#finally build aven and then sunday

[draconicfool]

also

not allowed back in the mines cuz daniel needs his trace mats but genti is done

[aphrodaisyacs]

Stoki Fic Rec List

No Six Sentence Sunday this week just me and my first ever fic rec list. This is the result of me caring too much for a rarepair that not enough of the fandom cares about but ANYWAY. The fic rec lists I’ve seen for this pairing are quite a few years old, so I decided to make a new one of my own. The list is sorted in chronological order of the MCU timeline, and also quite long, which is why I put it under a read more:

under bright stars burning by @thelightofthingshopedfor (nearly 21k words, Teen and Up)

When Steve is a kid, he meets a boy named Loki who says he's a prince and shows him real magic. It's kind of weird (but that doesn't mean he doesn't like it).

A fic where Steve and Loki sort-of grow up together, but it’s still set in the canon-verse (don’t worry, the timeline discrepancy gets explained). Kid!Loki and Kid!Steve are so damn adorable, there’s quite a bit of angst between them but there’s also more than enough hurt/comfort to make up for it. I was so disappointed when this fic ended where it did, because I enjoyed it so much that I wanted it to go on forever.

Silver Moon by aurilly (23k+ words, Mature)

Steve and Bucky meet a weirdly dressed guy who claims to be a banished prince from some place they've never heard of. Most New Yorkers would have left the lunatic right where they found him, but Steve and Bucky have never been good at doing things the easy way.

Okay so I cheated a bit, because this fic is actually Steve/Loki/Bucky, but. It is so well-written that I’m including it in this list anyway. In this universe Loki discovers his heritage far earlier than in canon, which leads to a series of events resulting in him getting his powers stripped then banished to pre-WWII Midgard- specifically, Brooklyn. After repeatedly failing to convince Heimdall to return him to Asgard, Loki eventually settles into a life with Steve and Bucky. But then WWII happens. Slow build, quite a bit of angst, but there’s an optimistic ending.

Those Who Favor Ice by CatalenaMara (18k+ words, Explicit)

“You haven’t said anything incorrectly so far,” Steve said, and could hear an edge in his voice.

“Men of such beauty and strength and talent often feel they must outshine everyone they meet. That they must cast a very large shadow so that the world sees only them.”

So many emotions crossed Loki’s face so quickly that Steve could only interpret a few. Resentment. And longing. And need.

“I wasn’t always strong,” Steve said slowly. “Not as a child. I was sickly - so weak that anyone could beat me.”

Loki’s gaze sharpened. “And did they? Beat you?”

Don’t mind me I just love fics that feature Jotunn!Loki and/or Loki dealing with his heritage and Jotunheim in general. We get to see a possibility of what might have been if Heimdall hadn’t betrayed King Loki, which apparently involves Loki running off to become King of Jotunheim and later Steve’s lover. Beautiful prose, smut that doubles as character study, A+.

Madness by @scotlandevander (19k+ words, Teen and Up)

Time makes a deal and when Time makes a deal, it plays out till it is fulfilled. Steve Rogers is learning this the hard way and he’s quite sure it’ll end in madness.

Steve is stuck in a time loop spanning from the moment he wakes up in the 21st century to the events of T:DW. Needless to say it doesn’t take very long for him to run out of fucks to give. I really love the gradual development of Steve’s relationships with Bruce, Natasha and of course Loki throughout the loops. The progression of Stoki is slow mainly because Steve’s a useless bisexual and nice to read. Definitely one of my all-time favourites for this ship.  

Living Contradiction by Ebyru (1k+ words, Teen and Up)

Loki hates Captain America, but over time he realizes it’s a lie.

Excerpt: "Captain America is brave, strong, independent and an astounding leader. Maybe no-one can tell, but far beneath the mask of strength he wears and the flag he carries, Loki can see he’s just a follower."

Something short and sweet set vaguely post-Avengers (2012). Contemplative character study as Loki learns more about the man underneath the Captain America costume. I recommend this if you’re in the mood for a quick pre-slash read.

In The Land of Gods and Monsters by thisiswhatthewatergaveme (nearly 5k words, Explicit)

Steve makes a mistake: he lets his guard down. He lets a momentary relief cloud his judgment. He doesn’t spring into action when Loki spins around and presses a tight-lipped kiss against his mouth. Doesn’t even move when it softens, slightly, Loki’s hands curling over his arms.

And then the god is gone and Steve realizes something important. He realizes, perhaps for the first time, that there are different kinds of war.

