#and then if she perceives something Bad at her she gets hostile

[deathfavor]

i have the 3 levels

Lamia - who everyone seems to like Serpent - who has some amicable bonds but only a few seem to like her, while others feel endangered Dreya - kept solely in isolated confinement

[genericpuff]

i find it funny that one of rachel’s drawings of herself in the afterword that just went up is just fully persephone. is that something she does a lot?

Alright so I've been making it a general rule for myself to like, not harp on Rachel in any way outside of LO as much because frankly the horse is dead now and there's not much left to say outside of what can be analyzed in hindsight. I think despite everything I have to say about her and her work, she still deserves to get away from this nonsense and I don't wanna spend eternity hovering over her shoulder.

But the afterword was posted within the LO series and is clearly meant for readers of LO in the functioning of being an afterword so let's just call it fair game LOL

I will say, on the whole, it does feel very honest and sentimental and I can respect Rachel for taking the time to write out and illustrate her afterword in a way that was personal to both her and her fans. I can understand why she went at it from the angle that she did and I'm not gonna fault her for that.

But there's also something that feels deeply... disingenuous about her approach right from the starting gun. I will say, before I continue, that I'm well aware I am biased towards Rachel as a creator, and I fully acknowledge that I could very well be reading too much into things. This is just my opinion, take it with mountains of salt.

I can get looking back on your own childhood, your past self, whatever, and going "see! it all got better!" because sure! For a lot of creators like Rachel, it must be wild to look back on where they came from and there's a lot of sentimentality on expressing that through an afterword like this where she reflects on where she came from. Though she STILL didn't acknowledge her other comics outside of LO, I can understand if she wants to leave those skeletons in the closet.

But I feel like her drawing herself as a child who's being given an Eisner by her adult self and all that just feels like some gross attempt to disarm any criticism of her because "don't make fun of me, I'm just a sad lonely baby girl!"

She's not a child. Child Rachel didn't grossly misappropriate Greek myth into their own self-indulged vanity project. Child Rachel didn't claim herself a folklorist of a culture's works only to bastardize them completely. Child Rachel didn't create a hostile environment within her fanbase by bullying anyone who she perceived as a threat, sneaking into critical spaces to try and cause trouble, and writing her own clapbacks into her comic. Child Rachel didn't claim to be challenging misogyny and purity culture only to reinforce misogyny and purity culture through her own self-insert baby-virgin-gets-rescued-by-rich-tycoon power fantasy that regularly glorified abuse towards women and the lower class.

30-almost-40-year-old Rachel did though.

At best it comes across as really cringe sentimentality from a Greek-weeb (heh, greeboo) and goes to show how much Rachel inserted herself into Greek myth without ever absorbing its messages or cultural contexts, it was all about her and her feelings as a sad New Zealand girl with dyslexia who thought Persephone's story was about another sad girl being rescued from her "horrible childhood".

At worst it's an active attempt to play on people's heartstrings by drawing herself as a child who people will naturally not want to criticize. I don't want to assume she's doing it intentionally, I really don't want to leave her afterword on a bad foot, as I can definitely understand as both a creator and a person who struggled with learning disabilities in their own childhood how and why she wants to pay homage to her past and where she came from... but let's just say, as someone who's also gotten way too "lost in the sauce" concerning personal self-reflective projects, I think there's a lot to say about how this confirms that Rachel made LO entirely for herself, about herself, without any actual intention to respect the original myths, because she never truly separated them from herself when she was a child. And, in my humble opinion as someone who has Been There with the self-insert OC's and self-reflective angsty plotlines, I can fully attest to the fact that that's not fucking healthy. Even with personal projects, you NEED to learn to get your head out of the sauce, you NEED to learn to objectively separate yourself from the narrative so the story doesn't fall apart under your own hubris and ego, you NEED to learn to draw a line if you want to have any sort of identity as a human being outside of what you make for people. And that's with just normal original stories, this was a story based on Greek myth which doesn't belong to her.

And this goes for a lot of the things she's said and done in the past, so much of her own "sources" even are tethered to things that she read / watched in her childhood and only vaguely remembers, as if she never mentally left her childhood at all, which just... if the point was to highlight her past and the traumas she went through and how they contributed to her present, an Eisner isn't going to validate those experiences. And drawing attention to her past through the lens of her childhood self absolutely 100% does not absolve her of the negative effect her work has had on the modern Greek myth zeitgeist nor the things she's said and done as a 38 year old woman who should absolutely know better.

The community she entered and took from will forever remain changed by her influence and taking, in many ways not for the better. She has the privilege of walking away and never having to think about it again, with all the awards and accolades that were bought for her, the bravado that she built around being a "folklorist" with zero credentials, and the platform she was given over many other creators struggling to even be heard.

That "place" she claims to have now was built entirely on inserting herself into another culture's works and doing nothing but taking, taking, taking, while offering nothing in return but vanity and lip service. That "place" was paid for and brought to you by Webtoons.

[joannechocolat]

On why women’s rage is a superpower

My mother hates my new book. I gave her a proof just a few days ago, and although she’s still only halfway through, she can’t wait to tell me all the ways in which she hates my novel.

“Is this science fiction?” she says. (She detests science fiction.) “Were you ill when you wrote this?” (I was.) And repeatedly, she says: “Why are the women so angry?”

I get it. She’s out of her comfort zone. At 83, with no internet, no interest in pop culture and a deep-rooted hatred of anything close to horror or the supernatural, she wasn’t my target audience. And yet it’s never easy to hear such criticism from a loved one. But in some ways, she isn’t wrong. Broken Light is an angry book. It came from a time of lockdown, when social media was my only window onto the world. It came from a place of trauma, when I was fighting cancer. It came from a place of corrupt hierarchies, self-serving politicians, anti-vaxxers, Covid deniers, victim-blamers, and those eager to blame all their woes on minorities. And of course, it arose against the background of the #MeToo campaign and the Sarah Everard murder – a murder that shocked the nation, not least because the murderer turned out to be a serving police officer with a reputation for sexual misconduct - which unleashed a collective howl of protest, as well as an ugly, misogynistic backlash. Even so, my story came as something of a surprise to me: the story of a woman’s rage, and, on reaching the age at which women often feel least valued, her coming into her power.

It surprised me, most of all because I wasn’t an angry person. At least, I didn’t think I was. Those who know me describe me as someone who tends to flee conflict, who generally tries to find common ground, who gets upset when people fight. And yet, writing this story, I found myself saying and feeling certain things on behalf of my heroine, Bernie Moon; things I might not have said for myself, but which felt right and urgent, and true, and strangely liberating.

Anger has a bad press. A woman’s anger, especially. While men are encouraged to express feelings of justified anger, women are often criticized when they try to do the same. Angry women are often portrayed as “harpies,” “banshees,” “Furies.” It suggests that a man’s rage is righteous, but that a woman’s is unnatural, making her into a monster. Male anger is powerful. The God of the Bible is one of wrath. Seldom is he ever portrayed as expressing any other emotion. In the same way, men and boys are often led to believe that expressing emotion is weak - except for anger, which is seen as acceptably masculine.

