#i got third person omniscient btw

[fairyhaos]

went on kind of a uquiz binge today and found a what kind of narrator are you which i just thought was rlly cool!

[a-yarn-of-purple-prose]

Damn the people in Genshin's official sub have been full-on schisming about Furina these last few days.

It's the most impressive thing to watch btw. I'm basically taking notes to write fantasy setting sects because while researching historical schisms can tell you the bones of how people go from agreement about something to "we're different religions now", seeing how people formulate the argument is something else.

I'm putting some prints after the break because this is heavy spoilers after all.

Here's some of what I collected:

The argument that Every Part of The Whole Contains The Whole Itself (or maybe that personhood isn't defined by a separate embodied presence and experiences but by a Secret Third Thing. I'm not sure.)

2. The argument that Fate/Celestia Is Omniscient Thus Can't Be Fooled, ergo Furina had to be divine (this one bothers the hell out of me because the whole point of the quest was that fate CAN be fooled or at least misdirected as long as you reach the right story beats. And we've known for ages that Celestia isn't watching.)

3. The argument that You Can't Tell Which One Is The Copy, and, furthermore, that No One Died Because Focalors As We Met Her Wasn't a Person (this one is kinda extra-esoteric)

4. The argument that Focalors Was a Persona Inside Furina's Mind All the Time (despite the fact that the story tells us Focalors was the Oratrice):

Just FYI the poster is talking about cakes because there was an attempt at an explanation though a cake analogy (I don't think this poster got the rhetoric.)

5. I'm putting the obligatory "ship of Theseus" reference here because this is tumblr and we're simple people here.

The whole issue, of course, is that some people are tripping over the philosophical question of "what is a person?", others are trying to invent a whole theory of mind, while others are so fully into Christian mythology that they can't conceive of this story not being a reference to their blorbo.

This was, you have to understand, exactly what the writers wanted.

[flowers-of-io]

There's something I'm not getting here. What is the Lucent Brood's view of the Light and Ghosts? In Witch Queen we had Immaru shaking in rage over the fact Guardians would resort to killing Ghosts, and that the Hive had found Light-killing weapons "distasteful". But in Risen the Lucent Brood are seemingly okay with ripping the Light from dead Guardians? In WQ, when we're in the Apothecary, Eris says the jars are full of "corrupted Light" and this season's first mission opening dialogue is pretty much along the same lines. But then we've got a third-person omniscient narration from Immaru, about how he resents Guardians using the Light as merely a tool but admits that makes them efficient, while "[the Lucent Brood's] manipulation of the Light was inhibited by reverence". And THEN we've got the Sparagmos jumpship loretab, also from this season, describing how Savathûn fuses the Light into her crystals by killing her Lightbearer's Ghosts. The Lightbearers themselves seem pretty okay with sacrificing themselves that way, btw. Oh, and Immaru is okay with us murdering Hive Ghosts in Altars and Spire now? We also get quite a few hints that the Lucent Brood adheres to the sword logic, and Savathûn, at least on the surface, seems to still vibe with its philosophy?

I'm genuinely at a loss. I have some fraught ideas about how to tie this together (particularly the reverence to the Light with adherence to the Logic), but all of it feels to me like multiple conflicting views, as if the lore couldn't make a decision which way to go (or alternatively explain its own stance clearly enough). Am I the only one this confused?? Am I constrained by my pre-existing biases and headcanons, and that's why I feel this clash?

[felixravinstills]

re: ask game

i am still not over allegory of the cave and would love to get your director’s commentary on florus’s relationship with iphigenia and clemmie since they got mentions!

Oooh, Allegory of the Cave!

Here's a link to another ask that Backpacks sent about Florus and Felix for others who may be interested!

Anyway, actually there was a lot more going on with them that got cut from the fic, because it kind of made the pacing and flow weird! Thanks for reminding me with this ask, haha!

In the original draft, Iphigenia and Florus were stated to have been close growing up but grew apart because Florus was a bit too liberal with things she told him in confidence (namely why she's been starving herself). The information that Florus spread her secret came to her by way of Clemensia whom Iphigenia cornered and who deflected to him pretty fast, so Florus has complicated feelings about them.

In the original draft (and there are traces of it in the final), Florus has a lot of guilt over what happened with Iphigenia. There was a section (pre-me remembering that I make the ending a fake Florus autobiography) where a kind of third-person omniscient narrator speculates that history will remember Iphigenia's mother (who I guess was alive in that version. I flip flop about if she's dead or not in my worldbuilding) as having been unkind to Florus after Iphigenia's funeral, but actually this was Florus projecting. <- a more convoluted way of highlighting how someone's personal biases might color a story/history.

There's an implication that Iphigenia forgave him towards the end, but Florus was too afraid to confront his past like that (ironic given he's a historian. kind of a parallel to him being uncomfortable thinking about Clemensia who is dead by the time of the fic). He never fully mended that bridge, and it hangs over him.

Clemensia is like really complicated, because there's a sense of friendly affection with her that he (in my head) would have for a lot of the mentors, but there's also kind of a jealousy? (and the resentment from the Iphigenia thing). I was conceptualizing her as kind of a foil to him. She's active in the rumor mill and actively weaponizing and influencing it for her own benefit, but unlike Florus, she's more well-liked and charismatic. She's also took a more active role in things, and Florus was more passive. The self-identification continues in that I imagine that she died due to medical complications from the snake bite that came later in life while Florus is also dying of similar complications. I think Florus has in his mind, largely forgiven Clemensia for the Iphigenia thing (and the using him to scapegoat other Capitolites), but once in a while, the bitterness resurfaces.

Not really Clemmie and Iphigenia related, but fun fact: the reason I figured that Snow hasn't killed him for what Florus might know from his time information brokering (key word might) is because Snow has the ability to cut off Florus' medical treatments (and Florus is already dying). Florus knows this, and lives under threat of Snow just doing that or poisoning some of his medication at any point (his death would not be suspicious given his state). It keeps him from acting out in his final days. (something something. it is better to live. once dead, you loose all true agency. you will be interpreted by others (as is history) so why not cling to the last of your personhood?) So, Florus' autobiography probably gets published post-Mockingjay. I like to think with Plutarch's help.

Final note that's just generally for this fic and not specifically what you asked:

idk how popular Florus' autobio is initially btw. I think Plutarch's support helps it make the rounds but also i think there is a lot of focus on anti-Snow history books in the wake of the rebellion to help the new government... history is not free of agenda ect. ect. It probably gets more popular later I think... when people can be more objective about Snow and the Capitol.

Anyway, thanks for the ask, Backpacks!

[lancabbage]

But... He is 🤔

We see many times when JC is just having another average day and he's STILL an aggressive asshole though? The Cloud Recesses arc? The Lotus Seed Pod extra? Even the first time we are introduced to the character in the novel, he's just on a night-hunt with his nephew. This is even prior to him finding out all his unsportsmanlike nets are cut down as well btw. Yet he's still abusive and aggressive in those scenes. So that first point is completely wrong.

The novel is not written from WWX's perspective either... It's from a narrator's pov as the novel is written in third person omniscient. So yeah, that's wrong as well.

JCs day to day interactions? Well they seem to involve being an overbearing uncle who puts too much pressure on his nephew and hits him when he's angry. Oh and of course the hunting down, torturing and murdering of innocent people using the ghost path.

He's not expressing feelings though, he's actually bottling his resentment and self-worth issues up and then using anger and physical abuse as an outlet - that's not healthy at all. WWX brushes his own feelings off and ignores them at times due to a mass amount of trauma from an early age, sure... But it's actually more of a healthy coping mechanism than hitting kids and murdering people at will.

Anger is not productive to him either...as I said, he murders and tortures people or makes his nephew feel unworthy (just as he felt!) and hits him for the littlest of things.

Anger does not feel like love to him, it feels like rejection. His mother got angry at him for not living up to her expectations and surpassing WWX. He does not associate anger with love at all.

Have you considered you might be projecting? Have you considered re-reading the novel before claiming such outlandish claims? Have you considered it might get a bit confusing to reference MDZS and CQL, when they have many differences, including novel canon!JC being notably different from CQL!JC? Have you considered the effects that downplaying toxic traits like this can have on survivors of such treatment?

I'm sorry, but claiming anger as such things only excuses people's harmful flaws and it's pretty toxic tbh.

