#hope you don't mind me hijacking your post lol

[sir-camelot]

This just made me think of something terribly sad. How many times does you think XL might've rolled those dice in that year HC was gone?

Maybe the first month he didn't think about it. Then one day they roll out of his sleeve and he suddenly has this intense need to just see. Would his beloved appear?

He rolls the dice...

... Nothing happens.

He doesn't think about it for a few days after that. Feeling crushed that Hua Cheng didn't show up. Obviously he doesn't blame his ghost, it was his own fault for being so impatient. If Hua Cheng were capable of being there with him right this second, he would.

It was so much harder to go back to being alone after having the company of someone who hung onto his every word. Who was always so entertaining and fun to be around. Who loved his cooking and gave honest feedback. Who knew his everything and loved him unconditionally.

Then he's making dinner and can't help but think how everything tastes so much more bland without him there. So he pulls out the dice, rubs them between his hands a few times as he considers if the potential disappointment is worth it. Then he throws caution to the wind and rolls them.

A few moments later there's a knock at the door, he runs to open it, His eyes are alight, his heart thundering against his ribs. It had to be him!

It's just Feng Xin and Mu Qing.

Xie Lian has to calm his heart and keep his face carefully constructed into a pleasant smile even as he feels absolutely devastated. Neither of his friends stick around for dinner, both seemingly called for something important.

This continued for a couple of months, though he's now always careful to do it well into the night, when he knows the only person that could possibly knock on his door is Hua Cheng. But every time that nothing happens he can't help but feel hurt, he is human after all. He admonishes himself for being impatient and busies himself with a new task instead.

Over the course of a few months he does it less and less until he stops altogether.

While he's searching for scrap during the day of the Lantern Festival he finds a pair of dice and his smile is bittersweet. He can't help but roll them, knowing it won't bring his ghost back to him, unable to stomp out that little flicker of hope regardless. When nothing happens he only tucks them away into his sleeve with the other dice and climbs up into the oxcart to head back to his residence on Mount Taicang.

The sun sets as he travels, his mind only half on the path. Seeing the lanterns in the sky, then the figure standing before his humble hut and being unable to fully believe it. That maybe this time the dice worked.

Finally his San Lang is home.

Meanwhile the entire time Hua Cheng has been piecing himself together, remembering why he's here and who he is, he feels this pull to go somewhere.

At first it's almost daily… striking within him the importance of sticking around, of working harder and faster to construct a body.

Then it tapers off to weekly… it feels somehow more urgent now that it is happening less. A fear grips him from somewhere he doesn't fully understand.

Then it dies off entirely and he's left to assemble himself in the loneliness of the void.

And when he's finally corporeal he feels that pull again after having not felt it for months and immediately knows where he needs to go and why.

He has a beloved who is still in this world.

How do y'all sleep knowing Xie Lian only knew the speech “if you want to see me, it won't matter what you roll on the dice, i'll appear” came from the only person who stood by his side in both unlucky and lucky times when that person was DISAPPEARING BEFORE HIS EYES???!

[jackshiccup]

hey! i'm completely obsessed with your bound copy of otnwas and I'm currently planning to bind a copy of a different hijack fic for my dearest friend! (it is her favorite and she is the hiccup to my jack, lol). I've been picking my way slowly through the wonderful bookbinding sources you piled together in some of your posts and I was wondering if you could elaborate on how you created the beautiful cover? (the gorgeous title, the spine, design, corner covers). Thank you so much for sharing btw, you've blown me away with how beautiful it is!

aw hi, thanks so much !! :) truly there is no greater joy and love than gifting a friend a hand bound book of their favorite fic huh.. that's so sweet of u !!!! (i relate, am binding another one rn for some dear friends of mine 🥹) and yes i can totally explain, or try my best to!

for the cover design, i edit/make all my stuff in adobe illustrator but i drew the corner filigree (the fancy swirly things) on procreate first before transferring it to illustrator to do the rest of the cover design, playing around with resizing etc. (title + spine). i made sure that the canvas size (in mm) is the same as the cover so that the proportions were accurate. if you don't have illustrator i think canva might also work well? i've seen a lot of people use it!

for the foiling, i basically followed the simple but most time-consuming way which is to use a foil quill pen. i bought the standard tip (0.5) but i honestly should've bought the fine tip (0.38) bc there was so much detail i lost you just can't tell from the pics aksjdhaskj. i printed out the cover and spine true-to-size and just traced over it with the foil pen. i taped down the silver foil underneath and the printed cover on top so that nothing moves. don't lift up your foil or your paper until you've finished everything - things get really wonky because they tend to misalign if you do that (TAKE IT FROM MEEEE) you just have to trust that the foil transferred. the pen gets hot enough to transfer through the paper layer, though you do just have to press a little harder than you might usually have to or else it might not come through (the hand cramps i got from it... though it was worth it to me)

for the last step, once you've attached the cover to the text block and all that jazz - the silver book corners you can buy from amazon! make sure that it's in the same thickness as your cover board. mine was 0.3mm, so that's what i bought! you just attach it to the corner and press.

i wish i was one of those people who have those silly fancy machines that do all the foiling work for you but alas i don't have the money for that rn.. maybe in the future kjashdkjh if you don't mind me asking, i'd love to know which hijack fic ur friends loves ;u; anyway i hope your binding goes well, i'm glad i could help !! <3

[zepskies]

Hi Zep! Buckle up because I have a number of picks for your ask game! How about 2, 10, 17, 40, 48, 55 and 70?

Hey Michelle! Hope you're having a lovely Sunday. ☀️💜

Omg these are amazing questions!!

Lmfao this is hilarious to me, but I actually had to think hard about this one. My pre-writing/outlining process is pretty methodical. However, I think the biggest time the narrative hijacked my hands was in Smoke Eater (firefighter!Dean x reader).

I had several scenes in the original outline that just weren't fitting right when I got to the drafting stage, to the point where I had to chuck them out entirely. Also, the whole murder mystery that's central to the narrative was complex to tease out, but that also took me by surprise when I was outlining!

