#but they had a whole series to themselves

[bluephoenixprincess]

Idea: Demon Courting Tournaments

So seeing so many Epic the musical Ithaca Saga AUs for Lego Monkie kid got me turning some thoughts in my head like fidget toys.

At this point i think most of the LMK fandom is familiar with courtnapping as a trope in some way and the afformentioned Ithaca sage aus, especially allthe ones based on The Challenge song, have given me thoughts.

So... what if.

COURTING TOURNAMENTS.

When especially powerful or desirable demons are being pursued by too many Suitors and theyre sick of having to deal with each one individually, a more organized solution is called for.

Ideally with the help of friends and family the sought after demon will call all their suitors together and set forth a series of challenges to win their hand.

Common challenges include things that show off a suitors strength and ability to provide, ya know fighting, races, hunting contests. But also more unexpected things like say, cooking competitions or Art and poetry or a judging of gifts, to determine which suitors actually know the interests or desires of the person theyre courting.

The challenges narrow down the pool of suitors until the final decision is made.

Buuuuuut

If the sought after demon doesnt wish to mate and marry, they can appoint a trusted friend or family member as their "Champion" in the tournament.

The Champion's job is to act according to the pursued demons' best interests, knocking out undesirable suitors, acting as the eyes and ears for them to see if any of the suitors might actually be compatible. Amd if it comes to it, winning the tournament themselves to assert the pursued demons right to remain single.

So where am i going with all this?

Well one i wanna write a Spicynoodles fic with this sort of premise but, while i was planning that i had MORE THOUGHTS.

Specifically thoughts about Wukong.

Sun Wukong returning home from his legendary journey now a god, a hero and, to his dismay ...

Single.

With Macaque's absence and presumed demise, Wukong finds himself with dubious honor of being perhaps the most eligible single demon in all of Asia, much to his chagrin.

Not only does he have no desire to find a new mate (he has... had a mate, his only mate, his dear lost Moonlight) The increasingly frequent attempted courtnappings are interfering with his efforts of rebuilding Flower Fruit Mountain (His Kingdom, His people all he has left except his pilgrim brothers).

Its pissing him off to say the least. And perhaps one or two especially powerful suitors wind up causing Wukong to make enough of a commotion that Heaven urges Wukong to find a more Orderly Solution.

A Courting Tournament.

Wukong is Annoyed but if this spectacle results in him finally getting some peace and quiet hell do it.

The Pilgrims are at his side through the whole fiasco.

And it works... for a time.

See the Handsome Monkey King, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Victorious Fighting Buddha, is just to tempting of a potential mate for all these demons to take the hint.

So in his long Life Wukong has to Suffer through multiple courting tournaments being held in his dubious honor so that all these randy demons will get the hell off his mountain.

At least 3 happen. One of Wukongs Pilgrim brothers acting as his Champion each time, all of them fighting increasingly fiercely to protect their Little Big Brother from the careless affections of his many suitors.

[coldsaturn]

hiii! i have a question i thought you might be able to answer: how did aftg originally get so popular? i know it was mostly word of mouth on tumblr (still is, i think) (who says this website is unmarketable!!) but what were the early days of the fandom like? personally i've "only" been here since 2016, and by then the series was already decently popular. i remember at that time that the fandom was really welcoming and kind in a way that felt really exceptional to me, and it definitely contributed to me picking up the books, which is the only explanation i can really think of for why it got a bigger following than some to other books which did receive a whole big-publisher marketing campaign aside from it just being well-written. do you have any theories for why it got so massive on here? and do you know how the first readers found it? i hope you don't mind me asking you this, but i remember your blog from wayyyy back when and thought that if anyone had the answer, it would probably be you :)

Hello! I always get so happy when I can talk about the early days of the fandom <3 Sit down here around the fire, let me tell you about this wondrous tale.

So, story time: it was spring 2013, I had just finished a thorough read of In The Company Of Shadows and I was starving for another black hole. It was automatic for me to look up the goodread lists ICoS was featured in, to see what other titles I could pick up, and ended up on the list called "Online M/M stories that deserve to be published". The Foxhole Court was right there (it's not anymore because it IS published <3), so I read it. That was the start of the end lmao

If I remember correctly I didn't wait too long before reading TRK, but TKM didn't come out until the end of the following year, so in the meantime I all but shelved it as something that had incredible potential but that was possibly doomed to never be completed. Fast forward I think the start of 2015 when I accidentally stumbled upon TKM and I couldn't believe I could finally know how the story ended. Nora had a blogspot where she talked about the books (including updates between TRK and TKM), and I remember trying to get as much info as I could on this series. And that was it. For a bit.

So, by the first half of 2015, the fandom was made by people commenting on her blogspot, on her livejournal, the book pages on goodreads, and Ao3 literally had 2 fics ( webarchive gives you what we saw - btw Don't Speak Against The Sun is FIRE and instantly became a new standard for f/f for me). You can still find all this content online. Tumblr had a handful of scattered posts about TFC, mostly Nora's mutuals/friends on tumblr, and a couple of readers screaming into the void with no one answering their call.

