#getting into things via fanfic is always fun imo

[velvetwyrme]

ouuaauauagaha i just got home and i was so sad the whole way back :-(( I can't articulate what i feel but dee (??) and pax DDD: their friendship :'(( i love whatever they have it's so GRHRHHHGHH the animations and visuals are sooo pleasing to the eye and so good auauaga the choreography of the fight scenes are so ?!??!!$(#((#($? also sooooo foul for that sentinel keychain omg id get one if i could lololol

im so happy i watched tfone i loved every single second of it (my faves r bee and dee auauuaah) i rlly wanna know where to go after this movie what do you recommend reading/watching after?? :00

YAAY IM GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT!! And yeah!!!! TF One is inherently kind of a tragedy since it's a prequel... Orion Pax/Optimus Prime and D-16/Megatron's dynamic before the war hurts me so 😭😭 my little HEART...

Omg yes the fight choreography 💖💖 I especially loved how they included their transformations into the fighting scenes (even more so because some of the specific transformations were ones they had trouble with at the beginning, and now they've learned how to use them and I thought that was pretty neat! is it obvious I've seen thsi movie 3 times now rhdkfbdkfbk)

And thank you ;]] I aim to be extremely ill about characters always. Sentinel. Oh, Sentinel...

Bee and Dee my beloveds!!! 🤝 I was surprised that I liked Bee as much as I did in this- he's the comedic relief but I LOVE HIM SO MUCH...

and. OH GOD. WHAT A QUESTION.

I've stuck the rest of this post under the cut because if you've been following me for any amount of time you know how wordy I can get 😔

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So. you have multiple options because Transformers has a truly ridiculous amount of TV series and some really REALLY good comics.

Transformers Skybound (Comics)

I can only really vouch for the ones I've watched/read, but here are my general suggestions for where to look next! There's also a tl;dr at the end in case you looked at this and just went "oh god"

Additional note: mmmmost of these series have their own idea of what pre-war Cybertron (and subsequently, Megatron and Optimus' origins) looked like, so if you're expecting a continuation of the story from TF One uhhhhh apologies u_u

First off: the current ongoing comic series!

If you want more action, more violence, and also so much more sadness, definitely go for this one. It's gutpunch after gutpunch after gutpunch. Since it IS ongoing however, only time will tell what how the storyline/s will turn out ^^" I think it's pretty good so far though!

However, if you're also intending to eventually look for fanmade content, this series has less of a dedicated fanbase, especially when compared to...

It's easy to get into, but it's also relatively short (especially in comparison to the other suggestions) since it's up to... Issue 13 at the moment? That's still a decent chunk to sink your teeth into!

Transformers (2005) // IDW1 (Comics)

The IDW comic run of Transformers :]!! It's REALLY REALLY GOOD. It ran from 2005-2018, so it's also really, really long.

It can be a bit confusing in terms of order, but luckily there are several reading guides - ONE MORE which I would have loved to have known about when I started reading LMAO IDW1 tends to jump from story to story, which can get a bit confusing, but also it does so in such a way that ties plots together in really fun ways.

Some people will tell you that you can start off with the More Than Meets The Eye (MTMTE) series which is... probably true! It's a fan favorite series, and rightfully so. Also, I think the characterisation of Megatron in MTMTE is really interesting!

I tried starting at MTMTE and just went "HEY. This is set after the war though! I want to know about the war and all that stuff!" and so I ended up reading literally Everything else that comes before it. Which is a lot. I smashed through most of the 420+ total issues in under 2 months because I'm insatiable though.

Transformers Prime // TFP (Animated Series)

Another recommendation I saw for testing the waters (taken directly from a reddit post I saw while locating the guides) is to try reading Last Stand of the Wreckers and the sequel, Sins of the Wreckers, or Megatron Origins and Spotlight: Megatron to kind of get a feel for the sort of thing you're getting into.

My personal suggestion would be to follow this reading guide if you decide to read the comics! Mostly because the person who made it included notes, and as evidenced, I love notes. Theirs are thankfully much shorter than mine.

Another fan favorite! It's an animated series that takes things in a more gritty direction, but I think it does it really well! Maybe. I haven't... actually watched it, which is funny because it's technically what got me to finally check out Transformers.

You might have seen me reblogging a certain Pointy Black, Purple and Faceless guy sometimes. He's from this series.

Transformers Animated // TFA (Animated Series)

And lastly...

TFA is a standalone series (as in it has minimal ties to the lore/continuity of other series) which is the main reason why I'm recommending it. The secondary reasons are because it's really fun and it's the series I grew up watching lol. I'm biased!! I like it a lot!! I would probably suggest one of the other options on this list to start off with, but I really like TFA... ;u;

.......... Fanfiction.

This, in my opinion, is The Best Way to get familiarised with characters.* ...I'm serious about that, and only slightly less serious about this being a suggestion of where to look next lol.

*Well, this plus TFWiki, which is genuinely the coolest wiki of all time. There are jokes and silly jabs while still being incredibly informative!! I love it!!!!

Other options that I can't personally vouch for, but have heard good things about:

Anyway, this is ACTUALLY how I got into Transformers. I kept reading TF fanfic and furiously googling characters appearances because I like giant robots, then I fell in love with Soundwave from TFP, and then I caved and read IDW1 as my proper introduction to Transformers lol. I think it's fun to do it that way, but I know it's not for everyone lol.

Earthspark is one of the newer animated series, and apparently it's pretty good! The second season less so (...?), but it seems to have been a pretty good jumping on point for a lot of people.

TL;DR: suggestions, in no particular order:

Cyberverse is another animated series, and it's pretty cute! I watched the first season and some of the second. Apparently it gets better in the later seasons- more plot heavy and interesting ^^!

If you're so inclined there's also always the Original G1 cartoon, which is fun! If you like cartoons from the 80s, just jump in idk. I've watched some, I think it's neat.

There is also the Transformers (2019) or IDW2 comics which was a reboot done by the the same publishers who did the 2005 series (thus IDW1/2) with a different and much more... streamlined story to follow. I haven't read that yet, but I've heard it's good! It got cut short because they lost the licensing though :(

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Comics:

Transformers (Skybound)

Transformers (IDW 2005)

Transformers (IDW 2019)

Animated Series:

Transformers Prime

Transformers Animated

Transformers Earthspark

Transformers Cyberverse

Misc.:

Fanfiction...? (I'm making a fic reclist anyway so I thought I might as well include this as an option lol)

Good luck! Enjoy! Tell me what you decide on, if you so desire!!!

Would you believe me if I said this is me specifically holding back from talking about each series? Because this is me holding back from going wild and talking abt each series.

I was going to make a flowchart, but then decided that would take too long. And then I wrote this out and took too long.

[castlebyersafterdark]

re your tags. look I can see how it could be sad if we look at it that way buuuut let’s think for a minute. noah has known finn forever and pretty sure he’s always had a crush, it’s been obvious to me since s2 imo but I don’t think he would like act up like this way if he still had a hopeless, could never be reciprocated crush, seeing as how he’s older now, knows how to hide it appropriately after years, and also wouldn’t want to make things weird seeing as how they are doing an onscreen romance at the same time ya know? I feel like he would be able to keep his composure and professionalism for the sake of Finn’s comfort at least if not himself lmao buuuuut if there is something going on there beyond just friendship? then yea shit is gonna leak out a little bit because he’s excited and can’t help himself. like imagine having a crush on someone for years as a kid and then it (maybe) finally happening?!? yea you’re gonna be a bit down bad. that’s my thought process lol

I am delulu and free but with a side of still being logical hahahahha

Compiling several of these here!!! The wildly different reactions to fan-acount-gate hahaha.

It's honestly one of the more interesting little sleuthing things I've seen so far - it's just so. Odd. But endearing? Whether he's in a relationship with the man or not, it's so in the realm of having feelings for the guy, and this is a neutral read as someone who has fun with the concept of these two together but does try to look at it from an outside perspective with passive enjoyment as my interaction with FN. (Primarily because I don't like admitting to being wrong? Perhaps. The Byler confidence is strong and there's so much evidence to back that up as a story-telling narrative. A celebrity relationship? Tabloid gossip via fan blogs. So much room for error. And I don't like to lose hahahaha) I CAN ADMIT IT.

Intrigued and hopeful but free, that's me! Because it's such a Noah move? His hyper-online engagement with his own fandom. Not like most celebrities. Endlessly endearing. Following fan accounts is so random. It feels like he was covering for following the Finn ones with the others. I get being on tiktok and having edits from the show you are in pushed to you (I don't really know how it works, maybe he sought them out in the past, maybe it was happenstance on the feed or a friend sent it and he was amused). But pointedly following a FW fan account and then looking at the stories??? Boy....

Because Finn is the guy he literally sees all the time at work and also clearly hangs out with. In reality. In person. In his real life. And then he goes online and is looking at content like that? Wild. It could be pining, it could be all in his feels if it's real and they're apart, it could just be a cheeky little thing like hell yeah, that's my man and none of you even know. FASCINATED.

Hey, maybe Finn is chilling in the bed next to him and Noah is showing him the edits kind of teasing him about them and then hmmmm. Fanfic territory. Moving on...

[scummy-writes]

I don't find this fandom welcoming. I posted a few fics and there was barely any interaction. I joined a few discords and was shocked to see the amount of vague-talking about other bloggers. Not a nice place imho

Your main experience with it not being welcoming is barely interaction and bad discord servers?

Hm. This is a very limited amount of information and since this is anon, my opinion is heavily based on trying to guess the most likely reasons why this is your experience. With that said, my opinion is this:

What do you count as barely interaction?

Is it that your post 'only' got five notes? Ten? Twenty? Are your expectations built off of other fandom's notes, or fanfics that are a year old and have gotten the luck of being reblogged and circulated a lot more? The comparison game is a bitch and a half if you're trying to gauge that as how welcoming a fandom is. Because the truth of the matter is, even if you're writing the fanfic equivalent of Shakespeare, if it is not tagged properly, a super long fanfic with no readmore, posted on a holiday, posted on a weekday, etc etc, it can yaknow. Not be Seen a lot. And if you're just posting something you've made with the intentions of just being seen, rather than having fun creating, in a smallerscale fandom like this, unfortunately it will not meet your expectations at times.

I don't know why there is this undercurrent of belief that you have to be actively creating some kind of fancreation to be able to talk to people as well. In complete honesty, I have seen screenshots of the game with some event dialogue or something, five words written on the post, and it have like 100+ notes. Sometimes sharing just your thoughts on dialogue is enough to get conversations going if you got it tagged and etc. These are blogs made for sharing thoughts and interacting with others thoughts, whether those thoughts are fanfics, fanart, fanedits, commentary on the games, theories, ideas, incoherent yelling about your faves, etc etc.

Are you reaching out and talking to people on your own accord? Because I think that also plays a Huge part in being talked back to, and having what you create seen. If you're posting into the tags and it doesn't get seen for whatever reason, and you're not actively talking to others and making friends via communication... how are people supposed to see what you make?