I wasn't intending to go that route at first, but when I thought of including John Winchester and Cas as homicide detectives (drawing from my childhood obsession with Law & Order), it kind of just started coming to me.

So I usually have the premise of the idea before the title. It's gotten easier as I've become more experienced as a writer, but sometimes I just put a placeholder title that kind of encapsulates the idea before I come up with something better, then I start outlining/researching.

Often I get placeholder titles from songs/lyrics of what will likely give me inspiration for the story, and sometimes those titles stick!

Ooh another great question. 😂 Funnily enough, the ones that come to me off the top of my head are mostly from Break Me Down:

M.M. scoffed, with a subtle shake of his head.  “Nah, man,” he said ruefully. “That’s true motherfuckin�� love.”

And a fun one:

“Alert the media,” you said. “We’ve got the ultimate weapon against Soldier Boy: a slow ride on his dick.”

😂 This one also sticks out in my mind from the Midnight Espresso-verse - Devour Me (Part 2), as a playful one I was weirdly proud of lol:

“Question: do you consider yourself more of a tits or ass man?” you ask him. You’re half teasing, but still curious. Dean snorts at the question.  “More of a connoisseur,” he replies, smirking.  “Ah.” You nod sagely, and you point between him and yourself. “So this is like a ‘sample the menu’ situation.” Dean’s smirk deepens. “Sweetheart, you’re a goddamn buffet.”

Finally, this one from the imagine "You are Dean's one exception":

Oh man, that's very tough. I've been blessed to get some amazing feedback from you and others, and believe it or not, I do go back and reread comments and reblogs. It puts a smile on my face whether I'm having a bad day, or want to continue smiling on a good one. 💖

I think one of the best compliments I can receive, however, is that a story touched someone on an emotional level and somehow got them through a difficult time in their life, or is one of their "comfort stories." That's happened a few times, and it almost makes me cry every time. 🥲

I can also say that you, @chernayawidow, and @waynes-multiverse have given me some of the best feedback I've ever gotten on stories. Not just because the other two have made me cheese grin/nearly cry of laughter, but also because all of you are writers and have been able to tell me narratively (or on a character development level) what you liked about what I was doing in a story. As a writer, that kind of feedback is amazing as well. 💖💖

Also, some of my favorite feedback of all time has been on Midnight Espresso -- whether it's been people thanking me for the representation of the Hispanic/Latin culture, or sharing experiences with being plus-sized and how that's viewed in society. 💗

😬😬 Ahh guilty, lol. At the risk of sounding prideful, I think if you're doing it right, you should be writing the stories you want to write. So it stands to reason that you should be able to enjoy reading your own work. 💜

None on Tumblr, but unfortunately I do have a few on FF.net, which I don't even post on anymore, and maybe one or two on Ao3. Sometimes you just lose the drive to write for that fandom, especially if engagement is down. Sometimes you just move on to other things.

I'm a voracious editor. I believe good writing is also good editing -- that's just part of the process. So yes I guess I can be self-critical. lol

Sometimes I'll be rereading something, and I'll go in and edit it after it's already been posted for months, whether it's a typo, or a line that doesn't sound quite right for the character, or part of a scene that I think needs smoothing out. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist that way. 😅

Again, thank you so much for these questions, my friend!! I'm going to be sending you some too very soon. 😘

[stormblessed95]

Hi Stormy! If you've talked about his before I apologize 😂💜

I just can't watch the Serendipity MV without thinking of KM. The date in the corner, the sun, Jimin's eye (like JK's eye in DNA), the calico cat (sudden 🐾 on Twitter), the colorful swirl in Jimin's eye (again like the DNA opening in JK's eye. These are also tied as the trailer and title song), the eclipse, the moon and Ooooh it's so YELLOW 💛

How much influence do you think Jimin had on this MV? Or is is just yet another "coincidence" even though he literally starts the song saying it isn't 😂

Lol I wish I could be more fun and theorizing with you on this one, but I'm not on board with any of these theories 😅 but that's just me!

For start, I too, was originally confused and thought the date in the corner was a nod to JK from Jimin. But that's been corrected and talked about in this post here

You can find Jimin talking about Serendipity MV in the MV making film from memories, which you can watch in full here. It's only 8 mins

And you can find RM talking about the lyrics and making of the song here, with the reminder that RM wrote the song totally here, not Jimin

SO with all these things in mind... the connections with the Serendipity MV and the DNA MV were probably done very purposefully by the directors as a way to connect the music videos for the album. The Intro song MV and the Title Track MV. It being jikook who both have it pan into their eyes is simply because Jimins solo is the intro and JK starts off DNA. If a different member had the DNA opening, it probably would've panned into their eye instead. The calico cat was something that Namjoon came up with for the lyrics and that quickly became Jimins favorite part of the song and one he resonated with and started calling HIMSELF a calico cat. The paw prints showing up were because Jimin calls JK his puppy prince and that is a totally seperate thing. Plus the paw prints started showing up in 2016, pre Serendipity anyway. Lol post over puppy prince paw prints here:

The songs were written with nothing to do with jikook specifically but to convey the overall message that BTS were wanting to tell in the album as a whole, and to kick off the story they wanted to tell through their Trilogy of albums as well. So I don't think those connections mean anything other than connections to the album.

All the yellow could simply be about how it Warm and uplifting colors. Plus matching Jimins blonde hair at the time, or that its one of Jimis favorite colors. Lol I don't think Jimin made many choices in the efforts of what happened in the MV. He stated that his favorite part of filming was with the cat, and his least favorite was showing his feet off and that he even tried to talk the director out of it at first, but he insisted and Jimin really doesn't mind. He then just worried about wanting to make sure his feet were extra clean 🤣

The reason I connect Serendipity to jikook is because they do it themselves, not because of any hints in the Song or music video dedicated it to each other. But because AFTER the song came out, they claimed it as their own. Which I talk about in this post:

Hope that helps 🥰 you are all free to believe whatever you want of course too.

