buildmydoor

[king-of-the-mouseboys]

I might be demisexual lol

[ladykailitha]

Icarus Part 13

Hello! I've cut my backlog literally in half with this move and while I hate seeing it that low (seven chapters I have waiting to be published) that is it's point after all.

After the nice meeting with Nancy, Robin brings the news to the boys who have a much different perspective on the issue.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

~

Robin was the last to arrive at Steve’s swanky apartment. Spence was on the grill frying up her tofu burger first so the meat wouldn’t touch hers. Simon and Shane were in a heated discussion about Brandon Sanderson and his contribution to the fantasy genre. Her best friend was coming out of the kitchen with all sorts of vegan options for her to chose from.

She went over and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, taking a couple of the bowls from him so he could go back and get more.

Once everyone had gotten their food and settled in Robin told them about her meeting with Nancy and Chrissy.

“So she’s going to apologize to our Stevie?” Simon asked around a bite of his potato salad.

Robin nodded stabbing her salad with a fork. “That’s what she said. I’ll believe it when I see it, though.” She took a bite of her food.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “Though ti doesn’t surprise me she’s not with Jonathan anymore.”

Robin tilted her head with a frown. “What do you mean?”

He sighed and pushed his food away not feeling very hungry at the moment. “Both of us had been pretty vocal about the white picket fence and the two point five kids. I’ve changed my mind on that obviously,” he waved at all of them. “But Jonathan was always his mom and Will first, especially after Will’s kidnapping. He was never going to be ambitious in the way she wanted.”

“His little brother got kidnapped?” Shane asked in wide-eyed shock. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, it was this whole thing,” Steve said, nodding and leaning back on his chair, propping his arm on the back. “But everyone knew that despite all his dreams of being a wild life photographer, he was always going to pick somewhere close to home.”

“So yeah,” Robin said rolling her eyes and cocking her head. “She said she as going to apologize, but I told her she had to that and a shit ton of grovelling before I would consider her to rep the band.”

Steve phone went off and he picked it up. He frowned at the number. He answered it with a confused, “Hello?”

“Steve? Steve Harrington?” the cool feminine voice asked.

“That’s me,” he replied sitting up in his seat. “How can I help you?”

“It’s Nancy Wheeler,” she said after a moment. “I got your number from the record label, I hope that’s okay.”

“Uh, yeah,” he said in surprise. “Yeah, that’s fine. Wow, the Nancy Wheeler. We were just talking about your meeting with Celeste earlier.”

“Oh,” Nancy said, “I was hoping to call after you had finished speaking with her about it. I can call later.”

Steve shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. We were mostly done anyway. We were just having dinner.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed. “If you’re eating, I could call back later tonight or even at a convenient time tomorrow?”

Steve rolled his eyes and Shane covered his mouth to hide the bubble of laughter that sprang to his lips. “I said it was fine. How are you? I understand you’re a hot shot music agent now.”

He could almost feel her smile on the other end when she said, “Something like that.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m actually calling to see you wanted to meet me for lunch tomorrow, I wanted to catch up and well...really to apologize. We were both so young, but that was no reason to treat you the way I did.”

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and put his elbow on the table to prop up the hand that was holding the phone. “You’re right, it wasn’t. But sure, I have a few days off, I could meet you for lunch tomorrow. What time and where?”

Nancy gave him the information and then rang off. Steve threw his phone on the table next to his plate and threw himself against the back of the chair in frustration.

“Well color me shocked,” Robin said with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t think she would actually go for it. Chrissy and I were actually going to go through another list of agents to find one more suitable.”

Spence rubbed the bottom of his lip. “I’m not sure I like the idea of Steve going alone. Because she can say she apologized and that Steve was unreasonable and get us blacklisted for other agents.”

Steve felt an uneasy twist to his stomach at that. But not just that, he just didn’t trust her. He didn’t even know how he was talked into letting her into his life in the first place. She was all apologies now, but what about later? What about after she finds out Steve and Eddie are dating? Would that be a conflict of interest? What if she’s homophobic? What if she outs him before he has a chance to do it himself?

“Steve.”

He came to himself with a start. He looked around to see that everyone was looking at him in concern.

“Hey, hon,” Shane said, tilting his head down to look at Steve. “You doing alright? You don’t look so good.”

He didn’t see Robin but as he came further into himself he could feel the warmth of her hand as she rubbed circles around the pulse point on his wrist.

“There you are, dingus,” she said with a teasing lit to her tone. “You really had us worried for a minute. Where did you go?”

Steve let out a shuddering sigh and then another. “Sorry, I guess I just got caught in a spiral of bad thoughts.”

Robin’s other hand came up to squeeze his. “We don’t have to take her as our agent,” she murmured. “Hell don’t even have to go talk to her if you don’t want to. Or we can all go. Whatever makes you comfortable.”

“I don’t think she’s apologizing to Steve because she’s actually sorry,” Simon said with a sneer, “I think she’s doing it because she sees dollar signs. If she signs with us that is going to make her a shit ton of money and open her up to even bigger clients. Corroded Coffin was already established when they hired her but if we hit the stratosphere while she’s repping us she’ll be in a sweet spot to have the doors open for her.”

Robin stood up. “I guess what I’m hearing is that none of you trust her with Steve. She already knows who each of the band is, because she signed the NDA. But just say the word and I’ll walk away.”

Steve took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I want to hear her out. If she’s actually sincere. But you’re all right, I can’t go alone.”

“Take Robin,” Spence suggested. “She’ll expect you to bring your best friend.”

Shane shook his head. “I think he should take one of us. Maybe Simon, he’s the most ripped out of all of us. I want him protected.”

“I’m down,” Simon replied with a grin.

Robin shook her head, a sly grin on her face. “No, no. Take Eddie.”

“What the fuck?” Simon said rearing his head back, offended. “Why him and not me?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Because he encompasses everything we need. A good friend, who won’t let her walk all over him, like me. An imposing guy like Simon. He might not look like much out of the leathers, but in them and he looks like he could snap you in two. Also, he’s worked with her for a number of years and would be a better judge of if she’s being genuine.”

Spence and Shane shared a glance.

“Sorry, darling,” Shane said with a shrug, “I’m gonna have to go with Robbie on this one. Plus, she’s going to have to know about their relationship anyway.”

Spence chewed on his bottom lip fitfully.

“What’s on your mind, Spence?” Steve asked. “I smell your hair burning from here!”

Spence snorted, “Oh fuck off!” But a giggle escaped anyway.

“You got a problem with Eddie?” Robin asked tilting her head to the side as she regarded their drummer.

Spence waved his hands in front of him. “Oh hell no! It’s not about Eddie, it’s not really about Steve going to meet Nancy.”

Simon frowned and put an arm around him. “What’s going on then?”

“Steve is being too nice about this whole thing,” he murmured. “She didn’t just cheat. She didn’t just string him along. She knew going into the relationship what Steve wanted. Yeah, it’s bit unrealistic to imagine marrying your high school sweetheart. But there is a reason it’s so prevalent in all our media. Because it can happen, because it has happened before. And then her excuse was that Steve wasn’t ambitious enough? Why?”

Steve furrowed his brow as he thought about it. That was an unusual dig. He was a senior in high school, how much more ambitious did she want.

Robin shrugged and said to fill the silence, “I’m not sure because I didn’t become friends with Steve until after the whole mess, but my guess is that he wanted to take what the Europeans call a gap year. A year to just be a kid before jumping into college.”

“Something my parents weren’t fond of either, if I’m honest,” Steve scoffed.

Shane waved his hand toward Steve to indicate that was most likely the cause. “And there it is. It’s so insane everyone expecting to kids to go right into school without taking the time to figure out what you want to do with your life. Hell, you have to apply in January. That’s half way through your senior year. You’re supposed to know what you want in life before you even finish high school? That’s fucked up on all levels.” Through the whole rant, he gestured wildly with his hands.

“I didn’t get to into college my first try,” she said, “Because my parents made too much for me to get assistance but not enough for them to pay for it themselves. And then I met you guys and the rest is history.”

There were nods all around.

“It is up to Stevie to forgive her,” Simon said with a grimace. “But some part of me doesn’t want him to.”

Steve straightened up in his chair. “Why not?” He cocked his head to side, looking like a confused puppy dog.

Simon huffed out a sigh and squirmed in his chair, looking down at his food. He poked at the top of his hamburger bun, picking at the sesame seeds.

“You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your ego for us to get a good agent.”

The silence that followed filled the air with a thick sinking feeling.

Steve straightened his spine. “I’m not the weak-willed, touch-starved kid she remembers. I have three of the best mates a guy could ask for, a platonic soulmate, and a boyfriend that loves me for me. If she thinks she can swan into my life and walk all over me like she did before, she has another think coming. I’ll meet up with her and take Eddie. But make it absolutely clear, I have everyone’s backing on this. If I walk away, we all walk away.”

There was still some grumbling, but it was ultimately it was up to Steve. He made the necessary calls and then they settled down to finish their dinner.

Slowly the mood improved as the night went on, but it never did reach the heights of a laid back night with friends.

~

Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25

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[cabeswaterdrowned]

40 + each Gangsey member

40. Favorite book

but I found actually assigning each of them a favorite book too hard so instead I wrote up headcanons about their general tastes, maybe a couple things they would like and what I would recommend for them to read!

. Blue — well we know that she and Maura would read separate books together side by side at night and I have my headcanon based on that little mermaid line about Persephone reading fairy tales to her in their original forms. In my head I think Blue generally likes reading nonfiction about ecology and other things related to her interests, but also likes reading collections of short stories and poems (she has that poem she copied to the ceiling of her room but we never learn which one it is but based on that saying she likes poetry). I think she reads novels less because they’re less suited to her attention span (I see her as the type of person who likes reading but wouldn’t call herself *a reader* if asked because she feels she isn’t traditionally smart enough or quick enough with it and it takes a lot for her to buy into a story in a way if it’s a novel whereas with nonfiction books and articles she knows it’s about something specific that she likes such as nature or animals) than short form like stories or articles, and it’s rarer for her to find ones she really likes but like the few novels that she truly loves would be really impactful to her. Oh and the short stories and novels she is very into would be fantasy, she’d be like I’ll read total nonfiction or total fantasy anything in between is useless to me. 

 If I was giving her recommendations I’d want her to read Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie Mclemore in terms of novels but really generally her books, and The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter for a short story. And I’d rec her some Maya Angelou and Fatimah Asghar poems but come to think of it maybe Where The Caged Bird Sings would be her favorite book I could see it.. 

