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emiliasilverova · 2 years

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MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thank you for tagging me, @3nigm4art!)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work---any kind of fancreation counts!

(IMPORTANT NOTICE: in this post I'll be talking about my works/my inspirations in general, not just stuff that has been done for this Fest!)

(Also sorry in advance for the very long post 🙇)

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?

To be fair a lot of the recent stuff I did, each time for different reasons. Some examples:

The Good, the Bad and the Quartermaster (Q dealing with the shenanigans of various 00 agents): writing a fic in the Craig!Bond verse, based on something existing (Comms Chatter) and with a hard deadline (because of the Riverhouse Remix event)

The God is Dead (Janus reforms): managing to write a 100-word story, no more, no less. The point behind that is that I have the annoying habit of making fics way longer that they need to be—the most notorious example of that being a “short atmospheric experiment” that ended up as a 8K-word fic. You’ll find that one further down this list, btw.

Some Solace in the Void (and kinda Straight Up, With a Twist too—both spicy Alec/Xenia action): writing smut. Smut is stupidly hard to write, and I learnt it the hard way. No puns intended. Let’s say that I’m happier with my second attempt than my first…

Shadow Crossing (Bond confronts the ghosts of the Janus gang): coming up with consistent rules of the universe. Can’t tell you much more because spoilers… except that yes, this was the “short atmospheric experiment”.

My series of "Queering the Bond Characters" posts (see my Fest 2022 masterpost for the links): sexuality and LGBT topics are still things I'm learning to get comfortable with talking about, so that was quite a big thing for me to do.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?

I guess my answers all will be lists, won’t they? 😅

From the top of my head, I can say…

Tastes Like Strawberries: Boris is in fact very gay, and he acts so obnoxiously/cluelessly around women in an attempt to hide it (the next entry helped refine that, actually)

The Queer Review of GoldenEye (does this count as fanwork? I’d say it does, as meta): DRASTICALLY changed my views on Alec and his relationship with Bond. Basically he went from “fiercely aromantic straight and can’t even imagine anything else” to “confused, clueless, deeply closeted bi and Bond is the love of his life. Also desperate for love and praise”. I’m not going to complain—all those new layers add even more delicious complexity to his character (though I reckon, I have to thank @prismatic-bell for pushing me further down that path 🥲)

The Land of No Surrender: if Alec was a bit more confident in his sexuality but still had intense spite against Bond, that's what would happen. Believe it or not, this fic made me question a lot of things.

These headcanons, especially those describing Lazenby!Bond as having “urges” for queerness and Dalton!Bond as aroace—a post that directly influenced this one btw.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

There are mainly three right now:

an atmospheric/eerie piece revolving around Alec wandering in the streets of Moscow pre-GoldenEye, strongly inspired by the song Спокойная ночь (Calm Night) by Kino

for a completely different atmosphere, a sitcom-ish piece involving Boris playing Doom instead of working... and getting caught red-handed by the rest of the Janus gang

one final chapter for Missing Connection, because I'll be damned if this one doesn't deserve closure.

For those that I'm less sure about, I'd say Janus’ ghost trial (inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Trial, and a “sequel” to Væ Victori), some Bond/Alec/Xenia, maaaaybe some 00Q00... and honestly, a ton of other ideas 🥲

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

I was about to say that it was hard to choose, then I just remembered one fic in particular—Let It All Out. While it isn’t the first fic I did in just one day, it’s by far the longest and most intensely emotional in that category. Basically I needed to scream in the dark that day, and it just… happened, you know. Q is just me in this—even the title makes no secret of it.

That being said, there’s for honourable mentions:

The Good, the Bad and the Quartermaster (again): I didn’t expect Q to be so easy for me to write. I should have known though: nerd, check. Working in IT, check. Cat lover, check. Not very comfortable with people, check. Tea drinker, check.

A Momentary Glimpse of Reason: if anyone told 2021 me I’d do a sweet, fluffy, unambiguous Bond/Alec drabble, I’d have laughed at their faces and said it was bloody impossible. Then it just happened all smoothly and naturally. How times have changed. In the same vein, these and these chibis.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks?

Alec. Silverova's inexhaustible source of inspiration since 2007.

Okay, other than him. Time to get all serious and pedant, because I'd say...

choices and consequences

dealing with emotions you don't always understand (both of these first two are very big ones. My depiction of Alec (and of my main OC before he took her place in my writing) is almost all about them)

death and the afterlife (don't get me wrong, I hate killing off characters. Yet I have a growing number of ghost stories under my belt. And also other stories dealing with the fear of dying or metaphorical death)

Russia (consequence of GoldenEye making me fall in love with this country's history)

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None, but I’m a huge fan of Half Life and Miami Vice. And Berserk. And Ghost in the Shell. And… crap, a lot of stuff. But somehow none of these can take over GoldenEye (Alec, really) as the centre of my creative world. Two words: special interest.

… okay, maybe I should mention GoldenEye Rogue Agent. But is it really a different fandom? 🤔

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

To be fair, to create I need absolute silence—otherwise my mind will wander right off. That being said, music is always a huge inspiration of mine, as it pretty much is the best way for me to immerse myself in the ambiance/mood/emotion of what I’m writing. I listen to music as I do something else, and I immerse myself in my imaginary world. Then I get the vibe and put it on paper, if this makes sense.

So to answer the question, three big names: Perturbator, Pink Floyd, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. And then, a good metric ton of 1980s rock/new wave songs, synthwave(ish) stuff and miscellaneous soundtracks, because that’s just what makes me vibe.

As for writers/visual artists… I think it’s probably obvious by now that PennyFifer and I feed off each other’s more or less chaotic ideas. Best example of that has to be me writing Life’s Little Ironies within hours of him publishing Ghost Riders in the Sky. Then there’s 3NIGM4, who just stirs my urge for both drawing and (heavy) angst. I can’t really think of other people, to be fair… everything I like influences me, one way or another. It’s not really linked to who makes the stuff.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

Oof, hard one. I have to confess, I am not a very big fanfic reader (or reader in general, in fact) 😱

I guess I’ll just list the stuff I randomly remembered one day and had to search hard to find them again?

The Hanging Wood: very old fic, but whose premise stuck with me. Eventually I did Shadow Crossing, and I was like “oh wait, wasn’t there a fic I’ve read long ago with that vibe?” Yep, there was.

The fanart in Welcome Home, You’re No Longer Alone: spicy. Very spicy. But somehow, when the idea of maybe doing 00Q00 stuff made its way into my mind, it was pretty much the first thing I thought about.

Scars: a Chinese fic I randomly put in Google Translate and... ooboi, what a ride. Again, spicy (and frankly quite disquieting), but at the same time the take on Alec was so interesting.

Touch It, Stroke It, and Undress It (chapter 4 specifically): again, the portrayal of Alec here is. So. STELLAR.

007 Rogue Agent: thinking about it, I can’t not mention this one. Missing Connection, my very first fic (and incidentally the one I’ve written for 9. Friggin. Years), began as an answer to it. So if not for it, I probably wouldn’t have got into fanfiction. Wild, I know.

Real Fear: oh look, another Rogue Agent fic (I mean, there aren’t many of them in the first place). Sometimes I just have to revisit it, the vibe really hits something in me.

Strangeness on a Train: okay, I might have included this one because of a private joke I have with Fifer. It’s uh… probably the first explicit Bond/Alec fic I’ve read in my life? Let’s say I wasn’t quite ready the first time, but I have made my peace with it since then 🥲

9. Finally, share where you post your works!

AO3: Emilia_Silverova

DeviantArt (LOL): S1ilverEye there still is some stuff there though

That aside, just my Tumblr.

Tagging: @lowkeynostalgic @tentacletenshi @reallyneedsalife

#emiliasilverova #mi6cafe community #mi6 cafe tag game #mi6cafe

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vynnyal · 4 years

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Throwing random thoughts, headcanons, and a variety of pasta at the wall (but only those having to do with vessels and/or their biology this time): The Thrilling Third Installment™

...aka pretending i can be dark and dramatic jskhdfd

Thk's larger form is not the standard, but the exception. Thk was cited as being "raised and trained to prime form", which people take to mean pk assisted in the vessel's natural growth. However, that conclusion leaves a lot of unanswered questions, most important of which being “then what about Ghost?” In short, I think that train of thought is backwards. Vessels can't grow- they are ageless, and immortal. We know this due to Ghost, despite living as long if not longer than thk, being completely unchanged over the years. The only thing pk trained into "prime form" was thk’s mind and fighting prowess. Their body... well, I think it was mutated. Most likely either directly by pk, or ordered by him- and with the shenanigans happening over in the sanctum, I wouldn't be surprised if Soul was involved, too. In any case, it was in no means natural. Vessels are corpses reanimated by void; neither corpses nor void tend to make drastic changes on their own all that often. Whether pk predicted the vessel’s “issues” and intended to manually “upgrade” them from the beginning, it's hard to say. But... yeah. Unless Ghost goes out of their way to make themselves grow- if its even possible, now that pk is gone- its fairly safe to say, they never will.

...with that in mind, we are promptly gonna ignore that for the rest of this post lmaooo

Grown-up vessels wouldn't look like thk; while they are described as being raised into "prime form"... prime form, to whom? Rather than looking like an idealized pk soldier, it sounds much more fitting that they’d have an entirely different, natural adult form. Consider: their cloaks being longer and fuller, perhaps filling out into something with a more practical use to their “species”. Better yet, they could even grow up to be more beast-like. Feral vessels, YEhaW

The black egg temple is cited as being "built to sustain [vessels]", yet it can't be their lifespan that is sustained. Rather, it seems the egg is specifically designed to keep the radiance from tearing thk apart, physically and/or mentally. Ngl its p obvious, but worth noting.

Sorta-au where Ghost’s shade has 8 eyes, and/or is generally all-around more cryptid-looking.

@ the sharpshadow charm and the strange, 6-eyed creature their shade turns into: kudos to this post, they bring up something super interesting- the creature not only resembles the Shade Lord, but the lord outright becomes it during the Embrace the Void cutscene.

makes me respect the ol’ civilization a whole lot more if a single charm can turn a baby shade into a baby lord.

The concept of finding ghosts unconscious body, laying next to a corpse, while they battle in their dreams. Alt: when ghost enters the dream realm, their shade leaves their shell... And protects their body from harm.

If steel soul mode is taken as canon, just how did ghost and the shade meet? Alt: Ghost may never have “met” it at all, as it technically doesn’t exist in that mode- instead, its more of a metaphor than an actual entity.

What the vessels looked like- or were supposed to look like- before the void. Alt: a story following a child, alive and untouched, that somehow managed to be spared. They could even have a gender. Alt alt: the void intentionally spared them for some purpose, or even out of simple kindness- or at least, something that resembles kindness.

Re: the shade inexplicably having a nail: all the vessel's swords are crafted from “will-bearing rock”- of which i’ve come to lovingly call living stone- and as such, are of void themselves. That's how the shade seems to conjure up its own copy; it merely shapes it, from the ground, using void. And, while more of a stretch, Ghost’s nail being some sort of living stone/pale ore alloy could explain just how Ghost can do seemingly pretty crazy things with an otherwise ordinary nail. Better, while 100% a baseless hc, its material might actually enable Ghost to build it up and modify it to suite their size as they grow older. finally, a logical reason adult Ghost has an adult-sized nail-claymore. hdsfghjfghdsjf

On that same thought: Ghost outright invented the "art" of manipulating- or creating- living stone to make their nail. ...gimme a sec. The other escaped vessels have nails, too, right? Either meaning they also discovered this ability... or that theres some legitimate ground for the “vessel gang” hc. Or, yanno, i’m reading too much into Ari’s sprites but sHHhh

How did all the vessels know to race to the top? They seemed to be falling merely because they had just been born and had literal, actual baby strength; yet not only did they inexplicably risk everything competing to the top, they somehow knew death was waiting if they lost. Alt: pk just, bringing a fucking megaphone and telling them like a sports announcer.

What if Ghost made it, and instead of falling, they managed to joined thk at the lip? What would pk do? Push them off the edge??? Or just adopt them both?? Oh fuck au where they're raised as twin sacrifices. Or worse yet, they’re raised unequally, and one is trained only as an afterthought. As a backup.

Alternatively, pk keeps all the vessels au, only a few years later when they're grown. Pk now has a literal army of pure knights. Radiance is fucked.

