#don't be thinking it's just some dystopian story. it really happens that way

[primoresplendens]

I think the reason why South Korean media often gets credit for "revealing the worst of capitalism" is because it's literally just their reality over there

[coralcatsea]

I'm not one to just move on so easily from a passion I've had for over a decade. There may be more active fandoms, but I can't quite use them the same way I can with this one.

Even if I really love a story and its characters, a lot of times the most I'm inspired to do with it is draw a picture. I'm typically not that interested in roleplaying or writing a fic because I don't have enough to add that I would be motivated to write a story for. There aren't always many blanks to fill unless I'm super invested in some kind of ship, which doesn't usually happen.

Sure you can do AUs, but Hetalia just feels better made for them?

Something like Death Note is self-contained and told its story. Hetalia can literally encompass all of time. There's no end because history is ongoing.

When it comes to The Hunger Games, something like an actor AU is so far removed from the story. It often feels like canon universes are just too ingrained in the characters, so that if you remove them they lose a major piece of who they are.

The characters in HG are mainly seen under pressure and intense situations, and it could be hard to convert their trauma into a normal world actor AU. Even if it's in the same dystopian universe and you just alter circumstances, making the characters professional actors could cause them to be too different.

One might think that's the case with Hetalia, as countries are bound to be different from humans, but in the source material they are shown in both historical and completely normal situations. Hetalia is full of all kinds of things, every part of life, both serious and not. We get to see them act like regular people, and that's the sort of thing that gives us an idea of how they would be in other universes. We even have canon AUs.

Even with nationverse, there are so many blanks to fill and details to add, because Hima can't possibly add everything.

Hetalia has some amazing potential and perks. It may not be the only fandom that allows for extra creativity, but it still feels pretty unique and special.

I can easily get into other shows/movies/etc., but getting into their fandoms to this level is an entirely different story. Sure, you can be creative in any fandom if you really try, but Hetalia just lets it happen so naturally.

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Five (Chapters 22-44): The Mandatory Exploitive Tournament Arc

Been awhile, huh? Let's see if I can still pull this off. I'm warning you, this is probably going to have a bit of heft to it.

We start off people trying (and failing) to investigate Shigarki and the Villains and, first off, a couple of things. The whole, 'Quirk Registry' shit? Very X-Men. I'm... kinda mixed feelings on it. It makes sense for a government to try and keep track of this kind of shit, but at the same time it feels like a whole lot, you know? That said... the way the guy in the suit phrased it makes it seem like they only searched for 'Shigaraki/Disintegration' and 'Kurogiri/OP warping' pairings, which seems... dumb. Like, really dumb.

Are they.... are they not going to search for anyone with a similar Quirk? Because it sounds like there are other people with similar Quirks, so... what about them? Oh, this pale haired guy who mutters a lot about how horrible heroes are isn't named Shigaraki, so clearly this isn't the guy? Do some ground work or something, man, bloody hell.

*spits out drink*

Even All-Might thinks Shigaraki is a man-child, lol. Brutal. That said... Vlad goes, 'You mean he's just like a kid with a 'power' or something?!'

And I. My dude. You're just some guy with a power. It feels like some depersonalization of the 'villains' because, yeah, everyone in this story is, in fact, just some rando human, 99.9% of the time with super powers. I don't know, it just feels like that's this really concerning perspective for someone in authority to have.

'I keep forgetting this is an actual school!'

That. That's... actually really concerning? Everyone, literally everyone, from Aizawa, to the students, to the actual author, can't seem to figure out if UA is some military academy meant to pump out child soldiers, or an actual high school meant to prepare children to go into society. And not to belabor the point here, one I've talking about on and off again for awhile, but that's fucked up.

I can't help but get the impression that UA (and presumably every other hero academy) is some military complex, setting up the students to live a life where the only way they know how to live is through violence and trying to be famous, but it's just... pretending to have standards, pretending to care for the kids as anything more than the next generation of... idol-police, or something. The way every school related thing is so out of place, the way their grades are so unimportant... it's very telling.

And like. It's not a bad thing, per say. Morally bad, sure, but from a story telling perspective? For a story like this, the way the heroic's school is morally dubious is actually a really good plot point to work off of. But... that's the problem. It never happens.

If the setting was fucked up enough, it'd be understandable if it wasn't explored, but it's not. I feel like there's some fertile ground to talk about... how heroes don't know how to handle living normal lives. How to cook, clean, do taxes, hIstory (which is, of course, very loaded sort of topic in a more dystopian kind of a set up) and so on. There's no way they have the time and energy to do all the thing a normal kid should do at their age, and as they grow up, and get these dangerous, fucked up jobs? There has to be consequences to that.

And the next line later, they bring up, you know, a bunch of terrorists just attacked the school. Which is, in fact, a serious fucking concern! What does Aizawa say?

'No no, we're only doing because we're so sure we have this shit locked down.'

Spoiler alert: They did not, in fact, have this shit locked down. In the least.

My god, this is so fucked up. It's pretty clear that the fact this is still happening is because UA, and heroics as a whole, honestly, is doing a show of force to try and make all the bad things go away. In all honesty, they're putting these kids lives at risk; the only reason nothing went wrong isn't because 'the school had all its ducks in a row when it comes to crisis control' or what the fuck ever, but because AFO didn't want to do anything. And you know why he doesn't interfere?

Because it's so damn useful for him that they flat out broadcast the details of the students and what their Quirks are!

And don't even get me started on this 'Olympics have fallen out of favor' bullshit. It's a world wide event, and it doesn't matter if the population has... shrunk (? That's what my translation says, anyways. Is this honestly saying that so many people died that the Olympics no longer holds any attraction? I mean.. what? What the fuck? What happened???? Why in the hell is this getting brushed over?! Or is that just a bad translation, and if so what is he saying is the reason the Olympics no longer have any appeal?) or whatever, because that's just... bullshit. That's just bullshit. If super powers happen, and they get at all stabilized and regulated like they are in here, all that's going to happen is that the powers are going to be part of the Olympics, and a lower population count really isn't going to change the fundamental reasons why it's popular in the first place.

Speedster racing, various forms of competitive flying (racing (in all its variations), acrobatics, mid-air dancing, synchronized flying.... flight along has dozens of potential new Olympics sports, easy), something like shot-put hurling but with some kind of projectiles, fire, lasers, whatever? Oh yeah, the Olympics are going to be just fine.

So please, Hori, spare me your obsessive need to make heroics the most important thing EVAH all of the time.

But, wait, there's more! It's not just, the new super Olympics, oh no, this is for their careers. In high school. This is, apparenlty, a make or break moment for the rest of their lives (again, with however that undefined heroics ranking and what not works). How old are they? What, fifteen? 'Here, go do bloodsports, and if you fuck up, you're going to be a menial, loser fry-cook of a wannabe police officer, dressed in brightly colored spandex for the rest of your life, barely making any money, and never getting any real respect or validation for putting your life at risk'.

Oh, I have opinions on the Sports Festival, believe me, I have a lot of opinions, but I'd like to save at least some of these more for when the actual Sports Festival starts, and not, like, five pages into the first chapter out of what, twenty two? We've got the time.

Uraraka! You're an actual character! My, this is nostalgic. I always loved the contrast between her hyper cute-zied design of her and the fact she's down to beat the living shit out of someone at the drop of a hat, and it's nice to have that again.

(Also, she's showing more ability to inspire the class here than Bakugou has shown literally the entire series, no matter how much Hori goes on about his 'charisma' or whatever.)

And then we get into her "impure" motivations to be a hero, (which I've also talked about on occasion), and it's very humanizing, both for Uraraka as a character, and the industry as a whole. It's one of those great set ups Hori ended up dropping on world building, which sucks because it'd be so interesting if he got into the nuts and bolts of the world a bit. I'm not saying we need to see the tax code or anything, but for a series that's about corruption and what not, some more detail would really help pull all of this together.

Ah, Dumb Might. I didn't miss you, except I kind of did because Dumb Might is still better than Useless-Side-Character Might.

Also, can I talk about how stupid it is that Dumb Might is burning his less than an hour's worth of time 'teaching' students again? Because holy fuck that's such a waste it's honestly criminal.

And what the hell is this switch in motivations, here? All Might never mentioned, you know, replacing him is the Symbol of Peace before now. Before this point, the whole reason he chose Izuku is that he'd be worthy user of his power, not, what, replacing him. If Izuku never gained any real fame, but still managed to save a lot of people? Before-this-point All Might would have been fine with that. More than that, he would have been proud of it, proud his successor was humble and chose to focus on doing good rather than fame. Hell, not too long ago it was pointing out by All Might that Izuku wouldn't want to use All Might's fame to benefit himself, to go slow and steady and earn his success rather than relying on fame.

Where the fuck did this come from? What the fuck kind of pressure is he trying to put on this kid?

And then right after that, we see flashes of who All Might used to be with the whole 'don't forget how you felt at the seaside park, that day', bit. Because, like, that's good. That's great! It's real, and deep, and gritty, and I'd love it if it wasn't being use with this set up, because those expectations work in other shonens, but they don't work here. Izuku can't do what All Might did, because he can't stop damn hurting himself. Going Plus Ultra, here, now, for this? It could cause real, serious harm to him for the rest of his life! And for what? To make a good impression?

And if something would call him on that, it could still work, because All Might is canonly shit at taking care of himself, that could, like, close the circle for all of this, bring it together with the two them as shit at at self care as a place to build them improving off of, but for whatever reason, Hori never went all the way on that because he was too damn afraid to commit to it, commit to a story, commit to a theme, commit to a moral.

...Holy shit, how many pages is this? We haven't even gotten to actual Sports Festival yet in the post about the damn Sports Festival.

And now we have this creepy, kind of morbid mob of people filling the hallway to stare at Class 1-A for.... being attacked by terrorists.

*what the fuck.jpeg*

What is wrong with you people?! What the actual hell is wrong with you???

And then Shinso rolls up:

"Wow. Look at these arrogant assholes, so excited about not getting killed. I'm going to declare war on them, because they deserve it for getting all high and mighty."

...

You know, I completely forgot about the epic story of, 'Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex'. I'm sad that I remember that now.

Bakugou: "People's opinions don't matter once your at the top."

Me: *looks at how much people's opinions matter to getting to the top, and staying there*

Me: ...Uh.

Thank you, Kaminari, for pointing out his edgy bullshit is, in fact, actually bullshit, and is only going to make his life more difficult for no reason. I like you as an actual person who does things other than cheerlead for Bakugou.

Izuku. Izuku no, Izuku...! Damn it. Bad Izuku. Bad! Stop getting inspired by the festering waste spewing out of Bakugou's mouth!

Cue all of two panels of the media being absolute assholes only out to make ratings with no redeeming features.

And... here's the actual Sports Festival, god knows how long into this post later!

(if you believe the text editor I just posted all of this into? Well into four pages. ...Even with my generous use of spacing, I think I have a problem.)

..Wait. Wait. Where the hell is this happening?

*does five seconds of research on the wiki*

I'm right. They have a stadium for this. Like, a giant ass sports stadium that exists for this. Only for this. That is used once a year.

At this point, I'm honestly wondering why UA isn't just it's own city. Like, Izuku should have moved here, along with the rest of the students, and all the families and various staff needed to run this just.... live on site. It's not like it'd cost them anything, since they apparently have spare cities sitting around for the kids to trash.

