#i legitimately don't have a solid answer

[nerdalmighty]

why do you think donald changed the triplets names

VERY good question. If I had to guess, at least for the 2017 version where their full names are Hubert, Dewford, and Llewellyn, Donald was probably thinking about names for if the boys eventually wanted to join the professional world (s1e1 literally has Donald interviewing to reenter the workforce, the whole show involves the McDuck enterprises, etc, it adds up). He probably wanted them to have options, but he probably also thought he was being clever with the rhyming names. Cuz I mean, come on. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are iconic names. It's also entirely possible he just wanted to ignore Della and thought Jet, Turbo, and Rebel were dumb and thought "I can do better." Or he truly didn't find Della's note until it was too late, if at all. Honestly who can say. I do think he made the right choice though, much to the chagrin of Turbo.

[deerspherestudios]

I’m super curious about Atom!!!! Firstly, they’re so cute :(((( I would be so nice to them right off the bat. I could match that energy (maybe not the…liquefying people part, but I can Definitely meet the upbeat “get to know you” energy!!!!)

But I’m also curious about their little “worm transform-y” ability. There are a TON of implications to what they said about it, and I’m very interested to know which of those implications are true

So maybe I’m taking Atom too literally, but I’m pretty sure at one point they said “I can make your air.” Which, they WOULD need to make MC air, if they were to keep you in space forever. Air is limited.

But you can’t breathe in worms. So that means Atom’s worm (body?) transformation legitimately BECOMES whatever they will it to. Not just imitates. That dog food wasn’t worms, it was dog food. And the air isn’t worms, it’s air!!

And then that stretches into other questions. Could Atom take any form they wish? What would happen if they transformed all their worms? Can they feel when their worms (body??) are being transformed?

You don’t have to answer that slew of questions at the end lmao—maybe I’m reading too much into it. But!! I LOVE Atom and all the implications that their existence holds. I had a lot of fun playing the game :DD

Aaa I'm really glad you like Atom as much as you do!! I don't know if it's just new blorbo energy but I get excited to talk about them, especially in detail like this haha! I'll try to explain below the cut about their ability to create things (tw// it's long!!) but to keep it short, you're actually correct!

TLDR: Atom reconstructs their worms into different forms of matter (whether solid/liquid/gas) to produce whatever you need to survive. Because, uh,,, science. <3

Here's the lengthy explanation of what Atom can do. I'm not smart enough to explain it but I'm stealing this from another website:

Transmutation or nuclear transmutation is a process that involves a change in the nucleus of an atom. When the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom changes, the identity of that atom changes as it is turned into another element or isotope.[1] This transmutation process can be either natural or artificial.

Simplifying it further for my character, when Atom talks about being better than a planet, they kinda are! They can make anything as long as they know what it is (I've yet to come up with 'how' they discover new elements,,, it's implied in-game but I wanna flesh it out more; ask me again later keheh), and the worms that make them up is an unlimited resource/material for those exact transmutations. And if something turns into waste, like the rejected dog food, they just crunch them up to be re-used all over again.

Remember what they said about being your 'angel'? Not to be too on the nose but in a way they turned the Bidadari into your own personal terrarium, with it being the ecosystem keeping you alive in space. Which, in my personal opinion, makes the ending much more terrifying.

Here's a lightning round to answer your questions because I don't know when I'll get these kinds of questions again!!

Could Atom take any form they wish?

Nope! They're still just worms! When they 'make' something it's no longer a part of them.

2. What would happen if they transformed all their worms?

Highly unlikely to happen, but let's say for experimentation's sake Atom is forced to use up all their worms and the end result is separated from it so they can't absorb it back into themselves like the dog food. It has to leave one single organism behind, but it can't really do anything. That single organism eventually will multiply all the way back to its former (mass wriggling) glory.

3. Can they feel when their worms (body??) are being transformed?

Nope! They don't really feel anything, at the most they feel pressure and temperature changes but that's it.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TEDTALK HAVE A NICE DAY! HERE'S YOUR REWARD <3

[moonveiltarot]

YES OR NO PICK A CARD TAROT READING

Think of your "yes or no" question and choose an image from above that you're drawn to. This is just a quick reading!

1 - 2 - 3

4 - 5 - 6

7 - 8 - 9

10-11-12

1. The Magician. I'm getting a yes from this card. You're currently manifesting whatever you asked about. Your practical and spiritual actions are in alignment with what you asked for. I'm assuming it's something you really want, in which case, you can absolutely achieve it.

2. Two of Wands. Yes. You're probably still in the planning stage or will be making a solid plan to move forward soon. You are on the right track, follow your intuition for each step. If you ever get nervous about making the wrong move, your guides are with you every step of the way. Mistakes are okay to make. They won't be detrimental to your plans or manifestations.

3. Seven of Wands. Not yet. Your defenses are up, but there are legitimate reasons for you to be guarded right now. Your spirit team want you to know that your struggles will be over soon and your blessing is right at the end of this difficult time. This is part of the manifestation. Inner work is being done now, as seven is the number of actively overcoming obstacles. You are going to succeed in this as long as you don't give up.

4. The Lovers Reversed. No. This decision is not in alignment with the path you want to go down. If you are having negative thoughts, they are not in alignment with your higher purpose and are throwing you off guard. If this is a potential love interest, avoid canoodling of any kind. Just because there is chemistry and a vibe that only you two feel does not make this person your soul mate or twin flame. They are likely not a good option for you right now or they may not be available. If you're inquiring about a person, you don't know enough about them to assume they'd be a good match. You need to avoid this for now. The Page of Pentacles popped up as well, so take your time and look at this practically. Get grounded and think about this choice or person realistically.

5. The Lovers. Yes. You can firmly make this decision. If you are of two minds, spirit is urging you to take the path you are most drawn to intuitively. I saw the Two of Swords a moment ago flip over with this card. Some of you need to make a decision now or spirit will assign you one to put you in alignment with your goals. Seriously make this choice and stick to it, don't doubt yourself. Your intuition is correct. Whichever path you take is going to lead you to where you want to go. (This deck has 4 lovers cards and I got the NB lovers for this pile, so you may be NB or it's just a gender neutral card for spirit's message to reach whoever it is intended to).

6. The Devil reversed. Yes, but there is some healing to do. You seem to be making the right choices and aligning with your true purpose, which is the life you choose to live. You are overcoming an addiction, bad habit, abusive behavior or completing a karmic cycle. Your path ahead is one of healing and recovery, but it's worth it. Good job making such a strong decision! Your spirit team is proud of you and happy for you.

7. 6 of Cups. Yes. Your inner child is happy about this, go for it! It may not seem very grown up to others, but if it brings you joy and delight, go for it. Everyone else can shove off, to be honest. This is for you and your happiness. Go ahead and indulge. If it's about love, yes, someone is coming back or reuniting with you and it will feel so good. It could also involve a childhood home, family or an inheritance. Regardless, whatever your question was … the answer is yes!

8. Strength. YES! You can handle whatever you inquired about or choose to take on here soon. You are able to do this with dignity and grace. I can see you making it look effortless, even if there were a lot of options or some confusing circumstances. You are going to get through whatever difficult times you are facing coming up, if there are any.

9. Justice. Yes!! Justice and balance are returning. Did you ask if you're pretty? The answer is yes, you are symmetrical or harmonious in terms of facial features and aesthetics. You look very pleasant. Your mannerisms and behaviors are enjoyable too. If you asked about a situation that needs to play out and you wonder if it will go in your favor, justice tells us that the scales will be karmically balanced. You saw what you saw, you heard what you heard. You aren't crazy, that really happened. I felt like that last part needed to be on here for some reason … were you gaslit a lot about something?

10. Eight of Wands. Yes. Whatever you asked about is moving along quickly or will arrive soon. I'm seeing someone on a motorcycle in my mind. Confirmation? It's arriving quickly and there's a sense of excitement. Are you waiting for a package? It's definitely going to arrive. If it's communication or something, it may be brief, but it will happen.

11. The Hanged Man. Not yet. You need to see things from a new perspective, most likely another person's. See from their point of view. After that, you can really think the situation through. Maybe turn to your crystals or tarot for more guidance. I felt like a couple of you might need to hear that to nudge you in the right direction. Meditation may help to clear your mind too. Try to be emotionally balanced in this situation as you view things from their perspective. Your guides love you and want you to be understanding of the other person. Eventually, this will be a yes.

12. King of Swords. Yes. Think logically and be decisive about this matter. You probably already are and just needed this nudge in the right direction. In which case, yes, you have a practical and logical response or person or thing in mind. Your strategy is working and will continue to do so. I heard “Keep your cards close to your chest.” Don't stray from your path, keep to your strategy and you will succeed. Just keep others out of it. No sharing details or being bold about it. Real Gangstas move in silence …

That's all for this reading! Thanks for checking in. Keep in mind that your own thoughts, beliefs, intentions and actions shift the energy surrounding you and your situation. Things may change moment to moment, so check back in from time to time to see how things have changed. Tarot is just an “energy-check-in” tool, it isn't meant to be set in stone. If you ever get a reading you don't like, it's an opportunity to reassess your current vibe and realign with your intentions.

