#now featuring me being a bit of a shit in the first section

[ro-botany]

Offtopic opinions

Awakening is a game that was rushed, and suffered a lot of cuts, but when you pay attention to the history the game lays out, you start to see this rich world they were trying to create. And the plot! It takes a standard "the prince must slay the evil dragon" story and it flips it on its head and uses it to explore cycles of abuse and trauma.

I'm not sure I agree there about the game having a rich world.

There's very little to the world building like Chrom's famous ancestor and Ylisse's First Exalt is just a word for a word copy of Marth without any sort of name. Similarly Chrom's father has no name and the crusade is woefully underdeveloped.

There are also characters like the Hierarch, whom allegedly acted as a mentor to Emmeryn but just betrays her with this big event going uncommented on and the Hierarch having no name, his Japanese name is just the name of his class!

The Taguel are another thing having basically no history outside of things basically copy/pasted from the Laguz and the writers couldn't even get Panne's personal history right; she says in one support her birth mother raised her alongside other taguel, but in another says her mom died when she was an infant so she never knew her or any other taguel.

Compare these all to even the first game having oodles of info on Marth's ancestor and the history of the continent as well as its wars.

Or Orson's betrayal in Sacred Stones to the Hierarch, as well as the long history of the Laguz in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn compared to the Taguel's inconsistent lore that acts as a mere footnote in Awakening.

Also personally I find Awakening follows all the standard FE tropes to the letter without any sort of diverging from them.

...If you find killing vast swathes of virtual human enemies disturbing, then strategy games centered around war may not be the games for you. This is what we call a genre convention. You gotta be able to handle killing the little pixel guys to enter.

Its not that I find it disturbing but more I feel Awakening treats war like a game and isn't interested in explaining why the protagonists are killing people or the ramifications of killing people.

Its simply playing into "kill brown men because they're ugly and rescue the sexy brown women from them."

Like even Genealogy of the Holy War talked about how the cycle of vengeance affected everyone, how its still sad to kill the Loptous cultists as they are human beings and that even the head of the cult, Manfroy didn't start out evil.

Awakening, to me personally, just seemed like it only cared about making the player feel powerful by having every enemy be either forced to fight them against their will or be a piece of crap that absolutely nobody loved (Aversa's storyline goes out of its way to say nobody mourns Grimleal deaths for example), whilst every women around just threw themselves at the player.

(Second debate hour anon ask I got too busy to reply to when it came in; My Bad anon hope you're doin well.)

"whilst every women around just threw themselves at the player" Anon, I can't stress this enough:

This is the game where M/F MONOGAMY IS A STRICTLY ENFORCED GAME MECHANIC I'm. I just. Did we read the same supports? Because most of the Robin supports I remember are like, Robin failing really badly at making soup, or losing stuff, or teaching people funny slang and then regretting it.

All the supports had to be written to believably be building friendships, because you can still A rank characters with each other after they're married. Because of this, the vast majority of supports only pivot into anything even remotely romantic directly in the S support. It's usually not done well, honestly, imo. But either way that doesn't leave room for this like, harem anime AU you're inventing in your head.

"Women throwing themselves at the player" did you read the support where Robin accidentally gives Sully the shits and she threatens to kill him, anon. Did you.

Anyway. It sounds like you're reaching for reasons to object to this game on some kind of moral grounds. You don't HAVE to do that, though. You can just dislike the game for non-moral reasons. Or for no reason. It doesn't have to be that deep.

Anyway to address your other points briefly I mean, uh, with way too many words as usual lmao

I'm not about to argue that the game is perfect in any respect. It's not even CLOSE. I've said before and I'll say it again that there's a lot of unused potential in Awakening, from places where characterization is thin to the massive gaps in the worldbuilding. The way this game treats Aversa is gross as hell and it has plenty racism problems besides. Trust me, I am not unaware of or ignoring the bad and the ugly.

To be honest? It being deeply flawed is what keeps me coming back to it.

If a game is perfect, there's only so long you can gush about how good it is. If a game is GOOD, but FLAWED? You could write a fuckin thesis about it. Hell, I arguably have, the word count on the collection of Awakening-related meta posts I've authored or made big additions to just keeps on jumping.

Yes, Awakening's worldbuilding has major gaps; but what we got was legitimately interesting! Piecing together what we got is fun for me! Filling in some of those gaps by extrapolating from the facts at hand is fun! Headcanoning in the rest is fun!

Sure, some of the characters and relationships are sorely underdeveloped, and there are some inconsistencies in the supports and that sucks. But seriously analyzing what's there is fun as hell! Taking the things we know and extrapolating personality and relationships is a blast! And for the more major characters, what's there is legitimately compelling as hell - the amount of scholarship the mutuals and I have authored about mister Grima faildragon himself is proof of that. As is the fact that we have honest to goodness essays about Validar of all characters. VALIDAR.

I can't really compare it to most of the other FE games, having not played most of them. I can accept it's not the best FE by a long shot. But I'm also willing to give it leeway for how the release dates hamstrung it, I appreciate the clear love and effort that was put into it anyway, and I respect it a lot for the part it played in keeping the franchise alive today.

And to be perfectly frank, it also is a story that I stumbled across when I was in a rough patch, and it helped me deal with the Horrors, so y'know. It's a really important game to me for that reason.

If its flaws are dealbreakers for you I may not be able to change your mind. That's ok!

But hopefully this at least gives you some insight into why I, at least, am so obsessed with it. It's flawed as hell and that makes it capital C Compelling.

[theinfinitedivides]

wi papa look a thing there for me. awa.

prefacing this with a PSA that i'm going to try and keep short but basically regardless of anything i say here let me make it known that i do believe he should apologize. whether or not he's still actively saying that word in 2024 it is something he's used in the past even if he isn't performing said play anymore/saying things like that so flippantly. granted if he does apologize there's always going to be a section of fandom that's like 'he only apologized bc he got caught' yes?????????? that's what always happens????????? lbr you're not going to get on IG and announce you killed your ex two decades ago and you'll be turning yourself in when there's an entire true crime community in the depths of the internet who will dig up the cold case + the suspiciously convenient alibi anyway without you lifting a finger. politicians who get called out for blackface in college do not go around telling people they did blackface in college. celebrities who were homophobic on this hellsite in high school back in the early 10s before they realized they were gay are not going to let you know what their handle was. this is how the world works.

that being said i must confess i caught wind of the stirrings of this a bit early bc during the clusterfuck that was the Jam vs Zamasian RPF poll (i did not go in the notes. rancid ass shit) someone had taken a screenshot of a reblog made as a 'gotcha' to Zamasian voters by implying that they were anti-Black for voting for a ship featuring an actor that said the n-word in a play he hasn't performed for several decades since, with a short taped example that the general public was not going to know how to find unless they were on a mission. i poked around, saw a couple hints here and there that implied that the clip actually existed, marked that down for future ref and went about my business. disappointing? sure. run of the mill especially among people his age in the industry from that time period who are perceived to benefit from white privilege? absolutely. the former bird identified app dragging all of this back into the light (including the interview with Chris Rock. which i have not seen though there's no way it was within the last few years for AMC to still hire Eric if they had seen it. correct me if i'm wrong pls) is unexpected but tracks for the fandom on there.

generally i don't believe in cancelling someone for things they said or did more than ten years ago if they are no longer the same person they were back then. i don't believe Jacob or Assad or any one of the staff of color who may have been working behind the scenes would have agreed to continue interacting with Eric if he had the same attitude as he did when he first wrote and performed the play. i don't believe his Black comedian niece would continue to talk about him and share photos with him if he was calling her or the Black side of her family the n-word. i am willing to give the 'Eric Bogosian n-word' reply tweet he reportedly made before deleting it shortly after the brief benefit of the doubt bc it was 1. supposedly under someone else's tweet talking about the play incident and 2. i cannot count how many times i have accidently commented/almost posted something on here or YouTube or Reddit or ao3 bc i was on mobile and once the keyboard's open the app/browser flips the fuck out and puts the search bar and the comment box too close together. now if his ass shows up and shows out and stands ten toes down while he's currently on time-out or doesn't address any of this we're dealing with a different story. if more examples of him acting like this come out i'll drop him faster than you can call the election it will be that serious.

anyway for now i'm choosing to keep an eye on this while acknowledging that us Black folks do have the right to be upset and pissed as fuck. we deal with enough racism/microaggressions in fandom spaces as it is we definitely don't need new ones, and we don't need them from the past career choice of the main cast of a show a lot of us enjoy. amen

[hcsiqs]

| you could be my silver spring

• pairing: paige bueckers x singer!reader

• summary: “ you’ll never get away from the sound // of the woman that loves you ”

• warnings: none

November 2021

“And singing the United States National Anthem, our very own: Y/N L/N!” the announcer's voice rang through Gampel Pavilion. Azzi gave you a quick pat on the back as you turned to her giving a quick smile before walking to the center of the husky logo; where the microphone stand stood.

You let out a deep breath before looking over to the sound tech people and giving them a small nod before an instrumental version of The Star-Spangled Banner filled the gymnasium.

As you began singing you could see your face appear on the screens surrounding you with the flag appearing on the sides. For the first time you heard your voice taking over a large space as it smoothly came out of the speakers. The high notes of the song hit perfectly with early claps falling from people’s hands as you finished off the song. You gave a small smile to everyone before walking off the court, Azzi immediately giving you the biggest hug ever.

“Holy shit!” the girl giggled as she squeezed your body, “I knew you could sing but…you just made the national anthem sound like a pop song!” she gushed.

“Really? Thank you, Az!” you replied, a bright smile taking over your features as you pulled back, the curly haired nodding her head quickly. “Ok good luck!” you giggled before quickly being ushered off the court before going to sit in the student section.

————

“You know her?” the blonde asked as the team jogged back onto the court.

“Yeah, we have a lot of classes together,” Azzi nodded, watching Paige’s gaze follow you off the court. “No”

“What? I wasn’t—I didn’t even,” Paige threw her hands up defending herself.

“Paige,” Azzi’s voice was stern, “Don’t.”

But, of course, Paige didn’t listen. Which is what led to the moment of your guys' breakup during December of senior year.

December 2023

“Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!” you spoke excitedly into the phone, as tears formed in the corners of your eyes. “I’ll be there as soon as possible! Thank you again!” you said into the phone before hanging up the phone.

“Paige! They wanna sign me!” you smiled as you turned to your girlfriend, who was playing Fortnite in her bed.

She immediately dropped her remote into her lap as she reached over and placed a kiss on your cheek. “What I tell you?” she smiled. “Everything I say is facts.”

You just smiled stupidly nodding your head as a couple tears traced down your cheeks, your body overwhelmed with the excitement. “I just can’t believe it…”

“Wow, my girlfriend is a famous music artist,” Paige reached her hand over her heart, until you pushed her hand and brought her into a kiss.

The two of you stayed like that for a few minutes before Paige pulled back, “So, you gotta move to LA or some shit?” she asked jokingly.

You bit down on your lip, a strike of pain hitting your heart as you had forgotten to tell her that you actually had to move away.

“Wait, do you?” she asked, now fully having her body turned towards you.

You stayed silent, your eyes dropping to your hands that were holding hers. The blonde removed her hands from your grasp as she ran them down her face. “Fuck,” she said under her breath as she dropped her head to your shoulder. Your hands immediately wrapped around her body as your right hand ran through her hair.

“I’m sorry P,” you kissed the top of her head.

“It’s not your fault for being a fucking amazing singer,” she let out an airy laugh, her evident in her voice.

There was a moment of silence between you two, just holding each other; the video game now fully forgotten even as KK and Ice started blowing up Paige’s phone for her being the reason they lost.

“So…what does this mean for us?” you asked, causing Paige to lift her head and look at you.

“I love you, I really wanna try,” she spoke softly, squeezing your hand.

“I love you too,” you smiled softly, feeling like a weight was lifted off your chest.

Even though the two of you tried as hard as you could, being on opposite ends of the country with both having extremely busy schedules and constant travel led to the relationship ending on mutual terms, for the both of your mental health's sake.

