#are two unrelated books by different authors

[tatti-enthusiast]

see, i've always struggled with names that are similar to each other. i used to think marilyn manson and marilyn monroe were the same person. i often forget the last name of singer and model kate bush and wonder if she's the same person as writer kate mosse and whether i would've heard of it if she had actually written a vaguely da vinci code -esque (?) thriller (??) trilogy (???). i still don't know which one is light and which one is L but at least i don't think L is short for light anymore

...if i've somehow got this wrong twice and it turns out that the actual crux of death note is some oneceler-levels of selfcest then don't even tell me

[queen-of-deans-booty]

FFF

Pairing: Castiel x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.7k (lyrics included)

Warnings: fluff

Summary: Sam and Dean introduce you to their angelic friend, Castiel, and you are immediately enthralled by him. Instead of jumping into something with him, you two take it slow and let the relationship flourish naturally.

Square Filled: FFF by Zara Larsson (2023) for @heavenandhellbingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

Hunting is something you try to stay out of. It’s not that you don’t think you have the chops to be a hunter, you just don’t want to be one. You’ve never seen the appeal of being one but you admire Sam and Dean for being one. You met them while they were on a hunt. A ghost murdered your coworker and they interviewed you. They seemed like genuine FBI agents until you saw them leave your coworker’s house covered in blood.

You kept in touch with them over the years and now you’re good friends with them.

They invited you to the Bunker to hang out so that’s where you’re heading. You’re in town for something unrelated so it’s nice to see the brothers. You don’t visit the Bunker often so you jump at the chance to when they want you to come. 

Despite their lifestyle, the Bunker is one of the coolest things you’ve ever seen.

When you get there, you knock on the metal door twice. Sam opens it and smiles widely when he sees you.

“Y/N! Welcome!” He pulls you in for a soul-crushing hug. “We just got started.”

“Cool. Thanks for inviting me.”

“Oh, yeah. Hey, we invited one of our other friends. His name is Cas. He’s an angel.”

“A what?” you ask, flabbergasted. 

As much as you try to stay out of their business, you can’t help but read about the different types of monsters they deal with. Still, you’d never thought angels were real. Maybe in fiction but never in real life.

“An angel,” Sam chuckles.

“Okay.”

You walk down the metal stairs and greet Dean who has a beer in hand.

“It’s good to see you, Y/N.”

“You, too. So, where is this elusive angel that I never knew existed?”

“Right here.” Dean steps off to the side and you look at the angel in a trenchcoat. “My name is Castiel but you may use the shortened version of my name that the brothers are so fond of using.”

“Right. For an angel of God, you’re… normal.”

“My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler building.”

“Good to know,” you nod.

Not only are you starstruck by the angel, you think he’s adorable. If he’s going to be here, you’re definitely going to make an effort to visit more often.

Unusual, we got mutual friends Is it mutual if I kiss your lips? If I'm truthful, then it all depends on your feelings Crucial, how I'm leanin' in 'Cause I'm used to just divin' in I could lose you, that's the consequence of my feelings

Sam and Dean are currently on a hunt hallways across the country where there isn’t great internet service. They don’t know what they’re hunting so they asked you if you could do some research from the Bunker. You’re no hunter but you don’t mind helping them like this. You’re out of danger and safe inside the most secure place in the world against monsters.

Plus, Castiel is here, too. That’s always a plus.

It’s been a few months since you two met and you’ve been coming over every chance you get just to be with him.

Just so you’re not sitting in silence, you hooked up your Bluetooth speaker to your phone so that you can listen to music while you read through the many lore books. You and Castiel are sitting right next to each other; he’s so close that you can feel the heat radiating off him. It’s nearing winter so it’s getting colder outside, but Castiel is a radiator.

“Did you find anything?” you ask him.

“Not yet. Did you?”

“Nope.”

You flip through the book, half-paying attention to the word and half-paying attention to how close Castiel is. The song changes to a romantic tune, and you look up at Castiel who is already staring at you. You briefly look at his chapped lips that also somehow look soft, and you find yourself leaning in.

No! You stop yourself from potentially making a mistake. You’re known to jump into relationships and stay in the fast lane. It’s why you’ve never had a steady relationship with any of your exes. Castiel deserves better. He deserves more. You really like him and you can’t afford to lose him so you can’t be yourself.

You need to change and it starts with him.

Is there a spark for us Or is it just purely platonic? Is this a story arc? 'Cause if it are, it'd be iconic I wasn't gonna ask Afraid of asking you to dance

The best thing about winter is the frozen lakes. You love ice skating but you’re not very good at it. Growing up, you lived in a warmer climate that didn’t get cold enough for any water to freeze, so you took to the activity later in life.

You and Castiel have been hanging out more and more without Sam and Dean around. He might be an angel that will outlive you, but you’re falling for him every day that you’re with him. There’s something so pure about him. He hasn’t been tainted by humanity long enough to see the bad in life. He still believes that people do good simply because it’s right. It’s honestly refreshing to be around someone who still thinks that way.

“Have you ever ice skated?” you ask as you pull your skates on.

“No. I’m sure I can pick it up.”

“Yeah, just wait until you get on the ice.” You step onto the frozen lake and almost fall from being unbalanced. Castiel jumps up and grabs your waist to steady you, and you try to hide the blush creeping up your cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Please be careful.”

Castiel steps onto the ice and skates as if he’s a professional. You watch him with a parted mouth.

“How in the hell are you doing that?”

“It’s simply a balancing act.”

“Right.”

You skate but find that your feet move apart when you do. You struggle to stay upright, and Castiel stays near you to catch you if you fall. Most people wouldn’t find this enjoyable but you’re with Castiel so it makes it better. Plus, if you fall, you know he’ll catch you.

“Here, grab my hand.”

You bite back a smile and grab his warm hand. He skates next to you effortlessly, and you cling to his side to keep some sort of balance.

“Do you normally excel at things you’ve never done before?”

“Generally, yes.”

You laugh and continue to skate with him in the freezing cold. You try to turn but end up tripping over your own feet and crashing into Castiel. He is taken off guard so he falls to the ice with you on top of him. Suddenly, you start laughing either out of embarrassment or at the thought of why you decided to do this with him when you know you’re shit at it.

“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

“No.”

You put your hand on his chest to hold yourself up, and you suddenly realize how close you two are. Your breath mixes with his in the cold, but neither of you moves from each other. You’re so close that you can close the few-inch gap and kiss him.

“Your nose and cheeks are red,” he says.

“It’s cold outside. Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m an angel. I don’t feel the cold.”

“Lucky you, then.”

Castiel moves you off him with ease and helps you stand. He brings you back to the snow where you can stand comfortably and removes his trenchcoat. Without saying anything, he wraps the coat around you, enveloping you in his warmth.

The blush on your cheeks isn’t from the cold anymore.

Falling for a friend Falling for a friend, ooh Baby, don't pretend That you don't feel it too I know you do

Castiel is truly someone special because you’re walking from your hotel in the freezing ass cold and the snow to get to the Bunker. You have a rental car but there is no use in driving it because the roads aren’t safe for cars. Still, that’s not going to stop you from getting to the bunker where Castiel is.

The picnic basket in your hand is sealed tightly to keep the snow from entering it but everything else on you is covered with snow. Kansas winters are brutal. Three miles normally doesn’t seem like a lot but trekking in twelve inches of snow makes three miles feel like thirty.

When you get to the Bunker, you shake off the snow as best as possible before knocking on the metal door. Pain erupts from your knuckles from how cold you are but your hand is numb so you don’t feel it as much as you should have.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” Dean asks when he opens the door.

“I wanted to say hi. Can I come in?”

“Shit, yeah.” He steps to the side and allows you to walk inside. You’re thrust into a warm environment that you’re already starting to defrost. You walk into the library to see Castiel sitting at the table. “What’s in the basket?”

“Just some food. I figure you two are hungry.”

“I don’t eat.”

“I always am,” Dean says at the same time as Castiel.

“Okay, well, here.”

Dean takes the basket with a smile and disappears into the kitchen. Castiel frowns when he sees you shivering from the after-effects of the cold. He can even feel how cold you are from where you stand.

“Come here.” You walk over to Castiel, not expecting him to pull you into his lap. He lifts your hands to his mouth and blows hot air on them, the warmth of it kissing away the numbing from the frostbite. “Baby, you’re freezing.”

Baby? His raspy voice? That’s enough to spring butterflies to life in your stomach. He’s never called you that before. The butterflies intensify when he opens his trenchcoat, wrapping you close to his chest. He leans down and kisses your cold cheek, and warmth blooms from the contact.

You look up at him and he softly traces your bottom lip with his finger, and you part your lips instinctively.

