#honestly a fascinating story and/or character seed

[pretty-prince-lulu]

I have GOT to talk about this colonist partly because he's interesting in his own right and partly because the idea of him as a story inspiration is fascinating to me and I'm sure someone out there will enjoy the concept

it's a bit long but we can focus on text around here!

started a tribal colony randomized the xenotypes with the intention of going with all non-baseliners (I presume they'd been liberated from a base with growth vats as infants and raised by tribesman, and never knew anything other than tribal life) we got: an animusen (fox person from Alpha Genes), who started pregnant from her missing VRE hussar husband), a dirtmole, a highmate (expanded upon by Vanilla Races Expanded- Highmates), a genie (ditto from the Genies module), and an android (likewise). who I assume, at the time of Liberation, was a simple service android, probably running a growth facility alone (not the same one by relative ages, but a similar one) who would have had zero skills across the board but also zero needs basically just a machine for renewing the supplies in the vats and whatever menial task the unmanned facility would have needed

these androids, however, do something interesting they start out as blank, subservient service droids (without needs or demands, occasionally rebooting to empty their RAM, which I presume looks to his fellows as a brief seizure and then he's fine) but when exposed to a great deal of stress or excitement (which I assume will have happened patching up after a raid or in some other dire circumstance, judging by the result) they Awaken whereupon they have a bunch of randomized traits unlock, and they become, in a very real sense an Actual Person. capable of feelings, romance, growth, learning, and almost everything a biological person can!

It is at this point I presume that all that he WAS is wiped from his memory banks, and from there on, he is a tribal. An ordinary man of flesh and blood, or so he insists.

he is Raven, a skinny, elderly man, who is really anything but.

he is not elderly at all- in fact, he's a relatively recent model, and is simply styled as an old wise man, a trait I imagine he took on when deciding to lead this tribe.

by programming, he has several double passion excellent skills: Medical, Intellectual, and... Social.

He leads our cult of magic and administering healthcare to all (including our enemies, who we release from prison after raids when we've treated their wounds)

This is not as interesting as his traits, which are as follows.

Wimp: This trait means he will go down very easily with pain.

He does not feel pain according to his health tab, so I'm taking this as psychological.

Desensitized: Won't get upset after horrible shit happens, which I'm chalking up to the same.

Schizoid: Can't express himself until he's stressed to the point of absolute meltdown, which I am, again, chalking up to past experiences.

Cat person: SAME, BABE

but the last one... the LAST one is what really compelled me to share.

Blood Mage.

Blood Mages work by using their magic in ways that interact with blood.

This includes: cutting themselves and using the hemorrhage to fuel their power

causing blood that is spilled to ignite like fuel

forcing someone else to bleed and vaporizing THAT blood specifically into a healing mist for himself

surrounding others in a shield made of the magic charged by bleeding himself

causing others to violently haemmorhage

the ultimate power (which he does not know): calling down a Blood Moon, which summons demons and other nasties upon our enemies.

Raven is an android.

Androids do not have blood.

When cut, Raven, instead, lurks neutroamine. This is also what comes out when he cuts himself to fuel his magic.

This is an ultra-technologically advanced substance, usually used to make advanced medications or drugs. We can learn how to grow the flower petals we can extract it from- but the casket and equipment needed to actually infuse it into our android is ultratech, and is behind about six layers of advancement.

For tribals, which has a massive penalty on research past the stone age.

Neutroamine in an android DOES NOT replenish when lost. It must be manually replaced.

It also interacts strangely with his powers.

Bleeding himself DOES charge his blood magic

The spilled neutroamine CANNOT be used like blood for spells (it will not heal others and it will not ignite)

He CAN use the charged power to shield his loved ones

He CAN make others haemmorhage and utilize that blood per normal.

This essentially renders him an opportunistic back-line defender and medic, who can bleed himself to shield others, but is a disastrous power to use because it's essentially a permanent down when he runs out.

This does not stop him defending the tribe.

Or his wife.

Or his daughter.

Androids cannot have children.

Did you know that, when they're paired up with highmates, they can reproduce telepathically- and that this is the only circumstance in which offspring is possible?

Did you know that, when these babies are born, they are- after briefly initiating- adults?

I presume this contributes to his insistence that he is an Ordinary Man.

Look at him.

He has a tribe. A wife. A daughter. So precocious for her age.

And so it shall be, until he calls up his shield for us, and the raiders are gone, and he sputters and fails, run out of his strange blue blood

and lies motionless for years upon years

until we learn the ways of the men from the skies.

[rius-cave]

When and how did you start shipping Adamsapple?

I’m asking to you too cause I believe half of us summoned from you lol

I would honestly love to know people's stories of how they started shipping adamsapple, whether it has to do with me it not, I'm constantly asking that question to people I meet and it's fascinating to me how people came to like it!

As for me, I have the whole thing documented because I watched the show with my gf LOL

This was me during the finale

Which is hilarious now in hindsight, oh young Riu (from 6 months ago) you were so foolish

This was me explaining to my gf how the "now I'm going to fuck you" joke worked in spanish, and then the first seeds of the adamsapple delusion sprouted lol

And this is me hahaha shipping it for the lolz also feat. My gf's character development when she thought the idea was cursed at first (now she's a shipper too dw)

So yeah! It started with me thinking it would be funny, then thinking about sinner Adam, then I made my first adamsapple comic with that joke because haha funny, and then I think I saw some NSFW of them in twitter and.... I was doomed kakfjskffs

Enemies to lovers is absolutely my number #1 trope so honestly, I don't know how I didn't expect this ship to completely take over my life lol

[bigtedbear]

Omg I just had another thought, you can make this a request but it's honestly up to you.

Imagine a Dilf Mafia male Reader? Or maybe just a Dad! Mafia male reader? X alhaitham? Or anyone who you think is a motherly character honestly, maybe even baizhu or Zhongli.

(OMEGAVERSE THIS PUHLEASE)

Imagine that one day, his one and only son disappeared and was kidnapped by his enemies, he was a cold dad but never a bad one who wouldn't care about his child — so ofc he sent out thousands of his men to hunt down those who kidnapped his son.

But unknowingly to him, his son has been saved by a stranger who his son calls “mom”. The stranger didn't even know who the child was — all he knew was that they needed help. And so he ran with a crying child in his arms.