July 2025

“Fans, are you ready…for your All Star halftime entertainment?!” you heard through the speakers of Gainbridge Fieldhouse as you stood underneath the stage waiting for it to rise up and reveal you to the crowd. “Make some noise for grammy award winning…Y/N L/N!” and with that the stage lifted you up as your song, Taste, started playing.

“Oh I leave quite an impression,” you sang, as the dancers beside you started to do their choreography.

While Paige was walking through the tunnel to go back to the locker room for halftime, she heard your voice vibrating through the area making her stop in her tracks.

Towards the end of your set Paige had made it to where she could go see you perform your last song. She had made it just in time to see the outro, which you had been known for changing it based on where you were performing, “He said it was big, but it was mini // I like it Fast and Furious like Vin D // Indy is too perfect, someone pinch me” you finished with a small laugh into the microphone before the stage took you back down.

You then changed into a sequined top in the shape of a bra, paired with a matching sequined miniskirt before taking your seat courtside for the rest of the game.

Your eyes kept wondering to the blonde on the court. She had gotten stronger and tanner since you had last seen her, LA clearly had been treating her good. And as the game came to an end with Paige’s team winning, you walked on the court, your ex immediately walking over to you too.

“So, how’s LA been?” you teased, a smile playing on your lips.

“It’d be better with you showing me around.”

[enweasley]

Restricted Section ; Finn Weasley x Sallow!Reader

AN: HII! So I haven't seen this being done much (or even at all but I barely looked) where people would write fanfics of their own characters in Hogwarts Legacy, so I decided to do so! Quick introduction to the character:

This is Finn Weasley; He's in Gryffindor and has a very loyal but mischievous personality. He's also pansexual! He LOVES herbology but he loves solving mysteries and exploring secrets even more - even if it's super dangerous. However, he will go to any extent to keep others out of danger (ironically). Finn can be really harsh to people if someone hurts him or the people he cares about. He's not perfect, though, he has some flaws. He does have a short temper and can say pretty horrible things without meaning to. He can also be quite reckless and finds it hard to accept other people's love and care, leading him to forget to keep himself from getting hurt.

That's all for now, but I'll probably add more to his story as time goes by!

(Please excuse any grammar mistakes, I'm trilingual and grammar from 3 languages can mix me up a lot C:)

--

Summary: The new student needs your help sneaking into the restricted section for something 'very important'. However, he doesn't expect you to cover for him when you get caught.

Warnings: Swearing, small panic attack, gets a little heated at the end. Kinda cheesy but we love that :)

Reader's gender is never specified!

--

"Excuse me! Y/n Sallow, right?" Interrupted from your game of wizard's chess alone, you turn around to be met with a pretty tall red-head. You couldn't help but think about how gorgeous he is, but you swallow your excitement.

"Yeah, that's me. You're the new kid aren't you?" You disenchant your chess game and give him your full attention. "I watched your duel with Sebastian in the Clock Tower, you're really good!"

Finn seems to flush at your compliment. During his short time starting in 5th year here in Hogwarts he's gotten plenty compliments on how he's been able to learn and execute spells so quickly, but for some reason your compliment had a special affect on him.

He chuckles lightly. "Thank you, I'm just trying to catch up quickly." He couldn't seem to keep his eyes from wandering over your features. "It's Finn, by the way. Finn Weasley."

"Oh, another Weasley! Well it's lovely to meet you! Did you need anything?" You ask politely.

Finn almost forgot why he was talking to you in the first place, but managed to remember before already humiliating himself in front of you. "Right, yes. This may sound quite forward, but Sebastian told me you're really good at sneaking around. Is there a chance you can help me sneak into the restricted section of the library tonight? I can't say why, but it's very important."

You were a bit surprised at his request, but kind of prideful that you were the first person he was led to for it. You smiled widely. "Of course! I'm surprised my brother didn't take you himself. Meet me at the grand staircase at 9. Don't be late!"

"Wait- Don't you wanna know more about why I need to sneak in?" He asked perplexed.

"Nope. I'll take any opportunity for sneaking around. Either way, you don't seem the type to burn down the castle or anything. Plus, you said you can't say why you need to sneak in."

He mentally facepalmed himself. How could he forget he just said that? Maybe he just wanted to talk to you longer. "I'll see you at 9!" You smile at him and walk away.

You take a long breath after turning away from him. Holy shit he's cute.

-

You're both crouched at the railing of the stairs looking down onto the central hall at exactly 9pm, analysing the prefects walking around and guarding the doors of the library.

"Okay," you whisper. "First of all, we need to go invisible. Have you learnt the disillusionment spell?"

Finn looks at you like a lost puppy, his head slightly titled. You almost had to tell him how cute he looked, but held back.

You pull your wand out and whisp it over your head and body. The wand leaves a blue trail of light before all there was left was your aura.

You continue whispering to the lost boy in front of you. "This is the disillusionment spell. It doesn't turn you completely invisible but it's better than being completely exposed."

You point to his hand holding his wand. "May I?" He nods hesitantly.

You slowly hold his fist clenching onto his wand and do the same movement you did on yourself over him. Finn could barely focus, the feeling of your soft hand on his summoning an army of butterflies in his stomach. You couldn't help but feel the same tingle in your stomach too.

Clearing your throat, you speak. "That's the movement for the spell. Just think of it and do the movement."

He did as you said, and suddenly you were both just two ghosts staring at each other's remains.

Finn chuckles enthusiastically. "This is awesome!" He whisper yells.

You laugh at his excitement, wishing you could see his freckled face through the spell.

"Okay, let's go. Stick close to me." You begin to sneak down the stairs, through the hall, and quickly side past the prefect turned away from the library door. You can feel Finn following closely behind.

After you both get into a safer corner of the library away from Madam Agnes's sights, you remove the spell off you.

"Here's the plan," you start. "You go get the key from Madam Agnes's desk draw over there, I'll distract her."

Finn nods. As you start to turn away, Finn grabs your arm gently and looks at you with his adorable puppy eyes.

"What if you get caught?" He sounds worried. You can't tell why he'd be worried about you, though.

You give him a cheeky smile. "Me? Get caught? You should worry about yourself, Weasley." He chuckles, shooing away the blush creeping into his cheeks after hearing you call him by his surname. "C'mon, let's go."

As you throw a book across the room, Finn conceals himself and scurries to grab the key. You quickly do the same and meet him at the entrance of the restricted section.

Exposing yourselves from the spell, you watch him unlock the gate before you walk in.

"YES!" Finn cheers, surprising you both with a tight hug. There's a pause before he realises what he's doing and slowly pulls away, taking his warmth away with him. "Sorry... Got excited."

You laugh sweetly at him. "I don't mind." He continues walking down the stairs of the forbidden room, but not before shooting you a relieved smirk.

"Lumos." You cast, making the eery room brighter and less intimidating.

As you squeeze between abandoned bookshelves and over piles of junk, you reach a collapsed set of armour. "Repai-" Finn begins to cast before a loud screech interrupts him.

Almost out of thin air, Peeves flies through the wall in front of you. He almost knocks you down, but Finn's quick reflexes catch you before you hit the ground. You find yourself wrapped in his arms, yours tightly around his neck.

"Shit, are you okay?" Finn asks you breathlessly, his worried eyes glaring into yours.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine-" But once again you were interrupted by the same squeaky, loud voice of the poltergeist.

"I'M TELLING, I'M TELLING," Peeves squeals mockingly before flying straight upwards towards the main floor of the library.

Your heart squeezes into itself. You've never been caught before, why now? Your uncle is going to kill you if he finds out you were sneaking around the castle, and in the restricted section of all places.

You didn't realise your breath was quickening until you felt arms lowering you onto the floor and rough but warm hands palming each side of your neck.

"Hey, hey. You're alright, sweetheart. Take a breath." You hear Finn's soft voice whisper in your ear. A little voice was in your head screaming How do you expect me to breathe when you're making my heart beat even faster??

You breathe deeply before letting out a small chuckle. "I'm okay. I'm fine. Just go get whatever you need to get. I need to deal with Peeves before he gets us both in trouble."

Finn looks at you as if asking you if you're sure. You just nod and sprint after Peeves, the last thing you hear is a distant "Repairo" before making it back to the library.

"PEEVES YOU STUPID POLTERGEIST." You try catching him, forgetting he's a literal ghost as your arms flail right through him.

"Y/n Sallow." You jump at the voice of Madam Agnes behind you. You slowly turn around while Peeves chuckles menacingly at your head hung low in shame. "And to think I'd get a break from the Sallow siblings, you come running along. Wait until your uncle hears about this."

"No. No no no-" You get interrupted by her. "That's enough. You're a bright student, you should know better than to go sneaking around the restricted section especially after curfew."

"But Madam Agnes-"

"And Peeves here tells me you were with someone else." Peeves twirls and rolls around mid-air, celebrating your punishment. "Please tell me you were forced to come here by someone's hand instead of it being your own choice."

There's a pause. You could never snitch on Finn like that. You only just met him but you know better than to put his record at risk on his first week of school here. This was your own choice anyway, you weren't forced. Finn helped you down there, so you're gonna help him.

"No. I came here all alone." You said in a low but stern voice.

Madam Agnes sighs at your lie, but she knew how stubborn you and your brother were, so she let it slide.

"Detention after classes tomorrow. You're going to sort the books to their respective places until they're all done. It doesn't matter if it takes you all night." Your shoulders slump. "Peeves, escort her to her common room, please."

With a sigh from you and an evil chuckle from the poltergeist, you begin your walk to your common room. At least Finn's in the clear now.

Little did you know, Finn saw the whole thing from behind one of the shelves. He couldn't help but let a grateful smile reach his lips.

--

The next day, Finn runs to the library to find you after his classes. It's already dark out by the time he finishes his extra tasks and from talking to Professor Fig. He doesn't know why he's in such a hurry, but he won't let his confidence escape him just yet.

Once he's in, he find the library to be completely empty, not even Madam Agnes in sight. He hears distant curses and shuffling coming from the second floor and he can only assume the source being your complaining.

As he follows the sounds of frustrated mumbles, he finally finds you at the end of the second floor in a dark corner holding a bunch of books to shelf up. He smiles at the sight of you awkwardly balancing everything in your one hand and walks over to you, taking a pile of books from you.

"Need help there?" He looks at you with a teasing smirk.

You look at him with a grumpy face. "Oh haha, Weasley. I can handle this on my own, thank you very much." You snatch back the books he took from you, instant regret flooding your features as you immediately struggle to balance them.

Finn immediately takes them back from you and effortlessly holds them over his head, extending his arm upwards far from your reach.

"Hey- Hand those back, Weasley." You try hopping to reach the books he so graciously stole from you.

He chuckles at your efforts while you claw up his chest and shoulders, trying to tug down his arm. After a harsh tug, Finn loses balance of the books he's holding and he tries catching them but ends up stumbling forwards.

The books fall to the side as Finn catches himself on the bookshelf, trapping you between it and himself.

You lock eyes with him, your hands clutched tightly onto the thin material of his shirt over his chest. You're both breathing heavily, chests almost touching with every breath.

You can feel Finn hesitate as his hands slowly reach to cup the back of your neck, his thumb over your cheek. No matter how much you willed yourself to, your simply could not take your eyes off him.

"Thank you." He whispers. Your eyebrows furrow.

"For what?"

"For covering for me." His stare snapping between your eyes and lips. "I heard you in the library after we got caught."

"You mean after I caught got?" You tease.

Finn smirks at your remark, his hold on your neck squeezing for a second. "Whatever you say, sweetheart." The nickname melts into your ears and into the rushed beats of your heart.

"Hey, Finn?" The use of his first name makes the blood rush to his cheeks, his breath hitches.

"Yeah?"

"You dropped my books."

"Shut up." Finn lets out in a desperate breath before pulling you into him, his lips roughly but passionately meeting yours.

His other hand shifts from the side of your head to tangle into your hair, tugging it lightly. You let out a little whimper, but that's all it took for Finn to deepen the kiss even more, his tongue slightly grazing yours. Breaths were escaping through your noses, desperate for air but never desperate enough to separate from each other.

Your fingers weave through his long, soft ginger locks. Your other hand clutches desperately onto the collar of his shirt.

You both finally pull away from each other, your hands gliding down to rest on his chest.

