#but what if they take it down? who will preserve it? it's so niche.

[thatrandombystander]

Oh boo. Finally saw the official confirmation that The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge was cancelled after only getting the one season last year (and the Christmas special). I was expecting it, considering there was no season this year, but still sad 😔

Very good cosy show. Very niche too and am big concern about how it seems to be missing from a lot of 🏴‍☠️ sites. Had what seems to be the single working (but slow since no seeders) t*rr*nt running for it for the last 12 hours. Hopefully it will finish overnight and I can see if I can find and save a copy of the Christmas special.

Can't buy a copy of the darn show but I WILL preserve a copy of it!

[cute-sucker]

note: im begging for requests for this au!!! i'm sobbing, idk what character it is <3

˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.˚❀༉‧₊˚.

jonbee taking care of you during an apocalypse and you're in near tears begging him to kiss you. it happens all the time, the casual way that he's dominant over you. if it's the way that he's so much taller, the way his rough hands feel on yours. he always drops a kiss on your forehead before serving you french toast.

you love the normality of it all. the way he's humming the song on the radio, and you're bobbing your head to it. ivy is growing in the trailer park, and the shorts you have on have dirt smudges all over it when the two of you were running.

yet john b is giving you everything he can to serve you a normal lifestyle. he's trying everything to make you feel better, tucking back your hair, and coaxing you to eat. he's even found an old apron that has, 'kiss the chef,' on it, and suddenly your tearing up, holding up your brittle knife and fork.

hot tears drip down your face, as you sniffle quietly nudging at the food on your plate. almost immediately john b turns around, eyes full of concern.

"hey? hey, what's wrong?" he murmers, dropping down to your level. his hat is on backwards, and you fight the urge to turn it the other way. "don't cry pup," he cooes, grazing your wet cheeks, and you fight the urge of jumping into his arms, or asking to sit on his lap. after all, the two of you are platonic anyways. that's clear to tell.

you choke on your sob, "iono, just feel this pressure on my chest. i really need to be close to someone." even as you say this, your eyes are wide ready to be rejected, but john be is always there for you, as his hands snake up your sides, and sits you down on his lap.

"alright now. let's eat something now. maybe that'll make the ache go away."

you nodd at his soft words. he's right, he's always right. the two of you could barley find normal food now, always preservatives, or food that makes you hurt. you like it when he embraces you like this, his big arms around your waist, as you feel like a kid swinging your legs. and yet here you are crying the one day that there is good food.

suddenly you feel worse. the world is ending, and you'll be dead soon, and john be will never be with you, and you will have never kissed anyone. you'll never be a librarian in a niche town with a husband who would kiss you off your feet. no, you will have never kissed someone! what a tragedy to love someone so deeply yet never touch their soothing lips. maybe john b's lips on yours would fix everything.

you feel so stupid.

finally, john b puts the fork down, warm breath on your neck, and he sets you off his lap to look you in the eye.

"i need you to tell me what's wrong, and so i can fix it." he whispers to you, his hand rubbing soothing circles on your back. you shake your head, feeling the pounding feeling in your chest, as if you were going to vomit but your stomach was empty.

john b sighs, his voice firm now, "this won't go away. show me where it hurts. do you feel sick?" he murmurs to you, giving you his hand to guide, and you tentivally take it to place it on your heart.

"here," you croak, "it hurts here."

he looks surprised, yet his eyes are warm as he speaks in his soothing tone, his words practically melting in your mouth, "why does it hurt pup?"

"i need you to kiss me," you blurt out, and let go of his hand, "so it can stop."

he tilts his head almost amused, "yea? you need me to kiss you, so your heart can stop hurting."

you hate the way he's teasing you, a soft lint in his tone, his large hands still settling on you as he talks to you. he's so gentle with you it burns your skin, it burns everything inside of you.

"i can't take it. i can't take the fact that i've never kissed someone," and then you pause, your voice a whimper, "i can't take it that i haven't kissed you jonbee-"

and then without a doubt, he looks at you again, his eyes so feverious, so full of emotion, burning with the exact same fire that you feel your body ablaze with.

just like that john b cups your jaw, and kisses you so sweetly you see stars.

[peachyloveswriting]

hello!! I absolutely love your writing especially of COD, I’ve been reading so many of them now

I was wondering if I could request some headcanons? Of König, Ghost and Soap and they react to an s/o who likes to take care of them. Like the s/o likes to cook for them, wash their hair or do face masks. Basically acts of service as a love language

Feel free to ignore this if it’s not to your liking and have a wonderful day/night!

CARING --- (König, Ghost, and Soap)

SUMMARY: just some funny ideas for the boys.

CONTENT: cuteness

⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝

KÖNIG

-> Being in the military, König does the bare minimum required to take care of himself. He thinks it's enough to get by but he's noticed that anytime he's home with you, you have other plans. You're always pestering him about being more careful and having some self preservation. He never seems to listen though but he's trying his best to cater to that.

-> Being off base, König likes to sleep in. These plans also seem to be ruined because you're always dragging him to take a shower with you, you'll sit him down and wash his hair, he's not complaining about that though m he lives the feeling of your hands working across his head and body. If you're not taking a shower you're forcing him to put on a face mask with you. He doesn't like it because was little facial hair he has is ripped off. Poor man can never seem to catch a break.

-> He has horrible dry skin, especially on his hands. You'll sit him down on the couch and make him put on lotion. You'll even apply it himself which he doesn't mind in the slightest. As a matter of fact he loves when you treat him like a princess. Especially when he wakes up in the morning to a fresh plate waiting for him. Though he feels like he's not giving you enough in return and he tries his best to do just that. He'll try to buy you things without you knowing but he's not very good with keeping it a secret. He'll ask you what you prefer and you immediately know what's up.

⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝

GHOST

-> Ghost is not a man for personal hygiene, let's be honest. He hardly showers, he doesn't take care of himself like he should be. That very quickly changed when you came around. Suddenly 15 minute showers once a week became 30 minute showers every other day. He loves the feeling of your hands scrubbing away at his hair while he leans into your touch. You're so gentle with him that sometimes he asks you so press harder.

-> This man knows close to nothing about face masks, however he go curious one morning while you were applying yours and asked what they even did. Instead of actually explaining them you just slapped one on him and sent him on his way. He literally was so confused, he had no idea what he was supposed to do but after you took it off he felt so clean. He honestly asked to do it again.

-> Simon absolutely loves looking, he's got amazing cooking skills. Its like he has a niche for it. However he finds you often shoving him out of the way to cook for him. He doesn't mind it but he finds it rather surprising that you would rather cook than him. He likes it though, you're enthusiasm to baby him. He seems to pay your back in strange ways, returning the favor by leaving you small endearing notes everywhere.

⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝

SOAP

-> Let's be honest, Soap loves being pampered however he feels like there's an imbalance unless he pays you back. It's like food wars when you cook for him. If you make him breakfast he makes you this bomb ass desert after dinner that leaves you begging for more. You can't ever have a moment of relaxation if it's cooking because it's a one up game at this point.

-> If you take a shower with him and wash his hair for him he's immediately returning the favor. In an instant he's washing your hair and body, he even applies face masks to you first so that way you feel special. If he feels that's not enough he'll take you out to dinner somewhere nice.

-> He thoroughly enjoys facemasks because they leave him feeling fresh everytime, so you can always find him right beside you doing the same thing. It's like your own bonding activity that you've begun. Anytime he does this on base and Ghost catches him he makes fun of him, which usually ends with Soap giving this man a lot of Scottish curses he's never heard before, other people swear he's placing a curse in him.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Who likes mid-century modern, all original, and orange, orange, orange? This beautiful 1965 MCM in Palm Springs, California has it. 4bds, 5ba, $1.850M.

Take a step back in time when white & gray were not a thing. And, guess what? It comes with the furnishings! I see lots of orange, but the description says that the late owner's favorite color was red.

Perfectly preserved time capsule. Look at those giant candelabras- they could be yours. Notice the bulbs in the ceiling beams.

When you say, "I'll be at the corner bar," you mean you'll be in the living room. Love the fabric on the chairs. Pink & orange are naturals together.

Zoinks! Ornate gold dining table and high-backed crushed velvet chairs. The laminate faux marble on the wall was popular then, too.

Oh, wow, totally original kitchen right down to the appliances and laminate. They sure did love laminate back then. And, how about a ceiling of light?

The fridge is new, but so what, it's off to the side. Look at the niche, place for desk, and the vintage intercom/radio system.

Who wouldn't want an everyday dining room that has a purple ceiling and plush crushed velvet swivel chairs?

This home is so vibrant. It includes a fancy tea cart that looks like Ben Hur's chariot, and the funkiest lamp I've ever seen.

In the primary bedroom, I need the carpet, bed and chair. I always loved canopy beds, but this one is regal and funky at the same time.

What a vanity, and of course, it's not an MCM if it doesn't have a sunken tub made of mosaic tiles.

There were no cutting of corners in the secondary bedrooms, either. That canopy must be attached to the ceiling.

Vanity table right in the bedroom. That's what I need.