“oh jiang cheng is so angry all the time” have you considered that almost every time we see him he is experiencing a new low point in his life. have you considered that wei wuxian’s perspective isn’t omniscient and we don’t know how he interacts in 98% of his day-to-day interactions. have you considered that at least he’s expressing a feeling instead of covering it with humor or pretending not to have it or dodging around it. have you considered that anger tends to be productive for him. have you considered that to him anger feels like love because that’s the environment he was raised in. have you considered t

[thatlittledandere]

The things Homestuck does with narration can get fascinating. I had to quit this chapter and come back later because at first I tried to read it at, like, 1 AM, and got

so stupidly creeped out I couldn't continue.

Like. The narrator is a person now. They have a personality. They have a consciousness. This is no longer your average omniscient narrator; this is a person who narrates, on purpose. Even when the story is, basically, from John's point of view, it isn't narrated by him. And it never was! Base Homestuck was told in second person, we even saw the characters issuing the commads before! This isn't new... and yet, it is. The form it's taking.

To start with, the epilogues have been told in third person so far, and suddenly switched to first. First person narrator, who narrates in second person. With the full knowledge that they're doing it, that they're prying into someone's head, telling things they think, going so far as to control their thoughts a little. John here notices that the narration, which is supposedly his internal monologue, isn't his. The narrator can choose who to narrate, and... With that, they're taking control of the story being told. Someone is controlling whose perspective we see. Which is of course always the case with stories! Someone is always the author! But this is breaking the fourth wall, making us aware of our satus as readers and someone as the storyteller, in a fascinating way, that I couldn't take at 1AM.

Don't answer any of my questions here btw. Or explain anything. This is my first time reading, I'm not done yet, and I want to see it myself. Haven't been too spoiled to the epilogues yet.

[reitziluz]

finished with slay the princess. it was neat. best thing i got out of it was inspiration for a fully different kind of story.

(spoilers, btw)

maybe i'm just not feeling this type of cosmic horror. idk. "don't try to rationalize that which defies logic" the game says and keeps on logicking itself without committing to saying anything concrete in case it could be too weird or stupid or smth. not that it needs to do what i want. it's just... i mean, it did tell the story it had set out to tell with just minor wobbling towards the end. it wasn't bad. it just didn't have the oomph it would have needed to speak to me.

maybe because the romance ended up kinda basic "because Love" kinda thing. maybe that too was because... the routes you took ultimately had very little effect in the endings. it would have been a nightmare to actually make it all count, of course. but still. i'm left feeling a bit empty, after being hooked so strongly by the premise.

now the fully different kind of story. what with the always present empty shackle and how the narrator wants to keep you in there forever, i fully expected the pc to be the actual beast of the end. and the princess to be bait, a lure, a part of the trap that's like. tragically gaining true selfhood through the repetitions. man, it could have worked with the true nature of the narrator what with how he had separated and made tangible the gods by giving one of them his body (i mean, assuming how the reflection decays into nothing and is then revealed to be how the narrator looked like). like it could have been a case of ooh in his hubris he had birthed or even become the end of everything and then had to try and contain it! the decision to preserve or end a world that wasn't already naturally ending would have felt way more... consequential. more relevant.

idk. it would have been a bit more spicy and complicated that way. as is, the narrator side of the story is... rather weak and simplistic. not bad, but not Enough for me.

hm. i guess my main gripe with the story that was actually written is the lack of... coming together. the game tells you the shifting mound is the totality of all the potential vessels, but that's not what's shown or experienced. you literally can take the third option of leaving with just one vessel. and you leave the voices behind, or they hate you, or they act as your posse. an insane moment of "you are the friends made along the way" was right there! it would have worked with the themes! the high romance of creating each other in your own image! how we exist not alone on our own but in the intersections where we meet each other! giving up control and preconceived notions and the safety of an omniscient view and instead going out to discover the world and yourself and each other! accepting that there's multitudes and things unknown! all this could have been delivered better, or at least with more and wilder pathos!! hell, some of the route endings did just that, where did that energy go in the finale?? such a missed opportunity not to have the voices coalesce and voice the previously unvoiced lines and take the decision making away from the player AT LEAST in the ascension ending. c'mon!!

still like a 7/10 even from the pov of my personal enjoyment, tho i doubt i'll ever get back into it. i do admire the skill and effort it required to pull it off. the ending also was serviceable, and the parts where the narrative got a bit muddled can be overlooked if you're not afflicted by Chase The Logical End Points Of Implications disorder. 10/10 for giving me fuel for mansion of the end (a story that's been on the backburner)

-10000 points for not having the mc be a dragon for maximum princess/hero/dragon symbolism and shenanigans (i am biased but also Right)

[veilchenjaeger]

Finished the main SVSSS plot! Final rambling (extremely spoiler-y) verdict under the cut.

I like it! The plot isn’t as complex as MDZS, but Moxiang Tongxiu writes extremely diverse characters and gives even those who have close to no screentime a strong personality, which is a quality I appreciate a lot in a writer. The translation is better than the MDZS one, which I cannot make myself read because I cringe at every third sentence. Moxiang Tongxiu’s style does take some getting used to - she skims a lot of parts that imo really shouldn’t be skimmed, I generally dislike switching POVs in the middle of a scene, and it would benefit a lot from being more detailed; it really seems half-hearted at times while hitting you in the face with extremely thought-through prose two paragraphs later - but I did get used to it, and the wittiness of her writing really makes up for a lot of flaws. To think that I missed half the wordplay and references bc I don’t know Chinese!

This extends to the overall concept; the deconstructing nature of this plot is way more obvious to me personally than it is in MDZS, because I know the basic premise of the genre she’s deconstructing (mocking), and damn, online culture really is the same everywhere in the world. The first chapters made me howl with laughter just because I feel like I have both met Shen Yuan and ranted endlessly about exactly the same things he gets mad about. The whole System thing is fucking brilliant and so incredibly funny, and I love how she just rolls with this detail until the very end, even in the most emotionally devastating scenes.

Also, plot-wise, it’s both very unpredictable and makes absolute sense. I love how Shen Qingqiu gets tossed into this with an omniscient perspective and gradually loses control and towards the end has no idea what’s going on anymore, because it makes the reader experience the same thing. The whole novel starts out as predominantly humorous (because Shen Qingqiu doesn’t really take anything but his own survival seriously) and keeps that wit, but I got more and more invested in this setting and the characters the further it progressed (because Shen Qingqiu also did and stopped seeing them as fictional), and that’s very well done. The emotional weight resting on the interpersonal relationships and the characters’ backstories instead of defeating the villain makes the plot really strong, to the point where the final climax is only vaguely related to the “villain”.

In the same vein - I love, love, love how Moxiang Tongxiu does villains. How none of them are black or white. I knew that from MDZS, but she really does the same thing here, in this shorter, way more lighthearted novel. The Scum Villain Shen Jiu is sympathetic in the end, though never excused. Tianlang-jun is weird as hell and even at his most villainy moments oddly fun, and his relationship to Zhuzhi Lang makes them both very sympathetic. (Love the weird snake man, btw.) Again, they all have a backstory that makes their actions and personalities make sense, which is what you need to do to create a good villain, and again, it’s circumstances that drove most of them to do what they do.

And boi, Luo Binghe. Uh, I love him. I didn’t expect to be this intrigued by his character, but I am. He verges on obsessive, he’s jealous and mean, he has the potential (evidently, because he was written that way originally) to be an absolute scumbag of a hypermasculine asshole. At times, although I knew he’s the love interest and they’d end up together, I was 100% with Shen Qingqiu in not trusting a word Luo Binghe said. Is Shen Qingqiu a bit oblivious? Yeah. But he really isn’t when it comes to judging Luo Binghe’s character once he understands that Luo Binghe’s in love with him. Luo Binghe is intransparent as hell, and because he does act rashly and is violent and does treat some people like shit and is manipulative to the abyss and back, it’s until the very end not inconceivable that he’d betray everyone and become the villain. This is really well done. I doubted Luo Binghe and his intentions so much throughout this book, so I really cannot blame Shen Qingqiu for doing the same.

At the same time, despite the inevitable dubcon kisses (sigh...) and Luo Binghe’s possessiveness, Moxiang Tongxiu managed to always bring Bingqiu back from the verge of just being creepy. That is not a given for BL at all, especially not for something that is initially a teacher/student scenario, so I appreciate it a lot. This is not a soft, sweet love story. It’s dysfunctional, it’s painful, and it’s treated that way with what I believe is full intentionality. Having Shen Qingqiu reference Stockholm syndrome plots - the power this has. The “Hey, this is verging on something that is really fucked up”, without painting it in a prettier light than it is. Besides the dubcon kisses (again, sigh, Great Mistress Moxiang Tongxiu, tweaking two lines to make those less painful to read would help a lot), what is ugly is ugly.