In comparison, women are often criticized when they show aggression. Angry women are hysterical, shrill, out of control, unreliable, unattractive, unfeminine. A perceived lack of “femininity” makes a woman less valuable, less worthy of respect and of protection. The Press coverage of women victims of violence is a case in point. A victim of violence needs to be attractive, white, gender conforming and virtuous in every way if she is not to be overlooked, or worse, portrayed as somehow having contributed to her misfortune. When trans teenager Brianna Ghey was stabbed, the Press were very quick to state that her murder was not thought to be a hate crime, whilst at the same time obsessing over – and questioning - her gender. When Nicola Bulley disappeared, police felt obliged to divulge details of her struggle with the menopause, as well as her alcohol issues, even though this was privileged information and of no public relevance. When Emma Pattison, the Head of Epsom College, was murdered alongside her daughter, the Press immediately assumed that her husband George must have felt “overshadowed” and “driven to distraction” by his wife’s prestigious job. In all three cases, the victim falls under the hostile scrutiny of the Press, while the perpetrator is given an excuse. In all three cases, the victim – one trans, one hormonal, one better-paid than her husband - is effectively portrayed as “unnatural”. Subtext: Unnatural women do not deserve the protection of the patriarchy. Unnatural women come to bad ends.    

Once you start to acknowledge it, rage grows at a surprising rate. Over the past three years, I have found myself growing increasingly angry. Angry at the injustices committed by our Government; t the greed of corporations; angry at the prejudice extended to those who are different.

Connecting with others on social media has made me more aware of the lives and experiences of those from different backgrounds to mine, and with different levels of privilege. For a long time I’d been resistant to calling myself a feminist. Feminists are angry, I thought. What right have you to be angry?

Growing older, I realize that this was my mother speaking. A woman of a certain generation, who although she was aware of the challenges of living in a patriarchy, still had a level of privilege that many women do not share. White, professional, cishet women can sometimes have the luxury of choosing not to be angry. White, professional, cishet women can sometimes have the illusion of equality. But feminism isn’t only for just one kind of woman. A feminist must look beyond the limits of their own experience. And that’s where the anger really starts: anger at injustice; anger at corruption and lies. Most of all, anger at the prejudice against certain people for just being themselves; for being transgender, or Black, or old, or simply not conforming to what a white, patriarchal society expects and values. And once you start seeing injustice, you start to see it everywhere. It’s like an eye, which, once opened, cannot unsee inequality.

My anger flourished in lockdown. A time of growing divisions. Masks are invaluable in a pandemic, and yet they inhibit connection. They serve as a kind of reminder of who can speak, and who is to be silenced. While Boris Johnson was urging the public to trust the police, a vigil for Sarah Everard was broken up, with violence, by officers citing lockdown laws. While elderly people were dying alone; while I drove for four hours just to go for a half-hour walk in the park with my son; while I sat alone in my chemo chair, politicians were partying. Billionaires were enriching themselves. Behind the mask, the eye opened wide. I caught myself making faces behind my disguise at strangers. There was something weirdly liberating about this; as if, behind the piece of cloth, I could express myself at last. Not unlike writing a book, in fact. On screen, the eye opened wider. Bernie Moon, my heroine, was unlike like me in many ways, and yet anger connected us. The anger that comes from helplessness; from seeing others mistreated. Anger at a society that propagates inequality. And the anger that comes from hormones – those mood-altering chemicals that everyone produces, and yet which allegedly make women erratic; unreliable; hormonal.

In his novel, Carrie, Stephen King tells the story of a girl, whose telekinetic powers are unleashed by her teenage hormones. Carrie is unpopular, bullied, isolated. Her rage finds an outlet in her power. Driven to breaking-point by the bullies, she becomes a monster. Of course she does: after all, the author of this tale is a man, writing from the perspective of a couple of thousand years’ worth of patriarchal inheritance. In literature, a woman’s anger is unnatural; monstrous. It leads to terrible, unnatural things: makes murderers and infanticides of Clytemnestra and Medea; monsters of Medusa and Scylla. Unnatural, monstrous women are always punished in literature, even while acknowledging that they are often the victims of men. And unnatural women are often seen as physically repulsive – a reminder that, to be valued and loved, women must be young, and pure, and conform to the standards of beauty set out by their society. In literature, just as in life, those women who do not conform tend to be less valued, less seen, and when they do appear, do so as wicked witches, evil stepmothers, ugly crones and hideous travesties of womanhood.

But what would happen if a woman took control of the narrative? In recent years, we have observed a number of retellings of Greek myths from the point of view of the monster. Stone Blind, by Nathalie Haynes; Medusa, by Jessie Burton; Circe, by Madeline Miller. In both cases, the monstrous woman is seen from a different perspective; her rage absorbed and justified; her narrative reclaimed from a patriarchy that seeks to tame and subdue a woman’s rage, even at the cost of her life.

My new novel, Broken Light, comes from the same process of reclamation. It owes a debt to Carrie, but I have avoided the explicitly paranormal theme of the original, as well as the girl-on-girl bullying and the psychopathic mother. In my version, Carrie lives; marries her childhood sweetheart; internalizes all her rage and suffocates her power. Until the menopause – a topic which until recently has been largely misunderstood and taboo – at which point her power returns, and with it, a new kind of freedom. Freedom from the male gaze; from the responsibilities of motherhood; from the largely impossible expectations of society. Unlike puberty, menopause is triggered by a lack of certain hormones; and yet the symptoms can be just as dramatic and isolating. Loss of libido, exhaustion, depression, emotional outbursts as well as unpredictable and alarming hot flashes – my version of Carrie’s pyrokinesis. Whether my heroine’s powers stem from any kind of paranormal source is very much up to the reader to decide – after all, paranormal is only a step away from unnatural. And what counts as unnatural is in the eye of the reader – an eye that has been opened, I hope, to a series of new possibilities.

One is that rage is natural. Living in a patriarchy, women have a right to their rage. In fact, it seems more unnatural to me when women are not angry, given how much misogyny remains in our society. And growing old is natural. Being hormonal is natural. Differences are natural; so are disabilities. All women matter; whatever their age, or colour, or sexual orientation, or marital or reproductive status. The value of a woman’s life should not be defined by her popularity, or her age, or her looks, or her kids, or her value to the patriarchy. And no-one else gets to decide what a woman ought to be. A woman is not what, but who - a person, not an object; an active participant in her world. Women have lived too long behind the mask. They deserve their own stories. Stories in which they are allowed the full range of human possibility. So, to answer my mother’s question: Why are the women so angry?

Because it’s a superpower.

[tfdtreasurer]

sorry for not asking about eridan but, why the feferi hate?

Don't worry anon I fully expected this question to be one of the first. Besides, Eridan and Feferi are foils to each other and thus any look at one is being done in the context of the other. Narratively, they're inseparable. My actual nuanced opinion on Feferi is that she's a bad person, a fascinating character, and yet one that I feel is so tragically misunderstood by everybody that it leads me to not liking how she's liked. If that makes any sense.