That's... that's actually a really interesting idea? Because it'd be a hero run city, then, which feels like it'd work well into the over commercialized, corrupted state heroics is supposed to be like, their overwhelming level of influence. I don't think that's what Hori was going for, to be clear, I think he has no idea just how much space he's causally put on UA's campus and didn't think through the implications... at all.

Ooh, and here comes Todoroki's characterization.

And... here comes the bloodsport, because that's what all of this is: bloodsport. They're throwing a bunch of teenagers onto this stage, broadcast them to the entire country, and have them fight against each other for fame. This society is so fucked up.

Random Gen Ed kid: Yeah, he placed first in the Heroics Entance Exam.

...Yeah. As fucking stupid as it is that Bakugou somehow placed first, it does make sense the person who place first in the Heroics Entrance Exam would be class representative in a school for heroics. Damn, you're salty, kid, but you're also kinda dumb, not going to lie.

Bakugou: *opens his mouth on live TV*

Bakugou: *vomits diarrhea for the entire country to see*

Izuku: ...Wow, Bakugou's so cool! He's grown up and mature now!

...Izuku. Izuku, buddy, please, stop doing this to yourself.

As yet another thing I've mentioned before, a lot of our views on Bakugou comes from Izuku. Izuku who has, from chapter one, all but worshipped Bakugou. Even when he does things wrong, even when he's actively fighting against him, Izuku can't stop himself from going on and on about how great Bakugou is, how cool and tough and determined he is. Izuku's hero worship of his abuser is sheltering Bakugou's actions from the readers, papering over all of his worst traits with a a transparent facade that he's this glorious figure. It's the narrative going the extra mile to cover his arrogant ass, to make him seem like a rival instead of an bully, someone worthy of respect rather than contempt.

Hmm. I don't want to go too much into the nuts and bolts of the event, I think, since I've done that before, so let's try something else: How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child? Where I, you guessed it, count how many times a teenager could have been killed, on national television, in this event.

Count one: The start of the race itself, where... *counts how many kids are in 1-A, multiplies by eleven*... two hundred and twenty kids run forward at the same time, trying to force themselves through the same opening. This shit is why it's illegal to shout fire in a theater, because a stampede like this could get someone trampled to death, or maybe crushed by the sheer weight of the crowd (which is something that happens, someone getting killed by the a crowd of unruly people just... squeezing them on accident).

*stares at Shinso being carried around like a wannabe king instead of using his own damn legs judgingly*

Count Two: Mineta gets bitched slapped by a robotic arm bigger than he is. I don't think I have to get into how that could be fatal.

Count Three: The army of Zero Pointers who could easily step on someone.

*Momo wondering about how UA can fund this makes me feel very validated, BTW*

Count Four: Todoroki dumping the Zero Pointer on the rest of the competition to block the way, again for obvious reasons. He obviously doesn't meant to, but this kid isn't even looking back. This is both lamp shaded and then dismissed because it happens to the only two people who could shrug that off, but holy shit that could have killed so many of them.

...The cameras are robots. The cameras are robots with AIs that are cheering on the other robots. I- I can't- what?!?

And then everyone can't stop themselves from praising Bakugou for the radical idea of going over a problem instead of blasting through it. Wow, Bakugou. Amazing. Such brains, such smarts.

Count Five: The Fall. Because there's no way that anyone could get themselves killed by. You know. Falling. If I was more generous, I'd say something like, 'There's probably something down there to catch them if they fall', but I'm not terribly impressed by UA's ability to actually keep these kids safe, so that doesn't make me think they'd have thought that through that much.

Grudgingly, I'm going to give a landmines a pass, because they're explicitly supposed to be non-lethal, and them blowing up didn't do any real damage. Burns, maybe, possibly a broken limb, probably some scars, but this count is about people dying. Izuku's pile could have been, maybe, but that's a level of deliberate action on his part big enough that I can't really blame UA, per say.

Eraserhead, on how 1-A has improved: I didn't do anything.

...Well. At least he's honest.

One other thing: I've said before how bullshit All Might telling Izuku to 'fight to win' was, and right here, here's the proof: All Might explicitly going, "I was afraid you'd be too nice to try and beat other people in competitions, but you proved me wrong! I'm so proud!". You know, fighting to win. Like he later says Izuku doesn't for some mysterious reason *cough*, to make him seem at the same level as Bakugou, *cough*. Poor, poor All Might, yet another victim of Bakugou's narrative warping favoritism.

And here we see the management kids going all out in how to sell Izuku and his brand, which is so very fucked up, for them and the people they're 'selling'. I'm aware this is something that celebrities go through, (which is fucked up for them as well, don't get me wrong; I'm an equal opportunity 'this is fucked up' call out-er), but these kids are in high school. The fact that they're doing this, and getting this done to them, in such numbers, in such an early age... yeah. There's no way this could give them lots and lots of long term stress and psychological problems, right?

Meanwhile, as we get to the offical rankings, I think it's time go back over the 'How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child?' count... at five. Five times they could have been killed on complete accident.

That is not a good score.

I'm stopping it here because the other events don't have the same problem, but instead of a whole new problem of delibrately pitting them against each other. On live TV. With minimal supervison. Cementoss popping in at the last second in Izuku vs Todoroki, considering how badly Izuku got hurt in the process, does not fill me with a great sense of these fights being well monitored.

*gets an omake chapter*

*Bakugou gets called Izuku's childhood 'friend'. Bitch, please.*

So. Here's a new point: the million point bullshit is... well. Bullshit. It's the snitch in Quiddich all over again, giving the hero something both super import, with an extra layer of difficulty, to drive up the stress and stakes, only kicked up by a million. Making more than the others makes sense, and making it enough to pass by itself is still pretty reasonable, but making it so excessively much has no point other making Izuku feel isolated from his peers and hunted by his classmates.

Also, Mt Lady going on about how 'great' an exercise the second round is is missing the point that this is literally a thing Japanese kids do in school. Literally, this is a game they're playing with Quirks, not some tactical exercise; it's like saying that playing hide and seek makes you great at hunting people down or something. Again, Hori, dial back your constant need to tell us how great the Sports Festival is. Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.

More doses of everything drooling over how great Bakugou is, and how much of a total shit of a human being he is, joy. Mineta and Shouji's teamup is actually pretty damn brilliant, even though it's tainted by how much of a one-dimensional character Mineta is. Iida is getting shown as Izuku's enemy, but honestly it looks more like he's just trying to improve himself more than anything, while acknowledging how competent Izuku is. Not just that he won the first round, or has a lot points but that Izuku, as a person, is the goal he wants to surpass; there's some good shit there, and pretty validating, if Izuku could allow himself to accept it.

Oh Mei! Mei... actually, I have a post I need to do about the Mei and Izuku dynamic at some point, how they're so designed to work together, but yeah she's fun.

And then Uraraka thinks about how strategic Izuku is being and again, I can't help but contrast this with how things happen later on; even if Izuku never lets himself really feel the respect people have for him, people at this point in time really, honestly seem to respect him, not for his Quirk, but for his brain, his determination, his heroism; it's so well setup for Izuku to stand on his own two feet without OFA and it's some really good stuff. It's a shame Hori gets rid of it.

Hmm. Class B. Class B is... interesting. They're set up as rivals but after this it never goes anywhere, and just leaves us with a bad impression of Monoma, without letting him get a good chance to get past it. I don't like him, honestly, his personality grates at me and he needs to get over himself, but he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

That said, though, the Class A vs Class B victory philosphy is honestly just another example of destroying yourself vs having realistic limits, how All Might and Izuku keep destroying themselves vs everyone else not doing that. The fact Class B is actually thinking ahead is smart, but the series doesn't give them that credit because it's not ambitious enough... even though that runs straight into conflicting with Izuku and his issues.

Hori, fucking commit already. In all honesty, it feels like 1-B should have won over Bakugou and knocked him out of the compition; they planned it out, and played him like a sucker, because he's a bullheaded moron. It's all right there, but right as they win... Eraserhead shows up in the booth and says, 'Yes, you've won, but actually no, because Bakugou need to win anyways. So he is. Because REASONS!' Then All Might gets dragged into that same bullshit just to make it really clear that no, Bakugou is right. Planning? Strategy? That's for losers. Real winners just need to want it hard enough, and no one wants things more than Bakugou!

It would have been better, as a story, and for everyone's character development, if that had happened. Bakugou would have lost to some 'nobodies', Izuku would have gone past him without even validating him with a fight, and Class B and Monoma would have gotten a better chance to show themselves as characters; win win win.

And then Endeavour shows up. Fuck Endeavour. Also that is a man who looks like a serial killer. Dumb Might continues to reign and be completely unable to recognize when someone hates him when he monologues about it right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Bakugou is just... there. For some reason. Why? Why does he need to be there for this? It makes his hissy fit later even worse when you realize he knows why Todoroki doesn't use his fire, and it has literally nothing to do with him. Ignoring him, though, Todoroki and Izuku's moment here is some good stuff, a nice setup for a healthy rivalry based on mutual respect, rather than the toxic mess he has with Bakugou.

Ugh. That cheerleader bullshit. Honestly, it says a lot that they can be told that, 'Aizawa says you need to dress up as cheerleaders', and apparently no one questions this, because of course Aizawa would pull some kind of weird bullshit on them with absolutely no warning at what anyone else would think is the worst possible time.

Midnight being really creepy about how she talks to teenagers, of course, and now... Shinso.

'Consent is for losers' Shinso. 'Everyone is coasting on their Quirks except for me, who only knows how to use my Quirk' Shinso. 'Let me use my Quirk on someone before we even get in the arena so I can blatantly cheat' Shinso. 'No one else has dreams or ambitions' Shinso.

I don't like Shinso. I like the idea of Shinso, sure, but that idea is another one of those paper thing veneers Hori likes to put on his characters, without doing the work to make that match the reality; the only hardship we've seen him go through is his apparent inability to work hard. Like, everyone loves Shinso, in story and out, they can't stop themselves from telling him how great his Quirk is. And you know what? It is. It is a great Quirk.

But Shinso talks like he's had a such a hard time with it, even though he seems to love it, love using it, and the way he acts, like he knows he can go through a career as a hero based only on that Quirk. He's wrong, since he's so out of shape he can't even run, apparently, but he's operating off that assumption at this point, which conflicts with his poor little martyr act.

I want you to look at the iceberg Todoroki makes, and compare it to his efforts against Stain. If he did that against him? That fight would have been over the minute he showed up, and Todoroki ambushed him. This is pretty much our last moments of Todoroki, certified badass, before the nerfs roll in. Savor it, Todoroki fans, because he'll never recover from having to lose against Bakugou.

Another omake, which seems like foreshadowing about Hori deals with women characters: bringing up a good characterization, or valid idea (do women heroes need sexiness to do their jobs?), before throwing it away to fall for the same tropes that he was making a stand against just a minute ago (women getting in a cat fight, which apparently gets really explicit, all of this on a TV before Mineta, Hori's avatar of his own horniness).

Then, as if to prove my point, we get Bakugou vs Uraraka where, like Class B before her, she does everything right, gets the win... and then gets it taken away at the last minute by idiotic bullshit pulled out of nowhere (since when could Bakugou make a blast like that? Why does he need those bomb gauntlets if he can do that?) because Bakugou isn't allowed to lose. And then Eraserhead, Hori's mouthpiece, shouts down the crowd, and us, when we think bad thoughts about it because that isn't allowed either; we need to love Bakugou.