I was shook by the sex scene at the climax (pun intended, though there’s a distinct and plot-relevant lack of climax). Shook. I’ve read (parts of; forgive me, the translation) the slightly odd Wangxian sex scenes, and was fully prepared to sit through an actual dubcon scene with full “It becomes pleasurable halfway through!!!” blahblah, which is my least favourite BL trope for obvious reasons, but that. Didn’t happen. At all. Instead, while it’s stomach-churning, it’s supposed to be. This is an ugly scene. It’s bloody and it just hurts, without an ounce of pleasure. Neither of them has fun. They don’t continue after Luo Binghe regains full consciousness, though hey, that would have been uncomfortable to read, but tropey enough to be graciously ignored. Luo Binghe is appalled by what he did while controlled by Xin Mo, although Shen Qingqiu consented (and was in his right mind and fully able to, other than Luo Binghe). They have a terrible time, it’s a traumatising experience for both of them, and they comfort each other to deal with that. (It’ll take them some time to come back from that, won’t it. Poor things.) That’s... really good, actually, especially in a genre where “Dubcon but it’s not actually!!! uwu!!!” scenes run rampant.

It also gives a lot of depth to Luo Binghe’s whole mess of an obsession with Shen Qingqiu - you could write a whole meta about that. (People probably have.) He’s on the verge of being creepy and uncomfortable throughout the whole novel, and it freaks Shen Qingqiu out several times, and yet! It never fully crosses the line. Again, Moxiang Tongxiu knows how to write morally grey characters, and knows how to write morally grey characters who are also protagonists. Luo Binghe’s final Xin Mo-induced breakdown and confession of his terrifying fear of abandonment give context to all of his messy actions, his ill-fated and inept attempts to win his Shizun back. Luo Binghe fucks up massively, he’s very mentally ill, he has no idea how to express affection gently and just trust the other to listen and accept him, and Shen Qingqiu eventually understands this aspect of him (that he is neither black nor white) and goes, “Hey, that’s okay, we can solve that together. I���m not afraid of you.” Their relationship has a ton of aspects, many of them dysfunctional, but it expertly avoids becoming the abusive dynamic it could have drifted into. I get why one might be uncomfortable with this dynamic, but I love these “despite it all” things that could be horrible but aren’t, and boi, is it satisfying to watch them tentatively take the first steps towards solving their issues together. (Protagonist satisfaction points: High.)

Enough on Bingqiu. (Which I think should be called Qinghe for the laughs and the solely romanised confusion.) Complaints:

I would have liked to see more of characters that were built up but rarely used (Sha Hualing, Liu Mingyan, Qin Wanyue, Mobei-jun - though I heard I’ll see more of Mobei-jun in the extras [eyes emoji]), especially the female characters, since I liked all of them a LOT and part of the objective was to make them grow out of their Brainless Love Interest roles. Moxiang Tongxiu’s skill at creating characters absolutely does extend to her female characters; I just wish she’d use them more. (You deconstruct genres for a living, woman, and you’re good at it! Deconstruct the BL genre some more and give us some female main characters!) But alas, at least almost all of them survived this time. Hooray!

There’s the expected casual misogyny and homophobia from Shen Qingqiu’s POV, which I think Moxiang Tongxiu would benefit from tuning down a little if she isn’t interested in actually writing an internal coming out plot. It’s not OOC, but with Shen Qingqiu especially, she had the opportunity to make him discover his sexuality in modern terms and undo his stigma, or otherwise just... not make him homophobic. This is a flaw a lot of BL suffers from - internalised homophobia that is never fully resolved, just made seemingly obsolete bc the protagonist is dating a man now - and that would be extremely easy to avoid. I’d honestly rather read about an open-minded protagonist who discovers his own sexuality than have homophobia be a factor at all. I appreciate how gay Shen Qingqiu is tho; he deserves to live that. He’s around so many men he finds pretty.

Also, like, Shen Qingqiu is oddly okay with losing his entire modern life, but hey, maybe actually dying puts things in perspective. Love that he died several times and can thus give Wei Wuxian a run for his burnt paper money.

That’s it for complaints for now; one more thing: I really, really hadn’t expected Shen Jiu’s backstory and it kicked me so hard, especially because it didn’t make him less despicable. (Moxiang Tongxiu is so GOOD at that! She did the same thing with Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang! Though I like Shen Jiu significantly less; he did do that to Ning Yingying.) I also wasn’t ready for the dreamscape as a concept. Attacking the things in your dream means attacking your own mind? You have to free your mind instead? It’s really fucking hard to get out of those thoughts? You control your dreamscape just like it controls you? Dreamscape self-harm is a thing? Fucking HELL. That took me out and gave me chills. Trauma is a central theme here, and it’s well done.

Finally: Shen Qingqiu. I love him. I love how genre-savvy he is, how done with this shit he is, and how he seemingly has only his personal goals in mind at first, but has this unconditionally compassionate side that I think makes him fascinating. Shen Qingqiu can empathise with everyone and everything, even though he probably doesn’t know that about himself, and in the end, that’s his biggest strength.

All in all, this was an experience, I’m looking forward to the extras, and I ADORE the Bingqiu dynamic. Might watch the donghua; it looks good and I want to see more of my boy Shen Qingqiu screaming at Windows XP error boxes.

[lacertae-dreamscape]

Hi! So I started writing in 1st person POV, but would like some chapters or scenes to be in 3rd. Is that not something that usually happens? It’s just hard because my story is mainly focused on main characters inner thoughts but 3rd person would give more context when more characters are introduced 😅 btw your advice is amazing and the most helpful

i have to admit, i do not remember if i've ever read a book or story where the POV has ever moved from first to third. ive seen POV changes from one character to another, but still maintaining the first POV, but hmmm.

I know, as i mentioned once, first pov is very limiting for when you wish to give a broader sense of what's happening in your story, but mixing too many POVs might make you feel cluttered, or you might have a difficult time switching back after that.

it's a bit like when writing in present tense and suddenly switching to past (or viceversa) where it'll just come bite you in the ass because afterwards you'll randomly switch and write various paragraphs before realising what you've done and having to go back and correct it.

still, i'd say go for it, and once you've written the scene, you can decide whether to keep it or not based on how you feel about it, since things always look different once they are written out.

nothing's gained by wondering, and honestly? there's never a *bad* thing when it comes to writing. even in the off chance that you end up disliking the scene and decide to scrap it, it got written and you got some practice, which is never bad.

ive written plenty things that i ended up scrapping (and i mean. 5k worth of things. entire one-shots. entire scenes.) (and boi did it hurt to have to scrap it but also like... cleansing in a way, too) but having written them always added to it because it's like you taking a sceneric route and halfway down u think 'actually u know, i wanna go back to the shortcut' but like, what you saw during the sceneric route part remains with you regardless, and u might end up thinking later on that 'that bird i saw then was very cute and colourful'. so that's still a net gain, even when it doesn't pan out like u want it to.

(you could always enjoy third person more and decide to edit the entire project to be in third, after all third person is omniscient, so you can work deep into your character's thoughts even like that and then switch to doing the same for other charas :> ... but im super biased ok? XD)

plus like... even if it was not common to switch up, it could work well for you and that's what matters.

(have to wonder though, would it not work better to split the POV between two different narrators in the scenes where u need a different look into a situation? even if just for this one part, it could work better than outright going 3rd?)

glad u think my advice is ok, lol, the more i write the more i wonder if its any good or if im just opening my mouth to air the insides of my brain... dfhjsdkvhkjh

oh right, as a tip i would like to say if you committ to a changed POV, id suggest going directly for entire chapter, otherwise it would be too short a break and might feel jarring, especially once you reach the end of the story and realise it was done only that one time.

a good switcharoo a few times would work better to keep the pace up and not feel like its a sudden, harsh cut from situation to situation.

[interview-withthevampire]

this Gretchen-Lestat accidental child AU I found on an old late 90s/early 00s VC fan fiction archive with no search system had such an interesting premise until...

the rushed pacing never unfucked itself,  there was little interaction scenes or building scenes, very little actual background to the OC himself (which sucked because SO MUCH PROMISE and how are you supposed to respond to an OC without building blocks?), and there was no questioning Gretchen’s honesty about his father because Gretchen was “driven mad” after Lestat left and, later, after the OC had miraculously jumped on a plane to the US with the money Lestat had buried under a tree within a couple of paragraphs, immediately jumped to the conclusion upon seeing someone read “The Vampire Lestat” at a cafe that the Lestat mentioned had to be his father (?). 

