#i have been on a EPIC kick so it makes so happy when my two current fandoms crossover lol

[sunderwight]

Modern AU where Shen Yuan accidentally sugar-daddies everyone.

So for the purposes of this, Shen Yuan's family is basically $10 Bananas levels of cluelessly rich. Shen Yuan has almost never had to look at the prices of anything he wants. He and his siblings all get an allowance from the family's main account, which increases when they reach adulthood, and in the interest of fairness his parents made it all the same size. So Shen Yuan gets the same amount of money for his daily living expenses as his older brothers with their penthouse apartments and vacation homes and private jets, at least from the family account (since he doesn't work, he doesn't actually make as much as them in total because they earn more on top of their allowances).

And the thing is, Shen Yuan genuinely just lives a lot more humbly. He likes people but what would he do with a vacation house? Anything really nice would probably require him to fly to get out there, and he gets sick as hell on planes. Living in the central city is also not great for him, because the air pollution is so bad. Having a whole house to himself would also be ridiculous. So he has a reasonable apartment, in a reasonable area, and he splurges every so often on purchases that make him happy and take-out food that he likes, and of course he pays a cleaning service to come in twice a week. Most people assume he's comfortably middle class and has some tech job he does from home, but he's been getting a lot more than he's been spending in his monthly allowances for years now, and the figures are big.

Enter into this environment author Airplane and his trash novels. Novels, multiple, because in this AU there's no PIDW, and instead after some alternate PIDW prototype got popular in the harem genre, Airplane decided to churn out a series of copy-paste shorter stories rather than recycling the same subplots in one massively long epic.

Shen Yuan of course discovers Airplane's writing and becomes as obsessed with it as ever, except this time he notices that if there are delays between new stories, they seem to clear up faster whenever he throws some cash at the problem. And also that the drops in Airplane's writing quality coincide with times when Shen Yuan was having health issues and not keeping up with his VIP purchases. So, he works out that Airplane's probably doing the writing for the money, and that when Peerless Cucumber isn't paying the most for it, Airplane starts listening to the other buffoons in the comment section more to try and entice them to pay his bills instead.

Peerless Cucumber leaves a comment on one of Airplane's latest stories that kicks off the two of them actually chatting, and Shen Yuan eventually gets to the point of offering to fund all Airplane's writing, in exchange for Airplane not doing his crap sellout stuff to appeal to other readers anymore. Airplane thinks he's joking or maybe mocking him. Shen Yuan asks how much it would cost. Airplane fires off a ridiculous number. Shen Yuan doesn't even blink and wires him the first payment. Then he gets annoyed because Airplane leaves him on read for a while, but that's because Airplane is staring at his account balance in shock.

Of course, it's Airplane who starts referring to Peerless Cucumber as his sugar daddy. Shen Yuan is just like "based on your sex scenes I don't think anyone would pay you for that" and Airplane's all "but you WOULD pay for my sex scenes ^_~" and Shen Yuan's like "technically I am actually paying you not to write that shit" and so on. Usual banter. The quality of Airplane's writing improves dramatically, a lot of his readership drops off but he does get new readers and gradually builds up an even bigger fanbase than before, and so on, it all goes pretty well. He eventually writes a few things that take off to the point of getting physical publications and international translations. Technically Airplane no longer needs Shen Yuan to pay all of his bills by that point but he's not going to tell Shen Yuan that! The contract's still good as long as he keeps writing!

Then one of Airplane's online acquaintances runs into some financial trouble and asks for help.

Liu Mingyan used to beta read for Airplane back when he wrote fanfiction (she was like thirteen, Airplane was unaware because internet and hey free beta), and it seems her family has hit a rough patch. She wants tips on how to go pro, but Airplane explains that it was extremely difficult and he mostly lucked out by finding a single wealthy backer. Mingyan wonders if the same guy would be interested in her writing, Airplane sadly thinks not because Mingyan exclusively writes kinky danmei erotica and Peerless Cucumber seems pretty firmly in the closet still and also generally prefers plotty and world-building heavy stuff.

But like, Airplane has definitely gotten a vibe off of Cucumber-bro, and Mingyan's gorgeous older brother does video streams of himself doing cool martial arts and swordsmanship stuff. So he asks her permission and when she gives it, he recommends Liu Qingge's videos to Shen Yuan, being sure to mention that the guy in question can't really afford to keep up with his hobbies and oh what a shame it would be if he had to stop making art like that.

Haha, Airplane, you're not subtle.

Even so, Shen Yuan watches the videos and immediately agrees that Liu Qingge is beauty in motion, and that it would be criminal to deprive the world of more videos of his sword. Swordsmanship! That is the, the art of, martial arts! Definitely. He clicks the donate button, reasoning out that he'll just send a donation about the size of his usual monthly payments to Airplane and call it his good deed for the day.

Liu Qingge is very confused by this new follower from nowhere who suddenly dumped a little over a month's rent into his account. One thing leads to another, with Mingyan and Airplane conspiring to try and get Shen Yuan as a permanent patron, and then Liu Qingge being let in on it. Except that Airplane keeps referring to Shen Yuan as his sugar daddy, and well... it's not like Liu Qingge doesn't ever get 'those' kinds of comments on his videos. At first he's embarrassed, then offended, then mortified that his own younger sister is apparently setting him up to make premium private videos for what he assumes is some old pervert who is going to want him to do untoward things.

However, their options are pretty bleak at the moment, and Liu Qingge worries that if he doesn't do this then Mingyan might. She even mentions something to the effect of having planned to offer herself, and only didn't because she wasn't this "sugar daddy" guy's type!

Teeth clenched, Liu Qingge asks Airplane stiltedly for advice on how to... appeal, to this wealthy benefactor.

In the end though it's not nearly as bad as Liu Qingge feared. He winds up doing more videos in costumes and cosplay, which ought to have been an untenable expense, but Peerless Cucumber always ends up covering the cost of whatever he invests in plus extra. Sometimes he sends Liu Qingge stuff with a request to wear it, but so far it's just been like, badass warrior-themed or historical costumes. Nothing overtly pervy. He does some LARPing, he makes enough to start doing horseback archery again, convinces some of his good-looking peers from various clubs to spar with him, and ultimately the most risque videos he ends up doing are the ones where he demonstrates how to put on certain kinds of gear. He still locks those ones behind paid subscribers only, mostly because he feels like he's doing something illicit now, even if he used to show more skin on his older videos any time he took his shirt off.

Peerless Cucumber doesn't leave creepy comments, either. In fact he seems genuinely nice and supportive, it's hard not to like him, and so even once his situation levels out Liu Qingge decides there's not really much need to stop making videos for him. (He maybe even gets a little giddy thrill over... well, sometimes he finds it all a bit... just when he thinks about Peerless Cucumber watching him demonstrate his physical prowess and finding that alone worth... ANYWAY--)

So that goes on for a while, before Yue Qi enters the scene.

Yue Qi is the childhood friend of one of Shen Yuan's older brothers (Shen bros!) and Shen Jiu owes him a big favor for something that he won't talk about. At least he won't talk to Shen Yuan about it. But Yue Qi is also not the type to ask for help, and Shen Jiu is very bad at offering it, so when Shen Jiu gets word that Yue Qi is having some difficulties making ends meet, he tells Shen Yuan to act as the middle man. Go offer Qi-ge money, he knows you're nice he'll just accept it, and then Shen Jiu will pay the actual bill.

Well it turns out that Yue Qi doesn't just accept it, of course he sees right through it, and gently but firmly tells Shen Yuan that he's not interested in burdening Shen Jiu further than he already has. Etc, etc, stoic stiff upper lips and no proper communication all around. Shen Yuan panics because it's not working and he's also genuinely worried about Yue Qi by now, so he tries to figure out how to make it compelling and basically blurts that, well, see, the thing is that sometimes he pays men to entertain him. You know. To like. Do things, for him. So. He could also pay Yue Qi? To do something for him?

Yue Qi gets the wrong idea entirely, and at first is like, oh, no, A'Yuan, you shouldn't be paying people for that! These things should just happen organically! But Shen Yuan is very adamant that he believes in compensating people for what they do for him, it's not like he can't afford to, and it gets awkward but Yue Qi is like well he does have health problems. It's perhaps difficult for him to meet people. So then he starts worrying about Shen Yuan and all these strange men he's apparently paying for "entertainment". Does his brother know about this?

No of course Shen Jiu doesn't know! He'd hate it, and Shen Yuan doesn't want to hear about how he's doing everything wrong with his life again!

Then Shen Yuan mentions that his prior house cleaning service up and quit on him (they didn't), and if Yue Qi would like to earn fair compensation he could just come over sometimes to help instead, and Shen Yuan would pay him just to tidy up and hang out for a few hours! Which Yue Qi thinks is a fantastic idea, actually, even if Shen Yuan is only doing this because of his brother, this will give Yue Qi a chance to keep an eye on him and his so-called entertainers. Even if he sort of... ends up also being one?

Shen Yuan keeps everything above board, though his apartment always seems perfectly clean and he overpays way too much (Shen Jiu is still footing this bill after all), and Yue Qi starts to think maybe he actually is being paid for intimacy. Of a sort that they're maybe still working up to? Shen Yuan usually has a very thin face after all. He's kind of got two minds about this prospect. On the one hand, he's got his situationship with Shen Jiu, so dating his brother would be absurd. But on the other hand, it's not actually dating, and he does like Shen Yuan, and maybe if they can be good company for each other then Yue Qi won't feel so depressed and Shen Yuan won't need to hire strange men so often.

Meanwhile it's come to Shen Yuan's attention, perhaps through an offhand comment he read online somewhere, that people who are struggling financially often also struggle to "treat themselves". Because even when they have enough money to be comfortable there's often the looming specter of deprivation, and etc, so he figures he should start buying some of his dependents more treats and things. Since they might not buy them for themselves? And also he's enjoying doing this but shhh no he isn't, it's a huge hassle, he's only doing it out of basic moral decency, etc.

So like, Airplane starts getting little things that he'd put on some public wish lists, clearly sent by Peerless Cucumber. And he tells Mingyan to make a list for Liu Qingge too, and sure enough, Liu Qingge (bewildered, slightly flustered) tries to figure out what he's supposed to do with an album from a band he likes and some high-end leather polish. Ultimately settles on playing the music and wearing his nicest leather in his next video. Yue Qi starts arriving at Shen Yuan's place to be plied with his favorite coffees and to have scented candles awkwardly foisted onto him (Shen Yuan does not know what Yue Qi likes in gifts) (he buys these presents himself they're not out of Shen Jiu's pocket).