I think people see what they deem 'popular' blogs, who are usually creators who just got very lucky, and expect to be treated like that very fast, and when they don't, they think there is something wrong with them and the fandom, when it's almost always neither imo. I think it can be a build up of frustration that is getting unfairly targeted at yourself at times (in this case, a general 'you' is what I am using here), or outwardly towards strangers because your post isn't being seen in a sea of posts. And then sometimes there is very unfair resentment towards 'popular' bloggers due to this, where it's sometimes seen as their fault for not 'engaging' with everyone when, again...sea of posts. People working 40 hr workweeks. People with a family they're raising. People going to school. Etc etc.

So... is it the fandom being unwelcoming, or is it a weird pressure you're putting on yourself and others for no reason?

In regards to the discord stuff, since I feel that is a bit separate:

Discord servers... hm. The vague talking you reference is also very vague, and I think that depends. Because what is the vague talking? Is it something like "man someone posted a really awful and harmful opinion regarding this mental illness a suitor had" with no name dropping, no link sharing, and someone just a bit bummed someone said something hurtful? Or is it like... "[blogger name] is a piece of shit because they did [unproven thing]".

Those are two extremes, and there could be many more examples that I would see as more '''''acceptable''''' referencing of someone (the poor mental health take example where no one is identified and no one is specifically going apeshit on the blogger, just sad to see something harmful), and then the bullshit of namedropping and being a cunt for no reason. There are layers to this! Context matters a lot and I am left with not a clear thing to comment on.

My advice for discord servers, regardless of the fandom, is this:

Look at the blogs of the people who moderate/own it. Do they meet your personal levels of safety? Or are they actively arguing with other people in the fandom with the intention of just being a dick?

Is the server for all ages or for adults? That usually weeds out some childish behavior. Does the server have rules? Are there rules set in place to essentially be like "hey lets not namedrop people and shittalk them for no good reason"? Are there rules against being a dick? And if there are rules... are there mods to enforce them? Do they listen when notified of the behavior? That matters A Lot.

I think I tried....four? Five? Different discord servers where I kept running into people I did not like, or I thought I got along okay with until they did smth out of the blue that made me go "yikes!".

Sooo... i blocked their tumblr accounts. And talked to other people. Those few folks I blocked did not spell out that they themselves were the entirety of the fandom... because there are hundreds of other folks to talk to, and I found a handful I enjoy and settled in with that. Trial and error of course, but I still found people.

Your experiences are different than mine, but unfortunately I cannot agree that those experiences alone mean that this entire fandom is unwelcoming. I think you had some bad experiences and I'm sorry for that, but I can't nod along and go "yeah this whole fandom is shit." essentially.

[madampince-rph]

everybody always makes alice longbottom in the same families: fortescue, selwyn, prewett. which do you think is best? or do you have better suggestion? thnx

Honestly I really don’t like Alice as a Prewett. It doesn’t make sense to me. I mean we know that Molly is really big on family, basically adopting Harry after five minutes conversation, so if Neville was a nephew or something like that don’t you think she’d have been part of his childhood? Even just a small part? Don’t you think the Weasley children would consider him family, even distant family, if he was a direct Prewett descendant? Making Alice a Prewett makes me uncomfortable, because if you project that lineage out to what we get in the books later it just doesn’t work. imo: bad idea, one of the worst.

Between Fortescue and Selwyn, I prefer Selwyn. We don’t get to really meet any Selwyns in the books – just one Death Eater who shows up briefly – but we have a nice little encounter with Florean Fortescue, and he seems like a friendly sort of guy. Someone who would likely have made at least a token effort to be involved in the childhood of a basically-orphaned little kid whom everyone thought was a Squib, if he had been part of Neville’s family. And while there is nothing in the books that says he and Neville weren’t family or friendly, the fact that Florean hangs out with Harry for a summer and doesn’t mention anything about Neville – a boy who is in not just the same year as Harry, but the same house – well, it just reads as off. Or that is it would read as off, if Neville was a relative of Florean, because that seems like the kind of thing that would have come up in conversation even if he and Neville weren’t personally close. But when Harry is summarizing his weeks in Diagon Alley, he doesn’t say “Florean Fortescue, Neville’s uncle who ran the ice cream parlor…” or anything like that, which leaves anyone trying to make that canon connection the responsibility of answering the question, why not? Why would Florean not introduce himself via Neville when he met Harry? Why would Harry not reference Florean’s connection to his housemate? I’m not saying you can’t make it work, that it’s impossible to come up with a way to make Alice a Fortescue without making later events in the books go wonky – but you definitely need to make that effort to craft that backstory.

Honestly having Alice be directly related to anyone we meet in the books who interacts with Harry in any sort of extended and friendly fashion doesn’t really work for me, because it feels awkward for them to never mention something about “oh you got to school with my nephew, Neville, he talks about you all the time!” or so on, you know? And again, it’s not impossible to do it and do it well, but it is something you have to tackle because when you’re writing a prequel (which is what Marauders Era stuff is if you think about it): you have to be very conscious of the canon that is going to come later and how what you’re writing now that’s new works alongside what was written previously about what is going to happen next. I think we’re all familiar with badly done prequel stories that don’t quite mesh with their later-slash-earlier installments, so I expect you get what I mean when I say that that kind of attention to detail matters!

(Also tbh most of the time when I see Alice linked to a family like that, one of the “nice ones” we meet, her background tends to read as pretty “Mary Sue-ish” anyway. You know what I mean: the sort of OC-insert character who ~conveniently~ has really close family ties to other characters we know and she’s suuuuuper important in their lives and oh-so-special and…basically it just makes you think of bad fanfics, right? The kind you write when you’re twelve and want to burn later? Maybe that’s just me idk, but any time I see the name “Alice Fortescue” I cringe because I think I know what’s coming, and sadly I’m usually right.)

Anyway, basically the thing that I think is important to keep in mind when crafting a backstory for Alice is what we learn about Neville’s upbringing: he was raised by his paternal grandmother. He had a family of busybody relatives who sent him lots of advice on what classes to take and who all thought he was a Squib when he was little and did awful things to try and get his magic to show itself (the doing of which seemed very casual, almost like he was an afterthought, as evinced by him being dropped out the window once when someone wanted desert). No one thought he was important or talented. His grandmother takes him to visit his parents in St. Mungo’s on holidays. She acts very familiar to her daughter-in-law (although admittedly she’s spent about fourteen years visiting her in the closed ward by then, so there’s no telling what their relationship was like back when Alice had her full faculties) and worn-out by it all, although still fiercely proud of her son’s talents (and later her grandson’s, at least once he finally “lives up to” what she wanted from him after the fighting against Voldemort starts).

From here on out this is admittedly all extrapolation, but going off of what we know: it has always seemed to me as though there are a lot of Longbottoms of Augusta’s generation or around that age but not a lot of younger ones, and Alice’s family doesn’t seem to be involved in things with Neville much at all. We know she’s a pure-blood, because Neville is, so it’s not a situation like with Lily – but we also know that the family line means a lot to most pure-blood families. So from that we can draw the assumption that for whatever reason, Alice’s son doesn’t matter much to her side of the family, even though one would think he ought to. Is that because she comes from a huge family, so the Squib-ish son of the girl who went mad and got locked up in St. Mungo’s isn’t someone they need to spend much thought on? Is that because she comes from a family that has almost died-out and there just aren’t many of them left to care about him? Is it because they don’t consider him part of “their” family as much as they do “a Longbottom” because the maternal line doesn’t matter to them as much? Is it because Alice herself had a falling-out with her family so they severed ties before Neville was born?Is it because her family and the Longbottoms just don’t get along (either for reasons that existed at the time Alice and Frank got married, which she did despite her family’s wishes, or for reasons that cropped-up later – perhaps over the side that Alice and Frank chose in the war, or perhaps they blame him for what happened to her, etc etc?) so they don’t want to have anything to do with the Longbottoms...who might not welcome them anyway even if they did?

The last option makes me like the Selwyn idea because we know the Selwyns are pure-bloods at least in part (from the fact that Umbridge claims their lineage when sporting Slytherin’s locket) and we know that at least one of them was a Death Eater. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean the whole family was a bunch of blood-supremacists of course, but it does give us more potential to play with than we get from the Fortescues or the Ollivanders (or the Prewetts), I believe. Giving Alice a family that is: a) majority pro-voldemort or b) mixed between pro-voldemort/pro-dumbledore or even c) majority pro-dumbledore but with a few outcast death eaters provides a much more interesting and idea-fertile background, I think, for both her and her son.

To that end I’m thinking that if you really want to tie Alice in with a family that has members we know well – maybe one that provides you with relatives who will also be played in your game without adding a bunch of OCs – you can always go with the Lestranges. That’s an idea that occurred to me recently that I really, really like. Make her a cousin or second-cousin or so forth to Rodolphus and Rabastan. Not a sister; if she was that closely related to them the dialogue we get between Bellatrix and Neville later gets awkward because there’s no way she wouldn’t introduce herself as his “auntie” to drive the spikes in deeper, not if they had that kind of connection – but some sort of relation, anyway. Then you get to add another layer of intensity to a bunch of canon things without having to actually twist canon at all:

Why did Voldemort pick the Potters and their half-blood son to go after first, before the pure-blood boy? Maybe it wasn’t just because he and Harry shared the same blood-status; maybe it was because the pure-blood was related to his most loyal servant so he figured he’d start with the stranger (either because he thought Harry would be easier to deal with, or because he trusted Bella and her boys to be quick to deal with the Longbottoms if they got troublesome in the meantime).

Why did the Lestranges go after the Longbottoms when they wanted information about Voldemort’s whereabouts? Maybe it wasn’t just because they were Aurors who knew Ministry secrets and were part of the Order; maybe it was because they were family. We know that Bellatrix is enthusiastic about the prospect of pruning traitors out of her family tree after all, an idea that she would probably extend to her relatives-by-marriage even if the Lestrange brothers didn’t share that fatal familial enthusiasm for themselves…although they probably do.

Why did the Lestranges torture the Longbottoms so much that they lost their minds permanently, when surely that meant going far beyond the point of their actually being able to get any answers from them? Maybe it wasn’t just because they got carried away and liked the fun of it so they kept going even when it wasn’t useful any more; maybe it was exacerbated by the fact that Alice and Frank were family and they needed to be punished for choosing the wrong side. Maybe it was personal.

If Alice was a Lestrange before her marriage, then tension between the Longbottoms and the Lestranges gets ratcheted-up about a thousand points in all areas, both regarding the things that happen in the books and their relationships before. It puts her in a position similar to Sirius and Andromeda, where the battle lines are drawn between the branches on her own family tree and she has to decide how far she is willing to go for what she believes in, even when she knows the person looking back at her out of that silver mask.

The First Wizarding War divided people against their own family and friends and too often we get mired in extreme black-and-white ideas of good and evil sides, forgetting that there are a lot more shades of gray (just ask Sirius). Since we know so little about Alice, she’s a perfect opportunity to explore that nuance and making her related to a few Death Eaters (of any family) is a great way to play around with that. Honestly I have like a hundred different ideas of things that could be done with such an Alice so if you want to build one and you’re drawing a blank please hit me up I will gladly gush to you!

tl;dr Alice Selwyn = yes, that’s interesting. Alice Fortescue = a whole lot of meh and a little awkward. Alice Prewett = please no that causes more problems than it does anything else. Also consider as an option: Alice Lestrange.