[leandra-kinard]

Over your last post: I think you are missing the point of why people got angry, which are:

Mainly, someone exposed themselves to share something that hurts them and ask us to do a small change for a word that is not that often used and you decided that your comfort was more important.

And secondarily, when you answer to a post and try to shift the focus (using queer when that is another beast entirely for its impact, amount of use, use in academics and generation wise) you effectively hijack the conversation to one that gets too ambitious that the main issue of the post can get drowned over it.

I think it hit very strong (and also I don't agree with the idea of searching on peoples post over years until finding something that can add fuel to the fire). As you said, we are all too on the edge, but I hope you can understand what was the problem. Take care!

Hi, thanks for your constructive and polite criticism.

My pushback wasn't about my comfort, but I really made a mistake in allowing myself some pettiness and even mentioning that bit, thereby raising the impression that I was whining about my personal comforts. That was my annoyance (thereby irrationality) getting the better of me. My main (intended) point, however, was always the flawed logic I saw in this stance, and the connected wider implications/issues that I believe arise from such, in my eyes, irrational and unattainable requests (ignoring context and true meaning), which I've laid out before.

As for hijacking a topic, well I can see how someone may see it that way. However, some topics are connected, and the different feelings people have about the word 'queer' was something that was useful to make my point. Whether something is 'off topic' or not really depends on the viewpoint and the utility of a topic. For me, it had a use; for others it didn't because they don't agree with the point I'm making or even see it as a similar concept (or disagree with the similarity being relevant, based on other parameters).

But as I've conceded and as others have said before, making a fresh, own post about all of this would have been a more clever idea and (at least somewhat) less polarizing.

Maybe I need to find some kind of 'debate club', lol. A place where debates can be had without being taken personally, just to find an outlet for me wanting to get my thoughts out and across. It's a struggle for me to constantly go "blah blah blah blah blah" in my over-active mind and not being able to share those things with anyone who's interested. You gotta match a certain 'flavor' to get engagement, and even then it's few and far in between because people don't even really engage in a lot of dialogue anymore. Even just fandom topics turn toxic quite quickly.

I have no good solution for this. I guess it's just simply an aspect of social media to have more echo chambers and group think than any true interaction.

[parasocialitevn]

(I apologize for the mistakes) Hello, sweet Eden~! How are you doing? You love cats, right (as far as I understand)? Do you want me to share with you my most favorite photos of my cat? (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)

Modsu, how are you doing? How is your health? Do you sleep, eat and drink enough water? Recently, there have been serious attacks on VN developers using yandere, so I want to remind you that we love and support you ❤

I'M HIJACKING THIS POST BECAUSE I WANT SO BADLY TO SEE CATS. AT ALL TIMES. PLEASE.

Also I'm okay! I've been spending a weekend out of state with my friends of many years, having a lot of fun! Because of that, I'm also unaware of what you mean? Attacks? Did something happen? If you mean run of the mill anon hate, I can handle that lol. I've been dealing with that for years and years.

I can't understand why harmless interest in a horror trope and indulgence through the safety of harmless fiction earns hate in some people's eyes. The only exception would be properties that write these tropes and mentalities as if they're healthy, or something you should desire in your real life. I'm certainly not the kind of person to go spouting that fiction doesn't affect reality, because the tone and intent of your project can make a world of difference in the message it puts across. But since all of the projects I know of and follow are tagged as horror, and the creators I've spoken to have been considerate, thoughtful and responsible, I would think that implies a level of self awareness that wouldn't suggest that anyone means to promote or justify toxic relationship dynamics like that. Nowhere is writing a dark story inherently equivalent to endorsing it. Even if there's porn in it. And anyone who enjoys it through the safe lens of fiction and fantasy, as long as they understand that fact, isn't hurting anyone. It's like reading a raunchy novel about having sex with a stranger, without all the dangers that come with doing that in the real world. That's part of the reason these accounts do not want minors interacting with their projects. A young and impressionable mind can wildly misinterpret these stories if distributed or consumed irresponsibly, and the results can be catastrophic. Nobody I know of in this community wants to endanger young audiences, and the bad actors that do are swiftly called out and cast out, plain and simple. As someone who's never been able to stomach keeping quiet about people pulling sick shit, I like it that way.

I wrote a thesis back in school about the dangers of romanticizing abusive and toxic relationships, so I feel like I know what I'm talking about; but even still I am always open to considering new opinions and concerns, of course. I'm also free to disagree with you. And in the first place, if you are uncomfortable with the subject matter, I urge you to not expose yourself to it in the first place! I don't mean that in a "Haha, I'm ✨problematic✨, dont like it? leave." type of way, either. Shutting out criticism entirely is never wise. What I mean is simply that you should never worsen your mood or mental state for something that's just not your cup of tea! Horror isn't for everyone! Erotica isn't for everyone! And that's perfectly fine! I don't want you here if you're not going to enjoy yourself! My main goal in all of this is to make something fun and creepy for others who like fun and creepy things to sink their teeth into, but I can't and won't do that unless I can do so responsibly and respectfully. I'm never justifying these behaviors, and I'm certainly NEVER trying to encourage anyone to seek relationships like these out. If anything, I'd hope the narrative I intend to weave with Parasocialite would portray the fear and the horrors of it realistically. I definitely don't want rose tinted glasses to be on for the experience.

Anyway, here's a silly picrew of Eden

[willkimurashat]

Looking for Gabi fans to follow and MC/Gabi fanfics to read. Some of my favorite lgbt litg blogs have either deactivated or are no longer playing litg Suresh fans are trying to hijack Gabi's tag with biphobia and hate posts. I'm scared to open her tag. Suresh fans are hating on lgbt players because FB made Gabi a LI and they can no longer use her to justify Suresh's action. We get enough bigotry from the writers. =( I have met some lgbt fans on reddit and IG, but they don't have blogs

Hello anon, and welcome to ✨Gabi Fan Club✨

From the second I saw her design, I completely swooned (and maybe drooled a little too, but we don’t talk about it🤫) and kept imagining the Frida Kahlo scenario between Gabi and MC, passing down the clown red nose of shame to Suresh lol!