Hm. If vessels were fully coherent entities from the moment of birth, why was there a crib in the white palace? Did... did they use it? I have a feeling team cherry made that asset before the abyss scene lmaooo alt: they did, uh, use the crib. Cue a very awkward scene of thk, clearly not a normal baby, staring at wl with like... idk, the poofy baby hat and pacifier. I can’t tell if the image is more funny or more sad rn shdfgfjsdgg

The og notes that inspired this post, in case my rambling makes more sense (and w/o the awful comic hjsfgjsdfhj): Oh oh OH i GET it now. The void is all about "will" and whatnot, right? And shades are "fragments of a lingering will"- will, like the one you leave after your death, but instead of inheritance its the vessels' desires...last regrets.... DAMN team cherry, that symbolism is clever as heck. That took me a while. Kinda funny how a will is, technically, a person's last regrets Like I knew they were last regrets but I didn't understand WHY. Duh, it's because they're literally Made Of Will. They are the vessel's "wills". I'm so stupid.

Ghost, walking thru the abyss, getting increasingly fed up / freaked out, ducking into a crack in the wall. They follow the crack into the Scream Chamber, pause, then exhale in relief that this was EXACTLY what they needed.

Ghost's shade rolling up its void-sleeves like “fuck it, ima defeat thk myself”

Why was thk's sword there? Was its pedestal decayed? Did it fall from their body? Was it place there as an afterthought, or hurriedly? alt: taking thk's sword before freeing them, but doing the mom thing like you're grounding them hdhfjchjch

I can’t believe it just occured to me now, but... as objectivley stupid as the vessel’s test was, Ghost... technically came in second place. What if that whole scene was a metaphor? Because really, it’s just too silly to take seriously. To do so isn’t too far fetched, either; many other elements in the game’s story are better taken as symbolic or metaphorical, anyways. Take the PoP cutscene- while it could’ve been a literal moment, where they just happened to find themselves standing around and took the moment to appreciate each other... imo it makes much more sense to read it as the concept of their faint ~forbidden love~ and parental pride itself. Or, better yet, the scene at the end of the 4th pantheon. Sorry, but I severely doubt that was an actual event. What I’m trying to get at is the significance of “second place” in the cutscene. My brain is too fried to chase down any other possible connections to this theme rn (if thats even what the theme is), but even without proof, the theory smooths out a few interesting tidbits related to just how Ghost could tough it out when all others failed. All except for #1, anyway. Either way I’m just happy to take this as an excuse to pretend that cutscene didn’t literally happen because like, l m a o

The story of a small group of vessels as they work together to escape hallownest. (aka the aforementioned vessel gang hc... im sure theres a more formal name but you get the idea). Its impossible to tell how long it took them to discover that near-invisible hole, the last exit remaining after the king ordered the abyss to be sealed up. Once they did, however, the remaining vessels were quick to make a desperate scramble to escape- only for the entrance to suddenly crumble shut, far, far too soon. The remaining 8 slowly made their way through deepnest, their numbers quickly dwindling as the jouney started to take its toll. The group was nearly wiped out by those terrible, spiney-legged creatures that used their own kinship against them. Only three finally escaped the deep, yet only two made it through the basin- the third, largest sibling, left to fight alone againt a hopeless battle, just to buy the others time. It was in greenpath, so close yet so far to their goal, that the second succumbed to the infection. It was a mercy killing, that nail through the heart. The last, after all of that, finally made their way to the very precipice of howling cliffs, hesitating for just a moment to gaze out upon the still-fresh ruins of hallownest. But only for a moment, before Ghost jumps down to begin their journey beyond this wretched place.

A vessel running from its shade as it tirelessly pursues them, the vessel refusing to put it to rest.

tw: suicide, + personal on main

Ugh ugh ugh ugh Either thk was fully conscious and in terrible pain for all those years... or they couldn’t feel anything at all. The former is horrible, but imagining thk waking up, chained, unable to do anything but wait for Ghost to heed their call? Did they turn their nail on themselves to help Ghost, end the pain, or some awful mix of both? For someone who has personally dealt with close friends and family that struggled with suicide themselves, hollowknight is one of the worst horror stories I've ever seen. And the fact that the story is so personal, so open to interpretation? The fact that each character is so genuine yet vague enough to be read completely differently to someone else’s biases? Its why hollow knight- the game, and the character- will forever be one of the most powerful stories to me.

in short, good LORD THIS GAME IS SO FUCKING SAD

#hollow knight #Thonking abt hollowknight #blabbing.txt #i should probably proof-read this.... uuuaaaah #anyways #@ that last one: i had to take a week-long break after tiso died. so like. you can imagine my reaction to thk #other than that some of these are VERY OLD #and dsfhhfdj the test one literally just occurred to me #sweet catharsis.... fuck you pk....#also.... yeah. vessels have a p bad time all considered #ghost is like 'i know i look 7 but im actually 1000 years old!'#then hornet punts them into the sun #OH WHAUFHDFKJ

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samrosemodblog · 4 years

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Time for Sam Ramblings! It's been a while since I rambled about something. Also whose ready for some Fandom Whiplash?

Cause I'm rambling about Homestuck.

Homestuck is strange to me cause I was in the PRIME position to absolutely adore it when it premiered, on account of being a huge fan of the series that came before it, Problem Sleuth.

God I loved Problem Sleuth. One of the rare series where from basically page 1 it had me busting my gut with the absurdities.

So I figured I'd love Homestuck too. And while I did dig it for a while, it was always kinda just "Okay" with me going along with the motions. And I DEFINITELY didn't understand the story telling pacing on account of all the time travel shenanigans going on, or the way Hussie decided to EXECUTE those time travel narratives.

I remember dropping out of reading the story around the time of Part 5 airing, you know, when the Trolls REALLY got involved in the story. Which is funny because apparently from what I've seen, this is everyone in the fandom's favorite part of the story.

And I'm rambling about this NOW, because I decided for the kicks to go back and listen to a Youtube Reading of Homestuck, just so I could actually say I'd seen all of Homestuck one day.

And those readings just got to the start of Act 5 now which means I'm all caught up from my past. So I wanted to put my thoughts to paper and then toss them into the void for anyone who cares.

The rest under a Read More!

To start my thoughts, a second read of Homestuck has done a lot for my understanding of Homestuck's story, even if I forgot a LOT of what happened near the end of act 4 on retrospective.

Having even some knowledge of the future meant that when those events occurred in the past, they made INFINITELY more sense than an initial linear timeline viewing of the story.

So in some senses I really was enjoying the story more this time around than I did the first time, though I think I can identify more of what the issue this time around is of why it just feels OKAY in comparison to Problem Sletuh.

Homestuck is basically a game within a game within a Webcomic, narratively speaking. All of that is LITERAL in terms of the story being told, even the 4th Wall is literally part of the story.

And part of the disconnected feeling is that the "Game" of Sburb, the game that starts the story off in Act 1, isn't really used to its full potential.

Like when Act 1 first started, I was FULLY into the idea of this double-layered story telling of kids playing a game and using the game mechanics while they were 'controlled' by a game on the outside.

Like I said, it's LITERALLY a game within a game story telling.

But the Game never really plays out to any meaningful effect. The 'Game' of Sburb is just a plot device that gives the kids, essentially, alchemy super powers.

Sure they can KIND of alter the area they spawn in, but that never really plays any kind of factor in the larger space of the story (at least as far as up to Act 5 is concerned, maybe I'm wrong here, but even if it DOES the feeling of disconnect is still there for all of Acts 1 through 4).

Like. I imagine Problem Sleuth, where the world FUNCTIONALLY is a dream world running on Dream Logic.

One of the first things that happens is the main character pulling a window off of the wall, but still being able to use it as a window to where the window exited out to, like a moving portal.

Imagine THOSE kind of shenanigans but with the game world. Being able to treat reality as if it existed in dream logic.

A story where Rose was able to take the windows on John's house and make duplicates of them around the world, giving John fast access back to his house.

If the new world they were exploring within Sburb was a hostile and dangerous world, and they made themselves safe havens that were essentially copy + pastes of their homes, with door portals that lead them between these havens, and allow them to 'fast travel' between locations.

The Game would be their world world, because the story would be dictated of them essentially living IN the game! And they ESSENTIALLY always have! They just never had direct access to that game until Sburb existed!

But of course this never really happens in the story.

Instead you get drawn into a confusing game within a game within a webcomic story, combined with so much time travel you can't even nervously shift in place without bumping into SOMETHING that was directly involved in time travel.

And that's not even getting into the whole absurdity of the 'Dream' world ALSO being the antagonist world that the kids are fighting against.

Essentially Homestuck gets bogged down REAL quick with all of these other story elements that, at least FEEL, completely separated from the game in the first place.

And sure, I get that part of the problem in the story is essentially that BECAUSE the kids prototyped the kernel sprite with Clowns, cats, pink, and birds that it caused the main villain to be infuriated over having to wear a stupid hat, but it's such a minor detail that it gets entirely lost in the shuffle!

It's not that any of this is necessarily bad, after all Homestuck's fandom was fucking HUGE when it came on the scene (especially with the trolls), but it definitely had always left me with a feeling of "It feels like a lot could be done with this concept, but instead of doing anything with it, we went with a strange time-travel and alien home-worlds warring narrative instead"

But I suppose this is all relative. It's not necessarily a BAD story, it's just one that leaves a lot up to the reader to figure things out and/or wait for them to be figured out on their own, and that can be kind of tough to deal with.

Also some of the language hasn't held up, at all. And I don't think it even held up even back then. 10 years is a long time in terms of cultural shifts, but even still oof.

But that's a minor part at the very least and doesn't come up very often, so I can at least shrug it off for now.

Anyways, that caps off my feelings of the first 4 acts as they exist right now. And I wanted to get them down because one of the most common reading advice for people new to Homestuck is "Skip to Act 3!" and it's like

That's such terrible advice and not a great way to kick off this huge adventure lol

But at least I think I figured out WHY Acts 1 through 4 gave me such a "This is okay" feeling, as said above.

But what kicked me out of reading the rest was Part 5 Act 1 (Seriously why isn't it just Act 5 and 6?? They're long enough to be separate acts, lord).

EVERYONE ELSE seemed to adore the trolls and loved exploring their world and getting to know them more.

They annoyed the Hell out of me originally.

Not only had I been thrown off/hated the whole fact that John made his own family and friends and himself RANDOMLY AND WITHOUT ANY THOUGHT (Like he literally just stumbles into a room and goes ahead and makes the paradoxes and just... Just does things??? UGH I STILL HATE IT), but then these assholes came along and just had COMPLETELY obnoxious personalities and text chats that were a pain in the ass to read and took over the ENTIRE STORY away from the characters I actually cared about.

ALSO PERSTERCHUM LOGS ARE WAY TOO LONG, EVEN FROM THE START OF THE STORY, EVERY TIME IT'S LIKE 10 MINUTES TO READ WHAT'S GOING ON, I SWEAR TO GOD-

So I just wanted to put my thoughts down on what Homestuck had been TO ME so far before I end up dragging myself through the rest of the story that I HAVEN'T seen until now.

I believe I got spoiled on how the story ends from a tumblr post but my memory of it is really vague and I don't remember HOW they get to that conclusion, but it felt very Problem-Sleuthy in how it ended so ya know.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if any of my feelings end up changing here. I doubt I'll ever be officially part of the 'Fandom' like other people were, but hey, if I get to the end of the story and like what I have so far I can at least partake in the fanart and fanfics and finally know what's going on lol

PS. I DO find it funny that "The Midnight Gang" was essentially a commissioned side-story in the Problem Sleuth universe, and one of the on-going 'Gag' commands was "Enter the Main story!", but of course they never did.

I guess Homestuck is what happens when they actually do lol

#Sam Ramblings #Homestuck

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laufire · 3 years

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the wayward sisters au

My intention is to write what the show could have been, or my version of it. And for it to feel a bit like a show: a “season” long plot (first: Claire’s search for Kaia’s killer to get revenge), subplots following a case/monster of the week structure, etc. I’ll probably divide the “episodes” in one-shots, to keep it cleaner (otherwise I anticipate the tags growing into something monstruous lol). I might accept some things from SPN’s timeline as canon, but I know for a fact I’ll throw away others. I already plan to write a fully canon-compliant post-series one-shot for Claire and both Kaias, so if I need to write some fix-it for the finale I’ll do it there; I might just throw a Castiel resurrection in Because, just watch me xD. I must warn I have NO idea on when I’ll find the time to write this. Not until late this year, like many other WIPs ugh.

This will obviously require more OCs than I usually manage, although to compensate I plan on bringing along a lot of those female characters lost to SPN’s void, or simply underused. Missouri is going to be a ghost mentoring Patience, because I can. Linda Tran, Mia, Billie, Alicia Banes, Amara, Kali... I’m not above resurrecting a few even LOL.

Like I’ve mentioned before, one character I’m DEFINITELY bringing along is Bela Talbot as a demon. In a... more friendly role that some might assume lol. Claire will hear about a demon that can get you almost anything and trades on anything mystical except for souls (because I like to imagine demon!Bela as refusing to play that game), and of course she has to try anything to find Kaia’s killer. I have this plot more mapped out than others, with a little of it written already. I want to fit in a Bela-Winchesters reunion, and I’d love to write her meeting Castiel, Jack, and Rowena, so the SPN characters will have a cameo. And she’ll have more than one appearance.

