#but you don't get his thought process and I'm not inclined to think that idea took up much space in his mind

[like-yknow-nyah]

you know what isn't appreciated enough? the ways in which tsukishima takes after sugawara senpai~

it's not really emphasized by the framing of the anime like other character dynamics, but there are some pretty consistent tell-tale throughlines that hint at how much tsukki respects him. the obvious start is that tsukki never sasses or talks back to suga - sure, this is generally pretty true of all the third years, but i think he seems especially yielding to suga. suga even gets to hit him and mess up his hair, and tsukki will respond to him with reserved frustration but none of his usual irony - at worst, a very earnest "could you please stop?" he certainly has thoughts about it, but he actually exhibits resraint with that sharp tongue of his lolol i have to wonder if he holds back because suga somewhat reminds him of akiteru, who plays a similar role of being supportive, guiding, and sincere.

as for volleyball, we see from the get-go whenever he steps on the court that suga is actually a very intellectual player. he keeps a keen eye on where everyone is on the court, measuring where their strengths and weaknesses are, so that even if he doesn't have hinata's attack speed, kageyama's precision, or tsukki's high blocks, he can pinpoint the exact weak spot that only needs that little push to come apart. and then he tugs on that thread to see how much of the enemy team's formation he can unravel. his strategy is consistently on point, not unlike the play style we see tsukishima adopt as he grows out of his shell.

and i'm sure that's partially just because they happen to have a natural inclination toward the mental game of volleyball. but there are also very specific on-court habits that appear to be directly modeled after suga. the first time we get to really see suga's strength in action in s1, he's running all over his team's side of the court saying "hey you, come here, i have an idea," integrating each and every member of the team in the way that best suits their abilities. the play suga specifically asked tsukki to try is the strategic blocker switch. tsukki even tries to give him his due credit for a well-called play, but suga explains it like it's actually a really easy call to make. it's not really shown, but i do genuinely think something clicked into place for tsukki that expanded the ways he can read the court.

by season 2, tsukki is using a very similar thought process to predict where kyotani will hit and do the blocker switch with tanaka. and i don't think it's a coincidence that this is during their rematch with seijoh, the team against whom suga originally deployed this strategy.

we see tsukishima further mirror suga's play style (albeit adapted to the position of a blocker) in s3 as he becomes more confident and comfortable with his role in the team and on the court. he begins to take the initiative to conceptualize plays to share with his teammates, walking up to them individually like "ちょっと..." and asking if the team would trust him to make certain calls.

it's these little moments of behavior borrowed from suga that open tsukishima up to his teammates, especially his fellow first-years, and become that first cornerstone upon which they build up to a near-blind trust in each other throughout s4. the only one on karasuno aside from tsukki and suga who even sometimes makes these kinds of plays is kageyama, who is more directly suga's mentee by position, but arguably takes after him less than tsukishima does.

[yakourinka]

Could you maybe expand a little bit on what do you mean by insider's design being intentional? I'm curious

[spoilers for hortus de escapismo below]

sure, I'm planning to make a more coherent post about the event down the line hopefully, but I think he's kinda like. the everyman stand in. a normal lateran. an average person. literally just some guy who doesn't want trouble. and that's what he looks and sounds like

and you know what that means in this context right. the type who looks away when faced with atrocity happening to other people. he's not a bad person. I'm sure if you asked people who know him they'd tell you he's swell, he's funny, he gets their kids gifts every christmas. he's the coworker you wish you had. he's never inclined to stick his neck out for another. and not even out of fear for his life, but for fear of losing his material comfort and privilege.

and what makes it even more damning is that insider is a smart guy. he even tells the abbot at one point that laterano is kinda fucked up, leaving the old man speechless; he just doesn't want to lose what he has. he's just some guy following orders. a tiny cog in the machine. what's he to do? ruin his own life?

I thought the scene where he cracks open the door to the hall of mass was a good character moment. he peeks at the attendees, who are about to consume seaborn (as far as he knows). his eyes meet the abbot's. and he shuts the door. he quite literally looks away. he even barricades the damn door so these people are easier to clean up afterwards. and you know if they'd actually ingested seaborn he would be sad, just as he was genuinely relieved when it turned out the abbot hadn't gone ahead with that plan. because he's a decent guy.

[mortalityplays]

This is a very good illustration of the increasing susceptibility to conspiratorial thought patterns I've been seeing on the left lately. Just because you don't believe there are space marines on Mars doesn't mean you're immune to building imaginary connections between aesthetic or emotional data points and mistaking them for evidence. A lot of well meaning people in my circles have been sharing this story, buying uncritically into the first narrative they encountered. I want to break down why:

Jones' twitter thread was extremely emotional and extremely urgent. The idea of a child being ripped away from his frantic mother and a ticking clock to decide his fate both helped the story to bypass analytical scrutiny. It sends the message 'act now, before it's too late, it's the only compassionate thing to do'.

Her connection to an existing conspiracy (a concerted effort by the state to cover up Covid statistics) creates a strengthening association with the idea that this is also a conspiracy. The thread offers no positive evidence that her son's arrest was a conspiracy, and no positive evidence that his arrest has any connection to her prior experiences.

Jones' allegation that the arrest was retribution for her actions as a whistleblower implicitly identifies her in the reader's mind. A lot could be unpacked about her dispute with the DOH but it doesn't really matter because I don't think most people who circulated this story knew much about it either way. The point is that it anchors her identity in a few key concepts: 'whistleblower', 'covid scientist', 'concerned citizen'. None of these qualities are relevant to the events detailed in the thread (or evidenced in the thread, if we're being really rigorous), but they unconsciously prejudice the reader's assessment of whether to trust or side with her. Simply put, if you are concerned about how covid was handled and/or inclined to support whistleblowers, you are more likely to assume she's credible.

If you dislike and distrust cops, you are primed to accept a narrative in which they are doing something straightforwardly evil. Don't get me wrong, fuck 12, but I say that armed with an enormous preponderance of cases in which we have positive evidence of police acting out of self interest, cruelty, corruption, racism, misogyny, etc. Allowing ourselves to be seduced by the fantasy that they are always always without fail breaking rules and fashing it up in broad daylight only makes us easier to delude and manipulate.

She repeatedly made the point that her son is autistic. Again, if you are autistic or sympathetic to autistic people, you are more likely to be 'warmed up' by this detail and inclined to take her side. I'm not going to say it's irrelevant to the idea that he was being unfairly targeted, but it is overwhelmingly emotionally weighted. And again, it is not evidence that he was unfairly targeted. It's another weight on the scale that tips you to judge the truth value of her story without reality checking.

The example of a meme that she shared is characteristic of a type of online humour that is at least familiar to most of us. If you or your friends make edgy jokes and share tasteless irony memes, or if you've been online for more than like a week, you understand that they're mostly harmless. The idea that this meme could be used as evidence by law enforcement to detain you is ideologically threatening in an immediately relatable way. It evokes a reflex defensive impulse — that's not fair, the cops are wrong, the kid is innocent — bypassing the process of verification. Is this meme the reason he was arrested? Is it the only one he posted? Is it the only reason he was arrested?

All of these factors create a gut-led constellation of information that quickly forms a picture. Because it is being pieced together from multiple subconscious feelings and prejudices, it feels as if it has been evidenced. Because the thread was highly emotional and highly urgent, readers were pressured to jump to rapid conclusions and ask "what can I do to help?" (and the answer, as it almost always is, was 'donate money, quick').

I want to be really clear that I am not saying Jones manufactured any of these effects on purpose. It would be completely within reason that having a young child arrested would send anyone into an emotional tailspin, grasping for reasons this might have happened, leaping to his defense, rallying resources to fight on his behalf. I am not in any way ascribing malice to her actions.

What I'm interested in is the effect that this emotive kneejerk appeal had on people who were unknowingly predisposed to believe that the state of Florida would kidnap a child to punish a scientist for disagreeing with the department of health about covid statistics. That is a baseless conspiracy theory, and a huge number of people in my immediate circles reflexively amplified it.

Personally, I think arrest is a godawful way to respond to a child having a mental health crisis, even if they are seen to pose a violent threat. That still doesn't mean the cops did it at the bidding of a mad dictator in waiting. In the hypothetical parallel universe where it turns out Jones was right and this was all a conspiracy to punish her, it still would not have served the situation to jump to that conclusion on a gut feeling.

Pausing to identify relevant, verifiable facts before sharing a story like this is always warranted, even if you think the person telling it is 'on your side'. The more you worry that questioning the narrative wastes precious time or makes you a bad person, the more you should scrutinise why you are being made to feel that way. Accepting unfounded conspiracies into your worldview is not benign, even if you think the 'targets' deserve it. It erodes your critical perspective and turns you into a vector for the people around you.

tl;dr: you are not immune to baseless conspiratorial thought

[spacemonkeysalsa]

I read about an evil magistrate in another Faerûn city, a few decades after Astarion had that job in Baldur's Gate and it has me thinking about his pre-vampire days, and my irl time as a Las Vegas law clerk. A lot.

Full disclosure: I feel a little guilty that I wrote so much on this topic rather than on one of my fics.

I wrote very little in July 🫣but it's because I was drawing and reading instead.

I read 13 books, but they were the first 13 Legend of Drizzt books.

And while writing fic, I've avoid details about Astarion's background as a magistrate, for reasons I've talked about a lot before, but I might need to rethink that, because one book in the Drizzt series just gave me SO MUCH context for what the world was like around the time that Astarion would have had this job, and also, what that job was like, and how it was very effected by geography and race. And I have THOUGHTS. Thousands of words of thoughts, apparently, below the cut.

TL;DR - The popular idea that pre-Cazador Astarion is the biggest possible asshole so he "earns" his fate is boring as hell, not actually supported by canon, or the examples of magistrates that we see in FR (who don't even need to be corrupt to satisfy cruel inclinations) and I deeply prefer going in a totally different direction. Below the cut is me working through my headcanon, and why I came to these conclusions.

I tagged this appropriately I think, but to emphasize, topics of relevance include horror movie tropes, torture, the deeply flawed American justice system, and the even more deeply flawed one in Faerûn as described by the Forgotten Realms novels I've read and the mentions/demonstrations in Bladur's Gate 3.