[murasaki-cha]

Honestly the best advice I can give to someone who wants to start Trash Of The Count's Family is to never and I mean NEVER ask a TCF fan about what TCF is but ask a person who has read the manhwa casually.

Because we will never give you a simple answer. Oh no no no we:

Will spoil the everloving crap out of the novel. All of it. We just can't help ourselves. Never have I met a TCF fan who doesn't spoil the novel. I think we just forget that they are spoilers and that there are people that haven't read the novel. I have legitimately had someone ask me "What's an Eruhaben?" and I was confused for a solid 5 minutes until I remembered that there are people who haven't actually read the novel

Will not shut up. You will get a rundown of our top 10 favorite characters, top 10 favorite villains, top 10 favorite battles, top 10 favorite scenes, top 10 favorite angst scenes, etc. YOU GET THE POINT! Probably because we don't have a big fandom we get excited when new people join. You will have to read a 10 page essay it'snot a choice. There are multiple powerpoints the fans have made and I wish I was being sarcastic about this

Will scare you because we are insane overly enthusiastic about TCF. There are some inside jokes that only the fandom will get but we usually don't even try to be subtle we just go "Oh man I can't wait for Cale to be hurt so badly he's bleeding so profoundly and probably choking on his own blood! In canon!!" Or "He needs soggy apple pies or he will die!" Or "Why won't slacker life-chan return Cale's feelings?" Or "White Radish *cue laughing soundtrack*". You will think we are deranged but I can confirm none of us has been put in a mental asylum so far from what I'm aware of👍. We're just silly but our silly will concern people

Now if you find all these factors as things that will motivate you to read the novel than please welcome you'll fit in here just fine.

If not than please stick with the manhwa onlys please than try to read the novel at your own pace

(Just to be clear this entire post is meant for comedic purposes. The TCF fandom has some of the nicest and kindest people I've ever had the joy of meeting and I've made many great friends here. We welcome any new fan with open arms, warm hugs, apple pies and heavy angst lol. Never be afraid to interact with anyone here as we love to talk about our favorite novel)

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Do you think Rhaenyra would have killed her siblings or it was mere paranoia on Alicent's side? The book doesn't provide a solid answer for this, and in the show it's clear that Rhaenyra would never harm her siblings.

Hi anon, I kind of went into it in this post, and although that ask was about Jace vs. Aegon III, I think the principle remains the same. In short, no, I don't think it was paranoia, but to understand why, we have to understand why Rhaenyra's brothers pose a particular threat to the stability of Rhaenyra (of Jace's) rule. Keep in mind, this isn't a moral failing specific to Rhaenyra, but simply a byproduct of the conditions of her inheritance.

I don't think Rhaenyra would have wanted to kill her siblings (or their kids), or even have planned to kill her siblings, but I also think that ultimately what she wanted wouldn't matter very much. All it would take would be someone wishing to rise in her esteem claiming that Aegon was fermenting rebellion, perhaps producing a forged letter as evidence, or an eyewitness who would swear that he had been secretly meeting with former greens. Could she risk it? Her brothers are weapons that can always be used against her. And at some point, it would be out of her control. Rhaenyra won't live forever, nor will Daemon, and when Jace attempts to take the throne, with no less than 7 legitimate male claimants alive who would have a claim ahead of him, there are bound to be challengers. The Blackfyre rebellion began with much flimsier pretexts.

We have real life examples of this. Henry VII intended to keep the remaining Plantagenets alive when he took the throne, as long as they stayed loyal. After all, they were his wife's family members, and killing them off would not be a good look. But the remaining Plantagenets would always be a threat to the Tudors. Ten year old Edward Plantagenet, the son of George of Clarence, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for 14 years before he was executed in 1499 for a supposed connection to Perkin Warbeck's scheme. Henry VII finally took action at least in part because he was negotiating a betrothal between his heir and the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Spanish monarchs did not want their daughter marrying a man whose succession could be challenged, and so Edward, the strongest claimant at that point, had to go. Henry VII's son, Henry VIII, increasingly worried about the stability of his own succession, became vulnerable to the whisperings of opportunists looking to rise in the king's esteem and eliminate their own political enemies. At this point, the remaining Plantagenet claimants became a source of paranoia, justified or not. The arrest and execution of Margaret Pole, the niece of Edward IV and Richard III, was based upon a tunic found in her home that supposedly represented her support for her son's claim to the throne and the restoration of the Catholic church in England. The tunic was almost certainly planted by Henry VIII's chief minister, the protestant Thomas Cromwell, the same man who orchestrated Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon (yes, the same princess whose hand Edward Plantagenet had died to secure). And Henry VIII liked Margaret, she'd been the governess to his daughter, and though they had their ups and downs, he certainly didn't hate her. Still, when her son was put forward as a rival claimant and she was accused of supporting him, she had to go too. And of course, going backwards a bit, there are famously the princes in the tower, Edward and Richard, sons of King Edward IV, who despite having been officially declared bastards (a law, you see, was not enough), were still enough of a threat to the throne that they were (most likely) murdered, whether by Richard III or one of his associates. Mere rumors that those boys still lived sparked rebellions during the reign of Henry VII.

And you can say well, there's a difference, surely, in that Rhaenyra is the rightful queen, and these other people were not? But "rightful" is not some inherent state of being, it's dependent upon who is in power. Every person who sits the throne believes themself to be the rightful king or queen. But Rhaenyra in particular gained her position because her father exercised his power and declared her heir in defiance of the expected order of inheritance, contradicting the very decision that made him king in the first place. After Viserys dies though, for all intents and purposes his wishes cease to matter. He is no longer king, and lacks any mechanism by which to enforce his wishes from beyond the grave. At that point, people will choose to support one claimant or another, based upon their own concerns (dragon math, precedent, oaths, promises made by one or the other, existing family bond) and to consider Rhaenyra or Aegon (or any other claimant down the road) the rightful king/queen. Rhaenyra's security upon the throne, like the position of Henry VII or Richard III, is inherently weaker because she comes to the throne through unconventional means. All it takes is a plague year, a famine, or a foreign invasion for any random group of lords to decide that the true king Aegon/Aemond/Jaehaerys/Maelor should be on the throne and that they should start a rebellion in his name. If Rhaenyra feels insecure in her rule, or in Jace's ability to peacefully inherit after her, it only makes sense to eliminate any potential rivals, and her brothers and their children will always be a threat, no matter her original intentions. Even if Rhaenyra keeps her word and does not harm her family, her brothers and their line pose a threat to Jace and his line as long as both lines exist.

So Alicent is not being paranoid at all, she's being realistic. If Viserys were to disinherit Rhaenyra, or were Rhaenyra to accept the peace terms and give up her claim, she would become simply another sister, but Aegon can never be just another brother to Queen Rhaenyra because in the eyes of some, he will always be a potential rallying point for dissenters, and if not him then his brothers, or his children, whether they want to be or not. That's the point Alicent is making. It's not a reflection on Rhaenyra's character, it's just that if it came down to a choice between securing her reign/Jace's succession, and the lives of her potential political rivals, it's not difficult to guess what Rhaenyra would choose.

[darkmaga-returns]

Hey man! Before you delete this ask because I call myself a leftist, I want you to read over this ask. I genuinely have no ill intent towards you, I just want to know how you would explain something. If you can give me a solid answer, you'd have "owned this lib". I legitimately want to give you the chance to speak.

Recently, your party made a move to kill a non-partisan government funding bill, at the will of Elon Musk. For this, the party risked governmental shut-down so they could make their changes to the bill. This is not where my question lies.

Among the cuts made in the bill, the party cut 120 billion dollars in pediatric cancer research. I am simply asking if MAGA and Republican party supporters can justify this.

Why did your party take away possibly vital cancer research for children?

Well since you said "my party" I know you don't actually read my blog

[traegorn]

Hi I was listening to one of the first episodes on your podcast, i'm interested in witchcraft and wicca. You mentioned how wicca was mostly created by Gardner. So like what about the concepts of god and goddess? Is this something that he just made up? But then people believe still knowing he made up? I just don't get.

You also mentioned that his book is not good for beginners. What about Doreen Valiente book you mentioned "witchcraft for tomorrow" is that a good book? From your description she seems more honest, so the book interested me

So we'll answer this backwards -- while I have a deep respect for Doreen Valiente, her books aren't that great either (especially for a beginner). If you want a solid, beginner Wicca book I still recommend Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner paired with Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon for context. Valiente was a much better poet than she was a teacher, and we have much better sources out there now.

As for the the question are the Wiccan God and Goddess "something that [Gardner] just made up?" I guess my response is that it depends on your point of view? When Gardner put the form of Witchcraft that became Wicca to practice and paper, did he come up with the God and Goddess on his own? Sort of. Clearly he was inspired by earlier sources, but he was putting down what made sense to him personally.

Now some people think that somehow makes this conception of divinity less legitimate, because even most Wiccans think of Gardner as "just some guy." But I think that's way too simple a view.

