#my favorite dimension 20 couple

[honeyhauntart]

when you’re here, you’re family. it’s called being gay.

[galactaknightyaoi]

☀️ IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! 🌙

This is my gift to myself :) I drew my favorite guys ever.

For a while I've been itching to draw the wedding outfits from this post again. I made them up on the fly as I was drawing, but I actually really like how they ended up turning out. They're super cute!! (though, yet again, you can't see almost any part of Dedede's outfit... 💔)

But then I couldn't get it out of my head to make a companion piece for it, with their mirror versions. And so. I did. What they have going on is a little bit messy, though...

Marriage or divorce!! Take your pick.

[purrassicjet]

I made my Jawbone "I can fix her" O'Shaughnessy post in jest, and then less than a week passed and Sandra Lynn apologised to Fig for being an ass in freshman year and helped her through her issues and I was like "wow yeah he fixed her"

[whoblewboobear]

No but in another life where Jace isn’t too far gone, he and so many other coworkers coulda vibed. Henry would tell Jace that he can do anything he puts his mind to and helps Jace sign up for community college or take night classes on the side to take a level of Wizard. I love Porter’s nasty awful ass, but Jace deserved better company and better relationships with his other coworkers that wouldn’t have killed him.

Like Tiberia would hate his ass but if he asked and put in the work she’d maybe help him learn the basics. He could go get drinks with Corsica, meditate and practice mindfulness with Yolanda, etc. like the possibilities were endless. I don’t mind him being dead and he doesn’t have to be reformed, but in death I image he regrets trying so hard to build a bridge between Porter and himself.

I’m 100% attached to Jace now and he’s sooo tragic to me in a Kendall!Sucession type of way. Like the only thing in his way was himself and he pursued the wrong thing and got nothing to show for it.

Catch me frantically scribing an Aguefort Coworker’s Retreat AU for my baby girl Jace where Arthur makes his staff (villains and all) do silly team bonding activities and some of them come out of it a lil better for it.

Porter gets revived to participate bc it would be his personal hell but is absolutely not allowed to teach at Aguefort anymore on account of the grooming students to be his worker bees. Maybe he’s sent to work in the compass points where Ayda and Aelwyn could destroy his ass at a moments notice. Maybe over time he’ll pick up a book or two on pirate friendship and send Jace an orange idk. Is this anything?

[romeowho]

Also this promo photo is making me feel good things

[deconstructthesoup]

I think the reason that Dimension 20 really scratches all those itches in my brain is that it really shows what you can do with D&D---and TTRPGs as a whole.

Fantasy High, by itself, is an incredibly compelling concept. What would D&D look like in a semi-modern setting? What would a high school that's all about teaching teens how to be adventurers look like? And the way it's done is beyond inventive, especially if you look at all the encounters in the first season---we've got a literal food fight, a high-speed road chase with tiefling greasers, a nightclub brawl with zombies, vampires, and werewolves, a skating match with a bunch of dwarven middle schoolers and a concrete golem, a high-stakes game of football (ish) with undead jocks that give off major teen slasher vibes, a fight done in an arcade where characters can get trapped in the consoles, and the final battle is done at prom. PROM! How cool is that?

And then we get to the Unsleeping City, which takes the urban fantasy elements that Fantasy High already had and elevates it. The way the D&D lore and magic is interpreted in a modern New York setting is excellent, as is the whole take on the "American Dream," magic literally coming from dreams, ideas, and the imagination. I know that I need to actually finish the UC saga, but from what I've seen and experienced, it is truly fantastic.

And the same energy carries through to the other seasons---my personal favorite outside of Fantasy High being A Court of Fey and Flowers, just because I'm a sucker for any Fey Realm content and I've been raised on Jane Austen---where the genre mashups shine through in the best way possible. I'll admit, I haven't seen A Crown of Candy, purely because I know how heartbreaking and devastating it is and I don't think I can physically handle it, but the concept of Candyland Game of Thrones is so beautifully bizarre that I totally get why people love it so much. Escape from the Bloodkeep hitting that workplace comedy vibe that we love to see in villains. Misfits & Magic being a love letter to the "magical boarding school" genre while also calling out all the weird contradictions inherent in it. A Starstruck Odyssey literally being an homage to Brennan's mom and exactly the kind of madcap and unhinged energy I need from my sci-fi. Neverafter perfectly encapsulating the true horror of fairy tales. Mentopolis hitting my noir-loving heart and personifying hyperfixation in the best way possible.

I'm not even kidding when I say that, if it weren't for Dimension 20... I probably wouldn't have even started my own campaign. I'd had snippets and ideas ever since officially getting into D&D and joining a game with some old friends (and getting back in touch with them in the process), but after I saw the Mentopolis trailer, I realized just how much variety TTRGPs had to offer. I could do a time-blending, history-meets-future campaign. I could go out-of-the-box. I could have endless amounts of options available to my friends and still tell the story that I wanted to tell. And when I sat down and watched Fantasy High---and when I got that Dropout subscription so I could consume whatever I wanted---it felt like the show was actually giving me advice. It's fantastic.

