#i dont want them to be too disjointed obviously

[rosylix]

latest rosy update is that pt 3 alone is over 12k words. what am i doing. what is going on.

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 38

hello and welcome to fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

only the dead have seen the end of war by @kartoffxl [MCD]

Lance must have seen something in Keith’s face, because his expression crumpled in anguish. “You… You love me back.” He put his head in his hands. “Oh my god. You loved me. You love me. This—This is so fucked up.” “Lance, I—” “Tell me I’m wrong.” There were tears in his eyes. “Tell me we didn’t just waste all those years being cowards.” Keith clenched his fists at his sides, still reeling from the whiplash of what he had just heard earlier. This can’t be happening. “Say it!” Lance pressed. “Say you don’t love me.” Please, his eyes begged. Keith and Lance finally figure out that they’re absolutely, undeniably, embarrassingly in love with each other, just not exactly in the best of circumstances.

okay so. this is. technically. one of the meaner fics im reccing. HOWEVER. it is gaspingly unbelievably beautifully and painfully written. even the summary kills me -- say you dont love me. im begging you. im begging you to lie to me right now. as we lay dying im begging you to have mercy on me and let me believe i didnt have a chance for beauty with you. im begging you to let me die with one regret instead of millions. please. please dont let me die being loved by you. LIKE WHAT

2. Toast to Freedom by @icypantherwrites

Keith is used to more than his fair share of dark looks. What he’s not used to is seeing those looks directed at Lance for no reason that he can determine and it’s making something uneasy settle in his stomach and the heavy press of the mantle of leader weigh even heavier as he should be doing something about it but he doesn’t know what. But causing a scene will upset the alliance they need and so Keith chooses to wait it out, to address it after the feast. He should never have waited.

will never ever in my life get over to 'i drank your poison because no suffering would be worse than watching it on you' not ever. it is always so so everything. and NO ONE does it like icy panther

3. Disjointed Soul by @icypantherwrites

Lance falls victim to a Soul Leecher, a dark spirit that is drawn to disjointed souls to steal them for itself. The Paladins must go into Lance's very soul to save him, uncovering truths about themselves and Lance in the process. Time is of the essence before Lance is lost forever. Good thing they have such helpful, adorable soul guides.

"Hi there baby Lance," Hunk greeted. "Ohwah," Lance burbled back. "¡Ohwah!" "Ohwah?" Pidge repeated. "I think he's saying "hola,'" Hunk grinned. "You know, "hello" in Spanish. Hola, baby Lance." "¡Ohwah! ¡Ohwah!"

this is one of THEEEE original insecure lance fics fr like it was the BLUEPRINT. 2018 there wasnt a langst loving soul who hadnt read this at least twice. its not too long for my dears w shoddy attention spans but its long enough to have quite a bit of substance!! team as family with communication and lance at the centre of it. what more do u want

4. Sleep Well, My Son by @icypantherwrites

A tiny accident becomes literal when Lance is turned into a child with no recollection from his older self. Coran has hopes the effects will be relatively short-term, but in the meantime he has a scared child that needs both reassurance and care. And while Coran might not have had the chance to be a father… he feels like one now.

look i love a good de aged lance fic and obviously when i was making these bookmarks i was scrolling my way thru the tag. and this one is especially amazing bc it is coran centred! this is a coran fic! this is a fic about quiet grief in the life you never got to live and acceptance for the life you have now and love for the people life has brought you!! it is about coran finding family through people who so desperately need it!! it is everything!!

5. Amigos by @icypantherwrites

A dangerous mission becomes even moreso when Lance is turned into a child with no recollection of his older self in the middle of it. Keith has never been good with kids and that certainly isn’t going to change now. Somehow though he’s got to convince Lance — who doesn’t speak a word of English and is staring at Keith with too wide, too scared of eyes — to come with him, get them both out of the Galran base now crawling with sentries alive, and then, assuming they get that far, figure out how to change Lance back.

shut up about the repeated author shut up about the same trope shut up about the. okay. i am a simple creature. i am annoying. i like to sit on my little armchair and open my little phone and read the same thing a million times. there is a Way to read fic and that way is to click on and scroll through a tag until you find a fic you like then scroll through that author and then go back to the tag and rinse and repeat. besides this fic is amazing okay i love klance but we rarely get platonic klance and its GOOD okay

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[romanceddawn]

video editing

related to the ask i answered from @whats-amata-you about video editing, i'm going to go into a more in depth guide on editing with CapCut on desktop under the readmore ^-^ there are other editors out there obviously but this is the best free one i've worked with so far

this is very long and im sorry for that, i just have adhd and wanted to talk about everything, i hope its helpful and if theres anything thats confusing let me know!

basics:

before you start you wanna go into your settings and make sure Proxy is turned on, this will help with lag from any big file sizes

to give a rundown of what i know about the capcut menu so far (and whats the most useful for basics imo):

the tool bar section essentially, for splitting/cutting down whatever section you have selected, mirroring it, rotating it, etc

the main edit section- video, audio, and speed are the basics that you'll need but ill go into some of the other parts listed in a few

how to resize the output ratio, depending on the ratio of your clips/videos you may need to resize them to whatever you want the output to be. i use 4:3 most of the time and resize the videos to fill the space correctly (if you mass select the clips you can resize them all at once)

the zoom bar for the timeline so you can work more precisely or quickly with clips

once you've got your new project started and all your clips and audio imported, you wanna click and drag those files down to the timeline and itll put them in the middle 'cover' layer, HOWEVER, you wanna drag video clips ABOVE the cover layer after, and then 'hide' the cover layer. this is because the middle layer locks video clips in place and offers very little freedom to work, doing it on free layers is better (when you drag itll look like the first pic, with a line highlighting above the main layer. the eye symbol in the second pic is how to hide a layer)

you can also edit the ratio of the output and mass edit the videos to fill the video player while you've got your clips in one place

NOTE: i try to move all the videos so that there is a good bit of empty space in the beginning of the project, this is where your song and actual edit will be worked on, and you want some empty space between the song and the videos you're using so that you have space to move them around and cut them down later on

from here, you wanna cut down the song audio you want to use and put it at the very beginning of the timeline. you wanna pay attention a bit to the intro and outro so things dont sound disjointed or off beat or have too much dead silence, but for the most part it doesnt have to be perfect. you can also edit the volume of the song in the audio menu top right so its not blasting your ears out while editing

also, a tip for audio: if you need a section to be shorter or longer, you can sometimes splice the audio up and piece it back together. its easier to do this if you zoom in really far and pay attention to the beats and sounds, but with enough practice you make a song work better for the edit while still flowing smoothly!

you should also decide if you want any speaking parts for your edit or any neat sounds and set those clips aside, the clips that you dont want to have audio you can mass select and right click them, there'll be an option to extract audio which you can them mass select and delete (if you decide you want audio later you can right click and do recover audio on any clip that needs it) if you have a clip where you only want part of the sound, you can extract the audio and cut it down so only that section of audio remains, but make sure to keep it synced with the video!

the next step is just fitting your clips to the audio! it doesn't have to be 100% perfect, nor do you have to have a new clip on every single beat, but it is good to use the beats of the song or the words as a general idea of where you should cut the clip to so it looks smoother. if you zoom in far you can see on the audio tracks where the beats are along with listening and you can use a marker (highlight in yellow on the first pic) to tell you where it is later, this will also help the clip snap into place when resizing (second pic)

EDIT: there is also a button on the tool bar that will mark the beats for you if you dont want to do them yourself (no, this is not gen ai, its just a beat detection tool)

this is pretty much the last of the basic stuff, aside from whatever little edits you want to do to size, speed, audio, etc. when im fitting clips i always do it all over the place so just take your time and dont worry about making it like a puzzle, just fit clips to wherever you think they look and sound the best

for everything after this, its not a necessity or anything, if you just wanna slap your watermark on the video and export it you totally can i do that all the time when i dont wanna deal with other stuff, but ill give the rundown of extra stuff just in case you want it too-

colors, sharpening, filters

so, while you can adjust each video's colors individually, its a lot easier to nab an adjustment layer from the top and pull it down to the timeline, then resize it to your edit (first pic). you'll mostly want the basic section which will give you clarity, saturation, etc (second pic), and the curves section which can help you edit the colors of the video, either to an extreme or light amount (third pic) i havent played with hsl too much but you can mess with it to your liking too! (if you need a few clips adjusted a certain way you can also split the adjustment layer so you only edit the clips it's above as well)

you can also use the pre made filters for this, right next to adjustments, but not all of them work great with animation

animations/transitions, text, edits

so to make your clips move and look more lively, you have two options: animations or transitions (or both if you want)

for animations, you click on a video clip and go up to the animation section where you can choose a combination of in, out, or combo. theres a lot of really fun ones here and you can adjust the durations of them until they look how you want, you can also add in AND out animations together on one clip

for transitions, you go to the section up top, pull one of the transitions down between two clips, and then you can edit the size of it. you cant add two transitions at once but they can go along with clips that have animation added to them so you can layer the effects!

effects and stickers are in the same vein of just fun stuff you can add, i havent played around with stickers a huge amount but capcut has a pretty good amount of neat things for edits tbh, but also if you want to make your own 'stickers' you could probably just import a transparent png image and put it on a layer above your video

for text, i usually just do default text and edit it to my liking but i know they have some neat premade stuff too, either way you wanna put it as the very top layer so none of the adjustment or effects layers are doing anything to it

theres a few other things that capcut has to offer that i havent explored yet or thought they were a little more than basic, but once you have all this down then the editing program is your oyster to play around with as you please!

exporting

after everything's the way you like it, you wanna delete all the extra clips/audios you didnt use, that way the program will default to ending at the actual end of your edit, then you wanna go up to file and select "Export" and you'll see a menu pop up

now it defaults to saving in a hidden folder in your appdata which is the most annoying thing in the world so you wanna select the folder to export (highlighted), save whatever folder is best for you, and then click export! it chooses video automatically so you dont really need to do anything extra, you also dont have to choose a folder every time, it will save into whatever you first chose every time after this

afterwards, you simply upload to your social media of choice with whatever caption and tags you want!

i hope this covered everything, and you have a fun time editing! ^-^

[thriveonanonymity]

Okay I have some thoughts about the vengence saga. Unfiltered through thoughts, just what I think about it after only a few listens (like less than a dozen.