It’s going to be a multipov series, with some parts focusing more on one girl than others. Claire is the lead, but Alex, Patience, Jody, and Donna will have their time (I already have a pretty involved plot for Alex, for example. I like to imagine her starting to run some kind of illegal clinic for supernatural occurrences and others). And later on, maybe both Kaias, whose story goes a little differently than in the show.

The WIP will contain lots of doppelganger shenanigans, Claire/Kaia and Claire/dark!Kaia, as well as a very complicated dynamic between both Kaias. I imagine the relationship between these three to be reaaaally messy, ngl.

Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.

#anonymous #replies #talking to the void #my thoughts #spn thoughts #supernatural #wayward sisters #claire novak #bela talbot #patience turner #my wips

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propfortytwo · 4 years

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heres the entire plot of homestuck explained mostly

the story takes place over 4 (technically 5 counting the end) alternate universes, and starts in the 3rd one, but it makes more sense if we start from the beginning chronologically.

a race of humanoids called trolls who are basically just humans with grey skin, orange horns, multicolored blood, and varying degrees of psychic powers exist on a planet called beforus. things are relatively uneventful, until the abdicated heiress to an empire, meenah, discovers The Game(tm) on the moon.

the game, otherwise known as sburb (or sgrub to the trolls) exists to propagate the universe; a successful session of it creates a new universe entirely. it involves a server player manipulating the real environment of a client player to bring them into a type of pocket dimension called the medium aka the session aka the incipisphere whatever, point is, you get there. the client can then, from that dimension, host the server of another client and bring them into the same session, and so on; the trolls sessions have 12 players, and human sessions have 4. each player has their own ‘land’, a small planet vaguely themed around them with a unique poorly defined quest, but that doesnt come up too much so dont worry about it immediately. each player also has a unique mythological role consisting of a class and an aspect; there are 12 of each for a total of 144 possible combinations, for instance john egbert is the heir of breath. this not only defines their abilities, but also their personality and role in the story.

each session has a few constants: a ‘planet’ in the center called skaia, which is a bright ball of just sky, with clouds that show you visions of the future; at the center of it is the battlefield, a chessboard which gets bigger and more complicated as things go on. a session will also always contain prospit, a yellow planet that orbits close to skaia, and a purple planet called derse that orbits far away from it. in a game session, prospit and derse are at war, with derse seeking to destroy skaia and the battlefield by sending an asteroid belt into it; coincidentally, this also destroys the home planet of the players, as many asteroids are teleported into reality. in the sessions weve seen so far these asteroids also are used to paradoxically send baby versions of the players and their ancestors back in time but that isnt too important right now. each player has an alternate self called a dream self, which exists on one of the two planets (but doesnt have any bearing on their morality or allegiance, just personality). dream selves, along with the session itself, always exist alongside the normal universe before the game even begins, and under certain conditions your normal self will, when asleep, awake as your dream self and vice versa. in addition, a player who dies can be revived, but only as their dream self.

back to the plot; the beforus trolls aren’t very good at the game; in fact, they fail and spend a few years not being able to do anything until they discover a way to reset both their game and the universe itself, which will retroactively swap them with their ancestors as players and do some other things as well. they should logically not even exist anymore, but due to some shenanigans that happen in the 2nd universe, they exist as ghosts in a sort of afterlife formed by dreaming players whose dream selves are dead or missing. overall, only two of these 12 trolls are actually important to the plot, meenah and aranea.

this brings us to the second universe; beforus is now called alternia, and it is a considerably more violent and horrific place, with troll society being murderous as pretty much a standard. as you can imagine literally everyone is traumatized by this. the first 12 trolls to get introduced in the comic come from this timeline, and include funny lawyer girl terezi. there’s also a considerable amount of infighting, most of which is vriskas fault. she comes up later.

the 2nd troll session is considerably more successful than the 1st, and finishes the game creating a universe, though this new universe contains a “small” defect due to negligence on the part of the players. before the trolls can enter their new universe, however, they are unexpectedly attacked by an angry teleporting chess dog with wings and a katana, who murders all their dream selves and blows up prospit and derse. the trolls go into hiding on a meteor, where they learn that this strange murderous furry came from a session inside their new universe. they elect to constantly harass the players of this session. also around the time of furrymans rampage, a girl named feferi convinces some eldritch creatures to create the aforementioned afterlife, while another girl named aradia who was briefly a robot comes back to life as a god tier and freezes furrydude in place. a god tier player is someone who has died in a particular way and as a result been revived with conditional immortality (if they die they are immediately revived UNLESS their death was either heroic, or just ie they were a piece of shit), powers based on their class and aspect, and a new outfit also based on their class and aspect. meenah in the first universe did this, as did vriska in the 2nd, though only because aradia beat the shit out of her for being awful. speaking of which she murders her childhood friend who she has abused and tormented for years because thats just how vriska is.

this brings us to the start of homestuck, the comic. there are four kids at the moment: john egbert, an overall lovable dumbass who is the first to enter, rose lalonde, a goth lesbian obsessed with wizards and psychology, dave strider, funny sunglasses memelord and horrifically abused swordsman, and jade harley, the prophetic scientist heiress of an old colonialist who was raised by a magic dog. through some difficulties they enter their session, and things IMMEDIATELY start going wrong. they just barely get everyone into the session before earth is ruined, and before that can even happen, the aforementioned murder furry is created when a bureaucrat named jack noir kills the black queen and steals her magic ring. a different jack noir was also present in the troll session, this one became a mobster named spades slick. (yes, that stupid fucking intermission was actually important). this happened because like the players, several ingame npcs also are brought to the dying planet, after it gets fucked by rocks. these include, on earth, WV aka the mayor, PM who will be important later, and two other jackasses who arent important. PM is cool because shes a mailman who fights through the fucking legions of hell to deliver a package to john and then later receives a copy of jack noirs magic ring and proceeds to chase him across the void for 3 years and finally beats the shit out of him. love her. anyway;

like the 1st universe, the kids are informed by a creepy man who talks in white text on a white background like a fucking tool that they cant succeed and will have to reset their session, though with coordination from the trolls, they have a plan to survive it. they also plan to use a very large bomb created as part of that defect i mentioned before to blow up something called the green sun, which is where jack noirs magic furry powers come from. this will also coincidentally kill spooky white man who has a cueball for a head and release an eldritch horror known as lord english into the timeline. meanwhile in the troll session, a clown troll named gamzee is driven into a rage by a video of the insane clown posse sent to him by dave and murders several of the less relevant characters because hes a piece of shit. also meanwhile a troll named eridan ALSO kills some people including someone named kanaya who is a lesbian vampire with a chainsaw who eventually marries rose. kanaya then cuts eridan in half because she Is Too Fucking Angry To Die. love her. ALSO ALSO meanwhile vriska is about to fly off and expose their hiding place to jack noir, but is killed by her childhood friend terezi. she dies for good because its considered a just death. anyway back in the kid session, things go awry and its revealed that white bread tricked them, as the bomb actually CREATES the green sun retroactively. also, because of the properties of the green sun and where the bomb was set off, the two kids who set off the bomb, dave and rose, meet up with the remaining trolls outside of the kid session. meanwhile jade fucking dies to a bomb made of shaving cream but is revived as a god tier and for unrelated reasons also fused with her magical dog. dave and rose also ascend to god tier as they died when a massive fucking sun spawned on top of them. john was already god tier due to some shenanigans by vriska earlier. basically everyone has their signature look now.

jade uses her new god tier abilities to shrink down every planet in their session including the battlefield, before bringing herself, john, and an alternate timeline dave onto a battleship and literally fucking launching it through the fourth wall into Poorly Defined Author Space which is technically on the moon of alternia. andrew hussie is here. as they leave the session before its reset, they stay alive, same with rose and dave. also meanwhile with rose and dave, one of the surviving trolls, sollux, uses his psychic powers to launch the meteor towards the newly reset session at relativistic speeds (all sessions TECHNICALLY exist in the same dimension? its weird), while jade does the same with her battleship.

thus begins the 4th timeline/universe. shit only gets stupider from here, consider taking a short break.

ok, ready?

the new universe is shown off, with the new kids; jane crocker, an average young woman who stands to inherit the betty crocker company which in this timeline is like amazon (shes an alternate version of johns grandmother); roxy lalonde, who is literally the best character in homestuck (alt. rose’s mom); jake english, a dumbass who lives on a deserted island, speaks in horribly inaccurate british slang and dual wields pistols (alt. jade’s grandfather); and dirk strider, a canonically gay nerd with pointy anime sunglasses and a sword who builds robots and canonically watches mlp so like fucking make of that what you will (alt. dave’s abusive brother). their entry into their session is different; their session is called a void session, and is inherently unwinnable because of retroactive time bullshit, and for related reasons, the meteors that would destroy earth are never sent. you may ask “well how did the kids get there then?” to which the answer is when the reset happened the destination of the kids guardians was switched to be this new session. doesn’t that mean the guardians never existed, you say? stop thinking.

anyway janes entry into the session coincedes with betty crocker revealing herself to be a hostile alien empress who slowly takes over the earth with the help of the insane clown posse and guy fieri. she’s also the alternate version of meenah, who in the alternia timeline was the empress and also kind of a horrible person. shes here because of nonsense involving lord english, who she works for but hates. in fact, theres an interesting side effect to this; dirk and roxy actually live 400 years in the future from jane and jake, from after betty crocker aka the condesce killed everyone and flooded the planet. they still enter the same session, through dirk doing some stupid shit and controlling both his dream self and his actual self at the same time and moving everyone around.

there’s a long period of absolutely nothing happening in the 4th session while the trolls and kids travel to it, and during this were introduced to two characters; calliope and caliborn. theyre brother and sister, and are part of another race called cherubs who look like green skeletons and which share a body with each other and fight for control of it. caliborn is the fucking worst and actually becomes lord english eventually, while calliope is a nice down to earth person who makes fan characters and cosplays a troll. they also technically exist in a... 5th, separate universe, on a dead earth?? which is probably the future earth from the ending? i dunno it makes no fucking sense.

anyway calliope dies due to some plotting but death means fucking nothing in this story so shes off hidden in the afterlife. the meteor group and the battleship group pass through this afterlife like physically several times during their journey through the void and meet many of the dead trolls, including dead vriska, meenah, and aranea, who come up with a plan to lure lord english, who is currently destroying reality and murdering ghosts, to a place where they can hit him with a magic ghost weapon. they find it, and john touches it out of curiosity, whereupon he gains weird powers that let him travel ANYWHERE in canon at any time, though he cant really control it. during his random zaps around he beats the shit out of caliborn which is cool and good. partway through, aranea leaves and uses a magic ring to come back to life JUST as the two groups arrive at the new session and the 4 new kids ascend to god tier, at which point everything goes wrong all at once.

through a contrived series of events, jade and jane are mind controlled by the condesce, and a long fight scene ensues where jake unleashes his true power and then dies, aranea tries to usurp the condesce but fails miserably, and basically fucking everyone but john and roxy die horribly, planets are smashed into each other, the session is falling apart due to interference from caliborn who has limited control over the narrative for some reason; its not good.

fortunately, john in theory has the ability to fix this by retconning events in a particular way. he has no idea how to though, until a dying terezi headbutts him, writes instructions on a blindfold in her own blood, and then dies, falling into a chalk outline of her own corpse she drew immediately beforehand because shes fucking metal. john also, during this time, uses his new powers to move his planet out of the session into a white void apparently outside everything. as a consequence of this, in an alternate timeline his planet explodes and roxy dies, though in THIS weird space, he and roxy are still alive.

following terezis instructions, john changes some subtle things in the past, before ultimately preventing her from killing vriska by knocking vriska out. this, surprisingly, actually has a positive effect; vriska has powerful mind control abilities that allow her to put jane and jade to sleep upon arrival and prevent the bad timeline from happening, but she also mellows out a bit and keeps everyone from losing their minds during the journey, while also forming a plan to fight the condesce that works out pretty well. the person she murdered gets revived as well, though she still treats him like shit so im not giving her points for that.

john and roxy arrive from the bad timeline with johns planet, and roxy uses the magic ring to bring the dead calliope back to life. also around this time calliope meets an alternate version of herself who killed caliborn in her timeline and is spooky and mysterious and super fucking powerful and will be able to help kill lord english, so thats cool.

some nice, genuine heart to hearts happen between the characters as they get set up for the final battle, at which point it happens, in a 20 minute flash. the condesce gets defeated, lord english's influence is cut out from the session, and the new universe is created; its actually a pretty happy ending.

and THAT is the end of homestuck.