Bakugou respects women! ...Just as much as he respects everyone else. That is to say, he doesn't. Hell, he doesn't respect her enough to think Uraraka planned her own fight! He just gets one line for one second that makes it seem like he respects her, but of course once that moments gone it's back to the normal level of complete disrespect. That's totally character growth right there, one second of acting different before returning right back to standard behavior.

So... Izuku vs Todoroki. I like the fight, it's very dramatic, very cool, but... stop to think about it a second, and about a minute in, Izuku's entire ass hand is broken. That is not OK. Why are they letting it go on? It's simultaneously a great fight, but a seemingly awkward implementation of Izuku having a Quirk, because so much of this arc is built off of him not using a Quirk, not having it. This fight only works with it, though. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow at the same time because of the Quirk, because Izuku has to go Plus Ultra, has to go past his limits. Instead of accepting a more reasonable win, he has to win, period, and he doesn't have the power for that.

There's this awkward conflict here between the story's various narratives, between Izuku needing to suffer, and struggle, and break himself, and his more grounded planning and actions, and you can see Hori's old, better planned out ideas getting replaced with newer, less thought out ones. It's honestly kind of a theme for this arc in it's own right.

Flaws aside, though, the fight is gripping, and it's a great setup for Todoroki, a great starting point in making him an important character, in giving him growth. Shame Hori ends up throwing all that away literally the next fight.

Well, before that happens, let's talk the one two punch of, 1, Izuku having done himself permanent, life long damage, which nobody thought to stop, and 2, the sheer, unmitigated clusterfuck of Recovery Girl going, 'I'm not going to treat wounds like these'.

So. If Izuku breaks anything... well. She's not going to treat that. I guess he has to walk around with a broken finger/hand/arm, without any medical attention whatsoever? Well. I certainly don't see any problems with that.

Then we get Bakugou, who canonly has problems using his Quirk for extended periods of time, outlasting someone by using his Quirk for extended periods of time, before going on to fight someone who uses cold, his canon weakness, and ignoring how it should completely neutralize his Quirk to overpower it, through what I can only call his sheer, narrative warping concentration of favoritism.

On what happens after he wins... I've seen people say that he doesn't mean to attack Todoroki, just try to wake him up, but looking at that scene: he's holding Todoroki's body up with one hand as if to shake him, sure, but it's the other hand that's the problem. The way he's holding it is, for his Quirk, an offensive pose, making it ready to attack his target. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (against my own opinion) and say it's not proof positive that he was about to attack, but there's no getting around that Bakugou had himself perfectly set up to hit Todoroki, full blast, while he was unconscious. Even if it's the more innocent explanation, that feels like something that should have disqualified him because... that's really concerning. That feels a step away from him threatening victims he thinks should have stood up for themselves or something; it's not heroic, in the slightest. The fact they had to knock him out, presumably for Todoroki's own safety, says enough about how bad that is.

The fact that the ending comment is basiclly lamenting from his perspective, that this 'isn't what he wanted' is... certainly a choice. He won, but, gasp! The person with long held issues in using his full power that long predate him didn't use his full power! The poor baby!

Then we get to the award ceremony where they... chain him up? Why!? If the doesn't want the damn award, don't give it to him; they let those guys earlier give up when they felt they didn't deserve it, why is Bakugou different? It feels like it's Hori tying him up here, against Bakugou's own will, and characterization, to give him that win just so he can win, but also to forcefully set up Bakugou's own importance with the League later. It's ham handed. It's probably child abuse. It's stupid.

It's fucked up all the way down, is what I'm saying.

Then All Might shows up, and fucks up his entrance timing because he's not allowed to win anymore, of course, and then forces that medal on Bakugou.

Uuuugh.

Last couple of panels, though, are pretty nice: we build up Uraraka's character, get the next arc set up, set up Izuku (fucking finally) getting away to use his own damn power, and develop Todoroki a bit.

A nice little cherry on top of the shit sundae.

[ohmygoly]

KotLC Economy

I wasn't gonna post anything, and this probably won't be very noticed, but I saw a poll about the worst part of the KotLC books and now I'm thinking about this.

The way that money is handled in the books is not only super inaccurate and pretty much impossible, it's actually damaging to the story as well. Everyone just gets about 500 million lusters in their accounts at the beginning of their lives and somehow the currency is still more valuable than American/European money? Even though that's not how value works from an economical standpoint anywhere in the world? Just the fact that EVERYONE gets that much money instantly negates its value at all, because no one needs anymore money and therefore any money you possibly could've payed anyone is worthless.

Why do any elves even sell stuff? I get having hobbies, and I get giving it away, but at that point an elf wouldn't even bother charging lusters for it because they would have to ask for so much to match the value while at the same time not needing any more because they have infinite money themselves. Elves would just ask for some other belonging in exchange and life would go back to some primitive form of society where everyone had to pay service with service directly. That or everybody gets everything for free and in that case, material supplies that actually did have value would deplete rapidly and it would destroy the Earth because every resource would be drained for nothing (and that just doesn't happen because any intelligent species should know not to deplete resources and put a value on it. In a free system like the latter describes, elves would actually be doing much worse for the planet than even humans because at least humans know they must preserve some things for more profit).

It's also lazy writing because it's just a way for Shannon Messenger not to have to honestly think about how much a character is spending in the books and it means she can focus more on other prejudices like abilities, twins, or matches without factoring anything else into it. I'll get to that next but for now, it's also a glaring worldbuilding issue because while all elves are supposed to get enough money to last them a lifetime, the books state that elves don't actually know how long they live for. That means that they would have to have an infinite amount of money, to their own knowledge, to last them a lifetime.

Back to focusing on other prejudices, its all well that she came up with creative ways elves would segregate as it makes for a distinct cultural species but money and class is always important in a society because money is always a societal must in any type of advanced civilization. How it's important and how it separates people, as well as how the government controls it, is what makes the societies different. To not have this in here ruins the opportunity for government oppression in the form of labor and money that would amplify the effects of being a twin, a bad match, or talentless. Sure, you could just banish everyone that isn't perfect, I'm sure that has happened, but even then there would be a lot of elves who would be banished and at that point they would be their own society (something else that hasnt really been shown to exist within the elven world).

It also makes being a bad match or talentless less scary because yes society judges you but look at Juline and Kesler, they still live in an ice mansion and have immense wealth. Social oppression and physical oppression are two different things and one is far more drastic and dystopian. Sophie doesn't even need to see it at first. Maybe while not banished, those parts of the elven world are even more hidden than the glittering ones and since Sophie goes to Foxfire she still wouldn't see it right away and it would serve the same effect of what appears to be a utopia to the readers (I forgot who posted it but someone else made a great analysis on this point) but is actually a dystopia.

I think Dex, Marella, and Jensi should've been part of a lower economic class, and I even think Stina should be very close to it. So much so that she has to be mean and bully Dex to separate herself from what is a very possible future for her family. Maybe Sophie meets them another way. Maybe Dex is accepted into Foxfire because his mom is still "noble" or because his aunt is and its very apparent he still doesnt fit in with the rest of the students. Maybe the councillors created a special test to allow only the smartest of the lower class to also join Foxfire, and Marella and Jensi passed. That would make the council seem a little more progressive from the outside at first as well as allow Sophie to meet them as soon as she does as well as give Marella and Jensi a unique perspective.

Jensi is part of the drooly boys but even from the beginning he is clearly not a part of the group because while gross, theyre still noble. Jensi is still poor. Marella's mom getting drunk and getting a disability would be another way for the kids to scorn the lower class, as if its Marella's fault. Maybe even make way for a storyline where a noble elf was at fault for her impairment (because they have a lower class to oppress). Them becoming talentless and a pyrokinetic would be that much worse because they lose a chance to continue schooling at Foxfire. They are faced with the fact that they have to continue the life their families led before them because they don't have what society wants them to have. Because of this they also still work for the rich and they still have no money. That is much better than just "I can't work for the council and am instead stuck with no obligations to them while I sit comfortably in my mansion with my 500 million lusters. But oh no, I'm not noble so it means I'm oppressed"

[atlascripts]

Warnings: angst, no comfort..okay maybe a little if you squint, minor smut

punkgulaab

Twas a particularly humid evening when you came home, dropping your bag on the bed and kicking your shoes off you only had one thing in mind, a shower and dinner to wrap up the day. You didn't quite expect a visitor until he came over. Helping himself in through the balcony and straight into the kitchen as you leaned by the water cooler, "Hi, you could have used the door, no one's home." You spoke and chugged down some water smiling at your friend. The masked man before you just shrugged, his accent thick as he replied, "Not as fun is it then?" 

He sat down at the little table in the kitchen, he ...never really unveiled himself, though you two had been friends for a while now. You met Spider Punk and the gang when anomalies became too frequent in your universe, your universe didn't have a spiderperson...or at least not yet. Pav mentioned something about your world bleeding into his hence the anomalies but that was also the way you met the spider folk. A band of superheroes that fascinated you, and though as much as you and Pav may have bonded over similarities in your worlds it was Hobie who you were intrigued by. He had popped in one day by himself to say hi after a mission and ever since then he’d have chai at your place.

"Oi where'd you go?" He asked bringing you back to reality from your thoughts about how weird it was to encounter interdimensional friends. The night was young, the neon lights of the nearby buildings shone through, the scent of roses and the seaside air was a gentle breeze as Hobie; a name you didn't know yet, followed your gaze out the balcony at the dystopian city with eco brutalism for architecture.

"Something on your mind luv?" He asked seeing as you were oddly very quiet. "Just tired I think, I'll make us some tea." You spoke and got two cups out almost like a routine you loved. You heard as Hobie went on about his day and if something fun happened he was sure to tell you the tea, but of all days today a soft sadness had seeped into your soul. You had only just found out about how the universes worked and about the 'arachno humanoid poly multi verse' or something Gwen had mentioned. The sadness settled in knowing one day they all would disappear from your life.....Hobie would disappear and though you tried not to think about it, it settled in like a slow grief ebbing into your veins.

"Hey.." You asked cutting him off from a random story he was mentioning about that Miguel guy, "Yeah?" he asked, "Is my universe really under threat....would it disappear?" You asked hesitantly watching the tea leaves in the water waiting for them to boil. "Not if we can help it, no...besides it's been off the danger zone for a while now so don't worry you’re good." His voice was chirpy as always but it was a little more grounded as he observed her from behind his mask. "Is that what's bothering you?" He asked as he joined you leaning by the counter with his arms folded, "Sort of it's a weird feeling ya know.." You looked like you had more to say but didn't and he picked up on it watching as you poured hot tea over the sieve into your cups. Hobie as always would only lift half of his mask to enjoy any snacks you served him with the chai. However you noticed a bruise over his bottom lip, and you were aware he had a lip ring, it always made you wonder what kind of a person he was visually. "Spidey...yer wounded." You spoke and he took a sip of the tea and winced, "Ow that was hot and yeah it's just a little cut nothin’ much, don't worry about it." He waved it off as always but you wanted to get the aid kit and help him but realized reality isn't always like the movies you see, you couldn't bring yourself to pull such a stunt, you tried though. "I have an aid kit with gauze and everything you can use my bathroom if you need to." You offered. "That won't be needed but you are a sweetheart to ask that, I promise to let you know if I ever need it alright?" He assured you and couldn't help but smile seeing you smile at his words, the blush on your cheeks was evident every time he used a pet name, he did it on purpose but played it off like it was a habit.