"Fuck." Finn leans his forehead on yours, leaning in for another quick peck. His hazel eyes are glazed over, looking into yours like they hold the world. He slowly brushes a strand of your hair behind your hair, memorising your face as you memorise his.

"I was hoping you'd do that." You chuckle breathlessly. Finn laughs with you, his eyes holding nothing but love as they stare into yours. "Oh yeah?" You nod, your nose lightly touching his.

"Now help me with these books, Weasley. You're still responsible for my detention." You playfully push him away and start picking up the books he previously dropped.

"And I'd do it again as long as it ends like this every time." He smiles at you cheekily.

"Do it again and I'm telling Sebastian you used a love potion on me."

And with that he got to work helping you sort the books out.

[groundzero-v]

Titles tag game

Thank you @roalinda for tagging me! 💕

List the titles of your top 5 priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers)

An upcoming scene, event or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which of the top 5 wips are they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

Titles

1. Revenge *is* the answer (worktitle, Prongsfoot)

Set in a version of the wizarding world where ghosts work a bit differently, Sirius and James team up to hunt Peter Petigreew down.

Or: James comes back (sort of), breaks Sirius out of Azkaban (finally) and decides whoever betrayed them both doesn't deserve to live on.

2. Marauder's Guide to Saving the Wizarding World (Prongsfoot)

I suppose everyone is tired of me talking about this one, but it's my only published wip 😄 James and Sirius compete as a team in the Triwizard Tournament which sets things that were never supposed to happen in their time in motion. Marauders fight Voldemort AU!

Includes lots of Marauder banter, feels, questionable humour, prongsfoot moments and brand new tasks in the tournament

3. No title yet. Star Wars AU + transmigration* (Prongsfoot)

The Proud Immortal Sith Way was a webnovel with an average rating of 2.5. It was, quite frankly, a piece of shit. The only thing that kept James reading, day after day, was the main character, the Jedi turned Sith, Sirius Black.

Sirius' whole life was filled with misfortune and pain. Upon entering the Order he received nothing but distain and distrust from everyone around him, even from his Master. It was no wonder he turned to the Dark side when everyone was just a useless NPC!

'How is it fair that Sirius had to spend the rest of his life in misery after suffering this whole time?!!’ James wrote at 1AM into the comment section of yet another chapter that had Sirius traveling the galaxy and adding another one-chapter, useless love interest to his harem.

The same night, James died. When he woke up, he was in the novel, the words 'Fine, do better,' apprearing in front of his eyes before they blipped out of existence.

*((A variation of SVSS for those aware, but should be totally alright to read without any knowledge of SW or SVSS^^))

4. Fantasy/Knights of the Round table AU (Prongsfoot)

Fantasy, Arthur & Knights of the Round table AU. James in the place of Arthur, future king, and Sirius as Lancelot, his most loyal knight. Features sword-magic, epic adventures and magical creatures. A very much just a concept for now

An upcoming scene, event or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing:

1. Prongsfoot just...being feral for each other, absolute devotion to the max. They have finally reunited again and there's nothing that can stop them. Also just them...trespassing everywhere 😄 Besides that, definitely the confrontation with Peter!!

2. I'm pretty excited about the Second Task of the Tournament (and a bit scared since I had to create it, hopefully it's interesting). But other than that, to be very vague haha, Prongsfoot meeting Voldemort for the first time!🙈 (There is a line that started this whole fic that I have been waiting to use and its coming closer with each day!!)

3. It's so different so I have to say there're so many things I'm really excited about. Figuring out who should be who in the SW universe is a lot of fun, but I think I'm mostly looking forward to James and Sirius being absolutely unstoppable with lightsabers and the Force. The aspect of the transmigration is also something I'm really really looking forward to

4. I love fantasy so puttting Prongsfoot in there is just a dream. A scene I'm most excited about is Sirius getting knighted by James and swearing his loaylty to him 🥹

Tagging (no pressure and sorry if you were already tagged!) @lovelymasks @jmagnabo92 @cassiaratheslytherpuff @gracelesslady23 @prongsfoot4life @solitaire-sol @mycupofrum @siriuslystarbucks @siriuslycomplex

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I think one thing that always bothers me about the Red Dragon arc is - well, it’s a common talking point in the fandom that each half of season 3 represents Hannibal and Will, respectively, living the lives they’d ideally want but without each other. But the thing is, we don’t actually really see much of Will “living without Hannibal.”

Like, in 3A, we get an entire episode of Hannibal’s life without Will, one in which Will doesn’t even show up (and for a season premiere, that’s an even more radical departure from the status quo - we feel Will’s absence as much as Hannibal does) but it feels like there’s this void of negative space where he is. And the contours of that void are so brilliantly and subtly suggested through the flashbacks to Gideon, which contextualizes the preparation of Bedelia (the inadequate substitute for Will Graham) and underlines Hannibal’s need to have others bear witness to his artistry (again, something only reluctantly done by Bedelia, and done in a manner unsatisfactory to him by Anthony Dimmond, the episode’s other unsatisfactory replacement for Will who gets recycled as a macabre valentine for Will). So Gideon saying “if only that someone could be Will Graham” feels like the culmination of what everything that has until now been unspoken has been leading up to.

And in 3B, we don’t really get any kind of analogue to that with Will. In some ways, that makes sense - given Hannibal’s Hannibal-ness, it’s possible to devote an entire episode to his murder and identity theft shenanigans and get some entertaining television out of it. But the life Will is living is a lot more mundane, so it’d be pretty boring to watch forty minutes of him fixing boats and playing with his dogs and eating dinner with his family.

But I do think there should have been something to indicate potential cracks there. We could potentially have had some bits of Will’s life interspersed with the expositional sections of episode 8 that were dedicated to Hannibal being a little shit while in prison, maybe featuring Will being haunted by murder (in the form of the disturbing visions the show is so good at) or missing Hannibal and feeling out of sync with Molly and Walter somehow (as opposed to waiting to get back to Will until literally the equivalent of the first chapter of Red Dragon). Or, they could have been included in flashback form in episode 9 alongside Hannibal’s memories of Abigail (especially in keeping with the themes of family, and Hannibal’s cruel contrast of the family he tried to give Will with the family Will chose for himself).

I get that time constraints were a concern, but ideally, this sort of thing would have helped a lot. Because what we actually get is somehow, simultaneously, Will leaving his family (apparently on a suicide mission) without any kind of mention of them at all, and Will seeming perfectly content with them without much qualification. (And even the book gives us more potential cracks in his marriage - both in it being made clear that Will never expected the marriage to last, and in the “maddening politeness” he endures near the end. The show does give us a little bit of that with the friction between Will and Walter after Dolarhyde’s attack, but Molly still isn’t as angry or distant with Will in the wake of that attack as she should be for me to really buy the dissolution of that family.)

So, all of that is to say that, while 3B has grown on me quite a lot, I think it fails to show us the Hannibal-shaped negative space in Will’s life. And I don’t buy the argument that we should just take it for granted that of course Will couldn’t live without Hannibal. Just as with the Minnesota Shrike, I need to see a negative to fully see the positive.

[far-from-fran]

What are the examples of your "cringefail x [gender]failure" ships? xD

I'm so glad you asked!!!!!!😁

@kpchrs

Ok! So! I'd probably have to start with Hijack!

Hijack

Hiccup (httyd) x Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians (great movie btw😊)) If we're going by htty1 Hiccup would be the boyfailure, and Jack would be the cringefail. But, if we're talking about httyd2, then Hiccup would be the cringefail and Jack would be the boyfailure. The shit they go through and the way I write them really fits that dynamic.

Ashnifico!

Asha x King Magnifico (Disney's Wish) King Magnifico is kind of like a cringey and underappreciated dad, it's so funny. Like, he's supposed to be this intimidating and evil-as-fuck villain, but he's just so cute. Like, look at him twirl:

"I'm glowing! :D"

This is after he's turned evil too, so. Lol

And, Asha is the girlfailure, because... she's just a mess of a character. 😂 Like, I love her, but she's a mess. All the characters kind of are, but, that's kind of why I love them.❤️

Roceit!!!!! :D

Yeeeeeeeeeesssssss! Ok!

Roman "Creativity" Sanders x Janus "Deceit" Sanders from Sanders Sides:

There's a (too) big section of the fandom that (only) sees Janus as this suave and debonair mystery man, which is definitely what Janus wants to be seen as. But, in reality, he's just a big dork! (affectionate)

Picks him up and hold him under a flashlight Look at him! LOOK AT HIM!

So, Janus is the cringefail.😂

Roman! :D Roman is the boyfailure. My mans is... Not Winning. (Which is partially his own fault) (Who said that!?👀)

He's so good, though! I love him! Like, more Roman being happy, please! Enough with the ANGST! (lighthearted... also kinda serious.😂)

I have a fic for them planned. (When don't I? Lol) Well, it's for all the Sanders sides, but it's going to feature roceit heavily. Which I said I wasn't going to do, because I wanted to feature all the sides equally, but here we are.😂 I hope I can get the first chapter out soon!😁

Hmm. I had another one I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember what it was right now.🤷

Well, anyway, here's some honorable mentions:

Hiccabela

Hiccup (httyd2) x Isabela Madrigal (Encanto)

I think calling Isabela a girlfailure is a bit of a stretch, since her whole thing is being perfect. But, she's a bit of a girlfailure in my eyes, so that's all the counts.😌💅🏾

Quick Hiccabela edit I did:

Bunnydoll

Jax x Ragatha (The Amazing Digital Circus)

I hesitate to call Ragatha a girlfailure, but, eh... she's not exactly Winning. Which isn't entirely her fault. It's, like, 90% Jax's fault.

Jax is definitely a cringefail, though. To me, at least. I guess he would technically need to fail more, but whatever. There's only two episodes out, as of writing this, but I'm pretty sure he's going to be failing a LOT more in the future.😂

Hmm. Maybe, I'll switch the roles? Jax is the boyfailure and Ragatha is the cringefail? Eh, whatever.🤷 It works either way.😂

I JUST REMEMBERED!!! I almost sent it without talking about the Cringfail x Girlfailure ship of all time.😂

GuitarSpear

Adam x Lute (Hazbin Hotel)

Adam is just... the worst, and Lute is a girlfailure, because, like, girl Raise your standardsssssssssss!!!!😭 (affectionate) I can't wait to see more of them in season two.😊

But, yeah.😂 Those are my "cringefail x [gender]failure" ships. Feel free to ask more about these or any of my other ships. I ship a lot of stuff. Oh! There's a crossover ship tournament going on, if you want to vote. No pressure. It's just for fun anyway. I put in a link to the hashtag if you're interested: Crossover ship poll tournament. It's hosted by Rapunzel Crossover Queen. They're great!😊

[spinningbuster98]

Metroid Other M Part 8: The hallow ending

You know...I’ve noticed that Sakamoto’s Metroid games seem to have issues in regards to their endings

With the exception of Super, most of his other games tend to have some sort of weirdness to them. Fusion’s ending is too abrupt, with the AI turning good on a whim simply because Samus just happened to pronounce the magic word by accident, which effectively resolved the X-threat right then and there. Zero Mission ends on a bit of an anti-climax due to the added stealth section ending with a fight against a random Ridley robot. Samus Returns’ Ridley fight is wholly unneeded and goes against the feel of the original Metroid 2. Dread’s ending is clearly rushed with Raven Beak pretty much just dumping a truck load of exposition at you with little explanation.

But none of them even comes remotely close to the absolute train wreck that is Other M’s ending

So let’s run this shit by the order in which it happens shall we?

