#organization babey

[sincaraz]

live slug (spaniard) reaction

(a silly follow up to my tag on this post)

[qilingxiong]

duel meta — a brief addition

written in reference to the original meta here. i'm making this point its own separate post, as it doesn't fully fit into the thesis of that essay.

in my previous discussion of the donghai duel, i highlighted three lulls in the action where di feisheng could have decided to attack li xiangyi, but didn't, even when he was the one forced into a defensive position. instead he paused, until li xiangyi chose to make a next move against him. my point in talking about these moments was that it demonstrated how di feisheng saw this fight as a proper back-and-forth between equals, not the battle to the death that li xiangyi intended for it to be.

however, what i ignored in that analysis was the point in the duel at which di feisheng moves before li xiangyi, breaking away from their locked blades. it's right after this line:

before this is a cutaway to the battle on the mainland— fire, screams, people on both sides dying. and it's with that carnage weighing on both di feisheng and li xiangyi that di feisheng says this, then shoves aside shaoshi and stabs li xiangyi through the shoulder, pinning him to the roof.

if i had been trying to integrate this into my prior reading of these two's motivations during the duel, this moment would have been an anomaly. my point at the time was that di feisheng pictured the duel as being between two swordsmen, just himself and li xiangyi. while to li xiangyi, this was a battle between sigumen and jinyuanmeng, and the two of them were simply two figureheads. for di feisheng to draw attention to the other fighters he and li xiangyi have with them, is not quite in line with this. i said before that di feisheng purposefully isolated himself on his ship knowing li xiangyi would find him there, as well, so that others in the battle could not interfere.

but, to push that aside and examine this on its own: i find it very interesting that this dialogue, the sole point where di feisheng acknowledges the world beyond the duel at all, is also the singular moment that causes him to alter his previous behaviour throughout the entire fight. it's not li xiangyi attacking him that finally makes him strike first. it's not his own injuries or desire to win, or desperation. it's the awareness of the fact that other people out there are dying while they fight.

di feisheng's leadership of jinyuanmeng warrants a lot more analysis that i'm not going to do here, but to summarize some things myself and others have observed before, he's efficient. he's established the alliance in such a way that there's a clear hierarchy and duties for each person, and that level of organization can function even when he's off dealing with his own matters, communicating things via wuyan. although he shows little interest in managing jinyuanmeng in the present day, i don't think he could've built the alliance up to such a state that it would keep running without him, even while he abruptly went into seclusion for ten years, unless he actually cared about the people who were serving him. and we do his anger when those who were loyal to him die, like when he snaps at jiao liqiao for the deaths of his twelve phoenixes, even though they got a blink-and-you'll-miss-it amount of screentime. they were still important to di feisheng.

(i know jiao liqiao was the one who kept jinyuanmeng going in his absence, but it seems she didn't make any huge changes to how jinyuanmeng was functioning up until di feisheng recovered from his injuries. before that she was ruling, at least outwardly, in his name and interests.)

all this is to say that, looking at his choices in this moment of the donghai duel, i think that that line of dialogue— breaking from his precedent of letting li xiangyi lead the fight— is fascinating characterization to add to di feisheng this early in the show. i've said before that from the moment he appears onscreen, after the opening monologue declaring him a villain and a 大魔头, our expectations of him begin to be subverted. this does honestly alter how di feisheng and li xiangyi could be viewed; di feisheng is now seemingly the one whose people are being attacked and who cannot stand the wasting of unnecessary lives, while li xiangyi is the one who led all this followers to battle for the sake of his dead shixiong's body, and arrogantly miscalculated that he could win.

i love how this show plays with character perception, and how they've built up di feisheng in this way, especially when the majority of his screentime isn't from the source material. this is just one part of it.

[leverage-ot3]

silly episode idea but hear me out

okay well the first part isn’t silly! so the episode is based around a con they are doing where a polyam triad wants to get married and have been writing to senators and stuff for years but nothing has happened. maybe there is a time element that leeway has to happen soon (not sure what that would be yet, maybe someone is sick???)

(obviously polycules aren’t only and are often more than just a closed three-person system, but I’m saying triad right now bc I feel like that would be an easier and more ‘socially acceptable’ gateway into more accepting legislation for diverse relationship dynamics)

the leverage crew, of course, can’t outright change the public perception of poly marriage, but they can use the ‘enemy’s’ tactics against them and slip stuff into legislation without people noticing like they do. it’s slimy and it’s not a permanent fix, but it’s a start, and it gives people the opportunity to see poly marriage in action and that it isn’t as terrifying or pearl-clutching-inducing as they think it would be. there’s a long way to go, but the seeds of change have been sown and they will make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible

this is one of the cases that they will monitor on the back burner over time. some cons can finish within a few hours (the bottle job), and some things they will follow over time and make adjustments when needed- amplify voices and expose corrupt politicians etc

and then it’s just after 3/4 of the way through but the con has been finished? what is going on? this is where the silliness comes in

the camera turns to the ot3 and…

hardison, pulling out three individualized rings: I know it’s not legal yet, and we have the necklaces, but I think rings would be a nice touch

eliot, pulling out an intricately carved box that also has three self-handcrafted rings: dammit hardison (with feeling and tenderness, and damp eyes)

parker, pulling out three very stolen rings from her pocket: does this mean we’re getting triple married if we all have three rings???

