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freshcuntgrass · 9 months

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Hey I saw your tags on that one post and please tell me everything about your D&D campaign I’m so invested?????

This is going to be a novel, since it was a 3.5-year campaign that went from level 1-20. You said everything. I am putting it into chapters because it turned out insane. Without further ado, the LGBT (all at once? yes) adventures of the Extra Gay Party. (tldr what if it was gay wrath month for 42 months straight).

The PCs: Blanche (paladin of Osiris, last nun of her order not slaughtered), Nekrotzar (gay escapee of a cult of Sarastro [radical homophobic Osirian prophet whose cult is definitely not based on the Mormons], now a cleric pledged to a mysterious death god named Achlys), Loge (chaotic tiefling demon-pact warlock), Tchelio (middle-aged sorcerer, Just Some Guy).

Chapter 1: Sure, Fuck the Devil, I Guess

We start with some classic low-level shit in a big port city. A close friend of Nekrotzar's, Callalilly the transgender wizard girlboss slash perpetual grad student, passes off some low-level jobs to them because she's got grading to do. Giant crabs in a basement, zombies in the street. A handsome elf named Nick Shadow sees them fighting things, has them sign contracts as his adventurers-for-hire, sends them off to retrieve some stuff from a cave. Unrelatedly and unnecessarily, Loge fucks Nick Shadow that night. He's pretty hot, so, wahoo.

They get the low-level macguffins from the cave, alongside some beginner magic items, including a mirror that lets them Detect Good and Evil. Somewhere along the way, they determine that Nick Shadow is Maybe Bad News. The lady they deliver the macguffins to sends them off on a foldable boat to Fiend's Bane, a fiend-fighting organization that might know more.

Fiend's Bane, despite being largely middle-aged, mostly retired, and generally past their collective prime, does know more. Nick Shadow (who, remember, one party member has had actual penis sex with) is a devil they accidentally signed themselves into the service of. Also, the younger generation of Fiend's Bane (and/or the traveling wizard school Callalilly goes to, which happens to be in the neighborhood) features a number of reckless young people who are variously intrigued by these new adventurers. Wizard Zoë starts flirting with Blanche, paladin(+secret celestial warlock) Sasha starts flirting with Loge (who's also kind of in a relationship with his demon patron? it's complicated. Loge gets a blade from him with a single wish attached, should he wish to break the pact). Other important NPCs from this include Brad and Samuel, fratty gay necromancers who are in love, this is like a D-plot but put it in your pocket for later

They have a number of misadventures in Fiend's Bane's quiet-up-until-recently small town. Wizard frat parties, stints in jail, I think there's a haunted house in there somewhere. In a brief foray into the wizarding school, a necromancy professor tries to force-choke one of them, in what is widely regarded as a dick move. Cue a wildly lucky initiative that results in this fucking archmage's immediate death at the hands of some level 5 characters. Not like that was plot I was saving for later or anything. It's fine. I pivoted. We're fine.

Nekrotzar's friend Callalilly learns they killed one of her professors and informs her godmother Gepopo, a spymaster for the major city, who goes "...uh. well. that's interesting. good job?" This isn't important yet. Put it in your pocket. Don't worry about it. The party certainly didn't. They were busy with a variety of gay subplots I won't get into. Loge multiclasses into bard during one of these.

At any rate, they eventually escape the small town under Dubious Circumstances on their foldable boat, stowing away the young, rebellious, and mostly very queer new generation of Fiend's Bane (as well as their emotional support gay frat necromancers). They'd previously consulted a map of dangerous portals from fiendish planes, and pointed their boats towards a fairly large one: the Cave of the Banished Scholars, outside of the scholars' city of Cape Hildegard. At some point on the boat, Loge and Sasha get into some relationship drama, largely revolving around the fact that their demon/celestial warlock patrons are rivals/friends/lovers/????? and are MEDDLING in all of their SHIT.

Chapter 2: Cape Hildegard, City of Nerds

They arrive in Cape Hildegard and go to a tavern. Sasha slips Loge a note to meet him on a certain hilltop to talk through things in the morning. Nekrotzar meets a cute gay boy named Axel. They all get in a bar fight against Nick Shadow's agents trying to claim their wayward souls, after which a mysterious elvish priestess named Acona says some cryptic shit at Nekrotzar and disappears.

Loge goes to meet Sasha on the designated hilltop the next morning. He is shunted into the Ethereal Plane by Nick Shadow, who taunts him. Don't you see them embracing someone else? Shadow says. Don't you see they've forgotten you already? You are unlovable, Loge. I know you. I own you. I know this. Instead of talking with Sasha, Loge takes the wish blade from his patron and stabs himself through the heart.

Sasha was not embracing another lover, of course. Sasha was seeking solace in their friend, Samuel, of Gay Necromancer D-Plot fame. Samuel is the one who finds Loge's body, which he has not yet gained the power to truly resurrect. Samuel is the one who carries it, bereft, to the rest of the party. They take hold of the wishblade sticking out of his chest and understand that there is only one thing they can do: use its lone wish to resurrect Loge. He's brought back to life... but without the powers of his demon patron, who made him swear he would not die without his permission.

Once the main party is all back and alive again, they can all focus themselves back on the A-plot, which involves getting a series of keys from a series of colorful local college professors via a series of mini-quests, in order to unlock the right to enter the Cave of the Banished Scholars, where the fabled fiendish portal they were seeking lies. They do some gladiating. Blanche dies a little. It's fine, she gets better.

In one of the earliest mini-quests, the party meets Barbarina Blackhammer, a dwarven heiress who agrees to sponsor the gladiatorial pursuits they're taking on in the B-plot to earn a little treasure. Remember that mirror they got in the tutorial caves? They pull it out to try to discern Barbarina's alignment and motives. It tells them in no uncertain terms: she's a celestial. Loge walks up to her and says: "I know what you are, and I need a warlock patron. Help me." Bemused, she agrees to be his patron. She sends him to various contacts of hers, trains him in different skills, provides magic items to the party. His training is distinctly more bardic than warlockian, but he gains confidence with her guidance.

The fabled Cave of the Banished Scholars that they eventually seek is also the resting place of (gayboyloveinterest) Axel's father, a famous knight who charged into the portal wielding a legendary sword. In another mini-quest, Blanche gets her fortune told: she's fated to find and wield this famous knight's sword, and to bring balance back to the realm of her god Osiris.

Now, a subplot appears here that you've got to understand to get the full picture. Sweet little Nekrotzar, 19-year-old babygoth gayboy, was absolutely lost in the sauce of his cult. Revealed at baptism to be an aasimar (frightening the heathens out from the congregation as he spread his holy wings), weight of the community placed upon him, betrothed by 15 to a daughter of a prominent family, sent away to the starting city on a crucial mission trip... it's no wonder he snapped under the pressure and pledged himself to Achlys, a death god he knew next-to-nothing about. He's a fallen aasimar now, and certainly not beating the emo kid allegations, but he's starting to find himself and having a sweet little romance arc. On one of his dates, when Axel steps out to get drinks, Priestess Acona appears from the darkness to punch him in the face and deliver another prophecy: the only son of Agamemmnon is not his only child. For Romulus's sake, Remus kills the golden wolf. Axel comes back to find his boyfriend clutching his broken nose (owie) and going "Wait… I have a sister? I gotta kill my dad about it? I have a sister?"

Anyway, there's more key shenanigans, more gladiator fights, et cetera. They get some loot from Barbarina, they get some vague and dubious celestial blessings from Acona, and everyone gets invited to a nice masquerade ball. There's a ballroom dance competition that Nekrotzar and Axel enter. But when they switch partners in the minuet, the woman Nekrotzar dances with is all too familiar. At this distance-- even through the mask-- he would know her anywhere. His ex-fiancée, Mescalina. She's an agent of Nick Shadow now, and coming to kill him as revenge for leaving her. Also, those weren't ice sculptures, they were a fuckton of erinyes. In this impossible battle, the party gets the last key to the caves before dying en masse. The last thing any of them see is Barbarina shoving their dead bodies into a Portable Hole.

Several days later, the party awakens at the home of a hermit cleric in the mountains. You know who's also there, visibly exhausted by the journey? That's right! Priestess Acona, with the same celestial aura as Barbarina! Turns out that was just Acona in a fake beard and a couple pounds of makeup, trying to find another angle to get close to the party. Nekrotzar has Divination by now, so he asks his goddess who his sister is. It's Callalilly. One of the "heathens" who fled from Nekrotzar's baptism was his father's sister, who took with her a little boy who desperately wanted to be a girl and was suffering under the Sarastrans for it. Nekrotzar was already gonna kill his dad but now he's for SURE for sure killing his dad.

Anyway: caves! This mëgädüngëön's got everything: zombie cultists, death tyrants, succubi, Mr. Bones's Wild Ride, actual cannibal Shia LaBeouf, absolute oceans of sentient psychic goop. Blanche finds Axel's dad's sword. The final boss is a nightmarish devil/aberration crossbreed who lives in a radioactive death zone where magic is broken and stole Axel's dad's face. None of it really comes up again, but it fucks pretty hard, as mëgädüngëöns go.

They survive the horrors and the agonies. They go back to Cape Hildegard, where their friends and love interests have fought back the siege of Shadow's devils. The older members of Fiend's Bane have caught up with them and aren't super happy about their kids all running away to have a dangerous homosexual adventure. Loge says, "Hey, with everyone here… Sasha let's get married on the spot!" Love wins! They sail away the next day, except for Tchelio, who really just wanted the money to start a bakery this whole time. He's still in Cape Hildegard to this day, baking cakes and telling kids to get off his lawn. (I know I've barely mentioned him. He stayed out of the drama but was generally a good sorcerer and excellent party dad.)

Chapter 3: Fuck the Devil But Not Literally This Time

Time to go to the big city and visit Callalilly for the holidays! She's family and all, you know. Nekrotzar's also very excited to meet her famous godmother, Spymaster Gepopo. When she walks in the door… well, she looks like Priestess Acona. She sounds like Priestess Acona. She, um… she put on a Nystul's Magic Aura and followed the party around to manipulate them into killing Nekrotzar's dad. She got the idea way back when they killed that archmage. Agamemmnon was a transphobic piece of shit to someone she loved, so he's gotta go, and it seemed extra fun to get his own son to do the job for her. What Gepopo was definitely not expecting was to bluff her way through being Loge's warlock patron. This woman can't cast so much as a cantrip, let alone give away magical powers. Loge has been a Warlock of Regular Elf this whole time. The real warlock patron was inside him all along, or something like that. (Just like Nick Shadow had been inside him. Hey-o.)

Loge gets invited to perform in a drag competition by a mysterious wealthy benefactor. Hooray! We have a fun drag show mini-game episode that I rudely interrupt by revealing that the mysterious wealthy benefactor was Nick Shadow all along, and he's here to murder everyone. Massive auditorium fight ensues. All allies firing on all cylinders. Lights flickering on and off. The third Divine Intervention of the campaign goes off because Nekrotzar is god's little meow meow and nobody on earth has ever rolled dice like him. There's a steel dragon at some point because of an F-plot there's no time to get into, and it's like the fourth or fifth most buckwild thing going on in this goddamn fight. When Loge dies, he comes face to face with his old patron, who presents him with a deal: he can make Nick Shadow mortal if Loge comes with him to Pandemonium forever. Loge takes the deal and disappears into the Lower Planes. Shadow is killed-- releasing all the souls he has ever claimed-- but even the gods can't bring Loge back to life.

