#she also definitely plays favorites

[theblindgoddess]

Epic the Musical AU

An au that begins after Aphrodite wins the golden apple and she shows Paris what is basically a magic video recording of Helen, telling him about his future bride.

However, in this magic video recording Helen is spending time with Penelope, and Paris goes "forget that Helen chick, I want that one."

And Aphrodite just goes with it, so instead of kidnapping Helen, Paris and Aphrodite kidnap Penelope, and a baby Telemachus to help them better control Penelope.

Odysseus is rightfully murderous, and even if he doesn't have the benefit of a treaty to get all of the Greeks on his side, he is still able to strong arm and lie his way into getting that massive army to besiege Troy and get his wife back.

And over in Troy Penelope is making the situation as insufferable for Paris as she possibly can, she will cause all of the problems until she can get back home safely with her son.

This au would be called Penelope of Troy.

[aq2003]

omfg . radio play version of much ado with david as benedick from 2001

[palossssssand]

1, 2, and 3 for Rena :D

the renaaaaa

1. What's your oc's gender identity? What's their relationship to their gender?

She's Girl. She hasn't given it all that much thought and is perfectly comfortable with her assigned gender. She is firm on her expression, though, she subconsciously likes to feel "dangerous" and "unapproachable" due to growing up with overbearing parental figures.

2. What's your oc's orientation? (Romantic/sexual/platonic alterous ect) Do they have opinions about it?

I think she may be a lesbian. or bisexual with a preference for women. And perhaps aromantic, or someone who doesn't really want to bother with the labels. I say "I think" mainly because admittedly I myself haven't given it much thought, but it does feel fitting.

3. How did your oc discover themself? Did something cause them to question, or did they always know?

Most likely Rena either encountered a real life butch lesbian or watched media with one in it and was like "ohhh okay. she's so me"

[oh-meow-swirls]

i think this was funnier in my head.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

had a dream in the wee hours of the morning where there was an Untamed musical?? and one of my longtime friends from community theater was directing it, and I was playing JGY. This was mostly a whimsical theatrical variant of the “I have a test I didn’t study for” dream, with the focus being the part where I wasn’t that familiar with the script (having been brought in last-minute) and was scrambling to keep up with sight reading music in a full rehearsal, as well as other concerns like “the audience can’t see us because of the set pieces making big blind spots” and “this casting is problematic,” so I sadly can’t tell you what the musical was about as a whole.

But what I can say, and why I am typing this, is that the introduction to JGY and Qin Su post-timeskip was a cheerful Act I expository duet welcoming everyone to present-day Jinlintai, where Everything Is Great And Also We Are The Perfect Couple! It was slightly manic but also sincere? And I think this how post-timeskip Jinlintai should always be introduced, even if nothing else is a musical. Especially if nothing else is a musical.

[fictionadventurer]

A Biltmore Christmas may be the first Hallmark movie to drive me to fanfic.

[memento-morri-writes]

I've been thinking a lot about how Rook's reunion with his former mentor, Zara, is going to go, and since I can't predict what the DM is going to have her do or say, I can only dwell on what I know is going to happen. Which happens to include taking off the illusion ring that's been hiding his injuries from her. So have a snippet of the description I have planned for that moment:

tw for description of (mostly healed) injuries

He hesitates, twisting a ring on his finger. Looking at it more closely, she can tell it’s very finely crafted, and must have been very expensive. A large emerald is set into the band. Rook sighs, and pulls the ring off his finger in one quick motion.  Immediately she’s struck by the difference in his appearance as the illusion melts away. He looks awful. His warm, healthy skin fades to a dull and sickly grey. There’s huge bags under his deeply sunken eyes, and his cheeks are hollowed, as though they have been carved out by an overeager sculptor. He looks like he’s recently risen from the grave.  While he was thin before, now she can see his ribs under the skin, and his collarbones are exaggeratedly pronounce. Thin white lines left by dozens upon dozens of recently healed cuts are scattered across his body. On top of that, faded bruises cover most of his visible skin, a mottled mosaic of purple and yellow. They’re clearly days, maybe weeks old, and she can only begin to imagine what they must have looked like when fresh. Bandages are barely visible under his shirt, wrapping around his back, hinting at even more injuries.