The short answer is she's one of the most casteist trolls out there. And not in the way Equius is, or Gamzee becomes, or Eridan claims to be. Her's is just a little too real and it kinda gives me icky vibes.

The long answer is... Well there's a reason a whole essay was in the works. If Eridan alludes to Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick of 1851, Feferi alludes to Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" of 1899 (which in a semi timely way, was published to the context of the Philippine–American War). In her first pesterlog with Kanaya, "burdens" is the word used to refer to her responsibilities. Not really enough on it's own, but then you keep reading Feferi pages. Eridan being the best that alternia breeds, seemingly exiled from living in the sea to serve her captives' needs. The captivity of animals that she's associated with bolstering that. How she espouses a desire to unite the races, but mentions having plans for the throne, implicitly retaining imperial power. Her weapon being named after the triple entente, an alliance of colonialist powers. How she remarks royalty is so civilized, alluding to the colonialist projects of that era being referred to the West's civilizing mission. The way she talks to Jade and is quick to use the r-word, like she'd have to make her speech a hundred times plain. Just the way that she often has other people doing things for her that seems to emulate the delegatory voice of the poem. Eridan being the orphaner for her. In the Make her Pay flash (which is the best flash don't @ me), she has Sollux fight for her as she seems to sit back. Even her creation of the dream bubbles is something she asks of the gods to do for her. And if you think I'm searching for patterns in the clouds here with my ancient-ass 1800s literature: just take a look at the regime of Beforus Feferi. How casteism wasn't abolished, it just became patronizing the lesser and pretending that considering them lesser but in need wasn't the inequality is was.

Eridan is interesting in combination with her because they're designed to contrast each other. Eridan is so deeply associated with hipster inauthenticity, pretention, over exaggerated theater, and explicitly mentions that villainy is practically a performance for her. She calls comin off as a diabolical sort "showwmanship." But pay attention to the way that each frame dropping their quirk. Eridan drops her to become more genuine for a moment. Feferi has to be asked to drop hers and gets mad that she's had to peasantify herself. And the tragic part is that although Eridan is in the position of the audience in that poem, in essence the soldier sent to brutally occupy the Philippines, Feferi also sees her as one of the ones needing to be civilized. Eridan is to her half devil and half child, fluttering and wild, needing to be restrained by a moirallegience she seems to have never wanted from her.

I don't mean to let Eridan totally off the hook. I see her character as being under a dramatic form of siege mentality, perceiving herself to be the target of everyone's hostility. As she's the orphaner, I feel vaguely inclined to give it to her a bit. Like yeah, I can't imagine that job title comes with the perk of making friends. But her siege mentality xenophobia primarily makes her think that everybody that isn't Feferi must hate her, to the point where she only trusts people when her relationship with them is adversarial. The subversion central to Eridan's character is that while she may be genuinely xenophobic, she isn't a supremacist, nor genocidal in intent. The weapons she claims to be amassing to conquer the surface aren't military, it's just whaling equipment she uses to prevent everyone dying. The Brand Whaling Gun and Bomb Lance. Some derivative of the Greener swivel harpoon gun (that I have yet to 100% identify but I do have the original picture used for the Photoshop). Broken killing lance heads (as can be seen in my pfp being held by captain Ahab).

So why do I hate Feferi? Because she does think herself superior to others, in a way that is supremacist. She's a paternalistic casteist of the highest order and it is gross.

But here's the twist: if people believed in the Feferi I just outlined, I'd love the character. Because I still do fundamentally believe in redemption and rehabilitation of people with really shitty beliefs. Feferi could've been a character who narratively served to demonstrate how her beliefs may appear good intentioned, but actually warns the audience of the trap of real life paternalistic racism that justifies colonialism with a friendly face. A narrative where she had character development and evolved alongside Eridan. Symbolically, the orphaner killing the idea of paternalism would've been goddamned beautiful. But instead, what I got, what we got, was the fandom never picking up on the nuances, the comic itself electing to skirt around the problematic elements, all leading up to this strange quirk of Homestuck where once you're aware of all this, you really can't look at cutesy Feferi fanart the same way ever again because it never gets addressed. And I think that's sad. But, until the people that like Feferi are in the same boat as me in wanting a redemption arc for her, I'm gonna stay her #1 hater.

[distortedsoup]

random willow thoughts copy-pasted directly from my ramblings in discord

1 - i think she is generally kind of a shitty member of the camp. she can be flakey at best with chores, and struggles to handle long term interaction with other people. to cope with this, she spends most of her time off on her own. the most reliable time to get ahold of her is at night, where she is almost always keeping the campfire burning throughout the dark of the night.

2 - bernie in some way responds to both her sanity level and her amount of negative emotion. he won't become hostile unless willow perceives something as a threat. he isn't sentient, really, but more of an extention of her.

3 - she attempted adventure mode sometimes for fun, but never took it seriously and didn't usually last very long. too cold in all of those harsh winter worlds.

3.5 - on the note of winter, on her own she rarely made it past winter. she had a bad habit of never really settling down, burning both ends of the candle so to speak as she rambled and roamed across the constant. when she did build a base, it was usually a matter of time before it ended up in smoke. (there have been a handful of incidents where she has burnt down parts of the camp or otherwise caused or almost caused significant damage. this is another reason she usually doesn't stay there very long.

4 - willow likes people, but she genuinely just doesn't understand a lot of social things and was never really taught them either. even if she genuinely wants to be good to someone it will still come out in an odd way.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Sorry, one more musing on the Aware of Abuse AU regarding Chloe's behavioral adjustments and how she handles them or doesn't:

Type 1: Adjusting Sabrina: Would you like some cookies I made? Chloe: Ew, no, I don't want to risk something you made. Sabrina (Cringes in hurt or outright cries) Chloe: Wait! Ignore that! Belay those words! That was my parents talking, I'd love to try them! Sabrina: (OO) Oh, OK!

Type 2: Not adjusting Marinette: You were out of line as usual. Chloe: How was I out of line? It was a legitimate question! Marinette: Because you made Mylene cry, you jerk! Chloe: She's the one who chose to star in a horror film even though she hates being scared! I was not wrong for asking why!

Basically, if she evokes hurt & is not jumped on, she can course correct, or be guided to do so. On the other hand if someone gets defensive or sharp with her, then she instantly falls into fight mode.

I think it was a post of your I recall seeing that made me think of it. Namely, the one about how on Bustier's birthday Chloe was minding her own business until everyone got on her case. & then she decided to lash out.

Similar case here, she meets perceived hostility with hostility, but is much more open to the idea she's hurting someone as her parents hurt her and more willing to address that.

Oh yeah basically!

It's a lot easier for her to recognize that she hurt someone when they act, well. Hurt. Sad or crying. Obviously she made them feel bad, right? Obviously that was wrong, right?

But when someone reacts with anger, it doesn't quite feel like they're genuinely upset to her. It feels more like a 'how dare you not act like how I want!?' like with her mother.

And yeah that goes double in situations like Horrificator where she didn't intend to do something wrong. She wasn't /trying/ to make Mylene cry, just frustratedly snapping at the situation like everyone else was. There wasn't malice. So while she'll feel sorry for acting that way to Mylene, she'd defend herself from Marinette yelling at her about it.