We have an absolutely brutal funeral. Everyone weeps openly at the table. Loge wins the drag competition posthumously. After some time, a feypact warlock named Pamina seeks them out. She somehow absorbed some of the souls released by Nick Shadow's death, she already wanted to kill Sarastro anyway, and so she's with them now as they travel on to Blanche and Samuel's hometown. Pamina largely hates everyone, particularly Sasha, because the player very intentionally made the opposite of Loge. This causes a ton of drama not worth getting into. That's just the vibe now.

Anyway, they cruise into town, and a massive tsunami cruises on in behind them. Bunch of people die, including Sasha, who has become Little Mx. Death Wish now that their husband's gone. Pamina goes in and saves them. Nekrotzar and the gay frat necromancers get to work raising the dead. You know who's not dead? Blanche's dad! He's a semi-retired naval officer who runs a winery, and he's overjoyed to see the daughter he hasn't seen since she joined the convent. You know who's definitely dead, though? Blanche's mom! She was secretly the captain of a band of warriors, who all sacrificed their lives trying to stop the Sarastran invaders who destroyed Blanche's nunnery. It's likely that they're the reason Blanche had enough time to hide away. There is crying and hugging and a beautiful lesbian engagement party at the winery (Blanche and Zoë. We didn't get into it much but they're cute as hell).

Chapter 4: You Gotta Kill Your Dad Now, Dude

Oops! Look at the time! I say, pointing to my watch where all the numbers are replaced with Nekrotzar Go Kill Your Dad. They also have to go stop Sarastro's wedding slash the ritual where he becomes immortal, but I think the patricide is really the point here. (There are so many goddamn dads in this campaign. It's just dads all the way down. I don't know why I'm like this, either.) They also free the trapped and haunted souls at Blanche's desecrated nunnery along the way. Sasha dies again and is very upset at being resurrected.

They get to the wedding slash occult ritual as it's in progress, under a solar eclipse. Sarastro is marrying-- of all people-- Mescalina, who seems to have recovered pretty gracefully from the whole her-warlock-patron-dying-at-a-drag-show incident, all things considered. Earthquakes. Fireballs. Avenging angel shit. Widespread armageddon. They murder Mescalina with extreme prejudice, as well as most of Sarastro's apostles, a lot of reanimated undead warriors with their hearts cut out, and obviously Nekrotzar's dad (dude dies in the earthquake immediately, bit anticlimactic but it gets the job done). Sarastro's already gone through a bunch of the process of becoming a god, so it doesn't faze him that much when they kill him too, but they do it anyway for good measure.

Nekrotzar uncovers his dad's body from the rubble before they all flee to a local library to hide from the remaining apostles. Here, he proceeds to resurrect his dad, torture him with high-level necromancy spells, and murder him a couple more times, in what is frankly the most brutal way I have ever seen a D&D character use their spell slots. World-class patricide, very satisfying, the kind of death all transphobes deserve. Nekrotzar also reads up on his goddess-- the last breath of the first human, an ancient goddess of grief and loss of whom he may be the last living follower.

Unfortunately, fun library time is interrupted by a legion of zombies with their hearts carved out, led by a few of the remaining apostles. The front lines of the undead army are dressed to resemble the party and their allies. Axel and Sasha get yoinked into a Sarastran demiplane. By the time the party destroys the army, saves the library, and gets to the demiplane, they find Axel mind-controlled and about to straight-marry (boo!) one of the apostles they've killed… who has been turned into a fiend. The demiplane is actually a chunk of what was formerly Nick Shadow's circle of hell, which they're sailing through the Astral Plane to ram into Mount Celestia so that Sarastro can ascend to godhood there. They do save Axel, but before they got there Sasha fucking… jumped off into the Astral Sea. Normal decision from the normal decision maker

They eventually plane shift themselves back home. Homophobe Town's obviously a bad time (no good gay bars), so they bounce around the other cities from the campaign, gathering allies before the big godhood ascension ritual Sarastro so helpfully monologued about the exact date of. Fiend's Bane joins the cause. Warriors who idolized Blanche's mom assemble a force. Blanche and Samuel's dads dust off their old uniforms and lead their cavalry in. There's even a little ragtag band of clerics-- people resurrected post-tsunami by our death-obsessed gayboys, finding new purpose in Nekrotzar's god and desperate to repay the people who saved their lives. They also take a brief jaunt to the Astral Plane to keep Sasha from diving into Pandemonium, who reacts much like a cat who has been prevented from diving into the trash can, but whaddaya gonna do.

Chapter 5: Kill God and Serve Cunt

The Day of Ascension, as I called it, is just a fuck-off huge fight. Grab y'all's shovels because I'm burying our gays. They wind their way through all the iconic battlefields of the town: the ritual monument, the graveyard, the Prime Sarastran Temple. The apostles do their best to stop them-- the ones they killed come back as fiends, while the ones that lived rose as celestials alongside Sarastro. (This was a bit of slick DM work on my part, if I do say so myself. Blanche's fancy sword slices through fiends like a hot knife through butter. It's a big advantage.)

I cannot stress enough: they all die a bunch during this fight. Every PC at least once, every love interest at least once, I think Samuel got in two or three deaths by himself because wizards are made of wet cardboard. Blanche has joked all campaign that god won't let her stay dead. She has always wondered why it was her that lived, when so many of her loved ones died around her. She dies on the front lines, fighting to the last, and wakes up cradled in the arms of Osiris like a child falling asleep at a party. Her sisters from the convent are there, in the silver halls of Ysgard, sharing in the celestial feast. Her mother is there. Osiris holds her gently and tells her, you can rest now. You've carried this mantle so long. Stay here with your sisters. Stay here with me. But Blanche says no-- she has to finish this fight. After all this time wondering, it's not god that won't let Blanche die, but Blanche herself.

One of the most formidable enemies in their way is Mescalina-- she found a way to rise to Nick Shadow's vacant position and become an archdevil herself. She's got portals open, she's directing fiendish armies through them, so Nekrotzar decides to throw up a Gate spell for some sweet portal action of his own. Who does he call forth? An archfey, a solar, his god?

Nope! He picks fucking Spymaster Gepopo, who is definitely on the Material Plane and presumably at brunch.

What he does manage to call forth is some echo of her soul, this flickering wisp from twenty years ago, who calls out to Blanche by her mother's name for help. This is a piece of her soul from the death knight who killed her in her adventuring days, still clinging onto her and getting pulled through the portal as well. Clinging to the death knight is an archangel, trying to arrest him for unauthorized claim on a mortal's soul. Clinging to the archangel is the archdemon who is his rival/friend/lover/?????. And clinging to the archdemon, of course, is his assistant. Loge.

Finally properly reunited, they all storm the cathedral as Sarastro booms out his final villain speech. He has won, you see. He has followed the path he always preached, and it has led him to godhood. This battalion of degenerates could not stop him, cannot stop any of them. He has trapped the final breath of death, and when he kills her, they will be helpless. Nekrotzar bursts forth into the temple to see his goddess chained inside a crystal sarcophagus, Sarastro's scepter of godhood poised to strike the final blow.

So, y'know, fuck that. Obviously.

The final fuck-off huge stage of this fuck-off huge fight commences. Nekrotzar rescues his god. She's throwing them hit points, she's throwing them flight, she's throwing them epic boons. I somehow have twelve Legendary Actions per round. Sarastro's got two level 9 spell slots, maybe three? Throngs of worshippers envelop the party, attempting to overwhelm and trample them even as they fall by the dozens to spell and sword. They vanquish the apostles, one by one. Mescalina screams for the help of her bridegroom as Blanche's sword swings towards her neck. He sneers. I've used you for your purpose. I have no need of devils, or of wives.

It's a lucky swing from Sasha, of all people, that turns the tide. They picked up a silver greatsword while they were making interesting choices in the Astral Plane. A critical hit severs Sarastro's connection to this plane. He goes from towering and omnipotent to faint and flickering, unable to be truly banished while his apostles still stand. But one by one, they fall, and so does he. It is Nekrotzar's hammer that strikes the final blow.

As the fight dies down, the heroes survey the carnage. They've saved plenty of resurrection spells for the fallen. They'll need them all. Brad, Zoë, Axel. Blanche's dad. Loge carries Samuel out of the rubble, the way that Samuel carried him all those months ago, and casts Resurrection. But he's died too many times. The spell fails.

This is hard on everyone, but particularly on Blanche. She has conquered death so many times. She has killed the false prophet turned dark god, the one who twisted Osiris's worship into something hateful and cruel. And yet, there is still one last person who could not be saved-- one last person from home. They leave, the temple in ruins behind them, Samuel's body in Blanche's strong arms.

Loge's patron comes to collect him; he cannot stay. Sasha begs to come along with him, but Loge rebuffs them; they cannot go. But for the rest of the party, there is one last quest: seek any method, pay any price, resurrect Samuel.

True Resurrection is a difficult spell at my table. The cost is high, the materials rare. The casters-- always multiple casters-- have to give up parts of themselves to give the soul a fighting chance. Even then, nothing is guaranteed. They give up nearly every cent of their treasure and settle in for the ritual. Nekrotzar gives up one of his feats-- the wrath that fueled him. Brad gives up some of his lifeblood, some of his CON score. Pamina gives up all memories of her family. They all agree that Blanche has given up enough already. They draw the runes, grind the diamonds, finish the ritual, and pray.

Samuel opens his eyes. In the end, everyone lives.

We end the campaign the way that Griffin McElroy taught me to end campaigns: with a big gay wedding. It is the next spring, and Blanche and Zoë marry on the vineyard they're now helping run. Nekrotzar has moved to Cape Hildegard with Axel, where he is getting a useless art history degree. Pamina is traveling the world, trying to connect with the families of the lost souls that spurred her on to adventure in the first place. The years pass with Blanche's sword upon the mantle and Nekrotzar's hammer in a museum. Blanche and Zoë fill their home with babies and cats. The grapes grow heavy on the vine and the children learn to walk. After all the carnage they saw and brought, after all their travels as disciples of death, the party gets the reward they never imagined: to simply, quietly live.

Anyway, thanks for reading all that. Here's some bonus art. We got Loge, bakery!Tchelio, winery!Blanche, college!Nekrotzar, and the T-shirt I made as a parting gift to the party.

#dungeons and dragons #game tales #long ass post

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letarasstuff · 3 years

Text

Girl meets World

(A/N): This was requested by an anon and is based on a show named 'Boy meets world', tho I never watched it so I went solely with the summary from said anon. I hope you still like it :)

Summary: Spencer's daughter is not ready for her first kiss. But are her classmates fine with that?

Warnings: Mean kids, angst but fluff at the end

Wordcount: 1.6k

✨Masterlist✨ ___________________________

Being on the not so popular side in school is not particularly hard, but it doesn’t exactly make things easier for (Y/N). That’s why Spencer was happy to hear from her invitation to a classmate’s birthday party.

“You call me and I’ll get you. I don’t mind if it’s in ten minutes or in two hours. Whenever you feel uncomfortable or you are done with peopling, it’s fine wanting to leave. Ok?” Her father tells her, sitting with her in the car in front of the birthday girl’s house. “Understood. Thank you, Dad. I see you no later than ten. Love you!”