In all seriousness though, I am so sorry you encountered hateful posts and biphobia, and I am not surprised - the Suresh debates can get heated. I think fusebox did us dirty for only giving us Dana as an li (who, let’s be real, wasn’t written great, especially with the kissing Eddie part) and Gabi aka the girl Suresh cheated on MC with. Idk what reaction they were expecting from fans because there’s something problematic with every single character this season, and I’m so sick of fusebox perpetuating these racist and biphobic stereotypes time and time again. So naturally, it sparks further hate and -isms from the players, trying to defend or offend some pixels. I am personally not on a Suresh route, so I don’t really care about that side of drama. I like Gabi and I think she is an interesting character, she has a cool back story, she’s interested in MC, and jee is she hot (sorry for being shallow). I also think it’s weird to shame people for liking a game character. Like, I guess I can understand it if someone’s into Dylan, who is just beyond problematic, and good friends wouldn’t and shouldn’t let you date someone like that. But other than that, my philosophy is that LITG is a game - that’s literally all it is, just a story with some 2d pixel art, and we shouldn’t be taking it so close to heart. If people like Suresh - you do you, if people like Gabi - please, by all means, suit yourself. They’re not real, so we shouldn’t let the hate and bigotry and racism get so out of hand that it hurts real people.

Anyways, this got very long, and idk if any of it is coherent, but in short: we shouldn’t bully people on which characters they like and we shouldn’t let the hate hurt others. What we should do, is criticize fusebox for continuingly villainizing and stereotyping LGBT characters and characters of color, and we should be able to have some fun playing:)

P. S. To people spreading hate and biphobia: check your privilege please. Before posting hateful comments about LGBT characters, ask yourself, why does this reaction come up to me in the first place? Why am I so angry about a wlw route? Who do I see in Gabi? Maybe it’s someone who hurt you before or maybe it’s internalized homophobia speaking? Food for thought. And honesty, if you do have so much hate on your mind, maybe just put your phone down, take a breather, and just.. close out of the post/comment/reply? Your bigoted opinion is not worth the pain it can cause someone.

P. P. S. Also, just wanted to mention as well, there’s definitely a lot of wonderful people on here, who I know would not judge you or anyone for liking Gabi or what have you, and I really hope you stay safe out here because cyberbullying is real, so please, take a step back if hateful posts get too much - always always always put yourself first, lovely!

P. P. P. S. Also also, I haven’t written any Gabi x mc fics and I don’t know if there are any, but you can definitely check out @litgwritersroom - they’re a bunch of wonderful, talented, creative lovelies that are very open and accepting of every player. I’m not sure if their asks are open currently, but they do take fanfic requests!;)

[pyjamacryptid]

#don’t hide these golden tags#I would love to be info dumped upon in regards to Arthurian legend and names because I too have an interest in both 👀#bbc Merlin (via @loreylia) Hi hello the screenshot in the reblog above are my tags! I was rather flattered lol but got distracted, forgot about it (thank you adhd), and randomly - for no reason at all - remembered this and so here I am at 10pm on a Sunday night with 30 tabs open to double-check my own claims, so I can talk all your ears off about my niche interests. I hesitated on whether to add to this post or make my own, as I didn't want to hijack OP's post any further, but I thought the context of how this discussion came about would be interesting and helpful! (Sorry OP, I hope this is cool with you). By the way, OP did reblog with further name additions according to suggestions.

Disclaimer before I begin: I'm not an expert in any of these topics, I only find them extremely interesting. Also, I don't claim any of these to be hard cold facts, especially since this is arthuriana we're talking about and there are many different iterations and interpretations and theories, especially with regard to what Geoffrey of Monmouth took inspiration from, debates on what was embellished fact and what was fable. Yadda Yadda. Ok, you got that? You with me? Awesome!

What's The Deal With Merlin's Name?

Merlin, as we know him today - the old wizard, advisor to King Arthur, and known throughout pop culture with his many iterations - is thanks to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey of Monmouth was an Anglo-Norman cleric and historian who compiled a History of the Kings of Britain in the 12th century, hundreds of years after King Arthur was said to have "lived" (which he very very very much did not [sorry], but it's theorised to be the 6th century, around the end of the Roman occupation of the British Isles and when the Saxons began to invade. Keep in mind; I am generalising SO MUCH because that's not the focus). Before this, Merlin had his own legends, folklore, beliefs, stories. His place in folklore is older than King Arthur's. And that version of Merlin is not precisely what modern culture knows him as. Geoffrey of Monmouth was inspired by two to three different "Merlins" that he mushed together. A smoothie of a man. Another way of looking at this, is that there were two main stages: pre-Geoffrey, aka the pre-Galfridian Welsh stage in which Merlin was known as a legendary prophet. And then the second stage; Geoffrey transforming Myrddin Wyllt into an internationally renowned wizard named Merlin who plays a crucial role in bringing about the conception of Arthur (he helps Uther out, instead of Nimueh, as we see in BBC Merlin.) So, let's discuss the name of Myrddin Wyllt, which I also mentioned in my tags when I reblogged OP's post. This version of his name is my personal favourite because it's the most Welsh. Most of Geoffrey's writings were inspired by Celtic - specifically Welsh - folklore, legends and history and I will continue to bring this up every time someone refers to King Arthur, Merlin, and Arthuriana at large as only English, no matter what. It had Welsh-inspired origins. ANYWAY Myrddin Wyllt was known as, in short, a Welsh warrior-bard that went mad after seeing his friends die in battle and lived the rest of his days as isolated as he could be in the forest; therefore, a wild man of the woods. Myrddin is a Welsh name meaning "sea fort" and Wyllt - which is more of an epithet - means "the Woods" or "the Wild". Therefore; Myrddin of the Woods/Myrddin of the Wild. This name, in itself, has several versions as well. Such as Merlinus Caledonensis (of Caledonia, the name of a forest in Scotland) and Merlin Sylvestris ("of the woods" in Latin). If you're interested, here's a recorded pronunciation for Myrddin Wyllt in Welsh. So, how did we get Merlin from Myrddin?