Interesting bath. There must be storage behind those doors.

Even the smallest bedroom has a canopy bed. Notice the pink Aladdin's lamp on the night stand. Details!

In any true MCM home, there has to be something in Harvest Gold, the most popular color choice.

Cozy basement family room. So comfy looking.

Plus a powder room. Note the door on the left.

Orange cabinetry in the laundry room.

Beautiful patio and pool outside.

A vintage black & white photo proves that it hasn't changed at all.

The .25 acre lot is set against a mountain backdrop.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1240-S-Manzanita-Ave-Palm-Springs-CA-92264/18027905_zpid/

[isalisewrites]

Mormon General Conference is over. Finally.

I've posted more than I normally do about the religion of my birth on this blog. Don't worry. After this, we're going back to our regular hella gay programming for another six months.

You can't keep my gay twinks away from me forever!!!

But I make these posts so others can see a safe space within my blog for those who are PIMO (physically in, mentally out) or EXMO (Ex Mormon). I make these posts for those who suffer and struggle during General Conference due to 9 to 10 of relentless hours from these men (with the spattering of a 3 to 4 women in there). I understand and I've been there. It's painful to be in the early stages of your faith deconstruction because you're usually navigating it alone.

I want those of you who are PIMO to know that it's going to be okay.

This pain will not last forever.

I have been PIMO for two and a half years now. The past two conferences have not affected me. I still go to church. I'm still surrounded by believers. But I am unaffected.

And you will get to this place in time, too.

You will be at peace when you're surrounded by people who are hooked by these lies and you will be okay with it. There's freedom in letting go and understanding that this is myth. You can't always fix everything, even though we've been taught that we can. You can critique and call out the bullshit without being affected by it. Even if your physical freedom isn't within reach yet, you can obtain emotional and mental freedom.

To those of you who are young or underage PIMOs, wait it out. It's okay. Nod and smile. Keep your head down and don't speak out about the church to your parents. It will bring suspicion over you and limit you. Do as little as you can in church without causing issues with your parents. Study, study, study, and go to college. Get your education because that will defend you from further cults.

You will gain your freedom one day.

Do things that bring you joy. Begin to do less in the church and more in your life. If you're stuck, better yourself as best as you can. Don't overdo it, though. You have time.

Take time to grieve time lost, but learn to live in the moment. This will be the thing that preserves your sanity the most.

The past is nothing but a memory and tomorrow doesn't exist.

There is only this moment.

There is only today, so live it like it might be your last.

Use it for what brings you joy. It doesn't have to be productive, either.

You are not alone. Continue to find community among us EXMOs and PIMOs. If you're like me and love fandom, find your fandom space online. I found my safe space and community in my little Harry Potter fandom, the Tomarry niche. I started writing a gay fanfiction and gathered beautiful people around who support me. I do what I love. As a mostly closeted lesbian, this was my way of maintaining my sanity.

Whatever your journey may be, it's the right one. I might not believe in Mormonism anymore, but I do think that our journeys have purpose and good in them. I've endured a lot of bullshit this year and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

I found out about my precancerous uterus in February. On the day I scheduled my hysterectomy, I had a gallbladder attack that would not go away. Three days later, I had emergency gallbladder surgery.

I had someone fake their death in my server, causing a great amount pain and chaos among my friends.

A family member found my anonymous online identity and discovered my PIMO status. They turned on me, attacked me, caused me great pain, and then abandoned me for months. There was a near month of nothing, before they'd return with more reverse blaming and zero accountability for their unacceptable actions. They told another family member, who was supportive of me, but I didn't give any permission of the spreading of MY business. I remain silent about my PIMO status for two years for a REASON.

Zero apologies. Zero accountability.

After 83 days of silence, they text me on my mother's birthday, who has been dead for over 5 years, that they're thinking of her.

Yet, they've scorned her daughter.

I've been to the ER four times this year, under anesthesia twice, and will be going under it for a third. I will have had two surgeries this year.

And I endured this all without a foundation of faith in Mormonism and its god. My mental health has been the best its ever been this year, even during the hard months where I had depression and anxiety.

I've excelled this year beyond other years. I've written a total of 243,000 words and will continue to write more. I am stronger than I ever was.

All without Mormonism.

You do not need this religion to live a fulfilling, joyous life. This is the most important truth you can instill within yourself. I have been lucky because ever since I was a little girl, the one thing that could never be taken from me was my love for writing. My drive to write could never be stolen. I was able to rely on that and turn to it.

If you don't have something you love, now is a beautiful time to find something. Create. Write. Read. Draw. Knit. Crochet. Pick up a hobby. Something, anything. Make content. Your life will be enriched by it, trust me. Find community in what you love.

If you lost family because of Mormonism, remember that family is more than blood. Your people are out there.

You can always send me an ask to reach out to me, too.

Life is amazing on this side. It's a little scary, but it's not evil or cruel. It's nothing like the leaders of the Mormon church have led us to believe. The hardships of life are not created by an evil one who is out to destroy you.

The hardships of life exist because you're alive.

You are shaking the chains of religious indoctrination. You are doing one of the hardest things you can do in this life. You will come out stronger than before.

And I'm proud of you.

[sky-kiss]

hello <3 I’ve been lurking around the raphael tag little niche and I see that a fairly popular concept is tav/durge duchess (love the concept love the energy, very big fan of it in your fic as well) and I was wondering, since raphael struggles with sort of minimising how much his mortal side is perceived in favour of appearing as much as possible as a devil with a capital D (see his celebratory paintings being all about his devil form), whether that by itself would be a peculiar choice to take a mortal as a consort. or if you think he sort of did the math and went well tav/durge is a very effective asset he can keep close and its sort of worth it take the loss of sort exposing himself to other archdevils being judgemental over it (especially since the hells seem very much like a only devils can sit at the grown up table lmao)

/Stares at you. Sighs. Sips scotch/

So, I see. You're finally here to kill me, anon.

Alright. Let's get into it. If we're being entirely honest, I do not believe that Raphael would offer Tav/Durge a place as his consort. I genuinely don't. Especially not directly after they've given him the Crown. I've done it a few times recently, mostly because it's the only place to conveniently put it. And it works for short-form posts.

But if we are talking about genuine Raphael, it's my opinion that he would not offer. He may be fond of you, but his version of fondness would translate more to like...how fond you are of a good dog, or a subcontractor who put in great work. You aren't equals. "Friends," but not equals. Raphael's interest in Tav/Durge stems from what they can provide him. Once he has the Crown, he sees himself as having succeeded. You might meet for drinks like he's promised, but he has no reason to continue the relationship.

However, there is something to be said for an adventurer's soul. And Tav/Durge would be a massive catch further down the line. By the endgame, the TadFools are a bunch of freaks if we're power scaling. They're only level 12, but the games mechanics and the psycho gear they acquire allows them to punch well above their weight class. With their stat blocks, their party of four could probably fight Zariel. And on that note, because of game mechanics, Raphael could probably take Zariel (based on her 5E statblock) in a cage match, even without the Crown. He'd at least make it close. That's how powerful the crew is by the end. So, they would be a crazy powerful asset to acquire.

To the point of offering them the role of consort: no. I don't think he'd do it. Not right after the Crown, at least. And it's something I wish I'd made clearer in my long fic. I'd clarify it in a rewrite. Raphael never actually offers Joi/Durge the role of consort. Haarlep moves for her to be in that role. Haarlep informs Mephistopheles that she's his new consort. Meph is the first one to actually state it and does this in front of Dispater to discredit his son. Raphael then plays along with it in order to build his influence with the succubi/incubi. It's self-preservation, power, and arrogance that motivates the decision, not affection.

So uh...yeah. Sorry. I don't....I don't think he'd take Tav/Durge as his consort. Maybe after he's had his assbeat for a while? And they crusade and prove themselves to be incredibly useful?

But we lie to ourselves for fiction. Sorry for the longpost.

[jesncin]

Honestly, you are like the most based person ever. A Martian Manhunter fan and a MAWS critic? F YEAH!

I'm so disappointed with MAWS' Lois :( Her romance with Clark could've been so good. SO GOOD. But they decided to go for fan service instead. She just gives off Lena (from cwsg) vibes and that's never a good thing.

Speaking of Supergirl, what's your opinion on the show? And on the show's portrait of J'onn. It baffles me how much hate the show got for the same things fans are willing to overlook now on MAWS. Aren't those some double standards, geez...

Aw shucks thank you! 2 incredibly niche but based things to be...

Sob! Call it the ace in me but whenever people think MAWS!Clois have chemistry because they're easily amused by seeing hot characters undress I lose life force. I didn't witness a couple that grew mutual respect and affection, I saw an insta-crush that led to Lois becoming so entitled to a guy she'd known for less than a week to the point of demanding full transparency of his private life before they even started dating. And then the narrative says it's Clark's fault for having reasonable boundaries, and then they're a couple. What is this.