This is going to be a long one.

The first half slaps quite a bit; The voice of Calypso is great, Troy is always a pleasure to hear and the writing fits them just as well as it did in wisdom and circe sagas respectfully.

Ballads like 'I'm not sorry for loving you' are songs that take me some time to get warm to, so i want say much about it.

Dangerous is a little slowed and burdened by the intro; if it were a musical and the albums we got were a soundtrack, I would cut the song to begin basically after the ody intro (though that would be just a bit difficult because it follows exactly into hermes' parts). It feels somewhat expositiony and isnt written as well as it could have been? I might be wrong here, thing is, it just doest sit with me well writing wise. Soon as Troy enters stage, Dangerous goes HARD. The back half of dangerous slaps incredibly, no notes. Big fan of ody's verse too. and oh my god the livestream animatic. ody fighting monsters and hermes is there just DANCIN, my boy

Now charybdis feels like a transitional song a lot, which is okay. One that is more exposition than anything. Shit you need to talk about and set up; youre gonna have those in a 40 song musical. For a transitional song its quite cool, though its kind of hard for me to say much else on it. The instrumental shift at the end just as posiedon arrives feels damn right.

Get in the water is amazing. I dont like how some limes are timed though, 'ruthlessness / is mercy upon / ourselves' is an obvious as a way to chop it, but i feel like the vocal riffs on it couldve been made a bit more interesting, it feels a bit disjointed, and that might be the point. I might be wrong here, im not much of a musician. Now why he timed the lines delivered by the dead like he did i do not know, i dont like it. It just doesnt fit the timescale of the instrumentation. I might be obviously incorrect to someone more musically aligned, but thats what i see. If i am correct, it might be so off to serve the narrative, monster and all. To show that these calls from the dead aren't here to help him, basically, they're here to haunt him, which would be my first interpretation if the lines were more coherent. If it was more coherent, i would read it the same way i read the baby tele flashback in god games. But that NOT being the message, the dead NOT giving him the resolve to go on, it just doesnt really work with the lyrics for the upcoming anime battle i feel. Im starting to ramble so ill move on.

Six hundred strike is very cool. Except for about a half second when he screams his attack name, that goody enough to take me out of the story, and that aint good, and the last lines post torture. Firstly, i love the fact that we come straight in with electric guitars, you can tell that cunning ody ain't fucking around. The battle itself is very epic, very grand, again, except for the 'six hundred strike'. Like. Horge. Mr. Jalapeño. What does that even fucking mean. I would get it if there was a line previously that was like "for every pain you caused" but like. Even then. It ought be plural. It just feels incredibly goofy and incongruous with the otherwise epic battle. Moving on. Torturing an immortal scene is always aweosme, and the execution is very good, ody's screams are very nice indeed. Vocals convey emotion quite well here, from both Jorge and Steven. The one thing i DO have a problem with is how they handled the last few lines. I understand what they are intended to do, and they do that, but they don't do the idea justice. It could have been made LESS like a piece of exposition, and i wish it was.

Generally i liked it??? I guess?????? Im not sure. Im not as dead hyped as i was after underworld or circe, but underowlrd is an act finale, and circe has me biased as it has some of my top songa from the musical so far. Vengance hits a little weak compared to wisdom, but that might be that i didnt have time to really proccess it. I felt similarly about underworld when it first released, to a lesser degree, but still. Maybe ill get around to it.

Also not a single beloved character died horribly.

Im disappointed, captain.

[sallytwo]

< music loverr ive been thinking about this for days here's which everything everything song fits each parousia character

faduhl: come alive diana

very much about the mythology of faduhl as a character... she's not allowed to be a person she's this great shining legend and has to live up to that myth. obviously this is also about aubrey... "mother looks away, father looks away for a second", "and the young diana waves inside a global grief", "I LOST AN AUTHOR THEN I LOST A DAUGHTERS AWE!!!"

ryan: president heartbeat

also about the pressure to live up to her image as a Good Officer and alsooo about her fucked up relationship with faduhl. she came to this station and gave away her entire life for faduhl only to watch her fall apart. this song has an upbeat pop sound with incredibly angry bitter lyrics that are rattled off in a desperate way which fits her well. ryan is. not a good officer. she only got this position because of neptosim, she comes from a very privaleged life, she cracks easily under pressure and has rehabilitating imposter syndrome and self doubt. "and you promised me heaven and you said it would happen soon...." ugh!!!

bennet- warm healer

his. song. it's a very melancholy song abour the dread of looking back on your youth and wondering where it went. just the resignation in this song... ITS SO BENNET!! "they call me a medicine man but my old spells dont work anymore". my sad doctor :(

aleki- END OF THE CONTENDER

SOMEONE WHO IS LAMENTING ON THEIR FALL FROM GEACE HOW THIER FUTURE HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM THEM AND BLAMING IT ON EVERY SINGLE PERSON BUT THEMSELF EVEN THOUGH THEYRE FULLY REAPONISBLE.

ekaz- the marina

ekaz has lived through so much change on the station and this one's about like. his inability to keep up and to accept this change and the way he's slowly losing his faith. someone always has to be the rock someone has to be stable and hardworking and trustworthy and that's always him.

chyell- bad friday / cut up!

bad friday is phenomenal chyell song because it's literally about a violent terrible thing happening at a club and not being able to remember what happened. which is literally how they lose their eye. "could this be the millionth warning / could this mean i'm gonna get out?"

cut up! is a frantic disjointed desperate song and is also very chyell (relating to their sense of duty) etc

talii- levithan

song that uses a levithan as a metaphor for disabling grief and sadness which is very talii. at her core she is a deeply, deeply sad person and it never goes away. she never got over her brothers disappearance. "looming in the distance never coming near / im missing you, im missing you, im missing you for real / under levithan"

jonathan- violent sun

violent sun is a PHENOMENAL late seasons johnny song. about feeling like you're being swept along in life and have no agency and don't have an excuse for being this way. and the SUN!! " there's a way you dont ever have to be a lunatic or an error or a prisoner to your terror / im too old to be crying out" and "i wanna be there when the wild waves comes and we're swept away" IT FITS SOOO WELL.

also shoutout to photoshop handsome. “airbrush what have you done with my father why does he look like a carving.” LOL!!!

max- good shot good solider

going along mindlessly with what you’re being told to do? with the corrupt violent organization that rules your life? wanting badly to be good and right and never questioning it? that’s max babyy

have to mention lord of the trapdoor too cuz “this is a whistle for only a dog / can you believe you were nearly a dog” is such a max line. god

anyway thank you for reading. everything everythingg

[cozymochi]

13 for the art ask game, obviously

i love the “obviously” tacked at the end there. It’s like a lil’ spicy, “see of COURSE THIS is the one we ALL want to know >;) and the one we know YOU want to answer” type of confidence jggffyfhfg

13. What do you wish you could add in your art but can’t because you either forget to or you developed the habit of drawing this way too hard that you just can’t add this detail in?

Question’s a lil’ disjointed BUT!! I think really really fine details aren’t something I’m capable of doing. Deadass you can’t catch me trying to manually create patterns or fur textures. I’m also talking incredibly minuscule stuff, like the threads on a tassel level minuscule. And that does bother me, especially if I’m doing my usual schtick of wanting to adapt to another visual style just because I feel like it. If it hasn’t been clear by now, I don’t really stick to one way of drawing, I kinda want to be adaptable, and to do that- learning other looks is sorta how to do it. (Tho every attempt is approached in a way that works for me).

Twst for example, is a style that is carried by detail-oriented aspects (it’s kinda absurd lol affectionate), but I don’t have a handful of artist assistants to add in extra details like that for me on top of what I already know how to do.

I’m just doing it by myself. And me not being able to do fine-detail stuff like that isn’t really because I draw “one” way (I draw a crapton of ways and with different techniques), it’s def just a skill issue combined with the level of patience required, and tbh, it might be a physical problem. I physically just can’t do that sort of thing without straining to some capacity, and having already injured myself before isn’t something I want to exacerbate for the sake of “aRt.” It doesn’t really affect much, per se, but it’s a weak point I’ve encountered. Excuses, the lot of it. So what now? I still want to keep attempting them.

On that end I’d have to use tools and resources available to me. This isn’t a dig or negative by any means, just a reality of how the process goes. I don’t think pigeonholing oneself into just sticking to one way of drawing is a productive way to learn, especially if they want to. (I’m not saying go nuts and go full chameleon mode like me, that’s just me being my weird self). Visual styles aren’t really an excuse to not do certain things, ya just. Or hell, to do certain things either (like, i def dont have to go fine-detail or w/e to a T, but guess who is just so fun quirky 🫣🤡). There’s thousands of ways to go about these things. Just depends on what u want i guess… or go crazy, that works too.

…

Sometimes I still forget where the thumb goes

[chappell-roans]

I dont think this counts as barbie spoilers. I can talk with more specific details once you've seen it. but I have to admit I might have had too high expectations for the social commentary aspect because everybody kept talking about how it was this amazing portrayal of womanhood. I didn't feel like it was bad, but sort of ironic because ken's arc and narrative felt a lot more coherent than barbies by the end. I didn't think it was bad if you just go in for a fun time then it's such a fun ride but the narrative as a whole felt oddly disjointed. theres tons of individual ideas and concepts that work really well but it felt a bit directionless?

