#i'm the number one oracle fan

[4rtificialangel]

if(me.getSensesIndex("vibration")){

me.addFeeling("complete");

}

world.unlock(you);

world.removeThing(you);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

if(me.getMemory().isErasable()){

me.removeFeeling("disheartened");

}

try{

me.setOpinion(me.getOpinionIndex ("you are here"), false);

}

catch(IllegalArgumentException e) {

world.announce("God is always true.");

}

OH MY GODDDD IT'S HERE IT'S FINALLY HERE AFTER 11 HOURS

the world.execute(me); oracle art is REALLLLL IM GONNA EXPLODE AAA

background and black and white ver under the cut

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

i love thinking about apollos anatolian origins 😵‍💫

It stews in the back of my head too :3

There was this really good podcast on Spotify I found about Ancient Greece, and I listened to his Apollo episode first (because I honestly can't stomach the ones who paint him as 'terrible assaulter'/'epitome of the patriarchy'. Can't stand it. Seriously, there was this so-called 'feminist' mythology podcast i found and I Noped out of there as fast as I could - she didn't even mention Eros's involvement in the Daphne myth! She immediately went 'Apollo: the man who doesn't know the meaning of No' and I was like I'M OUTTA HERE.)

(It's very hard to find good Apollo content out there when you have educated yourself on what he's actually like :( )

(At least you immediately know those people didn't do their research shrug)

Thankfully, this one had a really good, really in-depth discussion about Apollo; his origins, his domains, his myths, ect!

COMPLETELY FREE OF BIAS TOO! HE JUST GIVES YOU THE FACTS, THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYTHS, HOW THE CULTURE INFLUENCED THEM, ECT!

On my first (and only rn) listen I was like "damn i need to take notes on this sometime" that's how in-depth it is!

Here's the episode link if anybody is interested, btw!

What's cool is that he said that before Apollo came along, oracles and the like weren't as common in Greece - they existed, because Gaea was a thing - however, when he was imported in (possibly also with Leto! She has Anatolian origins too!), oracles became more of a thing as Apollo's popularity skyrocketed!

If you look at the number of Oracles Apollo had, you'd also notice that a lot of them are in Anatolia (Turkey today)!. Didyma, Miletus, Claros, ect ect! I think this just adds to the theory that Apollo's main origins come from Anatolia! When he moved to Greece, oracles came with him!

Which is so cool because in my drafts I currently have a picture of a webchart I made of Apollo's (many) domains, and I narrowed down the ones I think are his Big Ones - and Prophecy is one of them.

Very cool that Prophecy has always been part of him <3

Also, Apollo has many cities he is the patron of in Anatolia - Troy is obvious, but the island of Tenedos was his too (his son Tenes founded the city there), and he was the patron of Miletus (the city where he met Branchus btw for my Branchus fans out there)!

And going to Leto real quick, her migration from Anatolia religion to Greece's is probably represented in the Hymn to Apollo! Sometimes myths about wandering from place to place were meant to symbolize the importation of a god (Aphrodite floating ashore of Cythera, for example), and Leto...well, she was doing a lot more than the typical wandering in the hymn, but it still fits!

Some versions say she was guided to Delos by wolves from Hyperborea, others say Boreas helped her escape Python, still others claim a rooster was present when she finally was able to give birth and thus became her sacred animal (also she apparently gave birth to Apollo as a wolf? I don't quite remember which version says that but it's something I've heard XD).

Also Delos was very self-conscious about Apollo being born on it because it was afraid he would judge it for not being up to typical island standards XD

Moving to Apaliunas now! He's a Hittite god, but I haven't been able to find out of what :( The main piece of evidence we have of his relation with Apollo is Troy - Apaliunas was the god of Wilusa, who has been found out to be another name for Troy! There was a treaty signed between Wilusa and another city, and the representative of Wilusa's name was commonly translated to "Of Ilios" - and Ilios was another name for Illium, aka Troy.

(Fun fact: The son Apollo had with Ourea was named Ileus, after Troy! They are but a footnote in mythology but I made them Important in my Troy fic XD)

Plus, Apaliunas's name was connected to the Hittite reflex of Apeljōn, which scholars have theorized to be an early form of Apollo's name - remember Apollon? :D

Apollo also has connections to various other deities - the Italian Etruscan god Apulu (Aplu), the Celtic god Grannus, his Egyptian equivalent is Horus and his Phoenician one is Resheph! He's also been identified with Baldur from Norse mythology.

Apollo be wearing that trenchcoat, and he is wearing it well XD

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics:

Birds of Prey #13: That was a clever use of Cass to finish the storyline. Kelly Thompson's generated enough good will from me at this point that yeah, I'd consider her as one of the strongest Birds of Prey writers since Dixon and Simone, though Sean McKeever probably still edges her out (McKeever had a stronger lead in though to work from, and so many people barely distinguish his work from Simone's).

I'm interested to see where Thompson takes them from here. I certainly still have quibbles (I would love to see a commitment to using Barbara as Oracle only appear on page; I do think Thompson is having way too much fun trying to play with ALL the characters and needs to focus a bit more on the ones she has already), but I'm never disappointed by the title? I enjoy myself.

Batman #152: I've got to say, as someone who has also played around with Darkseid powers, I enjoyed that Bruce acknowledged on page that Omega Beams do weird shit on occasion, revolving around what Darkseid wants, and that Bruce would in fact be cautious of them in ways other people are not. I'm not sure as a story it accomplishes a lot as an an Absolute Power tie-in (mostly I think it's just keeping Bruce out of the way while other characters get focus in the main titles), but I did appreciate the use of the Batman #79 callback to the Beach Holiday Of Explicitly Taking Time For Ourselves While The Children Are Dealing With Drama, because Bruce and Selina and holidays at the beach and on cruises is a long running theme together and I never hate seeing it pop up.

Putting the Birds of Prey Absolute Power set up into the back of this made sense in terms of comics pricing and keeping the number of event comics contained, but also probably needed to be better signalled. Read this AFTER BOP #13.

The Boy Wonder #5: and Juni Ba caps his story off.

This was sweet! In the spectrum of non-canonical or dubiously-canonical retellings of origin stories, I think this straddled the line pretty well, particularly in how it was explicitly pitched as a story someone was telling. Some of the resolution in the final issue was a bit pat for me (in terms of we all moved forward and solved things), but the focus stayed where it needed to be (on Damian and Damian's connections), and plenty of the implications were significantly creepier than Smol Damian here realised.