“I really want to kiss you,” he whispers.

You don’t say anything back, You close the gap between you and kiss him softly. His lips may look chapped but they are super soft. His grace dances across your body, warming you up.

You’ve definitely fallen for a friend.

x

Want to be tagged? Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

My mom bought me this book for Christmas

The Resurrectionist by EB Hudspeth, a fantasy field guide full of anatomical illustrations of monsters and cryptids.

The musculoskeletal systems are fun to look at, but not nearly as in-depth as I would have liked. If you have more than a passing knowledge of taxonomy (or in my case, access to Wikipedia), a lot of the details fall apart under scrutiny

The harpy has four upper limbs connected to one shoulder girdle; it shouldn't have arms, only wings

The sphinx is not classified as a mammal, but is still somehow in the family Felidae with cats (and like the harpy is also drawn with only two girdles despite having six limbs. I will give the author credit for giving the sphinx a keel for the wing muscles to attach to)

It lists the Hindu deity Genesha as a cryptid, which is a no-no.

Cerberus is also explicitly not a mammal, but somehow still a canine (literally in the species Canis with wolves, dogs, and coyotes)

Both mermaids and dragons are listed as members of the order Caudata; the only extant members of Caudata are salamanders, which kinda makes sense for dragons, but not so much for mermaids (also, the author keeps playing it fast and loose with cladistics; both mermaids and dragons are in the same order despite being in different classes, and while dragons are explicitly said to be amphibians, mermaids are given the fictional class mammicthyes, which means mammal-fish. At that point, why not just call mermaids amphibians? Why make up a fake latin hybrid name?)

But what bugs me most of all is the classification of the Minotaur as its own order of mammal when in mythology it is explicitly described as a hybrid of two known species (made possible only by the cruel machinations of the divine, but still)

To use actual taxonomical nomenclature, the minotaur's species would be B. taurus × H. sapiens (specifically B. taurus♂ × H. sapiens♀; there are, to my knowledge, no legends of H. sapiens♂ × B. taurus♀). That's how ligers, tigons, mules, zorses, pizzly bears, narlugas, etc., are described.

If I had written this book, I would have leaned more into evolutionary biology. Most land animals have four limbs because they all evolved from boney lobe-finned fish, which split off from the boneless sharks and rays millions of years earlier, so any six-limbed vertebrates would need to be descended from a fictitious category of six-finned fish which would either be an offshoot of boney fish/tetrapods (I guess they'd be hexapods, though that term refers to insect arthropods), OR a precursor to boney and cartilaginous fish that both clades split away from much earlier (it's easier to lose structures than to gain them, so it makes more sense for a six-limbed ancestor to spawn four-limbed descendants than the other way around).

Think about how different elephants are from humans, and humans are from aligators, and aligators are from penguins, and remember that they all evolved from the same ancestor tiktaalik, an amphibious fish that existed some 375 million years ago. Imagine a precursor six-limbed species and how diverse all its descendants would look after 400 million years. Save for the occasional instance of convergent evolution causing two unrelated species to independently evolve similar body plans to fill the same niche, tetrapods and hexapods would look nothing alike. There would be very little recognizable overlap between the two. A six-limbed "pegasus" would not look like a real world horse, and a six-limbed "dragon" would not look reptilian/dinosaur-ish, for much the same reason that giraffes don't look like frogs; they're just too distantly related. Bonless sharks and boney fish and whales/dolphins all have similar looking bodyplans only because their environment requires the same hydrodynamic shape, while terrstrial vertebrates are much more physically diverse.

[see-arcane]

How different are Dracula's Demeter and TLVOTD?

Oof. Okay. This is going to hurt me as a staunch THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER believer, but.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is very much the better story. By a wide margin.

Spoilers for The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Dracula's Demeter, and Dracula below

Just speaking on differences, TLVOTD does sadly tuck in that Universal Pictures nonsense about ~the sun hurts vampires~ and sacrifices some of the Captain's coolness and giving the Romanians and the Roma any respect due to the origins of the poor chick who got boxed up as a bloodbag stowaway. But it is still a very very well done Dracula as an Actual Goddamn Monster horror film. Even the close of the movie--yes, with more random action slapped on for cinematic reasons--leaves a door open for one last knife twist as OC Protagonist stalks off into the shadows to hunt Dracula down...

...and possibly accidentally-brilliantly nodding to a certain scene in the novel where the gang enters the Count's Piccadilly house and finds a bowl of bloodied water. RIP.

It's a good scary story and it built something enjoyable out of the Demeter chapter's foundation. Definitely a refreshing departure from the constant sexypire barrage of Draculas.

Dracula's Demeter feels like a con job by comparison.

Specifically because it opens so promisingly. It's very obvious that the author read Dracula front to back and loved what he read! He uses tons of direct lines from it! He has period accurate details dappled throughout for the Demeter's ship and crew! He does an admirable job of building up his own two Requisite Guy and Girl Stowaway Romance OCs so they can do Meaningful Things, just like TLVOTD's duo do! Dracula is sinister and erudite and--credit where it's due--delivers an absolutely nightmarish demise to poor Petrofsky. Holy shit.

With all that, you can forgive the kind of rough editing and the way that (parentheses) and ALL CAPS ACTION WORDS get sprinkled throughout like someone who just peeled their stuff straight from Ao3. It's fine, it's fun. At first.

And then shit goes downhill and straight into Dracufetishland: Naughty Nautical Edition.

Because it turns out that where TLVOTD had Required Girl Character get to be a whole person and not a gossamer-dressed sexy lamp (even having been chomped), DD's Required Girl gets chomped and immediately goes full 'lol my human boyfriend is a loser compared to Count Fuckula,' in a way I might forgive if we were going for some unrelated vampire's story--but no. This is a Dracula story and she's in full Coppola mode.

She gets turned, ogles what's left of her reflection so we can talk about how hard and visible her nips are in a borrowed shirt, gets Dracuhorny, and ditches her boyfriend.

And then, when Earnest Englishman Boyfriend tries to burn the ship and save the day, he gets burned alive, and then Dracula orders Vampire Girlfriend to garrote the poor guy to death while wearing the convenient billowy white dress she brought onboard. And she does. Happily. There's not even a crumb of will or even dissent left in her the way we see with the goddamn Weird Sisters who were with him for centuries and actively tried to steal Jonathan from their master***, or even Bloofer Lady Lucy reaching for Art.

Just a pointless fuck you of a death that added nothing.

Followed by Dracula snapping Vampire Girlfriend's neck, double-kills her, and chucks her into the sea while chuckling about how silly it is to think that he would want a companion, ha ha!

...

Yes, I am also staring at the camera The Office-style, thinking about -checks notes- the Weird Sisters, Jonathan, Lucy, a random ass girl in Piccadilly, Mina...

Oh, that Dracula. Such a loner.

And all that leads to the Captain with the rosary--WHICH ISN'T EVEN HIS--and the last few chapters which are just pure padding about Dracula shoving the Demeter to shore. After getting a cutaway scene to Dracula hopping into Lucy's brain somehow to grope her while Mina watches. For reasons.

The book is, in short, pointless.

The OCs are pointless. Them being on the boat is pointless. Nothing they do, nothing the author has the crew or Dracula do, adds literally anything to what was already in the Demeter section of the book. There is no meat here, only voluptuous gristle.

And the thing is! The infuriating thing is! Because this is a Dracula*** story, it is still technically more respectful than the bulk of other writing and media about Dracula, because so much of it is doubly extra-fetished never-read-the-book never-liked-the-book utter garbage.

So I still have to give it 3/5 stars as a Dracula story. 1.5-2 in isolation.

Anyway, I'm going to go re-watch TLVOTD now

[zhoudadudugongjin]

Hey there I’m getting confused so I just thought I’d ask. You post a lot about NIF, various items with the word Kingdom, and now AA. The thing is a lot of the names seem to be the same and the faces(?)

Are these shows/stories related, if so how, and is there a watch order you’d recommend?? Thanks :)

Oh hello there I'M GLAD YOU ASKED

So.

The Three Kingdoms era was a period of Chinese history that spanned from about the end of the Han dynasty in 189AD to the the year 280AD (at which point China was finally re-unified). It was always a very popular era for the country, which gave rise to a lot of popular heroes. The first well-known person to make a full narrative out of the events was a fellow called Luo Guanzhong, who wrote a ~800k word novel called The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the 14th century, a highly romanticised (lol) version of events which brutalises some historical figures (r.i.p Zhou Yu) and glorfies others (incl. one of China's greatest blorbos, Zhuge Liang).

Here he is, in various forms:

So I started by reading the book, mostly because it's one of the Four Great Classic Chinese Novels, and I wanted to learn a bit more about actual Chinese history and culture instead of just watching endless fantasy.

