#is your main character dying at the end after all they have been through generally happy? no

[baekuras]

I think the internet is semi-fixed now It's there just slow as shit

In other news I spent the remaining time watching the Angels of Death anime (I have quite the soft-spot for the game already) and forgetting about putting my clothes in the washer and now it's midnight so Success

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

March 7th

~*~

1. There's been many fics where wwx takes his revenge, or fights for himself and his place and there are people to support him in it. ITMF fics where someone takes revenge for wwx / fights for wwx. Showing a lover love for him / brother or sister's love for him / mother's or parental figure's love for him.

And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together)

~*~

2. ITMF:

A) War general wwx and/or lwj

B) W ar veterans wwx and/or lwj

2A)

the wei to the kingdom (is through the prince's heart) by Bird_of_Dreams (T, 4k, wangxian, Historical AU, royal family, Tournaments, Mutual Pining, WWX levels of obliviousness) features WY as a general but the war is over and doesn't feature in the story

🔒 Crossing Paths by Ilona22 (M, 21k, wangxian, shapeshifter au, graphic depictions of violence, war between sects, war crimes, not JC friendly, happy ending) both generals fighting in a war

The Silver Thread General by Itszero (E, 70k, wangxian, Imperial China, No Powers, General WWX, Older WWX, Younger LWJ, Age Difference, Bottom LWJ, Forced Marriage, Protective WWX, POV LWJ, Childhood Friends, WWX is a Wēn, He was raised by them, WangXian Centric) wwx is a general but this isn't a fighting in war story

rebuttable presumption by sarah-yyy (WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Hurt LWJ, Enemies to Lovers)

2B)

Recovery by Unforth (G, 27k, WangXian, Modern AU, Rabbit Breeder LWJ, Veteran LWJ, Veteran WWX, PTSD, therapy animals, Therapy Rabbits, LWJ is an Asshole Sometimes, Doctor WQ, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Former Prisoner of War WWX, LXC is a Good Brother, Gray Asexual LWJ, Anxiety Disorder)

~*~

3. A) Hello, I'm looking for wwx centric and xz centric (this part in a YZ post ~Mod L) fics. Anything that has them as the main focus works. I'd prefer if their relationship with someone else is not main focus of the fic, rather, it's more about them as an individual???

B) Any fics where wwx leaves/runs away after everything instead of dying. Just want to see him making a life on his own, discovering himself, healing, etc. Modern aus are fine too.

Have a good day! @kthvcult

3A)

🔒 in this corner of the world by akahua (G, 4k, wangxian, Kind of angsty, Cooking, Chinese Food, Inspired by Little Forest, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Comfort Food, Sichuan Cuisine, Spicy Food, Hunan Cuisine, Suzhou Cuisine, Soup, Lotus Root and Pork Rib Soup for the Soul, Modern Setting) also fits 3B

3B)

something left to save by androids_fighting93 (E, 57k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, No Bloodbath of Nightless City, JYL Lives, Not Everyone Dies AU, Hurt/Comfort, single dad WWX, Sick Character, Golden Core Reveal, the lightest d/s dynamic if you squint, handjobs, Anal Sex, Canon-Typical Dynamics) Does it count as alone if he takes A-Yuan with him?

Crazy, Rich Cultivators by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 13k, wangxian, Modern Cultivation, Idiots in Love, Misunderstandings, POV LWJ, īthis started as a crazy rich asians au but quickly got away from me, light moments of angst but mostly shenanigans)

Something Warm and Safe by Winxhelina (T, 13k, wangxian, JYL & WWX, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Warm, Friendship/Love, Love, much softer than it seems, Not Everyone Dies AU, Canon Divergence)

~*~

4. Hi!! thank u guys so much for all your effort! i was hoping that in the next in the mood for (though i’d love a comp with this vibe) could i get a fic where wwx is genuinely loved by the juniors/has a good dynamic with them? I was thinking something close to what’s written in the “hills and rivers” series (and every single one where they will throw down to defend him no questions asked). Thank you! @thwispsings

Joy In the Midst of These Things series by Glitterbombshell (T, 53k, wangxian, post-canon, hurt/comfort, angst w/ happy ending, fluff, teacher WWX, trauma & recovery)

Proximity To Knowledge by ChilianXianzi (T, 7k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Married Wangxian, Chief Cultivator LWJ, Teacher WWX, Inventor WWX, And his research assistant Lan ducklings, LQR is not a good educator, the kids are alright, WWX did online learning before it was cool)

bespoke by cafecliche (G, 3k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Fluff, basically I worked in both politics and event-planning and this is what happened, LSZ is a very good boy, which is specifically a tag for the fic but also just true in general)

~*~

5. In the next available itmf post, could you/the community rec any fics where wwx is involved with activism? particularly if the fic highlights the hard and sometimes dangerous sides of the work. (I have vague memories of a few where it was LWJ who was involved, but I'm particularly interested in wwx for this request.) @balleyboley

like, comment, share & subscribe by detectorist (T, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, YouTube, Social Media, Flirting, Humour, Banter, Getting Together, First Kiss, Texting, so much texting, Youtubers For Social Justice, The Gang Gets Political, Competitive Flirting Via The Medium Of Youtube, it’s about the yearning, YouTube Rivals To Lovers) I'm not sure if this is what request 5 has in mind but these modern AUs have some element of WY being an activist

These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou (E, 30k, wangxian, Modern, Kid Fic, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death, Injury, Natural Disasters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Accidents)

Keep Track of Losing Days by giraffeter (T, 74k, WangXian, NieLan, Modern AU, Case Fic, Police, Missing Persons, Getting Together, Flashbacks, Detective LWJ, antifa WWX, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sharing a Bed, First Meetings, Seattle, Mutual Pining, nonfatal car accident, mafia wens, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers)

Heat It Up! with Wei Ying by justpeace (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, coworkers to dating, Getting Together, Chinese Food, racism that largely happens offscreen, workplace racism, toxic workplace environment, Workplace Relationship, food as a metaphor for racism, Humor, Happy Ending, Angst and Humor, food as a metaphor for flirting, References to Drugs, Alcohol, Asian-American Character)

~*~

6. Hi ! This is an I’m in the mood for: I’m looking for a really good long and passionate Friends to lovers🩷 @red-spacekitten

See all this and more for just ten dollars a month! Series by ScarlettStorm (E, 382k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Pining, Porn, like in the writing and also as a plot point, onlyfans au, repressed lwj, sex worker wwx, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, hornt™, mental health, therapy is good actually, Nonbinary NHS, Gender Exploration, Hurt/Comfort, past trauma, genderfluid wwx)

~*~

7. hello! for the next in a mood for could i please get fics that have a similar vibe to “lynchpin” by shanastoryteller when it comes to yunmeg bros relationship, please??

🔒 to arrive late is better than not to arrive at all by Moominmammashandbag (M, 35k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, JYL & WWX & JC, JC & LWJ, Angst with a Happy Ending, Soulmates, Chronic Illness, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Hanahaki Disease, but as a curse, LWJ says fuck, Feelings Realization, obsession with interior design, JGY is bad, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Family Angst, sibling angst, LXC says fuck, He's very stressed, soft, Wedding, LQR was in love once too, Motion Sickness, sect politics, Marriage Proposal, YZY had reason to be angry, JFM feels guilty and so he should, Madam Lan was imprisoned for no reason)

~*~

8. haai! for the next in a mood for could i please request fics where jin guangyao feels the weight of comeuppance? like actually has to deal with the consequences of his actions instead of just dying outright. thank uuu UwU

~*~

9. Hello I hope you are wellI would like to ask you if you could help me find fanfic where Lan Wangji is the one who travels back in time to fix everything or where Lan Wangji Furuto travels to the world of Mo Dao Zu Shi, the genre could be Wangxian or Xianwang Could you please do me a big favor and thank you, I love your work. @alfithia

A Matter of Time series by mrcformoso (E, 84k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, graphic depictions of violence, underage, LWJ pov, JC pov, dark LWJ, manipulation, grooming, teen body adult mind for LWJ, happy ending for wangxian, problematic consensual underage sex, blood & violence, insane LWJ, manic LWJ) Not so much LWJ time travel fix everything more LWJ time travel break things in a different way that benefits WWX

the cycle of regret by KouriArashi (T, 14k, WangXian, Groundhog Day, Fix-It, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Alternate Canon) LWJ time loop

A Narrow Bridge by FrameofMind, Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle) (E, 700k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, slow burn, getting together, first time, pining, pining while fucking, burial mounds settlement days, angst w happy ending)

The Wild Geese’s Tomb by The Feels Whale (miscellea) (T, 66k, wangxian, time travel fix-it)

I Have Arranged to Tie You to Me by xxxMiaHikarixxx (G, 51k, WIP, WangXian, Lan protective team, Time Travel, Past, LWJ oriented, Arranged Marriage, Boys In Love, Soulmates, Fix-It, Jiang siblings, not jiang parents friendly, Soft LWJ, Protective LWJ, Genius WWX)

The Dreams of Youth by sami (E, 86k, wangxian, time travel, fix-it, family, not lan sect friendly, canon typical violence & gore, childhood friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, mothers who live, some people live/not everyone dies)

~*~

10. Itmf lwj protects wwx’s virtue… “only I can look at him” vibes; jealous, protective, and chivalrous lwj.

A Baby Dragon's Guide To Seducing Your Huli Jing by sweetlolixo (M, 102k, wangxian, fantasy au, dragon LWJ, fox WWX, younger LWJ, older WWX, fluff, humor, happy ending) if the person doesn't mind AUs, then A Baby Dragon's Guide To Seducing Your Huli Jing is the penultimate story for protecting Wei Ying's virtue.

~*~

11. ITMF war fics. Like actual real war. Not like how people potray sun shot campaign, but war like WW1 WW2. If it could be modern , I would love it. But canon era will work too. Thankyou.

~*~

12. this is for itmf!

does anyone know any good Xicheng fics?

(I've already read Audience of One by WinterDreams !!)

~*~

13. hiii thank you so much for all the work that u do! ive been reading every recs for a week now >< that said, do u have any fics where wangxian are kids and are being there most adorable selves? i've been in the mood for baby wangxian and fluff lately. Thanks again!!

