#that's a pretty unique relationship

[zincbot]

uhoh! girl!

[incesthemes]

something i enjoy about wincest is that i can just take it for granted. like yeah those brothers are fucking, they've always been fucking, and they'll keep fucking until god himself cuts off their dicks

there's a lot of ships in the world that require subtext and imagination but samdean is definitely not one of them

[yellowocaballero]

Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?

Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!

I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.

I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.

I am going to talk about the prologue.

The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.

Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.

But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.

They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.

I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?

Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.

Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.

At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.

What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.

It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.

But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.

ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?

When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.

[cleromancy]

sexiest and funniest thing roy harper ever did was look at dick grayson and go i could fix him

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Lord of the Empty Isles

sci-fi/fantasy

set on a supposedly utopian planet recovering from a climate crisis, where bonds between people are able to be seen and manipulated (by some people)

follows a young man whose brother was cursed and killed by an infamous outlaw 5 years ago, and he’s finally able to curse him back - but it rebounds, as he’s somehow fatebound to the outlaw

to find a cure and save them both they have to team up, and he quickly finds out that the resources the outlaw is stealing go to the thousands of people neglected on prison planets, and he has to go against what he thought was right to help them

no romance, aroace MC, focus on platonic relationships

arc from netgalley, out june 6

[starbuck]

the term “triangles” is so good.

like. i LOVE a throuple, but sometimes a triangular dynamic isn’t necessarily romantic, or equally romantic on all sides, but is still very much a Collective Relationship and worth discussing as one.

so it’s a Triangle, to me.

[perenlop]

speaking of tawnypelt its so funny when people go “mothpool is bad because people reduce mothwings character to just this fanon relationship! why not focus on her relationship with her thunderclan siblings!!!” 

like. girl WHAT relationship?

[anal0g-andr0id]

yall remember that post thats like "2012 avengers fandom wanted so badly for the team to be friends and theyre barely even coworkers." that <- flaw right there is exactly what i think makes xmen media so good. even when its bad. cause at least they all live in a big house together and hang out and have interesting interpersonal dynamics and shit. like we always wanted <3

[astriiformes]

Friend groupchat has been doing TOH finale analysis all afternoon and @thesixthstar made the comment "Luz is the Collector's Azura" and I am going to be rotating that one in my mind for. A long time. Forever maybe.

[fredricwertham]

[linagram]

no halloween art this year sorry! hopefully sanada brothers vell song redraws and a new vd later will be enough...

+ an alternate version with the honey bc. b-bad honey hunt. don't worry about the silhouettes

[seedlessmuffins]

this reads like a painting

ney's caption and vinis comment omg

[wollfling]

It's crazy how I havent posted in months when I used to use this site daily. I've been pretty bad but doing the best I can. I had so much happen in the last few months and I'm trying to find my footing. I'm back in the city, which I've missed. Ttrpgs are keeping me mentally afloat and I'm obsessing over my characters, having ocs with friends is wonderful. Trying to work on a big project also, but I think it will be slow going. I'm trying to respark joy in the things I used to do.

[13eyond13]

.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Earthflown

character driven scifi romance / crime mystery

set in a future London with some cyberpunk vibes where some people have magical aptitudes

follows a healer who saves the life of an heiress (to a wealthy pharmaceutical corporation that controls London’s water supply) when she’s brought into hospital with a gunshot wound

and the heiress’ twin, who invites the healer out for dinner in gratitude, and they begin dating, while both dealing with the mental pressure of their aptitudes

while a journalist (friends with the healer) investigates a murder that’s possibly tied to the corporation

[shieldsurf]

out of the big 4 het/canon fairy tail pairings jerza is by Far the worst imo like. he needs to leave her alone i'm so serious and the fact that mashima wrote in a 7 year age gap for no reason is Not helping... erzas ass is NINETEEN the first time jellal makes an open pass at her i don't care that they used to be the same age it is fucking weird. gruvia is a close second though because while yes we objectify men here sir and i live to serve women juvia's creepiness is really just too much like at a certain point it starts to feel really gross and the fact that gray seems to fall for her by the end of the anime/manga just reeks of coercion. not even bringing up how genuinely awful juvia's character writing is she gets like 5 minutes of being interesting before getting instantly reduced to a creepy stan who completely revolves around gray and has less depth than the average bossfight of the week. i guess its equality that erza and mirajane are some of the best characters in this story (which is admittedly a low bar considering half of their personality is being subjected to the most voyeuristic shots possible) so mashima had to balance it out by making juvia one of the worst