I've briefly talked about CW Supergirl before, but my takeaway is: if people think MAWS is genuinely good writing then they should absolutely watch CW Supergirl because it must look like high art in comparison to MAWS. Maybe people are less judgy when something's animated and that's not fair. If we want to take animation as a serious medium we should hold it to the same standard and not coddle it. As someone who watched a few eps when CW Supergirl aired and then revisited and watched the whole thing years after the show concluded, I feel that the misogyny surrounding people's discourse around the show has led to people judging the show based on a fanon idea of it rather than its own merits.

more under the cut!

CW Supergirl is a show with great highs and lows. This results in things being hit or miss. But when something hits- CW Supergirl is not given nearly enough credit as it deserves. As a Martian Manhunter fan, I believe that their take on J'onn is the most competent and well adapted in not just adapted media, but all of comics canon. That doesn't mean I like everything they did with his lore and character, but I can acknowledge that they actually bothered developing him outside of the comics/cartoon's fixation with making him mope about his Origin Story all the time. He gets to find love, have adopted daughters through Kara and Alex, reckon with what it's like to preserve aspects of a culture he doesn't fully identify with, deal with his dad going through Martian Alzheimer's disease, and most importantly MAKE PEACE WITH HIS BROTHER. CW Supergirl has hands down, the best take on Ma'alefa'ak in all of canon.

I think Lena is a great character on the show. She's dealing with the trauma of being constantly manipulated by her own family, the legacy her name carries and who she is in all that. But because the supercorp ship permeates the way people perceive the show, she's reduced to that by discourse. When Lena has drama over Kara's secret Superhero identity, it's something that's built up to and informed by trauma, trust-issues, and TIME. We are shown that she has these problems. It gets melodramatic at times, but it's still something that was built up to. Meanwhile in MAWS Lois just tells us she has daddy issues and that it's why she really needs the cute guy at work to spill all his personal info to her even though she gets to lie to him for her own personal gain multiple times. I appreciate what CW Supergirl did to bring more attention to what was an obscure character. Whenever I bump into Lena in the comics, it hasn't stacked up to the character I met on the show.

I've called this out before but while CW Supergirl isn't perfect by any means especially with their treatment of Jimmy Olsen as a love interest to Kara and a generally sidelined Black supporting character, they still discussed and acknowledged Jimmy's identity as a Black American man! Sure it was heavy handed many times, but that's way better than MAWS straight up ignoring Jimmy's Blackness and even making an unintentional jab at it!! Like cw Supergirl Jimmy knows bigotry and has experienced it. MAWS Jimmy thinks bigotry is being ghosted for a camping trip. I have seen the exact same critics call out cw Supergirl for Jimmy's treatment while gleefully thinking Jimmy's treatment in MAWS is so uwu perfect. It makes me sick! Am I going insane?? It's the double standards for me.

[n3ver--more]

By popular request (one person), here is the crash course on some of my main oc lore! (Yes it is cringe, no I will not take criticism, please be kind)

So first, the cults. There are two overall, but one has two very different factions.

The Cult of the Dual Lords:

A cult that worships two distinct gods who together represent the whole of the universe and how everything works together in harmony. These two gods are gay married because of course they are. Both temples practice ritual sacrifice, and yes of course there is some cannibalism involved (consensually).

1. The Temple of Oscuro - Oscuro is the God of night, darkness, death, knowledge, etc. His followers are focused on improving life for the future, innovating, and preserving history. They have an extensive library and archive of as much history as they can gather, and it is their most guarded possession. Ayesha Khouri is the current High Prophet, so he spends most of his time pretending he knows what he's doing and trying his hardest to keep his people alive and doing well. Aaliyah Rahal is a priestess of Oscuro who spends most of her time studying and teaching classes on incredibly niche topics. Whatever interests her at the time. All members of this temple have sworn an oath of pacifism to their God with the only exception being defense of another person.

2. The Temple of Allumer - Allumer is the God of day, light, life, wealth, war, and hedonism. The "fun stuff." His followers spend their time living in the present, enjoying themselves to the fullest and amassing as much wealth as they can, because in the Temple, wealth directly translates to status. Their belief system could be summarized as "live fast, die young." Hassan Bila-Asm is their High Priest, and he does a pretty shit job at that. He's basically a culty Dorian Gray, chasing youth and beauty as well as clinging fiercely to the wealth that grants him his status. Malika Faheem is a priestess of Allumer, and she often ends up doing Hassan's job for him.

The Children of the Earth Mother

Another, very separate cult from the others. A society of eco-warriors (literally) who believe that anything that could harm the Earth (their goddess) is evil and must be destroyed. Because of this, they *really* don't like the temple of Oscuro and their pro-progress initiative, no matter if it's actually harmful or not. Given the oath of pacifism the Oscurans make, they are super easy to kill, and the Children have no qualms about doing so. Any missing parts of the historical records have been caused by raids by the Children.

Uhhh I will probably add to this later, but for now, this is the quick run-down on the two (three if you count the temples separately) cults in my OC universe!

@eyeball-creatures-boyfriend @some-froggish-lad (wasn't sure which to tag lolz sorry)

[merik72-blog]

What if Furina wasn't a girlfailure for 500 years? (Shorteneder Version (still long))

Off the top, I'm not a lore expert. If this doesn't make sense lore-wise, feel free to tell me all about it. Expect it, even. I just wanted to write this down because after experiencing her story, (when it dropped months ago in version 4) this idea just never got out of my head. I process media in a way where I'm constantly thinking on the level of "why did the authors make these specific decisions?", and I couldn't shake the feeling that the authors lacked a bit of imagination when considering just how long 5 centuries is. I have like over a thousand words of why I think this which includes a discussion of historicity and biblical allusion. I cut it all -- nobody wants to read that.

That being said, this is somewhere between a rewrite and like a notes document. In this, Furina is still fundamentally the same character. Her personality and mannerisms should be basically identical, even if she's more competent. This rewrite hopes to preserve the main beats of her arc: The confrontation by Arlecchino, the disaster which causes people to doubt her godliness, the trial, and a backstory which makes you pity her. I'm going to lay these out in chronological order, rather than plot order.

Backstory

Focalors told Furina the prophecy, leaving her terrified and overwhelmed. All the people of Fontaine will drown, and she will be left alone, crying on her throne. Despite her horror, some rebellious gumption rose up in her soul and allows her to steel herself. Much like Focalors before her, despite being handed a doomed situation, Furina decided that there was nothing she couldn't fight back against, even fate. Knowing that there's a flood coming, she put together a plan.

Furina decided that she would hold grand competitions every decade, gathering the greatest tinkerers, engineers, architects, anyone with interesting ideas in her nation to show off their most creative inventions, no matter what those inventions did. She would call these competitions Fontaine's Utopique Rendezvous for Industrie Nouvelleté, et Audacé* (FURINA). As their god, Fontainian culture was her privilege and responsibility to shape, so innovation and technological advancement would be placed at the core. With great patience, she would lead Fontaine from the Medieval age to the Industrial revolution. During FURINAs, as she strolled through the streets of Fontaine, the entrants displayed and described their creations to her to each would be personally judged by her. There is not a maximum or minimum of winners, there are only those who do and do not catch the eye of the Hydro Archon. At the end of the competition, she rewards the winners with her patronage to sponsor them and their ideas. These winners would come to be informally known as FURINA Scholars. She created these patron relationships usually with the goal of creating or improving a public infrastructure project or taking a particularly fascinating or promising invention from an impractical novelty to mass producible technology that anyone could use. FURINA Scholars had a hard time limit of 10 years, being required to present their progress publicly at the next FURINA by the latest. The results of these varied from practical, aesthetic, to insanely niche novelty toys you'd expect a French aristocrat to buy.

A lot of real kings and queens can't dedicate themselves to advancement in this way because their bureaucracy, the power structure beneath them, know that they don't have to be beholden to them forever. Each bureaucrat knows there will be another younger ruler eventually who would could be manipulated into giving more to them and less to the people. Not so with Furina. She would use the royal coffers however she wanted to, and nobody could speak out against her, lest they be hit with the combination blasphemy-treason from the judgement of the Oratrice Mechanique d'Analyse Cardinale.

(*This is intentionally butchered French, in line with the Oratrice Mechanique d'Analyse Cardinale. If you can't read it, it's basically Fontaine's Utopian Conference for Industry, Novelty, and Audacity. It's a funny acronym, and a bit on the nose in multiple ways, but I think it would be something she would come up with. I imagine that Furina would never call it FURINA, but over time people would start calling it "the FURINA" and eventually "the FURINA de Fontaine" in the way that people always start butchering acronyms when they become normal words.)

Every day, Furina's free time between these FURINAs was spent studying, learning, testing, and inventing in her study. If Fontaine was to be flooded by rising waters, she herself would be dedicated to finding a way to allow Fontaine to survive any flood. Out of the public eye, she found ways to spend every spare moment honing her skills and iterating her designs. She quickly learned to dismiss attendants that came to her with some spurious legislative work whenever she left the Opera Epiclese. Go to Neuvillette! She had a duty which so obviously rendered such things spurious. Paperwork? When Fontaine could be drowned any year now?

