter. His worries over what would happen next could wait until the next day.

You stared at the ceiling of Aemond’s bedroom. It was the third such time you had done so, though you lost count of the times you’d been with Aemond. You stopped counting after five. You hadn’t planned to fall in love. You were lost in thought and worry about the future. Every day was busy, but most nights were for you and Aemond. Talking, cuddling, laughing, fucking… The two of you had created your own world inside of either of your bedchambers. Nothing else mattered. Not Aegon’s teasing of Aemond, not the politics that brought you to the table in the first place. You could get lost in each other and you grew even closer by sharing stories and secrets, and wishes for the future. The only problem was this: When you became Queen, you would have to marry to strengthen your alliances.

The tips of Aemond’s fingers grazed over your hip and up to your neck, then your chin. He turned you to look at him, “Marry me, Princess.”

“Hmm. Don’t get ahead of yourself, my Prince.”

It was silent for a moment then he spoke again, “May I ask how many lovers you’ve had?”

“Why do you want to know? Something been on your mind?”

“I’m just curious. It doesn’t bother me if I’m the fifth or 72nd, but I know I’m not your first.”

“Seven, now.” You looked at him. His face was unreadable. “Does that shock you, My Prince?”

Aemond dipped his head. There was a blush on his cheeks and across his nose. “I’ve only ever been with two women before you.”

“Why not more?”

“Interesting question.” He smiled at you. “It always felt wrong.”

“In what way?” You sat up. “Do you feel that way with me?”

“No, Sweetling.” He held your hand. “I don’t feel that way with you. Not at all. I can’t explain it, really. I just felt nothing with them, but with you…” He took your hands, “With you… I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never wanted anyone so much.”

“Careful. You’re awfully close to saying that you love me.”

He smiled at that, “Perhaps I do.”

“Aemond…”

“What would you say if I said I loved you?”

“I would say it back.”

“Avy jorrāelan.” (‘I love you.’)

You kissed him. “Nimitstlasohtla.” (‘I love you.’) 

He understood you. He kissed you so passionately that you started whimpering. You felt heat in your chest and groin. Then he stopped and you nearly pouted.

“Show me your home. Take me to Sothoryos.”

“I will.” You kissed him.

“Let’s have children together.”

“My Prince!” You playfully hit his chest, then you got close enough for his lips to ghost yours. “Convince me.”

Aemond got on top of you and nuzzled your neck. He knew you already had your answer, so he decided to tease you instead. “Say yes.” He bit at your flesh, causing goosebumps. “Say yes.” His fingers dipped into your seam, feeling his leftover spend and your wetness between your folds. He rubbed your pearl in torturously slow circles. “Say yes.”

“Y—yes. I will marry you—“ You keened as his finger sped up. “A—and have your ch—children, Aemond Targaryen.” You kissed him and wrapped your legs around his waist. “Avy jorrāelan.” You hadn’t noticed he was already hard, so when he started entering you again after finishing 20 minutes before, it took you by surprise. You gasped, “Aemond.”

He retracted his hips. “Did I hurt you?”

You smiled, “It’s not that easy to hurt me.” Your hands found his ass and pressed him further into you.

You talked about one of your ex lovers, someone you thought you might marry one day. “She sang to me.”

“If I knew singing to you would make you fall in love with me, I would have done it sooner.”

You laughed, “That’s not why I fell in love with either of you.”

“What, then?”

“With her we… It was her elegance and kindness. She used to be supportive, patient, and funny…“

“You love her, still. I can tell by the light in your eyes when you talk about her.”

“I love who she used to be. I don’t love who she is now.” You took his hand. “Avy jorrāelan. (‘I love you.’)”

“Why did you leave her?” You were about to cry and Aemond saw it on your face. “What is it, sweetling?”

“I’ve been afraid to tell you from the beginning that, as Queen, I may need to take three husbands in order you produce enough heirs who may sit on the Camopaltic Throne from any alliances made. Because I still need to create alliances. Sothoryos is less peaceful than Westeros.” As usual, Aemond’s face was unreadable. “I will do everything in my power to make sure that I don’t need to take another spouse, because I only want you.”

“No, Princess…” He calmed you down before you started crying. “If it’s something that you need to do, you should still marry and produce heirs.”

“I can have heirs with you.”

He gave a gentle smile at your insistence and took your hands in his. “We will be okay, my love.” He kissed you. “I love you and I know you love me. Nothing can take away from what we have.”

“Are you sure?”

“I cannot lie to my betrothed… I may get a little jealous, but it would be difficult not to.”

“This does mean that you can have other wives.”

“Why would I want someone else?” He kissed your neck. “I have you.”

“When you can’t have me.”

He looked at you, “Do you plan on being away from me for long periods of time?”

“Sometimes. Is a few moons long to you?”

He shook his head. “We can discuss that if it ever happens that I find someone I am interested in.” You laid together in silence for a bit before he spoke again. “How does the Sothoryi kingdom work, exactly?”

“It’s similar to Westeros, except the people are more involved. There is the Crown and the thrones of kingdoms that we bring into the fold. There is a peace between the Crown and everyone else, but there is a lot of fighting between thrones. If we bring them into our family, they become an extension of the Crown. The King or Queen makes the final decision in all matters, but we have what we call ‘Kuautitlahtokalistli’ (‘Great Council’) with 138 members, currently. There are the base members of our own Great Council, followed by representatives of each throne. Those are the basics of our government. ‘Exactly’, is a little complicated. Loicato is the King’s Landing of Sothoryos.”

“You’re on this council?”

“Yes. As the heir, I have to be on the council. I was chosen when I was seventeen.”

“What about your siblings?”

“I didn’t ask for it. My father was ill for a while, so there was a meeting of the Great Council. I was chosen to be the next Sothoryi Queen and my father is the one who convinced me to accept.”

“What if none of the children want to be the leader?”

“It’s a similar process.”

“What made you fall in love with me?” He returned to the subject.

“Well…” You scooted closer and kissed one of his calluses. “I love that you’ve been very generous with your time.” You kissed his palm. “And that you’ve been very generous in bed.”

He knew you were being purposely joking with that comment, but he had hoped for more than that, too. “That’s what you’re concerned about as far as love goes?” 

“No, my sweet summer child.” You turned onto your stomach and kissed his shoulder. “I love how devoted you are to your family, even though sometimes that makes me feel like I’m coming in between you. I don’t want to come in between you and your family. It doesn’t end well, and I’m speaking from experience on your side of things.” Aemond opened his mouth to speak, but you stopped him. “Let me finish.” He closed his mouth, so you continued. “I love the way you fight, not how good you are, but how well you assess an opponent. You match them, almost perfectly, because of the way you dedicate so much of your time learning and practicing your skills. It’s magnificent and I’ve never seen anything like it. And, speaking of learning… I love your mind. You read all the time, and your mind seems to absorb the information on those pages like a cloth. I would have to study for hours to know what you know. Sometimes I wish I could see what’s in there.”

He looked away from you. “Trust me, you don’t what to see what’s in here.”

“Yes, I do.” You turned his face to you. “I want to know everything about you.”

This was going to be a longer chapter, but I think I'm going to make this a 6 part series instead of 5.

SERIES MASTERLIST

[barrenclan]

do you have any advice on comic-making / executing a story? i have one all planned but idk where to start now that its time to actually write / draw it out ;;

Sure! Here's some excerpts from a script I wrote awhile ago about making a comic, especially a Warriors-based one (though it mostly applies to any comic project).

"Off the bat, and before you make any bold moves, I do recommend a good amount of planning. But since you've already got that part done, the real best place to start is to just start. It sounds easy, but working up the nerve to really begin your project is what stops 99% of people from any creative endeavour. Don’t worry about quality, perfection, readership when you start your comic - those will come along the way. You should form your structure and lay down your foundation, but at some point you just need to start.

I am, at heart, a writer. I love and enjoy art, but writing comes easily and quickly to me, and I have years of practice at it. So for scripting, I wrote individual chapter summaries and a full script before I started TDS. But I know some comic artists who write the script as they’re going along! Generally, if you’re someone who wants more structure, you’ll probably want a full script. If you’d rather be more loose with your comic, chapter summaries and ideas with dialogue on the day would be for you. It can vary from project to project, too; for PATFW, I've written out full summaries for each issue, but I don't write the story itself until I begin to work on the issue in full.

