#i have a lot of worldbuilding and character building to do and i’m excited

[birdietrait]

i’m starting a little solo homebrew game using cities without number, ironsworn: starforged and mythic 😌

[writingwithfolklore]

Are you Exploring your Concepts to their Fullest?

                There’s nothing worse than getting hooked into a piece of media by a really cool concept—only to be let down through shallow exploration. The entire story I’m distracted from what’s happening by what could have been had they gone more in depth into what they promised.

                The good news is, avoiding this in your own writing is fairly easy as long as you remember to continuously do one thing: ask questions.

                I talk about this a lot, but making room to explore the implications (especially of worldbuilding and events, not just actions) is only going to deepen your narrative and create a more satisfying, well-rounded world. As well, the decisions you make here are going to set the use of your concept apart from the other stories we’ve seen it in.

                If your concept is a character who has lived on a boat their entire life finally hits the shore, think about what it would mean for someone to have never seen land—how would they feel about trees, valleys, mountains, buildings. They would probably be very familiar with stars and constellations, navigation, the dark, swimming, fishing, and danger surrounding the water. They may prefer cramped spaces, sleeping under a low roof, a gentle rocking or white noise.

                If there’s magic in the world but say only some people have it, how does that impact politics, healthcare, parenting? Do people have biases against magic users or non-magic users? Are there laws set to prevent or limit magic use in certain places, or at all?

                You could ask endless amounts of questions about a concept, and you should. If you introduce something big, exciting, and full of consequences—you must also be willing to commit to it, and explore it to its fullest.

                Good luck! If you feel like sharing, tag a concept you’ve come up with and some interesting implications that go with it!

[padawansuggest]

Real take: I like Star Wars. I like the prequels because they have more fleshed out world building than the originals. I like the originals because it has a compelling storyline and character building. I like the cartoons because they do things that live action cannot. I like the children’s show Young Jedi Adventures and I think it’s both cute, extremely full of world building, and it’s designed to bring back the cartoon storyline of learning a lesson every episode that young children can relate to. I like the Mandalorian because it took a species with exactly two known people from it, and added a third, but made them a baby, and they were cute, and it shows the morals of Mandalorian adoption and love for children. I love Ahsoka because it took a favorite cartoon series and not only brought it to life, but also it’s funny and very full of world building for both the New Republic Rebellion scene, as well as more Dathomirian nightsister lore. I love a lot of other Star Wars off-shoots because they gave good storylines, they try to bridge plotholes, and a lot of amazing characters and new places to play with. I adore, fucking love, would give my life for Star Wars Visions; the lore and new concepts alone have captivated me and I can and HAVE made posts about things Visions did that no other SW series has touched and I’m so obsessed with the force and it’s aspects as well as just species and such you have no idea I would sell any of you for SW Visions. In fact, I would sell any of you for Young Jedi Adventures too. The worldbuilding alone for those two series is enough to have me vibrating with excitement with every episode. Sometimes I rewatch episodes of them just for random juicy facts that I can use for fics.

But you know why I don’t tell people I like Star Wars in real life? People always lookin at something they hate, and the most incel take on it is that it’s got too many women now. But irl non-fandom people who just want to ‘enjoy the ambiance of the original trilogy’ and me do not get along because they actually hate Star Wars. They genuinely hate Star Wars.

I can give you 50 plot lines in various sections of canon and legends that boiled my blood (tho not that one time Anakin at 12 literally boiled a man’s blood inside his body, that was hilarious his eyes turned black like a demons I’m so obsessed with him), but I’m not gonna talk about those.

Aren’t you exhausted? Wouldn’t it be nicer to gush about how amazing a certain costume design was? How the implications of a certain species makes you so excited you could burst? Wouldn’t you like to talk about how that one character just doesn’t get enough love and it wasn’t because they were fridged it was just because they didn’t get enough love from the fans for being black or female or disabled or something?

I am going to tell you this now, and you’re gonna hate me for it but I’m right: if you didn’t like Mortis because you think the force Doesn’t Work Like That? You don’t like Star Wars.

I’m tired of interacting with comments on commercials because it’s full of idiots crying about more women, a black character, the fact that ‘oh that wouldn’t happen’ as if the High Republic era didn’t literally have some sort of fucked up midichlorian vampire roaming the outer rim killing anyone force sensitive. Obviously they def would have acolytes set before the prequels shove it up your ass.

Anyways. Stop talking about what you hate. Yes, I get it. We are tired of rote pumped stories, but that doesn’t change the fact that there will ALWAYS be someone who hates the story you love, and loves the story you hate. You cannot please everyone, and I for one have found just about all off-shoot SW series individualized and compelling in some way or another.

You know what I did when I starting hating about 90% of all new Marvel movies? I stopped watching them. If I want back in the fandom I have older ones I can watch or simply only interact with fics.

Because Marvel, as much as they Need To Calm Their Shit, isn’t about me, and it isn’t for me anymore.

But I think a lot of you hate so much Star Wars content that you truly need to stop interacting with the series. It’s not for you anymore. And just because you didn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not real SW. Not sorry, but this ain’t your scene anymore and you need to find a new one.

[coffeebeanwriting]

What Bores a Reader The Most?

I asked my followers to answer the question “what bores you the most when reading a book?” 

Please keep in mind that these are all opinions and you’ll find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with some. Personally, I think this is amazing insight into the minds of unique readers all around the globe! I decided to keep reoccurring answers instead of merging them, just so people could see the repeating themes.

“Predictable conflicts or character actions. I want to be surprised.”

“When there’s no clear plot. When it looks like the book is leading nowhere.”

“Endless description. Nothing makes me more prone to skipping ahead.”

“When it feels like what you’re reading lacks purpose and there is no meaningful contribution to the plot.”

“Characters with less personality than a wet paper towel. Main characters with zero personality.”

“When I can’t picture anything in my head or what I understood changes randomly.”

“When a conversation is happening and I can’t follow which character is saying what.”

“Daily routines in a story. Like, I do not care.”

“When the world doesn’t move if the main character doesn’t interact with it. This applies to t.v shows, too.”

“Something that does not have a build up like a sudden relationship out of the blue.”

“When I’m so confused it doesn’t make sense anymore.”

“When there’s a 3 page description of some random object.”

“Wayyyy too much detail.”

“When the big plot twist is revealed and I guessed it ages ago.”

“Too slow or too long.”

“When the author unnecessarily drags the story and takes ages to advance to the climax.”

“Fan service that doesn’t contribute to the plot.”

“Useless descriptions and/or actions.”

“Over description of a landscape (cough old literature cough).”

“No action, no violence. I don’t like when characters talk for too long.”

“Long descriptions.”

“Too much descriptions when you are in a exciting moment. It breaks immersion.”

“Lack of imagery.”

“Constant usage of archaic vocabulary.”

“When the main character is extremely passive and doesn’t act or react.”

“Excessive description that doesn’t further the plot or meaningfully add to characterization.”

