#but i guess it would have to be explored in part 2. probably chapter 5 would be thee louis pov chapter

[shavirlight]

I can't stop thinking about your reverse AU, it's going to stay with me. But also since we're going to be waiting for the sequel for God knows how long, I am entertaining myself thinking of post-epilogue scenarios. Do you imagine they got together pretty immediately or are they going to attempt to take it slow? Or maybe Lestat wants to be "companion enough for himself" and is trying to do the most un-Lestat thing ever and be chill? I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

This is a very fun question!! Honestly. I think if the epilogue went one more scene they would have already started fucking - and I swear I'm not just thinking with my dick when I say that asjkfhaj

"Reverse" really is the guiding concept of this fic for me, not just in character circumstances but in their arcs, too, and it works nicely I think because Louis and Lestat are pretty much opposites already. The way I see it is, Louis needing to learn how to be his own companion in the show makes sense because he spent over a hundred years almost exclusively in relationships, and doesn't fully know who he is alone. In this AU, though, Lestat has been single, and desperately lonely, for many, many years at this point (I only have a rough timeline in mind but you better believe he did not spend 80 years married to Armand lmao). What he's always wanted, and needed, was to feel secure, and loved for who he truly is.

If we continue with the theme of the reunion being a power fantasy, the ultimate fantasy for Lestat would be to have Louis assert that he wants him, honestly and with no reservations, and that he's ready to finally be with him fully. At the same time, Lestat also needs to be the initiator, and it needs to happen on his terms - Louis can't undo the past, but I think having Lestat be the one to dictate the pace of the relationship would do a lot to heal the violation of trust from his turning (and the subsequent years of Louis pretty much controlling everything about their lives).

So yeah, the way I see it, Louis takes him upstairs and after hours of conversation or whatever, Lestat just fucking goes for it. I'd imagine Louis would need to be reassured that it's really what Lestat wants (hysterical tbh) but once Lestat asserts that it is, they'd dive back into a relationship frighteningly fast. I also think the new, sweet, confident and yet kinda bashful Louis would be like a punch to Lestat's dick...........

[weird-tree-girl]

Us and Them

-images are not mine-

Pairing : Caesar x OC human reader

Warnings : Loneliness, inter-species relationship, language, angst/depressing topics, slight gamophobia, more?

Summarize : Clover is a misfit woman in her early/mid twenties, thriving in the Muir woods in a post-apocalyptic world along side her companion ‘Woofer’ -a large brown wolf she rescued as a pup from an old hunting snare- survive day to day in her shelter deep in the woods, building the life she always dreamt of for herself. However, the Muir woods don’t belong entirely to Clover, and these neighbours can’t avoid each other forever.

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(A visual for Woofers size, leaning more towards 3.3FT height and 7FT length. Clover is 5”8)

Chapter 2 : Word of mouth.

2 years have passed since I decided to renovate the shelter I came across at the end of my long journey on the road.

Woofer is still with me. In fact, he’s grown quite a lot actually. I honestly don’t think wolves typically grow this big, he kind of reminds me of Dire wolves, although they’re long extinct, Woofers just supersized I guess, I remember reading a book as a kid that talked about supersized animals. He could honestly carry me if it really came down to it.

Over the past 2 years, I mostly spent the entire time renovating the shelter and also travelling to the closest abandoned city and back often, looking for supplies that I could use in my shelter and to help repair it.

I’ve also been figuring out and familiarizing myself with the layout and land around my shelter, such as seeing what type of foods I can forage, the best areas to catch fish, if there are any game around that Woofer can hunt, etc.

I still have yet to travel more than a day up into the mountains from where I live now, I wanted to finish my shelter before I decide to explore the entire Muir woods.

I’ve been in my part of the woods for 2 years now, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in here.

Obviously there are other animals besides Woofer and I but what I mean is, someone else definitely lives somewhere in these woods.

I can usually see the faint glow of fire up in the mountains at night, and I can sometimes hear screaming or screeching- which scares the hell out of me.

Now that I’m practically finished with renovations for my shelter, at least the stuff that needed to get done immediately like fixing the roof and making the interiors livable, I can start to enjoy living here.

(The shelter so far, has 3 layers)

(Little river in front of the shelter)

(Kitchen area where she stores food, bottom floor in shelter)

(Main living space, middle floor in shelter, bed area is top floor in shelter. Scribbled-out area is the bookshelf in next pic)

(Where she keeps her books, she collects them on runs)

(Outside of her shelter where she cooks food)

After spending the morning reading an old book on the couch, I close it and place it back on the shelf.

“If I had known that the world was ending, I would’ve brought better books.”

I pack a bag with enough food and equipment to last me a couple of days and sling a bag of arrows over my shoulder and pick up my bow as I head out of my shelter and into the Muir woods.

Woofer still hasn’t come back from hunting. He’s sometimes gone for a day or two, to say I’m worried is a serious understatement.

He could hold his own against a bear if he came across one, and if he ran into some people out hunting for food he would scare the holy hell out of them.

But we haven’t come across any other people since before arriving to the Muir woods.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m not lonely, living this way, because I’ve given up expecting that loneliness can be blotted out by anyone else. My loneliness is my own cherished possession and probably my only one.

As I make my way deeper into the woods and up the mountains, I relish in the quietness around me.

“It is so quiet out here, it is the quietest place in the world.” I say, continuing on.

A few hours pass as I walk into the uncharted parts Muir woods, I keep in mind that I have neighbours somewhere in here that I know nothing about.

I decide to stop on a large rock and eat some dried fish and drink water.

While eating I notice my boots, they’re pretty old. I’ve had them for a handful of years now and as one could tell by now, I walk around a LOT.

They’re basically at the ends of their life, if I push just enough with my toes on my right shoe, they lift the shoe up off the soul and you can see my sock.

These won’t do in the coming winter, but luckily by my calculations, it’s about early to mid summer, I have some time to head into the abandoned city and look for something.

As I chew on my fish jerky, I hear a loud..roar? I’m not sure what else to call it. It wasn’t like a bear or mountain lion, and definitely not Woofer. It was like, a man, but also not. God, I hope not.

Whatever it was, it got me upright on my feet, grabbing my shit and hauling ass out of there.

I’m confident as hell when it comes to protecting myself. I’ve just about mastered taekwondo and Krav Maga, although I learned these back from before and have been practicing since then. I’ve also mastered long range weapons like the bow n arrow, slingshot, and guns, but I haven’t used a gun of any sort since the beginning of the end of the world.

I’ve mastered the bō staff too. I came across one during my journeys on the road. However, for the first year or so that I had it, I used it mostly as a walking stick and as a means to help me cross/get over things, before I found a book that explained the art of the bō staff.

But seriously, what the hell was that?

Before I could move very far from the rock I sat on, I heard the unmistakable sounds of a heard of deer or something running somewhere to the left of me, a decent distance away, luckily for me.

They didn’t sound like they were getting any closer to me, thank god, but once I thought I had calmed down some, in the distance I swear I could make out dark figures jumping through the trees.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on in the most wonderful way” I half-heartedly laugh out.

Rubbing the space between my eyes, my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself pulling an arrow out from behind my back and readying it on my bow as I started to make my way towards wherever the figures in the trees were heading, ensuring that I stayed well behind them.

After trailing behind them for a while, I saw a a figure walking on the ground, and after getting a more clear look, I realized that this was a chimpanzee.

“No way..” I mutter to myself, making sure not to be heard.

All along this where the apes went? I guess it makes sense, it’s not very far from the Golden Gate Bridge.

I tighten my grip on my bow as I stay put watching the ape, when another one comes into view.

This one was bigger and looked older than the one I originally saw alone. Something about this bigger chimpanzee was.. alluring? Like, something deeper, something more to them than meets the eye.

The older ape touches a tree with mark on it. Hold on those marks-

Before I could fully process even gawking at the apes in front of me, a grizzly bear lunges out of hiding and attacks the smaller ape, leaving some nasty scratches along its chest and face.

The older ape jumps in front of the younger ape, holding its chest up and letting out a roar of sorts to intimidate the bear, but the bear roars back twice as loud.

To be honest, I thought about helping the apes, but against a grizzly bear? I only have my bow on me, and I don’t even know these apes, for all I know they could see me as just as much of a threat as the bear.

I get pulled out of my thoughts when the older ape lets out a loud call, to me it seemed like they were trying to get help, this made me feel rather guilty.

Not even a moment later, another chimpanzee jumps into view, spear in hand, and plunges it deep into the bears back.

After a moment of silence and anticipation, the new ape climbs on top of the bear to ensure it was dead, and checks on its companions.

They all seemed alright, other than the scratches the younger ape received, but they weren’t life threatening from what I could tell.

What happened next absolutely blew me out of the water and I almost gave my location away. The alluring one signed the words ‘thank you.’ To the new ape that just saved their lives.

“Sign language??” I mutter a little louder than I meant to.

There’s just no way, how could they communicate in a way like that?

But to my horror, I was heard.

The 3 chimps faced my direction. I didn’t dare move, hoping I could still get out of this, they partially heard me but they haven’t seen me yet.

From what I remember hearing on the news, these apes mostly escaped from testing labs, which means that there’s a high probability that in this situation, they would kill a human on sight.

I could try explaining that I’ve always been against animal testing, but that would probably fall on deaf ears.

After what felt like hours, the trees above the 3 apes fills with even more apes.

They start to hoot and sign to the apes below, from what I could make out, they were asking what happened and if they’re alright.

I understand sign language from before, one of the only friends I had in school was mostly deaf and I learned a lot of sign for them.

The alluring one signs to them, reassuring them, then faces back in my general direction. I’m not off the hook yet it seems.

The chimp that took out the grizzly hoots rather aggressively and picks their spear back up and throws it in my direction.

“Idiot!” I thought, they’re apes, they could probably smell a human from a mile away, of course they know I’m here!

The spear misses me by a couple of feet, I stumble back out of the bushes, landing on my bottom.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

I stand and take off in the other direction through the trees.

There’s just no way I’ll outrun so many apes. But I have to try.

The screeching and hooting of the apes behind me is deafening.

While running, my shoulder slams hard into the trunk of a tree, not enough to dislocate luckily. I continue to run.

I realize while running that I can’t lead them back to my shelter, even if it’s hours away from where I am right now, so I change my direction slightly, enough where I’m no longer going the right way to my shelter.

But of course, just like anyone who is running for their life in a situation like mine, my foot got caught in the looped root of a tree, sending me tumbling harshly to the ground.