🔒 If You are with Me | End Racism in OTW by Starkalways1 (G, 5k, wangxian, Babyji and Babyxian story)

藍色的花，紅色的蘭 {Lan se de hua, hongse de lan} by Admiranda, AshayaTReldai (M, 45k, WangXian, Orphan WWX, Childhood Friends to Lovers, wwx raised in the lan clan, softer lqr, Good Uncle LQR, Good lan clan, Good Older Sibling LXC)

🔒 Hope series by RoseThorne (M, 59k, wangxian, WIP, Transmigration, Time Travel Fix-It, Illnesses, Family, Scars, Memory Loss, Angst, Crying, Music, Nosebleed, Fear, Recovery, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed, Flirting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Good Parent YZY, Referenced Sexual Slavery, Blood and Gore, Monsters, Sexual Tension, betrothal, Arranged Marriage, Adoption, POV Third Person, POV Alternating, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Good Parent LQR, Clairvoyance, Butterfly Effect, Kid Fic, Epistolary, Food, Secrets, Resentful Energy, Cultivation Sect Politics, Character Death, Resentment, Anger, Explosions, Yīn Iron, Grief/Mourning, POV WWX)

~*~

14. Itmf war fics. Relationship or marriage in between war?

Not That Great a Sacrifice by Winglesss (E, 37k, wangxian, historical fantasy au, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, elemental magic, pining, UST, forbidden love, miscommunication, weddings, fluff & humor, light angst w/ happy ending)

tie a knife with a ribbon by iliacquer (E, 5k, wangxian, Dubious Consent, Bottom LWJ, YLLZ WWX, D/s, Rimming, Frottage, a lot of smut, a sprinkling of plot for flavour, war prize LWJ)

Conquering the Emperor by catbrainedschemes (E, 21k, wangxian, Historical AU, Imperial China, Emperor WWX, General LWJ, Mutual Pining, Idiots in Love, Historically Inaccurate, Misunderstandings, Fluff, Eventual Smut, Light Angst, Non-Graphic Violence, Getting Together, Sexual Tension, Some Plot, Slow Burn, Happy Ending)

what price is duty, what cost is love by thunderwear (G, 18k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, WWX was never adopted by the Jiang Sect, War Prize, YLLZ WWX, Mutual Pining, First Kiss, First Time, Falling In Love, eventual dramatic confessions, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending)

~*~

15. thanks for the hard work admins! any fics where lwj falls in love with wwx at first sight? thanksss❤️

smoke gets in your eyes by orphan_account (T, <1k, wangxian, WIP, F/F, Modern, Chef WWX) very short but very cute crush forming, wlw wangxian

~*~

16. Itmf good madam yu fics.

A) she's always been good.

B) she grows good as fic progresses.

C) she's like - "yeah that is a nuisance gremlin, but you see that's MY nuisance gremlin " - for wwx @constellationdks

16B)

🔒❤️ the thing with feathers by RoseThorne  (G, 43k,wangxian, Transmigration, Time Travel Fix-It, Illnesses, Family, Scars, Memory Loss, Angst, Fear, Recovery, Sharing a Bed, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Good Parent YZY, Referenced Sexual Slavery, Blood and Gore, Sexual Tension, Arranged Marriage, Grief, Adoption, POV Third Person, POV Alternating, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Good Parent LQR, Clairvoyance, Butterfly Effect)

16C)

我的皇后是農民 | sowing seeds in the cold palace by sweetlolixo (E, 78k, WangXian, Imperial Palace, Emperor LWJ, Imperial Consort WWX, Farmer WWX, Only WWX Could Have an Empress to Farmer Pipeline, Angst, Romance, Wingman LJY, Wife-chasing-LWJ, LWJ will grovel to the ends of the earth to make it up to WWX don’t worry, Arranged Marriage, Best Boy A-Yuan, not LWJ friendly)

🧡 Heaven Has No Rage by flipfloppandas (M, 51k, WWX & YZY, JFM/YZY,  implied wangxian, WWX/WC, WWX/others, rape/non-con, modern, hurt/comfort, protective YZY, good parent YZY, hospitals, medical procedures, vomiting, trauma) It’s a moderne AU I liked it a lot it’s a YZY pov but it is very hard to read (READ THE TAGS)

~*~

17. Hi! 🤗

Looking for the other fic, make me want to read more fics about WWX having his own sect. I really think WWX would be a great sect leader. So this is an ask for ITMF. ☺️ Thanks again for everything! 💕 @wangxiansgirl

I think there is a yiling Wei sect compilation on this blog!

🔒 a star called sun by thelastdboy (E, 120k, wangxian, SL/XXC, JC & JYL & WWX, JYL & LWJ, WWX & WN & WQ, JYL/JZX, Canon Divergence after Xuanwu Cave, Fall of Lotus Pier, But worse!, Power Imbalance, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Not Everyone Dies AU, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, Sunshot Campaign, Miscommunication, Heavy Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Major Character Injury, Loss of Limbs, Chronic Illness, Seizures, WWX's Three Months in the Burial Mounds, Wēn Remnants Live, Wēn Remnants Deserve Better, WWX Creates a Sect | Yílíng Wèi Sect, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Hurt/Comfort, Selectively Mute LWJ, Service Animals, Crows)

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[miimo96]

Thoughts on My Adventures with Superman S2 episode 7

This was really the Best thing to happen to Waller, She already hates Superman as it is and has been trying to find a reason for Exterminatie him all season, So to have with Kara show up and Destroy the city last week, this was literally the perfect opportunity for her to label Superman and his kind as threats, and get to finally carry out her plan; but by initiating this H.D.C. program thing She isn't really making herself look all that good either, having giant mechanized robots Patrol the city and labeling it as "Protection" Isn't actually protection, and is giving off more of a Fear rather than Safety vibe, also are we Not going to talk about how she literally "silenced" that guy for trying to Expose her, like she really wants people to believe that Superman is a problem and is willing to go through Disturbung lengths to keep it that way, She really is effing crazy no matter what adaptation she's in

Alight Jimmy olsen is Officily the Best character in this series, not only did he literally just waste his entire Bank account in order to Save his best friend, without hesitation mind you, but he also was able to completely talk lois out of trying to Kill kara, which in my opinion would have ended horribly for her, also the fact that lois was even able to think like that, felt like she was sounding more like her Father; Also *Gasps* what's this, Livewire and Heatwave are a THING!? ^w^

I find it so funny that after traveling the multiverse and nearly almost dying to another version of themselves, they just act like nothing happen and casually decide to have brunch in the park with Jimmy afterwards like what do you think Jimmy's reaction was to that, probably something along the lines of "wow, must've been some hell of a Honeymoon huh" 😅

Livewire: "if something goes wrong, we switch to plan B" Lois: "And what's plan B?"

PLAN B: *CHAOS*🤣🤣🤣

I totally love the Take on Livewire for this series, while people Normally compare her to be Basically like Superman's version of Electro, she really feels me more like his version of Shocker in my opinion, for example instead of her using her powers to Simply cause chaos and Destroy superman, she instead uses them to Rob banks and take on odd jobs for people, kinda like how shocker does in both the Spiderman series and games, not mention her feelings towards super heroes is more align with Shocker view of Spiderman, where as Electro is unstable and Just Wants to Kill Spider man, Livewire is completely the opposite when it comes to facing Superman, and would prefer avoiding him in general, similar to how shocker is about spider man, while They don't necessarily HATE their Hero, they just find them really Annoying to deal with, she isn't a Super Villain in this Show, just more of a Petty thief, also her motivation is completely 1 to 1 with Shockers, with both of their main goal being to simply gain wealth and live a comfortable life; Also can we all agree that her powers in this show are really Freaking cool, Not only can she generate and summon lighting at will, but she can also create a force field, turn herself into freaking electricity, and give herself the ability to effing Fly, like she's seriously OP, and she chooses to rob banks

Ok Is it me or is lois completely dense because WHAAAT!? What'd you mean you were afraid that he would leave you, I mean sure I get that you have abandonment issues considering the relationship between you and your father, but c'mon the guy has literaly been right by your side since Episode 1 and was afraid that YOU would leave HIM instead when you found out who he was, Saying that the reason you broke up with him was because you got scared and thought he wasn't gonna Love you back is Freaking understatement because if you don't call him literally complimenting you every chance he gets Day in day out, treating you the way he does and how he was even ready to Stand up to your dad when he was treating you like a little kid again Love, then idk what is to you, *sigh* but I'm glad she realized her mistake is ready to get back with him after this is done

Also ladies and gentlemen we have our New Power couple, and They're so cute Omg!! >_<

Ok I'm officially dub this Ship as "WaveWire" fight me

I really don't enjoy the rivalry between Lex and Slade, like I get that he's still young and therefore isn't the Slade we all know from the comics, but c'mon he shouldn't really come off as more of like a dick in this Series, like I hate how smug he is and how he is always trying to please waller every chance he gets, like you're telling me that that this the Guy who took defeated the Teen titans, was the main Villain for ARROW, and was truly a force to be reckoned with!? Like this Isn't Deathstroke he should be more badass instead of always trying play the rules, he needs to be more Cool and shouldn't really care about Waller at all, he shouldn't feel like some lap dog who is desperate for attention, I see what they're doing by having Luthor slowly being his replacement, but in my opinion it's just Not how I usually View this character, as much as i love to give this series praise, Slade is the only thing I really don't like about it

JIMMY x KARA!!! ^_^ I hope we get to see these 2 together by the end of this season, Now that Jimmy is in the mix I feel like we'll be more or less seeing the relationship unfold between Jimmy and Kara Next episode, maybe even get to see an Argument between lois and Kara

Apart of me kinda wonders if These shots are ment to represent the viewers seeing the perspective of Kara from Jimmy and lois, with the last episode being from Jimmy's perspective, seeing a girl who is misunderstood and mistreated by her father, Someone who is just looking for their place in the world, unaware that they're being manipulated by a Machine Who just want's to use her as a weapon, while in this episode we get to see her from the perspective of lois, Seeing the person who kidnapped her boyfriend and tried to conquer the planet, I hope this really is the case because if so that's freaking Genius, I can't wait to see what they have in store for us Next episode (also I'm sorry but without the Cape, Kara's suit just looks boring to me, the cape really brang it together balancing out All the black with the red)

[blood-orange-juice]

I was scrolling through your posts and. Would you like to elaborate on the 'Childe's path is finality' because I am going crazy with the implication of it GDXHNDHCKDLD

(necroreply)

I don't think any Genshin phenomena fully map on Honkai paths! So there's no real connection

but there's some cross-pollination of themes, since they reuse assets and perhaps some writers work on both teams. for example, I wonder if Cryo might end up similar to HSR Remembrance

so the only thing I'm going with is that Childe's story and the things he says remind me of Destruction, Nihility and Remembrance at the same time and the same goes for what Elegy says (the main character can even ask whether she follows those paths, although I think there's also an Elation reference)

also... The Aeon of Finality moves backwards in time and is related to prophecies. Childe has some hints at time/fate distortion, for example, his TCG ability card says "a reckless but precise blow" and I'm going insane over it. maybe it's just a description of mastery but also maybe the blow is precise because it's predetermined to land in a certain way no matter how exactly he performs it (maybe that's his art). also his insistence on having a final battle with us and the prophecy in Foul Legacy archive page. he knows something about how this world ends.

also the token we get after defeating the whale says something about the world dying and being reborn and the importance of memories for it (so do Remembrance followers and Elegy). also it's an apocalyptic whale in general.

(these could all be explained by something else, they are all weak arguments)

also, idk... what would force a gentle and poetic boy to turn into something that we see now. maybe it was only his ego and the desire for greatness and nothing more and he has never really been gentle. maybe he got influenced by the whale against his will. maybe he saw something apocalyptic and wants to stop it. who knows.

and the dubstep-ish sound effects in the current Apocalyptic Shadow sound a bit familiar. as a cherry on top.

there's also something about memories about life-and-death battles being important in the description

it's all not very serious and I don't think we should make assumptions about Genshin plot based on that. but if I wrote a Childe expy he would be a Finality follower.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

Can you recommend me some good fics where Barry Allen gets kidnapped :) since in one of your tags you said you read a lot of them lol

I read them, I write them, I live and breathe them. Absolutely anon, allow me to dive into my bookmarks.