Motivation is a tricky question, because most of creative motivation is intrinsic, and that is simply not something that you can gain in any easy way except real passion. It’s that feeling you’ll have if a story connects with you in a meaningful way, one that can’t just be rushed into. But I think extrinsic motivation can include things like setting reasonable and achievable goals for yourself. Promising to yourself that you’re going to upload one page every week, or do all the lineart for a batch of pages on Sunday, or that you’re going to write one sheet of your script every time you have an hour of free time, can help you stay on track and get used to the rigor of committing to a large project.

Lastly for this post, I cannot stress HOW important a buffer is. For those of you who don’t know, a buffer is just an amount of pages you’ve completed prior to posting your current page. For example, when I would post page 50, I would have already completed pages up to 59. Buffers are critical because they allow you to make room for unexpected or time-consuming events in your life without sacrificing your comic. They help you maintain a schedule, which as I already discussed is important for motivation and consistency. There is no “correct” amount of pages for a buffer, either. I personally work about ten pages ahead. I know people who work entire chapters ahead of posting. There are some people who only have a few pages in the hopper before they post. There are even those who finish their whole comic before posting any of it! It’s all up to you and how much you decide to do."

I hope any of that was helpful!

[armed-and-rwby]

So, and I know this is kind of bad timing in June, but I can't deny any longer than Yang's character was seriously compromised after V5

This isn't really a scripted thing and I've not written analysis in a while, so forgive the loose formatting here, just something I needed to get out.

I think the overall issues can apply to more of the MCs than Yang, which I'll bring up later, but RWBY has an unfortunate tendency of resolving character arcs without much overlap with the plot, and Yang definitely gets it worse than most (and she's my favourite).

Back in V5, Yang was exploding with directions for her character and I think the writers worked hard to touch on all of them, from her recovery, to her growing mistrust of authority, to her issues with her mom, to her reconnecting with her team (and of course the deeper angst with Blake in that), but resolution for all of these largely fell short IMO. The last time she's even talked about the scheming of Oz was in V6 when she called him a bastard, Raven has never been mentioned or some up since V5, and I don't think she's even spoken to Weiss since their heart to heart in V5 outside of plot functional dialogue. The same can be said on her relationship with her sister, which, beyond her sacrifice in V8 and an unresolved conversation earlier in the volume about Salem and their mom, also haven't actually interacted with each other. The only thing really addressed was her lost arm, which was an extension of Bumblebey and closed off when they killed Adam in V6, a great fight with very little to do with the actual plot.

In V7 and 8, she's a complete third wheel, she talks with Robyn and fights the Ops in 7, and doesn't even get a fight in V8. Weiss certainly got it almost as bad, she was a bit more involved, but still not much given how this is her kingdom and her family that was so central to the plot. It's a condition of a bloated cast, which they've addressed a couple times, such as the start of V6 and all of V9 (though with their various guides, the girls don't make a lot of relevant decisions on the flow of that story either). It really did suck that we got to see Ruby's suicide through Yang's eyes, only for us to not see any of their reactions, and even when they see her it's all pretty surface level stuff (Yang even just repeats what Weiss tells her about Ruby).

My favourite scene in the whole show was her confronting her mom, I thought that was such a perfect direction for her character, tying together both her conviction to her family with her backstory of her mom to drive her arc forward in some unique ways, only to be sidelined in following chapters as her ship left port. And while this post isn't here to bash Bumblebey, I guess there's a bit of a warning that, since that was almost all of her drama and driving force for the last 4 volumes, with it canonized, I worry she'll only drift further away from the plot and her own unique character moments.

Wish I had some gifs or something to break up these paragraphs, but I'm just kind of vomiting out all these nagging issues that've been building up these last few years. Really does hurt to love a character like that and not see them utilized in the show

[linklethehistorian]

Of Skyfall, Sigma, Ian Fleming & James Bond

A personal theory add-on for Skelechuuchuu’s incredible Ian Fleming theory. Please read and give love and support to that original theory here if you have the time!

Hello everyone! At the time of posting this, I’m extremely sick and kinda sleep-deprived right now, so I will probably not be terribly active until I feel better. :’)  

Nevertheless, after having a small chat (with a lot of breaks in between :’)) with some cool people in a BSD server, I still wanted to come and drop this little add-on to the recent (and extremely compelling) theory that dropped about Sigma being Ian Fleming (and James Bond-inspired).

As I tend to do best, I wanted to analyze and explain why Skyfall is not only a perfect and crucial choice for the episode name in S4 as OP describes above due to the inseverable tie to James Bond, but also how the lyrics to the tie-in Bond song by this name themselves relate perfectly to Sigma and the events of BSD involving him so far.

I’ll place it below the cut for both S4 spoilers and manga spoilers up to Chapter 106-107 or so! Proceed with caution if you’re worried about spoilers!

Now, without further ado, let’s get to lyric analyzing!

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of analyzing the song lyric by lyric, allow me to start with a more generalized observation:

The overarching theme of the song Skyfall, apart from being obviously intrinsically linked to Bond (given it was made for it), is about bravely facing down the end with those you love, come what may; this is a perfect fit for Sigma, whose whole character is wrapped up in the concept of needing to belong and protect those he loves. In the episode of the same name, he even fights, despite knowing he is “just an ordinary man”, with his whole life to protect his beloved people in the Casino, unafraid of dying because living without them would be meaningless.

(I would also like to note here that at first glance, it might seem to be written almost like a love song, but I feel it’s important to distinguish — especially in the context of this theory — that this is not necessarily the case, and there is one line that upon listening to it, especially seems to almost completely confirm otherwise to me; in the song, it sounds like Adele is saying “all your loving arms”, despite many lyric sites and such claiming otherwise (it is really not uncommon for artists to differ from the original written lyrics from time to time in certain recordings, so I find this rather plausible). Nevertheless, whether or not this is actually correct, the song is ambiguous enough that it can still be taken however one wishes, and I believe that if we apply it to Sigma, the song is not directed towards one person, but towards a group of them.)

I’ll get on to the more intricate stuff of analyzing lyric by lyric in a moment, but before I do I would just like to make one little key statement here before we start, and that is that despite how it seems, I don’t actually believe most of this song was  meant to be applied to the casino or the people there; rather, I believe it largely reflects and is about his feelings towards Dazai, Atsushi, and the ADA as a whole. (Again, I’ll explain this more in a bit, but…there is one particular set of lyrics that truly sets this up for me: “Skyfall is where we start”; obviously, Sigma has had his casino and known the people in it for awhile, from his perspective, but do you know who he does meet in the episode Skyfall, and first starts to find some small measure of hope/consolation in? Atsushi. The ADA.)

Okay, with that in mind, now let’s on to the main bit!

This is the end Hold your breath and count to ten

In the most recent chapters, Dazai and Sigma are trapped underwater, and literally have to hold their breath to survive. As he runs out of air, Sigma is counting the moments until he can resurface, but fears it may not happen because Dazai seems determined to stop him (for good reason, it turns out)

Feel the Earth move and then Hear my heart burst again

Being with Dazai and having hope of joining the ADA has shifted Sigma’s world around him, changing his worldview and making his heart explode with genuine hope at all of the kind deeds they’ve performed for him — especially when he realizes Dazai is not trying to kill him by keeping him underwater but protect him.

For this is the end I've drowned and dreamt this moment

As they’re staying under the water and near out of air to share, Sigma almost fully accepts his fate, thinking to himself that he may die this way, but at least he was able to dream of a beautiful life for once in those few precious moments he shared with the ADA.

So overdue, I owe them

Sigma has waited a long time to have a place to permanently belong and feel loved and cared for, and he feels indebted to the Agency for all they’ve done for him — all their acts of kindness.

Swept away, I'm stolen

When Dazai was given a chance to pick something to take with him in Mersault, he stole Sigma from the DOA completely, and this action also sweeps Sigma away with surprise, hope, and gratitude inside.

Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together

This one is probably pretty self-explanatory; Sigma isn’t afraid of death, as long as he stands with the ADA in hope of a good life, though this attitude also perfectly fits his attitude towards the Casino in the Skyfall ep and how he stood with his people against the Hunting Dogs, unafraid to die for them.

Skyfall is where we start

I already went over this one a bit, but Skyfall is the ep where he and Atsushi (and by extension the ADA) meet for the first time; it’s his start with knowing the ADA — the time when he first experiences true hope that doesn’t involve him being used and discarded in the end.

A thousand miles and poles apart

I think this part is kinda metaphorical to how he at first thinks he and the ADA are on opposite sides, and that they care nothing for him besides forcing him to use his ability; in his eyes, they are worlds apart and he could never even get close to their world of light.

Where worlds collide and days are dark

Yet, in that moment of Atsu trying to save him, Sigma begins to feel they’re not so far apart, after all. 

Their worlds collided in that brief moment, on one of his darkest days, and he felt grateful for that, even though he still felt his fate was sealed and that he had to let go of Atsu’s hand to prevent him from tumbling to his death with him.

You may have my number, you can take my name But you'll never have my heart

I believe this would be directed at everyone else whom had used and abused him up until this point, and, from his perspective, took his memory from him; they can take everything from him, own him, rob him of his true identity, etc., but he will never be one of them. He’ll never truly be a terrorist. His heart belongs in the light — with the ADA; he realizes that now.

Where you go, I go What you see, I see

As a member of the server we were in, Cloudii, pointed out, I think this could be a reference to how similar Sigma sees himself to Atsushi and vice versa, but I think it could also be a reference to his willingness to follow the ADA (both literally and metaphorically) and with the last line, his ability to gain knowledge of someone else’s knowledge (and thereby in a limited way experiences) through touch.

I know I'd never be me Without the security [Of] All your loving arms Keeping me from harm Put your hand in my hand And we'll stand

The lines about “put your hand in my hand, and we’ll stand” in particular strongly remind me of the moment when Atsu tries to save Sigma by holding his hand when he dangled off the casino, and reflects both Atsu’s desire to have him keep holding on and pull him to solid ground, and Sigma’s desire to stand by the ADA and repay them for kindness by using his ability for them right before what he believes will be his death.

That being said, I also think this whole set of lyrics above matches Sigma’s attitude towards the ADA and his determination to stand by them now in general, even in the most dire of times. 

He knows that he’ll never get to be who he wants to be and live the life he wants to live, having a place of belonging, an identity, people who love him genuinely, if he doesn’t learn to put his faith in them and trust that they are different from the rest of those who had him before. The ADA seems to love and protect him and so he’ll do his best, ordinary as he feels he is, to stand by them, too, until his last breath — using his ability and whatever else he may have as necessary, as they face down the end of the world as they know it and those who would bring it about together.

Anyway, yeah, that’s my analysis for today! Thank you for reading! Love y’all. 🥺💖

[alwayschasingrainbows]

Tangled Web Readalong

Chapter 1.2.

Aunt Becky, in my opinion, is written in a mocking way, as a caricature of all those nosy relatives that each one of us has in our environment. She is a typical aunt who, when there is an awkward silence at the Christmas table, will immediately seize the opportunity to stab the person sitting next to her, asking countless questions and expecting detailed answers. We, the readers, laugh at Aunt Becky's sarcastic retorts, but let's face the truth: each one of us has probably felt insecure in the company of a similar person at one time or another.

Maud's writing genius is best demonstrated while describing family scenes; she had a unique sense of humor and a sense of observation. Aunt Becky's party doesn't seem very pleasant: everyone falls victim to the sarcastic remarks of the head of the family; but everyone shows up anyway, each time.

I think almost everyone was intrigued by Aunt Becky's personality; she is undoubtedly one of the most interesting older women characters that Maud has created. I really liked her jokes and recalling family stories. A huge plus for the scene of applying rouge on the cheeks:

"It's no more than decent at your age," protested Ambrosine.

"Decency's a dull dog," retorted Aunt Becky. "I parted company with it long ago."

Then, Aunt Becky's reaction to Nan's makeup:

"Go upstairs and wash that stuff off your lips and cheeks," she said. "I won't have any painted snips around here."

It's a bit like Aunt Becky saying, "I'm eighty-five, so I'm allowed." Of course, this is pure hypocrisy, but it must be admitted that it is very funny one.

Speaking of Nan, her way of dressing should have resembled Ilse Burnley's, but it doesn't, not in the slightest. I have a feeling that Nan dresses to impress others, while Ilse dresses only for herself.

Nan's mother reminds me so much of one od Valancy Stirling's relatives: "Aunt Alberta, enormously fat, with an amiable habit of always referring to her husband as “he,” as if he were the only male creature in the world, who could never forget that she had been a great beauty in her youth" (Blue Castle),

vs:

"She was an enormously fat woman, with a rather deplorable penchant for wearing bright colours and over-rich materials, who had been very slim and beautiful in a youth." (Tangled Web).

Characters that caught my attention (and the quotes, describing them) are

Peter Penhallow

We know from chapter 1.1. that "had it not been for the jug, Peter Penhallow might to-day have been photographing lions alone in African jungles" (how delightful and wild!!!!).

In chapter 1.2. we find out that Peter is a free spirit and a nature lover: "Peter is here," said his sister Nancy Dark eagerly. "He's out on the veranda. You know Peter hates to be cooped up in a room. He's so accustomed to--to--"

"The great open spaces of God's outdoors," murmured Aunt Becky ironically."

Maybe it is me overthinking, but I can easily spot some resemblance to Barney Snaith; both men prefer open space and life wildness, surrounded by beautiful, untamed nature. They both seem to abandon accepted conventions and norms. Both of them do not fit into the quiet society of a small town, but seek experiences that other people cannot understand.

Gay Penhallow

She has some of Rilla's innocence and romantism in her! Gay seems as such a radiant, cheerful girl, who brings beauty and laughter everywhere she goes (very similar to pre-war Rilla). She resembles young Nan Blythe, too: Blythe by name, Blythe by nature. If Google is right, their names somehow match, too:

The name "Blythe" is both a boy's name and a girl's name of English origin meaning "happy, carefree".

The name "Gay"'s meaning: cheerful, joyful, merry".

Margaret Penhallow:

She just seems so sweet and kind: "her thin, sensitive face flushing pitifully and her peculiarly large, soft, grey-blue eyes filling with tears, went blindly to the first vacant chair."

Her description: soft, big eyes filling with tears, sensitive face reminds me a little about Aunt Laura from Emily of New Moon: kind, sweet, good-natured, but also rather weak and easily-bossed.

"Perhaps Margaret still wrote poems. A little shell-covered box in her trunk might know something about that. But the public press knew them no more, much to the clan's thankfulness."

Penny Dark:

"What's the matter with you, Penny? You're not as good-looking as you generally believe you are."

"He was a fat, tubby little fellow, with a curly grey beard and none-too-plentiful curly hair. As usual, he was as well-groomed as a cat. He still considered himself a gay young wag, and felt that nothing but the jug could have lured him into a public appearance under the circumstances."

He is exactly how I imagine Emily's cousin - Andrew Murray, or Emily's almost fiancée - Aylmer Vincent might look and act like, 30 years post series.

Moon Man (described in a separate post).

Uncle Pippin:

"Uncle Pippin shifted his wad of gum to the other side of his mouth and manufactured a cheerful lie instantly for the credit of the clan."

Chef's kiss!

[altraviolet]

Your tips for writing were very helpful! I've been shuffling through all of your stuff and absorbing every crumb of advice I can. Through your own analysis and some self reflection, I think it's my environment. My mood largely affects my writing ability, and I just don't have a hidie hole to sink myself into so I can be in a decent enough mood to write. The comment you made about shorter chapters works better, I realize now because it matches closer to my mood swings. I'll do my best to apply all of your advice because it's really helpful. I won't give up on writing just yet ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑

Oooh thanks for reporting back! I'm happy to have helped :)

It sucks when you don't have a nice place for yourself ;A; I hope you will be able to carve out a happy lil home someday. Peace is good for concentration. I've never written at a coffee shop or library type location, but maybe one of those is available to you?

