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ajaxwrites · 3 years ago

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GENSHIN IMPACT FANFIC REC LIST II

(previous: part i)

Seaglass by Aevas

There was more to the contract than a gnosis and test of Liyue. It seemed like a simple deal five hundred years ago: so long as Morax never had a soulmate, the Tsaritsa would never harm Liyue and she would not get his gnosis. But the moment he gained a soulmate, all that belonged to him was forfeit. He thought the deal left Liyue safe—he'd lived thousands of years without a soulmate. The Tsaritsa would be dead and gone by the time she'd have a chance to collect.

Five hundred years later, Childe appears in Liyue, Zhongli gains a soulmate mark, and everything falls apart.

(The obligatory soulmate AU, featuring a Zhongli with PTSD, an oblivious Childe, and demon-worshipping cultists.)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: I CANNOT BELIEVE I SLEPT ON THIS FIC FOR SO LONG. Read it and I mean it! I admitted initially steered clear of this fic because I wasn’t comforted with a soulmate tartali fic pre-Osial but this fic is actually post-Ostial *facepalm* The writing is phenomenal and Aevas does some beautiful worldbuilding that you typically don’t see in Genshin Impact fics. I love the dynamic between Childe and Zhongli here and the angst is real. The author writes the two as very human characters who makes mistakes, etc. and notably Zhongli struggles with the concept of Childe as his soulmate (who understandably is upset by the rejection when he realizes). They get better though. Also very plotty. A+ writing.

it's a hard rock life for us by reptilianraven

“Ah, no need to worry about that,” Azhdaha waves a dismissive hand. “There is no real Kun Jun. He’s dead.”

A leaf blows past and plaps onto Aether’s face.

“You killed him???” Paimon screeches.

“No,” Azhdaha scrunches his eyebrows. “He was dead when I found him.”

“And you just decided to wear his corpse?” Aether says, leaf still on his face.

He shrugs. “It was free real estate.”

“Azhdaha...” Morax says, sounding vaguely pained.

Or the one where Historia Antiqua Chapter II: No Mere Stone goes a little bit different and Azhdaha gets more time.

He ultimately uses that time to bully Morax into confronting his immortal neuroses, to make Aether and Paimon suffer, and to figure out how to get that ginger boy Morax has his eye on to make a move already.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe, Past Azhdaha/Zhongli

Notes: Very lighthearted, humor-filled fic. Love how Azhdaha is so flippant. Interactions with Zhongli and Childe are pure gold.

if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes by moonlight_mist

Childe has a Weapon problem- specifically, that he can't keep one.

He's too reckless, too wild, and too keen on pushing his Weapon partners past their limits. He's just about ready to give up when he meets Zhongli, a Weapon who just might be the solution- so long as Childe can manage to keep his dick in his pants.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a Soul Eater AU with some college/university AU vibes (?) but you don’t really need to know much about the anime. It’s a cute AU and I love the premise. Light angst but otherwise, it’s a pretty semi-plotty fic. Easter egg Kaeya and Diluc though.

To Kill A God by IlluminanceinTales

In Snezhnaya, they call them sansis—lost souls that have no guidance but themselves. It’s an apt description, given that most of the time, wannabe-Archons have to go through dozens of tests with nothing as their reference, relying solely on their wit and strength and hoping it would be enough. At least, until they survive the end of the whole game—and they might not have to undergo a painful reincarnation which feels like a hundred bones being stitched together again.

On his seventh game, Childe Tartaglia reincarnates this time in the body of a young man.

Damn, he thinks, looking down at his thin body, his slightly calloused fingers. This won’t be good when facing the other Hydro Decisions.

In a world where an Archon's position is not chosen but fought for in games, Childe Tartaglia is a Hydro Decision who's poised to become the next Hydro Archon. Of course, that's only if he survives his seventh reincarnation. All would be so much easier if it weren't for a certain Geo Archon interfering with every possible chance he gets.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Think Hunger Games meet Political Intrigue meet Genshin Impact. Love the premise and world building that’s done. Features overprotective Zhongli and lots of Childe whump. Has one or two supplementary OCs that aren’t really important outside of plot device reasons. Warning for character death tho lmao.

Three's a Family by IlluminanceinTales

Childe finds a kid that looks just like him.

Of course Zhongli wants to keep him.

Or: How a harbinger and an archon accidentally become fathers. The kid is their wingman

Ships: Childe/Zhongli (?)

Notes: Your everyday cute AF kid fic. Fluffy as hell and super cute. Zhongli and Childe get domestic pretty quickly. Xiao gets dubbed a grandfather and begrudgingly plays along. Super wholesome.

in pitch dark i go walking in your landscape by snowbrigade

He glanced down at him, at the silvery scars peeking out from beneath his robe, and at his eyes, properly now. They were the bright blue of high quality noctilucous jade, but he could see it, an underlying darkness.

Zhongli wondered what his eyes betrayed about himself. --

Rex Lapis is dead. Zhongli, formerly known as triad leader Rex Lapis, is a detective investigating his own "death." Childe, also known as Tartaglia of the Fatui mafia, is undercover as an escort looking to kill Rex Lapis- until someone beats him to it, and he wants to know who. Goals intersecting, they form a partnership of ulterior motives.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: There’s like one scene that skews NSFW but otherwise surprisingly not explicit. Really fun AU. Like how the author addresses Childe’s reaction to being stuck with the undercover escort stuff and how the dynamic between the two develops. Pretty plotty so far.

Phantom Lines by iskendaris

“It’s a measure of one’s self, Mr Zhongli.” Childe says. “Maybe you don’t understand it since you work as a consultant, but as an ambassador from the Tsaritsa, as one who fights in her name— this is how I learn to know the measure of myself.” “I understand,” Zhongli says thoughtfully. “It is a warrior’s way, to test one’s strength against the incomparable. To find where one falls short. To find where one has risen to the challenge.”

In which Childe has insomnia, vandalizes public property and runs into a mysterious funeral consultant on his first night in Liyue.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: THE FEELS. I can only describe this as the fic where Zhongli pays Best Boyfriend Ever only to FUCK UP big time (via Gnosis deception). Poor, poor Childe. Look, he gave the boy feelings and then broke him. You can really feel Childe fall in love in this love. He also does mental swooning a lot lmao.

adventitious by Anonymous

It's said the Ley Lines remember all things that happen in this world, from the surface down to the deepest depths... But in the hidden corners where the Gods' gaze does not fall, there are those who dream of dreaming.

There's a dormant bud where Kaeya's eye once was. One day, it will bloom. (Never forget: memory is untrustworthy.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: I don’t even know where to start. This is very headcanony and lore-focused. Very much concentrated on Khaenri'ah. The implications of this story is grotesque to say the least (according to this fic, Visions are the literal eyes of the people of Khaenri'ah). Warnings for eye and body horror.

Without Those Dark Memories by StrangeDiamond

Diluc awakens in Stormterror’s Lair with no memories of the past five years. Kaeya is on the trail of a rogue alchemist, with a habit of testing his chemicals on unwilling human subjects. Now, in addition to capturing the criminal, Kaeya has to shake him down for an antidote . . . and deal with an amnesiac Diluc who acts exactly like he did before their brotherhood fell apart. (Standalone Fic.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: This is sort of a classic amnesia fic. I particularly really liked the way that Kaeya was written in this. I feel like the author did a really good job nailing his character and they have a way of capturing the subtle things.

Through the warmth, through the cold by strikedawn

“It’s you!” Paimon shouted with a twirl in mid-air.

“…Excuse me?"

They were drunk. Were they drunk? Was he drunk? Because Kaeya had the feeling his guests had been talking to him for a while now, but none of their words had made any sense whatsoever.

That was, until Venti stepped firmly in front of Kaeya’s desk and set his hands on the top, the better to lean over towards Kaeya and say: “For the end of the Windblume festival, Sir Kaeya Alberich, we’re going to auction a date with you.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Shortword, Kaeya gets auctioned off. Diluc makes impulsive (but good) decisions and scores himself a Date but displays an inability to do Date Planning. Venti deserves a pat on the back. Very sweet.

Hide and Seek by Kiri_Kaitou_Clover

Childe did not expect regaining his memories would bring him such frustration.

He makes the best of the situation by messing with one amber eyed consultant in anyway he can.

A reincarnated storm god wades through life in Liyue, all while screaming about one dragon god's incompetency at being human.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Features Childe as Osial’s very exasperated reincarnation, who gets the joy of discovering that his rival/enemy Morax is not only an idiot but also broke AF. He still falls in love anyway. Contains this golden line:

"Did... did that complete blockhead really use my money in order to get me a gift that basically says that he is proposing to me?!"

(Osial was screaming. When had the other god become like this?! Had he always been like this?!)

Getting that Bread by tzitzimeme

Concubine AU where Zhongli is Emperor, Xiao is an assassin sent to kill him while disguised as a woman in his imperial harem, and the only reason he doesn't actually do it is because he pities Zhongli for being so catastrophically stupid (also Xiao falls in love).

Ships: Zhongli/Xiao

Notes: Like Xiao says, Zhongli is an idiot. Fluff and humor filled. Xiao spends a good 95% of this exasperated by Zhongli’s bullshit.

prayers for a boy by Recluse

The only way to reconciliation is fierce combat!

Hm... Come to think of it, there will be a lot of interesting news to be heard the next time we gather for drinks. Filling in the blanks.

Ships: N/A

Notes: I...don’t really know where to begin with this? It’s exactly what the summary implies...but more? I was tempted to describe this as the fic where Zhongli puts his foot in his mouth but...that’s not exactly write? I feel like this was more of a character study. It explores the aftermath of the Osial Incident and how Zhongli and Childe reconnect. Platonically...though I guess it can be read romantically.

one kind of longing, two places of sorrow by lady_peony

Zhongli's hands rest behind his back, both gloved hands clasping one another. His fingers tighten around one another for the merest moment, before he relaxes his grip.

"There is a tradition in Liyue," Zhongli says, his back still to Childe standing behind him, "of inviting out a companion to a last meal before a farewell."

A pause.

"A tradition?" Childe echoes.

"Yes."

"With a companion?"

"Yes."

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The fic where neither of the two communicate about jackshit but go on a quiet, sad not-date before Childe leaves for Snezhnaya. Childe pulls (? on accident or on purpose, I can not tell) the equivalent of leaving the jacket in the car post-date to get date to call for the second date. Also, the author has a gift for like...writing angst...without writing angst? Like the whole fic is like brimming with everything that the characters aren’t saying but the thoughts aren’t necessarily written out BUT YOU KNOW THOSE DUMBFUCKS ARE JUST LIKE. BRIMMING WITH FEELS?

The People of Liyue by queer_occurrences

But Zhongli whispers, his low voice rooted in the back of Childe’s mind. “Changsun, the merchant, who is never too Mora-enthralled to turn away a needy child. There’s Tiantian—she will allow anyone to join the Adventurer’s Guild—she knows what it is to be desperate.”

Childe ducks away from them and hurries out over the bridge. It’s a warm, sunny day, the kind he would have complained about, whining about his delicate Snezhnayan skin. “It’ll burn, or worse, freckle. Would you still like me if I was freckled?”

Then Zhongli would say, “The people of Liyue will remember your sacrifice.” And he would wrinkle his nose.

Or: after it all goes down, Childe takes a walk.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The author has a way with perfectly balancing angst with humor in a way that makes you cackle. There’s a lot of feels in this one. Zhongli tries communicating--Childe runs away a lot. There’s a lot of love for Liyue in this one.

cold blooded, warm blooded, hearts all the same by reptilianraven

Teyvat Petting Zoo @tyvtpettingzoo

Well would you look at that! Zhongli, our resident spinytail iguana, has gotten quite cozy with Childe, our new (and very feisty) ginger ferret! Aren’t they adorable all cuddled together like this? 😍😍😍

[Attached image shows a brown spinytail iguana curled up against a ginger ferret. The iguana’s head is nuzzled under the snout of the ferret.]

At the Teyvat Petting Zoo, Zhongli and Childe fall in love.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: ...I promise I’m not weird. This is just super cute. Cross-species love affair? Childe the ferret is very besotted. The internet is confused and the zoo keepers are just done.

a geo archon's guide to the modern era by Erina

“Morax,” Xiao says after Zhongli finishes his retelling of the incident. “He thinks you’re a weirdo.”

“No, don’t say that,” Barbatos snickers. “You’ll give him hope that this is salvageable.” He lowers his voice. “Morax, he thinks you’re a boomer.”

(In which Zhongli hibernates for centuries and wakes up in the modern world)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This took me, I shit you not, FIVE SEPARATE ATTEMPTS to read. Not because it was bad but BECAUSE THE SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT WAS REAL. Like, omg, just reading about Zhongli’s introduction to modernity made me want to dig a hole and die. Super funny though. Do not read in public or you will look like a lunatic. Has a...parallel (?) fic in the same series called buy two get one archon free where Zhongli gets reversed isekai’d into an anime convention.

time flies like an arrow by Erina

He’s tired, tired of the unbreakable loop of watching his loved ones pass on, tired of getting attached only for the connection to be violently ripped away from him. He wonders if the real victors during the Archon War were those who perished, who died long before their godhood turned into a curse that chained them to the land that they were fighting for.

But that is not a problem for Childe to worry about. That is Zhongli’s burden to bear, delivered to him in a pretty package years ago in the form of a gnosis.

His very first contract.

(Zhongli and Childe, across many lifetimes)

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This is a quiet fic. It’s this kind of slice-of-life fic colored by this overpowering sense of love and loss as Zhongli remains immortal and Childe dies and lives and dies and lives for hundreds of lifetimes, but always finds his way back to his geo archon. It’s so lovely but also unbearably sad.