Also it helps that the episodes are usually only roughly a couple hours instead of being, like, an entire afternoon long. And that each season is 20 episodes, tops. No offense to Critical Role, but the sheer amount of content literally makes it impossible for me to get into it.

[thedownfallofamerica]

Yes oh my gosh I was ready to cry in that moment it’s so sweet it’s delightful it’s beautiful it makes me love both of them more and it also makes their characters so interesting to watch. Gerard is almost mentoring Ylfa because he knows what it’s like to grow up as a beast instead of a kid and Ylfa, I think, is teaching Gerard how to be brave.

murph talking to Emily’s character about his wife and about how she loved him and the things he saw in her that made him fall in love as well I’m 🥺🥺🥺 so fucked up how they’ll just make you believe in love more vividly than you have in a while for a second with no fucking warning.

[mercymaker]

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN ✨

My current situation, as well as living with chronic pain that often leads to me being sleep-deprived, make it difficult for me to work, especially scheduled hours, but I would like to make a little bit of money off my art, be it the pixel-kind or other. Most of my options are for Baldur's Gate 3, however, the simple edits as well as the physical items step outside of that realm. Here are the options:

A set of 2 simple edits optimized for tumblr use (540x540) featuring your favorite character or an OC.

With or without text, with the color scheme of your choice.

I will need HQ shots of the character for the edits.

You can find more examples of the edits HERE.

PRICE: 5 EUR.

A set of 2 character intro gifs featuring your favorite character or an OC.

Color scheme of your choice.

I will need the sliders/mod list of your character.

You can find examples of these gifs HERE.

PRICE: 20 EUR.

A set of 4 colourful gifs featuring your favorite character or an OC.

Color scheme of your choice.

I will need the sliders/mod list of your character.

You can find examples of these gifs HERE.

PRICE: 20 EUR.

A set of 2 cut-out gif edits featuring your favorite character, an OC, or a couple.

With or without text.

The background/color scheme can be adjusted slightly.

I will need the sliders/mod list of your character.

You can find more examples of these gif edits HERE.

PRICE: 30 EUR.

A minimum of 2 shots featuring your favorite character, an OC, or a couple.

Editing in photoshop is free (or optional)!

I will need the sliders/mod list of your character.

The background/setting/animation is your choice, but I might need your save file if it's something very specific.

For posed shots you can either choose a simple background or in-game setting.

Standard vp dimensions: 2560x1440.

More examples of my virtual photography HERE.

PRICE: Listed above per 1 shot.

I ALSO accept custom orders for the headpieces on my Etsy page.

Can customize the primary and secondary colors to your liking. The only limit will be the paint available to me, but I have a pretty decent collection, so don't be afraid to DM if you have a very specific idea!

PRICE: Listed on my Etsy store page.

CONTACT ME:

You can reach me through tumblr DMs to inquire about a commission and then we could move to either email or discord for files/details.

WAIT TIME:

I reserve 2 weeks for each order or commission, please do not rush me, I am doing my best and will get back to you as soon as I can!

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100% of the price is paid upfront after confirming the details. Please, do not send me a payment without confirming first (especially on ko-fi where I'd consider it a donation).

I reserve the right to decline a commission for any reason.

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.

[myrmica]

mer my dear mutual mer i would like to ask you how do i get into lifesteal

HELLO FARLANDS!! you've come to the right place. Step into my office.

this is an interesting question with a variety of different answers. a lot of the time people seem to direct you towards videos rather than stream vods, which does makes sense, because they're more accessible and the barrier to entry is definitely less daunting.

but lifesteal videos aren't episodic, they're designed for a viewer to be able to jump in with little to no context at any moment. they throw a lot of information at you fast as hell, and events spanning hours and hours of footage are condensed down in ways where most of the meat gets cut off. i have a hard time absorbing information from or remembering what happens in lifesteal videos because of the editing styles... i don't claim that this isn't in large part a taste thing, but in videos you miss the complicated character moments, and the sense of pacing/chronology, and all of the things that happen that don't translate well to video logic. and you don't get to see (as much of) the dimension of things where the fact that everyone is trying to make videos can be character and story relevant information. all of these things are what make lifesteal season 4 my favorite minecraft roleplay ever in the world. i guess i would say that i do like lifesteal videos, but mostly in relation to the livestreams.

all of which means that while pretty much any lifesteal video ever produced can make for a perfectly serviceable starting point, it doesn't really get you any of the things about lifesteal --i-- care about. and you're asking ME. So.

what is the deal with lifesteal in general?