Hobie noticed as you opened your mouth to speak and stopped but then spoke eventually, "Once this is all over...will you all go back to your homes and like we’ll never see each other again?" There was hesitance when you asked but this time you looked at him as if really wanting answers, "Well that's the plan to eventually settle back in our own worlds, though truthfully I don't think the spide society is ending anytime soon."

Hobie's response made her eyes hopeful as she asked, "Does it mean you can still visit or that isn't allowed?" He took a sip of his tea as you looked away down at your own cup, sadness seeping into your words, "It's just I thought you weren't gonna show up, it had been a while and I didn't expect a goodbye to be so abrupt.., but it made me wonder that its inevitable right?"

"Is that what's buggin’ you, why you been so quiet?" He asked leaning over the round kitchen table you two were sat at, "I wouldn't leave without a proper goodbye luv, none of us would trust me." You smiled pursing your lips and took the last few sips of your tea now gone cold, "It's weird because here if someone leaves I can still know they are alive and doing well but with you guys.... I'll never know it's like you never existed and I am struggling to come to terms with it..." Your words choked up at the last bit, tears threatening to spill as you looked away and Hobie realized then just how much it had been affecting you, "M'sorry I didn't mean to worry you." You spoke and wiped your tears away but sat in that awkward silence as the sounds from outside wandered in, someone's radio was playing old songs with broken audio, twas some old folk tale love song, how fitting. 

Hobie observed you in that moment, he didn't speak either, the reality of it wasn't far from his thoughts in fact he knew it the moment the spider kids wanted to stay over a while at your place, he knew since that day...this would happen and he couldn't lie that it wasn’t hurting him. Maybe because he was confused about his growing fondness for you, he was damn sure you felt the same way your vulnerability right now was proof for him, he trusted his gut and that’s what it was saying right now.

The hanging silence of grief was disrupted by the beeping of the watch on his wrist, there was so much he wanted to say, he was gathering courage or better yet trying to form words but before he could the messages on the watch rolled in and he sighed dramatically throwing his head back on the chair, "M' so sorry about this, I need to go." You quickly wiped your drying tears away and and straightened up, "Right right sorry about this." The dread was seeping in slowly of the awkwardness but Hobie being Hobie played it off so casually and so well, "They can't resist my charms y'know." He pulled down the half tucked mask and walked towards the balcony, "Uhh hey I just wanted to say tha-" he was cut off once again by the beeping watch "Oh for fucks sake, I'm so sorry luv I promise I'll come back around and we’ll continue but for now g’night darlin’." He swung off as he wished her good night as his watch kept beeping and then for a split second you could feel the air get still and you knew that was the dimension opening and he was gone just like that, leaving you with this weird sensation you weren't happy about and also cursing yourself for being so sappy but really was it unjust to feel this way? You found yourself asking that and gosh you hadn't even seen his face but you were falling....slowly and very deeply like death by quicksand drowning you away.

~

It was a long time after that, till he showed up again, you met the spider kids in between whose faces you also didn't know until now and they just mentioned how Spider Punk was busy these days. But with each passing day, you knew you had scared him off, it hurt thinking he may be the type to avoid feelings so hurray for you to fall for the cliche emotionally not available dude, but then other times you blamed yourself saying things like he's probably just making boundaries as one should. None of them was a solace, it hurt for a while before it started growing numb, to the point where you were starting to come to terms with never seeing him again..or them...even the kids stopped showing up, that too without a goodbye. 

But then one golden sunset with the autumn breeze in the air, you had stepped up to your rooftop to redecorate it for the winter, a place for friends and bbq hangouts and such. You were oddly feeling content that day, work had been good and you had made plans for the weekend with friends, it was you know that brief flittering moment on a windy day when everything seemed fine, like you’re going to be okay. Except you couldn't help but suddenly miss Hobie, heck you didn't even know his real name, he was Punk Spidey to you. The universe worked in mysterious ways when you felt it almost like a miracle that you had thought of him after so long and..there he was, that voice unmistakably his. 

"Hey there mate, missed me?" You whipped your head around to see him jump over the ledge and onto the roof. You were speechless eyes brimming immediately, you lost your voice for a moment but smiled so wide just happy to see him, "I..thought you all would never come back...I was sure of it." Hobie could see the hurt in your eyes the feeling of betrayal almost. But first, he wanted to come clean, he took off his mask in one swift motion and you were left gobsmacked. He was beautiful, with dark brown eyes, an awesome hairdo which made you wonder how'd it even fit but most importantly, that smile, you could finally see it spread to his eyes and lord knows you felt your knees give out for a moment. He had a few scars over his sharp bone structured face but really he belonged on a vogue magazine cover that's for sure. "Cat got your tongue?" he teased sauntering forward but his smile was genuine as you snapped back to reality making a mental note of, yeah he's out of your league. "Hi," you managed to say as if seeing him anew, "Hey, the name’s Hobie, Hobie Brown." he introduced himself in that thick cockney accent that gave a nice ring to it. He reached out a hand to shake as if being playful, "Lovely to meet you Hobie I am umm me, just me." You giggled at the silliness of the moment but never noticed how he was stepping closer, he didn't have all of his spider suit on like the gloves..weren't present. You realized that when he reached up to wipe the stray tears away feeling his skin against yours for the first time, "I promised not to leave without saying a goodbye remember?" Those words hit like a ton of bricks, "Is this goodbye?" You asked feeling like a lump was stuck in your chest, you so very much wanted to hold his hand as you struggled not to cry. He was silent, eyes solemn, and he was closer as tears blurred your vision and you stared down at your feet, all reason went out the window and soft sobs erupted, your throat hurt so bad from trying to hold back but you just couldn't. And you felt him wrap his arms around you, it wasn't a simple sort of a hug, no, he slowly took his time to hold you close, closer, firmly and you sniffled into his chest, hiccuping as well. Only Hobie knew how he managed to hold in his emotions for your sake, it took everything in him to not cry at this sad state of affairs, divided by universes, star crossed lovers be damned, you two weren't even supposed to meet or be at all....it hurt more knowing you both would disappear out of each other’s lives like you never ever existed. 

"Hey look at me luv," he coaxed you to look up and you tried to steady your breathing as you looked up, his pet name almost sounding less flirty and more like an established relationship thing. "Hobie I, before I forget I need you to know, I really like you, like a lot, I've never felt this way about anyone before and I am scared you'll disappear any moment now so I had to tell you-" You rambled out immediately as if there was some clock ticking by and Hobie was both surprised and pained at the way you confessed, it wasn't romantic, it was rushed and he could tell why. "Hey hey, breathe, I am right here, look at me." He tried to find your eyes but frankly speaking this all was starting to feel like a nightmare to you, you held his hand that reached to wipe your tears again and gently squeezed it as if wanting to know he was real. Hobie knew no words could fix this torment, his eyes were glassy from holding back his own tears and his breathing was heavy. You two just were in that moment, under the sunset’s glow and like moths to a flame, Hobie closed the gap between you two pressing his lips to yours in a longing kiss. He tried to be gentle, he really did but the way you gripped his vest pulling him closer, had him going in with such fervor it left you breathless in a matter of moments and even then when you'd break away catching your breath he'd pull you right back in, closer in his arms, never wanting to part. 

The sun was slowly going down but Hobie stayed, longer than any stay, he stayed with you for such a long time wanting to commit you to his memory. You knew this would hurt and yet still you lay yourself bare for him to take, making love like it was the last day on earth. Guiding your leg up a little and around his waist, he moved slow and sensual for this last round, lips not leaving yours. Tears pricked your eyes from both pleasure and sorrow and you held his face mumbling a soft, "..I love you." It felt too soon yes, but also felt like it was now or never. "I love you too.." his words were practically muffled into the kiss. Still, you heard it, you felt it and his thrusts became deep leaving you gasping and whining, clinging to him as he trailed wet kisses down to the sensitive spot on your neck. You wordlessly felt yourself clamp around his length climaxing while he rode you into overstimulation, whispering praises and sweet words. He grunted and buried his face in your hair gripping onto your waist so tight as he chased his own high and he groaned when you felt him finish and you held him as if to steady him. No words were exchanged then, just gentle touches and an embrace to lull you to sleep when he lay beside you. 

You were asleep when he'd wake in between his restless slumber from nightmares, he'd curl up closer to you face buried into your neck. "I promise I'll find a way.." He whispered to your sleeping form a promise to you and to himself...he wasn't going to let this god forsaken issue be the reason for you two being torn apart. Rules be damned, there are always exceptions, he knew of it, he was sure of it...or at least he'd die trying.

That dawn he was gone, kissed you goodbye before the sunrise and disappeared. When you awoke the wind was knocked out of you as if it dawned on you all over again, this was it you thought to yourself...you just stared out the window with blank eyes and endless tears, still in bed, bare and covered in last night's pleasure. A part of you might as well have been buried alive that day, eyes hollow and longing, waiting each day then for time to move faster to heal the void.

Hobie was gone..

‘Hobie, my beloved..~’

mood song: mehram from coke studio s14

(don't forget to click the cc on the video!)

[not-poignant]

Hi! I apologize if you've spoken abt this already, bur how come ruts aren't really a thing in the UtR verse? Anton mentioned he's never had one, and they're very rare - is there a biological reason for it? Did Gary ever have one? (Starting to see what he is like during regular sex, I feel like he'd commit actual murder-by-cock during ruts fjfnfjnfjf) Anyway, love your writing to bits!!

Hi anon!

So I'm gonna write an essay, buckle up (I always write an essay on this stuff, I can't help it, I signed a contract at birth that said I would)

Firstly, ruts are sort of a 'new invention' in the omegaverse landscape. And by new I mean I'm really old and some people don't remember omegaverse without it. But I sure do! Only omegas went into heat, because heat indicated hyperfertility, and alphas were already hyperfertile without a rut. That was the whole point. You know, that's why they make such a perfect match. Hyperfertile mate meet hyperfertile mate.

They didn't need a rut.

Ruts came along later, and honestly in most of the fiction I've read that have them, ruts are very rarely written, and are often more like a threat hanging in the background. A sort of 'lol make sure you have food and water because like people go to hospital if they're in rut / heat at the same time.' Literal just about fuck-or-die situation. Or fuck-and-die. Probably more like fuck-and-who-cares-about-anything-else.

Anyone who has ever fucked a lot in a marathon session knows that eventually you just need carbs. *coughs*

Ruts are conceptually a TON of fun to think about. It's like authors went 'you know what hyperfertile alphas need? Something like a heat, that also makes them completely out of control.'

The thing is... alphas could already go completely out of control around an omega for a lot of reasons. It happened in fated mates stories. It happened in 'an omega is in heat and I just can't help it' (oh bless all those noncon omegaverse stories we have which are literally 'you just smelled so good you had to be mine'). A lot of the things ruts are supposed to achieve, already can easily be achieved in omegaverse.

Conceptually, ruts can be interesting as 'the alpha is also super vulnerable and helpless and needy during this time' but it's almost never written that way and it's not how I like to think about it. And in terms of worldbuilding, the places where it's made the most sense has almost always been as a dystopian thing that's almost dreaded by both the alphas and omegas (and everyone else) alike, and is just as much likely to be controlled by suppressants as heats, because no one likes to turn into an Automatic robot rapist. (Even though that's basically what many alphas become if they smell an omega in heat, I'm not saying ruts are the Department of Redundancy Deparment or anything, but they're a little bit like City of Redundancy in the shire of Redundancy population Already Covered In General Omegaverse tropes in the country of But It's Fun Anyway continent of Redundant.)