Like I came to my understanding of divinity on my own, and found that Wicca lined up with what I already believed. What you will find most often in Wicca is that there is an extremely wide variety of beliefs about the actual nature and form of the God and Goddess. We don't have scripture, there is no authority. This leads to a diversity of understanding of divinity some people aren't necessarily comfortable with. The witch themself has to make some of their own decisions on this.

Something to keep in mind about Wicca is that it is far more orthopraxic than orthodoxic. Most Americans conceptualize religions from a purely orthodoxic perspective, where a religion is defined largely by belief and faith, because that's how Christianity works. Orthopraxic religions are far more defined on how they're practiced. Things like our rituals, holidays, ethical rules (the rede) -- those are largely what make things Wicca.

Hopefully that was helpful.

[thegeneralreturns]

Thoughts on THE CROW (2024)

You know that TikTok of that emo kid, sitting in the front seat of his car, screaming "MY HEARRRRRRRT! IIIIII LOOOOOOVED HERRRRRR!"? Well, this new version of The Crow is that for two hours.

This is not a criticism. In fact, shock of shocks, I found myself kinda... sorta... loving this movie.

The path that the 1994 version of The Crow found toward its cult reverence is one steeped in tragedy. The untimely passing of its lead Brandon Lee during filming gave a tinge of romance and lost potential to what was, in essence, a big, dumb action movie. A big, dumb action movie that boasted a solid lead performance and the pinnacle of nineties set design and cinematography, but a big, dumb action movie nonetheless. No matter how good he was when the cameras were on him, Lee wasn't cast because he was a master thespian. He was cast because he was Bruce Lee's kid, and that might move a few tickets. The Crow was Bob and Harvey Weinstein's play to get Miramax in a position to compete with Warner Bros. and Batman, and one of the most infamous on-set accidents in film history led to a periphery demographic of Goth kids that are still cosplaying, buying the soundtrack, and lighting candles thirty years later.

The 2024 version of The Crow appears to be an effort to legitimately make the film that that periphery demographic seems to have been seeing in a mirage for the past thirty years, and on that score, I think it succeeds. It's open-wound sincere love story between two druggie kids, the tragedy that separates them, and the passion that brings one of them back in a rain of bullets and blood. I saw someone on Twitter call it "Twilight for scumbags," and that person deserves a Pulitzer Prize. It's pitched at that level, only instead of long, interminable stretches of the two leads staring at one another, it's broken up by bad guys getting shot in the face. There is a place for this.

FKA Twigs plays Shelly, and it's as though she sprang fully-formed out of Tim Burton's head with her compact, twee, English-accented Gothness. But I find Bill Skarsgard's Eric to be genuinely endearing. Whereas Brandon Lee's rendition of the character was an Alpha Chad who came out of the grave knowing combat tactics, the Skarsgard take is troubled, though well-meaning, and seemingly doesn't have a plan in his quest for revenge beyond "They can die and I can't." And the sight of this gaunt tree-branch taking shotgun blasts at point blank range sells the enormity of the odds against him.

The love story and character aspects of this movie are so persuasive that when the action does eventually get here, it can't help but suffer in comparison. Rupert Sanders is no Alex Proyas, and while he nails the impact of violence, the actual geography seems to give him trouble. Is it just me, or does the opera house in the climax appear to have too few floors than the sequence requires?

So which one is better? I don't know, and frankly I don't care. In a rational world, we could show appreciation that James O'Barr's source material was strong enough to facilitate two wildly different cinematic approaches. But we don't live in a rational world, and remaking a mid-nineties comic book movie is tantamount to blasphemy.

But what I do know is that we're gonna get older. New folks are gonna move in. And when you ask them which version is better, the answer won't be as one-sided as you think. Because if there's one thing that literally every version of The Crow has thought me, it is this:

Nothing this earnest stays dead for long.

[musemash]

BOND VILLAIN APPRENTICE IS A RASPUTIN WANNABE – unhinged rant by the Canuck Crank

"Musk: a greasy secretion with a powerful odor" – American Heritage Dictionary

Judging from countless rants, memes, videos, and comments online, many Americans evidently have accepted the official 2024 election results – and consequently, have resigned themselves to four more years of insane misrule by a TREASONOUS PSYCHOPATH and his misbegotten coven of DELUSIONAL MISCREANTS. This phenomenon is bizarre, to say the least.

For one thing, the ATTENTION WHORE IN CHIEF has actually won less than 50 percent of the popular vote. But that has not stopped the legacy media from feeding into the dubious narrative that MAGA has somehow mysteriously acquired a BIGLY YUGE MANDATE to usher in the agenda outlined in the FASCIST BIBLE known as Project 2025.

This is happening despite the fact that a lot of people have been raising serious concerns about the integrity of the election over the past several weeks. So far, no absolute empirical proof of fraud has been revealed; but too many questions still need to be satisfactorily answered as soon as possible, before DOUBLE AGENT ORANGE ascends to America's rusty Iron Throne.

Indeed, there are good, solid reasons to wonder whether the election result may have been SABOTAGED by various bad actors. If that was proven to be the case, the perpetrators would doubtless include tech trickster ELON MUSK; couch connoisseur JD VANCE; reliably devious RUSSIAN AGENTS; stupidly unscrupulous MAGA operatives; and certain FAUX NOISE propaganda parrots.

But sadly, many Democrats and antifascists seem to have suddenly come down with a kind of STOCKHOLM SYNDROME – meekly acquiescing to the NEW ABNORMAL, and falling for the corporate MEDIA GASLIGHTING aimed at trying to discredit these concerns. The understandable suspicions about the election are being glibly and condescendingly dismissed as mere conspiracy theories – allegedly the product of something called 'BLUE ANON', a supposed left-wing equivalent of QAnon.

But this is obviously a totally different situation, with none of the factors that spawned Trump's unhinged STOP THE STEAL movement. Democrats did not prime their base for months on end with dubious propaganda predicting rigged elections. They perpetrated no insurrections. And they have not engineered countless frivolous lawsuits promoting idiotic speculations. They are simply wondering how anyone can be stupid enough to think that voters in the swing states went for Trump, but also voted blue on so many other key races.

Of course, it is indeed possible that election skeptics are grasping at straws as consolation. But the documented irregularities cited by various observers are clearly legitimate red flags. A comprehensive recount and FORENSIC AUDIT are absolutely warranted, before the election results should be taken as gospel. After all, in 2021, Trumpers were allowed to file more than 60 fricking COURT CASES challenging the results. So why should the Dems just roll over and placidly accept this outcome?

If the election was sabotaged, one of the motives was surely to perpetrate a DIABOLICAL PSYOP, whose purpose was manyfold: to provoke Americans ever further into fearing and hating each other; to hoodwink them into drowning in profound despair; to get them to accept the notion that they are part of an incurably failed nation; and to motivate them to give up on the idea of ever returning to democracy.

In the face of all these suspicions, if Democrats don't vehemently insist on conducting an immediate autopsy of their WOUNDED BODY POLITIC, it would constitute a feckless dereliction of duty. Instead of standing up for democracy, they would be joining the ranks of too many media pundits and money-grubbing CEOs, who are capitulating to encroaching fascism.They would essentially be handing their country over to the psychotic GOP LOONIES on a red white and blue platter – and giving them a license to CANCEL LADY LIBERTY.

But this is no time to give up. While valid concerns about the election will doubtless be dismissed by cynical skeptics as conspiratorial LIBTARD FANTASIZING motivated by wishful thinking, I maintain that there are more than enough valid reasons to justify a thorough investigation. Most notably, a recent PLANET CRITICAL article presents a sobering scenario:

"Computer scientists and hacking experts have detailed how the USA’s election software was compromised – and the relatively simple hack which could have then been used to FIX THE RESULTS in the seven swing states. They are calling for an immediate hand recount in key precincts which, they say, should swiftly show that a number of these ballots NEVER EXISTED."

Furthermore, as cyber threat expert JACKIE SINGH recently stated on X, America's enemies "want us to believe our society is DISINTEGRATING, and that our streets aren't safe. This is part of the KREMLIN PLAN to foment suspicion and violence amongst Americans. Their gambit relies on us being unable to put the dots together…. They muddy the waters by using American or deep cover local intermediaries to provide the impression of organic DOMESTIC EMOTION – when in reality, the events and resultant emotions endured by the manipulated public are often fully manufactured and paid for by PUTIN."

Judging from the variety of allegations, there are many other plausible scenarios that need to be explored. Some claim that ballot drop boxes were BURNED in blue districts, and areas with a lot of minority voters; that thousands of mail-in votes were simply left uncounted, or discarded; that some ballots were stolen from post offices; and that seals were broken on 13 ballot tabulators in Milwaukee.

More than a million Democrats were apparently PURGED from voter rolls in Texas; Dems in red states were not sent the mail-in ballots they requested; postal employees were accused of ballot theft, and forging ballot signatures; some Dem mail-in ballots were rejected for supposedly mismatched signatures in swing states; and in one district, ballots were allegedly sent to an estimated 325,000 people who were not registered voters.

Disturbingly, voters in some Dem-leaning locales were reportedly threatened by MAGA voters. Even more troubling is the fact that over 50 phony BOMB THREATS, evidently originating with Russian agents, forced evacuations at various left-leaning sites in battleground states. During the distractions caused by all this chaos, saboteurs could quite possibly have manipulated voting machines.