And then after the book, I discovered that there are unsurprisingly a LOT of adaptations of it! Some are more faithful to the novel, others more faithful to history, and some are just... *War flashbacks from the few episodes I watched of The Three Kingdoms RPG*

As far as I am aware, the two main adaptations that attempted to serialise the whole goddamn story rather than just some parts of it, are the 1994 TV adaptation, and the 2010 remake. I decided to watch the 2010 first because I liked the look of it (and I also found a nice HD download of, with good subtitles).

The Advisors Alliance is kinda like the "bad guy POV" adaptation which focuses solely on the story of Sima Yi, who shows up towards the middle of ROT3K and (SPOILER) basically wins in the end. He's not actually a bad guy, but he's often portrayed as the antagonist because he was on the opposite side to history's greatest blorbo, Zhuge Liang.

It can get a bit confusing because this fellow, Yu Hewei, seems to REALLY LIKE the three kingdoms era because he has so far starred in no less than FOUR different adaptions as various characters. But he decided to really confuse everyone by being Zhuge Liang's beloved liege lord Liu Bei in the 2010 adaptation, as well as Liu Bei's primary sworn enemy Cao Cao in the Advisors Alliance (2017). So yeah, we all like to laugh about that.

Yu Hewei every time he sees someone is making a new ROT3K adaptation:

As for Nirvana in Fire, that's pure fiction and functionally unrelated to The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (though perhaps the author took some inspiration, who knows?) But the main female lead is played by the same woman in both AA and NIF, the delightful Liu Tao:

And both shows also share another cast member, Wang Jinsong, who plays "disillusioned old friend of the king/emperor who now wants a divorce".

As for which you want to watch first? Well I guess that's up to you. Nirvana in Fire is a GREAT piece of fiction and is certainly more popular fandom-wise. If you're interested in digging your teeth into some messy, bloody political history full of homoerotic yearning, watch The Three Kingdoms. And AA is kind of like, a cross between the two!

P.S Red Cliff (2008) is another good fun adaptation that focuses on just a small part of the three kingdoms story, and has what I think is personally the best (or at least, fairest and kindest) of all the Zhou Yu portrayals.

[echodoctor]

What I've Been Reading Lately: Pale Lights

It is a truth universally acknowledged that H.P. Lovecraft was a little bitch.

Unlike Rhode Island's least beloved and most thalassophobic son, Pale Lights tells the story of a world where humanity exhibits the only natural response to eldritch horror: continuing to be a bunch of squabbling, scheming motherfuckers who honestly might collectively be more of a problem than the ancient gods of primordial darkness sharing this underground cavern/post-apocalyptic civilization with them.

It is the Fantasy Mediterranean and there are not two square goddamn feet in this giant cave world without something ancient and hungry lurking in it. Fortunately, we have the Watch, professional monster-hunters and tireless guardians of humanity!

Unfortunately, humanity is a perpetual motion machine of bad decision making, and there's always some asshole trying to start a cult to something that eats you.

There are boats! There are ancient magical technologies! There are elephants with a profoundly upsetting amount of heads!

This fascinating and intricate world is shown from two very different perspectives, as the book is split between our pair of protagonists: Angharad Tredegar, an honorable sword lesbian tragically forced into a very non-swords-and-women-related situation, and Tristan Abrascal, who would like you to understand that he's really just a little guy and to please ignore that completely unrelated trail of dead bodies.

Both of them are about to join the Watch or die trying.

The Watch will not be getting a choice in the matter.

The author does a fantastic job at balancing drama and humor, the mysteries and lingering questions are intriguing, and while the story can sometimes go dark places it never feels bleak or pointless.

Characters will try very hard to reach out into the dark and save people. Sometimes they succeed.

And even when they don't, it still matters that they tried.

Book one is fully complete, book two is updating every Friday, and both of them are available for free right here:

Contents include but are not limited to:

-Our Lady of the Sunk Cost Fallacy

-a man so handsome it almost makes up for his personality

-the early adoption of grenade-related technology

-Lucifer's abandoned hermit crabs

-an increasing amount of problems both caused by and solved with poison

-the Fantasy Communist Manifesto

-three to seven rats sharing the trench coat that is divinity

-and grandma

[hamliet]

hello hamliet, love your meta analysis and they always show me a different perspective. Would love to know your opinion on seperating the art from the artist, if it is possible and if so how to go about it?

A few principles:

Not everyone will reach the same conclusion about whether they are able to separate the artist and art, and that's okay. I can't listen to Michael Jackson. I know people who can. I do not judge them.

That said I guarantee you everyone does this separation for something, so don't throw stones.

Being able to separate it doesn't mean someone endorses an issue. I don't think people who listen to MJ are CSA apologists. Learn to separate what art resonates with people from their own personal morals.

Don't deny what the creator has done. I can't deny that JK Rowling is a toxic transphobe who seems dead set on destroying trans' peoples lives and I want her stopped. Or that Charles Dickens tried to have his wife locked up in an insane asylum to cover up his affair.

Don't fight against justice for the creator. Sorry, JK, but I hope Imane Khelif who is not even trans ends up taking you to the cleaners in court. I want her harmful rhetoric to be stopped. It'd be nice if she changed her mind and repented . Take your own advice JK about how remorse is the only way to put a torn soul back together, but it hurts terribly. But I'm not holding my breath and in the meantime transphobia needs to be stopped.

Competing needs are a thing. Sorry, I have never read a series that addresses losing a parent in the same way Harry Potter does. I have read other series' about this. I've never read one that resonates the same way. I love the series but I do acknowledge the author is actively harming people and make efforts to combat transphobia in my own life.

Be sensitive to the fact that people may feel differently. I'm not going to recommend Harry Potter to someone who is transgender or tell someone they absolutely should read it and must separate author from art. They don't have to. There are some things I can't separate.

Don't deny privilege playing a role in what you can separate and what you can't. It does, because we all have different lives and different triggers, and it's good to check privilege. But life is also really short. Live in the tension. Don't try to ignore it or deny it away.

Have those discussions that are uncomfortable.

No ethical consumption exists under capitalism. I've been mostly boycotting Nestle for... thirteen years now? But I don't think everyone who consumes Nestle is intending to say "oh well" to child slaves in Africa. These children matter just as much as trans children, don't they?

Learn everything about something and something about everything, to quote a professor I once had. Care about everything. Focus all your efforts on one or two causes. You can't save the world but you can help save something.

Acknowledge the reality that humans are contradictory. I think HP as a story has the opposite thematic message to a lot of her current rhetoric. Which isn’t to say it’s perfect.

Don’t fall prey to the stupidity of suddenly denying that art is good bc the author or singer is evil. Every time I see ppl trot out the Ursula Leguin quote on HP I lose brain cells because it is empathically clear that people taking that as some kind of prescient insight have never understood Leguin’s books nor HP nor the complexity and contradictoriness of humanity.

Which also isn’t to say it’s wrong to notice problematic elements in said works that may relate to the issue or may be unrelated. Do critique.

[v3nusxsky]

Hello my love, I hope your day is going well. I have another agere prompt idea for you, sweet one.

Idea: Nat x r. Everyone gets bad days, and you were no exception. R smd nat have been together for 4 years now and knew eachother like the back of their hand. And from the moment nat and r woke up this morning, nat new r needed to slip. But, r being the stubborn ding dong she is, didn't listen to Nats advice and tried to carry on throughout her day like nothing was wrong. The key word is tried. The slightl headache r woke up with steady progressed into s full blow migrain by midday. R's head was throbbing and it was like someone was taking a baseball bat to the back of her head. And try as she might, r just couldn't finsh all the tasks she had set out to do today. And as Nat came back to their room on the avengers compound after a full morning of meets with the others, she found r on the sofa all currled and and crying. Instantly Nat new what was wrong, so she ever so gently made her way to r and kneeled down on the floor, coming face to face with her little sweetheart. As soon as r saw Nat she jumped into her arms and cried and was a  blubbering mess. Nat listened to her little love, offering praise and comfort. And after her little one calmed down she picked her up and took them to their bedroom. Changing into comfy clothes, getting her stuffy (Emer) and some colors books and pens. They spent two hours coloring and Nat watching over her little one with a smile. Every so often pulling r in to kiss her on the forehead. After coloring was done they went and snuggled on the bed, with Nat holding r close and running her fingers through r's hair. Telling her how beautiful and sweet and adorable and kind and perfect r was.

The rest I will leave up to you my love. I hope you enjoy it! I love you darling ♥️

Time with my baby

*Authors note~ hopefully there will be a fic of a different kind tomorrow:) nat and Agere melts my heart. Mentions of aunty wands 🥹 bc I'm a sucker for the love*

Trigger warnings~ age regression r little r mama bear Nat auntie Wanda headache crying etc?