This would sit happily beside the Demon Trilogy as a quasi-canonical Al Ghul story. I think Dennis O'Neil would have appreciated it.

DC's I Know What You Did Last Crisis #1:

Honestly my opening thought on this was 'why did anyone offer Dan DiDio a writing slot'? Because, I've read a bunch of DiDio's work, and part of the situation with him at DC has always been that he's a mediocre writer that wouldn't rate a title if he hadn't already been working in editorial/management. His credits don't actually contain any stories and titles that people are big fans of, and a lot of his work was done collaboratively with stronger writers (if you're writing with Keith Giffen, I suspect Giffen is handling a lot of the actual plotting work and charm).

Okay rant out of the way:

Batgirl-COIE story: I don't mind this, but I feel like if I were going to pitch a Barbara story at this point I'd want it more in communication with Barbara Randall Kesel's work. I'd have Barbara acknowledge the Krypto stuffed dog and maybe bond with the kid over "I had a teddy called Supergirl". Also, this is...very early for 'Waylon likes kids'. Like, decades too early. Croc's characterisation feels far later than when this story is set.

Dr Light-Millennium: It's not bad as a horror piece, but as a few other people have noted, I feel it wastes the aspect of 'the Manhunters are hidden among us' inherent in their portrayal in the event. Nice moment spent with a few characters who don't get much page time though.

Birds of Prey-Final Night: this very much feels like a missing tie in! Which we didn't get, because BOP had the Manhunt mini instead during that period. Ashley Allen has a good grasp on the time frame and events going on for this. My one quibble is having Dinah working in Gotham here, as Barbara still was focusing on world-roaming problems at this point over local ones, but otherwise, it slotted in very nicely.

JSA-Zero Hour: This is fine. I will say the quip about "the number of Bat-people" for Zero Hour feels a bit thin. You mean, Batman, Nightwing, Robin, ... Huntress and Spoiler? Steph has barely had her second ever storyline, the only person in Gotham who trusts Helena is Tim, JPV is busy dealing with having been insane, and Dick's been home for five minutes. They literally just finished a multi-year event about how Bruce didn't have the support he needed.

Nightwing-Infinite Crisis: it's just sad and pathetic that Dan DiDio remains so mad that his staff rebelled and wouldn't let him kill Dick Grayson. It was almost two decades ago. Why are you still having a tantrum about this publicly? It's not even worth addressing the characterisation, as it's just an attempted take-that that makes him look worse.

Scarecrow-Blackest Night: ...if you're going to set something at the Monarch Theatre maybe take 5 seconds to check the wiki about what was happening with the location around the time of the story. It was not a functioning movie theatre, folks, and we're just prior to The Carpenter's Tale. I dunno. This one felt like a waste of the setting.

Lex Luthor-Final Crisis: look I don't enjoy Final Crisis, but this is incredibly set during Final Crisis. This feels like pretty solid Lex characterisation and introspection, and I'm sure he hates that he's hallucinating a Superman to talk down to.

Midnighter-Flashpoint: I dunno, the characterisation feels off for both Pyg and Midnighter. It's fine, but I would have preferred another story that really felt like a missing backup from an event.

My general overarching opinion? Most of the writers could have used a bit closer attention to context for their stories, if you're playing "this is set during". That's something people can check.

The Warlord #66: I just checked and we are so close to halfway through volume 1 of the Warlord! They simply do not commission 133 issue runs plus annuals of random conspiracy titles anymore. Anyway this week in Skartaris Mongo Ironhand remains the worst. Also Mariah and Mikola finally get to talk to each other and Mariah tells her lost werewolf fencing instructor lover that she's actually now got the hots for an ex-gladiator with a spiked mace for a fist. (Oh, Skartaris)

There is tragically very little discussion of communism. Get back to preaching about the benefits of communism, Mariah!

Also we fight a demon (who transformed from the Gollum creature like...30 issues earlier), Mariah tricks him into stabbing himself in the eyesocket with a trick sword, Jennifer defeats him with magic, they throw the magic book the demon was using into a volcano vent to destroy it, and the men are largely all useless.

Thank you, that has been our back in pre-history LOTR rip off of the week.

[havendance]

Okay, I'm finally returning to the AU where Jason and Barbara are swapped so that she dies in a Killing Joker and Jason is paralyzed in A death in the family.

The simplest way to set up this AU (and why over-complicate things yet?) is to have it so that when Barbara Gordon opens the door, the Joker shoots to kill. However long later, when Jason is beaten half to death by the Joker, he survives the bomb, but he’s left paralyzed from the waist down. The Doctors say he’ll never walk again.

For now, Barbara Gordon is dead and we shall leave her there. She doesn’t haunt the narrative in the same way that Jason did. She was an adult when she died, removed from her former mantle. She wasn’t Bruce’s daughter. Her death weighs on Gordon, but then Sarah Essen returns to his life and his dead daughter fades into the background. Bruce, Dick, and Jason remember her, but there is no Batgirl memorial in the cave. She is just another symbol of the dangers they face. She comes up in vague aborted references and heavy silences.

(Now that I think about it, in a world where Barbara Gordon’s dead, I bet Helena ends up as Dick’s second primary love interest…)

Meanwhile, with Jason, we have a fairly standard Jason Lives!AU with the slight caveat that he’s in a wheelchair and can never become Robin again.

We’re not going to spend long on that because it could go any number of ways and I don’t want to be here all day, but to his some major points:

A Lonely Place of Dying doesn’t get triggered. Batman without Robin when Jason is paralyzed is worse, but not bad enough for Tim to feel the need to interfere. His parents probably still die in Rites of Passage because Batman is highly unlikely to leave Gotham to chase after some random kidnapping for ransom when he’s being overprotective of his recently paralyzed son. Or just have the Drakes die in a plane crash and skip the racism.

Jason as Robin is a character who doesn’t have many ties outside of Batman. Stuck in a wheelchair, he struggles even more with dilation. Barbara’s dead. Dick’s around more, but he still spends most of his time with the titans. He can’t be Robin and that means that he feels like he can’t be part of that community, losing the few connections he had there. On the civilian front, his injuries lead him to being held back a year. He doesn’t know any of his classmates, and stuck in the hormonal battleground of high school, he acutely feels the way that being stuck in a wheelchair makes him different.

I still need to read Oracle: Year One, but Jason is initially attracted to computers because of the anonymity the internet offers. On it, he can pretend to be normal; people don’t see the chair before they see him. From there, it expands into a way he can still help Bruce and be involved in the mission. Bruce says he doesn’t need to do anything, but with so much of their relationship tied up in being Batman and Robin, Jason wants to.

