#technically this could just be one of them but with the star (that’s obscured by the others hand) i think the intent is clear

[kat1nkulta]

From a Place of Love

https://youtu.be/xyx8DMlUAQ4?si=i5PPECue07biog9a

[elwensa]

Little Companion (2021)

This is the second Outer Wilds comic I've ever done. You can see I was still a student back then, since it's in full colour lmao

This comic's inspiration was from a concept art: As I was cruising online for find references for Outer Wilds character, I found a concept art of the Hatchling drawn by artist Sojyoo, who draws them with a little plushie attached to their leg, showing "their approximative age and how they cope in space."

I found this idea quite adorable, and did a little sketch of the Hatchling hugging the plushie... and with time, I thought about telling a little story about it. I thought it was interesting to explore the idea that a teenager has to live through this, and having a childhood memory by their side for reassurance. After all, don't we all feel a little bit of comfort with an old plushie?

Then I thought about Solanum, who is also not quite an adult yet, and I thought that he would appreciate that childish comfort as well...

I absolutely cheated when drawing Solanum's mask. I believe I drew it in 3 different angles by tracing a reference, then copy-pasted it on the various panels. If I were to redo that comic, I would've probably just simplify the mask... but hey, it looks accurate!

Also, that lullaby that Hatchling sings is an actual polish lullaby. I am not good at writing songs, so I was looking for an existing lullaby that talks about stars or space. I found this one on an obscure website, and found a flute version on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orOmQPHrlp4

A little note on this comic: I technically made an error by making Solanum say that she's happy to see Hatchy "again". I wasn't that strict with the lore compared to now, and I thought that Solanum could remember their previous interactions, which is wrong. It's not a big deal, but also I don't want to modify the original dialogue, because it would feel wrong to me after so long.

[drunkenskunk]

Did you name your mech after an old Texas soda that you can only find in Texas and like two other states near it????

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Red_(soft_drink)

As it happens: no! There are two reasons for the name.

Reason 1: Watsonian

The "official" name (or at least as much as anyone remembers) is R4GE MACHINE, because the serial number starts with R4, and it is a GMS Everest. However, "Big Red" is what everyone calls the mech, because it is big and chunky for a size 1, and it is covered in a billion different shades of red paint. The reason it's so big and chunky is because it used to be a Sagarmatha when it was built midway through the Hercynian Crisis, and, due to necessity, had to be downgraded to a smaller chassis after the Union Civil War.

(I need to update these sprites. I never got around to coloring them properly, except for the one red pixel for the optics, and I still need to add the Hunchback boombox on the right shoulder that houses the Leviathan heavy assault cannon.)

There is also a COMP/CON unit within the mech that calls itself RED. It's been online for the entire length of the mechs existence, and has embedded itself so thoroughly in the system hardware that it is impossible to get rid of it, no matter how many parts are replaced. The "personality" of this COMP/CON can be summarized "What if BT-7274, but he just kept losing pilots after Lastimosa?"

<<PROTOCOL 3: PROTECT THE PILOT>>

It is currently unknown - both in universe and otherwise - if there is any genuine paracausal tech hidden somewhere in the guts of Big Red, and that's why the COMP/CON is Like That... or maybe this is just what happens to what should be a non-sapient computer program when you keep it online for close to 500 years.

Reason 2: Doylist

Red is an old character of mine that I adapted into a mech for this Lancer game. Sort of. The mech has become something significantly different than the original character, because the reason for the COMP/CON's aggression is a version of robot PTSD: he has lost so many pilots over the years, and is determined not to lose another.

The original Red, however, is... well, take a look.

Red - at least, the original iteration of the character - was something I made when I was a very angry teenager. And I think it shows.

Red is like if the chaos god Khorne and the eldar's Kaela Mensha Kaine from Warhammer hatefucked and had an equally hateful baby. Red is a creature of unfiltered aggression. It is destructive rage manifest. It hates everything and everyone, and will not be satisfied until everything it hates is gone. Which is everything. The is no reason or justification or meaning for this hatred, and nothing to explain why it butchers and kills and destroys and murders its way across the stars; it simply IS.

And it cannot be contained.

That wedge-shaped hunk of metal on its head is not armor: it is all that remains of the last prison built in a desperate effort to stop its rampage. Red could get rid of the hunk of metal obscuring its vision at any time, but deliberately chooses to keep it in place as a cruel mockery of any and all who stand against it.

Two different starting points, two radically different stories, two different "individuals," but still technically the same character. At least, as far as I'm concerned.

I do this kind of thing all the time. Or... y'know, I did, back when my hands worked regularly. I make a character, turn them into a base template "starting point," and then slowly rework them into a new iteration, to fit whatever purpose I need to suit whatever setting I put them in.

So no, Big Red is not named after a soda lol

[ryin-silverfish]

LMK S5 trailer, Chinese pantheon infodump, and some ideas

…Man, normally, I feel the urge to write fix-it AUs after rewatching episodes and coming across particularly bizarre theories and takes, not before the new season's even out.

Thanks, S5 trailer.

Consider this your spoiler warning, because the rest of this post will all be my personal opinions about a few major story beats that were revealed + the rough outline for a fix-it AU.

It's also a bit ranty, and features some criticisms of the general narrative, so if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to avoid this one.

Li Jing becoming JE/the regent of the Celestial Realm is just hilariously absurd. I mean, it makes a teeny tiny bit more sense than the "Nezha will be the new JE" fan theory, but that's not a very high bar.

1) In-universe, he had done a grand total of nothing while shit was hitting the fan, and only showed up after it was all over. Which, tbh, isn't too far from his role in FSYY. No, wait, at least in FSYY, he killed Luo Xuan via a pagoda to the head, after the guy had all his fire-based magical treasures neutralized and taken away by Princess Longji.

Yeah, congrats, LMK's Li Jing, you've somehow become even more useless than your FSYY and JTTW counterparts——which is a true feat.

2) Even if someone's making him JE/regent, it wouldn't be the Ten Kings. To put it simply: the Underworld doesn't have that authority. They are the most pathetic of all divine bureaucracies, who pretty much only show up to get pushed around and revive the occasional dead guy in JTTW (and I still love them).

Like, they ain't no Hades or Satan. Just the 10 judges of the Dead People Supreme Court. To heavily paraphrase Di Ting in the original JTTW novel:

"How much power do Underworld gods really have? (幽冥之神，能有多少法力)" "...Certainly not enough to stop a rampaging demonic macaque who's as strong as SWK, if I say the truth out loud in here and piss him off. Just send them to the Buddha, please."

An analogy: if the Celestial Host is the imperial court, the Underworld is the ministry in charge of judicial processes and prisons. They don't even have authority over the imperial censors who answer directly to the emperor, let alone the power to determine a successor to the throne during a major crisis.

If this was to make the tiniest bit of sense, Li Jing would be the one commanding THEM, not the other way around. Or if it's Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha himself giving orders to Li Jing…for some reason.

But we know that ain't happening bc of the show's strange aversion to showing Buddhist deities on screen, not to mention it would be very OOC for Ksitigarbha, whose job is granting relief and salvation to souls in the Path of Hell, not judging and punishing them like the Ten Kings.

3) If you must make Li Jing the emperor/regent, you have a more mythos-accurate and obvious choice than the Ten Kings, considering you already got the Four Divine Beasts involved!

Yes, I'm talking about their bosses, the humanoid "directional + elemental gods": Lord Father of the East (Wood), Queen Mother of the West (Metal), Emperor Zhenwu of the North (Water).

No South though...because our mythos can't agree on a single directional god of the South, but for shit and giggles, just imagine Zhurong, Yandi, Huaguang, and the Star of Fiery Virtues all sitting on the same narrow bench, staring awkwardly at each other.

Maybe we can have Ziwei, Great Emperor of the Central Sky and North Stars, who is one of the Four Sovereigns(四御) in Daoism (two of which could also be an alternate choice, but maybe a bit too obscure for foreign audiences).