It's only the first name but here's my favourite fact ever about Merlin's name and it's about why he's called Merlin in the first place.

Seriously, I will try and bring this fact up whenever I can because it brings me so much stupid joy and is also a great ice breaker.

Geoffrey of Monmouth made his smoothie of a man and then set about naming him, and of course went with one of the names he already had, so as to make him recognisable. He chose Myrddin. However, he couldn't exactly leave the name as it was. He was an Anglo-Norman man writing a book of legends for his fellow non-Welsh people, and thus he had to latinise Myrddin.

However, writing Myrddin in Latin results in Merdinus. Now, if you speak a latin-based language, I bet you're already laughing. I really hope you are.

For everyone wanting me to just fucking get on with it already!!!! .. C'mere. No, come closer. Halve the name. Yeah, just halve it. Do it. You get "Merdi", don't you? Sounds rather a lot like "merde", doesn't it?

"Merde" in Anglo-Norman means "feces". (From the Latin "merda")

He'd named him Shitinus.

Can't have that. The other cleric historians would laugh at him. He'd be a laughing stock. He'd scandalise every elderly woman who could read. Or, if illiterate like most of the population at the time, listen to audio books (some guy orating in the town square).

So, big brain Geoffrey decided he'd switch out the D for an L. Thus Merlinus. Which, eventually, became Merlin.

This also means that; no, sorry but Merlin was not named after the bird. Yep, this bitch me is also into birds. A merlin is a type of kestrel (which is a small falcon). And as much as I adore the homonym, and as much as it is appropriate as Merlin himself is known as a shapeshifter in Arthuriana and loves to be a bird from time to time-- yeah sorry to burst your bubble. His name is not derived from the bird of the same name. It's a crab evolution situation (carcinisation).

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. ANYWAY. Time for the name Emrys. You see, Emrys is also a Welsh name, and it means "Immortal". (Now, connect that to BBC Merlin, and how fucking cool is that. You're called Immortal for a decade or more - maybe far more - of your life before you finally find out what it means and they tell you it means power, it means reverence, it means you stand alongside the sun in what keeps the world turning, but you just feel burdened, empty, tired, and like the mountain you stand on will erode away long before you feel peace.)

Wow where'd that come from. Anyway. Back on track.

I'm also OWO over this graph I found over it's popularity as a baby name and wow, yep, there are baby Emryses out there rn... Back on track back on track back on track back on tr--

In BBC Merlin, I feel like Emrys acts as a title and epithet more than anything, the name of his role as magic itself, what he truly is at his core. It belongs to Merlin and no one else. So, it always feels weird to me when - especially in modern fic - his mother is called Hunith Emrys. I mean, it's cool, it's just that my nerd-brain with too much unnecessary knowledge short-circuits a little bit lol. This is because, as a surname, it means it's typically inherited from your ancestors - exceptions to the rule aside - and so it sort of removes the significance of the name (especially in the context of BBC Merlin, rather than Arthuriana as a whole).

Geoffrey also took Emrys. And he also latinised it. Boom, you get Ambrosius.

Add them together and you get Merlinus Ambrosius.

Emrys/Ambrosius was also the name of a British general/commander/warrior, also known as Ambrosius Aurelianus. Though recently it's apparently?? i think?? been suggested there were two men named Emrys, possibly father and son whose stories were conflated. Anyway, this figure is also part of the smoothie Geoffrey blended to make his Merlin. This figure is said to have led a Romanised Britain against the invading Saxons (and so it's also theorised Geoffrey took a bit of this for his inspiration for King Arthur), and also confronts Vortigern (Uther's father) about his jenga tower having a dragon problem, the same way you might say "yeah mate you got termites".

Ambrosius Aurelianus is also the name of Uther's brother who, in Geoffrey's accounts, led a Romano-British army against the invading Saxons. Wow, familiar. However, this man is not Merlin - in Arthuriana, that is - as they are two people existing at the same time within the legend.

There's far more I want to say but it's 2 minutes to midnight, I have an early start, and my single brain cell is tucking itself in. So. Final thoughts:

Merlin's possessed many names, many epithets, many selves that were blended by Geoffrey of Monmouth armed with a nutribullet, and he also has many stories from his multiple origins that can provide names, too.

Names, such as:

Wild/Wilde

Woods

maybe he tries out Forest/Forrest

Caledonia/Caledonensis

Sylvestris/Sylvester

Silverwood if you want to have something that's pretty subtle but still an homage.

Ambrose

If your Merlin's had many identities thanks to a thousand plus years of existence, I bet he's had some wild ones like Draig (meaning dragon in Welsh). I can also seem him taking on Hunithson for a few lifetimes here and there, in honour of his mother.

You could even do something like Applewood, which is less to do with a name Merlin's been called and more to do with one of Myrddin Wyllt's most well-known legends (in short; after he went mad and ran into the woods, he took a rest in a crabapple orchard, bit into an apple and could now prophesise the future. Typical tuesday.)

Apples were considered to have great significance in celtic lore. How much significance do you ask? Well. Avalon means the Isle of Apples. That's how much significance lmao

I seriously could talk myself in circles about this forever, but I think I'll end this long-winded infodump here. I very much wanted to further infodump about some wild shit Myrddin Wyllt did and Lailoken and demon baby Merlin and and and-- but I tried my best to keep it to the names only, or this post would be longer than it is already.

If you want to know more, or have any questions, feel free to come say hi! I love talking about this stuff! And if you have anything to add, go for it!

In the meantime, thanks for reading! ---

EDIT: I corrected my Latin. I said "merde" was Latin for feces, when actually "merde" is Anglo-Norman for feces, which comes from "merda", the actual Latin word for feces. Oops. When I first typed that, I thought it wasn't quite right lol. In my defence, I did write this near-midnight lmaoooo. I also want to expand on the bit about the Merlin, the bird: the bird's name is derived from the Old French esmerillon via the Anglo-Norman merilun or meriliun. Despite the similarity, and the argument that Geoffrey of Monmouth was Anglo-Norman so there's a possibility; yeah nah. The bird was not named after Merlin and Merlin was not named after the bird. However, the homonym is VERY cool and allows for a lot of fun symbolism.