I love reading stories with rut worldbuilding but I have to suspend my disbelief so hard. And I know, I know, you kind of have to do that with omegaverse anyway, but there just comes a point where it's like 'but...the heat...triggers a response in alphas...thats mean a rut...is not needed...because that's what the heat does.' In some ways it takes some power and strength away from the symbolism of the omega's heat (romantically it's very interesting as the trope that renders the often hypermasculine character as so helpless to the omega that they basically have to have sex with them (guess what a rut is? Same same not different! Okay it can be different. It's often not though.))

As a result, I personally like worldbuilding that differentiates a general alpha response to an omega's heat, to a rut. And therefore if a rut is the more extreme version of a general 'must fuck' alpha response, it's likely to go pretty not...great. Much like unfulfilled heats are often characterised as agonising, I like to think of ruts are potentially very fatal. (Warning! Warning! The hypermasculinity levels are critical, boss! He's gonna blow! This time his heart! Not his cock!)

The worldbuilding mentioned in the chapter you're referring to - in the Underline the Rainbow universe - states that ruts are vestigial. It's killed too many alphas who have experienced it.

It basically knocked itself out of the genetic line, in the same way that peak alphas are going the same way because people just don't do great living like that in a functional society.

Also consider the...setting of the story if you will. This is a place where we're rehabilitating omegas and helping them recover from extreme trauma. The professional response to 'I go into rut all the time' alpha companion candidates is 'see a health professional, you can never ever ever ever ever be a companion here, because we...care about our omegas, and don't think your rut takes precedent over their health during a heat. Go away.'

None of these alphas go into rut! None of them should! It would be terrible from a story perspective (I mean, for me. I'm writing trauma recovery).

The only alpha on the grounds who potentially could go into rut is Caleb, I think he has the disposition for it. And I think it would be speedily suppressed with heavy doses of medication for the safety of any omega near him.

The thing that really frustrates me from a worldbuilding perspective is that in some ways, heats make sense. It's a fertile period for an animal that cannot afford the physiological cost of being that fertile all the time. That's it. In humans who already have menstrual cycles (which create fertility windows so the woman or person with the uterus doesn't have to be consistently fertile the same amount all the time), this makes actual biological sense.

Ruts in omegaverse don't even mean what they mean in nature, it's so frustrating. In nature, ruts are sort of connected to mates, but not about fucking them endlessly most of the time. It's about competing with rivals. Going into rut is marking your territory, attacking fellow stags (sometimes to the death), and keeping hold of your herd or flock. This makes...much less biological sense. It's not how it's written in fiction most of the time, and it's really just 'what if heat but alpha.' I'd love if ruts were 'HHH I have to FIGHT every ALPHA I SEE to the DEATH or at least MEASURE MY HEIGHT against HIS or SHOUT to see whose VOICE is LOUDER we are DICK MEASURING NOW my dick is BIGGER I am going to FUCK AN OMEGA IN TRIUMPH. YOU! THERE! COME HERE! No wait where are you going? Stop running!' That's... that's the world I want to live in sdalkfjsaflksaj

I have no problems with that, most omegaverse is just pure mindless pornography for fun, or very thin worldbuilding for fun, and orgasms are had by many and it achieves it's purpose.

But I can't justify something like that making sense in the Underline the Rainbow as a thing these characters experience. I like it as a 'oh this used to happen but we couldn't just go around killing each other and also we died so...' I'm pretty sure it's taught about in schools, lol. In the same way that alphas dueling each other to the death is now pretty much illegal in most places, some things you either just culturally change for the betterment of society (which is...literally the purpose of Hillview), and some things you X out of your own genetic lineages because the thing itself kills you.

Since ruts are in most serious omegaverses presented as extreme events, and alphas are already hyperfertile (in worlds where betas exist), they're just redundant.

Fun in PWPs, and fun for angst, but not the kind of angst I'm personally going for.

Thanks for coming to my really-not-a-TED Talk! :D

(Er so no, Gary has never gone into rut).

(In webtoon Define the Relationship one of the alphas goes into rut but because he's like a submissive alpha he basically needs to be fucked like he's in heat by another alpha and I just actually do kind of love the subversion of 'what if heat but alpha' where it's like 'no literally what if they have to be knotted and they have a whole bunch of shame about that.' But almost no one is writing it that way so aslkfjdsa)

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S3 E11 - Past Tense Part 1

This is one of the episodes I have been looking forward to. I debated on watching both before I gave any commentary but I can't watch the second part immediately so I thought I'd do this one then the second later.

This episode pissed me off but in all the ways its supposed to, so I'm okay with that. We obviously don't have actual Sanctuary Zones in the real world but all of the things they talked about were basically true today. There are people with medical issues that are super curable or at the bare minimum treatable that we're ignoring (Hi, I'm on that list) because it's easier to sweep this shit under the rug. There are people who can't afford food or basic needs (Oh, hi it's me again) but the government doesn't care about those things either. The dystopian things corporations are suggesting on a daily basis just highlight how true the Bell Riots age of ST is true.

The entire episode was a rough watch but I think the harder parts for me wasn't even the shit that Sisko and Bashir saw, and that really probably should the be shocking/hard parts, but in some ways I live through that. The hardest parts for me were watching Jadzia watching around in the high society areas and everyone treating her (and each other) like they're somehow better than everyone else. The way they looked at her at the party she went to? I would have started swinging.

I did think at one point "well, I guess this is one way the patriarchy pays off" cause if it had been Miles that beamed down with them and got separated, the rich dude wouldn't have been as generous.

I had a feeling the episode(s) were going to end with Sisko becoming Bell before Bell even showed up and died, just by the subtle and small info drops of history being set up in the episode but I am glad that he did that. I also kinda figured the asshole "ghost" would be part of the reason the "hostages" would be in danger to begin with, so I'm glad Sisko did take up this mantle.

To be fair, I know that if I were in Starfleet and had all the training I had to NOT screw up timelines, I would have said fuck it seeing all those people suffering. Who is to say my actions weren't supposed to shape the future we already know? There might be fixed points in history and we might have documentation on a ton of things but there is still the day to day, moment to moment stuff that no one from the future actually can point to that says that me fixing up a few bruises, treating some illnesses, and helping save some lives is going to make things worst.

I'm glad we had a B plot that popped in from time to time so we can see what was happening in "real time" and I appreciate how super willing Miles and Kira were to jumping through some timelines, but mostly I'm glad we saw very little of them. I think we needed them to "ground" the story but they were not at all what was important to this specific story.

8.5/10 - looking forward to the revolution

[positivelybeastly]

Is the krakoan era X-Men the most unlikable interation of X-Men?

"I - don't think that's fair to say about them. From what I understand, they put all of their hopes on the establishment of a new country, joined everyone together under one roof, and then . . ."

He'd never seen anything like it. The sheer amount of carnage. He didn't even know most of the people he'd seen being torn apart in the footage, but that hadn't stopped him wanting to throw up when he'd seen them being . . . God, and then, when Bobby . . . he'd dragged his hands down his face and wanted to wail.

Who could do that to Bobby of all people?

The short, glib answer is that Chuck Austen's run of X-Men continues to exist, so by default, no-one can be as unlikable as them.

But the long answer is that the Krakoan X-Men aren't really the X-Men for a lot of that era, and, in their hurry to enjoy the fanfic-esque tropical island paradise setting that Krakoa presents, the fandom forgets just how . . . weird, and culty, the island actually is.

Hey, do you wanna know something semi-embarrassing about me? I only read House of X yesterday. I've only ever read the finer details on other Wiki pages and the occasional plot synopses, never actually read the issues themselves, and . . .

It's fucking creepy, man.

I had an instant negative reaction to the weird shit to do with resurrection, and I just, was not comfortable. The way Cyclops was all creepy about Franklin Richards, acting like they have more claim on him than his actual birth family? I'm sorry, dude, that's fucking whacked out.

Like, I'm sorry, I think that mutant sovereignty is an absolute must and a mutant nation is a narrative necessity, but Krakoa's been fucking creepy and weird and cult-y since moment one.

The weird rituals about resurrection, the whole dying in combat to earn your powers back bullshit, the vilification of Scarlet Witch, everything that went down in LaVelle's Sabretooth books, the Quiet Council and X-Force (full stop, just - in general), the casual sex leading to popping out babies you just LEAVE ON THE FUCKING GROUND?

It's a fucked up society. It's dystopian. You conquered death, and guess what? That never ends well. Suddenly you have to redefine life's meaning, and they chose to make it just fucking around and being weirdos, and, like, sure, that's a mood, but it's also not particularly heroic, and it's very significant that it takes a while for the X-Men to reform as an actual hero team because, well, they decided to give up on protecting a world that hated and fear them for a bit there.

But that's in-universe. Out of universe?

They just aren't putting in the time to service the relationships between the characters properly, and a lot of the time, when those moments do happen, it's become extremely clear that almost everyone on Krakoa is a self-obsessed narcissist with increasingly toxic levels of coping with it.

Think about Kate Pryde just completely fucking flubbing her chance to spot that Piotr Rasputin was under mind control, think about Storm just fucking off to Mars and abandoning everything on Earth, think about what happens to Orphan-Maker at the end of Hellions, think about LITERALLY EVERYTHING to do with X-Force - this is not a healthy society.

And that's a good story.

But it feels like at some point, they just kinda forgot about the fucked up shit and decided nah, this is just paradise, this is great, let's sand off the edges. Like, when Jean tells Firestar to just throw X-Force Beast under the bus to make her cover better during the Hellfire Gala, it's read by so many people as this girlboss OMG SLAAAAAAY moment, but . . . you . . . guys do realise that, like . . . that's fucked up, right? You do realise what that moment means?

"You should invoke Beast's reputation as a butcher of humans and a genocidal maniac and a massive lying piece of shit, WHICH I KNOW ABOUT AND HAVE DONE NOTHING ABOUT, and in fact, I'm going to validate his work because it's useful to me now!"

Like, X-Force Beast would tell Jean that she did EXACTLY the right thing in that moment, would welcome it, compliment her on her cunning, and if that's not a sign that you fucked up, that your moral priorities are completely and utterly fucked, then I don't know what to tell you, man.

[literaticat]

Jennifer, with MG looking bleak, what does/has it taken to revive a category? Does it take finding the next 'big thing'? I feel like publishers ought to experiment and publish stories from all walks of life that resonate (and or educate and engage). BUT book trends can't really be created can they? And publishers are risk averse at the moment..

In every category, genre trends come and go, and when something falls off, it will eventually come back again. So paranormal was hot, and then it was saturated with too many paranormals, the bubble burst, then it was dead but dystopian was in, then that was saturated, then that was dead but contemporary was in, etc etc, and we've seen those trends come back and go out again. Just like fashions or anything else. (Bell-bottoms? Skinny jeans? You get it, yeah? TRENDS!) Some big hit will come along and revive interest in a type of book, a bunch of them will sell, then there will be too many of them, and people will go to something fresh and "new" seeming, and the cycle continues.

