#narratives and similar

[sisterdivinium]

She was never one to shy away, so Mother Superion sustains every glance.

Jillian is curious. Even her perfect education cannot occasionally avoid a more pointed glare, a little intrusive, a little indiscreet.

Superion can read the questions shooting restless within her mind, feel Jillian’s attention trace her entire body, looking for a way into the nun, the fortress. She doesn’t look away at the suggestion of indecency, though the scientist does.

It should bother her.

But it’s been too long since the sword has glowed in her grip and Jillian’s eyes shine brighter and bluer than divinium ever did...

[queerspren]

Thinking about how Shadowheart is so thirsty, y'know? She flirts with Karlach and Wyll, pines after Shar, has an incredibly homoerotic dynamic with Lae'zel, dreams about Halsin, and, if prompted, is enthusiastically polyamarous.

All of this is all well and good from a horny standpoint, but I think it also illustrates something important about Shadowheart's personality: No matter how prickly she tries to present herself, she's a lover at her core.

She loves life, even when she attempts to mask this love behind cold violence. She loves cute animals and pretty flowers. She loves her parents, even as she struggles to remember them. She loves her goddess (In her own, fucked up way). She loves trashy romance chapbooks and good wine. She loves her friends, even when they annoy her. She loves herself, after a fashion, and loves her body, loves other people's bodies. Even before fully abandoning Shar, as a partner she's caring, affectionate, even a little girlish and goofy behind the veneer of brooding mysteries.

And these things manifest even after being raised in Shar's cloister, after several decades of trauma and memory wipes. So strong is Shadowheart's love that Viconia literally has to erase her multiple times to build a colder, more callous acolyte. So strong is her love that even when mind wiped and personally guided by the hand of the Lady of Sorrows, she still harbors doubts about the thing that tells her to abandon her love.

It's the love of and for her companions, and the gnawing feeling of absence where her she knows her other loves should be, that ultimately leads her away from Shar. Her first priority after enduring timeless torments in the Shadowfell is affirming her love to a romanced player character. If her parents survive, she abandons what would have almost certainly been a life of fame, fortune, and power to care for them on a cozy farmstead, surrounding herself with the things and people that she loves. And if it comes up, she sees any proposed nonmonogamy not as an indictment of her partner's loyalty or their bond with her, but as a chance for them to spread and share and revel in the love that she holds so dear.

It's no wonder Viconia and Shar were so desperate to control her, to turn her away from Selûne. This is a woman whose love burns so brightly that even the goddess of darkness and loss failed to snuff out her light.

[composeregg]

edit (10/23/2024) now that the poll is over: Original version, with 10 questions, from April 2023 here

And, given that the original is from April 2023, that means I can very easily say:

No, this was not an ISAT reference!

Just because I use parentheses and 2nd person pov and love the same concepts of what a time loop can do to a person doesn't mean it's ISAT

(Yes, I like ISAT, the original poll is why I was recommended the game! But if you look at the original, you can see all the origins of the options to choose from, including what spurred me on with the moss option from the replies)

If I were going to make something for ISAT, I would never be so vague, you can simply look at my ao3 for proof of that

[juniemunie]

[Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.]

Hitting a lil' too close to home?

[beastwhimsy]

friendship is magic if I was in charge of art style and character design

[emmabirb8]

It really is SO funny (and meaningful, actually, if you think about it) to me that Stanley was the only member of the Pines family who was never able to be manipulated by Bill.

Stan's paranoia and distrusting attitude served him in the best way possible. Yeah, it sucks that he was basically cut off from forming lasting positive relationships up until he moved into Ford's shack in Gravity Falls, but MAN, that was kind of a small price to pay when you realize he unknowingly kept himself protected from one of the most dangerous entities in all of space-time by having that mindset and keeping his walls up all those years.