Choosing Merlin’s full name for your modern au fic alignment chart

(insp)

[lilacandladybugs]

I personally am not religious at all but I've always tried my best to respect those who are and I think it's pretty lovely that you have something like that to help you feel safe and comfortable!

I hope this doesn't come across as demeaning but, I kinda find it interesting?? to have that sort of blind faith and belief is just interesting and kind of neat to me I suppose

I don't understand but I'm happy that you have something like that to keep you up in trying times :]

I'm glad that you feel that way! Also I'm not offended lmao you guys are all really friendly and I don't think you want to offend me so I will always take it that way. I am going to clarify something but I'm pretty sure this isn't what you mean so just for passersby~

Blind faith in anon's words i think means like belief in something that I can't see, which is valid, but some people use it to mean faith beyond reason so I'm going to briefly walk you through some thought process so you know that I didn’t just randomly choose this lol

I think the real reason I believe in God is this realization that we all to some extent believe in something, have faith in something. Even if you are agnostic, people still have to choose how they actively live their lives. Agnostics usually end up functioning as atheists, they don't know who God is, and so they function like he doesn't exist.

So we all at some point end up betting our lives on some belief system. We bet our present life, and any potential future life, on what we think we can understand right now. We bet our lives that God doesn't exist, or we bet our lives that he does. And even if someone chooses not to think about it, they're betting their lives that it isn't important.

We also all have to have a level of blind faith (imo), we believe that we can think, we believe that goodness or badness exists. We believe that reason exists, we believe in logic, in science, in our senses. Faith is just an assumption that something is true, and you can’t use logic to prove that logic is valid, so at some point you have to take it on faith. All premises are at some level an act of faith.

So then the question becomes, since I can’t know anything 100% certainly but I literally have to choose something, what do I choose? What seems most likely?

To me, it seems more likely that God aligned the stars and placed the Earth precisely where it is than that it happened by chance. It seems more likely that information came from an informant than that it came from no where, and it seems more likely that life came from a source than that life came from death. 

It seems more likely to me that Jesus was who he said he was than that he was just a good person, because good people don’t lie, they don’t mislead entire populations to bet their lives on a lie. But Jesus claimed to be God and he seemed like a good man. It seems more likely to me that the Bible was the word of God than that it was able to be constructed over thousands of years by people who never knew each other in three different languages and still survived thousands of years.

And the one that hits the most is that I think it is more likely that people matter than that they don’t. It’s more likely in my mind that morality exists than that it doesn’t, and if it does exist it must have been defined by someone outside of ourselves, thus making it more likely to be God.

Here is an excerpt I wrote from this post, that explains a little bit more:

Nietzsche, Kant, and Epictetus are all similar in that i have the same issue with all of them. They all want to put the anchor of meaning within the individual human. But i swear to god when i say that i want to hug my brother again i dont just mean i want to hug a person, i mean that i miss that person, that there was something that was valuable about him not just to me but that was valuable to the entire universe, and that when he died that piece of the universe was lost. epictetus’ argument was that human beings are simply mortal beings, and so grieving them is an unreasonable reaction to that fact of reality - we are all going to die, so why get attached to people like they’re immortal?

Which raises the question for me, why do we grieve like we’re meant to be immortal? Why is it that the world trembles under the crushing weight of death? That even birds miss their mates when they die, that elephants linger by the graves of their ancestors, that dogs continue to look for their masters once they’ve passed? Are we, like epictetus nietzsche and kant too, are we the only possible anchor for meaning? Do things in and of themselves mean nothing except in relation to us, so we can’t say, “death is bad,” but only, “death is bad to me”? it just doesn’t seem true

That’s who I’ve come to understand God to be. Things are complex and full of logic and information and cohesion, because when God spoke the universes into existence he planned it out carefully and tenderly. Things want to be loved and cared for and valued because God is triune, he exists as one God with three persons, loving one another for all of existence, and creating life to share in that eternal love with them. Human beings grieve one another’s deaths like we aren’t meant to die because we weren’t meant to die, death was a natural result of our decision to part ways with the giver of life, and leaving him meant that we die, and it isn’t how it’s meant to be, it’s one of the greatest tragedies to ever occur. When my brother died it felt like the universe lost something that was intrinsically valuable, not just to me, because my brother was created for a purpose by our creator, and his meaning is anchored not in my human flesh that will pass away but in the very foundation of our known universe, in the character of who God is.

--

Anyway if you’re interested I can send you some philosophy and history behind why I believe what I believe, it for sure wasn’t developed out of no where I’ve spent years questioning it and thinking about it. But most people don’t want to read that much so if you want more you can hmu in messages or send another ask idk XD 

Thanks anon! Sorry for hijacking your ask I know you aren’t that interested lol

[technicallyoneofakind]

Thankies so much for link to syntheticmelancholy's fic. Thought I'd best say it here in case the OP of that post takes offense at us hijacking it. lol :''3

No problem.

Also, oops. I didn't mean to hijack it- I just wanted to give credit to where the idea originally came from and it... got out of control.

But hey, at least there exists a link to that fic out in the wild now. With how hard @syntheticmelancholy has worked on it, it deserves some recognition.

And to Synthetic, I hope you don't mind that I've taken the liberty to share a link to your fic. The excitement got the best of me. ^^"

[hologramcowboy]

My guess is Danneel doesn't have any real friends and isn't that well liked. I kept thinking, wow I've never seen anyone make posts like this for Danneel birthday. It's usually just the creepy over invested Jensen stans. No other actors pay her much attention and when they do it seems forced. Even with Hilarie, when do these women even hang out? They don't seem to have any story but the repeated one about how Hilarie met her husband through Jensen. Her standoffish behavior at public events is pretty telling too. This is not a friendly woman and given her past behavior, she may even be secretly pretty mean.