Sorry it took me so long to answer this, I wanted to go in as blind as I could (despite advertising bombardment). But now that I've seen it, I know exactly what you mean and feel very similarly. I was laughing my ass off at a lot of the movie and hating men a little and stuff and I think it was like largely very well directed and written but I agree, disjointed is a good word for it. Parts of it felt choppy and the flow wasn't what I'd hoped. (Especially when I find Lady Bird and Little Women to be veryyy tight movies with good flow, however, I probably liked Barbie as much as them overall tbh. I rank them all as more or less 4/5 movies, with different highs and lows. Little Women maybe my favorite? Not what this convo is about though.) And I agree, by the halfway point it felt a little like Ken became the main character and Barbie's arc was pushed aside for almost half the movie. Which I think was on purpose because of The Patriarchy and everything being upside down in Barbieland? I also felt a little like some of the monologues were out of place, though they were 100% right and stuff. Idk. I think it's back to what you said and it just felt a little uneven, it was either silly or serious and the two didn't blend so much at certain points. (Some parts it did!!! Others it obviously didn't.) I feel like I need to see it again to have fully formed thoughts on it but lol.

But yeah I don't think it's like the foremost feminist cinema but I did like it a lot anyway. I was there for a silly goofy time and got it.

[thosewickedlovelies]

ummm actually, please say MORE about them because inquiring minds (me) would like to know tbh <3

@patternedlantern you are the best kind of enabler and I love you for it ❤

Okay, so I cannot for the life of me find the original post, but Rancher Boys will eventually be a fic based on the tags of my Jack Daniels x Reader x Javier Peña post. A SUMMARY:

Jack Daniels, Traumatized Secret AgentTM, actually gets the therapy he needs and decides, after one close call too many, that he wants to live for a little while longer, actually. So he leaves Statesmen, acquires some land, and founds a ranch with an integrated therapy program. It’s meant to be a sort of in-between place. They specialize in people like Jack once was: former military or government agents, struggling with living a normal life again. Admittants can live onsite and they gain work experience on the ranch while undertaking their treatment program. (Listen. I dont know how ranches or therapy programs work. Liberties are being taken).

ENTER JAVIER PEÑA

This an AU in that Javi has been transplanted into contemporary times. But I’m imagining him with a very similar career background- now scarred and haunted in the same way. So he’s in Tennessee with Chucho, doing Ranch Stuff (maybe they traveled to a farm show or smthn), when he encounters the folks and animals from Jack’s Therapy Ranch (name as yet undetermined lkjasdf). But instead of just. Asking for a job. Javi decides to go undercover as a patient, to make sure this place the real deal.

ENTER YOU

You’ve been a ranch hand at Jack’s place for about a year. You’re not a counselor or psychologist of any kind, just one of the normal ranch hands- but somehow, you see through Javi’s charade pretty quickly, and he ends up confiding in you. Jack, meanwhile, has always been a little sweet on you- it started out as the same exuberant affection he shows everyone, but gradually softened into something you both can feel is genuine, especially when no one is looking. To Javi, however, Jack is always advertising a reason to look- which makes it impossible for him not to be 1) constantly annoyed at the cowboy’s brash antics, and 2) simultaneously endeared by the way Jack so obviously adores you and 3) aroused by Jack’s deft hand with that lasso

It’s currently mostly disjointed snippets that I have to connect somehow, but i do be having New Blorbo Brainrot :’)

[steelycunt]

ridi ridi hiiii !!! how are youuu how was yr dayyy i started mine off by rereading yr otiofad ficc did you know every sentence in it is a masterpiece did you know every word is like worthy of an auditoriumesque applause now yk i wanted to ask you to talk about that particular bit tho (if you wouldn't mind ofc !!) where sirius slams the book shut on an insect bc it's sooo like it's sooo !! it reads like premonition and also like r can't help but be wary of s and s can't help but be just like capable of harm regardless of intention & carelessly and i think it's sooo genius I think yr soooo genius for that and if you have more to say abt what that bit meant to youu + process of writing it + foreshadowing you wanted to get across w it etc. etc. i would be vv interested to hear <333 mwah love you loads xx

hello my lovely omg!!! my day was GOOD actually surprisingly good i am recovering from my illnesses and i played badminton and ate tangerines it was a very content day!! how was yours!! also warning you now in advance i wrote way too long a reply to this. like WAY too long NOBODY needed this im so sorry!! the very final paragraph provides like a little tl;dr you DO NOT need to read the essay that is under the cut!! im so sorry!!

okay firstly the idea that someone would not only read one of my little stories but read it more than once?? crazy actually!! insane!! so glad that it could be a part of ur morning n i would love to talk abt it!! hang on opening it in a new tab rn let me remember what it was i actually wrote huh lol

firstly with the flashback scenes in otiofad in general they had to serve two different purposes. they obviously needed to show the intense love and intimacy between the boys prior to The Incident, in order to juxtapose the post-prank scenes and serve as a marker for measuring the size of the rift in their relationship that its caused (which is why theres lots of kissing and cuddling and cloying monologues in the flashback scenes), but at the same time they had to demonstrate the little parts of their relationship which are a little bit fucked! a little bit unhealthy and obsessive. and they had to portray sirius as a person who has the capacity to do what he ends up doing. i didnt want to accidentally work against myself by over-idealizing their relationship to the point where it became difficult to believe sirius could be so thoughtless as to do what he does. like if ive just made you read fifteen hundred words of him being the Best Boyfriend Ever and then switch to him begging forgiveness for an attempted murder, his character becomes a little disjointed, and i really wanted it to feel like you're consistently reading the same people, just in very different circumstances. so the flashbacks very much needed to stress their intensity rather than their health as a couple.

im definitely roaming beyond the parameters of your question (but i promise it all circles back xx) but some of the sort of. i dont want to say red flag as much as cause for concern moments that i tried to include especially in the flashbacks include for instance: [Sirius says that sort of thing often, and with a confidence that Remus cannot ever fathom. Good god, how he would like to ask Sirius, them or me, that or me, and never fear the answer.] in the first scene, because i think remus' low self-esteem and his insecurity definitely affects their relationship + how he perceives it, which isn't anyone's fault as much as it is just them being young and imperfect like. theyre like sixteen here nobody had it together when they were sixteen right :-/ you have sirius utterly utterly obsessed with being in love with remus declaring that he doesnt want anything else from life and he's. sixteen years old. he's got no idea. like its that sort of rashness and impulsivity when he's speaking and acting which ends up fucking him over :-/

TO GET BACK to the bit you actually asked about (im so sorry for how long this is <3) the part where he closes the book on the spider. i mean honestly ur interpretation in the ask is pretty spot on!! its another one of the little stitches in the flashback scenes that sort of...slightly changes/sobers/brings the tone back down the reality a little, after theyve spent most of the scene cuddling and kissing etc. i'd already sort of tried (and i want to emphasise try at every point in this answer sfdghsh because i am not necessarily claiming that any of this was necessarily successful lol) to show sirius' capacity for being rash and obsessive, and the spider moment was just this tiny act of unnecessary, arguably cruel? violence that was meant to be jarring against the very over-sweet and gentle affection he's just shown remus. and although theyre acts of violence on such different scales, he gives just as much thought to sending snape to the willow as he does to squashing the spider. one of the things about sirius that i love soooo much is his relationship with violence and the way his anger translates into violence and cruelty (which remus mentions in the final scene when he says “You’ve got to stop being the kind of person who hurts people when they’re angry.”). its why hes SO fun to write angry because his anger is so distinctive lol. so the spider moment is just meant to serve as a little reminder of this random, mindless aggression that sirius carries around with him and that exists in tandem with all the affection we've seen him show remus, who starts in surprise when sirius slams the book shut. (i'll let u in on a super little fun (or not) fact that in my head when i was writing it i always drew a little parallel between the twitching insect leg thats left on the page and the similarly uncomfortable sensation of the eyelash that remus feels scratching his own eye immediately afterwards. thats not necessarily meant to come across n i expect it doesnt because i didnt develope the idea...at all...but in my head they were always a little linked teehee like even sirius' smallest acts of violence still have an effect on remus somehow xx)

but yeah!! apologies i didnt think this would be such a long explanation for a simple question fbhsdfhs im very embarrassed by this but like!! in short the spider was another little jarring moment designed to tether the version of sirius you get in the flashback to the version you get in the post-prank scenes, because ultimately he's the same guy with the same flaws both before and after the prank!! there was no reason for him to kill the spider like that and thats why hes so fucked. it was just his instinctive response to seeing it there.

[cartoonrival]

i was gonna add this to someone elses post but it feels too disjointed and annoying so im making my own lol. but as far as catching new members up to speed, i think recaps/history lessons work best when they’re introduced naturally rather than that being the entire point of the stream, like when tubbo showed foolish pogtopia and the tunnels or when quackity explained his own history with schlatt and manberg to foolish; there has to be a reason for whichever og member to want to explain their backstory to someone who wasn’t there to see it, which i think is why these don’t happen as often as we might want to see them. i do definitely agree that it would be interesting and fun to watch new members learn about server history from og members and these sorts of interactions are some of my favorites, i just don’t think it can be preplanned and solely for the sake of “catching people up to speed” and still feel natural and give more than surface level insight on the history.

for example, with foolish and tubbo or foolish and quackity, both tubbo and quackity had specific character reasons for sharing that information with foolish at that particular moment: what they were doing with him at the time, what they wanted from him, and the type of person c!foolish is (easy to talk to, asks good questions, seems trustworthy/wise because of his age and pacifism). tubbo’s walk with foolish through pogtopia and the tunnels was one of if not the first time he had taken time to discuss out loud how scary and hard his time in lmanberg/manberg was, and i don’t think he’d be willing to talk that deeply if he was just acting as a tour guide whose job was just “tell new members what is happening.” obviously i want knew members to know what really went on, but i dont think having those conversations preplanned and happening for no reason other than “they need to happen” is the best way to go about it

[oneandonlysoftie]