I tumble for a moment and my back slams into the trunk of a large tree, knocking the wind out of me.

Vision blurry and gasping for air, I begin attempting to collect myself, preparing for the apes to get to me.

Not long after my fall, the apes begging to surround me.

In one liquid motion, I pull an arrow from my back and flip over off my stomach, pressing my back against the tree trunk and pulling the arrow back with my bow, breathing heavily.

The apes above continue hooting, but I’m not even trying to pay attention to what they could be signing.

An ape begins to approach me, walking on 2 legs. It’s the alluring one.

They stand on a tree stump maybe 15-20 feet from me, taking note of my readied bow and arrow.

The ape frowns at me, locks eyes with me and holds up their hand. The apes in the trees above us become silent.

“Lower.. the weapon.”

The ape in front of me says in a deep voice that I could feel rumble through my chest.

My eyes widen and my breath gets caught in my throat.

Did he just.. fucking talk??

After a minute of gaping at him like a fish out of water, I compose myself once again.

“You… you attacked me first.” I say finally, the words not feeling like my own.

The ape just continues to stare me, narrowing his eyes more if that was even possible.

“Lower.. the.. weapon.” He repeats himself, this time slightly louder.

I press my lips into a straight line, debating on what I should do next.

I sigh quietly, and begin lowering my bow, releasing my grip on the arrow and letting it fall softly between my feet.

The apes expression softens by a fraction of a fraction, to the point where I could honestly be making it up in hopes that he’ll just let me go.

He looks as if he’s about to say something again, but the older ape from before comes to his side and begins signing to him. Getting a better look at him up close, he looks like he’s been through the wringer one or twice.

While he signs frantically, I can make out “get rid of her” and “others” and “nothing but trouble!”

He signs again and my veins turn to ice.

“We must kill her!”

My grip on my bow handle tightens but I don’t point it up just yet, I don’t want to risk starting something.

The ape that spoke to me frowns at the older ape and huffs.

“No.” Was all he said and waves the older ape off.

The older ape looks pretty pissed and turns to look at me, baring his fangs and turns to leave.

My grip on my bow handle loosens slightly. I look back at the talking ape. He meets my eyes once again and seems to notice the fear in my eyes which had mostly left before the older ape came up to him.

‘You understand?’ He signed to me.

I nod, not taking my eyes off of his.

I thought about asking how the hell they are able to speak, let alone sign, but decided against it. Today is already just about as weird as I can handle. I am not asking any more questions.

As if he could hear my inner dialogue, he starts to speak once more, but is cut off when the sound of a large animal moving at a fast pace grows closer to us.

The apes start to hoot and chatter, signing about there being another bear. The ape in front of me stands taller and looks around.

Through the trees, a giant dark mass runs closer until it jumps into view, standing in front of me, growling aggressively and baring its fangs at the apes.

Feeling like 5 pounds was lifted off my face, I exhale with an anxious smile.

“Woofer!”

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Chapter 2 of Us and them, done! I hope you’re all enjoying the series so far as much as I am, I’d love to hear anyone’s feedback or thoughts/hopes for this series!

See you in chapter 3!

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 31

Hey it's him again!

The rest of the party has been name-dropped. The leader is Kabru, the gnome is Holm, the dwarf is Daya, and the half-foot is Mikbell.

The chapter opens with "A little earlier". I'm going to guess that this chapter starts on the same morning as chapter 23, but I'm willing to consider it takes place as early as somewhere between chapters 20 and 22.

Roughly five days passed between chapters 15 and 30 (The party fights a kraken on day 1, they are delayed a day by the undine on day 2, spend two days reaching the dragon, then defeat the dragon and are attacked by the magician on day 5).

Unless Mr Tansu's teleport spell is two-way, I don't think he would make it all the way back to the fourth floor in the three days since he and Laios's party parted ways. In that case, he probably would have found annd resurrected Kabru's party before returning to the surface. But if it does work both ways, then he could have made his report in chapter 22 and then jumped right back to where he left off in the dungeon.

Kaka said Namari has a thing for long legs. I bet she was taking a gander at Kabru.

They're all illusions so it doesn't count, but I wonder if there are different types of fishmen for different types of fish.

If Laios's party got caught in this situation, I think Laios would have figured out what was going on as well, but in a completely different way. Kabru realized what was happening because he noticed his teammate's behaviours in the fishmen. Laios probably would notice that fishmen are ambush predators and would never purposely engage in direct combat nor use waterwalk.

No idea how he'd stop Marcille from blowing everyone up, but it wouldn't be the way Kabru dealt with Rin.

The worst part about how those corpse-retrievers operate isn't that they will actively set adventurers up to die, but that they would so casually admit to it and offer a bribe. Those guys have gotten away with doing this several times and they've managed to either get adventurers to go along with their deals or maybe found ways to dispose of adventurers so that they are never found.

As soon as I saw how Kabru fights, I thought "This guy is a trained assassin. What's he doing hunting monsters?"

After learning that the lunatic magician was misgendered in the translation, I've been checking every androgynous character to make sure I have them right. And Mikbell is also misgendered in the translation.

What's the process into becoming a ghost? I guess normally, the soul leaves the body when the body is no longer fit to contain it (the person dies) but through certain magic or curses, the soul can linger and become a ghost.

But because of the magic in the dungeon, the soul is forced to remain in the body even after the body has long-ceased to be functional. Kabru's party and Falin don't know anything that happened while they were dead, so their souls aren't floating around taking in the sites or anything. The soul probably only knows whatever feedback the body can give it, and while they're dead, the body gives them no feedback so death is probably just a featureless nothing until the body is completely destroyed.

That was grimmer than I intended. I was just wondering if those corpse-finders might come back as ghosts since Kabru had their bodies dumped in the water.

So the takeaway I have about Kabru's party is they're the wannabe heroes of the story. They're not exploring the dungeon for wealth or fame. And they don't want to beat the magician for the power and glory but because they want to protect the land from the threat of the dungeon.

That person has the same skin and hair colour as Kabru. He's speaking from experience when talking about monsters coming out of dungeons and overrunning villages.

This chapter is called "Sea Serpent, Part 1" but there wasn't a single sea serpent at all. Just a whole bunch of snakes.

back

[lostdrarryfics]

lostdrarryfics monthly roundup Aug + Sept: Part 1

Oops! We got busy and never posted the monthly roundup, so we're splitting it into two parts. Here's Part 1! Please let us know if you recognize any fics!

You can also browse our lengthy lost fic masterlist, where we have compiled every request we have been unable to find over the past few years. We're always hoping someone will recognize a fic so we can let the asker know what it was!

1. i found the fic on pinterest and im pretty sure the person whos pinterest i found it on wrote it but i did read it on ao3. it was an 8th year darry post war hogwarts. there was ptsd in the tags. there were 13 chapters but the last one (13) was an explanation of why it was on hiatus, it could have changed by now idk, the main plot was that draco was cutting himself but specifically to try get rid of his dark mark (or just sh i cant remember) and harry discovered this and wanted to help. he went to this meeting that the students ran and got tips on how to help. was told that for a couple of people painting their arms helped them and one lended their paint to harry. so harry and draco kept meeting up and harry would do these amazing art paintings on his arm(to cover the dark mark specifically i think) and draco was so relaxed. i think they got into a fight and draco relapsed and then harry discovered this in the basement of hunydukes(?). and afterwards draco talks with pansy and blaise and realises that he likes harry (again i could be mixing up with a different fic but im pretty sure it was this one)

2. postwar drarry fic where draco was previously dating another man before his current relationship with Harry and kind of embraces that memory..? I think he was telling Harry about this other man and I think there was this specific line about how draco and the previous man had similar cracks and were similarly broken so they thought their cracks fit tgt and thought it was love but it rly wasn't..???

3. been looking for this fic for a while, so I guess it was posted 5+ years ago. Probably on AO3, but I’m not sure. It’s AU, Harry is poor and decides to sell his virginity at Sirius’ brothel. Draco, also a virgin, buys it. Here it is what I remember: Both Harry and Draco are virgins. Harry needs money (to go to college? university?) and decides to sell his virginity. Sirius is a sex worker/has a brothel and tries to dissuade Harry, but can't. Draco is about to get married (a marrige Lucius arranged for him). Lucius takes Draco to Sirius' brothel. Draco insists in a inexperienced hooker. Draco and Harry hook up and obviously fall in love. Draco pays for Harry exclusivity. All of above are what I'm sure about (or as sure I can be). However, there are other informations that I think were important in this fic: When Harry talks to Sirius, Sirius thinks in selling his wand because it's something rare (like, only tradicional pure-blood have one). There is something about lycantrophy, Remus takes care of other werewolves and he needs Sirius' wand to make wolfsbane.

4. draco and harry are already in a relationship but draco is so self hatred and he believes he don't deserve harry. Im not sure if he already tried breakup with harry but harry is so in love with draco that he don't accept de breakup so draco to finally leave harry líes to him tellin him that he don't want to be tied in a relationship and he wanna explore being with other people and be more sexually adventorous or something in that context. These are the  scenes that i remember: Draco talking with ginny because he knows she still in love with harry and would have him back no matter how and that this is a chance draco is giving her. After the breakup harry find draco and tell him that they dont have to be boyfriends but that at least draco  let harry be one of the persons that draco have fun with because at least that way he still in draco's life. In the end ginny based on harry's heartbreak make harry come back togheter with her and draco see them in a restaurant and believes he make the righ choice.

5. I'm very positive this story is in ao3. I don't remember much but the story is set after the war where Draco discovers the hidden secrets of his ancestor Malfoy, I remember it has something to do with dragons and daggers or something. Then Harry and Draco went together to uncover the mystery. I remember they went to some kind of desert place? Then a cave where there were a lot of paintings or stuff from Malfoy's ancestors. Then I remember Draco and Harry sort of doing a sex ritual on a stone table I think. Then Draco got pregnant. In the end I remember Scorpius and Harry living in that cave if I'm not mistaken.