[macgyvertape]

50 or so hours into Cyberpunk 2077

This should be roughly the correct amount of time, ive been leaving the game running as I get up to get food or do stretches. Quests are roughly in order I did them

non spoilers above cut:

 i haven't found a single hat/helmet i like, and since you can't hide them I just am not wearing any. It matters that much.

I posted the other day about bugs, every few hours I play I find new bugs. some require me to go back and reload a save others I honestly can’t tell if it’s a bug or just really poor development

there are several perks that don’t quite do what the description says, like the Anamesis perk. Based on reddit and trying it out it seems to just not do anything.

sometimes in car chase segments the passenger will say “look out” as cars spawn in my path and hit me. Can’t tell if that was deliberate or a pop in issue

Yeah I’ve just totally given up on doing pacifist things unless required by a mission. Given up on doing stealth too unless a mission objective, except for sneaking around to set up a fight.

:readmore:

the delemain car quest is fun. From the shock of the one going "beep beep motherfucker" and doing a hit and run to start it off, to the GLADOS car i see a lot of people talking about. It was fun to explore the city when i might have missed places like the landfill apparently there is follow up on T-bug's death if you go back to the quick hack shop in Kabuki. It's not much but better than nothing I made the pass with Panam of "what if the room just had one bed". I know she won't do a wlw romance, which is fine since I wouldn’t have chosen her.  I enjoy her as a character, don’t get me wrong, my V considers her as a friend, but it seems like theres always drama going on which would be tiring. I would have gone for a fling, i like her leotard-pants combo with all the straps

but also her questline was buggy as hell. Multiple cases of having to reload due to clipping into objects, including her in a driving section, or just insta-dying when collision physics with some rocks broke "your neural network can no longer function independantly of the chip" me slapping my desk: s y m b i o te!!! come on lets have some s y m b i o s i s

in the scene with hellman i really liked how Johnny moved around the room. It made him feel like he was really there. it was hard to follow the convo as I left the room, i would not have understood it without subtitles. But i guess Takemura fucking waterboarded hellman. :|

lol I hope the dialogue is different b/c i refuse to smoke for Johnny

i am level 18 and still can't beat the first opponents in the fist fighting quest. ffs

I looked up the romances options so I went to do the I fought the law quest as soon as i got it. ACAB, but like I literally just met River Ward 2 minutes ago, and I really like him. His earring and cyborg eye, his big fluffy coat. I'm definitely gonna sleep with him Ok i like how when River Ward is dealing with the tiger claws if you interject it leads to a fight. It goes better if you follow his instructions and let him deal with it. Seriously I enjoy that sometimes its good to not pick a dialogue choice.

during the red queen club part, there was no dialogue over the phone. So i reloaded a save and got myself spotted and attacked. Then River showed up to help me <3 and it was more enjoyable having him there. I honestly am not sure if him not going to the club level is bug or not.

then uuuuuugh the worst of irl police "cops are my family" from Detective Han. Again ACAB "FRATERNITY OF CITY COPS RESEMBLES A [Nomad] CLAN NOT AT ALL" ok a few minutes ago i was complaining about bugs, but the character modeling in this game is good (when they're there). You can see body posture, characters jiggle their legs when they are nervous. Like I though character A was just throwing a cigarette on the ground, but then character B flinches back; I realize Char A threw it at B as a fuck you

I'm honestly curious if "I fought the Law" quest will have any impact later on. My choices were that I thought there was more going on than Holt being the only person behind this (based on how complicated the main questline heist is, and keeping an eye on some of the in game news), and told him not to take it to internal affairs, and I loved his response of how he doesn't give a shit what we think, he's doing it anyway.

In the elevator to report in, Johnny said "this muck is deeper than you think, tell them nothing", so i just said that the case was complicated. anyway i love how much of a sarcastic asshole V is

I thought i was being nonlethal with the monk quest, but it seems i accidently killed someone. RIP, but thats kind of the problem with this game. Like when i do the non lethal cyberpychosis quests I equip my non lethal modded gun and hope for the est. I like how a go here kill things quest led to Charles the ripperdoc. He's getting all his parts from scav gang members so I felt obligated to take him out. I got a police bounty for it but w/e.

I merged the Delemain fragments with the whole. Guess he's the meta now. (Side note: some of my favorite rvb fanfic plots are Ai consiousness/memory merging with the humans, so I’m having fun with this game and look foward to introspective fanfic)

Honestly Jonny made some good points, the fragments didn't deserve to die; but also destroying the core and freeing the fragments, they couldn't really function alone.

I was able to rescue Saul fine with stealth. Using cameras and the synapse overload really made it easy.  Can't use the sniper rifle reward b/c I don't have the stats for it, and while it has a silencer the fact that it's a ricochette weapon and not a shoot through walls weapons, makes it not as good imo; and theres a legendary one that is stats free for only 100k.

Lol made a pass again at Panam, and she immediately shut me down. I then did Mitch's quest and I love every time someone tells V they area  good person.

I hacked the operation carpe noctem shard, and wow the corporations are using ai to make people have cyberpsychosis, or something like that. What a shocker /s, I've played Deus Ex HR before

lol driving through the unifinished interstate, past the fight from Panam's first quest I found a "batcave" with a very nice car, and a manifesto written by "muckman'. But here's my complaint about the loot, there is a legendary top, but it had 16 armor. My current top has 84 armor, like why would i switch?? then later i found a bunker with soviet spies in it. Wild

Doing River's second quest, love the timing of as soon as you ask, why are we breaking in, someone shows up to tell you he got kicked off the force. It's funny how Johnny comments how maybe River's into you, and V just doubts Johnny's words. Love how the first kid asks River if I'm his girlfriend. also wow like oof both the second parts of Judy and River's quest are SUPER fucked UP!! oof like i stopped doing first person mode on the braindances for those quests as soon as i could, just made me too uncomfortable seeing that in first person.

DRIVING IN THE GAME IS BAD! nowhere is it more apparent than the sinnerman quest, which took me 3 times to get the driving section done, as cars spawned out of nowhere to hit me. Then when you restart, there is a bunch of dialogue it doesn't let you fast forward through. The rest of the Sinnerman questline is interesting. My V took every option to tell the dude that he was messed up, and what he was doing was wrong. idk, I was surprised how much dialogue there was that let you buy into his whole "forgiveness thing" and how there wasn't any real dialogue to call him the fuck out, that in seeking forgiveness he continues to do harm both emotional to the mother of the man he killed, but also that he got the husband killed via cop. The later follow up quest, I told him that what he is doing is crazy, studio is just going to profit off this vid. Then I refused to join him prayer, and told him fuck no i wasn't going to hammer him to the cross, or even watch. Yes, the man is scared of dying, and the corporation is exploiting him, but he keeps creating burdens for others.  I think the discussion on this quest will be interesting to read, it's definitely my own personal experience with religion coloring my view. Anyway back to a main quest, yeah i don't trust Placide, especially in that scene where he grabs my hand, then jacks in. I ran off to do most of the sidequests here and got some criticism from him. I do love how in the cinema the western movie switches to a mission brief as the netwatch agent talks. its a fun enviromental detail.  I took the netwatch offer, i don't think he's being fully honest with me, but he didn't put a virus in my head. As I told Placide later, I didn't pick a side. I like how you can then talk with the agent, who is a fan of Western movies, b/c they show "a simpler time where all good guys carry badges" :eyeroll:, and then V recommends Unforgiven, which from the wiki summary goes against that theme.

Looks like the Voodoo boys all got killed by Netwatch, but I as revenge for them trying to set me up I'm fine with it. Honestly after speaking with ai!Alt I don’t believe their plan of trying to be on good relations with AI would work. 

doing the johnny flashback 2, and wow Johnny really is an asshole. Like I had gotten so used to him in side missions I forgot how self centered and unlikable he was.You constantly get prompts to drink or do drugs, which I ignored. But i do love the goth/punk love Rogue and others have.

lol i called it, when Hellman said that the engram would seek to override the host, put V on the engram. I really like how as the relic malfunctions, you wind up in the chair with a cigarette, which you can either smoke and say you are turning into Johnny or throw away. My dialogue "your problem is the ends justify the means", which is true!!! He and Rogue detonated a nuke downtown, does anyone know that, and like ask Rogue about it????

(Funny you can ask Rouge about Johnny silverhand, over the phone, then the game bugs out and spawns her npc where you are. She doens't say much about the nuke, but she does say no one trusts you for jobs). The line of no one trusting you for jobs is pretty funny at level 46 street cred where im at “respected” status. really loving the family atmosphere at River's 3rd quest. Also his big strong arms, and the fact he is no longer a cop. I totally let the kids win, and wow the family dinner where they GRILL YOU over the relationship and try to set the two of you up, then the water tower scene!!!!! I don't love the first person sex cutscenes but they do have personality. I'm glad afterwards you got to tell River about the biochip and that you might die. Because he's so far removed from your personal plot. So I took that option to back out of a relationship.

I do love that you wake up with "river's tanktop" that says "fuck the police" It actually has extremely good armor stats, so thats what I'll wear now.

panam 3rd quest, when shes like why did you help me, I'm like "because it's important to you". Basically the closest you can get to "when a friend asks for help you help them", which as an ex-nomad backstory I really choose the nomad options when ever i can Paralezes quest part 2! I love the piano song but I always think of it as ocean's 11 music. It's also fun to see the computer and see Judy recommended you for the first quest. The emails talk about "forgetting" to hire a staffer, on the balocony a strange antennia was scannable, the color of the roses was remembered wrong...  lol guess i was right with those giant wall screens. Its fun environmental details that spell things out before you can notice, and it ties into some other quests where people's behavior is being altered. Actually, this quest "Dream On" I love it! For a while I've been like "wheres the illuminati conspiracy! Here it IS! I chose to follow Elisabeth's wishes and not tell her husband he was being brainwashed. In best case they program him to forget again, in worst case he ends up dead. The gaslighting Elisabeth described is CHILLING, her husband describes a vacation she can't remember and she doesn't know whose memories have been messed with. On your way to the plaza you get a call from someone/something that says the know exactly WHAT you are, any you black out!!! It's such a great feeling of helplessness that you're just one person in a world so big that you can't fight every power. As Johnny said, could be a corporation, could be a rogue ai, either way Jefferson is fucked (and so are you).

[boglog]

Wholesome Questionare Tag Meme

Tagged by @80sglamcowboy Rules are: -Post the rules -Answer the questions given to you by the tagger -Write eleven questions of your own -Tag eleven people

This is long as Hell, friends and I apologise.

One inquisitive bitch has asked me:

1. Name one person (real or fictional) that you think you could 100% take on in a fight

Foaming mouth guy from Avatar. He’s got no stamina, barely any health, no skill. He’s unfocused and weak and my noodley nerd-ass could take him. (Though I am a little concerned he has rabies.)

2. What’s your favourite snack rn

Grilled cheese w veggies, mustard, and grilled tofu w a side of ketchup made by my roommate. It’s honestly the purest thing.

3. Which apocalypse do you think you’d do the best in? (i.e. Nuclear winter/ robot uprising/ Too many vampires, etc)

O man. I love apocalypse movies and I love survival horror (that one episode of the X Files where they’re trapped in a cabin, anybody?). I also genuinely love camping and I’m a bit of a medical hobbyist. I also watched an unreasonable amount of prepper videos on YouTube. That said, as mentioned above, I am a couch potato weekling. Furthermore, I don’t do well in conflict so if the world hierarchy collapses into a power vacuum where you have to Orange is the New Black-style intimidate ppl for supplies, I would melt and die quickly.