Off she goes. Spencer watches (Y/N) going up the path to the front door, a bright colored bag with a gift in her hand. He considers driving up to Penelope’s apartment, which is only five minutes away, and cries with her over his daughter growing up with a tub of ice cream in both their hands. A second later the father puts his plan into motion.

Meanwhile (Y/N) is inside with a bunch of people from different classes. All those kids already make her nervous. But she is determined to make it through the night. After all, the girl doesn’t want to be seen as a baby that gets overwhelmed by a room full of human beings.

At first it isn’t that bad. (Y/N) finds a few classmates she has a class or two with and they converse. Until someone screams “Let’s play Spin-The-Bottle”. Now the eleven year old kind of feels like she is on a movie or a show. What’s next, she has to kiss the boy she has a crush on since the beginning of the school year?

Still all of the children gather around in a circle and a bottle is placed in the middle. “The rules are simple”, a kid explains, “The bottle chooses two people. They get five minutes in that closet over there.” Right, just like she predicted. (Y/N) is hesitant. They are too young to do something like that. Once again she doesn’t want to be the party pooper, so she sits down between two classmates.

Every time the bottle spins a dread weighs down in her stomach. (Y/N) is only eleven years old. Is she even ready to have her first kiss in a closet? Shouldn’t it be out of love, willently without anybody forcing two random people to such an act?

Seems like the others think these rules are fair and square. Everybody is participating with the utmost joy. Maybe it’s just her, who grew up with romantic novels written by people who not even her Grandmother witnessed alive being read to her for bed night.

Deep into calculating the probability of the bottle pointing to her, it needs a few shouts and a nudge to get (Y/N) out of her head. “Looks like it’s your turn to go into the closet”, her neighbor says to her, gesturing to the bottle, which in fact points towards her. The girl swears that the color of her cheeks is even darker than a tomato.

Shyly she gets up to the wardrobe. The remaining girls nod encouragingly while the next person is chosen by the bottle. Luckily it’s not the boy she has a crush on, this would be like in a fanfiction, too much like a cliché.

Just a few seconds later she finds herself in the closet. Is it appropriate to make a joke about coming out of the closet?

“Well, here we are”, the other boy says. (Y/N) thinks his name is Tyler. “Yeah, I guess.” She shuffles her foot and scratches her neck. “So, shouldn’t we kiss or something?”

Geez, that boy is out for action. “Uhm, what about if we do not? I’m not ready for that and no offence but I want my first kiss with somebody special and you are just a boy from my grade and there are no feelings between us and I need that special moment, because I’m a hopeless romantic.” The girl says all of this in one breath, making her speech pace compete with her father’s.

But Tyler smiles. “It’s okay. I get it, really. I won’t tell anyone. We can just sit here and talk until they knock. How does that sound?” (Y/N) smiles and nods. They sit down on some boxes and just laugh quietly about anything and everything they tell each other.

As soon as they have to come out of the closet, the other kids bombard them with questions. Tyler shuts all of them with one answer up. “A lady and gentleman are quiet and enjoy themselves.”

The rest of the evening goes relatively uneventful. There is a nice buffet and after that the kids watch a couple of movies until the first parents show up to pick up their children. Spencer is relieved to see his daughter so energetic and happy after the party.

“And then we played spin the bottle like in a teen movie. Dinner was also really nice and I think I made one or two more friends. Isn’t it amazing, Dad?” He answers her enthusiastically that he is in fact very happy for her. And Spencer is. But it kind of also implies that she grows up, a fact he doesn’t like.

The party was on a Saturday night and now it’s Monday, the first day after it. (Y/N) is ecstatic to go. In her mind her classmates finally accepted her for who she is. But as soon as she enters the school yard the kids from her grade look weirdly at her.

Immediately the girl’s mind goes into panic. Has she something on her face? Is it the way she dresses? Or is it some- The kiss. Or technically the not kiss.

“Hey Reid, I heard you are unkissed. What about I show you in the janitor’s room? Do you also want rose petals and candles laying around?” Someone starts to taunt her. The bystanding classmates begin to laugh.

(Y/N) has to listen to similar comments for the rest of the school day. A few boys from her science class make kissing noises whenever the teacher isn’t near them. Tyler once catches her eyes, mouthing an apology. But it’s not relevant to her at this point. The only thing that counts right now is getting through the last class without breaking down in front of the others. She can’t show them any more weakness.

When his daughter comes home, Spencer is already there. Hotch gave them an early off, since the last few cases were draining for all of them.

Instead of greeting him with a smile and the definition of happiness she enters the apartment with the biggest frown the father has ever seen on her face. “Hey Dad”, (Y/N) flatly says before disappearing into her room.

Confused, he assumes that she just has to do a load of homework, so he lets the girl be for the next couple hours. But as the clock is pushing near dinner time, he begins to worry.

“Sweetheart, I thought about cooking pasta for tonight. Do you wanna help me try Uncle Dave’s new recipe?” He asks at her closed door, respecting her privacy. There is no answer, just a sniffle from the other side. This alarms Spencer. “Sweetheart, may I come in?”

A few seconds pass until a faint “Yes” makes its way to his ears. Inside (Y/N) sits on her bed, her eyes are red from crying. “Oh Sweetheart, don’t be upset. Whatever it is, we can fix it. Tell me, what’s wrong?” The young doctor tries to console her. It’s always more difficult to calm your own family down than any stranger he meets on a case.

“I-it’s stupid. I don’t know why I’m upset over this.” (Y/N) frantically wipes the leftover tears away. “Hey, don’t say that. Your feelings are valid. You can be upset about anything you want, ok? If you don’t want to tell me about it, it’s fine. But I promise you that I’ll value whatever you say.”

The girl nods, finding her composure. “I- At the party we played Spin-The-Bottle and whoever was chosen had to go into the closet with the second one and kiss. I-I was in there with a boy named Tyler, b-but I told him I wasn’t ready. H-he was really sweet about it and respected my reasons. Dad, I’m not old enough and it wouldn’t be anything like I imagined my first kiss would be. But now the whole school or what feels like the whole school makes fun of me a-and I was so embarrassed.”

Spencer can feel her pain. Kids can be worse than professional torturers, he witnessed both first hand. “Oh Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I’ll think of something about it. How do you feel about coming with me into the office? The others are missing you, especially Emily. She has a ton of pictures of Sergio she wants to show you. And for tonight we get your favorite take out and watch a movie of your choice, ok?”

(Y/N) smiles at the thought of the pictures she is going to see. “Yes! Can we get pizza and watch Lion King?” Even though it will be the fifth time they watch this movie this month, Spencer is happy to do anything his daughter wants. She has him wrapped around her finger.

So not long after this heartfelt conversation they sit on the sofa in the living room, crying their eyeballs out after Mufasa died. He deserved better.

Taglist:

All works:

@dindjarinsspouse @big-galaxy-chaos

Criminal Minds:

@averyhotchner @mggsprettygirl @herecomesthewriterwitch @ash19871962

Spencer Reid x child!reader:

@ilovetaquitosmmmm

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x daughter!reader #spencer reid #spencer reid x child!reader #x reader #reader insert #x child!reader #x daughter!reader #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #fanfiction

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walden-media · 2 years

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A Kid Interview with Chris Rylander, Author of The Hurricanes of Weakerville

We’re so excited to have an interview with author Chris Rylander on the blog today! Chris nicely agreed to sit for some hard-hitting questions from a budding journalist about his new middle grade novel THE HURRICANES OF WEAKERVILLE. Jack is a 10-year-old whose two favorite things in life are baseball and books, so he seemed like the perfect candidate to step in as a guest interviewer. Jack had a lot of questions about the plot of The Hurricanes of Weakerville, the writing of the book, as well as Chris’ baseball preferences in his own life. Read on to find out how The Hurricanes came to be, and which MLB team Chris loves so much he got a tattoo in their honor.

⚾️ The Hurricanes of Weakerville is on sale now! ⚾️

Hi Chris! Thank you for answering my questions about The Hurricanes of Weakerville. First up - How did you first come up with the idea for this book?

It came from talking to my editor, Jordan. We both love baseball and I particularly love fantasy baseball, and he was saying how he always thought the idea of a kid managing a real semi-pro baseball team could be a lot of fun. Almost like a Bad News Bears with the roles of manager and players reversed. When I heard that idea, I loved it!

How did you come with Tex's crazy stories?

They all came from somewhere different. It would take a while to explain each one, but one example is a story Tex tells that ends with a law making it illegal to change the weather in Texas. That came from a magazine article I was reading about absurd real-life laws. So, it’s actually true: It is illegal to attempt to change the weather in Texas. When I heard that, I knew it’d be a perfect story for Tex. I love that I was able to make his great grandpappy responsible for that law existing. And I even borrowed a little bit of the real-life story behind the law, too. In the end, I just love absurd stories with either multiple meanings or possibly no meaning at all.

Do you have a favorite baseball team? Do you have a least favorite baseball team?

My favorite team is definitely the Chicago Cubs. I even have a Cubs tattoo, which means now I have to be a fan forever, no matter what! Haha. And of course, as a Cubs fan, it is obviously my duty to root against the St. Louis Cardinals in every way possible.

How did you choose the town name Weakerville, and why did you set it in Iowa?

One of my favorite bands are The Weakerthans. So, it was kind of a nod to them. Also, I liked the idea of the main character, given the struggles he faces in the book, having this looming label of being “weak” literally attached to his name for rest of time. I chose Iowa because it’s a good baseball state, in the heart of the Midwest, with a lot of small towns the rest of the country has never heard of. I’m from North Dakota originally, so I can really relate to the small midwestern town experience.

Why did you choose the name The Hurricanes?

I went through a few different team names while writing/revising this book. They were originally the Mighty Pheasants, because nobody thinks of pheasants as actually being mighty. It was later changed to the Hurricanes to fit with a tale about Weakerville’s past.

Was the "potty sauce" based on something from real life?

Sadly, no. But now I sort of want to try and make the recipe as it appears in the book just to see if it really is that good…

Do you know how to score baseball games, like Alex?

Yes, I do. I even used to keep fake scorecards for a baseball video game I played. I still have several notebooks full of baseball stats for totally fictional baseball games that occurred only on my PlayStation.

How did you come up with Flumpo?

Alex as a character, struggled with his confidence from the very first draft. I knew I always wanted to present this idea that Alex has that some kids (and people in general) just seem to be inherently likeable, while some don’t. And, after a few revisions, it just became clear that this belief needed a concrete label/name, something that could literally be one of Alex’s worst enemies throughout much of the book.

How did Tex get so rich?

You know, like Alex, I have spent many hours Googling his name and trying to figure that out myself. Alas, in many ways, Tex seems to just be a man of mystery.

Do you have a favorite baseball stadium? Do you have a favorite game that you attended?

As a Cubs fan, my favorite stadium is of course Wrigley Field, and my favorite game was getting to go to a World Series game there in 2016, even though they lost that game. It was still unforgettable. Some other favorite stadiums I’ve been to: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Oracle Park (which was AT&T Park when I went), and I’ll always fondly remember the very first one I ever went to: Kauffman Stadium (which was called Royals Stadium back then).

