#fourth arc mood

[anxiously-sidequesting]

Reblogging for this lovely addition

You know what I love more than just heroes and villains going up against each other is when the hero and villain have a certain respect and acknowledgement to the other, have a special relationship or connection with the other, or just a general interest that's between just THOSE TWO GUYS and not anybody else Grandfather Spider Morganthe Schismist Soldier Duncan Grimwater

Like I could easily see the YW teaming up with almost any of those people (see: only GFS and Morganthe the other two are crazy) not out of maliciousness or because they switched sides but because they're just compatible with them in ways where it just makes sense. Like for example the YW fighting back-to-back with Morganthe or having in depth magical discussions with her because we understand her on a level no one else does. Like in a crazy season finale where the Savior of the Spiral would not even Dream of Ever Working With Those Ruffians but when they have to they're like so magical (no pun intended) together because they just click. Like in the original Teen Titans where Deathstroke and Robin were like fighting in Hell together and they were on the SAME WAVELENGTH despite being bitter enemies THAT'S THE SHIT I LIKE. I think maybe that's the reason why I resonate more with these guys than Malistaire because imo it's just so much more interesting and emotional when we get two people on opposite sides of the morale scale able to come together and work so fluently. This is also me saying I want a Schismist Soldier and YW Roommate Sitcom.

[deliveryboysomewhatequaltoheaven]

The Macaque Problem

I would definitely say Macaque's character is an issue for the show. His redemption arc is not good, and it brings down the other characters and takes up their time and arcs.

When we first see him in S1 and 2, he is an old frenemy of Wukong's bitter over an unspecified falling out. He is angry and lashing out at MK and his friends, projecting this feud onto them. He claims MK didn't notice his friends were gone, but we see him trying to call Mei, and that the others were resentful, but we see tang looking upset being forced to attack MK. Seems like a clear enough villain concept with some room forward right? But S3 and 4 derail that.

Chronologically, we can talk about the Brotherhood, (which he was not a part of in JTTW, and he complained abt being left behind in S2 but here he was?? Eh) He claims that Wukong pushed ahead without thinking or listening and that's what got him trapped in the mountain. But what do we see before Wukong surrenders to the Jade Emperor?

The rest of the Brotherhood trapped by the Celestial Army. We don't see Wukong fight the Jade Emperor. He was an immortal shapeshifter, I have no doubt Wukong could have escaped. But he turned himself in to save his friends. Was he in a bad mood in the mountain? I mean, yeah, but Macaque doesn't seem to consider that he's free because Wukong is not.

We still don't know about the final falling out and Macaque's seeming death, though S5 implies that Macaque pushed the situation. Still, it's not good, because if they can't properly resolve it, than it's just going to remain between them and Macaque's grudge against Wukong can't be properly moved past, which hampers his arc.

But then S3 happens, and honestly I think Macaque's motives are dumb. Why is he trying to get in the way of them stopping LBD if he also wants to be free of her? It's a positive for you! But they also start trying to portray him as someone who 'calls Wukong out' because S3 and 4 really try to make Wukong out to be a jerk. He made mistakes but it was a desperate situation against the Lady Bone Demon. I love Mei and Pigsy but they also call him out when they said nothing about the Fourth Ring/visions.

'You will make things worse for MK when I personally attack and threaten him and his loved ones for my own gain' OK Macaque!

But the S3 special is the real kicker. Macaque apparently changes his mind and we don't know why. They show some mistrust at first until MK says he knows Macaque is not a bad guy deep down... but doing one or two helpful things after three seasons of stalking, threatening, and attacking the gang doesn't exactly convince me.

And then this bit from the S3 special finale:

Uh, how??? Wukong is right, Macaque was until very recently willing throw everyone under the bus so he could get away from LBD. It's pretty rich that he would call Wukong self centered. Whatever Wukong did was trying to stop her and protect MK from having to deal with it.

In the S4 special, they also have Macaque talk about Azure Lion, and again I'm not sure why we are listening to him on characters' morality

Says the guy who wrote a play about how 'Sun Wukong is a big old meany who hurt my precious little fee-fees' if I never see or hear the hero and warrior monologue again it will be too soon but I will say he at least seems to consider he might have been wrong, though they don't really dwell on it...

Even in S5, we get this bit.

Once again, Wukong is right!! After 3 seasons of attacking and harassing MK I don't think he really gets to give advice. Plus WUKONG WAS TRYING TO TALK TO MK ABOUT IT RIGHT BEFORE THIS! But MK was not doing well emotionally and Wukong was trying to be mindful and not push!

And honestly I think they all let Macaque off easy for the S3 events, he literally choked out Mei and threatened to kill her! (Sidenote: he can call MK and Tang by their names, but Mei was just 'the girl' throughout S3... urgh)

But when Wukong gets mad at him, Macaque says "I didn't do this!" Well you forced the gang to do something that you didn't know what the consequences of would be! But Tang intervenes saying he did it, even though he awkwardly admits Macaque forced him but that he felt he should because of the golden cicada. Macaque later decides to leave the situation he forced. He later does help some, but doesn't really get held accountable for his part in everything.

But I guess it's fine bc at the end of the special MK gives him this drawing. This is actually kind of really upsetting and again makes little sense considering how much he and Mei care about other otherwise. But nah Macaque is cool now it's fine...

And Ao Guang! This is a tougher one, but in S5 they had Macaque let himself get sent to the Pagoda to buy others time... well I just say that's karma!

And Macaque comes back, of course, but we never hear more about Ao Guang. Even when they send the power of the Stones out, we do in fact see the East Sea Palace and the attendant, but not him, so his fate is unclear.

So yeah, overall, I think he was forgiven too fast, the root issue of his fight with Wukong unaddressed, and he takes up time from the others characters.

[hold-him-down]

The Fighter [18+ content, institutionalized slavery]: The system had started as a way to curb crime in the mid 2030s. Prisoners had been given the option to join the contracted worker system (slavery – but no one dared call it that), and years would be taken off of their sentences. Power leads to corruption leads to more power leads to more corruption. Ten years in, coercion was readily used to force criminals into the system. Twenty years in, rights started being stripped. Now, within a 60 year old system that has expanded beyond anyone's control, a U.S. Senator finds himself holding the contract of the favorite worker of one of the most powerful men in the country.

✥ Luke & Leo (Recovery Arc) ✥ 

You Can Help Him

Luke Visits Leo

Leo Comes Home 

The Doctor 

Leo Gets Sick 

Leo and Luke Talk 

Bathtub

Leo Gets a Haircut

Talk to Me

I Said Put It Down

Facility

Occam’s Razor

A Hand Carding Through his Hair

A Fluffy Blanket

Ice Cream Drabble

This One is For You

Christmas Lights

Sometimes 

Confrontation 

Not Ideal

Quicksand

Scrabble Rematch

28 Hours 

Get Out of the Car 

You Didn’t do Anything Wrong

There's Something I Want to Tell You

I Know it Wasn't Okay

Luke’s Nap Drabble

Please Don’t Let Go of Me

The Disaster Fundraiser: A Drabble/Introduction

Hey Handsome, Miss Me?

The Puzzle One

Bring Me the Collar, Leo 

Post-Nightmare Cuddles Drabble

One Day

Can I Close My Eyes?