There is another Robin eventually. Dealer’s choice as to who. You can make an argument for Tim (the classic option), Steph (Girl power + Steph & Jason friendship) or, I don’t know, Lonnie ( I know he has fans, though, in full disclosure, I am ambivalent towards him). Whoever the choice, it’s alternatively important that they have the approval of both Dick, who originated the mantle, and Jason, who left it vacant.

But that’s enough about Jason. You want to know who I really want to talk about in this AU? You guessed it! Helena Bertinelli and Cassandra Cain.

It’s time for No Man’s Land baby~ (absolutely no one is surprised.)

Bruce leaves on an international guilt trip and brings his son with him, much to Jason’s annoyance. It’s over three months before he’s able to convince Bruce to return, and even then it’s only on the condition that Jason enrolls in a boarding school where it’s safe. (Jason is so looking forward to turning 18 when he can finally prove to Bruce that he can take care of himself.)

Meanwhile, Huntress is the sole vigilante presence in No Man's Land. It isn’t long before she recognizes the limits of her own mantle and takes on the mantle of the Bat. In this universe, she is called Batwoman.

It is as Batwoman that she runs into Cassandra, who has been living on the streets of Gotham.

No wait, better idea. Headcanon time: In between acting as two separate vigilantes, Helena also somehow finds the time to run a makeshift classroom for some of the kids stranded in No Man's Land. She recruits them to do odd jobs and in exchange,, she shares some of the food she has stashed wavy and tries to make sure they have at least some education. 

Cassandra is curious and comes first for the food and then for the stories and the reading/writing lessons she doesn’t understand. When she sees Batwoman for the first time and makes the connection, she becomes even more intrigued.

When Batman enters and starts working with Helena, Cassandra saves them both in a handmade costume and ends up as the new Batgirl.

Helena remains as Batwoman after the end of No Man’s Land in this AU. She misses being the Huntress, at the end, but she has Cass to look after now. They grew close in the chaos of No Man’s Land and now the girl’s moved in with her. Helena needs to be better for Cass. She can’t go back to killing because, on one level, Cass wouldn’t let her. On another, she doesn’t want to betray her trust. So she holds the line. She stops her more self-destructive tendencies and tries to do the best for Cass despite the fact that she doesn’t understand her on a fundamental level.

This all leads to her being a more integrated part of the batfam. She's featured in more Bat comics and plays a major supporting role in Batgirl.

Post-No Man’s Land, Jason turns 18, moves off to college, and starts his own Birds of Prey type team. Bruce stalks him, Jason yells at him for it, etc etc.

And now, we’ve arrived at the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Red Hood!Barbara Gordon!

Barbara Gordon’s Under the Red Hood arc is a narrative commentary on fridging and is ideally written by a female author. In this universe, Barbara Gordon was a character who was killed off and vanishes from the narrative. She was a thing pre-crisis but never really a presence post. She is a tombstone next to Sarah Essen. A name mentioned when arguing about the Joker, quickly forgotten to focus on his paralyzing of Jason.

She comes back loud and angry, insisting on being remembered. Look at me, she shouts. Look at my pain. My story should be about me. She sets up a series of circumstances and clues all point to her. To the terrible things that happened to her. Bruce and Gordon have made her death about them, she’s taking it back. Reclaiming it for herself.

She also torments and antagonizes Helena and Cass. They replaced her, they took her place. They don't even know what they've done. They are the first to see her face and they don’t even recognize her. They don’t know the legacy they have claimed. Barbara Gordon rages.

And then, of course, future writers ruin that shining star of an arc by making her ~evil~ and ~crazy~. It’s probably all because coming back from the dead made her infertile and she can’t ever be a mother. Women, am I right? (eyeroll)

Anyway, I want a Red Hood!Barbara Gordon arc now.

[emelinstriker]

I'm back, did you miss me?? 🥺

Anyway, I've been thinking about how I could befriend the Oracle and hear me out, a good conversation. He seems like he'd enjoy that.

Now, can he tell me about what he likes please?

-Oracles number one fan

I mean.. That's not untrue- That is one of his jobs he enjoys doing-

[luckykingdelusion]

You're awesome Lexi 😃 you make me laugh and cheer me up when I'm sad, you back me up when I get myself into shit and you hold me up when I'm falling into the void, you share your world with me without asking anything in return, you've been patient with me when I kept making the same mistakes and knocked sense into me when I strayed from the right path, you're caring and fun and bring out a softer side of me, you talk nonstop when I can't find words and you listen intently when I can, you've been my cheerleader when I needed confidence and my oracle when I don't know what to do, you're my number one fan and you've done so much for me over the past year that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repay you.

But I'll never stop trying too! I love you forever and always my goddess 😘

[flower1622]

Ranking Female Characters of PJO:

1. Sally

It's Sally. She is totally a survivor. She has to worry many times about her demigod son, who doesn't live for a long time. Despite being a human, she is not afraid to face a god or monster to protect or save her son.

2. Rachel

If People hate her, so I like. She is really amazing on her way. She is nice and kind to everyone else, especially to Percy. She is so much better than another girl that doesn't care to be rude to other people, even her boyfriend. Rachel is a special human since she is an oracle. Despite not being a demigod, she is not afraid to face monsters or gods either. She is really a person that has to deal with many visisons and possible nightmares in her head. For me, she is still the best option for Percy. The most healthy one.

3. Clarisse

Totally a badass. Even though she is a bully, I guess she got a little better over the years. Except maybe for her dad, Clarisse is also not afraid to face any god or monster, even without her weapons. If she has to fight using only her hands, she will. Annabeth is not the only smart girl in pjo, Clarisse is still smart and strong. I guess she can understand about battle strategies since her father is the god of war. Clarisse is a survivor too. She survived with zombies (I don't remember what they were) and went to rescue Chris all by herself (If I'm not mistaken).

4. Hazel

I don't know much about Hazel since I didn't read HOO (I can't even remember much from PJO either), but from I saw people commenting, she seems a nice and kind girl that may have suffered a lot in the past. Just like Nico, I think she is also stuck in time?

5. Silena

She seems really kind and nice. Unfortunately, the girl was manipulated...but in the end became a heroine. Her mother Aphrodite also looks pretty awesome!Like mother, like daughter!

