#dig into the lore even if i wanted to. too much other shit to be doing after not playing for 6 months

[welcometoteyvat]

rant ahead lmao

i believe your gripes are completely valid because i have the same gripes. it feels like their storytelling (for the entire game) is all over the place. the high cloud quintet is literally something i’ve never chanced upon in the game. i only know it via fandom. this is similar to how that pyro butterfly lady is the crimson witch. only those who dig deep enough into the game will find out about it, and just like genshin, such “information” spreads quickly in the community.

HOWEVER, what genshin does better than star rail is that its main story DOES NOT rely on these snippets to tell its story. do i need to know she was the crimson witch when what happened to her happened? no. not at all. she was there for X purpose in the main storyline and therefore she did what she had to do and left. her being crimson witch was to add depth to her character which the main story had no space to do so.

stair rail, on the other hand, EXPECTS you to find out all these little tidbits, which to me is too time consuming and annoying. why split the story into its separate segments if i need to know them in order to understand the main story?? that’s just poor storytelling imho.

i think you’ll like this video. i agree with it. i get that the funeral for fox character was supposed to be emotional, but this video is right that we know NOTHING about this character. from my own personal experience, the funeral was so boring and honestly irritating because i. don’t. care. in fact, i didn’t even know she was with us throughout the quest so when she had her background voicelines i was always so confused????

i feel the hype around the characters is because the designs of each character have given people a desire to seek more about said characters, and there is abundance information. but this shouldn’t be something to expect of the players.

give me a reason to care that’s not just aesthetics, please.

video will be sent in next ask.

video: https://youtu.be/vaPL0UZK_HQ?si=puvssJPBLc2H57vk

ok thank you for validating me LMAO i was constantly wondering "where is the ancient dead people lore" (hcq) during the entire quest chain, which unfortunately contained very little of what fandom promised me (character depth). apparently i've not be reading enough books and pamphlets you can collect since the lore is concentrated there and in limited character's character stories

tbh I think the reveal that La Signora was the Crimson Witch was also really bad lol, for the same reason that the video argues DH IL's transformation is unimpactful. like "omg wow alternate identity revealed!" but it doesn't really have any impact on the conflict of the story we're currently looking at. they could've just switched it, or not even given her a transformation, instead just showing an extended duel with us and making it visible that she was tired and out of power before she dies, and I don't really know if anything would've changed. same with dan heng IL, I'd probably get more out of it if I read the hcq book from that one opera performer, but ehh there wasn't enough visibly shown leadup, like you said.

I guess the difference between genshin world lore (things in artifacts, weapons, books, world quests etc) and star rail lore is that genshin's is either about the past or future, but not necessarily about the present characters? thinking about the pale flame lore, which gave everyone the fatui crumbs before scara and la signora's stories were introducted in the main storyline, the enkanomiya quests about the vishaps and ancient history of teyvat, and the narzissenkreuz quests that also connect to that + khaenriah + a host of other world lore things. I guess it's nice that reading through all the materials isn't "mandatory" because it's either about the ancient past, dead npcs (so many of the artifact sets) or foreshadowing for important elements in the future that will still get introduced in the main story. I will be biased and agree w you, star rail's lore crumbs are rather :\ storytelling. like I would be fine if the hidden nuggets of lore were about >npcs >lore that happened but is not directly relevant to a character's main arc >foreshadowing for future events/story. but instead it's more like mandatory background reading that is crucial to understand a character's stories, instead of enriching your knowledge of them? anyways yeah

now abt tingyun. I agree that the funeral was really ???????????? i agree w you and the video lol. playing it, I was mostly in disbelief that we're assuming tingyun is legitimately dead even though she's still playable (no dead playables in genshin moment). I also think the thing with the 3 npcs we had to talk to was bullshit because. like the video said, we could've spent time with tingyun (maybe visiting the npcs we collected things from) BEFORE she died and maybe it would have given us more emotional impact. the way they retroactively show how kind and generous she was really put me off, we could've seen this all in person instead of hearing it from other people...... bruh also the way everyone got together in that cutscene when i dont think any of them were really shown to have a deep connection w her is so ..... >_> the emotional impact did not hit whatsoever

but I'm gonna level with you I think they made her role as our guide pretty clear and the implication that she was traveling with us was also pretty clear. no shade though

about the rest of the video: oh he put things into words that I could not articulate JSDKLFJDSKL. not really any thoughts but i agree that a lot of the characters (qingque, xueyi especially) could have just been cut T_T i like both of their designs and personalities based on other material in game but their main quest participation was Not It rip. also agree about the characters being vehicles for exposition and not having their personalities shine through. I'd argue maybe you can tell somewhat of what they're like (jing yuan, fu xuan, yanqing to some extent) but man there's just too much lore explaining for them to really show what they do on a normal schedule it's so .......... also because fanart and fanfic makes them seem so fun im standing here looking at the main plot like >_> <_< what was that. i'm sure it gets better inside their own companion quests, which I haven't done, but that shouldn't be the only place the character gets to really shine lmao

I agree that their design makes people more willing to invest but god I'm so sorry hsr designs really aren't my thing, the color palettes are just incredibly bad JDKSFLJDSKLGHKDJ the only thing holding up the story are the plot and personalities of chars and neither of those were delivered ...

[twyftwyt]

this is going to be a long one, so prepare yourselves, cause I need to get some stuff off my chest

All that’s wrong in the BO fandom and with BO themselves:

1. Proper media training - I think none of the boys in the band, aside from Noah, have proper media training and it shows in interviews. I feel like, with them growing so big over the last year, they need to take some proper time and do that, so we can save each other the little awkward moments where interviewers ask weird questions or make even weirder statements and the guys just sit there looking a little lost.

2. Their crew needs to chill (at times) - Now I understand that every fandom has got their crazies, it’s a part of the lore, but come on! I’ve seen not once or twice, crew members being mean towards the fandom, calling us dumb and whatnot. If I see something I don’t like or find weird/stupid/pointless/delusional, I might share it with my friends, but I won’t go around posting about it on my story/twitter. There are people in this fandom that go overboard and need to be shown the door, but when you show disrespect to one, you show disrespect to all and that, I feel, needs to be stated somewhere. Matt is unnecessarily mean sometimes and so are Steven and other crew members. I feel like if I were in their position, I’d probably want to call out people on their shit too, but no need to do it ALL THE TIME.

3. The band is too closed off - And don’t get me wrong here, I understand and respect boundaries, but it sounds and feels a little contradictory when the lead singer of the band says in an interview that he feels closer to some of the artists he listens to, because he’s read their life story. The irony in that is massive. When you deny fans of little things like posts here and there, sharing a little something personal (example: Dove Cameron, Halsey, Thirty Seconds to Mars are all artists that make and write their own music and I’ve heard at least one story from each of them on how a personal event inspired said song). So when you deny fans of little things like that, you get obsessive people who try ro dig up your personal life, just to feel a bit more connected to your music. Everything can be regulated, I feel, if done and said right.