He commands the stellar deities and heavenly bodies——which the Four Divine Beasts would technically fall under, as guardians of the four quadrants of the sky, each in charge of 7 Lunar Mansions.

4) But if you already have these deities, why the hell would any of them make Li Jing the regent? Wouldn't it be more likely for them to create a Celestial Council of Regents themselves, with Devaraja Li Jing under their command as the leader of what's left of the celestial army?

Like, you can still have them, or one of them, going after the gang and ordering Li Jing to put the fillet on SWK.

I can see Zhenwu the Demon-Vanquisher doing that, since the fillet isn't too different from what he did to Huaguang and a lot of the demons he subdued in JTTN: feeding them magical water/fire pills that would corrode/ignite their insides whenever they tried to resist.

(Yeah, compared to that, the fillet would look like the lenient option, since it's just pain and won't actually dissolve/cook you alive from the inside out...)

And it wouldn't be bc he thought SWK was to blame for the Brotherhood's epic fuck-up...somehow. Like, what even is that logic?!

I mean, I can kinda see the Ten Kings doing it as a pre-emptive "Don't blame us for our shitty security, blame that guy over there!" move...except they are no longer answering to any higher authorities who'd hold them responsible at that point!

"What about Li Jing?" You may ask. Yeah, WHAT ABOUT LI JING? Why does Li Jing have to get involved in this?

If he's forcing the Ten Kings to pass judgement on the gang (which surely doesn't look like it in the trailers), why's he enlisting the help of the weakest faction and not, y'know, his celestial soldiers and other gods?

If the Ten Kings get Li Jing to be their enforcer...well, how the Eighteen Hells did they manage that? What could the Ghost Supreme Court and their crappy prison-torture chamber-soul customs office complex even offer Li Jing as a bribe?

And if their goals were to avoid responsibilities by blaming someone else, how stupid did they have to be to actively involve/create a higher authority who can punish them once the cat gets out of the proverbial bag, instead of, I dunno, just stay where they are and keep their head down???

So in my fix-it AU, it's more of a "Better safe than sorry" scenario, where every demon working for the new Celestial Council must prove their loyalty via swallowing the water/fire pill, now that even more dangerous demons have escaped and are running around in the aftermath of S4.

And Great Sage and company are not exempt from that new law either——"If you are truly righteous and Not Like Them and not planning to rebel, what's there to be afraid of?"

Horrified by the Demon-Vanquishing Mansion's 16th century standards of "justice" and "mercy", they naturally would not have any of it, and thus the conflict begins.

Not only would this show the fallout of Azure's misguided rebellion——that, in trying to make a better world, he had made it 120% worse for both humanity and demonkind in less drastic and more realistic ways aside from dooming reality to irreversible destruction, it would also help with the major show-not-tell problem about Celestial cruelty bc the "good guys" in power saw no problem with this kind of shit.

If you want your lawful antagonists who take Order to its extremes, the warrior sovereign in black leading an elite army of demon-hunters + penal legions made of "reformed" demons would be a better choice than the Ghost Supreme Court, don't ya think?

(Fun fact: in Zaju plays, Zhenwu was often said to be the boss of Nezha and Erlang, so him commanding Li Jing wouldn't be too out of place either.)

Now, you may ask, why do I even care? After all, isn't it clear that the show is neither mythos-accurate nor trying to be, considering the JE got K.O.ed by a Bodhisattva's cat of all things?

Not to mention the season's not even out yet, so why jump to conclusions so quickly? Maybe the actual episodes will have explanations that make sense. Relax.

...Cause I don't mind less-than-stellar animations if the story's good, and since I keep noticing the less-than-stellar animations, it clearly isn't good enough.

Also, it's not like it's only the implications that are absurd——my problem is with the whole premise of "Li Jing becoming the new JE/Regent" and "The gang is prosecuted by the Ten Kings for bullshit reasons, even though these guys should not, and never have the power to enforce anything over SWK."

I don't like calling narrative choices "wrong" per se, and prefer to see it on a gradient of "least to most narrative potential". When it comes to adaptations, if the option that is faithful to the original work will result in a less interesting story, then I'll happily take the one that isn't as faithful and takes creative liberties, but makes a better story.

And here, I feel like being faithful to the Chinese mythos inspirations will add to the narrative potential instead of subtract from it, and the idea they come up with kinda...goes against how Chinese pantheons work, in a very simplified and "westernized" manner.

Mostly bc I am a Chinese Underworld mythos lover and think they deserve better than being ominous Hades/Grim Reaper knockoffs. And out of all the possible Chinese gods, Nezha's asshole dad is the least qualified or interesting candidate to fill in the power vaccum left by JE's death.

[leoruby-draws]

Decided to post some more random, mostly minor characters from the DC universe, mostly ones that seemed they would be fun to draw. I guess technically these drawings are all based in my TrWh au, as always. Here they are:

Wanted to draw heroes with wings, I draw Vanessa quite a bit so I had to learn wings and feathers. Still working on it, but its fun. You can see Vanessa there at the bottom middle, looking a little menacing.

The girl with red wings is called...Redwing aka Carrie Levine. I thought she was a sweet kid, so her ultimate fate was pretty sad. Wonder if she'll come back to continuity at some point.

The guy with the mohawk is Northwind aka Norda Cantrell, part of Infinity Inc the earth 2 version of a Teen Titans group. He honestly didn't get a whole lot of focus in Infinity Inc, like the writer didn't know what to do with him. Maybe they should've made him into the magic fighter of the group, almost felt like thats what they were going for him before they wrote him off.

The girl in yellow is Dawnstar, part of the Legion of Superheroes. I haven't read much of LoSH, mostly some 90's issues. But her design is soooo pretty I had to draw her, her costume here is a mix of her various outfits.

Lastly, here's Bluejay aka Jay Abrams again, part of Justice League Europe. Kinda thought JLE was a bit of a letdown, I mean the team's made up of mostly americans not europeans! I think Crimson Fox was the only european, I thought her set-up of being two people was cool.

Little extra Infinity doodle, here's Hector Hall (Silver Scarab) hating on poor Norda, with Lyta Trevor (Fury) looking on with confusion. Hector's just a hater (tho there's reasons for it ig), an archetype you see sometimes in some superhero groups, like Roy Harper or Guy Gardner. The plot-line of Hector's resentment of Norda was kinda interesting, but like with most things in Infinity it didn't get the focus it should've gotten. Speaking of Infinity, here's some more doodles:

There's Rex Tyler (Hourman 1) with little Rick Tyler (Hourman 2), enjoying some father-son time. Apparently Rick's first costume isn't well liked (so says reddit). I thought it seemed cute but maybe it works better as a kid's or sidekick's kinda costume?

In the middle is Jack Knight (Starman) suffering as he interacts with Sylvester Pemberton (Skyman, formerly the Star-Spangled Kid) and Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl, actually she should still be S-SK but whatever). In my au he actually joins Infinity Inc, since everyone becomes heroes earlier he's actually around when the team's still running. I suspect his dad (Ted Knight) forced him into it. Also Courtney doesn't respect Jack at all, he's so annoyed at this. Look at her mini-staff, I presume Ted made it for her.

Also there's Beth Chapel (Dr. Mid-Nite) and Jesse Chambers (Jesse Quick) looking cool. Jesse also joins Infinity Inc in my au, will there be a love triangle going on between Beth, Rick and Jesse? Don't think Rick's gonna survive that, aw well.

Look at baby Jade and Obsidian, Alan is overwhelmed by their antics.

In another post someone asked if I could draw more of the Relative Heroes, a super obscure hero group. So @draculaura1660, this one's for you. Here they are:

I kinda had a hard time drawing this group, cuz their costumes are so complicated! I wished there was a reference/concept art for them cuz it was a struggle trying to figure out the details, the comic art did not help matters at all. You might have noticed I changed details anyways, I tend to simplify costumes for my au both to make it easier to draw and also to signify their younger ages. It's just fun to play around with costume design ig.