My best bet, it would seem, is an Arrival-esque alien apocalypse where the ones who have enough patience and sci fi knowledge to communicate w aliens are at the top of the food chain. And worst case scenario it’s better for my ego to die at the hands of an alien than a human.

Sci go apocalypses are just cleaner y'know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


4. Best and worst fandom you’ve been in? Or have you somehow managed to avoid fandom completely?

Worst has to be Steven Universe. I regret not just moving on after I got bored. Ah well.

(I also think celebrity/real ppl fandoms are a dead end.)

My other fandoms all have various pros and cons and it’s hard to pick a favourite.

Adventure Time has great fanart, great meta and ppl have yet to descend into Homestuck-ian chaos. That said, they’re quiet af. People also fixate way too much on the fake fanfic AU Fionna and Cake. I have yet to read a really good Bonny/Marcy fic and that is a tragedy (a few have come close tho). Bottom line for AT tho is that it’s my go to wholesome cartoonist fandom. I like that it has depth but that it’s generally very simple and fun and that the fans are mostly shut in animation adults.

AtLA/LoK fandom’s biggest pro is that it’s huge and you literally never ran out of quality content. I’ve even made a few friends via this decade old franchise. It’s also enjoyably rich and complex. One of my favourite (now inactive) blogs was one that connected world building and little background Easter eggs to real Chinese history and culture. That wAs so cool!! I defs think as a Chinese person it allowed me to connect to non-western culture in a socially acceptable way.

The downsides tho are many: it can be overwhelmingly complicated (esp as someone who knows jack shit abt Chinese history), people take it too seriously, The Great Shipping Wars, it’s so big it’s a little lonely, the show itself has so many flaws upon greater inspection you wonder why you wasted your time on anything related to it, it’s an Asian themed story created by white dudes who make fun of their fans, the best parts of the show were written by other writers but those same white guys get k the credit. Also as w any fandom related to POC culture, racism happens. Anyways most of you know this already. IMO the best thing to have happened do the fandom is korrasami. Now it’s just abt Asian lesbians ruling the world.

(Though I also thoroughly enjoy the Family Rivalry part of the fandom. There are so mNy dysfunctional families to choose from!)

Rick and Morty is technically speaking my newest fandom. It’s got a lot of obvious cons (pickle Rick sexists, Szechuan sauce racists, asfhkkh incest) but one other con is just how pedantic and overly analytical people are abt the world building. I can’t breathe wo being corrected. RM has a misleadingly complicated high sci fi aesthetic that begets the kind of overanalysing my brand of overanalytical nerdiness can’t handle. Too many alternate universes. It’s just too complicated.

However one thing I like is that conversely I can overanalyse the writing and characters’ psychology/relationships (which I LOVE) and ppl take me very seriously. (At least they used to.) it’s kinda validating to have your 3k word essay on an old man’s bedroom and what that signifies for his depression get over 1k notes.

Rm also attracts the fun, super talented animation crowd so there’s boundless fanart and memes. I never knew I would like a gravity falls crossover retirement home AU btwn Rick and Stan so much but the art is objectively gorgeous?? So ??

I really dislike the lack of attention the female characters get from fandom bc they’re all really great? Female rep is limited but both canon and fic really do their 2-3 tokens justice. Also the jerry hatred is getting old (that male aggression… Like… Calm down, Jake) but it’s a refreshing departure drom when Megg from family guy was the butt of the joke.

Harry Potter, one of the pillars of nerd society, has both changed my life and irreconcilably annoyed me to death. (W no thanks to the racist creator herself!) One can’t underestimate how huge the hp fandom is which offers you as many reasons to love it as reasons not to. Harry Potter’s canon has complex world building that’s also charming enough not to take itself too seriously and much the same could b said of fanon. To a degree. Certain corners of the fanbase are fantastic shitposters and meme-ers and can draw you back in like a black hole. Casually enjoying Harry potter imo is where it’s at. The fanfic is probably one of the most impressively vast. Strangers at Drakesaugh, believe it or not, still updates and not only that, I still read it.

Not casually enjoying Harry potter is, um, yikes? HP and Hunger Games love to insert themselves appropriately in real life political traumas and honestly the dedication of the fandom can be overwhelming.

The HP fanart corner of deviantart circa 2010-12 and @flocc HP comics however are the best.

Meet the Robinsons, Ye Olde Fandom, still stands to this day. (Thanks in part to me ngl) As Iroh might say, they are a proud people. MTR is so bizarre and tiny it’s the only fandom I was able to read EVERY fic summary in existence (ones published on obscure sites excepted). The fandom has never ceased to surprise me for better or worse and mostly due to its age range. The original movie was intended for 8-12 yr olds and their (jaded) parents which means that now, ten years later, the fans are anywhere between 12 and 25. It has approximately 20 pieces of professional-grade fanart and fic and I am downright serious abt the quality and thoughtful complexity of this minority of fanart. Like I shit you not some of it’s almost too dark. However, tragically, one can’t talk abt obscure Disney fandoms wo also mentioning the incest ships (this is what happens when middleschoolers have to resort to cartoons to explore their sexuality in an anti sex ed world), the disorganised crossovers, and the blinding lack of imagination. Nonetheless, that a fandom of any kind could sprout from a 90 min cgi movie before the recession, based off an obscure but objectively fascinating children’s book, is still impressive. The fandoms smallness can in many wars work to everybody’s benefit: it’s a tightly knit community w little to no drama. And lots of memes (that I mostly make) to enjoy sincerely or ironically.

I’m also going to mention, very briefly, the Twin Peaks fandom, most of whom, even the die hards, are v casual when it comes to fan content (I need more fic damnit). Nonetheless it’s a decidedly cool art kid crowd for an art house show and I really enjoy befriending twin peaks watchers.

5. What’s one hot food that you prefer cold? (or, alternatively, one cold food you like hot)

Is it snobby to say I like food to be the temperature God intended?

Like I like cold pizza and salad-y pasta but I wouldn’t mind if everything were room temperature as long as the food itself was well made.

6. ya like jazz? What music do you enjoy listening to? Can you recommend any songs/ artists from that genre?

I think in some contexts I can like jazz. It’s very cosy and nostalgic, it can make you feel like a grand dame stepping out of your limo into your martini filled mansion as records pop around you and your fur carpeted living room. I also occasionally like jazz covers and alternate genres of jazz like electro swing etc.

Generally though I also think jazz is a little antiquated and a little all over the place. I lean more towards the ambiguous minimalism of mellow techno music like Jonna Lee, Grimes, Björk, early Lorde, Yasmine Hamdan, Austra, TRST, etc

I mean I don’t stick to just one genre (I imagine most ppl don’t). I like alternative (Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, Joanna Newsom) and some musicians who seem to completely exist outside of genre like iMonster and the Gorillaz. Not to mention straight up pop like broods, Ellie goulding, lady gaga and Lana del rey. (I mean technically Ldr isn’t pop but u get the ideer)

7. What binge worthy show do you like?

So many man. There are so many out there! Twin peaks, Transparent, Love, Grace and Frankie, Adventure Time, House of Cards, Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, Mad Men, Girls, Broad City, Black Mirror, Avatar TLA, 6Teen, Chowder, Over the Garden Wall, Flapjack, the first season of Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, etc

The list goes on. I’m a TV fiend.

8. What’s an old meme that you miss and wish would be brought back?

Always liked the Gothic [x town or whatever] meme. It was like a text post version of the cursed images meme. Currently I’m really enjoying the song from another room meme and I hope even after it gets old it’ll make a comeback.

9. Tell me your aesthetic



O man. That’s a can of worms! Okay. Deep breath.

I like futurism, of all kinds. I like strong lines and clear shapes. I like colour blocking and minimalism and glass and holographic LED neons. I like white Japanese urban tiled buildings. I like aliens and ruins and cubes and white and colour blocking and black. I like technology and aliens and Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake. Rooms that are empty but for one light and one window and one plant. Love that.

I like the midcentury cubism and Mod and 30’s futurism. Clear and strong industrial shapes and curves and post modernist abstractionism.

I also love nature, I love most every Björk and Iamamiwhoami music video. I love the mountains and the forests and the desert and the winter tundra and most of all I love the water. A vast expanse of sky and sea w so many colours and textures. I love the 2000s and funny blob shapes and y2k’s obsession w secondary colours and shiny round things. Love pink. I am a grown adult who will never tire of pink. (Though I don’t really like when people overdo pink.) I love cursed image family photos taken with flash in a suburb. I love the grime and the sanitary aesthetic of suburbs and hospitals and brutalist office spaces. The fluorescent lights of the institution but with purple carpeting!

I love 70s mod and I love colorful 80s brutalism I like it when houses are shaped weirdly and they have carpets and polished curved wooden countertops and spacious nothingness where everything looks clean and cosy and bizarrely ugly and it all looks like an art gallery w too many plants.

I also really love maximalism and wood and detail and fur and velvet and embroidery and silk and windows and wood carvings.

I love 70s kitsch like John waters movies and Shrimps designer fake fur CDG17 where they just piled on knickknack after knickknack onto white dresses w food long trains. Toys and novelty items and lamps shaped like a woman’s leg in a fishnet stocking. (See also: most Tim burton movies, wes Anderson, Carrie fishers house)

An overwhelming mishmash of wool patterns with clean cubic 70s architecture and so many plants and windows and wallpaper and candles and cobwebs. Also really like witchy mourning jewelry and essentially every house in Harry potter. Love the unfortunately racist boho/hippie aesthetic. Any house designed by bill kirsch is a masterpiece. Woven baskets on the ceiling piles of hats and art supplies everywhere. Stuff!! Everywhere! Hidden passageways reading nooks fireplaces the Pink Palace from Coraline!

Everything!!!

I’m a cartoonist who’s a nerd for design so I like when concepts are taken to the extreme in a humourously charming and clear-minded way. Whatever aesthetic someone chooses, they should go all out and really dedicate themselves to the highest form of that aesthetic. It has to be perfect without being sanitary of fake. It has to be alive yet beautiful, frozen in one perfect moment.

10. Favourite time of day and why?

Dusk. I think it’s a nostalgia thing. I loved the hours before bed time as well the hours before dinner when it was getting dark and the sun was reflecting freaky colours along the horizon while I ran around the grass. It’s cozy but it’s spacious and adventurous. So many things can happen at dusk!



11. You have the choice to live in any fictional universe - which one do you pick and why?

Harry Potter!!! You get the best of both worlds: magical, over-romanticised Victorian/medievalism, wish-fulfillment surrealism and wifi. It’s great. Likelihood of dying is so low, medicine is so advanced and even then ppls n°1 choice of lethal weapon (Avada Kedavra) is painless. Me and Luna could hang in her garden. I’d never have to pay for the subway again. I could live a nomadic life in a tent w infinite space. If you chose to live as a wizard amongst Muggles you’re basically god and you can cheat capitalism. Gravity is my bitch! And I’m not gna lie my dream house has always been a combination of The Burrow, the Lovegood house, and Shell Cottage.