Prompt~ see ask^^^^

No one is immune to the curse of a bad day, but for you and your past it felt as if the dark cloud of a bad day always loomed over you. In your four years of relationship you and your lover Natasha had gotten amazingly good at noticing the signs of a bad day, often being the only one who can make the bad day a little brighter. However, today it appeared you had chosen to be rather stubborn. It was clear to Nat that you were having a bad day and in need of slipping. But try as hard as she might, you were unrelenting in your efforts to pretend to be okay  here. So she did all she can do, let you carry on with your day in a hope that you'd come to here when you needed her help.

Only, you didn't. You kept pushing through. Well attempting to push through. What had started as a simple headache by now had turned into a full on throbbing migraine all by noon. You vaguely remember that Natasha had warned you of your need to slip and that it would cause this if you ignored it, and you also remember telling her that you'd be fine and that she was wrong due to not wanting to bother her. Natasha's schedule today was anything short of hectic and you'd be damned if you were to ruin it and make her stay with you because of your own weaknesses.

Your determination to finish all your morning tasks was battling against your throbbing head. Truly you wondered how it was possible to feel a baseball bat battering your head repeatedly but the more you tried to question it the worse your head became so you quickly gave up on that fight and some how tiredly made your way to the sofa in the compound for just a little rest. Really, you weren't going to sleep, you simply didn't have the time but sitting down never hurt anyone, right? Quickly resting your stinging eyes wouldn't hurt you as long as you made sure to be up and busy before anyone returned.

Although you allowed a nap for yourself you couldn't quite seem to drift off due to your raging headache, tears of pain and frustration began to trail down your cheeks as you just closed your eyes to block out the harsh light flickering through the compound. At times when you felt this bad all you could do is regret not listening to Natasha and slipping earlier, and now you are all alone with no one to comfort you, or so you thought.

Wanda returned earlier than Nat due to the fact Tony wanted to modify her suit, so naturally she went to check on you, she was almost like a sister for you, so when she heard your overwhelming loud thoughts she made her way to you. She could see by your thoughts you needed a slip so with a quick text to Nat she set out to help you.

"Pretty girl?" Wanda whispered causing your body to stiffen and struggle to open your eyes, "shhh it's okay y/n, auntie wands knows all bout it pretty, would you like to rest with me little one?" You managed a weak nod and lifted your head ever so slightly. Wanda slipped underneath your head and immediately brought her hands to your temples in an attempt to help you, despite her efforts she wasn't Nat and your little brain knew that. "Want mama" you whined miserably with a pout on your lips as tears trailed down your cheeks once more. "Wans want my mama I hurtys helps me" your whimpers were breaking your witchy friends heart, but thankfully with the half an hour she began to hear Natasha's rushed and panicked thoughts of you. "Ahh little one I spy someone's mama."

Just from the sight of you Natasha would've Instantly knew what was wrong, but having wanda's helpful insight was always a bonus. She knew how much you loved your auntie wands, so the fact you were still crying meant only one thing. You needed her. So it was unsurprising that as soon as Natasha knelt down to face you, you threw yourself at her, loud muffled sobs coming from you as you nuzzled yourself into her neck. Although it wasn't very clear Natasha knew you were apologetic for thinking you would be okay and she could tell by wanda's reaction that you didn't quite want to be in public in this state but had seemingly regressed smaller than ever before. "Ahh honey, it's okay mama has you now okay? You're such a good girl for me y/n, mama is so proud baby. You're okay and you're so safe with me and wands okay? Shall we go lay down ?"

Natasha easily lifted you into her arms with a quiet thank you to Wanda she carried you into your bedroom, immediately setting out to find the most comfortable pair of clothes for you she could. Once changed you settled on the bed with your favourite stuffed animal call Emer. Natasha changing quickly herself and grabbing some colouring supplies before joining you on the bed. Your migraine wouldn't allow for much, just enough colouring to soothe you into a slumber where Natasha wraps you up in her arms and protects her girl from the world. The only place you could ever sleep soundly was here, with her.

Word count~1315

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (4)

Now that we got the topic of the Oz books out of the way, let's talk about... The MGM musical! The 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz"!

Or rather, let's NOT talk about it. Let's talk about... its alternate continuity.

"Alternate continuity" or "alternate Oz" are terms cherished by Oz fans and scholars, because they allow one to navigate through the maze of Oz adaptations.

I don't want to talk here about the MGM movie per se, because A) there's way too much to say and B) everybody knows it or saw it, so I don't need to explain what it is as thoroughly. But I want to insist on a specific and given point... The 1939 musical COMPLETELY changed the game.

It is an adaptation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", yes. And it is the most famous and acclaimed Oz adaptations that ever was - to the point it is a landmark of American cinema, and a key part of American popular culture. But, and here's the important part: it is also not at all a faithful adaptation of Baum's novel. It is a very loose adaptation that omitted, reinvented and added MANY, many things - and the problem is that, since the movie is much more famous and well-known than the original novel, it created its own "alternate continuity" of Oz works, completely dissociated from the original novels by Baum (and other authors). These are two different worlds, that start from the same story-point but diverge in many, many ways.

In this post, I want to look at all the works, movies and adaptations that present themselves as prequel or sequels to the MGM movie, and that build together this "alternate Oz continuity" that is the 1939 continuity.

How do you recognize these works, and separate them from the ones more aligned with the old novels? Simple! All you need is to look out for key details that were introduced by the MGM musical!

The Wicked Witch of the West is considered the supreme evil of Oz, and is depicted as having a green skin and being clad in black.

There is only one Good Witch, Glinda Good Witch of the North.

The magical slippers are Ruby Slippers, not Silver Slippers.

Insistence on Oz being a "dream lord" paralleling the real-world

The Wicked Witches are sisters, and not just unrelated allies in wickedness

And other details of the sort. Alright! Ready? Let's go!

Let me begin with something a bit obscure... The 1990 cartoon "The Wizard of Oz".

In 1990, a Wizard of Oz cartoon started airing on television. This animated series proposed itself as the direct sequel to the MGM movie. Dorothy, still with the ruby slippers, returned to the Land of Oz, called by Glinda due to new troubles brewing in Oz: the Wicked Witch of the West was resurrected. The series is mostly about the group of heroes travelling through Oz, encoutering various Oz folks (purely invented for the series) and defeating the various schemes of the Wicked Witch, while trying to catch up with the Wizard of Oz, whose hot air balloon is tormented by the West Wind...

Unfortunately, due to poor ratings, the series was never renewed beyond its first season. Even worse, it just... kind of stopped mid-season. 13 episodes were created (I am not even sure all were aired?) and... the show just stops. No conclusion, no ending, it just stops. Sometimes, the two-part opening episode "The Rescue of the Emerald City" is edited as one short animated movie.

Much more famous: the Disney movie "Return to Oz", from 1985. One of thes "obscure Disney movies", one of those "weird fantasy sequels", one of those "dark 80s children movies"... There's multiple reasons why this piece became a cult-classic today.

It is most notably one of the many instances of Disney trying to create an Oz product in line with the MGM movie, despite not having the rights to do so, and thus playing around with the public domain of the Oz novels. This movie presents itself as a sort-of-sequel to the MGM movie (sort-of because, since they couldn't make an actual sequel, they have things that do not match - like Dorothy's new appearance - and things that do match - the slippers are ruby). In terms of inspiration, it is mostly a retelling of the third Oz novel, "Ozma of Oz", but with various elements taken from the second Oz novel "The Marvelous Land of Oz". For example, one of the villains of the movie is Mombi, the witch from "The Marvelous Land of Oz", but her behavior and appearance are those of Princess Langwidere, a secondary antagonist of "Ozma of Oz".

Another famous attempt by Disney at gaining their ground on the MGM-Oz domain is this movie:

2013's "Oz: The Great and Powerful". Meant to be a prequel to the MGM Wizard of Oz (but stll placing itself in its own continuity, since it couldn't be an ACTUAL prequel), it tells the story of how Oscar (the Wizard) arrived in Oz, and how the power-struggle between the three Ozian witches put itself in place. And it was... it was not a great success. In term of Oz adaptations it is recognized today to be between "mid" and "failure". (It is still VERY pretty though)

Speaking of Oz failures...

Do you remember THIS movie? "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return"? Oh that's one messy story...