harry pops into the conversation (practically vibrating) excitedly just casually mentioning that he’s a notary and would be honored to marry them to each other if they wanted to

(they do)

wait, did I say silly? I meant unwaveringly tender and heartwarming

[fixburr]

this is extra dumb if you've played mega man zero btw, original here:

[bigmfrat]

redesigned Valcour, he can change colors now based on his mood :) Slowly updating all of his old art and discord stickers with the new design also working on making myself a modern setting because he and two other of my ocs are basically homeless now. I tell you what, there's nothing I love more than making rules and laws for magical creatures and people. I love it to BITS. having so much fun with the besties

[retellingthehobbit]

New Bilbo Baggins design:

[nikikikiko]

so far a good chunk of sabikui bisco au is concepted

i just need to start fleshing things out

so hopefully life doesnt kick me in the gut anytime recent

so for a sneakpeak, here’s the premise of the AU:

In a post-apocalyptic world,

Gavus is the head of the Celestial Justice Department in Sanctum, and right hand man of Governor Morgana. Rust is a disease rampant throughout Sanctum, and most concerningly afflicting his son (and the city’s youngest “miracle” doctor), Liberta.

Eugene is an ex-Hypogean Mushroom Keeper, and a wanted criminal in most surviving cities. He defected from Conrad’s beliefs a long time ago with his rust-afflicted daughter, Lucilla. Searching for a cure to rust, he runs through Sanctum City.

In a chance meeting, Eugene and Gavus decide to team-up together to save their children from rust.

[cryptidsncurios]

so here's the dealiiioooo. i've been combing through and cutting down my asks and drafts to see what i know i owe and what i have muse for

even though i'm tagging y'all, can i ask writing partners to please also check out my thread tracker? i've been doing my best to keep it updated---BUT, if there's something NOT there that you want to continue, or something we had on a previous blog that got buried, or even something you'd like me to drop, pleeeeeeease let me know!!

inbox owes:

@returnedimage - 1

@soldierunderfire - 2

@terroreigns - 1

@perditos - 1

@greenleads - 1

draft owes:

@calamitysshatteredson - 1

@perditos - 2

@d4rksymphony - 2

@kumoofthemaken - 1

@returnedimage - 1

@kazeofthemagun - 2

@multif0rmed - 1

@mundmutter - 1

@piousolus - 1

@regnantlight - 1

@soldierunderfire - 2

@tailoringtay - 1

@maregiis - 1

@aeternxm - 1

[best-fnaf-song-competition]

Maybe if we do enough of these tournaments we can have an Ultimate Winners Bracket. A small one, but it could be fun!

[typheus]

anyways when i first got my mp3 player in 2009 i noticed its date only went up to 2023 and i always wondered what would happen if i somehow kept it long enough to go past that year and now its just blank! no more date and time for me!

[afniel]

I have no self control. Like, at all. I told myself to give me at least a week off and I would not hear shit about it.

To be fair the entire contents are currently "Words go here" but still. That's three. Solid start.

Can you blame me though, the Vegas-Indy flight is so boring and I can get so much done during it.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I thought you might like to know but bring the bassist back is like about two things it's a reference to "bring the bass back" from the poem Hammond B3 Organ Cistern about finding joy in the days you don't want to kill yourself and it's also about how I think all the time about like the 27 club and how the tortured artist who dies young is such an image but like they don't have to and in our generation of music it seems like more and more of them survived it's like a fob reference: bring the bassist back because he didn't kill himself that's not the only way for it to go anyway ily

I was literally shaking restraining myself from talking about this in the tags like. hum fucking hallelujah, bring the bassist back. and not even just FOB though like. you're the resident MCR girlie. do you ever think about how by all rights they should not be alive? but they ARE. um like... like frickin... I am not afraid to keep on living. sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse. I'm going to cry about this Gracie

[salt-hag]

I love to TRACK MY PROGRESS. Love to LIST THINGS. I love to RANK THINGS AND CATEGORIZE.

[officialrapunzelfitzherbert]

anywayssss trying to get ppl to like u enough to let u move in w them over a zoom is soooo humbling its like a job interview except ur waiting to hear back to see if someone wants to let u pay rent w them. so silly

[essektheylyss]

Oh hey! Do you like stories about wlw and weird, convoluted forms of time travel? Do you like supporting queer folks making cool art? Did River Song rewire your brain as a teenager?

I wrote a short story called "A Practical Study of Time" for Baffling Magazine, a queer speculative fiction mag! It's published on Patreon, if you're interested in becoming a patron of a super neat lit mag—or it'll be on their site when their eleventh issue is published in April!

[astrito]

um. um. um. um. um. um.