The child doesn't even know his dad's last name, all he knew was our name, “M/n”. So that didn't really help the stranger, but the story of how the child got kidnapped helped — “The bad guys said that they were my daddy's friends, but then they hurt me and I escaped by running very far! And they said they're gonna go for my daddy instead...” The child said.

And thus with a heavy heart, the stranger assumed that the reader was dead. And that this child was basically alone, an orphan. And thus he decided to take care of the child, and the child was happy to call him mommy — refusing to call him daddy for the reason that he already has a daddy, and the stranger couldn't beat to break the kids little heart so he couldn't refuse!

But actually it was the other way around, reader DEFINITELY wasn't dead... More like the kidnappers are. A few days, months of searching even, they finally found the caretaker of his son and immediately traveled to their location without a notice to the stranger.

And so when they arrived at the door and claimed he was the child's father, no way was the stranger going to trust shady men wearing black suits! He refused, not giving a damn what they say without proof — there was no way they were taking HIS child away from him.

He has always longed for his own, but how could he beat a seed when all his exes were too afraid to commit? When they all leave him? No way was he going to let his baby be away from him, they can't take this away from him.

And I blanked after that, I think that it could be a fluff with angst back stories and shit. I honestly think it's a cute thing I just thought of it idk. Then they fall in love in the process yada yada and boom the live as a whole family

—🪷

Everytime I open my request I wait for ur messages in my inbox because I fear your requests r so fascinating

[bidonica]

Hey! I see you're into fragile/higgs ship and caught myself quite like them too recently (tho i've been in DS fandom already for a year and mostly thought about them as a friends)

Just wondering why do you like them? Do you have any headcanons/interesting thoughts? I'm very curious 👀

Hi! First of all apologies for the wall of text you're about to get, but unfortunately you came knocking at my door after I spent nearly two months ruminating about this ship basically by myself sooo I'm dumping it all here

Well the short (lol) version is that in my first playthrough I mostly just absorbed the characters and storyline, but by the time I got to their final scene on the Beach I was like wait a minute... their whole shared storyline feels way too loaded for them to simply have been business associates, that shit is personal, even Higgs wanting to damage Fragile feels way too pointed to just be justified by "he was a turncloak with a secret agenda." Now, I'm not against a "they were simply close friends" interpretation, it works just as well to explain the emotional weight of their falling out, BUT I also cannot ignore the zest, the flavor, the spice of them actually having been involved romantically at some point. And honestly going into my second playthrough with the shipping goggles on I can't help thinking that Fragile speaks about Higgs like he was an ex that hurt her, and the way that she is suspiciously cagey about the specifics of their relationship makes my ears shoot up like a German shepherd.

On a Doylist level I also find it interesting that Kojima gave Higgs extra backstory that connects him to Fragile in the Director's Cut, and also how the behind the scenes for the DS2 mocap show Troy and Léa sharing a scene... I think Kojima is not done intertwining their story and we'll get more info in the sequel.

Now for the headcanons... I have enough that I might or might not be writing a long-ish fic about it, but I want to finish this Director's Cut playthrough before completing it (I could just look stuff up on the wiki but that's not fun). Also I have some art in the pipeline about it that I hope to post within the week. Anyway, the bite sized version of how I envision their relationship:

I hc Higgs as being immediately attracted to Fragile but not really acting on it, while she develops her attraction after getting to know him a little. Then she's down bad but she doesn't even realize it until it's so obvious it hits her in the face

A few people at their joint Fragile Express/whatever Higgs' operation was called co-op assume they are an item long before anything ever happens, because they just hang out together a lot. They have a similar penchant for corny jokes and puns and enjoy some light banter; Fragile finds Higgs' flair for theatrics endearing, while he is drawn to how gentle she is because he has known so little softness in his life (also he thinks she's insanely pretty, which duh. It's self evident because Léa Seydoux) (it's his first serious girl crush anyway; I hc him as bi and as having had mostly experiences with men before her)

They bond over their DOOMS condition and Higgs is fascinated by Fragile's powers, while she is less enthused by all the collateral effects. In my hc, at this point she has yet to become as skilled at traveling through dimensions as she is in the game, which makes her reluctant to agree to Higgs' requests to show him the Beach. This sows the seeds of his resentment towards her, because he feels she has a privilege she doesn't make use of and doesn't want to share.

They are both pretty touchy feely (canon!) so when their relationship goes from friendly to romantic it gets physical immediately and enthusiastically. Yes even accounting for the worldwide lowered sex drive. If there's one thing I never do is put characters in horny jail 🫡

 I think Fragile got to know a version of Higgs that was quite different from what we see in the game, which you sort of can gauge from the more optimistic pages of his diary. Like there's a part of him who's starved for love and connection and a sense of belonging and gravitates towards people like Coffin (he never had a mother) and Fragile herself; ironically, the pull towards Amelie answers to the same need but in reality it feeds on his more nihilistic, call-of-the-void side. I'm not saying that Amelie brainwashed him or anything, but I think she saw what was already there – a  deep seated resentment towards a hostile world and towards those he feels got handed a luckier deal than he did, that he countered by clinging to the notion of being special because of his DOOMS, but then there's someone like Fragile who's even more special and doesn't seem to be doing much with it. Amelie gave him a chance to fulfill what he felt was his potential and shared her power with him, but the tradeoff was severing  the connections he had, "killing" the part of him that wanted to be loved to make space for what he perceived as a higher form of love ("I found someone who completes me" which he says to Fragile specifically like he wants to rub it in her face? Like she wasn’t  enough to fulfill that role?)

That’s why I think it’s significant that he lost his hands with his power-up, because the (holding, welcoming) hands are strongly associated with Fragile; and to me it makes sense if he purposely ruins her body also because it’s a way to stifle his attraction to her. There’s also a lot of projection because HE is the one who’s felt like damaged goods all along, who grew up being  crushed psychologically and physically. I also think that both of them coming close to annihilating the other but choosing not to – leaving them in a dicey situation but not entirely without escape – shows in some twisted way that their bond still exists, which makes me giggle and rub my hands like a nasty little goblin knowing we have another game coming.

So… That’s the gist of it. Sorry for rambling on but as I said, I don’t really get the chance to talk about this ship much – greetings from rarepair hell, etc.