Hospital Arc - Part 1

Leo Tells a Story

Do you Play It?

Panic Lemon

Saying I Love You Without Saying It

You Know Better (Seven Years Later)

I Want to Try (Seven Years Later)

✥ Before Luke ✥ 

It Looks Good on You 

Give Me a Smile

Emergency Disciplinary Form (18+) 

You're in a Better Mood Today

The First Time Leo Cried on Christmas

Don’t Do It Again 

The First Time (18+)

Get Off the Floor

You Look Cute

You're Turning Red

Nothing Permanent 

First Day with Parker Drabble (18+) 

First Day with Parker Drabble (Parker POV) (18+) 

He’s a Fighter (18+) 

Say You’ll Forgive Me 

The Shower Scene (18+) 

Don't Look at Me Like That

Embarrassed

The Second Time Leo Cried on Christmas (18+) 

Hold Him Down (Pt. 1)

The Third Time Leo Cried on Christmas 

I Got Something For You

Can I Kiss You?

The Fourth Time Leo Cried on Christmas 

The Key

What Can You Tell Me About Leo Evans

You’ve Been Selected for a Demo

A Small Mercy 

A Work of Art 

Please Don't

None of That

Strung Up

Try Harder

How Many Fingers am I Holding Up?

It’s a Book 

Hold Your Breath 

Ivan’s Rendition of ‘Tender First Aid’ 

Dislocated Shoulder Drabble 

The Defunct Prologue

This is Ridiculous

Waking Up in a Strange Place 

It Doesn’t Hurt, So It’s Fine (18+) 

Extra Content:

faceclaims, ask games, whump recommendations, etc.

the fighter tag - contains all asks/drabbles to date

five sentence fics - some not on masterlist

[rabarbarzcukrem]

Black Rose Musical save me

So they're starting with Mikage's backstory? Interesting

Actually, I wonder how they'll go about showing that Mamiya was Anthy all along

Mamiya doing that quick spin with Anthy, and then Utena with Tokiko...

I love the "Burn" song, it does a good job at setting the mood for this arc

Ok we're getting a reminder of Utena's story and what happened in the previous musical

I love the way Saionji tosses his hair lmao. Cunty. And how he runs away with that pathetic "UaUaAaaaa!!". he's such a loser

I like how these musicals really want us to associate "the princess was wrapped in the scent of roses" not necessarily with Dios, but with Anthy. She appears every time this line is sung

Ooooh even during the "on the previous episode" part, Mikage and Mamiya are already watching everything from the shadows

Btw, Mikage's voice sounds really similar to the original in my opinion

The parallels between Mamiya and Anthy are so clear, "if you say so, senpai" = "if utena-sama says so"

Akio being introduced so casually when it's obvious that he's super important to the plot also reflects how it happened in anime

Utena/Anthy and Mikage/Mamiya parallels..Mmmm delicious

I looooove how the whole cast is gradually presented (one relationship by one) and then at the end there's Akio with Anthy. Such an amazing way to show the way all these relationships connect and mirror each other

This musical's theme song being about light, mirrors and never letting go of something that might seem like an illusion...huh...

The scenes simultaneously happening on the stage impact each other - Akio is talking with Utena in the tower, but at the same time pushes Kozue towards Miki. Only a stage adaptation would be able to portray it this way

Wait....No kanae?? :((((

Holy shit Mikage's songs have such a creepy sound with the choirs in the background

(Also Mikage pushing Miki, imitating what Akio did to Kozue)

THE ROSE STABBING SCENE. Intense as hell

The contrast between Kozue entering her Dark Era and Wakaba whining about exams lol. Isn't that a perfect encapsulation of the spirit of RGU. The tragi-comedy of it all

The choreography !!

I wonder if there's any significance to the fact that when the cast is standing still singing zettai unmei mokushiroku, Anthy is copying the dance moves of the supporting dancers

The fact that Black Rose duelists have the same skills as the members of the student council showed by having both of them fight Utena at once?? Clever

Also, power of Dios possessing the sword showed by Dios literally fighting alongside Utena

Shame that Kozue didn't do that dramatic falling on the ground thing after her rose got pierced

The egg being called "a cage of freedom". That's a nice way to put it

Saionjeans appears!!

I love shiori already

I can't remember, does Shiori call herself a prodigal daughter in the anime too? Either way that's something I'll be thinking about for the next few days

They did the blood sucking scene 👀 while Shiori and Juri's gay shit was happening 👀

Shiori thinking Juri was reaching for the boy, when she was actually reaching towards her...

Akio walking with the same posture as Touga did... HMMM

They even managed to keep the water motif !

Shiori's horrified expression when she sees her picture...The actress is too good

SHIORI AND JURI FIGHTING SCENE

How did they manage to make them even gayer??

Shiori and Juri taking off each other's roses AAAH

I love that Nanami consistently breaks the fourth wall, it's a perfect thing for her character to do

Wakaba screaming after being stabbed was so heartbreaking...

Akio throwing away that hair clip in the exact same way Touga did with Saionji's exchange diary. Once again: HMMM

Wakaba singing the lines from the first musical about the book she'd read, but this time with her voice breaking, on the verge of crying. I can't stand this

Saionji and Wakaba both singing about a prince on a white horse - Saionji mocking Utena by this, Wakaba actually idealizing Saionji. God, it works so well

Wakaba's duel broke my heart. The actress is so good at capturing the desperation and sorrow in her voice

For the first time Akio is implied to actually have been the one to give Utena the ring...and the way he grabs the supporting dancer and shoves him to the ground. He gives off such sinister vibes

The friendship song is both hopeful and sad because it proves what Akio said - Wakaba had her moment of happiness and specialness but then she had to go back to her normal life of the supporting character. And also because of the fact that while Wakaba and Utena keep singing, Anthy had to go meet up with Akio.. So even though it's heart-warming to see them spend quality time together, none of them really understand what the others are going through

This killed me

"Do you have someone important to you?" And we see the duelists with their black rose counterparts

I almost feel like Mamiya in the flashbacks has slightly different mannerisms that the one in the present impersonated by Anthy.

Mamiya with the candlestick literally SITTING on the COFFIN

"Is (Saionji) going to waltz his ass back in here?" Lmaooo

Did I just imagine it or did Mikage slash Utena on her arm, similarly to how she injured his arm before the duel

Is "Imaginary living body" playing?!?!? Hell yeah!!!

Mikage actually seeing Dios helping Utena fight? Interesting! That's something I didn't expect

I loooove the curtain falling and revealing the projector. That's what I mean when I say that a stage adaptation brings the best out of this anime. There are so many fun visual things like this

I think this arc must have been incredibly difficult to pull off in this form, without being able to do quick cuts and transitions that could be shown in the anime. But they did such a good job! Actually, they kept surprising me with clever ways of adapting the themes of the show to fit this adaptation. I was constantly impressed

The last thing left to say is. PART 3 WHEN

[cabeswaterdrowned]

I've never watched pretty little liars but tell me about your favourite pll femslash.

Hi I think I wrote half of a response to this a while ago but it got lost somewhere… starting over so I’m such a multi shipper between the pll women that I think it would be more appropriate to tell you my top 5 rn.