6. Thalia

She is not one of my favourite characters, but she seems the kind of person that would save the world at any costs even if she had to sacrifice her own family and friends. She wouldn't let emotions take control over her. Not only her, but also Artemis and the other hunters.

7. Meg:

She seems pretty smart and cool! I like that she was the only one (from what I could see) that chose stay by Apollo's side even with his arrogance. I think she always saw that he wasn't so bad after all.

8. Persephone

So sweet and kind. I guess she would be Solangelo number 1 fan. She likes them. I think she may see Nico as her own son. She always tries to be friendly to others, which is good because she can kind teach Hades to be more gentle with others. She is really a good influence for him.

9. Demeter

This goddess can be a little scary sometimes, but I understand that she worries about her daughter in the underwold. It's so nice to see Demeter tolerating Hades because of Persephone.

10. Juniper

I don't remember about this character (I'm not reading the books anymore), but from I can see she is the romantic partner for Grover if I'm not mistaken. She seems nice and sweet. I think they would make a cute pair.

[d3zydration]

Digital Sketchbook (06.20.2024)

I'm about to make a big update post for my main website, but I didn't feel like using up storage on some preview shots. At the top, we've got progress on my 2d model for my YouTube channel, along with the many outfits I've made for her. Once I'm done with all the shading, I can break down the pieces and start the rigging process. I've probably got more outfits than I need, and there are some side characters I may make that I've had bouncing around in my head and on my channel for a long time that I'll probably also make, but once the bulk of it is done, I can focus on rigging while that happens.

On the bottom left, we've got a new Hesiodos (Hesiod) piece I'm working on. I wasn't happy with how the first one turned out, and honestly, I need to get back into the flow of more realistic works. Painting pieces directly from photo reference is easy enough, but it's a bit more difficult using a marble statue, as I did with my first piece, and more difficult still drawing from the mind while trying to translate those references as accurately as possible. I'm also using a more gouache-inspired brush set for this one. I've been super fascinated with acrylic gouache lately and am planning to start doing traditional pieces again in marker, watercolor, and acrylic gouache. I've been really into the work of Amina Illustration and I'm A Wonder.

My YCH (Your Character Here) commission piece "Little Witch" still has 5 available slots left on my Etsy shop (which is discounted from what you would pay for a custom commission with those specifications) - but I had also started on a number of other ones back in autumn of last year: A little graveyard chibi pin-up, a chibi girl holding a pumpkin spice latte, a woman kissing the cheek of a scarecrow, and a vampiric take on Klimt's The Kiss. I also started on a few general ones: one inspired by the style of Bratz, one inspired by the style of Monster High, and one inspired by the lo-fi girl. I'll still be wrapping them up and making them available whenever they're complete, but they aren't at the forefront of my workload at the moment - especially since I'm planning on moving away from Etsy.

Along that line, I also have plans to work on a couple of emote, clip art, and marketing packs, some stickers (including sticker sheets for my planners), a magickally-accurate Sailor Moon chibi series, and a couple of fan oracle decks. First on my to-do list, however, is a ton of website graphics for my new websites, the next batch of designs and styles for the Luxe Gothique Boutique, and a rework of my Khthonic Wiccan art series, as it's something else I just wasn't satisfied with.

And that's just artwork! I have a lot of writing in the works now, as well. I've got two books, my Mythos Reimagined series, and my webcomic, A Little Town Called Lorauvial, in the works, as well. This is a lot, I know, but I'm making progress each day. I just want to make so many things. I can't possibly keep it all locked away forever. 👻💚

Anyway, stay tuned for my update article. I'm going to be getting on that shortly with info on my other goings-on. Be there or be square.

[burninlovebutler]

Elvis Birthday Reading - 01.08.23

disclaimer: my spirituality/religion is not something i talk about often on my blog (since obviously it's not about that) but since it was the king's bday i felt compelled to do a tarot/oracle reading with/for him - for reference, i've been reading for 5 years & work with spirits often.

if this does not align with your religious views & beliefs please just scroll past this - i am not interested in engaging in a religious dispute - i respect yours, please respect mine.

while clairvoyance is the most known "psychic ability" it is not one i have - i have what is called "claircognizance" or "clairsentience" - for anyone who doesn't know the definition of those are:

"The psychic ability for a person to acquire knowledge by means of feeling and without knowing how or why they knew it."

for this reading i did not use any of the guidebooks and am sharing only the emotions/feelings/messages i received - i didn't ask any specific questions, i just asked for a general energy about his birthday, basically whatever needed/wanted to come up

The first card I pulled was from my Rock and Roll deck and got the Knight of Wands (or 'Rods' in this deck)

Immediately I had to chuckle because of course he would pick this card to be the center of the spread and set the tone for it. I think it truly embodies so many traits of him -

Dynamo - Passionate - Charming - Cocky

We know our boy was exactly that - a dynamo - this enigmatic ball of light, hope, love - full of passion for what he did, the music he made, for his fans, his movies, life in general. And charming, of course we know he could charm anyone that crossed his path.

Next cards i got were thinker and higher power - these cards for me were the most hazy to read. though something clear was on Thinker the number is 44 - obviously half of 88

Thinker: This came through a little bit sad. The message i got was that he had so much in his head - both positive & negative - his head full of ideas, passion & thought for his music and obviously heavily talking about the overwhelmed with all of the things he couldn't control, being paranoid/suspicious of everyone in his life

Higher Power also came with a 4 which was interesting (thus making 444). What i got from this was a sort of nod to what I was doing and that he enjoys interacting with us in tiny ways. - this also felt like it was also a sort of push to say that he enjoys us reaching out to him (making little shrines or talking to him, etc)

these were so cheeky in the saddest way lol

Confidence: this one was quite light, the sunglasses are obviously a lil cheeky sign - for this i read very much *for us* - this was a sentiment i got a lot with some of these cards - that he wants us to learn from him - from the way he lived his life and carried himself.

Frustration: This was probably the saddest card i pulled, the moment i flipped it over i immediately got a deep wash of saddness. The overwhelming feeling i got from this was that he's frustrated he can't experience life today, that he didn't get the chance to live out his days and be here with us while a whole new generation of fans fall in love with him. I got the feeling that he was sad that he can't give us any new music/concerts/etc. for new fans. Or that he doesn't get to experience making music/performing with newer technology.