#homestuck

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leam1983 · 4 years

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Post-Quarantine Musings - Hardspace: Shipbreaker

I book car showroom appointments for a living.

There’s more to it, seeing as I’m the office’s resident IT drone, proofreader and occasional copywriter, but it boils down to this. My job in these parlous times is to get you to strap on that dodgy graphene-filter mask you bought off of Wish or Alibaba and drive to your local showroom so you can socially distance yourself from a guy who really, really wants you to disregard the fact that payment delays on a 20K$ vehicle just isn’t a worthwhile deal in times like these. Money’s tight for everyone, but Honda, Nissan and everyone else’s plant workers need to put food on the plate - and that means buyback offers. Lots and lots of buyback offers, most of them being shockingly cheap and poorly thought-out.

Over the last few days, though, I’ve been poking at Blackbird Entertainment’s Hardspace: Shipbreaker, of which the basic setup uneasily mirrors the decidedly crapsack world we find ourselves living in, lately. Work is scarce for some, so blue-collar postings suddenly start to have some allure. What happens, then, when said blue-collar work takes you out of Earth’s gravity well?

The year is 2355 or thereabouts, and inflation’s made it so that a lower-middle class bloke having over nine million dollars in debt is totally normal. You’re one such average Joe, the game opening with the anxiety-inducing din of your cramped mega-building apartment. Your financial imprint is in shambles, creditors are after your ass, and your inbox varies between impassioned pleas from your mother and curt title lines coming from repo agencies.

You’re deep in it, safe to say.

Luckily for you, you’ve also applied to the LYNX Corporation’s Shipbreaker program, wherein all debts are shouldered by the company as well as all living expenses, so long as you don’t mind leaving your family and loved ones behind to spend your hours between work shifts in a pressurized habitat that’s essentially left out in the open space of your new workspace’s offered ship berth. The profile setup is presented diegetically as the world’s mortiferous take on Capitalism, wherein LYNX reserves the right to clone you, if you happen to sever the right fuel line at the wrong time. The company expects total obedience and even dictates who you should vote for, in the coming global elections. You’ll make millions of bucks per shift, but most of it will go to fruitlessly attempting to sponge off a debt not even your children’s children will have any prayer of making a dent in.

“But hey,” says Weaver, your supervisor, in his nonchalant Midwestern drawl, “work hard, and you too just might work off your debt, like Simmons did.”

In the beginning hours, it’s not hard to get the sense that Simmons might be a company-created chimera, a figment of corporate imagination - the Guy Who Made It.

In practice, your new job involves floating around in the zero-G confines of a spaceship berth, flanked by furnaces to smelt down what can be salvaged or repurpose what can be quickly reused. Everything else, from cots to pressurization units and loose personal O2 tanks, you have to fling down into the giant space barge that partially blots out your view of a brownish, detritus-covered Earth. Every work shift lasts fifteen minutes, and every shift comes with Work Orders, or tasks that need to be prioritized. Your tools of the trade include precision cutting lasers and beamsplitters, along with an energy-based grapple gun. The brunt of the work involves worming your way inside your Derelict of the Day, which another team’s already stripped down to the I-Beams and connecting points - and reducing all of the massive, yellow-marked solder points to slag. A little thruster work adds momentum to gigantic steel, aluminium or nanocarbon plates and walkways that you free from the ship’s armature, at which point you can slither out and guide all freed loose items and plates to either the Salvage, Furnace or Reclamation points.

Early on, it feels like you’re playing Operation inside the innards of some gigantic steel-borne beast - but the fifteen-minute timer soon starts to loom over you, as your Work Orders become increasingly complex. Soon enough, your safe and definitely OSHA-compliant procedures are set aside for hacky and mildly suicidal means of reaching your goals as quickly as possible.

Normally, creating a safe working environment involves depressurizing each wreck from within, using the provided consoles. Nevermind why, but LYNX supplies its wrecks with a remaining atmosphere and plenty of unsecured flotsam floating around. If you’re on the clock, you can also just hang onto the pilot’s cockpit with your magnetic gloves, aim your laser at the front windshield - and then hold on for dear life as all ninety-seven tons of atmosphere in the hauler you’re assigned to forces its way out into the void, through a space that has about the width of a finger. The resulting force rips through the front cockpit, turning the usually easy-to-handle ‘nano panels that line the ship’s outer plating into dozens of annoyingly small fragments you’ll later have to spent long minutes bundling together and flinging down the Reclamation chute.

The same goes for fuel lines, really. You only have a few minutes left and need the few million creds an intact thruster block sells for? Cut open a hole in the ship’s flank, near the stern, expose the fuel lines, line up your shot while going as far back as you can while still having a chance to make your target - and fire away. You’ll tear the entire back half open and even possibly kill yourself, but that’s what company-produced clones and mnemonic transfer jobs are for, right?

I mean, the ship’s half-ruined and LYNX’s just lost a few cool billions of expensive tech but, hey - the thruster block’s intact (miraculously) and that’s going to cover your equipment leases being commuted to a for-life permit! Woohoo, no more payments for my precision laser!

Of course, nothing says blue-collar tedium like Space Bluegrass, and that’s what you’ll be listening to for most of your run. Shipbreaker is still definitely barren on the audio spectrum, although a good chunk of it is by design: you’re in space, in a near-complete vaccuum, and the only clear sounds you’ll ever hear are broadcast out of your suit’s radio. Everything else is muffled and distant, with even your ship-rending occasional reactor failures only manifesting as a bright glare and a low whoosh.

The main draw quite obviously is the game’s zero-G physics engine. Fans of Space Sims like Elite: Dangerous will feel right at home, with the obviously small-scale setting being less focused on your pulling off Top Gun stunts in space and more with providing chunks of metal weighing a variable amount of tons with the ponderous floatyness to be expected - and small bits with the life-ending velocity to be expected when your non-compliant shenanigans result in your helmet cracking and your air reserves oozing out. The end result is surprising, seeing as what looks like a Homeworld-era cruiser bursting open like a beached whale barely taxes an i7 7700K, 16GB setup. The game is rather lightweight, technically speaking, which allows it to be impressively forgiving, based on the two machines I was able to fiddle with, one of them an entry-level gaming rig, and the other being more of an enthusiast setup, with an i9 and 32 GBs of memory.

If anything, you’re likely to notice that there’s a bit of a disconnect between your rough, dusty and used hand-crafted environments and the polygonal and simplistic construction of the vessels you’re tasked with decommissioning. That’s mostly a result of the game needing an efficient way to handle one interactive object splitting off into potentially dozens of physics-based objects. Keeping things sleek obviously makes sense, considering, and it also helps that Hardspace rests on the handiwork of a few ex-Relic Entertainment designers. Hiigara’s natives aren’t too far off if you look at the ship designs, with only the texture work suggesting that you’re a Blue Collar Joe or Jane working on an old tug that’s had just as rough a life as you.

The question is, however, if I’d recommend it. I would, but only if you’re the type of gamer who enjoys optimizing things. Shipbreaker is built from the ground-up to either be played like a reverse Bonzai tree simulator, or as a cool physics sandbox wherein cutting open fuel lines like a moron, rupturing power cells or letting the onboard nuke go critical all become cost-effective approaches. If you do, chances are you’ll find yourself strapping on your best or worst drawl and commenting on seat-of-your-pants escapes from technical disasters like they’re just the stuff of your average Tuesday.

You’ve got a debt to clear, after all, and enough clones to turn your grisly demise into an unfortunate bump in the road.

#game #review #hardspace:shipbreaker

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deltaengineering · 5 years

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Summer Anime 2019 Part 2: let’s play cops & vikings

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou

❓ 💩

💩 This saves the backstory for later, but rest assured it is very much a 💩. It particularly loves RPG stats because how else could you tell that someone’s awesome.

💩💩 It’s also particularly in the Shield Hero vein, i.e. written by someone who got their lunch money stolen a couple of times too many and is now getting revenge by annoying the shit out of me with shitty self-insert fiction.

💩💩 While powering up in the darkness the dude gets white hair and GUN’s so I think it’s safe to say that this is featuring Donte from the Devil May Cry series.

💩 There’s some bits of the ol’ THIS CHAIR suffering monologues. Which Higurashi ripped off from Tsukihime, then got ripped off by Re: Zero and now every Web Novel hack thinks it’s très deep.

💩💩 I was about to say that it’s visually whatever (i.e., mostly too dark to make out how bad it looks), but then the CG monsters appeared and OH BOY.

Cop Craft

❓ A portal to the fairy dimension opened and now we have FAIRY CRIME. A loose cannon cop with nothing to lose gets paired up with a haughty fairy princess to get to the bottom of FAIRY CRIME.

✅ If this all sounds vaguely familiar, yeah it’s the FMP guy writing a love letter to 80s buddy cop movies. It has absolutely all the clichees of that genre, but since it’s not a genre I see every day that’s okay and in fact a little bit novel again. I did not watch Bright.

✅ It’s pretty competent at it too, the leads have good chemistry and the tone is good. It’s more serious than something like Red Heat, I’d compare it more to Lethal Weapon.

♎ Directed by Shin Itagaki, who does a competent job with the first episode but is known to be involved with production disasters lately. There’s already signs of slight jank and I hope this doesn’t fall apart really quickly.

Ensemble Stars!

❓ Nondescript girl enters idol school, which happens to be full of hunky boys. Things happen and she joins a movement to seize the means of stage production.

❌ The first half of this episode is just dreadfully dull, generic and features one of the most annoying genkiboys ever on top of it. And going by the old rule that if idol shows must have a producer it has to be a memorable one, Ensemble Stars scores a big fat zero because that girl is a void.

✅ However, then it turns out that this is also a fighting shounen somehow, because part of idol curriculum is hitting each other with guitars. Not to mention that we then reveal that there’s a revolution brewing because the system is corrupt and rigged.

♎ So yeah, there’s some shit going on in this show and it’s quite amusing. I’m just somehow not convinced that it’s more than window dressing because the basics are so bad.

♎ Even if it turns out to be Revue Starlight (which it won’t), that one was well made enough to beat Ikuhara at his own game. Ensemble Stars doesn’t have the money or the style.

Hakata Mentai! Pirikarako-chan

❓ A super short mascot anime where a cute girl sprays cod roe everywhere, with sensibilities straight from 1964.

❌ ...

Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasuka? / Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

❓ Highschooler is surrounded by girls, gets a pantygram from some unknown party. Turns out they’re all horny. Hijinks ensue?

❌ This is just a basic-ass ecchi harem all around. I don’t think it needs much more explanation. Except...

❌ For some reason, it seems to attempt to treat its pantsu and boob shenanigans with the intellectual aspirations of a Monogatari or Oregairu. Needless to say, that causes it to fail on both sides.

♎ Basic shit for basic bitches, but I’ve seen worse in the genre. It’s less pretentious than e,g, Monogatari but also lacks the style. Or any style, for that matter.

Kochoki - Wakaki Nobunaga

❓ Before Oda Nobunaga became a warlord and recurring anime character, he apparently was a smart teen with a propensity to not wear shirts.

♎ This is about as good as an anime about a teen Nobunaga getting up to Tom Sawyer adventures while not wearing a shirt could probably be. Which is to say, it’s not as terrible as it sounds.

✅ In particular, the character writing is decent. I can imagine that this can actually pull of drawing a throughline from these silly adventures to the Nobunaga we know and don’t want to see any more of in fiction ever.

♎ Yeah, it’s basically alright-ish but you really, really have to care about these Sengoku clowns to get anything out of it. I still don’t.

Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]

❓ It’s Danganronpa, only about a bunch of streamers, LPers and speedrunners stuck in an MMO. Because 2019.

♎ Why not a turd? Well, isekai is so rigid as a genre that something that isn’t about some dude getting hax & harem barely seems to count anymore.

♎ Still, this setup is so brazenly shameless and idiotic that I can’t help but respect the hustle.

✅ There’s some neat SHAFT-y visuals going on here, reminiscent of how Reincarnated as a Slime tried to pretend to not be the most boring thing ever.

❌ Kenjiro Tsuda is entirely wasted as the least threatening Monoalpaca ever. Please don’t give the guy comedic roles. The rest of the characters are very bland, which is not a good thing in a genre that thrives on its outsized personalities.

❌❌ I just realized I didn’t give this any double Xs, which it definitely deserves. Just look at this shit. The only upside is of course that this is SO dumb it could be the next Caligula or something.

Re Stage! Dream Days

❓ School idols. MIDDLE school idols. In the middle school idol club.

♎ This is another basically competent show that also doesn’t really feature anything to set it apart. They took a mobile game about middle school idols and animated it.