So finally Shen Yuan's parents start to notice that he's been spending a lot more than usual, and start to worry that he's either been taken in by a scam artist or is secretly dating a gold digger or has developed a drug addiction or something. But asking things directly like normal people is basically illegal in the Shen family, so they decide to hire a private investigator.

Enter Luo Binghe, a young man of humble background who is struggling to make ends meet after the untimely death of his adoptive mother, and is using his P.I. job and his online cooking videos to help pay his way through school (scholarship student). Usually his cases are more like, cyberstalking someone to find out if they're cheating on their spouse, or helping someone planning a lawsuit accumulate evidence on their corrupt employer, or other things like that. When he gets the Shen Yuan case, the idea that the Shen family's son is paying for "company" is well within his list of probable answers.

Though this one is a little... peculiar?

Mostly because Binghe can't find evidence of Shen Yuan actually getting what he would, presumably, be paying for. At first Luo Binghe just goes through the online paper trails, using the info that the Shen parents give him to figure out that Shen Yuan is paying Airplane and Swordmaster Liu (*cough*) what seem to be exorbitant prices just for trashy fiction and cosplay videos. He assumes this is a cover, that someone's actually delivering drugs or going over for "private meetings" or at least actually sending dirty videos as well, but even when he pays for Liu Qingge's VIP access it's just tutorials and such. Neither of these guys are even on any of the sites that are more lenient towards hosting explicit content. Luo Binghe's aware that kinks aren't always obviously sexual, but people don't usually pay through the nose for the kind of content they can easily find for free all over the place, either.

He digs a little more but keeps coming up empty on evidence to clarify which of the many vices the Shen family's son is actually indulging in. Which is a problem because that's the information they're paying him to find out. Plus his curiosity kind of piques as he reads Shen Yuan's seemingly quite invested comments on Airplane's writing and Liu Qingge's videos, looking to see if there's any kind of clandestine code or pattern. But near as he can tell, whatever else Shen Yuan might be getting out of these arrangements, he does genuinely like the stories and videos too? Well. Sometimes. Sometimes he's actually scathingly vitriolic towards Airplane's writing.

Luo Binghe decides that surveilling Shen Yuan himself is probably the way to go. That gets more complicated in court cases, but since the Shen parents just wants to know what's going on and aren't planning on prosecuting their son for anything, it doesn't matter as much if Luo Binghe gets information in sneaky or underhanded ways.

So, Binghe uses the account he created to access Liu Qingge's videos to chat with Shen Yuan a few times, and then recommends his own cooking channel. Shen Yuan doesn't seem too interested in cooking, so Luo Binghe makes sure to include a video that has an image of himself in his recommendation, and then films a few new videos of himself cooking with his shirtsleeves rolled up to three quarters and a few more buttons than usual unbuttoned, adopting a more flirty persona than he typically does for his shows. He takes his cues from some of Liu Qingge's more popular videos for how to be enticing bait.

It takes a few videos, but eventually Shen Yuan comments. Luo Binghe latches onto the chance to start talking to him, playing up a persona of a vulnerable young man with little means who is trying hard to make it through school, etc, and sure enough Shen Yuan seems interested. Well, most predatory people like vulnerable targets, don't they?

However... Shen Yuan just sends him a chunk of money.

Luo Binghe is confused.

Isn't he supposed to ask for something or create some kind of expectation of repayment first? But, maybe this is his approach to handling new targets. Maybe he's just trying to lull Binghe into a false sense of complacency, before he starts indicating what he wants from all of this. Luo Binghe makes sure to move the money Shen Yuan sends him into a separate account, so that if the Shen parents get angry about it then he can return it as a gesture of good faith.

But Shen Yuan just keeps sending supportive comments and donations. Eventually he leaves a comment that alludes to how badly he'd like to taste Binghe's cooking, and Binghe is like finally, but when he implies that they could perhaps meet in person and Luo Binghe could thank him for his support by making him something, Shen Yuan backs off.

Things eventually progress to the point where Luo Binghe, who is a totally normal person treating this like a totally normal job still thank you very much, is basically camping out in the bushes in front of Shen Yuan's apartment building. At some point he conscripts the aid of his weird cousin (finding his birth family was how he got into this business initially), and then almost immediately regrets it because Shen Yuan helps get Zhuzhi Lang a job doing landscaping for his building.

Why would he want Zhuzhi Lang close but not Binghe? Binghe is much handsomer! He'd make an excellent target for seduction! >:(

Anyway eventually Yue Qi catches Luo Binghe lurking around like a creeper and is like, finally, I have caught one of these suspicious men, whilst Binghe is like oh so he does have a lover, well this guy sucks and is clearly not good enough for him, and they both try and chase one another off and Shen Yuan comes home to a heated passive-aggressive-politeness war being waged in front of his apartment. Eventually he realizes the misunderstanding and calls everyone together (zoom conference? in-person meet-up?) to clarify that he is not paying any of them for "special favors", that was just Airplane being deranged about his sense of humor, and then he has no idea what to do when the prevailing response seems to be disappointment.

[euphoricfilter]

𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲

☆ 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥

when two brains collide

tags/ warnings: games designer! jungkook, non, idol au, established relationship, fluff !!!!!!, christmas!!!! :D

word count: 1.1k

notes: merry christmas!!!! technically this can be read as a standalone :D

☆ epic crazy callob with @bonny-kookoo 💞 ☆

☆ series masterlist

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆.

neither you nor jungkook remember exactly when your christmas eve tradition had began. the both of you could never keep a secret from one another. there was always the unbridled excitement the both of you had, impatient for the other to see what you’d gotten them.

and so, the solution: the both of you would exchange one gift on christmas eve.

the first year it happened, jungkook had gotten a little overzealous, half your christmas presents opened hours before christmas day. you had to be the one to stop it, realisation dawning on you the moment you’d seen how much wrapping paper was tucked in both your laps.

jungkook hadn’t been happy you’d stopped, bottom lip pouty and mood all mushy sad. because as much as he loved everything you bought him, there was this strange sort of joy he found in simply watching you carefully unwrap your gifts.

the second year of your tradition had been you. because the playstation jungkook had wanted arrived the morning of christmas eve and you had to keep it a secret all day. pure buzzing excitement fizzing beneath your skin for hours as you stashed it under the bed.

and you simply couldn’t help yourself. so of course you had to give it to him before the words slipped off your tongue and the surprise was ruined.

by the third year the both of you made an active effort to slip it into your other christmas eve festivities.

“jungkook, quick” you call out to him from the other room, “ELF is on soon and we can’t miss it”

he peeks his head round the doorframe of your bedroom, “i’ll get the DVD out if we miss it”

your eyebrows narrow at him, “it’s not the same as us watching it when it comes on the TV”

“we have to sit through ads though” he murmurs.

“yes, but” you give him a pointed look, “that’s part of the charm, plus, they tell you what’s on tomorrow for christmas day”

jungkook’s nose scrunches up, “i’ll be quick, i forgot to write out your card”

you lean your head back on the seat of the couch, hand patting around the carpet for the remote to turn the TV down, ears straining to hear jungkook shuffling around the bedroom.

he’s quick to slip back into the living room.

you don’t miss the rattle of the box as he sits down, nor do you miss the similar shape and size to your own gift.

you look down at the box sat in your own lap, then back over at jungkook’s gift.

“okay” he claps, “i think you’re gonna love my gift” he beams, and you can’t help the prickly suspicion that flitters up your spine making you sit up a little straighter.

“i think you might love mine” a smile quirks onto your lips.

jungkook places his box between the both of you, gift rattling in its box. and it isn’t until you place his gift next to yours— same little rattle reverberating into the room, does his mind seem to catch up with yours.

“oh” he blinks, pointing to both your gifts then between the both of you.

“there’s no way” you giggle, feet kicking out a little.

“holy shit what if we actually got each other the same gift?” his eyes are wide

“we’ll if you got me, what i got you then there might be a slight issue” you tell him

he nods, “no because… if you got me, what i got you then we definitely will have a problem”

you can’t help the bubbly laughter that spills from your lips, jungkook mirroring your joy.

you push yourself up onto your knees, excitement all encompassing as you kneel over the gifts, arms wrapping around jungkook’s shoulders as the both of you bask in the joy of the other.

“you’re really gonna like my gift” he tells you, lips pressing against your cheek, kiss feather light as another wave of bubbly joy spills from his lips.

“i know because i showed you a photo” you giggle, flopping down into his lap when he opens his thighs a little wider.

your back presses against his chest, quick to pick up the gift you wrapped, handing it to jungkook, who holds it in your lap as you pick up your own gift.

you have to bite your bottom lip to stop another wave of giggles, head tilting to look up at jungkook.

“i love you” he says, a reminder. though you doubt you’d ever be able to truly forget.

“i love you more than i’ll ever be able to say”

his hands leave the wrapped gift, instead holding both your cheeks, pulling you into a kiss.

your attention flickers back to the TV when ELF starts playing, your hand slapping against his thigh “quick! the film is starting”

he hums, fingers pulling apart the wrapping paper, as you do the same.

another laugh rumbles through your chest when you see the familiar little box, the exact same you had for jungkook.

“i think we truly share the same mind” he says as he opens the box, his own gravely laughter vibrating against your back as he sees what it was.

you tilt your head to look up at him, the brightest smile on your face “you really do listen to all the things i like”

“of course, baby” he beams, “you’re not disappointed we got each other the same gift?”

you shake your head, fingers tracing over the silver bracelet. it had only been a fleeting moment, a quick tilt of your screen in jungkook’s direction to show him the cute promise bracelets, magnetic heart charms hung prettily.

his eyes had flickered down to see you’d saved the post, enough incentive for him to find it and get it as a gift.

you pick one of the bracelets from your box, “give me your hand please” you say. and he does.

“you have this one” you clasp it around his wrist, “and i’ll have this one” you take the other bracelet out of his own box.

“why don’t you just put both the ones from your box on?” he smiles.

“because it’s principle. we’re meant to have one each… now you have the other one, and i have this one” you take the second bracelet from your box, “and now we have one each from each other, just like they’re supposed to be”

his lifts up your hand interlacing your fingers as the magnets snap together, completing the little hearts.

“it’s so perfect” you whisper, utterly enamoured by the little charms.

“merry christmas, my love” he leans his chin on your shoulder, smiling at your interlaced fingers.

“merry christmas, kook” you murmur, knocking your cheek against his forehead.