So Samus fights and kills a Metroid Queen that Madeline sicks on her. Y’know what? This is actually the one useful thing that Samus does in this entire game: had she not taken care of this thing, MB may have used it to eliminate the Federation guys that had just arrived, including Anthony. So yeah, after all this time, Samus does one useful thing

She kills a walking plothole

Why is there a Queen on the Bottle Ship? It had been long established, since at least Fusion, that Metroids are only capable of evolving into their mature forms when they are raised in the environment of their homeworld SR388, which is why the BSL had a whole Sector dedicated to imitating that place, as ADAM explained. The Bottle Ship was not modelled after SR388, in fact Samus compares it more to Zebes. Now to be as fair as possible: Fusion never outright states that Metroids ABSOLUTELY need their homeworld to evolve, ADAM could’ve just meant that it was more ideal and easier. However whatever the initial intentions may have been that’s not what the series ultimately went with, as the Prime games feature Metroids evolving into different subspecies, such as the Tallon Metroids, as explicitly demonstrated by that one room on the Pirate Homeworld in Prime 3, which featured autopsies of Metroids of various origins. Normally I’d say that the two subseries should be kept relatively seperate so as to not create any clashings, but in this case the Prime games simply evolved a concept already hinted at in a 2D game, so in the interest of continuity Other M should’ve kept this into consideration. I mean this didn’t need to be a Metroid Queen, its narrative role could’ve easily been fulfilled by just any other big monster, it’s only a Queen because fanservice and nothing else. We lost continuity due to dumb fanservice and now Samus’ most substantial contribution to this plot is getting rid of a plothole. Just great.

MB is the mastermind behind it all! So now the game enters full movie mode in order to quickly explain to me her generic backstory just before she’s killed off so that I can feel sorry for her. Samus’ narration during the ending is flat out laughable, she’s literally explaining to us why we should feel sorry for MB and how her character worked because the story itself could not be arsed to.

This doesn’t work for so many reasons, first of all being that MB’s backstory is built on some impressive levels of stupidity and unclear logistics. These dumb asshole scientists created an AI based on Mother Brains. MOTHER. BRAIN. The AI infamous for betraying her creators and trying to conquer the galaxy. You base your AI on that thing’s “thought patterns”, put her in charge of your station’s Metroids and other highly dangerous creatures, take absolutely no precautions whatsoever, and then you go full surprised Pikachu face when she starts to grow independent? And then when you decide to reprogram her you do it by trying to forcefully restrain her when you know her android body is stronger than normal humans and can telepathically order every creature on the station to rip you to shreds? I’ve seen time travelling demons with Deviantart-level designs with better layed out plans than this!!

We are not informed about MB’s personality in any way whatsoever, aside from her developing a daughter-mother bond with Madeline. She has literally no personality beyond that. Which was also the case with Mother Brain, but at least past games never waxed poetry about how deep the characrer was and why I should be feeling bad for her! The best thing I can say about MB is that her tricking Samus into walking to her death in Sector Zero was actually pretty smart, but that’s it. That’s all there is to her. She’s a fucking muppet otherwise, which is pretty funny, given that her “developing emotions” was the crux that started this whole shitshow in the first place

I must also ask: how DID they analyze Mother Brain’s “thought patterns” to create MB? Mother Brain was a literal brain in a jar who never left Zebes. Sure the Federation was aware of her existence, so I guess she must’ve come into contact with them in the past I...guess through telepathy? Crossing galactic distances? Whatever.

And of course Samus doesn’t even take her down. No that honor goes to Madeline and the GF troops, followed by Anthony being revealed alive and as the one who previously stopped the engines of the station and is now allowing Madeline to be brought in for questioning. I mean why should Samus even do anything after all? She’s just an outsider as Adam put it at the start of the game: all this shit that’s been going on isn’t her story, it’s Adam and his men’s!

Oh and, just to put this here real quick, it’s sometimes said that the japanese version makes a distinction between the broader Galactif Federation and the guys behind the scenes here, who are supposed to be part of the Army, which is absent in the English version...except that’s not true. The English script certainly uses the terms “Galactic Federation” and “Galactic Army” pretty interexchangeably, but the distinction is there, especially with Adam flat out calling these guys a group of Ringleaders, saying that the broader GF was indeed contemplating making Metroids but that Adam conviced them otherwise with the exception of these guys, so the whole “the Galactic Federation as a whole is not corrupt, only a select few members are” idea has always been there in every version of the script. I’m more interested in knowing if this idea also existed in Fusion and was already a thing back then or if it’s a retcon that Other M came up with as a way to justify Samus still working with the GF in later games like Dread.

Anyway the day is saved! The villain was anti-climactically disposed of! Adam was a dick head to the end and died uselessly! Samus seems to have gotten over her issues for some reason, but hey if she’s happy then who am I to complain right?

Unfortunately we’re not quite done yet. We still have a little bit left before it’s truly over

[culpeppercheckers721]

Turn Week 2024– Day 4: Set It To Music

Get ready, this is gonna be a really long post methinks!! 🤠 Also I just rewatched the last two episodes of Turn and am still in emotional shambles from that, so please bear with me.

AS SAID: I warn you that this is a very long post with lots of links, and also that this turned out way less hinged than I mean it to jfc (then again being unhinged was my whole goal on here so) 😀

Since I am such a degenerate for setting the things I love to songs, I believe that I shall break this up into odd little sections:

Songs for certain scenes:

The Night Boat

Though this may not be incredibly specific, every time I hear this song, I can picture so clearly every scene by the dark, blue waters of frog’s cove, and can see Caleb approaching in his literal, well, night boat ;) Also if you know me well enough you may already know I have a weird thing when it comes to Turn & Duran Duran— their music is excellent for creativity for me (and also, as much as I love the original version of Night Boat above all, here I use the Danse Macabre version as it’s simply spookier, and better for this vibe ;))

Fuel to Fire

Alright, a little bit of canon, and a little bit of AUs all in one. Though there is already a song playing in this overall scene, some individual moments from it, and just Abe & Townsend’s energy around each other this season in general just screams this song to me. If you recall season one of Turn, you may remember a montage of Simcoe terrorizing Setauket in Against Thy Neighbor while a rendition of a song called Katie Cruel played in the background, sung by none other than Agnes Obel, so she already has Turn vibes considering her music has literally been featured in the show! And even if she hadn’t, the lyrics and the energy of this is so unshakable to me, I cannot imagine ever listening to this song and not thinking about Abe & Robert or at least Turn in general, and not to mention, as some of you may be familiar with, a literary masterpiece by a similar title (Like Fuel to the Fire, I beg of you go read it).

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Ok I know this is even less historic-feeling than the ones included so far, but here me out. I can’t exclude this one because of how much the end of the Nightmare intro, when Abe goes “it’s rainin’” makes me think of this song every time. This scene and this song alike both contain the rain symbolism, they’re both about mourning a father, and ALSO Jamie Bell literally stars in the music video of this song which I find very ironic!! So no, I could not exclude this one. 💕

Songs for specific characters:

Right Where You Left Me

Annlet shippers, I am not trying to hurt y’all, and I know everyone uses Taylor Swift for everything but uh. As arbitrary as most of these lyrics are, for some reason I can picture either of them just sitting in Rivington’s, frozen and thinking about one another and what they’ve done, to this song. And it is depressing but kind of intriguing. So if I hAVE TO THINK THAT SO DO YOU.

Touchy Feely Fool

Wow so much Abraham. Call me what you will but the FIRST time I heard this song I thought about Abe. I cannot help it. It’s hard to explain it, but this just. Reminds me of him so much. Especially when you think about his relationship with Richard, juxtaposed with “maybe someday when I’m older, I’ll be better off like you, I’m better off a stick, I’m better off a stone, I’m better off a jerk, I’m better off alone…” etc. I know I am FUCKING INSANE BUT THE ABE ENERGY IS UNSHAKABLE TO ME. HAHSHAHS. Anyways, attached is an extremely shitty old edit I tried to do for him with it, once again feat. copious Townhull vibes. As you can see it did not go well, and many things went wrong, but now’s as good a time as any for me to post it. As another wise Turn fan once put it: I may be fucking crazy, but I am free.

Songs for AU shit:

Familiar

More Agnes Obel for you! I know this is really unoriginal, I’ve seen a few people relate this song to Townhull in the past I think, but like. I just love it so much, and I can see the vision lmao.

Love Like Ghosts

Keeping with the weird-ass ghost motif, we end, for now, with another song that has the right vibes for a Townhull AU of mine, specifically when it comes to the events of Mended, I think; time for some good old Lord Huron. I hesitated to put this on a playlist for them at first because I really wasn’t sure if it actually fit, but for vibes alone, and this particular scene in such a plot… yeah. ;) If nothing else, the “spirits” that follow Abe could be that of his brother’s memory, and plus, the title and chorus— “love is like ghosts”— is simply hauntingly poetic to me ;)

Was really hoping to get this post up before midnight, but alas, here we are. Anyways, happy late 4th of July to all those celebrating, and even if you are not celebrating, I still hope you have a wonderful evening!! ❤️🤍💙

[wolfdog-weatherman]

Yes…hahahha…YES

@heart-patch-jacket Thank you for this! I’m gonna make a whole post on it because I have some stuff 2 say…I’m also gonna write it like I’m turning this shit in to my teacher cause this is serious TO ME !! Get ready 4 a bit of reading…

Quick thing before I start: I am absolutely horrible at translating things outside of my brain. Sorry if anything I say in this post doesn’t make as much sense as it did in my head :(.

Ice Sculptures and the “Frozen Man” Metaphor in Groundhog Day:

Including deleted scenes, there are three major moments throughout the film involving ice sculptures, and how Phil chooses to interact with them. In each of these scenes, Phil is in a completely different stage of the loop. The headspace he is in at the time is reflected in how he interacts with the ice sculptures.

Instance #1:

The first time the sculptures are featured prominently in a scene, not much happens, Phil just walks by and looks at them with an overall forlorn expression.

At this point in the movie, Phil hasn’t realized the potential for growth that the loop has given him. He hasn’t tried to turn his life around or improve the lives of others, he’s mostly just been feeling sorry for himself, morose over being stuck on the worst day of his life.

His feelings of insignificance and overwhelming sense of being powerless in this situation is reflected in the way that he watches the statues: doing nothing to them, and nothing about his circumstances.

In the director’s commentary, Harold Ramis himself notes that this scene is meant to convey Phil as a “frozen man”; not learning or growing, but instead choosing to brood over his current state of hopelessness.

Instance #2:

(Tw for mentions of suicide in this section)

This is the only deleted scene on this list, but I think that it’s significant enough to be discussed even if it never made it into the final film.

While there is no way to know where this scene was meant to be put in the movie, I believe it fits best amongst the scenes of Phil repeatedly ending his own life as he tries, and fails, to escape the loop.

In these sequences Phil is careless with his life, trying every possible way to destroy himself despite knowing deep down that he’ll wake up perfectly fine the next morning.

His destruction of the statues mirrors this: he knows they will be fully intact by tomorrow—and no one will be able to see what he did—but at this point it’s just a method of catharsis for him, the same way his attempted suicides were.

His discovery of this power leads him to believe he’s some kind of god, and—after an effort to convince Rita to give credence to his situation—he learns just how much he can accomplish with his ability. This leads us into…

Instance #3:

This final example is probably the most obvious one. After finally realizing the potential that reliving one day over and over gives him, Phil decides to take up ice sculpting, and becomes incredibly skilled at it.

Unlike the other two instances, Phil is creating a statue of his own, he’s at last using his circumstances to shape the small life that he has into something new and beautiful, that only he can accomplish.

While each of the previous examples involve the tacky groundhog sculptures made by the townsfolk, Phil’s statue depicts a graceful, angelic being. His previous hatred for the small town has faded, and he’s using his unusual power to bestow benevolence and good deeds onto all the townspeople, even if none of them could know or comprehend how he’s able to solve all their problems.

I could go on a whole other tangent about “Phil is a god/angel” implications, but I will hold back now for the sake of this post. (And because I’m a very normal person.)

So yeah, that’s my little analysis of how the ice statues are used as a symbol throughout the movie! The movie that I’m obviously very regular and not crazy about!

[octuscle]

Tim and Tim swap lives

When he started his traineeship at the local newspaper, Tim had rather hoped to report on exhibition openings or opera premieres for the feature section. That was more his world. But his first job was an interview with a heavy-metal singer who had become a bit of a has-been. The singer had made headlines recently for his marital violence and his drug and alcohol excesses. Tim had had a fetish for heavy metal in the past. Sweaty singers in tight leather pants. To the Twisted Sisters video of "We're not gonna take it" he had jerked off more than once. Good suburban boys who become rock stars. That had already been to his liking. But everything he'd researched about his interviewee beforehand indicated that he'd been hot a long time ago. Now his best days were long gone. Oh well, it was a job. And he was just the volunteer. He had probably also been chosen only because the singer's name was also Tim.