(Just as in the real story, it's implied that Neuvillette is vaguely aware that she must be working incredibly hard, but she deliberately hides her toil from everyone, including him.)

Obsessively, tirelessly, she toiled single-mindedly towards in designing super-structures capable of diverting, pumping, or otherwise controlling vast amounts of water. As she would sketch mockups of grand designs, she was thinking of public excuses for doing this rather than just using her "archon powers." It would make her seem more benevolent to say something like "I cannot be everywhere at once, and I need to be sure that the people of Fontaine shall not suffer a disaster under my rule, even out from under my watchful gaze." It was even true, in a way. Over the centuries, she carried out plans for every major Fontaine settlement's coastline and the entire capitol city to be protected by works of engineering which were equally intricate and gargantuan. At the same time, they balanced preserving the beauty of coastlines and consistency in aesthetic that is paramount for France. She directed the creations of these superstructures over generations with clarity and consistency in intent. She eventually became capable of concocting ideas that were not possible with currently invented technology, her innovation outdoing the rate of technological advancement. That meant she was not nearly finished. Waiting for technology to catch up with her ideas was always a good opportunity to update the physical build of her superstructures.

Despite her having already gathered vast and unmatched generational knowledge after her first full century of study, she still continued FURINAs to find the best and brightest minds of each generation. (If it must be done for Genshin's thematic consistency or ideology, these can all even be vision holders). These inventors who all grew up in the context of Furina's unparalleled genius had the privilege of standing on the shoulders of a giant. Innovations begot innovations, forming a virtuous loop which drove unprecedented progress in industrialization leading to evolutions in technology especially in civil engineering and hydrodynamics. As Furina's knowledge and mastery over engineering slowly but surely surpassed mortal limits, FURINAs seemed to be more and more judged based on eccentric, incomprehensible whims. With relative frequency, participants would watch seemingly impressive inventions be passed over, meanwhile random toys that just made her giggle and applaud would win. She would say "I just find these trinkets so charming!" but in truth, she saw potential in central conceits in inventions that had the chance to change the underpinnings of Fontaine's infrastructure. Or she just genuinely found them charming.

As time passed, Furina's structures continually improved to a point that they did not just avoid, but very publicly Dominated countless floods and storms that would have been disastrous otherwise. These creations legitimized her godhood and won her adoration in the eyes of the people, who wove countless folktales over the ages telling the tales of Furina's power - herding hurricanes and subjugating tsunamis. At the same time, this made her prodigious skill for the dramatic arts even more impressive through the plurality of her talents. This resulted in many full circle moments, where Furina would play herself in epics about her overcoming disasters, not that she wrote, of course. These would sometimes exaggerate her powers, like giving her omniscience or visions of the future, the perfect designs flowing freely and naturally from her hands, as though they were as effortless as breathing.

Of course, she was not truly invincible. Slowly, she started to fray. As new innovations became more difficult, technology caught up to her designs. After the superstructure renovations commemorating the 4th century of her rule, she was distraught. This was the first time she had updated her superstructures without the plan for the next one at least partially completed. She needed to spend more of her energy pondering, as just her "free" time was insufficient. This led to her to becoming more absentminded during official duties, having forgone sleep or being still caught up ruminating on how to optimize designs, improve existing technology, or apply them in a novel way, but for some reason nothing was coming to her after a few years of different experiments and trials. Even in discussions with her FURINA Scholars, they stopped having new ideas in hydrodynamic engineering projects, being drawn towards other directions where they wouldn't need to compete with god. As she crossed the 450-year mark, she was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that her designs weren't nearly enough to protect the entire country and even further from perfect. For the better part of the last century, any improvement had been like trying to squeeze water from a stone. In the last ten years, she has probably improved her latest flood barriers by less than a liter of water. 30 more years restarting from scratch over and over with her current knowledge, no meaningful improvement.

For the 48th FURINA, she decided out of desperation to hold a hydro-themed FURINA. As she walked the streets of Fontaine, talking to each inventor as they presented their work, she was distraught. A marked decrease meaningful innovation. Worse than this, she noticed that inventors were less interested in creating submissions for this FURINA. The sentiment she was picking up on was that they felt futility in even trying. What was the point of trying to innovate in a field that they can hardly understand? The cutting edge of hydro-related innovation was driven so far by Furina that they felt mortals need not apply. Who could even be given the privilege of becoming the decade's FURINA Scholars from such a lackluster field...? As always, she found a way to get out of a dismaying situation. She crowned herself as the winner, made a grandiose speech about who she was still unmatched in the domain of Hydro, and unveiled her side project of the Aquabus.

At the end of the hydro-FURINA, Furina had never felt so alone. For the first time since her first decade, she had not the faintest idea of what to do from here. Nobody did. She had already pushed to and past limit of her knowledge, of her peoples' knowledge, and the limits of material possibility in Teyvat. All of these centuries had passed her by, all these sleepless nights, all her evolutions in the design of Fontaine to fortify it, for what? A worm, wriggling on a stone, drying out in the sun. If she failed to prevent the flood now, what would any of that time mean?

Furina found herself standing in her study, towering alone above the room crowded with her innovations, blueprints, experiments. Her gaze floated over each page; her life's work surrounded her. Broken mechanisms, meaningless scribbles, trials without results. Countless wasted mines of materials, countless wasted gallons of ink, and countless wasted centuries of labor by her precious hardworking people. Not realizing she was fully sobbing, she slumped to the floor, picking up the blueprint of one of her latest redesigns. She couldn't see anything aside from bodies floating in the water. Her mind replayed the faces of every person whom she's ever worked with or learned from, whose families she met, and every child of Fontaine whom she watched grow. They died all the same. Her vision started to swirl as their faces closed in around her. They rose up all around her from the waters in her blueprints. She grasped at them desperately, begging them to stay with her. On her side, shaking, sobbing, with a bundle of ripped and crumbled papers clutched against her. For the first time since she was told the prophecy, she felt truly helpless. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mirror. She scrambled through a carpet of papers, trinkets, and tools to touch her forehead to the glass.

"Mirror me, I-I've been doing everything I can. Our people have been trying, too! They worked so very hard, and they've built my all of designs beautifully."

Silence.

"Please, tell me you know something, anything that I can do now. I need to know. I can't let it end like this."

Silence.

"I never imagined that... that we'd even make it this far, mirror me." Furina was sitting now. With a smile on her face, she still couldn't stop the tears as she leaned against the mirror. "They truly are my pride and joy." Barely more than a whisper, an "I'm sorry" escaped her lips.

She had been doing her best for so long, but she had certainty now. Her best would not be enough.

A real Archon would be able to overcome this. On her own strength.

Furina cursed her inadequacy, mourning the people of Fontaine in her heart. It was torture. Every day, her job was to look at all the wonderful people that she was failing every day, people whom she was dooming through her weakness. During trials, she entirely lost the ability to focus on what's happening in front of her, her comments in the Opera becoming nonsensical and detached. More often, she handed off interpretations directly to Neuvillette, and tears sometimes leaked through when doing her fan meetups. Somehow, she still managed to hide her turmoil with audacious bravado as always. She felt more internally frantic as more years came and went. It was like desperately treading treacherous waters as she needed more and more effort to simply maintain surface appearances. The 49th and 50th FURINAs were brief respites from the gloom. Despite all of the stress in her life, the silly novelties of her people could still bring her joy. But when she returned to her private abode, she found that sometimes, not every time, she didn't want to work anymore. Instead, she would lay in her bed. Stillness without rest.

Her dead eyes blinked slowly, making no tears. She pondered, "How long has it been?" When she stared down at her hands, she could still see the souls of every Fontanian leaking through her fingers. The harder she tried to hold onto them, the further they'd splatter away. If only she had more time. Time, as always, passed anyway.

Plot time

Now, this is when the incident happens. Furina just hit rock bottom as the Traveler comes to town. Everything in the plot that played out in the main story happens mostly the same. This retroactively explains why all of Furina's arguments in the Mysterious Disappearances trials are so weak. Sure, she has a lot of experience presiding over trials, and it may be a top priority for her since this Furina is also excited about the opportunity for a Grand Trial that Focalors told her about, but she is so far from being on the top of her game right now.

Over centuries, Furina built this idea of infallibility, weaving a narrative to reaffirm her godhood. Fontainians believed that because each design was crafted by Furina directly, she made sure that none of them could ever fail using her uniquely intimate knowledge of the Hydro element. When Arlecchino called for an audience with Furina about the impending incident of unprecedented scale in Poisson, Furina was not just small or helpless with no excuse. Furina imposed upon Arlecchino as a god in her own land. There was to be absolute faith in her creations. Her power over hydro would never allow a Fontainian to come to harm.

"What does a puny rat like you think you know? I've thrown out socks that were older than you. Smarter, too."

Like a true god, she gaslit Arlecchino about what information Arlecchino had regarding the flood coming to Poisson. As the Regina of All Waters, not only did she have access to more information through her national information network, she also simply understood Hydro in a way that mortals couldn't comprehend. This is one of the only times that Arlecchino would seem even a little shaken by anything.