[temperedink]

my favourite ACOTAR fic by authors not on tumblr

I wanted to give some love to stories that aren't often mentioned on Tumblr and don't get reblogged over and over because their writers don't have accounts here. (I also just want more people to read some of my faves and scream about them with me.)

A Court of Ash and Sunlight by aturner1205 (Elucien; complete)

This Elucien fic had me on the edge of my seat and making up wild theories while it was posting. (I was incredibly wrong in said wild theories.) Elain and Lucien start to get to know each other better when they both are mourning her father on his birthday, and she confesses to him that she's never felt their bond. They're getting closer, and then Lucien is sent off on a dangerous mission, there's an accidental pregnancy, and Koschei after the Archerons. Tons of twists and turns here!

Fury and Siren by hurricane (next-gen; complete)

Next-gen fics where the kids are already adults are sometimes a hard sell, but these two interconnected stories get you deeply invested in Nyx and his cousins (their parents are all still around too). The first one is Nyx and an Illyrian shadowsinger (hmmm...) who's secretly been avenging abused and clipped Illyrian females, and the second is Nessian's son Caden and the only female Darkbringer who's been sent to assassinate him. These boys are definitely their fathers' sons, with their charm and flirting, but their partners do not let them rest on their privilege.

I Miss You (When the Lights Go Out), I Want to Taste the Way That You Bleed, and I Am Done With My Graceless Heart by greenvelvet_couture (Nessriel; ongoing series)

Soooo much Nessriel smut that kicks off when Azriel returns from a mission injured and Nessian want to take care of him (physically first, then sexually). Also a lot about Nesta training her post-ACOSF powers and the dangers that go along with that. But the author is VERY dedicated to the smut, bless her. Part 2 has just started and picks up with Bryce in the Night Court.

A Long Way Down by becauseofreading (Nessian; ongoing)

This one is a tough read, but it does a beautiful job of showing the recovery process from trauma and a suicide attempt. Nesta is suicidal and has deeply convinced herself of her unworthiness. Cassian is taken to task for his treatment of her and the words he's levelled at his mate, and the Valkyries, Azriel, and Elucien rally around her as she tries to heal and love herself with proper therapy. Cassian is ashamed of his treatment of her and is allowed in to help her heal if he doesn't upset her.

Where You Used to Lay Your Head by loveL (Gwynriel; complete)

This one is a bit of a time mindfuck, so you have to just accept that the Archerons and the Valkyries were born much earlier than they were in canon. Sixty years ago, Azriel and Gwyn were happy in their secret 20-year relationship (the IC knew he had a partner, but didn't know who she was) when suddenly Gwyn up and left him. Now she's back in the Night Court with Nesta and Emerie after creating the Valkyries in the Day Court, and Azriel is finally going to try to find out what happened that made Gwyn leave and stay away for so long.

Forgive Me, A Court of Shadow and Smoke, and The High Lady, the Shadowsinger, and the Omega, Part 1 and Part 2 by darcyshandflex (Elucien, Azris, next-gen; ongoing)

This epic series starts with Elucien and explaining why Elain has avoided him for so long--but now she's ready to fight for him. In A Court of Shadow and Smoke, we have omegaverse!Azris finally getting together (Azriel's the alpha, Eris is the omega) and all of the emotional and political issues that causes. The final two parts span 30+ years with Azris raising their three girls. When the girls are adults, their future partners are discovered, and that has long-lasting impacts on multiple courts in Prythian. This one is still ongoing, and apparently the final part is going to be sad and I'm not ready for it.

And here are three writers I would have included on this list who have since gotten on Tumblr (I procrastinated on writing this post for THAT long, but they were on the original draft!):

A Little Bit of Light Reading by @infinitefolklore (Elucien; complete)

One of my all-time favourite ACOTAR stories that I have reread a bajillion times. Elain and Lucien are alone at the townhouse and start flirting, which leads to other things, including library sex, a sorta blood duel, a reconciliation, a solstice sex party in the Summer Court, PLUS a threesome near the end, as a little treat.

I Can Wait For You at the Bottom by MissFreakingFortune/ @missfckingfortune (Elucien; ongoing)

Listen, if you're not reading this super-sexy modern Elucien rockstar second-chance romance, I don't know what you're doing with your life. Elain and Lucien were high school sweethearts who had their lives together all planned out, until Lucien left to chase his rockstar dreams. Ten years later, he's returned home for Beron's funeral and once they're back in each other's orbit, they both can't stay away. Lucien is determined to win her back, but Elain is much more wary, even though the attraction is definitely still there. There's also a great big bro Eris, and Mama Vanserra finally has her freedom from Beron so she can maybe start something up again with hot French professor Helion...and also tell him about their child, who is also going to need to know about his true parentage.

Phoenix Rising by Vivienne1412/ @annaskareninas (Elucien; complete)

I need you to drop everything and go read this fic. Yes, NOW. No, I'll wait.

Beron has seized control over all of Prythian and has either killed or exiled all of High Lords and other powerful fae (Feysand and Nyx are in the Hewn City dosed with faebane everyday; Nessian escaped to Hybern). The humans have also gathered enough power that they're a dangerous threat to the fae. Elain has been working as a nurse for the fae resistance efforts, and her latest patient is the long-thought-dead Lucien, the only free heir of any of the High Lords. They go on the run to protect him, as there's a prophecy about him that makes him the last hope to defeat Beron and Autumn for good, and shore up support from the Continent to get a fighting force. This is an incredibly well-written fantasy story with crazy-high stakes and DRAGONS. Go read it.

[not-goldy]

I was listening Taemin's Guilty and am I the only one who hears a subtle hint of "Lie" in it? Its a damn shame we haven't gotten another song like Lie by Jimin. He would absolutely own a track like that cause I could actually hear him singing Taemin's Guilty. And he would have ate that song & choreo up. Wwe already seen what Jimin could with that cause we saw that temptress at work during that Guilty challenge that he did with Taemin. That is what I have been wanting so badly from him during his solo work. Give me sultry Jimin & some kick as choreo that only he can pull off and we will watch others struggle to try to recreate. Give me Guilty, Give me WHO ft JK 2.0. Give me Under The Influence. Give me Earned It. Give me I'm A Slave For You. Please I beg Jimin.

Eh?? Subtle hint???????

The said hint

Its the concept of the song, the tempo, mentioning Lie directly etc

He's been compared so much with Jimin in the past because they had similar sounds and style and I honestly thought Jimin would be making music in that genre forever but I'm glad he went the other route of evolving his own unique style too.

Lie and Guilty are two of the greatest Kpop hits and I recall when Guilty came out fans were making mashups of the two songs and all it was epic.

Two amazing talented singers and musicians.

I actually like Taemin's music. Guilty reminds me in part of his Advice with his signature hook and all but I do see the similarities with Lie also.

You see, you have to be patient with Jimin. He needs to make music that feeds his soul and that comes from his soul first. His best hits are songs he'd searched deep inside him for. He has his own idea of what he wants his discography to look like, he has his own musical journey he is on. He's an artist and an entrepreneur and he gotta test what makes money what don't what needs money and what don't.

You want lie, well he's done Lie and he's moved on to other things too. Perhaps he's not in the same mind frame he was in when he came up with Lie and Promise.

Remember how Tae kept making melancholic songs and I told yall my boo single and depressed and then he started with the happy songs and said welp dude went and got himself a girlfriend.

Jimin is happy 😊

He is is a good place he wants to spread that joy and love. He wants to celebrate that love let him. He's not gonna conjure fake deep wounds and sing about the trauma he doesn't have anymore. Taemin is out here singing about using people, breaking hearts to a good rhythm and we love it. Not all art comes from a dark place. What he is doing is art too and I'm tired of people expressing dissatisfaction with it.

He said he's finally free and he means it yall are just some tortured souls walking earth. And not to psycho analyze yall but you were drawn to the wounds he had and now that it's all healed you can't relate. Don't you think it's why we victimize him the most? Poor boy who got bullied by his younger team mate, half his own Fandom hates, his company hates him, Billboard hates him, every body hates him- and yet he isn't crying about it in songs, he isn't leaving the said man or his company and we are confused as to why.

Whywhy.... tell em that it's human nature. Why why

This is where I start singing Michael Jackson on yall

Not everything he puts out there will resonate and that's fine. It's still good music. Its just coming from a different place now.

Not everything gotta be so intense yall need to learn to be happy

Sultry Jimin will come in due season. It's summer time baby enjoy the sunshine- pan intended

[ratcatcher0325]

We meet again ratcatcher. It is i, 4am anon (i already feel like you know who i am though lmaoooo you just followed two of my blogs today can't be fr💀🙏🏻)

Idk, i feel like Alexander deserves to be complimented to make up for his hardships earlier in life, I'm gonna feed his ego because i love it when he is happy (again, have i told you how much i love this little tsundere mf???)

I can't say for sure which part i liked most considering that all the chapters are a blur when you read it all in one night 💀 I guess my most likely answer would be when he lets Natalie hold him ✋🏻😭 these scenes got me kicking my feet istg

Also i would like you to imagine a scene where Alexander was basically jousting with the letter opener instead of a lance but his opponent was Charles' face lmao

Also am so happy that Alexander would be an EPIC nerd LMAO bc same bro same

Thanks for writing 🙏🏻🙏🏻 I'm still anonymous because I'm so scared to talk to people but i especially appreciate g/t writers and would like to express that if possible

Hi again!

Oh I have? Well don’t worry, your secret’s safe! ✨

You sure Alexander didn’t make you justify complimenting him while holding you at pocket knife point? 🔪🔪🔪 I’m just kidding, he deserves all the flowers. 💐 He’s been through quite a bit!

Yeah! It’s fun when he finally starts to soften and let her in even if only a little at a time. Poor thing is so worried that vulnerability automatically equates to weakness. I wish he’d just let his guard down! 🧍‍♂️🤏

I’m pretty sure that exact jousting scenario plays on repeat in his little head every night as he falls asleep. 🗡️

You’re welcome for writing! I love telling these stories just as much as so many kind people here enjoy reading them and that makes me extremely happy!

But hey no stress about wanting to be anonymous. I get it. I lurked for YEARS and YEARS before getting the courage to post anything. And even then it took me a long time to feel comfortable to make friends and reach out. That’s the nature of vulnerability, ya know? It’s takes time! But no need to rush! You can always enjoy this community from a safe distance if that’s what feels most comfortable! It’s whatever works for you!

[fangirlingatstuff]

Ok so, there are absolutely no Ronin (Epic 2013) fanfics on this website or barley any and I would be so happy if you could write one with him and the reader flirting while fighting the boggins and having Nod be absolutely DONE with them because of it like ‘focus on the fight are we really doing this now?’, or relationship head cannons idk just tryna give ideas cause I’m obsessed with this man rn.