I was pretty active on here, especially in the bellarke fandom, and I engaged with mutuals and other blogs often enough that I knew if I talked about something, at least someone would reply. A mutual was reading The Raven Cycle and got me curious enough to liveblog it myself. Instant love, of course, and if you've read TRC you know how strong the found family vibe is. So at the end of my liveblog (we've reached July 2015) I threw out a comment where I recommended AFTG as another worthy title. With the first book being free while the other two were only a dollar each, it sounded a fairly easy commitment. One mutual decided to read it (if you're reading, hi!!!) and liveblog it, and that got the party started.

A party of 2, and I'm not kidding. While we chatted and made up headcanon after headcanon on the phone, the intention was to get others interested in this story. But they'd never do it if there wasn't enough content around to engage with and motivate them to blog themselves, so we started with quote posts, liveblog reactions, a few timid edits and poems. An important choice was figuring out which tag to use (at the time tumblr search only scrolled through tags, not post content): "all for the game" was an actual sports tag, "the raven king" was the title announced for the next TRC installment, "the king's men" was the last book of the trilogy and it wasn't even the free one, so we settled for "the foxhole court" which was an empty tag. Even now my blog content is organized around "tfc" because of it, even though we took over all the relevant tags. A couple other mutuals I had from bellarke fandom got curious as well, and now we could consider ourselves a proper group. We were so starved for fan content that whatever you put out would be automatically reblogged and enthusiastically engaged with. It was a happy little fandom bubble. Then Nora noticed us and started interacting with us, and you got the birth of what would become the extra content page as she replied to our questions.

I possibly had a little bit too much time on my hands because I appointed myself as fandom archivist and tour guide. I reblogged every single post I saw in the tags, and I started a welcome page where I could keep track of everyone announcing they were reading the series. It was meant as a way to find mutuals to interact with since tumblr hadn't yet "canonized" all the tags, and it was entirely possible to lose each other in dashboard chains. I used to reply to everyone reading the series by "officially" welcoming them into the fandom, linking them the page where they could find mutuals, Nora's blog, and the extra content present up to that point. Oh and there was a fictional exy team where you could choose your position and then put it in your blog for fun or roleplay it. I also used smashword's gift system to buy the series for whoever said they couldn't pay for it, just to try and avoid pirating the book (good for word of mouth, bad for sales). This was on my side, but this fandom had so many people pouring their entire heart out I still get emotional thinking about it.

Everyone (before January 2016) made as much content as they could, be it meta, fanart, fanfics, headcanons, edits, wikia pages etc. We had fandom challenges where we pronounced the names of the characters and aftg keywords with our native accent, others where we said our favorite scene. Every headcanon was the first headcanon ever seen in the fandom. The fun thing was that at the time there was a strong etiquette toward "if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything" so fan content really went in all directions with basically no limits. We tagged for triggers and that was it, we had free reign. For those who were around at the time, the sin squad was a group of us fans churning out the saddest/filthiest/fluffiest/most problematic content we could think of.

Then we reached January 2016. We were around 300 in the fandom at that point (I know because I counted them, literally), it had been slow but constant growth where each new fan brought at least other two people with them, and we had around 20 posts per day in the main tag. Then someone bridged the gap between us and the TRC fandom. If you ask me how the fandom got really popular, that's it. The TRC fandom was stuck in hiatus waiting for The Raven King, and now you had 300 rabid foxes spamming aftg content on tumblr, using trk as tag, too. Popular fanartists that were active in that fandom helped making aftg known, and semi viral posts did the rest. We went from 300 to 700 people in a couple of months, and shortly after I had to stop adding people to the welcome page because the post broke. I didn't even know that could happen. It wasn't long after that we were featured in the tumblr end of year recap for book ships. We were so many it was suddenly possible to meet in real life! Cosplays, tattoos, merch. You name it, someone in the fandom did it.

But how did it feel when we were only 20 people and a cardboard dog cutout? It felt like the most chaotic book club ever, and every new fan was automatically a friend. Nostalgia is a lying bitch, but I really don't think I'm making shit up here. We had fun and made great memories.

By the way, if you want to see how things were in 2015, you can! Just go through my archive starting from July 2015 (I think 17th) and onward. You can also search my blog for the tags "fandom history" and "started from nothing and now we're here", whereas here you can find a list of aftg fandom tags I used.

Tl;dr We were starving for good content, we wanted to have fun together, and we were lucky enough to half-hijack a bigger fandom in hiatus. That was all the marketing AFTG needed on tumblr.

[interact-if]

Our fifth edition of the Black History Month Author Spotlight series, features Mila (@milaswriting)!

(Mila’s game Golden is one of the games I fell in love with when I first got into Interactive Fiction, and it feels like such a dream to be able to interview her now! It’s so interesting to interview someone who’s been in the IF community for a while now, and see how stories—and their authors—change and evolve as time goes by too.)

Author: Mila

Hello! I’m Mila, a twenty-three year old woman from the UK. Something readers may not know (or probably do considering how much I complain about university), I crave academic validation. I got 90% on an essay I did this year and I was so proud of myself that I’m considering doing a PhD. We’ll see if Dr Mila ever becomes a thing, haha.

Games: Golden (Fantasy, romance, mystery, supernatural)

Short blurb: You work for The Everbrook. A multi-agency organisation in the city of Lehsa that bridges the gap between the human and supernatural world. You’ve been working there for three years now, and you’re suddenly forced to work with a group of allies to solve mysteries that have landed right in the palm of your hand.