♎ Well okay, I have to admit that for a show about middle schoolers it features more yuri undertones than usual, and shows like this usually feature quite a bit of that.

♎ But yeah, apart from that... seems watchable but nothing special. Looks alright, characters are alright, everything’s just fine. But you have to be a REAL afficionado of the genre to bother.

Vinland Saga

❓ VIKINGS BRUH

✅ Not gonna lie, I was negatively predisposed towards this show because the manga is very popular with the intersection of MANIME idiots and viking-adjacent metalheads. So while this does feature some sick & gnarly viking fights right away, overall it’s more about people sitting around in Iceland being cold and miserable.

❌ So about these sick & gnarly viking fights though? Sorry to report they look very subpar, with a ton of floaty CG and not much of a point to them.

✅ Apart from that, it’s looking pretty good. Nothing really flashy, but I think Wit’s house look works pretty well here. Better than in Titans at least.

♎ That said... I don’t really find people being cold and miserable in Iceland all that compelling either. I understand that this is a huge saga that goes places, but that doesn’t get me all hyped right now. This is one of those times where I’d say this show is (probably?) good and a recommendation, but it’s not really something I feel compelled to watch because it would have to be outright brilliant to overcome my apathy towards the subject.

#anime #impressions #summer2019 #arifureta #cop craft #ensemble stars #pirikarako-chan #hensuki #kochoki: wakaki nobunaga #naka no hito genome #re stage dream days #vinland saga

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attina-the-responsible · 5 years

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Mother, Make Me (a bird of prey) ~*~ [Siren]

In which Panic and Attina are reunited in the Underworld and must escape...[takes place: March 10-11, idk time is funky in the Underworld]

[tw: underworld shenanigans, so creepy/spooky, pretty mild tho it’s mostly emotional distress, but if you want a summary, hmu!]

PANIC: Thrown into a world Panic had tried to escape left him frantic on where to go. Sure the Underworld hadn’t changed too much there were demon’s faces that he didn’t recognize. There were alleys and hidden entrances he didn’t know about. And not having Percy’s voice in his head left him lonely. He didn’t have anyone to rely on but himself.

He ignored the laughter of others knowing that the happiness here wasn’t normally a good thing. He was especially avoiding anyone that potentially could remember him.

It had been twenty years and Panic would have all the time in the world to catch up with them once Attina was safe.

He just needed to follow the magic signature.And he followed until he stood in front of his own empty home.

Stepping inside Panic walked through the room until a small creek echoed through the house from the sound of his room. Rushing in Panic wasn’t surprised to see the room void of any items. Solely Attina in the room. Shifting back into Percy’s form Panic rushed forward wrapping Attina up in his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry but let’s move. Let’s get you out.”

ATTINA: Attina woke up in the dark. At first, it was so dark that she couldn’t see anything at all. It was as if she was sitting in black, black water. No matter how many times she blinked, her vision didn’t clear, though there was nothing covering her eyes.

And then, slowly, the room around her was revealed, the darkness peeling back.

Her head was still spinning, the panic stuck in her chest. Where was she? Who was it that had taken her? She had no idea. And her only thought was: poachers. They’d finally come for her. And Attina wasn’t brave. Even though she had her daughter to protect, she wasn’t brave. There wasn’t a bone in her body that wanted to fight. Maybe, if it came to it, she would. If someone put her hands on her and tried to actually, physically kill her, maybe she’d snap out of it, but as it stood, she did nothing. Nothing at all. She was too terrified to even look too deeply into the shadows that surrounded her. Like she was a little kid, imagining monsters in the corners of her bedroom.

How had they found her? Did they have the rest of her family? Who were they?

Am I going to die? She wanted to ask, but she couldn’t find her voice. It had been stolen from her.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, trembling in the cold, for it was very cold. A kind of cold that seeped into your bones, penetrating deep down, until it felt like you’d break if you took a single step. It felt like eons. As if entire lifetimes had passed, stretching before her. And yet, by the time Panic burst in from the door (there was a door? Where was the door?) It had felt like seconds, minutes.

She jumped as he got his arms around her, but she managed a shaky breath and collapsed against him, her hand clutching at his shirt. God, she was so relieved to see him. It splashed over her, warming her from the cold, his hug like bathwater.

“Panic, I-I--” she tried to say, but she didn’t have the words.

A chuckle emerged from the dark.

“Well, well, well--you did come after all.”

PANIC: Panic held Attina as close to him as possible. If this was the last time he got to do this please just let her know how sorry he was. How much he loved her. Please just know those things.

Kissing her on the top of her head even though the voice shook him to the core Panic twisted around keeping Attina behind him one hand on her hip to make sure she stayed right there.

Taking a deep breath Panic glared in his human form though he didn’t want to make this any harder on Tina by throwing that out there. “I did, you wanted me back you got that, no need to keep Attina here. Humans aren’t supposed to be brought down until they are killed.”

ATTINA: Attina had no idea what was going on. How had Panic found her? She was so glad to see him, but she was also terrified. She didn’t want anything to happen to him. Attina may not be brave, but she’d rather be the one to die than the people she loved. If she could do that and keep them safe, she would. But, he was here now and there was no changing that--nor changing the fact that Attina felt so, so grateful it made her heart start beating again in her chest.

She was still clinging to him when the voice hissed out and she stumbled slightly as Panic pushed her behind him. From around his shoulder, she could just make out a figure on the edge of the darkness, flickering like a blown out candle. She couldn’t make out any of the features, its formlessness more terrifying than anything.

Maybe this was just a nightmare. Attina squeezed her eyes shut.

“Seems you’ve forgotten how things work around here,” the shadow figure said and suddenly the room lit up. A fireball clutched in the demon’s hand. For it was a demon--Attina registered that as soon as she opened her eyes again and saw the figure in full.

The demon tossed the fireball up and down, playing with it idly. “We haven’t had a new plaything in so long. We’re all starving.”

PANIC: “You’re right I forgot how things went down here because guess what I’ve been the one enjoying top life for two decades unlike you lot who are stuck down here playing and starving.” Don’t get Panic wrong he was scared shitless. This was where he would have curled into himself. Let them do what they wanted to do.

It was easier to be a play thing then to fight back and be nearly killed.

“Like I said you can have me back. I offer a challenge. A little fight. A little fun. Catch me if you can and the whole thing.” He would be caught he knew that. But Panic had to play into that fact he was going to be a game. A fun little thing for them. Attina. Sweet Attina wouldn’t be a challenge and that was a good thing.

ATTINA: “Panic,” Attina managed to squeak as she grabbed onto his arm, but she was quite sure he couldn’t hear her over the sound of the other demon’s cackling. She knew that he couldn’t leave her all alone in here--wherever...here was. (She was starting to put it together, but was thankful for the threat before them if only because she didn’t want to think about the rest, about the chill up her spine…)

“Oh, you’ve gotten more fun since you’ve been gone, haven’t you?” the monster said, tilting its head to the side. The fireball in its hand got bigger and its eyes flashed. “But that doesn’t sound as much fun as torturing the both of you!”

With that, the demon cocked his arm back and threw the fireball right at them.

PANIC: Fun. Fun was something Panic could work with. Demons like this enjoyed the chase. Enjoyed the power. He just somehow needed to play his cards right.

The fireball was thrown and honestly Panic didnt have the time to think. Turning his back to the demon Panic let go of Percy's form shifting back into the shadows of his growing large enough the fireball hit him square in his back.

Cursing and crying out Panic stumbled his weight pressed against Attina.

"Next chance we get we have to run." Panic whimpered out. "I'm sorry I need to look like this I can't manage holding a human form as well." He added cause oh God she would hate him now but she had to stay close for a little longer.

ATTINA: The fire flashed bright but it was only a backlight for the demon in front of her. Attina made a sound in her throat--not realizing at first that that was--Panic. Her Panic. For a moment, she thought it was just another demon or some trick. Her brain was too fatigued with fear to really catch up and even Panic’s voice sounded different, rasping and deeper. But still, she did her best to catch him when he stumbled forward, more on instinct than anything.

All Attina could do was nod--she didn’t have time to think about Panic’s new form (and really, was it so different from Attina turning into a mermaid? How different she looked then.)

They turned and Attina tripped, fear and pregnancy making her feet heavy, but they scrambled towards the door of what Attina could vaguely recognize as a building--a house?

“Aw, where are you going?” called the demon and tossed another fireball. It smacked against the doorway as they ran through. Attina let out a yelp.

Then, they were in the dark again.

Not for long.

Suddenly, the demon was at the end of the hallway they’d turned down, another fireball lighting up its shadowy features.

PANIC: Panic wrapped an arm around Attina. His body wanted to curl into himself. He wanted to stop loving and curl into a ball. But if being in the human world for two decades had shown him anything it was resilience to keep fighting.

His fiancee and his daughter were counting on him. After all, he had gotten them into this.

Panic ignored the demon as they ran. He knew these walls. He knew this ground. He knew how to get out of here.

Envy blocked his path.

Yanking Tina into another room Panic spun around. He had locked themselves in. No. They were in Pain's room and Pain always loved to sneak out.

Running to the window he yanked it opened hearing the footsteps echo closer. If he was alone he could turn into a bird and never be seen again.

"There's a ledge and small drop. Look to see if you can make it?" Panic stated stepping between her and the door.

ATTINA: Did Panic have a plan? Attina didn’t know, it seemed like he might?

Apparently, that plan involved jumping out of a window?!

Attina knew that she didn’t really have a choice in the matter and, maybe if she wasn’t pregnant, it wouldn’t be that hard. She had snuck out of her own second story window once or twice in her youth. She wasn’t in her youth anymore. She also had no idea what was going on. She was also pregnant.

“I--” she started to protest, but the floorboards creaked and she knew whatever was hunting them was getting closer. Her legs felt like jelly as she lifted a knee onto the window sill and ducked out of it best she could. She smacked her head on the pane hard enough to see stars but she just grit her teeth as she swung her leg down and tried to find the ledge he was talking about. When she did, she put her weight on it and started swinging her other leg over the sill.

The door shattered open, surprising Attina who gave a yelp and almost lost hold of the window sill, her foot slipping on the ledge. It wasn’t that far down--she should probably just let go. Closing her eyes, she pushed off, doing her best to jump instead of fall.

She landed on her feet--at first. She felt a pain shoot up her leg and she fell backwards, smacking into the ground and getting the breath knocked out of her. She felt like a turtle on its back, uncertain how to get up. If they weren’t in some sort of mortal peril, it might even be funny.

“Panic!” she called--blinking her eyes once or twice and squinting up towards the window into the dark.

PANIC: The door had cracked up splintering and burning the wood as Attina jumped out and Panic was sorry that he had forced her to this. She was right when she didn’t want to date a demon. It was too complicated and too dangerous.

Panic couldn’t miss the next fire ball all he could do was hold up his hand and when Tina was clear jump out the window himself. Turning into a bird the moment he jumping not even aiming for the ledge. Just jumping.

And when he landed he changed back and wrapped an arm around Attina’s shoulder pulling her up and running keeping her weight on her trying to avoid her touching any of the burns on his body. They just needed to get to the back alleys. They just needed to run.

“We’ll hide out. Okay. We’re going to run and we’re going to hide. There was a place me and my brother hid all the time.” Panic stated as he twisted around his burning house without a look back.

ATTINA: At first, Attina didn’t recognize the demon in front of her. For a moment, she couldn’t distinguish between the one hunting her and the one she loved. The fear twisted in her gut as Panic reached down, but she let out a sigh of relief when he only did so to help pull her to her feet. She felt so heavy. So heavy and exhausted. As if they had been running for years. Had they been running for years? She had no idea. It was as if time had ceased to exist.

And then--Panic said his brother. A place they used to always go.

This was his home.

This was his real home.

Holy shit, she was in the Underworld. Could she even say “holy shit”?!

There was no time to think about it further than that, because Panic had grabbed her and tugged her around the side of the house.

“Come out, come out wherever you are!” she heard the voice of the other demon boom.

“Panic, where--where are we going? What’s going on?” she finally managed to find her voice, almost wanting to tug him to a stop, though she didn’t dare to.

PANIC: Panic spun around, as much as he remember this place it was when he was small. There were places they could hide that weren’t big enough for them now. There was this over hang, just past some trees. This hole in the wall basically. But it would be big enough for Attina at the very least and he could shift if need be. Attina needed to rest too.

So many things needed to happen.

And his voice was still trailing around them. Everywhere. Closing them all in.

“I don’t know what’s going on. But you’re in the underworld and I’m so sorry.” Panic apologized turning into the trees. “Okay hide in here, can you crawl in, it’s probably very small but its what I have right now. He’ll get bored they always do.”

ATTINA: That answer was not satisfying.