If you feel you need to avoid thinking about all of that, you are valid, and probably more correct than me for doing so.

And as always, it's just my opinion, based on my experiences. All headcanon is equally headcanon.

To start, I'm going to briefly reiterate that:

Astarion's canon backstory is thin on purpose and that all we really know about him is that he was a magistrate with not-red eyes who made an unpopular ruling that was unpopular for an unspecified reason and got jumped by Gur for a (heavily implied to be unreliable narrator influenced) reason.

That artbook is a developmental tool that is actually less likely to ever be considered canon than even a later stage developmental tool like a full manuscript outline precisely because of its position in the process.

But, before I get into what I read in Drizzt, I want to establish that my head space started from thinking about how much sadder it is if Astarion actually did have compassionate ideals and a balanced sense of justice prior to Cazador. The reason I think it's sadder is best illustrated by the choice to either make a doomed horror movie character sympathetic or an asshole. What happens to Astarion is basically a horror show, and some people prefer those fates are reserved exclusively for asshole victims. There's reasons to write this way, and it can be done well, but it's very easy to make it feel cheap and contrived and it's usually a sign of an amateur production, and a quick way to make an accessible film rather than a good one. Another option (which can also be done well or done poorly) is to harm characters who did absolutely nothing wrong.

To be clear, whether or not we like a character doesn't affect whether or not they "deserve" death. Horror movies often deal with totally disproportionate consequences, and the gruesome fate not really being "earned" can be an inherent part of the horror regardless of our sympathy.

But, I'm not sad when the evil teenagers in Toxic Avenger are killed. I am not that sad when Jigsaw's traps prove to be too much for his chosen victims. What happens to Julia's marks in Hellraiser doesn't move me as much as what's going on with Kirsty, even if they didn't deserve it, because they aren't particularly sympathetic.

And the thing about using characters like that is that it's not realistic. And to be clear, I don't think you always have to be realistic to tell a good story, in fact, please don't always cling to realism. But realism in characterization is usually a stronger choice, and should be considered generally. Most people are not as flat and unsympathetic as the asshole victims in slasher flicks. Even people who do bad things are not so one dimensional as to instill no sympathy in irl humans. I think people like to flatten Astarion in their mind, so that they don't have to confront the fact that very bad things happen all the time, and that most people didn't do anything to earn a horrible fate.

In the specific case of what happened to Astarion, even if he was a bad person, it's very difficult to ever make 200 years of torture, the loss of autonomy, exploitation on every level, including physical, sexual and psychological abuse, ever feel proportional. So at this point, some people need something to make it seem more just. Either because they hate the character, and want to feel that hating the character is objectively correct, or their worldview includes an idea of justice that can't accept such disproportionality.

And if you need that for your headcanon, dope. you're allowed whatever headcanon you want.

The "corrupt magistrate" thing isn't canon. It's headcanon. I understand that some people who really seem to know what they are talking about said it was canon, that's because they are wrong. People are wrong sometimes.

I recently became aware that although I thought we were all playing the same game, a bunch of players have never seen what I've seen, because it's all missable content. And, because everyone knows there's a bunch of stuff they haven't seen, it's real easy to just believe any random person on the internet who tells you something is buried deep in the game that you don't know about.

This specific situation with Astarion's canon backstory is that you'll never find much in the game, no matter how much you play, because there's nothing to find. Here's the facts: -There was never anything about Astarion being corrupt in the game, in early access, or in any of the writing that made it to recording. It was an idea that was discussed very early on---like back when we almost had a werewolf companion, (RIP Helia, you would've loved what I put you through) and they went in a totally different direction. Essentially, just imagine what they ultimately ended up doing with Gortash, and know that they were thinking about doing something similar with Astarion, but a long, long time ago.

-In the game, he'll lie and tell you he's a magistrate in Baldur's Gate and that it's tedious.

-Or, if you wait to ask him about himself until after you know he's a vampire, he'll tell you he was a magistrate, punishing troublemakers.

-Backstory complete!

-Art books are great, and beautiful, and it's baffling to me to see fans treat them like canon content, because if anything, they demonstrate various attempts to put together a story that ultimately didn't land for the creators. I love using materials like this when I write, I create character sheets and artbooks for my work all the time, and part of their charm is the features that didn't make it into the final work. Minthara is no longer an elven cleric, Shadowheart isn't covered in tattoos, and Astarion isn't one of corrupt elite of Baldur's Gate, or even elite, or a courtesan. Stop bringing up the artbook, you're embarrassing yourselves.

-There's actual explicit dialogue in game in which Astarion says he doesn't remember much from before he was turned. He says the person he was is gone, nothing left but a name on a rock. That's what's intentionally in the game. I think this is brilliant, because I think his character represents loss in a really poignant way, and that if they included anything too detailed about who he was before he got turned, that would undermine this theme, in a way that's especially unnecessary. It's better to keep it purposefully blank. A void of nothing. I'm actually really surprised that they didn't do this for Shadowheart, given that she's a Sharran, but in her story, we actually see a really nice counterexample: she does recall small details about her time in the city. Coming back there triggers memories and if you find all three of them---[spoiler deleted, please message me if you want to know about this, I've been informed I shouldn't just shout this out, because some people like to discover this stuff on their own. But also I'm not a gatekeeper, if you really want to know, I'm happy to tell you]. There's none of that for Astarion, in fact, if you go to the cemetery looking for his grave, which is something I think a lot of us did, you won't find any mention of him anywhere, but you will find one of those Shadowheart memories if she's with you. You only get to see Astarion's grave briefly, if you're romancing him, and even then, he once again takes the opportunity to talk about the person he once was truly is lost to him (and to us) and gone forever, long before we ever had the chance to know him.

It's tragic, and kind of perfect.

And in the meta of all this, it's intentional that we'll never known him. We might think we do, but we literally can't, because it's not in the story.

Which is good because it would ruin the scene a bit if he'd been like "btw I was a real piece of shit lmao." Just like it kind of ruins the affect of the empty backstory to go ahead and add a backstory.

But. We're curious, we speculate, and we expand, that's what fanfiction is for—it exists outside of the canon. I usually write post-canon, canon-consistent content, but there's a possibility I'll need to add a few scenes from Astarion's mortal life in this one fic—maybe not, idk—but in preparation for maybe doing that (or not), I had considered working through what I think his life was life before he was turned, and the events leading up to Cazador capturing him. I wasn't sold on the idea, but I was thinking about it.

And, then I started reading Spine of The World, which features an actual magistrate from DR 1365. This one is um. Corrupt. Or, at least, we would consider him to be corrupt? He's actually doing his job perfectly according to the very messed up justice system in Luskan, where he works. They don't have a concept of burden of proof there, or of innocence at all after you manage to get yourself arrested, and instead essentially just torture people to death publicly and explicitly for entertainment. It's not chill. It's not subtle. They call it Prisoner's Carnival.

This magistrate has Astarion's exact job, in a different city and a few decades later (and those differences matter, we'll get to it) but the important features are the same. So, here's some things to note: being a magistrate is a position of limited power, you have total discretion over the prisoners given to you for punishment (minus a few notable exceptions that come up in Spine of The World), but that's it. It's not like an influential political position of respect or anything. It can't be, because they are beholden to laws they can't change, and cultural traditions that are non-negotiable parts of the community.

This guy is referred to multiple times are a carnival barker. And there's loads of magistrates, they all have different reputations and and ymmv on how sadistic they individually are in Luskan. In a later book, when this particular magistrate is brought up again to another magistrate in Luskan, it's clear that the carnival barker thing isn't entirely universal and that he's considered one of the really bad ones, but regardless, they all acknowledge that what he does is legal and "serves a purpose" and they all direct and orchestrate the torture and slaughter of prisoners, and they all admit that many of them are probably innocent. The magistrates, and more importantly, the people in charge of them, maintain the necessity of the system, and the fear it instils to keep troublemakers in line.

One of the more reasonable and intelligent wizards in the series (a guy called Robillard who I can't help but envision as Gale of Waterdeep, because almost everything he does and says makes him sound like Gale of Waterdeep) shocks Drizzt by defending this system of justice very passionately.

Actually, Drizzt's thoughts in general about the Prisoner's Carnival are S-tier Drizzt musings, I love a man who keeps a journal. Likes cats too. Drizzt is lovely.

Drizzt also notes that this is a popular system in human societies specifically. Other races don't go in for it so much, and tend not to participate unless it's as... um... you know... as the prisoners being tortured. I think it's interesting that he mentions that elves in particular (in his experience) are universally disgusted by it. It's also explicitly stated that Baldur's Gate is different, and a much preferrable place to get tried by a magistrate. That isn't in his journal entry though, that's earlier in the novel. A moment of foreshadowing.

The whole world is brutal, but Baldur's Gate is a bit more modern and open to change than other places. That's probably one reason it keeps getting featured and mentioned even though we've barely spent any time there in Drizzt's series so far. It's a bit more relatable a place to actually live in long term than somewhere like Luskan, where you may have to seek out real estate that's far enough away from the square that you're not constantly hearing the death screams of someone being drawn and quartered in front of a cheering crowd. So that's the basics of it, and getting back to Astarion and the backstory that I would personally novelize for him, we have options:

If I'm going to try to fit this into the context that I now have though, it's important to keep in mind that 1) Baldur's Gate is considered one of the "nicer" places to be tried and 2) culturally, elves don't go in for cruelty, especially not as systemic "justice." None of this has to apply to Astarion, but if I'm writing it, I'm not going to ignore this cultural context. At a minimum, I'm going to say that appointing an elf as a magistrate in a city that's known for being more progressively compassionate about their treatment of prisoners was probably pointed on the part of tptb. Baldur's Gate wanted him to set an example for these bloodthirsty humans about mercy and justice and the balance between them. Racism dictates that you don't go to a human for that. They're carnival barkers. If you want a more compassionate magistrate, appoint an elf. And from there, we get to decide whether or not Astarion met their expectations, or if he defied them. Because maybe he was an asshole. Maybe he was just as bad as his human magistrate counterparts. That's not outside the realm of possibility at all, there's an argument to be made that we write him as a counterweight to the stereotype. Astarion is written to be capable of anything, so you can literally go in any direction with his disposition.