While the author has tagged this fic as Porn Without Plot, I think it’s more accurate to say that there is plot, it’s just that the entire plot is centred on the build-up to the porn. And said build-up is mostly Loki catching Steve unawares to kiss him, interspersed with Steve suffering some moral crises over being attracted to his enemy.

Thawing Universe by Vulcanmi (17k+ words, Teen and Up)

A what if that starts after the events of Thor: the Dark World but before Winter Soldier. What if Loki had gotten tired of playing Odin?

Parts 1, 2 & 3 are purely Stoki, while part 4 & 5 are Thor/Bucky-centric with background Stoki. Loki gets bored of pretending to be Odin rather quickly, and thus he goes down to Earth to continually invite himself over to Steve’s apartment. Steve has exactly zero say in all of this. This series makes the pairing seem way more adorable than it has any right to be, all the while keeping everyone in-character. Part 1 builds the relationship, part 2 has the other Avengers reacting to it, and part 3 has Steve finally getting off his useless bisexual ass and asking Loki out for real. One of my favourite depictions of this pairing for sure.

Strange Love by @dvswraatins (12k words, Teen and Up)

It starts with a simple taunt.

Spoiler alert: the aforementioned “taunt” is Loki putting on a great show of seducing Steve in order to piss off Thor. Featuring Loki being unapologetically a piece of shit, Loki as a part-time Avenger and narration that becomes hilariously descriptive whenever Thor enters the picture. One of the things I adore about this fic is that it explores a dynamic for this pairing I didn’t know I needed- of Loki trying to use Steve for his own gain, but Steve manipulating him right back.

The Dreamfasting by suchaprettyface (80k+ words, Explicit)

This is the highly unlikely and yet somehow inevitable story of how Captain Steve Rogers, Avenger, becomes the lover of Loki Odinson, younger prince of Asgard and Public Enemy Number 1 according to the FBI database of known offenders.

Steve and Loki discover quite by accident that they are connected by a very old form of magic whose initial purpose seems to be getting them in each other's pants as often as possible. But there's far, far more at work than that...

To break this series down to its bare essentials: lots of porn + lots of plot. Post-AoU, Loki gets captured by SHIELD but almost immediately after Steve runs into him again, the two of them begin sharing wet dreams. The more dreams they share, the stronger the indescribable connection between them grows. Yet, in the background of all the dream-fucking, there is the mystery of why these dreams even exist in the first place, as well as Steve finding himself physically changed by them. 

Look At Me Now by @arimabat (33k+ words, Teen and Up)

Steve is on the run. His already complicated life becomes just a little more complicated when an old enemy shows up unexpectedly. But Loki has changed since their last encounter and he could have crucial information to stop a fast-approaching threat. If he’s willing to tell Steve.

Or, the one where Loki keeps bothering Steve until he figures out a way to get something useful out of it and then it all just becomes a mess.

Post-Civil War, pre-Ragnarok. Loki is absolutely delighted by a jaded, cynical Steve, and Steve is very much unamused by the unwanted attention. Steve attempts to take advantage of this attention anyway by interrogating Loki about the Infinity Stones, which leads to the gradual development of a relationship neither of them expected. I absolutely love the conversations and banter between everyone in this fic- not just between Steve and Loki, but also between Steve, Natasha, Sam and Wanda. However, (spoiler alert) the ending for this fic isn’t all too happy BUT the good news is that it’s part of a series, which isn’t complete yet at the time I’m typing this up.

Be My All-American Boy by @gavotteangel (6k+ words, Teen and Up)

It's Steve Rogers' birthday and it's Independence Day. Naturally, the freshly reunited Avengers vacation to a lake house and throw him a party. Nothing goes as expected.

Or: LOKI HAS A BIG FAT CRUSH HAPPY 4TH OF JULY FOLKS

Post-Ragnarok, post-Civil War, with a dose of Infinity War being cancelled. Highlights include Loki having a crush on bearded!Steve and abhorring the fact that the crush even exists in the first place, Loki trying his best to hold back his stabby instincts on his new allies, Loki and Natasha being drinking buddies and Loki eating the rest of Steve’s birthday cake out of pure pettiness.

I’m also going to shamelessly self-promote and rec my own series Mischief Managed (nearly 20k words, Teen and Up)

Set post-Ragnarok in an AU where Infinity War is cancelled and Steve and Tony have gotten their shit together.

The series follows Steve and Loki while they form an unlikely bond as they team up to prank others, again and again.