On the kids side, there are also larger category fluctuations that tend to come in waves as cohorts of kids age out of one category and into another. So picture books were allegedly "dead" and MG was hot. Then YA was hot and MG was good. Then PB came back in a big way but YA was dead. Now PB are OK, MG is dead, YA is coming back. These things happen, too, and generally speaking, *whatever*, there ARE always kids in every age range, so they just have to keep publishing all those age ranges and hope for the best. (Because please know: When I say "dead" I DON'T MEAN THESE BOOKS ARE NOT BEING PUBLISHED. They ARE being published. If you look at new releases, there are new MG coming out every week. They just aren't selling as well as we'd like!)

The current problem with MG is NOT that there aren't wonderful MG books being published "from all walks of life" that resonate, educate, engage, entertain, etc. There ARE, actually.

IMO, and I'm not a sociologist or anything, just from observation, reading the news, etc -- this is a larger society-type problem. Childhood literacy has fallen off a cliff since the pandemic, reading scores are down, kids picking up books just for fun is down. Meanwhile library budgets are slashed, in some areas books are being taken out of classrooms and libraries, authors are getting fewer and fewer school visits, and generally, "love of reading" does not seem to be a vibe right now.

What publishers can do about it (and what, I think, most of them ARE trying to do) is to keep publishing books that "meet the moment", including but not limited to books that are "hi-lo" (high interest, but easy to read) -- books with graphic elements, etc -- shorter books -- and to fight the good fight against book bans and support the books and authors that they DO publish.

What parents can do about it is, read to and with your kids of all ages, keep getting them engaging material and encourage reading for pleasure, and model the behavior by reading in front of your kids, too! ALSO, VOTE. Vote yes to library funding, vote no for horrible school board members, engage with educators and librarians and figure out how you can best support them.

I'm sure there are LOTS of other much smarter people than me who know more about this and can give even better advice, too!

[suna1suna1]

Never Like in the Books | MD Oneshot

Finale spoilers!

Angst

N/V (kinda, one-sided)

N/Uzi (Background)

Just a little bit of angst, but it's not too sad I don't think. I have a goal for after this, and it's semi-related to this fic I posted yesterday

V didn't like talking about it much, but she was a book nerd. She enjoyed reading a lot of things, but... weirdly enough, she hated sad endings. Maybe it was because they reminded her too much of her own life. Her and N's story had ended the moment the Solver had come into their lives. They just didn't notice. 

Well, V didn't think N had ever noticed that it had even started. 

Not that it mattered now. At least she could escape into books, where no one disappointed you. Where the hero always got whomever they were in love with, always had more people in love with them than they knew what to do with. In books, V could escape herself. Could escape the memories and the Solver and... Become a little closer to whom she used to be. 

"Hey!" 

She looked up from her book to find N sitting on the floor next to her in the landing pod, grinning. "Watcha reading?" 

V narrowed her eyes, more out of habit now than any real malice. Uzi had been the primary Solver host for a while now, and she seemed to be keeping it well under control. That, and Cyn was dead. She no longer had any reason to keep N at arms length, but she still caught herself doing it. 

Not that it had ever really worked. N had a weird way of worming his way into everyone's hearts. Except J's, though V had never understood her hatred of him even in the mansion. 

"Nothing," she replied. "Just some trash I found in their bags." V gestured to a couple of frozen human corpses she'd dragged into the pod. One of them had been wearing a cute skirt that was surprisingly in decent condition, and if Lizzy didn't want it, V certainly did. 

The "trash" in question was a dystopian YA novel, and honestly, it was pretty decent. The characters were okay, and the plot was cool. All in all, she would rate it a solid three point five out of five. 

N tilted his head to try and get a look at the cover. "Could I borrow it when you're done with it?" he asked. 

V shrugged. "Sure. But isn't Uzi trying to show you that one manga where like, the humans have to eat other humans and stuff? I don't know, I wasn't listening when she tried to tell me about it." 

"She is! But we can't find the next volume." 

"Oh, that's always the worst." 

N groaned. "Right? And we left off on a huge cliffhanger!" 

"What was it called again?" V asked. If she knew the name she might be able to help them find a copy somewhere. 

"I... I forgot." 

V laughed quietly. "Don't let Uzi catch you saying that," she said. 

N chuckled, then his smile faded. "You haven't really been around much. Are you doing okay, V?" 

Wow... That was abrupt. 

V sighed. "Kinda?" she said. "It's... weird that Cyn's just... gone. You know? I spent... so long doing everything I could to protect you from her, to appease her just so she wouldn't kill you. And I guess... I feel... kinda useless now. Like, my whole reason for holding on, for still existing, is gone." 

"Well, that's kinda cool, isn't it?" N said. "You get to choose what you want to do!" 

V smiled and shook her head. "Yeah, but that's just it. I have no clue what I want to do. Well... Actually, I do know, but it's not happening so like... Who cares?" 

"I do," N replied. "What is it?" 

V looked at him, and she immediately realized that was a mistake because he was giving her the damn puppy eyes. She sighed. "It's nothing," she said. "Like I said, it's not happening." 

"You don't know that!" 

"Yeah, I think I do, N." You're already with her. "Can I read my book now?" 

N seemed to deflate, and even though she'd seen that look over and over again through the years, it still made her core feel like it was breaking in two. "Okay," he said. "You still up for that scavenging run later?" 

V nodded and turned back to her book, and N stood up and left the pod. 

Yeah, she got enough sad endings in her life. What was one more onto the pile? 

[365runesoftheamalgamations]

The Not Yet Forgotten Introduction

hello and how are you?

This has been far too long since we have been active and we've wanted to get back into the flow of things! And we believe it is time for a Reintroduction! So, without further ado,

A Proper Introduction

Welcome to the Writing Blog! We are the Not Yet Dead Authors, the Natsume Rune! You may refer to us as Natsume as a whole, or say hi to any of the specifics who run the blog/do the writes! Our pronouns are we/they, and we are an aromantic/asexual genderfluid cluster of whispers drowning in the Void for more than two decades. So just another set of Wanderers who wish to reach out and touch the Worlds in a more pronounced way!

Full Writeblr Introduction under the cut!

Getting To Know Us

We are most comfortable writing and conversing in italics! It just feels like it speaks with our souls, so please be aware that most of the posts and such will be within that realm of writing.

Our most comfortable sense of writing is in third person present tense! We also write in first person (sometimes) and second person (rarely) but our comfort lies in others and their present.

We write mostly fantasy but also dabble in horror, science fiction, dystopian and other works and writing styles. We do hold our own universe, the Storyverse, that we will hint, note, and talk about, depending on things, as well as a multitude of Worlds that will be given over to the Stories happening within in. Hardcore about both worldbuilding and storytelling, so we will probably have a lot to say about both the Worlds and Stories that come with our hyperfixations.

Our writing forms include: fanfiction, short stories, drabbles, flash fiction, novels, poems, and role playing! We enjoy rolling through forms and trying out different ways of telling and sharing stories, so please note that there will be a lot of everything on here.

We follow from the System's Blog, @365runesofthesystem, and will try to be really active in the community, so if you see us around, then feel free to indulge us! We love to be tagged in games and sent asks and the like and will try to get to all of them in due time. [ yes, we do hoard Tag Games, shut the fuck up about it. ]

If there is anything else anyone would like to know, do not hesitate to ask or message us! But be aware that we are not afraid to deal with anything impolite or inappropriate, we have a zero tolerance standard and we will keep it without hesitation.

The Amalgamations of our Creations

We have a lot - and yes, we mean a fuck ton - of Works and Stories that we want to tell at some point in our lives, so this list will definitely grow and expand and shift as we go through our journey.

If you want a full list of all of our Works, check our both our Original Works Masterlist and our Fanworks Masterlist!

All Links to WIP Pages and Intro Posts will be added as we get things sorted and settled!

But here are a few of our more pronounced Works, [ yes, they can and will probably shift and change. No they are not in any particular order, we hate figuring out orders. ]

Grayland's Shadow

Original Work | Fiction, Low Fantasy, Horror Elements First, Second, Third Person | Second Drafts

Ecstasy. The screaming, the struggling, the pleas for mercy, he loved them all. He loved the way they always seemed to think that he would set them free. That, if they were good and tried hard enough, he would just let them live, bleeding and knowing. As if he would ever let anyone go. He never did. He never wasted an opportunity either. So when a girl, around her way into adulthood, sat down next to him on the bench that day, he had no intention of letting her go. None.

Constellations By Orion

Original Work | Fiction, High Fantasy, Action and Adventure Third Person Present Tense | Scene Drafting/Worldbuilding

Orion is the first one she goes for, as he always points North. "I am just saying, your little stowaway is pretty cute." "I don't need a man Orion, I need directions across the sea." "Trust me, if you want a purpose, you should find Ursa Major. She's the guide of adventure, new life." "And where can I find her?" "At the heart of the ocean. She is the Guardian of Polaris and her baby, Ursa Minor."

The Queen & The Heir

Short Story | Fiction, High Fantasy, Medival Third Person Present Tense | Scene Drafting/Prompt Response

She hates herself for hesitating. She stares at the note, gentle cream instead of stark white in order to hold the same connotations of the maid notes that she, and more importantly he, was accustomed to seeing. She glances at the Guard, barely catches the door closing completely, locking her in with the words that would prove herself justified. Or truly and quietly mad.

The Rapunzel Witch

Short Stories | Fiction, High Fantasy, Fairytale Retellings, LGBTQIA+ Third Person Present Tense | Chapter/Scene Drafting

Vibrant and sharp, it is another small check to his identity; the Queen is staring at him, though instead of the hard determination of a leader, he stands before the soft gentleness of a person unused to such direct contact. Something shifts in those eyes; the Royal Majesty frowns more before he lets his eyes drop to the ground between them. “Well, that’s that then, isn’t it?” The Knight feels a soft pang; he almost takes a step forward, hand twitching at his side before the Royal spins around and walks away from him. “Your obligations are fulfilled; the Rapunzel Witch lives.”

The Plague Begins With Me

Original Work | Dystopian, Horror Third Person Present Tense | Scene Drafting

Lost to the devastation of the Plague and destroyed by the aftermath of Humanity’s Fall, the World of Zeomia holds nothing but the dystopian devastation of disease and decay. Shouldering a responsibility that no one else is allowed to know, Zero tries to give mercy to those who have fallen from her own twisted fate.

Main Tags of the Blog

rune ⊹ writings | general writing tag rune ⊹ works in progress | where you can find all of our works rune ⊹ wanderlust | general tag for other blogs rune ⊹ nonsense | fun and silly things outside of the writings/writeblr rune ⊹ beloved | general tag for the mutuals of the writeblr rune ⊹ asks | tag for answering asks and anything from the inbox rune ⊹ authors | writing updates and softer thoughts of us rune ⊹ background noise | anything to do with the blog

[stoplookingup]

I just finished rewatching Star Trek Enterprise S3, aka the Xindi arc, and realized something I'd missed before. Don't know if it's been discussed elsewhere, but anyway....

The S3 story of a horrific attack on Earth by distant aliens who see humans as their worst enemy, and the Enterprise going after them to prevent Earth's annihilation, was explicitly inspired by 9/11. The showrunners said as much. Like most Enterprise fans, I've always appreciated the gradual development of the arc from a story about angry, grieving humans thirsty for revenge to one of diplomacy, mutual understanding, and cooperation.

But...cooperation against whom? Turns out there's a shadowy cabal behind the whole ugly mess. Literally shadowy. They're beings from a transdimensional realm who are transforming the fabric of space to be hospitable to their kind and uninhabitable by anyone else. They know that in the future, Earth will play a key part in defeating them, so they operate secretly and deceitfully to change the time line, manipulate the Xindi into destroying Earth, and prevent that future from coming to pass.