But, considering how Cazador rages that he "made" Astarion, and Astarion doesn't even argue with that sentiment. I think it's more likely (and loads sadder) if this unmaking and making included a complete and total overhaul of Astarion entire sense of justice. I actually think the harsh sentiments that Astarion expresses at the tribunal in Ansur's trials are a really good example of the flickers of Cazador and the person he twisted Astarion into, than they would ever be indicative of who he was before getting turned.

That guy's gone, remember?

And if it's not obvious, I'm going in that direction with my fanfic. I'm going to say he actually thought he could help his community. He studied. He got this civil servant position. It was a bit disillusioning. It's better in Baldur's Gate than in other places, but the system itself is cruel, and he's rewarded for being cruel within it. It doesn't even matter that he originally got the job because they hoped he would be a compassionate elf judge amongst bloodthirsty humans, once he's actually in position, it's all about maintaining the status quo. That's what they actually want from him, in spite of their "progressive" leanings.

If anything, he's getting in trouble, and getting noticed by not quite being status quo. A soft-hearted elf, letting his charges get away with all kinds of mischief. I'd write him this way, because I think it then easily follows that Cazador takes note of him and targets him, precisely because he's too merciful. It's annoying.

And, little bit about me, I'm an attorney, and early on, during and right after law school I worked for a few judges.

If Faerûn is anything like the USA I figure that after a few years he has figured out that being a magistrate only gives him a limited amount of discretion and authority over the specific individuals who are brought before him.

It's really legislation that makes a difference and he is specifically forbidden from that. He rules from the bench, and hopes that if he's consistent and fair, and if nothing disastrous results from his rulings, (and if he doesn't get reversed too often, idk if that's a thing in Faerûn but it's a thing in America) then maybe he could eventually influence those who do legislate, but like, that's not his job. And it's going to take a long time because most of it's quite tedious and people don't pay attention unless it's someone they care about standing before him. Nobody cares about the vast majority of these people. His job is to stare at "troublemakers" who have supposedly broken the law, hear witnesses and confessions and denials and lies and decide what the truth is, and decide what's fair.

And it's emotionally heavy work. A lot of people describe being a magistrate as a political position, and that's not incorrect, but there's a valley of difference between Astarion's very hands on job, and what Gortash/Duke Ravenguard do. You are beholden to powerful politicians (like actual politicians) with a lot more influence who figured all this out long before they made the mistake of having ideals or believing in anything, or taking a job in which they would have to a) actually work with people to probable burnout and b) inevitably make a lot of people very angry regardless of what they did.

But, Astarion is still young, he's still got energy, he's not lost himself yet, he thinks he can handle this responsibility and he's wrong.

One day, someone is brought before him. This person is Gur and has supposedly broken the law. Other Gur are upset about the way Astarion ruled. He was way too harsh, or maybe he wasn't.

Quick sidebar: in court, I have watched people literally receive the death sentence and have zero reaction. Same with life w/o parole and other life ruining sentences. In my experience, what triggers an emotional reaction and anger targeted at a judge isn't the severity of the sentence, it's how the severity of the sentence stacks up against their expectations. The defendants (or their families, with proxy outrage) who get really angry, who try to attack the judge, or the ones who are so disruptive that we have to call it and go wait in the hallway while the baliffs calm things down, all have one thing in common: they legitimately thought they were going to just be sent home. They didn't think they were going to be held at all. For that reason, I actually saw a lot more rage from people who had committed minor offenses, because they didn't think what they had done was that big a deal, showed no remorse, ignored their atty, made no effort to express any respect for the law, or any victims, and then when the judge just decides to go with whatever the statute says, in light if zero mitigating factors, the defendant hears "60 days" for the very first time and assumes that the judge just made that up and hates them.

And like, I know it's fiction, and I'm speaking on a very niche experience that most people can't relate to. It's unlikely the writers had anything (let alone realism) in mind at all when they decided to be as vague as possible in the details about a character who embodies "loss" as a concept. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss.

But this sidebar is just to explain why whenever someone says "well he got beat to death for it so his ruling must've been racist and harsh" my knee jerk response is "not necessarily."

And sidebar within the sidebar: if I was going to fully novelize the story, I would actually go in the direction of having the ruling in question be uncommonly fair. I might hint at some racism though—nobody really talks about it below the surface level obvious stuff that's in the game, and part of that is because information about the Gur as a people isn't super accessible. But there is information, and synthesized: racism against the Gur seems pretty standard, especially for an elf who has had it up to here with human bullshit generally. Especially during that time period. He probably didn't have a good opinion of the Gur in life.

But, I have to assume that his animosity towards the Gur that we see in the game was at least affected by the fact that they beat him to death, and then, he spent two centuries as an undead being that they kill on sight with absolutely no justification needed. Like. I don't think it's wild to suggest that. I'm actually very confused by how much people push back on the idea that this could be responsible for his attitude, in part. And that's as far as I have combed through all this so far. Idk how much of it will end up in fic, but it's my personal headcanon now.

I love horror movies. I have watched so many of them it's embarrassing. My letterboxd is embarrassing. I do love several horror movies that feature asshole victims, but as I look at my very favorites, I'm noticing a pattern. I like to feel hurt. I like it when a movie doesn't shy away from dealing out universal, apathetic and disproportionate punishment to everyone. I can't think of anything quite so sad as seeing a perfectly normal, maybe even morally progressive person with their whole life ahead of them, and choosing to unmake them and twist them into a broken puppet in your own image. Sparing/saving no one and nothing in the process. Just make them lose everything, including their entire sense of who they are.

So, I'm going to hurt my own feelings with my Astarion headcanon.

[strwberri-milk]

Hi there! I've requested a Kaeya fic before and thank you for writing it😭💕I have no idea if you write for Ayato but if you do; and it's okay if you don't! (and since I love your writing) I'd like to request a reader who is needy for him since she's feeling that he hasn't touched or been intimate with her for like forever because he is always busy, but ends up giving her what she wants. Hope you have a nice day!!🤭

i do sorta write ayato!! i've written two things for him :D just check out my masterlist tab under inazuma and you'll see what he was up to uwu - also this is a mix of fluff and smut - when the second set of bullets begin its smut so pls!! be aware of that :D

Ayato is a busy man and you would never fault him for it. You know that he has a lot to handle and that it keeps him out and about far longer than you deem comfortable. But, you aren't ever going to get mad at him.

That doesn't mean you won't mess with him though. You're inclined to tease him a bit when you can see him, giving him a sly look before disappearing too far away for him to chase after you. You can tell by the furrow of his brow he is very unamused, and you giggle to yourself at how you think he'll react when he finally gets his hands on you.

For now, you spend most of your time not working or out and about laying on his side of the bed, curled in his sheets as you read and entertain yourself. It's nice for you to be able to spend time where he did, still able to smell him on the sheets and placate yourself with that.

You collapse into the sheets with a sigh, curling up into Ayato's blankets for the nth time to rest after a long day. It was still a little too early for you to go to bed, figuring out what to do to kill some time before going to sleep. You decide on reading a book Ayato left for you, just about to crack open the pages when you hear the door open.

You slowly lower the book, looking at Ayato in disbelief. He's really here, standing in front of you with a tired, yet still adoring look. Once you realise it really is him you launch yourself out of bed, throwing your arms around him and holding him tightly. He laughs and shuts the door behind you both, kissing your cheek affectionately.

"Missed me, did you?" he asks softly, words getting smothered when you press a desperate kiss against his lips.

"Of course I did! I missed you so much," you gasp, still in shock that he was back before you went to sleep for once.

"I expected a warm welcome home, but not quite this warm," he teases this time, trailing kisses down your neck.

"You haven't been here in so long what else am I supposed to do? Pretend I haven't been waiting for you to come back to me?"

He can see that there are slight tears beginning to form in your eyes, tsking a little lightheartedly at how adorable you're being. Ayato kisses your tears away, hands digging into your hips as you begin to needily whine for his attention again.

"Tell me you're going to be here when I wake up this time? This project you've been working on has been taking so much longer than I thought it would. Do you at least have some sort of timeline for me to figure out when you'll be free again? We can at least go on one date, right?"

His heart breaks a little now that he's able to hear just how much his absence has messed with you. You do your best to hide it from him and he really appreciates that, but that doesn't mean it won't upset him to hear you being so honest with him.

"I'm so sorry my beloved. I've done everything I can to speed up the process but thankfully, I've finally caught up. We're finally done, which means you won't have to spend all day waiting for me now."

The happy look on your face is all he can ask for, holding you tightly against him as you excitedly tell him everything you've been wanting to for weeks.

It doesn't take much time for the two of you to catch up, talking for hours until it's time to go to bed. You seem quite resistant to the idea and he can't blame you, feeling himself get a little excited as well with the way you allow your hand to traverse his body.

He scolds you teasingly, shaking his head as you pout cutely at him. He wants to work you up even more, knowing it'll be that much sweeter to tease you later when you're even whiner and desperate.

He waits until you think it's time to give up, about to give him the cold shoulder before running his hand up your thigh and kissing up your back, whispering into your ear how "You don't really mean that" and "I'll make sure you're so full of me you won't miss me anymore". The sweetest things all tied up in his sultry tone, fingers teasing at your hole before he pins your wrists above your head.

"Ayato, please," you whine, wrists struggling against his grasp as you feel him bring you up to another orgasm for what feels like the 10th time.

His pace is brutal, never stopping not even when he cums inside of you as he uses you the way he wants, pent-up frustration finally able to be released into your body.

"Please what? You want me to stop? I'm not quite done here yet with you. You just look so cute I have to spoil you and treat you the way you want to be treated," he purrs, shuddering again as he feels your walls clench over him in ecstasy.

You've cum so many times at this point your moans are just breathless whimpers, arching into his hips as your legs thrash around him before coming down. He can feel the way your thighs clench around his waist, hips desperately bucking into his as he hears your creamy arousal frothing on his balls.