you probably know at least some of this already, but for the sake of the thing:

lifesteal is a server based around a mechanic where, upon killing someone, you gain one of the hearts off of their health bar up to a maximum of 20. if you lose all of your hearts you're banned, but this is temporary and players can be revived. it's also a server where you're free to steal and destroy builds to your heart's content, and people toy with breaking the rules they do have often. so it naturally follows that lifestealers are generally interested in pvp, and have a social system where the most important relationships are your teammates, who come before basically anything else. lifesteal IS roleplay but it isn't scripted, and what they mean by unscripted is that the outcomes of a conflict can't be predetermined, because that would defeat the point—if something goes wrong, it goes wrong. (and hopefully, it goes right for somebody else.)

why season 4?

short answer, because it's the one that has the guys i care about in the situations i care about. the long answer is at 9k words and not even close to done yet so you're gonna have to wait a bit on that one.

the medium answer: while you could go back and watch through season 3 in detail, or try to just start watching season 5 and keep up with stuff live as it happens, that's not what i did. i have it on good authority that the mer guide to lifesteal season 4 works, because i did that, and also because my friend whose initial reaction to lifesteal was "wow this subz guy is loud..." and then radio silence for months has since sat through 30 hours of princezam building stream of his own free will. see review below:

lifesteal can be sort of an acquired taste. i think a lot of the time it either clicks for you or it doesn't, or you have to see the right thing and then suddenly the appeal starts making sense.

luckily, the aftermath of zam betraying mapicc & ro in season 4 tends to have this effect on people, and it's a good jumping in point! i didn't actually start watching season 4 chronologically, i started by bouncing around the last couple weeks of the season and quickly discovering that it was bonkers fucking crazy and i needed to know more about this "eclipse federation" thing... so i don't really think knowing how it ends makes it less fun to watch, and if you wanted to just poke around at random and see what's up i wouldn't stop you. i went back and sat through everything between that aforementioned betrayal and the end of season 4 chronologically after i already knew how things ended up and it's thoroughly enjoyable that way. maybe even better than the alternative, because you're less likely to get caught up in how frustrating some of it can be. but if you would rather know as little as possible going in you can definitely give it a shot, and i do think there are parts that are probably even more fun if you don't know what's coming.

how do i do that though?

and here is my gift to you. when i watched through season 4 all i had to go off of was the vod archive spreadsheet, which is great & wonderful & awesome & the best thing ever, but it does kinda just have you clicking links blindfolded if you don't already know what's going on.

so eventually i started keeping track of vods as i watched, in a google doc. it has clips and/or timestamps and summaries for basically every vod in the second half of season 4. it's a little embarrassing because it records a bunch of my initial reactions to stuff but c'est la vie. it's also 85 pages long (it was 105! i edited my notes down!), but again you can jump around to get a lay of the land if you want, and how much stuff you skip is completely at your own discretion. have at it.

[dragonshoardofworks]

DannyMerMay 2024

Day 1: Insect/Anchor

The return of Little Baby Moth! (From last year DannyMay)

Something happened since last time the two of them met, so LBMo is reasonably surprised to see Little Baby Man Mer's new form... or is this just an alternative dimension iteration of LBM (by @tourettesdog)? 🤔

(Keep reading to find the answer!)

@pikakaistudios Little Baby Mer inspired me in doing my own, so Kudos and credits where are due!

More fanarts and lore under the cut because it was getting long...

(^～^;)ゞ

Prompt for DannyMay by @dannymayevent and MerMay by @vladdyissues.

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

Since I'm a serial procrastinator and I wanted to be sure the art pieces were at least decent/accurate, I was almost late (but thank CW that I did, because some of them had the wrong orca-pattern and I would have brought disgrace upon myself if I published anything not done right since orcas are one of my favorite animals).

That being said, let's continue the DannyMerMay journey!

Day 12: Time Travel/Seafood

My poor Mer-boy got yoinked temporalily into the past when he was still Danny (so even before the "normal" LBM-fication) and he's feeling reeeaaally distressed at the act of practically cannibalism that his past-self is committing...

(≧∇≦)

Day 2+4+29: Wish/Starfish + Wander/Night + Fireworks/Bioluminescence

Wandering in the night, some interesting encounters are bound to happen...

I wonder what would happen if you wish upon a(n alien) star(fish)...

(≧∇≦)

Day 19+20: Iron/Pearl + Pitch AU/Abyss

LBMer found a his rightful Crown (of Fire) sunk into the depths of the ocean!

But since it was rusty and forgotten, what better way to restore it than ghostly mother pearl?

(Works like ghostly ice, but it's an exclusive power of LBMer.)

(The Crown got bigger than canon, but he smol!)

Day 26: Shoes/Camouflage

They say that imitation is one of the best form of flattery, but when you don't want to get caught by a certain dimensional hopper (and be mistaken for one of his foes), it's the best way to blend in!