Some more characters!

Jinx, who looks very different between her comic and cartoon self. I did like her pink hair, so decide to see how it would look on her comic self. There's Kole, who also has different designs in comic/cartoons. I think her comic costume is so cool, esp that color pallet! But I love her pink hair in the cartoon, so she's got pink hair here! Just like pink hair a lot lol.

The other pink haired girl is Laethwen, love interest of Ray Palmer in Sword of the Atom. I think I made her hair more pink to better differentiate her from Starfire, also, again I just like pink hair. I wished she and her little kingdom didn't die, in my au Ray saves them! Maybe he relocates them to his backyard or something?

Little Donna and Vanessa doodle, did you know they never once interacted on panel? The closest is when Donna brings her stepsister Cindy to talk to Vanessa instead. I wonder how they would even interact, I know Vanessa wanted to be wonder girl (and resented Cassie for 'taking' it from her). Did she look up to Donna, or wanted her out of the way? Funnily enough Donna wasn't even Diana's sidekick when post-crisis started, due to both their origins being reworked and contradicting each other's timelines. It's all very confusing.

Anyways, some bonus doodles:

Had fun making a new outfit for Laethwen, I imagine she took some inspiration from indigenous groups from the Amazon, seeing as that's where her people crashed into.

Kole's costume is just so beautiful but so complicated, maybe that's why she got killed off so soon in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Lastly, here's Bette bugging Dick with Barbara being super amused about it. I said in my post about her that I didn't really care about her crush on Robin, which is true, but I still wanted to doodle something making fun of it. Poor Dick is doesn't know how to get outta of this social situation.

Well that was a lot, hope you liked all that.

[alchemistc]

goon | chapter one | bucktommy

check out the hockey glossary here read from the beginning or read chapter one here

It takes Tommy a few breathless seconds to remember to skate in and hug the rest of his team, and another five to realize that technically the assist is his. He stopped caring about stats so much the second year his time in the box exceeded his time on ice for more than five games out of the season, but it sits there, in the back of his mind, his name next to Buckley’s on the score sheet.

There’s a rush that comes with division rivalry games, a certain something in the air when the crowd noise rushes in after the anthem, a call for blood and guts and gore and glory.

Tommy’s been in the league for almost two decades. He’s played for every division in the league, at one point or another. This isn’t even his first time in the central, although the configuration of teams is different than the last time.

Sometimes one team is shit (more often than not he’s on that side of it) and the other is on a tear. Sometimes they’re battling it out in four-point games to keep their points lead in the division — or knock the other team down to second. Sometimes it’s a scrape to pull out the wildcard spot. Sometimes the game itself is meaningless but they’ve played each other often enough that there’s friction. Sometimes there’s just one fucking guy on the opposition that the fanbase harbors some deep resentment for.

And this one actually means something — there’s some extra bad blood between these two teams, a star goalie with a grudge on the far end of the ice, three first round matchups in the last ten years, a run of wins that was bringing tonight’s opponent a little too close for comfort to the Avs divisional points cushion.

Tommy shifts his weight and settles the nerves, accepts the smack to the back of his helmet, and watches Binnington throw a fit between the pipes when the stripes don’t whistle the play dead and call an icing when the puck trickles in behind his net.

They’re five minutes in and everyone’s getting testy. He can feel it.

This is where Tommy does his best work.

It’d been a task, ten years ago, a part of the job he’d accepted because he was good in a fight and fully capable of taking a few punches. Under the thumb of the old boys club it’d just been expected of him — the ability to throw his weight around was what had kept him from complete obscurity in a lower league that would have worn him down much sooner. Tommy’s fists and his ability to drop his shoulder just in time to knock a guy flat on his ass were the only things that mattered when his agent settled him down with two offers, a few years into the league, and he’d chosen the team most likely to make his dad proud.

Never mind that his dad had come to three games when Tommy was a bright eyed rookie, seen Tommy get his ass handed to him by a man twice his size, and stopped bothering to show up.

He’d turned that around, in recent years. Longer stints with the affiliate teams, less time under the microscopic eye of the national press (even as a role player he’d had his moments under that eye) — he’d learned when to pull his punches, when to turn the other cheek, and when to lock his ankles and aim for the fucking chest. He had friends up and down the continent who knew him as the guy who’d take them all out to dinner after a bad loss, find something stupid and entertaining for them to do after, and then go into the next game with a chip on his fucking shoulder.

There were three kids with insane star power in the league who had him on speed dial even though he hadn’t played with them for a year or more, because for some fucking reason he had the ability to talk them off a ledge when the pressure drove them towards it.

He’d never tell a soul that Crosby still sent him gym selfies so they could compare the relative size and plumpness of their ass during the offseason.

There was still a reverence for real enforcers, in the league, even if they’d fallen by the wayside as teams got smaller and quicker. They were more a deterrent than anything else these days, but that usually meant Tommy got to lumber around on the ice for a few minutes a game, remembering what it had felt like the first time he’d laced his skates and stepped out to a roaring crowd, before he took another dumb penalty and spent the next forty-five minutes riding the bench. He’d been instructed not to take any dumb penalties, tonight, because St. Louis didn’t tend to get sloppy until the game was on the line.

Thirty-six minutes in, Schenn takes a chop at Diaz’s knees under the guise of a poke check and the home crowd gets loud, and ornery.

Nash smacks him on the shoulder on their way back down the tunnel for the third, eyes a little wild, and Tommy immediately recalls the old highlight reels of Nash shaking hair out of his eyes while he squared off against a guy twice his size, motor-mouthing his way into getting the other guy to take the first swing. Minnesotans and their right hooks weren’t something to fuck around with. Too much time in the cold not to have a little crazy in them.

Tommy rolls his tongue over his teeth, tilts his head to where Diaz and Buckley are bent over the boards together on the bench, already prepared to hop out the moment Bannister tries to get a matchup that’ll tilt in the Blues favor.

Nash sends him out with the rest of the fourth line, and Tommy doesn’t waste any time.

It’s immediately clear that they’ve all been warned to keep level heads. Schenn won’t engage, Buchnevich barely acknowledges Tommy when he hip checks him into his own bench — he goes ass over tea kettle and Tommy gets nothing more than a few shifty looks and some smack talk from the guys sitting.

There’s an easy way around that, though.

Tommy clambers back over the boards and waits out the next shift, practically vibrating with it when a shot pings off the crossbar and Greenway skates right through Binnington’s crease chasing after it.

Kyrou tries to take out Buckley against the boards, looks livid when Buck skates just free of it, and Buck does some ankle breaking in a rush to the goal. It hits the post, and when the whistle gets blown fifteen seconds later Tommy watches level heads not prevail when Binner says something snippy to Kyrou that has him rolling his eyes on the way back to the bench.

It takes another minute and a half for Nash to set up the line matches the way he wants them, but as Greenway skates off in relief and Schenn’s line stays stuck in their own zone spinning their wheels, Bobby smacks a thick hand down on Tommy’s shoulder. “Kinard, you’re up!”

Tommy takes an awkward pass once he’s past the blue line and goes full tilt towards the net. Full tilt for Tommy isn’t anything special, but it’s not what the Blues are expecting, and most of them have been out for two plus minutes at this point, hemmed in by their third and fourth lines just shoveling the puck back in every time it nears the blue line.

The snow shower he aims at the goal, half an inch into the crease when he fully stops, isn’t anything to write home about, but it has it’s intended effect. Already short on patience, Binnington watches Schenn intercept and send the puck careening down the ice — a third icing in a row — and lashes out with the butt end of his stick, a glancing blow Tommy laughs at as the rest of the players start to circle up at the whistle. Tommy’s laugh pisses him off. The laugh pisses him off so much.