Furina didn't refuse to take precautions because she's a depressed NEET; Furina placed herself in this position where she simply could not possibly even suggest taking precautions. That would imply to Arlecchino and by extent the people of Fontaine that there was a weakness in her absolute power over Hydro and, by proxy, her status as archon. In previous centuries, she had only ever commanded upgrades to earlier designs as technology advanced to allow her to better realize her intended designs.

This made it all the more world-shattering for Fontainians when the symbols of their god, their faith in her power, warped and bursted under the immense pressure of more water than seemingly possible in nature (this flood is mega buffed in this plotline). The damage was horrific, but would be much much worse if not for the efforts of Arlecchino and the Spina di Rosula. This was the first time that anyone has doubted her as god, and nobody who doubted even wanted to because they've had faith for so long.

The trial proceeds nearly exactly as in the game, with the additional wrinkle that her centuries of age needs to be a hint as to how she could be such a genius of engineering without being the Hydro Archon.

After the trial

After her liberation, much of Furina's story is the same. She is so incredibly burnt out after finally being free that she has the same despondent attitude as she does in the game. She doesn't really invent in her free time, as she's a bit traumatized by the memory and sensation of using those tools. Even picking up a screwdriver reminds her of hundreds of years of sleepless nights experimenting desperately with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

The only real things that would change after the Archon quest would be -

In her character quest, Furina surprises everyone by proudly declaring her return to the stage on her own, having thoroughly enjoyed her time with the ragtag troupe. After a handful of lifetimes of endless labor with a dash of theatre, having the opportunity to do theatre full time sounds like great fun. The reason that she wouldn't have started before this quest is because of her burnout and exhaustion buildup ofc.

In Roses and Muskets, just take out all the times where Furina's trauma is played for laughs, or times where she's outwardly timid in a public conversation, especially when directing. Furina's reaction to imposing in public situations should be so well trained after playing archon should be instinctual after 500 years that she never gets caught slipping by an unfortunate circumstance. In private, she can still of course be her quirky self.

At the end of Roses and Muskets, she's not awkward about receiving the trophy. She's really happy, overjoyed even, having not been able to participate in any competitions herself in Archon era.

During Lantern Rite, Furina is on Cloud 9, going crazy and stupid finally leaving the country. She is positively giggly being charmed and intrigued by every single little thing in Liyue which is different from Fontaine. She walks around the street asking people about ridiculous and mundane things, like "What wood is this fence made out of?", "Do all your boats really need sails? Where are their engines?", "What techniques were employed to build villages on all these hills?", "Where is the toilet in this establishment?... oh Me... running hydro? DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY PLUMBING-", and various other questions about architecture, technology, and everything else she'd notice as someone otherwise incredibly knowledgeable who'd been stuck in one country for centuries.

Anyway, as a thanks for reading my yap, here are some drawings of tinkerer Furina loving life

[blackbeeno3569]

I don't know what other people do on Mondays, but I made this neat map of the Lair...

Also you can find Whiskers there.

It's a logical continuation of this story:

LAYERS OF HOME

They were strolling through the forest, the weather was bright and sunny, calm and joyful. Spirits of fear and despair had their time off and they savoured it together, simply enjoying the day.

"...I've never spent that much time in the Lair until the Guardians almost chained me to it," Pitch was just saying.

"It has always been yours though, hasn't it?" Hazel asked.

"Well, in a way..." he shrugged, watching the spring nature around them, "I was one of those who built it. But... It was just a place where I returned to, time to time. Not like... a real home. At least I thought so. I didn't feel like I needed a home back then or that I needed to think about it. That became important only when they took that feeling from me," he concluded, touching a theme that was still painful.

Hazel knew that, so she smiled a bit: "Yet you have home, now."

"Thanks to you, I have," he smiled back.

"But you do have your own chamber there, don't you," she continued, still curious about the place she called home now, too, "which one in the Palace is it? You've never shown me."

But to her surprise he shook his head: "It's not in the Palace. And there's really nothing interesting about it, except maybe it's really far away from everything else. That can come handy sometimes."

Hazel chuckled and made a guess: "Then it's in the Lower Lair, right? The oldest part? And it will be somewhere in the bottom, because it will be one of the first chambers created?"

"Someone did their homework," he gave credit where credit was due.

"Take me there, if you can."

-----

The hallways were narrow, dark and descending in the series of steps. Some parts of the Lower Lair Hazel knew already. The Library, some of the storages, the kitchen... Then there were chambers that were closed and empty, whoever used them in past centuries was long gone.

"It's quite a labyrinth," she noted along the way.

"It's not that bad, you'll learn your way around," he answered over his shoulder and that made Hazel laugh.

"You know, it's one of the things I love about you. You can make the shopping list sound scary and sinister beyond measure - and yet you talk about this ominous, dark place like... well, like about a shopping list."

-----

Eventually they found the right door. Pitch opened them, really quietly for such an ancient piece of wood, and they stepped in.

"See, nothing interesting. I didn't take you here simply because there was no reason..." he explained.

Hazel looked around the small chamber. It was surprisingly simple and cosy. On the left there was just a bed carved from a rock, just like the whole room, with fur skins covering its surface and a woollen blanket neatly folded on the side. Hazel ran her fingers through the fur and glanced at Pitch with a silent question in her eyes.

He understood her inquiry: "From times before sheets. I've never really got to change it down here... Magic preserves things well."

Extremely well, Hazel thought. That meant these skins were thousands of years old. They seemed in a great shape, though.

Over the bed there was a niche with two wooden shelves that harboured few books and candles. Pitch could see in the dark perfectly, she knew that, but she also knew he preferred to have light for reading and working. He never explained her why and she never asked. But at least she understood the candles here. And on the other side of the chamber an old, weathered oil lamp sitting on the simple table with a glass that was a bit cracked, as if someone knocked it down on the floor once. Next to the table there was a chair and then only a pile of books on the desk. Hazel took one of them and opened it at random in the middle.

"Empty?" she looked up with surprise.

He watched her closely, when he admitted: "I haven't got to them for years. But before... I remember a lot of things. Some of them could be useful to someone else, too, others I don't want to risk forgetting as they could be useful much later."

She returned his gaze and then she slowly asked, the realisation dawning on her: "So... how many books in the Library are actually your work?"

"Quite a few," he said with a smile that could be almost called shy, "a lot of them on history, a couple on categorizations of our world, a few spell handbooks."

"How many did you give me to read without telling me?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Not that many, Hazel," he waved a hand, "you need to learn about our world from others, too."

"Will you tell me-?"

"I'll let you guess," he grinned.

She shook her head with a smile and put the empty book back. The chamber was a perfect picture of the feeling she had in his presence. It was also just as well hidden from the world under all the rest of the Lair in all its frightening glory.

"You were wrong, my love. This is a very interesting place. It's so very yours, so untarnished, it tells so many truths about you that I feel nearly guilty for standing here."

He looked away as if he needed a moment to accept what she just said and then he reached out a hand to her, which she gladly took. "If that's so, my dear, then you absolutely belong here. You are my new chapter and just you standing here... No one ever did before you. There was never a reason to invite anyone in, but you."

She let him draw her closer, a bit moved, to be honest. "What a sly old trick to take a girl to your chamber with a bunch of sweet words," she teased, nuzzling up against him.

"And yet look how well it works," he murmured back to her hair, not being able to hide the content tone of his voice.

One more little "mine" changed into "ours" so quietly that no one really noticed.

After all, they had each other to pay attention to, not the semantics.

[tbhimnoteasyonmyself]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know You Better

First of all, thank you Mickey (@thisautistic) for tagging me <3. Super thrilled that you thought of me for this!!

Now...

3 Ships You Like

1. Kimchay (Kinnporsche)

My babies. I want to protect them both. They're precious and perfect to be put in situations. A force strong enough to have me cooking a longfic after years of not writing a single one. Do I need to same more?? Absolutely obsessed 💜💜💜.

2. Pangwave (The Gifted)

Obligatory mention to my special little ADHD x Autism duo. Don't even argue that they're not canon, if you think that it's bc you missed very significant subtext, I suggest you rewatch this series. Pls and thank you. I will NOT take any criticism.

3. Sandray (Only Friends)

I knew from their 1st sex scene that I was down bad but their trailer sex scene just completely rewired my brain. Is their dynamic fucked up? Yes. Will they hurt each other along the way? Absolutely. But they're on their path to something better and I believe in them. Bc if Ray is deserving of love even after everything that went down then so are all of us. And there's that.

First Ship Ever

Larry Stylinson! (from One Direction)

Straight back from when I was 13, going strong! kskskskssksk I'm not so much there actively in the fandom anymore, but know that I'm there in spirit. sksksksksks Could never abandon the reason for so much change in my life! Good memories!!

Last Song Heard

Nooit Meer Spijt by S10

It's such a good song! I'm not Dutch or Dutch-adjacent but I was introduced to S10 by a friend of mine who's Belgian and I fell in love with her music ever since!

Favorite Childhood Book

A Fada Oriana (The Fairy Oriana) by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.