(Octopi can camouflage in ways that make you think that magic is real...)

ฅ^≧ﻌ≦^ฅ

(Little Baby Terror unfortunately got caught in the same "accident" that LBM did, so they generally prefer to stick together-ish in case they need help.)

Day 16+22: Glowing Veins/Courtship + Song Lyrics/Songs

I couldn't help myself and sneaked in some Everlasting Trio for the soul.

After all, LBM (and therefore LBMer) is still Danny, even if he has new form(s) and instincts.

They do incarnate the "Would you still love me if I was a worm?", don't they?

(◡̀_◡́)

Song: A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay

(It feels such a Danny song to use, plus I checked how orcas court and while there's some posturing, they also sing! It felt only natural from there... >:3c)

Day 11: Mutation/Shell(s)

And finally: the answer!

LBM found this weird shell on the beach while they were on vacation, but when he checked it (read: nibbed it), it reacted and tooted a magical cloud that mutated our Little Baby Man into a Mer!

(The same fate happened to Dani/Little Baby Menace and Dan/Little Baby Terror, changing them into a Seahorse Mer and Octopus Mer respectively.

I've got a lineart done of them for another prompt, but I didn't manage in time to clean and color it yet, along with a couple of others... ( ≧Д≦) )

This has two versions because I couldn't decide which was better. @teacupsandstarlight suggested the first because of the transforming smoke around our boi, but since I saved both, I told myself: why not upload both?

For now, that's all! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

I still have some linearts to finish/digitalize/color, but at least I contributed to these two fantastic events, hope y'all enjoyed them and my works!

Hope to type ya soon! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[sagau-my-beloved]

I was just granted a vision of a creator who excessively travels back and forth between their world and Teyvat for the most mundane daily things

Like

"You're back??"

"Oh, well, it was my lunch break and I save a lot of money if I don't actually buy food in my world, so I'll only be here for like 30 minutes."

Or maybe "Yeah I was just struck with the sudden inspiration to collect some flowers to take back and decorate my apartment with, they're so expensive in my world and it would be nice having a part of here there. I'll only be an hour or so."

And even "Yeah, I ran out of milk midway through making a cake, so I'm just gonna grab a few bottles—"

Like nobody knows when the creator is going to pop in for a visit and nobody knows if that visit is going to be an actual long couple week stay or a short 20 minute thing simply to fill a need

I like the idea of being able to just go to Teyvat for 10 minutes to rant to your favorite character about what someone at work said to you before going right back to work with that same person, because "it's only 2 o'clock", it's just so funny to imagine that being used so liberally

It would certainly come with its own troubles of course, characters begging for you to stay longer the first dozen or more times, but they'd get used to it, at the threat of losing those pop-ins altogether of course

Then with the inclusion of time dilation, it becomes even funnier

Like imagine you end up having a really sucky work day, so you decide to just go to Teyvat for a days or so in the middle of it to relax, and then come back and finish it after and basically less than half an hour has passed

You could get a full 8 hours of sleep done within 8 minutes, the possibilities are endless

It's like your own little relaxation pocket dimension, that has an astounding amount of resources and characters who are happy to give them to you

If the creator was smart they would take some of the valuable stones and silks and maybe even weaponry given to them in that world and sell it in their own and then live a comfy life in both, that would really be capitalizing on it, make a small fortune, buy a small mansion, and occasionally host characters over to experience the joys of your own world while having theirs to receded to for moments of solitude

Just make sure you don't get noticed by the police and picked up for some form of  suspected theft or selling fraudulent goods (since there are some flower and gem types that don't exist in our world, that might be hard to explain) or we're going to have the prison break storyline all over again with you as the prize, and it's not gonna go as well without you there to keep order, I'm telling you all brain cells immediately turn off at the prospect of you being forcibly taken away

[dippydippycritiques]

*In Regards To Wong Creating The New Avengers...*

Yeah, I'm done with Marvel. I'm tapping out. Any lasting hope I had, especially when it came to Doctor Strange. One of the last pre endgame characters left that is still popular and relevant is now completely gone.

Benedict Cumberbatch man...he was so fucking robbed of something more. It also doesn't help that he had acknowledged in a podcast that M.O.M. did not feel like HIS movie...which it wasn't...which is why it sucked major donkey balls. Trust me, you do not want to suck donkey balls, but I wouldn't doubt that the people at marvel are getting high writing this shit just by doing that.

I don't even know where to start because I was processing the "Wong will create the Avengers" information for a couple of days...So I think I will begin things with this.