So...conspirators, puppet masters pulling the strings, a hidden enemy who's been there all along, controlling everything, with only their own interests at heart, causing suffering, death and destruction for their own benefit. In a story about 9/11. That's...troubling.

Almost immediately after 9/11, conspiracy theories began to circulate about who was "behind" the attack. A common one:

"The New World Order (NWO) is a conspiracy theory in which adherents believe that a cabal of powerful elites is secretly implementing a dystopian international governing structure that will grant them complete control over the global populace....Many modern-day conspiracy theories – including the NWO theory – have anti-Semitic origins....Within these narratives, Jewish people are frequently framed as the orchestrators of global events and accused of creating a supranational governing structure for nefarious purposes. These dangerous narratives are still widely promoted today....The NWO’s application within American discourse can be seen through the reaction to major events, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As millions mourned, questions naturally arose as to culpable parties and their potential motives....Conspiracy theorists took advantage of the emotional turmoil to further sow their conspiratorial beliefs. NWO adherents were no exception and stood as major players in this conspiratorial competition."

-- Middlebury Institute of International Studies

No, I am not saying Star Trek writers were intentionally promoting antisemitism on Enterprise, any more than they were when they created the greedy Ferengi or the Illyrians-as-conversos. Star Trek is chock-a-block with cringy, unintentionally racist alien stereotypes, doubtless due mostly to lazy, thoughtless writing. What I am saying is that a lot of stuff floating around in the zeitgeist -- stereotypes, myths, conspiracy theories, etc -- makes its way into popular culture and implants an attitude that predisposes people to at least find it plausible that this is how things work, this is a thing that happens, this has some basis in reality. As story-telling creatures, humans are really good at finding the hidden messages and lessons. These story elements prime the pump. When people then encounter conspiracy theories steeped in bias, at least some will be disposed to think, "Yeah, sounds reasonable, an international conspiracy of Jews (or whoever) explains a lot," or at least, they'll buy into the vague notion that Jews (and Others) are disloyal, untrustworthy, etc.

So, hey, Star Trek writers, and all writers: Do better. Please.

NB: I still think Enterprise is kick-ass Star Trek. What would my life be without problematic faves?

[lifmera]

Hello! Hope you're having a good day and that everything's going well! If it isn't too much to ask I would like to have a pairing with a Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel character, preferably male. * So a little bit about myself! My pronouns are He/They but actually like to present myself as feminine at times * Most people said that the first time they saw me they thought I was mean and actually scary and I think it was because of my stern look and whenever someone would ask me something I would give them short cold answers.. but I'm not that. I'm actually a little shy but once you know me I'm just super lively, loving to sing (even if I suck at it), always cracking a joke and just wanting to enjoy the moment. Despite all that I'm actually pretty calm at times and offer some heartfelt and harsh advice. Whenever that happens I just go full on serious mode and prefer to listen first and instead of solving the persons problems, I rather guide them in the right direction. * Likes! I love to do creative things, like writing and drawing, and to read, specially dystopian fiction. I also take a great interest in astronomy, magic things like witchcraft and bones (I can't explain it-). As for music it's basically a little bit of everything with both jazz and pop being way up. * In a relationship I prefer.. the less touching possible the better. That being said my main love languages are quality time and gift giving. Although I don't really enjoy touching, I wouldn't mind if my partner want hugs or something like that. And that's it! Sorry if it was too long and don't feel pressured to do it right away! Take your time and don't forget to drink plenty of water and rest! Hope you have a good day!

Hi hun!! Ofc!!

And finally my first Helluva req!!

And thank you sweetheart 💞 honestly i think Stolas would fit too.

I’ve decided to pair you with BLITZØ & ALASTOR!!!

Ill do Alastor first!

He’d definitely love and find you intriguing. Stone cold?

When he finds out more about you, he was honestly surprised.

Although he’d probably do duets with you, he’d LOVE to hear your jokes.

Especially if they are dad jokes cus … he is a huge dad joke.

He likes that you are able to be calm in situations, and help through situations too!

He would look to you for some advice, just to make sure he believes he’s right!

If you listen to Jazz? He’s spending all his time with you. And def listening to Jazz.

He would force you to chat about fav artists w him.

You both dislike physical touch, and he appreciates it. He would prefer acts of service and words of affirmation.

Now Blitzo!

He also presents feminine sometimes! He thinks it’d be fun to do together.

He definitely got attracted to you with that stone cold look, and short replies !! At first anyways.

Once he also gets to know you, he definitely would love to hang out with you!

Although you may not be the best singer- NEITHER IS HE!!! And he enjoys singing, or listening.

He is also always cracking jokes, so you both are cackling at EVERY MOMENT!!

He will always look to you for advice, and he doesn’t do that for anyone else either. He’s pretty reserved.

He would’ve probably confided into you about fizz, his mom, stolas and everything else at that moment in time.

Your interest in astronomy and witchcraft reminded him of Stolas, but instead of Stolas sexual nature- he has someone he really will care and show up for.

If you can draw, he will FORCE you to teach him. HE NEEDS TO DRAW HIS PONIES!! and obviously to make up for the shitty art lessons he got.

He would totally listen to your stories, because it would remind him of Millie and Moxxie, and he wants what they have.

He listens to more metally type of music, but boy will he listen to anything. Honestly i wouldn’t be surprised if he started listening to country??

I also think that Blitz isn’t big on physical touch either. He would be icked out. He thinks that words of affirmation and quality time are better. He knows you’re listening to him and willing to be there!

[nerendus]

Okay, finished Rogue Trader, time for my in depth review.

This was my first Warhammer 40k game, and in terms of just how good it is to start with as someone who has extremely limited knowledge of the lore, it's very good. As a person who quite likes dark choir and Gregorian chant music and just existing online for a long time, it's kinda difficult to not gather some, albeit extremely out of context, snippets of the lore, but this game does it really well that you can go in completely blind and still be able to understand what was going on.

Before I go over the negatives of this game, I naturally have to bring attention to many of the positives.

The true highlight of this game was easily the companions. I was unable to grab Ulfar due to a bug and I got rid of Marazhai when I realised "oh no, he's going to be an awful person to all my canon lovers," but everyone else I loved dearly. Cassia....least of all, her whole thing got boring very quickly, and Yrliet was cool but her combat dialogue made me very annoyed with her. Yes, you are not my xeno pet, now can you please shoot that celestial being that is trying to kill all of us?

Everyone else, I have no complaints with. Argenta was very extreme, but in a sort of endearing way. Idira's story made me so sad, and I'm glad I was able to give her an ending where she lived a happy life. That bit of Jae taking her to go see the void whales nearly brought a tear to my eye. Heinrix...I like to make fun of him and call him a snitching bitch, but I do genuinely like him. It's just I like him in a way that I constantly want to bully him because I think it's funny. Jae and Pasqal are legally both my wives and I don't care what canon says. Abelard...Abelard is my Kim Kitsuragi. Most of my choices in the game were based around if he would approve or not. I wasn't able to give most of my friends the best possible outcome (tbh at a certain point I stopped trying), but just being able to send that old man off peacefully surrounded by people who love him was the greatest feeling in the entire world.

In terms of gameplay, naturally my favourite part was the space exploration. Finding new worlds and uncovering their ancient pasts...it was all so much fun. More on that in a moment.

The story towards the end did begin to bother me, but there were two moments that really made it worthwhile. First, the final goodbyes to all of your friends. I don't know how different the conversations would be if you were an asshole to them, but being on good terms with everyone really just warms the heart. Being able to hug Idira, Pasqal saying he was glad to travel with me, Abelard........being Abelard. The only thing I would change is that I think, as Lord Captain, I should've been able to order a group hug. I loved them all so much and I truly think they should've at the bare minimum hugged (bare maximum: best orgy the Expanse has ever seen).

The second part was...the ending sequence itself. I did the Iconoclast ending with my lovely son Nomos, and that whole sequence of the Rogue Trader going Go, my sweet summer child and watching my son becoming a literal god was great. I had...a few concerns throughout the game that because I played a good person I would get a bad ending since the Dystopian Fascist Government That's In Denial That They Are A Dystopia would naturally try to off my girl, but Nomos coming in clutch to save the Expanse was amazing. If Iconoclast had been a certified bad ending, especially after all the bullshit that happened in Act 3 and beyond, I would have been so pissed. Having a satisfying ending, however bittersweet it may be, made the difficult and stressful journey worth it. Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader was my Mordor, and I was Frodo Baggins and Abelard was Samwise Gamgee.

In terms of endings.....I did okay. Abelard got the best ending, Idira did as well though she didn't reconcile with Vigdis or Argenta--if someone can explain how you do that, especially Vigdis, please tell me I'm curious. Everyone else....lived a life. Heinrix got assassinated, Jae got assassinated, Pasqal became a heretic which I think is hot of him, Yrliet was killed by Pasqal which is honestly kinda funny, Cassia...I didn't care enough to actually read her ending but I think it was okay.

I was only really trying to get good endings for Abelard, Idira, and Pasqal because naturally they were the characters I got the most attached to. I was initially trying with Jae, but after I realised that after Act 3 you can't go forward with romancing her, I was so fucking tired of this bullshit that I gave up. Everyone else I did make an effort to help them, but I didn't care that much about getting the perfect ending for them.

So...now is time for the negatives. First one is the one that I've mentioned a few times, and that's the story. Up until Act 3 I was deeply immersed in the story, I really liked where it was headed. But once you get to Commorragh (which I will now refer to strictly as Low Budget Tower of Latria) it starts to fall apart.

The very beginning was great. The Rogue Trader being mentally tortured and struggling to get by as she searches for her comrades that have also bear witness to the Horrors. Finding out the different ways they were abused at the hands of that....fish....elf....mermaid....thing was great. And the idea of then going to try and get revenge on the fuckers who tortured you was also good but it just...kept...going. The battles were just so boring, and the dungeon just kept spiraling on in a way that wasn't fun at all. It doesn't help that the story also just...wasn't appetizing. After we gather the crew and Tervantias told us to fuck off, it just became boring. Yeah, those dudes want to see us fight to the death, can I please continue on to the next area already?

I also just have an issue with just how...after Act 3 the torture is only really referenced in idle dialogue between companions. Funnily enough, the only one I got to mention it was Idira and she wasn't even there. Like, I feel like they should have put in at least a little bit of extra effort into placing those events into the overall storyline for the companions that were actually there. Make Abelard sad, Cassia even more of a whiny bitch. Hell, you literally tell Pasqal "hey man, we'll deal with the weird xenotech in your body once we get out of this place" and then it is never mentioned again. It felt so out of place for you to go through literal hell with your best friends and it not have a lasting impact on anybody. At the very least, there should have been the ability that the companions that went to Bad Latria to have new dialogue options open up at the bridge--there's no way you wouldn't have a deeper connection with these folk after all that.

But eventually, Act 3 passes and Act 4...was Act 4. I'm trying to keep my breakdown of the events linear, but I just...really think Act 4 and Act 5 should have been switched, or at the very least, the bosses switched. But I'll get into that in a moment.