Heck yes I can! Slowly making my way through these, I hope you like this one, it’s a little short

Teasing

Ronin x Reader

—

Out of all the days to be fighting boggans, you weren’t really happy about this one.

It was gross, it was wet, it was muddy, and worst of all, it had started raining.

“Seriously, Ronin?” You asked as you shoved a boggan out of your way and hit another with your arrow. “Of all days to go on patrol, you picked today?!”

Ronin grunted and knocked a boggan coming towards off the branch, flipping down from the one above you. “Well, it was looking like an interesting morning,” he said, landing beside you.

You scoffed and shook your head. With a twip, you shot another arrow towards the large boggan coming up from behind Ronin. He looked behind him quickly to see the boggan fall and you smirked at him. “You’re welcome.”

Ronin smirked back at you while you jumped to the next branch, kicking your next assailant off the tree and sliding down the leaves. “You know,” Ronin called after you, “your aim has been getting better.”

“Wouldn’t you know,” you laughed. He chuckled as the two of you switched positions and you flipped a smaller bug type boggan over your shoulder before tossing Ronin his sword. “Here!”

He caught it effortlessly, “Thanks,” and slashed another boggan across the face.

“You’ve really gotta keep track of that thing,” you said as you made another quick passing tease at him before nocking and firing several arrows towards the boggans above you.

“Well it’s a little hard when I have to keep track of you flying around everywhere,” he snorted.

“Oh, didn’t know you had such a soft spot for me.”

“The softest,” the two of you smiled at each other.

“SERIOUSLY?!”

You both look up as Nod hopped from branch to branch, landing on a boggan and knocking them to the ground.

He glared at you two, “Get a room!”

The two of you raised a brow with a knowing smirk as he hopped another branch down, and the two of you followed.

“Aw Nod! Come on, we’re just having fun!”

“It’s gross!”

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud,” Ronin teased.

“I’ll stop being a stick in the mud when the two of you stop sucking face in the middle of a fight!”

“That deserves an extra two shifts.”

“WHAT?! NO! Come on, I was joking! Y/n, help me out here, will ya?”

You grinned, “Sorry, Nod. I wasn’t paying attention, I was too busy covering Ronin’s blind spot.”

“What? I don’t have a blind spot.”

“Tell that to the boggan on your right.”

“Oh damn, ugh—Y/n!”

You cackled as he checked his left only for nothing to be there. Ronin playfully shoved you, which you responded with by hitting him on his arm, all the the while Nod groaned and held his face in his hands. It was going to be a long day.

[mysunandmoon98]

Sending waves to wave to earth as we grow alongside each other across the ocean 🌊

(rambings from a while back, edited to be coherent, please share this time of love with me)

I am someone who often questions things about myself, especially the things I am into and enjoy. I like to figure about exaclty what it is that captivates me. Wave to earth have been on my mind a lot recently with their US tour kicking off. Subsequently I started to wonder a little, what is it about this band that I am so captivated by and feel so connected to? To put it simply, music is art, and I honestly live day to day examening and thinking about art. What draws me into art is typically one of two things: admiration to anothers dedication/view of life or its relatability and how I see myself in that art, how it fits with my daily life and thoughts. Wave to earth's music is one of those gems that fulfils both categories. What captured me was their specific nestling into a blur of genres, and their appreciation and dedication to art, as well as their lyrics about life and love.

The first live performance of theirs that I watched was purple lake. It was just daniel and donkgyu in a little room, I vividly remember the purple glow of the room, and the multi coloured lights dancing across the walls. Dongkyu had a pair of sunglasses hanging from his shirt. Watching that performance, when the camera pans to dongkyu on the drums, it felt like the whole universe had singled into this one person, fulfilling their passion and translating feelings into sound. I had never been so captivated in this way before.

I started getting more into the lyrics too. I had been a fan of Daniel for a little while before I heard wave to earth so was familiar with his voice and lyrical style from the little snippets of what I understood before. I vividly remember one day, sat at the kitchen table listening to seasons, just recently after its release. I sat there with the lyrics in front of me, and I felt my heart warm a little. A delicate hum of pain and nostalgia which stuck with, and resonated with me so strongly. "I'd give you all my life, my seasons" Listening to songs like light, wave, ride and surf made me fall more in love with life. The link of love and life with the sea and nature fit hand in hand so beautifully. It gives a sense of connection, a grounding feeling, whilst also somehow making me feel like i'm floating in the clouds, my mind completely at peace, even in the middle of a hectic day.

Then as the autumn and winter come, I grativiate to songs such as bonfire and bird. A couple years ago, on my journeys back home from college, I would listen to these songs as the sun set. I shut the door on a difficult day listening to music that made life feel beautiful again. "Bird, how does it feel to fly. Hey bird, do you look down or forward?" These lyrics stuck in my mind, as I felt stuck in the sickening routine my life had back then. Do I look down to my heart, do I look to myself, to this moment, or do I look into the future? How is everyone around me living, how do you see? I felt confused, life was a blur of one day to the next. I would listen so intently, every lyric, every chord. One listen for the lyrics, one for Daniel's voice, one for the drums, one for the bass, one for the harmonies, one for it all together. It was moments of peace in during a messy time. From this, I found one of my big happinesses in life: bass guitar. I was drawn into John Cha's bass lines. I always pondered on which was a favourite. For autumn, I like bonfire, the bass gives a rich yet fluttering feeling, like fireflies dancing in the night. There is a certain part in gold which I adore it's like velvet, so smooth, so deep but also powerful. Then in daisy, in this one break- where often the guitar gets centre stage, there is just this epic breakdown, giving that depth, that almost tangible grip on the song, all the desire and the love just bursts out, and I think its incredible. I came to realise how beatiful bass guitar is. I love the melodic charm of John's playing, the variations during live performances too (I remember learning the term 'bass fills' from his youtube, which I know I probably use incorrectly haha, but just that little extra something special, I love it). I'm not too educated on music, I really only write from the heart, but I feel like John's playing, it really feels like another voice, another vocal, another expression of the lyrics. I never understood music in this way before, so deeply, so interconnected, so beautifully.

From this, music became such a bigger part of my life. I started listening to more instrumental songs, and I gained a whole new outlook on music and instruments. Side B of flaws and all... it really is my everything, that lofi jazz sound they have.. it is everything to me, and sparked my love for a new kind of music. I listen to side A when its sunny and bright out, as well as when my gloomy days need some sunshine. "I'm broken, so take me to the evening glow, and lay me down on the sun, the tender sun" This song, their music, is like a warm ray of sunshine.

So I think about this a lot, as time passes and things change. I feel I have changed and grown, and I look and see their success as a band and see how they have changed and grown and I feel immense happiness. I adore how wave to earth craft their music, their performances, their albums covers. It is always a big creative inspiration in my life. So I just wanted to talk about it, I'm a little bit lost for words, but these days I find myself tearing up thinking about these things so I just wanted to try and express how my heart has been feeling :')

[swaps55]

20 Fanfic Questions

Tagged by @cchickki. Thank you!

Tagging @urrone @westernlarch @bioticbooty @commander-krios and anyone else who feels so inclined!

How many works do you have on AO3?

47

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

944,833

I haven’t checked to see if Mezzo’s current word count will put me into 7 figures, but if it doesn’t, it’s close.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mass Effect. One trick pony right here.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sonata – Sam and Kaidan fake dating.

Cantata – The Making of Commander Shepard, aka, a group of misfits find a home in each other. Also it’s an epically slow burn friends to idiots to soulmates.

Celestial Navigation – One of the rare times I wrote smut. The entire time I worked on it I was the equivalent of a hissing cat stuck in a tree.

Pieces Form the Whole – A collection of mshenko shorts, prompts, etc., featuring more or less a proto-Sam Shepard who isn’t Sam Shepard but eventually became him.

Fugue – Alchera and the 2 year gap. A story about finding hope in grief.  

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Sometimes I go through a low spoons period where they sit for a bit, but I have a rule that I cannot post anything new until I have responded to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on a thing I wrote. Community is the best part of fandom. Having others to yell and flail with about the fictional people in my head is fucking incredible.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

A short in Pieces Form the Whole called Faraway, So Close, which is the only Angst Without a Happy Ending thing I have ever written. It is the fic that kicks puppies. It is less than 1,000 words and I will never write anything like it again.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Not sure I have ever written about two happier people than Sam and Kaidan at the end of Sonata.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope. The occasional odd comment, but I haven’t gotten any hate, thankfully.

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

When a story calls for it, I write it, though I’m too ace to write much smut for the sake of smut. I don’t have anything against it; smut just doesn’t interest me much unless the conditions are right. Couldn’t tell you what the conditions are. I just know them when I see them.  

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Crossovers and AUs aren’t usually my thing, but I have to admit I have been mildly tempted to write a Mass Effect/Stargate AU, because I sure wouldn’t have to work hard to set it up, and Sam Carter and Sam Shepard breaking physics would be tons of fun.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not translated, though I’ve had a couple of stories podficced, which is insanely cool!!!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Once, and it taught me rather painfully that cowriting is not something I am cut out for.  

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Shepard and Kaidan, to the surprise of no one.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

It’s pretty rare I start something I don’t finish. My head explodes if I try to work on more than one project at a time, so if I get invested in something it generally gets finished. I have a story called Cadenza that isn’t currently doing anything – because I can’t work on 2 things at once – that I really want to finish; I just don’t know when I’ll get there. But I really hope I will.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and combat are two things I have a very good time with.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I suck at setting. If reading that surprises you in any way, and hopefully it does, it is because I have worked very hard to suck less at it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have long envied the ability of others to write in other languages, and write dialect. I would love to be able to do it, but I suck at it. So add that to #17, lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically, it was The Black Stallion. I was probably eight. I sent The Black and Alec Ramsey to space.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Aww, don’t make me choose between my children. I love my stories. But gun to my head, long fic is probably Cantata. It was such a joy to write, and watching other people fall in love with OC characters I figured no one would care about was proof magic is real.

My favorite one shot is probably The Words That Change Us, an N7 day story that became the catalyst for all the Sam and Kaidan First Kiss AUs. Writing that story was an insane experience – I couldn’t write it fast enough. At one point I had two completely different conversations unspooling in my head at the same time. It’s so much fun to go back and read.