Happy writing! ᕕ(⌐■u■)ᕗ ♪♬

[valyrianfreehold]

do you have any thoughts about the objectification of dragons, treating them as mere weapons when they’re still living breathing creatures etc

First and foremost I want to start this with the fact that dragons are not real and I don’t want to get into discourse about things like police dogs. (Police dogs are bad)

In this setting dragons were literally created for the purpose of combat but on the other hand I wouldn’t really call them domesticated you know? We see firsthand in Dany chapters that left to their own devices dragons will eat anything when not kept contained. In FB prior to the creation of the dragon pit dragons were largely left to their own devices and I highly doubt when they weren’t close to their rider they were off indulging in a strictly four legged diet. What is a peasant going to say or do when a family member gets picked off by royal property? The sad story of Hazzea and Drogon is definitely not a unique one.

Left to their own devices dragons will just as happily kill and eat each other as they would any human or sheep. We see that with Sunfyre and the Cannibal. And those two dragons and their actions are giant freaking allegories/metaphors for kingship and power. Like you simply cannot analyze dragons in any way without acknowledging this. Even Barth’s observation of dragons having mutable gender has more meaning than just biological fact.

Dragons ARE weapons. And while we have plenty of examples of riders who don’t use their dragons for combat we never are given any example of a dragon not totally gung-ho for a fight. I think it fits thematically as much as it does logically that dragons love combat because it was what they were created to do.

When it comes to normal wild animals, it’s simply not efficient to be always on the lookout for a chance to fight. When any animal does come to blows, there is a heavily weighted decision to do so from the instigator. Domesticated animals can be bred to be aggressive and get joy from aggression. War horses, for an easy relevant example weren’t made to be docile. But this all sort of circles back to the question of whether dragons are domesticated despite their origin. They can be tamed, sure, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous or unpredictable. Syrax still killed her rider’s son for trying to mount her. But it’s not like dragons don’t show restraint, they’re not off devouring every human they see the minute they’re hungry.

Idk it’s a difficult but interesting question to answer because you can only apply so much objective logic to a fantastical creature created by blood magic for the sole purpose of violence and written as an allegory or metaphor for power. It’s a question that Dany asks herself in some shape or form when pondering legacy and I’m very curious to see what conclusions she’ll draw especially after the killer cliffhanger we’ve been left with for over a decade.

I personally think that dragons in this setting are made to consume and destroy and riding them into battle in of itself was not cruel towards them. We do have examples of dragons that never saw human combat (Dreamfyre and Cannibal come to mind) and Silverwing’s story is an interesting one. She survived the Dance and like Cannibal just faded from history.

Tl;dr If they were suddenly struck by sentience I don’t think they’d raise much objection to being asked if they wanted to fight. Great. We are now entering the Paarthunax dilemma!!! Ifykyk.

[ldysmfrst]

Breaking and Entering (1) - Lovren

Status: Ongoing Series

Chapter number: 1 of unknown

Word count for Chapter: 3,269

Word count for Story: 3,269

Genre: Werewolf

There are no chapter titles, but each chapter will have a name listed that indicates which POV the chapter is from. Mindlinks are in italics. Conversations with their inner wolf are in bold italics.

A little about the author: I am a mother of two beautiful children. One of which is special needs, and on 3/28, they lost 75% of their vision. I started a Patreon if you feel the heart to donate towards helping with the medical costs of appointments, medication, and modifications to the house, which insurance doesn't cover.

Warnings: (I am not good at this, but I will try. Let me know if I missed anything!!) NOT BETA READ!! This story will have a bit of angst, fluff, smut, f/m, and m/m. This chapter does mention parent death and foster care.

Side note: This is the first story I have ever written. Since I am laid up on pain meds from almost breaking my ankle, I thought I would share something with you, my dearest readers. This will be posted on my Patreon as well. I hope you enjoy it!

BREAKING AND ENTERING MASTER LIST

LDYSMFRST MASTER LIST

High school was the last milestone for youth everywhere. Mine happens to be at Lunar Ridge High. Like most high schools, there are three main cliques at LRH: The Clackers, The Worms, and The Invisibles. 

The Clackers are the popular students consisting of cheerleaders, prepsters, and jocks. I call them ‘The Clackers’ because the girls always wear high heels that clack on the school floor, announcing their presence wherever they go. 

The jocks and male prepsters are also classified as Clackers because where a Clacker girl is, you will find a Clacker guy. They follow them, acting like a starving dog after a juicy steak. It is disgusting and barbaric, but hey, they are teenage boys. What else would you expect?

The Worms are all the nerdy students, such as spelling bee champs, straight-A students, and World Peace-type kids. They controlled all the science labs throughout the day. If they were not there, they took over the bleachers and discussed the newest technology or scientific discovery. 

Oddly enough, though, LRH never really had a plethora of Worms in the Library, just hanging out and reading random stuff. Most were in and out as if staying longer would get them unwanted attention. 

Last and most certainly least is The Invisibles. The name should explain itself. They tend to be more intelligent and politically inclined to be a Worm but are “sneaky” about it. They don’t qualify in looks, popularity, or athleticism to be considered a Clacker; therefore, they are Invisible to everyone. Imagine every Invisible to act like Violet from “The Impossibles,” just disappearing whenever they need to. 

We won’t talk about the Outcasts because, technically, they belong to one of the three main groups but just rebel and refuse to fall into a clique. I always thought it was safer to fall into one but hide almost in plain sight. It kept people from asking questions, and well… I got left alone for the most part. 

One of the main reasons it was easy for me to pick a clique at LRH was because the Clackers and the Worms looked like they belonged on the cover of Italian Vogue. It was like some kinda fashion week was happening year-round. I swear this town must have something in the water or really outstanding genetics. 

This is strange because if they all pulled from the same genetic pool, then those crazy stories of deformed kids due to incest and such didn’t apply here, even though it was scientifically proven.

The LRH campus should belong in the middle of a metropolis, not some dinky mountain town. 

A strange thing about LRH is the lack of fencing around the school. There is nothing to define the edge of the school grounds. It has a vast parking lot out front and a large field that leads to a beautiful forest mountain range in the back. They don’t seem to care about people (or wildlife) coming and going as they please. 

It makes me curious about how the school deals with truancies. 

LRH is also the cleanest school in the history of schools, even with its large campus, which includes five double-story buildings, a pool, and a soccer field. 

The first buildings you see at LRH are the café and the gymnasium. Both are single-story buildings with very dynamic renderings of running wildlife—no, I take that back: running wolves. It is a beautiful mural, and with all the howling at night around this town, it makes perfect sense they chose wolves as the focus. 

Between them sits the administration building, the tallest building on campus, and in Lunar Ridge. The admin building is the only part of the school that is open year-round at 6:00 a.m., closes at 6:00 p.m., and allows anyone in town to come in and check out books. 

With its impressive size, the admin building is a gateway to the school. It is a significantly modernized building for a city this size. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, which creates a very open and welcoming feeling. It also has a 13 Ghosts-styled glasshouse creepiness to it. 

The first floor holds the typical High School admin offices, and the second through fourth floors contain the town library with pristine glass walls. If you love books, it is a breathtaking view not only because of the view from the windows but also because of the stacks of books inside. 

The top floor is restricted. 

Only those with a special badge can open the elevators, and business people come and go like it’s the Town Hall. Unlike the other floors, the top level looked like it had a glassy material, but you couldn’t see into it like the other floors. If it is the Town Hall, it makes sense that privacy must be needed. 

The cluster of buildings on the other side of the parking lot from the school would be considered the bustling town of Lunar Ridge. It is a simple town. There is a Main Street center, a few convenience and gas combo stores, two grocery stores, a twin drive-in movie theater, and a large city park with an aquatic center. 

There wasn’t even a “Starbucks” or “Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf” in sight, and the closest mall was in the next town over, wherever that is.

I live in Lunar Ridge with the Moores family: Rachel, Jonathan, and their daughter Selena. 

Selena is about three months older than me. She is the LRH varsity cheerleading co-captain, and she has the classic Barbie doll look—platinum blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and perky body features—a carbon copy of Rachel. 

Rachel was the Varsity Cheerleader Captain when she attended LRH and doesn’t seem to age… at all. If you compare the photos of her on the walls to how she looks now, you would think she was her own younger sister. She works part-time as a receptionist for LRH to “keep herself busy.”