It’s so fucking easy to rattle him when he’s already two goals down. There’s some shoving, a few hockey hugs to keep things from escalating, but Panikkar has apparently cottoned on to Tommy’s plan, and he says something under his breath that has Sundquist in his face, and Binnington skating around behind the net in irritation while the zebras break up a few of the more reticent shoving matches.

Tommy wins about one face-off out of every fifty, but that’s not the reason he’s bending across from Schenn now at the circle.

“We could end this before he loses all his cool and breaks his stick on the pipes,” Tommy goads, and the linesman with the puck rolls his eyes towards Schenn expectantly. The other man shifts, readjusts the grip on his stick. “Or I could just keep taunting him for something that isn’t even his fault, this time.”

Schenn’s not a particularly bad dude, just a little gun shy about fighting when his coach has clearly told them all not to engage.

Tommy wants him to fucking engage.

Schenn waits for the puck to drop, and miraculously, it’s Tommy who scoops it up to a fresh-faced Buckley just in time for the man to wind up and sneak it through about four bodies on it’s way over Binnington’s shoulder.

It takes Tommy a few breathless seconds to remember to skate in and hug the rest of his team, and another five to realize that technically the assist is his. He stopped caring about stats so much the second year his time in the box exceeded his time on ice for more than five games out of the season, but it sits there, in the back of his mind, his name next to Buckley’s on the score sheet.

And then Schenn gets sloppy again, a check into the boards that has Panikkar limping back towards the bench while the crowd boos the refs — no call, again, which is fucking typical and normally Tommy’d be in his face about it, ready for the unsportsmanlike just ready to tumble off the refs tongue, but not tonight, tonight he’s got other plans — and Tommy doesn’t give Schenn any time to think about it when Nash sends him out in the immediate chaos.

He catches Kyrou mid-ice with his head down, a shoulder right to the chest that sends him reeling back, skates leaving the ground as he crashes backwards, and Schenn is on him in the next five seconds, gloves off and a resigned look in his eyes. Tommy grins and shifts his weight back, tossing his own gloves and reaching for the neck of Schenn’s sweater.

In the heat of the moment, man to man, the noise of the crowd always dies away, blood pounding in his ears and his entire focus on keeping his weight balanced and his fists loose. He’s been a heavy-weight for over half his career, and Schenn knows he’s outmatched but someone has to answer the bell.

There’s a ref circling them, and Tommy gets three right hooks in before Schenn can even get a hand out to hold Tommy back.

Hen’s gonna be pissed when she sees the state of his hands, but Tommy doesn’t really care, all that much, as he tightens his grip and yanks him close enough for an uppercut aimed at his ribs.

The refs break in before Schenn gets a hit, and the roar of the crowd rushes back in, loud, raucous, the mob appeased as Tommy skates his way to the box with a grin on his face. He’s a little disappointed that they’d broken it up so quickly, but — he’s probably got twenty-five pounds on Schenn, so fair enough.

Diaz scores a shorthanded goal three minutes into the major and Chim holds the line through the deluge of pissed off Blues who are now down four goals.

Tommy spends about ten seconds out of the box before the refs assess him a game misconduct for tapping his glove along the visitors side gate, and he accepts it with all the grace he can muster, smacking his fist into a screaming kids palm as he heads off down the hall.

The cool off doesn’t take him as long at it used to — sometime in the first ten years of his career he’d figured out how to shake off the hotheaded temper that made him so fucking good at getting under people’s skin, and by the time the rest of the team returns with a victory on their shoulders he’s relaxed and loose-limbed again.

Diaz makes a beeline for him, smacking his bare chest, hands curling over his shoulders so he can shake him a little, and he gets a few hoots and hollers as the rest of the team trickles back in. Someone names Tommy third star, but Nash has a rule about keeping up appearances, and he had technically been tossed from the game, so. He keeps his seat and waits until Buckley and Chim both return from taking their bow.

They’ve got a tradition, going back a few years now, a game puck tossed from player to player throughout the season for whatever the hell the previous recipient wants to acknowledge someone for. Tommy’s spent a few weeks hyping up the recipient with the rest of the team, but tonight Diaz calls for silence and every eye in the room swivels towards Tommy.

“Next time we’re getting you the full Gordie Howe,” comes the concise speech, and Tommy chuckles when Diaz leans in for a half-shake, half-hug where he admits in an undertone that Binner had definitely done his best to hold on to this particular puck at the game horn, so Tommy had better appreciate his efforts in acquiring it.

It’s not even March, but there’s a string of tension running through the whole group of them, a line of unspoken expectation as their home record extends to fifteen games — but as they trickle off to the showers with pats on the back and the giddy adrenaline of another win, Tommy can feel something brewing in the room.

He’s halfway through stretches, twenty minutes later, when Panikkar parks up next to him and knocks his knee against Tommy’s.

“That was some pretty decent work, Kinard,” Ravi says, like he hasn’t spent two weeks annoyed that Tommy can’t keep up with him when he’s on a breakaway, barely holding his tongue when Tommy lumbers down the ice after him. Diaz has made some noise, in recent days, about running suicide drills at the start of optionals, and Tommy is absolutely gonna get his ass handed to him. He’ll be there with bells, but he’s gonna be feeling that shit for weeks.

“Not so bad yourself, kid,” Tommy tells him, and Ravi ducks his head around a grin.

“Hen’s pissed I didn’t keep my mouth shut,” he admits, and gestures to his ribs, where Tommy can already see some nasty bruising. Tommy cocks an eyebrow.

“I’d have gotten them there on my own.”

Ravi’s grin brightens, and when he stands, Tommy can’t quite help the way he wants to stand as well, maybe give this kid a noogie, tease him about the height difference for a second. He’d grown up without brothers, but he’s found about a million and two in his time playing up and down the continent. “It’s more fun when you’ve got the whole team to move it along.”

He’s halfway out the door when he spins on his heel to give Tommy another look. “Hey, you know Gardiner’s had it out for Buckley for like, four years, right?”

Tommy shifts. Panikkar doesn’t need to know that he’s had the calendar date circled in his mind for three weeks, now, since the moment he’d hopped on the plane to Denver. He’s not going to admit to knowing every single guy in the league who’s ever set their sights on 18. He’s certainly not going to admit to spending most of his first evening in his rental watching highlight reels of Buckley (and Diaz) until he’d fallen asleep on his surprisingly comfortable sectional. He knows enemy number one for every game from now until the end of the season, but he knows Buckley’s best of all.

It’s what they’d brought him over for, Tommy rationalizes, again, and if he spends the drive home thinking about the wide slash of Evan Buckley’s smile when he’d skated in to celebrate Buckley’s goal, no one but Tommy has to know.

[blarrghe]

For DADW, "We can never be together kiss"

I have been sitting on this prompt unsure what to do with it for a very long time. I found something! More Dorian x Lavellan pining. What else? Added to the canon prompts collection!

@dadrunkwriting

--

Taren Lavellan was having a rare good day. 

Most days were productive. Busy. And that helped. He had made certain friends, or at least there were people around to support him, to ask for assistance, to count on to have his back in the field, and that helped too. Cassandra was good with a shield, and never shied away from giving advice. The Iron Bull was good with a greataxe, and never shied away from a drink. Sera was growing on him, or he was growing on Sera. She was never shy, at least, and never let him feel like more than he was. 

Then, there was Dorian. 

Dorian made him feel like… like the most important person in the world, when he was warm. And like an idiot when he wasn’t. 

Today, he had him hooked with the former. 

A rare good day. Not just productive, not just busy, but good, after that. They’d made inroads and progress in the Hinterlands and then made it back to Skyhold in one piece. There had been celebrations. Warm food, fresh ale, music. Taren sat at a table in the Herald’s Rest, and almost forgot that he was the Herald in need of it. Sera let him teach her a few Dalish dance steps. The Iron Bull poured him too many pints. Dorian stayed by his side, laughing and talking with the crowd of them, smiling warmly, leaning close. 

He left with him, too, when Taren stumbled out of the place with claims that it was time for him to actually rest. 