And then Armand just appeared at Louis’ mousuleum where OC was being a creeper to ask, “Do you believe it now?”. Which is a) frankly bizarre because why the TITS would Armand care about any of Lestat’s offspring considering neither like each other very much unless Armand wanted to fuck shit up, and b) why is Armand in New Orleans to begin with? That’s not what he’s about, son, New Orleans isn’t his hunting grounds.

Gosh darn, why am I salty about an almost likely sixteen year old fanfiction? What is this? What does it matter, they did their best. 

[teenuviel1227]

Post-It Notes: We Were Sitting On That Sofa

Okay, so. I know that I had initially intended on this series being something that came out after each fic, but when you upload as frequently as I do (I’m not bragging, sometimes I wish I could kind of stop myself, exercise some control) sometimes it gets really hard to keep track. Recently, someone left the sweetest comment saying that my notes for I Was Me, You Were You helped them get out of their writing slump and I remembered all of these notes that i still had in reserve, figured that it might be something fun to do for myself as well between these writing marathons I’ve been going on for the Day6 Ship Weeks that I’ve been running (it’s currently Dopil week btw). So let’s get crackalaking. 

(If you haven’t read this fic yet, you can access it here. Fair warning: I’d suggest you read the fic before the notes because there are definitely spoilers.)

The Main Idea

I was inspired by this documentary that I watched a couple of years ago about people who got through the 2008 recession by being camboys/camgirls/camcouples. I found it so interesting that in an era where housing and real estate and training and business development were industries that were being deemed unprofitable or superfluous, something like camming (read: amateur porn) was still selling like hotcakes. I was also interested in the fact that camming isn’t always an invasive thing--sometimes it’s a strip tease, sometimes it’s just people talking. And then I watched Zach & Miri Make A Porno which is a really funny film about best friends who start producing porn parodies and eventually are forced to film a flick together and it’s awkward and sweet and they both realize that they’re in love. 

The Married-But-Not Dynamic

So I just thought: why not write an AU about that? Except turn it up: I wanted this AU to not just be about the phenomenon of amateur porn or the hilarity of porn parodies or two people realizing that they’re in love. I also wanted it to be about co-dependence and the things that people are often afraid to say or talk about. 

In this AU, my main prompt for Jae and Brian’s relationship was “being married but being too afraid to admit it”--I thought of all of the concrete things that you could share with someone, how far I could push it before they eventually had to talk about it. My list was:

1. Loans (It doesn’t get more solid than co-signing a bank loan, under legal liability.)

2. Space (I also thought about how Jae and Brian are roomies which kind of made it easier--except I upped the ante and made the situation so that they both actually each had a room, they just preferred cuddling, not that they’d ever admit that to each other.)

3. Friends (In this sense, I was also inspired by the best show to ever be cancelled, Happy Endings. That show is basically about college buddies who are still very much involved in one another’s lives. And I wanted their friends to be close-knit--enough so that they would agree to the porn parodies and also enough so that they would be frustrated enough to force Jae and Brian to eventually talk about their feelings. Also, the more common friends you have, literally, the harder it is to run away from each other.)

Nuances of Writing Porn-y Scenes vs. Explicit Love Scenes

This is a question that people ask me a lot on Curious Cat (or used to? I feel like since I went off on that one anon who kept on asking me why I love Brian so much people have gotten a bit scared of leaving me CCs hahaha) was how to write love scenes that were explicit but tasteful, not cringey. The premise of this AU really forced me to deal with that and in the end, it kind of boiled down to a couple of factors. 

1. Dialogue

I’ve noticed that playing with dialogue has more to do with the overall aura or outcome of an explicit scene than whether you outright say c*ck or balls or use euphemisms. I find that the subtler the dialogue, the more connective the scene comes off--and more heavy-handed it is (”oh yeah, give it to me”), the more porn-y it turns out. So if you’re writing a love scene with the former in mind, but you’re drawing from porn-as-research mostly, I’d say tinker with the dialogue. Take it down a notch. And if you’re going for the latter and “working from previous experience” then just up the ante, turn up the volume, make them say things that you would never be caught dead saying but which you feel like you’ve heard somewhere before.

2. Psychic Distance

For those of you guys who may not know what psychic distance is, it’s how attached the narrator is to the character. So in first person, obviously, that’s super close. In third person omniscient, it’s super detached. I find that for more parody-like, pornier scenes, using huge psychic distance is key: the more far-out you zoom, the more ridiculous a sex scene seems. The more highlighted things like awkward movements and ridiculous shapes, smells, sounds are, the funnier things seem. And if you’re going for something more romantic, then internal dialogue is always the way to go--that way you highlight emotional things more. Not just what happens but how the characters feel about it. 

The Big Question 

This won the Twitter poll of which of the notes you guys would want to see first and I feel like the big, burning question on everyone’s minds when they voted for this was did you watch a porn parody to be able to write about this? The answer to that is both yes and no. Have I watched a porn parody before? Yes, but it was in 2009 and it was a Pirates of the Carribean one and it was so bad. Did I watch one specifically for this? Nope but I guess that’s where the imagination bit kicks in too: basically I took everything I loved (Star Trek, LOTR) and just cut out all subtlety. This was definitely the most fun part of writing this AU. It was so cringey but in the best way. 

My Only Regret

I loved writing this AU for the most part and was pretty content with it until someone commented that they were worried about what Jae and Bri would do for income since they decided not to air that last special they filmed together because it wasn’t porn, it was something more intimate, more private. And this insightful reader said that they were concerned about 1. how that would affect their standing with the people who pre-paid for the Christmas Special and 2. how Jae and Bri would make their living now following the implied subsequent backlsah. That is one of the most brilliant comments I’ve ever received on a fic and it freaking haunts me to this day. Like. Dude. I wish I’d fleshed that out but for the record--I think they eventually move onto other things like indie short films and they only delay the special until Pil and Dowoonie recover from the flu enough to film it again. xD

[ponyvsthebottle]

2, 6, 9, 12, 18, 22, 32, 36

2: Has an anime ever made you cry? Hmmmmmmm HMMMMMMMMMMMM on one hand I am cool and tough and have historically never cried, ever, but on the other hand I'm pretty basic and got misty over the usual stuff i.e. Bye Bye Hachikuji, Ha Ha All His Actual Girlfriends Have Come To Your Concert To Shit On Your Life, when Ash fucking died in the first Pokemon movie, you know. Honorable mention to Robotics;notes when they throw the best character off of a cliff. I had to get up and walk around for a bit, but I think on the whole I was more mad than I was sad.

6: List your top 5 anime OSTs The Noir OST is my first love and is all the music that you need to drive fast at night or in the rain. The ONE shortcoming it has is that it doesn't have "Movement for Elevator Doors Open and You Shoot the Yakuza", which is what I bought it for. Uhhh fuckin Utamonogatari gimme those OPs for all of the monogatari seasons before Hana that's some good shit but it is missing (everything after Hana). I would like the Kizu OST IF I COULD FIND IT The Kill la Kill soundtrack was great I'll own it up I know it's #problematic but the music was fuckin hype and I'll never apologize for that. Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex has some bangers in it, everybody thinks "Christmas in the Silent Forest" is great but turns out that on the third record, "Dear John" is the TRUE banger Aaand FLCL? Let's say FLCL. The best one is "Stalker goes to Babylon" and I will hear NO DISSENT on this.

9: Name an anime character you absolutely hate Uhhh it is hard because I don't have hate in my heart I think??? I keep thinking of shows and characters and I'm like "well, I guess I don't hate this person, I just like them less." Uhhh I guess Kanetsugu? The fat kid who shows up close to the end of Masamune's Revenge. I understand with a ~romansuu~ you gotta inject that rival in there to break the deadlock, but I just resented him a lot more than I thought I would.

12: What is your favorite romance anime? The World God Only Knows. It's pretty good! I also uh I don't think technically I watch many romance animes because I am an emotionally-stunted monster, ya dig. I guess www.Waganaria as my backup but it was mostly a gag anime so uh take that as you will I guess.

18: What is your favorite drama anime? Uhhhh Eccentric Family? I'm not 100% on how to define "drama" but Eccentric Family is this kind of gentle river about family and friends and every so often everything just turns into a explosive crisis where the bonds between people are the true strength ya dig?