Hi dear! I've seen you didn't talk much about Sadistic Beauty these days... What are your thoughts on ending and two side stories? Especially Wookying and Minho's one? Tbh I'm disappointed and disturbed :(

i had to step out of this story bc it was leaving me frustrated, irritated and disappointed not to mention very confused LOL. yep, im still fairly disappointed with where the author went with this. a major conflict that should or could have been in the main story was the whole drama including wookyung fighting with doona to get minho but it was swept under the rug only to return as some after thought as a side story (probably excluding doona).  there was such a great opportunity to finish it in the main story but the author decided that minho had to suffer all of the consequences and everyone else is going scot-free LOL. truly a shame. i wasnt surprised that doona was ending up with haesol, never was into them, still not into them. i have a certain distaste for characters like haesol, he’d be best described as a simp. and i absolutely loathe simps lol. there’s a fine line with being there for someone and being there in hopes that smth more might change, he def wants to date doona and saying that he’s okay with how things are and if they don’t date, is basically a blatant lie to himself. if that was the case, he wouldn’t let her string him along and use him for sex. the feelings he has for her will just be kept in the back, but it will most likely resurface in some way or another. in the long run, it’d hurt him and that’s just not worth the hassle. obv since the writer wanted them to happen, he’s prob gonna get what he wants lol. i def found the whole rivalry btw donna and wookyung in order to get to minho way more fascinating, and wished it was explored more. now, the only thing im happy with is gyerin is probably getting her happy ending with the new girl. she’s also the only one who went “fuck this” once she saw doona wasn’t going to reciprocate her feelings, and im rlly glad she did that. at first, i didnt think much of her, but now, seeing how the story went (lmao), im all for gyerin being happy. and as for wookyung and minho, im interested in how their story will unfold. but i feel so so bad for minho, he was a jerk and an asshole i wont deny that, but he didnt deserve all of the hate and harm he got and still is receiving according to the side story preview. wookyung is still a great and fascinating character, i do like characters like him, but how he was used was just not satisfying. and it seems like there might be a case of stockholm syndrome coming up where he might fall for wookyung. i just wish doona had smth to do with it before she parted ways or she could have helped minho, but yeah. *shrugs* this story left me confused as to what the author is doing, there is wasted potential and opportunities at every corner. the plot goes one way then goes another to end on a weird note. i also think the whole gl, bl stuff was more of a fanservice thing and that’s probably why it’s more of a disjointed story? as in, i feel like the gl and bl stuff should either have been more of a focus and woven into the story or it should have been entirely separate so the author wouldn’t have to shove many things at once and just focus on one or two pairing. one thing i might add for the story is that it felt as if it was trying to make us surprised, but the so called “twists” that happened just made it more confusing and those probably shouldn’t have been there as they don’t add much to the story narrative. back to gyerin, you can see that gyerin and the new girl can have their own separate story from the start (she didn’t have much to do with the primary conflict and could easily have a flashback to doona instead of the whole fanservice lol). the same goes for wookyung and minho as well, and it’d have been perfectly fine. at the end you basically see three pairings, the m/f, the f/f and the m/m. however, we dont even know if minho is into men? so i’m not sure how’s that gonna be considered BL? then again, every pairing could have been in the main story, but it’s not? for some reason??? it feels as if the author wanted their pairings without putting in the effort of making it into the main story, hence the side stories or they just wanted to make it separated without putting too many characters in it. obviously, for wookyung and minho, there’s no way doona wouldn’t have done smth if it was fully explored in the main story, and it might have changed the ending too. there’s multiple ways the story could have gone, but this one was the only conflict that was much more interesting imo, but it wasnt used that much.

gyerin didn’t really have much to do there other than be lesbian fanservice for doona (and the audience, writer and maybe the artist too?), and to be some kind of support for haesol. that’s about it, so i can understand why she’d not have a full blown romance in the main story, but seeing that she keeps reappearing, she still could have her side story integrated into it. lmao i don’t even kno if doona is bi/pan lol or if she just had sex bc she was drunk then did it just for pleasure without being interested in women at all.

EDIT: iirc doona did get aroused seeing gyerin uh doing stuff, so it could be possible that she is interested in women, but maybe only sexually? although i still could be wrong lol and it could just have been a moment of “I’m straight, but horny and u’ll do for now”. she could be in the closet too, who knows.

overall, sadistic beauty had some interesting conflict, some good characters (ill never like haesol lol), good art and the storytelling by this artist is well paced, but the execution and where the story went leaves a sour taste in my mouth. would i recommend this story? absolutely not. it is so frustrating, and for what? i wish i had saved myself this headache from the very start but the art and the fact that doona was a dom was what reeled me in. i only came back to it to see if the writer redeemed their story in some ways, but... well... you saw how that went.  i would follow the artist if i could, their art is beautiful. however, i cannot say the same for the writer. from my exp, it seems that many webtoons have good art, but the writing definitely leaves way more room for improvement. that said, i do hope ppl will learn that in order to make a great comic/webtoon/manga and so on, it is not only about pretty drawings. the story and writing should be up to par with the art. if not, it should be at least close to it. because the art might attract people, but if the story doesn’t resonate, if it doesn’t make much sense, then ppl are bound to leave and drop it. and what is a story, but pretty pictures and nothing substantial in it? nothing, but superficial beauty.

[animalinvestigator]

OK so a big thing that i want to say like in response to ur post is that I do agree that as they are right now petscop is WAY stronger than twf but i think a big reason for that is that petscop is like, a finished story, where twf is still In progress like only about 1/4th of it has been released rn, Especially in the wake of a thing the creator of twf has said about how the best analysis of it are ones that take all 3 currently released episodes into account rather than analyzing each episode on its own i think its a little disingenuous to make big comparisons about the stories when we dont know too much except the objective facts of it all rigth now

like of course petscop is going to stand way stronger (and i love petscop to DEATH like ive loved petscop for years it is one of my favorite series ever) because its like finished and it's loose ends are tied where as atm twf's loose ends just feel like poor writing since we dont know where its Going with them yet

i think the stories are trying to send completely different impressions (and i think u understood this in smth you said about how petscop is about childhood trauma+identity vs twf being about familial loss) and thats a big reason why the characters seem to have much more or less weight depending on which story ur looking at. Because in petscop its much more personal, youre seeing it thru paul and the game itself is cover to cover loaded with personal emotional shit left in by rainer and others, but in twf it's supposed to feel like ur getting a weird disjointed outside perspective on this family because even in universe thats what it is, it felt to me like it was trying toportray that feeling of family you lost a long time ago that you at this point dont have anything but the weird disjointed outside family photos and shit like that. Even the series name being like "walten files" gave me the impression that it was trying to be a series of 'disconnected-but-not-really' left behind documentations on these peoples lives rather than the people themselves, and, of course in that case the character weight in petscop would stand WAY stronger, because petscop is about the character weight where twf is about the tragedies themselves

NOT THAT I DONT RESPECT YOU FOR PREFERRING THAT, I mean typically i prefer that as well and i honestly wouldnt be surprised if as twf releases (because again i still hold my feeling that its unfair to twf to try and compare it to a story legend like petscop at the point it's at rn where only a fraction has been released) i continue to prefer petscop way over twf but i love petscop For the story its already told whereas i love twf for it's potential

Tho i do TOTALLY acknowledge most of these comparisons come from the fact that (and i agree w this) bunnyfarm is very obviously heavily petscop inspired with its formatting (and i do think there are some things that could have been done way better in that way) of course bunnyfarm falls flat when compared to petscop because petscop is a series thats putting its all into the "video game+dissoc amnesia" angle where as twf is supposed to feel likea bunch of odd disjointed things that When put together tell a story. So of course bunnyfarm falls flat because bunnyfarm isnt meant to be considered alone

There ARE a lot of things in twf that i feel could be done way better but i also have to concede that the story isnt done yet and even in the story itself one of the characters has urged us(the audience) to not try and piece anything together. And i at this point like petscop way more than twf but i appreciate twf heavily for what it is and i think comparing them both is unfair to twf for many reaosns

thats it im sorry this is like a whole essay but i care a LOT about internet horror and i thought your thoughts were really really good there were just a few things that i wanted to discuss really badly. thankyou for your time

LONG POST INCOMING EVERYONE BRACE FOR IMPACT

OMG I MEANT TO LIKE ACKNOWLEDGE THE FACT THAT TWF IS very muxh not finished in that original ask 😭 that is so true and super important to consider and i meant to write a paragraph about that in the ask i answered but i got too excited talking about petscop and i totally forgot. that is super important to remember about it and its also important to recognize that the person making twf is pretty young with what i assume is a small team and probably not anywhere near the amount of storytelling experience as pressedyes (hes been publishing internet stories since 2009) and for that like, no matter how many grievances i have with the pieces of the puzzle that we have, i have to cede that twf is really genuinely impressive and i do really admire all the work thats been done. and also like, i make a lot of jokes about it but i did have a fun time watching it and i have a fun time thinking about it and its Pretty damn good in a lot of ways.

i never really considered the personal vs impersonal presentation of the story and i like that angle of analysis a lot now that you mention it. the jumbled odds and ends thing will probably hopefully feel a lot better once we have a little more to start tying it together - a lot of my grievances are less with tying things together and more like how weak the introductions feel, but like, im hoping ans thinking that i will probably feel better about it with more information. thing is in a lot of ways petscop is disjointed in the same way - for the viewer at least, we're observing everything BUT the recordings from a secondhand, disjointed account from like, shit paul says on phone calls and in videos to outside observers who have a lot more information than either him or us as the viewers, and paul even grows gradually more distant from the audience too, and i feel like it still has stronger character work and first impressions . so i feel like the issue is that twf leans so hard into its "outside observer" perspective that it sacrifices a lot of character work that would help the episodes that are out stand on their own two legs better -- which is important, because the impression that the start of a story leaves is one of the most vital things to get right!! im hopedul that that disconnected perspective will be used in a similarly "invested but lacking information" type of way as petscop does in later episodes. i have hopefor it .

the reason the weaker parts of twf frustrate me so muxh is because i reallt really feel like it has a chance to be something really great, but the way its handling its influences right now and the lack of character work even when we have a lot of time to sit with the characters in question leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. i hope that as it continues to progress it'll be able to solidify its own identity somewhat! and i agree that irs not exactly a fair match when you pit it against pscop lol its just like; petscop is the best of the best to me and they do cover a lot of similar feelings and concepts, so comparing them helps me articulate my feelings more. its not really very helpful or anyone to earnestly be like "this story is better than the other", all you can really do is say what you like and dont like about different stories and compare and contrast :)

thanks for sending such a thought provoking message !! its nice to hear from a different perspective. i feel so strong about web horror also and i hope that someday soon i can regard twf a lot more positively because I Want More Good Art In The World and derive no joy from being negative. ok maybe sometimes but not aboit this!!!!!!! cos i want it to be good.