Act 4 wasn't terrible. Most of it was just finishing up on companion questlines, and the questlines were genuinely fun to do...except Cassia. Look, at a certain point you lose patience with characters like her, and I just picked options that didn't make me sound like a total asshole. Pasqal's questline was fun...even though it was hard to keep up with the constant new information and names I most certainly don't remember being referenced. I really wasn't expecting the Truth to be that he is like, robot Moses, I really thought that he was just a septuplet or something. I did really like the twist even though I didn't fully understand it. Argenta's mission was cool. Abelard's was amazing even though I had to enlist the help of the wiki since it didn't really click at first.

There's also the bit on Footfall of making things normal again, and honestly, gathering a squad of bandits-turned-politicians-turned-bandits, pirates, priests, drunkards, to fight against Some Woman was really fun. But...then the inquisitor sends you off to war.

The war part itself was fun, even though it was just a storytelling bit. Grandpa Opticon-22 died, but comparing that to his Alive Ending....his sacrifice honestly just felt far more satisfying than robbing him of his martyrdom. Also, he's Grandpa, his legs must be so tired, he deserves some rest.

But then you get into the facility and the anger just comes back at full force. Listen, I'm not the biggest fan of turn based fights in video games--if I went seeking gameplay like that I'd go play DND--but Rogue Trader had been for the most part not bad though it does get quite repetitive and boring, but the shit on that planet fucking sucked. It wasn't fun. It was over staying its welcome for a really long goddamn time. And then you go fight Urlon and the bird....it's the same shit. It was boring as hell and didn't spark any fun whatsoever. The Urlon portion wasn't that bad, but the bird....man, fuck that bird.

There was a moment after returning to Footfall for answers that I did like, and that was all of the faction leaders sort of wishing the Rogue Trader good luck on her journey. It was cute, but I didn't manage to max out friendship with any of the factions by a long shot. I was aiming for really good rep with the Navy and AdMech since the colony stuff related to them was the most interesting to me, but...alas. Are you able to max out more than one faction? I've heard people maxing out the Navy, but I don't know if the only way to max out a faction is by focusing solely on one or what.

There was that bit of a Star Trek feel when you finally get through that portal and end up somewhere completely uncharted. It felt so magical, but it ended just as quickly as it began. There was only like, four, maybe five systems that you got to explore before you were at the end of the game, which just fucking sucked. The map for the Expanse is so huge and you only get to explore like 1/3 of it that if felt so...unfulfilling. I loved that feeling when I first pulled open the map and thought "Wow! This thing is huge! I can't wait to explore every nook and cranny!" and just for most of that space to go untouched really hurt my explorer brain.

So....the Inquisitor. I really hated how the story handled him. Sort of suddenly and disjointedly at the end of Act 4 the story begins to try and paint him as the big bad mastermind of the game and it just...didn't work for me. If there had been more intrigue...mystery....unanswered questions that just chewed at your brain throughout the game, maybe it could have worked. But really it was mainly just, you go up to this man and he has to explain how every little detail of the game was directly his fault. It did not feel satisfying at all. It just happened, and then he was dead.

I think, even if they kept him as the True Mastermind, he and Urlon should have swapped places. Urlon and Kunrad just mean so much more for the Rogue Trader's personal journey, that I can't help but think they should have been put at the end instead of the Inquisitor. So much of the story had been this sort of quest for revenge, and for the ending to not be a fulfillment of that revenge just feels wrong.

As for the actual final boss, no major complaints. C'tan was a bit....boring. They could've hired their orchestra to have a truly magnificent final boss theme and gave him far more cool and epic moves instead of just...standing there most of the time. I will say, though, I did really like that one attack that puts a bunch of spears in a companion and you can just...have another companion swap places. I think that was really neat.

The other part of the negatives is bugs...but this is already way too long so I'll be quick with this part.

Ulfar just...wasn't able to be recruited

enemies just remaining in their idle poses during fights and it taking upwards to a minute for the game to finally move to another fighter

Stairs.

Idle dialogue not supporting the canon events (Abelard grieving the idea of the Rogue Trader and Cassia being put into a loveless marriage....despite that not being a thing)

This isn't really a bug, but fuck if the camera angles in oddly shaped rooms don't just jerk you around constantly

There's probably more bugs and more grievances I have that I have just forgotten...but this is long and I just want this to be over.

I've wanted to get into Warhammer 40k for years, but with there being so much material and not knowing what would be a good starting point as someone with no knowledge, this game was a godsend. There's very certain things that I'm very much into about the universe: AdMech, the Necrons, the Elves all specifically and having now the basics to go forth I know what I want to go more into since there is no way in hell I'm going to play every game and read every book there is.

I'm not very interested in the Space Marines and the Imperium...but not for the reason you'd think. I don't care that they're facists and their god is a dead dude, it's....just that they look ugly. Not physically, some of them are quite attractive face-wise, but them just wearing this big bulky armour but their faces being exposed just fills me with a rage that even I don't understand. The reason I want to kill the God-Emperor isn't because he created an awful place to live, it's because I saw one picture of him as a Man In Armour and it just made me so mad and now I hate everything he stands for. It's weird, I can't explain it.

But yeah...I'm really glad that I played this game. There's talk of a DLC mayhaps coming, and I have absolutely no desire to play it. Act 3 and beyond just makes the game immediately unreplayable for me, but I am still very grateful that I did play it.

Final score. 6/10.

[tacomedli]

rant abt writing and stuff

UUUUUUUUUUUGHHHGHGHGH

i love my book. i love the story i've created, the characters, the vision of it in my head, everything.

but my worldbuilding and plot and such have all changed so MUCH since i started writing it. i'm ok with that, since i have a better idea now of what i want the story to look like, and one day i'll probably go back and change a lot of things to make the cringey, confusing beginning flow a lot better.

here's the problem though:

i'm sharing this story with some irl friends as i write it. so they have to deal with this really shitty first draft that has me figuring things out as i go and changing the setting and time period and whether there's magical elements or not. because it was a modern time period at first! and now it's some weird dystopian steampunk something or other with a fashion style that i see very clearly in my head but i don't even know what year it's from! i see this world so well in my head but i don't know how to describe it in a way that i feel they'll understand! especially since it's changed throughout the story!

i really made this hard for myself. in some ways i wish i could go back now and get rid of some of the things that are bothering me and causing story problems, but that's also really intimidating to think about.

i know if i go back now i'll get all bogged down in the details, and i don't know if i can fully fix everything properly yet when i still don't know what i want the ending to be.

and i'm excited for where i am in the story. i've been on the cusp of these REALLY exciting plot points for so long, and now i'm finally, FINALLY starting to reach them! this is where the good stuff really starts! this is where i can start adding the scenes i wrote ahead of time months and months and even a year ago!

and i know the ones that care will stick with it, and honestly they're following along pretty well. i'm just ashamed at how much it feels like a jumbled mess. i feel like my stress is causing my writing quality to go way down, because the only way i can get myself to actually write is to say "it's okay, let the writing be shitty now, you can always go back and edit it later"

which is technically good advice in general for me, but lately i haven't been going back and editing it before i show it to my friends, so i just feel really bad. normally i love editing but with how jumbled my chapters have been lately (writing scenes out of order and trying to piece them back together, lines of dialogue i like too much and refuse to delete despite them causing problems, not knowing wtf im doing with this plot, etc) it's a nightmare just to think about, so i just. don't.

maybe i should slow down my update schedule. but i'm worried i'll be letting them down, even if only 1-2 reliably read it and leave comments anymore. i'm afraid that if i write completely at my own pace, i won't write at all. and besides, i NEED those few comments to keep me going. to remind me that someone else is actually interested in this book.

so i keep writing this way. "it's a mess right now, they're reading it as a mess right now, but one day, when it's finished, you'll go back and rewrite what you need too."

which is, like, fine. it doens't bother me TOO much, i think venting abt it helps a lot, but i really want to print a couple copies when this is done, but i dont wanna print the shitty version, i wanna print the fixed version. and im worried that i won't actually fix it bc i have at LEAST two other unrelated books that i've promised myself for literal years that i would finish/rewrite, and i think about those almost as much as this one, ie daily

so idk what will happen. i guess i'll cross that bridge when i come to it. anyway i hope i have the energy to edit this current chapter before i update bc my self imposed deadline is coming up very soon and this one's another mess lmao

[karinamay]

Writing interview tag game

Thank you @cinnamontails-ff for the taaaag now I get to ramble about writing hell yes

When did you start writing?

I've been writing stories basically as long as I can remember, and I was a very avid journal keeper between ages like 7 and 21. First time I decided I was going to "write a book" I was 10, and me and my best friend at the time got permission to spend 2 hours or so every week at school to work on it because it was a "good creative persuit", whic was pretty cool. I have been writing fiction ever since, and I think I started writing fanfic around when I was 16 or so, so about 14 yearsish ago.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I write (urban) fantasy/romance pretty much exclusively, but I read all sorts. I do enjoy me some good dystopian, and some scifi here and there, and from time to time I 180 into reading less fantastical literary fiction that borders on nihilistic-satire-black comedy ish (I've read Bret Easton Ellis' entire bibliography, to give an idea). In the end most of what I read is in the fantasy with either romance or found family (or, ideally, both) realm though, I love escaping to magical worlds.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I try not to compare my work actively to other writers'. Of course there are writers I admire and look up to, but there isn't a writer that I want to "write like" really. I write very much like me. And with that, I don't think I've ever specifically been compared to another author? Not that I can remember anyway.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

My current writing setup is in my living room, which is not ideal, it's just because my wifi doesn't reach into my office well enough. I am in the process of moving my shit over there though, so I'm excited to turn that into a bit more of an inspiring space. The only nice thing that I currently have in my writing space is my recently spruced up "bookcase" (I'll put a picture under the cut.)

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Work for it. Nine out of ten times when I sit down to write I don't already have the spark or whatever that I need. (The tenth time is a great day, but it just doesn't happen very often, and it also doesn't actually necessarily mean your writing will be better that day.) When I have sat down on the days when it's not immediately there, and I start writing, it will usually come. It's kind of a stupid writing will come from writing loop that feeds itself, if that makes sense.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Healthy communication is a big one, whether that's between romantic partners or any other kind of relationships. I write a lot about power and corruption and I'm big on found family. None of this is surprising at all. What is surprising to me is that I've started leaning more into creepy/eerie/horrory realms over the past year or so, which isn't really a theme, but definitely a genre I never thought I would enjoy so much.

What is your reason for writing?

Because it's the closest we can get to magic in this world. I get to dream up worlds and people and watch them try and fail and succeed and evolve, give them life, give them reason, fear, doubt, love, everything. It's fucking brilliant, and even though I get stuck and it's frustrating, I will never be able to not do it, because I don't know how not to.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

"I felt like I was there" is something that will always get me, that motivates me to no end. And I love when people start theorising, trying to figure out what's going to happen next. I weirdly get drawn into the theories, even though I know what happens next. I love it.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Huh, I don't know. As someone who really cares deeply about the story I'm writing, I think. And hopefully as someone who captures the voices of the characters they love and who does them justice.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Dialogue. My stories are very dialogue driven, and I take a lot of pride in how the dialogue runs. And hand in hand with that dialogue, knowing when to throw in a bit of humour, especially in a dark story, without it feeling cheap.

How do you feel about your own writing?

Depends on the day, although I'm starting to get to a place where I'm generally pretty happy with it. There are many things I know I can improve on a lot still, but in the end, I do like what I'm writing, and I do think other people do/would like to read it.

It's a work in progress but the vibes are vibing imo.