"You feel so good - I've missed your cock so much!"

The high-pitched way you whine for him makes him lose his mind, finally freeing a hand so he can reach down and circle your throbbing bud. He grunts as you clench around him at the feeling, ankles locking behind his back as your head is thrown back again in pleasure.

"One more for me, okay? Just one more and I'll get you all cleaned up. You've done so good for me so far," he mutters, sucking hickies wherever he can reach.

You nod fervently, his efforts quickly culminating in another orgasm building up fast. Somehow, the burning overstimulation you were feeling in your core was getting even warmer, shared fluids running down both your bodies as he adjusted your thighs to reach your chest. It made his cock drag against your walls even more insistently, weak moans becoming screams of pleasure at the new sensation.

Finally, you feel him cum inside of you for the last time, leaking out and down your spent hole as you cum shortly thereafter. Ayato groans softly as his hips stutter into you, making you whimper weakly as your nails scratch down his arm.

"There you go, I knew you could do it," he says sweetly into your ear, bringing you back up to his chest and giving you the tender loving care you deserve after dealing with all of his pent up energy.

[biblicallyaccuratecrow]

ouroboros rambles chapter 2

you guys seemed to like the chapter 1 rambles, so here is chapter 2!

[spoilers for isat and twohats below the cut]

i would like to start by saying that we all need more mirabelle POV fics in our lives. she deserves only the best.

I always really liked how Mira didn't just. get over act 5? like, the things that siffrin said were hurtful! yes! and she loves him! even after that! but it doesn't erase the pain and the conflicting feelings regarding it, especially because of the no-spoilers rule... which we will get more into i proMISE! in any case I was focused a lot on the fact that Mira post canon is dealing with a Lot, what with everyone still believing that she was chosen by the Change God and yknow. saving Vaugarde, and Siffrin's overall condition doesn't help! She wants him to be okay and safe, and she has already shown that she feels immense guilt over not being able to help siffrin during the loops, so I kinda leaned hard into that.

The entire party is about to be So Tired Of People.... especially The Introverts (Odile, Mira, and Siffrin)...

The fucking cart thing came to me out of fucking nowhere. I have no idea where or why that bit came around.

Siffrin sleeping habits analysis. siffrin sleeps all curled up like a cat most of the time? theyre small scrappy, but not really the most physically strong (before the loops), and i imagine more than a few years of traveling alone would train him to be ready to protect themselves however they can, even in their sleep. I think that this eases up a bit as they get comfortable with the party, which leads to them being able to sleep "normally". but of course, that is how they wake up in the loops. negative association and trauma from waking up back in the meadow..... i don't imagine they'll be going back to that any time soon.

I do have a Full Catalog of Siffrin's injuries (because im actually insane) but that will be talked about in my chapter 3 rambles. for now though, all im gonna say is that Siffrin definitely kept the stars hidden. In my headcanon, healing craft only works when you can actually pinpoint a wound, internal or external. I'm more inclined to believe that siffrin healed them up the best they could on their own after to hide them.

Ohhhh odile. my beloved. i have so many feelings about her and how she processes siffrin's issues postcanon. feelings i will not get into until next chapter. sorry lmaoooooo. All you gotta know for now is that once she starts seeing things, she can't stop. the signs appear everywhere, and she very quickly puts the pieces together from that point. All it takes is one domino to start the cascade, and Odile is the kind of person that WILL get to the bottom of it all, no matter what it takes.

Mira's guilt. Oh man. There are some ways in which her and Siffrin are very alike, and this is one of them. She's justified in being mad, yes, but that doesn't erase the fact that she doesn't want to BE mad. She hates it. because she knows now that siffrin was suffering. She defeated the king, saved vaugarde, but the cost was her friend's health and happiness. siffrin said that they were happiest they'd ever been with the party... and yes, siffrin loves them all deeply, but she never could have wanted that love to come at such a great price.

Mira has gotta be TIRED. girl healed siffrin a grand total of (checks my page of notes from act 5) six times. with very little cooldown. and that was AFTER deflecting the ONE SHOT KILL attack from the king (which, even with the carrot method shield, does at least 1/4 damage) and unfreezing siffrin....ough. let her rest!

i love torturing isa using his crush. its so funny. bro is a disaster. brain completely short circuits at the thought of siffrin in his clothes i can IMAGINE IT SO CLEARLY.... odile is gon abe homophobic soon /silly

Siffrin's wish... this scene was really important to me. Just for clarification (and this will become a LOT more obvious later), I don't really regard this scene as Siffrin getting over what happened? Because he definitely isn't. But they have already literally let go of their wish, and I wanted to explore a more… intentional version of that? its long-lasting effects are still there, mentally and physically. it doesn't just go away. But it has served its purpose and this is my way of showing the transition point from the loops and their future with their family.

Also!!! the idea of mourning something that no longer serves its former purpose, a life you cannot get back. Siffrin can never go back to who they were before their wish. They have been fundamentally changed as a person. And while the wish did bring good things, the flipside is that it also dismantled their entire worldview and life in its entirety. They died from this wish, suffered because of it, but the meaning behind it remains, and i think that this scene kind of shows the idea that siffrin still feels compassion for what it originally meant to them. its a bittersweet reality.

[libras-interactives]

Usually, I'm not one to comment or ask stuff unless it's a reply but god UTDM (and Lackadaisy) has a grip on me rn :'D

So I have two questions, and if they've been already answered feel free to ignore them!

1. It's stated somewhere in the fic that Flynn uses a cane. So does he have it simply for cosmetic reasons or does he actually need it for walking?

2. Do you think that Cora and Rocky would get along (when not taking the whole 'one does illegal stuff while the other is trying to stop illegal stuff from happening' thing into account)? I kinda thought they would because they are similar personality wise (or at least somewhat lol). Both look up to a co-worker/their boss, crave some sort of validation and are rather hyper.

Also, I just wanted to say I love this fic sm <3

This was the first time I tried out an interactive one, and I'm glad I did :] The added characters are lovely (love love the boys wanna give them a hug or smth), and this fic helped me make four characters! I'm hoping to share them along with art in the near future, but don't get your hopes up, my motivation is a creature that I cannot seem to tame lmao

Anyway, sorry if all of this is rambly, I'm not the best at wording my thoughts in a coherent way :']

Hiiii welcome to my fixation, hope it's fueling your's LOL. Pls tag me if you end up drawing them, I love seeing people's OCs that come from this! And thank you for the kind words 🥺😭

1) People think it's just cosmetic, he goes great lengths to make sure no one sees him using it as a mobility aid. I don't think anyone - sans maybe his brother, the MC a few times, and Cerberus once or twice - has seen him use his proper medical cane. His regular snake-head cane is (per @acesandocs cool ass design) is cool and impressive for showing off but doesn't help when he's hurting.

2) In spite of their similarities, Cora would be aghast at the idea of her and Rocky getting along ... He's a criminal! And drifter! And has a suspicious face!

Setting aside their actual jobs, if they were on the same "team" - They'd both be annoying each other, because Cora leans more orderly and logical, and Rocky is more sensitive and artistic. But to everyone on the outside, they both have very similar chaotic energy and thought processes haha. She also came from a much nicer upbringing and has a more rigid way of thinking, so she probably wouldn't emphatize well with Rocky's "quirks". They both share that inclination to like or dislike someone right away, and stick with that initial opinion.

[quietwingsinthesky]

might i request a crumb of Crowley/Gabriel,,,,,, hm if were doing hurt/comfort how about..... one teasing the other about being concerned about their wounds? feel like it could work either way and i just die for the whole [*spongebob voice* you care about me dont you squidward] while being tended to vibes. no pressure ofc!

gave it a shot of a sort? possibly tilted more into teasing than concern, but see what you think? :3

"Don't get the wrong idea," Gabriel tells Crowley. He's hard to look at, but if Crowley has proven anything to himself by now, it's that he'll stare right up at the sun so long as he's sure he'll live through it. He wouldn't have bet on the Winchesters against Lucifer otherwise. "I like you as much as I like the idiots who thought we needed a team name to handle the Apocalypse, but we're all on the same side now: Lucifer's shit list." He wouldn't be doing it now, if Gabriel hadn't already pulled him out of that little dungeon he got put in once Lucifer finally caught up to the one demon not willing to bend over and prostrate himself.

But despite his protests, Gabriel did save him, and Gabriel is bandaging his wounds. A clumsy process for an archangel, his frustration showing at the curl of his lip at every reminder that keeping Crowley alive isn't half as easy as keeping two humans—however suicidally inclined said Winchesters were—alive. Too many touches of grace and Crowley's damned soul will go ka-put, and wouldn't that mess with Gabriel's plans to add his resources to…

"Team name?" Crowley demands.

"Do not get me started," Gabriel says, and then, with a sharp flourish, "but welcome to Team Free Will, where you get to rub elbows with the upper echelons of alcoholic hunters and disgraced angels."

"Are you counting yourself in that?"

"Absolutely," Gabriel says, dragging the emphasis on each syllable as he tightens Crowley's bandages. "You'll fit right in."

"I'm honored," Crowley mutters, "but I'll remain freelance."

Gabriel snorts. "I'll be sure to tell Dean what your going rate is."

"First service free, of course. In exchange for my life being saved."

"Just the first?" Half-affronted, half-amused, Gabriel checks him over.

"I'm open to negotiation," Crowley says, and he's surprised to find that he means it, so long as the person across the table is Gabriel. It's a little too tempting to have an archangel playing for his favor. Crowley wants to know how far Gabriel will let him push. Even his touch trails like tingling burns across Crowley's skin to remind him what the being he's messing with is, no matter how naturally Gabriel wears his own skin.

Not that that will stop him.

[liketwoswansinbalance]

Hi, I just read a couple of your fics, I love your writing! How do you build suspense or add details into your stories? Do you have any sort of writing tips? Thanks!

Wow, thank you so much! I'll describe some of my thought process behind those elements and a few others below if that helps.

And if anyone wants WIP news, there's some buried in here.

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First, I almost never execute an idea right away since I either don't have the time to, or want to let it incubate for a while. Most of my ideas stay in outline form for months before I execute them, and I add and add certain details over time.