STRANGE should have replaced STARK as the leader (or one of the leaders) of the avengers. Infinity War and Endgame almost hinted at the fact that this was going to be the case...AND THAT WOULD HAVE MADE SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! Strange has problems working as a team, something that Tony himself had to overcome for almost ten years! The fact that they had this fantastic set up for Strange, especially when he is the exact opposite of Tony when it comes to his powers, and they didn't jump for it, like...ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? As a writer, this hurts me SO BADLY because it was the OBVIOUS thing to do! Even a high schooler who knew enough about the marvel cinematic universe would probably want Doctor Strange to go in that direction too! This isn't even a college level writing class thing, or a college class that trains you to pick apart every word from a book and analyze it. This is, simply, the most EASIST SHIT TO CONNECT. Even if you don't write for a living, you can just see and feel where they should have taken Doctor Strange and or the rest of the movies that followed Endgame. If it was me, I would have put Doctor Strange and Black Panther together as the next Iron Man and Cap dynamic, which again, with them being opposites (magic vs technology) would have worked so damn well! Sadly, because Chadwick Bosemen passed away, that will never come to be and with how bad the writing has become overtime. I don't think marvel would have the mental capacity to try to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

THIS, one top of my seething list of issues of how they disposed and misused Doctor Strange is why I am done with marvel, PERIOD. M.O.M wasn't even a Doctor Strange movie, it was a Wong and Wanda road trip movie that FORGOT they had set up something with Mordo and NEVER followed though on it. Plus, it didn't even feel like a Doctor Strange movie VISUALLY! That's what I loved about the OG movie. It was a trippy, surreal film with AMAZING effects that were also present in Infinity War, which to me, made that fight with Thanos my favorite scene in the movie.

In M.O.M, all that is GONE! Or is limited to a 10-20 second scene when Strange and Chevz travel to another dimension. I read a while back that Scott Derrickson wanted the second Doctor Strange film to be a horror movie, which sounds fucking awesome! But Disney was so against the idea that Derrickson left due to creative differences...and we got what we got instead...damn.

What makes everything a thousand times worse is the Wong pandering in every fricken film/tv show that comes out, and I used to like Wong! Mostly because in Infinity War and Endgame, he was robbed of any substantial screen time in those movies and I kind of felt bad for him because of that. Now, he has WAAAAY too much screen time, to the point where ALLEGEDLY, Wong might be the one creating the new avengers too...sigh...push an agenda.

Doctor Strange has only been demoted from Sorcerer Supreme once in the comics (I believe) in order to save the whole damn universe, but outside of that. Sorcerer Supreme IS his title. This is what makes him DOCTOR STRANGE, and to give that title to, essentially, your sidekick who does nothing other than berate your actions because your a straight white man is just like...FUCK. HOW DID WE GET HERE??? HOW???

I have no hope for Doctor Strange 3 if Marvel decides they are going to pursue it, why? Because there is no way a writer on that film can develop Strange and Clea's relationship within a single movie right before Cumberbatches contract is about to end. I literally guarantee you when Secret Wars is finally released. He will be one of the first ones to die. Without going too much into the comic itself, he was done justice there. With Secret Wars, his death will be agenda based, I would bet money on it.

So yeah, that's it. I'm done. I'll just sit behind my computer screen and continue to watch Disney burn. They already ruined all the other franchises they own, I guess pain is nothing but a flavor for them at this point...

Rant over.

Edit: Spider-Man: No Way Home is the last movie I felt Doctor Strange was phenomenal in. I wished they pushed the father/son dynamic with Strange and Peter so much more since Tony is no longer part of Peter's life...but don't worry. Marvel will revive everyone and none of this will matter in the end...barf...

[the-dirtiest-of-twenties]

ACOFAF (A Court of Fey and Flowers)

Pros: My all time favorite. Comfort media. Low mental commitment, with high serotonin reward.

Cons: None, except that I have already rewatched it at LEAST a dozen times, and maybe I should give another show a chance once in a while?

Mentopolis

Pros: SUCH a great season. Conrad and the Fix make me happy. Ultimate Found family, imo.

Cons: I feel like I need to pay attention to this one, and I'm not sure it grabs my attention enough to be able to do that?

Sophomore Year

Pros: All of them. Fucking LOVE this season. Great background noise AND I would get to re-live the FigAyda scenes? Love them!

Cons: HUGE time commitment. And yet. As soon as I start getting to my favorite episodes and the plot starts ramping up, the season is over before you know it?

Coffin Run

Pros: I mean. Come ON. Izzy is insane? Zac keeps eating paper? Jasmine gives out themed goodies that end up being important? AND I don't think I've rewatched this even a single time since it came out! That's criminal!

Cons: It's short 😓

The Unsleeping City

Pros: Goooooood season. Man, it's the intrepid heroes back at it! Every single dynamic is beautiful and priceless!

Cons: The characters are amazing, but the plot is just okay in my opinion? Idk maybe I'm just used to more of a 'mystery to unfold' rather than a sinister plot that's easy to follow from the beginning.