[skaianet]

so i swapped them hives (act 2) and...

huh i have some thoughts. like gameplay thoughts and some tinfoil story thoughts. spoilers below, obviously

- i loved the game, generally speaking. the grand majority of the puzzles were good and the writing had good moments and it did make me laugh/chuckle out loud a several times

- character writing was fun, except for some parts. even then im not sure if the characters were written bad or if i just got mad at the game and it made me bored of the characters

- the “parts” im speaking of is actually just one big part which you probably guessed right away. THE TRIAL. it was genuinely fucking awful. the game was great before and after it, but that single thing just dragged on way too long and was god damn obtuse (though i was playing it at...... 3 am or something. maybe not the best time for detective work but oh well. tyzias i hope your hand isnt sore from all the holding)

- everything else besides the trial was great. to give an overall rating for act 2 would be difficult due to such a wild disparity in gameplay quality.

- the other puzzles were good. i had to use the hint button only a few times outside the trial for genuine clues. the last puzzle is fresh in my mind because in the end i just kinda spammed the button to be sure i was safe to break the glass/turn the switch because i didnt want to do the whole process over after failing so many times. that was annoying but otherwise the puzzles were cool in my book.

- OBSERVATIONS: some early parts seemed disjointed, like right at the very beginning (after the explosion, in the cave and the bee farm). There were some weird excuses to cover the fact joey and xefros just somehow ended up to the cave. Also it was OBVIOUS the screens from the cave didn’t lead up to the farm properly. We’ve seen in-development animations and screenshots from Zebede and Charun in these areas previously, looking pretty complete. Also the gears at the farm windmill were very intricate, suggesting that maybe there used to be a puzzle there at some point? Also the skip to the train station from the forest was very abrupt. I feel kind of... sad? knowing weve lost some cool content probably forever for whatever reason, but the game is still good. the dev team said that if some troll call trolls are missing from the game they will appear in future acts, so its not like zebede and charun dont exist anymore, but... i wonder why they were scrapped. i mean, probably due to the absolute development hell, but at least charun was in the first steam trailer a year ago iirc. id love to know why this stuff was scrapped

-PLOT THOUGHTS 1: okay okay theres a lot im still thinking about but what im most curious about is the jeevik week. like its some kind of a festival but to what end? the tetrarchs (dammek, cridea, fiamet, xefros/chixie) were apparently planning something and i believe the jeevik week is supposed to be the culmination of those plans. in addition to the tetrarchs, i think marvus has some interest of their own in this, but its uncertain if theyre in on the same plot. he protected joey a lot, and i think it was kinda suspicious how they emphasized how marvus just “happened” to be on this train.

-PLOT THOUGHTS 2: so what happened at the end of the act. it seems likely that the first guardian axolotl thing from the concept art just blasted the train (directly hitting the rustblood car, mind this) though that thing seemed to have wings? does the axolotl have wings or is this something else? its most likely the axolotl, but there are more options... the green fire seems to hint at a green sun-powered creature either way. could there be a link to the act 1 creatures? which were black with green insides, like some kind of nega first guardian? could someone gotten their hands on ectobiology equipment and started producing first guardian-like creatures, powered by the green sun? on alternia, obviously as lusii, but as earth doesnt have them, as some kind of weird mutants? just food for thought

-PLOT THOUGHTS 3: okay, this is kind of a wild idea, but i suspect the attack at the end was intended to eliminate joey and xefros. the creature specifically targeted the lowblood car, and from one of the ending freeze-frames we see half of the wagon being obliterated probably killing everyone inside. xefros is a lowblood and joey was posing as one, so if the attack was intentionally directed whoever is behind it couldve assumed those two were in there. and if the creature was indeed the axolotl, the culprit is likely fiamet as thats likely her lusus or something (something that has been theorised from some in-development screenshots having a axolotl character as a stand-in chitter avatar for her). fiamet also knew joey and xefros were on the train. anyway if thats in any way accurate theres a chance shell be the secret final ultimate antagonist of hiveswap. but who knows

anyway thats my two cents...  mean at this point, my about 30 cents on hiveswap act 2.

[emrysalways]

Barbies Ranked

Wherein I rank the main characters and plots of every movie I've seen in the BCU (Barbie Cinematic Universe)

Clara-Barbie in The Nutcracker (2001)

The OG. First barbie movie I ever saw. Yes there were barbie movies that came out before this, but this is the only one I care about. The movie that kicked off the ballet phase, so automatic points there. Wierd animation looking back, but really cool when I was a kid. I had a crush on the nutcracker and I thought it was cool that Clara could be kickass and kind and girly all at the same time. Kind of trippy to watch now because it could be a little disjointed but honestly? It still holds up.

Barbie:

10/10 that's a fuckin barbie right there

Plot:

100/10 cant beat the classics.

Rapunzel- Barbie as Rapunzel (2002)

Okay I'm not gonna lie, it's been forever since I watched this. But I remember I liked the magic paintbrush and hated the prince. Cool sassy dragon sidekick. Boring otherwise. Not because of barbie, she did what she always does, not her fault she got a bad script.

Plot:

3/10 for walking so Tangled could run.

Barbie:

7/10 kind of a flat character

Odette- Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE. When I say I cried yall dont understand i fucking CRIED bitch the performance was breathtaking i felt like i was LIVING in the story. This movie made me beg my mom to let me take ballet classes, which sucked, but not this movies fault. It inspired me, a shithead six year old delinquent in training, to want to be beautiful and elegant and utterly tragic. Odette has never been played by a finer actress, Barbie just gets the nuance of this character and by god does she perform. My only complaints are odiles voice is fucking annoying and rothbart seemed to be heavily based on Jewish stereotypes which is obviously pretty bad.

Plot:

9999999/10 I mean even the barbie flourishes were good

Barbie:

1000/10 she snapped

Anneliese and Erika- Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (2004)

Wooooo boy was this a dick punch of a movie. First of all, the plot? You need to suspend a hell of a lot of disbelief to watch this without treating it like a comedy. To be fair, it's a really good comedy. I will get it out that I think barbie did great playing two roles at once. Hard to believe that's just her, but recall this is before barbie got her friends in on the acting scene. For what she had, she did great. That said, she isnt the reason I remember this movie. Preminger stole the fucking show. Although upon rewatch , I realized a similar issue with the swan lake thing above so I'm a little worried about the villain pattern here. Will keep looking.

Plot:

8/10 I liked the songs

Preminger:

100/10 she HAS the range

Annika- Barbie and the Magic of the Pegasus (2005)

Again, not a lot of memory here. There was a pegasus, like a kingdom of them I think? I'm pretty sure this one had more ballet and ice skating so that's cool. I think I remember Annika being like, kickass for a princess movie. I cant even remember the bad guy so that's all to say there.

Plot:

4/10 ice skating cool

Barbie:

7/10 everyone has a wierd period.

Genevieve- Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006)

This is hands down my favorite movie. Why? Lots of dancing. Lots of characters. The sisters all have distinct personalities. The villain is super fucking sinister as she attempts to murder their father. The music is so sweet. Theres the usual romance, but it's not the main focus of Genevieve to catch a man. She loves her sisters and her father and just wants to dance to remember her mother. Shes brave and clever and I used to dream of having a magic room of my own where I could run away to dance. Basically? This movie slaps. You should check it out, if you haven't seen.

Plot:

😭/10 full bias I root for them the entire time

Barbie:

10000/10 honorable mention to actresses for sisters, very decent work all around.

Rosella- Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)

dude this movie is incredible. The inherent drama of being barbie Tarzan. And the music? Start humming "I want to know" within range of anyone who's seen this movie even ONCE and its like unlocking a deep cover memory. Her dress was great, the animals were fantastic support, the prince was a legitimate himbo. Villain was great too, huge bitch, huge hair, almost won.

Plot:

67882/10 everyone carried their weight here

Barbie:

9/10 one point taken off because feral island girl had no armpit hair and that always bothered me

Anyway its 8 am now and I did this instead of sleeping so I'm gonna just call it here. I have seen more barbie movies, these are just the ones up to 2008 that I care about. If you guys wanna see more lmk and I'll make this part one.

[bow-woahh]

Spop Fic recs (Catradora)

(finally)

Hello Catradora trash can's today I finally give you what I've been promising for MONTHS - a fanfic rec list. Because, if you didn't already know, I read A LOT of Catradora fanfic, probably too much and although I'm definitely not the best judge of...anything, I really wanted to make this post, so here it is, weeks late.

(it's a long one though)

I’ve written my full opinions n shit on like the first 10 multi chapters and one shots because there’s a lot lol, and some I remember better than others (tbf I've re read all of them at this point), but yeahhh. For the others, I’ll describe it in less detail and a bit more jokily lol.

I'm sorry I haven't just linked all the fics bit I just want this to be out of my drafts loll, and I can assure you most of these are pretty easy to find, I apologise for the laziness though haha

Also I’ve tried to find the all the authors tumblr or other social media, but I couldn’t for all of them which sucks, so if you happen to be the author and I left you out, please comment :)

Anyway, Y'ALL NEED TO GET ON MY LEVEL SOOO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO HERE YOU GO:

(here's a key first)

Key:

(o) = ongoing

(f) = finished

[G]=General

[T] =Teen and up Audiences

[M]=Mature

[E]=Explicit

Multi-chapters:

1. Upper West Side by ceruleanstorm (o) 100,000+ words

@princessofgayskull

[Modern AU] [T]

This fic is so amazing!! It goes so deep into their psychology and past and damn is it hilarious at time. Also, I love the premise of it - Catra is a Uber driver and Adora ends up as her passenger. It's a fairly slowburn as it goes deep into the two girls' lives and really gives time for the relationship to develop naturally and that is honestly really appreciated because it makes the good moments between the two even better and more rewarding if I'm honest. A lot of angst though. All the other characters we know and love are also written amazingly in it too, and are made equally important. All in all, I love this fic and everything about it!