4. They all (the band and crew) need to collectively accept the fact that the band’s becoming massive, which means that they will attract all kinds of fans. Fans that will be there only for Noah. Fans that will be there only for TikTok hits like “Just Pretend” and whatnot. And they’d benefit so much more from those people if they just knew how to use everything to their advantage. Now one little comment from the crew sets the whole fandom ablaze. They’re not a small town band supporting bigger acts on tour anymore.

ok, I’ll stop yapping now and remember, this is just my opinion, you don’t have to agree with it and you also don’t have to argue with me on it ✌🏻

[rottenpumpkin13]

I think CC had a huuuge problem with fleshing out Genesis and Angeal to be honest. I feel like the personalities they’ve been given by the fandom are mostly fanon and don’t have that much substantiation in canon because AG were both largely used as plot devices- which again I think is a big problem because it doesn’t make you feel or understand either of the characters or why they behave the way they do. By the end of CC I felt really bad for Sephiroth, was ambivalent toward Angeal but still felt a twinge of sadness because of how sad Zack was over him, and absolutely loathed Genesis. I’m still not Genesis’ biggest fan but the canon characterization has made him a bit more endearing, though when I go back to canon and see him I’m left disliking him all over again. Unless you really dig into CC lore you have no idea how Genesis felt about Sephiroth, it just comes off like he was always jealous of him and that the relationship was painfully one-sided with Sephiroth practically begging for his friendship. It doesn’t help that 80% of Genesis’ dialogue is Loveless quotes and the other 20% is him being angry and hateful. I guess it’s justified, but unlike with Sephiroth and Angeal you never see Genesis being anything but hateful. With the other two I found myself sympathizing and mourning the loss of the people they were prior to realizing the truth, but with Genesis I wished he’d just shut up and go away already. The training room scene also doesn’t help his case, because first it starts out with Genesis being cocky and wanting to take Sephiroth alone- despite Angeal’s warning- and then later on blasts his best friend in the face with a fire ball all while talking about being a hero. He purposefully escalates the fight, then when Sephiroth gets serious Genesis gets injured and crap really hits the fan- and all this could’ve been avoided if Genesis hadn’t had an inferiority complex the size of the moon. I also find it hard to excuse this whole sequence of events because this was prior to his degradation, and while it’s unclear whether it had started even before his injury, I’m going to say he was still mostly in his right state of mind and he still behaves like he has no care for his friends, even his childhood friend who was trying to keep the spar friendly and prevent it from turning into a fight to the death.

Sorry about the rant, but that other anon talking about Genesis also brought back my thoughts about him and I felt like sharing since I’ve never really written them out.

Canon vs fanon aside, there's a lot of context and nuance often lost when adapting Japanese dialogue to fit English contexts. My biggest gripe with the training room scene in english is how Genesis proclaims "The world needs a new hero" right before he fights Sephiroth, suggesting he wants to take Sephiroth's place/ be better than him. But then you look at translations like this one and that scene gains a whole new meaning. Genesis instead says "I too would like to become a hero." And rather than the cocky "That's no way to talk to a hero," before he blasts Angeal in the face with a fire ball, he states "All I want is to be a hero."

The training room scene is a lost cause, because it's easy to place the blame on any one of them, or on whoever decided to go in there that day, or even on the fight itself, but accidents happen. But in the end, no one is truly to blame because none of them asked for Jenova cells or to be part of the Jenova Project, and the truth is that if it hadn't been the training room incident, something else would have triggered the degradation, or the conflict as a whole, and they would have been doomed regardless.

And that's why Genesis is so angry, and why he's so desperate for the cure that he keeps reciting what (in his mind) is the answer to the cure. I guess the reason we never see him be anything but reactive to the situation he's in because when we're introduced to him, shit has already hit the fan. He's deserted already. The first scene we see in Crisis Core literally has Angeal answer the phone and get the news that Genesis left. The only crumb of pre-degradation Genesis we get is the training room scene which—as mentioned above—got mistranslated in English, so of course we're going to think Genesis was hot-headed and envious (which in all honesty he could've just as well have been).

It's easier to sympathize with Angeal and Sephiroth because everything that's happening is happening because Genesis revolted against Shinra, and I get that. But what makes me sympathize with Genesis (and this is coming from someone who used to hate him) is the degradation and his motives. He wants a cure. He wants to live, and it's hard to live when your body is working against you and literally degrading because of something completely out of your control. On top of that, the people after you, the organization you've always aspired to be a part of because of your childhood hero, your friends including that hero, are on the side of those who did this to you.

Don't know if this makes any sense because I'm literally trying not to fall asleep writing this out asfshsjska

[writerblue275]

My favorite LoL skin (with photos) for each Heartsteel member (excluding their Heartsteel/Prestige Heartsteel and Base skins)

So I absolutely adore the Heartsteel skin line, and for Aphelios, Kayn, and Yone, their Heartsteel skins are arguably my favorite skins of theirs (especially Yone’s Prestige Heartsteel skin). HOWEVER. I want to talk about some other amazing skins too. Three of the ones I’ll mention come from the same skin line, but listen, it’s a beautiful line. Also note: These are based on the splash art. I know some of the aesthetics change when translated to a player model. Ok let’s GOOOOO!

Aphelios: Spirit Blossom Aphelios

I love the COLORS of this skin. I love Spirit Blossom Aphelios’ hair design (like damn Phel go off with the man bun/small pony I see you), outfit/accessories, the markings on his face, and how his horns are opposite to Alune’s. (Also can we discuss how Alune also looks so pretty here like omg. I’m so glad they made sure she fit into this as well.) But Aphelios just looks softer than some of his other skins and it’s an interesting vibe from him. I dig it!

Ezreal: Faerie Court Ezreal & Prestige Heavenscale Ezreal.

(Listen I genuinely can’t fucking pick between them so he gets two.)

THE OUTFIT (with all its wing motifs). THE WINGS. THE PINK HAIR. HIS expression!! I love the redesign of his gauntlet as well. Another thing that I really enjoy is how they managed to keep his face markings and make them unique. His face markings are a trademark element of Ezreal’s base skin so I’m glad they kept those here. AHHHHH HE JUST LOOKS SO GOOD. This is just such a fun reimagine for his character.

This might be one of his two newest skins but holy fuck it’s already one of my favs. His HAIR. MY GOD IT’S SO GOOD?? His pose and expression exude so much power and confidence. His gauntlet with the draconic claw and his horns is just so fun. Also that OUTFIT? His outfit genuinely looks amazing. The color combo of light blue, maroon, and gold is just EXCELLENT. Again, they also kept face markings of some kind, even if they moved from his cheeks to his forehead.

Kayn: Snow Moon Kayn

Kayn’s skins are always fun because you really get 3-in-1 with Kayn, his shadow assassin form, and Rhaast. I love a good black and red (with gold accents) theme and the Loki-esque horns, as well as the addition of the furs on his basic Kayn form are really cool. And the shaddow assassin’s hair. My goodness I do love a man with long white hair 😂 (this will appear again later). I love the color contrast between the shadow assassin and Rhaast designs as well. Also Rhaast looks badass. Terrifying, but still badass.

K’Sante: Prestige Empyrean K’Sante

This skin is so fucking cool. We get to see his face here unlike the original Empyrean K’Sante skin. I love the color scheme with the purple, gold, white, and pink as well as the designs on the clothes/his weapons. The little pink on his face also adds a really small but eye-catching detail that I very much enjoy. Also Lil Nas X helped design this skin and I think that’s so fucking cool.

Sett: Spirit Blossom Sett

Ok listen yes a bit of the reasoning for all these is that the characters themselves look fine as fuck. But holy shit look at Sett here. LOVE his long white hair (hehe what did I say it’s a pattern) with his ears here. That outfit and the accessories are stunning. And again the color palette for the spirit blossom line is just so pretty. Sett just looks so in charge and powerful here. He really is the boss. (Also shoutout to the [I believe] first instance of canon SettPhel which happened in the lore/voice interactions for this line.)