[valandhirwriter]

Pick 3 of your favorite characters. Tell us when and how you fell in love with them. Inquiring minds want to know :)

Then tag 3 or more people, hopefully who aren't shy :D.

3 of my favourite characters.... that's quite the challenge I have to admit. Because I read a lot and had a lot of favourite chars accordingly. But, here we go, I will try to give this a bit of bandwith, because I have character types that speak to me much easier than others.

Boromir of Gondor

When did I fall in love with this character? At about 13, when I first read Lord of the Rings. I remember reading through the story, and wondering why none of his companions would try and reach out to him. Legolas and Gimli waste time arguing whether bow or sword is the better weapon, while beside them their comrade is slowly drifting off into darkness. Boromir also had some vibes of Hagan of Tronege from the Niebelungenlied to me, also a character who is considered dark, fierce and also fiercely loyal. While many consider Hagen the bad guy of the story, I also liked him best. The early picture of Boromir that I had in my mind, was close to the book describtion, black hair, very tall, haunted grey eyes and a scar on his forehead. Naturally when the movies came along, my favourite actor Sean Bean had the role, and the picture changed around a little. Watching his interpretation of Boromir seeded the first ideas for a story arc about him in my brain, though it would take me another ten years to sit myself down and write the story. In that story i then explored many of the questions I had since first reading the novel: What drove Boromir to such extremes? What happened to Gondor? How did Aragorn leaving after the Umbar campaign impact Gondor long.term? Even after finishing that huge arc, I still love Boromir as a character. His story has been with me for a long time, and will hopefully remain with me for a long time still.

2. Raistlin Majere

I discovered the dragonlance books by accident in my teens. And while the quality of the novels can be called into question, their humour certainly still echoes with me. That and... Raistlin. He was the character I found fascinating at once, and not just because he was the only one in the group actually using his brain. Unfortunately the authors had set up his split from the group and later his "fall" in War of the Twins, instead of really exploring the character with more depth. There was so much potential there, so much aspects to tell a story. Raistlin had the potential to be one of those compelling dark characters, who casn make the heroes torn, because while not with them on principle, their help is still invaluable. I sometimes consider writing a story about him, beginning from before his trials at the Tower of Wayreth and building the AU from there. But I would have to take huge liberties, and have yet to find just the right story companion for him. What draw me to Raistlin is his intelligence, also his detachment, his ability to see the situation for what it is, and not need delusions about hope or good, to sustain himself. He sees what is, and doesn't despair but come up with a plan. That nickname "the sly one" hit me hard when I first read about him, because it told me how judgemental those friends of his were.

3. Eskel

Ciri arriving in Kaer Morhen, and getting frightened by one of Geralt's comrades, because his face is clawed up in some manner... I still remember reading that scene, some time in the 90ies. I was curios at once, especially as scarface, ahm Eskel, proved to be a nice guy in the few scenes he had in the book. I liked him, and I wanted to know more about him. I came up with several stories how he had gotten his scars, and who he was outside of just one of Geralt's brothers. Unfortunately the author never bothered to tell us more about him. Then came the games and I was only marginally enticed by them. Some aspects are good, others are meh... and I will honestly admit that I am still so-so about the Diedre tale. Then came Netflix... and wow was I pissed. Eskel needed his own heroic story I decided and well... it happened. He's still my favourite Witcher, and hopefully will remain so.

Honourable Mentions

Lan al Mandragoran

Wheel of time was another series I devoured in the late 90ies (and on as new books came out), and Lan was my favourite character in them. I was sure he would die in Tarmon Gai'don, but that did not hinder me devouring everything about him. And what a confrontation in the last battle. Reading that, i was sure, so sure, he'd not come out of this alive, and so happy when he did. I would love to write a story about him and Tam meeting at the Blood Snow and upsetting the entire applecart of events.

Athos

Athos from the Three Musketeers is another childhood hero, from reading the books (Three Musketeers/Twenty Years After/ The Viscount of Bragelonne) when I was a young teen. I like Athos, is aloofness, his honour, is utter reality-defying sticking with said honour, and also his haunted past. He was one of my first fanfic subjects (cringe, the stories were so bad) and i still adore him to this day.

Tagging @regis-favorite-raven, @do-androids-dream-ao3acc, @lohrendrell and @eskel-loves-lilbleater to talk about their favourite characters and how they encountered them.

[yowhoevenami]

The X-Files – Pilot

I’ve been rather couch bound with some health nonsense, so I’ve decided to jump into this. It’s been a while since I’ve watched The X-Files and I’d like to shout into the void about it for a while. Here follows me losing my mind over things like character introductions for the most part. Seriously, I feel like this show is a masterclass.  

The meeting between Mulder and Scully is so good. In a relatively short amount of time, about three and a half minutes, we are given SO MUCH. Scully’s professionalism and Mulder’s . . . um . . .contrast to that? 😉 Mulder’s sense of humor along with his sideways method of complimenting and his apparent inability to be serious most of the time. Scully’s intelligence as he lists her credentials. (His intelligence was already highlighted in the previous scene.)

Her ability to meet him where he stands intellectually. (The way that they challenge each other is fascinating to watch and is what keeps them so interested in one other. Who else could effectively match either of them?) We are shown her curiosity as she immediately starts to question what she’s seeing in the slides he presents to her. (Taking a moment of silence here to remember the times when slides had nothing to do with powerpoint.)

We get Scully’s core beliefs in this one bit of dialogue. (This world view is integral to her, and she later struggles with the difficulty of having to see beyond the surety that she has spent a lifetime cultivating.) Three and a half minutes! There are reasons that these two are so iconic and it all starts here.

Their first few scenes together he is testing her to see if she’s trustworthy and to gauge her capabilities. However, the impression is never even hinted at that he might be doubting her because she is a woman, only that she was sent to spy on him. (Honestly, this still feels refreshing as hell compared to other media that attempts to write strong women.)

We learn more about Mulder and what he might believe. His near giddy excitement over what they may have found with that exhumed body hints at the reveal later as to why he believes. This is a man that has spent his life being told that what he saw as a child, with his own eyes, was a lie. And here, before him, perhaps for the first time is the vindication of all of that? No wonder he’s practically clawing at the walls to get those tests done. And then, of course, the bathrobe scene. Is there an official name for this scene in the shipper lore because if not THERE SHOULD BE. :cough: Anyway.