Initially based on this headcanon, with Steve getting the opportunity to confront Loki about it, which somehow leads to both of them teaming up to prank the rest of the Avengers. Part 2 expands on the unlikely friendship they formed in part 1, except this time Steve and Loki take advantage of the media circus and fake date to piss off homophobes. Meanwhile, the Avengers are forced to watch this train wreck happen in real time. According to the comments this series is funny enough that it made people laugh not that I’d be able to judge properly since I’m the one who wrote it. 

Tangerines are Sweet Enough by @fel-as-in-tumbld (4k+ words, General)

(Steve is seven, cold and hungry and it's Christmas morning; he's seven, sitting on the floor, pulling perfect miniature suns out of the foot of his stocking. Tangerines; he's seven, and he can feel the flesh tear under his thumbnail, can taste the burst of flavour on his tongue, the juice slide down his throat; he's seven, and he's sitting with his mother and everything has been cold and hunger, but there is this--tangerines, like eating the sun with his mother, and the warmth of her laughter--

Steve hasn't eaten a tangerine since she died, since Bucky vanished off to war; too many memories, too much intimacy.

Post-Infinity War fic where Loki actually gets revived I’m looking at you Russos. It has beautiful prose which sets a soft, wistful tone to the whole thing, helped by the fact that it takes place during the winter holidays. Steve and Loki’s relationship here is... well, melancholic, mostly, but it does end on a warm note. 

*

This rec list only reflects my personal reading experiences (and are also only limited to AO3), so feel free to add more suggestions in reblogs or replies!

Honorary mention goes to Remember This Cold by @veliseraptor (nearly 800k words, ranges from General to Explicit depending on the part) which I didn’t include in the main list because let’s be real, anyone who’s looking for Stoki fic recs has already read this series.

[awrenthatwrites]

04.14.2020 | Life and WIP Update

Life:

Hi All! It’s Tuesday, and I promised that I would try to post regular updates on my life and on my writing progress every week!

I am getting my school work under control at the moment. We are ramping up to the final couple of weeks of college and I have a few looming deadlines. I took an exam yesterday, and felt super good about it, so that was super awesome! 

And, instead of labs for Organic Chemistry, our professor has asked us to write a research paper on Synthesis. It’s due next Monday. Have I started it? Nope. But that is this week’s project and I am determined to do well. 1) It is chemistry and 2) It’s writing - so, like, my two favorite subjects coming together. But forced research? And for a paper? Not my favorite. 

There will probably be very little activity this upcoming week as I try to pump out this paper. Or, there might be too much activity as I procrastinate ... eesh yeah, probably the latter. 

But honestly, I’m so ready to be done. This online schooling thing is a beast, and I have no willpower to get anything done. Even opening my school email is a reason for celebration these days. All I really want to do is either write or laze around and watch Youtube or Bones or something. 

WIP -  Darkness Reborn:

As for Darkness Reborn, there has been some really nice progress. 

I did very little with Titania’s first outline this week, but that was because up until that point I had completely forgot about Rhonan’s plot. Except for the very beginning, he was not in any of her story line. 

This is massively different than any of the other drafts and outlines that I have written thus far. Rhonan’s entire purpose when I created him was to be the silent protector of a clueless character so that she didn’t get into too much trouble. He was also a way for me to explain the world I had built both to her and to the readers - who were both experiencing it for the first time. He has been alive since before the Age before, and was there when the humans took over. His job was to bridge the gap in between the past and the present. 

I don’t need him to do that for me anymore. I don’t need him to really do either of those things - as could be seen by his absence from Titania’s plot line that has been developing, and by the fact that I am actually writing Gael’s story into the book.

But I put Titania’s Outline 1 on hold for a second so I could work through Rhonan’s - just to be sure. 

I spent a lot of the week mind mapping where his plot could go, what his options were, and where I could possibly have need of him. I really, really didn’t want to cut him out of the book completely. 

On Sunday I hit a breakthrough.

I’ve brainstormed nearly his entire Book 1 plot, and some of his future books’ plot as well. I haven’t written it out in Outline form yet, or broken it up into acts or anything, but I am happy about where his journey is going to take him and the way he is going to grow. Survivor’s Guilt and stepping out into being his own person has always been his character arc, but this way - this way - is so much stronger, so much better articulated, and so much more focused on him as a character. 

Rhonan feels so much more 3D now, and I am so so happy. 

If I can get enough of my school work done in a day, expect a Character Introduction of his very very soon. I’m excited to share him with you all. 

Also

I have been focusing, again, on world building and the creation “myths” of how the world began and how it is running. So while in my progress report below you see very little movement, know that a lot of my progress is in the back end of things that you don’t get to see in a progress bar because I can never know when I am finished with world building and Deep Lore. 