The Unsleeping City 2

Pros: INCREDIBLE season. New characters interacting with old! SO many happy couples! A fair bit of emotional investment, but still a really wonderful serotonin payoff in the end! The DRAGONS?????????? This season singlehandedly re-ignited my passion for storytelling! (Specifically because of Smoczmatka!) Damn, I'm almost convincing myself, here!

Cons: It's pretty long. Episodes are lengthy and it's also over zoom. Those two things put together make it harder to pay attention to.

Pirates of Leviathan

Pros: Wonderful cast brings back a small part of a previous season in a BIG way. Cheese! Myrtle! GARTHY O'BRIEN! I mean come ON!

Cons: A bit short for my liking. One of the PC's kinda gets on my nerves for several small reasons. (An opinion literally nobody shares with me, so I'll keep it to myself).

I'm SO TORN!!?!!

[Burrow's End gets an honorable mention because I just finished rewatching it like two weeks ago.]

[podcastjam]

Project Spotlight #4: The Ichorous Rot

Time for another project spotlight! Today, we're chatting with Sam from The Ichorous Rot.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your teammates!

@spinning-logic: Hey-o, I'm Charlie. I will be voice acting, sound editing, and assisting in some writing for our Podcast Jam entry! My first ever fiction podcast was Welcome to Night Vale (as it is for many, I'm sure), and my current favorite is pretty squarely tied with Malevolent and The Magnus Archives--though I'm truly loving Protocol too. I'm dipping my toes into hearing even more podcasts, like WOE.BEGONE and Old Gods of Appalachia. This is the first Podcast I've ever worked on, and hopefully what I learn from it will lead to creating more!

@moookar: Hi hi hello, I’m Mooo! I’m voice acting and writing. I’ve never worked on a podcast before TIR, but boy oh boy do I have lots of experience listening: WOE.BEGONE, Malevolent, and The Grotto are some of my current favorites, and I got started listening with The Magnus Archives and Dimension 20. Most of all, I’m just a fan of any speculative fiction I can get my hands on.

@gooboogy: I'm G! I do the music and some of the voice acting for The Ichorous Rot. I've been listening to audiobooks for ages and I listened to The Adventure Zone but only really started listening to audio dramas about a year ago with The Magnus Archives and Malevolent. It's not until I listened to WOE.BEGONE that I considered doing one myself! I don't have a fav podcast, but I have some fav characters such as Lucas Miller, Elias Bouchard, Kayne, and Ty Betteridge respectively. My fav genre is when Shit Gets Weird and I love it best when there's fucked up little blorbos :3

@fluxoid: Hey there! I'm Niall! I'll be doing some of the voice work for the Ichorous Rot. I've been listening to audio drama (and actual play) podcasts for over a decade now, starting with Welcome to Night Vale (of course). Current favorites are probably WOE.BEGONE and Midst, though I'm listening to many more. This is my first foray into the creative side of things and I'm excited to see where it goes!

@falloutcoys: Hello, I'm Sam! I'll be co-writing for The Ichorous Rot. I got started listening to WTNV in 2014 but really got into audio dramas when I picked up TMA in 2021. My current favorite pods have to be Midst,Not Quite Dead and WOE.BEGONE! This will be the first show I'm involved being published, but I'm writing my own passion project as well (@aboardtheichthyoid).

What's your podcast about?

Our project is set in 1880s West Virginia. Dr. Theodore Yates as he's overwhelmed in his duties as Janesville’s only doctor by a mysterious illness spreading through the town. We follow him through a combination of his own medical notes recorded on a wax cylinder, and snippets of audio following him and his best friend Alonzo as he tries to find a way to resolve The Ichorous Rot. It's a mystery that explores the effects of working class life and generational trauma through a supernatural lens.

What are you most excited about in this event?

This event has been such a great learning opportunity and way to collaborate with others! Everyone has had great ideas and we're able to bounce off each other and flesh out the story together, which is a really unique experience.

Any advice for other participants, or those on the fence about joining?

If you've been on the fence about joining, go for it! This is a really fun experience and it has the lowest possible stakes. Worst case scenario, you've met some great people and learned about producing a podcast. Best case scenario, you make an episode you're really proud of that grows into something much bigger.

While this team is no longer looking for new members, you can follow their project here on Tumblr @theichorousrot. Additionally, with a couple days left to sign up, there's still time to join the fun and work on a Podcast Jam project yourself - find out more information here!

[n7punk]

"freak occurrence: confluence" Fic Notes

“freak occurrence: confluence” is definitely the most meta (and the most ridiculous) fic I’ve ever done, so I’ve compiled some references, notes, and explanations to act as fic notes. If you’re opening before reading the fic, I recommend reading each scene before checking the references for it and absolutely don’t read anything after this first section before you’ve finished the fic.

Catradoras in order of introduction:

Scene 1: This is actually MToHL!Adora immediately post-canon but they haven’t figured that out because they’re similar enough that nothing has thrown them off.