6. I think it’s set during eight year, I remember no one wanting to pair up with Draco, and I think it must’ve been in Potions. Harry must’ve volunteered to pair up with him. I remember it being in Draco’s POV, and that he described Harry as looking sleepy between Ron and Hermione. And then somehow, they get transported to like the countryside or the highlands where they have to operate a muggle car to get back to Hogwarts. It’s like an adventure of sorts. I’m sorry it’s vague but it’s what I remember. There’s no fake relationships trope or anything like that. I think it might’ve been before the war or maybe an au? But it’s defo like an adventure fic with them trying to operate a muggle car. Fic is not Right Hand Red by lqtraintracks

7. I read it about 8 years ago and I think it was on a drarryforum.com/forumdrarry.com. Okay, so it's after the war - they're all adults living their lives. Draco is working in a bar/restaurant/bistro/sth like that for a man that he is indebted to. I think he works as a waiter too, but he definitely is available to "rent". He's forced to work as a sex worker for the food place owner till he pays off his debt. I think the owner used/is using him as well. One day Potter comes to the place, the owner is happy and they chat (idk if they know each other, but maybe) and Harry sees Draco (maybe he's waitering for him?). Harry is delighted in Draco feeling humiliated, and somehow the owner tells Harry about their arrangement, offers Draco to him (maybe even for free cause of admiration for Potte) and Harry ends up renting Draco for some time. Harry is very dark, possibly with PTSD, definitely taking pleasure in hurting Draco and degrading him. The first time they are in bed together he humiliates him verbally, I think by making Draco admit to enjoying what Harry's doing to him, and forcing Draco to ask Harry to continue/let him come (something like that). It's non-con (duh lol), very dark and there's a lot of angst. I think they develop some feelings for each other maybe, but doubt it has a happy ending - certainly not fluff. It has several chapters, is in English (I read a Polish translation I think?) and is sexually explicit. It's possible Harry is violent towards Draco overall, but I might have confused it with another fic I'm looking for. Maybe there are some other characters in the background, but mainly It's Draco and Harry. Lucius might be dead and Narcissa is either dead as well or very sick and/or poor and Draco has no one. Harry has some power position probably,  Aurors with Ron, prime minister or something like that, and Draco is bottom and submissive, but that might just be cause Potter has all control. And it's 100% not the fic in which Draco has some sort of debt and is using some potion to not look like himself. And Harry is really cold and damaged. Might be vengeful towards Malfoy, either for the school years, or him being a Death Eater or both.

8. Looking for an ao3 fic. In this one Draco has a really special bond with his wand, and I only remember this scene where he is at the quidditch stand with the professors and he is practicing magic in there, but I don't know what. Also the wand is a lot of the plot, maybe it's bc he can't do magic with another wand and maybe he was a Ravenclaw but I'm not sure either:( but I think he was happy and wasn't bad like the canon. I remember one more thing I think, Draco was with McGonagall on a scene looking at a quidditch game, he was really happy with her and McGonagall likes him as well, I think he had a special bond with the professors bc Lucius and Narcissa was bad parent, maybe even wasn't with him anymore, also he was a ray of sunshine! He was really cute/adorable Fic is not The Mirror of Ecidyrue series by starbrigid

9. I think the title included the word "tomb". Anyway Draco and Harry were in some desert and they were traveling with other authority figures (I think Aurors and Harry was head Auror). For some reason they were looking for something and they found an entity which killed two people traveling with them or badly injured them. The entity targeted them because it thought Draco was it's long lost lover. I also remember a scene where Draco didn't want to get on a camel because it was uncouth or something.

[verai-marcel]

Your Hearth Is My Home (BG3 Fanfic, Astarion x Female Reader, Part 19 of ?)

Summary, Notes, Tags, & Part 1 are here.

Act I - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

Act II - Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18

AO3 Link is here, darling.

Word Count: 3,707

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Act II, Chapter 7 - The Gauntlet

Even after he confessed, you realized that Astarion was still, well, Astarion. His feelings, though out in the open, were still a confused mess. If you were to describe it visually, it was a tangled ball of string; most of the strands felt like fondness, while there were a few threads that hummed with anxiety intertwined with lust. As if he felt bad for wanting you in such a way.

Not going to unpack that for now. It’s all too tightly wound together. I’ll let him unravel a bit more before I broach that topic.

On your end, you believed your feelings were pretty straightforward. You cared for him. You enjoyed spending time with him. Just the skinship, touching him, being touched, and sensing that feeling of him enjoying your company, without any ulterior motives, was incredible for you.

You imagined that other couples after confessing their feelings would be flinging their clothes off and having intimate relations in a secluded corner of their own little world.

Instead, you and Astarion were sitting by the campfire, your right arm linked with his left, the two of you reading quietly together.

“Is… is this alright?” he asked tentatively.

You looked up at him and smiled. “Yes, this is perfect.”

He leaned his head against yours. “I feel the same.”

Through your skin contact, however, you felt a slight twinge of guilt from him. Shit, if I say something now, he’s going to start questioning why I always know how he feels…

So you let it go, and just snuggled against him as he continued to read his book.

You had borrowed one of his books just so you could sit like this and spend some quiet time with him. You had few books of your own and you had read through them all at least twice. The book you had borrowed was some kind of adventure novel that featured a drow ranger.

Astarion glanced over at the page you were on. “Oh, you’re coming up to a good part.”

“Hush!” you chided. “No spoilers.”

“You two are being awfully cuddly.”

You both turned around to see Karlach smirking triumphantly.

“You snuck past my alarm on purpose,” you said accusingly.

She grinned. “Of course I did. Otherwise I would have missed this,” she said, pointing at your linked arms.

You could feel Astarion trying to pull away, but you only linked your arms tighter. “So? What of it?”

“Just glad to see you two finally out in the open,” Karlach said. Leaning in, she whispered to the two of you, though it was loud enough for others to hear, “Unlike another couple I know.”

You snorted, and Astarion grinned knowingly.

Looking past Karlach to see the others coming closer, you realized that you probably should do your job. “Alright, guess I’d better get food started.”

***

You were most certainly feeling better. After spending half the day quietly with Astarion, you felt like the pool of magic within you had almost refilled to full. You happily sang the tent cantrips while your rice porridge with herbs and dried mushrooms bubbled in the stew pot.

During the meal, your companions told you about their adventures, about how they met Balthazar, about how they discovered and solved three puzzle rooms, and about how tomorrow they would explore the rest of the lower levels.

“We’ll probably run into the devil down there,” Wyll mused. “We hadn’t seen any signs of it yet.”

“So perhaps all of you should go,” you said. At their shocked looks, you waved off their concern. “My magic has come back, and nothing came by today, not even a rat. Besides, Scratch and Owly can help defend the camp if anything happens.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about what you lot will run into down in the lower levels, given what you’ve told me.”

Lae’zel nodded. “Then I will train you more tonight, so that we may leave you tomorrow without concern.”

Oh boy. I’m going to be sore tonight.

***

You barely had the energy to change into your sleeping clothes. Falling into your bedroll, exhausted from Lae’zel’s training, you closed your eyes and groaned from your sore muscles. My gods. I cannot wait to fall asleep.

The soft footsteps of a certain elf drew your attention. Looking up, you watched Astarion kneel down beside you. 

“Darling, you’re not thinking of staying out here, are you?”

“Too tired to think.”

He sighed dramatically. “But I confessed my heart and soul to you today. You will come to my tent, won’t you?”

Dragging yourself up, you grabbed your bedroll. “Haven’t had enough of my company?”

“Never, darling.”

You grinned as you walked with him to his tent. “Never say never,” you teased.

He held the tent flap open for you like a gentleman, ushering you inside. Laying your bedroll alongside his, you flopped down ungracefully. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Lae’zel put me through a thousand paces, so I need to rest.”

He chuckled as he lay beside you. “Did you sing?”

You blinked. “Oh. No, I forgot.”

“Hmm. Try it next time.”

“Alright. Sweet dreams, Astarion.”

He leaned over and pressed his forehead to yours. 

I’m going to get addicted to this warm fondness I’m feeling from him.

“Did you know that elves don’t usually dream?”

“Oh?”

“Dreams are… chaotic, uncontrollable. Memories are bad enough,” he murmured.

You touched his face, stroking his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? You’ve only given me good memories so far. Well, except for when you got hurt.” He frowned. “So don’t do that again.”

You smiled. “Alright, I’ll try.”

He sighed. “Good enough, I suppose.” Reaching out for you, he pulled you close. “Sweet dreams, darling.”

You closed your eyes, and inhaled his unique scent, rosemary, bergamot, and a touch of brandy.

***

You awoke, cold and alone. Quickly getting up and changing, you saw that everyone was already getting their things together for the day’s exploration. Walking up to Astarion, you tapped his side with the back of your hand. 

“You didn’t wake me up?”

“You were sleeping so soundly, darling. I’m not a monster.”

You rolled your eyes. 

“Besides, Gale apparently wanted a chance to cook.”

“Shhh!” Gale hissed.

You glanced over at the stew pot. Seeing it mostly empty, you walked over and scraped what was left of the breakfast soup into a small bowl and sipped it. It was a delightful mix of spices and savory flavor, shreds of dried beef jerky mixed with some lentils and beans.

“This is amazing,” you muttered jealously. “Gale, give me the recipe when you come back!”

“What, and divulge my secrets?”

“Just do it,” Shadowheart said with a laugh, slapping him on the arm.

You chugged the rest of the soup and gathered all the dirty items for cleaning later. Just as everyone was ready to go, you headed to the entryway with them to wish them well. Astarion waited for everyone else to go past before he quickly pulled you in for a hug.

“Stay safe,” he murmured into your ear.

“You too,” you replied before the two of you pressed foreheads.

“We don’t have all day!” Karlach yelled gleefully.

Astarion just huffed and left with the rest of them, but not before giving you one last look.

You waved and smiled. Come back safe.

***

It was a long day and a half by yourself. You started counting the hours after you realized a full day had passed. You went up to Withers to check if they were all still alive, and he always nodded solemnly, with no other updates. So you just read books and cleaned and played with Scratch and Owly. You danced and practiced your cantrips for hours at a time. You slept in Astarion’s tent, rolling onto his bedroll and immersing yourself in his scent.

Am I being weird? It’s definitely weird. But… It makes me feel comfortable.

And they still had not returned. It was times like these where you wondered about the possibility of joining them on their adventures.

But then you remembered that you hated pain, and you had nowhere near enough battle experience to survive alongside them without being a hindrance.

Better to stay behind and tend camp. After all, if not me, then who will? Withers? Hah.

Wandering to the edge of the balcony overlooking the statue of Shar and seeing all the water below, you sang a song to coax a stream of water up to your level, filling up a few basins with water. Finding an empty barrel amongst the rubble, you plugged the holes with some clay and filled that up as well. But when you tried to move the barrel filled with water, it barely shifted.

You glared at it.

Move, damn you!

Your song became a chant, the tempo faster and stronger than you normally sang. 