Vandermarin —- (Hanna Marin & Mona Vanderwaal)

I tried to choose pics from the pll wiki gallery for each of these dynamics I thought encapsulated the dynamic and its gayness as well as two random images can. In this case the image on the left is Mona lovingly visiting Hanna in the hospital after Mona herself drove a car over Hanna, because they fought/Mona is jealous that Hanna has affection for people who are not her and also Hanna was too close to uncovering her identity as A the nameless faceless entity that badly wants Hanna to break up with her boyfriend and leave her friends and only hang out with Mona but we’re meant to think Mona is straight…. and the right image is after Hanna has found out Mona’s identity at the evil mastermind to her troubles but she’s still visiting her ex wife in the mental asylum, and lying to her boyfriend about it and the show plays every beat of this like Hanna is cheating on her boyfriend. Insane. They’re the love story of pll because literally if Mona wasn’t obsessively unhealthily in love with Hanna the whole plot of the show would not have happened. An undersung toxic yuri queerbait for the history books I seriously think it’s deeply misogynistic they don’t get their due in this department. 

Spemily (Spencer Hastings & Emily Fields).

This is so funny to me because these two images perfectly encapsulate the dynamic. Either they are soo in sync getting coffee for each other and detecting murders together and stabilizing/calming each other, or they are having the Messiest fights and bickering/getting on each others nerves like a married couple going through their third divorce. I joke about them being adansey coded for this reason, also there’s a dynamic of a class difference and Emily/Adam call out Spencer/Gansey for it similarly and Spencer/Gansey being protective towards Emily/Adam in a way the latter doesn’t like or feels infringes on their autonomy. Great stuff, I have a type. And speaking of..

Monison (Mona Vanderwaal & Alison Dilaurentis)

There are other gay pictures of them interacting but I chose the left image as Mona cleaning the dirt off Alison, the girl who bullied her, after pulling her out of a grave (Alison was buried alive this night and it’s a whole thing but not really relevant to this post) and they’re in a motel in the lost woods. There’s another scene from this flashback that’s Mona kissing Alison’s forehead but I can’t find a cap anywhere (I also couldn’t find a cap of her kissing Hanna’s cheek the homophobia). The one on the right is Mona’s shrine to Alison that’s in her evil lair girl literally was so obsessed with and in love with girl who bullied her and wanted to wear her skin and also for her to stop existing and also to be loved by her and then she made the love of her life Hanna into her own personal Alison doll… wild stuff. They’re also a bit adansey coded imo (and Hanna/Alison didn’t make this list but they’re rather Jordanessy coded imo). They’re also really gay for each other on the spin off which is not a good show but did give me crumbs. 

Spona (Spencer Hastings & Mona Vanderwaal)

Sometimes / in the past this has been no.3 I’m just in a very Monison mood rn so it’s fourth rn. The left image is of their psychosexually charged debate scene and the right is Mona trying to get Spencer’s attention at a political rally. Will say no enough of their really gay scenes are appropriately represented in that wiki gallery but I did the best with what I had. Overachiever x Overachiever but one is an evil mirror of the other,  the actresses have a ridiculous amount of chemistry, there’s a whole arc where Mona wants to corrupt Spencer and is furious when Spencer “turns her down” and seeks to ruin her life so she has no choice to accept her… another toxic yuri of all time. They’re also my two favorite characters on the show individually (although I love all six of the main women) so that gives an extra something special to their scenes for me. 

Arison (Aria Montgomery & Alison Dilaurentis)

left image is a flashback to them eating frozen yogurt together while bullying Mona, right is Aria’s hallucination of Alison that she has when her father’s girlfriend who looks a bit like Alison and who Alison wanted Aria to tell her mother about Byron’s affair with poisons her, again sadly there were fewer images in the gallery for them but. This is a really fascinating relationship to me and one I wrote a fic about that Imran quite proud of when I first got into pll a couple years ago. Aria is the only one of Alison’s friends she treats kind of as an equal rather than a subject or a rival, she’s very fascinated by the way Aria lives freely rather than at the whims of other people and Alison develops an alter ego that looks a lot like Aria, Vivia Darkbloom. She also gets into a relationship with an older guy while acting a lot like Aria and then this same guy (who is a predator and groomer but the show never addresses these dynamics as such L) goes after Aria after Alison’s death. Also Alison secretly took pictures of Aria while she was sleeping and hid them places and when they were uncovered her brother makes a comment about how Alison always hid things and it was almost second nature to her don’t remember the exact quote but it reeks of internalized biphobia to me (Alison is canonically a bi character it’s just that the show defines her as only gay for one girl which is Emily and straight for everyone else which is insane but we won’t get into that). Anyway. They’re really underrated and interesting. 

some honorable mention ships that I also love a lot: Sparia (Spencer x Aria, if I had done this a few months ago do think they would have a shot at top 5 I really love them), Spanna (Spencer x Hanna), Hannily (Hanna x Emily), Spalison (Spencer x Alison), Monaria (Mona x Aria), Emison (Emily x Alison this one is canon), Emaya (Emily x Maya also canon), Emona (Emily x Mona), Halison (Hanna x Alison), Aria x Jenna, Emily x Jenna, Aria x Alex Drake.

[aloneholy]

hi i love your blog :) & was wondering if you could recommend your favorite/the best sapphic n wlw media like shows books movies please? I have recently come to ... Realisations .. :') I do love picnic at hanging rock btw and also the similar vibes of the media that you tend to reblog. homeorotic energy w out being Explicity Stated it also very welcome <3 thank you if you can and i hope thats okay !!! have a good day :)

hellooo what a lovely question - thank you so much! i’ll happily rec some things i’ve loved, especially that i find homoerotic/wlw media that Compel me much harder to come by - and i agree, picnic at hanging rock is so unique.

books:

- zami: a new spelling of my name by audre lorde - an “autobiomythography” & maybe thee most formative book for me, in terms of wlw reading. i read it for university and it changed me as a person, changed the way i look at loving women. it’s beautiful

- nightwood by djuna barnes - if you like the more unsettling aspects of picnic at hanging rock, something lynchian and modernist, this is a dark and heavily abstract lesbian novel which i really love

- our wives under the sea - a really poignant and lovely soft sci-fi depiction of a wlw relationship, themes of grief, identity, loss etc. some compare it to annihilation though expect much less science fiction

- her body and other parties by carmen maria machado - a lovely (probably my favourite!) collection of short stories which often are wlw-centric or have a vibe. stunning prose in general

- hera lindsay bird by hera lindsay bird - wlw poetry, very fun and contemporary, what i call self-aware poetry

- mary oliver’s poetry!!!

- for biographies, anything about tove jansson….

- anything by virginia woolf will fit the not explicitly stated vibe feeling - mrs dalloway has a really wistful lesbian undercurrent, orlando is a love letter to vita sackville-west. etc. etc.

movies:

- persona (ingmar bergman) - thee movie. it’s Not explicitly stated, it’s feverish and desolate, but it’s both intensely homoerotic and a searing exploration of identity, existential dread etc.