Tartaglia’s Favorite Professor by GreyLiliy

The famed hitman Tartaglia of the Fatui Syndicate spends his days as the charming college student Childe. The two lives remain as separate as possible in order to maintain a flawless cover to keep the authorities off his back and to better serve the Tsaritsa.

However, new intel about a rival syndicate intersects his two lives in a way he could never have predicted.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Mafia AU meet College AU. Childe is somehow both a horny AF college student and murderous hitman. Zhongli gives off major DILF vibes. GreyLily somehow makes this work while also avoiding cringe. Highly recommended!

like a handprint on my heart by fallingintodivinity

“Strictly off-the-record,” Jean says, with a small smile, “I’m really happy to see you and Captain Kaeya getting along again, Master Diluc.”

“We’re not – we’re not getting along,” Diluc tells her, indignant. “We’re working together. Unwillingly, I might add.”

“Yes – oh, yes, of course.”

Diluc stares at Jean suspiciously. “Are you laughing at me?”

Jean clears her throat primly. “I would never.”

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Super, super cute! Sort of reads like a first date fic except genshin impact style? Writing style is very refreshing!

#genshin impact #genshin impact fanfic #fanfic rec #rec list #zhongli/childe #childe/zhongli #tartali #chili #diluc./kaeya #luckae #fanfiction #took a while but i have been steadily reading my way through the fandom #still not all my recs #but you can check my ao3 for what i'm reading lmao

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ellasadventuresinfandoms · 3 years ago

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Okay, back in May @isolatedphenomenon asked me if I had an les mis fic recs and I went "oh boy do I !" and then promptly fucked off and disappeared from tumblr for like 6 months...

Anyway on the off chance people are interested, here is my vastly too long list of my favourite les mis fanfic (that I'm almost 100% sure I'll have accidentally missed some of my favourites off of...)

The vast majority of these are main pairing Enjolras/Grantaire, so I've put those first, divided into multi-chaptered and then one-shots. Below that will be other pairings!

Multi-chaptered

• Witch Boy Series : magic AU, starting with Grantaire solving Enjolras' curse - this is just Incredible world building which gets better as it goes on - my favourite is the Babet interlude

• World Ain't Ready : you know how fandoms tend to have a fic that is just associated with it ? in my experience, for les mis this is it - and well deserved ! High school, fake dating AU with some of the most engaging writing

• BE : Enjolras is dragged back into theatre production, helping Eponine put on a production of Hamlet - really love the characterisation in this, and this is really one of those modern AUs that actually feels like real life - really good writing

• After the End : the definitive apocalypse AU in my eyes - les amis are an underground resistance to the dystopian government - really wonderful characterisation of Grantaire and the amis

• You never have to wonder; you never have to ask. : I tend to find fic by scrolling through bookmarks of a pairing, which means I often see repeats; this is a fic that if I see I just re-read cause I know I'll enjoy it - the amis sparked a failed rebellion, and now 18 months later Grantaire ends up staying at Enjolras' after returning to Paris for Marius and Cosette's wedding

• Your Heart on Your Skin : Soulmate AU with flower tattoos marking important emotions and events - wonderful concept and world building

• Impatient to Be Free : Daughters of Bilitis AU - if that doesn't make you excited I don't know what else to say to convince you (aside from saying the author is a simply wonderful writer)

• You Dance Dreams : Okay. Not to be over dramatic, but this fic did genuinely qualitatively change my life, in that it was the first thing that got me looking up contemporary ballet and now that's like one of my favourite things and big hobby So. Also its really great writing; music/creative arts school les amis with Grantaire choreohraphing the ballet for Combeferre's opera, with a heavy emphasis on Grantaire realising he really never actually got over Enjolras

• philia : this one is an absolute classic to me, but not given nearly enough recognition - one of the more realistic college AUs ever written, and the writing of Grantaire is so good because it hits the perfect balance of sympathy and annoyance about his behaviour (that's a genuine compliment)

• Coffee Hooligans : fucking tragedy this never got properly finished, Enjolras leads the amis as social justice vigilantes and tries to hide the criminal bits of his life from R

• Fighting the Hurricane : Pacific Rim AU that's less an AU and more just placing the les mis characters in the Pacific Rim universe. Really good and riveting read, also super interesting depiction of Grantaire

• Weaving Olden Dances : Fairy AU - Grantaire "claims" Enjolras to prevent his execution - really good writing, love Grantaires characterisation

• Paris Burning : canon era (sort of) where cities have a physical being - Grantaire is Paris and becomes entangled in Enjolras' revolution - oh the world building is truly *chefs kiss*

• Euphoria is You For Me : Enjolras and Grantaire keep meet cuting in a wonderfully written Brooklyn - feels like a love letter to Brooklyn at times, and I really like the characterisation of Grantaire

• so please just fall in love with me this christmas : Enjolras works for the environmental company Grantaire volunteers at, and keeps getting secret gifts at Christmas - I sound a little like a broken record but the Grantaire characterisation is very good

• You Are the Moon : Wild West esque Space AU - Grantaire has to call on the amis to help rescue Valjean and Cosette, despite Grantaire leaving the amis 6 months before. On re-reading the Enjolras characterisation feels a little rushed, but overall fantastic story telling and the Grantaire arc is a Delight

• Pandemos : Enjolras is aphrodite, and seeks peace from all his suitors in R/Hephestus' cave

• Pining for You : Hallmark christmas romance - Grantaire returns home to work on his father's tree farm, and Enjolras is the lawyer helping prevent the farm being sold - cute as shit imo

• Once We're Kings : Fantasy AU - a country hosts a ball to marry Prince Enjolras and the rival country sends Grantaire as a fuck you - one of the best ways of doing Enjolras as a prince in a fantasy and just really nicely written

• Never Bitter and All Delicious : Fairy Godmother AU - yes really, yes its genuinely a very good read

• On One Condition : Fantasy AU - Enjolras is a bored knight who finally goes to check out the local dragon, which turns out to be Grantaire - I really like how they capture Enjolras' stubborn nature and it's such a well written soft growth of love between them

• That's How Easy Love Can Be : Les Amis work at a primary school; and its secret santa time! very fun portrayal of Enjolras

• The Lark and Her Lieutenants : re write of canon where Cosette is the leader of the revolution - just *chefs kiss*

• If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh : Grantaire is Enjolras' secret android - really good at writing a relationship that's incredibly loving but just keeps being antagonistic and coming off wrong

One Shots

• True Colours : AU where you leave colours on the people important to you - Enjolras and Grantaire falling for each other is so soft and gently written its lovely, this is genuinely one of my favourites

• Keep It Kind, Keep It Good, Keep It Right : this one is so good to me, because it builds off my pet hatred of everyone assuming Enjolras doesn't care about (or at least actively show he cares about) his friends

• blooming : very soft post-dystopian utopia that has just a really wonderful sense of hope and light to me

• and the wall leaned away (or: The Pros and Cons of Tilling) : perfectly realised characterizations of the amis, Grantaire needs a date to her final year art exhibition - deals with anxiety over protest in a way that actually hits for me

• not just one of the crowd : R helps run a leftist bakery and bike repair shop - very cute characterisation, and I think more les mis fanfic should link to anarchist essays

• Lovesickness : Enjolras is an idiot and thinks he's sick rather than having a crush - the writing of Joly and Combeferre in this is some of my favourite depictions of these two

• If there's a rocket, tie me to it : absolutely heartbreaking sci-fi AU about the amis as doomed mecha pilots

• Where I Fall is Where I Land : Enjolras is a Roman commander as Rome's power is leaving England, and then meets the pict Grantaire (+ fun soulmark stuff !)

• You Started Foreign to Me : Enjolras moves to america and R is the overnight grocery clerk who helps her learn Spanish - cute fluffy lesbians with a wonderfully written driven Enjolras

• Love Is Touching Souls : very cute soulmate AU - and one I really love for really truly considering the implications of soul marks and creating historical lore around it

• Ten Years : R is a musician, and it non-linearly charts his relationship to Enj from high school to 10 years later

• put up with me then I'll make you see : Grantaire lives above Enjolras, and its christmas - I find it to have a very fun interpretation of pining Enjolras

• A Cat Called Trash Can : this was one of the first les mis fics I ever read (yes I know it says it was published in 2020, but I think it has to be a re-upload or something?) and it does still have a special place in my heart - Grantaire rescues a cat, but Enjolras is the only one with an apartment free to look after it

• Still I'm Begging to Be Free : inception AU where les amis have to rescue a sleeping R from his own brain

•I'm in it for You : cw: illness, cancer - R has cancer and is being a martyr about telling his friends so Enjolras drives him back from chemo

• walls come tumbling down : sky high au - a very good high school AU with the perfect level of campy superhero powers

• This brave new world's not like yesterday : Enjolras needs a job, so ends up working in a bowling alley with Grantaire and bonding

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

• In Defiance of All Geometry : les amis are a student co-op house, Enjolras and Combeferre are pining friends and Grantaire is the newbie

• Still the Same : this is very good writing and very compelling - if you can get over the (imo) plot hole of Enjolras working for the FBI. R was an art thief Enj put away and is briefly helping the FBI out, and Combeferre is Enjolras' husband

• To Kingdom Come : cw: war and PTSD from that, Enjolras and Combeferre are part of a group of refugees that have crossed into a more fantasy land, and Grantaire is a lone traveller from that land that attempts to help - that was a shit summary of this very emotional, wonderfully written fic about war and love in all forms

• Gonna need (a spark to ignite) : I always love a twist on a classic trope, and this is a very fun take on the soulmate AU - Enjolras loses feeling in his soul mark as a child, falls in love with Grantaire and then his soulmate, Combeferre, turns up

Eponine/Cosette

• Pretty Girls Don't Know the Things That I Know : simply stunning writing - perfect example of soft writing about a harsh world

• she knows her way around : Eponine and Cosette bond, ostensibly so Eponine can find out about her for Marius, and their interactions are so playful and realistic, its wonderful

• always find me floating on oceans : Cosette stows away on Eponine's pirate ship - I do always have a soft spot for eposette fics (not just cause I ship it) because they truly characterise Cosette in a really considered and interesting way

• There's No Making Love : I'm putting this under eposette even though there is some significant enjolras/grantaire content, because the Cosette characterisation is so fun and cute

• round and round again : this fic really beautifully translates Cosette's bad childhood and then isolated teenage years, and the impact that would have on her as an adult into a modern AU

• Underwater Thunderheards : this is based off the book The Scorpio Races, and is just a really nice short fic about longing

• How To Change The World Without Taking Power : Marius has a crush on Cosette and she's tried being polite and subtle in turning him down, so just ends up fake dating Eponine instead

• blood red fruit and poison's kiss : Snow White AU - Cosette as Snow White

• The Winters Cannot Fade Her : Snow White Au 2.0 - Eponine as Snow White - this was written as a pair to the one above which is just so cute to me

• marriage à la mode : Cosette and Eponine run a bridal shop together and it's very cute !

• Temporary Hold : I personally find this a really fun and very unique take on Cosette - with exams coming up she decides she needs to get laid on the reg and so hits up Eponine to act as if they're already long term girlfriends

Combeferre/Courfeyrac

• better than you had it : fake dating but kick it up an emotional notch - Courf and Ferre pretend to still be together after breaking up for a family event

• take flight, come near : nice and cute low fantasy, where Combeferre runs a dragon sanctuary and Courf finds an injured dragon

Rare Pairs

• The Future's Owned by You and Me : cute Enjolras/Feuilly with actual radical politics and real life organising difficulties and wins

• First Dates and Other Dangers : Combeferre and Grantaire agree to go on a blind date and it's awkward until it isn't - just cute !

• after midnight : Combeferre has insomnia and meets Grantaire in various all night fast food chains

• as you are : Bahorel and Jehan getting ready together

• Almost Romantic : Jehan works at a museum, and takes Combeferre on a little tour

• Understudy : Jehan/Combeferre, with Combeferre's insecurities regarding being seen as second best to Enjolras

• Here There Be Dragons : Courf/Enj/Ferre - Courf and Enj are superheroes and Ferre is the doctor that patches them up

• To Let it Occur (Laisser Faire la Nature) : Feuilly has a stupidly long stopover in Paris and meets Enjolras

• rule of three : Courf/Enj/Ferre as spies and loving boyfriends

• Good Rhetoric : snapshots of cute cuddly courf/enj/ferre

• subluxate, dislocate, replace : found family and chronic illness with Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

• Strike stone, strike home (like lightning) : so this fic took one minor piece of lore about Tolkien's dwarves and made a beautiful j/b/m fic from it

• Almost Inevitable : Bahorel/Feuilly friends-with-benefits

• god only knows (what I'd be without you) : Bahorel/Feuilly with a closeted Feuilly and a beautiful Feuilly and Eponine friendship

#les miserables #fanfic rec #les mis #les miserables fanfic #les miserables fanfic rec

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that-house · 4 years ago

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Viego Rant (villainy and character design and tragedy and all that jazz)

Introduction The more I think about Viego, League of Legends’ newest character, the more enamored I am with him as a villain (unrelated to his general sexiness, though that does tie in with what makes him such a good villain).

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about his design. The Ruined King, one of the greatest threats in Runeterra, the progenitor of the Shadow Isles, the lord of the undead, is finally released as a playable champion and he looks like this:

People were expecting another Mordekaiser (who is similarly an undead king with a ghost army), a lich-tyrant clad in iron, decayed flesh peeling from an aged face. What we got was an angsty anime prettyboy, and it was infinitely better than the alternatives.