Adam — also reads a lot of nonfiction compared to fiction, but fiction he does read I think is probably either mysteries or classics. There might be an occasional thing he likes that’s ostensibly a tad too whimsical to be *Adam-like* as he would define it (since he often is drawn into those things and people despite himself) but in general realism over fantasy. I see a younger Adam, in what little time he has outside of working and managing school and his parents and all that entails, spending as much time as possible in the library since it means peace and quiet and escape and also knowledge which he is hungry for independently. I like to think he read like, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew in terms of books for his age range but also probably some like adult psychological thrillers. 

Obviously if I got to recommend any book to him I’d pick Mr. Ripley just to clown on him, I don’t think he’d love it though I think he’d have a lot of ambivalent feelings about it and maybe say that he hated it but think about passages all the time afterwards. For a book he’d actually enjoy in the typical sense… maybe Gone Girl, I feel like it hits a sweet spot in being a mysery and a revenge fantasy that are not too on the nose / have several degrees of separation from his life but still has enough elements that he could enjoy the catharsis of said revenge fantasy. I almost said we have always lived in the castle for similar reasons but then I thought that Adam might find the ending horrifying not because Mericatt kills her family that he would enjoy, but because she traps and isolate herself at the end and that’s her happy ending so he wouldn’t find be able to find that a victory if he related to her a bit, seeing as to him a victory needs to involve being accepted by society. 

Gansey — obviously he reads a lot of history and also I think a lot of mythology, primarily Welsh but I think he’d go on pipelines to read about other things a lot when they relate because so much mythology and folklore intersects. He and Blue once they get together probably read these together all the time and her background knowledge of certain things from 300 fox way probably impressive and turns him on a lot… also he and Adam probably read these together a lot and Adam was probably attempting a perfect balancing act between making sure he got to point things out to Gansey and seem smart so he would respect him and orchestrating moments for Gansey to read to him / lecture him in That Voice … anyway. But aside from that I also do think he reads a lot of different types of fiction, in every genre really but fantasy historical and classics would be his favorites I think. He’d love things like The Night Circus, I like the idea of him reading a lot of Emily Dickinson when he was 14 and recreating his death all the time, Tolkein obviously, probably some Sanderson I have mixed feelings there but do think Gansey would be a fan. I try very hard not to be too projection-y with chars in these types of hc things because that can be unfun, but I do think his favorite Jane Austen book is my favorite Jane Austen book which is Emma (I do have an idea for an au where Gansey is Emma and Blue is Knightley and Adam is Harriet but also maybe some of their roles interchange or intersperse with each other anyway..). For books he probably wouldn’t have read that I would recommend to him … I think reading some more low brow stuff might be good for him in a sense, maybe I’d put together a Shadowhunter books reading list for him. I do think if he read TID and TDA back to back it could help him figure out he’s bi and polyamorous. 

Ronan — well in this case I think it’s basically canonical his favorite book is Alice in Wonderland. I think Ronan’s taste in books is probably like he almost never reads but when he does he’s a huge snob about it, both ends of the spectrum. So I think like he loved Frankenstein obviously, and The Iliad. Thus if I was given the opportunity I’d rec him paranormal things he probably hates as a concept but I think he could get obsessed with if given the opportunity, maybe The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan or the Mara Dyer trilogy. The former he’d definitely project onto a lot since the first book is about brothers who aren’t dissimilar from him and Ronan, and then he’d be betrayed when the 2nd and 3rd books are about women. The latter he would say he hated but I know that man would devour them don’t ask me how I just do. 

Henry — going to confess that I haven’t actually read A Separate Piece but I read a fic once where it was his favorite book and that feels so correct I took it as canon from then on. I would recommend him The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin. 

Noah — I think would mostly like graphic novels, and I follow one series of graphic novels that I don’t think he would like much (Monstress by Marjorie Liu). Of the other comics I’ve attempted into the other one that I liked enough that I want to continue with at some point was Wicked + the Divine so maybe that.. I think him getting Ronan into it could lead to interesting results too. 

Ty!

[suzanami]

just some random info about my unicorn OCs, I guess

(some of the characters mentioned in the ramblings)

SETTING: generic old-timey fantasy setting. the small continent of Arcelia has an island to the south where humans haven't settled. most unicorns keep to this island, and most humans don't believe in them anymore (they're the local cryptids lol). there's a unicorn village near the center, where mostly human-form unicorns live; the horse-form ones mostly live in the wild, living in the Old Ways. in the village there are cottages with kitchens and beds, and temples and shrines and a building where the Council of Elders does their councilly stuff. so they live a lot like humans, who they use to live alongside in the Ancient Times. there's a nearby human city (I think I called it Whiteshore but I'm too lazy to search the doc rn) so they're not completely isolated; they keep tabs on what the humans are up to, a little.

BODIES: their "natural" form is a horse, but eons ago they began using their magic to shapeshift into humanoid/elflike forms. in their natural horse form, they have more endurance, their magic is stronger, as are their bodies. (they can talk as horses bc why not, it's easier) in their human forms, they enjoy culture borrowed from humans: beautiful architecture, the many tastes of food, the use of hands. some unicorns prefer one form over another; few remain in one for her whole life. they can only change forms under a new moon and it takes quite a lot of energy. they're immortal in both forms, though they can be killed, die of a broken heart, etc. in their horse form they're vegetarian, but as humanoids they range from vegan to omnivore.

RELIGION: unicorns from the continent of Arcelia are mostly of the Moon Clan and their village is the center of worship for the unicorn deity Mo'anne. she's a two-sided moon goddess with another self called the River. there is a high priestess-- Charisma, Estrella's mom, has been the high priestess for a couple hundred years. Marisol is anointed the next high priestess shortly after she and Estrella became priestesses. under her are several priestesses. common iconography of their religion is the moon, mirrors, water, rabbits, and silver.

PRIESTESSES: when a unicorn is born with a birthmark in the shape of a star or crescent moon, it indicates that she's been chosen by Mo'anne to be one of Her priestesses. they're born with a joy and devotion in their hearts to the goddess. a few don't choose the path of the priestess- Sky pilots the ferry on and off the island, serving the goddess in her own way. all unicorns have magic, but a priestess' is obviously much stronger since she has a holy connection with the goddess.

THE ASCENDED: every few hundreds of years, one priestess is anointed by Mo'anne to serve as The Ascended Who Carries Candle's Wings (Candle being like a saint, and the first unicorn). the Ascended grows wings and has the responsibility as a bridge between the Divine and the unicorns who worship Her (like the pope lol). she's not chained to her duties, because the one defining characteristic of unicorns is that their first love is always the needs of their heart. so Estrella can leave to find her mom and stuff, but she does need to talk it over with the Council, who may Strongly Advise that she doesn't go, etc, but as the Ascended she doesn't technically answer to them, so she can go as soon as her conscience lets her.

idk that's all I feel like rambling about right now! if you drop me asks about anything else you're curious about, I will try to answer!

I post more about them here: @unicorndolls

[ac3-silvers]

Is it weird for me to be worried about my latest hyperfixation/plot bunny?

Below the cut is an explaination.

Tl/dr: added a bunch of like pagan themes and my version of “western fantasy” and found family tropes and species bending to a Xianxia/Wuxia setting (MXTX triple fusion) and I’m worried people will find it problematic if I post it. All pagan stuff is also “weird” bc it’s my flavor of it and I add more bits when I write it for stories of any kind. Main guy mostly just acts as a dad and is always running around trying to avoid people who he doesn’t want to find him unless he needs to trade for certain things like fabric because everyone is suspicious of him and it gets worse when they learn he’s an “alternate type of cultivator” and actually foreign and stuff. Like, it’s HIM being assimilated and not the other way around even if he’s sharing like a couple crafts, what he grew up speaking and writing, some recipes and stuff you’d learn if you lived in the wilds and had an arborist-holistic doctor-type for a mom figure.

Edits: added more clarification, main concern is white savior and I’m doing as much as I can to avoid that bullshit but I’m still worried as fuck bc I don’t want to seem like an asshole or something.

Like, I tend to have phases for fandoms, sure, but I also have them for tropes/concepts I like to write.

So I’m in a MXTX/Danmei phase fandom wise, and I’m in a general “fix it before the shit can go south” phase, and now I’m layering on my paganism-in-everything phase once again and writing a “what if all MXTX novels are in the same world… and a very powerful druid-witch dude happens to stumble onto our favorite red-and-black boys and a (good number of) handful(s) of other fucked over kids… which activates his horrible, horrible dad instincts and he adopts every last one of them” thing.

It’s 3 chapters deep, has a bunch of random shit ranging from discussion of languages and their quirks, basic Irish lessons (bc teaching myself off and on for YEARS), pagan/wiccan shit (obviously), handicrafts, hunting, practical foraging and ultra-sustainable farming practices, how major religions stamp out smaller or “bad” ones…

It’s basically just what I write for my Og stuff but I’m not holding back at ALL and it’s MXTX. Main plot is MDZS but Binghe and Hua Cheng are the frustratingly ridiculous older brothers of the family that the dad-character is just sick and tired of listening to them pine and suspicious as hell about who they’re going after despite not wanting to even THINK about his boys being in romantic relationships with ANYONE.

Just… goofy happy but dramatic family shit and cute kids and teens bringing a shitload of foreign mythology and pagan culture and a hefty dash of my personal style of fantasy into the Xianxia/Wuxia world.

I just worry I might get flack for like destroying the culture and setting with… what I write about for the most part outside of like the vast majority of my fics.

Am I going nuts, or is this okay?

Edit for a clarification: I’m worried, as someone mentioned, of a white savior trope problem. I’m mainly trying to get out of that corner I seem to have driven myself in, but generally how it’s going so far is:

- cultivators are suspicious of foreign guy who’s apparently not just some weird merchant, this causes issues

- OC is more just trying to keep the kids he ends up running around with from doing stupid shit like pulling stupid stunts to be with people they declare their soul mates after like one brief interaction (and he fails a lot and gets all “I’m not mad I’m just disappointed. Now eat your dinner and go take a bath, you stink and are too thin again.”)

- major difference for whole setting is just some one off things here and there being introduced and made more common in a warped timeline (mostly just like fiber arts and some recipes and minor things that aren’t as obvious right off the bat like how ginkgo trees are in the same family as poison Ivy and stuff like that)

Generally the entire fic is just very done dad yelling at stupid teenagers for being stupid teenagers and having to dodge people who don’t like the weird wild man and judging him for not being able to read Chinese well and stuff.