“Overly predictable plot, overly crude language for the sake of it, cringe/pompous scenes.”

“Long and boring exposition dumps.”

“Characters that never loose 😴.”

“When the world building starts out great and is really immersive until later on when things don’t add up.”

“When a character has too much internal dialogue.”

“Explaining “the science” behind magic systems in unnecessary detail.”

“Over description. I will skim and skip a lot of it.”

“Too much background info at the beginning.”

“When there’s small talk about a topic I don’t understand. It get’s sooo boring.”

“Too much inner monologue.”

“Slow plot.”

“When it’s just dragging on and on with the backstory.”

“Having to reread a sentence/paragraph a billion times because my brain got distracted.”

“When there’s no action, suspense or something similar for the whole chapter.”

“Things that aren’t relevant to the story.”

“Too much dialogue.”

“A lil too much fantasies.”

“Over drawn setting descriptions.”

“Overly long chapters, repetitive scenes, lots of complicated worldbuilding.”

“When it’s too simple or too detailed.”

“Long, long expositions.”

“Repeating phrases, plots ,etc.”

“Infodumps, especially in the beginning.”

“Too much history.”

“Overly descriptive settings.”

“Slow plot. I need drama!”

“Long chapters.”

“Slow pacing.”

“No major plot twist.”

“Miscommunication trope.”

“Massively long descriptive paragraphs.”

“Too much exposition in the beginning.”

“Long and confusing story building.”

“Repeating plot points. For example: the hero learning to trust his friends a million times without any real progression.”

“Training scenes that show nothing special. Especially sword fighting or head to hand combat.”

“Generic plot developments unless it’s written well.”

“Overuse of complicated words and sentences.”

“Long paragraphs.”

“I’m so over the bubble sunshine and extra grumpy trope.”

“When a character is overthinking.”

“Romanic subplots bore me. Having too many love interests.”

“When it switches between characters/subplots and one of them is awfully boring.”

“When too much information on a character is given one at a time.”

“Clichés.”

“When it takes a long time before the story gets interesting.”

“Long, long, long descriptions particularly of places that aren’t all that important.”

“Descriptions of unnecessary things.”

“Too much side character’s story. They’re a side for a reason.”

“I love beautiful writing so there must be some lovely descriptions... but don’t drone on.”

“Flat characters.”

“Scenes in which my favorite characters do not appear.”

“When the characters have no clear goal or the goal is too weak.”

“If most or all of the characters are unlikable. Then I don’t care what happens to them in the story. Being an evil/mean character is different from being unlikable.”

“When the plot does not move forward.”

“Writing unnecessary, irrelevant things that don’t have an effect on the story.”

“No real plot. The protagonist has no fire to them.”

“When the protagonist needs to figure out a love triangle and which person they like the most.”

“When the interesting parts happen right at the end.”

“When there’s too much info dumping with no easy transitions.”

“No progression after chapters and chapters. Characters not having development.”

“Too much description and a slow start to the story.”

“When characters are too oblivious to something.”

“Oblivious main characters, lazy plots, stereotypical encounters, main character is a god trope.”

“Unnecessarily long amounts of monologue or dialogue.”

“The second chance trope bores me.”

“Slow beginnings... like, get to the action in 3 chapters of less please.”

“Chapters being too long with small writing.”

“If the characters go through the same conflict over and over again.”

“Classic books... I don’t understand a thing, haha.”

“Being bombarded with unnecessary detail.”

“Bad boy meets good girl trope bores me.”

“Too much landscape descriptions like Tolkien or Stephen King.”

“Bad dialogue, too much excessive background details and too many character tags.”

“When the book moves too slowly.”

“Over described scenes or characters.”

“Descriptions without inputs of what a characters is thinking about. I need a lens of character POV to make descriptions interesting to read.”

“A badly written romance subplot where the characters involved don’t have any chemistry whatsoever.”

“I get a bit lost when there’s too much details about an environment.”

“When the story doesn’t go anywhere for a really long time.”

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting  

[lincolnchristie]

*waves hand in the air like a beauty queen* Just Hello.*

Welcome to my professional tumblr. I’m Lincoln, and I’m a fantasy/science fiction author. I’m fond of murder mysteries, powers that come with a price, and mythology.

Most of you will probably know me already, actually, as tumblr user @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels. *jazz hands* Surprise, ‘tis I!

For a long time I resisted the idea of self-publishing. I didn’t want to start from the ground-up in building an audience because I’m not great at this whole social media thing and I hated that idea. However, I finally grew too frustrated with how the traditional publishing world treats its authors and said screw it. We’re gonna try doing this on my own.

And, uh, I’ve come to realize, I actually do have an audience. My lovely fanfiction readers.

My hope is that, since you all enjoy my fanfiction, you’ll want to check out my original writing, too. I will say up front that there are some differences such as a darker tone, heavier subjects, romance is not the main plot, etc. But, if you like my more plot-centric and serious fanfics, then I think you’ll like these original works of mine. I like to play around with themes and worlds similar to the ones found in those stories.

*vibrates with excitement* Which is why I'm launching my Patreon!!!

I have also, shocker of shockers to myself more than anyone, written a poetry collection. It's titled Manifesto of a Blossoming Supervillain and you can purchase it here on my website (I have a website!!!) in e-book with paperback coming in the next few days.

But my Patreon is where I'll be posting, chapter by chapter, my fantasy murder mystery novel A Masque of Shadows.

When the controversial regent of the city-state of Serenissima is murdered on the first night of Masquerade, Captain Matthias has to sort through spurned lovers, murderous family members, and scheming nobles to prevent war from breaking out. It's Murder on the Orient Express meets Game of Thrones starring a very tired autistic bisexual who's just trying to get through the holiday season.

What can I say, I want to see if you all can solve the mystery in real time. ;)

My Patreon is also where you'll get lots of sneak peak info about my other novels such as character art and playlists, worldbuilding info, deleted and bonus scenes, character backstory, and director's commentary.

The first novel that I plan to release in full is Pestilence, the first in my Horsemen Quartet:

When four women raised in a dead world come back to life, they find they're no longer entirely human... and the undead are no longer the worst threat they have to face in the wasteland.

It's currently with my sensitivity and beta readers, and the hope is to publish it in September (because I'm a masochist, I guess).

You also get pictures of my cats, Mr. Fluffernutter and Cuddlebug!

(They like to sit in the window and judge people.)

The audience I’ve built up with my fanfiction was rather like falling asleep. It happened slowly, and then all at once. I’m still blown away every day by the number of people who’ve read and enjoyed my stories on Ao3. I hope, if you are one of those people, that you will consider supporting me and join my Patreon to support my original work. These stories are near and dear to my heart, and I deeply love the characters in them. I hope that you all will, too.

*no I could not resist a MsScribe reference, sorry not sorry

[raayllum]

I know you like to analyze thematically in TDP a lot and you write top down the same way, so I’m curious, what are some of the themes/motifs in your upcoming novels? and do any of them coincide with TDP?