If they were not being chased by a bloodthirsty demon or whatever, it would not satisfy! She’d want a proper answer. She needed a proper answer. Looked like she wasn’t going to get one. Not right now anyway. Maybe if they lived--maybe then.

Attina didn’t bloody know if they were going to live, though! She had moved past fear into anger? Sure, maybe. Whatever the feeling in her gut, she didn’t like it. Her whole body ached.

So, she didn’t argue--she did her best to squeeze, stopping about halfway and turning to look at Panic as if suddenly remembering something. “What about you?”

PANIC: Tina was looking like she would be able to fit in and Panic sighed leaning his head onto hers. “I’ll try to draw him away. I’ll try him to get him away from you. I’ll come back. They never kill me, it’s just the game. Stay still for me please. And then we’ll get you out.”

Panic didn’t have long. He was already wasting time here but he needed to make sure she was okay too. At least in the given situation.

“Can you fit?”

ATTINA: For the record: Attina didn’t want to leave Panic--or have him leave her. She couldn’t even untangle this from a selfish want not to be alone or her worry about him. Her brain wasn’t exactly functioning on “rationality” (as if it ever did.) She just knew that nothing about this situation was good or right or what she wanted.

Which meant that she was frozen into immobility.

It was a wonder she was even able to nod her head, but she did so. Her words all caught in her throat but she reached out and grabbed at his arm, holding it and squeezing his bicep for a moment before she let go and began to squeeze into the tight space he had shown her.

PANIC: Panic tried to offer Attina a smile. Anything to show her she would be okay. He would be back, maybe not in one piece but he would be back. He wouldn’t kill Panic, that was a certainty. “I love you.” Panic offered before he ran.

He flew and he shifted and he kept going until he lead the demon into the town, even with rumbles of laughter. He taunted Panic as Panic hid under boxes and behind walls.

He spoke about how they couldn’t hide forever. They couldn’t get out of here either so they would be stuck and he was in for the long game. His voice rang through the streets and some of the lesser demons were already taking shelter. Doubling back Panic’s hands shook as he ran toward Attina, hours having passed but he collapsed in front of her.

“Are you okay?”

ATTINA: Time stopped.

Once Panic disappeared into the dark--time stopped.

Attina had never lived in such a strange limbo before. Everything was still. Everything was quiet. Even Amelia in her womb didn’t move. It reminded her of that classical piece. 4’33--four minutes and thirty three seconds of holds.

Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat.

“Are you okay?”

Attina jumped and turned her head, looking at Panic--her gaze, at first, vacant.

Then, she reached out for him, touching the corner of his arm. He was hot to the touch when everything else had been cold, cold, cold.

“I’m--fine,” she told him, her voice hollow. “Are you?” Her voice managed to color with some concern, even if no color existed in a place like this.

PANIC: Leaning on one knee Panic leaned his head into the little hidey hole. He didn’t want to collapse but he was. His world was closing in, darkening if he let himself close his eyes for a moment too long. He could just curl up and sleep. He could just curl up and stop.

Wake up in an hour and do it again.

“I’m fine, this is nothing.” Panic joked focusing as he slipped back into Percy’s form sweat covering his forehead.

“We need to get you out of her. Back up before- just we need to get you back up.”

ATTINA: Attina was relieved when Panic turned back into the form that Attina was most familiar with. She hated the fact and maybe she’d be able to deal with her Giant Shadow Demon fiance better if she wasn’t also in the Underworld and being chased by other equally as terrifying demons. In this form she could frown and reach up to brush at his sweat-slicked hair.

She wanted to tell him to rest, but she knew that they couldn’t. That they couldn’t stop now. And she wanted to get home. She didn’t want to be there for another second longer than necessary. It already felt like she’d lived a lifetime in this darkness.

“Okay,” she agreed, her eyes teary, but she gave him a smile and then crawled out of her hiding spot--covered in a kind of grime she didn’t want to look too closely at.

“Where--where do we go?” She looked around. Everything looked dark and that was all.

PANIC: “One of the entrances to the underworld is at Swynlake, If I can get you to that one, There is no demon in you or Amelia.” Panic hoped there wasn’t enough Demon in Amelia, “They have to let you out. You were never meant to be here.” Panic whispered taking her hand and starting that walk. His back hunched over a touch.

“It’s hard to describe this world but we have to walk through, There are cracks. If we can find one. Just one. You can get out. You might even find the gift shop.” He added sarcastically.

ATTINA: Panic might as well be speaking gibberish to her. Well, she knew about the entrance to the Underworld in Swynlake. It was how they’d met, after all, wasn’t it? It was all the rest that didn’t make sense--cracks? A gift shop? Maybe this was really a dream. Maybe this was just a nightmare--some sort of FMT, which she’d read about. A transference of weird demon energy.

She would wake up from all of this and Panic would laugh and say that isn’t what it was like at all.

Until then, Attina had to walk, had to trust Panic.

“O-okay,” she said again, much more softly and she took his hand. “Lead the way. I trust you.”

PANIC: Panic in that moment hated that she trusted him, her trusting him is what got her into this. If she never dated him they wouldn’t have grabbed her. If she wasn’t carrying Amelia, they wouldn’t be interested in her.

But Panic had to try to not focus on that. This was his last few moments with her. He couldn’t spend too much time on that. Not as a towering loomed ahead of them. He opened his mouth to speak multiple times before he shook his head and didn’t.

“Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t look at anyone.” Panic mumbled out as they walked past bars and alley ways. It was walking past someone who leered and Panice force them to take another back street. He may not have been here in a long time but he remembered the walk.

ATTINA: She didn’t need telling twice. It wasn’t hard for Attina to keep her eyes to the ground. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to them. Even if this was a dream (it wasn’t, she knew it wasn’t), she wanted to do her best to keep her head down. She was always one who preferred to keep her head down. She wasn’t Andrina, Adella, Aquata, Alana, Ariel--any of them, really. It was Attina who stood up for others. She wished she was. She wished she could be the girl who saved the world.

But, she wasn’t. She was barely strong enough to handle dating a demon. What kind of love was so flimsy as to crumble when terrified?

Still, she loved him as she took step after step, no matter how daunting and she didn’t look up, not once. She watched as the ground beneath their feet changed over and over, the ground different, as if daring her to glance upwards, at the rest of her surroundings. But, she didn’t. She trusted where Panic led and let him guide her through the zig-zagging alleyways that felt as if they would never end and--through a door in a wall, until they were standing at the shore of a lake.

Attina knew it was water and then, she couldn’t help but look up--the water called to her, it always had.

Everything was still and peaceful and quiet, except for the lapping of the water on the shore and the creaking of boats in the distance that she could see through the fog.

“What is this place?” she asked, her voice no louder than a whisper.

PANIC: Panic let out a sigh when they got out of the city, stretching out his shoulders feeling the cracks and tears at his skin. He looked back at the city only for a moment. Only one moment before Attina brought his attention back and he offered her a small smile.

“The Stygian Marshes. It’s not something you want to swim through.” Panic murmured walking them to a waiting boat. There always was one. Ready to drag someone to their death for coming in or leaving. Holding onto the edge Panic helped Attina in.

“I’m going to slip out of this, back to my true form. It might keep some of the creatures in the water away from us as we cross.” But he needed Attina to be okay with that too.

ATTINA: Yeah, Attina didn’t want to go swimming through that black, murky nothingness.

Except...she kind of did. Gosh, nothing would feel better than slipping into her true form. Maybe the water would make her feel weightless, instead of so, so heavy. Maybe she’d be faster and stronger than all those...things in the water--souls or demons or monsters or all three. Maybe if Attina was braver she could become her true self and then be able to save herself too, so that Panic wouldn’t have to.

And maybe, that thinking made her more comfortable with the idea of Panic in his own true form. Or maybe, she just wanted to get the hell out of here.

Ha, get the hell out of here.

She snorted once and then started giggling.

“Sorry, sorry, yeah that’s--that’s fine.” It wasn’t fine, not really. None of this was fine. She swallowed her laughter down. Neptune, maybe she’d officially lost it. In the boat, she got her sea legs easily and barely jerked when the boat started moving. Instead, she watched the waters, wanting to reach down into them and feel the coolness on her fingers. It was tempting--more so than the gold and jewels that sparkled down below, the water itself enticed…

Attina pulled her sweater around her shoulders tighter and tucked her hands into her elbows, peeling her eyes away from the water. She glanced at Panic, though she couldn’t see him well in the dark.

PANIC: Panic slipped back into his skin and immediately he felt better, using his power to make him look like Percy put a strain on his already tired body. He could curl up right now in this boat and fall asleep. He didn’t care about the treasure in the depth. His treasure was right in front of him.

Reaching out Panic rested a hand on Attina’s knee. Leaning down to press his head against her leg. “I love you. I love you more than anything.” Panic murmured. Words he wanted to say now before he lost his chance. Who knew when their silence would be interrupted.

ATTINA: Attina jumped a bit when something touched her knee before she realized it was just Panic’s hand. In the darkness, it didn’t look like much at all, just more darkness. She pressed her lips together and stroked her hand over his head once.

“I know,” she said back quietly, her voice nothing but a breath beneath her terror of being heard by anyone else on this vast, endless swamp.

Not a moment too soon, they bumped against the land on the other side and Attina let out a breath, climbing quickly and easily out of the boat. Glad to be rid of it and the temptation to dive into the water and let the souls of the damned or whatever drag her down and down and down. When she turned towards the land, she expected--

Well, she didn’t know what she expected but--

There was just a door.

A door and some strange contraption that she couldn’t place in her tired, addled brain, but it looked rather harmless. She wandered closer before turning to look over her shoulder at Panic.

“It--it can’t be that easy, can it?” she asked, hopefully, as if the rest had been easy. Though if it was just a door that was left, she was grateful.

PANIC: Panic couldn’t stop touching Attina, his hand was on her knee, then her hand to help her out, to the small of her back.

He wouldn’t get to hold Amelia either.

“The door of judgement.” Panic whispered looking up at it. “If you aren’t meant to be here it should know. Gold coins for good and well not gold coins for bad.” Panic’s would fill up very quickly on one side. “You’re not supposed to be here. Step forward and let it do it’s thing and then the door should I hope open.” Panic whispered pushing gently on her back, letting go.

ATTINA: “Well, what about you?” Attina said, turning to look back at him. She heard the way he said it--the you, not the we.

All of it sounded silly to her anyway. How was a stupid door supposed to know anything about the good and bad that Attina had done in her life? She had done plenty of bad, but just because she wasn’t supposed to be here, it was going to let her back out? Well, she hoped it was that easy, but still, she did not trust it. She didn’t trust anything in this world.

Except Panic.

PANIC: Panic stepped back creating distance between them. He wanted to break through those doors, to fight his way back to the surface. The thing was Panic didn’t have that strength. He didn’t have it anymore. Desperate as he was, he wasn’t strong enough to pull himself out.

Panic sighed as he tried to form words, anything. “I’m a demon, Attina. I wasn’t ever meant to leave, this world will not let me leave another time. I’m not going to be able to go with you.” Panic whispered and even though he stepped back he was reaching out too.

“I can’t come with you.”

ATTINA: “That’s bullshit,” Attina said at once and then blinked at herself, slightly startled by the ferocity in her own voice. She didn’t think she’d had the energy to get mad, but oh, she was mad.

“You can’t just--give up like that!” she snapped at him, forgetting that they were in the underworld and that at the moment he was more shadow than anything else. She stomped her foot stubbornly on the ground, like she was going to plant her own roots right there on the spot.

PANIC: Panic blinked at Attina, he looked at her shocked but he didn’t move back. Her strength was brilliant and it was a light in a world of darkness. Over his very own darkness and shadows.

“If I thought there was any chance I could, I promise I would. I’m barely standing Attina.” Panic reached out setting his hands on her shoulder, streams of black smoke dripping off his cheeks. “I want nothing more than to leave with you. To see the world and live in that world with you.” But Panic took a step toward the door and Clang. A rock fall, one then two. A few and then a waterfall of them.

And with each Panic curled in on himself the weight pressing him down, basically crushing him into the ground.

“You and Amelia are more important than anything right now.”

ATTINA: Clang! went the stones and Attina jumped, her head turning to watch.

Stupid fucking door! That door didn’t know shit. She wanted to rush forward and pull the rocks off--one after another, she could be quicker than fate and take just enough so it’d slip open and let them both through. Attina wondered if she could. If it would make any difference at all…

Maybe, her sisters had been right.

Maybe, she had always been destined for something like this.

At the mention of their daughter, Attina’s hand went to her stomach, stroking over the swell of her belly, where their daughter had been quiet and calm throughout this whole ordeal. In that, Panic was right: Amelia was the most important thing.

Attina dropped to her knees too, eyes filling with tears, so Panic was just part of the darkness in front of her. She reached for him anyway: found his shoulder and then his cheek. He was the only thing warm in this cold, cruel world.