Yet I’m still worried about white savior issues… because they’re an issue.

[k-looking-glass-house]

Disney Lover profile~ Twisted Wonderland PLAYER

Congrates to have found a Spring egg!

Wouhou I made it! I still can't believe "Disney and Twiwon's cast" gave us an official template ah ah!!

translation done by your awesome @twiwoncrackpopcorn

Infos:

Trust it or not... But my real name is the character's name of some Disney's tv series! ( AH ah it was already destiny back then, thanks mommy!)

Maleficent forever!!!

Yay I love Octavinelle's aesthetic and "under the sea" theme, but I definitely belongs to Ignihyde (muwahahaha let's live in the dark far away from the normies!!)!

I'll ruin the Headmaster and bath myself in madols!

My childhood fantasy was back then....(what a shame I was such a strange child back then.... still a strange adult too). Well... back then, being veryyyyy youung, I wanted a prince with a unique hair color, and two different color for his eyes... And I wanted him to be part of the Disney's world of course, bonus being part of the mermaids Ariel's world universe... And tadaaaa Jade.... I was so emotional when I first saw him! My childhood fantasy princeeee! End of the shame secret...

I don't like sugar... I would have trouble with tea parties.. and Trey...Cater...I need help

Spring~

Obviously I have a lot of movies that I love, but you get the concept (also horror movies *-*)

I am pink oriented, yes I am~

The sea, the beach, the oceaaaaan, ah also very typical french villages and german's one~

Music range is wild...

My best 3 groovy:

SSR- Ortho Fairy Gala (it's pinkkkk and he finally got his ssr event)

SSR- Malleus Card dorm (......Malleus...)

SSR- Vil Birthday first edition (He's...stunning...)

Question:

Best memory: ....Mickey....still the most wt* twisted plot ever!

Travelling in Twisted Wonderland: Atlanticaaaaa

If magic exists: I would love some fairies items, and get a "fairy godmommy" (or give my children fairy godmothers!)

If I win 1 million madols: ....I'll buy that car to race against Crewel, buy clothes, food and so on for Yuu"sona" too... And casino gambling (don't do that lol it's only because 1 million ah ah) let's "risquetout bébé!"

Hugh I am but so rusted when it comes to draw Disney's character!

That's how I was created! Minus Hades with "she'll be ok with death related", and Dr Facilier "she'll see things!"~

[tsunflowers]

I finally finished reading about planet jeep. the book is actually called ammonite, by nicola griffith. I had a good time with it. it had themes and messages but it didn’t feel too cerebral or preachy

basically hundreds of years ago some space colonists landed on the planet jeep and just stayed there with no contact with anyone else. but then just before the book starts the evil corporation that runs everyone’s lives finds the planet again and realizes there’s some rare earth minerals there and is like hellooo! they send down a force but oops, there’s a virus endemic to the planet jeep that kills all the men and some of the women. now there’s a bunch of military women stuck there having tension with the natives who are somehow reproducing through parthenogenesis. enter our heroine marghe who is an anthropologist so desperate to study the native women of planet jeep that she agrees to take an experimental vaccine and go down there. marghe quickly gets tired of sitting around at the base and insists on setting out into the wilds of the planet where she gets kidnapped by natives pretty fast. but she escapes and meets a different group and gets married to a woman there and ends up a key figure in settling the conflict between soldiers and natives

I worried at some points that it was edging close to noble savage shit and people who are more sensitive to that than me might see it but for the most part I think she avoided it. the important native characters seem to have their own internal lives and there are women who get in fights or are generally shitty people as well as smiling hardy women who live in harmony with the land. it also helps that both the soldiers and natives have a range of ethnic backgrounds and skin tones, and the native names are either full fantasy or Gaelic. like Bright Moon is a soldier while Aoife is a native

it was published in 92 and I think it would be a different book if written today. not that it aged particularly poorly but I think the colonization dynamic might be different. but also there’s no indication in the book that it’s possible for someone to be neither a man nor a woman. the author obviously just wanted to write about a society of all women which is fair but I think she would have to grapple with gender in a slightly different way today

back to things that are actually in the book as written. I really liked the commander of the soldiers. she didn’t expect to be the commander but all the men who outranked her died. she’s aware that they’re stuck on this planet bc the evil company is not going to rescue people who could be vectors for an unknown disease so she wants to integrate with the natives to survive but has no idea how. she was an interesting character and I was always happy to return to her pov. also there was an ambiguously sapient species already on the planet before the first human colonists came and they were named “the goth” and I couldn’t deal with it. ms griffith why didn’t you name them literally anything else. there’s this one woman who likes to hunt goth bc she’s a real sicko and I’m like come on. just bc they wear black and have unusual piercings you don’t have to build spike traps for killing goths

[stitchthesewords]

Do not worry dear anon I will keep your identity a secret. In the future, you can always hit the Anonymous Ask button at the bottom right hand of the screen before you hit send and it will hide your identity from the recipient blog and posters!

Ronan loves working for his museum! He wasn't the one who started it, but he treats it like his baby nonetheless. He really cares about the work he is doing and wants to make sure that people are informed about life in the before times. A lot of his work is sort of mundane and repetitive but he likes it that way. There are other museums in the city he's in and he usually works alongside them - for example there is a museum that documents a lot of the history of Immortal Wizards and he is well acquainted with their curators. And yes! Ronan and Strofaris have worked together multiple times - in fact the story starts because Strofaris has come to lend Ronan a few items for his collection and ask him to accompany him out into the wilds. They have a professional and working relationship at the start of things that...devolves, shall we say. Strofaris isn't the only Immortal Wizard Ronan works with however - there is a group of 4 of them that watch over his city and he works far closer with them than any other immortals in the region. Many of his artifacts that were not fished out of ruins are on loan from Immortal Wizards' collections.

Ronan's favorite artifacts are often the most mundane - journals, diaries, and collections of writing. He loves to know about everyday life more than 'important people', because it paints a far clearer image of what life was like for everyone. His least favorite artifacts are big and bulky items, or magical one. Big items are harder to fit into exhibit spaces, though it can be done and is done fairly regularly; Immortal Wizards use donating to museums as a way to be showy, so he often gets annoying pieces from them. Magical items are annoying because their magic has to be contained somehow. In this story, humans begin evolving to have a magic 'node' - some of them [Like Yori] have activated ones, some have deactivated ones [which may activate later on in life or never activate], and some had 'dead' ones [Like ronan] which cannot activate. The way you figure it out is if you can feel magic or interact with magic in any capacity - Ronan can't at all, but for obvious reasons a museum guest who can would be detrimental for both their museum experience and the artifact's longevity. Ronan does also keep objects for study through the local university or independent scientists and arcane academics.

SO let me talk a bit about the apocalypse to sort of explain this. The apocalypse occurs sometime between 2030-2050. The earth's inherent magic awakens one day to start defending itself from destruction - namely in this case things like climate change and environmental destruction. This magic does two things - the first is that it creates monsters who are born with an inherent want for human life. This is because humans are the ones causing the large scale destruction the earth is trying to defend itself from. These monsters range in size from about the scale of a chicken to about the size of a semi-truck. They aren't impossible to kill; in fact, the smaller ones are fairly easy, like low level fantasy monsters, but they come in huge waves and droves, tearing through cities. The rural area see less overall destruction from them but they still see pretty heavy loss. This is obviously a very dark time for humanity. HOWEVER, within the same time frame, though a little bit after the monsters start to appear, something else happens. Regular everyday humans begin to wake up with uncontrollable magic powers. This does not go well. Many of them are maimed or killed by their own magic, or hurt others/cause more destruction to the area they're in. Imagine if you woke up one day with the ability to create *endless* magic but no ability to control what it did or turn it off. That is basically what happens to the Immortal Wizards. The other thing this magic gives them is immortality from old age - but only old age. They can still die from sickness, damage, being murdered, etc etc. They just kind of stop aging, because the earth wanted to create a group of people who could keep some of humanity from dying - humans are still important to the ecosystem after all. Eventually the Immortal Wizards who survive their first little bit with magic move away from civilizations and group up, and they teach themselves to control it through force. Either they learn to control it or die trying. At the same time, the vestiges of humanity are starting to build shelters and safehouses because I do not believe that humanity as a whole would go lone wolf. I fully believe that in an apocalypse scenario humanity would band together and help each other survive. These shelters are built with their weakest members in mind, to help them be able to escape the monsters outside. Many of these forts of safety would go on to become the first cities of the new world, including the one Ronan lives in, and begin taking on Immortal Wizards as they came back to civilization in order to aid their fellow man with their newly controlled magic powers. The time between the gaining of the magic and the control is at LEAST a few years if not a decade, and in that time many Immortal Wizards shed their 'previous lives' for new, Wizardy identities. I have an entire pinboard of Immortal Wizard fashion ideas because they dress like funky little creatures and most of them fully embrace the whole 'wizard' thing.

So on that note - Apprentices can't become Immortal Wizards for two reasons: 1. they were not gifted immortality and are completely different kind of magic users and 2. Their magic nodes limit what they can do. I think its important to not the Immortal Wizards have no limits on their magic - they're like Gandalf. The thing with all powerful magical beings is that you can't use them as a tactical nuke in your story even if you want to because that eliminates the tension. Many of the Immortal Wizards fear using their magic willy nilly because they remember how it hurt them/other people. There are laws in place about what they are allowed to do within their society, though some obviously live on the outskirts of it like Strofaris. Becoming an Immortal Wizard was traumatic for all of them in some way, shape, or form, and you can really see the memory of that in how they guard their magic. Apprentices don't really have much trauma with their magic, and generally are limited to certain kinds of magic/weaker magic overall. The Nodes within people also drain with use and need to be recharged with rest - Immortal Wizards don't have that issue. It is, however, incredibly common for Immortal Wizards to take on apprentices - while their magic skills don't translate 1:1 into how humans do their magic, its a close enough experience that they can help guide them. It is a huge deal to be taken on by an IW however - most people who do magic learn in school or from other human magicians. Being taken on by an IW is the equivalent of like, a VIP experience. It usually means that you show a lot of prowess with your magical node OR that your family has been friends with an IW for generations and they have a fondness for you. Over the centuries, IWs have also gotten better about explaining magic to humans, as they learned from having multiple apprentices how to explain the differences between their magic and human magic. If you're wondering, Strofaris took on Yori because Yori travelled all the way to his home and demanded Strofaris take them on. I love Yori. They are my beloved little gremlin and they have a bunny familiar.