Despite vociferous media assurances that Musk's STARLINK system was not involved in some way, it is nevertheless a real possibility. Considering his tech expertise, the SPACEX CADET could have found a way to surreptitiously connect a satellite to vote tabulating systems, to alter the counts in swing states. It is well known that Musk did a variety of unethical things to install PRECEDENT TRUMPERY in the Oval Office; so it is hardly far-fetched to think he might have tried to hijack the vote via technology.

Elon retweeted Tenet Media's Russian disinformation multiple times; he also approved DEEPFAKE ATTACK ADS; and disseminated propaganda filled with grotesque distortions of Kamala Harris' beliefs and political positions. Most concerning is Joe Rogan's claim that Tesla's boy genius actually possessed an app that gave him the election results FOUR HOURS before they were officially revealed. W the actual F????

There were also evidently a record number of new VOTER REGISTRATIONS this year. Does it sound plausible that there were 20 million fewer people voting this year than in 2020, when the pandemic kept many folks housebound? Considering how much malfeasance has been revealed about the TRAITOR IN CHIEF since that election, it beggars the imagination to think Democrats would NOT have turned up in overwhelming droves to make certain he could not possibly win.

Why would so many voters choose Democrat senators and congress people, but then turn around and vote for a CONVICTED FELON – who is also an exhaustively documented LIAR, a financial FRAUDSTER, an adjudicated RAPIST, a dangerous INSURRECTIONIST, and a traitor stealing NUCLEAR SECRETS? Are Americans' memories really that fucking short?

Dems won down-ballot congressional races in swing states; but mysteriously, those same voters also supposedly chose the CELEBRITY INMATE APPRENTICE as their top guy. Given the vast amount of evidence demonstrating the manifold crimes of the FELON IN CHIEF, why the actual fuck would any sane Democrat choose him over Kamala? And how credible is it, that Trump would win ALL SEVEN of the swing states? None of this makes any sense whatsoever, dammit!

Further, prior to this election, MAGA agents were known to have tampered with voting system technology. The most high profile culprit was TINA PETERS, a Colorado operative who recently got a richly deserved nine year sentence for a data-breach scheme she engineered a few years ago.

Also, as Rachel Maddow reported, several times at rallies Trump told followers he didn't NEED ANYMORE VOTES. He also stated that he and Speaker Mikey 'Moses' Johnson had a cute "LITTLE SECRET" that would guarantee they won. He promised he would divulge the secret after the election. We're still waiting, dumbass!

Of course, it is obvious that the USEFUL IDIOT IN CHIEF owes much of his "victory" to his close personal dominatrix CZAR VLADIMIR. Russian official Nikolai Patrushev recently confirmed this, asserting: "To achieve success in this election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces, to which he has corresponding obligations."

America now faces the consequences of allowing an arrogant SMIRKING SOCIOPATH like Elong MuskRat to purchase and install a sexual predator, adjudicated felon, and archtraitor in the White House. Since DEMENTIA DONOLD's slimy orange hands will be on the NUCLEAR CODES once again, it is crystal clear that drastic action is required. Thus, while some will doubtless dismiss the following scenario as naive and far-fetched, I happily offer this MODEST PROPOSAL for what it's worth.

Before he becomes a milkshake guzzling retiree, JOLTIN' JOE needs to cut the malarkey and unleash his inner DARK BRANDON one last time, to prevent the fascist heist of his nation. He should exercise the prerogative granted to him by the SCOTUS IMMUNITY decision, and order the FBI to conduct an independent investigation of any credible allegations of election cheating. Ideally, a detailed DOJ report on the results could be made public before INAUGURATION DAY. But if necessary, Biden could simply order that the inauguration ceremony be postponed till the process is finished.

If there is sufficient concrete evidence that the November 5th results were indeed hijacked, then Musk, Trump, Vance, Johnson, and any other MAGA cronies that are seriously implicated in the crime, should be detained in GITMO, pending trial for treason. The subsequent legal proceedings should be televised, live and unedited, to reassure a terrified world that the USA has indeed learned from the deadly mistake of the ghastly TRUMP ERROR.

Alternatively, Brandon could use his immunity to release all the evidence accumulated by JACK SMITH, regarding the Insurrection, the stolen classified documents, and Trump's many obstructions of justice. This would demonstrate that Joe has every reason to reopen ALCATRAZ to corral Donnie and dozens of complicit MAGA MINIONS. The next step would be to ANNUL the 2024 election and order a shiny new one, rigorously overseen by CYBERSECURITY agents and U.N. ELECTION MONITORS. Under the obvious emergency conditions, these would all definitely be legitimate "OFFICIAL ACTS."

But to be entirely realistic, we must also contemplate an even more troubling scenario than the ones I've outlined. What if the election was NOT stolen by the MAGAGOP? This would mean that a majority of the electorate, who were sufficiently motivated to get off their asses to vote, were also comfortable with the idea of having their country's worst WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL be put in charge of their nation's destiny and their children's future.

Thus, they were content to basically trash America's legacy of FIGHTING FASCISM; metaphorically, they casually pissed on all the graves in ARLINGTON CEMETERY. How very disgraceful, and monumentally tragic, such an outcome would be. Now emboldened, the RAPIST IN CHIEF could very well take a wrecking ball to the USA, to satisfy his vengeance, and suck up to BIG DADDY VLADDY. If this happens, it will be a literal miracle if America survives the next four years.

By handing him the White House, myriad incredibly stupid voters have made it almost certain that he will NEVER FACE JUSTICE for his many documented crimes – and everything good about America will be run into the ground, by the most sickening lawbreaker in its history. But those who idolize this treacherous barbarian have nothing to gloat about. God help them if they ever have to face the truth about what they have ENABLED. We'll see who will be weeping in the end.

All that said, I still refuse to underestimate the tenacity and courage of the true patriots and "BETTER ANGELS" of the USA. So while the Yankee homeland won't be the Land Of The Free for the next several years, we will hopefully soon find out that this nation is indeed still the HOME OF THE BRAVE. It may still not be too late to witness the downfall and comeuppance of MUSKPUTIN and his MAGAMOBSTERS.

Best wishes to every one of America's citizens who still treasure democracy. To them I say: Many of us living outside your borders still care deeply about what happens to you. So STAND STRONG – and please don't give up! This is no time for despair, or to wallow in disgust. It's time to get determined – and hopeful. As labor union martyr JOE HILL put it just before he was executed: "DON'T MOURN – ORGANIZE!"

In conclusion: If y'all think I'm just a gullible type, over-reacting and living in a dream world, feel free to call me DON QUIXOTE – then just saddle me up, and point me to the nearest WINDMILL! But to make my case, I submit a very comprehensive archive of related news items, editorials, and satirical videos; I respectfully challenge you to check them out with an open mind.

If enough American voters become sufficiently aware of the deadly serious reasons for the aforementioned concerns, it may not be too late for them to demand that Dark Brandon rescue their nation from the UNBRIDLED DEPRAVITY of Trumpism before it's too late. You'll find the archive at the first link below. I urge you to share it as widely as possible.

HOW MAGA MINIONS & KREMLIN GREMLINS STOLE XMAS https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/42536218614/ TRUMPERY’S FOLLY VS THE MOMALA FACTOR https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/766200584914288640/ DARK BRANDON PASSES THE TORCH https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/736140385977597952/ THE KARMALA PHENOMENON https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/721712158853955584/ MARALARDO’S BROMANCE FOR THE AGES https://www.flickr.com/photos/aeon999/54233325168/in/album-72177720322854833/lightbox/ HOW LORD MUSKPUTIN CONQUERED MARS https://www.flickr.com/photos/aeon999/54233312564/in/album-72177720322832375/lightbox/ MALARKEY ERADICATION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/734918544477798400/ FINAL DISPATCHES FROM THE KAMBRAT ZONE https://musemash.tumblr.com/post/771191287661690880/

[dlamp-dictator]

Okay, Let's Talk About 5 - 30

So, this horrid stage has probably stumped a lot of folks, especially folks that aren't used to the typical Project Moon Bullshit™ of having to fail about 10+ times before you actually figure out the answer to the puzzle the game is giving you... and RNG screwing you over. Mostly that last one, but occasionally Project Moon does throw out some damn tough puzzles to solve.

And with Chapter 5.5 now out I wanted to make a quick guide on how to get through this stage so people can actually beat Canto 5, rush through the Christmas event, and have access to 5.5 before it ends in a month. I'll... debate on explaining how to kill Siltcurrent/Neon Whale/That FUCKING ASSHOLE PARALYZING BIG NUMBERS ASS HAVIN-

But that's for another time.

And yes folks, people have been legitimately stuck on this stage to the point of some people having been barred from the Christmas event because of it. And the most I've seen of people actually helping with this boss in terms of guides and advice is the general fandom being some real assholes about reading passive and showing of their Base Ishmael solo clears without actually explaining anything. But I'm not here to whine about the fandom, I'm here to help with this stage.