But yeah, I got a lot of that done this week too! (Stuff I don’t want to say in case it spoils some really cool things for you guys...)

---

Titania: Outline 1 - 60% complete

Edana: Outline 1 - 0%

Gael: Outline 1 - 0%

Skai: Outline 1 - 0%

Rhonan: Outline 1 - <5% (with most of the skeleton work done and ready to be outlined - will be done soon)

Eanrin: Outline 1 - 0%

Aven: Outline 1 - 0%

The Hand: Outline 1 - 0%

---

last week’s update: 04.07.2020 

Thank you all for your support and your kindness! 

And, as always, thank you so much for reading!

Talya

taglist: @mischiefiswritten @spiritedpiper @feralsong @lilygold23

[pauperpedia]

Tuesday Brewsday 12: Royal Mardu

Throughout the years Pauper has seen many Boros decks rise to prominence and evolve around the metagame. First there was Kuldotha Boros, a heavy artifact synergistic deck that utilized the Glint Hawk/Kor Skyfisher engine combined with Prophetic Prism and Ichor Wellspring. The idea was that you could control the board with removal from Lightning Bolt, Galvanic Blast, and Journey to Nowhere, then hit em hard with your arsenal of creatures which included the 3 goblins Kuldotha Rebirth created when you sacrificed Ichor Wellspring or another artifact. Then WOTC dropped a huge bomb that would forever change the format when they introduced the Monarch mechanic with Palace Sentinels. This permanent monarch token that can only be exchanged through combat damage, made Boros Monarch the premier midrange deck. It went away with the aggressive Kuldotha Rebirth for more of a grind you out style of approach. It added Prismatic Strands and Alchemist Vial as a way to keep the Monarch allowing you to oppress your peasant opponent through card advantage. Not long after that Deluxeicoff tweaked the build to better fight Delver decks and thus Boros Bully was born. This deck went back to its aggressive roots by adding in Battle Screech, Seeker of the Way, a recurrent threat in Sacred Cat, and Rally the Peasants. Instead of the typical Glint Hawk/Kor Skyfisher draw engine, the deck relied on Faithless Looting to further its graveyard based synergies. Lately however, Tron has risen to prominence as the boogeyman deck to beat. From this we’ve seen the typical Boros Monarch shell evolve to incorporate black spells. Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Castigate, and Bojuka Bog are all great weapons to have as a midrange deck to help beat Tron. I’ve taken a close look at the deck and added my own unnecessary twists, fallen in love with a new Theros Beyond Death card, and have come up with my go to competitive deck for the future.

2 Bojuka Bog

4 Boros Garrison

4 Ash Barrens

8 Snow-Covered Plains

3 Snow-Covered Mountain

1 Snow-Covered Swamp

4 Thraben Inspector

4 Kor Skyfisher

3 Aven Riftwatcher

2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi

2 Palace Sentinels

1 Battle Screech

1 Custodi Squire

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Skred

2 Journey to Nowhere

2 Prismatic Strands

3 Golden Egg

4 Prophetic Prism

1 Omen of the Dead

2 Castigate

This time out I want to talk about the manabase I’ve come up with first. Boros decks have relied on Artifact lands in the past so they could use Galvanic Blast as a way to deal four damage to any target. However, against burn or any deck running Gorilla Shaman, this would really set you back if you started to get your lands blown up and you miss a key land drop. Now that I’ve added black to the deck, I thought it would be better to move away from the artifact lands so that I could run Ash Barrens and smooth out the three color manabase as best I can. I’m also able to run Snow-Covered lands which make it possible to run Skred, which can be just as good as Galvanic Blast when it comes to instant speed removal.

I’m running two copies of Bojuka Bog as an uncounterable way to exile the opponent’s graveyard. With Kor Skyfisher and Boros Garrison, you can repeatedly do this throughout the game, wreaking havoc on graveyard based decks. Boros Garrison is beautiful in this deck as it allows you to not only buyback Bojuka Bog, but plays nicely with Ash Barrens and effectively gives you more lands than 22 the deck runs. Since most of our spells are white, I found running eight Snow-Covered Plains to be a good number. This gives us 16 potential white sources for mana not including the filtering you get from Prophetic Prism. Playing three Snow-Covered mountains gives us 11 sources making it so that when we need red mana for removal, it’s almost always available. Finally we have one Snow-Covered Swamp which brings our black mana sources to a total potential of seven, which isn’t bad for a splash color.