Quote from the interview

I wish I could say I’ve had amazing encounters with vampires, magical beings and werewolves to inspire Golden—but that isn’t exactly the case. I’ll let you know if that ever happens though! I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm, more so as a young adult than when I was much younger, but usually the portrayal of poc characters in media wasn’t always shown in a positive light. Or poc characters, when it came to romance, weren’t given the lead roles where a swoon-worthy romance story was played out. To, sort of right those wrongs, and have other black readers like myself, be able to see themselves in the characters of stories—I created a diverse cast of ROs.

Read on for the full interview!

Can you tell me a bit about what you’re working on right now and your journey into interactive fiction? What inspired the game/story you’re currently writing?

I’m currently working on a fantasy supernatural interactive fiction, Golden. Officially, Golden is five years old now. I released it in December 2020 and was regularly writing and working on it for a couple of years. And then I noticed that as I grew from an eighteen/nineteen year old teenager, the ideas I had for my story were different, thus I wanted to make a few changes. A few changes turned into a lot of changes. And now I’m in the process of a whole rewrite, alongside moving to Twine. 

Covid was in 2020, and that’s ultimately the year I got into reading interactive fiction too. I first read fanfics of an interactive fiction game, then read the original story itself, and got really into the process of the reader being able to make meaningful choices that impact their reading experience. That was a supernatural story too, and that’s how I ended up creating my own. 

When it comes to the changes I’ve made to Golden, the inspiration came from a lot of things. One being my love for mystery, crime and psychology—I wanted that incorporated into the story I’m writing. I love the element of lore and world building, so that’s how I knew the fantasy/supernatural element would be in there. Additionally, my love for found family and complex characters also inspired me to write this story, but to also make the changes I have. Lastly, I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, I adore the stuff! So reading and writing good romance is everything to me. 

How has your identity, heritage/background, upbringing, or personal experiences influenced your storytelling or writing process? OR How does your work feature aspects of your identity / experience?

I wish I could say I’ve had amazing encounters with vampires, magical beings and werewolves to inspire Golden—but that isn’t exactly the case. I’ll let you know if that ever happens though! I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm, more so as a young adult than when I was much younger, but usually the portrayal of poc characters in media wasn’t always shown in a positive light. Or poc characters, when it came to romance, weren’t given the lead roles where a swoon-worthy romance story was played out. To, sort of right those wrongs, and have other black readers like myself, be able to see themselves in the characters of stories—I created a diverse cast of ROs.

B Holden was the first one I created. I already knew they were going to be a werewolf, and I wanted them as a character to be the complete opposite of how a werewolf is usually described and portrayed. Aggressive, animalistic, dangerous—yet, I’d like to think that B is, and comes off as, someone who is the sunshine that lights up a room, someone who’d make you feel good on a bad day, a kind of person you’ll always want around. From my own personal experiences, I’m a nursing student and I’ll be graduating this year and going into a working environment. I think the changes to Golden emulate that, instead of being a student, the MC is navigating the supernatural world themselves and they’re very immersed into it.

What does your writing process look like? Any rituals or habits? Any tips, tricks, philosophies or approaches that have worked very well for you?

Oh! So, the background is that I love The Naturals series and The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and I got to meet her at a book event in my hometown. And during her talk, she said that she writes with a ‘Writer’s Hit List’. On that list, the writer jots down all of their favourite things that they love about characters, or elements they want their story to have. It’s a bit like a word dump, for example, ‘loves characters that enjoys baked goods’ or ‘loves when character speaks multiple languages’. 

Then you end up with a super long list of traits you’d like to give your characters or factors you want your world to have. And you can get your inspiration from literally anything, so that’s something fun to have. You can add to it when you’re not thinking about writing, and then when you have writer’s block, or just want some inspiration, you can open your notes app and see what you wrote down.

Currently, whilst juggling uni and personal life, on my days off/working from home, when I get a burst of inspiration I usually open up my laptop and write in my bedroom or the living room. And whilst writing, I put on ROs’ playlists that I’ve made on Spotify. My new RO, Ireland Monroe, their playlist has been extremely helpful in motivating me to write.

What’re you excited to tackle/implement/work on next? Or anything you’re looking forward to in the year ahead?

I’m excited about getting this rewrite out! I’ve felt really guilty about keeping readers waiting so long for content from me, or just disappointed in myself that I haven’t been able to produce content as quickly as other authors. I know it’s a terrible thing to compare yourself to others, but sometimes it’s one of those things you can’t help. We’re into February now and I genuinely think that I’m getting better at telling myself to just work as best as I possibly can. 

But, yeah, I’m excited for people to read and see how Golden’s developed with me as an individual. It’s interesting considering the story has grown up with me, and it’s sort of taken its own shape and whispered to me, “I know you want to change me, don’t be afraid to do so”, and now my nerves about that are near enough gone. 

I just want it to be a good writing year overall! So, I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed that the story ideas that play in my head everyday are able to be transferred to screen so others can enjoy them.

If you were to say one thing to your readers, other authors, and/or the interactive fiction community: what would it be? OR If you could change one thing about the interactive fiction community, what would it be?

My advice to readers would be that as writers, we definitely write our stories as an escape and whilst it’s important to write for ourselves, we write with the hopes that you enjoy it too. If there’s a particular scene or character or story that you love, definitely tell that author. It’ll make their day, their week, even. It’s such a wonderful feeling to hear from you guys. And also, just continue to consume the content that’s put out. And just a personal thank you to the readers I have for being patient with me. 