He seemed to have gotten Taren’s various clumsily dropped hints. 

They walked through the courtyard, a place where they often stopped to talk in passing. Dorian would find him there and share tidbits of gossip and exaggerated frustrations. Taren would find himself looking for him there, looking for him to lighten the load of the very real frustrations and unhappy whispers which often followed him around. 

The courtyard in the daylight was something of a mixed blessing; there was the sunlight, the scents of familiar herbs growing surprisingly well in their orderly little planters, the birdsong and the mountain view, but also it was a popular spot. Josephine’s tours of interested nobles chattered through with indiscreet judgement, Chantry sisters stopped him to appraise his supposed divinity and desperately attempt to remedy his incorrect faith, Templars eyed him warily. When he found Dorian there, his swagger could sometimes outshine all that. He knew how to navigate nobles and castles, judgmental glances and too-invasive questioning. Taren did not.

But now, in the cloudy twilight, the place was empty. Quiet. Peaceful. And, technically, his. 

Taren stepped lightly across the cobblestone to the old gazebo, tipping his head back to inhale the cool air and admire the hazy sky as he did. The early night stars were mostly obscured by low-hanging mists and the grey day’s still lingering clouds, but they twinkled delicately through the night. A thin sliver of moon cast a little light over the shadowy courtyard, and inside the shelter it was nearly fully dark. Taren took a seat on the bench inside, and pulled out his pipe. 

Dorian leaned on the stone pillar of the structure and watched him. Taren lit the pipe, inhaled, released a long stream of earthy smoke, and held it out in offer. Dorian stepped closer, blinking in the dark. Remembering, Taren cast up a small orb of magical light. 

Wordlessly, they smoked together. Dorian took a seat beside him, and took his turns with slow, contemplative draws. Taren leaned into his shoulder, and the mage did not move. It was warm, comfortable, if a little stiff. 

“Dorian,” he murmured finally, his arm reaching into a hold around Dorian’s back. 

“Mm?” 

“Come up with me,” Taren proposed, words drunkenly drawled, but clear, “to my quarters.” 

“Inquisitor…”

Dorian only ever called him Inquisitor when he meant to say no.  

“If you want to.” 

“Wanting is not the —” Dorian pushed himself from the bench, leaving a cold spot upon Taren’s shoulder in his wake, and stood. “We can’t,” he said, facing him, handing back his pipe. “You know that we can’t.” 

“Why not?” Taren looked at him plainly. Dorian’s eyes flicked quickly away. He sighed, frustrated. Taren knew why they couldn’t. They had had this conversation already — Taren had confirmed this decision already. 

“You don’t really want that.” 

“I do. As do you.”  

“You’re drunk.” 

“As are you.” 

Taren stood too, leaving his pipe on the bench to smoulder. He took a step closer, Dorian did not move. He extinguished the light. 

He kissed him. 

Dorian’s face was cold, his skin chilled by the high mountain air. His lips responded warm. His hand found Taren’s waist. He tasted of the tavern’s terrible wine and elfroot. Taren must have too. 

“You’re drunk.” Dorian said again, letting go, stepping back. Cold air rushed in between them. “We can’t.” 

And then he left.  Taren sat back on the stone bench in the dark. He did not need the light to see Dorian pace away, without backward glance, to disappear through a door in the stone of the castle walls. 

He finished his pipe alone.

[bigskydreaming]

Dunno how its never really occurred to me before that given their history, Bobby Drake and Loki could make the perfect enemies to lovers ship.

The X-Men's eternal prankster and the immortal Asgardian god of stories.

Who first met when the latter kidnapped the former to use his power to try and empower his army of frost giants, due to Bobby's nature making him a greater elemental force than Loki's own actual frost giant nature makes him, and who decades later reunited to team up when the latter again needed Bobby's power but this time had something to offer in return:

Using his own trickster nature to circumvent Bobby's long-standing tradition of self-sabotage, via arbitrary and self-imposed limits and inhibitions, the lingering aftereffects of his father's psychological abuse throughout his childhood.

Two sides of the same irreverent, devil-may-care coin, all the way down to the fact that they both do care, way more than either cares to ever admit. Both obstinate and overpowered enough that its extremely hard to ever get them to do anything they don't want to do at this point, up to and including just....be real.

Method actors who will commit to a bit well past the point of anyone else's patience, meaning each is potentially the only person patient enough to just let their partner play out whatever latest farce they've committed to for some obscure reason that makes sense to no one but themselves....and simultaneously, both of them among the only people capable of cutting through the other's bullshit with a pointed "Recognition of the Self In the Other" reference.

Also, I just feel that as much as people harp on about the enemies to lovers trope, Bobby's one of the few characters it REALLY makes sense for, because...

A) Look at his exes, look at his choices. This man has a TYPE, and that type is: "Has tried to kill him at least once."

and

B) Dude is unkillable, and that absolutely is a factor in how often he looks at a love interest with questionable intentions towards him and is like: "Yeah, this should work out fine, probably."

Lastly, all of this is at least fifty five percent motivated by Ewing's Defenders Beyond series....specifically, Loki's interactions there with Cloud. Aka the gender fluid sentient star who also happens to be one of Bobby's exes. Who also technically did try to kill him at least once. They didn't mean it, but I mean. Still falls with Bobby's "This is definitely My Type" parameters. I'm just saying.

Anyway, the thought of Cloud and Loki gossiping about Bobby is very amusing to me.

Cloud: Just so we're clear, I can be judgy about Bobby. You, not so much.

Loki: Well I certainly never agreed to that.

[sillywormz]

garak for the character ask game! Qs 4, 6 and 12

HOORAY IT'S HORRIBLE LIZARD TIME!!!!

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

that's a toughie.......... 🤔 i think there are a lot of extremely funny crossovers you could do with him in it. but ngl i think it would be hilarious to see him in st prodigy. can you imagine how funny it would be for the writers to have to try and manage him in a kids show lol. idk if that's cheating since it's technically still star trek but the thought lives in my head rent free. i would love for him to fill in the spot of campy antihero cartoon character that a lot of shows have

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

if the wire is anything to go off of, we both don't like cold temperatures and bright lights. for him it's because he's a cardassian for me it's sensory issues lol. we're also both kinda chubby and have Scary Eyes 👁👁

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

semi-related to the last answer but fat garak is Real. to Me. in canon he's just average with some slight softness to him but i like to exaggerate it in my art and i appreciate it when others do as well.

kind of an obscure one but that one fic andy and sid read where him and bashir are married (sorry i forgot the name) featured garak having arthritis once he gets older and that's a headcanon i have for older garak now as well.........

other misc headcanons: mila is DEFINITELY his biological mother. garak and dukat had a messy horrible situationship as young men and they both mutually prefer to pretend it never happened. garak is definitely some flavour of queer but that one was obvious. probably a whole lot of other stuff i'm forgetting lol

[koritea]

how do the b-side characters interact with the a-side of the story?? :0 you mentioned they're side characters is it more of a "they appear for two seconds in-canon but they have a lot of other shit happening" deal or a "they're important to the story but I don't want to derail everything to talk abt this guy for 50k words so well address that later" deal. Or smthin else entirely

A little bit of all three!

I had to pull up my fucking excel sheet for this oh my GOD

Part of this is because a number of the B-side character are non-mortals (gods, angels, demons, inexplicable creatures from other realms, etc.) And to avoid a lot of Deus Ex Machina I've removed them from the spotlight and/or limited their powers outside of their own realms (I.e. Icarus, the Deity of Fallen Stars (Reincarnation) could just resurrect a bunch of people and that alone would solve a bunch of problems but I wanna put Aria through hell and back so Icarus can't resurrect people outside of the Arcane realm (WHICH IS A WHOLE OTHER THING LOL but there's basically the Arcane realm (gods of obscure powers), the Primal realm (gods of fundamental powers), and the Trinity (Angels, Humans and Demons) and each realm has it's own world and yada yada yada)) where was I-

B-SIDE okay so depending on the character, their interaction with the A-side can be rather frequent or non existent. Leif and Dew show up frequently in A-side, while Empress is only ever mentioned.