[sepublic]

I feel like during the thirty years between Eda being cursed and meeting Luz, there was more apprehension between mother and daughter than there was between sisters; At least that's the vibe I got. Obviously a lot of this can be attributed to Eda and Gwen having a very different dynamic than Eda and Lilith, because Gwen was an authority figure in Eda's childhood, which translates to her being perceived as a pestering, disapproving mother in adulthood.

Whereas with Lilith, even though Lily technically had seniority over Eda, Eda definitely had more agency between the two, taking the lead a lot more, which as we know contributed further to Lilith's whole complex. Plus they're sisters so they still remember being kids who got into mutual dumb fun and antics together. On another level, while Lilith and Gwen both expressed disapproval towards Eda during the thirty years, I think Eda took Gwen's to heart much more personally because it was over the curse, something she was much more insecure about (esp post-Raine breakup), whereas with her chosen wild witch lifestyle, Eda had zero regrets.

So even if Lilith was much more openly disparaging at times, it couldn't get to Eda like Gwen's well-intentioned efforts did, plus again; Gwen is Eda's mom and kids are typically more anxious about approval from parents than from siblings, especially when Eda didn't care for Lilith's approval on account of admittedly not respecting her that much. Lilith eventually DID offer to heal Eda's curse once Belos started promising post-series premiere, but the habit had only just begun and she backed off the first time, and when she tried again that was also when Luz got threatened, and we saw how enraged Eda was up until Lilith changed for her.

I just find it interesting how without even meaning to, Gwen hits so much closer to home than Lilith ever did with her explicit jabs; Because they're poking at different aspects of Eda that she has different levels of confidence about, and there's a different power dynamic in each relationship too. Gwen didn't have any sway over Eda by adulthood, but her role as a larger figure would've still been ingrained in Eda growing up, just as Lilith being an equal, sometimes subconsciously lower, peer was.

Hence, Eda wanting to bring things back to good old times with Lilith and how they used to be troublemaking partners in crime and Lily could only follow, never stop her, whereas with her mother, not so much when Gwen was much more effective at imposing rules in Eda's childhood, and as an adult, that was traded out for a whole 'nother issue. By the end of the day, Eda did react to Lilith with initial hostility in S1 before defaulting back to old dynamics, so I wonder if during the thirty-year gap, there were ever encounters with her mother that weren't all bad and even a little comforting? Like when Gwen learned King was adopted.

And though we did see Lilith did take potshots at Eda's curse from time to time, I also think that with Eda and Gwen, Eda always subconsciously relied on her parents to be nurturing, supportive figures, so it felt like a particularly stinging betrayal when Gwen made her feel ashamed over the curse; Whereas again, Eda always kinda downplayed and underestimated Lilith's vitriol as siblings being siblings, unaware of how there was legit resentment. So Eda was less dependent on Lilith's support on account of recognizing herself as the more forward one, and thus less hurt (at least until Agony of a Witch) VS a parent whose approval meant more...

Plus I think Gwen's obsession was linked to Dell being disabled by the curse and Eda knew it, so it felt like she'd already lost one parent, and now the other one was blaming her for it, thereby exacerbating Eda's particular guilt over all that and making Gwen's attempts to help feel so much more damaging. Meanwhile Lilith was less linked to their parents, which was also another big factor in her complex.

[stromuprisahat]

Siege and Storm- Chapter 17

After some deliberation I've decided to put almost everything from the first part of this chapter under a single post, because all of it is thematically intertwined. It paints a picture of the state in which Ravka finds itself, its treatment of Grisha, all the reasons Aleksander attempted the Coup, and how he's about to get repaid.

Wow, I wonder why would anyone mind being perceived as no more than (annoyingly) living, breathing furniture...

... at best.

Why is Ravka so behind in military development?

There wasn't an involved Tsarevich to sweet-talk the Royal Couple into letting the Fabricators work on ~that~, because let's be honest- it certainly wasn't Alina, who persuaded them.

And the best mind they have doesn't want to create tools of destruction (and apparently the big, bad Darkling didn't MAKE him, if David's so shocked by use of Alina's powers to spread the Fold).

*mumbles*

As if he'd never done that before... as if the Darkling were a stranger to battle...

Shadow and Bone- Chapter 10 & Rule of Wolves- Chapter 33

Yeah, he sounds exactly like the kind of general, who stays in the rear...

Look, I know Sikurzoi are supposed to be uninhabitable or whatever, but let's be honest- which mountains (in mild climate) are completely uninhabited? Why wouldn't Aleksander- a lives-long student of survival- use otherwise hostile place to hide?

I know ~I~ would.

Do you mean "Are there any living Grisha left, stationed there?".

Geeez...

Zoya truly doesn't acknowledge the First Army massacres, does she? And the word ~would~ have reached them at this point, even if we ignore the dead from Grand Palace. Fedyor's group's in Little Palace!

Remember, children: It doesn't count as war, if they only regularly attack your villages, draw back, and their government claims it knows nothing!

He’s never faced the might of the First and Second Armies working in tandem... I wonder why... Could it be because your precious First Army hates his people so much they went to slaughter them the moment the Darkling's out of the picture?

I know this is Naïve Nikolai, but the way he puts it... as if otkazat'sya working alongside Grisha weren't exactly, what's Aleksander trying to achieve for centuries. As if he didn't manage it on smaller scale with his oprichniki. As if he should be surprised by mere possibility of it!

The weapons will be only a cherry on the top, the reason he keeps using nichevo'ya even though it costs him dearly. It's the kind of weapons he fears, because he knows, what it can do to his people (aside from rendering them strategically useless). He's seen massacres, he caused massacres, he cannot prevent them. And let's not forget he might be in the front line, but it will be those remaining 80 % of Grisha right behind him. And Nikolai's fancy new machine guns won't miss them more than his Army's weapons did.

This is horrifying.

They intend to slaughter the man for the crime of standing up to their regime and finding a way to substitute his people with canon fodder of magical variety, completely disregarding whys, or bothering to check if they're not living in a glasshouse first.

Why is no one asking about the pogroms? Why is no one questioning Grisha safety FROM FIRST ARMY?! Why do they act as if another massacre of Grisha should solve all their painfully obvious issues?!

Why am I supposed to wish THEM success?!

In a way...

How is your victory gonna ensure Grisha a place in Ravkan society, Alina?!

You murder the Darkling together, good... then what? Ya'll get a nice house in the country and your neighbours won't burn it to the ground? Stone you to death next time something bad happens? Never again- Grisha being dragged out of their beds in middle of the night?!

THAT'S what Aleksander feared- once Grisha are no more necessary for the wars, there's no place for them in THIS Ravkan society! Unlike otkazat'sya, those weapons don't make them vulnerable only physically!

This makes my head hurt.

Are they truly this blind?!

There's not a single voice raised against cooperation with the very same people that have been murdering theirs mere weeks ago, but the Darkling is some sort of ultimate evil on word of one (1) girl and the remains of her semi-official ménage-a-trois?!