On the other hand, Johnathan probably was a Worm, possibly a jock Clacker, back in the day and is the current Lunar Ridge Police Chef. Come to think of it, I never see him in a police uniform, just all-black bouncer-type clothes. He has pitch-black hair with some gray showing that looks more like silver strokes of lightning. 

John has the brightest, friendliest brown eyes on the planet. He loves Rachel and Selena to the ends of the earth, and you can tell they love him back just as much. Jonathan welcomes me the most out of all the Moores family, making staying here a little more bearable. 

Selena is dating the soccer team captain, Mitchell “Mitch” Gunner. Mitch is your typical soccer guy, standing about 6’ 2” with a runner’s body. You wouldn’t know that he is buff until you see him practice. Then, you can finally see the rippling muscles under his sun-kissed skin. His eyes are blue but more dark blue than Selena’s crystal blue. However, their hair color seems like they got the same dye job. 

Mitch is also one of the only “kids” I know who has a badge for the private elevator at the library. Don’t ask me why.

Mitch and Selena were always the ones that had the most significant Clacker following. They both had suitors crushing on them regularly. They tried their best to gain a moment of their attention despite the lack of care from either Mitch or Selena. The followers acted as if their happiness depended on the presence of Selena or Mitch. 

Strangely enough, neither one of them hung out together in or out of school. Sure, they acknowledged each other in the halls, but you would not have pegged them as friends. 

That all changed at Selena’s 18th birthday party. Everyone and their brother seemed to be at the Moores’ home for the party. I stayed in my room for the party, especially since I wouldn’t stay long. I had only been with the Moores’ for about two months, and I didn’t want to deal with explaining who I was. 

Apparently, I missed out on something huge. 

Now, all of a sudden, Selena and Mitch go everywhere together. They are together at the park, at the house, and everywhere, and all their suitors suddenly stop pursuing them. It was as if there was a switch that intensified everything between them. It suited me just fine because that meant fewer people to avoid over the rest of the summer break. 

Selena continued blabbering about how they were High School Royalty because they were the first senior couple. It has done wonders for their egos, and I am surprised they can still fit through a doorway.

No, I am not related to the Moores. 

They are foster family number eleven, but then again, who’s counting? I can hardly remember anything about my parents besides what the incident report tells me. All it tells me is that they died on the scene of a car accident while on their way home. 

I was only seven when it happened, and every time I try to get a copy of the report, it is always blacked out. The doctors say I can’t or won’t be able to remember much of my life before the accident because of something to do with the Post-Traumatic Stress of losing them. I do know they were my only family, so I got put into the foster system. 

The Moores are considered family number eleven because I don’t belong as an add-on. I wouldn’t have lost my parents if the powers-that-be wanted me in a family. 

The foster families never seemed to care about spending much time with me or treating me like family, so why stick around? I made life exciting for me; besides, something in me never felt quite settled with the families I was dumped into. This leads to the main reason why I have been with so many families: I guess it aggravates the foster families when the cops keep bringing you home.  Then they don’t want you anymore as it is too much drama for them, even though I was just a paycheck. 

Before you know it, you are off to the next family to help them pay for their rent or addiction. 

Eleven families in ten years means I am with most families for less than a year. I don’t even count families I stay with for under three months. So far, I have lasted with the Mors for four months, officially making them family number eleven. 

My name is Lovren, which means “dear secret” in Old English, but I tend to go by Ren. No, I don’t care to have a last name. The foster system decided my surname would be that of whatever family I was with at the time. I have been with one too many to remember. 

So, technically, my last name is Moores. 

I am seventeen and have fair skin with some freckles splattered about. I stand at 5’9” and weigh about 240 lbs, most of which is in my butt and my thighs. I guess I am what some people call “curvy” or fat; which one they use depends on if they are talking to me or talking about me. 

I am proudly one of the few Invisible seniors at LRH. 

I was placed in the middle of Nowheresville in late spring, and because my grades are always stellar, I didn’t need to attend LRH for the remainder of my junior year. Besides, it would have annoyed everyone if I left before my 3-month “trial period” ended.  

When I moved in, the Moores gave me Selena’s old room, including her bedroom set, and, this time, I could bring most of my clothes. I only bring a little with me from house to house. It makes things easier for me. I want to save time and effort about little items getting lost. 

The only thing necessary to me is the only picture I own, and it is one of my mother and father in their engagement photo with me in her baby bump.

Honestly, I swear the system put me with this family and this town because they didn’t think I could cause much trouble. Don’t they know idle hands are the devil’s work?

My favorite place in this whole teeny tiny town is the library. I like to sit on the fourth floor in the southeast corner. There is a desk with a Mac, a comfy loveseat, and a perfect town view. I discovered it when I first moved here. I love watching the dark shadows return to the mountains as the sun wakes the town. 

In the few months I have been here, I have never seen anyone, aside from the random cop-looking guys, in this section of the library. They are all pleasant and leave me alone. I am not sure if it is because I am just sitting there “behaving” or if Jon told them who I was. 

My go-to section is the Romance and Fantasy section. All the shifter, vampire, and magic-styled romance, erotica, and adventure stories that I could read were my secret obsession. 

Sadly, with school starting today, I must be reasonable and focused on my studies. I had one of the highest GPAs in all my previous schools and want to keep that up. I don’t want anyone to know because I don’t want to be noticed by The Worms. 

I also need to figure out a way for the school board not to want me to be valedictorian. However, I only have eight more months before the Moores inevitably find some reason to kick me out. This means I will not be graduating from LRH, so what’s the point of fitting in and finding friends?

I have my day already figured out. 

Since I am a senior, they let me pick my class schedule. When not hiding in the library before and after school, I sit in the back corner of my classes nearest the exit. I prefer sitting there because I can get in and out of my classes without bumping into anyone. Like every new school, the teachers will keep trying to get me to participate. 

Most students who “are like me” don’t care to pay attention, get into trouble, and fail their classes. They were wrong about one thing: I wouldn’t fail any of my classes. My teachers typically learn not to call on me because I don’t want to answer their questions. I wouldn’t put it past some of the student body to end up thinking I am mute and probably dumb. 

I’m lucky to have a free period right before lunch, making it easy to get my food before anyone else even gets out of class. It will also allow me to go into the library to eat by myself without anyone noticing. I am pretty sure the librarian knows I have eaten inside over the summer break. Still, she’s never said anything to me. I hope now that school starts, she doesn’t decide to have a problem with it. I always ensure it looks like I was never there when I leave the area. 

Then again, that is how I tend to live everywhere I visit, hence my being Invisible. Now that you are up to speed let’s move on.

My routine will be simple; I will do it on autopilot after the first week. I wake up at 5:30 a.m., shower, get dressed, maybe get something to eat, and go to school. Today is the first day of my last year of High School. My clothing choices are mostly the same in style and color. 

Today, it consists of black ladies-styled boxer shorts with a matching black jersey knit sports bra. Black bootcut jeans, a black tank top tucked in with a deep purple crop top with sleeves made with black lacing that ends slightly past my fingertips. My outfit is complete with black Doc Martens and a pullover hoodie with an artist rendering of Harley Quinn in Joker colors, purple and green. 

My favorite colors are black and purple, and yes, I always like to layer my clothes like a Russian Nesting Doll. Trust me, layering my clothes is beneficial in many ways.

My brown wavy hair isn’t long enough to put into a tie and have all of it stay, so I brush it out and pray it doesn’t frizz. I don’t wear any makeup. After all, I don’t want to be teased by everyone for trying to be like The Clackers because I sure as heck don’t have the body for it. 

The absence of all makeup also allows me to draw less attention to my eyes, which is my favorite asset. I always thought my eyes were the one part of me that connected me to my parents. 

Why avoid others noticing? 

Because making eye contact with someone always turns the conversation from a pleasant one into a retelling of the story of my parent’s death. Ultimately, it always became a pity party that started because they wanted to know how I got to have two different colored eyes. 

One eye is brown, like muddy water, and the other is green, like smashed peas. I have learned that avoiding eye contact is the best thing to do, although it seems to make me stand out here even more since most of the talking at Lunar Ridge involves either staring at each other or staring off into space. 