Just a reminder, always be sure to check the tags and warnings to know what you're getting into. Stay safe out there folks!

Juncture by @pennflinn may be my favorite fic of all time. Technically he gets kidnapped before the story's events but that's because it's an alternate ending to Escape from Earth-2 (and he is held captive for pretty much the entire fic so). The whump is SUPREME and the overall story is so well written. I will always recommend this fic.

One Second by pennflinn. Another one by penn because she is an incredible writer and HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS FIC!! It takes my favorite premise for a fic "What if Barry was kidnapped in this scene/episode when he wasn't in canon!" and brings it to a WHOLE nother level. This one is diverges from 1x14 "Fallout" where, instead of everyone getting away semi-safely, Eiling kidnaps Barry and whump ensures. BUT there's another twist to this fic that (in my opinion) makes it stand out from many others-- every once in a while, there's a glimpse of a parallel universe where the events were different and let's just say some of those universes h u r t. Also, I wanted to kill Eiling so bad after reading this that I wrote a ficlet with the sole purpose of murdering him :) Anyways, go read; it's amazing.

Miles Through The Night by @hedgiwithapen. First off, this is an everyone whump fic, Barry is not the only one who is kidnapped but 1. IT HURTS GODS IT HURTS SO BAD I'M DYING. 2. The writing is spectacular, all the characters are super well done, and the story is INTENSE I'M STILL DYING SORRY I'LL STOP NOW. In this one-- actually nvm, the actual summary will do it justice. "With Eobard Thawne dead, life in Central City can go back to normalish. But Barry’s greatest enemy is not a speedster from the future fixated on him, and Eobard’s threat may have been the only thing keeping Team Flash safe from someone who doesn’t consider any meta to be human." THAT'S RIGHT-- AN EILING FIC! Just. Go read it, it's so good and I'm dying.

Lightning Bug by Hedgi. The writing in this was SUPERB and Eiling is a fucking bastard as always (count your days general.). And this time we have another speedster in the mix-- a toddler Wally! Ngl, I just reread this while getting the link and it was SO GOOD-- and once again my words can't seem to do it justice so I'll leave you with the summary "Months after the defeat of Zoom, Barry's main concern (aside from the odd metahuman attack) is helping Joe and Iris raise the four and a half year old Speedster Wally West, Cisco-named "Lightning Bug." And while that's hard, it's nice to have this speedster as family, not an enemy. Things are pretty easy.

Unfortunately, that doesn't last. After all, General Eiling's deal was only good for as long as their mutual enemies were still a threat." Eiling needs to die in a ditch as you can see, but there's some really sweet whump in this and it's because of him soooooo-- anyways, go read; it was fantastic.

Can’t Take That Away From Me by SophiaCatherine (or @sophiainspace on here). DUDE. DUDE DUDE DUDE-- I LOVE THIS FIC. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS FIC. EVen once the whump passes, the A N G S T is so delicious! From the beginning of the first chapter alone; you'll see the sweet whump AND angst this fic has in store. Oh, and it's Coldflash which I somehow forgot to mention even though that's a foundation of the entire fic lmao. I love it, go read. Also, there is a sequel but it's not Barry being whumped this time... double also; there's a prequel and it's really sweet (no whump in that one fyi)

I Never Told Him by messedupstargazer. I am SCREAMING. THIS. FIC. Fyi, it's Coldflash. SO MUCH ANGST THE WHUMP-- IT'S SO GOOD I HAVE NO WORDS. DYING DYING DYING I AM DEAD I HAVE PERISHED.

Looking through all of these at once has filled me with many emotions and I apologize if some parts were incoherent. I'm probably missing a few and may add more as I find them but for now I'll finish with these two I wrote.

12 hours Barry's kidnapped before the events of the story but I think it still counts. He's trapped in Zoom's lair and forced to run for twelve hours every day :)

Trophy this is my beloved and the entire fic is a Barry whump fest (and angst. a lot of angst.). (or will be, There's one chapter posted atm) Technically we haven't seen the kidnapping yet but in the first scene he is in a cell so. Premise is that Zoom wins in the season 2 finale and everything goes to hell from there. I do feel obligated to warn though that there's not a happy ending for this one.

Thanks for asking! I'm always eager to share Barry whump! :D

[foibles-fables]

I've been following you for the Horizon content, and it's been very fun to see it. And I've recently finished HFW, and honestly... I can't help but feel underwhelmed and disappointed with the story.

I loved the world building, character interactions and themes in general, as I truly felt involved with HFW, but like... I just can't bother to like, care, or feel involved with the Zenith storyline.

They were supposed to be the main force to drive the story to the final game... and yet, they had so little screen time on a very impressive world, Beta ended up playing a minor role compared to the whole world and had a sudden change on trusting Aloy after just seeing Rost, and Tilda played a huge exposition role, shoehorning all depth of them in the last hours, which I found to be rather overwhelming and even easy to forget after Varl died on GEMINI.

And the final mission just didn't do much to make them compelling. Like... as I was charging through the base and hearing them ramble about their superiority, Zo killed the sadist idiot, Tilda suddenly revealing Nemesis, and the final monologue from Aloy... I was just reactionless, because I didn't feel any sort of involvement with that storyline to make me hyped.

It felt like I was fighting an enemy just for the sake of fighting it. Which is something I didn't feel with Helis and the Eclipse on my first playthrough of HZD.

I really wanted to love HFW and be excited for Aloy's follow-up adventure... but I guess I just can't with this.

I know I'm rambling and complaining a lot, but as a huge fan of Aloy and Horizon (in general), I can't help but point this out to someone.

You might be surprised to hear that many share your reservations about the narrative of HFW, myself very much included.

Over two years later it's still kind of shocking how much the story--including the implementation of the Zeniths--hamstrung what HZD had naturally built HFW to address. Sometimes it feels like the team forgot how to pace? Bringing back GAIA in the first act was...a true ??? to me. The turning point of Aloy and Beta's relationship was, IMO, incredibly unearned, and I concur entirely about both Varl (as well as the player reaction to it, filtered through Aloy's reaction) and the final mission/fight.

I also know that others feel that Tilda's Nemesis reveal kind of stole the fun out of speculation for H3. With where HFW (and BS, re: Londra's data and other threads) left the story, I'm finding myself just not inclined or enthusiastic to think in-depth about what could plausibly be coming next, beyond what actually bridges back to HZD (Elysium and VAST SILVER, namely). HFW itself left no new mysteries to carry forward.

Consider, however, if the Zeniths and Beta had been saved for the final chapter. That, IMO, would have made for a much more compelling hook into H3. Reveal them in a post-credits stinger after Aloy succeeds at stabilizing the biosphere and finally restoring GAIA as an endgame task. Instead of some...questionably-motived space spaghetti Bigger Fish, we'd have an actual full-circle existential threat.

It really seems like a compelling storyline for HFW and beyond was spelled out right there in GAIA's dying plea from HZD, and then just...sidestepped into what we actually received.

This is all to say, nonny, you're absolutely not alone and I think many folks who were head over heels for HZD were underwhelmed by what was presented in HFW. Like you, I still adore the world and the characters--but there was a lot that very disappointingly fell flat otherwise. Here's hoping it was just a sophomore slump, second-installment weirdness, and H3 falls back into the stride that the first installment set up.

[snailfen]

not that anon but who's your favorite sluggy

so i never played the original MSC, but originally my favorite was the saint. i loved the idea of being able to just Leave situations and have a grappling tongue at all times as a newbie. i really struggled with platforming and survival back then, so i really liked them. fuck losing all karma upon dying, i could just Leave!

out of the vanilla scugs, monk was also my favorite back then. i REALLY hated the lore removal, but my gaming skills were already just Piss Poor in general so rain world was almost nigh impossible at first. also i liked being friends with lizards and scavs and i couldnt bring myself to attack scavs back then.

so, between then and now, my favorites have changed. between the MSC slugcats...

this is one of those few times i can answer from Every Possible Aspect of the candidate, like gameplay, campaign plot, etc. Which is really cool! when MSC dropped, Riv was the one  I played first using the "unlock all campaigns" cheat. I REALLY wanted to play saint first, but knowing from the start that the slugcats were ranked by difficulty and saint was locked behind 2 slugcats as opposed to 1, I curbed that urge and went for Riv since they were my second favorite.

now, their super exaggerated movement was hard to get a handle on, i will admit- but i hadn't played this game in a long time so i was just rusty on top of that. but i can confidently say im used to them! i love using their abilities to see just what i can do. there was a time i was playing with a randomizer and it was really fun having to adapt to each new situation like an opportunist. i wish i recorded it! but riv really helped me get over my hesitance when i was faced with predators, which was a bad habit I'd had for a long time.

campaign gameplay tested my lay of the land as well; especially by starting out in drainage system. i practically never set foot in drainage system back in the day, so i didnt know where in the world to head. I luckily detected the garbage wastes gate like, right away. trying to navigate the parts of the game more beaten off the main path of vanilla was difficult but fun! having only so much time to get from place to place was a fun challenge. then, after getting the rarefraction cell, trying to see how far i could go in 1 cycle was even greater.

now the plot is really where riv got me for sure.

looks to the moon has been a favorite character of mine for years. i never really stopped thinking about what happened between her and pebbles; every few months or so i would think about it. just how... hopeless things were for moon. It really made me sad. i think i speak for a lot of people when i say i wished that i could help her in some way. but the only thing i could do is bring her neurons, really. i never really made sense of pebbles side of the deal, like i knew what was going on with him and i felt bad, but it never really hit me how horrible things were for him. it all just felt so... tragic, yknow? that things ended up the way they did for the two of them.

exploring their superstructures was an experience. i originally planned to go to pebbles through shaded citadel after visiting moon on my first playthrough, but plans changed when i considered dealing with memory crypts, and the leg, AND underhang with my cycle limit (i had already sort of guessed that riv was after monks point in the timeline, but i didn't know that those areas got worse for riv so i was just thinking in terms of vanilla) so i went through the wall.

I kinda wish I saw at least memory crypts, but thats ok because the low gravity in the normally zero-gravity access shaft, plus the proto dll at the end, told me everything I needed to know before facing Pebbles chamber. Floating through his decayed structures... it hurt. I remember my first encounter with him in vanilla felt just a word away from being downright incomprehensible. he really came off as some god I couldn't percieve. but now, seeing the walls corroded by nothing but Rot, only small parts I actually recognized just barely peeking out amongst the decay, I just couldn't look. I felt like... like my arteries were clogged just by seeing his condition. Hearing him listen to Halcyon Memories, a favorite (previously) unused track of mine created a special kind of somber that I will Never re-experience.

Then, Moon's structure. This one is special. I got suuuper lost in here, but im glad I did. Up until a certain point, I had been taking the scenery in with a kind of reverence you would have while walking around a graveyard. I wandered for a few cycles, and at some point, Random Fate started playing. I didn't recognize the bass line yet, but when I had stumbled into what I immediately recognized as Moon's Memory Conflux, the Sundown melody kicked in.