[agent-troi]

Borrowed Time (WIP Ask game)

ohhh boy this behemoth will never see the light of day but I'm so happy you asked about this one bc as complicated as it is I love thinking and talking about it lol

so this was meant to be a fix-it for the ending of the star trek novelverse. some important background info: the coda trilogy wrapped up the novelverse basically by retroactively wiping that timeline from existence to avert a threat to the entire multiverse, because apparently with all the new shows and tie-in novels people thought it would be too confusing to also keep the novelverse books going. well that made me pissed as hell so I wrote this short fic, The Forgotten Splinter, bringing back one of my favorite and criminally underused characters, Riker and Troi's daughter Tasha, and Borrowed Time was meant to be a follow up to that.

I have a partial outline complete with chapter titles and extensive notes on what I wanted to happen, but at some point the idea just got too complicated and overwhelming for me to contemplate lol. the short of it is that Tasha gets her memories back from the First Splinter Timeline as well as the other timeline branches that were erased, and she and the gang work together to restore that timeline while also eliminating the threat from the Devidians.

I ended up not writing very much of it except for a list of chapter titles (in rough chronological order) and one passage:

Weddings and Funerals

Sole Survivor

The Reflecting Game

Unsung Heroes

After the Silence

Out of the Silent Wormhole

We Seek the Paradox

What's Good for the Goose

Sound and Fury

More than Memory

There but for the Grace of God

Hail Mary Ex-Machina

Roll for Initiative

The Thousandth Knife

When the Dealing's Done

“The First Splinter Timeline.” Tasha laughed bitterly. “You have no idea what we did for you. What we sacrificed… and this timeline? This timeline is shit! Your version of the Federation literally banned an entire class of life-forms, and didn’t even bother to make an exception when the child of two Starfleet heroes’ life was at stake!” The Troi-Rikers visibly blanched. “And you!” Tasha exclaimed, swiveling toward Picard. “You’re a bloody admiral! Whatever happened to ‘don’t let them promote you, don’t let them transfer you, don’t let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you’re there, you can make a difference’?” She paused to take a deep breath. “And why didn’t you tell Beverly you love her? She wanted you to go after her, fight for her, not let her go!” Picard was stunned speechless. Tasha continued her rant unabated. “Our timeline wasn’t perfect, but it was better than this! What kind of multiverse is this, where the timeline in which things go mostly right has to be erased from causation, while this shit timeline with all the unnecessary angst and dramatic tension gets to live on? It’s not fair, dammit!” By this point Tasha was nearly hysterical, and the tears poured in a seemingly endless flood down her cheeks. The multiple timelines’ worth of trauma she had been suppressing for six years had finally burst forth from the dam of her subconscious. Deanna’s soul cried out in pure and complete empathy. She had entertained similar thoughts ever since Thad’s diagnosis. Why did their timeline have to be the one where he died? The whole thing had made absolutely no sense, as if whoever was writing the story of their lives got a kick out of torturing their characters.

I came up with this after Picard season one aired but before two and three, so I didn't incorporate any of that into this idea lol, anyway I had some vague notion that this would be the first installment of an epic trilogy, but almost no one read my novelverse fic when I was actively writing and posting about it so I don't really have much motivation to make it happen

[popculturebuffet]

It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage Finale: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy archelogists and welcome to the final installment of my Indiana Jones Retrospective, It's Not the Years, It's the Milleage. For those just joining us for the epic conculsion, i've covered all four previous Indy films over the past few months, from the good with great action set pieces, iconic lines, and deft character work, to the bad with the uncomfortable amount of brown face, temple of dooms theme park version of india and support of colonolisim, and Crystal Skulls sterotpyical 'savage tribesman", to the just plain weird with aborted ideas such as a haunting in scottland, a chess game to the death, sun wukong vs indiana jones, and an out and out alien invasion which Indy makes out during suprising no one.

IT's been one long, LONG journey and today.. it ends, as does the film franchise. With Dial of Destiny. Dial is the main reason we did this: a fresh fim with ford, with a fresh director in Logan maestro James Mangold, a final chapter for the ages.. and it has been recived with a resounding

Yeah while there was some hype for this film from Fans of Mangold or Indy (Of which i'm now both) it's now gotten to the point Wikipedia has out and out labeled it a box office bomb and Naturally the failure of this film has been taken with grace and restraint by the internet

It hasn't helped that Indy has come out in a summer with plummeting box office from usual money makers, so people are only more on their "Why aren't people seeing these films" kick. When really the reasons aren't new. We have "Doing the same shit a diffrent day instead of going with what was new and working " (Transformers rise of the beasts), "Another film outboxing it" (Elemental), "The company behind it simply not promoting it at all" (Ruby Gilman, which I intend to review at some point), " or "Oopsie we hired a pedophile as our leading actor, have no idea where we were taking this franchise when we started this film, and our company is ran by an evil overlord no one likes whose actively made the media landscape worse ever since he took over, better hope our promotoinal tactics work..."

The issues aren't new, their simply finding hitting people over the head.. and that's what happened here. Indy had an uphill battle: I was only invested at first because James Mangold was directing it and Logan is still one of the best superhero movies ever made. I got more invested thanks to this retrospective. Given Disney's slipshod treamant of star wars and terrible treatment of last jedi as well as the mcu being a mess right now, it's not a huge leap that many audiences really didn't want to gamble on ANOTHER disney live action movie that just looked okay, no matter how much Phoebe Waller Bridge or Antonio Bandareas it had. While it's sad as I honestly don't think the film deserved THIS much of a bomb.. I can't blame audiences for waiting for Disney Plus. We simply live in an era now where most people have tons of streamers or will get one for a month to watch one movie and anything else they've caught up on. We're simply entering an era where having a big brand name isn't a guarantee and in this case can be a curse if that name is disney. Big franchises can work, see Spider-Verse and Scream VI making great money, but you have to have something to offer.

So come with me under the cut as we see if Indy has just that or is best left in the past

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHOYHOY

When I'm Gone, He's Gone

As you'd expect, Lucas still wanted to make a 5th film after Skull, with Speilberg and Ford on board as always. This time though..

Lucas himself went to the press saying he wanted to do something new and Speilberg was stuck in the past... which I translate as Lucas once again went kinda nuts on the premise while , much like after Temple of Doom, Speilberg wanted something a tad more grounded to avoid making the same mistake twice. It comes off as the two just could never quite agree on what to do and eventually.. decided to let the franchise move on without him, selling it and the rest of Lucasfilm to Disney. Disney naturally wanted an indy film right away and after getting the distribution rights one year later in 2023.. it took them a decade.

Yeahhh while we got the sequel trilogy pretty fast in hollywood time it took a good decade for Indy to put his hat on. At first there were rumors floated about about recasting, then it was settled on ford, then Speilberg was set to direct and the film proceded to go through a ton of writers, from Crystal Skull's david koepp

And even Dan Fogelman of This is Us royalty was floated as one of the writers. The film also got delayed thanks to Speilbergs work on Ready Player One and the Post, before he eventually stepped off all together. He claimed it was to pass it on to a fresh director, but it really feels like his heart wasn't in it anymore, and it was best someone whose heart was took the lead.

Enter James Mangold, director of The Wolverine, Logan and Kicker of ass. Mangold was a solid choice and my book and along with his usual co-writers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, who I assure you are real people but cannot assure you aren't old timey prospectors sent forward in time, hashed out the script.

Casting went smoothly, as did filiming, with the only hiccup being production's start being delayed because of COVID. They shot in morocco, england, ireland and spain, along with the us as you'd expect. Speilberg wasn't entirely detached as he still advised and watched dalies, ultimately loving the final product. So now we can actually look at that product let's start with how it writes Indy himself. The Mileage Adds Up

One of the things that made me not really enjoy Doom or Crystal.. was a lack of character work. Indy was about the same as when he started the adventure in contrast to Raiders and Last Crusade taking him on a wonderful character journey, in the former getting his passion back and in the later reconcliing with his dad. Dial of Destiny dosen't reach those highs, but I still think it does a decent job. The opening.. is okay detailing Indy having an adventures in the last day sof the third reich, setting up both Helna's Dad and our big bad, as well as Archimedes Dial, basied on the real life Antyhkiera Mechanism. I really do love the dial as a plot device as it's a departure, being the only one of the five to not involve a god of some sort, and yes the alien counts. It's just a time machine a famous philospher made. It's still fucking neat, I mean IT'S A TIME MACHINE A FAMOUS PHILSOPHER MADE, but it's a bit more grounded while still being pretty damn nifty.

So while the intro is mostly.. eh for me, what it does really well... is contrast the indy we know.. with where he is in 1969: Unlike Crystal Skull, which glossed over the massive amount of time passed, here were with an indy who feels both his age.. and that he's been left behind by the world. That time has taken everything from him: his friends, his father, his marriage.. and his son. He's left to yell at the neighbors, go to a class that dosen't pay attention and have a retirment party he clearly dosen't want. Granted his retirment does feel like a missed opportunity as wikipedia mentioned it pre-release as being forced out due to speaking out against operation paper clip, something that I either missed.. or more likely simply ISN'T in the film. It's a real shame, the idea is great it's just not present. This creates a really intriguing Parallel: Indy at the start of the last adventure of his we'll see is a broken down man whose years of adventuering have left a mark on him, who is estranged from Marion, has not a ton to live for, and is clearly only loosely holding it together. And the Indy we met in Raiders.. is a broken down man whose years of adventuring left a mark on him, is estranged from marion, has not a ton to live for and is clearly only loosely holding it together. The diffrence is how tired Indy is. In his late 30's he's beaten a bit and reduced to graverobbing.. but the minute he gets a real assignemnt int he grail, he jumps to it. He has his job, he has his friendship with marcus, and he's able to fix things with marion. He's not completely gone, he's just lost. Indy in Dial... has watched all his friends and his son, more on that in a minute, die, his marriage fall apart, and his job slip out under him. Without his job.. he's a man without a purpose.

This also ironically creates another Scrooge McDuck parallel, another bit of symmetry and one I didn't plan on till I started writing this and thought of the story: Indy reminds me a lot of Scrooge in the final part of Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Both are seasoned adventueres who have either pushed away anyone they have left or lost them and feel they just have nothing left but to slowly rot away.