Strofaris does have many IW friends and acquaintances. Networking is a pretty big deal in IW society, even for someone like Strofaris who mostly keeps to himself. He doesn't see them very often - for many IWs who live alone or away from cities, the only time they really see other Immortal Wizards is during society meetings and balls [There is one big ball that happens once a decade, which to an Immortal Wizard is the equivalent of it happening once a year] that pretty much everyone from one region attends. One of the Immortal Wizards that Strofaris keeps in close contact with is the person living inside the Memphis Pyramid [NOT the one in Egypt - google Bass Pro Pyramid to see what I mean]. He does not, however, go out of his way to talk to them outside of things like academic interest and apprenticeships. Strofaris much prefers the company of humans.

[recordsofelysia]

Planes of Existence: Upper Planes

Aight I’m on a bus for about an hour, and don’t have any of my reference notes so I’ll just be going off the top of my head for this one, but it’s fine because these planes are honestly quite similar to each other and I don’t have much to say on em.

The Upper Planes! The planes of goodness, niceness, and are all around spiceless. The Upper Planes are the homes of celestial beings, and many of the Architect Gods, ranging from Devas and Solars to Pegasi.

They are somewhat similar in that they are all very naturalistic and idyllic in their geography, but I’ll get more specific:

Celestia

Celestia is the name of the plane of Lawful Good (in forgotten realms, the plane this is based on is actually called Elysium, lmao, so obviously I decided to change it). Here, what counts as acts of good vs evil are rigid and absolute, and the slightest transgressions will not be tolerated.

Those in power of Celestia kind of have a stick up their asses, to be honest, but they are ultimately righteous to the most absolute degree. No mortal soul is truly righteous in the eyes of Celestia, as any degree of harm or sin is unacceptable. Nevertheless, mortal souls do find their ways to the peaks of Celestia, guided by the mercy of the matron of ravens.

Physically, Celestia is characterised by mountainous terrain, and coniferous evergreen forests. The mountaintops are always clad in snow and ice, and it is upon them that Architect Gods, notably Bahamut, reside. (wait I should name the highest mountain Mt. Celeste that would be hilarious, and a very out of pocket media reference compared to all the fantasy)

Arborea

Arborea is the realm of Neutral Good, and one that I kinda fw, since goodness is lauded for the mere virtue of being good. It’s nice to be nice, type shit.

As you can probably assume based on its name, Arborea is geographically characterised by dense woodland, but by far the most notable feature is the world tree that sits at its centre, Yggdrasil (uh huh, yeah, Yggdrasil is canon fuckers).

The branches of the world tree (metaphysically) stretch across all of the planes of existence, as its branches lead to gateways connecting all sorts of locations across the realms.

Arvandor

Lastly, Arvandor is the realm of Chaotic Good. Here, ‘goodness’ is its most subjective, and all sorts of actions that can be associated with joy, happiness, and kindness are welcome.

Arvandor is where folks are most likely to be tricksters, and it’s denizens are exceedingly fond of games, pranks, and other strange activities that may be taken the wrong way by one not easily amused. In this way, Arvandor is rather similar to the Feywild, and the residents of either realm find the other suited to their nature.

Physically, Arvandor is far more humble than the other two Upper Realms, and is characterised by wild rolling hills, fields of flowers and crops, and groves and orchards of deciduous trees, ever changing with the passage of time. It’s very cottagecore, stardew valley could easily take place in Arvandor.

And that’s a wrap on the Upper Planes! So yeah I don’t have a bunch of super exciting stuff to say about them, there’s some cool world details here and there, but they’re not as distinctive as the other planes imo, they’re much tamer I should say.

I might have forgotten stuff since, again, I don’t have my reference notes when writing this, but I think I covered just about everything.

I shall return to go over the Middle Planes!

[thecodeveronica]

I think Dissidia is kinda dead as a FF spin-off (Opera Omnia on mobile notwithstanding) after NT was so bad, but ugghghgghgh I want a new Dissidia game SO MUCH in the style of the PSP ones, with a heavy emphasis on singleplayer content again while also having online multiplayer like NT did.

SO I'm gonna wishlist what I'd want to cope with my sadness that it'll never happen (and spoilers for maybe multiple FF games are to follow, maybe, idk, I'm typing this off the top of my head):

STORY: Just reboot the whole thing. Nobody cared about the new gods they added in the Arcade and NT games, but the story of Chaos and Cosmos was kinda done, so just start the whole thing over fresh like the others never happened. Be freed of the shackles of the convoluted plot of the past, and create a new convoluted story lol.

Now, what I think would be cool would be some kind of partner system in the story. Two characters having to fight together and if one got defeated the other goes too. Would make for interesting interactions between characters from different games, both as partners and as having to outlast the other groups? I'm not sure what the end goal would be, but picking off characters pair-by-pair would be kinda fun IMO, even more so if some heroes had to be paired with villains. Maybe each pair that gets eliminated in some form (not "killing" per se, but you know) feeds the crystals energy for... something... that the gods want... yeah, I dunno.

Also, the pair thing would be more of a story thing than for gameplay. Keep the assist system from Dissidia 012 and have where the partners are assists in the story, but in other modes you could just pick whoever as an assist. And have some bonus, assist-only character like Aerith was in 012. I always found it wild that she was literally the ONLY assist-only character in that game and that they didn't do more as DLC. Surprising level of restraint from SQEX.

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ROSTER: Keep MOSTLY everyone who was in past games, including NT. I say "mostly" because I would trash Onion Knight and replace him with Luneth from the DS remake of FFIII. Sorry, I just have always hated Onion Knight's design and smarmy voice when FFIIIDS had better protag designs right there for the taking.

Some additions (in a reasonable number) for already-represented titles I'd add are:

Nothing for Final Fantasy I, II, III, V, or VI, sorry lol. The latter two already had 3 fighters anyway so they're fine. Also nothing for XI (never played it), XII (don't care about it and Vayne is already in from NT and he's the only one really worth it anyway), or XIV (never played it, though I am kind of fond of Alphinaud just because I had all his gear in FFRK and Opera Omnia so I guess him if anyone haha)

Final Fantasy IV Rydia -would be similar-ish in concept to 012's Yuna playstyle, but with different summons obviously and more regular magic spells interspersed in the moveset. I dunno, I just felt like one of the older games needed something and IV is my favorite of the pre-PS1 games. After Years outfit would be an alt ------

Final Fantasy VII Vincent Valentine -mostly ranged fighter with his guns and shotgun, though honestly I put him here just because I think it'd be cool fighting as him lol. His EX Mode would be when he turns into those monsters like in his Limit Break in VII. Also I'd love for him to have his Turk suit as an alt ------

Final Fantasy IX Beatrix -I actually kind of wanted Eiko or Garnet here but I'm not sure how they'd be different from all the other summoners either already in the games or that I want, so oof. Beatrix is cool and memorable and I think they could come up with something for her abilities in IX like Shock and all. Not sure what alt outfit she'd get since I don't remember her wearing anything else in IX? ------

Final Fantasy X Rikku -more of a X-2 rep in my mind since her thief dressphere would be her default IMO, but since she's in X as well I'll count her as both. Speedy melee attacker who would maybe swap to one or two other dresspheres for different attacks. Alt would obviously be her X outfit, though I'd also like her Songstress dressphere because I always though hers was cute. ------

Final Fantasy XIII Serah Farron -like Rikku, Serah is more of a stealth FFXIII-2 rep, but she was in XIII regardless so yeah. She'd obviously be able to switch between the bow and sword form of her weapon, and have some magic, probably Saboteur stuff because that's what I associate with her. XIII outfit as an alt for sure, though she also had some cute DLC outfits in XIII-2 that'd be cool

also in regard to XIII-2, I think it's kind of whack that Caius didn't get in as the XIII villain slot and they went with LR!Snow instead in NT, but I don't know that I'd replace Snow since I love his Lightning Returns design and he has that sick ice scythe, so RIP Caius, you deserved better.... ------

Final Fantasy XV Ardyn Izunia -super obvious choice, to give XV an antagonist. Also because I think we all pretty much like Ardyn, right? He's cool, and I think he'd be great to see in cutscenes in a new Dissidia. Not really much to say here since I think it's pretty easy to imagine how he'd play. Alt outfit would be his white robes look from how he was before the time of XV's story

Ignis Scientia -if I'm giving some games that already had 3 characters an extra one, then XV gets 4, too. Ignis deserves it most because he's my favorite of the non-Noctis Chocobros :) Could do his magic-infused daggers and all that, which is kind of untapped potential for Dissidia. Alt is obviously his timeskip look ------

Final Fantasy Type-0 Machina Kunagiri -the only realistic option for an "antagonist" from Type-0 IMO. EX Mode would be his White Tiger l'Cie appearance. Also, his dual-wielded drill sword... things... are pretty cool and I think would be fun in battle. Alt outfit of the summer Akademia uniform

Kurasame Susaya -LISTEN I love Type-0 and I'll do what I want here and add a 4th character. And I love Kurasame SO MUCH and so he's here because I say so. Plus, Ice Reaper? Ice magic and an ice blade and his Absolute Zero attack? HELLO? He would be so cool to fight as in Dissidia. Alt outfit would be his past look when he was an Akademia student

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NEW GAMES NOT ALREADY REPRESENTED IN THE SERIES:

World of Final Fantasy Lann & Reynn (yes, together) -I also LOVE WoFF so I have to give it respect here. I'd have where you swap between Lann and Reynn (think Sheik/Zelda in the older Smash games), each with their own little monsters that they send out to fight. And Lann would have maybe a claw attack while Reynn uses her dagger. Not sure on alt outfits though

Final Fantasy XVI Clive Rosfield -duh, the main character has to be here, but also I like Clive a lot so that's A-OK with me :) He'd be in his appearance from when he is 33, because frankly he's hot there and it is his best look by far. Would play taking advantage of his multiple Eikon abilities, like having an attack from each one since his big defining trait as a Dominant was being able to use all the other Eikons' powers. EX Mode would be when he is semi-primed, then the burst would be Ifrit attacking. Alt would be his outfit that got added in the update (the black one), or maybe his 15-year-old outfit but like... refitted for his older self? That might be kind of cool