My turn to pick your brain:

1 Favourite texture?

2 Favourite smell?

3 Favourite children’s book/children’s TV show? (I’m talking about the bizarre abstract ones for toddlers)

4 Best and worst prank you’ve ever pulled?

5 Weirdest beginning of a friendship?

6 When you’ve been in fandom for a while you start to notice you’ve a habit of staying in the same corners. What corner are you in? Are you part of the fluffy ship corner? The intense world building spec meta corner? The shitpost comic fanart corner? Etc

7 If you could invent a class that would be obligatory for all high schools across your country what would it be?

8 What’s the weirdest thing you’ve gotten at Halloween while trick or treating?

9 Weirdest family tradition of yours?

10 Describe your significant other (or your crush, or your dream partner or if you’re aromantic your fave person) through only TV references.

11 Favourite piece of dialogue in a movie?

I don’t know 11 ppl but nonetheless tagging: @that-guy-in-the-bowler-hat @skairheart @nochangenohope @eventheslightestrayofsunshine@autistic-jaredkleinman@phoenixkluke

…and YOU (if you were not mentioned above and so choose to accept this mission)

[lornemalvoofficial]

hmmmm write me something about lorne and his whole devil motif and if/how that ties into fargo's themes as a whole?

ohhhhh boy IT'S TIME

i apologize in advance for the length and rambliness of this entire thing hahahaha

okay so honestly i wanna preface this with: i've always been so so fucking tempted to write lorne as like, an actual supernatural figure, an actual demon or The Actual Devil. on an rp board, in fanfic, whatever. maybe i'll consider it one day. ultimately the reason i haven't is that lorne's heavy identification with the devil + satan + lucifer (for the purposes of this post the three will be used interchangeably). is just. so much more fun when he's human? because it's a situation where he barely wants to recognize the fact he's human too, and that interests me a lot. 

but in the context of the series as a whole it's just gotten more and more likely that supernatural goings-on are actually A Thing. i mean we had the ufos in the second season and the godlike figure in season 3 so? there is definitely room for the devil, and i think actually considering him in that light is v interesting, especially with other diabolical figures like varga. who... doesn't align himself with the devil so much as lorne does, but he pretty much does the same job on an unspoken level. his flavour of evil is generally a lot more no-nonsense than lorne's imo, tho both are pretty damn self-congratulatory ahaha. the series is v interested in spiritual and supernatural belief, and lorne himself relies a lot on belief.

so. putting all this in the context of the exaggeratedly trusting midwest in the series, lorne is both effortlessly able to persuade and manipulate the majority of people, just like the devil. like in a lot of actual... religious texts he runs into trouble when he faces up to someone with serious spiritual conviction, like ari. i have... thought about that exchange in the car a lot. because sure, lorne might just leave because staying there will be more trouble than it's worth, but i do quite like the idea he... actually admired the fact ari stood his ground even in the face of his usual threats. and maybe felt complimented when he called him se'irim, adding to the personal mythology he has of himself, as a demonic, animalistic force. sparing ari and his children would have been a much easier decision knowing he’s been personally acknowledged in a way he likes. identifying with such a powerful symbol of evil feeds his ego and makes his life’s work worth it.

the other issue arises with those well-meaning folks who have already encountered him. it's kind of like they're demystified having faced him once, and they won't be fooled again. (i guess his natural state as a drifter is also advantageous to his feeding his personal mythology, because it means it’s very, very unlikely he’ll be encountered by the same person twice, ergo unveiled for what he is: a common garden human being, just like everyone else. he resents that truth quite a lot.) this occurs with gus and with lou -- i'd say reducing the clusterfuck that was sioux falls to simply devil's work insults the characters involved, buuut ofc lou didnt have that perspective -- and while he didn't exactly call it that, i feel as though he had similar in mind. molly is an interesting one because she only comes face to face w lorne once, but she never trusted any of his loosely-termed 'allies' (read also lester), who gave her a kind of proxy for understanding lorne himself.

i feel like lorne’s relationship to the devil can also be interpreted via various other interpretations of satan. of course he refers back to genesis in the show w/ the apple pie (i wonder if he's extra enough to regularly buy apple scented and flavoured products), but i guess one thing that struck me was. the possibilities he's also kind of referring back to milton and the sympathetic satan in paradise lost. i say this, i haven't actually read it bc im a fuck (i. think im reading it next year for college? so that should be fun B)), but possibly lorne recognizes himself in satan given his lack of a kinda. stable parental figure, the fact the ones he did get were utterly terrible and failed him in just about every way. i guess the other thing about the miltonian satan is that he's v focused on espousing the hypocrisies of god's kingdom even tho his rebellion... ultimately makes things worse, even for his comrades in pandemonium. and ultimately lorne is doing that w/ society as well. the us is already a neoliberal hell, so you might as well embrace it and start killing for your keep again. (it's that which would make him such a good laveyan satanist tbh, other than the Murdering People Literally part?)

lmao one other thing to note about lorne vs the miltonian satan is... satan is relatively loyal to his other fallen angels? and while lorne would happily lend a helping hand to those who want it, he might also betray them the next day. so,

[turbomun]

Ghost Boy revamp -- all alterations & changes

I’ve had a few commenters mention that they’re wondering what, specifically, changed between the current and former versions of Ghost Boy; they could tell that it was different but weren’t sure how. Well, wonder no more, because I’m about to tell you exactly what I did and why!

CHARACTERIZATION

Turbo His personality is more or less the same as it was in the original, but I pushed one element a little further. It’s no secret that I relate to Turbo the most out of all the WIR characters, so back in 2012, I applied a lot of my own experiences towards my portrayal of him (“hmm, I engage in attention-seeking behaviors for X reason, maybe Turbo also engages in attention-seeking behaviors for X reason”). However, in 2012, I had not yet been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, which I later discovered was actually a huge part of my personality. IMO, you could definitely make a case for Turbo being autistic-coded in the original Ghost Boy, but I definitely made it more overt in the new version. This has the additional benefit of making it clear that, pre-RoadBlasters, he was mainly teased for his behavior and not his appearance. (In the original, it was supposed to be more like he thought he was being made fun of for the way he looked, and only later figured out that it was more because of the way he acted, but I’m not sure how clear that was.)

Vanellope She was definitely always the biggest characterization casualty in the first version of the fic -- way too cutesy, cried too much, didn’t stand up for herself nearly often enough. I’m going to partially excuse this by mentioning that 1) Ghost Boy was originally based on a roleplay and roleplays tend to have a lot of wangst in them because it’s more fun that way, and 2) the movie had literally just come out in theatres and I hadn’t watched it 999999999 times to get a better handle on how all of the characters acted. But make no mistake, the way I wrote her has been bothering me for ages. In the end, this wasn’t a difficult fix; all I had to do was add her to some scenes where she was absent before, replace most of the being afraid and/or crying scenes with more courageous behavior, and make it unambiguously her decision to reset Turbo. Having a better grasp on her dialogue and mannerisms also helped.

King Candy Mostly I felt that he was a bit too “generic evil” in his appearances. Obviously I wanted him to be threatening, but in the original Ghost Boy, he didn’t have a lot of the traits that made King Candy such an eerie and charming villain in the first place. I have to give a big shout-out to my former RP partner @thekingofkarts for giving me a model of how to write him better, ESPECIALLY his dialogue. Also, I emphasized his canonical tendency to try manipulation tactics before resorting to violence; yes, he’s a little more maniacal than his film counterpart due to being malware, but he at least makes an attempt to achieve his goals with the minimum amount of physical force, mostly in chapter 12 when he tries smooth-talking Turbo to get him out of the way.

Other characters I swapped out or edited certain lines of dialogue to make sure that everyone sounded like themselves. There are various other minor edits that come from seeing the movie about 200 times and being much more familiar with each character’s personality.

STORY

Removal of confusing, unnecessary details As mentioned previously, Ghost Boy started out as a roleplay, which went on for a good chunk of time before we got to the part about Turbo. Some of those previous events played into resurrecting him, and when I wrote the fic, I couldn’t think of a good way to extract him from those events (which were also going to be detailed in my unfinished first WIR fanfic, If It Ain’t Broke). So I kept them in at the time, only to realize years later what I could have done instead. The main thing I got rid of was Fix-It Felix Jr. being unplugged, because literally everyone who read the fic rightfully hated that part, and the confusing-ass Elvira subplot. And yes, that means that King Candy can no longer fire energy spheres out of his hands. What a loss.

Wangst cleanup If you go on the tvtropes page for Ghost Boy, the YMMV section mentions how the amount of crying scenes in the story can be a little exhausting. I didn’t write that entry, but I completely agree with it. On one hand, there’s a lot of emotional moments by virtue of what the story actually is, but on the other, it makes the story drag and your sympathy for the characters wears thin after a while. Hell, this even turned at least one person off the fic completely, as mentioned in a tvtropes review that was removed a while ago. So I did my best to emphasize that the characters are feeling strong emotions, but also expressing this in ways besides crying (Vanellope getting angry with Turbo when he accuses her of lying, Turbo essentially going into shock after the Rainbow Bridge confrontation, Turbo screaming at Ralph after hearing the whole story, etc.). A lot of this also comes from Vanellope being less of a Helpless Child(TM).

Scene swaps/removals

These mostly came about when, over the years, I suddenly realized that there was a more effective and/or interesting way to get across a certain point than what I’d actually written in the original fic. Writing the revised version, I finally had a chance to use these ideas:

Most prominently, the prologue (originally a flash-forward to Turbo learning the truth via watching a race video, because I just couldn’t wait to write that scene) is now completely different and much shorter.

Similarly, Turbo’s first nightmare is not a straight-up written version of the Turbo Reveal scene from the film, and instead consists of King Candy harassing Turbo from a mirror -- based on a pre-movie oneshot I wrote in which the exact opposite thing happened. 

I also repurposed an old oneshot that nobody remembers in the scene where Vanellope takes Turbo to Diet Cola Mountain; that scene started out as a pretty pointless close call with some Sugar Rush racers, but I decided that it would be a good opportunity to set up some foreshadowing without everything being in a dream.

Ironically, the Turbo reveal scene, which appeared a grand total of three times in the original Ghost Boy (it’s almost like that’s my favorite scene or something) only appears once, as a dream sequence in chapter 10, replacing the wangstier one where Turbo dreams of flying into boiling diet cola.

The scene in the viewing room where Turbo watches the reveal scene was scrapped in favor of an argument with Vanellope (as part of the Give Vanny More Agency 2k17 initiative).

Almost all of chapter 13 was rewritten for characterization and wangst-purging purposes.

There are other, minor edits that don’t exactly replace entire scenes, but change the flow of the story overall, such as: the “I’m a monster” motif being taken out because it’s a cliche (Frozen was what really killed this for me); Vanellope standing up to King Candy in chapter 15; the family discussion in that same chapter taking place in the forest; and Vanellope and Turbo activating the beacon themselves in chapter 17, rather than asking the adults to do it.

OTHER ALTERATIONS

Writing style Somehow, my years of writing practice have resulted in my developing a very wordy prose style. (I think I just like to show off my vocabulary. I honestly cannot emphasize enough how similar I am to Turbo.) I didn’t completely fix this in the new Ghost Boy because 1) it’s not necessarily always a bad thing, 2) it would have required a full rewrite, and 3) this is something that I’ve only just now started to address in my most recent works. However, I did take the liberty of going back and rephrasing awkwardly worded sections, giving you that smooth and silky reading experience that you so obviously crave.