Exactly, someone who is so ignored by her peers and her buyers cannot be good news. It's very important to choose level-headed people for projects and people that won't end up embarrassing the casting director, producer, etc and so on. Her antics may have worked on sets like OTH given the atmosphere there and on SPN due to being linked to Jensen but on other sets as well as industry related stuff it's undeniable she has no ground to stand on and there's a reason for that. She can no longer pull the "people are jealous of me" card because most of her peers and "superiors" are far more attractive and successful than her. This is why she clings so desperately to Jensen's name, it's her only ticket and credential since she puts no effort in for anything else. How sad. Sorry but she makes my stomach turn. I hope you don't mind I hijacked your post to use this gif, Anon, I've been dying to use it. lol

[dingdinghq]

hello hope you dont mind me giving my thoughts on this

im gonna limit every season (besides liml) to two sessions i think are most important for bigb just to lessen the amount and give a second opinion. not including liml because i wouldnt even know lol i remember liml in moments not sessions

third life: sessions 1 and 8

last life: session 4 (cant think of another one. but you should watch the terry episode bc its so fun (i think session 6?))

double life: sessions 3 and 5? im sure about 3 but 5 is kinda optional when it comes to importance. mainly bc its terry and not bigb

secret life: sessions 5 and 9

i do agree with most of the general character analysis. i see so many people characterise bigb as cruel and malicious, especially in desertduo or ren analyses. but bigb doesn't do things to hurt; he's comparable to a wounded animal, lashing out and biting when he feels like he's cornered. i don't think he'd have done the secret soulmates thing if he knew it'd genuinely hurt scar OR ren, but at that point he'd thought ren had proper run off with martyn.

bigb does tend to back off and stay quieter when with groups. however, he's very outgoing with people like jimmy and martyn, especially the latter, and gravitates towards people like skizz, probably bc of how extroverted skizz is. bigb has come out of his shell more and more with each season - sl bigb will be a lot more talkative and out-there than 3l bigb.

sorry i hijacked your post a bit, bigb enthusiast 😅 just wanted to add a few of my thoughts

Hi! I don't watch much Bigb because I don't have time to watch more than one or two life series povs usually, but I feel bad about making him an afterthought in my content cause he has such good vibes. As the local Bigb enthusiast. I wanna watch a few of his videos at least, if there are any you can recommend that are particularly useful for getting a better idea of who he is generally, or if there's any advice you can give on how you think he should be portrayed that fanon tends to get wrong?

Hii! I can help uhh the best way i Can help you with portraying him is like? Watching every episode? But yk. Its a lot of episodes. But heres some i can help with

3rd Life episodes 12 + 13 (his finals)

Last Life episodes 4(pt 1 + 2), 5, 7, & 8

Double Life episodes 3, 4, & 5

Limited Life episodes 6, 7, & 8

Secret Life episodes 1, 2, 5, 7, 9

Sorry i just gave you (and whoever else follows this) like 18 videos 🧍 he just used to split his videos into parts and then also he showed more of his character further as the season(s) went again id really recommend watching Every video of his cause theres just so many details you can find but i picked what couldve been seen as more important within his character

Fanon wise he is normally not going to betray people on purpose, its usually by force of the game and hes actually rather caring. He tends of isolate but also stay quiet when theres more than at least 2-3 people in an area unless hes Really close with them, despite isolating a lot hes very easy to force or drag into an alliance and also when he does he tends to become super clingy to at least one person such as ren and then cleo who despite betraying he tried to get back with her whether its on good terms or an alliance for at least around the 3-4 seasons that happened after she declared he was dead to her, ive seen people characterize him as innocent which no his first interaction with joel EVER in 3L was a big dick joke /t /lh, and also he is also portrayed as ruthless or mean specifically during the soulmate scandal. He wouldnt have really did it if he knew it hurt scar THAT bad (which in canon it DIDNT. Sorry scar did NOT care)

[malmuses]

I don't usually follow works in progress because I'm not active in the fandom in that way I just dip in and I Never know if an author is going to finish but my friend promised me you were trustworthy if I could just be patient, so I read " Hold on Holy Ghost " so far and oh. oh my GOD. that scene in the gym??? excUSE ME??? I stan but I worry about the soul you sold to be able to pull me in like this! also if it's okay to ask do you know when the next update will be no pressure just love ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Well first of all, thank you to your friend for insisting I was trustworthy, lol. I'm stubborn about finishing fics though I do have some I take my time with updating (such as HO,HG and Oxygen) just for varied personal reasons. Otherwise I'm more of a weekly updater or whole fic posting person.

But, that aside! I'm so glad you're enjoying Hold On, Hold Ghost so far! Don't worry about my soul, it's a pretty worthless one and the market is pretty flooded given all the talent around here, probably just in a store room somewhere. Nbd.

Update info:

So, here's the deal. I don't like to flood my AO3 with a ton of new stuff posting all at the same time, just because I like to respond to my comments and that becomes impossible if I post multiple things in a week or anything like that. That's something I enjoy doing, and I'd rather not give it up. But right now I have a Gas'n'Sip AU oneshot I'd like to post, a timestamp for a AU 'verse of mine called Russian to the Altar, a lighthearted BDSM fic where Dean is a veterinarian (chaptered), a flipped fic where Dean has monster friends to protect, and I've been working on two bigger WIPs to post weekly.

So, yup! I've written a bit more HO,HG. I just need to work out how I'm gonna do this. But I will, soon, it's a promise. Just digging myself out of various bits of overwhelm. (Both in terms of that basic fic stuff and other things in my life that have stopped me simply dealing with it.)

I appreciate your enthusiasm, and your ask, and hope you don't mind me hijacking your simple question to type all this out, anon. Thank you!

[valeriemperez]

TF portion of the crossover adjusted up to a 1.0. Even though week by week ratings don't really matter, it's more the season average, it's fun to gloat a bit considering all other shows got their shine and TF still had the highest ratings lol

We’ll see if any of the Flash viewers stick around for the other shows. Legends certainly deserves a few more eyeballs, although it’s gonna help them the least because they’re going on a long long break after next week.