(while the feeling was sad i was pointed out the imagery of the hole w the pillar 🙄 take that how you will lmao we been knew his sense of humor)

a lot of the cards i pulled from this deck came up with a lot of double meanings - these first two also came with heavy and somber emotions :/

Adversity: This is another card i felt strong "for us" energy - to look at what he went through and the challenges he persevered through and to learn from it. That we can also conquer challenges learn & grow from them. I also got a sort of "it's okay, i'm okay" like to not pity???? i guess??? the things he went through, that he went through them and handled them and kinda "it is what it is" - i guess celebrate more his successes than feel bad for the unfortunate parts of his story. kinda like he's made peace with them? at least to an extent.

Loneliness: God this was punch in the gut and I immediately started crying. (I was also listening to "are you lonesome tonight" 🥲 at the time) - this was another card with such an unbelievable heaviness. I got the sense that he's lonely but not in the sense of being alone wherever he is but lonely tying back into the earlier frustration card. Like he wants to physically be here with us.

Another message I got from this was that he doesn't want US to feel lonely - that he is with us all the time, in many ways. And that he is there for us whenever we are alone - that we are never alone. (Both with him but also with each other - I got that VERY loud - that he's happy we are not alone because we have each other).

These kinda all came out at once and all had small messages

Doubt: I got that he doesn't want us to doubt his presence when we feel it, that it IS him (for small little signs) - i did get a loud message that to be careful in more advanced interactions, i got the message that there could be other energies that could mask as him if you are not experienced and always use protective practices.

I also got this as another comfort - to not doubt yourself, that it won't help you - that if he had doubted himself too much he wouldn't have become well... him.

Perseverance: Same thing as the Adversity card, to persevere through any obstacles and you can do whatever you have passion for.

Pride: This was such a cute card to get - it read very much that even the blips in his legacy, he is still proud at the legacy he left behind, he's proud of his successes, and proud that he still has a fanbase after all this time - also to have pride in ourselves.

Finally, I pulled two angel number cards - i got both 3 and 33 = 333 (which for me a special number for me personally).

3 - Charismatic: Is completely obvious why this card would come out lol even in this tiny interaction the entire reading was charismatic and they're just cards lmao

33 - Expanding: To me this was really special. What I got from this was that he feels his energy being revived and expanding with the rise of new fans - more people talking about him and not just fading into the background of our culture. It seemed very happy to have his energy/legacy/etc being reached and celebrated, especially on his birthday.

-

I think there are messages in here meant for others which is partially why I'm sharing it. I think as with any reading it can carry different significances for other people and he may have other messages or signs for you. Take what resonates and leave what doesn't.

i do own a witchy business & do readings professionally so if you are interested in that my dms on @burninlovebutlerr are always open💜

If you guys liked this let me know and I'll be tagging the loves that wanted to read this 💗

@lindszeppelin @loving-elvis @powerofelvis @nora-nexus-34

Happy Birthday Elvis❤️‍🔥⚡️

[callisteios]

I ended up with "god of longing for connection", which is funny given my current situation (housing/attempting to get comics into animation etc) and I'm noticing that some others are getting deep sea god (when they're actually studying the deep ocean as their major) etc... so my q is, are you somehow an ancient greek oracle pointing things out using modern technology to see what the mortals do with this knowledge? (Also thanks for a fun quiz)

you're going to get a long answer for no other reason than I'm at work and I hate my job. sorry

like way to long. i am so sorry.

So.

personality stuff

I'm going to say that first and foremost I am a massive skeptic when it comes to stuff like personality types, astrology etc. I think a lot of these things are people making very broad statements which many people identify with and become more convinced of their reality. a messy rabbit hole. I'm hardly the first to say this so lets move on

I also am a massive fan of personality quizzes (done well) and things like tarot ( i literally love doing tarot readings does anyone want a tarot reading). so not super well meshing opinions you may say?

yes.

however. i make them fit like this. I don't think all people can be split into 12 or 16 or whatever number of groups. I do think there are many shared human experiences and emotions. I know that most people taking my quiz are of a smiliar age and mostly western. This means we have even more shared experiences in this very global world.

I also know that from a lifetime of studying people and trying to understand their motivations (thank you autism (in case you couldn't tell)) I have got reasonably good at understanding various types of feelings and states people experience. and yes i suppose 'types' of people.

From this observation I have understood that (on top of us living in a very similar/global environment) we all (not all but basically all) go through the same emotions at some point during our lives.

From this experience and my understanding of our shared reality and feelings it is not exceptionally hard for me to then craft a quiz and retroactively apply the answers.

Example:

I'm going to give an example here because I feel my explanation has got incredibly rambly. Uh spoilers for my god quiz

Let's look at this result: the sky and the earth (because it's one of my favourites)

the first thing i'd say about this is that it's literally based on one of my favourite songs of all time. written while the author was in a mental instition no less (stream dory previn). so i am hardly the first to identify this 'type'.

When i look at this result and am assigning answers for it, several things about it stick out to me. Its main focus is the in between feeling, the longing for more spirtuality but also a desire for the physical and real. while at the same time feeling as if those are very confliced desires. there's obviously more to it but i can only hold so much info in my brain.

i think this is a state many in modern society will experience as we live in such a new and confusing and separate world. i am exposed to more of the world every day, and yet i feel as if i understand it less. the opportunities for me to truly experience the natrual are few and far between. i want to crawl around upon the earth. i want to see the stars and be enlightened.

knowing this i will say

does someone who is sky and earth want to be a god?

(this was the hardest question for literally every type btw.) here i'd say yes. because only something divine can be two opposing concepts surely. surely to know the sky and earth is an impossible goal for a mortal.

ok moving on (im not doing this for every quesion, don't worry, just a couple more to hammer home the point)

this one was harder. i was torn between fruit, dedicated to one issue, and drowning. I think all fit but went for dedicated in the end

for this one i knew i was using a picture of an iguana and i thought iguanas come from deserts so i chose desert. they're not all hits

this one was so easy. to me the confluence of rivers, bringing together something that's normally apart. that felt like the duality of sky and earth to me.

basically the exact same thing as above with mutilation.

i chose the painting of the building surrounded by people. i felt like this building crushed between the sky and the earth, looked upon by passers by, felt like a monument to the dichotomy. when i am feeling sky and earth i feel like the building, i cannot move or touch or really experience. i am just stationary watching it all move around me

So you see. I have identified here an emotion which i felt, which i have witnessed others feeling. i have identified the likely responses i believe a person in this state would give and i hope for the best.

Tarot

OKay you definitely get the point bt now. but i am nowhere near done, i mentioned tarot earlier. there was a reason for this beyond me wanting to do more tarot readings.