And like Scrooge it takes a bolt of inspiration from the new generation after him to get Indy back in the game. In this case it's the highlight of the film, Helena Shaw, played by the wonderful, funderful fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. WB likely dosen't need any introduction but just in case she was showrunner of the successful and inventive stage show turned amazon prime show fleabag, showran killing eve and in general is pretty delightful. So it's no huge suprise she's great as Helena Shaw, daughter of Marcus Indy's sidekick for the intro who became obessed with our titular macguffin, Archemedis Dial, which can travel through time some time, though not to the end of all man kind. Helena is a neat character in that they managed to make her distinct while still giving her enough similarties to indy to serve well as his shadow, his ghost of sins past, him in his prime. She's also a brilliant archelogist, has a kid sidekick like indy did in temple of doom with Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidoore), sells priceless artifacts for a profit, has a messy love life, kicks plenty of ass, and tries to command every room she's in. What helps seperate them is their demeanor: Indy is gruff, snarky and surly. While Helena can snark with the best of them, she's fast talking, fast thinking, and tends to use charm as much as the old Indy Guile both heroes posses. The main diffrence is rather than sell to museums, she sells to private collectors...

Okay the REAL difference is that she's only in it for the money while Indy at least, on some level, cared about the history even at his lowest. Helena just sees all her father could do and all she learned from being around him before his passing as a way to get. Once again like Indy.. she had a father who cared more about some big treasure than her child.. and a godfather who cared more about what was going on in his life than ever checking up on her. She's a person whose been left to her own devices and feels she's doing just fine.. but honestly could be putting her talents to better use. Maybe not in a school like indy, but she could help return artifacts to their countries... probably still for a pretty penny, but not just to some random asshole to sit in his den.

You can tell dealing with her just makes Indy feel even more tired, which is somehow possible after all he's been through. He's once again seeing a ghost of his past and this time can't seem to get it through her head. When she celebrates shortly after his friend Renaldo dies, he has to sharply remind her. Nothing seems to get through to her.. till we get to THAT scene. Probably the best scene of the film. The climax is awesome.. but it's this one moment. On a boat at night, Helena asks Indy what he'd do with the dial, clearly thinking some grand adventure.. instead Indy: I'd stop my son from enlisting Helena: And how would you do that? Indy: I would tell him that he would die, that his mother would be overcome with a grief so intense that his father would be unable to console her, and that it would end their marriage. The sheer PAIN Ford conveys during that monologue.. may be the finest acting he's ever done. You can just FEEL Indy's loss; his son is gone, his marriage is torn, and he blames himself for both. It gives a horrible pathos to why he's so broken down. Both developments.. coudl've been really cheap. With how much everyone but me seems to hate mutt, and how rightly no one can stand shia suprise these days, most were expecting..

Instead Mutt's death is used as the catalyst for Indy's slow spiral into dispair. He would've been happy in retirment.. but he lost his son, his wife.. he's a man truly with nothing left he feels. And while he gets some old spark back unlike Scrooge.. he's fighting it every step. He dosen't want an adventure, he dose'nt want anything but his son back, and he knows damn well that even if the dial could... the sad truth is it likely has some horrible cost to it. The grail gave eternal life but bound you to a spot. The Skull gave you the knowledge of an unknowable alien god, but drove you mad. The arc killed anyone who looked. If the Dial even works... he knows it can't bring his son back, and he's only going after it because it's better in a museum than in the hands of Nazis. We also see a change in Helena. She goes from following Indy's lead out of nececity, to seeing his point, to seeing the beauty of the world instead of just the dollar signs. She still wants the money.. but she starts to see the beauty in history instead of the dollar. I also like that this isn't easy on Teddy, who sees her postive changes as coming between him and his surrogate mom, when really she fully intends to stick with Teddy no matter what and shows nothing but loyalty.. and in the end.. they dont' really finish that arc

I like Teddy a lot, and I wish this had more of a bow on it, though we do get him taking down a nazi and trapping him to drown and later getting into a dogfight. Teddy slaps is what i'ms aying> He dosen't have a ton of deep character to explore, but he's fucking great.

This all really cumulates in the climax.. which is so great i'd rather save it for after we cover one last major character, our antagonist. Our big bad is Mads Mikkelsen as Jurgen Voller, a thereoticain who wants the dial. At first Indy assumes, as most of the audience would that Voller simply wants the dial, which he's shown to obess over to win the war for hitler. Turns out Voller's plan is more complex. We see in the intro how Voller is the ONLY one who both sees the dial's value among the nazi's and the writing on the wall: Hitler is almost gone, he fucked them over. It's over. And thus the horror of Voller isn't like with Thot , at the giant horrifying nazi machine and all their power, and more at evil allowed to hide in plain sight. At a society who forgives horrible people because their useful. Voller got a free pass thanks to operation paperclip.. and the film shows while that idea got us tons of advances including space flight.. it came at the cost of giving horrible people real power and influence. The president is outright giving voller a MEDAL. And he hasn't changed: a truly chilling bit has him talking to a black bellhop delivering meal and asking where he came from.. and dismissing him saying he came from america. Voller is every bit the white supremacist monster he ever was, he's completely loyal to the idea of the nazi's. .just not to hitler. Voller's whole plan isn't to help hitler.. but to take him out, replace him and have someone compitent win. And he only gets as fara s he does because the goverment willingly works with him, gives him agents, goes after Helena and the dial. They know what he his but fully aid and abet him. Sure they eventually realize he's gone rogue, that his pet agent is entirely in his pocket.. but they don't turn on him till far too late and with one of their great agents dead. Concidentaly I feel Agent Mason is wasted: she's the calm rational agent.. but she's also the only major black character in the film and gets killed by a nazi. That's.. entirely fucked up and while I suspect inteitonally fucked up it just dosen't work for me.

Voller is also once again, much like with Belloc, an evil mirror of indy: Both are geniuses who adore history.. but one's a good person despite being gruff while one seems harmless when we first meat him but is actually a total monster. Mads does a great job showing just how evil the guy is without going over the top. Voller is determind to change history... and he does.. just not how he wanted to.

This Ain't 1933!

The climax.. is fucking awesome. Like Crystal Skull it goes beyond what the series had done before, if not more so. It's arguably even MORE over the top. But it works. For those who haven't seen the film... INDY GOES BACK IN TIME. The dial DOES indeed work.... but it's set up to ONLY go back to this point. Helena points out the idea of "loaded decks' earlier.. and realizes the dial is one. Archimedes only left it behind to create a stable time loop.

Indy going back into actual history is nuts, entirely and my jaw dropped at it.. but it's so damn fun. Our heroes not only have to escape the plain and get the dial back after it drops onto the coast, but survive the Siege of Syracuse, the roman invasion that eventaully resulted in Archimedes end. So we have two planes flying overhead, arrows everywhere and nazis versus romans. It's over the top but not in a way that really undermines the franchise, and frankly as what's intended to be the final act of indy ever, it's a fitting finale: the man whose explored history in the present.. gets to LITERALLY go to the past for his final adventure. I do get how not everyone will agree, and it won't work for everybody, this may be a bit tooo over the top, but I love it and feel it nicely ties up everyone's character arcs.

For Voller he gets to join history.. but instead of "fixing" it like he wanted he dies horribly and is forgotten to history only the "dragon" (his palne" is left.. and cleverly foreshadowed earlier when Teddy watches a puppet show. His nazi's all die and it's glorious to watch nazi after nazi go down from arrows or our two heroes escaping the plane while teddy takes the rest down with the help of a hapless pilot.

We then get the payoff for both Helena and Indy, as Indy gives the dial to archimedes.. and plans to stay. After all we established he's lost everything... why would he go back? He'll die soon.. but he's cconvinced he'll die soon back in the present. It's Helena who'se ultimately changed realizing both the value of history.. and ultimately the movie's moral: you can't change the past, but you can live for today. Helena can't change her awful upbringing or the things she's done.. but she can be better. And Indy can't save his son from death, save archimedes from death or be a better husband to marion during the greving process.. but he can be better to her and still live now. He still has so much to offer. He taught helena to love history and to try and be better. He gave his son a better life even if it was sadly cut short. He can be better. And when he can't be convinced the easy way she proves she's fully earned her way to being indy's succesor and just clubs him and takes him back (the dial has to go back with them as archimedes needs to make his own). The end scene also mostly works for me: Indy is back at his apartment.. but finds he's not alone as when he woke up there last time: Not only has Helena forgiven him, having realized much like Indy himself that warts and all, he's family, but Sallah, who I haven't gotten to talk about is here. Sallah is great in this film, not only helping Indy when he needs to lay low but enocuraging his friend it's not over. It's also nice to see Indy helped him and his family immigrate and that he's teaching his grand kids egyptian. It's also a nice way to still have davies play the roll.. but have him get a bit more depth and make up for a white guy playing the roll.

And last but not least.. Marion returns, and the two reconcile. I thought it was a bit easy when I frist saw it.. but I see now i'ts more the idea they have a long road ahead.. but both are willing to see it together.. Indy admits he was wrong and Marion is willing to give him another shot. For the third time but at least this time it's likely she just needed some psace to realize he wasn't being callous he just wasn't processing his grief.. and now he's ready to.. maybe they have a shot. It's a nice way to close out the films: Indy's life isn't over, he's got friends, he's got his wife.. and there's always another rainbow.

Assorted Other Stuff: The action set pieces as usual are fucking great, my faviorites easily being the climax and the diving adventure. The latter reminded me a lot of Tin Tin, Red Rackam's Treasure. Antonio Banderas is great as Reynaldo and I only wihs he had a bigger part.. and survived. It's not a huge suprise, saying Antonio Banderas is great. While I LIKED the finale with Marion, I'm with Karen Allen. They could've used her more. She deserves better dammit. WHy is it with the sequels they just can NEVER get bringing her back right?

Last but not least.. ther'es this weird subplot only brought up in the first two acts where the government frames indy for Murder that just.. never gets resolved? Like they never adressed it and as far as I can tell there's no resolution. Now granted I still think Indy isn't going to be arrested: He's clearly been unconcious for a week and Helena did have to get him back into the US, so it's likely the goverment found out about voller, got a debrief from helena.. and agreed to clear her and indy's record and absolve him of murder in exchange for never talking about this to anyone, as a Nazi escaping and killing one of their agents , after they pardoned the guy wouldn't look good. But we needed a line. It's easily the most baffling decision in otherwise a really godo film.

So finally we're , like indy back where we started.. was the film that bad?