"Dorothy's Return" (2013) was an animated movie adapting one of the novels written by Roger S. Baum, L. Frank Baum's great-grandson, called "Dorothy of Oz" (1989). And it did... VERY poorly, despite the huge amount of money and advertisement put in it. But you know what's even funnier? Why does the movie has such a long title? Because "Legends of Oz" was actually a HUGE franchise project. There was this plan to create a big line of animated movies and derived products, of which "Dorothy's Return" would have been just the first step. The movie came out, did poorly... and the entire franchise was canceled. But not without a lawsuit being opened for the shady practices and financial ruins behind this project... Yeah it is QUITE a story!

Still within the domain of modern Oz movies people do not particularly like...

The Tom and Jerry Oz movies!

These animated pieces are part of the modern trend of putting Tom and Jerry in famous movies (there is also the very unfamous Tom and Jerry + Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie). The first movie, "Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz" was basically just Tom and Jerry being present during the MGM movie. And... that was it. Oh yes, they did include the Jitterbug deleted scene but you know. It was just that.

Less known is this movie's direct sequel, "Tom and Jerry Back to Oz". It was less talked about than the first one, despite being at least more original! It is notably a loose adaptation of the third Oz novel, "Ozma of Oz".

More successful and beloved: 2017's "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz".

Just like the 1990s series, it is a children cartoon presenting itself as a direct sequel to the MGM movie, but unlike the 1990s series it was HUGELY successful. It aired for three full seasons, and while it is placed within the MGM continuity, it notably modifies several details so kids could be able to get into the story more (Dorothy is a little girl, the Wicked Witch is replaced by her daughter), and sprinkles several elements from the novels (Ozma, queen of Oz, is a recurring character). It is mostly a... I'll say "slice-of-life" type of show, about Dorothy and her friends just... living in Oz, solving problems if they are, avoiding the various schemes of the Wicked Witch's daughter.

Now that we looked at all the most "recent" incarnations, let's take a look at an older classic: 1972's Journey Back to Oz.

This animated movie is a loose adaptation of the second Oz novel, "The Marvelous Land of Oz", but presented as a sequel to the MGM movie. Tip is replaced by an MGM-looking Dorothy as the protagonist, Mombi is depicted as a green-skinned witch and the cousin of the deceased Wicked Witches of The Wizard of Oz, and Dorothy's voice is provided by Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland.

And to conclude it all a movie that... nobody seems to have noticed upon its release?

2000's Lion of Oz. An animated musical movie for children, adapted from Roger S. Baum's novel (yes, still him) "The Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage" (1995) ; but still placing itself, by the characters' design, under the legacy of the MGM movie.

This movie presents the backstory of the Cowardly Lion, who, as it turns out, was a lion Oscar Diggs brought with him to Oz, and who, before meeting Dorothy, underwent a quest to fight the nefarious plans of the Wicked Witch of the East...

[wot-tidbits]

Brandon Sanderson on his first experience with the process of adaptation as author:

"I have a fun story here. Early in my career, someone optioned the rights to make one of my stories (the Emperor's Soul) into a film. I was ecstatic, as it's not a story that at the time had gotten a lot of attention from Hollywood. I met with the writer, who had a good pedigree, and who seemed extremely excited about the project; turned out, he'd been the one to persuade the production company to go for the option. All seemed really promising.

A year or so later, I read his script and it was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. The character names were, largely, the same, though nothing that happened to them was remotely similar to the story. Emperor's Soul is a small-scale character drama that takes place largely in one room, with discussions of the nature of art between two characters who approach the idea differently.

The screenplay detailed an expansive fantasy epic with a new love interest for the main character (a pirate captain.) They globe-trotted, they fought monsters, they explored a world largely unrelated to mine, save for a few words here and there. It was then that I realized what was going on.

Hollywood doesn't buy spec scripts (original ideas) from screenwriters very often, and they NEVER buy spec scripts that are epic fantasy. Those are too big, too expensive, and too daunting: they are the sorts of stories where the producers and executives need the proof of an established book series to justify the production.

So this writer never had a chance to tell his own epic fantasy story, though he wanted to. Instead, he found a popularish story that nobody had snatched up, and used it as a means to tell the story he'd always wanted to tell, because he'd never otherwise have a chance of getting it made.

I'm convinced this is part of the issue with some of these adaptations; screenwriters and directors are creative, and want to tell their own stories, but it's almost impossible to get those made in things like the fantasy genre unless you're a huge established name like Cameron. I'm not saying they all do this deliberately, as that screenwriter did for my work, but I think it's an unconscious influence. They want to tell their stories, and this is the allowed method, so when given the chance at freedom they go off the rails, and the execs don't know the genre or property well enough to understand why this can lead to disaster."

This quote is made 5 days ago.

I am sure I do not need to spell it out how this quote can very specifically to be connected to one other certain TV fantasy adaptation to the point it explains the situation pretty much verbatim.

SOURCE

[londonfoginacup]

Dude I’m slogging my way through a batch of books from the 1800s trying to figure out if they’re out of copyright or not and that’s TOO HARD so I’m just gonna post about something totally unrelated I’ve been thinking about.

I haven’t actually seen it in this fandom at all but probably because our fandom didn’t exist pre- 2010. But like there’s been a general *idea* circulating recently that fic authors are *too sensitive* now and in the old livejournal/forum days people *begged* for critiques on their fics. They think it’s insane that we, the authors of today, keep telling people to stop being assholes and putting negative comments on fics.

And first of all, I’ve got sort of a “and then everybody clapped” mentality about it. Like I’m just side eyeing anyone who’s like “yeah I wanted everyone to give me HARSH FEEDBACK so I could IMPROVE” as if Hans Christian Andersen himself didn’t lay down in the mud and cry when he read a bad review. It is not in human nature to be like “here is my precious child now everyone give her a good prodding with a knife”. It’s just not.

But ALSO you know what was DIFFERENT about LJ days? The community was SMALLER. I might be more willing to risk some negative critiques if the fandom is just me and, say, 300 other people who are so insanely into said fandom that they’ll track down a fucking livejournal community for it. Fandom is SO accessible now that 1. The Normal People (no offense) are involved and 2. Much YOUNGER people are involved. And that’s a big demographic shift!! (Okay “normal people” needs explained but like. A quick explanation being that fandom used to be for the people who would unabashedly say “squee” and “glomp” and wear cat ears in public. If you are not that level of brazen you may be slightly on the normal side. It’s not bad. It’s just different).

Like I personally do not want a negative critique left by someone who hasn’t figured out that a negative critique isn’t “I didn’t like this plot so the fic sucks”. I TOOK A CLASS ON CRITIQUE IN COLLEGE. I do not expect a high schooler who stumbled upon my fic to be able to leave a helpful negative critique! They’re new to this!

But also like. I’m gonna be real. I don’t care what a stranger thinks of my fic. If they post a negative critique on my fic and I read it and I cry, that’s not me caring about what a stranger thinks, that’s me walking along and being punched in the face by a stranger. I still don’t care what the stranger thinks but I will be getting a restraining order bc I don’t want that to happen.

I *will* sometimes go to my friends whom I *trust* and say “hey this fic is a mess pls help” and they DO they say HELPFUL THINGS. And maybe that’s actually what Fandom Olds are thinking of. Because in a small fandom community you can TRUST people! Like being in a church of 20 where everyone has known everyone for forever versus being in a mega church of thousands. I’m not gonna trust a rando in a mega church. I’m gonna trust Linda from the tiny neighborhood church because she makes the best pizza casserole and she cat sat for me once. Expecting critique in a tiny livejournal community =/= expecting critique in the vast ocean of ao3.

Anyway I’m getting on a tangent. The point is, is authors aren’t *weak* for not wanting negative critique. It’s natural. I don’t know you or your history with fic. I will take comments and compliments because that is fuel in the fire of a writer’s heart. That’s symbiosis. I will not let you prune my writing tree with big loppers because I don’t even know if you’re a tree surgeon, and pruning a tree in the wrong places KILLS IT. DON’T BE A TREE KILLER. Yes this is two completely unrelated metaphors. No im not changing my them.

[nkjemisin]

Things in my ask box

Hi folks. Every so often I get questions from folks that are good, but which I worry might catch them some flak from my other readers or whoever. Sometimes I answer those people privately, but in general I prefer not to do private replies to asks; for one thing, other people might want to know the answer, and for another, I've had a few awkward situations result from doing so (basically just people going parasocial on me), and I think that sort of thing is less likely when it's clear I'm talking to everyone. So, I'm going to handle these awkward asks by just treating them as Q&A questions -- without showing that person's username and where necessary, altering the question in order to protect their identity. I've got a few of these stored up, but just gonna do two this time for length and time reasons. I'll get to the rest later.

Are you a proshipper?

Yep. Feel free to alter your decision re following me on social media now that you've read that answer. But I believe in "don't like, don't read," and that fiction doesn't indicate what an author really believes (because it's fiction), and that there's no subject matter too immoral to explore on its face (everything depends on the execution), so... yep.