Recognizing both things at once, I got all... like, choked up. Like... I'm finally helping Moon!  But... what about Pebbles? Why can't I help him? ...And like, I knew why; he brought this fate upon them both. But that didn't make it hurt any less. He asked me to do the only thing he wanted: to give all he had to redeem what he did. So in the end, this was all I could do to help him; in the same way that this was all Pebbles could do to make up for what he did to Moon.

Don't get me started on the ending. Seeing Moon restored to even a fraction of what once was had me so happy! It was exhilarating to say the least. But I was tearing up on the edge of my seat when she reached out to Pebbles. Watching the messages roll in slowly, seeing what she had to say, all the while praying that Pebbles could hear her.

Seeing Moon call herself Pebbles big sister is what broke the dam. From what I saw back in the day, people usually skirted that title of hers when it came to Pebbles, or never really acknowledged it. Even I did, for some time. But it never made sense to do that! Moon and Pebbles would never feel such anger, betrayal, or regret over everything that had happened if they weren't very close. I found it very important that that's who Moon was to him. Not just a great friend, but a big sister. I'm so glad the MSCteam felt that was important as well.

Speaking of which, seeing the names of community members and fans that I recognized in the credits got me sobbing again when I thought I was done. This expansion was a loveletter to the game from the fans, brought in officially by the actual developers. The Rivulet campaign especially enforced that feeling of love for the game- by having compassion for the tragedy two iterators and finally helping them reconcile.

I finally felt satisfied, not only because I was able to help Moon- but because I had also realized the tragic life that Pebbles had led. Those two things had never really left my mind.

anyways WOOOOO that was a lot of rambling. hope you enjoyed......

[shepherds-of-haven]

Hi Lena! I hope your week has been pleasant thus far!

I’m not sure if this question has already been asked yet, but what kind of characters would the ROs be in a horror movie? Like, who’s the cynical character that doesn’t believe the monster is real, the cocky guy who is all like “yeah I can beat this idiot no problem”, the “survivor” character that shows up later in the movie to help the main cast, etc.

Sorry if this question doesn’t really make any sense, feel free to ignore this is you want! 😅

Hi there, I sort of answered this question in various different ways--I'd recommend checking out the Halloween horror masterpost, which has a few different horror AUs!--but I didn't really specify what "tropes" the characters might fall into, so here goes!

Blade: I'd think he's the leader character who tries to give everyone the best chances of survival by directing them to defend themselves and makes you feel safe with his presence (you know, like the older brother who was in the military or the super strong athlete boyfriend or the hyper-competent neighbor with a mysterious set of skills or what have you), but then he has to leave the group because he stands the best chance of getting help (thus removing the comfort of his presence and rocketing up the anxiety of the film); he probably gets "killed" by the killer in a jumpscare and is knocked out and left for dead for most of the movie, then shows up all bloodied to stab the killer in the back at the last minute when the audience thought he was dead! So he survives, but he's pretty heavily injured and the rest of the group has to help him make it out

Trouble: he's full of confident bravado, like "you know what? *grabs kitchen knife* fuck this guy, I can take him! he can't get all of us!!" *immediately gets killed* or *power goes out* *in an effort to reassure the group* "don't worry guys, I'll go out there by myself to check the circuit box, nothing could go wrong!" Or he's the guy who "sacrifices" himself so the rest of the group can get away, potentially with the surprise ending of coming back with the police to arrest the killer and finding him alive after all! So he has a very low chance of survival, but he might live depending on how things shake out!

Tallys: she has final girl energy for sure, she's the one hearing Trouble offering to go outside in the storm alone and is savvy enough to be like "mm-mm. nope. we're not doing that. not today!" She's the one who doesn't seem like she's doing much throughout the movie as all the people are getting picked off, but then you see her doing really clever things like rigging booby traps or hiding under a bed so she can stab the killer in a foot or something crazy like that. Her self-preservation instincts and cunning definitely means she's going to make it through to the end: whether she's the lone survivor or if her skills guided the group to safety after Blade and Trouble got taken out just depends on what type of movie we're watching, lol!

Shery: sadly, she has helpless victim energy where she's so terrified and unskilled that someone (like Trouble) might first die defending her, making the audience frustrated, and then she might end up dying as well! Or she might end up just hiding away somewhere, not able to contribute but not dying, either! ...But yeah, she has sweet, innocent, sacrificial lamb energy, so she might die just to show the audience how wicked the villain truly is 😭

Riel: he's the skeptic of the group, he's the one who refuses to believe that anything supernatural is going on, he's the logician who flatly says, "this can't be happening. there has to be some other explanation." I feel like those types of people generally die in horror movies, so he's probably dead, but if we're not going by horror movie rules, he's probably smart enough to outwit the killer/supernatural threat if he can break through his own disbelief and actually start scheming against it! If it's like a monster or something like that, he stands a good chance, but if it's a demon or a ghost, he's probably dead 😵

Chase: he's the comic relief, he's the one keeping the morale group high, he's the clown who seems largely unfazed by what's happening but is skilled and capable enough to help defend the group. I feel like those types stand a solid 50/50 chance in most horror movies, where if they're minor characters, they'll definitely die, but if they're major members of the cast, they end up being one of the heroes of the story because the audience is fond of and rooting for them. Given Chase's uncanny ability to survive most things life throws at him, however improbable, I think he's one of the last ones standing, kind of like in Cabin in the Woods!

Red: he's the source of information, the smart one who's providing everyone with the backstory/information/mythology of the killer/threat. The guy who's been researching local anthropology in the area and just happens to have extensive knowledge of "that one serial killer in the 80s who [insert backstory] here." He might lack the common sense or hard survival instincts of a Tallys or a Blade, but he stands a good chance of surviving so long as no one sends him off by himself! If he's caught out alone, he's 100% a goner 😔

Ayla: she has like "batshit final girl" energy, the member of the group who seems sullen and withdrawn at a party and strangers are like, "what's her deal?" and there's some backstory or implied allusion to her dark past where she survived being kidnapped by Jigsaw or her parents were killed by a serial killer or something like that, and you think it's all speculation until someone starts killing people off and she's already in the corner sticking nails in a bat or busting out the chainsaw saying grimly, "Not like this. Not again." She stands a very good chance of survival so long as her trauma doesn't make her act reckless and the killer doesn't outsmart her by digging a booby trap or something!

Briony: I feel like she either has badass final girl energy or the energy of someone who vastly underestimates her opponent, like I could see her taking charge after some of the others get taken out and is like, "Don't worry guys, I've taken tae kwon do for ten years!" and she just is like not really processing the level of depravity that is going on and just gets annihilated, or she's the one keeping the group together and like plows the killer down with a car in the chaos or something like that. If Shery causes anyone to die to protect her, though, it's definitely going to be her BFF Briony 😭

Lavinet: this is not who Lavinet is in real life, but in a horror movie AU I could definitely see her being cast as the pretty, popular, spoiled rich girl who gets gruesomely murdered first lol... realistically in her "real life" persona I definitely think she'd be a final girl, almost to the point of prioritizing her own survival over someone else's, but in horror movie trope standards I think she'd be the one making out with some random jock in the car outside before the killer pops up in the backseat and then you cut to the characters walking outside and finding the car on, idling, with the windows covered in blood 😭

Halek: he is absent/sleeps through the majority of the spooky stuff (or, like, he's the guy you see at the beginning of the movie who can't go on the trip to the haunted cabin because he has to work or some bullshit and you sort of forget he's a part of the cast but then he shows up to save the day at the end because he felt like something was off when no one was answering his text messages)! He's sort of baffled when everyone piles into his car screaming bloody murder and can't relate to their ✨ trauma ✨ but at least he saved them!

[the-s1lly-corner]

hii

I've seen you're taking creepypasta requests ? I really like your Zalgo's concept ! so..

can you drop some of your headcanons about him?? I'm really interested!!

stay safe!

Zalgo headcannons!

hihihihi i promise i saw you send this in a few hours after you asked this and i truly didnt mean to push writing this off for so long ive just been going through it (2 new interests have been kicking my ass for the past 7 or so weeks) but we're back !!

CAUTION these hcs are heavily centered around my concept!! i wasnt totally sure if you wanted these as romantic, so i decided to go down a middle road and just make it how interacting with the guy would probably go down + other ideas!! warning this is a lot of scattered rambling because my brain is all over the place and its 7am

the main thing that my take on zalgo and the main fandom interpretation have in common is the fat that theyre both powerful entities capable of causing mass destruction and chaos

however my zalgo exists more so as a... weird half concept half tangible entity if that makes sense? like he indirectly interacts with the world around him instead of going out and wrecking things himself; a close comparison i can think of is mother mabuka from fran bow but even then it seems she has more direct influence in that universe compared to zalgo... or maybe my interpretation of her is all whack too but eh

exists everywhere and nowhere at once, in my au he's responsible for the creation of the other creepypasta characters. for demon characters like slenderman or the rake he hand crafted them himself to cause torment. for characters like ben or eyeless jack he plants the seed to cause them to become what they were. for ben he allowed him to come back as an angry ghost, and for eyeless jack he made the curse that eventually infects the guy (although jack was just the unlucky host, zalgo had no specific target)

and keeping true to the original zalgo comic stuff, he can corrupt media in anyway he wishes, and perhaps implant subliminal messages or 'viruses' to infect more people? that second part is mostly a concept idea but i vibe with it

so how does one interact with a being that doesn't totally exist?

well

you dont

at least you cant initiate it; no if zalgo wants to be perceived by you he'll come to you, typically if you can offer something to him (usually the ability to cause issues for others, ie general creepypasta character criteria)

injecting this really quick but admin is really into the concept of certain characters/entities being just a simple part of nature, zalgo falls under this idea. he just exists because of the laws of the universe

is he capable of forming bonds? sure he definitely has some sort of favoritism towards certain creatures thanks to how effective they are, but like, what about emotional bonds?

probably not, if im being honest; like sure he can check in on you more often than his other agents of chaos, but that doesn't necessarily mean hes your friend

but lets pretend you somehow made friends with the omnipresent and almost omniscient birthplace of wrath and doom:

you cant touch him but he can touch you, kinda. it kinda feel like being wrapped around with a huge freeing cold and immensely heavy blanket when he decides to grace you with his presence

you know how when in adventure time, the lich makes the screen go dark (ex. the fall meme) i feel like itd be something like that

though ive never watched adventure time/never got too far into it SOBS i plan on changing that i promise

oh he is so so so clingy and he so truly hates your mortality

even in death he wont let you go, he'll probably forcefully bring you back, and by extension twisting you into something you weren't before

like this dude is genuinely not someone you want to fuck around with

even if you dont end up dying hes probably going to change you in some way at some point

on a lighter note hes the type to tear the world apart for you, both in the "i care about you as much as a creature like me can" and a "if you ever leave me im going to find you, i already know where you are because i have eyes everywhere"

like i dont like writing stuff that can dip into yandere territory but like. zalgo would do that kind of shit

bonus hcs, he doesnt really care how people perceive him.. because they cant, and even if he allows it he still doesnt care. wanna use any pronouns for him? he doesnt give a damn. see him as a god? as a devil? he doesnt care. truly could not give a shit what you think, he is unbothered

i feel my hcs for him have shifted a bit since i last brought him up in a post but i think

out of all the creepypastas, zalgo is the one i have with the most changing hcs

esp since in this au hes like. the reason everyone exists as they are, and why everything is going on; he is literally the reason all the bad things happened to everyone and hes responsible for the monster-type characters existence

okay thats all i apologize again if this is a mess i simply got. silly and im running off two hours of sleep and im scratching my brain trying to remember my ideas since i havent really thought of zalgo in 2 months (thanks to other brainrots SOBS)

[mapsofnonexistentplaces]

25 for end of year asks!