For authors, I’d say to have fun writing. If, in your gut, there are changes you’d love to make to your story, then do so. Remember that, no matter what, there’s always going to be at least one person that loves what you write. Always. So, if it’s motivation you want to continue putting words onto paper (or a screen), then that’s it. I also think it’s fun adding a little bit of yourself into your story.

Any books, music, movies etc. you’re obsessed with at the moment, or which changed your life (or perspectives on something)?

I read The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and it’s absolutely changed my brain chemistry for the better. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes mystery with a romantic side plot. I love YA murder mystery books, so A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, books by Karen McManus. I also love Taylor Jenkins Reid. And, as its black history month, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is my favourite black author and she writes queer mystery/thriller books. My favourite of hers is Where Sleeping Girls. 

Music: I adore Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft should’ve won a Grammy, I will die on this hill!) Noah Kahan and Sam Barber are artists I’ve really been loving at the moment. Gigi Perez as well, Sailor Song and Fable are songs I can never skip. 

This-or-that segment: (red = Mila's pick)

Coffee or tea?

Early mornings or late nights?

City or countryside?

Angsty or Cozy romances? (Or enemies-to-lovers or best-friends-to-lovers?)  

Steady progress or frenzied binge-writing followed by periods of calm?

Summer or Winter?

First drafts or editing?

Introvert or extrovert? (Gosh, I’m SUCH an introvert)

Plotter or pantser?

Characters or plot first?

Write your own “either-or” pairing: vampires or werewolves? (don’t tell B or K I even asked… I can’t pick between my faves, so I’ll let you guys choose :D)

[spacekiku-blog]

My brainrot worsens with each day so there are my ramblings about Beasts and Shadow Milk Cookie

TW: Spoilers I guess??

Okay, Beasts. When I first saw this name for the new antagonists, I thought "lol fate series got even cookie run" and when they were finally released I was sucked in so hard.

I love the concept of corrupt gods or higher beings. Not just being controlled by something, corrupted or going crazy but specifically their ignorance of using powers or disappointment in how mortals perceive their domains. And while I won't say that the plot of Kingdom and Beasts is a complete mind-blowing thing and the most awesome scenario but compared to the previous plots of Devsisters, this is a big step-up and something that is interesting and well-developed.

Not only in terms of plot but the concepts themselves. Yes, the three Beasts that have come out are based on fairly common things (Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity). But man they did their homework as hard as they could.

And naturally, even though we already have three Beasts, a lot about them is shrouded in mystery. Especially Shadow Milk Cookie, since we were given absolutely no information about his backstory. The new costume that came out? Honestly, it looks like an AU written by him for shits and giggles. A sort of “What if?”. While it may shed some light on how he behaved as a Fount of Knowledge it says nothing about his past.

With White Flour Cookie and Burning Spice Cookie everything is relatively clear. We were given their plot and what caused their corruption on a silver plate. And, frankly speaking, I think that based on the change in the other two elements of the Beasts, it is relatively clear what most likely happened in their domain of rule that caused their corruption.

Eternal Sugar Cookie was initially “Happiness” – which represents, well, happiness, joy. It is quite possible that her task from the Witches was similar to White Flour Cookie in that she was meant to spread happiness and joy among the Cookies. Well, too much jollity can easily become boring and it also requires a huge amounts of energy which could lead her to Laziness.

At the same time Silent Salt Cookie had the element of “Solidarity” – which essentially means unification, community. It also often means support and mutual assistance. And as we know, if you support everyone around you then it will begin to be perceived as given and in return you get a whole nithing. And because of which he could correspondingly close himself off.

Of course I might be wrong about this predictions. We will see when they will come out.

The fate of the Beasts is tragic. They are Deities created by even Higher Beings with one specific purpose. To distribute/preserve the elements entrusted to them. They were given a huge responsibility reinforced by the expectations of mortal cookies. Give knowledge, grant wishes, monitor changes, spread joy and cultivate friendship. Were they allowed to do anything else? Most likely yes. Were they aware of this from the start? Most likely no.

We, as mortal individuals, often have a hard time breaking away from the expectations of our “creators” (parents) and society. So how can you immediately realize that you are allowed to be someone else, to do something else when you were created with a fixed personality and a certain purpose? So frankly it is not surprising that the Deities saw the one and only way to break the expectations of others and be "free". After all, from the descriptions of White Flour Cookie and Burning Spice Cookie, they could not even realize that there were other ways to release their frustrations.

White Flour Cookie went into depression and apathy as a defense mechanism. And the only way she saw was that if everything was purified (dead), then everyone would be happy. Including herself.

Burning Spice Cookie, feeling the first stimulation in centuries of monotone whatching and waiting, latched onto it, becoming obsessed with it. Addicted to it. He concentrated on this one feeling and forgot that he could find something else.

But Shadow Milk Cookie is a different story. You see, Knowledge is a very powerful thing. In my humble opinion, Shadow Milk is the strongest Beast and God among all if you put aside his personality and focus only on his powers. Unlike other Beasts, from whom Witches could keep some information that they simply do not need for their role - Shadow Milk Cookie knew everything from the very beginning. About what Cookies are grown for, how this world works, how personality develops and many, many other things.