Barnabas Tharmr -between him and Ultima for the XVI villain slot, but Dissidia seems to like to err on the side of the more "human" looking characters, so Barnabas it is. Odin is SUPER COOL in XVI so I think he'd be a great fit honestly! His EX Mode would be when is semi-primed with Odin obviously. I dunno what alt outfit he'd have though? I thought his knight looking outfit, but that's kind of already being used for the EX Mode, so uhh... huh

Joshua Rosfield -3rd slot for XVI. This is totally favoritism to take him over Jill, but to be fair, Joshua is like, a LOT more actually important to the plot and practically the deuteragonist of the game IMO. And I can't separate my Rosfields man, you just don't do that. Since Clive would be focused on all the Eikons, Joshua would instead be the main "Warden of Fire" rep here and use Phoenix-related powers. Phoenix Shift maybe could just be his (though I know that power is very Noctis warpstrike-y, but they'd play different enough otherwise I think), some kind of Flames of Rebirth attack, and overall be more magic-oriented than his brother. EX Mode is, again, semi-priming with Phoenix, with the burst being legit Phoenix attacking. Alt as his extra outfit from that recent update, though I think giving him a modified version of his prologue outfit (just, ya know, redesigned to not look stupid on an adult) would be cute. Or a riff on Elwin's outfit since Joshua was to be the next leader of Rosaria

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STAGES

Just a short run-through, since most would just be returning from before

FFI - Castle Cornelia FFII - Pandaemonium FFIII - Crystal Tower FFIV - Lunar Subterrane (this is one of my fave Dissidia stages btw) FFV - Interdimensional Rift FFVI - Narshe Outskirts FFVII - Planet's Core (Midgar was too confusing in NT, hated it) FFVIII - Promised Meadow FFIX - Alexandria FFX - Dream's End (I liked Besaid in NT too, but I think I liked the PSP stage more) FFXI - Empyreal Paradox (never played XI but this place is SO PRETTY) FFXII - Rabanastre FFXIII - Sunleth Waterscape (Orphan's Cradle in 012 and Eden in NT both kinda sucked and I think this is more visually distinctive) FFXIV - Porta Decumana FFXV - Insomnia (I would make this stage set at night this time tho) FFT - Orbonne Monastery FFType-0 - Akademeia Courtyard (with the Tempus Finis background) New Stages:

World of Final Fantasy - Nine Woods Hill FFXVI - Twinside (this is a tough choice; I think Twinside is associated with one of the best segments of the game and visually pretty, though I considered Rosalith or that Interdimensional Rift where Ultima starts lore dumping on Clive and Joshua)

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SHOOT I meant to mention maybe Zack as a Crisis Core rep, but honestly I guess VII has plenty and I don't know how much different he'd play than Cloud, so never mind. I feel like Zack deserves a slot, though, you know what I mean?

On a related note, I also think Marche Radiuju from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFTA my beloved) would be nice, but I have no delusions that he'd ever have a shot, and to be fair, even in my own fantasy roster, I feel like he'd be kinda weird to have in-game from a story perspective when he was from a "real world" type situation. If you played that game, you get it

[khorren]

2022 Video game round up

Towers of Fantasy This was one of those "the game everyone's playing" games doing the rounds. And uh… it was pretty I guess? That's about all I can say for it. The translation was pretty bad, story was confusing as hell, felt like I was thrown into a story several chapters in, and not a lot about it made sense. Combat was fun, but mostly…. spam buttons oh it's dead. Cool.

Utopia Origin Boything was playing weird ass MMOs on his phone to kill some downtime and I joined him for this one. It was uh…. it was. Built a house! Made things for the house. Explored some places. Met another player who was like "holy shit another player. Please let me give you all these free things so you like the game" because I think he was worried he was the last player playing, had invested a lot and was terrified of the game closing or something. We left shortly after that. I had to play this on a phone emulator.

Chimera Land

Another weird ass phone based MMO where there's a game in there somewhere probably? One thing this game had going for it was an amazing character creator with all kinds of weird ass races like…. polar bear, jellyfish, and uh…. thing. This was available for PC / steam download, but reports that both versions were not ported well, so again, played it via a phone emulator.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The modern Tomb Raider games have been pretty great. But oh my god deaths are brutal and pretty traumatising. This one had a fun little story, absolutely gorgeous game, lots of fun puzzles. But I really do not like the levels that have really tight spaces to crawl through, I just kind of look the other way while inching through cos Hrblghgblghghgggh do not like. But lots of fun things about the game, so whee.

Craftopia

One of the many crafting/survival games played this year and probably my favourite. Very charming. Has the feeling of Genshin/Breath of the Wild, and I say this as someone who has never touched Genshin. lol. Again, very slow, very chill. Some monsters to kill, but mostly building for building's sake and you make things and then find ways to automate them.

Raft You start off alone in the middle of the sea with a tiny like… 2 x 2 raft and you have to build it up via debris that floats towards you. I had a lot of fun with this and played for way too long before discovering how to make certain upgrades from the recipe book. Has a build mode where it automatically gives you all the things, but obviously you're meant to discover them as you play. Very chill, very slow.

Deep Rock Galactic This was pretty fun! Works best with 3 other friends. You play as a dwarf and go mine things and there's big scary space monsters trying to kill you. Various objectives on the map ranging from "kill all the things" to "find all the things" and you sometimes have to find + repair pipes. You play as one of 4 dwarves with a specific set of skills and it's just sort of a fun dink around game.

FF14

Didn't touch FF14 too much this year, came back very briefly for a "return for free" period but didn't end up doing much besides a set of Roulettes, hang around in Limsa looking pretty and chilled with some friends. I'm still at like the level 83 quests on the MSQ and can't bring myself to push forwards. So my love/hate relationship with that game continues.

V Rising

Survival game with a vampire twist. During the day you have to stay in the shadow or be burnt alive. It was pretty fun until it got insanely grindy mid-level. Needed a particular material to upgrade things, and getting that material was just a long-ass slog. Played for a few weeks then noped out.

Lost Ark

Had to give this one a go as it was The Big Thing at the time. And eh. It was…. okay. Didn't get super far, was mostly just questing and following story. It had a few mechanics that seemed interesting, but lost interest pretty soon after.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect 2 is one of those games I've put hundreds of hours in to over several playthroughs, and a couple of ME1 + ME3 runthroughs. When this became free as part of Amazon Prime giveaways I snapped it up. I did a run through of ME1 and ME2, and was part way through 3 when I decided I wanted to do my "worst case scenario" run through. It's a modded save file where basically everything that was bad that could have happened in 1 + 2 happened. I set up the file, played a little bit then got distracted by something shiny. But I basically have no allies from previous games and it's hilarious.

Valheim

Picked Valheim up again when they finally released the Mistlands. Taking it very slow though with a 3rd person to play with now who plays at a much slower pace. So we're only late-swamps, a long way off from Mistlands + new stuff. But that's okay. Love this game <3

Guild Wars 2

Home <3

(Help I can't find the version with aoife2 + seb) End of Dragons, the third expac came out this year, and while you could tell it was rushed in places, despite getting a 3 month delay, the whole experience was pretty solid. Some lovely side stories. Played a lot this year, doing either my own projects like crafting legendaries, making new characters with new stories, or helping the boy work on projects like the legendary amulet, or working on some WvW stuff. Can always find something to do. I love my gw2 home <3

[pillareternal]

clickbait magical realism

(Originally from my old blog, which i'm not gonna use any time soon. Edited to fit my more recent sensibilities. Told you I'll be blogging for real)

I. Clickbait

The 10's were weird.

Looking back, there's definitely a cultural divide between the current decade--however short it is--and the past. It truly feels like a different world, even though I lived through it. I'm a zoomer, for fuck's sake. I shouldn't feel that old.

Anyway, one of the main things that stuck out to me during that time was our relationship with "clickbait" and obviously fake information. Sometimes it's a joke. Sometimes it's just cynical ploy for traffic. Sometimes people actually believed their own chicanery. Compared to the societal dangers that it poses today, it's more of a curiosity at best. At worst, it's just annoying. Most of these observations are andecdotal.

Enter the scrolling app. Ever-infinite streams of microblogged content offer images and stories that are, at first glance, plausible enough to be true. Life-hacks, weird facts about anything, interesting takes, cool destinations that you'll never see, things that you might never see again as a passive observer until maybe your friend reshares it to you. The ephemeral, slapdash nature of these "informative" posts and memes become folklore, in the oldest and totalizing sense.

The transition period towards the current behavioral trends under Web2 demonstrated how much of our imaginations ran wild. Online platforms hungry for ad revenue just shell out hundreds and thousands of posts on technological optimism (if it wasn't Elon pre-Grimes, it's Yanko Designers back when they were huffing Dahir İnşaat's paint), pictures of places all over the world, and digital folk stories. Perhaps, like a Tlön-esque tulpa, these posts eventually created a bleeding effect; where bullshit just became accepted as "real, i guess". Media literacy lacking, a good chunk of these sensationalist drivel came off as semi-plausible.

Tumblr wasn't safe from sensationalism. Alongside the fan content, original works and cringe (now weaponized against "twitter refugee crisis") sit quirky trivia; some of it true, but filled to the brim with sensational bait ranging from common misconceptions such as "grass screams when they die" to straight up myths like Alexandria's Genesis. Add to it the reblog-addled culture jam of collaborative improvization (somehing that would only be replicated truly by TikTok's duet feature), the userbase of the platform at the time, and the fact that posts are also shared in other sites like facebook, it wasn't long until the site began adding to the internet's growing aggregate folklore.

Outside of Tumblr, scrolling apps and messageboards have a different crowd and different ethos. There were a lot of posts, images and videos (some of them altered for clickbait fodder) that catered to sensational shock and awe. Sharebait trivia and touching narratives are not the playground of the users, mostly passive observers and by design unable to garner a wide audience, but by the scores of mods behind these faceless pages with a match to burn. You wouldn’t believe what’s inside this microhome! The underground rainforest found within a Mexican Sinkhole! I made my own touchscreen mirror! Not to mention the endless top 10 lists that border on paranormal/conspiracy that caters to boomers and third world country users.

They offered a more mainstream kind of fantasy to the real world it purports to report on. In places like 9gag and Facebook where these posts are sandwiched in between #relatable comics and memes, they are made more to invoke the fantastic, like a Ripley’s Believe it or Not or a Guinness Book of Records kind of deal. In a general sense, these fascinating showcases of weird but believable sights in our world (like Son Doong cave and Inca bridges), got lumped in with the straight up historical revisionism (“and that kid was Albert Einstein.”), extremely cheesy sentimental love stories, and also like, really gobsmack pop science futurology, like the misleading “true shape of the planet”.