It's about a fairy named Oriana that has to take care of a forest but one day, while looking at the river, meets a fish who talks her into neglecting the forest, which causes a lot of trouble. Then, Oriana, has to learn how to repair the damage she made.

It's a book about responsibility, consequeses, the importance of individual action and learning from one's mistakes.

Currently Reading

Património Cultural: Realidade Viva (Cultural Patrimony: Live Reality) by Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins.

It's a book about the preservation of patrimony in Portugal under the context of belonging in the European Union in the 21st century.

It's not a very interesting book nor scientific, just a summary of Portuguese and European laws for people who don't wanna read the laws (?). I wouldn't read it on my own but it's a mandatory read for one of my classes in my Master's so I gotta ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Currently Watching

23.5

I didn't know if I was going to but since GMM seems to be finally trying out more for the GLs, I feel like I need to show my support in this direction so I made the moral choice of watching as it airs to make it clear to them the audience for this is here and we want more of it!

So far ep.1 was super cliché and silly but I liked it a lot!! I want all the clichés for the girls too! Tired of seeing queer women suffer and die on screen...

2. 3 Will Be Free

It had been sitting on my watchlist for a while but I never gotten around to it for some reason... Nevertheless, my latest Wheel Decide™ for what to watch next landed on it, so... I'm watching it now!

2 episodes in only but I'm loving it a lot!! The plot's super interesting so far, really like the way they're going about it. Let's see where it goes!!

Currently Consuming

I'm gonna opt to mention the game I'm currently playing (besides Bloons TD 6, but I'm always playing Bloons, so... not news), which is Heaven's Vault by Inkle!

It's an extremely niche game, focused on figuring out an ancient language and, with it, the history of the world it's set in. It envolves robots, space travelling, discussions on xenophobia and religious intolerence and a lot more. I haven't finished yet but I'm loving the experience so far!

I understand it's not for everyone but I'm loving it!! <3 (not a Mickey D's reference, fuck Mickey D's)

Currently Craving

You know, I could go with bibimbap bc I really want some rn but I'm gonna go a bit deeper and say: after the terribleness of my last 2 relationships, all I really want is one that's not enirely chatastrophic. kskssksksksk That'd be pretty neat. kssksksk

So yeah... This was a lot of fun, actually!! I love to share stuff about media I like!!

Tagging @jukain4216 @lost-my-sanity1 @anthrotmnt @shannankle @defomin @aiyui @fiddlepickdouglas @tinysandwichstudent @sicknsadsicknrad @itsamzz28 @whomanist and any other of my lovely moots that hasn't directly been tagged but comes accross this <3.

All the love! 💜💜💜

[dailycharacteroption]

Keeper of Construct (Inquisitor Archetype)

(art by nolan192 on DeviantArt)

It’s time for another archetype geared around killing and disabling constructs… but this one isn’t from construct handbook this time! So I am only halfway reminded of the biggest disappointment in First Edition for me!

In any case, this archetype is tied to the Goddess Brigh (and occasionally Torag), who presides over invention and machines. While the Whisper in Bronze is normally content to let inventors create in peace, sometimes it becomes clear that those that devote themselves to creating mechanical servitors and other wondrous inventions do so without the common benefit in mind. Those that use such constructs as vengeful assassins and tools of revenge, or that sic them on civilians as acts of terror and cruelty are her enemies.

Emulating her wishes and the powers of her herald: the Latten Mechanism, some of her priests take up arms against such violent and cruel creators, seeking to either free their constructed creations from them, or barring that, putting them down s they can no longer cause harm.

Such keepers are found both in Numeria and Alkenstar, where the worship of Brigh and the crafting of constructs is common, but they might be anywhere where constructs are found in great numbers, and their creators need policing, both in and outside the Lost Omens setting.

Divinely guided by their patron, these construct hunters are able to aim for the weak spots of constructed foes, bypassing the durability of most and at least somewhat piercing those that cannot be pierced by adamantine alone.

Their presence and knowledge of construct behavior allows them to make constructs hesitate, almost as if they were afraid.

Additionally, there are few that are more knowledgeable about construct strengths and weaknesses than them.

More powerful individuals can even command constructs that do not belong to them, even wresting them away from the direct control of their master, though this is limited in what they can command and how often they can do so.

This is a pretty solid construct-hunting archetype, though some of the abilities raise questions. Most constructs have DR bypassed by adamantine, so having limited ability to pierce other types of DR on constructs is a bit niche. Furthermore, while the ability to implant suggestions in constructs is nice, it does not say whether this bypasses the magic immunity of golems and golem-like constructs, which I feel is definitely a needed clarification. In any case, this archetype is a bit niche, but not so much so that they’re powerless outside of fights with constructs, but they can really excel in campaigns with lots of robots, clockworks, and other constructs about.

As written, these inquisitors seem to be focused on the preservation of mechanical life that can be saved, so if you’re looking for an archetype for a villain that seeks to destroy sapient machines for whatever reason, such as because they have gained sapience, this might not be what you’re looking for unless you outright change the flavor of the class, which could be fun if you want to apply it to a less benevolent god or philosophy.

The Brass Key clan of dwarves are famous for their clockwork marvels, which range from automatic mechanisms for running public works to full-fledged constructs. However, not all who create these wonders do so peacefully, so in the name of The Maker, there are sects of priests dedicated to putting a stop to such villainy and blasphemy.

The world of the Shattered Tower has been wiped nearly clean of life, leaving behind the relics of civilization and horribly monstrous wildlife alongside the automatons that survived their creators. Most machines try to live peacefully and find new meaning in this ruined world, but others still bear the programming of death and war that brought this ruin, forcing the others to take up arms to protect themselves and the last bastions of life.

The party needs a construct breaker to help handle the guardians of the tomb of Hakshesu, and they find one in Lova Windercoil, who is tasked with handling any automaton guardians while the party deals with mummies and other guardians. However, Lova cannot help but question the application of her divine gifts towards destroying constructs that are no danger to anyone but interlopers.

[transmorphobots]

RECOLLECTION

A piece about the enigmatic Coldfront featuring of course the lovely @classychassiss Venus (who also came up with the pin-locking knee joint that is utterly gruesome but I love) and a mention of @messengerofmechs Castor.

Depictions of PTSD and child harm ahead.

Waking facing the ceiling makes defense protocols activate. Instincts surging to the surface. Where was it? What was taken this time? Memory diagnostics ran fast, trying to get as far as they could get before someone took notice of the sound. System diagnostics found something first- it was plugged into a computer. Wires had been hooked into its sensor hubs. Before it could be stopped, revulsion surged through all of its processes and on its heels came fear. Overwhelming, unstoppable fear. Diagnostics quit the processes as defense protocols take priority. It can't maneuver its arms well enough to remove the wires itself, it'll have to use distance and its body weight.

Peeling off the back of the table-

[Error! Surroundings need to be confirmed]

-and jerking the legs out of the bindings-

[Error! Surroundings need to be confirmed]

-The machine starts to scream in protest. It pulls an arm forward. Wires snap, some fall away and some stay plugged in after their severance. The blade flattens against the guard as it jams the edged point somewhere into the center of its mass to silence it-

[Error! Surroundings need to be confirmed]

-Coldfront pulls with all its might to be unplugged while revulsion floods every emotional processor and input. It would rather be destroyed than to be here again, to be put through the erasure and the modifications again. Its bindings are pulled out or broken, the supportive tension being lost, almost sending it to the floor had its knees not defensively locked to keep it upright.

The pins bite into the joint. The sensation traveling through the twisted wires all the way to the support struts in its back which triggered a feeling like all of the heating coils in its body went off at once. It didn't scream. It couldn't because it already moved, that noise was enough, and Supercell would be back at the commotion and it needed some sort of element of surprise. It forces the joints to unlock so it can maneuver.

It turns its whole body to face the door -

It faces a wall instead.

[Error! Surroundings need to be confirmed]

- and it finally listens to that annoying message when it sees that the door is different, the lab is different... and Venus is sleeping at the computer. Defense protocols drop back immediately as it confirms where it actually is and runs its memory diagnostic again. Fragmentation in earlier files was to be expected but these last few weeks featured no break up or corruption. Supercell had not caught onto it yet... or... tentatively it could consider...

It couldn't consider anything yet, not until he was gone.

Fear was stubborn to let go of its hold on its systems and so comfortable there. A niche made for it, growing inside, thriving on a feast of its archived emotions. Supercell let Coldfront have fear. He was the only one who knew it could be afraid and he was the only one who could make it move despite it. Bravery and courage kept preserved and if that did not work then the lack of control of its movements would. One single directive above all - Keep moving forward. However, the conflicting and broken code, the memory core itself as mutilated as the rest of it, meant those fail safes eventually eroded. They broke down and the rest of the pieces fell out. A wave of disgust rolls through it like a roaming blackout before it settles back in the fog of its processes.

It would thank Supercell for the shielding around its spark to keep it hidden if only because that meant its emotional responses were harder to read. The people helping it didn't have to see that every time it woke up in the lab its anxiety would spike. That while it held itself so still and docile under every investigative touch and poke of their tools it was only that sheer will that kept it from trembling.