Unlike other Beasts Shadow Milk Cookie knew there could be another way. And it's just such a rich soil for theories, headcanons and the reason I'm so obsessed with him.

Was he trying to save his brothers and sisters by trying to show them another way? How much knowledge did he share with them? How much did he keep back? And how much did he lie to them?

After all judging by the description of Shadow Milk Cookie knowledge consists of truth and lies. Lies appeared at the same time as Shadow Milk Cookie himself as a Fount of Knowledge. Which means he could have started lying from the very beginning. I like to think and headcanon that the first one to start "corrupting" was Shadow Milk Cookie. Or rather, that he was initially already corrupted by the knowledge he had access to.

This is what makes his personality so interesting to me - he knew everything. He saw everything. Not only the destruction of his domain of knowledge but the signs of destruction of other domains. How White Flour Cookie finds it increasingly difficult to fulfill wishes and not receive even a simple thank you in return. How Burning Spice Cookie became increasingly bored with the same cycle of history. And perhaps how Eternal Sugar Cookie gets tired of the eternal celebration and Silent Salt Cookie loses control over attempts to unite everyone.

How desperate was he about all this? Or was there a cold pragmatism deep inside him that said, “this is what has to happen”? Or was he fascinated by it? How were his Deity friends changing? Maybe he was egging them on because he, too, was bored with his knowledge?

Beasts are lonely. Deities are lonely. Even their own race can barely understand each other since their minds were created for specific purposes. And you don't want to lose face in front of equally powerful beings.

Only Shadow Milk Cookie could understand them all. And yet no one can understand him.

No one can carry as much knowledge as he does. No one can even come close to understanding his burden. To come close to him. I wonder becouse of this did he became a jester and a showman? After all, the truth of his existence is as bitter as sour milk.

I wonder if he was always a "jester"? Judging by his behavior in the new costume, there is still some "softening" in his actions, intonation, expressions. Not exactly condescension, but as if embellishment of his words, his "truth". In the end, information is best absorbed through play. Through associations. He playfully invites you to debate with him, he gestures while telling about something.

Is Shadow Milk that far removed from his past as a Fount of Knowledge?

Maybe he was always like this? Less cunning and selfish but just as playful, humorous, and perhaps even deceitful. It's just that when everyone finally became "monsters", Beasts, there was no longer a need to satisfy the needs of mortals and it was time to focus on his own.

Maybe he helped other Beasts become corrupted so that he himself could finally allow himself to "play" for himself and not for others?

I squeeze him like anti-stress toy. I don't know for what purpose this ramblings of mine but maybe you will able to take some interesting insights for yourself.

And I'm not even starting about his relationship with Pure Vanilla Cookie not even as a ship thing.

Man I need help

[shini--chan]

Yandere Paul Atreides - Hourglass

Word count: ~ 2,5K Summary: It is your own fault for taking a liking to Paul, but you never love him. Perhaps you are doing it because you love his mother as if she were your own sister, and this is why you are helping him reach clarity when it comes to his dreams. Pity that the whole thing just backfires on you when Paul realises that you’re saving him and his House through your actions. Trigger warnings: politics, manipulation, stalking, yandere behaviour Autor Note: Here is the Yandere Paul Atreides story I promised long ago. This can be seen as an isekai, doesn't have to be. I might turn it into a oneshot series.

If anybody asked you what your favourite place in the universe is, your answer would be Caladan. It was home after all. That was why you had come to detest Arrakis just as much as the honourable Duke Leto. Of course, it was more than apparent that the Duke couldn’t openly display his distaste; it would be a blow to morale. That being said, you had known the family for years, and the Atreides’ displayed it though longing for Caladan, for day long rains and fish and the lush continents.

The only seas here were those of sand and those were even more treacherous than the Caladanian oceans had been. Sandworms were also far more dangerous than any kraken or other creature of the deep, and spice more valuable. Your problem was that the greatest discomfort, danger even, didn't stem from the local fauna, the environment, or even the political machinations running their course in the background of everyday life.

The matter at head that was making your heart race and cursing you with sleepless nights, was a person and his name was Paul Atreides.

Which was why you were particularly wary about running around in the open. You had just finished attending to Lady Jessica, or to put it in better words, finished trying to convince her to allow you to end your tutorship to her son. Unsuccessfully, mind you. Your lady saw the close bond between you and Paul and cherished it. Besides, you were far too useful to let go, or to allow you to distance yourself in any way.

Turning your head left and right, you huffed and then scurry along the shadow in the corridor. Nothing stopped you and you felt yourself breath a bit easier. For such a pale young man, he was very apt at concealing himself. Something he now used to avoid your scornful gaze and pleas for him to stop following you everywhere. Not that any words of yours stopped him.

A few stray pebbles bounced as you hurried along and there was the quiet swish of your robes as the light cloth flared out. Other than that, there wasn't much sound from you. Servants were supposed to be seen at most, and not heard. The soles of your shoes cushioned your every step, ensuring that your steps themselves were silent. Thankfully, there wasn't anybody else around, so you didn't have to bother too much with decorum.

The rest of the staff was either tucked away in the cooler parts of the castle or station elsewhere in the unbearable heat. Of course, you would prefer the former yourself, yet you weren't master of your own fate here. There were rules of conduct between a noble and their subjects that both had to adhere to. Therein lay one of your problems.