For the interview, Tim had picked out some hopefully suitable clothes from his brother. And so he waited in the backstage area to finally be able to conduct the interview. The manager had led him to the dressing room, put a Coke in front of him, and walked out angrily ranting. "Where is that drunken piece of shit again?" heard Tim yelling him. After more than an hour, the door opened and the band's lead singer staggered through the door. He grunted something like a hello and disappeared directly into the restroom. Tim heard his interview partner vomit first. And then snore. Tim carefully opened the door. And the singer was lying in a puddle of vomit and urine, blissfully asleep. Shit, what was he supposed to do now? Wake him up? Seemed inappropriate to him. So Tim did something he should have done an hour ago: He answered his own written questions himself.

Question: They say your career is over. What do you plan to do to get back to your old successes?

Answer: Over? Now it's just getting started. I've been sober for a year, eat healthy and spend every free minute in the gym. I'm far from being at the end.

Energy coursed through Tim's young body. His muscles grew visibly.

Question: But financially you are at the end. Is it true that the private bankruptcy had to file?

Answer: Fuck, I've spent a lot of money on shit in the last few years. The tattoos alone have cost me a fortune. And I've had bad advisors. But with my new manager, things will pick up again. I also have a responsibility for the band, which is my family.

Tim's flawless skin began to discolor in various places. Tattoos formed and began to cover his entire upper body.

Question: Why this late change of heart? You've been in the business for decades, right?

Answer: Decades? Kid, you're exaggerating. I've been living heavy metal body and soul since I was 16. That's not even 20 years.

Tim aged in seconds. He was no longer 22 but 34. His hair had grown into a long mat. His skin definitely showed traces of many excessive parties. But he still radiated a lot of energy and masculinity.

Question: A final private question: What do you say to the accusations of violence against your wife.

Answer: (Loud laughter) Are you kidding me? I married that bitch for the press. Never touched her. For years I've only fucked the asses of hot reporters like you.

Of course Tim couldn't write it like that. No one would believe it. But only snoring continued to come out of the toilet. Tim didn't think he would be able to do the interview. He pressed save and closed his laptop. At that moment, he heard the toilet flush. His young and crisp interview partner came out. "Any more questions, boy?" he asked. "No, thank you very much for this very frank interview. I wish you all the best as you restart your career." replied the lad from the local paper. Tim had needed to get that off his chest. That felt good. Now the tour could go on. But before he went on stage, he desperately needed to relieve some pressure. "All the best to you, too, boy. Now come and get your reward, groupie." Tim unbuttoned his leather jeans. And the other Tim got down on his knees.

The concert was a huge success. A legend was back. But the sensation was the article by a young local editor about the singer's coming out.

[greatkittydream]

The Creature from the dungeon. 1

"thinking"

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Journal entry 1

I've kept a collection of my thoughts to keep myself from going fucking insane and that if any sentient life were to find this they may be able to decipher it Leaving the basic letters of the alphabet above obviously.

okay let's recount the day me one Jacob Augustine, I was about to attend my first year of college to become an bioengineer, I just graduated high school with steady A's and B's and was planning to become an bioengineer. One in a medical field at that.

On the week before summer ended, I was making my way down to a convenience store a block away from where I live. mostly complaining that I feel like I'm wasting my life away, thinking of what else I can do to make sure once I die, I won't die with regrets. And then bam, I end up here.

Here being some.... have no fucking idea how to describe this biome, it has the floral density of a jungle yet not nearly enough insects or Wildlife to be a jungle it's more like a collection of plants than anything else. I have met sparse few insects in this jungle? It has animals, but oddly enough, no fungus.

Which is weird given the fact that they're the backbone of most jungles for recycling dead Organic matter. Not to mention, none of these plants show characteristics of jungle plants.

There are no waxy leaves to deposit water close to the roots, nor do they extend high into the sky or grow wide enough to collect any sunlight that bleeds through the trees.

The insects I have found are not poisonous or at least don't present any of the features of poisonous. No brightly colored features or camouflage.

They do follow the basic figure though of six limbs abdomen thorax and head. But they don't follow any other similarities. I found ants if you could call them that but their jaws were aligned in the opposite direction clamping up and down rather from side to side I've seen them used to great effect against Beatles?

if you could even call it that it's the closest approximation I have for a thickly armored insect, they clamped down, piercing the armor, and then ripped the thing to pieces.

I would be in heaven researching the new Wildlife After all, what self-respecting scientist even if this isn't my Specific area of biological interest wouldn't be in love with researching new things I have found right now. If it wasn't for the fact that I somehow ended up in a place against my will that behaves unlike any other ecological system I've seen.

I will somehow have to create a section in the back of my book detailing my research I have found so far. but that is for a later date. Why was I writing this again oh yeah because the fucking sun doesn't exist or the sky.

Allow me to explain to you dear reader, if you haven't already noticed if you somehow managed to find a clearing to where you can look up to the sky you will see not the sky what a collection of bright crystals somehow.

Illuminating this several mile long area as if it were the sun and it never sets. how do I know it's only several miles long easy I can see the fuckin walls. This illogical place pisses me off on so many levels. The biome I can forgive life does strange shit but the fact that this thing has no support structure whatsoever for Miles holding up.

what I'm assuming to be crystals weighing several tons each emitting a light similar to the effect of the Sun some how? do they go through nuclear Fusion or is it some other type of light emitting process which allows life to thrive down here? And if that's the case why does it look like the wild life/Flora belongs on the surface. to some degree life follows the most, well not efficient but the closest to efficient route it can find, not what looks good.

this is taking its toll on me. I have found myself doing my ticks more than usual. Oh yes, I suppose it may be best for me to explain myself a bit more.

self-report subject Jacob Augustine date of birth July the 13th 2005 age 18 state of birth Tennessee. The subject has autism. His ticks include snapping his fingers in a rapid motion, blinking rapidly, or rubbing the sides of his head. While on the low end of the spectrum he does exhibit his own issues such as his picky diet the way certain things cannot touch him or how illogical things piss him off to a absurd. degree we will see how he fares in this illogical hellhole that does not follow principles or Reason.

Okay, these are my findings for day one. I will update my journal if anything happens.

with a quick snap shut of the book, he looks up all around him. Okay, Jacob, you can do this. You're just in some illogical ecosystem. that does not appear to support a variety of life.

you have so far not identified any viable food options. So let's run through this normally. When stranded in the middle of a forest, you tie brightly colored cloth to branches and try to draw attention to your area for rescue squads.

but seeing as I'm in some confined space with no obvious human habitation, I need to start thinking of survival. In this case, I should climb to the top of a tree and look for a large water body that can support life.

And this will more than likely have some type of fish there that I can eat and water that can be processed to drink. However given the fact that this place is not running on normal principles of biodiversity there's a chance this may go horribly wrong. there could be Birds of Prey bigger than me.

There could be crocodiles that can run on land like its long extinct ancestor. alternatively, I could start clearing out areas and hoping that it rains as unlikely as that is. While cutting down a tree without any immediately available resources for such a task is unviable, it is still feasible given the amount of granite I have found in the area.

my current tools for my survival is my backpack, what was supposed to be a study notes book now turned into personal Journal, a packet of pencils a pencil sharpener, a school water bottle a pair of black Crocs a short sleeve t-shirt and gym shorts, I'm so fucked.

Okay, there are no obvious signs of precipitation that can accumulate off the bat, and cutting down trees would take far more energy than it's worth. so while it is a viable option, it's not one that's optimal. leaving only one other option that I can think of, not like I really have much of a choice. I just hope they have some type of fish I can eat without making myself eat it.

That would will make things a lot smoother. Standing up and looking for the tallest tree he can find in his immediate area he begins to climb. The idea of venomous snakes did not concern him from what he has seen so far there's no prey big enough needed for Venom or predators meaning in all likelihood he would be relatively safe from any possible Ambush predators.

Reaching the top of the tree, he saw vast fields of forest and vegetation. Luckily for him, there was a deposit of water fairly big one at that from what he can tell North words. it looked to be about an hour's jog from where he's at as well.

He was a bit of an introvert and not wanting to go outside more than strictly necessary preferring to spend most of his time with his online friends doing research and watching fun fact videos. But he did still do cardio in order to keep his body from getting health issues that could be easily avoided. he knows for a fact that he can run for about 2 hours, which in his opinion is fairly good with this in mind an hour jog with a 10 minute break in between.

He would arrive at his destination and about 3 hours while not as quick as he would like. This is his best option. With that he got to the lowest branch and hopped off. "it's a good thing I like clothing that allows me to breathe I would be fucked if this was winter clothing was that he began to jog".

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Aafje vo eldertree pov

Big sis please don't go, you promised to spend time with me. I know what I promised, but this is a big day because the raxs just got fully healed, meaning we have our tank in the party, and we can finally enter the lower parts of the dungeon. And it's important they have their healer with them. But can't you just hold off for one more day? You promised me this you're always down in that stupid dungeon. I'll have you know that stupid dungeon is the reason why the eldertree family is as influential as it is. We are nobility based around dungeon delving. pretty soon You'll have to start going as well. Now, hush up please I'm pretty sure my party's outside.

Aafje's big sis had turned around and started making her way to the front door. Currently moping and pouting Aafje was upset her big sister went back on her word but then a devilish thought came to her head: if she was supposed to be going down there soon, what's stopping her from going now? She was a genius considering herself, and she knew his sister would never allow this, so the answer was simple.

Don't tell her to make her way to where she knew her sister kept her supplies. she looked around for the bag that her sister took with her for long trips from what she recalled.

Her sister was going to drop straight down to floor 150 today with the rest of her party through teleportation Crystal and start going to the lower levels.

Having found the bag, she knew she couldn't just take stuff out and sit inside her sister could tell immediately. but what she could do was use a bag of holding too cold the stuff inside while she took its place. And so she did just this. Hearing her big sister coming ada, she immediately went into the bag, hurling stuff into The Magic Bag.

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Ada vo eldertree pov

Yeah, my sis was pretty upset about the news, probably in her room pouting and swearing to hate me forever. Until I come back home with some new toys or cool stuff for her. A gruff voice responded to her one Aafje recognized as raxs.

I kind of feel like a dick I mean, this is supposed to be a day for you two. You think she'd forgive me if I gave her something, what do elves like? Just bring her home a new toy and some candy and she'll be right as rain with you, now hurry up we need to go And I don't want to leave your green butt behind Mr I can stop a charging boss monster.

Please stop bringing that up, It was the 60th floor boss. I thought I could stop it on my own I learned my lesson I'm not indestructible please stop bringing that up. Yeah, well we're going to start heading down to the level we're humans start spawning, and as you well know an encounter with a human may as well be a death sentence. So please keep your wits about you, and don't let your ego take over.

walking over and grabbing her bag and swinging it over her back, she never noticed how uneven it felt. She was quite nervous today her party had actually set a record by making it to the 160th floor without encountering a human.

Meeting up with the rest of her party, her raxs, Stone. and Lionheart. a party composed of an elf, an orc, a dwarf and a Dragonborn. Not the weirdest part of you can see, but certainly, an odd one, most species tend to stay with each other. Making their way outside.

They see the great tower of the dungeon 10 miles wide in any direction, going uncountable numbers deep into the Earth. This was their destination. Walking through the bustling Street filled with all manner of species and Monday activities, in the great city of Carthage, anything could be found. The dungeon attracted all walks of life.

arriving at the dungeon management agency, a government-run facility in order to maximize profit and prevent loss of life though most of the time it just ends up being a bureaucrats dream job of having to not do anything. Most people aren't stupid enough to enter the dungeon unless prepared. Making our way down the street, I noticed something. There was a group arguing with the front counter.

"I had a feeling these were rookies". So she walked up to them and introduced herself. I am ada vo eldertree. I couldn't help noticing with the clerk here, I have a feeling you're new to the dungeon. A dark elf responded. How could you tell?

You're arguing with the clerk you never argue with the clerk They hand out the most recent information regarding migrational species in the dungeon updates to terrain and all sorts of other useful stuff but they don't have to give it out don't make enemies of the clerks may I ask what you were arguing about.