Looking back at these phenomena, most of these things felt like a surrealist alternate history. But perhaps, for the boomer user and also most internet users in the global south, its a source of wonder.

To those majority of enamored users, these posts, however misleading and overhyped as they are, doesn’t simply form an escape from reality; it expands on it, in a very absurd but plausible (to them) way. As the internet was our gate to the world, these folk-loric streams of content became our almanac, our view of the outside. In this blend of clickbait and reality, it paints a picture of a world where, while diverse and sometimes unpredictable as our real world, it feels like it exists in the minds of mainstream comic book writers.

Every narrative, slightly photoshopped image, and other fascinating things popping in our feeds tends toward a hollywood-esque mishmash of our everyday existence. It’s a 90’s blockbuster universe, where cryptids are real, historical figures become superheroic, flying cars are becoming closer to reality, the illuminati survives in secret, theophanies and paranormal events are an everyday thing, and crystals can heal.

II. Magical Realism

Magical Realism is a literary genre that delves within that broad spectrum of weird to absurd while being somewhat working around the gravity of the real world. Your Forrest Gumps and Big Fishes. Your Midnight’s Children and Life of Pi. Heck, maybe some Foucault’s Pendulum while you’re at it. They all point towards the fantastical in the face of the mundane, being short of becoming full on fantasy by making it interact/align with the laws of reality which dulls in comparison to it. This is how you get things like coming across an carnivorous mangrove island populated by meerkats after fleeing Emergency-era India or a mentally-impaired man managing to be the center of attention in Cold War-era America. In cases of more fantasy oriented elements such as those in Pan’s Labyrinth, it treats it with hitting you with the cold hard reality of the setting; ie. Falangist Spain.

The Magical Realism of early 2010s clickbait internet is grounded on reality by way of how conflicting and contradictory it is to itself. Politics and conspiracy perhaps played a part. I could see the Illuminati/New World Order shit on youtube, the Zeitgeist Project, the Venus Project, early meme culture (hell yeah buoye fuckin inject those photoshopped image macros to my veins) to be precursors of this phenomena, today becoming dime a dozen watered down and compartmentalized to cater to specific audiences. You’ll rarely see posts about the “eco-friendly solar powered technoparadise” of Rwanda from your sustainable living adventure Facebook friend being in the same league as a video made for Brazilian evangelists talking about Jesus’ face appearing on a bowl of soup nowadays.

In most respects, the early clickbait-fueled viral internet of the first half of the 2010s might perhaps be the most immersive piece of Magical Realism yet. Unintentional, organic, user/profit driven. Unlike its contemporaries, however, by its nature it doesn’t have an overarching theme. It doesn’t need to. At the end of the day, it’s just social media shitting out half-real information to our eyeballs to be sacrificed to the attention economy. Perhaps that’s what it is.

III. It's still going

In hindsight, the personalized nature of the internet fostered in the same forges as the Magical Realist phenomena is now seen as a detriment against liberal institutions. On the radicalization of modern politics, the “conspiracy singularity” and the rise of cultish populist authoritarianism, where deliberate disinfo on the lower classes with limited (but not total lack of) internet exposure has become the culprit. Talking about its implications would be a discussion that everyone and their dog has already pointed out (and validly unnerved about). Hell, most of this shit has moved to TikTok, where it's now getting mixed in with actual new age and ancient aliens woo.

Either way, the older sensationalist internet emains fascinating to me. It’s the place where we mindlessly believed random bullshit on the internet and found a world confirming the wild weirdness and adventure that we’ve seen in our pre-online media. If things haven’t become as social media-driven as we are today, how much of this aestheticized sensationalised world remain?

[metalhurricane]

Eddie Munson x Goth! reader, part 6

Note : y/n repeated one year, so she’s 18, Eddie’s supposed to be 19-20.

y/n’s shorter than Eddie

Masterlist

Eddie changed the song and turned on the volume. He had a mixtape in the tape player, and this is one that he thought you would like. He started to drive, while Wild Child by W.A.S.P. started playing.  y/n’s eyes got bigger and she grinned all the way to her ears. Suddenly, she started singing the lyrics. Dustin in front of her, catching anything he could so he wouldn’t move around the trunk too much, looked at her amused. Eddie started singing too, which got Mike laughing at his attempt.

Mike : “that’s weird, you’re being way more cautious with your driving now that y/n’s here...”

Eddie glared at him and turned the volume up even more. Meanwhile, y/n and Dustin were being fools in the trunk, doing air guitar and air battery and laughing together.  The ride was quick, and the little group arrived at Family video. Eddie got the contact off of the car, and turned to Dustin.

Eddie : “Make it quick” y/n : “Do they have horror movies ?”

Everyone looked at her.

Dustin : “Yes they do” Eddie : “and she likes horror too...” he whispered, turning around. Mike : “Obviously, like... look at her !” he told him, pointing y/n y/n : “oh, can I come with you just to check real quick ? I won’t be long, promise !” Mike : “Well... now we’re here, might as well we all just take a quick look” he turned to Eddie “Right ?” Eddie : “Ah. Kids, what we do for them, right ?”

y/n giggled and everyone got out of the car.

Dustin : “Oh y/n, you’ll meet my friends, they’re working here” he checked his watch “they’re supposed to work tonight”. y/n : “I’m happy to meet them Dustin.” she said smiling

--------

7:40pm

Robin was sitting in the chair behind the desk. She was throwing paper balls in the trash can, but with her head upside down. It was Monday night, so there wasn’t that many customers...

Until the entry bell rang.

Robin jumpscared on her seat, stood up really quick and brushed off her clothes that were covered with snacks’ crumbs.

“Hello, welcome to Family vi...”

She stopped when she saw y/n.  She never saw someone dressed like her before. Robin wasn’t shocked, just surprised. This unknown girl looked like someone you wouldn’t mess with, but she was pretty actually...

y/n : “ah yeah, my presence usually causes this kind of reaction” she giggled Robin : “no it’s not... I'm sorry. It’s just, I’ve never seen anyone look like you... you look very badass” y/n : “Oh... thank you” she smiled. y/n wasn’t accustomed to compliments Dustin : “Hi Robin, this is our new friend, y/n. y/n, this is my friend, Robin.” y/n : “Hi Robin” Robin : “Hi y/n” she waved and smiled. She noticed Eddie in the background and tried to hide a smile. “So, you have something to bring back I see ?”

While Dustin gave his cassette back, y/n, Mike and Eddie were strolling around the store, especially in the fantasy and horror sections. They were showing each other some funny movies names, when a voice was heard behind them.

“Welcome to Family Video ! May I help you ?”

The 3 of them turned to meet with a guy who had a lot of hair. Steve saw Mike who was with Eddie Munson and an unknown weird looking girl.

Mike : “Hi Steve, Dustin had a cassette he wanted to bring back.” he then turned to point at his friends “Steve, this is Eddie Munson, and y/n l/n. Eddie, y/n, this is Steve Harrington.” Eddie : “Yeah, Steve the hair Harrington” he grinned “I know you” Steve : “So do I, Eddie the freak Munson” he cocked his head on the side. y/n, looking at the boys : “Why do you give each others such stupid nicknames ?” she giggled.

Steve looked at her, more precisely this time. He’s never seen anyone like her... or maybe Elvira ? Yes, she was similar. The goth kind.

Steve : “Yeah, I don’t know, they are stupid indeed” he scratched his neck, and gave her his best smile “I don’t know if you heard of her, but you remind me of Elvira, mistress of the dark...” y/n : “Fuck yeah I know her, she’s so cool ! She’s everything I want to be when I grow up” she said with a child voice

They both laughed, which got Eddie very jealous. Of course Elvira, why he didn’t tell y/n she looked like her first ? Dustin arrived with Robin, and they saw everyone grouped together.

Dustin : “I thought y’all wanted to be quick ?” Eddie : “That’s right Henderson. We have other plans.” Dustin : “We are going to the arcade...” he said to Steve Steve : “Yeah, well, we’re working, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Dustin rolled his eyes, and told Steve maybe another time. While everyone was getting out of the store and saying goodbye, y/n turned around, waving at Robin and Steve.

y/n : “Bye Robin, bye Steve ! I’m happy I met you, I hope to see you soon !” she said with a big smile Robin : “yeah, same for us y/n ! Bye !” Steve : “Bye y/n”

As she left the store, Robin and Steve shared glances.

Robin : “Don’t even think about it.” Steve : “I haven’t said anything !!!” Robin : “I know what you’re thinking. I saw her first.” Steve : “I’m sorry Robin, but I don’t think she likes... boobies” Robin : “And I think she already has a type” she said, pointing to Eddie’s van Steve : “Uhh” Robin, laughing : “Looks like we got competition, Steve the hair Harrington.”

-------

7:50pm

Everyone finally arrived at the arcade. Gareth’s group has started playing already, as they arrived first. 

Everyone got along very well, playing games, and laughing together. y/n wasn’t very good at the games, and everyone made fun of her, because she lost every time. She laughed along, though.

Time went by, teens were spending their money in games and sodas, until 9:30 arrived.

Dustin : “I’m so sorry, but I promised my mom to be on time, or else... she won’t let me go out for DnD ever again !” Eddie : “alright, alright... you’re being a real baby tonight Henderson.”

Eddie walked up to you, you were sitting in front of that game, finishing your soda.

Eddie, putting a hand on your shoulder : “Hey y/n. The kids must go to bed.” y/n : “oh yeah ?” she looked at her watch “Who am I to put myself between a dad and his kids ?” she said grinning

Eddie laughed, and while y/n finished her drink, went to the other guys to tell them they were going home. y/n said bye to everyone, and got out of the arcade with Eddie, Mike and Dustin.

Eddie : “You told me you got a ride home.” y/n : “I do.” Eddie : “a skateboard is not a ride home, y/n” he giggled y/n : “I don’t want to bother...” Eddie : “I insist. I don’t want you to go back home alone, it’s late.” Dustin : “Yes please y/n, and we’ll do some air guitar again !” Mike : “God, please don’t...” y/n : “Okay okay, I’ll come.” She turned to Eddie “thank you again, Munson. I owe you one.” Eddie, brushing it off with his hand : “No problem.”

Everyone went into the car, but not air guitar this time. The kids were starting to be tired, so y/n sat in the passenger’s seat this time. They first dropped Mike, who waved them goodbye with a “thank you”, picked up Dustin’s bike, and drove to Dustin’s, to drop him and his bike off.