The one exception to this inclination so far has been "In Unrecognition of Rhian..." that I wrote in almost one sitting. In my experience, the pre-thinking, outlining, and Draft Zero (not One—I can explain if you'd like) can sometimes be longer than any of what I consider the "real" writing.

A tip: Carry your phone or a notebook with you everywhere. Sometimes, you have to record something immediately to preserve the wording exactly as you had it then because you can't always reconstruct it from memory.

⸻

If you want to know about the inclusion of details, a lot of the time, I try to make every detail count, so it moves something forward. In fact, one of my greatest wishes in the act of writing is for everything I (consciously) put into the text to have a reason to be there. Though, I imagine not everyone wants that. I'm sure some writers handle randomness and serendipity better than I, so do what you see fit.

Nevertheless, front-loading decisions is usually a method that works out well for me, to pick things apart and question them before I write and well before I think about whether I like the phrasing.

Be outrageously mean and discerning about certain things, like you're a set designer. That way, you'll be forced into thinking about decisions more deliberately and sooner, leaving less work for yourself in the end. If you were working with physical objects, you would probably have less leeway in changing your mind anyway. You might have a deadline or demand to get the furniture arranged so to speak. You can't just change the color of an item you've already bought and may be unable to return. There's only so much manpower you can invest in dying that sofa a new color, and so on. However, this is where you, as a writer, can upstage the hypothetical set designer. If you can't decide or don't want to commit to a decision yet due to gaps in the information/plot, leave yourself a placeholder like this: [COLOR of MATERIAL(?) fabric], [SYNONYM], [FIND BETTER VERB] or [JET STONE or SPINEL - DECIDE ON ONE LATER] and return to fill it in whenever you're ready. You have the ability to change things at any time, unlike the set designer of a film.

Essentially, interrogate the element you chose, to see if it could do more and better. For instance, if the default thing you chose more thoughtlessly at the start was something like a blue sky, ask yourself: Could a different sky or time of day serve the story better? Could it do more than what it's already doing? Or, if you want to keep the blue sky, what precisely do you want it to accomplish?

It can be incredibly fun to be as arrogant as you want about this, by the way. And, this is no lie—you can think of yourself as someone high-up, marshaling and deploying troops to enact your bidding, which is ultimately, telling a striking story with some substance to it.

Anyway, interrogation of some kind sometimes helps me, but that's only because, again, I happen to be a very outline-oriented, front-loading, do-the-heavy-lifting-on-the-front-end-of-things type of writer. I usually start with word vomit or a bare-bones script of a near-complete draft before I do the "real" writing, which is sometimes closer to re-ordering lines or putting thoughts into readable, complete, better sentences, and that is why the "outline" or Draft Zero of my longfic is likely longer than the fic itself will actually be, at something under 260 pages currently.

Possibly, one of the most extreme examples I have of front-loading is how I have one WIP fic I already have the exact start and end sentences pre-written for and (so far) have plans to write to those ends.

I'll share them to illustrate my point (though, unfortunately, there is a reason I can't yet disclose what exactly justifies them being the way they are):

First line:

There the bones lay, sun-bleached and white.

Last line:

Sun-bleached and white, there lay the bones.

Basically, all I'll divulge for now is that I'm trying to write a story that is cyclical in nature, which is why it needs a circular ending, to mirror back with. That is the (currently vague and unspecified) purpose these lines will serve. My ambition is that these lines will impact the reader each time differently. (Hint: The bones aren't the same bones each time. It's two different sets of them, at different points in time.)

I will also add: I love word order, emphasis, and italics, probably because I'm a control freak. Still, it's a really cool feature of language, the way you can assemble a sentence to either spotlight it or overshadow it.

It's all about the importance or weight you have the power to assign. Oftentimes, the last thing in a sequence is the most memorable while something placed in the middle is the least remembered or processed by the mind and the most overlooked—due to the Serial Position Effect in psychology.

Ok, now back to details, whether they be for plot or characterization.

For the characterization details, I try to think of them in terms of: How could this thing I want to convey manifest itself physically, through movements, the surroundings, the overall environment, and the environment's response to the character's action or inaction. In the case of fairy tales, the genre allows for things to be uncanny or overly fitting, for there to be slightly more deliberate cause-and-effect than there would be in reality, which I like to play with (most prominently seen in my whump fic.) These details help me give a sense of something easily, and that's why, for me, it's better not to shoot for absolute realism in descriptions, but more... things (especially adjectives) that are fitting and "too eerily convenient" and "matching pairs" above all.

For example, I once described Rafal's shirt buttons as restrictive, and this, in turn, serves as a tangible signal that alludes to his standards, his rigor, his need for oppressive control over the world and himself. Basically, you have to find a way to translate or transfer over the abstract into the visual, like you're exchanging one medium for another.

That's also why I like to think of myself as writing for density, trying to fit the most I can into the narrowest of crevices, jam-packing the majority of sentences with stuff that, even if a reader happened to overlook it, could (hopefully) make someone's mind click upon closer inspection, in the same way mine does since I already know it's there. The last thing I want my writing to lack is substance.

Everything must serve a purpose, and serving a dual- or triple-purpose is best, your "purposes" here being: character, plot, and setting. (A fourth addition to those could be: interest/intrigue, which is more your call.) Be ruthless. Ask: Is this is accomplishing something for you and has it earned its keep, its right to stay in the text?

Furthermore, as a writer, be more ruthless than you would be as a reader in tolerating the excess. If it does zero of those three things, you must ask yourself: Should it stay? Does it add to a coherent whole? Does it work well with its brothers (the sentences around it)? Is it out of place?

Do not let your manuscript give you guff. At the same time, you can let the so-called "nonsense" stay if you have plans to rework it. No point in deleting something unfinished, when you're still drafting or editing! Also, save everything you scrap. You might need it again.

Then again, about cutting and brevity (something I'm definitely still learning) I love to elaborate and compound things and (at times) overcomplicate them more than they need to be, so use your own subjective judgment, as in everything and anything else besides.

If you're writing for a genre that allows for drama, write like a sensationalist. Use verbs that pull their weight. Don't always fall back on cliches. Go for impact, syllable, and sound at times over simply opting for your favorite word. Sometimes, decisions feel more "objectively" right or fitting if you develop your "internal ear." I don't know what to call it exactly, but since English is my first language and since I often consume ungodly amounts of the written word, even lowbrow stuff more often than higherbrow texts, honestly, I just have a decently developed sense of what flies and what doesn't.

But, consciously, deliberately learning to have a command over language could also help. A lot of the learning process comes down to paying attention and forming insights. Personally, I have a persistent obsession with language and words, so part of that is something I focus on automatically because of my interest. If that doesn't happen to be the first thing that comes to mind for other people, I'm not sure, but you can direct yourself to look for what you want to train, I think.

Accumulate some kind of varied, critical mass of texts, literally just a high enough volume of texts, to let them seep into your brain over time. This could be like what adults tend to tell young children who are reluctant readers: read, read, read.

It doesn't matter what they read as long as it captures their interest and gets them started on reading at that early stage. It usually tends to be later on when critical people start to care about children's highbrow and lowbrow reading choices, I think.

At some point, I think that if people who followed through with this were to continue with this passive "process," I think they would hear others' voices, the "echoes" or the "phantoms," and be able to replicate them. This would function in a similar way as how we can often imagine the speech patterns of people we know well, to a lifelike degree in our internal monologues, like how we may recognize them by their unconscious verbal tics, or otherwise distinctive phrases, not necessarily by the actual sound of their voice but by how they deliver what they say, by the form, not the content.

And then, possibly, the writer's voice could likely emerge as something that's an amalgamation of the others' voices, all reconstructed. Or, that's partly how I see it, because, I feel like in my case, I can't exactly stray as far as I'd like to from some influences I've had, or that at least one of my "voices" formed through imitating fictional narrators, real writers, and registers of speech I liked at different times. Basically, all this is to say: learning voice seems to have a lot to do with observation and imitation.

Additionally, go for an emotional illusion of "truth-ness" over the objective truth. Write for the mood or the sense of conveying what you want to convey, immaterially, instead of writing the literal plot exactly how it went. Sometimes, it may be acceptable to sacrifice complete factual accuracy for the sake of story, depending on what you're dealing with.

If you want to make more conscious, active progress sooner rather than passive progress over time by letting things inculcate themselves, you could always change the "lens" with which you read. Read for more than story. When you see a technique done somewhere else, you can reverse-engineer it and apply it to your own writing. Doing so gradually builds your understanding of what writing is capable of accomplishing, in comparison to other mediums, like screenwriting. Basically, I'll just say: "learn to read like a writer."

⸻

As for suspense, I rely on having a sense of story beats, drop-offs, and shorter sentences at certain pivotal points. There are lead-ups, set-up, pay-off, but those aren't always something that I think about on a conscious level. By a certain point, if you ingest enough of others' fiction, you will likely end up with a sense for it, to know where things slot into place. That's how it appears to me, at least.

Maybe an example from one of my fics could help make it more concrete:

Rafal sighed in relief. He'd served the absurd, seemingly arbitrary punishment the Pen had dealt him and it was now well over with.

Then, the Storian moved.

To my great satisfaction, Rafal is absolutely wrong.

The reader knows there is a false sense of security, and I want the reader to know and anticipate with bated breath that something could go wrong because suspense, by definition, is built on a foundation of anticipation, not jump scares or shock value alone.

This article on suspense versus surprisingness as qualities could also help explain, and this second article has a great example involving a bomb.

One brief digression into what I could call "stream-of-action," specifically: the fewer "interruptions," the better. Do not deviate from that line of suspense you've been building. Action sequences aren't the place for extraneous descriptions. Do not cut into a sequence with those descriptions. You have to hold back and wait for the right moment to include your more content-filled sentences. All you need are clear, unbroken lines of action to go by, so you do not fall into the trap of defusing tension.

Anyway, false beliefs or subversions tend to help, from my experience. You, the reader, knowing more or anticipating more than a character could in their position is of prime importance. We sometimes call that device "dramatic irony" or dread. (If you want a few examples of that, my whump fic, the source of the above excerpt, used it.)