Some B-Side characters only show up for plot hooks - like Michael.

Some of them are literally just here to make the goal harder, like Atticus.

SOMETIMES these interactions have consequences! During the time Aria is in Tyrinth (Arcane world), Atticus (Trinity world "Earth") technically shouldn't be able to show up when he does (there is no physical or magical means of transporting a being of one realm to another, but Reality is neither physical nor magical and they're REALLY fucked up right now)! His appearance causes some unwanted side effects and his counterpart, Jahan, suffers the brunt of it in the form of some biblically accurate angel body horror-esk stuff :)

Additionally there is a LOT of stuff that happens behind the scenes since the story is only from Aria's perspective.

Having the B-side characters limited in their interactions with the A-side is also a way to sort of... lighten the load for me? Some of the god-like character are rather non-human even in their behaviors and whatnot, and thus are rather difficult to write effectively. So to limit how much "would he fucking say that???" I have to do, they get put behind the curtain :D

[qqueenofhades]

Also, continuing on from this post, which I wanted to add to that one but didn't have time since I was running out the door:

It might help if you think in terms of translation. Obviously, in almost all historical fiction/fantasy-inspired historical fiction/anything that's not set in the modern day, your characters aren't actually speaking modern English. They're speaking Middle English, Latin, Chinese, French, Sindarin, etc. If you're not going to be JRR Tolkien and create an entire conlang and translate everything on a molecular level, then of course there is some automatic level of translation and contextualization going on. Your characters are speaking modern English (at least in terms of grammar, spelling, style conventions) because that's the audience that you're writing for. Only a total lunatic would demand that you first learn the language They Are Supposed To Be Speaking and then translate it on a granular level. Your readers know that some concepts probably don't translate over perfectly, but they don't care, since they are engaging with you to create and experience a story in a medium/language they are already familiar with. Which, obviously, is the basic art of writing and making different concepts exciting and relatable, without getting hung up on tiny pedantic nuances that only interest, again, the absolutely insane. You should not be writing to please these kind of people. Trust me.

So if you're struggling with "exact" historical accuracy or worried about whether this tiny little detail is right: you don't need to! And I say that as a Super Actual Real Life Historian Person. I am not going to come after you with a baseball bat if your one-sentence description of something is not sufficiently Correct. If you want to do that research and include it, by all means do so. It's always delightful to see people going down rabbit holes of real-life research and voluntarily learning a lot about wildly obscure details, just for the sake of accuracy in their horny AO3 fanfiction. But also, this isn't and should not be some kind of holier-than-thou litmus test about the dubious concept of Accuracy (though yes, yes, I know, fandom spends all their time on holier-than-thou litmus tests). If you just want to throw in something that SOUNDS right and is reasonably plausible for the setting: go for it. Nobody except you will notice, you won't get your Fanfic Card taken away, and it works just as well. As I said, any remotely generous and/or basically sensible person will understand that you're employing concept translation, you're pointing at what it's meant to be, and trusting them to go "yeah okay, I get that."

For example: I myself will use the word "fuck" in just about any setting. I do not care when it technically started being used in that shape or form; it's an old word and as you might imagine, there are countless claimed etymologies for it. I am not going to invent some PG-rated nonsense word (looking at you, Star Wars and "kriffing") to substitute "fuck" when I want to use "fuck." The audience knows what I mean by it. It has a particular semantical, sexual, comic, vulgar, emphatic, etc collection of meanings that has been created from common usage. Technically, yes, the characters are saying some other strict phonic order of syllables that could be represented differently. But what they're saying is "fuck," that's what I want the reader to understand, and that's what I am going to write down.

Anyway, what I am saying here is: It's helpful to apply the concept of translation to history as well as language to fic, especially since as noted, this is fun writing you do for free and it can be as much or as little related to the brass-tacks details as you want. Nobody is coming in expecting to read a PhD thesis, and if you WANT to do that level of research, great! But you don't have to, a lot of what people think is "accurate" is really not, and should not actually impact on your or anyone's enjoyment of your work anyway.

[sleepytimemoga-p2]

Threaded

Ships: Paulie Lombardo/Original Character

Cw: Racism mention

The sun and moon joined together and bore into her like watchful eyes of Gods she never knew existed, her past, future, and the stars between congregated on a peach sky only sunset could offer. Ruth didn’t move from where she laid but stared back at the cosmic forces that came to judge her, her body laying in the marble warmth of a water fountain. What would it all mean in the end? What would bring peace? She decided that it wouldn’t truly matter in the end and that was what truly was peace. A shadow loomed over her and drew her attention away from the heavens, a visage of a man obscured by shadows and a figure that imposed. He sat at the edge of the fountain and reached into the clear waters, scared fingers tracing her arm and then the small of her back, pulling her towards him. 

“Who are…?” Her mind whispered but her lips could never speak, she lifted her hand to touch him.

Ruth sighed and shook the reoccurring dream she’s been having since she’s moved to Lost Heaven out of her head with the promise that if she had that dream again, she’d call her grandmother about it. Especially if it involved a man. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before she went back to sewing the last bit of sequins into a dress she had on display. The cold radiating from the window made the skin on her arm prickle, the gray world outside was something she wasn’t quite used to yet.

“Woah.” A set of pale eyes peered at her and her works through the display, making her want to slink back behind the curtains and run to the back where it’s safe but she instead kept sewing, just listening. “Imagine dancin’ in that Mary!” 

“That?” Her friend tucked herself into her coat. “I heard that store mainly caters to call girls Betty.”

“Wouldn’t that be fine? Would piss your father off.” She huffed.

“I mean you could still buy a dress, I know how you like your eggs brown.” Mary smirked and Betty was suddenly flustered, running to join her friend’s side.

“It was only one time!” She whined as they finally left.

Ruth rolled her eyes and cut a thread, disappearing behind the curtains. That was another thing she was getting used to moving from the south, how subtle the prejudice was. Everything was thinly veiled and wrapped with a bow, compliments on how she spoke or looked, how she must love how “different” things were. She knew what they met by tone alone and it honestly made her want to laugh. Deep down she just wished some of them would own it. But as long as she wasn’t getting hurt, all she’d do was laugh about it over the phone later. For now it was time for work.

Her orders were all bright, vibrant, and covered in sequins. Unlike the dying world outside, her dresses were blooming with life. The woman from the window was technically right about a good chunk of her clients being prostitutes but there were also dancers and artists. She thought of them as strong women, chasing the dream of independence and exploration, women she admired and related to. But she did have to do something about her customers spreading a silly rumor, saying that she’s a love witch from the bayou who sews spells into her dresses. “Money and men would always follow if you wear Madame Moss’s dresses!”

If that were true, where the hell was her rich husband? 

Hell not even a husband, just someone to fool around with would be nice too. It feels like her bed’s getting colder each day and she wasn’t just talking about the winter weather. She sat at her table in thought.

“What I’m sayin’ Paulie is that we shoulda just gave her the money.” A heavy accent mixed in with the chime of her door’s bell, making her perk up, standing to greet the men entering her store. It wasn’t the first time she’s seen a man come in to pay for a girl’s dress. 

“Aw come on! Ain’t it nice to see where your girl gets all dolled up?” The other man chimed in. 

“You Ms.Moss?” A lean man with beady blue eyes bore into her, his suit was simple but she could easily compare him to the weather outside. The other man who she assumed was Paulie, was busy standing at the door but stealing glances at the two. 

“That would be me.” She gave a friendly smile despite the tense atmosphere. “How may I help you today?” 

“Here to pay for Felicia Russo’s dress. How much do I owe ya?” 