2. I love the Broken Earth trilogy, but I have to say, the middle book really didn't go anywhere, literally. Essun stayed in Castrima and Nassun moved around a little more but mostly stayed in the same place too. It killed a lot of the story momentum for me. Why did you decide to do this?

[spoilers for Broken Earth books, though I'll try to minimize them and will put a "read more" before I get there]

Because I felt like it. I'm not saying that defensively, I'm just noting that the answer to pretty much any question you might ask a writer about why they do a particular thing is... because they felt like it. Period full stop. Sorry that wasn't what you wanted to read! It was, however, the story I wanted to tell.

To elaborate... different people have different expectations of trilogies. That's because there are a lot of different ways to handle them, narratively speaking. Sometimes a trilogy is really a group of shared-universe stories taking place in the same world but not necessarily featuring the same characters, and with unrelated plots. Some are telling a single story, but through different POVs and smaller plot arcs that each have their own terminuses; that's what I did with the Inheritance Trilogy, for example. And sometimes, as I did with the Broken Earth books, the author is just telling one big story broken up into three parts. (There are more ways to do a trilogy than this, but let's keep this brief, lol.)

Now, there are a lot of ways to handle this kind of story, but a pattern that most of us are used to is:

Book One: Introduction to the world and important characters and the apparent stakes;

Book Two: Deep dive into the important characters and world, thus giving the audience a reason to care more; and

Book Three: Now we really know the stakes and shit just got real! Now we care what happens to the characters when EVERYTHING! BLOWS!! UP!!!

(I am feeling very silly today, sorry.)

We're familiar with this pattern because we see it all the time, especially in American media. It's a variation on the three-act structure seen in plays and other narratives. It's the basis of our most popular longform stories! The original Star Wars trilogy did it. The Mass Effect trilogy did it. (Andromeda was a separate story, probably meant to be the start of a new trilogy.) The Lord of the Rings did it, prequeled by the Hobbit and mirrored by the Silmarillion. I mentioned those examples because the middle stories of each all exhibit the same traits: a drastic change of pace or location for the protagonists, putting the protagonists through personal character growth arcs, and poking at minutia or seemingly unimportant aspects of the world (which usually end up pretty important before all is said and done).

Now let's answer your question. Spoiler warning again:

In the Broken Earth, we got introduced to the Stillness and Essun in Book One. There was a lot of physical movement in that book as Essun was on the road for most of it (as were other characters), but the plot itself was relatively simple: A bad thing happened to this person and she needs to go somewhere and find someone, to fix it! And then pretty much the entirety of that book's narrative was "Who is this person, why does the bad thing matter, and how close does she get to finding her missing person?" Then in Book Two, we learned a little more about this person, a lot more about her impact on other characters including the one she's been trying to find, and we spent a while learning about orogeny, the Obelisk Gate, and what the stone eaters have been up to. I cheated a little on this; there wasn't room to do a deep dive into the backstory of one pivotal character, but I did finally reveal that this character is the "secret" narrator of the whole trilogy, and made his agenda clearer. I ended up putting his "deep dive" into Book Three instead, where it was particularly relevant to the STUFF! BLOWING!! UP!!!

The reason a lot of readers complain about "Middle Book Syndrome," I suspect, is because of this pattern -- and because of their expectations. A lot of people come at a middle book expecting Book One Redux. That's what you often get in shared-universe trilogies -- Book One over and over again, roughly the same balance of characters vs events each time, in a familiar setting. We're conditioned to want that, I think, from other episodic works. Comic books, for example: When I was working on FAR SECTOR, my editor at the time explained that I needed to try and have a fight or action scene in most of the issues. I hate fight scenes -- sorry! -- so that was hard for me. TV shows -- the ones that aren't themselves telling a single big story over time -- do this, too. I think of it as the "If You Liked X, Then Try... X!" structure. Absolutely nothing wrong with this structure, by the way. I'm just describing it, not throwing shade. I'm a big fan of stories like this myself.

But even for audience members who were expecting the Three-Act Trilogy structure instead, that middle book is going to be jarring. It's supposed to be jarring. The refugees have survived the first book but stopped to dress their wounds and regroup; the adventurers on a quest have reached an impasse and need to find allies and grind to build up their strength; the stalwart hero has just suffered a massive setback and needs to overcome their own doubt or character flaws. A good way to handle this is to take the characters out of their familiar space, and put them somewhere new, or give them a very different kind of challenge. [Mass Effect and LOTR spoilers] Oh, no, Shepard died and their team broke up! What now? Oh, no, Frodo and Sam are on their own trying to get to Mordor! They're just these little guys! How are they gonna make it? If you got overly attached to Shepard team from ME1, or the Fellowship, you're in for a rough ride in these followups. But the jarring nature of this kind of followup is absolutely necessary. An author who does this knows they're going to lose some readers, when they do it. Clearly I almost lost you! But I stand by that choice, because I think it made the whole trilogy better.

Sidebar: I'm old enough to remember the controversy back when "The Empire Strikes Back" came out. Critics haaaaaated that movie! It was too dark, they said; wasted too much time on unimportant stuff. Too much character work, not enough space battles. Then it became clear that audiences loved the second movie even more than the first, precisely because it was darker and because Luke spent so much time futzing around with Yoda and because there were all these girl cooties romantic moments between Leia and Han. A lot of the critics backpedaled at that point, with some of them even acknowledged that they'd been hoping for Star Wars All Over Again and not What Happens Next That Is Not Star Wars. They'd simply brought the wrong expectations to the story.

This is not to say that you have the wrong expectations, Ask-er. Maybe you were expecting exactly that structure, and you just don't like the way I handled it, or you think I did a poor job. Every reader's experience of a story is different, and not everybody's gonna want to pick up everything I throw down. But you asked why did everyone stay in one place, and this is why: to do a deep dive into the character of the Stillness itself. In a story where the setting was as much a "character" as the people in it, I felt it necessary to show enough of that setting for readers to care about it. Would you care, for example, if the town of Brevard (Damaya and Schaffa spend one night there in Book One) got blown off the map in Book Three? Probably not, because I spent no time on any of its citizens or issues. A lot of people cared about Castrima, though, by the end of Book Two.

Whoo, this got long! Hope it answers your question, Ask-er.

[hpowellsmith]

How do you feel when romanceable NPCs get together with each other? I'd love to hear what you do and don't like about it!

I hate it too in general, but I think it depends on how it's presented.

I saw people before mention that when an RO always ends up with another NPC in every route where the MC isn't romancing them, then that just feels like a weird personal insert of the author. I agree.

When a game is all about the choices of the player, then it feels like this completely defeats the whole purpose. It makes the reader feel like the route where they did romance that character didn't matter at all because RO canonically would rather be with NPC. So why make them a romance option in the first place? It's fine if non-romanceable NPCs get together, even better if I get to play matchmaker, but then don't make them romance options for the MC. (I'm looking at you DA Veilguard because boy this pissed me off so much in the game)

I always assume that those authors who force ROs together (without player choice) never expect the players to make several playthroughs where they romance different characters but then lol they don't know their audience at all which is... not a good look.

On the other hand, if the game gives me a choice about it in the form of "hey do you want these two to start dating?" then thank you, now we're talking! I can say no, or I can say yes. Feels like matchmaking again, but it doesn't figuratively erase my past routes where I happened to romance one of those characters, plus, it gives me a cool new choice to make.

I think you did an excellent good job with this in your own books (and sorry this got long).

this is in response to the question:

How do you feel when romanceable NPCs get together with each other? I'd love to hear what you do and don't like about it!

This was great to hear, thank you! (and there's never a need to apologise about writing a lot!)

I want to gently disagree on a couple of things:

First, that authors who write romanceable NPCs getting together don't expect players to play several times. On the contrary, I imagine that a lot of authors who do this know players will play multiple times, and think it's fun to show how different outcomes can unfold in response to different choices from the player. I don't know this for sure, because I'm only one person, but when I've written it, that's part of why (and I always assume people will see things more than once, whatever the scene!)

Secondly, particular relationships feeling "canon" - again speaking only for myself not for other authors, I don't consider any path or relationship canon. Anything that branches is all equally canon or non-canon in my eyes!

All of that said, I totally get what you mean about wanting it to be part of the player/PC's choices - I do think it can be great fun to matchmake and it's something that the player can opt into or out of however they feel. I think as with a lot of things with interactive narrative, introducing choice and agency tends to make things that someone might not enjoy if it was framed in a different way feel better.

Sidenote, it's a bit of a balance working out how to do it without it feeling like characters giving an odd amount of control over their lives to the PC, though! I think I could get away with it in Royal Affairs because the PC is just so fancy, but in other situations it might feel a bit weird.