You, as the reader, clearly know more of what's to come, even getting a vague sense of it before Rafal does, which I would hope contributes to the dark humor of it all? Basically, you can lord your superior knowledge over him in a low position right then.

Oftentimes, readers love to feel smarter than a character as long as the character isn't annoying them. (The converse is when a plan is withheld and you get to piece together the machinations in Rafal's head before the plan plays out, to keep with my particular example.)

You can also start with something little and anticlimactic, sometimes, so the reader gets a sense of something being "off" or as being less than they were expecting, essentially, underwhelming in effect before the true flare-up. You can't always go into something with full force, loud and raucous and blaring, with glaring headlights, see? If you start playing an instrument at full volume, to the top of its capacity, then you'll have nowhere louder to go when you want to achieve a crescendo.

I, personally, for action sequences, to sustain the sense of movement (and overlap depending on the number of subjects) like to cram in as many active verb clauses as I possibly can into one sentence, as long as it seems readable.

Then, the shorter moves are brief, brisk and punctuating, like staccato. That's how I view it all.

Pacing is controlled by the speed at which the reader can read. So, shorter, more comprehensible sentences or longer, flowing sentences tend to work best for anything intended to be fast-paced. It also helps to keep verbs closer to their subjects; the fewer intervening phrases there are, the easier something will be to read. Basically, don't divorce the subject from its verb by too far, generally.

Here's one other example from one of my fics that may be of use:

In an instant, the room hushed as the elusive School Master of Evil entered the foyer, appraising Hedadora’s cloud of white hair and pink-rimmed glasses.

He was positively saturnine, Hedadora noted as she saw the sunken shadows beneath his eyes.

Rafal picked up a pitted olive from a dish. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

The most build-up occurs in Hedadora's pov, which is why I intentionally chose a somewhat unsympathetic, outsider pov, to generate more emotion than Rafal's pov could reach on his own. His eating an olive instead of doing something grand or impressive is the anticlimax. The sentence in which Rafal acts is the "nothing," the lacking response, before the "everything" that follows shortly after. It's all about timing.

It also helps to picture imagery if you can (I myself don't have fully rendered or vivid images in my mind, but I do have a vague sense of positioning for characters and objects). Events can unfold either in a sequence, or all at once, depending on what fits your purposes. Though, usually, all at once is the more intense option because the reader has to juggle multiple things happening at once in their mind.

And generally, I also love the idea of crescendos for plot structures. I drew a lot of inspiration from this very particular excerpt from a book because it reminds me of my objective to imitate this collision-like sense when I write. The excerpt, taken out of context from How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, is probably the single most memorable, unintentional description of suspense I've ever read, meaning, it's greatly influenced me:

“Life has a strange rhythm. It takes a while to fully be aware of this. Decades. Centuries, even. It's not a simple rhythm. But the rhythm is there. The tempo shifts and fluctuates; there are structures within structures, patterns within patterns. It's baffling. Like when you first hear John Coltrane on the saxophone. But if you stick with it, the elements of familiarity become clear. The current rhythm is speeding up. I am approaching a crescendo. Everything is happening all at once. That is one of the patterns: when nothing is happening, nothing continues to happen, but after a while the lull becomes too much and the drums need to kick in. Something has to happen. Often that need comes from yourself. You make a phone call. You say, 'I can't do this life any more, I need to change.' And one thing happens that you are in control of. And then another happens which you have no say over. Newton's third law of motion. Actions create reactions. When things start to happen, other things start to happen. But sometimes it seems there is no explanation as to why the things are happening—why all the buses are coming along at once—why life's moments of luck and pain arrive in clusters. All we can do is observe the pattern, the rhythm, and then live it."

The fact that luck and pain arrive in clusters could definitely apply to fortune harming or helping characters in the very same moments. If used correctly, I'm fairly sure "busyness" (a.k.a. overlap and subplots) tends to grant you the illusion of complexity.

Honestly, I love reversal-of-fortune tropes. They are some of the best out there, and they're the reason why some longstanding stories like "Cinderella" have withstood the test of time. We get human satisfaction from deserved reversals. (Or, at the very least, I happened to get satisfaction from bringing down and torturing the torturer in my fic.)

If anyone has any more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

If any of this sounds like a lot or like information overload, you certainly don't have to take everything at once or at all. Some things I've attempted to describe kind of become less conscious queries you "sense" while writing.

[1yyyyyy1]

what do you think about poly? i hate it because i don't think its possible to actually be in love with 2 people without pair bonding more with one, or value someone while having sex with someone else. i feel like it's a cover for how shitty men and some women are at commitment. a part of me believes men don't feel true love or intimacy, but admitting that only makes me feel like i'm validating them when they say they can't commit and it's "unrealistic" but it's really just being a good partner.

I like not to think about it :) Everything I've learned about polygamy has been against my will… I distinctly remember a male on Reddit describe his experience with polygamy, in which he spoke about having a "polygamous mindset" for a lack of a better word. He was in a committed relationship with a monogamous woman and chose monogamy because he liked her as a person (I'm guessing polygamy was a hard boundary for her). He said that, aside from the pull to be with multiple people, him being polygamous meant that he was genuinely happy with his partner seeing (and sleeping with) other people and enjoying it; it didn't sound like he was describing a fetish and it was in general different from the idea of polygamy I previously had in mind. It stood out to me because he was mostly talking about his attitude towards his girlfriend partnering others and not his personal gain, so I could see how it could be a mutual dynamic between compatible partners. This kind of changed my opinion on what polygamy could be like if it involved emotionally mature and self-aware people, even if didn't make me understand the appeal any better.

Generally speaking, I don't have a strong opinion on polygamy (or polyamory) because I prefer to concern myself with the things that are for me. I can imagine polygamy working out for people, even if only within the confines of a thought experiment, so I'm not going to dismiss it on the premise that it is inherently dysfunctional. I'm not going to dismiss it in favor of monogamy either because I don't view monogamy as a sign of adjustment. Some people are into monogamy because they are obsessive and controlling, and monogamous partnerships are still notorious for cheating and turning into an "open relationship". I'm less and less inclined to be picking a side as people always seem to find a way to pervert whatever it is I would be supportive of... It is possible to stand up for your preferences without disparaging the other option — and risking being wrong in the process. The reason I would only ever consider monogamy is very simple — I don't like sharing my life on a profoundly personal level with multiple people. My overall personality traits coincide in a way that makes this unfeasible for me. I am very private about my life experiences and I would not share them with someone who is not fully invested. I also see relationships as a learning experience, and since I like getting to the bottom of things I would be genuinely distressed if me getting closer with someone were diluted by some other person's contribution. This may sound like a self-absorbed approach to something as reciprocal as a relationship, but laying down the precise terms on which you enter one makes it impossible for people to sway your opinion in a direction that doesn't benefit you. It doesn't matter to me if my standards are framed as "a desire for ownership" or "controlling", which are all common accusations made against monogamy. The point is that I would never consent to a relationship (let alone sexual contact) with a person who is not willing to match my commitment and views on privacy, it would violate my personal boundaries and I am better off not entering a relationship altogether until my conditions are met.

I would argue that there is an issue with commitment on people's part, but I would attribute it to something other than a specific relationship model. What I see is that most relationships are formed out of convenience, and revolve around reproduction, shared finances and sexual gratification. The reason I believe this results in commitment issues is because these are all non-specific traits most functional adults can perform and provide. There is not much ground for personalized bonding, and this approach can result in indecisiveness about which partner to commit to (if at all). This, of course, can also lead to multiple partners being a valid option at the cost of them being entirely replaceable... To answer the question the second time — I do think that relationships that involve multiple people can be a sign of poor commitment and superficial bonding.

As for men's inability to love, I don't see acknowledgement as endorsement and I don't understand why it is such a common notion. My negative assessment of people is there for me to have an understanding of what I am dealing with, not to validate said people. In acknowledging that men are incapable of commitment, I choose to allocate my efforts to someplace else because attempting to change a person's behavior is a waste of my time. I don't feel responsible for men's stance on faithfulness; I believe them to be capable enough to live in accordance with their convictions regardless of outside influence. I know for a fact that no amount of external validation would make me cheat on my partner, so it is not a stretch to extend these expectations to other people, including men.

[crazycatgirl420]

Reincarnation as Danielle Fenton-Masters

(Danny Phantom Self Insert Fanfic)

Danielle Jasmine Masters. Honestly, as if having my reincarnation half-assed with my memories of my last life intact wasn't bad enough, I was tossed into the newly created body of a fictional character.

Not fictional anymore though, I supposed, if this was to be my new reality. I stared up at 'Vlad Masters', the wannabe super villain of this series, and I supposed he was technically my life-giver now.

"Hey," I said, interrupting his monologue lecture. "Do I call you mother or father?"

Vlad's face did a few meme-able expressions as he processed my question. Wish I had a camera. I waited, letting the lonely mad scientist find an answer.

I came to life in a lab, likely Vlad's basement lab in Wisconsin, unless he'd already moved to a mansion in Amity Park? It's been so long since I actually watched the show, and the Phandom online ended up being much more entertaining anyway. Oh! What if this universe was a crossover universe? There were so many of those, and the 'Ghost Zone' was also known as the Infinite Realms for a reason right?

I would have to figure out what to call my species. I'm pretty sure 'Halfa' was a phandom term, and even if it wasn't, I don't think it actually fits what I am. I'm not a ghost or spirit, this body hasn't died. I might qualify as a being from the realms, but I was created on Earth. Ah wait, hybrid? Human-Plasmic hybrid. Kinda sounds like demon hybrid from folklore stories, or maybe a car...but it sounds more honest to my situation than what 'halfa' does.

"...Father" Vlad said. "You may address me as Father,"

"How's my health Father?" I asked, glancing at the piles of failed Danny Fenton clone goop. "How long do you think I have?"

Vlad seemed to freeze, actually being acknowledged as my parent, my father,brought some light to his eyes. Green ectoplasmic light. Then it faded, and he looked horrified. He scooped me up in a panic and rushed me to a more medically inclined part of the lab.