Now usually, this is the part where I'd usually give a synopsis for the followers and mutuals that would like context to my long ramblings, but this is an endgame stage and the process of explaining Project Moon games in depth to people unfamiliar with them gives my stomach ulcers so I'll cut my usual fluff and get to the advise.

The Short Answer

For those of you wanting to just know the basics of how to survive this stage here's the brass tacks:

Stagger Ricardo twice to "win"

Don't kill Ricardo's two goons, just clash with them (ideally with a tank ID with aggro) to avoid buffing him further.

Ishmael is quasi-immortal and won't die so long as there's a surviving Sinner in play, so she can tank damage easily.

Use tremor IDs to make staggering easier during his "Test of Big Brother" phase

Use Ishmael's base EGO ASAP to make clashing for her easier.

Alright, with that said, here's some more details about the boss fight.

The Long Answer

I know I said this before, but it's worth repeating. This is endgame content. At this point of the game Project Moon expects you to have that Season Pass at least half finished, at least three teams of Sinners with good synergy (having teams for Charge, Tremor, Rupture, etc.), and have at least some meta IDs. This is not an unreasonable ask either. Most of us started between Seasons 1 & 2 and should have at least a solid team or six made already, a lot of the gacha resources are easy to obtain with patience, and you should have a decent understanding of the game's general mechanics by now. You can only be so ignorant before the failure is ultimately your fault, and while Ricardo definitely has some bullshit to him, most of his puzzle pieces are understandable after the fifth attempt.

I don't say this to insult you guys, but I know a lot of people stuck on this stage are also people that have been speedrunning the content and are now running into a wall as they've pushed further than what the game expected and probably don't have the game knowledge or resources to get through a very blatant knowledge & resource check. Yes, I've seen the Base ID & Base EGO clears too, but those are from people very used to Project Moon Bullshit™ and are outliers.

Now, with all that preamble out the way, here's the general idea.

This is a semi-survival stage where you have to not defeat Ricardo, but reach his second stagger threshold in about 5-7 turns. The biggest issue with this fight is that you've been doing a lot of mindless non-focus fights where you just needed the correct damage type (pierce in this case) to Win-Rate your way to victory. This stage is different in that you have to build a completely different team (tremor ideally), and be mindful of the Middle's general passives where they can get up to 5 Offense Level for getting their team slaughtered, making all of their clashes go up by one or two points. Along with this, the Little Brothers' attacks can debuff your team with Paralyze and Plus-Coin Power Drop, some of the most crippling debuffs in the game for your team outside of very specific IDs.

But you likely already know all of this and have reached the Ricardo part of the stage several times already. Here's the important bits you probably didn't realize.

Don't Kill the Goons

You might have noticed Ricardo gets super buffed when you kill his goons and makes COUPON BLAST™ all the more terrifying. Yeah, the man gets some rather bullshit power-ups if you kill or focus-fire the goons. I understand the though-process of killing the Debuffers and then wailing on Ricardo, but don't. Just beat their clashes and deal with them. The paralyze is crippling, but use a tank for those if you can since tanks (usually) don't do high damage anyway. Plus-Coin Power Drop is annoying, but for units that have big single-coin nukes or use EGO for nukes, this isn't as crippling as Paralyze and is the lesser of two debuffs. Just deal with the goons being there and try and focus most of the damage on Ricardo. The goons have a phase where they both block so you can just focus on Ricardo too, so hold out until then.

Oh, and speaking of tanking debuffs.

Ishmael is Immortal on this Stage

Ish is a mandatory character in this stage and has a sort of quasi-immortality along with a passive called Last-Ditch Struggle. So long as there's at least one surviving Sinner on the team aside from Ishmael herself her won't go below 1 HP. Along with this, she has a unique passive for this stage called Last Ditch Struggle, which gives her additional clash power when at low health. This isn't to say Ish is invincible or anything, but it does give you an edge in the fight. Combined with Snagharpoon's Compulsion passive (the EGO passive, not the debuff on Ish) you can get an additional clashing power about about three, which makes a huge difference against Ricardo's stupid-high numbers. You can use her with something like a fully threadspun Roseate Desire with either Awakening or Corrosion depending on the sanity level and it'll do insane work.

"But Allen, I don't have Rosea-"

Get it. 400 Ishmael shards isn't as big an ask as it was in Canto 2 or 3. You're in endgame now, you should know what you need and should have a few EGO nukes for bosses like this. Roseate Desire or Ryoshu's Blind Obsession. You should have at least one of these by now to survive Ricardo's more devastating attacks aside from COUPON BLAST™. If you really rushed the content this much then just chill out, wait until you've caught to the the season pass to at least give Blind Obsession Ryoshu, and then continue on.

Speaking of endgame content.

Have a Tremor Team

So, you might have noticed during Ricardo's big defense phases he'll have this interesting debuff called "Test of Big Brother", this usually gives him 5 bind next turn, guaranteeing you can safely clash him, along with doubling the damage he takes and increasing the effect of Tremor Burst. And like I said before, this is a fight where you have to reach his second stagger threshold to win. This is phase of the fight is essentially your final warning to get him to that point before COUPON BLAST™ happens and you're team is wiped in two turns.

Not that second part of Tremor Burst's effects behind doubled. It means you can probably get him to stagger by that point if you've got your nukes handy. And surprisingly, a Tremor team isn't a big investment either. Base Ish, Heath, and Meursault all have tremor application, and Ish's base EGO can inflict Tremor Burst at Threadspin 4. And there are several Tremor IDs that are cheap like N Corp Don, LCCB Ish and Rosespanner Meursault. There's are some other good Tremor IDs like Rosespanner Rodion and Molar Outis, but one's a 3-Star and one's a limited 3-Star, so I'd hold off on those unless you wanna' hunt down someone's friend's list.

Oh right, last bit of advice before I sign off on this.

Using the Damn Friend's List

A lot of us forget this is a thing, but there is a Friends/Support function in the game. You can send a request to people who have fully kitted Sinners you'd need for your team to fill in gaps you can't yet. I don't know the effect this had some stuff like EX clear yet, but if you're speed-running to get to the current event then just use the damn support system and build a decent tremor team to get through this. For the next while I'll have Regret Faust on mine to help some folks, but this is for a limited time only until I can go back to how I like to keep my Company listing. You can also just search around until you find someone with the sinner you need.

And... that's about everything I can tell you about 5-30. Even once you get passed this stage there's still about two or three more little road blocks in the way before you can fully completely the Canto, but this was the more frustrating on out of the four so I wanted to go over it a little. Sorry if I sounded harsh here or there, but I really wanna' stress this is an endgame stage and shouldn't be taken lightly. Limbus Company has it's fair share of bullshit but fair and unfair, but this stage is only slightly unfair until you realize the mechanics around it. Then you can do those Base Ishmael solo clears. I won't because that's hard as hell, but it's something.

Anyways, I'll be seeing you folks later.

[supersoakerfullofblood]

hi!!! hopefully you are having a good day!!! but a quick question-

how can i give insight to a character's backstory without it look liking a word-dump?? especially if the whole story have a diary entry format.

Very good question that honestly really depends on your personal style, but here's what's worked for me.

The best advice I can give is to stop thinking of your character's history as "backstory." That's one of the words that's become so loaded in popular writing discourse as to not mean anything solid anymore, like "worldbuilding," "theme," "protagonist," etc. Words like that are helpful once you've made your own definition for them, but with so many voices in Youtube tutorials and social media posts all saying similar but different things for what these mean, it's best to find a word that better suits how you view the concept. For me, that word is "history," because like how the present is founded on actual history, our characters are only the product of their history. Characters, like people, rarely if ever operate in the present tense.

So--revealing history without the dreaded expository dump. To answer this, we first have to look at why expository dumps are so uninviting. Here's an example of it done poorly (I'm writing this as an example, not taking someone's writing to like, diss on them hah):

Cheryl took the elevator up all five floors of the haunted house, which groaned as she went, the elevator left untouched since the house's last occupants moved out. When they arrived at the penthouse suite, Doctor Gastor explained that the last residents here thought they were wizards and practiced daily at arcana. Their names were Abigail and Horace--he had renamed himself after a demon had told him his true name, so he claimed--and they wintered in this remote, northern sphere to avoid Italian summers. Horace was wealthy, Abigail poor, but he had found her in poverty and saw something of the occult in her movements, so he stole her away one summer, and the two found more in common than they would've thought, for they married the next year. Cheryl paced the floor, picked up and dusted off a book titled in runic chicken scratch, and opened the cover."

This isn't the worst example I could think of, but it has the hallmarks I'm looking for. The first issue with this expository dump ("Doctor Gaston explained... next year") is that it shatters the flow of the passage. As a writer of narrative fiction, the goal of every sentence is to lead smoothly to the next sentence. To do this, we always have to be thinking of what the reader wants to read after a given sentence. If one sentence is about an elevator groaning in a haunted house, the reader probably wants to know how Cheryl reacts to it! Is she scared of ghosts? Does she believe in ghosts? Is she scared of elevators? If so, what does she do? Move to hit a button on the elevator to stop it? If scared of ghosts, how does she internalize this? If not scared, how does she internalize perhaps how Doctor Gaston is shivering? (Is he shivering?) These are all places the reader's mind wants to go to after that sentence. Instead, we get this history about some old wizards (if I had the patience, I would've made it longer to really make it intrude on the narrative, but I don't have the patience). If this is the first time the reader's hearing about the wizards, they probably won't care about them. This synopsis of their story interrupts what the reader actually cares about, which is whatever Cheryl cares about in the moment. To fix this interruption, Cheryl could find the book of runes maybe in the chapter before this, because that gets the reader invested. The reader, just like Cheryl, wants to know why there's a book of runes in the haunted house. So Cheryl asks Doctor Gaston about it, which legitimizes this exposition, because it's also what the reader wants to know.