Lore Viego isn’t a conquering king. While his combat abilities are indeed badass, his personality is far from it. He’s a whiny brat and that’s incredible. He isn’t bent on world domination. His character arc revolves around just how human, how fallible he really is. For those unfamiliar with his lore, I’ll paraphrase it here:

Viego was the second son of a great king. Overshadowed by his brother and with no expectations upon him and near-limitless wealth, he wandered around being an idiot fuckboy for the vast majority of his formative years. Disaster struck when his brother died in an accident, and Viego took the throne with no training, no experience, and no desire to be king. He was a shitty king. The worst king. Just all-around apathetic. Gave zero shits. Can you blame him? It’s a lot of responsibility to be thrust upon someone who isn’t much more than a child, and with no preparation. He didn’t care about anything, that is, until he met Isolde. She was a poor seamstress, but he fell in love with her upon their first meeting. Together they ruled the country but it was really just them staring longingly into each others’ eyes. His allies were kinda fucking pissed about that, and one day an assassin came from Viego. The assassin fucked up and stabbed Isolde instead, and the poison on the blade made her fall gravely ill. As she lay in her bed, slowly dying, Viego went mad seeking a cure. He ravaged the land seeking any knowledge that might help, pouring all of his money into finding an antidote. He failed. As a last resort, he brought Isolde’s body to the Blessed Isles, a place rumored to be able to resurrect the dead. It worked, to an extent. Isolde’s wraith, confused, afraid, and angry at being ripped from the peace of death, unthinkingly stabbed Viego in the chest with his own magic sword, creating basically a magic nuke that turned the Blessed Isles into the domain of the undead. Viego resurrected as the king of the Shadow Isles some time later, having totally forgotten that Isolde killed him. He controls a big-ass ghost army, could probably beat up any living thing in a fight, and has evil ghost magic. Now this stupid simp wants his wife back and if he has to kill every living thing on Runeterra, well, anything for his queen. He’s even a tier 3 sub to her Twitch.

Music His musical theme isn’t some heavy metal anthem or intense cinematic piece (unlike the Pentakill song named after his sword, Blade of the Ruined King). It’s mostly sad and slow, almost sinister, with a piano and a music box. It has its loud moments featuring violins and choral bits like any villainous music, but the song is mostly subtle. It is a banger though.

youtube

In the comments section of this video, someone pointed out that the music reflects his story from beginning to end:

Everything about this champion is so well done. Riot Games really outdid themselves on this one. Bravo, encore please.

Motivation While the Mordekaiser circlejerkers on r/LeagueofLegends won’t shut the fuck up about how powerful Mordekaiser is, Viego is the better villain. Mordekaiser may be a bigger threat to all life on Runeterra, but Viego is a better character. (There’s a guy on my League discord server who won’t shut up about Mordekaiser so forgive me for being pissed at Morde stans).

Mordekaiser is motivated by a desire for control, to rule the world. Viego is motivated by obsession and misplaced love. There aren’t a lot of Mordekaisers on Earth. Supervillains are rare in real life. But Viego’s motivations are a lot closer to home. People in positions of power that they don’t deserve can do a lot of harm (for example: Trump).

He’s a grieving husband who was never prepared to deal with anything more difficult than choosing what wine to drink with dinner, who is trying to get his wife back because the world had always complied to his every whim. He’s a funky mix between a truly hopeless romantic and a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum.

Obsession is scary. It’s a real-world emotional state that’s been the cause of a lot of murders over mankind’s history. In contrast, Mordekaiser’s cartoonish Genghis Khan XXL schtick isn’t something that we encounter often. Of course a superpowered ultradictator would be worse for the world, but if you give ultimate power to a random person, you’re more likely to get someone like Tighten from Megamind. Or, more relevantly, Viego.

Design His design is sexy and stupid, just like him. He wears an open shirt into battle and wields his sword like an idiot (I’ve seen all the rants about how that’s not how that sword is meant to be used) because he was never really a warrior. Even at his most violent, right before the end of his mortal life, he didn’t do much combat himself, leaving his military endeavors to his underlings. Even now that he’s essentially a god, he still has a colossal wraith army that causes far more devastation than he ever could personally.

Despite his slim build (by League of Legends standards), he easily wields his colossal sword because of the strength of his state of undeath. Like his political power when he was alive, his posthumous magical and physical powers were never something he sought out, they were just given to him by circumstance.

The big cool-ass triangle hole in his chest where Isolde stabbed him is the source of the Black Mist, which is evil ghost mist that ebbs and flows from the Shadow Isles, bringing with it hordes of the undead. The sadder Viego is, the more Mist he creates. Poetically, his invasion of the world is inspired by his sorrow at his wife’s death and enabled by his wife’s reluctance to return to him. His story is perfectly reflected by his design.

Isolde Isolde’s spirit took up residence inside a young Senna (who’s another League champion, not particularly important here). This led to some Black Mist-related shenanigans and at least for the time being, Senna uses Isolde’s power to fight off the servants of Viego which threaten all life on Runeterra.

It seems pretty clear that whatever love Isolde felt for Viego is gone by now. Whether or not she ever loved him or was just unable to say no to the king is up for debate, but I’d like to believe there was something there. In my opinion, Viego’s story hits harder if they really were a great couple at first, torn apart by circumstance and obsession.

Much like the Maiden of the Woods in that one comic that circulates around here, to whom the knight gave his heart and she was like “yo what the fuck i literally never asked you to do this,” Viego went a little too far in trying to save her. They may have once been happy, but the Ruined King ruined his own life, too.

Unless Isolde is a lot less morally decent than we’ve been led to believe, I doubt she can forgive all the massacring that her husband’s been doing lately. In the recent cinematic, she was shown to be pretty anti-Viego. Maybe she’ll get a bastardization arc, but it certainly seems unlikely.

All of Season 2021 is based around Viego, Isolde, and the Shadow Isles, so we’ll just have to see what comes next. It’s possible that we’ll get Isolde as a playable champion, which should clear a lot of things up.

Final Thoughts Unlike so many villains, he’s not fueled by rage or hatred, but rather by sorrow. He’s stuck in his past, unable to move on. He regrets the actions of his life but is set on his course now. The sunk-cost fallacy comes into play here; he’s put so much time and effort and blood into bringing back Isolde, that turning away from it would feel to him like an insult, not only to her but to the innocent lives he’s taken in her name.

His tale is a tragedy, a love story gone horrifically wrong. Viego has suffered throughout his thousand-year life. Despite this, he’s undoubtedly the villain. His permanent death would be a net positive for the world. In has rage and grief he’s destroyed multiple civilizations, and will burn down the world to get Isolde back.

His heart may be in the wrong place, but it’s in a very human place. I don’t think he’ll get the ending he’s looking for, but I hope he finds some closure in the end.

#League of Legends #viego #i swear no one's gonna read this #even if you dont care about League i tried to make this interesting #even if you don't like League as a game the lore is pretty fucking solid

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hawkland · 4 years ago

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Destiel fic recs/what I’ve been reading (round #1)

Since some folks seemed interested in me starting this, here’s a round-up of what I’ve enjoyed reading in the last...two weeks or so. Not sure how much of a schedule I’ll keep up with these posts, but I’ll try whenever I have a bunch to share before they get too cluttered in my bookmarks.

Some are new(ish), some are older stories, it’s just whatever I’ve stumbled upon via searching tags for particular cravings, recent exchanges, or other recs in the wild. Sixteen fics in total for this round, all below the cut. Basically stories I liked enough that I didn’t just bookmark but I downloaded, so I could re-read without fear of disappearing forever.

Season 15.18—15.20 Fix-its - because we cannot have enough of these ever, right?

One does not simply walk into the Empty by TheSilverQueen (7.7k) I was practically screaming while reading this one. Because if you are Dean Winchester, that is EXACTLY what you do - walk straight into the Empty to get Cas back and pick a fight with the Shadow about it until you get your way. Inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice yet wonderfully in character. Might be my favorite fix-it to date because it just felt like...yes, I can see this happening. Exactly like this.

the noise of stars by depugnare (2.9k) - I love this for the look inside Cas’s thoughts and mind—going back to the dawn of creation and leading to his rescue from the Empty. Seems like a lot to cram into under 3k words but it’s very poetic and beautifully written, something that feels very angelic (also, I love the handling of Dean’s soul actually being quite broken after his time in Hell, something I feel isn’t dealt with nearly enough...?)

Enhanced Extraction Techniques by goldenraeofsun (5.8k) This one hurts so good. The Empty torments Cas with visions of Dean coming to rescue him over and over again. How can he know what’s real versus a dream? Bonus points for a nifty Law & Order reference (dun dun).

Occursus by PallasPerilous (4k). Heaven!fic, so read at your own risk. This one I loved for angel weirdness and strange biology at its finest. Dean’s soul basically gave Cas an angelic STD when he raised him from perdition. IDEK but it works and I loved it and if you like fic that skirts on the strange with lovely language, humor, and banter, this is for you.

These Old Bones by Destina (3.2k). Always a delight to share a fandom (once again!) with an author whose style and works I know I’ll enjoy. Wherein Dean and Cas straddle a unique line between Heaven and Earth in order to build the life-and home-together that they deserve. Loving and comforting and with just a touch of the bitter to the sweet.

Command Me to Be Well by prosopopeya (28k). This one hurts a lot before it gets better because they’re both emotional idiots in their own ways. It doesn’t matter in this story exactly how Cas got back; the real challenge is Dean (and Cas) figuring out how to deal with what comes next in the aftermath of Cas’s love confession. Dean acts like sex will be enough (and is all he can handle); Cas wants/needs far more than that, and it’s a long, long road to get there. If you want a story where they don’t just immediately work out great, happily-ever-after after fixing Cas’s death, this is one I’ll rec.

Nothing Equals the Splendor by RurouniHime (7.8k) I know I already mentioned loving this one but I have to put it on my official rec list. Kind of a contrast to the previous rec, here they don’t waste much time at all getting it on, once Cas is back. Delicious first-time fix-it sex with wings and so hot/explosive they practically trash the bunker. I really like smutty fic that doesn’t forget that Cas isn’t human so there are some...unique kinks in how they get it on.

surely heaven wants for you by cenotaphy (3.7k) Heaven fic with steamy first time sex outside. Just...a yummy read with enough angst and feelings to balance things out nicely.

*****

Human!Cas in Season 9 (canon-divergent AUs or Not) - This is where I was recently at on my complete watch-through, so I have a serious craving for human!Cas missing scenes, or AUs where he stays in the bunker with Dean, Sam and Kevin. Hence a lot of reading to scratch that itch.

La cucina. by orange_crushed (3.9k). Total food-porn delight. Dean enjoys bringing new foods for Cas to taste now that he is human and Dean is in the bunker kitchen cooking like the total domestic goddess housewife he is meant to be. This one is yummy in more ways than one and satisfies my craving for pleasure seeking!Cas as well as protective-mama hen!Dean.

Bibliophile by tiamatv (4k). Human!Cas loves books, on a tactile level and on a story-telling level, too. Dean likes to cuddle. Cas tries to figure out how to read AND cuddle at the same time. Just a happy comforting read that’s like a warm and fuzzy blanket of squee.

A Room of His Own (or not) by Valinde (Valyria) (3k). This fandom is very, very good to this fan of delicious frottage and bedsharing and this is no exception. Especially when it features greedy-for-pleasure!Cas just totally hungry for new experiences and awkward about them at the same time.

Under the sun by orange_crushed (1k). Episode tag for 9x06. Bitchy Human!Cas hurt/comfort wound-care with bedsharing and just...electric with possibilities.

*****

My Wing!Kink let me show you it.

The Care and Feeding of Castiel by MalMuses (24k) Soft. So, so very deliciously soft. Soft!Dean nesting (in more than one ways) in the bunker. Unique and delightful angel-lore relating angels to birdlike-behavior including nesting urges/molting/even flight-or-fight instincts that explains so much of how Cas acts. This is a great AU with Cas starting to regain his wings as things calm down (in an alternative late season setting) and he starts to feel more at home in the bunker. Wing-grooming as he’s molting and regrowing damaged wings acts as a metaphor for Dean & Cas “grooming” and healing their relationship by finally talking about the hurt and miscommunication between them through the years. Much love. Such happy. A+ rec especially when there is @lizleeships art to go with it.

The Care and Keeping of Wings by nekosmuse (2.9k) Crackfic! Pure crack in the absolute best way possible! Cas comes back from Purgatory with.... something different about him. His wings are manifest and everyone can see them. Dean seems strangely proud of showing off his winged angel!babe...even when Cas has them pull over Baby for the perfect dust bath. Poor Sam must suffer both of these idjits and try to keep onlookers away. IDEK but I loved it.

*****

Random other recs

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger by pollutedstar (3.6k) Character study of Dean and dark reasons behind some of his weird issues with food, relating back to 5.14 (My Bloody Valentine). I might caution that if you have any eating disorder triggers you might want to tread carefully, but otherwise this is a painfully good look at the things Dean will do to protect and care for those he loves.

Mary Winchester, Working On It by alittleduck (9.6k) Saw this one recced on fail_fandomanon and I had to check it out. Mary is trying to figure out Dean & Cas’s relationship. Dean thinks Mary is trying to come out as gay herself. Lots of great/hilarious TFW 2.0 dialog and family banter, and somehow it manages to skirt hitting my embarrassment squick despite the set-up and a lot of awkward situations.

#destiel recs #my fic recs #maybe a weekly thing we shall see #hawkland reads spn fic #deancas recs #my destiel recs

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amazinglyspicy · 3 years ago

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I posted 32,875 times in 2021

9 posts created (0%)

32866 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3651.8 posts.