I think even though im good, i am really not that good. one thing i have noted over doing many tarot readings is that often the subject needs incredibly little input from the reader. oh, they may need your help guiding them towards the symbolism on the card, but once they've got that they launch into an explanation of how this answers their question.

Because I Always make sure they ask a clear question. this to me is the most important part of any kind of reading or quiz. you want the person to think about this themselves and then perhaps help them to the conclusion. once they're at the results screen/have a card they already have some idea in mind. it doesn't matter if they were expecting something a bit different, this is just a vehicle for their own self truth anyway.

ok im done.

i am a god

woah woah woah. im not done though. you're talking to a classicist so ive GOT to address the oracle comment. my favourite oracle of delphi theory is that the oracle's chamber sat above some kind of natural gas deposit, this gas was possibly hallucinatory. The oracles would get high and then deliver prophesies. I believe that if you combined my observation with powerful drugs I could come up with prophesies like "if your empire goes to war with another empire a great empire will fall ;)". Therefore, yes i am. and i'm taking requests ;)

tldr? uh. i take very universal feelings, use some skill to present those to people most likely to identify with them, they do a bunch of the work

/tldr i am a divine prophet and would like my place at a nice temple and access to good drugs asap

[maiji]

Asking on behalf of Sydney: What does she fear about the road ahead of her and what she might experience returning to her old life? Two numbers: 3 and 15!

Oh!! What an honour to get to do a reading for Sydney!

Sydney is one of the protagonists from the awesome webcomic Sombulus, and her journey in it has been a tremendous one of hard-earned growth! As you probably guessed, I shuffled the deck and counted using the two numbers provided to pick the cards. Knowing the trajectory of Sydney's story to date, the resulting combination gave me a good chuckle.

#3 turned up The Man, and #15 was The House.

The Man is a special card in Lenormand. Like its counterpart The Woman, it always represents the most important person of that gender to the question being asked. This is either the querent themselves, or someone who has a big role in the situation. The House is a card often associated with things you think of when you think of "home" - like stability, comfort, and people you consider family.

In this basic spread, what we're looking for is a relationship between the two cards. My immediate thought was Sydney's relationship with Astyr. I am trying not to spoil Sombulus!! but Sydney meeting Astyr kickstarted a whole bunch of things that really shook her worldview, and their relationship evolved a great deal over the course of the series. They've just come to/passed a major juncture. They're both going separate ways big time but at the same time are probably closer than they've ever been… Fears for the road ahead - I'm sure Sydney's worried about Astyr a great deal in so many ways. What might Sydney experience returning to her old life - well, the changes to her outlook as a result of her meeting Astyr have definitely made it a challenge to just slide back into the world she used to fit in. I imagine it's hard to look at anything the same way anymore, to take anything for granted, not with what she knows and what she can do now.

This is a tool for reflection, so that's just one relatively high level interpretation. We can find patterns and make connections in a lot of ways. Also Delphina Probably Knows Things!!! that a mere mortal fan like myself cannot even begin to speculate! If we assume the Man doesn't represent Astyr, who else might we imagine it to be…? If the House is not specifying "family", what other things associated with home might it conjure up…? Real estate? Domestic matters? You can also read it more literally if you want. Maybe what lies in store in the future is that Astyr is gonna find a roomba and help Sydney clean house!! (Maybe "clean house" is more figurative than literal. I have confidence Super Cool Butt-Kicking Times lie in their future.)

I hope that offered some interesting thoughts, or at the very least amusement!

---

Thanks for requesting a limited time free reading to celebrate the new edition of the Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck!

Want to dive deeper?

Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck - there's a free downloadable overview of card meanings!

humangray.com/lenormand - more info and resources/links!

(Note: these readings are being done with my old card deck from the original printing. There's not much difference with the new edition available in the link above - the biggest one is that the new edition has a custom box ooh ahh!)

[4rtificialangel]

reposting the cool angel oracle art

very very nice

[valeriele3]

Everything I've compiled into my brain so far (Not properly arranged & I might have missed a lot)

All the other au's are connected and there is a space where you can see the different aus with little decorations/knick knacks that matches the world

CH au has a loop

CB's world is basically a self-aware au gone wrong

Noir flowers bloom from noir hearts of hundreds of faes and is a very potent poison to light faes

Purified noir flowers can grant you a wish and the wish doesn't expire a.k.a if you can't think of a wish at the moment you can use it in the future

Normal people/fae cannot enter the forest. The only exceptions are if you have a pure heart or part of both dark and light fae

If you enter a noir will crystalize and the forest will eat you alive and turn you into fertilizer for the flowers

MC and Wataru are very long longgg distanced cousins

MC only exists rn because of the wish of the old faes and it is said that the core fae is the solution to surviving the "catastrophe"

MC's parents didn't want their child to be used as a tool and want to save MC, MC is then put to sleep in a forest(The forest full of noir flowers) made to protect them until the time comes for MC to wake up. (Aira is the one who woke MC up)

When Aira woke MC up MDD Aira was in control/possessed CH Aira

Even though asleep, MC can somewhat interact with the world. MC is the invisible audience that leaves daises or letters for Wataru a.k.a Wataru's first fan is MC

When MC/the invisible audience suddenly disappeared Wataru decided to search for them and found Aira coming out of the forbidden forest with MC

It was here that Wataru decided to "adopt" MC and made MC his cousin

1st and 2nd core fae had a ability of time and space. MC the third core fae has both

Before Kohaku and MC even met, he had a dream of saving someone from falling. We see this happening when MC got sent to the human world and Kohaku catches MC

Wayyy before MC was sent to the human world to collect crystal hearts MC made a ton of candies/sweets for Aira which caused Aira to ask his online friends if they want it. There was so much in fact that his friends started thinking he was selling drugs from how often he asked

Aira then delivered most the candies to Kohaku since Kohaku likes/loves sweets. Over time Kohaku started falling for this mysterious friend(MC) his friend(Aira) had.