Paul always liked to be too close for comfort. It was a habit of House Atreides to foster close connections with their servants and subjects. While it was all good and well that they saw their lessers as human, unlike so many of the other houses in the Known Universe, the Atreides heir was crossing lines. He was being invasive.

Before turning around a corner, you slowed to a halt and peaked around it. A valet disappeared around another corner just as you did so and you continued your harried journey to the landing bay. Since your position of strategy teacher was unofficial and unlisted as opposed to your job as handmaiden, you were going to play the official part more than usual. It was reasonable, seeing that the household was still only just settling in their new home. There was still a lot of work to be done - rooms had to be furnished, the warehouse stocked, the trunks unpacked…

Doing so would give you a chance and a reason to minimise contact with Paul until you had another chance to persuade his mother to put you out of harm's way. You didn't graduate as an intelligence officer and land yourself with dignified employment in House Atreides only to be pursued by a boy that had only just become an adult. You just had to make sure that he didn’t catch wind of your intentions to distance yourself from him. If you didn’t, he would probably find a way to be even more on your case than he already was, if that was even humanly possible.

The lift that led to the landing bay just a few metres away when a hand shot forth to grab you. Hyperreactive reflexes allowed you to duck before any conscious plan could even register. You turned on your heels as you automatically fell into a low fighting stance. In order to put enough force behind your punch, you put your whole torso in the movement. You were rewarded with a clean sucker punch and the grunt that your would-be assailant let out.

However, unlike the usual person, he didn't allow himself to be stunned. Even as he choked on his next breaths, he delivered a swift kick to your sternum with a steel toed boot. So in turn, you were winded as well. While it didn’t knock you heels over kettle, it did make you stumble back a few steps. Eyes stayed on your opponent, and when he stepped out of the shadows of the servant nooks, you got a good look at your attacker.

Paul had the linen attire that he usually wore these days - heat isolating and flowing to allow swift movement. Yet there still was embroidery that marked him as noble and a pride to his countenance that couldn’t be framed as youthful arrogance. What’s more, he didn’t leave you any time to recover and body slammed you into the opposite wall. The both of you stayed quiet for a few minutes. You shot Paul a glare. If he thought that you were that close, then two could play a game.

Once it was clear that this interaction wouldn't be interrupted, he hissed at you: “Where have you been? I’ve been searching for you everywhere!”

You adjusted your position as much as his grip on your waist would allow you, just a bit so that you were a smidgen more comfortable. Then you huffed at him. “I was attending to Lady Jessica, as I was expected to.”

Of course, that wasn’t completely true. As soon as the chance had presented itself, you had slipped from Paul’s watchful eye. Naturally, he thought that you were completely insolent to slip from his side without his approval.

“We’ve discussed this time and time again. Since the Harkonons are this close…”, he snapped at you, and released you to hold up his dominant hand in front of your face. His thumb and middle finger were nearly touching. “... to enacting their plan to overthrow House Atreides. You know this, and yet you go galavanting around as if this is a mountain meadow back in Caladan. If I didn’t know better, I would say you have been the spy all along. Did you really forget about the hunter-seeker that went for the kill just a few days ago.”

“Your dreams have become more vivid?”, you inquired instead of coming up with any further excuse. That would be just as futile as whispering in the wind.

Paul sagged a fraction. It wasn’t enough for a stranger to notice, yet you had known Paul for too long for it to escape you. It was a damn shame that the haggard look that anxiety granted him, suited him.

“Yes”, he affirmed softly. Then he straightened up again. A look to the right, a look to the left, and then he seized your wrist and dragged you to the servant's nook from where he had ambushed you earlier. Since there was a small bench hewn in the wall, you took the chance to sit down - your chest still ached from where Paul had kicked you and breathing could be easier. Unluckily, it meant that you were knee-to-knee, side-to-side with Paul.

“The dreams have been becoming so vivid and clear that they have been bleeding into my waking hours. Mother hasn’t been of much help, and just sees it as confirmation that I’m the Kwsatitz Haderach.”

Without invitation or prompting, he lay his head on your shoulder. While you flinched for a second, you made no move to push him away. That could be interpreted as an insult and was volatile enough already.

“Sometimes I praise you and curse you in the same breath. All that you said was true, and all my dreams are clearer now because of that. Yet they are now sometimes so clear that I mistake them for the occuring present. Every thread of a possible future is ladened with death and destruction, and there are only a handful of narrow paths that don't lead to a future where we all die. How can I be still and passive when I know of such things?”

You gave him an awkward pat on the back. It was your fault that he was like this, and you were torn between regret and resignation and a third emotion that you couldn't name. When Paul had told you of his dreams, you had explained to him that dreams were messages from the deep. The human subconscious had a fuller grasp on reality than the consciousness and therefore the warnings brought forth in the forms of dreams shouldn't simply be ignored.

He had taken your advice to heart, and had opened himself to the wisdom that oversimplified conscious thought couldn't comprehend due to its magnitude and complexity. Then, a few days prior he had stormed into your room without fanfare, awaking you with his loudness, and had gone on a disjointed rant about the Harkonons and how they couldn't be trusted to be moral or honourable or stick to legality and that everyone was in danger.