Dustin : “Thank you Eddie !” Eddie : “yeah, whatever. Sleep well, Henderson.”

Dustin ran to the door, and waved to his friends. y/n and Eddie were alone again.

y/n : “You love these kids, right ?” Eddie, surprised : “Well... they’re my lost little sheep ?” y/n, shaking her head : “No, I mean... it’s more than that, they’re your friends.” Eddie, looking at the road : “Yeah... they were made fun of, just like me... so I wanted to take them under my wing... I give them shit sometimes, but they’re good kids.”

Eddie drove to y/n’s and dropped her off. He turned off the car, not wanting to disturb y/n’s grandma in case she was already sleeping.

y/n : “thank you for bringing me back home, Eddie.” Eddie : “you are welcome sweetheart. But I still don’t consider that as a ride” he said, pointing the skate y/n, slightly blushing at the pet name : “Yeah I know... I was supposed to drive my grandfather’s car, but I got... a bad intuition.” Eddie : “a bad intuition ?” y/n : “Yeah. I know it’s stupid, but... my intuition has never failed me. And for some reason, since I got here, it has become even... more intense ?” Eddie : “I don’t think it’s stupid. And if you ever need a ride, just ask.” he smiled. y/n : “well, thank you again.” 

She quickly got out of the van. Eddie groaned.

y/n : “hehe, too quick. You’re not going to open my door every time Munson” she grinned “So, I’ll see you tomorrow at school ?” Eddie : “you bet your ass I will” 

y/n giggled, before closing the door and getting in her house.

Eddie left the neighborhood, and thought : 

“I would open that damn door for you for the rest of my life if I could.”

[gen-is-gone]

I've been deeply stuck on that post talking about certain groups of young people on (I think it was) twitter insisting that it's inappropriate to masturbate to the thought of someone without their permission. This is a little wild and all over the place, but bear with me.

People generally followed the logical conclusion to that horrible but of discourse down one path, which was that obviously, it's way creepier ask friends, acquaintances, and strangers for permission to jerk it to them, than it is to just do it and never speak of it, but I think that maybe misses the point, which is: yeah, they know it's inappropriate ask someone you're not in a pre-established sexual relationship with if it's okay to think of them while masturbating. The point is that they think that masturbating under most circumstances is wrong and inappropriate anyways. Or rather, that it's fine to masturbate, probably, but *thinking* about the wrong things or people (read: *most* things and people) is wrong. And it's all, again and always, the christofascism.

See, this is the thing with a lot, a huge amount of radfem sex-negative ideology and why it's so frustratingly easy for them to recruit under that theme: it's what a lot of young americans believe anyway. Sex-negativity and general hatred of non-normative (or honestly even pretty damn normative) sex practices slots comfortably into place within the mindset of people raised by white american christianity because it requires absolutely no adjustment of one's bedrock moral values. If you grow up in an american christofascist cult, as a lot of americans do, you are generally taught to believe that sex is almost always wrong and inappropriate, that it's uniquely damaging, and that it will, if not treated with caution, leave lasting moral taint. The whole current anti/purity/moral panic bullshit as it's manifesting in generally non-straight, generally leftist, most quite young online spaces, centers around the same basic conceit only with different set dressing, ie, sex is almost always wrong and inappropriate, that it's uniquely damaging, and that it will, if not treated with caution, leave lasting traumatic scars. Protestantism in a gay hat, yes we've all seen it, etc. A lot of folks only realize how damaging the beliefs they were raised with are when they realize they are marginalized by those beliefs, especially non-straight, non-cis folks. So when it comes to something like masturbation, sure, you don't belive in white american christianity, it's not a sin to rub one out, but. But.

Live action, filmed porn is inherently exploitative and no sex work could ever be truly ethical, also porn rots your brain and leads to addiction and an inability to distinguish real sex from porn/fiction from reality. Erotic art, cartoons, and hentai are bad becauce they are exaggerated and anatomically improbable and again lead to an inability to distinguish fiction/porn from reality. Wanking to the thought of celebrities is wrong because you don't know them or have access to them and thus they cannot consent to your sexual fantasies about them. Wanking to the thought of friends and acquaintances is wrong because even though you do have access to them, by asking for their consent to feature in your sexual fantasies, you have already nonconsensually involved them in said fantasies. (And like, yeah, that one i think we can all agree with, that asking people for permission to masturbate to the thought of them *is* nonconsensually involving them in your sexual fantasies, but note the Catch-22 there). The end result is that the range of permissable sexual fantasies becomes so narrow as to be functionally nonexistent. In other words, masturbation is wrong and inappropriate, uniquely damaging, and will, if not treated with caution, leave lasting moral taint *and/or* traumatic scars not just on you, but on anyone you fantasize about. And at the root of this, left unexamined because white american christianity best prefers to exist as the unquestionable default, is the idea that your thoughts themselves can be morally wrong,and that thinking the wrong things, regardless of whether you act on those thoughts, will make you a bad person. These young people agonizing over perfectly normal desires and wildly expanding the boundaries of any one person's right to consent, still believe in thought crime, that they'll be surveilled, judged, and punished for thinking bad thoughts/things, except instead god doing the surveilling, it's a panopticon of their own built up terror and anxieties.

And like the thing is, I imagine for the vast majority of these folks, all of this is happening well-below conscious thought, in the realm of, again, unexamined bedrock belief. They don't have to examine it, because it fits so easily already.

[howtofightwrite]

Considerations for Slaying a Dragon

Realistically, if One Person needed to defeat an approximately house sized, fire breathing Dragon, what weapons would they use? Medieval weapons of course, and Magic is definitely allowed.

I know that realistically it seems like an impossible task, and that’s part of it. A lot of people have died fighting this dragon, and this character is only capable of it because his rich father has been training him since he was little, so maybe that helps? (I’m trying my hand at subverting the ‘princess in a tower’ trope)

I honestly just don’t know how to handle this. Should I just say “Fuck It” and chuck whatever realism is left out the window? That’s kinda what I’ve been doing so far, as I’d just given him a sword a lot like the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy, but I thought I’d ask you anyway.

So, there’s a couple problems here. Let’s start with the dragon.

There is no concrete set of rules for dragons. Everything is particular to the story you’re looking at, or, in this case, writing. Giant, fire breathing, murder lizard only gets you so far. Dragons range from being just another wild animal to thinking beings with superhuman intellect, depending on the setting. Similarly, they range from being just another chunk of meat with a slightly crunchy exterior, to literally immortal and impossible to kill, with examples everywhere in between.

Obviously, there’s a bit of a difference between a story of someone hunting a mundane apex predator who’s been picking off professional game wardens, and someone trying to slay Jormungandr. These are entirely different genres of storytelling, and it’s not as simple as pinning down a size and saying, ‘it breathes fire.”

What are the best weapons? It depends on the dragon’s durability. Things like lances or ballistae are probably your best options, if they work at all. Of course, if the only weapon that can harm it is an enchanted letter opener, then you’d need to use that, and try to figure out a way around the limitations of it not having an edge, and only being a few inches long.

This feeds back into a different problem, and it’s not there already, but heading into dangerous territory. Magic is a cheat. When used carelessly, it will leach all of the tension from your story, and cause the entire thing to collapse. “Just kill the dragon with magic,” isn’t going to be a satisfying ending, and leaves you with the question, “why didn’t any of the last thirty would-be dragon hunters think of that?”

The more difficult that the magic is (by any meaningful metric), the less harm it will cause to your tension, and there is even potential for benefit. If your character is trying to find a magical means to dispatch the dragon, and that’s the core of their quest, it does go a long way towards why none of the previous hunters simply zapped that overgrown iguana out of the sky.

(I’m trying my hand at subverting the ‘princess in a tower’ trope)

Don’t.

There are times that I could gleefully shoot that website into the sun, and this one of those.

It can be a very useful when you’re trying to pull a work apart and see all the underlying thematic elements.

However, when you start looking at it like a shopping list, something is about to go very, very, wrong.

This is one of those times.

What you have is a rich, privileged kid, swooping in to save the day. That’s not a “subversion,” of a damsel in distress (of any form), that’s a version of Bruce Wayne’s superpower being his bank account.

TV Tropes is not a dictionary of narrative elements, it’s a thesaurus, and if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, should be avoided for the same basic reasons. Be especially cautious of picking a trope and trying to, “subvert,” or, “deconstruct,” it. Both are very popular in the Tropes community, but are exceedingly difficult to reverse engineer off a Tropes article.

An actual subversion of the damsel in distress would be the comic strip of a dragon that is casually executing would be rescuers because the princess isn’t interested in them, and the king’s posted reward is marrying her off.

Another, classic, subversion of the damsel in distress would be Princess Leia in A New Hope, and the host of imitators that followed over the next couple decades.

However, Batman is not a subversion of a damsel in distress. Not only because he’s male, but also because he’s not in distress.

I honestly just don’t know how to handle this. Should I just say “Fuck It” and chuck whatever realism is left out the window? That’s kinda what I’ve been doing so far, as I’d just given him a sword a lot like the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy, but I thought I’d ask you anyway.

I’m going to say something that will sound utterly bizarre: “Realistic” is what you make of it. It’s in how you create and justify your world.

This is also why that site can be useful. If you want a snapshot of all the different systems of magic used in fiction, it’s all in one place. Granted, some of it is going to be a bit distorted by fans, who are distracted by how awesome they think their favorite series is. But it is a quick place to start a lit review.

When you’re telling a story, you’re going to be influenced by the media you’ve consumed. That can be books, TV, video games, comic books, music. Very importantly, there isn’t a wrong answer here.

The world you create is boundless. If you want to tell a story about people swinging around implausibly massive swords, that’s an entirely valid option. You may want to find a way to justify it, or you might just want to run with it, and let the audience deal. It only becomes a problem if your world doesn’t support the idea.

Now, the Buster Sword is a visual motif. It’s not going to have the same effect in prose. Obviously, if you’re writing a webcomic or doing animation work, there’s a legitimate aesthetic in comically oversized weapons. If you want to go that route, there’s nothing wrong with it.

Similarly, greatswords are anachronistic in medieval settings, but most people won’t catch that, and it’s really something you only need to worry about if you’re chasing historical authenticity.

Finally, I would not discount spears. They’re extremely underrepresented in modern fantasy, but have a huge footprint in myth.

If your character’s quest is to find a mythic weapon to kill the dragon, that’s fine. You now have a very solid explanation for why that weapon is different from the world around it.