Another major fault of info dumps is when they don't relate to the character at all. Cheryl's history (let's say she's a girl from the country who wandered into the house on accident) has nothing to do with wizards. Maybe in the narrative, she learns to cast some spells, which makes her care about wizards, but at this point, she doesn't. If Cheryl has nothing to do with wizards, or little to do with them, then why should the audience care? When writing a character's history, you should only include the parts that matter to the character. And this written history should never be too long, because you never want to stunt the flow of the piece (what "too long" means is up to debate and your discretion and style).

Also, exposition only works when it feels genuinely embodied by the character speaking. Is Doctor Gastor explaining the wizard history, or is that the author talking? Some of it sounds like Gastor (the bit between the em dashes sounds like what he would say), but the rest sounds like Gastor is only a mouthpiece for the information I want to put out.

So, solving it. One trick I like to do when giving exposition is to make the exposition into its own mini-scene. You don't want to write, "Carmen was friends with Piper, and they went to the dance once as friends." Instead, give it some space on the page:

She and Piper were the only girls in their group who had gone quiet at curfew. Beatrice’s only crime was in whispering comments in the early hours, short things to guide the group’s banter, never loud enough to warrant arrest. “Not really, no.” “That’s nice.” Carmen nodded and drew his eyes across the crowd. “Did she sleep well?” “Beatrice?” “Yeah.” “I guess.” The path turned up the steep hill on which the dining hall was built. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really slept well.” “Oh.” “It’s just uncomfortable, you know?” “The girls?” She raised an eyebrow. “And the boys aren’t?” “No, they are.” He laughed, and Piper was dragged to the same laugh at Homecoming three months ago. She had requested for the Melpomene band’s recent concert recording to be played after the next pop song, and surprisingly, her request was approved. Carmen laughed as their poor performance boomed from the speakers, laughed at the disruption of a dance, and Piper laughed too. But within the minute, the concert’s strident ballad was supplanted by another chart-topping pop song. But for those forty seconds, music was displaced, and the dancers stopped; city walls fell; Piper had broken something for forty seconds, held power for forty seconds. She said now, “It’s just weird, being here. It’s all too happy. Too clean.”

Exposition can work really well in brief flashbacks. And note how the exposition starts: a mirroring of "laugh" because the image is fresh in the reader's mind, so I take them on a sort of dream logic to the past. Note also that this is planting the seeds for some relevant character-building: Piper's growth into an independent woman--"Piper had broken something for forty seconds, held power for forty seconds." Here's another example from my current WIP:

He thought of Brynjar the day he had given him the knot. It was the spring of Óskar’s sixth year, and Brynjar had taken him to the docks one morning to watch sailing men fix fresh ropes on their karves and clip pulleys to sails to tie them to the boats’ sides. “Never doubt a weaver woman,” Brynjar said, annunciating each word. “They keep everything afloat.” “‘Floating,” repeated the young Óskar. “If the ropes aren’t strong, a boat’ll flip and spin. Like this!” He lifted Óskar above his head and spun on his heels, and Óskar cackled. The father set the son on his shoulders and smiled. “Yes, we need those ladies.” Óskar felt his father’s shoulders raise, and he knew the man forged something witty in his mind. “It means, Óssie, a man is only as good as his woman. And you can tell your mother I said that.” Eldrid, Óskar’s mother, would leave in her sleep later that year, and the witches would say she was sick, and Brynjar would spend some nights looking through the cracks in his home, remembering the gray wife he woke to that morning. In his memory, Óskar did not know whether this new recollection of his mother’s passing tainted his father’s speech or if he really did turn somber, but all the same, a short silence paused the scene at the dock, and Brynjar coughed to break it. His voice was low now. “Dangerous,” he said, looking with eyes like the beads of a raspberry at the men on the dock, looking through them. His jowls lowered like curtains, forced low with the hill of a frown, and in the memory, his skin blued and bloated. “It’s dangerous out there, Óssie. Be safe.” He sniffed. “Be well.” “Óskar?” Ingrid stole him. He breathed back into the world and saw now that the road had turned down and the rock wall had turned in, and they approached a strip of sea.

In addition to providing a character's history, this also fleshes out the world: the importance of women and boats, the dangers of the sea. Before the flashback, Oskar is thinking about a knot, so he thinks about the day he got the knot, which makes him think about sailing boats. At the end of the flashback, he thinks about the ocean ("looking through [the sailors]," so probably at the ocean), thinks about his father's skin if he drowned, and back in the present-tense, uh oh, Oskar is nearing the ocean. It all flows together; we're guiding our reader.

But these are only small exposition dumps, and sometimes, we need to convey much more information. You can subtly convey much more information than you realize through dialogue and description, because how a character talks and acts is guided by their histories. If a character is short-spoken, they may have had some interpersonal trauma that you can flesh out more when the time is right:

“No,” Sylvia whispered, trapping Chloe again with her stare, desperate. “I can’t sleep over.” “Why not?” Jane asked. “Mom says I have to be home by seven.” She looked down at her empty plate, at the crumbs from one slice of pizza. “But you haven’t asked her,” Jane prodded. She shook her head. “I did before.” Still in disbelief, Jane asked, “What did she say?” “She said I have to be home by seven.” She blushed. “And I can do whatever till then.” “Oh,” Jane said. She slunk back in her chair. Chloe turned back to her parents. “Can you call Jane’s mom?” “Sure thing.” “Thanks!” She swiveled back and, fingering the fruit Phoebe scrambled on her plate, decided to eat it later. She grabbed a second slice from the box. Moments passed as they ate in silence, Sylvia watching her plate, and the muffled television played something in the living room. Mom and dad laughed. “I should go,” Sylvia said. She bumped the table as she stood, reciting, “Thank you for having me.” Jane looked at the clock hovering above the front door. “It’s only six-twenty.” “I need to go home.” “Oh.” Jane stuttered. “I’ll see you next week!” Chloe said the same. “Thank you. See you.” She opened the door and slipped through. It clicked behind her. Chloe and Jane paused their gnawing and looked up at each other, sharing a thought. They hadn’t heard a car grumble on the gravel, didn’t hear anything drive by at all, and neither of them knew how close she lived. They scraped their chairs from the table and crept to the dining room window like characters in a Jones Bones movie, Jane thought. But when they pulled back the curtain, she was gone. No cars drove on the street, and the sidewalk was empty. A golden glare shrouded the street and surrounding houses as the sun lowered behind a roof.

Throughout this book (The Ghosts of Glass Lake, available now ;)), it's implied that Sylvia has a controlling and/or abusive mother. In this scene, Sylvia is curt and direct. You can almost feel the urgency behind her words, how she bumps the table as she stands, and how it almost sounds like she's rehearsed this exit. It's also implied that no one came to pick her up--she walked home, but neither Jane nor Chloe know where she lives, and neither does the reader. Maybe she walked home for miles because her mother didn't pick her up. You can get a lot of meat from implications!

But still, there are times when you just need a lot of dense exposition, usually near the beginning of a book when you need to describe the setting. My best advice, if you ever need to do this, is to keep it as brief as possible, and to pay extra attention to pacing/flow/tempo/whatever-you-want-to-call-it so it doesn't distract, doesn't feel like a chore:

The seventh and eighth graders of Carmen’s church spent one Saturday every winter at Camp Catechism. The campus set its roots in northern Michigan, breathed easterly winds from Lake Huron, and sparked to life as batches of middle schoolers arrived on midnight buses. Cabins formed a bivouac in a birch forest, and one mile to the east lay the lake and the curve of its horizon. It was frozen now, and the limbs of trees wavered slowly under snow, ice eating at chipped, white bark. The chapel the middle schoolers sang in now was a wide A-frame built and reeking of old wood. A low stage headed the room from which stood a pianist, a drummer, and a guitarist, a stage from which Roman Richards would soon discuss Ephesians. The dining hall was a short walk from everywhere and displayed from a wide window the canopy of the burdened forest, ossified waves, and the sun glinting unbearably against it all. Cups of hot chocolate were filled and refilled on a counter at the entrance of the dining hall, and campers drank these violently, abrading their throats as adolescent drunks. Boys and girls separated into two large halls subdivided into tight rooms for each youth group, everything barred entrance from the other sex. As a general rule, phones were banned, as were drugs, candles, and cursing, though the popular boys forged unique methods to circumvent these restrictions, and anyone caught with contraband was witnessed a martyr for a greater sense of vagrancy. Still, most campers lived within their rules, their obligations, just as they always had at church, and any rule breaking (“sin,” as Roman Richards claimed) was relegated quickly to myth, to rumors spread away from pious ears. As such, Carmen and his contemporaries were only loud ostensibly, never committing to a biblical criminal record. This was not to say that anyone at Camp Catechism was reserved—they spilled everything about their lives to their youth group leaders, but no one yet could articulate exactly what they meant, exactly what they felt, and scantily of dreams, ambitions, or desires.