As of writing it has fairly infrequent updates, but each chapter is 10-20k+ words and has 9/12 chapters so...there’s a lot.

2. For my Sake by doublepasse (f) 100,000+ words

@doublepasse-writes

[Canon Compliant][E]

The story and world building is just - WOAH. This one is quite the slowburn but boy is it worth it. It's set a couple months to a year after season one, where Catra finally captures Adora but the tables turn very quickly when capturing her nearly results in her death, which Catra (unsurprisingly) didn’t want. The story has some BIG plot twists and is definitely one of the best canon universe Catradora fics I’ve ever read and the ending was very satisfying, but also open ended, BECAUSE there’s a part 2 coming and I couldn’t be more excited!

(Also, there is one chapter with nsfw content in it, but it has a sfw version)

3. Skinny Love by Maychup (o) 89,000+ words

@maychup

[Canon Compliant][M]

Another amazing fic that takes place in the canon universe that has such great world building, and is very plot heavy. It takes place days after the S1 finale and goes from there basically. The premise of it is similar to many fics and one shots you’ve probably read - sleeping with the enemy. From the first chapter it seemed like it could have easily been a five chapter easy redemption fic but nooooooo, it goes a lot LOT deeper. I feel like this fic did such a great job on character development, Catra’s specifically, she grows so much throughout the fic. She is also such a mother to all her Horde pals in this and I love that haha.

At the time of writing, it’s still ongoing, and boy am I excited to see where it goes. It’s also super angsty and has a fair-ish amount of smut so be warned!

4. The Heiress and The thief by Fuhadeza (f) 58,000+ words

@fuhadeza

[Regency AU][M]

As it says in the fic summary, it is literally the She-Ra regency AU I never knew I wanted likeeee, it’s so good! Premise - Adora is taken by Lady Brightmoon, leaving her boarding school, and her best friend behind, Catra, and everything is fine until her old friend face resurfaces. This one had me screaming at times (most of them did, but this especially). It was a really enjoyable read and I honestly loved the way the author dealt with love and the way Adora dealt with her feelings and just ahhh- read it.

5. Faded with feelings by yesimgay (f) 24,000+ words

[Roomates AU][T]

This fic. I read this a WHILEEE ago but to this day this is one of my favourite fan-fics ever like it’s hilarious, and fluffy and unproblematic and sometimes you need that tbh. Everything you need to know is established in the first chapter but the way it is done feels so natural, as if it’s just Adora‘s or Catra’s thoughts and I love it. Also the premise is GREAT - Catra has ADHD and smokes weed to help with it, and Adora accidentally takes an edible, which is when shenanigans start to ensue.

6. Dream of Me by DBsean (f) 18,000+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

Although it is on the shorter side with only five chapters, this was another fic that was so so good in quality and premise. For whatever reason, Catra and Adora start sharing dreams, enabling them to share moments together that they (unfortunately) can't have in real life, due to them being on opposite sides of the war, and in turn - enemies. The angst in this fic literally KILLED ME, and the characters dialogue is so good as well! I also recommend you check out some of the authors other fics, they're all great!

7. we've been making shades of purple out of red and blue by darklady21(o) 19,000+ words

[Roomates AU][M]

Another Roomates AU, bUT instead of being best friends, the two barely know each other, or interact at all...GREAT RIGHT?!? Honestly though, I think the author did a great job in making it not seem too rushed, especially in the setup and establishing how although they know each other, they DONT know each other, so the first couple chapters are basically that stage where they are learning more about each other and leaving stupid post it notes around the house, and it just feels so natural and great! Updates aren’t super regular, but there’s already nine chapters (as of writing) so definitely check it out, as well as their other works too!

8. Razorback by Starr_Reborn(o) 22,000+ words

[Canon Divergence AU][M]

Apparently, the author wrote this with the intent of it being fluffy. From the title you can tell that is NOT the case. At all. This one HURTS. This is very very angsty, and also has some themes of rape in it, so if that kinda thing triggers you I might wanna skip out on this one. It is a really good fic though and stands out from a lot of the others because of the way it is written. Chapters aren’t usually longer that 1000 words and the writing style is quite disjointed at times, and it a lot of the time a stream of consciousness. At times it can even be a little confusing or hard to follow, but I find it makes it even more interesting, and also means it will probably be a fic I come back to once completed. It is genuinely so unpredictable, I have no clue where it’s going, but I really love it for that!

9. Sunflower by TechnoSkittles (f) 6000+ words

@technoskittles

[High School AU][G]

Oh, BOY. Oh boyyy. This fic - it's 8 chapters and only 6000 words yet the story is just- Ahhh READ IT. It's so good! And like the author in general is so amazing at writing like check out all their works (especially their latest one shot omg I loved it). Anyway, read this, it's not too long, it's cute and also genuinely surprising, the ending was not something I saw coming AT ALL, so YEAH!

10. I like me better when I'm with you by lesbians_harold(f) 22,000+ words

@lesbians-harold

[High School AU][T]

Just a nice, fun, fluffy high school, friends to lovers AU. Catra moves to Adora’s school senior year and the twos friendship is quickly rekindled, after a rocky start albeit. Adora is a big ol’ jock and Catra draws which is a headcanon I LOVE. It’s written so well, and the characters are also written well too! It is a lil angsty at times, but not to worry - but it does pay off, I assure you.

11. I thought we were best friends by vanilla107 (o) 45,000+ words

@vanilla107

[University AU][T]

Breakups. Lots of breakups, and angst. This one will mend your heart then hurt you. BE SCARED. But go read it. I mean it. It's good!

12. Dirty Dancing by LilLegalLoli94 (o) 9000+ words

@lillegalloli94

[Dancing AU][M]

Basically lots of (sexual) tension after years of not seeing each other because Adora moved to Brightmoon Dance Academy. It's good. Real good.

13. Back to Black by eveynull (f) 6000+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

(Post War) Gays go and visit their past, staring angst, and featuring your favourite co-star - fluff!

14. how things are supposed to be by maggiesbombshell (o) 11,000+ words

@yeunslegacy

[High School AU][M]

A jolly slowburn that will hurt your soul because (internalised) homophobia and gay.

15. Some things you don't see coming by Trashibesensei (o) 20,000+ words

[High School AU][T]

Adora being a big ol' jock, and Catra being a big ol' gay. I’m not even gonna explain it, you have to find that out yourself.

16. A quarter after three by Maychup (o) 11,000+ words

@maychup

[Youtuber AU][M]

Adora's gay panic settles in when she bumps into her childhood bestie, Catra, live streaming in the streets of LA. My favourite part of this fic has to be the YouTube comments she gets. This one will make you laugh. And go AWWW CUTE.

17. A Song to My Heart by DemiRebel (f) 8000+ words

[Neighbors AU][G]

The cute girl next door keeps singing loud, and it sounds BELLE, so what else would you do other than creepily listen?? 10/10 for premise.

18. Occupied by Nny11 4000+ words

@nny11writes

[Modern AU][T]

The most hilarious soulmate AU I've read tbh. One word - bathrooms.

19. Whispering Dreams by dragonesdepapel (f) 7400+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

Adora finds a wounded and sick gay so obviously, she helps her out, much to her protesting. This fic will honestly make you go through the five stages of grief. Big ol' oof.

20. Why you SHOULD bring in your untrained cat to the rebellion by locuas (f) 6800+ words

[Canon Divergence AU][G]

This fic is a literal joke. But it will probably be the best crack you will ever read, so. READ IT.

ALSO HERES A LIL SELF PWOMO OF MY MULTI CHAP:

What drove her insane, 13,000+ words (f)

One shots:

1. hang tight (all you) by TechnoSkittles 9000+ words

@technoskittles

[High School AU][T]

This is a fic that will break your heart and mend it. It's about Adora coming to terms with her sexuality throughout high school in a pretty unsupportive environment, added onto the fact she has a crush on her best friend. It's paced so well, nothing feels rushed and although it's only 9000 words, it manages to flesh out characters that aren't even in the show, and it obviously does a great job with the topic at hand - sexuality and homophobia. Like it honestly touched my heart, reading it I genuinely wanted to cry. I loved everything about it, from the moment it started to the last line. It's just written in a way that is probably relatable to so many people who are or have struggled with coming to terms with themselves, and shows how for some it's really not an easy thing. It's also written beautifully, and I PROMISE you won't regret reading this! Definitely check out some more of their works too, they're all great reads!

2. you're my favorite song (and it's stuck in my head) by artemiswords 16,000+ words

@artemisbye 

[High School AU][T]

A belle valentine's day fan fic which I just,, ahhhhh this is some of the best 16k words I've ever read, it's so nice and fluffy! Premise - Catra has to take the bus to school, and ends up sitting next to this cute girl on the bus, Adora, and listening to TayTay (Swift), sharing earphones with this complete stranger. Obviously, Catra develops a crush, but she is sure Adora is straight. It's written so well, and is such an enjoyable read, with so many great moments and dialogue. Music is a very prevalent theme (which you can tell from the name tbh) in it, and the amount of song references in it also make it feel so fleshed out in a way, like their both just teenagers with somewhat questionable music taste. Just all the exchanges they have are great, especially the ones over text and social media, there were so many funny moments too. DEFO, recommend if you wanna read something nice and lighthearted!

3. The Interlude That Never Ends by FMLClexa 2000+ words

Twitter: catrxs

[Historical AU] [M]

Angst. Quite angsty. But also fairly fluffy, it has a good balance. And the writing style is just so - it gets your heart wrenching despite being fairly short, and is also very poetic, and I don't know about you, but I love things like that! The fic is a historical/soulmates AU where they are bound to fall in love, no matter the period they're reincarnated in. It's one of the most creative fic ideas I've ever read, and the concept is executed so well, which makes it even better. And it's, so so damn sweet ahh, read it read it READ IT!