Up to this point Scully has been expressing her strength and capability with little to no hint of vulnerability. Going to Mulder here, when she was afraid was one thing, the way she threw herself into his arms afterward is another. (Also, my kid wandered into the room during this scene for the hug and said “Ooooh, this is a love story, isn’t it?”) Yes, child. Yes, it is. But . . . in so many different ways and among so many other things.

Anyway, he chooses to answer her vulnerability with his own and tells the story that drives him. Here all levity in him dissipates into pure focus and drive. These are sides of Mulder that he carries with him throughout the series.

By the end of the pilot episode we have a really decent idea of who each of these people are, what is important to them, and what they want at this point of the narrative.

Side notes:

First use of: “Scully, it’s me.” (❤️)

And . . . now I’m craving sunflower seeds.

[queerbookgeek]

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree.

Viv’s career with renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk - so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What's a swarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn't far away. A suspicious traveler in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk could be more eventful then Viv could have ever expected. Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. And sometimes, we find ourselves in stories we experience together.

Set Twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes , Bookshops & Bonedust is a stand alone cosy fantasy about the power of a good bookshop, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way.

I read Legends & Lattes early last year, I won't go into it as Bookshops & Bonedust pretty much stands alone but I will say it very easily became one of my favorite cosy books i've read, which ment expectations for Bookshops & Bonedust were high. It also left me hungry for cinnamon rolls, so this time I came prepared with fruit scones and ice tea. Also lets take a second to appreciate this super cute bookmark that I got for free when I ordered the book, a testament to why you should always buy from independent bookshops when possible. 

To say that I loved this book feels like an understatement. 

I loved all the new characters in this , a couple standouts for me are Satchel and Potroast but honestly I adored all of them, and watching Viv’s relationship unfold with them throughout the book even knowing that she is going to eventually leave is just beautiful. Also getting to see how Viv met Gallina was a lot of fun too. 

I know some people really didn't like it and I would honestly love to know why? I found it fascinating to  see the early seeds being sown in Viv’s life that would eventually lead her to give up adventuring and open her coffee shop.

The story, while slightly more adventurous than the first book, was really fun. It still very much leans more cosy than adventurous so still very fitting as a companion piece to Legends & Lattes.  

All this to say I really, really hope this isn't the last we see of Viv and Travis Baldree would so kindly give us another book about her life. 🏳️‍🌈

[fatalism-and-villainy]

More thoughts about how Clarice Starling might be incorporated into a post-canon scenario (i.e., a season 4 that exists in my mind palace). I know the creators wanted to adapt Silence of the Lambs, but honestly, a scenario I’d be really interested in would be featuring Hannibal (novel)-era Clarice - i.e. not a fresh and up-and-coming ingénue, but older and more jaded. I’m thinking in this timeline she would have had her career-making success without Hannibal’s help, and is encountering him (along with Will) for the first time. Probably in pursuit of some other Big Bad, and forming an uneasy alliance.

I’m interested in this because I a) do not think Hannibal is a good novel, and b) really do feel strongly about some of the threads it hints at but never fully develops. And this is especially true wrt Clarice! Like, the badwrong hypno romance with Hannibal at the end gets all the outrage, but frankly I’m less bothered by that than the casual sidelining of her character throughout the novel. We have this implied arc of woman’s career stagnating because of corruption and sexism, the woman becoming persona non grata in Washington after a scandal and sort of going rogue in deciding to rescue Hannibal… not to mention the details about her background and her craving for finer things and fascination with wealth and luxury (which, in contrast to the dissatisfying time she’s had with the FBI, actually would have sown the seeds for her possibly being compelled by going off with Hannibal, if the book had taken care to develop it). But that’s all effectively dropped! She straight-up disappears for a good chunk of the novel, and then when she reappears, despite her decision to rescue Hannibal, her importance to the story is so concentrated on her unknowingly being used as a lure for Hannibal. She doesn’t drive the plot the way she should.

So, I think it’d be cool for the showverse to explore that character arc for her, at the point in her life when she’s angry, guilt-ridden, and disillusioned. Encountering Will and Hannibal overseas could come as a result of her going vigilante for whatever reason, the way Jack does wrt Hannibal in s2-3. And there’d be an interesting overlap between the pseudo-therapy sessions she and Hannibal do in the novel Hannibal vs. the more subtly threatening/antagonistic brain-picking he engages in with her in SOTL - how would an older, more experienced Clarice respond to that SOTL routine for the first time, while in a worse emotional place than the idealism and optimism of her younger self?

And there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in the landscape of Hannibal-the-novel where so many players in the game are corrupt and only interested in monetary gain, and the people who are actually concerned with justice - Clarice, Jack, to a lesser extent Ardelia - are fairly powerless - and then there’s Hannibal, a villain who actually has values and standards and beliefs outside of shallow materialism, twisted as though they may be. I like the idea of the post-canon story of the show Hannibal contrasting whatever weird arthouse villainy fest is going on overseas with the moral corruption and bureaucratic drudgery of the FBI back at home - I think that’d be broadly in line with both the show’s themes and premises of the novel - and see that reflected in Clarice coming in contact with Hannibal and Will (and possibly being susceptible to being swayed by Hannibal’s POV, if only temporarily.)

[justatalkingface]

Breadth and depth.

You know, I was going to talk about the villains, but I realized it was going to bleed into this if I didn't get this off my chest, so... await that another time, I guess.

As time has passed more and more people are starting to call Hori a bad writer, and... I'm not sure they're wrong, but I don't think that's right, either. My Hero, for all of its flaws, is huge. If Hori was a bad writer, it never would have gotten this far.

What I've come to realize is that Hori is... for lack of a better word, an incomplete writer.

Let me explain.

First off, yes, I realize the manga isn't over yet. That's not point. When something in the story reaches a certain point in it's arc, a climax, big dramatic moment, whatever, there has to be build up. Let's look at AFO's big Kaminio intro, for example.

Hori didn't just throw AFO at us, he built up to that moment. First, he introduced him, with All Might and the face in the TV directing Tomura. But after that All For One kept showing up, and that's the crucial bit. It wasn't all big things, most of it was some plotting or sinister laughing here, or some teasing shapes in the TV screen there, but it reminded us, the audience that, A, AFO existed, B, that He Was Important, and C, we should really be afraid of him.