Running downstairs, I grab my black leather backpack and a Monster Java Energy Drink. Don’t judge; Javas are my secret to being a morning dove, not a chronically exhausted pigeon since I have always been a night owl. 

I am out the door at 6:15 a.m. before anyone else in the house wakes up. Successfully avoiding the morning chitchat. 

“How did you sleep?”

“What are you doing today?” 

“Do you remember blah blah blah?”

I hate forced conversations with Rachel and Selena. When I talk with Jonathan, they never seem forced. It’s like he cares and is interested in what I will say instead of just wanting me to sit and listen to him rant or boast about whatever is happening like the rest of this house.

My classes don’t start until 8 a.m. because getting a zero period would gain Worm awareness of my presence. So I have plenty of time to walk to school. Selena has a Mustang that is bright pink and white. Her “pony,” as she calls it, is a typical Clacker car that I wouldn’t be caught dead in, don’t worry; the feeling is mutual.

Surprise, surprise, I don’t have a car, nor do I want to catch the bus. So yes, I walk by myself in the wee hours of the morning. Besides, I like the walk even though the Moores’ house is on the opposite side of the town. I enjoy seeing the quaint Main Street shops before the people start buzzing around. 

I know I tend to rag on this town's being small, secluded, and plain lost, but in a way, it allows me to feel calm. Watching the shops prepare to open, smelling the fresh bread from the bakery, and feeling the fresh morning dew relaxes my soul as I walk every morning. 

I have no doubt you have figured out that I like to keep to myself as much as possible. Walks like this allowed me to enjoy my last bit of alone time before facing the crowded school where I would be crammed into seven hours a day, five days a week.

((edited 9/14/24))

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[captain-astors]

Hi, can you do 003 for Arima Kishou please?

I ABSOLUTELY CAN! Fun fact this is about the length of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Telltale Heart. God I was hoping someone would ask for him yet, despite my excitement I feel like I'm going to disappoint the Arima likers and dislikers twain, but no matter. 

Mood for this entire thing: Screaming.

Behold the most horrendous thing I’ve ever written. 

How I feel about this character: all caps warning for about a paragraph bellow the first sentence.

Places him in a shoebox with no notable amount of affection nor violence, simply acceptance that this is where he belongs. 

THIS IS A MAN THAT SLEEPS WITH BLANK, WHITE SOCKS ON IN THE MOST NEUTRAL, BORING NIGHTCLOTHES YOU’VE EVER SEEN. AS A CHILD ANY POTENTIAL EXTRAVAGANT FASHION TASTES WERE FORCEFULLY SUCKED OUT AND ABSORBED BY SOUTA LIKE A BLACK HOLE OF REPRESSED HOMOSEXUALITY AND TOXIC MASCULINITY, AND THE SCRAPS OF ANYTHING BARELY NOTICEABLE LEFT BEHIND WERE TAKEN BY RIZE TO MAKE THAT LOVELY DRESS. HIS UNIQUE HAIR COLORS ARE A GIFT OF PITY FROM GOD BECAUSE OTHERWISE HE WOULD BE SO TERRIBLY NON-DESCRIPT THAT ABSOLUTELY NO ONE COULD RECOGNIZE HIM, EVEN IF THEY’D KNOWN HIM FOR YEARS. HIS FACE AND CLOTHING ARE TOO NEUTRAL TO BE IDENTIFIED BY THE MOST ADVANCED AI. GOODNIGHT. Okay. Now that I’ve cleared up the feral screaming, funny story. I don’t know if I’ve ever detailed my terrible facial blindness here (probably not, it’s not a crucial detail about myself) but that applies to fictional characters as well. Things like moles, hairstyles, clothing, and speaking mannerisms are lifesavers. I do genuinely believe him to be a very neutral looking character, but half the reason for my rant above was the fact that I kept wondering “Why is Kaneki fighting himself” for 2 pages of the end of the first manga, and did not recognize him as the same guy for a truly unfortunate number of chapters in the second despite moving on to :re very quickly after finishing the first tg. Then I thought he and tatara were the same person for a while. It was bad. And I don’t know why the glasses didn’t mark out SOMETHING for me, I think I’m just too used to seeing them on and off faces at different times that it just… didn’t register? But I really don’t have any good justification for it. 

I don’t understand why some people hate him so violently but at the same time his adult version falls into the “a guy” category for me. Had his moments, but I definitely could’ve found more constructed sympathy for his plight had the story not been so afraid of allowing the reader to be bored by focusing on someone else that it wasn’t constantly bashing me over the head with “but don’t you care about how KANEKI is affected by this?!?” No actually I don’t, because I understand him well enough from the last hundred-something chapters that have revolved around this guy to have a good idea of what’s going on inside his head. Arima remains a mystery, his choice to put the responsibility of the fate of this all on Kaneki instead of someone else when he passes or trying to tough out his inevitable fate up to interpretation, and I think that’s a portion of the reason he’s passionately disliked by a large portion of the fandom. This is all speculations of a madman, but from my point of view his mistreatment of Haise/Kaneki/Whatever, while ultimately motivated by the desire to exploit, wasn’t the byproduct of explicit malevolence, but rather in that aching pattern of every garden child, say it with me folks, being afraid to/not knowing how to healthily love, or even care about a person in a genuine way that doesn’t end up hurting both people involved. He did care about Kaneki, but first and foremost he felt a responsibility to use him. Tangent to more general and less Arima-focused thoughts, this isn’t to say that writing a character in a way that leaves things up to imagination is a bad thing in writing. In fact, I really enjoy taking the broken pieces of a puzzle and attaching them together into an image of my own liking after being left with little to work with (Hi Shikorae), but the thing about Tokyo Ghoul is that this is the case for a lot of characters. It’s the inverse of the Arcane (the show not the game) problem, instead of every side character being so deeply fleshed out when they don’t always need to be, the vast majority of side characters are left to interpretation though some of them logically shouldn’t, we could’ve been given a little more to work with… maybe. I’ll never know if this is just my sadness over the lack of content for my own favorites when I speak like this but still, I feel like every character I’m attached to is left in this awkward “almost works perfectly but not quite” area as a byproduct of lack of attention, whereas Kaneki does the same but as a byproduct of too much (Juuzou lives in the middle ground good for him). I am filled with righteous fury that is only quelled by unending love for this story, somebody sedate me. 

Not the worst option for “One-Eyed King” placeholder but I’m not even going to pretend I understand the why of it enough to criticize or praise. I don’t think it was necessary if the One-Eyed King was more of a symbolic concept of revolution than a person to begin with but honestly I could just be missing content. Such a cool name for something that seems ultimately underutilized, but I do like the note of Arima being unknown as the One-Eyed King when, similarly, unlike his brother’s, his revolution is a quiet, bitter and clever thing that takes years instead of equally clever but flashy, impossible to ignore. I could ramble for hours on the dichotomy of their plans to take down the circumstances and system of the origin, the merit of taking things down from the inside out and planning for the generation to come, vs. screaming the injustices of the world in everyone’s face, making a mockery of it all until you can’t look away because it’s always been everywhere but now you can see it too. How unfortunate the conclusion of their plans both ended up in the hands of Kaneki to execute, by design or otherwise.

Oh hey back to my issues with the lack of focus, those were almost completely gone with Jack! I love Jack-Arima and half of the reason for it is his dynamic with Fura. I live for the extremely controlled, calm, quiet, powerful and intelligent yet isolated Arima being temporarily pulled out of his almost machine-like world by the aimless yet fun-loving Taishi, who in turn learns what it means to be striving to protect something, and what it means to take a life. My qualm with it? I wish it was longer. It would’ve hurt even more to know he had to live the rest of his short life pressed back into a stifling role if he actually got to learn, even briefly, what it means to live normally. But, something something in order to know how to love you must be loved, the world didn’t raise him right and even that small period of time would have thrown a ripple in the chain of events that led to his choices and bad father figure role. Even so I like to imagine he looks back on those few weeks where he got to try to “live normally” (even if it trailed right back to ghoul extermination) with fondness.