- mulholland drive (david lynch) - again, unsettling vibes. not even gonna elaborate on it - it’s a david lynch - but it’s a must-see

- passing (rebecca hall) - a moody, poignant and beautiful adaptation of nella larsen’s novella (which is on my to-read list) about a relationship between two women

- the favourite (yorgos lanthimos) - recently rewatched with a friend, no notes. a bizarre, obsessive, thrilling story. rachel weisz is to die for in it

- kajillionaire (miranda july) - a tender and strange (affectionate) depiction of a bond between two women in unexpected circumstances

- thoroughbreds (cory finley) - what if murder was homoerotic, what if murder was a metaphor. in a way this is about every codependent friendship between girls that has ever veered towards obsession

- vita & virginia (chanya button) - a biopic abt virginia woolf and vita sackville-west specifically, people have very mixed feelings on it but i personally love it to bits.

tv shows:

- black sails - anne and max’s storyline in black sails is the most visceral and lovely wlw story i’ve seen in tv or film… there are specific tws i would heed for max’s arc in the first season which i’d be happy to elaborate on, but their story is beautiful

- first season of killing eve is still unmatched 😔 second is still quite nice, if not as good. third is hm. the ending scene has whimsy to it. never watch the fourth.

things my gf loves that i still haven’t read/seen:

- portrait of a lady on fire - i just know it will Get to me so i’m waiting for the right mood to watch it

- this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar & max gladstone - same reasoning!

things i’ve started but haven’t had a chance to finish yet:

- little blue encyclopaedia (for vivian) by hazel jane plante - a beautiful (but sad, and also about grieving, hence it’s taking me a while) trans wlw story. quaint and quiet and wistful.

[dzvelinaskebiyars]

WAIT YOU'RE ALSO IN BSD FANDOM????? CAN YOU PLEASEEE TELL US YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTERS AND WHY PLS I'M GENUINELY INTERESTED!

Yes, I'm also in bsd fandom but I'm active about Tokyo Revengers on Tumblr and, so far, I doubt I'll be posting any bsd character x reader hcs/one shots here at all. Just saying in case.

Now about my favourite characters. (I won't write paragraphs about them tho)

1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I know that because of recent chapters, a lot of people might dislike him now and they probably do, which is understandable but personally, I love his entire character a lot and I can talk about it for decades and never get bored. He's such well written villain that I want to thank Asagiri for creating him. And I'm really excited to see more about his character and especially his backstory. I do find him relatable to certain level but no, I don't kin him. Anyway, he's my number one favourite character in Bungou Stray Dogs.

2. Ayatsuji Yukito

Many don't know him, unfortunately. He's from Bungou Stray Dogs spinoff/Gaiden. Ayatsuji Yukito is one of the smartest detective and is on the match of Ranpo. He's smarter than Fyodor and Dazai. But I don't find his smartness as appealing as his entire character in general. Like what do you mean he has entire collection of antique dolls? What do you mean he talks to his cats? What do you mean he killed 2 billion peo-- He's really amazing and admirable. Many might think that he's heartless at first but he genuinely cares about his allies/friends, he just shows it in different ways and not straightforwardly. I'm literally in love with his character and that's final. He's my second favourite one.

3. Nikolai Gogol

I'm sure plenty of people will agree with me that Nikolai is rather complex character but that complexity is what makes him likable to me. I can talk about his character for decades and just how much I relate to him and on extremely deep level. He's seriously one of the best Bungou Stray Dogs character ever made.

4. Lucy Maud Montgomery

I love her so much and I also relate to her on some extant level. It's true that she doesn't get much role in the plot (if bsd even has it atp) but the guild arc had big impact on me, especially because of this girl.

5. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke

Okey, I genuinely LOOOVEEEE his character so much. I feel like he might even be fourth my favourite but I decided to put him on fifth, probably because of my mood. His character development, his character's goal and his entire character in general is very relatable and also very well written. If you haven't noticed, I love well written characters and Akutagawa deserves place here. I will never shut up that he probably found another reason to live besides Dazai's acknowledgement in newest chapter and how he's protector by nature.

6. Tsujimura

The BEST female character I've seen (probably after Lucy). Not only is she relatable but also so well written. She's just so human in every possible that I think lot of people will find her relatable in one way or another and she's also very easy to like. No, she's not pick-me or blue Higuchi. She's one of the best agent of Special Division For Unusual Abilities. She has strong morals and values and I absolutely admire that. Aspiring to be like her.

These are my top 6 favourite characters that I'll forever love no matter what. My seventh is probably Kenji Miyazawa but I'm too lazy to write more! I also love Atsushi but I'm very bothered by the fact that he doesn't have a goal, which just makes the plot very confusing since he's a main character.

And no, I don't like Dazai at all. He's my first hated character^^

[bookaddict24-7]

2024 Reading Goals!

I'm always a bit more lax with my reading goals because I never really know how a year is going to treat me--the last thing I need is stress over my reading (which is admittedly my biggest escape from life). BUT with that being said, making some goals that aren't set in stone is always a fun exercise!

Eleven Reading Goals I'd Like to Achieve in 2024:

Read at least 250 books. (I listen to a lot of audiobooks, so this isn't usually a major stress factor. Even if I wanted to read less, my reading addiction wouldn't really allow it. When I'm not reading, I'm thinking about reading. It's just who I am. BUT keep in mind that this is my goal based on my reading habits. everyone has a different reading habit!)

Finish, or nearly finish the Sookie Stackhouse series. (Of course, this is super dependant on when I get the audiobooks from the library LOL.)

Finish the books on my desk. (I have...a few started books on here. It's cluttering up the space and I feel like I just really want to read them but I'm a mood reader, so...)

(Fourth Wing is a re-read that I was annotating and dropped when something new came out and my attention was stolen away.)

4. Read a few books from each bookshelf of my bedroom. (I already went through the shelves last week and assigned myself a handful of books or so from each shelf for each month of 2024. I just want to specifically target some of the books on my shelves to encourage myself to read more of my owned books. Maybe I should share that progress on here to keep myself accountable. Hm...)

5. Continue to DNF books I don't like. (This is a practice I've been using for the last couple of years, but I also want to remind anyone reading this that it is OK to put down that book you're not vibing with. Life is too short.)

6. Read more formats, not just audiobooks. (I LOVE audiobooks and owe them so much. But I also do sometimes miss having the attention span to read physically. I read a lot more physical books in November & December and I loved it. Also, I pay for KU, so I might as well use it more in 2024.)

7. Try to buy less books. (Seriously, I've gone off the deep end in the last four months. I need to rein it back in. Maybe I should keep a monthly track of it to remind myself not to do the book buying thing as much.)

8. Diversify my reading even more. (Pretty self-explanatory, I think.)

9. Continue to review every book I read this year. (I've been doing this for the past couple of years and it has felt both a bit overwhelming and super rewarding. I love that I can look back on these last few years and read my opinion of whatever books I read during those years.)

10. Unhaul more books. (Life is too short and my shelves are too full to keep books I felt meh about, or don't think I need. Trust me: the first unhaul is the hardest, but after that, it's a little too easy to unhaul books.)

11. Read more of my ARCs. (They are currently staring at me from their designated shelves. I WILL read my very old ARCs at some point in my life, hopefully some will be in 2024.)

___

What are some of your goals for 2024?

___

Thank you for being with me throughout another year of book blogging and post sharing! I hope everyone has a fantastic year full of reading and good health!

___

Happy reading!