[shoechoe]

we are reading/watching Macbeth in class right now and I almost feel guilty for how much Macbeth is making me go "kind of diavolo tbh"

[britneyshakespeare]

I can't believe the Younger Brother (1689) by Aphra Behn has the only one bed trope

[corvikari]

Finished listening to the Puppetshade Chronicles Part 1

I LOVED IT

everything from the worldbuilding to the characters and music was amazing, I may or may not be back in my Paul Shapera Era

definitely some fanart coming

[arolesbianism]

Thinking abt spiraling upwards side characters again. Charredpelt my absolute beloved

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

Thoughts on childe in the new archon quest 👀

HHNGNGAUUGHHGHAHHHAAUUUGHHHHHHHHHH QUEST SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

AGUGHUGHHGH HE'S SO CUTEEEEE I WANNA SQUISH HIS CHEEKS SO BADDDDDDDD

man i didn't realize how much i've missed him. even without my bias Childe's such a fun character and has room for so many cool interactions. i wasn't surprised at all when he got arrested that seems like a very Childe thing to do, also the fact that he was going to ACCEPT THE CHARGES IN ORDER TO DUEL CLORINDE HE'S SO FUNNY. i've been using the korean dub lately and all the VAs did a phenomenal job too, Childe getting dragged off to literal prison is the most hysterical thing EVER

also ok, hear me out. i know Childe attributed his mood swings and the loss of control over his Vision to his connection to the Abyss, but honestly my mind immediately went to the Sinthe potion, since one of the side effects is losing control of emotions which might be tied to his Vision. not sure which one it'll end up being but either way it'll be interesting!!

i have one complaint about the Archon Quest tho and that comes with Childe's fight scene

we were so close. SO CLOSE. TO A FOUL LEGACY TRANSFORMATION. WE WERE SO CLOSE TO SEEING MOTH AGAIN AND THEN NEUVILLETTE JUST HAD TO STEP IN AND BETRAY ME. HE JUST HAD TO RESTORE ORDER DIDN'T HE!!!! I'VE BEEN DENIED MOTH YET AGAIN AND ONE IS SO FUCKING MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I MISS HIM SO MUCH GODDAMMIT AND WE WERE SO CLOSE BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

nothing against Neuvillette obviously, i know he lowkey had to knock Childe out but MAN i have been moth-deprived for so long and i am In Agony

and yes the Archon Quest made me come up with a bunch of brainrot for Childe and Foul Legacy what about it

[neixins]

the sword and shield part of the prophecy is soooo vague that i’ll rotate every possible theory inside my silly little head and then go “or it could be smth else”. absolute net zero conclusions reached but i had fun.

[autism-swagger]

I was gonna make a post like "do you think the Yellowjackets ever explored each other's bodies" before I realized the answer is an unequivocal yes

[crest-of-gautier]

got the badges for gone fission evp 400 + evp 600 yesterday! .52 gal, l-3 nozzlenose, dread wringer, and squiffer make for quite the synergistic team!

my peak was EVP 810 (appx 300-310% HL). my high score of 151 eggs was obtained somewhere in evp 300...? i'm pretty satisfied with how it went, even if i didn't get HLM or 9s.

some thoughts/reflections on good freelancing teams/traits to develop when trying to rank up in evp under the cut:

i think grinding this rotation was pretty fun- all of the weapons have excellent mobility and i think they cover for each other really well! the l-3 was not my favorite weapon going into it but i think i really enjoyed the accuracy and mobility of it, so it's a bit more favorable for me now :)

i ended up reaching a skill wall in EVP 760-780 where i could not get past wave 2 or 3 (usually for quota related reasons, the quota is BRUTAL! we'd miss it by like 4-5 ish... ofc this partially relates to how well bosses are handled).

the grind for evp was a mix of freelance and grouping up (freelance for 230 -> 440s, grouping up for 440 - 750~, and then testing myself in freelance for that last bit).