(GASP you get a gold star oh my god thank you!! and i will try to not make this too Long but i'm very excited!!)

Basic premise for ppl who have never heard of my novels before:

Latest generation of a reincarnated group of chosen ones have to grow up in a world of increasing violence and political instability that they're supposed to fix while also facing their own choices and demons. The main character, Ally, starts off as an 'unchosen one' — she lost her powers as a young child and has been trying to get them back, which kinda makes her resent her chosen one friends just as much as she loves them. The other two co-leads are her twin sister, a former child soldier with death powers she doesn't want, and her friend / one sided rival, a draconic-powered prodigy looking for redemption and to escape her past.

The funny thing is that when I was writing out my series (2014-2017 has all the pieces we currently have, though things have ofc been finessed since then) only ATLA existed as an inspiration point, which was, "How do you always know the Avatar is going to be a good person (and what if you didn't? What if they weren't)?" + "what if there was more than one running around?"

The rest was all from my head. There's a mystical magical heart broken into pieces. A continent divided in two with a long history of war. Characters anchored to the idea of Autonomy who then go through a loss of powers arc (hi Callum s2) and then brainwashing/possession arc (hi arc 2 Callum) that was probably by far the funniest coincidence. Circles and cycles and children and choices. The fact that these all just also found their way into TDP shows just how much it feels like the show was Made For Me in the best way creatively, and one of the reasons I think I've found TDP so personally rewarding to analyze—happy coincidences all around.

There's other coming-of-age themes of course that are shared between the two—grief, identity, friendship—but being prose I get to lean more into religious and political worldbuilding in much more detail.

I think my novel(s) are also more grey and angsty (especially later on) than TDP was at the start, too. A good chunk of my protagonists don't have any moral reservations about assassinations or killing/torturing people push come to shove while also still wanting and trying to be Good People, but that just makes the ethical dilemmas more interesting to explore. That said, everything is ultimately more Hopepunk, I just prefer to never pull punches on the way there

Motifs I like to use:

a tarot inspired in-universe version of chess for foreshadowing purposes

stage motif (who are you when you're performing for everyone around you / constantly fronting?)

birds / ravens

wolves

knives

eyes / the ouroboros (snake eating its own tail)

Themes: gods vs monsters (vs humanity), complex family and friend dynamics, living vs survival, grief and cycles, loss of sense of self, idolization and scapegoating as two sides of dehumanization, etc.

I also wanted to have unique power sets (Moon is one of my favourites with leaning into shadow magic and being able to make things temporarily out of moonlight, or Life not just being all fuzzy plants and animals and showing more of the well, brutality of being alive).

People have said my main protag is basically if Claudia and Rayla were the same person and yeah that's a fair assessment, Unfortunately for her.

I feel like I blabbed enough here but if you want more info on writing things from a top-down approach / what it's like to build from theme first I'd love to talk about it more in relation to TDP (and also my books, mayhaps!)

[sodaquail]

Dude I’m so hyped for your werewolf AU, you have no idea. I’m the biggest werewolf!Chip fan out there. Anyways, if you want asks (sorry if I misinterpreted your post):

What type of werewolf are we talking here? Classic bipedal or twilight style giant wolf? Somewhere in between?

Are any of the other characters werewolves, and/or does Chip know any others?

Is lycanthropy a known thing? How do people react?

One of my D&D books has a section on lycanthropy, and while you can play player characters affected by it, it goes hand and hand with the Evil alignment (it’s an older book, not sure about lycanthropy in 5E). Is this similar in your AU, or are werewolves misunderstood?

Don’t feel obligated to answer any of these haha, I understand that they could definitely lean into spoiler territory, I’m just so excited!! :D Werewolf world building is the best.

Im sooooo glad to see you're excited!!! I can totes add you to the tag list ^_^

for the TYPE of wolf... I totally leant more into mythology rather than werewolf movies. ive never actually watched a werewolf movie (although, a friend said wolfchip would be like the wolves from twilight so now im planning a marathon with IRLs.... oops) I'm doing a lot of worldbuilding into the nature and magic of werewolves and that stays hidden but.. - physically they are BIG. like twilight wolf sized... big big. - They have no tail (a mythology thing for werewolves!! common for creatures rumored to just be witches in disguse actually) I was VERYYYYYYYY much not going to pull the werewolf pop culture thing and have some 'weird human-wolf hybrid cross' because i did not like the idea tooooo much..... would rather be taken out back and killed with bricks than make chip bipedal wolf-man hybrid thing.... noooooooo...... also in human form werewolves are distinctly inhuman!! Won't go into TOO MUCH worldbuilding of mine but essentially, among other things their wolf form and traits fluctuate with the lunar cycle. on new moon they're indistinguishable from human, on full moon they're fully wolf, and all inbetween is a mix of traits. It all depends on when you catch em, whether it's day or night, whether it's new moon or close to full moon.... you might not know what you're signing up for if you find a normal person on the full moon only for them to change as the lunar cycle goes on, lol. but from mythology these are the traits which often identify a werewolf in human form - unibrow (not giving chip this one. no dice) - low, swinging stride (yes!) - lower set ears (also yes!) - when the skin is cut, there is fur under it! (yes, but i felt might be too obscure for people.... not included in common werewolf pop culture sadly...) as well as a few special things of my own!!! I ALSO HAVE A PHOTO OF WHAT WOLFCHIP LOOKS LIKE!! i found this on a dog grooming video on tiktok and went 'thats wolfchip."

2) Yes! I have one confirmed werewolf NPC (of my own making for the purposes of the story) and am toying with the idea of making another character a werewolf. It won't be too big of a deal though... just a neat little reference!! 3) now THIS is staunchly spoiler territory!! sorry dude!!! 4) this is also spoiler territory but what i will say is that I did not go off of DND modules (although it wouldnt hurt to give them a read...)!! I play BECMI and 5e as my DND modules among other TTRPGS but i did not lean from any of them. Honestly, I didn't take much inspiration for my werewolf worldbuilding outside of some mythology shit (and not a lot, anyway). I think i just went off the general, well known werewolf myths and said 'ok what can i do with this' and i sewed and cut and now it is a new beast. it is MY beast. TYSM for your questions!!! Hope you enjoy the final project ahhhh...... seeing the answers for the spoilers in the fic will be SO much better than reading them here i swear :3

[definitelynotshouting]

Hi!! Hello!! Your worldbuilding has once again enchanted and fascinated me! But I have no one to talk to about mcyt-related worldbuilding so I’m just going to (definitelynot) shout (ha ha. I’m funny.) at you if that’s ok!!

Ever since I found this fandom I’ve been fascinated by how to deal with video game mechanics in writing, and I’ve found it a very interesting ongoing puzzle, to come up with worldbuilding or lore to explain the more mechanical, coding-based stuff and cover up the fact that the characters are in a videogame. I think that’s part of why I love your worldbuilding so much, because you went in completely the opposite direction, and made Code the base, the reality-fabric, of all the rest of your universe! It kinda blew my mind!