Kor Skyfisher is the cornerstone of the deck. The clause forcing you to return a permanent to your hand was designed to be a bad thing. This is clearly evident by the 2/3 stat line along with flying for a creature that only costs two mana. However, if you combine it with value cards with decent enters the battlefield effects, Skyfisher becomes one of the best flying creatures in the game. Bouncing Thraben Inspector will give you another clue, Aven Riftwatcher will grant you two life and an additional two life when you replay it, Golden Egg & Prophetic Prism will draw you a card, Omen of the Dead will return a creature from your graveyard to your hand, and Palace Sentinels will reset the monarch.

Speaking of Palace Sentinels, this is another key creature. When Sentinels enters the battlefield, you become the monarch. This mechanic gives legs to midrange decks allowing that sweet card advantage at no cost to quicken their gameplan to end the game. With a solid 2/4 body, Palace Sentinels is a good blocker against aggressive decks as well.

The rest of the creatures are all value based. Thraben Inspector is a great one drop that can draw you a card whenever you pay two generic mana to sacrifice the clue token it leaves behind. Aven Riftwatcher is a 2/3 flyer for three mana that gains you two life when it enters and leaves the battlefield. Custodi Squire is a great late game creature that effectively returns another creature, enchantment, or artifact from your graveyard to your hand. Sometimes if you’re lucky, due to MTGO’s poor interface, your opponent will pick a different card in your graveyard from the one you picked and you’ll get both. Lastly, the crème de la crème Okiba-Gang Shinobi can return all of those creatures to your hand if they attack in unblocked and you use its Ninjitsu ability. When this 3/2 creature deals combat damage to your opponent they discard two cards. If you’re able to slam this card and pave the road for its attacks, your opponent will be hard pressed to recover especially if you’re the monarch too.

Lightning Bolt is the best Instant spell in the deck. For one red mana you can deal three damage to anything, but most of the time I’ve found it common to be used as creature removal. Skred is the other instant speed removal spell, dealing damage equal to the amount of Snow-Covered permanents (11 total) we control. Journey to Nowhere pulls mop up duty for creatures outside the scope of Lightning Bolt and Skred. This enchantment exiles target creature for as long as it stays on the battlefield. Castigate is a great reason to splash black. This nuisance of a card exiles a spell of your choice from your opponent’s hand. If you’re able to nab a piece from any flicker loop based decks, it makes it a lot harder on them to beat you. Lastly, you have Prismatic Strands which not only prevents damage from a color of your choice till the end of turn, but can be used as your best removal spell if played right. The flashback ability on this card makes it broken and prevents players from attacking in when they see it in your graveyard.

Rounding out the rest of the spells are our utility spells. Omen of the Dead is a card I absolutely fell in love with when I saw the new Theros Beyond Death cards. A raise dead effect that not only can scry two cards later on, but can be repeatedly replayed by Kor Skyfisher or Custodi Squire is amazing, and I’m confident this is a great home for it. Golden Egg, another recent card from the previous set, draw us a card when it enters the battlefield. Then we can sacrifice it for one generic mana to filter any color we want, or pay two generic mana and gain three life. Prophetic Prism also draws a card when it enters the battlefield, but this one filters mana without having to be sacrificed. Then there is the one of Battle Screech. This card can turn the tide of battle by creating four 1/1 flying bird tokens which can help you hold onto the monarch, or push through the final damage you need to close out the game.

2 Electrickery

2 Gorilla Shaman

3 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

2 Relic of Progenitus

2 Standard Bearer

1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi

1 Patrician's Scorn

As a midrange deck, you will almost always fold up shop to Tron. Some go about this by completely ignoring the match up and strengthen their sideboard for even matchups even more, others like me decide to fight and dedicate probably more than they should. To fight the Tron nemesis I bring in Okiba-Gang Shinobi, all the Pyroblast & Red Elemental Blasts, and the Relics. Even with all that, it’s still an uphill battle if your opponent has the nuts and is on the play.

Patrician’s Scorn is there for Hexproof and Heroic. Pair it with the Standard Bearers and you have a fighting chance.

Against Affinity and other Monarch decks that rely on artifact lands, Gorilla Shaman gives you a major edge in winning the game.

Lastly, against Burn and Stompy you’ll want to bring in Standard Bearers. You’ll also want to bring in Electrickery when facing Stompy, Elves, or any go wide strategy.

We shall see if this deck really does bring me closer to Pauper Royalty over the next couple of months. I’m going to start grinding leagues and Sunday challenges, so wish me luck. If you have any brews you’d like me to write about, please email them to pauperpedia@gmail.com. As always, I play the decks in the free tournaments hosted by gatherling every Tuesday night, and do a quick report on how the deck fared the following day on my Pauperpedia Facebook page. Till next time folks, have a happy Brewsday!