Yone: Spirit Blossom Yone

Look at him. LOOK AT YONE. There is something about Yone with longer white hair that is just so…right, even if it’s tied back or braided. All the beautiful shades of purple in his outfit too! I love. I also like how, besides the horns and his hands/arms, he seems almost human and he’s not stuck to his mask like in his base skin (though I do love his base skin). He also just gives off really pleasant vibes in this. I cannot explain it lmao.

These are my thoughts! These are just my opinions, and frankly so many of these champions have so many amazing skins. I’d love to hear your favorites if you have opinions!

[supernaturalkickparty]

Song inspired thoughts:

To me, Madness by Muse

Has always been a very Sam/Dean song.

I can make it fit almost any season, but Season 3 just slots in so easily.

Sam is trying desperately to get Dean out of his deal, find a loophole, find a technicality, find ANYTHING.

He’s not sleeping because he’s doing their normal research and research about Dean’s situation-he’s basically surviving on caffeine, alcohol and slim Jim’s.

He’s been trying to harness his visions and train/expand his powers, look for spells, he’s combining magic and sigils and lore, anything he can do.

Finally Dean gets on board and admits he doesn’t want to die so the madness digs even deeper, it there’s some relief there too because he’s not alone in the fight anymore.

As in canon, they don’t find anything. Lilith and her hounds still come to collect. As Dean is breathing his last, Sam sees a flicker and feels part of himself leaving (they don’t know about their soulmate status yet, something just feels wrong). So just instinctively reaches out with his powers, the magic, he’s been studying and grabs onto the feeling, the essence of Dean, and pulls.

It brings Dean’s soul back to Sam and ties them together even more tightly.

And now Lilith and the demons are out for revenge.

Holy shit I have never heard this song before and it's definitely samdean coded like 👁👄👁

I love love love the idea of Sam using his powers combined with magic to keep their souls bound to each other and I love our canon soulmates so much🥰

[lefetellc]

Eerie Dating other Eris-Sonas

I got bored so I did a bit of digging through the sona pile and picked up a few interesting ones. It feels like everyone was reblogging eachothers' sonas, so it was kinda hard figuring out everyone's lore lol (This isn’t canon for any of the other Eris-sonas nor for Eerie, this was just flr fun lol)

Without further ado, let the Eris games begin!!!

.

.

First off is Yuka by @justeyuko (kind of short bc all I know about her is from her profile on the big Eris-sona drawing)

Yuka seems to be very energetic, just the kind of traits Eerie would like in a person (He also liked her style too)

He'd approach first: the tattoo shop would seemingly cease around their conversation

He'd compliment her clothes and ask her where she got them (This is happening in Eerie's senior year of high school where he's just about to leave, but wants to look around town b4 then)

Eerie would flirt with her occasionally, but it's more of on and on talks (It would thin out more once he leaves for the military)

If anything, they'd be more like batting buddies or shopping buddies

Eerie is after all, a rich kid

Their relationship would be more like a joke "Wanna date? Sure" They'd hit it off in the first two or three dates, but after awhile Eerie would lose interest and ask to breakup

The only thing he had going for Yuka was her clothes :/

Knowing how Yuka would probably get angry, Eerie settled for a friendship over losing connection entirely. It wouldn't be a big, intimate relationship but it'd be alright

It was probably better they stayed as just friends (platonic)

Now, second is Contrectatio by @loah-blublub

Eerie was originally a bully of Contrectatio

Eerie couldn't give two shits about some loser who only looked pretty when doused in yellow toilet water

But something about how Contrectatio would stare deathly into Eerie's body made him excited

Eerie was curious why Contrectatio was so angry (Eerie has no empathy) and if the boy actually fight him

Eerie would approach first (he's very forward in his early years; this is probably freshmen or sophmore year)

Eerie would give Contrectatio a normal ":3" face, telling him how much he 'sympathizes' for Contrectatio and want the best for him

Eerie knew something like petty words wouldn't sway the other boy, so he decided to treat Contrectatio out for some normal 'dates'. Eerie didn't label them as dates, but he heavily implied it.

He would give lovey dovey romantic suggestions to Contrectatio, knowing how much it confused the boy

Before Contrectatio could fully understand his feelings, Eerie would cut all contact and begin bullying him again

This time it was harder, meant to incite something out of Contrectatio

Eerie felt even more elated when he began to notice how aggitated and confused Contrectatio was; battling with their earlier romance and his present anger

Eerie wouldn't officialy date Contrectatio. The dating plan was only for Eerie to get close and then rip it all away so Contrectatio would lash out

Eerie didn't care if Contrectatio actually did begin to understand his developing feelings; Eerie only cared about the end results

I'm not sure if Contrectatio would actually lash out, but here's two reactions if/if not

If Contrectatio actually did lash out, Eerie would happily beat him up more. Leaving him with a nasty scar on his left cheek, some strangle marks, and a hot round of punches to the ribs

If Contrectatio didn't lash out, Eerie would slowly get irritated and tell his other bully-friends to kick Contrectatio out of their group and start bullying him again

That's all! I had some other sonas i saw like Soo , Ryan (the OG ex), #### (he didnt have a name I think, and he was the one left of Contrectatio) and Rina, but I'm tired after thinking so hard all day lol

[nrc-confessions]

Okay here’s the whole story I apologize greatly for how long this is

So today I was cooking lunch for myself at Scarabia, (I sometimes have to cook for myself if the cafeteria doesn’t have any of my safe foods that day) and I heard someone enter the kitchen. The dorm was mostly empty so I expected it to just be some other Scarabia student I’ve never met or smth

Lo and behold, it wasn’t, it was Kalim

Me and him share a class idk if I’ve said that (new spider anon lore 🤯) and he’d gotten injured during P.E this morning so I figured he was at the dorm as well, but I assumed he’d be in his room. It wasn’t anything bad he just fell off his broom and got kinda bruised up but Jamil was still flipping his shit

ANYWAY I finished cooking and ended up sharing some food w Kalim (side note he’s eaten my food before and I’m always rlly touched abt it bcuz Ik he struggles w eating food that Jamil didn’t cook and just knowing he trusts me that much is hnnnnnng) and once we finished eating he asked if I wanted to go carpet flying

I knew he was exempt from class bcuz he got hurt but I still very much had to go to class around this time, but I was not about to miss this opportunity so alchemy be damned

We’ve gone carpet flying once or twice before but from what I understand Kalim takes rlly anyone he feels like carpet flying (including paw anon fuck you calliope I havent forgiven you) so I didn’t think too much of it but at this point I was already gay panicking so this didn’t help

Anyway we get on the carpet n all that and I was kinda starting to zone out of a few reasons, the main being i have a slight fear of heights and I was kinda exhausted cuz I’ve had a tough past couple weeks but I was also zoning out bcuz I tend to do that while in close proximity to kalim

So I went kinda quiet and just hoped he’d keep talking and wouldn’t notice (also bcuz I love listening to him ramble) but he went quiet after a second too and then asked if I was okay, and I quickly said I was fine and went back to being silent but he didn’t keep talking so it was kinda awkward for a second THEN HE FUCKIN “are you sure you’re okay, habibi?” And I almost fell off the carpet