When writing the reviews for Crystal Skull and Temple, I honestly hated the films MORE the more I thought abotu them, the more I found wrong, the more I realized how little they did. With this film. it's the opposite. The more I examine dial, the more I find to like. The character arcs, the action, the payoff. It's not perfect, again Indy is still kinda wanted for murder among other little plot gaffes, but I do think Dial is a solid entry in the series and better than both temple and skull at capturing what made the series graet. It dosen't nail it perfectly.. but it's still a fun ride with some really good character work and phenominal performances. Really indy failed.. because no one cares outside of fans of the franchise. As my brother put it when talking about this very film recently, kids don't know indy. It's not the big hit with kids star wars was and is. Star Wars will likekly rebound someday because Kids still dig it and kids will grow up with the sequels the way I grew up with the prequels, warts and all. Disney just assumed Indy was enough to carry it and he wasn't. I'm sad at it because not only is this a good film, but I was hoping for more pulp adventure films. But i'm also happy at what we got and to have done this journey. I saw the good, and the bad. And I saw a franchise I ended up really loving. In the end I got what I needed out of this franchise

[macawritesupdates]

Hell yeah historically inaccurate updated!! I'm so excited it's such a good fic! I started reading the new chapter and kept having to put my phone down to process before I could keep reading it's just that good. You've got me getting up to walk around the room every few paragraphs haha. Aww man lots of feels indeed with this one it opened strong with grandpa feels and then kept ramping up. Aww Yuuji ignoring the fact that he's starving hurts baby please you cannot ignore the fact that your body is dying 😢. Sukuna must be going through it watching the man he loves slowly wasting away but trying to pretend everything is fine. They're so cute though spending time together clearly caring about each other, Yuuji nuzzling Sukuna's hand had me kicking my feet that's so adorable. Sukuna wondering if Yuuji only likes some of his expressions makes me wonder how much that man wants to be loved in his entirety. So many people can love parts of him *cough* his power *cough* but not the whole of who he is. Yuuji I hate to say it but I don't think life would have been better if you'd been born in this era *side eyes MoL* you might be better off having been born in the future. Loved the detail that Sukuna taking time to think about stuff is a sign of respect from him and if he responds to a person quickly he probably doesn't care much for them or what they're saying. Not only is it a cool characterization, it also shows how well Yuuji knows him as a person. Damn Yuuji knowing him well as a person lemme just sit with that for a bit. I do love that for them truly they both deserve to be known and loved. The fact that Sukuna is trying so hard to understand Yuuji makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. I don't even have the words to describe it he's got this new relationship unlike any other he's previously had and it's a learning process but because Yuuji came to him and treated him like a person he's finally able to learn what human connection is like and now he's growing because of it. There's a line in the epic of gilgamesh (I know I know very modern very relevant right now forgive me for the obvious comparison lol) that mentions the two main characters a demigod king and a wild beast man the line goes “this is the story of them becoming human together” that line popped into my head reading this Yuuji was lost drifting away from humanity due to his grief and pain pushing him into a cog mentality and that's not even getting into the dehumanization he faces from others as Sukuna's vessel and the dehumanization all sorcerers face from the system itself and Sukuna dealt with hate and discrimination from birth eventually that discrimination became benevolence prejudice when he became powerful but he was still distinctly other and unwanted and not seen as human by most. Held up as a god on a pedestal but that's its own form of dehumanization and even as a god they didn't like him much. Ugh the pain and isolation got them both but then they met each other. Yuuji got to breathe freely in the past and feel joy again and Yuuji treated Sukuna like a real person which Let them both become human again together ❤. No need for gods or cogs here. (1)

Historically Accurate Yuuji is saying his life is hard and he wishes he was in the past while MOL Yuuji is standing in the background staring at the camera like he's on the office XD (Thank you for that mental image, it got me a giggle!) A lot of what I want to touch in Historically Accurate is the theme of dehumanization, connections, and handling grief c: Painful topics, but also want to speak of hope, so seeing your take on the chapter has me so happy that I'm making the points I wanted to make! <3

Also having to step away and walk circles...that was me writing this dang thing XD Had to keep closing it to go write something else because I was getting all sorts of choked up 8'3

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Fantasy (4) Masterlist

part one, part two, part three

A Game of Life (ao3) - Koolhotsweetloveberries

Summary: Daniel Howell, an honorable member of the King's Knighthood, does not expect much from his time at court. All changes when the court jester, Philip Lester, enters.

A Human Heart (ao3) - andthenshesaid-write (ladyknight1512)

Summary: Phil's mother has always said that there are creatures in the forest and Phil has always thought they were just stories. Then one day he runs into the forest looking for somewhere to hide and meets Dan, a man with antlers and the ability to talk to trees. Phil's world opens up but there are dangers in the forest that he can't even begin to imagine.

candles are how we keep fires as pets (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Dan tries to convince Phil that no, they absolutely cannot adopt the fire sprite that comes to visit their flat every day. Spoiler: He fails spectacularly.

Folktales from the sea (ao3) - glowingatmosphere

Summary: An unusual stranger saves Phil from drowning.

Luna Ursi (ao3) - Allthephils

Summary: Phil takes in a stray dog and soon realizes he’s found his other half.

Mirror Mirror (ao3) - dont-tell-them-i-write-phan (QueenJunoTheGreat)

Summary: Dan and Phil get invited to stay at a historical castle with Martyn and Cornelia. Contrariwise, Daniel and Philip aren’t invited anywhere, but not many people can say no to a highly trained thief and a dragon. But that’s totally unrelated

My Spirit Love (ao3) - MySecretsX

Summary: If you fall in love with a spirit who drains you both away, do you live together for twenty years, or stay alone each day?

Phil has lived in his house since he was born, but it was when he turned seven he met Dan for the first time. It's all childish games and the muse of a naïve brain until your fifteen-year-old son claims to have fallen in love with the boy you've never seen.

Is anything possible for love?

papercut (ao3) - schnaf

Summary: A cut. A tiny little cut, barely visible - just like a papercut. A cut - and yet, to Dan, it’s so much more. It’s the case he’s working on, the case only he seems to be taking seriously - it’s a serial killer’s signature. So when he gets the chance to track down the murderer, he doesn’t hesitate. And then, there’s Phil, Phil who’s making the chase so much more bearable, Phil who adds something completely different to his task. But things aren’t always what they seem.

siren song (ao3) - lestered (clonetrobed)

Summary: He thinks of last night, teetering on the edge of the cliff, so happy with the idea of following Phil’s voice all the way down. That’d been a particularly close call, and he doesn’t even care. He just wants to hear the song again.

Something so magic about you (ao3) - citizen101erased

Summary: Prince Daniel and his servant Phil wake up one morning - in each other’s bodies. They’ve been cursed, and now have to go on an epic quest involving dragons and lost crowns to be restored to their own bodies. But will they make it? And will they still be the same afterwards?

strike a deal, kiss my lips (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Witches were the only magical beings capable of binding and controlling demons. It required a complicated ritual and crazy amounts of magic.

It happening on accident was practically unheard of until Phil came along and got tangled up with a snarky and dangerous demon named Dan. Suddenly bound together, Phil must grapple with control over a chaotic demon that wants to strip the skin from his bones.

And maybe strip the clothes off of his body as well.

The city is so loud (but you drown out all the noise) (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Phil's pack might have kicked him out for mating with a human, but his love for Dan was much stronger than anything he'd ever experienced before. It wasn't easy to adjust to living with Dan in his - now their - small flat in London, but Phil would do it again in a heartbeat. With Dan by his side, Phil was sure he could get used to all the weird things humans did.

The Lovers (VI) (ao3) - Tarredion

Summary: Dan, guardian of the forest, feels inadequate to love and of love. His best friend Phil loves him despite that.. but doesn't know quite what to do when Dan becomes a hypocrite- playing with both their feelings

Under the Midnight Sun (ao3) - yiffandquiff

Summary: Every night in London, a midnight circus pops up under the ringmaster Phil Lester’s command. Many of the performers are runaways, looking for a new start at life. One of them is Daniel Howell, a young man who is looking for a new excitement to his life. But slowly, the secrets of the midnight circus and Phil Lester became shown and Dan realizes that he may be in a situation he’ll never be able to get out of

voice on the wind (ao3) - CapriciousCrab

Summary: A life-changing injury leaves a desperate musician looking for a miracle. He finds it in the company of a Fae muse, but at what cost?

water takes you in (ao3) - vvelna

Summary: Dan meets a mermaid.

We Can't Magic (ao3) - dont-tell-them-i-write-phan (QueenJunoTheGreat)

Summary: Choosing to stay in the Fairy World had been easy, but there were some unforeseen difficulties.

Within Spirits (ao3) - denixvames

Summary: Cursed with their fates, Dan and Phil find themselves scared and confused. They have no choice but to dig deeper into a truth they never knew. While on this journey of self discovery, the two meet other people like them who can transform too. These best friends will try to find their own history through the unique species while a great enemy vows to kill them before they can stop his plans.

Your Immortal (ao3) - yikesola

Summary: It’s genetics. Recessive. Moderately uncommon, but comparable to widow’s peaks, albinism, left-handedness. Except, more uncommon than those. Immortals, as the name suggests, can’t die.

An au fic about lifetimes and trees.

[breitzbachbea]

💖🛒🎢

(And I wanna ask more, but this seems like enough for now.)

Ohhh, inch resting ones!

Fanfic Writer Emoji Asks

💖 What made you start writing?

Already answered here!

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

For obvious, be it very personal reasons, grief plays a major role in many of the things I write. Loss of a loved one, but also the mourning of chances not taken, of paths now seemingly blocked. (The latter has a lot of overlap though with me trying to not romanticize Organized Crime, so it's not just 'here is someone grieving for their past self and that is something normal we all go through', but 'Living this life will never make you happy and instead lock you into one of your potential worst selves').

I liked some good eating metaphors, even far before I knew what was going on metatextually, but now it's kicked into hyperdrive. Food, teeth, hunger, all those are things that often find their way into my writing, in minor ways.

I also love a good historical allusion, goddammit. To be fair, I don't know how many I've actually written into my writing, but I very often think about how I could represent characters with elements from myth or history. I adore a historical nickname, even if it is rather for the parent generation. Fernando's nickname being 'El Rey', and thusly Antonio at first being called 'El Principe', before the other senior Spanish mobsters realized he's pursueing a different style of business conduct and so he got stuck with 'El Conquistador'. Salvatore being known as 'Caesar' or 'Dionysius of Palermo'. Haunted houses, HUGE thing. The English office being a former Victorian era factory, Michele's house made to resemble a Roman villa, the O'Connel's house formerly being a house where in Industrial times, dozens of people lived in crammed conditions. Two of the Danish subordinates are directly based on two heroes from the medieval German epic 'Kudrun'. Dolcetto's cat is named Machiavelli and Lovino is the reason.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

I can't judge this one on subject matter (Though I guess, as far as fucked up shit goes, La Sicilia dell'eterna notte gets disturbing very quick for something with less than 500 words). Therefore, I will go for the writing process. No Rest For The Wicked was written within a week, with no prior planning whatsoever and with a deadline for rarepairweek to meet. That was some topsy turvy shit. And the latter half of Italian Affairs, like the last third I guess, is a rollercoaster ride - both in its creation and within the actual text.