Since this is getting too long and all imma cut it off after a few more numbers

The oracles the old fae got is from a dream

In Distorted Party, we see two guys arrive in certain location, admiring an old city, an ancient place. The two guys are Aira and Kohaku and I'm guessing the old city is where the old fae used to live/stay

We see a line "We still have to enter some old fools dreamy-dream". Old fools = Old fae. And the enter some old fools dreamy dream..Could that mean that they'll enter the old faes dream quite literally? Or they could mean the "oracle" since the old faes got the oracle from a dream

If we were to go back near the start (I think chapter 6?) we'll see a static/glitched out post. There are 3 in total and the one talking is most likely Aira

Aira has different nicknames. Ai-Ai for normal Aira and Air-pyon for MDD Aira since MDD Aira would sometimes astral dream(?) into CH au

In Distorted Party Picture/banner there's an alt text. I'm guessing the "Self destruction Left nothing but pain Wish upon a flower Nothing is gain" Is referring to MC trying/wanting to self destruct to save everyone. "Left nothing but pain" might be referring to MC wanting to self destruct again orrr the result of CB's destruction. CB left nothing but pain in his wake. "Wish upon a flower" is referring to when MC made Aira a flower crown made out of purified noir flowers which allows you to make a wish. "nothing is gain" im not that sure about this one

"Shall we form this distorted party and change what is written" Does that mean that they want to rewrite fate? To change the future that has been set for them?

[zahri-melitor]

Batman Eternal

I think for a weekly, event comic that was promising to deliver the Bat Family, it underperformed. Some people had a good event, some people had a mediocre event and were underused, and there were a few absolute shockers.

The Good:

In terms of a 'push Bruce to the limit' event, it was interesting in that this one pushed Batman, the Bat Family AND Bruce, separately, to their limits. I'm used to events being 'pick two of the three'. That said, it still underestimated the effectiveness of its supporting cast.

Bruce had a solid event, in that it was focused on him and broke him down to build him back up by running him ragged and keeping him guessing on 'who caused this'. Honestly I don't have a lot to say about Bruce's plot, sorry. It was an okay mystery running through various rogues? I think making Cluemaster Who Dunnit was not the right choice (Arthur should always be a bit pathetic), but I can see why they picked him in the story that's returning Steph and after making Riddler the big bad for Zero Year.

Selina actually had a reasonable event. She got her entire backstory rewritten and ended up controlling crime in Gotham at the end of it, but eh, the former happened to a lot of people during n52 and the latter is something Selina ends up doing every now and then. Her plotline involved organised crime and Carmine Falcone, so it was even something associated with her long term story arcs.

Jim Gordon: look, once we get past the incredible miscarriage of justice that was Jim being arrested and convicted for manslaughter (please, please, explain to me how Jim shooting the signal box input was what caused the trains to crash, rather than the railway routing that meant there was timetabling and no fallback override for two trains SHARING TRACK while running in opposite directions), it was essentially just an excuse to put Jim in Blackgate and start up the plots there. Which you know, went pretty well. Jim got to be the strong man, show off his personality, and presumably this all sets up the Superheavy plotline (sigh).

Julia Pennyworth. Look, I don't hate the idea of Julia, so much as am confused by the very tight timeline constraints required for her existence (post about this coming), and I resent that DC let the team basically invent a new Oracle without being allowed to acknowledge that Oracle is Barbara Gordon. It's like it's an important role in Gotham! Anyway. In terms of what Julia brought to the page, I did appreciate that the writing team seemed committed to increasing the number of women characters populating Gotham, I am happy to have someone not Alfred running comms for the Bats, and I can see several ways she'd be an interesting character to have around, long term, for storytelling. I could grow to like her. But man. I had a really hard time swallowing her existence while Barbara's in the same event having her character destroyed.

Harper Row is so clearly Scott Snyder's pet. Honestly, I really enjoyed her design and the general arc of her story; adding an electrical engineer to the group is actually a relatively unoccupied niche and gives her points of differentiation, but by handing her such a major part of the plot while other, fan favourite characters were appearing and getting not much at all was setting her up to fail in the eyes of the audience.

Steph ranks up in the 'had a good event' category. She essentially reran her origin story combined with aspects of her War Games plot (before everyone yells at me, I particularly noted the correlation with the part of the story where Selina hid her with Holly coming through here with Steph hiding from Arthur and her getting dumped at the Rows for protection. Go actually read War Games). I liked the concept of the Spoiler blog being what she used as her name inspiration here. I again wouldn't have minded if she had actually interacted more with other Bat characters (everyone got very siloed here) but you know what? The story brought her back and set her back up in her default sort of background state. Seriously, they picked from Steph's biggest stories here (her origin, War Games, and actually parts were in conversation with War Crimes, which is a phrase I never thought I would say), and that was a reasonable decision imo.

The Mediocre:

Luke Fox got an interesting plotline with Jim Corrigan and the Spectre. Unfortunately it rarely interacted with the rest of the story (apart from leading to Arkham blowing up). This could have been a separate mini.

Tim got to appear in actual Bat titles, doing actual Bat things, and while being abrasive I could squint at him and see his original characterisation. Tragically despite this he basically didn't get to interact with existing characters he knew for most of the plot. Got handed the idiot ball on occasion to show off Harper. I wish he'd had more opportunities to spend time with characters I know and enjoy him with.

Kate Kane was there, for this event. She got to spend some time with Barbara and Jason. She also really didn't do much of anything. It felt like an obligatory 'you currently have a solo' appearance.

Jason Bard: look this is where I'm conflicted. If this was simply Random Cop #34, I'd have probably bumped it up to good but unrealistic (in terms of the speed run to Commissioner), but as a Jason Bard story? About all they kept or knew of Jason was that he's a cop, he was mentored by Jim Gordon, and that he Has A Limp. I am still outraged they made Babs give him the limp, I think making him a minor antagonist of this was a waste of bringing back Jason Bard, and the endpoint left him in a position where he's moderately unusable by other writers (there was a slight set up for 'transition him over to a detective agency' but there was no resolution on why anyone in Gotham either among the GCPD or the Bats would trust him after this).

The Bad:

Hush. No, not so much in his story (it was boring, it was Tommy being Tommy, yawn), but in the fact for no apparent reason Tommy is running around with his head bandaged. WHY? No reason was given. Using the bandages as his 'costume' is actually painfully irritating, because he wore the bandages during the original Hush as he was healing from facial reconstruction surgery. Here, he was imported into New 52, with his face wrapped in bandages, and no reason given. He wasn't trying to become Bruce and steal his identity. He was just...in bandages. Because that's how he looked in Hush and the fanboys think of him, despite the fact he basically never appeared in bandages again AFTER the initial Hush storyline. I'm infuriated in the pointless iconography that misses the original intent that this is.