[amrass]

Fanfiction updates and excerpts 04.01.24

Guess who's back after 40 days of fast! I've tried to come up with an April's Fools joke, but nope, seems my brain is reeling from going from very little internet and then a lot of internet at once. I am currently knee deep in Fear & Hunger and Silent Hill walkthroughs, and am in a nice mood despite a tension headache.

Thank you to those who have supported my work in these weeks, it means a lot, especially during dopamine withdrawal 💙

Here is the list with the works I am focusing on in the coming month(s). So much Micah lol ... And blanket warning for NSFW.

Main works:

Salt.

Colm/Micah, sugar daddy precanon AU, dark content. Currently at part 9, in Arc 2, soon to go over in arc 3. Ohh this SOB of a fic ... Not because it's hard to write, quite the contrary, it just grows and grows. I'm having fun with it though. Part 10 should be up this weekend :) It's going to be like 80% smut. Here is an except from it:

"Last round. Your fourth, yeah? Remember to keep it in."

"I can't," Micah said like an amateur ventriloquist, cum tricking out of his mouth.

"You wished me good luck," Colm said, faking disappointment. He dug his nails in where shaved skin ended and unshaven skin began.

Micah visibly steeled himself; he seemed to expect another harsh handjob. He ceased breathing when Colm bent down between his legs, face hovering above his poor, half-erect cock. 

"Tell me no," he said slowly, his grin opening, mouth filling with spit.

Micah could only stare.

xxx

The Damned and the Redeemed

A motorcycle gang AU set around 1990-2010, like in GTA 4: The Lost and the Damned, with the RDR2 main cast as bikers and their horses as smaller pets. While out riding, Arthur gets tasked with recovering Micah, who has been missing from the clubhouse for a few days. /// I am currently sulking because it's kind of hard to recreate Fast & Furious in text form, but about half of this is written.

"Easy, boy. Easy. It's just me," he said as he put his helmet down on, and carefully opened the door. "You remember me, don't you?"

About a third of the orange lamps inside the RV worked, but he saw the shadow of the Pitbull, the muscles breathing under thin black and white fur, like a miniature motorcycle no less vicious in its ability to break bones. The dog stood still, quieter than the police radio, sounding like ghosts due to the RV being far underground. If Arthur hadn't had experience with Baylock, spending time in the clubhouse kennel, he might've mauled him through the MC protection. 

"I'm just here to check up on Micah. Easy, easy," Arthur kept on repeating, keeping his voice friendly, moving into a crouch. He removed his glove and presented his hand.

Baylock did not move to sniff it.

xxx

Cata Doxa

Set in the same AU as TDatR, as a kind of epilogue. My attempt at a realistic, redeemed!Micah/Arthur. The motorcycle gang has disbanded, and Arthur and Micah live together in an old safehouse with a dog named the Duchess and a cat named Patrick (Bateman). Part 1-2 is filthy domestic Morbell smut, but ends on a bittersweet note. Part 3, which is unwritten, is hurt/comfort, and includes the cookies actually getting baked in a nonsexual sense, more Duchess & Patrick, and a talk on how it is like to grow older when one did not expect to survive. OLD MAN YAOI ALL THE WAY --

"You stirring?"

Arthur tried. There was something laughably pathetic about those small jerks of the wooden spoon against the wet dough and bowl. He laughed at himself, his shaking hands. "Shit," he said.

Micah pulled away, and the air was cold on Arthur's ass. Biting his lip to stifle a needy sound, he looked over his shoulder. Micah was still on his knees, looking up with a lewd grimace. "Shit? I sure hope not."

Arthur frowned, then did an intense eye roll. "Are you four years old?"

"Point blank range," Micah said, giggling, "But I guess," he drew out the words, savoring them, "I like to live dangerously …"

When Arthur rolled his eyes again, they stayed up, vanishing beneath his lids. The mouth had returned with a vengeance, thumb fucking into him while Micah licked around it. It slid deeper, and Arthur nearly dropped the bowl.

xxx

Slug

Same universe as TDatR, but is standalone, and far darker. NONCON & VIOLENCE. Four parts, O'Driscoll Gang/Micah, Colm's brother/Micah, Colm/Micah. Includes foursome, duct tape, spider gags, drugs, vibrators, gang rape, forced feminization, circle jerk, bukkake, boot worship, overstimulation, watersports, mindfuck ...

Micah is caught when robbing a O'Driscoll Gang hideout, disguised as a derelict gas station. What follows is six hours of horror, varying in intensity and depravity. He tries to manipulate the power structures within the gang in order to survive - when he's not screaming, that is.

Micah reached for his guns, only to be pulled backwards until he was flat. Leather fingertips dug into the hair roots and the swollen flesh beneath as more men swarmed him. They held his arms and legs down using thick gloves and thicker boots, applying pressure until he stilled. He swore his bones creaked under their combined weight. He looked up like he was stargazing among neat hills, and not in a ditch surrounded by helmets and with the stars hidden by city smog. 

"Let me," said a second voice from above him, and another face came into view, so pretty it was near angelic, covered in a halo of reddish blonde corkscrew curls. Upside down, he looked to be smiling, friendly if not for the baseball bat hovering between them, covered in rusty nails. "Let me kill the little thief."

"Not yet. Bosses are near. Wanted to have a look."

xxx

And that's what I'm focusing on! But other fics might appear sporadically, like my Morbell fic Anhedonia did.

Hope everyone is having an alright Easter, if they celebrate, or otherwise just having a good time :)

Of all the seasons I dislike spring the most, so sending some extra love to those going through a tough time, April and May can be cruel.

[rocket-sith]

Q GOT TIRED OF MAKING ROBINHOOD LARPS SO HE DECIDED TO OPEN FOUR DIFFERENT CHRONO-TRIGGER SAVE FILES AT THE SAME TIME INSTEAD, but only one needed further progress (non-linear progress of course), two were already complete but were saved in the wrong place and missing a sidequest (lol time being non-linear what?), and the fourth was a big ol' sparkly decoy, a glitched file of nonsensical bits n bites, alluringly named Picard, that nearly crashed the game and took everything with it while you were busy looking for continuity in all the wrong places.

Behold! Season 2 of Picard, AKA Facepalm Theater Presents, AKA "Dude, where's my Tapestry?"

Love it, hate it, WTF it, or some should-be-impossible combination thereof - but somehow, you feel it. Are you in one or both of those last two camps? Yeah, me too. But I think I might have a theory. And no, it's not bunnies. (I rambled a bit about this somewhat in the A/Ns and comment thread of one of my fics a few weeks back, but the proper brain dump belongs here).

Season 2 of Picard is neither episodic, NOR is it one major overarching story with various sub-plots. It's FOUR overarching major stories, well-conceived in theory (mostly), but thrown together as gracelessly and incoherently, with the same abundance of panic and lack of transitions as the night-before-it's-due school essays we're all so painfully familiar with perpetrating. (Admittedly, a lot of us got pretty good at being zero-hour coherent by the time we got to high school, but apparently, this skill does not translate to timetravel via stellar slingshots and demigod trolls.) So that leaves us with - 

Picard Season 2: A Trek in Four Acts Loosely Disjointed and Sloppily Squished Together Parts. Feast your eyes, rub your temples, and buckle up. 