: Why didn't you pick *monogatari for either of those. I have no idea what to class *monogatari my man, I feel like it's a series of dialogues and monologues with occasional amazing fights. You could call it a romance or a drama! Then it would be my favorite, I think. I'm excited for Owari part 2

22:  You get to have a harem of [6] anime characters of your choice, who do you choose? This question got SURPRISINGLY HARD but I think I've pulled together a list that is pretty good and representative and also hopefully nobody will call me a predator for any of these names. That's why post-apocalypse Hachikuji ain't on the list, btw. NUMBER ONE IS IZUKO GAEN OUTTA *MONOGATARI BECAUSE IF YOU CAN'T HAVE A HIP-HOP WHO PUTS THE "OMNISCIENT" IN ONEESAN THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ANIME I love her I love her shitty personality how she just blows in and makes fun of people for not being her but occasionally under tightly controlled circumstances we see that she's actually got HELLA chops. Number two is Motoko outta Love Hina which is KINDA CREEPY but when I read Love Hina it was EMINENTLY REASONABLE and that sorta shit gets engraved upon your heart, yanno? Your first anime crush. It's not her fault that she's frozen in ink while I've turned into a monster a monster and it keeps getting stronger Number three Sakurao outta Beautiful Bones she's great she solves mysteries and builds shit outta bones, and named her cat "Ulna" because she loves bones so much what a HUGE nerd Number four Akane Kowata outta Flying Witch, mostly because if I marry into that family I can live in the fuckin chill-ass little town Japan what a nice anime that was. Also any time she showed up, the episode got somehow better, if you can believe that. Number five is Haqua from World God Only Knows! Gotta get some kinda ghost/devil all up in this harem. She's actually a prodigy and is good at her job, I promise. Number six is Megumin outta Konosuba. I don't gotta justify this decision because it is obvious as soon as you watch Konosuba. Is anybody else as good at explosions as she? No. HONORABLE MENTION is Bowel Hunter but I left her on the list because I can't really say much about her character except 1) she is cool with killing people for money and 2) she likes bowels I guess? She cute tho ;)

32: If you could make a game for an anime of your choice, what would it be and why? Geez I don't know how to even begin to answer this question. In my mind, all of 'em are completed stories. What could you even put into a game? It would be a different thing, and I don't know if I'd like it the same. Give me, I don't know, the Attack on Titan dating sim. Let me romance Annie you devils. She deserves better than fuckin Waluigi or whatever his name is.

36: In your opinion, what makes a good anime? "Is it Nichijou." I guess the thing that makes me think the anime is good is when there's little moments that I can call back into my brain at a later date and still reflect on 'em and be like "that was some good shit." Bad anime just kinda slides through your mind like sand through your fingers, right? You watch "I Can't Believe My Little Sister's a D-Cup" or whatever and at the end of the day you can't rememnber anybody's names or anything. It only existed in the moment. But like... the good shit stays with you. And you can talk to other people about the good shit! What makes anime good is the little gems of activity that lodge in your skull. That's my HOT TAKE.

[baby-yeol-blog1]

On Codename!Chanyeol’s self esteem & character growth

So I’ve got this ask on CuriousCat about that infamous moment where Chanyeol was angry at Sigma and thought he was ‘out of his league’. And since my reply to the thing is very long, here you have the whole thing in case some of you enjoy reading story meta.

WARNINGS: Not spoilery if you’ve read until LOGIN 07 but meta (aka author’s opinion on a character’s backstory/canon interpretation of a character’s motivations). Also, it may have typos.

Codename is a fic in process with more than half still left to write. And Codename (especially the first arc) IS Chanyeol's story. He is the main PoV character and you get to see everything through his eyes. Everything from the city to the society to all the other characters, including Baekhyun. The narrator here is not omniscient - it is a third person voice, but it's a voice that's atuned to what Chanyeol feels and thinks and believes. This means this voice is accurate when it comes to Chanyeol's actual feelings, but it's not always reliable as a source of 100% objective facts. Now then, Chanyeol in this fic is a cyclic character when it comes to self-esteem. If you check what we know about him and his background story, we can see that: 1. He was born in a society where Destiny is considered a supreme force and made law by the government. This society classifies everyone according to the Fate that Dreamers see for them. That is what determines a person's worth, and the ones that have no known Destiny are basically worthless. 2. Dreamlessness is a heavy hit to everyone's self esteem. You're not told "hey, you're Dreamless" at birth. You grow up and watch your friends get letters while you don't. You wait every day for a message that never comes, and it gets worse the older you get, because people start to live their perfect lifes and you remain there, hopeless and hopeful and stuck in the middle of nowhere because you can't even get a (decent) job. You're a spare. You're no one. 3. Chanyeol has stated in several chapters that he doesn't exactly believe in the concept of Destiny. Despite this, he still has to live by it. This is not super explicitely explained in the fic itself because it is supposed to be seen between the lines, but Chanyeol has it hard whe the story starts. He barely manages to pay the rent of a tiny apartment, and he does it with the money his first tier, professional M.O.N.S.T.E.R team earns from sponsors. His teammates have lifes and jobs, but he solely relies in the money he earns from being one of the best in town in a MOBA game. And even that style of life is in danger, because in the first place his friends are starting to leave the team because other matters in his life are more important (see Suho in chapter 1), and on the other hand Chanyeol himself is getting old. Dreamlessness is excusable when you're 13, or 15, or even 17. At your late teens, people start to gossip. People's opinions will very much lead towards the negative if you're still Dreamless in your early twenties, and everyone will regard you as useless if you remain like that at age 25.

Chanyeol's 22 at the start of the story, and M.O.N.S.T.E.R fans consider the "Most Famous Dreamless Boy of the Dome" thing a funny little quirk, but that's not staying like that forever. So, summarizing, Chanyeol is fucked. All of this has an impact on Chanyeol's self-esteem. I said before that it's cyclical because there are periods when Chanyeol feels less worthy in general than what he actually is and other periods when he's very confident in his abilities. He has moments when he feels useless and is quite harsh in what he asks of himself and moments when he feels like the king of the world. The peaks of low self esteem tend to happen when he's faced with things he cannot control or that he fels he can't do well, and the high self esteem peaks happen when having to deal with things he controls. Things he's good at: M.O.N.S.T.E.R, Breaking, technological stuff. Things that he isn't good at: being a terrorist, fighting & shooting irl, fighting the Obelisk Chanyeol's life was going downhill when the story starts, but his universe did a whole 360 when Baekhyun/Sigma appeared and dragged him into a mess he hadn't asked for. It all was pretty shitty, but he knew what to expect. Suddenly, he's almost killed by blue ice inside a virtual world, then he's used and electrocuted by the boy he had just kissed, then he's captured by the government and basically erased from existence and sent to die, then saved by the boy who kissed him (who is a wanted terrorist btw) and turned into a terrorist himself. And after that he needs to lightspeed learn how to kick ass because he needs to do a lot of illegal stuff without being killed. Ah, and the Destiny system who fucked up his life is suddenly a lie ;) And instead of telling him, Mr. Sigma-the-asshole has kept quiet despite knowing all along. Chanyeol is out of his element (to be specific, he's miles away from everything he's ever known), and he can't help comparing himself with Baekhyun (aka the person who mostly works with him, the person he sees the most and the person he's recluctantly very physically attracted to). Baekhyun has been training for years and is fast and strong and lethal - and so openly confident about being so - and so Chanyeol tends to disregard his own efforts because he subconsciously compares himself with Baekhyun and he obviously loses.