-Starke

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Considerations for Slaying a Dragon was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[onesunofagun]

I shall now yell about Ingo, please stand by:

Ingo’s transformation from the underappreciated backbone of the ranch to an absolute ruff-wearing cantaloupe of a man is also pretty interesting (if you’re the kind of person who absorbs the Zelda series through your skin like a frog to live).

I’ve bolded the key points for skimmers.

Granted, the manga has it that Ingo just gets brainwashed by Twinrova into being a staunch follower of Ganondorf. That’s not canon, but it’s not informing any of this thinking, either way. 

In the beginning of OoT we meet Talon by waking him up from a nap, and we learn pretty quickly that he’s lazy and often yelled at by his daughter for slacking off like this. Ingo at the ranch confirms again that Talon doesn’t pull his weight around there, and since Malon’s still a child, it’s pretty obvious that Ingo’s settled with the bulk of the work.

Ingo is grumpy, he’s resentful, and he complains a lot. But he does do the work, and you can find him (presumably) in the process of mucking out the stables. 

Let’s examine what he does at the ranch:

Epona really liked that song... Only I could tame that horse... Even Mr. Ingo had a hard time...

Now, Epona is established in game to be a real winner of a horse. She’s fast, she’s smart, she’s got a lovely sorrel coat and white mane that seems to be quite rare or highly prized coloring. The catch is, she is notoriously wild. The only people she tolerates are Malon and Link, due in large part to being soothed by the song Malon’s mother taught her.

Ingo had to really try to crack this horse, which Malon’s observation suggests is unusual. 

Epona is very young when we first see her, so it’s never really revealed if she was caught wild, or bred at the ranch with a very headstrong temperament.

Ingo’s clearly the guy that’s breaking them in, though. The most Talon is doing is... sleeping in with the cuccos. We never see any organisation of the cuccos, in terms of egg collection or poultry farming, but nevertheless, Talon has the much less physical jobs even if he was doing them. His focus seems to be cuccos, deliveries to the castle and book keeping between naps (and to be fair it’s probably a little depression related, given the dead wife).

Malon gives us a cow later on, and she’s got the egg for the crowing cucco that wakes up Talon, so I’d like to assume for simplicity’s sake that even as a kid, Malon was up at dawn most days helping Ingo with the cows and milking them. It’s never really implied that she has amazing skill in dealing with horses, just that Epona has a special connection with her specifically. Other than that, Malon is simply kind and respectful of her animals (though I’ve got no idea how she got that cow to Link’s treehouse and that’s worth investigating). 

Later on, Ingo is also shown to be a competent rider. Enough that he has absolutely no qualms in challenging Link to races for wagers, and was quite confident of his ability to win.

The takeaway is, Ingo is usually VERY GOOD with both caring for and training horses, if not breeding them for the ranch.

That kind of lends to his grumbling, when he is referring to himself as ‘the Great Ingo’ and comparing himself to Talon, who is a ‘bum’. His claim to greatness may not be undeserved, at least in horse circles, and especially if he’s not getting particular credit for it, his bitterness and frustration (alongside envy, exhaustion, and dreams of recognition) would be quite deeply run.

So it seems that his friend and employer is clearly taking some advantage of him, especially after the death of Malon’s mother.

So now, let’s examine his feelings, and how he changes.

The feelings Ingo has about that are pretty textbook for the sort of thing ‘evil takes hold of and twists’, in the Zeldaverse.

Focussing on the game itself, Malon says this as an adult:

Since Ganondorf came, people in the Castle Town have gone, places have been ruined, and monsters are wandering everywhere. Mr. Ingo is just using the ranch to gain Ganondorf's favor... Everyone seems to be turning evil...

We do see other characters in Hyrule become influenced by the ‘darkness in their hearts’ as byproduct of Ganondorf’s reign. 

A prominent example of a character who was visibly dissatisfied with their lot, and then notably changes (while praising Ganondorf for what he’d done), is the Castle Guard who is heavily implied to have become the Poe Dealer. Even if by some slim means it’s not the same person, the Poe Dealer does still express that they could not do the work they do without Ganon as King, and that they now benefit from him being in that position and are grateful to him.

The Kakariko Carpenters seem to have given into their fantasies about living among the Gerudo women, and gone out to the Valley and gotten themselves taken prisoner. Following work near the fortress, the team chooses to act on their selfish desires and go for broke, chasing their dreams. They weren’t previously prepared to act upon these fantasies when Link was young, admittedly much milder in their still very prominent obsession, but seven years later, they’re quite happy to risk it all and piss away the stability of their careers (and nearly their lives) at the first opportunity.

Anyway, the trend is, those across Hyrule who are unhappy with their lot before Ganondorf’s coup tend to be ‘corrupted’ by seven years later, and appear to have given in to a twisted version of whatever they most wanted. 

This is noteworthy especially because the language in the game revolves around the Sacred Realm being opened and corrupted, too, by Ganondorf’s unbalanced heart and selfish goals. It is unable to be ‘sealed’ again while Link has the Master Sword. In aLttP, we know there is a mirror like effect to do with the sacred turned dark realm, in which it reflects the hearts of men. 

So it is very reasonable to say, that for OoT in particular, much of this evil influence plaguing the land and preying on the darkness an people’s hearts is a result of the corruption of the Sacred Realm. It is an indirect byproduct of Ganondorf’s acquiring of the Triforce, but not necessarily something he himself does to people on purpose, unlike the brainwashing of Nabooru.

Mr. Ingo is just using the ranch to gain Ganondorf's favor... But Dad... He was kicked out of the ranch by Mr. Ingo... If I disobey Mr. Ingo, he will treat the horses so badly...

This explains a lot of the more callous and greedy behaviour that Ingo shows later on, and why it seems to disappear when he is truly humbled by Link. 

Link’s win serves as a reminder of Ingo’s stagnating skill with horses, the very thing that made him feel so deserving of praise and recognition in the first place, in that for everything he now has control of at the ranch, he still cannot control that horse. He has become as much of a bum as Talon ever was, relegating Malon to do all the hard work while Ingo struts around uselessly. He’s even lost his touch with the Horses so much, in his arrogance, that now he has taken up mistreating them and using harsh and abusive methods (according to Malon’s concerns).

The humiliation and shame takes hold, his pride shattering with the loss of Epona-- not only as a valuable asset, but also as the horse he could never truly tame.

The dark feelings he was holding onto are let go of, as he regains a sense of humility, and the corruptive influence upon him dissipates. He even seeks out Talon to bury the hatchet and invite him back to the ranch.

Oh, I have to tell you about Mr. Ingo... He was afraid that the Evil King might find out that Epona had been taken away... It really upset him! But one day, all of a sudden, he went back to being a normal, nice person! Now my dad is coming back...I can't believe it, but peace is returning to this ranch!

But what about his obsession with Ganondorf in particular?

When the coup happened, Ingo watched the King of the Gerudo unwittingly play out a sort of grand parallel to what Ingo felt should happen on the ranch. To Ingo’s perception, I think Ganondorf was representing an ideal version of Ingo himself. 

A man of the desert, where hard work and grit are as second nature to survive the harsh conditions. A man frustrated with the King of Hyrule’s shit, and forced to swear fealty to him despite being a King himself. A man resplendent with wealth, with fine and flashy clothes and plentiful jewelry.

And perhaps the most important note of all, the Gerudo in OoT? 

They’re horse people. 

They love horses. Ganondorf’s horse is reputed to be a purebred Black Gerudo Stallion, which is obviously a specialty breed, that is fully armoured and as flashy as he is. When the Gerudo cut the bridge leading to the valley, the only way in and out is to have a skilled horse jump the gap. 

They also have a huge horseback archery range, and prowess in the sport is an incredible source of respect amongst the Gerudo, and many of the guards possess bladed polearms suitable for mounted use. From this, it can be assumed that during the recent civil war, Gerudo weapons, war tack and military tactics were probably built around mounted cavalry archers foremost, with a lesser focus on light and heavy cavalry aside (iron knuckle armour springs to mind).

Anyway, Horses are very important to the Gerudo in the era of Ocarina of Time.

So Ganondorf is also unique in the sense that he is the King of a people who value what it is that Ingo does very highly. He, of all people, stands to immediately recognise the knowledge and skill that Ingo possesses in rearing horses.

So this is a man who successfully stages a coup of Hyrule, who clearly inspires Ingo to do much the same of the ranch, and who Ingo also feels is very likely to take his side should he appeal the matter.

And Ganondorf does.

And if that’s not a great compliment to Ingo’s actual skill, I don’t know what is, because Ganondorf is not a man that suffers fools. He’s got a limited patience when it comes to shit that is beneath his notice. Clearly, he recognises that Ingo is indeed the backbone of that ranch-- and the main reason for the quality of its Horses-- and rewards this accordingly.

And for Ingo, being on decent terms with the big scary goth King is a very, very good place to be. But it’s more than that!

What a guy! Not only did he deliver on Ingo’s long due validation, he gave Ingo everything he’d ever dreamed of having to his name, and the authority to kick Talon to the curb. He gets it! Ganondorf, this great eight foot beacon of freshly sought divine power and topaz-encrusted glory, this absolute unit of a man, this great underdog horse-lover after Ingo’s own heart; he really understands how great Ingo is. Ganondorf is paving the way for people like them! Oh, to rub shoulders wiht such greatness when the rest of Hyrule is scorned. 

Ingo feels seen. The Great Ganondorf made all that thankless time spent shovelling horse shit while Talon slept mean something. The Gerudo appreciate Ingo’s talents.

And all Ingo has to do is keep turning out really good horses, and promise to present the King with his finest.

So Ingo knows he’s in deep shit when he gets cocky and loses Epona to a wager, who at this point, he’s prepared pretty well and sunk a lot of money into on the idea that she’s going to Ganondorf. 

Who he’s probably bragged to about how fast she is.

He lost her to some jerk in tights who’d barely ridden before, too. And then when Ingo tried to cheat him out of the win, the kid jumped the damned fence an in ass-bustingly cool move that really just drove home how excellent and rare Epona was.

One does not promise the King of the Gerudo a fast horse and then fail to deliver, let alone for such a stupid reason.

Honestly, by the end, the man’s just happy to be alive.

Also I’d like to think he and Talon had a much fairer delegation of work and forgave each other, each really learning to appreciate what they have and what’s really important.

how the fuck did the Kokiri leave the forest for this scene anyway, they don’t even have their faries???