I made a comment abt how I was just rlly tired and ended up kinda rambling then I rambled a bit too far and said like ‘and you know how I get around you’ but I laughed it off and hoped he didn’t notice but he DID and HE TOOK IT THE WEONF WAY cuz he assumed that meant I didn’t like being around him??? And so I tried to elaborate without outing myself which was rlly hard and I think he caught on but he didn’t say anything so I just kept talking and digging myself a deeper hole but then (this is where I get really pathetic) I looked at him and he just had the most gentle patient expression on his face and I just started sobbing bcuz no one’s ever looked at me like that and i can’t properly process my emotions NORMALLY much less when it’s him then he kinda panicked a little bit but then he hugged me out of nowhere and I was NOT okay but I also kinda needed it so I just kinda sat there and cried into his shoulder for a few minutes and he was like whispering things some of it was in English some of it was in Arabic and I don’t know if it was making me cry harder or helping but he was like running his fingers through my hair and I just couldn’t take it anymore and I completely lost grasp of my emotions and ended up saying I love you without even realizing it then as soon as I realized it I panicked and let go of the hug and apologized but he just put his hands on my face and looked at me with his pretty fucking eyes and said it was okay and I lost all ability to breathe

Anyway he kinda like came closer and I was expecting him to hug me again but then he like moved his hand to my shoulder and used the other one to move my hair out of my face and I just completely lost it everything I did from here on is a blurry haze I was fueled by exhaustion and Gay panic but I lunged forward and kissed him AND HE KISSED BACK AND PUT HIS HANDS IN MY HAIR AND I STARTED CRYING AGAIN but then he brought thr carpet back down and I ran off to class and I’m currently typing this while half listening to Crewel yell at me but uh that happened

-🕷️

Thank you for your confession!

[fearforthestorm]

How is 'no children' misrepresented and what is it actually about? <- genuinely curious and likes people ranting about things like this (and only really knows about the 'hand in unlovable hand' line though maybe that's part of the problem(?))

oh god okay so. how much tmg lore do you want because if we want to get into no children we're gonna get into the alpha couple and they've literally been present in the music since the very first tape ever released under the name the mountain goats over 30 years ago. actually yknow what it's 2am I don't want to mess things up I'll just give you this:

that's the backstory that's what no children is about. the song is so named because (paraphrasing a quote) "if there's one thing I know about this couple it's that the world will be better for it if they never have children". and here's the thing is that no children is a REALLY cathartic song I don't fault people for enjoying it and god knows that it's fun to belt at concerts but it is NOT a love song. it is not a song about a relationship that is in any way good or stable or healthy. it is about a couple that are bad for eachother and for everyone around them and should get divorced but are never going to because filing those papers is a few hundred bucks and you can buy a lot of alcohol with that money. please understand that: they aren't a tragic mutually doomed couple who despite that love each other. they are actively dragging the both of them to their graves because they're too far in to turn around now. they've been drinking for decades like it'll fix their problems and it never will and things only ever get angrier and louder and more destructive and worse so they just keep fucking digging the graves they've been digging since the beginning. first rule of holes is stop digging second rule is that once you do you're still in a hole but they're never even gonna get the first one and they sure as hell aren't ever going to acknowledge that they're in a deep deep hole much less would they try to get out. no children is about wanting the worst for yourself and your better half because it's the only way you can see any of it ending. no children is slinging insults across the living room several drinks deep into the evening at the person you married and realising that you fucking mean it when you say you hope it all goes to shit and takes the both of you down with it.

no children isn't the tragic otp. no children says "I hope I lie and tell everyone you were a good wife" and "I hope when you think of me years down the line you can't find one good thing to say / and I hope that if I found the strength to walk out you'd stay the hell out of my way" and it means every goddamn word when it says them. and I know people like "hand in unloveable hand / and I hope you die / I hope we both die" but they ALWAYS use that quote in a "it doesn't matter if we're unloveable because we're hand in hand" kind of way and that's just completely fucking wrong. if you're going to use no children for your blorbos fucking commit to it, they better be a couple that is genuinely entirely going to bury each other alive for the sheer goddamn fact that they would rather die than try to stop digging.

anyway. go listen to Tallahassee (album) because it is genuinely extremely fucking good and no children probably isn't even in my top three songs from that album.

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

minific :) hope u like it!! it doesnt have much of canon lore applied, and its Mann Vs Machine. Spy bein a dad when its far too late :(

----

The team had been split up when the robots attacked, and Scout and Sniper had gotten stuck together. Not that it was any issue for Scout, though. He figured the Australian wouldn't mind sticking with him for a little while, and so far, he hasn't left. But it's too quiet, even for someone like Sniper, the least talkative member on the team.

"Hey, you think the others are alright?" Scout looks at the marksman.

"Why wouldn't they be? They've better aim when close up than I ever bloody will." Sniper glances at Scout before returning his gaze to the hallway ahead of them. Broken robots lay littered about.

"Someone was here." Sniper frowns. "They must not be far."

"No shit, Sherlock-- is that blood?" Scout frowns, the red stain on the floor catching his attention.

"Yeah. Trail o' it, too..." Sniper frowns. "You follow it. I'll make sure there's no more of the bloody boltheads comin' down the halls."

"Gotcha." Scout quickly begins to follow the trail until he reaches the end of the hallway, where the rough smell of cigarette smoke fills the air.

"Ah. It's you." The voice of Spy says from the dark, and Scout flicks the lights on. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't... this.

Spy's injured badly. There's blood staining his suit in multiple areas, and what appears to be a gunshot wound to his upper body seems to be the main cause.

"Holy crap...!" Scout quickly snaps out of the trance he was in, and opens the duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He digs through it, pulling out bandages. Of course he'd forgotten the medkits. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Scout, I am no doctor, but I don't think a simple band aid is going to heal a bullet wound." Spy glares at the runner.

"I'm tryna help you, man! Cut me some slack." Scout scowls, and Spy just sighs.

"Scout. Just... stop. I'm not making it out of this room alive. My leg is broken and I've been shot four times. It's a miracle I'm not already dead." Spy pushes the bandages away, fllicking his burned-out cigarette away with his other hand.

"Well... that's just morbid. I can use comms to get Snipes to find Doc?" Scout reaches for his headpiece, but Spy shakes his head.

"I want you to listen to me, boy. I don't want to be saved. I've accepted that I'm not going to make it out of here. It's better this way."

"Spy--"

"Shut up!" Spy raises his voice to a yell, before letting out a pained sigh, propping himself higher up against the wall. "Just... listen to what I have to say, Jeremy."

Scout's eyes widen slightly. He isn't wearing his dog tags, there's no way Spy could've known.

"How--"

"This will... sound familiar, I hope. I hate repeating myself." Spy lights a second cigarette. Hesitating. "27 years ago, I met a beautiful woman. She was everything I could've wished for... and we were happy together. As Tom Jones would say, I... dropped a 'sex bomb' on her. I was young then, and I ran from the explosion."

It all sounds so familiar. Had Scout heard this before? Where? When...? He can remember someone saying this to him...

Holy. Crap.

"You... You were the Tom Jones that I saw." Scout whispers. Spy just nods.

"I... It is one of my many regrets, leaving you and your mother behind. I was a coward. I suppose I still am, since it would seem I can only admit to this on the edge of death." Speaking is getting more difficult for Spy, and Scout can tell, hesitating before lowering his headpiece.

"Snipes. Find Doc. Hurry."

"Mate-? Wha--" The Australian's cut off as Scout tosses the headpiece aside, and Scout kneels at Spy's side.