Then he showed up in Kamino and that build up? All the time Hori spent subtle reinforcing AFO's brand in our mind? It payed off in spades. All For One was epic. He was menacing. He dominated the scene.

All For One's intro was a great example of build up, A++, Hori hit that out of the park. The problem is that that is one of the few examples of build up done well. Honestly, Hori, for whatever reason, seems to have a lot of problem with that. I don't know why; maybe he can't focus, maybe it's lack of interest, maybe it's that unholy Japanese work schedule you hear so much about, but the fact of the matter is he flubs it more than he pulls it off.

In fact, I'd go so far to say that most of the things people criticise about his writing, ballpark of a good... 70% of everything before the War Arc (because that's where everything went to shit), is because of that.

Here's where I go back to my title though, breadth and depth. In general, breadth is about how broad your understanding of something is, how many topics you know about, while depth is about how deep your understanding is, how much you know about a topic.

For the purposes of this rant, these both apply to world building and character development, AKA how much of it there is, and how deep does it go.

The thing is? Breadth wise, Hori is golden. He, in the span of one chapter, introduced the audience to a wide, fascinating world that instantly grabbed the audience's attention, with vast room to build up off it in all sorts of directions. Depth, though, depth is what is holding him back.

Let's analyze a bad example of build up with that in mind: the mutant discrimination mob Spinner... thing. Yeesh. I'm going to burn two bridges with one torch and go over this, and rant about how shit it was, while also proving my point.

Interestingly enough, Hori had the start of this from as early as the first day of class: Shoji and his mask, who was afraid of scaring people with his face. It was a small mention, not big enough to disrupt the narrative but enough to be a good start of it.

Think of it as a seed. Hori sowed a lot of seeds in MHA early on; almost everything, even in the later arcs, probably has something somewhere that implies it was possible in the first... what, twenty chapters or so?

Hori sowed a lot of seeds, but he never watered them, though. We had Shoji, and we had Gang Orca (and oh, he had some potential, he did, but let's wait a bit before we go back to him), but after that? Mutant racism never came up again. The closest we've seen about that, really, until that mantle was shoved onto Spinner as Hori frantically backtracked, was if anything Shoto insulting that police chief. He called him a dog, I think? I've seen people bringing that and Dabi being a dick to Spinner as proof that the Todorokis, probably via Endeavor, are racists, but...

...Did the police chief care? Because if that was Shoto being racist, you'd think he be upset about that. He wasn't though, because back then, that wasn't actually a thing. Shoto was just being rude because he was upset. Dabi.... let's be honest, Dabi's kind of a dick in general. Him insulting Spinner really wasn't anything speical.

See, that's the thing: if you want to harvest your seeds, if you don't want them to die, you need to water them. More than that, you need to water them regularly. Hori didn't do that for the mutants, just as he didn't for so many other things; there was no depth to them.

So, when Spinner lead an angry army of mutants, we, the audience, weren't swept up in the narrative. We didn't feel for the poor oppressed people, or feel conflicted as the heroes faced them.

We wondered where the fuck that came from, because that wasn't a thing before.

Character wise, look at Shoji. We had that mask thing, but again, his big, overarching trauma wasn't a thing. He retroactively opened to his classmates about his horrible childhood, there were tears, apologies... all in a fucking flashback.

If that, if any of this, was something Hori had planned out, then he would of, or should of, anyways, have been hinting about for years now. We should have seen build up for this, and it wouldn't have been that hard. Shoji is afraid of showing his face; good, show that. Tell us, the audience, that it's there, and why.

Mutants are oppressed? Where? Where do you tell us about this? Where do we see it? Is it in the internships, when they patrol on the streets? Because that would have been a great time to start demonstrating that.

Remember Gang Orca? He's a high ranking hero, and he scares children because he's a scary mutant. He hates that, because he loves children. He's a mutant in a high level of power, when that should be hard for him. Here's something that I came up with a while ago, as a sort of primer introduction about the mutant thing: in the same way Hawks takes Tokoyami as his intern for being bird like, Gang Orca should have interned Shoji, and Koji, if he's part of all this, because they're mutants.

It would have been great for world building and character development; Orca could have explained how mutants have a hard time in the media oriented hero industry, that a lot of them end up as underground heroes due to lack of sponsors, how he struggled to get where he is now, and he that makes a habit of trying to help fellow mutants get off the ground in heroics. Then Shoji and Koji could have opened up about their experiences, which would have built up their characters, and given Hori an easy way to introduce both the characterization and world building to 1-A as a whole.

I came up with this idea after about ten minutes of trying to word how frustrated the Spinner hospital bullshit made me last month. How long has Hori had to prepare for this moment again?

So yeah, this mutant thing is incomplete. Hori's trying to collect the payoff for something that isn't there yet, because he never built up to it, the same way he did with the traitor, with Nighteye's death, with Mirio getting his powers back, with almost every character he's ever made.

Hori is an incomplete writer, who just doesn't finish one step in the process before he moves on to the next, and that's why everything he's trying to build keeps falling down around him.

And it's why My Hero Academy is a field filled with seeds left to die.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 528

On games I've been playing...

Crime O’Clock is a hidden object game where you’re playing as a time detective, your job is to prevent paradoxes that could collapse the timeline or change it from the “True Timeline”. The game visually speaking has a cartoony art style like Hidden Through Time and Windpeaks, but uses the black and white with splashes of colour to highlight things found like cat hidden object games. 

It also has a storyline and minigames, making it more similar to the narrative hidden object games like Mystery Case Files. Especially because that storyline was very well written.

But what makes this hidden object game unique, is that time travel isn’t just a story plot, it is a game mechanic. The way the levels are designed is that it is a single huge hidden object scene that  the player can zoom in and move around in. However, this scene has 10 points (ticks) in the game where time moves. Every ‘tick’ is a different moment in time, and as the story progresses you are moved forwards and backwards in order to track down suspects or figure out what has happened. This makes the scenes come to live, as every single person in that scene will move and go about their life.

And honestly, this is probably the strongest quality of Crime O’Clock, because the artist(s) involved made these scenes burst with life. It is fascinating to see all the little things these people do that make you want to follow them. Even if their stories aren’t important to the main storyline, and will never even be followed in the Fulcrum Stories side quest.