Anyway, the player inventory and in-game chat are two of the most glaringly Video Game mechanics, and two of the first that I came up with explanations for, which is why I (like Tango) latched onto those few lines and details about them in chapter four. For me, they’re both explained by the very flexible fabric of reality inherent to server-words. Because reality is so easy to manipulate (and be manipulated without breaking down) in these worlds, it’s easy for Players to simply open a small personal pocket dimension they can store stuff in. (The same way it’s easy to make something float by just leaving it there and taking away what connects it to the ground) the chat happenes basically the same way. Server-worlds allow for a very shallow telepathic link across all players that everyone experiences a little differently (you might see it scroll across the inside of you arm, look at it in the corner of your vision, actually hear it quietly in your head, etc.)

But that’s a lot of My Ideas, I am, in fact, here because of Your Ideas. Because I’ve alway seen them as sperate things, and I am So Curious about how you’ve linked them. The chat being on external comms on a watch or phone-like device seems pretty common in the fandom, but linking them the way you have — in that you can’t have an inventory without a comm — raises so many questions!! (/pos) how do they work? Are they mechanical? Magical? Natural? Bio-magical? If they were something that needed to be invented, who invented them? How long have they been around? What did people do before then? How does a new player get their first comm/inventory? If comms can comunicate across worlds, could they theoretically take their inventory across worlds/servers as well? Is cross-void trade a very dangerous, but lucrative, profession? Do they have to exchange comm-phone-numbers or can they immediately contact anyone they’ve ever met? If you have stuff in your inventory and you loose your comm, do you lose the stuff too? Or does it transfer like an ender chest? Could someone else steal your inventory by stealing your comm? Does a player have to attune to a comm like a dnd magic item? How common is it to have to build a new one?

I’m gonna stop now because this is really long, it’s 11, and I Will just keep thinking of more questions. I’m so intrigued by this!! Those few little lines have completely captivated me with their potential!! I’m excited!!

(Sorry if this had a bit too much of my own personal worldbuilding ramble, I just really wanna talk to someone about this stuff!)

Ive been 👁️👁️ at this ask since you sent it in and first of all im so sorry the autism won for a bit and kept me from answering your questions, second of all i think your worldbuilding is SO NEAT :DDD this is SUPER COOL i love your ideas, comms being a telepathic link is so interesting to me!!! Also, im intensely flattered that you like the direction i took with hunger au's worldbuilding so much!! I've been having a lot of fun sorta marrying biology and irl physics with computer programming-based building building blocks for this universe, to the point where im actually starting to put together a legit glossary in my masterlist doc to keep it all straight in my head 😂😂😂 it's an interesting challenge for me to try and meld all these things together so i can make something that feels completely different from our world without losing its relatability, so im super glad you're appreciating it!!!

These are a lot of questions im gonna try and answer all at once, so i'll put it beneath the cut so it doesnt clog people's dashes LMAO

So firstly, the way i view communicators is,,, okay dont laugh too hard but i literally just visualize them as pip boys from fallout SKDNJWNDJS for some reason ive NEVER been able to shake that mental image, so ive just sorta accepted that into how i view them for hunger au. Personally, i see them as sort of a... mishmash of the bio-mechanical, something that isnt QUITE a direct part of them but is very much attached and integrated with their code. So its not like an organ, but an interface, i guess-- comms are how you can access an inventory, which is basically just hammerspace the way you've already described it, and where you can change your own surface code, and its also just... the way Players are able to interact with the worlds around them.

You also send messages with comms, but instead of there being anything like phone numbers, you're forming a direct link between your comm and someone else's!!! Not telepathic the way you've done with your worldbuilding, but because i see comms in this universe as something that latches onto and interacts with your code, its still a very important connection. Once connected, you can talk to that person all the time through your comm, even if they arent currently on your server-- although I do think that this only extends to when youre within the same server cluster.

As for how Players get them in the first place: for spawned Players, they just spawn in with them. Thats where the bio part comes in i think, and its a little hard for me to explain the way i view it, but its something like... i guess a bit like when moons form around planets. The code of an entity has a certain weight to it, and when a Player and their singleplayer world spawns in, the comm does with them, already attached and integrated with their code. For birthed Players, its very different-- they arent born with a comm, so they need a comm made, and then integrated with their code by a skilled code wrangler. It is VERY tricky to make a comm-- theyre incredibly fiddly, super hard to code without mistakes, and they take an extraordinarily long time to put together, let alone integrate properly with someone's code. Im not sure the word dangerous is the most accurate term here, but there are potentially harmful consequences if you integrate a poorly made comm with someone's code.

As for inventory transfer, i think you can bring stuff in your inventory from one server to another. This is mostly used for personal items or gifts, i think-- Player culture and attitude generally emphasizes fun, and whats more fun than giving someone something special that you made/got for them, or bringing a little memento with you from an old world you want to remember?

Theoretically, im sure there are Players who bring supplies or previously used tools with them to new worlds, but i think most Players like the excitement and challenge of starting fresh. It all depends on the person and the community culture surrounding that server if its a multiplayer. Cross-void trade is probably definitely a thing, but i dont think its necessarily very dangerous, just something more personal that you'd do for yourself or for a friend rather than any kind of business model.

As for someone being able to steal a comm, i dont think you can if its attached to the Player it belongs to, because at that point its basically a part of them. They can take them off, though, so someone could potentially steal it then, but unless theyre a skilled code wrangler and can crack into it, i dont think it would work for them or let them access that person's inventory. It would, however, be an incredibly effective (and cruel) way of controlling someone's actions and where they can go/who they can talk to.

This is why, ultimately, lost comms are a huge deal; losing your comm is literally losing access to pieces of yourself, your world, and your community. And while as a Watcher, Grian doesnt technically need a comm to access his code or enter other servers, he does still need it to keep in touch with other people and facilitate those community bonds, as well as keep an inventory. So yeah, Tango fretting over Grian losing his comm was very much warranted.

AAAAAAA THIS WAS VERY LONG i hope it was worth the wait!!! I know you sent another question but im gonna answer that one separately later since its about a different subject, and this is already SOOOO MUCH RAMBLING on my part. Thank you for sending these asks, and you are absolutely welcome to ramble at me as much as you want!!! :D

[tabswrites]

Writer Q&A

Picking up an open tag from @clairelsonao3 here!

Gently tagging @writinglittlebeasts @liv-is @elshells

What motivates you to write?

I genuinely love storytelling. It was something I felt out of love with for a while, but in the last year I’ve rediscovered that it really is the best way for me to connect with the world. There are so many ways you can educate or communicate with people through storytelling, and I want to explore that as much as I can.

A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

Having a lot of trouble with RSD this week so I’ll share a line from @outpost51’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place that I really liked:

“In my desperate bid to avoid becoming the corpse that whetted their appetite, I just managed to trade that burden for a different one, and still acted as their appetizer anyway.”

Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

Hettie from Tomb of Light. She’s a genuinely kind person who inspires others around her to see the good in themselves. She still has childlike innocence and sees the best in everything and everyone. She has one of my favorite arcs and I greatly enjoy thinking about the person she will become.

What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

Editing. The actual writing part is pretty great but that first edit afterwards is where the magic happens, where it becomes the more polished version.

What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

I’m not entirely sure but if I had to choose I guess I would say that I enjoy my imagery and dialogue the most.

What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

The overall positivity and the general assurance that you are not the only one suffering from common issues like burnout, anxiety, etc. It really is a community.

A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

I’ve brought this up before but I like using Reedsy when I’m starting a new WIP. They have great templates for world-building and character creation.

A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

I am excited about the magic system in ToL. There’s a lot to explore and Book One is only going to scrape the surface. It’s inspired by several different ideas I’ve come across in sci-fi and fantasy and so far there isn’t anything else quite like it.

What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Love what you write, write what you love. And it’s okay to take breaks if you are feeling stuck!

Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

I have quite an extensive reading list to get through but so far I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read of @outpost51 and @writernopal, and they’ve both been supportive of ToL which has been comforting in periods of uncertainty. Also a shout-out to @sam-glade whose review of Ch. 1 was invaluable in helping me to shape Adrin.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you know of any games that are circus themed, or would be able to handle a traveling circus’s worth of npcs alongside the player characters? I have a very specific idea and I’m not sure DnD is the best system for it

THEME: Circus, or Circus-like.

These are games that are either built around the idea of a circus, or are tangentially related to a circus in some way. Some are more specific than others, but in any case they will certainly get you in the right headspace!

Clowning Around, by Bemia.

You are a Clown with a capital c, joking and laughing are in your DNA. Yet the people have stopped laughing, they aren’t even scared anymore. Find what makes them indifferent to your existence if you want to return to your old clownish ways.

This hack of Honey Heist (by Grant Howitt), lets you create clown characters to solve the sadness among humanity in an easy way. The game itself is rules-light and even comes with a character sheet. There is a "sadness reasons"  table included, but you can of course come up with your own. The game allows for both a happy-go-lucky and a creepy clown game. 

Clowning Around is a silly game in which you play clowns trying to figure out why people don’t find you funny (or scary) anymore. Your mission: to make them react, in one way or another. You have two stats, Human and Clown, that you will use to complete your mission. When it comes to relationships with a larger circus, there’s nothing in the game that inherently supports it - rather, you would have to do some worldbuilding. Perhaps the sad, sad apathy has overcome your fellow circus-folk! If you want a silly, goofy game, then consider Clowning Around.

Thy Words Inspire, Thespians, by MagiCole.

Make your theater company worthy of fame, captivate your audience with every moment, complicate your characters’ lives and to aspire to greatness.

Firebrands games are all about entangling your characters' lives in drama, so why not add the element of... well, drama?!

Play as a Performer, an Aesthetic, or a Stagehand through a variety of mini-games all aimed to build up your theater and to make a name for yourselves!

This is a game of interpersonal drama built upon the Firebrands system, which relies on a series of mini games to tell a narrative of romance, drama, and putting on a show. If you want to tell the story of a circus, you can probably re-imagine the acts as different performances by different circus folks. When you build your theatre, you also include the NPCs involved and what their job is within the theatre, so there’s definitely an expectation that you’ll be making a number of characters to fill different roles. If you like the idea of having a number of different scenes building up to the night of a big performance, this is the game for you!

The Traveling Circus, by Bone Mouse Productions.

“There's no such thing as bad publicity." - P. T. Barnum

Look anywhere - the spheres will always have room for a traveling circus. Come one, come all, to the magnificent sights and wonders that only a pack of fools can procure! This short document contains 6 backgrounds for Troika! that will astound you!

This isn’t necessarily required to run a circus in Troika, but it gives you some inspiration for writing up characters. NPCs don’t need a lot of stats for you to run them in this game, which means it’s also pretty easy to write them up! Keep in mind that most of Troika’s rules tell you how combat runs, which is a problem you might be trying to circumvent from Dungeons & Dragons. However, the rules are light enough, and the inventory list varied enough that you can probably write up an adventure that involves moving through a circus ground and figuring out how to placate numerous NPCs, using nothing but your wits and that exciting necktie that you wear during your performances!

You can also check out Eldritch Courts of Some Repute by Alan Szczepańcyk, if you want some inspiration for more NPCs, Fae Courts, and a different kind of combat - status combat!

Goblin Market, by Eliot Silvarian.

Every solstice, the veil thins between the worlds, merging mortal world with fae realm. Some time ago, the goblins started a market on the solstices to encourage friendship, trade, and storytelling between the worlds. Play to get to know your characters, meet fae beings, and ultimately decide where you belong.

Goblin Market is a 1-4 player GMless game meant to be played in one 2-4 hour session. To play, you'll need a deck of cards and a way to write.

Goblin Market is character driven and narrative heavy, and you can collaboratively decide if you want to use the narrative to lean fun and whimsical or a little darker and more intense. You should also decide together if your playthrough is set at the summer solstice or winter solstice, as well as a general setting, e.g., modern, historical, a certain style of fantasy.

This game is GM-less, but if you’re used to GM-ing, you might want to take on the role of the facilitator. In this game, your characters aren’t part of the Goblin Market, but rather a visiting party. Each character will have a reason for going to the Market, as well as a personal struggle that they may be trying to overcome. It would likely take very little work to re-skin this game in such a way that the Goblin Market is more like a Carnival or a Circus, rather than a fae bazaar. Because it’s a GM-less game, the NPCs that reside in the Market are going to be group-generated, rather than GM-generated. That being said, this is a good solo game if you want a tool to help you determine what the Circus looks like!

Under Hollow Hills, by Meguey & Vincent Baker.

There is a traveling circus under the Hollow Hills.

It travels by moonlight, small wagons creaking in the night silence. It travels lost roads, where fireflies and whisps hover to watch it pass, where goblins peer down from their treebranch perches, and owls. It travels the night world and the day world, fairyland and the living earth, and places otherwise, and no border can keep it. It has mysteries to pose, drama to perform, it has music, juggling, acts of death-defying peril, pratfall comedy. It has dangerous secrets to tell.

In Under Hollow Hills, you play the performers, planners, and crew of a traveling circus. You’re fairies and mortal humans, of various kinds and descriptions, but one and all you’ve found your way to the circus and now you travel with it. You make your way through fairyland and the human world, performing wherever you go, in street fairs and crossroads markets, in vacant lots, fairy palaces, amphitheaters, and among the standing stones. You perform for great and small, and to you, a child’s birthday in a town park is as important as the command of the the great Crowned Heads of fairyland.