Several tests later, and I learned I was unstable. Vlad would need Danny, or his dna, to make me stable. Lots of science words I didn't listen to and was unlikely to learn, but Vlad sent me on a quest to meet Danny. Technically it was a mission to kill Danny, but like...I wasn't going to do that. Vlad would regret if I actually succeeded anyway so what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

I had seen my own reflection in the mirror during the health tests. I looked way younger than Dani from the show had looked, I looked like I could pass as a small four-year-old actually. How exactly Vlad thought I was going to get to Amity Park when I didn't look like I was even potty trained yet I had no idea, but I'd bring him back a parenting book or two. Did this universe have a 'Parenting for Dummies' ?

Now...how to get to Amity Part from...wherever this is. Oh look! Vlad has a personal driver.

"Scuse me Ma'am?" I said, gently pulling on her pant leg. "Could you take me to Aunt Maddie's house in Amity Park?"

Of course Vlad's employees knew who Maddie Fenton was. Hopefully Danny Fenton was as good natured as he was in the show. lots of things were already so different, if this was an evil Danny universe things would suck.

[broken-clover]

22- Creating

I'll admit I'm considering mashing up prompts for the last week of this little project, I'm very much losing steam but don't want to throw in the towel when so close to completion.

Somehow I still have more fandoms to add in, so here's a little persona 5. A very flawed game with questionable moments, but I still like a lot of the characters, especially Yusuke. He's a charmingly peculiar little man with a fluffy fox tail that wags. It's hard not to be charmed. I'm realizing that both of the only fics I've made for him are about making art, but I'm treating it as a form of enrichment for him.

-

Yusuke was, first and foremost, a painter, but when Akira had made mention of some sculptor’s clay he’d bought at a discount from the craft store, he simply couldn’t resist. The urge to create could manifest in many ways.

The loft had already been set up with a little folding table by the time he’d arrived. Sakamoto and Takamaki were already there, as well, something that gave him pause. He hadn’t expected anyone else, nor had the two ever seemed particularly artistically inclined. At least at a glance, the box of clay was quite large, plenty for the four of them.

He sat down in the open chair. “I appreciate you inviting me, Akira.”

“Well, making a whole event out of this was Ryuji’s idea,” replied Ann, “so be sure to thank him too!”

“Ah…I see. Thank you, Sakamoto.”

Still, Akira had taken charge, as he was prone to. He managed the supply box, wrestling a long string to slice through the beige lump for Yusuke to use.

“You know how to sculpt, dont’cha, Yusuke?” Ryuji asked.

“I’m aware of the basics,” he said. “This isn’t my typical medium, but I am still somewhat familiar with it. Do you?”

“Nah, only done it a couple times before! That’s why I wanted to give it a go when I heard about his little shopping trip!” The boy beamed, jerking a thumb at their leader.

“It felt like a good way to relax,” Ann added in, “it feels like we get less and less free time lately, so if we’ve got an afternoon, why not do something fun?”

Yusuke nodded in approval. Even if he didn’t always understand his teammates, he could understand that much. At times, painting could bring him a sense of relief like no other. That wasn’t always how it went (artists’ block was an accursed thing that soured one of the grandest delights in his life) but when it did, he savored it.

As he started getting to work kneading the clay, he took note of how the others worked. Ann was meticulous in detailing her in-progress sculpture, gingerly scraping away tiny slivers to make patterns of indents and swirls. Ryuji seemed more interested with just playing around than creating something, building up a lump only to squash it back down again and redo the process. Akira was…

He scooted closer to try for a better look. “What are you making?”

Akira flattened the bottom of his half-done creation and began pulling along the top. “I’m making a little bowl.” He replied, thumbing over the rim to smooth the edge. “I don’t think I have any food-safe glaze, so I shouldn’t eat out of it, but I can put it on my desk and use it to hold things.”

What a practical thought. It fit him perfectly.

Yusuke happily fell into the chatter of his teammates, though repeatedly getting distracted by his own clay. Ann had been right, this was just what they’d needed between all the schoolwork and Mementos-delving. Of course the conversation passed over that every once in a while, but it didn’t linger long. They were free to just talk about whatever mundane goings-on caught anyone’s interest. Akira talked about the nice weather. Ryuji talked about an electronics sale he’d seen in town. It was nice. Just good, simple fun with some dear friends. Yusuke hoped they could make a habit of it.

[marzipanandminutiae]

I watched Crimson Peak recently and saw another post here asking you about it, so since I'm new to this, I'm also going to do the same if thats ok.

I had almost no clue about what i was going to watch, except for the fact that Thomas (aka Tom Hiddleston) is in a relationship with his weird sister, so that didn't really come as a surprise. The way the movie escalated had so many contradictions, Edith's pureness versus the sickening situation that grew in Thomas' family. It bothered me a whole evening how I couldn't make out a satisfying explanation or message this movie wanted to express. I mean other than discovering the truth behind the mystery and empathising with Tom Hiddleston's character. Was that really it? A horror movie having fun with how much a human's boundaries can be stretched? I mean, I liked the movie, at least i thought it was horrifyingly beautiful before it started being violent. That kind of left me with a bitter feeling.

So my question is, could the actual plot twist of the movie be that the WHOLE movie from the moment Thomas appeared was just Edith's imagination? Edith wanted to write a ghost novel, but got rejected because of the lack of romance in it. The existence of the ghosts wasn't really explained in the movie and i know the house in England is supposed to be cursed, but the ghost Edith sees in her own house in the US didn't really make sense. In a love scene, Edith mentions how her characters talk to her or something, she says how personal writing is to her anyway. So could she have come up with everything? And what we're seeing is her imagination, the improved version of her turned down novel? Because for a horror movie there was quite a lot of complicated relationships going on. I don't know, does that idea sound alright? Btw i had expected Thomas wouldn't make it alive through the end, but his death scene was so shocking, i had to pause to process it, it was so sad what he was made to do and how he ended up punished for trying to do the good thing even under such conditions.

Glad you gave it a go!

Personally, I don't think it has a moral or message- not all stories do. It's sort of, to be meme-y about it, "Wouldn't This Be Fucked Up? with Guillermo Del Toro." I think there are a lot of interesting themes to consider, though, including:

Love as a constructive vs. destructive force (Thomas and Lucille- yes, both of them, her by action and him by willful inaction -did horrible things for love of each other. Thomas loves Edith, and both drags her nearly to her death AND ultimately saves her because of it. Edith and Alan love each other platonically, and save/fight for each other- even as loving Edith gets Alan serious injured. Carter loves Edith, but his decision to shelter her dooms him and almost her too. Etc.)

Generational trauma (the Sharpes became Like This because of their parents' abuse, but have now turned abusers themselves even as they try to make their lives better)

Not trusting appearances (on a pretty basic level- the ghosts look scary but are mostly helpful; Edith looks sweet and delicate but will not hesitate to Shovel A Bitch if necessary)

Changing roles of women and feminine ideals at the turn of the 20th century. this I really want to write an essay about, so I'll leave it at that

Conventions of Gothic storytelling

Why Are We So Inclined To Forgive Thomas More Readily Than Lucille When, All Things Considered, He's Really Not That Much Better? (Sure, he saved Edith and Alan, but he's never bestirred himself for the other innocents they've slaughtered. And why did he bring a woman he at least liked into all this, anyway? Not to mention making and serving the first pot of poisoned tea Edith drank.)

(seriously if you get into the character bios Del Toro wrote for the actors during filming and later posted on his Twitter, Thomas' Certified Rancidness shines even more. He gave no kind of damn about his first three wives' deaths, found and lured Enola himself with no input from Lucille, and was overjoyed when he got Lucille pregnant. I love the man but he is a poor little meow meow in every sense)

Is The Fate Of Each Sharpe's Ghost ~Divine Justice~ Or Simply Their Own Willingness/Inability To Move On? Which Would Be More Emotionally Affecting?

[infomercial voice] and so much more!!!

That being said, I've considered the same theory you had! At the very least, it would make an interesting AU

(also the ghost in Edith’s house was her mother; I’m pretty sure she explicitly said that. as for why the ghosts exist...it’s a ghost movie? not really sure what else to tell you there.)

[bklynmusicnerd]

I'm currently fighting a battle against going full "Bah Humbug" to this holiday season, but nevertheless we are going to get into these latest GH Petty Politics results!

This is going to be a long roundup because I did more polls than usual because I weirdly felt bad about how boring these last few weeks of GH have been.

Considering the present state of the show is actually pretty dire thanks to a deeply misguided EP, let's start off with what moratorium you all think GH needs more? The results were actually not close at all as 70.8% of you said:

Violet's random ass song aside, the consensus is clear. The majority are sick of 90% of the dialogue revolving around how the only thing that matters in this world is having babies. Imagine that 😒. To quote my mom, "The songs only last a couple of minutes, those babies take forever to disappear!"

29.2% of you, though, do think all the corny singing is becoming a problem. You signed up for a soap, not Glee.

And along those lines, when asked what you find edgier and more exciting during this holiday season, 84.2% of you said Hallmark Christmas movies officially have more buzz than anything happening on GH right now.

I don't watch Hallmark, so I have no way of verifying this. I made it an option cause I was feeling snarky after that terrible Friday ep, but I suspect this is the truth. From what I'm told, the heroines on those Hallmark movies do sometimes get to discuss things other than babies or when they'll have them, so that's something.

Onto the poll that surprisingly got the most buzz: What do you think of Curtis' ableist Christmas miracle paralysis reversal?

43.2% of you agreed that it is a lazy and offensive conclusion to a poorly done disability story, and that's because it is! Curtis' paralysis was played as a cheap ploy to get quick sympathy for him and in the process promoted the idea that all the lives of the disabled amount to is what they can't do.

Anyways, here's an article on why the "miracle cure" trope is offensive as shit and gross to write in 2023:

38.5% of you could give a shit about Curtis or his terrible storyline and just want to know where Trina's real father, Taggert is? A question that likely won't be answered until next year (but keep hope alive 🥲)

19.2% of you are in an optimistic mood and are open to this story at least having the upside of a potential testing fiasco which clears Trina of these Ashford charges once and for all (again...keep hope alive 🥲).