4.  is there a knife in your bed or are you just happy to see me? by ceruleanstorm 6000+ words

@princessofgayskull

[Canon Universe][T]

This fic was everythinggg, it is so cute, like it’s basically 6k words of fluff! Also, if you didn’t already notice, the title (and the fic) heavily references the fact Adora keeps a knife under her bed (I DIED when that happened in s2).  Set post war, Catra sneaks away from her post to visit an overworked and stressed Adora in Bright Moon and cuteness ensues. I honestly just love everything about this fic, we need more fluffy and funny fics like this! The dynamic the two have in this is perfect and the dialogue and general writing style of it is great! And Adora’s internal dialogue in this honest to god had me dead. Needless to say this is one of my fav Canon Universe one shots.

5.Girl’s Become Lovers (Who Turn Into Mothers) by A_Zap 2000+ words

@azapofinspiration

[Canon Universe][G]

This has to be one of the cutest, well written, fic I’ve read! Catra brings home the only survivors from a tragedy her and Scorpia stumbled upon, but one thing Adora doesn’t expect is for them to be children. The,, emotions in this are so raw and powerful. Even though they obviously have these new little people in their life though, their problems don’t just go away, they still have their own issues, and have to deal with them while looking after these kids. In general they handle mental health so well, and Shadow Weavers lasting effect on Catra SHOWS and it shows hard. Honestly, it made me want to cry at some parts and the ending was EVERYTHING, so reAd IT.

6. baby, i'm a house on fire (and i wanna keep burning) by wittchers 7000+

@huremsultan

[Medival AU]

A really fun fic to read, with a very original premise: after the Horde defeats the kingdom Bright Moon, Hordak is crowned, Queen Angella was killed, and Princess Glimmer is missing, which leaves Lady Adora forced into an arranged marriage with Lord Catra, to keep her people happy. Obviously, being an arranged marriage, with her enemy, she ain’t too happy about it, nor is Catra. But they have to put up with it, and each other. Honestly, like the development of their relationships is sooo good, and there is the perfect balance e of angst and fluff (if you can call it that?) so don’t worry it won’t kill you! Like ahh, the emotions in this - so well described with so little words. And the ending is great, in general it’s great!

7. Adora Casts: Zone of Truth by Hemogobbler 2000+ words

@hemogobbler69

[Canon Universe][T]

Literally just 2000 words of utter cuteness and hilarious dialogue haha. Premise - Catra has just defected recently, and is still warming up to Adora, is still slightly shut off from her. So, to try remedy this, she gets a truth serum from Madame Razz, and slips it into their food, leading to them talking honestly about their feelings for the first time in a while. I just love it so much because I feel like this is genuinely something Adora would do, and also something I’d probably do in her situation - Catra opening up is a rare occurrence! Also, as I said, their are some really funny, laugh out loud moments, which out of context are so weird, yet somehow manage to make a lot of sense. Anyway, if you just had a bad day, I think this fic would definitely lift your spirits.

8. bloom by kimah 4000+ words

Twitter: whitehotmoons

[Modern AU][G]

A post break up fan fic where Catra's therapist suggests Catra write down her feelings, which leads her to write the things she hates about Adora, and their interactions they've had since their break up. The way it's written is so... angsty but like, not? I'm bad at this. Literally, reading this I really felt Catra's pain, and I just wanted to give her a hug at times. Adora too. The small details the author outs into the characters makes the characters all that more realisitic too, and I love it! Seriously though, the angst, will, get, you.

9. I do adore by thankskelley 6000+ words

Twitter: cosmicsporks

[Modern AU][G]

A Catradora fake dating AU. Is there anything more you need in life? Catra and Adora are are roomates, and one day, Adora bursts in, saying she finally came out to her parents, and also that her parent had assumed they are dating... leading her to ask if Catra could pretend to be her girlfriend for while. What could possibly go wrong? Hmm?? I've always loved the whole fake dating premise (to all the boyss) and with characters like Adora and Catra, (especially Catra like she is a TEASE) I always thought it'd be great. Who doesn't love oblivious gays? Their dynamic in this is also great, especially all the flirting and teasing. BUT, of course, it also a bit angsty too. I can promise you you'll love it!

10. Chocolate and Roses vs. Heartache by Trashibesensei 9000+ words

[High School AU][T]

Another high school AU...I know I have a problem leave me alone. This time, if you couldn’t tell by the title, there’s some heartache involved, because: this Valentines Day, Adora doesn’t spend it with her best friend (now ex bestie) Catra. Even despite her popularity that she now has due to being the star player of Bright Moon’s soccer team, she can’t shake of how much she yearns for her old friend. Somehow, even with all the angst, it is still sO fucking FUNNY, the way Mermista was written was great, and she had some of THE best lines. But yeah, it’s so pure and just - Catra needs a hug, Adora needs a hug, they need to hug EACH other tbh! It had a very nice and hopeful message, and also kinda surprised me with the end.

11. someone you like by caela 5000+ words

[High School AU][T]

As a gen z, or x, or whatever the fuck I am, I always appreciate a fic where the characters say stupid shit over Instagram to their crushes which results it getting a date to prom. Although I can assure you that would never happen to me. But this So FUCKING cute and funny so READ.

12. this is what it's like when we collide (this is how you bring me back to life) by azul (7daysoftorture) 5000+ words

@bluelipgloss

[Canon Universe][G]

This galaxy brain fic is amazing and that’s ThE TEA. Catra gets a wish stone from Hordak and we all knowww, WHO she (subconsciously) craves - Adora, which obviously leads to hell breaking loose, because, disaster gays. Anyway read this it’s great and made me feel forget about the cruel world we live in.

13. Five Times Catra was a Cat and One Time the Cat was Catra by sunscreams 2400+ words

@catradoramma

[Canon Universe][T]

A BELLE, well written 5 + 1 which is just pure fluff (some hurt/comfort too) and Catra being Catra (so a loveable pain in the ass) after joining Adora in Bright Moon.

14. Vital Signs by SereneKarma 2000+ words

@serene-karma

[Modern AU][G]

Like a dumbass Catra breaks her leg and gets put in hospital, but hey - it’s okay as long as she’s got a cute nurse to look after her! It’s pretty funny just based on the concept alone so read ThIs BiSh.

15. You put the cracks into my moral code by Littleamethystc 3000+ words

@littleamethystc

[Gang AU][T]

Catra is a hotshot mafia member, Glimmer and Bow are the PoPo, and Adora is underestimated as HELL. It’s also pretty funny, like the whole concept is just perfect, so check it out!

16. The Best Gift I Could Ever Ask For by blueninjasharpshooter 1500+ words

[Modern AU][G]

Just a short n sweet fic of Adora celebrating her birthday which she forgot, and also Adora has a pocket knife in her boot, which is so accurate lmaooo. As well as having the most accurate character portrayals, AWWWWwwwww, was my reaction to the end of this fic, so read it to find out wHY.

17. but i still don’t wish death on ‘em (i just reflect on ‘em) by ayushi_writes 1500+ words

@ayushipop

[Canon Universe][G]

(Post S1) A year after the battle of Bright Moon, Adora and Catra are standing on a cliff, and Catra finally has a chance to end it all. But WilL she?!?!  Let’s just say, Catradora are the queens of promises.

18. Whiskey and Eggnog by briony8969 3500+ words

@briony8969

[Modern Christmas AU][G]

A cute Christmas fic where a nervous Adora goes home for the first time in months with her new friends from college, scared of what they’ll think but more scared of a certain SOMEONE she hasn’t spoken to in months. So basically: sexual tension gAlore.

19. She's a Regular by BaronVonChop 1500+ words

@baronvonchop

[Coffee Shop AU][G]

Adora is gay. Catra is gay. Catra works at a coffee shop (badly), and Adora goes to said coffee shop soo much, that it gets on her friends nerves, coz she very obviously likes to flirt with a Catra. It’s funny too. That’s it. That’s the fic and I love it.

20. Hand in Hand, We Make Our Way to The End by thethirdphiladelphiavireo 6500+ words

[Canon Universe - Soulmate AU][T]

Catra and Adora figure out they are soulmates after years of not knowing what it meant, but OBVIOUSLY, cannot communicate like mature humans, because - same.

21. How Do You Tell A Girl You Really Like Her Eyes? by Gay_Panic 1000+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

(Pre Canon)Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, a very gay, very wholesome, very nice first kiss fic. They are very gay for each other in this one, they don’t even care if KYLE catches them kissing.

22. Tender Moments by yesimgay 1500+ words

[Canon Universe][G]

(Post-war) Catra still feels guilty about everything she did to Adora in the past, so instead of sleeping at the foot of the bed as usual , she decides to sleep next to Adora...So there’s fluff, lots of fluff, and it is very tender.

23. Perfectly intertwined by dragonesdepapel 2000+ words

[Canon Universe][G]

On Catra’s first official day in Bright Moon, Adora drags her to a festival and they do cute things and it’s cute, and you should defo read it.

24. a girl without freckles is like a sky without stars by dear_universe 900+ words

@catralovesgirls

[Canon Universe][G]

More bed sharing because I CANNOT help myself, I love fics like these! Catra can’t sleep without Adora on her first night at the rebellion, so, she knocks on Adora’s door and things go from there.

25. Something to remember you by by DBsean 3000+ words

[Canon Universe][G]

Adora sneaks back into the fright zone in attempt to retrieve something, when Catra catches her. It’s cute af. Despite the circumstances.

26. Skiffs & Ships by mysteryinc 900+ words

[Canon Universe][G]

(Pre-show) Just two gals being pals who missed each other a fuck ton while on separate missions. It’s pretty cute.

27. Starstruck by InvisiblePinkToast 2500+ words

@invisible-pink-toast

[Canon Universe][G]

(Pre-show) A lil bit of angst, and nightmares, and a little bit of fluff, Stargazing and bed sharing - what more could you need?

28. a truth so loud you can't ignore by adverbialstarlight 2500+ words

@adverbialstarlight

[High School AU][T]

Catra ignores the growing feelings she has for her best friend, until the truth is so loud she can’t ignore it (see what I did there?) But for real tho this fic really gave me angst that hurt my soul then fluff that healed it, so we StAN.