"You're my dad. I-- I can't let you just... die here! There's... so much lost time to be made up." Scout starts unravelling the bandage. Maybe it's the shock stopping him from feeling the pain in his leg from a loose nail digging into his knee, maybe it's the sudden adrenaline rush. Doesn't matter. Spy needs to make it out of this alive.

"Jeremy." Spy's voice is calm, with the slightest hint of pain in it. Scout looks up at Spy, who takes his mask off.

He looks just like how Scout's ma had always described him, just... older, with streaks of grey in his styled-back hair and dark circles under his eyes that Scout had never noticed before. But they share the same blue eyes.

"I am proud to see the man you've become. You've made good friends. Your mother did amazing raising you." Spy pulls a photo from his suit pocket, holding it out to Scout. "Here. I kept this when I left. I always have it with me."

It's a photo of 2 year old Scout, with his mother and Spy sitting beside him, watching him open his christmas present: A baseball bat.

Scout looks back at Spy, his vision blurry. Spy smiles at him, whispering something in French that Scout can't understand, and Scout can see the life leave Spy's eyes.

"Dad?" Scout's voice is small, his eyes wide, staring at Spy's motionless body. He tentatively reaches over and shakes Spy's shoulder, but the Frenchman doesn't respond. He's dead. Forcing back a sob, he pulls the corpse into a hug as the sound of footsteps behind him come closer and closer.

Scout never got the chance to learn his father's name.

I AM SOBBING

THIS IS SO GOOD, I LOVE THIS! THIS IS JUST OUGH.

The angst got to me. I'm not gonna lie. This is so amazing, Anon. If you ever start writing these on your blog (or if you already do), please let me know because I will be your number one fan, I swear 💪

Thank you for sending this in. It is very much appreciated. Keep up the good work. You're an amazing writer, and I literally can't compliment you enough!!!

[thysanniia]

Tell me about your godzilla stories I want information dumped in my brain like a horrifying Medieval medicine

Ok so this has sat in my inbox for a couple days now and I've just been mentally preparing myself for writing this obscenely long post, but I think I'm ready.

You wanna know about all of my Godzilla stories? You're sure? In way too much detail for anyone to sit through?? Ok, if you insist. Strap in, it's gonna be a long one.

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

Ok so all but one of these are my major overhaul of the MonsterVerse, and seeing as the standalone one is my most recent creation, I'll save that for last. So we start with Godzilla (2014). This was always my favourite MV film, so it was always going to stay relatively similar in my version, but more recently I've been developing thoughts about restructuring the narrative to be more framed around keeping Joe Brody alive and having the film focus on his relationship with Ford as the events unfold. Ford feels guilty for dismissing his father all these years, and Joe becomes painfully aware of just how badly he's neglected their relationship too - especially now that Ford is tied up in this whole mess, and his job as a soldier puts him in serious danger when shit goes down. I haven't quite figured out the details of how this all unfolds and develops (I struggle a lot with character writing and figuring out relationship arcs, my brain isn't exactly wired that way even though my neurodivergent brain loves compelling characters). But I have a feeling it will still end in Joe sacrificing himself - or perhaps at least attempting to? Yeah, this is still fairly new and also not my primary focus at the moment so it'll be brewing for a little while longer. Obviously all the stuff with Godzilla and the MUTOs stays more or less the same, save for perhaps a little more fun lore courtesy of Monarch as they interact with Joe more.

I am going to bring up Kong: Skull Island, even though it's not Godzilla, because it's still a part of the MV. Jokes on you though - I'm only bringing it up to tell you I'm not changing it! I think it's fine how it is, it's kinda stand-alone anyway so I feel no need to tweak anything. Maybe I'd make Kong a little bigger, idk.

So then there's Godzilla Vs Kong. Yeah, plot twist, that one's next, and it's pretty substantially overhauled. The general idea is to have it mostly focus on Kong and Jia's relationship, in a doomed-by-the-narrative sort of way, because this is Kong after all. It starts off on Skull Island, which thanks to climate change affecting the storm conditions is slowly dying. It also doesn't help that westerners have introduced diseases that are harming the Iwi. But anyway, out from beneath the island emerges Camazotz, digging up through the passageways from the Hollow Earth. Naturally, it fights Kong, and some human intervention accidentally causes it to fly away and off the island. Having a loose flying kaiju is obviously not great, but it gets even worse when its return brings Godzilla in tow. Alarmed by suddenly discovering there's been a giant ape here this whole time, Godzilla gets aggressive and Kong gets defensive, resulting in a full on fight that ultimately ends in tragedy when Godzilla inadvetently decimates the last remaining Iwi. Kong is understandably not ok and retreats into the Hollow Earth down Camazotz' tunnel. Ilene and Jia go in after him, accompanied by others from Monarch, and while they are eventually reunited with Kong, things aren't really smooth from there. I haven't developed this part fully yet, but essentially through various Hollow Earth experiences it becomes clear that this is a place where he is safer and more at home, but his guilt, refusal to leave Jia, and fear of this new place leads him to flee up a new Camazotz tunnel that leads to Hong Kong. Predictably, now back on the map he is immediately greeted by Godzilla and shit goes down. They have their fight, and Kong actually does well, motivated by his desire to protect Jia, but it becomes clear that Godzilla will just keep getting back up. He can't stay here. So, in the end, Kong lays down his axe and submits to Godzilla, and leaves for the Hollow Earth alone. It's kinda bittersweet - he and Jia both survive, and they get to say goodbye on their own terms. Plus there are hints that there might be more like him in the Hollow Earth. But, ultimately, they do still have to say goodbye and go their separate paths.

Ok so when I started writing this I didn't plan to write out a full synopsis or anything, but because that one is more of a step-by-step story I felt I couldn't properly explain it without just dumping everything. I'll not do that for the rest because their plots aren't quite as fully organised yet (and also that would make this post excessively long).

So, finally (kinda) there's Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Or, well, something vaguely based on it. I'm not even sure what I'm calling this one yet, but the main point is that it's the one with Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah (plus Anguirus and Hedorah now too!). This one is much more preachy and focused on showing a clear message, although hopefully still with a compelling central character arc too. It's focused around how, in times like ours when the people in charge refuse to do the right things and our elders don't do enough to challenge them, it's up to us as the youth to take real, drastic action to fight for our futures. Each kaiju is related to something: Anguirus is ecocide, Rodan is war, Nozuki (lol yeah) is greed, Hedorah is pollution, and Ghidorah is climate change. Godzilla retains his general theme of being a force to restore balance - not necessarily on one side or another, but when governments fight back against him we lose our only chance of winning, and the only way we can get him back is through Mothra, who symbolises our hope and will to do right. So... yeah, it's pretty in-your-face and obviously a representation of my own feelings (did I mention that the main character is a trans girl?) but I don't think that's a bad thing. I am a little worried about whether it's possible to get everything I feel needs to be included into a respectable film runtime, I've considered cutting one or two kaiju but I feel they're important enough to keep? I don't wanna cut the kaiju that's the embodiment of capitalism's consequences (although perhaps I can just demonstrate the same thing through other kaiju?), nor do I wanna cut Hedorah because she kicks ass and I love her. But I might restructure it a little, again hence why I'm not going into the beat-by-beat plot quite yet. I'm still happy with the broad strokes of how it's shaping up though, and hopefully I'll have something more final to share soon. This idea is kinda what shaped everything else, I'm very attached to it.