Did you play baseball growing up? What position did you play?

I played until about 5th or 6th grade. I wish I had played longer. It’s definitely a regret I have, even though I wasn’t very good. I played second base and outfield and despite hitting many singles and doubles, I never once hit a homerun.

Did you have a favorite baseball player growing up? (I love Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernandez.)

Ryne Sandberg, hands down. Then later as a teenager it was Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. (Mookie Betts is great, though!)

The Hurricanes of Weakerville Synopsis:

Middle grade star author Chris Rylander brings his signature sense of humor, a compelling and original baseball story, and tons of heart to the story of The Hurricanes of Weakerville.

All his life, Alex Weakerman has had one passion: baseball. Specifically, the Hurricanes of Weakerville, Iowa—the scrappy independent-league team owned by his Grandpa Ira.

Even as team and the town have fallen on tough times, there's no place Alex would rather be than at the ballpark—a hot dog in one hand, a pencil and scorebook in the other, keeping track of each and every statistic. Alex has never been all that great at playing baseball, but that doesn’t matter. For someone as painfully awkward as Alex, being a fan—and a wiz with baseball stats—is all he needs.

When Grandpa Ira passes away, though, Alex is crushed. He's lost his best friend, and he doesn’t see any way that the team will survive. But Ira, it seems, has one last trick up his sleeve: his will names Alex the new manager of the Hurricanes.

Alex is as excited as he is terrified at the chance to finally put some of his fantasy baseball genius to use. But as he sets to work trying to win over the players, he soon learns that leading them to victory is about more than just stats. Will he be able to save his team, his hometown, and his family legacy?

From the author of The Fourth Stall, a SCBWI Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner and multiple state-award favorite, The Hurricanes of Weakerville is sure to appeal to middle grade readers looking for a funny book about real kids.

About the Author:

Chris Rylander is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling “Fourth Stall” saga, the “Codename Conspiracy” trilogy, and co-author of book three in the New York Times bestselling “House of Secrets” series. He lives in Chicago, where he eats a lot of raspberry jam and frequently tries to befriend the squirrels on his block.

#chris rylander #hurricanes of weakerville #middle grade #middle grade fiction #middle grad books #middle grade interview #baseball books #book birthday #walden pond press #walden media

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ravenloftbythelamplight · 2 years

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Well luckily for you I am now awake and thereby now able to try and explain! I’m gonna try and keep this as structured and coherent as possible, but I am very liable to ramble my way into a word salad so apologies in advance if this becomes unreadable a paragraph or two in. Brace yourself because this is gonna be long.

So, first things first, in order to explain what the fuck is happening in that meme drawing, I have to explain how my brain eventually made its way to this bizarre conclusion because yes that process of going from thought to thought does have significance here.

Flashback to however many months ago: I had speed-read through VRGR several times over and was mindlessly, non-literally hungry to non-literally consume more Ravenloft lore. I went to TV Tropes because I do that on occasion and the idea of digging through a whole wiki felt intimating at the time. I only skimmed through the bits I was interested in (i.e. the pages on the darklords) but one thing on the main page caught my eye:

Now for weirdly personal context: in ninth grade at my high school we did a whole section in English class all about Edgar Allen Poe and one of the things we had to read was The Masque of the Red Death. As an end-of-section project one of our options was to make a short graphic novel (of sorts) out of one of ol’ Poe’s writings, and I picked masque of the Red Death because it was the one I liked the most. I made a design for the Red Death based on the description given for the uninvited guest and said design was something I really liked, and even after that section of class was thoroughly done with, I kept drawing it anyway because I just really dug that design I made. Slight aside but actually, funnily enough, I at one point about two years ago had an idea for a story that where I smooshed all the gothic horror lit. stories into one universe (fun fact: the franken-lad NPC in the middle from this post of sketches is a carry-over from this story idea! That’s it’s own whole text post though so I’ll leave it at that), and because I wanted to use that Red Death design for something, I put it into that story as an overarching, looming presence... which is an exceptionally funny thing in hindsight, now knowing that the Gothic Earth spin-off is a thing.

So, with that personal context you can imagine the degree of eyes emoji but slightly blurry to indicate rapid movement I was to see something in reference to the Red Death (and a mashing-together of gothic lit.) so of course I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more, but then I got hung up on that last bit: “..., and Word of God has described the Red Death as an ‘exiled’ Dark Power from the Demiplane of Dread.” “exiled”- that word choice, that one word, fucked me up and I have friends who can attest to that because there is evidence of my wild text-yelling about this on Discord, most of which boiled down to two questions: 1.) Is dissension amongst the ranks of unknowable, cosmic nightmare forces even a thing that can happen? and 2.) If so, then why and how was the Red Death exiled in the first place? What did it do? Those questions can be considered more thuroughly another day though.

Here’s where our detour ends and we finally make our way back onto the main route of this whole post: Saidra. In the section on Saidra in VRGR it is stated several times that she will, when not hosting lavish and decadent balls, shed her elaborate garb and haunt the streets of Dementlieu as a murderous spirit known as the Red Death.

You can probably see the direction in which this is going.

Saidra’s story in official 5e is a fairly simple tossing-into-a-blender of Cinderella and The Masque of the Red Death and nothing much else beyond Dementlieu itself ... but what if there was more. As my mind is wont to do, I connected dots that had no need to be connected in the slightest and went “OKAY BUT HEAR ME OUT-” and decided that it’d be kinda cool if there was a connection between Saidra and the Red Death of the Gothic Earth spin-off. Now we’re finally at the explanation of the meme image.

For my partial “my city now”-ing of lore and thereby my campaign, I’ve decided on the following points:

I’ve changed Saidra’s backstory somewhat; in the broad strokes it’s the same as the official one, but of the changes I made the most notable for this post is that her powers and her “darklord” (and that’s in quotes for a reason) status stem from and are due to the influence and interference of the exiled Red Death. It is, functionally, her warlock patron. The plague that swept the ball she was at was not a random occurrence and it wasn’t the Dark Powers either, it came as a result of the willing Faustian pact she made as did her death and return as a wraith-like being.

Throughout this whole thing I have yet to even mention the grandfather clock in the back. That is the vessel through which the Red Death was able to reach into the domains and make a pact with Saidra in the first place, hence the intended ominousness in the drawing. There’s an unrelated reason as to how it was even able to do so without being kicked back out into the infinite multiverse which can be summed up simply with, “Once again Azalin has fucked up everything for everyone and also himself” (a whole post in it of itself). The clock is currently hidden within Saidra’s estate and yes organic tissue has amassed around it.

Speaking of which, you may be wondering what the fuck is up with all the flesh ‘n bones ‘n stuff. That is because for some reason I wanted to give the Red Death a visual association with flesh and organic bodily material. Why? I really don’t know, I just thought it’d be a neat contrast to the immaterial, shadow visual associations of the Dark Powers. So Saidra, as a result, has the power to twist and mold flesh and bone to her will, hence the gross muscle-claw-hand; the two lines coming down along her arm is the skin unraveling like a ribbon (EUGH--). Also, now instead of just casting a regular ol’ disintegrate... you get melted. Like, “Good day to you sir you are now a puddle of viscera on the shiny tile floor” melted. Also there’s minions made of flesh and bone and teeth and eyes. It’s all very body horror. She might make a flesh-throne for herself later but we’ll get to that whenever.

If you’re wondering how she even has flesh to rend like in the picture if she’s still a spirit like in the official stuff... yes.

None of the darklords are aware of this all even being a thing, even Azalin (this has plot reasons). The Dark Powers haven’t done anything about this either (there are also reasons for this).

And that’s the basic bulk of what I have at the moment. So yeah that meme post is A Lot and I didn’t even get to how all of this ties into my campaign’s overarching plot! I also left a lot of points undiscussed because they could be posts in it of themselves! I have likely thought on these things far more than I should even as a GM--

In summary: ominous clock does not bode well and Dementlieu has gotten a lot more body horror-y. Both vampire and lich don’t know what the fuck is going on and neither of them are on board with this, meanwhile ghost lady is having a great time. That’s it that’s the meme.

#dm thoughts #ravenloft #gore mention #I am very happy to get to type this stuff out #explaining things helps me fix and put ideas together better so thank you #as you can tell I am a person who must connect dots no matter what #so yeah I arguably gave Saidra vast amounts of plot significance depending on where things in the campaign go #I will welcome questions about what the fuck I'm doing at any given time

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sokkas1mp · 3 years

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I gonna break in this acocunt with me being angry about something that doesn't really matter (very fitting for tumblr if you ask me), this article.

First: "And I’m sorry to open with this, but part of that is due to the age difference between them. Two years is hardly worlds apart (I’m personally working with four), but a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl are. Especially the way these two are drawn. Not to be too voyeuristic about Y7 cartoons, but Katara has clearly gone through puberty, while Aang hasn’t. There is something just…off, about a sixth grade boy having a full on make-out sesh with a high school girl."

This argument is one of the most stupid ones if you ask me, because it blatantly ignores the culture we have been presented by the show. I can understand why people find this weird, but we have to try not to look at it as if its our society, because its not. In A:tla, specifically the water tribes, 16 is marrying age. Right there, our "age norms" (idk what else to call it) are very different. And there are no divisions between ages in their world like we have with middle and high school. To me, two people are fit to be together based on their maturity, not their age. That's why 45 & 40 is not the same as 15 & 10, or 20 & 15. This is the same for Kataang. They have very similar life experiences and matured together, literally side by side, so a two year ago gap is irrelevant.

Second: "...Katara took on a very maternal role with Aang. Sure, she’s a caretaker and sort of a “mom friend,” but it’s a bit more than that. She served as his literal guardian during the show’s run—there’s just no other way to look at it. By the third episode, she called herself his “family,” and later even went on to role play as his mother to get him out of trouble at school. Aang, meanwhile, was… Well, I wouldn’t say “immature” for his age, […] However, Katara is 14 going on 25, while Aang is just, Aang."

There's a compilation of Katara doing thing with Aang that if someone saw a mother doing with her son they would call it incest:

Katara definitely acts motherly towards Aang, but that is just her nature. She is more than just motherly with him. And some people like to call the check kisses familial (which is kinda weird imo), but we know Katara herself doesnt think that:

"Easy there, big brother" She pushes Sokka away. Not to mention, this was about a scene or two before she kisses Aang on the check.

Calling someone close to you your family does not mean you see them in the same way you see your parents/siblings. And Sokka played Aang's father in that scene, but we aren't sitting here using that as evidence to call him Aang's paternal figure.

Something Aang haters forget (or chose to ignore) is that being lighthearted and goofy does not equal immature. Yes, Aang does some juvenile things, but that shouldn't take away from his growth and maturity.

Third: "In fact, in the last season, Katara was shown to be uncomfortable each time Aang kisses her, and even went as far as to tell him to back off with the romantic stuff in the episode before the finale, because she was confused about how she felt. [*new paragraph*] Yet, in the end, she just trots up and blushes at Aang, than happily makes out with him when he goes for it,"

Katara initiated 2/4 of the kataang kisses (not including the check kisses). The kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers and the kiss in the finale. Yes, she's the one that "goes for it" in the finale (she also initiates the hug). She only pulls away once out of the 3 times we see a kiss end (this would be excluding the kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers). She wasn't confused about her feelings, she didn't want to have to worry about a relationship when they were nearing the end of the war.