The barrel hopped two feet closer.

Oh?

You continued to chant, almost like a war hymn as you led the barrel away from the edge of the balcony, but after a few hops, you felt drained.

Okay, we’re going to stop there.

You looked through the pile of loot that the companions had dropped off the previous night and found enough rags and scruffy clothes that you could fashion a sort of curtain, hung by some old spear handles that you formed into a three sided divider screen, with the backside open to the view of the balcony. There was space to stand next to the barrel and still be hidden from view.

Well, that’s good enough, I think.

You went back to your pack and grabbed your soap bar and one of the water basins. Singing a hot water rune into existence, you heated the water in the basin, took your clothes off, and scrubbed yourself clean. After rinsing yourself off, you heated the water in the barrel before awkwardly climbing inside.

Damn, I should have made a seat in here.

Instead, you squatted down and let the hot water cover your head. Closing your eyes, you let the heat relax your body for a good ten seconds before you came back up for air. Grabbing the basin and emptying the water out of it, you pushed it under you and sat on it precariously, slowly leaning back until you felt balanced.

You let out a sigh of relief. It worked. Now you had a nice hot bath in the privacy of a little makeshift divider screen, and the others could take some time to relax as well when they came back.

If they come back.

Shaking the dark thought from your mind, you submerged yourself again and held your breath for as long as you could. It was only for 25 seconds, but when you came back out, you could faintly hear the alarm bells on your belt, hung over the divider.

Is it them? Or is it something else…?

Your heart raced at the thought of being naked while intruders came upon your camp.

I don’t hear Owly or Scratch.

A few more moments passed as you listened to footsteps echoing in the cavern. Then you finally heard your name being called. 

Oh, thank goodness. “Over here!” you called out.

As you heard them walk over, you quickly realized that if they came around the screen, they’d see you naked. “Wait wait wait! Let me get my clothes on!” Quickly drying yourself with a towel for once and throwing your dress on, you came out to see them looking bloodied and exhausted.

“You look freshly washed,” Shadowheart said, the longing for a bath evident in her voice.

You grinned. “You can too, shortly. Come, come!” You showed everyone the bath set up, watching their expressions growing relieved that they could have a warm bath even in this darkened place.

“I’ll get food going,” you said as everyone else played rock-paper-scissors for who would go first in the bath.

You quickly threw together some cured meats and cheese together as an appetizer before putting some ingredients in the pot for a hearty stew, inspired by Gale’s meal yesterday morning. In a separate, smaller pot, you cooked some rice to go with it.

You tucked your wet hair behind your ears as you worked, and once you were done, you put your hands over your head and sang a quick drying cantrip that gently drew the water away without taking out too much moisture. If there was one thing you were a bit vain about, it was your hair, and you took good care of it.

The soft footsteps behind you seemed tentative, yet the cadence sounded familiar. He stopped directly behind you and gently grasped your shoulders.

“Welcome back, Astarion.”

He only hummed softly, one hand moving your hair to one side before dipping his head down to nuzzle your neck.

“You want supper now, or later?”

Astarion took a deep breath, inhaling your scent. “Later, darling, when we’re alone.”

Your body reacted instantly to his lowered tone, but you quickly tamped down on it. You knew he had felt your rush of blood when his grip on your shoulders tightened just a little bit.

You turned and looked up at him, but he only had a soft expression as he looked at you. Reaching out and cupping his face, you searched his emotions as he leaned into your touch. You could feel mostly contentment with a strand of anxiety weaved within.

He finally backed away from you. “Until tonight, then.”

Dammit. I wish I could help him with his anxiety.

During supper, everyone took turns describing the battle with the devil to you. It was a very hectic fight, and it sounded like everyone was pushed to their limits. But their teamwork and their communication had grown so much that they pulled through in the end and defeated him. 

“We even got Astarion to graciously say thank you,” Wyll joked.

Glancing over at him, you saw that he was looking a bit grumpy at being reminded about it. You snickered softly.

They continued to tell you about the rest of their adventure, and how they were feeling exhausted by the time they had finished exploring all of the rooms and gathering all of the orbs needed to activate the final elevator that would take them down to what they believed would be the final level of the Gauntlet.

“Tomorrow, we’ll end this,” Shadowheart said with determination. 

With supper completed, everyone broke off to relax and turn in for the night. Astarion turned to you. 

“I’ll go have a bath. See you in our tent, lover.”

Our? “Alright. Do you want me to make the water hotter for you?”

“Let’s go test it, shall we?”

Heading over to the bath with you, he dipped his hand into the water. “Seems adequate.”

You looked at him, an eyebrow raised. “But not perfect.”

“If you could…”

“Easy,” you said with confidence before singing a hotter water rune. Once it took hold, steam came out of the water. Turning around at the sound of shuffling clothing, you realized that Astarion was already stripping behind you.

“Astarion!” you gasped as you turned back around.

“You’ve seen all of me already, darling.”

That was only a glance, and it was in the middle of the inn. That doesn’t count. “Anyway I’m going back now byeeee,” you said in a rush as you nearly ran from him. His laughter followed you all the way back to the tent.

It was still a bit surreal to you, having your bedroll in his tent. You laid down and stared at the canopy, the red and gold fabric looking a bit dull in the dim light of your cantrip.

He won't mind if I do this, right? I wonder…

You sat up, put your hands up in the air, and sang.

Moonbeams and starlight,

Paint the sky above me,

Light up before my eyes,

A sparkly sight to see.

The fabric glittered for a moment then darkened, and pinpricks of light began to form in the darkness. You gestured with your hands purposely through the air as if you were weaving, and lights of different strengths and sizes, with different tints of color, populated the ‘sky’ you had created. You even created a full moon so that there was still enough light for you to see, but not too glaring.

Satisfied with your work, you lay back and stared up, feeling much less claustrophobic.

Astarion came in, shirtless and hair wet, with a seductive expression on his face, but then he looked up, and his expression changed to that of innocent wonder. To you, it was a much more attractive look on him. 

His eyes were round with amazement as he looked at the ceiling. “This is… beautiful.” He sat down next to you and smiled. “You completely distracted me from my plan.”

“And what plan was that?”

“Convince you to dry and brush my hair for me.”

You snickered. “You only need to ask, no need for a plan.”

He gave you a smarmy smirk. “But if you offered it freely, I wouldn’t need to ask.”

Rolling your eyes, you sat up and gestured for him to sit in front of you. Getting up onto your knees, you sang your hair drying cantrip slowly, since his hair was finer and more delicate than yours. Then you gently brushed his hair, first with your fingers, then with his brush.

“Gods, your touch feels so good,” he murmured.

That line, in another context, would have made your face heat up. Even now, you swallowed, your throat suddenly dry. “Glad you feel relaxed,” you mumbled, trying to push down any naughty thoughts.

He turned and took the brush from your hand. Slowly he ran his fingers up your bare arms, his eyes gazing at your body.

“Astarion?” you whispered.

Moving closer, he cupped your cheek. “You promised me supper, didn’t you?”

You nodded and tipped your head, exposing your neck.

Astarion leaned forward and licked your pulse. “Such an enticing treat,” he purred before he sank his teeth into your neck. With one hand gripping the back of your head, the other snaked around your backside and pulled you close, his body lining up with yours. You could feel the hard lines of his chest against your soft bosom, his muscled thigh resting between your legs.

You gasped softly as your hips moved on their own, searching for friction against him. But somewhere along the way, you realized that you had stopped feeling his emotions. Even with his fangs deep in your neck, you only felt the sting of your own flesh.

“Astarion—”

He released you from his bite, languidly licking your wound before he pulled back to look at you. Letting go of your head, he grabbed your bottom with both hands and pulled you harder against him. He buried his face into the crook of your neck and nibbled at your collarbone.

“Darling,” he rumbled against your skin, “does this feel good?” His hands traveled up and down your body, a slow, sensual exploration.

“Y-yes,” you gasped when one of his hands trailed up to gently caress your breast, a finger brushing against your sensitive nipple.

Then you looked at him. His eyes were on you, but something about his expression seemed as if he was realms away. You cupped his face with both hands.

You felt nothing.

It was like a bucket of cold water when you realized he had shut down. You put your hands on his chest and gently pushed him away. “I… I don’t think we’re ready for this.”

He looked hurt for a moment, and you could feel it through your touch. 

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled.

He shook his head. “It’s alright. I should have asked first.”

It’s not me I’m worried about. “That wasn’t it. You seemed… not all here.”

He blinked. Then he looked away, but you caught the misery in his expression.

You slid off his thigh and took his hands in yours. You were hit so hard with a wall of revulsion that you had to hide your gasp, acting as if you were taking a deep breath. “Astarion?”

He turned back to you with a sad expression. “I can’t help but feel… tainted.”

Your eyes widened in surprise.

“Not by you, darling. You… you’re incredible. You deserve something real. I want”—he pointed back and forth between the two of you—“this, to be real.”

He sighed dolefully. “But after two centuries of playing the rake… I just don't know what real looks like. Any kind of intimacy was just something I performed, to lure victims back…to him.”

You squeezed his hands and kept silent, nodding for him to continue.

“I want to be with you. I truly do. But these feelings of disgust and loathing… They keep coming up. And I don’t know how else… to be intimate… with you.”

Gods, I didn’t realize it was that bad. You let go of his hands and pulled him into a hug, resting his head on your shoulder. You carded your fingers through his hair and kissed the top of his head. “You take all the time you need to work through this,” you said softly. “Just let me hug you, and I’ll be happy.”

Slowly, his arms came around you and hugged you back. “This is enough for you?” he asked hesitantly.

“More than enough. We’ll take it one step at a time, at whatever pace you need.”

His body, which had felt tense in the beginning, steadily relaxed in your arms. The feelings of revulsion and guilt slowly faded, replaced by a sense of relief and…

Safety? I’ve felt this from him before, when I asked for a hug in the Underdark…

You hummed a lullaby as you led him down to the bedroll and held him close, running one hand through his soft hair while you gently rubbed his back with the other.

“Is this alright?” you asked.

He nodded and pressed his face further into the crook of your neck.

You continued to hum your song until you felt him fall into a trance.

“Sweet dreams,” you murmured, kissing his forehead.

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

Act II, Chapter 7 End notes: Some more soft and fluff, but soon, we’ll get out of Act 2. Only two more chapters to go before we start Act 3! And a bit of heads up, I'm going to be leaning more into that hurt/comfort tag in Act 3, so if you're squeamish about injuries (I am, so I won't be writing very descriptively, but painful things WILL be happening), just be warned now.