[skull001]

Something I really like of how Black Rose was handled, is that like Prime Amy, she too could perceive others feelings.

She saw Rusty being abandoned/betrayed by whom should be her allies.

She also saw how despite doing her best, Rusty would still be blamed by Dread's poor judgment. This is the point by where Black deducted how they both were in a similar situation: loyal subordinates to bad bosses.

Seeing Rusty return to her duties despite another failed attempt at getting Sonic, not ever once receiving any kind of encouragement to cheer her up and try again, but rather being treated as just a tool to achieve someone else's ambition is what made Black worry for Rusty, finally breaking the ice and asking if she was OK.

Even if Black was a bit of a goblin herself, that with attacking Sonic at first sight, be REALLY willing to do something bad to Dread's old crew, or how she was initially hostile/jealous of Rusty, she is still a part of Prime Amy. Particularly, the part that despite her flaws as a person, can still feel empathy for others as she "reads" them.

After all, this combination of having flaws such as being feisty/aggressive yet compassionate enough to detect when others need emptional help is what makes the original Amy one of the most humane and down to earth characters.

[bestworstcase]

Quick question: When and how did you start realizing that fandom tends to be hostile or anti-analysis? Was it just something that happened overtime?

i mean. have you ever made a textually-supported point contradicted by popular fanon? people seethe

but it’s also just sort of baked into what fandom is. the whole concept of ‘headcanon’ is inherently antitextual—things held to be true irrespective of the text—and the whole point of fanworks is to engage transformatively with the text. fandom is explicitly not a community oriented around textual analysis, and while analytical readings can (and do) support and enrich transformative works, they are also just not what fandom is about.

so within fandom receptivity to textual analysis is generally lukewarm and varies widely depending on how closely it happens to align with the fanon, and in my experience fandom has a particular difficulty parsing character analysis outside the blorbo framework (ie liking / disliking / personally identifying with a character).

there is in particular a tendency for analytical readings to get parsed in fandom spaces as critical of the story or the characters being discussed; for example i’ve had explicitly positive character analysis of mine (as in, posts where i directly state my appreciation for or enjoyment of the thing i’m talking about) get reblogged and tagged ‘anti-whatever’ because the thing i’m talking about is, like, a character flaw. or something bad that a character did that caused conflict in the narrative.

and i think that really gets to the heart of the, like, cultural divide between transformative fandom and analytical engagement, because in fandom spaces if you say, for instance, “yang has a hot temper she works hard to keep in check” that is generally going to be understood as a value judgment (either a positive remark on her maturity and emotional discipline or a complaint about her expressions of anger) whereas in an analytical context it’s just an observation that needs to be evaluated in terms of whether the text supports it or not.

the consequence of that is that if i write analytically about the role of anger in yang’s character arc—which is a facet of her that i personally really enjoy and think is done quite well—and if that breaks containment and travels outside of my immediate circle of followers (who presumably follow me because they like reading my analysis and who obv know what i’m about) then odds are it’ll land in front of someone who goes “UGH not ANOTHER person picking on yang for bEiNg AnGrY, she’s got good reasons to be mad when she gets mad and also she doesn’t get mad NEARLY as often as these assholes think” (which is true) (yang almost never loses her temper and she’s very quick to check herself on those occasions; and when she chooses to let it out she’s always justified)—because anger is culturally perceived as bad and the social norm in most fan spaces is that you don’t write lengthy posts focused on a character’s flaws (or ‘flaws’) unless you just think they suck.

(<- this isn’t a hypothetical btw. like i’ve gotten blocked over my yangposting being interpreted in exactly this way grbfksj)

the funny part is that while my analysis intermittently makes people SPITTING MAD, the fanfic i write (which follows from my analysis!) doesn’t. i’m sure there’s plenty of people who don’t like my fanfic, but if i write a character in a way that contradicts the popular fanon what happens is folks will comment stuff like “this is such a cool unique take on this character” brfhkg. and that’s primarily why i think it’s a cultural thing, where textual analysis—with its strict grounding in textual evidence and dismissal of ideas that can’t be supported by the text—gets people’s hackles up bc it’s a) examining the text at an emotional remove and thus hard to parse in a social environment where the primary mode of engagement is driven by emotional attachment to specific characters, and b) often perceived as telling people their headcanons are wrong, which is rude.

(sometimes headcanons ARE wrong, in the sense of being textually refuted. that is the entire point of headcanon. i think the experience of fandom is much improved by keeping this in mind. analysis is never a threat to headcanon because headcanon is supposed to be transformative. equally, headcanon is irrelevant to analysis because analysis is strictly concerned with the text.)

more broadly i just find fandom culture to be interesting in and of itself. so in addition to participating in fandom directly i also lurk a lot and pay attention to cross-fandom phenomena (e.g. migratory sapphic and slash shippers) and read discussions about fandom and that sort of thing. and i think approaching fandom from that perspective, it’s sort of a what it says on the tin situation; fandom is transformative by definition, ‘fuck canon’ is an ubiquitous meme, fanon… exists at all as a concept and is widely celebrated as superior to canon, AUs are terrifically popular, “fix-it” fics are terrifically popular, etc etc.

so i don’t think my view here is even unusual necessarily except insofar as i articulate it in a very precise (and perhaps pedantic) way. like the average person in fandom is probably aware that playing in the sandbox is different from constructing a lego set and that people in the sandbox are, as a general rule, not all that keen to make sand castles in strict accordance with the lego instructions. because it’s sand. lmao

[katyspersonal]

I've had a really fun dream tonight oh my god;;; In retrospective it was short but it felt like eternity.

I recall Kaathe being there after nightfall and he was suggesting me to unleash the darkness promising it'd be a good time, and I knew in th dream that was a load of barnacles but wanted to do it anyway in sort of nihilistic rage.. the way I did that though, was by "hunting" several zombie-like people, specifically variant that was dripping so much poison they had a green hue around them. And after they've dropped enough poisonous crystals, I was able to turn them into a sword that actually functioned like a key; I "stabbed" a big metal door with it, and it was the one thing that opened it.. Past that point, the "videogame" aspect of the dream ended, and a lot of darkness flooded in.