It had taken him long enough to calm down, especially since the spice in the air had only fueled his continuing premonitions. Eventually, when he had been coherent enough again, he had echoed a lesson you had taught him long ago. That humans rarely operated on cold logic and that even the highest emperor was a creature guided by passion and fear. Logic was used to justify emotions, and therefore politics could never be clean.

So much destruction lay ahead, because one man feared losing even just a smidgen of his jealously guarded power.

It had surprised you to learn that he had listened may back then, though that had been quickly replaced by the desperation that infused everyone of his following action. It reminded you that no matter how well-educated and well-read he was, he still was a sheltered youth at the end of the day. All dreams paled in comparison to lived reality - this was a quiet crisis that never had a place in the adventures he had daydreamed about.

The ducal heir wound an arm around your waist and buried his face in your neck. Paul relaxed just as you tensed.

“Panicking would be counterproductive now. It is in panic that people make the most severe mistakes”, you cautioned him. He hummed in agreement and pulled you closer to him as if to comfort. You let him because what choice did you have. Despite all the sweet words, there was a wide gap in power between the two of you. 

“Stay by my side all the time, then I’ll have a clear and calm mind.”

Your movements were wooden when you lay an arm over the back of his shoulders. As fond as you were of him, you never had loved him so his insistence on closeness was uncomfortable. When should you have drawn a line in the sand? When he was in awe of your knowledge and experience? Or when he used the just small age gap between the two of you to establish a friendship? It wasn’t regarded as an anomaly at the time, since he was close with his other mentors. 

“You know that wouldn’t work very well. People that don’t already know that I’m training in intelligence will become suspicious. And it is not like Duke Leto and Lady Jessica would let me stick to your side the whole time”, you countered. 

He already insisted that the two of you share the same bed and it was a boon when he allowed you to shower alone. It made you think that it wasn’t all about safety, as he claimed when you became stern. For one, he seemed to enjoy the close proximity with you too much. 

Paul separated himself for you and then grabbed you by the hand. Soft lips pressed lightly against the insides of your wrist, directly over the veins and arteries. You took deep breaths to prevent yourself from ripping your arm out of his grasp. 

“Both of those arguments are invalid, so that is besides the point. Your appearance doesn’t hint at your true skills and lets people underestimate you. They’ll find ways to justify the changes in both our behaviour, without them coming close to the truth. Humans hate being wrong, so they won’t alter their assessment of the situation to match the truth”, he chided you. 

“If that is the case, then it was counterproductive of you to ambush me. Somebody could have seen us. Keep in mind that I’m talking about unfriendly eyes.”

The free hand reached up and with featherlight fingertips he traced your hairline. 

“Yes, I know. It was just a reminder to keep your guard up. And to not get ahead of yourself - I did overpower you, didn’t I?”

“My Lord is the exception rather than the rule. Your father didn’t neglect your education, and did ensure that you only got the best teachers.”

“That is true, otherwise he wouldn’t have given me you”, he countered. 

You sighed softly and dared to give him a direct glance. The young man was more relaxed now and calmer. The calm before the storm, mayhaps? He laid down your hand in his lap and those softened eyes hardened and his next words had a cold quality to them. 

“The Harkonnens won’t show any mercy or let you live under any circumstances. Even if you would succeed in convincing my mother and my father to let you go, then you wouldn’t get far. You wouldn’t get aboard a spaceship, because you can’t afford a price. The Spacing Guild doesn’t just let anybody join their crews on short notice, so you would be dead before they would even hire you. Going alone into the desert is a death sentence and you would have no guarantee that the Fremen would draw you in the fold, aside from draining you for your water. 

“It is completely unlike you to not maintain a level head in a stressful situation. That is only more reason for you to kindly cease your attempts of running away and heed my guidance.”

The wad of saliva went down with difficulty. Were you so obvious to him, or was it prescience speaking? Was the rumour mill to blame? Either way he was right - you were stuck in the same boat as him and the Harkonons would either kill you or enslave you or both. Trying to remove yourself from the situation would mean making yourself more vulnerable and would invite predators in for the chase. Your fate lay in his hands and by the looks of it, he intended to keep it forever and chain you to his side. 

What should you do? 

[nalyra-dreaming]

i just started reading the books after the show and i think one of the biggest changes is how in the book, it's clear lestat didn't deserve to be killed, whereas in the show, he very much did. that sets up all their conflicts from the first book onward, how they're both mutually awful to each other and constantly misunderstanding each other. that's the core of their conflict and i feel like that changes completely makes their whole dynamic different in the show. what do you think of this change?

(You must be new here :) *waves*)

No, Lestat did not deserve to be killed.

But the show had to make it seem so. That is why they amped up the abuse, amped up the aggravation within the tale.

It comes with the basic change they did in setting and age, to an extent, because Lestat is a lot older when he meets Louis, a lot more jaded.

And... it comes with the arc they want to do, namely "get" Lestat to the "Prince Lestat" state, as Rolin has already hinted at several times.

The route they are taking to get there... is a very different one to the books, let's put it that way, and it is not one I like all aspects of.

And it changes the dynamic, yes! But... given how much of a caveat they gave themselves with "Armand's tinkering"... it still remains to be seen how changed the Loustat dynamic actually is.

Because we have not seen the "real" Loustat dynamic yet. We have seen glimpses.

Supposedly we have seen ONE scene with the "real Lestat" so far - namely this:

This.