By the way, fun side note, whoever makes up the Bad Seed studio are all clearly pop culture enthusiasts. All of these scenes are brimming with characters inspired from all sorts of shows, comics, and manga. It was a delight to see references to things like John Wick, Naruto, One Piece, Rick and Morty, and so much more. I played through some of the Fulcrum Stories just so I could follow these people to find out how they fit into this world.

I quite enjoyed Crime O’Clock, the story was well written in a way that I felt the stakes involved. It was a story I wanted to follow, which is always good when you have a narrative based hidden object game. However, I will admit the game may have outstayed its welcome.

While the game had hints for the primary quests, at certain points of the game where tensions are high you get no hints at all. This can be frustrating when you just want to move on with the story, and can’t find what you’re looking for. I actually had to use walkthrough guides because I was getting really stuck, and kind of over the game to a certain degree. I still wanted to know how it ended but I sort of had enough.

This might be more due to the fact I’m not used to hidden object games being this long. I hadn’t even completed all the Fulcrum Stories and I had already played for 19 hours. I’m not the fastest or best person at hidden object games, and I also was taking notes so I wouldn’t forget shit, so your times may vary, but most hidden object games I’ve played are like 3 hours long. So this had taken longer than I wanted.

I still liked it, and it’s still on my computer because I would like to do the side quests at some point. It's very different from what I’m used to, but I do recommend it.

[zannolin]

i'm still formulating my thoughts on dragonwatch as a whole and this may honestly just be my bias from when i was twelve showing but i really do wish that bracken had been more present in rotds at least if not the entire series.

like for someone who is supposed to be a love interest and is so heavily emphasized by kendra's priorities and pov he spends like almost no time actively on the page or contributing to the plot in any meaningful way (or having much character development) past like, being in prison and motivating kendra to go rescue him (and half the time she would have done the things she did anyway because it would have helped seth, or because she probably needed to try to solicit ronodin's help anyway). i'm not really sure why he's practically nonexistent, especially after playing such a major role at the end of fablehaven. and sure there's plenty of fablehaven characters like that who weren't as present in dragonwatch, but none of them were an endgame love interest for one of our two main characters. this is of course setting aside the weirdness of the age gap, in case you were wondering. i've elected to ignore it and embrace my inner twelve year old i guess.

like there's this really fascinating comparison/contrast going on between him and ronodin, and there's a lot that could have been done to flesh him out more and make his choice at the end feel more impactful and less half-assed, like it was just trying to solve the problem of him being immortal and kendra being mortal. the seeds for it are there, for sure, again with the ronodin comparisons and the series thematically being about change and growth and growing up and becoming a different person. about making hard choices and letting go of who you were. but because he's like never there and you don't even get to witness much of his reasoning behind it, or even him interacting with kendra for more than like, a hundred cumulative pages...it just feels a little forced. a little rushed. and that makes me sad because i think it's genuinely SUCH an interesting direction to take his character and makes a lot of sense, but the end result just feels lackluster compared to what it might have been with even just a couple more bracken scenes or him being a little more present instead of constantly being in goddamn jail off-page all the time. like it feels like everyone else and their relationships have had serious character and story arcs and ended up in a different place than they were at the end of fablehaven, except brackendra. the only difference is he's mortal (without hardly any exploration of his reasoning or how that's changed him) and they kiss now i guess. you know?

(i dunno if this needs to be said but pls don't be a hater in my tags or anything.)

[oaxleaf]

The whole thing about Georgie is that her arc was fully completed long before the story began. She lost something/someone significant, she learned her lesson, she started living again. While the others have extensive knowledge of the Powers' terminology, she enters the story with a deep understanding of loss, entropy and fear that the others are yet to learn. She is never exactly unattended on screen. The tapes can't follow her and are hardly there for her so so does the narrative.

sorry this took me a couple days to answer. i was sick and my brain felt like the titan submersible moments before exploding to the pressure.

anyways. people aren't ever really finished though, you know? you have periods of your life when you are changing less or more, but you'll never reach a point where you will remain as such for the rest of your life. so whilst an arc can be fully completed in the sense of a certain, contained segment of a characters development, be it for better or worse, can reach a satisfying conclusion. and some stories tie it up there and let things lie, and that's fine, but others - especially those tragic or bittersweet endings - leave a lot to be developed on, or potential new themes to be explored.

georgie enters the story from a different position than the other characters, sure, but honestly i wouldn't claim that what marks her out is her being particulary good at dealing with loss, rather just that she does it differently. she is most definitely the best at letting go of things or setting boundaries where most of the other characters struggle to let go enough of their pain, curiosity, or emotional investment to do so. since she is not a part of the institute and as such not stuck there it makes good contrast to other characters, in particular to jon who, even before his life was dependent on the statements to stay alive, was unable to let obviously harmful situations be. it's also why georgie and melanie make such a good match - melanie is (along with tim) one of the few that really do want out.

and yeah, i guess you could call that an arc already completed by the time she's introduced. or you could just call it characterization or backstory. you're right about her not being interesting to the purpose of the tapes, and she is relatively sure of herself and is typically better at handling the horrors than others, but also don't feel like that's the point? she acts as a contrast, but not as, like, a mentor figure or something like that, and it's less important that she has overcome this stuff and more important that jon, in comparison, has not. so yes, georgie is relatively static in her development during most of the show. not at all a bad thing when placed next to characters experiencing such drastic changes.

but what i aim at when i talk about her arc just starts at the end of the show if the doubts she starts expressing about this position she has held in the narrative around the last ten episodes of the show. she clearly feels guilt about the state of the world, about not being there enough for jon, about being too passive and not intervening enough - which is why it's pretty characteristic for her to be the only one even considering not actually doing anything about the change in mag 199 - and she struggles with the idea that maybe she is partially responsible for it all too, simply because she was too good about handling the horrors when others very much were not. all these things that put her in a position of safety, sanity, and relative comfort, are now things she doubts because she worries that it makes her an accomplice through means of complicity

really it's just a seed. it only appears very late in the story, but i found it very potent. what makes me call it the start of an arc, though, are the very obvious opportunities for this all being exacerbated after the fall of the panopticon. there is so much potential for struggle and guilt there, and i just find the whole idea fascinating. to me, there isn't a world where georgie doesn't eventually have a breakdown over it all, but that's stuff that can only really be kicked into full gear after the absolutely chatastrophic personal loss and failure that was mag 200. that in combination with melanie's clear wish to just be rid of it all... all i'm saying is that there's some good potential in this

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

What a Summer of (Ursine) Love it must've been for the Hair Bear Bunch!