“I can’t leave,” she told him, “I won’t. I--I can’t do it without you. Amelia needs you. I need you.”

PANIC: Panic fell into Attina, his shadows, wisps of them surrounding them as he went to his knees and rested his head against hers. He touched her stomach and then wrapped his arm around her kissing the top of her head.

“I love you more than anything and I love Amelia more than anything.” Panic choked out. “But you can’t stay you deserve more than just living here, in darkness and I don’t even know what would happen to a mermaid down here and I thought about it. I thought about asking you to stay. But it’s dangerous and you deserve so much more than me. You’ve always deserved the world and I’m so sorry I can’t give that to you. Amelia deserves the world.” Panic was fully crying now. “Please Attina, raise Amelia in your world. With your family, with happiness and love and tell her every day that I love her. Please, I love you and her so much.” He would do anything for them.

Clang went the gold coin.

ATTINA: This had never been part of the plan. Raising Amelia without a father had never been part of the plan. She was supposed to have a father, two of them in fact. Now she had--none?

How was Attina supposed to explain that? How was she supposed to live, knowing that was a decision that she made?

Because, like Panic said, Amelia deserved sunshine and warmth and life. Things that she could never have here. This wasn’t about Panic or Attina, or Panic and Attina, it was about Amelia. It had to be about Amelia. She was the only reason that Attina would leave Panic now. Even if it meant leaving her heart behind. Those were the choices you had to make, as a parent. As a mother. She wondered, when her mother had gone to the sea, if she had thought about what would happen to her girls--if she never came back. Had she weighed the risks and decided it was worth it? Had her hubris dragged her down, in the end? Had she thought her family worth the risk?

It wasn’t a fair question, nor was it a fair decision--either of them. But Attina knew that she had to make it. She closed her eyes and the tears fell down her cheeks, burning hot over her cold, cold skin.

“I will, I will,” Attina told him as she squeezed her eyes shut and threw her arms around his neck. He felt different, like this--half there, as if he was already gone. As if she were just hugging a shadow. “I’ll tell her everything.” She leaned back so she could find his eyes in the darkness. She kissed him once, soft and gentle. It wasn’t hard to find his lips, they were easy and familiar, no matter his form. Perhaps, that was why you kissed with your eyes closed in the first place.

“I’m sorry, Panic, I’m sorry.”

Another coin fell, and another--their chimes almost pleasant sounding, beckoning Attina forward. She stood on unsteady feet, with the help of Panic and together they stood, watching the gold fall one, then another, then another, until the scale tilted and the door unlatched and swung open silently. On the other side, Attina could hear the ocean.

She didn’t know what it meant--except that she had to go through.

“I love you, Panic. I love you. No matter your form but for your heart,” she told him softly. “And when--when I look at Amelia I won’t see Percy, I’ll see you.”

She took a deep breath and tried to swallow down her tears. “Y-you have to tell me to go, I-I don’t think I can do it…”

PANIC: Panic kissed her like it was the last time he ever would, because it was. Panic shook and he cried and it was painful. The chiming of coins if only just made him smile because that was all about Attina. That was all her. That was Amelia staking her claim on the world that was hers.

She could apologize all she wanted but Panic wouldn’t hear it. Panic was a Father and his heart could break over and over. But they were making the right decision.

His daughter would be safe, she would grow up happy. She would have her whole family and Panic loved it. He loved everything about it. He hated that he couldn’t be there for her. He couldn’t.

“Percy will help. Belle and Sally too. Find them if you need them.” It was all that Panic could do, offer his friends. Stepping back Panic let go of his fiance and his daughter.

“I love you.” Panic whispered. “Go and live your life. Both of you. Be everything you ever wanted.” The moment Attina walked through the door it slammed shut, the silence echoing around him and then the screams started but Panic still smiled.

This was for you Amelia.

#bdrppanic #siren #mother make me #(a bird of prey)#otp: i will #otp: apple of my eye #otp: i know #if my ship w you hasn't had a #traumatic underworld experience #is it even a shiP?#kidding but #i do love a good underworld fieldtrip #im joking bc this got me Big Sad

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knottymaverick · 5 years

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Sylph of Void

Void: This aspect holds domain over all that has yet to be, that which is hidden, and that which remains unknown. From the Nothingness resides all, for the less something is, the more is could be; what lies within the darkness is limited to what we can imagine, but what rests beyond that is everything else. Potentiality. The Unknown.

Spawned by this primordial darkness, every universe and every galaxy; every planet and every star; every animal and every being, each just as unique and insignificant as the rest. Importance is imparted onto the most significant of voices, words and ideas holding not only the greatest but the most deadliest of powers, recording information deemed worthy and casting the rest back into the Void. That which is forgotten and discarded; those whose voices and thoughts are drowned out; those who never leave or are trapped within their own voids, suppressed to publicly silence their individuality, they call this facet Unimportance.

The Void understands your struggles, dear reader. You were created from Nothing and dropped into a world where you truly know nothing, at times not even yourself. However, it loves and accepts you for who and what you are, no matter how you change; your STRONG will to overcome the pressure and assert yourself as an individual, regardless of how your environment appears, is astounding. Everything may be worthless but that doesn't make your experiences any less real, and that's one of the challenges a Hero of Void must face: To use all at their disposal and come to terms with themselves, bringing out that which lies within and utterly annihilating those that prevent them from doing just that. You can be ANYTHING you want, but the most important thing is that what you are is true to yourself.

Sylph: Being the passive-counterpart to the Maid, in my opinion, you are tasked with being one who maintains the livelihood of your aspect. Whereas the active-class wholly creates their aspect where there is generally none of it, a Sylph maintains the preexisting reality of their part of reality. Meddlesome? Not always to the degree many seem to portray them 24/7 but understandably still so! Who else is going to sew the literal fabric of reality as it's separating at its seams? The Maid can't just create more Space and slap some stardust on the ends and hope it sticks onto the old tapestry, a Sylph is required to mend everything in that situation and by gosh will they spruce up that plane of existence all good and well! One of their challenges is to recognize when their help is needed and to what degree, for their aspect is to be healed and then allowed to flourish on its own without any additional interference; they may REALLY want to make sure everything's alright all throughout but must stand to the side and watch the magic happen without being involved.

Sylph of Void: Generally speaking, you are an individual with more hidden knowledge from others than what actually originates from yourself; not to say you don't have a secret or five (5) of your own, but you either go out of your way to learn of what's not known much OR word just happens to come to you in one way or another...or both, who's to say? Depending on which facet(s) of Void you specialize in, some scenarios would be right for one of your skills:

-You may be told of a deep secret from a dear friend of yours, a secret so unspoken that nobody but YOU knows. There's been word of said speaker hiding something, and people seem to flock to you for answers. Most likely, you are to uphold your friend's secret in several ways, such as pleading ignorance as to whatever the hell they're investigating, cast misdirection towards a different topic, or lie about the supposed secret.

If you believe your work is done, then you are sorely mistaken, my fellow Void-player. A Knight of your aspect would, by all accounts, specialize much better in protecting the aforementioned secret. No. As a Sylph, you're not only preventing it from leaking to other unwelcome ears but, depending on said secret information, helping the person face said issue. I warn you to be careful, however, for as heavy their quivering lips were to tell a single soul, their trust in you is as delicate and firm. As much as you may want to take it upon yourself and jump into their shoes to solve their problem, if the speaker feels a crack or more of doubt; fear; etcetera, they may come to avoid you and your help–their sense of clarity will be washed away, afraid of letting anyone else that close again and, instead, withering alone in their own void, unable to overcome their issue without even greater resolve. Help them as best you can, but be aware of their comfort zone.

-You may come to create or learn of a lie and, typically, two outcomes might occur:

You decide to ignore the lie and allow it to go on its own.

You decide to maintain it and take part in keeping it a thing when needbe, either because it is small and generally for goodness sake with no real repercussions, or to prevent something big from going down and can resolve the issue later.

Allow me to give an example in a SBURBan environment {I'm funny I swear--}. Your Seer of Hope is, at the moment, the only key to the success of your SBURB session. Due to shenanigans and whatnot, though, they have lost all hope and their visions cannot show anything useful, dooming everyone to having no solutions. The Sylph of Void and the others, however, create a lie that is convincing enough that the Seer begins to find Hope of success, their visions revealing MANY more ways they can continue onward [based off the lie.] Now all the Sylph has to do is keep the lie going–if the initial lie can eventually be made true behind-the-scenes, even better, though it'd take the other players, most likely, to craft the realness factor of the truth [if the Hope player(s) hasn't/haven't already believed the truth into existence (you know, Hope-nanigans.)]

-Hell, one possible side-quest for your planet could be that a group of consorts are dressed up in unconvincing cosplay of big, scary creatures in order to scare off some Imps that stole some treasure. Your job would be to maintain their disguises by making them seem like actual creatures to ward off the enemies–maybe have dozens of them rush down a hill while a machine cranks monster noises and they all scream Bloody Mary? Maybe use some Voidy-majykks to “maintain their lies” by surrounding them in illusions so they seem like REAL monsters? With the imps gone, the consorts give you some of their supplies that will help you further down the line.

A main-quest could be that your land is LITERALLY. RIDDLED. IN. RIDDLES, set by your denizen of choice. However, the sages don't deem the words anything but boring scribbles and won't do any caring, much to the dismay of the civilians you may have helped on earlier quests [which might help get the sages to care, since more and more of their civilians find it interesting enough.] Your job is to get the sages enthralled in the mystery of their land and have the CONSORTS investigate their own planet, maybe spreading lies here-and-there so the sages journey and expand their territory so the population can spread out. Eventually, the consorts will have one final riddle that was passed down like mythology, and now YOU have to solve it WITH THEM in order to find your denizen and do what you will from there.

I don't really do personality-esque things because every classpect will have people of different qualities but same titles. I haven't done any classpecting in a LONG while, so I hope this works out in some way.

#Homestuck #Classpect #Class #Aspect #Sylph #Void #Sylph of Void #knottyMaverick

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scottadamsblog · 7 years

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The Magical Thinking Opposition

My hypothesis is that the political side that is out of power is the one that hallucinates the most -- and needs to -- in order to keep their worldview intact. For example, when President Obama was in office, I saw all kinds of hallucinations on the right about his intentions to destroy America from the inside because he “hates” it.

That was a mass hysteria. If President Obama wanted to destroy America, he failed miserably. We’re stronger than ever.

The birther issue started as ordinary political shenanigans to delegitimize the president. I call it ordinary because you see the trick used whenever it is an option, as it was with “Canadian” Ted Cruz in the primaries. Eventually it morphed into a full-blown hallucination that President Obama was a Muslim sleeper cell from Kenya, or something like that. That was mass hysteria.

Now that Democrats are out of power, we should expect them to hallucinate like crazy (literally) because the election results of 2016 shattered their expectations. Do we see signs of their hallucinations? I’ll walk you through a few examples.

Hallucination:

Based on President Trump’s tweets and speeches, I can see into his soul, and it is all darkness and racism in there.

Real:

If the President of the United States tries anything racist in the real world, the Supreme Court, Congress, and the voters would shut him down in a heartbeat. For example, the Courts modified President Trump’s immigration ban to remove even the perception of racism. That’s a sensitive filter for racism, and I think we like it that way.

Society’s standard is that you are judged for what you do, not what you privately think. That’s good because humans are terrible at knowing what other people think, while at the same time we think we are good at it. I know this first-hand because dozens of people misinterpret what I write on social media every day. If you don’t have my type of experience -- of being routinely misinterpreted -- you might think humans are good at reading minds based on subtle clues. We are not good at that. We might be slightly better than random chance, at best. The problem is that we are dead-certain we are champions of evidence-based mindreading. That is a hallucination.

Hallucination:

I can spot a racist by how long it takes them to properly disavow other racists.

Real:

That isn’t a thing. The first rule of communicating is that people only hear what they think you intend to say. They don’t hear what you actually say. If you think someone is a racist, you will perceive their disavowals of racism as too late and too inadequate. If you think someone is not a racist, you might see their statements as politically incorrect and nothing worse. This phenomenon is most pronounced when strong emotions are involved. The topic of racism stirs our strongest emotions. So according to everything we know about brains, we should expect the highest level of hallucinations when racism is the topic. And that is exactly what we observe.

To be clear, racism itself is very real. The hallucination is limited to seeing it under every bed and behind every couch.

Hallucination:

The president has accomplished nothing!

Real:

The president has accomplished a long list of things.

That said, we are 13% into President Trump’s first term, and Congress has created no major bills worthy of signing. Congress is tasked with working out the details of bills. The president can’t do his job until they do theirs.