Me and my compatriots here, and I wanted to go to the lower levels and fight some of the higher tear of your monsters. we were former mercenaries. After all, we've taken up the adventuring business, specifically dungeon-delivers

I see how that could become a problem. What's your level and what floor were you wanting to go to.

Level 30, and we want to go down to Floor 110.

you wouldn't make it even if you teleport down to that floor, each floor increases by one level you're going to Face Off monsters at level 110 range. not to mention, although extremely rare humans have been known to spawn there on occasion.

We are dark elves, and we come from Noble lineages. Our level 30 is not the same as a plebeians. And why should I care about some monster type they all die the same.

This Comet pissed her off. well, normally monsters are around the same level of difficulty if you could call it that per level. but humans are something completely different. There were known as raid bosses, meaning that every one of their levels is the equivalent to 10 on a regular level. so a level one human is a level 10 standard, and this is for 110, they're level 1100.

Not to mention, there are special species stats that include Mana absorption from the air. or they're insane musculature and stamina. I don't think I need to continue. Just know that if you run into one hide and run, they don't have the best sense of smell.

"Fucking idiots we're going to die if they ran into a human. there's a reason why noble families founded on dungeon dwellers were so strong through generations of survival of the fittest."

Each one of their levels was equivalent to five levels higher and the standard and even they struggled against humans they were the kings of the dungeons you don't fuck with them.

Let's just get going. We don't want to get behind besides I think we can make it to floor 199 if we're lucky we do have a month to do this after all. then they'll start sending Rescuers and that's always a pain with paperwork.

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Lord Vect pov

Who the hell is that bitch think she is talking to me like that, that high elf scum should be kissing my boots that I even talk to her.

Lord, what do you think we should do?

Isn't it obvious we're going to liberate that fine gear from them while down in the dungeonWho knows she might make find slave work, whether it be in the brothels or a whipping bitch it does not matter money can always made on suffering of others.

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Jacob pov

You know this place is actually kind of lovely. Oh God, I'm talking to myself. I'm going insane already. Egh fuck it may as well make a Wilson while I'm here. After seeing the clearing up ahead, he knew that he was getting close to the water source, deciding to jog harder. and farther, he finally made it out of the clearing, and what he saw was beautiful a ring of sand surrounded. A large lake connected into the Great Wall surrounding this place surrounding that wall was purple crystals that were different from the light blue ones up above what surprised him the most, though there are other humans.

naked shortish about 5’4 for humans. But still humans it's not insane to think of nudist culture could pop up, and with how small this area is to live in, and it makes sense that they'd be shorter natural selection dictates with less nutrients available, being smaller is more advantageous.

I just hope they're not cannibalistic or violently aggressive to foreign things. HAY, HAY over Here. Quickly jogging up to the other humans, there were about 10 of them four female six male. They turn their heads to me in a lazy way before going back to what they were doing.

Coming to a stop to the closest one, a young guy, probably about 26, with brown hair and brown eyes and pale skin. Hey, do you know where we are… Do you speak English… I know Germen Wissen Sie, wo wir sind… um shit okay um. Fuck how do you say do you know where we are in Spanish again God damn it 16-year-old Jacob you should have paid attention in Spanish class more, okay. Um I know you don't understand me but you must understand I'm trying to communicate with you so “pointing towards self” I'm Jacob “ pointing towards the guy” you are?.. not even going to find me with an answer okay. Fuck you too asshole.

Looking over to my side, I noticed something peculiar. One of those Beetle things from earlier was walking by one of the shorter guys. He proceeds to squish it flat against the sand before shoveling it into his mouth. I felt a shiver go up my spine and disgust. "Well, at least they're not poisonous." Gags.

Looking around his immediate area, he notices something. The crystals form into the shape of that similar to a great door, thinking quickly, pulling out his phon clicking on the camera featur. And zooming into 10 times, he notices it.

It is a door! victory for vegeta or Jacob in this case i Miss Dragon Ball Z abridged. Well, no time like the present. Wait, how the hell am I going to get my shit over there without it getting wet damn it.

The electronics will be fine for the most part as long as I don't turn them off while they're wet. They should operate normally if dried off .my clothes will be a pain tho.

But given the aired temperature, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, but the weight might become a problem. And I don't see any shallow Banks leaning up to it. okay, let's think this one through. I could empty out my water bottle, filling it with air and then sealing it shut. That should add buoyancy, which should counteract at least a little weight. and then refill it at the door. The main problem is my journal.

After thinking it through for a good 10 minutes, he got an idea walking over to the tree line. and taking a few sticks, he throws them into the water to see what type of wood he is working with and if it will float or not. He's in luck it does. "Hmmm, I could work with this." Arranging the sticks into a Shape where they'll stick above the water and doing that again.

with three other sets to make sure his journal does not get wet he takes off his shirt and wraps it around the bundle. making sure it sticks together, setting it gently on the water to see if it will float. Or not stay together. To his luck, it does. This also means he can just put his backpack on there and the Crocs. Looking down at himself, he lets out a sigh. Well, not exactly fat, he's not skinny, either he has a healthy Pudge, he'd say a beer gut.

Making his treck across the water, he notices a large shadow following him. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuck I forgot to think about water Predators. okay okay okay okay just don't panic you'll be fine panicking indicates you're afraid and Afraid means food. Ok, if this is a shark or um, oh, a shit God damn it why did i not go to zoology.

Just as the large shadow was approaching him at a rapid pace. Once it got into the distance to tell what the creature swimming was, it promptly turned around and swam for its life. Oh, good the things in massive pussy that or wasn't carnivorous now that i think about a creature that large being carnivorous.

And in this small body of water doesn't make much sense it could just be an abnormally large manatee. Or maybe some other new species. I wonder what type of characteristics force it to grow that size, though? maybe mating fights, but that's the case. Why didn't it get aggressive unless it's not as mating season and it was just curious? Questions for later.

Upon reaching the massive door, he knows the shallow sand pit, allowing him to walk up to the staircase, pulling his makeshift raft along with him. and promptly laying flat on his back onto the sand, letting out a sigh of relief despite that not being a predator.

There are so many things that could have gone wrong in that instance he could have lost all his supplies. It could have been aggressive.There could have been something else parasites bacteria, and lord knows what else lives down in the water. Now that I think about it this was a fucking stupid idea.

oh well, all is well and ends well. After waiting for his clothes to dry off enough to wear and putting them on, he walks up to the great door and pushing it open. surprisingly light for something that looked like it would weigh so much more, and what he saw was an expansive hallway stepping through the hallway he immediately felt better for some reason.

He started to jog down the hallway , and he noticed that he wasn't running out breath as quickly as he would normally. attributing it to the room just simply having more oxygen for some reason, allowing for cellular respiration to happen more, therefore slowing fatigue. He paid it no mind upon reaching the end of the hallway he noticed something a plaque above it reading 199 whatever the hell that meant taking in a deep breath and pushing open the door he saw a cave? lined with purple crystals.

\[Next\]

hey writer here I'm new to this so I have no idea how to link it next chapter which when it comes out I will also say sorry if the writing is bad I'm trying to write it from the perspective of what would you do if you were in this situation if you have any writing tips or World building you think would make a good fit to it feel free to private message me or comment it I'll see if I can include it.

[something-pithy]

Notes and an Update: What's in a Name?

Chapter 16 of an echo, a stain features Astarion doing what he does best -- feeling terror, spiraling and at the very least contemplating terrible choices as a result. lol.

SPOILERS FOR ACT 2 OF BG3 BELOW

Those of you who are mostly caught up on an echo, a stain know I love me a flashback (and now the rest of y'all know, too lol). There are two in this new chapter, one of which is set in the Shadow-Cursed lands after Astarion has confessed his initial intentions toward and current feelings/desires for Tav to Tav (post-Orthon confession). As a result of that conversation, they've put a pin in the sexual aspects of their relationship, but are still together romantically. Then, the Araj Moment happens (spoiler alert: nobody bit that heifer), Thaniel is reunited with Oliver, Halsin's... admiration of Tav is becoming more apparent, and Astarion is... yes! Spiraling!

I think that flashback speaks for itself, and I'll let y'all get what you will from when / where in the story it appears.

The OTHER flashback, which is much more brief, is about this Tav's name. Now, I'm not trying to make any secret of the fact that the Tav in this story and I have a lot in common in terms of ethnic backgrounds when you remove the high fantasy fake world element from Tav's lol. FIRST I want to say, I don't give a fuck. There is no shame in my game. Nobody comes for George R.R. Martin or Robert Jordan or J.R.R. (the Rs are for REALLY RACIST) Tolkein (don't @ me -- or do, go ahead and send me an ask if you really want to know my feels on that one looool) for writing about characters whose ethnic and cultural backgrounds are Western European / British.

Second of all, maybe I'm being unnecessarily defensive because I'm an old head who came up in a time when writing a self-insert character was like THE VERY WORST POSSIBLE THING YOU COULD DO AS A WRITER, but once again I don't give a fuck.

The lived experiences of ethnic minorities, people of mixed ethnic and cultural heritage (not fucking half-elves who most of the time are just people of the Caucasian persuasion with pointy ears and shorter lifespans than regular elves), first generation children of immigrants, and all manner of permutations of non-white, non-Western "others" are in extremely short supply in all forms of media / popular narratives in the Western world (shit honestly, it ain't just the West but that's another struggle for another day). This is especially true, from what I've experienced as a lifelong nerdalerd, in speculative fiction.

So yeah, I conceived my Tav as a mixed-race (kind of, she's all high elf, but mixed sun, moon, and sea because she's a motherfucking unicorn, come at me bro looool -- no, there are other reasons too but also she's a unicorn lol), mixed-ethnic-and-cultural-heritage person whose life choices are NOT aligned with a lot of the conventions and values of the cultures in which she was raised.

Because that story and perspective is wildly underrepresented in literature, mass media, speculative fiction, and fan fiction.

So here we are. loooool

Having said all that, I got a comment from my fucking delightful beta and queen of my soul, Komo, asking about the naming conventions I reference in this chapter (or their real-world analogues).

So for the notes part of this episode of "Notes and an Update," I'm going to quote part of the comment she left on AO3 about the story and my response, which adheres to my policy of "why say it in five words if you can say it in EIGHT MILLION." Let me know what you think!

NAMING CONVENTIONS IN AEAS

(FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION OF AN ECHO, A STAIN CHAPTER 16:)

Komo wrote:

I have so many questions about naming conventions, both from the corner of the world that Tav’s family hails from and BG proper. Like, in American and Japanese culture, women take their husband’s last names when heterosexual couples get married. In the States, there are exceptions to this rule, of course, with some women hyphenating. In China, women do not change their last names, but kids are almost always named after the father’s side (the old one child policy may have affected this, but the top 100 most common surnames make up 85% of the population anyways). If Tav and Astarion do end up together, would names be a thing they’d have to navigate? Astarion is such a possessive little yandere after all.

I wrote:

OK so this Tav's ethnic and cultural background, as we know, is mixed

(I'm not even getting into her racial background I just can't with fucking elvish loool and her families on both sides are far-enough removed from immersion in elven culture where I'm like LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL SEE YOU LATER TOLKEIN).

On her father's side, she's Zakharan / DnD-analogue MENA (Middle Eastern North African, with apologies to Said for the orientalism of the term Middle Eastern).

On her mother's side, Amnian / New Amnian / DnD-analogue Latina but -- oh lordt OK without getting into the complexities of codified colonial Spanish racism and colorism, that identity is complicated. Through a combination of executive decision-making about elves and race and how they interact with culture on the material plane (aka not in the Feywild) AND really leaning into the idea of cultural analogues in Toril / the Forgotten Realms, her Latina-analogue ethnicity comprises a mix of indigenous and colonizer racial/ethnic heritage.

(I also can't with how fucking convoluted figuring this out was, is, has been, will forever be looool.)

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, for the sake of brevity (looooooooooooooooool), we'll say Tav's full name results from the combination of her parents' names using Amnian/New Amnian (Spanish) naming conventions, BUT that means her full name (which is not even as long as it could be but is LONG) incorporates both Arabic naming conventions AND Spanish naming conventions that result in impressively / annoyingly long names loool.