Scene 2: Teenage Catradora from a canon-divergent reality where they run away from the Horde as teenagers and horses aren’t real.

Scene 3: toht!Adora.

Scene 4: slas!Catradora.

Scene 5: BFM!Adora, looking at slas!Catradora obviously, but the other Catra trying not to laugh is toht!Catra.

Scene 6 has no Catradoras, but the tattoo is from my OotW fic 'her heart on her sleeve.'

Scene 7: of course this has the Lone-Adora that isn’t from any other fic, but it also has another reference to slas and a reference to ISoHM.

Scene 8: strange disease!Catradora with mentions of my very first AUs (and one of my first fics period) ‘in thundering realizations’!Catradora.

Scene 9: DITM!Catradora POV and Reflection!Catradora across from them, named for Adora turning into a magicat when she's She-ra (side note: shortly after arriving, Reflection!Catra asked if She-ra was a magicat in this universe specifically because she has always held that was because Adora was gay and when she was told ‘no’ that gave her all the ammo she needed for the next three years).

Scene 10: strange love!Catradora.

Scenes 11 and 12 are the Lone-Catra that isn’t from any fic. Well, I would say this is her origin fic, same for Lone-Adora.

Scene 13: Lone-Catra and LotD!Catradora.

Scene 14: WDtFD!Catradora POV and mentions of Knifepoint!Catradora. It’s very easy to think the couple where Catra’s hand was messed up was from AMLAIT, but I also kind of wanted to include allusions to some Catradoras from other fics, so you could read it as R&B!Catradora if you want. I thought about including an explicit mention of Catra’s boots to make that more clear, but when that ended up being the only pair not from one of my own fics, it felt kind of weird. I wanted to pay homage to some of my favorite AUs others have written in the fandom by including references to other Catradoras that were there, but it’s really hard when most of those fics are just modern AUs without much easily visible about their Catradoras to identify them, and I definitely didn’t want to write any scenes from the perspective of someone else’s version of the character without permission, so I just kind of left it at this ambiguous reference to a friend's fic that I asked them permission for first.

Scene 15: Mentions of catcher!Catradora, Superzero!Catradora, and IHtWCYN!Catradora.

Scene 16: Mentions of TFHFY!Catradora, strange disease!Catradora again, and the Greys!Catradora.

Scene 17: CotC!Catradora (for people following my Tumblr this was the entire scene that was just. missing after all my planning somehow).

Scenes 18 and 19 have nothing new.

Scene 20: SaD!Catradora.

Scene 21: This one is a tease for a future fic :) Edit: Now it has come out, this is Lightbeam!Catradora.

And from here on it’s no one new.

Epilogue Life:

Okay I had to cut the fic off there because this could honestly go on forever BUT here’s some stuff about the fallout of this whole event:

This event is, as you would assume, completely non-canon to the rest of my fics. If you want to imagine each couple went back to right around the time they got taken and quickly their memories of the other reality melted away once in their own timeline again, sure, whatever. There are two dimensions permanently affected by all this however, and that’s Lonely-Adora’s and Lonely-Catra’s.

Adora’s universe splits off from canon at the Portal, whereas Catra’s splits off at Princess Prom. I think both universes could survive on their own without Catra or Adora, but there is a reason the couple needs to be in Adora’s universe, and it’s Prime.

Yes, I might be permanently locking one universe in Despondos either way. Oops. Listen, you win some you lose some. This is supposed to be a crack fic at the end of the day (remember that?) and I wasn’t too focused on implications like that. However, Adora’s universe has already signaled Prime thanks to the portal, so without her and Catra they would be locked in a pocket dimension with an apocalypse on its way, no leader in the Rebellion, and Entrapta on Beast Island.

In Catra’s universe, Entrapta never got left behind because the rescue mission went very differently, so Hordak’s portal project is basically doomed, and the Princess Alliance is intact, united, and extremely motivated to crush the Horde after what they did to Adora. They’re in a good position to fight them thanks the Best Friend Squad uniting the Princess Alliance again and the Horde (more specifically, Shadow Weaver) reeling from the loss of Adora and Catra. They’ll take them down in the end and they’ll do it Adora’s name, just like they would have if Catra stayed in their dimension. After having seen the brainwashing the Horde is willing to do, Scorpia eventually defects to join them when Entrapta manages to — completely accidentally — extend a hand to her just by being herself.

Adora’s universe needs Adora’s inside knowledge to save Angella and Entrapta quickly and face down the Heart and Horde Prime. They’ll find their feet, get Entrapta back, start working on their portal technology, and then get the Failsafe before they even get Scorpia and face the Heart. They’ll move Etheria out of Despondos, taunt Horde Prime to the surface as best they can, question their decisions, but ultimately lure him in and set off the Heart faster and with less loss along the way. No one on the Princess Alliance ever gets chipped in this universe and they rescue Angella not long after and reunite Glimmer’s family.