I added 2,302 tags in 2021

#m - 372 posts

#z - 328 posts

#o - 282 posts

#x - 227 posts

#a - 220 posts

#fave - 206 posts

#c - 184 posts

#mm - 167 posts

#b - 159 posts

#n - 157 posts

Longest Tag: 129 characters

#the building at least had an equal amount of womens restrooms and they were always so clean and empty since they were barely used

My Top Posts in 2021

The feminine urge to get more involved in Zelda fandom or just make more friends who grew up with the series like I did GOD

Anyways if you like Zelda please follow me

3 notes • Posted 2021-10-28 04:59:45 GMT

I’m sorry not sorry for all the Zelda spam lately. You see I’m reconnecting with my roots and I’m unashamed of my childhood now. That being said would anyone care to hear my Zelda lore infodumps

3 notes • Posted 2021-09-04 05:18:06 GMT

girl youre on my blog

I’m night blogging

4 notes • Posted 2021-05-09 09:56:16 GMT

What’s your twizzlers theory?

Oh I’m SO glad you asked. Sorry I’m getting to this late it was buried in my notifications. Anyways.

No one you know actually likes twizzlers. No one ever goes out of their way to purposely buy a pack of twizzlers as a delicious little treat for themselves. No one ever is in a super market standing in line to pay, see a a pack of twizzlers and goes “Hmm I deserve a treat!”

They don’t fucking exist!

I, personally, have only ever ate some twizzlers because it was part of a party pack with some other fun-sized candies. Some bag you get for a party to stuff into a piñata, right? This is the consensus for everyone else I’ve asked.

Now you might wonder why that is. Why would Hershey (yes the parent company for twizzlers is Hershey) sell this candy when it seems to only ever sell at a loss for them? When it’s no one’s favorite candy? This is where we get into conspiracy theory, that I feel is the only logical explanation to seeking this candle wax sugar stick to people.

Twizzlers acts as a *pusher* candy. It’s not meant to be the favorite. It’s not meant to satisfy your sweet tooth. It’s there to *enable* it. You take a taste out of that fun size red tube of unfulfilling saccharine and your brain immediately wants *more* to fill the void this Twizzler has left on you. You seek out the satisfying candy. This is your Snickers or your Reese’s or your actual full size Hershey’s bar to fulfill your drive to get an actual hit of that sugar dose that you’re left craving after your free trial of Twizzler.

Twizzler is your “the first hit is free” pusher candy. It’s not meant to be real. It’s just Hershey’s way of selling more candy. More expensive candy at that. Because Twizzlers are also the candy most mass produced for their fun-sized party bags.

It’s my air tight theory and everyone I’ve ever told it to so far has ended up agreeing with me.

Well, unless there comes a day that some fucking creep walks up to me and says “Twizzlers is my favorite candy and I regularly buy the full size.”

And let me tell you what, when that day comes, I will immediately blow the fucking narc whistle cuz I know for a fact that motherfucker is a Hershey’s worker, pull a god damn Twizzlers wrapper over their head and let them asphyxiate on their throne of wax coated chewy lies.

100% real btw. Thank you for coming to my unhinged Ted talk.

9 notes • Posted 2021-03-10 22:43:13 GMT

This is my fic for The Locked Tomb Big Bang! @tltbb

I put a bunch of work in this fluffy little piece about dancing. It meant a lot to me and I got to work with my really amazing artist @redheartzone who did illustrations for it! Shout-out to @thinknt who provided some support for this as well during the process :)

Summary: 2 love-stuck idiots have a miscommunication. Time to get physical. Or, the Tridentarii have a hell of a time teaching Gideon and Harrow how to dance, in the name of love!

30 notes • Posted 2021-06-25 01:45:45 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#its An absolute fucking tragedy that twizzlers theory isn’t my number one post

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stabletwooriginals · 4 years ago

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CHAPTER TWO: Equestrian Wasteland

Panic attack! A surprising, yet well described reaction LittlePip has to the vastness of the great outdoors. The little ghost story about the outside just being a black void also comes back one final time.

The prospect of finding Velvet shrinking dramatically phases LittlePip surprisingly little. Instead she just kinda starts looking for her by seeking a high vantage point. This pro-active attitude and little time spent on feeling sorry for herself is endearing, as well. I think this is gonna change at certain points, considering all the stuff that is going to happen to her. But maybe I'm confusing my memories with Project Horizons, in which the main character spends quite some time feeling sorry for herself. (And considering what happens to her, I don't really blame her.)

I love the light emitted by a terminal described as "the soft green glow of a poisoned apple". Horse gonna think of apples.

LittlePip remarks on the sturdiness of the StableTec terminals, looking new while everything around it decayed in some form. I think this actually has a (horrifying) explanation in lore. But we won't get to it for a while.

On it, we get a message from Velvet asking, or rather pleading the reader not to look for her. LittlePip's enthusiasm is curbed by it, but not her plan. While she is considering her options she gets distracted by a light in the distance. So, uh, the issue that Velvet doesn’t want to return just gets shoved to the back row until it has to be confronted again at a later date. Seeing as finding Velvet is the bigger issue anyway, that's not very hard to accept for now, at least.

Oh and there is a encrypted message on there too. We don't learn anything useful about it and LittlePip downloads it for the heck of it. In my opinion, a weird place to stick this beat, as it draws attention only to get pushed aside immediately again and the payoff it has at the end of the chapter brings a minor revelation at best. This information could have been given later as well.

Now I was forced to admit how foalish that vision was.

Reading FoE made me realize they say "foalish" in the original show too. At least in season 1, which is all that existed during the time FoE was being written. Isn't that wild? Discord gets a mention very late into the story, otherwise all the world building is propped up on lore that existed *before* the fandom really reached it's peak!

And LittlePip runs straight into a slaver trap. I appreciate the effort to have her not recognize the shotgun and how the details of the situation slowly unravel until the dreaded clarification "They're slavers, you idiot". Makes it relatable that she fell for their trap.

Thinking about the slavers LittlePip mentions her "repertoire of colorful metaphors". Interesting to tell us about it instead of letting us see for ourselves later. Because, well, she undoubtedly does have quite the repertoire of colorful metaphors.

I absolutely love that the description of the music the Spritebots makes captures the song Pinkie Pie uses in the episode "Swarm of the Century" to remove the Parasprites perfectly. Even the first time reading I had that song in my head at this point.

LittlePip being a swift learner is yet another endearing trait on display when she sees one of the slavers fire his shotgun at the Spritebot and notices how the weapon works. Let's hope there is some kind of fight soon where she gets to implement this newfound knowledge!

I wonder why the raiders decided to attack the slavers. The slavers clearly didn't anticipate this and I doubt LittlePip or Montgomery Jack (the other slave) are such evidently high-tier cargo worth stealing. But hey, I got my wish for a fight and establishing LittlePip's talent with a bobby pin and screwdriver to unlock her shackles is already paying off too.

This kinda leads into a larger question of what raiders are and what they want, but I'll save that for later. Once we met a lot more of them.

Well, seeing how the raiders are beating them up, that probably wasn't why they started the fight either. Also, like with the slavers before, they throw in a threat of sexual violence against LittlePip that feels kinda cheap to me. Like, yo, enslaving her and/or threatening to kill her apparently isn't enough to paint them as bad guys? I understand that this is mainly a taste thing, as some people don't mind a story that is painted this dark this casually. I just feel like the story would not lose it's tone without them, while being more upsetting than it needs to be with them. At least here, in Chapter Two.

LittlePip’s first fight is awesome. It's scary, it's fast and has a few surprises. The biggest one probably being that the question of killing others hasn't come up yet. If we are familiar with Fallout (at least 3 and onward) this shouldn't be a hard question to answer, but LittlePip tries to avoid it here.

Montgomery, like a more experienced Fallout player however, finishes the raider off and starts to loot them. Showing LittlePip the ropes of the game. How nice of him. Then he robs her. That's not how I play Fallout, but the games pride themselves with their choice of options, I guess.

That he instructs LittlePip to check the bodies, she therefore has to puke into the river because of it and sees Montgomery's shotgun reflected in the water behind her head is just great dramatic storytelling. I can just see the movie version of this in my minds eye.

However, LittlePip actually manages to get out of this with a little luck in finding the raiders shotgun next to her (which is a combat shotgun, unlike the regular one the slaver had and Montgomery is holding now) and by packing everything she learned about the two weapons into a convincing argument. Making her win the fight before it started, which is just genuinely bad-ass.

Finally LittlePip makes it into Ponyville -- pursued by a sniper. Can't catch a break!

No, she or he could just wait until I came out.

Something that might not be very noticeable yet is how FoE has kind of a inverted societal structure when it comes to gender. MLP had this too, to a degree, as it was targeting young girls. Here, we can see it transform the order pronouns are used in a common phrase. It might read as a typo or error but we will see that female characters tend to enjoy higher privileges and hold the highest positions of power. Of course that would affect their language as much as other phrases are transformed due to them being horses. See: "What the hay?"

A pile of torn-up cloth rotted in a corner, smelling foul, like ponies had urinated on it repeatedly.

Nooo, Rarity's work and art :(

Finally, we get to read the encrypted message from earlier. It's Applebloom’s final words to Sweetie Belle, letting us realize that at least some of the Apple Family has been in Stable Two when it closed and it's first Overmare was Sweetie Belle, Rarity's younger sister. That’s cool to know, but doesn’t affect much of our understanding of anything yet.

Level Up! New Perk: Horse Sense. As we saw, LittlePip is a swift learner. I usually feel like whatever LittlePip learned in the chapter influences the perk she receives at the end. But shouldn't a perk only affect her after she got it? The allusions to RPG mechanics kinda fall apart a little bit when you think too hard about them.

Since they are a "Footnote" I'll just imagine that LittlePip leveled up and received the perk sometime *during* the chapter. Ah, now the world is right again.

#fallout equestria #my little pony #fan fiction #reading #reread #littlepip #ponyville

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honourablejester · 5 years ago

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D&D Wuxia

So. While on lockdown, I’ve been tinkering randomly with d&d character concepts, mostly out of boredom (I’ve also been playing lots of minecraft). For fun, I decided I’d come up with at least one character concept per d&d race. We’ll see how that goes. But! I’d hit aasimar, and honestly I was struggling? It’s not a race that immediately appeals to me (despite cleric being my instinctive favourite class). I was rooting around for ideas, and two things converged. One, I’ve also been watching cdramas (Story of Yanxi Palace) on and off, and two, I had something vaguely like an aasimar character for a completely different story (actually angel offspring, but sort of close enough), so I borrowed elements of both, and …

Accidentally came up with a vaguely wuxia inspired party?

Sikou Jia, Aasimar Courtier Lore Bard, 64 years old. An auspicious child blessed by the gods, but cursed with greedy parents, he was sold to the Court of the Silver Emperor as a young boy, and spent more than thirty years as a courtier and court functionary. At first he saw this as an opportunity, to bring the visions of his celestial guide (Karuna, neutral good deva) directly to the highest levels, but over time he realised that the machinations of the court poisoned all his efforts, often deliberately. He fell into despair and anger, especially as he suffered mistreatment, and came perilously close to Falling as well, before fate (or divine providence) intervened and he was blessed with a daughter by a lover, who used him cruelly, but gave him the single greatest gift of his life. With a child to consider, he finally mustered his courage and escaped the city altogether, taking his daughter with him. They ran away to the White Mountains, where he (and his daughter as she grew to adulthood) slowly formed an alliance from the scattered bandit clans and misfits of the mountains to be a force for good, as his devic guide wished.

Sikou Lan, Human Outlander Hunter Ranger, 26 years old. (Assuming aasimar kids revert to the base race). Jia’s daughter, gifted to entirely him by her mother when she failed to prove equally blessed. Raised in the wilds of the White Mountains by her slightly paranoid but fiercely devoted father, and taught by the various virtuous(-ish) bandits of his alliance. Fiercely independent, she grew increasingly disdainful of ‘civilisation’ as she grew older and learned more of her father’s and other people’s histories. She was scarred deeply by an encounter with a spectre as young child and by the increasingly haunted nature of the White Mountains (favoured enemy: undead). While she approves of her father’s divine mission, and willingly joins him on it, she sees it as particularly to protect those like themselves, outcasts from the great nations, often in need of protection from those nations. She did get a little bit of her father’s blessed nature, in the form of luck.

Liu Ling, Wood Elf Hermit Open Hand Monk, 247 years old. Tormented in her youth by what she felt were loose passions and a lack of clarity, she found solace in the teachings of a great teacher (Xu Xinyi) at Tenshi Peak Hermitage. Though her teacher eventually moved on, Liu Ling remained in the White Mountains to pursue solitary contemplation and inner clarity. As the years and decades went on, though, she became increasingly aware of disturbances in the White Mountains and further south, into the lowlands around the Silver City. The dead rested unquietly, and unclean things walked the forests. She slowly realised that some dark force was rising in the nation, and that it seemed to be heading for the Silver Court. She viewed the coming of Sikou Jia to the White Mountains as an omen that the time had finally come to do something about this dark secret she’s been tracking, and went to join him. Without necessarily telling him any of that, because she’s been alone for years and was never a naturally confiding sort of person.

Hu Yin, Tiefling Criminal Ancients Paladin, 34 years old. Outcast from a young age because his black eyes and ox horns announced him as a demon, an embittered Yin turned to banditry to survive. Waylaying travellers on the road and frightening them with his strength and demonic features, he made quite a name for himself as the Ox Demon of the White Mountains. This all changed when he met (attempted to rob) a mountain priestess and forest giant named Guan Qiu, who promptly subdued him. Expecting to die, and oddly cheerful about it, he asked her for a last meal. Amused, she obliged, and over some years the pair grew very close. She taught him about the Old Faith of her people, and gradually Yin felt a change of heart. He regretted his career as a bandit, and wanted to do something good with his life, so he became a warrior of the bright places to honour his friend. Eventually, he heard of the White Mountain Alliance and Sikou Jia, and became curious about the blessed man, in light of his own heritage. He decided he wanted to meet him. Guan Qiu was wary and thought him an idiot, since a demon seeking out a blessed man would only end in tears. Nonetheless, she accompanied him, and while the introductions didn’t go well, everyone survived to get to know each other, despite fears that he’d come to try to kill and/or eat Jia.