We observe that the president has not shown leadership on any major legislation. But keep in mind that Congress produced nothing worthy of leadership. Would any leader be able to fix that? Yes, but I assume it takes longer than simply signing bills that come to your desk. Especially in this hyper-polarized environment.

Hallucination:

President Trump is performing poorly!

Real:

Compared to what? The imaginary president in your head? There is no base case with which to compare any president’s performance. Would Hillary Clinton have passed major legislation with a Republican Congress in less than six months? It seems unlikely. But we can’t know because she isn’t president.

We are terrible at judging how well a stranger performs compared to the imaginary person in our minds. We just think we are good at it.

Hallucination:

If you thought some “fine people” were marching with Nazis and KKK in Charlottesville, you are a racist.

Real:

I condemn all racists and anyone who marches with them. But It turns out that some non-racists were at the event to support the absolute right of free speech, including the worst kinds of speech. In this one case, President Trump passed the fact-checking but failed miserably on the “saying the right thing” dimension.

He wisely left the facts alone after failing on the empathy.

Hallucination:

This country needs moral leadership and we are not getting it!

Real:

The country does not need moral leadership in 2017. Social media has filled that void. The country is unified (let’s say 98%) in condemning the KKK and other racists in Charlottesville. We did that without moral leadership. We want moral leadership, but there is no evidence we need it.

We would also like to know our president has the right intentions. But hallucinations on that topic are nearly unfixable. Obama never fixed it. Trump will not either.

Hallucination:

The way you worded your statement, you made a moral equivalence between the KKK and people protesting the KKK.

Real:

Literally no one but the KKK and other extreme racists has any trouble understanding that Nazis are worse than the people protesting against hate. It is a hallucination (or political tricksterism) to suggest normal citizens can’t distinguish the moral difference between Nazis and those demonstrating against racism.

I could go on, but I think you are starting to see the picture. The party out of power has to hallucinate to make their world make sense. The people who think they are smart and morally pure don’t understand why their side lost an election. The simplest fix for that broken worldview is to imagine there are far more “secret racists” than they first assumed, and those people can be identified by the way they accidentally reveal their “moral equivalence” opinions that look exactly like law-and-order opinions to others.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Cognitive dissonance hits the losing team hardest. It has to, because only the losing side need to make sense of it all. The winning side thinks things are going exactly as expected. They have no trigger for hallucinating.

If our next president is a Democrat, expect the Right to do most of the hallucinating. The Left will think things are going as expected.

---

Update: If you are still confident you can read President Trump’s inner thoughts because of the clear pattern of racist acts he has committed, see if this article about the Central Park 5 shakes your confidence in what you thought you knew.

Remember, President Trump is not the only person good at persuasion. The opposition is running on all cylinders.

---

I wrote some books you might enjoy because you love books you enjoy.

#Trump #charlottesville #Racism

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kandrakelsier · 8 years

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Fandom Fic Rec

Alrighty, so this is apparently a thing, and I’ve been meaning to do recs for a while so... here’s a long list of my favorite fanfiction works, with links to each of them. I recommend all of them.

Hanover Chronicles-Katriona_Subasa (@agronadb)

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken, Fire Emblem 6- Fuuin No Tsurugi

A series of four fics, spanning just over a thousand years of history in the Fire Emblem world of Elibe. This series is one of my favorites; the characters are well developed, there are little tie-ins and easter eggs between fics, the writing style (particularly the dialogue) feels super realistic, and the pacing is excellent. Also would like to point out that the series is approaching 1 million words, so if you start, you’ll have plenty of material to keep you going, particularly since the last fic is still in progress.

Reprise-Elfpen

Fandom: Star Wars

A series of time-travel fix-it fics where Obi-Wan is sent back in time after his duel with Darth Vader on the Death Star. The humor is great; imagine Qui-Gon trying to deal with two Obi-Wans at once. There’s also cameos from characters in the True EU, which was fun to see, and some great philosophizing about the nature of the Force. Lots of good meta, and overall just very well written.

Messenger-HundredHanded (@hundred-handed)

Fandom: Overwatch

An Ancient Greek AU. Angela travels with Reinhardt as he tries to take down Talon, and Fareeha is a bodyguard. Very clean writing; you can tell a lot of research went into this one. No character feels out of place, even if the entire thing takes place in Greece, and the names are absolutely brilliant. Good fic, good pairing.

Beneath the Stars-StarlightWalking

Fandom: LOTR

A finished fic covering the travels and life of Tauriel after the Hobbit and through the War of the Ring. Really fleshes out the brief relationship between Tauriel and Kili. Provides a lovely conclusion to her story, which was more or less left hanging at the end of the movie. Shout out to TolkienGuardians for always posting updates on this so I could go read new chapters.

Knight-Errant-Zinjadu

Fandom: Star Wars

A canon divergent fic covering the Clone Wars, where Ahsoka wasn’t expelled from the Jedi Order and instead was promoted to a unique position. Proceeding relatively slowly, but has a lot of material, and each one is well done. Covers battle, politics, and slices of life, which very few other sources do. Contains a whole bunch of fics, so pick your poison.

Love, Life, and Peril-LiamReyes

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

A unique take on the story of FE7, involving a tactician with a checkered past. This is an older fic that is progressing slowly, but is well written, with enough AU tossed in to keep the story fresh. The background adds a nice twist to the story, and some character deaths are left out, which I think makes the fic much better,

A Fresh Cup of Coffee-Lydia_Rogue (@marykay91)

Fandom: RWBY

Hoo boy. Another favorite fic of mine, involving the formation and adventures of Team CFVY (You know, the ones that got maybe ten minutes of screen time?). Super well done, and covers some serious issues within the show that the actual series does not (Racism, Ableism, etc). Bonus points for having the team be in a super cute poly relationship, and for fully fleshing out the most badass team on the show.

Overwatch Emergency Communication Channel-ArcaneAdagio

Fandom: Overwatch

This is... a legendary crackfic. Just, imaging the entire Overwatch team on a chat server during day to day life. Absolutely hilarious, and the format is great. Lots of pairings, lots of shenanigans.

It's Basically Discord-Hanzo Shimada (Ubercharge)

Fandom: Overwatch

Same as the last one, another crack chatlog fic. This one starts in the days of Overwatch before the fall, so you get to see some of the interactions between the old soldiers when they were still young and snarky.

Reaping Dragons-MegsBlackFire

Fandom: Overwatch

A series featuring genderbent Reyes and Hanzo, and covering their recruitment into Overwatch before the fall. McHanzo and Reaper76 feature prominently, and there’s plenty of OC characters to help flesh out the story. Well written, and ongoing through the current storyline of Overwatch (Whatever that is Blizzard’s timeline is so messed up)

The Young Never Sleep-CerealMilk (@cerealwatch)

Fandom: Overwatch

A much, much darker fic, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Details D.Va’s life and current status in Overwatch, and explores how being a child soldier who’s been fighting omnics for years might fuck you up a bit. Lots of triggers, read the description before you start. Goes a lot into recovery and in how D.Va deals with life and death, and doesn’t treat her like a child. Basically the anti-gremlin D.Va; Hana Song and D.Va are very much not the same person here.

Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts-Unpretty (@unpretty)

Fandom: DC

Ah yes, another legendary series of fics. You’ve probably seen at least one of these floating around. Covers a wide range of topics, mostly Batman related, but all of them are well written, and most are hilarious. Hard to sum up this one since there’s so many fics, but all of them are worth a read.

The Stars Our Destination-CommanderRoastedWolf

Fandom: Overwatch

A fantasy AU centering around Pharmercy, with Pharah as knight and Mercy as priest. Gorgeous worldbuilding and character development, and I love how other characters are portrayed. Ongoing, updates fairly slowly.

Imagine the Ocean-Damkianna

Fandom: AtLA

An Avatar AU where Katara is the Avatar, instead of Aang. Supremely well written, and adds touches of details to the original that improve the already incredible story. A few OCs provide some nice contrasting points of view.

Kingdom of Rust-Colms (@kelsiers)

Fandom: Cosmere

Ah yes, this was a fun one. Wayne and Marasi go do shooty-shooty stabby-stabby detective work. I love this one because the writing style is so similar to Sanderson’s; the dialogue is spot on, and the plot fits right in with canon. Love the characterization of Marasi, who I at least feel is slightly underdeveloped in canon.

Equilibrium-Caesurae

Fandom: Overwatch/Pacific Rim

A crossover fic with Angela as a Jaeger pilot. Has both Pharmercy and Gency, and most of the other characters make appearances at one point or another. This one is plenty long, and the style/viewpoint of the writing is unique and makes for an interesting read.

Once There Was-Peradi

Fandom: Star Wars

A series that examines the fall of the First Order from within, inspired by the actions of Finn when he dared to break off and become a traitor. Written almost like poetry, this one strikes deep and is a good read for fans of Star Wars from any era; it applied regardless.

In Loco Pirates-IzzyTheHutt

Fandom: Star Wars

So what if Hondo (Yes, that Weequay pirate with impeccable business sense and a great sense of humor) ran into Luke Skywalker and then sold helped him reconnect with his father? Good stuff. Definitely AU, but so far everything is believable. Does some great character analysis of Darth Vader and Palpatine as well.

MaftWaft-Oddport

Fandom: TF2

A TF2 fandom? In 2017? Yep. An AU where the fem!mercs end up in the canon universe, and the two teams join forces to take down Grey Mann. A fun read, with all the characters behaving about as you’d expect them to when confronted with themselves. Lots of adorable couples too.

Wayward Son-Gunlord500

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka No Ken

Hoo boy. This fic. Over a million words across (I believe) six years and almost eighty chapters. In universe, it covers a few hundred years, following the story of a single enigmatic man as he lives, fights, loves, and dies. Very interesting backstory on one of the most mysterious characters in the canon, and contains loads upon loads of philosophy and religion that I, at least, found very useful.

The Last Red Shoulder-Gunlord500

Fandom: Fire Emblem 6-Fuuin No Tsurugi

In the same universe as the above, covering a side story about corruption and a horrifyingly evil artifact. Same praise as the above, basically, and well worth the read. Would recommend reading Wayward Son at least to about chapter 50ish first though, as there is some backstory that you’ll be better off knowing.

Six Shots to Go-CourierNinetyTwo

Fandom: RWBY

Another CFVY fic, covering all six possible pairings in the team. Each one is explored in detail, and seems true to the characters from what we know of them. Overall, a cute fic (I think there might be some NSFW in this one, careful)

Silly: In Defense of Parvati Patil-DirgeWithoutMusic

Fandom: Harry Potter

A look into life after the books, focusing on Pavarti and how she deals with the trauma of going through a full blown war before the age of eighteen. Fills in the gaps that JK Rowling left behind, and offers a much more realistic view of what life would be like after seeing your friends die.

Sealed In Silence-MorriganFearn

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A look into the life of the Eight Heroes, focused around Bramimond, the Dark Druid. It’s told as a series of small interactions between Bramimond and the other heroes. An older fic, but it has aged well.

The Dusk of Our Revolution-LittleGreenBudgie

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

An AU where Matthew is trying to escape the Black Fang gang; a well written side fic that covers one of my rarepairs from this ancient fandom. Each of the Four Fangs makes an appearance as well, as do other characters, and the whole thing fits neatly into the new setting.

Clandestine-LittleGreenBudgie

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

A quick meeting between Matthew and Leila. This is the rarepair I mentioned above, but it’s cute, and this little fic covers their interaction very well, I think.

End of An Era: Unholy Alliance-LordHippoman

Fandom: League of Legends

The League falls to a combined assault from the Void, Noxus, and the Shadow Isles. An older fic that I read back when I played League super regularly, but it’s a good read overall.

Another Hope-Rose of the Nile

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed IV

This beautiful fic is another time travel fic, where Edward is sent back in time after the events of AC4. Knowing what he does, he tries to fix his mistakes. This one made me happy mainly because of the pairing and improved character development, and is a great read for anyone who loved Kiddway as much as I did.

Deep Breaths-CrimsonNoble

Fandom: League of Legends

An AU fic with Riven and Irelia. Basic Cop and Gang fic, with each of the major factions being a different gang member. Older fic, but done well, with interesting perspective shifts and descriptions.

More Than Words-Kitten Kisses

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Sadly, this fic was taken down, but you should be able to email the author for a copy. A post game fic where Hector and Farina get back together. Very fluffy and angsty; poor Farina doesn’t catch a break in this one, but it all turns out lovely.

The Ice Girl-Meelu the Bold

Fandom: Fire Emblem 7-Rekka no Ken

Linus and Lloyd save Nino when she’s abducted by faeries; bit of a strange premise, but it leads to some classic puzzling and hack and slash action. Very old fic, but a good read.

#ficrecdays #star wars #overwatch #fire emblem #rwby #League of legends #Kiddway #long post

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