25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

GODDAMN DID I! came up with most of the ghosts in ccs this year and it was fun but i think i’m gonna soapbox a bit about the facsimiles because i haven’t really anywhere else….

these guys have technically existed in the narrative since last summer but i hadn’t really developed them nor designed them until like. literally this summer so about an entire year later. their whole deals just being sentient bits of code derived from the memories of two other existing characters. person who made them (marjolaine) has been experimenting with evolving human consciousness from raw code and the facsimiles endeavour was basically just another expression of that with the addendum of an animate human origin point

in the past i’ve like described these two as “new shoots of a plant growing from the same root of an established organism” because they both arise from younger incarnations of their bases and have like. basically fully split apart in ego despite maintaining the memories and foundation of them.

these two guys also just basically exist in the computer. which is also the sky of the entire world. don’t worry about it. but they don’t exist corporeally and can only really commune through a computer interface

frances on the right is a younger copy of marjolaine…. for context marjolaine used to be a prestigious opera singer who ended up straining her voice so heavily she retained permanent vocal strain that completely killed her career and also weakened her ability to consistently speak at all. frances was built from memories PRIOR to that as a way for marjolaine to relive her glory days but frances themself became like. very unimpressed with that responsibility and was much more interested in manipulating their own existence and partial omniscience (as a result of being expanded on with code) to just become a major gossip basically hehe. they love peoplewatching the living and coming up with absurd ‘theories’ and assumptions about their behaviours, making bets on things that will happen, peeking into potential ‘timelines’ for fun….

eventually though marjolaine grew extremely ornery with their waywardness, and started to pressure and berate them into fulfilling that desired snapshot of her own life. this placed a lot of stress on frances and they basically just shattered into code under it which. although not a permanent affliction is something that requires a prolonged period of recovery. and prior to ‘dying’ they basically vowed to never commune with marjolaine again so. that bridge is burnt. fucked up your clone real bad!

(also yes they’re named after that One Album. for no reason really)

sezim on the left derives from another guy (olzhas, who has many problems, such as being friends with marjolaine) who basically ‘donated’ eir own memories for this experiment only to like. very quickly regret it once it turned out sezim developed into kind of just. an embarrassing immature bratty version of emself from like 5 years back. he’s much more vexed about setting himself apart as a distinct individual than frances was, to the point that it’s what occupies his mind most…. his main pastime WAS hanging out with frances and testing the precise vastness of their knowledge, together, but once frances exploded and shit, seething about his general existence kind of took priority lol. he’s basically just got an entire thing of “i’m a terrifying being of great wisdom and power but i have to be tied to this random motherfucker that i hate and i wish i could shed all that influence off. and also i’m confined to a computer.” he sort of just ‘fled’ once frances exploded (which he’s EXTREMELY bitter about btw) and has formed an undying grudge against marjolaine, thus never contacting her again afterward….

these two have a weird role in the story where they’re kind of just setpieces for their bases’ story arcs. funnily enough. but they’ve got a bit of meta to them that i think is interesting…. mostly just embodying the idea of “here’s ‘people’ who both literally and figuratively sit ‘above’ the narrative and the traditional idea of being developed characters” by design they’re kind of just witnesses or, more aptly, critics of the main conflict of the story which is all about really convoluted and annoying interpersonal drama radiating out into more serious conflict. they kind of think it’s all stupid and avoidable and they are 100% right. but who’s going to listen to them! nobody’s really casting an ear to them since they’re so above it all to begin with….

or something like that. i like these two catty fucks

[catofadifferentcolor]

Assassin's Creed

We see the world as it really is, and hope that one day all mankind might see the same.

As I've been reading a lot about the Crusades recently, it seemed a natural progression to try playing Assassin's Creed for the first time since the franchise began a decade and a half ago.

This is a ridiculous decision, as anyone who knows me could say. I gave up on the game after an hour of play back in 2007 because of how nauseated I became just trying to get from place to place - to say nothing of the fact that, for a game that came out in the same year as the original Mass Effect, the graphics, controls, and world-building feel incredibly shallow considering how many games have followed.

Don't get me wrong, Assassin's Creed has excellent bones. The concept of genetic memory is something which you don't see often in mainstream sci-fi (the goa'uld of Stargate: SG-1 is the only other example I can think of off the top my head, though the Nietzschens of Andromeda with their genetic reincarnation are a close second), but the game made it just plausible enough sounding to work for the game, as are secret sects of Assassins and Templars.

And yet I find the game itself incredibly difficult to play - or did, for the first third of the game, before I broke down an found a good guide that explained to me everything I was missing. The running and jumping and climbing is fun, but finding anything - especially those memory flags - is nigh impossible without a ping/search mechanism, as is developing any mental map of an area without a physical map with everything useful marked to refer to. The pickpocketing mechanism took me a good half-hour to figure out successfully, and just entering the map for Acre got me noticed by the guards to such an extent it took me ten minutes to shake them. Twice. It took me until the end of memory block 5 to manage a single clean main target assassination, and that was more by luck than anything else.

To say nothing of the terrible horse ridding mechanics.

Or the shallowness of our nominal protagonist. (Though I'm willing to to contribute that to victim of kidnapping not giving his kidnappers anything to work with.)

Or the lack of captioning.

Or the game controls in general.

But the bones are there. It would have been very, very easy to turn a game about the Crusades into the standard pop culture offering of good versus evil, but by making it an issue of free will versus control the traditional Crusade narrative is turned on its head. I love how the dying declarations make it clear these men think they're doing good, and that Altair starts to question Al Mualim because of this - and that he gets to grow because of this, and eventually realize what Al Mualim has done to the Brotherhood. It's not your bog standard betrayal arc, but a become the very thing you sought to destroy, which is much harder to pull off well. And it does. The last two memory blocks make everything else worth it, and Altair's character development over the course of the game is real and believable and visceral in a way that's rare enough I can't think of the last time I've seen it.

And yet, I can't quite love the game. I'm not sure I'll ever replay this one, if only for the sheer frustration I've felt playing it this time. Even with the official guide leading me to each of the memory flags in later memory blocks, I'm still missing one or two for each place, and there are only so many times you can run through a city looking for something that blends into the the background before you give up. Additionally, the modern sections lack any clear objectives to the extent that it took me finding a guide to realize there were any, and each conversation with Lucy seems less potential ally and more if she spoon-feeds me one more piece of information, I'm going to gag. If she doesn't turn out to be a Templar mole, I'll buy a hat just to eat it.

In short, I can see why this game spawned such a successful franchise, but it needed about another 3 months in development to work out the kinks, give it some captioning, and redo the entire tutorial/first memory block. Maybe Ubisoft will one day do a remake, like Aspyr has promised for KOTOR, that Assassin's Creed will live up to its full potential... but until then, 3.5 stars and onto AC2.

[2x4plank]

TWDG S1 Character Opinions

At first, I was gonna do a ranking but I soon realized how fruitless that was as I enjoyed pretty much every main character in Season One and don't wanna do any injustice any character.

Lee - Literally who doesn't love Lee (except Larry). He is a rational, patient father figure who takes it upon himself to take care of Clementine. And to the end of his life, he keeps that purpose at the top of his mind, crossing a sea of dead and devising a way to get her out of Savannah safely. He also gets points for the open sesame joke ( and his great sense of humor in general), the way he raises his hand when questioned about his interest in civil war history, being a black protagonist, and so on and so forth.

He has the unsaid sadness of losing his family and not even the chance to lean on anybody because he doesn't want his past crime to be revealed. He has to perform a balancing act of keeping the group together through starvation and their arguments. He stacks the responsibility of a child ontop of that. 111111/10 character!

Clementine - She's literally my daughter. She's everybody's daughter--you adopt her the moment you see her. She's quiet at first but has streak of mischief and resilience. When you find out she's been led on by the stranger with her parents being the carrot on the stick, you realize that the disappearance of her parents affected her way more than what she let's on. She might seem "tough" (and to some degree she is), but she's also a child and we shouldn't expect her to just get over anything. I find the stranger leading Clementine away after stalking your group to be one of the stronger horror elements in TWDG and its an aspect I think about a lot.

As time goes on, we see Clementine grow up with Lee no longer around. The man who protected her will be replaced with adults who don't treat her like the child she is. She suffers from their incompetence and toxicity and is forced to make calls she shouldn't have to make. This constant reliance on her factors into her adoption of AJ, as not only have his parents died, but she wants to take care of him just as Lee took care of her, and sees herself as the most fit to do so.

Kenny - Oh goodness. He makes me feel confused, and not even when talking about his season two incarnation. I like him lots and lots. I hate him, sometimes, also. I feel confused. He has a very funny onscreen presence, but sometimes, quite an offensive one. I'm speaking from the place of someone who would be affected by his bigotry for a multitude of reasons.

Kenny starts as a cowardly man, but someone who is willing to run into the fray for those who are on his side. He comes back to save Lee and considers him a good friend. If you agree with his decision to kill Larry and protect everyone in the locker room, he'll work with Lee to kill Danny and grow even closer to him, making him one of your closest comrades and a ride or die once his family's gone. Being there for his family was one of the caveats that kept him from coming to the rescue, outside of general self preservation. I don't think if they were still around he would've jumped down for Christa.

Another big thing with Kenny is his explosive dogmatism. You need to agree with him and do it HIS way. If you don't, it's a whole argument. I love when he starts shit in Episode Three with Lilly and then he's like, "We can work this out! Everybody calm down." KENNY!!! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STARTS STUFF! YOU'RE THE AGITATOR!

Katjaa - I love her so much! I love her design, I love her voice, and I love the way she handles shit to the best of her ability. Not only is she willing to get sad and bloody (even before the apocalypse, being a vet and all), but her awesome bravery (is that the word I should use?) when she's holding onto Duck as he's dying. That is an incredibly painful thing to do but she remains so memorably steel-faced (like that expression she gives is seared into my brain), knowing that as a parent that she should provide Duck comfort in his last moments (UNLIKE KENNY, WHO CHICKENED OUT AT THIS POINT!) even though she has to be so close to his suffering.

She's often gentle but she can be stern when the time comes. 12/10 no notes!