Personality-wise, Baekhyun acts lke an asshole, and he's regarded as such not only by Chanyeol, but by the whole cast of characters, but he's obviously good at certain aspects of his job where Chanyeol feels he is lacking. This makes Chanyeol's opinion/feelings towards Baekhyun complicated, because he thinks he's one hell of a bastard, while being angry and disappointed at being used, while regarding him as a pro in  terms of being a rebel and involuntarily seeking his approval, while being sexually attracted to him and realizing that Baekhyun wants to do him but doesn't care for him that much as a person. At this stage of the story, ChanBaek are not romantically involved. Chanyeol doesn't look and Baekhyun and pins over him because of his unrequited love. Chanyeol is attracted but tired and done, and he considers Baekhyun is someone who is in a totally different level than his own - he's dangerous, and good at what he does; and they should be a team, but he's hiding things; and he's offering sex (which Chanyeol, or Chanyeol's body at least lol) wants, but he doesn't seem to care much for him as a person (which makes Chanyeol even more upset because hey, remember what i said about being Dreamless?). This is made worse by the fact that Baekhyun has used him to seek revenge for another person he DOES care for. Hence this piece of Chanyeol's dialogue, which by the way belongs to the same train of thought and should go together. [ Baekhyun wouldn’t understand. Baekhyun couldn’t. He’d lost things, perhaps, but that meant he'd had them in the first place. He was used, in fact, to get whatever he desired, under the rules he set. Chanyeol never got anything. Not a word, not a look. Not a secret, not a choice. Apparently, not an opinion either. “You want me,” Baekhyun said, fingers going to the string of his hoodie. He had pretty hands, a pretty face. He was absolutely out of Chanyeol’s league. “And you’re hot. And I offended you, didn’t I? So maybe I could do something for you to forgive me.”] Chanyeol is angry while he thinks this. He is not saying that Baekhyun is out of his league because he's too pretty and two lovely and too perfect for someone like him to love. He's saying it because Baekhyun is a top tier rebel, and it's all confident and obnoxiously charming, and has the upper hand in all that's going on, and will never (he thinks) care for him or consider him an equal. It feels like Baekhyun is in a whole different dimension. (And all this is a little bit fun, because it's true that Baekhyun is a bastard, but his opinion on Chanyeol and his skills has substantially changed in the last two/three chapters and has commented on how Chanyeol "is good" or "impresses him")

None of the characters in this universe (including Chanyeol himself) would believe or consider Chanyeol 'lucky' if Baekhyun liked him. My readers generally like Sigma as a character because he's complex, and umpredictable, and charming in his own twisted way and thus they want to know what more there is to him, but he's basically considered a (needed) pain in the ass by the whole Codename cast of characters. I don't know why, but people tend to think that there needs to be a "stronger"/"more dominant" character in every story. That, and that strength is related to how the amount of havoc the character in question wreaks. If he makes thinks explode, he's strong. If he shows vulnerability, he's weak. Why isn't Chanyeol "superior", exactly? Because he feels insecure about certain things? Because he smirks less than Sigma does? In chapter 1, Chanyeol is this guy who has been fucked by the Dreamer system and who keeps all his anger about it bottled up inside. A person who does nothing about his situation because it really feels like he //can't//, and who clings to the idea of being the very best at the game he plays (the same way he uses to let some of this anger out). He's the guy who gets easily deceived and manipulated by Baekhyun. By chapter 8, Chanyeol has: 1. Started to adapt to an environment he doesn't know. 2. Started physical training with a regular schedule (he used to have a gym pass. He never used it) 3. Learned to shoot decently in just a few weeks. 4. Participated in a potentially dangerous mission by choice. 5. Survived that mission without being captured. 6. Come up with a plan to infiltrate a government building so he can hack into their computer and Break into a potentially very deadly database. 8. Formulated the strategy for that plan and told Jongin that he wants to meet up with his friends. Now. 9. Told Baekhyun that he's shit at technology and that he's going to fail misserably if he doesn't tell him stuff. 10. Told Baekhyun in his face that he's done with him and that he needs to stop being a little shit because he needs Chanyeol. Chanyeol has gone from being resigned to his situation to taking a stance against the system that has wronged it. He's gone from being totally lost to acting as the main strategist in their infiltration plan. His strength is much more subtle than Sigma's general flashiness, but he has come to the point where he can sass the hell out of him and make Baekhyun shut up: ["Give me a computer that’s connected to the Obelisk outer network and I’ll Break in.” “Any idea of where to find one of those?” Chanyeol rose his eyebrows at Baekhyun. “Ah, I don’t know. I thought you were the one in charge of the plans?”]

The story is not even halfway and he's gone a long way since the start. What happens is that character arcs are gradual... and are supposed to be subtle. He's not going to wake up one day and start choking Obelisk soldiers with his bare fists, I'm afraid :_D ChanBaek's relationship is the same. Generally speaking, this is a rivals to lovers sort of story, so all the thing basically starts with sexual tension and then moves forward. Chanyeol doesn't exactly like Baekhyun - he 50% wants to punch him, 50% wants to make out with him (alternatively: he 50% wants Baekhyun's recognicion, 50% thinks he's a kamikaze asshole). Their relationship has also been evolving subtly from chapter 1, and since this is a ChanBaek fic, it's not a spoiler that they will fall for each other. This includes both Chanyeol falling for Baekhyun and Baekhyun falling for Chanyeol. So no, this is not geing to be a story where their relationship remains unbalanced. I've been writing this ship for five years and I've tried my best not to do that every single time. So if you want them to suffer because of love... it'll happen. It'll surely happen lol

[forceofbill]

League Night 9-2-17

YAY, it’s the Fall split! We’re calling it the Fall one, okay? Gawl. 

Anyways, here’s the deets. 

Commanders:

2 Kruphix, God of Horizons 2 Samut, Voice of Dissent 2 Norin the Wary 2 Dragonlord Silumgar 2 The Scarab God 2 Maga, Traitor to Mortals 1 Selvala, Explorer Returned 1 Omnath, Locus of Rage 1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 1 Sliver Overlord 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter 1 Kaervek the Merciless

Color Wheel:

31.71% Black 21.95% Red 19.51% Green 19.51% Blue 7.32% White

I feel like that Rabbit on Alice in Wonderland. So much to write, so little time though. So I’ll do my best! 

Pod 1 Game 1:

Rachel - Sliver Overlord Patrick - Kruphix, God of Horizons Jonathan - Samut, Voice of Dissent Billy - Omnath, Locus of Rage

This game went pretty fast. Jonathan and I Tempted with Discovery twice in game giving us both around 8 mana by turn 4. I eventually pulled WAY ahead in the mana curve with other ramp spells and after fishing out all my basics (there’s 26 basics in the deck btw) I came to an epiphany. 

Omnath officially hates me. Yup, but that’s okay because I’m going to MAKE that deck like me no matter what. I’m getting my freaking Sac outlets one way or another in the future!!!! Especially when I have twenty-one 5/5 angry Jelly-men on the board. I will not be betrayed again! I’m gonna get on that Voodoo train and start mumbling to get my Goblin Bombardment. 

And from there, well I’ll let this image below explain:

Anyways,

Patrick threatened me with Cyclonic Rift when I had a pretty substantial board. I had to try and set him back with Chaos Warp, which ended up putting a Merchant Scroll on top just to get the Cyclonic Rift back. Zzzzz. Really? 

So I unfortunately had to kill Patrick by going all in on him. It was at this point that I was pretty much going to lose no matter what I did to Jonathan’s Samut or Rachel’s Indestructible Sliver army she had amassed. Rachel was searching up slivers thanks to the mana ramps we passed around and her board was slowly getting larger. So in a last ditch effort, I Tempted with Vengeance for 54 Elementals (giving me like 126 or something, still no sac outlet) with the hopes that I could block and bolt things since Omnath was out. I was also hoping Jonathan would forget his Rogue’s Passage (he didn’t) and I inevitably died to a large Craterhoof’d creature and Rachel followed soon behind. 

POD 2 - Game 1

Juston - Grand Arbiter Augustin IV Kevin - The Scarab God James - Norin the Wary Dustin - Dragonlord Silumgar

I honestly have no clue what happened in this game but what I can tell you is that James and his Norin the Wary had a Purphorous countered (sad) and his Impact Tremors did some work, but eventually died as well. That was a sick start. 

In the end, the game came down to the Dragonlord and The Scarab God. The fight was tedious but eventually The Scarab God fell, giving Silumgar the win. 

POD 1 - Game 2

Jonathan - Samut, Voice of Dissent Juston - Selvala, Explorer Returned Patrick - Kruphix, God of Horizons Dustin - Dragonlord Silumgar

I think we are catching on to Patrick’s Shenanigans! Kruphix was kept in check this past week and eliminated early MAINLY because he was holding his Enter the Infinite and his other combo piece in hand. 

The Selvala board was wiped several times. I actually asked how no one had anything on board (Patrick had a commanding lead at one point) and I was answered with, “”There’s been like, 4 board wipes. Everyone has board wiped.”

After the big poppa Kruphix was eliminated, most of the removal had been used up. This gave Jonathan a chance to kill with Samut (Commander DMG, Oh my!) and his remaining creatures, clenching a second win for the first week of League! 

POD 2 - Game 2

Billy - Maga, Traitor to Mortals  Kevin - The Scarab God Rachel - Mogis, God of Slaughter James - Norin the Wary

ENGAGING:

I’m not sure where to begin. Honestly, this game was just so insane. 

While everyone that played against James and Norin in the other pod had to deal with Impact Tremors and Dmg threats, we had to deal with something FARRRRRRR worse. 

I had a good start, I had mana ramp, Strionic Resonator, Doubling Cube, I was crushing it. Then Rachel and James killed my stuff and I basically did nothing for the rest of the game. 