Barbara had a terrible event. Even if I excuse everything as she was still grieving over Dick's 'death' and Jim being in jail, and the fact she was undergoing personality surgery in her own title (Batgirl #35 sigggghh), a complete random 'ship Barbara and Jason together' plotline came out of nowhere premised on the fact Barbara was missing Dick? Or something? And their age gap in n52 nonsense is only a couple of years, rather than Babs being ABOUT TEN YEARS OLDER and having babysat Jason. Ugh.

Speaking of: Jason Todd did somewhat better than some of the others in that he got to actually hang out with Barbara and Kate for a storyline, and honestly pairing him up with Kate is a route DC should look at more often in terms of character mediation, but lost 1000 points for the Jason/Barbara stuff. Also had a terrible costume (but what's new there).

Crystal Brown I am so sorry. Not only did you get yet another completely new look and personality, you lost all the few characterisation elements we had for you, you collaborated with your ex-husband, and you betrayed Steph at one point. You should be awarded damages for pain and suffering.

Lincoln March/Owlman: you were in this event SOLELY to confuse Steph and delay her cooperation with everyone else. I resent your entire existence in this timeline and it irritates me that Scott Snyder set up an entire previous event essentially to introduce you to the main universe and then waited going 'did you get it?' You are not Thomas Wayne Jnr sorry.

[havendance]

birds of prey :]

8. Terry Moore -- He only wrote like a three issue story for birds of prey, so perhaps it is petty of me to for one, include him on this list, and two, put him at the bottom, but I am still sore that the moment Dixon left the title this guy gave a story where Barbara gets temporarily magi-cured. Like, come on.

7. Gilbert Hernandez -- The other fill in author between Dixon and Simone. Also clearly suffers from thinking Batgirl is cooler than Oracle. Also metamopho is there for some reason.

6. Duane Swierczynski -- His birds of prey run is just mediocre to the extreme. Yeah, it's the new 52 and the Birds of Prey don't even really feel like the Birds of Prey and whatever, but also it's just too mid to rank lower. Also Strix was kind of interesting at the end of the run.

5. Julie and Shawna Benson -- Okay, here me out. I feel like this is my controversial one ranking them so high, but this is with the context that I've only read the first 6 issues and the rebirth issue. Yes, I'm not a fan of Helena's mom being alive and the amount of contempt they have towards Oracle!Babs fans is not great, but also I feel like they failed in a spectacular way that makes them more interesting than the blah that is Swierczynski's run, I'm willing to give them more ground than Moore and Hernandez who I am just pettily biased against, and also I'm a sucker for legacy characters and I keep thinking about how Gus could've been cool if it weren't for the everything.

4. Kelly Thompson and

3. Tony Bedard

There's a big jump between 5 and 4 and then Thompson and Bedard are really neck in neck for me so I want to talk about them together. Bedard's run I felt was honestly kind of mid. I'd honestly compare it to Swierczynski's in that way. But what it has that Swierczynski's lacks is a) helena b) oracle c) manhunter, d) misfit, and e) it actually feels like a birds of prey run. It also has all of those points on Thompson's run. Now Thompson's run has both Cass and Barda and the art consistently really slaps, but I think that D is the deciding point here. Thompson's run is fun, and it's still ongoing so my opinion on it will probably change over time, but it's also dinged by the fact that the issue 10 was pretty weak and I am susceptible to regency bias.

2. Gail Simone -- The reason that Simone is ranked at number two is honestly because she was cursed with having so many bad artists. She did not get a good artist until Nicola Scott and I was suffering for it. I like that she brought in Helena and I like the ideas behind a lot of her plots though sometimes they feel like they lose something in execution (the art probably does not help there). Her Helena characterization also feels off to me, but there's also a lot of enjoyable comics and moments in there and I did really like the spy smasher arc.

1. Chuck Dixon -- I'm sorry but I just really have a soft spot for Dixon's run. Were there misses? Yes. (eyes that dinosaur island arc he closed off on) but the Dinah and Barbara of it all was just so good. I have a soft spot for Manhunt, and also the art did not consistently burn my eyes.

[runemyth0]

Hi! A few questions for the writer ask game (not sure if you’ve answered these already, so I put four, you don’t need to answer them all)

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

🕶️ What helps you focus when you write?

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

Yes! I've actually been planning a number of original stories for a few years. There's two main ones which are...

Commoners Die In One Hit: My take on an isekai story where a class of high schoolers and their teacher are transported to a fantasy world. They have to work together to survive in this hostile world.

I actually based this concept off of me being bored and rolling stats for a bunch of Dungeon Crawl Classics characters. The first part of the story is structured like a DCC funnel, where a bunch of characters go in and only a handful of characters come out.

Guilded Cage: Five assassins, each belonging to a major guild, are sent to a dinner to uphold an ancient treaty between the guilds preventing them from going to war. Unfortunately, the guilds all sent their worst members, because it turns out that one of the attendees has to die to uphold the treaty.

It'll probably be a while till I start on either of these (and the names might change along the way) since I've still got fanfiction I want to write first.

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

You know, I was just thinking I needed to update my fanfic rec list. Honestly, there's way too many I want to recommend, so I'll just pick my top three four.

A Witch in Wartwood (and it's sequel) by Discet (@discet)

This fic! Oh man... This is the fic that got me back into writing! It got me hooked on swap AUs! It is the fic of all time.

The Oracle Bakery by freakxwannaxbe (@freakystrashdump)

I never thought I'd be enjoying an OC fic this much, yet here I am recommending it. Most notable for me for having the best Belos characterization I've read. Also, I really like the worldbuilding of Oracle magic, which doesn't have a huge amount of focus in canon.

Moonshadow by A_E_redacted (@a-e-redacted)

Canon divergence ahoy! A fun story about the Collector getting adopted by Eda. I just like the Collector.

Tag Team AU (@toh-tagteam-au) by YogurtHoops

A comic, not a fanfic, but still one of the most fun swap AUs I've read. I mean, I enjoyed it enough to write a fanfic based on it, so... I really like it.

And what the heck, I'll recommend Fighting the Stars by FruitDragon as well.

🕶️ What helps you focus when you write?

Music! I've got a whole bunch of playlists that I put on in the background while I write. I have one playlist full of the Yuru Camp soundtrack that never fails to put me in the zone for writing really angsty scenes.

I also make sure to keep myself hydrated and fed with snacks (my fav is frozen raspberries).

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Of course! Whenever I'm writing, I'll usually have the relevant fan wiki open in another tab for quick reference. And if anything comes up that might require specialized knowledge, I'll do my best to search it out.

I mostly work with fics that don't require too much research, but it does come up from time to time.