With 13 core playbooks, your characters have so many choices there is bound to be an option that sticks out for each player. Much of the play options are fae, but there are also a few options for human characters that ended up in the circus one way or another. Under Hollow Hills is recognizable as a Powered by the Apocalypse game, with a few changes, including the fact that the GM rolls dice, and there is no mechanical character advancement. There’s also a play sheet for A Playbill in which you determine what characters will be performing, and what the audience is like. This means that the game is centred around the ways characters interact with each-other - if you want a game that is all about connections between characters, this game is for you.

[afterthefeast]

definitely not a new thought but one thing dragon age origins did really well is how it created a balance between familiar fantasy tropes and a distinct, exciting world. some parts of its worldbuilding are silly (that is not how a matriarchal religion should work. it should have an oral culture etc) but nonetheless thedas feels very real and immersive and lived-in. it’s not at all generic and has its own identity, but it’s simultaneously very easy to orient yourself as a player once you get dropped into thedas. i think part of that is because it uses familiar fantasy clichés to good effect - dragon age dwarves and elves have their own fictional identities but are still recognisably dwarves and elves. ferelden is basically your standard medieval fantasy land refreshed, so while exploring thedas doesn’t feel old or generic it’s comparatively easy to situate your character within it. obviously the origins do most of the heavy lifting in terms of character building but they still need a world that maintains that balance in order to work, and i think dao managed to make that world really effectively.

i was just thinking about this in contrast to baldur’s gate 3, which cannot escape the fact that it’s a d&d ip and thus ultimately feels like a generic fantasy-land (because that’s what the forgotten realms is), and pillars of eternity, which is a legitimately new and exciting fantasy world but one that is less familiar to the player. that is a criticism of bg3 (and d&d by extension), but not of poe (new and exciting fantasy worldbuilding is good). but i’ve often struggled to create PCs for poe that feel real and actually connected to the world they come from in comparison to how laughably easy it is for me to make a dragon age oc with a full backstory in minutes. part of this is because the watcher cannot be from the dyrwood, so you have to create a whole life for them in a place you don’t get to see, and that’s hard. but it’s also because the conventions of the poe world rely a little less on just subverting traditional fantasy instead of making new things.

conversely, in bg3 it’s really easy to create a tav insofar as there’s room for basically anything to happen before the nautiloid. and forgotten realms lore is so influential on the fantasy genre the average player will be familiar enough with its basic contours even if they don’t know much about d&d, so they probably won’t come up with anything that contradicts its basic rules. but conversely that’s also a character that could exist in a lot of fictional IPs - it’s less intrinsically connected to the soil of faerûn than the warden is to ferelden, i think.

i don’t think any of this makes dao a better game than bg3 or poe in itself, but i do think it’s a particular strength of dragon age that i’m noticing more and more as i play other fantasy crpgs.

[pleasantmsp]

So the most recent CR episode had a lot of talk about the gods of Exandria and I have a lot of thoughts on this. This got longer than I expected so I’m putting it under a cut. 

TLDR: I love all the different takes on the deities. As someone who loves the dynamics between characters and deities and the world, I am so excited to see where this leads. My one wish is that we had someone in this campaign that had a connection to their god similar to Pike or Caduceus. I think that perspective is something that we’re missing. 

I will preface this by saying that I am NOT religious AT ALL irl. I actually really don’t like religion for my own personal reasons that I won’t go into. HOWEVER, I LOVE the inclusion of deities in fantasy settings like dnd. I think the relationship between the public and a pantheon that they know is real in some way is so fascinating. 

Obviously gods can be good or bad or neutral or shift between these. Deities can be the creators of all life, they can be empowered by life, they can be manifestations of life. They can be beings so powerful, so technologically advanced, that ‘mortals’ can’t understand them beyond being gods. There are so many possibilities, so many explanations, to how and why gods exist. 

To me, some of the most interesting dynamics to think about and rp are the relationships between characters and their deities. Even building out how npc’s and communities worship and/or show respect to deities in different aspects of their lives is fascinating to me. 

So let’s get into the Critical Role of it all. Now, I am still not caught up on the whole of campaign 3 but have been watching the last few eps. Because of this, I probably don’t have all the information that the characters and people who watched the entire campaign so far have. So, I’ll just focus on tonight’s discussion using what I do know as well as my own worldbuilding and rp experience. 

Watching tonight’s discussion on the gods was interesting. As someone who thinks very negatively about the idea of a higher power/god in real life, it was interesting to see characters in a fantasy setting speak negatively about the gods. I like F.R.I.D.A.’s comparison between the gods and aeormatons. I think it’s incredibly interesting to think about whether the gods would want to rest if they could. I think they and/or Deanna also mentioned that the gods gain power from worship and that they give power to certain acolytes because it helps increase the reach and breadth of worship they receive. I think that’s probably correct. I don’t however think that’s always a bad thing. Something that none of the members here mentioned was the good that gods do for and through their acolytes and champions. 

It’s easy to look at one or the other, good or bad. It’s harder to look at both. And it’s even more difficult to determine whether gods not existing would really improve anything or if things would be a bit different but ultimately the same. I think in a world where deities have been proven to exist, where the average person can pray to the Wildmother or to the Dawnfather for a good farming season. Where a sailor can pray to the Stormlord for safe travel. Where a leader can look to the Lawbearer for guidance. Where a bunch of librarians can take the ideals of Ioun and use that as a force for finding truth and routing out corruption. I think in that world, deities can play many roles beyond giving adventurers fun abilities. Or helping to prevent a death god from roaming free on the material plane. Or stopping Tharizdun from being freed. The gods are evil selfish arrogant betrayers looking for more power. The gods are neutral parties looking to protect nature and life and death. The gods are noble beings looking to protect the world and its people from harm. 

Seeing so many different takes on the gods is so fun. I am not at all saying that Deanna or F.R.I.D.A.’s or even Ludinus’s view on the gods is wrong or that the aspects of those character shouldn’t exist. I think they 100% should exist. Characters that despise the gods are just as fun as characters that worship them same as characters that lie somewhere between. 

I’ve reread this and added to it and edited it and I think I only have one more thing I want to say. I think I’ve found myself missing having someone like Pike or Caduceus in this campaign. Someone with a deep connection and love for their deity to provide a different perspective. FCG, while a cleric that follows a deity, does not follow Avandra in the same way that clerics in past campaigns have. I think because of this, we are lacking a voice in favor of the gods and their acolytes. As someone who really likes that dynamic, it kind of leaves me wanting. Probably one of the few reasons why I didn’t really connect with Bells Hells when the campaign started. 

Anyway that’s it for now I think. If I have anything I want to add, maybe I will! We’ll see. I’m basically just talking into a void so why not? LUL 

[f0xgl0v3]

Me and my friend got callbacks and we might end up being Lumire and Cogsworth B] but we get Cast list soon so fingers crossed!!

Anyway I’m gonna work on Ranking stuff right now. Literally just have to finish something and then the post will begin to be physically drafted, but for now I wanna talk about some of the (massive-) changes I’m making for the sake of being excited and getting to talk about Rome in some way,

Praetors are being swapped out. They’ll be a part of New Rome’s government (that I might go off of but that’s a different thing) but are being replaced by a ‘senior officers’ class. Not exactly senior officers, they’re elected and other stuff that I’ll explain. But yeah, generally making things a bit more complex and election drama and that stuff.