(I have been thinking a lot about choice and responsiveness in my current outline actually - unrelated to NPC-NPC romances, but about some plot elements/setpieces and twiddling the "player agency" dial in various directions to make things feel fun and impactful)

[fangdokja]

General + Request Rules and Regulations

Please refer to this post on the only characters I will write for: Fandoms and Characters.

The request and asks rules are applicable to two books ONLY:

"World Ablaze: For You, I Would Burn the World." - for fanfiction yanderes

“A Heart Devoured: A Dark Yandere Anthology” - for original yanderes

But I do have other books you can check out, if you want to look for more content suited for you.

────────────

General Conduct

Messages that do not follow the rules will be ignored and deleted (or worst case, blocked).

Fix your profile, and do not look like a bot. If you follow me and look like a bot, you will be automatically blocked and reported.

Do not spam the inbox. Requests will not be taken if there is consistent spam. This only applies to the same request (same content, same character), but multiple different requests are welcomed.

If you want to remain anonymous, please specify explicitly.

I do not do follow to follow social media strategies, or anything related to it.

Do not send hate mail or nonsense offensive messages. Doing so will get an automatic block. This applies to not just the author, but in the community. (e.g. negative spamming, reblogs for hunting the blog, hateful comments, personal attacks, etc.)

Critical feedback is welcomed, but not when it's unsubstantial or simply fallacious arguments (fallacies).

Other irrelevant asks include petitions for donations, spreading information on concepts, blogs, people, religious slander, topics unrelated to the blog, etc.

No trauma dumping in any part of the blog, whether inbox or comment sections. You will be automatically blocked with your comments deleted {Trauma dumping refers to sharing one's traumatic past experiences all at once, without considering how it might impact the listener or if the timing is appropriate.}.

Spreading general negativity is unwelcome here. I'm neither a licensed physician nor psychologist. Neither is social media the best way to cope with your issues. Though, for me, number one way is Jesus and the Bible all the way to help. Just try it, instead of relying on a world that doesn't care about you. Kind of cold, but it's reality, especially if you have no benefits to offer in return.

The blog is dedicated to mostly male yandere + dead dove + psychological content. And the occasional Jesus appreciation posts and content (though this blog is dedicated to God, of course).

Do not rush me. I will have the freedom to choose what request to finish first. So, just because you asked earlier doesn’t mean I’ll get it done straight away (especially if it’s NSFW and explicit sex). Art and writing takes time, effort, brainstorming, lots of thinking in general. I want to submit quality work, not rushed faulty work. And you’ll just annoy me if you rush me. I have a life outside of writing.

NSFW requests will ALWAYS take longer to finish, even more so, if it's explicit sex. {I specialize in psychological and fantasy writing. I suck at romance and erotica genres the most out of all writing. I can do it, but it pales in comparison to my other original works. I'm using my current works to practice for these genres to add to my original epic story.}

I ALWAYS schedule work in advanced. Stories you read presently I finished over two weeks to a month ago. So when you make requests, possible times to receive it is around that time frame or longer.

Why? I always have a packed post schedule that I fill in with oldest finished works to newest works after. I always strive to get the post schedule month done before the month even begins. Patience is key here. If you can’t wait, don’t make a request.

Request Rules

I will still have the final decision on whether to make the content explicit; or just enumerated or hinted at content, if you are requesting NSFW.

I mainly designed these books to be a more lighthearted experience in general, but it can still be subject to change depending on what the readers want.

I will still have the final decision on how to conduct your request. I will do my best to make it as accurate as you want as possible, but I will make no promises. As the author, I’ll have the final say, and have the option to accept, reject, or edit it for the final output.

One-word requests will be ignored. You can add a prompt, specific short idea, or anything concise but substantial extra content to let me know how you want the story to go.

More importantly, requests that are overly specific (like fully fleshed out stories and long paragraphs) will be majorly deleted due to the lack of freedom given to me as an author.

I will only be accepting requests sent to my tumblr inbox. Requests in Messages or anywhere else will be deleted and ignored.

Each person can only send me 2 requests at once. Otherwise, the following requests will be deleted.

In my header request button, it will say if requests are open or not. If it's closed, don't message me about content related to opening it or not. Refer to the rules here.

Lastly, I do not have to reply to your request message. It's optional for me to do so.

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What I will not be writing:

Anything that is meant to portray inaccuracies and degrade anything related to Jesus.

I will NEVER write about characters that remind me of my real life husband. It’s extremely uncomfortable and awkward. (To name a few: e.g. Toji from JJK, Yoo Joonghyuk from ORV, Aomine Daiki from KNB, Sung Jinwoo from SL, Wriothesley from GI, Callisto Regulus from VADTD).

Some characters remind of me of real life people too much, like for example, most “soft” and “green flag characters”. Reminds me of my friend’s boyfriend. And that person is gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. It’s fricking weird. But in general, most reasons I don’t write certain characters is because it reminds me too much of people I know in real life.

Anything to do with adultery, cheating, infidelity. Loyalty (especially in the obsession phase) is one of the non-negotiable base foundations of the yandere. This also includes yanderes having no other love interest or obsession (e.g. dead past wives and spouses that they “cherish”) before the female reader.

Anything with pregnancy or children (don't trust me to keep those children safe from injury and death / tumblr policy). Including pregnancy fetishism, abortions, etc.

Sexual and Suggestive Content with Minors (tumblr policy). If the character is not of 18 years, they will be aged up.

Anything that romanticizes LGBTQ+. I will only be writing for a female reader and male yandere character, straight couples only for romance especially.

No polyamorous relationships, but love angles and love interest competitions are fine.

No divorce requests. Break-up (boyfriend x girlfriend) requests are allowed.

No requests for submissive puppy or any submissive men in general, including switches.

I do not write gentle sex, only rough possessive domineering sex. And only dub-con and non-con situations, no consensual scenarios here.

I do not write consensual SFW stories as well, all of it is either dub con, non con, or psychological in nature. Dead Dove generally.

I do not write older female tropes (e.g. MILF). I either write younger female reader or do not specify the age at all. At most, I usually write 18 to early 20’s reader.

I do not write tall, muscular, buff, or chubby female readers. I only write tiny, short, thin readers, or do not specify the height and build at all.

I do not write strong female protagonists. Like overpowered ones especially. For all my other works, except for my original epic story, I only write weak, submissive females. It’s because I focus on the male yandere’s perspective in my stories.

You are not allowed to specify how I will write the female protagonist. This will be entirely up to me.

I will not be taking requests for character or reader death scenes. Attempted death attempts or scenarios are allowed.

No Genderbent characters. No crossdressing (also includes femboys, and other concepts related to it).

No Platonic yanderes, only Romantic yanderes, if human. But, if it's monsters, animals, etc. then I can do platonic yanderes (unless stated otherwise, like Undertale AU's, where I can make romantic yanderes ; but most of the time, I will not make romantic yandere non-human appearance monsters).

Other Kinks I will not write about:

No Acrotomophilia.

No Abasiophilia.

No Balloon Fetish.

No Bestiality / Zoophilia

No Bug Chasing.

No CBT (cock and ball torture).

No CFNM (clothed female / naked male).

No Climacophilia.

No Clown Fetish.

No consensual anal sex.

No Crush Fetish

No cuckolding.

No DIY Porn or consensual pornography.

No fetish for disfigurement and/or permanent bodily injury. (non-con actions are permitted).

No body fetishes (e.g. Foot Fetishism).

No Ederacinism.

No Figging.

No Gender Bending.

No Gerontophilia.

No Group Sex.

No Hebephilia.

No Hirsute Fetish.

No Hotwifing.

No Knismolagnia.

No Latex Fetish.

No Nylon Kink.

No Objectum Sexuality / Objectum Kink.

No Pedophilia.

No Praise Kink.

No Pantyhose Fetish.

No Robot Fetishism (unless for psychological aspects like controversies)

No Sex Parties.

No Spectrophilia and anything ghost-related.

No Stygiophilia.

No Tentacles.

No Teratophilia. (romantic and suggestive moments are allowed; no explicit sexual content for non-human like monsters)

No Trichophilia.

No Vicarphilia (only allowed for psychological aspects).

No Vomit Fetish.

No Vore (non-con cannibalism is fine though).

No Yoni Egg.

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What I can write (but not limited to), non-taboo / SFW:

Important Notes

I only write older male yanderes, age gap where the male love interest is older. It can be by just a few years to generational age differences. Yes. Daddies only.

I mainly write Dominant + Sadistic + Black Flag + Daddy please choke me more vibes. I can also write red flag characters as well, but mainly black flag yanderes that can and will kill you.