When was the last time a touch laid on its frame had been anything but pain? Countless touches, seemingly all of them had been with pain. Its memory lost track of what it was like without. Instead of keeping records of suffering it threw the data out because if it had kept a record, its processor would have no space for anything else.

But it was collecting new data. It may only have moments it can count on its hands that were of genuine mercy and relief but that was just the start and it had been so welcome. Sidesplit and Venus had been so kind to it without any reason to. Calling out was not even a plea for mercy but rather one desperate attempt in a thousand failed attempts to deny Supercell a victory.

It had just wanted to deny him what he wanted and a mission so far away from the usual territory was perfect for staging a crash. It had left a witness, left some perfect bait to see what it was taking. Nebulean coins, some philosophy and historical books, and a Matrix. Something so carefully crafted to pass knowledge from one to the other and he would have it placed on a shelf, far away from anyone using it. He would maybe even wipe its memory core with something more suiting to his tastes. A Matrix of Supercell. A tremor of disgust rolls through it again, stronger this time, for it knew that its handiwork would be imprinted on crystalline circuits to preserve it for eons. He would gloat about its construction, it knew this and depised it.

All of it would be on there. It, the heirs, and the.............

It couldn't let him..............

let him............... ?

The thoughts veer away from it before they can even be realized. With Sidesplit cutting some of the restrictions in its emotional processors out it could at least feel anger without fear of being forced into shut down. It surged forward and made its frame tense with a famailiar but corrupted combat protocol.

Supercell treasured knowledge above all else, hoarding it away from the people he destroyed. Whatever was always lingering at the edges of its understanding was denied. The artifacts he hade Coldfront fetch, things from his homeworld that he destroyed... Supercell loved the power of knowing things other people didn't. Nothing would infuriate him more than not having it.

Now it didn't have any of his trophies.

It had bared its wounds to the Dirge crew and they responded with mercy. Peace was a feeling it hardly felt and it wasn't sure if that was Supercell's design or the predicament it was in. With the situation steadily changing, perhaps, becoming more secure... it didn't know what to feel. The moment's ancient anger dropped away like a curtain, or a shield maybe? It could feel that hope was lingering in the recesses of its processor it had been sequestered to. It had bared its wounds and... it stabbed the considerate rig that Sidesplit had made for it. One of the display screens hangs loosely by some cables. Parts of it sparking from the wound it was given. Guilt activates in one of its emotional processors. Creeping through its memory looking for a target to amplify its potency. Lashing out at the speaker to trap her against the very wall it had been facing when it woke- taking her city in its unstoppable march- taking other cities. Other people. Other worlds.

It focused on Venus asleep at the table. With slow, painful steps it goes to her side and it does not wake her. She fell asleep with a pillow of notes. Notes that kept the score of what had been taken from it, notes on how to get it back. It sets a hand on Venus gently just to rest it there, mindful of the weight of its arm.

The speaker had... breached something when she had dug through all of the shielding and touched the reserve of anger. Within its own archives there was something desperately trying to understand and make a connection to the action with knowledge. It was a mangled collection of data but its systems kept trying to access it with no success. What did she remind itself of so much that it was driving itself mad?

[Error!]

[Error!]

The files won't get uncorrupted by constantly recalling them but it's loop continues.

[Error!]

[Error!]

[Error!]

One failure after the other but the desire to know was powerful. What had she touched? If she had come back to the lab perhaps it could have asked her. It had no intention of doing so, how could it? The first time it had seen her it had tried to to stop. Put as much dead weight in its legs as it could to give her time to get out of the way but she didn't. Her people fought and they paid like other worlds had.

[Error!]

Terror on her face because that is all it was now. There was a time people smiled [Error!] when they saw it. [Error!] There was a time it was different. Maybe. It felt like a dream to want something that wasn't tied to him. That place [Error!] Person? Home? Whatever it was. It didn't know what the Tower was. Something important but out of reach. The data scrubbed over and over again to leave nothing but still, persistently, it remembered that it was different.

Did she remind it of that time? Were they similar? Was the Tower its home in the same way as her?

Was she even still there?

[Error!]

[Error!]

[Error!]

[Error!]

[Error!]

Its own sequence of crashes mesh into a memory of Volt-tier's own cries of the word. Younger, smaller, still in a rudimentary form because- [Error!] He was not yet the Count and in this memory he was vulnerable and dear. His arm torn open from the heat of lightning. Leaving a trail of energon where he's stumbling as he goes from one drone to the next looking for someone to answer his cries for help. They have no programming to respond to that and neither does it. Still, compelled by something it doesn't understand, it gently cradles his face with its elongated hand and looks over his destroyed one with the other. Parts of its processor try to connect it to something, it's something familiar.

The stroking of Volt-tier's cheek with its fingers to calm him.....

was........

was.............. ?

[Error!]

Fragments of corrupted imagery keep being recalled. They were hard to parse, most of them were a mess of visual snow and black holes burned through the center of them. Only small hints of people in the images. A finger in the mess of color. Snippets of a location.

Its hand strokes Venus' back. An idle motion while it tried to sort through the chaos. Its hands were getting stronger but some movement was still hard just because the hands were not meant to function like hands. The joints would catch often and some would be too loose. Both of them, could it shakily call them friends at this point, tried to fix it so it could have a little autonomy and it was touched by that. There was so much more to be doing- Getting Pollux back for one but also its other systems. It didn't want to be turned against them after all they had done. Still, they chose sometimes work that was grueling and not for their own interests, but for the comfort of Coldfront.

Much more pleasant than the pins locking its knees but still the motion of realization is similar. Up from the source to something deeper. The repeated motion, the gratitude- its familiar. A touch on a body that no longer conforms to the original shape. A sensation of a great weight being lifted though leaving exhaustion in the new space. A type of relief. A satisfaction maybe? A tired, tired satisfaction. The motion repeated in the same way as it does now, wisps of relief not its own at the edges of what it is/was and something else.

Are you still there? Is a thought that cannot be shaken. Who? It doesn't know.

The images cannot get any clearer but as they retreat back into its disorganized archive, briefly, they make more sense. A touch to the cheek, a hand on its own when it had a shape more like a hand, a smile from a friend. Who are they? It doesn't know.

Venus stirs under its touch finally. It noted that the struggle should have woken her sooner but she was constantly working. Her systems were tired. Familiarly tired. Why? It keeps its hand there and as she wakes to the disaster she missed, it says words that aren't its own but they're familiar. Someone said them to it once.

"Thank you, for everything. I’m sorry for putting you through this. Help me, please."

[sludgewolf]

👉👈 hey! Feel free to ignore if you arent up for it but do you think you wanna try doing some hcs for Dave strider with an autistic s/o? Especially one who has trouble understanding their own emotions (alexithymia), kinda takes things literally, and has a special interest in bugs (specifically ants and isopods) thank you so much in advance! ♡♡♡

No, I am writting this hc!! Just be aware that I have ADHD not autism, so pls tell me if I got anything wrong or you want smt fixed and I hc Dave being half japanese, Bro raising him with some of the culture as well as the Strider charm (I'm just saying this bc there's a small part that won't make sense without that info)

Disclaimer: do not copy, repost, take or feed to AI or NFTs anything I post

Masterlist

Dave x Autistic!Reader

Actually x btw

Dave used to just ignore his emotions so he never ended up learning how to deal or understand them until recently

so he understands you to some degree and helps you whenever you ask him to

and if you think you'd rather talk to someone else he takes you to Rose since she was the one to help him for the most part, the other part was Karkat but his though love approach isn't for everyone

Dave tones down on the sarcasm while talking to you, especially when not joking

Egbert now takes a double dose of the patented Strider Sarcasm™

poor idiot doesn't know what's coming their way

Still there's a learning curve for both of you

Dave doesn't do it on purpose, but sometimes forgets that you take things literally and he runs his mouth

going from tangent to tangent until things don't make sense anymore

at times starting to talk having no idea where he's taking things and discovering it only after he already said it

confusing you both and making you ask him if he's serious

to which he immediately cuts himself off and apologizes as if he just kicked a puppy

sometimes kneeling down to properly apologize is he takes things too far

If you have a collection of insects he is eager to see it

the first time you visited his room he immediately dragged you to his shelf to show you some sick bugs he has on amber or preserved in alcohol

Dave then listens attentively as you tell him about what kind of bug it is and what's their niche in the food chain

once you're done he tells you about how he found it behind the toiled after hearing Bro scream like a baby from getting spooked by it

If you have an ant farm or a bioactive enclosure with roly-polies and springtails Dave will practically beg you to let him feed them

just be careful since he will try to feed them pizza or some old candy he found in his pocket

and instead of water he'll give them apple juice thinking it's way better because he's watering and feeding them at the same time

You have to explain that that's the weirdest and stupidest idea you ever heard, but you sometimes let him put a drop of Aj in a bottle cap as a treat to your bugs

Congrats, you're the new target of his long and winded monologues

but you're more than expected to do it back to him

please tell him about deep sea isopods and the freak sizes they grow into, please tell him about the new hobby you've just started

Just talk to him

he craves your attention and company as much as he craves your touch, shit is unreal

[davidmariottecomics]

The Perfect (Editorial or Agent) Match

Hey there, Yogi Bear! 