And as all good exposition does, it flows well back into the narrative. The last paragraph above is a bridge between the camp description and a look into Carmen's inner life.

You may also find halfway through your narrative that you need to dump a bunch of character exposition, and you need to do it urgently. My trick for this is to make chapter A flow into the exposition, chapter B be an extended flashback scene, and chapter C to pick up where A left off. For example, if you need to talk about a character's relationship with his father but haven't done that yet in depth, find an easy way to transition into a flashback chapter that does just that. It's an enlarged version of the flashback tool I talked about above!

Now, all of this is what's worked for me, and I write third person distant POV narratives. It sounds like you're writing first person close POV haha. So I don't really have any examples to help with, but the general advice to 1. Keep the pacing/flow/tempo/etc. so exposition doesn't distract, and 2. Write exposition only about what matters to the character, preferably only what matters to the character in that moment, then you should be a-okay. Exposition is only as bad as it distracts, and these are the strategies I've found to distract as little as possible and to use the exposition to meaningfully build my characters as much as possible.

And again, this exposition dump problem doesn't have hard and fast solutions. Every author deals with it in their own way, and I'm sure with practice, you'll find what works best for you and what comes naturally to you, just as I'm always discovering and refining what works for me. The advice in this post is, I think, a solid place to start from :)

[eqt-95]

Thanks @sssammich and @sideguitars for the double-tap tag!

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

28 (?!?!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 711,082

3. What fandoms do you write for?

in chronological order: harry potter, batwoman, arcane, supergirl

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

follow the buttons

the glasses that broke lena luthor's back

a nemesis and her hero

a crisis of indulgence

like we're made of glass

5. Do you respond to comments?

i aspire. it's real hit or miss for me, but i genuinely adore every comment i've ever received even if it goes unanswered.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i guess it would be being batwoman but only because i wrote it as a cliffhanger for the sequel?

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

i generally always aim for happy endings, but in my opinion the 'happiest' is a crisis of indulgence but only because it's layered with angst. all my fluff pieces are happy throughout so the end doesn't hit as intensely (i think).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

only once that i remember: same person on multiple fics. such is life.

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

i have tried, but it objectively isn't great so i steer clear of it. this has actually been a conundrum with my latest fic: sauce or no sauce?

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

i wrote a kate kane + lena luthor one shot once. does that count?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

someone asked to translate one into german. not sure if it ever happened.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i haven't but i'd be interested, though i'm usually one of two people: a chaotic procrastinator with fading interest or the most diligent person on the planet. i can't guarantee which would show up for a collaboration.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

supercorp has had the most lasting affect.

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

there are three: 1. being batwoman | year one - (batwoman) i did so much legitimate comic book research and planning for this that it's a shame i've left it go 2. a handy handful - (arcane) i have 30% of the rest written 3. let's for flying - (supergirl) again, i actually have a lot of it worked out but for one reason or another it's in limbo

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd need to reread things to figure that out

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

consistent prose

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

like, would i personally do it? no, i don't even have a solid grasp of the english language. why would i go butcher another one?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

harry potter

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i answered this in another ask recently, but i think my answer has changed. i'm actually really happy with the concept of like we're made of glass. i don't know how well the execution landed for people (one commenter wrote: not good. it made no sense), but i'm ok with that. things aren't made for everyone.

- - - -

i'm not sure who all did these already, so i won't tag folks, but if you see this, consider yourself tagged!!

[rick-rayson]

*vibrates excitedly* okay okay then could you plz do Yara Flor sfw alphabet 💖😍💖😍💖😍

YARA FLOR - SFW ALPHABET

A/N: 100 posts wooHOOO. AND it's of my baby.. that I haven't read in a long time ngl. As a result, I do apologize in advance if it's OOC!

A - Affection: How do they show affection?

Deeply affectionate despite not wanting to come off as too smothering. She likes to think she's slick when she brushes against you, always sits next to you, and gets you things that remind her of you when she's out. Whenever she catches herself in the act and gets embarrassed, prepared to be met with ramblings of, "What? I can't say hello?", "Is it wrong to be caring?".

B - Beauty: What do they find beautiful? What do they look for?

Feel like she likes intelligent, meek people. Watched some really horrible stereotypical TV show with Jon or something and found the nerdy characters cute. Especially likes it when someone who is usually reserved is still able to take initiative, very specific but she likes it. Curly hair !! I feel like she finds curly hair really beautiful. She also loves locs with pretty beads, she finds them super pleasing to hear.

C - Cuddles: What kind of cuddler are they? Do they like cuddles?

You will never, EVER get her to verbally state that she likes cuddling, ask her and she'll scoff thinking that's a legitimate answer to your question.

But catch her when she's sleepy and see just how easily she melts against you. When she's awake still her hold on you is featherlight.. until she falls asleep. Then pray to the gods that she doesn't crush you in her tight bear hugs.

D - Devotion: How devoted are they? Are they all in?

Is that even a question? Yara is unapologetically sincere in how she holds herself, and if she's willing to share herself with you then you gotta be pretty damn important to her.

With Yara you are blessed with the utmost assurity that wherever she ventures, and wherever she finds herself, she's still your Yara. She may not be explicitly forthright with her loyalty, but she doesn't have to be. She's a solid person in your life.

E - Embrace: How do they hug?

If you're taller than her she goes for the midriff or the neck, shorter and she'll embrace you around your shoulders. She's the type to sway a bit if the hug is long. She's the type to catch you off guard with how staggering her hugging can be.

F - Flaws: What are some of their faults?

Yara is stubborn to a fault, which is either good or bad depending on the situation.

She tends to have plans and goals that she will stick to no matter what, which makes it hard to collaborate with her.

"It's either my way or the highway, except if you pick the highway I'll be sad so don't do it >:("

G - Gentle: How gentle are they?

She tries to be gentle for the sake of others, a sense of responsibility over herself, both physically and emotionally she tries.

H - Honesty: How honest are they about what they don't like and what they do?

Pretty dang honest. If you're someone from the Justice League it's a no from her on the dating scene. She can be seen as an occasionally blunt person but she's good with her words.

On the other end she's honest about what she does like too.

I - I love you: How long does it take for them to say it?

I'm stuck between thinking she could go a while without saying it, or immediately say it to you unabashed after like a couple weeks. There's like no in-between.

J - Jealousy: How jealous are they?

It's not that she's jealous it's just that why should she keep silent about how you're her partner? Especially to strangers that don't seem to be getting the hint?

Aside from that though she's not painfully jealous, but she will put someone in their place it she has to.

K - Kisses: How are they as a kisser?

Yara is something else, one part of her has you convinced she's never kissed anyone in her life, and the other part has you believing she's the goddess of kisses.

Deep, feverish kisser, the type to leave you dizzy from it. Her warm hands cradling your skin as her lips plaster onto yours and even that's not enough. Does it until sbe leaves you breathless.

L - Little Ones: Do they want kids?

Not anytime soon, Yara still has adventures far ahead of her to think about kids.

M - Mornings: How are mornings spent with them?

Can't really tell who's the first to wake up, but Yara's usually the one to get up first. She brings you and herself something to drink as you sit in bed, washing away your drowsiness and planning for the day ahead between soft mutterings. Mornings with Yara is liken to bathing under sunbeams.

N - Nervousness: What gets them nervous? What are they scared about when it comes to the relationship?

She's scared that she's too out of sync with other people, that due to her rather unique parentage and upbringing that there's a disconnect between her and others. It's harder to notice among the Future State JL because well, they're like her. But she's not fond of being tied down to such a team anyways.

O - Openness: How open are they?

Generally a pretty open person, she has her secrets (like where she stashes extra snacks for Jerry) but none that are malicious or that would put the relationship in jeopardy.

P - Patience: How patient are they?

Yara... Isn't the most patient person. Those types that tap their foot and look around to find something to distract them from the time, that's Yara.

She can be quick to anger but not with her relationships, mostly at the misgivings of others.

Q - Quiet Moment: Share a quiet moment

She takes you flying on Jerry in the afternoon, waiting for the sun to set as the two of you take in the flowing wind and the beauty of the world that's now so small in your eyes. Such an occasion would usually warrant laughter and cheers loud enough to hurt your throats, but in this moment, it's nothing short of euphoric.

R - Romance: How romantic are they?

OhohohOOOOOO... She's a mess. Tries to impress you and make you swoon over her and she's a little rusty, but it's hard to say that to her when she's beaming at you as though you're the reason for worship. The sun and moon. When she's not trying so hard to woo you, and does her own thing from the sincerity in her heart, she has you smitten.

S - Support: How do they support their s/o? Are they protective?

She's willing to go above, beyond, and below (coughcough the Underworld) for you. Yara knows what it's like to fail to protect others, so she's so devoted to your safety and wellbeing.