CRIS AND THERESA'S WILD RIDE: (Love story, social commentary, classic Trek shiz focused on the more touching/emotional side of temporal shenanigans.)

RENEE PICARD'S TIME HEIST AND EVEN WILDER RIDE:  (Classic Trek shiz, classic time travel fuckery, focuses on the more action-packed side of temporal shenanigans.)

THE RED HERRING, AKA THE ROCKY HORROR PICARD SHOW:

Supposedly the main plot, but really a completely ridiculous distraction that's the narrative equivalent of dumping sand in the snowglobe and violently shaking it up. Captain Picard takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque and has to go do the Timewarp (again) in some creepy old castle so he can be magically transported back home. Yeah, okay buddy, just don't forget the teddy and the TP rolls to throw around the theater.

Cut this entire arc out, and the season improves substantially in both enjoyability and coherence. (I said what I said.) If any of the four major threads don't belong, don't move the story forward, and only serve to muck things up - it's this one. It's not so much an arc as a collapsible squiggly line that looks like it might go somewhere but never does. Great if you're drunk with a shadow cast and some floorwalkers. Not so great if you're actually trying to figure out WTF is going on. 

TAPESTRY RIDES AGAIN, AKA GRAND THEFT BORG QUEEN LOS ANGELES: And now for the main event, which was literally announced as such in one of the episodes, by two people breaking the fourth wall who were probably the LAST people anyone was expecting to break the fourth wall: Seven and Raffi. So naturally, we viewers took it as a couple of throwaway comments and cute banter to lighten the dark/intense mood of all the other crap. Yeah, oops. We can't say they didn't warn us.

At one point the two of them are joking around, talking about how they're the main event, and all these other side stories are just side stories, but...yeah. Looking back after S3, that was not a joke, and it goes above and beyond the call of foreshadowing. It was a flat-out tell, and with ALL the potential fourth wallbreakers in S2 - Q, the Borg Queen, The Traveller, the Long-Lived Alien Bartender With Multiple Mysterious Powers, The Temporally Flexible Romulan Spy Of Dubious Origin - if somebody's gonna spill some futuristic tea, it's gotta be one of them, right? RIGHT? Nope. Seven and Raffi snuck in the back door.

Basically, the Grand Theft Borg Queen arc was Tapestry, but for Seven (and Raffi and Jurati to an extent). Jurati and Raffi were, IMHO, initially intended to be pieces on the gameboard, not players, but they made themselves into major players. To what extent Jurati's involvement in outsmarting the Borg Queen was meant to be a challenge for her by Q, or part of Seven's trial that Jurati unwittingly assisted in IDK, and ditto Raffi's major role in all the aforementioned drama, but either way - Seven finally accepting herself the way she is, Borg hardware and all, was a direct, not even subtle parallel to the TNG episode Tapestry. 

The most direct link is the scene in Tapestry where Picard realizes he'd rather die as his true self than live as his other-universe self who "corrected" the "mistake" that led to his artifical heart. Seven accepted that she would rather live as her Ex-B true self than die as a fully organic human, and in doing so, passed the test. 

And Jurati and Raffi played no small part in that realization, and passed their own tests in the process - with Raffi embracing Seven (literally and figuratively) while resisting the urge to manipulate Cris out of choosing his own fate, and Jurati outsmarting and merging herself with the damn Borg Queen to protect humanity and her friends. Seven passed the Q Troll test with flying colors, and Raffi and Jurati did too - giving us Elnor and a benevolent Borg Queen in the future as a result. (Q is totally one of those teachers who gives his students rewards for passing the Big Test.)

Fire up S2 of Picard, get your Fast Forward button ready, and follow the Grand Theft Borg Queen: Los Angeles arc and ONLY that arc. Skip over every single thing (other than Q monologing, as that's the one common thread) that doesn't have Seven, Raffi, and/or Jurati. You'll get an entirely different experience. It's Tapestry, but for Seven, and with different tests/opportunities for Jurati and Raffi. (And they all pass). 

Now do it again, but FF anything that ISN'T either part of the Renee Picard Time Heist plotline or part of Cris and Theresa's story. You'll get a classic Back to the Future, MCU, Reset the Timeline, Poke-An-Alternate-Reality's-Doom-Destination-With-A-Stick style story. And they all pass too. Cris and Theresa get their happily ever after and punt the primeline forward through the next generation of temporally paradoxical, adopted and found family members. 

As for the BS at Chateau Picard? It's all a decoy/charade. So come in costume, bring plenty of shit to throw, and chug the wine. You'll need it. 

[kadextra]

another orv longpost is here 🕺

(again huge spoilers for the novel don’t click if you haven’t read)

since my last one of these, I have completed reading the demon realm revolutionary arc >:D

now lets get some miscellaneous thoughts out of the way before I go into analysis

THAT SCENE FROM AGES AGO WHICH I BARELY REMEMBERED FINALLY REVEALED ITS PURPOSE!!! MY JAW DROPPED. thank goodness fatherhood has made han myungoh way more likeable 🎉 he’s so soft & doting about his daughter <3 I want their little family to reunite go away asmodeus…

b i y o o.

I have noticed that the author loves to use the phrase “cold water poured over [the mood]” and that’s sooo accurate cause I felt exactly this way when dokja opened the 1st revision of TWSA and found it became an account of events influenced by his involvement in the story & is set after his future death. chills.

when dokja was legit about to die after destroying the demon duke guy in the big factory monster my heart was racing too. then joonghyuk came with the save last second :’D

the part where he described his senses after re-entering the scenario, the story embracing him, changing his breathing to feel alive again, and how that frightened him. ohh my god…..

also neat to see how the fourth wall helps practically too :D like when dokja was all mentally scattered and couldn’t think straight it helped by putting the pieces he already knew together for him

-

now onto some analysis dissecting dokja’s behavior :))

multiple times I’ve read how he hears a shocking thing and instantly goes like “I thought it was an auditory hallucination.” his first reaction to unbelievable stuff is believing that it’s not real. his power literally disassociates him it makes complete sense to react this way, good detail

it’s cool how he will be like ‘I think this’ then the fourth wall goes [Kim Dokja is thinking this]. sometimes it’s a helpful expansion of those original thoughts, or vice versa with dokja continuing off what the fourth wall says first

but it can be that the two lines of thought presented aren’t alike!! so I have had to read deeper into what he’s really thinking/feeling :D

through that, it is becoming way clearer to me in this story how some things dokja says & does are contradictory with what he himself narrates. it’s something that needs my closer attention while reading bc otherwise I could get fooled, he’s an unreliable narrator

sometimes he feigns disinterest when all signs in the dialogue point to him being emotional, or he puts on a confident narration but then the fourth wall or his actions exposes insecurity. sometimes he straight up has no idea why he’s acting certain ways -which I try piecing together- and occasionally he fights with himself too

these lines show that stuff pretty well

It was a reckless battle. It was uncharacteristic of me and I didn’t know why I acted like that.

No, don’t think like this. Kim Dokja, please wake up. You’ve survived so far thanks to this novel.

I wanted to ask why he came here. I wanted to ask what he would do in the future. However, completely different words emerged from my mouth.