And a total of 0% of you are happy for Curtis to receive his miracle cure, and honestly...I've never felt prouder looking at a result. There's something really beautiful about us all coming together in the name of having no time for Curtis, I'm tearing up as I type this.

Moving onto the latest Kraze (😉) in GH pairings. I really wanted to know what you guys thought of Kristina and Blaze moving forward at the same time as this surrogacy plot that will not die.

50% of you said that you were too devastated by another pairing already being dragged down by the baby agenda, to put yourself in Blaze's shoes. As a Trina fan, believe me, I get it, and my heart goes out to you guys. The wlw delegation deserved better than this smh

29.2% of you said you would absolutely stay romantically interested in Kristina through her surrogacy story if you were Blaze. Which regardless of how realistic, is actually very sweet and probably exactly what GH will have Blaze do because baby agenda always wins out 😒.

20.8% of you said you'd probably have to dip if you were Blaze cause that's way too much way too soon and I have to say I'm inclined to agree with you guys. I can't imagine starting a relationship with someone who's about to carry a baby but I guess we're going to see what that looks like 🤷🏿‍♀️.

Speaking of "fuck them kids", a certain demon spawn was finally shown the door this week and I wanted your thoughts on Trina's status as a potential accidental homewrecker, and whether or not you gave a shit that Spencer's domestic era is over.

On the Trina homewrecking front:

47.8% of you said, yes, our girl technically qualifies as the cutest accidental homewrecker ever and you think she's a hero for demolishing the Jerry Springer household by simply choosing herself.

39.1% of you think Trina's homewrecking status is irrelevant because Laura's home was simply a training ground for the real home Spencer is already planning in his head with Trina.

And 13% of you, like my mom, think I play too much and that Trina is not a homewrecker and there's nothing funny about the suggestion! And to that I say: 😛

As for Spencer's domestic mourning period (🤢), I'm proud to report that the majority of you (57.9%) have no time for the fake sympathy for Spencer. You can be honest and admit that this story was bad, you're happy this form of it is over and you're hopeful that he can burn the diaper bags and return to dark princedom once again.

26.3% of you do feel bad for Spencer but uh, not enough to mourn this baby nonsense with him.

And 15.8% of you are actually going to miss Spencer the Manny. I can't really relate to such an emotion, but I admire the bravery of being open about your bad taste in storylines.

Setting crybaby Spencer to the side, let's talk about the real Cassadine youth doing real Cassadine things, Charlotte!

In true Cassadine form, Charlotte has the people divided. 34.8% of you agree with Valentin and are proud of Charlotte for her mess. But 34.8% of you also aren't sure about anything except that Anna should have slapped Valentin again (I agree). 30.4% of you are not down with Charlotte's shenanigans and think Valentin is nuts for being this passive.

The people are thoroughly split on Miss Charlotte Cassadine, which means she's doing wonderfully 😘.

Bringing crybaby Spencer back to the front again because it's time to discuss our favorite new pill popper on the canvas, Adam!

I really wanted to know if people were as into the Adam and Spencer friendship idea as @anyathefandom and I and I'm pleased to report the results are hilarious:

54.5% of you think we are nuts for trying to play friendship matchmaker with Spencer and a guy who's about to OD on pills and you know what, that's fair! Maybe our priorities seem a little odd as this kid tweaks about test scores! But we all know the powers of nepotism will save him from anything fatal, so I think some of you need to ease up on the judgment!

36.4% of you are here for the Spencer/Adam friendship idea. You're ready for Spencer to move on from Cali Cam and get a friend that's actually in the same town as him. You also recognize that it's either this or a forced Spencer and Dex friendship, and the lesser evil is pretty obvious here.

9.1% of you have no faith in Spencer's socialization skills and think it's a waste of time to hope he'll get a new friend. You think Spencer will never outgrow his "no new friends" phase, and you might just be right. Depressing but right.

And to save the funniest result for last. No, seriously, I saw this result and immediately lost it.

When asked what do you think will happen first, Adam OD'ing or Dex finally getting a real personality besides sex robot, 100% of you said Adam's inevitable OD is coming before Dex's personality. Because the only thing you guys have less faith in than Spencer's socialization skills, is Dex's character development.

I wanted to save that result for last because that's actually our first unanimous GH Petty Politics result and I love that it was as funny as it was disrespectful ❤️.

And so concludes another round of GH Petty Politics. Once again, you guys are hilarious and your participation is always appreciated!

[magnetarbeam]

I was recently pointed to a thing on FFN that challenged some of my ideas about post-FotJ worldbuilding, which is useful.

This fic's set 6 years after FotJ, and it has Bwua'tu as the Galactic Alliance Supreme Commander, as opposed to my headcanon, which has always been that Wynn appointed Gavin to that position. My thought process for that has just been that Gavin's more qualified than the idiot who fell for a Space Trojan Horse, but now I wonder...

Wynn's entire arc is constantly ending up in positions of more and more political power that he never wanted, culminating in his appointment as Chief of State. What I want to think is that because of Wynn's relative alienation to politics, he would be less inclined to play whatever game of the Bothan political scheming stereotypes that Bwua'tu hasn't exactly proven himself an exception to, and he'd be more willing to just look at service records.

Depending on how hard you want to go on the anti-Jedi sentiment in the GA post-Abeloth, Gavin's long history of favorable relations to the Jedi might be more controversial. Bwua'tu does have a relative (a nephew, I think) in the Order, and he evidently made what amounted to a command decision based on that, but I don't think that series of events had a chance to become common knowledge. Hamner didn't even know about said relative of the CNO until they randomly met in person.

Generally, I don't go that hard on the in-universe Jedi hate at that point in time. A lot of it hinges on how much the average GA cifizen knows about Abeloth. In this fic here, the other heads of state are throwing around the "alien Force goddess" description fairly comfortably, but they've had a few years to get used to the idea. My longstanding headcanon is that Wynn and Luke's public statement suggested that Abeloth was a tool of the Sith, not the other way around, which is a) more believable in general, and b) frames the actions of the Jedi in a light that the average citizen understands as far as they need to for this.

But then again, the linked fic also has Gavin as still a line admiral, so maybe the author just missed that Gavin's one of the joint chiefs, and therefore Bwua'tu's equal in rank, during FotJ.

If nothing else, I'm sticking with Gavin as the Supreme Commander in Voices of the Force just because he's a character I care about and have emotional investment in.

The Corellian/Bothan/Commenorian/Whatever-It-Is Confederation still being a separate government in this fic is a subject I will examine at some point in the future, when attention span allows.

[teaveetamer]

Gotta say, I follow BWIIDT and I've read her critiques but I don't recall her ever having done what raxis had done. She never linked to the fic or even outright named it? And she certainly never linked directly to the author. So I still have never seen caps fic , have no idea what the fic is called , and I still don't know who "captain" is.

But if she did the same shit Raxis did and explicitly linked people to the fic and to their social media I would definitely know who they were .

Just want to point out the difference.

Like if I want to know who cap is and read the fic myself I can probably put in the effort and ask or go out of my way to look for it. But that requires actual effort. you need to make a choice and go out of your way to even DO that.

But raxis pasting links and listing names left and right ? that is literally just a mindless click away and the entire fandom knows how aggressive edelstans are , so it's a literal invitation to harassment.

Raxis is basically giving an angry mob the identity and address of a random author he dissgrees with and he's Pikachu face surprised that his MakeAdrestiaGreatAgain buddies stormed over there (literally 1 click away) to attack the author on his behalf? Nah, Raxis has done this for years. he knows.

Combining these two

Thanks, so from what I'm hearing I was right about BWIIDT never providing links or naming the fic?

I initially wasn't following the fic critique. I knew it was going on but I was kind of just not interested in it cuz I didn't really see the point of critiquing the fic at first. Then I started seeing it get recc'd everywhere and shortly after I saw what I believe was BWIIDT's breakdown of Dedue's treatment and I was like. Oh wait this is actually way worse than I thought it was. I thought it was just gonna be some guy's silly little wish fulfillment fic I didn't realize it was gonna be that bad.

But like yeah here's the thing. Sure, people could go figure out Cap's fic from BWIIDT's posts. However, if there's one universal truth about people it's that people are fucking lazy and 99.99% of people are not going to put in the effort to go find the thing.

And also, in forcing people to actually go looking for the thing you greatly increase the chances of someone stopping and saying "wait, what am I doing do I really need to be doing this? Because it just takes longer to find something, and that gives you time to cool down and think about what you're about to do.

I can't tell you how many times I've been pissed off about something and gone to do some research, and in the process of doing the research I've had a second to cool down and suddenly I'm not as riled up or inclined to do anything with the info I've found.

Not related to fanfic but in the same spirit, just as a real example of what I'm talking about. I've been running fandom tournaments and I have spreadsheets for those where I calculate out everyone's total number of votes and rankings. I debated organizing everyone by votes and then posting it midway through the qualifying rounds so people could know who was in the lead, who was behind, who they might wanna focus votes on if they wanted to boost someone into the bracket, etc.

Ultimately I decided against it because I didn't want any potential messiness of someone, say, looking at that frankly presented data and doing some kind of vote manipulation or something. A lot of the characters lower down on the bracket were within only a couple of votes of each other so it would have been really easy to boost someone up with just one or two alt accounts.

Sure technically all of that info is public right on the tournament blog. I've shared the methodology for how I pick the brackets in the past. You could very easily go through the polls and calculate it out yourself to know who is going to be cut. Thing is, most people aren't going to bother to do that, even if they would be willing to try vote manipulating if they just saw the data laid out for them. And it takes like an hour for me to go through and update the spreadsheets and reorganize everything, plenty of time for someone to start trying to calculate everything out and realize that vote manipulating a dumb tumblr poll is, well, dumb.

The point I'm trying to make is, it absolutely matters how easy you made it for people to go find something. Because that will actually make a huge difference in how many people go on to harass an author. And again, that is honestly self-evident at this point? Everyone knows if you link a fic and/or name the fic and the author people are going to be a LOT more likely to go harass them.