Speaking of everything else, that's not all! Even though that's supposed to be the big film conclusion, at least for now, I was also inspired by Monarch: Legacy of Monsters to do a spin-off show that ties into the events, because I think it's a really interesting concept and I wanna show more perspectives than just those inside Monarch. Currently I'm titling it Monarch: Monster Hunters although that's subject to change. The idea is that it follows some people who come together to search for the truth about what's going on behind the scenes, propelled by creating the ORCA. Simultaneously, it follows someone inside Monarch trying to track down MUTOs such as Camazotz as it leaves Skull Island. Their paths converge, and the group are let into Monarch thanks to their invention, teaming up to search for MUTOs together. However, the more they learn the less they like the organisation, and in the end they rebel against it in order to protect the kaiju. You might have noticed a pattern of Monarch not really being the good guys in these lol. Very excited to include more original kaiju in this one too, which I won't spoil quite yet...

Oh, also it's gay. At least one of these was bound to have lesbians in it, come on.

I'm also toying with a second season taking place after (not)KotM. The first season would bridge the time gap between GvK and KotM, tying in quite closely to both. But the post-KotM world does leave lots of interesting opportunities, even if i initially wanted the world-ending threat of Ghidorah to be the big finale. Toying with ideas of parasites, Shimo, and even Battra... I might have to wait for Godzilla X Kong to see if any ideas for it spring from that.

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Ok, so that's everything for the MonsterVerse, but then there's also my original Godzilla story. This kinda sprung out of thinking about Mechagodzilla, and the best way I can describe it is "Cyberpunk Pacific Rim except we're the bad guys". It centres on a Mechagodzilla pilot slowly realising that their endless battle with Godzilla is little more than a war for war's sake, a corrupt government covering for their own mistakes by trying to win a battle of their own creation despite all of the lives it costs. It's their nukes that created Godzilla, their attacks that instigate the destruction he causes, and their own war that they try to win to retain the public's support, even though it becomes clear that no blood would have been spilled if not for their actions. The pilot themselves have to confront everything they believed, come to terms with the part they played in all this, and atone for the lives lost by instead fighting the people that did this. Oh, and Ghidorah is thrown in there as a third party just to complicate things. It's fun, and I'm looking forward to developing the plot more. Currently resisting the urge to include my beloved Mothra, she'd make absolutely no sense to include but also I love her so much...

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Anyway, if you somehow actually read all of that then you're absolutely gorgeous and I wanna kiss you on the lips (mwah!). If you have any questions or anything by all means go ahead and ask, I'm more than happy to talk more about anything you're interested in.

I might update this with future developments if they're significant enough, who knows, we'll see.

And, finally, thank you unfortunatefloweryfool for asking me to write all this out. It took, uh, way too fucking long and I should not be awake right now but it's fun to have an excuse to dump all of this. You're the best, thank you for enabling me.

And with that, thank you and goodnight :3

[gothcsz]

Hi Kat, just hopping in your inbox to gush about Thoroughfare 💓 I love the way you’ve crafted Paloma and Javi’s relationship since the beginning, makes my heart ache when I think about them sometimes 🥺 have to mention that Javi is so hot in this fic, I understand why Paloma’s fallen for him so hard 😮‍💨 also hard not to mention how sweet P is too – this is where my bi panic ensues, do I want to be her, him or between them? probably the latter 🫣

I’ve finally caught up with all the chapters and that cliff hanger in the last chapter – giiiirl I was on the edge of my seat! I can’t wait to see how it plays all plays out – especially with Romeo and Javi working together when they discover she’s been taken, they’ll hate it but they have a common goal – to save their girl 🥺

Also have to say Sloane is a nasty piece of work for everything she’s done when P’s been nothing but civil towards her – praying that karma does its thing and comes for her!

Keep up the good work, loving the way you’ve crafted the lore and story in this fic, it’s a real lesson in how to craft a story – can’t wait to read the next chapter 🩷

HI M!! OKAY I HAD TO REREAD THIS A MILLION TIMES BC I KEPT CRYING!!

they mean so much to me it's crazy so to know they have other stans out there?! we won so hard... ugh don't get me started on thoroughfare javi... going back to his southern roots as a texas boy in his cute jeans and cowboy boots and big belt buckles and and and...... horny at first sight, isn't that a trope? bc that's def what happened here JKHDSFDF

paloma my beloved... the hottest girl i've ever seen in my life i need her in ways that words simply cannot explain, however, i know i'd never be able to treat her as well as javi does so i suppose... i'll let him have her... for now.... the bi panic comment is so real, i need them to notice me from across the bar and dig my vibe

yeah that last chapter had my heart feeling SORE for days after, i'm not even kidding i honestly think it was bc it was so cute and hot and domestic in the beginning and then it ended like... that so... the whiplash was real asf and it's only going to get worse from here... i apologize in advance for what i'm about to put all of us through. javi and romeo you must put your petty drama aside to get her back! but also... paloma is the final girl in this story and in the wise words of the cheetah girls:

Don't wanna depend on no one else I’d rather rescue myself

i stan sloane in a i love evil women type of way but you're sooo right. guess that's just what happens when you befriend a cult member! that's how they get ya! they make you think you're besties then they sleep with your man then knock you out with your own baseball bat! don't worry, queenie here is def gona go out with a bang

thank you thank you thank you so much for reading and for taking the time out of your day to come yap about it here in my inbox 🥹 i work OVERTIME on thoroughfare bc i love their little world and their lore, yes, the horror lover in me thrives there and i'm actually so relieved that it's being received so well. i wasn't sure if people were into that but i've got myself some pretty fucking awesome readers who eat this shit up so like i am grateful for all of you, you're the reason my ass is still writing 🖤😌

[chazz-is-a-zelda-fan]

kaorupost wooohoooooo

sorry @r0yalgrimm-artz you asked and you shall receive <3

ohhh kaoru. where do i begin with you. this is all stuff i made up in my brain so if this doesn’t work in canon, shhhhhh

so the basic rundown is that kaoru is yusuke’s younger brother (he was adopted) and was enrolled in duel prep with chazz (did i mention he’s a selfship insert. sorrryyyy) and the two become super close friends despite their differences in standing. but after two years, yusuke’s parents die, and so kaoru is sent to north academy since his extended family can’t afford duel prep tuition. before he leaves, chazz gives kaoru light and darkness dragon and they both promise to make it into obelisk blue together

except for the part where chazz promptly forgets that because his brothers are assholes and continue to traumatize him for the rest of the time he’s in prep school :( yusuke promptly disappears and kaoru clings onto chazz’s memory and LaDD to fill this emptiness that he can’t remember. through a stroke of luck and skill, kaoru ends up catching sheppard’s attention and manages to get transferred back to duel academy. HOWEVER, when he’s moving back, this is the part in s1 where chazz is leaving DA to go to north. so they just miss each other :(

kaoru has a very specific request. even though he could easily be in obelisk blue, he absolutely refuses to join the blue dorm until he’s beaten chazz in a duel with LaDD. that was their pact, he’s gonna live up to it!! until he gets there. and chazz is gone. some digging around reveals the j-squad to be at the center of it, and kaoru being the borderline teenager with issues that he is, immediately hates all of them and seethes at them pushing chazz away.

when chazz returns, kaoru doesn’t get a chance to talk with him one-on-one until the end of the season. he’s picked to protect a spirit key, but it’s kind of weird since he’s made it obv that he wants nothing more than to defeat chazz and kind of hates everyone else. this is the first near-death experience, getting caught up in the abandoned dorm and dropping yusuke lore hints oooo (LaDD is sighing wondering where they went wrong lol) anyways, atticus and kaoru end up bonding over a vague memory of yusuke, but they don’t realize it’s him. atty helps kaoru figure out that yeah man, that’s pining, you’re gay. hope this helps ^^

s2 is where the fun comes in!!! he doesn’t get to explain to chazz how much their promise meant to him, but he’s gotta try. but when he does work up the courage, oops! the dorm’s brainwashed. so kaoru, having watched zane and atticus duel, and seeing the blue dorm go to shit, gets an idea.

he steals the dragon mask, invoking it to test out his theory. if losing to someone who’s part of the society is a surefire way to get into their ranks, what happens if a society member gets beaten by darkness? would it cancel out and break them free? LaDD refuses to go along with this plan, but kaoru doesn’t care. now as nightshroud, kaoru goes to duel chazz. he loses, and the dragon mask turns back into card form. chazz gives kaoru a whole speech about how he’s too useless to be wanted by any color, and kaoru gets torn apart by atticus yelling about how dangerous that plan was.