I smiled slightly while covering my eyes with both hands. I didn’t appear so on the surface, but I wanted to say that I was smiling.

he was absolutely crying in the last one I know it

not my first rodeo with unreliable characters I love them <3

lastly, dokja was more desperate in this arc than I’ve ever seen him before. I saw how he started to get more troubled as it went on, but ofc the constant painful disintegration didn’t help 💀 the 1st revision.txt is useful with figuring out what to do but it’s sorta vague, he’s still anxious

that’s why I LOVED the writing on the wall conversation with jang hayoung.

it delved into those stresses and had him trying to think of a way to move forward. probably one of my most favorite discussions in the story thus far

I had to write something on this wall. This is despite the fact that it might change what has already been written…

I didn’t want to be a person who only read.

I had been acting as a reader the whole time. In order to see the ending I wanted, I had to create a new story. In fact I had already warped reality.. I just didn’t know yet who would read it.

👏🔥👏💯🔥👏💯🔥👏

a person who doesn’t just read, but writes too… so curious to see what he does now especially since he doesn’t have multiple lives to mess with

wow long ramble but I love love deep diving into stuff I can’t wait to see more cool things as I go on <3

if you wanna see my other rambles about orv check my tag #kade reads

[greycappedjester]

Hi! I really love your writing, it really inspires me! One of my dreams is to create a comic/webtoon of some sort, but I want it to include comedy as well as darker themes…but I’m not so good at combining those things. I’m amazed at how well you do it in your HQ @ HW series, especially the 4th one. Do you have any tips on how I could pull it off and balance both?

Good luck on your webcomic!

Hmm, I guess some of how I combine humor and darker themes is to know the vibes of the story arc and characters you want. For example, in the fourth Hq at Hogwarts story, I knew the Noya and Tanaka story was--for once--going to be pretty serious. I paired it with the Flumpy storyline for the rest of the group which was the normal goofball paranoid humor. Since I knew the tone I wanted for those, it was easier to have that tone in mind while writing.

In the same sense, I think it helps to have a good idea of the characters. There are going to be some things that characters are going to be amused by at many times (for example, Kuroo and Oikawa will typically be cheered up by minor chances to pick at each other). There are also moments that affect characters deeply that will likely darken even a lighthearted moment (for Bokuto, a typically cheerful character, if Akaashi being upset/avoiding him is brought up then it'll definitely upset him. Tanaka and Suga are pretty good spirited characters but are deeply affected by mentions of their parents). Knowing how and what affects the characters can help shift a scene from serious to humor or from humor to serious.

I guess with that it's also important to know what you want out of the scene. In my opinion, all scenes should have purpose. These can be big purposes (ex: important plot point needds to be mentioned, an action needs to prompt major character growth, foreshadowing needs to occur) or it can be minor purposes (ex: need to mention that Hinata is doing potions tutoting later, need to make references to graduation to remind readers that's this year, need to have a dueling club scene because it's been a bit, need to have a lighthearted scene to boost mood, need to mention this plot point even if there hasn't been too much development on it yet because I don't want people to forget that it's going on in the background).

Once you know the characters and what you want out of the scene, I believe it's easier to plan out how you want the scene to go.

Hope this help :)

[true--north]

Hot take?? Elsa shouldn't have apologised to Anna. She did nothing wrong, and that's why the real apologise never happened. The following text is Elsa apologetic.

First, Anna left her no choice. Anna's fears and insecurities hold Elsa back again and again through the film; she didn't let Elsa to pass the Earth initiation, for instance, etc. We can say that this prevented Anna herself to let the Place of Transformation change her and grow her into something new, the queen she was meant to be, much earlier.

Second, even if Anna could have physically made to Ahtohallan she shouldn't. Because Ahtohallan revelations were intended for Elsa alone, it was her magical journey to her Source, it was she in the shipwreck manuscript. Magic is for magic, Kingdom is for Kingdom, that's the pattern of the dual myth/fairytale narrative, they must not be mixed.

Third, the paradox of F2 is that there are some promises and aspirations they claim to keep, later they got broken and at the end, they still become fulfilled in an unexpected way. For example, "the flag of Arendelle will always fly". The wind tears it when the Spirits first were awakened, but then Elsa saves the castle and a new flag rises up. The same thing is with "we'll do this together." In a literal sense they did "it" separately, but we do know that they worked for the same cause. They have to be separated to truly be together, it matters for the boat or any other or the ending scenes. So if this all was for the good, then Elsa has nothing to apologise for. Saying that it would have been right for Anna to go to Ahtohallan, conquer the spirits with Elsa, has every part in Elsa, always follow her around etc, we kinda undervalue the much-praised bridge concept, a bridge whose sides stand on the opposite shores.

Fourth, we know that Anna suffered from some inferiority complex (FoS and the DN cast a light on this) In the final reunion scene Elsa reassures Anna saying that she is important, that all Spirits chose her to be the queen, that she means a lot. That's a form of conclusion for the "just a spare" arc, in a sense. This is Elsa lifting Anna mood and self esteem, not "you've been right all along" 😗 I see it this way.

[zorilleerrant]

people coming up with theories about the new run of Doctor Who seem to be forgetting a really important fact. the genre has changed. everyone reading this through the lens of a science fiction show is wrong, because the genre and narrative markers aren't science fiction anymore. and, yeah, it's hard to tell, because it was always more into the science fantasy end, so the particular clues were subgenre specific anyway. and they were there!

but the Doctor whispered into the end of the universe and brought magic to life. it's a fantasy show now, straight up fantasy. indications are going to be based on a different conversation. now the brand of fantasy is the kind of high camp, self-aware kind most familiar from recent podcasts, so it's a pretty specific subgenre too. the kind of meta-fantasy Shrek popularized, only taken a little more seriously. so, no, things aren't entirely contiguous with any previous installments of DW. but they also don't have the same rules

fourth wall breaking? it's not a clue. it's the kind of power that The Doctor gets to remind us he's an alien who doesn't quite experience the same world that humans do. deus ex machina, always having the helpful thing right to hand, or mysteriously finding it? also generally not a clue. that's genre specific shorthand, the way technobabble used to paste over those gaps. power of coincidence? I mean that's driving the season arc because it's generally a function of narrative, but it's not active or agentive the way it used to be, back in the Bad Wolf version of events.

now the interesting thing is - we're going to have to pay a lot more attention to the soundtracking. minor keys mean different things in sf and fantasy. and especially lyrics hold a lot of meaning in a fantasy context than can be overlooked in sf. and we're going to have to pay more attention to the color palettes too. they're not just mood setting anymore; they're secondary protagonists of a sort. the story's going to be more and more built around set and costume.

all those funny little jokes in the background of older episodes? in-jokes and references and little worldbuilding tchotchkes? those are your clues, now. they're not in there just to fill things out anymore. no, the accessories and accoutrements of our Doctor and companion and ship take their place in the "filling out details" section of the story. things in the background are there now because they're watching us. waiting to be noticed.

and you're going to find The One Who Waits (Ruby's bio grandma) in the details hidden in the corners there

[schmedterlingfreud]

🍂​ Day [23 of 100] of Productivity 🍂

Writing: - La cosa più pericolosa; Chapter 22 -- Finished and posted!