Guan Qiu, Firbolg Sage Mountain Druid, 313 years old. Nearly two centuries ago, Guan Qiu’s clan was destroyed by a great beast, leaving her to make her way alone among the high peaks of the White Mountains. For a time, she fell into a great despair, but patience and stubbornness won out, as well as the solace of the Old Faith. She decided after a time to devote herself to study, of magic and nature and her mountains. She travelled the length and breadth of them in this cause, consulting with other priests of the old faith, and spending time cloistered in the great monasteries of the Mountains, such as Tenshi Peak. She made a reputation for herself as a respected sage, the Wise Giantess of the Mountains. Over time, she also grew concerned over the darkening of the Mountains, though she focused mostly on healing what symptoms she could as they came up. Eventually, she met Hu Yin, and became very fond of him as a friend and almost son. When he decided to join the White Mountain Alliance to further make up for his past misdeeds, she joined them alongside him, partly because it was a good cause and she wanted to help, but also partly so as not to lose a loved one again.

I’m guessing campaign-wise that Jia’s birth was in fact an omen about the great evil building in the land, and that said great evil is probably undead/undying, and that Jia came extremely close to being a very short-lived plaything for it if he hadn’t gotten out of the Silver City when he did.

Other thoughts:

Tieflings and Aasimar play amusingly together lore-wise, especially given a wuxia-ish demon/holy man element

Tiefling virtue names and Chinese courtesy names gloss interestingly, but I don’t have near enough confidence with them to come up with a good courtesy name for Hu Yin to have taken

I like ancient mountain ladies, apparently

Despite none of them being directly built for it, the party was doing quite well on stealth with high dex until Hu Yin happened. The criminal stealth proficiency just barely lifted him out of negative numbers. He’s, ah. He’s not a stealthy boy. I feel like this is at least half the reason Guan Qiu despairs of him (she’s actually nearly as bad, except magic)

I had fun giving Jia all the face skills, followed by Hu Yin, realising that if they ever actually have to go to the Silver City the only diplomatic characters the group has are a demonic ex-bandit and an escaped slave/courtier who is really memorable and likely being actively sought by the big bad

The ladies, meanwhile, are all significantly more likely to just shoot the Emperor in the face. Also the big bad, if they happen to be in the same vicinity. Or, at least, Lan and Ling would. Qiu is possibly gentle enough to want actual provocation first

I decided to give them all names in the same language because three are human based/raised, one is probably giving the local Common translation of her name, and the last doesn’t generally bother with names unless other people want one and she’s mostly been around humans and/or elves

I’m cherry-picking name meaning lists for the names, by the way. Apologies if they’re not quite right. Sikou is the surname I’m least confident of, because it’s apparently a fairly specific title in origin (Minister of Justice), but I read a translation somewhere that translated it as ‘Minister of Bandits’ and it tickled me too much to give up

Also, lockdown leaves you with entirely too much time on your hands, and oddly not a lot of motivation to do much with it

#dnd #d&d #wuxia #character concept #aasimar #tiefling #firbolg #wood elf #human #i have too much time and not enough brain power

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consortofkings · 6 years ago

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‘THE HOBBIT’ FIC RECOMMENDATIONS - My Personal Favorites

I couldn’t think of a way to better enjoy Hobbit Day than to pay a little tribute to just a small sample of some of the amazing stories this fandom is lucky enough to be gifted with. There are many fics I’ve left out and will be adding to this list many times over before I’m done with it. Please feel free to let me know of any of your favorites that you think I might’ve missed as well!

It would not be impertinent to say this is less of fic rec post and more a love letter to this fandom.

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY by perkynurples

Summary: Bilbo Baggins led a rather peaceful life, thank you very much, until an old acquaintance decided to turn it upside down, and he found himself agreeing to take a job that’s… let’s say not exactly up his alley, and might eventually cost him a little more than his treasured cozy lifestyle. Who would have thought tutoring a slightly menacing monarch’s more than slightly overbearing nephew could prove to be such an adventure? Bagginshield. Modern AU. King and I overtones. Novel-Length.

Thoughts: This was either the second or third Hobbit fic I ever read, and I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve re-read it. It was the first fic I ever added to my ebook reader just so I could read it whenever I wanted, and honestly, I could write an essay. The world building, the character study, the plot: it’s out of this world. I’ve read published novels that only had me a quarter as impressed as this story, and I wish I could pay money for it because I would buy multiple copies.

THE NAMING OF HOBBITS by Margo_Kim

Summary: There's a certain point where you can no longer ask someone what their name is. Thorin isn't sure exactly when that point is, but he knows that it's probably some time before the person in question saves your life. On the far side of the Misty Mountains, Thorin realizes that he never quite caught the first part of Mr. Baggins' name, and he finds that it's astonishingly harder to learn than he would have thought. Fili, Kili, and Dwalin are no help whatsoever. Bagginshield. Humor.

Thoughts: This is not a long drawn out romance, but rather a short humorous getting together story and honest to god it is unfathomable how many times I have read and re-read it at this point. I could almost quote it word for word.

THE ROAD DELIVERED US HOME by keelywolfe

Summary: In the years since Bilbo left Erebor, he has lost his respectability, gained a nephew, and gotten on with life at Bag End. He'd left aside adventure for the comforts and peace of his little Hobbit hole, and for the love of a child who needed him. Though perhaps, adventures can yet find him. Bagginshield. Cannon-ish compliant. Shire courting.

Thoughts: One of the first Bagginshield fics I ever read and most definitely one of the first to make me fall in love with the pairing. A tinge of angst sprinkled upon piles and piles of fluffiness like you’ve never seen before. The pining is above and beyond and the conclusion is so satisfying it’ll leave you feeling smug for days afterward.

A MOST SENSIBLE IDEA by HildyJ

Summary: Bilbo Baggins isn't sure about this. Not one bit.

Frodo is definitely too young to enter into an arranged marriage with a dwarven king called Thorin Oakenshield. It's a good thing that Bilbo is there to chaperone him through their courtship.

After all, there's no chance that a fussy hobbit bachelor would ever catch the eye of a king. Bagginshield. AU. Erebor Courting.

Thoughts: In my slightly snobby opinion, very few Bagginshield fics get Frodo right. This is not one of those stories. The juxtaposition of Thorin and Frodo’s relationship with Thorin and Bilbo’s is fantastic, and the way they just can’t not be intrigued with each other makes this one of my favorite Bagginshield stories.

MY FAIR HOBBIT by Erinye

Summary: Take a dragon and get rid of it, take a Kingdom under the Mountain and let it thrive under Thráin’s rule, take the King’s eldest son - as proud and arrogant as you can picture him - and then send him to the Shire in order to refine his diplomatic skills. Or, as his sister puts it: to grow them at last. Now, throw in the Master of Bag End playing host for the dwarf prince: you’ll get a clash of cultures, an ill-advised bet about educating a certain hobbit in the dwarf-lore, and all the pride and prejudice business you could hope for, plus Khuzdul.

A retelling inspired by My Fair Lady. Bagginshield. AU. Shire & Erebor love. Novel length.

Thoughts: Thorin is such a shit in this story, and you can’t help but love him. The way they come together is slow and fraught but so believable and it romances me every time I re-read it. Great story to read if you love fleshed out characters who you want to hit over the head and smoosh their faces together at the same time.

UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED by mortuus_lingua

Summary: "My dear Mr. Baggins," she replied, "how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of one of these unmarried king or princes marrying at least one of our Bagginses, and why not my Bilbo? He’s the prime of the lot."Smaug is defeated without the recruitment of a burglar, and several delegations, including one from the Shire, are invited to Thorin's public, official coronation. Bilbo, scribe, and bachelor, travel to Erebor with fourteen other Hobbits, embarking on an adventure that will change not only his destiny but those of many in Middle-earth. Or, the attempted Hobbit / Pride and Prejudice mashup that nobody asked for. Not to worry, knowledge of the plot of Pride and Prejudice is not necessary to understand this story. Bagginshield. AU. Courting Fic. Erebor Courting Fic. Lots of Hobbits.

Thoughts: I was very leery of this fic at first because I thought it might be just a standard Pride and Prejudice remake. To paraphrase a certain dwarf, I had never been so wrong in all my life. It blends the Regency life so well with the world of Tolkien that I was swooning. It seems to hit every single one of my favorite tropes of the bagginshield fandom (Bamf!Bilbo, enemiesToFriends, fleshed out OC’s, and MadBofurRespect, etc) but in a new and lovely light. It’s very Hobbit dense as well, which was refreshing and fun to read. I just can’t recommend this story enough.

COMES AROUND AGAIN by scarletjedi

Summary: Gimli closes his eyes, an old Dwarf on the brink of death in the home he had built with his husband in the Undying Lands, and opens them again as a young Dwarf in his childhood home in Ered Luin. He's returned to the tumultuous week before The Company set out to recruit their Burglar from his cosy hobbit hole. Gimli, once again an impetuous teen in the eyes of his family, must get into that Company--the lives of his loved ones, and the very fate of Middle Earth--depends on it. Gimli/Legolas. Bilbo/Thorin. TimeTravel-fix it.

Thoughts: I’m a big sucker for retellings of cannon, and this one is just lovely. I’m always leery of established relationship tags, but this story does the pining so well it feels like you get both for the price of one. Scarletjedi is also one of those authors who I would recommend reading through their entire catalog as well because there is not a dud amongst them.

A REMOVER OF OBSTACLES by MistakenMagic

Summary: "Dis often chided her older brother for being a misanthropist. She did it so often it had become a term of endearment. It was true that Thorin struggled with people; he struggled to form and maintain relationships. Dr. Grey had diagnosed him with this and Thorin hadn’t the heart to tell him this wasn’t a symptom of his PTSD, it was a symptom of his personality. He exercised a sense of apathy with almost everyone he met… But Bilbo was different. Thorin actually found himself wanting to know more about him." Bagginshield. Novel Length 300k+. Modern AU.

Thoughts: A long story, that is going take up a week or two of your life, beat you up and wring you out, and you’re going to enjoy every minute of it.

A PASSION FOR MUSHROOMS by Chrononautical

Summary: There are many trials for a hobbit attempting to make a life among dwarves. A hobbit wants a garden. A hobbit wants to eat regular meals. A hobbit wants friends, good books, and comfortable chairs. Bilbo does his best to carve out a little hobbit life for himself in the mountain. If only there were not one final obstacle. For a hobbit heart wants love, and among dwarves that is a sticky subject. Bagginshield. Post BOFTA-fix it. Erebor Courting.

Thoughts: Oblivious pining idiots? Misunderstood courting? A fleshed out post-Bofta Erebor? Mushrooms?? What more could you want?

OAK AND MISTLETOE by HildyJ

Summary: After a life dominated by a strange form of sickness, Thorin is sent to the Shire to seek a cure only Bilbo Baggins can offer. Bagginshield. AU. Shire.

Thoughts: Pretty much all of HildyJ’s stories are a must read, but ‘Oak and Mistletoe’ remains’ my favorite. It’s a perfect rainy day read, that I’ve read so many times it’s become almost a habit. It’s a very deep character study into both Bilbo and Thorin and it’s impossible to not fall in love with both of them each time I read it.

SECOND CHANCES by authoressjean

Summary: Sebastian Moran can't pull the trigger on John Watson to save his own hide, and what the hell is it with the doctor, anyway? Then Gandalf shows up, meddlesome wizard, and reminds him none too gently of his past life: as Thorin Oakenshield, leader of a company that had once included a small hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. One that looked decidedly like John Watson. And this would be the perfect chance to make things right with Bilbo the way he really hadn't been able to before he died, and that's when Gandalf tells him John doesn't remember being Bilbo, and to leave him alone.

Right. Like that's going to happen. Bagginshield. Modern AU/Sherlock crossover.

Thoughts: I’ve never in all my 15+ years of fandom, ever, enjoyed crossover fics. It’s just not my bag. Which is why my love of this story completely caught me off guard. Even if you’re like me and you can’t stand the thought of it, I still recommend you give this a shot.

BURNED TO CINDER by ferretbaby

Summary: A Cinderella-esque AU. Bilbo, a lonely hobbit of the Shire in the valley outside Erebor, gets a job as a cook in the dwarf kingdom to pass the time and keep himself occupied after his mother’s death. One day he meets a regal dwarf, who he thinks is a thief and trespasser, and throws an apple at his head, never knowing he’s just assaulted the dwarven Prince. Thus begins the antagonistic and somewhat odd courtship of a hobbit and the next King of Erebor. Bagginshield. Cinderella AU. Erebor & Shire courting. Hidden Identity.

Thoughts: Unf. Just a superbly fun little AU that cannot be skipped over. The last chapter is missing but you really don’t need it to still feel satisfied at the ending. Has some extremely hot moments and some extremely lovely ones as well. Thorin is an absolute cad, but he eventually comes into his own.

AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by Wizards_Pupil

Summary: ““This is a trinket I was given at your birth. I have never shown you it as the time was not right before now.” Thrain opened his palm to reveal a golden band. It was smoothed by touch and unadorned. Not spectacular, but Thrain would hardly hold onto such a trinket if it was not worth something.

“The wizard who gave it to me was quite adamant that you should have it when you were of age.” The king held it out to Thorin. The metal was cool to the touch, but quickly warmed up in the heat of his hand. He ran his fingers along it and nearly shuddered. He could feel it throbbing, nearly vibrating with a strange sort of energy.

“This ring is not meant for you to wear, of course. It is too small for you. This ring is made to fit only the person that will be your Sanzeuh. You have thirty days in which to find him.”Thirty days. Thirty days to find something as ridiculous as true love, or he'd have to marry a beardless, nagging dwarrowdame. Thorin Oakenshield didn't think it could happen.