It takes a bit until after the war for Adora and Catra’s relationship to start shifting, but they do eventually get together, there’s just a lot to process first and fighting evil is a good thing to focus on instead while they do that. They need to become each other’s friends before they can become anything else.

Notes:

⦁ I mentioned a disclaimer in the fic end note. To elaborate on that: I first had this idea around August of 2020 (give or take a month) when my friend asked me which of my AU Catras/Adoras would fuck their alternate universe wife. IDK man, her mind is beautiful. Anyway, it gave me this idea, which was a fun crack scenario that I would turn over in my mind occasionally when I came up with a new AU that I thought would have an interesting pair to add to it. I had no intention of writing it, especially back then when I didn’t have enough AUs to fill out the roster. Since then I’ve thought about making a post explaining the idea just to get it off my mind so many times. In that time, a Spiderverse AU for Catradora was written (oh: I also didn’t watch the Spiderverse until 2023, to the point that the outline for this fic was titled “This Fic Is Older Than The Spiderverse” until I looked it up and realized that’s wrong and I’m just late to the party lmao, but I had no idea what the Spiderverse was about other than multiple Spidermans until I watched it so the death plot point really was just me being fucked up) that dealt with some similarities with the deaths between realities. The fic is good, it made me cry, and I actually read that before I watched the Spiderverse because I missed that tag and thought it was some kind of canon AU. I recommend the fic and wanted to acknowledge it since it shares a plot point. Honestly, when I read that fic I was like oh thank god someone did it, now I’ll seem like I’m copying if I do it too and the idea can leave me along, but the idea Did Not Leave Me Alone and I need to end this 🔫

⦁ Because I know someone will ask: This is absolutely crack and not canon to my OotW series at all. I still have no idea where I should really put it. Being in the AU collection makes sense because it’s relevant to a lot of them, being inside the OotW series but non-canon like ‘take care of each other’ and ‘You and I (and Me)’ makes sense, and it not being in any of those things because it kind of isn’t an AU and definitely isn’t canon to OotW makes sense. I still haven’t decided and I’ll probably move it around multiple times lol.

⦁ Ethereal!Catradora are from my upcoming fic "Lightbeam" and are just a fun little teaser because no one was better suited to sussing magic out. It was either her or Glimmer, who was busy laying magic alarm systems all over the castle for the new alternate universe couples to trip into when they arrived so they could be collected. This is how Catra knew to come running when the SLAS couple appeared.

⦁ “The universe is as dumb as it is passionate, apparently.” C’mon Catra you can’t ask finesse from a celestial body that is no thoughts all vibes

⦁ The whole conversation around the cot/bed is just to show that yeah, they’re different Catras and Adoras, but they’re still Catra and Adora in every reality and this will work out eventually.

⦁ I mostly picked Catradoras based off when would be easy to reference or who I thought would be interesting in the scenario and basically nothing else. Making them distinct was the biggest challenge lmao.

⦁ Oh I know SaD!Catradora teleporting back near their original disappearance might make it seem otherwise, but Adora was missing from her reality for as long as she was in the Prime universe for (and yes, I did internally refer to it as the Prime universe, so I had to make jokes about it. And then I made the omegaverse canon - AS FICTION - to a few of the modern universes for a laugh). I think the people from other highly-similar Etheria's were gone for a 1:1 time or close to the same amount of time they were in the other dimension, but the further a dimension was from canon the less time passing in the Prime universe applied to their own. Or something. Again, none of this is canon.

⦁ They go to Lone-Adora's universe because Catra reaches out for Adora, opening herself up to her. They would have gone to Catra's if it happened the other way around.

⦁ Adora's room was a mess because the Princess Alliance kind of tore it up looking for a sign of her but of course found nothing.

⦁ "So even here I'm..." is "So even here I'm a killer."

⦁ I don't think I ever say specifically what Catra's cause of death was in this universe (because I wasn't sure myself for a while) but when the Fright Zone was kind of shaking apart post-Portal Catra fell and Adora wasn't able to stop it.

⦁ Glimmer is emerging from Bow's room because they actually made some progress on Glimmer healing and reaching out for her friends for support when Adora disappeared. Glimmer was afraid it was because of her and it caused her to do a little - a little - self-examining.

⦁ I've mentioned this a couple times but I spent most if not all of last year secretly hoping to get to 1% of the tag. It's a super pointless goal, but it is cool to have done it. This work is also the 50th in my AU collection (at least, as of now since I'm putting it in there for now) so that feels like a fitting number for a special as well.

⦁ This was supposed to be like 7k.

Upcoming:

I might do another OotW fic or two, but right now my plan for the next AU is “the Reverse AU.” Have fun figuring out what I mean by that, you probably won’t :)