Fourth: "The post-canon comics only furthered the lack of exploration of her feelings in this relationship"

Fifth: "[referencing a scene in The Promise in which Katara is jealous of a fanclub being around Aang] "I'm sorry, this amazing, adult communication is blowing me away"

The are both still teenagers, who have zero previous relationship experience. Also, Aang had no ill intentions and Katara recognized it.

Sixth: [refencing Katara's role in The Legend of Korra] "Did Katara want to do anything other than sit in a healing hut and be known for having Aang's kids?"

This is another argument that just pisses me off. You can not use Katara's lifestyle in her 80s (she is 85 in s1) as judgement for her adulthood. It's purely assumption based. Constantly this author assumes that because she is in a relationship with Aang, Katara would drop her whole personality. What? Katara would not and could not be forced to do something or conform to some label and Aang wouldn't let it get to that point either. He would squash any idea that she is just "The Avatar's wife" or "The mother of the Avatar's children" the minute he heard it.

Seven: [comparing Katara's reaction to Aang The Desert to Aang's reaction to Katara in The Southern Raiders] "You'll spend a long time looking for her condescending tones. "Anger won't help, Aang," Katara never said, because she got that he was processing something painful and needed to sort it out himself. This difference in behavior is something that would be really fitting for a twelve year old boy to learn and understand. There's just no indication that he ever did."

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't remember Aang being condescending towards Katara. He was offering his advice because he knew her and knew that she would regret doing what she thought was right when her judgement was clouded by anger. And guess what. He was right. He never forced anything on her, either. Sure, he was a bit more pushy than he could've been, but in the end he let her go on the trip with no complaints. He even agreed that this was something she had to do.

Eighth: [referencing The Ember Island Players] "When the actor says 'Wait! I thought you were the Avatar's girl', Aang agrees. Katara is his."

You know damn well Aang doesn't see Katara as just his. And she's give him PLENTY of reason to believe that his feelings are reciprocated (which they are).

Ninth: "It's the story of a woman who swallows everything lest the man she's interested in has to learn anything about his behavior that violates her boundaries."

Ha! You said she was interested in him.

But in all seriousness, you mentioned how Katara stood her ground and told Aang that she was confused, but apparently now she's swallowing her feeings.

Tenth: [talks about the cloud babies daddy issues]

I don't disagree with what is said here, for the most part, but I don't think it is a reflection on Aang and Katara's relationship.

Eleventh: "... given what what we got with Kataang, it's completely unsurprising that Aang and Katara's parenthood/adult life was defined by a lack of communication and availability, at least from what we can tell. This also puts Katara's choice to immediately moved to the South Pole once Aang died in perspective; perhaps the city he poured all his energy into, at the cost of his family, held some bitter memories."

Once again with the lack communication. We can't use the early years of their relationship to determine their whole relationship. Also, there wasn't consistently a lack of communication, you just pointed out one time and ran with it.

We don't know at what point Katara moved back to the South Pole, but there are plenty of reasons for Katara to leave Air Temple Island:

a) Her son moving in/or planning to move in with his family.

b) She was no longer needed in the city and thus had no need to stay.

c) She wanted to go back to her native home for comfort after the love of her life died at a relatively early age.

d) The next Avatar was discovered and she came home to train them.

That's all. Thank you for reading my unnecessary rant if you made it this far, and I just want to close out with a few things:

- There were some things in the article that I did not include for the fear of this becoming a novel of me repeating myself.

- I agree with most thing said in the final segment of the the article. Most, not all.

- I appreciate the author for not trying to shove Zutara in just because Kataang wasn't there. That is becoming increasingly uncommon, so it was nice to see.

#kataang #pro kataang #katara #aang #pro katara #pro aang #atla

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djmarinizelablog · 3 years

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A Conversation with the Author of City Comma State, kippielovesyou/ForcedSimile

Had a short interview with the author of City Comma State, @kippielovesyou/ForcedSimile and asked her if I could share our conversation online---she said yes!

Did you know that Hange and Levi in her work was based on Spongebob and Squidward's interactions?

Read the entire transcript below:

-------------------------------------

djmarinizela (D): if i may ask, where and how did you learn to write so good? what inspired you to write city comma state?

kippielovesyou (K): i don't mind at all! it's genuinely just years of practice. i've been scribbling stories since kindergarten (i had a long standing multi part series in first grade about all my classmates). i think one thing is certain: having a strong understanding of characters whether you borrow them or they are your own is pretty key.

a lot of points [in Isayama's story] could have been better thought out or tighter. however, we all love his characters. a weak plot (or in the case of city comma state: no plot) can be ignored or forgiven if everyone loves the characters

i'll be honest, i spend a lot of time trying to understand why a character does things or reacts a certain way. and yes, sometimes, that means i act out scenes in my car while driving. it's embarrassing...

there's a lot more to it, but to me that's the most important thing

as far as how city comma state came about: i wanted to do a slow burn romance centered around levihan, but I also wanted to show how all these characters care about and support each other. i knew in the confines of the AoT world, anyone could die at any moment and that didn't work with the softer feelings i wanted people to enjoy. how can you enjoy the friendship between mike and hange if he dies? it's possible, but it upends all the warmth we were enjoying. so i wrote an AU. i wanted to keep levi with a rough background with many walls, and i wanted hange to have her own issues that they can work through together. and i love the idea of them adopting/supporting the 104th kids without the fear of sending them out to war

D: your answer is so profound and helpful, thank you so much! I can honestly say you pretty nailed it when it comes to character development---everyone has a character arc in your fic! [my next question] is about the gender discourse in your story. I know you started City Comma State pretty early in 2014, but even back then, the nonbinary identity wasn't widely known before. How were you able to flesh out the discourse on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and play it out on the dialogues and backstories?

K: it's pretty funny, a lot of the LGBTQIA+ has always been discussed i my family. we've had gay, lesbian, trans, gnc, bi and asexual people in my family for generations, as far back as the 20s (that we're aware of). hange's gender being debated made it a prime opportunity to write such an experience, some of which is borrowed from my own life. when i read older chapters i see certain slips in dialogue where i could have made an effort to be more neutral. we're in such a binary society that sometimes even if you feel in between, it slips in. in fact, i'm sure some people might take issue with the fact that i stuck with she/her for hange. i'm not sure i'd make a different decision today. i like this version of hange the way she is, and i hope hange's nb/gnc status comes across in more than just pronouns. hange's full identity is so much more than that and that is what i wanted to explore. and i think no matter where you fall on the whole LGBTQIA+ spectrum, you are more than just the label you've chosen. yes, in this story levi is bi/pan. but i don't think he ever says that explicitly, and he avoids labels. it seems fussy to him, which feels levi. discourse would not be his thing. i think even having a debate about whether or not he was bi or pan wouldn't be something he would want to engage in, he just wants to do what he wants. instead it's heavily implied. i think we forget since so many of us experience this discourse online and want to label things that there are people who don't want to involve themselves in it. it goes back to how would this character act. for instance, based on how levi is in canon, i can see many ways to interpret his sexuality. there's cues for a lot of different takes. but levi doesn't seem like the type that would need a definitive label in order to be happy. there's many ways to interpret hange's gender (and i've written several takes, some where they're more insistent on their pronouns), but i think hange's more excited to explore life than worry too much about much about how they're addressed or how someone talks about them. maybe another character might be more caught up in labels but hange and levi not so much

D: No, don't be sorry, I am more than thankful for your answer. I really appreciate it! I don't get to have these kinds of conversations with other writers, so I am grateful for your insights.

K: a really funny anecdote for you: i loosely based the idea of my levihan off of spongebob and squidward. you know, since they start out as neighbors and hange is more invasive than levi is used to

D: that's.... a stretch. but thanks for the tidbit! was the annual star wars contest also something that you do in your family? that part as well as all the geeky references won me over tbh!

K: it was an extremely loose inspiration! but hange mowing her lawn in the middle of the night so levi wouldn't be mad at her is on par with a spongebob move. and um...my family, while they can be a little nerdy, is not nerdy enough to do the star wars tournament! i made that up entirely

i just imagined hange having eccentric family, so they have very unusual traditions that none of the children question

i'll be the first to say a lot of city comma state is unrealistic and a little bit of a domestic fantasy. there's a lot of problems with money, employment and such that hange and levi SHOULD have but that's a little too real and not what i want to be the focus of this story. like hange landing a job that gives her a day off and she doesn't suffer a severe pay cut as a result? unrealistic. but i have other things i want to tackle. plus, in canon we have humans that turn into giants and 3D maneuver gear which would probably kill its user in real life. i think making certain parts of this fanfic a little idealistic is okay

D: are there other works that influence your writing? or authors that inspire you to write?

K: There's too many influences to count. reading is so important and even things that are bad are helpful. i actually was trying to read a YA series that seemed really cool and i had to stop reading because so many things were so annoying (I won't reveal which, since i think it has a small but dedicated fandom and i don't want to rain on their parade, it is purely a taste thing to some degree). instead of being upset and thinking that I wasted my time, i took note of what made me stop reading (that is a long list of things i didn't like so i won't bother to outline each one). even if it's something as small as a fanfiction that you had to click out of, ask yourself why you stopped. Especially with fanfiction: you already like these characters, what you're looking for is usually pretty specific (a pairing, an au, a specific scenario, etc). why, when this author has ticked all your superficial boxes, did you stop reading? and when you love something as yourself why. Ask yourself why you love the source material even! do you really love the plotlines and the world or do you love the characters? Is the dialogue strong? something to also pay attention to: people in general. how do they speak, gestures, facial expressions. really listen to how people talk (Youtube podcasts are really good for this!).

i think people would be surprised, a lot of what i really like to read is very all over. from surrealist novels, to classic literature, to science fiction aimed at children (i'm finally reading animorphs after almost 20 years!). and what i write for original fiction doesn't reflect what i'm probably best known for.

D: thanks for this, Kippie! looking forward to reading more of your works!

K: i'm still amazed at the response! writing is so solitary to me and i don't really look at my numbers. it never occurred to me that people would be discussing my fic!

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If you haven't read Kippie's Levihan fic yet, here's the link to get started: City Comma State

#levihan #aot #snk #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #interview #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #mine #djmarinizela

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crazy-loca-blog · 3 years

Text

Meet My OC: Oliver Valentine

A/N: Of course I was going to use my OC card in the @openheartfanfics "Meet My MC" event to introduce him! If you thought Ethan was a protective husband, then you don't know Oliver Valentine, Casey's "evil" twin. Once again, I used the base template by @jamespotterthefirst. and I added some extra items to it.

~~*~~*~~

Oliver’s Bio

Full Name: Oliver Sean Valentine

Face Claim: Adrian Grenier

Nicknames: None

Birthday: December 3

Sexual orientation: Bisexual

Love Interest(s): None at the moment, even though Casey insists that he should rekindle his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Emma.

Kids: None (yet)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Height: 5'9"

Hometown: Abingdon, Virginia

Education: Lawyer / Duke University

Occupation: Freelance lawyer

Family: Maggie and Tom Valentine (parents, dead), Marie Smith (grandmother, dead), Casey Valentine (twin sister, alive)

Personal motto: “Every person deserves to be respected”

Background: Oliver and Casey grew up surrounded by love in a middle class family. His parents, Tom and Maggie, had been high school sweethearts and had been happily married for two years when the twins were born. After his parents died in a car accident, his grandma Marie took care of them for 20 years, until she passed away. He ows his popularity at high school not only to his good looks, but also to his sense of justice when it came to defend his peers, something he learned from his parents at a very young age.