However, nothing really bad happened? It became very dark yet lanterns and candles that weren't melting were present! A lot of monsters, and characters, and just people were brought with the flood, like shards of a shipwreck, but they were not fighting and instead had fun. Time got broken as a concept, so many met despite skipping centuries of existence.. Also all deceased or distorted characters were not healed beyond what was needed to "revive" them (so like Reah's friends were still Hollow but just not hostile, Gwyn was still burnt out, Maria still had her wound open just not bleeding..... yes, she just randomly showed up amongst DS characters. Val said it was basically &Knuckles moment and it killed me gfhfhfu). The moment that I remembered the most was when Aldrich was washed ashore, though with literal dark waves (makes sense), in his slime form. He wasn't hostile either, though was eating all the snacks and the table gghggvb In retrospective it felt like a party. But Sulyvahn was the one happy to see him, basically cuddled him like he was his big messy dog and told him that he missed him XD Seeing him so happy and genuine still is shocking a bit, but it was wholesome 😔 Also made me think about Heaven, because "even predator animals don't eat other animals" and no monster was eating anyone there.. Woke up in a very good mood after this dream, everything was so cozy

One of the things I love about my brain is how self-explanatory all dream metaphors get.. Hunting "venomous zombies" was of course finally starting to block and scold aggressive people when I was on my 'they have to EARN it tho' attitude, and it accumulating into a sword, weapon, was "choosing violence" and finally snapping yesterday, thus unleashing repressed, "dark" emotions. Suly and Aldrich represented public image and the hidden, repressed "shadow" respectively.. I am not scared of hate and drama, but I can be bribed. Hiding "undesirable" feelings and traits from public, censoring, pretending, silencing myself before venting in my own blog: to not scare away cool people I want to impress, to let the web of mutuals grow beautiful and neat and to get positive attention. Because it's been such. a long. time. since anyone but close friends shown approval.

But in the end it isn't me, so I've been "missing" showing more of sharp corners and dirty spots as opposed to only giving hot takes that guarantee approval. Vanity and neediness. And Aldrich not being hostile despite expectations might reflect how I severely exagerrate the ugliness and "danger" of those repressed dark feelings when they're more akin to an animal who isn't harmful unless provoked and just driven by fair instincts. JUST like a dog that growls at the perceived threat to self or others. I both want to be "bad" and know I am not "very" bad.. I wonder if anyone else developed the habit of Souls characters and themes being a mirror of their psyche too.. these games do something with the minds.

[n7punk]

So I know in a lot of your fics Catra is red color blind and you’ve explained it in the fic notes but do you have a place where you’ve fully explained what she can and can’t see?

very bad question to ask me because i am not a Science Person, but my understanding is that our color vision is made up of three cones, red, green, and blue. the more cones you have (and also the more you study names for different shades, i wish i was kidding but Learning Words actually improves your vision), the more shades of color you perceive (generally). in humans you get red-green colorblindness as the most common type and blue-yellow (yes i know i didnt mention yellow cones. it's complicated) as the second one.

this varies wildly for animals. for instance, we used to think mantis shrimp saw colors we couldn't hope to distinguish because they have 12 color receptors and we have the aforementioned 3, but now we think they actually see less than we do and they just have so many different receptors because their cones suck. so like, while we may be able to see many shades of blue and green with one cone, they need a Light Blue cone, and a Dark Blue cone, and a Turquoise Cone.... etc etc. and again, this is just where we're at with shrimp right now! we actually have no clue what cats see - if it's reduced shades due to a generally lower number of cones (they definitely have at least this), red-green colorblindness like in humans, just red colorblindness (something speculated for both cats and dogs), or monochrome colorblindness. different studies and resources have come to different conclusions, so in the end i usually pick just red because it's pretty unique and she's a fantasy species.

all the colors we see happen by wavelengths of light entering our eye. If a color is picked up a ton by our red cones and a little bit by the blue, we would see that as purple, right? except sike, the wavelengths of light do not work like our usual understanding of colors and what cones purple belongs to is not red + blue. i watched a video on this and then decided i wasn't going to understand it and moved on with my basic understanding of color mixing for what she can and can't see, but that didn't stop one Very Annoying Reader from trying to correct me and completely missing the point even after i explained it to them that disability representation is not to mimic any one person's Exact Situation, but to instead represent their overall struggles. literally none of the experiences i give catra apply to humans but just because it's her tail that makes some chairs really painful for her rather than scoliosis, that doesn't make it any less relatable when she finds the world hostilely designed for her body.

lmao can you tell its a sticking point for me. anyway, i often (although not always in AUs, partially because of not wanting to deal with annoying commenters when it Does Not Matter for what i'm trying to convey) write catra to have either very few or no red cones in her vision, which gives her a visual experience that is unique to us and very difficult to simulate due to that wavelength thing being more complicated than just removing red from an image. I don't know what colors catra would really be able to see if a human did have her specific kind of colorblindness, but i do get more specific in this fic about what my general take was early on. Slowly i've shifted to lean more towards her just having generally reduced cones more densely clustered on missing red cones, which would mean she would see fewer shades of color in general but would be able to see all the base colors we do, even if the variation and strength she gets is weak, especially heavily in red (this is kind of what i'm working with for modern AUs. if i mention adora's red jacket, she can kind of see that, just not nearly like we do, and maroon just wouldn't exist for her). this is the type of colorblindness my mom has (cannot tell navy from maroon from black, but easily tells red from blue from black. she leans slightly more towards deutro in her weakness) and is one of the speculated color perceptions for cats.

so i guess to answer your question: it depends on which fic you're reading LMAO.

also, because i can't not mention this: those colorblind correcting glasses (enchroma, etc) are not real, do not give you the ability to perceive things you literally do not have the receptors to, and actually work by filtering out wavelengths of light to make the colors that you see more potent, but it doesn't change the actual colors there, it's just like applying a filter to photo on fucking instagram. it actually limits your color perception even further and you cannot "train" your eyes with them just like you cannot train a limb to grow back. its a scam, and at three figures for a pair of glasses, it really hurts people and their families when they fall for it.

[elfqueen006]

Quick mini ramble about Fuminori from Saya No Uta

Tw// murder, death, cannibalism

---

I feel like if you asked Fuminori if he likes or takes pleasure in killing people post brain trauma, it'd be the same as asking if someone if they like their job as an office desk worker - "it puts food on the table". It's not necessarily something he enjoys doing, but this *is* what he has to do.

Before then he'd probably reply reasonably and say "of course not", that isn't something he has to do, nor would he enjoy doing it to an innocent... at least pre-brain trauma.

Because until he meets Saya, Fuminori is a man who is driven by reason. Hell, even despite his growing resentment of his friends, he knows it's not exactly fair to be so hostile towards them as he knows that's not what they really look like, nor does he let them in on what he's going through.

But if you continue to have Fuminori stay as he is, with brain trauma, innocent or no, everyone is now a monster, and an especially reprehensible one if they threaten him or Saya. He can only see the ugly, the nasty, and reprehensible, even if everyone speaks clearly. Since he can't wait to be away from them, he can now only see what he finds bad about them. I'd say he only finds pleasure in killing them either because it's freeing to not let the binds of humanity stop him from doing as he pleases and/or because it's satisfying to be free of what are now nuisances.

He also says that in the final showdown, he wouldn't have any hesitancy killing Koji as he doesn't see him as human, and it'd be natural to kill him as he's an easy to perceive threat. A statement that subtly puts off Saya, but I'll get to that near the end, anyway...

This leads us to Yoh. He doesn't see a well-meaning, soft-spoken girl anymore, but now a petulant, meek, follower. Even when she's pretty again, he doesn't care about her as he's already seen the unsavorable side of her, and he'd thrown away humanity and reason. She is not human, nor a monster to him, but a non-threatening and cute pet.