Can you imagine how fucking disastrous things could've turned out if Bill had gotten to him? Successfully infiltrated Stan's dreams, utilized his connection to Ford to his devious advantage as a bargaining chip, and used Stan for all he's worth to orchestrate Weirdmageddon his way? Ford spent 30 years hiding from Bill, constructing the quantum destabilizer, and putting all his energy into taking him out - to prevent him from meddling in the lives of those he cares about and to protect the world from his evil.

But it turns out, all you really have to do to foil Bill is just... not be swayed by him in the first place. There was NO combination of words in the human vocabulary Bill could have said to get Stan on his side at any point in the story, and tbh that's fucking hilarious.

Get fucked little man, you got outsmarted by the '''lesser''' twin, and he didn't even have to put any effort into it at all.

(And as the icing on the cake, he wrecked your sorry ass too. Smashed you to smithereens in one second flat.)

Truly tho, I think Stan is Bill's match. His equal opposing force. The yin to his yang. Essentially, when put together, they cancel each other out, lmao.

And I just know Bill will be forever haunted by that old man. He can make all the pitiful attempts to reach out from the Theraprism all he wants, but even if he were to escape someday, somehow, there is no coming back from that level of pure humiliation. 🤣

[puppppppppy]

Wyrm on a string

[shitsecurityguards]

the vincent style transformation is complete and im really glad i went this direction bc i think its way more fitting + in character. his wardrobe is like 50% williams old clothes 45% thrifted and 5% he pulled out of a dumpster somewhere

[anassemblageofpassions]

The thing abt john winchester is that he is too complex for the majority of the spn fandom and for a good portion of the writers on the show too.

Because at his core john is about love over everything else. When he looks up at his sons (yes, up, the fact that they’re both taller than him>>>>>), there is love seeping achingly from every single pore of his being even as he abuses them, as he destroys their souls beyond belief. He does it all entirely out of love. And he is so, so wrong for it. A part of him knows it. But he wants to keep dean alive, and he wants to keep Sam pure. And he loves them so much. And he damages them so horribly. John Winchester is the foundation upon which they are both built, they only become more of what he made them as the series goes on. Sam stops fighting it, Dean continues to mold into his image no matter how hard he tries to fight it.

Hell puts them both on steroids, but their individual trauma responses that influence this are the foundations that John built into them. No wonder azazel wanted sam to win so badly. John Winchester crafted his sons into alastair and Lucifer’s ideal victims, respectively, and dean was a better (worse) john than John ever was. John held out in hell. Dean acquiesced to his abuser despite all of his efforts to fight him, and he’s never been the same since.

Sam fought like hell, and he fought destiny, but at his core, he did what John always wanted him to by doing what dean wanted him to do, and then he stops fighting at all, loses the fire he showed john in adolescence that john immediately notices when he returns in s14.

And the sad thing is. They filled their roles so well that John is saddened by what they’ve become. He didn’t want dean to break. He didn’t want Sam to be dimmed. He’s sad to see what Sam is like in s14. In the process of recovering his wife, he ensured he would mold his sons into what he wanted them to be, and when he got what he wanted, he was devastated.

John Winchester is so driven by love and grief and he’s so filled to the brim with both that it’s painful to watch him on screen because he destroyed his family because of it. And he wanted this all along but he didn’t realize what he’d have to give up to get it.

[nellasbookplanet]

Mentioning Tusk Love and the potential of other independent stories set in Exandria reminded me of an old discord conversation about how they could Fix the courting of the crick for publishing (seeing as it's canonically a Bad Book due to being super dry and also racist towards drow) without breaking canon:

Rename it 'The Courting of the Kryn - a Reimagining of the Classic Story, by Jester Lavorre'

Present it as an in-universe fanfic-ish rewrite. There's a foreword where 'Jester' elaborates on the inaccuracies of the original, the impact the story had on her, and the importance of Dynasty-Empire relations. There's an acknowledgement section where she thanks Caleb and Beau as 'consultants on Empire culture', as well as an unnamed/under fake name/clearly Essek as an 'expert on the Luxon, dunamancy and Dynasty culture'. All his information on spy networks is eerily accurate and has his former co-workers scrambling. (He makes her keep all the dry historical accounts, but now it's accurate (with added dick-related puns)). She mentions that she reached out to the Bright Queen who reluctantly (after 5 messages in a row) gave some pointers. In her frantic research she possibly made some breakthroughs on the nature on the Luxon that has Essek reeling (there's a 'further reading' section where she lists the academic paper he wrote building on her discoveries and an entire list of the sources her consultants used).