LaDD and kaoru reconcile, with the j-squad reluctantly admitting that kaoru isn’t all that bad, and kaoru promising to drop the petty grudges. they end up making a plan to save chazz, defeating him. then they go and save alexis (they being atticus and kaoru, chazz joins in to help alexis), and chazz still ends up tournament winner since he’s helping with the whole de-brainwashing thing

i don’t have much for s3. he almost dies again is that anything

during s4, both kaoru and atticus have consistent flashbacks to yusuke and the abandoned dorm. kaoru goes to investigate by himself and ends up in the world of darkness, LaDD being left to relay the message that kaoru’s trapped. most of the season plays out the same, but there’s still the issue of hey KAORU IS STUCK IN THE ABANDONED DORM. HELP

once yusuke is rescued and kaoru gets to reunite with his brother, he FINALLY gets to have the heart-to-heart he’s been meaning to with chazz for years. and then he gets embarrassed when chazz says he knew and he just didn’t have the chance to say it. atticus nods sagely in the background like “it was obvious, kaoru” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!!!” “hatchling this is a public space.” “NOT YOU TOO LIGHT!!!!!!!!!”

post-series, kaoru goes on to be a pro and later a manager, him and chazz frequently working with and for one another. it’s nice when your boyfriend is your boss and he’s your employee next month :P

OH. I AM SO SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE. I. I REALLY LIKE THIS GUY CAN YOU TELL. sorry if this is hard to understand it’s literally 1 am lol

[dogcodedcatboy]

pre relationship: 3, general: 3, 6, love: 10, 13, domestic life: 7 !!

hihihihihihi !!!! i cant wait to start s2 tonight i need to see my kittycat i need to see him !!!!! thank u for always sending asks my aaroman warrior o7 u should rb this ask game 2 so i can pelt u w waystarshipping and jermstone questions

Did any of their friends or family want them to get together?

absolutely fucking not!!!!!!

by the time any of the roys find out its too late, theyre already very much together. i think the fam knows abt aaron before 04x03 and like, willingly keeps him a secret (have 2 believe none of them would out a family member for personal gain. if not just to avoid the shitstorm for logan). some of them wuld obviously would prefer for roman to a) not be gay or b) at least not be dating a Fucking Weirdo. oh well!

aarons friends are also not. thrilled. for obvious reasons. reactions range from 'ok...u r gold digging, right? does this mean we can afford a hot tub :D' to 'morally/ethically what the Actual fuck is wrong with you bro???'

What was their first kiss like?

hmm the first time they kiss probably an impulsive. half-drunken thing. prolly after their first '''date''' (which roman insists is not a date despite calling him up and inviting him for dinner and drinks). it's rlly messy, roman is kind of an awful kisser at first (out of practice #nobitches) so aaron is kinda like...ok....but it's very endearing somehow.

What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

i could write a dissertation on. aaron and the roys. i think he's...polite? i mean, he knows roman is super close to them despite how fockin shitty they are to him all the time, so he's willing to grin and bear it. he doesnt like ken for Reasons (annoying on twitter, involvement in 'dog pound', annoying in real life)*, he's rightfully intimidated by shiv, he thinks connor is rlly fuckin funny, he has a weird psychosexual obsession w tom (as stated, would put tom in a saw trap), he thinks greg is cool and would like to talk about his record collection w him.

*authors footnote: i personally like kendall a lot i do love the fucked up brother dynamic between ken and rome BUT aaron is protective and an asshole and doesnt care abt nuance if youre mean to his boyfriend you go to the gulag for 1000 years ! aarons friends are hsi family! he lives w his childhood + college besties! they are all spectacular assholes as well so roman weirdly fits in! roman likes aarons bff because he is also a snarky asshole. one of aaron's college friends actually is from LA, so that's another person he can relate to somewhat. ovi he's a rich asshole tho and like, has to adapt to how normal people live and socialize (aaron and his friends arent even normal theyre like a weirdly codependent found family) but. they all kind come around to him! (will post extended oc universe lore someday on god)

Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?

i think they both are kinda stupid abt feelings and prefer physical affection, as sometimes its easier to manage than like, pouring your heart out. aaron is big on words of affirmation tho, once they r more comfy in their relationship/roman is more comfortable w receiving stuff like that.

Who remembers the little things?

aaron is def a romantic, he's big on anniversaries, quick to pick up little things like roman's coffee order, his favorite snacks, etc. roman is a little rusty but is surprisingly sensitive when he cares about someone. he's super in to aaron, so he makes sure to note all of aarons favorite movies and albums (so he can bring them up later and Totally sound like he knows what he's talking about).

[also they r a beautiful ocd (aaron) x adhd (roman) couple so in general aaron is Incredibly on top of things (or else he might die, who knows!) while roman is a fockin mess with remembering shit.]

Who kills the bugs in the house?

the real answer is gustav. he eats them. aaron will hold the cat up and he will take care of business.

[katurdayss]

Alright, Rings of Power Ep 5 live blogging. You know the deal, check under the cut.

Okay this episode was really good. I think it’s because a lot of stories finally started getting their feet under them.

But this also brings me back to a point I’ve been repeating a lot lately. I think this show needs 22 episodes a season. That gives you the room to got full tilt Tolkien and reference as much inane lore you want but also gives you room to really develop all these differing storylines. Right now, I feel like references to lore are getting in the way of the story. Not all the time, but enough that it noticeably drags the story a little which is not great when you’ve only got 8 episodes. Or makes you feel like shit pops up outta nowhere only to fade into nothing a second later.

Hell I think an even 10 episodes would be noticeably better. I mean if the CW can produce 14 22 episode seasons of Supernatural, surely 1 Billion Bezos can give us 5 seasons of 22 episodes for Rings of Power.

Seriously, we need to talk about these recaps show runners. You could spend that time on other things, which considering you have only 8 episodes is crucial.

Well damn, the beginning of the end eh

You know what, made respect to Durin for not trusting that ring, just like Elrond.

Awwwwww, the doors of Durin!

You know what’s interesting, Annatar’s speech patterns are different from Halbrand’s. Props too that.

You are sooooo close Celebrimbor! Almost there! Plant seeds in others heads indeed.

FINALLY! We get the jealousy over immortality from the Numenorians. Why they didn’t intro that sooner idk

Motherfucker took the throne. That asshole.

Okay, the Numenor storyline hasn’t been my favorite but this scene with Miriel and Elendil is great.

Fuck Earien. So proud of yourself, eh.