I say I’m making it complex but really it still is the ‘Senior Officer, Senator, Centurion, Legionnaire+’ pyramid. Just with some extra spots to account for the fact that Camp might be a bit bigger in my re-imagining? Much more bustling (*not to mention a lot of minor Gods probably subtly guide their kids there for various reasons but that’s a different idea I haven’t thought much over*)

The Centurion role list will probably look very long because of the 4 titles but it literally boils down to ‘Centurion. These Centurions have a different tilte. Blah blah blah’

More legionnaire roles!! I’m gonna go on a rant over Optio’s (Optiones? Optii? Idk) because it’s my favorite position in the Roman military and because I find them interesting and a good way to build characters n’ stuff. But yeah, not lots but more legionnaire roles (I think like 2 or 3? We’ll see but I’m 100% omitting some roles)

I’ll be transparent. I’ve only thought about how this may affect plot surface level. I am not the plot guy or the writing guy. I just like myself ten buckets of worldbuilding, but I’ll probably go over what I think this changes for characters. Probably.

Okay thats really it I think. Another note is that my research probably isn’t that in depth, I have a lot of things to do and therefore I try my best but I obviously won’t be like a million % accurate or correct or whatever. And this is all for my Re: imagined! It’s just my headcanons for how I want to think of my Re-imagining of Camp and HoO. The extra roles and how I see SoN in my Re:imagining add to what I want Camps suffocating regimented atmosphere that Percy has to experience to be.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

22, 58, 75 for the fic ask game? :)

I am SO sorry, I was so excited and happy to get this ask and then I never answered it! <3

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

There are a lot of things I don’t know how to do - action, for one. There are a lot of things I’m too lazy to do, like detailed worldbuilding. And all my fics so far have fallen into fairly similar patters - either emotional reflections or emotional conversations. But until 2019 I’d never written any fanfic at all, or even considered it, so there’s no saying that won’t change.

I don’t usually connect with a lot of the writing exercises that I’ve noticed as common on tumblr. I can’t take a one-word prompt and create a story from it, or start out with a trope and build a story around it. I look at the long lists of characterization-building questions and can’t answer most of them for most characters I write, even canon ones. Basically, I’ve never done any practice or any disciplined writing, and when I look at the ways you’re supposed to practise I draw a blank. I just occasionally get an idea that connects with me emotionally and even more occassionally manage to write it down.

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

I like getting a new idea and outlining it, and I like writing down the parts that are clear and vivid in my mind. I’ll usually have spent a while daydreaming about something and mentally assembling it before I start writing it down, and will by then have a sense of many of the key things I want to do. That part is fun! After that it gets into the more challenging parts of pulling together all the other elements that need to be there but that I don’t have the right words for. And I’m downright awful at editing - reading prose that sounds wrong in my head doesn’t make me want to fix it, it makes me want to close the document and walk away!

75. What scene in Ashes took the longest to write? What was difficult about it?

That depends on whether write means times spent actually writing or time spent leaving it alone because I didn’t know what to do! 😂 Chapters 7 and 8 were the longest in the making by far, because I had a sense of the major moments in the emotional journey that needed to happen, but I was having trouble putting them together in a way that worked. Chapter 7, with a lot of help and advice from friends, came together pretty well - the Finrod and Fingon conversations stayed similar to what I had planned for a long while but the timing got rearranged , abd the Finrod-Turgon conversation helped a lot with getting the other parts to fall into place without Maglor having too many repetetive conversations. Chapter 8 was even more challenging abd in the end I’m not sure it did work the way I wanted it to; it was one of the pitfalls of being very much a plotter rather than a pantser, that I didn’t know any way to substantively anend it from my earlier ideas without breaking everything that came after, which was the stuff I wanted to get to.

[kuwdora]

Top 5 Most Underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch and why

Top five most underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch, and why :) --from destina

Okay a million years ago (more like 2 and a half months) destina asked me about my top 5 most underrated SF shows/movies I think everyone should watch. I have three shows and two films that I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years and I'll try to break down why I'm loving them.

This gets kind of long so I'll put it under a cut. The shows/films include: Moonhaven (AMC), Avenue 5 (HBO), Humans (AMC/BBC), Life (2017) and Prospect (2018).

Moonhaven is a new AMC show (1 season, 6 episodes) that is rather high concept on the sociological side of the scifi spectrum. They’ve built a utopia on the moon, guided by an AI that has spent a century learning from the human colony there in order to learn how to build better technology and solve the environmental/social ills on earth. This colony of humans have been cut off from the Earth and they’re about to send their first batch of humans and tech back to the planet when there’s a Murder that happens.

The main character is Bella Sway who is a cargo pilot/smuggler and who is also a war vet of sorts who gets accused of committing a crime while she’s on the moon and there’s a lot of mystery/intrigue to unravel.

Now this is very very serious and interesting set-up but what the trailers for this show did not highlight is how strange and wacky the character dynamics are. Because you’ve had a socially isolated human colony (Mooners) now interacting with a bunch of Earthers and— it’s hilarious and strange and eerie. Most of the time the Earther characters are baffled as fuck by the mooners who sound like they’re in a group therapy session that’s performing on stage. The mooners have high emotional IQs and love art and culture and are so touchy feely that the contrast with the hardened Earthers is amazing.

The show also is filmed in Ireland so you get to see some new filming locations that you don’t ordinarily catch in genre shows. AND of course has Dominic Monaghan who looks like he’s having the time of his life.

Emma McDonald plays Bella Sway and she brings such an incredible amount of nuance and depth to her character that 6 episodes just haven’t been enough for me and I’m really excited to see more. I try not to get my hopes up with new scifi shows these days because it’s too easy to get my heart broken but I have REALLY enjoyed this show. It’s doing a lot of interesting thematic exploration about nature vs nurture and the role of technology in people’s lives and how different groups of people see the purpose of technology differently.

It has SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING - including polyamory and partner dynamics within a family, fascinating birth/death rituals that have evolved on the moon, and some rather questionable ways mooners have altered child-rearing responsibilities to circumvent tribalism and prevent violence in their society.

What the trailer and reviews for this show mostly fail to capture is also just how fucking funny and strange the cultural differences are between the Mooners/Earthers. The Mooners LOVE to dance out their feelings.

There’s a conspiracy plotline that I’m not sure how it’s going to shake out but I’m really gnashing my teeth happily on these characters, the worldbuilding, and the technology.

Avenue 5 is an HBO scifi/comedy (2 seasons, somewhat cancelled but maybe not cancelled according to some sources, seems to be a bit of a Schrödinger Cancellation) I am not sure I really recommend for most people because it is hilarious in that dark satire kind of way that not everyone wants to stomach (for good reasons). It’s by the same fellow who wrote/produced Veep so the humor is dark. I described Ave 5 as looking at our current dystopia through an un-funhouse mirror and laughing in horror.