The only one he truly sees as human, despite the knowledge she is isn't, is Saya. If he'd had a normal brain accident and seen her in her true form, he likely would've reacted the way everyone else had. But he saw her human in a world of nastiness. Even if he asks her to fix his mind and he's now in a cold, hard cell, and something nonhuman and grotesque is behind the door he can't make himself put off or frightened or weary because he's seen the humanity of that grotesque thing. It's not a monster, it's Saya.

[sister-lucifer]

Ok!!! Here are some based on old Russian and Serbian tales (I'm Russian):

1. A poroniec is a hostile and malicious demon from Slavic mythology. They were believed to come into existence from stillborn fetuses, but also from improperly buried remains of children who had died during infancy.

Porónce are shapeshifters, immortal and able to take any form, but they're usually seen in the form of a horrifying-looking baby, an adult human, or an owl.

So, maybe a woman named Anastasia (Russian regal name meaning "rebirth") who is found sleeping under the floorboards (if she was buried under the house) or at the bottom of a well (if she was thrown in). She had started there as a stillborn child but grew to a full woman

Signature characteristics:

Horrible posture (from growing to an adult inside a tiny enclosed space)

Hatred for the concept of family (or at least, perceived. Really she is jealous of the love ordinary children recieve)

Tendency to crawl on all fours

Animalistic urges like biting and running away at slight movements

Difficult to befriend at first but warms up like a cat

Loves competition and playfighting (will wrestle you for fun)

Talks in mostly questions

Scraggly, broken voice

Favorite things:

Physical activity

Exploring the house

Dark magic (any characters you have that use dark magic? They could be friends! Anastasia loves to cuddle up and watch the horrors go down.)

Playing in bodies of water (makes her feel so clean!!!! (she's not))

Least favorite things:

Verbal affection ("I love you" and "you're so pretty" are OUT. fist bumps are IN.)

Being a little goody-two-shoes (loosen up a little!! we're still young)

Secrets and dilly-dallying (She's a very curious girl and just wants an answer to her fucking question)

2. Bauk was a creature from Southern Slavic beliefs, especially from Serbian beliefs. Parents used to scare children with him. The word bauljati is used to describe when somebody walks weirdly, which originates from Bauk. Bauk walked weirdly and lived in dark places- in holes or abandoned houses from where he preys upon humans and eats them.

Since "Bauk" is a single figure, I think that would be his full name, but maybe something like Brok or Benzi as a nickname. He's probably found sleeping in MC's bed at first, or in the corner of their bedroom, and their first conversation is waking him up.

(He's nonbinary and goes by he/it/they.)

Signature characteristics:

Ashy, dark skin that is almost translucent

(NOTE. THEY ARE NOT MEANT TO BE A BLACK OR OTHERWISE POC CARICATURE. THEY ARE SERBIAN)

Hungry, obsessive eyes

Twitches/shivers/stumbles when he walks

Bad stutter

Always cold, skin feels cold, hands are freezing

Canine teeth and horns

Hairyyyyy.........

Not a huge fan of moving or doing anything

Hedonistic; wants to eat and sleep constantly

Easy to charm, hard to persuade (VERY stubborn)

Favorite things:

Familiar food, familiar places

Darkness or dim light

Edgy animals like black cats and ravens and spiders

Just hanging out and talking

Watching you sleep 👁️

Least favorite things:

Sharing (from EITHER end. You've got your things and he's got his. Unless we're talking about hearts or bedrooms or key to the pantry, then he's got yours.)

Direct light (VERY VERY sensitive to it. This is the only way to get it out of your room (mythologically accurate), but baby will be hurt emotionally. 😔)

I hope these aren't too niche or specific! :(

Image references (Poroniec left, Bauk right):

WOW I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE IDEAS !!! i will definitely be writing this down because WOW!!!

thank you so much!!

[saerins]

What is this thing about Sae not being able to help himself?? Bestie is down bad (and so are we all)

Also idk but I just imagined something angsty? Like imagine we're not first choice to Sae (or whoever it may be). Like we were the childhood friend or the one that stuck around after all the ups and downs only to lose to someone who just met him. And none of us are toxic in a way? Like no one is being a trash bag or anything. It's just unfortunate circumstances.

AND we do fight for it, we try to win his affection but we lose competing with the other person. AND we break 4th wall (or use other characters) where we find out that we are hated by other people for "getting in the way" of the "main couple". But feelings just happen and no one is guilty for loving someone and trying to pursue it.

Like do we as 2nd lead, be perceived as trashy and essentially deserving to be punished (like a lot of the time with 2nd leads) or what? Idk just a thought after hearing a lot from Bianca. I mean she's not a good/reasonably sound person but what if she was normal. She was someone who wasn't toxic or wasn't anything bad. She just wanted to be loved.

(Lmao I disappear and then come back to dump this. Uni is still kicking me but I hope you're doing well!!)

- 💫 anon

hahaha sae did help himself 😋 all the while thinking of yn lmao he’s really down bad </3

and as for that; i would say right now bianca is doing a little bit more than normal (going by her nature and what she did to other girls who got close to sae) but still would be kind of normal all the same, in a way ? i think a lot of the dislike is just playful hahaa as for whether she ends up being a trash bag, i’ll have to keep you in the dark for it but let’s say it’s yn—putting a readmore for this haha

okay if roles were reversed and yn was in bianca’s shoes and bianca is the new girl sae got to know; if we tried to still make him fall for us—i think that’s going to be perceived as normal. we’re just trying, no harm. but there’s also what most people are theorising that bianca is trying to do now (in the actual story) which is to sabotage and in a way “play unfairly” (think mirin haha) which, if i wrote it as yn (roles reversed), i think yn would be hated on too haha especially if the other girl has done absolutely nothing and exhibited no hostility or even bad intent to us. i would think it’s mostly about the intentions behind their actions and right now bianca’s is unclear haha so we have supporters and also non-supporters. we only know she wants sae to herself and have been proven to enact intimidation tactics to other girls to push them away from him. which is not so normal haha so there’s already doubt there. but if she wasn’t that way, if she didn’t do that, i don’t think the hate for her would be as much tbh haha but in some ways, whenever anybody tries to cut into what we want, most of us would hate it so there will be that animosity towards her anyway. and that, i think, is what’s actually normal.

she wants to be loved, but so does yn. heck, so does eita haha but there’s a distinct difference in how they go about doing it which, if more people related/agreed to the way bianca was doing it, then i have no doubt people would start going against my yn too hahaha it’s just that it’s mostly typical for the second lead to be more toxic, i think, and so they naturally garner the hate :’)

again, like you said, if bianca was completely normal and did none of those toxic things, people probably wouldn’t hate but most of them can probably see that sae doesn’t feel the same (because of the huge difference in how he treats bianca vs yn) and naturally would want bianca to back off because it’s really no good to her to keep clinging on to something that has proven time and again is not for her, as harsh as it sounds (it’s a life lesson i learned personally too so i guess i relate and feel strongly for it hahahah).

anyway !! if this doesn’t make sense (because i’m so so bad at phrasing this 😭) hopefully you guys will understand more once i drop more of that sae/bianca lore hahaha sobs sorry this got long i was just thinking and typing as i went :’) i love how you made me think though :p

[remidyal]

D20 Bad Fic Ideas of the Day

In the D20 fic discord, I semi-regularly post a Bad Idea of the Day, a fic idea I am myself unlikely to ever do much with but feel like throwing out there. I figured I would share some of these here, and who knows, maybe they'll spark something for other writers:

Bad idea of the day: Kristen Applebees, in Junior year, has to deal with the most horrific of new rival clerics: Janet Chili's.