Tags List: @numblytemporary @xalphafox @avitute @stormyjane7 @kmoon21

[cyberabbit]

For the character ask game, please could you do Ness?

Oh absolutely, I'm already one step away from writing a Ness manifesto!

I love Ness so much. His design right away- dead behind the eyes, soft, and something about him coming through as small despite being a pro football player. With everything from chapter 361.

2. That he got into football off the back of wanting to believe in everyday magic. It's cute.

3. It's not about him, but I hate the position he's sitting in of being blindly loyal to Kaiser. I hope he gets to make more friends.

4. He seems like someone misplaced a Dangan Ronpa character, but he deserves better. My first fandom was Shaman King and I think he'd be a great character in that.

5. Both "Fast Car" by Tracey Chapman and "Would?" by Alice in Chains.

6. AHAHAHAHA WOW OK. Ness is the other character in Blue Lock I look at and go oh no, same. We both attach ourselves easily to people and can't tell that they don't always have our best interests at heart.

7. Blue Lock fans are really good at writing Ness' unhinged responses to others, especially in relation to Kaiser. I don't think he's above putting thumbtacks in Isagi's cleats.

8. The fandom can have a habit of going to extremes with him - either making him completely soft-pure-innocent, or making him aggressively unhinged to the point he's unrecognisable. Yes, he's been heavily manipulated from being isolated and daydreaming, but he's still had all those other interactions with other characters- he still sabotages and threatens for the sake of someone else.

9. Probably couldn't be roommates with him. One of us would fly off the handle for a small reason and it'd come crumbling down. Also, two people prone to attaching in unhealthy relationships are probably a housemate match in hell.

10. Absolutely friends though! We're both the kind of weirdos who'd get into spooky LARP, make up fantasy worlds and infodump about witchcraft history while kicking a ball around.

11. Ness is very much not my type of partner! I couldn't handle someone idolising me, or tolerate Kaiser being a factor.

12. He's still an avid reader, and will devour both romantic fantasy and magical realism fiction. He wants to visit Disneyland with friends, particularly Kaiser. Also I'm a BPD Ness truther.

13. While :> makes me think of him, I think he'd use ❤️ a lot!

14. He's a dark academica girlie, but not the grey-beige kind. He's the intersection of the nerd-goth axis. Dark academia at Halloween.

15. I like Kainess because it's radioactive levels of toxic. I think he needs to be on his own and have friends before he needs a relationship, really, but I think Kurona/Ness is cute (+ I read a fic where Hiori was involved too). Nanase/Ness could be cute too?

16. There isn't a Ness ship I don't like. There isn't really much for him beyond Kaiser, Isagi and Kurona!

17. Isagi/Ness. It's fine I guess? I just wouldn't read it. It'd be cool if they became friends though.

18. Ness doesn't really have anything in the way of other relationships in canon, and the one he does have... ooft no, too relatable.

19. I don't dislike it, I think it's great in the story, but how his relationship with Kaiser is makes me so sad.

20. Nanase! Give Ness an emotional support Nanase! I think he'd be good friends with Kurona and Hiori too... maybe even Bachira. Add him to the Just Little Guys gang. Especially because I don't think Hiori would tolerate him exploding, but handle it well.

21. He's fun to write when you explore his interests outside of football! I like to imagine how he'd dress, decorate his space, and how football is part of it but not the same as characters like Barou or Isagi where football is football- with Ness, it's part of his daydreaming and attempts to connect with the world around him in a whimsical way. Sometimes when I write him I feel like I focus on him being mentally ill that it clouds writing everything else when they should all actually be interacting together.

22. My fic likes & dislikes are the same as my answers to how I feel about his fandom interpretation!

23. The panel where he's smiling at Kaiser in the shower. Did it ever actually happen? Who knows.

24. Mikan Tsumiki from Dangan Ronpa. Kaiser is just Junko Enoshima. Trust me on this one.

25. I thought he was cute and absolutely unhinged. Now it's sort of the same but I think he deserves a blanket, a hug and a big pretzel.

26. I truly hope Ness realises his worth and Kaiser has to come to terms with losing him!

[kareenvorbarra]

🌷What is your favorite fan work you made this year? Why?

🌷Do you have any fan work projects for next year?

🌷 Was there a project you had for this year that you didn't get to complete (or begin)?

🌷 Is there a fandom you want to get more into or less into next year?

🌷 Was there any fan work you made this year that surprised you in any way?

🌷 Is there a fan work you shared this year that you wish had gotten more attention/reactions?

🌷 Is there a fandom trend you hope dies before the new year begins, or gets more popular next year?

🌷 Did you make more fan works this year than the year before? Why/why not?

🌷 what was your favorit fan work you've seen this year made by another person?

What is your favorite fan work you made this year? Why?

It's hard to choose, because I'm pretty proud of everything I wrote this year, but I think my favorite is Bed Trick. Not just because I think it's really good, which I do, but because it was my first time attempting to write certain things, and because I think the characterization is really interesting and complicated. Also more people liked it than I was expecting, which was really great!

Do you have any fan work projects for next year?

I really want to finish my very first successful longfic, What We Are Allowed! I started it in 2022, but I'm working on what should be the final chapter - I doubt I'll finish it before the end of the year, because December is always busy and I don't have much of the chapter written yet, but hopefully it'll be done sometime early next year :)

Was there a project you had for this year that you didn't get to complete (or begin)?

I have a post-TaT Marin fic that I started over two years ago, and I've written a pretty substantial chunk of it, but somehow I didn't manage to get it done this year! plus lots of other WIPs in earlier stages of being written.

Is there a fandom you want to get more into or less into next year?

I'm still pretty into Queen's Thief and I have a lot of ideas that I'd like to write, but I really want to get back to the Count of Monte Cristo fic I started this year 👀 I also have at least one Vorkosigan Saga WIP that is SO close to being done, and I'd like to get back into that enough to power through it!

Was there any fan work you made this year that surprised you in any way?

The fics I wrote for Weird the Tag 2024 (besides our TCoMC crossover) were truly things I'd thought about a lot but never expected to write or post, so that was an exercise in getting out of my own head and feeling less ashamed of the more unpleasant, violent things I find myself wanting to write.

Is there a fan work you shared this year that you wish had gotten more attention/reactions?

I would love for my Laela/Nahuseresh fic (Consequences) to get more attention, but I understand why it didn't - it's probably the most upsetting thing I wrote this year. There's a real dearth of Laela fanworks period, but there's almost nothing that reckons with her past relationship with Nahuseresh, and I want to talk about it!!!

Is there a fandom trend you hope dies before the new year begins, or gets more popular next year?

Next year I wish for more people in my current fandom to write more about minor characters and more fics exploring the fucked-up parts of canon :)

Did you make more fan works this year than the year before? Why/why not?

This year I posted 9 individual fics and 2 chapters of WWAA, last year I posted 12 individual fics and 5 chapters of WWAA. So not a huge difference, but still fewer this year than last year. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess we moved in 2024, which took up a LOT of time in the second half of the year!

what was your favorite fan work you've seen this year made by another person?

YOU wrote one of my all-time favorite fanfics ever, Age of reason!!!! it's a really wonderful exploration of gender and sexuality beyond what the canon gives us, but also builds so perfectly on canon -exactly the kind of thing I want to read over and over again!!!! Plus you did the work of taking the slightly bizarre pieces of information about Themis from the books and turning her into a vibrant character who makes perfect sense.

in a similar vein, I absolutely loved @artino-c's Neighborhood Girl, which is a super compelling, sympathetic take on Costis' scammer girlfriend who is mentioned once in Thick As Thieves. I want deep dives into every barely-there female character who inconveniences the male protagonists!!!

[commanderbuffy]

My crack theory has been that Scorpia doesn’t exist AS JADE’S SISTER in this fic, but that Jade left NY for a different reason. I don’t recall if you actually mentioned that Jade left to find her family, but I THINK it has all been assumed based on what we know about the characters. (I probably should re-read before posting, but I’m feeling particularly lazy.)

My theory is that the character of Scorpia, the person who teaches Jade the concept of family and gives her belonging, is Pia all along. Also, Boorman’s relationship with Pia as “Uncle-Dad” rather than as a romantic partner. You said “Guys. Kit meets Scorpia. Don’t worry. She meets her in chapter 3 aka Pia’s birthday party chapter”. My weird theory is that Kit will find out at that party that Pia is short for Scorpia for the first time at the party, thus Kit “meeting” Scorpia.

Maybe I’ve read too many AUs with people creatively changing characters to meet specific plot goals, but when Jade first said Pia’s name, that’s the connection/theory my brain made.

Also, a while ago, you asked fs/n anon about why they thought kids were a part of the story. I also thought there were going to be a kid at first, but was thoroughly put off with your sneaky answers and gave up. (Way to stick to your guns fs/n anon!!) My point is that, I think the clues we used to guess that were:

1. It’s the logical progression, as others have noted, from 650, Armourium, and TTA.

2. You announced a while back that you and your spouse are saving for kids, and people write about what is on their minds.

3. There would need to be a major change in Kit and Jade’s lives for them to be able to grow together again.

4. You don’t write what others do, so your hook would need to be different from other second chance AUs, like gracattack’s.

5. Kit and Jade both have so many things that they need to heal from regarding family dynamics, and the best way to explore that is through parenthood.

Okay, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE this theory. And originally, that actually was what I was planning on doing!! Pia was going to be Scorpia (actually, at one point she was also Elora, but that didn't last long). Alas, that is not the direction I went, but I do love that you came up with this theory!

Some more thoughts on the numbered pieces you pointed out

it sure is a logical progression!

oh absolutely.

Absolutely.

I def don't want the same hook! But i LOVE Grace's fic(s), if you haven't read them yet, DO IT

Yeah, exactly, and *spoiler spoiler spoiler* which is why *spoiler* and during their years apart Kit *spoiler spoiler*....ya know?

[findingschmomo]

Fic Writer Questions

@spinyfruit tagged me in this and so im actually gonna do it

1.) How many works do you have on AO3

oof. officially? 54 fics.

unofficially? (aka including my anon fics) 66 fics

I also have some orphaned works from FF that im not counting tho

2.) What’s your total AO3 count?

I'm assuming this means word count? If so: 1,192,409

3.) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I have written for:

Haikyuu

Hetalia

Hunter x Hunter

Spy x Family

Free!