So as Mogis is whittling Maga’s life total down and The Scarab God is pulling ahead in the creatures race, all hell breaks loose. 

James Played Confusion in the ranks which basically reads: 

Yep, James hates us all, so he played this. Oh, it gets better. Kevin made this worse thanks to have Omniscience out. So James got to play EVERYTHING in his hand. Lemme give you an idea of the items he played. 

This chaos went on for a few turns. Just total insanity until I finally had enough mono black mana to cast Cyclonic Rift... Yeah... about that.

It was a bit of an oversight on all of our parts. 

I Praetor’s Grasped a Cyclonic Rift and totally (accidentally) cheated and cast it with Mono Black mana to send everything back to everyone’s hand. Kevin and I thought it was like Gonti and you could use any colored mana. But since I cannot read we were both wrong. 

We actually didn’t catch this error until a few turns later. Sorry James! 

Not like it mattered though because two turns later, the forbid in Kevin’s hand had to counter a threat I was casting which left the board open for all the madness again. I instantly regretted my actions and began to go a little mad. 

So again. Confusion in the Ranks. 

Seriously though, there were more board items swapping from person to person that I didn’t know where to look. Everyone owned Mogis at one point but me. This was made even worse thanks to the abundance of Goats on the board that were created by Trading Post. Things were being countered by Planar Chaos. COUNTERED!!!!!! Okay, just my things, because I have the luck of the Dinosaurs. (Naya baby, woot). 

I basically top decked land the whole time, praying that Rachel would top deck an Obliterate and set us back to the Stone age. 

I’m not sure the card, but before draw phase we revealed the top card of our library and if it was a permanent it went into play. This nearly had me on the verge of manly, manly tears. WHY, JAMES?! WHY!? 

Rachel finally saved us all with an O Stone that went directly into play. YES! YES! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! 

James lost his board control, Maga begin to top deck his threats and in the end, he got James and Kevin low enough to kill them both in one turn. Kevin with Commander damage and James with Drain effect. 

The final showdown was between Maga and Mogis. Mogis ALMOST won with a lethal land on board (which I didn’t even see). Besides our brains were so fried from all the trading, I don’t think anyone could see. I nearly missed my own lethal, but let Maga die to Mogis, cast him again and finished Rachel off. 

___________________________________________________

Steven played Maga and Kaervek later in the night after things got slow and placed second in both of his matches. Welcome to the league, Steven! 

The most notable play of one of his games was decking Kevin with Mindcrank on the board after Kevin showed him Mercy. Bad Kevin! 

Kaervek shows no mercy! It’s in his name! 

Okay, finally, Phew, POINTS:

Jonathan - Samut, more like Sa-puts out wins. Pssh. 10 points! He got a -1 for not playing his commander one game but made up for it by getting a commander damage kill! Woooo! Billy - 10 points. Although he got second with Rachel in the first match he made up an extra point by killing with Commander damage with Maga in the second game.  Dustin - Hitting that 9 points up with the Dragonlord. Another strong start!  Rachel - 8 Points. Rachels first league night and she threw up big numbers! Grats! Steven - 8 points. Also Steven’s first League night and he put up some big points too!   Kevin - 7 Points. Kevin decided to take it easy and just play the Scarab God this week. He may come packing big guns next week though.  Juston - 7 Points for hitting control in his first game and trying to Selvala it up in the second.  Patrick - 6 Points. Third in both of his matches thanks to Jonathan simultaneously killing people so easily. I’m sorry, Patrick, you forced the Jelly hands of Omnath the first round! Muhahahahaha!  James - 4 points. James posed a huge threat in the first game and was eliminated first. The second his chaos caused him to get eliminated first again. All the while he was cackling madly. 

Overall Points: 

Jonathan - 10 Points Billy - 10 Points Dustin - 9 Points Rachel - 8 Points Steven - 8 Points Juston - 7 Points Kevin - 7 Points Patrick - 6 Points James - 4 Points Tim - 5 Points (invoking missed weekend clause) Mr. Mike - 5 Points  (invoking missed weekend clause)

Oh man.... that’s a lot to type and remember. If you think of anything else, or something is wrong, let me know. My notes are always crazy shorthand. 

[under-the-lake]

The Philosopher’s Stone: History meets Potterheads

‘I got this out of the library ages ago for a bit of light reading!’ [...] ‘I knew it! I knew it! [...] ‘Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone!’

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, chapter thirteen, Nicolas Flamel.

[...] and finally killing one another, be stewed in their proper venome, which after their death, changeth them into living and permanent water; before which time, they loose in their corruption and putrification, their first natural formes, to take afterwards one onely new, more noble, and better forme.’

Nicolas Flamel (attr. to), Nicolas Flamel - his exposition of the hieroglyphicall Figures

Everyone who’s read the Harry Potter books is familiar with the Philosopher’s Stone. To my great surprise, not everyone who had read the Harry Potter  books was familiar with the fact that both Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone were actually part of History. So I thought I’d write a short bit about the real Flamel, the ‘real’ Stone and all the ideas around it, maybe not going back to Midas but just flirting with Alchemy, before getting back to Harry Potter and comparing what can be compared. This is just a tiny outburst of my brain. To make it a one-part thing this time.

1. The real Nicolas Flamel

Nicolas Flamel is a real person. He was born in France around 1340 (some sources say 1330) and died in Paris on 22nd March 1418. He was buried in the nave of the St-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie church, and his tombstone, which he designed himself, is currently preserved at the Cluny Museum in Paris. I’ve seen it there :) This stone has a nice story so I’ll just tell it here: The church was destroyed during the latest phase of the French Revolution, around 1797. The stones were used for many things. Flamel’s tombstone was noticed by an antiques seller one day, while he was doing groceries at the market: a woman was selling her spinach on it. The city of Paris bought it back in 1839.

Flamel escaped or got through the Black Death epidemic that spread over Europe in 1348 and killed between a third and half of the whole population. He actually lived through most of the Hundred Years War as well.

Flamel was a writer. He was sworn scribe of the university of Paris. He also sold manuscripts and owned two shops. His wife was called Pernelle (notice the different spelling with ‘Perenelle’ in the Harry Potter series) and he married her in 1368. Pernelle had been married twice before she wedded Flamel, and she brought the wealth of those two unions with her. That increased the fortune of the couple, and may have contributed to the legends of them having trunkfuls of gold at home. Their owning several estates didn’t help, nor did the fact that Nicolas used speculation as a means to get money. Flamel’s generosity is probably a bit guilty too in that matter, because even on his tombstone there is a list of places where he gave his money away generously, mainly churches and hospitals, from what I read. All in all, however, he wasn’t that wealthy. He lived comfortably and could make donations around him, but nothing in his will or his accounts shows any uncommon amount of money.

One of the houses Flamel had built for the poor is still standing in Paris, at 51 rue de Montmorency in the well-known neighbourhood of the Marais. It is actually the oldest stone house standing in Paris, built in 1407 by Flamel himself, and hosts a restaurant on the ground floor today, named after the noted citizen. There’s also a rue Nicolas Flamel next to the Louvre, which crosses a rue Pernelle.

There’s no way of knowing if the real Nicolas Flamel ever tried himself at alchemy, because there’s no record of it. However, the legend about Flamel’s wealth started spreading right after his death and might have been the root of the idea that he might have made the Philosopher’s Stone, because how could he have had so much money using ‘normal’ ways?

2. What Alchemy is about (shortly)

The popular idea about alchemy is that it’s an immature branch of chemistry and that it is completely empiric (which science is not, at some point, btw?) and that it’s obsessed with the transformation of vile metal into gold. Full stop.

Well, it’s not that plain.

Chemistry did indeed evolve from alchemy, and yes, purifying vile metals was one of the aims of the science, but that’s not all. Far from it.

Let’s start with the beginning. Where does the word come from? I was aghast when I found out. I thought it was Arabic. But no. Well yes. But Arabs had taken it from Greeks. And Greeks had taken it from the name they had given to Egypt, which itself was based on the Egyptian word for it, namely khmi, which means black earth (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 - for those who can’t see this here, see picture below).

Alchemy isn’t something European. It was and is practiced all over the planet: Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, Greeks and Arabs have practiced that art at some point of their history. It is said to transcend all dogma and all religions.