CAMBRIDGE, MN: Huckleberry Hound and yours truly decided to take lunch at a modest little cafe ahead of preparations for our Braham Pie Day Character Convocation in a few day's time, mainly to discuss preparations ... when, for some reason or another, along comes no less than the Hair Bear Bunch in their Volkswagen Kombi campervan for (obviously enow) lunch. And were they stunned (and I do mean STUNNED!) by our motorhome serving as our new mobile bivouac!

"And who do we have the pleasure of crossing paths with?" saith Huckleberry Hound as we were finalising our order.

"None other than the Hair Bear Bunch!", exclaimeth Hair Bear alongside his two ursine companions, Square Bear and Bubi Bear.

To which Square Bear added, "What a surprise it must be to come across you two!"

"Heavens to Yogi Bear!" I remarked. "And I presume you're getting ready for Braham Pie Day, after quite the summer of ursine love, mating even!"

Which saw the ursine trio sit at a booth across the way from us, and striking up conversation. "To put it honestly, Snag and Huck," Hair Bear remarked, "we bears just can't help but explore the sheer magic that is obvious in the release of tensions which sex can bring on!"

"Yeah," the young whippersnapper Bubi Bear remarked, "it can't help but just feel so releasing the clyde, so much is the magic to be found!"

Huckleberry asked Hair just how long these mating season road trips had been going on with the trio, to which he remarked, "Last several years. Admittedly, it's much better than back at the Wonderland Zoo, which we could see collapsing practically before our eyes for several years!"

Square Bear picked up the story: "Even with Botch and Peevly--"

"I take it they were the zookeepers," Huck remarked.

Square continued: "Correct; Botch and Peevly kept blaming us for all the collapse which the zoo had somehow been going through when, in fact, the zookeepers' ineptitude and deferred maintenance which made things rather awful."

Hair Bear: "It was their sheer and outright mental collapse, right in front of visitors, that was practically the last straw!"

"Heavens to Hagenbeck!" was my response.

Continued Hair Bear: "Such was certainly enough to reset our lives more than anything. We began resettling close to an isolated beach out by Malibu, where we have a secret surf and dive spot ... and boy, who could resist the surfing to be had there?"

"I've heard much about the surfing out Malibu way," Huckleberry remarked.

"And boy, couldn't you get more seriously stoked on those waves?" was how Square Bear added to the converse.

"Quite the stoke indeed! Quite the riding experience, such must be the serious clyde out of Malibu--" remarked Bubi until Square Bear's forepaw shut Bubi up in a commonplace stunt whenever Bubi's remarks appeared to go over the top, prompting Square to ask impatiently, "What exactly did Bubi say just now?!"

"At any rate, guys," Hair Bear chimed in, "sensing the limitations of the Invisible Motorbike which Square is bound to rely on in getting around, some close friends gave us a Volkswagen Campervan they lovingly had rebuilt for road trips ... and soon after, we began our summer road trip tradition of going into the north country during the bear mating season and just engage in the experience of ursine sexuality!"

I was tempted to ask whether their mating antics had much success in bear cubs ensuing from their seed, to which Square Bear remarked that "I have to admit that we're not exactly sure about the numbers; after all, it's the female as brings up the cubs almost exclusively until they reach three years of age or so."

"And from there on out," Hair Bear added, "they're on their own. It's pretty much possible that we fathered a few bears from our mating escapades, and where they may happen to be ... it's practically anybody's guess. After all, what could feel more fascinating in the summer than to camp beside some lake on a mild summery night and enjoy the evening releasing yourself with some feminine ursine company through the night--"

"--bound to be followed the clyde with some moonlight swimming and diving around; wouldn't it feel wonderful, oh the clyde, the moon reflected in the waters when you've got some girlfriends along!," added Bubi, ever the whippersnapper (as it were.)

As our lunch came along, Huckleberry couldn't help but remark in response just how exciting bear-type love must be.

"For us, Huckleberry and Snagglepuss," Hair Bear responded, "it's bound to come rather naturally ... and bound to feel so wonderful in the end!" To which Huck added a reminder that the Braham Pie Day Convocation was coming up, and that we were expecting them there.

"Agreed" was how Hair Bear responded.

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @railguner34 @theweekenddigest @iheartgod175 @archive-archives @thebigdingle @screamingtoosoftly @princessgalaxy505 @themineralyoucrave @thylordshipofbutts @warnerbrosent-blog @zodiacfan32 @jellystone-enjoyer @haiyis-dark-void @warnerbrosent-blog

[catchingbigfish]

oc name meaning tag game

ooooooh this is an interesting game, thanks for the tag @dotr-rose-love! (sorry @ everyone whose tag games i missed pretty much the entire month of march btw, i know i'll never get to catch up on them but might work through a few that look immediately doable at some point) i'm tagging @nanashi23, @inkspellangel, @linaket, @pga-books, and @ls-daydreams!

rules: list OCs and explain the meaning of their names

i tend to pick names based on the vibe i have for the character -- i have strooooong associations with various vowel combinations, or arrangement of letters, or pairings, etc., so most of this is just "idk it sounded cool". but because i love the idea of this game so much, i'm going to do it for every WIP i have rn:

so it goes

Marisa: i wanted a name that ended with an A because names like that make me think of someone sincere and serious

Isaiah: i wanted a biblical name; i associate those with families with deep lineages and a strong matriarch for some reason, which was a quality i wanted Isaiah to have

Ali: i wanted a name that complemented marisa's because they were sisters in the original draft, and i feel like L's and S's complement each other nicely. her full name is Alison, but i wanted her to be someone fun and outgoing, and Ali feels like that more than Alison

Paige: i got stuck on her name and picked a name from a random generator -- for some reason, when i see the name Paige, i instantly think of a girl who is aesthetically similar to the character (whose description is inspired by Gillian Jacobs)

Henry: another random generator produced this one -- i wanted it to be a very common man's name that wouldn't provoke much interest