Sk8

My Next Life as a Villainess

Puppet History

Deltarune

So 9.

4.) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My top 5 Kudos fics are all Haikyuu LMAO.

#Betrayal (IwaOi, Kudos: 6,349)

And All the Prince's Men (IwaOi, KageHina, Kudos: 4,219)

The Sweetest Smile (KyouHaba, IwaOi, Kudos: 3,950)

Melt Me With Your Gaze (IwaOi, Kudos: 3,264)

Anonymous Fic : ) (Kudos: 3,155)

The Best I Ever Had (IwaOi, Kudos: 2,450)

5.) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Okay i'm only counting fics that have endings, and are not anonymous. But honestly? I dont write many angsty endings. Don't get me wrong, i go hard on angst, but my endings are usually fairly happy.

I guess it would have to be Out of the Oven and Into the Fire (RusAm ABO). But even then, it's the third story in a four part series. But this one deffo ends sad.

6.) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Like ALL of my stories lmao. Or the vast majority. I feel like counting the oneshots that are just fluff to begin with is cheating. I guess I'd go with Courting Disaster because it has a very fluff ending.

7.) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I HAVE ONLY EVER WRITTEN ONE CROSSOVER. AND IT WAS A SECRET SANTA GIFT FOR MY HORRIBLE GIRLFRIEND WHO REQUEST THE PROFESSOR/SPAMTON SMUT FIC.

PuppetRune: Cursed Route

8.) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I write....a LOT of smut. Basically all of it is explicit m/m. I've written a lot of ABOverse stuff too now. Most of my anon fics are just porn I am uncomfy having tied to my name x)

9.) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I typically don't. I have this weird worry that ppl might percieve it as me inflating my comment number? I only respond if someone is asking a question or I recognize the username and wanna say hi.

10.) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oh hunny. i've gotten death threats. I literally had to get AO3 admin involve because two users were stalking my one fic demanding i kill myself, my readers kill themselves and that I report myself to the police....on like every chapter update..which meant they were subscribed (?)

ive also gotten very annoying entitled ones, demanding i change things but idk if that's classified as hate.

but 9/10 times every comment i recieve is wonderful and lovely.

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've had links to my fics posted on good reads which i HATE. but no i dont think anythings been full on stolen hopefully.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep!

#Betrayal was translated to Spanish

The Best I Ever Had was translated to Thai

Melt Me With Your Gaze was translated to Russian

13.) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes I have! All three times with @notallballs for the Sk8 fandom

Get (Un)Lucky (LanReki)

Ready when you are (LanReki)

Camera Ready (LanReki)

It was a really fun experience to do!

14.) What’s your all time favorite ship?

TOUGH. I'll always be a ho for IwaOi. But RusAme owned my high school years and has made a startling comeback.

15.) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but you don’t think you ever will?

Honestly, probably Apart from the Pack (UshiIwaOi). I love that fic. I love the world building i was able to create and explore. I have an idea for an ending, but I just can't really bring myself to write Haikyuu rn :////

16.) What are your writing strengths?

My favorite thing in the world is to write dialogue. I LOVE IT. ITS MY PASSION. And not to toot my own horn, but i think I'm fairly good at it.

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

Honestly probably grammar lmao. Like, the really nitpicky stuff. I also think I could get better at writing descriptions of things.

18.) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

I've done it. I've gone back and forth on it. I mostly don't, except for fics like My Salvation (RusAme) where the whole point is the existence of a language barrier.

19.) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

WARRIOR CATS

IT WAS A CRACK FIC AND I AM STILL ASHAMED

20.) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

OOF! I love so many of them. Let me at least do top 3.

Bridge the Gap (UshiIwaOi) will always be special to me. I pour my entire heart and soul into that. It's not as popular as all my other Haikyuu fics (because of the pairing lol) but I really do think its my best work.

A Human Invention (RusAme) is also special to me. It's my most ambitious work imo, because each update required SO MUCH RESEARCH. And I just really loved being able to play with heavy themes and philosophize on the nature of existence. If only I could just write the last god damn chapter

Now, here's a curveball: A Challenge (Keith/Geordo) My one and only My Next Life as a Villainess fic. I think it's one of my best oneshot porn fics. I had SO much fun writing it even though no one read it lmao.

Idk who to tag so i'm just gonna not. this already took wayyyy too long to do. but it was fun!

[snarky-wallflower]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@amethystunarmed tagged me for this!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I've currently got 25 works on there.

2. What’s your total word count?

161, 391! which...wow, that number hits me every time I look at it. I can’t believe I’ve written a whole novel’s length of fanfic this year.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Hatchetfield and Deltarune, but especially Hatchetfield. The silly little horror-comedy musicals (especially the LiB and Paul) have grabbed me and won’t let go. To the detriment of my WIPs in other fandoms. Oh, and I’ve also written a decent amount of fic for Spiderverse and Dracula! (Our good friend Jonathan Harker, after all.)

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

pas de masque - a pre-canon Spiderverse fic focusing on Gwen's terrible experiences in the Spider-Society, and just what it's like to learn you're doomed in every other universe, and that no one will let you stop it.

The Show Must Go On - a fun little theatre AU for Deltarune, where Susie's been arrested, and the only way for her to not be arrested is to join a club. She chooses theatre, which Noelle is coincidentally the director of. Romance, friendship, and theatre chaos ensues. (also, I LOVE writing Kris in this fic.) It's the fic I've been working on the longest.

what is a god? - my exploration of the Lords in Black, and how they think and treat Hatchetfield and their puppets, written at 12 am after finishing Nerdy Prudes Must Die. Despite that, I’m still pretty proud of it!

used to think about you (everywhere i go) - a post-canon Nimona (movie-verse) fic, in which Nimona gets to work out her complex feelings about Gloreth by standing at her grave. Sometimes therapy is yelling at your ex-bestie's grave, more at 11.

one hell of a normal abnormality - a fic where I wrote Pete actually seeming to care that Ruth and Richie weren't there at Homecoming, with a decent exploration of grief and feeling guilty. Also, I think I was the first one to use the green-hair-after-being-touched-by-Wiggly headcanon.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, of course! I love comments - you read my whole chapter/fic, and you liked it enough to post your reaction! Amazing, I love you, I would literally die for some commentors.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, this is hard. Most of the fic I write is angst, so tough to pick. I'd say the real competition is between life underground (it's over now) and always be my favourite ghost. But if I had to choose, it would be the first one, because that ends with Chara literally ripping up their adoption certificate, and thinking they’ll never be a part of the Dreemurr family. And we all know what happens next. :(

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, this one’s pretty easy. like real people do. It’s a short, canon divergent one shot I wrote for a podcast, Monstrous Agonies that I was super into - even submitted a couple of letters to the podcast I was pretty proud of. It ends with the characters sort-of rekindling their relationship, after accidentally broadcasting them kissing through the radio. It actually managed to predict a decent amount of the actual finale, too!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, I haven't gotten any yet. Hoping that that streak continues.

9. Do you write smut?

Ha! No. And it's probably not going to happen for a long time, if ever. I'm apparently a bit of a nerdy prude myself. I have written at least one fic that's only plot was two characters kissing, though.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven’t yet! Maybe someday.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Also, no. Benefits of being a smaller fic writer, I guess.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! But if that ever happens to me, I'm gonna scream

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet! I was thinking of co-writing a Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes fic with a friend in real life, though. It was a really good movie, but I haven't made a lot of progress on it.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

You know, I'm really not sure? I mostly read gen fic, but for shipping? I'd have to say probably Noelle/Susie, or Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins? It really depends on the day - I'll read a lot of ships.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

None so far! My WIPs currently are probably going to take a long time, but I plan to finish all of them. Outlines may be bad, but I am determined!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm really good at internal monologues. And along with that, characterization! I get a lot of really sweet comments about it, and I do like writing character-focused pieces! Which is kind of ironic, given that worrying about writing characters wrong was a pretty big reason I didn’t start writing again until this year.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. Oh my god, every time I try to write snappy dialogue, I have new appreciation for comedians and dialogue-heavy writers. Those people are so talented. Sometimes I act out dialogue I’ve written and I want to throw myself into the sun.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Look. I took French for five years. But every time I try to speak French, one of my best friends looks like she wants to fight me. I am not great at languages other than English. I am positive that if I tried to write dialogue by myself, I would just resort to DeepL, or Google Translate, and nobody wants that. If I have to write in another language, I'm going to try and get a translator.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Are we counting works posted to ao3, or first fic ever? Because the first fic I ever posted to ao3 was for a podcast, Spirit Box Radio, that I should really relisten to at some point. But my first fandom I ever wrote for was Gravity Falls - the fic's still posted to Quotev, and I have reread it recently. It was a next-generation fic.

...At least younger me was having fun?

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

How dare you ask me to pick? But seriously, probably pas de masque. I know it's cliche to say my most kudos'd fic, but I am super proud of my characterization of Gwen there, and getting to play with pre-canon Spider-Society and what it's like for someone to know they're doomed by the narrative in every other universe.

Okay, who do I know? @acaciapines, @nonbinarycollector, @sherbetflowers, @littlesilentrebel, @am-i-lie, @lilacthebooklover, @noelle-holi-gay, @marvelmaniac715! Please don't feel pressured to respond if you don't want to!

[librathefangirl]

Love your fics btw 🥺❤️

But 🦈 and 🍬 for the ask game ❤️

Thank you!! 🥺❤️ And thank you for the ask too :)

(Also can I say that I'm impressed that I've gotten 7 emojis for this ask game now, but none have been duplicates)

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Ooh. For nnt I gotta go with daytime Escanor and Diane. I just... don't really know how to handle those two.

I much more prefer writing wimpy night Escanor than arrogant day Escanor. Although both will show up in an upcoming fic of mine (day 21 of my Febuwhump series, whenever I get to that one). So, we'll see how that works out.

As for Diane, I don't know, I just struggle a lot with her character. Which is probably why I have never actually written from her perspective yet.

🍬 Do you write for multiple fandoms? If yes, what is your favorite fic of yours for each fandom?

I mean, technically yes? If we're looking at both my early fanfic days over on FF.net and my current ones on ao3, I've got 60 fics across 12 fandoms. Although, this year I've only posted fics for nnt. Which I don't mind actually, I haven't been this inspired to write since I started writing fanfic (for Lab Rats) back in 2016.