Duck - Awh, he's adorable! I will never understand why people could hate this kid. He's literally just a busy body. I was personally on the other side of the spectrum, being pretty low-energy at that age, but I'm not gonna hate on the little guy. He didn't do anything wrong. I will always get a laugh at how no matter how explicit you were that they were all eating Mark that Duck will pause for only a second, look slightly confused, and then resume eating. It's so funny and I respect his disengagement with the situation at hand. He's perfect.

Carley- My favorite thing about Carley is the fact that she never dropped the reporter voice. She's locked in. She's one of the most "regular" people--and not in a bad way. She's kind, funny, and thoughtful. I don't know how she didn't figure out that there were no batteries in that radio, though. I like her lots and lots.

Doug - My experience with Doug was secondhand because one of my relatives picked him by accident. Poor Doug! Anyway, I like him a lot. He's very funny (I say that a lot don't I?) but he's got that reasonable bravery. He saves Carley and in his last moments, he protects Ben. Personally, I like Lilly shooting Carley on purpose better than accidentally shooting Ben but I think its something more interesting and scary for Ben to grapple with.

Glenn - For the short time we spent with him, he was incredibly funny. I liked him a lot and how he just always spoke his mind no matter the circumstances.

Lilly - OOH! OKAY! I LOVE LILLY!

She has obviously been treated like terribly by her dad despite how much love she has for him, and because she acts tough about it, she expects the same of others. The fact that Larry is so quick to tell her to "shut up" and that whole anecdote she tells in the fourth season does reflect something nasty about her home life. I didn't read much into the "he's probably gonna keep treating you like shit" line in reference to Larry and just thought it was funny because it's a weird thing but I soon realized that was her reaction and she just expected others to cope like she did.

Now, do I think Lilly's toughness is just a front? No. I do think she was actually tough, but too much is too much. Starvation, apocalypse management, and watching your dad be murdered while you're restrained/trying to revive him is pretty traumatizing--no matter how much of a dick Larry was. I don't think her anger, sadness, or general mental breakage lessens her toughness in the slightest, but her actions eventually run counter to morality (see: shooting Carley in the face).

Mark - lol this guy had it rough! He was introduced and eaten within the same episode. I like his smile when you offer him rations and his small jokes. He's one of the more average characters but 1) that is not a bad thing at all and 2) we don't get a lot of time with him. I really liked getting to know this guy before he got hammed.

Mr. Parker - Loved his jumpscare!

Travis - Talking all tough and he didn't even learn the rule of not tripping during the apocalypse. Better luck next time.

Ben - Jeez. I should have been nicer to this guy.

Starting out, Ben is very awkward and clumsy but that's to be expected of a high schooler. He fumbles and is not held in the kindest regard by the rest of the group, who seem to see him as incapable. He struggles to prove otherwise.

Yes, trading with the bandits was wrong, but there is a question of if his isolation from the group made the desire to have his friend back that much stronger rather than telling the group about the offer and seeing how they handled it or even if they would be concerned about his problems as a newcomer. Sure, Lee, Glenn, and Carley were willing to help that woman in the motel, but there are a lot more caveats to dealing with human enemies.

I love the shock of his initial confession and even though he picked the worst possible time to tell everyone else, the guilt of all those deaths would weigh on anybody and I don't think he was equipped to make the best decisions.

Looking back, dropping him was a terrible decision and I probably would have pulled him up if the zombies weren't so close. Maybe I was also a little jealous at how tall he was.

I'll pull him up next time. His death was also way more painful than expected and I do really believe he didn't deserve to die at all.

Andy - He's my favorite of the St. Johns which is a hard ground to clear. He is just so unapologetically evil it rounds back into comedy. Nothing is ever his fault and nothing he ever does is wrong. And he could've kept getting away with it if it wasn't for that meddling Georgia State professor.

Danny - He was so committed though! I heard they had some icky things planned for his character originally but I'm glad that it didn't make it into the game or canon because him being the "loyal dog" to cannibalism makes him a character you can love and hate. Also he talks to the cow.

Brenda - Literally all she wanted was to run her dairy, man. It's hard raising two kids and managing a farm. I love her voice and I would totally be eating like Duck because I know her barbecue was blue ribbon worthy.

She likely has the most conscious of the St. Johns which is...not a high bar but she seems to not want to be involved in the act of murder. She wants her hands clean and her men slow-cooked.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Joleeeene - Love her crossbow. Her story is horrifying but well told as an aside to the episode. I wish she got to see her daughter again because what happened there is terrible.

Bandits - Ew.

Chuck - I like him. I love his speech about "you're not boy, you're not a girl"--he said nb rights! But anyway, he popped in and died in like the next episode with his body discovered in like...the episode after that. Shame what happened to him but I like the time he had.

Christa - Tough but incredibly fair! I like her lots. I like how she was portraying herself as willing to walk away from the group but she's also willing to cut Lee's arm off for him after like...a day of knowing him. She was a rider.

It's hard to find the words to talk about her, but don't take that for disinterest.

Omid - Funny. I have said that a lot in this writing, but it is still true. He is very cushy and pleasant and definitely a well-placed bright spot after everything that happened in Episode Three.

Vernon - I love his name and his dry sense of humor. And also he got that devious lick in the end.

Okay, so I wouldn't give him flack for stealing the boat for his crew if not for the fact that he was leaving a child, or possibly two children, without any food.

I like the small taste of betrayal before the bigger one in S2.

Brie - I love this cheese. I like her design a lot too.

The Stranger - Bro this is why stranger danger PSAs are so important. GET OFF OF MYSPACE MAN! He was CREEPY and deranged and though I understand why somebody would think he came out of nowhere I do like his conclusion and think his part is very well done.

I think it was an extremely interesting thread of the story that I wouldn't expect in apocalypse media. To take a child away using means well known to us in current year. The parallel of a guardian who sought to protect her as soon as he met her to a man who had bad intentions as soon as he got the opportunity. Pretty good!

And also the bowling bag head reveal was hilarious. Way to respect your spouse.

[darkspace7]

[That Which Protects The Falling Rain] Pt.1

[A Sort of Synopsis, if you will]: Okay so the other day I was just faffing about and watching some videos discussing some of the Bleach Brave Soul character design choices as you do and then I got to thinking about how there were so few decently good fics featuring our good man Ishida and then that somehow led into wondering why there weren’t hardly any detailing the situations of how one would even come about to wear those alternate costumes in the first place and then that somehow devolved into contemplating time/dimension travel and fusion (as in literal fusion –not crossovers- although those are nice too…) fics and what-ifs involving rather creative semi-roll swaps and we all know that canon is basically just a suggestion at this point so anyway-

Here’s my-

“Through An Exceedingly Convoluted Series Of Events Spanning The Course Of About Roughly Two Weeks Uryū Ishida Gets Yeeted To An Alternate Timeline/Dimension Thing With An Imprint Of Ichigo Camping In His Soul As A Sort-Of Bastardized Zanpakutō And Now He Must Wage In Shadow Espionage Bullshit Because At This Point Aizen Is Still A Problem And Tipping Off The Quincy While Everyone’s Even Weaker Than The Timeline They Left Would Be Bad. (Also Having Two Instances Of The Almighty + Antithesis In The Same General Vicinity Is Apparently Bad For The Continued Existence Of Reality) And Somehow Not Potentially Fuck Everything Else Up Even Worse Than Last Time As Well As Try Not To Have A Complete Nervous Breakdown In The Mean Time.”

-AU…

But that’s kind of a mouthful so imma just call it [That Which Protects The Falling Rain] AU

So yeah…

As you can obviously tell from the prior blurb this is more or less canon divergent starting from the point that Ichigo got his powers back after the timeskip (which –in my completely honest opinion- was a bullshit arc anyway for a number of reasons that I refuse to go into at the moment) with the main kicker of it all being the things that happened with the whole Quincy ordeal went significantly worse off than in canon and basically a bad time was had by everyone.

[Unwind the World and Your Nightmare’s Gone]

Turns out that if you have a crumbling pillar that props up what is an already heavily destabilized world murked on top of everything else tends to accelerate the wholesale destruction of everything in existence. The first of this was quickly realized when Hueco Mundo, the Wandenreich, and the Soul Society all crashed and began to bleed into one another. This mockery of a union only served to further tip the scales to such an extreme that Hell itself –which at this point was still puttering along as the sole remaining pillar of reality- began to develop cracks in the framework before eventually just giving way entirely. And thus things started to bleed indiscriminately into the World of the Living.

Which, I don’t need to tell you, was bad news bears.

In the chaos and calamity people were dying in droves and –because the reincarnation cycle was wholly and utterly fucked- they were staying dead. The very few individuals that had been smart enough to dip when the water hit the wall or were (un)fortunate enough to dodge the first fires of the literal apocalypse managed to bunker down, sustaining themselves on the heavily overly-saturated reishi of the atmosphere as they waited for the inevitable end tailmarked on the hands of the three souls that still carried on. These three –the False King tainted with the spark of divinity, his Heir who sought to put an end to his reign, and the Hybrid who felled God Himself- who fought on even though everything and everyone they had once stood for having fallen ages before them; their hands grasping for that last pyrrhic victory because what else is there at this point?

But –much like the moon for which his blades were named- even the powers of god-slayers must wane and on the field of battle enemies will use any fault to their advantage. And so, with a decisive slice of the blade, the False King went Off With His Head and the prodigal son made his way back home like the rest of his children. But it was here that Yhwach, made a Mistake™.

For all that Ichigo Kurosaki was a hybrid of both Quincy and Soul Reaper, he was also part Hollow as well.

And Hollows are poisonous to Quincy.

But the imprudent ruler was past caring at this point -was confident he could weather the poisoning of his soul- that he just had to stop for a moment to allow the restless stubborn child to settle down and from there he could then adapt and adjust. But to do such a thing on a battlefield where there was still one other active combatant left (no matter how you have dismissed the other boy as being a non-threat at this point) was pure hubris in of itself.

Enter: Uryū Ishida.

Armed with a silver arrow crafted from the bodies of his kinsmen that he lifted from the corpse of his estranged father and the sheer and utter spite of someone who has seen every single last one of their friends and family be killed and subsequently has no more fucks to give decides in his exhausted state to pull an Ichigo and lets the fly.

It hits.

At long last, the Old King was dead.

But it wasn’t enough.

Because the being named Yhwach was a great number of things, however, unprepared was not one of them. Being able to see possibility after possibility was indeed a great boon when it came time to sketch out an action plan for such eventualities. Case in point, when faced with the surefire destruction of your own physical and spiritual being it is perhaps okay to latch on to and borrow another. And what better source than your treasonous Heir not a stone’s throw from where you currently were?

Long live the king.

Or so you thought bitch.

Turns out neither did the Quincy child nor the rebellious echo of the hybrid boy much care for his attempt at bodyjacking. So unanimously they decided to say –fuck that- and pull off their own sort of deus ex machina using Uryū’s Shrift in conjunction with Ichigo’s kind of admittedly bullshit hybridity powers to throw a wrench in things and swap the Fate of not only himself the other late teen’s echo as well so that in the end it was Ywhach who would be the one subsumed.

And by some fucking miracle, it worked.