And then Bilbo Baggins popped into his life. Though, Thorin could have done without the cats, shoes, and girly bits. Still, the course of true love never has run smooth. And the peppers were delightful.” Bagginshield. AU. Erebor Courting.

Thoughts: Such a fantastic courting story. I’m always initially leery of AU’s but this keeps them so close to their actual personalities to make it exciting and new while still letting you bask in their familiarness. It’s such an original idea touching so close to the tip of so many other cliche’s while missing them enough to be something totally new on it’s own. Not to mention, Bilbo’s and Thorin’s flirting is top notch in this. Can’t recommend enough!

THE DEEPEST SECRET by Wizards_Pupil

Summary: Bilbo Baggins was a desperate Hobbit.

Well, he was several things. Short, funny, hungry, and tired for starts. Desperate was at the forefront of his mind at the moment.

He would never be at Oakenshield Manor otherwise. Still, they needed a gardener, and as much as he didn'tknow about dwarves, he did know about plants.

Bilbo expected it to be difficult. Dwarves were hardly known to be the most accepting and open of races after all. He expected the garden to be in terrible shape, the dwarves to be loud, and secretive.

He could never have expected Thorin. Bagginshield. AU.

Thoughts: While the author has stated that this was not specifically a Jane eyre-Au it definitely has a similar feel. It’s just as haunting and just as lovely. There are constant surprises to keep you on your toes, and Thorin and Bilbo are both absolutely delicious in this. I’ve re-read it an untold amount of times.

LOVE-IN-IDLENESS by perkynurples

Summary: Taking Bilbo Baggins, a successful movie actor who is only just getting used to the perks and intricacies of becoming A Face People Want To See, and putting him together with Thorin Oakenshield, with his very traditional (read: slightly backwards) ideas about what constitutes Real Art and Real Talent, might very well be viewed as just some clothead’s idea of a joke. But there are jokes, and then there are carefully calculated risks the size of controversial reproductions of classic Shakespearean plays - for Bilbo, it is the chance of a lifetime to prove himself to all those who have ever deemed him too one-dimensional to even attempt stage, while Thorin has the opportunity to get out of the rut that’s been hindering his career for so long now, and shine in a role worthy of his talent once again. That is if the two learn how to share the same space for more than ten minutes without wanting to tear each other’s hair out. The course of true love never did run smooth, after all… Bagginshield. Modern Au. Novel Length.

Thoughts: I feel like every fandom in the world has that one Modern AU that boils down that pairing to its very essence and then wraps it up into an entirely new package and delivers it gift wrapped to you. This is that story. It has nothing to do with Tolkein’s world, but instead gives you an entirely new plot set in the real relatable world. Still, the characters, their motivations, and even the plot are so close to the real story that it feels like an honor getting to read it.

A DRAGON’S TALE by vtforpedro

Summary: Bilbo Baggins has been a hobbit for many long years and he should very much like to keep it that way, thank you very much.

An old friend drops by Bag End with the offer of an adventure and despite Bilbo's refusal, the idea of only thirteen dwarves and a wizard facing a dragon may just convince him yet. After all, he has experience with the Great Dragons of the North. Once upon a time, he was one. Bagginshield. AU. BilboIsADragon!

Thoughts: First Dragon!Bilbo story and still one that I re-read again and again.

TO CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE FUTURE by authoressjean

Summary: "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." - Galadriel

In an attempt to get the Arkenstone back for Thorin, Bilbo discovers the ring he's been using is the One Ring. Seized by a need to destroy gold, especially gold with the ability to ensnare creature and king alike, he sets out alone for Mordor. Anything to forget about the love that gold cost him. What he doesn't know is that Thorin is no longer under the thrall of gold, and is desperately racing to catch up with him to keep him safe. They may have just started on another adventure, but this one may not end as well as their first quest. Bagginshield. Post Bofta-Fix it. Lotr re-imagining. Novel Length.

Thoughts: These boys break my heart in this story with their palpable pining, but it’s so worth it to see their romance drawn out from the small words of Erebor and the Shire and basically become this grand epic love story that spreads all across Middle Earth.

THE RIVEN CROWN by The_Kingmaker

Summary: ‘We may have won the battle, but I fear the war with winter is just beginning.’

The aftermath of war is no laughing matter. Those who died must be honored, those who are wounded must be healed, and those who remain need food and clothing, peace and sanctuary. With Thorin's life hanging in the balance, it is up to Bilbo and the rest of the Company to rule the rag-tag remnants of Erebor in his place.

Then there is the matter of the gold...

Can Bilbo save both king and kingdom, or is Erebor destined to fall deeper into ruin? Bagginshield. Post-BOFTA. FakeMarriage. Novel Length.

Thoughts: This story really hits all my spots. Pretend Marriage, politics, in-depth story, oblivious and pining idiots. It’s my go-to read after finishing BOFTA to help heal the suffering and give me hope. I love the way they fully utilize the entire cannon world to tell a truly epic romance. Please read this if you get a chance.

LAY YOUR TROUBLES DOWN by Avelera

Summary: An extended version of "the acorn scene." Bilbo sees his chance to snap Thorin out of his madness, and takes it. Bagginshield. BOFTA-fix it.

Thoughts: This was one of the most emotional porns I’ve ever read and I loved every second of it.

SOMETHING BLUE by Lapin

Summary: Thorin marries Bilbo after the Battle of Five Armies, a marriage of convenience, not love. Slowly, they must come to make the best of it, Bilbo resolves. After all, he's a Hobbit. They make the best of things. Bagginshield. Post-Bofta. Pretend Marriage.

Thoughts: Short read and an absolute classic that’s undoubtedly included on every rec list, but I couldn’t not include it. The obliviousness and mutual pining are so delicious you could put in a plate and charge $100 to eat it, and you wouldn’t regret it a bit.

KING, COME RED AT MORNING by Tawabids

Summary: Bilbo has heard fairytales of the lost prince of the dwarves, Thorin son of Thrain, who disappeared the day Smaug attacked the Lonely Mountain. But he does not believe in fairy tales until he comes across the dwarf sleeping in the depths of Erebor, and kisses him back to life.

Now Thorin - a hundred and fifty years out of his time - has to confront a world in which his city is empty, his people scattered, his baby brother Frerin is king, two nephews he's never met are missing in action, and a war is brewing right on his doorstep.

And as if that wasn't complicated enough he's trapped in the body of an old man and falling stupidly in love with a gossipy, grudging little hobbit. Bagginshield. AU. Novel Length. Battle of the Five Armies retelling. Angst.

Thoughts: I put this one off for a while, but it lived up to every promise that the summary and multiple recs had made for it. Young Thorin is definitely a joy to read, and both his and Bilbo’s struggles never stop being so very painfully relatable. Prepare yourself for the angst though, as it’s almost palpable, but it’s definitely a must read.

PRAYERS TO BROKEN STONE by Avelera

Summary: Twisted by the effects of dragon sickness, Thorin banishes not only Bilbo but the entire company from Erebor. Days pass with no word from their missing leader and, fearing the effects the gold may have on the other dwarves, Bilbo decides to enter the mountain alone in search of Thorin.

What he finds may not be Thorin for much longer.

Or: In which the dragon sickness is slowly transforming Thorin into a dragon, and Bilbo must save him before it is too late. Bagginshield. BOFTA-Fix it. Angst.

Thoughts: This fic was made to hurt me when I need it the most. If I could draw, the cover of this story would just be Thorin stabbing me over and over again in the chest. It also has inspired me so much I ended up writing an entire DnD campaign because of it. Please read it if you have not.

GARDENING by The Feels Whale (miscellea)

Summary: Bilbo Baggins arrived home late one afternoon in the middle of the week and the entire west Farthing is still talking about it.

Poor Mister Baggins. He was doomed to be a nine-days wonder no matter what and is it any wonder after a year-long adventure? Even the Tooks haven’t the influence to hush that up, but Mad Baggins seems to have managed to silence every tongue in the Shire on that subject which would be awe-inspiring ...if not for the way he decided to go about it.

OR: That one where Middle Earth seems to be unclear about where baby Hobbits come from. Bagginshield. M-Preg-ish.

Thoughts: To say that I’m not a fan of M-preg is a bit of an understatement, but the way this story handles it never squicked me out once. It’s heartwarming and angsty all in one and I enjoy it every time I re-read it.

Tamâmebrulu Id-Mudtu (Lullabies of the Heart) by rutobuka

Summary: As it turns out, even kings catch colds. After the reclamation of Erebor, Thorin finds himself confined to his bed. Luckily, his dear friend Bilbo Baggins is on hand to ensure he complies with Óin's strict orders for rest. (A multi-chapter Bagginshield comic). Bagginshield. Comic.

Thoughts: I doubt there is anyone in the Bagginshield fandom who has not seen ruto’s art or stories, but just in case you need to go check out everything of her’s right the heck now. Her art is basically Bagginshield cannon, and her fem!Bagginshield stories are the best ever written.

OF WARM IMPERMANENCE by Avelera

Summary: Thorin realizes he has gained weight since moving to the Shire, and tries to hide it from Bilbo out of shame and uncertainty of whether it will damage their relationship.Of course Bilbo finds out and, far from disappointed, he’s fairly certain he’s never been so turned on in his life. Bagginshield. Smut. Shire living.

Thoughts: I’m not sure is ruto’s art or this story were the beginning of my obsession with Chubby Thorin, but it definitely had a hand it.

BLESS YOUR SOLES by freakylemurcat

Summary: Feet were sacred to dwarves, and Thorin had always done his best to adhere to the rules and keep his feet to himself. And then comes along Bilbo Baggins with his ever bare feet, and Thorin suddenly finds he can't think of anything else. Bagginshield. Smut.

Thoughts: Just the best little smutty store that we all need but don’t deserve.

LADY IN RED by windchijmes

Summary: Dwalin and Thorin are traveling together, and they find themselves in a ridiculous situation where Thorin has to disguise himself as a woman at a tavern. The effect is more interesting than they both expect - Thorin is openly leered at and propositioned and he fumes about it, while Dwalin enjoys himself playing the big, bad protector of his lady's innocence. But of course, the tension gets too much, and Dwalin drags Thorin away, hikes up his skirt, and fucks him against a tree. Thwalin. Pre-Journey. Smut.

Thoughts: Lovely little Thwalin smut fic that I can’t get enough of. Short, less than 10k, but I bookmarked for a damn good reason, and that reason is that it’s HOT and you should definitely give it a read.

THE EMPTY BELLIES DINING SOCIETY by sam_ptarmigan

Summary: Bilbo and Dwalin have two things in common: an appreciation for good meals and a case of unrequited love for a certain oblivious king. The only sensible thing to do is form a supper club. Bilbo/Thorin/Dwalin. Short.

Thoughts: After reading a thousand bagginshield fics there was nothing that I craved more than a good, solid, OT3 fics with these three and this one always hits the spot. The pining is on point, and Dwalin is so fantastically done. Even if you’re leary of reading an OT3 you should still give this bad boy a chance. And then hopefully you’ll fall in love with this pairing and write it because good god I need some more of it.

SMELL THE SEA AND FEEL THE SKY by Thorinsmut

Summary: Captain Dwalin - a privateer for the Crown - is in love with beautiful, sweet, innocent Lady Norine.

His main rival (whom he is most definitely not in lust with) is the cockiest little man he ever met - Captain Vulpes, a pirate with a fast mongrel of a ship and a bad habit of stealing his targets out from under his nose

....it's going to take him a while to realize they're the same genderfluid person.

Thoughts: If this story doesn’t make you fall in love Nori/Dwalin, you’re just absolutely doing something wrong with your life.

LITTLE INDULGENCES by sam_ptarmigan

Summary: Dwalin is not entirely certain how he ended up propped up against a tree with his trousers down and Dori kneeling in front of him, but he's pretty sure good things are about to happen. Dwalin/Dori. SMUT

Thoughts: To call this a rare-pair is pretty self-evident but the porn is 11/10 and deserves to be read by everybody.

AND OF COURSE...

SANSUKH by determamfidd

Summary: The battle was over, and Thorin Oakenshield awoke, naked and shivering, in the Halls of his Ancestors. The novelty of being dead fades quickly, and watching over his companions soon fills him with grief and guilt. Oddly, a faint flicker of hope arises in the form of his youngest kinsman, a Dwarf of Durin's line with bright red hair. (Follows the story of the War of the Ring). Bagginshield. Gigolas. Cannon Compliant. LOTR retelling. 500k+. Not finished.

Thoughts: I don’t know what I could say about Sansukh that hasn’t been said a million times before but I just can’t repeat enough how much this story needs to be read. I know that seeing 500K words and WIP is going to scare a lot of people off - as it did me for a long time - but you’re just gonna have to put on your big girl panties and dive on in anyway and you will not regret a second of it. It will honestly raise your standard of what you think fanfiction can be for the rest of your life and this is not a bad thing. If you’re still not convinced, here’s a very impassioned post that will help give you that final push: here.