Edits for canonical accuracy This was just addressing minor errors, such as mistakes in the way I described Sugar Rush’s architecture, as well as straightening out the timeline of what got plugged in and when. For the curious:

Turbo Time -- plugged in 1981, unplugged 1987 (based on Rally-X, its obvious design inspiration)

Fix-It Felix Jr. -- plugged in 1982 (based on the movie)

Tapper -- plugged in 1984 (based on the original Tapper rather than the Root Beer Tapper clone, because if you look at the design, the one in WIR is pretty clearly the alcoholic version no matter how much Disney tries to convince you otherwise)

RoadBlasters -- plugged in 1987, unplugged shortly afterwards (based on its actual release date)

Sugar Rush -- plugged in 1997 (based on the bonus commercial created to promote the movie)

The events of WIR take place in November 2012 (1982 + 30 years). Ghost Boy takes place slightly over a year later, in November/December of 2013; Turbo’s reset day is November 20, and the fic ends around December 14-15. (I didn’t even realize it took place right around Christmas until I sat down and hashed this out.)

I think that’s pretty much everything. On the off chance that you have any questions, you can of course feel free to ask. Anyway, I had a blast with the new Ghost Boy and I’m quite happy with how it turned out!

[bettydice]

Betty Plays ME:A... TO THE END

I finished the main story! Yassss! After approx. 70 hours and at about 70%.

A lot of thoughts about everything (and spoilers) under the cut! A lot of thoughts, can’t stress this enough! lol

Overall, I really liked it! I was very reluctant to get exited for it, because I’ve had a lot of issues with DA:I and my worry was that they’d only further go down the path of Things I Don’t Like. Which... yes and no?

Exploration/Planets

Really pretty! I actually liked driving around in the Nomad! (Except for when I’d climbed a mountain only to find out that I couldn’t go that way after all...) I’m not one for Open World Gameplay but I actually liked exploring Havarl and Voeld (and to a lesser extent Eos and Eeeeeeeeuuuuuuuu what was the name of the Krogan world I can’t remember). HATED Kadara. So much. So much. Why did that planet exist? We just don’t know. Bleh. Imo they should have just left it at the port area. For me anyway lol. Many planets also meant a lot of quests though, which to me was a bit overwhelming because... do I reall need to do all these???

Pacing/Quests

While the open world worked much better for me here than in DA:I, because since I’m the Pathfinder it was literally my job to run around and explore the planets and why not go look for someone’s lost parents on the way... I’m still very eh on the whole concept in a technically story driven game. Because then it’s reall hard or even impossible to make sure that the story has good pacing. Since everyone is gonna tackle all the quests differently. For me, I was really invested after the first vault on Eos, through Voeld and Havarl (jumped around a lot so I didn’t get bored with one planet by trying to finish everything there first) and was suuuper into it through Hunting The Archon. And then there was a huge hole as I tried to do stuff on Kadara without dying of boredom and finishing off random quests that somehow just had me planet hopping to scan one thing and then scan one more thing and... bleh. Didn’t help that I got hit by the banter bug around that time and the Nomad was quiet and no banter on the temptest and no new messages on the crew board... And then it picked up again. Not sure how I will feel during replays though...

Main Story

I wasn’t bored and often even invested. Love the Angara! ...not as impressed with the Kett. They made a pretty meh villain and I guess a convenient Alien To Shoot Since This Is A Shooter RPG. Exaltation reveal was moving because of Jaal’s reaction but ultimately felt rehashed from Reapers. I really wished that the search for the missing arks had taken up more time? And also that there was more interaction with the other Pathfinders, because I found those glimpses we got really interesting.

Companions

Cora

Meh. I don’t know, I liked her well enough but never had a “feels” moment with her. Also her face looked as though she was always smirking. Why are you smirking Cora, what are your secrets? Actually, I don’t really care because during your loyalty mission I was about 500% more interested in the Asari Pathfinder than you running around telling an Asari Huntress that you’re also an Asari Huntress and that you can totally quote the Asari Huntress Handbook. Good for you.

Gil

Cool guy but not sure what to make of his story line. Maybe it’s just me slowly backing away with nervous laughter whenever people in video games bring up kids? Sorry, Gil.

Kallo

I love him and he made me feel things (when we found that recording of the one Salarian iirc god that feels like 5 years ago how long have I been playing this game). And I’m glad he and Gil worked out their issues! <3

Suvi

A cutie. Not too many other thoughts about her so far.

Peebee

I... like her? She’s fun? But something’s missing for me... mabye because I haven’t finished her loyalty quest, I just remembered. Couldn’t be bothered to hop around all the planets to SCAN THINGS sorry. Uhm. That No Gravity Scene was lovely?

Liam

He is the sweetest and I love him and I will protect him with my life and his friendship with Jaal is the best and let me go sit on the couch with him and cry about how much I love him. <3 Precious. Darling. His loyalty mission was THE BEST!

Vetra

SHE IS MY WIFE AND I LOVE HER. Sadly underwhelmed by her loyalty mission though? Loved the rock climbing though EVEN IF I HAD TO GO BACK TO FUCKING KADARA FOR THAT! THAT’S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU VETRA!

Drack

I will die for him. And for Kesh. And Vorn. And everyone on the Krogan Planet I Forgot Name Of. Krogan. But yeah, Drack is love and his medbay convo... ;__;

Lexi

Almost forgot her. Which isn’t to say that I feel ambivalent towards her. But I feel like she’s also a candidate I’ll have to get to know better via other people’s fanfic maybe lol.

JAAL

I DID NOT EXPECT TO LOVE HIM AND HIM AND RYDER TOGETHER SO MUCH???? LIke wow. They’re just so... They’re shouting their emotions at each other and they LAUGH together and HOLD HANDS and make weird faces and have their backs and TALK and then they cry and I cry and then they do the frickle frackle and that is excellent and just GOD my heart? And his family??? AHHHH. I want to write fic? But also idek where to start.

Ryder

Awkward bumbling Pathfinder mess of my heart. <3 A bit like Hawke in space maybe but (at least my Ryder) with less issues. And less “I use humour to deflect from my feelings because if I talk about those I’ll scream”. She just uses humour because she’s that big of a dork. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a character that was that open with her feelings? It was refreshing. And I love her.

Combat

FUN! But literally cannot be bothered to figured out profile/profile switching and whatever so I only used the same abilities all game! Thx SAM! (Infiltrator, no biotics)

Uh what else idk general thoughts

Fucking glad that our twin survived! Space Hamster! Space Monkey Thing! ZAP IS ADORABLE Fuck Kadara Will we find new aliens that aren’t humanoid? Hahaha that would be crazy. Really wish that they’d done more with the “do you want a military/science outpost”. Got exited there for a second. Gil and Reyes are the only m/m options? Really???????????? Could have used more Interrupts. I still can’t smooch my love interest whenver I want? Get it together Mass Effect team.

I’m sure there is more but enough for now.

[earl-of-221b]

noblesse icebreaker

Thank you for tagging me @spectralmelon !

Name/nickname: earl, short for my fav drink earl grey tea

How did you find out about Noblesse?: When I was in the height of my Mangareader phase, I kind of just clicked on Noblesse when the title art was getting featured as one of those ‘recently updated’ manga. (That one old pic of Rai in the white uniform and then a close up of him.) Just because. And then I, someone who had only ever read japanese manga in black and white, was blinded by the full colour art. My brain could not compute. Full colour art? Every page? Every chapter? This manhua artist was a visionary. And there’s like three hundred chapters already.  Story-wise, I got whiplash when the supposed principal of this high school bowed to the Vampire Man™ (who clearly did not look like a high schooler imo but somehow was blending in anyway). But this interaction really interested me - immediately alluding to a history between these characters that I wanted to know. And then Rai started high school and M-21 and M-24 go kekeke~ and Rai couldn’t open doors and them pure jokes about Rai being a fish out of water were delightful. Also, in the early chapters Franken’s power was bright pink! And I gobbled that up I loved his pink killing powers how gorgeous. Yes, murder Mary and Jake with pink neon lightning while grumbling about getting vampire drool on your neat clothes. 

Favorite character(s)? Frankenstein and Raizel of course!

Previous Lord is also fantastique and M-21 will always be there in my heart. (And Tao. And takeo. And Seira and Regis. Sigh.) 

Favorite scene(s)? 

HOnestly, the first time Rai had ramen and thought it was an assassination attempt - this was like so masterfully animated in Awakening it was glorious. 

Rai trying to get out of the house via the window because he felt the need to make sure Franken was ok with Mary and Jake. Mary and Jake. 

SHIT THE FIRST TIME FRANKEN SUMMONED DARK SPEAR??? I WAS SO SHOOK? LIKE YEA FRANKEN TEACH THAT PUNK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HE DISRESPECTS YOUR EMPLOYEES IN YOUR SCHOOL

OH MY GOSH Remember that early part where M-21 and M-24 were answering their phone thinking that those noblesses were calling them so early? And they were like shit, M-21, quick, answer it! Be serious! Be vigilant! Can’t let down guard! And it turned out it was just a telemarketer? 

Freaking heck remember when I was totally convinced that Takeo was a lady for his entire entry arc? But anyway Takeo sniping some bad guys. Takeo getting fake-mugged and then getting saved and making friends with the Yeran High group! Shinwoo Yuna Ikhan you guys are so sweet. (Has Suyi arrived yet?) Like. Tao and Takeo hanging with the yeran crew warms my heart, looking back. 

Any time Frankenstein has time alone with Rai. 

Any time the kids are over and trashing Franken’s place and having fun with Rai like you do and Franken twitching slightly in the corner 

The early days where translation was shaky and sometimes Franken called Rai ‘My Lord.’ Loved that shit

Franken walking home with sping onions in his supermarket bag before being captured by yuri. He was just trying to do the shopping. He has a family to feed.

When tao started being himself after been freed from the Union 

When Rai is using his powers in the beginning when it wasn’t all that painful and draining to watch, where we could all cheer guiltlessly as he crushed his enemies with finesse and ease without breaking a sweat

Rai’s blood fields and how beautiful they are when drawn nicely, the different shades of red that seem to glide but we know it’s all destructive force 

Any time Raizel pats Frankenstein’s shoulder in reassurance 

RAI BLUSHING

‘I would be able to experiment and stabilise your bodies. But that depends on Master. You see, I cannot disobey his orders.’ 

‘Really Frankenstein?” or something to that effect, “I recall otherwise”

Cue Franken trying to backtrack^

Any time Rai calls Franken out like that because Franken is Franken and its great

Raskreia pulling RAgnorok

‘Frankenstien caused many incidents. The Clan Leaders used to come to me to complain.’ d e c e a s e d

Frankenstein giving Rai earrings and a ring - and then Rai going ‘it’s not my colour.’ Which was great. But also, in retrospect, Rai probably said those things to try and take Franken’s mind off of bad thoughts like ‘oh no, is the power going to be compatible??????’

Raizel fighting Raskreia. UmPH. 

Frankenstein busting into the temple disheveled and half unclothed, trying to stop Rai from fighting even though he knows he can’t and then Rai reassuring him with a smile. 

Like wow

‘Are you alright, Master?’ 