Personality traits: Being raised together means that Oliver and Casey have a lot in common when it comes to their personalities. He is a noble guy who can't stand injustice. Since he was a kid he defended the weak and fiercely protected his sister. But whenever Casey avoids a conflict, he faces it. He is a very straight forward person, and he won't shut up if he has something to say. He has no filter when he is mad. This attitude causes that some people may not like him, but he couldn't care less about it. With Oliver, what you see is what you get.

On the relationship with his sister: The fact that they are twins made them have an unique bond. The fact that they lost their parents as such a young age only made that bond stronger. Casey is his best friend, and the only person in the world he knows he can openly talk about literally everything. She is also his biggest cheerleader, and the only one who had faith in him when he applied to law school. At first, he hated the idea of Casey leaving to Boston by herself. Now, he loves to see her being as happy as she deserves, even if that means sharing his sister with Ethan (lol). He truly aspires to have something like what she has in the future.

On his love life: Oliver is openly bisexual, and he has experienced with both men and women. However, when it comes to a serious relationship, he may be inclined to prefer girls, as his personal experiences have made him believe that girls tend to take commitment more seriously than guys. He won't admit it, but Casey knows his soulmate is Emma, his high school sweetheart. The only reason they broke up was because they were going to different universities and didn’t feel like having a long distance relationship after they graduated. But they've always remained friends, and they've kind of rekindled their romance in the past. Now they're both single and back in town. Time will tell.

On his parents accident: Their parents' accident hit Oliver and Casey differently. While Casey focused on healing (one of the reasons that led her to become a doctor), Oliver just wanted to have answers. That's why he went to law school. Despite living in a small town, he has always had this idea that "the Valentines' case" is kind of a taboo among older residents. People remember it, but no one talks about it. The fact that the case was closed because of lack of evidence (it was always said the responsible escaped and that they were never found, something that doesn't make sense at all, given the fact that the car crash was severe enough to kill his parents) doesn't help either. He feels the only way for him and Casey to find real peace is by finding out who did it. And he is determined to unveil the truth.

~~*~~*~~

10 Random Facts on Oliver

Oliver and Casey are one of those rare cases where one of the babies is born before midnight and the other one is born after midnight. So even though he legally was born one day before Casey, he's technically 10 minutes older than her (yes, their parents celebrated two birthdays on two different dates to keep them both happy).

He wasn't the most dedicated student, but he is incredibly smart. He was definitely one of those kids who didn't need to study a lot to get good grades.

Even though he knows Casey can defend herself, he may have helped her several times in high school without her noticing it. Even though Casey wasn’t at the bottom of the popularity list, the fact that Oliver was a popular kid may have helped her to be more respected by her peers.

He considers himself Casey's biggest fan, no matter what Ethan says. He has known her since she was literally an egg, and that's enough for him to win that discussion.

One of the reasons he became a lawyer is because he wanted to help all those people whose cases were closed with no answers. He knows how it feels because him and Casey have been trying to live with it, but he knows it’s hard sometimes. So he’d like for everyone to find the peace they deserve.

He likes writing and he is very talented. In fact, he may publish a novel someday. His grandma always thought that the biggest difference between him and Casey was how creative he was, so she always encouraged him to develop his artistic side.

After his parents' death, there was a time where he couldn’t express his emotions. Now, he has no problems telling how he feels (he'll always thank Emma for helping him overcome this), but he would never say ILY to another person without meaning it, he’s seen his sister going through hell because of some jerks, he wouldn’t forgive himself if he becomes one.

He loves kids and someday he'd like to have a bunch of them. But for now... damn! He can't wait for Casey and Ethan to come to their senses and to become parents so that he can become an uncle!

He has had a serious conversation with each and every one of Casey's boyfriends or potential boyfriends. The only conversation that ended up well was the one he had with Ethan. And nope, Casey doesn't know this conversation took place.

At first, Oliver didn't have the best opinion on Ethan. He thought he was an asshole and a coward for escaping to the Amazon and leaving his sister alone after all they had gone through (and yes, Oliver did tell Ethan this to his face during the chat mentioned above). His opinion only changed after he saw how much he cared about Casey during and after the incident (yes, he also told him this). Now he is sure that Ethan is the best thing that could have happened to his sister (and he made sure that Ethan knows it as well).

Tags: @adiehardfan @izzyourresidentlawyer

#oph meet my mc #oph meet your mc #oph meet my oc #oph meet your oc

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exciting · 4 years

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As requested, books / series I read in 2020 in the order I read them, with a few brief thoughts. (This took me a hot second because there are a few and also I moved cities) Should I keep a consistent goodreads? Yes I should but I didn’t think of that at the time, so bone apple teeth & sorry if I offend you abt your faves x

P.S. I can’t figure out how to do a read more on mobile so long post ahead!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - This is one of the most vivid published fantasy books I have ever read... I read it twice in rapid succession. The fandom POPS off. I must say I have issues with certain aspects e.g. fae lore completely ignored à la Twilight, all love interests 500+ years old and technically a different species, etc (I’m not going to deconstruct the entire series here but just know that I could... Nesta deserves better)

Cruel Prince by Holly Black - This fucking slaps, HB clearly has done her research, the lore is near immaculate, and it explores the Fae in such a unique way, tying it to the modern world subtly and seamlessly. My only qualm was that the books felt quite short; truly wish there had been more content.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (6/7) - So basically I read this in one single, hyperfixated fit which meant I literally locked myself in my room for three days straight and read all six books back to back in a row from morning to the wee hours. Which is not to say it was spectacular; although it was a VERY rich world, sometimes it was too much... this felt like 6 stories in one. Ik she was young when she wrote this but it is my humble opinion that SJM needs a better editor & I personally think Rowan is a grade A asshole / straight up abusive (& personally think the ACOTAR Tamlin plot was born from that?). It’s good but not as good as ACOTAR. Skip-read the last book.

Grishaverse (Shadow and Bone) by Leigh Bardugo (3) - This is essential to read before SOC but was very much simply a YA fantasy book, although the world was cool and the way the love plot played out was, imo, a subtle middle finger to the fantasy trope. Felt very much aimed at younger readers though? Really liked the sandwhich structure of the Proluge and Epilogue, especially in #2

Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo (2) - INCREDIBLE continuation of Grishaverse, better than the original series by a mile. It has the range, the diversity, the representation (the male lead is a disabled asexual and still the most cunning of the entire cast of characters), the plot is phenomenal, and it manages such a well rounded plot in only two books which means nothing is stretched out or squeezed in more than need be. Deserves all the praise it gets.

King of Scars series by Leigh Bardugo (0.5/1) - Personally I don’t consider this book canon, and while it’s nice to see the rest of Nina’s journey & the world again & everyone else, I don't like it. I will, however, be reading book 2 when it comes out, so shame on me, I suppose.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (1/1) - this was incredibly cool although it went off in a completely different direction than I thought it would based off the first few chapters? One of my favourite YA-author-debuts-New-Adult novels in 2020 though!

Crescent City by Sarah J Maas (1/1) - This was supposed to be SJM/s New Adult debut, although personally I would put her other series in New Adult, and I can’t say a remarkable amount was different with this except they said “fuck” and “ass” a lot. WHY is the romantic interest 500 years old AGAIN. I just... don’t... I just don’t think it was necessary... the world was cool though, and the last half of the book was riveting, but the beginning was quite slow and I thought the sword thing was predictable. I am interested to see where this goes though.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (3) - This world is so fucking cool... four Londons aka parallel universes & the one in ‘our’ world is set in industrial era London. Magic, girls dressing up as boys, thieves, pirates, royalty... it all just slaps. Schwab is an incredible writer & I was completely immersed.

Midnight Sun by SMeyer - I didn’t think anything could possibly detract even further from the Twilight story but I was sorely mistaken... seeing the stalking from Edward’s POV - and it was worse than depicted in Twilight, for the record - completely obliterated any sort of romance the first half of the original book may have portrayed. I still hold the opinion that the entire series would have been better if some kind of vampire lore had been abided by, if only to see all of the villains thwarted by someone dropping a bag of rice on the ground, forcing them to have to count them all.

An ember in the Ash by Sabaa Tahir (3/4) - This was just a very stereotypical ya fantasy series, emphasis on the YOUNG... it wasn’t anything to write home about but I remember quite enjoying it at the time.

The Power by Naomi Alderman - This book is FUCKING incredible and EXCEPTIONALLY thought provoking... essentially women alone develop a power of electric shock etc. and then take over the world from men, and it explores feminism and the balance between equality & tipping the scales in the other direction. Written by a friend of M.Atwood in a similar tone to handmaids tale, I would say? Content warning; there are some exceptionally graphic scenes in the latter half of the novel.

Hamlet by Wllm Shksp - I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read it but Ophelia is my favourite name in the entire world & we love to see a woman go batshit (although she didn’t deserve that).

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas - this was unsettling in the best sense of the word... it was a little slow & honestly more of a concept than a big reveal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I finished it? A Secret History vibes but make it blurry like the memory of all those dystopian novels you read when you were young?

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab - This is without a doubt my book of the year, and probably the best book I read in 2020? I stayed up all night on a friend’s couch reading it, got a book hangover and reread the ending, and then thrust it upon my mother who doesn’t usually read but read this, and loved it just as much. HIGHLY recommend and you HAVE to read it, it’s beautiful and endearing and just plain wonderful.

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (3/3) - I went into this knowing it was going to be terrible, because I had received a blow by blow telling me as much; although I must say that it did learn a remarkable amount of new words, the books did get better as the series went on, and it did have a rather charming ending? BIG content warning for almost everything.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari - mind-expanding & must recommend for everyone, there is everything in this and I daresay everyone should posses this kind of knowledge? I listened to it as an audiobook (which I recommend because it’s rather hearty) but will be buying this in hardcopy & rereading it with annotations.

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read, and certainly the most beautiful portrayal of the story of Achilles and the battle of Troy I have ever seen. Patroclus deserved the justice that was given to him in this book; indeed, all of the characters were written with justice and grace. Highly recommend.

Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan (3/5) - Apollo is my favourite Greek God, and the sexiest greek god, and Rick Riordan’s writing slaps, as always. It did pain me to see Apollo, the sexy immortal, have to be forced back into a 16 year old’s body but everything else? Whimsical & wonderful, as expected.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong - a retelling of Romeo and Juliette, except it’s set in Shanghai in the 1920′s, and the protagonists already have a history. Very well done, characters are incredibly diverse in race, sexual orientation, gender, and ability / disability (and honestly, representation has never appeared so effortless and elegant). Also it includes a monster and possible magic. Incredibly underrated and highly recommend.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix. E Harrow - this was such a unique concept, and truly captivating, the story was charming, and felt like the kind of beautiful fairytale you would read as children but with more grit? ABSOLUTELY recommend this one

The Pisces by Melissa Broder - I hated this so much, not my vibe at all. Mermaid smut x therapy but make it cynical and judgemental (I know there was a moral in there but that’s not my point) also the dog dies.

Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith (1/2) - really interesting & unique concept (all unwritten novels / ideas reside in a special library that is part of Hell and then sometimes the books can come to life) however, my first thought upon reading this was “this reads as if it’s stemmed from one of those writing prompt tumblr posts” bc of the tone and whatever and as it turns out I was somewhat correct, it did stem from a short story (not bad just obvious). It did kind of settle down as it went on but I found reading it kind of a drag, and I don’t think I will read the second one.

Abandon by Meg Cabot - 1. Meg Cabot’s writing always fucking slaps 2. Hades and Persephone but make it modern & very 2000′s & somehow kind of unique 3. I literally loved this, sue me

Medusa Girls (Sweet Venom) by Tera Childs - Like Percy Jackson except they are descendants of Medusa so they are Gorgons and have fangs & venom (hence the title). Gave me very 2000′s vibes? Quite cool but tbh I found the books quite short (like two hours each, if that)? Do NOT read the GoodReads description of the book before you read it, you will spoil it for yourself.

Bring me their Hearts by Sara Wolf - In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated YA series I read in 2020. The heroine is endearing, self aware, witty, and loves to look pretty even while kicking ass which in my opinion is an incredibly underrated trait. Also, immortality without being hundreds of years old? VERY sexy. HIGHLY recommend.

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova - High commendation to be given for the fact that it is a standalone and yet manages to fit in the plot of what would usually be a full fantasy trilogy without cutting corners or being a million miles long? Also sweet storyline & beautiful ending? If you liked ACOTAR you should read this as a “what would have / could have been had SJM had a different editor” (No shade I promise).

The Iron Fae by Julie Kagawa (4/4 + novellas) - Incredibly detailed faerie set around the modern world & our current use of technology & iron in it. Very neat adventure-style series, by the time I read the last novella I was well and truly done with the world (aka provided enough content to be fulfilling). Was definitely aimed at a younger audience though, NO smut / smut was brushed over.

The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black (3/3 SS) - This is technically the prequel to Cruel prince, set in the modern world, but with the fae world inside it as it traditional? All I have to say is that it is excellent & I highly recommend it.

Bridgerton series (The Duke and I) by Julia Quinn (9/9) - I read this after watching the Netflix show twice through and I am obsessed, although the books were not quite as elegant as the show, and some parts that made me cringe either by their portrayal (it is very firmly set in the 19th century and thus some things are not handled with tact or grace), the characters were exceptionally loveable and I am so excited to see where the show takes them! Lovely language & an abundance of words I had never seen before (always a plus).

#the number of these which I hate with a passion now #fuck my life #HATE SJM #MAD about grishaverse #ASHAMED of bridgerton and the feminism leeched from my soul after reading this

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literaticat · 3 years

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Is it easier for MG chapter books to become a series than say YA or upper MG? I see a lot of early/mid MG series that have multiple books in the series usually about magical creatures, witches, etc. Think Babysitter's Club demographic (even tho it's been a popular series for a long time). Do you think being a graphic novel also makes a difference?

I gotta be honest, you are all over the place here, so let's start with some clarifications:

"MG" and "Chapter Books" are two separate publishing categories. In other words - yes I know that MG has chapters, and lots of people call all books with chapters chapter books - but IN THE WORLD OF PUBLISHING, "Chapter Books" is a specific category of book, which is, those thin books between "early readers" and "middle grade" -- they usually have lots of white space on the page and some illustrations. You know what I mean?

Like - Magic Tree House, Ivy and Bean, Princess in Black? Those are all "chapter books"

And they are ALMOST ALWAYS (like - 98% of the time!) -- Series.

Babysitters Club (the original, non-graphic-novel version) was something slightly different. They aren't chapter books, they are MG - but they were originally published in the 1980s, in a time in which we had a TON of middle grade contemporary mass market series. These books came out with new installments of the series multiple times a year (sometimes as often as once a month!) -- they were sold in the supermarket etc as well as in bookstores -- and in their heyday there were dozens or even (literally) hundreds of books in the series. Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High were the queens of this time, but also there was Fear Street, Goosebumps etc. Publishing has changed a lot in 30-40 years, and that "mass market" supermarket-driven very cheap paperback series stuff isn't going anymore.

We've tried to re-boot some of these - and probably the most successful is re-booting BSC as Graphic Novels. They are very popular! But I wouldn't consider them "middle grade novels" I'd consider them "graphic novels" - and I also would just say, that as they are based on an already existing series, that probably helps with being able to get them out a little bit more swiftly than many original GN can be released.

So anyway.

In today's market I would say that:

* chapter books (ages 6-9) are almost always series, whether contemporary or fantasy

* MG fantasy/adventure/SF type books are likely to be series (think Lightning Thief, Keeper of the Lost Cities, etc)

* MG contemporary books are likely to be standalone, or have "companion books" or "books with the same characters / set in the same world" rather than be numbered series that have to be read in a certain order to make sense.

* Graphic Novels are a different beast entirely -- if they are highly commercial and take off huge, they are likely to be a series. If they are more literary or difficult to produce and unlikely to sell an absolute MESS of copies, they are probably less likely to be a series -- because GN are extremely expensive, labor-intensive and time-consuming to produce.

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thewhizzyhead · 3 years

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HELLO SOME OF YOU GUYS LIKED MISFITS AND SOME OF YOU GUYS LIKED GRADE 11 (i posted about that musical draft thingy back in march and um yea there have been a lot of changes fjxjf) AND GUESS WHAT DUDES I HAVE MORE MUSICAL CONCEPT SHITS TO RAMBLE ABOUT BECAUSE MY BRAIN IS WAY TOO HYPERACTIVE FOR MY OWN GOOD SO SIT BACK, RELAX AND ENJOY THIS CLUSTERFUCK

@ari-is-anxious have fun with this and i wish you the best of luck in trying to comprehend this-

+ Kasaysayan (which means History) - this is the 2nd musical concept thingy i made (the first one being Misfits) and yea i started thinking of this went I was 14. I kinda wanted it to tell a story of like the entirety of philippine history as narrated by students and i wanted to kinda emphasize how history has many faces and how many different factors essentially blur our perspective of what we view as the past. I also wanted to like draw parallels between what our ancestors have experienced and what we currently experience esp when it comes to sociopolitical and economic stuffs and I wanted to like correct a lot of misconceptions about ph history and provide more insight and info about ph's past (i.e how centuries of colonialism have affected our current culture and overall social mindset esp in regards to our want for validation from foreigners aka the whole #PinoyPride thing; how even though activism and revolution is like the main reason on as to why the Philippines even exists, it continues to be demonized here; the ideologies of some of our revolutionary heroes and presidents and why some of them are dicks; etc etc). Also I wanted to showcase like um PH music, art, and dance and how that has progressed and also regressed throughout the years (*shakes fist at colonizers*) and um YEA YOU CAN SEE WHY I EVENTUALLY AND RATHER QUICKLY DISCONTINUED THIS TJCJSJF THIS IS *NOT* DOABLE AT ALL THSJFHF it could work as a concept album and a one-time performance BUT NOT LIKE A LEGIT PRODUCTION SO YEA FOR NOW IT WILL STAY IN THE DRAFT FOLDER FJXNSJF but yea this idea then led to the next two ideas woo

+ Noli/Fili - started wanting to make this at the start of quarantine so like um march 2020 heck i even made a wholeass word doc for this fjdjdv so it's basically a ph-rock-rap-based musical adaptation of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster) (yes these two novels are like tne national novels here since rizal is our national here and yea these were originally written in Spanish) but the protagonist of El Fili (Simoun) takes charge of telling Noli's story in Act 1 while Noli's protag (Crisostomo Ibarra) takes charge of telling Fili's story in Act 2. Those two books have very different tones and those two characters have um VERY DIFFERENT world views so i thought it would be interesting to tell one's story through the eyes of someone different and yet also the same to provide a lot more insight on how the events in the novels affected these two protags (there is a Good Reason for this and um Filipinos who studied this in 9th and 10th grade know what i'm talking about fhshf if u wanna um know what i'm talking about and don't wanna read the novels (they are very long) i suggest looking up El Filibusterismo and um yea check out Simoun fjsjf). Like for example, there would be times that Noli's narrator (Simoun) (whose general demeanor is like um a lot more cunning and cynical and a lot more resentful of the events that have happened compared to Fili's narrator) would directly question the Noli protag's (Ibarra) actions while Fili's narrator (Ibarra) (he is a lot more um hopeful and peaceful compared to Simoun) often questions how Fili's protag (Simoun) turned into well um a very cynical and cunning person with a taste for revenge (I am trying my hardest to NOT spoil the novels here gjdjf) and yea because the story is set in Spanish Colonial times here, i wanna focus more on the sociopolitical aspects and problems in the novels and how those still remain relevant here, hence the ph-rock-rap-based music. Also I would like to point out that the curriculum here barely like goes into depth about the subject matter of the novels (esp the sociopolitcal parts) and how said subject matter shaped the characters here and HOW EVERY SINGLE THING IN THIS DAMN NOVEL IS STILL RELEVANT,,,so um basically the curriculum is currently missing the entire point of the novels since Rizal wrote these two with the intent to provide socioecononic and political commentary on the pure shit that many of the Filipinos experienced under Spanish colonial rule,,,SO THIS THINGY IS BASICALLY MY MIDDLE FINGER TO THE CURRICULUM AND ESSENTIALLY MY ATTEMPT TO SHOW MORE OF THE NOVELS COMPARED TO WHAT HAS BEEN TAUGHT TO US FJJSJFV this is gonna be a nightmare to write tho cause wow those novels are jampacked

+ Patron - if this ever becomes a thing, I will consider it the greatest thing i'll ever write gjcjdbc I REALLY WANT THIS TO BE A THINGY AAAA so the plot is barebones atm but it's basically about journalism and activism here in the Philippines (and how both can get you killed fjjsjf i'm not kidding these two can legit get you killed wah redtagging sucks shit and the anti terror law can suck even more shit) and how the youth are expected to be purveyors of the country's advancement and improvement despite the fact that our voices are oftentimes dismissed and even permanently silenced when what we say goes against what those in power want us to say,,,those this is basically Misfit's spiritual successor fjxjdjf both of those musicals share similar themes fjxns so yea expect me ranting about a lot of political stuff here and a lot of talking about the ideologies of past and present politics and revolutions and how those affect the masses and how the masses can shape them in return. There will also be talk on how journalism's role in shaping society and how proper dissemination of information and lack thereof can affect people's mindsets aND HOW JOURNALISM IS OFTENTIMES MANIPULATED TO MANIPULATE PEOPLE'S MINDSETS (STUDENT JOURNALIST AND ASPIRING PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST'S RANTS GO BRRRRR YEA I HAVE A LOT TO RANT ABOUT).

Oh and also this musical is heavily inspired by both the noli and el fili novels and by spring awakening (Everything I Write Will Be Inspired By Spring Awakening dbjxd) in a sense that Act 1's active protagonist (who then becomes Act 2's passive protag) is named Elias and is based on both Elias from Rizal's novels and on Melchior Gabor (which is funny cause rizal's elias is NOTHING LIKE MELCHIOR GABOR SO UM LOOK IT'S GONNA BE HARD TO EXPLAIN JUST UM YEA IT'S MESSY) while the passive protagonist (who becomes the active protag by the end of act 1 and throughout the entire 2nd act) is named Cris Ibarra and is based on Moritz Stiefel and Rizal's Ibarra (more specifically um Rizal's Ibarra's growth into a very different character throughout the events of the two novels).