Of all the dresses she’s done in the past week, she could remember Ms.Russo’s dress. Felicia was a gaunt woman and had a love for all things Egyptian royalty, wanted her dress that was black with golden sequins that resembled a pyramid. Ruth was so in love with the idea that she’s been losing sleep just to work on it and it was almost done.

“Eleven dollars.” Her eyes twinkled, glad her hard work was paying off.

He pulled a wad of cash from his breast pocket and counted it, setting the money on the counter instead of her open hand. He glowered and turned to his friend. 

“Come on Paulie.” 

Paulie turned to his friend and her eyes gleamed at the sight of his tie but also at his suit. 

“Sir!” She almost jumped over her table, which made both men visibly tense. “I’m so sorry but I just wanted a better look at your tie!” 

Both men gave her inquisitive looks as she stared, studying the patterns of his maroon tie. 

“Whoever made it did a beautiful job. You have great taste.” 

“Thanks..” Paulie blinked at her, still in shock at the sudden forwardness. “Guess I do.” 

“Yeah whatever, we gotta go!” The thin man grabbed Paulie by the shoulder and he nodded to her as he followed him out the door.

Why did things feel familiar?

[lehdenlaulu]

Game asks: 5, 9, 14, 22 😁✨

Thank you, love!

5. Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

First of all, Dragon's Dogma 2! It coming out in this year's March was such a delightful surprise. The original game from a decade or so ago was really interesting and in many ways innovative, though it has remained pretty obscure to larger audiences. Even I came across it pretty much by chance.

It's not that I mind the recent trend of tactical/isometric RPGs (though I've never been that big a fan of turn-based, as someone who grew up on the OG Infinity Engine games, RWP all the way), but an open-world action-adventure is still a welcome change (Starfield, bless its heart, doesn't count). I've also never been into the JRPG genre, but DD is an interesting case because while it's a Japanese production, it doesn't feel like a JRPG, aesthetically or otherwise.

Anyway, feast your eyes on the latest trailer!

There are others that I'm looking forward to as well, like Awoved, Broken Roads, Star Wars: Outlaws, and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 (though with the developmental weirdness and the complete overhaul of the entire concept of the game that followed, I'm more cautiously curious than excited now). But realistically, I only expect one or two of them to actually come out this year.

Oh, and there are some cool visual novels coming out that I'm looking forward to as well, like Made Marion (currently in Early Access with Robin's route already playable), Call Me Under (which I hope has avoided the issues the studio's last two games, Errant Kingdom in particular, had), Imperial Grace, Tenebrae, and When Stars Collide.

9. A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

Huh. It's pretty rare for me to go in completely blind, though I usually don't go out of my way to look things up either as the joy of discovery is a big thing for me. But... I guess I could say the first Dragon's Dogma? I did not have many expectations, and while it wasn't the most brilliant thing ever and had some frustrating mechanics, it was super enjoyable (until the endgame bits ugh, but that's a me issue I guess).

Oh, and Enderal, of course! It's safe to say I Had No Idea What I Was In For.

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons

Hah, how nostalgic do we want to get? Though a song specifically narrows things down a little, hmm.

Honestly, the first one to start playing in my head was Malukah's gorgeous Beauty of Dawn for The Elder Scrolls Online, but my brain also protests because a ten-year-old game is apparently not old enough for it to count as nostalgic. 😂

Something really old, then? How's A Pirate I Was Meant To Be? 😎

22. A game ending that’s really stuck with you

Well. The thing is, I'm apparently chronically allergic to finishing games. It's not that I lose interest, exactly, I guess I just don't like things to end or something? So I'm basically what you might call the complete antithesis of a speedrunner, I have to do literally everything else first and I often find myself loading an older save if I feel like the main quest is proceeding too fast (depending a little on the type of game, of course). 😅

So this is a bit of a challenge for me. Also, endings are tough in any media from a writing standpoint, truly satisfying and impactful endings are difficult to pull off.

But... even though I haven't technically finished it, I think I have to say Enderal. I mean, there are several possible endings, but they're all emotionally impactful, make sense, and will haunt you for a long time afterwards (as does the entire game, really).

Talk to me about video games?

[mk-wizard]

Top 10 Spinoffs that really need to happen

Hi, friends. I may not be a fan of cheap sequels or prequels we don't want, I do think spinoffs are underrated especially if they focus on characters that are beloved and have interesting stories to tell. I mean, look at the success of Star Wars' many series especially its two diamonds being Clone Wars and Andor. I was inspired to make this list after seeing the trailer of Daryl Dixon.

In this list, I will my top ten medias that could it even bigger if they make these specific spinoffs.

Marvel's War Machine (Film/TV Series) - Nevermind Riri. Let's focus on this guy who was not only around long before her, but since the beginning. In time where we want more black representation than ever, I think War Machine is should be the next big thing. War Machine aka James Ruper "Rhodey" Rhodes is a decorated soldier to begin and Iron Man's right hand man. Despite the similar gimmick, his personality is much more serious, professional and mannerly. He can hold out on his own and he is a hero anyone of any type can look up to.

2. Marvel's Mary Jane Watson (Mini Series) - While she started off as Gwen Stacey's replacement and would alter become Peter Parker's main woman, she has now come quite into her own. She has even gone on adventures of her own, has become more capable and even became an ally in action for Spider-Man. While the comics have gone sour, maybe TV can bring us back MJ and Spidey as not only a couple, but as equals who both have exciting stories to tell.

3. Marvel's (REAL) Spider-Girl (TV Series/Film) - Speaking of TV redeeming MJ and Spidey as soul mates, last I remember, at one point, they were not only happily married, they had a daughter Mayday Parker who had the mantle passed down to her long before Miles Morales, the other Gwen Stacey (Spider-Woman) and all these other modern incarnations. She is a very underrated heroine who fell into obscurity no thanks to how Marvel broke up one of its most iconic couples. She needs to make a comeback because she is the true Spider-Girl in every way possible,

4. Disney's Goofy kid's show (TV Series) - For a while, the Disney gang made a big comeback since Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and almost everyone got their own spinoff or reboot. Everyone, but Goofy which I find is a waste because unlike all the others with the exception of Pete, he actually is a father. So far, the only independent works Goofy has gotten are Goof Troop, the two Goofy Movies and two animated shorts in some holidays specials. I think Goofy can make for a great host in a kid's show because despite his goofiness, he is a very capable and in fact, wise father. He would be a lot like Mr. Rogers or Mr. Dress Up where instead just playing with kids, he's actually teaching them and even comforting them the way a father does.

5. Resident Evil's Billy Coen (Video Game) - I don't think there's an RE fan out there who hasn't wished to see what became of this beloved one off character. Between you and me, I think he's still alive and kicking zombie, and I would love see what became of him after RE0. He not only came from one of the few prequel media out there that was great, but he is a total badass with a compelling backstory. We even got to see what happened to Sherry Birkin later one. I think Billy is more than worth a chance in the spotlight.

6. Silent Hill's Heather Mason (Video Game) - I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. While she got her own game (technically, two if you count the first ever SH game), I don't believe her story should have ended with SH3. The Mason family is the closest thing to a true SH main protagonist as there is I would love to her a now adult Heather Mason still fighting the Order as it is still out there wreaking havoc. She was a great heroine and an underrated video game character in general.

7. Jurassic Park for grown ups (TV Series) - It's had a few spinoffs so far and the only that is a big hit is Camp Cretaceous. I think another one should be made and this time, it should be aimed for adults. In the beginning, JP showed a lot of promise when it came to making adult oriented spinoffs with the comics and the sequel The Lost World, but after that, it became more and more about the action and less about the horror factor and dinosaurs. Even the revival trilogy of Jurassic World lacked that horror element that adults appreciated in the first two movies and most importantly, the book. We need to make a spinoff that is aimed for grown ups without it feeling like it wants to be Indiana Jones.