They successfully managed to topple the Quincy King from his position to allow for Uryū to then supplant himself on the vacant throne as the King as the remainder of Ichigo’s unique spiritual signature securely subsumed the rest of Yhwach’s essence and then somehow used it to stabilize the burgeoning fuckery that was now his (and apparently Ishida’s???) soul.

Long live the King (and his new and only somewhat unwilling headmate) indeed.

Just in time for reality to start falling apart.

With the weight of the final battle having finally given way to bone-deep exhaustion he –(or, rather, was it they now? Truth be told, neither boy was entirely sure what to make of their current situation and the sheer number of existential issues that simply arose from their paradoxical state of being. But then again that sort of thing wasn’t exactly a new thing when it came to his whole impossible existence now was it? Hell, he’d had so many ‘impossibles’ tossed at him that at this point the very word was starting to lose all meaning, honestly. And this current bit of what-the-fuckery was just another layer to the botched clusterfuck of a cake now wasn’t it? ‘…Good god Kurosaki do you think you could save your little existential crisis for later? Neither of us have the energy for it and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m pretty sure that at least one of us currently has a fucking concussion.’ No, fuck you man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the world’s fucking ending. This is a good as time as any, man. ‘I just want somewhere we can get a chance to rest.’)- leveraged their worn body up on unstable legs in search of an unbroken spot where they could do just that.

Sometime along the way he had noted the larger of the orange-haired hybrid’s blades among the debris and stopped to examine it. (Or rather, having sensed the echo of their wielder contained within, it had lowered itself to allow him a chance to look upon its glory. At least, that was the impression that it seemed to be giving off anyway. Yeah, like a pair of stray cats you rescued from out behind the dumpster on trash day, his Zangetsu was. But even to the end they tried to help in their own way… ‘‘Slaying Moon’ huh? What an apt name for such a blade.’ Blades. There’s two of them. Ah, that was right. But if so then where…?)

Even now, their wicked sharp edge gleamed obsidian in the light as he subconsciously let the blade rest behind in the crook of his back. Feeling the small clasp as sword seemed to latch onto his presence as if magnetic. Readjusting his glasses he glanced around and let out a soft noise when their eyes alit upon their prize.

(He did not look at the body sprawled out upon the ground as they knelt down and gently pried the shorter blade from stiff fingers. He did not look at the severed head with too blank eyes as he slid the other half of his blade carefully into the waistband of his belt.He did not look at his own corpse resting at his feet-)

He stood.

Continuing on, he trudged along aimlessly, stumbling from wreck to wreck in an attempt to avoid the ever encroaching void that slowly but surely ate at what was left of their worlds. (They decidedly ignored the shadows that lapped at their feet. The way they danced inexplicably without a clear source of light. Twisting and writhing along the rolling dark as if they were but a thousand –familiar- eyes held back behind closed lids –theirshisoursmine- as they waited there. Dreaming.)

He stumbled.

They walked on until eventually they happened upon a surprisingly stable section of what appeared the Royal Realm and what was even more astonishing was the fact that out of everyone who could’ve somehow managed to dodge the apocalypse they had the misfortune to run into Aizen of all people. And it seemed that the ex-captain was just as enthused to see them.

(Wow, yeah, no. Not surprised that you survived because you’re pretty much a damned cockroach at this point. But I am genuinely kind of surprised that you decided to stick around instead of –I don’t know- having the good sense to bail when everything started going to shit? You’d think he would. Like, scurry away to lick the wounds and that sort of shit, right? ‘Right, absolutely riveting commentary Kurosaki. Such a shame that I’m the only one who’s forced to listen to it.’ Grimace. Urgh what god did I piss off to get stuck with you assholes? ‘Probably the two we just killed.’…Ah. Right.)

“Hm, that’s certainly a pleasant expression.”

(…I wanna kick his fucking ass. ‘What? No!’ Just a single boot shoved right in his smug bondage-wrapped face. ‘No.’)

Thoroughly exasperated and just utterly done with everything and everyone at this point Uryū decided this was as good as they were going to get and sort of collapsed at the foot of the broken throne with an undignified grunt, shifting the massive knife from his back to a more comfortable spot upon his lap as to allow himself to prop their body up against a slab of rubble. The youth let out a groaning-sigh.

Aizen –having meandered over to join him- watched with a keen interest.

(The subtle shade of black bleeding into the much younger man’s sclera, the downright monstrous inferno of tainted Quincy-Reaper-Hollow reiatsu coupled with the unnatural way that the writhing shadows almost seemed to linger protectively around the bloodied child before him, and while truthfully he was rather near-sighted ((destroying his last pair of glasses in a spur of dramatic theatricality had genuinely been one of his sole regrets, especially considering later when it became wholly apparent that the hōgokyu refused to let itself be used for something as banal as correcting one’s eyesight)) he’d have to have been blinder than Kaname to miss the ease at which the other had hefted that particular blade around. Also, the singular horn was kind of conspicuous and worthy enough for him to lift a brow.)

“Your feats never cease to push the realm of possibility, why I’m honestly starting to think you don’t know the meaning of the word Kurosaki.” He watched with sharp eyes, observing how even the shadows surrounding the youth seemed to freeze. Fascinating. “Or perhaps you would prefer some other form of address more suited to the body you’re currently occupying?” A dark eye crinkled with wry amusement, “Maybe even something more befitting to that of royalty?”

 (He’s not going to let this go is he? ‘Ugh, no.’ …Fuck it.)

And so the one-who-was-once-many resigned themself to a litany of awkward conversation as they waited for the world to end.

And what a back and forth it was. Some of the more notable highlights included: In depth discussions on one’s particular choice of eyewear – {“So, wait, hold on. You’re saying you actually needed those glasses and that the whole debacle with the Winter War you were essentially fighting half-blind the whole time?!”

“In the barest sense of the term, yes. Why do you seem so surprised? Did you perhaps forget that one of my compatriots was blind? It is a perfectly reasonable method to use one’s spiritual sense as a sort of complement to innate abilities during combat, as I am sure that one of your newer parts is undoubtedly already aware.”

“…Newer parts?”

“The misguided Quincy child that you once called your comrade and presumably the original owner of the patchwork monstrosity that you now call a form.”

(‘…Okay, yes, while losing your glasses during a fight does fucking suck I’m far-sighted and also mainly focused on archery so it’s not so bad but “patchwork monstrosity?” Rude, much?’)

“My, what a frightening expression.”

They flipped him off.}

–To the eventual reluctant admittance of what had occurred during their final battle versus the late Quincy King-

{it was in general agreement that the whole thing was a collective load of bullshit, however Aizen did find some note of ironic humour in the new fusion’s predicament much to said being’s annoyance.}

–To why the traitorous ex-captain was even there in the first place-

{“And where exactly would you have intended me to have gone, hm?” The man gestured broadly at the wanton destruction that surrounded them.

“Should I have squirrelled myself away like the scarce few remaining beings that tried to do so before everything fell to ruin? Don’t make me laugh. Why, I would even dare to say those poor unfortunate souls have been all but eliminated when the world pillars sang their swan song and even if they managed to survive that don’t you think the void would have consumed them much like everything else at this point?” Sōsuke leveled a dry look, letting his head fall back against the remains of a broken pillar wearily.

“So I figured this was as good as a time as any to try my hand at usurping the throne, you know, seeing as the current Soul King was indisposed.” A flicker of genuine consternation flashed across the man’s face. “But, it seems that crossing into the realm of transcendence is still not enough just so long as you’re still missing a fundamental piece of the equation.”

“Wow. So even after going through all of that you still weren’t –what- Quincy enough to take the crown? Heh, sucks to be you I guess. Wh-hey! We already have a concussion you didn’t have to throw a rock at me you ass.” With a huff, they rubbed at the new welt on their head. “Geez…”

“But seriously, I can’t believe with all that bullshit you pulled trying to get the magic death marble to make you god it couldn’t even manage it in the end.” As the hand dropped to the blade in their lap, they gave a faint scowl and then turned to face the other. “And really, what’d it even matter at this point? Figure we could use it to prop up reality –or at least what’s left of it anyway- and keep it from imploding or something?”

Aizen let out a somewhat undignified snort, “The Quincy have finally brought around your inclinations of royalty, I see. You’ve even started using the royal we. But yeah, sure, why not. Go ahead and take a stab at being the Soul King for a bit, I mean I’d say you can’t possibly be worse that what’s going on right now but somehow I think you would manage it just to spite me.”

The young being let out a snort of his own as they rolled with the bit, “No, we’d totally be an awesome Soul King. Way better than the last one and Not Unstable At All. Heck, we wouldn’t even abuse whatever the bullshit powers we had on top of everything else so we could –I don’t know- turn back time and fucking unmurder everyone. Oh! While we’re at it why don’t we try taking a crack completely unknotting that clusterfuck you guys call a politics around here. Because, honestly? Responding to every new thing that shows up on your doorstep with ‘treat it like shit’ and/or ‘try to kill it with extreme prejudice’ tends to piss people off and is probably why y’all had so many enemies.”

They nodded, sarcasm just oozing from their tone. “Yeah, all of that would be just so fun. Don’t you think?”}

Who could have foreseen that such a benignly one-off comment could have could spurred such further chaos?

(Well they probably could have. But –in their defence- they weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders at the time; what with the existential fuckery that they were still coming to terms with alongside the previously mentioned concussion that made it so when Aizen ((who had went suspiciously quiet after his little haha-funny-but-not-really joke)) proceeded to pitch the Idea™ to them it didn’t really seem to tack on as being anything worse than what the apocalypse that they were already were going through was.

But as now they found themselves trying not to squirm with a hand splayed awkwardly over the violet gem embedded in the other man’s bare chest as the other looked on with what seemed to be deep-set amusement they could not help but think to themselves: they really should’ve known better.)

(‘This is so stupid.’ There’s no way this would ever work-) Astonishingly, the gem beneath their hand began to glow.

(…Are you kidding me?)

“Huh, it seems like the hōgokyu was actually able to grant my wish after all.” The other murmured, ripping the fusion’s attention away from the entrancing glow only for them to watch as the man before them slowly began to crumble to dust before their very eyes.  “Rather roundabout way of doing it though, if you ask me.” Sōsuke snorted, dark eye flicking up to meet the other’s disbelief. “Listen well Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryū Ishida, this will be the last time we meet one another as things are. Don’t squander the opportunity you’ve been given as it’s highly unlikely you will get another one.”

“…Understood.”

“Good.” The other seemed…actually kind of relieved? That was all they had time to think before his body was gone and it was their fingers clutched around the hōgokyu as it then took their wish (to fix this oh god don’t you dare drop something like this on us and then leave us aloneyou utter bastardplease I don’t want to be the last one left after everything I don’t want to be aloneand just like that there went another person that he failed to protect just like everyone elseplease I just want to fix this make it like it never happened!) and moulded it and then unwound the world from its crumbling spool, unwound them, unmade him and now he-

-Was-

F

 a

  l

   l

    i

     n

      g

but only for an instant before world reformed around himself and he was forcefully slammed into (his/their/whose?) body.

He blacked out.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Quill, I am very very very silly. I forgot that Brant died, and when I remembered he did, I thought he was killed by Grady or Sophie. But no, he was crushed to death. I think that decision was very silly.