This is supposedly the real Lestat, with the real Louis. In a scene with a supposedly objective camera lens.

And THAT is a whole different thing to the "tale" we were fed - Armand tried to feed "us" - over the last two seasons.

It will remain to be seen, just how much... of the tale will still stand by the end of the series.

The writers have said in November 2022 they would revisit murder night, and that has not happened yet, so I'm expecting that for s3.

Because Claudia's words in her diary do not match what we saw... and so a lot of THAT will change what we currently know, too.

We will only be able to... judge what to make of the changes after the series has run. Some of them frustrate me, because of the repercussions, fandom-wise. But I don't think we have had any final word on them, tbh.

[clarissaweasley-10]

JLB fr is like that one teacher who always shows favourism. And we all know who the fav student(s) are....

[crazy-fangirl2524]

Andrew’s “bottomless rage” and Jean’s “old and ugly rage” are the same in this essay I will -

[roseaesynstylae]

Alpha-17 being a mother hen to the other Alphas* is something we need to see more. Jangotat survives because Alpha stomps in, shrieking obscenities, and drags his ass away, pausing only to yell at Obi-Wan for daring to put his little brother in danger (nevermind that that's what they're currently supposed to do). Maze doesn't tell him about Ordo punching him because if he did, Alpha would make sure the body wouldn't be recognizable as a corpse. Muzzle and Fordo don't get that brotherly overprotectiveness because they're just as prone to mother-henning as Alpha is. On their days off, the three of them team up to make the lives of anyone who dares fuck with their siblings hell.

*Specifically the Alphas that serve the Republic. Do you really think Mr. "They grow up loyal to the Republic or they don't grow up at all" would be at all sympathetic to Sull and Spar's reasons? The best case scenario is that he tells them that he's pulled some strings (read: blackmailed and threatened) to get them back into the GAR scot-free and if they do not accept it he will break their fucking limbs and drag them back.

[al-luviec]

compiled whatever this is (and I run out of tag space)

meh HoT gifs (3/?)

[the-way-astray]

guys i really hate to break it to you, but elves would not consider the moon landing to be a particularly outstanding achievement

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[empyreansentinel]

TELL US ABOUT THE FLESHRIPPERS WE LOVE THE FLESHRIPPERS

OKAYY YAYYY YIPPEEE!

nadia - 2nd gen fleshripper! though her parents are both long since dead. she isnt involved in a lot of active fighting that her clan does and doesn't leave the interior or the soaring dragon very often. she was one of the fleets navigators and got hell for it from flynt whenever they got caught in the flash freeze. ruiz - old boat engineer that lived in the bay who is forced to run maintenance on the fleshripper's ships. he goes along because the faster he can get them off of the glacier the faster that theyll leave them the hell alone. but he makes things Much worse when he tries to take more drastic measures to ward them off. flyntlock - originally was a part of baron’s crew but pushed to the fleshrippers when he died instead of joining the bloodshots. may or may not be a straight up robot (?) instead of a cyborg like most of the other rippers. hes kind of third wheeling captains marriage. its a little embarrassing. titania - meets hammerlock when she catches him out hunting and they are uhm. well they almost made it to being friends! almost. but she values the wants of her clan over him + the other residents of liars berg so when captain gives the order she starts knocking down doors. shes got a very direct way of thinking and though she acknowledges what the fleshrippers are doing is wrong, it doesnt stop her. mutya flynt - sparky's mama :(. outlives both her husband and her son and is in charge of whatever's left of the fleshrippers when BL3 comes around though theyre not really pirates anymore. she has her men stick to the water because its far out of the COVs interest. shes in hyperion custody during borderlands 2 and misses most of the fighting. she also wants 2 attack zane with hammers. jenny-mae hodunk (flynt) - politically engaged to sparky but they never make it to the wedding for. vault hunter reasons. was born and raised in the hodunk clan and took the absolute first chance she could to get out of there. shes moxxis niece! though shes young enough that she doesnt really remember her.

[themyscirah]

"worlds finest" ok but when are they gonna let diana and clark hang out though

[camellcat]

it's irritatingly funny that I can find books for almost any other series like it's nothing and yet somehow doctor who continues to evade me. I just. can't??? none of my usual sites have them, and looking online brings me nothing, and I ??? where are they ?????

[cherriesandcharms]

If you wanted to explain dragon age to someone who's never heard of it (me) what would you say?

this is all v biased bc i love this series

at it's core its a lore rich fantasy rpg. the mechanics change across the three (soon to be four) games, as do the characters, so people have varying Opinions on which game is best. personally i like all three for different reasons, tho i have played inquisition the most

i prefer story over combat, so thats where most of the focus for me is. i like that there are different classes and backgrounds to choose from for your main characters, and that decisions u make during the games impact the world state, and can carry over from game to game.

i wont detail the plots bc it is A LOT. but theres a lot of silly dumb stuff mixed in with the serious that keeps it entertaining

there is a lot going on in the wider universe with politics, religion, class and race struggles. it is a world with magic, so the rights of mages is one of the biggest debate topics. u do have to pick sides, but if u dont care u dont have to read codex entries or ask extra questions in dialogue options

its a series i would recommend to people. you dont have to start with Origins, i didnt, but it can be fun to start from the beginning (tho keep in mind it is a bioware game from 2009, it is crash happy, biggest rec is researching any patches that u might need)