ALSOOO there is this one concept that made me really REAALLY want to make Patron an actual thingy and that is the existence of um Shadows in the show. Inspired by the voices in Deaf West Speing Awakening, these Shadows can always be found lurking on stage alongside their respective characters like um if Elias is in a scene, his shadow can also be found on stage somewhere. I kinda want them to like represent the characters' innermost thoughts and the other parts of themselves the characters' would like to hide through how the Shadows act on stage and um yea choreography gjsjf Patron is porbably gonna be very dance heavy so um yea it's a bit hard to explain so i'll just point to Alex Boniello and Daniel Durant's Moritz fjxjjf i kinda want it to be like that. The Shadows would be part of the show's ensemble and um yea lots of dancing and prop moving woo also at times they would be singing for the character they are assigned to like um while Elias would be in the middle of doing something on stage, his Shadow would be the one singing in his stead and when his Shadow sings, that's when the character becomes the most vulnerable to the audience because the Shadows often expose their characters' thoughts and worries to the audience that the characters themselves wouldn't really express. So like um the Shadows address the audience a lot gjxjsjd except for one aka Ibarra's Shadow. Instead of addressing the audience, Ibarra's shadow addresses IBARRA directly, often questioning Ibarra's actions (especially their hesitance in Act 1). ig ibarra's shadow is rather representative of what Ibarra would turn into in Act 2 when they take over as the Active protag. But um Ibarra's shadow still questions Ibarra frequently esp in regards to their risky actions so um yea Ibarra's shadow is kinda like the Fates the hadestown wherein they serve to sow doubt but over here Ibarra's shadow is meant to symbolize how insecure they feel in regards to their decisions which well, as the protag, make and break the show. Also um yea the rest of the characters' shadows also start addressing their characters more while the characters themselves start addressing the audience more so woo switcheroo! Also the dynamic that the characters have with each other is similar to the dynamics between the kids in Spring Awakening wherein they are just kids (well in this cause young adults aged 18-20) trying to figure out life in general and all that so woo

(also I would like to note that I really want Ibarra's role to be open to all genders in order to like make a statement that anyone can grow into the character Ibarra becomes throughout Patron but rn hmm i'm still thinking about how that will play out especially given that I kinda wanted Patron's Ibarra to have two love interests here aka Elias and Clara (kiiiiinda based on Maria Clara aka Ibarra's actual love interest from Rizal's novels but um YEA THERE ARE A LOT OF DEVIATIONS GJXSF) but tbh i'm still figuring out a way to make Clara have a much larger role here in terms of pushing the plot cause rn the Elias and Ibarra dynamic have an advantage since um active-passive protagonist switcheroo so I'm kinda thinking of a way to make Clara a secret 3rd protag that is both an active and a passive one? I dunno fjsjd honestly i'm still trying to figure out what Maria Clara represents in the novels cause I know for certain that Rizal did not write her to be a mere demure love interest so um yea WORK IN PROGRESS AND UM ALL IN ALL IBARRA CAN BE PLAYED BY ANY AND ALL GENDERS AND IBARRA IS PANSEXUAL BECAUSE I FUCKING WANT THEM TO BE GJSJJF)

+ Grade 12 - OKI SO LIKE I'VE POSTED ABOUT THIS BEFORE BACK IN MARCH BUT UM I'VE CHANGED SOME STUFF GJXJJD so anyways Grade 12 is well um designed to be a campy-please-don't-take-this-seriously-this-is-just-for-laughs-and-gags musical about 12th graders (i changed the grade to raise the stakes) that makes fun of Filipino TV tropes esp when related to teenagers while also providing a lit more insight on ad to what teenagers go through on a daily basis in terms of trying to grow into the person they want themselves to be while also trying to change to adapt to a world that more often that not goes against them. So yea it's not as heavy as the other musicals, heck I designed this after Preston Max Allen's Carrie 2 musical (dude check it out it has jenny rose baker and it's gold) so woo funsies but i also like this to mean something. Oh and also this is basically me ranting about Everything Wrong In The Philippine Education System (how it more often than not is really detrimental to the students' personal wellbeings through constant overwork and disregard of physical, mental and emotional health issues, its accessibility issues esp the issues experiences by those of the poorer sectors, the um very outdated info at times, how the system perpetuates classism and a shit ton of very detrimental social hierarchy bullshits esp through the implementation of the star sections (speaking as someone who's been in the "lower" sections and has also been in the star sections, I HAVE A LOT TO RANT ABOUT THIS ONE OH BOY FUN FACT I WANTED TO MAKE AN ACADEMIC PAPER ON THIS BUT MY 10TH GRADE TEACHER WOULDN'T LET ME) etc etc) plot is mainly barebones atm but um yea here are some of the updates to the characters: Kyla (formerly named Kate), Noel and Ella haven't changed that much but um I've decided to give the Halos Lagi Nalang number to Kyla and Max (nonbinary student that serves as a foil to Kyla in which Max is constantly being denied opportunities that they want while Kyla constantly refuses opportunities that Max wants; also yea i'll be talking about stories that trans and nonbinary students have experienced in both of my high schools through Max cause i really wanna bring attention to how the trans and nonbinary community is really being shat on despite the um sliiight improvement in the way schools treat the (cisgender) members of the lgbtq+ community; also they are just as ambitious as Ella (i envision her to be like um Draft Eva + Riley jfhdf) um yea major plot pusher woo I'd compare them to Draft Eva + Reese but um I Sincerely And Solemnly Promise To Not Screw Them Over In Act 2 fjjxfj) instead because they will be the ones with queerness being a much bigger factor to their individual plotlines compared to Noel and Ella.

The other main characters are um Marco (typical jock dude who's actually one of the more philosophical and introspective characters in the show; i want to like um highlight the whole sports scholarships debacle, how stereotypes can affect how people are treated in real life and also touch on the machismo culture that's um really being enforced here esp with him being an athlete and all; also he's really good friends with Max and through that friendship he learns that him slightly questioning his sexuality is a good thing so yea), Ruben & Lexi (i don't have that much planned for them atm because woo barebones plot but i do imagine them to be initially framed as the more antagonistic characters and have that like stereotype be taken apart as the show goes on esp considering that both are in the "lower sections" and are um more prone to stereotyping) aND A NARRATOR CHARACTER HMMM WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE GJXJD oki but this Narrator (can be played by any gender as long as the actor IS VERY FUNNY LIKE COMEDIC TIMING IS A *MUST*) is based on the Narrator in PMA's Carrie 2 but I also want the narrator to be like um more crucial to the plot as the story progresses esp as they interact with both the audience and the characters a lot more so like um it's a bit hard to describe their exact role here because um BAREBONES PLOT FJXJD but altho they can't directly affect the story they are telling (cause so far my plan for them is like um they were a former classmate of 7/8 of the characters here but unfortunately they died due to a car accident), they can and do indeed influence the characters in it and all of the characters (except Kyla) know who they are (especially Ruben) so um yea. Also the solo I have planned for them is called Live On (which is um yea a spin off of Move On fjxjd) and through them, I plan to explore the tragedy of unexpected deaths and what happens to those left behind (this will be based on observations and accounts from many of my former schoolmates) and how many have yet to move on and how they choose to live on despite of that because they know that's what their former classmate, schoolmate, and loved on would've wanted.

SO OBVIOUSLY I OWE GRADE 12 TO SIR PRESTON MAX ALLEN GJXJFJD THANK YOU PMA FOR ONCE AGAIN INFLUENCING MY WORK WOO

+ Concepts - oki so this is the only musical so far that i wanna write solely in English nfjsj so this is inspired by Fun Home in which there are like versions of characters in different ages right? Over here there are 2 versions of 6 characters: the 17-18 year old ones, and the 27-28 year old ones. Through them, this musical will explore two main things: (1) the sad and depressing reality of having to give up one's artistic dreams and passions for the sake of practicality and (2) choosing to take a leap of faith and try to grasp on to whatever chances one may have left to live a life that means more than just making ends meet. Act 1 has the teenagers focus on Point 2 while the adults focus on Point 1; Act 2 has the teenagers focus on Point 1 while the adults end up focusing on Act 2. Once again, um barebones plot with even more barebones characters (heck i dont even have NAMES for them gnxnd) but i think it'll be pretty cool to elaborate upon the shitty circumstances here in the ph when it comes to artistic pursuits and how most of the kids I know are terrified of growing up because they don't want to give up dreaming even though that they know that they have to wake up. I also think it'll be cool to point out thay even though that yea situations like these suck, it'll never ever be too late to pick up the pieces and try again cause at the end of the day, life only ends when you say it will end: there will always be chances, you just need to be gutsy enough to grasp them. Also um yea I originally planned to post like a shit ton of poems this month that would basically be the lyrics of the songs that would go into this musical bUT I'M LAZY SO I'M THROWING AWAY THE POSTING SCHEDULE FJXJSJD anyways here r 2 of the poems/songs that i wanna make for this:

+ In 10 Years - a duet between one of the teenagers and their adult counterpart which is um basically the teen singing their optimistic yet really in-depth and mature perspective on chasing Point 2 while the adult sings about Point 1, wishing that they could tell their teen self about how disappointed they will be; i imagine this to be um kinda like the first version of Dear Theodosia but um more intense maybe fjdjf

+ Run - a duet between two teens who are best friends where one girl tries to convince the other to run and play with her in the nearby playground AND YES THIS DUET IS VERY FUCKING GAY JDJSJDF this was um originally part of Grade 12 tbh and it was supposed to be sung by Lexi and it was supposed to be about a 9th grade event that i personally was a part of where um 9th grade student researchers at a research seminar at a different freaking university took over the elementary students' playground when the seminar finished (I SHALL TREASURE THAT MEMORY FOREVER) and um yea it was basically about holding on to your childhood while you still can...aND THEN I UNINTENTIONALLY MADE IT GAY JFJSJSF Lexi is still getting that song about the research seminar event tho but um it won't be Run cause Run basically turned into a song that's not only about holding on to what's left of your childhood but also to the people you treasure that you know you have to leave behind sooner or later and um yea the girl that the one girl tries to convince to go to the playground agrees to that and then boom go duet stylized after 21 and Alone Now + I Don't Care by freaking preston max allen once again woo (i promise that this won't be plagiarism gndnd) (also altho the two girls have to go their separate ways by their graduation, they eventually meet again at the end of act 2 so woo hopeful ending for the sapphics

OKI THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY FHXHSHD THIS IS WAY TOO FUCKING LONG OF A RAMBLE GOOD GOD AAAAA SO UM IF ANYONE ELSE MADE IT TO THE END, I ONCE AGAIN WILL SEND YOU A SHIT TON OF CARBONARA-

#ari i'm so sorry but this is like...so unbelievably long and convoluted tjxjs GOODLUCK #AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS TJXJSF #so moral of the story is: my brain is too hyperactive for my own good #God help me #also God help those who are gonna try to read this fjxjs #so woo more musical concept rambles aaa #move on tw #move on #ask to tag #izzy's rambles and shit

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