In modern Spain, at least, when women marry, some don't even take their husband's name. But the kids' names are composites of parents' family names.

A Spanish child takes the surnames of both their father and mother. The structure is usually [father's surname] y [mother's surname] (though in modern Spain and Spanish-speaking countries a lot of people no longer use the "y"), but the main surname would be the father's surname. So for example, someone's full last name might be Juana Garcia y Martinez or Juana Garcia Martinez, but she might just go by Juana Garcia.

ALSO, especially for children of families of some kind of note / nobility when the dad's family was not as well-known as the mother's, this would include the composite names of both parents.

So Juana's name might be Juana [Garcia de Manzanilla (dad's composite surname)] y [Martinez de Hierro (mom's composite surname)].

So Juana Garcia de Manzanilla y Martinez de Hierro. And like, when people get real into it this can go back generations. Like, I don't even remember my mom's whole-ass name. looool.

NOW, Arabic names are composites, too, but incorporate the father's first name, the grandfather's first name, then the family name -- back in the day, they'd link these things with words that indicated the relationships. So for example, if Yemina's dad is Yusuf and HIS dad is Muhammad and their family name is Rashid, Yemina's name would then be Yemina bint/bin (daughter of) Yusuf ibn (son of) Muhammad al-(of the family) Rashid.

So Yemina bin Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Rashid.

OK SO THERE'S ANOTHER COMPLICATION (aren't you glad you asked this question loooooooooooooooooooool): with regard to Spanish naming conventions, apparently this patrilineal thing hasn't always been the case and only came to be the norm around the mid-1700s. Before that, surname transmission was often matrilineal.

(This comes into play here because the year in BG3 is like, idk, 1492-98 or something? I forget whatever who cares it's before the mid-1700s and I'm just making it vaguely and very much not perfectly analogous with the time / calendar of the Western world because I don't have the bandwidth for anything else loooooooooool).

In this Tav's case, her mom ditched her dad and the kids were young enough at the time that she was able to, as a sign of DEEP FUCKING DISRESPECT TO HIM loooool, change their names to MATRILINEAL AMNIAN-STYLE COMPOSITE SURNAMES LOOOOOOOOOOOOL

(So for a while Tav's government name was Zeneida Nqa Tavares de la Torre de López Jimenez y bin Harun ibn Ishaq al-Jazairi loooool)

I mean this was like looooooooooooooool FUCKING PROFOUNDLY SCANDALOUSLY DISRESPECTFUL FOR HER TO DO TO A ZAKHARAN MAN especially one of SOME NOTE WHO WAS SELF-MADE

That shit was mad personal and a level of petty that mere mortals can only aspire to it was so deep

But TAV'S MOM DOES NOT PLAY

(Now, could she have just cut Tav's father's name out entirely? Sure, but 1) THAT MOTHERFUCKER IS NOT GETTING OUT OF CLAIMING THESE KIDS / PAYING CHILD SUPPORT esp if he ever got married again HER KIDS ARE THE FUCKING HEIRS AND HE AIN'T GON FORGET IT and 2) (possibly more importantly) FUCK HIS COUCH, PEOPLE ARE GONNA KNOW HE FUCKED AROUND AND FOUND OUT)

Even though he's deadass like "lol wtfever I don't give a fuck, I know what their real legal names are" and also this resulted in a protracted, multinational legal battle that was never actually resolved until each kid reached the age of majority and decided what their own legal name would be.

Ahem, anyway as a consequence of all this, Tav's full-ass, whole-ass, government name is:

Zeneida (first given name)

Nqa (middle given name)

bin Harun ibn Ishaq al-Jazairi (full Arabic/"Midani" patrilineal surname)

y (conjunction [means 'and'])

Tavares de la Torre de López Jimenez (mother's full surname)

So: Zeneida Nqa bin Harun ibn Ishaq al-Jazairi y Tavares de la Torre de López Jimenez

But as we know, she just goes by Zeneida Tavares, and she wasn't lying when she said on most docs it's just "Zeneida Nqa Jazairi Tavares."

Second...

tl;dr: Tavvy for short. Ms. Tavares if you nasty.

ALSO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

If Tav and Astarion do end up together, Astarion better adjust them expectations, bc after all the drama that's existed around her name, he gonna have a hard time getting her to change it looool

Not to mention, she has a career based in part on people knowing who she is so... loooool

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO IF THE STARS AND PLANETS EVER ALIGN FOR THEM / THEY EVER GET THEIR HEADS OUT OF ASSES

[thecouchsofa]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Thanks to @sweet-s0rr0w for the mention! Side note: Nor All That Glisters is beyond brilliant, I can't believe I only found it last month!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

14 - somehow this feels like heaps and nothing at the same time!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

476,709! Half of those are from one fic though

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only HP at the moment. I'm very much a 'one fandom at a time' person!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Lesson of You (65k, E) - kidfic, family feels, featuring my favourite tag of all time: accidental child acquisition. I saw that tag on a Sterek fic and it was like a lightning bolt of inspiration - I wrote this fic based on that tag alone!

Walk the Line (16k, E) - Draco sees Harry in the Mirror of Erised but doesn't know what it is and asks Harry about it.

Tales of Apparation Gone Awry (12k, E) - humor, Draco in denial, sometimes accidental drunk Apparition.

Potter's Snake Removal Services (3k, E) - humor, misconstrued texts, tent sex, Goyle being traumatised by said tent sex.

Slytherin Eighth Years are Shit at Potions (or are they?) (4k, T) - Draco's friends slip him a love potion and think they've poisoned him when he acts the same towards Harry.

Side note: my top 3 by kudos are 3/5 of the fics I put in an ask response about my favourite fics of mine - apparently my opinion is the same as the general consensus!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do now, but I didn't used to (social anxiety is a bitch). I make an effort to respond now because I read all of them and they genuinely do make a massive difference. I don't respond to comments on things I posted before this year - there's so many now on certain fics that were posted so long ago that it would feel beyond awkward for me to respond to them now. I wouldn't want to start responding to new comments on those fics without then doing the same for the earlier comments either. So 2023 onwards at this point!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Nothing that's been posted, mine all tend to be very fluffy. I don't really fuck with unhappy endings, life is angsty enough as it is! I like nice cliche endings tied up with brightly coloured bows. That said, a short fic that's going up sometime this month does have an ambiguous ending, so that'll be my answer then.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my stuff tends to be pretty fluffy at the end. The ending of The Brightest Constellations of Our Souls is pretty bloody saccharine though!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not in my comments section, thankfully. I did see one of my fics get rec'd on tik tok at one point and the teens in the comments section were warning others away from looking at my account because of a certain PWP that's on there, which did make me laugh quite a bit!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Definitely! I find smut the easiest thing to write. If I feel writer's block coming on I sit down and write a smut scene or crank out a PWP! I've got quite a few completed ones that have been sitting in my docs since 2018!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope, crossovers definitely aren't my thing!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. I don't even know why you would tbh.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've been lucky enough to have multiple fics be translated!

The Lesson of You has been translated into Russian and Korean, Potter's Snake Removal Services and Silent Night have also both been translated into Russian!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, but it would be an interesting thing to try!

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Drarry for sure! I have major brain rot for this ship.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The very first fic I ever started writing for this fandom! It was a soulmate AU about seeing colours that I wrote around 8k for and then moved on to something else. I read through all of my half-finished fics when I started writing for this fandom again this year and was like 'hey, I quite like this' and then - shock horror - it got pushed to the wayside again. Maybe it'll get done eventually, who knows!

16. What are your writing strengths?

God, I don't even know. Sometimes it's humor, sometimes it's descriptions. Depends on the day, I reckon!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing, probably. For Brightest Constellations I tried to combat this by literally drawing up a table and writing for each location exactly what stage of their relationship Draco and Harry would be at. I did manage to stick to it with only a few changes, but it was properly hard!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't do it because I'm embarrassed I'd get it wrong! I don't mind reading it though!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

One Direction (lmao). Fourteen year old me wrote a Harry/Louis fic in the notes app on my iPad that will never, upon pain of death, see the light of day!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

The Brightest Constellations of Our Souls. I wrote this because I wanted to read something like it and I didn't think there were nearly enough road trip fics in this fandom. I also wanted to do a character study on Harry, since many fics focus on Draco's trauma. I absolutely adore this fic and I'm thinking about getting it bound so I can see it on my bookshelf. I'm so heckin proud of it!

I don't know who hasn't been tagged at this point so if you're reading this and want to do it, consider this me tagging you! Feel free to tag me in your post, I'd love to read it!

[rhodesmusic]

RHODES MUSIC: CUT & BAND-AID

C Major 11/4 and 4/4 90 bpm 9 instruments 1 (homemade) sample

In contrast to the last song I posted, there isn't nearly as much to talk about here musically, so I'll go over the interesting technical stuff first. The song is split into two sections, the first taking up a bit more than half. I wasn't planning to make the song structured into two parts, it just sort of came out that way, which makes it sound like I don't know anything about composing, which I don't. A lot of my songs feel like they just pop up in fl studio unprompted, because I don't really think that much when I'm making music, it's like I'm teleporting from point A to point B (when I really just went unconcious and sleepwalked the distance).

Anyway, the first section is set in 11/4, which is just rib-tickling, and it features a midi clarinet in the center of things playing a repeating chord pattern with a similarly repeditive melody, using tape delay effects, tons of ornaments in the upper and middle end, and sharp changes in octave to offer interest throughout the section. It's really, really unorganized, but I might as well try to describe it. The chords are, loosely, GM CM Am FM, but it's worth noting that the phrases largely start and end with the third in the bass, the third actually being the lowest note in the bass in the whole section. The note is so short-lived that it borders on being strictly percussive. The whole section has a percussive feel to it because I decided to completely cut off the tail end of the clarinet sound, i.e. putting the release at zero. This in tandem with the tape delay I just completely abuse constitudes a spontaneous yet rich sound, hypnotising almost. At different points in a section I incorporated a repeating 4-note pattern of dyads in order to develop the harmonic tone a bit more, but I largely avoided holding notes for too long outside of the melody. The only real actual percussion I use is with a snap sound I incorporate into the background a bit past halfway in the section. Thinking back, this was most probably inspired by the similar purcussion in Aphex Twin's "Stone in Focus", and I like how it provides just a little bit of anatomy to the otherwise wishy-washy tone; I find it pretty easy to just lose attention of all the shit going on and just swim around in the harmony.

The second section goes to 4/4, since there's no way I could play anything structured or at least more purposeful in fuckin' 11/4 (I'm not some Berkeley graduate that only drinks black coffee and tells people that Tame Impala is overrated). I went from clarinet to guitars, having the low and middle end being filled out distinctly instead of blending together like in the previous section, and switched the progression to FM CM Em, making the harmonic tone more pronounced and the overall tone more HELL YEAH LET'S GO, further emphasized with a pretty simple melody that repeats and a nice and heavy drum beat. The guitars are similarly percussive, like the clarinet in the first section. This better sense of structure allowed me to add in a little synth solo section, which turned out really nice I think. That's really all that goes on in this section. I wish I could convey my thoughts about the relationship and contrast between the first and second sections, but all I can say right now is that I think it's kind of nice. Again, I fail to be able to fully recall my thoughts when I was actually making this, which is why I've only analysed my musical decisions in retrospect, but I feel like taking a moment to think about what's going on in the song after I've made it is begrudgingly healthy for me as a composer in some way. Regardless, I kinda like how it turned out, and it marks my transition into making more tonal-centered music.

E SURE TO SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON AND SUBSCRIBE IF YOU LIKED THIS RHODES MUSIC, AND HIT THAT BELL IF YOU WANNA GET MORE AWESOME RHODES MUSICS IN THE FUTURE!!! 🤠🪲🐛🎵🎹

[rallamajoop]

Resident Evil Village

So, although Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was (and very much still is) supposed to be next in the gaming queue, I somehow spent Christmas playing Resident Evil 8: Village.

And having now finished this damn game on three different difficulties, developed an addiction to the Mercenaries challenge mode, discovered a host of unexpected feelings about Ethan Winters & family and that Heisenberg bastard, and read a godawful amount of fic… I’m still a little undecided how surprised I should be that it sucked me in so hard.