‘I’m fine, Frankenstein.’ he says with a soft smile

‘There’s no way you can be fine after that.’ Frankenstein oh my gosh. You’ve never said it stark to his face that before Franken. It hurt my soul and I loved it. 

‘Master...that’s the wrong way...’

Ramen experiments. 

Any time Franken mouths off at enemies condescendingly 

Any time Rai makes a bad guy k n e e l

Oh my gosh I just remmbered his killer line ‘This is where your eye meets mine.’

 w r e ck t, j a k e 

That scene where Franken and Rai are having tea. It’s not a happy scene but it was huge. Rai drops his teacup for the first time (graphic) and remind us all that Cadis Etrama di Raizel is not ok and has never been since we’ve seen him awake. Then, worried out of his head, Franken can’t wait for Rai to talk himself and straightforwardly asks what caused his 820y sleep. There were two big things that kept me going with a burning passion while reading Noblesse, and that was

1) Franken and Rai’s history. 

2) With all this talk of traitors and conspiracy, what was this big coup and how were able to put the Noblesse to sleep. How did Rai end up in the box? Why were Franken and Rai parted for so long??? This kept me up at night. ( I expected something much more elaborate than what’s been revealed now but still.)

When the man-bat tried to make his hostage quiet, unassuming, high school uniformed Rai. 

Rai v Urokai and Zarga - AKA the first time Rai pulled out approximately seven blood fields that looked like seven raging red tornadoes when Urokai question his ability. 

Seira and Regis. 

Shinwoo actually beating bad guys up. Shinwoo is a good kid and kind friend 

Everybody’s fav scenes: Whenever Frankenstein goes ‘Allow me,’ and Rai pauses for a moment, ponders upon it, and then agrees. 

Then Franken gets out The Violence and has tangible killing intent spilling from him in throngs that make people question his sanity. This is up there in terms of fav.

Every single time Rai feels the overwhelming need to sigh. 

Rai sighing

Rai stuttering ‘hm....um....hn....’ 

NOnsu and Sangeen making disgusted faces at all this mystical crap going on. Remember when one of the union groups tried to sass them like ‘hahah you like him??’ because nonsu and Sangeen are happily married undercover strike agents

Tao getting Takeo some sweet new pistols and getting M-21 his sweet new optimised nail filer 

Any time someone is Recruited against their knowledge into Raizel’s Knights

Raizel’s Knights doing cool shit. 

Raizel finding out about Raizel’s Knights.

Regis running through the woods trying to fend off central knights encroaching on Rai’s mansion in Lukedonia 

OH. The trio stowing away in the cargo hold of their bosses plane, said plane falling, them wake up in hospital beds and 

M-21 - what’s happening?

Tao - huh?

Takeo - F-freeze! *gun fingers.

Any time ~mind control~ fails to work in the series. LIke Regis failing at F and R. the central knights failing on the trio

Seira calling upon Death Scythe. Seira wielding Death Scythe. Seira silhouetted by a giant spirit god of death. Any time Seira fights with her giant giant scythe 

Frankenstein v Rajak fight!!!!!!! Franken v Rajak fight never saw an end but what a fight!!!

Franken murdering Gradeus. Yes. But most importantly, that one shot of Franken turning his back on his kill, a empty ring of purple where Gradeus had been devoured alive by the souls of the undead in necromantic weapon Dark Spear

Dark Spear. Any time Franken goes ‘Answer my call’ 

Ok ok ok ok the f l a s h b ac k s. All of every major flashback. Gejutel and Ragar running through the woods in pursuit of renegade Frankenstein in laced cuffs and victorian suit in medieval days. 

I loved the scene where we actually see Gejutel fight. The giant sky tearing, body vaporising lance. Regasus was huge. 

Any interaction between Franken and Ragar, good friends

‘I just started working here, hahah’ *scratches head

Everything about Rai is stoic and monumental, Franken asks this great man why he didn’t make him see the Lord and ‘...I forgot.’ 

PREV LORD AND RAI MAKE IT TO THE FRANKEN V UROKAI BATTLE

THIS IS ALSO THE FIRST TIME WE SEE FRANKEN GET POSSSSESSSED BY DS. OH MY 

The brief Franken v Rai fight literally sucked my breath out of my lungs like n o they’re actually going to FIGHT even if it’s not really Franken there but the thought of Franken and Rai fighting is just RIVETING and IMPOSSIBLE and TERRIBLE 

fav fav scene: chapter 295

you guys all know what this is 295 when they made the b o n d 

Franken destroying ninth elder with just words and wit. How dare you speak to him, you traitor of humanity 

tesamu

 A couple of weeks ago when Muzaka stopped what’s known as 废话, useless monologuing/ chatter, and straight up diced second-in-strength werewolf whom I cannot name. Blood went everywhere. Parts rained down like a chunky storm. It was glorious, Muzaka. 

Edian mildly threatening Franken and Franken sticking his head in Rai’s door to tattle on her. 

Forgive me for this list.

Why are you still following it? The characters. Franken and Rai are very important to me. 

How do you like to spend time in the fandom? (“I liveblog the chapters”/ “i roleplay”/ “I draw fanart” / “I like to read fics” etc.)

I write fanfic when I have time! 

Sometimes I sketch some fanart but I’m also prone to the one angle, one face, pencil-only thing. 

Do you have any ships and/or crackships that you’d like to share? When I started writing Who is the Monster, I didn’t ship Franken and Rai. In fact, I’d followed noblesse for a couple of years before finding that, yes, I do like them together. In a world where love feels very...cheap? in media, I don’t really like shipping and platonic relationships just appeal to me more. Unless there’s something that really draws me in I’m not that interested. I mean, there’s doumeki and yashiro, and victor and yuri and other ships that are great! But in the beginning of last year I got into Franken and Rai. Writing Who is the Monster really made me realise that Franken and Rai are romantic to me. Really getting to flesh out what’s up between them and making up in-character interaction changed the direction of the fic. It’s like that saying where - I wrote the characters the way they wanted to go. And where they wanted to go was be in deep love with each other to the point of self destruction. Hm. 

that, and I read other writer’s fics about them and found it so nice

(looking at you, Nerdanel/daylight-star - your rosa de sal - and Laryna6)

(also qdeanna later, your art is <3)

So that’s how I tricked myself into writing a 130k+ slow burn fic. 

My best contribution into the online literary world. 

when all songs on the radio you relate back to Franken and Rai you know things have c h a n g e d

I really want to talk to someone about ____________!

Writing more noblesse fic so I can read it. I want to read more noblesse material. Please write me more fic. I know I’ve been blocked for ages but maybe if you guys write some I can get back into it. I really love Franken and Rai. More Franken and Rai, please. 

I’d like to tag @qdeanna @laryna6 @daylight-star @alexvolkovvlad

[andyfrills]

Andy’s FanFic Log 28/02/2017

Hello again! This log is a bit shorter than the last since I was away for my cousin’s wedding on the weekend. But I felt the log was at a good point to post, so here we are anyway! Btw I don’t think I mentioned this last time, but feel free to shriek at me about how wonderful fics are/yell at me to read a certain thing. Both are good icebreakers in my opinion and are most welcome in my ask box~!

Fic Count: 20 Fandoms this Log: Yuri!!! on Ice, Voltron

Now onto the customary warnings before we get into it~

I end up reading a lot of random shit. Until I’m a bit more comfortable I might censor a few things out, but there will be explicit fics, darker themes, crazy plots, and insane ships amongst all the sugar and fluff I find around the place. So the really important thing is to carefully read the warnings that I occasionally give & that are on the fic itself, and back away if it’s not for you.

Other posts in this little series can be found under the read fanfiction tag on my page~

Alright! Here we go~!

Yuri!!! on Ice

play that song again, ‘cause we were in love by Piyo13 Words: 1.1k, Rating: Teen, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti (Phichit/Christophe), Victuuri (Viktor Nikiforov/Yuuri Katsuki), Unrequited Vichris & Phichuuri “Of course you are,” Chris replies smoothly. “We’re their best friends and their best men, and look at them. It’d be a crime not to be happy for them.” Phichit raises his eyebrows at the change in person. “So,” he says. “Like recognizes like?”

Very Versatile by Marks Words: 1.8k, Rating: Mature, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti The one where Phichit is really observant when it comes to everything and also Christophe, and Ciao Ciao probably steals a whole tray of mini-pizzas. ~ Not entirely sure of my thoughts on this one. But I kind of liked it, so someone else might enjoy it too.

Now, Take My Hands (Come On) by mintables Words: 3.8k, Rating: No Rating (Mature imo for some sexy times), Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti (Along with mentions of other pairs) It begins, as most things in their lives do, at the banquet. Or, Phichit isn’t sure when he began falling for Chris, but maybe he was there the whole time. ~ This is amazing and beautiful! I almost couldn’t stop myself from crying at the fluff. <333</i>

Oh My God, Finally by Halrloprillalar (prillalar) Words: 1.7k, Rating: Explicit, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti, Victuuri At the GPF post-banquet after-party, Chris and Phichit do a little roleplay. ~ The rp was much implemented much better than I was anticipating, but I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. In any case it was still well done so someone else might enjoy it.

Unexpected and Eager by novocaine_sea Words: 3.6k, Rating: Explicit, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti (Anyone guess by now what tag I’ve been going through?) Now that Victor was off with Yuuri, Christophe really had nobody to have fun with after hours. “Christophe!” A cheerful voice called from behind him, almost as if on cue. Christophe turned, champagne flute still twisting in hand. Phichit Chulanont was heading his way with a bright smile on his face. Maybe this banquet wouldn’t be so boring after all. ~ A very sweet lemon~ <3</i>

Liquid Courage by vivaldis_lover Words: 1.5k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti It’s Phichit’s turn to get drunk at the banquet, but unfortunately for Chris, no pole dancing is involved this year. He will get his reward for taking care of the young skater, though. ~ Just a little bit of drunken fluff <3</i>

Anything Could Happen by Creepikat Words: 7.1k, Rating: Teen, Status: Complete Relationship(s): ChulaCometti, Victuuri, Leo de la Iglasia/Ji Guang-Hong (I have no clue what their ship name is, but they are so cute~~) After two years Viktor and Yuuri finally get married. They rent a Hotel near Detroit, in a beautiful and snowy place. Everyone’s here. The future husbands are idiots. Phichit is a best man. Christophe too. And somehow he’s even more dashing than usual. This is gonna be a merry mess. ~ I love relationship establishing fics like this~ I really love when things like this are continued (alas this is not) but this initial type of fluff gives me life. <33</i>

A Sequence for You by wisia Words: 4.7k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri Yuuri Katsuki retired from ice skating without any medals or breaking any records. It’s fine. He couldn’t have made it anyway. So, why was Victor Nikiforov asking him to be his coach? ~ This seems like a good roll reversal so far. I think it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

fire on ice by indianchai Words: 11k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri All figure skaters were water users. Never in the history of the sport was there professional ice skater that didn’t have water as their elemental affinity. Katsuki Yuri had a well-guarded secret that he can’t have anyone find out about. ~ This is amazing! I love fantasy and mystic type things, so this is right up my alley. Can’t wait to read more!