Bad Idea Of The Day, A Crown of Candy edition. Lapin extra secretly is faking being a warlock of the Sugar Plum Fairy and actually IS loyal to the church; he turns on the others in the Cathedral.

Bad idea of the day, not Fantasy High edition - Six months after the fight in Times Square, the remaining members of the Dream Team have to fight the American Dream again, but it's like a video game where you fight an earlier boss later with a minor reskin and it's way less threatening. He's dressed like a used car dealer in an American Flag suit, and attempting to get into the real world simply to take place in a hot dog eating contest. (This one was posted on July 4th.)

Bad idea of the day, not even IH edition: Escape from the Bloodkeep, it turns out that if you feel strong enough emotions about someone then you can accidently forge a soulmate-esque bond that cannot be broken. Unfortunately for Leiland, the fear and hate he has for Galfast Hamhead counts.

Bad idea of the day: Adaine ends up as a warlock of her future self

Bad idea of the day, Never After edition: A fic that's just Henry Hubbard doing all the side quests Brennan wrote up that the IH just walked around

Bad Idea of the Day, Crossover Edition: Binx and Andhera, wondering the mortal realm after ACoFaF, have to go in to try to rescue one of the lost court of craft from that most dangerous of places, New York and its renegade new court, with the maybe-hostile leader in a pantsuit Rowan Berry

Bad idea of the day, ACoFaF edition: Hob actually reveals that he's three goblins in a hobgoblin trenchcoat right at the end of his finale speech to Rue

Bad Idea of the Day, Unsleeping City edition: The Dream Team has to deal with an unusually irritable New York city and a deadly attack on the Vox Phantasma, as an artifact hidden somewhere within the five boroughs has made it so that every living person in New York has a terminal case of insomnia

Bad idea of the day, time travel edition: In an accident of annoying proportions, Ayda finds herself lost in an unknown time in what should be Solace but is calling itself part of Highcourt. Eventually, she discovers a small orphan who doesn't remember his name who starts to follow her around, and she eventually comes to the realization that this is a young Arthur Aguefort.

Bad idea of the day: There is a cloud city full of ninja that is plotting to destroy the city of Leviathan, full of their natural enemies, the pirates.

Bad idea of the day, ASO edition: While Plug is off on his honeymoon, he's hired an all-purpose droid to manage his shop. Can Sundry Sydney keep the shop from shutting down or getting blown up for two weeks while waiting on Plug to get back?

Bad idea of the day, the Unsleeping City edition: Pete finds out that every 10 years, representatives of New York, Chicago, Detroit, and various other cities must gather together and fight to the death over which city's pizza will be perceived as the best for the next decade, and he's up to bat for New York.

Bad idea of the day, Remi's at the beach edition: Due to an incredibly poor choice of Arthur Aguefort's, one party every summer is responsible for the maintenance of a lighthouse on a secluded cursed island that comes under frequent attacks from the undead of those lost at sea. Can they manage to not kill each other after staying in a small isolated place together for three months?

Bad idea of the day, Remi is still on vacation edition: Following the disrespect of what happened in Fh and Fhsy Sol issues a proclaimation that unless Kristen Applebees and Arthur Aguefort are brought to justice, there will never again be a satisfactory beach day in Solace

Bad idea of the day, class swap edition: Adaine flunks out of Hudol at a way younger age and, desperately trying to find something she can do and also thrilled at the idea of getting away from her family for the summer gets herself signed up for a summer ranger youth program, being run by one Sandra Lynn Faeth. Bonus fun: she's literally the only child who signed up.

Bad idea of the day: An evil bad kids AU, except instead of the serious curse-driven version of this I have, it's like the ridiculous old star trek episodes where every mirror universe character has just absurd facial hair and wildly different personalities in ways that don't actually make sense

Bad idea of the day, My Escapism Fantasy Is Now Just It Not Being 95 Degrees and 80% Humid Edition: It's winter in Elmville and the first good snow of the year has arrived, which means it's time for an Aguefort tradition: An all-out snowball brawl between all of the school's parties to see who is the most frosty group around. Can the bad kids get over their much more natural inclination towards fire to pull out a victory?

Bad idea of the day, meta edition: A class swap AU where the classes and subclasses are directly taken from a different season but the same player.

Bad Idea of the Day, The Unsleeping City edition: After a run of strong retro advertising, the Dream Team must defeat a large number of the most evil imaginary things of all: Corporate mascots. Can they avoid the noid, stop the energizer bunny, and murder the Geico Caveman before fifteen minutes or less pass?

Bad idea of the day, it's 3 am in an apartment edition: A fic focused on Ayda's incarnation that first arrived in Leviathan and her construction of the Compass Points and seizing of the role of quartermaster of knowledge.

Bad idea of the day, pirate shanties edition: Fabian is a bard from the start, but can only work magic while on a ship because he gets too embarrassed to sing a shanty on land.

Bad idea of the day, editor edition: Adaine gets hold of one of my favorite magical items of all time, a spellbook that allows you to modify spells on the fly by adding, removing, or changing a single letter. For example, Sleep could instead become Sleet, to make an area icy terrain, or Disguise Self could instead be made into Disguise Elf to change the appearance of any elf.

Bad idea of the day, middle of the night edition: Adaine, in real need of some money following the events of FHSY, opens a paid service Oracle line and is deeply surprised and disappointed when she finds herself mostly ending up giving romantic advice.

Bad idea of the day, Remi's been watching cooking shows edition: Kitchen Nightmare King, who comes into your dreams and leaves you raving mad unless you manage to get at least an 8/10 on the dish you cook in 75 minutes or less in your dream.

Bad Idea of the Day: A year has come and gone, and it's time for the Hangvan's safety inspection. Has Gorgug sufficiently figured out all of the van's various systems to be safe, or will one of the mechanics accidentally trigger the weapons or the self-destruct?

Bad idea of the day, Grandfather was in a MOOD when he invented geese edition: It's the Bad Kid's senior year, and they've received the most dangerous quest assignment of all; a babysitting request for a ten year old wild magic sorcerer of some strange lineage and complete and utterly chaotic alignment named Peep Featherfowl.

Bad idea of the day, labor relations edition: Tired of the high lethality rate, the adventurers of Solace go on strike until the government agrees to assist in funding resurrections and other healing measures. This trickles all the way down to the very youngest adventurers, those of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. Can they avoid being tricked by the wily Vice Principal Goldenhoard into accidentally becoming scabs?

(Bad idea of the day, parenthetical edition: Adaine in her junior year receives another divine appointment to a position she does not want and cannot get out of save by dying (or in this case, graduating): Editor of the Aguefort school newspaper.)