29. Horde kids are just Like That by gerti 1500+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

(Canon Divergence) What would happen if when Adora defected the Horde, her and  Catra where still girlfriends? Read this to find out because it’s FUCKING hilarious lmaoooo, like it’s so absurd but somehow still makes perfect sense.

30. The First Step by oldmountainsoul 2900+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

(Post S1) Apologies which end in getting shoved out off trees are now exclusively for the Catradora fandom only.

31. (You’re My) Haven by giraffewrites 400+ words

@giraffewrites

[Canon Universe - Pre Canon][G]

(Pre-Canon) Adora only kisses Catra when she thinks she’s asleep, but my girl Catra ain’t playing no more so one night she just goes in for the KILL, Aka, cute dorks just being cute dorks.

32. Beyond the Screen by SereneKarma 5000+ words

@serene-karma

[Youtuber AU][G]

If you can't tell I really like YouTuber AU's. Catra being the angsty gal she is starts a YouTube channel to rant about her old best friend who practically vanished when she was 15, and her viewers (who definitely have no life) end up finding her.

33. come on, sugar, don't you leave early by thesqian 1500+ words

Twitter: @crnkgmeplys

[Modern AU][G]

Two gays at a gay wedding, who clearly have some shit going on, but it’s okay because gay weddings always bring gays together. I said gay a lot in that sentence. Read the fic, it’s short n sweet and cute, so you can’t go wrong!

34. but we could never stay away (from each other) by adorassword 1500+ words

[Canon Universe][T]

Catra and Adora have a nice, not so nice chit chat on Adora’s balcony late at night, - these two need LOVE, and I needed a hug after reading this coz damn. Damn.

35. bad ideas by ranpoandpoe 1000+ words

[University AU][T]

How we all wish thinking about your crush at 2am would go. That’s the only context I’m giving, so READ IT.

Also, here are some of my fav one shots I’ve written:

Two Sides Of The Same Coin 1000+ words

[Gang AU][T]

If I was perfect 2500+ words

[Modern AU][T]

And check out my Catradora week series, however my fav is:

damn you, unrequited love 7000+ words

[Modern/Sixth Form AU][T]

Here are some more series packed with fics that I’ve really enjoyed too!

Catradora Oneshots by clicheusername5678 @hey-adora

Catradora Tumblr Prompts BY sunscreams @catradoramma

if I grind my teeth at night, would you hear it? By poetroe

in the bottom of a coffee cup  + pieces by inkwelled (their stuff is great)

Twitter: adorascatrq

Anyway, I hope you guys appreciate this, it took quite a while lol. I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you check out some of the fics on the list (maybe all if you're a crazy mf)

Until next time (:

[edge-lorde]

original vampire bullshit 4. final!

i got to the orcs. it is done. felt good to write this but now i must sleep. will link to 1-3 tomorrow. EDIT:  part 1 here   PART 2 HERE  part 3 here

This next part may be a bit disjointed because at this point in time, I have not fully realized why the vampires of this world would be doing some of these things. I have no idea if this is even remotely efficient way of running a war effort. But this is MY pretend. The holes that i cannot fill will be taken care of by the concept of cow tools for now.

Blood farms. What are they? 

I have already written about how vampiric control works in free, normal countries. Those are the norm because vampires do not actually care enough about human societies to actually try to run them. But what happens when they do try to take more direct control? Typically these look like walled or very remote pieces of country with a small town in the middle. The vampires themselves typically still do not try to be enforcers of strict rules or be in direct leadership positions. There will still be human organization with the vampires off to the side somewhere with tables and lists of things they want this population to accomplish. Classically this is how much blood needs to be taken to sustain the patron vampire clan, who needs to give it next, and how to keep everyone healthy enough to do this. Quality of life in these places is usually fairly good, because the vampires see themselves as farmers and they need their crop to be healthy enough to harvest and also because they don't care about control as much as they do complacency. As much as they can, vampires try to make these places nice enough that people will not want to leave. They do this by providing enough resources so that there is nothing to fight over and by keeping their human populations extremely isolated so that there is nowhere that a human who wanted to leave could think to go. There must be enough space in these places that if some humans want to break off from the others they can, but not so much that the vampires can't find them. 

Now time for a little thought experiment. Imagine a specific vampire clan. A large one, with ties to the government of a powerful country. A branch of this clan decides that they want to build a vampire run health research facility. The goal of this would be to find an alternative to human blood that vampires could use instead so they could finally have they’re perfect floating vampire utopia in the sky. This sounds like a great idea to everyone. They set out to find a site in order to do this, but they want it to be vampire only, obviously.  So they decide to make it its own deal and have it be in conjecture with a blood farm, the concept of which already exists. This means it should be in an isolated place. 

They weigh their options and pick somewhere perfect. They begin construction. They wall off a section of forest and fill it with lots of domesticated plants and animals and build many nice places for humans to live. They build the research facility and begin the process of filling their blood farm population. They gather hundreds of babies and toddlers from both adoption agencies in their country of origin and from the existing communities in the place they decided to build. This place may not technically be part of their human country, but there are no other vampires claiming it so that makes it free real estate, right? The vampires gladly offer to let these existing human communities voluntarily integrate themselves into their overall workforce, but it seems that not all of them want to do this. That, and it really is better for blood farms to start without any ties to the outside world. This is why they primarily want children who don’t know how to speak yet, so they can be raised communally within the new city walls and taught a constructed language so they won’t have anything in common with the local humans and wouldn't be able to speak with them even if they did come across each other. It really is better just to make a clean break like that so there won't be drama later on. If the locals really have a problem with that then they really shouldn’t be allowed into the larger facility area either. And the vampires only use force to protect themselves. 

Flash forward a bit and what's this? The vampires human country is at war with with this other human-only conglomerate population thing? And the home country refuses to admit wrongdoing? In fact the larger vampire clan refuses to admit there is a ‘war’ going on at all? 

This war is very long and drawn out. Most of vampires weapons to be used against humans are bio-based. They begin conscripting the humans living in this blood farm (and others) as soldiers because the main country refuses to acknowledge the war. The focus of the research facility moves from health to military based. They begin to develop more soldiers at faster rates. They go from drafting existing humans to cloning and splicing perfect soldiers and create a separate class of human living in the blood farm. There are now civilians, which are the base population and do not leave the main blood farm unless it is to work at the facility, and soldiers who are raised from birth to fight in this war. 

The vampires build more facilities, they're getting good at it. The war goes on. Its less organised now, the enemy has been greatly weakened by the vampires bio-weapons but they have allies. The vampires are super paranoid about letting their super soldiers out into the world. They are terrified that the enemy could be catching up to them in terms of bio-tech and be creating their own super soldiers from their soldiers DNA, or by creating their own bioweapon diseases that could infect one of their own. Through that patient zero, their entire human population could in theory be wiped out, which would essentially end the war. The soldiers also take too long to make for them to make sense. The artificial womb is invented, that increases productivity but they still need to be trained from birth. Ways of pre-aging soldiers so they are ‘born’ as adults are invented, but they are useless and dont know how to do jack shit. Ways of implanting muscle memories and other knowledge and skills begin to be researched. 

It happens. The vampires army experiences a blow in the form of a counter bioweapon. Many soldiers die. They become barred from going back into the main blood farm population areas. The war effort slows. The vampires don’t leave but there is little left of the enemy human population left. After they had their success killing of the soldiers they retreat and try to rebuild for a while. There is an uneasy truce. 

The vampires do not stop their developing though. They realize they've been doing a lot of extra useless stuff with them that they didn't need to, once they realize they can make all training obsolete. They lie low for awhile. Turns out these new soldiers can be made pretty fast, like a full grown, fully trained soldier born in less than 10 months from nothing fast.  

But everything is quiet now. They are almost left to themselves as long as they don’t leave their facilities. This is what they wanted all along. But it's a matter of pride now. The vampires do not want to make peace with their human enemies now. They made a fool of the clan and used their own tech against them and never conceded. The land they live on is still not claimed by any vampire clan-- except for them. They will live to see these humans brought down now even if it takes a thousand years. They have all the time in the world. Its been at least a hundred since the war has begun. 

The vampires plan their next move carefully. They do not want to directly subject their home country to another war again. They would still rather humans would just take care of their own affairs. The ideal situation would be if another human population would just sweep in and finish the job. They had been made out to be monsters in the last war and they didn't like that at all. They knew that if they were to send out more soldiers like they did before, the enemy will know right away that they are to blame. What they needed was a scapegoat. 

I never mentioned this before, but other kinds of hominids currently exist/existed within living memory of this setting. Just roll with it for a second. The vampires decide what they need is for a new group to enter into the picture, one that everyone can agree is bad. Worse than vampires my a mile. Worse than the old stories told about them. Worse than any enemy they've faced before. An enemy that could be the enemy of all enemies and unite all others against them. The vampires would join this fight too, if necessary, meanwhile they would continue to manufacture this new enemy in secret. They would continue to do so until all their enemies were overwhelmed and forced to join up with the larger vampire run country for protection. It would be awkward at first, but what is the enemy of your enemy but a friend? 

In order to do this these new soldiers would have to look different from the old human soldiers. And they would have to act different too. They would have to strike terror into the hearts of all who came across them and be able to back up their threats. 

So the vampires thought to themselves what was the most terrifying enemy they could think of and it came to them-- Unaffiliated vampires. They have none of the reasons to value human or vampire life the way any natural being should and a reason to kill. Working off this framework, they set about finding ways to instill the perfect frame of mind into their future soldier experiments. In tandem with this, they began collecting odd features developed within their human experiment populations and began splicing them together. Next they began building great cylinder vats that could grow hundreds of these new soldiers at a time, as well as places to house them that were NOT near their precious blood farms. 

They planned to pack their heads with all they needed to know and no more, and supply them thinly enough to make the human towns enticing targets. All that, and a little bit of green dye was more than enough to make any human think these new creatures had nothing to do with them. Now all they needed was a name......