Remedy by Ishxallxgood Words: 1.8k, Rating: Not Rated (G? Maybe just above for the feels), Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri Those 48 hours these two spent apart were the worst. Viktor finds comfort from that gaping hole in his soul via one Hiroko Katsuki, who loves him as much as she loves her own son. And Yuuri, well Viktor is his remedy, always and forever. ~ A really beautiful hurt/comfort fic <3 Have I mentioned this is a songfic btw?</i>

Turn Backwards on Go by inkwellofstars Words: 5.3k, Rating: Not Rated (G), Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri In which Yuuri and Victor, happily married and retired, find themselves thrown into the past and proceed to mess with everyone. ~ This is a bit of fun, unlike most of the time travel aus which are filled with angst. Can’t wait to see how the two of them are going to continue to mess with everyone!

Only You by quesadiaz Words: 27k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri In the year 2021, Victor Nikiforov, retired professional figure skater and Number One Husband, steps into a taxi to make his way home from the grocery store, arm full of vegetables and fruits to bring home to his beautiful husband and loyal old dog. A sharp sound and a blur of color is the only warning before Victor wakes up in the year 2016, sitting in a first class seat on an ascending airplane headed for Fukuoka, Japan. ~ I’m mostly enjoying this. A large part of me is just like “I hope everything will be okay T^T” This is also from Yuuri’s pov, a companion fic is going to be released when this one is done.

Gods of Circumstance by Ritequette Words: 15k, Rating: Mature, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri During his Free Program at the 2016 Barcelona Grand Prix Finals, Yuuri suffers a freak equipment malfunction and falls, hitting his head on the ice.When he wakes up, surprisingly not dead, he finds himself in the last place he expected… the 2015 Sochi Grand Prix Finals. Again.~ Aaaahhhhh, this is an amazing time travel fic! So much feeling! I really want to see how it unfolds.

Dancing Daffodils by greyclouds Words: 40k, Rating: Mature, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri  "As Love gently wipes away the tears that trail down his cheeks something within Victor quakes, its tremors resonating throughout his entire being like a deafening echo.  He is in the arms of a god.“ A god falls for a man. ~ I’m really enjoying this one!

I have no heart, for you long ago stole it by exile_wrath Words: 4k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Victuuri In which Eros, one of the six gods of love, falls for a mortal who thinks he’s unlovable. Or in which Yuuri goes to the Temple of Eros to plea for help and ends up being courted by the god himself instead. ~ An interesting fic to say the least. I kinda wish it went on for longer, just so we could see some more development.

On My Love by RikoJasmine Words: 48k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Victuuri Yuuri often thinks of his life as Before and After Viktor Nikiforov, the marking point being the day Viktor swept into his life and turned his world upside-down. After many years together, an accident leads to Yuuri suddenly waking up in the Before—back in Detroit, before the GPF, before he ever knew Viktor as anything other than his childhood idol. As if it had all been just a dream. ~ Holy shit this fic. I’ve cried a couple of times with it already and I’m really looking forward to reading more! <3</i>

Voltron

An Everglow Feeling by BleuSarcelle Words: 3.4k, Rating: Teen, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Klance (Keith/Lance) The one where Lance acquires magic healing powers for being the first human to be inside a cry-pod and it turns out to be a dangerous thing, especially when said abilities are connected with his energy life force and Keith’s bleeding on his arms. ~ This is good! I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes~!

The Hundred Dollar Bill by AQuinton Words: 7.1k, Rating: G, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Klance, Shallura (Shiro/Allura) Shiro convinced Keith to participate in a date auction for charity and now he has to go on a date with Lance. Lots of fluff and ridiculous text conversations ensue. ~ Very, very cute and fluffy~! I was grinning and loving it the whole way through. <33</i>

Roar by CrzyFun Words: 8.7k, Rating: G, Status: Wip Relationship(s): Blue Lion/Red Lion (Well, that was strange to type - no others so far) Lance met them while surfing just off the coast of Cuba. Hunk met him while helping out at his mothers’ restaurant. Pidge met her while solving puzzles with her brother. Shiro met him after leading his soccer team to victory. Keith… Well, Keith had always known her. Which is why he was completely unsurprised to find out the cats were more than they seemed. ~ Interesting concept and a nice fic so far.

Objects in Motion (When Unbalanced) by Mytay Words: 37k, Rating: Teen, Status: Complete Relationship(s): Klance Lance and Keith are constantly being mistaken for a couple. Lance is highly offended. Keith is quietly outraged. Pidge decides if she can’t have peace, then she can write an epic scientific dissertation on the romantic failings of two exceptionally dense paladins. ~ Very nicely written, well paced, and cute. It left me with a rather contented feeling, and it’s definitely one I’d recommend over and over. <3</i>

[ceciliatan]

WATCH POINT blog tour & giveaway wrapup!

It’s been a blast launching WATCH POINT, my gay Navy SEAL abduction romance, and I would like to thank all the blogs and sites that featured the book, reviewed it, hosted my essays, and participated in the giveaway! All told 154 comments were entered the drawing for a Cecilia Tan gay fiction prize pack, including some Daron’s Guitar Chronicles swag, The Prince’s Boy, and such!

Scroll to the bottom to see the ultimate winner! :-)

Some highlights from the tour:

I did a “Down and Dirty” interview for USA Today’s “Happy Ever After” column, in which I reveal my love of Sour Patch Kids, Yuri!!! On Ice!, Queen + Adam Lambert, and Peter Tork of the Monkees.

At Heroes & Heartbreakers, I blogged about how everything I learned about wilderness survival, which is put to good use in Watch Point, I learned not on the Internet, but in the Girl Scouts:

“At first, I resisted [my mother’s attempts to get me into Girl Scouts]. I resisted anything that was associated with the word ‘girl.’ I got the Handbook with all the merit badges in it and was mildly disgusted how many of the badges were for things like cooking and sewing. (I’d already learned to sew.) But I stuck it out because there was talk of going on a camping trip. Real camping! Staying overnight in a tent in the woods! I couldn’t wait for that. The Girl Scout motto is ‘Be Prepared.’ I brought my own camping kit (including canteen, frying pan, etc), Swiss army knife, and other tools…”

At Love Bytes Reviews I posted a list of Eight Things I Learned About Navy Seals:

“The average man trying to qualify to be a SEAL can do 79 situps in two minutes. The best of the recruits can do 100. They may be the only romance heroes who actually have the abs pictured on the book’s cover.”

At Bayou Book Junkie I wrote about why I had to write our hero, Eric, in not just the first person but in present tense, something I don’t normally do, but which just worked perfectly for him:

“In the case of Eric the puzzle I needed to solve was how to let the reader see what’s going on in Eric’s head even though Eric himself avoids introspection? It was important to give the reader a deep look inside because so much of what Eric does– like kidnapping Chase–looks villainous from the outside. But inside we know he’s deeply concerned with honor and justice. This parallels Eric’s sexuality, which includes role playing and BDSM which may look abusive from the outside, but from the inside we experience as deeply caring, careful, and loving.”

At The Novel Approach I wrote about explicitly giving Eric half-Asian/half-white ethnicity and why that choice was important thematically to me:

“I am a mixed-race person, and being ‘mixed-race’ has been the ‘hip fad’ three or four different times in my life. Like bisexuality, it is a trait that is easily appropriated by authors as an easy ‘outsider’ marker, a metaphorical symbol of their character’s uniqueness.”

At OMG Reads I blogged about “Military Romance as Guilty Pleasure“:

“I am against using the term ‘guilty pleasure,’ because it is so often applied against things that we shouldn’t be guilty about [especially liking romance]. But I do have a wee bit of guilt over one corner of romance, and that’s military romance. My conscience nags me: how can you enjoy reading and writing Navy SEALs when you don’t agree with American military might being abused around the world?”

I write about the paradox of loving military heroes, but not the way our government abuses them. In Watch Point we get into the subject of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as the reason why Eric is no longer in the military. In future Wayward Warrior books I’m planning to also touch on other ways our government has failed to serve those who serve us, including budget cuts to veterans programs and so on.

Reviews

Dog-Eared Daydreams reviewed the book, saying:

“If you think Watch Point is your usual falling-for-your-captor story, you’ve got another thing coming. This is my first Cecilia Tan read and I was more than impressed with how she made this such an original tale of vengeance, freedom, and kink.”

The Novel Approach loved it, as well:

“I’ve always loved miscalculation as a romantic catalyst, and Eric falls into the trap of underestimating Chase from the start … and watching Eric’s respect for Chase grow was the lit match to the short fuse you know damn well is going to blow up before the happy ending.”

The one negative review (if I can call it that?) was from Boy Meets Boy Reviews, who were disappointed that the dubious consent was not dubious enough. Riptide Publishing is pretty serious about making sure content warnings are used, and Watch Point is tagged with dubious consent, BDSM, military, enemies to lovers, and hate sex. As the review states: “Most of those tags (IMO) should come with a “lite” disclaimer,” and “All the people who do not do dub or non-con, this is the dub-con for you. This might be the fluffiest dub-con I’ve ever read.”

I don’t disagree at all. Compared to my dub-con fanfic–or even to what goes on in The Prince’s Boy—Watch Point is *relatively* lighter on the transgression. 100% valid review! I still support the content warnings, though, since this is still a kidnapper/kidnappee setup, so for those who find dubious consent triggering or problematic, this is not an allergen-free book. People who are sensitive to those issues should still proceed with caution.

The Winner!

To pick the winner I compiled all 154 comments left throughout the tour in a spreadsheet, assigned by row number, and then I used the website Random.org to pick the winning number. People who left comments on multiple blogs were entered multiple times; each comment counted as an additional entry into the drawing. The number that came up was 94 and so therefore the winner is Lisa for a comment left at the Erotica for All blog!

I truly appreciate all the comments, thoughts, and enthusiasm from everyone on the tour. I’m emailing all of you a little something in thanks for making it a really fun and memorable week. :-) So thank you HB, Paul, James, Didi, Joanne, Nancy, Christina, Timitra, Jennifer, Ginger, Lee, Debby, Trix, Shirley, Jennie, Lee, Tanya, Diane, Jodi, Lennis, Brian, and everyone else whose names may not have come through. :-)

Here’s the full itinerary of giveaway stops: 1. November 6, 2017 – OMG Reads Essay on Military Romance 2. November 6, 2017 – Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents 3. November 6, 2017 – La Crimson Femme 4. November 6, 2017 – Diverse Reader – Excerpt from Ch. 1 5. November 7, 2017 – My Fiction Nook 6. November 7, 2017 – Bayou Book Junkie – Essay on the First-Person Present-Tense Narrator 7. November 7, 2017 – Creative Deeds 8. November 7, 2017 – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews 9. November 8, 2017 – The Day Before You Came 10. November 8, 2017 – MM Good Book Reviews – Excerpt from Ch. 2 11. November 8, 2017 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 12. November 8, 2017 – TTC Books and More 13. November 8, 2017 – Erotica for All 14. November 9, 2017 – Jessie G Books 15. November 9, 2017 – Dog-Eared Daydreams – Review 16. November 9, 2017 – Book Reviews and More by Kathy 17. November 9, 2017 – The Novel Approach 18. November 10, 2017 – We Three Queens 19. November 10, 2017 – Love Bytes Reviews 20. November 10, 2017 – Open Skye 21. November 10, 2017 – Unquietly Me

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