Only 5 of my written fandoms have more than 1 fic posted, so let's look at them, shall we? Going oldest to newest:

Lab Rats - Betrayal

I guess it would be cheating saying my entire A for Always fic, since it's my advent calendar fic and is thereby a collections of 24 fics? (Actually that advent calendar was fun to write, maybe I should do something like that for nnt this year?). So let's go with chapter 2: Betrayal. This one's actually a bit different from my usual stories. It's more of an introspection and deals with Chase's (canon) experiences of betrayal and the emotional impact these had (that was't explored in canon). Over 6 years later I'm still proud of this one.

Lab Rats: Elite Force - Her Baby Brother

This one's a set of three drabbles, showcasing Bree's relationship with her little brother during different stages of their lives. I like this one because writing drabbles is not always that easy, plus at the same time I managed to make them feel like three parts of the same story with a similar structure. (Not a story for people who don't like main character deaths.)

Glee - The Boy with the Christmas Sweaters

Okay, looking back at my Glee fics was actually kinda hard, because the ship I loved back then I can't stand anymore. But I do like this fic! It's a Samcedes fic based on a Christmas prompt. Just some fluff and humor (a rarity for me).

Stranger Things - Trust and Needles

I have a total of 3 ST fics. All of which less than 700 words. All of which Stoncy. This one's just fluffy ot3 shenanigans combined with Steve whump. It might leave a smile on your face (unless you don't like needles or stitching, then you won't like this fic).

The Seven Deadly Sins / Nanatsu no Taizai - Who'll Hug the Prince of Hell?

This one wasn't easy to choose. They're all so new and all so loved. I think I'll have to go with this one though. For starters, it's my first nnt fic, the start of a new era and all that. It also includes a lot of things I love to write about; Meliodas angst, the relationships between the Sins and Meliodas, Meliodas getting the love he deserves, Merlin knowing his whole story, Meliodas and Ban being Meliodas and Ban, King dealing with his feelings and actions towards Meliodas after the reveal. Also, who doesn't love a story where Meliodas gets hugged repeatedly? (I should make Mel get hugged more often)

Anyway. Here's the list for the ask game, if anyone else wanna send me something :)

[iwtvdramacd18]

☔ i'm intrigued....

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

Well so far I have started every fic concept I've had (which means I'm juggling at least 5 wips right now) but I guess the one I'm most nervous about actually pulling off is Wolfkiller, which is exploring Lestat and Claudia's relationship and the image of Lestat's bloodlust and growing paranoia/ dangerous levels of possession being something akin to being a werewolf. And then positioning Claudia as a sort of heir to his Wolfkiller title. At the very least the first chapter (in progress rn, so that's a definite) would be set sometime between ep 6 and 7. There would probably be a smaller chapter about the ep 7 killing attempt, and then part 2 would focus on her and Armand. But that wouldn't come out till after S2 wraps because I do actually want to incorporate canon more closely into this one.

[scamanderishredmayniac]

Ten First Lines

I was tagged by @uefb thanks for the tag. I just realised I don’t really have many fics posted online, most of them are WIP and still in my drafts. Some will probably never see the light of day, and nearly all of them or at maybe just most of them are written for my own amusement or entertainment. Even with those in my drafts etc I still probably have less than 10. I’ll probably add a few Harry Potter fanfic as well as Fantastic beasts stuff just to make up numbers. I’ve also noticed while going through half the fics for this post, that I don’t even know where half the stories are going, most of them are just ideas my head throws at me, so they’re just a bunch of idea with unknown destinations. Just because the ideas seem good when they pop into my head. Lol! Anyway here goes.

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your fanfics and tag ten people. If you’ve written fewer than 10 fics, don’t be shy and share anyway. If you’re an artist or meta-writer, feel free to find a way to participate if you’d like. :) (notice I took out the word recent, because if I just post ten lines of recent work only, then I’d have even less to share).

1. Fantastic Beats and Where to find them: Of Beasts and Monsters

Newt rubbed his face as he looked out over Paris from the rooftops of the crypt.

I have one chapter posted on ao3, and trying to write chapter 2, I’ve started it, but it’s not going well. Lol! Newt is keeping secrets from Tina, one she shouldn’t know about and could land him into trouble and cost him their relationship.

2. The Magizoologist And The Human Mini-beasts

Newt stood transfixed at the scene before him with regret.

I posted this one somewhere on tumblr, but can’t find it through the tags system. It was part of the fantastic beasts week event from 2020 I think. The prompt for that day was to do a Fantastic beasts crossover with something else. This was a one shot, crossover with Kindergarten cop. If anyone has seen that movie, you’ll recognise the scene straight away. This one was a fun write. I may make it into a full story instead of just a one shot in the future. We’ll see. Tina is poorly and Newt is made to take on one her cases, but Newt’s not sure he wants to, and questioning what he’s doing there.

3. Letters From Home

Tina woke to the sun streaming in through the window, the light dazzling her eyes as she fought to open them.

This one was for day 3 of the Fantastic beasts week 2020 challenge. While it is posted as a one shot, and can be read as a separate thing, it will eventually be a part of Fantastic beasts: of beasts and monsters. (I guess I’m cheating. Look it still counts ok). Tina gets a letter from Toliver after the Paris incident, Newt and Jacob try to comfort her.

4. Creatures

Newt and Leta were sitting in their usual place in the little room, where Newt had kept his creatures hidden from prying eyes.

This one was day 1 of my Newty November challenge, the word prompt had been creatures so I did a one shot here on tumblr. It should be somewhere floating around. I think I could find this one, so might share link to it some point. We’ll see. Its just a short little ficlet thing, where Newt and Leta are tending to a new creature they’ve just found.

5. Of magical creatures

Newt stood watching the group of people who would be his students for the next few weeks, perhaps a month or even a year.

This one lives in my drafts and still unsure weather I will actually post this one anywhere at the moment. I wrote this as a sort of fun bit of writing, more for myself than anything. I wanted to explore and AU where Newt is asked to teach and train a few adults on magizoology, as a career path at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is headmaster of the school and thinks there should be more magizoologists in the world, helping Newt’s cause, and suggests Newt uses the school to teach a selection of adult students.

6. Fantastic Beasts and where to find them: The Newt and The Salamander

The Scamander twins had been very close and had a strong bond growing up, but as of late things had changed.

This is one that will probably never see the light of day, and will probably stay in my drafts as a hidden story, just for my eyes only I think. I wrote this one for my own entertainment. As you can see another AU. It starts off with the incident with the jarvey and Newt’s expulsion from Hogwarts, as the catalyst for the twin’s fall out. But after the events of Paris Newt needs to stop running, and avoiding his sister and enlist her help to bring down Grindelwald. Bonds have been broken, but must be reforged in order to work together. Newt is guilt ridden, his sister is angry. They must put grudges and mistakes of the past behind them and work together.

7. The Ring

Newt tried hard to stand still as Theseus straightened his bow for the umpteenth time. He was starting to regret the whole thing.

This one is going to be a two part one shot, which is a work in progress that I’m half way through. It’s part of a February word prompt challenge I took up, but never really managed to finish on time. I was so busy with doing the challenge I was hosting, that I only managed to do this in dribs and drabs alongside the picture for part two and parts of the fic for part two.

8. The Dinner Date

Newt and Tina made their way to a table near the back of the restaurant, a waiter taking their coats and pulling out Tina’s chair for her as she made to sit down.

This is part two of The Ring, again from the same word prompt challenge. The story beginning above being the word prompt ring, and this one the word prompt being Dinner date. As I say I’m working on a fan art to go with this one. I thought i’d finished it, but realised there were mistakes to the artwork and need to fix it. And also realised I’d forgotten to add things to it, so I have to go back and fix the picture. Started the story to this one, but realised I need to fix a few things because I don’t know much about dating etiquettes, and now realised I’m going to have to change the plot a little. I actually started the ring one after realising I needed to change parts of this story. I needed to make this one interesting somehow, so the ring was my way of fixing the mistake on this one. The mistake to this story was supposed to help make things a bit more interesting, but after asking a friend’s advice, I realised it wouldn’t work. So the ring had to be a part of it to make it a bit more I don’t know. Give it back story I guess.

9. Halloween At Hogwarts

With it being the first of October, the weather was changing, and autumn was now in full bloom.

This is or was a spin off to another story I’m working on. Things are not going well at Hogwarts and it’s up to Harry and his friends to stop whatever is haunting the school. What starts of as a fun Halloween game, becomes a Halloween nightmare for the staff and students at Hogwarts. This is the first long fanfic I actually managed to finish. I’m really bad at finishing long stuff.

10. The Scrooge Of Hogwarts

The students had gone home for the holidays, which meant it would be peaceful and quiet at Hogwarts.

A one shot story in which Snape is visited by three spirits. A HP and Scrooge crossover, I wrote for Christmas. This was a fun one to write, some of my friends and colleagues thought it was a fun read too.

Wow ok I actually didn’t do too badly, I managed to at least find 8 Fantastic beasts related stuff to post first lines of. Not bad. I thought it would be less. From doing this little exercise, I have learned that just writing the first line of your story doesn’t promote it well. Especially if they’re short one liners. Eek! That’s why I added a little description after each one, to make them sound a little more interesting. Lol! Ouch!

Ok to tag 10 people, I’m not sure who to tag and don’t know if I know 10 people to tag. I’ll just tag one or two and then anyone else who wants to do it can do. I tag, @newt-and-salamander @afrenchaugurey @snapeysister (I don’t know if you do writing or not, but you can post pictures and fan art to stories you read if you like for the challenge). @themysteriousphoenix And that’s it, I can’t remember anyone else who writes. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone out. Even if I’ve not mentioned you, and you want to take part, then please do.