I specialize in the psychological genre. It's why a lot of my works revolve around that aspect, along with thriller and horror. I'm currently practicing romance and erotica (two of my worst genres).

Romance requests are only allowed to be in the "dark romance" genre at most. Comedy, slice-of-life, healing, fluffy, happiness won't be found here.

Plot Ideas

Reverse Harems: I can write reverse harems, but the reader can only end up with one guy in one ending (can have multiple endings).

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Themes I can write (but not limited to), NSFW kinks:

Specify if dub-con, or non-con (consensual requests not allowed).

24/7 arrangement

Age Play (older love interest / male yandere only)

Anilingus (non-con only)

Autassassinophilia

Autoerotic asphyxiation

BDSM

Blood Kink / Blood Play

Blindfold Sex

Breath Play

Bondage

Breeding Kink (not for pregnancy and children purposes)

Cannibalism

Claustrophilia

Consensual non-consent

DDLG

Dominance

Dirty Talk

DIY Porn (non-con only)

Edge Play

Electrostimulation

Erotic Asphyxiation

Erotic Humiliation

Erotophonophilia

Exhibitionism

FinDom

Fisting

Frotteurism

Food Play

Gagging

Golden Showers

Humiliation

Hybristophilia

Hypnokink

Impact Play

Interrogation Play

Japanese Bondage

Katoptronophilia

Masochism

Money Kink

Necrophilia

Needle Play (non-con only)

Objectification

Orgasm Control

Overstimulation

Ownership Kink

Pet Play

Primal Kink / Primal Play

Public Sex

Pyrophilia

Rape

Role Play

Rope Bondage

Size Kink (larger, taller male yandere only with tiny, thin darling)

Somnophilia

Symphorophilia

Temperature Play

Urophilia

Underwear

Voyeurism

Whips

Wet and Messy

Wax Play

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Themes I can write (but not limited to), controversial / taboo :

Hate, Discrimination & Oppression:

Bullying

Classism

Cyberbullying

Poverty

Sexism & misogyny

Slavery & indentured servitude

Slut-shaming

Workplace harassment

Sex and Sexual Violence:

Dubious consent scenarios

Gang Rape (reader not allowed to specify which characters)

Incest (aged up)

Necrophilia

Rape

Revenge Pornography

Sexual Assault

Sexual Harassment

Sex Trafficking

Sex-worker Shaming

Sex Work & Sex Slavery

Abuse and Relationships:

Arranged, Forced & Coerced Marriage

Domestic Abuse & Violence

Emotional Abuse

Incest (aged up)

Intimate Partner Abuse & Violence

Mental Health and Suicide:

Addiction

Amnesia & memory disorders

Anxiety & anxiety attacks

Bipolar Disorder

Depression

Disordered weight & body thoughts

Dissociation & dissociative episodes

Dysphoria

Eating disorders

Gambling addiction

Hallucinations

Intrusive thoughts

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Self-harm

Sex addiction

Sleep disorders

Substance addiction

Suicide & attempted suicide

Suicidal ideation

Alcohol and Drugs:

Alcohol consumption & abuse

Drug abuse

Drugging

Overdose

Blood, Injury & Medical:

Amputation

Blood & gore depiction

Body horror

Body modifications

Cannibalism

Chronic illness & chronic pain

Dead bodies & body parts

Decapitation

Dismemberment

Emesis

Eyeball trauma

Genital mutilation

Hospitalisation

Loss of autonomy

Loss of limb

Loss of vision

Medical experimentation

Medical treatment & procedures

Mutilation

Needles

Pandemics, plagues and contagions

Paralysis

Physical injuries

Physical illness

Scars

Starvation & dehydration

Surgery

Terminal illness

Weight loss & gain

Death and Loss:

Death from exposure

Death from falling

Death of a child

Death of a cousin

Death of a friend

Death of a grandparent

Death of a nephew & niece

Death of a parent & guardian

Death of a partner & spouse

Death of a sibling

Death of an aunt & uncle

Grief & loss depiction

Violence and Crime:

Asphyxia, strangulation & suffocation

Blackmail

Boating accidents

Building collapse

Captivity & confinement

Car accident

Disappearance of a loved one

Electrocution

Explosions

Fire & arson

Gang violence

Garrotting

Gun violence

Hanging & lynching

Home invasion

Hostage situation

Imprisonment & incarceration

Kidnapping

Knife, sword & axe violence

Maritime disasters

Murder & attempted murder

Organised crime

Physical assault

Plane crash

Poisoning

Police brutality & violence

School/workplace shooting

Stalking

Torture

Train accidents

Vitriolage

Vivisepulture

Whipping

War and Genocide:

Chemical gassing & warfare

Colonialism

Concentration camp

Conscription

Genocide

Massacres & mass murder

Military service & deployment

Nuclear disaster

Riots

War themes & military violence

Animal Death and Cruelty:

Animal attack

Animal cruelty & abuse

Animal death

Animal illness & injury

Animal testing & experimentation

Hunting

[unclevladscorner]

On sock puppets, pen names and Freydis Moon

First, lets talk about the difference between a pen name and a sock puppet becauese lots of authors use pen names. This includes me.

I use two names- Uncle Vlad is for my games and erotic short stories on itch. I do not intend to take this name off of itch or Tumblr. I will publish Sword of the Voivode under T.G. Joye. This is mostly because my legal name is used by several entities to publish other work already, and I don't want to be mixed up with unrelated works that are not my own.

Sock puppets are almost exclusively online handles used to harass and manipulate people. Freydis used both- sock puppet accounts often tended to also be pen names for other styles of writing.

While neither of these things is a crime per se, some of those alternate personas engaged in digital brown face. While also not a crime per se, it is in very poor taste.

Here's where things get absolutely FUCKED-

Freydis is an award winning latinex author who is; by all accounts, not a latinex person. Freydis also engaged heavily in multiple forms of bullying, which I have been on the recieving end myself. This bullying largely targeted minorities who are underrepresented in fiction- allowing Freydis to boost themselves as a supposedly marginalized author as they harrassed many trans, non binary, and people of color out of publishing own ownvoices work.

I've seen the effects of Freydis's predatory behavior first hand on transmasculine writers- many were afraid to leave their sphere of influence after becoming attached to Freydis, in spite of the bad behavior. Many more were harrassed off of various platforms- like Discord and Twitter- cutting them off from a small but tight knit community.

I am one of those people who was harassed off of Twitter, and have not made any inroads into the digital writing community b/c I feared backlash from Freydis. I've spent the last two years trying to figure out what I was going to do once I released Sword of the Voivode. While not erotica, I still felt fear to publish on Amazon due to Freydis's past harassment. It is a miracle the book has come this far in the process and I will be publishing it later this year.

Many, many more people were manipulated into believing Freydis with an unwavering, cult-like fervor, making it impossible to even have a conversation about years of abuse and manipulation going on behind the scenes.

The Takeaway-

We need to be better to one another, both by being more supportive of those within our own communities and by questioning our loyalty to any one person. We talk about believing victims, but never in the context of bullying and I think that has to change here and now.

We also need to boost each other like there's no tomorrow. Many ownvoices works have been left languishing in obscurity because Freydis took up so much space in multiple minority communties. Boost those books you felt unsafe to do so before. Boost your own. We need to lift each other up and engage with one another more readily to really undo the hurt done to us.

Be safe, and be kind to one another,

-Your Uncle Vlad.

[yakool-foolio]

Imagining post-game/future Vivia where he quits the WDO (or, well, sneaks away before they even know he's gone) and becomes an author while still doing some freelance, behind-the-scenes investigative work on the side. Going under several different pen names to remain as anonymous as possible, he writes mystery novels based on his experiences as a detective. Avid readers of his works try desperately to find connective throughlines between the books they theorize were written by him. And yet, they can never figure out whether what the author writes about is real or fictitious. They wring out loose ends for all their worth, pondering if the author is secretly a Master Detective or if it's all carved from delusional dreams of grandeur. Hidden beneath his anonymity, Vivia finds humor in the frantic rumors passing by. Everyone always seeks to understand, never to stop and bow to the mysteries that bewilder and beguile. Vivia and his stories will always stay secrets. Perhaps he hopes that in some peaceful future, people will learn to uphold a similar appreciation for what desires to remain unknown.

...And this was all a grand scheme to put Herald Of Darkness by Old Gods Of Asgard in my Vivia playlist HAHAHA! You've been fool(io)ed!

Just kiddin'! Though listening to this song on repeat over the past two days definitely inspired my idea of what a post-game Vivia would be up to. Nonetheless, a lotta these lyrics definitely do fit canon Vivia!

And on a somewhat unrelated note, Lost At Sea by Jean Castel n I can shake hands over using extended oceanic metaphors. It is perfecto!