With this Chapter 22 we finally start the new story arc "Se tutto andrà come si spera" ("If it's all going to be well"). As I was previously saying, I consider this the central point, the pivot that separates the two big sides of the entire story, so it's going to be very important but very difficult to write as well. Despite that, I'm very excited about starting it (well, I've already started it, lol), and I hope to make a good job out of it. A certain little bun is already baking in the oven, eheh. Wish me luck! ஐ

- Effetto Luna; Chapter 20 and 21 (... work in progress) It's going to take just five chapters to the end of the longfic. My idea is to step on my pen gas and to dedicate my time just to "Effetto Luna" until the end of the story. Once I have completed this longfic, in fact, I want to start working on the next project that will be…

- Meduse a centinaia (something like "Hundreds of jellyfish" -- already work in progress), which is going to be the fourth story being part of "Le Cronache di Portorosso". This is going to be the smallest -- nine or ten chapter max --, and the least important of the saga, speaking of narrative and plot. But I hope to have fun writing it, and to make my readers happy, of course. (,,>ヮ<,,) And no... this is not the "Brand new mysterious project" I started working on this summer... but let's keep an eye on that 👀.

Reading: - The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick - The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath - The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (Completed)

Listening to: Power of the Beast, by Beast in Black

Snacking on: Butter spekulatius cookies

Extra: Fighting my latest and multiple mental breakdowns, it seems my mood is improving! Are the magical herbal drops from the friars working? I'm not really sure about it, but I hope to feel energetic and productive as long as possible. Please, don't take my vent posts too seriously, okay? "( ^-^) But thank you again to all of you for sticking with me even during my whining and pitiful crying. I want to do my best, and I want to make my readers happy -- you readers are the real reason I manage to stay sane in my life, all right? Please, always take care of yourself, of your body and your mind. If my silly little stories can be a tiny help to keep you company during difficult and hurtful times, I will always be the happiest writer in the whole world. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

[bonewaryreblogs]

Silver Boom

Feeling in a Sonic mood, let's see how long it lasts :p

So I've had my main hedgehogs done for a while, finally finished Tails, and I'm halfway done with Knuckles and don't feel motivated enough to finish him -.- but this is more or less what he'll look like

I have an older version of the 'hogs and a lot of info on Reddit

Anyways

Silver the Hedgehog is my favorite Sonic character and the initial idea for this was to add Silver to the Sonic Boom franchise, rewriting the mess that was Rise of Lyric. Then I could add him into the show's timeline and fix some things that bugged me there. Like Sticks' whole existence.

But we'll get to that!

I realized at some point that I can basically do whatever I want with this universe, so I decided to utilize elements of most of the Sonic games/media I was familiar with, researching what I was less familiar with, and throwing it all together to create a mostly coherent story. I'll try to use (or at least touch on) as much as I can but forgive me if I leave out your favorite thing. If I do, please tell me about it! I can always be persuaded to add more and this universe is hardly set in stone :p

Basic History of Mobius

While the planet mobius was mostly formed like any other, its molten core contained magic mixed with magma. From the tumult, some of the magic magma crystalized and found its way to the surface, forming eight crystals directly linked to the eight quadrants of the spherical molten magic core. Lesser crystals filled with magic power grew in caves near the magic magma but their powers were finite while the connected eight, eventually called Chaos Crystals, were seemingly limitless as they drew from the core directly.

The Ancients, as they would come to be known, used the “clean” energy of the Chaos Crystals to fuel their hi-tech society but removing the Crystals from their proper places and using their energy with such reckless abandon unbalanced the planet’s magic and the society crumbled under its own weight. Many of the Chaos Crystals were taken and jealously guarded by what would become a magic fueled ruling class, generally influenced by the crystals’ instinctual will to return to their rightful places in the world.

Such was the fate of the Sun Stone of Soleanna, Spagonia; The Radiant Opal in the Kingdom of Acorn, Northammer; the Sky Garnet of the Babylonian Gardens, Shamar, until its cataclysmic demise and subsequent withdrawal into a desert storm; the Verdant Emerald of Angel Island, guarded by the near extinct Knuckles Clan of echidnas; and, in a way, the Twilight Amethyst of the Moonlit Mountains, Holoska, whose protectors are “recruited” from across the globe for their powerful potential. Of the remaining Chaos Crystals, the Shock Zircon powers a prison holding a mage and mechanist from the Ancient War; the Tidal Sapphire is protected by a powerful water elemental in the depths of the sea; and the Flame Ruby is sealed and resealed within a host, the latest of which is the heir to Soleanna’s throne. Having two Chaos Crystals in such close proximity to each other, and Angel Island traveling overhead, unbalanced the magic enough for Lyric to escape his prison and begin to plan his takeover.

~

In more recent history, humans arrived in the Space Colony Arc about 150 years ago, enough time for the first generation (Gerald Robotnik) to have died off, the second generation (Professor Pickle) to be old and retired, the third generation (Ivo Robotnik/"Eggman") to have been at least raised on the planet if not born there, and the fourth generation (Chris Thorndyke) to be in school, having known nothing else.

Mobius was in a medieval type of era when they arrived and relied heavily on a magic-wielding ruling class with various magic artifacts. The humans, only about a thousand strong when they arrived, bribed their way to peace by selling their tech and knowledge, allowing the average citizen to be able to stand toe-to-toe with magic-wielders. This lead to rapid advances and an odd mix of extremely advanced technology right next to medieval magic, as well as a combined magi-tech emerging in prominence, as they begin to understand the mechanisms behind their magic.

The Arc is in approximate geosynchronous orbit over Spagonia and is considered the capital “city” for humans, though they’ve been allowed to make several colonies on the planet itself. Eggman is essentially kicked out of the human civilization for being too reckless and unpredictable to fit into the box most humans set up for themselves. He’s mostly harmless, unable to take over a single island due to Sonic and friends stopping him.

~

Our story begins as Silver wakes up from another nightmare, the same one he always has; the blue hedgehog, surrounded by flame and rubble, turning to look at Silver with a cocky smile. The details would change, of course, but the hedgehog and the dread was always the same. Silver goes about his day (possibly several days, depending) before Mephiles contacts Silver to come see him. Mephiles is the personification of the Twilight Amethyst and leader of the Twilight Clan; he knows of Silver’s constant nightmares and wants to hear about this latest one. Eventually the discussion turns to Silver’s increasing desire to leave, find the blue Hedgehog, and prevent the destruction he always sees in his dreams. Mephiles eventually relents; Silver is banished from the Clan, as is their custom with anyone who leaves, but he does so with Mephiles’ blessing.

Led by instinct, Silver finds himself at Bygone Isle and immediately recognizes Sonic from his dreams. Having heard horror stories about outsiders all his life, Silver decides to hide and observe for now; it’s against his nature to hurt the innocent but he isn’t sure Sonic is innocent of the impending doom. Some stories were confirmed to be true, like everyone living separately, but some seemed to be false, like nobody helping each other. Of course, it doesn’t take long for Silver to be found out; he was well trained but still young and inexperienced. In a panic, Silver spouts off about the inevitable doom of the planet and Sonic’s connection to it, leading to misunderstandings and general caution between them. Silver still watches but doesn’t bother hiding as much.

Thus begins the main storyline of Rise of Lyric. Race around the globe with Sonic and friends to see who can get to the Chaos Crystals first; can our heroes keep them long enough to keep the world from falling apart?