But the award has to go to The Amulet. I still have to have a call with Emi and iron out the last comments, before I print the 70 pages out and proofread them. And then I can finally, FINALLY upload them.

I started writing the first draft of the story on paper in January 2017. The idea of wanting to write something with my Greek and Turkish OCs had been ghosting around my head for a while. But I initially started writing because I was stuck on Italian Affairs and none of the characters would talk to me (e.g. everything I wrote in their voice sounded ooc), so I started writing something else to 'make them jealous'. Absolute pro tip btw, pivoting away from one story when you are stuck with another will do wonders for making you inspired for the first story again. Get out of that rut. Anyways, so I started writing that draft and then continued doing so when I had a free minute at school, until the story was done. I then typed up the draft and did a first round of revisions. I tried to find beta-readers for it, which also worked in 2019. But I still didn't publish it, because the beta never made it to the end. And then it sat and sat in my drafts, while I worked on other projects. My writing improved, my standards raised themselves. And I began to see why the story had always bugged me. I saw that I would have to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch, with extensive research and some soul-searching. And this is what I did - Before I was able to write part 3, I spent weeks hovering up information about the Turkish Republic and the 2014 election and so on. Only for it to vaguely matter for half a page in this 70 page epos. (But worth it, I love learning stuff). I eventually got dear Emi as a beta, who immensely helped to improve this text. Let's all hope that after 6 years of work, it'll finally see the light of day.

[joekabox]

Have you ever made your own custom Digimon evolution line?

Do you mean for canon Digimon or mine from the ground up? I'll answer both!

If you mean branching off from canon Digimon, I can't say I've ever really made any I've been happy with and put to paper or word in a meaningful way. I've had ideas, like I had an idea for a Gallantmon/Dukemon sort of Digimon, meant as a 'good' final form for the Keramon line, instead of Diaboromon, but ultimately I never really did much with it. I think I planned on calling it Grendelmon? Named after Grendel from the epic poem of Beowulf.

My intent was that they were more based on Beowulf themselves - a legendary hero that overcame a monster (in this case, Diaboromon), to shine through as a hero, but Beowulfmon already exists, so I went with Grendel themselves as the name origin. I think it still works.

If you mean my own Digimon from the ground up, I have actually, yeah!

I used to make tons of Digimon as a kid, though the one that really shone for me was an idea I had for a personal partner idea. I thought, if I wanted a Digimon partner that wasn't a canon Digimon (like Veemon, my current go to choice), this would be it.

Her name was Hoppymon, and she was a pink bunny with a long tail with a foot at the end, allowing her to use her tail to hop around too. Weirdly enough, the idea for her came to me in a dream, and I remember trying to draw her almost immediately after waking up.

She was intended to be a holy Digimon with healing abilities (her signature move being Healy Hop, where her hopping makes healing-shockwaves), that had an evolution line that saw her losing much of her tail-hopping abilities, but becoming a large, buff bunny that could beat people up and kick them with her tail instead, until finally turning into a large, bunny-like dragon, with similarities to Magnadramon/Holydramon.

I drew out her evolution line a long time ago, and while I still have those drawings, I can't find them for the life of me. Instead, have a couple of drawings I drew of her first two evos a lot later (though by no means recently), and the original sprite art I made as a little kid that started it all!

The names for the evolutions after Hoppymon are not what I ended up going with, but I don't recall what I used other than the Champion/Adult stage was named Lagomon. I was like, not very old when I made this sprite art, so I wasn't super creative with names.

My brother also worked with me to make a 'brother' to Hoppymon, named Hippymon, who is very similar in design but blue instead of pink, and took on more ninja-like features as it evolved instead of buff fighter bunny features. Both resulted as dragons though. They had sort of a Terriermon and Lopmon relationship.

I hope that answered your question, and i hope you enjoyed the answers!

[concerthopperblog]

Klash of the Titans Tour: Testament & Kreator w/ Possessed Live at Tabernacle

Testament announced that they would be embarking on a revival of their epic Klash of the Titans North American Tour on their social media accounts on April 30, 2024. This time around the Klash of the Titans Tour would feature another thrash metal icon Kreator with additional opening support from a death metal forefather, Possessed. Both Testament and Kreator can say that their roots lay deep in the early days of the thrash metal revolution in the 1980s. Possessed can also carry the same designation in the 1980s, but it would land deep in the roots of the death metal genre.

And what makes this tour even more special than it already is featuring two giants of the thrash metal genre and an integral part of the death metal genre, Testament will be performing an “old-school” set for their most die-hard fans featuring songs from their massive discography that pays tribute to the re-releases of their influential first two albums: The Legacy (1987) and The New Order (1988). With songs like “Into the Pit”, “Trial by Fire”, “Over the Wall”, and “Burnt Offerings”, I was excited to hear what songs Testament would pick for this blockbuster tour with their buds Kreator and Possessed.

Possessed is a death metal band from San Francisco, CA. who has been performing 1983-1987, 1990-1993, and 2007-present day. Possessed are Jeff Becerra (vocals), Daniel Gonzalez (guitars), Robert Cardenas (bass), Claudeous Creamer (guitars), and Chris Aguirre (drums). Possessed has released (or been included) three (3) LPs, three (3) EPs, one (1) Live album, three (3) Compilation albums, two (2) Music videos, and one (1) Documentary. Possessed is currently signed to Nuclear Blast Records which is the label that released their third (3) LP, Revelations of Oblivion, was released on May 10, 2019.

Kicking off the evening, Possessed took the stage at the Tabernacle and you could feel the anticipation with the crowd as they prepared to headbang to one of the one of the forefathers in the death metal genre. Many consider Possessed the band that started death metal with their debut album, Seven Churches, in 1985. And Possessed has not lost a step over the decades since their debut album made music history. I hope people understand that this tour was not only for us as fans but this tour is also for these three bands to celebrate their rich history as metal pioneers.

You can see the epic setlist performed by Possessed as opening support during The Klash of the Titans Tour at the Tabernacle:

·         “Pentagram”

·         “Ritual”

·         “Tribulation”

·         “Graven”

·         “The Exorcist”

·         “Demon”

·         “Death Metal”

·         “Fallen Angel”

 You can support Possessed by checking out their official merchandise page. Follow this link to Possessed’s official YouTube channel or their official TikTok account.

Kreator is a thrash metal band from Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany that formed in 1982. They are also signed to Nuclear Blast records and have released fifteen (15) LPs since 1985 with Hate Uber Alles (2022) being their latest release on Nuclear Blast Records. Kreator currently consists of Miland “Mille” Petrozza (vocals/rhythm guitar), Sami Yli-Sirnio (lead guitar), Jurgen “Ventor” Reil (drums), and Frederic Leclercq (bass).

This would be my first time catching the thrash metal legends from Germany live, so I was eager to check another band off my bucket list. The stage setup was probably one of the most elaborate since I saw Amon Amarth perform at the Tabernacle a few years back. Some fans that were riding the rail were discussing their past times seeing Kreator when they toured the States. Since this was my first time seeing Kreator live, I was excited to hear some songs like “Coma of Souls”, “Terror Zone”, “Satan is Real”, “Pleasure to Kill”, “Endless Pain”, and “Enemy of God”. Ending their set with one of my favorite tracks from their 1986 release of the same name, “Pleasure to Kill”, made me a happy camper.

Check out this headbanging set from one of the forefathers of the thrash metal genre:

·         “Hate Uber Alles”

·         “Phobia”

·         “Coma of Souls” (Intro only)

·         “Enemy of God”

·         “666 – World Divided”

·         “Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)”

·         “Hail to the Hordes”

·         “Betrayer”

·         “Satan is Real”

·         “Phantom Antichrist”

·         “Strongest of the Strong”

·         “Terrible Certainty”

·         “Violent Revolution”

·         “Pleasure to Kill”

 You can show Kreator some support or check their music out on their official Bandcamp page or their official online merchandise store today!

Testament is a thrash metal band that originated in Berkeley, CA. in 1983 under the previous name Legacy. In 1986, Legacy transformed into the juggernaut of thrash metal that we know today as Testament. Testament is comprised of Chuck Billy (vocals), Eric Peterson (rhythm & lead guitar/backing vocals), Alex Skolnick (lead guitars/backing vocals), Steve Di Giorgio (bass/backing vocals), and Chris Dovas (drums). Testament has released thirteen (13) LPs since 1987 with Titans of Creation (2020) being the last release on Nuclear Blast records. Peterson, a founding member, and Billy are the only members to have appeared in all of Testament’s releases to date.

It was finally time for the thrash metal gods to take the stage at the Tabernacle in downtown Atlanta, Ga. Starting the night with “Eerie Inhabitants” and “The New Order” made me very happy and I knew that this was going to be a memorable, classic set from the thrash legends Testament. It’s not often that Testament revisits songs from their first two albums, but we were all lucky to get a chance to hear songs like “Eerie Inhabitants”, “The New Order”, “Trial by Fire”, “Into the Pit”, “Over the Wall”, “The Haunting”, and “Raging Waters”. That was just the tip of the iceberg, feast your eyes on this classic setlist from one of the pioneers of thrash metal below:

·         “Eerie Inhabitants”

·         “The New Order”

·         “Apocalyptic City”

·         “Raging Waters”

·         “The Preacher”

·         “The Haunting”

·         “Trial by Fire”

·         Drum Solo (Chris Dovas)

·         “First Strike is Deadly”

·         “A Day of Reckoning”

·         “Alone in the Dark”

·         “Do or Die”

·         “Disciples of the Watch”

·         “Over the Wall”

·         “Into the Pit”

 You can check out my first time covering Testament when they came to Atlanta as part of the farewell tour for the legendary Slayer: The Final Tour: Slayer/Lamb of God/Anthrax/Testament/Napalm Death (Atlanta 08/10/2018). You still have time to see the Klash of the Titans Tour featuring Testament & Kreator with Possessed on the following dates:

Sat, OCT 19

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

San Antonio, TX

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Sun, OCT 20

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

Dallas, TX

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Tue, OCT 22

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

Denver, CO

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Wed, OCT 23

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

Albuquerque, NM

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Thu, OCT 24

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

Phoenix, AZ

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Sat, OCT 26

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

Los Angeles, CA

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Sun, OCT 27

KLASH OF THE TITANS North America 2024

San Francisco, CA

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