#bagginshield #bagginshield recs #hobbit recs #recs

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swampgallows · 6 years ago

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it’s becoming harder and harder for me to find solace in places. the guilt inside me is becoming heavy. i know that if i want something, i need to make it happen, but i am so exhausted of having to do everything myself. and the things i do get help with i feel grateful, of course, but then so guilty that i’m needing to be helped that it’s incapacitating. i’m just so late in the game to everything. i’m so outside of life and what other people are doing. i’ve always felt that way, though. i’m never gonna snap into place like they want me to.

i need to pick a career and stuff. i just have to like shot in the dark pick something at this point because there isn’t going to be some divine calling, my pittance from art commissions is not gonna be enough to sustain me (and i dont think i can get to a point where it will), im just so bogged down knowing that everybody is fuckin poor.

part of me wishes i could wake up and just ‘be normal’. that i could throw away all the weird stupid shit in my life. the trashy little kid bracelets, the clown clothes, the nerdy interests, the ugly monsters (what on earth is an ‘orc’?), the hundreds of heavy and just plain weird records that are sooo boring and irritating and repetitive and loud and obnoxious. all the shit i’ve internalized about stuff i am beyond passionate about, the only fuel that keeps me alive and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. i read once about brain trauma, that someone suffered an injury and when they woke up, all of their interests changed completely. they were a classically-trained musician, iirc, and ended up just selling all of their instruments and getting rid of all their books etc because it had absolutely no value to them anymore. they were completely changed. i dont remember what their new interests became, but... the thought of that has haunted me for over a decade. maybe someone will hit me in the head just right until i wake up and be a normal person who cares about normal, accessible things instead of all this fringe and abrasive fantasy bullshit. what if i woke up one day and became a devout christian? i roll over and my room is foreign to me, along with everything in it, and then i just throw it all away? i start over, stripped clean. tabula rasa. i get good interests instead. relatable adult things, like gourmet food and backpacking. i titter with the girls at the office and wear pencil skirts and focus on landing me a tall dark and handsome.

the thought of becoming that thing is heartwrenching. painful. but it’s all obvious, of course, why i would ever have that masochistic fantasy of completely disowning my worthless oblong self. a me that isn’t ‘ruined’.

i went through my kandi stash the other day trying to find all my kandi with bells on it (I could have sworn i had more). and going through a lot of it was a flood of memories. high school, college, raver days. when i was in high school, all by my lonesome, the only candy kid or rave-associated ANYTHING in my 4000+ fellow students, i had to wear a lot of my own kandi. and i did so as a beacon, a lighthouse, hoping that i could be a beaming signal to any other candy kids who might be in hiding. and i got so dizzy and self-consuming with my repressed interest that i became a zealot about it, being extremely rude and elitist about my interests because i felt a need to protect them. i felt the pressure of them looking to be watered down or erased. i was the same with warcraft.

ten years later i’m not as rude about it, but i feel exactly the same way. in high school i had to wear my own kandi, would have it ripped off of my arms in big fistfuls by those who ostracized me, and had to be tongue-in-cheek and submissive about my passion, my very real and non-ironic DEVOTION to this. thank god on tumblr i can write 4000 word dissertations about garrosh hellscream and some of you crazy fucks actually bother to read it, but sometimes i still feel like that kind of pariah for having a very niche and very specific fixation.

even people who played warcraft when i was in high school told me i took it too seriously because i roleplayed; and even roleplayers in the game told me i took it too seriously because i didnt want to sit around for 6 hours pretending to drink alcohol and trying to get laid, except as an elf. the fact that i really wanted to discuss the lore and delve into the story and the universe of azeroth, of how it would feel to be in that place, to live that life, ostracized me even from the people who claim to feel the same way. but roleplay was never about focusing on how our veins dont surge anymore as undead, how your digestive organs need to be removed post-undeath so they dont explode and rupture and hang out of your bowels like the abominations in the Undercity, how the undead are technically still the same citizens of Loraderon but are being ousted by their living counterparts in neighboring kingdoms. it was just “haha im a funny dead pirate man and i’m going to womanize 12 blood elf women at once behind all of their backs.”

in trying to become a gabber dj too, i felt like i had to take it upon myself because nobody else plays the music that i like. but alll of these things... it feels like i’m just building a house by myself. i feel like nobody truly, at the core, appreciates the intersection of interests that i have, or can only smile and nod at my fervor but not really understand it. and it’s nobody’s fault, nobody is obligated to feel what i feel.

i’m glad people enjoy the garrosh posts and art that i make. and i’m glad that my friends make kandi with me now and encourage me to play gabber. i’m happy when i get some really good RP, even if i have to be the one to walk up every time. i’m glad that people want me to “do the thing”. i just feel like... there is no payoff once it’s done. everyone gets glad that it’s finished, and they enjoy it then, but then it dissolves. nobody is invested in it but me.

i know the solution is to be more accessible, but i can’t seem to imagine anything other than swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction. like, all or nothing. either you take all of my german expressionism with the warcraft meta and the rave shit, or you get nothing. i dont know how to dilute myself and that’s part of what was killing me at my job. i felt like a novelty. a doll. but it wasn’t their fault.. they couldnt relate to what i was talking about and passionate about, and it’s not their fault. they liked me because i was well-spoken and funny and a diligent worker, which are all nice and accessible things, but when nobody can cathect with me, really empathize with me, i feel like a jester. a consumable.

my college roommates would tell me that they loved me because i was so funny. and that’s it. i existed as entertainment, but anything human about me—my passions, my interests, my insights, my memories—meant nothing. even my family will ask me a question and then cut me off in the middle of my sentence, expressing more of just their disbelief or confusion about something than actually seeking information. it’s why i stopped answering customers when they’d ask “how did you dye your hair?” and, like an idiot, i attempted to explain the process to them, thinking they actually wanted to know. but a few words in and their eyes glazed over, probably because they weren’t expecting a “real answer”. i began to accept that any questions directed toward me were closer to passive acknowledgements of me just standing there and existing in their field of vision than any sort of actual desired input from me. it’s like when people ask “how are you?” and you are obligated to say “fine” because it is the rote response. if you actually start talking about how you are doing, you are violating the socially agreed upon script of pleasantries.

i cant do small talk. i cant do scripts. i dont get it. it doesnt make sense to me. and i think retail killed me because of that. i wasn’t a person. i wasn’t even an NPC. i was just a doll. an actor. a pull-string action figure with 5 fun phrases. i was so wacky and weird with my green hair and my silly bracelets and funny observations. ho ho what fun it is to work here with our personal jester to tell us funny stories about her cuh-razy antics she gets up to!

like how nate said “the craziest thing of someone’s year will be seeing someone play the legend of zelda theme on an accordion at a convention and for us that’s just like a walk down the street”.

my feet straddle two divergent worlds and i cant pick just one but im about to fall in the crevice.

man i fuckin love ratatouille man. i fuckin love that film. i cant choose between two halves of myself. even when the halves want the other half dead.

i need a liaison. where’s MY linguini????

#blathering

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pernatius · 6 years ago

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The Forbidden Blade: Ch 9

Ch 8

Feet throbbing and hands covered with both blisters and dried up blood, both plea for mercy, yet I push through their cries. The farther I climb on this limbo inducing mountain, for it seems not to have a peak, the colder the gusting wind becomes. A temperature in which I can see my breath and my fingertips tint to blue suffocates all around me. My lungs begin to burn.

Hours ago, when the sun still illuminated the sky, we had finally reached the edge of the city, where the homes and other such buildings were lazily stacked upon one another, where the fumes from cigarettes to factories made my nose shrivel up and eyes water. The long walk, as I would later find out was just a taste of our trek, had me out of breath. So, much so I felt light headed after. I, obviously weak, had no sort of sympathy from my teacher. He acted oblivious, as he continued into the wetlands, which due to its unstable and unsustainable land housed no one. It had looked like another world, which was idiotic to say considering one step back and you would be back into the empire.

His sandals sunk into the mud with each step. Splosh. Splosh. Splosh. The sound made me cringe, my stomach churned. I nearly puked right then and there in front of hundreds of people, who might I say were glaring at me just like those who lived close to the Palace, but what had stopped me from doing so was the fact that my teacher had nearly disappeared into the trees. So, I held back the bile and my disgust and scurried after him.

We had trod on for miles, and in those miles every couple of steps I would have to grab a hold of my ankle, grit my teeth, and pull it out of the mud. A struggle it was, but at least there was something to see rather than rock and more rock. Still, it was nowhere near close to a paradise. Hours ago all I saw was basically just mud. Sometimes I saw glimpses of small streams as wide as my hand cutting through the wet dirt, scurrying animals who frolicked into small shrubbery, and willows whose branches looked like fingers clawing at the sky. Leisure.

Now I have to deal with the anxiety of picking the right path, the right rock to grab a hold of. Also, to stay awake keep pace with my teacher who is surprisingly fast compared to his age. While I pray to Dieus about having the next rock I pick won’t be the cause of my demise my teacher has the gall to not even dare to turn around to see if I’m still alive or not.

Though, maybe I do deserve this silent treatment. It won’t be the first time he stayed, or acted like this in general. In fact, when he taught me in the East Tower he would say three words at a time. Maybe five words if I kept on messing up his lesson. The rest of the time he would be facing away from me or vice versa. The point is we rarely faced each other. I guess now things are reverting back the way they used to, besides the lore of his past coming to light, thanks to my ability to never being able to keep my mouth shut. I just wish he could say something, anything. He can smack me for all I care, make me spit out blood too. It would at least tell me if he was mad at me.

A pebble drops in the corner of my eye. “Arthus, do not be a fool and look down,” is what snaps me back facing forward. So, I grit my teeth and add it to the long list of what to ignore while climbing this steep, rocky behemoth that protrudes upon the earth’s surface.

When my hand finally falls flat on a long ledge I can not help, but smile and laugh. So I quickly threw myself on its surface. As I look into the dimming sky I wonder what Reina would say to my tiresome self. Would she tease me? Would she check to see if I didn’t get infected from my open cuts? Would she cry, relieved I hadn’t died? Maybe all three. Maybe when all of this is over I can talk to her more than ten minutes without getting interrupted, and get to know her.

“Do not seek slumber yet.”

I looked over towards my teacher who looked at me with a cold stare, with disappointment seeping through the cracks. I groan, as I stumble back up. Legs shaking, I nearly collapsed onto my knees.

My teacher, now facing the flat slab of rock, sits down and begins to meditate. I cock my head, and before I question him his words echo in my mind.The eyes can deceive the soul, but the soul can not deceive the eyes. Sighing, I retract my question and watch my teacher with a benefit without a doubt. Winds stopping, I could hear him whispering under his breath. Just a few feet away he is compared to my position, and I could still not make of what he is muttering. It is either because I am too tired, he’s somehow too quiet, or he is speaking a language I could not understand even when I had to learn several. One of which is only spoken by a handful, but I digress.

From the base to its top, the wall now has a perfect line etched into its surface. In which both had mysteriously begun to depart from one another, sliding across the rock floor. Thus, causing the mountain to shake and I to fall on my back.

Getting up, I digest the entrance before us. Darkness seems to go on for miles, no light dared to crawl inside. No cracks inhibited any light to seep inside. It is twice as big as me with a width just enough for the both of us to walk side by side together, traverse into the unknown. Unknown, a word that leaves a foul taste in my mouth. I hated that word; I hated not knowing.

“Arthus, try not to fall behind.” My teacher, ancestor and a man of many mysteries, steps inside. In seconds darkness envelops him, and after those seconds it gives me the will to do so as well. No, orders me to follow. So, I do so, reluctantly, with a whimper escaping my lips. With every step I grew closer to the hole, the more my body shook, and when I am finally at its mouth do I gulp realizing how dark the inside is. The fear I have been feeling since the opening made itself known is intensified, heart racing and palms sweaty. I fail to see my teacher and his footprints. The sounds of his sandals echoed, bouncing from wall to wall.

“Teacher,” I cried out with my voice shaking. As my fingers wrap around its lips, their tips touch darkness, something grabs a hold of them. I am flung into the darkness, without any time to yelp.

#83 #short story #the forbidden blade #chapter 9 #creative writing #writers on tumblr

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kinneypride · 7 years ago

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“Fans” complain about diversity and representation in comics, and why is pretty obvious. Thor - Bill Masterson was Thor in the 90s, and there was the whole future Thor thing with Thor 2099 and the Dargo Ktor Thor too. These “fans” didn’t actively complain until it was a woman in the role. A woman I might add, that’s been proven to be worthy of the hammer since the beginning and has been a staple of Thor’s comics from the beginning. My reaction is more towards why did it take so long to do this story that’s been foreshadowed since Donald Blake himself first raised the hammer. Her comic also outsold original Thor’s by quite a lot, and even the drop off of readers still held above the dropoff of readers in original Thor’s comic. A complete unknown white male can pick up the hammer with no problems, but the second a woman who has a long history with Thor does? Oh lordy, shut the internet down. Captain America - In the 90s, John Walker became Captain America for awhile. And in recent years, Bucky became cap(a hero with a prosthetic arm), and currently Sam Wilson is, two characters that have been sidekicks and partners to cap for almost his entire run as opposed to a complete unknown white man. Yet they get all the hate for “replacing Steve.” It’s Sam Wilson’s turn with the shield, and someday Nomad will pick up the shield too. Cap’s early comics are rooted in this notion of the sidekicks/partners eventually will pick up the shield for him. It’s a golden age comic staple of the genre. Taking Captain America and making it about the legacy of what the mantle means to each individual. You can see it over in DC too. Legacies do pick up the mantle eventually. Ms. Marvel - Kamala Khan has been a great read full of personality and fun, but people are still crying out for Carol as Ms Marvel and whining about Carol’s shift to Captain Marvel. Yet that is the natural growth for both their characters. Carol to full take on the mantle of the source of her powers, and Kamala as being a hero who was inspired by another in her youth like many of the greats started themselves. Kamala’s title has been outselling the original’s for awhile now at that.

As for Carol, in one Avengers cartoon that had Carol in it, she can take full on punches from the hulk, but a random pebble while she’s flying a ship incapacitates her and knocks her out so the male characters have to fly the ship(none of which were even pilots!). Yet not one peep from anyone how that didn’t make sense. It was accepted. And you want to tell me this isn’t about sexism towards her character to downgrade her from a military rank that gives respect to her air force days back to a no rank title that uses “Ms.”