8. DC's Batgirl (TV Series) - Nevermind Batwoman, Batgirl was around first AND she was solo before joining the bat family officially. I mean, even her father Jim Gordon got his own spinoff series before she did and she's actually a super. And apparently, her film never saw the light of day because it was not up to standard. I say, we make a TV series that does live up to standard AND we make it animated like we did Harley Quinn. Barbara Gordon set the standard for a lot lady supers came after her and she iconic. EVERYONE knows who Batgirl is. Even people who don't read comics know who Batgirl is. What I don't know is why she hasn't starred in her own solo media yet beyond comics.

9. DC's Catwoman (Film/TV Series) - Speaking of iconic DC heroines, it is funny how one of its most iconic anti-heroines, love interest's to Batman and just recently, bisexual supers still hasn't gotten any independent media beyond her comics. If there's one woman who doesn't need no Batman (let alone man in general) to stand on her own two feet and have a compelling story to tell, it's her. The only thing we have gotten are two films. One which is imposter media starring Halle Berry and another no one knows about. Seline Kyle deserves so much more than that. I say she gets her own proper show or at the very least, a proper film. She's worth it.

10. Capcom's Dino Crisis (Video Game) - I think this franchise only got one spinoff (two if you count the third instalment that went off the rails), and it wasn't a hit. Dino Crisis was clearly inspired by the original Jurassic Park especially when it came to horror and the feeling of being genuinely threatened by the dinosaurs. This game felt like the long lost twin sister of RE. With that said, it should get a spinoff because it's worth a last hurrah and who knows? It mind revive this lost gem of a series. I say we go for it and put our best foot forward doing it. Let it be true to the lore, the setting and theme. None of the dinos in space silliness.

Anyway, that is my list. What is your opinion on it? Would you like to see these spinoffs or can you suggest another? Let me know.

Thanks for reading and as always, stay safe.

[acertainmoshke]

Character intro: Ri Ladipo

WIP: To Die Among the Stars

Age: 41

Pronouns: he/him

Appearance: average height. Very dark skin, no hair. His visible eye is amber-brown. Much of his body is covered in mods, made of silver-colored metal and black and white wires. A boxy one covers his right eye with a large bundle of wires almost obscuring the one on his bald head and little embedded nodes covering his hands and arms.

Ri grew up in a tight-knit community with parents who cared but had little energy to show it after working long hours just to survive. The school he attended was underfunded and barely served him enough to teach him how to read, so he willingly left at 15 after his dad died to start working and help care for his 3-year-old brother, Du. Their mother worked constantly and wasn't around much, so he raised his little brother. His mom died in a factory accident when he was 27 and Du was 15. They only had each other, and Ri was an excellent older brother, but he wasn't a very good employee. He was too opinionated and protective of the values and community he came from and kept getting fired.

So he gave up and did less legal jobs. He wasn't handy enough to do mod installation, so for a while he just supplied mod parts for a pittance before discovering a more lucrative gig (details to come later when I figure them out). He made sure that Du, who was smarter than he'd ever been, was able to finish school before working, learning whatever little he could there. And for the first time, they had a little extra money and Ri decided to spend it on something fun for once. By that he meant a tattoo, but on impulse in the back of the same shop got a practical mod instead. The thrill using it gave him was a happiness like he'd never know before.

He wanted more.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with getting and using mods, but black market ones do come with a risk. Nothing bad at all happened that first time--he could work longer and harder without tiring, it was great. When he got more, the slight secret enjoyment he'd always had for math turned into documenting, counting, and calculating everything around him. He could even think about other things while doing it! He could record any part of his life to remember later. Soon he was buying mods before food, and then he started to live more in his head without really noticing, and then reality had drifted away.

And then the static came, making it hard to think. He couldn't stop counting and calculating, but also couldn't focus on emotions or physical sensations or even what was happening around him. His brain felt fuzzy and staticky. He started to have trouble talking--although he always knew what he intended to say, it tended to come out of his mouth in a vague, metaphorical version. He had records of nearly every moment, but he couldn't remember when exactly Du stopped talking or going to work. He had no memory or recorded record of how and why they ended up living at the local "Wellness Center," where people were sent when their families couldn't take care of them or they weren't safe for the community without being actual criminals.

The Center was repetitive, but generally he didn't mind. He made friends who didn't mind his communication and memory difficulties because they had them, too. They did puzzles and games and were always impressed by his inhuman speed and perfection at them. He struggled to recall his life before, and though he shared a room with Du they never spoke. But it wasn't so bad, really, except for the ever-present static.

And then people came talking about needing volunteers for this obvious suicide mission--and he realized he could finally do something. He dug up semi-redacted blueprints, his mods letting him do some instahacking, and realized it was doomed, but that he understood how to fix it. Sometime at the height of his mod obsession he had started learning more about the technical side so he could fix his own, and the high processing speed made him excellent at problem solving.

Nearly everyone volunteered, of course, so they conducted interviews. His friend, Kitty, had to translate for him and help convince them that he was more capable than he appeared, but once they understood they wanted him so much he was able to insist they bring Du, too. He didn't ask first but Du, though he didn't like the idea, also didn't put up much of a fight.

Tag list: @blind-the-winds @hd-literature

[cream-and-tea]

🌙 ⭐️ for the asks please!

asks! asks! asks! (game i took these from is right here)

🌙 Crescent moon - Do any of your character have to hide a part of themselves? Why?

oh absolutely because i love writing repressed little freaks and i also think that even the most open and honest characters almost always have some aspect of themselves they want to conceal even if they’re not aware of it. that kind of thing makes for really interesting conflict. it is hard to choose just one of my characters to ramble about for this since there’s so many of them, but i think i’m going to go with fiver because he’s such an extreme case. that guy isn’t just hiding A part of himself he is hiding EVERY part of himself knowingly and willingly and lying constantly to cover it up! in another world he’d be putting a fake name on his nametag at work and making up stories to impress people at clubs into buying him drinks but we’re here and he knows world-altering secrets instead! also he’s a late game main pov (i’m talking a one-off in the first books epilogue and then NOTHING until book 3) so we mostly see him through other characters eyes throughout the series, who all operate on varying levels of is-something-going-on-here-or-am-i-just-weird-about-this-guy?? (it’s both both is good) which is where you end up getting stuff like this:

And she likes Fiver. She does. Really. Truly. Probably because he’s impossible not to like. But as the days trip past it’s equally impossible to ignore the fact that talking to him feels an awful lot like talking to a one-way mirror. Seeing yourself reflected back ever-so-slightly tilted, knowing that there has to be something there just beyond the glass, behind the smile, but being unable to see past the light of your own shiny eyes in the cherry red tint of those infamous glasses.

as for WHY he’s like this… well you see- [COMICALLY LARGE TRUCK DRIVES PAST HONKING ITS HORN AND OBSCURING ME FROM VIEW] so yeah ☺️

⭐️ Star - Do you have a favourite character? If so, why are they your favourite?

i really wish this one was harder to answer because i love all of them so much i really really do, but it’s agnes-maria white (one of the mcs from my main project) alll the way for me. i think it’s because her voice just comes so? naturally?? to me? like i could be in her head for HOURS and not be worn down like i can get writing other characters. she just has a very strong presence to me and the arc i have planned for her is falling into place very very well even though i’m technically just at the beginning of it. she’s my best friend. she’s my specialist girl in the whole wide world. she’s 17. she’s never had a friend her age who wasn’t literally actually dead. she’s got mommy issues. she’s more worried about about being a closeted lesbian than about the cult that’s trying to kill her. shes an extrovert that doesn’t know how to talk to people. she’s filled with incredible kindness. she’s weird about god. she’s got the biggest brown eyes you’ve ever seen. she’s an “i can fix him” girl. she basically got into magic school by wandering through the death woods looking like three day old roadkill. she’s filled with incredible rage. she immediately imprints on anyone who is passingly nice to her. she was born to wear novelty earrings and listen to lo-fi beats to study and relax to but she’s in the fucking torture labyrinth instead. she’s even catholic.