[yakdeculture]

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Rongs Forgotten Review

before finishing: I’m up to chapter 7 I think so I’m probably 60~70 percent through the game I’m like level 40 or something honestly I think I overleveled because its like kind of easy to do it’s pretty easy when the world first opens up and you have to go to the forrest you can basically explore the entire first section of the map because the enemies are all around the same level so if you kind of just wander around looking for stuff because you play the game absentmindedly because the story is like nothing at that point you get to the point where when you attack an enemy on the feild you autokill them and it comes pretty easy to just kill everything you see like that and farm way more xp than the game expects you to for pretty much the whole game I feel like I’ve been 5 levels ahead of what it thinks you will be like the sidequests give recommended levels and I’m pretty much always over it by at least 3. Anyways I think this game is very up and down tha main story is pretty interesting but there are multiple times when it kind of just comes to a halt. I mean I guess this is pretty normal for Utawarerumono in Prelude the middle part of the game is basically just fighting jobbers, Mask of Deception is basically just Haku chilling for a while, and then in this one its like okay the gang needs to become stronger so you can’t really advance the plot but also half the stuff you do is like you don’t really feel like you’re getting stronger you go train under Dikotoma and that’s cool but also I don’t think you ever do any actually on screen training with him. In general I think this game is very hit or miss with its presentation it feels like it doesn’t always know how to take advantage of having actual character models they can use to show things and they also don’t take advantage of the more ADV text sections because the CGs are pretty scarce and also there aren't that many expressions the characters do so its just like. Kind of clear they probably didn’t have the budget or experience to make this kind of game I’m making it sound like it sucks ass and it doesn’t its fine but I started playing this again because there’s going to be a new one and I hope they learned something from this one and make it better because it looks like we have older versions of some of the characters and if we waste beautiful 30 year old Kuon I’m probably going to end it all. There are a lot of scenes in the middle of this game where it’s like Hey remember Mask of Deception? Remember when this happened? And it’s like wait I do. That’s crazy. But the game is pretty good I will finish it.

after finishing: I immediately went back to playing this after like 2 years of no progress because as soon as Uta 4: Morbius 2 was announced I was like OH FUCK and I had to beat this and I’m glad I did holy fuck the story was, much like 1 and 2, kind of nothing for half the game and but the other half, especially towards the end, holy fuck peak blast dude. I really didnt know anything about what happened in this game and I think thats because its a mix of like basic stuff some general winks and nods and references that are like hey remember these bits from 2? Lets start them here! But like i had no concept of what this game would do for the overall lore of the series and i definitely had no idea that this had like some of the most insane sequel bait of all time. I am genuinely really excited to see where this series goes and what Uta 4 can do to build on the stuff this game has and sets up. Like its gonna be absolutely crazy unfortunately I dont think I have anyone to talk about what the implications of any of this stuff could mean and what could be in store so basically what I’m saying is i need my uta fan friends to play this game. Yes the gameplay is pretty mid not bad but definitely rough definitely their first crack at this but trust me bro. At the very least watch the Full Game Cutscene + extras youtube video wherever that may be

[violetren]

Aether Chapter 5

Our girl got that wish magic. Except its probably super advanced science. And I don't know how wide a field the wishes can affect. Currently its just her. But then she hasn't tried wishing for a burrito yet so who knows?

I am absolutely delighted by the medical mystery she poses in not being able to have bloods, or hair samples, or any physical part of her basically, taken for testing. That alone feels like a reason the heroes would have to keep her where they can see her. Imagine if Maggie DID turn to crime. MAYBE she still leaves fingerprints but who can be sure? Certainly not Doctor Sanchez!

I laughed a little at the fact that Maggie is the first fictional person I have ever read about getting a new ideal body and being two inches SHORTER than she had previously been.

Nexus being scared 110% makes sense. Even if she hasn't had some awful interactions with other telepaths, which like. She's a superhero. She probably has had a fucked up telepathy battle or two in her time. Just the idea that she has this iron clad defense that she has tested through dozens of trials by fire after said fucked up telepathic battles, and then she gets read by some freaky anomalous dead girl who basically does it by accident and without really realising she's doing it.

Yeah that shit would be terrifying.

I am both surprised and not that Ashley was the one to notice Maggie was watching them. The fact that Maggie figured out she could wish for that and it would happen pretty intuitively was interesting, I wonder what else she will pick up as easily.

I had this moment of excitedly pointing at my screen, and then looking around to see if my cat was in the room (he wasn't, rudely) just so I would be able to point the line out to him (like he'd care) when Ashley was like "You're scarier than the devil." Like yeah, you would know, you also know that isn't as hard to do as it sounds most of the time. Still a good clear point of reference for people who don't know him though I guess.

Also there is something that hits me as very STEM major/doctorate in the fact that prior to death 2 Maggie literally looked at the best approximate proof of her own soul as a computer rendering could give, and then during her stretch in Planck Time™ theorised that this all happened because he soul got burned into the fabric of reality by the machine and the explosion interacting, AND THEN when Ashley was like "I wanna look at your soul" STILL went "Hmm sounds kinda like mumbo jumbo" and STILL wasn't convinced of the idea until she was literally looking back at Ashley's soul.

It was kind of a forgone conclusion that the soul gaze would go well from our perspective because Maggie is the protagonist but I can't help but imagine how hilarious it would have been if the soul gaze ended and Ashley was just like "Oh you're a piece of shit, bye" and went full attack mode. Or just if Ashley had just been like "Ok, what the fuck did I just witness?"

The reality of the text was very good and had such a nice tranquil quality to it that felt tonally appropriate for what the characters had just shared with one another, so I like it better than those errant imaginings. I just think it would have been funny and potentially have spawned a much darker story if explored in earnest.

[alectology-archive]

sorry, I did want to comb over gawyn’s chapters once again before I responded (and no!! I absolutely love discussing stuff, long posts are fun to read) and I did like the little mind exercise of trying to viewing him more sympathetically (you got me there like 30% of the way there and that’s a Lot because I just really don’t care for him and feel there are a lot of secondary characters who probably could do with that attention instead) but I guess I do get why people like him a little now? but at the end of the day I still can’t really see myself sympathising with him much because he has very few POVs and no real explanation for his behaviour being offered. he also insists on transferring blame for his mistakes on other people while 90% of our other protagonists very much own up to them and work to do better so the contrast doesn’t sit well with me (although it’s fascinating that elayne is the only real trakand who turned out Right because gawyn and galad are... well).

I still feel galad is the better sibling, though, because he has a very clear arc about learning to outgrow flawed modes of judgement and decision making. young men are... very susceptible to the sort of things that the whitecloaks promise and it was good rj explored that, just like he explored the toxic masculinity thing with rand and lan. I think what frustrates me more is that I don't know where gawyn's arc was headed tbh... like with perrin. another character I notably don’t enjoy because he’s all over the place.

I’m going to go ahead and put the rest of the post under a cut because this is getting very long at this point

Some things I want do want to note are that:

I’ll still refer to the tower schism as a coup because 1. it’s convenient 2. the aes sedai do agree that it was barely legal 3. the black ajah fully played a major part in it with the intention of ousting siuan 4. a lot of blood was shed 5. the blues were ousted from the tower entirely and elaida proceeded to violate a lot of customs and institute draconian measures to ensure that she remained in power. she’s an extremist, and I think a politically trained noble... should have the sense to recognise that it’s dangerous to have that kind of a person in power. whether or not it’s Really a Coup is just a matter of semantics to me.

In the eye of the world, gawyn expresses a lot of disdain and distrust for elaida and doesn’t like that she advices his mother, so I’m not certain how he really hoped to gain anything by picking her over siuan during the coup. it woudn’t help him find elayne or egwene in any possible way. it’s a very extreme reaction to a very valid frustration that siuan had potentially put his loved ones in danger. he would’ve probably been more successful if he’d just tried to contact his mother and let her know that elayne was being endangered by the amyrlin to let her use political leverage to get answers from siuan (although ofc I’m not certain how that plot would have evolved since morgase was being controlled by rahvin by then). I think it’s very abundantly clear that siuan and elaida are very different kinds of people from the get-go, and elaida is very visibly uncompassionate and doesn’t care for any opinions that non-reds might have, much less young men.

RJ was exploring the mistakes that disillusioned young men enamoured by the idea of glory, honour and heroics committed with gawyn, the younglings, and galad, so I’m pretty certain that gawyn’s arc was definitely meant as a critique of him in the shadow rising just like galad’s pivot to the whitecloaks was in the fires of heaven.

RJ also treats the mentor-mentee relationship like it’s almost a sacred thing, if not a parental bond entirely, so to me it came across like gawyn was fully crossing a line that should never have been crossed, because those warders were very kind to him and galad (and it’s not that I don’t care to see those kinds of things explored! I love morally grey characters! again, gawyn just can’t commit to anything and constantly sulks for making mistakes that he consciously walked into and that just really... irks me, lol. he can’t blame the universe for things sucking when he has only himself to blame entirely for how things turn out).

I do fully believe gawyn and galad deserved better answers from siuan though, but I’m not sure that conversation would’ve ever gone down well. Aes sedai generally have a problem with communicating and it’s always come back to cause problems for them in the series. RJ is fully critiquing the flaws that most governing bodies are susceptible to with them. and of course, siuan’s arc is inevitably framed as a tragedy for a reason. She didn’t expect to be betrayed and toppled by somebody she never considered a real threat.

I do kind of disagree about elaida, though? I admittedly don’t have a very positive opinion about her because I read new spring before the shadow rising and it coloured how I approached her character. Elaida is very, very vehemently opposed to the idea of allying with the dragon reborn - she also did send a group of reds to gentle the asha’man in book 8 - and she specifically chose to act before siuan declared an attempt to ally with rand because she always preferred to use him as a tool / an object that would bestow her with the legitimity to rule as she pleased and approach dealing with the last battle only on her terms. 

I think he could’ve at least gotten a message to somebody who mattered about rand though ahhh, I really really don’t think him intervening would have been a good idea for him (or the younglings). but again, it always circles back to him just turning a blind eye to the sort of ugly treatment rand was subjected to. he does agonise a lot over a lot of his decisions but he never does anything to try to fix his mistakes or extricate himself from sticky situations.

I don’t even hate gawyn that much (he mostly annoys me) but I picked him anyway on that annoying men poll because um. gawyn did very much take part in a coup. he killed his own teachers when they sided against him. he can’t dedicate himself to any cause for more than 2 seconds. the fact that he can’t even commit is what really annoys me ok. he didn’t try to get more information first before proceeding to act impulsively. he did inardvetently cause 90% of the problems in the series, unlike galad who left a net positive impact although the whitecloak part was rancid and misguided. siuan was literally primed to form an alliance with rand. all of that was very much a thing. and he stuck with elaida just because he didn’t want to admit he was wrong. he constantly refuses to take advice and legit info from his own allies all the time and prefers to pick his emotions even when they’re completely baseless. remember when he took a peddler’s word over egwene’s? he also did promise egwene that he wouldn’t hurt rand, and I’m not even mad at him for not helping rand when he got kidnapped (although he certainly could have found a way to help him because goddamn no enemy deserves to be treated like an animal), but I’m mad that he violated her trust. gawyn when you tell him 1 +1 = 2 -> “in my heart it’s 3 and I’ll kill people over it 💖” he’s the modern equivalent of like a conspiracy theorist. or at least very easily fooled by them.