T - Try: How much effort do they put into the relationship?

Yara's swept with puppy love and then some when it comes to the relationship at first. She puts in a lot of effort.

U - Unspoken Words: What do they wish they could say?

She wishes she could say how much you mean to her without wanting to cringe at how sappy she is.

V - Vulnerability: How do they show vulnerability?

She doesn't, doesn't try to at least. But you can tell with the way her body relaxes at the sight of you, when her hand searches for just a bit of you to ground herself in, to commit to her memory the touch of your skin. You kinda have to figure it out based on visual cues, because the words die in her throat when she has you near.

W - Whole: Would they feel incomplete without their s/o?

She'd definitely feel crushed if you were in a relationship for a while, but she'd be able to move forward, even if her heart hurts.

X - XOXO: What's a loving gesture you should expect from them?

Expect get-away's, it helps Yara and she hopes it helps you, the two of you don't even have to do anything. Once or twice a week Yara just brings food and takes you somewhere to be alone. Being a member of the Justice League can require her to prioritize the job over most things, but you're still important to her and she will make it apparent.

Y - Yearning: How much do they miss their s/o?

More than she'd like to admit. Whenever she gets a little bit of quiet time between the work she does, her mind automatically thinks of you.

Z - Zzz: Sleeping with them, how does it go?

Snores. (/hj) grips onto whatever part of you she can find. Certified duvet thief through and through. Sprawls out until the two of you are a mess of limbs.

[heartofspells]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tags, @brandileigh2003 @tracingpatternswrites & @mycupofrum!

Username: heartofspells

1. How many works do you have on A03?

96, all of them HP except for one lonesome Supernatural fic

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

1,685,584

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter, though I've dabbled in a few others, only one fic of which is still available for Supernatural

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

At the Healing Edge of Broken

Prick the Craving, Watch it Seep

Multiplying Parents

How to Succeed in Business

The Tying of Canines

5. Do you respond to comments?

I used to. Hardly ever anymore, and unfortunately, I've got solid reasons for that. I will respond to them if someone asks a question that legitimately needs answering or similar. And while I maybe don't respond to them anymore, I do read every single one multiple times. I love comments, and I'm so grateful for everyone who takes time out of their lives to leave them for me <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ah...heh. That's really not an easy question to answer for me. I guess, coming from a personal stance, knowing everything I put into it and the build up that led to then ending, I'd have to say Wasteland. That's the one that's still lingering with me to this day.

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

That's also hard to answer, because as much as I love flooding my fics with angst, I have a lot that end very happy or hopeful. Narrowing it down to longer fics with more character arc throughout, I'd probably say This Way We Fall because it leaves them on such a high note after all the struggle.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Unfortunately, yes, but that's part of it, I guess. I've become better at ignoring it.

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

I do, but at the end of the day, it's mostly just typical smut when I look at it, though I do have a few kinkier ones scattered in there (ceiling smut, er...inter-species stuff). There's also the...not entirely nice stuff when it comes to smut as well simply because I like exploring all aspects of most everything.

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

Haven't so far. Doubt I ever will, but you never know.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. I hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! I co-wrote Family on the Mend with @tracingpatternswrites and it was so much fun! I'd love to co-write more fics in the future!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

It's gonna have to be Wolfstar just because that's where my heart has rested for years, but there are others that run as close seconds.

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

Oh god. YOU. It's not posted anywhere, still only exists in my docs, but I'm convinced that fic will haunt the rest of my life.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I always struggle with questions like this, but that also means I've spent a lot of time thinking about it over the years. I think, mostly based on reactions I've had and what other people have said, that I'm quite good at capturing heavy and deep emotions, hopefully enough to not only grip a reader, but to plunge them into the heart of a scene and make them feel those emotions as well.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Details? There are times I think I'm terrible at this, and not just in fiction writing. It's in everything. Something might exist in my head, and I sometimes manage to forget that not everyone can see my exact thoughts and know what I'm thinking, so I leave important bits and pieces out of things and explanations that only end up confusing people - or worse, makes me seem not so great in general simply because I forgot the inclusion of a very important point when it mattered most.

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

I'm not against it, though it's not something I generally do because I don't know any other languages and that's a risky game to play. I'll only include it if I've spoken to someone who speaks that language fluently and has agreed to translate for me. But having other languages in a fic is a wonderful thing, especially if you're trying to include other cultures, though speaking as someone who has to rely on things like Google Translate that aren't always accurate, included translations are always appreciated.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This changes constantly for me. I'm not sure how it couldn't. I love most of the fics I've written, and it's like choosing a favorite child sometimes. However, I think right now I'd have to say it's a toss up between CRuSH (i'm just so proud of this one) and Multiplying Parents (also very proud, and this one was so much fun and makes me grin every time i think about it).

Open tag! Because I'm very late to this and I've got the feeling most everyone has done this by now.

[logans-ninjago-blurbs]

can I ask you to expand on the bpd kai headcanon pls? I'm just curious (/gen). I see what you mean when you mentioned his abandonment issues, but I personally view another ninjago character as a potential bpd candidate. but that character is my blorbo so I'm probably just biased and projecting lol

so yeah, do you have any elaboration, specific bpd kai hcs, or supporting evidence you'd like to bestow upon me? legitimately, I'm just really curious. pls use this as an opportunity to ramble! (or ignore if you don't feel comfortable answering)

Super valid! I’m glad you’re interested! I see a lot of myself in Kai, so most of my reasoning for my BPD headcanon is because I myself have BPD and like to project through him in my fics. I don’t really have a solid reasoning other than his abandonment issues, and his hotheaded nature, I just took that and ran with it since I resonate with every other aspect of him :p

[katerinaaqu]

interesting that you found the casting of troy ‘pretty solid’, despite the lack of mediterranean actors in the cast. so, is it okay if they’re not greek, as long as they’re white?

also, given that almost none of these adaptations are even remotely ‘historically accurate’, is it that big of a deal if non-white actors are cast in ‘white roles’? genuinely, how is that any worse than people of, like, english or other western european descent being cast? i’m legitimately curious as to what you think.

"Pretty solid" compared to things we have today. And what does "Mediterannean" mean to people nowadays is something that I feel so worried and scared about. Because many of us people from Mediterannean especially from Europe part like Greeks are ethnically white so many people misunderstand this nowadays (and I said ETHNICALLY not nationally. Of course there are people who are nationally greek even if not ethnically greek who are as greek as I am born and raised in Greece and all)

Would I want great movies cast closer to the area or like actual Greeks or at least Italian and Balkan actors like RAI Odyssey did? Absolutely! Am I grateful that Troy movie casting did not go through the usual race swapping frenzy we have nowadays? Also yes. Because at least they hired people that might as well look their parts. And many actually did. Brad Pitt for once looked amazing as Achilles despite the fact he was old when he played the part. Sean looked great as Odysseus too. Do I think others like Bekim Fehmiou or Christos Tsagas looked even better? HELL YEAH

Am I happy that they didn't do a barage of race swapping like whatever the hell "Troy the Fall of a City" did? Also yes. So yes to answer your question Anon at least "Troy" casting didn't try to push down our throats the "diversity" laws of woke Hollywood without any logic like Hollywood does today and at least made an effort with their casting to look like the parts they play. Where they perfect? No. Could they have been even better? Absolutely. Do I think they are better looking than other productions nowadays? Hell yeah

I love the mental gymnastics oftentimes happen not by you in particular but generally...

that "they are good as long as they are white" like...yeah in one way? Or rather that they look like it... Would you ask the same thing to a movie that features Kongo and yet casts American actors? Would you like it me come to someone's profile that liked the casting despite the fact none of them was from Kongo and say "oh so you like the casting as long as they are black?" Like yeah? Would it be big deal to you if "white actors" play "non-white" roles? Wasn't that a big deal to point out when a random white actor played the part of a non-white figure mythical or other? Wasn't that a big deal to mention these days?

Like i don't care where the person is or what their race is as long as they look solid to their part. I have seen people from Persia or Turkey or middle east in general that could pull the role of some greek characters because they look like the part.

If a person looks like the part then I don't care what actor they used. I have issues when people genuinely say "fuck you" and hire actors that do not even make an effort to look like their parts. Now for Troy characters for example Eric Bana looked like a combo between Malalas and Dares the Phrygian descriptions. Was he perfect? No. Which is why I said "pretty solid" not "perfect". Also of course I enjoyed Christos Tsagas More as Odysseus than Sean. He looked PERFECT exactly because he is ethnically accurate but as long as the actors who play look remotely like their parts I don't care if they are British or Arab or American or Mexican but I need to feel like the actor represents the character efficiently. The bar is low I know but compared to what I see nowadays is better

Which of course is why my favorite movies and series are Iphigenia (1977) and L'Odissea (1968) or even Odyssey (1997) over big Hollywood productions.

I hope that answers the question. Sorry if I sound aggressive but honestly every time people speak on casting and then someone comes to your profile like "oh so you are okay as long as they are white" just to make them look bad I would ask the same question of a movie featuring Kongo or Ethiopia that have very separate characteristics indeed and yet when Hollywood hires an American actor that is not from that ethnic identity is he going to be asked the same?