The premise of the show is a space cruise gets thrown off course and it’s going to take years to get back to earth and the ship is full of tourists and incompetent people running the ship. It also features Ethan Phillips playing an obnoxious Martian astronaut character in a GIANT NOD to the hilarity of Star Trek Voyager.

The biggest (and most delightful) surprise of the show is Hugh Laurie’s character is queer and poly (he had two partners back on Earth). The show veers into shenanigans throuple territory (that I 100% need to write some fic for because the show is reasonably cancelled and I need MORE).

This show has some of the most hilarious and obscene dialogue that I’ve heard in years. I love it and have watched every episode several times because humanity is terrible and I kind of like laughing at their pain and awfulness rather than the real world. It’s extremely self-aware and has Lenora Crichlow (of Being Human UK!!!!) and Hugh Laurie being ABSOLUTE TOP OF THEIR FUCKING GAME.

Humans (UK) is the AMC/BBC take on the Swedish show with the same name. On the surface this is a “we’ve created robots to do all of our work for us” premise (they’re called Synths here) and features a Colin Morgan as a scruffy fellow on-the-run with his fellow Synths that he was raised with as a child because his dad programmed the Synths with intelligence. This also has GEMMA CHAN!!!!!! As one of the main leads and she is EXQUISITE as Mia.

I watched and loved the original Swedish version but the British version did a fantastic job of building the family dynamics. It follows the Hawkins family who purchases a new Synth (Mia) and Mia has had her memory temporarily wiped to be in hiding so she doesn’t know who she is yet. The mystery in the beginning season is great but in the later seasons it really builds out the Hawkins mother/daughter relationship as well as letting Laura use her legal background to explore what kind of autonomy and protection she could advocate for Mia and her Synth family.

Mattie is a teenager who has an interest in programming and she’s adrift like many others her age who are facing a future with little job prospects and just getting yanked around by the world- and I just loved her arc in the show so much, especially as she gets involved with helping Mia and her family.

Colin Morgan is really great, too but I really fell in love with Gemma Chan’s depiction of Mia who slowly learns who she is and then is trying to find and keep her family safe while also protecting the Hawkins who are trying to help her.

I found this to be a very solid show — and one that I wish I had vidded already — with great character arcs and was very mindful in the way it was exploring these age-old questions about personhood and outsourcing work to machines and how you treat these machines.

Life (2017) is a horror/thriller film inside a sci-fi setting. Scientists on the International Space station find a new life form that they picked up from Mars to study and Things Go Bad. Pretty great cast- Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare along with — for some reason — Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds.

The life-and-death tension and anxiety of being trapped with something scary in the vacuum of space is spectacular. Really enjoyable film.

Prospect (2018) is hands down one of my favorite indie scifi films. Low-budget, INCREDIBLE ACTING, masterful storytelling. The stakes are emotionally and physically high for our characters and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The premise is a girl and her dad (Jay Duplass) go to a remote alien moon to try to mine some minerals to make it rich and start a new life. They get a contract that goes tits up in a bad way and end up face to face with the locals and scoundrels. INCLUDING PEDRO PASCAL. Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher are the fucking stars of this and absolutely captivating. And yes this is part of the Pedro Pascal Multiverse Dad Canon so put it on your list to watch if you need more Dad Pascal.

This movie is INTENSE and raw and absolutely 10000% highest recommendation from me. The writing, the characters- the acting. The set/wardrobe design. A+++++

Everything about this movie is so detailed and internally consistent in a way that makes me wriggle with so much fucking joy.

I even trawled through YouTube to try and find out more about it and fell in love with a behind the scenes featurette. They filmed dust motes in a basement and transposed the dust over the outdoor scenes of the alien planet rather than doing CGI for it. And the work they spent designing the space suits is so great, too.

[pearblossommina]

ToG Read-A-Long, Crown of Midnight, day 8

50

Wow!

Wow!

(The dog is okay! Thank god!)

If there’s one thing that could make me like Chaol again, it’s the fact that he stopped at nothing to dive into a hellish dimension to rescue Fleetfoot.

Obviously I need some more detail about fae and what they are and why humans might fear and hate them.

If we’re going by ACOTAR rules, faeries never seemed to be all that different from humans, and the fear just stems from a centuries old war that might have carried with it a prejudice through the generations.

We kind of got a glimpse of the wider world in this story, but we haven’t really encountered fae or tales of their wickedness yet. But Celaena herself calls it “the monster unleashed” or whatever, so maybe they are worse than ACOTAR faeries, or maybe, she’s just been hanging out with humans too long and has internalized that self hatred. But I think she stands a good chance of teaching the world that faeries are just like humans, especially since she was able to mask herself as one and build all these vital friendships.

I dunno

I just hope that they don’t all start to hate her for something she can’t control.

51

RIP ARCHER

you were awesome until you killed Nehemia. If you’re gonna come between me and my princess, you gotta go, I’m sorry.

Still rooting for the Celaena dark path, even if it’s not what Nehemia wanted. Sometimes the darkness is the light, smh

52

Okayyyy

So she’s a Demi-fae

Chaol is being pretty sweet about it, honestly

(This is a more emotional breakup than the one she had with Dorian)

I don’t like how he gets to decide what to do for her, though. Like maybe ask her first, before you promise your dad you’ll un-abdicate and go home?

53

Well I guess it’s decided. In the next book we go to Wendlyn. Even Elena told Celaena not to worry about Wyrdkeys, or about King Whatever.

I wonder if Wendlyn’s king and heir will get names or if they’re gonna be vague unnamed characters, too 😩

54

Dorian and Chaol are fighting again

Boys

Please

Give it a rest

Celaena is going to fight for the rebellion, a promise to her best and truest love of all time, Nehemia, who died so violently, and came back from the dead so peacefully, and then left again to give her all these mixed up emotions.

(I love you Nehemia!)

(I hope we see you again, someday!)

55

I can’t beleive she’s leaving without Fleetfoot! (😭)

We are lingering so much on this last day, lol

Another breakup scene with Chaol and Celaena

What did she whisper to him - I wonder?

56

So she was secretly Aelin Galathynius!!!!!!

I’m very excited

(Girl)

Does she even know? Or does she have to discover it herself?

I feel like she had so many parts where she was like no one knows what happened to her. No one knows if she’s even alive or dead…

(I was like, she’s alive, she’s important, she has a faerie boyfriend and I’ve seen lots of kinky fanart of him) (I didn’t seek it out lol)(I just like to look at sexy nsfw faeries and everybody who draws ACOTAR fanart also draws TOG fanart) (lol)

I literally thought these books were about faeries, lmao, I did not expect the bait and switch of book one and two. But I was thinking maybe we were in a Feyre’s book/Nesta’s book type of deal. I was like we have to get through this weird worldbuilding and SOON we will go to the faerie realm

I CANNOT WAIT

TO GO TO THE FAERIE REALM

LET’S GOOOOO