Anyways to summarize Arima is another one of those characters I am choosing to be oh so normal about. I say choosing but I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. Just a guy, but in a way that makes me want to pelt him with beanbags affectionately. It’s funny how little and how much I care about him simultaneously. The disjunction of man, am I right? 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: And thus the disappointment of everyone commences. Congratulations on being the first person to pick a character I actually have opinions on. I see the arieto in your icon, you’re so right for that, but I flip between seeing eto as aro or shipping her with Itori, Rize, or both, and I want everyone to die alone unless it’s tragic, witnessed, unpreventable or caused by themselves, seeing their lover in their final moments is not a kindness to either but a cruelty. Hello, yes vashwood and lawlight did shape me fundamentally, and I am the world’s most spiteful creature, a russian nesting doll of mutually assured destruction. Anyways I especially want Arima to die alone, besides Kaneki, unloved with that as an exception and staring the one child who latched on to him and hoped for so much in the eyes with the guilt of knowing “I did this to him and because of me there’s a good chance he will get worse from here on out.” Arieto is a hilarious pairing conceptually and personality wise, and outside of a canon universe I can absolutely get on board, the hijinks would be legendary, but in-universe? Eto’s LEAGUES too good for you Arima. Love you, but you could stand to suffer some more. 

Oh also I’m not quite sure if I ship them but Arima and Fura kind of have the energy of guys who kissed once in highschool and have adapted the mentality of “if I don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.” But they do think about it. So maybe I ship them in the Jack era for 5 minutes of poor judgement, teenage-ness, and the intrinsic desire to make that rivalry homoerotic, and then I’m just here for the bisexual denial. 

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: H a i s e that is his son and he does not know how to raise him and I can’t even say he’s really trying but he’s definitely there and just. Oh I wish he knew how to lead a normal life. Also Furuta, they never met in the parts of the story we’re shown, and they don’t particularly need to for me, but just conceptually they’re such fascinating foils. Living manifestations about everything I love and hate in the non-protagonists of Tokyo Ghoul, they should both burn. The most siblings to ever not sibling. 

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t care what power scaling this universe gives us and how far up on it they place him. I could beat up this old man in a fight. I COULD. I WILL. I’M GOING TO KICK HIM DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS, WITNESS AND REVEL IN MY SPECTACLE. Also he has no charisma. None. He’s strong and intelligent, that is all he has going for him. And some nice hips but you didn’t hear that from me. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: The realization. Some kind of spinoff that further detailed the schemes and functions of his collaboration with Eto behind the scenes. Give me the forbidden one-eyed monarchs, not their narrative child. 

Favorite friendship for this character: Oh… the potential of Kureo being a healthy mentor figure (if you don’t elaborate enough on what happened with him teaching arima about quinques, I will assume the best for today), Akira (take notes on how to parent, Arima), Fura (but particularly the potential of them growing more distant and formal over the years as Arima is absorbed by his work and quiet aspirations.) 

My crossover ship: I don’t have one so I’ll just note that I listened to “The Way It Ends” from the Death Note musical for most of this and by god I have never felt so cringe.

Oh wait actually Elendira the Crimsonnail but just the Trimax version obviously. Trans queen.

[atrial-ofhorror-if]

Hello hello! I had more questions because i was messing around with the demo again and i was curious about the MC's backgrounds and whether they'll be integral down the line, or whether they're more just for flavor text for some interesting dialogue?

MC's background options are really horrible events that seemed to change their life, but there's no mention of it other than the introduction at the start with the demon. like the drowned cousins, or the murdered family etc

for instance, my canon playthrough is with an MC with the childhood friend who was murdered, and finding her body because her ghost told them to find it. and then later further in the game, my MC talks about the ghosts appearing 'suddenly' with no mention of lily at all. i guess in my headcanon at least, lily's death changed MC and they never really got over her death. she still haunts them, so to speak.

my same question applies to ex courtney and even partner in crime courtney. will they be make later appearances down the line? Dead courtney is of course...dead. but i was wondering how much of a problem ex courtney was gonna be, because they feel pretty important

Hey whisper, sorry for the late response again but you asked me another good question I had to think about. And then I forgot about answering it because of work and some long forgotten invoices that our fiscal department just "happened" to find 🥲🥲🥲

But eitherway, onto the answers!

The backgrounds are definitely important and NOT for flavor. Your choices that you make, especially when we get further into the game and your MC finally being able to confront the spirits that haunt you, will play a fairly large role in the game. A main takeaway for everyone in regards to the backgrounds is that the ghosts that haunt/harrass you in the beginning of the game have been taken by wraith. Whether it's your mother's spirit, Lily's mother, or the waterlogged spirit.

Now it's interesting that you headcanon your MC still being affected by Lily's death, cause she does show up in this upcoming update and it's going to be... ALOT for MC. But I think the main takeaway is that the spirits that visit MC, at least now, don't have a choice in the matter of showing up to them. When Lily's body was found, her spirit was able to move on. It SHOULD have been the same for her mother.. but something is keeping her on this plane.

If it helps Lily isn't mad at MC. She could never be mad at them. They were her safe haven, even up until the moment that she was killed and came back. Especially when her father caved to the spirit 👀👀

Now there are 2 ways in which I plan to implement the MCs background, 2 of which I have no problem letting you guys know about. However the other 2, I'm still thinking about how to best implement:

Curses/Gifts: Based upon your background your MC will gain an ability that helps them through the "game" and any real-life haunting instances. Currently, "You shouldn't have seen that" and "I've got friends on the other side" have their gifts coded/written out for this next update. "Waterlogged Fellows" probably won't show up until a little later based on that ability. The curses are something that MC can experience as we get further into the game. Cause technically, the current demo is just the prologue still. The first episode is what we can consider the first chapter.

Spoiler: This won't show up til later but when the demi-gorgon is recalling your regrets and your past, it's for a reason. That and the core choices you make within the different games you get sent into will determine "something special" that MC will find out.

Now the regrets, with special attention to Courtney, are important to an extent. All Courtneys, sans the dead Courtney, will show up later in the game and will be a big problem. For ex-Courtney, they are dangerous not just because they have delusions of grandeur and desire for MC but because of... reasons. If y'all get the special choice further in the game, go ahead and let Yue or Faizan kill them immediately and save yourself the trouble 🥴🥴🥴

Dead Courtney is kind of special because I have it plotted out as being more of a battle within yourself if you choose to still feel guilty. And MC will find that they've caught the attention of some... aheminterestingahem people. Partially, Jin is the reason this happens if you guys have met them earlier on in the fair.

Whew, that was a lot 😅🥴 But I hoped it answered your question! If you have any more let me know~ 🤎🤎

[little-peril-stories]

2024

It's the time of year where many of us think about the future and what's to come. I don't really do New Year's resolutions, and I've never done a real list of goals before. But as I'm thinking about what 2024 will bring, I'm feeling for the first time the desire to lay out my goals - or, at the very least, create a to-do list.

It might be interesting to see how much I overestimated my ability to get stuff done next year. 😅

No pressure to read this, it's largely for myself!

The Queen of Lies

Continue posting semi-regularly. Given the way the first half of the school year has gone, I figure that's probably the best I can do.

Rewrite Act 3. I'm actually so excited for this, and it's all planned out! But it's still not written, even if a lot of the juicy dialogue is sandwiched between bullet points of what happens.

Edit it...eventually. Perhaps in the latter half of the year. Or perhaps that's a 2025 job. Who knows?

angsty heist wip

Reveal the title. Coming sooner than you think.

Post the WIP intro early. TPOT's came when it was about half posted, and TQOL's came only a day before Chapter 1. I think I'll mix it up for angsty heist wip. Nobody peek on my drafts and see how long the wip intro has been chilling there. 😅

FINISH WRITING THIS DAMN BOOK. It's just got to happen. I've hit 2/4 POV character's midpoints, and the delicious confrontation/finale still needs to be written. It's all the good stuff!

Figure out posting plans. It's not coming until TQOL is done, so this is a very vague and fluid goal.

Book 1

Review beta feedback thoroughly.

Make a concrete plan for what I actually want to change and what I don't.

Apply feedback.

Reread and edit for typos/little things.

Do a second beta round.

Start preparing query materials in earnest.

Book 2

lol. start it again? postpone to 2025? who knows. low priority.