All-New Wolverine - I don’t even know where to begin on the ignorance of the complaints here. She’s been building up to becoming Wolverine since her premiere on TV. Her second set of origin comics literally start off with her stepping into Logan’s feet. How anyone can call this “forced”, well, they’re probably an idiot anyway. Wolverine’s comic has never been this fun to read before. Ironman - Riri Williams makes sense taking over the mantle, and even so, she took on a new name for herself anyway. The only other character to come close would have been the niece of James Rhodes. “Fans” will cry and scream that only Tony Stark is Ironman. Yet they’ll conveniently forget that James Rhodes was Ironman in the 80s while Tony Stark was out of commission. Now with Rhodey gone, and plus he’s already been Ironman and has created his own various hero Identities after the fact, it was time for a new person to step into the shoes to begin their own legacy. Makes it hard to believe that those “fan” complaints aren’t anything more than thinly veiled sexism. And lets be honest here, Tony hasn’t been that smart since, well, his creation. He is arrogantly smart, which has led to lots of personal issues and dangerous mistakes. It’s time someone else wore the armor that’s not that arrogantly smart(stupid) to see how she handles it differently without that life threatening flaw that self-creates problems. Especially ones of such magnitude that’d let Ultron turn Tony himself into a puppet because Tony thought nanites and computer parts in his body directly was a good idea. Hulk - Bruce Banner’s original runs have always been about him seeking to rid himself of the hulk. He’s succeeded several times in the past. To the point Rick Jones ended up as a hulk. So “hulk” has had stories in the past of new characters taking over and becoming a Hulk. Now all of a sudden it’s an issue when an asian american man becomes a Hulk. One that has a longstanding history in Marvel as much if not more so than even Rick Jones did before he became a hulk(and then much later A-Bomb). Banner’s wife/Ex-wife Betty becoming a hulk was derided non-stop as well, no matter how fun it was to read. Yet as a story, it makes sense because of how much Banner’s gamma life impacts those around him. Women in his life can get maimed, killed, or even tortured, but heaven forbid one actually get powers of her own because of how Banner’s life impacts them. I mean it’s not like there is history of that happening to loved ones or relatives even from the simplest things like a blood transfusion. Spider-man - The hero costume itself has always been about it could be anyone under that mask. The full covering suit is a metaphor for the fact the kid underneath is any kind of bullied underdog with a good heart. But people whine nonetheless, and even with their whining, many of whom are whining don’t even read the comic. Which is rather obvious by their complaints. They claim this true fan moniker but can’t even recognize an older character reappearing and cry out that Marvel is trying to turn Spider-man into a girl. (*Facepalm.*) And in actual new changes, the alternate universe version over with Spider-Gwen is a fantastic read. One of the best new interpretations of the lore in ages.

“Fans” call it diversity killing comics and heroes. I call it the natural evolution of the characters, and their impact on their world and those around them. The natural progression of stories that should have reached this far in decades past if Marvel back then wasn’t scared of their straight white bread audience that was scared of change. So what’s all the hate really about? Because the rise and fall of sales in comics is nothing new. This happens, and has been happening for the duration of comics as a whole. It’s nothing new. And often enough, it has nothing to do with content. Especially in this day and age where sales are trending towards digital, and print comic sales(floppies) were dwindling much worse before these alleged new “experimental” forays in story telling as people wait for trade paperback collections and hardcovers to read it all at once. Are we really going to call this an experiment when Marvel has done this previously to core title characters in the past? My personal comic buying habits have slowed, and I know it’s not because of “diversity” in the comics. It’s because of the personal finances cost. Much of the material is better than it’s ever been in the past. Heck, much of it is better than it was back during the early 2000s, and here we are nearing 2020. Why can’t comics evolve and their world evolve naturally? Do we really need to leave characters in cryo stasis and telling the same story six ways to Sunday repeated over and over in a slightly different way? Why can’t we have actual new stories? Are you really going to complain about the slowing of the sales of ‘floppies’ when those numbers are still higher than the past? Now also boosted by digital? And an increase in trade paperback sales? So what’s the hate really about? Longstanding comic tropes of heroes naturally evolving as per their character history? Or the fact in some of those cases it happens to be a woman? Or in Captain America’s case, a black man. Or Hulk’s an Asian American? Why can’t Marvel be allowed to tell new stories like they have in the past even with new male characters? We wouldn’t even have War Machine today if not for Marvel doing that in the past. These characters will grow into the mantle, and some will splinter off into new identities. It’s a comic staple that’s as old as comics itself, and if we limit that, we’re cutting off a large chunk of what future comics could become and grow into. If over in DC, the new Wally West took over for Barry, as it happened previously in the comics pre-reboot that brought Barry back, how do you think people will react to that? It’s happened in the past, so it shouldn’t be an issue. It’s part of Barry’s character history. But logic has never been part of a hater’s repertoire. I guess we’ll see how that pans out coming up in the Flash TV series itself. These shifts are nothing new to comics. So why is it ‘now’ an issue when it’s someone that’s not white or not male? This shouldn’t be an issue at all.

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sending-the-message · 7 years ago

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Hell is Heaven for the Demons by TobiasWade

Justice isn't blind. If she cannot see, then it's simply because she doesn't care enough to look. She turned away that dark night my sister was attacked, where even the moon and stars must have hidden their faces in shame. From all accounts it was an anonymous act of brutality: an impulsive flight, a brief struggle, the humiliation of rape, and then the lifetime of silent nightmares that must surely follow such depraved violence.

I've heard it's a common story where the lonely roads meet beyond the protective halo of street lamps. For all the virtues we profess, there is a savagery dormant in us waiting only for our fellow man to blink. It is easy to be noble while someone is watching and the fear of judgement may yet steady our course. In solitude the moral compass will lose its bearing, replaced by whichever base instinct can scream louder than our pounding blood.

It is some consolation that I found the one who valued his greed over human dignity. Through the course of these confessions you will see that I am no better than the animal I hunted, so I will waste no time professing my merit now. I buy substances from a man who knew everything that happened in his neighborhood, and like anyone who seeks profit from another's misfortune, he was willing to sell me the name I required.

I found the rapist where he returned to the street my sister suffered upon: pacing and circling like a hungry animal haunting the doorstep of his last meal. He didn't see me coming, and I made no sound nor spoke no word save for the poetry my bullet inscribed in his skull. I should have departed at once, but the satisfaction that his last throes of life promised lured me into complacent voyeurism. I stayed to tell him that my sister sent her love, hoping to purchase her closure with the death rattle rising in his throat. I wasn't expecting repentance, nor did I receive it.

"It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last," were his final words to reach living ears.

I have no-one to blame but myself and my zealous retribution for failing to notice that he didn't work alone. They were on top of me in moments, wrestling me to the ground and stomping my gun away from my shattered hand. Knives punctured my back and neck, leaving great sucking wounds which inhaled the night air; wounds breathing in place of my my lungs which were swiftly filled with blood. There weren't any magnanimous thoughts or profound revelations as the light went out. One moment there was simply light and pain and noise...

And then nothing.

And then...

I opened my eyes to find I was no longer of this world. I knew at once, despite the fact that I was sitting at a quite ordinary wooden desk in a room no larger than janitorial closet. On the desk was a piece of paper, and on the paper was a question, and in that question was written my fate for eternity:

Welcome to Hell. Would you like to: 1) Remain Human. You will be tortured by those who became Demons. 2) Become a Demon. You will torture those who remained Human. P.S. If there aren't enough people to volunteer to remain Human, they will be chosen randomly.

I do not believe it is within my nature to torture anyone. Even my sister's abuser received death as fast as an executioner's axe. But no more could it be said it is within my nature to receive torture: as unnatural a human construct as can be imagined. But if I had to choose - as I'm sure many of you would have done so far removed from the judgement of both man and God - then I choose to accept my new home and dawn the mantle of Hell I was offered.

I steeled myself against the horrendous transformation I pictured, imagining razor talons growing from my bones to rip holes in the flesh or an entropic decay to wrack my body until my skin ran down my face like candle-wax. No physical transformation came over me though, a phenomenon which I can only account to the Devil's ironic sense of humor. I knew it from the first moment the floor dropped underneath to fling me down into the charnel realm however; I was a Demon now.

And it was Heaven to me. I expected the first time to be harder. The woman was presented to me in perfect physical health. I haven't noticed any discrepancies in age since I've arrived - everyone looks to be their mid 20s here. The room sealed and I was given an hour to work on her. I find it distasteful to dwell on exactly what I did, but I remember rationalizing it cleanly with the knowledge that she was only here because she deserved it. Never mind that I was here too - never mind that it could have been me randomly chosen - never mind that she could have volunteered to suffer like this to spare another. She was in Hell, and it was my job to make sure she knew it.

It wasn't until I'd finished that I learned the second rule to this infernal game. Once the hour of punishment had been completed, the human is offered a choice: they can get revenge on me, or they can accept their pain and continue their journey. Those who refuse the chance to retaliate shall be incrementally elevated, until at last their soul is cleansed and they are set to be reborn on Earth. If however they choose to turn the torture on me instead, I will be nourished by the pain and descend further along the dark road I have chosen. For each blow inflicted upon me, my skin hardens, my muscles tighten, and my power will flourish.

It didn't take long for me to realize how to properly play. The only way for me to progress was to inflict a punishment so foul and induce a hatred so deep in my victim that they choose revenge over the quality of their immortal soul. And progress I must, for untold centuries of this game repeated has refined some Demons into legendary masters of their craft. Those Demons have carved out kingdoms for themselves in this infernal domain, and through their countless successes have transformed themselves into towering behemoths of apocalyptic ability, shattering the landscape with their tread and sending their lessers into groveling servitude. Since the moment I chose to become a Demon the gates of absolution have been closed to me forever. It may be my fate to dwell in this realm, but it was my choice to rule it.

And so I went to work honing my skill. It wasn't enough to simply batter the humans into submission; if I was to force their hand against me I had to get inside their mind, caressing and nurturing their spirit into one of mindless wrath. I learned to expose the subconscious dread lying dormant that even the bravest dare not shed light on. I mastered the art of wetting my brush in nightmares to repaint their memories until all they once knew of life was corrupted by my influence. I promised false salvation, or deceived them into thinking they had escaped, or spoiled their loved ones until they could not contain the anger I imbued within them.

But I didn't stop there. I studied the ancient texts of Demonic lore recounting the torment of dying stars from the beginning of time. I served under the foulest creatures I could find, watching their methods and improving upon their design. Experimentation, research, and endless practice refined my mastery over the subtle art until I could induce a pain so exquisite that Angels would shed their wings for the chance to smite me down. And ever I grew stronger, building a devoted following of my own to gather more humans, ever inventing and facilitating the process of extracting unbearable anguish. My human form twisted into a sentient shadow to reflect the pervasive nature of my approach, each victory making it that much easier to dismantle my prey.

And I loved every second of it. I relished in my progression and thought I could live here until the end of time, prospering and expanding my reign to all corners of the nether realm. Perhaps one day I would supplant the Devil himself, designing my own games to watch the universe fold and decay beneath my guiding hand. And perhaps I would have continued this road forever, had it not been for the fateful encounter where I finally met my match.

A human was pushed into the room with me and the door closed behind. I had an hour to play, but I wanted more. It was the man who murdered my sister: infuriatingly smug and dismissive of my ability to break his spirit. I thought I would enjoy this more than anything, but to my mounting dismay he stubbornly resisted my influence. He remained passive through the acid wash of his nerves. His mind did not falter as I summoned the image of his father's lamentations against him. Every trick, every torment, every mental ravaging left him smirking, until with exasperation I resigned myself to simply goad him into action.

"You must feel cheated. Forced to remain human at the mercy of every lowly criminal who cares to punish you."

"I wasn't forced," he replied. "I made the choice."

"Then you're an idiot who deserves what he gets."

"And what I'll get is freedom. I told you this wasn't the first time, and that it won't be the last," he said. "I've been to Hell so many times that it bores me."

So that was his secret. He had gotten out before. He knew how to play the game. But it didn't matter, because no-one played it like I did.

"So you won't retaliate?" I asked. "No matter what I do?"

He shook his head, the smirk unaltered. "I'm going back to Earth. And when I do, I'm going to remember this like I always do. I'm going to wait until I've grown strong again. And just for this, I'm going to find your sister and I'm going to do it again."

I had almost forgotten about my sister. About the world above, filled with its myriad of joys and sorrows. I missed her in that moment; I missed being alive. And as much as I enjoyed the role I had carved for myself here, I wanted to be back again. The thought that this monster would patiently wait out his trials, cheating the system over and over to return to his life of sin; it made me sick. The tables had turned, and all the hatred I sought to pour into him was rushing into me instead. I wanted nothing more than to flay him down to the core of being and set such a fire in what remained to burn for all of time. But even if somehow I could force his hand against me; even if I broke him so badly that he never escaped; I would still be here forever. And I hated him, and I hated myself, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done to hold onto that hatred and turn it aside.

And harder still to let him walk away. To bide my time, sending the weakest demons in my possession so that he might easily resist their influence. Watching, and waiting, and even helping my sister's attacker elevate through the Hell until the time of his salvation was at hand. It was hard, but it was worth it, because that is when I chose to strike.

I had already learned to infiltrate the mind in my pursuit of torture, and through my mastery I infiltrated the spirit as well. I hid within his soul when his judgement was passed, concealing my hatred within his hatred, tempering my fire with his calculating patience. And when that soul was whisked away, I traveled with it, sleeping so softly within his dreams that even he did not know he bore me as his silent passenger. Until the day when he was born again on Earth, and I with him.

The struggle was violent but brief. It is easy to wrestle an infant's mind from them, and when the child's eyes opened it was I who looked out. He may resist me yet, but I bear with me all the subtle crafts I have honed in Hell, carrying them to Earth where they can be put to better use.

You see Hell is Heaven for the Demons, but all the worst of us have found our way back home.

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