i enjoyed the bits of freelance i did, and from my playtime i think these were some of the key traits/practices that indicate "good salmon run skills" to me:

players that know their weapons role(s) and target the appropriate salmonid (but also being willing to break that when priority targets haven't been taken care of)

knowing when a teammate needs help (with a boss or being revived) or when the teammate has a situation under control (e.g. someone's already on the fishstick, you can do something else)

proactive use of specials when problem targets appear, preferably with no overlap (e.g. tri-strike and inkjet activated on the same flyfishes is not the best)

using specials like booyah bomb, triple splashdown, and reefslider to clear basket area in the last 30 seconds to help eggs get in (especially important past evp 600)

teams that paint the walls first thing (especially whoever had the dread wringer). all interior walls for fission can be painted within the first 10 seconds imo

forwarding eggs closer to the basket after splatting static bosses (throwing one egg, and then swimming up with one)

players with good judgment; knowing when to lure (mostly for initial boss spawns), and knowing when to leave the big shot cannon

being able to figure out which directions snatchers come from and what eggs they can help you collect

i think these practices all stem from having good awareness and being able to collect information about the shift. it helps with making snappy quick-fire decisions, and it just gets more important the higher up in EVP you go. camera positioning/control is essential for this (you can't figure out where bosses/teammates are if your back is turned to them).

for me, every 7-10 seconds, i like to rotate my camera around to the opposite side of where i'm currently looking to make sure there isn't any bosses i'm missing. i'm hardly in one place longer than 5-10 seconds and i try to always be on the move. the spawn direction where salmonids come from are always changing, so it's essential to rotate around the map proactively rather than reactively. i think this also helps a lot with shotcalling in groups too (since you can be someone else's pair of eyes).

other than boss spawns/teammate locations (for revives), i think it's also important to notice when certain bosses haven't been taken care of for prolonged periods of time too, so that a special can be popped. to me it's usually a sign that someone whose ill equipped to deal with that boss has been forced to deal with them because the people with the "right" weapon are focused on something else... (no fault to them, of course, everyone has different priorities and you can't always communicate clearly in freelance)

in situations where squiffers were chased by a pack of scrappers, perhaps a booyah bomb or splashdown can be popped to help if you don't have the time to stun and splat them manually. maybe the fish sticks were left unattended by the shooters, so a triple inkstrike or a crab/inkjet shot can help clear them out.

awareness also extends to meeting quota, which imo involves paying attention to the timer + where eggs are located. i find that it's nice to check in with the timer/quota at 50s and 30s respectively so that you can start forwarding eggs closer to basket. and when everyone's going crazy about quota not being met i try to make sure i'm not overstepping anyone else's egg pile so that no one goes "wait no thats the egg that i wanted to pick up fuck i have to go back and get a different one."

i think this is why sometimes playing in groups is easier. if you have more sets of eyes that you can communicate with, it alleviates the need to have awareness of "everything" (provided that you can comms effectively). someone can be attuned to different things (e.g. my friend always tells us where snatchers come from and if they're good, i'm personally attuned to where people need to be revived, etc.). you also know what specials you have access to, unlike in freelance where you're not sure what others have until they use them.

the other part of completing shifts successfully (to me) is being mechanically sound with your movement, mostly in regards to how you use the terrain (walls) to get around the map and escape situations. the more you play a map the more you'll figure out how you can move around on it.

some examples, using the location callouts from salmonrun.ink: there were a few times i'd go on the harbor but i could escape any salmonids in the bridge area by climbing the walls there and squidrolling out as needed. sometimes on high tide i would swim from the perch to the left plat.

sub-strafing is also good to know too, especially when you want to rapidly collect the basket eggs at the end. i still need to integrate it into other parts of my gameplay, but it's helpful!

uh. this was way longer than intended because i have WAY too many thoughts about salmon run. TL;DR: The key to succeeding your shifts is having good awareness which comes from good information collecting practices, and having the mechanical skill to act on that awareness without hesitation.

there's definitely a lot that goes on in sensory overload the game™, so it will take time to build these muscles and reaction times. i think while at every rank of salmon run you may face a wall of "i'm overwhelmed by the bosses," the exact fix needed to get past it usually varies, so it's important to figure out what information you were missing or what actions you could've taken (more efficient movement or special usage, usually).

or if you're struggling with quota, try to practice forwarding eggs or take a look where snatchers come from (even if people splat them, it's still a good practice 2 develop for later evp. source: i don't fucking do it and it's biting me in the ass)

and most importantly, recognize when you're in the midst of a loss streak/skill wall, so that you can take a break and focus on other things that energize you! even if there's a certain goal you want to meet, grinding for higher levels of EVP and getting better at the game can be a very exhausting process. you can always come back to the grind later, whether if it's after a 30 minute break, or just a different rotation!

[quil12]

This line fucking killed me lmao