The Prince of Thieves -- the journey to self-publishing

Okay, real talk: the list below is long. I've never done any of this before, so I have NO clue of what's realistic and what's not. Is all of this possible in the year 2024? Maybe not. Is that okay? It's gonna have to be! The point of it isn't to marry myself to this list or else I've FAILED, but to have a clear idea of what commonly needs to be done in order to self-publish a novel. If some of the stuff doesn't happen, well, so be it! I’m also quite aware that the list below is not exhaustive. There are probably a million things I haven’t thought of!!

DONE - ISBN account made and approved

DONE - decide on pen name. Finally!

Beta stuff! Send it off, wait for feedback, review feedback, and then apply it. I'm almost there.

Attempt cover design. I am 73% confident in my ability to do it well. With an artist AND a graphic designer/marketer in my family, I think I've got a team who can help me with the technical/Photoshop stuff.

Hire cover designer if failure. (Definitely a possibility.)

Decide on book format/interior design elements. Pretty confident I can do this myself. 96% sure.

Make an author website. For realsies. (aaahhhhhhhhh)

Increase social media presence. Try not to cry about the existence of TikTok. Try not to get in my own head about this. The truth is the thought kind of makes my skin crawl but I also understand how it is is pretty much a necessity.

Learn marketing and create a marketing plan. I got this. probably. maybe. ennnhhhh.

Consider character/scene art commissions. I am uncertain about this one. Finances will determine whether this happens or not.

Cry a lot and be okay with that. I think I'm going to struggle a lot with this whole process. And you know what? That's all right. I will learn a lot. And even if it's scary...well, that will make it all the more rewarding in the end. 💕

[dvudushnydiaries]

Efficiently Reading, Researching, and Approaching Academia

❈ Making Academic Texts Less Daunting ❈

One of the largest issues regarding accessibility in academic spaces is the daunting nature of a lot of academic works, whether they're books, dissertations, or articles. This is usually caused by academic jargon, nightmarishly long run-on sentences, and sometimes the writing is just plain dense.

This first lesson will be some tips and tricks for making reading academic texts more digestible!

First and foremost, getting to the point matters, understanding the theme, argument, thesis, what-have-you will make everything else make sense. In order to do this, you will want to read three things, that are usually signposted or labelled within a text: the abstract, the introduction, and the conclusion. This is also a good trick to get the gist of a text if you have to read in a rush and don't need to use citations.

What Do These Components Tell You? ❈ The Abstract - An abstract is basically a summary of the entire paper or text, this will tell you the thesis, maybe some points of data, and the conclusion reached by the author ❈ The Introduction - The introduction will provide a more detailed thesis and will detail what theories or interpretations are being used in the paper. In some cases they may also provide historic or cultural contexts for an argument or point. ❈ The Conclusion - The conclusion will provide the finishing points of the text, it will touch on key points of information or debate, explain what this thesis or proven point means for the understanding of the event, item, site, etc. that is being written about.

All in all, these three points in a text will give you an overview of the purpose of the text, and typically these sections don't get too heavily muddled down in academic lingo, which makes them more accessible to a broader base of readers. You don't always need a detailed understanding, sometimes just getting the point is enough.

Taking Notes

Whether you're reading something for applying it to your own writings or just to consume information, annotate the shit out of it. It doesn't matter if you're writing on a digital copy of the text, writing as you read on a separate notepad, or if you print out an article and write your notes on that. Just! Take! Notes!

The purpose of this is to help you process your thoughts, make note of what interests or confuses you, and, in the case that you are writing something that needs citations, prevents plagiarism. Use whatever format (color coding, highlighting, etc.) that works for you, what matters is the act of taking notes will encourage you to be an active reader rather than eventually falling into passive reading (if you notice yourself falling into this, take a break! Your brain needs rest.)

Here are two examples of how I take notes, one is for a chapter I had to read for a discussion, the other is how I take notes for papers and publications: Discussion-focused notes in The Oxford Handbook for The Bronze Age Aegean

Information gathering notes for a paper on the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, text used written in print at top

Finding Sources There are many ways to find sources on a topic no matter the level of obscurity: ❈ Wikipedia - you really don't want to cite Wikipedia as a source, scrolling down to the sources/bibliography section at the bottom can give you a jumping off point. Usually full citations are given and sometimes the text/article in question is linked

❈ Google Scholar - I generally don't consider this the strongest search engine because it's difficult to narrow down by topic, discipline, etc. but it works in a pinch!

❈ JSTOR - A step above Google Scholar and it does allow stuff with a free membership, but you can also get further access with a paid membership or institutional access

❈ EBSCO - definitely has a learning curve but it has a large pool of information to pull from. The biggest downside is you usually can't download content. It has a different site for free content and content available for purchase or via institutional access.

❈ WorldCat - while it usually doesn't have the source itself accessible on the site, WorldCat will tell you where you can find what you're looking for and sometimes offers the ability to contact whoever is nearest to you that has the text

❈ Public Libraries - while public libraries are generally focused on non-research-based use, librarians are trained in research assistance and public libraries generally have access to inter-library loans (ILL) and can likely get books for you without needing you to travel far to get them

❈ Research Libraries - the biggest downside to many academic libraries is that you need to pay to access, however, if you can access them, they are typically more research-oriented than a public library and will often have specialists in certain subjects available to assist. An exception to the "paid" rule are usually state or federal libraries, such as the Library of Congress.

❈ Reaching Out To The Author Directly - with most journal publications, authors don't see a dime. If you can't pay for access, you can usually find the email of the author on an institution website and you can reach out to them there! It never hurts to ask.

Organizing Your Sources

Whether you have a stack of physical books, a long list of downloads, or links to sources, you’re going to want a way to organize them. Here are some ideas: ❈ Zotero - Zotero is a free app and browser extension that can file, organize, and even provide details about the sources you use. I really recommend this if you’re in an academic environment or need to cite sources a lot because one of its functions is that it will automatically cite sources and create bibliography in any format you choose. It functions both in the cloud and on a desktop/hard drive. ❈Google Drive - straightforward and simple to set up, all you have to do is upload files, organize them into as many folders as you please and go. However there are two downsides to Google Drive: They have a limit to the amount of storage you can use before you have to pay & if your sources are from a questionable site or may violate copyright, Google has the ability to remove those files permanently. ❈ CollaNote - CollaNote is a great, free app for storing notes and PDFs that also allows you to write on/annotate said files. It’s biggest downside is that it is iOS only and it’s cloud feature is kind of finicky. ❈ Discord - if you’re a professional Giant Nerd like me, having a personal discord server to sort and upload your sources is great! However, similar to Google Drive, there are file upload limits and Discord has the ability to remove material that violates copyright. ❈ OneNote - similar to CollaNote, OneNote allows you to upload PDFs so you can take notes on them and it is supported across devices. However, Microsoft office can be expensive to pay for. ❈ Your Trusty Computer/Flashdrive - There’s always the old fashioned route of storing your sources in folders on your hard or flash drive. Downside is flash drives are expensive and if your computer goes kaput, you will likely lose work. Make sure to have a cloud backup if you use this method!

Source Vetting

Sometimes vetting sources can be easy, other times it can be a massive pain for a range of reasons.

A good, general test to abide by is the CRAAP test:

Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose

A more detailed set of prompts to apply with the CRAAP test is available here: https://researchguides.njit.edu/evaluate/CRAAP

What If The CRAAP Test Doesn’t Work or I Don’t Know Have Enough Context for It To Work?

❈ Use Common Sense - does the information sound plausible? Does it make sense?

❈ Triangulate your Sources look at other sources regarding the topic. Do they say something similar? Do they acknowledge the information presented by the source you’re using?

❈ Investigate Credentials just having “PhD” at the end of a name does not a good source make. See what the author(s) credentials are. Are their credentials openly listed? Did they receive them from an accredited institution? Consider what group published the source. Was it a blog site or was it an academic publisher? Is the source peer reviewed or sent out as is?

❈ Look For Citations does the author or creator cite their information? Do they describe a body of work that they either gathered themselves or did research into? Are they transparent about their sources? Are they able to admit to gaps in their knowledge or accessible data or do they just fill it in?