To start out today's blog, I wanna talk about a kinda fun recent thing. Steve Lieber, who I've mentioned before for having his 12 point portfolio review critique without even looking, asked about the writing review equivalent. Jim Zub took a stab at it and his list is pretty good. And Chip Zdarsky's were also recommendations! And all of these are from Bluesky, so hope you can read 'em all! But, while I liked the other lists, I also had some thoughts. So my 12 critiques are here, which I consider pretty supplemental to Jim's! 

And now that you've taken all this advice and are feeling really comfortable with your script, writer-type, what're you gonna do with it?! 

What Does an Agent do? 

Before I get too far, let me make explicitly clear--I do not have an agent. I've worked with a number of agents. I know lots of creators who have them. But I don't have one myself, so I can only provide so much guidance. Okay, that disclaimer out of the way, what is a literary agent and what do they do? 

It's a lot like other forms of agents you might've heard of. Your agent is a person who supports you and represents your interests in business. They are an advocate on your behalf. This means everything from reading your manuscripts to help refine/sell them to reviewing paperwork for you to making sure you're getting paid what you're worth and more. In the book market, there are certain publishers that will almost exclusively review agented submissions--you need to have someone who has been trained to know what the publisher might want and who has access to contacts there to advocate for your work. The reason for this is often to cut down on submissions that otherwise just have to go unanswered and to preserve some level of privacy for editors. Having an agent might not work for everyone, but if you can find someone who you like working with and can afford, they're going to be a lot of help. Agents can get your work to more potential buyers, help identify where your work will best fit in the marketplace, and, again, generally advocate for you.

But just like publishers and editors, not every agent is looking for every type of story. Specific agents, and even whole agencies, can have niches that they are interested in working in and representing. This is really important when we're talking comics. There are some agents that don't really represent cartoonists because they don't do art representation. There are some agents who only do art representation and might not be the right fit if you also wanna write. There are agents who primarily focus on books for middle grade or young adult readers. There are agents who just plain don't do comics. So how do you find an agent who might be a good fit?

Manuscript Wishlist

Manuscript Wishlist (or MS Wishlist) is *an* option for finding your agent, but it's one that I think can be really helpful. The basic idea of MSWL is that the website version has vetted agents and editors who have submitted profiles explaining what they are looking for in submissions. It's built off of a Twitter system where agents and editors tag posts #MSWL to flag the sort of work they're looking for from writers. One of the things I really like about the site is that in addition to details on what the agents and editors are looking for, and how to go about querying them, a lot of folks also take advantage of the sidebars that include things like lists of "what I like" so you can get an even clearer idea of if your work will mesh well with their interests and if your personalities will mesh well while looking to work together. 

There are a ton of other resources out there for how to write good queries and each agency/agent/publisher/editor is going to have their own submission guidelines that you'll have to look up and follow--so I won't get into those--but this is a way to start seeing who might be interested in building a relationship with you. 

Also, keep an eye on Publishers Marketplace. This is a primary source for what publishing deals are happening. Maybe you want to submit a query to an agent about a talking dog. Might be good to check publishers marketplace to make sure that agent didn't just sell a book about a talking dog. 

MSWL Editors

MSWL also includes editors and for similar reasons. Editors have things they're interested in working on and it helps clarify to agents and to unagented folks what sort of titles they might be interested in acquiring. I *do not* currently have a MSWL set up on my own because I am not currently seeking submissions (sorry), but next time I think I might be, I'm going to be looking into it because I know what sort of stories I like to tell and what I would like to see from other folks. 

Obviously, if you don't have an agent, double-check that the editor you're submitting to accepts unagented submissions. That's hugely important. But especially in comics, only taking agented submissions is uncommon. And if an editor is making clear what they'd like to acquire, you wanna get it in front of them because that is the most direct pipeline to traditional comics publishing. But it's also worthwhile to remember that because of how agents and editors work together, there's a lot of outreach between the two where editors are searching for talent, but only want to reach out, not be reached out to--especially if you're looking to do work on an existing property, rather than an original. 

Now I'm gonna go batten down the hatches and prepare to ride out the rest of the coming storm! 

See ya next time! 

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Honkai Star Rail (Video game), My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon), The Broken Room by Peter Clines (Book), Crime Scene Kitchen (TV show), Dumbing of Age (Webcomic), Shortpacked (Webcomic--though some of these pop culture strips sure are dated and/or in poor taste!), Solve This Murder (Podcast), Praise Petey (Cartoon), the acoustic Sonic Symphony performance at the Speed Cafe (see below), at time of posting having power and not a lot of rain/hurricane weather, owning (but not having watched yet) the Venture Bros finale movie, getting 3 5-star (the best possible) character pulls in a row in Honkai (but not the character I really wanted, who I only have like 9 days to get now if I can...). 

New Releases this week (8/16/2023): Brynmore #2 (Editor) Godzilla: The War for Humanity #1 (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog #63 (Editor)

Final Order Cut-Off next week (8/21/2023--last day to get your preorders in): Brynmore #3 (Editor) Godzilla: The War for Humanity #2 (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's 30th Anniversary Special (Editor)

New Releases next week (8/23/2023): Godzilla Monsters & Protectors: All Hail the King TPB (Editor--on the latter half)

Announcements: Becca is at Cartoon-a Palooza in Temecula on 9/15 & 9/16. It's a cool free all-ages little con, so come on out and see them! 

Wanna support me? Consider joining my Patreon! This week, in addition to this blog (but without the Patreon plugs!) and one of my legacy blogs, I shared for the $10 and up members the script (and some extras) for my Beast Wars 2022 Annual story, "Rhinox's A-Maze-ing Adventure". You can only see it there! And I'll have more scripts, pitches, comics, etc going up in the weeks and months to come! Also coming soon, just coordinating with Becca, we'll be releasing a tease of a new comic we're working on together. It'll be on both our Patreons, but if you like art and adult art in particular, definitely don't miss Becca's either! 

Or, you can buy something from my webstore! A lot of what is there is no longer in print and won't be going back to print anytime soon to my knowledge. The stock I have up is pretty much the stock I have. And you can get it signed and personalized and sent to you for a pretty reasonable price which includes shipping.  Alternatively, I still have a few things up on eBay and I'm going to be adding a few more! 

Sorry to be hyping ways to send me money so much recently, but between rising rent and utility and gas costs, not so rising work hours/pay for Becca and I, and us also trying to plan a wedding for a year from now, money's been tight a lot! I know that's the case all around, and if you have been supporting me in any way, it has not gone unnoticed at all! This week, Becca and I checked out a venue that we really like for the ceremony and reception. So, hoping we can make that happen! 

Pic of the Week: I referenced it earlier, but the Sonic Speed Cafe pop-up here in San Diego did a special mini acoustic performance of the Sonic Symphony that's about to be touring the whole world! So we had three musicians in the restaurant playing some Sonic hits! It was a lot of fun! 

[chiveburger]

so my mom comes back tonight from hong kong, which simultaneously marks the end of my time of living alone and I have to say... I am so fucking relieved. although! a lot of good came out of me being alone for the last 2 months and I have to take some time to reflect on that. first of all, it’s not like I’ve never lived alone but this is the first time I did it while working full time and relied on my car everyday. that in itself enabled me to get more comfortable with driving, meet up with people and preserved that privacy that I often wouldn’t get if I needed to picked up and dropped off, and just... feel more grown up lmao. for example the other day I drove out an hour to richmond to meet my friends for camping and I remember driving down this exact same road maybe a year ago and pissing myself crossing a “tight” bridge. granted I was with my backseat driving mom, but it felt pleasant this time and having that vivid comparison was kind of nice. while I am by no means a good driver now I’m in general more cognizant of things that go on and I know (sometimes) what’s right and what’s wrong. so, that was one thing that living alone pushed me to do and it helped a lot because now I’m able to get to places without going through the 7 stages of grief every time I step foot in my car. while I don’t think living alone made me become a health guru who make a new chicken fajita recipe every night, and I’m gaining weight RAPIDLY because I eat out so much, it did make me realize how difficult it is to try to balance your life while needing to work full time and cook and clean and do everything to keep yourself sane. I don’t want to live alone right now, but it’s nice to do it for a short period of time. If anything, this time alone has given me time to do a lot (and buy a lot) of things I often wouldn’t if my family was here, and while the novelty wears off fast it’s a good period of learning and self reflecting. I’m 27 but I do not see myself needing to forcefully move out to become more “independent” or to fit into the niche of adults who think it’s necessary to do that but eventually I might. I’m really happy my mom is coming back, but the distance allowed me to 1) become a better driver, 2) redecorate my room, 3) buy expensive strawberry hagan daaz ice cream and 4) sleep with my cat in the bed. out of all the times I’ve lived alone, this one was definitely the most fruitful