Sophia: she's not a main character but i fucking love the name sophia/sofia so much. it's probably my favorite ever girl's name. it means wisdom and in some schools of gnosticism it was the emanation of god that was paired with Christ and unintentionally caused the world to exist

the space between pomegranate seeds

Meredith: i wanted a name that felt like the weird religious girl everyone knew growing up, but wasn't super cliche like Chastity lol

(most of the other characters are purposefully unnamed)

decomposing gods - priestess of bones

Claire: when i originally came up with this story idea i was deep into my Early Cronenberg Period (end of 2021) and had just rewatched Dead Ringers. i knew there would be a trio of women, so i gave them the names from the movie as placeholders: Claire, Bev, and Elly. i chose Claire for the documentarian because i felt the name fit her personality/vibe best, a diminutive brunette intent to prove herself

Bev: as above. i originally wanted to go Bev/Elly for the documentarian and camera person's roles, but realized they didn't fit right. also frankly i always categorized this as a lesbian name in my head for some reason, which worked out best since the character is queer

Sofia: even though i felt like Claire and Bev fit well with the characters i also never intended to actually use the trio's name. Sofia as a filmmaker is actually most inspired by Julia Ducournau, but i do love Sofia Coppola, lol.

bilocation

Emily: the real person she is based on is Émilie Sagée, and i didn't want to trick myself into not writing this by deciding to do research on the historical period she's from (1800s latvia), so i americanized her name and placed it in a 1980s boarding school in oregon but retained the formal speaking voice i'd imagined for her

Ms. Frond: i honestly went with the first word that popped into my brain on this -- i have so many characters named after the most bizarre shit because i'll use anything for a last name that pops into my head. i love it, though, because Emily becomes obsessed with her and has an established fascination with plants

Roland: i wanted a name that felt like a surprise on the groundskeeper character -- he looks like a dude who would be named something like Biff or Johnson or something, but he becomes a much more tender and gentle character than you anticipate from the description

[emmettkane]

Okay, I watched Hellboy (2004). long post time. First off: context. I didn't read any of the Hellboy comics when they came out, as soon as they came out, because I wasn't alive in 1994, so I don't know what a fan of them might have thought of Guillermo Del Toro's take on it when the first live action Hellboy film released. Note, that was in 2004.

I enjoyed the tale in a very modern way: by reading pretty much all of it in a few months through the omnibus collections. That gave me a pretty clear idea of the direction of the story and the arcs of the characters, one that I'm honestly not sure that Mike Mignola had the luxury of, and it made watching that first film jarring in so many fun (see, terrible) ways.

I'm not going to jump out and say that it was bad, because I did have some amount of fun watching it, and I have nothing but respect for Guillermo.

It wasn't Hellboy though?

Okay, that's Mister Mignola's decision to make, (I know, i know, death of the artist or w/ever, but I respect the guy) but I had some serious grievances with the handling.

(If you're going to read further, keep in mind that the film was based off of The Seed of Destruction, which is the first of the four Hellboy Omnibuses)

Lets start with some critical differences 1. The nazis don't get off-screened in a b-plot due to infighting (which was critical to the comics) 2. Kroenen is just a ninja mummy now for some reason 3. WHO IS THIS WHITE GUY? WHY IS HE IN THE PLOT? (to give the audience a relatable character, in Hellboy. Yikes)

and to me, the gravest of sins: 4. Hellboy uses a gun.

Mind you The Samaritan is a radical firearm, but HB uses guns like, twice in the whole of the comics, and they blow up in his hands or otherwise fail him both times.

I could go on, about how they blew up the romance and made it central in a way that deeply detracted from Hellboy's original arc, about the addition of more generic agent characters, about not using any of the actual interesting locations from the comics and instead hosting the entire story in [LARGE CITY], USA.

I can tell you though, that after a little thought and research, all that probably came down to two things.

#1: Mike had been trying to turn Hellboy into a film for ages by this point, and people kept shooting him down (lots of reasons for that in 2004, I guess) and he probably just wanted to make it happen at that point

#2: And this is influenced by #1, but...filming restrictions. Hellboy using a gun reduced the amount of choreography work, filming in a single city reduced travel/FX budgets, having the nazis directly involved in the story shortened shooting times and simplified the overall plot. I get it. I think.

Okay, so, look. I don't know if any of that stuff makes it not-pretty-terrible anyway, but I think it's important to at least try to remember the environment people were in when they made whatever creative decisions they made. History is, if nothing else, fascinating to study. Anyway, even if I didn't enjoy the piece, I'm glad that I watched it. The real benefit to looking at "the classics" isn't to see something you'll love, but to know where the things you do love came from.

[darkcrowprincess]

My favorite books I use to(and still do as an adult) read as a kid and teen:

*harry potter series is not on this list because honestly its a given by this point. So doesn't count. I never really read or finished many book series besides harry potter anyway. *

Matilda by Roald Dahl. This book got little kid me to love reading! If not for Matilda I would have never been a bookworm. Would read that book all the time as a kid.

Witches by Roald Dahl. Same as Matilda. I was just so obsessed with this book as a kid. I loved how creepy it was with the witches and how bittersweet the ending was with the grandmother and her grandson.

And than there were none by Agatha Christie. I just love the story. We had to read it for school and I just fell in love with it. Was what got me into Mysteries and just my general love for Agatha Christie. Horrible people getting the karma they deserve in a very creepy and just interesting setting.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I had this copy growing up that had the play and west side story with it that I'd read all the time. Like I just love the play. Love it. I never fully understand all the words or the meanings till high school. But I love reading the book. The words just sounded pretty to me.

Where the heart is by Billie Letts. I love the movie. Was so surprised it was a book and loved it too. Would read it all the time. I don't know, I was just fascinated as a kid by a baby being born in Walmart. Plus I love the main character.

Out of the Blue by Kasey Michaels. A romance novel that I got at the dollar store one time, that i basically bought because the main female character had the same name as me. And I loved that. Its basically a time travel romance novel mixed with bodice ripper elements. All set in London England. This was the first smutty novel I ever read as a kid. And I would sneak read it late at night.

A Pocket Full of Seeds by Marilyn Sachs. This book is what kind of got me a little obsessed on learning about the holocaust and world war 2. It was so sad. But I just kept wanting to read it. And any other books I could get my hands on about the holocaust.