Because on the one hand, if anything in that crazy franchise was going to get me, clearly it was going to be the one full of vampires and gothic horror tropes (not to mention being set in that one mysterious region of Romania we all know from the Hammer films, where everyone speaks English for no particular reason). Looking back, I’ve been in and out of horror-adjacent fandoms since, oh, about when the first Venom movie came out – maybe this was the next logical step.

On the other hand, it’s an FPS: a genre I only grudgingly came around to at all a matter of months ago. And though my days of saying I don’t do FPS are now undeniably behind me, it’s also a horror game, and (all recent records aside), when it comes to horror games, I am a wimp. The kind of wimp who watched playthroughs of P.T. back in the day going holy fuck I could not manage to walk down a corridor in this shitshow the atmosphere alone would smother me alive. The kind of wimp who noped the fuck out of Portal on the very first level featuring turrets (holy shit, they’re shooting at me? Those are bullet holes in the wall! Is that MY BLOOD on the wall? Oh my god how am I not already dead oh my god) and never came back.

What made the difference this time? Well, apparently my general aversion to shooting people doesn’t so much apply to lycans and zombies, and horror games are much easier to deal with when you’ve already watched a Let’s Play of the whole thing, and know what you’ve signed up for. Or maybe I’m just old and jaded enough that I’m not as easily scared by pixels as I used to be. It certainly helped that Village leans more towards the shallow, action end of the survival horror pool. But as for That One Bit that everyone talks about when they discuss how RE8 made them shit their pants, I can only admit that the other thing I learned about myself watching those playthroughs of P.T. is that ‘screaming mutant foetus monster’ is exactly the point at which my brain gives up on terror and just goes “…well that’s just a bit gauche, isn’t it?” (Don’t talk to me about those don’t-look-away walking dolls from the DLC though. That bit got to me like no screaming foetus ever did.)

No, the really odd thing about me suddenly falling hard for this game is that, well, it didn’t get me at the time. Much as I’ve enjoyed watching apparently the whole rest of the internet being brought together in mutual horniness for the incomparable Lady Dimitrescu, the whole step-on-me-mistress-thing has never really been my jam – and though I did watch that Let’s Play of the full game way back when, nothing about it grabbed me enough to become really fannish about it at the time.

What changed? Well, we can partly blame a couple of youtube channels I’ve been casually following lately by folks who were also big Resident Evil fans. But the tipping point may have been my questionable decision to watch a playthrough of the new Shadows of Rose DLC at exactly the wrong (or perhaps right) time of the month, resulting in me bawling my eyes out and discovering feelings about the Winters family I never knew I had.

All that said, actually buying and playing the base game was one of those random whims, entered into with 0 expectations I was actually likely to finish the thing. I mean, the factory section alone looks like such a slog.

…so it turns out that (putting aside the hassle of navigating the place) the factory can be a ton of fun once you’ve figured out what you’re doing.

What can I say? This is a game truly brimming with personality, the dark-fairytale vibe utterly works, the campy OTT villains are a delight, I will gladly fight anyone trying to tell me Ethan’s a boring nothing of a protagonist ­– and having had the time to get past the “GDI game is this guy supposed to be a lycan or not? MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND!”-annoyance* that stopped me from enjoying Heisenberg properly while watching the playthrough, this time I fell for him hard (and wound up shipping him with Ethan, so fandom has got me again). The ending delivers, the horror elements are on point, and it’s just damn good fun to play.

Doing my first run on Casual difficulty was my one mistake. It’s the mode most widely recommended to the inexperienced player, but either that’s a recommendation calibrated for folks playing with a controller rather than a keyboard, or all that time playing Deus Ex (which, I remind you, is heavy on stealth takedowns and 3rd-person-cover mechanics that do not apply here at all) prepared me better than I realised, because Casual difficulty bored me. The mechanics, world and story still carried me through, but I did not die a single time that wasn’t thanks to an insta-death mistake. There’s no way to change difficulty mid-game, and you’re far enough in by the time you really get to find out how difficult combat was going to be that I didn’t feel like restarting. But having finished the game, I was hungry for a real challenge.

So this is when I noticed New Game+ was an option – as was unlocking infinite ammo for many weapons – and rationally deciding that replaying on only Standard difficulty with the added advantage of all those upgraded guns wasn’t going to cut it, I jumped difficulties right up to Hardcore mode.

This, too, may have been a mistake. The very first lycan attack had me running to the Internet for advice on how to survive it (it turns out the accepted strategy is basically to just hide in a cellar for as long as possible, then leg it into the next house and climb halfway up a ladder, where you’re very hard to hit). But with that milestone cleared, I found my groove, and had a much better time (though I certainly died a lot more this time through). Even with all the upgrades, it was pretty damn punishing in places – but punishing in the way that forces you to really engage with the mechanics (or at least learn to love the good old ‘set a mine and back away’-strategy). And I’m pleased to say that unlike DX:HR, RE has proper difficulty modes: we’re not just tweaking damage ratios, enemies also get much faster and more aggressive at higher difficulties – not to mention those damn lycan archers now apparently have the accuracy of a sniper.

Having beaten the game on Hardcore, I was pretty well done (there’s an even harder mode, Village of Shadows, but I wasn’t looking for that much punishment). But any lingering doubts about how fully I’d embraced the shooty-bang-fun-times side of Resident Evil gameplay were well and truly put to bed by the time I’d discovered the Mercenaries bonus game.

This mode sets you up with limited weapon selection up against a hoard of easy-to-kill enemies, scoring you higher the longer you can keep a combo going. Again: not the sort of thing I expected to suck me in, but anyone who’s ever watched me play a rhythm game will know that I can be a real sucker for a full-combo challenge. Mechanically, it’s almost the opposite of beating the story on Hardcore, but it forces you to learn layouts of some game areas in ways you never needed to before, and actually seeing numbers for how much damage you’re doing illuminates so many mechanics you were just guessing at.

Better yet, there’s a hoard of stuff you can unlock by playing it, including (as of the DLC!) the ability to play as Heisenberg or Lady Dimitrescu, which is a whole heap of fun in its own right. And if you’re prepared to play long enough to get 25 other achievements (I was), you can even unlock ‘special customisations’ for most of your weapons in the main game – boosting damage even further, or a bunch of other bonuses that I could not resist trying out…

…only, having already beaten the game on Hardcore, there wasn’t much appeal to doing that again, only with less challenge. So… oh fuck, I’m going to play this thing on Village of Shadows difficulty after all, aren’t I?

Honestly: no regrets. Lord knows I’d never survive this mode going on raw (shut up shut up I’M NOT GOING TO TRY), but it’s very doable on New Game+2. And it’s very much the mode for folks who’ve already beaten the game at least twice, because just when you were getting familiar with the story’s pre-scripted roster, this mode mixes it up and throws in new enemies where you don't expect them (and just rarely enough that they’ll always be a surprise). Having trouble with those lycan archers on Hardcore? Well, now there’s more of them, in places you didn’t expect! Had enough trouble escaping Lady D. after she slices off your hand? Ha, now we’ve spawned an extra enemy in the same space, and did we mention that you have no weapons you can use one-handed? (Seriously, good times! And that’s ‘times’, plural, because surviving that one took me a few tries.)

All that said, I’m not sure those ‘special customisations’ were really calibrated for even this difficulty – and they’re vague enough that you’ll find that out the hard way. The magnum’s ‘Extra damage against lycans’-bonus, for example, apparently means ‘can now one-shot even the alfa varcolac miniboss’ (pictured below). And sure, that’s the magnum: but the sniper rifle’s ‘extra damage at range’ can do the same thing. It’s just maybe a bit much.

Honestly, I’d be all for it if the point was to give players who really want that Village of Shadows achievement another way to get it – but then you get to the gauntlet that is the endgame, and all that fancy souped up inventory gets taken away from you for plot reasons.

Actually, I’d put the start of the endgame-gauntlet back at Sturm (last boss of the factory level before Heisenberg), because even though you’ve got your regular guns there, he’s invincible from the front, charges like a mad bull and can apparently target you through solid walls. Then you fight Heisenberg, in the obligatory here-have-a-tank sequence, and neither New Game+ upgrades or special customisations have any effect on your tank. And then you get the section where you have to play as Chris, whose lousy pistol-and-machine-gun arsenal is also unaffected by special customisations (though I can see no good reason why not). And Chris’ section really is a gauntlet, with an uncooperative auto-save, an infinite stream of charging lycans, and another boss fight against some bastard who doesn’t take damage from the front, swinging a giant mace in a tiny arena. All of a sudden, you’re playing the exact same version of this game as someone who never hit New Game + at all.

I died a lot in this section. Seriously, so many times. But I stuck it out, and I gotta say, damn but these higher difficulty modes force you to learn how to play. In case anyone else reading this actually wants some tips: stuck at the Stronghold? The trick is to book it back to the entry passage the moment the first wave starts, maybe drop a mine or two, and use the narrow space for crowd control (same thing works during the second wave – it gets a little less intense from there). Stuck in the factory? Learn to love flash grenades! Sturm? Again: flash grenades! (You would not think a guy with a propeller for a face would be so susceptible, but who am I to argue with results?) Heisenberg? Turns out aiming for those glowing weak points really does make a difference, and your tank can make a MUCH faster dash out of the way of his charge move if you stop firing the machine gun. Chris? God, don’t even get me started on Chris.** (“Oh my god, Chris, your lousy pea-shooter guns have all the stopping power of wet tissue! Get a real gun, you LOSER!”)

After all that, the letdown at the end is that Miranda (the final boss) is kind of a piece of piss. You finally get all your old inventory back, and she takes damage from the front and everything. After dying a stupid number of times reaching every milestone above, Miranda went down in one go. I’d be more unimpressed by this, but after all Ethan’s been through at that point, maybe he kind of deserves it.

Obviously, I had to play Rose’s DLC bonus campaign too, but – much as I loved it for story and atmosphere – it was admittedly less fun to play. That’s probably deliberate: it’s much more down the survival horror end of the action-horror spectrum – aiming is slow and cumbersome, and your options and resources are very limited. Given that you’re playing as a teenage girl rather than a grown man on his second rodeo, that makes a lot of sense… but there’s still not a lot there to have me eager to come back for a replay. (Her final boss battle is a lot more satisfying, though it does suffer from the fact you’re thrown so many new mechanics that just figuring out how you’re supposed to use them is pretty distracting.)

I could go on at this point – as always in new fandom mode, I have so many thoughts on the world, the fandom, the challenge of piecing together the backstory timeline, the possibilities for where this series might go in future, and how poor Mia deserves so much more love than she gets – but that can all wait. The long and short remains: I never would’ve imagined how hard I could get sucked into this game, but I have had such a time learning how wrong I was.

* Look, if a guy who shows up with the lycans, and can apparently command other lycans, is not supposed to be a lycan himself, then maybe think twice before including another giant lycan character who a) wears his coat, b) USES HIS HAMMER and c) never appears on screen at the same time as him. You’ll save so much confusion on the part of your audience, I promise!

** Really? Well, fine.

The game autosaves shortly after you beat the first two varcolacs (I found it helped to go left around the fungus into the field, and use some grenades), and again once you reach the clearing (protip: if you can make it there, everything behind you despawns! There are a couple of real waves of attackers to get through to get there though, plus a slow-but-constantly spawning stream of lycan runners to mask that), then one final time before you jump down the hole. Knowing those auto-save points is useful, because 1) reloading your last manual save point will put you all the way back before the Heisenberg boss fight, which is officially Too Far, and 2) if you pass an autosave accidentally after using up all your supplies and on low health, the next bit is going to be that much harder. To survive the clearing, forget killing everything: spend the first wave hiding behind the house on the right with the supplies (it confuses them), and the second hiding behind the other house with supplies on your left, then climb the ladder to the roof and stand up to target the mould. Don’t climb the roof earlier: the archers will get you. To survive the boss, try to run under his swings when he leaps at you, hit him with a flash grenade every time your pals with the goddamn space laser are ready, target him, then shoot the hell out of the weak point on his back. [deep breath] DONE! (And goddamnit, Chris, if I have to listen to you say ‘I’ve reach the target clearing. Damn this looks big’ one more time, I will shoot you myself.)