The aim of Alchemy isn’t just material. Its goal is to reach the hidden reality that constitutes the essence of all truth and religions. The Absolute. This Absolute can’t be attained unless consciousness is set on a higher level. The ordinary is lead-like, while the upper level is similar to gold (wink, wink… Philosopher’s Stone...). If one reaches this golden level of consciousness, then everything will appear in their perfect form (like in after the Last Judgment in the Bible, or the Nirvana). It is the realisation of the Universal Redemption. It is a quest of the very secrets of Nature, Life, Death, Unity, Eternity and Infinity. So basically making gold is nothing to those higher claims.

The symbol showed here was made in the 17th century and shows the Philosopher’s Stone as a central element of the Work. And it reminds me a lot of the Deathly Hallows.

Throughout history, alchemists have been seeking many things, forming the Great Work:

- The Panacea, also called the Universal Medicine, which becomes, through its ultimate sublimation, the Fountain of Youth, the Elixir of Life. It cures all illnesses and transmutes the body into a body of light, omniscient, omnipotent and full of divine love.

- The Philosopher’s Stone, which is a prerequisite for finding the Panacea. It’s a sort of triumph over the vile part of humanity. It has the propriety of transmuting vile metals into gold.

Both sort of link with that truth of alchemists (and today’s philosophers and psychiatrists and pedagogists and all that crowd): ‘The root of all [man’s] troubles lies in their almost total ignorance of that which matters most: one’s true self‘. (Stanislav Klossowski de Rola, 1973)

3. The legendary Flamel

Many factors contributed to the building of legends around some people, mainly to try and support alchemy as an academic subject (which I’m sure the real alchemists wouldn’t have wanted for all the gold in the world). One of them is the constant attribution of treaties and other written works to known philosophers or people. Among those we find Aristotle, but also Flamel. No less than four books were attributed to his hand, posthumously, and some actually centuries after his death, with no proof of his having ever written them whatsoever.

From the 15th century on, alchemistic legends over people’s wealth have flourished too. Flamel was only one of the people rumoured to have made money through the means of the Stone.

From the Renaissance onwards, the increasing use of symbols in alchemistic writings has led to high-level discussions about them, creating an exegetic current that of course fed the already existing rumours. Those researches were conducted into the Bible but also into Greek mythology and medieval symbolic, trying to find clues and hidden meanings.

In Flamel’s case, not only his wealth, but the combination of it with interpretations of a stone arcade he had erected in the Saints Innocents graveyard in Paris, led to his legendary qualification as an alchemist. On that stone arcade there are two dragons (see picture above). The dragon being one of the most important animals in alchemy, alchemists have started building over that. A poem about dragons was attributed to Flamel, and in this poem he explains that one of the dragons is sulfur and the other mercury, two of the most important elements. That was enough, and Flamel was an alchemist for posterity.

In 1578 a French alchemist first introduced the idea of Flamel making the Philosopher’s Stone into one of his books, saying that Flamel went soon from being a poor scribbler to being a wealthy man. His idea was then added to the dragon story to back up that he was an alchemist, and the whole was spread through Europe. Only one thing was missing: a book. It was soon found: his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures. It was published in 1628. This was probably never written by Flamel, and was more likely to be written at the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th centuries. The mention of contemporary people is proof enough that Flamel could never write it.

Flamel’s Legacy

However, to this day, Nicolas Flamel remains the most well-known French alchemist, and his name is probably forever associated with the making of the Philosopher’s Stone. Many writers throughout history have used his name and character, not only to make him the author of books, but using his doings, like Victor Hugo in Notre-Dame de Paris (see picture below), who makes his main character, the priest Claude Frollo, meditate in front of that dragon gate to the St Innocents cemetery. Among the 19th century French writers, Gérard de Nerval made a play of Flamel’s life, and Alexandre Dumas (the guy who wrote The Three Musketeers) used his life as well in La Tour Saint-Jacques (remember it’s the name of the church Flamel was buried in). Among the 20th century French literature monuments featuring Flamel and alchemy I must mention L’Oeuvre au Noir by Marguerite Yourcenar. If you can find a translation, read. Yourcenar is a magnificent writer.

Among other books, we must mention the use of Flamel’s name in the best-seller manga series Fullmetal Alchemist. Even Dan Brown used Flamel in his Da Vinci Code. And of course, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

4. The ‘real Philosopher’s Stone’

Not only Voldemort wanted the Philosopher’s Stone. Obscure alchemists and more notable ones did too, and among them was Sir Isaac Newton!

The first mentions we have date back to 300 A.D. but renowned alchemists like Elias Ashmole claimed that it actually dated back to Adam who got the knowledge of it from God.

The Philosopher’s Stone has many names. The Heart of Gold, The Stone of the Wise, Diamond of Perfection are a few of them. The Stone is the materia prima of alchemy brought to its perfection, hence giving it that unique transmutative quality sought after by alchemists.

The making of the Philosopher’s Stone is the Great Work of alchemists, and it requires three stages of work over that materia prima, also called the Stone of the Philosopher. It first reaches a state of pure mercurial substance, then of incombustible sulphur and finally reaches Ultimate Perfection as a fixed, permanent tincture: the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Stone is a key stage to achieve the ultimate search of alchemy, which is a sort of resurrection of the mind and the body via the use of the Elixir of Life. This awakening gives the subject Wisdom and Love. They will know their true selves.

5. The Harry Potter-series and the Philosopher’s Stone

There are two places where the Stone or Flamel are mentioned (directly or not)  in sources in the first book of the Harry Potter -series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The first one is in this excellent description of Dumbledore on the Chocolate Frog card Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express:

‘Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.’

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, chapter six, The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

The second one is in the book Hermione took from the library for a bit of light reading:

‘The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

There have been many reports of the Philosopher’s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).’

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, chapter thirteen, Nicolas Flamel.

Voldemort mentions the use he wants to make of the Elixir of life:

‘Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks … you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the Forest … and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own …’

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, chapter seventeen, The Man With Two Faces

As you can see, the conception of the Stone and of its alchemical properties is rather crude in Harry Potter. The main idea is that once you have it you can brew a potion called the Elixir of Life and that drinking it would prevent you from dying. That is what Flamel is reported to do, along with his wife Perenelle. I wonder if they aged physically or if the Fountain of Youth was actually keeping them physically young, like stopping the time or some other popular idea about that.

The other idea put forward by Rowling is that the Elixir of Life would allow Voldemort to get himself a corporal envelope. That means, I suppose, that there would be a potion in some Dark Magic book in the Restricted Section that would use the Elixir along with other ingredients to allow that recreation. Or it means that Voldemort knows about the metaphysical idea of resurrection central to the idea of getting the Absolute in alchemy and that he thinks it will regenerate his body while it’s something totally different. Again, his mere material way of thinking, power and greed, are misleading him.

The real alchemical property of the Stone, namely the fact that it elevates your mind and body to a supreme level of knowledge equal to gods is completely overlooked here. Is it due to the use Rowling wants to make of the Stone or of her not knowing what the Stone actually was for? Who knows. At any rate, it’s popular science that was chosen and that makes the Stone useable in the book. I can’t imagine how the story would have gone if it was Perfection that was the aim. Imagine Voldemort wanting to achieve purity? I mean another aim than purity of blood obviously (and he can talk, being Muggle-born). The only attempt to perfection is that material allegory of wanting to transform vile metal into gold, and it’s only mentioned because it was the first thought of Harry, Ron and Hermione when they found out about the Stone. That Snape wanted to be rich (Chapters fifteen and thirteen). It’s sort of completely secondary, as it’s secondary in alchemy to the attempt to achieve Universal Redemption.

6. Sources

Flamel Nicolas (attr. to), Nicolas Flamel - his Exposition of the hieroglyphicall Figures, 1624 https://vrijewereld.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/nicolas-flamel-exposition-of-the-hieroglyphical-figures-16421.pdf

Klossowski de Rola, Stanislas, The Arcane Doctrine of Alchemy, Thames and Hudson, London, 1973, 2013

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Bloomsbury, London, 1997

Musée de Cluny, Paris: http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/collection/oeuvre/epitaphe-de-nicolas-flamel.html

Newton was an alchemist (two links):

https://www.biography.com/news/isaac-newton-alchemy-philosophers-stone

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3509833/Isaac-Newton-s-recipe-magical-Philosopher-s-Stone-rediscovered-17th-century-alchemy-manuscript-reveals-ingredients-thought-achieve-immortality.html

Philosopher’s Stone: http://historyofalchemy.com/list-of-concepts/alchemy/philosophers-stone/

Wikipedia, Philosopher’s Stone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone

Wikipedia, Alchemy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy

Wikipedia, Nicolas Flamel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Flamel

Wikipedia, Nicolas Flamel (French page): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Flamel

Wikipedia, Rue de Montmorency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_de_Montmorency