Like, it is so forgettable? Like, it already has the issue of being In Lodestar, which already is considered to be kind of anti-climactic in general. And then it isn’t even like related to fire at all? He is just crushed to death, and sure it was to save Oralie, but it feels like it should have been fire or murder that killed Brant. I realize that might have unintentional consequences on the plot, but that is just how it feels like.

Anyway, I am inviting you to tell me all of your thoughts about the fact that Brant died, cause I feel like it would be very interesting. It is okay if you do not, but feel free to if you desire.

-⚙️

(P.S I will be sending you an ask telling you about Ninjago soon. If you don’t want me to, please inform me.)

I'm going to discover my thoughts on this as I write it, let's go! It is a rather forgettable death, especially compared to the dramatic and explosive deaths we've seen of other characters. The characters were just informed of it after the fact, they weren't even there.

Okay so first thought. Characters like him, haunted by a past, there's a sort of circularity to it. They're undone by their own mistakes, their own motif or something similar--what you're mentioning with fire would fit that. He brought this pain upon himself however unintentionally with fire, killing Jolie with it, and so joining her in death via fire references that, right? That's the typical pattern we'd expect?

Except that kind of pattern also tends to rely on repeated characters in their life as well, a confrontation with who they've hurt/who's hurting them. And the thing with Brant? We already got that. Grady had his confrontation with Brant--which involved that return of fire and him being hurt by his own weapon, his own conviction! His hand was burned off by his own flame, which fits that pattern. Everblaze (the book) already did it! And Grady moved on. He turned away from it, and he was the biggest driving force of the kind of rage necessary to meet Brant.

Edaline is ignored in this configuration to an extent, as we never see to the same degree how it's affected her. So if she'd been the one to shove the rubble and ultimately kill Brant, it could've satisfied the pattern and her narrative that way. Though the fact it didn't I don't think is necessary a bad thing? It could've been a moment to show Edaline's processing and her closure, yes, but I don't know if that's necessary for her character. She doesn't need to have a big moment to process and move on, and I do think it fits with how she's written that for this she was quieter in her processing.

Which all brings me back to my point: Grady was Brant's main foil, the main conflict, and he wasn't present or emotionally viable for that kind of event. Without that, there's no one to take it up. He's hurt Sophie in the past, true, but so many characters have that being there to witness every single one's demise isn't necessary. Brant's not special to her, he's just another villain. So there's no depth that truly necessitates something dramatic, being present and seeing it happen. What's happening is he's dying. That's it. Compared to what else Sophie's going through, it takes a backseat.

We could take it as a representation of how alone he was. How he was the only one who clung on to himself and his sufferings. Grady and Edaline left him behind, let go, there's no one to suffer his burning grief and rage alongside him. The Neverseen are a conditional place to belong, one that doesn't truly work together but fights, where you have to earn your place, and none of them understand his grief or connect with him. So in the end he died as he lived: alone, haunted by the memory of someone he loved and hurt. And there was no one there to sympathize. No one to care. No one to match his pain and witness. He died desperate and quiet, without fanfare, because he had lost so much and couldn't achieve the fanfare and rawness he reached for.

We could also take it as a form of self destruction. His actions, his affiliations, led to the complete undoing of who he was until he was so unrecognizable from who he was, so detached from everyone and everything around him that all he could do was fade quietly from the narrative because he'd lost himself.

I'm sure there's more that could be said about it, and that there are plenty of arguments to make in terms of both support and adjustments, but since you brought it up these were my thoughts trying to reason it out!

(p.s. you're welcome to tell me about Ninjago. I can't promise I long response given that it's a topic I know so little about, but please feel free to talk about it!)

[nordehartet]

Aldnoah.zero wasn't that good, lol.

Long have I held Aldnoah.Zero as one of my all time favorites (as well as the primer for my love for Mecha anime), but after this last re-watch, I've got to say, It's not that great as I remembered.

The first season by itself was pretty contained, topped off with a crazy cliff hanger. Sick fights with impossible odds debunked by logic and intellect, I ended up learning a little bit about science from the show too. The characters were somewhat likable, no real downers anywhere in the cast, and everyone had some sort of connection to each other. The plot wasn't THAT convoluted, and there was little to no fanservice!

The second season, however, took the original cast, put them all on the character development back burner, introduced a whole bunch of new characters (all of which who ended up dying, or being forgotten about in the epilogue), and gave us a bunch action sequences with little impact to the actual plot.

SPOILER SECTION

I will admit, many of the fights were pretty cool (the laser vs. artillery one was one of my favorites), but it felt like they all meant nothing. When Slaine destroyed the UFE space station, it seemed to have little to no repercussion to the UFE. When the 3 Counts that teamed up seemingly lead to nothing, there was no shakeup for the new Earth Space Empire. We keep seeing (AND HEARING) that the UFE are using the Deucalion as pawns, but literally nothing is being done about it. Realistically, yes, I see why you couldn't particularly trust Deucalion, but it's a plot point is brought up every other episode that adds nothing to the final product. It's like they're giving screen time to characters that don't really need it.

END SPOILER SECTION

Which brings me to my next point. WAY too many characters, and too LITTLE backstory for me to care about them. The main cast is still around taking up screen time, and the new cast is trying to make sure that we care that they relate to our protagonist in some way. It's too many characters with not enough runtime. Maybe a flashback to their supposedly rough lives would have made me like them more, but as it stands, I find it hard it hard to care

One new character that is generally dislikable got a solo bath scene too, which is.... fine... I guess... but it's like they were trying to make me care about her with her boobs personality. This is the scene where we see her (quite literally) reflecting on her goal, and placing this scene with in a bath left little to the imagination, and little to be desired. It only took away from her pain. It seems that they used fan service to get my attention, and I can probably say this safely because there is no fan service at all other than one beach sequence at the beginning of the second season.

SPOILER AGAIN HAHA

This could all have been fine... if it wasn't for the fact that the final battle between our two main characters got DEUS EX MACHINA'd in their final fight. This whole show we have seen Inaho out smart every single Vers Cataphract, either by his own witt, or with the assistance of his left eye. But in the final fight, Slaine's "Predictive imaging" gets knocked out by a stray bullet?!??!?!?!?!

The final fight just becomes a battle of brute force with swords (which is cool don't get me wrong, can't have a space mecha without a sword fight), and betrays the whole reason why I liked this show. THAT and masterpieces that Hirano Sawano and Mizuki craft for me to bang my head to at every fight.

END SPOILER SECTION

I loved this show when I was younger, and I re-watched the first season so many times. It was the show I could just put on in the background and know I would enjoy it, but since sitting through and paying attention to what was actually going on, I let down by the second season, as it could have been something awesome.

TLDR; Don't bother with the second season, unless you wanna bang your head to some Sawano against an orange kataphrakt, as you watch the cute bastard princess trip in her wheel chair in a space station more than once.

[poorshadowspaintedqueens]

Hi, I remember you answered a Shakespeare ask a while back and I’ve been trying to figure out about Prince Hal’s charcater from hamlet. What does he represent, what’s he’s like? Because my friend referenced Prince Hal a month ago and then apparently Prince Charles relates to him and I’m so confused about what Prince Hal from hamlet is like. And you always give lovely and brilliant minded answers

Thank you, anon, you’re very kind.

So, Prince Hal.

First of all, he’s got nothing to do with Hamlet. He’s a main character in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, before becoming King Henry V and getting his own play, and dying offstage just before the start of Henry VI, Part 1, which has nothing to do with him and everything to do with his shitty legacy of civil war and internecine chaos. Whee!

...come to think of it, there are some not insignificant similarities to Hamlet. But aside from thematic concerns, the two are separate things.

Also separate things: Prince Hal/Henry V as portrayed in Shakespeare’s plays, and the actual Henry of Monmouth, who succeeded to the throne in 1413 as King Henry V of England. So when I talk about Prince Hal, assume I mean the character in Shakespeare.

Simply put, Prince Hal is a dick.

He spends 95% of 1 Henry IV being a dissolute frat boy and the other 5% unexpectedly kicking ass and shocking everybody (except for the audience) into thinking he’s changed his ways. In 2 Henry IV, the other characters learn that he has not, in fact, changed his ways, except that he’s now even more of a dick about it. King Henry IV, who has spent all of Part 1 and the first half of Part 2 with his face permanently glued to his palm every time anyone mentions his eldest son, falls gravely ill and is on his deathbed. Hal shows up, mistakes his dad’s deep sleep for death, and is trying on the crown when Henry wakes up and makes it all terribly awkward. They have an uncomfortable moment of bonding where Henry advises Hal to take himself abroad and commit war crimes in France so everyone can forget about that time Henry deposed his cousin Richard II to take the throne for himself. Not quite in those words, but that’s the general idea. Hal takes his father’s advice and immediately goes to war with France, which he wins against great odds, and the play named after him ends with his triumphant marriage to the princess of France, Katherine.

Well, except for the epilogue, which reminds the audience of these other plays they’ve already seen where Henry’s son fucks everything up

I admit, I don’t know if Prince Charles---erm, the as-yet-uncrowned King Charles III (god that sounds weird) admires Prince Hal as a character, or feels some sort of empathy for him as a fellow dissolute royal who mostly spent his youth (and young adulthood and middle age and) in and out of the tabloids for poor choices. Hal has one soliloquy in particular, early in 1 Henry IV, where he--like his theatrical if not quite chronological predecessor Richard III--addresses the audience directly and explains that the frat boy act is just that: an act.

“I know you all, and will awhile uphold

The unyoked humour of your idleness.

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To smother up his beauty from the world,

That, when he please again to be himself,

Being wanted, he may be more wondered at

By breaking through the foul and angry mists

Of vapors that did steem to strangle him.” (1H4, 1.2.202-10)

In short, Hal is behaving badly on purpose so that, at some future point, when he suddenly shows the world how competent he can truly be, they’ll be all the more amazed because of the huge delta between what he was and what he became. This works, up to a point, in the final act of the play. Only when we return to the story in Henry IV, Part 2, Hal has gone back to his dissolute ways.

The earl of Warwick reassures King Henry shortly before his death that “The Prince but studies his companions / Like a strange tongue,” and that he will “in the perfectness of time / Cast off his followers” (2H4 4.3.74-5, 80-1). This suggests that there are at least some members of Henry IV’s court that can see what Hal is doing and are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even Henry eventually allows himself to have a tender moment with Hal before he dies. (The aforementioned one where they bond over future war crimes.)

Then we have Henry V, which is basically what happens when Shakespeare uses the structure of a sports movie to tell the story of an aggressive foreign invasion. Hal, now King Henry, is the protagonist and, if you read the play in its most superficial sense, he’s a hero. He’s plucky, charismatic, courageous, and one of the lads. He even musters up an adorable meet cute with Katherine in the final scene.

But if you’ve seen the two prior plays, you can’t--and shouldn’t--forget that Hal--who, depending on who he’s with, is Hal, Harry, Henry, or Your Grace--is one of those Protean characters who frames his face for all occasions. And he always frames it to his advantage.