Since there seems to be a parallel with Westallen and Marvoe, I would like to see both couples play their strengths against each other. Barry vs. DeVoe and Iris vs. Marlize.

That’s what I wanna see, too!

Looking at the stills, I feel that while Barry and CS are gone, I think Iris will figure out where CS is and send the troops there. CS is already with Amunet, trying to revive a black man (Which could be the mind reader character that has been announced as recurring). We also see Elongated Man and Vibe with CS and the black guy is awake. So maybe after that, Iris will find a way to find Barry on her own after that.

Yes, Dominic Lanse is Brainstorm, the mind reader. And I expect her to send in the “big guns” to save Caitlin while she quietly figures out where Barry is and hopefully how to help him. Once Caitlin’s out and Dominic agrees to help, they all can save Barry as a group.

do you think there’s a pause going on right now in the writing of episodes, so Berlanti can come in and guide things for Flash and Supergirl? just trying to figure out why gg isn’t filming (for a while now).

That wouldn’t affect the filming. Supergirl just announced a slightly longer winter break from filming, so I do thing there is some reorganization of those two writers’ rooms going on for sure. I just think Grant’s apparently lack of filming is more of a 4.01 situation. He appears not to be filming, but he’s in it a lot more than we think - and he has a beard, lol.

I can’t understand how someone thought it was a good idea to use Nazis as the storyline. We could’ve just had evil versions of the heroes from another earth or something and still had the same storyline and end result. Because in reality, they really didn’t end up treating the Nazis much different than ordinary villains anyway. They never really addressed what the Nazis represented, other than briefly mentioning Felicity’s heritage and showing her doppelgänger as a prisoner.

Right there with you. I mean, they also addressed the homophobia and that all the people they found offensively “different” would be killed, plus a bunch of Ayn Rand “the strong eat the weak” bullshit. But overall it was very poorly handled.

O/F Is STILL BEING DRAGGED 😀😃😄😁😅😂🤣🙃

I just hope Flash’s midseason finale is strong and gives us the Iris we deserve.

This crossover just heightened my blocking spree with everybody. While I’m happy about the following: WA being married (Though not exactly how I would want it, but they’re married), Iris getting to kick some ass in the Flash portion of the crossover, I also have some problems with the crossover as well: Nazis. Nuff said. But also, S4 got me to leave the fandom more than once. Thank God I was hardly around for S1 when I heard people were so evil to CP and Iris compared to the hate she gets now.

I feel you on that.

I have no issue with FS having focus in the xover. That’s not what most people are upset about. They are upset that Iris had to be a mammy to her while never getting a proper POV on her own wedding day being ruined. She didn’t even get to speak at her rehearsal dinner, which OF rudely interrupted with their drama. Then, FS hijacks her wedding day which was rude af. All FS had to do was wait until WA was done. Then they get a reception next week. And WA fans should be ok with this🤔

Agreed. I don’t know why anyone is suggesting WA fans should “know their place” and accept that they are secondary to OF. In that case, promote the crossover as Oliver and Felicity’s wedding and see how many eyeballs you get.

I meant to say I was screenshotting it for a forum. I plan on posting it here forums(.)previously(.)tv/topic/6472-mind-your-surroundings-arrow-the-flash-supergirl-legends-of-tomorrow-and-other-superhero-universes/?page=439 they’re not exactly shitting on westallen but some of their responses make it seem like this is just westallen shippers being petty and jealous so I wanted to give them my opinion

Sorry, I just saw this! I hope you posted it because your response was excellent.

[amourdeslangues]

you're so real for this 😭 if it helps, i think all of those ideas sound lovely & i hope your friend appreciated whatever you ended up making for him

i have pretty much the same problem rn, except it's exacerbated by the fact that it's been a whole month since the birthday of one of my closest friends, and it was so confusing because where i live, it's considered normal to only give gifts to friends if they're having a party, but he decided a week after his birthday that he wasn't going to have a party, so i didn't get a gift, but then i felt really shitty bc his birthday present for me this year was really thoughtful and amazing and i don't want to just give him nothing!! so now i have a gift certificate for one of our favourite cafés, but since that's not that personal, i've been TRYING to write him a poem (in a language which we're both studying and which is extremely uncommon around here, so it's really an important thing we share) but it's so difficult?? normally i'm good at writing but i'm so nervous about it sounding weird or pathetic or whatever, and i absolutely need to give it to him this week because otherwise even more time will have passed since his birthday and it's already awkward enough as it is

this has been on my mind for WEEKS and your post (sorry for hijacking said post btw, lol) imbued me with the intense need to ramble about it, so... well.

gift receiving is NOT my love language

i'm struggling to come up with gift ideas for a friend, his birthday is like...three or four weeks from now and I still don't know if I'm going to crochet him anything (he can crochet too), make him a candle (I already gave him one for christmas), or bake him anything (he doesn't like sweet stuff most of the time, idk)

I would embroider something but what do I embroider with my basic skills? i don't even know how to knit yet, so no socks or anything.

help me PLEASE

[crayolacolor]

Thankfully Infinity Train isn’t actually gone from all official platforms.

In the US, you can find it on:

- ITunes / Apple TV+ - YouTube / YouTube TV - Amazon Prime Video - Google Play - Vudu

The book 1 and book 2 DVDs are back on Amazon. They go out of stock sometimes and the price has been fluctuating, but they’re there.

In the UK, it’s recently been added to a network called Sky. I don’t know very much about it because I live in the US, but people in the UK seemed very stoked about that.

It was also supposed to be put on Teletoon+ in Canada, and it’s already on Stan in Australia.

Also, the soundtrack is back on Spotify and ITunes / Apple Music.

So!! There’s definitely still official ways to support the show, they’re just not quite as easy to access as HBO Max was.

We can’t let shows like infinity train be forgotten like writers and animators didn’t put their blood sweat and tears into it! I always thought at least younger generations would be able discover it and maybe it would have a resurgence one day like atla did. We can’t just let it disappear. It’s too good and it doesn’t deserve that.