For extra fun and meta-ness, include footnotes where she comments on things she changed/removed from the original and why, how various scenes may have been inspired by a real life couple or events, etc. Some of the footnotes are written by her consultants. Caleb and Essek get into arguments on dunamancy theory which is actually thinly veiled flirting. There's anatomically accurate drow sex (it's unclear whether the consultant was Essek or Caleb or possibly a certain brother, who was also consulted on Dynasty military practices).

[robo-milky]

Rookugoka!

[L -> R]

Rakugo (落語, literally 'story with a fall')[1] is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in yose theatres.[2] The lone storyteller (落語家, rakugoka) sits on a raised platform, a kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, sensu) and a small cloth (手拭, tenugui) as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story.

[Comments]

Just like our lovely Cloche here, pLEASE READ “AKANE-BANASHI” !! This manga about Rakugo is what inspired this short and I am BRAINROTTING WITH A RAKUGOKA AU- (unfortunately with Rollo cause it’s so different from his usual personality)

This year, I AM HERE TO RECLAIM MY TITLE AS ROOK’S TROPHY WIFE— …or not ahaha- Rook is still my type but Rollo’s taken more of mind lately 😔 Anyways— back to my doujin era for y’all!

[sisterdivinium]

Stopping Jillian would betray too much urgency so Mother Superion only watched, growing pale as her guest absent-mindedly pulled on the little pile of magazines.

“… Ah,” Jillian said, blushing somewhat at the covers.

She didn’t know what to expect. Her own face staring back at her was certainly not it, however — wearing suits or standing next to her inventions or looking casual depending on the articles and interviews within.

“To better understand your projects,” Superion explained and lied as Jillian presently leafed through wild speculation on her own love life.

She grinned.

“How about I give you a scoop, then?”

[verticalstorm]

The way you drew Hector in the last posted piece gave me a ton of confidence in my body, and I needed you to know that. Thank you.

Oh my god??? This is one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received thank you so much 😭 Here is another sketch page. For you my friend

I didn’t include it because I felt like it didn’t mesh with the tone of the other 2 but I still quite like it <3

[arielluva]

was trying to figure out how to draw their faces

[flowersandfashion]

sorry let me rant about downton abbey 10 years later

Thomas's conversion therapy plot pisses me off so much. firstly, it's incredibly out of character. he never wanted to change to conform to society, he wanted the world to change to accomodate him. the man who said "it's not against the law to hope is it" and "I'm not foul, Mr Carson, I'm not like you, but I'm not foul" would NEVER

secondly, from a storytelling perspective, the only 'problem' is that he used infected needles. did we forget that Thomas was a sergeant in the RAMC? he knows how to sterilise needles and how to recognise and treat infection. this also shifts the blame to Thomas himself for getting sick and implies that the conversion therapy itself is harmless (Dr Clarkson says it's just saline solution)

thirdly, it's not historically accurate. I'm not an expert but conversion therapy was not at all common in the 1920s, even Sigmund Freud was against it. hormone therapy and chemical castration were barely developing let alone available to the public (I can't imagine what else the 'treatment' was supposed to be). the only practices that I can find evidence of were psychoanalysis and electric shock therapy

Thomas also mentions that he did electric shock treatment - if you really want to make a point about homophobia in the 1920s (and make Thomas suffer as much as possible), show that instead. watching him be literally tortured for his sexuality would have been far more impactful than him just... looking sweaty for a few episodes

[lotus-pear]

rewatched madoka magica again today bc i fucking hate myself and to absolutely no one’s surprise i went through all five stages of grief in a single evening