YEAH HOW BOUT THAT EARIEN. HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

Of course that asshole is gonna use the stone.

RUN FOREST RUN

Aww fuck, what did Disa find?

Well that was fast eh?

Oh Disa found the Balrog.

SO CLOSE

Oh fucker manipulating the shit out of Celebrimbor

Fuck yeah Durin sounding the alarm.

Ugh! Annatar yack.

Bet you he peed his pants

Real life audible gasp here folks.

May Ulmo strike him down.

SO CLOSE

fuck I love them so much

Just keep digging that hole deeper there Celebrimbor

Awww brimby that family legacy ain’t doing you no favors

Seriously now you don’t trust shit Gil Galad?

[thenugking]

🌤️🌪️🪐 please!

🌤️How do you interpret the game mechanics in your fic?

I try to avoid going into a lot of detail about game mechanics, because they can make things really clunky and unnatural. I can’t use the phrase “spell slots”, it sounds far too gamified to me, so I stick with a more general “using magic takes energy”. From First Rest we have:

Wyll’s able to convince Shadowheart to use the last of tonight’s spellpower on summoning up a bucket of clean water,

Because I’m not going to fucking say “Wyll gets Shadowheart to use her last available Level One Spell Slot on casting Create Water, and then she needs to have a Long Rest to get some more back.”

Some things that are clearly just there for game balance I ignore. Like, sure, it’s useful in game to be able to pay Withers 200 gold to bring back your party members whenever they drop dead, but in fic, it really cheapens the emotional weight of death to have Withers be doing that all the time. That said, as much as I hate when fics feel beholden to the “only four party members” rule, I do kind of want Gortash telling Lee that nope, sorry, Orin can’t come on this mission, we already have four people, it’s just not possible to bring any more because of Reasons, sorry, I’d love to bring your freak of a sister along but everyone knows adventurers can’t hang out in groups of five.

(Lee: Well that’s all right, Orin’s basically just an extension of me so she’s a Summon actually--)

🌪️Is there a nugget of game lore that fascinates you, but you haven’t written about yet?

Hmm. If something fascinates me enough, I usually have to write something, just to get it out of my head. Although I would at some point like to write pre-game fic about Astarion’s siblings. Astarion too ofc, but there’s six other people here being horrifically abused and developing their own relationships and issues with each other and having their own terrible trauma responses. I want to dig into that and make things horrible for everyone.

🪐Who’s your favourite non-companion character, and why?

Orin Orin Orin my beloved baby girl who has done nothing wrong in her life, except for all the horrifying atrocities.

I will hold up my hands and admit that the reason I started liking her was aghsj Hot Evil Lady. But then I started really getting into exploring Durge, and Lee specifically, and goddd this girl is tragic. She’s my poor little meow meow who’s been groomed and abused by every family member she has, and honestly what fucking chance did she ever have to be a good person, or even a normal person? She’s tragic, and sympathetic, but has also, yknow, hurt so many people, and done shit that’s way too fucking evil to just be excused with, “well she’s an abuse victim.” Which ofc is a big theme of BG3 generally, but the game never fucking explored that fully with Orin, so now I get to do that. 

I’m loving writing her in No Highly Esteemed Deed, having her be very clearly Lee’s victim and, I hope, entirely sympathetic for her eventual decision to stab them right in the brain, but, well. She’s still clearly utterly fucked, she was obviously intending to rape Lee before they raped her, and it’s not exactly a spoiler to say that getting rid of her abuser isn’t going to suddenly fix her. Like, I’m currently writing Ketheric seeing an Innocent Victim and looking out for her, and you might notice that this is very much not the dynamic we see with them at the end of Act 2!! I love writing Orin destroying any positive relationship she has because she doesn’t know how to have a healthy friendship and is too disdainful and afraid of the whole idea to try.

I love putting her in Situations and have her fucking maim her way out of them and then voluntarily go back in them because she maimed everything outside her Situation too and now there’s nothing else left <3

[cboffshore]

OKAY. finally got a minute to sit down.

so here’s our drumroll question. what is the reasoning behind the recent OSSAS fic title? what’s the lore behind it 🎤

OOH. OKAY. This is a FUN one, and extremely weird and detailed. Under the cut we go!

One thing I've always wanted this last installment to be is a tradition breaker. OSSAS in general has a lot of repetition, whether that be in structure or symbolism (someday I need to go in and find all of those elements and make a list, tbh); I don't want to completely abandon that, of course, but I do like the idea of making the ending of the season even more unsettling by shaking things up a bit. I have no plans to sever those character threads I've been spinning, but I do want to bat them around a little bit and see what happens. For instance, the two most recent installments begin with Nya waking up and end with her nearing sleep somehow (ADA(DP) is a bit of an exception but still roughly fits); you may have noticed that Witness begins with her being put to sleep. That sort of thing.

One tiny meta thing that influenced that decision: There's an old exchange somewhere on Ninjago Twitter, I believe between Tommy Andreasen and some fan (it could have also been the Hageman Brothers; I'll need to dig that up to check, but it's DEFINITELY one of them), regarding the legality of the entire wedding. Or something along those lines. Look, it's a weird situation, so OF COURSE the question asked was a weird one. The answer was something a lot simpler: that there wasn't really a good answer to that question, because the wedding itself wasn't traditional enough for it to really matter. Still a weird answer, I think. Kind of a cop-out, but it exists - and if it exists, I shrug and see what I can do.

So: nothing about this situation fits tradition. Got it. There go my series traditions, too, or at least just enough of them to ramp up the drama.

Which brings us to the title tradition I've had running! With the exception of Small Cuts, every installment of OSSAS so far has taken their name from the first verse of Panic! at the Disco's "Kaleidoscope Eyes." Small Cuts' name comes from a second cousin of a song, "Small Cuts" by The Brobecks, a band fronted by Dallon Weekes.... who eventually joined and then left Panic. Weird musical family tree, but hey - it's a link!

The song that Witness gets her name from is not "Kaleidoscope Eyes." This is for three reasons:

I had already milked all the good KE lines for titles. KE is not even remotely a thematic fit for OSSAS when taken as a whole, and after the first verse, things take a turn that I couldn't really come back from.

That whole tradition-ditching thing I mentioned.

I was having a bit of A Moment with a different song off the OSSAS playlist.

That different song is "Visitation of the Ghost", once again by The Brobecks (and in fact off the same album as "Small Cuts"). "Visitation" has been on my mind a LOT lately, as Weekes is currently touring with his current band, I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME. A curious thing about IDKHOW is that Weekes has carried over a handful of Brobecks songs, and most of them have become concert traditions for the new band. (That's a whole other obsession, tbh. I LOVE that shit.) "Visitation" is one of them. The most recent tradition that I'm hoping to experience this fall when I (weather permitting) see him perform live involves him walking through the crowd and recruiting them to sing the gospel style backing vocals. And also sometimes he yells at them when they stop. Anyway, controlling small-crowd leader ego tripping aside (hmm, sounds like someone we know....), it's an INSANE SONG, and it's been lurking on the series playlist for a while.

Where was I? Oh, right. It was really a matter of being in the right place at the right time: I've been thinking about that song lately, and I needed a title, and it was already in the club. So: breaking tradition enough to make things interesting, but not too much. (Yes, the fact that "Visitation" is now a tradition of its own is not lost on me. It took on a new energy, but it's the same base body, truly.) The specific chunk I chose will have more relevance when the story properly kicks off in a few months.... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Thank you for the ask!!! And also the general enthusiasm!!!!